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The 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season has been a year of many firsts for Nick Sanchez.
For the 22-year-old rookie, the opportunity to compete for a title in this year’s Truck Series Playoffs is another first to add to the list, starting with this Friday’s Round of 10 opener at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (9 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: View Sanchez’s career stats | Meet the 2023 Truck Series playoff field
But the allure of simply competing in his inaugural postseason isn’t solely what the No. 2 Chevrolet driver for Rev Racing has in mind. For Sanchez, the possibility of winning could feasibly be in the cards. And the idea of finding Victory Lane for the first time in his Truck Series career — and during a title hunt, no less — would certainly cross another first off the list.
“I think that would be amazing. Obviously, being close many times this year, but I feel like if there is a time to get it done, it’s definitely now, and I know that win would be multiplied times 10 because I’d advance to the next round,” Sanchez said Tuesday via teleconference during playoff media day. “If it’s in the Round of 8, I’d go to the championship round, so I think it’s a really unique format, but I think that would be amazing to hopefully get a win here in the playoffs and compete for a championship in Phoenix.”
After Rev Racing announced its expansion into the national series — with Sanchez as pilot of its No. 2 entry — the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program participant wasted no time making his appearance known in the Truck Series. Sanchez not only claimed the pole in his first-ever Truck Series start at Daytona International Speedway to open the 2023 campaign but amassed four pole awards during the regular season, most in the entire circuit.
Of course, speed was always there for the former ARCA Menards Series standout. To go along with four career wins, Sanchez additionally netted 18 top-five and 31 top-10 finishes while competing in the series. A banner 2022 — in which Sanchez compiled three wins, nine top fives and 16 top 10s — eventually culminated with the driver earning an ARCA championship.
Fast forward almost a full calendar year later and Sanchez finds similar speed, headlined by two top-five and eight top-10 finishes during the regular season. And while he doesn’t incorporate any strategy from that 2022 title year to his chances at a Truck championship in 2023, he does understand where he must be cognizant.
“I think the area that I need to improve on is just execution from start to finish in a race,” Sanchez said. “Usually, we qualify very amazing, top three most of the time, but I feel like you kinda gotta keep that up regardless of how the race plays out or strategy. You have to find a way to be there at the end, so I think that’s gonna be the emphasis I’m gonna put on these next seven races, honestly. Just kind of inverting my race, finishing where I started, so I think that’s the area as a driver I want to improve on.
“I think also aggression. I think, as a rookie, I don’t want to say I’ve been pushed around a little bit, but I’ve definitely been used up a good bit, and part of that is just me trying to be cautious knowing my points position, but I feel like, at least where I am now, it’s the playoffs. I have nothing to lose. So, I think just ramp that aggression up a little bit and start making more aggressive moves to hold position or advance position.”
For Sanchez, the goal of executing through continued speed and increased aggression could be the remedy to not only finding Victory Lane for the first time but outlasting the cream of the Truck Series crop once the Championship 4 race in Phoenix rolls around. Sanchez’s 231 laps led during the regular season ranked third among the entire Truck Series field, and while it was trumped by regular-season champion Corey Heim (408), Sanchez believes he has what it takes to battle with him and other steady contenders.
“It is a very strong field from top to bottom,” Sanchez said. “Week by week, you really don’t know who’s gonna be in Victory Lane, but I think, as far as raw speed goes, I would put us up there right with the 11 (Heim), week-by-week, as the fastest trucks in qualifying and just the fastest on speed, and I think part of what you see in that is truck. I have a really fast truck, but I think once you get to the race, sometimes, I don’t necessarily know right from wrong. Usually, I’ve qualified on pole a good bit. I go out, get a lead and then I lose it in restart, and that’s the first time I’ve experienced dirty air.
“Knowing that I have a fast truck, I just need to put a big emphasis on closing out races, and I think, once me and my team can accomplish that, I feel like we’re gonna be at the top echelon of the field as far as for a shot to win and a shot at the title.”
