Tag: Hendrick Motorsports

Byron’s shot at Cup Series title snatched away by Penske speed

There was a moment during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series championship-deciding race in Phoenix when Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron thought he might have a shot at holding his Penske rivals off, but it was fleeting. Byron stayed out longer than …

There was a moment during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series championship-deciding race in Phoenix when Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron thought he might have a shot at holding his Penske rivals off, but it was fleeting.

Byron stayed out longer than Penske’s Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney before making his final stop on lap 247, which potentially set him up with tires roughly 15 laps fresher than his rivals for his final stint. That hope lasted all of one lap after Zane Smith crashed and triggered a caution, during which the two Penskes and fellow championship contender Tyler Reddick of 23XI all took the opportunity to make stops of their own under yellow.

They rejoined well behind Byron, who said he briefly thought he had enough of a gap to keep them at bay before the appearance of the Penske cars in his mirrors suggested otherwise.

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“I did,” he said when asked whether he thought he had them covered. “But just as good as they got through (Turns) 1 and 2, it was just like, man, now they’re right on me. I think going into the restart, I thought I had enough of a buffer and I didn’t really feel like one lap on tires was that big a deal. I don’t think it was.

“I just think that they were fast on the short run all weekend, and that was our struggle. We were decent throughout the run, but couldn’t really take off with a ton of speed. It wasn’t a huge surprise, but they were on me a little bit quicker than I thought they would be.”

Throughout the race Byron was fast enough to keep the Penskes in range, but not fast enough to engage them over a full run.

“I would just compliment Penske as a whole,” he said. “They had the two best cars today, and it was really a battle between them throughout the day. I was just hoping that they would make some mistakes and get up in there.”

‘I don’t know what to think’ says subdued Byron after chaotic Martinsville finish

William Byron is headed back to the Championship 4 for the NASCAR Cup Series championship but had a hard time celebrating Sunday night at Martinsville Speedway. Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team took the final transfer spot when NASCAR …

William Byron is headed back to the Championship 4 for the NASCAR Cup Series championship but had a hard time celebrating Sunday night at Martinsville Speedway.

Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team took the final transfer spot when NASCAR penalized Christopher Bell. Bell was deemed to have ridden the wall on the final lap, which was outlawed after Ross Chastain performed the move in 2022.

At the finish, Bell advanced over Byron via a tiebreaker, but the penalty negated the move and he was taken from an 18th place finish to 22nd.

Byron finished sixth.

“I don’t know what to think,” Byron said. “I have a hard time feeling happy in this situation. We just raced as hard as we could and raced within the rules and everything like that, so it is what it is at that point.

“We were tied on points, and like I said, the wall ride is what it is. We just had to fight through that. I don’t know. I’m glad to race for a championship, that’s for sure.”

It took 27 minutes before the decision was announced. Byron and Bell both stayed on pit road with their teams as the finish was reviewed. There were crowds around both drivers to capture the moment when one of them was given the news they would be racing for a championship.

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“I’ve never been through anything like that,” Byron said. “There was definitely some drama from that, for sure, because I usually get to go home by now. I don’t really know what to think about all that, but thankful that NASCAR looked at it, that they have rules in place, and that’s what it is.”

Byron thought it was clear what happened. Although he has thought about making such a move, he knows there is a rule against it.

The finish was set up as the No. 24 ran inside the top 10 all afternoon and earned 15 stage points, while Bell earned none and was buried in the pack because of multiple miscues. In the final laps, Byron tried to hang onto a slim one-point advantage over Bell.

He also had wingmen behind him to help the cause. There were three Chevrolet drivers stacked behind Byron, none of which made a pass that would have taken a point away.

“No one moved me and they gave me room to kind of catch my car,” Byron said. “They raced me hard. I just didn’t have enough rear tires left so I needed all the racetrack, and I was using all of it.”

Byron said no one behind him lifted him so he could keep his position.

It is the second straight year he’ll appear in the Championship 4.

“I’m excited; I can’t wait to race for a championship next week,” Byron said. “I know we’ll bring a bullet there. We had an awesome car today, got a little bit of damage, but I was really happy with it. I’m excited.”

