Points battle tightening up with tricky tests ahead

Pocono Raceway‘s three unique corners offer one of the biggest annual tests on the Cup Series schedule. This season, Pocono begins a lengthy stretch of asymmetry for the field with the “Tricky Triangle” preceding next week‘s debut at Naval Base Coronado, a trip to the windy Sonoma Raceway, a return to Chicagoland Speedway for the first time since 2019, the always-treacherous EchoPark Speedway, the first points-paying race at North Wilkesboro Speedway since 1996, and finally, the crown jewel Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Safe to say, the points entering Sunday versus what they will look like during the final week of July will likely be dramatically different.

And it all begins as Denny Hamlin, who‘s won two races in a row, is chasing down Tyler Reddick for the top spot in the standings.

Reddick, who held a 129-point advantage over his 23XI Racing co-owner Hamlin just one month ago, has now seen it shrink to just 51.

“Honestly, it‘s crazy when you‘re at the top, you think, ‘OK, we‘re good. We‘re happy.‘ You‘re able to just solely focus on setting yourself up to win races and so we‘ll have to be a little bit more mindful of points for a bit here unless we‘re able to pull back away again,” Reddick said. “I would say we‘ve just been able to just focus solely on bringing really fast race cars and not really worrying about trying anything else, which has been nice. A little bit more pressure now, but hopefully I can handle it.”

MORE: Updated weekend schedule | At-track photos

Toyota has been the dominant manufacturer on track so far in 2026, and Hamlin is now blooming as the main beneficiary with triumphs at Nashville and Michigan — where he‘s had to come all the way from the rear of the field both times.

The win streak hasn‘t been easy for the 45-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver, but the confidence may be at an all-time high for Hamlin even if he‘s not dominating these races.

“This is certainly the peak of that,” Hamlin said of the No. 11 team‘s strength. “There‘s been other times where we‘ve had a lot of success over a stretch like you‘re talking about, but not as dominating. I don‘t know that we really dominated the last few weeks. When we needed to, we could, and that‘s been the difference this time around versus previous. I feel very confident in the way that I‘m approaching each race track, the way that I need to get speed out of the cars, what I need out of them in traffic, all those things. I feel pretty dialed in with that right now.”

With the variation in the coming weeks, Hamlin discussed his week-to-week process and how his experience has allowed the transitions to different tracks not really affect how he approaches certain race weekends.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

“The process starts a little bit sooner,” Hamlin said. “You need more laps, more reps at a track like San Diego versus somewhere like here at Pocono. So, I don‘t really treat it any differently. My advantage right now is just simply that the laps that I‘ve got at all these tracks. Any of these tracks that I‘ve been successful at, or had wins, or run really strong, I know what that feel is, and so I just go in there and I try to replicate that feel over and over and over.

“It‘s truthfully been easy when we‘re coming to these race tracks where I‘ve had success or had wins. It‘s tracks like San Diego where I don‘t know what the right feel is. I don‘t know where I‘m at on the race track. That‘s where the challenge really comes in, but all the other tracks is pretty easy at this point knowing what I need out of the car. Not easy to get the result. The process is not easy, but it‘s certainly easy to know what I need.”

In the details …

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Pocono hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: What the crew chiefs are saying | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: New colors set for Pocono | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: Bell‘s Michigan crash was the hardest in Next Gen era | Listen now
• Power Rankings: New No. 1 going into Pocono race | This week‘s ranks
• NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Pocono | Watch now

Contributing: Zach Sturniolo

Crew chiefs are trying to ensure they won‘t get fooled again.

MORE: Updated Pocono schedule

Paul Wolfe, three-time champion crew chief of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford and driver Joey Logano, emphasized Saturday that strategy will be at the forefront of his and every other crew chief‘s mind in Sunday‘s race at Pocono (1 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). But in order to capitalize when opportunity presents itself, their drivers also need a good race car.

“Obviously, you‘ve gotta have a car that handles well and has decent speed, but these races are so much about strategy and how to play that,” Wolfe told NASCAR.com. “A lot of it just really depends on if you get cautions or not. That‘s really when it starts changing.

“So yeah, having a game plan, knowing what you can maximize from a fuel strategy standpoint as far as what you feel like you can save depending on your driver.”

Teams will also traverse the “Tricky Triangle” with a new right-side tire from Goodyear. Wolfe said feedback from Logano indicates no significant change in feel behind the wheel, but an improvement from previous tires at other intermediate tracks on the circuit.

“Based off of practice, I don‘t think we‘re going to have the issues we‘ve had at some other places with this construction and seeing the cords after a fuel run,” Wolfe said, “So I think knowing that‘s not a concern, I think it‘ll be more of a Pocono-type strategy setup.”

Another unique wrinkle at Pocono is its pit road, the longest and widest on the NASCAR circuit but one which features new timing lines to measure competitors‘ rolling speed. Officials permitted teams to measure and roll at pit-road speed during Saturday‘s practice, a unique addition to the session.

“Typically, they don‘t like guys to practice pit-road speeds right during practice sessions,” Wolfe said. “We‘ll look at that, just to kind of see where we were at the game there, but yeah, just remeasured, replaced some timing lines, basically, which I don‘t know that it‘s going to have a huge impact on pit road (Sunday), but just something new, something for us to pay attention to.”

Brakes have also come into focus after some rotors failed two weeks ago at Nashville Superspeedway. Pocono is no stranger to brake failures itself, with multiple drivers experiencing issues over the years.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

“I think what‘s unique about Pocono is you do use a lot of brake rub for the biggest track as this is,” Wolfe said. “We have those long straightaways where you get the big heat swings in the rotors, and guys are trying to tune cars with different brake pads or packages, I guess you‘d say that work on the car balance rather than not just using the brakes to slow the car down, but using brakes to make the car handle differently. So when you start doing that, you start stressing certain rotors more than others, and then we have options as far as what we call a light-duty rotor versus a heavy-duty rotor. Pretty basic is what the meaning of them: one‘s lighter and one‘s heavier.

“Typically, you think running a lighter one‘s not a problem here, but if you get yourself in some weird brake-pad combinations, I think that‘s where you can get yourself in trouble. Obviously, I don‘t know where the field is, but I‘m sure there‘s different brake rotors and pad combinations throughout the field tomorrow. We talked about it coming here. It‘s definitely something on our radar as we like to use that as a tuning tool, but you‘re weighing out risk and reward.”

Allgaier led a race-best 35 of the 100 laps, ultimately taking the lead for good on a restart with two laps remaining. Haas Factory Team teammates Sam Mayer — who was Allgaier‘s greatest challenge on the day — and Sheldon Creed created a three-wide push for the lead on the final restart, but ultimately slid backward as Allgaier‘s JRM teammate William Byron was able to push Allgaier‘s No. 7 Chevrolet forward and help him create a gap on the field.

The advantage was all Allgaier needed to race off to a 0.607-second win over Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Brent Crews, who passed Byron on the last corner of the final lap for second place.

RELATED: Official race results

The victory was the 2024 series champion‘s first at the historic 2.5-mile, triangle-shaped track, giving him wins now at 21 different venues. And it marked the fifth win of the year for Allgaier, tying his previous season-high win total.

“First of all, I‘ve got to say thank you to William Byron because without his shove at the end of the race, it was probably game over,” Allgaier said before thanking the fans for filling the grandstands.

“This season has been special with [crew chief] Andrew Overstreet and this whole No. 7 team and this pit crew right here,” he said, adding with a grin, “We‘re going to go celebrate this one for sure.”

Slowed by all the caution flags — four in the opening 25-lap stage alone — the early part of the race never allowed one driver to establish a rhythm and set the pace among all the starting and stopping.

Polesitter Taylor Gray led 24 laps and won the opening stage, and Crews claimed the Stage 2 win. But the final half of the race became a duel between Allgaier and Mayer, who led 14 laps and exchanged the lead with Allgaier frequently in the closing laps — sometimes on the same lap. They started side-by-side out front on the three final restarts, and Mayer looked like his No. 41 HFT Chevrolet would at least keep Allgaier honest. In the end, Mayer and Creed finished fourth and fifth.

“It was either the double zero [Creed] was trying to make a block, or just a push gone wrong a little bit,” Mayer said of the unsuccessful three-wide move on that last restart. “Just really unfortunate circumstance. We actually had a really good launch.

“At the end of these races, you‘re not going to not take a run, so I don‘t blame my teammate for pulling out of line like that, but obviously it put me in a bad spot,” Mayer continued. “The middle [lane] was OK if I had people with me. … Obviously today we executed really, really well, so lots to be proud about, but obviously I‘m very devastated right now because I just want a shot at it and don‘t feel like I‘ve gotten a really true shot at it when the white flag flew.

“We were close today, executed really good and I‘m really proud of everybody. One day it‘s going to be my turn, and I can‘t wait.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Incredibly, Allgaier‘s effort — the 33rd victory of his career — now puts him 250 points ahead of second place, Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love, in the series championship standings with seven regular-season races remaining. Love only completed a single lap after being collected in the first of 10 yellow-flag incidents on the day.

“Just frustrated, obviously. Thought our Camaro was going to be good today,” Love said, adding, “Only got one lap to feel it out, but I was happy with that one corner. Wish we had gotten a few more.”

Anthony Alfredo, Rajah Caruth, Brandon Jones, the defending Pocono race winner Connor Zilisch and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top 10.

Jeremy Clements led a lap and finished 16th on a historic day for his career and the series. The 41-year-old South Carolinian tied Kenny Wallace for the most starts in O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series history at 547. Wallace set the record in 2011 and last raced in 2015. Clements will claim the mark for himself when he takes next week‘s green flag at San Diego.

The series heads to Southern California for next Saturday‘s inaugural United Rentals Driven to Serve 250 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego.

Note: Inspection was completed in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series garage with no issues, confirming Allgaier as the winner.

The veteran driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota claimed his fourth Busch Light Pole Award of the 2026 season Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway and will lead the field to green in Sunday‘s Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA (1 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Of note, with poor weather expected later Sunday afternoon, the green flag start time was moved up by two hours to 1 p.m. ET.

This marks the 51st pole position of Hamlin‘s career and comes as the popular veteran is attempting to win three consecutive races for the first time in his celebrated career after victories the last two weeks in Nashville and Michigan.

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Pocono

He was the last driver to take to the track in Saturday‘s qualifying session and just nudged Hendrick Motorsports‘ driver Kyle Larson from the top position in the final minutes — Hamlin‘s lap of 173.250 mph around the 2.5-mile triangular-shaped Pocono track was 0.057 seconds quicker than Larson‘s best.

“Certainly had the grip, this whole team just did a great job with adjustments, making it a little better from practice, I didn‘t execute a very good lap there in Turn 2, but overall I thought I hit [turns] three and one pretty decent — just good enough,” Hamlin said.

He acknowledged he and the team are certainly on a hot streak at the moment, with wins in the non-points-paying All-Star Race four weeks ago, plus the two victories in the last two weeks. The effort has helped Hamlin cut 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick‘s 100-plus point advantage over him atop the standings to only 51 points heading into Pocono, a place Hamlin has won a record seven times.

“It‘s certainly going well and confidence is up with these guys [on the team] that every time I enter a corner at about 200, I know they‘ve built me a car that‘s going to stick,” Hamlin said, acknowledging his three-in-a-row opportunity.

“This is the best shot for sure, we‘ve got a little work to do on the car overnight to get it to be a race winner, but I feel like we‘re in that box where we need to be and we‘ll fine-tune it from here.”

Starting behind Hamlin and Larson are Daniel Suárez in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and Hamlin‘s JGR teammates Ty Gibbs (No. 54 Toyota) and defending race winner Chase Briscoe (No. 19 Toyota).

Chris Buescher, who won his first career Cup Series race at Pocono in 2016, qualified sixth — his No. 17 RFK Racing Ford was the first Ford on the grid. Legacy Motor Club teammates Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek will start their Toyotas seventh and eighth, respectively.

Hendrick Motorsports‘ William Byron (No. 24 Chevrolet) and Team Penske‘s Ryan Blaney (No. 12 Ford) — who also earned his first career series win at Pocono in 2017 — round out the top 10 on the grid.

Of note, 23XI Racing‘s Reddick will roll off 15th and his teammate, Bubba Wallace, will start from the rear of the field after a qualifying session accident. RFK owner-driver Brad Keselowski had engine trouble in the session and will start alongside Wallace on the last row.

Larson fastest in practice

Hendrick Motorsports‘ Kyle Larson topped the leaderboard in practice, as his No. 5 Chevrolet posted a speed of 170.707 mph.

Denny Hamlin (170.245 mph), Daniel Suárez (170.168 mph), Carson Hocevar (169.994 mph) and Chris Buescher (169.847 mph) rounded out the top five.

Riley Herbst (169.728 mph), Ty Gibbs (169.622 mph), William Byron (169.610 mph), Ross Chastain (169.307 mph) and Chase Briscoe (169.144 mph) completed the top 10.

MORE: Practice results | NASCAR video highlights

The only caution during practice occurred in Group 1 when Hyak Motorsports driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun his No. 47 Chevrolet in Turn 3 and did not hit anything. In his first in-track session since suffering a left-wrist fracture last Sunday at Michigan, Christopher Bell (167.570 mph) was 25th fastest.

The 2025 campaign was respectable: Bubba Wallace earned a crown-jewel victory in the Brickyard 400, and both he and teammate Tyler Reddick made the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. But team president Steve Lauletta was among the many inside the shop who felt they underperformed last year, a season made more complicated by the addition of a third full-time team and off-track distractions.

The 2026 season? Couldn‘t be better.

Midway through June, Reddick has led the NASCAR Cup Series points standings since winning the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, right before becoming the first driver in Cup Series history to win the opening three races of the season — and five of the first nine overall. Team co-owner Michael Jordan — arguably the most recognizable face and name in American sports history — was visible everywhere from pit road at Darlington Raceway to “CBS Mornings.” Wallace ranked inside the top three in points for five of the first six races of the season, and Riley Herbst has shown significant statistical improvement in his sophomore campaign driving the team‘s No. 35 Toyota.

RELATED: 2026 Cup Series standings

“Last year was not what we wanted it to be,” Lauletta told NASCAR.com in a sit-down interview at his Airspeed office. “[…] There were off-the-track things that were needing attention. So putting all that behind us and starting out the way we started out has just been really gratifying for everybody here to know that we didn‘t lose our way.”

This year marks 23XI‘s sixth in competition. Just past the regular season‘s midpoint, it has unquestionably been its most successful. That says a lot for an organization that had already hung plaques for nine points-paying wins before 2026, plus another for Reddick‘s Regular Season Championship in 2024.

The fuel to this season‘s charge, Lauletta said, largely stems from a preseason meeting in which Jordan and co-owner and racer Denny Hamlin addressed expectations for the 38 races ahead, a meeting that featured “a lot of looking in the mirror by everybody,” and challenged each team member to question what they could do to change the team‘s trajectory.

“Dave Rogers, our competition director, did a really nice job of laying out five focus areas for all of us to pay attention to,” Lauletta said, “and had Michael and Denny sort of giving their thoughts on their experience of how they wanted to see those five things come to life. And everybody really bought into it. And coming out of the gates the way we did showed them that that‘s the way we need to continue for the entire season and into the future.”

With success, high-profile sponsors and an even higher-profile team owner like Jordan, 23XI Racing has reaped the rewards of brand exposure that has transcended the typical NASCAR bubble. New sponsors like Hardee‘s and Rockstar Energy Drink have joined the team‘s stable of partners while also attracting attention from other stars from the sports world, like Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua and retired NFL running back Marshawn Lynch. The team has even been featured on Nice Kicks, an influential brand on social media focusing on sneaker culture.

