SAD NEWS: NASCAR announced that Chase Elliott is Leaving immediately after Facing…..
Chase Elliott punched his Round-of-12 ticket with a haymaker to the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff field.
It was a Bristol blistering from the 32-year-old native of Elk Grove, California, as Larson led a whopping 462 out of 500 laps and swept all three stages en route to his fifth win of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
To put Saturday’s performance into perspective, Larson set a new Hendrick Motorsports record for the most laps led in a single race and became the first driver to lead 400 laps at Bristol since Kyle Busch in 2008.
“Man, that was just great execution all weekend by the team,” Larson said. “Practiced good, youv’e got to qualify good, we did that and yeah, just had a great car. Thanks to the whole (number) five team, you’re the best in the business and we dominate a lot of races, but we might not close them all out, so it was really good to close one out in this HendrickCars.com Chevy.”
The race finished off the Round of 16 with all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers – Larson, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and William Byron – advancing to the next round thanks to steady drives on Saturday.
Elliott used a good pit stop and an aggressive restart in the middle of the final stage to surge into second place in his No. 9 LLumar Chevy. He finished things off from there, coming home in the runner-up spot with three stage points to boot.
“I thought it was just a really solid night, overall,” Elliott said. “Had really nice pace and really thought our car drove really well. I don’t think I could’ve asked much more out of the car. I think kyle did a really nice job getting through traffic and that was the difference. I kind of got hung up and he was able to slice through there.”
Bowman started the race from the pole and led the first 34 laps before yielding to Larson. He finished second in stage one and added 13 stage points to a fantastic Round of 16 effort, finishing ninth on Saturday.
“Proud of this No. 48 Ally Camaro team,” Bowman said. “We did what we needed the whole first round of the playoffs but also we want to be better and continue that through the next round. Missed it a little bit today when (the track) rubbered dup but other than that a really solid points day for us and we’ll keep at it.”
Finally, Byron scored six stage points before settling for 17th, advancing comfortably.
“We’ll forget about this one for sure and go onto Kansas and I know we’ll be good there,” Byron said. “Really, all tonight was about was advancing and we did that, so proud of that for sure.”
All the speed backed up a solid qualifying effort in which all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers earned top-10 starting spots on Friday. In addition to Bowman’s pole-winning effort, Larson earned the second starting spot, Byron fired off third and Elliott 10th.
With the victory, Larson added seven more valuable playoff points to his cushion and will enter the Round of 12 as the points leader, 39 points above the cutline. Byron is now in the fourth spot, 14 markers to the good, Elliott is currently seventh with a six-point margin and Bowman will start the next round tied for 11th, seven points below the elimination line.
The Round of 12 will begin with a race at Kansas Speedway next Sunday. Coverage of the race will begin at 3 p.m. and will air on USA Network.
They also request that the NASCAR countersuit be dismissed because it “fails at the threshold because it does not allege facts plausibly showing a contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade.
“The counterclaim allegations instead show each racing team individually determining whether or not to agree to NASCAR’s demands through individual negotiations — the opposite of a conspiracy.”
The teams continue: “None of NASCAR’s factual claims fit into the very narrow categories of blatantly anti-competitive agreements that courts summarily condemn as per se unlawful.”
“I decided to actually learn how to play golf about 2 years ago. Of course it’s a little seasonal, mostly for heat in AZ but also work and skiing! I thought I finally had it figured out last fall.
Then I forgot how to hit my driver to start the year off…. Until about 10 days ago.
Kyle Larson’s recent win at Homestead-Miami Speedway gives him 14 victories in the current NASCAR Cup composite body car, but he believes he would have more if he still drove the sheet metal version used in the series in 2021.
“I think switching to this car has limited us from winning,” Larson says. “They’re difficult cars to drive. You have to run really hard. That probably benefits a guy like myself.”
Larson cites the ability to adapt to new things as the reason for his and teammate William Byron’s success in the current Cup car.
Byron has won 12 races since the Next Gen or Gen 7 car was introduced in 2022.
“I think that’s an area (adaptability) where the five team really excels, and the 24 (William Byron) as well,” Larson says. “Young, adaptable drivers and teams.”
That adaptability includes aggressive driving on restarts in NASCAR’s Cup and Xfinity series. The composite car bodies now used in both series are more durable than their sheet metal predecessors and can endure more beating and banging without cutting a tire.
“When you look at the Cup Series and the bumpers and how stiff and rigid they are and how well they line up, there’s beating and banging going on, on these restarts to another level,” says Justin Allgaier, NASCAR’s current Xfinity Series champion. “It’s actually pretty impressive that they’re able to not wreck on some of these restarts on the Cup Series side. You know 90% of the passing that you’re going to do is going to come from those first five, 10 laps. I think restarts have become more aggressive and more haywire than they’ve ever been but it’s risk versus reward; way higher reward than risk.”
Allgaier admits he’s had to adapt his driving style during the last five to 10 years due to the way racing has changed.
“I would say as I’ve gotten older, I’ve probably gotten a little more feisty and probably become a little more aggressive,” Allgaier says.
Ryan Preece admits it’s easy to get “tunneled into being aggressive.”
“The style of racing that we’re in now, with the bodies being so durable, guys are more likely to put them, or you or whoever is in front of you in a bad position,” Preece says. “You need to be ready for somebody to wreck at any time on a restart. This style of racing is you get everything you can on a restart and if you don’t, somebody else will, and then you’re just going to be fighting yourself out of a hole.
“These restarts have turned into a brutal blood bath of just putting guys in bad situations.
There’s times when you need to take advantage of it, and then there’s times you need to say, ‘Well, this isn’t going to work out’ and you need to be ready for that.
I’m not saying you need to hold yourself back.
I think in certain situations, if you see something transpiring that’s going to be bad, you need to be ready for it.
It will be a somewhat historical moment as Legge, driving for Live Fast Motorsports, is the first female to drive NASCAR’s current Next Gen car and only the eighth woman to compete in Cup’s modern era.
“Everybody says, ‘What’s it like to be a girl in racing?’” Legge said. “And I don’t know, because I only have my own experience. I don’t know what it’s like to be a boy in racing.
“So I know what my journey has been, and I know that it’s gone for me and it’s gone against me, and I know where the struggles are. And I know mentally what you have to do to overcome those struggles.
