Denny Hamlin has been for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Season, outspoken and blunt about a lot of things.

Saturday night, he backed it up on the high banks of Bristol by leading the race’s final 135 laps, topped 142 circuits overall and beat Kyle Larson to the start-finish line by 2.437 seconds on his way to his third win of the season and 51st of his career, all while claiming victory in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race.

The Chesterfield native also moved one step closer to finally claiming an elusive NASCAR Cup Series championship.

“I can’t thank this whole FedEx team enough,” said Hamlin despite a loud chorus of jeers from the crowd after collecting the checkered flag. “It’s amazing how good this team has been. I can’t wait to keep going.”

The driver of the #11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing has won just about all the top events you can in NASCAR, three Daytona 500s, three Southern 500s and now three Bristol Night Races. But one thing has eluded the 42 year-old driver; A NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

This year, Hamlin finally sees a path to the biz prize. “It’s our year,” Hamlin said. “We have it all put together. There’s nothing to stop us at this point.”

When asked if the fans are motivation for him, including the loud jeers and boos, Hamlin shrugged it off with a smile on his face.

“Hey, I beat your favorite driver,” replied Hamlin to the fans. When asked to clarify his statement as to who he was referring, Hamlin smiled and said, “All of them.”

Saturday’s race was the first cutoff race of this year’s NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, with the number of championship contenders dropping from 16 to 12 following Hamlin’s victory.

Defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael McDowell and Kevin Harvick, in his last Bristol appearance as a full-time driver, were eliminated from the playoffs.

“We’ve been hit or miss all year and tonight we missed by a mile,” Harvick said. “I didn’t have many expectations with as up-and-down as the year has been.”

Logano was caught up in the night’s biggest wreck, a six-car incident entering Turn 3 just after the start of the final stage on Lap 263 that began when Corey Lajoie (48 laps led) spun on the backstretch.

“It’s a little uncharacteristic for us right now and we just have to go to work and keep our heads down and stay faithful in each other, keep trusting each other that we can figure it out,” said Logano, who had started the race 12 points above the cutline for elimination.

“It’s still the same team that won the championship last year.  We’re a little lost at the moment, but we’ll keep fighting and try to figure some things out,” responded Logano.

While four drivers were eliminated, two others were elated to advance, particularly Cup Series regular season champion Martin Truex Jr. and Bubba Wallace, who entered the race seven and 19 points behind the playoff cutline.

Among other championship contenders, Brad Keselowski finished eighth, points leader William Byron was ninth and Tyler Reddick was 15th.

Kyle Larson, who finished second, qualified last on Friday after a tire issue despite posting the fastest practice speed, was second, followed by Stage 1 and 2 winner Christopher Bell in third, Chris Buescher in fourth and Cup Series rookie Ty Gibbs (102 laps led) in fifth.

“The race went a lot better than I thought it would,” Larson said. “I feel like we had the second-best car. I just didn’t have the pace of Denny. He was really fast.”

Hamlin completed the 500 laps around the .533-mile concrete oval in 2 hours, 48 minutes, 20 seconds with an average speed of 94.99 mph. Six caution flags took up 53 laps, with six drivers exchanging the lead 10 times and 10 drivers finishing on the lead lap.

The Round of 12 Playoffs begins next weekend, Sept. 24, with the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.

Bass Pro Shops Night Race

NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs
Final Results
Bristol Motor Speedway
Sept. 16, 2023

1. Denny Hamlin
2. Kyle Larson
3. Christopher Bell
4. Chris Buescher
5. Ty Gibbs
6. Michael McDowell
7. Chase Elliott
8. Brad Keselowski
9. William Byron
10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
11. Carson Hocevar
12. Ryan Preece
13. Alex Bowman
14. Bubba Wallace
15. Tyler Reddick
16. Todd Gilliland
17. Austin Dillon
18. Aric Almirola
19. Martin Truex Jr.
20. Kyle Busch
21. Daniel Suarez
22. Ryan Blaney
23. Ross Chastain
24. Erik Jones
25. Corey LaJoie
26. JJ Yeley
27. Chase Briscoe
28. Harrison Burton
29. Kevin Harvick
30. AJ Allmendinger
31. BJ McLeod
32. Austin Cindric
33. Ty Dillon
34. Joey Logano
35. Justin Haley
36. Ryan Newman

The post Denny Hamlin takes the checkered flag in America’s Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway appeared first on Augusta Free Press.

