Tag: Kansas Speedway

Wallace bitten by Kansas puncture, falls further in playoffs

Bubba Wallace had one of the fastest cars in the first portion of Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway, but a blown tire derailed his day. On lap 108 of the Hollywood Casino 400, the right rear tire blew on Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota. It shot him into the …

Bubba Wallace had one of the fastest cars in the first portion of Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway, but a blown tire derailed his day.

On lap 108 of the Hollywood Casino 400, the right rear tire blew on Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota. It shot him into the outside wall exiting Turn 2, breaking the toe link on the right rear. Wallace was running second at the time and said there was no warning something was going wrong.

“I got loose like five laps before, but I realized that was kind of my line and my approach to the exit of Turn 4,” Wallace said after finishing 32nd. “And then, three or four laps later, it blew out. No indication going into [Turn 1]. I’m [mad] at myself I wasn’t closer to the fence, and maybe we would have got by with less damage.

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“You’re never going to get a flat tire or blow a tire when you’re running 20th; you’re going to get it when you’re really fast and lights out versus the competition. [Kyle Larson] was kicking our [tail], for sure, but then something happened to them and they weren’t a factor and [Denny Hamlin] and [Tyler Reddick] came out of nowhere.”

With the initial repairs on pit road done before the damaged vehicle policy clock expired, Wallace was able to rejoin the field and meet minimum speed. Although he was skeptical of doing so with an ill-handling car, he ran the required time when the race restarted on lap 114 to reset the clock. Doing so allowed his team to take all the time they needed to make more repairs when a timely caution fell a lap after the restart.

It kept Wallace in the race, but he was multiple laps down for the remainder.

Wallace finished second in the first stage (worth nine points) and led three laps. Last year, he won the fall race at Kansas Speedway and viewed Sunday as an opportunity race now that he and the No. 23 team returned as playoff contenders, the first time Wallace has been a part of the postseason field.

Going into the weekend, Wallace was one point below the cutline. He falls to 19 behind a transfer spot going into Bristol Motor Speedway and the first elimination race of the postseason.

Reddick threads overtime needle for Kansas playoff win

Tyler Reddick made a three-wide move in overtime to grab the victory Sunday at Kansas Speedway and advance out of the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs for the first time in his career. Reddick lined up fifth on the overtime restart in …

Tyler Reddick made a three-wide move in overtime to grab the victory Sunday at Kansas Speedway and advance out of the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs for the first time in his career.

Reddick lined up fifth on the overtime restart in the Hollywood Casino 400 and took advantage of those on older tires in front of him. Reddick quickly went to third and made the three-wide move on Erik Jones and Joey Logano coming to the white flag.

The pass for the lead and the win was completed into Turn 1 and Reddick drove away. Reddick led two laps in Sunday’s win: the final two.

“Just an outstanding job by this whole 23XI team,” Reddick said. “We had really good pace but couldn’t get ahead of Denny [Hamlin] there. But chaos ensued; people stayed out, some took two tires, and the bottom lane opened up. Pretty crazy.”

The victory is Reddick’s second with the No. 45 team at 23XI Racing. It’s his first at Kansas Speedway in nine starts.

Denny Hamlin finished second to the car he co-owns. Hamlin was in firm control of the race — over Reddick — before the final caution flew with seven laps to go when Chris Buescher blew a right-rear tire and hit the wall, bringing the field down pit road. A four-tire call resulted in Hamlin leaving pit road fourth behind the two tires of Jones, Logano and Kyle Busch.

Daniel Suarez, however, stayed out and inherited the race lead. Hamlin chose the outside lane and restarted sixth; he was in the same row as Reddick. However, Hamlin admitted he was lagging on the restart and didn’t get the same jump as Reddick did.

“Four fresh tires and send it in there and slide up,” Reddick said of his move. “Just hats off, as I said, to everybody at 23XI. This Toyota Camry TRD had a lot of pace, and we’ve had a lot of really fast cars with this MoneyLion scheme, and it’s really great to get it back to victory lane.”

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Jones finished third, Kyle Larson finished fourth and Logano finished fifth. Chase Elliott finished sixth, Kyle Busch finished seventh, Christopher Bell finished eighth, Brad Keselowski finished ninth and Alex Bowman was 10th.

