HAMPTON, Ga. — Monday morning’s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway had a big effect on the TNT $1 million to-win In-Season Challenge.
What started as a 32-driver bracket of head-to-head matchups is now down to the final four.
Race winner Ryan Blaney disposed of 16th-place William Byron and will face off against Atlanta runner-up Christopher Bell in the semifinals. Bell defeated his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, who finished 12th.
Chase Elliott, who finished 13th, out-dueling JGR’s Chase Briscoe, who finished 36th after being collected in a crash. Elliott will face Todd Gilliland next week at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Gilliland advanced with an 19th-place effort, bettering Hendrick’s Alex Bowman, who finished 22nd.
“Yeah. Somehow, someway,” Gilliland said. “It was not our night tonight, but that is why I love this team. No matter what, we just don’t give up, whether that means we’re running well or just barely grinding out a top 20, sometimes you’ll have those days.
“We’ve been just barely skating by and two more rounds. Two more really good races stand between us and a million bucks. We were just saying, I didn’t have the best night, but in two weeks that would make me feel a lot better. We’ve got the best of the best still in it and it’s time to go beat them.”
The night also had major implications in the championship standings with only six races remaining to set the 16-driver field that will compete in the Chase.
Denny Hamlin retained the championship points lead, however Tyler Reddick, who finished eighth, cut the margin nearly in half. He now trails his 23XI Racing team co-owner by 24 points. Blaney’s victory also moved him into regular season championship talk, cutting what was once a 100-plus point deficit to only 65 points.
Erik Jones finished fifth and moved into the 16th spot in points, while two-time series champion Joey Logano ran eighth trails Jones by only eight points. RFK’s Ryan Preece is ranked 18th, 26 behind Jones.
“I feel good, I’m glad we’re in it,” Jones said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been this deep in the season and been in the Chase, so I’m happy about that but wish it was more. Makes you look back early in the season and so many points we gave away, but we just have to keep working hard.
“We’ve done such a good job of grinding with this group in just every race getting the best finish I feel like we can that day and we did it again today and we’ve got to do that the rest of the season to try to get in.”
Shane van Gisbergen finished sixth and is 15th in the standings, 23 points ahead of Jones.
“I’m still replaying it in my head, but we’ll take a sixth-place finish,” he said. “We needed a great points day. Overall, it was an excellent day for this No. 97 SuperFile Chevrolet team. We were up front for most of the race. We didn’t get many stage points, but we got some. We’ll take that and move onto next weekend.”
