Playoff momentum: Ryan Blaney rounding into roles as team leader, title contender

Posted on August 29, 2021August 29, 2021 by Zack Albert

A successful two-week span alone doesn’t build an airtight case that a driver has reached a maturation point. A breakout season often provides more clues within the full context of a driver’s career arc.

Ryan Blaney has shown such growth in his racing portfolio, going from can’t-miss prospect to proven winner at NASCAR’s top level. He’s riding a two-race win streak into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs after Saturday night’s victory at Daytona International Speedway. The deftly navigated triumph marked the latest parting gift for outgoing Team Penske crew chief Todd Gordon, a breakthrough at a track where he’d come oh-so-close before and the latest indicator Blaney has further bolstered his case for inclusion among the sport’s elite.

The 27-year-old driver had already checked the box of becoming more than a “one win a year guy” — a distinction he’d held four seasons running — pushing his 2021 victory haul to three. Two other boxes — one tabbing Blaney as a title contender and another as a leader in Penske’s changing driver camp — have already been marked in pencil, if not soon in pen.

“Yeah, it’s just good momentum,” Blaney said in the wee hours after his Coke Zero Sugar 400 win. “It’s good for confidence. Not only my self-confidence, but everyone on the team, it’s just huge. You can really have good momentum. Momentum is a huge thing in sports especially. What we do. Confidence is big in not only motorsports but sports and life. If you have confidence in yourself, you can achieve something, know what your goal is, go out there and do the best you can and achieve it, that really helps you out.”

Blaney entered Team Penske’s Cup Series roster as a junior member to the established core of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, first with the affiliated Wood Brothers Racing operation in 2015 and later as a third entrant under the Penske banner when the organization expanded three years later. It was Keselowski who had helped give Blaney’s career a jumping-off point in 2012 during his time as a Camping World Truck Series team owner. “It’s pretty crazy to think it’s back that long ago,” Blaney said, adding without Keselowski’s guidance, his stock-car racing path could have taken a wholly different direction.

With Keselowski departing at season’s end for a driver and part-ownership role with Roush Fenway Racing, some of those leadership qualities and institutional knowledge will be elsewhere in 2022. It’s another opportunity for Blaney to round into that role with Team Penske, which will field two fresh-faced rookies in the Cup Series next year — Austin Cindric as Keselowski’s replacement in the No. 2 Ford and Harrison Burton, who moves to the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 in place of Matt DiBenedetto.

“That role with Brad moving on, Joey and I kind of being the veteran guys I guess you could say over there right now, just more experience than Austin and Harrison on the Cup side, it has to be your role,” Blaney said. “You have to be a leader. Definitely Brad is a leader, Joey. I think it’s time for me to step up and be that guy, too. Me and Joey really need to be mentors and leaders to Austin and Harrison and make our team strong. Brad does that really well.

“I’ve been really excited to kind of be in that role for sure. Hopefully we can continue to work on that and get better and better.”

Blaney was quick to credit Gordon for shaping him, better preparing him for those duties. The veteran crew chief announced one month ago this would be his last Cup Series season in his current role. After the No. 12 team’s second straight win, Penske management was among those asking Gordon in Victory Lane, “you sure?” Blaney also chimed in. “Maybe if we win out, win the championship, Todd will stay,” he said. “I’ll see if I can convince him to.”

Gordon said he was confident the team would be on firm footing as he enters the next chapter of his life at the end of the 2021 campaign. A productive run in the 10-race postseason — which starts next Sunday at historic Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — would reinforce that belief.

“I think Team Penske is in a great position,” Gordon said. “I think Ryan is growing into being a championship contender. I think we’ve got that ability in front of us in the next 10 races. I can’t wait to get going on it. I look forward taking this momentum we have going forward into the Southern 500.

“I got to work with Ryan and Joey. I think both of them are great people, very good for the sport. I look for Team Penske to have a lot of influence in the Ford camp, and leadership from that standpoint for both of them.”

MORE: Darlington weekend schedule

As for the title aspirations, Blaney is beginning to embrace that label as well. The No. 12 team’s uptick in the win column has some solid performance foundations, with Blaney finishing among the top six in seven of the last nine races to end the regular season. His recent two-win jaunt was enough to pad his playoff-point cushion, pushing him into a tie for second place with fellow three-time winner Martin Truex Jr. once the standings reset for the 10-race postseason.

