Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Ryan Blaney put himself in position to earn the most critical win of his career to date. Those efforts ultimately fell short, but the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford left Homestead-Miami Speedway in steady shape heading into the final race of the Round of 8.

Blaney led 53 laps in Sunday’s 4EVER 400 and at times appeared set for victory, which would have locked him into his first Championship 4 appearance.

His race changed, however, at Lap 214 coming to pit road under green-flag conditions.

MORE: Race results | At-track photos: Homestead

Blaney was leading Kyle Larson to the pits when Larson tried to carry too much speed behind him. Larson lost control, contacted Blaney’s right-rear bumper and slammed into the sand barrels attenuating the pit wall. That brought out the red flag for cleanup, allowing track conditions to change out of Blaney’s best favor.

“I really didn’t want to see that red flag,” Blaney said. “I would have liked to have just raced it there with Larson because it was hot and a long run to the end and just see who kinda came out of pit road ahead of each other honestly. Proud of the effort. Good day. I thought we had a good shot, just didn’t really work out for us at the end.”

The damage from Larson’s contact was an afterthought for Blaney, who was unaware of Larson’s charge to pit road until much after the fact. He hadn’t seen the damage upon exiting his No. 12 Ford but didn’t notice any change in the car’s handling.

His strength was the long run, he said, proven multiple times as he worked to pick up positions as green-flag laps ticked away.

On the restart that followed Larson’s Miami beach vacation, Blaney restarted from the lead left of Denny Hamlin. Hamlin got the better run through Turns 1 and 2 to snag the lead and a quick caution put Hamlin in control of the next resumption.

The duo lined up inverted from the previous green flag and Hamlin leaned hard on Blaney’s left-side door for multiple laps. That allowed Christopher Bell to power past for the lead before William Byron came through for second. Not long later, a mechanical failure sent Hamlin into the SAFER barrier and ended his day. Blaney was less than pleased with how the veteran 51-time Cup race winner ran him.

“He tried to slide me two or three times and failed miserably and then just decided to use me up,” Blaney said. “I mean if you’re gonna slide somebody, slide somebody and commit. Don’t halfway do it and use me up. So what did he say? Hack? I think he was that today.”

Through frustrating moments and lost track position, Blaney and Co. persevered to a runner-up finish, holding the fourth and final spot above the provisional elimination line with a 10-point buffer to fifth-place Tyler Reddick. Next week’s round finale is set for Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 29 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — one of Blaney’s best tracks on the Cup Series circuit.

Blaney has yet to win at the 0.526-mile oval, but he owns a 9.5 average finish — his best on any track with three or more starts — with seven top fives and nine top 10s in 15 starts. Still, he’s not willing to write his name into the Championship 4 in pen quite yet.

“You never know,” Blaney said. “I mean it’s nice to go back to a place where you feel like you have somewhat of a clue of how to get around there and kind of know what you need. But at the end of the day, you never know what’s gonna happen. So we had a pretty good run there in the spring and hopefully we can replicate it.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates and playoff contenders Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. exited Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race within a lap of each other, falling out with separate issues in the late going at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Hamlin’s JGR No. 11 Toyota crashed into the outside retaining wall in Turn 1 with 32 laps left in the 4EVER 400, with the veteran driver telling his crew on the radio that he had encountered a steering issue before the wall contact. Hamlin limped the battered No. 11 back to pit road, and he exited the car unhurt.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

“We really battled back well today,” Hamlin said after a check at the infield care center. “Just a tough break.”

During the caution period for Hamlin’s wreck, Truex’s No. 19 Toyota showed signs of smoke as it circulated behind the pace car. Truex told his crew that he felt the engine was failing, and he also headed to the pits to end his day.

Hamlin finished 30th in the 36-car field, retiring 31 laps shy of the full 267-lap distance. Truex completed just one more lap than Hamlin and was credited with 29th.

Both drivers sit 17 points below the provisional elimination line in the Cup Series Playoffs picture, heading to Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM, NBC Sports App) at Martinsville Speedway. The 500-lapper is the final race in the Round of 8, and the title-eligible field will be whittled from eight drivers to the four who will race for the Cup Series crown in the Nov. 5 finale at Phoenix Raceway.

