Posted on by Zack Albert

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Crew chief Greg Ives said Saturday that he was hopeful for Alex Bowman’s quick return to the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet after sitting out this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race with concussion symptoms.

Ives, in his final season atop the No. 48 pit box, said he was optimistic Bowman could be back behind the wheel for the Oct. 9 event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course. Xfinity Series regular Noah Gragson is set to fill in for Sunday’s YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM) at Talladega Superspeedway.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | Playoff standings

“I feel like, you know, he’s determined to be back. He wants to come and finish the season off strong,” Ives said Saturday before Cup Series qualifying. “We had a good month, good momentum going in the first round and have a little setback here. But I feel like he’s gonna do everything he can to make sure he’s back. And right now, that’s 100% my goal for him is to be at the Roval.”

Bowman and his team announced Thursday that he would sit out at Talladega, and NASCAR officials confirmed the 29-year-old driver was granted a medical waiver to retain his playoff eligibility. His 29th-place finish at Texas following a wreck and his Talladega absence will place him in a virtual must-win spot to advance at Charlotte’s Roval.

MORE: Gragson to fill in for Bowman at Talladega

Ives said he talked Friday with NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller and other competition officials to discuss safety issues, particularly driver compartment security and rigidity concerns with the rear of the Next Gen car that debuted this year. Officials plan to test a revised rear clip and bumper area at an Ohio crash-test facility Wednesday; if it performs as expected, changes could be implemented for 2023.

Ives said he hopes to be a conduit for positive change in that area.

“Ultimately, I said I was gonna help improve it, and you’ve got to act on those words,” Ives said. “And so, I reached out to Scott Miller, and not only through the process of the driver change but I wanted to just kind of go over a few things that potentially maybe could help or what I saw or experienced with the car, those type of things and just have that dialogue open. And ultimately, that’s the number one thing is when you’re trying to attack a problem, you want allies to help you with it. And I want to be one of those guys.”

In the interim, the No. 48 team is prepping for a weekend with Gragson, a part-timer on the Cup Series side but the current title favorite in the Xfinity Series, riding a historic four-race win streak in his bid for that circuit’s championship. Gragson has made 13 Cup Series starts this season, splitting time between Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 Chevrolet and Beard Motorsports’ No. 62 Chevy. His last time out at a superspeedway, Gragson placed a career-best fifth for the family-owned Beard operation.

After qualifying seventh for Sunday’s 500-miler, Gragson described a “kind of chaotic last 48 hours” as he adjusted to his substitute role with a new team. Ives said from his point of view, Gragson has adapted in a hurry, and that he’ll try to gather as many points as possible for the No. 48’s bid for a team owners’ title.

“I mean, he was quickly to the shop, and we were able to go through our driver debrief and everything with him and try to understand what he needed inside the race car,” Ives said, “but I don’t care if you’re a 5-year-old go-kart racer or a 50-year-old race car driver, a veteran, you’re ready for these moments whenever they arise and ultimately that’s what a true competitor is. They’re ready for the moment. They may have the nerves, but they’re not going to show it.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Christopher Bell topped the leaderboard in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series Busch Light Pole Award Qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway at 180.591 mph in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Right behind him on the charts was Kyle Larson in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at 180.516 mph. They’ll make up the front row in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 Round of 12 playoff race (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Qualifying results | Talladega odds

Rounding out the top five were Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 JGR Toyota, Aric Almirola in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and Chase Briscoe in the No. 14 SHR Ford.

Ty Gibbs’ No. 23 Toyota started smoking after his first lap on the 2.66-mile high banks, with the team looking into a possible power steering issue. He elected not to make his Round 2 lap and will start 10th.

“I don’t really know what the smoke was there, but hopefully it goes away. I feel like we’re really fast,” Gibbs told NBC Sports after his run.

No. 8 Richard Childress Racing driver Tyler Reddick also damaged the splitter of his Chevrolet after an incident on pit road. The three-time 2022 winner was unable to slow coming to his pit stall and slammed into the retaining wall. He’ll start eighth after turning a circuit at a clip of 179.366 mph.

