Cup Series – Page 4 – Syndication Server

Gibbs dominates All-Star Open, Wallace and Gragson advance

Ty Gibbs led every lap en route to winning the NASCAR All-Star Open to advance into Sunday night’s All-Star Race. Gibbs will be joined by Bubba Wallace, who finished second. The top two finishers from the All-Star Open advanced into the All-Star …

Ty Gibbs led every lap en route to winning the NASCAR All-Star Open to advance into Sunday night’s All-Star Race.

Gibbs will be joined by Bubba Wallace, who finished second. The top two finishers from the All-Star Open advanced into the All-Star Race.

“We were pretty good,” Gibbs said. “I feel like we were pretty solid, so it’s good to make it. It’s good to see Bubba make it, too, so hopefully we can go and win it. I think [Michael] Waltrip did it once, so it’d be cool to go win a million bucks and go buy some sprint cars or something.”

Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace race their way into the #AllStarRace at North Wilkesboro! pic.twitter.com/sBxVQqHRbz

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 19, 2024

Josh Berry finished third and Justin Haley finished fourth. Noah Gragson finished fifth and was announced as the fan vote winner.

The All-Star Race field will have 20 drivers, with the additions of Gibbs’ and Wallace’s Toyota XSEs and Gragson’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

“We came from the back last year,” Wallace said. “So let’s do it again.”

There were two cautions in the 100-lap All-Star Open. Gibbs started from the pole and held the lead through the only pit stop when most of the field switched from the primary to the option tire.

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The mandatory four-tire pit stop came at the lap 50 break. Gibbs, Alex Bowman, and Wallace were the first three drivers off pit road.

Austin Cindric was the cause of the caution on lap 59. He was caught in the middle of Carson Hocevar and Noah Gragson coming off Turn 4, severely damaging his Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

Gibbs maintained control of the race off the restart with 36 laps to go, and Wallace moved into second place. Bowman began to fade after being moved by Berry for third place. Bowman finished sixth.

Chase Briscoe finished seventh, Ryan Preece, eighth, Austin Dillon, ninth, Carson Hocevar, 10th, Kaz Grala, 11th and Corey LaJoie, 12th.

It’s the second straight year Gibbs transferred into the All-Star Race from the Open. For Wallace, it’s his fourth appearance in the All-Star Race. Gragson makes the race for the second consecutive year as the fan vote winner.

“I appreciate all the fans; you guys [rock],” Gragson said. “We didn’t quite have what it took there in that race but you fans pulled through. Your support means everything.”

RESULTS

Truck Series delayed, All-Star heats canceled at North Wilkesboro

Unrelenting rain and lightning stopped Saturday’s Wright Brand 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in progress and forced cancellation of qualifying heats for Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star at North Wilkesboro Speedway (8 p.m. ET ON FS1, MRN and …

The Truck Series race, which completed 81 of 250 laps before nearby lightning halted the event, will resume at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Ty Majeski won the 70-lap first stage and led at the suspension.

The heat races for the All-Star Race will not be run. The $1-million-to-win All-Star main event will be preceded by the NASCAR All-Star Open at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

The top two finishers from the Open, along with the winner of the Fan Vote will be added to the 17 drivers already eligible for the All-Star Race.

Logano on All-Star pole as No. 20 JGR team wins Pit Crew Challenge

Joey Logano won the pole for the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, while Joe Gibbs Racing claimed a repeat Pit Crew Challenge victory. The overall time for Logano to claim the pole was 89.754s between his qualifying laps and pit stop. His …

Joey Logano won the pole for the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, while Joe Gibbs Racing claimed a repeat Pit Crew Challenge victory.

The overall time for Logano to claim the pole was 89.754s between his qualifying laps and pit stop. His No. 22 Team Penske team clocked in at 13.59s, the fifth overall time in the competition.

“It’s probably the most fun qualifying session we have all year, and I think that’s why we didn’t cancel it last night,” Logano said. “We just postponed it to today because everyone looks forward to this event, and it really does a great job at showcasing every team member on the team. From setting the dash to make sure all the lights are right and making sure you maximize your speed on pit road, to the car going fast obviously, executing onto pit road, rolling time, the spotter helping me be able to make sure I hit all the right lights around the corners to maximize that… Obviously, the pit crew doing their part and then back onto the racetrack.