MORE: 2023 Truck Series schedule
As postseason play gets underway, Sanchez will look to continue growing as a young driver looking to cement his place in the Truck Series. But above all else, the No. 2 driver will look to keep it simple. There is momentum to build around with a strong regular season behind him, after all.
“I think my expectation for the rest of the season is just to compete for wins and ultimately get to Phoenix, but I feel like the rest of the season, I want to treat every race as its own season,” Sanchez said. “Not really worried about points too much, not really worried about the end goal of Phoenix. Just living the moment and taking it race-by-race, but I think for me, at this point, just competing for wins. That’s the only thing that I haven’t done this year, win. So, I feel like, race-by-race, I just wanna put myself in position at the end to be there and advance.”
And perhaps that position will help check off another first or two.
When 23XI Racing launched its own pit-crew program this season, team president Steve Lauletta said there was bound to be a learning curve. The organization had used over-the-wall crews contracted through fellow Toyota team Joe Gibbs Racing for its first two seasons, but forged its own pit-road path ahead of the 2023 campaign.
That route hasn’t been without hitches, as evidenced by a crucial late-race miscue last weekend at Michigan that derailed a strong victory bid by its No. 45 team and driver Tyler Reddick. Pit-road issues in preceding weeks at Richmond and Nashville had also hurt the overall results for 23XI’s No. 23 team and playoff hopeful Bubba Wallace.
With three weeks remaining until the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin, Lauletta said that pit-stop performance remained a topic under evaluation.
“Of course, we’re always looking at that,” Lauletta told NASCAR.com by phone Wednesday afternoon. “We’re looking at every aspect of what happens on the weekend, and it’s been unfortunate that we’ve had a number of execution issues, whether on pit lane or on the race track. You know, it hasn’t been one thing consistently, but the consistency has been, we show up with really fast race cars and haven’t gotten to the finish and earned the finishes that we deserve, and so we’re always working on how to fix those things.”
23XI Racing aims to get back on track this weekend in Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM, NBC Sports App) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. Reddick is the defending race winner, having prevailed last year at Indy in his final season with Richard Childress Racing, and 23XI will field a third entry for Japanese road-racing ace Kamui Kobayashi.
RELATED: Weekend schedule: Indy | Reddick: ‘It was gonna be game over’
Reddick said after the Michigan miscue, “We’ve definitely got to get better there. We’ve got to improve.” Those remarks came a day after the race when Reddick issued a fiery rant over the team’s radio communications after an improperly fastened wheel forced the No. 45 group to make a lengthy extra stop.
Lauletta said he shared the frustration but also suggested that the new pit-road program is still growing in its debut season.
“You know, this is the first year that we’ve had our own pit crews at 23XI versus what we did the first two years in our alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, so we also have to give ourselves a little bit of runway that it’s not an overnight solution to any problem, and when you start something from scratch, there’s going to be some bumps in the road,” Lauletta said. “And so we’re doing our best to limit those. Unfortunately, they’ve come up in times when we’ve been in position to win races. It’s still frustrating if it’s meaning you’re going from a 15th-place finish to a 25th-place finish, but when you’re in position to have a really, really great day, that’s when we’ve got to make sure we’re doing everything we can to address any sort of issues.”
Reddick had virtually clinched a playoff spot with his victory earlier this season at Circuit of The Americas, and Wallace has built a cushion in a quest for his first postseason berth — 58 points above the provisional elimination line. Having the 23XI teammates both reach the 16-driver playoff field was a preseason objective, Lauletta said, but that intention dates back to last year when the team expanded to a two-car operation with former Cup Series champion Kurt Busch joining the fold.
