SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Denny Hamlin said he had barely driven out of Pocono Raceway infield tunnel late Sunday when he found out that his first-finishing No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota had been disqualified. The text came from crew chief Chris Gabehart, who kept watch over the team’s car as it passed through the post-race technical inspection stations.
The vinyl car design on Hamlin’s No. 11 had already been unwrapped for a closer look by NASCAR officials. After the full teardown, Hamlin’s car — and teammate Kyle Busch’s No. 18 with it — was found with unapproved modifications to the front fascia. What would have been his 49th Cup Series win and team owner Gibbs’ 199th — both near-milestones — evaporated.
“I think it was a shock to all of us, for sure; something that hadn’t been done in 60-some years,” Hamlin said Saturday after Busch Light Pole Qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. “I thought we had one of those Richard Petty big engines in the car or something, but not this time. It’s a piece of tape, and they were pretty consistent that that’s the way that they want it starting with this new car. I just hope that it’s consistent for everybody, no matter who wins the race.”
The ruling was a first in 62 years to be more precise, dating back to race officials stripping Emanuel Zervakis of an apparent Cup Series win because of an oversized fuel tank. Sunday’s decision elevated Chase Elliott to victory, demoting Hamlin and Busch to the back of the Pocono pack.
Hamlin had at least some light-hearted social media fodder the day after the DQ, sitting down to the dinner table with the trophy and the winner’s champagne bottle. He said that the trophy had made its way to Indianapolis, but as of Saturday morning’s qualifying session, it was not yet in Elliott’s hands.
“It will be transported, yes,” Hamlin said. “I told Chase, and we had some good texts back and forth, I said, ‘The trophy is yours. You’re gonna have to fight Taylor (Hamlin’s daughter) for the flag.”
Elliott confirmed that he had not received the trophy in the wake of qualifying. “We haven’t talked about it yet, but that’s cool,” he said. “Whatever works.”
When told that delivery service FedEx — Hamlin’s sponsor — was apparently not involved in the transfer, Elliott quipped: “Yeah, it would’ve been probably cheap. They’d probably give him a good deal.”
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Kyle Busch’s openness about the unresolved nature of his contract status for 2023 has had a ripple effect for other teams in the NASCAR Cup Series garage. The two-time Cup champ admitted he’s shopped his services to other organizations as the talks for a return to Joe Gibbs Racing have lagged.
When asked about a potential link between Busch and Stewart-Haas Racing for next season, SHR senior statesman Kevin Harvick didn’t hold back.
“I’d hire Kyle Busch today,” Harvick said, “because he’d have a great impact on the performance of our team, and just the urgency to do some things better.”
Busch shed new light on the stalled negotiations in candid comments Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, saying that “obviously, it’s a mess right now.” Busch said that he was willing to re-up with JGR for a salary under his current value on the free-agent market.
SHR currently fields Fords for Harvick, Aric Almirola, Chase Briscoe and Cole Custer in the Cup Series, and Almirola has announced his intent — for now — to retire at season’s end. Among those four, only Briscoe has won this year. Harvick sits on the postseason bubble, but is the top-ranked SHR driver in the series standings in 10th, outpointing Almirola (13th), Briscoe (16th) and Custer (26th).
Harvick would not say whether SHR was a player in the Kyle Busch derby, saying only that he had not been contacted by Stewart-Haas management about Busch. But he spoke glowingly about Busch’s prospects and skill.
“There’s no way that Kyle Busch doesn’t have a lot of options,” Harvick said. “So, you know, I know there’s a lot of things that go on around Kyle. But in the end, Kyle is still one of the best that’s ever come through this garage. So there’s a lot of teams out there that can say that they’ve probably never had one of those types of drivers. You can literally rebuild a whole organization, if somebody took the chance that hasn’t had one of those types of drivers. With the right circumstances, you can rebuild a whole organization just off of his pure talent.”