“It’s a very detail-oriented exchange all the way through that we typically see every weekend when we have green flag stops, but it’s really neat to put it all on the line and do that today. It’s a very special pole, maybe the most special pole I’ve ever had because it’s a great example of everybody and I’m proud of that. It’s a lot of work that goes into the minute-and-a-half out there.”

Logano will start on the pole for both the first All-Star Race heat and the All-Star Race. Brad Keselowski, who qualified second, will start from the pole in the second All-Star Race heat race. Keselowski’s overall time was 90.14s.

Christopher Bell qualified just third at 90.16s, however his No. 20 team won the Pit Crew Challenge with a time of 13.22s. It is the same team that won the Pit Crew Challenge last year as the No. 54 team for Ty Gibbs.

The winning pit crew claims $100,000 and gets the first pick of pit stall selection for the All-Star Race.

Bell’s crew members are:

Jake Holmes (tire carrier)

Peyton Moore (fueler)

Blake Houston (front tire changer)

Michael Hicks (rear tire changer)

Derrell Edwards (jackman)

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Daniel Suarez qualified fourth with an overall time of 90.19s, Chris Buescher, fifth with an overall time of 90.28s and Tyler Reddick, sixth with an overall time of 90.66s.

Ross Chastain qualified seventh at 90.76s, Martin Truex Jr., eighth at 90.94s, Michael McDowell, ninth at 90.99s and AJ Allmendinger completed the top 10 at 91.67s.

Four drivers were called for speeding during their pit stop: Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, and Chase Elliott. All were given 10s penalties for the infraction.

Elliott’s No. 9 team also had a slow pit stop on the left rear. Blaney was given an additional 10s penalty for hitting the commitment box coming to pit road.

The No. 5 and No. 47 teams had some of the more significant issues during their pit stop.

It was trouble on the left rear for the Hendrick Motorsports team as they could not get the left rear tire on the car and needed additional pumps on the jack.

JTG Daugherty’s No. 47 crew had the slowest time in the Pit Crew Challenge because of trouble on the right front and the left side. After being slow on the right front, the jack fell on the left side of the car, and the jackman needed to give it multiple pumps to lift the car back up.

The pit stop times were as follows:

Christopher Bell’s team: 13.22s

Brad Keselowski’s team: 13.32s

Ryan Blaney’s team: 13.51s

Ross Chastain’s team: 13.52s

Joey Logano’s team: 13.59s

William Byron’s team: 13.84s

Tyler Reddick’s team: 13.95s

Kyle Busch’s team: 13.98s

Daniel Suarez’s team: 14.03s

Martin Truex Jr.’s team: 14.07s

AJ Allmendinger’s team: 14.18s

Chris Buescher’s team: 14.18s

Michael McDowell’s team: 14.38s

Chase Elliott’s team: 16.93s

Kevin Harvick’s (Kyle Larson) team: 17.94s

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. team’s: 25.74s

The first All-Star Race heat race will be at 5:20 p.m. ET Saturday. The second heat race will run afterward at approximately 6:15 p.m. ET.

‘We’ve got to be perfect from here on out’ – Logano

Joey Logano remains confident in the ability of his Team Penske race team but also admitted he has some anxiety for the first time in quite a few seasons for this point in the year. “There’s no running away from it,” Logano said at North Wilkesboro …

Joey Logano remains confident in the ability of his Team Penske race team but also admitted he has some anxiety for the first time in quite a few seasons for this point in the year.

“There’s no running away from it,” Logano said at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where the NASCAR Cup Series runs the non-points All-Star Race. “It is what it is. We’ve got to be perfect from here on out.”

The two-time Cup Series is 17th in the championship standings. Logano has earned just three top-10 finishes in 13 races.

“I always look at the points,” Logano said. “We’re halfway through the regular season and, obviously, it’s not been the season that we’ve wanted or have hoped for at this point. But we keep fighting. I don’t feel like we’re in a bad spot. We’re not in as good a spot as we want to be by [any] means, but we can definitely make up the points…just by getting consistent and running up front more often like we should.

“The facts are, if you’re not good enough to make the playoffs, you’re probably not good enough to win the championship anyway, so we’ve got to get to that point where we’re good enough, and then the points will follow that, for sure.”