“Those folks wanting to be around us because of what we were doing and are doing is great for the brand,” Lauletta said. “It‘s great for our partners, right? So our partners get tremendous exposure from not only what‘s happening on the track, but all the other opportunities that we are putting them in front of people in unique ways. It has helped us bring new partners onto the team that see what we‘re all about and want to be part of the fact that we are making the impact that we‘re making within the sport of NASCAR — which has millions and millions of fans — but also beyond that.

“It‘s a tremendous benefit for us. And again, [15] races into our sixth year, we‘re still growing the brand of who we are and what 23XI is going to be decades from now.”

Part of Year 6 has involved making plans for Year 7, including a multiyear contract extension for Reddick and the introduction of top prospect Corey Heim, who will replace Herbst in the No. 35 Toyota full-time in 2027 after making part-time starts as the team‘s development driver since 2024.

Rookie expectations are difficult to set and even harder to live through. Herbst, a three-time winner in NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series competition, experienced that firsthand in 2025, ranking 35th in the standings, only above Cody Ware among full-time drivers. Herbst has improved to 26th in the standings so far this season, more impressively boosting his average finish five positions from 26.4 in 2025 to 21.5 this year, along with better qualifying efforts: an average of 27.0 in 2025 to 20.5 this season.

Heim, the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, will enter with more Cup experience than his recent rookie counterparts, Herbst and Connor Zilisch, the latter ranked 34th in points. But Lauletta is cautious to set any high bars for Heim in his first full Cup campaign.

“It‘s still going to be really hard,” Lauletta said. “We know that we‘ve given him the opportunity to run these Cup races. And I try to grab him after every one, and he‘s usually super hard on himself. And I‘ll just say to him, ‘Did you learn something?‘ And he goes, ‘Yes.‘ I go, ‘That‘s why we‘re doing this, right? We‘re doing this so you learn things.‘

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

“He led laps for the first time a couple of races ago (at Texas). He‘s made mistakes on the track. He‘s made mistakes in pit lane. Did you learn something? And he‘ll continue that for a number of years, and we know that that‘s the case. So for me, and I think for many of us, it‘s just how much can he learn over the next few years that puts him in the position that we know he could be successful.”

Adding a third team to 23XI‘s fleet in 2025 proved to be “bigger than I anticipated,” Lauletta conceded, adding the people necessary to operate a successful program and incorporating them into the team‘s ways. That task only grows tougher when Heim competes in a fourth entry, like he is 12 times this season. The team currently has no intentions of running a fourth car in 2027 unless a sponsorship opportunity arises that makes sense for the team, like fielding an Open entry for Travis Pastrana in the 2023 Daytona 500 or for Juan Pablo Montoya at Watkins Glen International in 2024.

“Those kind of things are interesting for a brand standpoint, a partner standpoint, but it‘s not something that we‘re going to focus on,” Lauletta said.

Lauletta‘s resume spans decades across the sports business market, including 11 years as team president of Chip Ganassi Racing. As 23XI Racing‘s brand continues to expand, Lauletta sees the rest of the sports business world paying attention to how his team is navigating the landscape, most recently highlighted by a nomination as Sports Team of the Year by the Sports Business Awards.

“I have a lot of friends at different leagues and teams and agencies, and they call and want to know what we‘re up to and ask questions,” Lauletta said. “And I think we‘ve been able to bring people into the team that bring different experiences and are able to open our eyes for some of us that have been around the sport for a long time of thinking and doing things differently. And that‘s all good, and I think that allows the recognition we‘re getting because we‘re not just doing the same thing that everybody else is doing.

“I say this internally a lot: A good day for me is all the teams are piled together in a place, and we‘re in a different place. And sometimes being in that different place isn‘t going to be right, but I‘m okay, because we‘re trying something different than anybody else, and most of the time that‘s going to be good. Sometimes it‘s not, and thankfully, Denny and Michael give us the ability to do those things, make those choices, and learn from them, which is what has allowed us to, I think, get the recognition that we have in the short amount of time.”

Whatever lies ahead for 23XI will almost certainly remain in the space of the Cup Series. Particularly since overseeing Ganassi, which fielded cars across myriad motorsports series, Lauletta currently sees no benefit to expand 23XI to either the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series or Truck Series as the goal for owners Hamlin and Jordan was “to form a top-notch, world-class NASCAR Cup Series team.”

But what remains a focus within the walls of Airspeed is pushing the boundaries of what can be expected from a NASCAR team, transcending the sport‘s own sphere and entering a more culturally relevant space.

“I think it‘s continuing to drive where the brand can go,” Lauletta said. “So from an off-track perspective, delivering value to our partners, driving the brand both in the sport of NASCAR and outside of the sport of NASCAR, building a new fan base, all of the things that are going to allow us to keep the partners that we have, because we‘re helping their business bring new partners on board.

“And then from an on-track perspective, I feel like we just need to continue to build fast race cars, enhance our processes that are still fairly new, attract the best talent we can attract, and give these guys a chance to compete at the highest level. And that will allow us to keep building on what Denny wanted, which is this to be a consistent race-winning team that can challenge for championships.”

“I‘m just worried about the racing,” he said with a laugh.

Kenny Wallace, whose all-time series starts record Clements will tie this weekend in Pocono then break with his 548th race next week in San Diego, California, has anointed his successor as “The Mayor” of the O‘Reilly Series.

That moniker might not be the right fit for a driver whose story is overwhelmingly about dogged perseverance rather than bombastic congeniality.

RELATED: Weekend schedule: Pocono

“It‘s really, really cool to hear, but I don‘t know if I want ‘The Mayor‘ because this was never a goal of mine, and it‘s really badass to do at this age,” said Clements, who at 41 is 10 years younger than when Wallace retired. “This is phenomenal. To be in a sport this long, something I always wanted to do as a kid, and to have my best opportunity right now.

“I foresee myself racing years and years if I can keep the funding rolling in.”

Forget about “The Mayor.”

“The Businessman” might be a better label for Clements, who has chased down money to stay on track for three decades (and brokered deals to cover an extra half-million dollars for his team‘s budget this year).

“The Bionic Man” could also be an apt descriptor for Clements, whose right arm was so mangled in a dirt racing crash 22 years ago, his first O‘Reilly Series start (a few months earlier) also could have been his last.

Or maybe it‘s “The Family Man,” for the doting husband who shoots social media content for his wife, Cortney (an influencer with close to a million followers across multiple platforms) while raising their 2-year-old daughter, Kennedy.

The new face of the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series is a bit of a Renaissance Man. But at his core, Clements is most simply defined by one word.

Racer.

Motorsports runs richly through his veins. His family has achieved significant measures of fame in the major leagues of both dirt and asphalt racing.

It‘s all Jeremy Clements has ever known, and despite a NASCAR career marked by nearly constant adversity, he never considered giving up on it.

“Oh, hell no,” he chuckled. “What else am I going to do? I get asked all the time, ‘What would you do if you didn‘t race?‘ Hell, I don‘t know. I never had to think about it.”

Cortney said her husband has had to work “10 times as hard” to make it this far.

“Sometimes it‘s hard for me to even watch at this point, knowing how bad he wants it,” she said. “This sport‘s truly the most brutal, and there‘s no backup plan for him. He‘s not going to build engines. He‘s not going to work at Lowe‘s. He‘s a race car driver.”

A very modestly successful one at that — which might be the most astounding part of his longevity.

Clements is on the cusp of having more starts than anyone in series history, yet still has only two wins (and one he had to fight to keep after being initially stripped for a rules violation).

“I won everything until I got in the series, and then I got my ass put in place,” he said. “I don‘t want to be good at losing, but I have learned to accept it a little easier. I don‘t let it ruin my life. Man, you‘ve got to shake that off. There‘s another race. What keeps me driving is knowing I can do it, and if I‘m placed in the right opportunity, I can definitely get the job done.”

Clements has the right opportunity this year as his family-run No. 51 Chevrolet has entered into a technical alliance with the Haas Factory Team. The leveling-up has relocated the gritty single-car team based in Spartanburg, South Carolina from a cramped, 5,000-square-foot shop to a sprawling facility of vast resources in Kannapolis, North Carolina.

Clements recently notched his first top five in four years, and his team has a goal of making the Chase for the first time since his most recent win (at Daytona in 2022).

“This is his best opportunity to win races and run up front consistently,” crew chief Matt Weber said. “It‘s his time, and he‘s in his prime. It‘s really kind of cool.”

Everything seems to be coming together at a career-defining milestone.

“This is perfect timing,” Clements said. “And to do it at San Diego is going to be awesome. I‘m looking forward to taking it all in. And it‘d be cool if they give you something (for the record). Maybe a little participation trophy.”

* * *

The Clements family has been racking up trophies since the early days of NASCAR.

Jeremy‘s grandfather, Crawford, was a crew chief for wins by Junior Johnson, Buck Baker and A.J. Foyt. Jeremy‘s great uncle, Louis, was the crew chief for Hall of Famer Rex White‘s 1960 Cup Series championship. The brothers started in Owensboro, Kentucky, with a car called “the Flying Saucer” that was legendary on short tracks.

“They were pioneers of the sport and super smart to come up with all the innovation to be that competitive then,” said Jeremy Clements, who recalls his grandfather “always working on something. I just remember workbenches everywhere and carburetors always around.”

In the 1970s, the family refocused on engine building. Since taking over as an 18-year-old, Jeremy‘s father, Tony, has been running Clements Automotive for 52 years. Supplying engines for many top dirt teams, its Clements Racing Engines arm has been named engine builder of the year multiple times in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Tony Clements said his generation (younger brother Glenn also helps run the business) gravitated away from NASCAR toward dirt because of “a burning desire” for racing machinery. CRE develops all its intake manifolds and cylinder heads while building a lot of parts in-house. The waiting list for an engine has stood at roughly 100 teams for as long as anyone can remember.

“We‘ve just had a passion growing up in the sport, and it‘s been a day and night thing,” Tony Clements said. “We‘ve worked 60 to 80 hours a week for almost 50 years. We wanted to be in a position that we weren‘t just working for somebody and possibly be held back in that manner. If you have a big enough passion for the sport and the competitiveness and want to be not held back, I think that‘s why we pursued it on our own. You put your heart and soul into it and never say never and just don‘t give up.”

* * *

In his final years, Crawford Clements took an interest in his grandson Jeremy‘s career, starting him in go-karts at 7 years old. After his grandfather‘s death, an 11-year-old Jeremy Clements had his mom drop him off at go-kart tracks so he could hustle for rides, eventually finding enough winners to amass 47 victories that propelled him into four-cylinder stock cars in 1999.

“I guess I‘ve always been resourceful, and you just don‘t give up,” he said. “You just go after what you want, and racing is what I‘ve always wanted. You just find a way to keep making it happen.”

Tony Clements began shepherding his son‘s career through a pivotal period in his late teens. Jeremy Clements won two races in six days that paid $28,000 and sold his cars for slightly more than that after another win.

The family then reinvested in his career, buying a Super Late Model dirt car in 2002 and dabbling in ARCA. Clements finished third in a May 23, 2003 race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the night of his high school graduation. He made his O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series debut two months later and had feelers for a part-time ride with an established team.

But it would be more than four years until he made his second O‘Reilly Series start.

* * *

Clements was running near the back with a handful of laps left in a Late Model race on July 24, 2004 — he remembers the date well because his grandfather died eight years to the day earlier — when he heard an explosion.

A torque arm failure launched his car‘s driveshaft through the cockpit and nearly severed his right hand.

“My arm was going one way with the hand hanging off the other way,” he said. “The worst pain you can ever imagine.”

The incident happened at 311 Speedway in Pine Hall, North Carolina, which was about 30 miles from Wake Forest Baptist Memorial Hospital in Winston-Salem.

“My wife and I left that race track following the ambulance, going 100 mph on some back roads, and she was screaming,” Tony Clements said. “I said, ‘We can‘t lose this ambulance because I don‘t know where it‘s going.‘

“It was a horrible situation. I was in the ER holding his arm, and they were washing it out and shocked at how bad it was tore up. They were saying, ‘It‘s so destroyed, we might have to cut it off,‘ and I said, ‘That ain‘t happening. We‘ll go somewhere else.‘ “

The first of 10 surgeries took nine hours as two large plates were inserted.

Tony stayed at the hospital for three weeks as Jeremy underwent rehab that included bone grafts from his hip (the hand was sewed to his body for a month) and tendon replacements from his right foot.

“It was a nightmare, really,” Jeremy said, pausing to joke, “I can‘t get in a fight with that hand now. It would mess some stuff up in there.”

It took a year before he was able to test a dirt Late Model car. He soon finished second in his return to a race at Thunder Valley Speedway (“it looked like he hadn‘t even been out of the car,” Tony said).

The injury caused no change in reflexes, but his grip diminished. Today, Jeremy compensates with extra padding for the steering wheel. He otherwise has been unaffected by an accident that doctors said would end his racing career.

“I just thought, ‘Ahhh, they‘re wrong. There ain‘t no way. Just do the best you can and fix this thing up and let me see about that,‘ ” Jeremy said. “They were good doctors, but they were a little negative. They‘re like, ‘You‘ll never race again! You‘re done.‘ I‘m like, ‘Damn! OK. Why you even got to say that?‘ I just was persistent and wasn‘t going to give up.”

* * *

In becoming the all-time starts leader, Clements has already set an O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series streak that might never be broken. Pocono will mark his 443rd consecutive start (the previous record was 383) dating to a two-race behavioral suspension in 2013.

The past 510 starts since 2011 have been with Jeremy Clements Racing, which was founded in the same autonomous spirit of Clements Racing Engines.

“I did that so that somebody couldn‘t put him out or do something different than what we wanted to keep his racing going,” Tony said. “Because if you put your eggs in somebody else‘s basket, they may change their mind or do something different if somebody else has got more money. We wanted to control our own destiny.”

The team broke through for its first win at Road America on Aug. 27, 2017 — three months after Jeremy married Cortney, who had been working in team PR and management.

“I walked by him at the track, and he goes, ‘Uhhh, you‘ve got a cute dog,‘ and it was the first time he‘d spoken to me,” Cortney said. “If you‘re going to compliment me, a cute dog is a good one. I know a lot of race car drivers, and they‘re usually not that good of a guy, so I‘m like, ‘There‘s no way that this is going to work out.‘ Jeremy seemed too good to be true, but he was so sure. I had to slow it down because he was like, ‘Let‘s get engaged,‘ and it hadn‘t even been a year.

“There was a TikTok trend recently, and it made me go all the way back in my text messages to see the first thing he ever said to me. It was, ‘You‘re perfect for me.‘ “

Jeremy has been a valuable asset as an ace photographer for his wife, who became a full-time social media influencer after getting married and leaving the NASCAR industry to live in Spartanburg. Cortney laughs about dragging her husband to quaint downtowns and picturesque Southern settings for content shoots.

New video equipment has made Jeremy‘s help less necessary, but he still gets pressed into service — sometimes minutes before a race.

“It kills me sometimes when I see the videos,” Cortney said. “We‘ll be at the track, and I‘m like, ‘Well, Jeremy knows how to get the perfect picture of me, so let‘s give the driver the camera.‘ So it‘s so pitiful, but you‘ll walk by Jeremy‘s car sometimes and see me and my girlfriends with him as the photographer. He‘s an OK sport about it. Having a little girl is expensive, so he has to be a sport about it.”

* * *

Expenses have also spiked for Jeremy Clements Racing this season — and with good reason.

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Weber, the team‘s crew chief, was overseeing work on cars that were nearly three weeks ahead of schedule. Since joining the team last year, he has noticed a change in his driver‘s demeanor.

“Everything‘s looking up and trending in the right direction, so it‘s awesome to be a part of,” Weber said. “Last year, the results were so bad, that you could tell after the race, Jeremy just wanted to go hide. He didn‘t interact much at the shop, and the phone calls were short. We didn‘t know how to get out of this hole. And now the speed‘s there. Some results are there. The sponsor interest is up. He just acts younger and is excited to go to the track.”

