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In points as they run after the first two stages, Chandler Smith now only eight points out of the final playoff spot. And there are four drivers within 12 points of him. So a bobble by one of the bubble guys could be the break Smith needs for a comeback.
It's an unusual schedule today at New Hampshire. We've just seen the Modified race finish, the Truck Series playoff race is at noon ET, then Cup practice starts at 3 p.m. and Cup quals at 4:10 p.m.
Actually after watching replay, they collided maybe 50 yards before the finish and Bonsignore pushed him all the way across the line as they wrecked.
Crazy Modified finish at New Hampshire! Tyler Rypkema won -- and wrecked -- at the finish line. Nudged Justin Bonsignore out of the way on the last lap and then tried to throw a block at the finish line and crashed as he won.
Legacy Motor Club and Rick Ware Racing have settled their charter lawsuit.
It's been two years since Sherry Pollex passed away. She was an amazing person and is remembered daily in the NASCAR community. Re-sharing this audio with some of her own words.
The GOAT @JimmieJohnson turns 50 today. In this Q&A, he reflects on the milestone birthday and shares his outlook on being a team owner and what keeps him motivated. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6632955/2025/09/17/jimmie-johnson-nascar-turns-50-interview/
The Bristol Night Race drew 1.53 million viewers on USA Network. Last year: 1.87 million.
Was Bristol a good race? 80.6% of you said Yes. -- Ranks No. 9 of 18 Bristol concrete races. Spring race got 20.1% -- Ranks No. 7 of 14 Christopher Bell wins (including exhibitions) -- The other heavy tire wear race at Bristol (spring 2024) got 87.3%
Thoughts on Bristol here: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6628058/2025/09/14/nascar-bristol-night-race-takeaways-tires-cautions-christopher-bell/
Was Bristol a good race?
If you're driving home from Bristol, I just hit publish on the podcast version of The Teardown. Should be in your feeds soon. Safe travels, everyone!
If you're still awake, getting ready to start our livestream here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=8c2A6zOrEQs&themeRefresh=1
Adam Stevens to @Jordan_Bianchi in the postrace news conference: "I would have bet my house it would have been a normal Bristol race."
Outstanding night for Zane Smith. Felt like he was in the top 10 constantly and finished P3.
Corey Heim, driving the 6 7, finishes sixth in his seventh career Cup Series start.
Christopher Bell wins his fourth race of the season, his first victory since that three-race winning streak early in the year.
Austin Cindric makes Round 2 over Bowman by 10 points.
Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen and Josh Berry are eliminated from the playoffs.
Christopher Bell and Toyota do it again! Bell wins Bristol and Toyota/Joe Gibbs Racing sweeps Round 1 of the playoffs.
It's a battle of the newer tires!
Carson Hocevar is the leader over Zane Smith and Alex Bowman. Those three cars stayed out. Brad Keselowski restarts P4 on newer tires. Then Bell, Logano, HEIM!, Blaney. Will be FOUR to go on this restart.
Holy crap, this ending is going to be insane. New tires starting not too far back (only nine cars on lead lap) and will be on the absolute charge.
Keselowski into Custer into Wallace, Wallace wrecked, caution.
CAUTION!!! ohhhhhh myyyyyyyy
15 to go: Keselowski trying to make it. Bell up to P2, then Blaney and Logano on those scuffs. Then Hocevar on two new tires.
20 to go and I....have no idea who is going to win this.
This would probably be a bad time to mention (again) that Cindric was allowed to keep all of his playoff points after RR hook on Ty Dillon at COTA. Surely that won't come into play...
Points as they run is now ONE between Bowman (P2) and Cindric (P33)!
Bowman is P4 ... Cindric is P33 but can still lose some spots -- they're separated by three points. Could Bowman get in on points!?
They can't get the fire out on Cindric's car! He might be screwed here.
Brad Keselowski and Carson Hocevar, two Michigan natives who came into NASCAR as talented-but-brash, aggressive young drivers. Hocevar obviously still is. They run 1-2 in the Bristol Night Race with 45 to go.
