Who will leave All-Star Race at Bristol angry?

By Dustin LongJul 15, 2020, 11:00 AM EDT

Last year’s All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway ended with Clint Bowyer rushing to Ryan Newman’s car and throwing several punches as Newman remained in his car.

Tonight, for the first time, the All-Star Race will be held on a short track. Bristol Motor Speedway, with a history of driver confrontations, hosts the race for $1 million.

“You’re going to have people really pissed off at each other after that one and you’ll have one guy that’s happy,” Ryan Blaney said of the All-Star Race.

“There’s going to be beating and banging for sure, so you better be ready to be the bully, I’m going to be honest with you, because everybody is going to be that way.”

MORE: NASCAR video explains Choose Rule for All-Star Race

MORE: Start time, lineup and more for All-Star Race

MORE: All-Star Race paint schemes

The expectations are high for the non-points race, which will pay $1 million to winner. The most recent Cup race there ended with Joey Logano upset at Chase Elliott for contact that cost both a chance at the victory and allowed Brad Keselowski to win that race.

“I don’t think (the All-Star Race) will look much different than the spring race did and that was pretty exciting,” Keselowski said of the May event.

Tonight’s race (8:30 p.m. ET on FS1) will have a 20-car field. Sixteen drivers are already qualified. Martin Truex Jr. will start on the pole after a random draw. He’ll be joined on the front row by Alex Bowman.

Also in the All-Star Race are: Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, rookie Cole Custer, Justin Haley, Newman, Logano, Elliott, Keselowski and Blaney.

The three segment winners from the All-Star Open (7 p.m. ET on FS1) will compete in the All-Star Race, along with the fan vote winner.

The All-Star Race also will feature the debut of the Choose Rule, which will allow drivers to select whether to restart on the inside or outside lane.

“I think the … choose rule for restarts will be interesting,” said Custer, who qualified for the All-Star Race with his win last weekend at Kentucky Speedway. “It puts the driver’s hands in it more, where somebody is going to take that chance of going in the other lane or things like that. I think that’s going to be really interesting.”

Bowyer, though, cautions setting too high of expectations for the rule.

“You hear drivers talk about it and I don’t want to oversell it,” said Bowyer, who must advance from the Open to the All-Star Race. “Can it make an impact? Absolutely. But if you oversell it, it will never hold up to the expectations of what people are expecting out of that. For the most part, I don’t see that it probably will make a difference past … I just don’t see people giving up two or three spots to stay on the outside (lane).”

Maybe so, but we’ll soon find out. And see who leaves the track angry and who is celebrating a victory worth $1 million.

NASCAR Cup Series results: Ryan Blaney wins at Charlotte

By Mike HembreeMay 29, 2023, 9:32 PM EDT

Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images

CONCORD, N.C. — Ryan Blaney outran William Byron over the final miles and through several restarts to win Monday’s 600-mile NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Blaney thus ended a 59-race winless streak and qualified for the Cup playoffs.

Following in the top five were Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick.

Charlotte Cup results

Ryan Blaney wins NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway

By Mike HembreeMay 29, 2023, 9:06 PM EDT

Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images

CONCORD, N.C. — It was the longest wait for the longest race, and it ended on a very long day. And it marked the end of a long winless streak.

Ryan Blaney sprinted away from William Byron in the closing laps of Monday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and ended a 59-race winless streak.

Byron finished second and was followed by Martin Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick.

MORE: Charlotte Cup results

Blaney pushed through several late-race restarts and held on to finally write finish to a frustrating losing string. The win marked the first time long-time team owner Roger Penske has won both the Indy 500 and Coke 600 in the same year.

“You start to get to feel like you can’t win any more when you don’t win for a while,” an emotional Blaney told Fox Sports after the race.

Following the lead of his Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, who won Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 and went into the stands to celebrate with fans, Blaney ran into the CMS frontstretch grandstands after grabbing the checkered flag.

Contender Kyle Larson lost control of his car on a restart with 26 laps to go, starting a crash that also involved Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell.

He had maneuvered his way through a web of crashes and outran Byron, whose team kept him in or near the front with a string of fast pit stops.

