Tag: Stewart-Haas Racing

Stewart-Haas Racing looks for storybook ending in final NASCAR weekend

Stewart-Haas Racing is looking for a storybook ending in its final NASCAR weekend before it shuts down following the 2024 season.

[autotag]Stewart-Haas Racing[/autotag] will shut down after the 2024 NASCAR season, but there is one more opportunity to win a championship. Cole Custer, the driver of the No. 00 Xfinity car, will look to defend his NASCAR Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix Raceway this weekend. Custer is the only driver from the organization with a shot at winning a NASCAR title.

It has been a long journey for Stewart-Haas Racing, but Phoenix will officially mark the end of a successful NASCAR tenure. The organization has two NASCAR Cup Series championships and hopes to make it two Xfinity Series titles this weekend. Meanwhile, the Cup Series drivers hope to send Stewart-Haas Racing off with one final victory.

Briscoe’s previous win before the 2024 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway was the spring race at Phoenix in 2022. How poetic would it be if the No. 14 car entered victory lane for the last time at Phoenix? Stewart-Haas Racing will be missed by so many in NASCAR; however, the final chapter of the final book isn’t complete just yet.

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Stewart ready to turn the page on NASCAR: “I’m fine being done with this”

As Tony Stewart counts down his final weeks as a NASCAR team co-owner, he says he’s at peace with his decision to shut the doors on Stewart-Haas Racing. In its 16 seasons, Stewart Haas won NASCAR Cup Series titles in 2011 (with Stewart himself) and …

As Tony Stewart counts down his final weeks as a NASCAR team co-owner, he says he’s at peace with his decision to shut the doors on Stewart-Haas Racing.

In its 16 seasons, Stewart Haas won NASCAR Cup Series titles in 2011 (with Stewart himself) and 2014 (with Kevin Harvick), and the team has three more opportunities to add to its current tally of 70 victories.

“This is the right time,” Stewart told Harvick’s “Happy Hour” podcast. “This was never a part of a master plan. But as this year has gone on, this has become very clear that this is the right time for me to get out of the sport. There’s things that I see that I definitely don’t like. And I’m happy doing the stuff I’m doing now. I’ve always been somebody that’s ran all kinds of different series.”

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Against the background of ongoing struggles to secure sponsorships and manufacturer support, SHR’s 300-plus workforce was informed of the team’s impending closure in May.

“The reason we did the announcement early in the season was to try to take care of all of our people,” Stewart said.

“I got so blamed for people losing their jobs. Well, there’s companies left and right that shut down. Look at COVID: How many people had to shut down? Nobody was screaming about how employees weren’t taken care of and what it did to their families. We did what we did to take care of our people, and we created great severance packages for them to take care of them and their families… I would say over 80 percent of the employees at SHR have found homes for next year.

“The bashing I got online and on social media was very unjust through the process. It’s easy to sit on your ass, on a chair, on your couch in your mom’s house and sit there and tell us how we’re doing it wrong. But nobody can seem to sit there and come in on Monday morning and tell us how to do it right.”

Stewart said he recently visited the SHR headquarters to farewell some of the staff.

“Knowing that when I left the building there, here’s some of those people I’ve known for 16 years, and I may never, ever see them again, unfortunately,” he said.

“I don’t know that it’s even bittersweet. It’s more bitter than sweet. It’s a tough decision. But things in life change. Your priorities change, and variables outside of your control change as well.”

Some of the current SHR employees could remain in the building beyond this year when it is taken over by the new Haas Factory Team, which will utilize the one SHR Cup Series entry that co-owner Gene Haas will retain. As for Stewart, the focus will switch to his NHRA program and sprint car teams.

“(NASCAR is) going to be healthy, it’s going to survive,” he said. “It always has. It always will. But I’m happy at this point in my life to make this change… It wasn’t that way at the beginning of the year.

“We had different reasons for why we had to shut down at the end of the season, but as time has gone on and watching the owners and NASCAR fight and just the chaos that’s going on over there, I’m fine being done with this at the end of the year.”