Larson won the first stage and Keselowski won the second stage. Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was dominant through the first two stages, leading 99 of the first 165 laps. Larson led the most laps Sunday.

Multiple playoff drivers had trouble in Kansas.

William Byron finished 15th after a spin. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 23rd and had contact with the wall. Michael McDowell got into the back of Austin Cindric to cause a caution in the second stage and struggled with his Front Row Motorsports Ford. McDowell finished 26th.

Buescher finished 27th after the blown tire. He was running 12th at the time.

Bubba Wallace was running second when he blew a right-rear tire and hit the wall. Wallace finished 32nd.

Martin Truex Jr. did not finish the race. Truex was the first driver to make an exit after crashing on lap 4 because of a blown tire.

The four drivers below the playoff grid cutline going into the elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway are Truex (-7), Wallace (-19), Stenhouse (-22), and McDowell (-40).

There were nine cautions Sunday afternoon. There were 19 lead changes among 10 drivers.

RESULTS

Truex’s early exit at Kansas ‘a real punch in the gut’ from bad luck

Martin Truex Jr. was lamenting his luck after his playoff hopes suffered a setback with an unexpected early crash Sunday at Kansas Speedway. He hit the wall in Turn 3 on lap four of the Hollywood Casino 400 from a blown right rear tire. Before the …

Martin Truex Jr. was lamenting his luck after his playoff hopes suffered a setback with an unexpected early crash Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

He hit the wall in Turn 3 on lap four of the Hollywood Casino 400 from a blown right rear tire. Before the incident, Truex radioed to his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team that something might be wrong with his Toyota as he struggled to get through the corners and was losing positions.

The No. 19 had fallen outside the top 10 just before the crash. He started third.

“Just blew a tire, not real sure why,” Truex said. “Real shame, obviously. The car was really fast in practice and in qualifying, and I knew something was up right away. I was crazy tight, but I didn’t expect the tire to blow out.

“Very unlucky. We were going to have an awesome day; I felt really good about it. That’s racing, as they say.”

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Goodyear reported a puncture was found in the right rear tire of Truex’s car. He is scored in last place (36th), the first driver to exit the race. It’s his second DNF of the season.

Truex entered the weekend sixth on the playoff grid with a 25-point advantage on the cutline after an 18th-place finish in the playoff opener at Darlington Raceway. The regular-season champion entered the postseason with 36 playoff points to fall back on.

“We’ll see what we have to do when today is over,” Truex said of the playoff grid. “You never know where it’s going to end up. A bunch of guys could have problems and we could be alright again. Ultimately, I just hate it for my team and everybody — all my sponsors and all our partners.

“We’ve had a great season. We had an awesome car today. I really felt we could go out and win this race and for that to happen, it just sucks. We don’t even get a chance. We shouldn’t even have showed up at this point, so it’s just a real punch in the gut.”

The final event of the first playoff round is at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Truex has never won in 32 starts — just four top-10s, including a runner-up finish in 2011.

Nemechek dominates Kansas, Kligerman grabs final Xfinity playoff spot

There were no mixed feelings on Parker Kligerman’s part-he was ecstatic that John Hunter Nemechek asserted absolute domination over the rest of the field in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway. Nemechek’s sixth victory of the season …

There were no mixed feelings on Parker Kligerman’s part—he was ecstatic that John Hunter Nemechek asserted absolute domination over the rest of the field in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway.

Nemechek’s sixth victory of the season assured Kligerman, who finished a strong fourth, of a berth in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, which open next Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Kligerman outlasted Riley Herbst, who entered the race with a one-point advantage for the final Playoff spot but ran afoul of the left rear of Kligerman’s car after a restart in Stage 2.

Nemechek did all he could to overtake Austin Hill for the regular season championship. He won the first and second stages and beat runner-up Brandon Jones to the finish line by a whopping 7.521s. Hill ran fifth to secure the regular-season title by five points after leading by 23 entering the race.

After Herbst had trouble, the only circumstance that could have kept Kligerman out of the Playoffs was a victory by Jones. Nemechek would have none of that.

“(Crew chief) Ben (Beshore) and all the guys made the right adjustments all day,” said Nemechek, who won for the second time at Kansas and the eighth time in his career. “They brought a really fast hot rod… Overall, just super pumped, super ecstatic.