Harvick has had on-track differences with Busch in the past, most notably in the 2011 season when their rivalry peaked at Darlington Raceway. But with those differences long gone, Harvick said the possibility of Busch as a teammate would raise the performance bar.
“I get along great with Kyle,” Harvick said. “We’re gonna race each other and be mad at each other, but I have a good relationship with Kyle, but I can tell you that having a teammate like Kyle makes my car run faster. Because when you have all the cars running fast, they all run faster, quicker. So, I’m 100% open to having Kyle as a teammate. I think that particular instance in itself is something that I feel … I don’t even know, I have not heard one thing about it from my organization. So I don’t even know what car it’s for, what car it’s not for. I don’t even know what the conversations would be for.”
Verizon 200 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
(⏰ 2:30 p.m. ET | 📺 NBC, NBC Sports App | 📻 IMS Radio, SiriusXM)
Everything you need to know for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race on the Indy Road Course, the 22nd regular-season event of the 2022 campaign.
Race-day info 📝
Where: Speedway, Indiana Approximate start time: 2:30 p.m. ET | Full weekend schedule TV/Radio: NBC, NBC Sports App, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio | Full TV schedule The purse: $8,671,417 Forecast: A 20% chance of showers after 2 p.m ET and mostly sunny, with a high near 82 degrees, according to NOAA.gov | Weather tracker Race distance: 82 laps | 200 miles Stages: 15 | 35 | 82 Pit-road speed: 40 mph Caution car speed: 45 mph Indy 101: Get the full lowdown
Starting lineup: Reddick wins pole
Pit stalls:Where drivers will pit
UPDATE: Kurt Busch sidelined again at Indy To the rear (as reported by NASCAR): No. 51 (Unapproved Adjustments), No. 10 (Engine Change).
Key things to watch 🔑
Big story line
There have been three races on road courses this season: Circuit of The Americas, Sonoma Raceway and Road America. Each of the races produced a driver winning their first race in the Cup Series and the respective crew chief getting their first series victory as well. For all the talk about the addition of two more ‘superspeedway-style’ races to the schedule with Atlanta Motor Speedway’s reconfiguration, road courses have been even more of a wild card than the big tracks. If Sunday’s first-time winner trend continues, there will only be one points position left in the playoff outlook. Even though there are five races remaining before the Round of 16 begins, expect Sunday’s race to have just the same playoff intensity. Will the usual road ringers shine?
Who’s hot? Who’s not?
Returning to a road course is good news for Daniel Suárez and company, where he is a winner and has another top five in the last two starts on them. Suárez, and Trackhouse Racing in general, has blazed the way around road courses this season and been a contender at all three tracks. And now, with increased confidence stemming from four consecutive finishes of ninth or better at all tracks, the momentum might be enough to spur him onto the list of multi-time winners in 2022. Don’t count him out.
A home-track race on the schedule is the perfect time for a driver to make some noise in front of an increased amount of family and friends. That is the story line for Chase Briscoe this weekend as he looks to turn his season around. Though he has a win under his belt, the March 13 victory at Phoenix Raceway feels like a lifetime ago. The No. 14 team has seven consecutive finishes of 13th or worse and only four top 10s in 21 races this season. Briscoe’s performance on road courses has also not been ideal, with five finishes of 14th or worse in his last five starts. Good fortune may be back this time around, though, as Briscoe aims to kiss the hometown bricks. His 2021 battle with Denny Hamlin showed he has the skill and prowess to get it done.
Driving under the radar
At this point in the season, there is a pretty good understanding of who will run well where — but that doesn’t always mean they will be the favorites entering the weekend. Is anyone picking Chris Buescher to win the race at Indianapolis? Perhaps not many, but Buescher and the No. 17 RFK Racing group have been shining brightly on road courses lately, registering four consecutive road-course finishes inside the top six dating back to last year’s action on the Charlotte Roval. That is a statement, not a fluke. Look for them to be strong again this weekend, pushing hard to secure the win to vault them into the playoffs.