Two spots remain in the Championship 4 field. Kyle Larson clinched his title-race berth with a win Oct. 15 at Las Vegas, and Christopher Bell — a teammate to Hamlin and Truex at JGR — snapped up another spot by winning Sunday’s race at Homestead.

Hamlin has reached the Championship 4 in four of the last five seasons. Truex, the Regular Season Champion this year, has made the final four on five occasions.

Posted on by Alex Cadavid

After the eighth race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs concluded at Homestead-Miami Speedway, here’s a quick look at the playoff picture.

WINNER

Christopher Bell took the checkered flag to win at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Bell was almost out of contention for the win before a red flag caused by Kyle Larson’s crash eventually brought him into the top three with 38 laps to go. After struggling with handling all day, the short-run speed paid off for Bell as he was able to make a crucial pass on William Byron for the win.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

WHO’S HOT?

Ryan Blaney. After a mix of emotions last week, Blaney was rejuvenated and quick at Homestead. After going top-three fastest in practice, Blaney continued to ride the wall, grabbing a stage win and finished second. He has some newfound momentum heading into Martinsville above the elimination line. 

William Byron. After a quiet weekend in Las Vegas, Byron roared back to the front in Homestead. Byron steadily improved all weekend at Homestead. He was a threat to win all race long but managed to net a fourth-place finish, keeping him red-hot in the playoffs.

RELATED: Full playoff standings

WHO’S NOT?

Denny Hamlin. Hamlin ran strong all weekend and even looked like a threat to win in Miami. However, a late race run-in with the wall due to an apparent mechanical issue in his car took him out of the lead. He would finish 30th. There is hope in next week’s race at Martinsville, a track where Hamlin has three top-five finishes in his last five starts and five career wins overall. He may need a sixth win there to advance to the Championship 4.

Martin Truex Jr. Truex and the No. 19 team continue to face major challenges in these playoffs. A late engine issue took him out of the race after he ran most of the day inside the top 10. Like Hamlin, Truex is 17 points below the elimination line with one race to go before the Championship 4 is set. 

NEXT RACE

The Round of 8 concludes at Martinsville Speedway for the Xfinity 500 on Oct. 29 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

BUBBLE WATCH

RankDriverCutoff
1Kyle LarsonWIN
2Christopher BellWIN
3William Byron30
4Ryan Blaney10
ELIMINATION LINE
5Tyler Reddick-10
6Martin Truex Jr-17
7Denny Hamlin-17
8Chris Buescher-43

Posted on by Holly Cain

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — In one of the most thrilling NASCAR Cup Series Playoff races of the season, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell rallied from a frustrating race start to lead the final 16 laps of Sunday’s 4EVER 400 presented by Mobil 1 at Homestead-Miami Speedway to earn a second straight appearance in the Championship 4.

Bell, who only made his first appearance inside the top five with less than 50 laps remaining, got around a pair of the day’s front-runners in the final laps to blaze to the lead in the No. 20 JGR Toyota and claim that automatic championship admission ticket. It’s the 28-year-old Oklahoma native’s second win of the season — sixth of his career — and the first of the season’s eight playoff races to date.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Last year Bell famously pulled off a walk-off victory in the regular-season finale at Martinsville Speedway to claim his first NASCAR Cup Series championship bid, ultimately finishing third in the title run. His win Sunday had that same rally feel and he now joins last week’s winner, Kyle Larson, as the only two playoff drivers set for the title run with one race remaining to decide the other two.

Bell led fellow playoff driver Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney to the Homestead checkered flag by 1.651 seconds, just ahead of two more playoff drivers — 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron. Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top five.

“I’ve got the best team behind me, honestly I don’t know (how we did it), that race was a whirlwind,” Bell said. “I was about ready to throw the towel in during that second stage, I got really frustrated. But (crew chief) Adam Stevens kept after it and gave me what I needed. Whenever we got some clean air, this thing was really good.

“I cannot say how proud I am to be here with our partners, driving these Toyota Camrys. Thank you to everyone who supported me. This is better than a dream come true.”

SHOP: Winner’s gear

Although disappointed to not secure the win after leading 53 laps, Blaney said, “We were trying, we just needed laps. The long-run car was really good. I just couldn’t fire off for 10 laps or so. I think the track cooling off (during the red flag) helped those guys. I think we were better in the hotter, slicker conditions when fire-off speed didn’t matter as much and it fell off quicker. That played into our benefit.

