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Christopher Bell

Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: Kyle Larson unstoppable in the No.5 Chevy Camaro that wraps up a dominant night for Hendrick Motorsports at Bristol Motor Speedway

by Sports Benches

One word to describe Kyle Larson’s night at Bristol – tremendous. The same will say for Hendrick Motorsports too after a dominant 500 laps of racing for this multi-championship winning organisation with No.9’s Chase Elliott finishing in 2nd when Alex Bowman led the race field from pole but it was Larson who took over and went on to keep the lead with safe hands by sweeping all three stage wins in the No.5 Chevy Camaro. Love the celebration he just had with his son Owen while Owen ran around with the checkered glad when dad Kyle was interviewed by NBC Sports’s Marty Snider in front of the grandstand.

He and the No.5 Hendrick team still has unfinished business ahead for their 2nd championship hunt since his 2021 triumph with the Round of 12 now set to begin at Kansas Speedway next weekend (3pm ET Sunday afternoon/5am Monday AM here). 

Other than Kyle, looks like we will have to say goodbye unfortunately to the bottom four Playoff drivers as neither of them couldn’t get away with a must-win situation (or a Top 5 finish via luck). We begin with Ty Gibbs following an inconsistent 1st Playoffs round results down the middle of the race field (15th – No.54 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing), so does team-mate Martin Truex Jr. due to an untimely pit road speeding penalty from 2nd to 24th (19th Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing), Brad Keselowski (26th – No.6 Ford for RFK Racing) & Harrison Burton (35th in the No.21 for Wood Brothers Racing over a steering issue).

As said, any four of them can win the remaining few races of this year (see Chris Buescher’s win last weekend at Watkins Glen in the No.17 Ford for RFK Racing despite missing the initial Top 16 cut) but doesn’t mean they can all get back into Playoffs contention now that the first Round of 16 is over. After Kansas, we will have Talladega once again on the high banks oval in Alabama before the second Round of 12 Playoffs will finish on the roval (both left/right turns) at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

What else? Great to see Bubba Wallace in 3rd ahead of his boss Denny Hamlin (No.11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing) following a busy last few days like his contract extension at 23XI Racing. He too had a great night all inside the Top 10  thanks to his functioning No.23 Toyota Camry machinery From 11th to 10th in Stage 1 followed by 6th in Stage 2 & 3rd overall. Yes, he may have missed the Playoffs this year (19th) but there’s a lot more to come from Bubba at Denny & Michael Jordan’s co-owned race team.

Speaking of Denny, he’s relieved to stay alive in the Playoffs race ahead of the next round in Kansas. Sure, he may not been able to quite close in on Larson when it comes to the race lead. However, he knows what it takes to bring these fast race cars home where Denny has been there and done that before with a couple of semi-final and Championship 4 Finishes under his belt. He still really wants to finally win his first championship so bad as a driver and let’s hope he can stay upfront all day long where he’s currently 6th in Playoff Points, so he doesn’t fall short outside the semi-finals like it was over the last two years. 

Meanwhile, Christopher Bell doesn’t disappoint in 5th (No.20 Toyota for Gibbs) as he’s sitting comfortably in 2nd on drivers’ points. Plus, the No.41’s Ryan Preece posts another Top 10 finish in 8th behind team-mate Chase Briscoe in the No.14 for Stewart Haas Racing (Ford), who continues to prove his talent whenever he can possible. And even though someone may have finished well against the rest when being a lap down, Michael McDowell steered his No.34 Ford home in 11th for Front Row Motorsports following his 7th-placed run last week (in his specialist road course ringer discipline) at Watkins Glen.

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Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: Joey Logano the first driver to make it into the Round of 12 with the win after a great day for Team Penske & the Blue Oval at Atlanta Motor Speedway

by Sports Benches

It was massive Ford (Mustang) & even Team Penske day to light up the opening 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Atlanta Motor Speedway where each of their three drivers won each stage (Ryan Blaney in Stage 1 for the No.12 followed by Austin Cindric in Stage 2 for the No.2) as today’s winner was all about Joey Logano in the No.22 side for Team Penske. 

It’s been a while since his last win in Nashville back in late June where he had a really top day upfront – mainly in the Top 5 – before more late cautions went his way to reach top spot, and there goes Joey Logano with his 2nd win of 2024 & also being the first driver now to advance into the second Round of 12 Playoffs. So nothing to worry about there until Kansas at the end of this month where he will either need to win again or stay consistent with his results up front on the road to the Championship 4 Finale as it’s party time for Joey & his No.22 Team Penske crew right now on the way home.

What else? Oh so close from Daniel Suarez there who finished 2nd in the No.99 Chevy Camaro for Trackhouse & he too loves racing at this track off the back of his early-round win back in late February. As long as he can stay consistently in the Top 5-10, then sure we will get to see more of him when it comes to the next round and even semi-finals round of Playoffs – keep your head up!