Practice and qualifying
Tyler Reddick of Richard Childress Racing won the Busch Light Pole Award on Saturday at the Indianapolis Road Course and will lead the field to green on Sunday. It was the California-born driver’s second career pole win and his first since May of 2021 at The Circuit of The Americas, which is also a road course. Team Penske also was strong during qualifying with all three of the its drivers placing in the top six in qualifying. Austin Cindric led the way and will start alongside Reddick on the front row. Meanwhile, Joey Logano was fifth and Ryan Blaney sixth. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez, who have road-course wins at COTA and Sonoma Raceway, respectively, earlier this season both did not advance to the final round of qualifying. Chastain will start 21st and Suárez 11th. Full starting lineup | Practice results
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
Race-day staples ✅
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• Paint Scheme Preview: Dazzling schemes for Indianapolis | Pick a favorite • Power Rankings: Christopher Bell holding steady, climbing board | Updated drivers rankings • NASCAR betting: Opening odds for Sunday’s race | Underdogs, value bets • Fantasy Fastlane: Will Chase Briscoe get redemption at Indy? | Top plays, sleepers • Bubble Watch: Which drivers are close to the cutline? | Read more
Catch the pack 💨
Read up on the top headlines from the week leading up to Sunday’s race.
• Reddick wins pole: RCR driver to lead field to green on Sunday | Read more
• Kyle Busch: Sleepless nights as contract talks stall | Read more
• Erik Jones: Re-signs with Petty GMS Racing for multiple years | Read more
• Pre-qualifying inspection: Kaulig Racing, Team Hezeberg lose members | Read more
• L2 penalty: Front Row Motorsports’ No. 34 team penalized, fined | More details
• No. 24 fire: Team hauler caught on fire, everyone safe | Read more
• Joe Gibbs Racing: Nos. 11, 18 crew chiefs talk about Pocono DQs | Read more
• Race for the Championship: New Cup Series docuseries announced | Watch trailer
• Frankie in the Fastlane: Actor Frankie Muniz details NASCAR aspirations | Read more
• F1 crossover?: Ex-Formula 1 driver ready to make Cup Series debut | Read more
• Historic partnership: 3CHI becomes NASCAR’s first hemp sponsor | More details
• Debate: Does Ryan Blaney miss the playoffs? | Experts analyze
• ICYMI: @nascarcasm finally shows his face | Watch the reveal
Get in on the action 💰
Think you know NASCAR? Put your mettle to the test with gaming, fantasy.
• BetMGM: Public not sure first-time winner trend will continue | Read more
• The Action Network: Is Cole Custer a good play? | Read more
• Fantasy insight: Which drivers to avoid on Sunday | Learn more • Play it LIVE: Full guide to 2022 NASCAR Fantasy Live game | Get the FAQ
• Going all the way: 2022 Cup Series championship odds | See them here
Kissing the bricks 🧱
One of the most historic venues in motorsports, there is a lot of storied history.
• Do you remember?: Memorable moments at Indianapolis | Scroll through the gallery
• Inaugural road-course race: AJ Allmendinger wins the first Cup Series race on the layout | Full 2021 recap
• Race Rewind: Top highlights, best moments from the 2021 race | Watch the highlights
• Tension in 2021: Briscoe and Hamlin tangle on track, Allmendinger capitalizes | Watch highlights
Fast facts ⏩
Hard-hitting, race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.
• All six stage winners on road courses in 2022 finished outside the top 10. • Stage two was caution free in five of the last seven road-course races, including all three in 2022. • AJ Allmendinger won in 2021, leading only the final two laps. • The race winner started in the top 10 in the last 11 races of 2022. • There have never been more than two cautions during stage one on a road course
Say what? 🎙
Notable quotes from the stars of the sport heading into Sunday’s race.
