Xfinity Chase grid:Erik Jones on outside ahead of elimination race

With only one race left in the first round of the Xfinity Chase, the No. 1 seed and favorite to win it all isn’t in the top eight.
Erik Jones sits at 10th on the Chase grid, four points out of eighth after a DNF and a 16th-place finish in the first two races.
Also outside the top eight, which will advance to the second round, are Ty Dillon (-3), Ryan Sieg (-10) and Brandon Jones (-18).
Daniel Suarez locked himself into the second round with his Dover win. He’s ahead of Elliott Sadler on the grid after having top-two finishes in both races.
The eight drivers in the next round will be decided by the Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway Friday night.
Click here to view the Xfinity Chase grid.

Sprint Cup Chase grid: Truex, Harvick lead 12 drivers into second round

The Sprint Cup Chase grid has four fewer drivers now after the completion of the first round.
No longer eligible for the championship are Kyle Larson, Tony Stewart, Chris Buescher and Jamie McMurray.
Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick advanced to the second round off wins while the rest of the 12-driver field was based off points.
Round two will be made up of Truex, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Brad  Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon.
The second round will take place at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.
Click here for the full Chase grid following the first round.

Entry list for Sprint Cup’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte

There are 40 cars on the entry list for the Sprint Cup Series’ Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

After Jeff Gordon ran the No. 88 at Dover, Alex Bowman returns to continue as a substitute for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Martin Truex Jr. won the last visit to Charlotte when he led 392 laps and won the Coca-Cola 600. Joey Logano won the fall race last year to start a sweep of the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Click here for the Bank of America 500 entry list.

Preliminary entry list for Xfinity Chase race at Charlotte

There are 45 cars on the preliminary entry list for the Xfinity Series’ Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Five cars will not qualify for the race.

The race is the first cutoff event in the inaugural Xfinity Chase and will whittle the Chase grid to eight drivers.

There are seven Sprint Cup drivers in the field: Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Matt DiBenedetto and Kyle Larson.

The defending winner of the race is Austin Dillon, who swept the 2015 races. Denny Hamlin won the May race this year after leading 76 laps.

Click here for the entry list for the Drive for the Cure 300.

Austin Dillon: ‘A lot of guys in this don’t think we should be here, and I’m proud’

DOVER, Del. – Exchanging hugs with team members, Austin Dillon pumped a fist skyward and shouted what could be the mantra for his No. 3 Chevrolet.
“That’s all we want – another shot!” Dillon exclaimed. “Next round, baby!”
The Richard Childress Racing driver was the surprise qualifier for the Round of 12 in Sunday’s Citizen Solider 400 cutoff race, but the biggest surprise might have been how Dillon advanced in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
He finished eighth – his first top 10 in seven starts at the 1-mile oval where his previous best was 20th – and emphatically proved his championship bid was deserving of continuing after a 400-mile race in which several title rivals faltered.
The former Xfinity and Craftsman Truck series champion, who hadn’t finished higher than 20^th in the points during his first two seasons in Sprint Cup, said it simply ranked as the biggest moment of his career.
“It’s amazing,” said Dillon , who had entered the race five points out of the final transfer spot. “It’s huge for RCR. I want to keep upsetting these guys, man.
“There’s a lot of guys in this that don’t think that we should be here, and I’m proud to be that car that’s here.”
Dillon wrapped up the final transfer spot by comfortably finishing 11 points ahead of Tony Stewart, whose final shot at a championship ended with a nondescript 13^th.
Dillon’s two biggest threats for advancement seemed to be Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray, but the Chip Ganassi Racing Chevys both were out of contention before the midpoint. Larson, who had a five-point cushion on McMurray and Dillon entering the race, had a loss of power and hit the wall in a 25th-place finish. McMurray finished last with an engine failure.
Even if they’d been at full strength, though, Dillon still would have been a threat with a car that he said was good enough to finish in the top five. After a mediocre practices Friday and Saturday, his car “came to life in the race” – particularly after the second pit stop.
“That’s when we really made it all up,” he said. “We made the Chase through that run.”
It was a major turnaround from last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where Dillon crashed his primary car, stated in a backup and flirted with a disastrous finish until rallying for 16^th and setting up his impressive performance at Dover.
“We just stayed focused, and once again, God just blessed us because I’m still awestruck,” he said. “Things like this just don’t happen. I’m proud to be going on to the final 12 and having race cars that are capable of keep on moving on.”
It’ll get much tougher from here. Dillon will be an overwhelming underdog battling for one of eight spots in the next round against Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson.
It’s a formidable list.
But for Dillon, it’s another shot — and it’ll begin at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which Dillon says his is best track on the circuit.
“I’ve got three really solid tracks coming up,” he said of Charlotte, Kansas Speedway and Talladega Superpseedway (where he finished third in May). “I’m going to drive the wheels off it and have fun while we’re here.”

