“Summer’s Five Things” is a column by Summer Bedgood for NASCAR fans to catch up on the most recent, relevant, and need-to-know news and information in the sport! While mostly focused on NASCAR, this column may also feature other interesting and exciting moments from the world of motorsports. Enjoy!
1. Chase Elliott Wins Third Race of the Season at Kansas Speedway
On Friday and Saturday at Kansas Speedway, all signs seemed to point to a Ford Racing show, with Stewart-Haas Racing and Team Penske stealing the show. A Ford driver led all three practice sessions and Team Penske driver Joey Logano won the pole in qualifying on Friday evening.
And if anyone was showing the capability of competing with them, it was Toyota Racing’s Joe Gibbs Racing and Furniture Row Racing.
But Chevrolet? As has been the case most of the season, they seemed to have the least amount of speed of the three manufacturers.
However, when the checkered flag flew on Sunday afternoon, it was Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott doing burnouts and going to Victory Lane.
So what happened?!
Make no mistake about it, Fords definitely were the strongest manufacturer of the day. Pole-sitter Logano led more laps than any other driver with 100, followed by SHR’s Kevin Harvick with 76.
Other Ford drivers like Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola, and Paul Menard were hovering around the top five for much of the race, but various issues removed them from contention.
Enter Elliott, who inherited the lead after a round of late-race green-flag pitstops, partially because of a penalty against Harvick. Despite the fact that Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson were at times catching up to him him, Elliott maintained enough of a gap that they were never able to get alongside of him.
He led the final 44 laps en route to the victory.
“The start of the race, the car drove really nice,” said Elliott post-race. “We were way closer to the competition I thought than what we were yesterday, which was encouraging. Felt like if we could get some track position, get in front of some of those guys, I felt like we had a shot.
Obviously got lucky with Kevin’s misfortune there,” Elliott continued. “I wish we could have raced him straight up to see who was better. Felt like we were fairly close to him in that second‑to‑last run. I don’t know how hard he was trying or not. Obviously being behind him, I was working pretty hard to try to keep up, be close if an opportunity arose. Luckily it worked out.”
It took Elliott 99 tries before he finally earned his first career win, pulling into victory lane at Watkins Glen International in August. He was again able to win a race in Dover a couple of weeks ago, and with his win at Kansas Speedway, added himself to the record books amongst some very elite names in the sport.
Even though Elliott won two of the three races in the Round of 12, 22-year-old Elliott knows that his team still has some work to do if they want to win the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.
“Just because you ran good this week doesn’t mean next week is going to go good,” Elliott said during his post-race press conference. “But momentum is nice. I’d rather have it than not have it. Still at a pretty big points deficit behind the 18 (Kyle Busch), the 4 (Kevin Harvick), some of those other guys. If we just keep running with them every week, I think we’ll give ourselves a chance, like I said. We’re going to keep the hammer down, try to keep as much pressure as on we can, see where it plays out.”
The Round of 8 will set the Championship 4 to determine the title in Homestead-Miami Speedway.
2. Four drivers eliminated from Playoff contention after Kansas race
The Hollywood Casino 400 was the third and final race of the Round of 12, meaning four drivers were eliminated from championship contention at the conclusion of the event.
The four who were below the cutoff line heading into Sunday’s race were Team Penske teammates Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski, Chip Ganassi Racing driver Kyle Larson, and Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman …
… and those were the four still on the outside looking in when the checkered flag flew.
However, that certainly doesn’t paint the full picture of how the day progressed.
Though his laps led certainly don’t show it, Blaney was in the top five virtually all race, with an average running position of 3.45. While he never had the fastest car, he certainly mounted a charge against teammate Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick. A few brushes with the wall stunted any chance he had at improving his finishing position and he had to settle for seventh — not enough to advance to the next round.
Larson certainly didn’t have the speed that Blaney did, but was in the top 10 for much of the event. However, he was going to need to win in order to advance to the Round of 8 and, though he was running down eventual winner Chase Elliott and second-place Kyle Busch in the closing laps, the highest he ever made it was second place.
A third-place run is excellent under normal circumstances, but wasn’t good enough on a day where only one position mattered.
Keselowski, meanwhile, never showed the kind of strength that his teammates Blaney and Logano did, but was able to lead 26 laps via pit strategy. During green flag pitstops, the No. 2 team opted to stay out on the track much longer than most other teams in an attempt to catch a caution and improve their track position.
It never quite worked out that way, and Keselowski wound up finishing in the sixth position, 18 points out of the top eight, a far cry from the three consecutive victories he earned not too long ago.