Stewart-Haas swaps pit crews to boost Briscoe’s playoff chances

Stewart-Haas Racing is swapping pit crews ahead of Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway – the start of the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Chase Briscoe, who is still championship eligible and the only Stewart-Haas driver who earned a …

Stewart-Haas Racing is swapping pit crews ahead of Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway — the start of the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Chase Briscoe, who is still championship eligible and the only Stewart-Haas driver who earned a postseason berth, will be pitted by the crew that had been on Josh Berry’s No. 4 Ford Mustang. Briscoe’s crew, who had been with him on the No. 14 Ford Mustang, will go to work with Berry.

“It’s been humbling, just from the whole company, all embracing the [No.] 14 car and doing everything they can to make [it] have the best potential to win the championship,” Briscoe said Saturday. “That’s been cool — to have [something like 300] employees literally feel like they’re on your back and riding with you every single weekend. Then, just as a company, SHR from the day I’ve been there, has never worked as well as they have right now, all four crew chiefs, all four drivers. We even saw it last week. Noah [Gragson] was genuinely excited for me to make it onto the next round of the playoffs and and the [No.] 10 car has been going to the racetrack identical to us every week for the last three weeks, and even this week now the [No. 4 car is] as well.

“I do think that’s a little unique where, since I am the only car in, and even our situation with the whole team shutting down, all the resources, all the effort, all the focus, everything they got is on us right now. That’s different. No other team can say that. Penske still has three cars, and they’re all three trying to make the next round, where for us, especially at a place like Talladega next week, I do think it’ll make a difference just because I’m going to have three teammates that are super committed to doing everything they can to help me.”

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The crew pitting the No. 14 Ford Mustang for Briscoe beginning this weekend will be Daniel Smith (rear changer), Daniel Coffey (front changer), Evan Marchal (fueler), and Mason Flynt (tire carrier), but it’s not an entirely unfamiliar crew to Briscoe.

In 2022, Stewart-Haas put some of his crew on Kevin Harvick’s car as the latter tried to make the postseason. The change occurred in June before the Nashville Superspeedway race. This most recent swap between the No. 4 car, which Berry now drives following Harvick’s retirement, brings those members back to Briscoe on the No. 14 car.

“I’m back kind of with my original guys,” Briscoe said. “It’s tough — they’ve been able to be there and get us to this point, and that’s a decision that truthfully is made above me. I didn’t even know it was happening until they called me on Monday. The big thing I think for me is I just told those guys — I texted them all — ‘Look, you guys are just as much of the [No.] 14 team as you were last week. I know it probably doesn’t feel that way right now, but obviously, [Greg Zipadelli] and everybody at SHR felt like that’s what gave us the best opportunity to try to move on and try to advance to the next round.’”

Briscoe was one of six playoff drivers (of the 12 who have advanced to the second round) to earn two top-10 finishes in the first round of the playoffs. His average finish in the round was 16.7.

As the second round begins, Briscoe is seven points below a transfer spot.

So far, Chase Briscoe is the story of the 2024 NASCAR postseason

It happens every fall. In a way, it’s become predictable in the elimination era: the NASCAR Cup Series postseason begins and with them, the favorites and headline makers take center stage. But then, somewhere along the way, a driver and team that …

It happens every fall.

In a way, it’s become predictable in the elimination era: the NASCAR Cup Series postseason begins and with them, the favorites and headline makers take center stage. But then, somewhere along the way, a driver and team that had been overlooked or written off before the final 10 weeks began emerges and makes a bit of noise.

Chase Briscoe and Stewart-Haas Racing are those players in the 2024 postseason.

“Overall, it was a great night for us,” Briscoe said Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “Hopefully, people will start taking us seriously. I truthfully feel like we can battle for the championship, so hopefully (this) proved that.”

