Brad Keselowski roars to Cup pole at Michigan

By Dustin LongAug 11, 2017, 6:12 PM EDT

Team Penske swept the front row for Sunday’s Cup race at Michigan International Speedway. Michigan native Brad Keselowski won the pole Friday with a lap of 203.097 mph. Teammate Joey Logano, who needs a win to advance to the playoffs, starts second after a lap of 203.063 mph.

Kevin Harvick (202.788 mph) starts third in a Ford and is followed by Matt Kenseth (202.577) and Chase Elliott (202.429). Elliott has finished second in each of the last three Michigan races.

Click here for qualifying results

This is Keselowski’s second pole of the season and first at Michigan.

“It feels really good,” Keselowski told NBCSN after his 14th career pole. “It kind of feels like the first time. This is a track that probably isn’t my best track even though it’s my hometown track, but the team did a great job.”

Logano, whose cars have struggled to have enough speed lately, was thrilled with his qualifying effort.

“It seems like Team Penske has brought some speed,” Logano told NBCSN. “That’s a good sign. I feel good about it. We need a win, so this is a good start.”

Blaney was the fastest in the opening round with a lap of 201.686 mph. He was the fastest in the second round with a lap of 203.120 mph. Blaney’s car wiggled on his qualifying lap in the final round and qualified 12th.

Toyota had won the past five poles entering this weekend. Kyle Busch had won the pole the last three races. Busch will start sixth.

Martin Truex Jr., who won last weekend’s race at Watkins Glen International, was bumped from advancing to the final round in the final seconds of the second session. He will start 13th. It’s only the second time in the last 13 races he’s started outside the top 10. He had started on the front row in six of the last 11 races.

Jimmie Johnson qualified 22nd. It is his worst starting spot since starting 24th at Sonoma in June.

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NASCAR Power Rankings: William Byron, Kyle Busch rank 1-2

By Dustin LongJun 6, 2023, 12:00 PM EDT

Kyle Busch moved closer to the top spot after his win Sunday at WWT Raceway, but William Byron keeps hold of No. 1 after another top-10 run.

The series heads to Sonoma Raceway this weekend, the second race of the season on a road course.

NBC SPORTS NASCAR POWER RANKINGS

(Previous ranking in parenthesis)

1. William Byron (1) — He goes into Sonoma with six consecutive top-10 finishes after his eighth-place result at WWT Raceway. Byron has led a series-high 717 laps this season.

2. Kyle Busch (4) — Recorded his third win of the season Sunday. He is tied with Byron for most wins this year. Busch scored 59 of a maximum 60 points and won his first stage of the year Sunday. He has 16 playoff points. Only Byron has more with 17 this season.

3. Kyle Larson (3) — His fourth-place finish continued his up-and-down season. In the last nine races, Larson has two wins, four top fives, a 20th-place result and four finishes of 30th or worse. He has led 588 laps this season, which ranks second this year to Byron.

4. Martin Truex Jr. (2) — His fifth-place finish is his sixth top 10 in the last eight races. He ranks third in laps led this year with 383.

5. Denny Hamlin (7) — Runner-up result at WWT Raceway is his fourth top 10 in the last seven races.

6. Ryan Blaney (10) — Followed Coca-Cola 600 win with a sixth-place run at WWT Raceway. He had an average running position of 2.6 on Sunday, second only to winner Kyle Busch’s average running position of 1.9.

7. Joey Logano (9) — Third-place finish is his second top 10 in the last four races.

8. Kevin Harvick (NR) — His 10th-place finish is his fourth consecutive finish of 11th or better.

9. Ross Chastain (6) — Lost the points lead after placing 22nd, his third consecutive finish outside the top 20.

10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (NR) — Headed for his eighth top 15 in a row until he was collected in a crash after the contact between Austin Cindric and Austin Dillon late in Sunday’s race.

Dropped out: Chase Elliott (5th), Tyler Reddick (8th)

NASCAR will not penalize Austin Cindric for incident with Austin Dillon

By Dustin LongJun 6, 2023, 8:54 AM EDT

Despite Richard Childress and Austin Dillon saying that Austin Cindric intentionally wrecked Dillon late in Sunday’s Cup race at WWT Raceway, NASCAR will not penalize Cindric.

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that there would be no penalty to Cindric after reviewing the contact.