“I’m looking forward to getting the Playoffs started next week at Bristol. We came in here trying to get the regular season championship. I thought that we were going to have a 60-point day this weekend, and that’s what we did. We controlled what we could control. We did everything that we possibly could.

“So, let’s go to the Playoffs—I’m ready.”

Sheldon Creed finished third, 11.881s behind Nemechek, followed by Kligerman and Hill.

“I was definitely the biggest John Hunter fan on the last run there,” quipped Kligerman, who finished 25 points ahead of Herbst for the final Playoff spot in a battle that featured substantial swings throughout the season. “I’m really proud of this whole Big Machine Racing team… We executed at a high level.

“With what I’ve seen do for the last 12 weeks, I felt like, if we could just get in the Playoffs, and we bring this going forward, we’re going to race for a championship.”

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Just short of midway through Stage 2, much of the suspense disappeared from the race for the final Playoff spot. On a restart on lap 65, Kligerman had difficulty getting his No. 48 Chevrolet into gear. Creed, immediately behind Kligerman, ran into the back of the 48 and moved to the right.

Herbst, who started two cars behind his rival for the final berth, clipped the left rear of Kligerman’s car with the right front of the No. 98 Ford, cutting his right front tire and damaging the quarter panel.

Herbst lost two laps on pit road changing tires, but he regained both circuits in short order, taking a wave-around at the end of Stage 2 and as the beneficiary during the eighth caution for a dramatic lap 97 wreck at the front of the field involving Creed, Sammy Smith, pole winner Justin Allgaier and Jones.

Back on the lead lap, Herbst charged through the field and reached the ninth position, but another flat right front tire forced him to pit road on lap 127 and ended his chances to secure a Playoff berth.

As it turned out, Daniel Hemric clinched the 11th of 12 Playoff spots by starting the race, leaving Kligerman and Herbst to battle for the last one. They join Nemechek, Hill, Allgaier, Cole Custer, Sam Mayer, Chandler Smith, Creed, Josh Berry, Sammy Smith and Jeb Burton, all of whom had qualified for the Playoffs before Saturday’s race.

Though Hill secured the regular-season title, he feels his Richard Childress Racing team has work to do to match Nemechek’s pace in the upcoming seven Playoff races.

“Just happy that we were able to bring home the Regular Season Championship, get the extra 15 bonus points–which is huge,” Hill said. “But we’ve got to go to work. We’ve got to be better. The 20 (Nemechek) was the class of the field all day.

“Really kind of stunk up the show there, so we’ve got to go back to the drawing board, figure out what we’ve got to do better for next time.”

Berry, Brett Moffitt, Derek Kraus, Joe Graf Jr. and Kaz Grala finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

RESULTS

Bell scoots to second playoff pole in a row at Kansas

Christopher Bell is two-for-two in NASCAR Cup Series playoff race poles after topping the chart Saturday at Kansas Speedway. Bell was the final driver to qualify in the final round and put up a lap of 180.276mph (29.954s). The Joe Gibbs Racing …

Christopher Bell is two-for-two in NASCAR Cup Series playoff race poles after topping the chart Saturday at Kansas Speedway.

Bell was the final driver to qualify in the final round and put up a lap of 180.276mph (29.954s). The Joe Gibbs Racing driver also won the pole last weekend at Darlington Raceway. It’s Bell’s fourth pole of the season and the eighth of his career.

“I love this place,” Bell said. “That was a lot of fun; qualifying here is very intense and that’s certainly all we had. I felt really good in practice today; race trim is what it’s all about. Week after week we keep coming to the racetrack with cars that are capable of racing for wins and I’m ready to put it all together.

“Thankful to have all of our partners behind us. We got DeWalt on the car this weekend, and I’ve been running really good with them, so hopefully we can give them a good show again tomorrow.”

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Kyle Larson qualified second at 179.826mph, Martin Truex Jr. third at 178.767mph, Chase Elliott fourth at 178.648mph and Tyler Reddick fifth at 178.495mph.

Ross Chastain qualified sixth at 178.324mph, Michael McDowell seventh at 178.271mph and Austin Dillon eighth at 178.200mph. William Byron qualified ninth at 177.778mph but will move to the rear of the field Sunday because of a suspension part change. Bubba Wallace was 10th at 177.421mph.

