By John Schutt
NASCAR Cup Series, Bank of America Roval 400, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, Sunday, Oct. 11.
For the fourth time in a row, Chase Elliott was the winner in a Nascar road course race. Following Elliott was Joey Logano in second place, Eric Jones in third, Kurt Busch in fourth, and Ryan Blaney, fifth.
This race was a little different because rain tires and windshield wiper were allowed.
Stage 1 was won by Ty Dillon.
Stage 2 was won by Ryan Blaney with a last lap spinout of Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin.
Stage 3 had many spinouts with Elliott winning ahead of Logano.
Kyle Busch’s brother, Kurt, is still in the runoffs and Kyle is not. Kyle will have to win one of the last play-off races to get back in to the running.
NASCAR Cup Series, YellaWood 500, Talladega Superspeedway, Talladega, Ala., Sunday, Oct. 4.
Hamlin scored a “hat trick” when he took the victory in a triple overtime! Following Hamlin were Eric Jones in second place, Dillon in third, William Byron in fourth, and Elliott in fifth.
The first stage was led mostly by Aric Almirola until an eight-car wreck took him out on last lap of the stage. Chris Buescher ended up winning the first stage over Logano.
Twelve laps to go in the second stage brought out a red flag to clean up the wreckage from the first “big one “accident. Kurt Busch’s car went airborne and was on top of another car and his brother, Kyle Busch, was involved. After clean-up, Martin Truex, Jr. won the stage over Brad Keselowski.
In the third overtime, Hamlin and Matt Benedetto fought to the finish and Hamlin won, just two feet ahead at the finish line.
After the race, NASCAR officials determined by NASCAR that Benedetto forced another driver below the yellow line during the race and would be penalized. Benedetto was put to last place on the lead lap, and finished in 21st place.
NASCAR Cup Series, South Point 400, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, Nev., Sunday, Sept. 27.
Brothers, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch each wanted to win at their hometown track. Kyle Busch was favored in the top five and Kurt Busch had 20-to-1 odds. But it was Kurt Busch who pulled off the victory. Following in second place was Benedetto, Hamlin in third, Truex, Jr. in fourth, and Alex Bowman in fifth. Logano and Elliott did not make the top 10. Kyle Busch finished in sixth place and has yet to win a race this year.