Seeking to replace old chassis that dated to 2019, Jeremy Clements Racing shopped for nearly 18 months before stumbling on the opportunity at Haas, which wanted to partner on new cars instead of selling them.

“All these other teams kind of screw you around, and they ain‘t going to sell you what they‘re actually running,” Clements said. “And (Haas president) Joe (Custer) was like, ‘I‘m going to offer you this instead.‘ And I was like, ‘We need this, but there‘s no way we can make this work because we need more money.‘ “

The new partnership would require about an extra $15,000 per race.

To secure the extra funding, Clements brought all of his team‘s major sponsors to Haas for a tour of the facilities last fall. They hammered out the framework for a two-year contract in a Haas meeting room, turning around the deal in about a week.

Tony Clements credits his son‘s business acumen for the game-changing arrangement.

“He has developed that skill in a way that people enjoy and respond to it,” Tony said. “I can‘t necessarily use all the right methods or personality to sell them on helping us race. Jeremy‘s much more capable of doing that.”

Though he didn‘t ever “want a job that I‘ve got to dress up in a suit,” Jeremy said he can be a salesman by necessity.

“There‘s been times I‘ve been scared the sponsorship wasn‘t there that we might not be able to continue,” he said. “You‘re always got that in the back of your mind because this is an expensive sport, whether you‘re racing go-karts, dirt Late Models or NASCAR. There‘s been times I was worried. Hell, I‘m still worried. It‘s always a concern to keep the funding rolling in to do it.”

As long as the money is there, Clements wants to race into his 50s on a circuit that he relishes because it‘s fun but yet still difficult to drive.

“That‘s the way it should be,” he said. “This is the purest series. I love the cars. Ask any Cup driver that races this series, they say the same thing: ‘If we got paid the same money, we would be doing this full time.‘ That‘s the truth.”

If he races for another decade, Clements would cross 800 starts — making his record seemingly untouchable while validating his family‘s support and its legacy.

“It‘s just what we do and what we‘ve always done,” Tony said. “It‘s really almost kind of shocking if you stop and think back about 548 races. We‘re so proud that he could follow his dream. It‘s what has driven me. He‘s always said that‘s his whole life. He just wants to be a professional race car driver.”

Said Jeremy: “I‘m just a racer. As long as I stay healthy and keep the train rolling, I‘m blessed to do this.”

In recent weeks, however, Reddick has also been on the receiving end of the outsized effect that wins can have on the points race — specifically courtesy of his boss, Denny Hamlin.

From that peak gap of 129 points following Reddick‘s top-five run at Watkins Glen, Hamlin‘s own recent hot streak (finishing third at Charlotte and scoring back-to-back wins at Nashville and Michigan) has more than cut Reddick‘s advantage in half. After Reddick crashed into a 35th-place finish Sunday, Hamlin is just 51 points back of Reddick with 11 races before the cutoff; a much more workable deficit to overcome.

Now a battle for the points lead is back in play, even if Reddick still holds the edge. My latest forecast model simulations give Reddick a 74% chance to hang on and retain the No. 1 seed, with Hamlin sitting at 26%. 

Fractionally, Ryan Blaney has a 0.5% chance to swoop in and steal it from both of the front-runners — but he‘s currently 157 points back, so it would require a superhuman series of races from here. Effectively, this is a two-man race between the No. 45 team and the man who signs their paychecks for 23XI Racing.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

What needs to happen for Hamlin to continue hunting Reddick down — or for Reddick to hold Hamlin off?

Looking at the leverage of each race on the odds for either driver to be the No. 1 seed, it‘s critical to avoid disaster at the chaotic, high-speed environment of Daytona and the pack-racing of Atlanta — but also big, flat Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the upcoming “Tricky Triangle” of Pocono, both of which can be underrated stumbling blocks for favorites as well. In simulations where Reddick finishes 30th or worse in at least two of the four remaining races at Pocono, Atlanta, Indy and Daytona, his odds at the No. 1 seed fall to 51%, while Denny‘s drop to 8% under the same set of finishing circumstances. (Alternatively, those figures become 47% and 6%, respectively, in sims where they finish 20th or worse in 3 of those 4 races.)

Of course, each driver needs to take advantage of their specialties from here, too. On the remaining regular-season schedule, there are 11 total races:

• Two at superspeedway/drafting tracks (Atlanta, Daytona)
• Two at road/street courses (San Diego, Sonoma)
• Either three or four at both intermediate ovals (Pocono, Chicagoland, Indy) and short tracks (North Wilkesboro, Iowa, Richmond), depending on how you treat Loudon — which is 1.058 miles and flat, technically making it an oval, though it acts like Richmond and other short tracks.

Reddick is fairly close to Hamlin on ovals — he has a 114.3 Driver Rating to Denny‘s 116.2 on them so far this season — which makes those either a wash or a slight advantage to the No. 11, at best. But Reddick is massively better on road courses; he has a 95.7 average rating on right- and left-turn tracks over the past three seasons, versus just 59.5 for Hamlin. And Hamlin is massively better on short tracks; he has a 105.2 average rating there over the past three seasons, versus just 73.4 for Reddick.

The greater number of additional short-track races relative to road courses is a built-in advantage for Hamlin. But Reddick has that 51-point lead in the standings, which more than balances things out. Either way, whichever driver can stick closer to their rival on the other‘s preferred stomping grounds will have the inside track to the top seed.

And maybe the most important thing of all for Hamlin is to keep defying Father Time. He is already one of the most productive and successful Cup drivers ever in his 40s, running side-by-side with the great David Pearson for the title of sixth-best modern-era driver in the 40-or-over set, according to a combination of actual and expected (based on race-to-race Driver Ratings) wins:

But he‘s outdoing himself this year at age 45. A year after the age at which Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. had stopped being full-time drivers — or when Jeff Gordon last drove, period (just to name a few greats that put down the steering wheel by this point) — Hamlin just won his third race in 15 starts and is arguably having his best season ever. That‘s at least true in terms of finishing quality relative to the field: His average finish of 8.3 — 57% better than Cup average — is the lowest he‘s ever had in a season and his 227 Adjusted Points+ index is the highest it‘s ever been, while his average Driver Rating of 103.7 is second only to the 109.4 he put up in 2021.

It‘s nearly unprecedented to see that level of performance from a 45-year-old. Hamlin‘s normalized average finish is just 43% of the Cup average — lower is better — which ranks second all-time to Bobby Allison in 1983 and Cale Yarborough in 1984 among 45-plus year-olds. His 227 Adjusted Points+ index is fourth-best behind Allison/Yarborough and Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 2000. And his 103.7 Driver Rating once again trails only Yarborough and Allison.

(It‘s no coincidence to see Mark Martin well-represented on the list; he was putting up seasons to rival Hamlin‘s 2026 at age 50! And he‘s also Hamlin‘s only real rival for the crown of “best driver to never win a championship”, with apologies to Junior Johnson and Fireball Roberts.)

As long as Denny keeps driving at a historically ageless level — which he‘s been doing for a long time now, yet he keeps topping himself — he will give himself a chance to track down Reddick by the end of the regular season, which in turn would provide a nice cushion in the standings ahead of The Chase as Hamlin seeks that elusive first Cup title. 

Maybe this just proves that no points lead is truly safe under the new system‘s win bonus. Or maybe just that Denny Hamlin still isn‘t done adding to his future-Hall-of-Fame resume, not by a long shot.

Connor Zilisch is the defending race winner. The only full-time O‘Reilly driver with a past victory in the series‘ 10-year history at the track is Austin Hill, driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, who won in 2023.

RELATED: O‘Reilly Series standings | Pocono weekend schedule

As has become the theme for the season, the question is whether anyone can slow JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier‘s torrid pace. The 2024 series champion is turning in a career year — his four wins already one victory shy of his career best mark.

Allgaier leads all drivers in everything from trophies to top fives (11), top 10s (13), average finish (7.9), laps led (422) and stage wins (six). He‘s finished first or second seven times. Perhaps most impressive is that his 179 points over Richard Childress Racing‘s Jesse Love (the defending series champion) atop the driver standings is larger than the gap between second place and 11th place (Sam Mayer).

Rather than discouraging the competition, Allgaier‘s dominance has instead been motivating.

Love, who finished second to Zilisch last year at Pocono, has been close to a trophy, finishing runner-up three times and failing to win even after leading the most laps at Nashville Superspeedway, the series‘ most recent race.

He‘s the only driver ranked among the top four without a victory. Yet only halfway through the calendar, and he‘s already led more laps (374) than he has in any previous entire season.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

The competition at the other end of the Chase standings is tight; positions 10th (Parker Retzlaff) through 15th (Ryan Sieg) are separated by only 32 points.

The last three Pocono race winners — Hill, Cole Custer and Zilisch — are all entered this weekend, as is Cup Series regular William Byron. Practice gets underway at 10:30 a.m. ET Saturday, followed by qualifying at 11:35 a.m. ET, with both sessions airing on The CW App. Custer is the only polesitter (2019) to win at Pocono.

The No. 12 will be decked out in the light blue base with the white streak that made Newman‘s Alltel scheme stand out under the lights as it took the checkered flag with teammate Kurt Busch completing a 1-2 finish for Penske in the 50th running of the “Great American Race.” The scheme comes as the organization continues to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Blaney, Newman and members of the 2008 Daytona 500-winning crew were at the Penske shop this week and were surprised with the throwback scheme, placed alongside Newman‘s car.

RELATED: All angles of Blaney‘s throwback scheme | Watch NASCAR video highlights

“That win has a lot of history,” Blaney said. “That paint scheme is very memorable. It‘s one of my favorite paint schemes growing up. The Alltel scheme was really iconic. The blue is beautiful, and with the 60th anniversary of Penske, we‘re really utilizing a lot of iconic wins for the organization. I had the pleasure to race with Ryan for a handful of years before he retired. He‘s one of my favorite drivers to watch growing up and heck of a competitor. We‘re really honored to be able to run it this weekend at Pocono.”

Newman is fifth all-time on Team Penske‘s win list in the Cup Series, compiling 13 victories from 2002-2008. Newman also scored his first big oval win at Pocono, running in the ARCA Menards Series for Penske in 2000.

“Throwback schemes have always been cool, but keeping it internally is a different kind of special,” Newman said. “Really proud and honored to be a part of the history at Penske. Ryan and I have always had a good relationship. It‘s cool to see the car go back in that livery at a track where we won our first race at.”

Blaney‘s No. 12 will also carry a commemorative sticker honoring crew chief Roy McCauley, who died in 2024. McCauley was atop the pit box for Newman when they won the Daytona 500, and the pair combined for seven triumphs across the Cup Series and O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series.

“We dominated the [O‘Reilly Auto Parts] Series back in ‘05. We won six out of nine races and had a great experience,” Newman said. “Roy was such a big part of so many things here at Penske after he was a crew chief. He had a lot of different roles and was successful at all of them. It‘s really special for me to be able to put that sticker on because I know his wife Amy was a big part of it and a big supporter of what we did on the race track.”

MORE: Pocono weekend schedule | Cup standings

Blaney enters Sunday‘s race third in the points standings and is a two-time winner at the 2.5-mile “Tricky Triangle.”

“Just to go ahead and put it out there, I will not be back in the 21 car next year,” Berry revealed. “They’ve been amazing to work with, amazing people, and it’s been such a great opportunity.

“What I didn’t want to do was sit here and feed a line to you guys and then have it get announced [later], so I feel like that makes me pretty ignorant, so I wasn’t going to do that.”

RELATED: Cup Series standings | Pocono weekend schedule

Berry, in his second season with the historic organization, explained that he first heard of the news less than 24 hours before sharing with reporters. Sitting 30th in points through 15 races in 2026, the Hendersonville, Tennessee, native wasn‘t completely blindsided.

“You hear the rumor mills start going, so I‘m not going to say that I was completely caught off guard,” Berry said. “I didn‘t exactly feel great about it. I probably would have said myself I was probably 50-50 in what was going on.

“Obviously, hit the ground running here, working hard to try and find out what’s out there, and certainly open and optimistic about any opportunities that come my way, but first and foremost, we’re going to do our best to finish this season strong and leave in a good place.”

A statement from Wood Brothers Racing read: “We thank Josh Berry for all he’s done for Wood Brothers Racing and our partners over the last two seasons. Josh has been a great teammate and we look forward to a strong finish to this season. We wish Josh all the best moving forward. We will announce who will be driving the No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse in 2027 soon and we are excited for what lies ahead for Wood Brothers Racing.”

Berry joined Wood Brothers Racing ahead of the 2025 season, taking the reins after Harrison Burton’s three-year stint with the team. After spending his rookie season with now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing, Berry started his WBR tenure with a bang, winning his first career race that March at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But come the playoffs, Berry crashed in all three Round of 16 races — including on Lap 1 in the opener at Darlington Raceway — and exited the postseason early, ultimately finishing 16th in the series ranks.

After finishing ninth in the Daytona 500 this season, Berry has struggled since. He’s finished 26th or worse in 11 of 15 races in 2026, including four DNFs. His only other top 10 came at Martinsville Speedway.

“It’s been a tough year, and when you have some of the things we’ve had happen and the results we’ve had happen — regardless of the details of it — you start to question (returning), and that’s fair,” Berry explained. “If we had ran better, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation, but we didn’t. Now, we got X number of races throughout the rest of the year to turn that back around and change the narrative and get back closer to the front.

“It’s been a struggle really for a lot of the Fords and a lot of the guys this year, and we just got to turn that around and go to the next race. At the end of the day, whether you win or you wreck, whatever, you go to work Monday and go to the next race, and that’s what we’re going to do from here on out and see how it all shakes out.”

MORE: Berry‘s driver page | Watch NASCAR video highlights

Before moving to the Cup Series in 2024, Berry carved out a successful career with JR Motorsports. He first joined the Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller-owned organization in 2010, primarily driving late models up the East Coast before finally earning a part-time shot in the O‘Reilly Series in 2021. At times, he believed he’d be a lifelong late-model driver. But Berry took advantage of his shot, and in his sixth race, won at Martinsville after leading 95 laps.

After 12 races in the No. 8 Chevrolet, Berry earned additional opportunities, making his Cup Series debut later that year for Spire Motorsports. After fellow JRM driver Michael Annett suffered an injury, Berry climbed behind the wheel of the No. 1 Chevrolet, winning the fall race at Las Vegas.

Berry moved to a full-time ride with JRM in 2022 and won three more times, earning 20 top-10 finishes and qualifying for the Championship 4. He returned in 2023, scoring 18 additional top 10s but went winless — finishing 11th in the series ranks.

But now, Berry’s back to the drawing board — wondering what’ll come next in his NASCAR national series career.

“I‘ve been extremely fortunate to get the opportunities I‘ve had, and been extremely fortunate to drive for the Wood Brothers and this team,” Berry said. “Unfortunately, it‘s going a different direction, but you never know what doors might open up, and we’re going to work hard to land on our feet and find something.

“I’m still the guy that won Las Vegas. I’m still the same guy that nearly won New Hampshire in the playoffs. It’s been a tough year, but we’ll work through it and try to find what‘s out there.

“The sun came up this morning, and it’s a new day. You land on your feet and you go to work; that’s all you can do.”

Bell slammed the Turn 4 wall at Lap 148 of the FireKeepers Casino 400 when Chase Elliott lost control next to him, careening into Bell and sending both into the outside retaining SAFER barrier.

MORE: Pocono schedule | Bell collected in crash

Upon impact, Bell sustained the injury. Bell was evaluated and released from the infield care center, but was not available for comment. X-rays after returning home to North Carolina confirmed the fracture, with Bell cleared to race behind the wheel of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Thank you to each and everyone who reached out to check on me, I truly feel the love. I‘m grateful for my team of doctors, JGR, NASCAR and all of the previous drivers who have helped pave the way for the safety standards in our sport. See you in Pocono! https://t.co/cgqCQMen0y

— Christopher Bell (@CBellRacing) June 9, 2026

Team owner Joe Gibbs addressed concern for Bell after Sunday‘s win for fellow JGR driver Denny Hamlin at Michigan, noting in a press conference that Bell‘s wrist and ankle were both being evaluated after the incident. Ultimately, Bell received clearance to drive his No. 20 Toyota in Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Bell enters the contest 10th in the points standings, losing three positions after his 31st-place DNF on Sunday. Bell has two top fives and three top 10s in eight starts at Pocono with a best finish of fourth twice (2020-1, 2022).

