Posted on by Press Release

NASCAR, JDV Productions and Claremont Motorsports Park announced on Tuesday that the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will visit the New Hampshire facility on Friday, July 29, 2022 for a 150-lap race.

The event will be promoted by JDV Productions — led by Josh Vanada and his team of motorsports professionals. It confirms another race on the 16-event schedule for the Whelen Modified Tour, with three of them now officially set to be promoted by JDV Productions. The team will also promote events at Jennerstown Speedway on May 28, 2022, and Monadnock Speedway on June 18, 2022.

RELATED: 2022 Whelen Modified Tour schedule

“We are eager to bring the prestige and the excitement of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour back to Claremont, New Hampshire for the first time in over a decade,” said Josh Vanada, owner of JDV Productions. “The long time between visits will provide an interesting challenge for those who may not have competed at the third-mile oval before. The track’s unique characteristics will put crew chiefs and drivers to the test. Fans will not want to miss this race.” 

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has only visited Claremont twice — once in 1985 — and another race in 2007. Richie Evans went to Victory Lane in the inaugural race, while James Civali used his southern flavor to steal the show in 2007. 

The track, nestled deep into the mountains of New Hampshire, runs NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Racing Series divisions on Friday nights throughout the summer

“We are really excited to welcome the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour back to Claremont,” Mike Parks, promoter and operator of the track, said. “Having the Whelen Modified Tour is something we have been looking at doing for a while ourselves and it just wasn’t quite right for us. I’ve worked with Josh on and off for about 10 years. We communicated with each other and we felt this was the right time to work together and have JDV Productions promote the race.”

NASCAR’s 16-race schedule for the Whelen Modified Tour for the 2022 season begins on Saturday, February 12 at New Smyrna Speedway, and will end on Thursday, October 27, 2022 at Martinsville Speedway. In between, teams will visit over five different states and showcase Modified racing in front of passionate race fans. JDV Productions is excited to continue to work with NASCAR, the teams, and the race fans to put the best product possible on the track.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Voting for the 2021 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Most Popular Driver Award presented by Hooters opens on Tuesday at noon ET.

Fans can cast a vote for a single driver once daily at www.nascar.com/mostpopulardriver or on the NASCAR Mobile app. Votes shared by fans on Facebook and/or Twitter count double.

To be eligible, drivers must have declared for series points and be in the top 32 in NASCAR Cup Series points by the start of the voting.

RELATED: Cup Series standings | List of 2021 Cup Series drivers

Voting closes for the NMPA Most Popular Driver Award on Wednesday, Dec. 1, at noon ET.

The 2021 NMPA Most Popular Driver will be announced during the NASCAR Cup Series Awards program on Thursday, Dec. 2. NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM will provide coverage of this year’s program.

The award was first presented to Curtis Turner in 1949 at the completion of NASCAR’s inaugural season. It has been administered by the NMPA and presented annually by the organization since 1983 and remains the only major NASCAR award determined solely by fan vote.

Twenty drivers have received the award at least once since the program began. NMPA Hall of Fame member and 1988 Cup Series champion Bill Elliott holds the record for most popular driver award wins with 16 — 1984-1988, 1991-2000 and 2002. Dale Earnhardt Jr., elected to the NMPA Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2020, won the award 15 consecutive seasons from 2003-2017.

RELATED: Every NMPA MPD Award winner

Chase Elliott, son of Bill Elliott and driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, has received the honor for the past three years.

“Thanks to the fans throughout this year,” Elliott said during the 2020 awards show at the end of a year in which the coronavirus pandemic severely limited fans’ ability to attend races. “I know it hasn’t been the most normal thing ever, but you guys are awesome, and I hope you enjoyed what the season had to offer.”

Formed in 1965, the National Motorsports Press Association consists of qualified members of the media who report on the sport of auto racing through affiliations with print, radio, television and/or Internet news-gathering organizations. In addition to the NMPA Most Popular Driver Award, the NMPA presents an array of significant honors in auto racing, including the Richard Petty Driver of the Year Award, the Myers Brothers Award, the NMPA Pocono Spirit Award and the Wood Brothers Award of Excellence.

Additional information about the NMPA can be found at nmpaonline.com.

Posted on by Zack Albert

AVONDALE, Ariz. — His coronation as NASCAR Cup Series champion was just hours old, but Kyle Larson was already being asked in post-race media sessions to reflect on his lasting memory from Sunday’s clinching victory, the thing he’ll remember most once he reaches his golden years. His answer was an aspect of the race that he may have been the least involved with.