Briscoe and the No. 14 team finished eighth at Bristol in the first elimination race of the postseason. It was their second consecutive top-10 finish, and Briscoe averaged a robust sixth-place running position all night, driving to as high as second place at one point. Of the 12 drivers who advanced into the next round, Briscoe is one of six who earned two top 10s in the three races that made up the Round of 16.

On one hand, every driver believes he and his team have a chance to win the championship during a long day of addressing the media on the Wednesday before the postseason begins. It’s tradition (both the mid-week media day and the chorus of optimism). It’s expected. And when Briscoe won the regular-season finale at Darlington Raceway to earn a postseason berth at the last minute, he began saying the same thing.

Briscoe is performing at pace as the contenders; he was the strongest car as the night at Darlington wound down, and he rose to the occasion to make the moves he needed to get to the lead. He likely would have done the same at Atlanta Motor Speedway had he not run into a wrecked Kyle Larson before the end of the first stage. And then Watkins Glen and Bristol were both solid, as-they-should-perform days that netted him a combined 79 points.

On performance and pace, Briscoe is getting the job done. He also earned the seventh-most stage points in the first round. So, in that area, the team should at least be, as he said, taken seriously.

But there is something else at work here for Briscoe and his group. Stewart-Haas Racing is shutting down in seven weeks. It’s long past a rumor, and then an early summer joint statement making it a reality. It’s down to crossing off days on the calendar.

Briscoe was a late entry into the Playoff picture after winning at Darlington. Matthew T. Thacker/Motorsport Images

For the group to remain in championship contention, and out of the first round, deserves kudos. It would be easy, and no one would blink an eye, if the productivity level decreased at this point in the season and the motivation was hard to find. Or if there was a mass exodus of employees each week as they sought their next paycheck and career chapter.

Perhaps that would have happened if Briscoe didn’t make the playoffs. Maybe the resources at Stewart-Haas would be drying up quicker, and maybe Briscoe’s earlier concerns about how hard it would be to get cars to the track as the termination date approached would be the reality. Instead, based on what Briscoe is showing on the racetrack, it’s hard to believe that the company will cease to exist in a little over a month.

“I feel like we can beat anybody on any given day when we put it together from start to finish,” Briscoe said. “Obviously, (at Bristol) we had some hiccups, but we were still able to have a good finish, and that’s what this championship run is going to be all about, so go on to the next one.”

The battle gets harder from here on out for Briscoe – and every championship hopeful. But he’s still got a shot and that’s all that matters.

And in reality, whether Briscoe wins the championship or not will not be the story. It’s a success to have made it this far and at this point, Briscoe and Stewart-Haas are the sentimental favorites.

Why not root for a driver who refuses to quit? How can anyone not want to see a company go to the distance despite the unfortunate and for those living it, sad situation they are navigating?

“I think our backs are up against the wall,” Briscoe said. “No other team in this sport can relate to what we’re going through and just how hungry we all are, so I think we all want to go out as winners, and we just know that we’re capable of doing it when we put it together.

“I think, for us, when we finally did win at Darlington, we kind of proved that to ourselves and just the confidence that has come with that over the last three weeks has been a lot.

“So, [we’re] looking forward to the next however many races we’ve got left.”

Have yourself a postseason run, Briscoe and company. You’ve got plenty in your corner willing you to finish this on the highest note.

Custer overcomes early issues to snatch Xfinity win at Bristol

Cole Custer recovered from an early brush with the outside wall to win Friday’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway, the race that set the field for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs. His second victory of the season, combined with a litany of …

Cole Custer recovered from an early brush with the outside wall to win Friday’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway, the race that set the field for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.

His second victory of the season, combined with a litany of trouble that befell Justin Allgaier, gave the driver of the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford an unlikely come-from-behind victory in the battle for the regular-season title and accompanying 15 Playoff-point bonus.

 

Custer, who led a race-high 104 laps, took the top spot for good with a pass of Sheldon Creed on lap 209 of 300. In winning for the first time at Bristol and the 15th time in his career, Custer crossed the finish line 0.896s ahead of Creed, who now has 13 runner-up finishes to his credit without an Xfinity win.