“We ran out of laps a little bit,” he added. “I am proud of the effort. It was a really good day, we just got beat a little bit there at the end.”

It was certainly the cap to a thrilling final 40 laps of competition to cap off the sunny South Florida afternoon.

In a matter of five minutes during those closing laps, Bell took the race lead and two of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates also in the playoffs — Denny Hamlin and Regular Season Champion Martin Truex Jr. — fell out the race with major problems. Hamlin’s No. 11 JGR Toyota slammed into the Turn 1 wall. And as the field slowed for that caution period, Truex turned down pit road and told the team his car “might be blowing up.”

As Hamlin sat on pit wall, disappointed and speaking with his crew, Truex turned the engine off and the crew pushed his No. 19 JGR Toyota into the garage. Both playoff drivers were done for the day and dropped below the crucial top-four threshold that will advance to the Nov. 5 Championship 4 race in Phoenix. Truex was scored 29th and Hamlin 30th.

All of it making for an even more intense race at the 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway next week that will formally set the four-driver NASCAR Cup Series championship field.

“We tried and it just didn’t work out,” an obviously disappointed Hamlin said.

“It shows you how hard our sport is, that’s two cars and we had been up front,” JGR team owner Joe Gibbs said. “It also shows you in sports — particularly in ours with that 20 car (Bell) — it shows never to stop fighting.”

Christopher Bell's No. 20 Toyota in the high groove at Homestead-Miami Speedway
Sean Gardner | Getty Images

With only Martinsville remaining, Byron now sits 30 points ahead of the championship elimination line with Blaney in fourth place — 10 points up on Reddick. Bell’s JGR teammates Truex and Hamlin are now both 17 points below the line.

Among the eight playoff drivers, RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher — a three-race winner this season — struggled the most, going two laps down midway through the second stage and never cracking the top 20. He’s now in eighth place, 43 points back with a 21st-place finish Sunday and will need to win the Martinsville race to advance to his first Championship 4.

One of the more unusual incidents of the entire season — let alone the playoffs — happened during a green-flag pit stop and involved Blaney and Larson, who were running first and second at the time with 53 laps remaining.

As their two cars approached pit road, Blaney slowed significantly, and Larson was still going faster directly behind him. While trying to avoid ramming into the back of Blaney’s Ford, Larson turned his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy to the right and went full-on into the sand-filled protective barriers at pit entrance causing them to explode with sand.

MORE: Larson out after pit-wall hit | Cup Series Playoffs standings

It caused enough damage on Larson’s car that he drove to the garage and the team retired it. Blaney was able to finish his pit stop and make his way back on track. He reassumed the lead when the rest of the cars stopped after a nearly 13-minute red-flag period.

“I need to look at data,” said an apologetic Larson, who finished 34th despite leading a race-best 96 of the 267 laps. “I knew where the yellow line was but on the replay it looked like I missed it by a lot. So I need to look at data. I knew where the yellow line was and I was under control getting there and then he just slowed down, I locked the brakes, clipped him and hit the barrels.

“I’m upset with myself more than anything. Whether he got to pit-road speed sooner than the yellow line or not, I could have just done a little better job. I hope they’re able to recover and he can get a good finish or the win and get the finish he (Blaney) deserves. Just a bummer. I thought we had a great car today and just made a mistake.”

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, Joe Gibbs Racing rookie Ty Gibbs, Team Penske’s Joey Logano, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to the famed Martinsville Speedway half-miler for next Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to close out this round of competition and determine the Championship 4 competitors for the Nov. 5 Phoenix season finale. Larson won the Cup Series’ most recent race at Martinsville in April.

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Cup Series garage, confirming Christopher Bell as the winner. The Nos. 8 and 23 will go back to the R&D Center for further inspection.

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Larson found trouble in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race, crashing into the pit-road entrance wall in the final stage at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet smacked the sand barrels protecting the pit-wall abutment in the 213th of a scheduled 267 laps in the 4EVER 400 presented by Mobil 1, the eighth event of the 10-race playoffs. Larson was in second place, following race leader Ryan Blaney onto pit road at the time of the wreck, but he carried too much speed on his approach and skidded into the barrier.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

“I’m sorry,” Larson told his crew on the radio. “I did not expect him to slow down that much.”

