300th win for Hendrick Motorsports in NASCAR’s top division thanks to William Byron, who moves straight into the third playoff stage – Numerous incidents
For a long time it didn’t look like it at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on Sunday, but in the end it was William Byron (Hendrick-Chevrolet) who drove his way directly into the third stage of this year’s playoffs, the “Round of 8”, with the race win.
For Hendrick Motorsports, it’s the 300th win in NASCAR’s top division, extending Rick Hendrick’s team’s lead in NASCAR’s all-time team leaderboard.
The race on the 1.5-mile oval in Fort Worth featured a lot of single-file racing and several crashes due to loose wheels. In the closing stages, several playoff contenders were caught in crashes, most notably Byron’s Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson, who crashed into the wall in the lead duel against Bubba Wallace (23XI-Toyota).
With an air temperature of 38 degrees Celsius, it was the hottest NASCAR Cup Series race to date at Texas Motor Speedway. It has been on the calendar since 1997. For the first time in the 2023 playoffs, a driver other than Christopher Bell started from the pole. It was Bubba Wallace, who led the field on Sunday thanks to Saturday’s best qualifying time.
With a ticket to the Round of 8 on the line, this one means that much more!
The NASCARPlayoffs continue from @TXMotorSpeedway! pic.twitter.com/dI36q7ybKZ
– NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 24, 2023
Initially, pole-setter Bubba Wallace led ahead of RFK teammates Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski. The first pit stop was made by most of the field before the first yellow under green.
This first yellow phase occurred after a good 40 laps due to a crash by Austin Dillon (Childress-Chevrolet). During his pit stop, there had been a problem with the right rear wheel. The wheel eventually came loose in Turn 3, scattering the tyre, rim and lug nuts around the track, sending Dillon crashing into the wall and out of the race.
Stage wins for Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson
The first yellow was immediately followed by two more (spins by Alex Bowman and Aric Almirola after contact with Carson Hocevar and crash by Todd Gilliland after losing a wheel). It was not until the third restart that the race got going again. Bubba Wallace now led ahead of Ross Chastain (Trackhouse Chevrolet).
But by the end of the first race segment (Stage 1) after 80 laps, there was another crash. And this one involved a playoff contender: Kyle Busch (Childress-Chevrolet) crashed into the Turn 1 wall, although in his case all wheels were still on the car. Busch covered the long way to his pit completely in reverse. A little later, he still had to retire.
Kyle Busch hits the wall HARD! NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/la33uhKQoX
– NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 24, 2023
Tyler Reddick (23XI-Toyota) dusted off the Stage 1 win because, unlike teammate Bubba Wallace and many others, he was out of the pits just before the stage flag. Second in the first race segment was Chris Buescher (RFK-Ford), third was Christopher Bell (Gibbs-Toyota).
The second race segment was also dominated by 23XI Racing for a long time. First Tyler Reddick led, then Bubba Wallace. However, neither of them took the stage win. Instead, it was Kyle Larson (Hendrick-Chevrolet) who took the lead on a long green flag run and saw the second stage flag first. Second in that second race segment was Erik Jones (Legacy-Chevrolet), with Denny Hamlin (Gibbs-Toyota) third.
Kyle Larson crashes in lead duel with Bubba Wallace
The final race segment featured 102 laps, only slightly more than Stage 1 and Stage 2, and the distance of the only race remaining on the calendar at Texas Motor Speedway has been shortened from 500 to 400 miles for this year.
At the beginning of Stage 3, Kyle Larson led for a long time. When there was the eighth yellow of the day with 25 laps to go due to a crash by J.J. Yeley (Ware-Ford), Larson and 13 other drivers remained on the track. Larson then dueled with Bubba Wallace on the restart and it went wrong.
One lap after the restart, Larson and Wallace were still running side by side with Wallace on the outside and Larson on the inside. Larson was literally deflated and he crashed into the outside wall of Turn 1 after spinning, recording a retirement for him after winning Stage 2 and leading for a long time.
Kyle Larson CRASHES racing Bubba Wallace! NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/SbmBhyWSrf
– NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 24, 2023
In the battle for the race win, Bubba Wallace lost the lead to William Byron on the final restart as he dueled with Chase Briscoe (Stewart/Haas-Ford), who started next to him from the front row. Byron said thank you and passed them both on the inside. Ross Chastain also got past Wallace, who ultimately finished third.
Playoffs: Numerous title contenders with incidents
Several of the twelve remaining active playoff contenders were involved in minor or major incidents on Sunday. Denny Hamlin was rammed by teammate Ty Gibbs (not in the playoffs), of all people, on pit road shortly before the end of Stage 1.
Hamlin’s car was damaged on the right side. The three-time season winner finished in fifth place. Separately, Christopher Bell, another Gibbs driver, had a messed up pit stop in Stage 1. Bell, however, still finished in P4.
And the fourth Gibbs driver, Martin Truex Jr, didn’t go the distance without problems either. He was sent into a spin immediately after the Stage 1 flag. Brad Keselowski (RFK-Ford), who was following, was not able to decelerate in time because some drivers further ahead had abruptly let off the gas. Keselowski turned Truex Jr. around. However, there was no major damage. Truex Jr. finished the race in P17, Keselowski in P7.
Stage 1 winner Tyler Reddick had just pitted under green in Stage 3 when a spin by trackhouse driver Daniel Suarez (not in the playoffs) brought out a yellow. So Reddick got into a lap deficit. He made up for it, but still only finished in P25.
The crash of Kyle Larson in the duel for the lead with Bubba Wallace was one of three crashes of playoff participants. As a result, Larson, who had completed the first playoff stage with a sensational average of 2.33, has now slipped to the last position in the plus range of the standings in the first race of the second playoff stage.
Ryan Blaney (Penske-Ford) was involved in a crash with Erik Jones and A.J. Allmendinger (Kaulig-Chevrolet) among others with eleven laps to go and was thus out of the decision for his part. Blaney was already in the minus area of the playoff standings before the start of the race.
Bubba Wallace is still in the minus area of the standings. With the race win he would have driven himself directly into the “Round of 8” instead of William Byron. But despite his strong race he is still behind the cut.
The biggest deficit, however, was picked up by Kyle Busch with his crash from Stage 1. He has thus slipped far into the minus area of the play-off standings. Busch is currently 17 points off the cut. But he still has two chances to correct that.
The “Round of 12” of the playoffs continues next Sunday (1 October) at Talladega Superspeedway. The second stage of the playoffs will end the following Sunday (8 October) at the Charlotte Roval.
