Practice

Bass Pro Shops Night Race

Saturday, September 16th, 2023

Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, TN

  • 16 Chevrolet
  • 14 Ford
  • 6 Toyota

  • Saturday, September 16th, 2023
  • NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer
Denny Hamlin dominates Bristol Night Race and advances to the Round of 12

Denny Hamlin landed a knockout punch in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

NASCAR Cup Series regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr. survived to fight another round.

Bubba Wallace rescued himself from the brink of elimination from the series Playoffs and advanced to the Round of 12 by four points.

Kevin Harvick, winner of the first elimination Playoff in 2014, won’t be around to fight for the title in his final season of Cup racing. He joins defending champion Joey Logano on the outside looking in for the final seven Playoff races.

Despite a strong run on Saturday night, Michael McDowell didn’t get the win he needed to advance, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. likewise fell by the wayside in a car that couldn’t compete for a top-five position.

Taking the lead off pit road on Lap 366 of 500, Hamlin beat Kyle Larson to the finish line by 2.462 seconds. Hamlin led the final 135 laps in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, 142 overall, and second only to the 187 circuits led by pole winner and third-place finisher Christopher Bell.

Led by Hamlin, all five Toyota drivers in the Playoffs advanced to the next round.

“Can’t thank this whole FedEx team enough,” said Hamlin, who won for the third time this season, the third time at Bristol and the 51st time in his career. “They’ve really kicked ass this whole first round. Really amazing how our team has been. So happy about the way we’re running. Can’t wait to keep going.

“It’s our year. I just feel like we’ve got it all put together. We’ve got the speed (at) every single type of race track. Nothing to stop us at this point.”

Chris Buescher followed Bell to the stripe, as the top four finishers all will race in the Round of 12. Brad Keselowski and William Byron (eighth and ninth Saturday) also advanced, as did 23XI Racing teammates Wallace and Tyler Reddick (13th and 14th), Truex (19th), Kyle Busch (20th), Ryan Blaney (22nd) and Ross Chastain (23rd).

Wallace finished 14th, a lap down, but the eight points he gained by running third in Stage 1 proved decisive. Only 10 cars finished on the lead lap, the last of whom was Stenhouse, who ended the Round of 16 in 15th, seven points behind Wallace.

Wallace was greeted with a chorus of boos when he climbed from his car, as was Hamlin.

“Like Coco Gauff said, all they’re doing is adding fuel to the fire—I love it,” said Wallace, who drives for Hamlin and co-owner Michael Jordan at 23XI. “I love where I’m at with this team. Wish my mom, dad, sister were here to celebrate with me.”

“I’m mentally exhausted. I’m wore out. Gave it our all there. Battled hard and executed. That’s what you got to do. We know next week’s a reset. We just got to go out and have some fun, work our asses off. Thank you to the ones that believe in me. Keep it going. Yeah, on to next week.”

A vicious wreck on the backstretch cost Joey Logano a chance to advance to the Round of 12—the first time under the elimination format that a defending championship has exited the Playoffs in the opening round.

Logano was a lap down, running toward the back of the pack, when Corey LaJoie went three-wide underneath the Chevrolet of Erik Jones and lost control of his No. 7 Chevrolet. LaJoie’s car swept up the track into the path of Logano, Justin Haley and Ryan Newman, all of whom were knocked out of the race in the accident.

“Yeah, I saw the smoke,” said Logano, who was credited with a 34th-place finish and missed the Round of 12 by four points. “I saw the 7 spinning. (Spotter) Coleman (Pressley) was saying, ‘He’s coming up. He’s coming up’ as I was on the brakes to try to pull onto the bottom.

“I think it was Newman behind me, but I think someone hit him behind him, and it was just kind of a chain reaction into it. Once I got hit, I was like, ‘Shoot, I’ve got to go up now,’ because I couldn’t make the bottom, so I committed to that and the hole closed up.

“Obviously, it’s a real bummer. You get out of the race like that and you’re behind the wall and you’re in denial for a minute. You don’t want to believe that it happened, and you want to think that it’s fixable, but the car was tore up too bad.”

Harvick fought an ill-handling car from the outset and finished 29th, five laps down. Like Logano, he finished four points behind Wallace in the battle for the final spot in the Round of 12.

We’ve been like that all year,” Harvick said. “We’ve been hit-or-miss. Tonight, we just missed by a mile. I’ve had some good days and bad days, but that’s definitely the worst one I’ve had with fenders on it.”

Ty Gibbs finished fifth after leading 102 laps. McDowell ran sixth, followed by Chase Elliott, Keselowski, Byron and Stenhouse.