Hendrick Motorsports under pressure to perform in 40th season

For a few hours Sunday night after the Charlotte Roval race last month, Hendrick Motorsports thought it had all four teams into the Round of 8. A disqualification for Alex Bowman’s No. 48 when the car was too light in post-race inspection ruined …

For a few hours Sunday night after the Charlotte Roval race last month, Hendrick Motorsports thought it had all four teams into the Round of 8. A disqualification for Alex Bowman’s No. 48 when the car was too light in post-race inspection ruined that fairytale. Flashforward three weeks later, the organization faces the very real possibility of having one or none of its drivers advance into the championship round.

That’s not exactly how they planned their 40th anniversary season.

“It’s a lot of pressure trying to get two [drivers] in this week and that’s going to be hard to do,” Rudy Fugle said. “But if we can figure out how to sit on the pole and lead every lap for a while and get a lot of points, then maybe we can put that pressure on the [No.] 20 and we can move two cars in.

“But in reality, we can only focus on us, and our goal is to lead every lap and be upfront. Hopefully that will take care of itself.”

Fugle and his driver, William Byron, are the only ones from Hendrick Motorsports sitting in a transfer spot going into Sunday’s race. It’s a slim seven-point margin and the first driver below the cutline chasing Byron’s No. 24 is teammate Kyle Larson.

The final two spots in the championship race will be determined Sunday afternoon in the Xfinity 500. Christopher Bell, who sits ahead of Byron, has a manageable 29-point advantage on the cutline. A strong two stages for Bell’s team in points earned could change the narrative of the race’s final run to five drivers going for one spot.

“Of course, there is [pressure to advance a Hendrick car],” Cliff Daniels, of Larson’s team, said. “It’s hard to tangibly state what that is or what that means for the pressure that you talk about, but of course. Mr. and Mrs. Hendrick started the playoffs with all four cars in and a lot of big race wins this season, and an epic win by Bowman and his team at Chicago to lock their way in from what had been some ups and downs for them.

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“With all those things coming into play, where now you’re looking at the potential for the three cars that are eligible to not make it in, yeah, that’s a big deal. It’s a big thing that we highlight and are adding pressure to ourselves on top of what it already is. It’s hard to quantify or put a number on what that means. We feel it, we know it, and we want to go get it, and that’s the way we’re all operating.”

Alan Gustafson, from Chase Elliott’s No. 9 team, is not overthinking what is at stake. There is already the natural pressure tied to trying to advance into the championship race, and Gustafson doesn’t see Sunday as any different.

“I have the same motivation,” he said. “It is significant that it’s the 40th year and you want to celebrate that, and I certainly want it to be a storybook year for Rick and Linda [Hendrick] and everybody that works for the company. For me personally, I feel every year you’re up against it regardless. You want to get to the final four and win a championship.

“My perspective is pretty similar. Is there probably a little motivation there? Yeah, but I want to do that for all the parties involved every year and regardless of the situation. … You’re always striving to be the best.”

Elliott is last on the playoff grid in a 43-point hole. He has approached all three races in the round as a must-win.

At Martinsville, Elliott was the highest-qualifying Hendrick driver, earning a front-row starting spot. Byron qualified third and Larson qualified ninth.

‘Welcome to life on the No. 5 team’ Daniels says of being battle-hardened by Cup playoffs

Cliff Daniels pulled out a familiar phrase this week ahead of the final race in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and then grinned when called on it. Daniels, the crew chief on the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for Kyle Larson, …

Cliff Daniels pulled out a familiar phrase this week ahead of the final race in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and then grinned when called on it.

Daniels, the crew chief on the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for Kyle Larson, was participating in a media availability when expressing that his team has been battle-tested in the postseason. It’s the exact phrase and feeling Daniels used one year ago in the same media availability.

“Welcome to life on the No. 5 team,” Daniels replied when told of the déjà vu. “Anybody who watches the highlight reel of the No. 5 team since we’ve been this incarnation of the team, that’s just kind of who we are.”

There is no exaggeration or dramatics when it comes to Daniels. One of the most straightforward and controlled crew chiefs in the Cup Series garage, he can dig into the minute details about his race team and how they stack up in the bigger picture.

Regarding this year’s postseason run, Larson and Daniels have indeed been battled tested and will be again Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. The group is in a seven-point deficit to begin the elimination race after finishing 11th in Las Vegas, suffering damage early in the race and a later pit road miscue, and then a 13th place finish at Homestead-Miami after a tire puncture and separate solo spin.

But the tale of the tape goes back deeper.

Larson crashed in the first race of the playoffs at Atlanta but won the last race of the first round in dominating fashion at Bristol. Then came a tire issue in Kansas and another strong victory when closing out the second round at the Charlotte Roval.

