Ross Chastain earns first career Truck Series victory
- Ross Chastain won Friday night’s Digital Ally 250 in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway
- Chastain obtained the lead with just two laps to go as then-leader Stewart Friesen ran out of gas, handing the lead to Chastain
- A miscommunication between Friesen and crew chief Trip Bruce on the final pitstop caused Friesen’s No. 52 truck to come up short on fuel
- Friesen led the most laps of any other driver, after being up front 87 of the 167 laps; he finished 15th
- This is Chastain’s second career NASCAR national series victory and first in the Truck Series
- Chastain has competed in every NASCAR national series event this season, though he is officially declared for points in the NASCAR Xfinity Series
- Chastain was supposed to have a full-time ride in the Xfinity Series through Chip Ganassi Racing in 2019; the ride fell through over the offseason after the team’s primary sponsor ran into legal trouble
- Ben Rhodes finished in the second position, 0.483 seconds behind Chastain
- Todd Gilliland, Austin Hill, and Brandon Jones rounded out the top five
- Chastain led five laps en route to the victory
- The race was slowed six times for 29 laps, including stage breaks
- Drivers involved in incidents were Jones, Natalie Decker, Grant Enfinger, Brett Moffitt, and Josh Reaume
- Last week’s Dover winner Johnny Sauter was credited with a 22nd-place finish after issues with the truck forced him to go to the garage early in the race
Additional info: Full results … Points report … Full race recap from Frontstretch.com’s Brandon Hauff
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Stewart-Haas Racing sweeps top four spots in qualifying
- Kevin Harvick earned the pole for Saturday night’s Digital Ally 400 at Kansas Speedway, posting a time of 30.131 seconds at 179.217 mph in Friday’s qualifying session
- Harvick and his three Stewart-Haas Racing teammates swept the first two rows of the starting lineup for Saturday’s race, with Aric Almirola in second, followed by Clint Bowyer in third and Daniel Suarez in fourth
- Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott rounded out the top five
- All four SHR drivers had previously swept the top four sports in the race at Talladega Superspeedway last October
- The starting lineup is still unofficial as drivers will have to pass post-qualifying/pre-race inspection on Saturday to maintain their starting spots
- The Digital Ally 400 begins at 7:30PM ET on FS1
Additional info: Complete unofficial starting lineup … Qualifying recap from NASCAR.com … Qualifying notes
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Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch lead Friday practice sessions at Kansas Speedway
- The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series had two practice sessions on Friday at Kansas Speedway in preparation for Saturday night’s Digital Ally 400
- Aric Almirola was quickest in the first session, with a time of 30.311 at 178.153 mph
- Almirola’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate and hometown favorite Clint Bowyer was second quickest
- Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and William Byron rounded out the top five
- Chip Ganassi Racing driver Kurt Busch led the second and final session, with a quickest lap of 30.383 seconds at 177.731 mph
- Alex Bowman, Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five
- Though Bowman showed speed in the second session, he scraped the wall and caused some minor damage to the right side of his car
- Kyle Larson also encountered problems in the final session, spinning out between turns one and two, nearly collecting Martin Truex Jr. in the process
- None of the drivers involved incidents opted to go to a back-up car
Additional info: Full Practice 1 results … Full final practice results … Final practice recap