After repairs, Larson continued for a handful of laps before driving the No. 5 Chevy to the Cup Series garage, ending his race. The incident forced the race to be red-flagged for track workers to replace the protective barrels.

Larson was checked and released from the infield care center. He led three times for a race-high 96 laps and was credited with 34th place in the 36-car field.

“I was just trying to push it as much as I could,” Larson said. “He (Blaney) had a great car and I felt like if he was to come off pit road the leader, he was going to end up winning the race or beating me. I was just trying to maximize my pit-in, and honestly I felt like I was doing a really good job. I just didn’t anticipate him slowing down as much as he did. But on the replay, it looks like I just missed it by a lot. I need to look at data. I knew where the yellow line was and thought I was going to be under control getting there, and then yeah, he just slowed down – I locked the brakes up, slid to the right and clipped him and the barrels.

“I’m pretty upset at myself, more than anything. Whether he got to pit-road speed sooner than the yellow line or not, I could have just done a little bit better job judging it. I hope they are able to recover. I hope he can get a good finish or get a win and get the finish that he deserves. Just a bummer, but we had a great No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy today.”

Sunday’s race is the second of three events in the Round of 8, and the postseason field will be trimmed from eight championship-eligible drivers to four after next weekend’s round finale at Martinsville Speedway. Those four will race for the Cup Series title in the Nov. 5 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.

Larson entered the event as the only driver clinched in the Championship 4 round. He will be joined in the title-eligible field at Phoenix by Christopher Bell, who prevailed in Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami by holding off eventual runner-up Blaney for the championship-race berth.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — The unique teal walls of Homestead-Miami Speedway are usually dotted with black paint scrapes by the end of a NASCAR race weekend.

Don’t expect anything different after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the 1.5-mile South Floridian oval.

The highest racing line up against the SAFER barrier is a tool drivers have found to build significant speed, most times inches away from contact — and sometimes those drivers overstep it.

MORE: Homestead schedule | Starting lineup

Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick have built quite the reputations for themselves as elite wall riders, most notably with Larson dominating the 2022 event to lead 199 of 267 laps en route to his first Homestead victory. Reddick ripped the fence on his way to two championships in the NASCAR Xfinity Series when the title was decided in Homestead.

“It seems to be how I’ve figured out how to go fast here,” Larson said Saturday. “You have to be comfortable against the wall and I know there’s a lot of drivers that aren’t that comfortable against it. So that gives guys like myself and (Tyler) Reddick an advantage when we come here.”

Reddick got the edge on Larson in qualifying, placing his No. 45 Toyota third on the starting grid ahead of Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet in fifth. In a Tuesday teleconference, Reddick explained that test sessions around the track, when he was competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, offered more learning moments, helping him excel at the asphalt’s outer limits.

“Obviously, I ran trucks a couple of years and always ran good at Homestead in a truck. So it already seemed like we were in a pretty good spot,” Reddick said. “I could kind of run the fence, but certainly when I was a rookie in the Xfinity Series and you would get that one or two tests, I think I got to test there and it was a big deal. It made me a lot better as a driver. Especially with the composite body coming in, I just got to go up there and wear the wall out and get a good read on what it can handle and what it can’t.”

Tyler Reddick runs near the wall during NASCAR Cup Series practice at Homestead-Miami Speedway
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Studios

That experience has paid off at the Cup level. He has two top-five finishes in three Cup starts but crashed out of last year’s event, the first in a Next Gen car.

“I think we were probably going to run fourth or fifth. But I could not run the wall very good,” Reddick said. “I think that was more of just product of where our car was on that day. Unfortunately, the closer I got to the wall, the worse it handled.”

Like Reddick, lessons learned from early Homestead-Miami visits guided Larson to the high ground — and some of those lessons were taught from a competitor.

“I remember when I ran the truck race here in 2012, that was my first time here,” Larson recalled. “We had a really good race and led some of it. I got to battle with Kyle Busch for a while. I was running fairly high and then he passed me and stuck his hand out the window and told me to get higher, so I just started running as high as I could.

“There were points in the corner where I’d get really close to the wall and once you do that a few times, you can feel the effect that the right side of the car has against the wall. So then over time, you start pushing it — entering higher and you start getting to the wall at an earlier point in the corner and eventually, you just end up running up next to the wall the whole lap.”

