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William Byron

Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: Another title, Another year for Team Penske with No.22’s Joey Logano back on top to prize off team-mate Ryan Blaney with his 3rd Championship win

by Sports Benches

It’s been another golden championship season of Team Penske Fords ever since when the Next Gen Chassis era began three seasons ago. 

The driver of the day though belongs to Joey Logano who stole the Drivers’ Crown off his No.12 team-mate & last year’s champion Ryan Blaney following a really great battle between those two on a few occasions – including the final stage when 1-2 others may have crashed out – before Joey pulled off the winning move & stayed there just in time to clinch yet another silverware piece for his No.22 team. 

Again, it has to come down to one huge winner as Logano both had the fight and championship-winning experience to lock up for the 3rd time that goes back from 2018 to 2022 & now 2024. 

For Blaney, it’s never a good feeling being 2nd best but hey, he raced really well to defend his crown against his team-mate Logano. At the end of the day, it’s all about great racing that makes Team Penske the most successful Ford Cup team over the last few years, and sure Blaney will back in 12 months time to hopefully hoist his Drivers’ Championship title No.2 at this same Phoenix race track.

William Byron finished 3rd in the No.24 Chevy Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports where he wasn’t quite up to Team Penske’s standards for the ultimate prize when it comes to the consistency including late race restarts. But he had a fantastic season though where he always finishes Top 3, Top 5 as well as a few regular season wins here and there. 

If he can translate with wins into Playoffs time next year, then the best of Byron and the No.24 Hendrick team should be yet to come.

We also still haven’t heard much of Toyota when you compare to Penske and Hendrick when you got Tyler Reddick finishing 6th behind another consistent Top 5 finisher Christopher Bell from Gibbs as the 4th and final Championship 4 contender for the manufacturer’s satellite Cup team at 23XI Racing, with team-mate Bubba Wallace in 7th. It remains to be seen what will happen going into next year since 23XI is having a really tough time alongside Front Row Motorsports at court & unfortunately, it didn’t go their way as per judge ruling before the weekend.

It’s not just 23XI who is walking into unknown territory but one of their co-owners Denny Hamlin would most likely not be donning the FedEx colours anymore  next season & he too finished 11th for his No.11 Gibbs Toyota team after missing the Championship 4 cup for yet another year in season 2024. Whoever comes in to support Denny, let’s hope he can adjust his expectations so he doesn’t end up disappointed next time as he’s still yet to win a Drivers’ Championship at age 43.

I wish he can get a decent enough crew chief who has been there & done that before with winning championships, but all he can do is just win them all at Playoffs time if he can and we might finally see the best of Denny as a driver. If Justin Allgaier can do like he did as a finally first-time Xfinity Series Champion yesterday, then so could Denny no matter what happens. 

In the meantime, if you’re a big Penske fan, particularly for Joey, then today’s your lucky day! No doubt Penske will go on to be the 2020s version of Hendrick Motorsports if they keep on adding more and more championship titles every season as congrats to Joey once again with his 3rd Cup crown all coming from the same place of Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway. 

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Motorsport

NASCAR Race Today: Another late Team Penske Round of 8 win this time by No.12 Ford’s Ryan Blaney at Martinsville ahead of his season-title defense for next weekend

by Sports Benches

Yes, it’s that time of the year when eligible Playoff drivers who haven’t booked their Championship 4 ticket yet usually leave things to the last minute during the last Round of 8 Cup race. However for some when they were fortunate enough to get that golden ticket opportunity, it’s within good reason thanks to Ryan Blaney’s win today in the No.12 Ford Mustang for Team Penske at Martinsville Speedway. 

Now there’s going to be not one but two Team Penske cars alongside a 23XI Toyota (Tyler Reddick) and a Hendrick Chevy (William Byron) on what could be yet another golden Team Penske Championship year for the third straight time ahead of next weekend’s season-finale race at Phoenix Raceway.

You just couldn’t believe the time has come for Team Penske to dominate this three-week semis swing even though we haven’t heard much from them beforehand. But hey, they’ve been there and have done before with huge success and it would no surprise if either the defending champ Ryan Blaney or Joey Logano take home that championship trophy once the 2024 season is done.

First of all, Christopher Bell would’ve easily been the other last two favourites to book into Phoenix – provided if he can provide a good enough finish – as one of the championship front-runners like it was back in 2022 and 2023. But then he made an illegal wall move towards the end there on Byron (the actual Championship 4 contender instead) that got himself DQ’d and NASCAR fined him with a penalty there on the spot post-race. He’ll have to wait till next year now for his next championship opportunity as still plenty to offer in the No.20 Gibbs Toyota at age 30.

