Round 2 in the Racing Lead Change Championship was topsy-turvy and ended with a bang as six different drivers found their way to the front in this trio of races.
Shane Van Gisbergen scored 7 RLCs, tying him with Austin Cindric for the most in a single race, jumping his season total to 16 RLCS to go with his 5-road course wins this season. Kyle Larson was the only driver to score RLCs in multiple races, finding the front at round-opener, New Hampshire and round-closer, The ROVAL. Playoff Leader Denny Hamlin was the only driver to pitch a shutout this round as he was the only driver to score RLCs (2) at Kansas.
Defending 2024 Playoff & RLC Champ, current RLC leader and the last driver to slide into the Round of Eight, Joey Logano, added 2 RLCs to bring his season total to 22 RLCs, 5 ahead of Ryan Blaney. Blaney opened the Round with 3 RLCs at New Hampshire to tighten the gap on Logano, the final driver to make it into the Round of Eight. Round of Twelve contenders Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace failed to advance in the Playoffs and none scored any RLCs this Round.
As far as the topsy-turvy nature of this round, Goodyear brought new tires to the tracks in this round and it showed. On the topsy side, New Hampshire which is usually an RLC bottom-feedersaw 6 RLCs, greatly elevating its rank among the NON-PACKtracks. Likewise with The ROVAL which last year saw only 1 RLC, treated fans to 9 RLCs this year, boosting it to second place among the NON-PACK tracks.
On the turvy side, Kansas which historically leads the NON-PACK tracks in RLCs only produced 2 by one driver. This was better than the 1 RLC in the spring race there but was a serious unexpected drop and this normally, highly competitive at the front track.
Here are the following breakdowns for each of the three races in the Round of Twelve.
PLAYOFFS ROUND 2
NEW HAMPSHIRE
The opening race in Round 2 saw Ryan Blaney with the race and the RLC as he opened with an RLC, closed with an RLC for the win and threw another one in for good measure. In a race that normally is dependent on Leaders Pitting under Green to produce Lead Changes it was refreshing to see the RLCs be the predominate Lead Change as Blaney battled it out with first and third place Joey Logano and Kyle Larson.
Below is the New Hampshire Breakdown
KANSAS
Denny Hamlin got the only RLCs (2) for the race but couldn’t hold off the ever-popular Chase Elliott for the win. On the second GWC attempt, Hamlin was battling his 23XI driver, Bubba Wallace for the win. Elliott restarted in eighth. Elliott climbed to fifth on the last lap as the two Toyotas battled at the front. On the last lap Elliott saw the seas part as he moved his way through the field as Hamlin took Wallace high in the last corner producing the final opening, he needed to get his second win of the season and lock him into the Round of Eight.
The race at a track that is normally one of the NON-PACK tracks in RLCs saw 13 of the 15 Green Flag Lead Changes come from passes resulting from the field being bunched on Restarts or Leaders relinquishing the lead due to differing pit strategies. This dropped it from a top RLC producer to near bottom, just slightly better than the single RLC spring race here.
Here is the Kansas Breakdown
ROVAL
The speedway road course has always produced the unexpected. This year was no different as Shane Van Gisbergen took his fifth Road Course win of the season. SVG had a record tying 7 RLCs (tying him with Austin Cindric at the 500) as he would give up the lead when pitting and then come back out and motor past the field. Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell gave SVG a bit more of a battle than others in previous races, with Larson being the only driver to pass the rookie for the lead, not once but twice. But in the end, when SVG passed Larson with 12 to go, there was no looking back and SVG finished a whooping 15.160 seconds over the field who were beating and banging and backing across the line.
The win by SVQ wasn’t unexpected. Joey Logano making it into the Round of Eight maybe wasn’t either. The one thing that was unexpected was The ROVAL and it’s RLCs. 9! 9!
Those are road course numbers. Road courses on an exceptional day may fill up 1 hand. 9 are last years Kansas numbers (sorry can’t say the same about this year). You don’t see those kinds of numbers on a Road course. Bristol when the tires are right, maybe, but not here.
I told you this round was topsy-turvy.
Below is The ROVAL Breakdown:
Followed by the ROUND 2 Breakdown. Playoff Contenders through this Round are in bold red.
The Season Standings after ROUND 2 is as follows with Joey Logano still atop the Leader Board. Bold red designates drivers advancing to ROUND 3. Red designates drivers eliminated in ROUNDS 1 & 2.
And here is a breakdown of the Tracks RLCs including ROUND 1 & 2 Results, where we see the ROVAL and New Hampshire’s rise to the top of the NON-PACK tracks and Kansas’ fall from the top.
ROUND 3 and BEYOND
Round 3 opens at Las Vegas, followed by Dega and Martinsville. Vegas 2 produced more RLCs than Vegas 1 last year. Can they top 7 we had in the Spring?
Dega is Dega. Last year this race produced a whooping 57 RLCs. So if the standings are going to get shuffled, this race should do it.
Then there is Martinsville.
I’m not making any predictions, just want to remind everyone to think back to last season. Joey Logano was out, and post-race made it back in. He was also atop the RLC Standings-the only metric he led in. We all know how that worked out.
This year he made it back in one lap earlier and is also atop the RLC Standings. Coincidence? Can he repeat?
One thing is for sure; we’ll start to find out Sunday afternoon so tune in to get the answer to this and many other questions. Till then…
Thunder On… and Stay Safe!
David Nance
Photo Credit (cover): Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images