Nascar Rules

[the H team]

Harvick celebrates his win with a burnout as the No. 4 team cheers on their driver.

[the H team]

Brett Moffitt slams into the wall, collecting significant damage to his No. 34 Ford.

[the H team]

A NASCAR official chases a small duckling around the track while the race is under caution.

[the H team]

Jimmie Johnson heads to the garage for brake-related issues on Lap 105.

[the H team]

Crew members of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet work quickly to fix Jimmie Johnson's ride and get him back on the track to compete.

[the H team]

Johnson gets confronted with media immediately post-race to discuss him being eliminated from the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

[rockit]

Sorry I missed the race with ya H...Had a few buddies over watching football and the race...

Dominating performance from Happy and he even had enough gas to finish the race....

Woot Woot!!!

Jr squeaks in and JJ has a $5 part ruin his day...

[the H team]

Joey Logano grabs the win at Charlotte Motor Speedway - and advances to the Eliminator Round! ‪



Logano makes Chase leap forward with Charlotte win

[the H team]

Matt Kenseth in MAJOR trouble. ‪‬





Kenseth heads to garage after multiple incidents

[the H team]

LARSON, KYLE BUSCH COLLIDE AS PIT ROAD OPENS


A pair of pit-road fake-outs went horribly wrong for Kyle Busch and Kyle Larsonduring the eighth caution period of Sunday's Bank of America 500 atCharlotte Motor Speedway, spoiling the day for two drivers firmly running in the top five.

Busch, a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs contender, feinted toward pit road after the yellow flag emerged for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s third wall scrape of the day. When Busch tried to return to the race track to keep his third position, he bumped into second-place Larson, who was making his own lean toward pit road.

The contact sent both Larson's No. 42 Chevrolet spinning at the pit entrance, with Busch's No. 18 Toyota skidding and clipping into the commitment cone.

"What the (expletive) is he thinking?" Busch told his Joe Gibbs Racing crew over the radio. "He's never going to make the (expletive) commitment cone anyway."

Larson later told his Chip Ganassi Racing crew over the radio: "I'm sure it doesn't matter, but please apologize as much as you can."

After making multiple stops for repairs, Busch resumed the race in 23rd place with Larson 24th as the last two cars on the lead lap. Busch fared only slightly better after the contact, finishing 20th to Larson's 21st -- both a lap down.

"I don’t know. Just can’t say enough about my guys -- all the work that they put into these things," Busch said. "They don't deserve to be put in these situations year in, year out, but we are for some reason. But it's tough and we're going to have to battle through with what we've got right now. I can’t say enough about what they did on pit road getting us back salvageable."

Busch might've demurred when asked about the contact with Larson, but Adam Stevens, his crew chief, was more demonstrative, saying his plan all along was to keep his driver on the race track.

"(Busch) knew the call the whole time, he was just doing what he normally does," Stevens said. "The big question is what was the 42 (Larson) doing. There was no way, whether we were there or not, he turned down so late that he was going to hit the cone -- he was going to completely miss the cone on the right or maybe touch it with his left side somewhere, there was no way he was going to get under the cone. I don't know what he was doing, but you'll have that sometimes. I'm sure it wasn't intentional."


Larson reiterated his apology post-race.

"They told me to do what everybody around me was doing and the No. 22 (leader and eventual race winner Joey Logano) was staying out, so I was committed to staying out," Larson said, "and as soon as I turned right to stay out they said pit, pit, pit. I hung a left and Kyle was there. I feel really terrible to ruin their day and hopefully it didn't hurt their chances of transferring through this round. I know they deserve a top-three finish for sure. I felt awful immediately and still do. I hate it."

[the H team]

JOE GIBBS RACING FAVORITES TAKE A TUMBLE

CONCORD, N.C. -- The conversation was brief and casual, a "congratulations" of sorts for how well his Toyota teams appeared to be performing this season, particularly as NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup rolled ahead.