The race was postponed by rain Sunday and was delayed by showers Monday. Rain had soaked the track most of the weekend, postponing the Cup and Xfinity Series races and cancelling Saturday night’s Cup practice and qualifying. Monday’s forecast was better, but the weather refused to cooperate. Rain interrupted the Xfinity race, which started at 11 a.m., and another shower stopped the Cup race during the second stage.

Charlotte Motor Speedway, which advertises itself as “America’s Home for Racing,” had become America’s home for raining.

Blaney, 29, scored the eighth win of his career. He last won at Daytona International Speedway in August 2021 and had posted four runnerup finishes during that span.

“I tried not to think about that very much,” Blaney said of the losing streak. “It’s hard to win these races. Sometimes you get in these streaks where things don’t go right. It can definitely be frustrating. It’s easy to get down on yourself when you don’t win. You got to think to yourself can I still do it. Can i compete at a winning level?”

A mid-race collision between Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin left their cars seriously damaged and their feelings hurt. They were racing in close quarters on lap 186 when extended contact between the two cars sent Hamlin hard into the wall, resulting in major front-end damage. Elliott’s car sustained serious rear damage.

Hamlin said Elliott had a “tantrum” and that he should be suspended for the next race for what Hamlin called “a right rear hook.” Elliott denied intentionally wrecking Hamlin.

A few laps earlier, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski crashed.

The third-stage win went to Blaney. Following were Reddick, Truex, Byron and Ty Gibbs.

Chris Buescher won the second stage, leading Kevin Harvick, Keselowski, Joey Logano and Gibbs.

Byron won the first stage, leading a three-way battle with Christopher Bell and Blaney on the 100th lap. Bell was second, Blaney third, Reddick fourth and Truex Jr. fifth.

A crash involving Bubba Wallace and Aric Almirola resulted in the drivers having a tense red-flag discussion. Almirola shoved Wallace before the altercation was broken up.

Stage 1 winner: William Byron

Stage 2 winner: Chris Buescher

Stage 3 winner: Ryan Blaney

Who had a good race: Ryan Blaney had the day’s fastest car and held off a following herd over the final miles. … William Byron was strong throughout the race but couldn’t challenge Blaney at the end. … The fourth-place finish by Bubba Wallace and the fifth-place run by Tyler Reddick marked the first time 23XI Racing has put two cars in the top five in a points race.

Who had a bad race: Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson had a tough day in his third race of the year. He lost control of his car in Turn 2 74 laps into the race and slapped the outside wall. He lost a lap in the pits and ultimately finished last. … Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin had top-10 cars but both left the race after a controversial collision near the halfway point.

Next: The series moves on to World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois for a June 4 race at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott involved in big crash at Charlotte

By Mike HembreeMay 29, 2023, 6:46 PM EDT

CONCORD, N.C. — Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott were involved in a big crash midway through Monday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and each blamed the other.

Elliott’s car slapped the outside wall near the start-finish line, and his car made contact with Hamlin’s Toyota, sending Hamlin slamming into the wall. The front end of Hamlin’s car was smashed. Elliott’s Chevrolet also was damaged.

Both drivers parked for the evening, and neither was happy.

Hamlin said Elliott had a “tantrum” and said he should be suspended from next week’s race.

“I got right-rear hooked in the middle of the straightway,” Hamlin said. “Yes, it was a tantrum. He shouldn’t be racing next week. Right-rear hooks are absolutely unacceptable. He shouldn’t be racing.”

Elliott had a different view.

“The 11 (Hamlin) put me in the fence, and once you take the right sides off these things it’s kind of over,” he said. “Once you hit the wall in these things, you can’t drive them any more.”

Elliott denied intentionally hitting Hamlin, saying the crash was “unfortunate circumstances.”

Brad Keselowski hit the rear of Elliott’s car after the initial contact between Hamlin and Elliott.

After the crash, Hamlin tweeted data in support of his contention that Elliott drove into him.

Removing all doubt. His steering came back to the exact same position it had previously after we came off the wall.
The higher the line on steering the further LEFT it’s going. pic.twitter.com/DKo7mrLz28

— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) May 29, 2023

Charlotte Cup results

Read more about NASCAR

MORE: Charlotte Cup results

Read more about NASCAR

Read more about NASCAR

Read more about NASCAR