Nick Sanchez and Matt Crafton were involved in a post-race altercation in the garage following Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, showed Sanchez and numerous others on the ground in the garage area following the event. Sanchez’s face was bloodied after the incident, which he said began after a tap from behind after the race.
“I was walking back to the hauler, got a tap on my back, got punched in the face,” Sanchez told reporters after being treated and released from the infield care center. “Cheap shot, but is what it is I guess. I’m all for fighting, but no cheap shots, and I got a cheap shot. Never really had a chance to get him back, but it is what it is. It’s part of racing.”
The two drivers’ trucks made contact at Lap 93 of Saturday’s race exiting Turn 4, a collision that triggered a significant multitruck wreck before the race’s nearing conclusion. Sanchez dove to Crafton’s left exiting the corner, putting his truck in the middle of a three-wide scenario. While making the move, Sanchez contacted the left-rear corner of Crafton’s truck, tipping him into traffic and initiating the pileup.
Crafton’s pit stall sat directly next to Sanchez’s, and following the crash, the 47-year-old and three-time series champion parked his No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford between the two pit boxes. Upon exiting his truck, Crafton was seen exchanging words with crew members of Sanchez’s No. 2 Rev Racing Chevrolet.
“I heard a little bit about it but not a lot,” Sanchez said of the pit-road exchange. “It’s Talladega. It’s plate racing. I mean yeah, it was an aggressive move I made, but I held my line, right? It is what it is and it happens every year.”
Asked if he needed stitches, Sanchez replied: “No, I think they just glued my face and a slight break over here, I don’t know,” gesturing to the tip of his nose. “But I’m fine.”
NASCAR.com has reached out to ThorSport Racing for further comment on the incident. Crafton posted a thread on X Sunday afternoon explaining his side of the incident.
Sanchez leaves Talladega three points above the elimination line in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs standings. One race remains in the Round of 8, which will conclude at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, Oct. 21 (12 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Crafton qualified for the playoffs but was one of two drivers eliminated from title contention following the Round of 10 conclusion at Kansas Speedway on Sept. 8.
Harrison Burton will return as the driver of Wood Brothers Racing’s No. 21 Ford in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2024, he confirmed Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway.
The 22-year-old driver currently ranks 31st in the Cup Series standings. He confirmed the news to The Athletic.
Burton has four top-10 finishes in the last two seasons, with a best result of third place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in his rookie year. He had acknowledged in August that he had been a topic of rumors in recent weeks but that he preferred to stay with the Wood Brothers as his career progressed.
“At the end of the day, it’s fairly easy for me because I am happy where I’m at, and I hope to continue to race where I’m at,” Burton said. “You know, it’s fairly easy for me to kind of just go to work with the guys that I’ve worked with for the last year and a half or so, and yeah, it’s not super distracting at this point.”
The Wood Brothers recently made a change at crew chief, bringing back Jeremy Bullins atop the No. 21 pit box for the final 10 races of this season and for next year’s schedule. Bullins traded places with fellow crew chief Brian Wilson, who moved to the No. 2 Ford of the affiliated Team Penske operation.
The Wood Brothers have been fielding Cup Series entries since 1953. The team’s next victory in NASCAR’s top division will be its 100th.
Burton joined the No. 21 team for the 2022 campaign after two full seasons in the Xfinity Series. The next-generation driver won four times during his tenure with Joe Gibbs Racing, and his move to the Cup Series also meant a transition from Toyota to a Ford allegiance.
Three NASCAR Cup Series cars failed pre-race technical inspection twice at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday afternoon.
The No. 2 Team Penske Ford, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford and No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford each needed a third trip through the inspection line ahead of qualifying for Sunday’s Yellawood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Each of the teams had its car chief ejected from the event: Cody Sauls from the No. 2 Ford driven by Austin Cindric; Lucas Tucker from the No. 38 Ford driven by Todd Gilliland; and Anthony Cardamone from the No. 41 Ford driven by Ryan Preece.
In addition, those three teams also lost their respective ability to choose their pit stalls for Sunday’s race, which marks the second event in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12.
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Brett Moffitt made it a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start to remember, pulling off an amazing three-wide move to the front during an overtime restart to claim the victory in Saturday’s Love’s RV Stop 250 at Talladega Superspeedway – the former series champion’s first series race of the 2023 season ending in his first superspeedway victory.
It was a typically dramatic day on the 2.66-mile Talladega high banks, taking an overtime restart to settle the busy day of competition. Moffitt restarted on the front row alongside Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs driver Christian Eckes following a 10-truck accident with two laps remaining in regulation that forced the OT finish.
Eckes moved up the track to block Moffitt from a run, but the veteran Moffitt deftly dropped his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford to the middle of the track and pulled away to a 0.089-second victory over playoff driver Ben Rhodes while Eckes lost momentum, drifted backward and ended up 19th.