The defense was supposed to carry UVA as the offense figured things out with a new QB, a makeshift offensive line and a host of new skill guys.

Hasn’t worked out that way.

The Virginia D is giving up 42.3 points and 451.7 yards per game this season. Not even the 2021 D, which allowed 31.8 points and 466.0 yards per game, was that bad.

OK, it was that bad – but remember, that defense was so bad that it ended up leading the AD, Carla Williams, to push Bronco Mendenhall to fire his defensive coordinator, a move that ended with Mendenhall just up and quitting.

John Rudzinski’s unit was a bright spot in 2022, allowing a respectable 24.0 points and 357.6 points per game, which was why there was the feeling going into this season that it could be a building block for a program still trying to scratch out an identity.

The big problem evident through the 2023 season’s first three games: depth, lack thereof.

Virginia opponents have combined for 47 points and 382 yards of total offense in the fourth quarter.

Maryland, in the 42-14 win over Virginia Friday night in College Park, put up 21 points and 165 total yards in the fourth quarter, putting the game away with drives of 80, 30 and 56 yards.

Head coach Tony Elliott doesn’t want to use depth as an excuse for the defense’s issues late in games, easy as it would be to do.

“Depth is what it is, you know, if you’re, if you’re out there on the field, it doesn’t matter if you’re a fifth-year senior or you’re a freshman, man, you got to go play, the standard doesn’t change,” Elliott told reporters after the loss on Friday night. “You know, big thing that you’ve seen in the last two weeks is, man, we got to go make the plays, right, we can’t, we can’t wait for somebody else to make the play, we can’t hope that the team across the field doesn’t make the play, we have to go make the play and, and so I got to do a better job of, of, of reaching them and teaching them to, you know, help them understand the importance of every single play, especially in the fourth quarter.”

Odd as it’s going to seem for me to say this, the UVA defense actually did play better in the Maryland loss than it had in the first two losses to Tennessee and JMU. The Terps came in averaging a sliver over 200 yards per game on the ground, but only managed 135 sack-adjusted rushing yards on Friday.

The front got pressure – 14 QB pressures all told – even though it only registered one sack.

And get this, defensive back Tayvonn Kyle had a pass breakup, and only allowed two catches on four targets – after allowing 12 catches on 14 targets the first two weeks.

(He still had two missed tackles, but didn’t lead the team in that stat. Linebacker Josh Ahern had four missed tackles.)

It was a game into the fourth quarter. Virginia had the ball in the red zone down 21-14 when true freshman quarterback Anthony Colandrea was intercepted on a third-down pass in the end zone.

The game didn’t have to be over there; get a stop and a short field, and the offense could still make a game of it.

Here is where Maryland put the game away with a nine-play, 80-yard drive, the big plays being a 33-yard completion over Jonas Sanker that got the Terps into the red zone, a pass-interference penalty on Dre Walker that set up a first-and-goal at the 2, and then the Roman Hemby 3-yard TD run on third-and-goal.

Colandrea would go on to throw two more picks and lose a fumble on a scramble in the fourth quarter, so the offense imploded with the four turnovers, but the defense just was not able to bail out the guys on the other side of the ball.

“You know, it’s a mindset, it’s the mindset is that I gotta get, the longer I play, the stronger I get, the better I get, right. And then also understanding that, at that point in the game, effort’s not enough, enough, there’s got to be precision, right, there’s precision and execution, that just going out there and playing hard is one component of it. You got to play hard, you got to play smart, you got to be precise, and you got to go make the play, you know, bottom line, you got to go make the plays,” Elliott said.