Dillon and Childress were upset about the incident, which brought out the caution on Lap 220 of the 243-lap race. Dillon said NASCAR should suspend Cindric for the contact, just as NASCAR suspended Chase Elliott one race for hooking Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600.

Contact between the left front of Cindric’s car and the right rear of Dillon’s car sent Dillon up the track into Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Dillon finished 31st. Cindric continued and placed 13th.

Dillon told Frontstretch.com: “I was wrecked intentionally by (Cindric), hooked right just like Chase and Denny and Bubba’s deal (in wrecking Kyle Larson at Las Vegas in 2022). He better be suspended next week.”

Childress said: “(Dillon) had drove up to about 10th until (Cindric) wrecked him in there on purpose, sort of a payback.”

Sawyer said a review of the incident included viewing video and data.

“We didn’t see anything — and haven’t seen anything — that really would rise to a level that would be a suspension or a penalty,” Sawyer said. “It looked like hard racing. One car coming up a little bit and another car going down.

“As we said last week, we take these incidents very serious when we see cars that are turned head-on into another car or head-on into the wall. I spent a lot of time (Monday) looking at that, looking at all the data, looking at TV footage and just deemed this one really hard racing.”

Sawyer said NASCAR plans to talk to both Cindric and Dillon “to make sure we’re all in a good place as we move forward to Sonoma.”

pic.twitter.com/sQ2z3MgxB3

— Austin Cindric (@AustinCindric) June 6, 2023

Seven Cup drivers entered in Xfinity race at Sonoma

By Dustin LongJun 5, 2023, 5:11 PM EDT

Kyle Larson is among seven Cup drivers entered in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Sonoma Raceway.

The race marks the first time the Xfinity Series has competed at the California road course. Teams will get 50 minutes of practice Friday because this is a new event on the schedule. That additional time will give those Cup drivers more laps on the 1.99-mile road course.

MORE: Sonoma Xfinity entry list

Here is a look at what Xfinity rides the Cup drivers will pilot this weekend:

Larson will drive the No. 17 for Hendrick Motorsports.
Daniel Suarez, who won last year’s Cup race at Sonoma, will drive the No. 07 for SS Green Light Racing.
Ty Dillon will drive the No. 4 for JD Motorsports.
AJ Allmendinger will drive the No. 10 for Kaulig Racing.
Ty Gibbs will pilot the No. 19 for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Ross Chastain will drive the No. 91 for DGM Racing.
Aric Almirola will drive the No. 28 for RSS Racing.

The race is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET Saturday.

The ARCA Menards Series West also is competing this weekend at Sonoma Raceway. Cup driver Ryan Preece is entered in that event. Xfinity drivers Cole Custer, Riley Herbst, Sammy Smith and Parker Retzlaff also are entered in that race, which will be held at 6:30 p.m. ET Friday.

Winners and losers at WWT Raceway

By Dustin LongJun 5, 2023, 7:00 AM EDT

Winners and losers from Sunday’s Cup race at WWT Raceway:

WINNERS

Kyle Busch — Wins the pole, leads the most laps and holds the field off over the last five restarts to win the race. He scored six playoff points, giving him 16 on the season, second only to William Byron’s 17. Busch left Joe Gibbs Racing after last season for Richard Childress Racing. Busch’s three wins this year equals what JGR has done so far.

Ryan Blaney — His sixth-place finish moved him into the points lead. He last led the points after the spring 2022 Richmond race. Blaney also won a stage Sunday to collect another playoff point. He has seven this season.

Kyle Larson — Fourth-place finish was a big turnaround after struggles earlier in the race. It has not been easy for this team the last few weeks. He has three top-five finishes and four finishes of 20th or worse in the last seven races.

Daniel Suarez — His seventh-place finish moved him up two spots to 16th in the standings, the final playoff transfer spot at this time.

LOSERS

Ross Chastain — He finished 22nd for his third consecutive result outside the top 20. He entered the weekend leading the points and fell to fifth afterward. He is 29 points behind new series leader Ryan Blaney with 11 races left in the regular season.

Tyler Reddick — Rebounded from an early spin to lead but had his race end after a brake rotor failed. He was one of four drivers eliminated by brake rotor failures. The others were Carson Hocevar, Bubba Wallace and Noah Gragson.

NBC SPORTS NASCAR POWER RANKINGS

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MORE: Sonoma Xfinity entry list

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WINNERS

LOSERS

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