Ross Chastain converts last-lap pass, wins Talladega thriller

Posted on April 24, 2022April 25, 2022 by Holly Cain

One lap. That’s all it took for Ross Chastain to drop a watermelon and raise a trophy in celebration. The 29-year-old Floridian led only the last — typically frantic — lap in the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday to take his second career NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Chastain was running third behind Erik Jones and Kyle Larson with one lap remaining. Larson pulled out of line to the outside, poised to make a pass for the lead. But Jones pulled in front of Larson to block the momentum while Chastain kept his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet steady below them maintaining pace, ultimately pulling away to the win as the other two cars lost momentum battling each other.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

“Holy cow, we didn’t do anything,’’ Chastain yelled on his team radio after taking the checkered flag by a mere 0.105 seconds. “We just stayed down there.’’

And it worked.

“I’m always the one going to the top too early and making the mistake and there at the end, with like eight (laps) to go I was like ‘I’m not going up there again, I did that a couple times today,’ ” said Chastain, who earned his first career series victory at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas on March 27.

“I was like, I’ll just drive the bottom, I’m not going to lose the race for us. They just kept going up and moving out of the way.”

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon crossed the line in second, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch while the Hendrick Motorsports driver Larson was able to finish fourth for his first top-five finish in a superspeedway race in 31 tries.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was fifth followed by Jones, who came less than one lap away from giving Petty GMS Motorsports and team owner Richard Petty its first win since 2014.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

“Just the last lap, it’s typical here,’’ said a disappointed Jones, who finished sixth. “I’ve been close here so many times in this race and the fall race.’’

“Looking back,’’ he continued. “I wish I’d stayed in the bottom but didn’t realize they were coming with that much speed. Tried to defend the 5 (Larson), but was too far ahead already and obviously it opened the door for the 1 (Chastain).

He did take solace in the showing, however.

“Happy to run up front and lead laps, just would really love to get that 43 to Victory Lane and thought today might be the day,’’ Jones said. “We were fast all day long, had speed and especially being out front there at the end I know we had a shot, just couldn’t quite close it out.’’

Larson was equally as disappointed hoping to turn his best race performance at Talladega into a trophy.

“I felt like I did a pretty near perfect job for me at a superspeedway until the last lap there,’’ said Larson, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion. “I should have faked going high and gone back low. I had that run there.’

“Just that little inexperience there, probably,’’ he added.

Larson’s Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott, a former Talladega winner, finished seventh, followed by former Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell, Hendrick’s Alex Bowman and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick.

The race ending capped off a typically dramatic day featuring 41 lead changes among 16 drivers. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron led a race-best 38 of the 188 laps and won Stage 2, but finished 15th, unable to make up ground after his final pit stop in the dicey closing laps.

Bubba Wallace, who won last fall at Talladega and led 15 laps on Sunday, won Stage 1 — his first stage win of the season — but as with Byron, lost positions in the final laps. He was involved in a wreck coming to the checkered flag and finished 17th in the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota.

A multi-car crash on a Stage 2 restart thinned the field of contenders. Joey Logano’s No. 22 Ford was shuffled out of line into the outside retaining wall, bouncing back into traffic and collecting several others. The No. 99 Chevrolet of Daniel Suárez, who had led 28 laps early, joined the cars of Logano, Ty Dillon and Harrison Burton among the eliminated.

MORE: Logano, Suárez out early

Elliott’s top-10 result was good enough for him to extend the championship lead over the 11th-place finisher, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney. He’s now 21 points up on the field heading to Dover Motor Speedway next weekend, where the NASCAR Cup Series will race Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bowman is the defending race winner.

Note: Post-race inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage without issue, confirming Chastain’s victory. NASCAR officials indicated that six cars (Nos. 4, 5, 6, 11, 19 and 48) will be taken back to the wind tunnel and NASCAR’s R&D Center for further inspection.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on April 24, 2022May 1, 2022 by Staff Report

Which channels have NASCAR programming this week? We answer that and give the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.

Note: All times are ET.