“This is huge, because our confidence was going down there the last month,” said Custer, the reigning series champion who will begin his title defense Sept. 28 at Kansas Speedway. “To get this win really means a lot…

“It’s unbelievable. These guys never give up. It’s been a tough month, but to be able to lead into the Playoffs like this, we’re going to really bring it to them.”

The race also secured Playoff spots for the final two drivers on the postseason grid. Sammy Smith and Parker Kligerman finished 15th and 16th, respectively, to earn their Playoff berths.

Chandler Smith ran third and Jesse Love fourth on Friday, both having already secured Playoff spots. Ryan Truex was fifth, followed by Brandon Jones, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Sieg (who missed the final Playoff spot by 36 points) and Playoff-bound Sam Mayer.

The battle for the regular-season championship took more twists and turns than a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Custer hit the outside wall on lap 2 and cut a tire, temporarily jeopardizing his second-place position in the standings.

But Allgaier, the driver Custer was chasing for the regular-season title, had his own share of ill fortune on lap 52. Having led every lap to that point, Allgaier was cruising toward what would have been his 15th stage win of the season when the Chevrolet of Austin Green bounced off the outside wall into Allgaier’s path.

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Contact between the Camaros sheared the rear bumper cover off Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevy. After a pit stop to repair the car’s right-rear quarter panel, Allgaier continued. Allgaier pitted on lap 60 and stayed on the track during the stage break after lap 85, putting him fifth for a restart on lap 96.

He was second for a restart on lap 127 but his sojourn in the top five didn’t last. On lap 153, contact between Creed’s Toyota and Allgaier’s Chevy sent the No. 7 down the track nose-first into the inside wall.

During repairs, Allgaier’s car dragged a saw out of the pits, incurring a penalty. From that point on, the JR Motorsports driver ran roughly three seconds off the pace, rapidly losing laps and positions.

When Custer took the race lead from Creed on lap 209, he had the regular-season lead, having erased the 43-point advantage Allgaier carried into the race. With his victory, Custer secured the regular-season crown by three points over Allgaier, who nevertheless will enter the postseason as the top seed with 34 Playoff points to Custer’s 28.

“I don’t really have any words for tonight,” said Allgaier, who finished 30th, 10 laps down. “It started with getting the damage from the wreck in front of us. There was nothing we could do. And then, just racing, trying to get as many stage points as we could, and I think the No. 18 (Creed ) came off the wall a little bit.

“I’m really bummed about tonight. We’ll go back and talk about it … We had the best car tonight. It was very obvious from the beginning of the race that it was the best car, and nothing to show for it.”

RESULTS

Larson, Briscoe face early playoff problems after Atlanta crash

Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe are the first two NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers to encounter trouble in the postseason after crashing out in the first stage of Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Larson is not sure what caused his Hendrick …

Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe are the first two NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers to encounter trouble in the postseason after crashing out in the first stage of Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Larson is not sure what caused his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to turn right and hit the Turn 2 wall on lap 56. The No. 5 shot to the outside wall where he made heavy right-side contact before sliding back down the racetrack and getting hit in the rear by fellow playoff contender Briscoe.

“I’m OK; thankfully everything held up well inside the car,” Larson said. “That was a huge hit. I’m not really sure what caused it. I was actually sort of tight and loaded in the corner, and that was pretty far around the corner and it just stepped out. I don’t know, it all happened really fast.”

Larson felt perhaps he had overcorrected when the car started to get away from him. He was running third at the time of the crash.

Briscoe was running around the 14th position when he ran into the No. 5. Having earned a last-minute spot in the postseason with his win last weekend, Briscoe said he felt fine aside from the initial jolt after the impact with Larson and was glad nothing happened around his feet since the brake pedal “and everything” went through the floorboard.