“I mean, it was a goal we set for last season, to be honest, in our second year with adding Kurt in the 45,” Lauletta said, mentioning Busch, who made 20 starts in the No. 45 last year before a concussion ended his season. “We got halfway there, and then turned the reins over to Bubba for the owners’ championship and won another race and made the Round of 8. So we felt like going into this year, getting both the 45 and the 23 into the playoffs was a goal that we should focus on. Hopefully, we’ve got three weeks to make the goal a reality and accomplish that and then put our head down for 10 strong weeks in the playoffs.”
Chris Buescher’s win last week at Michigan International Speedway did more than just formally lock the Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver into the postseason field — it officially clinched spots for six other drivers as well.
With three races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, 12 playoff spots are locked up. Those 12 drivers are Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Buescher, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
With the series heading to Indianapolis for its first of two consecutive road-course races, here’s a look at the playoff-clinching scenarios.
Can clinch via points
If there is a repeat winner or a win by a driver who cannot advance to the playoffs, the following drivers could clinch by being 111 points above the third winless driver in the standings. The same point requirements listed below would hold true if a new win comes from among Kevin Harvick or Brad Keselowski.
• Kevin Harvick: Would clinch with 44 points
• Brad Keselowski: Would clinch with 54 points
Can clinch via win
The following drivers would clinch on their win alone:
• Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs, Michael McDowell, Daniel Suarez, AJ Allmendinger, Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott, Justin Haley, Aric Almirola, Ryan Preece, Corey LaJoie, Todd Gilliland, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon, Harrison Burton, Chase Briscoe, Ty Dillon
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES
More spots are up for grabs in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which still has five regular-season races remaining and nine available playoff spots. Here’s a look ahead of the series’ road-course race at Indianapolis.
Already clinched: John Hunter Nemechek, Austin Hill, Cole Custer
Possible to Clinch:
• Justin Allgaier (1 Win, 777 Points): With a win, he would clinch a playoff spot on wins. If John Hunter Nemechek, Austin Hill, Cole Custer, Sam Mayer, Chandler Smith or Sammy Smith wins, he would clinch regardless of finish. If Josh Berry, Daniel Hemric, Riley Herbst, Sheldon Creed, Parker Kligerman or Jeb Burton wins, he would clinch with 36 points. If Brandon Jones wins, he would clinch with 11 points. If Brett Moffitt wins, he would clinch regardless of finish.
• Sam Mayer (1 Win, 630 Points): With a win, he would clinch a playoff spot on wins.
• Chandler Smith (1 Win, 612 Points): With a win, he would clinch a playoff spot on wins.
• Sammy Smith (1 Win, 558 Points): With a win, he would clinch a playoff spot on wins.
• Jeb Burton (1 Win, 500 Points): With a win, he would clinch a playoff spot on wins.
Noah Gragson has asked to be released from his contract with Legacy Motor Club, the team announced Thursday morning.
Gragson was placed under indefinite suspension by NASCAR on Saturday for violating the member conduct section of the NASCAR Rule Book. The league suspension followed one set forth by Legacy Motor Club earlier that morning for “actions that do not represent the values of our team.”
MORE: Details on Gragson’s suspension | Cup schedule
“I have asked Legacy Motor Club to release me from my contract so that I can take time to work through the NASCAR reinstatement process,” Gragson said in a Thursday statement. “I love racing, and I am looking forward to a second chance to compete for wins at the highest level of NASCAR — and most importantly, make my family, my team and the fans proud of me once again.”
— LEGACY MOTOR CLUB (@LegacyMotorclub) August 10, 2023
Mike Rockenfeller, a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, is set to replace Gragson in each of the next two NASCAR Cup Series races in the team’s No. 42 Chevrolet. Rockenfeller, who has made two Cup Series starts, competed in this year’s Le Mans festivities as a co-pilot with Jimmie Johnson and Jenson Button in NASCAR’s Garage 56 efforts.
In 21 starts prior to his departure, Gragson ranked 33rd in the series standings in his rookie season. He missed one race (Sonoma) earlier this year because of concussion-like symptoms.
