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Garrett Duke

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The Coke Zero 400 set the field for the playoffs. While Jimmie Johnson was making moves like an Earnhardt and looked like he might make it into the playoffs in his final season if not for a crash caused by Tyler Reddick blocking. Jimmie Johnson did what he needed to do finishing stage 1 & 2 ahead of his playoff spot competition and gaining much needed points but in the end it wasn't meant to be. Matt Dibenedetto clinched the final playoff spot finishing the race in 12th.

William Byron clinched a spot in the playoffs by winning the race which quickly turned into a demolition derby in the final laps especially the final lap with only about half the field able to cross the finish line. Chase Elliot finished 2nd, Denny Hamlin 3rd, Martin Truex jr 4th and Bubba Wallace 5th. Brendan Gaughan in what might be his final Daytona race finished 8th even though he was involved in one of the late race wrecks but his car wasn't damaged as much as others. 

First race of the playoffs will be the Darlington Southern 500 which will be on NBCSN this Sunday at 6pm eastern. 

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William Byron signed a 2 year contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2020/09/01/william-byron-signs-contract-extension-with-hendrick-motorsports/ I bet the win at Daytona helped William get a better deal.

Aric Almirola signed a 1 year contract extension with Stewart Haas Motorsports https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2020/09/01/aric-almirola-sponsor-returning-to-shr-for-2021-season/

Germain Racing is mulling a possible sale due to having no sponsorship for 2021 https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2020/09/01/germain-racing-pondes-2021-plans-including-potential-sale/ Germain Racing made their debut with Max Papis in 2009. 

Greg Biffle open to returning to the track with the right team https://m.nascar.com/news-media/2020/09/01/greg-biffle-open-to-running-full-time-cup-ride-in-right-situation/

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Kevin Harvick won the first race of the playoffs or chase for the championship, whatever you want to call it, which is his 8th win if the season, a career best for Harvick. He also tied Dale Earnhardt Sr in crown jewel race wins with 8.

Early on it looked like it was going to be a Joe Gibbs racing domination, at one point all 4 cars were in the top 10 with three of them 1,2,3. Pit issues took Denny out of contention, Kyle's car was not a top 5 contender most of the night, ended up finishing 7th. Martin Truex jr had the strongest car from jgr's stable but after contact with Chase Elliot and the wall while battling for the lead forced him to pit with a flat tire, he ended up finishing 22nd a lap down. Erik Jones gave jgr it's highest finish of the night 4th.

The top 5: Kevin Harvick 1st, Austin Dillon 2nd, Joey Logano 3rd, Erik Jones 4th, William Byron 5th. 

3 crew chiefs have been suspended for next week's race. Kyle Busch's and Clint Bowyer's for unsecured lugnuts and Ryan Blaney's for unapproved ballast.

Richmond will be on NBCSN Saturday night at 7:30pm eastern.

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California's Auto Club Speedway to be reconfigured into a 1/2 mile short track https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2020/09/08/nascar-seeks-to-reshape-auto-club-speedway-into-a-short-track/ https://www.jayski.com/2020/09/08/auto-club-speedway-to-be-reconfigured-to-half-mile-short-track/ 

From the plans it looks like they will keep a portion front D straight and that's it. Looks like the current back straight will become a new parking lot. 

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Brad Keselowski dominated Richmond last night,leading the most laps, winning stage 2 and the race. Austin Dillon also had a good night leading the most laps in a single race in his Cup career and finishing 2nd in stage 1 & 2.

The top 10: Brad Keselowski 1st, Martin Truex jr 2nd, Joey Logano 3rd, Austin Dillon 4th, Chase Elliot 5th, Kyle Busch 6th, Kevin Harvick 7th, Aric Almirola 8th, Alex Bowman 9th and Clint Bowyer finished 10th.

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Daniel Suarez leaving Guant Bros Racing at the end of the season https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2020/09/15/daniel-suarez-gaunt-brothers-racing-to-part-ways-after-season/ Rumor is he will be filling the vacant seat in the #43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevy.

According to this article https://beyondtheflag.com/2020/09/17/nascar-new-landing-spot-emerging-kyle-larson/ Hendrick Motorsports already has a Driver set for the #48 for 2021 but doesn't want to release the name at the moment due to 3 of his drivers being in the playoffs. 