After top-10 finish, Jeff Gordon excited for ‘something better’ in Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car at Martinsville

DOVER, Del. — Jeff Gordon climbed from his car after 400 miles at Dover International Speedway and exhaled.

“Whew.’’

His first top-10 finish since returning to fill in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. provided a sense of excitement and pride for the four-time series champion.

He had come close before, scoring an 11th at Bristol, but Sunday gave Gordon his 476th career top-10 finish and also marked the first time he’s led laps, leading seven circuits.

“I felt like we had a really good race car all weekend long,’’ Gordon told NBC Sports after the race. “I realized real early on we were going to have our work cut out for us, starting 18th. It was really tough getting through traffic. I kind of led them down a path. We were loose that first run and over-tightened it and that didn’t do us any favors. But we got it tuned up and had some great pit stops and got our way into the top 10.’’

With Earnhardt, who is out the rest of the season because of a concussion, watching from the team’s pit box, Gordon took the lead on Lap 373. Gordon climbed to the front when crew chief Greg Ives kept him out as the rest of the field pitted. When the team didn’t get a caution, Gordon had to pit. He returned 12th and gained two spots in the final laps.

“I loved the risk, I loved the play and the guys were really solid all day and all weekend long,’’ Gordon said.

Gordon’s run leaves him with one race left. He’ll return to Martinsville Speedway later this month, a year after his final Sprint Cup victory. Unless something changes, Martinsville will become the site of Gordon’s 805th and final Sprint Cup start on Oct. 30.

“I wanted to get a top-10 in this car before my time in the car is over,’’ Gordon said of the No. 88 Chevrolet. “We got that. Now let’s go get a top five or something better at Martinsville.’’

Tony Stewart sees title hopes end but applauds team for effort

DOVER, Del. — His championship hopes over, Tony Stewart walked away into the crowd.

And disappeared.

Gone also were his title hopes. Although a 13th-place finish was his best result in the last seven races, it wasn’t good enough to keep his title hopes alive. Stewart was one of four drivers eliminated from Chase contention Sunday at Dover International Speedway. Also failing to advance were Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray and Chris Buescher. 

Still, when Stewart is enshrined into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Hall of Fame it will be as a three-time champion.

But hope remained when the day began of a fourth title.

“We will give 110 percent this whole day and take whatever it gives us,’’ Stewart told his team on the radio before the start of the Citizen Soldier 400. “I’ll tell you one thing, this one race, whatever happens, is not going to define the season this team has. Win, lose or draw, we keep our heads up.’’

That wasn’t enough. He was a driver in a car that lacked the speed and handling to run with the leaders. Cautions helped him stay on the lead lap past halfway but couldn’t stop the inevitable. He eventually was put a lap down on Lap 267 of the 400-lap race.

“I’m pretty excited about our day,’’ Stewart said as he walked away from his car. “We were much better than we were yesterday. Really proud of our team. We kept making it better all day. That is good as we had.”

That’s all he had to say.