Posted on by Staff Report

Road-course king Chase Elliott never appeared to be a true threat to win Sunday at Circuit of The Americas, but it was still an eventful day for the series point leader — in more ways than one.

Elliott notched his first top-five finish of the year, and he also was involved in the race’s first true incident with two-time series champion Kyle Busch.

The first spin of the race came when Elliott knocked Busch around in Turn 12. Busch was running in 13th place and, after collecting his car in the gravel, was able to continue on — and he would finish in 28th place after a series of late-race incidents shuffled him back from the top five.

“I messed up,” Elliott said. “I got crossed up in the braking zone and hit him. Obviously, we were racing for last and probably weren’t even racing for stage points and I think he knows me better than that. But yeah, that was completely on me … and my fault.”

RELATED: Full race results

The Hendrick Motorsports driver is already third on the all-time wins list for road-course races and entered Sunday’s race as the defending race winner. He never led, but capitalized on the late-race theatrics between Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger and fellow Hendrick driver Alex Bowman to drive his No. 9 Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish.

The result allows Elliott to stretch his points lead to 13 points ahead of second-place Ryan Blaney. And although the fourth-place run was Elliott’s best of the year, he does have a series-leading four top-10 finishes.

“Yeah, I didn’t really have to do anything,” Elliott said of the closing laps. “They just kind of wrecked and they were out of the way, so I just kind of ran it on the road and I got a free couple of positions. I will take it.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

AUSTIN, Texas — In exactly the kind of thrilling final-lap, final-turn high-action finish NASCAR has so often provided on road courses, Ross Chastain persevered in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix to win his first career NASCAR Cup Series race at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas — the sixth different winner this season.

Chastain really had to earn this one — coming out on the right end of a frantic, four lead-change, two-lap final overtime. And he did — moving veteran AJ Allmendinger and Alex Bowman in the final series of turns on the 3.41-mile, 20-turn circuit to take not only his first victory in NASCAR’s premier series but also give his Trackhouse Racing’s Justin Marks his first win as a new owner in stock car’s big leagues.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

After grabbing the position in the final corner, Chastain raced off to a 1.331-second victory over Hendrick Motorsports driver Bowman, who unlike Allmendinger, was able to recover from the last-lap contact and continue to the checkered flag. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five.

Chastain’s family owns a watermelon farm in tiny, rural Alva, Florida and as he has famously done with past victories in both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Xfinity Series, Chastain stood on top of his winning car, the No.1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, and dropped a watermelon to the track, crushing it on the ground as his team and fans exploded in cheers.

“It’s insane to go up against some of the best and I know he’s (Allmendinger) going to be upset with me, but we race hard, both of us,” said Chastain, who was runner-up in the last two NASCAR Cup Series races coming to Austin.

“But when it comes to this Cup win, I can’t let that go down without a fight.”

Allmendinger, who actually was a NASCAR Xfinity Series teammate with Chastain two years ago, was understandably crushed as well after the race. He finished 33rd.

“We just needed two more corners,” said Allmendinger, who also went door-to-door in a tight on-track battle with Chastain in winning Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at COTA.

“Everybody’s got to be comfortable with the move they make and look in the mirror,” Allmendinger told FOX Sports. “Everybody’s different on what they view, and you can’t judge a person for that.

“So, at the end of the day, I’m just proud of Kaulig Racing for bringing such a fast Action Industry Chevrolet. We started at the back, drove to the front and if we had had a long run (at the end) it would have been game over. Nobody would have touched me.”

Chastain led a race-high 31 of the 69 laps — one of nine leaders in the series’ first road-course test with the Next Gen car. The race produced a Cup road-course record of 30 green-flag passes for the lead.

And the 29-year-old Floridian became the 12th consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race winner under the age of 30 and the third first-time winner this season.

RELATED: Kurt Busch, Larson, Logano crash | Kyle Busch spins after contact with Elliott

It was as equally a thrilling maiden win for the former NASCAR and sportscar driver Marks, who was interviewed during the FOX telecast just before the final restart, revealing with a smile that “It’s a little easier to be a driver of one these things than to watch.”

