• Thursday, October 24th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 8 is off to a hot start

If this penultimate three-race round of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs continues as it started last weekend, race fans will be in store for a bold, all-bets-off Championship Four race in just two weeks.

No doubt Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) has the potential to shake-up the championship standings. Again.

Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano claimed the first of the four championship-eligible positions last weekend winning at Las Vegas – a week after the Team Penske driver was reinstated into Playoff contention following the disqualification of Hendrick Motorsports’ Playoff driver Alex Bowman.

As compelling as Logano’s dramatic victory and 2024 storyline has become, Las Vegas was an impactful race for most of the eight Playoff drivers.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell finished runner-up to Logano after dominating most of the race. Logano’s win is that automatic first position in the Championship Race and for Bell, his runner-up showing moved him into the points lead, by seven-points over Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson. Hendrick’s William Byron, who finished fourth at Vegas, holds the final transfer position as of now – 27 points ahead of JGR’s Denny Hamlin.

On the flip side, Regular Season Champion, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick was involved in a multi-car crash racing up front at Las Vegas that also collected two other Playoff drivers – Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and reigning series champion, Penske’s Ryan Blaney.

None of these perpetual three title-favorites finished better than 32nd-place and Reddick dropped to sixth in the standings, 30 points behind Byron. Blaney is 47 points back and Elliott, the 2020 series champion, is 53 points back from the cutoff line. An extraordinary points-day or a victory at Homestead-Miami may likely be the only path forward for these three – none of which have ever won a NASCAR Cup Series race at the South Florida 1.5-miler.

“Going into the Round of 8, our mindset was we’re going to have to win to have a shot in Phoenix, so what happened at Las Vegas doesn’t really change that,” said Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “It was unfortunate because our NAPA Chevy was really, really good and I think we would have potentially had a shot at it there at the end if we hadn’t got caught up in that incident.

“The fact that we had speed though gives me confidence heading into Homestead this weekend. Our team is fully capable of winning. We just need to go and execute.”

Hamlin, who also has an intimidating amount of points to make up, is the winningest of all eight Playoff drivers at Homestead with three wins and the only Playoff driver with multiple wins there. Only the defending race winner, Bell (10.0) and Elliott (10.4) have better average finishes than Hamlin (10.9), whose last Homestead win was in 2020. Logano won there in 2018, Larson in 2022 and Byron in 2021. Counting Logano’s 2018 win, current Playoff drivers have won five of the last six Homestead races.

In fact, Hamlin is easily the winningest driver among the Playoff eight at the three remaining tracks – Homestead, the Martinsville (Va.) Speedway half-miler and the Phoenix mile – combining for 10 wins at the venues (five at Martinsville and two at Phoenix). Hamlin’s average finishing position at all three tracks is better than 11th place – and that is with three times the number of starts both Bell and Byron have at each track; twice as many starts as Larson.

“I feel like we’re going to have to go to both of these races and run top three all day to get points in the stages and good points in the race,” said Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 JGR Toyota. “That’s going to be a tall task, but Homestead is straight-forward from a strategy perspective. You’re going to take four tires anytime you pit, so that will allow guys that are up front to stay up front.

“We need to be in that group and hope for a little luck from someone having a bad day or whatnot to make up that gap. Then at Martinsville, who knows with the new tire? It has traditionally been a race with mixed strategies, but we just don’t know, so that one will be a bit of a wild card.”

Practice is scheduled for 9:05 a.m. ET on Saturday followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 9:50 a.m. ET. – both sessions available on MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and the NBC Sports App. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. is the defending pole-winner.

• Saturday, October 26th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Tyler Reddick wins the pole for Homestead-Miami’s Playoff race

The regular season championship leaders will start alongside one another on the front row for Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 Playoff race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick besting Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson by a slight .113-second Saturday morning to claim the pole position.

This is the 28-year-old Californian Reddick’s third pole of the season in the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota – ninth of his career – and comes at a crucial time in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ Round of 8 with Sunday the second of three races that will decide which four drivers advance to the Nov. 10 Phoenix race championship eligible to hoist the big trophy.