Meanwhile, Christopher Bell continues to be so good in the No.20 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing as he finished 4th & is currently 2nd on drivers’ points behind reigning champ & 3rd-placed finisher in this 2nd Atlanta race Ryan Blaney. This is the man who has made it to the last two season-finale races and he would love to make his 3rd season-finale attempt being his championship-winning breakthrough at Cup level.

And hats off to a few others that got away with some good finishes just outside the Top 10 mark. We begin with Daniel Hemric in 11th for Kaulig Racing (Chevy), Justin Haley 12th for Rick Ware Racing (Ford), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 14th for JTG Daugherty Racing (Chevy) & don’t forget the Spire Motorsports Chevy duo of Corey LaJoie (No.7) and Carson Hocevar (No.77) who both came home in 15th and 16th respectively.

Next stop: Watkins Glen International where we will be going road course racing albeit in a slightly different time of the year next Monday rather than always August in New York as the Round of 16 is still up for grabs for some drivers if they really want to be in to win until the first cut-off ends with the Bristol Motor Speedway night race on Saturday 21st September 2024.

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Motorsport

Team Penske Ford dominates the NASCAR Cup Series for another year at Phoenix this time by new Drivers’ Champion Ryan Blaney

by Sports Benches

What an amazing finish to the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season after 36 points-series races across nine months of the calendar year where the same Ford team has won another championship in Team Penske, but this time it’s Ryan Blaney who is now your new drivers’ champion for the first time at age 29. Great start by William Byron with his opening stage win but was inconsistent as the race goes on where failure to stay ahead up front was the one weakness that ultimately costed him the race & championship itself in 4th. Meanwhile, unlucky from Christopher Bell due to a brake issue before things went bad to worse after he made contact with the wall in Stage 2. Then Byron’s team-mate at Hendrick Kyle Larson may entered the fight late into the 3rd & final stage in a bid to add Championship win No.2, but he couldn’t defend & stay ahead of Blaney under pressure at the last restart in 3rd where he had to settle as runner-up on the final drivers’ points standings of 2023. 

And last but not least, it’s the man of the hour Ryan Blaney who steered this No.12 Ford Mustang home that secured him his first major silverware of NASCAR, despite finishing 2nd in the race to Ross Chastain (Trackhouse). He may have started slow & steady from outside the Top 10 earlier on, but he gradually improved along the way towards the Top 2-3 places before Blaney locked out both Hendrick Chevy cars at the checkered flag. Roger Penske will be thrilled to see another championship-winning race car showing up at his race shop in Mooresville after Blaney’s team-mate Joey Logano won his 2nd Cup crown just one year ago in the sister No.22 team. Enjoy the 14-15 weeks of off-season before we go back all over again for the next NASCAR Cup Series season beginning with the 66th edition of the Daytona 500 on Sunday February 18th, 2024.

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Motorsport

Christopher Bell made a sensation at Charlotte Roval 400, champion eliminated

by Admin

Christopher Bell scored an incredible victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday. With this victory, Bell secured a place among the eight drivers who will continue the fight for the championship title. Bell was not the fastest on the track, but he took advantage of the incidents at the end of the race to take a sensational victory. Before this race, Bell was as much as 45 points below the zone where there were eight drivers potentially continuing the championship fight.

“Man, you’ve just got to be there at the end of these things,” “I keep watching all these races where the fastest car doesn’t always win. No secret that road courses have not been our strength this year”. “We were just there at the right time. We obviously weren’t in position to win (before taking tires). We rolled the dice, gambled, and it paid off for us.”

Kyle Larson, the guy who won the title last year won’t have a chance to repeat the feat of the previous season after making too many mistakes throughout the season. Quite rightly, he was very disappointed after this race.

“I just made way too many mistakes all year long,” Larson said. “Made another one today. Ultimately cost us an opportunity to go chase another championship.“Just extremely mad at myself. I let the team down a number of times this year, and let them down in a big way today.”

Larson lacked only 2 points to pass among the top 8 drivers, but Chase Briscoe was placed in his place as the last driver in the further stage. Throughout the season, Larson struggled to find the right rhythm in a vehicle that had undergone changes compared to the previous season. Last season was fascinating because he achieved as many as 10 victories while this season he recorded only 2 triumphs.

“It’s been tough,” Larson said. “I mean, there’s been no real rhythm to it for me and our team, but we fought hard all year to get better. And we’re gonna continue to fight, continue to work hard to be better for the rest of the season as well as be more prepared for next year.”

In the end, Austin Cindric and Daniel Suarez were left without a place in the top 8, as they also had accidents in this race. Briscoe was out of the top 20 after the restart on lap 111, but in the end he achieved a placement which guaranted him the top 8.

“Yeah, man, what a wild day,” Briscoe said. “It took every bit of it there at the end. To be easily in, then that debris caution comes out (on Lap 104). Still, I thought we had a really good shot of making it in. Get wrecked on the backstretch. Crazy at the end of these races, especially the road-course races, how much can change so quickly”.

Bell almost certainly would not have won if a whole series of incidents had not happened at the end of the race and with a good strategy he reached a big victory. Those developments helped him find his place among the top 8 drivers who continue to fight for the title next week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

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