The top three series in NASCAR are no strangers to overtime finishes, and a lot of them. Most recently, we saw a record number of overtimes attempted at Nashville in the Cup Series. We’re going to take a look at the most overtimes in each of NASCAR’s national series, Trucks, Xfinity, and Cup. We’ll start with the Truck Series and work our way to Cup.
We start by going all the way back to 2004 at Gateway to the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers “Ram Tough” 200. This was the race that would never end, and saw four overtime restarts, back in the days of Green-White-Checkered finishes. The calamity started with 5 laps to go when Jack Sprague had a mechanical failure.
This led to the first overtime restart, which saw an incredible drag race down the backstretch between Bobby Hamilton and Shane Hmiel before Terry Cook would spin, bringing out the caution flag. The second attempt at overtime saw Hamilton drive deep into turn two to get alongside Hmiel for the lead, before the two collected each other in a hard crash into the outside wall. Overtime attempt number three had a similar end to the second attempt, seeing Rick Crawford slam into the outside wall at the exit of turn two, sending his truck up on its side and bringing out yet another caution flag. This would lead to the fourth and final restart, which saw a perfectly executed bump-and-run from David Starr to win the event.
This race would hold the record of overtime attempts in the Truck Series for nearly 20 years, before it was matched just last year in the 2023 championship race at Phoenix.
We don’t have to go back too far for this one! You likely remember this one for being an absolute farce of a finish to a championship race at Phoenix. The chaos started here after a run-in between Championship 4 contenders Carson Hocevar and Corey Heim, with four laps to go. Heim paid Hocevar back for an earlier incident, which eliminated Heim from contention. Cautions followed for incidents involving Derek Kraus, Zane Smith, and Ty Majeski which brought the overtime count up to four, tying the record.
The race was eventually won in epic fashion by Ben Rhodes, who collected his second Truck Series title after holding off a late charge from Grant Enfinger. This race will live in infamy for all the wrong reasons, but it did have a great finish.
This race started the 2018 Xfinity Series season at Daytona with a record FIVE overtime attempts. You may remember this race being full of Cup Series drivers, the photo finish, and an insane number of cautions. It all started with three to go when Elliott Sadler took a harmless spin down the backstretch near Lake Lloyd. Sadler received no damage and didn’t take anyone out with him, so why the caution was thrown, who knows. But it led to the first overtime attempt, and chaos ensued. A massive crash happened on the backstretch involving the leader at the time, Kyle Larson, and other Cup Series regulars, Aric Almirola, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, and many others.
The remaining overtime restarts saw incidents involving a spin of Spencer Gallagher off the front bumper of Ross Chastain, a wreck coming to the trioval just before the white flag flew involving Ryan Ellis and Brandon Jones, and a massive wreck involving Dylan Lupton, bringing the overtime total to five. The race saw an epic photo finish between teammates Tyler Reddick and Elliott Sadler, which still holds the record for the closest finish in Xfinity Series history at 0.0004 seconds.
The Cup Series just recently set the series overtime record a couple of weeks ago in Nashville, with an incredible five attempts that saw two-time champ Joey Logano prevail to capture his first points-paying win of the season, overcoming a fuel deficit that caused havoc for others. What led to this dramatic finish? It started with a late solo spin from Austin Cindric, bringing out the late race caution. On the first overtime attempt, Kyle Larson drove too deep into turn one, clipped the apron, and took out the #1 of Ross Chastain.
A massive crash would follow on the second overtime attempt collecting Josh Berry, Todd Gilliland, Corey Heim and others, which made the fuel situation even more harrowing for some of the leaders, one being Larson, who decided to gamble. The gamble did not pay off, and Larson sputtered on the restart and caused Kyle Busch to spin out on the third restart, ending his day. On the fourth restart, Josh Berry would spin, bringing with it an unprecedented fifth overtime restart.
This one would eventually be the last, seeing Logano cross the line on fumes to capture the checkered flag. Never before had the Cup Series seen a quintuple overtime, and this race will live on in the NASCAR record books, for now, as having the most overtime attempts in Cup Series history.
Now that we’ve taken a look back at the races with the most overtime attempts in each series, let us know what you think. Do you remember all of these, and are there any other iconic overtime finishes you can think of? With most of these being fairly recent, will we see these finishes be eclipsed sooner than later, or will they hold on to their respective records for years to come? Will we ever see a race with SIX overtime attempts? Let us know your thoughts, and follow us at The Daily Downforce on all of our social channels, and stick with us for the latest news in NASCAR all year long!