MARNE, Mich. — Bubba Pollard has won nearly every Super Late Model crown jewel during his prestigious career.
With victories in the Oxford 250, All American 400, Florida Governor’s Cup, Canadian Short Track Nationals and SpeedFest 200 among many others to his name, Pollard arrived at Berlin Raceway this week with the goal off checking off another big race, the Battle at Berlin 250.
A perfect strategy for Pollard allowed him to solidify excellent track position during the closing laps of Wednesday night’s Battle at Berlin. He held off a stacked field consisting of Chase Elliott, William Byron, Josh Berry and others for a special victory at what Pollard considers one of his favorite tracks.
“I enjoy this place,” Pollard said. “Everyone here is great, and we just love coming here and racing. The track is very racy, you can move around, and you need to have patience. To outrun the caliber of guys here [on Wednesday] is just awesome and feels so good.”
This one meant a lot for @bubbapollard26 @BerlinRaceway | @FloRacing pic.twitter.com/awjDT4OfVv
— NASCAR Roots (@NASCARRoots) August 10, 2023
Since he first started racing at Berlin during the 2010s, Pollard had been eager to claim a win in the facility’s premier endurance event.
Pollard had excelled in the Battle at Berlin nearly every year he entered, but a victory eluded him every time. He finished runner-up to Erik Jones in 2016 after leading 58 laps before once again coming up short the following year after getting passed late by Brian Campbell.
The predominant issue that repeatedly hindered Pollard in the Battle at Berlin was mastering tire conservation. With everyone conserving their equipment in the first half, Pollard said winning this race always came down to who could outsmart the field by saving more tire.
Pollard felt confident with the plan he and his team devised for 2023. Their goal was to gain as much track position as possible up until Lap 180, where they would then utilize a fresh set to make a final push for the win.
By the time Pollard reached his target lap, he had worked his way to the lead, leaving him with fresh tires and clean air after the ensuing pit stop. Despite this, Pollard still had one more obstacle to overcome: defending Battle at Berlin winner Evan Shotko, who took control of the lead with fewer than 50 to go.
Pollard was not concerned about temporarily settling into second. With Shotko pushing more than him, Pollard simply waited for the last competition yellow to come out and beat him on the restart.
“I knew we were going to get another caution,” Pollard said. “The competition cautions falling every 50 consecutive laps, and with the engine package [Shotko] had, we were going to fire off better. It all worked out, and we had such a great car tonight.”
Pollard did indeed take the lead from Shotko on the restart just as he envisioned. As Pollard pulled away, Shotko was left to deal with Elliott, who made a late pass to relegate the defending Berlin track champion to third in the running order.
A dejected Shotko admitted there was more he could have done in the pits and on track to give himself a better chance against Pollard. He added that the heartbreak from Wednesday gives him plenty of material to grow as a driver at Berlin and at other tracks across the country.
“We’re pretty bummed out,” Shotko said. “These are very experienced teams we’re racing with, and you have to lose some of these before you win them. We got lucky with our win last year, but there’s a lot of learning to do still.”
Although he was disappointed to not triumph in front of the home crowd, Shotko took some solace in just how strong he was compared to the high caliber drivers in the Battle at Berlin field.
At one point in the closing stages, Shotko had Pollard, Elliott, Berry, Byron and Jones all in his rearview mirror. Such a scenario was something Shotko had long dreamed about dating back to when he used to watch weekly races at Berlin as a child.
The performance Shotko put together Wednesday highlighted the strides he has made with his family-owned program in just the past few years. For Shotko, being surrounded by so many drivers who compete in the NASCAR Cup Series comes with both a sense of pride and motivation.
“It’s pretty unbelievable,” Shotko said. “I’m a fortunate young man who has a great group of people behind me. It’s really amazing to just be standing in between Chase Elliott and Josh Berry.”