"We said all along we hoped to have as many as five teams in the Chase, and hopefully to still have at least two when we go to Homestead," David Wilson, President and General Manager for Toyota Racing Development, USA, said before Sunday's rescheduled Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway got underway.

But, he cautioned, with the elimination-style Chase format, officials don't look any further ahead than the race at hand. "You just never know what can happen," he said.

Hours later, the fortunes for two of the more dominant Toyota entries, both fromJoe Gibbs Racing, had taken a turn for the worse.

Matt Kenseth, five times a winner this season, was in the garage, his day undone by multiple issues in the opening race of the Contender Round of the Chase.



His 42nd-place finish left Kenseth, the pole winner at CMS, 12th in the Chase standings. Two opportunities remain -- at Kansas and Talladega -- to win or climb back inside the top eight and advance to the next round, which is the Eliminator Round.

"These are never the kind of days you want to have," said Kenseth, who led 72 laps in the 334-lap race. "We're real fast up front and we're real tight in traffic."

A four-tire stop dropped Kenseth from the lead to 13th for a Lap 81 restart while contact with Ryan Newman (Richard Childress Racing) sent him into the wall following a later restart. The team made numerous pit stops under ensuing caution periods to make repairs, but when Kenseth bounced off the wall at lap 240, his day was done.

"We got behind on that first pit deal and then didn't catch the cautions right … I overshot my pit (stall) and put us in the back so it's just like one thing led to another and led to another," he said. "We shouldn't have been back there to start with. My mistakes cost us today so we'll just move on from this and get ready for Kansas."


RELATED: Watch Kenseth, Newman make contact

Teammate Kyle Busch had a day worth forgetting as well, but the winner of four races this season was still on the track when the checkered flag waved.

Busch had qualified second, ran in the top five for much of the race, and was third when contact with Kyle Larson during a Lap 195 caution occurred.

"What the (expletive) was he thinking?? Busch asked crew chief Adam Stevens via radio after the incident. "He was never going to make the commitment cone anyway."




Busch had dropped low as if to enter pit road, then made a move back toward the track. Larson, running second, had made a late decision to dive onto pit road, and the two cars collided.

Larson said afterward that his team had instructed him to "do what everybody around me was doing, and the No. 22 (of race leader Joey Logano) was staying out, so I was committed to staying out."

At the last minute, he said, his crew instructed him to pit.

"I hung a left and Kyle was there," Larson (Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates) said. "I feel really terrible to ruin their day and hopefully it didn't hurt their chances of transferring through this round. I know they deserve a top-three finish for sure. I felt awful immediately and still do. I hate it."

While Kenseth and Busch had their issues, JGR drivers Denny Hamlin (fourth) andCarl Edwards (sixth) escaped the opening race of the second round relatively unscathed.

Hamlin's No. 11 survived battery issues that threatened to take him out of contention.

"I ran on the wrong battery all day," he said. "… My mistake."

Edwards said track position was the key at CMS, noting that, "I tried everything I possibly could there at the end. I got about 35 feet from the 41 car (of fifth-placeKurt Busch) and that was as close as I could get."

In spite of the turn of events for his teammates, Edwards said JGR is as strong as ever.

"I feel like any one of us could win at Kansas, and any one of us could win at Talladega," he said. "There's no telling what could happen. We all ran well (at times) and that's the key, having that little bit of speed."

[the H team]

Kyle Larson Racing and Kyle Busch get together... under caution.‪





Larson, Kyle Busch collide as pit road opens
Kyle vs. Kyle

[the H team]

Jeff Gordon WINS his 93rd career race at Martinsville! He win Go to Homestead for the win for his 5th Championship!

[dededi]

Jeff wins at Martinsville WOW Final season, couldn't happen to a better guy and he's still in the run for the CHAMPIONSHIP. WAY TO GO JEFF.

[the H team]

Was able to watch most of the race while packing, but sat down to watch the last 34 laps. What a battle, great pit decision at the end, so he could have fresher tires. He had a great restart against Jamie, but he prevailed & gets to go to Homestead. WooHoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!