“I would say about the end of that first stage it was pretty obvious that we needed something after I saw some things on the other cars,” Keselowski said post-race. “We needed something to step up but it just wasn’t there. We just weren’t as good today as we were yesterday and I am not sure why. Everyone else seemed to find a little from practice and we were about the same, maybe a little worse than we were in practice. I am proud of what we did down the stretch of the year. We won three races and did all that. I feel like we can go win Martinsville next week so I am excited about that but of course the ultimate goal is to win a championship and we won’t have an opportunity to do that this year.”
Finally, Alex Bowman was going to need a miracle to make it to the Playoffs, as nothing short of a win was going to get the job done.
The 25-year-old driver scraped the wall early on and ran around the 11th position for most of the race. Though his ninth-place run did nothing for him in terms of the championship, Bowman still maintained a positive outlook on his season.
The eight drivers who advanced were Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, and Aric Almirola. Four of them will advance to the Championship 4 and contend for the title.
3. Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick fall short despite dominating
Joey Logano earned the pole position on Friday evening for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, and he certainly made the most of it. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford led the first 40 laps of the race and went on to win Stage One, clinching himself a spot in the Round of 8 in the process.
However, an issue with the pit gun hose during a stop around lap 120 cost Logano the lead and he was never able to recover the track position, setting instead for an eighth-place run.
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick was the beneficiary to Logano’s misfortune and looked as if he was the shoo-in to win the race with the No. 22 car out of the picture.
Unfortunately for Harvick, he would run into some pit issues on his own.
During a green flag stop on lap 213, Harvick was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to serve a pass through penalty. He finished in the 12th position after leading 76 laps and winning Stage Two, and still advanced to the Round of 12 thanks in part to the points cushion he built over the course of the regular season and the first six races of the Playoffs.
“Today wasn’t great from my standpoint,” said Harvick. “Our Busch Light Ford was really fast and leading the race there and I got a speeding penalty. That was my fault. I tried to get a little too much and wound up going too fast. We will take it one week at a time. We have had fast cars and whether it is speeding on pit road or flat tires or valve stems or fuel, we haven’t put together a full day except for Richmond. Hopefully we have gotten all that out of our system and we can go to Martinsville and start off good.”
After the points reset, Harvick holds a 39-point advantage over fifth-place driver Clint Bowyer to kick off the Round of 8.
4. Clint Bowyer’s unremarkable day in Kansas is just enough to advance
There isn’t a track on the schedule that holds more sentimental value for Clint Bowyer than Kansas Speedway, as he spent much of his climb up the ladder racing in the area and grew up less than two hours to the southwest in Emporia, Kansas. He watched the track and the area around it be built up into the facility now known as “the best guest experience in motorsports”.
However, his results there have rarely matched up with the excitement level, and this go-round, the circuit landed in the Midwest at a crucial time for Bowyer and anyone else looking to continue their championship hopes.
Bowyer entered Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 in the top eight and a solid finish should have been enough to keep him comfortable. However, as points were earned at stage’s end and positions were shifted, it looked as though the task may not be so easy for Bowyer.
However, after a long, frustrating day, Bowyer wound up finishing 13th, which was just enough to move him on to the next round of the Playoffs — six points enough, to be exact.
However, it could have been worse.
During a pitstop on lap 213, the right rear tire from his No. 14 car started to roll into the pit box adjacent to his. NASCAR did not call a penalty for an uncontrolled tire as expected, saying that this would only result in a penalty if the tire impeded the pitstop of the other team or went past the halfway point of the adjacent stall.
Bowyer is now tied with Chase Elliott and Joey Logano for the fourth position, and is seeded fifth with a three-point gap to Elliott based on a tiebreaker.
5. Israeli driver Alon Day wins second consecutive NASCAR Whelen Euro Series
On Sunday at Circuit Zolder, NASCAR’s only Israeli driver Alon Day led flag-to-flag en route to his second consecutive title in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, only the second driver in series history to win consecutive titles.
Day held off Belgian driver Stienes Longin en route to the victory and earned the championship over Frederic Gabillon, who finished fourth in the race.
“It feels so amazing,” said Day. “This car never fails and never disappoints me. The car, the team, they are all unbelievable. I’m speechless. I came back from such a difficult time in the season, but I still managed to win so many races and kept bouncing back. Back-to-back: It’s just amazing.”
The victory was Day’s seventh of the season, tying him with Ander Vilarino for the most wins in a single season.
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If you would like to receive “Five Things” in your inbox, or just connect with me, you may send me an e-mail at [email protected].
You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram.