Blaney has twice advanced to the Round of 8 (2017, 2019) in his Cup Series career. Asked to make the argument for the No. 12 team’s worth as a title pick, Blaney showed some initial reluctance, opting to solely focus on the three-race opening round on the road ahead.

“I’ll give you a little bit of something, I guess,” Blaney said with a change of heart. “I just think this team is so good, they can do it. If they really perform to the best of their abilities, and I do as well, I think we have a good shot at it. Capitalizing on opportunities, that’s what we’ve been doing the last couple weeks, putting ourselves in positions to win races.

“That’s what this team does a really good job at. You just try to keep applying that.”

Posted on August 29, 2021August 29, 2021 by Staff Report

Joey Logano led a race-best 37 of the 165 laps Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, and those laps out front included a Stage 2 victory and the lead with seven laps remaining in regulation. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford was feeling good about his chances of capturing his second victory of 2021 and second at the 2.5-mile track in Daytona Beach, Florida.

But then Logano wound up 23rd at the checkered flag in overtime.

“We had a shot to win there and the 11 just threw a late block and fenced me and then I had a right rear down,” Logano said. “Luckily, I didn’t take out the whole field that time, but that got taken care of the next lap, so it probably wouldn’t have mattered.”

The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota belongs to Denny Hamlin. Both Hamlin and Logano were locked into the 2021 NASCAR Playoffs. But Hamlin was fighting for the regular-season title, which he ultimately lost to Kyle Larson.

There was a wreck on Lap 158. Hamlin was listed on the caution report. Logano was not, but he was dealing with the flat right-rear tire from the lap before. Hamlin finished 13th.

When asked whether hard feels toward Hamlin will carry over into the NASCAR Playoffs, Logano said, “Absolutely.”

These two have a history of on-track, off-track drama, most notably dating back to Bristol Motor Speedway in 2013 and carrying over a week later at Auto Club Speedway — a reminder of what happened. The rivalry most recently sparked back up in 2019 at Martinsville Speedway, where the two tangled on pit road and Hamlin blatantly mocked Logano on camera after the race.

WATCH: All angles of Denny Hamlin-Joey Logano Martinsville altercation

Hamlin is seeded seventh in the 16-driver postseason field with 2,015 points, while Logano is ninth with 2,013 points. The playoffs begin next Sunday at Darlington Raceway with the Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on August 29, 2021August 29, 2021 by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Tyler Reddick drew some dramatic comparisons after making the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs as the 16th and final qualifier, likening it to the anxiety of a roller-coaster ride and even the overwhelming emotions of becoming a father. By the end of 400-plus miles, the 25-year-old driver was spent. Nerves, shot.

“I was just relieved, glad it was over and that we’d gotten the good news,” Reddick said.

Reddick nursed a battered No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to a gutsy fifth-place finish in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, sealing his first playoff appearance in his second Cup Series season at Daytona International Speedway. He let out a triumphant yell on the team radio after getting the word that he had clinched — all in spite of a final-stage crash, his car’s smoking fit afterward and a frantic scramble to patch things up for the final run.

“The fight we had tonight, it’s going to carry us a long way,” Reddick said on the team radio after the checkered flag. “… Whatever the case, we don’t quit. Just the beginning. The fun’s about to start.”

Fun? For all parties invested in the outcome’s playoff implications, the uncertainty in one of the more competitive superspeedway races in recent memory was plenty. Reddick earned that congratulatory hug on pit road from team owner Richard Childress, who faced his own race-long bundle of nerves on two fronts. Reddick’s clincher proved to be the ouster of teammate Austin Dillon, who battled his own issues with a pit-road speeding penalty, a voltage problem on his No. 3 Chevrolet that prompted a late battery change and later, his involvement in an overtime crash that left him 17th in the finishing order and 29 points behind Reddick in the tally for the final berth.

Reddick went from 15th to fifth in the two-lap overtime dash, padding his points edge. Dillon went from contending for the race win — sitting in fourth place before overtime — to having his damaged car wedged where the high banks and the apron meet.