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“It’s kind of been what our identity has become,” Daniels said about riding the highs and lows. “Eventually you get enough seat time experiencing those things that I can think of races two, three, four years ago that I rode the highs and the lows too much as the leader of the team and on down the line of all of our teammates and everybody as part of the team, probably Kyle included. Now we know that, hey, there’s going to be races that we’re just flat out going to wreck or have something crazy happen from the lead or when we’re in contention. Don’t get too low in those moments.”

“Then you have races like Bristol and the Roval where afterward everybody talks about how dominating the day was. For us, we don’t walk away beating our chest saying, ‘Wow, we just dominated that race.’ OK, we did our job that day, and now we know going into the next week, it could all flip-flop on its head again.”

The journey, as Daniel also described it, provides maturing and growth opportunities for the team. He can also appreciate those moments more than ever before because he believes it’s made the group tougher and more resilient.

“Who knows what the outcome of all of this will be, but I think our commitment to our process and each other outweighs anything [else],” Daniels said. “That’s what our priority is — being true to ourselves and the process and the outcome is what it is.”

Larson praised his team this weekend for the perseverance they’ve shown to be in the hunt to advance. The 2021 series champion doesn’t believe there is a team that is still left in the round that’s gone through more.

The No. 5 team’s recent track record speaks for itself, too — they won at Martinsville Speedway in the spring of 2023 and finished second at the track earlier this year.

Hendrick Playoff drivers confident of advancing to title race

The three Hendrick Motorsports teammates who are still fighting for a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series championship race have all expressed confidence about their chances to advance with one race left in the Round of 8. But all three drivers face …

The three Hendrick Motorsports teammates who are still fighting for a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series championship race have all expressed confidence about their chances to advance with one race left in the Round of 8.

But all three drivers face different challenges going into the elimination race. William Byron is the only Hendrick driver sitting in a transfer spot, but he’s on the bubble with a slim seven-point advantage.

“Absolutely,” Byron said of getting the job done at Martinsville Speedway (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET). “We did it in the spring, so we should be able to.”

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Byron’s spring triumph at Martinsville Speedway was his third win in the first eight races of the season. He hasn’t won since.

On Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Byron finished sixth. It was his fifth consecutive top 10 finish, however, a victory by Tyler Reddick shrunk Byron’s advantage on the cutline by 20 points.

“We kind of had what we had (Sunday),” Byron said. “We weren’t good enough, and we were just trying to get all we could. I feel like a sixth-place finish is good. If it had gone green there, we were going to end up top-five. I don’t know how that changes the points, but we just have to go to Martinsville Speedway and compete for a win.”

Byron sits one spot ahead of Kyle Larson, who is seven points out of a transfer spot. For the second straight week, Larson and his team had to fight from behind after an early race issue.

At Homestead, it was a puncture that caused Larson to hit the wall in the first stage. He then spun in the final stage, with 13 laps to go, while battling Ryan Blaney for the race lead. Larson tried to squeeze between Blaney and Austin Dillon in Turn 3.

“You’re making split-second decisions,” Larson said after finishing 13th. “Austin did nothing wrong. I was just hoping that he would see me coming as (Blaney) got to his inside, and maybe he’d run a lane off the wall just to give me some clean air. He continued to run his line.

“I had a little bit of a hole and I was trying to shoot the gap to get in front of the No. 3 and get to the wall quickly to either hopefully stay on the outside of the No. 12 or build a run to have a shot at him in (Turns) 1 and 2. But yeah, it just didn’t work out.

“I was going as hard as I could. The No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team did a great job rebounding after the flat tire.”

Larson was the biggest points loser Sunday. He went from 35 points above the cutline to seven below.

“We’ve been strong at Martinsville at times, so we’ll see,” Larson said. “It’s not my best track, but I’ve been a lot better there since I joined Hendrick Motorsports. We just need to qualify well and give it our best shot.”

Meanwhile, Chase Elliott shaved some points off his deficit towards a transfer spot but is still in a must win situation. Elliott finished fifth at Homestead after an early DNF in the opening race of the round at Las Vegas when collected in a multi-car crash. Elliott is last on the playoff grid in a 43-point hole.

“I just got tighter and tighter as the day went on,” Elliott said of Sunday’s race. “I was just trying to manage that on the front side of a run, and ultimately, I just didn’t do a great job of managing it. When the pace got quicker and everyone started pushing, I didn’t really have anything left to push.