“It seemed like a real tall order when I dreamt this thing up,” Marks said. “But every man and woman that’s trusted the vision and committed to Trackhouse and worked so hard owns a piece of this victory.

“I’m so happy for everybody. Everybody believed in this, and I can’t wait for next week.”

And, he reported with a grin, he spoke with the team’s co-owner, music superstar Pitbull who promised he also was smashing a watermelon over his head and drinking champagne.

The pole-winner Ryan Blaney finished sixth, followed by Martin Truex Jr, Austin Cindric, Erik Jones, and Austin Dillon rounding out the top 10.

With that fourth-place finish, Elliott now holds a 13-point advantage on Blaney heading into next weekend’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Post-race inspection in the NASCAR Cup Series garage is complete. There were no issues, making Chastain’s race victory official.

Posted on by Nick Giffen

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

Practice and qualifying for today’s NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX) produced some surprising results.

Heavy favorites Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson both failed to make the final round of qualifying. Additionally, neither driver posted a practice time inside the top 15.

Books have been slow to adjust, with Elliott and Larson still heavily favored.

The Action Network’s NASCAR Bet Center shows that both drivers are +500 or shorter to win all across the industry.

These short odds mean several betting opportunities arise across a range of markets.

That’s exactly the angle I’m looking for with today’s best NASCAR bets for COTA.

NASCAR Picks & Predictions for COTA

*Odds as of Sunday morning

A.J. Allmendinger Top Chevy (+1400)

Allmendinger is a two-time Cup winner at road courses. He handily won the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, and there’s reason to believe he’s severely undervalued for today’s race.

The Next Gen car was designed with road-course racing in mind. A highly skilled road racer like Allmendinger should benefit.

A new car may also hinder the performances of Elliott and Larson relative to the field as they adapt to a new car and setup.

Although Allmendinger had a slow qualifying lap, he was fast in practice.

However, books overreacted to the qualifying lap.

Allmendinger’s odds to win are longer compared to earlier in the week. That applies to other markets as well.

The combination of shorter odds on Elliott and Larson with longer odds on Allmendinger creates value in the top Chevy market.

Allmendinger finished as top Chevy three times in 11 road course races with JTG Daugherty Racing. Last year with Kaulig Racing he finished as top Chevy once in five tries.

These 14-1 odds at BetMGM are just way too long for a driver of his skill set.

My model has Allmendinger finishing as the top Chevy 12% of the time. I’m comfortable betting him down to 9-1.

Ford Winning Manufacturer (+310)

DraftKings is one of several books that hasn’t budged much on Elliott and Larson. At DraftKings, they are +300 and +400, respectively.

That’s caused DraftKings to price Chevrolet as -160 favorite to win the race.

In turn, Ford and Toyota are both +310 to win.

I really like the Ford stable, especially with Team Penske’s exceptionally strong showing in practice and qualifying.

Ford drivers make up 40% of the top 10 in the starting lineup.

That doesn’t even include Phoenix winner Chase Briscoe, or former series champion Kevin Harvick.

With six legitimate threats to run near the front, as well as a plethora of other drivers with much longer shots of winning, Ford should not be priced this long.

My model has Ford pegged at 32% to win the race. That’s well over the 24.4% implied odds we’re getting at this price.

Bottom line, I think Ford wins more than a quarter of the time. I’d bet this down to +250.

Posted on by Bozi Tatarevic

Editor’s note: Bozi Tatarevic is a professional racing mechanic and pit crew member. He will provide technical analysis for NASCAR.com throughout the 2022 season.

The return of NASCAR to Circuit of The Americas is almost like a debut. Not only is the Next Gen car making its road-course debut, but it is also a much different weather scenario considering the wet conditions during the races last year and the repaving that has happened since then. We saw drivers getting acquainted with the track and the setups Saturday, with some notable spins and brake lockups in Cup Series practice and qualifying, along with another show of the durability of the Next Gen car.

Ryan Blaney spun during a practice session and ended up in the tire barrier with some apparent interaction with the left rear corner of his car. The composite body panels popped back into place as soon as he drove away from the scene and his team determined that there were no suspension issues after they inspected the damage and sent him back out on track.