• “I mean, even like all week I’ve just been excited to get back to Indy. Even when I got off the plane I felt like I was back home. Literally, as soon as my foot hit the ground I was like, ‘All right, it’s go time. We’re here.’ I’ve been waiting for this week all year long, so I think for sure there are butterflies every time you come here, but I tell everybody all the time if you grew up racing or in motorsports, you dream of getting to come to Indianapolis Motor Speedway and to have the privilege for that to be your hometown track and come here as a kid watching races, to me, it just makes it even more special. I think every driver in the field this weekend will tell you it’s special to be able to be here, but when you grow up literally an hour away and came here all the time as a kid it just makes it even more special. I got to see my heroes run around this place and dreamed of being on the other side of the catch fence and now I’m the guy on the racetrack that people are here watching, so it’s definitely special.” — Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
• “Indianapolis is a challenging and very unique racetrack. Hopefully, we can go there and be better than we were at Road America. I feel like we’ve gotten a little bit better at each road course so far this year. We definitely feel like we’re gaining on it, and we need to make another couple steps in the right direction to have a shot this weekend.” — Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
• “Being a part of Kaulig Racing’s first Cup Series win will always be so special to me. Heading back to Indy for the first time since then will be a surreal feeling. This is a place we have had circled on our calendar, and hopefully all the hard work will pay off.” — AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
See where your favorite Cup Series driver will pit for Sunday’s Verizon 200 at The Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, IMS Radio, SiriusXM Radio).
Tyler Reddick won the Busch Light Pole Award in qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course on Saturday morning.
The third-year driver posted a blistering lap at 99.378 mph, besting second-place starter Austin Cindric (99.095 mph) by 0.252 seconds for Reddick’s second career pole. Reddick scored his first pole at Circuit of The Americas in March 2021 and earned his first Cup Series victory at Road America on July 3.
Completing the top five for Sunday’s Verizon 200 at The Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) were Chase Briscoe (98.962 mph), Christopher Bell (98.721 mph) and Joey Logano (98.476 mph).
“It actually didn’t (feel that good),” Reddick said. “That’s what prompted me to want to re-run there. It ended up being a good enough lap. I could have done a better job, but it was nice to know that … we really did such a good job — everyone at RCR and the ECR power under this hood.
“Just this whole group on the No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet team did a really good job of preparing the last couple of weeks for this race. It looks like we’re picking right back up where we left off at Road America.”
Blaney completed the Team Penske hat trick as all three of their Fords advanced to the final round of qualifying and will roll off sixth on Sunday. Both of Front Row Motorsports’ Fords advanced as well, as Michael McDowell qualified seventh and rookie Todd Gilliland ninth. Road ace Chase Elliott posted the eighth-best lap and Kyle Busch qualified 10th.
Despite each driver winning a road race this season, neither of Trackhouse Racing’s entries broke into the top 10 in Indianapolis qualifying. Sonoma winner Daniel Suárez qualified 11th and Ross Chastain, who was victorious at COTA, takes the green from 21st.
Former Formula One driver Daniil Kyvat makes his NASCAR Cup Series debut Sunday piloting the No. 26 Toyota for Team Hezemans and qualified 36th in the 38-car field. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will start 38th.
PRACTICE
Austin Cindric and Christopher Bell paced Groups A and B, respectively, in Saturday morning’s practice sessions. Overall, Cindric’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford at 98.467 mph was over Daniel Suárez, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain and Bell.
The sessions were run without major issue, though some drivers learned the Next Gen’s braking points were different than they expected around the 2.439-mile road course. Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe both went deep into the braking zone in Turn 1 and were forced to make U-turns, while Erik Jones did the same in Turn 12.
Corey LaJoie and Cody Ware each spun their cars at the exit of Turn 11 but suffered no damage.
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Kyle Busch said Saturday that he is willing to re-sign for under his value on the NASCAR Cup Series free-agent market, adding that “there are a lot of sleepless nights” as the contract negotiations have crept along.
