last week\u2019s winner at Las Vegas<\/a> Chase Briscoe (84) are all within 100 points of the lead with five of 10 playoff races remaining.<\/p>\nAs for his team\u2019s uptick in production, Larson said his Hendrick Motorsports team has taken the things it learned from the regular season and applied them to the playoffs.<\/p>\n
He said the team is peaking at the right time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing,\u201d Larson said. \u201cI definitely didn\u2019t think we would start off the Chase like this. … It was tough to stay motivated and I didn\u2019t think we would get to this point back in the summer. But you can never count out Hendrick Motorsports.\u201d<\/p>\n
The turnaround of the No. 5 team hasn\u2019t surprised Logano one bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re talking about Kyle Larson and Hendrick Motorsports,\u201d Logano said. \u201cThese guys have won championships before and when you have a bit of a slump it\u2019s not like they forgot how to do it. It\u2019s just they are trying to catch back up, and now somebody (in their organization) has found something to make them go faster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Practice, qualifying rained out; that doesn\u2019t sit well with Bell<\/p>\n
Rain washed out practice and qualifying on Saturday, which means Larson will start on the pole based off the metrics now used by NASCAR. Briscoe will start alongside Larson, followed by Tyler Reddick and Blaney on the second row.<\/p>\n
The metrics were not kind to Bell.<\/p>\n
He will start 17th despite being third in the playoff hunt.<\/p>\n
Bell was outspoken Saturday about the situation, saying that while he doesn\u2019t have any issues with the metrics used by NASCAR he does feel racing\u2019s governing body should do everything it can to have qualifying \u2014 even it if means doing so on Sunday morning before the race.<\/p>\n
Charlotte is the fourth playoff race \u2014 and the ninth overall this season \u2014 in which weather wiped out qualifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think we should be practicing and we should be qualifying,\u201d Bell said. \u201cWe\u2019re the top level of auto racing in America and you\u2019re not going to see the other forms of racing line the races up without qualifying. I just think we need to qualify.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamlin trying to shake off disappointing finish at Las Vegas<\/p>\n
Hamlin is trying to put a disastrous 16th-place finish last week behind him and regroup at his home track.<\/p>\n
Hamlin spun out at Las Vegas and then had a misplay in which he pitted rather than staying out and trapping Larson a lap down. Once back on the lead lap, Larson was able to navigate his way up through the field to finish second, extending his series lead.<\/p>\n
Hamlin said on his \u201cActions Detrimental\u201d podcast earlier this week that he and his team took their eyes off the ball for just a second \u2014 and it cost them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad I known that Larson was a lap down and he would have got his lap back by me pitting, I would have never turned down pit road,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cI don\u2019t care what the crew chief says. I would have never turned down pit road. I think if you had time to think about it and all the things, I think there\u2019s no question that we do something different next time around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamlin said he has completely disengaged from the public this week, something he frequently does following a tough race when he feels like he needs to regroup.<\/p>\n
Hamlin trying to shake off disappointing finish at Las Vegas<\/p>\n
Hamlin is trying to put a disastrous 16th-place finish last week behind him and regroup at his home track.<\/p>\n
Hamlin spun out at Las Vegas and then had a misplay in which he pitted rather than staying out and trapping Larson a lap down. Once back on the lead lap, Larson was able to navigate his way up through the field to finish second, extending his series lead.<\/p>\n
Hamlin said on his \u201cActions Detrimental\u201d podcast earlier this week that he and his team took their eyes off the ball for just a second \u2014 and it cost them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad I known that Larson was a lap down and he would have got his lap back by me pitting, I would have never turned down pit road,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cI don\u2019t care what the crew chief says. I would have never turned down pit road. I think if you had time to think about it and all the things, I think there\u2019s no question that we do something different next time around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamlin said he has completely disengaged from the public this week, something he frequently does following a tough race when he feels like he needs to regroup.<\/p>\n
Kasey Kahne to return to Truck Series racing with Spire Motorsports<\/p>\n
Kasey Kahne, an 18-time Cup Series winner and one of NASCAR\u2019s 75 Greatest Drivers, will return to Truck Series racing full time for Spire Motorsports in 2027, it was announced earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Kahne has made only six career starts in the Truck Series, but won five of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cKasey is not only a legendary driver but is someone that Spire shares a long history with,\u201d Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson said. \u201cHaving him in one of our trucks running for a championship means a lot to our organization and we fully trust that he has the same competitive nature and drive to win that he\u2019s always had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drivers abuzz of Brexton Busch\u2019s burnout on Saturday night<\/p>\n
Drivers were still abuzz in Saturday\u2019s media session over the burnout performed by 11-year-old Brexton Busch<\/a> Friday night as part of a celebration of life ceremony for his late father, Kyle Busch.<\/p>\n\u201cI could not imagine, like literally could not imagine, being his age and driving a Cup car and doing a burnout at Charlotte Motor Speedway,\u201d Bell said. \u201cI know he enjoyed that and I hope he cherishes that for the rest of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larson called the younger Busch, an aspiring Cup driver, mature beyond his years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CONCORD, N.C. \u2014 Kyle Larson didn\u2019t win a race during the regular season. But the defending NASCAR Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[425,99],"class_list":["post-877960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}