It was a struggle for Logano and the No. 22 team for much of the 2023 season, which resulted in a first-round exit from the postseason. Logano won only once last year.

For 2024, Ford debuted a new body – the Mustang Dark Horse — but Logano’s group is still behind. If not for self-inflicted wounds such as speeding last weekend at Darlington Raceway, it’s been pure lack of speed. The intermediate racetracks have been their weakness, but Logano looks at how well Ford teammates Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski from RFK Racing have run and believes there is an opportunity to do the same.

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“We just have to go find it,” Logano said. “Whatever that is. We have to figure that out.”

Fortunately, Logano doesn’t feel his team is that far off. Then again, the entire Cup Series field could say that because Logano said everything is fairly close.

“Last week, we had a top five coming and I sped on pit road, which that one stings a lot,” he said. “But outside of that, I’d say it was a pretty solid weekend, so our race teams still got it. We all just have to clean up a little bit. Obviously last weekend I made a mistake, and we’ve got to keep getting faster.

“I feel confident this weekend here in [North Wilkesboro]. We came and did the tire test, and I felt pretty good about what we had. Hopefully that transfers [to this weekend]. Charlotte, I don’t know. [Ryan] Blaney had a great run there [last year], so hopefully we can learn a lot from that.”

With 13 races down, there are 13 races left in the regular season. Over the next month, the series will run its longest race in the Coca-Cola 600, make a third trip to St. Louis, visit a repaved Sonoma Raceway and debut at Iowa Speedway.

All of it sounds good to Logano.

“The [Coke] 600, I think I feel OK about,” he said. “Gateway has been a solid race for us the last two times we’ve been there, so I look forward to that one. Sonoma is repaved, so who the heck knows? Then Iowa — new tracks have been good, and short tracks have been good for us, as well.

“I like the way the schedule’s lined up the next few weeks.”

Gibbs on pole for Open, All-Star qualifying postponed to Saturday

Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman will start on the front row of the NASCAR All-Star Open by points after rain ended Friday’s qualifying session early. NASCAR set the field by the rule book (driver points) since the session was not run to completion. Gibbs …

Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman will start on the front row of the NASCAR All-Star Open by points after rain ended Friday’s qualifying session early.

NASCAR set the field by the rule book (driver points) since the session was not run to completion.

Gibbs and Bowman will be on the front row with Chase Briscoe starting third and Bubba Wallace starting fourth. Noah Gragson will start fifth.

The top two finishers in the All-Star Open will advance into the All-Star Race. The NASCAR All-Star Open field has 20 drivers.

Sunday’s All-Star Open will be 100 laps with one chance at overtime if needed. All laps – green and caution – will count. There will be an All-Star caution at or around lap 50 with a mandatory four-tire pit stop.

In addition to the top two finishers, a third driver will advance into the NASCAR All-Star Race via the fan vote.

As rain continued to fall into the evening, NASCAR made the call to postpone qualifying for the All-Star Race (including the Pit Crew Challenge) to Saturday morning at 11:30 a.m. ET following CRAFTSMAN Truck Series qualifying at 10:30 a.m. ET (FS1).

ALL-STAR OPEN — FULL STARTING LINEUP

Harvick ‘peeking behind the curtain’ at Hendrick Motorsports

Kevin Harvick turned heads when he entered the North Wilkesboro Speedway media center Friday afternoon. Harvick, who retired at the end of the 2023 season from Stewart-Haas Racing, was not only back in a NASCAR Cup Series fire suit, but one he’d …

Kevin Harvick turned heads when he entered the North Wilkesboro Speedway media center Friday afternoon.

Harvick, who retired at the end of the 2023 season from Stewart-Haas Racing, was not only back in a NASCAR Cup Series fire suit, but one he’d never been seen in before.

Blue and white, with a touch of red, it was an outfit that displayed HendrickCars.com and other logos for the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team.

In a one-off, Harvick is practicing and qualifying Kyle Larson’s car for the NASCAR All-Star Race. Larson is in Indianapolis, preparing to attempt to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

“It’s definitely not the attire that I thought I would be wearing this year,” Harvick quipped. “But it’s been a fun process.”

