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NASCAR Xfinity Series

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Thoughts on Justin Allgaier finally clinched his 1st Xfinity Series triumph & a perfect tribute to finish on a high for Stewart-Haas after Riley Herbst won the season-finale

by Sports Benches

From one new season series champion in Ty Majeski at Trucks level to another, how good was the No.7 JR Motorsports Chevy driver Justin Allgaier – who just over the line as the best Championship 4 Finisher to take home the NASCAR Xfinity Series title in 2nd – just behind Phoenix race winner in the No.98’s Riley Herbst for Stewart-Haas Ford. Also, good to see former full-time Cup driver & Stewart-Haas alum Aric Almirola finish 3rd in the No.20 Toyota Supra for Gibbs too.

I mean, first of all, it’s been great seeing Tony Stewart own part of this Stewart-Haas Ford team for a long time whose last Xfinity Series race as a team owner ended things on a high thanks to Herbst, while we saw one of his former drivers make up the Top 3 by Almirola. 

Lovely to see this Stewart-Haas family bringing this together both past and present.

We thank him for everything as hoping he will still turn up next season & don’t forget the Haas team will continue after all on its own at the same time (still running Fords), with two Xfinity cars for Sheldon Creed & Sam Mayer as well as one chartered Cup car by the returning Cole Custer.

Yes, we could’ve saw Custer take home that Xfinity Championship again like he did last year when he finished 2nd in Drivers’ Points to Allgaier after he finished 8th. But still, it’s great to see Custer being at his best at this level to make up unfinished business and now it’s on him to at least be a Top 20 driver points team next Cup year.

And as said earlier, what a moment from Allgaier who dedicated this Xfinity Series competition with tremendous success while spending the most with family. He’s grateful to Brandt (his sponsor) and Dale Jr. (his race team) for giving him the platform to succeed regularly at this level since 2016 without even thinking of going into Cup. 

Although he will continue to be back at Cup at least for a rare occasion or two when someone has to pull out if required.

But hey, he’s there to give us tremendous competition including some Cup regulars earlier in the year when a young rising star would usually take this top prize. However, that doesn’t mean Allgaier can’t make this possible and here is today with the Xfinity Championship. Sure, there’s a lot more to come going into next year as hats off once again to Allgaier, the first time champion.

And next year will be another wonderful time to look forward to every week for those over in the US with free-to-access all along thanks to The CW and CW online.

For now, we got one more race to settle in the Championship 4 for the premier Cup class tomorrow. Will see another first time triumph in either 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick for Toyota or William Byron in the Hendrick Chevy? or will we continue to see another Team Penske Ford’s glorious moment from either already Drivers’ champs Joey Logano (two-time) or Ryan Blaney (defending winner)? Just cannot wait to see this out as the 2024 season-finale Cup race will begin at 7am AEDT.

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Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: Justin Allgaier wins over Sheldon Creed who finished 2nd yet again in the Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan

by Sports Benches

So close from Sheldon Creed yet again who finished 2nd for the 12th time now in his 88-race Xfinity Series career for the No.18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He had a really good start from pole before he got spun out late whilst leading in stage 1 by the No.98’s Riley Herbst from Stewart-Haas Ford, then he had to work his way back up there as the race goes on thanks to several yellows along the way (some in Stage 2 and lots late in Stage 3) but unfortunately, Creed just couldn’t catch up race winner Justin Allgaier (No.7 Chevy for JR Motorsports) on time towards the checkered flag when it was done via overtime.

If the Kyle Sieg crash occurred and NASCAR held the race back once more if it wasn’t for the white flag overtime, then Creed would’ve surely had the perfect weekend out and shut Allgaier down in the Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway. Not only he had a long on-track day in the office, but we now all know that Creed will be moving teams once again regardless of his 2024 results this time for the Haas Factory Team’s Xfinity side next year. Looks like we could see another Daniel Hemric type story for Creed when Hemric left it so late until the Championship 4 at Phoenix with both the win & championship before he left Gibbs on a high for his previously announced Kaulig Racing ride back in November 2021.

