The 1000Bulbs 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, the second race of the second round of the 2019 playoffs, was halted after 57 laps because of rain. The race is scheduled to resume for the completion of the 188-lap scheduled distance at 1 p.m. CT Monday.
The race was paused after William Byron took the stage-one win on lap 55.
“You never know what can happen here, so we’re just going to try to work together and see what happens at the end of it,” Byron said of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates after qualifying on Saturday.
After the HMS quartet of Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Byron and Jimmie Johnson started the race in the first two rows, drivers including Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch all led laps before Ryan Blaney took the lead on lap 19. Blaney led the most laps in the opening stage, running up front for 15 laps before spinning as he entered pit road for a green-flag stop on lap 35. He also was nabbed for speeding in the pits. By the end of the stage, though, he was back inside the top-10.
Blaney’s Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski was up front after a caution a few laps later. Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Elliott and Daniel Hemric also led laps before Byron took his stage-winning lead on lap 51.
The top-10 for the resumption of the race is as follows: Joey Logano, Bowman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Johnson, Daniel Suarez, Kurt Busch and Blaney. They remain in the same order in which the finished the opening stage, as pit road had yet to open for yellow-flag pit stops.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Matt Crafton will be behind the wheel of the #21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford as a substitute for Paul Menard, who is suffering a neck issue. Menard drove the car through the opening stage.
“I’m getting old,” Menard said. “It’s all part of what you sign up for when you’re born, I guess. My neck has some disc issues and things that if I were to get upside-down it would be pretty bad. Normal hits aren’t bad, it’s upside-down things that are bad.”
Discussion about this post