He eventually took that No. 12 Ford Mustang and put in on the Busch Light Pole for Sunday’s race. The composite rear bumper cover assembly combined with the foam that is installed underneath was able to absorb the energy of that impact with the tire barriers without causing further damage to the car.

Joey Hand was not quite as lucky with his No. 15 Ford Mustang as he locked up his right front tire and ended up with some rubber delamination, which resulted in a layer of rubber being flung into the fender well and breaking off the fender — along with damage to the hood and front bumper.

Dylan Buell | Getty Images
Dylan Buell | Getty Images

Hand was not able to qualify, but his Rick Ware Racing crew got to work immediately and bolted on new composite body pieces such as the fender and front bumper cover, along with other internal pieces like the closeout panel that sits inside the fender.

The nature of the composite panels being able to bolt on individually allows for quicker repairs, as we noted earlier this year, and the team was seen applying vinyl on the reassembled car less than four hours after the initial damage on track occurred.

Teams are still learning more about the Next Gen car. Not only are they able to make repairs quickly when necessary, but they are also optimizing on the areas where they can do some development.

As we noted earlier this week, new rules have been put in place for the windshield wiper assemblies. While many teams are running fairly standard windshield wiper motors like the Bosch Motorsport WPA, it was apparent that the wiper blade assemblies were being explored as an area to optimize on the aerodynamics of the cars with some of the assemblies being built to what appeared to be the maximum size allowed in the rule book.

The wipers are unlikely to get used for their primary purpose Sunday, but fans and drivers will both be happy to see them sit idly by and enjoy the first road course action of the season in the dry.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

For the first time on a race weekend, we saw what the Next Gen car looked like on a road course. It’s blisteringly fast through the corners and can turn on a dime, as the car was developed to handle well when turning left and right. As for fantasy players, there were a few drivers who entered the weekend as a race favorite that struggled in either practice or qualifying. Among them were AJ Allmendinger (will start 20th) and William Byron (24th).

FANTASY LIVE: Set your lineups now!

Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:
Starter 1: Chase Elliott
Starter 2: Austin Cindric
Starter 3: AJ Allmendinger
Starter 4: Tyler Reddick
Starter 5: Daniel Suárez
Garage pick: Chase Briscoe

NEXT IN LINE: Ryan Blaney, Cole Custer, Christopher Bell and Kurt Busch

RISING: Earlier this week, Daniel Suárez stated he thought one of his best shots of winning a race this season would come at COTA. He wasn’t kidding. The No. 99 Chevrolet was second in practice (quickest of Group B) and turned the second-quickest lap in qualifying, just .026 seconds off the pole.

MORE: Full recap for practice, qualifying

Last year, Tyler Reddick proved he could run well on road courses, earning three top-10 finishes, including a runner-up result in the series’ most recent outing at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. When testing the Next Gen at the ROVAL, Reddick was always near the top of the speed chart. Entering the weekend, my theory was to hang low on Reddick and save him for later in the regular season, given he’s been fast each race this year. Not now. The No. 8 car will start fourth, and spoiler: he’s my pick to win the race.

FALLING: Towards the end of the Gen 6’s tenure, Hendrick Motorsports had a grip on road courses. On Saturday, the organization looked spotty, however, as only Alex Bowman cracked the top 10 in qualifying. That said, Chase Elliott will start 12th and Kyle Larson is right behind him in 13th. William Byron was a disappointing 24th. Until Elliott misses it on a road course, however, he will be in my lineup. I could understand saving him, though, for races that come later in the season.

Allmendinger looked good in practice, ranking eighth. Qualifying was a different story as the No. 16 team will have to come from midpack. That isn’t too concerning, though, as Allmendinger raced in the middle of the pack for much of the event at Indianapolis last August and still won.

FEATURED MATCHUPS

AJ Allmendinger vs. Chase Elliott: I still like Elliott here, though Allmendinger’s familiarity with sports cars could help. The No. 16 car had a poor qualifying lap and will start the race having to gain track position.

William Byron vs. Kyle Larson: Based on recent success at road courses, the edge has got to go to Larson’s No. 5 car. However, as noted above, I expected more from both cars in practice and qualifying.

