NASCAR Richmond/Road America 2023 Recap

The summer continues on and as we inch closer to playoff time in NASCAR, the Trucks and Cup Series took on the historic short track of Richmond Raceway, while the Xfinity Series made a return to Road America.

Hard to believe already but it is time for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoff field to be set in the Worldwide Express 250. The career season continued for one Carson Hocevar, earning his third win of the season and giving him plenty of momentum heading into the playoffs. While Ty Majeski had dominated the race, Hocevar benefited from pit strategy to make the pass with four to go to earn the victory.

“We didn’t come here to run second,” Hocevar said after the race, “I knew we had to do something different and new tires prevailed.”

After finishing third in the first stage, Corey Heim earned the regular season championship, giving him a very important 15-point bonus to can help him towards a march to the Championship in November at Phoenix. With the 21-year-old for Tricon Garage finishing sixth at Richmond, he ends the regular season with 13 top-ten finishes of the 16 races so far, despite missing Gateway due to illness. 

“It really means a lot,” Heim said. “With Tricon Garage and Toyota Racing coming such a long way from the beginning of the year. I really felt like we had a lot of progress to make in the first four or five weeks and we’ve really been improving ever since.”

Ty Majeski had swept both stages of the race and was trying to capture his first win of the season. He led for 168 of the 250 laps and even at one point overcame a speeding penalty on pit road in the middle of the race. Majeski had stayed out while Hocevar pit for tires and it ended up paying off for Hocevar with the fresher tires to get the win.

“Just didn’t have enough there,” a disappointed Majeski said afterward. “Obviously made a mistake there, speeding on pit road but we had a chance to win even with the penalty. It’s just so disappointing. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a dominant vehicle that much faster than the field and to not win with it is so hard.”

“But we have fast race trucks, and we’ll make a run at the playoffs,” he added, as Majeski made the Championship Four last season.

Stewart Friesen was nine points back of the final spot and had to beat Matt Crafton for it, but never had the truck to offer up to the challenge, as he would finish 27th. Jake Garcia and Matt Mills rounded out the top five, while Heim, Crafton, Nick Sanchez, Grant Enfinger, and 16-year-old William Sawalich rounded out the top ten, as Sawalich made his third career start in the Truck Series.

The playoff field is set, as the Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs will start on August 11^th at Indianapolis Raceway Park for the TSport 200. Here are the ten drivers that will contend for the Championship and here is out the playoff field will start going into IRP:

1. Corey Heim, No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota, 2 Wins/Regular Season Champion, 2,030 points

2. Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, 2 Wins, 2,022 points

3. Carson Hocevar, No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet, 3 Wins, 2,021 points

4. Christian Eckes, No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet, 3 Wins, 2,019 points

5. Grant Enfinger, No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet, 2 Wins, 2,017 points

6. Ty Majeski, No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford, 2,014 points

7. Ben Rhodes, No. 99 ThorSport Racing Ford, 1 Win, 2,013 points

8. Nick Sanchez, No. 2 Rev Racing Chevrolet, 2,005 points

9. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 25 Rackley WAR Chevrolet, 2,002 points

10. Matt Crafton, No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford, 2,002 points

Sam Mayer only led two laps at the Road America 180 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, but they were the two most important laps as they were the final laps, giving Mayer a long-awaited first career win. This win was even made more special with him being a Wisconsin native, also making him the 14^th different winner in 14 races at the 4.048-mile road course. Mayer also became the fourth different first-time winner this season.

“It was just about getting track position,” Mayer said of the frantic second overtime start that featured door-to-door racing among the top four cars. “We got it there at the end, I lost it for a second and then all hell broke loose there at the end, and we ended up on top,” Mayer said. “This team, it’s so special to get that first win, that monkey off your back. It feels so good.”

On the final restart, Mayer was able to get his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet past Justin Allgaier and Sage Karam, as Allgaier spun in turn 8 after leading 42 laps and sweeping both stages. Karam momentarily led with Parker Kligerman second, but Karam went wide in Turn 13 and Kligerman did the same in Turn 14, allowing Mayer to take the lead coming to the white flag that would lead to his first career win. Kligerman would finish second, Karam third, with Austin Hill and Riley Herbst fourth and fifth. Josh Berry, Kaz Grala, Josh Billicki, AJ Allmendinger, and Brandon Jones would round out the top ten. Justin Allgaier would end up finishing 18th.