RELATED: Talladega 101 | Fantasy preview | Paint schemes

“I’ve never screwed that up that bad before … I went to the brakes and it was soft, I should’ve pumped them up a few times coming down pit road. I just screwed that up,” Reddick said. “I’m really glad it was not worse.”

Noah Gragson, filling in for Alex Bowman in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, will start seventh after making a lap at 179.474 mph.

Next weekend’s Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval will trim the playoff field to eight after Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Chase Briscoe is used to proving people wrong. He’s done that most of his career.

So while most might be surprised that he advanced to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Briscoe is simply enjoying the ride through his first postseason excursion at the sport’s top level.

“I love being in this position truthfully where everybody writes us off,” Briscoe told NASCAR.com on Friday. “You know, I’ve been on the other side of it in the Xfinity Series where you’re the championship favorite, and it’s not near as fun. It’s a lot more pressure, I feel like. So for me, I like being in the situation that we’re in where everybody writes us off. They don’t think they even have to worry about us. You know, they’re all counting us out before we even go to the race track. And you can just go there with no pressure and try to prove them wrong.”

MORE: Cup playoff standings | Talladega schedule

That part has seemingly become habit. When others doubted his potential to advance through the stock-car racing ladder, Briscoe’s perseverance won out, carrying him through ARCA, Camping World Trucks and Xfinity to his dream opportunity in Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 14 Ford.

“For me, it’s kind of been like that my whole career, you know?” Briscoe said. “Nobody expected me to ever get to this point. Nobody expected I’d make it into the Truck Series. And, you know, we’ve just scratched and clawed and never gave up and it’s kind of the same.”

In 2020, Briscoe was a serious title favorite in the Xfinity Series, rattling off nine wins and qualifying for the Championship 4. But in the season finale at Phoenix, Briscoe finished ninth, last of the playoff drivers, as Austin Cindric claimed the series title. Now in the Cup playoffs as an underdog, Briscoe said this experience has been more enjoyable.

“When you’re on the other side of it, you know, the whole world is relying on you to be there in the Championship 4, be the guy to beat,” Briscoe said. “And whenever something goes wrong, it’s just a total fallout because the expectations are so high from so many people.

“And you know, for us, we have high expectations on our 14 team, but outside of that, we don’t have the pressure of the world telling us that we got to make it to the Championship 4 so I like it better being on this side of it. And hopefully, like I said, can keep proving people wrong.”

Briscoe heads into Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) eighth in the playoff grid, seven points above the elimination line with two races left in this second round. That cushion toward elimination stemmed from a Tuesday penalty issued to William Byron, who was docked 25 driver and owners points and $50,000 for spinning Denny Hamlin under caution at Texas Motor Speedway. Hendrick Motorsports, which owns Byron’s ride, is appealing the penalty.

MORE: 2022 Cup winners | Bowman to miss Talladega

A fifth-place finish at Texas marked Briscoe’s first top-10 result since finishing fourth at Charlotte in May, allowing plenty of room for outside doubt to seep through social media. But whether he’s above or below the elimination line doesn’t matter much to Briscoe heading to Talladega. With pack racing capable of producing a mixed bag of results, the volatility of Sunday’s race weekend provides uncertainty for each driver.

“If we were maybe somewhere other than Talladega, they might feel a bit safer,” Briscoe said. “But I mean, you can lose or gain so many points this week as well. You know, I feel like we still have to go out and try to race the same way. So I mean, if we were going to a mile-and-a-half [track] or something, then it’d probably make me feel a little bit safer just because I feel like you can control a little bit more of your own destiny as far as how many points you gain or lose. But yeah, with it being Talladega, I’m glad we’re above the cut line, but it really doesn’t change anything I don’t feel like for us.”

No championship-eligible driver has won a playoff race yet this season, with Tyler Reddick claiming the win last week at Texas one week after his elimination from the postseason. That could heighten the intensity in the fight for stage points throughout Sunday’s race. Briscoe sits just 15 points behind fourth-place Ryan Blaney entering the contest.

As for strategy? That will depend on where the No. 14 Ford qualifies on Saturday (10:30 a.m. ET, NBC Sports App, MRN).