Shotko also stressed that Pollard was simply better when it came time to decide who would win the Battle at Berlin. He knew fending off Pollard would be a difficult challenge given the veteran’s past success at so many different tracks.
After passing Shotko, Pollard spent the final laps silently praying that no late race caution would bunch the field up and that oil pressure issues he dealt with all night would not crescendo into a blown engine. No matter the circumstances, Pollard was set on finishing the Battle at Berlin in the first position.
While Pollard has visited Victory Lane at Berlin several times before, finally doing so in the track’s longest race is something he plans to cherish for a long time.
“This one is special because we’ve been trying for so many years,” Pollard said. “All of them are special, because you never know when the last one is going to be. We’ve been coming here a lot of years and we love everything about this place.”
Pollard still has plenty of chapters left to write in his Super Late Model career after the Battle at Berlin. The main one being his quest for that elusive first victory in the Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway, where he is set to make his 18th attempt later this year.
Another chapter Pollard wants to write is a second consecutive Battle at Berlin victory in 2024.
Elliott headlined the NASCAR Cup Series regulars in the Battle at Berlin with his second-place finish. Berry came home in the fourth position with local regular Kyle Crump completing the top five.
Byron ended up settling in the seventh position while Jones came home 11th after fading on the last run.
The No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series was penalized after officials confiscated its front splitter during pre-race inspection at Michigan International Speedway, the sanctioning body announced Wednesday.
Crew chief Jonathan Toney was fined $25,000 and the team, along with driver Cole Custer, were docked 20 owners and drivers points, respectively. Five playoff points will also be deducted from their postseason totals.
MORE: Xfinity standings | Indianapolis schedule
The infractions were determined after further inspection of the team’s splitter at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina. Officials cited Sections 14.4.3.C&H in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Rule Book. Section C states that “except as specified, splitters must be used exactly as supplied from the manufacturer,” with requirements and reference dimensions provided in an attached drawing. Section H states that “rounding of any edges of the splitter will not be permitted.”
With the penalty, Custer remains fourth in the regular-season standings but falls 106 points behind series leader John Hunter Nemechek.
Custer has won two races this season (Portland and Chicago) in his return to Xfinity after spending three full-time seasons in the Cup Series. The 25-year-old won Rookie of the Year in the Cup Series in 2020. His return to Xfinity competition is highlighted by 12 career wins in the series, seven of which came during the 2019 season.
The Xfinity Series is back in action at the Indianapolis Road Course for the Pennzoil 150 presented by Advance Auto Parts on Saturday (5:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Front Row Motorsports revealed its 2024 NASCAR Cup Series driver lineup on Wednesday with Michael McDowell returning for his seventh full-time season for the Bob Jenkins-owned team. Joining McDowell will be Todd Gilliland, who currently is sharing the team’s second car with Zane Smith.
RELATED: Indianapolis schedule | Cup standings
Smith, the 2022 Craftsman Truck Series champion, is exploring opportunities in NASCAR’s other national series, including remaining at FRM in 2024. Front Row will compete in the Truck Series in 2024 with plans for that program expected to be announced in the weeks to come.
“Both Michael and Todd are like family to me,” Jenkins said in a team release. “They have been determined to make the team better each season and they just keep fighting to do that. I’m proud of both and now we will be focused on the remainder of 2023 and prepare for 2024 to be even better.”
McDowell, 38, won the 2021 Daytona 500 while driving the No. 34 Ford for Front Row, accounting for the 16-year veteran’s only Cup Series victory. McDowell set career highs last season with 12 top-10 finishes and an average finish of 16.7.
This season, McDowell is 17th in the standings, just three points behind Ty Gibbs for the final playoff spot. Three regular-season races remain, including Sunday’s contest from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Gilliland has three top-10 finishes in 23 races this season in the No. 38 Ford. His best finish was eighth place at the Bristol Dirt Race. Gilliland has three career wins in the Craftsman Truck Series, including one for Front Row in 2021 at Circuit of The Americas.
