April was a month filled with new Cup series winners, dominance from NASCARs top contenders and a late race caution costing denny hamlin a win in a race yet again so, lets dive into the action!
Cook out 400 – Martinsville Speedway (March 29th)
Welcome to the shortest track on the NASCAR Schedule, with a lap at Martinsville lasting around 20 seconds. Denny Hamlin won the pole, and would lead the entirety of the first 290 laps of 400. However 2 cautions in stage 3 allowed a brilliant strategy call from Alan Gustafsen and the 9 team of Chase Elliot to bolt right to the top, and with Hamlin being a tad too tight and unable to navigate the dirty air, Chase Elliot would edge out Denny Hamlin for his first win the season. It was a monumental win for Chevrolet and Hendrick who have been struggling all season with the new car body introduced this season.
Food City 500 – Bristol Motor Speedway (April 12th)
The Easter break allowed for teams to take a break and figure out what was going right and wrong, and just in time for Bristol. The Last Great Coliseum, also known as the fastest half mile in the world, makes a lap last around 14-15 seconds. Ryan Blaney led us to green and would battle with Kyle Larson for the win throughout most of the race with Blaney leading 190 laps and Larson 284. With 50 to go, it looked like Kyle Larson was going to run away with the race. A caution then came out for Chase Elliot who spun off of turn 4. Ty Gibbs, who had been lingering in 3rd, decided not to pit, and this turned out to be the best call of the day as with 10 other cars staying out, it provided Gibbs a gap to Larson and Blaney where he would go out and dominate until Riley Herbst spun with 15 to go.
Larson and Blaney would be starting right behind Gibbs, but despite the tire deficit, Gibbs held them off to win his first race of his NASCAR Cup Series Career. Being the grandson of legendary Coach Joe Gibbs doesn’t make things easy. Throughout his entire career, many have criticized him and said he only has his seat because of his grandfather. This win sent a message to those naysayers, as he has proved he works just as hard, if not harder, than his teammates and he deserves his seat at JGR not for his name but for his talent and skill.
AdventHealth 400 – Kansas Speedway (April 19th)
Welcome to NASCARs newest most popular track. Kansas has been known as having the best racing in NASCAR and home to some of the most exciting finishes like in 2024 when Kyle Larson beat out Chris Buesher by 0.001s. Tyler Reddick brought us to the green flag to begin the 267 Lap race at the 1.5 mile track and would fall back immediately to the two behemoths who had been competitive in every single race, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson. They would split the lead for most of the day with Hamlin leading 134 laps and Larson 78. Late in the Race Denny Hamlin surged to the lead, overtaking Larson and Reddick, and it looked like Hamlin would be able to claim his second victory of the season.
That’s probably what he was thinking until Cody Ware spun right around in front of him. Cody Ware was in last and six laps down and was on tires that were in essence really friggin old and worn. On the ensuing restart, Hamlin would lose the lead into turn one after Larson dived to the inside and Larson pulled away until he realized his car was extremely tight, meaning his car wanted to plunge into the outside wall, and it gave Tyler Reddick just enough time to pass him and steal his 5th win of the season.
Jack Links 500 – Talladega SuperSpeedway (April 26th)
If there is any NASCAR track people know, it’s probably Talladega. I mean, how could you not. The most infamous track in NASCAR’s history has played to some of the wildest moments in NASCAR’s history, such as Bill Elliot becoming the fastest driver clocking in a lap at around 212.8 MPH and coming back after blowing an engine and being 5 laps down.
It’s also where Dale Earnhardt came from 20th to first in the final five laps in 1999 for his final career win. The green flag dropped and the race began at the 2.1 mile superspeedway. It would be relatively calm for the first 114 laps until Ross Chastain gave Bubba Wallace a huge shove that turned him into the wall and absolutely wrecked the whole field. When it was all said and done, 25 cars were involved and about half of the field was no longer able to contend for the win. This left the door wide open for the final 30 laps. It would be relatively calm until the last lap where Carson Hocevar would emerge victorious and give us the best burn out and celebration of the season, burning it down while sitting on his car door’s window.
NASCAR is at Dover this weekend for the all star race before returning to Charlotte for the Coca Cola 600. You can catch all the action on FOX.