Monday, April 25
4:30 a.m., NASCAR Cup Series: GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (re-air), FS1
10 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway (re-air), FS2
1 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m. Motormouths, Peacock

Tuesday, April 26
Noon, ARCA Menards Series: General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway (re-air), FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (re-air), FS1

Wednesday, April 27
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6 p.m., Motormouths, Peacock
9 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (re-air), FS2

Thursday, April 28
Midnight, NASCAR Xfinity Series: Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway (re-air), FS2
3 a.m., ARCA Menards Series: General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway (re-air), FS2
5 a.m., The NASCARcade, FS2
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Radioactive — Dover, FS1

Friday, April 29
3 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Qualifying at Dover Motor Speedway, FS1
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
8:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Qualifying at Dover Motor Speedway (re-air), FS1
10 p.m., NASCAR Race Classics: 2011 Daytona 500 (re-air), FS1

On MRN:
5:30 p.m., ARCA Menards Series East: General Tire 125 at Dover Motor Speedway

Saturday, April 30
4:30 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Qualifying at Dover Motor Speedway (re-air), FS1
7:30 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Qualifying at Dover Motor Speedway (re-air), FS2
9 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Qualifying at Dover Motor Speedway (re-air), FS1
10:30 a.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Qualifying at Dover Motor Speedway, FS1
12:30 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: Xfinity Series at Dover, FS1
1:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: A-Game 200 at Dover Motor Speedway, FS1 (Canada: TSN5)
11 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Qualifying at Dover Motor Speedway (re-air), FS1

On MRN:
10:30 a.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Qualifying at Dover Motor Speedway
1 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: A-Game 200 at Dover Motor Speedway

Sunday, May 1
1 a.m., NACAR Xfinity Series: A-Game 200 at Dover Motor Speedway (re-air), FS1
6 a.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Qualifying at Dover Motor Speedway (re-air), FS2
8 a.m., NACAR Xfinity Series: A-Game 200 at Dover Motor Speedway (re-air), FS2
2 p.m., NASCAR RaceDay: Cup Series at Dover, FS1
3 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Duramax Drydene 400 presented by Reladyne at Dover Motor Speedway, FS1 (Canada: TSN5) POSTPONED UNTIL MONDAY AT NOON ET ON FS1
3 p.m., IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, NBC

On MRN:
2 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Duramax Drydene 400 presented by Reladyne at Dover Motor Speedway

Posted on April 24, 2022 by Terrin Waack

TALLADEGA, Ala. — A week later, there’s still no bad blood between Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe.

Last Sunday, at Bristol Motor Speedway, Briscoe tried to pass Reddick for the lead on the last lap but failed and ended up spinning both cars. As soon as Briscoe parked on pit road, he went to find and apologize to Reddick.

“Just because I didn’t lose my mind, right, that doesn’t mean I’m OK with what happened,” Reddick said at Talladega Superspeedway. “That still sucked.”

Others reacted strongly. NASCAR fans, fellow drivers and casual viewers might have thought a fight was justified. Even crew members of Reddick’s team were disappointed Briscoe didn’t pay for his actions.

“Certainly there’s people that I work with that have been doing this a lot longer than I have on the Cup level that haven’t won,” Reddick said. “And just everyone’s path to how they got here and what their story is, we’re a little bit different, so that, I guess I can understand why they’re more outwardly frustrated than I was.”

The victory would have also been a first in the Cup Series for Reddick. Instead, he finished second. That adds to the lack-of-reaction confusion.

Meanwhile, Briscoe — who ultimately came in 22nd but already won this season at Phoenix Raceway — hasn’t received nearly as much negative feedback as Reddick this past week.

“For him, it was a kind of a totally different situation, right?” Briscoe said. “I think people expected him to be mad, there was no reason for me to be mad. … I was glad to see that he was smiling when I got there. And I was glad that how the racing deal worked out, it ended up being with a dirt guy just because I felt like we both understood where the move was coming from and the intent behind it.”

Reddick said as much, too. He believed Briscoe when he said the spin wasn’t intentional. The shared dirt background simmered any anger. There’s no desire for revenge.

Briscoe’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Kevin Harvick, can’t relate, but he can understand.

“That’s the way those guys are wired, man,” Harvick said. “You watch all those dirt races, that’s how you do it. I just watched another one last night from Port City, (Oklahoma). So, you know, the midget race ended in a tip-over with the second-place car sliding the leader. Apparently that’s just how it seems to always go. Or it goes that way a lot of times. And as you saw afterwards, those guys are apparently pretty used to it.”

Had it been Bristol’s normal concrete surface, even Reddick admits the post-race story would have been completely different. But it wasn’t. It was dirt.

And it was Easter. Families were present. His son was there.

“I feel like my reaction to it was the right one,” Reddick said. “I still stand by that.”

