Image Reference: Zach Catanzareti via Wikipedia, CC BY 2.0
It was a great night out for the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas out on track at Bristol Motor Speedway where Christopher Bell won the first two stages in the No.20 machine, but a series of yellows during the final stage saw Denny Hamlin take over the lead before he rounded out as the winner for his No.11 team. Denny is now third in the Playoffs standings at 3032 points where he’s only just four points behind William Byron (No.24 Hendrick Chevy) and his team-mate in the No.19 Martin Truex Jr.
Great to see Denny steer clear of trouble following a great start, although he had to drop back a bit during the 2nd stage but bounced back well off the back of pit road in order to bring his car home in 1st place. The challenge for him now is to stay ahead & go dominate these all of these tracks as well as the rare Roval in Charlotte up front as this could be his year at last if he can stay in there going into the Championship 4 Finale & win that title at Phoenix come early November.
We also give a shoutout to Carson Hocevar in the No.42 Chevy for Legacy Motor Club where he too was running through the middle of the field before some good luck towards the rest of the night saw him finish in 11th, so fantastic moment for the No. 42 to experience such as great result. We don’t know if he will be back next Sunday at Texas but he is one driver Spire is considering to replace Ty Dillon in the No.77 Chevy next year as we’re sure this will be confirmed sooner rather than later.
And yes, Michael McDowell (No.34 Ford) did have a great race to finish 6th after running reasonably well inside the Top 6-7 for the whole time. We just wished he had a front row race car that would’ve seen him had a better chance of winning that race as his last chance in order to keep his Playoffs chances alive into the 2nd Round of 12 tie. But he and Front Row Motorsports had another great season out nonetheless as there’s always more to come towards being a regular Top 15 presence that will hopefully see him more than just a regular-season race every week next year.
Next stop, Texas Motor Speedway to begin the second round of Playoffs for another three races starting next Sunday/Monday AM Australian time as there’s no more Saturday night races this year.
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