NASCAR Cup Series drivers Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin have continued to exchange words after their run-in during Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway — this time on social media.
The pair made contact in the final stage of the Round of 8 opener at the 1.5-mile track. The left-front fender of Briscoe’s No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford roughed up the right-rear quarter panel of Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. While Hamlin continued on, Briscoe didn’t come away unscathed, receiving heavy damage to the right side of his machine after making contact with the outside wall and cutting a tire.
This isn’t the first time Briscoe and Hamlin have had words this season. During an overtime finish in the inaugural Cup Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Briscoe spun out Hamlin coming to the white flag. Briscoe was unaware that he was under penalty for cutting the corner in Turn 1. The two had a discussion on pit road after the race concluded.
Monday evening on Instagram, the two drivers sparred with a series of comments under NASCAR on NBC’s post about the Texas incident.
Max Calles grew up around racing in Mexico. The 25-year-old raced dirt bikes and go-karts as a kid and began in the lower series of NASCAR in Mexico when he was 12. He raced Formula cars and road courses and won the 24 Hours of Mexico in 2009 when he was 13.
Being around many styles of racing at a young age had a hand in helping Calles adapt quickly to the different styles of cars and tracks when he moved to the United States in 2010. But he also realized there was a lot he still had to learn about the sport in the U.S., both on and off the track.
“When I came here I struggled a lot because I was learning the language and just the different system that is run over here on the racing side,” he said. “Everything is different here.”
Since moving to the U.S., Calles has built a racing career for himself and been competing at Houston Motorsports Park, the only NASCAR-sanctioned asphalt track in Texas, over the last five years in a modified, pro-modified, late model and, most recently, pro truck.
Now that Calles has become accustomed to racing in the U.S., he’s turning his attention to helping other racers who are new, too.
Calles started a development program, called MCM Racing Development, to help other drivers from Mexico learn more about racing in the U.S. The idea came to Calles at the end of the 2020 season when was racing for a championship in the pro-modifieds division at HMP. A lot of drivers from Mexico he knew growing up started reaching out and asking about his success at the track and how they could also get involved with racing in Texas.
Max Calles poses in Victory Lane after winning a race at Houston Motorsports Park this season. Credit: Max Calles
One of his friends, Diego Rodriguez, who runs a championship winning NASCAR Mexico team, wanted to join Calles racing at HMP and bring others with him.
“So we put something together last minute for the pro trucks so they can start racing and that’s how it really started,” Calles said. “Just to teach the guys from Mexico the way of racing over here because it’s very different.”
This season, Calles coached five drivers, ranging in age from 29-40. Most have established themselves as championship drivers in Mexico but wanted to branch out and try something new. Three of the team’s drivers are from Mexico and two are from Texas. The team includes: Rodriguez, Ruben Rovelo (a 2020 NASCAR Mexico champion), Enrique Ferrer, Memphis Villarreal, and JD Legg.
MCM has six race cars in total, among pro-trucks, modifieds and late models. The team started this year racing late models at Speed Weeks in Florida.
“They did very good for the lack of experience they had in those cars and also it was a big event,” Calles said. “There was a lot of competition so it was a very good weekend.”
After that, the team moved to racing at HMP and Mobile International Speedway in Alabama.
And the drivers have all found success this season. Ferrer finished the season fourth in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Texas standings and was the highest finishing Division I rookie in the state. Rodriguez finished fifth in the Texas state Division I standings.
“For the first complete year, it’s been good,” Calles said. “I just try to teach them stuff that they don’t see a lot in Mexico. They run stuff different so I just try to teach them as much as possible so they can just be on their own better.”
Ultimately, Calles said he wanted to help drivers make the transition from Mexico to the U.S. “the smoothest possible.”
“When you get here from Mexico you don’t know how racing works here,” he said. “There’s a lot of options, there’s a lot of classes, a lot of series, so you just have to know where to go so you can build that ladder for yourself to prepare them the most for the next level you want to do.