Harvick’s fill-in role was announced last month, and he’s been fully involved with the preparations for the race weekend. The former series champion has gone through a seat fitting, made easier by Stewart-Haas Racing, which provided Hendrick Motorsports with the seats and seat rails that Harvick used to use. Harvick has also been in the simulator and all necessary team meetings.

“I heard from the [team] owner twice in two weeks,” Harvick said, laughing about what has struck him the most working with a new organization. “That’s different. It’s interesting to see…the race shop and the structure and the way that everybody goes about it differently. There are a million different ways you can do things, but I think the thing that sticks out for me about Hendrick Motorsports, in general, is it’s truly run like a business that’s part of an actual structure of how things flow and who you talk to.

“There’s the depth of the business side and the racing side. It’s deep. I think that is pretty eye-opening… I like structure, so I think that’s something that has been good to see.”

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Now an analyst with Fox Sports in the broadcast booth each weekend, Harvick’s time on the track is admittedly priceless. Acknowledging how quickly the sport evolves, the former series champion is glad he’ll be able to relate to viewers what the car is currently doing, how the two tire options felt during practice and the way the track felt on new asphalt.

Plus, Harvick is getting firsthand insight into how one of the best teams in the Cup Series garage operates. By working with Cliff Daniels and hearing a different team, Harvick can also share how the group processes.

“The more detail we have, the more we have to talk about and relay to the people and you guys to understand,” Harvick said. “I really look at it as we want to teach people what our sport is, as well, and the things that are happening. There are a number of things that go into that to make the car go around the racetrack that people just have no idea [about].”

Harvick has been impressed by how methodically Daniels and his team have approached the weekend, not only in getting Harvick ready for his Friday assignment, but also for when Larson gets into the car for Sunday night’s race. The team is going for back-to-back wins in the NASCAR All-Star Race.

It’s also been fascinating to have the opportunity to see how another organization operates.

“I was very fortunate to have a very, very good race team at Stewart-Haas,” Harvick said. “To walk into another very, very good race team and see the things that go on and happen, it’s fun to get a peek behind the curtain. I think that Kyle is very good at whatever he races, but Cliff is also very understanding of the fact that he’s off racing other things. How they talk about things and when they go through things with Kyle is very interesting. It seems like they want him to keep being Kyle and to be able to talk about the things they need in their car and how they structure things with Kyle and when they meet with him and why they do that – that part to me is very insightful because we all tick a little bit different.

“Kyle likes to race all the time. Some guys don’t like to race at all, they just want to race the Cup car and show up on the weekend and do that. Some guys like to race in the Xfinity car. There’s a balance for everybody that gets the most out of them, and it seems like they’ve leaned into letting Kyle be Kyle and that’s not always the case with everybody that drives in the Cup Series.”

Gibbs paces combined All-Star and Open practice at North Wilkesboro

Ty Gibbs was fastest in the combined NASCAR All-Star Open and All-Star Race practice Friday at North Wilkesboro Speedway. With Goodyear’s two tire options at play, agendas and objectives varied amongst the teams. The 50-minute session, on a newly …

Ty Gibbs was fastest in the combined NASCAR All-Star Open and All-Star Race practice Friday at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

With Goodyear’s two tire options at play, agendas and objectives varied amongst the teams. The 50-minute session, on a newly repaved surface, allowed teams to run both the primary slick tire and the softer option tire whenever they chose throughout.

Gibbs (Open) was fastest at 124.001mph (18.145s). The time was set on his 49th lap. He ran a total of 91 laps in practice.

Ryan Blaney (All-Star) was second fastest at 123.790mph. He ran 94 laps.

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Christopher Bell (All-Star) was third fastest at 123.558mph, Chase Elliott (All-Star) was fourth at 123.301mph and Bubba Wallace (Open) was fifth at 123.261mph. Denny Hamlin (All-Star) was sixth at 123.146mph and Kyle Busch (All-Star) was seventh at 123.119mph.

Josh Berry (Open) ran eighth fastest at 123.065mph, Corey LaJoie (Open), ninth at 123.045mph and Daniel Suarez (All-Star), 10th at 123.038mph.

Elliott and Suarez ran over 100 laps.

Kevin Harvick was 25th fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5. Harvick is practicing and qualifying the car for Kyle Larson, who is in Indianapolis for practice and qualifying for the Indianapolis 500.

