After the opening race of the Round of 16 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Darlington, here’s a look at the updated playoff picture. There are two races remaining in the Round of 16 before the field is whittled to 12, with four drivers eliminated from the postseason following the Sept. 17 race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Winner
Erik Jones. Jones played the role of spoiler Sunday night, winning his second career Cook Out Southern 500 as playoff drivers faltered around him. Jones is the first non-playoff driver to win the postseason opener in the elimination era, and he is the 17th NASCAR Cup Series winner this year.
Denny Hamlin. Hamlin is one of the best in the business at Darlington, and he finished second to Jones on Sunday — and therefore was the highest-finishing playoff driver. A late strategy to pit later in the run seemed like it may have been a misfire initially, but a late caution put Hamlin running at the very front of the field in the closing laps.
Joey Logano. Logano won the Busch Light Pole on Saturday and then nabbed fourth place Sunday, leading 64 laps in the process. He was able to avoid any potential payback by William Byron following their incident at Darlington in the spring, and he exited the race as the new series points leader.
Who’s not
Chase Elliott. The Regular Season Champion and prohibitive title favorite had the worst start imaginable to his 2022 postseason. Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet snapped into a spin on Lap 113, riding up the track and into the wall and then being smashed by Chase Briscoe’s No. 14. The end result? A last-place finish, a one-point night and plenty of worry for the remaining two Round of 16 races.
Kyle Busch. The close of the Southern 500 was an absolute gut-punch to Busch and the No. 18 team. “Rowdy” led a race-high 155 laps and had the most dominant car remaining in the field following the last caution of the night. Stunningly, the No. 18’s engine appeared to blow up during the ensuing caution laps prior to the final restart of the race. He finished 30th.
BUBBLE WATCH
Rank
Driver
Cutoff
9.
Chase Elliott
+14
10.
Alex Bowman
+10
11.
Kyle Busch
+8
12.
Daniel Suárez
+2
——–
ELIMINATION LINE
———-
13.
Austin Cindric
-2
14.
Austin Dillon
-4
15.
Chase Briscoe
-10
16.
Kevin Harvick
-13
Next race
The NASCAR Cup Series travels to Kansas Speedway for the Hollywood Casino 400 on Sept. 11 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). This is the first time Kansas will be the second race in the Round of 16.
Who it favors
Denny Hamlin. In the last 10 races at Kansas, only one driver has more than one victory — and that’s Hamlin with two. In fact, he has four top-five finishes in the last six races at Kansas, including a fourth-place run earlier this year in the Next Gen car’s debut at the track.
Who it hurts
Chase Briscoe. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver has just three starts at Kansas in the Cup Series level, and his average finish is 21.0. His best finish is 19th last fall, and he did not finish on the lead lap in two of those three races.
DARLINGTON, S.C. – In a race that had more twists and turns than a Victorian melodrama, Erik Jones put the vaunted No. 43 Chevrolet back in Victory Lane for the first time since 2014.
In the season’s first NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race, Jones held off Denny Hamlin in a 20-lap run to the finish to win the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway for the second time.
The Sunday night race took its toll on more than a handful of playoff drivers, as Jones became the first non-playoff driver to win the first postseason event since NASCAR introduced the elimination format in 2014.
The victory was Jones’ first of the season, the third of his career, and the first for Petty GMS Racing since that organization was formed by merger before the 2022 campaign. The win was No. 200 for the 43 car number, which NASCAR Hall of Famer and car owner Richard Petty drove to seven series championships.
“Richard hasn’t been to Victory Lane at Darlington probably since he last won here,” said Jones, referencing Petty’s 1967 victory in the Southern 500. “It’s just awesome. Just so proud of these guys, Petty GMS and (sponsor) FOCUSFactor crew.
“We’ve been so close all year, and I didn’t think today was going to be the day. It was going to be a tough one to win, I knew, but no better fitting place. I love this track. I love this race. On that trophy twice, man. I was pumped to be on it once, but to have it on there twice — pretty cool.”