“We went to fourth, and that’s where we won the race from when we won the (Daytona) 500,” said Dillon, who threaded his way through the preceding multicar crash that sent the race to extra laps. “I was really confident at that point, and it’s really hard to tell yourself to be patient. … Just didn’t get what we need because of the melee and we were in the middle of it. Unfortunate. We raced our tails off and came up a little short. Hat’s off to all my guys on the 3 team. They built two rocket ships for me to try and get in with, and we just came up short. We’ll build on this and try and finish off the year strong, build for next year.”

Childress’ nerves were doubly jangled. Besides the points battle between Reddick and Dillon, the threat of a first-time winner knocking both RCR cars out of the playoff picture loomed as a possibility that grew more real as the laps ticked down and more and more contenders rumpled sheet metal.

Ryan Blaney closed the door on the would-be first-timers by escaping with his third victory of the season, edging Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Newman and Ryan Preece across the line — all four of whom stood to steal the 16th playoff spot had Blaney faded. (Buescher’s bid would later be a moot point; his No. 17 Roush Fenway Ford was disqualified in post-race inspection.)

“I just wanted to see the 12 (Blaney) win instead of a new winner,” Childress said. “I knew we’d get one of them in if we could.”

Randall Burnett, Reddick’s crew chief, had his own pressure cooker atop the pit box. A Lap 147 crash gave the No. 8 Chevrolet significant wounds and time nearly ran out on the damaged-vehicle policy crash clock. Near the end, Burnett came over the radio and told his driver that the team had done all it could, adding simply, “go like hell.”

“It was definitely a roller coaster on the pit box, for sure. You feel so helpless, a race like this,” Burnett said later in the garage. “It’s not like a normal race where you build your car and you go and you have good speed. Everybody’s running on top of one another here. It’s just nerve-wracking. At any given second, any lap, you could be wrecked and out — and it could be not of your own doing. That’s how we got the damage we got … minding our own business. That set off a whole other chain of events we had to go through. That’s part of it.”

It all put Reddick in, providing postseason hope for the 10 races ahead.

“To finish was an accomplishment,” Burnett said. “But to still finish where we needed to was an even bigger accomplishment.”

Posted on August 28, 2021August 29, 2021 by Staff Report

The 16-driver field for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is set after Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

The following drivers are in the postseason field:
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet: 2,052 points
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford: 2,024 points
Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota: 2,024 points
Kyle Busch, No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota: 2,022 points
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet: 2,021 points
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet: 2,015 points
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota: 2,015 points
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet: 2,014 points
Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford: 2,013 points
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Team Penske Ford: 2,008 points
Kurt Busch, No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet: 2,008 points
Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota: 2,005 points
Michael McDowell, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford: 2,005 points
Aric Almirola, No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford: 2,005 points
Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet: 2,003 points
Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford: 2,002 points

All drivers in the playoffs will see their point totals reset to 2,000 with their playoff point totals then added in ahead of the three-race Round of 16 that includes Darlington Raceway, Richmond Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway. Any playoff eligible driver that wins a Round of 16 race is automatically locked into the next round. Following the Bristol race, the drivers with the four lowest point totals (who haven’t won in that round) will be eliminated.

To start the Round of 12, all drivers will see their point totals reset to 3,000 with their playoff point totals then added in ahead of the three-race round that includes Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. Any playoff eligible driver that wins a Round of 12 race is automatically locked into the next round. Following the Charlotte race, the drivers with the four lowest point totals (who haven’t won in that round) will be eliminated.

To start the Round of 8, all drivers will see their point totals reset to 4,000 with their playoff point totals then added in ahead of the three-race round that includes Texas Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Martinsville Speedway. Any playoff eligible driver that wins a Round of 8 race is automatically locked into the Championship 4. Following the Martinsville race, the drivers with the four lowest point totals (who haven’t won in that round) will be eliminated.

The Championship 4 will see their point totals reset to 5,000 only playoff points will not be added in and these drivers will not be awarded stage points in the final race on Nov. 7 at Phoenix. The title winner will be the highest finishing driver among the four Championship-eligible drivers. Since this format was adopted in 2014, the championship winner has also won the final race.

Posted on August 28, 2021August 29, 2021 by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Coke Zero Sugar 400 NASCAR Cup Series’ regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway unfolded as billed with dramatic action all Saturday night that included 45 lead changes, a 14-minute red-flag period and a wild final lap of overtime to decide the championship playoff picture.