Michael McDowell (31st fastest) ran the most laps — 118.

Slumping Suarez driving ‘one of the slowest cars that I’ve had in my career’

Daniel Suarez said he wanted his fans to know his Trackhouse Racing team is working hard to improve after posting a video on social media last weekend apologizing for their performance. The video was recorded and posted after Suarez finished 24th at …

Daniel Suarez said he wanted his fans to know his Trackhouse Racing team is working hard to improve after posting a video on social media last weekend apologizing for their performance.

The video was recorded and posted after Suarez finished 24th at Darlington Raceway. He was still on his way home from the racetrack when he addressed his fans directly.

“For me, the way I see it, there are a lot of people that come from very far away, and I see them every week because I go to the merchandise hauler to sign autographs for them for 30 minutes,” Suarez said Friday at North Wilkesboro Speedway. “I see people who come from many different places around the country with Mexican flags to support me, and I don’t feel like I’ve been doing good lately, and if my driver is running 30th that sucks. That’s not good.

“I feel like they deserve better, and I’m not saying that I’m not putting in the work because I am and my team is putting in the work. We just are at a point right now where we are not fast and we have to figure it out. I just wanted to let them know that it’s not going unnoticed; I feel that they deserve better, and I don’t like to see people — Mexican flags in the grandstands — and people supporting me with their kids and me running like that.

“That’s just not me. If this was my normal, I would retire tomorrow because I’m not fine running like this.”

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Suarez and the No. 99 team are locked into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs after winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February. However, Suarez has finished in the top 10 just once since that race and is 18th in the overall point standings with 39 laps led (from a combined four races). He’s finished 20th or worse in five of the last seven races.

Suarez and his Trackhouse Racing have tried out of the box and back to basics approaches to breaking out of their slump, without success. Matt Thacker/Motorsport Images

In the video, Suarez admitted frustration within the team, led by crew chief Matt Swiderski, is an understatement. It has primarily been a speed issue with Suarez’s Chevrolet. It has been the opposite for Suarez’s teammate, Ross Chastain, who is 10th in the standings with an average finish of 13.5 and 108 laps led.

“The last month, I feel like I have had probably one of the slowest cars that I’ve had in my career — at Trackhouse, at least,” Suarez said. “We have work to do. We believe that we know how to fix it, and we’re working hard on it.”

Suarez laughed when admitting that the speed issue surprised him. Not at first, however. The team was going down a particular path for a while that didn’t work and affected their speed. But even after reversing course, it hasn’t helped and is now a concern.

“I would say (for) a month and a half, it wasn’t surprising because we were trying things outside the box — just trying different things,” Suarez said. “A few weeks ago, we said, ‘OK, this is not working, let’s go back to the normal and see exactly where we’re at.’ And it didn’t work either. There are still a lot of things in the works for (Swiderski’s) system and applying a lot of different processes into our team, but it’s not a secret the last few weeks, we’ve been a 30th-place car, and we’ve been finishing 25th with it. So, we have some work to do.

“This is what I told my team: ‘We have two months to figure it out.’ I said two months because I will like to have one month before the playoffs to have the mentality of (competing in) the playoffs, because if we think we’re going to go into the playoffs and flip a switch and be great, that won’t happen. It doesn’t matter whose team it is; that doesn’t exist. We have to be ready when the time comes.”

North Wilkesboro keeps NASCAR All-Star Race for 2025

North Wilkesboro Speedway will host the NASCAR All-Star Race for the third consecutive year in 2025. The 41st edition of the NASCAR All-Star Race, the $1 million non-points race, will be held on May 18, 2025. It will remain a doubleheader weekend …

North Wilkesboro Speedway will host the NASCAR All-Star Race for the third consecutive year in 2025.

The 41st edition of the NASCAR All-Star Race, the $1 million non-points race, will be held on May 18, 2025. It will remain a doubleheader weekend with the Craftsman Truck Series, which competes in a points-paying event at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

The newly repaved 0.625-mile track will host its second NASCAR All-Star Race this weekend. Kyle Larson won the event last year on the original pavement. It was the first NASCAR Cup Series race at the facility in 26 years.

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Speedway Motorsports announced its 2025 return Friday morning. In doing so, it was also announced that there would be a new pricing structure for the facility.

