A 20th-place finish in the Daytona 500 sparked Ryan Heuser's 2024 campaign. Four-straight efforts of 35th-or-worse ensued, with a 9th place finish at Texas failing to rectify his situation. The #138 Nos Energy Quick-Silver Motorsports Chevrolet would have to qualify on speed! 38th in the standings rendered Heuser without a provisional for Richmond, having to race Alan Nesfeder, Jimmie Stevens and other unlucky souls for the top-8 in the 80-lap pre-qualifier. Heuser won the race! A third-place effort in the main event got the ball rolling. Still, they were concluded as blackballed from the Chase after such a major deficit. By Chicagoland, the team was up to 29th in points. Seven-straight top-10 finishes including a victory at the Brickyard 400 jumped him the 19 spots they needed! A competitive field kept the middle-pack points getters close; giving Heuser the opportunity to pass two to three spots at a time with each top-10. "The 46-car fields during the summer-stretch was our salvation" said crew chief Mustard Mahoney. "If a guy went out, we'd gain 100+ every time. Fortunately we never had a problem when it counted most. Everyone else did." Heuser enters Homestead leading in six-straight events, attempting to remedy his broken camshaft at Talladega with a fifth Extravaganza Series crown! They come in just 56-points behind Foley, needing the #3 AC-Delco Chevrolet to finish 13th-or-worse to have a chance.
Two Team Danger Zone entries battle for the Championship! Zach Michael's #20 Coca-Cola Mustang's campaign started a little rough, finishing 18th in the Daytona 500 followed by a four-race stretch without a lap led. Two 32nd-place finishes were followed by a 6th and a 3rd at Rockingham and Atlanta, only to blow up from the pole at Texas after dominating the first-half of the event. A 6th-place finish followed by a victory at Martinsville entered their April short-track stretch 9th in the standings, with three of his four teammates well within contention. Three seventh-place efforts at Darlington, Kansas and Pocono were followed by a demonic stretch of bad luck, dropping to 14th in points as he and rookie Molemar Diggs dropped to the veterans of Scott Jackson and Dave Miller. Unlike the rookie, Michael battled back with three-straight top-5's at Chicagoland, New Hampshire and Pocono. Their magnum-opus of the year might be their 4th-place run at Richmond, solidifying themselves into the Chase with teammate Zakk Miller. A crash in the Southern 500 left the team 184 points behind Foley. They would not be denied! Seven top-16 efforts in the next eight events; leading all but one with a victory at Charlotte to boot! Zach Michael comes in 75 points behind Johnny Reed Foley, needing the #3 to finish 18th or worse to have a shot at their first Championship title!
Nobody's completed more laps or earned more poles in their 2024 campaign than Bepis-man Zakk Miller! The #30 Team Danger Zone team enters their fourth season, earning a second-straight chase bid en route to their first top-5 points result. All they have to do is finish 16th or better to pull off the feat! They were the first team to finish outside the top-30, going 22-races before a 42nd-place at Michigan. His two DNF's leads the league, finishing the year as the only man to complete 10,000 laps if John Tharp has trouble. He out-dueled Tharp at Bristol for his only victory of the season, only to get beat by the #14 at the Eddie Money Classic to start-off the chase! Miller was the points leader just two races in. With Johnny Reed Foley, teammate Zach Michael and Ryan Heuser dominating the resuming seven-race stretch, the #30 Bepis Mustang fights for their lives, needing a Johnny Reed Foley dilemma to solidify themselves back in the hunt! They're 118 points back entering the Pennzoil 400.