“A lot of guys over there want to come here and just experience the racing over here. See what’s different, what can they learn… That’s pretty much what it is. Most of the guys still race in Mexico and race here. It’s kind of like a practice for them.”
Calles still races himself, both on dirt and asphalt, but said adding coach to his title this year has been a different experience. He sometimes goes to the track just to watch, which isn’t something he’d ever done before.
Seeing drivers he coached find success, though, means just as much to him as winning himself.
“I feel like if they’re racing good I did good, too, because I taught them all the things they needed to know,” Calles said. “When they succeed and they capitalize on it, I feel good and I feel like we’re on the right direction.
“I really feel happy they’re doing good… They’re completely different drivers. I really like that and feel that our work is worth it.”
Calles is hopeful he can have more young drivers take advantage of his program in the future. He’s thankful to Advance Auto Parts and the crew at HMP for helping him grow his team and give him a place to not only grow as a driver himself but help others grow as competitors as well.
“I always loved racing in general,” he said. “I love the competition. I love to just prove to yourself that you are good and highlight the environment. The people that are around, I have a lot of good times at the race track with all kinds of people.
“And I really like the actual racing in general. Not only me as a driver, just being able to be there without driving. That’s something new to me for this year because I’ve always been to a race track to race. Sometimes I go now with my guys just to be the coach or something. I happen to enjoy that a lot. I just love to be at the race track and have good memories and also the people that are around. There are great people here in the U.S. that race. Everybody helps each other. It’s a very good environment for me. A family environment.”
Daniel Suarez banked his fourth top-10 finish of the NASCAR Cup Series season Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, but that stat came with a tinge of remorse over late-race contact with playoff contender Martin Truex Jr.
Truex finished 25th, retiring 14 laps from the end of the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500, while Suarez went on to place 10th after a tap from his No. 99 Chevrolet sent Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota hard into the Turn 4 wall.
The Trackhouse Racing driver said he regretted the contact, but he also defended his racing tactics. Suarez said Truex had cut off his advances, a pace made quicker by fresher tires.
“I feel so bad for him. I feel like I ruined the race for him, but he just can’t be doing that,” said Suarez, who missed the playoffs in his first year with the start-up Trackhouse group. “I’m racing as well here. I have a lot of respect for the guys in the playoffs. But one thing is respect, another is taking advantage of the situation. He wasn’t even close to being clear and I don’t know why he did that. We’re in the last 10 to 12 laps of the race; I’ve got tires and he doesn’t have tires. I don’t know, I think he’s just got to be a little smarter.”
The Texas race marked Suarez’s best result since a seventh-place finish in June at Nashville Superspeedway. A Lap 166 caution period for debris allowed him to get back on the lead lap, where he stayed until the end. But Suarez felt like more positions were in the offing with the benefit of fresher tires for the series of late-race restarts.
“It was a good day — up and down,” Suarez said. “I feel like we probably missed it a little bit on the adjustments in the middle of the race. And then right there at the end, during one of the stops when everyone came for tires and I was the first car without tires, I feel like we should have come for tires. We deserve maybe a little bit better, but we’ll have to keep working.”
A relatively smooth sail for NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs hopefuls unraveled into late-race bedlam Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
The postseason picture made some significant shuffles after Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500, won in dominant fashion by Kyle Larson — who had the most trouble-free day among the eight remaining title contenders. One by one, other challengers found trouble in the final 40 laps.
Joey Logano was the first among the flummoxed, his No. 22 Team Penske Ford erupting in a plume of smoke that sidelined him after 298 of the 334 laps. Denny Hamlin was next, with a prolonged spin and nudge of the backstretch wall; another wreck hurt the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota more, but he placed 11th. And Martin Truex Jr.’s hard Turn 4 hit rounded out the heartache, his No. 19 JGR Toyota ending the day 14 laps shy of the finish.
Logano wound up 30th, taking some solace that engine failure hasn’t sidelined him often; indeed, Sunday marked his first engine-related DNF since June 2014 at Pocono Raceway. He entered the day seventh in the standings, just 11 points back of the provisional elimination line. He left the Round of 8 opener last in the playoff rankings, 43 points behind the cut.
“I thought it was starting to maybe give up a little bit of power in that run,” Logano said after his early exit. “We were just getting passed. Not really, though. It just kind of let go. It is one of those days when nothing went right. The strategy didn’t go the way we wanted it to early in the race. Cautions didn’t fall the way we hoped they would and every time we started fighting our way back something happened, and we ended up like this. Now we know what we have to do these next two weeks. We better go find a way to win.”
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
That caution period for clean-up touched off a series of late-race restarts. Larson held the lead at each reset, but some of his fellow playoff contenders were less fortunate.
Truex’s tumble was precipitous after a bump from Daniel Suarez’s No. 99 Chevrolet sent him on a trajectory to the outside retaining wall in Turn 4. He finished 25th, dropping from third in the standings (plus-6 on the provisional elimination line) to seventh (minus-22).
“I got loose and when I gathered it up …,” Truex said, just before seeing the replay that revealed the slight contact from Suarez. “Yeah, we touched for sure. It’s really fast right there and yeah, hit the splitter and went straight to the fence. Tough spot to have contact like that. I don’t know. It is what it is.”
Chase Elliott remained below the elimination line, his car dogged by a recurring vibration issue. He had rallied into the hunt after dropping to the rear of the field at the start after his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet failed pre-race inspection twice. He came back to finish seventh and sits eight points back of the provisional elimination line.
Hamlin had breezed to victory in the other round-opening races during this year’s playoffs, but Sunday was a Texas-sized struggle. A scrape with fellow playoff driver Ryan Blaney with 23 laps left caused a tire rub on the No. 11 Toyota. That turned into a lengthy slide and nose-in contact with the inside wall two laps later.
Two cautions later, Hamlin endured heavier front damage in an incident with Chase Briscoe and Chris Buescher, but somehow limped home to a lead-lap result. Despite the late-race turbulence, Hamlin’s playoff fate was actually aided by attrition from an earlier 12-car melee and the pitfalls that snared the rest of the playoff field.
Hamlin left Sunday’s 500-miler aiming for a less bumpy ride in the NASCAR Cup Series’ next race, scheduled next Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) at Kansas Speedway.
“It’s insane. I think we ended up gaining a point over the cut, somehow,” Hamlin said. “I don’t know. It’s just a crazy day. The way these cars race where we are packed up for a couple laps, you just never know. It’s going to be the same way at Kansas. Hopefully we bring a fast piece there and we can go there and compete for a win.”
Following the first race in the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, here’s a brief look at the playoff picture. There are two races remaining in the Round of 8, including next Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway and the final elimination race on Oct. 31 at Martinsville Speedway.
Winner
Kyle Larson. Larson put another stomping on the field for his eighth victory of the 2021 season, locking himself into the Championship 4 on Nov. 7 at Phoenix Raceway. The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver led 255 of the 334 laps for his first career victory at the 1.5-mile Fort Worth track.
Ryan Blaney. It was a quiet day at Texas for the No. 12 Team Penske driver, but a sixth-place finish now puts him 17 points above the elimination line and second in the playoff standings behind Larson.
Brad Keselowski. Like his teammate Blaney, Keselowski also flew under the radar in the 500-miler for a fourth-place finish. Although he’s still 15 points below the elimination line, it showed Keselowski has better speed under the No. 2 Ford on 1.5-mile tracks, which bodes well for him next Sunday at Kansas.
Who’s not
Martin Truex Jr. The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver was on his way to a solid top-10 day when disaster struck. Truex was hit in the left-rear quarter panel by Daniel Suarez in Turn 4 with 15 laps remaining, sending him hard into the outside wall and ending his day prematurely. A 25th-place finish now puts Truex 22 points behind the elimination line with two races left to dig himself out of the hole.