Busch’s candid remarks came ahead of pole qualifying for Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, IMS Radio, SiriusXM) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. It’s the latest in a series of updates on the prolonged talks that will determine where the two-time Cup champion lands for the 2023 season.
“I don’t think money has ever been the objective or ever been the issue,” Busch said. “Obviously, I know what the sports landscape is, I know what’s happening. The talk from my side was that I know there need to be concessions made and to race for under my market value, and I’ve accepted that and told everybody that and just trying to see where all that lies.”
Busch reiterated Saturday that he has been in discussions with other teams as he weighs his options for next season. But Busch also restated that his primary focus is brokering a deal that keeps him in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota, the seat he’s occupied since 2008.
“I feel as though I’ve said and I’ll continue to say my first goal is to stay at Joe Gibbs Racing,” Busch said. “But if the musical chairs music stops, and I’m still standing and I don’t have a seat, I’m screwed. So I have to make sure that I continue to talk and evaluate each place and each situation to find something.”
With each week that’s gone by without a deal or an announced sponsor to replace Mars/M&M’s, the Silly Season conjecture has continued to churn. Busch said some of the wilder rumors had entertained him. Hearing the suggestion he might leave NASCAR to run a barnstorming schedule in other racing disciplines, Busch said that option is “probably the farthest down on my list,” though he would not rule it out.
“You definitely get a kick out of it. It’s kind of funny, because there’s actually some ideas thrown that I haven’t thought of,” Busch said. “You’re like, ‘oh, I might want to explore that one.’ But obviously, it’s a mess right now. And so, just trying to sort through it all the best I can. And really, there’s a lot of factors that go into this, and really, I don’t want to be going through this.
“Still my first option, my first goal, my first set is to be at Joe Gibbs Racing and stay with Toyota and have nothing change. But that unicorn hasn’t fallen out of the sky for 20 million bucks or whatever it is, and I don’t think it needs to be that number because obviously, there’s a number in that that then pays a driver and I’ve already said that I’m willing to take concessions and race for under my market value and go forward and being able to stay in the seat that I’ve made home for the last 15 years.”
The contract uncertainty has loomed as a dominant story line for Busch’s 2022 season. Busch’s on-track performance has been no slouch, as he sits eighth in the Cup Series points with a victory on Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt.
The last six races have brought a series of struggles, with nary a top-10 outcome in the bunch and five finishes of 20th or worse. Those woes have synced with the lingering contract limbo, but crew chief Ben Beshore said the two trajectories were coincidental.
“We’ve had a rough last six weeks here of not getting the finishes that we’re used to getting, so that on top of the contracts … the reason we’re not finishing well doesn’t have anything to do with contract talks or anything like that,” Beshore told NASCAR.com. “We had a really fast car last week. It doesn’t affect me and the guys at the shop as far as building the cars and everything, and Kyle’s put in a lot of effort at the shop and on the weekends and he’s dialed in. We’re all trying to finish the best we can every week. So I don’t feel like it’s a distraction at all.”
As for his future, Busch said the discussions have ranged from the short term to longer-range plans and everything in between.
“I mean, anything’s on the table,” Busch said. “We’re talking ’23 options. We’re talking ’24 options. We’re talking long term. Everybody and everything. So the whiteboard is quite full.”
A year after nearly scoring his first-career Cup Series win at his home race track of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Chase Briscoe returns for his second Cup race on the road-course layout.
There’s already a specific prestige racing at Indianapolis for any driver, but for a Hoosier like Briscoe, he said there’s a feeling different than anything else.
“It’s a different type of pressure,” Briscoe said. “I’ve joked around with Tony (Stewart) about it but you just go to this different level. It’s weird. I wish I could do it at other race tracks, but I feel like you’re so determined every time you go there and to put on for the state of Indiana.