“Sunday grandstand tickets will start at just $49, with three-day NASCAR ticket packages starting at $95 and five-day packages — including zMAX CARS Tour action — starting at just $125, providing fans unmatched value at one of NASCAR’s most historic venues.”

North Wilkesboro is the fifth race to be confirmed on the 2025 schedule, which still has not been released in its entirety. However, it’s expected to be announced sooner than it was last year.

The confirmed ’25 races are: the Daytona 500 (Feb. 16), the All-Star Race (May 18), the Coca-Cola 600 (May 25), Atlanta Motor Speedway (June 28) and the season finale at Phoenix Raceway (Nov. 2).

Haley feels momentum building at Rick Ware Racing – ‘We’re doing a lot with a little’

Justin Haley admits it’s taken longer for Rick Ware Racing to get to where they are now than he would have liked, but feels it’s starting to come together, as evidenced by a top-10 finish last at Darlington Raceway. “The mountain was probably a …

“The mountain was probably a little taller than I anticipated that we were climbing,” Haley said after his ninth-place finish in the Goodyear 400. “But I feel like we’re in a good spot now. I feel like we’re bringing 20th-place cars each and every week, which is a big improvement, and we can continue to improve on that.”

The efforts of the No. 51 Ford Mustang Dark Horse team for Haley and crew chief Chris Lawson netted the organization its first top-10 finish on a non-superspeedway. Rick Ware Racing had eight previous top-10 finishes in the Cup Series, which had come at Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway.

It was Haley’s best finish through 13 starts and the team’s fourth top-20 result.

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“I’m having a blast,” Haley said. “It’s a lot more work than I’ve probably been tasked with Monday through Friday, especially with the last race team. It was kind of hands-off (where) you kind of showed up and drove and that was it. But I enjoy it. I’m at the shop almost every day for hours and hours, helping, and I feel like I’m doing everything I can do to improve this race team and set myself up for the future.

“It’s just a lot of hours right now. It’s a lot of work for everyone involved. We’re doing a lot with a little, and I feel like when we do have these solid runs, it’s a big shot in the arm. It’s definitely a confidence booster.”

Alliances help, but Haley is buoyed by playing an in-depth role in the Rick Ware Racing operation. Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Images

Haley became the organization’s cornerstone when he signed a multi-year deal with Ware in July. He is the team’s primary driver in the No. 51, while the No. 15 Ford shares drivers. Kaz Grala will drive the car in most Cup Series races.

Ware first fielded a car in 2012. In recent years, however, his commitment to the series has seen the performance take incremental steps forward. Along the way that has included hiring experienced personnel such as Tommy Baldwin (competition director) and Robby Benton (team president) to entering into technical alliances with top teams. Rick Ware Racing has a current alliance with RFK Racing after a previous one with Stewart-Haas Racing.

“I think it’s been extremely important for the core group of Rick Ware Racing employees that have been there for years and years and years that we can succeed,” Haley said. “It’s the same guys who have been working on the race cars forever; it’s no one different. We put the race cars together, our Rick Ware Racing employees. It’s all out of our own shop. Yeah, we’re out of a corner at RFK, but it’s still 100% a Rick Ware Racing car.

“It’s been cool for me to see what a good run can do to the guys that work on our race that put in all the hard hours.”

The alliance only goes so far, however. Rick Ware is not a manufacturer-supported team, so the food chain of information is limited. Haley made clear that RFK Racing is helpful in the partnership and provides everything allowed, such as shocks, springs and setups, as Haley does the simulator work. But there is no aerodynamic information available.

Haley’s average finish is 24.8, completing 99.6% of the season’s laps. The team is 32nd in points, though, after being disqualified at Circuit of The Americas after crossing the finish line 17th. Haley’s car did not meet the minimum post-race weights.

“We’ve had some great runs,” Haley said. “It’s unfortunate we got disqualified at COTA because I feel like we’d be in a pretty decent points position without that DQ. But that was just another example of a team that had never been to post-race tech, and we just didn’t quite know what to expect. It’s a learning process every week.

“I feel like the Cup Series is harder than it has ever been at this moment, not to take anything away from the past. There’s not really a slow car out there anymore. It’s pretty tough. So, we’re just continuing to improve each and every week, and focus on ourselves and do the best that we can.”