“That’s a hurt football team in that locker room, because, you know, proud of they they got up off the mat from last week, they came to battle today, they fought their tails off, they believed that they were going to win that football game. Now we just got to got to make sure that that late in games our precision is there, and then we don’t leave anything to chance, that we go in, we go and take it. And that’s why I gotta do a better job as a coach, just program-wide, getting everybody to understand what it takes to be able to do that in the fourth quarter,” Elliott said.

The post UVA defense has taken a huge step back from 2022: Depth, lack thereof, is the obvious issue appeared first on Augusta Free Press.

Virginia got two goals from freshman Stephen Annor in a 3-1 win over NC State on Saturday night at Klöckner Stadium.

The win saw UVA coach George Gelnovatch reach the century mark becoming just the second coach to record 100 ACC victories, and the first to hit the milestone at a single school.

Virginia’s Daniel Mangarov found himself on the end of an excellent chance in the early stages of the game. After Virginia (4-2-1, 1-1 ACC) won possession in the attacking third, Mangarov fired a shot high and on target only to be denied by the goalkeeper.

Fifteen minutes later, it was Mangarov who engineered an eye-popping piece of play to put the Cavaliers in front. After cutting inside from the right wing, the attacking midfielder played a perfect ball in through the Wolfpack defense, where Annor finished the play calmly at the back post.

Receiving the ball off a short corner with 35 minutes played, Umberto Pelà whipped a cross into the penalty area that was cleared out by a Wolfpack defender.

It fell kindly for Albin Gashi at the top of the area who smashed it into the goal after a slight deflection. The Cavaliers would take a 2-0 lead into the locker room.

With 68 minutes played, Paul Wiese received a ball on the right wing and curled a cross into the box. A soaring Annor made perfect contact and gave the keeper no chance as his header was thumped into the top corner with pace.

Less than a minute later, NC State (4-3, 1-1 ACC ) pulled one back as Luke Hille recovered possession inside the penalty area and slotted his chance home to make the score 3-1.

The post Men’s Soccer: Stephen Annor’s two goals lift UVA past NC State, 3-1, on Saturday night appeared first on Augusta Free Press.

#20 UVA found the equalizer down the stretch to open ACC play with a 1-1 draw at Louisville on Saturday night.

The Cavaliers (5-0-3, 0-0-1 ACC) had the bulk of the chances in the first period, firing off four shots and tallying four corners to only one of each of the Cardinals (1-4-4, 0-0-1 ACC).

The Cardinals took the lead in the 58th minute off a set piece. Addie Chester sent a free kick into the box where Fiona Gaißer volleyed it toward goal and Lucy Roberts finished from eight yards out.

Virginia evened things in the 80th minute with a long ball played ahead to Maggie Cagle who cut in and played the ball across to Meredith McDermott on the run in the box. McDermott slipped the redirect in past the right post to pull the Cavaliers square with the Cardinals.

The post Women’s Soccer: #20 UVA gets goal in 80th minute to draw with Louisville appeared first on Augusta Free Press.

The Norfolk Tides (87-55) defeated the Memphis Redbirds (67-76), 5-2, on Saturday Night at Harbor Park.

In front of a crowd of over 11,000 fans, the Tides, the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, showcased elite pitching and clutch hitting on their way to their 87th win of the year, breaking a franchise record held by the 1975 and 1995 Norfolk teams.

The final Saturday home game at Harbor Park moved quickly through the opening frames with both starting pitchers mowing down the opposition. Tides starter, Cade Povich, was dominant as he kept Memphis off the scoreboard, limiting traffic on the basepaths. He retired 10 consecutive batters after allowing a one-out single in the second, fanning eight batters through the first six frames.

Breaking the scoreless tie in the home half of the sixth was Kyle Stowers, blasting one to center field for a two-run home run that scratched the first runs of the game for either side, giving Norfolk the 2-0 lead.

The Norfolk arms could only keep Memphis at bay for so long as Juan Yepez came up with a two-out, two-run single in the eighth to even the score.