“If we qualify up front, then you probably have to try to get some points while you can,” Briscoe said. “You know, if you qualify towards the back, then it’d probably change your strategy. The problem is we’ve kind of got to do what all the guys around us in points do. You know, if they all try to ride around in the back, then we probably need to try to ride around in the back. But if they’re all up there trying to mix it up trying to get points, then we need to do the same thing. We just need to try to match what they’re doing.

“So you know, the 20 [Christopher Bell] is probably for sure gonna be going for points. But it’s the 24 [Byron] and the 2 [Cindric] and guys like that, it’s kind of up in the air. But then on the same token, I think we’re only like (18) points out of second place. So you know, if we could go get some stage points that could change a lot of things for us as well. So I don’t know, it’s just a really hard spot to be in.”

MORE: 2022 Cup title odds | Talladega odds

Briscoe has never won at a superspeedway, but advice from Dale Earnhardt Jr. while he was still chasing Xfinity titles proved helpful. The shared philosophy was to try to lead every lap — be the aggressor and be as close to the front as you can be at all times. While that worked in the Xfinity Series and made superspeedways more enjoyable for Briscoe, that hasn’t come as easily in Cup.

“On the Xfinity side, I feel like there was three or four or five of us maybe that understood [superspeedway] racing and how to be aggressive and make moves and block certain runs,” Briscoe said. “Where on the Cup side, there’s 25 of those guys that can do that. So it made it a little bit harder to be aggressive. Just trying to not be the guy that obviously causes the big wreck. And you know truthfully, probably haven’t been the best at trying to be the aggressor in the Cup Series like I was in the Xfinity Series, and I probably need to get a little bit more that direction.

“I don’t know if this weekend we can do that. But I do think I need to probably be a little more aggressive on the superspeedways, just because I haven’t really done that since I got to Cup.”

The Round of 12 comes to a close on Oct. 9 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, the site of Briscoe’s first Xfinity win in 2018. But whatever advantages Briscoe held over the field on road courses previously now feel diminished with the Next Gen car. What matters most is that he will have a chance to advance to the Round of 8 — featuring Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami and Martinsville — heading into Charlotte.

“This is the one round I was probably the most nervous about,” Briscoe said. “I felt like if we could get through this round, you know, make it to the Round of 8, I feel like the Round of 8 is all really really, good race tracks for me, and ones that I feel like I can go, you know, run up front and potentially win at. So yeah, we just want to make it through this round.”

Posted on by Staff Report

TALLADEGA, Ala. — The Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet for driver William Byron failed NASCAR Cup Series pre-qualifying inspection twice Friday at Talladega Superspeedway.

RELATED: Talladega weekend schedule | Playoff standings

As a result of the infraction, No. 24 car chief Tyler Jones was ejected for the rest of the race weekend leading up to Sunday’s YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM). The team will also lose its pit-stall selection for Sunday’s race, the fifth of 10 events in the Cup Series postseason.

The No. 24 Chevy was the only car in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs to fail inspection twice, and the car passed on its third trip through the line.

Two cars outside the playoff picture — both Kaulig Racing entries — also failed inspection two times. Both teams — the No. 16 Chevy for Daniel Hemric and No. 31 for Justin Haley — forfeited pit-stall selection, and both car chiefs — Garett Peterson (No. 16) and Jaron Antley (No. 31) — were ejected.

Byron ranks 10th of the 12 remaining championship-eligible drivers. He is eight points below the cut-off line after he was issued a 25-point penalty — plus a $50,000 fine — for spinning Denny Hamlin during a caution period in last weekend’s race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Byron’s team has indicated it will appeal the penalty.

There was no on-track activity for the NASCAR Cup Series on Friday. The tour will set the starting lineup with Busch Pole Qualifying on Saturday (10:30 a.m. ET, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM).

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

What Noah Gragson is doing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series right now is historic.

The fourth-year driver for JR Motorsports finds himself tied with series legend Sam Ard with wins in four consecutive races, a feat no driver has accomplished since Ard did so in 1983. And while four drivers have won five of their consecutive series starts, no one has ever won five straight races.

Gragson can write his own history at Talladega Superspeedway if he takes his No. 9 Chevrolet back to Victory Lane on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Las Vegas native is a two-time winner on superspeedways and is the most recent victor at Talladega.

