That 23XI Toyota in the No.23 Camry struck a perfect balance between pace and strategy all afternoon by the talented Bubba Wallace and smarts of crew chief Charles Denike.
It’s been 100 races since Bubba last won a Cup race at Kansas back in 2022 as job well done.
Bubba isn’t the only driver out there who played and protected his cards right, so does the two RFK Ford Mustangs from Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski – both 4th and 5th.
They thought long and hard by playing it safe on pit road late in Stage 3 in case of a yellow and voila that was a much-needed turning point with Top 5 results.
Also shoutout to Todd Gilliland finishing 6th following a great day out in the No.34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports.
Looking at the best mid-running Chevy of the Cup afternoon, it wasn’t Ty Dillon unfortunately as more on that in-season tournament final later. But at least Spire Motorsports had two cars finishing 10th & 11th by Carson Hocevar in the 77 and hometown native Justin Haley too in the 7.
Hocevar pushed hard in staying out till the end where he had some great battles and long run speed all day at Top 10 while Haley credits these Stage 2 yellows from the back that led to a huge uptick on track position including the one at overtime.
Justin also ran the same strategy as Carson throughout Stage 3 as it’s been a while from Haley, who wants more of the same good teamwork going forward, and the Cup season is approaching the final four regular season weeks of the year.
Speaking of Ty, it was a bummer to settle 2nd best to the other Ty in Ty Gibbs at his granddad’s powerhouse Toyota supported team. There was nothing much he could do especially when he bumped the rear of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at one point following the mid-race restart in Stage 2 and then had to limp his way till the end a few laps down (28th) but TD should still be proud of himself with his head held high.
Maybe Richard Childress should’ve given him a crack in that part-time No.33 Chevy just for this race so TD could get that $1 million prize money that is miles fast than the one he’s got at Kaulig but oh well.
Fair play however to Gibbs though who ran not bad other than the last overtime yellow or two as long as he got himself home within the lead lap in 21st.
And great to see the Trucks back on show following a three week break not far from the Brickyard at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Layne Riggs was insanely fast all night long with all three stage wins as congrats with the win at IRP for Front Row Motorsports.
But Corey Day was also fast too that late even though it just wasn’t quite enough to past Riggs on time. Better still he had a terrific night running from mid Top 10 & sure he will be wanting to be there more often with the backing by Spire Motorsports.
On the Toyotas, Corey Heim would’ve loved nothing more than the win in 4th but he’s the regular season champion & Stewart Friesen benefitted off pit road stops from a Top 15 start into a Top 3 finish.
With the in-season tournament now done & so does TNT Sports after they aired the back end of mid-summer, NBC will now be bring it all the way home where the next Cup champion will be crowned come 1st week of November at Phoenix Raceway.
It will be good to have Australia’s own Leigh Diffey on the call with Steve Letarte staying on along with the return of Jeff Burton joining these two and Dave Burns on pit road.
Keep an eye out for that odd September race when Leigh will be required for the week-long World Athletics Championships in Tokyo and also the scaled down TNT Sports’ practice & qualifying coverage only for TruTV.
Also on world championships, the swimming week is happening right now after Day 1 over in Singapore.
So far, so good by the Aussie Dolphins on what has been a opening night of golden teamwork with two gold medals won by both men’s and women’s relay teams.