Needless to say, their modern-day opponents have taken note of what Larson and Reddick have been able to do around the top of the race track. Ryan Blaney, a fellow competitor in the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Playoffs, admires their capabilities but also cautioned the wall may not be the end-all, be-all toward checkered-flag glory.

“This is a place where you are going to have two or three guys that are super good at it,” Blaney said. “Larson is ridiculous here at it. Reddick runs really good here at it. Then you will have one or two other guys that kind of pop in and can rip the fence pretty good right on it. But you have to make it work off the fence too. I think it depends on what your car is doing and a lot of it is confidence in how well you can run it.

“I think Larson runs it no matter what his car is doing just because he is really good at doing it. I like to think that I am pretty decent at it. I am not Larson level — not even close. Nobody is. I am fairly confident, though, and I am more about getting my car working to what I need it to do to run up on that fence.”

Reddick drives for 23XI Racing, co-owned by fellow competitor Denny Hamlin, who is also a good friend of Larson’s. Hamlin has found his fair share of success against the wall with three Homestead wins and four at Darlington Raceway.

“Certainly, the closer you can get with a certain amount of speed is advantageous,” Hamlin said. “There’s a little bit of a buffer there with the amount of air between the car and wall to stay there, but then that bubble can burst, and it can go wrong, going into the wall. It’s a very fine line and a lot of the time, it’s also dependent on the body of the car. Some bodies are better off doing that than others because of how aerodynamics wrap around the car.”

Larson is already locked into the Championship 4 via last week’s victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But Reddick and the six other Round of 8 competitors will look to ride the Homestead high line into the title race on Sunday afternoon (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team flashed their greatness in last weekend’s win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and with the way he won last year’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (leading 199 of 267 laps), the 2021 champion is the favorite to take the checkered flag this week, too. But one driver who could stop him is Denny Hamlin, who has three career wins at this 1.5-mile track in Florida.

PLAYOFFS: Playoffs hub page | Fantasy Live

Hamlin bounced back from a 37th-place finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course with a 10th-place finish last weekend at Las Vegas. The Charlotte finish ended a run of four straight top fives for the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Hamlin is tops in average running position in 2023 (9.44) and second only to Larson in average running position in the playoffs (8.89 to Larson’s 6.81). Hamlin also leads all Round of 8 drivers with eight career wins in this playoff round.

Hamlin is just two points above the elimination line and has plenty to play for this week, including trying to stay ahead of JGR teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Christopher Bell, who are even and four points behind him in the standings, respectively. Hamlin has started first in five of the last six Homestead races, so if he’s dialed in early, expect him to be on course to have another solid weekend in South Beach.

PLAYOFF PICTURE

KYLE LARSON: As the only driver guaranteed a spot in the Championship 4 thus far, Larson theoretically could take it easy this week, but one has to wonder whether he has anything other than high gear given his competitive nature. He’s led more than 100 laps in three of his last six Homestead starts and figures to be a factor in running that high line up by the wall.

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Bell was the only other car that really gave Larson a run for his money last week in Las Vegas, and crew chief Adam Stevens and the driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota lamented finishing second. They are plenty motivated and seem to have the right setup on 1.5-mile tracks (three straight top-10 finishes) to continue to gain ground on the other playoff drivers. At just two points back, Bell can probably taste a return trip to the Champ 4.

CHRIS BUESCHER: Buescher took a big step back last week by losing 20 points in the standings to drop to 23 points below the elimination line. It’s going to be tough to make up all that ground without a win or something catastrophic happening to another playoff driver. The problem is Buescher’s best finish at Homestead in seven starts is 13th place, so at least for this week the game might be not to lose any ground rather than to expect a big gain.

TYLER REDDICK: Reddick has the reputation of being able to ride the high line like Larson does and be successful at Homestead, and he has two top-five finishes in three career Cup races there. There’s a good deal of pressure on the driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota to perform this week because his history at Martinsville Speedway (one top-10 finish in seven starts) hasn’t been as strong as it is at Homestead.

RYAN BLANEY: When NASCAR rescinded the post-race penalty from the No. 12 Team Penske team, it improved Blaney’s circumstances from 56 points below the elimination line to a deficit of 17 points. That means Blaney’s chance for his first Champ 4 trip isn’t gone, but to make up ground this week he will have to buck the statistical trends at Homestead, where he has only one top-10 finish in eight starts.