Smith has one top-10 finish in six Cup races this season, and that was a 10th-place finish in the No. 38 Ford at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Smith has nine victories in the Truck Series, including two this year, and is locked into this year’s Truck playoffs, which get underway Friday night at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (9 ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).
Tyler Reddick’s blast over the team radio near the end of Monday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Michigan International Speedway marked an overflow of frustration after a wayward late-race pit stop cost him an opportunity for his second victory of the season. Reddick nearly spun out with a loose right-rear wheel less than a lap after the pit-road gaffe from his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota crew, and he dropped to a 30th-place finish after a lengthy additional stop to right the wrong.
Tuesday, Reddick’s tone was far less amplified, given a day to reflect on how his team’s effort in the FireKeepers Casino 400 went. But with just three races left before the Cup Series Playoffs begin, the 27-year-old driver reiterated that the team’s execution needed cleaning up.
“Yeah, we’ve definitely got to get better there. We’ve got to improve,” Reddick told NASCAR.com by phone, some 24-odd hours after the checkered flag fell at the 2-mile track. “It’s just tough when that’s a mistake that we’ve made before, in the same situation, honestly. Not the last stop of the race, for sure, but in the lead, cycling back to the lead. Certainly, it’s just, it’s tough to … we’ve just got to learn from our mistakes. We can’t afford to repeat them.”
Reddick led seven laps and spent the most time out front in terms of the clock; he was scored first when rain forced a Sunday stoppage on Lap 75 of 200, leaving him in the lead for a 19-plus-hour red flag before the race resumed Monday afternoon.
RELATED: Buescher prevails at Michigan | Cup Series standings
When a long green-flag stretch ended the race, Reddick was in prime position to contend. He was on the same pit strategy as eventual winner Chris Buescher, and both drivers made their final scheduled stops with 43 laps to go. The No. 45 Toyota required less gas during its service, allowing Reddick to leave the pits ahead of Buescher’s No. 17 RFK Racing Ford.
“Yeah, we were gone. It was over. I can say that with confidence,” Reddick said with a laugh, contemplating what might have been. “We ran behind them the whole time, and we were just waiting for the pit sequence. We didn’t need as much fuel, we knew we were going to be in front of them, and we were definitely better than he was. It was gonna be game over.”
The hitch was a hesitation by the No. 45 crew on the right-side tire change, specifically the right-rear wheel, which wasn’t fully fastened before Reddick returned to the race. As he got up to speed, Reddick’s car pitched sideways through Turns 3 and 4, and the wheel nearly dislodged before he limped back to pit road. The subsequent stop lasted more than a minute, and Reddick lost three laps before the checkered flag waved.
Reddick called the miscue “unacceptable” on the team scanner as he lashed out in the waning laps that followed at Michigan. His teammate, Bubba Wallace, had experienced similar issues in recent weeks, with pit-road gremlins that hurt his finishes at Nashville and Richmond.
Drivers and crews have to be perfect to have a shot to win. pic.twitter.com/5vin55tVDv
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 8, 2023
There was some consolation, Reddick said, to be found in the speed that his 23XI Racing team has shown to offset any issues that crop up. And Reddick said he wasn’t blameless in his assessment of the team’s overall performance.
“We’ve unfortunately had a lot of things unplanned happen this year,” Reddick said. “A lot of things have not went our way this year. We’ve made a lot of mistakes. I feel like we’ve learned from a lot of them, and we just have to learn from them because, again, we’ve made so many. We just can’t afford to repeat them. I mean, we’ve run through the majority of our season and still can just barely count on one hand the amount of races that went mistake-free, and that falls on me, too. I’ve made some pretty bad mistakes the last couple of weeks as well inside the car that have cost us wins as well, and it’s just frustrating for sure to see them get away.
