NASCAR First Alert

AVONDALE, ARIZONA - NOVEMBER 07: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway on November 07, 2021 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service At the end of an almost mythical season came the quintessential story of redemption. Taking advantage of an opportune caution and a blazingly fast pit stop by his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crew, Larson held off Martin Truex Jr. during a 24-lap green-flag run to the finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race. The victory—Larson’s 10th of the season and the 10th at a track where he had never won before—made a deserving series champion of the 29-year-old Californian, who honed his racing skills in open-wheeled cars on dirt. As Larson slowed his car for the cool-down lap, the tears started flowing. “I can’t… I cannot believe it,” Larson said after climbing from his car. “I didn’t ...

AVONDALE, ARIZONA - NOVEMBER 06: Daniel Hemric, driver of the #18 Poppy Bank Toyota, celebrates after winning the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway on November 06, 2021 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service Daniel Hemric picked the perfect time to win his first NASCAR national series race—and a title came with it. Executing an aggressive bump-and-run in Saturday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race, Hemric passed Austin Cindric in the final two corners at Phoenix Raceway. Approaching the finish line, the cars collided side-to-side, with Hemric crossing the stripe .030 seconds ahead of Cindric—roughly five feet—denying the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford a second straight championship. The victory came in Hemric’s 208th NASCAR national series start, silencing critics who kept asking, “Will Hemric ever win a race?” The answer came from crew chief Dave Rogers moments after the winning dri...

AVONDALE, ARIZONA - NOVEMBER 05: Ben Rhodes, driver of the #99 Bombardier LearJet 75 Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway on November 05, 2021 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service A bantamweight boxer in the training room, Ben Rhodes punched like a heavyweight on Friday at Phoenix Raceway. On Lap 142 of 150 in the Lucas Oil 150 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship race, Rhodes tapped the tailgate of Zane Smith’s Chevrolet with the nose of his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Toyota, nudged Smith up the track in Turn 2 and made the pass that secured his first title. At the time, the pass was for fourth place—as Chandler Smith was running away to victory in a No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota that featured superb long-run speed. Rhodes, who uses boxing as the favorite part of his training regimen, eventually passed Sheldon Creed for third...

MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA - OCTOBER 31: Alex Bowman, driver of the #48 Ally Chevrolet, celebrates in the Ruoff Mortgage victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on October 31, 2021 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images) By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service Denny Hamlin provided the perfect capstone to a day of banged-up stock cars, hurt feelings and crushed dreams. Alex Bowman took the checkered flag in Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway after sliding up into Hamlin’s race-leading Toyota on Lap 494 of 501 and knocking Hamlin’s car up the track and into the outside wall. As Bowman tried to start a burnout to celebrate his fourth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and his first at the .526-mile short track, Hamlin drove to the frontstretch and expressed his displeasure by twice blocking the progress of Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “I just got loose in,” Bowman said of the accident that gav...

OCTOBER 30: Noah Gragson, driver of the #9 Bass Pro Shops/TrueTimber/BRCC Chevrolet, celebrates with his crew after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Dead on Tools 250 at Martinsville Speedway on October 30, 2021 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images) By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service To get to the Championship 4, you have to drive like a champion. That’s what Noah Gragson did on Saturday night in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff race Dead On Tools 250 at Martinsville Speedway. Faced with the necessity of winning the race to keep his NASCAR Xfinity Series title hopes alive, Gragson did just that, pulling off a dramatic pass of Daniel Hemric from the outside lane in the first attempt at overtime and holding off series leader Austin Cindric in the second extra period. With Cindric’s Ford to his inside, Gragson won a drag race off Turn 4 to the finish line by .064 seconds, the closest Xfinity Series finish ever at Martinsville Speedway. Gragson, who led a r...

MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA - OCTOBER 30: Zane Smith, driver of the #21 MRC Construction Chevrolet, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series United Rentals 200 at Martinsville Speedway on October 30, 2021 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images) By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service On a track strewn with spinning trucks and broken hearts, Zane Smith catapulted into the Championship 4 with a thrilling overtime victory in Saturday’s United Rentals 200 at Martinsville Speedway. In a no-holds-barred race that featured 14 cautions for 89 laps, Smith won under yellow after he, Stewart Friesen and Todd Gilliland raced three-wide—yes, three-wide at Martinsville—off Turn 4 on the first lap of overtime. Contact from Friesen’s Toyota sent Gilliland’s Ford spinning across the start/finish line to start the final lap. As Friesen moved down the track to contest the lead with Smith, contact between the two trucks spun Friesen’s Silverado into ...