LEBANON, Tenn. — When asked if there was any part of him that would consider a return to the Cup Series, Edwards had an interesting initial response: “Yeah, there is.”
But the 28-time Cup Series winner quickly explained the biggest reasons for not getting back behind the wheel.
“I’m not planning on doing any driving,” Edwards said. “(The Cup Series) is the tip of the spear. These guys are so good that I would be terribly slow, so I’d have to prep a lot. Seriously, that’s the truth.
Edwards was on hand Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway for NASCAR’s Ally 400 (7 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to accept an honor for the speedway’s new track legends environment.
Despite being back in the incredible at-track atmosphere, Edwards still highlighted the cons of reigniting his career.
“For me, I really feel racing is a risky sport,” he said. “There’s risk involved, and if I’m not committed 100%, I don’t feel that it’s the right thing for me to go do for fun.”
“But I’ll tell you this, if it creeps in and it’s something we wanna go do, then I promise you I’ll give it a 100%,” said Edwards. “I’ll do the best I can. But right now, no, I’m not planning anything.”
The six years since his debut at Pocono Raceway as a fill-in driver for the then-injured Aric Almirola have been arduous, adventurous, and admittedly not always pretty. But the statistics don’t lie: Wallace holds two wins, 15 top fives and 27 top 10s in 199 starts with an average finish that has improved every year of his Cup career to date.
With 10 races left in the 2023 regular season, the driver of the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing provisionally holds the 15th of 16 spots in the NASCAR Playoffs with a 26-point buffer to the elimination line. That stems from a tremendous month of May that saw Wallace string together three straight top-five finishes at Kansas Speedway (fourth), Darlington Raceway (fifth) and Charlotte Motor Speedway (fourth). Throw in the exhibition NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro where he finished runner-up to Kyle Larson and it’s four straight.
Perhaps finally, Wallace has arrived on the Cup scene as a true regular contender.
“I think contender is probably the right and correct word for him,” Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI Racing, said at Sonoma Raceway. “I think he was a participant for a while, and now he is a contender, week in and week out. That’s what we wanted and what we expected, and that is what he’s delivering.”
To get consistent results has necessitated growth as both a driver and a person, Wallace admits. Understanding how to maximize the performance of his vehicles required better use of the tools at his disposal – and a better mindset to handle the trials that come with the highest level of motorsports in the country.
His top-five streak was interrupted at World Wide Technology Raceway on June 4, when a failed brake rotor late in the event ended his day prematurely, resulting in a 30th-place finish after running inside the top 10.
“I think, year by year, you start to let that stuff go,” Wallace said. “Like for example, in (Sonoma) qualifying, I totally botched qualifying. And I think a year ago, I’d have been mad and pissed off, not trying to help the team get better. And I got out of the car and I was pissed off, yeah, for sure. But I was like, ‘Guys I messed that one up. Sorry. Move on.’ And (crew chief) Bootie (Barker) is like, ‘Hey, don’t think about it.’ I was like, ‘I’m already thinking about what’s for dinner.’ So we’re good. I think letting little stuff go and focusing on the big picture has helped us a tremendous amount.”
That shift in mindset did not happen overnight. Pit-road issues through the first half of 2022 often derailed good finishes for the No. 23 team, which Wallace didn’t take lightly.
“I think we look at last year and we knew that all the mistakes that we had as a team and not executing put us behind,” he said. “You know, how we ran at the end of last year was how we should have ran at the beginning. But we couldn’t seem to get out of our own way. And so now that we’re not in our own way, the finishes are showing, so the speed’s been there.
“In Darlington, I look back and that may have been the one where I think we could have won … Other than that, we’ve finished kind of where we deserved, and then it’s been really good. So we’ve just got to keep pushing and striving for more. I think everything that’s been going on, putting the work in, the conversations that we have, Bootie and I, the engineers, are just making this better. It’s been paying off. So as long as we don’t get in our own way, we’re fine.”
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
Racing is largely momentum based – what happens one week seems to impact how a driver and their team enter the next race weekend. That’s especially critical in a grueling 38-week schedule that just passed its lone off week until the season finale in November. A confident Wallace helps the No. 23 team handle its day-to-day tasks that much better.
“I think (Wallace) is a results person and that he is capable of winning, and he’s got the confidence now that he is capable of being a successful driver in this series,” Hamlin said. “So even when you have bad weeks like you did (at WWT Raceway), you have a failure at the end, he was still competitive enough and in the top 10 to understand that, ‘I’m with a really good team, and that team, in general, is really working well at improving.’ I think that is what we are seeing. … I’m just really happy of where he is at, and the progression he’s made.”
