Former NASCAR Champions Forced to Last Chance Qualifier in Bowman Gray Clash

The good news for his Team Penske crew is that he is the top seed to receive the provisional spot based on his second-place championship points finish last season. His teammate and last year’s champion, Joey Logano, finished second in Heat 3 to advance into the main event.

For the next heat race, another recent champion is also facing elimination to no fault of his own. On Lap 4 , Kyle Larson was on the outside of Daniel Suarez close with Bubba Wallace and Zane Smith for a transfer spot. Smith aggressively closed the door on Suarez, but Suarez gave him a shot to send Smith up the track. That bottlenecked the outside lane and dropped Larson to eighth.

The 2021 champion was unable to gain any ground back and will line up 10th in the Last Chance Qualifier.

Ty Gibbs was on the wrong side of the cut line as he could not find a way around Alex Bowman. He will start third in the LCQ tomorrow behind the front row of Ty Dillon and Smith. Gibbs will be one to not count out. In last year’s Clash exhibition, the Cup Series raced on the quarter mile of the Los Angeles Coliseum, leading 84 of the 151 laps.

Should the longshot of Blaney and Larson finishing in the top two positions, Gibbs, 2022 Xfinity Champion, would be the third and final driver eligible for the provisional transfer option.

The fourth and final heat race was one for the memory books. Two cautions and aggressive racing forced a past Xfinity Series champion into the LCQ. In his return to the Cup Series with the rebranded Haas Factory Team, Cole Custer will need a top two finish in the LCQ to advance to the main event after AJ Allmendinger pinched him into the wall on the exit of Turn 4.

Another driver that suffered from the second caution was John Hunter Nemechek. After bumping Ryan Preece for a transfer spot, Preece retaliated back and sent Nemechek spinning in the next corner. Nemechek would have to pit for repairs before returning to the track.

The two would finish in the last two spots when the checkered flag waved for the final time on Saturday night.

Both invitationals of Burt Myers and Tim Brown, two of the winningest drivers at Bowman Gray Stadium, will also have one more chance in the LCQ to make Sunday’s main event.

Sunday’s LCQ will air on Fox starting at 6 p.m. ET for a 75-lap shootout to determine the final three entries into the main event. The Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray starts at 8 p.m. ET.