Posted on by Track Release

BRASELTON, Ga. — With “Front Row” Joe Nemechek appropriately on the pole and one of the most famous families in all of motorsports presiding over the celebration, Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) paid tribute to NASCAR’s 75th Anniversary in a big way Saturday at the 45th HSR Mitty at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Founded in 1948, NASCAR marks its 75th Anniversary in 2023, and this weekend’s HSR Mitty is just one part of the year-long celebration. Historic Stock Cars have been a major part of HSR events at Michelin Raceway in recent years, but Saturday’s NASCAR 75 tribute set a new standard. The event attracted an HSR entry of more than 50 historic and vintage stock cars for both competition and exhibition laps on the 2.54-mile road course north of Atlanta.

RELATED: Inside NASCAR’s 75th anniversary

The iconic Wood Brothers Racing family was the perfect choice for this weekend’s Grand Marshal duties. Eddie Wood and Len Wood — the sons of the late Glen Wood who founded the team over 70 years ago — joined their equally legendary Uncle Leonard Wood in representing the family at the 45th Mitty on Saturday.

The NASCAR 75 feature events are also the second annual Gene Felton Memorial Challenge races, which honor the late road racing star and 2019 HSR Mitty Grand Marshal Gene Felton. Nemechek won the inaugural Gene Felton Memorial race last year and made his repeat bid a little bit easier by winning the pole for this weekend’s race.

Nemechek led a field of 35 HSR Group 8 Historic Stock Car competitors to the green flag for Saturday’s featured sprint and stayed there until the checkered flag. He pulled off the flag-to-flag victory in his NEMCO Motorsports 2007 No. 22 Chevrolet Silverado but the win was far from easy as top HSR regular Curt Vogt pressured Nemechek to the finish in his Cobra Automotive 2006 No. 38 Ford Fusion.

Vogt crossed the finish line in second place just 1.114 seconds behind Nemechek while Joe Burke was even closer to the No. 38 to secure a close third in his 2006 No. 48 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS.

Along with a solid turnout of competitors and race fans, several NASCAR and IMSA Executives were among the enthusiastic attendees Saturday. The group included NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France, NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton, IMSA President John Doonan, IMSA CEO and NASCAR EVP, Chief Administrative Officer Ed Bennett and several other Daytona-based executives who were welcomed by MRRA President Rick Humphrey and HSR President David Hinton.

The second and final Gene Felton Memorial Challenge NASCAR 75 feature race of the 45th HSR Mitty weekend is scheduled to start at 12:15 p.m. ET Sunday.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

Before Cup Series cars hitting the track on Saturday, Hendrick Motorsports was expected to be the class of the field. And while the four-car powerhouse didn’t take the top spot — that belonged to Brad Keselowski — they took positions two through four. The lone exception outside the top five was Josh Berry, who is filling in for Alex Bowman. But of the four cars to make a 10-lap run, Berry was the quickest.

Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:

Starter 1: Chase Elliott
Starter 2: Kyle Larson
Starter 3: William Byron
Starter 4: Martin Truex Jr.
Starter 5: Kevin Harvick

Garage pick: Christopher Bell

NEXT IN LINE: Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace

RELATED: Set your Fantasy Live lineup | Monday’s starting lineup

RISING: It’s been nearly 11 years since Keselowski hoisted the Miles the Monster trophy in Victory Lane at Dover Motor Speedway. He also doesn’t have a top-five finish in his last 10 races at the track. But the No. 6 Ford was the quickest thing in Delaware on Saturday. His RFK Racing teammate won the pole in last year’s Dover race and finished inside the top 10.

As noted in Fantasy Fastlane earlier this week, Dover is by far not one of Blaney’s best tracks on the circuit. In 12 starts, he has a pair of eighth-place finishes that are the best on his resume. Lately, Dover has been a hindrance for Team Penske, with all three of its cars finishing at least three laps down last season. On Saturday, all three of them had single-lap speeds inside the top 11, led by Austin Cindric in fifth.

