Q. How did you steal that one on that final restart?

WILLIAM BYRON: Man, that's badass. I finally got a good restart at the end. Just ooh, it was hot today. I think it's finally hitting me. But No. 300 for Hendrick Motorsports. Kyle really deserved this one, got to say. Those guys were really fast all day, and hate it for them at the end.

Man, it was awesome to get our car to the front. I loved clean air. We just fought through traffic all day and our Liberty University Chevy was just tight back in traffic but had good pace. This was one of those hot days, it felt like I was playing football and went through two a days, just wanted to quit. It was a grind it out day and our team was there at the end. I'm really proud of this one as hot as it was and as tough as it was. We'll take it and go on to the next round.

Q. Rick Hendrick gave you a shot as a young driver; what does bringing him win No. 300 mean for Hendrick Motorsports?

WILLIAM BYRON: I don't know if I can even put it into words. I was such a Hendrick Motorsports fan growing up as a kid, watching Jimmie Johnson, and became really fond of Jeff Gordon as I got to know him.

Just thankful for all the people and men and women back at Hendrick Motorsports and Mr. Hendrick for his investment in me and telling me at 17 years old that he was going to take me to Cup racing. Just appreciate everything he's done for me, and this is awesome. We're definitely going to enjoy this one.

Q. Now you and the 24 team are one step from a potential championship run. You don't have to worry about Talladega and the Roval; how cool is that?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, it's cool. We've just been kind of steady Eddie through the first three, four races and we haven't shown any flashes, but today I thought we had a good car if we could have just gotten to the front, and at the end there we were really fast.

Q. How about these Texas fans who stood out here in 100-degree heat this afternoon?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, they're better than I would be. Appreciate all you guys coming out. It was a really good crowd for as hot as it was. We've got some of the best fans in Texas. I love it here. Look forward to coming back next year.

NASCAR PR

Kyle Busch, No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL1

Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident at the end of Stage One.

For a moment, did you just feel like it was debris on your tires that you were feeling?

“I have no idea. It felt really good when we came off of pit road after that green-flag stop. The car had good grip in it. We had those couple of yellows back-to-back and we restarted on the outside. I felt like I had a flat right front (tire) and I was going to come to pit road. I second-guessed it and said ‘I don’t think so, man. It’s just something is wrong.. something isn’t right, but it’s not a flat’. And just all on its own, just turned into the bottom of the race track in turn one and it just swapped ends on me. That’s the rear, not the front, not having grip.. so I just don’t know.

I hate it for everyone on this No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet team. I felt like our car was for sure a top-five or top-10 car today. That right there, I just said it two laps before that – I got up on the high-side and was like, you know what, I just need to stop and just run the bottom.. make laps here, just finish the stage and it swaps ends on me.”

GM PR

Kody Swanson trailed point leader Logan Seavey by just one point going into the USAC Silver Crown race that was part of the 41st 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway. Swanson drove the Doran Binks Racing Mission Foods/Glenn Farms No. 77 to a solid fifth-place finish in the 50-lapper that ended in the wee hours of Sunday morning, but Seavey won the race and led the most laps to extend his lead to 16 points going into the season finale Oct. 14 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Brownsburg, Ind. No other drivers have enough points to contend for the title at the season finale. A maximum total of 76 points are up for grabs on Oct. 14.

Swanson qualified eighth but he actually started seventh behind polesitter Justin Grant, C.J. Leary, Jake Swanson, Chase Dietz, Seavey, and Matt Westfall. Brady Bacon qualified third but suffered an eye injury before the race, so Tyler Courtney substituted for him and went to the rear of the field for the green.

Jake Swanson (no relation) had a bad start and faded from third to seventh on the first lap, which elevated Kody Swanson to sixth place. He remained in sixth for the first 22 laps, which included a yellow with six laps down when Matt Mitchell drew the race’s only caution flag.

Although Grant won the pole, he had dropped to fifth by lap eight, which put him right in front of Swanson. The pair battled the rest of race as they experimented with their lines to try to find the fastest way around the half-mile clay oval.

Carmen Perigo passed both Grant and Swanson on lap 23 to push Swanson back to seventh. Perigo would go on to finish fourth.

Swanson passed Grant to regain sixth place on lap 24. He moved into the top five on lap 32 by passing Leary.

Seavey took the checkered with a 2.169-second margin of victory over Westfall. Seavey also won the USAC sprint and USAC midget features at Eldora Saturday night.

Dietz, who led the first nine laps, finished third in the Silver Crown race followed by Perigo. Swanson was fifth, 0.416 of a second ahead of Grant, with the No. 77, which is a Maxim with a Bob Hampshire-built Chevy engine. Mitchel Moles, Courtney, Leary and Chase Stockon rounded out the top 10 in the 28-car field.

Swanson set the sixth-fastest lap of the race with a time of 19.842 seconds.

On Friday Swanson qualified eighth with a time of 17.534 seconds, just 0.458 off Grant’s pole-winning lap.