“It was a really solid couple of weeks for the No. 9 NAPA Chevy team, from a pace perspective. That’s encouraging as you move along in the playoffs.”

Elliott, like his teammates, is a winner at Martinsville Speedway. Elliott won the fall race at Martinsville in 2020, which advanced him into the championship race which he went on to win and claim the Cup Series title.

“Very confident,” Elliott said of the upcoming weekend.

Hendrick Motorsports has won five of the last eight Martinsville Speedway races. Following Eliott’s win in 2020, Alex Bowman won in the fall of 2021, Byron in the spring of 2022, and Larson in the spring of 2023. Plus, the aforementioned Byron victory from earlier this season.

And in the spring race from April, Hendrick Motorsports went 1-2-3 in a race that celebrated its 40th anniversary, with Byron leading Larson and Elliott across the finish line.

‘It’s a privilege to be this far into the playoffs’ – Larson

Kyle Larson has been here before and that’s a good thing when it comes to being ready for the penultimate round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Sunday marks the fourth time Larson has made it to the Round of 8 in the postseason. A driver who …

Kyle Larson has been here before and that’s a good thing when it comes to being ready for the penultimate round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Sunday marks the fourth time Larson has made it to the Round of 8 in the postseason. A driver who survives and advances from this round will compete for a championship. A season’s worth of work to have a shot at the ultimate prize is on the line.

The stakes have never been higher, in other words. And that’s why someone like Larson, who has been through this before, can acknowledge that while the Round of 8 does feel different, it’s easier to handle.

“I think the first couple of years I ever made the Round of 8, yeah, you feel the pressure of it a little bit, or you put more pressure on yourself, or whatever the case may be,” Larson said Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “After you make it to the final round a few different times, it kind of calms your nerves a little bit, at least for me. I think a lot of that comes down to just confidence that you have in the group of people around you. I feel the same as I did the other rounds leading into it — just excited to go racing, excited for the opportunity.”

Larson made the Round of 8 for the first time in 2019. It was the furthest he got.

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The next time he made a deep playoff run was in 2021. Not only was it a deep run, it went all the way to the championship race. In his first year at Hendrick Motorsports driving the No. 5 Chevrolet, Larson dominated the series for 10 wins and the championship. That was also the first time he made it to the Championship 4.

It was an early postseason exit in 2022. Last year, he was back at Phoenix Raceway with a shot at his second championship, but finished second in the hunt.

“It’s a privilege to be this far into the playoffs,” Larson said. “To see all the hard work of the regular season and the playoff races to this point of getting yourself to where you’re at in points. I’m ready to go and ready to have a good time, and hopefully we can execute at a high level and find ourselves with an opportunity at a championship in a few weeks.”

Larson entered the postseason as the sportsbook favorite to win the championship. He claimed the regular season championship and leads the series with six victories. Of the Round of 8 drivers, Larson and Joey Logano are the only ones who have won in the postseason. But in that category, Larson again stands the tallest as he’s won two of the six playoff races.

For good measure, he’s also the defending winner at Las Vegas.

Litany of issues following Bowman’s Roval DQ sends focus into high gear

Alex Bowman did not have a good Sunday night after leaving the Charlotte Roval and it wasn’t just because he was kicked out of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Bowman was sitting by his pool when he heard from crew chief Blake Harris that there might …

Alex Bowman did not have a good Sunday night after leaving the Charlotte Roval and it wasn’t just because he was kicked out of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Bowman was sitting by his pool when he heard from crew chief Blake Harris that there might be an issue with the No. 48 Chevrolet in post-race inspection. A little while later, it became official that the car failed for being too light, and Bowman was disqualified from the race, which eliminated him from the postseason.

“I proceeded to throw my phone in the pool, and my phone proceeded to call 911 and tell them I was in a car crash,” Bowman said Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the Round of 8 begins. “So my Sunday night wasn’t very good. But it couldn’t happen to anybody else that way, right?”

Bowman clarified he didn’t throw his phone in anger but more tossed it as he walked back inside. It was a proactive move to distance himself from the device and anyone trying to reach him.

“It hit the bottom of the pool and I walked away and 20 minutes later, I’m like, ‘OK, I should probably go get my phone out of the pool,’” Bowman said. “I just knew my phone was about to start blowing up, and I really didn’t want to see any of it at that point, right? Luckily, your phone doesn’t have service from the bottom of the pool, so nothing came of it.