Posted on April 24, 2022April 24, 2022 by Team Release

CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA — Getting from point A to point B the fastest way possible is at the very core of a successful NASCAR Cup Series racing organization. Trackhouse Racing’s new partner, Dallas-based freight and logistics giant Worldwide Express, will deliver just that to the rising, second-year racing team over the next two years.

Trackhouse announced today the global logistics provider will serve as the primary sponsor of Ross Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet for 17 races over the next two seasons and four more times on the No. 99 Chevrolet of Daniel Suárez.

Trackhouse Racing

The stunning blue and black primary scheme will be on full display on May 3 on the No. 99 with Suárez during a track test session at Pocono Raceway.

The Worldwide Express paint scheme will debut in competition on Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet at the NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, just miles away from the company’s headquarters.

“We are proud to partner with Trackhouse Racing,” said Rob Rose, president of Worldwide Express. “Trackhouse has been one of the most exciting and interesting teams in 2022. Everyone wants to win, but Justin Marks’ approach is setting them up to win even bigger in the long-term. The obsession with excellence and continuous improvement, down to the last detail, is what sets their program apart. This is directly aligned with the business approach shared by Worldwide Express employees, franchisees and agents.”

Worldwide Express, along with its sister brands of GlobalTranz and Unishippers, is among the top non-asset logistics providers in the country, offering marketing-leading solutions for parcel, less-than-truckload (LTL) and truckload shipping and managed transportation services delivered through proprietary technology. Due to the company’s unique data assets and business intelligence capabilities, more than 115,000 shippers, from small and mid-size to enterprise businesses, benefit from enhanced visibility and efficiency for their supply chains.

Trackhouse Racing is in its second season in the Cup Series. Florida native Chastain gave the organization its first victory on March 27 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Both he and Suárez, the Cup Series’ only Mexican driver and former Xfinity Series champion, have contended for victory at several races this season.

“Partnering with someone like Worldwide Express has been one of the goals since establishing Trackhouse Racing,” said Trackhouse Founder and owner Justin Marks who brought in entertainer Pitbull as a team partner last year as part of its off-track effort to expand the sport’s fan base beyond its normal demographic.

“Worldwide Express is a powerful brand and we want to expand its reach among our vast ecosystem of American industry connections and within the sport. We also want Worldwide Express to show Trackhouse Racing how it does business and learn what we can from such a successful company.”

Chastain said the benefits of a partnership with Worldwide Express is a two-way street and will provide Trackhouse with many dividends.

“I have already spent time with (Worldwide Express President) Rob (Rose) and it’s fascinating how complex and successful their business is in this age of global supply challenges. They handle so many challenges with ease, I can’t help but thinking that mindset will help our race team on and off the track.”

Suarez echoed his teammate’s comments.

“Surrounding yourself with good people is one of the keys to success,” he said. “Worldwide Express has the same drive and desire for success that we do at Trackhouse Racing.”

Posted on April 24, 2022 by PJ Walsh

The Action Network specializes in providing sports betting insights/analytics and is a content partner with NASCAR. Check out more NASCAR betting analysis here.

Pack racing at NASCAR superspeedways like Talladega is unpredictable.

I know. Thanks for the news flash, right?

However, due to this unpredictability there are often opportunities to get favorites at better prices than normal because, just like us, oddsmakers have a difficult time predicting who will win these races as well.

And with pack racing also comes surprise winners, meaning there are more live long shots further down that odds board than at most other tracks.

So, for Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, I’m embracing the unpredictability and betting on these three drivers.

NASCAR Betting Picks for Talladega

*Odds as of Sunday morning

Brad Keselowski (+1500 at Caesars) to Win

Keselowski has six career NASCAR Cup Series wins at Talladega, which is tied with Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the most victories ever at the track.

Yeah, that’s pretty good company.

And while Keselowski has clearly seen a massive step down in equipment after leaving Team Penske to take on a role as a driver/owner at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing this season, he proved that there is little-to-no downgrade at superspeedways in February at Daytona.

Keselowski and teammate Chris Buescher swept the Duel races, showing their equipment is plenty fast at superspeedways, before Kes posted the best average running position and led the most laps en route to a ninth-place finish in the Daytona 500.

Buescher was no slouch in the 500 either, with Keselowski and eventual-winner Austin Cindric the only drivers to finish with better average running positions.

In Keselowski, we’re getting one of the best ever at Talladega in top-level superspeedway equipment at the enticing price of 15-1 odds.

William Byron (+1800 at DraftKings) to Win

Not only does Byron have a win at Daytona under his belt from 2020, but he has also been extremely fast in the Next Gen car at these types of race tracks so far this season.