Projections as of Sunday, Oct. 22:

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE 4EVER 400 PRESENTED BY MOBIL 1

Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results.

FinishCar NumberDriver
15Kyle Larson
224William Byron
311Denny Hamlin
445Tyler Reddick
56Brad Keselowski
619Martin Truex Jr.
720Christopher Bell
812Ryan Blaney
91Ross Chastain
1023Bubba Wallace
114Kevin Harvick
1217Chris Buescher
138Kyle Busch
149Chase Elliott
1548Alex Bowman
1622Joey Logano
1754Ty Gibbs
1899Daniel Suárez
193Austin Dillon
2043Erik Jones
2116AJ Allmendinger
2234Michael McDowell
2310Aric Almirola
2447Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2514Chase Briscoe
267Corey LaJoie
2741Ryan Preece
2831Justin Haley
292Austin Cindric
3021Harrison Burton
3177Ty Dillon
3238Todd Gilliland
3342John H Nemechek
3451Ryan Newman
3515J.J. Yeley
3678Josh Bilicki

Posted on by Staff Report

Kaulig Racing announced Sunday that driver Chandler Smith will not return to the organization’s NASCAR Xfinity Series program in 2024.

MORE: Key players in 2023-24 Silly Season

Smith, a 2023 Xfinity Series Playoffs contender, has earned one win, three pole awards, eight top fives and 12 top-10 finishes this season with two races remaining. The season finale at Phoenix Raceway will serve as Smith’s final race with Kaulig. Smith enters next week’s race at Martinsville Speedway (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 54 points beneath the provisional elimination line to advance to the Championship 4.

Kaulig’s 2024 driver lineup will be announced in the coming weeks, while Smith’s landing spot is yet to be announced as well.

Smith owns six total national series wins, with five split between 2021-22 while racing a Toyota in the Craftsman Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports. He made three NASCAR Cup Series starts for Kaulig in 2023 as well, finishing no worse than 17th in any of them with a best finish of 11th at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this month.

This story will be updated.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Cole Custer qualified on the pole position and stomped the competition to lead a race-high 114 of 200 laps. But his day ended up outside of Victory Lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Custer’s No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford leaned against the outside SAFER barrier in Turns 3 and 4 with 50 laps to go in the penultimate race of the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Round of 8, cutting a right-front tire, sending him to pit road and derailing an otherwise magnificent day for the veteran racer.

RELATED: Unofficial results| At-track photos: Homestead

“Just got in too deep I guess,” Custer said. “You know, had a big lead and I didn’t feel like I was pushing it, but just carried a little too much speed. I think I got by a couple of lappers and just missed it a little bit. I think that was the only time I hit the wall all day. So it’s just sucks. I mean I’m so frustrated. The guys brought me such a fast car. I mean, I think we definitely had the dominant car today.”

The damage sent Custer to pit road and resulted in numerous lost laps — worsened by a pit-road penalty for too many men over the wall. Custer ultimately finished 13th, the first car one lap down.

Failing to execute the win left a sting for Custer, but he tried to find the bright side: Teammate Riley Herbst crushed the field to win last week’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by over 15 seconds and nearly caught Sam Mayer for the victory Saturday at Homestead. Custer came with similar, if not better, speed and credited crew chief Jonathan Toney for the inroads the No. 00 team has made specifically.

“JT and all the guys, it’s just a testament to what they’re doing,” Custer said. “And I think we can go to Martinsville and really have a good shot at it. And even with all that happened, I think we’re still in the good, so just gotta move on to the next one. But I’m definitely disappointed in myself today. Just hate that that happened.”

Custer is above the provisional elimination line heading to the 0.526-mile short track Martinsville Speedway, the final race to secure a spot in this year’s Championship 4. Because of his Saturday win, Mayer is the only driver currently locked in. Custer sits tied with Austin Hill for the final spot in the bracket for now, both only three points above Justin Allgaier.

Further behind Allgaier is a steep cliff — Sammy Smith sits 49 points beneath the line, with Chandler Smith out by 54 markers and Sheldon Creed by 65.

“I think we’re in a solid spot,” Custer said. “Martinsville was a good track for us in the spring, so I’m looking forward to it. I think we should have a great shot at advancing. But in the playoffs, you never know what to expect. But overall, we’ve just got to move on from today and go onto next week.”