On Oct. 14 Swanson, the winningest driver in series history, will go for an unprecedented eighth USAC Silver Crown title. Doran Racing and Swanson are the series’ defending champions and Swanson is its winningest driver ever, with 40 victories.

Doran Binks Racing and Swanson also compete in the 500 Sprint Tour. They’re currently second in that championship too, just three points behind. Its season finale will also be at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Oct. 14, but before that is another race Oct. 7 at Anderson Speedway in Anderson, Ind. Swanson and Doran Racing won that series’ inaugural championship last year.

For more information see DoranRacing.com.

Doran Racing PR

Texas Motor Speedway partnered with 20th Century Studios and the upcoming sci-fi thriller “The Creator” for a takeover at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, September 24 for its Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400. This 267-lap, 400-mile event is the first race of the Round of 12 (second round of four) of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Fans at Texas Motor Speedway will also be treated to in-race trailer play and the chance to see film-themed AI robots amongst the crowds at the race. “The Creator” opens exclusively in theaters September 29.

An epic sci-fi action thriller set amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, “The Creator” stars John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, and Allison Janney.

Joshua (Washington), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Chan), is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war … and mankind itself. Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory, only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child (Voyles).

The film is directed by Gareth Edwards, with a screenplay by Gareth Edwards and Chris Weitz from a story by Gareth Edwards. The producers are Gareth Edwards, p.g.a., Kiri Hart, Jim Spencer, p.g.a., and Arnon Milchan. The executive producers are Yariv Milchan, Michael Schaefer, Natalie Lehmann, Nick Meyer, and Zev Foreman.

TMS PR

Race Winner:  John Hunter Nemechek of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

Stage 1 Winner:  Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)

Stage 2 Winner:  Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports (Chevrolet)

SHR Race Finish:          

●  Cole Custer (Started 3rd / Finished 6th; Running, completed 200 of 200 laps)

●  Riley Herbst (Started 10th / Finished 37th; Accident, completed 2 of 200 laps)

SHR Points:

●  Cole Custer (3rd with 2,117 points)

●  Riley Herbst (13th with 706 points)

SHR Notes:        

●  Custer’s sixth-place finish locked him in to the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.

●  Custer earned his 18th top-10 of the season and his sixth top-10 in seven career Xfinity Series starts at Texas.

●  This was Custer’s second straight top-10 at Texas. He finished eighth in his prior Xfinity Series start at the track in November 2019.

●  This was Custer’s second straight top-10. He finished fourth last Friday night at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

● Custer finished third in Stage 1 to earn eight bonus points and second in Stage 2 to earn nine more bonus points.

● Custer led three times for 28 laps to increase his laps-led total at Texas to 44.
 

Race Notes:       

●  John Hunter Nemechek won the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 to score his ninth career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory, his seventh of the season and his second at Texas. His margin over second-place Parker Kligerman was 1.005 seconds.

●  There were 12 caution periods for a total of 65 laps.

●  Only 15 of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

Sound Bites:

“We maximized our day really well with stage points and I’m really proud of our team. That’s not easy and now we can go into the Roval with less stress. We didn’t have the best car today or quite the speed we wanted. On that last restart, we were trying to go for the win and the 48 (Parker Kligerman) just drove through me. I couldn’t really do anything else there and then it made me lose a bunch of momentum. We did a great job as a team and now we’re locked into the next round so we can go to the Roval and fight for a win.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang

“On the pace laps, I was warming up the tires pretty aggressively and I just felt like we were starting on super low pressures. I felt like that because of how much flop I had in the sidewalls and the tires. I landed in turn three, and it just went down on the right front tire. I tried to chase it up and I thought I saved it and slowed it down enough, but when I continued to chase it, I obviously ran out of real estate, so I’m truly disappointed. I should’ve learned from the pace laps and probably pitted before green so I could’ve had a chance to race, so we'll see what happens. I don't know, this is just a frustrating year, for sure. We'll go to the Roval and try to go compete for a win.” – Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang

Next Up:            

The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Drive for the Cure 250 presented by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina on Saturday, Oct. 7 at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval. It is the third race of the Xfinity Series Playoffs and the final race of the Round of 12. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

SHR PR

TY GIBBS, No. 54 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 33rd

What happened from your perspective?

“We had a really fast Interstate Batteries, Monster Energy Toyota Camry. I was really happy with our speed out of the gate. This is a place that I’ve struggled. I was out of the groove, it’s my fault, I guess. Just have to keep going and keep fighting. We are bringing great cars to the track every week – we will keep working hard.”

TRD PR

The DIRTcar Pro Stock Series pulled into Albany-Saratoga Speedway for one last tune-up before heading to Oswego Speedway for Super DIRT Week 51, Oct. 2-8.

Luke Horning remained a force to be reckoned with in the 30-lap, $1,000-to-win, showcase at the Malta, NY track. After starting on the inside of row two, the Gloversville, NY driver moved into second place on Lap 1. He didn’t stay there for long as he set his sights on leader Chuck Dumblewski of Amsterdam, NY.