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“That’s NASCAR,” Briscoe said of the incident. “You can be on top one week and you can be at the very bottom of the mountain the next week. It’s unfortunate. I thought our car was an adjustment away from being pretty good. We weren’t very good at all balance-wise and I still felt like I was able to kind of run right there around the seventh to 12th place guys. I was watching my outside getting into one because somebody kept trying to get to my outside and was probably a little late just trying to see [Larson] wrecking. I didn’t expect anybody to wreck because they weren’t really two-wide, and then I saw the smoke and tried slowing down.

“I knew he was coming down the racetrack and just kept trying to feed the thing left and slow it down and I couldn’t get left quick enough. Then he kind of started sliding back down the track at the very last minute, so I tried to turn back right to avoid him and just KO’d him. It was a big hit, one of the biggest hits I’ve had in a long time. I’m glad I’m alright and we just have to go win. That’s what we had to do at Darlington and I know we’re capable of doing it again, so we’ll just have to go to Watkins Glen and Bristol and try to do the same.”

Neither driver earned stage points as the crash happened before the end of the first stage in the Quaker State 400. The first two drivers out of the race, Briscoe will finish last, 38th, with one point and Larson will finish 37th with two points.

Larson began the postseason as the No. 1 seed with a 35-point advantage on the cutline. Briscoe, the No. 13 seed, was tied for the bubble spot entering the weekend.

Sunday was Larson’s fifth DNF of the season and his second in the last four races. It is also Briscoe’s second DNF in the last four races and his third of the season.

Darlington breakthrough has Briscoe, Stewart-Haas asking ‘why not us’ in playoffs

Chase Briscoe might have been an unexpected last-minute addition to the NASCAR Cup Series playoff field, but now that he’s here, the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing driver and his team have adopted a “why not us” attitude. The group has the perfect …

Chase Briscoe might have been an unexpected last-minute addition to the NASCAR Cup Series playoff field, but now that he’s here, the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing driver and his team have adopted a “why not us” attitude.

The group has the perfect example to aim for — one Briscoe has mentioned multiple times since Sunday night’s Southern 500. In 2011, Briscoe’s hero and team co-owner, Tony Stewart, went winless in the regular season and then won half of the races in the postseason en route to claiming the championship. The same belief of being capable of coming from behind to win a championship is once again floating around the team.

“When you look at the makeup of Stewart-Haas Racing, a lot of it all stems from Tony and the mental toughness and things that Tony’s been able to do,” Briscoe said. “Momentum is a crazy thing in sports. I related it to N.C. State in the NCAA basketball tournament. They go from not even having a prayer to make the NCAA tournament to winning the ACC tournament and going all the way to the Final Four, and I feel like we certainly can relate to that where when you have momentum and confidence, it goes such a long way.

“I don’t see what team right now would have more momentum and confidence than we do. It’s just a different feel for the playoffs than I’ve ever had.”

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Briscoe qualified for the postseason in 2022 after winning the spring race at Phoenix Raceway. It left his team thinking about the postseason for 23 weeks, whereas now the scenario is different, considering how Briscoe made the field.

“I’m excited and really feel like if we can get to Phoenix, we can get it done there,” Briscoe said. “We’ve already proven it once.”

Stewart-Haas Racing does not have any other driver championship eligible aside from Briscoe. While the organization certainly wanted more, it goes in Briscoe’s favor that all attention be paid to helping his efforts for the rest of the season.

There also hasn’t been any turnover on Briscoe’s road crew or pit crew since the announcement was made that the organization is shutting down. Some who worked in the race shop have left, but Briscoe will go to battle with his core group of guys.

“The day we found out,” said Briscoe, “all of the [No.] 14 guys, at least road crew guys, went over and met up at the setup plate, and all literally looked at each other in the eye and went one by one in a circle and said, ‘I’m in, I’m in, I’m in,’ until the end of the year. Even if we ran 35th, we were sticking it out until the end, so no worries on [our] side.

“The other teams have had a couple of people leave. But I think it’s going to be way harder for guys to leave now, knowing that there’s a chance we win a championship.”

And that’s the type of change in dynamic that’s occurred at Stewart-Haas Racing since Briscoe triumphed at Darlington Raceway.

