Zac Campbell took off and took a win late in the regular season at Pikes Peak International Raceway. While he grabbed a Chase birth, although hanging onto 24th spot in the points, Reece Butcher is currently out of the top 35 and potentially making room for an extra non-winner in the Chase. We’ve already had one repeat winner this season, but an ousted winner makes the competition interesting. John Arndt grabbed 2nd place with Dan Bandon, James McDaniel and Pat Hayes rounding out the top five.
Three Takeaways: Colin Lindsay pulled away with possibly one of the best finishes of the season at Progressive Speedway as he made a last lap pass on nascarfan19 getting held up by lap traffic. With two races left in the regular season and a hold on 14th place in the points, it looks like Lindsay picked up a victory at the perfect time. NascarFan1418 finally found his way up front with a few laps led and came out in third place. Tyrone Kingston finished 4th and John Green 5th.
Three Takeaways: Bad Blood Brewing: Nick Smith and Gabryel Wanderley wrecked out of the race after an altercation off of pit road following the first caution of the day. Wanderley turned Smith into the outside wall on the backstretch. They have apparently had words with each other before. While Wanderley seems to be drifting away from any shot at a Chase birth, it was a harder hit for Smith who already has his win. Now, he is still in 25th in points, 34 points ahead of the cut line, but two bad races can easily diminish that gap and the potential for him to make the Chase even with his win. Spoke Too Soon?: Grayson Acevedo had the top spot of the non-winners looking to enter the Chase on points. Then he finished 41st after his involvement in the first crash. He now sits a mere four points ahead of Alexander Miller with plenty of other drivers still in this hunt. Suddenly everything is heating up. nascarfan19 wishes he had that automatic birth if he could have beaten Lindsay to the line, but he only sits 26 points back from the #04 car. Top Ten Tyrone: Kingston was the only driver in the 42-car Wendy's Cup Series field that was lacking a top 10 finish on the season. At Progressive, he came out strong and propelled himself to a solid 4th place performance. A wild, crash-filled at Hillside International Speedway led to our first repeat winner of the season: Harry Sorah. Sorah grabbed a win three races before at Twin Ring Motegi, but in a race where only seven drivers could cross the finish line, this was a war of attrition for the #20 car. He had to hold off Noah Kars, who was last in the points going into the race, and Josh Harris, last week’s winner, in a two lap shootout. Dajon Weeks and Carson Scott rounded off the top five, while Rampage and Alexander Miller, one lap down, were the other two drivers to finish off the race.
Three Takeaways: Wide Open Spot: There’s the repeat winner that the front-running non-winners were looking for. Only fifteen drivers are possible to qualify for Chase spots now, making one open to the highest running points driver, and Grayson Acevedo’s 11th place run extended his lead a couple points, now 26 points over Miller. #7 Who?: Remember him? He had a 2nd place and 4th place in consecutive races earlier in the season? Well, NascarFan1418 is now is 27th place in points. We’re completely dazzled by this downfall. No top-25 runs in the past four races. Peaked at 2nd in the points. Now he’s 25 spots below that. We look at a lot of the drivers to keep an eye on their performance, but has there been a bigger drop than this one besides the one that happens between the first and second races of the season? It’s atrocious and awe-striking, and the #7’s only chance at a Chase run now is a win. We’re not sure that will happen. Jump for Kars: Last race, we mentioned that it was going to take a miracle for the lowest drivers in the standings to make a serious run toward a Chase birth. Turns out that the last place driver last week moved up into 35th this week after finishing 2nd. Kars showed some muscle in these late stages before the Chase, but will it be too little too late for the #44 to win a race? We know it’s impossible for Kars to make it to a spot in the points (that gap is 118 points) but there’s either some momentum brewing in that team to attempt a win or they just found some luck in the wreck fest of a race that was Hillside. The second and final road course race of the season went to New Jersey Motorsports Park with Josh Harris taking the victory in the caution free race. NascarMan#1 was running up front from the outside pole through 15 of the 19-lap race until he experienced an issue and was passed by Harris in the technical part of the course. The #33 car went straight to the pits and would finish 38th. Behind Harris, Barry Golberg, William Brock, Eric Van Arsdale and DaleJrDude88 finished off the top five.
Three Takeaways: No Repeat Winners: We’re now 12 races into the season and 12 different drivers have won races. While currently out driver Dajon Weeks, cut line runner Reece Butcher and new winner Harris threaten to be out by poor performance across the entire season, it seems more and more likely that a win is a driver’s only ticket into the Chase. Acevedo Making Gains: If a Chase spot were to be lost, Grayson Acevedo is in the best spot to take it right now. He gaps Brock and John Green by 24 points after his 6th place run at New Jersey. Four races remain for the driver of the #04 and his races need to remain solid to keep himself in contention. Slow Fallouts: To keep with the theme of Chase talks, a few drivers are making their case NOT to be in. Drivers like Gabryel Wanderley, The Flash and Noah Kars are at least 20 points away from being in the top 35. A points spot was probably out of the question weeks ago, but even a win seems unlikely to save these drivers scraping the bottom of the barrel for points. |
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