“But I guess they have a new thing where they report that you’ve been in a car crash if the phone feels something. So that happened. It’s a true story.”

The phone still works.

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NASCAR gives teams a tolerance to make weight, which is about 17 pounds. Neither NASCAR nor Hendrick Motorsports detailed how far off the tolerance Bowman’s car was or why it failed inspection. Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman, said earlier this week the team cut it too close and expressed disappointment and embarrassment.

Bowman didn’t have any more details to share, either, although he did say the weight issue wasn’t something he felt behind the wheel during the race, and that the car became damaged after launching over the curbing in the frontstretch chicane.

The unfortunate turn of events brought a range of emotions, but if the last few years have taught Bowman anything, it’s dealing with the highs and lows of racing. He believes most of the bad things that have happened to him have ended up working out for the better. In this case, although it’s going to sting for a while, he’s focused on moving on and trying to find more success before the season ends.

“We win and lose as a team,” Bowman said. “We’ve worked really hard and done a lot of things right and unfortunately, in that situation, we did something wrong and there’s really no way around that. Really all we can do is continue to run well the rest of the year and continue to do what we’ve been doing. I think this is a good place for us to go try to win, and hopefully we’ll have a shot at it.”

Of course, the story doesn’t end there. The morning after his disqualification, Bowman walked into his garage and found a crack in one of his car windows. He also had to get his roof repaired during the week because it was leaking.

“It’s been a week, man,” he said.

Hendrick Motorsports explains decision to not appeal Alex Bowman’s DQ

Hendrick Motorsports explains the decision to not appeal Alex Bowman’s disqualification in Charlotte. Find out Hendrick’s reasoning!

[autotag]Hendrick Motorsports[/autotag] let the deadline for filing an appeal pass by on Monday afternoon. After [autotag]Alex Bowman[/autotag] was disqualified from the NASCAR Cup Series race at the Charlotte ROVAL, the team decided against appealing, taking the blame for the penalty. The disqualification officially eliminated Bowman from the 2024 Cup Series playoffs.

Following the decision, Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon hopped on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and discussed why the organization decided against an appeal for Bowman.

“Quite honestly, it’s just one of those things where NASCAR has minimum pre-race and minimum post-race weights and our teams, in order to just make the best performing race cars every week for our drivers, we know that we’ve got to stay as close to those minimums as possible,” Gordon said. “In this case, the No.48 car, they just cut it too close and missed it.”

“So that’s on us, and pretty embarrassed by it and very disappointing after what was looking like a historical day and one of the most exciting days that we’ve had the racetrack, and it being a home race and everything, and celebrating in victory and all four (advancing) and that all got wiped away. We looked at all the facts and we didn’t feel there was anything that we felt comfortable appealing and we’re going to move on.”

Bowman has not discussed the disqualification yet, but he will get some questions as NASCAR heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 48 car had a very strong playoff run before the Charlotte ROVAL, making this development even more disappointing. Now, Bowman will focus on winning races to close out the 2024 Cup Series season.

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Hendrick Motorsports won’t appeal Alex Bowman’s DQ at Charlotte ROVAL

Hendrick Motorsports announces it won’t appeal Alex Bowman’s disqualification at the Charlotte ROVAL on Sunday afternoon.

[autotag]Hendrick Motorsports[/autotag] has made a decision regarding [autotag]Alex Bowman[/autotag]’s disqualification at the Charlotte ROVAL. On Monday afternoon, Hendrick Motorsports announced it won’t appeal NASCAR’s decision to disqualify Bowman for being underweight in the post-race inspection. The organization took the blame for the No. 48 car being underweight.

Bowman initially finished in 18th place and clinched a spot in the Round of 8. After the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s disqualification, Joey Logano re-entered the NASCAR playoff picture. Logano failed to make it on points after Tyler Reddick drove through the field on fresh tires during the last green-flag run on Sunday afternoon.

It is a disappointing reality for Bowman, who did everything right through the first five playoff events. Hendrick Motorsports will have three drivers in the Round of 8 instead of four, which still gives them a great shot at making the Championship 4. Unfortunately for Bowman, he will be on the outside looking in for the last five races.