Eight playoff drivers failed to make the final qualifying round and will start outside the top 10. Four of them will start 16th or worse.

Joey Logano qualified 11th, Brad Keselowski 12th, Chris Buescher 13th and Denny Hamlin 14th. Hamlin won at Kansas Speedway in the spring.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. qualified 16th, Ryan Blaney 17th and Kevin Harvick 20th. Kyle Busch did not make a qualifying lap and will start 35th.

Busch’s team is still determining if they can repair his damaged car after having a blown tire resulting in contact with the wall in practice. They may have to go to a backup for Sunday’s race.

Ty Gibbs also did not make a qualifying attempt. Gibbs will be in a backup car after hitting the wall off Turn 2, also because of a blown tire in practice.

UP NEXT: Hollywood Casino 400 at 3 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network.

STARTING LINEUP

Busch to start from the rear yet again after Kansas practice crash

Kyle Busch will have to come from the rear of the field for the second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series playoff race after hitting the wall in practice at Kansas Speedway. Busch made heavy contact with the Turn 4 wall after blowing a right rear tire in …

Kyle Busch will have to come from the rear of the field for the second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series playoff race after hitting the wall in practice at Kansas Speedway.

Busch made heavy contact with the Turn 4 wall after blowing a right rear tire in Turn 4. He did not attempt a qualifying lap as the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team began making repairs to his Chevrolet.

“Just like every other weekend – always put in a hole, always put behind, always have to come and dig ourselves out,” Busch said. “Hate it for all the guys; the car was really good. We had good longevity there. We were just running laps and running some pretty good laps compared to the rest of our group that we were with at that time. Was just going to fine-tune some things in order to get ready for qualifying, and here we are starting last again.

“Just never ends. I don’t know what to do to change it. Hate it, again, for our Casey’s General Stores guys; got a lot of work ahead of us tonight, but we’ll do it.”

Busch was 21st fastest overall in practice.

A week ago, Busch also hit the wall in practice ahead of the postseason opener at Darlington Raceway. He was able to make a qualifying lap in Darlington, good enough for 11th fastest, but had to move to the rear of the field because of the repairs. He finished 11th.

Busch is a two-time winner at Kansas Speedway, doing so in the spring of 2016 and 2021. In his last three Kansas races, however, he has one top-five finish and two finishes outside the top 25.

The two-time Cup Series champion is seventh on the playoff grid with a 20-point advantage on the cutline.

Update: Byron keeps Kansas starting position after suspension part change approved

UPDATE: NASCAR announced they will not send William Byron to the rear of the field Sunday after evaluating a broken suspension part in the upper control arm. The failure in Saturday’s practice was determined to be a part issue and not that of the …

UPDATE: NASCAR announced they will not send William Byron to the rear of the field Sunday after evaluating a broken suspension part in the upper control arm. The failure in Saturday’s practice was determined to be a part issue and not that of the No. 24 team, so Hendrick Motorsports has been allowed to make the change without penalty.

During the morning practice session, Byron felt a mechanical issue with his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and pulled the car to pit road. The team found a broken part in or around the upper control arm that needed to be changed before qualifying, which Byron was permitted to participate in.

The suspension change is normally considered an unapproved adjustment and would have forced Byron to give up his starting position for the Hollywood Casino 400.

“What I felt was I was coming off of (Turn) 4, coming down the front straightaway, and the wheel just kind of jerked to the left and felt like I unloaded the wheel, so I knew it was something steering-related,” Byron said. “Unfortunately, at first, we couldn’t really find it, and then when we started messing with the wheel here sitting on pit road, it’s a broken right-front suspension piece. So, pretty substantial suspension component.

“We’ve never had that happen; probably just running really fast around here. Hopefully, we get it fixed. Our Raptor Chevrolet had a lot of pace, so I felt really good about our car and was just going to try to run 20 to 25 laps and luckily, it didn’t happen on (corner) entry. It could have been a lot worse. It happened there at the end of the trioval, so we’ll be able to fix the car.”

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Byron clocked the second-fastest lap in practice for the issue. He was among the first group of drivers who took the track Saturday morning.

