With NASCAR’s playoffs hot and heavy, representation of asphalt’s big leaguers was a little lacking, despite a dirt track being literally across the street from the NASCAR Cup Series.
Chase Elliott
The Cup Series regular was the lone active NASCAR driver to make the trip to Talladega Short Track over the weekend, contesting the crate late model division Friday night (Sept. 29).
Elliott started and finished sixth in his heat race, two spots of a transfer spot into the feature event.
Red Farmer
The former Cup Series regular returned to the cockpit Friday and Saturday night at Talladega, running the crate late model division of the “Red Farmer Tribute” both evenings. Though Farmer had to take provisionals to start both features, his weekend was notable in that he gained spots in the running order in both heats, Saturday’s B-main and both features.
Farmer finished 20th on Friday and 24th on Saturday.
Jerry Hill
The former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular contested the Delaware Super Trucks feature at the Georgetown Speedway Sunday night, improving from seventh to a second-place finish. For Hill, it marked his fourth runner-up finish in nine starts at Georgetown this year.
Kasey Kahne
The former Cup Series regular had a busy week in Pennsylvania, contesting both the High Limit Racing Series at Lernerville Speedway Tuesday night and the National Open Saturday night at Williams Grove.
Tuesday night saw Kahne scrape his way into the Commonwealth Clash feature at Lernerville with a runner-up finish in the B-main, though Kahne failed to finish and ended up with a 24th-place result.
Fast forward to Williams Grove and Kahne again managed to qualify for both features, suffering another DNF in the National Open, then scoring a 15th-place finish in the second Saturday feature, which ran to make up for Friday’s rainout.
Most concerning has to be that Kahne failed to improve his running order in any of the races he ran this weekend.
Kyle Larson
The Cup Series regular had a typical strong run with his own High Limit Racing Series at Lernerville Tuesday night, going from fourth to second in both his heat race and the pole dash. Starting second in the feature, Larson led the most laps and was in position to win another big-dollar race of his own before he jumped the cushion inside of 10 laps to go, necessitating one of the saves of the year.
Larson’s eighth-place finish proved costly, as it allowed Rico Abreu to close the gap significantly for the High Limit points lead.
Ken Schrader
The former Cup Series regular spent the weekend at the Richmond Raceway in Kentucky Friday and Saturday night, finishing fifth in second in the UMP modified features at the track.
Schrader topped qualifying on Friday and won a heat race on Saturday.
Austin Wayne Self
The former Truck Series regular continued his dominance on the Mid-East Modified tour Saturday night at Cherokee Speedway in South Carolina, scoring a commanding win from the pole. Self has won 11 races in crate modified competition in 2023 according to MyRacePass.