For Karam, this was his first career Xfinity Series top-five finish.

“It was a great race all around,” said Karam after the race. “The last restart was very aggressive. I just had to get to the lead and had a good move on Allgaier, it was really aggressive and got three-wide. I can’t thank Sam Hunt Racing enough.”

In a race that had quite a few wild moments, one of them was on lap 21 when Chandler Smith suffered a brake failure as he was going into turn one. Upon realizing this, Smith veered his No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet to the left to avoid any head-on collision with the outside wall in turn 1. Smith’s car was heavily damaged from the impact as he smacked the left side of his car against the wall. Smith did climb out under his own power and was later checked and released from the infield care center. 

“I was definitely having some brake fade throughout the run, but I didn’t think I was abusing them by any means to make them fail,” Smith said. “I was going up the hill on the front straight and I heard something snap and I felt something come off the car and the whole front nose just dropped and when that happened, I was like, ‘What in the world was that?’

“I went to pump the brakes but there was nothing there,” he added, “I was just trying to scrub speed at that point.”

Alex Labbe also had a similar issue on lap 39 as he tried to turn his No. 08 Chevrolet to the right but hit the sand trap and head-first into the turn 1 tire barrier. Labbe was also later checked and released from the infield care center.

Since Brad Keselowski joined RFK Racing in 2022, it was first a struggling start but promise began to show late into the season with solid results, including Chris Buescher earning his second career win at the Bristol night race. In 2023, both RFK Fords are running strong and are in good positions to make the playoffs. One then became guaranteed to make the playoffs, as Chris Buescher portrayed a strong performance and showcased his skills on an overtime restart to earn his third career Cup Series victory at Richmond. Buescher and his teammate Brad Keselowski led for a combined 190 of the 400 laps, with Buescher leading for 88 of them.

With four races remaining in the regular season, Buescher has clinched a spot in the Cup Series playoffs for the second time of his career. Buescher last made it in his rookie season, 2016, thanks to being at the right place at the right time to lead the race at Pocono when the race was stopped due to inclement weather.

Before the caution that involved Noah Gragson and Daniel Suarez, that led the race into overtime, Buescher had a five-second lead over Denny Hamlin, which he had to hold off in the final restart.

“It was smooth sailing trying to take care of this Fastenal Mustang,” Buescher said with a smile. “It was so good and trying to take care of it there, and about the time (crew chief) Scott (Graves) said over the radio ‘It’s working perfect, keep it up,’ and then there’s a caution. But we were so strong during the race, I had a good feeling there about it. So awesome to pull it off. I’m proud of everybody. That was a long way from the back.”
The late race caution was the only caution that wasn’t a stage break in the race and all 36 cars that started the race finished, marking the first time a full field finished the race since 2018. The other challenge for the drivers was the intense heat, as it was getting up to 130 degrees Fahrenheit in the cars. Buescher had a lot of work to do as he started 26th, but by lap 160, he had made his way into the top five as he chased down the likes of Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin.

Another challenge to the drivers was the green flag pit stops, thanks to the long green flag runs. Bubba Wallace led for 80 laps and showcased a strong performance, but a slow tire change cost him several spots as he had to claw his way back up to finish 12th. Wallace’s 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick, who also had a strong showing, had to overcome a commitment-line violation coming to pit road for a green-flag stop at Lap 338. Despite the strong showing and penalty, Reddick finished 16th. Keselowski even had a mishap on pit road when he awkwardly entered his pit stall during a green flag stop with 115 laps to go. This ultimately handed the lead over the Buescher.

“We wanted to finish one-two, that’s the ultimate goal, but we still had a heck of a day,” said Keselowski, who finished sixth and won Stage 2, his third stage win of the season.

The Cup Series and Xfinity Series head to Michigan next weekend (Aug 5-6) while the Truck Series will begin their playoffs on August 11th at Indianapolis Raceway Park.