In the bottom of the eighth, Meibrys Viloria came up clutch in his Tides debut, legging out an infield single with the bases loaded to put the Tides back in front. With two away in the frame, Joseph Rosa collected an RBI knock of his own, driving one up the middle to bring two around to score for the 5-2 Norfolk lead heading into the ninth.

Wandisson Charles entered the game out of the bullpen with a save opportunity and struck out two to close the door on the Redbirds, sealing the Tides 5-2 win.

Norfolk returns to Harbor Park tomorrow for their final home game of the regular season with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. The Tides will send RHP Austin Voth (3-2, 2.49) to the hill while RHP Michael McGreevy (9-6, 4.71) will toe the rubber for the Redbirds.

The post Norfolk Tides top Memphis Redbirds, 5-2, to set new franchise wins record appeared first on Augusta Free Press.

The Richmond Flying Squirrels lost an early two-run lead in a 10-2 loss to the Erie SeaWolves on Saturday night at UPMC Park.

The SeaWolves (75-61, 38-30), the Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, racked up 10 hits for the second straight game and scored 10 straight runs against the Flying Squirrels (73-64, 40-28), the Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.

With two outs and two runners in scoring position, Hayden Cantrelle fired a two-run single to center field to push Richmond ahead, 2-0.

Erie starter Wilmer Flores (Win, 5-3) held the Flying Squirrels scoreless over the rest of his start, totaling five innings with six hits and seven strikeouts.

The SeaWolves piled four runs in the bottom of the third to capture a 4-2 lead. Richmond starter Ryan Murphy (Loss, 2-9) allowed a bases-loaded walk and a wild pitch to even the score. Chris Myers put the SeaWolves ahead with an RBI groundout and Brady Allen drove an RBI double to give Erie a two-run advantage.

Jace Jung bashed a bases-clearing double in the bottom of the fourth to give the SeaWolves a 7-2 lead.

Erie moved ahead, 8-2, in the sixth when Danny Serretti lined an RBI single to center field.

Trei Cruz sent the SeaWolves to a 10-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run single. Reliever Mat Olsen ended the inning with a strikeout and totaled five strikeouts over 1.2 innings.

Richmond batters struck out 12 times in the defeat, including three consecutive punchouts against Jake Higginbotham in the bottom of the ninth to close out the ballgame.

The Flying Squirrels conclude the regular season Sunday afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 1:35 p.m. Right-hander Wil Jensen (7-0, 2.65) will make the start for Richmond.

Game 1 of the Southwest Division Series will be played on Tuesday as the Flying Squirrels host the SeaWolves at The Diamond. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.

Tickets for the Flying Squirrels’ home playoff games are available online at SquirrelsBaseball.com/Tickets, by phone at 804-359-FUNN (3866) or in person at the Flying Squirrels ticket office. In the event that any Championship Series games are not played, fans who purchase tickets will receive a credit which can be used for tickets to a Flying Squirrels home game in 2024.

The post Erie overcomes early two-run deficit, blasts Richmond, 10-2, on Saturday night appeared first on Augusta Free Press.

UVA alum Brennan Armstrong had a coolly efficient day throwing the ball, accounting for 264 yards and a TD, as NC State bounced back from an ugly defeat at the hands of Notre Dame, defeating VMI, 45-7, on Saturday.

Armstrong, who transferred to NC State in the offseason after three years as the starting quarterback at Virginia, was 27-of-32 passing on the day, and added 39 yards on the ground for the Pack (2-1).

“It feels good. This game was kind of our bounceback game after coming off a loss against Notre Dame, not playing really well, especially offensively,” Armstrong said. “This was a great game for us, to just get back on track and play efficient.”

VMI (1-2) got a nice day through the air from QB Collin Shannon, who was 14-of-24 passing for 176 yards in his first start in 2023.

“I give North Carolina State a lot of credit. They are a good football team, and they didn’t play down today,” first-year VMI coach Danny Rocco said. “I spoke all week about starting fast and striking early, but they did not allow that to happen. It’s a talented team, it’s a good team and they came with the right mindset today that they were going to set the tempo of the game, and they put us in a place early that we were having to play catch up.”