The victory was the first in the Cup Series for crew chief Dave Elenz. Jones won his first Southern 500 in 2019 driving for Joe Gibbs Racing but was released after the 2020 season in favor of Christopher Bell. On Sunday night, Jones held off a former teammate in Hamlin, who ran out of time in his pursuit of Jones and finished in the runner-up spot, 0.252 seconds behind the race winner.
“Well, I mean, I never lost any belief in myself through any of it,” Jones said. “I knew I could still do it, and I just knew we needed to grow the program to do it, and we have. We’ve brought on a lot of great people in the last year. Dave Elenz called a great race today. His first Cup win — that’s pretty cool for him.
“I’m excited, man. We’ve been talking about this day a long time, and it is redemption in a lot of ways. Very fitting that it’s here at this race again. I felt like this was the race that saved my job the first time around, and coming back here with this win, I guess it puts you back on the map.”
Tyler Reddick ran third, followed by pole winner Joey Logano, who vaulted to the top of the playoff standings, six points clear of second-place William Byron, who finished eighth on Sunday.
Jones got his chance at the front of the field when Kyle Busch, who had led a race-high 155 laps, suffered a blown engine as he prepared for the final restart. Busch had inherited the top spot when his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Martin Truex Jr., suffered a similar failure on Lap 333 of 367.
But those retirements barely scratched the surface of the drama that unfolded throughout the race. Disaster befell Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick. Kyle Larson and his team accomplished an amazing salvage job.
And the playoff picture remained just as uncertain as it had been entering the grueling 500-mile contest at “The Lady in Black.”
After a catastrophic playoff opener, Elliott, the Regular Season Champion, is the series leader no more.
Elliott spun sideways in Turn 2 on Lap 113 — two laps short of the end of Stage 1 — cracked the back of his No. 9 Chevrolet and slid down the track into the path of Chase Briscoe, who couldn’t avoid the collision.
Elliott nursed his car to pit road where his team tried in vain to repair the damage, but with the right-rear toe link and upper and lower control arms broken, the task was hopeless. The 10-minute time allotment under NASCAR’s damaged vehicle policy ran out, and Elliott retired from the race in last place (36th).
The 15-point advantage Elliott carried into the playoffs was gone. Elliott scored the minimum one point for his efforts at Darlington and fell to ninth in the playoff standings, 14 points ahead of 16th-place finisher Austin Cindric in 13th.
“I just hit the wall in (Turns) 1 and 2 and broke something in the right-rear,” Elliott said succinctly. And how would he approach the next playoff race at Kansas Speedway? “A lot better than we did today.”
A solid run by 2014 series champion Harvick went up in flames on Lap 275. As he lost speed while running ninth, Harvick radioed to his crew, “My rocker panel’s on fire.”
Flames erupted on both sides of the car. Harvick parked the No. 4 Ford on the apron and scrambled from his smoke-filled cockpit. Harvick exited the race in 33rd place and dropped to the bottom rung of the playoff standings, 13 points below the current cut line.
Larson, the reigning series champion, brought his car to pit road on Lap 79, sensing his engine was about to expire. He lost three laps as his team worked under the hood of the No. 5 but returned to the track and the “gremlins” disappeared after a few laps.
Using wave-arounds and his status as beneficiary under caution to advantage, Larson regained the lead lap and finished 12th, averting a major hit in the standings.
NOTE: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming Jones as the winner of the event.
Notes: The last driver to win a race in the No. 43 was Aric Almirola, who took the car to Victory Lane on July 6, 2014 at Daytona … Logano led the first 37 laps from the pole and 64 overall, but an issue with the left-front tire cost him valuable time during a green-flag pit stop on Lap 75. He never regained the track position he lost. … Ross Chastain lost a lap when he returned to pit road for an unscheduled stop on Lap 160 to address a loose wheel. He finished 20th, one lap down. … Cindric, Austin Dillon, Briscoe and Harvick are the four drivers below the current cut line with two races left in the Round of 16.