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Bookmark this page and refer back to it often for information on how this year‘s event works, from the format to how you can get involved with the In-Season Bracket Challenge.

RELATED: NASCAR In-Season Bracket Challenge page

What is the In-Season Challenge?

The In-Season Challenge is a 32-driver, single-elimination tournament that takes place over five NASCAR Cup Series races on TNT Sports. The driver with the better finish in each matchup advances to the next round.

When does it start?

The first In-Season Challenge race is June 28 at Sonoma Raceway.

Which drivers will qualify?

Whereas last year‘s In-Season Challenge had seeding races, this year‘s format has been simplified: drivers earn their spots based on the Cup Series points standings after Pocono Raceway (June 14).

How is the bracket seeded?

Seeding — from the top-overall seed to 32nd — will be based on drivers‘ positions in the standings following Pocono.

When can I fill out my bracket?

Registration for the In-Season Bracket Challenge begins June 8 at 9 a.m. ET. Bracket selections open June 15 at 9 a.m. ET, and completed brackets must be submitted by June 28 at 3:25 p.m. ET.

What tracks are in the In-Season Challenge?

Sonoma Raceway (June 28), Chicagoland Speedway (July 5), EchoPark Speedway (July 12), North Wilkesboro Speedway (July 19) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 26).

How do drivers advance?

Drivers advance by finishing higher than the other driver in their respective matchup. This head-to-head, elimination-style format will continue until just one driver remains.

What happens if a driver misses a race?

If a driver in a matchup misses a race entirely for any reason, the opposite driver in that matchup will advance. If a substitute driver is needed during Rounds 1-4, the driver of record can advance if that entry completes more laps than the driver it is matched against.

What does the winner get?

The winner receives $1 million and, of course, bragging rights. Ty Gibbs won the 2025 In-Season Challenge.

How can I watch?

All five In-Season Challenge races will air on TNT Sports, making up this year‘s portion of the network‘s broadcast schedule. For more information on how to watch NASCAR on TNT Sports, continue reading here.

How can I get involved?

The NASCAR Cup Series 2026 In-Season Bracket Challenge is open for registration, giving you the opportunity to compete against other fans for the chance at prizes. Entrants must log on to or register with NASCAR.com.

How long is the registration period?

The registration period runs from June 8 at 9 a.m. ET until June 28 at 3:25 p.m. ET, which is the time by which completed brackets must be submitted. Bracket selections open June 15 at 9 a.m. ET.

Can I create my own league?

Yes, you can create your own In-Season Bracket Challenge league. So gather a group of bracket aficionados and see if you can be the best in your pool.

What is the scoring format for the 2026 In-Season Bracket Challenge?

Entrants will earn points for each correct pick in their bracket entry. For Round 1, 10 points will be awarded for each correct pick. In Round 2, 20 points will be awarded, with 40 and 80 points following in Rounds 3 and 4, respectively. A correct pick in the final round is worth 160 points.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

What can I win?

Prizes will be awarded to the top three eligible entrants who accumulate the largest sum of points in the 2026 In-Season Bracket Challenge. The top prize winner will receive $10,000, while the second- and third-place winners will receive $5,000 and $2,500, respectively. Additionally, if an eligible entrant correctly predicts the outcome of every matchup, a grand prize of $1 million will be awarded. If more than one entrant submits a perfect bracket, the $1 million prize will be split equally among those confirmed winners. If no entrant ends the 2026 In-Season Bracket Challenge with a perfect bracket, no grand prize will be awarded.

2026 IN-SEASON CHALLENGE SCHEDULE

For the second consecutive week, Denny Hamlin put on a masterclass performance, driving from the back to the front of the field to win for the 63rd time in the Cup Series. This victory tied Hamlin with Kyle Busch for ninth on the all-time wins list in a late-race blowout, with an 11.110-second margin of victory to honor his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.

Besides Hamlin, some of his fellow competitors also survived the Michigan mayhem to earn respectable results, while others will look to bounce back on Sunday in the Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA at Pocono Raceway (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Race results | Michigan photos

THREE UP

1. Team Penske 

Started: Joey Logano, 18th; Ryan Blaney, 19th; Austin Cindric, 31st

Finished: Joey Logano, 7th, Ryan Blaney, 8th; Austin Cindric, 11th

What happened: All three Team Penske Fords finished inside the top 11 at Michigan. While Ford did not lead a lap at the 2-mile track for the first time in the Irish Hills since June 1983, the Penske trio all avoided the chaos and earned good results for the Captain‘s organization. Logano earned his second top 10 in the last three races, with Blaney picking up his fourth top 10 in the last five races and Cindric generating some momentum after two straight finishes of 26th or worse.

What‘s next: In the history of Team Penske at Pocono, the organization has collected eight Cup Series victories at the “Tricky Triangle.” The organization‘s last Pocono win was in 2024 with Blaney‘s No. 12 Ford. In last year‘s 400-miler in Pennsylvania, all three Penske drivers finished 16th or better, so the outlook for the trio is positive heading into the race weekend.

2. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23xI Racing Toyota

Started: 13th

Finished: 3rd

What happened: Despite nearly getting taken out in the Lap 83 restart wreck, Wallace persevered his way to a much-needed third-place finish and gave veteran wisdom to the younger Carson Hocevar post-race. After three straight finishes of 22nd or worse, this could start the type of run Wallace needs to generate the momentum we saw from the No. 23 team at the beginning of the year.

What‘s next: Wallace‘s strong result in the Irish Hills caused the No. 23 Toyota driver to move up four spots in the Cup Series standings to 11th after a good points day. Pocono could be another place where Wallace can continue stacking markers and put distance between himself and the provisional Chase cutline. In his six career Pocono starts with 23XI, Wallace has finished 14th or better five times.

3. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Started: 7th

Finished: 4th

What happened: As the defending Cup Series champion continues to ride his 13-month-long winless streak, Larson had a respectable day in the Irish Hills and survived the carnage to pick up a top five at the 2-miler. This was Larson‘s second top five in the last five Cup Series races. The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver maintained sixth place in the Cup Series standings.

What‘s next: Although he has not visited Victory Lane yet at the “Tricky Triangle,” Larson has five top 10s in his last seven starts at the Pennsylvania track. This could be another track for the No. 5 team to build on the momentum from Michigan and start putting together more consistent runs.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

THREE DOWN

1. Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota

Started: 3rd

Finished: 35th

What happened: For the first time this season, Reddick finished outside the top 15 and picked up his first DNF. The season-long points leader was just in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was taken out in a multicar wreck on Lap 83, ignited by an aggressive move from Carson Hocevar during a restart. Ty Gibbs was shoved into Reddick‘s left rear, spinning the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, which then got hit by Austin Dillon.

What‘s next: In eight career Cup Series starts at Pocono, Reddick has picked up four top 10s, including two runner-up finishes. The “Tricky Triangle” is a strong track for the 23XI driver to maintain his lead atop the provisional Chase standings as he eyes the No. 1 seed later this summer. With Denny Hamlin‘s victory at Michigan and the No. 45 Toyota‘s DNF, Reddick‘s championship lead dropped to a 51-point advantage.

2. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford

Started: 26th

Finished: 34th

What happened: Outside of winning the Daytona 500, winning at his home track in the Cup Series would probably rank up there with the Michigan native‘s most significant accomplishments left to achieve. Unfortunately, Keselowski will have to wait another year to hopefully become the first Michigan-born driver to win at the 2-mile track. The RFK Racing driver‘s race came to an end after contact with John Hunter Nemechek sent the No. 6 Ford spinning into the outside wall in Turn 2.

What‘s next: In his last 10 Cup Series starts at Pocono, Keselowski has finished 16th or better. The race-ending crash at Michigan dropped the RFK driver two spots to 15th in the Cup Series standings. With the “Tricky Triangle” being a good, consistent track for him, it could be the place where Keselowski makes up lost ground and scores valuable points to move further away from The Chase cutline.

3. Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Started: 34th

Finished: 37th

What happened: When it rains, it pours. After a historic 10-win campaign in last year‘s runner-up title effort in the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, many expected Zilisch to enter the Cup Series at 19 years old with lofty expectations. Many say the Cup Series, regardless of a young prospect‘s talent, is one of the biggest steps up any driver can take in motorsports. Zilisch is finding that out the hard way after two spins within the first 10 laps at Michigan, with a Lap 9 spin into the inside wall on the backstretch ending his day in the Irish Hills. The Trackhouse Racing driver‘s 37th-place result at Michigan was his third consecutive last-place finish in the Cup Series.

What‘s next: Reflecting on last year, Zilisch‘s trip to Pocono produced a memorable moment, scoring the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series victory with JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. sitting atop his pit box as crew chief. Given how difficult Zilisch‘s rookie season has been in the Cup Series up to this point, Sunday offers a chance to put Michigan behind him before a welcome return of two straight road-course races at San Diego and Sonoma in the following weeks.

Yet somehow, some way, Hamlin keeps beating the odds as often as he‘s beating his competition.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Hamlin‘s latest romp at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday was arguably his most impressive: qualified on pole despite an aerodynamic disadvantage, started from the rear and stormed to the front with a three-wide pass for the lead on a late-race restart to win by a whopping 11.11 seconds, the largest margin of victory on an oval since 2018. Even crazier is that he achieved a near-identical feat just one week prior at Nashville Superspeedway, where he jumped the start from pole position, went to the rear of the field and charged back for a three-wide pass for the lead on a late-race restart.

Team owner Joe Gibbs has fielded NASCAR Cup Series cars for Hamlin since Hamlin‘s first of 736 starts back in 2005. Gibbs has led National Football League teams to Super Bowl championships. He has won five Cup Series championships as a team owner. He‘s in both the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. What Hamlin is accomplishing at this stage of his career ranks among the most impressive athletic feats he‘s ever seen.

“I think all of us here know how tough NASCAR is. We know this is the best people in the world racing stock cars,” Gibbs said Sunday. “And we‘ve seen Denny now — I think at this point of his career, I think this might be the most exceptional thing he‘s done. Because you think about most athletes, they get to a point where they have everything they need, OK? And they just lose the drive and passion. And what we‘re witnessing with Denny is really just the opposite of that.

“He‘s full-blown in the simulator, works extremely hard. In our meetings, he means so much to the other young drivers just hearing him describe what happens during the race, the way he looks at things. And so for us, it‘s invaluable really. And for us to have this relationship this long, I just really appreciate him. He‘s been so loyal to us, and he‘s really helped build what we have.”

MORE: Hamlin now tied with Kyle Busch for most all-time Cup wins

Built-in speed goes a long way in allowing Hamlin to maximize his days so often that he‘s now tied with Kyle Busch for ninth all-time on the Cup Series wins list with 63 victories. But so too does Hamlin‘s work ethic, which is unrelenting despite his assured status as one of NASCAR‘s greats. That includes putting in the homework, even in the hours before the race.

“I‘ve been blessed to have really fast cars, for one,” Hamlin said. “But just learning — and I really studied (Sunday) morning, I really studied the 45. He started in the back last year, and I wanted to watch his first 20 laps, 30 laps to see how he navigated traffic. So I knew I was going to have my hands full, but I just — I don‘t know, I constantly study some different things to try to get better, and we chip away at it. I never really panic at any point of the race anymore.

“Starting sixth here with 40 to go inside the last fuel run, it‘s like, yeah, I feel pretty confident we‘re still going to win. It‘s just we‘re at that point where we show up to the race track, and it‘s like the confidence is just higher than it‘s ever been.”

To have that self-assurance 21 years into his full-time Cup career may seem otherworldly to most. To Hamlin, this is just another day in 2026. The edge he holds is knowledge, a point he emphasized in a pre-race conversation with 23-year-old teammate Ty Gibbs, driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

“He (Gibbs) was like, how many starts do you have? Probably 40, 30-something,” said Hamlin, who has indeed made 36 starts at Michigan. “He‘s like, man, I‘m at the point now where I feel like I know what I need. I know what I‘m looking for. And I said, yeah, imagine having four times as many starts as you have.

“That‘s the advantage I have every single week is that he feels comfortable where he‘s at, but just add another 15 years of experience, and you know the transitions of the track and like what happens when it gets cloudy, what happens when it gets sunny, what happens when the wind is this direction, that direction, all those things you just learn over time. It‘s why we have the upper hand right now.”

There are comparisons to be made to other sporting greats who‘ve found this long-tenured excellence late in their careers — some in NASCAR like Jeff Gordon; others in other sports like the NFL‘s Tom Brady or the NBA‘s LeBron James. But those greats have championships to tag onto all of their wins. Hamlin is still seeking that ever-elusive first championship in NASCAR, especially after a devastating loss at Phoenix Raceway last November.

But like those aforementioned legends, Hamlin is still putting himself in contention for titles in the homestretch of his career, a tenure he intends to conclude at the end of the 2027 campaign.

His steps toward accomplishing those championship hopes were particularly rekindled Sunday at Michigan. Tyler Reddick, who drives the No. 45 Toyota that Hamlin co-owns with 23XI Racing, entered with a 97-point advantage over Hamlin for the No. 1 spot in the regular-season points standings. Reddick hadn‘t finished worse than 15th all year, but a Lap 83 crash ousted his car from competition, dropping him to a season-worst 35th-place finish.

That one misstep, coupled with Hamlin‘s late-race dominance, has sliced Reddick‘s advantage to just 51 points entering Pocono Raceway — where Hamlin is the track‘s all-time winningest driver with seven victories and is seeking to win three straight races for the first time in his career.

MORE: Cup standings | Reddick ousted in 9-car crash

After his Nashville victory, Hamlin said there was “not really” a realistic path to the No. 1 seed in The Chase because of Reddick‘s five victories and ability to avoid bad finishes.

“We‘d have to win three or four more races,” he said that evening. “He‘s going to have to have some DNFs and stuff. Not really. My goal is to try to stay P2, and that will be close enough with 10 to go.”

That tune changed — if only slightly — after cutting the deficit to Reddick to a far more manageable margin with 11 races remaining before the postseason begins.

“I knew the only way we ever could catch him is he was going to have to have bad luck. I said it weeks ago,” Hamlin said. “He had bad luck today. We were in the same wreck. We were turned around backwards. Luckily, no one hit us in Turn 1. Our car wasn‘t very good, and we just overcame it.

“I think it‘s still going to have to — he‘s going to stretch it out at San Diego, Sonoma. I still think he‘s in a really good place, but if we keep doing this, it will keep them interesting and honest for sure.”

The driver with the most points at the conclusion of the regular season in August will earn the No. 1 seed and a 25-point buffer over second to begin The Chase, which starts at Darlington Raceway in September. The closer Hamlin makes it in the regular season, the better his chances for hoisting the Bill France Cup in November when the 10-race postseason marathon concludes.

Until then, it‘s all about winning for Hamlin. It always has been. And now, only the sport‘s giants stand in front of him on NASCAR‘s all-time wins list: Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, David Pearson and Richard Petty.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Sunday at Michigan, he wanted to remind everyone he‘s not done yet.

“I wanted to go as hard as I could. I just wanted to make a statement on the last run,” Hamlin said. “And I wanted to keep myself in rhythm. This is a track where rhythm matters. … The minute you start backing off and not running 100%, your car will start biasing, doing something that it shouldn‘t be because, again, like I talked about, it‘s not meant to be run at 3/4 speed, it‘s meant to be run at 100.

“So I wanted to have a no mercy run and just see what happens.”