“I remember just going there and dreaming about what it would be like to be on the other side of the fence and now to be on the other side is special.”
As results go, Briscoe certainly backs up going to that different level as he scored two top 10s on the oval layout in the Xfinity Series before winning the inaugural event on the road-course layout in 2020. Last season, Briscoe led 12 laps in the Cup Series’ debut on the road course and was in contention for the win late but was penalized for cutting the course in a tight battle with Denny Hamlin that led him to settle for a 26th-place result.
Entering Sunday, Briscoe is in a much different situation when it comes to the playoff picture.
Last season at Indy, the 27-year-old was in a must-win situation to reach the playoffs. That’s not the case this year because, in March, Briscoe scored his first Cup win at Phoenix Raceway. While a win initially guarantees drivers a playoff spot, there have already been 14 drivers to score a win and secure one of the 16 positions for the postseason.
With five races still remaining for the playoffs, there’s a scenario where more than 16 drivers could win a race before the playoffs begin. Briscoe could be the odd man out if that were to occur as he’s toward the bottom of single-race winners in points. He will enter Sunday two points ahead of Kurt Busch in what could be a points battle for playoff position.
“It definitely makes it hard from a strategy standpoint,” Briscoe said. “We kinda have to go for points during the stages which, in turn, can make it harder to win the race. We feel like we have a chance to win but you have to take those guaranteed points. We will have to figure it out as the day goes on unlike last year, where we were in a must-win situation.”
“ … If you grow up in motorsports, you dream of going to Indianapolis. That’s the one place you want to race at and it’s probably the most prestigious racetrack in the world.”
Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard is scheduled at 2:30 p.m. ET and can be viewed on NBC and the NBC Sports App, and can be listened to on IMS Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Petty GMS Motorsports announced Saturday that Erik Jones will remain in the No. 43 Chevrolet with a newly signed multiyear deal.
News of the contract extension came before the start of Saturday’s on-track activity for the NASCAR Cup Series at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in preparation for Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, NBC Sports App, IMS Radio, SiriusXM).
Jones, 26, joined the Richard Petty-owned team in 2021. He remained as the driver of the iconic No. 43 when the organization grew to a two-car team this season, after a merger with Maury Gallagher’s GMS Racing operation. Saturday’s announcement keeps him in the fold for 2023 and beyond.
“It’s been a few years since I’ve really had a multiyear deal,” Jones said Saturday before Cup Series qualifying. “I’ve been kind of running out one-year deals for the last two or three years at this point in my career. And that’s not necessarily — something I kind of wanted to do is trying to find the right home, the right place where I was comfortable. So I finally found somewhere where I feel like I’m happy and feel like we’re growing and heading the right way. Petty GMS and Maury came to me with a multiyear offer, and I thought that was something that was going to be good for all of us. So, just happy to get it done.”
Jones said he officially signed the contract last Sunday morning, pre-race at Pocono Raceway. He said he’d entertained the idea of timing the announcement for next weekend at Michigan International Speedway in his home state, but opted against delaying the long-expected move.
“It was something that I think everybody kind of knew was going to happen, so it wasn’t going to be a big shock,” Jones said. “So I felt like today, it was a good day to do it.”
Jones is a two-time winner in Cup Series competition, prevailing at two of the sport’s most historic venues — Daytona International Speedway (2018) and Darlington Raceway (2019). He made his 200th Cup Series start in June at Nashville Superspeedway.
Jones began his career in the Toyota pipeline of prospects, famously attracting the eye of Kyle Busch as he competed in Late Models. He later brought Busch’s Camping World Truck Series team a championship in 2015, collecting seven victories in a three-year span.
The Michigan native joined the Cup Series full time in 2017 for Furniture Row Racing, which was then an affiliate of Joe Gibbs Racing. He soon shifted to JGR’s No. 20 team, where he remained for three seasons before being replaced by Christopher Bell.