  • Drivers Entered: 36
  • Laps Scheduled: 500
  • Margin of Victory: 02.437 Seconds
  • Time of Race: 2 Hours 48 Minutes 20 Seconds
  • Average Speed: 94.990
  • Cautions: 6 for 53 laps
  • Lead Changes: 10
  • Green Flag Passes: 1,868 (4.2 passes per green flag lap)
Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch talk on the grid during qualifying
Bristol, Tennessee - September 16, 2023 : Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 Valvoline/Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet, (L) and Kyle Busch, driver of the #8 Cheddar's/ALSCO Uniforms Chevrolet, talk on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Meg OliphantGetty Images
Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway Practice results
# DRIVER MAKE RNK SPD TME BHND LAP LAPS OA RNK OA AVG 5- 10- 15- 20- 25- 30- 10-LAP FRM TO
16 AJ Allmendinger Chevrolet 14 124.387 15.426 0.240 6 45 0 0.000 15.469 15.501 15.676 0 0 0 123.791 2 11
10 Aric Almirola Ford 21 123.770 15.503 0.317 3 43 0 0.000 15.637 15.688 15.705 0 0 0 122.326 3 12
6 Brad Keselowski Ford 28 123.205 15.574 0.388 13 25 0 0.000 15.700 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0 0
11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 12 124.476 15.415 0.229 10 51 0 0.000 15.464 15.502 15.528 15.551 15.570 15.588 123.781 8 17
15 JJ Yeley Ford 34 122.427 15.673 0.487 3 27 0 0.000 15.746 15.959 0 0 0 0 120.243 10 19
22 Joey Logano Ford 15 124.331 15.433 0.247 4 42 0 0.000 15.490 15.549 0 0 0 0 123.404 2 11
4 Kevin Harvick Ford 19 124.098 15.462 0.276 5 33 0 0.000 15.501 15.768 0 0 0 0 121.691 23 32
8 Kyle Busch Chevrolet 17 124.299 15.437 0.251 9 37 0 0.000 15.571 15.644 0 0 0 0 122.658 3 12
19 Martin Truex Jr Toyota 24 123.586 15.526 0.340 10 42 0 0.000 15.585 15.631 15.657 15.729 0 0 122.757 4 13
34 Michael McDowell Ford 30 122.968 15.604 0.418 15 54 0 0.000 15.642 15.656 15.668 15.682 15.795 0 122.557 6 15
51 Ryan Newman Ford 36 121.883 15.743 0.557 12 46 0 0.000 15.809 16.005 0 0 0 0 119.888 17 26
3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 32 122.890 15.614 0.428 9 30 0 0.000 15.643 15.699 0 0 0 0 122.224 3 12
47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr Chevrolet 25 123.340 15.557 0.371 14 53 0 0.000 15.609 15.612 15.625 15.640 15.668 15.694 122.906 12 21
5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 1 126.353 15.186 0.000 3 40 0 0.000 15.298 15.514 15.643 15.656 0 0 123.762 2 11
48 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 9 124.630 15.396 0.210 10 44 0 0.000 15.451 15.534 15.596 0 0 0 123.531 7 16
12 Ryan Blaney Ford 20 124.042 15.469 0.283 16 37 0 0.000 15.576 15.672 0 0 0 0 122.447 2 11
7 Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 6 124.841 15.370 0.184 3 36 0 0.000 15.461 15.560 0 0 0 0 123.338 2 11
77 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 22 123.738 15.507 0.321 5 45 0 0.000 15.567 15.754 0 0 0 0 121.797 22 31
9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 7 124.792 15.376 0.190 8 46 0 0.000 15.442 15.504 15.531 15.586 15.643 0 123.765 4 13
17 Chris Buescher Ford 2 125.724 15.262 0.076 5 36 0 0.000 15.327 15.449 0 0 0 0 124.217 2 11
43 Erik Jones Chevrolet 18 124.259 15.442 0.256 4 28 0 0.000 15.557 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0 0
78 BJ McLeod Chevrolet 31 122.905 15.612 0.426 3 22 0 0.000 15.863 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0 0
41 Ryan Preece Ford 27 123.269 15.566 0.380 7 35 0 0.000 15.645 15.683 0 0 0 0 122.354 3 12
99 Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 35 122.427 15.673 0.487 6 47 0 0.000 15.786 15.820 15.909 0 0 0 121.297 4 13
1 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 11 124.573 15.403 0.217 3 43 0 0.000 15.491 15.581 15.725 0 0 0 123.168 2 11
23 Bubba Wallace Toyota 3 125.142 15.333 0.147 4 41 0 0.000 15.422 15.489 15.563 0 0 0 123.884 3 12
24 William Byron Chevrolet 8 124.678 15.390 0.204 10 48 0 0.000 15.430 15.469 15.481 15.537 0 0 124.045 8 17
45 Tyler Reddick Toyota 10 124.614 15.398 0.212 14 61 0 0.000 15.483 15.524 15.545 15.584 15.608 15.633 123.604 10 19
31 Justin Haley Chevrolet 13 124.468 15.416 0.230 3 43 0 0.000 15.493 15.938 0 0 0 0 120.458 19 28
20 Christopher Bell Toyota 5 124.865 15.367 0.181 5 46 0 0.000 15.430 15.479 15.609 15.625 0 0 123.967 2 11
2 Austin Cindric Ford 16 124.307 15.436 0.250 2 46 0 0.000 15.542 15.752 15.791 15.817 15.850 0 121.818 21 30
14 Chase Briscoe Ford 26 123.308 15.561 0.375 3 39 0 0.000 15.614 15.860 0 0 0 0 120.993 19 28
21 Harrison Burton Ford 33 122.819 15.623 0.437 8 24 0 0.000 15.663 15.836 0 0 0 0 121.211 2 11
54 Ty Gibbs Toyota 4 124.873 15.366 0.180 2 48 0 0.000 15.396 15.438 15.464 15.497 15.552 0 124.291 2 11
38 Todd Gilliland Ford 29 123.118 15.585 0.399 13 43 0 0.000 15.612 15.628 15.976 15.997 0 0 122.779 4 13
42 Carson Hocevar Chevrolet 23 123.658 15.517 0.331 26 35 0 0.000 15.595 15.631 0 0 0 0 122.753 3 12