NASCAR
NASCAR Saturday Roundup – Briscoe scores Cup Series pole; Allmendinger wins Xfinity race; Heim wins Truck Series race
Briscoe scores first NASCAR Cup Series pole at Gateway
Chase Briscoe’s impressive sophomore season in the NASCAR Cup Series only got better Saturday evening, as he put his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford on pole for Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at Gateway. Following qualifying, Briscoe was focused, choosing not to dwell on his achievement and directing his focus towards Sunday’s race.
“I think it’ll hit me a lot more tomorrow when we roll off and there’s not a single seat available,” Briscoe said. “It doesn’t really matter if you don’t run good on Sunday, that’s what pays the points, that’s what you came her to do… We have a good car that’s capable of trying to win tomorrow we just got to put it all together and try to minimize our mistakes.”
Fords look to be the strongest manufacturer heading into Sunday’s race, with six of them taking up the first ten spots in qualifying. All three Penske drivers will start in the top-ten, with Austin Cindric starting second, Ryan Blaney Starting Fifth, and Joey Logano starting seventh. Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick will round out the top-five.
Sunday’s Cup Series race will start on 3:30 p.m. eastern and will air on FS1.
Allmendinger survives the wet, wins wild Xfinity race in Portland
A.J. Allmendinger wasn’t subtle looking back on his own performance following his Saturday afternoon win in Portland.
“I was awful… I crashed before we went green, I was off the racetrack I think four times, made all kinds of mistakes, was all over the place,” Allmendinger recalled, visibly relieved yet flustered.
Prior to taking the green flag, Allmendinger was forced to start at the back due to a number of pre-race changes made to his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet. According to Allmendinger, the team changed “everything but the motor”.
The race itself featured incident after incident, all the drivers struggling to find traction on the rain-soaked surface in Portland. Of all the accidents, possibly the most bizarre took place under caution when Jesse Iwuji, then three laps down, ran straight into the back of leader T.Y. Gibbs seemingly out of nowhere. Iwuji was given a two-lap penalty for the incident.
After all the chaos, which also included Sheldon Creed giving fellow driver Jade Buford the middle finger following a massive pileup, the end of the race was surprisingly straightforward, with Allmendinger coasting to a two second victory over Myatt Snyder. Austin Hill rounded out the top three.
The Xfinity series will take a three week break following Saturday’s race and will race again on June 25 at Nashville Superspeedway.
Corey Heim holds off teammate, wins from pole in Truck Series race at Gateway
Cory Heim’s No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota was fast Saturday afternoon at Gateway, as he held off his teammate Chandler Smith in NASCAR Overtime to capture his second win of the season. Heim, whose mom is a Western PA native and went to Pitt, started from pole and stayed near the front for the entire race before eventually capturing the checkered flag.
ThorSport driver Christian Eckes was just three laps away from winning and over a second ahead of Derek Kraus when Tanner Gray put his truck into the wall, forcing a green-white-checker restart — the last thing Eckes wanted to see.
After pitting, Heim started on the inside of the front row with Eckes on his outside. Smith gave Heim a huge push once the green flag dropped and attempted to pass him on the inside going into turn one. Heim threw a block all the way down to the pit lane wall, stifling Eckes chance at the lead. Heim pulled out to a substantial lead before a huge crash involving Carson Hocevar brought out the caution with one lap to go, meaning Heim would be the race winner. Hocevar appeared to be injured following the massive hit but gave the crowd a thumbs up while being wheeled off on a stretcher.
Wexford native Kris Wright had some tough luck at Gateway, destroying the back end of his No. 44 truck at lap 92, ending his race. The Truck Series will make its way out west to race at Sonoma next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. eastern. The race will be aired on FS1.
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.”
Macri Masters BAPS
Dietz Does It
Rico Races to Outlaws Win
Heartbreak for Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing at 12-Hours of Sebring
Racing Notebook: MSR Penalized; Taylor to sub for Elliott and more
Mayor Makes it Two in a Row, Stake Scores Also
Marcus Ericsson wins the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
$90K up for grabs in ’23 Western PA Sprint Speedweek
Rahmer and Howard Take Lincoln Loot