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Larson dominates Cup elimination race at Roval; Reddick advances

Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 was as much about Tyler Reddick’s heroic drive into the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs as it was about Kyle Larson’s continued domination of elimination races. As Larson cruised to his second Playoff …

Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 was as much about Tyler Reddick’s heroic drive into the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs as it was about Kyle Larson’s continued domination of elimination races.

As Larson cruised to his second Playoff victory this season—and his second in an elimination race—Reddick charged forward from 26th after a lap 84 restart and clawed his way to 11th—good enough to knock two-time series champion Joey Logano out of the Playoffs by eight points.

Logano’s exit was temporary, however. In post-race inspection, Alex Bowman’s Chevrolet failed NASCAR’s weight requirement and was disqualified, knocking the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet below the elimination line and restoring Logano to the Round of 8.

Mirroring his rout in the final Round of16 event at Bristol Motor Speedway, Larson grabbed the lead for the restart of Stage 2 and stayed out front for 62 of the final 82 laps at the 2.28-mile, 17-turn Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.

 

The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crossed the finish line 1.511s ahead of Christopher Bell, the only driver who could stay in the same zip code with the race winner. Third-place William Byron was 8.965s behind at the finish.

With his sixth victory of the season, his second at the Roval and the 29th of his career, Larson led two other Hendrick teammates into the final eight—Byron, and fifth-place finisher Chase Elliott.

“Really, it’s the first time in my Playoff career I’ve not been close to the cut line, so it was good to kind of have a little bit stress-free of a weekend,” said Larson, whose previous win at the Roval came during his 2021 championship season. “I think the first time I’ve been here without crashing, maybe, besides the other time I won.

“It’s known that I don’t really use the sim (simulator) much, and I was in the sim this week. It really helped me get into a rhythm I think early on and helped us kind of fine-tune our car, too.”

Joining Bowman on the sidelines were Team Penske’s Austin Cindric (fourth on Sunday), Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez (31st) and Stewart-Haas Racin’gs Chase Briscoe (37th), leaving reigning series champion Ryan Blaney (10th) and Logano as the two Ford drivers left in the Playoff field.

If Larson’s dominating run stole the suspense from his victory, Reddick’s charge over the final 26-lap green-flag run provided nail-biting drama.

After pole winner Shane van Gisbergen (21 laps led) and Larson pitted from the top two spots in Stage 1, Reddick, the regular-season champion, stayed out in the lead to collect 10 stage points and an additional Playoff point on lap 25.

A pit stop during the stage break mired Reddick in traffic for a lap 30 restart, and then calamity struck. In the newly reconfigured Turn 7 hairpin, the new corner of chaos, Austin Dillon turned sideways in a melee that saw Reddick jump the curbing and smash into his 23XI Racing team owner Denny Hamlin.

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Reddick’s car was severely damaged, and only a succession of pit stops throughout the remainder of the race—including a lengthy sojourn under caution to repair the left-rear toe link—made it competitive for the final run.

“Yeah, I thought I was going to flip, but I think I was behind the No. 19 (Martin Truex Jr.)—trying to work the move to the inside,” Reddick said of the wreck. “I got clear of him—I saw the No. 3 (Dillon) spun and everyone on the binders coming to a stop, and of course, me and my boss (Hamlin) get together. It was like I was going to do a front flip. This thing was absolutely destroyed.

“Huge props to everyone on this Monster Energy Toyota Camry. This thing couldn’t go within 4s of what the pace was, and we just kept working on it. We were a lot better in Stage 3. This is how this place can be sometimes, but it is really nice to pull this off.”

It was crew chief Billy Scott’s call to bring Reddick to pit road for new tires under caution on lap 82 that proved decisive. The fresh Goodyears were the ammunition Reddick needed to pass 15 cars during the final run and eclipse Logano’s point total by four.

But the drama became moot with Bowman’s disqualification.

“You just have to stay calm,” Reddick said. “You just have to stay focused. In those moments, it is so easy to lose control. Either way, I was going to drive the car as fast as I could. It just worked out for us that this thing was able to get back through the field and get us to the good side of the cut line.”

By the time the second stage ended, Larson and Bell had clinched spots in the Round of 8. Hamlin, who ran 14th on Sunday, also advanced. Bowman was nine points above the elimination line at the finish before the crushing disqualification and would have been the fourth Hendrick driver in the final eight.

At the checkered flag on Sunday, AJ Allmendinger was sixth, followed by Van Gisbergen, Logano, Bubba Wallace, Blaney and Reddick.

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