MORE: Xfinity playoff standings | Talladega schedule

At 24 years old, Gragson is experiencing his most fruitful season of his time in NASCAR’s upper echelon. His seven victories this season have come at a variety of different track types — a superspeedway like Talladega; intermediates like Pocono, Darlington, Kansas and Texas; and 1-mile or shorter tracks like Phoenix and Bristol.

If it feels like there’s some recency bias with Gragson’s performance, you might be right to a certain extent. According to Racing Insights, Gragson’s last nine races have produced staggering numbers: five wins, seven top fives and eight top 10s with seven stage victories, 352 laps led and an average finish of 4.89. He’s also racked up an impressive 32 playoff points and is the only competitor locked into the Xfinity Series’ Round of 8 courtesy of his Texas win.

Before this year, Gragson had never won more than three times in a single season. His Xfinity total now sits at 12, ballooning from five at the start of the season.

Perhaps more impressive is that Gragson has maintained a high level of performance since the start of 2022. The first four races produced consecutive top-three efforts, culminating with a Phoenix victory in March. That was followed by a season-worst stretch that saw three finishes of 20th or worse in the next four events.

Gragson quickly relocated his footing. Since that span, Gragson has finished outside the top 10 in just four of the last 19 races. His 13 stage wins this year are the most in an Xfinity season since Christopher Bell racked up 17 in 2019.

His success is also proving significant for JRM, which he’s called home since 2019. JRM, co-owned by Rick Hendrick, Kelley Earnhardt Miller and Dale Earnhardt Jr., is enjoying its winningest season as a company with 13 victories, four more than its previous record of nine in 2014. Chase Elliott won the Xfinity Series championship that year driving the team’s No. 9 Chevrolet. Gragson is now JRM’s second-winningest driver, with his 12 wins trailing Justin Allgaier’s 16.

RELATED: 2022 Xfinity Series winners

Questions surrounding Gragson’s maturity followed an intentional spin during the Xfinity race on July 2 at Road America, an incident that collected numerous vehicles and resulted in a $35,000 fine from the sanctioning body. Those questions have largely been answered as the season progressed — so much so that Petty GMS has signed Gragson to drive its No. 42 Chevrolet on a full-time basis starting with the 2023 Cup Series season.

His growth is continuing in NASCAR’s premier series this year. Gragson has made 13 Cup starts this season — three superspeedway starts for Beard Motorsports and 10 races for Kaulig Racing. Gragson was slated to drive the No. 62 Chevrolet for Beard Motorsports again at Talladega but instead will drive the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports as Alex Bowman sits sidelined with concussion-like symptoms.

With Cup aspirations coming to fruition, Gragson’s goal remains focused on one thing: turning his recent Xfinity Series dominance into a series title in Phoenix.

Posted on by Staff Report

Alex Bowman will not compete in the Round of 12 playoff race Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway because of concussion-like symptoms he suffered after a Sept. 25 crash at Texas Motor Speedway, according to Hendrick Motorsports.

Bowman was evaluated by physicians on Thursday, according to the team, and it was determined he could not participate this weekend.

TALLADEGA: Full weekend schedule

“After undergoing medical evaluation due to concussion-like symptoms, I will not be driving the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet in Talladega,” Bowman said on social media. “I’m disappointed but know my health is the number one priority.”

Last Sunday, Bowman brought out the caution flag on Lap 98 of 334 when his car hit the wall. Bowman was able to continue in the race but finished 29th, five laps down to winner Tyler Reddick.

Bowman is currently in last place in the 12-driver playoff field, 26 points below the cutline, and he will likely face a must-win situation next weekend at the Charlotte Roval if he is able to return in time for the Round of 12 elimination race. According to a NASCAR spokesperson, Hendrick Motorsports’ request for a postseason waiver enabling Bowman to remain eligible for the Round of 8 has been granted.

Hendrick Motorsports announced that Noah Gragson of JR Motorsports will fill in for Bowman for Sunday’s YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM).

Gragson was originally slated to pilot the No. 62 Chevy for Beard Motorsports. Instead, his JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier will now drive the No. 62. It will be Allgaier’s 81st Cup Series start and second of 2022 (Bristol Dirt).

