The first race at MI back in June had the youngest top three in Sprint Cup history, with Joey Logano (26) finishing ahead of Elliott and Larson. Fortunately for Buescher, 31st-place David Ragan didn’t gain enough to pass him. Larson has been cool under pressure in races he hasn’t won, even saying he wouldn’t wreck a driver in order to accomplish that (as he did when he didn’t move victor Matt Kenseth out of the way at Dover earlier this season).
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Assuming Buescher can remain in the top 30, that leaves three spots available to winless drivers who are the best in points. Elliott beat Larson out of the pits by a half car-length and began to pull away. He had top-five attempts ruined by accidents in the last two weekends and fell far down the points. Of course, there could be fewer than three winless drivers in the Chase if a winless driver wins at Darlington or Richmond.
“We have to dig deep”, Ganassi said. “We still have some work to do”. “We made a number of unscheduled stops to try to fix the problem, but the damage was just too severe to overcome”. We’re going to miss him.
“That’s what we do”. “We’ve been on the cusp for so many years”.
McMurray finished eighth at MI.
Johnson finished sixth, Carl Edwards was seventh, Larson’s teammate Jamie McMurray was eighth, Hamlin ninth, and Logano rounded out the top-10.
But Larson put together a Rookie of the Year campaign in year one to quiet those skeptics.
While Larson is gearing up for his first Chase, McMurray is looking to compete in his second playoff, having qualified for it through points for the first time a year ago. “Props to those guys”. This one’s different just ’cause of how long we had to wait and how much harder I’ve had to work for it. But the likeable Clauson never made it as a Sprint Cup driver after competing in the Xfinity Series. Having started his career as a road course racer, McDowell has fought the urge to go back to full-time road racing to concentrate on a Sprint Cup career. Still, the No. 42 team had shown the performance needed and the ability to make it to Victory Lane, but hadn’t quite been able to seal the deal.
All are capable of leaving a mark on the sport for years to come. We hope to get a couple more in.
Was Larson really NASCAR’s next superstar driver? Kyle Busch spun out on lap 27 on the grass in turn four to bring out the second caution of the race.
“At the end I gave Kyle a really good push”, said Keselowski, who finished third.
“It’s hard to watch replays or watch videos”.
As long as I’m doing that, I said to avoid Alex Bowman and Clint Bowyer in that same salary class, and they both finished with negative points. The track had lost its traditional Labor Day date several years ago but now has it back and this time the sanctioning body has made it even better by moving the start of the race back so it can be contested under the lights out of the extreme SC heat.
Martin Truex Jr. started 14th in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race and by Lap 58 of 200 he vaulted into the lead.
“Winning is awesome, no matter what the circumstance is”, Moffitt said. “Yeah, then the last I think with two to go, I was starting to get choked up”. This race was an open one on the No. 11 schedule.
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“Keselowski and crew chief Paul Wolfe employed a little bit of strategy on Sunday including a two tire pot stop call late in the race to stay in contention for the win”.
