NASCAR changes New Hampshire results shortly after the race ends

RSS Racing with Viking Motorsports’ Matt DiBenedetto originally finished Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 17th place, giving him his fifth top 20 finish of a 2024 season that only started for him in race number six on the calendar.

But DiBenedetto was later disqualified from the 203-lap SciAps 200 around the four-turn, 1.058-mile (1.703-kilometer) “Magic Mile” oval in Loudon, New Hampshire, dropping him from 17th to 38th (last) place on the official results sheet.

The disqualification came due to three loose lug nuts on the right rear wheel of DiBenedetto’s No. 38 Ford, which was sponsored by race title sponsor SciAps. As a result, DiBenedetto scored just one point on Saturday instead of 20.

Everybody who originally finished behind DiBenedetto moved up by one spot, with those who had finished between 18th and 36th place gaining an additional point.

The original 37th and 38th place finishers, DGM Racing’s Nathan Byrd and Young’s Motorsports’ Leland Honeyman, still scored just one point each after moving up to 36th and 37th, respectively.

Notably, DiBenedetto did not score any points in either one of the first two stages, as he did not finish in the top 10 in either, so the only post-race points changes came a result of his updated finishing position.

DiBenedetto, who has competed in 11 races this year, fell from 26th to 29th place in the point standings as a result of the disqualification, though he is not eligible for the playoffs anyway, since he missed the season’s first five races and was not issued a waiver.

With nobody gaining more than a single point due to his disqualification, there were no huge changes to the playoff picture. The most significant change as far as the playoffs are concerned is the fact that Our Motorsports’ Anthony Alfredo, who moved up from 21st to 20th place in Saturday’s race, is now 71 points below the cut line instead of 72.