Posted on by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Talladega Superspeedway, site of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race, is traditionally regarded as one of the most action-packed, thrilling venues on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar.

And after a dramatic playoff race a week ago at Texas Motor Speedway, expectations are super high for the YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET on NBC, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Counting Tyler Reddick’s victory at Texas, the first four 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff races have been won by non-playoff contenders — an unprecedented streak. The result has been a tightly bunched field of championship chasers trying to point their way into the Round of 8, if not fortunate enough to earn a trophy this round at Talladega or the Charlotte Roval.

Talladega 101: Format, tires, story lines, more | Full weekend schedule

Texas had a great effect on the title contenders. Race runner-up Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, now leads the championship standings for the third time this season (also one-week tenures following the Phoenix and Darlington-2 races). He’s 12 points ahead of Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, 14 up on reigning series champion, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, and 15 points ahead of his Penske teammate Ryan Blaney.

MORE: Logano rises to No. 1 in Power Rankings

Logano and 12th-place driver Alex Bowman are separated by only 56 points. Logano and eighth-place Chase Briscoe (in the final transfer position) are separated by only 30 points.

Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion and this season’s series-best four-race winner who led the standings for 23 weeks, has dropped to seventh place in the championship run. After a DNF at Texas, he’s now only 11 points up on the elimination line.

Another major shift in the standings has affected Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron. The two-race winner was issued a $50,000 fine and 25-point driver and owner penalties for rough driving — officially, “vehicle contact during a caution period” — at Texas following an incident with fellow playoff competitor, Denny Hamlin, of Joe Gibbs Racing.

The points penalty drops Byron from third place in the standings to 10th — eight points below Briscoe in that final playoff advancement position. Hendrick Motorsports said Tuesday it would appeal Byron’s penalty.

The good news for both Elliott and Byron, however, is that they are among the favorites for Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

No. 45 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace is the defending winner of this playoff race, earning his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at the big track last fall. Playoff driver Chastain won in April at Talladega — leading only the final lap to take his second career series win. Byron led a race-best 38 laps in that race, but finished 15th. He was runner-up in the 2021 spring race.

Elliott, who is favored by oddsmakers to win this weekend, earned his only NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega in 2019 but has six top-10 finishes in 13 starts. Blaney, who is also a favorite, won back-to-back races at Talladega — the 2019 playoff race and 2020 spring event — and is the only driver to win consecutive races at the track since NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon swept the 2007 season.

In addition to Chastain, Elliott and Blaney, the only other drivers among the 12 playoff eligible with wins at Talladega are Logano, who has three victories (2015, ’16 and ’18) and Hamlin, who has a pair of wins (2014, 2020).

RFK Racing driver/owner Brad Keselowski leads all current drivers with six victories on the Talladega high banks.

With no consensus favorite yet established for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series championship run, Talladega takes on increased importance even as it’s considered one of the most unpredictable venues on the circuit.

“It’s really tough because you can’t predict when a wreck is going to happen,” Hamlin said, of Talladega strategy. “As a driver, you start to feel the intensity of the pack picking up and you start to see people making aggressive moves. You just have to make a judgment call on whether you want to be part of it at that time.”

Qualifying (one-lap and two rounds) is set for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET and will be aired on the NBC Sports App, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Posted on by Brandon White

The 2022 ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway served as a swan song for long-time competitor Timothy Peters.

A two-time winner of the prestigious event, Peters had been away from regular competition since the end of the 2021 season. He elected to team up with former NASCAR crew chief Marcus Richmond for one last opportunity to bring home another grandfather clock.

The effort resulted in a solid eighth-place finish for Peters, who described the entire weekend at Martinsville as an emotional farewell to the sport that has been a vital part of his life since the early days of his childhood.

“I’m never going to say never,” Peters said. “I wanted to scratch this itch, and R&S Race Cars accommodated me. The car had our old Bailey’s colors from back in the day and my father’s number. I wish we could have won, but the car is one piece, and [R&S Race Cars] can work on it ahead of the next one.”

RACING REFERENCE: Career NASCAR stats for Timothy Peters

Peters has found success in nearly every single car he has strapped into throughout his long career.