In the final foreseeable race for the five-on, five-off lug nut choreography of pit stops, Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet’s over-the-wall crew provided Larson with a signature, season-saving moment from the march to his first Cup Series title. Speedy pit service moved Larson from fourth place to first on the final round of stops, providing him a crucial advantage for the last green-flag run of the season finale at Phoenix Raceway.

WATCH: Larson goes fourth to first on final stop

“It all came down to the final pit stop,” said No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels. “And I have always pushed our guys so hard back at the shop, the guys working on the car, the guys pitting the car, and to see them shine in a moment where they could shine I think is just incredible.”

Larson’s indisputable talent deserves a fair share of the credit in his championship run, and so does the near-bulletproof equipment that team owner Rick Hendrick provided him. But the No. 5 pit crew has its own memory to cherish, converting a clutch 12.345-second final stop that ranked as the Hendrick organization’s fastest all season, according to the Racing Insights statistical service.

Once Larson’s No. 5 car rolled out of the first pit stall at pit exit, the crew celebrated the momentum shift. Front-tire changer Donnie Tasser, tire carrier RJ Barnette, rear-tire changer Calvin Teague, jackman Brandon Johnson and fueler Brandon Harder had all done their jobs. That put Larson in position to do the rest in the 24 green-flag laps to the end.

“It’s the competitor in you, taking the last shot,” said Chris Burkey, Hendrick Motorsports pit crew coach. “… It’s really amazing because with pit stops, the only time people really know about pit stops is when something goes bad. Tonight it worked for them. We were up and down during the middle part of the race, but other than that, we bounced back and made it happen at the very last stop. It was awesome to watch.”

The Hendrick No. 5 crew has been a reliable presence all year in Larson’s first season with the team. But the stop that predated the final trip to pit road was not as successful; Larson lost a position in that exchange, allowing Joey Logano to briefly slip by into third place.

That kept Larson third among the four title-eligible drivers, dimming his title hopes as the clock ticked down on the season. A caution for debris in the form of a broken brake rotor just 28 laps later gave the No. 5 crew a quick chance at redemption.

“At that point, when you’re running fourth, you want a pit stop. So our wish was granted,” said Barnette, a tire carrier who has been with Hendrick Motorsports for 10 years. He worked his way back onto the team this year, completing his recovery from a pectoral muscle injury in 2018. “We got to come down, and the guys busted off one of the best stops we’ve had all year. I mean, that’s what we’ve done. When the pressure’s on, we’ve always stepped up, and I couldn’t be more proud of these guys. It’s an amazing year.”

Teague seconded that the No. 5 Chevy’s next-to-last stop was “not up to our standards.” Burkey, ever the observant coach, said he could see the team’s desire to make amends for its earlier miscue as they awaited the car’s arrival to the first pit stall.

Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

“Since we didn’t have the greatest pit stop the one before, you never want to end on a bad one, right?” said Teague, the rear-tire changer who celebrated his fourth championship in his 13 years with Hendrick Motorsports. “So we went out there and did what we know we can do. We’ve done it all year, and we’ve proved it to ourselves. We don’t have to prove anything to anybody. Our job is to just go out there and do the best we can each and every week, and I think we’ve done that. …

“No matter if our name’s on the car or anywhere, this team, the guys that we have on this team, it’s not about any one specific person. We are a team for a reason, and the team that we have and assembled is one of the greatest I’ve ever been a part of and it shows. If somebody has a mistake, they come and they pick you up, right? Nobody hangs their heads. We just go and do what we know we can do, and everybody has faith in everybody.”

While Larson’s title-winning car is emblazoned with No. 5, the team’s makeup has the lineage of the No. 48 team that Jimmie Johnson carried to legendary status. When the No. 48 transferred to the former No. 88 team and driver Alex Bowman before the season, the car that Larson would drive to 10 victories this year was rebranded with No. 5, Hendrick Motorsports’ original car number.

No matter the number, the team has remained a cohesive group, one that soaked in the champagne from a championship stage as the sun set on the 2021 season.

“It’s a great team to be a part of,” said Tasser, the front-tire changer in his third year with the team. “Everyone plays their role and plays it well. All season it’s been that way. We have great cars, we’ve had great stall selections, Kyle’s an amazing driver, and we’ve had a pretty good year, I’d say. Just a special thing to be a part of.