Byron was in second place in the Daytona 500 just before the end of Stage 1 before getting taken out in a wreck that was not of his doing.

And while I don’t think Atlanta is a perfect comp to Talladega, it raced much like a superspeedway event following the offseason reconfiguring. And who won that race while leading the most laps and posting the best driver rating?

Lord Byron.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (+3500 at Caesars) to Win

At this point I don’t need to sell myself on the fact that Stenhouse is a very good superspeedway racer, so he was already on my mind heading into Talladega.

However, his stats at Daytona and Atlanta earlier this season were actually better than I initially assumed.

Despite just a 28th-place finish in the Daytona 500 due to a crash late in the race, Stenhouse was still tied for sixth in average running position while leading the fifth-most laps.

Again, Stenhouse’s finishing position of 31st at Atlanta is nothing to write home about, but it’s the underlying metrics that matter.

In that race Stenhouse was leading when a cut tire forced him to spin and eventually get slammed by Austin Cindric, ending his day.

At 35-1, I’ll gladly back a very good superspeedway performer, especially considering how much better he was at Daytona and Atlanta than his finishing positions indicated.

Posted on April 24, 2022April 24, 2022 by Dustin Albino

Whenever NASCAR visits a superspeedway, typically, Hendrick Motorsports is the favorite for the pole. Not this time around at Talladega, as Joe Gibbs Racing — and Toyota as a whole — showed up, with Christopher Bell earning his second pole of the season. But how much does qualifying matter at Talladega? Not one iota, except for pit stall selection.

Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:
Starter 1: Brad Keselowski
Starter 2: Ryan Blaney
Starter 3: Bubba Wallace
Starter 4: Kurt Busch
Starter 5: Justin Haley
Garage pick: Austin Dillon

NEXT IN LINE: William Byron, Aric Almirola, Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric.

RELATED: Set your lineup | Starting lineup | More advice

RISING: You won’t see Martin Truex Jr. on my list this weekend, but surely, he helped his case in many fantasy players’ eyes on Saturday with a second-place qualifying run. It’s hard to neglect the 2017 champion’s past on superspeedways, going winless in 68 starts. But hey, he was 0-for-80 on short tracks before winning in 2019 at Richmond and hasn’t yet stopped.

There’s no sugarcoating it, Kurt Busch has had a tough start to the 2022 season. It’s been feast or famine, scoring four top-10 finishes in nine events, but three results of 32nd or worse in the past four races. Although Busch has just one win on a superspeedway (2017 Daytona 500), he typically gets to the front and is competitive. Plus, Toyota looks to have brought some additional horsepower this weekend.

In his three-year Xfinity Series stint for Kaulig Racing, Justin Haley proved to be elite on superspeedways. After winning his first race in June 2020 at Talladega, he went on to win three straight (only the third driver to ever do that and first not named Earnhardt). Want an underdog this weekend? Here you go.

FALLING: As noted earlier, qualifying doesn’t matter at Talladega, so a 26th-place starting position for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. shouldn’t be concerning. However, it’s on par with the start he’s gotten off to this season, sitting 29th in points. Still, don’t be surprised to see the No. 47 car up front on Sunday.

The absolute biggest surprise in qualifying was Hendrick Motorsports not winning the pole. More shocking was Alex Bowman ranked 27th and Chase Elliott 28th. But after not being awfully competitive in the Daytona 500 earlier this year (led just two laps), maybe HMS is honing in more on race setup.

FEATURED MATCHUPS

Tyler Reddick vs. Chase Briscoe: Given the last lap of the Bristol Dirt Race last week, it’s fitting these two are matched up against one another. When it comes to superspeedway racing, the nod goes to Reddick, having won an Xfinity race in 2019 at Talladega. However, Briscoe did earn his first top-five finish in the Cup Series earlier this year in the Daytona 500.

Bubba Wallace vs. Denny Hamlin: Ah, driver against boss. In the modern era, one could argue Hamlin is the best superspeedway driver in the field. But it’s hard to bet against Wallace’s three straight top-two finishes on superspeedways and being the most recent winner at Talladega.

Brad Keselowski vs. Joey Logano: Speaking of being elite on superspeedways, both Keselowski and Logano fit that mold. Man, these two drivers are fun to watch at Daytona and Talladega due to their aggressive nature. That bit Keselowski in February, but he needs a good finish — or win — this weekend. We’ve seen him have walk-off wins at the 2.66-mile layout before.