Ultimately, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney managed it all and took his second NASCAR Cup Series victory in as many weeks as a huge multicar accident happened behind him in the last corners of the track on the final lap.

RELATED: Official results | Standings reset

Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford led only seven of the 165 laps, but the 27-year-old North Carolinian took the lead from fellow Ford driver and Roush Fenway Racing’s Chris Buescher for the two laps of overtime to claim his third win of the season and seventh of his career.

Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick earned the 16th and final playoff position with a fifth-place finish in a close and suspenseful battle with his own teammate, Austin Dillon.

“How about that,” Blaney said. “That was a lot of fun. Gosh, we just barely missed that wreck. Got to line up on the front row and got a good push by the 7 (Corey LaJoie). You never know how the end of these things is going to play out. Down the back you don’t know what lane is getting a bigger run. I guess someone got tangled up over there, hopefully everyone is OK.”

LaJoie was one of the drivers who was collected in that nine-car crash in Turn 3 on the final lap. He was one of four drivers – including Dillon, Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez – running among the top 10 on the final restart and needing a victory to qualify for the playoffs. Instead, all four of them were unfortunately involved in the final incident that eliminated much of the front-running pack.

Kyle Larson, who has a series-best five wins on the season, clinched his first NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship with a 20th-place finish. Both he and Denny Hamlin were in the last-lap wreck. Hamlin, who has led the points standings for all but three of the previous 25 race weekends, finished 13th.

Blaney’s Daytona win caps an impressive summer run that is good enough to move him into second place in the playoff standings – 28 behind Larson – heading into next week’s playoff opener at Darlington Raceway.

Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch are ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the playoff reset, followed by 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Hamlin and William Byron. Joey Logano, who led a race-best 37 laps Saturday but finished 23rd, is seeded ninth, followed by Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Christopher Bell, 2021 Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell, Aric Almirola, Reddick and Kevin Harvick.

“Got good momentum,” Blaney said smiling. “Nice to make it three in a row. We’ll see.”

Bubba Wallace, who led eight laps late in the race, finished second – his best result of the 2021 season. Ryan Newman, Ryan Preece and Reddick rounded out the top five; a season best for Newman and Preece as well.

Haley, who won the Xfinity Series race earlier in the afternoon, was sixth and followed by Alex Bowman. Chase Elliott, B.J. McLeod and Josh Bilicki rounded out the top 10. It was McLeod’s first top-10 finish in 76 NASCAR Cup Series starts.

The 10-race elimination style NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin with next Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington (6 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Harvick is the defending race winner. Truex won at Darlington this spring.

NOTE: The race winning No. 12 Team Penske Ford passed NASCAR’s post-race inspection, thus confirming Ryan Blaney’s victory. The No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Chris Buescher, however, was disqualified as it did not conform to the NASCAR rule specifications per the following rule: 20.3.3.3.b REAR SUB-FRAME ASSEMBLY; I-4 Track Bar Mounting Assembly. Buescher’s second-place finish was altered to 40th, last in the 40-car field, as a result.

Posted on August 28, 2021August 29, 2021 by Staff Report

Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson won the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship Presented by Coca-Cola and was awarded the trophy after the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

The driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet has led the point standings since his fifth win of the season at Watkins Glen International earlier this month. For the season, he has five wins, 14 top fives and 18 top 10s — all of those marks are the best in the Cup Series this season. In his first year with Hendrick, Larson also won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600, Sonoma Raceway and Nashville Superspeedway as well as the non-points NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway. In July, Larson inked an extension to keep him at Hendrick through the 2023 season.

“We had a stretch there where we won like every stage and every race for a few weeks in a row,” Larson said. “I think we took huge chunks out then. I think I read somewhere where we overcame I think a 166-point gap to Denny (Hamlin). I didn’t think it was possible, but our team has worked so hard all of the regular season. I couldn’t do it without Mr. Hendrick and Linda and all of their support. Everybody back at the shop, too. This is a long season and we still have 10 races to go.”