That Hamlin has seen Wallace’s progress firsthand has allowed him to exhibit more patience in his role atop 23XI Racing.
“He just needs to keep doing what he’s done the last month and a half,” Hamlin said. “If you could have listened to what we were talking about on our ownership calls on what is the strategy to get the 23 in the playoffs, it was just kind of, let’s everyone take a breath here and let’s see how this goes for the next month and a half before we start changing our strategy. And then he goes on a run of top fives and top 10s. I think consistency still pays, not only to get in the playoffs but once you are in it.”
Indeed, Wallace is still seeking the first driver’s playoff appearance of his career. Each of his two victories – Talladega Superspeedway in 2021 and Kansas Speedway in 2022 – have come during NASCAR’s postseason after Wallace missed the playoff field. He did gain playoff experience last year by aiding the No. 45 team through the owner’s championship bracket, advancing the team thanks to his Kansas triumph after former driver Kurt Busch put the car itself in the playoffs.
The next 10 races will emphasize execution and resilience, starting Sunday in Nashville (7 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) where Wallace rolls off ninth after spinning in the final round of qualifying.
Ten drivers have locked themselves into the playoffs with wins this year, meaning six spots remain available on points. Kyle Busch and William Byron lead the series with three wins apiece while Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. hold two each. As positions dwindle, Wallace knows his situational awareness must remain at a premium – and that other drivers’ first wins of the year like Ryan Blaney’s Coca-Cola 600 triumph at Charlotte mean another opportunity vanished.
“I think when we’re when we’re riding fourth or fifth in the last couple laps, you’re like, ‘Alright, it’s the No. 8 (Busch) or 5 (Larson) or 24 (Byron), they’re already good.’ Like I was pumped for Blaney, but I was like, ‘Damn, that’s a spot gone,’” Wallace said. “So we’re paying attention to that stuff. But you can’t get too far ahead and start thinking about that stuff. You’ve still got to go out and execute. And you know when the time is right, it’ll show up. So we keep putting our name in the hat and showcasing that we’re here, we’ll be fine.”
The story of the weekend thus far at Nashville Superspeedway has been Trackhouse Racing. Not only did the concept of Justin Marks’ vision begin in the city of Nashville in 2020, but Ross Chastain earned the team’s first career pole on Saturday. He was also incredibly pleased with his race pace in practice, having the best 15- and 20-lap averages. Conversely, Daniel Suárez backed into the wall off Turn 4 in the second round of qualifying on his warmup lap.
Starter 1: Ross Chastain Starter 2: William Byron Starter 3: Kyle Larson Starter 4: Martin Truex Jr. Starter 5: Tyler Reddick Garage pick:Bubba Wallace
NEXT IN LINE: Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch
RISING:It looks like a switch from Richard Childress Racing to 23XI Racing has paid off for Reddick when it comes to Nashville. In his first two starts at the 1.33-mile track, Reddick has a pair of 18th-place finishes. This weekend, however, he was quickest on single-lap speed and 10-lap averages. Because of that, he’s moved from the outhouse of my lineup to in it. The No. 45 car shares the front row for the start of the race with Chastain.
In 88 Cup Series starts leading into Nashville, Justin Haley had a best qualifying effort of sixth at the Bristol Dirt Race last season. He shattered his best starting position at Nashville, as the No. 31 car will take the green flag from the third position. Haley tied Kaulig Racing’s best qualifying effort in team history, with AJ Allmendinger (Road America) and Daniel Hemric (Talladega) both having third-place efforts. For race pace, Haley thought he had one of the best cars off the hauler in Friday’s practice.
FALLING: With the pace Suárez showed in the first round of qualifying, it was setting up for a potential front-row sweep for Trackhouse. However, he got loose over a bump in Turn 4 coming to the green flag during the final round and backed into the wall. Thus, the No. 99 car will be starting at the rear of the field. And though 400 miles is a considerable amount of time to race through the field, it’s hard to imagine his car will be better than it was before the crash.
The only name that fell out of my lineup from this week’s Fastlane is Ryan Blaney. The No. 12 Ford looked mediocre in practice, setting the 25th-best single-lap speed but improved to 13th best on a 10-lap run. With the speed Blaney has displayed in recent weeks, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Jonathan Hassler-led crew improves on the car and makes it a top-10 threat. But I’m saving Blaney for later in the regular season.