All eight Talladega truck playoff races have now been won by non-playoff drivers.
“It’s pretty awesome,’’ said the 31-year-old Moffitt, the 2018 series champion. “I’ve notably struggled on the superspeedways in the past and dreaded coming to them. But this was an all-pressure-off situation that Front Row gave me to go out there and try to help a teammate. Obviously, that didn’t work out for that group. But to come here and have a shot at a win and to do it, is just amazing.
“Reminds me of the good ole days and I want to get back to doing this on a regular basis so we’ll see what happens.’’
It was an especially dramatic day for the eight playoff drivers still vying for one of the four championship-eligible positions in the Nov. 3 finale. Among them, Rhodes was the top finishing driver – even though he did not lead a lap Saturday.
“This style of racing, you never know what to expect,’’ said Rhodes, driver of the No. 99 ThorSport Ford. “Just all in all, really happy we were able to finish second. We needed this for a points day. I think last year we were seven points out coming to Homestead and we made it to the Championship 4. We’re eight out now so we did what we needed to do just one spot short. It would have been a real luxury to lock ourselves in today.”
Tricon Garage driver Dean Thompson finished third with Rackley W.A.R. Racing’s Chandler Smith and Tricon Garage’s Corey Heim, the championship leader rounding out the top five.
There were only three playoff drivers in the top 10 and that was a true effort for seventh-place finisher Nick Sanchez. Although the Rev Racing driver dominated a lot of the afternoon, winning a stage and leading a race-best 25 laps on the day, he received a pass-through penalty for laying back on a restart with 32 laps remaining that set him back in the field. He made his way forward again in the No. 2 Chevrolet only to be involved in the final multitruck accident that forced an overtime restart.
He still finished seventh and having earned 19 stage points on the day while so many other playoff driers also involved in incidents, he improved his position in the standings and will go into the next race – on Oct. 21 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He’s ranked fourth, three points ahead of fifth place Grant Enfinger. The top four ranked drivers following the Homestead race advance to the Championship round, on Nov. 3 at Phoenix Raceway.
The GMS Racing driver Enfinger was also among those playoff competitors caught up in multiple accidents on the afternoon. He finished 13th. Niece Motorsport’s Carson Hocevar was 11th. ThorSport’s Ty Majeski was 21st.
Reigning series champion Zane Smith — race winner Moffitt’s teammate — had a rough afternoon from an incident on pit road to mechanical problems that set him back early. His truck hit his crew member Charles Plank coming into the team’s pit stall on the first stop of the day. Plank, a tire carrier, was okay and even finished out the race.
A lap later, however, Smith’s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford suffered clutch problems and made multiple stops on pit road before going behind the wall for more extensive repairs.
He returned to the track in the closing laps and moved up two finishing positions in the race standings to salvage some points. He drops to last place in the championship standings, however, 36 points behind Sanchez on the cutoff line and needing to win at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“I feel terrible about that, so that wasn’t a great start,’’ Smith said of the pit road incident with his crew member.
“And then after that rolled off pit road down the backstretch, my clutch started slipping and it got worse and worse and worse. So fighting that and changing the clutch to get back out there.
“Just such a bummer. It’s a tough situation here.”
Heim is the only playoff driver who has already secured a position in the Championship 4 thanks to his win at Bristol. Hocevar leads the points standings – up 23 points in fifth place. Eckes is third and Sanchez fourth.
Enfinger (-3) is ranked fifth, followed by Rhodes (-5), Majeski (-19) and Smith (-36).
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs continue on Oct. 21 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the top four drivers in the standings after the race set to decide the Championship in the Nov. 3 season finale at Phoenix. Majeski is the defending Homestead-Miami race winner.
Following the race, there was an incident in the garage area between the 47-year-old former series champion Matt Crafton and the 22-year-old Rookie of the Year Sanchez that left Sanchez’s face bloodied. NASCAR is investigating the situation and will announce its findings and any penalties next week.
Note: Inspection in the Truck Series garage at Talladega concluded without issue, confirming Moffitt as the race winner. The Nos. 20 and 52 trucks, driven by Greg Van Alst and Stewart Friesen, respectively, will be taken back to the NASCAR Research & Development Center for safety inspections.
Stewart Friesen and Greg Van Alst were both transported to a local hospital for further evaluation after separate crashes during Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs Round of 8 race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Friesen and postseason contender Christian Eckes collided on entry to Turn 3 during the contest’s 39th lap, with Eckes’ right-front fender tipping Friesen’s truck in the left rear. The nose of Friesen’s Toyota bounced off the right side of Tyler Ankrum’s truck, sending both vehicles into the retaining SAFER barrier.
