playoffs Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer William Byron was among the many NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers who were tamed by “The Lady in Black.” Not once, but twice in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500, becoming the third competitor crashing out at Darlington Raceway. Following a late-race crash in last Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, Byron hoped Darlington would be a turnaround weekend. Especially, that it’s the playoff opener and having a career season. However, it wasn’t in the cards the from the very beginning. On Lap 15, Byron couldn’t avoidRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Sunday’s opening stage of the Cook Out Southern 500 had chaotic moments involving NASCAR playoff drivers. One negatively impacted by the madness was Michael McDowell, the first to have a mulligan in the Round of 16. Entering the backstretch on Lap 31, McDowell went from gaining track position to losing everything in front of the competition. Consequently, his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang slammed the Turn 2 wall. It was already game over for the Daytona 500 champion as he’ll leave Darlington RacewayRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 17 team began the day with optimism, but it initially ended with a crushing runner-up finish by Chris Buescher. Nearly two hours later, their entire day went under as Buescher’s team was disqualified for an illegal track bar mounting assembly as specified in Rule 20.3.3.3.b REAR SUB-FRAME ASSEMBLY; I-4 Track Bar Mounting Assembly “The track bar mounting assembly must conform to the following drawing:  FRAME-TRACK BAR MOUNTING ASSEMBLY A-002-01171D-19 REV. A” Thus, Buescher will be credited with a 40th place result forRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Richard Childress Racing’s stress levels were already chaotic entering Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Especially for one Austin Dillon, who was 28 points behind teammate Tyler Reddick for the 16th and final playoff spot. With just a single race left in the regular season, the stress levels reached the summit after Dillon’s hard crash at the end of Stage 2. After holding off Brad Keselowski for the sixth spot to collect five stage points, Dillon would get clipped by Keselowski and sentRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The 26th and final regular season Xfinity Series race wasn’t necessarily the greatest closure due to the fact everyone were virtually in the 12-driver playoff grid with Brandon Brown taking the final spot. It didn’t meant the action was lacking as Friday’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway saw several compelling moments all across the leaderboard. Some even saying it’s like the Bristol of old with several bump and runs, take no prisoners battles for valuable track position. In the end, it was the FordRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service The difference in his race was like night and day but Justin Allgaier proved himself tops again – winning Saturday afternoon’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 250 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway answering a hard-fought victory Friday night and sweeping the Xfinity Series weekend doubleheader. Allgaier’s No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet essentially dominated the afternoon leading a race best 135 of the 250 laps and holding off his teammate Jeb Burton by a healthy 2.185-seconds for his third win of the season. It is theRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer It wasn’t the greatest race result from Austin Hill, but he’ll end the regular season as the top guy of the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series. Although Hill finished eighth in Thursday’s ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway, it was enough for the Hattori Racing Enterprises driver to earn an additional 15 playoff points by winning the regular season title by 42 points over Brett Moffitt. “It definitely means a lot and that was our ultimate goal coming in here tonight,” said Hill, who ledRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Derek Kraus scored his best career finish in Sunday’s South Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Darlington Raceway, reducing the playoff cutoff gap on Todd Gilliland down to 10 points. Kraus, who drove a throwback of Ron Hornaday’s NAPA scheme, appeared was going to have a modest 147-lap race, battling his former Bill McAnally Racing teammate for the seventh spot. Up to that point, Kraus said his afternoon wasn’t great as track position was hard to come by up until the final stage when his McAnally-Hilgemann RacingRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service With the three drivers in front of him opting to pit just before an overtime restart, Ben Rhodes chose to stay on track in the fourth position and held off rookie Derek Kraus, winning Sunday’s South Carolina Education Lottery 200. It was the third NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series win of the 23-year old Kentucky native’s career; the first since 2018. He is the seventh different winner of 2020. “Gosh, that was such a tough win,’’ Rhodes said. “We weren’t the best truck allRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service  It was a fitting race finish for a track known as being “Too Tough To Tough.” The two front-running cars tangled with two laps remaining and Brandon Jones dove low to take the lead and the victory in Saturday’s Sports Clips Haircuts VFW 200 Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway. An intense, exciting and suspenseful battle for the lead in the final 10 laps between Xfinity Series regular Ross Chastain and this year’s Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin gave NASCAR fans all they couldRead More