Joey Logano is going to pit now with 51 laps to go...two-tire stop.
Disaster for Ty Gibbs as he misses pit road! That may cost him the win!
New leader at the Bristol Night Race: Ty Gibbs with 84 to go.
Briscoe-Buescher-Gibbs-Bowman-Keselowski-Preece-Blaney with 104 to go on this restart.
This is currently tied for the most cautions in the Bristol Night Race (13) since 2005. (Not Bristol overall, but just the night race.)
Wow, Trevor Bayne on TV reports Joey Logano just used his last set of sticker tires just now with 108 laps to go? Only has scuffs left? How is that gonna work?
Chris Gayle tells Denny Hamlin they think the contact is what led to the wheel coming off, but "nobody (from NASCAR) wants to hear that right now."
Denny Hamlin suddenly loses a wheel and crashes AJ Allmendinger...that's going to cost him some crew members for the next round.
Briscoe-BOWMAN (must win)-Buescher-Smith-Hocevar-Keselowski-Gibbs-McDowell-Logano-Preece are top 10 with 127 to go on this restart.
Missed which radio this was, but a spotter and crew chief convo: "They're in full protect mode, dude. They can't have this race end with people out of tires, so they're going to throw the caution for everything they can."
Kyle Larson has damage -- broken toe link.
Bubba Wallace comes off the bottom and cleans out Stenhouse for a caution.
Gibbs sent Buescher up the hill while going for P3.
Chase Elliott in that TV interview clearly thought he was below the cutoff line. He's not even close though. He's in without a new winner.
In points as they run, still no threat of Elliott getting eliminated unless Bowman wins. Elliott is +23 points to Bowman and Bowman is P15.
Actually from JHN's in-car, it looks like JHN just drove too hard into the corner and took out Elliott. Not sure Hamlin had involvement in how that started.
JHN: "Tell the 9 I'm sorry, I got run over (by Hamlin)."
John Hunter Nemechek into Chase Elliott! "42 destroyed us."
200 to go on this restart. Briscoe leads.
212 laps to go. Think I heard someone say they need 53 laps per set.
Chase Briscoe, the lowest-starting playoff car in tonight's race (P31), is now leading.
This restart coming with 224 laps to go. Gibbs-Buescher-Briscoe-Bell-Smith-Bowman-Cindric-Hocevar-JHN-Elliott-Hamlin-Keselowski-Blaney-Jones-Stenhouse are top 15. There are 20 cars on the lead lap.
Just like Berry, it's been a pretty miserable Round 1 for SVG. 32nd at Darlington, 25th at Gateway, now running 36th at Bristol.
235 laps to go on this restart. Gibbs-Bowman-Hocevar-Buescher-Wallace-Smith-Hamlin-Jones-Briscoe-Bell-Keselowski-Blane-Cindric-Stenhouse-JHN-Logano-Elliott-Preece-Byron are the 19 lead lap cars.
This time Byron does get the free pass. He's going to pit for tires again and hope they don't have to re-use the set they just put on at the last caution. "How did that last set (of tires) look?" "They were junk."
Top 10 in Stage 2: 1. Gibbs 2. Blaney 3. Bowman 4. Keselowski 5. Hocevar 6. Cindric 7. Buescher 8. Wallace 9. Smith 10. Hamlin
This time Ty Gibbs holds off Ryan Blaney for the stage win, a reverse of their Stage 1 finish.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is going to restart this race as the leader after staying out on old tires. I would not pick behind him in the choose.
Never mind. You can't. Rescinded.
Byron spins SVG, but Byron still gets the free pass. Didn't know you could do that.
There have now been 14 lead changes in tonight's Bristol race (30 laps before halfway) There were 12 lead changes combined in the last two Bristol races.
Wait, I'm confused. Hocevar just pitted and now leads again? I'm assuming he must have put the throttle down to get track position and is now going to manage out front?
Ty Gibbs: New career high laps led for a single race (138). The race he just beat? That high-wear 2024 Bristol spring race, when he led 137 laps.