“This is mostly the same team as last year, teams of 48 past. There was a while there when you thought that we were never going to get to feel this again. This is amazing.”

Posted on by Terrin Waack

AVONDALE, Ariz. — One last cheers for the No. 2 crew.

After Sunday’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway, Brad Keselowski toasted his Team Penske mates on pit road in honor of their last race together. Instead of just lifting a can of beer, like everyone else, Keselowski filled and hoisted the large glass he notoriously chugged out of while celebrating his 2012 NASCAR Cup Series championship. Two coolers stocked full of Miller Lite sat next to their Ford, ready to refill or replenish for as long as nostalgia flowed.

“Definitely feels like the last weekend,” Keselowski said. “I’m trying to soak up what there is to soak up. But it’s going to be a different world for sure.”

Image From Ios (24) Copy 3
Terrin Waack | NASCAR Digital Media

RELATED: Phoenix race results | Kyle Larson wins 2021 title

After 12 full seasons with Team Penske, Keselowski heads over to Roush Fenway Racing in a driver-owner role. He’ll pilot the No. 6 Ford in 2022, while Austin Cindric takes over the No. 2 car at Team Penske. Both moves were announced back in July.

Keselowski joined Team Penske on a full-time basis in 2010 after three part-time races the prior season. Thirty-five of Keselowski’s 36 career victories came in the No. 2 car, including that 2012 championship.

“It’s still hard,” Keselowski said. “There’s a lot of great friendships I made. I couldn’t have picked a better time to do it. There’s a huge workforce transition with the Next Gen car and all that stuff happening at the same time to where next year is going to be a culture shock for the entire garage. I kind of feel like I’m playing even there.”

The Next Gen car is set to debut when the 2022 season kicks off with the Busch Light Clash exhibition event Feb. 6 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

In his final season, Keselowski had one win (Talladega Superspeedway), 10 top fives and 17 top 10s. His last race result for Team Penske was an 11th-place finish. He checked in sixth in the championship standings.

“It’s a little bit surreal,” Keselowski said. “It felt like the last day of school. You’re on the next chapter.”

WATCH: No. 2 crew toasts with 2012 championship beer glass

Another notable farewell at Team Penske:

— Crew chief Todd Gordon is retiring from atop the No. 12 pit box. He closes out his full-time NASCAR Cup Series career with 25 victories and the 2018 championship with driver Joey Logano. Gordon’s latest wheelman, Ryan Blaney, finished fourth Sunday at Phoenix Raceway and seventh in the championship standings for his final race and season. Said Blaney: “It was a really good last run for Todd before he hangs it up. I wish it was a win. I can’t thank him enough for the last couple of years and I can’t thank this whole group enough for this year. It has been a lot of fun.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Every 2021 race, except the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, is comprised of three stages — Stage 1, Stage 2 and the Final Stage. The Coca-Cola 600 added a fourth stage. Drivers who finish in the top 10 in Stage 1 and Stage 2 earn additional race points, with the winner of each stage earning 10 points, second place earning nine points, third place earning eight points, etc., down to one point for 10th place. Stage 3 of the Coca-Cola 600 awards points in the same manner as Stages 1 and 2 in the other races.

The Final Stage produces the race results and awards points across the field.

Below is a cumulative running tally of how many stage points drivers have earned this year, as well as their stage wins — a stage win will provide an additional bonus point per win of the postseason.

RELATED: Stage lengths for the 2021 season

Through Phoenix playoff race
Note: Does not include points earned for Bluegreen Vacations Duel races at Daytona International Speedway

Rank Driver Stage wins Stage points
1 Kyle Larson 18 402
2 Denny Hamlin 10 384
3 Chase Elliott 6 294
4 William Byron 4 288
5 Kyle Busch 7 258
6 Ryan Blaney 4 236
7 Joey Logano 5 231
8 Martin Truex, Jr 6 217
9 Brad Keselowski 2 210
10 Kevin Harvick 0 187
11 Kurt Busch 3 171
12 Tyler Reddick 3 166
13 Alex Bowman 0 145
14 Austin Dillon 0 113
15 Christopher Bell 0 108
16 Ross Chastain 0 63
17 Chris Buescher 2 57
18 Bubba Wallace 2 56
19 Matt DiBenedetto 1 49
T-20 Michael McDowell 0 40
T-20 Ricky Stenhouse Jr 0 40
22 Aric Almirola 0 37
23 Ryan Preece 0 35
T-24 Daniel Suarez 0 30
T-24 Chase Briscoe 0 30
26 Corey Lajoie 0 15
27 Erik Jones 0 14
28 Ryan Newman 0 9
29 Cole Custer 0 8
30 Anthony Alfredo 0 1
Posted on by Terrin Waack

AVONDALE, Ariz. — The defender was defeated.