Along with countless Late Model Stock victories to his name, Peters became one of the most consistent competitors in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series during the 2010s by tallying 11 career victories, 10 of which came with Red Horse Racing.

Timothy Peters celebrates a win in the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown at South Boston Speedway in 2015. (Photo: Grant Halverson/NASCAR via Getty Images)

When Red Horse Racing shut down in the middle of 2017, Peters primarily devoted his attention toward the development of Nelson Motorsports’ Late Model Stock operation, which visited Victory Lane in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 that same year with Peters driving.

Peters believes he can still contend with all the major Late Model Stock frontrunners even at the age of 42. Despite this, the decision to take a step back from racing in 2022 came down to one simple factor: family.

Now a father of two, Peters took a job as a UPS delivery driver not long after the 2021 ValleyStar Credit Union 300. He has grown fond of his new occupation and said the most important benefit of the transition is being able to spend more time with the people he cares about the most.

“Racing was going ahead of my family, and I needed to get back to them,” Peters said. “I was missing beauty pageants, baseball games and cheerleading events. I wanted to be with them and see it all. My kids are 9 and 7 years old, and I’ve seen them more over the past year since we brought them home from the hospital.

“There is life after racing, but that’s all I’ve known since I was five.”

Even though he enjoys seeing his kids grow up, Peters knew he needed some form of proper closure with auto racing. He got in touch with Richmond about the possibility of competing in this year’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300.

Richmond and Peters bonded over their love of racing when they met in middle school, and the pair ended up progressing through the ranks together. They went their separate ways shortly after joining Bobby Hamilton Racing in 2005, but Richmond later became Peters’ crew chief at Red Horse Racing, where they won three races together from 2014-15.

RACING REFERENCE: Crew chief stats for Marcus Richmond

Like Peters, Richmond has always possessed a strong passion for Late Model Stock racing , having served as Peters’ crew chief during his two ValleyStar Credit Union 300 wins in 2005 and 2017.

It simply made too much sense for Richmond to have his long-time friend join R&S Race Cars for Martinsville and provide feedback on his own program.

“Timothy is very professional and he does everything 100 percent right,” Richmond said. “He knows everything about racing, and it was a breath of fresh air having to have him work with us and give input on our cars. He was very pleased with the performance of our car, and he told me that was the most fun he had in a long time.”

Richmond added that Peters’ presence with R&S Race Cars at Martinsville not only benefitted the program, but also his two young drivers in Conner Jones and Jonathan Shafer.

Peters worked closely with Jones and Shafer during the weekend to provide knowledge on maintaining track position and being patient around the half-mile facility, especially when it came to racing others in their respective heat races.

Although Jones ended up missing the 200-lap feature, Shafer successfully overcame a disallowed time trial and engine issues in his heat to earn the final starting position on the 40-car field, where he ended finishing two spots behind Peters in 10th.

Timothy Peters in action during the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway on Sept. 24, 2022. (Photo: Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)

For Richmond, the consistency R&S showed at Martinsville highlighted the value of having Peters’ expertise inside the Late Model Stock garage area. Richmond admitted Peters’ presence will be missed if the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 was indeed his final race.

While Richmond respects Peters’ desire to spend more time with his family, he plans to keep a seat open for Peters should he ever want to climb back into a car.

“I’d love to see [Timothy] keep racing, but it all comes down to funding,” Richmond said. “If he can get the funding to run two or three races a year, that would be great. Timothy still does such a great job, and it’s so nice to always work with him. My goal is to find Timothy the funding to run the [Virginia] Triple Crown and a few other races.”

Peters expressed his gratitude toward Richmond and everyone else who came together to support him for the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 and give him a proper sendoff on his successful racing career.

As Peters climbed out of his No. 11 Solid Rock Carriers/PepperJack Kennels Toyota in the same fire suit he wore while driving for Richard Childress Racing’s NASCAR Xfinity Series program back in 2006, he was overcome by a sense of peace.

Leaving auto racing was never going to be an easy transition for Peters, but he departed Martinsville confident he had properly closed one chapter of his life and was prepared to start the next one as a different kind of driver.