Austin Cindric vs. Martin Truex Jr.: This is the easiest of the four matchups, Cindric. While Truex has four road course wins in the Cup Series, the No. 19 Toyota looked a touch off from Cindric’s No. 2 Ford on Saturday. But Cindric did spin in qualifying, so anything is possible.

Kyle Busch vs. Denny Hamlin: After his qualifying lap, Kyle Busch was none-too-pleased, cussing on his team’s radio. These Joe Gibbs Racing drivers are fairly even on road courses throughout their careers, but I give a small advantage to Busch because he got additional laps in the Truck Series race on Saturday at a relatively new track to the Cup circuit.

Posted on by Zack Albert

AUSTIN, Texas — The first Dash 4 Cash field on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is set, and it has a familiar feel to it — mainly since the team that made a clean sweep of the four-race bonus program last year is positioned for another strong opening bid.

JR Motorsports teammates Noah Gragson and Sam Mayer finished fourth and fifth, respectively, Saturday at the Circuit of The Americas, joining race-winner AJ Allmendinger and runner-up Austin Hill in the four-driver field for next weekend’s Dash 4 Cash opener at Richmond Raceway. Saturday’s Pit Boss 250 served as a qualifier for the annual incentive program, and that quartet made up the top finishers among eligible Xfinity Series regulars. (Cup Series regular Cole Custer was third.)

RELATED: Official results | Dash 4 Cash overview

Gragson claimed the $100,000 bonus three times last year, and JRM teammate Josh Berry netted the other. Gragson enters Richmond as the series points leader, with an unmatched five top-five results in six races this season.

“I think today, this is one of my I guess worst road courses, and we put in a lot of hard work over the wintertime and this weekend, trying to be better and felt like we executed well as a team and got a lot of momentum with just the start of this year,” Gragson said. “We’re just going to try to keep going. We’ve had success at Richmond and Martinsville, the two Dash 4 Cash races up first, and hopefully we can go have a solid day next weekend.”

Allmendinger was dominant in leading 27 of 46 laps, and Hill also had a wide gap over his nearest pursuers at the end. The JRM duo, however, had a more adventurous route to those prized spots in the running for the Richmond payday. Gragson fought through illness — ” definitely didn’t feel up to par, but never quit” — and drove on after an unfortunate bump-up with teammate Justin Allgaier, who limped to 33rd place after battling transmission woes.

“It’s not intentional by any means,” Gragson explained post-race. “I hate it for those guys, but you know, I saw a hole and I was there, and he was going for the same spot, trying to cross whoever it was over and just got collected together. You don’t want to get into teammates, definitely not intentional and hate it for them, but we’ll keep our heads up on the 9 team and keep working hard.”

Mayer — in his first full Xfinity Series season — made the most of his first opportunity at Dash 4 Cash eligibility, converting a last-minute move to get into the Richmond field. He tracked down and bypassed Myatt Snider after a hard-fought contest for fifth in the final lap.

“I was really determined to get that fifth place because I wanted another top five on my resume,” said Mayer, whose only other Xfinity top five was a fourth at Martinsville last fall. “I had to run the 31 (Snider) down, and we battled for like the last third of a lap, side by side pretty much the whole time. It was actually pretty cool, it was fun racing hard, racing clean, we’re still cool obviously. I got into him a little bit in the last corner and just shoved him up a little bit to get that run. But it was good, hard racing. Obviously, I wanted that top five, and I’ll do anything to take it.”

The effort marked a bright spot in what’s been a trying season for the 18-year-old driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet. Aside from a solid sixth-place run last month at Auto Club Speedway, Mayer’s other four finishes had fallen outside the top 20. Saturday’s outcome provided him with both a four-position rise to ninth in the Xfinity standings and a much-needed morale boost.

“The look on my face can say it all really,” said a beaming Mayer from pit road. “We were in such a hole going into this one, and not by anything we did on our fault. It’s just things happen in racing and you can’t do anything about it. We were in a pretty deep hole, but we did a really good job of digging out of it today, and obviously we have a lot more digging to do, but this is a fantastic start.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

AUSTIN, Texas — AJ Allmendinger was fast and agile when he needed to be Saturday afternoon negotiating Circuit of The Americas and reminding the field just why he’s considered one of NASCAR’s road-course superstars.