Summer’s Five Things: What You Need To Know For October 22, 2018
“Summer’s Five Things” is a column by Summer Bedgood for NASCAR fans to catch up on the most recent, relevant, and need-to-know news and information in the sport! While mostly focused on NASCAR, this column may also feature other interesting and exciting moments from the world of motorsports. Enjoy!
1. Chase Elliott Wins Third Race of the Season at Kansas Speedway
On Friday and Saturday at Kansas Speedway, all signs seemed to point to a Ford Racing show, with Stewart-Haas Racing and Team Penske stealing the show. A Ford driver led all three practice sessions and Team Penske driver Joey Logano won the pole in qualifying on Friday evening.
And if anyone was showing the capability of competing with them, it was Toyota Racing’s Joe Gibbs Racing and Furniture Row Racing.
But Chevrolet? As has been the case most of the season, they seemed to have the least amount of speed of the three manufacturers.
However, when the checkered flag flew on Sunday afternoon, it was Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott doing burnouts and going to Victory Lane.
So what happened?!
Make no mistake about it, Fords definitely were the strongest manufacturer of the day. Pole-sitter Logano led more laps than any other driver with 100, followed by SHR’s Kevin Harvick with 76.
Other Ford drivers like Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola, and Paul Menard were hovering around the top five for much of the race, but various issues removed them from contention.
Enter Elliott, who inherited the lead after a round of late-race green-flag pitstops, partially because of a penalty against Harvick. Despite the fact that Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson were at times catching up to him him, Elliott maintained enough of a gap that they were never able to get alongside of him.
He led the final 44 laps en route to the victory.
“The start of the race, the car drove really nice,” said Elliott post-race. “We were way closer to the competition I thought than what we were yesterday, which was encouraging. Felt like if we could get some track position, get in front of some of those guys, I felt like we had a shot.
Obviously got lucky with Kevin’s misfortune there,” Elliott continued. “I wish we could have raced him straight up to see who was better. Felt like we were fairly close to him in that second‑to‑last run. I don’t know how hard he was trying or not. Obviously being behind him, I was working pretty hard to try to keep up, be close if an opportunity arose. Luckily it worked out.”
It took Elliott 99 tries before he finally earned his first career win, pulling into victory lane at Watkins Glen International in August. He was again able to win a race in Dover a couple of weeks ago, and with his win at Kansas Speedway, added himself to the record books amongst some very elite names in the sport.
Even though Elliott won two of the three races in the Round of 12, 22-year-old Elliott knows that his team still has some work to do if they want to win the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.
“Just because you ran good this week doesn’t mean next week is going to go good,” Elliott said during his post-race press conference. “But momentum is nice. I’d rather have it than not have it. Still at a pretty big points deficit behind the 18 (Kyle Busch), the 4 (Kevin Harvick), some of those other guys. If we just keep running with them every week, I think we’ll give ourselves a chance, like I said. We’re going to keep the hammer down, try to keep as much pressure as on we can, see where it plays out.”
The Round of 8 will set the Championship 4 to determine the title in Homestead-Miami Speedway.
2. Four drivers eliminated from Playoff contention after Kansas race
The Hollywood Casino 400 was the third and final race of the Round of 12, meaning four drivers were eliminated from championship contention at the conclusion of the event.
The four who were below the cutoff line heading into Sunday’s race were Team Penske teammates Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski, Chip Ganassi Racing driver Kyle Larson, and Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman …
… and those were the four still on the outside looking in when the checkered flag flew.
However, that certainly doesn’t paint the full picture of how the day progressed.
Though his laps led certainly don’t show it, Blaney was in the top five virtually all race, with an average running position of 3.45. While he never had the fastest car, he certainly mounted a charge against teammate Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick. A few brushes with the wall stunted any chance he had at improving his finishing position and he had to settle for seventh — not enough to advance to the next round.
Larson certainly didn’t have the speed that Blaney did, but was in the top 10 for much of the event. However, he was going to need to win in order to advance to the Round of 8 and, though he was running down eventual winner Chase Elliott and second-place Kyle Busch in the closing laps, the highest he ever made it was second place.
A third-place run is excellent under normal circumstances, but wasn’t good enough on a day where only one position mattered.
Keselowski, meanwhile, never showed the kind of strength that his teammates Blaney and Logano did, but was able to lead 26 laps via pit strategy. During green flag pitstops, the No. 2 team opted to stay out on the track much longer than most other teams in an attempt to catch a caution and improve their track position.
It never quite worked out that way, and Keselowski wound up finishing in the sixth position, 18 points out of the top eight, a far cry from the three consecutive victories he earned not too long ago.