Joey Logano. It was going to be a decent run for Logano until the engine expired in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford on Lap 299. His 30th-place result was the worst out of the eight playoff drivers. He’s now 43 points back and in a potential must-win situation.
BUBBLE WATCH
Rank
Driver
Points to cutoff
1.
Kyle Larson
WIN
2.
Ryan Blaney
+17
3.
Denny Hamlin
+9
4.
Kyle Busch
+8
——–
ELIMINATION LINE
———
5.
Chase Elliott
-8
6.
Brad Keselowski
-15
7.
Martin Truex Jr.
-22
8.
Joey Logano
-43
Next race
The NASCAR Cup Series travels to the Kansas Speedway for the Hollywood Casino 400 next Sunday (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Who it favors
Denny Hamlin. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver was involved in two separate incidents in Sunday’s race at Texas, but he was still able to salvage an 11th-place finish and stayed nine points above the elimination line. Kansas has treated Hamlin well recently, earning back-to-back victories in the 2019 fall race and 2020 spring race and three wins there overall.
Who it hurts
Ryan Blaney. It’ll be interesting to see how Blaney runs at Kansas. He has four finishes of 20th or worse in the past five races there, finishing seventh in 2020 fall race. But, the No. 12 machine has shown top-tier speed on intermediate tracks this year, so he could easily compete for victory and a potential Championship 4 berth.
The Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway had dramatic ups and downs all Sunday afternoon with the victorious exception of Kyle Larson, who dominated the race – leading 256 of 334 laps and holding off the field on seven different restarts in the final 125 laps alone.
Larson’s win by 0.459 seconds over Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron was his series-best – and career-best – eighth of the season and 14th of his career. Most importantly, it punched his ticket into the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 7 – the first time in the 29-year-old Californian’s career that he will get to race for the NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy.
“This is unreal,” a smiling Larson said. “I knew we had a good shot to win today. Our car was amazing, probably the best 550 (horsepower) package, intermediate car we’ve had all year. This is so cool. And we get to race for a championship in a couple weeks. This is crazy.”
With a two-lap shootout to settle the checkered flag, the end of the race was dramatic up front. For much of the day, it was disastrous just behind. A 12-car incident on Lap 32 eliminated nine cars early on.
Playoff drivers Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. all suffered late-race problems that impacted the championship standings with only two races remaining now to decide which three drivers will join Larson in the championship race at Phoenix.
Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford was sidelined after sustaining a rare engine problem, and both Hamlin and Truex were involved in crashes. Logano finished 30th – worst among the eight playoff drivers. Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota soldiered on despite the heavy damage in two incidents, and he finished 11th. Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was unable to finish the race after a hard hit in Turn 4 after a collision with Daniel Suarez. Truex finished 25th.
All these incidents were part of rapid-fire caution periods in the final third of the race; 11 on the day plus an 11-minute red flag. And on each ensuing restart – no matter which driver was directly behind him – Larson was able to pull away and hold the lead.
“I just got good pushes from behind me, really,” said Larson, who also added a series-best 16th stage win.”I tried to stay patient on the throttle to keep them to my back bumper and thankfully, I was able to just barely clear them every time going into (Turn) 1 and not have to fight off (Turn) 2.
“So thanks to William (Byron), Tyler (Reddick) and (Brad) Keselowski, anybody who was behind me, especially Brad on that last restart.”
Ironically, the only member of the Joe Gibbs Racing team not still playoff-eligible, Christopher Bell, finished best among his teammates Sunday, taking third place just ahead of Team Penske’s Keselowski and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick.
Penske driver Ryan Blaney, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, JGR’s Kyle Busch, Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Trackhouse Racing’s Suarez rounded out the top 10.
“It’s all about the push, and I think here at Texas the shortest lane kind of wins out because of the way the track separates going into Turn 1, the Axalta Chevy was fast all day just never got control (of the restarts),” Byron said. “I think (Larson) was definitely better than us the first stage and I was right there with him the rest of the time, but it was just clean air basically.