FALLING: Last spring, Ross Chastain led 86 laps en route to a third-place finish. However, the No. 1 car ranked 28th in practice and his Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suárez went for a spin in the opening group of practice. With the No. 1 car being more than half a second off the fast lap, he’s dropped from my lineup this weekend.

Harvick has mastered Dover in recent years, picking up three wins since the fall 2015 race. As you saw, he’s still in my lineup, but it’s understandable if you would take him out of yours as he was 21st in practice. It’s worth noting that he was in the second group when more rubber was laid down and his crew chief Rodney Childers is known to make some swings in setups on his cars to have them better for race day.

MORE: Updated weekend schedule — race moved to Monday at noon ET

FEATURED MATCHUPS:  

Chase Elliott vs. Ross Chastain: Of current drivers in the Cup field, Elliott is among the best at Dover with a pair of victories in the last seven Dover races. In 12 starts, he has top-five finishes 75% of the time (nine). As the defending winner of the event, the lone Next Gen car race at Dover, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the No. 9 car repeat and lock into the playoffs.

Chris Buescher vs. Chase Briscoe: Both cars were mired in the field during practice, with Briscoe having the 18th-best time and Buescher the 20th. Both drivers are also reputable on concrete tracks. But Buescher, specifically, stands out, as he won the pole at Dover last year and the Bristol concrete race in September. Plus, Buescher’s teammate Keselowski paced the field in practice. Thinking the No. 17 car will finish better on Monday.

Ryan Blaney vs. Brad Keselowski: Straight up, both drivers’ speed was a tad surprising on Saturday. Keselowski had a tenth of a second on the field in practice and has been one of the most consistent Fords in 2023. Blaney ranked 11th on single-lap speed but has struggled at Dover throughout his career. As he told me on Saturday, “It hasn’t been a great track for us.” That leads me to go with Keselowski.

Christopher Bell vs. Kevin Harvick: This is a tough one, particularly because neither driver showed lights-out speed in Saturday’s practice session. What makes it even more of a challenge to decide is both teams often improve their cars throughout the race every week. Harvick, however, has eight consecutive top 10s at the Monster Mile, so he’s the choice. However, I have both available to use in my lineup.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is riding plenty of momentum into Dover Motor Speedway.

The latest addition to the list of Daytona 500 champions, Stenhouse returns to the “Monster Mile” after a friendly battle with its concrete canyons in 2022 produced a runner-up finish, his best result of the season.

DOVER: Cup Series race postponed (Monday, noon ET, FS1) | Starting lineup

Stenhouse was comfortable right away in last year’s Next Gen debut around the 1-mile, steeply banked oval, in part propelling him to his only top-five finish of the season. He’s back this time with a revamped No. 47 team from JTG Daugherty Racing, emphasized by the addition of crew chief Mike Kelley during the offseason.

“I’m pumped to get back there knowing that I feel like we have a little bit better setup,” Stenhouse told NASCAR.com in a teleconference. “We had a second-place finish but felt like we had a winning race car last year, and I think I would have pushed a little bit harder knowing that maybe our tires had a little bit more life left in them towards the end of that race. And I felt like I was taking it easy at points of that last run.

“So I think all in all, I’m super-excited to get back there, knowing that maybe we could click off another win.”

Each of Stenhouse’s three career wins have come on superspeedways – two at Daytona International Speedway and one at Talladega Superspeedway, with wins at each in 2017. But the Mississippi native has always loved these high-banked, concrete ovals, primarily spotlighted by four Bristol top fives and six top 10s in 18 starts in Tennessee. His Dover totals are lower — one top five and four top 10s in 19 starts — but the translation has been great thus far in the Next Gen era, continuing Saturday after posting the ninth-quickest five-lap average and 14th-fastest single lap.

