Bass Pro Shops Night Race

Tire management was the name of the game in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway and in the end, another Joe Gibbs Racing car won as Christopher Bell took the lead on the last restart and held off Brad Keselowski who finished a close second. Zane Smith came home third with Ryan Blaney fourth and Joey Logano fifth. 

A J Allmendinger started on the pole for the first time in a Cup Series race for quite a while. The caution flag flew as Josh Berry’s car was on fire sitting on pit road. Berry was able to escape the car without any physical damage, but he was eliminated from the playoffs with the incident. There were several lead changes in stage one, but the final one was when Ryan Blaney passed Ty Gibbs with two laps remaining to win the stage.

Just as in stage one, Gibbs led the most laps in stage two, but this time he was able to hold off Blaney for the stage two win. Along with Berry, Austin Dillon, Shane Van Gisbergen and Alex Bowman were eliminated from the playoffs. 

Denny Hamlin locks up his position in the next round of the playoffs with a win at World Wide Technology Raceway in the Enjoy Illinois 300 for his 5th win of the season, 59th career win and win number 200 for Toyota. Hamlin secured his playoff spot to join Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe who won the previous race at Darlington. Brisco won the first stage of the race while fellow Toyota driver Bubba Wallace won stage two. The race had a total of ten cautions and fifteen lead changes before Hamlin closed out the race, finishing in front of his teammate Briscoe who was second. Chase Elliott was the highest finishing Chevrolet in third place in his Hendrick Motorsports Camaro. Team Penske teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano finished fourth and fifth respectively. Next up is the playoff cutoff race at Bristol on Saturday night. 

Chase Brisco gave a dominant performance in the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Not only did he win both stages, but he also led an impressive 309 of the 367 laps in the event. In so doing, he also punched his ticket for the next round of the playoffs. James Small, the crew chief of the number 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was confident going into the race, saying “I woke up this morning and sent the guys a message, and I just had this feeling it was like we just need to go and lay a old school beat down to them, and that’s exactly what we did tonight”. Brisco held off fellow Toyota drivers Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones who finished second and third respectfully. Jones’ teammate John Hunter Nemechek came home fourth while the highest non-Toyota, AJ Allmendinger finished fifth in a Chevrolet.

The race started with a lap one incident in turn two as Josh Berry spun out and damaged his car, sending him into the garage for repairs. Berry would return to the race but would end up finishing in the 38th position, leaving him below the playoff cutoff line. It was a difficult race for several of the other playoff drivers who struggled during the race. Alex Bowman had problems during a pit stop as the rear tire changer could not get his impact wrench to work properly, causing Bowman to lose two laps. Bowman would battle all night to get back on the lead lap but was unable to finish in a position that would put him above the cutoff line. Joey Logano could never get his Team Penske Ford Mustang performing the way he wanted to and finished a disappointing 20thplace to fall three points below the playoff cut line. Austin Dillon is the final person on the wrong side of the cutoff line at minus eight after finishing in the 23rd position.

The series moves to World Wide Technology Raceway for the Enjoy Illinois 300 Sunday September 7 at 3:00.