“I can still do it,” Peters said. “[Saturday] rekindled that fire, but at the end of the day, I know what the right decision is. This is the only family I’ve got, and I want to keep them.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Denny Hamlin won the first stage of the 2021 Southern 500 en route to a win in the first playoff race of the season, which earned him a spot in the Round of 12.

The next race (Richmond) was also won by a playoff driver (Martin Truex Jr.), as was the next one (Kyle Larson, Bristol) and the next one (Denny Hamlin, Las Vegas).

Four races, and four wins for playoff drivers to open the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

One year later: Four races, and four wins for non-playoff drivers to open the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Non-playoff drivers have been crashing the playoff party for years. But this is the first time non-playoff drivers have won the first four playoff races — and the first time non-playoff drivers have won four straight playoff races.

For the YellaWood 500 this weekend, four drivers are tied as co-favorites in race-winner NASCAR odds at BetMGM. All four are alive in the Round of 12:

  • Chase Elliott +1200
  • Joey Logano +1200
  • Ross Chastain +1200
  • Ryan Blaney +1200

None of those four drivers is among the public’s favorite, however. Collectively, as of Thursday, the co-favorites have 20.3% of the handle. That’s less than the combined handle of the two most popular drivers, both non-playoff drivers; Erik Jones (+2500) and Brad Keselowski (+1600) have 29.1% of the total race-winner handle as the public pounds non-playoff drivers for the second straight week.

And half of the top 10 most popular drivers by ticket count are also non-playoff drivers, including Jones, who leads all drivers in ticket share with 6.3%.

This week’s featured matchups at BetMGM are also loaded with non-playoff drivers as they seek a fifth straight win:

Tyler Reddick (-125) vs. Austin Dillon (-105)

Tyler Reddick struggled in the next race after his first two career Cup Series wins, finishing 29th at Atlanta and 29th at Michigan.

If he finishes 29th this weekend after a win at Texas, it’d be a huge improvement over his last two starts at Talladega Superspeedway; he finished 39th in April and 39th in the 2021 fall race.

Meanwhile, Reddick’s featured matchup opponent Austin Dillon hasn’t finished worse than 12th in his last four starts at Talladega. But while Dillon is a more popular pick in race-winner betting — 3% of tickets and 4% of the handle to Reddick’s 1.5% and 1.2% — he has just 33% of the handle in featured matchup betting.

Denny Hamlin (-115) vs. William Byron (-115)

The highest-ranked driver in this week’s matchups, Denny Hamlin, is the fourth-most-experienced driver at Talladega in this weekend’s field. Only Kevin Harvick (43), Truex (35), and Kyle Busch (34) have more career Cup Series starts at the track than Hamlin (33).

But only Joey Logano, among active drivers, has more laps led at Talladega than Hamlin. The 41-year-old JGR driver has led at least six laps in each of his last five starts at the track — and at least one lap in 26 of his 33 career starts.

Hamlin is dominating featured matchup betting against William Byron, who has just two top-10 finishes in 10 starts at Talladega. Hamlin has 97% of the handle on 96% of the tickets.

Bubba Wallace (-130) vs. Chris Buescher (+100)

Bubba Wallace crashed the party at last year’s race, earning his first career Cup Series win in his 143rd career start and ending the four-race winning streak for playoff drivers to open the 2021 playoffs.

At +1600 in race-winner odds, Wallace isn’t far back from the favorites. He’s led at least five laps in each of his last four starts at Talladega, though he actually led fewer laps (five) en route to last year’s win than Chris Buescher (seven), who tied a career-best finish (sixth) that day.

Neither Wallace nor Buescher is in the top 10 for race-winner ticket share, though Wallace does rank 10th in handle share at 3.3%. Bettors are picking Buescher in this matchup; he has 86% of the handle on 67% of the tickets.

(UPDATE: Bowman ruled out for this week’s race)
Christopher Bell (-120) vs. Alex Bowman (-110)

Christopher Bell’s top-five streak ended at three races with a crash and 34th-place finish in Fort Worth. It was just the fourth time he finished outside the top 20 in his last 20 starts, a run that followed a 22nd-place finish in April at Talladega.