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Michigan

Jones powered to a runner-up finish in Sunday‘s FireKeepers Casino 400, turning in a season-best result for the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota group. Any jubilation for the organization‘s first top-five outcome of the year was tempered slightly by how close Jones & Co. came to a breakthrough celebration, one that would have galvanized the gains that the team has been trying to sustain.

“It‘s good. I mean, it‘s a nice day. It‘s disappointing in some ways at the same time to have the car we had,” Jones said. “It‘s not like we fluked into second. We were up here all day and running well, and we had a fast car. It just didn‘t work out perfect, you know. We needed everything to go well. The restarts got chaotic at the end, and the last one didn‘t work out for us. I had to pick through traffic and by the time I got up there, the race was over and Denny was gone. So, a lot of positives to take away. I mean, the car was really fast, and I couldn‘t even ask much out of it for balance. So, we‘ll work on it, keep bringing cars like this, and we‘ll win races soon.”

Jones‘ task was made more difficult by trouble in Saturday‘s practice, when the No. 43 Toyota slowed with a flat left-rear tire. The unapproved adjustments to repair damage from the incident forced the team to the rear of the 37-car field for Sunday‘s start.

Jones opted for a patient approach to make his way forward, dodging the series of crashes that disrupted the race‘s early rhythm and knocked several drivers from contention. Keeping it clean paid off, and the car‘s balance helped Jones make it to second place by the end of Stage 2 for more crucial points.

“I knew the car was fast, and just trying not to burn the tires off it being overzealous early in runs and letting it come to me, and it‘s just what I‘ve been focusing on a lot lately,” Jones said. “So I felt like we did good with that, and we made the right choice definitely with doing the repairs. Yeah, I told the guys before, it was going to be a chaotic race, and it was definitely that. It was a lot of sloppy racing, a lot of mess going on, but happy to get through it and come up with a good one.”

The choice to fix the No. 43‘s ills and give up a season-best 10th starting spot was one that Justin Alexander, in his first year as an LMC crew chief, grappled with.

“That was terrible. We made a tough decision overnight to kind of repair the car and give up the track position, and to be honest, I wasn‘t sure it was going to pay off because starting in the back is so hard,” Alexander said, “but the car was just really phenomenal. … We made one change to the car all day. I mean, it was a really good car, and he was super happy with it from the get-go. Yeah, it was a challenge. We were able to drive up through the field the first run a lot more than I actually thought we were.”

Alexander said he shared some of Jones‘ bittersweet sentiment, winding up one spot short of the leaderboard‘s top perch — which Hamlin roared away with by a whopping 11-second margin. Hamlin‘s strength, plus some setbacks with how restarts shook out, proved to be too much to overcome, but Alexander said that many of the positives should help with the team‘s momentum.

“I really did think we had a race-winning car,” Alexander said, “so when you have a car like this, it‘s … you don‘t expect to win, because wins are so hard to get, but when you don‘t win, you know you had the car to win, so it was a great points day, though. We got a lot of stage points there in Stage 2, and then finished No. 2, so I think we probably took a big leap in points up from where we‘re at.”

Alexander was correct. Jones jumped three spots to 18th in the Cup Series standings, resting just 18 points behind the cutoff line for the provisional 16-driver Chase postseason grid. After Watkins Glen International three races earlier, Jones was 25th with a 69-point deficit to the same elimination line.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Watch NASCAR video highlights

Four top-15 finishes in the last five events — capped by Sunday‘s runner-up — have helped reverse that downward trend. Almost as importantly, the performance gains have bolstered Jones‘ morale as the regular season heads deeper into its home stretch.

“I mean, we definitely have something to build off of,” Jones said. “I think I am confident every time I‘m showing up to the track that the cars are good. There‘s a stretch where that was a question, where I didn‘t know what I was going to be getting into, and now I feel like I can hop in and, like I said, just be loose, hammer down, not think about it, and drive as fast as I can drive and tell them what it needs, and that‘s a good feeling as a driver. Just hope it continues going forward, and we can keep making it better.”

The conclusion of his race day Sunday was pure frustration at the checkered flag he didn‘t get. A slammed helmet on the roof of his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and an extended stay on the track‘s pit wall stood in for a potential trip to MIS Victory Lane.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Michigan

Fifth place was what Hocevar settled for in Sunday‘s FireKeepers Casino 400, a NASCAR Cup Series race in which most were playing for also-ran status during another dominant performance by a white-hot Denny Hamlin. He led 21 laps, spending time out front at his home track for the third straight outing, but he also had to answer for his role in triggering a Stage 2 restart pile-up and other aggressive tactics that drew criticism.

The day was eventful for multiple reasons, just not the ultimate one he wanted most.

“I mean, I‘ll just reminisce on it for another 365 days,” Hocevar said. “This is … I‘m from Michigan — U of M and Michigan State. You know, it‘s its own season, so you know, this race is its own season for me.”

Hocevar‘s day started with plenty of promise, getting the early upper hand by leading the first lap from the second starting spot. He remained a contender throughout the race‘s first half, but his forceful move on a Lap 83 restart sent John Hunter Nemechek‘s No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota out of control, collecting multiple cars in its wake entering Turn 1.

Austin Dillon was among those sidelined by the incident, and he made his disapproval clear, saying: “Hope at some point he figures it out.”

“I mean, they just checked up right after the start/finish line,” said Hocevar, who held the inside lane at the point of collision. “I went to go low when I saw them check up, so it probably just shot him right and spun him. Yeah, it caught me off guard that they stacked up. I kind of gave a little bit of space, but they just stacked up, and so I don‘t know why they did, but I mean I spun whoever it was, I‘m not sure.”

Sixteen laps later, Hocevar attempted a dive-bomb move from fourth place, interjecting his No. 77 Chevy into a two-wide contest for second place between Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace. Hocevar backed out of the maneuver, and a brilliant save kept all three from potential catastrophe, but the move left enough of an impression on Wallace that he pulled up alongside Hocevar as he sat on the pit wall post-race, voicing his grievances but also offering a potential teaching moment.

“He‘s fast,” said Wallace, who turned the tables on a difficult May with a third-place result. “He‘s fast, and he deserves to be in Victory Lane multiple times out here, but making mistakes is going to cost him, and he hasn‘t realized that yet.”

Wallace added that Hocevar seemed to offer an olive branch later in the race, waving Wallace and other faster cars by. Wallace said that didn‘t necessarily absolve the earlier perceived sins.

“I was pissed. He‘s playing the game, the point by — letting me and Larson by, and the 43 (Erik Jones) by was nice, but doesn‘t ease the pain,” Wallace said. “That‘s what I told him. It‘s like you have to … I don‘t know if you‘re doing that on purpose, but you‘re having to do that because like, ‘oh man, I wrecked that guy earlier. I wrecked him last week. I gotta just stop hitting [expletive].‘ You can race to your potential.”

Hocevar said he understood the message.

“Yeah, I get his point and perspective and everything,” Hocevar said. “I mean, I‘m just racing really hard, and there were times where I tried to make a move and get two spots when I probably should have just got one, and it cost me — especially almost wrecking myself in (Turns) 3 and 4 there early in the race when I was next to him. So yeah, just a bummer today, obviously.”

MORE: Cup Series standings

Luke Lambert, Hocevar‘s crew chief through each of his three full-time Cup Series seasons, said he sensed how much this home-track race meant to the 23-year-old driver, but was able to gather positives from the outcome. Hocevar earned 12 stage points, plus a bonus point for turning the race‘s fastest lap, and collected his first top-five effort since his breakthrough Cup Series win at Talladega in April.

Though there was disappointment, Lambert said he took to heart the perspective offered by Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson, who noted how far the organization has progressed.

“The message is simple: We‘re mad at a fifth, and that‘s really it,” Lambert told NASCAR.com. “We used to — as Jeff said — we used to pop bottles for days like today. So we‘re in a good place as a race team when we end the day and we‘re really frustrated with a fifth-place finish, and we know we have to continue to do this and continue to get better to get to where we want to be, but it‘s a sign of where we‘re at and where we‘re headed. That‘s really the thing to kind of step back and look at is that, yeah, in the moment it‘s easy to be frustrated on the what-could-have-beens, but there‘s a whole lot of other what-could-have-beens that we need to also recognize, and so I‘m just proud of the team for executing, putting ourselves in position.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Hocevar gained two positions in the Cup Series standings, moving up to seventh place through 15 races this season. Still, the youngster said that watching Hamlin‘s No. 11 Toyota control the final 39 laps and stretch out to a stunning margin of victory of 11-plus seconds while precious ground slipped away would stick with him.

“Yeah, I mean, this one‘s gonna sting,” Hocevar said. “I would have really liked to have this one, just because of how good our car was. It‘s just probably just gonna eat me up watching the 11 (Hamlin) come in my rearview, drive by me and then drive away, and then have a car in between us.”

But the 63-time winner also noted some of his reasoning during the post-race show on Prime Video — while signaling potential plans for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2028.

MORE: Cup standings | Michigan results

At age 45, Hamlin has won three races in 2026, including each of the last two despite going to the rear early in both events. Pressed by NASCAR Hall of Famer and Sports on Prime analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. if Hamlin intends to step away after the 2027 season, Hamlin explained the wear and tear he battles between races.

“I don‘t know. The weeks are a little tougher,” Hamlin said. “I feel as though there‘s three things that happen: You lose your eyesight, you lose your reaction and your body hurts. The body hurts are there. It‘s there. During the week, I‘m not recovering as quick. But the other two things are sharp. I want to go out like this. It‘s a fantasy land to do it, but right now …”

Hamlin has stated he is more focused on statistics and wins at this point in his career. With Sunday‘s Michigan win, he tied Kyle Busch for ninth on the all-time wins list in Cup Series history. The next target in eighth is Dale Earnhardt, a seven-time champion who won 76 races.

“Think about it like this too,” Hamlin said, “If I can win one more and put myself in ninth alone, the next jump, I‘m not gonna get there. So what am I doing?”

Even if Hamlin wins his first career Cup Series championship in 2026, Hamlin said he is committed through 2027 after signing a two-year contract extension with JGR last summer. What comes next may involve Brent Crews, the 18-year-old who currently competes as a rookie in the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series for JGR.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

“At the end of next year … I told him just check with me in six months. Check with me in six months,” Hamlin said. “I don‘t want to leave them in flux. They‘ve got a great driver in Brent Crews that‘s gonna be ready more than likely by the end of next year. It‘d be hard — if [the end of this contract] was right now, it‘d be really hard. But I find it hard to believe we‘re gonna be at this level at this time next year.”

The massive effort marked Hamlin‘s 63rd career win — tying him with the late Kyle Busch for ninth-place on the Cup Series all-time wins list. And as importantly, the showing — combined with points leader Tyler Reddick‘s first DNF of the season — cut Hamlin‘s deficit to Reddick nearly in half. He now trails him by only 51 points with 11 races left to settle the Cup Series regular season title.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Hamlin, 45, celebrated the milestone victory — his third of the year and second consecutive last-to-first effort in as many weeks — by waving a black-and-white No. 18 “Kyle Busch” flag outside his driver‘s window while driving around the track for a victory lap — capped by a long burnout. The ode to the two-time series champ Busch, Hamlin‘s former teammate who died two weeks ago from pneumonia and sepsis, received huge applause and a standing ovation from the massive grandstand crowd.

Although Hamlin won the pole position for Sunday‘s race, he started from the rear of the 37-car field after the team made unapproved adjustments after qualifying. The opening stage was mostly frustrating for Hamlin, who only managed to run between 20th and 30th place early. But the perennial championship contender and his JGR team made adjustments all day, and he was running top-five by Lap 140 of the 200-lapper. And moving forward quickly.

“Great car, unbelievable,” Hamlin said, thanking his crew after taking the checkered flag. After a day where patience and confidence mattered most, his No. 11 Toyota led 40 laps — including the final 39 of the 200-lap race — and pulled away to an amazing 11.110-second win over fellow Toyota driver, Legacy Motor Club‘s Erik Jones.

“Just amazing,” Hamlin said of his car and crew. “That last run there, just hammered down. Had a few good restarts and once I got the lead, laid out all I had.

“The offseason was rough for me, rough for the NASCAR family. We lost a lot of people. This week we lost Gentleman Ned (Jarrett) and still thinking of Kyle (Busch), (his wife) Samantha (and children) Brexton and Lennix. Just grateful to be able strap in every week and I don‘t take it for granted this opportunity that I‘m in. Just love that we‘re making the best of it.”

SHOP: Denny Hamlin winner gear

A record 11 caution flags — plus a 20-minute red flag — flew for incidents and accidents throughout the afternoon, involving half the field to varying degrees. And while the stoppages slowed the race, it also allowed drivers to save enough fuel late, enabling them to make the checkered flag without losing positions on extra pit stops.

Although Hamlin was far in front of the field, the positions just behind him were decided in the closing laps. The runner-up showing was the Michigan-native Jones‘ best of the season. Bubba Wallace finished third in the 23XI Racing Toyota co-owned by Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan. Hendrick Motorsports‘ Kyle Larson was fourth in the No. 5 Chevrolet, with Spire Motorsports‘ Carson Hocevar rounding out the top five in the No. 77 Chevrolet.

“Lot of opportunities there to get stage points, but if we can go up there and challenge for a win, we‘re going to do that,” said Jones, whose primary team owner is seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.

“I think we‘ve got a good package, and our group is rolling really well as a team. We‘re executing well. Just got to do every little thing right and it [win] will come. You run up front, and it‘s going to happen for you.”

A nine-car chain-reaction wreck early in the race eliminated championship leader and the 2024 Michigan winner Reddick from contention. Another dramatic incident with frontrunners Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell with 51 laps to go necessitated a 20-minute red flag to repair the track wall.

That red flag was necessitated after a hard collision between the two trophy contenders as they ran side-by-side vying for second place. Elliott‘s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet got loose and moved up track and into Bell‘s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

“Totally my fault. I feel so bad for Christopher [Bell],” said Elliott, who won Stage 2 and led a race-best 67 laps on the day.

“Was trying to make use of fresh tires and at least get to second and hopefully stay side-by-side with him,” Elliott continued. “Got in there and got free. Thought I was going to spin and was kinda committed to spinning out, and as soon as I started to commit to spinning it just hooked up, hooked right and unfortunately sent Christopher into the wall super hard and me shortly there behind.

“Just racing really hard. I felt like it was the turning point of the race, and I needed to make something happen and stepped over the line and paid for it. I just told (Bell) I was sorry. Obviously, it was not on purpose, but I knew it was a really big hit for both of us. I think he took the brunt of it, honestly, with two really big hits. I have a lot of respect for Bell and feel like we always race each other with respect on track. I don‘t want that to happen to anyone. It was a big one and certainly not intentional.”

Spire‘s Daniel Suarez — who won at Charlotte Motor Speedway two weeks ago — finished sixth, followed by three-time series champion Joey Logano of Team Penske, whose seventh-place effort marked his fifth top-10 of the season. Logano‘s teammate Ryan Blaney was eighth in the No. 12 Ford, followed by RFK Racing‘s Chris Buescher and JGR‘s Chase Briscoe.

Not only was the top of the championship standings drastically affected on Sunday, but only 26 points now separate 14th-place Shane van Gisbergen from 17th-place Logano, with the top-16 drivers advancing to The Chase, which begins Sept. 6 at Darlington Raceway.

The Cup Series moves to another of its traditional venues next week, Pocono Raceway, for Sunday‘s Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA at the famous 2.5-mile triangle (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Briscoe is the defending race winner.

Stage 2 recap

Chase Elliott scored the Stage 2 win in Sunday‘s Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway after a slew of mid-stage incidents.

Erik Jones was second when the stage ended on Lap 120, with Daniel Suárez third, Kyle Larson fourth and William Byron fifth. Christopher Bell, Carson Hocevar, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Zane Smith completed the top 10.

A multicar crash at the front of the field took out multiple contenders midway through the second segment.