“But at the same time, is it is cool to see the amount of pace that we have, knowing that if we just … it’s kind of nice to just know that we don’t have to be operating at 105 percent to win races anymore. It’s just about executing.”
A noticeable change for Chase Elliott during the 2023 season has been his commitment to competing in more Super Late Model events.
With four starts already under his belt, Elliott is teaming up with his long time Super Late Model crew chief Ricky Turner once again for Wednesday’s Battle at Berlin 250 at Berlin Raceway.
Elliott has been working hard with Turner to match the pace of the best teams and drivers in the Super Late Model discipline. Although they are still making progress, Elliott is eager to see how fast his black No. 9 Chevrolet is when it takes the green flag on Wednesday.
“I have run more [Super Late Model races] this year than I have in the past,” Elliott said. “We have been working at it much like the [NASCAR Cup Series] side. We’re just trying to get better and trying to get some momentum on that side of things too, so I’m looking forward to going to Berlin.”
RELATED: Everything to know about the Battle at Berlin 250
It was through Super Late Models that the motorsports industry got their first glimpse at the talent Elliott possessed.
At 14 years old, Elliott was already starting to prove himself against established Super Late Model veterans with wins at tracks like Hickory Motor Speedway and Lanier Raceplex. The 2010 season would see Elliott earn his first crown jewel triumph, a victory in the physically and mentally taxing Winchester 400.
Elliott built on the confidence he obtained from winning the Winchester 400 by winning the Snowflake 100 in December of that year, which is the Pro Late Model support race to the prestigious Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway.
One year later, Elliott was a Snowball Derby champion, having earned that honor with a last-lap pass on D.J. VanderLey.
Elliott continued adding to his Super Late Model win total in the 2010s while simultaneously progressing through the NASCAR developmental ladder. Among his accomplishments were two more victories in the Snowflake 100, an All-American 400 win at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway and his second Snowball Derby triumph in 2015.
A full-time schedule in the NASCAR Cup Series starting in 2016 forced Elliott to take a step back from Super Late Model competition. As Elliott racked up accolades in the Cup Series that included a championship in 2020, Elliott patiently waited for the right time and opportunity to get back into the discipline that defined his early years as a driver.
Everything aligned in 2023 for Elliott to climb back into a Super Late Model more regularly with Turner, who was instrumental in molding a young Elliott into one of the best Cup Series drivers today. The duo has yet to win since teaming back up, but their confidence has grown with each passing race.
Elliott is optimistic the knowledge obtained from his first four Super Late Model starts this year will finally pay off with a trophy as he heads to Berlin for the first time since 2015.
RELATED: Watch the Battle at Berlin 250 on FloRacing
Back when Berlin’s endurance event was known as the Rowdy 251, Elliott never finished outside the top-five in three appearances and tallied two runner-up finishes, both of which were to Kyle Busch. He returned to the facility in 2015 for the Battle at Berlin 251, but once again had to settle for fourth while a young Erik Jones brought home a checkered flag.
With Jones one of many noteworthy names on the Battle at Berlin 250 entry list alongside William Byron, Josh Berry, Carson Hocevar and others, Wednesday presents a healthy challenge for Elliott as he goes up against familiar faces and the local heroes that make Berlin’s weekly racing so vibrant.
The festive atmosphere prevalent at Berlin is one reason why Elliott chose to run the facility’s longest event of the season. He hopes to entertain a packed house on Wednesday by parking his car in Berlin’s Victory Lane and grabbing a $30,000 race-winning paycheck.
“[Berlin] has a lot of support from the local community,” Elliott said. “There are always great crowds and they put up a nice purse too, which in the asphalt world is a big deal. It’s important for the racers to support these shows that put up a lot of money to win, because it doesn’t happen all the time.”
Super Late Model racing has always been a vital part of Elliott’s identity as a driver. Although it’s been nearly eight years since his last Super Late Model win, Elliott is ready to add onto his successful legacy in the discipline that started when he was just a teenager.