Friesen exited his truck under his own power but appeared shaken after the impact. The AMR Safety Team assisted Friesen to the ambulance, which first transported him to the infield care center before he was later transported to a local hospital. An update posted to Friesen’s social media account early Sunday morning confirmed Friesen was “treated, evaluated and released” from the hospital as of 12:25 a.m. ET.
Van Alst was collected in a significant multitruck accident at Lap 93 just before the race’s conclusion. His No. 20 Chevrolet veered right as numerous others crashed ahead of him, sending his truck nose-first into the outside SAFER barrier entering the frontstretch’s tri-oval. All four tires lifted off the ground in the impact before the vehicle settled back onto the race track and slid to a halt.
Van Alst, winner of the ARCA Menards Series opener at Daytona in February, also climbed from the machine under his own power and was transported for further evaluation.
According to his social media account, Van Alst was diagnosed with a fractured vertebrae and also released from the hospital early Sunday morning.
Following the incident at Martinsville Speedway after qualifying race #2 of the Late Model Stock Car race, the below penalties were assessed.
Pursuant to rules:
9-4 Driver Responsibilities
B. At all Events, the driver assumes responsibility for the following:
1. Actions of his/her Car Owner and team members and may be subject to disciplinary action as a result.
12-6.1 Member Conduct Guidelines
C. 2. Member-to Member confrontation(s) with physical violence and other violent manifestations such as significant threat(s), abuse and/or endangerment.
Driver of No. 97W Magnum Tate is assessed a $500 fine and is suspended from NASCAR-sanctioned events until the fine is paid.
Driver of the No. 77B Connor Hall is assessed a $500 fine and is suspended from NASCAR-sanctioned events until the fine is paid.
Pursuant to 12-6.1 Member Conduct Guidelines
C. 2. Member-to-member confrontation(s) with physical violence and other violent manifestations such as significant threat(s), abuse and/or endangerment.
Crew member of the No. 77B Zachary Bruenger is fined $1,000; suspended from NASCAR-sanctioned events until the fine is paid; suspended from all NASCAR-sanctioned events until successful completion of Anger Management Training, as determined by NASCAR; and will be placed on probation for one year upon completion of Anger Management Training.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will be available in mixed reality. NASCAR and XTADIUM are once again teaming up to give NASCAR fans the ultimate viewing experience. All 10 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs races can be watched in this new, mixed-reality experience on Meta Quest headsets, with content becoming available 48 hours after the conclusion of each event.
Fans can view up to eight distinct camera angles simultaneously while retaining the ability to observe their surroundings. All eight screens are fully customizable, and users can drag and drop the screens around their room to customize their viewing experience. This means that fans can experience the thrill of NASCAR races while still being in-touch with what’s happening around them.
This is the first time a racing event of this kind will be viewable in mixed reality. It will be available on XTADIUM, a free VR App developed by the VR company, YBVR, that is available on all Meta Quest headsets. XTADIUM is available in the US only.
“At NASCAR we are always looking for ways to experiment with new emerging technology to create unique and compelling experiences for our fans.” said NASCAR Director of Web3, Mitch Rasmussen. “Mixed Reality represents a customizable and immersive experience for fans to connect with the sports and events they love most. We’re excited to work with YBVR to bring this vision to life for our race fans.”
“At YBVR we are looking at new innovative ways to consume sporting events. This exciting partnership with NASCAR will bring fans next generation mixed reality content,” said YBVR CTO and Co-Founder Sebastian Amengual. “Join us in XTADIUM from home with your Meta Quest VR Headsets, to enjoy the ultimate sports watching experience. Also invite your friends to a Watch Party to enjoy the fun with them.”
All NASCAR content will be free. To access, simply download XTADIUM on a Meta Quest Headset.
Brad Keselowski is inching ever closer to his next NASCAR Cup Series victory.
At least it sure feels that way.
The 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion is in the midst of a five-race streak of top-10 finishes that includes a runner-up result at the regular-season finale on Aug. 26 at Daytona International Speedway. That should be encouraging for the driver of the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, and even more so as the team’s co-owner considering RFK’s other car – the No. 17 driven by Chris Buescher – went to Daytona Victory Lane.
The NASCAR Playoffs continue with another mammoth of a drafting track at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon (2 ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Even better news for Keselowski? He leads all active drivers with six wins at the 2.66-mile, high-speed and high-banked tri-oval.
“I see us having a great opportunity to win the race,” Keselowski told NASCAR.com in a Wednesday phone interview.
No, he has not yet won in the Next Gen car, which debuted as he transitioned to RFK Racing for the 2022 season. But he certainly appears closer than ever since departing Team Penske. After missing the NASCAR Playoffs a season ago in a campaign that produced his first winless year since 2010, Keselowski’s stats have bettered exponentially year over year: one top five and six top 10s in 2022 have rocketed to six top fives and 15 top-10 finishes through 30 races this season. His average finish is 13.0 — six positions better than where he ended in 2022 — and enters Talladega seventh in standings, a far cry from his 24th-place ranking last season.