Jones wound up 24th in the series standings last season, scoring six top-10 finishes. This season has marked a year of modest improvement — Jones is 18th in the Cup Series points, with seven top 10s and two top fives to date.
Petty’s team had operated as a single-car operation since 2017. This year’s expansion brought in Gallagher as a co-owner and Ty Dillon as a teammate, driving the No. 42 — another car number dear to the Petty family’s legacy.
The team previously announced that Dillon would not return to the No. 42 Chevrolet next year. With that ride open, Jones said he’s had some feedback for team officials on who might fill the seat.
“They kind of asked me what I thought about future drivers and gave them a few names and guys who I thought deserved an opportunity and could make good use of it, would be good teammates, good team players,” Jones said. “And so, I think they’re kind of going through that and getting down to it, right. Getting around ready to make a decision and getting close on it. So we’ll see. Like I said, I think they’re close on that one as well. I think they’ll have something there to announce hopefully soon, but they did give me some input on that.”
Grant Enfinger picked a fine time to win his first race of the season.
Charging to the front on fresh tires after the TSport 200 went to overtime on Friday night, Enfinger passed Zane Smith for the lead on Lap 206 of 207 and went on to win the first event in the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs.
In the return of the series to Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park for the first time since 2011, Enfinger beat runner-up Ben Rhodes to the finish line by 0.477. Rhodes passed Smith on the final lap to secure the second spot.
With his first victory since 2020 and the seventh of his career, Enfinger gained automatic advancement to the second round of the playoffs after a regular season that saw a lackluster performance by his GMS Racing team and a reunion with veteran crew chief Jeff Hensley before the July 9 race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
It was Hensley who brought Enfinger to pit road for a tire change after Carson Hocevar knocked Colby Howard into the outside wall on Lap 191 of 200. That call proved decisive.
“We’ve just been off a little bit as an organization,” Enfinger said. “We’ve been working so hard because we’ve been sucking. It hurts to say it, but we’ve had a terrible season to this point. But we had a great Chevrolet all day. It felt like every time we got into the lead, a caution came out, and it put Hensley in a bad spot. I knew from experience to just trust his gut.”
Zane Smith held third in a finish that was not without controversy. The playoff’s top seed entering the race, Smith had crowded Chandler Smith into the outside wall earlier in the event, damaging both trucks.
Zane Smith also sustained damage in a three-truck incident involving Lawless Allen and Chase Purdy, but he brought his No. 38 Ford to pit road for fresh tires on Lap 156 and worked his way forward over the closing 40 laps.
On the final restart on Lap 206, Zane Smith pinched eventual 10th-place finisher John Hunter Nemechek into the outside wall and took the top spot until Enfinger made the winning pass.
It was Nemechek, though, who sent the race to overtime when he spun race leader Taylor Gray in Turn 3 on Lap 199 of a scheduled 200.
Nemechek insisted the accident was unintentional.
“Sometimes you’re the bug and sometimes you’re the windshield, and tonight we were the bug,” said Nemechek, who led a race-high 75 laps and won the first stage. “I made a mistake early on and spun myself, and we had a restart there at the end on old tires.
“Everybody had fresher tires. I tried driving down in the bottom of (Turn) 3 underneath the 17 (Gray), and I just kept sliding and accidentally got into his left rear. I tried to stay off him. That team has their opinion, I have my opinion, and I’m sure we’ll talk at some point.”
Playoff driver Stewart Friesen finished fourth behind Zane Smith, followed by Corey Heim, Tyler Ankrum and Layne Riggs in his debut. Playoff drivers Ty Majeski, Matt Crafton and Nemechek completed the top 10.
Those results left Crafton and 16th-place finisher Christian Eckes seven points below the current cut line. After the third race of the first round, the playoff field will be trimmed from 10 drivers to eight. Hocevar is eighth in the standings, seven points to the good.
