- Xfinity 250 - Martinsville Speedway - 1. (#91) Zack Saunders - 2. (#1) Cory Mott - 3. (#29) Steward Harding Walker - 4. (#69) Caleb Tipton - 5. (#94) Thomas Wolfe - 6. (#22) Nic Vasquez - 7. (#6) Stephen Menke - 8. (#3) Ben Lawson - 9. (#37) Joe T. Wright - 10. (#16) Nathaniel Campbell - 11. (#57) Michael Deitch - 12. (#00) Garth Griswold - 13. (#11) Nishil Condoor - 14. (#7) Steven Carlile - 15. (#8) Zach Johnson - 16. (#99) Justin Bell - 17. (#74) Caleb Sheets - 18. (#30) Mason Hoeffner - 19. (#96) Vince Mitchell
The Champions have been Crowned for the 2024 Crown Jewel Racing Season, and what a year it has been. Two hundred sixty-seven days ago, the battle for the Championship began at the beaches of Daytona, and last night, the victor claimed their throne in the desert of Phoenix.
Championship night meant Crown Jewel Racing of 312 Laps around the mile-long Phoenix RACEWAY. Stephen Menke, Thomas Wolfe, Nic Vasquez, and Cory Mott were all racing to be crowned the Team Conti Sim Performance Cup Champion.
Menke would set the tone in qualifying by capturing the pole by three-thousandths of a second over Thomas Wolfe. Nic Vasquez would qualify 9th, and Cory Mott would have to battle from the back starting in 23rd after making contact with the wall.
Menke led the field to the green flag, but Wolfe also also had a great jump off the start. Wolfe beat Menke back to the line and led the first lap. Most drivers were surprised to find a clean start since the Spring race had 24 cautions and raced 200 laps. But the racing would stay under the green flag until an incident involving Jim Mott and Garth Griswold would bring out the yellow flag on Lap 30. There would be four more cautions throughout the Stage, with the final one on Lap 59 with Thomas Wolfe getting the stage win and momentum heading into Stage 2.
Stage 2
Allen Phillips led the pack back to the green flag and led the race until Zack Saunders captured the lead on Lap 66. The first caution of Stage 2 came out on Lap 84 when Ben Lawson got loose through the dogleg on the front stretch. The field would get stacked back up. Zack Saunders was still leading, but all four playoff drivers who were hunting for the Championship were lined up behind him.
Wolfe would recapture the lead on Lap 96 from Saunders before a Championship Implication incident occurred on Lap 114. Menke would get loose going into one, slide up the track, and collide with Griswold and Stewart Harding Walker, who would make contact with Menke’s teammate and playoff driver Nic Vasquez. This incident would end Walker’s night, but the playoff drivers escaped without severe damage.
Cautions would breed more caution throughout Stage 2, with the significant incident occurring on Lap 169 when Vasquez would give a tap to Saunders’s back bumper, which caused him to snap into the outside wall. Vasquez’s teammate and team owner Stephen Menke couldn’t avoid Saunders, and they would collide just past the start-finish line. Menke’s guardian angel was with him last night as he again avoided serious damage.
Another significant incident on Lap 177 would take out a few non-playoff drivers on the front stretch, but the Stage would end on lap 184, and Nathaniel Campbell would lead the field to his first Stage win of the year.
To Pit or Not to Pit
Pit Strategy would become the key in the final phase of the race as green flag racing would resume one Lap 219 with 93 Laps to go. Wolfe would maintain the lead, but the strategy was coming into play behind him. Finishing the race on the last fuel stop would be a stretch as Wolfe, Griswold, Menke, and Tipton would do their best to stretch the run out as long as possible and try to make it to the end. Mott and Vasquez would pit, and the race was on to see if Mott and Vasquez could get back on the lead lap and catch Wolfe again before the checkered flag flew.
Mott needed to get around Oskar Jensen on Lap 277 behind Wolfe to get back on the lead lap. Mott would be on the outside of Jensen when Jensen would snap loose, and he and Mott would go wrecking into the wall. Mott’s Championship hunt was over just like that.
With Wolfe leading, Menke was behind Caleb Tipton and Griswold sitting in 4th, and Vasquez hunting the Wolfe in 5th with 31 laps to go. Wolfe would lead the field to the green for the final time; when the green flag waved, Wolfe would throw up the deuces, and he was gone. Wolfe would drive to the checkered flag with a four-second lead to win the 2024 Team Conti Sim Performance Cup Championship.
“I like to think I have a little talent, but really the secret to the sauce, is late night test runs, racing as much as I could, and just work that I have put in over the season that earned me this Championship.”
Thomas Wolfe, #94 Backroad Bandit Racing, Chevy
BBR Dominates
The Backroad Bandit Racing team would end the season on a high note, winning every race of the Championship Weekend, with Zack Saunders winning the VRS Truck Series Championship on Monday. Zack Saunders would also win the Bob Henry’s Xfinity Series race on Tuesday, but Stewart Harding Walker would win the Season Championship.
To conclude Championship night, Thomas Wolfe would bring the BBR Race Team back from the ashes the organization found themselves in at the halfway point of the season to find themselves on top of the Crown Jewel Racing League.
From the Admin Team: Thank you to the entire CJR Community, the team owners, the drivers, the broadcasters, all of our wonderful sponsors, for which we are so grateful, and lastly, to the fans. We hope you enjoyed this season as much as we did, and we can’t wait to run it back in 2025.
Happy Holidays to you and your family!