FEATURED MATCHUPS:
Chase Elliott vs. Denny Hamlin
The No. 11 car led a race-high 114 laps in last year’s Nashville event and looks strong again this year. Hamlin starts eighth to Elliott’s 14th. For sheer speed, Toyota looks to have a slight advantage over Hendrick Motorsports this weekend, and I’m sticking to my pick from earlier this week with Hamlin.
Christopher Bell vs. Joey Logano
For one-lap speed, the No. 20 team is still looking to hit the setup this weekend. Bell was 18th in practice and qualified 22nd. Over the long haul, he improved and ranked seventh out of the 15 cars to make a 20-lap run. Logano’s speed across the board was more consistent, and he got the most out of his car in qualifying to turn the fourth-best lap. The No. 22 team also rides a streak of consecutive top fives for the first time in 2023 entering Nashville, so momentum is on Logano’s side.
Ryan Blaney vs. William Byron
Given Byron is still in my lineup, and Blaney has dropped out, it kind of gives my answer away. Byron had a steering issue last year at Nashville and was a non-factor in the race. The No. 24 Chevrolet has been in the mix at just about every venue this season and has shown true speed at intermediate tracks. I would think Byron outperforms Blaney on Sunday.
Ross Chastain vs. Bubba Wallace
Even though Wallace spun out coming to the checkered flag of his qualifying run, the No. 23 car is fast this weekend. The good news is he should run well. Not ideal for Wallace, though, is Chastain has been the quickest car in Nashville, whether on the short or long run. Here’s a spoiler: Chastain is my pick to win the Ally 400.
RIVERHEAD, New York — In nearly two decades of competition with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Riverhead Raceway, Ron Silk had never taken home a checkered flag from the Long Island quarter-mile.
The current series points leader finally added that milestone to his resume Saturday evening with a dominant victory in the Miller Lite Salutes Mike Ewanitsko 200, which also served as his second victory of the 2023 season.
Silk had come close to Victory Lane many times at Riverhead, including the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s most recent outing there in May, which is why he was relieved to put together a full race at a track that has meant so much to him during his career.
“I felt like we had the car to beat [at Riverhead] last time, but I got beat on those last restarts” Silk said. “Luckily, we didn’t have to face that again and my guys brought a great car. This is Eddie Partridge’s track and obviously we all wish he was still around, so it’s really cool to [win here].”
A staple of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour for many years, Partridge balanced out being a team owner in the series with overseeing the day-to-day operations at Riverhead up until his sudden passing on Sept. 10, 2021. Silk drove for Partridge when he won his lone NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship in 2011, making Saturday’s victory that much more special.
Since last year, Silk has never finished a Riverhead race worse than third, but was not able to claim that elusive win until Saturday evening.
Silk patiently bided his time behind polesitter Austin Beers before a mid-race restart provided him the perfect opportunity to take control and lead the entire second half of Saturday’s feature.
The only driver who could keep pace with Silk was Justin Bonsignore, who wrestled the lead away from Silk in May to earn his 10th NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Riverhead. A win on Saturday would have tied Bonsignore with his childhood hero Ewanitsko for most Tour victories at Riverhead with 11.
A different tire compound and the nighttime conditions made it difficult for Bonsignore to fight his way through the field. He managed to get to Silk’s rear bumper, but gradually lost ground as the laps clicked off.
“We were able to run a harder pace than we had in the past,” Bonsignore said. “I tried the bottom groove at around Lap 130 and I lost about six car-lengths. You’re just glued to the top, which is unfortunate. I would have loved to win with Mike [Ewanitsko] here tonight and I appreciate [Riverhead] for everything they did to honor Mike. He’s well deserving of it.”
Bonsignore commended Silk and his team for the work they put in to make his silver No. 16 so efficient in both trips to Riverhead this season, adding that Silk would have won in May if not for a late caution.
Bonsignore will have one more opportunity to match Ewanitsko’s win record at Riverhead this year in September, but he knows Silk will be the one to beat if he carries over the speed from the first two Riverhead events.
“Ron has been the best car here both times so far,” Bonsignore said. “We snuck away with one last time and even if there was a late caution, I don’t think I could have done anything with him. Maybe if we had track position, he might have had a tough time getting by us.”
Silk enjoyed the chance to celebrate with Ewanitsko in Victory Lane, who he considers to be one of the best to ever make a lap around Riverhead.
While Silk does not envision beating Ewanitsko’s Riverhead win record, he knows another championship is feasible with Haydt Yannone Racing and is confident he can further extend his advantage over Bonsignore during the summer.