The penultimate race in the Round of 10 is Saturday, August 13 at Richmond Raceway (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Nemechek won at Richmond in 2021.
NOTE: Inspection is complete in the Truck Series garage with no issues, confirming Enfinger as the race winner.
McKennedy has worked tirelessly since his first victory in 2018 to get another NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory and was simultaneously thrilled and relieved to accomplish that goal in a car prepared by Tim Lepine.
“This was way overdue,” McKennedy said. “I had a really good deal with Tommy Baldwin Racing and we had so many seconds and poles with Tommy. We were always in contention, but just couldn’t get that W the last few years. We’re back [in Victory Lane] and it’s awesome.”
For the first time since 2018, Jon McKennedy is a #NWMT winner!
The Clash at Claremont 150 was a relatively peaceful outing for McKennedy. Once he passed rookie Jake Johnson for the lead in the opening laps, McKennedy set the pace and finished the night uncontested ahead of the rest of his competition.
Despite breaking his long dry spell, McKennedy was unable to bring home the $5,000 paycheck that came with winning the Whelen Granite State Short Track Cup.
That honor belonged to veteran Matt Hirschman, whose fourth-place finish in the Clash at Claremont 150 allowed him to edge out NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship leader Ron Silk by two points to claim the honor.
Hirschman, who has been a part-time Whelen Modified Tour competitor since 2016, was honored to bring home the inaugural Whelen Granite State Short Track Cup and said the initiative highlights the need for fans and competitors to support Modified racing in the Northeast.
“I probably wouldn’t have gone to all three races had they not been tied together with a bonus,” Hirschman said. “I remember going to Beech Ridge last year and they thanked me for coming. Stuff like that is appreciated, and I talked to my car owner [Roy Hall] about [the Granite State Short Track Cup] and he said this is something we should support.”
The Granite State Short Track Cup was far from a smooth experience for Hirschman, who saw a win in the series’ second race at Monadnock Speedway slip away late after contact with the lapped car of J.B. Fortin.
Hirschman still thinks about that near miss at Monadnock, but considers himself fortunate the outcome did not significantly hinder his chances of winning the Whelen Granite State Short Track Cup. He also expressed his gratitude to JDV Productions and the full-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour drivers for mostly racing him clean during the three-race series.
Matt Hirschman, driver of No. 60 PeeDee Motorsports Modified car, after winning the inaugural Whelen Granite State Short Track Cup championship during the Clash at Claremont 150 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Claremont Motorsports Park on July 29, 2022. (Photo: Rachel O’Driscoll/NASCAR)
“I don’t think I’ve ever won a three-race series that paid that much to the champion,” Hirschman said. “This is certainly appreciated. The guys that we were contending with are in for the big prize during the whole season. Hopefully they have a good race up until the end, but we’ll join them a couple of more times.”
One of those drivers expected to contend for the championship is McKennedy, who trailed Silk by 10 points entering the Clash at Claremont 150 and is expected to trim that deficit slightly as the 2011 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion finished right behind him in second.
Now that he has a win during the 2022 season, McKennedy feels confident heading into the final six races on the schedule and believes that he can overtake Silk in the standings and add a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship to his resume.
“This gives us some momentum heading into the last handful of races,” McKennedy said. “We’re heading to Thompson next, which is a really great track for me. I feel really good, and we’ll be going to Thompson with a brand new car, so hopefully that’ll give us a little extra.”
Johnson followed McKennedy and Silk in the running order with a third-place finish. Kyle Bonsignore finished behind Hirschman to complete the top-five.
Rounding out the top-10 were Justin Bonsignore, Tommy Catalano, Brian Robie, Doug Coby and Matthew Kimball.
A replay of the Clash at Claremont 150 at Claremont Motorsports Park can be seen on the USA Network on Friday, Aug. 5 at 1 p.m.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to action on Wednesday, Aug. 17 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. The race can be streamed live on FloRacing.
