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NASCAR

NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Start This Weekend At Las Vegas

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Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

LAS VEGAS, NV (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – The NASCAR Playoffs get underway this weekend with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. enter the playoffs 1, 2, 3 in the standings.

Las Vegas is the home race for Busch, who has led the most laps this season (1,166), has the most Top 10’s (21) and is tied with Hamlin for the most top-five finishes (13).

Las Vegas Motor Speedway has been a solid venue for Busch, who won there in 2009 and has a series best seven top-fives at the track. He was runner-up in 2005 and March 2018 and has only one finish worse than seventh in the last five races at the track.

“We certainly worked hard throughout the regular season to get this Playoff advantage that we have right now,” said Busch, who has 15-playoff points for winning the regular season championship.  “It would be nice not to have to rely on those points, but to be able to win some races here and close out the season strong and get to Homestead (FL) and race for the championship.”

Hamlin sits in second place, 16-points ahead of Truex Jr.  All three drivers have won four races this year.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick sits in fourth spot.  Harvick enters the Playoffs hot off the heels of his win at the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Harvick won the pole at Las Vegas earlier in the year and has won two of the last six races.

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“I think we’ve definitely made some strides in getting where – closer to where we want to be,” said Harvick. “I think we still have some things that we have to work on at certain styles of races tracks.  But this is survive and advance and you don’t necessarily have to have the fastest car.”

Team Penske Teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski enter the Playoffs fifth and sixth respectively. Logano boasts the best average finish (8.5) among drivers with at least 10-starts.  Keselowski is the defending winner of the Las Vegas Playoff opener.

Hendrick Motorsports Chase Elliott sits in seventh place of the playoff standings.  Elliott has two top-10 finishes and three DNF’s in five starts at the track.  Finished fifth in the 2017 Playoffs, Sixth in the 2018 Playoffs and 10th in the 2016 Playoffs.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kurt Busch enters the playoffs in eighth place.  The 2004 Series champion has yet to win at his hometown track and has five top-10 finishes in 19-starts at the track.

Elliott’s teammate Alex Bowman is ninth on the playoff grid.  Bowman finished a career-best 16th in the playoffs in 2018.

JGR’s Eric Jones is tenth on the grid.  Jones finished a career-best 15th in the 2018 NASCAR Playoffs after being eliminated in the Round of 16.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson is returning to the playoffs for the fourth time in his career. Larson finished a career-best eighth in 2017 and ninth in 2016 and 2018.

Rounding out the field of 16 are Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, Hendrick Motorsports William Byron, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer and Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman.

NASCAR

Chevrolet Blazer EV SS set to pace Sunday’s 67th Daytona 500

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Chevrolet Newsroom

DAYTONA, FL (February 11, 2024) – The 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS is going to lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag in Sunday’s 67th running of the Daytona 500.

“Chevrolet has a long history with racing – it’s in our DNA – and the Blazer EV SS is a testament to that,” said Scott Bell, Vice President of Chevrolet.  “We’re excited for customers to watch the Blazer EV SS, the quickest SS we’ve ever produced, pace such an iconic race this weekend.”

The Blazer EV SS produces 615-horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque, which launches the vehicle from 0-to-60 in just 3.4-seconds.

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“We’re honored to have Chevrolet as a founding partner of Daytona International Speedway, and that the iconic brand chose to feature the all-new Blazer EV SS at the Daytona 500,” said Frank Kelleher, President of Daytona International Speedway.

This marks the first time a Blazer has paced the ‘Great American Race’ and the first time an EV has paced the race.  Sunday marks the 16th time a Chevrolet Bowtie will lead the Daytona 500 field to green.

Chevrolet will also pay the NASCAR Xfinity and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races as well:

  • A Corvette Stingray will be the pace car for the United Rentals 300 Xfinity Series race on Saturday, February 15.
  • A Silverado RST will be the pace vehicle for the Craftsman Truck Series Fresh From Florida 250 on Friday, February 14.

Chevrolet also plans to debut its Blazer EV.R NASCAR Prototype ahead of the Daytona 500. The prototype represents a joint effort between NASCAR and OEM partners with the intent of exploring new and emerging automotive technologies.

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NASCAR

Chase Elliott wins Cook Out Clash at historic Bowman Gray Stadium

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Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (February 2, 2025) — Pole winner Chase Elliott held off a dramatic charge from Ryan Blaney to win Sunday night’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in front of a teeming, vociferous sellout crowd at the historic quarter-mile.

Adroitly working lapped traffic in the closing stages of the 200-lap season-opening exhibition race, Elliott crossed the finish line 1.333 seconds ahead of Blaney, who started last among the 23 competitors on a driver points provisional.

Elliott claimed his first victory in the Clash, which came to Bowman Gray after a three-year stint in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet reveled in the NASCAR Cup Series’ return to the iconic short track after an absence of 54 years.

“This environment is special,” said Elliott, who led 171 laps, including the first 96 before surrendering the lead to eventual third-place finisher Denny Hamlin. “This is a place that has a deep history in NASCAR. I think they deserve this event, truthfully.

“I hope we didn’t disappoint. It was fun for me at least, and we’ll hopefully come back here one day.”

Hamlin led twice for 28 laps, but faded after Elliott retook the top spot from him on Lap 126. And when Blaney slipped past Hamlin’s Toyota on Lap 147, it became a two-driver race.