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Kyle Busch was just 23 laps away from a potential statement victory Sunday night, a so-close clinching win at rough-hewn Darlington Raceway that would’ve pushed his Joe Gibbs Racing team into the next round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Then the smoke started puffing from his No. 18 Toyota.
“We’re blowing up,” Busch said through his in-car communications.
After leading a race-best 155 laps, Busch pulled to the apron and then pit road. The engine woes shorted out his dominant run in the Cook Out Southern 500 and saddled him with a crushing 30th-place finish in the postseason opener. It was also a missed opportunity, not just for the playoff implications but in the context of his season, where a Darlington win would have steered the headlines away from the contract uncertainty that’s hounded him this year.
“Real proud of the guys for their fight,” Busch said. “The guys on pit road tonight were awesome. So I had a lot of fun being up front, leading laps like that, being able to show what we’re made of. I just hate that we can’t finish with the points we need.”
Busch offset some of the dent in the standings with precious stage points — placing third and first at the respective breaks. But he’ll enter next Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM) sitting 11th in the Cup Series standings, just eight points up on the cut line.
Busch battled through a wall scrape late in the first stage, and he took the lead for the first time on the 118th of 367 laps. That leap up the scoring pylon came thanks to snappy service by his No. 18 pit crew, setting the tone for much of the evening.
Busch led for sizable chunks of the race’s midsection, his time up front interrupted by pit-stop cycles and the spurts of speed from teammate Martin Truex Jr., who had just missed the playoff field. Truex had made his own bid to play postseason spoiler with 48 laps led, but his power steering went sour, then his water pump belt gave out and the temperatures spiked under the hood of his No. 19 Camry.
Truex retired 31 laps from the finish, seemingly leaving Busch in a prime position. Busch lasted just nine laps longer.
“There’s no words,” Busch said. “Just oh well, I guess. You know, life goes on.”
No. 18 crew chief Ben Beshore joined his crew in peering under the hood to diagnose the issue, simultaneously as the No. 19 was being loaded on the team hauler. A Toyota representative said later that the preliminary indication on the No. 18’s issue was a full valvetrain failure.
Beshore said there was some consolation to be had in the performance, which netted Busch his most laps led in a race this season.
“If you’re looking for stuff to take away tonight, I guess that’s it,” Beshore told NASCAR.com. “The pit crew was dominant, and we were just keeping the balance close. I mean, Truex was gonna walk away with the thing and we were gonna be fortunate that they had a problem, and then we had a problem. So yeah, tough night overall, but we’ve got a really solid team here, another intermediate (track) coming up next week that’s somewhat similar, so we can go do the same thing again next week.”
A spin on Lap 113 by Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott resulted in race-ending damage for him and significant damage to Chase Briscoe in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs opener at Darlington Raceway.
Elliott, the Regular Season Champion, lost control of his No. 9 Chevrolet at the entrance of Turn 1 and spun his car in the middle of Turns 1 and 2. As the vehicle looped back toward the infield, the lapped No. 14 Ford of Briscoe had nowhere to go and contacted the right-rear quarter of Elliott’s car. Both cars are competing in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, where Elliott was the top seed.
The result was damage to the suspension of Elliott’s right-rear wheel, breaking a lower control arm and toe link that proved too significant to repair. The pit crew worked feverishly to repair the suspension under the Damaged Vehicle Policy’s allotted 10 minutes but to no avail.
NASCAR increased the allotted times for teams to fix damage from six minutes to 10 ahead of Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500.
Briscoe was able to continue and soldiered his battered car to a 27th-place finish, four laps down.
“When the 9 spun out, I had a split-second decision there. I just chose the wrong way,” Briscoe said. “So for us, we just had to keep going at that point. We got lucky that a lot of them guys had issues. If you would have told me we were only gonna be 10 points below the cutoff line after that wreck, I would have gladly taken it.”