“It’s the cars that drive the least bad that are fast, right?” Stenhouse said. “So nobody’s comfortable. The race cars aren’t comfortable to drive, the way you drop down into the corner. Basically, anywhere that’s uncomfortable feeling, I feel like, is a place that I like to excel at and that I enjoy. The concrete tracks, they don’t have as much grip, especially when the rubber builds up on them. Your cars are sliding around. It’s easy to blow through the tires, so you have to kind of drive it and kind of creep up onto the maximum grip level of the car and tires, which changes lap to lap at Dover and very similar to Bristol.”

MORE: What to Watch: Dover

His winning confidence is well-guided. Stenhouse, already in his 11th year as a full-time Cup driver, has posted eight top-20 results in 10 races this season with an average finish of 14.2 – on track to better his career best by nearly three positions and blast by last year’s 22.8 clip. Through 10 races a season ago, Stenhouse was averaging a finish of 26.9.

The impressive start, punctuated by the Harley J. Earl Trophy that helped lock him into the 2023 playoffs, features three top 10s and four top 15s in the last five races, the only blemish a 35th-place showing at Richmond after an early mistake on pit road relegated the team numerous laps down.

“I feel like we’ve been really competitive at a lot of different race tracks,” Stenhouse said. “I felt like last year, mile-and-a-half race tracks and superspeedway race tracks were probably where we were the most competitive and felt like, obviously, our short-track program needed some work and (part of that is) work with some help from Chevrolet and from Hendrick (Motorsports) and just kind of utilizing all our resources that we had.

“And I mean, we’ve got a few top 10s and been competitive on short tracks. So I’m definitely thrilled about where we are as a race team at this point of the season.”

Stenhouse credits Kelley not just for the fast cars but for how the driver perceives his abilities and feels ahead of a race weekend. That circles back to their pairing as crew chief and driver from 2010-12 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where they claimed back-to-back championships in 2011 and 2012.

“I think mentally, it’s totally different and showing up ready to go,” Stenhouse said. “Looking at the 2011 and ’12 (Xfinity) seasons, our short tracks were really strong. And so he’s like, ‘Hey, just because it’s a short track doesn’t mean you can’t get it done there. We’ve just got to give you something capable of being able to get it done with.’ So that part of it, and then just looking at different things throughout the week, I feel like our meetings are going really well of really dissecting what needs to be better at each race track. And we’re doing a great job as a whole organization together looking at that.”

JTG Daugherty Racing has existed in its current form since 2009, but team co-owner Tad Geschickter has been a car owner in NASCAR dating back to 1995 in the Xfinity Series. In Cup, JTG has never finished higher than 13th in points, that mark coming in 2014 as a result of AJ Allmendinger’s Watkins Glen triumph that propelled him into the playoffs.

Stenhouse knows he’ll be in the postseason thanks to his Daytona 500 win. But he admits they’re targeting more.

RELATED: Check out Stenhouse’s driver page

“I think right now, what we’re doing at JTG Daugherty Racing is we’re trying to model something that I would say like a Furniture Row (Racing) did back when they were a single-car team,” Stenhouse said of the organization that won the 2017 championship with Martin Truex Jr. “Trying to get as many resources in the door as they can, utilize them the right way and then go perform on the race track. We’re trying to kind of do that at JTG Daugherty Racing right now.

“We got the best alliance we’ve ever had with Hendrick Motorsports and with Chevrolet, and we’re trying to just make the best of those situations. And so for me, as a driver, when you click off a win, no matter what, when it is, it always gives you a little bit more confidence showing back up to the race track, especially during that season. And then the guys giving me cars a lot more competitive than what we had last year, especially at those race tracks we struggled at — Phoenix and Richmond, Martinsville, places like that — it’s nice showing up.

“Even the road course (Circuit of The Americas), we were a lot more competitive than what we were there last year. And so little things like that give me more confidence, like, ‘Hey, I do still know what I’m doing. And I haven’t gotten worse.’ “

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials postponed Sunday’s Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway because of a forecast for steady, daylong rain.