“I would say about the end of that first stage it was pretty obvious that we needed something after I saw some things on the other cars,” Keselowski said post-race. “We needed something to step up but it just wasn’t there. We just weren’t as good today as we were yesterday and I am not sure why. Everyone else seemed to find a little from practice and we were about the same, maybe a little worse than we were in practice. I am proud of what we did down the stretch of the year. We won three races and did all that. I feel like we can go win Martinsville next week so I am excited about that but of course the ultimate goal is to win a championship and we won’t have an opportunity to do that this year.”
Finally, Alex Bowman was going to need a miracle to make it to the Playoffs, as nothing short of a win was going to get the job done.
The 25-year-old driver scraped the wall early on and ran around the 11th position for most of the race. Though his ninth-place run did nothing for him in terms of the championship, Bowman still maintained a positive outlook on his season.
The eight drivers who advanced were Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, and Aric Almirola. Four of them will advance to the Championship 4 and contend for the title.
3. Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick fall short despite dominating
Joey Logano earned the pole position on Friday evening for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, and he certainly made the most of it. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford led the first 40 laps of the race and went on to win Stage One, clinching himself a spot in the Round of 8 in the process.
However, an issue with the pit gun hose during a stop around lap 120 cost Logano the lead and he was never able to recover the track position, setting instead for an eighth-place run.
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick was the beneficiary to Logano’s misfortune and looked as if he was the shoo-in to win the race with the No. 22 car out of the picture.
Unfortunately for Harvick, he would run into some pit issues on his own.
During a green flag stop on lap 213, Harvick was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to serve a pass through penalty. He finished in the 12th position after leading 76 laps and winning Stage Two, and still advanced to the Round of 12 thanks in part to the points cushion he built over the course of the regular season and the first six races of the Playoffs.
“Today wasn’t great from my standpoint,” said Harvick. “Our Busch Light Ford was really fast and leading the race there and I got a speeding penalty. That was my fault. I tried to get a little too much and wound up going too fast. We will take it one week at a time. We have had fast cars and whether it is speeding on pit road or flat tires or valve stems or fuel, we haven’t put together a full day except for Richmond. Hopefully we have gotten all that out of our system and we can go to Martinsville and start off good.”
After the points reset, Harvick holds a 39-point advantage over fifth-place driver Clint Bowyer to kick off the Round of 8.
4. Clint Bowyer’s unremarkable day in Kansas is just enough to advance
There isn’t a track on the schedule that holds more sentimental value for Clint Bowyer than Kansas Speedway, as he spent much of his climb up the ladder racing in the area and grew up less than two hours to the southwest in Emporia, Kansas. He watched the track and the area around it be built up into the facility now known as “the best guest experience in motorsports”.
However, his results there have rarely matched up with the excitement level, and this go-round, the circuit landed in the Midwest at a crucial time for Bowyer and anyone else looking to continue their championship hopes.
Bowyer entered Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 in the top eight and a solid finish should have been enough to keep him comfortable. However, as points were earned at stage’s end and positions were shifted, it looked as though the task may not be so easy for Bowyer.
However, after a long, frustrating day, Bowyer wound up finishing 13th, which was just enough to move him on to the next round of the Playoffs — six points enough, to be exact.
However, it could have been worse.
During a pitstop on lap 213, the right rear tire from his No. 14 car started to roll into the pit box adjacent to his. NASCAR did not call a penalty for an uncontrolled tire as expected, saying that this would only result in a penalty if the tire impeded the pitstop of the other team or went past the halfway point of the adjacent stall.
Bowyer is now tied with Chase Elliott and Joey Logano for the fourth position, and is seeded fifth with a three-point gap to Elliott based on a tiebreaker.
5. Israeli driver Alon Day wins second consecutive NASCAR Whelen Euro Series
On Sunday at Circuit Zolder, NASCAR’s only Israeli driver Alon Day led flag-to-flag en route to his second consecutive title in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, only the second driver in series history to win consecutive titles.
Day held off Belgian driver Stienes Longin en route to the victory and earned the championship over Frederic Gabillon, who finished fourth in the race.
“It feels so amazing,” said Day. “This car never fails and never disappoints me. The car, the team, they are all unbelievable. I’m speechless. I came back from such a difficult time in the season, but I still managed to win so many races and kept bouncing back. Back-to-back: It’s just amazing.”
The victory was Day’s seventh of the season, tying him with Ander Vilarino for the most wins in a single season.
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If you would like to receive “Five Things” in your inbox, or just connect with me, you may send me an e-mail at [email protected].
You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram.