By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
It has been a top-notch Toyota season and the CHASE reflects it with five of the top eight drivers dotting the top of the standings. Eight drivers are within 59 points of top regular season champion Denny Hamlin. The other eight drivers are quickly falling off with Spire Motorsports Carson Hocevar in 9th place, 88 points behind. Joey Logano said he feels like he is in the hunt for his fourth NASCAR championship and Christopher Bell told us in media availabilities that 3 straight 1.5 mile tracks could give the Toyota drivers the separation they need going intothe final stretch of the season. Here are the points for the top eight before the race.
It’s time to drop the green flag and Kyle Larson is the provisional starter after qualifying was rained out.
Stage One
Bristol is known for long runs and as the pole sitter, Larson leads the first 41 laps which lasted until he pitted after the first race caution. With pit stops, Joey Logano is the new race leader when the green flag drops and Larson restarts 6th. Ford speeps the top four spots just under halfway through the first stage. As Logano leads three other Ford’s machines in S1, Erik Jones spin in Turn 4 on lap 93 going into the wal and communicating a rear problem with the toe-link. After the S1’s second caution, Logano retains the lead with Larson measuring the 22 for the lead. Chastain, Hamlin, and Cindric roudn out your top-five with 16 laps to go.
Logano wins the Stage with Larson on his bumper and Hamlin steaming Logano’s windows. Ford ends up with four of the top nine finishes in S1 and 31 of 37 machines are on the lead lap.
Stage Two
After pit cycling, Ryan Blaney is your new leader to begin S2. Blaney leads the first half of S2 with Bubba Wallace and Christ Buescher 2-3. Blaney is a pest to the rest of the field maintaing and expanding his lead over Bubba Wallace, Josh Berry and Ty Gibbs.
Final Stage
At lap 319 of 500, Ryan Blaney leads the race under green flag conditions. The No. 12 Ford driver has led 187 laps across two stints after starting 29th. Blaney posted his best lap of 15.409 seconds at 124.525 mph on lap 142 and has run 40 fastest laps. He has completed 240 laps in the top five and 270 laps in the top 10, maintaining an average running position of 5.38. Blaney last pitted 65 laps ago on lap 254 with a 9.656-second stop. A Ty Gibbs sighting gives him the lead. by lap 348, The race has reached lap 352 of 500 at green flag conditions, with 148 laps remaining. The field has seen six lead changes among five different drivers through four cautions totaling 37 laps. Gibbs takes the M&M’s Kyle Busch tribute car for the lead with Hocevar and trades the lead. With the race winding down, they tangle and the opportunistic Joey Logano drives off to victory.
The Checkered Flag
Joey Logano earns his third victory of the season. Logano moves to third in points with Larson being the new Chase leader and Hamlin moving to second. “Our cars have been good and been getting better. Paul has been doing good; Joe has been awesome; the pit crew has been good. I’ve got a great team. We’ve got a team that knows how to win championships. I thought there for a minute, I was like, okay, I might just finish third or fourth here tonight, but all kind of worked our way up and I was like, well, merry Christmas to me. I got a gift there.”
They Said It…
Carson, Blaney told the radio folks that he wanted to go have a discussion with you, have a talk with you. Did that look like a talk coming?
CARSON HOCEVAR: I don’t know. I wasn’t trying to wreck him. It just looked like to me I got a run and kind of went left and he spun; I spun him. There wasn’t a whole lot of talking. He just kind of said one thing and then went after me, and I wasn’t going to take it. I mean, that was fun with the 54. I got ran into a lot for the win. I mean, that was for second and he wants to come fight. You know, I don’t think anybody is left behind me, so they got an old-school Bristol show here.”
Factoids that May Interest Only Me- What goes down, must come up
The last two CUP winners at Darlington (Christopher Bell) and WWTR (Kyle Larson) moved to second in points. Logano moves to third with the Bristol Night Race win. Larson overtook Hamlin for first. The new top fourteen after Bristol is below.
Fantasy
You will look at my lineup and NOT see Denny Hamlin in it as either a starter or reserve. That is what happens when you use him the first two weeks of the Chase and 1.5 mile races coming up at three consecutive tracks. The rest of the lineup is ready to win.
In the last six CUP races dating tto 2023, Ty Gibbs has a line of 1-3-5-6 and earned his first Bristol win this past spring. Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin eachhavetwo sins at the track and Christopher Bell won once. In all,11 drivers have five top-20’s in the last six races and all six in our lineup have five or better top-20 finishes including Gibbs. Yes, I feel great about our chances. So, Book ’em Dano.
After the race. We end up with 209 points. It should have been between 250 and 260 but the Hocevar shove on Blaney took away big Blaney points including losing his matchup with Ty Gibbs. The blanket party for Hocevar is coming.
Tale of the Tape
What’s Next
Roy J. Akers covers motorsports including NASCAR, NHRA, Indy Car and more and is the host of High Banked Fury, the Zoom/podcast.Motorsports newsmakers, media of the sport with expert analyst guests, stories, and opinions are found on the podcast and http://www.skyviewsports.net. Subscribe to all of it today!