Reddick, a two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series winner at the 1.5-miler, turned a lap of 167.452 mph in the Toyota Camry to set the pace and importantly, earn the first pit stall selection. His work gave Toyota a three-series pole sweep for the weekend with Toyotas starting first starting positions in both Saturday’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series races – the 13th time the make has done that.

“The pole has eluded me in the Cup series here, we’ve been very close and just needed a very good round two I think for our group, we ran a really good lap for sure,” said Reddick, the Regular Season Champion, who arrives in South Florida ranked sixth in the championship standings, 30 points behind Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron in that all-important fourth place transfer position.

“It’s always nice to run a really good lap, but when you run your lap and five cars go after you, you know they have the opportunity to adjust, so I was curious to see what the 5 [Larson]and 20 {Christopher Bell] were going to do there and obviously, the 5 got pretty close.

“All in all, it was a great day for us and looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

Toyotas and Chevrolets dominated the opening round of qualifying putting five cars each into the final one-lap run for the pole. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell – the current Playoff points leader – will start third in the No. 20 Toyota, alongside teammate and three-time Homestead winner Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Toyota.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who won the Talladega, Ala. Playoff race three weeks ago, will start the No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Racing Chevrolet fifth with JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. starting sixth in the No. 19 Toyota.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, who goes into the race ranked last among the eight Playoff drivers – 53 points below the cutoff line – will start the No. 9 Chevrolet seventh alongside JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 19 Toyota. Kaulig Raing’s Daniel Hemric and Spire Motorsports’ Justin Haley will start their Chevrolets from the fifth row – marking the best qualifying effort of the year for Haley and first time he’s advanced to the final round.

No Fords advanced to the final round for the first time since the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) race on March 24. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry was the fastest Mustang Saturday and will start 12th.

Only three Playoff drivers did not advance to the 10-car final qualifying round. Among them, reigning series champion, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who will start his No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang 20th on the grid. He’s currently ranked seventh of the eight drivers, 47 points below the cutoff line.

Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron – the 2021 Homestead winner – will roll off 25th in the No. 24 Chevrolet. He is in that all-important fourth position in the standings, 27 points up on Hamlin in fifth.

Team Penske’s Joey Logano – who earned the first of four Championship 4 berths with a Las Vegas win last week – qualified 26th but will start from the rear after his No. 22 Penske team made a steering system change post-qualifying.

Of note, the pole-winner has won the Homestead race only one time since 2002 – Hamlin in 2020.

• Straight Talk Wireless 400
• Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Tyler Reddick
• Age: 28
• Team : No 45 - The Beast Killer Sunrise Toyota
• Owner: Michael Jordan
• Crew Chief: Billy Scott
• Tyler Reddick won the Pole Award for the Straight Talk Wireless 400 with a lap of 32248 seconds, 167452 mph
• This is his ninth pole in 180 NASCAR Cup Series races
• This is his third pole and 21st top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in five races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Kyle Larson (second) posted his 21st top-10 start of 2024 and his fifth in 11 races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Christopher Bell (third) posted his third top-10 start at Homestead-Miami Speedway It is his 19th in 34 races this season
• Josh Berry (12th) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Drivers Entered: 38
• Laps Scheduled: 267
• Margin of Victory: 0.241 Seconds
• Time of Race: 3 Hours 5 Minutes 44 Seconds
• Average Speed: 129.379
• Cautions: 6 for 30 laps
• Lead Changes: 33
• Green Flag Passes: 6,056 (25.6 passes per green flag lap)

• Straight Talk Wireless 400
• Race Winner: Tyler Reddick
• Age: 28
• Team : No 45 - The Beast Killer Sunrise Toyota
• Owner: Michael Jordan
• Crew Chief: Billy Scott
• Tyler Reddick won the Straight Talk Wireless 400, his eighth victory in 180 Cup Series races
• This is his third victory and 20th top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his first victory and fourth top-10 finish in five races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Ryan Blaney (second) posted his third top-10 finish in ten races at Homestead-Miami Speedway It is his 16th top-10 finish in 2024
• Denny Hamlin (third) posted his 13th top-10 finish in 20 races at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Carson Hocevar (ninth) was the highest finishing rookie
• Christopher Bell leads the point standings by 22 points over William Byron