“Congrats to those guys, Kyle really deserves it. They’ve been awesome all year, flawless on pit road and on pit calls.”
Despite all the drama, the Cup Series playoff picture retains some of the same look, with some swings among the remaining eight. Larson’s win locks him into the Championship 4. Blaney is second followed by Hamlin and Kyle Busch (who won Stage 1 after an early pit-road speeding penalty) among the top four positions.
Defending series champion Elliott is fifth, eight points behind Busch. Keselowski is sixth (-15) followed by Truex (-22) and Logano (-43).
“Just a bummer, what do you do, this is the first time we’ve blown a motor in a really long time,” Logano said from the garage after retiring early.
“We have to move on,” the 2018 series champion added. “It is what it is now. We can’t change it. Not many points today, so that is a bummer. We will be fighting from here.”
The NASCAR Cup Series moves to Kansas Speedway for next Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Logano won the playoff race there last year. Busch won at the track in May. And Hamlin and Logano lead all active drivers with three wins each at Kansas.
Notes: Elliott was among several drivers who dropped to the rear of the field for the start. His No. 9 Chevrolet failed pre-race inspection twice. … There were no major issues in post-race inspection, thus validating the win for Larson. The No. 1 of Kurt Busch, the No. 8 of Tyler Reddick and the No. 18 of Kyle Busch each had one lug nut not safe and secure, which will result in a fine for their respective crew chiefs when NASCAR announces penalties later this week.
Saturday, October 23 3 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Kansas Lottery 300, NBC/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN4)
On MRN
2:30 p.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Kansas Lottery 300
7 p.m., ARCA Menards Series Reese’s 150
Sunday, October 24
12:30 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub: Best of Radioactive—Kansas, FS1 (re-air)
1 p.m., NASCAR Raceday: Kansas, FS1
2 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Countdown to Green, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
3 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN, TSN4)
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Post-Race Show, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
On MRN
2 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400
Playoff contender Kyle Busch received slight damage to the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the 32nd of 334 scheduled laps in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 (NBC, PRN, SiriusXM), but other competitors sustained heavier contact. Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Ryan Newman, Ross Chastain, Cody Ware, Joey Gase, Justin Haley, Aric Almirola, Michael McDowell, Cole Custer and JTG-Daugherty Racing teammates Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece were also snared by the Turn 2 melee.
Busch continued after his crew changed four tires and cleared some of the fender damage, then rallied on a fuel-conservation run to win Stage 1. However, Wallace, Bowman, Newman, Ware, Gase, Haley, Stenhouse and Preece all had their days end after the wreck.
Meagan Thompson | NASCAR Digital Media
“Just an embarrassment on my part,” said Wallace, who absorbed the blame after losing control of his 23XI Racing entry in the midst of a three-wide battle. He finished 32nd. “Just trying to get clean air, went to the middle and said, ‘ah, this isn’t good.’ I backed out and by the time I backed out, it was already around. So, sorry to everybody that came here to cheer on the 23 car. I let everybody down, let my team down. So I apologize to them, we’ll go finish it out at Kansas.”
Busch wound up eighth in Sunday’s race, moving from one point below the provisional elimination line entering the race to fourth place in the playoff standings, eight points up after the Round of 8 opener. A pit-road speeding penalty during the first round of stops put his No. 18 entry back in the pack, forcing him to tiptoe through the maelstrom in front of him.
Bowman, who was eliminated from playoff contention after last weekend’s Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, continued his rough ride in the final 10-race stretch. He was forced to drop to the rear of the field for the start because of unapproved adjustments to his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, and severe damage left him sidelined after just 36 laps.
“Playoffs. From. Hell,” Bowman tweeted after his fourth finish outside the top 20 in the last seven races.