NC State next plays Virginia (0-3) in the ACC opener for both teams, on Friday night in Scott Stadium in Charlottesville.

The post Brennan Armstrong bounces back from rough outing, leads NC State past VMI, 45-7 appeared first on Augusta Free Press.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell won his third straight pole position of the season Friday and will start from the top spot in Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Bell, driving the No. 20 Toyota turned a lap of 126.997 mph (15.174 seconds) around The World’s Fastest Half-Mile claiming his fifth pole position of the season and ninth of his career. He also won the Bristol Dirt Race this spring, has two top-5 and four top-10 finishes in seven Bristol Cup Series starts.

“I just have really, really great Camrys to drive,” Bell said. “This is my favorite race of the year – the Bristol Night Race. It’s the most intense race of the year. I tell everyone this needs to be on their bucket list.”

Bell and fellow teammate Denny Hamlin will make up the front row for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race (starting time 6:35 p.m., on USA Network on TV, PRN Radio on over-air radio and Sirius XM). The race’s start time was bumped up one hour earlier Friday due to forecasted inclement weather late Saturday.

Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race is the centerpiece of The Last Great Colosseum’s NASCAR weekend, which marks the first time Bristol has hosted playoff rounds in all thee of NASCAR’s top series. In addition, the race is the first cutoff race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, with the number of championship contenders dropping from 16 to 12 following Saturday’s checkered flag.

Drivers with earlier playoff victories such as Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick have already secured advancement to the Round of 12. Martin Truex Jr., the Cup Series’ regular season champion, is seven points below Kevin Harvick in 12th place, the last spot for advancement and has endured many troubles as of late, dropping in the standings hanging on for dear life.

“We just had two terrible races,” commented Truex, who will start fifth on Saturday. “You can’t afford to have two bad races. Hopefully [Saturday] night goes better. It’s a terrible spot to be in.”

Another Toyota driver, Bubba Wallace is 19 points behind the final spot, with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trailing by 22 points back and Michael McDowell 40 points behind. Among other championship contenders, William Byron will start third, Brad Keselowski will start sixth and defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano will start 28th.

Bell and defending Night Race champion Chris Buescher are 13 points above the cutline for advancement.

“This is my favorite race track,” said Buescher, who will start 20th. “Our cars are always competitive here. There’s a lot riding on this race. You have to go out and run 100 percent. We need to race up front and grab stage points early.

“[This race] hits a little different for me. The Bristol Night Race is at the top of my bucket list to me. Now that we got one, we want another one.”

Kyle Larson, who was quickest in practice, had trouble in the middle of a turn with a left rear tire issue and qualified last in 36th.

The Bristol’s Cup Series qualifying record is held by Ryan Blaney, who turned a lap of 132.075 mph (14.528 seconds) in 2019. Blaney, who is also a championship contender, will start 11th on Saturday.

“We’re 25 points to the good,” Blaney said earlier this week. “Twenty-five points can go away just like that if you have an issue early in the race. I feel like you can never really be too safe.”

Other Notes about Bristol Motor Speedway and NASCAR

There had been much speculation about the Spring Race after the Dirt Race was held in April. After three years on dirt, Bristol will revert back to concrete for the Spring and the Fall Races in 2024.

Questions began flying after the announcement of the removal of the dirt race if Bristol would continue to host a NASCAR Spring race. Now the speculation and questions have been laid to rest thanks to BMS President and General Manager Jerry Caldwell who released the following statement on Friday before the NASCAR Xfinity Race.

“As the motorsports world focuses on America’s Night Race tomorrow (Saturday), we are thrilled to announce Bristol Motor Speedway will host the return of the Food City 500 on the concrete high-banks of the World’s Fastest Half Mile in the spring of 2024,” said Bristol Motor Speedway President and General Manager Jerry Caldwell. “We will revive a logo reminiscent of the first Food City 500s in the early ’90s and resurrect the track’s vintage trademark look and feel of the era. We’re looking forward to a great weekend of racing and what’s to come in 2024.”

As for a date, speedway officials said discussions are ongoing but there will be two races at Bristol in 2024. The 2024 Official NASCAR Schedule should be released in the next few weeks.

The Food City 500 is one of the longest continuously running race sponsorship in the modern day NASCAR era.  With the ever changing sponsorship picture and team sponsorship changing daily, The Food City 500 sponsorship is one of the most recognizable business sponsorship in the sport.

The post Bristol Notebook: Christopher Bell wins pole for tonight’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race appeared first on Augusta Free Press.

The TV broadcast crew said Tony Elliott had told them in a pregame production meeting ahead of last night’s Virginia-Maryland game that Tony Muskett would be the starting quarterback, confirming what we thought we’d been told – Elliott had seemed to hedge in his Tuesday presser, though he also listed Muskett at QB1 on the depth chart on Tuesday.

Muskett, the TV guys said, warmed up with the ones pre-game, but Elliott decided sometime between warmups and the opening kick to go with true freshman Anthony Colandrea behind center.

Muskett, the transfer from Monmouth who was named the starter at the end of training camp, was available to play, Elliott told reporters after the game, a 42-14 loss.

“Yes, he was, he was available, and again, more in a, in an emergency situation. Just, you know, trying to do what’s best for him, and just felt like another, another week without getting hit on it would be, would be best for him,” Elliott said.

Colandrea, getting his second career start, got the offense to a nice start, leading touchdown drives on UVA’s first two possessions, going 5-for-5 through the air for 109 yards and a 19-yard TD pass to Kobe Pace on a nicely run wheel route by Pace down the right flat and a nicely thrown ball from Colandrea, who was almost vertical as he released the ball under heavy pressure from the Maryland front.

The offense only had two sustained drives from that point on – a 12-play, 55-yard drive that stalled out after an iffy holding call on Eli Wood that erased a nice gain on a completion to freshman wideout Suderian Harrison to the Maryland 26; and a 15-play, 74-yard march that ended with Colandrea throwing an interception in the end zone on a drive that could have tied the game early in the fourth.

“You know, in that situation, you instruct him, you know, in the huddle, A, if it’s not there, you know, throw it away, we got points, we’re in, we’re in position to kick the field goal,” Elliott said. “Looks like he had a little bit of a little bit of pressure, and he stepped up. That should have been his first indication right there not to force it, timing’s, timing’s off at that point. Not sure, I got to watch the film, but possibly could have pulled it down, got some positive.

“He’s just, you know, he’s trying to make a play, you know, as a young man that wants to win a football game. He’s a fierce competitor, and he’s just trying to make a play. And our job as coaches is to help him learn from situations like that, to get better in the future,” Elliott said.

Maryland, on its possession after the interception, drove for a touchdown, making it a two-score game, and Colandrea would go on to throw two more picks and also lose a fumble, for a four-turnover fourth quarter.

Aside from the turnovers, Colandrea put up decent counting numbers – 23-of-39, 263 yards, a TD.

“You just tell him to learn from your mistakes and say, Look, that’s, you know, where, where you’re going to get better. Keep your head up,” Elliott said. “I mean, we’re not in that football game if it’s not for, for Colandrea, right. So, you don’t want him to lose his confidence. And the thing that I like about him and what I, what I saw, and, you know, some of the great quarterbacks that I’ve been around, by the time he comes to the sideline, he already knows what mistake he made. And I think with that you can, you can work with it, you know, if you’re trying to explain to him, you know, what the mistake was, then you got, you got a little bit more work to do. But by time he comes to the sideline, he’s processed it, and he knows. And, and again, you know, that’s what makes him special.

“He believes he can make every play. But what we got to do as coaches is, we got to try to correct as many, as many of those mistakes and situations in practice before it gets to the, gets to the game. But he’ll learn from it. And man, he’s, he’s, he’s a competitor. I know that he’s hurting more than anybody in there, because, man he wants to win. It’s just, it’s just a few plays and some chances you can’t, you can’t take, and he’ll learn and grow a lot from tonight.”

Looking ahead to next week, Elliott gave off the sense that he’ll still want to go with Muskett if Muskett can be closer to full go.