Also, feeling sorry there for experienced veteran Denny Hamlin who overcame yesterday’s crash to force his way back up through the field with a spare No.11 Toyota Camry in 6th – the best placed Toyota/Gibbs car today at Martinsville.

Unfortunately, it’s still not quite enough to book in his championship shot yet again for season 2024 when a win was still required that began with the Team Penske’s championship glory back in 2022. Yes, he also could’ve done it last weekend at Homestead if it wasn’t for that poor last restart & also if the last yellow didn’t come out when other eligible Championship 4 contenders already have better Playoff form than him it as seen with the Team Penske duo & even one or the other Toyota team-mates like Bell and his 23XI employee of course in Reddick.

Although there’s lots more to come from Denny as a co-owner for 23XI Racing with Reddick still in the fight, but as a driver, he really needs a big impact all along at Playoffs time next year like winning all these set of races if he wants to finally win the championship so badly.

What else? There’s also some Ford cars in and out of the Top 10 with Brad Keselowski who finished 9th in his co-owned No.6 Ford for RFK Racing as well as Noah Gragson 11th as the highest Stewart-Haas Ford finisher ahead of a few other team-mates down the Top 15 mark for his No.10 crew. And don’t forget New Zealand’s Shane Van Gisbergen in 12th for Kaulig Racing’s No.16 Chevy Cup team. Yes, I know Austin Dillon aka AD finished 7th for the No.3 Childress Chevy but he was there for the wrong reasons unfortunately when it comes to that late race radio drama.

And if I was going to choose a championship winner for next Monday’s season finale for Cup, it’s going to be a touch one for sure. Now based on regular season form then it would be William Byron; if not, going with Logano to get this done for a 3rd Drivers’ Championship.

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Motorsport

NASCAR Race Results: Kyle Larson still the one & only Playoff eligible driver who has won a race so far following his great day out at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval Course

by Sports Benches

The last Playoffs driver who won a race during the Playoffs was Kyle Larson at Bristol Motor Speedway a few weeks ago to close out the opening Round of 16 & he’s closing out the 2nd Round of 12 with a win once again at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval course for Hendrick Motorsports and his No.5 Chevy team.

He gave a huge credit to the early yellows whose long runs have been top-notch that helped him gained track position up front, especially when “Yung Money” pulled off well clear of AJ Allmendinger in the No.13 Chevy from Kaulig Racing for the lead not long after that Lap 60 restart — and he was just simply unstoppable ever since. 

Looks like he’s saving the best for last as Kyle Larson is sure wanting to be there first all the way by the time the NASCAR season ends in early November as a possible two-time drivers’ champion at Phoenix Raceway in Arizona.

Post-Race Shoutouts

Who else has done well today other than Kyle Larson? No.20’s Christopher Bell back up front in 2nd for Joe Gibbs Racing’s Toyota works organisation & so does fellow Hendrick driver (No.24) William Byron who finished 3rd as both drivers also coming off strong recent results when it comes to the Top 5/7 – keep an eye on them over the next three weeks of semis.

How about Kaulig Racing’s two road course ringers and also full-time Xfinity Series drivers both AJ Allmendinger and Supercars champion & Bathurst 1000 winner Shane Van Gisbergen? AJ finished 6th in the No.16 ahead of his team-mate in 7th when things could’ve been better if it wasn’t for these early yellows but at least both cars were running well all afternoon to put both cars into the Top 10.

And don’t forget the 23XI satellite Toyota team is still in the running when it comes to the championship & so does co-owner Denny Hamlin over in the No.11 Gibbs machinery (who finished 14th today), although he’s currently sitting 6th (-8 off the Playoffs bubble) where Denny needs to win either of the next semi-final races/post consistent Top 3 finishes or he will sadly miss out yet again for season 2024. 

23XI’s man of the hour you’re looking right now at is the No.45 of Tyler Reddick, who currently sits 3rd in Playoff drivers’ points, thanks to his regular season championship title from a while ago at Darlington. He finished 11th following a series of late-race passes which is two spots behind team-mate the No.23’s Bubba Wallace in 9th as Tyler may not had a Top 5 since his last Cup win Michigan. But as long as he keeps up in the Top 10 with all those stage points he picked up right now, he’ll be alright to see out his first Championship 4 at Cup level – having won back-to-back Xfinity Series Championships at this same Phoenix race track back in 2018-19.

Now we will leave the Queen City to rolling the dices at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is going to be the next NASCAR Cup race (Race 33 of 36) and also the 1st of the 3 x Round of 8 events as they’ll be back next Monday at 5.30am AEDT.

Round of 12 now becomes Round of 8 on the road towards the Championship 4 Finale next month

And last but not least, we will bid farewell to the next last bottom four drivers who are now no longer eligible for the championship following the end of the Second Round of 12 races today.