As long as Creed does well without issue when he was so unlucky not to make it to the Championship 4 late last year at Martinsville for Richard Childress Racing, there’s no reason why he can’t win another championship when Creed won the Trucks title back in 2020. He will be replacing Cole Custer in the No.00 Ford Mustang with Custer already confirmed his return to full-time Cup level last month within the same newly-reformed squad since his dad is the president there and Creed will be joined by former GMS Racing Truck Series team-mate Sam Mayer for the other No.98 Haas Xfinity seat in place of Herbst.

Other than Creed falling short yet again, John Hunter Nemechek did well in 3rd for Gibbs as still a long way to go with his Cup progress at Legacy Motor Club, Anthony Alfredo finished 4th who survived every bit of yellow to bring himself home towards an excellent performance on show today, and Stewart-Haas’s Noah Gragson finished 6th for Rette Jones Racing having not heard much from him other than his good start of the Cup year but you never know when it comes to these big track races.

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Motorsport

Cole Custer’s big Saturday: A return to Cup in 2025 with a reformed Haas Ford-powered team & finishing 2nd to team-mate Riley Herbst in Xfinity at the Indianapolis Oval

by Sports Benches

Today was a huge day for reigning Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer not just off-track but on-track as well having announced his return to full-time Cup racing next year with the newly-created single car Haas Factory team while he scored pole position for the Pennzoil 250 in the meantime earlier in the day, although he was a bit unfortunate towards the end when it comes to the race thanks to a last-lap winning move by Stewart-Haas Ford team-mate Riley Herbst in the No.98 for the win.

It’s been a while to see the Brickyard go left once again after a few years of using the infield road course layout with Cole having an excellent Top 5 run all along, even though a few yellows might held him back a bit at times in the early portions but not so much thanks to these pit road adjustments including that last stage restart where he re-worked his way back up front.

A win though would’ve been perfect to sum up how far he’s come since stepping back into the Xfinity Series arena again last year in order to try and be up front every race weekend off the back of his 2025 plans to begin the weekend. He endured a tough first few years as a first-time Cup driver also within Stewart-Haas organisation – despite winning the Rookie of the Year award including his one & only Playoffs run so far thanks to his win at Kentucky during July back in 2020 – before regular inconsistent results over the next two years saw Ryan Preece took over the No.41 Cup seat at the end of the 2022 season.

Now he’s set to reprise the No.41 once again at Cup level for a scaled down Haas organisation from 2025 via his dad’s connections in running the day-to-day NASCAR business & will no doubt get significant backing from Haas’s engineering division. Not only that, Haas will keep on using Ford engines but this time they will form a technical alliance partnership with RFK Racing other than continuing to build their own cars just for its own two Xfinity Series teams. We’ll see how this goes where there would be potential for RFK & Haas to team up together in order to go three Cup cars if Cole goes well again.

In the meantime, he has unfinished business ahead in the hope of winning more including the upcoming Playoffs so he can look forward upon his return to Cup in 2025 with potentially another Xfinity Series championship on his belt.

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Motorsport

William Byron puts Hendrick back into the Daytona 500 spotlight while Shane Van Gisbergen made his first US full season debut in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at the same time

by Sports Benches

Gotta say that this year’s Daytona 500 edition (the race was held on Monday, not Sunday due to rainy weather) was about Ford v Chevy with Chase Elliott winning Stage 1 and Austin Cindric winning Stage 2 where we saw a few of The Big One wrecks not long after the race start and not long before the end of the race. At the end of the day, the winner belongs to William Byron in the No.24 Chevy Camaro from Hendrick Motorsports. He too had a great start who worked his way up to 2nd during the first half of the day, steered clear of caution at all costs including the last restart to stay in 1st as Cindric eventually lost control alongside fellow contender Ross Chastain on the last lap and the race is his to take after all with his first Daytona 500 win. It’s been 10 years since Hendrick last won a 500 with Dale Jr behind the wheel in the No.88 Chevy & double that back to nearly 20 when Jeff Gordon last brought the No.24 car into victory lane back in 2005. Let’s see if Byron can pull off the season championship & end Team Penske’s two-year dominance come November at Phoenix after he finished 4th at the season-finale race last year that saw him end up 3rd in the drivers’ standings behind Kyle Larson and eventual champ Ryan Blaney.