Chase Elliott suddenly pits. SVG and Allmendinger also pitted.
It's a risk for Hocevar to be running this fast...will it pay off? He's up to P2.
"Should have never chose top," Chase Elliott says after getting too high and losing all of his track position.
347 laps to go. Teams are going to figure out how to make this tire last longer. Won't be as chaotic as that initial first run when everyone found it out. But they have a choice: Go hard or conserve. It's a puzzle to get it all correct.
Monster Energy car just wrecked the NOS car.
Quite an interesting Stage 1 top 10 for you: 1. Blaney 2. Gibbs 3. Byron 4. Wallace 5. Smith 6. Buescher 7. Allmendinger 8. Keselowski 9. Nemechek 10. Stenhouse
Wow, Jonathan Hassler/Ryan Blaney with a great strategy. Pitted for tires, drives past all of the lead-lap cars and wins the stage in a photo finish over Ty Gibbs.
*after practice, I mean. There were obviously questions before yesterday. But once practice happened, it was like "yeah OK never mind."
Chase Elliott wonders if he should pit now, stay out at the break and then get his track position back that way. But Alan Gustafson is worried they would run out of tires. Elliott says once everyone figures it out, they'll be stuck.
Alex Bowman has contact with Riley Herbst and Bowman spins.
Restart coming with 31 to go in Stage 1. Cutoff line isn't close right now in points as they run...Chastain in final spot but 25 points up over SVG. Gibbs-Byron-Smith-Dinger-Wallace-Cindric-Buescher-Hamlin-JHN-Keselowski are top 10.
I’m entertained, yeah. Am I supposed to feel bad? 😬
Austin Dillon said he could have saved a bit more tire, but he didn't realize it was going to be a tire wear race so he got screwed by going too hard. He is P36, three laps down.
Whewwww. Everyone take a deep breath. That was only 80 laps. 420 to go.
Playoffs could not have possibly gone worse for Josh Bery. And now a caution because his car is on fire still and he's not in his stall.
Insane running order and gaps right now. Only nine cars on the lead lap. Ty Gibbs leads William Byron by 4 seconds. Zane Smith is P3, 8.6 seconds behind. AJ Allmendinger is P4, 13.7 seconds behind.
Ryan Blaney has not pitted yet and he is 62 laps in.
A lot of you dunked on me for this article yesterday. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6616922/2025/09/11/nascar-bristol-tires-playoffs-elimination-race/
THERE ARE EIGHT CARS ON THE LEAD LAP
Elliott pits. Logano pits.
Buescher, Byron, SVG, Bell all pit!
THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF THE SPRING RACE! Spring race: High wear practice, no issues in race Night race practice: No issues in practice, high wear race! Insane!
Reddick on pit road!
Ty Gibbs on pit road! Hamlin on pit road!! Busch on pit road!!
Briscoe on pit road for tires! Nemechek on pit road for tires! Bubba Wallace on pit road for tires! IT'S LAP 37!!!
Logano: "Have to pit soon! Right front, right front!"
🚨 TIRE WEAR RACE POSSIBLE🚨
Tire issues from both Dillon and Allmendinger -- Joey Logano is told "tire race mentality." And now HE has a tire problem too!! It's Lap 30!
Ty Gibbs has taken the lead at Bristol.
Denny Hamlin says his car is "really tight late exit" as he falls to P13.
Disastrous start for Joey Logano, who has plummeted to P34 and is on the bubble in points as they run.
AJ Allmendinger has now led five laps tonight, which is more than he had led the entire season combined before now (four laps).
Engines fired at Bristol Motor Speedway for Race No. 29 of the NASCAR Cup Series race season and the final race of Round 1 of the playoffs. AJ Allmendinger and Ryan Blaney on the front row. USA Network has the TV coverage.
Aric Almirola wins for the second time in 12 Xfinity Series starts this season. Also won at Phoenix in March.
Turns out track position was the winning call over new tires. Another runner-up finish for Sheldon Creed.