Clinching the regular-season title hands Larson a 15-point bonus heading into the 10-race NASCAR Playoffs, which begin Sept. 5 with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. The top-10 finishers in the regular-season standings receive bonus points on a sliding scale, starting with 15 for first and ending with one playoff point for 10th.

With five victories, paired with a series-high 12 stage wins, Larson will carry 52 playoff points and will enter the postseason as the top seed.

“I mean, I think there’s a lot of good tracks for us,” Larson said. “I don’t know which ones specifically. I feel like we have a shot to win anywhere right now. That’s encouraging.

“I really just look forward to getting it started next week, kind of getting into the flow of that, racing in the playoffs against multiple other drivers chasing points and wins. Yeah, I feel good about it.”

Kevin Harvick won last year’s regular-season championship, Kyle Busch took the honor in 2018 and 2019, while Martin Truex Jr. scored the prize in 2017. Truex and Busch (in 2019) are the only regular-season champions to date to win the playoff title in the same season as the regular-season title.

Posted on August 28, 2021September 2, 2021 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.

MORE: How to find NBCSN | Get the NBC Sports App | How to find FS1 | Get FOX Sports App

Monday, Aug. 30
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Tuesday, Aug. 31
11 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of 2021 Radioactive—Part 1, FS2 (re-air)
Noon, NASCAR Race Hub: Best of 2021 Radioactive—Part 2, FS2 (re-air)
1 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Legends Show, FS2 (re-air)
2 p.m., NASCAR Presents: This Racing Life, FS2 (re-air)
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7 p.m., Unrivaled: Earnhardt vs. Gordon, FS1 (re-air)
8 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN

Wednesday, Sept. 1
11 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Game Night—Part 1, FS2 (re-air)
12 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Game Night—Part 2, FS2 (re-air)
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Thursday, Sept. 2
11 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Features—Part 1, FS2 (re-air)
12 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Features—Part 2, FS2 (re-air)
3 p.m., IMSA Auto Racing Special Prototype Challenge: Virginia International Raceway, NBCSN
4 p.m., IMSA Auto Racing Special Lamborghini Super Trofeo: Virginia International Raceway, NBCSN
5 p.m., IMSA Auto Racing Pilot Challenge, NBCSN
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
7 p.m., Refuse to Lose: Jeff Gordon and the 1997 Daytona 500, FS1 (re-air)
7 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN
8 p.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN (re-air)

Friday, Sept. 3
11 a.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Hometown Show, FS2 (re-air)
12 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Women in Wheels, FS2 (re-air)
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

Saturday, Sept. 4
3 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Countdown to Green, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN5)
3:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN5)
5:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series: Post-Race Show, NBCSN/NBC Sports App

On MRN
3 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200

Sunday, Sept. 5
1 p.m., NASCAR Raceday: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Darlington, FS1
1:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: In It To Win It 200, FS1
4 p.m., NASCAR Raceday: NASCAR Cup Series at Darlington, FS1
4 p.m., NASCAR Lady in Black, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
5:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Countdown to Green, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN5)
6 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Cook Out Southern 500, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN5)
10 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series: Post-Race Show, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
11:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: In It To Win It 200, FS2 (re-air)

On MRN
1 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series In It To Win It 200, FS1
5 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500, NBCSN/NBC Sports App

Posted on August 28, 2021August 28, 2021 by Staff Report

The crew chiefs for both Front Row Motorsports cars — the No. 34 Ford of Michael McDowell and the No. 38 Ford of Anthony Alfredo — have been ejected before Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway (7 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), and both cars will drop to the rear before the 160-lap race. In addition, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Kyle Larson and the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet of Corey LaJoie will start from the rear for multiple pre-race inspection failures.

Front Row Motorsports crew chiefs Drew Blickensderfer (No. 34) and Seth Barbour (No. 38) were ejected after pre-race inspection penalties. McDowell was slated to start 18th, while Alfredo was set to start 32nd. McDowell won the Daytona 500 in February and is one of three drivers with top 10s in both superspeedway races this year.

Jason Sheets, car chief for the No. 34, will fill in as McDowell’s crew chief, while competition director Derrick Finley will serve as Alfredo’s crew chief, according to the team.

The ejections came after it was found the cars did not conform to NASCAR rule specifications per: Rule 20.4.11.5.a and b. Those rules deal with the deck lid extensions teams can use as A.) only NASCAR-approved deck lid extensions will be permitted and B.) the deck lid must conform to the drawing supplied by NASCAR.