“It’s everything we need to be doing right now — other than winning,” Keselowski said. “We need some wins. And we’re right there on the cusp of it in a lot of ways, but it’s so close yet so far away.”
Ahead of the second of three races in the Round of 12, Keselowski sits seven points ahead of the elimination line. Talladega presents a possible shakeup in the standings given its predictable unpredictability, but Keselowski isn’t quite worried.
“The playoffs are more about consistency than they are winning until you get to the last round,” he said. “And I think we’re doing the consistency thing and if we finish top 10 in the next two races, then pretty safe bet that we’ll advance the next round. But I don’t have to count on that.
“We want to win races, and then you don’t have to worry about it at all. That’s the easiest way to control your destiny. But short of doing that, we’re controlling what we can control. We’re getting solid finishes, scoring lots of points and living to fight another day.”
Keselowski has long been a stellar superspeedway racer: His first career win came at Talladega and he owns wins in both the summer race and qualifying duels at Daytona. But more notably he was an immediate threat for the win at these large, drafting-style facilities as the Next Gen car hit the track. He and Buescher swept the 2022 qualifying race wins leading into that season’s Daytona 500, an event that saw Keselowski lead 67 laps and backed by 42 circuits out front in this year’s “Great American Race.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
“If you compare it to the Gen 6 car, the Gen 6 car was a lot more lane independent,” he explained. “I feel like the old car really liked when you ran the higher lanes, and this newer car really likes when you run the lower lanes. It reminds me more of the truck the way it drives. And that was certainly took a little bit of time to get used to. You know, we did get a couple of tests in early on and got our cars really driving good. We had some good driving cars and that certainly helps, and we’ve got some really good power under the hoods with Doug Yates and that helps as well. And then it’s just a matter of developing the tactics. I got a great spotter, TJ Majors, and a great teammate with Chris Buescher, along with his spotter Mike Herman (Jr.). And so those are some pretty formidable advantages we have and we’re just doing a good job of connecting those.
“And I think you look at us this year on the plate tracks, unfortunately, we got wrecked in the last lap at Daytona. Outside of that, we’ve been in contention to win every one of them and leading laps or being in the top two or three in the last few laps and that’s really exciting. Unfortunately, we haven’t put a W on the board on any of them but it sort of feels like we’re due.”
Indeed, if this is the weekend that win comes, its significance would reign in various ways. Keselowski currently sits tied for second-most wins at Talladega all-time, his six even with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon for that runner-up spot behind Dale Earnhardt’s 10. Make no mistake: Breaking that tie is at the forefront of Keselowski’s mind.
“I think every win is meaningful, but I think there’d be a lot of things that if we were able to win, it would come together at once,” he said. “You know, my family is going to be there and I want to be able to win with them there and I want to be able to break into that second place. Dale Sr.’s record is still pretty far away, but it still would be nice to own second place.
“And then be able to get my first points win with RFK and at this time in the playoffs, to not have to worry about the (Charlotte) Roval would be huge. I really need those five (playoff) points. If we get to the next round, I need five more points for that next round, so that would be huge. There’s a lot of things that would make it a really big deal and I’m excited to see that play out.”
To Keselowski’s earlier point, a pair of top-10 finishes at Talladega and next week’s Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course would likely propel him to the Round of 8 — which means Sunday is not a must-win opportunity. But the second-generation racer from Michigan has been clutch at Talladega before, scoring a victory in a must-win position back in 2014 that propelled him to the Round of 8 in the first year of the elimination-style playoff format.
“2014 was a special moment for me and that’s a win I’ll never forget,” Keselowski said. “I’ll never forget being in Victory Lane. I’ll never forget that feeling of moving into the next round. And that was the first year of the playoffs, so that was kind of special as well. That was a very unique moment. And I don’t know if I can replicate that — I’m not trying to. Each moment is its own with its own characters and its own dynamics. But they’re all great checkmarks in a career that live on for a long time.”
For now, the ultimate checkmark is the next victory. The No. 6 RFK Racing team heads to Talladega with an eagerness to show up to the track, a positive tension among the group as results trend upward. Is it enough, though, to claim the team’s ceiling is the pinnacle — a NASCAR Cup Series championship?
“We have an opportunity at it,” Keselowski said. “Certainly we have some work to do. Right now, we represent two of the 12 cars in the playoffs. Hopefully, we can represent two in the eight in the next round. And those are some pretty good odds. But everything is earned; nothing’s given. So you know, you can’t get too caught up in your own press clippings.”