On a Lap 83 restart, Carson Hocevar tipped John Hunter Nemechek sideways just past the start/finish line at the back of the top 10 to trigger the sixth caution flag of the day. Nemechek was hit into Bubba Wallace, whose car veered into Ty Gibbs. Gibbs then collected series points leader Tyler Reddick, who spun across the track and backed into the inside wall at pit exit before being struck again by Austin Dillon‘s No. 3 Chevrolet.

Denny Hamlin, who qualified on pole position but started Sunday‘s race from the rear, was also involved and spun at the end of the frontstretch but sustained no significant damage.

Hocevar restarted on the inside of Row 4, with the three cars ahead of him — Kyle Larson, Gibbs and Nemechek seemingly losing momentum as they approached the start/finish line.

Reddick entered with a 97-point lead over Denny Hamlin in the Cup Series points standings and has not finished worse than 15th all season. His 23XI Racing team attempted to repair the No. 45 Toyota on pit lane but ultimately went to the garage and was unable to complete repairs, handing Reddick his first DNF of the season in Race 15. Reddick will be credited with a 35th-place finish.

MORE: Stage 2 results | How nine cars collided in pileup

Brad Keselowski was then collected in another incident on the ensuing restart on Lap 90 for the seventh yellow flag of the race. His No. 6 RFK Racing Ford was clipped by Nemechek entering Turn 1 as Keselowski had to slow for other racers. Keselowski spun and crashed into the retaining SAFER barrier before he drove his car to the garage, ending his day with a 34th-place result.

Keselowski was also the first driver to incur trouble early in Stage 2 in Sunday‘s Cup Series race. The 2012 series champion and Michigan native cut a left-rear tire on Lap 65, slowing his No. 6 Ford for the fourth caution period of the FireKeepers Casino 400.

Strategy reared its head under the yellow-flag period as a litany of teams opted for two-tire pit stops. Quick changes led to a frantic pit road, though. As then-leader Gibbs exited his stall after a two-tire change, he collided with Ryan Preece‘s No. 60 Ford, leading to minor damage on both vehicles. Because of where the contact occurred, Preece was unable to pit and had to complete another lap before returning to pit road. Gibbs, meanwhile, maintained a top-five position for the Lap 70 restart.

The race continued for just another eight laps before trouble struck again when AJ Allmendinger spun exiting Turn 2. His No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet slid down to the apron of the back straightaway, leading to two flat right-side tires but no wall contact.

Stage 1 recap

Tyler Reddick soared to the Stage 1 victory in Sunday‘s Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway for his first stage win of the season.

Ty Gibbs finished second at the conclusion of Lap 45, with Carson Hocevar third, Chase Elliott fourth and Bubba Wallace fifth. Zane Smith, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Riley Herbst and Daniel Suárez completed the top 10.

MORE: Stage 1 results

Sunday‘s FireKeepers Casino 400 began with multiple incidents for rookie Connor Zilisch.

The 19-year-old driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet spun on Lap 2 through Turns 3 and 4, darting high on entry and losing control of his vehicle before sliding sideways and incurring left-rear damage. Erik Jones, who qualified 10th but started from the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments, scrubbed the wall after going high to avoid Zilisch‘s spinning Chevrolet.

On the ensuing restart, Zilisch found trouble again on Lap 9 when his No. 88 Chevrolet broke traction exiting Turn 2, drifting up the race track and spinning out, leading to a long slide nose-first into the inside wall, bringing his day to a very early end.

“We‘re done,” Zilisch radioed. “Gosh, man! Oh my God.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

That impact brought Zilisch to his third consecutive DNF due to a crash and third straight last-place finish. A 10-time winner in NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series competition in 2025, Zilisch was collected in a collision with Austin Cindric on Lap 52 of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24, then hit the wall after 71 laps in the May 31 contest at Nashville Superspeedway after a brake rotor exploded on his No. 88 car.

“I was really loose, but yeah, it‘s just unfortunate. Another short race for us,” Zilisch told Prime Video after being evaluated and released from the infield care center. “Thank you to WeatherTech for being a part of it. We‘ll go try and get them at Pocono next week.”

NOTE: Inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Hamlin as the Michigan winner. The Nos. 1, 5, 22 and 23 cars will be returning to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for engine dynamometer testing. 

Contributing: Staff reports

On Lap 148, moments after a restart, Elliott bobbled while battling Bell side-by-side, shooting high into the No. 20 Toyota. Both drivers contacted the wall at nearly 200 mph, with the back end of Bell‘s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota erupting in flames. Elliott‘s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet slid back down the track and also struck an inside tire barrier.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Both drivers quickly exited their vehicles, indicating to safety workers that they were OK. Before loading into ambulances for a ride to the infield care center, Elliott walked up to Bell, and the two shared an embrace.

“It was totally my fault. I feel really bad for Bell, just taking him out,” Elliott said after being evaluated and released from the care center. “I was trying to run the bottom, make use of our fresh tires and at least get to second, I was hoping, and stay side-by-side with him. I just got in there and got free. I thought I was going to spin and was kind of committing to spinning out. As soon as I was committed to spinning, it just hooked up and, unfortunately, sent Christopher into the wall really hard and me shortly thereafter.

“It was a huge hit. Huge hit for him, pretty big hit for me, too. I knew that when it happened that it was — when you‘re watching the wall come that quick, it‘s gonna be large. He‘d already hit the wall hard too before I hit him, so those things happen fast, but I saw it happen. I knew it was big, so I just wanted to make sure he was alright and just tell him ‘I‘m so sorry‘ because it was not at all my intention for that to happen.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Bell spent nearly an hour inside the care center and was later evaluated and released. He declined interview requests.

After Denny Hamlin won Sunday‘s race, Joe Gibbs Racing owner Joe Gibbs said in a press conference that he thinks “it was his wrist and his ankle,” referring to Bell, and that “we‘re just going to have to wait.”

Elliott won Stage 2 and led 67 laps, the most in the race to that point. He‘s won twice this season — the only two victories for Hendrick in 2026 — and entered Michigan fourth in the Cup Series points standings. Bell entered seventh and earned runner-up finishes in each of the last two races at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway.

Keselowski discussed the incident Saturday before practice and qualifying for Sunday‘s FireKeepers Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Michigan International Speedway. The RFK Racing driver and co-owner will start Sunday‘s race 26th as he vies for his first victory at his home-state track.

RELATED: At-track photos: Michigan

In last Sunday‘s Cracker Barrel 400, Keselowski‘s No. 6 Ford careened into the outside wall after contact from behind from Dillon‘s No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, shortly after a restart on Lap 192 of 300. The two had an earlier altercation, when a jam-up to avoid Ricky Stenhouse Jr.‘s car on pit entry eventually sent Dillon spinning after contact involving Keselowski and teammate Chris Buescher.

After the wreck that derailed Keselowski‘s day, No. 6 spotter TJ Majors called the contact intentional over the team radio, and Keselowski bristled during his interview after a check at Nashville‘s infield care center. But data from both cars showed that Dillon backed off the throttle to avoid the collision in what was a rapid-fire sequence.

“I looked through all the data and had some conversations with Austin,” Keselowski said Saturday at Michigan, “and there was a lot that happened in one really quick moment that, after having a chance to look at, made a lot more sense to me.”

Dillon said Buescher had texted him “right after the race” about the earlier contact, and Dillon reached out to Keselowski shortly thereafter.

“I mean, I think he understood after I explained things to him that it wasn‘t intentional,” Dillon said after qualifying 21st for Sunday‘s 400-miler. “Things just happened, and it was quick and fast, and the apron at Nashville is not fun, and everybody that touched a rear bumper last weekend got turned, so just unfortunate events.”

Dillon said he reached out to Majors as well. “I talked to TJ, too,” Dillon said. “He said, ‘After I took a day, I‘m better.””

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

NASCAR affirmed midweek that no conduct penalties would stem from the incident, but the veteran Keselowski pressed for more deterrence from competition officials for pit-road entry infractions. Stenhouse‘s No. 47 Chevrolet caused a logjam as it tried to stop for service, and the first incident involving Buescher, Keselowski and Dillon originated from that.

“There was a lot of things that happened,” Keselowski said. “I‘ve had so much conversation with NASCAR as well, that as analytics has really entered the sport, drivers were being weighed really heavily on how well they get on or off pit road, and you can get on and off of pit road slightly faster by making some really aggressive and egregious moves, and that happened at Nashville, but it‘s not the only place it‘s happened, and it‘s not with one driver, it‘s with a number of drivers, and there are rules to prevent that from happening, and penalties that are supposed to be enforced that haven‘t been happening, and so I think that‘s a conversation that will probably evolve over the next few weeks.”

Michigan‘s Irish Hills create a highway to high speeds

Michigan International Speedway has long been the site of some of the highest speeds on the NASCAR schedule. That won‘t change in this weekend‘s FireKeepers Casino 400.

Drivers routinely topped 200 mph in Saturday‘s practice session, averaging lap speeds upward of 190 mph. The 2-mile track‘s long straights and sweeping banked corners create an emphasis on drafting, but its wide turns also offer plenty of lanes for drivers to maneuver out of dirty air.

MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos

Toyota has been the manufacturer to beat every week this season, whether at superspeedways, intermediates, short tracks or road courses. But Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, hasn‘t quite found what he‘s looking for through seven Michigan starts. The daunting nature of what Michigan dares drivers to achieve is not lost on Bell, who is looking for his first Michigan win and first victory of 2026.

“You just have to hit it perfect at this track,” Bell said Saturday. “Like, it‘s so fast, and it takes so much commitment that you can‘t be loose, can‘t be tight; you‘ve got to have the car driving really well to have speed here. So yeah, I mean, the intermediate package has been really good for the Toyotas. Hopefully, I would expect it to translate here to Michigan, but you have to hit the balance. It doesn‘t matter how good your cars are. If it‘s not driving well, you‘re not going to have pace.”

Brad Keselowski, the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion and a Michigan native, is also still seeking his first Michigan win after 28 starts. Michigan‘s spot on the schedule may serve teams well as a precursor for the next two races, with the Irish Hills track preceding Pocono Raceway‘s unique 2.5-mile triangular track, which offers some similarities to the D-shaped oval in Brooklyn, Michigan.

“I view Michigan and Pocono as kind of being the most similar tracks with the way they race, in the sense of the race tends to get strung out, strategy becomes really important, really easy to get involved in a crash because of just how edgy the cars are,” Keselowski said Saturday. “But of course, Michigan and Pocono are not the same tracks. Pocono has the three separate corners — Turn 1, really kind of a high-banked fast corner and Turns 2 and 3 really flat, and Turn 2 particularly really bumpy, and Turn 3 really easy to get in trouble as well.”

Two consecutive weeks with high-speed challenges start Sunday at Michigan, where drivers know they will need to balance bravery with strategy.

“I mean, this is one of those race tracks, man, that you have to be very smart,” said Daniel Suárez, winner of the Coca-Cola 600 on May 24. “I call it as it‘s like a chess match, because [if] you have a run, you have to take it. You have to be very, very strategic and very smart on your moves. Being aggressive is important, but being smart is more important. So I love coming here. It‘s not your typical mile-and-a-half style kind of race track, I mean, even though it‘s a 2-mile race track. But yeah, it‘s a lot of fun.”

In the details …

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Michigan hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: Fuel mileage, new tire setup and OEM incentive in focus | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: New colors set for Michigan | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: Why Austin Dillon was not penalized for Keselowski incident at Nashville | Listen now
• Power Rankings: Who will take next big leap on Sunday? | This week‘s ranks
• NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Michigan | Watch now

Contributing: Cameron Richardson, Zack Albert

“Yeah, it definitely feels like home,” Wilson says.

Earning a victory in front of a home crowd adds incentive for Wilson in Sunday‘s FireKeepers Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Beyond the personal motivations, plenty of other components will be in play for crew chiefs over 400 fast-paced miles.

RELATED: Sunday‘s starting lineup | Weekend schedule: Michigan

Wilson‘s father, Steve, was also a race engineer, and Wilson recalled making his first family trips to the Irish Hills section of the state for NASCAR events in the early to mid-1990s. That longevity means that Wilson has seen plenty of Michigan races that have boiled down to fuel strategy. Come Sunday, teams that make the most of their mileage may hold the key to Victory Lane.

“I think there are certain things that you can do, setup-wise,” Wilson told NASCAR.com. “Obviously, you want to start full of fuel is the biggest thing — making sure that the driver understands ways that he can save fuel throughout the race. Any caution, obviously, he has to be on top of things to save fuel for us, but then, laying out the strategy, making sure that you‘re at a position to where you can try to be full, try to run long. Some of the debate I think is going to come down to if you have early cautions, or cautions hit at the right point, do you want to wait on fuel? I think that‘s probably the biggest question for a lot of guys.

“You know, typically you don‘t have a lot of (pit) stops here. You try to stay out, hold on to the track position, maybe four stops on average, so a lot of times you‘ll have to make sure you‘re full or close to full, or get as much as you can in those situations to open up the playground.”

As usual, Goodyear tires should play a factor and new right-side rubber for Michigan could add another layer to that equation. Goodyear officials indicated the new tire was introduced to combat the force and load created in the high-speed corners, and Wilson said the harder compound should offset some of the issues with cording from excessive wear that have sometimes arisen at other intermediate-sized tracks.

MORE: New right-side Goodyears at Michigan

Cindric, Wilson‘s driver, slowed with a flat left-rear tire 10 minutes into Saturday‘s practice. Denny Hamlin had a similar left-rear issue in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around the same time in the second session, and JGR teammate Christopher Bell‘s left-front went flat on the No. 20 Toyota near practice‘s end.

Travis Peterson, crew chief for Michael McDowell‘s No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, said that aggressive air-pressure setups were likely to blame, with Michigan‘s higher-speed layout potentially causing havoc with settings that work at other tracks. Generally, though, Peterson said he anticipates a standard performance bar when it comes to Goodyear‘s new combination.

“I mean, maybe a little bit more wear than we‘ve had here in the past, but lap times are probably still a little flat,” Peterson said after qualifying. “I don‘t know that we ran enough laps to fully see. The thing that‘s been somewhat consistent about these things is at some point you do seem to hit a wall and cord tires and do all that, so I don‘t know that we ran long enough in practice, us specifically, or any other cars I saw to say that there‘s going to be significant fall-off, but you know, time will tell, but I think it‘s gonna be pretty standard Michigan.”

If there‘s any other motivation needed, there‘s also the annual post-race presentation of the Michigan Heritage Trophy to the winning manufacturer, adding bragging-rights emphasis at the track not far from the Motor City. Toyota has won the last two Cup Series races at Michigan, but Ford held a nine-in-a-row streak from 2018-23.

MORE: At-track photos: Michigan | Watch NASCAR video highlights

The next Mustang victory will be Ford‘s milestone 750th in the Cup Series, but Wilson said the incentive for winning here doesn‘t need to be verbalized.

“Obviously it‘s in their backyard. They don‘t have to put pressure on us,” Wilson said. “We want to have a very solid and strong race for Ford. Not only that, it‘s also Penske‘s headquarters, so there‘s a lot of reasons for me personally being from the area. This is one you want to circle and make sure that you perform for everybody.”

That motivation also runs high in other automakers‘ camps.

“I mean, you‘re always thinking about it here in Michigan, just because you know you‘re in the backyard of the OEMs and you want to do well,” Peterson said. “It‘s that way for every OEM, so you want to put a bowtie in Victory Lane … but no matter what, we want to win anyways.”

Hamlin‘s lap of 195.117 mph in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota bettered Hocevar‘s run in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet by 0.018 seconds around the 2-mile Michigan high banks and gives the NASCAR veteran — and defending Michigan race winner — 50 career NASCAR Cup Series pole positions.