But Blaney’s car tightened up in the late going, preventing the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford from challenging for the win. Blaney thought better of making an overly aggressive move on the series’ seven-time most popular driver.

“I’m not going to bulldog into him and get chased out of here with pitchforks,” Blaney quipped… “I just didn’t quite have enough right rear at the end to make a move on him.”

Joey Logano finished fourth, followed by Bubba Wallace, who advanced from his 14th-place starting position. Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick, Shane van Gisbergen and Chris Buescher completed the top 10.

Hamlin rued the final restart on Lap 121, after the seventh caution for Brad Keselowski’s spin off Wallace’s bumper.

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“I just didn’t do very well on that restart there, and kind of lost the bottom, and Chase took advantage of it,” Hamlin said. “Once you get the lead, it’s a lot easier to hang on to it.

“I thought that they were just a little better that second half than we were, along with the 12 (Blaney) was as well. We just have to get a little bit better, but overall, a good day for our Sport Clips Toyota.”

In the last chance qualifier that determined positions 21 and 22 in the main event, Kyle Larson charged from the 10th starting position and survived nine cautions to win the 75-lap event and advance to the Clash.

On Lap 72, Larson grabbed the lead from Josh Berry, who was making his first competitive start for Wood Brothers Racing at the track where team patriarch and NASCAR Hall of Famer Glen Wood secured all four of his Cup Series victories.

Larson took the top spot for the first time on Lap 30 and led a race-high 36 circuits en route to the win. However, Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sustained damage after he surrendered the lead to Erik Jones for a restart on Lap 65.

In a melee moments after racing resumed, Jones spun in a three-wide mishap with Berry and Larson and dropped out of contention.

“My car was way better than it was yesterday,” said Larson, whose eighth-place finish in his Saturday heat relegated him to the last chance qualifier. “That was fun. I was able to get to the front without really getting into too many people.

“But then after that long break (for local champion Burt Myers hard wreck on Lap 61), I cycled really tight for that restart and allowed Erik to get in front of me and just kind of lost control of the race at that point. Then, the next restart, it got crazy, and I got a bunch of damage.”

Berry, who started 13th, held second to secure the 22nd spot in the Clash. Berry and Larson finished 13th and 17th, respectively, in the main event.

“It got pretty rough,” Berry said. “You hate that it comes to that, but it is what it is—it’s the Madhouse, it’s Bowman Gray Stadium, it’s a tight race track, and you’re going to run into each other.”

Notes: Elliott is the 26th different driver to win the Clash and the eighth different driver to win the event in the last eight years. He’s the first driver to win in a Chevrolet since Jimmie Johnson did so in 2019… This was the sixth time the Clash has been won from the pole position.

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NASCAR

Chase Elliott leads pole winners’ sweep of NASCAR Clash qualifying races

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By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (February 1, 2025) —It was a great night for NASCAR’s most popular driver.

After setting the fastest time in the final four-minute practice session and earning the top starting spot in the first qualifying heat, Chase Elliott won that heat wire-to-wire to win the pole position for Sunday’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium (8 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Elliott described track position at the tight quarter-mile track as critical to success.

“It’s going to be tough to win from the third or fourth row,” said Elliott, who will share the front row with Heat 2 winner Chris Buescher, who led every lap of the qualifier and held off new Joe Gibbs Racing hire Chase Briscoe to claim the second starting spot in the 200-lap exhibition race.

“I think the first couple of rows certainly have a massive advantage on the rest of the field. Obviously, anything can happen. You all have been watching long enough to know that anything can happen, and I’m well aware of that. But I think just in a normal circumstance of people not totally crashing each other or whatever—yeah, I certainly would want to be on the first couple of rows and, fortunately, we are. We’ll try to take advantage of that.”

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Heat 3 and 4 winners Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick will start from third and fourth on the grid, respectively. To underscore just how important starting position is, all four heat winners won wire-to-wire after posting the four fastest laps in the final practice sessions to earn their pole positions for the qualifiers.

The top five drivers in each heat advance to Sunday’s clash. The remaining 19 drivers will compete for two spots in a last chance qualifier that precedes Sunday’s main event. The 23rd spot in the field goes to the driver with the highest number of 2024 championship points not otherwise qualified for the Clash.

That provisional belongs to Ryan Blaney, who finished 10th after starting third in a wild first heat that featured three cautions in 25 laps. Kyle Larson, who started sixth and finished eighth in the second heat will have to race his way into the main event from the LCQ.

After battling a loose condition in his No. 17 Round Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford in the opening eight-minute practice session, Buescher benefited from adjustments made to the car based on considerable preparation time in the simulator.

“We had the changes ready, so when we got there and realized we were just way too loose, we were able to make quick adjustments to get in the ballpark,” said Buescher, who had failed to qualify for the main event in the last three Clashes at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Joining Elliott in the main event from Heat 1 were Brad Keselowski, Noah Gragson, Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain. Heat 2 qualifiers included Buescher, Briscoe, Shane van Gisbergen, Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez.

Advancing from Heat 3 in addition to Hamlin were reigning NASCAR Cup champion Joey Logano, William Byron, Carson Hocevar and Alex Bowman. Joining Reddick from Heat 4 were Christopher Bell, Ryan Preece, Austin Cindric and Todd Gilliland.

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