Elliott was the second Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to suffer an issue at Darlington. Defending series champion Kyle Larson pitted at Lap 79 with suspected engine troubles, following a motor failure one week ago at Daytona International Speedway. The No. 5 team lost three laps on the exchange but was able to return to the race.
Larson found more trouble at Lap 191 when his car broke loose at the exit of Turn 4. Larson, who won twice during the regular season, lightly backed into the outside SAFER barrier at the start of the frontstretch but continued two laps down.
Despite those issues, Larson rallied to a 12th-place finish on the lead lap.
Elliott, who entered the playoffs with a 15-point lead over Joey Logano in the standings, plummeted to ninth and sits just 14 points ahead of the cut line with two races remaining in the Round of 16. Thanks to Erik Jones’ upset victory at Darlington, no driver locked himself into the Round of 12 on Sunday night.
Tonight’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET, USA) is the third crown jewel event of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.
The Labor Day weekend tradition is a fan favorite that typically produces great racing thanks to the steeply-banked, egg-shaped oval and the track’s penchant for chewing up tires.
This characteristic makes evaluating practice times more important.
That’s why I really like Martin Truex, Jr. in various markets for tonight’s race.
Pick your favorite or pick all of them! There’s value in each bet per my model.
Truex was the fastest Toyota driver across the full range of laps in practice and currently sits at +500 to finish as the top Toyota at DraftKings.
With only six total Toyota drivers, DraftKings is basically saying that Truex is no better or worse, on average, than the other Toyota drivers.
Between practice and his track history here where he’s a two-time winner, +500 as the top Toyota is simply too good to pass up.
Truex (+425) to Win Group B
Group B consists of two of Truex’s Toyota teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, as well as Chevy driver Ross Chastain.
It’s pretty clear if I like Truex as the top Toyota, then I should like him over Hamlin and Busch.
In addition, Chastain experienced more significant tire falloff than Truex over the long run. So while they had nearly identical five- and 10-lap times, Truex widened the gap over 15 and 20 laps quite a bit.
If all drivers in this group had equal chances to win, they should each be +300. That means DraftKings is once again pricing Truex as if he should be a significant underdog here, and I just don’t see that in the practice times.
Truex (-162) for a Top-10 Finish
Barstool and BetRivers are setting Truex’s top 10 odds at a comfortable -162. That means Truex would need to finish inside the top 10 at a 61.8% rate to break even.
Fortunately, my model gives him a 75.0% chance of doing so, making this a very nice edge.
Truex (+1500) to Win
Truex is the third favorite to win in my model, coming in at an 11.6% chance of doing so.
That equates to break-even odds around +775. So even if my model is too high on Truex, that’s well above the 6.3% implied odds that you can get at DraftKings.
By comparison, Truex is +800 at Circa, which I personally consider to be the sharpest book with NASCAR lines.
Wrap Up
To wrap this all up, you should absorb analysis from as many sources as you can. While I’m high on Truex, others may not be.
Personally, I’m on the Truex top Toyota bet and the group bet. I’m also on Truex outright, but was quick enough to snag him at 25-1 at DraftKings when it opened lines right after qualifying.
And with so many bets available that I like, please remember to gamble responsibly and only bet what you can afford to lose so you can live to bet another day should things go awry.
Over the years at Darlington Raceway, many of the same drivers tend to run up front — Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr., to name a few. This year, however, has belonged to Joey Logano. The No. 22 team will start from the pole for the second straight race at ‘The Lady in Black,’ becoming the first driver to sweep the pole position in both Darlington races since Sterling Marlin in 1992.
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin at Darlington. While 16 drivers (17, including Bubba Wallace driving the No. 45 Toyota in the owner’s bracket) chase a championship, fantasy picks get reset. Over the final 10 races, players can use any driver five times. The rules are the same, aside from the championship race at Phoenix. In alignment with NASCAR points, the four championship-eligible drivers will not earn stage points in the final race.
Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:
Starter 1: Denny Hamlin
Starter 2: Joey Logano
Starter 3: Kyle Larson
Starter 4: Martin Truex Jr.
Starter 5: Tyler Reddick
Garage pick: Ross Chastain
NEXT IN LINE: Kevin Harvick, Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric, William Byron
RISING: Christopher Bell enters the postseason flying under the radar. He’s quietly earned the most top-five and top-10 finishes of the four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers through 26 races. The No. 20 will take the green flag from second and had the 10th quickest car on the long run in practice. He also got 200 miles of experience in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, replacing Denny Hamlin.
Of drivers that aren’t battling for either the driver’s or owner’s championship, Michael McDowell was best in class on Saturday. The No. 34 car surprised again and will start the 500-mile race from 10th. Add that to the No. 34 car placing seventh in the spring race, and it shouldn’t surprise anybody to see him score another top 10 this year.
FALLING: Earlier this week, I mentioned to stay away from Daniel Suarez. His stats at Darlington are below average, with an average result of 22.3, scoring just one top 10 – and a 10th at that. The No. 99 car failed inspection three times on Saturday and couldn’t make a qualifying run. He will also have to serve a pass-through penalty once the race begins. Don’t jump on the No. 99 bandwagon this weekend.
While Chase Elliott hasn’t won at Darlington in the Cup Series yet in his career, he’s had standout runs. The 2020 champion has three top-five and five top-10 finishes in 11 starts. But the No. 9 car lacked speed on Saturday, as he qualified 23rd, lowest of the playoff drivers that were allowed to make a lap (Suárez). Given Elliott has had plenty of success at other playoff tracks, wait to use him.
FEATURED MATCHUPS:
Austin Cindric vs. Austin Dillon
Entering the weekend, Dillon had my vote. Darlington is tied with Daytona for the most top 10s he has at a single track. But Team Penske was impressive in qualifying, putting all three of its cars inside the top 10. And though starting 13th isn’t bad for the No. 3 car, Cindric ranked third on 10-lap averages.
Chase Elliott vs. Denny Hamlin
Given Hamlin is in my lineup and Elliott isn’t even in my “next in line,” it’s clear which way I’m leaning. While Elliott might manage a good day, more times than not Hamlin is in contention for the win at Darlington.
Kyle Busch vs. Kyle Larson
Frequent frontrunners at Darlington, combined Busch and Larson have just one win at Darlington. In recent years, Busch has had a good car but DNF’d in two straight races. At the same time, Larson has finished runner-up in three of his last four starts at the track. The slight advantage goes to the No. 5 team, but this is a tossup. They start fifth (Busch) and seventh (Larson), respectively.
Kevin Harvick vs. Tyler Reddick
Based on veteran instinct and recent speed, Harvick was my choice entering the weekend. However, that changed after practice and qualifying, with the No. 8 car starting fourth, his best qualifying effort on an oval since Gateway. It’s likely Harvick will maximize his race, but Darlington is a track that fits naturally in Reddick’s wheelhouse.
HANAHAN, S.C. – Kelly Brandt’s love affair with tinkering began at a young age. It’s stuck with him ever since.
“I was always intrigued by vehicles, by mechanical things. I took apart my toys as a kid,” says Brandt, a 43-year-old Wisconsin transplant now making the Charleston area his home. “We had go-karts and dirt bikes as kids growing up, so we liked to take those apart and put them back together, make ’em faster. Snowmobiles, you name it — if it had an engine in it, I was interested.”
Zack Albert | NASCAR Studios
Tweaking on toys, go-karts and dirt bikes naturally evolved into wrenching on cars. “That just kept going from there,” says Brandt, who started working at a dealership service department while still a junior in high school.
Fast-forward some 25 years later and Brandt’s lifelong passion for all things automotive is also his career. Brandt is the technical team lead and shop foreman at Rick Hendrick Chevrolet in Charleston, reaching his trade’s proficiency pinnacle as a General Motors World Class Technician.