“I’m so lucky to have such great owners,” Silk said. “I also lucked out to have a great crew chief like Phil Moran. These guys spend a lot of time on these cars and we work on them a lot together, so it’s a lot of fun.”
Doug Coby finished third in Saturday’s Miller Lite Salutes Mike Ewanitsko 200, where he was followed by Kyle Bonsignore and Riverhead regular Jack Handley Jr. Rounding out the top-10 were Roger Turbush, Tyler Rypkema, John Beatty Jr., Timmy Solomito and Beers.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to action on July 8 for the Jersey Shore 150 at Wall Stadium. The green flag will fly at 8 p.m. ET with FloRacing providing the coverage.
LEBANON, Tenn. – Stewart-Haas Racing’s crew chief swap for Riley Herbst and the No. 98 team immediately paid dividends with a runner-up finish in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series showdown at Nashville Superspeedway.
Herbst ran inside the top 10 all afternoon, with a late strategy call putting his Monster Energy Ford on the front row for the final restart in NASCAR Overtime. He finished seventh in Stage 1 and improved to fifth in Stage 2, setting him up for a late charge after a slew of cautions re-racked the field in the closing laps.
Though he finished one spot short of his elusive first win in the series, the 24-year-old driver was proud of the entire effort.
“I don’t think anything there was given to me,” Herbst said. “It was all earned. It was hot, it was slick. Did all the small things right, but I wish I could have gotten a little better restart there at the end. The bottom just restarts a little better than the top.
“After the last seven weeks, it’s good to get back in the top five and good to see us going back in the right direction.”
After opening the 2023 season with an impressive six consecutive top-10 finishes, including a season-best fourth at Phoenix Raceway, Herbst faded down the standings with six finishes outside the top 20 in the following nine contests.
“I don’t know if it’s been bad luck,” Herbst said. “It’s just been racing. The last three weeks have been self-inflicted wounds of my own doing, but we knew we had this pace. I mean, Cole (Custer) has been fast, we’ve been fast, Zane (Smith) was fast today, so we knew we could do it.”
But heading into a difficult summer stretch of the regular season, the team needed a breath of fresh air. Enter Davin Restivo.
Restivo had been with the SHR organization, serving as a lead engineer for the No. 10 Cup Series entry and driver Aric Almirola when he got the call to take charge of the Xfinity Series pit box. He was also a key component in Custer’s dominant 2019 Xfinity Series season.
It was a big shift for Herbst but a welcome one.
“I walked in the shop Monday morning, and he said, ‘Hi, I’m Davin,'” Herbst explained. “I said, ‘Hey, I’m Riley,’ and he said, ‘We’re gonna take a little bit to get our communication right, but I promise I’ll work extremely hard and give you fast race cars.'”
“And obviously, he did that this weekend.”
Sean Montgomery | NASCAR Studios
In their first race together, less than a week after joining forces, the pairing rallied for the best finish of the season for the No. 98 team. And it ties his best-ever finish in the Xfinity Series, achieved twice in 2020 at Auto Club Speedway and Kentucky Speedway.
Herbst looked re-energized and focused on making the most of a championship chase still within reach.
Entering Saturday, Herbst was 11th (one place above the 12-driver elimination line) in the projected playoff outlook. The strong finish, coupled with 10 stage points, moved him up one position to 10th.
Execution and strategy at the end of the race put them in a prime position to win, which Herbst is certain they can do more regularly.
“We just need to do what we did right there,” Herbst said. “Do all the small things right and continue to drive our race car and race our race and keep our head down.”
Herbst and the Xfinity Series head north to Illinois on July 1 for The Loop 121 on the Chicago Street Course (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
LEBANON, Tenn. – Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger held off an especially spirited field in double NASCAR Overtime to claim his first oval race victory of the season in a dramatic Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway Saturday evening.
The popular veteran led the final 20 laps and got an impressive final restart to launch his No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet from the pack and drive off to a 1.323-second win over runner-up Riley Herbst in a race that included a record-tying 11 cautions and 17 lead changes among 11 different drivers.
The caution-punctuated ending was perhaps suitable for a race that saw three yellow flags within the first 20 laps. Fifteen cars in the 38-car field had been involved in incidents before the Stage 2 break.
Yet, ultimately, it came down to a veteran’s purposeful, patient afternoon-long pursuit. And the 41-year-old Californian Allmendinger was up for the challenge, claiming his 17th victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and second of the season.