The No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet of Joey Gase (starting 37th) and the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet of Kaz Grala (starting 38th) will also go to the rear after multiple pre-race inspection failures.

Larson had been slated to start from the pole in Saturday’s race and will still be credited as the polesitter. He is locked in a battle for the regular-season championship and enters the final race of the regular season with a 28-point lead over Denny Hamlin.

“Our strategy is kind of just to chill out and get to the finish,” Larson told media during a pre-race availability as he seeks his first top five in 15 Daytona starts. “Having to start from the pole sometimes can get sketchy when you’re trying to shuffle your way to the back, so having to start from the rear is not really a big deal to me as long as we can pass this time.”

Contributing: Zack Albert

Posted on August 28, 2021August 28, 2021 by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Coming to the checkered flag, Justin Haley nudged his No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet just ahead of his teammates A.J. Allmendinger and Jeb Burton in a thrilling three-wide finish in the Wawa 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday afternoon.

The blink-of-an-eye .023-second victory marked the fourth superspeedway victory for the 22-year-old Haley but his first win of the 2021 season. He has three wins on the Daytona high banks, also including one in a rain-shortened NASCAR Cup Series race here two years ago.

Allmendinger, who took the white flag in front of the field, may have just missed the race trophy, but he led the most laps on the day (29) and his runner-up effort was good enough to take the season driver standings lead by 17 points over defending series champion Austin Cindric, who was sidelined after a Lap 27 incident.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Although Haley and Allmendinger’s third Kaulig Racing teammate Jeb Burton made it a three-wide photo at the line, JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier actually nudged just ahead in the middle to officially take third place. Burton was credited with fourth place, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Hemric, whose fifth-place finish was a massive comeback after his No. 18 was involved in the same early-race incident that took Cindric out.

NASCAR Cup Series regular Christopher Bell was sixth with Noah Gragson, Myatt Snider, Harrison Burton and Riley Herbst rounding out the top 10. Hemric, Harrison Burton and Haley all clinched spots in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs with their finishes today.

“This has just not been the best season, it’s been really, really hard on this No. 11 LeafFilter team all year,” said an emotional Haley, who teared up in car congratulating his crew after the checkered flag. “We’ve had a lot of bad luck.

“I was trying to formulate a plan there and obviously there were team orders. Hats off to Kaulig Racing. I think we’ve got the teammate thing down. It’s just so special to win here at Daytona.”

“I’ve won twice here and neither time did I get to see anyone [fans] on the front stretch, so thank you guys for being here,” he told the cheering crowd. “I love you”

The first 19 laps of the 100-lapper ran on Friday night, but Florida rain showers forced the Saturday matinee. The competition resumed, however, in the kind of typically flat-out, thrilling superspeedway storyline that NASCAR fans have become accustomed to.

“That was like the perfect photoshoot right there coming across the line for all the Kaulig Racing Chevys,” Allmendinger said with a huge grin. “Proud of my ‘son’ Justin Haley. He might be one of the best we’ve ever seen on superspeedways and Jeb did a fantastic job.

“I was just hanging on in the middle there. I thought we might get it [1-2-3 finish] but proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing.”

Haley and Burton won the opening two stages in an action-packed afternoon that had a great impact on the championship chase.

Cindric, the defending Xfinity Series champion and a series best five-race winner in 2021, has led the series standings all season. But he was involved in a five-car accident toward the front of the field on Lap 26 that eliminated him from the race less than a half-hour after it re-started.

Cindric’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford was hit from behind by Snider’s No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet entering Turn 1 sending a handful of cars into save-mode, with several – including top-10 finishers Hemric and Snider – suffering damage but returning to the race.

“Pretty upset for our Ford Mustang, two weekends in a row we’ve had race-winning capable cars and I’ve had probably a total of 40 laps in the last two weeks,” Cindric said. “Really frustrating to have that situation play out so early. It only takes one, sometimes.”

Coming into the Daytona race, Cindric held a 35-point advantage over Allmendinger. Now he trails by 17 with only three races remaining to set the 12-driver Playoff field.