After climbing out of his Toyota, the 45-year-old Hamlin walked over to the 23-year-old Hocevar on pit road, where they spoke briefly and hugged. Hamlin smiled and joked that he only felt “this bad” — holding his thumb and forefinger close together — for taking the qualifying win.

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Michigan

“They did a great job accounting for the damage on the bottom side (of his car), they re-balanced it, but it was a handful — all I wanted, certainly,” said Hamlin, who won from pole position last week at Nashville. “That was surprising.

“That was the limit for sure,” Hamlin said.

Hocevar was clearly disappointed in the qualifying outcome. Earlier in the afternoon, he led the most laps in the Craftsman Truck Series race, only to finish third. A first-time Cup Series winner at Talladega in April, Hocevar insisted, however, he was still optimistic about his chances come Sunday afternoon.

“It‘s a testament to these guys, they do a really good job,” Hocevar said. “Yeah, I would have loved to have that there, but third in the truck race [on Saturday afternoon] and second in Cup qualifying — hopefully that‘s a trend there.

“I feel like it‘s a really good race car, one of the best I‘ve had here. So, I hope it translates tomorrow. I feel really good about our race car, so starting out front is super important.

“I know it‘s just qualifying, but damn, I didn‘t know I wanted it this much here. Just means a lot for so many reasons.”

Championship leader Tyler Reddick was third fastest in the No. 45 Toyota that Hamlin co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan. Hamlin‘s JGR teammates Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe were next quickest, giving Toyota four of the top-five starting positions.

Chase Elliott was the top qualifying Chevrolet in sixth place. Chris Buescher, the 2023 Michigan winner, was the top qualifying Ford in 14th place. Ford has a Michigan track record of 44 wins — 18 more than Chevrolet and 37 more than Toyota; however, Toyota has won the last two races (Reddick in 2024 and Hamlin in 2025).

The last polesitter to win at Michigan was Team Penske‘s Joey Logano in 2019. In fact, Logano‘s three Michigan wins (2019, 2016, 2013) all came from pole position. He‘ll start 18th Sunday.

Reddick tops practice session

23XI Racing‘s Tyler Reddick topped the leaderboard in Saturday‘s practice session at 192.622 mph, ahead of Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott (192.200 mph) and Kyle Larson (191.403 mph).

Chris Buescher (191.367 mph) and Denny Hamlin (191.342 mph) rounded out the top five.

Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Ryan Blaney and Carson Hocevar completed the top 10.

MORE: Practice results | Watch NASCAR video highlights

In the Group 1 practice session, the caution came out for Team Penske‘s Austin Cindric, who had a flat left-rear tire and stalled on track. The same thing happened to Denny Hamlin in Group 2, as the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota caused the second and final stoppage of practice.

Hamlin‘s JGR teammate Christopher Bell suffered a flat left-front tire entering Turn 1, but he was able to drive his No. 20 Toyota back to the pits without bringing out the caution.

Legacy Motor Club‘s Erik Jones also had a flat left-rear tire and made his way back to the No. 43 pit box.

Contributing: Staff reports.

It‘s Heim‘s 26th career victory, but first ever on the 2-mile Michigan high banks, giving him series wins now on 22 different tracks — second best all-time; only NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. has won at more venues with 31. It‘s also Heim‘s third win in only five Truck starts this season and comes a week after announcing he will join the championship-leading 23XI Racing organization full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series for 2027.

Heim‘s No. 1 Tricon Toyota passed the day‘s most dominant truck, driven by Cup Series regular Carson Hocevar with 15 laps remaining and crossed the line only 0.065 seconds ahead of Honeycutt‘s No. 11 Tricon Toyota — the truck Heim drove to the championship last season.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Michigan

He immediately thanked Honeycutt for the push forward in the final laps — his only laps out front all day — acknowledging the help put just enough distance on Hocevar, who led a race-best 65 of the 125 laps.

“We discussed it pre-race that we were going to race it out in the end, and that‘s what we did,” the 23-year-old Georgia native Heim said. “He tried to get to my right rear there, which would have probably won the race and I had to protect it.

“Props to Kaden there and to [fellow Toyota driver] Christopher Bell, I don‘t know where he ended up, but he was strong all day. The last couple laps there at the end, were pretty awesome.

“That was a lot of fun, I had a blast,” he added.

The 21-year-old Honeycutt certainly kept Heim honest in the closing run to the checkered, hoping to earn his second career win, matching his work at Watkins Glen in May.

“Good race there at the end, us five up there and I‘m sure it was a good race for the fans so that was good,” Honeycutt said. “It was unfortunate I didn‘t get the win there. Just feel like I‘ve lost too many of them on my part so I think that‘s what bothers me the most.”

Although boosted by a strong showing all day at his “home track,” the Michigan native, Carson Hocevar, was clearly disappointed with his finish, explaining his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet truck had been overheating all day. He was hoping to win for the hometown crowd and especially for his mother, who is celebrating her birthday this weekend.

“Everyone did a good job,” he said, adding, “Just sucks we didn‘t close it out there. Felt like I could have done a better job, but don‘t know what I could have done differently. Would like to see what I would have had full power.

“A lot of reasons to win here at Michigan.”

Front Row Motorsports teammates Chandler Smith and Layne Riggs rounded out the top five — an especially valiant effort from Riggs, who went a lap down early after a pit-stop issue. A winner in the previous two races, Riggs‘ comeback to fifth place keeps him atop the championship standings by 26 points over Honeycutt.

Bell finished sixth in the No. 62 Halmar Friesen Toyota after sweeping both stage wins and leading 37 laps — one of six race leaders on the afternoon. Fellow Cup Series driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr was seventh, followed by Connor Mosack, Jake Garcia and Tyler Ankrum.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Fan favorite Cleetus McFarland rallied from a late-race spin that brought out one of seven yellow flags — and finished 25th on the lead lap in only his second series start.

After six consecutive races, the trucks go into an off week and will return to action Friday, June 19, in the inaugural Craftsman Truck Series race at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego (7 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming Heim as the race winner. The Nos. 12, 38, 52 and 91 trucks will be taken by NASCAR for additional wind-tunnel testing at Aerodyn in Mooresville, North Carolina.

Childress‘ first public remarks since Busch‘s death came Saturday at the 2-mile Michigan track, site of Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series race and a venue where Busch won four times in national-series competition. He said that improvement in Richard Childress Racing‘s performance in the weeks before Busch‘s passing had made the 41-year-old driver bullish about returning for the 2027 season and for reaching the postseason Chase this year.

RELATED: Michigan weekend schedule | Cup Series standings

“We had a great conversation, talking about how he said, ‘You give me cars like you‘ve gave me the last three weeks,‘ he said, ‘I will make the Chase this year,”” Childress recalled. “I mean, we were that confident. Both of us had a lot of confidence in us.”

Busch was in his fourth season at Richard Childress Racing when he died May 21 from severe pneumonia and sepsis. The future NASCAR Hall of Famer won three times with RCR in the early stages of their first year together, but was in the grips of the longest winless spell of his Cup Series career before he fell ill.

O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series regular Austin Hill has driven Busch‘s ride in the two Cup Series races since his death, and he will again in Sunday‘s FireKeepers Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Childress indicated that Hill would continue to pilot the No. 33 Chevrolet the rest of the season, rather than use a rotating cast of drivers.

Childress opened his press conference by thanking the media and motorsports community for their support, both for the Busch family and his organization, before noting the press conference‘s original purpose. “That‘s the tough part about today,” said Childress, who said he walked into the Michigan media center Saturday with thoughts of Busch being by his side.

It‘s a feeling Childress unfortunately knows too well, having lost another stock-car racing giant and close friend in Dale Earnhardt in the 2001 Daytona 500. The Hall of Fame team owner said he has found the support of his family and the rest of the RCR group uplifting, but that coping with such a sudden loss had been emotionally taxing.

“It‘s challenging,” Childress said. “… You lose two of the greatest drivers that‘s ever driven a car in NASCAR and have to go through it again. I just feel so, so bad for the family and the employees and everybody, but yeah, I mean, it‘s … I haven‘t slept very good lately, I‘ll leave it at that.”

Magnifying the difficulty, Childress said, was how much closer the driver and team owner had become. Their relationship had grown into an off-track friendship, with Childress introducing Busch to his love of the outdoors and joining him to watch Busch‘s 11-year-old son, Brexton, as he continues the developmental phase of his racing career. As he had done with Earnhardt decades ago, Childress had shared conversations with Busch about his future and what would have become of his post-driving days.

The two were adversarial when on opposing teams earlier in Busch‘s career, but they channeled their shared competitive drive toward a common goal when Busch came on board with RCR in 2023. Childress says he saw shades of himself in Busch. Others did, too.

“He wanted to win. He was driven by winning, hard work, everything that he could do to put in it,” Childress said. “Yeah, they say we‘re a little alike, and once somebody said, ‘well, the only difference, one‘s got an accent, the other one doesn‘t.‘ So I really … we built a friendship out of this. We went hunting, I took him on one of his very first hunts, and he really got into hunting. He started taking Brexton, and we had other plans.

“The sad part for me, looking back, knowing what Dale Earnhardt had in mind, and the plans he had for him in his future, and sitting and talking to Kyle at different times, knowing his plans and what he had in the future for him and Brexton, his family, and the many things that we all could have done together, that was probably the toughest part of this whole thing.”

Though Busch‘s time with RCR was relatively short compared to the breadth of his 20-plus-year Cup Series career, Childress said his impact on the organization was immeasurable. In speaking openly about his legacy, Childress said Busch will one day join him in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Left up to him, Childress said, that day would come as soon as possible.

“Kyle Busch will go down in history as one of the greatest drivers there‘s ever been,” Childress said. “He‘ll be in the Hall of Fame. I‘d love to see them put him in it right away. He helped RCR when we needed him. He came right in, and we won three races the first part of (2023). We had a lot of opportunities to win other races, but we just didn‘t finish and capitalize on them. He was a man that a lot of people thought he was tough to deal with and that we wouldn‘t last long, but he was a man that loved this sport. He loved it so much that he wanted to see his family carry it on.”

Family remains top of mind for Childress, who said that he foresees grandsons Austin and Ty Dillon being more heavily involved in the team‘s leadership one day. The family focus also extends to Busch‘s family.

The car was rebranded from Busch‘s No. 8 to the No. 33 Chevrolet before Hill first drove it in the Coca-Cola 600. Childress said that Busch had a hand in designing the style of the No. 8 that he used, and the team owner reiterated that the number was reserved for Brexton Busch, should he want to use it in NASCAR‘s top division — regardless of whether he drives for Childress or not.

Childress spoke highly of the younger Busch on Saturday, saying that his on- and off-track composure had impressed him.

“I think just showing him the respect and trying not to put more pressure on him, just like Dale Earnhardt Jr.,” Childress said when asked what might set up Brexton Busch for success. “I think that he‘s got a great future. That kid can drive a race car. Personally and mentally, watching him last Tuesday (during a private memorial) was incredible. He‘s just a bright young man and a great little race car driver. He‘ll carry the Busch legacy for many years to come.”

The Jarrett family made the following statement: “With profound sadness, the family of NASCAR Hall of Fame driver and radio/TV personality, Ned Jarrett, announces his passing on Thursday, June 4, 2026. He died peacefully of natural causes at his home in Newton, North Carolina, with his family by his side. He was 93 years old. Our father was a devout Christian and a devoted, loving family man. He was a friend to everyone he met and NASCAR‘s oldest living champion. By all accounts, he was a true NASCAR legend. While we mourn his passing, we celebrate the remarkable life of an amazing man and truly the best father anyone could have wished for. Rest in Peace, Dad.”

“Despite his calm demeanor, ‘Gentleman‘ Ned Jarrett was as fierce a competitor as NASCAR has ever seen,” NASCAR CEO Steve O‘Donnell said in a statement. “His on-track accomplishments speak for themselves with wins and championships across several NASCAR divisions. But it was his off-the-track persona that separated Ned from his peers. He was as kind as his nickname indicated. And his endearing personality helped him excel in his second career as a broadcaster. Ned was an outstanding ambassador for the sport for more than six decades, and he will be dearly missed. On behalf of the France family and all of NASCAR, I offer my deepest condolences to all of Ned‘s family and friends on the loss of a NASCAR legend.”

The third driver to win at least 50 NASCAR premier-series races, Jarrett won championships in 1961 and 1965 in what is known today as the NASCAR Cup Series. He is also a two-time Sportsman champion, claiming back-to-back titles in 1957 and ‘58 after finishing second to Ralph Earnhardt in ‘56.

Jarrett holds the record for the premier series‘ largest margin of victory — claiming the 1965 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway by a whopping 14 laps.

His 50 career wins came in just 352 starts during a career that lasted 13 years, from 1953 through 1966. However, he ran more than half the scheduled races only six times.

In that short span, Jarrett still totaled 185 top-five finishes and 239 top-10 results.

His championships came with two team owners — his ‘61 title was won while competing for shipping heir B.G. Holloway, while his ‘65 title came with owner Bondy Long.

It was also in ‘65 that Jarrett suffered his worst injury in racing — breaking his back in a crash at Greenville-Pickens Speedway.

That injury, and the temporary withdrawal of Ford Motor Company from stock-car racing the next year, hastened Jarrett‘s retirement at the age of 34.

“With the help of a lot of good doctors and a lot of people, we were able to keep going and finish out the season and went on to win the championship,” Jarrett said during his NASCAR Hall of Fame acceptance speech in 2011. “I‘m very grateful for that.”

Jarrett was named one of NASCAR‘s 50 greatest drivers in 1998, and his 43 victories in Ford entries remain tops for that manufacturer.

After his retirement from driving, Jarrett quickly became a fan favorite behind the microphone. “Ned Jarrett‘s World of Racing,” a daily radio news show, became a staple among those in the sport and those who followed it.

He worked with the Motor Racing Network (MRN) as a pit-road reporter before moving to the television booth, where he enjoyed stints with CBS and ESPN. His call for CBS of the final laps of the 1993 Daytona 500, in which his youngest son, Dale Jarrett, held off (at the time) five-time series champion Dale Earnhardt for the victory, remains one of the most memorable calls in NASCAR.

“C‘mon, Dale, go baby, go,” the elder Jarrett said as the final lap unfolded, urging on his son while a national television audience listened in. “… Don‘t let him (Earnhardt) get to the inside of you coming around this turn. Here he comes, Earnhardt; it‘s the Dale and Dale show as they come off of Turn 4.

“You know who I‘m pulling for, it‘s Dale Jarrett. Bring her to the inside, Dale, don‘t let him get down there. He‘s gonna make it! Dale Jarrett‘s gonna win the Daytona 500! Alright!”

Ned Jarrett was born Oct. 12, 1932, near Newton, North Carolina, and grew up working on his family‘s farm and sawmill. When talk of a new race track, Hickory Speedway, became hot news in the community, Jarrett began making plans to compete when the track held its first premier-series event in 1953.

“I played a little basketball and baseball in high school (and) thought I had some athletic ability,” he said. “When they opened the speedway, I ran the first race they ever run there. I was hooked.”

Racing was little more than a hobby at that time for Jarrett, who said he won half interest in his first race car in a poker game.

When he began running in the Sportsman Series full-time and winning regularly, he started to consider moving up to the premier series, where he could try to race for a living.

When no car owners came calling, however, Jarrett found himself still competing in Sportsman races. After one particularly stressful night, Jarrett said he told others he needed a change. “I need to get in a car that will win a race for me or run up front on a consistent basis,” he said.

What followed remains one of the more interesting stories in NASCAR lore.

After his induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011, Jarrett shared the story with members of the media.

“There was a 1957 Ford for sale, being maintained in my hometown,” Jarrett said. “Junior Johnson was winning on a fairly regular basis in that car. They were building Junior a new Dodge to run at Darlington that year, 1959.”

The owners wanted $2,000 for the car. Jarrett didn‘t have $2,000, but he did have a plan — which was to write a check for the car after the bank closed on Friday, meaning it would be at least Monday before the money could be drawn out of his account.