Allmendinger’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet took the checkered flag by 2.039 seconds over Austin Hill’s No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the first road-course race of the year. It was the 40-year-old veteran’s first NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the season and 11th of his career. He has seven road-course wins on six different tracks (series high).

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

He led early and he led late, just when he needed to, holding off the field on two dicey restarts and controlling the race the final 14 laps en route to the checkered flag.

NASCAR Cup Series regular Cole Custer turned in an inspired comeback from a midrace pit road speeding penalty to finish third. JR Motorsports driver Noah Gragson was fourth — his fifth top-five finish this season. Gragson’s teammate Sam Mayer finished fifth.

With their work, Allmendinger, Hill, Gragson and Mayer are now eligible to win a $100,000 bonus next week in the Dash 4 Cash sweepstakes opener at Richmond Raceway. The top finishing driver among them in the ToyotaCare 250 will take the check, courtesy of sponsor Comcast.

RELATED: Dash 4 Cash explained | Every Dash 4 Cash winner

“I told myself yesterday, I was not happy with where I put ourselves,” said Allmendinger, who qualified fourth.

“Honestly, all these men and women here at Kaulig Racing between the Cup side of it and the Xfinity side of it, they don’t’ sleep during the week, they’re busting their tales and that’s why I’m so fricking hard on myself sometimes because they deserve to win more than anybody here. And I just want to do it for them. Thankfully, we got it done today.”

And it wasn’t easy. Pole-winner Ty Gibbs and fellow NASCAR Cup Series drivers Ross Chastain and Custer joined Allmendinger at the front of the field for most of the early going. Gibbs and Chastain exchanged the lead with Allmendinger, but both ultimately suffered setbacks during the 46-lap race around the 3.41-mile, 20-turn circuit.

Gibbs’ Toyota suffered a flat tire and put him well back in the field (36th place) after he was forced to pit during a green-flag run. He recovered to finish 15th. Chastain ran among the front pack all the way until the end of the race when he was collected on the final restart with seven laps remaining and finished 17th.

Myatt Snider finished sixth in a final-lap duel with Mayer. Brett Moffitt finished seventh with Jade Buford, Miguel Paludo and Sheldon Creed — who won the pole position for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race earlier in the day — rounding out the top 10.

The runner-up Hill was especially encouraged because he was able to keep Allmendinger honest in the closing laps.

“All in all, it was a solid effort for our Global Chevy Camaro,” Hill said, adding, “I’ve always felt like I could get around road courses. I felt like I proved it last year in the trucks winning at Watkins Glen and it just kind of build the momentum and the confidence going forward into this year that when we come to road courses, we can get the job done.”

With the showing at COTA, fourth-place finisher Gragson holds a single-point lead over Allmendinger in the Xfinity Series driver standings with Gibbs third, 31 points back.

The Xfinity Series’ next race is Saturday, April 2 at Richmond Raceway (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Inspection in the NASCAR Xfinity Series garage revealed no issues, validating Allmendinger’s victory.

Posted on by Zack Albert

AUSTIN, Texas – Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race turned when the top three contending trucks bashed door handles on the next-to-last lap at Circuit of The Americas. As fate would have it, two of the three were a pair of Cup Series double-dippers with a bit of history.

Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch and Trucks regular Stewart Friesen all came together in Turn 11, the 3.41-mile course’s sharp, knife-edge left-hander in the second overtime attempt in Saturday’s XPEL 225. Their in-formation jam-up allowed Zane Smith to scoot free to the lead and hang on for a comfy 3.529-second victory.

RELATED: Truck race results | Truck schedule

Bowman, making his first Camping World Trucks start since 2017, was in third place in the Spire Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet halfway through the first lap of overtime No. 2. He drove inside the No. 52 Chevy of Friesen, and their battle became three-wide with Busch’s No. 51 Toyota on the far outside. Bowman’s truck failed to sufficiently turn and all three scraped wide, giving Smith free passage.