The No. 9 Chevrolet of Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott failed pre-race inspection two times Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. He was the only playoff driver to have his car fail multiple times before the Autotrader EchoPark 500, the opening race in the Round of 8 for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
As a result, Elliott, who was originally slated to start sixth, dropped to the rear of the field during pace laps before Sunday’s contest, which was set for a green flag of 2:08 p.m. ET on NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Elliott entered the race two points below the elimination race as the Cup drivers battled to earn spots in November’s Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway.
Other cars with two inspection failures included the No. 48 Chevy of Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman (originally starting 14th), who was eliminated from playoff contention last week; the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet of Corey LaJoie (originally starting 29th), the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Chase Briscoe (26th), the No. 77 Spire Chevy of Justin Haley (32nd), the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet of Garrett Smithley (36th) and the No. 66 MBM Motorsports Ford of David Starr (38th).
There were no three-time failures during pre-race inspection.
The salvation that comes with postseason wins has been in short supply for NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs hopefuls this year. Saturday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway was the latest instance.
Drivers outside of the title-eligible picture have won three of the four playoff races so far this season. Camping World Truck Series regular John Hunter Nemechek joined Josh Berry and Brandon Brown on Saturday as this year’s playoff spoilers, thanks to his rally from a pit-road penalty and his first Xfinity Series win since 2018.
That’s left the championship hopefuls scrambling for the remnants, with just two races left before the four-driver field is set for the season-ending title showdown Nov. 6 at Phoenix Raceway. No drivers are locked in yet among the eight remaining contenders.
Daniel Hemric had the best day among those clawing for playoff position, leading 55 laps in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. But he wound up second for the third time this year, just behind teammate Nemechek — the latest in an all-star cast to drive JGR’s No. 54, which won for the 10th time in 2021.
Hemric’s gains were measured, though. He still sits two points below the provisional elimination line — fifth among the eight remaining contenders after the Round of 8 opener.
“These guys are doing a hell of a job. Just got to keep working,” said Hemric, who will leave JGR for Kaulig Racing next season. “I don’t know, that’s all you can do. Keep showing up, keep grinding it out. Thankful to be a part of the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Thankful to know that I can leave it all on the line these next three races for Joe Gibbs Racing and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Regular-season champion AJ Allmendinger and 2020 series champ Austin Cindric — who have battled atop the pack for much of the season — remained there after Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 335. Allmendinger is 30 points clear of the elimination line after rallying to sixth at Texas, with Cindric up 26 after finishing fifth.
Their season-long contest for Xfinity Series supremacy has flared at times with full-contact clashes this year — most notably on the last lap of the regular-season finale at Bristol Motor Speedway. Saturday at Texas had similar tones, with hard-nosed racing in the late going leading to an extended discussion between the two on pit road later.
“Just the race and how things went,” Cindric said when asked about his talking points with Allmendinger. “I think the two of us, in some ways, are in the same boat. We have a lot more to lose than to gain. When you are racing side by side, we both know that. It has been a good dynamic most of the season. We were just talking it out. We had some contact down the back straightaway and I wanted to make sure we were all cool and it was.
“I loosened him up. I was tight on his quarter panel and made contact and it was just one of those racing hard deals at the end of the race. He knows how it goes. It is all good.”
Below the lead pair, it’s a scrap for position, with just eight points separating third through sixth. JR Motorsports teammates Justin Allgaier (plus-4 over the elimination line) and Noah Gragson (plus-2) are on the top side among that cluster, then Hemric (minus-2) and Kaulig’s Justin Haley (minus-6) are grouped just below the line. JGR mates Harrison Burton (minus-21) and Brandon Jones (minus-32) both finished in the back half of the top 10 at Texas.
Burton and Jones reached the Round of 8 by snatching up the last two berths on the basis of points. Though their top-10 efforts Saturday closed some of the gap, they remained in the postseason cellar with ground still to gain.
“We had an awful day today,” Burton told PRN Radio post-race. “Through the first half, we were really bad. We held on for a little bit, but the tires went out. I’m bummed out.”