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, entered Sunday’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway as the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion. The 2020 title holder exited the Arizona desert as the 2021 fourth-place finalist.

“All you can do is the best you can do, right?” No. 9 crew chief Alan Gustafson told NASCAR.com. “You do it every week. Certainly, when there’s circumstances like this, you find a little extra motivation. But we try hard every week, we try to win every week.”

Sunday was no exception.

RELATED: Race results | Kyle Larson wins 2021 title

Elliott ultimately finished fifth, the lowest of the Championship 4 contenders. Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson won the race and therefore the Bill France Cup trophy. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin placed second and third, respectively, on the results sheet and in the season standings.

Larson led a race-high 107 laps, including the last 28 to the checkered flag. Elliott had the second-best tally out of the 312 total with 94 leading circuits.

“You get a caution with 20 laps to go, it’s going to be very difficult to run down and pass the guy that jumps out front in the restart,” Elliott said. “But yeah, proud of our team. Felt like we had a nice game plan coming into the week, felt like our car did a lot of things we wanted it to do. No major mistakes, just needed to be a little better in those first few sequences of restarts and pit stops there at the end.”

With 29 laps remaining, debris on the track drew a yellow and the field pitted. The No. 5 crew performed the fastest stop that allowed Larson to gain three spots off of pit road, jumping from fourth to first. Elliott, meanwhile, lost a spot and settled in fourth.

Larson chose the top lane for the restart, and Hamlin took the bottom next to him. Elliott lined up behind Hamlin, alongside Truex.

The final green-flag stretch lasted 24 laps. Larson held off his competition and wound up with a 0.398-second margin of victory.

“All those cars were so good, whichever one was out front was probably going to be the only one who was going to win,” Gustafson said. “I was pretty happy we could pass the leader. We did that a few times. Just disappointed we didn’t keep up with it again at the end.”

Elliott last held the lead with 62 laps remaining. He had taken it from and lost it to Larson. Actually, every time Elliott moved into first – four total occurrences – it required passing Larson.

The No. 9 group won two races in 2021. Both came at road courses – Circuit of The Americas (NASCAR’s debut) and Road America (series’ first race there since 1956). That gives him 13 career victories since his first in 2018.

This marked Elliott’s second Championship 4 appearance overall.

“I’m happy to be here, I’m not happy right now,” Gustafson said. “I mean, it’s hard two minutes after the race to sit here and find the good.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Larson received major accolades from motorsports legends after capturing his first NASCAR Cup Series championship on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

RELATED: Kyle Larson scores first NASCAR Cup Series title 

NASCAR Hall of Famer and three-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart as well as Mario Andretti were among the heavy hitters to applaud the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver for his triumph. Stewart even recognized him as the best race car driver he has ever witnessed.

Posted on by Holly Cain

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Stewart-Haas Racing driver Chase Briscoe officially earned the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors Sunday. It marks the second consecutive year the SHR team has fielded the top series newcomer. Cole Custer won it last year.

Briscoe, 26, driver of the No. 14 SHR Ford, finished out the season with a 35th place finish at Phoenix – crashing out after a tire problem while running 12th. He finished 23rd in the final championship standings.

RELATED: Sunoco Rookie of the Year winners in Cup Series

A nine-time winner while racing full-time for the team in the Xfinity Series last year, he had three top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Cup Series this season, including a best of sixth place at both the Austin and Road America road courses. He led 18 laps with a single day best of 12 laps led at the Indianapolis Road Course.

The series other Rookie of the Year contender, Front Row Motorsports driver Anthony Alfredo, 22, finished 30th in the standings with one top-10 finish, a 10th place at the fall Talladega Superspeedway race. He closed out the year with a 34th-place finish following an accident at Phoenix.

Posted on by Zack Albert

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin may have entered Sunday’s championship race as underdogs. So said Wally Brown, the team’s competition director, in the week’s run-up to the NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway.