Hendrick’s automotive group and motorsports operations will intersect this weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs get underway at Darlington Raceway. But before Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM) goes green, the NASCAR industry plans to recognize outstanding employees within each team’s partnerships as part of Workforce Appreciation Weekend, an initiative with close ties to the Labor Day holiday.
Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 Chevrolet team and driver Kyle Larson will begin their Cup Series title defense as they pay tribute to Brandt for his 16 years of dedicated service on Hendrick’s automotive side. Brandt will serve as an honorary pit crew member for the No. 5 team this weekend, and he’s already made an impression on the motorsports side as the 2017 winner of the Randy Dorton Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown.
His role has meant oversight of tech operations, but it’s also led to mentoring opportunities for the next generation of automotive technicians – another shared value that aligns with Hendrick’s emphasis on STEM initiatives. So it was natural that Brandt was on hand Friday when Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels joined several Charleston-area dealers in presenting a $25,000 grant to Hanahan High School’s auto tech program, a needed boost for the new breed learning the craft.
It’s already been a Labor Day with special meaning.
***
Painted slogans in the hallways of Hanahan High read, “Through these doors soar Hawks.” When a deep blue No. 5 Camaro with Cup Series bona fides rolled through the doors to the secondary school’s tidy auto service bay, the spirits of the eager students enrolled in auto tech studies soared as well.
Zack Albert | NASCAR Studios
“This is big. We’ve never had anything like this in our school,” says David Van Maanan, the director of Hanahan’s auto program. “So this is exciting. You should have seen the kids’ faces whenever the car rolled out. They bombarded the window, and I wouldn’t have been able to stop them. It’s just fun. It’s great. It’s all kinds of surreal.”
Van Maanan – affectionately known as Mr. V to his students – has some context for what’s precedented in Hanahan’s auto shop. He’s a 2011 graduate of the school, and he turned his experience with the auto tech program into a job at a Chevrolet dealership. When his former teacher retired a few years back, he asked if his former student was interested in being his successor. Van Maanan jumped.
Now Mr. V’s efforts are getting a spark, through the “Hendrick, Get Set. Go!” grant program. Van Maanan said the funds will go toward updating the school’s equipment, helping his students keep pace in a field where technology is ever-evolving.
“It’s so important, and it’s really awesome to be part of a company that’s committed to trying to open the doors for these kids and develop them into the future of our automotive industry,” Brandt says. “When we get these kids in here, with the kind of experience they get starting here before they even go off to technical schools, they get a really good base. But what I like about the kids that are here is a lot of them are passionate about cars. And that’s the first step.”
The passion mixed with intrigue not long after Daniels popped the hood to reveal the No. 5 Chevy’s powerplant. Students had already pored over the car’s exterior details, but here was Daniels – as a mechanical maestro with a championship pedigree – providing a masterclass.
“All relevant questions — every single one of them,” Daniels said of the hands-on interaction. “That was impressive to me. Like, my own experience with kids that I went to high school with, they would have never been capable of asking some of those questions. So already these kids have a decent base of knowledge that it was cool to see them be that excited about it, because the only way you’re going to be passionate about something is you got to know a little bit about it. They had relevant questions, meaning they knew.”
Zack Albert | NASCAR Studios
***
The groundwork for those more specific questions had been established in an assembly for nearly 150 Hanahan students focusing on STEM studies – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. At Hanahan, roughly half of those are concentrated in auto tech studies.
The trappings of a high school auditorium were all present – balloons in school colors, a stage and a projector screen among them. What wasn’t there was the usual twiddling of thumbs and vacant stares that school assemblies sometimes produce.
Zack Albert | NASCAR Studios
“I didn’t get that vibe at all, so that just makes it more fun for us, too, to see the energy that they have and what they bring to the questions that they’re asking,” Larson said. “We signed a lot of autographs, took a lot of pictures, so it was a good interaction for everybody, and I think that’s going to have a long-lasting effect on those kids. Who knows, you may reshape or shape their career path.”