Meanwhile, shoutout to Corey LaJoie in 4th for Spire Motorsports with his best Daytona 500 finish as this team is tipped for big things this year following their huge off-season investments with the 3rd charter for Zane Smith and taking over Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck Series. Same goes to both Legacy Motor Club cars of John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones in 7th & 8th respectively as they are a Toyota team now and their next target is to push the No.42 and famous No.43 for higher honours up front for regular Top 7-10s every week going forward – having seen the No.43 long been under an American manufacturer for several decades. And also great to see Noah Gragson back this time in the No.10 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing after he had to sit the 2nd half last year out due to an inappropriate social media activity. He didn’t do bad in 9th where there’s still a long way to go towards getting that struggling team out of the middle & into the front once again.

If that’s not enough even though someone was there at the 500 but only racing in the other categories, how about our Kiwi Shane Van Gisbergen on his first full US season debut weekend for Kaulig Racing after a decorated career here in Supercars? Well, things might not have been easy from the start where he dropped a few spots from 5th to somewhere outside the Top 10-15 before he suffered some damage from the crash not long before the halfway mark on Lap 37. But fortunately his race wasn’t over where most cautions went his way to regain track position other than the last yellow whilst was running Top 10 for another while in Stage 3 as he completed his first Xfinity Series race in 12th. Yes, there are things where he could’ve been better running the Top 5 and even up front if it wasn’t for the yellows or the mid-race damage. But it’s his first full season in the US after a long time here in Australia, having also raced in the main ARCA Series race on the same weekend. Despite an unfortunate result there on what has been a wreck-spinning race, he did enough to pass the rookie superspeedway test as long as he participated including the practice orientation ones per NASCAR rules. Now he will look to look to dominate up front by getting used to winning with unfinished business ahead for the next race at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Three New Zealand airing NASCAR races live for free online this season with Shane Van Gisbergen set to begin his first full season in the US soon

by Sports Benches

Image Reference: Zach Catanzareti via Wikipedia, CC BY 2.0

You wouldn’t believe it by surprise as New Zealand will get live NASCAR coverage this season & it’s free to view too without a subscription where ThreeNow will stream every race of both Cup & Xfinity Series while continuing to one-hour highlights on Sundays through their CRC Motorsports show on the main Three TV channel. It’s brilliant timing ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen’s first full season racing NASCARs in the US starting soon, although the new racing season will return on Monday morning beginning with the non-points Busch Clash race at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

As said, it’s exciting times for NZ’s own SVG who will compete full-time in the Xfinity Series including a few part-time Cup races with Kaulig Racing under loan development for the year from Team Trackhouse. Yes, he will have to race the ARCA main series opener at Daytona on his first racing weekend out of 2024, but that’s only for him to pass the superspeedway requirements by NASCAR before he’s allowed to raced there. He has never done it before other than road courses where he made his name in Supercars while he won at Chicago on his Cup debut + raced on a short oval with Niece Motorpsorts in Trucks last year. He won’t be lost at Trackhouse after all despite the late change due to AJ Allmendinger’s return to the Xfinity Series also to Kaulig as his new team-mate. They are preparing him well at the right place ahead of racing Cup level full-time in 2025 & beyond either in their potential third car or possibly replacing Daniel Suarez in the No.99 Chevy Camaro.

So what does that mean for Australia? It will still be on Fox Sports/Kayo every week Live for all Cup and Xfinity races where you would need to pay at $25 a month to watch these races behind a paywall. Yes, it didn’t cost that much for Three to stump up the money in order to show races live legally now in NZ. Speaking of Three, they are owned by Warner Bros Discovery whose parent cable channel TNT will return to the sport next year under the next Domestic TV rights contract (five late summer races live alongside Max as a sports streaming add-on with all 2nd half practice & qualifying events via TruTV).

