Hello and welcome back to Captain Josh's Pit Stop. Tonight I recap the weekends action from Texas. A couple things to note, Matt Kenseth announced that he has no plans of racing for 2018. Kenseth was quoted as saying "I am taking a hiatus. It may be two months up to year, or forever." Erik Jones is set to take Kenseth's place in the Joe Gibbs #20 car. Speaking of Erik Jones, he won the Xfinity race on Saturday night. Johnny Sauter won the Truck Series race on Friday night and advanced to the championship 4 for the Truck Series playoffs. Photo courtesy of Google images.
The AAA Texas 500 ran on Sunday afternoon with Kurt Busch picking up the pole with Denny Hamlin alongside on the front row. The first and second stages consisted of 85 laps. The final stage made up the final 164 laps. The race was 334 laps, 500 miles long. Photo courtesy of Google images.
It didn't take long for the action to start. Literally in turn 1 on lap 1, Kyle Busch broke loose underneath Brad Keselowski, causing both playoff drivers to pit with damage and cut tires on lap 2. Both continued on. Photo courtesy of Google images.
Turn 2 seemed to be the hotspot of the day. Multiple drivers spun off that turn, probably due to the reconfigured banking of turns 1 and 2 from 24 to 20 degrees. The first incident like this occurred in stage 2 at lap 93. Daniel Suarez broke loose underneath Kasey Kahne, sending them both spinning off the turn. Photo courtesy of Google images.
Not much happened after the Daniel Suarez/Kasey Kahne spin. Kyle Larson took home the stage 2 win. Stage 1 winner Kevin Harvick followed in 2nd with Ryan Blaney in 3rd. Photo courtesy of Google images.
The day for Landon Cassil came to a halt when he went for a spin in turn 1 in the final stage at lap 180. Photo courtesy of Google images.
Michael McDowell was also one of the drivers that spun off of turn 2 during the day. McDowell spun in the final stage at lap 234. Sorry for the photo, but just try to picture that exact car spinning. I was unable to find a good enough photo on Google images. Photo courtesy of Google images.
The day didn't go well at all for Xfinity and Truck Series regular Ray Black Jr. Black Jr spun twice in turn 2. The first time with 93 to go, and the second time with 65 to go along with Jeffrey Earnhardt. I seem to have trouble finding photos of the back of the pack drivers. I apologize for that.
Former playoff driver Kyle Larson continued his struggles over the past few weeks, as he had a tire going down that caused him to hit the wall off turn 4. Then Larson hit the wall in turn 1 hard enough to end his day. The car caught fire and Larson was out of the race. The incident occurred in the final stage with 52 to go. Photo courtesy of Google images.
At the end of it all, Kevin Harvick passed Truex Jr in the final laps to win the race and advance to the championship 4 at Homestead. Truex did advance on points however. So only one spot remains in the championship 4. That will be determined at Phoenix this weekend. Photos courtesy of Google images.
Here are the playoff standings after Texas. Only one race remains in the round of 8. The 9th through 16th place drivers have already been eliminated, but can still finish as high as 5th in the final standings. Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, and Martin Truex Jr have advanced to the championship 4. Who will clinch the final spot? Find out this Sunday afternoon at Phoenix. See ya then. Photo courtesy of NASCAR on Fox.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Leave the Captain a comment!!