Posted on by Staff Report

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Sam Mayer claimed his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series oval-race victory in the second half of a NASCAR doubleheader at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday in the Contender Boats 300 after holding off last week’s race winner Riley Herbst by a mere 0.227 seconds.

It marks the JR Motorsports driver Mayer’s fourth series victory of the season and his career, and most importantly for Mayer – who joked he didn’t breathe the final four laps – it is his ticket into the Championship 4 finale that will decide the series title at Phoenix Raceway in two weeks.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Homestead

The 20-year-old Wisconsin native’s No. 1 JRM Chevrolet led 46 laps on the day – including the final 30 – but brushed the wall exiting Turn 4 as he pushed forward on the last lap to keep a fast-closing Herbst behind him. Mayer’s fellow NASCAR Xfinity Series championship contender, John Hunter Nemechek, finished third in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, leading seven laps despite feeling under the weather.

Regular Season Champion Austin Hill was fourth in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and NASCAR Hall of Famer and crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished fifth in his second and final Xfinity Series start of the season. He’s also the owner of Mayer’s Chevy.

“It’s unreal, we won on an oval,’’ a grinning Mayer screamed into the front grandstands. “This Chevrolet Camaro was so good. It’s all about putting a full race together, and I’m so proud of these guys. They kicked tail on pit road and we made it happen with these HMS (Hendrick Motorsports) engines. It’s just really cool to be able to beat an amazing organization like that (Herbst’s Stewart-Haas Racing team). We’ve got to turn it on a little harder going into Phoenix.”

Herbst’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Cole Custer won Stage 1 and led a dominating 114 of the race’s 200 laps, only to suffer a tire problem with 50 laps remaining and drop a lap down. He rallied back but still finished 13th after such an impressive early race. Custer and Hill are now tied three points above the elimination line heading into next week’s Round of 8 finale at the half-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Nemechek holds a healthy 44-point edge above the line.

Mayer’s JRM teammate Justin Allgaier – another title favorite who came into the race ranked second in the championship standings – also had a tire issue after a pit stop and dropped back midway through the race. He rallied back to finish 15th, but dropped to fifth place in the standings, three points behind Hill for the automatic transfer position for the Championship 4.

Nemechek’s JGR teammate Sammy Smith, who finished ninth, is now 49 points back in sixth place. And it was a more dramatic day for the other championship contenders with Richard Childress Racing’s Sheldon Creed finishing 26th after entering pit road with smoke trailing out of his Chevy with only two laps remaining in the race.

Kaulig Racing’s Chandler Smith rounds out the Playoff 8 – but finished a frustrating 34th place after being collected in an early race accident. They are now 54 (Smith) and 65 (Creed) points below the fourth-place transfer line and will need to win the race at Martinsville next week to meet their playoff goals.

Kaulig’s Daniel Hemric, Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman, JRM’s Brandon Jones, and the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Sammy Smith, and Joe Graf Jr. rounded out the top 10 Saturday.

Earnhardt’s participation was a crowd pleaser and his fifth-place effort in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevy was his fifth top-five showing since he retired from full-time competition in the NASCAR Cup Series after the 2017 season. He methodically worked his way forward from a 23rd-place starting position and survived a close call in the closing laps, ironically with Josh Berry, who drives for Earnhardt.

“Luckily it didn’t hurt our car and we were able to finish really good, so I’m happy about that,” Earnhardt said, noting he felt badly having an incident with one of his own team cars.

The series moves to the 0.526-mile Martinsville track for next Saturday’s Dead On Tools 250 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) which will formally decide which three drivers will join Mayer in championship eligibility at the Phoenix season-ender.

“Getting that first oval win [today] was big. … we finally won on an oval and my confidence is feeling good,’’ Mayer said with a huge grin.

Note: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage was completed without major issue. Two cars were found with unsecured lug nuts in a post-race check — the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevy driven by Austin Hill was found with two loose lugs on the left-front wheel, and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for Joe Graf Jr. had one unsecured lug nut on the left-rear. The No. 21 team’s penalty should result in a one-race suspension for crew chief Andy Street, according to guidelines in the Xfinity Series Rule Book. The infraction by the No. 19 JGR team should result in a monetary fine in next week’s penalty report.

Contributing: Staff reports