Ryan Blaney vs. Chase Elliott: Blaney, too, is aggressive on superspeedways. His recent track record at Talladega is better than Elliott’s, so go with the No. 12 car.

Posted on April 23, 2022 by Terrin Waack

TALLADEGA, Ala. — A mere 0.131 seconds is all that separated an Earnhardt from Victory Lane once again at Talladega Superspeedway.

On the final overtime restart of Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, Jeffrey Earnhardt fired off from eighth. He made his way up to fifth by the last lap. And then, as the top five completed their final trip around the 2.66-mile track, Earnhardt raced his way into second place come checkers.

“Well, I had feelings on that last lap that there must have been an Earnhardt behind the wheel based on the things he was doing,” FOX Sports analyst Larry McReynolds said. “The apple didn’t roll too far from the dad’s tree or the granddad’s tree.”

RELATED: Official results | Weekend schedule

Jeffrey was driving an all-black No. 3 car that matched the one his grandfather, seven-time Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt, made iconic. Dale, a 2010 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, died in 2001. Richard Childress Racing provided him the ride, his first with the organization. Dale won a record 10 Cup Series races at Talladega.

Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

McReynolds, for the first time in NASCAR since 2000 and overall first time in the Xfinity Series, tapped in as crew chief. McReynolds worked with Dale from 1997-98, even winning the 1998 Daytona 500 as a team. It was his last of 23 victories.

“He was a pro, man,” Jeffrey said. “Just hearing that man’s voice on the box just makes you want to go out there and be hungry to win a race. Knowing the relationship that he had with my grandpa, and the work that they got to do together, just makes it all that much more special.”

The two even earned the pole position, Jeffrey’s first-ever in 136 career Xfinity Series starts. The runner-up result was also his best-ever. His only previous top five was third in 2019 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Jeffrey is in a part-time situation this year, having competed in just five of the nine races so far. Apart from this special gig with Richard Childress Racing, three came with Sam Hunt Racing, the other with Emerling-Gase Motorsports. He hasn’t worked a full 33-race season since 2014, but there were two 29-race efforts in 2020-21.

“It’s a bittersweet emotion,” Jeffrey said. “… I feel like I’ve proved myself in the past. Hopefully this will prove that much even more. But I’m just very, very thankful for this opportunity and I don’t know that I can ever say thank you enough to everyone that’s given it to me.”

A rather large crowd swarmed Jeffrey on pit road once he parked, unbothered by Noah Gragson performing his race-winning burnouts in the background. In that moment, second was sweet.

Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

McReynolds embraced Jeffrey. Team owner Richard Childress came by, clapped Jeffrey on the shoulder and expressed his own pride in the 32-year-old.

“I knew we were right there,” Childress told NASCAR.com. “You gotta be there to have a chance to win, you can’t win when you’re loading onto the truck, so I felt really good about his chance. But I’m proud of him. He did a great job. The whole team did a good job, just be putting it together last minute.”

Last week, really. Richard Childress Racing announced Jeffrey’s Talladega deal in the No. 3 on April 12. The McReynolds role was then revealed by McReynolds himself on April 17.

And it all became better than reality on the last lap.

“We crossed the white flag and we’re barely inside the top five, and our monitor blinked on us,” McReynolds said. “I lost what was going on down the back straightaway, but I can hear Mike Dillon, our spotter who did a phenomenal job just tell him to come on, keep going, keep coming. So, that told me something: We were headed in the right direction.”

When the field came back into view, No. 3 was P2.

“No doubt,” McReynolds said, “there was an Earnhardt in that car.”

Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

Posted on April 23, 2022April 23, 2022 by Reid Spencer

It was an Earnhardt Saturday in Earnhardt country.

Grabbing the lead on a restart in the third overtime, Noah Gragson — driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports — won the Ag-Pro 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series at Talladega Superspeedway.

Gragson beat Jeffrey Earnhardt, grandson of seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, who was driving a black No. 3 Chevrolet in a special appearance for Richard Childress Racing, which fielded Dale Sr.’s car during his heyday.

RELATED: Official results | Weekend schedule

On the mammoth 2.66-mile track where Dale Sr. won a record 10 times and Dale Jr. added another six, Jeffrey Earnhardt crossed the finish line .131 seconds behind Gragson, who won for the first time at Talladega, the second time this season and the seventh time in his career.

Gragson grabbed the lead when JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier ran out of fuel as he led the field to the third-overtime restart on Lap 123. The driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet held the top spot the rest of the way as Earnhardt worked his way forward from his eighth-place restarting position.