“If a Stewart-Haas car didn’t win Sunday night, Tuesday morning when everyone came in after Labor Day would have probably been the gloomiest, darkest shop in the entire industry,” he said. “And now we’re probably the most electric, fired-up shop. Or at least the most fired-up I’ve ever seen Stewart-Haas. Everybody has a pep in their step. Everybody is excited and if Stewart-Haas car didn’t win Sunday night, then it would have been hard, realistically, to get cars to the racetrack these final 10 weeks, and things would probably have been getting shut off and things like that. So, for us to be able to win that race is pretty dang cool from the standpoint of what it means for Stewart-Haas Racing.

“So, I’m definitely excited. I feel like it’s one of those things that we all internally feel like we can honestly go win the championship, and that’s crazy probably coming from a guy that wasn’t even in the playoffs until (a few) days ago. But I think internally, everyone believes it. We saw Tony do it in 2011 and we’re kind of going with that same mindset of if we can win the Southern 500, why can’t we win more?”

Briscoe roars into playoffs with Southern 500 win over Busch

Chase Briscoe took the checkered flag in Sunday Night’s Cook Out Southern 500 and simultaneously broke three hearts. Ending a 73-race winless streak for moribund Stewart-Haas Racing, Briscoe foiled Kyle Larson, who led 263 of 367 laps and won the …

Chase Briscoe took the checkered flag in Sunday Night’s Cook Out Southern 500 and simultaneously broke three hearts.

Ending a 73-race winless streak for moribund Stewart-Haas Racing, Briscoe foiled Kyle Larson, who led 263 of 367 laps and won the first two stages but finished fourth and lost the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season title to Tyler Reddick by a single point.

With the second victory of his career and his first since March 2022 at Phoenix, Briscoe eliminated Chris Buescher from the Playoffs. In a valiant run, Buescher finished sixth but lost the final Playoff spot on points to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex Jr.

Briscoe disappointed Kyle Busch, who charged into second place after a restart on lap 351 and used all his elite skills attempting to pass Briscoe for the win and force his way into the Playoffs. Busch was runner-up for the second straight Cup race, having run second to Harrison Burton on Aug. 24 at Daytona.

Stewart-Haas Racing is ceasing operations at the end of the year, but Briscoe already has secured a ride with Joe Gibbs Racing, replacing Truex, who is retiring from full-time racing at the end of the season.

“For all 320 employees, everybody, to be able to race for a championship in their final year, man, unbelievable,” Briscoe said. “This group, the day that we found out that the team wasn’t going to exist anymore, we went over to the shop floor, we all looked at each other and said, ‘We’re in this till the end. We’re not going to give this up.’

“We kept saying all week we got one bullet left in the chamber. That bullet hit.”

Ross Chastain also was eliminated from Playoff contention, but he figured in the outcome of the Southern 500. Chastain stayed on the track under the sixth caution for Carson Hocevar’s wreck while the rest of the contending cars came to pit road for tires on lap 338.

Larson was battling Chastain for the lead in Turn 3 on lap 342 when Briscoe steered decisively toward the bottom of the track and shot past Ty Gibbs, Larson and Chastain into the lead.

 

Briscoe held the top spot the rest of the way despite enormous pressure from Busch throughout the final 17-lap green-flag run.

“I was sideways, counter steering,” Briscoe said. “Like I was in a sprint car. Yeah, this night just literally went perfect. The pit crew did an incredible job. I was crying after the checkered—I just won the Southern 500; this is a Crown Jewel.

“What makes this race so special is all these race fans. Every time we come here, it’s sold out. It’s awesome. We love you guys. Last time I won here (in the NASCAR Xfinity Series) was during COVID. I didn’t experience it with the fans. Glad that you are here and can’t wait to celebrate.”

Busch restarted on the inside of the fourth row on lap 351, in the first car on new tires. He quickly dispatched every car in front of him—except Briscoe’s.