Signed hats made the rounds and shared selfies launched into the socials as the visit neared its end. In one student’s case, Daniels was called upon to autograph a shoe – an unusual request, but one that the crew chief fulfilled before the student returned it to his foot.
Their Labor Day bonds will continue to grow come Sunday at Darlington, where Brandt, Van Maanan and a select group of Hanahan students will experience the racing side of the automotive spectrum as the No. 5 team’s guests.
“So then the tie-in of all this to me is pretty powerful,” Daniels says, “because yes, there is a parallel to racing that is relevant if somebody wants to go to the racing path but at the same time, you can have a fantastic career, make good money at a great place that is a Hendrick dealership and have a huge impact on the bottom line for the dealership and set yourself up really well.
“To me that is a very powerful formula to be able to teach students, hey, yes if you want to go into racing, great, but it doesn’t have to be racing. You can come work for us. You’re gonna be a huge part of our company and yes, our goal is to sell cars but it’s way more than that. And to have a family like Hendrick behind them like this, it’s pretty cool.”
OSWEGO, New York — In what has been an inconsistent season by Justin Bonsignore’s standards, Saturday’s Toyota – Bud Mod Classic 150 at Oswego Speedway was more feast than famine for the three-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion.
A decision to stay out during a late caution when leader Doug Coby pitted promoted Bonsignore to the front of the field, where he had to fend off challenges on old tires from his cousin Kyle Bonsignore, Craig Lutz, and Chuck Hossfeld to bring home his third victory on the 2022 season.
Knowing that Coby had one of the fastest cars, Bonsignore wanted to do something different that would give him an opportunity for the win, but admitted it was stressful fending off Hossefeld and the field during the closing laps.
“I don’t know if Doug just got tired of winning,” Bonsignore said. “I faked like I was coming to pit road and it was a gift getting the lead. Chucky was really good there at the end. He was actually going to spot for me tonight, but he ended up racing.
“We’ve kind of been like a bunch of brothers that have been giving each other a lot of crap lately, so this is good medicine to solve that I think.”
Although he is now tied with Coby in the win column this year, early misfortune has prevented Bonsignore from taking full control of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings.
Bonsignore’s win at Richmond Raceway was sandwiched between two finishes outside the Top 20 at New Smyrna Speedway and Riverhead Raceway. Ever since the latter race, Bonsignore has only finished outside the Top 10 once.
Even though he got the benefit of clean air at the end, Bonsignore never thought his second career victory at Oswego was a secure one, especially with Hossfeld carving his way through the field to make a late charge.
The Toyota – Bud Mod Classic 150 was only Hossfeld’s second NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start of 2022, but he made it a memorable one by getting to Bonsignore’s back bumper and using every part of the track in an attempt to pass him before settling for second.
A win for Hossfeld on Saturday would have been his first in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour since 2008. Despite coming up one spot short, Hossfeld commended everyone involved with Joe Bertuccio Sr.’s operation for giving him such a great car.
“We had some time off, which is hard on a driver,” Hossfeld said. “Our car owner Joe [Bertuccio Sr.] didn’t even come [on Saturday]. He goes to a wedding and tells us to have fun, but what a great team. I’m proud of everyone involved.”
Hossfeld has split the No. 2 Gershow Recycling Modified with Bertuccio’s son, J.R., in five races this year. Prior to Saturday’s race at Oswego, Hossfeld gave the car its best run of the year at Richmond, where he finished third behind Bonsignore and Tommy Catalano.
With another strong performance under his belt, Hossfeld believes he is getting closer to breaking a 14-year winless drought driving for Bertuccio, who he plans to celebrate with once he returns to the shop.
“I’m going to give [Bertuccio] a hug,” Hossfeld said. “He’s not the hugging type too, but he’ll be proud. He should be proud of all the people that work so hard.”