Moments after the race, Gragson was already planning his celebration in the notorious Talladega infield.

“This team at JR Motorsports, they never quit,” Gragson said. “We’ve had a kind of a rough last month, just not getting the finishes that we wanted … I couldn’t make moves on the top there very much at the beginning of the race, so I just kept running the bottom — running the bottom — and we’d get shuffled back and keep moving back up.

“I’ve got to run in the Cup race (on Sunday), but the Talladaga Boulevard looks a lot more enchanting right now and inviting, so I might have to go out there and then throw some beads.”

On the second of the two overtime laps, Earnhardt slipped past AJ Allmendinger for second but couldn’t catch Gragson through the tri-oval.

“I’m living the dream here — I’m just so thankful to get this opportunity,” said Earnhardt, whose crew chief, FOX Sports broadcaster Larry McReynolds, was serving his first stint on a pit box since 2000. “Thanks to RCR for building this amazing race car. We were fast all weekend long.

“We just fell a little short there, but congrats to Noah. He’s good at plate races.”

Allmendinger had led on the second overtime restart and appeared to have control of the race when Jeremy Clements’ Chevrolet stalled in Turn 2 to cause the 10th and final caution of the race. With his third-place result, however, Allmendinger claimed the $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus available to the top finisher among four eligible drivers.

“I thought I crashed about seven times on the last lap,” Allmendinger said. “I really appreciate what Xfinity and Comcast do to allow us to race for 100 grand at these four races. I didn’t realize that the 7 (Allgaier) started laying back, and you can’t take off before him. I was really checking up when he ran out of fuel.

“At that point, the 9 (Gragson) had such a run. This Chevy handled really well. We just lacked kind of the top-end speed, so they could get to my bumper, then basically boot me out of the way. I was just hanging on there. Jeffrey did a good job to make the move (for second place).”

Austin Hill, winner of the season opener at Daytona, led a race-high 67 laps and was out front with fewer than four laps left when Sam Mayer lost control of his Chevrolet in the outside lane and knocked Hill’s Chevy into the infield wall. Both cars were damaged too severely to continue.

Ryan Sieg and Landon Cassill finished fourth and fifth behind Allmendinger, with Cassill scoring his second straight top-five result. Anthony Alfredo, Riley Herbst, Joe Graf Jr., Myatt Snider and Brett Moffitt completed the top 10.

The Xfinity Series’ next race is scheduled next Saturday (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) at Dover Motor Speedway. The A-GAME 200 is the final event in the four-race Dash 4 Cash program for 2022.

Note: Post-race inspection was clear without issue, confirming Gragson as the winner.

Posted on April 23, 2022 by Staff Report

See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s GEICO 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on April 23, 2022April 23, 2022 by Terrin Waack

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kyle Busch was a man of few words Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway when discussing his future in NASCAR.

The current driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is not guaranteed another season after the 2022 slate wraps in November. His longtime, primary sponsor, M&M’s, announced back in December 2021 this year would be its last in the sport. Mars’ relationship with NASCAR dates back to 1998.

“I’m not getting antsy about it,” Busch said. “If it happens, it happens. If it don’t, it don’t. Goodbye.”

Busch signed a multiyear contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2019. Exact term length was not disclosed. The 39-year-old has been with the organization since 2008.

Questions regarding the status of Busch’s standing were redirected toward the team owner.

“Ask Joe Gibbs,” Busch said.

Coach Gibbs expressed optimism in a talk with FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass later Saturday, saying: “We’re confident we’re going to get things done. So we’re just working hard at it. It takes a while.”

Busch is NASCAR’s only multi-time champion in the garage right now, and both titles came during his ongoing run with Joe Gibbs Racing — 2015 and 2019. He captured his 60th career win just last weekend on Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt track. That guarantees him a spot in the 2022 NASCAR Playoffs; there are still 16 races until then, starting with Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega (3 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM).

The No. 18 will line up 12th for the Talladega spring event, and BetMGM places the 2008 spring Talladega winner at 18-1 odds to win (as of early Saturday).

When pushed more about his career outlook, Busch couldn’t see himself anywhere besides Joe Gibbs Racing. He also wouldn’t use the word ‘retire’ to describe his possible predicament.

“I would say I lost my ride,” Busch said, “(like) Cole Trickle once said.”

Other racing series aren’t on the table either.

“No,” Busch said, “I’ll probably be Brexton Busch’s truck driver.”