“When I made it through a few of those guys right there on the start, I thought we had a shot to get there,” Busch said. “I think I just needed him to have maybe three or four more lap older tires for me to be able to break through the wake.

“Once I got within his air, I really didn’t have enough to power through that to get closer. I was kind of sliding already.”

Reddick was suffering from nausea throughout the race, but he persevered over the 500 miles, took fresh tires under the final caution on lap 346 and gained two spots from the restart to finish 10th and edge Larson for the regular-season championship and the 15-Playoff-point bonus that goes with it.

“The car was really, really strong right from the get-go,” Reddick said. “It was tough, man, when we just were bleeding points to the No. 5 (Larson) in the middle of the race. I was trying to think of what I needed to do to go faster.

“It was really, really hard to focus on that stuff. I was just not able to really do what I normally do good here in the car. I don’t know, I was just kind of driving with one hand, almost. I don’t know how to really describe it. It was really tough in the car.”

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Larson nevertheless will start next Sunday’s Playoff race at Atlanta Motor Speedway as the No. 1 seed with 40 Playoff points in the bank.

Disaster struck one of the Playoff hopefuls on lap three. The Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. broke loose during an attempted pass of William Byron. Truex’s Camry shot into the outside wall and collected the Ford of Ryan Blaney, who was running behind him.

Truex entered the race 58 points above the Playoff cut line and his inclusion in the postseason seemed little more than a formality. But formality became calamity with the early wreck, which put Truex out of the race in 36th place, worth one point.

“Yeah, it was all my fault, all my doing. I got a run on the No. 24 (Byron) and went to the inside and thought everything was going fine, and the car just took off and I ran into him,” Truex said.

“Obviously, that was on me. I hate it for my guys, (sponsor) Bass Pro Shops, Toyota, everybody. We had a phenomenal race car, and I know this is like the longest race of the year—just a dumb mistake on my part.”

The early exit put Truex’s Playoff hopes in temporary jeopardy, but by the end of Stage 2, he had clinched a Playoff spot on points.

Playoff driver Christopher Bell finished third, followed by Larson and Chastain. Buescher, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Corey LaJoie and Reddick completed the top 10.

RESULTS

Herbst fires his way into the Xfinity Playoffs with masterful Indy win

In one of the most dramatic NASCAR Xfinity Series finishes in recent memory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst took the lead in the final corner of the final lap to claim his first victory of the season in …

In one of the most dramatic NASCAR Xfinity Series finishes in recent memory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst took the lead in the final corner of the final lap to claim his first victory of the season in Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 — formally punching his ticket to the 2024 Playoffs.

Three different drivers led the final three laps in the series’ return to the famous speedway’s 2.5-mile oval after four years of competing on the track’s road course. Ultimately, the 25-year-old Herbst drove his No. 98 SHR Ford sideways exiting Turn 4 to negotiate his way past veteran Aric Almirola and race off to a 0.167s win over his SHR teammate Cole Custer and Almirola.

 

Custer led lap 98. Almirola led lap 99. Herbst held the lead for the most important, lap 100. The three were three-wide on the white flag lap, signaling one lap to-go with Almirola taking the white flag out front. Herbst caught him and dove low to claim the lead coming out of Turn 4 on the next lap and Custer raced past Almirola in the closing feet to give SHR a one-two finish.

“This is Indianapolis; this is the most famous race track in the world and it’s an honor just to walk into the place, let alone win,” said Herbst, whose only other series win was in at his hometown Las Vegas track last year. “We’ve had speed all year and I felt like we could win. I just messed up on restarts a little bit but just continued to work and continued to work.

“I’m proud of these guys. Proud of Stewart-Haas Racing. Obviously, with the news of us (the current Stewart-Haas Racing team) shutting down, these guys could have given up on me and Cole but they stuck behind me and Cole and it’s back-to-back wins for Stewart-Haas Racing.”

The teammates combined to lead 77 of the 100 laps with Custer’s 47 laps out front most in the field. Custer, Saturday’s polesitter was smiling when he climbed out of his No. 00 SHR Ford and was the first to congratulate Herbst.