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Kevin Harvick won Last night in Bristol. It's his 9th win of the season, 58th of his career which moves him up to 9th on the all time wins list. Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Cole Custer and Matt Dibenedetto got knocked out of the playoffs.

Top 10: Kevin Harvick 1st, Kyle Busch 2nd, Erik Jones 3rd, Tyler Reddick 4th, Aric Almirola 5th, Clint Bowyer 6th, Chase Elliot 7th, Chris Buescher 8th, Ryan Preece 9th and Michael Mcdowell 10th.

In the rumor mill this morning there's talk of Denny Hamlin buying the Germain Racing charter and Leaving Family Racing's assets and starting a team for which Bubba Wallace will drive for https://www.jayski.com/2020/09/19/bubba-wallace-not-expected-to-return-to-richard-petty-motorsports/ . Will be interesting to see if Nascar allows this as it's been stated that a driver that drives for a four car team cannot own a team or something to that matter. 

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Ross Chastain will take over the #42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevy for 2021 https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2020/09/21/ross-chastain-to-drive-for-chip-ganassi-racing-in-2021/

The cup series will be making a stop at Circuit of the Americas road course in Texas next season, it will be taking one of the Texas Speedways races and in return the speedway will get the All Star race https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2020/09/21/nascar-report-cup-to-compete-circuit-of-the-americas-2021/

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Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan teamed up to buy the Germain Racing charter and start a team for 2021 https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2020/09/21/denny-hamlin-michael-jordan-to-own-a-cup-team/. Darrell Bubba Wallace will be the driver and it's expected that Toyota will provide the manufacturer backing. Will be interesting to see how Nascar handles this with Denny Hamlin already competing on a 4 car team then again if Toyota's involved they'll probably change the rules.

On a related note...https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2020/09/21/bob-germain-racing-sells-charter-michael-jordan-denny-hamlin-nascar/

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Kurt Busch finally won at his home track last night in the South Point 400 at Las Vegas. A late caution got him and a few others who stayed out during green flag pit stops the track position. He is now locked into the next round of playoffs. Matt Dibenedetto finished 2nd holding off a hard charging Denny Hamlin. Hopefully this will give the Wood Brothers the gumtion to give him a contract extension for next season. Not sure if it's the addition of Tyler Reddick this season or what but RCR seems to have finally given Austin some better race cars. He was battling for top 5's for the first two stages before having some issues and finishing 32nd.

Top 10: 1st Kurt Busch, 2nd Matt Dibenedetto, 3rd Denny Hamlin, 4th Martin Truex jr, 5th Alex Bowman, 6th Kyle Busch, 7th Ryan Blaney, 8th Erik Jones, 9th Chris Buescher, 10th Kevin Harvick.

Jimmie Johnson finished 11th in his final Vegas race.

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Here's the 2021 Nascar cup Schedule https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2020/09/30/2021-nascar-cup-schedule-features-new-tracks-bold-changes/

Notable Changes:

Bristol Spring race will be a Dirt race

Chicagoland and Kentucky lose their races for all 3 Nascar premier series.

Homestead Miami moves to the 2nd race on the schedule

Brickyard race will be run on the Road course 

Road America and COTA is added which will make for a total of 6 Road course races for next season.

The Clash will be run on Daytona's Road Course. 

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It's interesting that you want to go back to the older layout. With F1's rescheduled 2020 season, they held a grand prix at the Mugello circuit in Italy this year. The track is owned by Ferrari, and is mainly known for hosting MotoGP races, but many fans and pundits said they'd love to see another F1 race there due to the exciting racing it gave us. As F1 chases the money, races have moved away from Europe to the Middle and Far East, which means brand new tracks in most cases. It's such an expensive sport these days, so I can see why it's been necessary, but I always prefer the traditional tracks like Spa-Francorchamps which have been hosting races for 50 years or more.

BTW. Thanks for your NASCAR updates, Spike. I know I don't comment on them very often, but I do read them all.

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Wow not enough that they stole the win away from Matt Dibenedetto but now they penalized him, what a load of :butthead::censored:. This is officially it Nascar has turned into the WWE. After this season I'm done, I'll just watch the plate races and road courses and short tracks that will be on Fox or NBC. I'm done wasting my internet data on Nascar streaming.

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