Bell has finished higher than his starting position only once in his last four starts at the track — a fifth-place finish after starting 12th last fall. Similarly, this week’s opponent Alex Bowman has finished higher than his starting position only three times in his last eight starts at Talladega.

Bowman has 76% of the featured matchup handle on a 50-50 ticket split.

You can view updated YellaWood 500 odds and more online sports betting opportunities at the BetMGM online sportsbook.

Posted on by Tadd Haislop

With Layne Riggs having earned the 2022 national championship in Division I of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, the title winners for Divisions II, III, IV and V have been revealed.

Tim DeVos, Austin Paul, Luke Ramsey and Jacob Brown are the national champions of Divisions II through V, respectively, in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series for 2022.

Below is more on each of the champions.

RELATED: 2022 DI regional champions | Rookies of the Year

National champions

2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division II champion

Tim DeVos

The 2022 season was huge for DeVos, who grew up just a few miles from Berlin Raceway in Marne, Michigan.

Not only did DeVos win this year’s Division II national championship with 24 starts at his home track, but he also achieved a personal goal in tying Bob Senneker for the all-time wins record at the 7/16-mile paved oval when he notched his 103rd victory at Berlin in its season finale.

“Winning races never gets old,” DeVos told NASCAR.com in early September when asked about his pursuit of Berlin’s wins record. “It always makes your weekend better if you won on Saturday.”

Including the season finale on Sept. 10, DeVos won 10 races in Berlin’s Model Coverall Service, Inc. Limited Late Model division, giving him enough points to win the 2022 track championship in his division over Tyler Rycenga. DeVos needed all of those victories to secure the national championship, a title he earned by just two points over David Greenslit, the 2021 Division II national champion.

All 24 of DeVos’ starts in 2022 came at Berlin. Including the 10 victories, he picked up 21 top fives and 22 top 10s in those 24 races for a total of 454 points in the Division II national standings.

The final 2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division II national standings can be found here.

2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division III champion

Austin Paul

In 2022, Paul was the man to beat in Adams County Speedway’s B Modified division. He made that clear early in the season, when he won the first three B Modified features of the year on consecutive weekends at the half-mile dirt track in Corning, Iowa.

Paul would go on to win eight NASCAR-sanctioned B Modified races at Adams County in 2022. That doesn’t include his third consecutive victory in the B Modified portion of the track’s annual NAPA Auto Parts “Tradition” event to close the year on Sept. 16.

With those eight victories in 16 starts at Adams County, Paul earned the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division III national championship by a comfortable 18 points over Bobby Ozman of Irwindale Speedway in California.

Paul finished in the top 10 in all 16 of his starts at Adams County this year, and 15 of those resulted in a top five.

The final 2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division III national standings can be found here.

2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division IV champion

Luke Ramsey

Like Paul, Ramsey in Division IV won a 2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship thanks to his dominance at Adams County Speedway. The difference is he didn’t do all of his damage at the Corning, Iowa, track.

In addition to the 10 NASCAR victories Ramsey picked up at Adams County en route to the track championship in the Hobby Stock division, he won two races at I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska.

In all, Ramsey won 12 races in 19 starts at Adams County and I-80, including 17 top-five finishes. His 476 national points in Division IV of the Weekly Series were 10 more than the points second-place Jaylen Hardbarger picked up in 18 starts at Salina Highbanks Speedway in Pryor, Oklahoma.

Ramsey won Adams County’s track championship in the Hobby Stock division by an astonishing 209 points over second-place Tom Myers.

The final 2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division IV national standings can be found here.

2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division V champion

Jacob Brown

Brown is yet another 2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champion who found all of his success at Adams County Speedway and I-80 Speedway. Though almost all of it came at I-80.

A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Brown won seven races in 16 NASCAR starts in 2022, all of which came in the Bragging Rights Late Model division at I-80. He also picked up a pair of top-10 finishes in the two starts he logged at Adams County, one of which was a top five.

Brown won the Division V national championship by 24 points over last year’s champ, Chris Vannausdle, despite starting in almost half the amount of races.

In total, Brown logged 15 top-10 finishes in his 16 starts, 12 of which were top fives.

The final 2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division V national standings can be found here.