Cinderellas or not, Truex and Hamlin chased the No. 5 Chevrolet of eventual champion Kyle Larson down the stretch before coming up short in Sunday’s season-ender. Their Toyotas held the advantage in long-haul speed in a race that threw two short runs at them late, playing into the strengths of Hendrick Motorsports teammates Larson and Chase Elliott.

RELATED: Kyle Larson wins 2021 championship | Race recap | Race results

That factor, plus a slight performance deficit on pit road at the end, left Truex second in his bid for a second Cup Series title and Hamlin third in his long-running quest for a first.

“That’s racing, as they say, and sometimes you’re just not on the right end of things,” said Truex, who led 72 laps but ended up .398 seconds behind at the checkered flag. “We were on the right end of things to get the lead there and weren’t able to hold onto it. If we could have had the lead, I think it would have been over, but that’s kind of how the 5 did it, too. So they had a hell of a season and congrats to them. Gosh, second sucks. I hate it.”

RELATED: Martin Truex Jr. reacts to another runner-up finish in the standings

Truex nearly benefitted from a decision by crew chief James Small to be the first Championship 4 contender to make their final scheduled pit stop, forcing the other title hopefuls to follow suit. When the caution flag flew for Anthony Alfredo’s hard hit with 66 laps remaining, Truex was already committed to pit road and after the No. 19 team’s stop, he left with the lead

Truex held serve up front for the next 33 laps before another yellow flag for debris prompted a final round of stops. The No. 5 crew vaulted Larson to the lead with speedy service, while Truex slipped to third for the final restart — which shifted to Hendrick’s favor with just a 24-lap run to the end.

“It wasn’t what we needed,” said Small, who described the team’s over-the-wall performance as “a little bit messy” on Sunday. “I think if it went green there, we would’ve just kept pulling away there. We had a great fight there with the 11. They had a strong car as well. Yeah, we just struggled just a little bit on pit road all day, to be honest, compared to the Hendrick cars. That 5 car crew’s been strong all year and that really won them the race. Martin did a great job on that last restart to get into second and he gave a hell of a fight.”

The title-eligible drivers ran in 1-2-3-4 formation for significant portions of Sunday’s 312-miler, but Hamlin was the only one of the four that didn’t lead a lap. The prospects of a caution-free stint to the end would have aided the No. 11 team’s hopes, but Hamlin still lined up alongside friendly rival Larson on the front row for the final restart.

“You and your buddy on the front row may not be buddies after this,” No. 11 crew chief Chris Gabehart told Hamlin before the final green flag. “Go get this.” But Larson pulled away to a lead that he wouldn’t give up, leaving Hamlin’s title cupboard empty in his third consecutive Championship 4 appearance.

“I have to live with the result because I can’t change it,” Hamlin said. “Disappointed, absolutely, for sure. But I knew kind of going into today I was going to need the race to go a certain way. If it goes the way it did last year, it goes green out, we’re probably winning. But it didn’t. We knew that our percentage was low, and that was the case. Many of these races come down to green-white-checkers or shootouts at the end, and that just wasn’t our strength and hasn’t been ever.”

RELATED: Denny Hamlin says ‘it just didn’t pan out’

Said Gabehart: “The short-run speed of the 5 and the 9 were evident on Friday and yesterday, but it became evident in the race that they were going to taper off enough to make us easily able to contend or be better than them. Certainly once we worked on our cars and it cooled off a bit, they really weren’t in the game as much any more. But it comes down to cautions and circumstances and that caution wasn’t what we needed. You put Kyle Larson out front with a bit in his mouth and kind of hand him that advantage, he’s going to be hard to beat and that’s what it was.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — At the end of an almost mythical season came the quintessential story of redemption.

Taking advantage of an opportune caution and a blazingly fast pit stop by his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crew, Larson held off Martin Truex Jr. during a 24-lap green-flag run to the finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos from Phoenix

The victory — Larson’s 10th of the season and the 10th at a track where he had never won before — made a deserving series champion of the 29-year-old Californian, who honed his racing skills in open-wheeled cars on dirt.

As Larson slowed his car for the cool-down lap, the tears started flowing.

“I can’t … I cannot believe it,” Larson said after climbing from his car. “I didn’t even think I’d be racing a Cup car a year and a half ago. To win a championship is crazy. I’ve got to say first-off thank you so much to (team owner) Rick Hendrick, Hendrickcars.com, Jeff Gordon, NASCAR, every single one of my supporters in the stands, watching at home and my family.