But despite the Three NASCAR deal in NZ, don’t see NASCAR coming back on free-to-air in Australia anytime soon even it’s only one-hour highlights like IndyCar. Anyone can watch YouTube at anytime for a few mins highlights from the race without having to sit few hours each time & there’s always full race replays during the mid-week too that is all for free worldwide.

We don’t even know what is happening with Brodie Kostecki right now after he shockingly decided to leave Erebus Motorsport in Supercars this week not long before the new season starts soon despite winning the championship. I hope he can come back sometime this season & race part-time at Cup level again with Richard Childress Racing. There’s still always hope to see an Australian racing in NASCAR though every week alongside SVG whether it’s with or without Kostecki. Plus, you got Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters potentially racing a few road course races there later this year for RFK Racing’s 3rd part-time vehicle in a Ford Mustang & he’s so passionate about this sport, having visited 1-2 races at Martinsville I (April) & Daytona II (August) last year.

For now, NZ Motorsport fans can enjoy watching NASCAR races live for free every Sunday & Monday thanks to ThreeNow. But for us Australians, don’t hold your breath when most top-level motorsports content is behind a paywall – even with an Aussie and SVG in there when most people are at work during the day except when you can Xfinity Series races on most Sundays.

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Thoughts on Stewart-Haas Racing replacing Cole Custer with Ryan Preece in the No.41 Ford Mustang from next year

by Sports Benches

It’s good to see Ryan Preece being given the chance to prove himself in a top-notch race car by Stewart-Haas Racing, where he will replace Cole Custer in the No.41 Ford Mustang from next season. 

There has been division for some time between the co-owners – Gene Haas & Tony Stewart – about choosing Custer or Preece for the best driver to drive the No.41 team next year – but Custer had his ample chances over the last three Cup years with mostly average results despite the one regular-season win that earned him both a Playoffs spot (finished 16th in points) and the Rookie of the Year award back in 2020 – as SHR demoted Custer down back to their Xfinity team in the No.00 alongside No.98 of Riley Herbst. 

Although, I would’ve liked to see Custer help out Rick Ware Racing as SHR’s satellite team and get them up to speed on-track, but then he will most likely be racing for them part-time in the No.15 Cup machine. Sadly, there is nothing much RWR can do other than keep running multiple drivers in the No.15 unless they can find a driver that can cover full season sponsorship, while Rick’s son Cody will always be driving full-time in the No.51 with Nurtec ODT backing.

Meanwhile, on the flip side, this is Ryan’s chance now to turn the No.41 around as a regular front-runner again, which hasn’t really been the case after Kurt Busch last drove for SHR back in 2018. His replacements, Daniel Suarez (2019) and Cole Custer (2020-2022) couldn’t replicate to Kurt’s level on the race track ever since.

If Preece can show that he is capable of winning races in a top-notch car, then it looks like that SHR will have their own Ross Chastain, who had an unreal 2022 campaign finishing 2nd behind champion Joey Logano (No.22 Team Penske Ford) in the No.1 Chevy Camaro ZL1 at Trackhouse. 

And as for Custer, going back to Xfinity will help him get used to running upfront again and winning races which hasn’t happened a lot for the majority so far at Cup level. But I’m sure Custer will be ready to go back to Cup again at some point either in the No.10 car or even the No.41 again, with Preece moving to the No.4 team in place of Kevin Harvick after his expected retirement at the end of 2024. 

Now we will have to see what Almriola has to say about his long-term future after 2023, especially when he reversed his retirement plans a few months ago. If he does decide to retire this time, then it will be up to Herbst if Custer’s presence will benefit his on-track improvements at last next season. Otherwise, SHR will have to find elsewhere and pluck someone from another team like Erik Jones or Noah Gragson at Petty GMS.

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