By John Schutt
NASCAR Cup Series, YellaWood 500, Taladega Superspeedway, Taladega, Ala., Sunday, Oct. 1.
The Big One didn’t happen this year, but three medium melees did occur. However, Ryan Blaney avoided all of that catastrophic action and won the race by less than one foot ahead of Kevin Harvick. During post-race technical inspection Harvick was disqualified for violating rules involving windshield fasteners. Following in second place was William Byron, Denny Hamlin in third, corey Lajoie in fourth, and Austin Cindric in fifth.
Pole was won by Aric Almirola and Joe Logano.
The first stage was finished under caution caused by Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain hitting into the wall and Ryan Blaney won the stage.
Byron won the second stage.
In the third stage, pole-sitter Almirola was in the lead with 26 laps to go until the biggest wreck of the race occurred, involving Auston Dillon, Brad Keselowski, Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger, and Carson Hocevar.
After a clean-up and a restart, it was Harvick and Blaney each leading a line of cars. They each went for it at the end, but Blaney was ahead to take the victory.
NASCAR Cup Series, AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400, Texas Motor Speedway, Arlington Texas, Sunday, Sept. 24.
With 20 laps to go Kyle Larson was racing hard against Bubba Wallace, Jr., but he lost control and crashed into the wall taking him out of contention. Wallace, Jr. was racing well against Ross Chastain until Byron got ahead of each of them for the victory.
Following in second was Chastain, Wallace, Jr. in third, Chris Bell in fourth, and Hamlin in fifth plece.
NASCAR Cup Series, Bass Pro Shops Night Race, Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol Tenn., Saturday, Sept. 16.
Race start was delayed because of rain. Bell won pole and the first and second stages, but lost out in the end to Hamlin. Following in second was Larson, Bell in third, Chris Buescher in fourth, Ty Gibbs in fifth.
Near the end of stage 2, Lajoie spun out and hit Joey Logano and the damage took him out of the race.
On lap 395 Martin Truex, Jr spun out and caused a caution. After the restart Hamlin took over lead from Gibbs and stayed there to win the race.
NASCAR Cup Series, Hollywood Casino 400, Kansas City, Mo., Sunday, Sept. 10.
IT was the second race of the playoffs with Kyle Reddick getting an unexpected victory in overtime! Following in second was Hamlin, Eric Jones in third, Larson in fourth, and Logano in fifth.
Pole was won by Bell and Larson. Martin Truex, Jr. and Austin Dillon spun into the wall only five laps into the race.
Near the end of stage one, Byron spun out, but did not collide with anything. Larson won stage 1 ahead of Wallace, Jr..
Keselowski won stage two ahead of Hamlin
In the third stage Bell took the lead with 50 laps to go. Buesher hit the wall with seven laps to go, which set up an overtime finish.
Reddick took the lead to finish.