We’ll start with Alex Bowman who originally finished 18th which was supposedly enough to make it into the semi-finals that could’ve seen Logano eliminated. But unfortunately he got caught up post-inspection for the wrong reasons to his No.48 Chevy & got DQ’d along the way, which ultimately ended his championship hopes in such tragic circumstances – such a bummer for Alex and his No.48 Hendrick racing team.

Then there’s Daniel Suarez when he didn’t see much of him since his 2nd placed finish at the 2nd Atlanta Cup race early last month as he’s hoping to bounce back even better following another good season in the No.99 Chevy for Team Trackhouse.

We also cannot forget the unsung talents of Chase Briscoe in the No.14 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing having not scored a Top 10 since the last Round of 16 race at Bristol (8th), but he is someone who is tipped for maximum success when he will be replacing the retirement-bound Martin Truex Jr. next season at Joe Gibbs Racing’s No.19 Team. 

A big loss for Haas turns out to be a big gain by driving such a competitive car at a championship-winning team like Gibbs that can hopefully help Chase run upfront more regularly & in turn win more races as well as season-ending silverware.

And so does Austin Cindric in the No.2 Ford for Team Penske. He might not have chased down Kyle Larson on time to get out a must win situation down in 4th while he hasn’t made much Top 5 finishes since his last win at Gateway back in early June but sure there’s a lot more to come as Austin is capable of posting some good if not excellent results as long as that fast race car can come good for him – that’s all what’s best about him who won the Daytona 500 race in his rookie Cup year two years ago.

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Motorsport

NASCAR Race Results: Another non-Playoffs winner strikes again with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. gifting JTG yet another restrictor-plates win since last year’s Daytona 500 win at the Dega

by Sports Benches

What a finish & what a day it has been at Talladega by another new non-Playoffs winner. This time it’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the No.47 Chevy Camaro after he gifted JTG Daugherty Racing yet another restrictor-plate event win since his Daytona 500 moment last year. Although it would’ve been any great if this was another regular season race, but at least Ricky & JTG has something to celebrate and he’s here for more – having renewed his multi-year contract earlier this season. 

He had a brilliant start from 32nd to 2nd earlier on thanks to an early yellow. Now he may be been running mid-pack for a while, particularly during Stage 2 before that last-lap mini-drama changed everything. But as said, steering clear of yellows alongside some good adjustments were key to dominating this race & he’s done all of that to get what he and the No.47 Team wanted with the win. 

Ah, so sorry for RFK Racing’s co-boss man Brad Keselowski (in the No.6 Ford Mustang) who fell so short by 0.006 seconds to Roush’s former long-time employee in Stenhouse. Another last restart would’ve been any better when he couldn’t get much help on the inside line & Stenhouse got the upper hand on the outside. But at least, there’s some positives to take out for 2nd as this is what restrictor-plate racing was all about when it’s so unpredictable full of “The Big Ones”.

What else? It’s been a while from Erik Jones in the famous No.43 Toyota Camry for Legacy Motor Club since this year’s Daytona 500 (8th) & he came off a really good afternoon as the best Toyota placed driver today in 5th behind the two Hendrick Motorsports Chevy cars of Kyle Larson (4th) and William Byron (3rd). 

So does Justin Haley in the No.7 Chevy for Spire Motorsports who finished 7th with more to come after his second race back from Rick Ware Racing. Then there’s Austin Dillon in 8th at Richard Childress Racing. Good to see him finish off nice and clean following that Richmond win a while ago & he didn’t make the Playoffs when he wrecked Denny Hamiln at the finish line. 

Speaking of Hamlin today, he came out not bad in 10th behind his 23XI employee Bubba Wallace (9th) when he was running up and down for some time & avoiding these yellows saved the day for him. But again, he’s currently in a comfortable middle ground at 4th in Playoffs points with one Round of 12 race left this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval course. All he has to do is keep running Top 5-7 including a win in any three semi-final races if that helps and Denny is sure that a championship can finally come his way when the season finale reaches Phoenix early next month.

And if that’s not enough, how about we give a round of applause to Rick Ware Racing with both Ford cars in the Top 20 – Cody Ware in 12th for the No.15 & Corey LaJoie 18th in the No.51. Plus, don’t forget NZer Shane Van Gisbergen who finished 15th in the shared No.16 Chevy for Kaulig Racing – his current Xfinity Series home. 

Looks like SVG is so getting used to this sport ahead of his full-time Cup ride next year at Trackhouse other than his usual road course expertise where he’s getting the benefit of the doubt if he wins any of regular road course races there & a Playoffs spot immediately hands over to him. More to come also as he continues to keep on learning with merit every week.

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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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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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