The Würth 400, the 11th race of the Cup Series season, was rescheduled for a Monday start at noon ET. The 400-mile event will be broadcast live on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

RELATED: Starting lineup | What to Watch: Dover

Competition officials on Friday had shifted the scheduled start time one hour earlier because of the bleak forecast, posting a 1 p.m. ET target for Sunday’s go. But the prediction for heavy rainfall and a flood watch for the Delaware capital city forced the postponement.

Rain had also washed away Saturday’s Busch Light Pole Qualifying for the Cup Series and all of Friday’s scheduled on-track activity. The starting lineup was set according to the NASCAR Rule Book’s inclement weather procedures, putting Kyle Busch – last week’s winner at Talladega Superspeedway – in the No. 1 starting spot.

The decision marks the second consecutive year that Dover’s Cup Series date has been pushed to a Monday start by rain. Chase Elliott won last season’s delayed 400-miler, leading the final 53 laps to the checkered flag.

Martin Truex Jr. is a three-time Dover winner, and two of those triumphs at the 1-mile track have arrived on a Monday (2007, 2019). He’ll be going for a distinctive family sweep of the weekend after his younger brother, Ryan, broke through for his first NASCAR national-tour victory in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race.

LISTEN: Martin shares thoughts on Ryan’s win

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

DOVER, Del. — Cole Custer escaped the clutches of the “Monster Mile” a cool $100,000 richer on Saturday afternoon.

A seventh-place finish at Dover Motor Speedway netted Custer his second consecutive triumph in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Dash 4 Cash bonus program, backing up his success from a week ago at Talladega Superspeedway.

MORE: Race results | At-track photos: Dover

“It’s huge. I mean, winning $200,000 in the last two weeks is huge for our team and it’s a big accomplishment,” Custer said. “We’ve been solid the last few weeks and we’ve been starting to put it together. Obviously, we want more. We want to go win and I think we’re capable of that. It’s just a matter of having everything come together, but we’ll enjoy this.

“It’s awesome to have that bonus and it’s really cool that Xfinity does that and lets us race it out for $100,000. I mean, that’s pretty incredible.”

To score the extra cash, Custer had to best Sheldon Creed, Jeb Burton and pole-sitter Parker Kligerman. Creed made Custer sweat as the checkers neared, leading 17 laps while trying to stretch his fuel mileage before finally pitting at Lap 189 of 200. At Lap 101, Creed’s No. 2 Chevrolet went for a long slide through Turn 3 as the field somehow avoided him, the car spinning sideways after entering the corner in the middle of a three-wide sandwich with Justin Allgaier high and Sammy Smith low.

Ultimately, Creed rallied to finish 11th, the final car on the lead lap after the yellow flag he needed to cycle to the front of the field never flew.

“When we put tires on and freed it up, best race car I’ve ever had since I’ve been in Xfinity,” Creed told NASCAR.com. “Like, just drove good all day long. I thought we freed it up enough, and I was super good on the long run there. And yeah, that would have been really cool if the caution would have come out. With like 20 to go, they were saying we’re staying out. So I thought we were gonna run it all the way to the checkered. And I was ready to do that, but I guess we wouldn’t have made it on fuel.”

Burton, last week’s race winner at Talladega, finished 18th while Kligerman was credited with a last-place finish in 38th.

Kligerman’s efforts came to an early end at Lap 63 on Saturday. Despite starting on pole thanks to a washed-out and canceled qualifying, Kligerman backslid through the field during the early portions of Saturday’s event. The No. 48 Chevrolet was running just inside the top 20 and pushing high through the exit of Turn 2 when Xfinity Series debut driver Corey Heim contacted his left-rear, sending Kligerman hard nose-first into the inside wall.

MORE: Kligerman’s day ends early

“It hurts because of what was on the offer, the opportunity here today,” Kligerman told FS1. “We weren’t good. I think we were in that position because we were going backwards. We were struggling. But (crew chief) Patrick Donahue and everyone was going to work on this thing, and it seemed like one of those days where we were really gonna have to find a way to get better and keep working on our Spiked Coolers Camaro and go for this opportunity at $100,000 because I looked and none of our competitors are having that good of a day either. It wasn’t like they were lights out. So we could’ve worked on it and been there at the end and hopefully, we could’ve had a big day.