Busch led a race-high 31 of the 46 laps but finished third. Friesen took ninth, and Bowman placed 25th. Bowman walked over for a brief conversation with Busch on pit road but later said that no clean resolution was reached.

“To the point where he’s not mad at me? No, but it cost him a race, right? So he’s gonna be mad,” Bowman said. “But we race each other long enough and talk enough, and know each other well enough that I feel like he absolutely knows that I didn’t drive in the corner and try to crash him. So I wasn’t even past my normal brake marker. I guess the angle that the 52 put us at, we were never going to make the corner and once you’re committed, it’s like nothing you can do. Like if I would have stayed straight, I would have made the corner and still crashed the 52 and the 51, because I would have spun the 52 into the 51, once he turned left. I hated it, but it’s part of it.”

The at-odds feelings between Bowman and Busch stemmed from this year’s Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Busch questioned the integrity of Bowman’s victory there and at other venues over the team radio. Bowman made light of the situation after his Vegas triumph by printing up T-shirts that poked good-hearted fun at his supposed habit of “backing into wins.”

Busch said only “it’s just racing” when asked about his talk with Bowman. On the cool-down lap, his Kyle Busch Motorsports team apologized and told him that overtime “just didn’t work out.” Busch’s reply: “Never does lately.”

“We had a great race all day,” Busch said later. “I really appreciate everyone at KBM and their hard work and everyone there who does a good job building such fast trucks. I felt like we deserved that one, but it doesn’t matter if you deserve it or not. It’s just a matter if you get it. You have to be the first one to the checkered flag to win these things and we just weren’t.”

MORE: Camping World Trucks standings

Friesen salvaged his third consecutive top-10 finish, which bumped him up one position to third in the Camping World Truck Series points. He lamented that the opportunity to race for his first win of the season shriveled a lap and a half from the checkered flag.

“When the guy goes in there wide open with no chance of making the corner, like he cannonballed me, knocked me into Kyle then we all three of us went flying off the end of the track and then it allowed Zane in the 38 to drive by everybody,” Friesen said. “So I mean, the 7 (Bowman) was fast. He was extremely fast. He’s probably faster than me and Kyle and could have raced us. could have just loosened me up or just raced us a little bit rather than just throw a Hail Mary in there with a lap and a half to go and kill all our chances at a win.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

AUSTIN, Texas – Ultimately, Zane Smith was out front when it paid off Saturday afternoon at the Circuit of The Americas road course. He led only 11 of the 46 laps – winning Stage 1, Stage 2 and then taking the race lead with two laps remaining in the second overtime period to earn the victory in the XPEL 225 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.

It marked Smith’s second win of the 2022 season – fifth of his career — and the second consecutive win at the 3.41-mile, 20-turn COTA circuit for his Front Row Motorsports team, who celebrated in Victory Lane last year with driver Todd Gilliland.

Veteran Kyle Busch – who led a race best 31 laps – held the point on the start of that final overtime. But his closest challengers Stewart Friesen and Alex Bowman went in hard to the Turn 11 hairpin turn making it a three-wide door-to-door-to-door trying to wrestle the lead from Busch, the series all-time winningest driver.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

As that was happening, the 22-year-old Californian Smith simply drove underneath of the slowed trio, taking the lead and then holding off John Hunter Nemechek for the win by 3.529 seconds.

“Once I got back up there, I was doing my best to read how those guys were racing,” said Smith, who drives the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford.

“It happened like that in such dramatic fashion and had to come from the back, it’s just a huge statement for this team really. Every single race this year I’ve been in contention to win.

“This whole team, just awesome to see how it all worked out,” he added.

“Scored some awesome points today,” Smith said.

Busch recovered to finish third, followed by 2021 series champion Ben Rhodes and Busch’s teammate Chandler Smith. Christian Eckes, Tyler Ankrum, Carson Hocevar, Friesen, and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top 10.

WATCH: Busch taken out in three-wide battle

Had his bold move to the front paid off, it would have been Friesen’s first win in the series since 2019 and the first career victory for Hocevar, who was also running among the top three late in the race but got shuffled back in the wild restart action. Parker Kligerman, who had run among the top five all afternoon, also ran out of gas and ultimately finished 19th.

