The 2022

Autotrader Auto Trader or AutoTrader may refer to: * Autotrader.com, an American automobile sales website * AutoTrader.ca, a Canadian automobile sales website * Auto Trader Group, a British automobile sales website * AutoTrader.co.za Autotrader.co.za is ...

EchoPark Automotive Sonic Automotive is a Fortune 500 company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is the fifth largest automotive retailer in the United States as measured by total revenues. The company was founded by O Bruton Smith and completed its initial p ...

500 was a NASCAR Cup Series

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

held on September 25, 2022, at

Texas Motor Speedway Texas Motor Speedway is a speedway located in the northernmost portion of the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas – the portion located in Denton County, Texas. The reconfigured track measures with banked 20° in turns 1 and 2 and banked 24° ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

. Contested over 334 laps on the 1.5 mile (2.4 km) intermediate quad-oval, it was the 30th race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, fourth race of the Playoffs and first race of the Round of 12.

Report

Background

Texas Motor Speedway is a

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

located in the northernmost portion of the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

city of

– the portion located in

Denton County, Texas Denton County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 906,422, making it the 7th-most populous county in Texas. The county seat is Denton. The county, which was named for John B. Denton, was establish ...

. The track measures around and is banked 24 degrees in the turns, and is of the oval design, where the front straightaway juts outward slightly. The track layout is similar to

Atlanta Motor Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly known Atlanta International Raceway from 1960 to 1990) is a 1.54-mile entertainment facility in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Cup Series ...

and

Charlotte Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (previously known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009) is a motorsport complex located in Concord, North Carolina, outside Charlotte. The complex features a quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including th ...

(formerly Lowe's Motor Speedway). The track is owned by

Speedway Motorsports Speedway Motorsports, LLC is an American company that owns and manages auto racing facilities that host races sanctioned by NASCAR, IndyCar Series, NHRA, World of Outlaws and other racing series. The company was founded by Bruton Smith and has ...

, Inc., the same company that owns Atlanta and Charlotte Motor Speedway, as well as the short-track

Bristol Motor Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Bristol is among the m ...

Entry list

* (R) denotes rookie driver. * (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Practice

Austin Dillon Austin Reed Dillon (born April 27, 1990) is an American professional stock car racing driver and reality TV show actor. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racin ...

was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 28.778 seconds and a speed of .

Practice results

Qualifying

Brad Keselowski Bradley Aaron Keselowski (; born February 12, 1984) is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and entrepreneur. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 6 Ford Mustang for RFK Racing, a team he also ...

scored the pole for the race with a time of 28.573 and a speed of .

Qualifying results

Race

Throughout the race, several drivers suffered from tire failures;

Corey LaJoie Corey Daniel LaJoie (born September 25, 1991) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Spire Motorsports. LaJoie is the son of two-time NASCAR ...

and

Kevin Harvick Kevin Michael Harvick (born December 8, 1975) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick is the 2014 Cup Series champio ...

's crew chief

Rodney Childers Rodney S. Childers (born June 7, 1976) is an American NASCAR Cup Series crew chief and former professional stock car racing driver. He is currently employed at Stewart-Haas Racing as the crew chief for the No. 4 Ford Mustang, driven by Kevin Har ...

suggested the issue was due to practice of teams running lower tire pressures than Goodyear suggested in pursuit of speed due to restrictions on suspension shock travel on the Next Gen car, with Childers suggesting that the track's configuration worsened the issue. One tire failure in particular, Alex Bowman's on lap 98, resulted in Bowman being diagnosed for concussion-like symptoms after a rear impact crash for which Bowman was forced to sit out the rest of Round of 12 and Round of 8 races. On lap 168,

Cody Ware Cody Shane Ware (born November 7, 1995) is an American professional auto racing driver. A third-generation driver with experience in stock car, sports car, and open-wheel racing, he is the son of NASCAR team owner Rick Ware.William Byron was initially fined $50,000 and fined 25 driver and owner points for spinning

Denny Hamlin James Dennis Alan Hamlin (born November 18, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver and NASCAR team owner. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 11 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. He co-owns and ope ...

during a late caution period. NASCAR initially did not notice the incident during the race, and the penalty was applied two days later.

Ty Gibbs Tyler Randal Gibbs (born October 4, 2002) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 54 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. Gibbs was the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series champi ...

was also fined $75,000 and docked 25 owner points (as Gibbs competed for Xfinity Series points, he received no driver point penalties) for contact with

Ty Dillon Tyler Reed Dillon (born February 27, 1992) is an American professional stock car racing driver who competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Spire Motorsports. He has also competed in the NASCAR Camp ...

on the pit road. It was Gibbs' second penalty for dangerous driving on the pit road, as he had also been penalized for doing the same against

Sam Mayer Sam A. Mayer (born June 26, 2003) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports, a team in which he is also a development driver for ...

at the

Call 811 Before You Dig 250 Stock car racing events in the NASCAR Xfinity Series have been held at Martinsville Speedway, in Martinsville, Virginia during numerous seasons and times of year since the series’ inception in 1982. Races were first held from 1982 to 1994, and ...

in the Xfinity Series that led to a fistfight after the aforementioned race. On October 6, 2022, Byron's points penalty was overturned, but NASCAR increased the fine to $100,000.

Media

Television

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, Two–time Texas winner

Jeff Burton Jeffrey Tyler Burton (born June 29, 1967), nicknamed The Mayor, is an American former professional stock car racing driver and current racing commentator. He scored 21 career victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, including two Coca-Cola 600s in ...

Steve Letarte Steven Letarte (born May 14, 1979) is an American professional NASCAR crew chief and sportscaster who works for NBC Sports as a color commentator on NASCAR on NBC, their telecasts for NASCAR. He also works as a consultant for Spire Motorsports, ...

and 2000 Texas winner

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (born October 10, 1974) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver, team owner, author, and an analyst for ''NASCAR on NBC''. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving t ...

called the race from the broadcast booth. Kim Coon, Parker Kligerman and Marty Snider handled the pit road duties from pit lane.

Radio

PRN had the radio call for the race, which was also simulcast on

Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Since 2008, Sirius XM Radio has had a similar channel lineup, with a few differences based on whether the individual has a Sirius, XM, or SiriusXM radio. For technical reasons, separate radios continue to be manufactured for the separate services ...

. Doug Rice & Mark Garrow covered the action for PRN when the field raced down the front straightaway. Rob Albright covered the action for PRN from a platform outside of Turns 1 & 2, & Pat Patterson covered the action from a platform outside of Turns 3 & 4 for PRN. Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan and

Wendy Venturini Wendy Venturini (born January 30, 1979 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American reporter for the Performance Racing Network (PRN). She works as broadcaster for NASCAR Cup Series races and sometimes as a pit reporter for races on PRN. She had been a ...

had the call from pit lane for PRN.

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Manufacturers' Championship standings *Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

Notes

References

{{2022 NASCAR Cup

Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 The Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car racing, stock car race held at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. The inaugural race took place on November 6, 2005. The race has always started in the late aft ...

NASCAR races at Texas Motor Speedway

NASCAR controversies