NASCAR
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson Wins NASCAR Cup Series Race At Dover
DOVER, DE (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson is moving on to the third round of the NASCAR Playoffs after winning Sunday’s Drydene 400 at Dover International Speedway.
Larson beat Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr by 1.578-seconds, leading the last 78-laps and 154-laps overall. The victory was the sixth of Larson’s career and first points-paying race in over two seasons. Larson did win the non-points paying NASCAR All-star race, and it’s $1-million-dollar payday, this past May.
“What a day,” exclaimed Larson. “This Clover Chevy was really good. After the first stage I kind of changed my driving style up and I felt like I made the car better at the same time, and it really benefitted our long runs. That’s as good as I’ve ever been around cutting the bottom here. Just a great combination here. Good to be fast in practice and then be good again in the race and get the win.”
Larson took the lead thanks to a blistering pit stop by his No. 42 Clover Chevrolet crew following the races second stage, which was won by Truex.
“It’s pretty neat to do what we did today, to dominate that whole second half there,” said Larson. “The pit crew did a great job to get us out as the leader and kind of control the race from there. Just hats off to everybody back here. This is awesome. It’s been a long time since we won a points-based race. We won the All-Star Race earlier this year, which was great, but we wanted to win a points race, and we did it when it mattered.”
“I told the guys on the pit box, barring a late caution that I felt the race was going to be won on that last restart, so anything we could do to make sure we had control of the race and could come off Turn 2 with the lead was going to put us in our best opportunity to win,” said Chad Johnston, Larson’s Crew Chief. “To me that race was won off of pit road by the guys on pit road.”
The victory no only locks Larson into the third round but also gives his Chip Ganassi Racing crew some breathing room going into next weekends race at Talladega Superspeedway, which has a history of multi-car crashes that can change the complexion of the race and ultimately the playoffs.
“It’s going to be nice to not necessarily relax these next two but not have to worry about Talladega quite as much,” said Larson. “There’s still two more opportunities to get stage points, get a win.”
“Obviously you can breathe a little bit easier going into Talladega, being we all know what Talladega is like,” said Johnston. “I think we still have to try to put points on the board, whether it’s bonus points or race win points. There’s a lot of guys that have five, six wins and a lot of bonus points that are going to roll over to that next stage, so anything we can do to close the gap on that, obviously with Martinsville being in that last round, that’s not the greatest place for us, but we feel like Texas and Phoenix are places we can win at.”
Truex was frustrated he didn’t win as well as with lap traffic during the races last green-flag stint.
“We got the lead there, Stage 2, got that stage win, and then had a pit stop issue and lost track position, then we just — the whole third stage we were behind,” said Truex. “We were catching him at the end; we got close, but yeah, just unfortunate there. We win and lose as a team. The guys will clean it up, I’m sure, and it’s cool to come home second after that as hard as it was to pass today.”
Hendrick Motorsports Alex Bowman finished third followed by Stewart Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick. Pole-sitter Denny Hamlin finished the real in 15th.
The next race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is at Talladega Superspeedway on October 13th.
FONTANA, CA (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – The pairing of Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing is paying dividends as two races into their partnership, they were celebrating victory at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Busch beat Hendrick Motorsports Chase Elliott by ?.?-seconds to pick up his ??-career Cup Series victory and the ?? of his NASCAR career.
“I felt like there was going to be a little bit of a learning experience, a little bit of a growth pattern, but also on the flipside of that, I always just kind of looked back and watched some of their results and success that they had last year with Austin,” explained Busch. “He ran second here last year, and Reddick was super, super fast. They were fast at the Clash before they broke, the 8 car was.”
Busch said the transition to a new team has been good.
“It’s just been really, really cool, and it’s been a great piece of — we’re making history, right, but a great piece of opportunity to go out there and continue to win races at a new team with RCR, so I can’t say enough about Austin giving me a call, first and foremost, but then Richard and Judy giving me this opportunity to go out here and race for wins.”
Elliott was happy for his manufacturer teammate and former Champ and to get a finish after getting crashed out of the Daytona 500.
“Congratulations to Kyle,” said Elliott. “For him to leave and then to go get the job done like that is pretty cool. He’s always been really good to me, so happy for them. Obviously I think we still have some work to do, but it was really nice to just see a lot of that hard work pay off and have the car driving like we were wanting it to do. So that’s always a good thing. Appreciate everybody on our NAPA team, Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet for just sticking with it and sticking with each other. Looking forward to getting to Vegas and hopefully competing for some more wins.”
Ross Chastain, who led a race high 92-laps, finished third in the No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing.
“Our balance was building loose most of the day, so I thought we did everything right,” said Chatain. “We kept up with it. It would just feel pretty loose late in the runs, and at times it was enough, and at times they got way better.”
The NASCAR Cup Series moves on to Las Vegas for the Pennzoil 400 March 5th.
DAYTONA, FL (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Ricky Stenhouse Jr was leading NASCAR Cup Series Champion Joey Logano when a spinning Kyle Larson brought out the final caution of the day, giving Stenhouse the Daytona 500 win in double-overtime.
Stenhouse and Logano were battling for the lead on Lap 212 when contact from Aric Almirola’s Ford started Travis Pastrana’s Toyota spinning in Turn 2. Pastrana’s Camry clipped Larson Chevrolet and set it rocketing into the outside wall. NASCAR officials reviewed the timing and scoring loops to verify Stenhouse was the winner.
“The 22 had a huge run,” explained Stenhouse. “Got to my outside. Kyle had a huge run and he kind of shipped the middle, and then I looked in my mirror and here comes Christopher and gave me a big shot down the short chute there into 1 caution and got out front enough for when the caution came out.
So everything played out perfectly for us at the end of that.”
“Second is the worst, man,” lamented Logano. “You’re so close. Leading the white flag lap there, I was up front. Kyle gave me a good push and, yeah, you’re watching in the mirror and you’re three wide across there. I felt like the three wide was going a hurt a lane; looked like Kyle was getting pushed ahead, and then Ricky started getting pushed ahead.”
“If you would have told me pre-race I was going to run third, I would have jumped up and down and been smiling ear to ear, which I am very happy and very, very thankful that I could get this Rheem and DeWalt Camry a good solid finish,” said Bell. “But man, just so close to a crown jewel. I feel like if it would have stayed green I would have been on offense, and obviously who knows. But very proud and thankful to be here and Joe Gibbs Racing, and happy for Ricky. That’s really cool. Very, very happy for Ricky.”
The next NASCAR Cup Series race is Sunday, February 26 at Auto Club Raceway in Fontana, California.
DAYTONA, FL (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Austin Hill won his second-straight NASCAR Xfinity Series season-opening race on Saturday, narrowly beating John Hunter Nemechek and Justin Allgaier after NASCAR officials reviewed the tape following Sam Mayer’s caution.
“As soon as the caution lights came on, I thought I had it, but it was so close,” said Hill. “To get back-to-back here at Daytona, it’s really special. That’s three wins for me now, two in the Xfinity, one in the truck here. We came from the back two different times. I hope everyone enjoyed it. It was such a blast. I had so much fun.”
“I’ve been short my whole life, so I guess it’s just fitting,” joked Allgaier. “But really proud of everybody at JR Motorsports. Our Chevy Camaros tonight were absolutely blazing fast. Obviously, I’m glad Sam is OK. He had a heck of a run there at the end.”
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