NASCAR PR WEEKLY REPORT
October 28, 2020
CREATED BY: Campbell Marketing & Communications (Dan Zacharias & Matt Fancett)
RACE WEEKEND: Texas Motor Speedway
NASCAR CUP SERIES RACE RECAP
Ryan Blaney finished fourth, one of four Mustangs inside the top-10 at Texas.
Brad Keselowski finished sixth and finds himself in the fourth and final transfer spot heading into the cut-off race Sunday at Martinsville.
Kevin Harvick, who finished 16th, is in 2nd in the playoff standings, 42 points ahead of fifth place.
FORT WORTH, TX. | October 25, 2020 – In a race delayed over 72 hours due to rain, Ryan Blaney battled to a fourth-place finish, the top Ford among four Mustangs inside the top-10 at Texas Motor Speedway Wednesday evening.
While Kyle Busch (Toyota) snagged his first win of the season, his victory denied the remaining Cup Series Playoffs contenders an automatic berth in the Championship 4 field that will compete for the Cup Series championship in the Nov. 8 finale at Phoenix Raceway. Three spots are still up for grabs in Sunday’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway.
Brad Keselowski, who finished sixth currently holds the fourth and final transfer spot while Kevin Harvick, who finished 16th, sits second in the playoff standings. Only Joey Logano, by virtue of his win last week at Kansas is locked into the finale.
The race was halted Sunday after 52 laps by persistent rain. That precipitation lingered in the Fort Worth area, washing out Monday and Tuesday rain dates before the event resumed Wednesday at 5:10 p.m. ET.
Before the rain delay, Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford sustained right-side damage after a Sunday afternoon scrape with the Turn 2 wall. The team battled through multiple vibrations Wednesday and Harvick, a nine-time winner this year, held on to finish 16th, the first driver one lap down.
Clint Bowyer won the first stage and led 89 laps, but he was forced to pit with 24 laps remaining. He slipped to a 17th-place finish in what’s set to be his final Texas start.
The Round of 8 concludes next Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) at Martinsville Speedway. The 500-lapper will be the penultimate race of the year.
NCS RACE TOP-10 FINISHERS
1st – Kyle Busch
2nd – Martin Truex Jr.
3rd – Christopher Bell
4th – Ryan Blaney
5th – Alex Bowman
6th – Brad Keselowski
7th – Kurt Busch
8th – Matt DiBenedetto
9th – Denny Hamlin
10th – Joey Logano
REMAINING FORD FINISHERS
14th – Cole Custer
16th – Kevin Harvick
17th – Clint Bowyer
19th – Ryan Newman
22nd – John Hunter Nemechek
23rd – Aric Almirola
25th – Corey LaJoie
26th – Michael McDowell
31st – Garrett Smithley
34th – Chris Buescher
37th – Joey Gase
NASCAR CUP SERIES
DRIVER, MANUFACTURER & OWNERS STANDINGS (via NASCAR.com)
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES RACE RECAP
FORT WORTH, TX. | October 24, 2020 – Austin Cindric didn’t have a perfect day at Texas Motor Speedway, but he still found a way to finish fourth in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race and gain points in his bid to reach the Championship 4.
Cindric saw his fortunes change on the final turn when Harrison Burton passed Noah Gragson to win the race. A Gragson victory would have bumped Cindric down one spot in the standings and narrowed his cushion above the cutline, but the result enabled him to remain second in the point standings and increase his lead to 14 points ahead of fifth-place Brandon Jones going into the final Round of 8 event
It was a rough day for Chase Briscoe, who led the first 34 laps after starting on the pole, but while battling Jones in the closing laps of Stage 1 he had a right-rear tire go down. He was able to make it to pit road, but shortly after returning to the track he reported that something was broken. That ended up being a shock mount, which the team repaired after Briscoe took his No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang to the garage. Briscoe returned 16 laps later and finished 24th.
The Round of 8 concludes next Saturday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway with the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 (3:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES
DRIVER, MANUFACTURER & OWNERS STANDINGS (via NASCAR.com)