Bonsignore was thankful that Hossfeld raced him cleanly coming to the checkered flag, but also expressed relief to finally be back in Victory Lane after being hindered by numerous issues in his quest to claim a third consecutive NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour title.
Although Bonsignore still has some ground to make up against Ron Silk and Jon McKennedy, he remains optimistic about his chances to overtake both of them during the final weeks of the regular season as long as he and his team find the consistency they’ve been looking for.
“We’ve been struggling,” Bonsignore said. “We hold ourselves to a high standard and it’s been an up-and-down summer. A few issues in the summer put us behind and we haven’t had the speed or consistency week in and week out. We got it good tonight. We’re not out of the points yet either, so we’ll move on to Riverhead and see what happens.”
The third trip to Riverhead for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour this year on September 17 for the Eddie Partridge 256 presents an ideal opportunity for Bonsignore to erase more of his points deficit, as he has won there eight times during his career.
Lutz and Kyle Bonsignore finished third and fourth respectively with Matt Hirschman continuing his perfect Top 5 streak in 2022 with a fifth-place run. Completing the Top 10 were McKennedy, Coby, Bobby Santos III, Eric Goodale and Andrew Krause.
A replay of the Toyota – Bud Mod Classic 150 can be seen on USA Network on Sunday, Sept. 11 at noon.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour gets a couple of weeks off before their next race at Riverhead Raceway on September 17. The race will be streamed live on FloRacing.
DARLINGTON, S.C. — A rock ’em, sock ’em finish that unexpectedly evolved under the lights Saturday evening at Darlington Raceway had the potential to stoke all the emotions — anger, heartache, consolation — for principal contenders Sheldon Creed and Kyle Larson. Instead, it fostered an appreciation.
Creed and Larson shook hands after their slam-bang contest in the final laps of the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200, a calamitous coming-together that allowed Noah Gragson to scoot by from third place for his fourth win of the NASCAR Xfinity Series season. Creed — hungry for his first Xfinity win and a postseason clincher — came up a hard-luck second after giving no quarter to the defending Cup Series champion.
“We were kind of laughing about it,” Creed said of his post-race conversation with Larson on pit road. “Yes, I have a lot of respect for Kyle. Obviously he’s the reigning Cup champ so I knew he wasn’t going to wreck me for the win but we were gonna race really hard for it. He was just saying good job and you’ll get one so yeah, all good.”
Creed’s No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was pressed hard by Larson’s No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy down the stretch at the rugged 1.366-mile track, and their battle came to a head in the last lap. Larson actually edged out Creed at the line as the two flashed under the white flag, and the two scraped together against the outside retaining wall through Turns 1 and 2.
That contact had a twofold effect, cutting down the right-front tire on Creed’s No. 2 Camaro and allowing Gragson’s No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to close in.
Creed said the shredded tire limited his options for the final set of corners. So he floored it.
“So I just sent it into the fence and held it wide open, and I just couldn’t get away from the wall,” Creed said of his shower of sparks through Turns 3 and 4. “I don’t know. I wish the 9 (Gragson) would have hit the wall harder behind me or something to slow him down more, but congrats to him. Just happy to have a fast race car for once, honestly. Like I feel like we’ve been an eighth- to 15th-place car all year. The guys showed up with a good car this weekend.”
Larson — who had rallied from a flat tire earlier in the event, just before a nearly 2½-hour rain delay — had a fifth-place run to show for his third Xfinity start of the year, his second in team owner Rick Hendrick’s No. 17. After his contact earlier in the final lap, his car mimicked Creed’s repeated glancing off the outside wall. Gragson gave the barrier a tap as well, but his impact was the least of the three.
“It’s just fun racing. It’s just hard,” Larson said. “I mean, hard race for the win there. I’ve got a lot of respect for Sheldon. He’s a really hard racer, and it was cool to battle him for the win there. So yeah, he was racing for his first win, I was racing hard to try and get Rick a win with the 17. Just came up a little short. Had a blast, though.”