The highest driver on the playoff grid on points after the opener at Darlington Raceway, Byron has a 45-point advantage on the cutline. Byron finished third at Kansas Speedway in the spring after starting from the pole. He has seven top-10 finishes at Kansas in his last eight starts.

Reddick paces eventful Cup practice at Kansas Speedway

Tyler Reddick was fastest in an eventful NASCAR Cup Series practice session Saturday at Kansas Speedway. Reddick posted a lap of 178.808mph (30.200s), topping the speed chart over William Byron at 177.760mph. Bubba Wallace, the defending winner at …

Tyler Reddick was fastest in an eventful NASCAR Cup Series practice session Saturday at Kansas Speedway.

Reddick posted a lap of 178.808mph (30.200s), topping the speed chart over William Byron at 177.760mph.

Bubba Wallace, the defending winner at Kansas, was third fastest at 177.690mph. Kyle Larson was fourth at 177.620mph and Ryan Blaney was fifth at 177.026mph.

The fastest five drivers in practice were Cup Series playoff contenders.

Ty Gibbs was sixth at 176.719mph, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. seventh at 176.644mph, Martin Truex Jr. eighth at 176.390mph, Erik Jones ninth at 176.298mph and Chase Elliott 10th at 176.263mph.

Other playoff drivers in practice were Denny Hamlin (12th), Kevin Harvick (13th), Ross Chastain (14th), Michael McDowell (17th), Christopher Bell (19th), Chris Buescher (20th), Kyle Busch (21st), Brad Keselowski (25th) and Joey Logano (26th).

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There were three incidents in practice — two for playoff drivers.

After Byron laid down the second-fastest lap, he felt a mechanical issue with his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. The No. 24 team will change a broken suspension part.

Busch hit the wall in Turn 4. His No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet got loose after blowing a right-rear tire, sending him into a spin and making significant contact with the right rear.

Gibbs hit the wall off Turn 2 late in practice. The No. 54 Toyota also blew a right rear tire.

Sheldon Creed was 34th fastest in practice. Creed is making his Cup Series debut with Live Fast Motorsports.

There are 36 drivers entered in the Hollywood Casino 400.

Tyler Reddick was fastest in the best 10 consecutive lap average over Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr., and Bubba Wallace.

Eckes wins after wild three-wide Truck Series battle at Kansas

Christian Eckes grabbed the lead on the final restart and stole a victory in Friday night’s Kansas Lottery 200, the Round of 10 elimination race in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. In a three-wide battle for the lead against Corey Heim and Zane …

Christian Eckes grabbed the lead on the final restart and stole a victory in Friday night’s Kansas Lottery 200, the Round of 10 elimination race in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series.

In a three-wide battle for the lead against Corey Heim and Zane Smith, Eckes led only the final two laps to secure his third victory of the season, his first at Kansas Speedway and the fourth of his career.

In a last-lap scramble that saw Smith get loose, turn sideways and fade to fifth, Taylor Gray finished second, 0.363s behind Eckes. Matt DiBenedetto ran third in a valiant effort to earn a berth in the Round of 8.

But with Ben Rhodes finishing 25th after securing a total of 11 points in the first two stages, Rhodes claimed the final spot in the next round by five points over DiBenedetto.

DiBenedetto is out of his ride at the end of the year, too, having announced that he has decided not to return to the No. 25 Rackley W.A.R. Chevrolet next season. DiBenedetto added that he is looking for opportunities in all three of NASCAR’s national series.

Also eliminated from the Playoffs was Matt Crafton, who had to go to a backup truck after running over debris and wrecking in practice earlier in the day. Crafton’s No. 88 Ford slapped the wall on lap 69 of Friday’s race, and after attempted repairs, he finished 33rd, nine laps down and 11 points out of the Round of 8.

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Heim, who finished fourth, had the lead when the trucks of Rajah Caruth and Tanner Gray collided on the frontstretch on lap 127 to cause the fifth and final caution.

“That was wild,” Eckes said after climbing from his truck. “I didn’t know if I was going to win it or not. We had a sixth-place truck all day, but when that caution came out, I knew we had a shot at it, and here we are.