“Felt like we deserved that one, but it doesn’t matter if you deserve it or not, you’ve got to be the first one to the checkered flag and we were not,” Busch said.

The race featured 10 lead changes among eight drivers and had eight caution periods.

“In races like this, you know it’s never over till it’s over and that (race) is the very definition of that,” Smith said.

The top-five effort keeps championship leaders Smith and Rhodes close. Smith now holds a 15-point edge over Rhodes.

The series takes a break before returning to competition April 7 in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200 at Martinsville Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Post-race inspection in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is complete. There were no issues. Zane Smith is the official race winner.

Posted on by Zack Albert

AUSTIN, Texas – RFK Racing co-owner and driver Brad Keselowski made his first remarks Saturday since NASCAR officials handed down severe penalties to his No. 6 Ford team two days earlier. The punishment for a modified part of the car’s Next Gen body was harsh – 100 points, 10 playoff points, a $100,000 fine and four-race crew chief suspension – but the 38-year-old driver said he’s looking ahead after its delivery.

“I guess I don’t think that way. I don’t think in terms of surprised or not surprised,” Keselowski told NASCAR.com on his way out of the Cup Series garage at Circuit of The Americas. “Just try to move forward here.”

RELATED: Weekend schedule: COTA | At-track photos

The strict, L2-level penalties remained the buzz of the garage Saturday, on the eve of Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET, PRN, SiriusXM) at the 3.41-mile road course. The infraction was found after a thorough inspection at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, N.C., and it marks the first L2 penalty for unapproved modifications to Next Gen-specific parts since the car’s competition debut this year. The team said Friday that it intends to appeal.

MORE: Penalty levied on RFK No. 6 | Team will appeal

NASCAR announced Jan. 24 that a tougher deterrence system would be in place for the 2022 season. The penalties to RFK did not reach the steeper L3 level that could include a repeal of the team’s postseason eligibility, but fellow drivers said the message remained clear.

“I’m pretty sure it scares the hell out everyone, which is probably some of the attention,” said Joey Logano, Keselowski’s former longtime teammate at Team Penske. “NASCAR just said they’re gonna put the foot down. That’s like I was saying earlier, we don’t know what it was and what happened, but we do know the penalty was huge. So, I don’t know, but we know you probably shouldn’t screw around.”

The penalty knocked Keselowski’s No. 6 operation from 16th to 35th in the Cup Series standings, placing it last among full-time teams. Chris Buescher, Keselowski’s teammate in the No. 17 Ford, is now the highest-ranked RFK Racing driver – in 19th place and looking for his first top-five result of the year.

Buescher was not specific when asked about the current mood at the RFK shop, but said he didn’t feel any additional motivation or burden to carry the team’s baton in light of the penalties.

“We put pressure on ourselves every week, putting in our full effort every week. Nothing really changes,” said Buescher, who qualified 22nd to Keselowski’s 26th on Saturday. “We talked about that a lot, we’re here to put in everything we can to try to win every week. … The reality is wins get you in the playoffs and as you go and can be in contention to win consistently, the rest will come with it.”

MORE: Updated Cup Series standings

The road ahead for the No. 6 team hinges on the notice of appeal that it announced Friday. The matter will be heard and considered by a three-member group from the National Motorsports Appeals Panel.

The No. 6 team could have deferred the four-race suspension issued to crew chief Matt McCall pending the appeal, but Josh Sell is listed in that role on the updated team roster portal for Sunday’s event.

“I’m not sure I have an answer for that other than we had committed to Josh Sell being the crew chief before the appeal was founded,” Keselowski said, “so we’re going to stick with that plan.”

In terms of climbing out of the deficit, a points-paying regular-season victory would still qualify Keselowski for a Cup Series Playoff berth – provided he meets all other criteria for eligibility. That stipulation includes reaching and staying among the top 30 in Cup Series points, a focus that starts Sunday at COTA and beyond.

“I mean, every day,” Keselowski said. “Yep, every day.”