“I love winning on ovals because I know a lot of people doubt me on an oval,” a smiling Allmendinger said, a nod to his former open-wheel days and his reputation as one of the best road-course drivers in the history of the sport.
Certainly, his experience paid off on Saturday with an especially active day. Ty Gibbs, the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion and now a NASCAR Cup Series rookie, won the first stage and showed himself among the class of the field. But on the next restart, his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was hit while racing for the lead with one of this year’s championship favorites in Austin Hill, who was restarting up front on older tires. Allmendinger’s Chevy also suffered damage in the five-car melee near the front of the pack, but he – and Hill – were able to continue, while Gibbs’ car suffered too much damage.
Chandler Smith, Allmendinger’s Kaulig Racing teammate, won the race’s second stage and kept the lead pack honest for most of the day. He and Allmendinger exchanged the lead and ran 1-2 for much of the second half of the race around the 1.33-mile oval.
After a series of final scheduled pit stops, Parker Kligerman settled in for the biggest strategic gamble of the day. While the lead cars were making their way back through the field following stops, Kligerman kept his No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet out front, willing to take a chance on a fuel-saving strategy. But with 12 laps remaining, Kligerman’s team told him to drop in line behind Allmendinger to start conserving, and the No. 10 passed him for the lead with 11 laps of regulation to go.
JR Motorsports driver Sam Mayer finished third, with Hill fourth and JR Motorsports’ – and Tennessee native – Josh Berry rounding out the top five.
“That was the most up and down day I’ve ever had in racing,” Mayer said, managing a smile on pit road afterward.
John Hunter Nemechek finished sixth in the No. 20 JGR Toyota. Although he never led a lap, his rally forward after a 21st starting position was good enough for him to hold onto the championship lead by nine points over Hill.
Reigning NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Zane Smith turned in an impressive seventh-place finish in the No. 28 Ford. Allmendinger’s Kaulig teammate Daniel Hemric was eighth. Herbst’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Cole Custer was ninth, followed by rookie Parker Retzlaff.
“We got a little fortunate there when the accident happened, it didn’t really do anything too bad to the quarter panels .. and the guys did a good job of fixing it there,” Allmendinger said of the early damage, noting that the rash of early cautions actually helped his team have time to restore his car competitively.
“I will be honest, I was shocked on the initial start, I went down and made it three wide and thought nothing on it, didn’t even drive my car that hard and started wrecking, so that kind of raised my eyebrows, it’s a lot slicker than I expected,” Allmendinger said. “So the next couple starts, just tried to chill and get into the rhythm of the race.
“I just knew more than anything I needed a good re-start and to get in Turn 1 clean,’’ he said of the final restart and ultimate winning move.
The Xfinity Series will next take to the streets of Chicago for The Loop 121 on July 1 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Note: Post-race inspection concluded without issue, confirming Allmendinger as the winner. The No. 00 car of Cole Custer will be taken back to the NASCAR R&D Center for further evaluation.
LEBANON, Tenn. – With cars ranked 11th (Chris Buescher) and 12th (Brad Keselowski) in the championship standings, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing team co-owner Keselowski said he was optimistic about the pair’s chances of qualifying for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. But he acknowledges it’s a big step for the team.
Although both drivers and their teams are still looking for that first trophy of 2023, they have combined for six top fives (three each) and 13 top-10 finishes (Buescher, seven and Keselowski, six) – a huge improvement over last season leading up to this 10-race push to the postseason.
Keselowski has already equaled his top-10 total of a year ago – with 20 races remaining. And his three top fives exceed the lone top five he posted in 2022. Similarly, Buescher’s three top-five finishes equal his 2022 season total, and his seven top 10s are well within the 10 top 10s he had a year ago.
“We’ve got some good vibes going,‘’ said the 2012 series champion Keselowski, who will start Sunday’s race 24th. “Chris is on a really big hot streak. He’s run really well here the last three or four races and been in contention to win. He won a stage in the Coke 600, won part of the All-Star Race and ran really good at Sonoma, just really good energy there, making their way up in the points. A lot of excitement there.
“Been up and down with my car, the 6 car and felt like we were really strong at Charlotte and not as good as I’d like to be a couple other places. But either way, it’s better to be in than to be out, looking in. But we’re not as comfortable as we’d like to be. We’d like to have wins. That’s really what the sport is about.
“We’ve done a great job elevating ourselves from irrelevant to relevant, but I don’t want to stop there. We’ve got another step to take.‘’