“And obviously in the points, this hurts a ton. But I just hate it because where we were hurting, the driver that got into us, like, you could see we’re struggling. Give me a corner. Give me a corner and we’ll gather it up, you can go by. Just wasn’t the case. We’ll be better next time. That’s the best thing you can do.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

Of all the places for Ryan Truex to turn in a career day, the 31-year-old led a dominant 124 of 200 laps at Dover Motor Speedway. He swept both stage wins and ultimately took the checkered flag by an impressive 4.82-second margin to claim his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in Saturday’s A-GAME 200. 

It was such a big day for the 31-year-old driver who has raced in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series – primarily part-time – for nine seasons and is scheduled to only make a handful of starts in 2023. Yet he parlayed this part-time opportunity driving the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota into a hugely sentimental victory at a special place – one that the Mayetta, N.J. native has claimed as his “home track.’’

RELATED: Race results | Dover weekend schedule

Just before steering his Toyota into Dover’s Victory Lane, he stopped and was greeted by his older brother, Martin Truex Jr. – the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion – who similarly earned his first victory in that series at Dover back in 2007.

“I’m just so thankful, all these fans, my team, they really stuck behind me,” said a smiling and emotional Truex, who becomes the 14th NASCAR Xfinity Series driver to claim his first win at Dover. “Most people didn’t believe in me, and I still did – my girlfriend, my family, my parents, my brother did. I’m just so thankful to be here. I felt like with 20 to go, I was just waiting for something to happen, just praying, please God keep everything straight and let’s get to the end of this. What a car, what an amazing Toyota Supra. I’m speechless.

“I thought I’d be more emotional right now, but when I crossed the flag, I couldn’t even talk on the radio and I’m not an emotional guy. This is for everyone that doubted me.”

JR Motorsports driver and defending race winner Josh Berry finished second to Truex, securing an impressive record at Dover as well. He’s finished either first or second in all three of his Xfinity Series starts at the “Monster Mile.”

“We made some good adjustments in the second half of the race, the pit crew executed well the last couple stops and had a good green-flag cycle and got up to second, but the 19 (Truex) was just too far out and it seemed like he was the best car all day,’’ Berry said, adding, “It’s a fun day. I love this race track. Hate we didn’t get the win, but it was a great rebound and great day for us.”

WATCH: Validation for Truex: ‘I belong here’

Berry’s JRM teammate, Justin Allgaier, was third followed by Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill and Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates John Hunter Nemechek and Sammy Smith. The third-place showing for Hill, who led 18 laps, keeps the 2023 three-race winner atop the championship standings by four points over Nemechek.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer finished sixth – good enough to earn the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash incentive award for the second straight week, claiming the final installment of the bonus for 2023. He also got the big money from series sponsor Xfinity at Talladega Superspeedway last week.

Custer topped the other three bonus-eligible drivers — Sheldon Creed (who led 41 laps and recovered from a spin to finish one lap down in 11th), Jeb Burton (last week’s Talladega winner and 18th place Saturday) and pole-starter Parker Kligerman (out early in a crash, 38th).

MORE: Custer double-dips in Dash 4 Cash

JR Motorsports drivers Brandon Jones and Sam Mayer were eighth and ninth, with 2021 series champion Daniel Hemric rounding out the top 10 on Saturday.

The afternoon, however, belonged to Truex, who made his Xfinity Series debut as an 18-year-old driving for Michael Waltrip in 2010 and has since made 73 assorted starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series as well.

And now he is a bonafide winner in one of NASCAR’s headline series.

“I belong here, and I just proved that,” said Truex, whose 124 laps out front Saturday were more than his previous career total (67) in 88 starts. “I’ve known it for a while and people around me have known it for a while. And now everyone in this garage area knows it. My goal is to drive a race car full-time next year and hopefully we can make it happen.”

