What was supposed to be a weekend of celebration among the “Honour and Remembrance”, turned out to be a battle with Mother Nature for 73 hopeful races in two racing series and two cities.
Cup Series driver Kyle Larson had been planning for over a year to rune “the double” – the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 -; a feat accomplished only four other times.
Larson set a record for the fastest pole by a rookie and put himself in the middle of the second row for a fifth place start at the Indianapolis 500. Larson was one of six rookies in the race and his 18th place finish put him in front of his fellow rookies and several IndyCar veterans. His unfamiliarity with the car resulted in a pit road speeding penalty that put Larson back in the pack.
A massive storm with thunder, lightening, and rain cause a four hour delay in the start of the race; putting Larson’s chances for running “the double” in jeopardy.
Arriving at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the hopes of finish most of the second half of the race, Larson arrived just at NASCAR displayed the red flag for the same storm that caused a delay in Indianapolis.
In the end, NASCAR called the race with over 150 miles of the 600 remaining due to the rain and issues getting the track dried. Under a noise ordinance and facing a early morning hours (O Dark Hundred) f
inish of the race; NASCAR called the race at 11:30pm, giving Christopher Bell the win. Kyle Larson never made it into his number five Hendrick Motorsports car.
The NASCAR rule book states that in order to be eligible for the championship, a driver must run all 36 of the scheduled races. By not making a lap in the 600, Larson is not eligible to qualify for this year’s championship…unless NASCAR issues him a waiver. So far, there has been no word of whether that request has been made.
Denny Hamlin takes over the lead of the point standings and leads in the playoff points with three race wins. Currently Kyle Larson is listed as third in the points with two wins; but depending on how NASCAR rules the missed race, the standings could change.
NASCAR Cup Series point standings:
Denny Hamlin – 492
Martin Truex Jr – 487
Kyle Larson – 486
Chase Elliott – 475
William Byron – 461
Tyler Reddick – 437
Ty Gibbs – 435
Alex Bowman – 408
Brad Keselowski – 397
Ross Chastain – 392
Christopher Bell – 387
Ryan Blaney – 376
Bubba Wallace – 355
Kyle Busch – 346
Chis Buescher – 345
Chase Briscoe – 334
Joey Logano – 315
Daniel Suarez – 276
Josh Berry – 263
Austin Cindric – 249
Noah Gragson – 240
Todd Gilliland – 237
Michael McDowell – 234
Carson Hocevar – 227
John Hunter Nemechek – 218
Erik Jones – 217
Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 206
Ryan Preece – 203
Daniel Hemric – 198
Corey LaJoie – 189
Austin Dillon – 177
Justin Haley – 177
Harrison Burton – 149
Kaz Grala – 122
Zane Smith – 113
Jimmie Johnson – 35
Derek Kraus – 25
David Ragan – 17
Cody Ware – 13
Kamui Kobayashi – 8
With Chase Elliott’s win in the Bet MGM 300 there were no points awarded to the winner, but before another week of bad luck struck the number seven car, Justin Allgaier swept both stages of the race and now sits in fourth place, 57 points behind the leader – Austin Hill.
Xfinity Series point standings:
Austin Hill – 454
Chandler Smith – 450
Cole Custer – 433
Justin Allgaier – 397
Jesse Love – 384
AJ Allmendinger – 347
Riley Herbst – 338
Sheldon Creed – 313
Parker Kligerman – 307
Brandon Jones – 304
Sam Mayer – 294
Anthony Alfredo – 291
Sammy Smith – 289
Ryan Sieg – 285
Shane van Gisbergen – 257
Brennan Poole – 219
Parker Retzlaff – 214
Aric Almirola – 202
Jeremy Clements – 190
Josh Williams – 189
Leland Honeyman – 184
Kyle Weatherman – 176
Jeb Burton – 175
Ryan Ellis – 151
Ryan Truex – 150
Hailie Deegan – 139
Kyle Sieg – 138
Blaine Perkins – 129
Matt DiBenedetto – 109
Garrett Smithley – 98
Carson Kvapil – 93
Dawson Cram – 91
Josh Bilicki – 78
BJ McLeod – 69
Partrick Emerling – 64
JJ Yeley – 61
Joey Gase – 53
David Starr – 46
Nick Leitz – 41
Jordan Anderson – 40
Sage Karam – 38
Bubba Pollard – 31
Caesar Bacarella – 30
Austin Green – 30
Jeffrey Earnhardt – 30
Natalie Decker – 27
Logan Bearden – 23
Alex Labbe – 20
Brad Perez – 19
Myatt Snider – 18
Dexter Bean – 17
Daniil Kvyat – 16
Patrick Gallagher – 12
Chad Finchum – 12
Frankie Muniz – 11
RC Enerson -9
CJ McLaughlin – 6
Ed Jones – 2
Ryan Vargas – 2
Akinori Ogata – 1
It was a triple header weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the Craftsman Truck Series kicking off the Triple Truck Challenge with Nick Sanchez earning his second win of the season.
Second place driver Corey Heim had his finish disqualified after it was discovered in post race inspection that the number eleven truck had three lug nuts improperly secured.
Christian Eckes holds on to the points lead with 453 with Corey Heim 30 points behind.
Craftsman Truck Series Point Standings:
Christian Eckes – 453
Corey Heim – 423
Nick Sanchez – 403
ty Majeski – 399
Taylor Gray 354
Rajah Caruth – 336
Tyler Ankrum – 320
Tanner Gray – 291
Grant Enfinger – 290
Ben Rhodes – 289
Stewart Friesen – 257
Matt Crafton – 256
Daniel Dye – 255
Jake Garcia – 237
Chase Purdy – 234
Bayley Currey – 214
Dean Thompson – 212
Layne Riggs – 211
Bret Holmes – 205
Ty Dillon – 190
Kaden Honeycutt – 188
Timmy Hill – 184
Mason Massey – 170
Matt Mills – 163
Lawless Alan – 140
Jack Wood – 139
Spencer Boyd – 137
Stefan Parsons – 128
Conner Jones – 109
Thad Moffitt – 97
Connor Mosack – 66
Brett Moffitt – 59
Colby Howard – 50
Keith McGee – 49
Mason Maggio – 49
Johnny Sauter – 39
Connor Zilisch – 38
Brenden Queen – 33
Bryan Dauzat – 28
William Sawalich – 28
Jason M. White – 25
Cam Waters – 25
Carter Fartuch – 16
Cory Roper – 15
Codie Rohrbaugh – 14
Memphis Villarreal – 12
Dale Quarterley – 11
Ton Breidinger – 10
Stephen Mallozzi – 9
Dawson Sutton – 9
Kris Wright – 7
Marco Andretti – 6
Justin S. Carroll – 6
Jennifer Jo Cobb – 5
Josh Reaume – 4
Vicente Salas – 3
Blake Lothian – 3
Clayton Green – 3
Trey Hutchens III – 3
Jeffrey Earnhardt – 2