“You know, it was, it was, it was a decision for the program, right, and also for Tony, and Tony could have went, but he’s still a little bit sore, and so I didn’t, didn’t want to put him in that situation, and then obviously, you know, Colandrea played well,” Elliott said. “And so, that’s, that’s the decision there for the, for the long term, you know, health of the season, and then also for, for Tony Muskett. If he’s not fully ready to go, then I don’t, I don’t want to put him out there and risk, you know, taking another shot on the shoulder too early.”

The post Elliott: Muskett was available to play QB in ’emergency,’ liked what he saw from Colandrea appeared first on Augusta Free Press.

Using a bold strategy and fresh tires, NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Justin Allgaier picked his way through the crowded field on the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway to claim a win in the Food City 300 race as well as a spot in the Xfinity Series Playoffs Round of Eight.

Allgaier averaged 85.521 mph around the 533-mile concrete oval at The Last Great Colosseum, completing the 300 laps while avoiding six cautions. with 14 drivers finishing on the lead lap and five drivers exchanging the lead eight times. The JR Motorsports driver led a race-high 110 laps, collected his second Bristol victory, his third win of the season and 22nd of his Xfinity Series career.

“This team has done such an amazing job at this racetrack. The fans were unbelievable. The pit strategy coming down pit road all by myself was nerve-wracking.”

Driving the No. 7 Brandt Agriculture Chevrolet Camaro, Allgaier gave up the lead under caution with less than 50 laps to go to put on four fresh tires while his main rivals remained on the track.

Working his way back through the field, Allgaier engaged Daniel Hemric in a side-by-side battle before pulling away and clinching a place in the postseason in the debut race of the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs.

“The pit stops were amazing,” Allgaier said. “I don’t know if this is shots fired for the playoffs but it feels good.”

Allgaier also broke the news in Victory Lane, announcing that he had re-signed for another season with JR Motorsports.

For runner up Daniel Hemric, “Clean air was king.” The Kaulig Racing driver added that “we had just enough race car there and once the top [groove] came in I had to live with it. [Allgaier’s] tires were just too much at the end. We came a long way from the drop of the green flag to the checkered flag.”

Hemric was 1.695 seconds behind as the runner-up to Allgaier. Hemric was followed by fellow championship contenders John Hunter Nemechek in third, Cole Custer who led 109 laps, finished fourth and rookie Chandler Smith rounded out the top five.

It was a night of celebration and disappointment for JR Motorsports. Drivers Josh Berry and Sam Mayer bumped on Lap 166 and placed the end result would place Mayer in 35th and Berry in 36th.

Winning owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., made his first Bristol start since 2017, had an eventful night as well. Junior lead 47 laps and looked to be on his way to a surprise win but a mechanical issue caused a fire under the hood and burned a hole in his fire suit.

“Somehow or another the shifter caught on fire,” said the NASCAR Hall of Fame driver and broadcaster, who finished 30th. “I smelled it and said hopefully that’s not me. My uniform was burning up. We were going to finish top 5 or top 10.”

Earnhardt Jr. added “I had a blast and Justin wins. Thanks to all the fans. We had a great crowd tonight. It makes me want to do it more.” Earnhardt, Jr. is scheduled to race at Homestead-Miami in another Xfinity Series race in a few weeks.

The Xfinity race also featured some hot tempers as well. Richard Childress Racing’s Sheldon Creed tapped fellow teammate Austin Hill along the front stretch on Lap 216. Hill would finish 33rd and storm to the team hauler, refusing interview requests with the media.

Playoff contenders Sammy Smith finished ninth, Creed placing 11th and Parker Kligerman finishing 31st. Jeb Burton finished 13th.

All of the drivers mentioned above dropped below the cut line for the Round of 8 as the series heads for the second Round of 12 playoff race on Sept. 23rd at Texas Motor Speedway.

The post Justin Allgaier advances in Xfinity Series Playoffs: ‘I’m speechless – we won Bristol’ appeared first on Augusta Free Press.