“What an awesome day for SHR, two cars up front all day, qualified one-two and finished one-two, so an unbelievable day for SHR,” said Custer, who started his day with a big announcement that he would be driving for the new single-car Haas Factory Team in the NASCAR Cup Series next year.

The defending series champion – who claimed his first win of 2024 last week at Pocono, Pa. — continues to lead the points standings and with his second place showing now has a 56-point advantage over JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, who finished ninth Saturday.

The former full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver Almirola, 40, making his first start in the Xfinity Series since May 11, finished third in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The former Stewart-Haas Racing driver was also among the first to congratulate Herbst on the hard-fought victory.

“They (Herbst and Custer) were the class of the field but I knew if they got racing there was going to be an opportunity to steal it and I got the lead and thought and just got too tight in [Turn] 3 and he got back inside me,” Almirola said, adding, “Those guys deserve it. I know all the guys on the team. They’re a great group of guys and proud and happy for [them].”

Rookie Shane van Gisbergen, the former Australian Supercars champion, finished a strong fourth, making his way forward after opting for fresh tires on a final pit stop and turning in an inspired final restart with 10 laps remaining. A three-time road course winner this season, that fourth place was his best finish on an oval since a third-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February.

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“It’s tough and I’m obviously still learning and I’m probably still a bit too conservative but I feel like the car got better and I got better,” van Gisbergen said. “This Xfinity Series is so fun, the way the cars move around and the way they’re all sliding.

“I had a blast.”

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sheldon Creed finished fifth. Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, who started from the rear of the field after some last minute adjustments on his Chevrolet, rallied to a sixth-place finish.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Daniel Dye was seventh, followed by two-time Indy winner A.J. Allmendinger, Allgaier and 21-year-old Carson Kvapil, who was making his sixth start of the year driving for JR Motorsports.

It was perhaps a fittingly dramatic ending to a race that got off to a tumultuous start with a 12-car accident taking multiple cars out of contention early. JR Motorsports Sam Mayer, a two-time race winner this year, spun out after making a three-wide move in Turn 3 collecting multiple cars and damaging more as they tried to avoid.

Full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver Josh Berry, who was driving the No. 15 AM Racing Ford was among those collected in the melee and was officially scored last. He and Mayer were unable to complete one lap.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith retired on lap 37, his No. 81 Toyota never able to overcome the damage from the first lap incident.

RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg holds a slim three-point edge over JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith for the final points Playoff transfer position with six races remaining to set the 12-driver Playoff field.

NASCAR will be taking a two-week sporting break during the Olympics with the Xfinity Series returning to competition Aug. 17 at Michigan International Speedway for the Cabo Wabo 250 (USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). John Hunter Nemechek won the 2023 race.

RESULTS

NASCAR driver’s Brickyard 400 car features a giant Caitlin Clark photo on the hood

Caitlin Clark takes on NASCAR… sort of.

Caitlin Clark is going to be at the NASCAR Cup Series race this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Well, sort of.

The Indiana Fever rookie will be featured on Josh Berry’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford paint scheme with a giant photo of her on the hood. In the photo, Clark is wearing an Iowa Hawkeyes uniform seemingly about to shoot the ball with her name and “Raining 3s” written behind her.

Berry’s primary sponsor for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 is Panini America, which is highlighting its trading cards as part of the new Caitlin Clark Collection. While Clark herself will likely be busy this weekend for the WNBA All-Star weekend in Phoenix, she’ll be well represented at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Here are some close-up looks at Berry’s No. 4 Ford:

Caitlin Clark on Josh Berry’s No. 4 Ford for the 2024 Brickyard 400. (Courtesy of Stewart-Haas Racing)
(Courtesy of Stewart-Haas Racing)
(Courtesy of Stewart-Haas Racing)
(Courtesy of Stewart-Haas Racing)

And a time-lapse video of the paint scheme being wrapped, courtesy of Stewart-Haas Racing:

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