It took “Cousin Luke” another seven laps to find his way into clean air, taking the lead on Lap 8.  The Series points leader did not relinquish his position for the remaining 22 laps, scoring his 19th win of the season and bolstering his Series points lead.

Behind him, Dumblewski was overtaken on Lap 19, dropping two places back to fourth when both Kim Duell and Pete Stefanski made their way around him.

Duell ran in second with Stefanski following behind in third for the last 10 laps. There was no further passing for podium positions, as Duell finished runner-up and Stefanski finished in third place.

“We just need a slick track to show what the car can do,” Horning said. “Tonight was slick and it really worked out good for us. The car is phenomenal.”

Runner-up Duell overcame several mechanical issues throughout the event and how his car would run during the Feature. After overcoming the challenges, he was happy with the result.

“Luke (Horning) was really fast,” Duell said. “There was no catching him. Once he got lose, that was the end of it. We were just trying to hang on to second…the car was good…we had some issues but threw everything we knew at it and came out and were able to finish this good.”

Stefanski also battled challenges with his vehicle, but was satisified with his podium finish.

“Tonight, we were running with these guys and the right rear tire was going low,” Stefanski said. “We’re lucky we made it to the end of the race with the tire going low and finishing third. We’re happy with that.”

Dumblewski finished in fourth and Jaxson Ryan finished in fifth to round out the top five finishers.

UP NEXT: The DIRTcar Pro Stocks head to Oswego Speedway for Super DIRT Week 51, Oct. 2-8.

DIRTcar Pro Stock Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2H-Luke Horning[3]; 2. 14-Kim Duell[6]; 3. 2-Pete Stefanski[4]; 4. 7D-Chucky Dumblewski[2]; 5. 04-Jaxson Ryan[10]; 6. 25-Chad Jeseo[20]; 7. 57K-Kevin Fetterly Jr[1]; 8. 9-Shane Henderson[8]; 9. 9B-Slater Baker[7]; 10. 14J-Johnny Rivers Jr[5]; 11. 1X-Ian Bressette[12]; 12. 4M-Jordan Modiano[14]; 13. (DNF) 112-Christopher Wemple[16]; 14. (DNF) 28D-Phillip Defiglio[15]; 15. (DNF) 55-Dave Stckles[11]; 16. (DNF) 09J-Shawn Perez Jr[9]; 17. (DNS) 08-Doug Sheely; 18. (DNS) 711-Rich Crane; 19. (DNS) 322-Jay Casey; 20. (DNS) 324-Jason Casey

DIRTcar Series PR

ASA Weekend Recap – Champions Crowned at Five Flags

While the ASA Midwest Tour race at Elko Speedway was washed out Saturday night, the ASA Southern Super Series crowned a 2023 champion after their doubleheader at Five Flags Speedway over the weekend?

Who won races?  Who won championships?  Find out below.

Nasse, Pollard Collect Race Wins

Stephen Nasse made the most out of his first start with Anthony Campi Racing, taking the lead from Bubba Pollard with less than 20 to go and winning his first Super Late Model race of the year in the American Welding Society 100.  He took the lead on a lap 82 restart and pulled away in the final laps to take the victory.

One night removed from the near-miss, Pollard returned to Five Flags and won his first Blizzard Series race in over two years in the Deep South Cranes 100 ahead of Hunter Robbins.  He took the lead from Jackson Boone on lap 63 and never looked back, extending records with his 24^th Blizzard Series win and 34^th Southern Super Series victory.

Ruggiero Claims SSS Championship

Massachusetts driver Gio Ruggiero earned his first Southern Super Series championship after a fourth-place finish in Saturday night’s race.  He entered the weekend with a 22-point edge over Matt Craig, a gap that Craig was able to close just a little bit after a ninth comparted to Ruggiero’s 11^th Friday night, but the North Carolina driver was only able to muster up a seventh on Saturday night.

Now with a Southern Super Series championship under his belt, Ruggiero heads to the Winchester 400 on October 15 with a 109-point lead in the ASA/CRA Super Series standings.  With a total of 110 points up for grabs, Ruggiero has the CRA title all but locked up barring anything catastrophic and would become the first driver with ASA Southern Super Series and ASA/CRA Super Series championships in the same year.

Blizzard Series Championship Goes to California Driver

Along with the Southern Super Seres crown, the Deep South Cranes Blizzard Series championship was also handed out Saturday night.  California’s Jeremy Doss picked up his first Blizzard Series championship and earned himself a guaranteed starting spot in December’s Snowball Derby.

Doss won the second Blizzard Series race back in July and finished second in the opener in March, which also served as the inaugural ASA STARS National Tour race.  A fourth and an eighth over the weekend was enough to clinch the title.

For the full ASA STARS National Tour schedule, plus Super Late Model rules and other information, please visit the series website at starsnationaltour.com, or be sure to follow the series on social media (Facebook: STARS National Series | Twitter: @racewithstars | IG: @starsnational).

ASA STARS PR

8th

24th

7th

7th

5th

4th

RCR PR