The top-10 work by Herbst was significant in terms of the Playoffs. He came into the race ranked 12th, but was able to extend his lead ahead of Michael Annett (30th) and Brandon Brown (34th) who both had bad luck days at Daytona.

RELATED: Xfinity Series schedule

The Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 is next Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the historic Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. Allgaier won at the track this spring. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones, who finished last on Saturday after his Toyota battled overheating issues, is the defending race winner.

Note: Post-race inspection was completed without major issue in the Xfinity Series garage, confirming Haley as the winner. The No. 17 Chevrolet of JJ Yeley had one lug nut not safe and secure, resulting in a monetary fine to be announced in next week’s penalty report.

Posted on August 28, 2021August 28, 2021 by Staff Report

Before Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR will celebrate the legacy of NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Wendell Scott and present the Scott family with a trophy commemorating the driver’s historic victory on Dec. 1, 1963 at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida.

A native of Danville, Virginia, Scott was the first Black driver to compete full time in the NASCAR Cup Series and his victory in the Jacksonville 200 marked the first race won by a Black driver at the sport’s top level.

On that day in Florida, however, Scott didn’t get to celebrate his win and didn’t receive a trophy as part of the standard post-race presentation. At the end of the race, Buck Baker was flagged the winner and it wasn’t until the official scoring review that race officials determined Scott had won the event by two laps – with Baker finishing second.

On Saturday, nearly 58 years after Scott’s landmark victory, NASCAR is recognizing the achievement with the pageantry it deserves before thousands of race fans at Daytona International Speedway. And less than 100 miles from the site of the old Speedway Park in Jacksonville, NASCAR will present the Scott family a trophy.

“It’s quite an honor and a privilege to be here this weekend for this historic moment in time,” said Frank Scott, Wendell’s son. “I grew up at Daytona as a young teenager and a child and came here throughout my father’s racing career. It’s good to be back in this historic place.”

Frank and his three siblings will be joined at the track by a dozen family members including grandchildren and great grandchildren. On hand for the presentation will be Steve Phelps, NASCAR President, and Brandon Thompson, NASCAR Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion.

“NASCAR is honored and delighted to have the family of NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Wendell Scott with us here in Daytona in the presence of the industry and the fans as we celebrate and honor the legacy of Wendell Scott and everything he brought to the sport,” Thompson said.

“That historic moment (in 1963) wasn’t celebrated In the way that it should have been,” he added. “It is certainly one of the most iconic and monumental moments in American stock car racing history, but dare I say motorsports history.”

During a media availability on Friday, Warrick Scott, Frank’s son and Wendell’s grandson, addressed his grandfather’s contributions to NASCAR and what Saturday’s presentation means to his family.

“Wendell Scott’s legacy as a man is rooted in community and outreach,” Warrick Scott said. “The work that we’ve been doing for so many years, this moment crystallizes it. All things are possible. At this moment in time I think diversity is a really big topic, and Wendell Scott built a bridge for diversity, in the minds and ideologies for many people. We are blessed to be here in this moment.”

RacingOne

During his NASCAR career, Wendell Scott competed in 495 Cup Series races and scored 147 top-10 finishes. He died in 1990 and was posthumously inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in the Class of 2015.

On Dec. 1, 1963, Scott won the third race of the 1964 season, a 100-mile feature on the half-mile Speedway Park. He started 15th and led 27 laps, finishing first in a field that included future Hall of Famers Baker (second), Richard Petty (fifth), Ned Jarrett (seventh), Joe Weatherly (14th) and David Pearson (16th).

While he achieved notable on-track success, much of Scott’s legacy in NASCAR is the multicultural drivers and crew members who came after him – many of whom found their path as part of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Program. As a rookie in 2018, Drive for Diversity graduate Bubba Wallace became the first Black driver since Scott to compete full time in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“We can talk about the legacy of Wendell Scott and everything he’s done for the sport, but at this point in time his legacy is felt more than anything else,” said Thompson. “To look around our sport and a community that’s becoming more diverse and inclusive, we can see and feel his impact every day.”

“I think any grandparent would want to see fruitful things take place in the lives of their grandchildren,” Warrick Scott added. “ … It’s been a wonderful opportunity for me to build out this understanding with NASCAR.

“Needless to say we are extremely pleased.”