“There were so many points in this race where I did not think we were going to win. Without my pit crew on that last stop (on Lap 285), we would not be standing right here. They are the true winners of this race. They are true champions. I’m just blessed to be a part of this group. Every single man and woman at Hendrick Motorsports, this win is for all of us, and every one of you.

“This is unbelievable. I’m speechless.”

RELATED: Kyle Larson caps dominant season with Cup championship

This was the Kyle Larson who watched last year’s Cup championship race from afar after drawing a suspension from NASCAR and losing his ride with Chip Ganassi Racing for using a racial slur during a non-NASCAR-related virtual race in April 2020.

But after Larson did yeoman work to earn reinstatement, team owner Rick Hendrick hired the virtuoso driver, who won 46 dirt races in multiple divisions during his absence from NASCAR.

Hendrick’s decision paid immediate dividends and culminated in the 14th series championship for the organization (series-most).

Until Lap 282 of 312, however, Larson’s chances of victory were all but nonexistent. He was fourth among the Championship 4 drivers and trailing Truex, the leader at the time, by more than four seconds.

But on the lap that changed the race, the brakes in David Starr’s No. 13 Toyota exploded and dropped a rotor in the low lane in Turn 3. Under the resulting caution, the ninth of the race, Larson’s crew performed its second-fastest stop of the year and got Larson off pit road in the lead from pit stall No. 1, which the driver had earned by winning the pole during Saturday’s qualifying.

Larson restarted from the outside on Lap 289 with Hamlin beside him. Truex, who lost two positions on pit road, lined up behind Larson, with defending champion Chase Elliott to his inside. Larson surged into the lead, and Truex followed, passing Hamlin.

Truex contested the lead early in the run before Larson established a more comfortable margin. But Truex was closing at the finish and was just .398 seconds behind when Larson crossed the stripe for the final time to earn the 16th victory of his career.

RELATED: Martin Truex Jr. on finishing second again

“I don’t know what the caution was for, but just untimely caution for us and lost two spots on pit road, and that was the race,” Truex said. “Twenty (laps) to go, you’re not going to pass one of the fastest cars out there. We just didn’t have the short-run speed all day, and then certainly with 20 to go, it’s going to be hard to pass anybody out front in clean air.

“I think if we would have had the lead, we could have held him off. But hindsight is 20-20, and we didn’t have the lead, so here we are. Really proud of our team and our season. Come in here once again as underdogs and had a shot at it, so that was fun.”

Before the Lap 282 caution Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs racing Toyota was closing on Truex, but the yellow flag foiled a well-executed game plan by Hamlin’s team.

“I really liked where we were at with about 25 to go,” said Hamlin, who came home third in front of Ryan Blaney and Elliott. “We were just exceptional in the long run, which wasn’t too surprising, but started running the 19 (Truex) back down there and got within a couple car lengths, and obviously that debris caution changed a lot.

“Special congrats to Larson and his team. Those guys, any time you can win 10 races in a year, you’re absolutely a deserving champion. They did a great job on the last pit stop and got him out there, and it was just set sail after that.”

Had he won, the 25-year-old Elliott would have become the youngest driver to win multiple Cup championships, but his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet didn’t have either the track position or the necessary speed in the final run.

“I felt like our NAPA Chevy was really good, and I thought our team did a really good job preparing this week,” said Elliott, who led 94 laps, second only to Larson’s 107. “I was really proud of our group. I thought we brought a really good car and did a lot of things that we were wanting to do today. Just didn’t work out, and the sequence of the way all that went certainly was unfortunate for us.

“But look, proud of our team, a lot to build on, and also congrats to Kyle and (crew chief) Cliff (Daniels). What an amazing season. Very, very deserving champions, and glad to see Kyle have success. When you’re a good driver and a good person, and you surround yourself with good people, success is warranted. It’s good to see that.

“But we’ll be back stronger next year and try to give them a run.”

MORE: Chase Elliott’s post-race interview

Notes: Post-race inspection as well as the vehicle and engine teardown confirmed Larson as the race winner and champion. The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of driver Kyle Busch was found to have two lug nuts not safe and secure. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of driver Denny Hamlin, the No. 2 Team Penske Ford of driver Brad Keselowski, the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford of driver Matt DiBenedetto, the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of driver Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Larson each had one lug nut not safe and secure. Fines to those respective crew chiefs will be assessed on the NASCAR penalty report, which is typically released on Tuesdays.