The Xfinity Series’ next race is scheduled Saturday, May 13 at Darlington Raceway (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Post-race inspection was completed in the Xfinity Series garage without major issue. The No. 18 Toyota driven to sixth place by Sammy Smith was found with one unsecured lug nut.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

DOVER, Del. — Alex Bowman is out for at least the next three NASCAR Cup Series races after suffering a fractured vertebra in a sprint car crash Tuesday night in Iowa.

His absence from the No. 48 Chevrolet marks the second time this season a Hendrick Motorsports driver has missed time due to injury, with 2020 Cup champion Chase Elliott out for six weeks earlier this year after breaking his leg snowboarding. The key difference is that Bowman incurred his injury while participating in another form of motorsports during the midweek.

MORE: Dover schedule | At-track photos

Jeff Andrews, president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports, acknowledged the team is always evaluating its allowance of drivers to compete in races outside the NASCAR purview but doesn’t expect changes to its approach at this time.

“I think our message (to drivers) is, ‘be careful,’ ” Andrews said Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway. “It’s difficult because that’s something Alex has a passion for, something that he worked very hard to be better at, and we feel like it helped him over here in the Cup Series. Obviously, he’s having the best year of his career in a tough period. Temporary setback and we look for him to come back strong.”

Indeed, Bowman leads the circuit with a 10.3 average finish through 10 races. Josh Berry, who filled in for Elliott, will pilot the No. 48 car at Dover on Monday (12 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bowman’s crew chief Blake Harris, who previously called the shots for Michael McDowell at Front Row Motorsports, has already carried the No. 48 team through adversity this season, including a 60-point penalty assessed after the event at Richmond.

“I think this year so far, we’ve done a good job of just reacting with whatever has been thrown at us,” Harris said. “This will just be another thing that we look back on and we’ll react accordingly. We’ve got full support of Alex. We want him to get well. As soon as he’s healthy and ready to come back, we’ll plug him back in and keep digging.”

Kyle Larson, another of Bowman’s Hendrick teammates, owns the High Limit Sprint Car Series in which Bowman was competing Tuesday night. The duo flew to and from the track together, Larson said, adding that Bowman was in good spirits on the way back.

The 2021 champion, Larson cares deeply about dirt racing, particularly sprint car racing. Its importance to him has grown not only thanks to his success on the track but off it.

“I don’t just do it for fun. I don’t just do it for training. I also make a lot of money racing,” Larson said. “It’s more than that. It’s also a business for me. I make a good chunk of money racing, selling merchandise at the dirt tracks. I get to race in front of a lot of fans that might not get to see me at a race. So it’s all weighed. I weigh it all and I think there’s a lot of benefit that comes from it.”

MORE: What to Watch: Dover | Monday’s starting lineup

Tyler Reddick, driver of the No. 45 Toyota at 23XI Racing, grew up racing dirt. His appreciation for it offsets concerns of injuries, he explained.

“There’s risk in anything you do, right? So the big thing is make sure you’re having fun while you do this,” Reddick said. “You can’t do it forever. Surely, you can race a lot longer than you can do other things. But it’s all about having fun. I completely understand. I love dirt racing. I wish I could do more of it and will be doing more of it in the future. But it’s just part of it.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was also competing Tuesday in the same event where Bowman was injured. In the midst of his own strong season, Stenhouse feels sharper in his Cup efforts thanks to his time at the dirt track.

“As a race car driver, I feel like the more you’re in a race car, the better you are,” Stenhouse said. “I look back in my career and I quit racing sprint cars as soon as I started Cup, and that was at a request from Jack (Roush, team owner of RFK Racing) back then. And I felt like I kind of lost a little of an edge that I had being in a sprint car probably 30 or 40 times a year back then when I was in the (Xfinity) Series. For me, I feel like I just stay a lot more sharp.”

RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski deals with both sides of the coin as both a driver and team co-owner — run elsewhere and sharpen up, but risk the chance of getting hurt.

“It’s a double-edged sword. We can’t live in bubble wrap,” Keselowski said. “And also, we’ve got to do everything we can to to make sure we’re here for our team and for our partners and fans. So there’s not a perfect answer to anything. There’s a lot of case-by-case situations and of course a lot of armchair quarterbacking to after things have already happened. So I don’t know if there’s one simple solution.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Editor’s note: Sunday’s race at Dover Motor Speedway has been postponed to Monday, due to forecasted inclement weather throughout the day. 

Kyle Busch will start first in Monday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway after rain scrapped Saturday’s Busch Light Pole Qualifying session.

The same shower that ended Cup Series practice early brought a cancellation to qualifying, forcing competition officials to set the starting lineup by the NASCAR Rule Book. That elevated Busch’s No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to the No. 1 starting spot for Monday’s Würth 400 (noon ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I’ll take it – starting up front, track position race, number one pit box – that’s super good to have here at Dover,’’ said Busch, whose Chevy was only 29th fastest in Saturday’s practice.

RELATED: Monday’s starting lineup | Updated weekend schedule

Cup Series points leader Christopher Bell will start second in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The next two rows will be occupied by a quartet of Ford drivers — Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Chase Briscoe in that order.

Keselowski was fastest overall in the dual practice sessions that preceded qualifying. His top lap was 158.660 mph on the 1-mile track in the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford.

Practice was marked by three single-car incidents, the most significant involving Austin Dillon’s No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Dillon lost control entering the third turn and backed into the outside retaining wall. He was unhurt in the crash and will start Monday’s 400-miler in a reserve car.

WATCH: Dillon crunches No. 3 Chevy in practice

Two other solo spins did not result in contact but occurred in nearly the same area through Turns 3 and 4. Daniel Suárez went for a prolonged slide in his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, and Erik Jones’ No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Chevy also skidded through the same corner.

The second session was halted nearly three minutes short by light rain.

Contributing: Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Posted on by Staff Report

Bobby Labonte, the first NASCAR Cup Series champion of the 2000s after holding off runner-up Dale Earnhardt for the 2000 crown, is the latest addition to NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers list.

The Corpus Christi, Texas, native won 21 times in the Cup Series, riding a four-win season to his first premier series title in 2000 just a season removed from a career-high five victories and runner-up standings finish to Dale Jarrett.

RELATED: See who’s on NASCAR 75 team | More on NASCAR 75

Labonte, a 2020 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, won multiple races in a season six different times (1995, ’98, ’99, ’00, ’01, ’03) as one of the mainstays of the series across full-time or near-full-time seasons spanning from 1993 to 2013, with an additional three seasons of primarily superspeedway racing tacked on at the end through 2016.

The Texan’s first victory came behind the wheel of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet in the 1995 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, adding more crown jewel victories later in his career with a Brickyard 400 win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Southern 500 win at Darlington Raceway during his championship run. His final win came in the final race of 2003, when he led only the final lap in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

While all of his Cup wins came with JGR, Labonte also had the honor of driving the famous No. 43 Richard Petty-owned ride and later on the No. 47 JTG Daughterty Racing car during his final full-time seasons.

A success in all three of NASCAR’s national series, Labonte was the first of six drivers to win both an Xfinity Series and premier series championship, with an Xfinity title in 1991 complementing his Cup trophy. At the time of his 2020 induction, Labonte was also one of 41 drivers in history to win a race in all three national series, collecting 10 Xfinity victories and finally cracking through in the Craftsman Truck Series for his first win there in 2005 at Martinsville Speedway.

RELATED: Bobby Labonte through the years

Labonte’s career was intricately tied to older brother Terry, a Cup Series legend and Hall of Famer in his own right — and an original member of this list. The two combined for three Cup Series titles, becoming the first pair of brothers to each own a premier series title, an accomplishment since earned by the Busch brothers, Kurt and Kyle.