He is right. It’s time for a new season.
Advertisement
Chris Buescher also had a regular-season race win but headed into Richmond too close to the top-30 cut-off to already have a Chase berth clinched.
Kyle Larson will start on the outside of the front row, with Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray in the second row. The rest of the drivers battled for the remaining playoff spots in Denny Hamlin’s rear view mirror.
Hamlin took control of the race when his pit crew handed him the lead under caution on Lap 322. There are three spots available Saturday night – four if Buescher falls below 30th – and a first-time race victor would snag one of the open slots.
“It’s awesome”, Hamlin said.
“It’s a great team effort for us”. He restarted the race third and quickly got back up to second. I’m glad we didn’t let it slip away. The last thing he needs is a war of words with a driver that at least used to be one of his good friends.
Hendrick Motorsport’s prodigal son Chase Elliott raced his way into NASCAR’s version of the playoffs on Saturday night.
It was just the opposite for Newman.
The highlight of the long evening was a no-holds-barred interview from Ryan Newman after he was eliminated from Chase contention when his fellow Hoosier, ?
He was the second driver to add gas to a fiery feud.
Tony Stewart smirked, “Newman will get his wish in 10 weeks”.
“I guess he thought he was in a sprint auto again and couldn’t control his anger”, Newman said. “You get to do it at home”.
A race-record 16 cautions slowed the average speed to 85.778 miles per hour, the kind of pace I’m hoping to achieve for the drive back home to Indianapolis on Sunday. Newman said. “I don’t think there was any reason other than him just being bipolar and having anger issues”. Look it up. YouTube and everything else.
The green flag is scheduled to drop at about 7:45pm.
Buescher had accomplished the first prerequisite of Chase eligibility by winning at Pocono Raceway in July. McMurray is one of three drivers in the field without a victory this year.
Ryan Newman’s chances at the Chase ended Saturday evening, due to a multi-car wreck..
Hamlin, who grew up in Chesterfield, said he’s always inspired to drive well at the track. “I thought I was clear”. The 6 got us in the left rear pretty good and it eventually cut our rear tire down. I see all the extra Denny Hamlin shirts and hats and everything. “It is an unfortunate race deal”. Saddled with a 15-point penalty earlier in the week, Newman knew early in Saturday’s race that he probably wasn’t going to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup field. He twice finished fourth (spring race at Richmond and at Dover) and was coming off a seventh last week at Darlington. Busch dominated and won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Richmond on Friday night, leading 197 of 250 laps.
(16) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 407. Paul Menard gets free pass.
For some, like Chris Buescher, just getting into the 16-driver field was the prize.
Lap 201 – Jimmie Johnson hits wall. He returned to the track on Lap 123, 112 laps off of the pace.
He held off Kyle Larson for the victory.
Lap 265 – Paul Menard crashes. He’s got to do his part racing to get in [the Chase].
Advertisement
Not surprisingly, Stewart and Newman had a different take on the incident. Michael Annett crashed in Turn 2 on Lap 290, followed by Carl Edwards on Lap 321.