“We haven’t won in a real long time—so I wanted to set a tone. Went all the way to the Round of 10—second, third, first (in the first three Playoff races). Can’t beat that. Proud of all these guys.”

DiBenedetto would have advanced with a victory but came up two positions short.

“Honestly this team fought so hard, worked their tail off to give me a good-looking truck and a good-handling truck all night,” DiBenedetto said. “Man, we made the most of it, for sure. Just so thankful for these guys and (sponsor) Rackley Roofing.”

Carson Hocevar came home sixth, followed by Stewart Friesen and Nick Sanchez, who took the lead from pole winner Chase Purdy and won the first 30-lap stage wire-to-wire. Hocevar edged Sanches for the Stage 2 win.

Seventeenth-place finisher Grant Enfinger and 18th-place Ty Majeski already had earned spots in the Round of 8 with victories in the first two Playoff races, and Eckes and Heim already were in on points. Hocevar clinched his place in the next round with a ninth-place result in Stage 1, with Smith, Sanchez and Rhodes advancing on points on Friday night.

Sanchez led a race-high 43 laps, followed by Heim with 40 and Hocevar with 32.

RESULTS

Joe Gibbs Racing celebrates 400th NASCAR win at Kansas Speedway

Joe Gibbs Racing hit a milestone Sunday afternoon, crossing the 400-win mark in NASCAR with Denny Hamlin’s victory at Kansas Speedway. Hamlin earned his 49th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series after last-lap contact and a pass on Kyle Larson. All …

Joe Gibbs Racing hit a milestone Sunday afternoon, crossing the 400-win mark in NASCAR with Denny Hamlin’s victory at Kansas Speedway.

Hamlin earned his 49th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series after last-lap contact and a pass on Kyle Larson. All of Hamlin’s wins have come driving for Gibbs.

Joe Gibbs now has 203 wins in the Cup Series. The other wins to make up the 400 are from the Xfinity Series, where the organization has won 197 times.

“It’s a thrill,” team owner Joe Gibbs said. “When we started in racing, our very first year in ’91, we had 17 people and raced one car. We just kept building and building and building. I didn’t dream that it would be anything like where we are today.

“I’m just thrilled for all of our people that helped build our race team. That’s the people back in town. I appreciate, obviously, all of our sponsors; it meant so much to me today to be able to call Fred Smith and talk to him. As we know, in our sport, the thing that’s really different is our sponsor partners, and I call them partners.”

Fred Smith founded FedEx, the winning sponsor at Kansas Speedway on Sunday. FedEx is a longtime Gibbs partner and has been with Hamlin since he joined the Cup Series with JGR in late 2005.

“The other wild thing that I’m not sure…has been done before, but I called Norm Miller at Interstate Batteries. He’s been here for all 400,” said Gibbs. “Can you imagine that? I just thanked Norm so much for getting us started. If it hadn’t been for him, we may not be in racing. We love it, and just really appreciate everything today and appreciate the crowd here and everybody.”

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Interstate Batteries is in its 32nd season of partnership with Joe Gibbs, appearing on all four cars this year. It was the organization’s founding sponsor.

Drivers who have won Cup Series races for Gibbs include Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, Erik Jones, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett.

In the Xfinity Series, the organization has won with Ryan Truex, Sammy Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Brandon Jones, Ty Gibbs, Daniel Hemric, Busch, Bell, Harrison Burton, Ryan Preece, Jones, Hamlin, Daniel Suarez, Sam Hornish Jr., Elliott Sadler, Kenseth, Logano, Stewart, Aric Almirola, Mike Bliss, Mike McLaughlin and Labonte.

“I grew up in football on that side (in the NFL) and I was the technical guy, helped design stuff, called plays,” said Gibbs. “That’s a thrill. Over here, I’m not the technical person, so I try and focus on the people and the sponsors, and the great thing about over here, too, is my family.

“I think back to J.D. J.D. spent his entire professional life building our race team and then Coy, when his brother got sick, stepped over. And Coy and his son Ty, everything that’s taken place. Heather’s (Coy’s widow) now stepping into our ownership role. It’s family.

“So, on this side, it’s a thrill for me because I missed so much of both boys when I was coaching and (being) after it so much, and I got a chance to relive some of that time with them. Obviously I miss them, but they were a big part of building this, too.”