“There was a 100-mile race, pays $950 to win Friday night at Myrtle Beach,” he said. “There was another race on Sunday afternoon in Charlotte that pays $950 to win. That‘s $1,900. I can cover that check on Monday morning.

“You can‘t be foolish enough to try that, but I did. I had no doubt in my mind. I was cocky enough to believe if Junior Johnson could win races in that car, I could, too.”

The result was Jarrett‘s first two premier-series victories as he won back-to-back events at Rambi Raceway in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Aug. 1 and Southern States Fairgrounds in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 2.

“We were able to pull it off,” he said. “… That‘s what launched me into the Grand National Series.”

Jarrett won five times the following season as he ran 40 of the 44 races on the schedule and finished fifth in the points standings.

In 1961, he hooked up with Holloway and Chevrolet — thanks to a recommendation from 1960 series champion Rex White — and won his first title despite winning only one race. He finished in the top five in 23 of his 46 starts, outpointing White for the title.

Jarrett won a career-best 15 races driving for Long in 1964 but finished second to Richard Petty in the battle for the championship.

In the ‘64 running of the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Jarrett helped pull a critically injured Fireball Roberts from his burning car after a crash. Roberts suffered third-degree burns, while Jarrett was treated for minor burns.

Roberts, one of NASCAR‘s first superstars, died two months later while still being treated for his injuries.

The ‘65 season saw Jarrett win 13 more times and capture his second series title. Included in his victories was the stunning 14-lap winning margin at Darlington. He made his final start the following year, finishing third in Rockingham while driving for Long.

Besides a driving and broadcasting career, Jarrett also took a turn as a track promoter, running Hickory Speedway from 1968 through 1977. He was named Promoter of the Year twice for his efforts.

All three of Jarrett‘s children — sons Dale and Glenn and daughter Patti — have NASCAR ties.

Dale Jarrett won the NASCAR premier-series title in 1999 and retired with 32 career victories. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2014.

Glenn Jarrett competed in both the Cup Series and NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series before embarking on his own broadcasting career, while his daughter, Patti Makar, is married to Jimmy Makar, who was the Senior Vice President of Racing Operations for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Ned Jarrett was preceded in death by Martha, his wife of 67 years, on Feb. 5, 2023.

In January of 1963, Ned Jarrett spoke to the Associated Press about the business of running a race team, its pitfalls as well as its advantages.

“There‘s very little glamour in this business of stock-car racing,” Jarrett said at the time. “It is hard work. To make money in it, you‘ve got to run your team like you would any other business.

“You‘ve got to match dollars that go out with dollars that come in. You can‘t live on fame.”

As one of the top prospects to eventually make the jump to the Cup Series, the 23-year-old will be a part of the Silly Season rumor mill as he continues to visit Victory Lane.

Speaking to the media over Zoom on Tuesday, Riggs explained that his current success — as well as active Cup drivers who had Truck Series success — are giving him optimism that a call-up could be inevitable.

RELATED: Riggs driver page | Truck standings

“It gives me confidence that I‘m going to have an opportunity in the future,” Riggs said. “Not just from Corey (Heim), but you look at Zane (Smith), you look at (Carson) Hocevar, you look at a lot of other guys that went straight from Trucks to Cup, I feel like that‘s a common path nowadays. It seems like when you do get to a national level, you either go straight to Trucks and then you go to Cup, or you go straight to the O‘Reilly (Auto Parts) Series and then go to Cup. I have the confidence that I‘m going to be there one day. I‘m waiting for that right opportunity whenever it becomes available, but I do feel like that will be the inevitable if I keep staying on track at the performance that I have now.”

Patience has been key for Riggs in his national series career so far. It took 23 starts and missing the playoffs in 2024 before he scored his first Truck Series triumph at The Milwaukee Mile. Riggs is on a current run of eight wins across the last 43 events.

But moving up the national series ladder is easier said than done, regardless of the resume built.

Heim, who won 12 Truck Series races and the series championship last year, is on a part-time schedule in 2026 but will run full-time at the Cup level for 23XI Racing in 2027.

And when getting to Cup, can the accolades translate against the best the sport has to offer? That mountain is even steeper to ascend.

As an example, Riggs mentioned rookie Connor Zilisch and how the phenom is struggling to put together consistent runs in his maiden campaign at the top level, despite dominating the O‘Reilly Series a year ago.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

“You have to race Cup to learn how to run a Cup car,” Riggs said. “You look at the tough start that Connor Zilisch has had this year and every driver that starts in the Cup Series, their rookie year is usually pretty rough. I think that waiting for the right opportunity that comes when the timing is right. I feel like if it‘s a rushed opportunity to do so or something that I‘m not really comfortable with, or the teams really aren‘t set up to be ready to have me yet, I would rather just stay where I‘m at, develop a little bit more and wait until that opportunity and timing is right.

“I would be fine with running eight years in the Truck Series and then having a 15-year-long Cup career. That sounds like a lot of fun. But just with the way timing works out, you can‘t stay but so long or you kind of get stuck. I think it‘s easy for drivers to get stuck in a series and get labeled as ‘you‘re this series guy‘, ‘you‘re a Truck guy‘ or ‘you‘re an O‘Reilly guy.‘ The prospects aren‘t really looking for you anymore as a guy that wants to move up.”

As the Truck Series heads to Michigan International Speedway on Saturday (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Riggs is eyeing to become the first Ford driver in the Truck Series to win three races in a row since Greg Biffle in 2000.

The second-generation driver is going to keep making waves moving forward, but Riggs says there‘s no added pressure.

“I think that our results recently just kind of speak for themselves of the performance we have,” he said. “I want to move up, but I want the opportunity to be right so just waiting for that, and trying to make sure I do all I can in this series that I‘m in and focus on that, and hopefully the rest will take care of itself.”

Anywhere Roger Penske‘s name is spoken in the motorsports world, from one series to another and across oceans, star-class drivers are part of the conversation. Their success is celebrated in racing museums across the country and at Team Penske‘s North Carolina headquarters, and their names are scattered across a library of record books.

The name that is missing from the grand list of career-long Penske drivers? Roger Penske.

Before he became a global motorsports success story and the leader of an extensive network of businesses employing more than 73,000 people, Penske was a respected, on-the-rise race car driver. Had he stayed on that path, many believe, he could have put his name alongside the great drivers of his era.

RELATED: All of Team Penske‘s wins

Instead, Penske took a detour into business and a highly successful second career as a racing team owner. The sensational results of that choice make clear it was the right move, but questions nevertheless remain about the other road and the racing lanes he could have taken.

“He would have been one of the all-time great drivers,” said Walt Czarnecki, a Penske lieutenant for decades. “One thing that has always caught my attention when I‘m listening to him on the spotter stand is that he can talk to the drivers as if he‘s in the car. There‘s a video around of him driving at Road America, and he‘s commenting on the lap, talking about what he‘s doing in this corner and that corner.”

In 1958, Penske, then 21 years old, began driving in Sports Car Club of America events. Smart, handsome and a quick study, he picked up the finer points of racing in a hurry and became a spotlighted driver at virtually every event. In 1961, he won the SCCA National D Modified championship and was named SCCA Driver of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine. A year later, he scored a United States Auto Club championship and won Driver of the Year honors from The New York Times. In 1963, he won a NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model race at Riverside International Raceway in California.

Penske seemed to be on an upward trajectory as a driver, but he faced a difficult decision. He had big ambitions in the automotive and business world, and he realized he couldn‘t take both roads. In an interview with the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which he entered in 2019, Penske said, “I had to make a decision that was either going to be stay as a race driver or be in business. And I had an opportunity to go to work for a Chevrolet dealer in Philadelphia, George McKean. When I went there, I said, ‘Look, I‘d like to own this business in a couple of years.‘ And I knew at the time that would take place, I‘d have to make that decision.”

With financial help from his father, Penske bought the Philadelphia dealership in 1965, and was off and running. Just not on a track.

He jumped back into racing from the ownership side, building a many-pronged organization that has garnered 48 national championships and scored almost 700 race victories. The Team Penske trophy cases bulge.

Could he have filled some himself?

“He definitely understands how to drive a car,” said Keselowski, who drove in NASCAR for Penske from 2009 to 2021, winning the organization‘s first Cup Series championship in 2012. “I remember one race at California when I slid through my pit box. I had a call from him a couple of days later. He said it looked like I had too much front brake in the car. I was like, ‘That was it.‘

“I sense from him that his motorsports driving career was something that he really enjoyed. He was hesitant to give up on it, but he was doing the best he could for his family. He had an opportunity in business outside of it, so I respect him for making that move.”

Logano, whose stagnant career flourished when he arrived at Team Penske in 2013, said he benefited from driving advice from the boss.

“There was a lot of coaching, especially when I started, and it was awesome,” Logano said. “He was a really good race car driver. He would say, ‘You do a floater into a corner.‘ Or maybe, ‘Try some different things here and there.‘ It wasn‘t the same every week, but it was pretty specific a lot of times.”

After giving up driving, Penske attracted some of the world‘s best drivers to his surging organization, and his business successes expanded into track ownership and operations. His portfolio included Michigan International Speedway, site of this weekend‘s Cup Series race, and Auto Club Speedway. He now owns Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a Penske mecca and the place where his teams have won 20 Indianapolis 500s.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Team Penske‘s many accomplishments across 60 years are being celebrated this year with an exhibit at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The exhibit includes numerous artifacts and race cars, including the 1996 Ford driven by Rusty Wallace, the first Cup Series car developed by the team.

Wallace, the driver who played a major role in solidifying Penske‘s success in NASCAR, said the team built a replica of the Pontiac, numbered 02, that Penske drove to victory at Riverside, California, to honor that long-ago accomplishment.

“He never talked much about driving, but when you start researching what he‘s done, holy cow, he was good, a damn good driver,” Wallace said.

That means it‘s the moment in the schedule when teams start to find out who they really are, for better or for worse. A recent upward trend now could carry a driver from decent to great, as we saw just last season with Chase Briscoe‘s midseason improvement starting around May and propelling him all the way to the Championship 4. A poorly-timed downturn, on the other hand, could unravel an otherwise strong start to the year.

RELATED: NASCAR Cup Series standings

So let‘s dig into which drivers have been trending up or down over the past month of points-paying races. First, here‘s a plot of every Cup regular‘s change in both Adjusted Points+ index (which measures finishing quality relative to a Cup average of 100) and Driver Rating (which measures mid-race speed and dominance in addition to finishes) since the start of May, relative to their performance in the ‘26 campaign leading up to May 1:

Drivers in the top-right (green) quadrant are finishing better, with better underlying speed and race-long performance as well. Drivers on the bottom-left (in red) are doing worse in both regards. And the rest have mixed results, most likely due to mismatched finishing luck.

Tyler Reddick, for instance, is on less of a race-closing heater than he was when he won five of the season‘s first nine races, but his underlying form might actually be better! (His average Driver Rating over the past month is actually up nine points despite zero wins in May.) Conversely, Christopher Bell is holding fairly steady in the rating department — 92.7 May rating versus 96.2 beforehand — but he has a much higher rate of top fives and top-10s, indicating that his finishes are simply catching up to the quality of drives he‘s had all along. 

For everyone else, let‘s dive into the five most (and least) improved drivers by the numbers over the past month.

Trending Up

1. Shane van Gisbergen: SVG was always going to improve statistically in a month containing a road-course race as May did (with Watkins Glen, which van Gisbergen won via an overwhelming late-race comeback) for the first time since early March. But beyond the right-hand turns, SVG has shown remarkable improvement at a wide range of other tracks, finishing 20th or better in five consecutive races — a stretch that includes a superspeedway and three intermediates. With an average Driver Rating of 98.1 over that span, this is the best five-race stretch of his career containing fewer than three road courses, and his Chase odds are now up to 66%.

2. Michael McDowell: McDowell came on strong at the end of last season, with a handful of top 20s and even a few top 10s, but he started 2026 running mostly in the back half of the field aside from consecutive top-10s at Circuit of The Americas and Phoenix Raceway. In recent weeks, however, he has gotten a lot more speed out of the No. 71 Chevy. Yes, McDowell — like SVG — benefited from another road course, but he also has a pair of consecutive top-15 runs at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway, bringing his May averages up to a 142 Adj. Points+ and a 79.2 Driver Rating after sitting at 73 and 58.2 in those metrics, respectively, before the month began.

3. Daniel Suárez: Suárez‘s career seemed to be at a crossroads after a mediocre 2025 with Trackhouse Racing. But after opening the 2026 season — now as a Spire Motorsports pilot — with a series of respectable finishes (two top 10s and a top five) entering May, he turned things way up in the past month. The rain-shortened win at Charlotte was the most memorable run — not least because it was in tribute to his late mentor, Kyle Busch — but he also scored a top 10 at Texas Motor Speedway and led 10 laps at Nashville on Sunday. All of a sudden, Suárez hasn‘t finished outside the top 20 in a race since Phoenix on March 8. And, like SVG, those strong recent runs have greatly bolstered Suárez‘s Chase chances, which now sit in the high-70 % range.

4. Erik Jones: Leading up to May, Jones seemed content to continue being the definition of a mid-pack driver. (He didn‘t finish in any position other than 23rd in the entire month of April.) But something changed starting in Texas, where Jones finished 12th, and that uptick has followed through three more top-20 finishes in a row, including an 11th-place run at Nashville, with a 96.8 Driver Rating that was his best form in a race since a 109.5 at Darlington Raceway last August. Though he‘s still waiting to break through with another single-digit finish (it‘s been since that third-place Darlington run for one of those as well), Jones‘ No. 43 car has been much more competitive.

5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: Stenhouse can always be counted on for a strong superspeedway run, and indeed, he‘s finished second at Daytona International Speedway and sixth at Talladega Superspeedway in 2026 so far. But his recent oval form has been uncommonly solid as well, with an average finish of 11.7 in his past three intermediate races, capped off by a fourth-place finish at Nashville on Sunday, his best at an intermediate since finishing second at Dover in 2022. Aside from a 31st-place road-course run at The Glen, Stenhouse hasn‘t finished any worse than 21st since Martinsville Speedway in late March.

Next up: Cole Custer, John Hunter Nemechek, Chase Briscoe.

Trending Down

1. Ross Chastain: Chastain‘s form has been steadily sliding towards Cup-average since his wall-riding breakout of 2022 had him looking like the sport‘s next big star. But while he was inconsistent, Chastain began 2026 with flashes of the old form — including a pair of top 10s at EchoPark Speedway and Talladega and additional laps led at Daytona, COTA and Martinsville. Ever since, though, he hasn‘t managed any better than a 26th-place run at Texas, with an average finish of 31.3 and a 56.4 average Driver Rating in May. That set of finishes is his worst four-race stretch since October 2018, and it has pushed his Chase odds south of 10%.

2. Brad Keselowski: The top-line numbers for Keselowski‘s 2026 (16.1 average finish, 116 Adjusted Points+, 74.0 Driver Rating) look almost identical — if not actually slightly better — than what they were a year ago (18.5, 110, 72.3). But those figures were on track to be much better earlier in the year, when Keselowski had four top 10s in his first nine races and an average rating of 79.8, including three showings at or above 91.0. But he hasn‘t recorded a top 10 since Kansas Speedway on April 19, and his rating has dipped to 63.4 over that span. He ought to still make The Chase, but too many more slowdowns like this will make that outcome less certain.

3. Bubba Wallace: Just like Keselowski, the overall numbers for Bubba this season are almost perfectly in line with his career norms — right down to an average finish (18.4 vs. 18.5) and Driver Rating (80.6 vs. 80.7) within a tenth of a point of last season — but that hides a hot start followed by a recent slump. After finishing 11th or better in seven of the season‘s first nine races, Wallace crashed his way to a 36th-place day at Talladega (where he usually runs well) on April 26, starting a stretch of four finishes outside the top 20 in his most recent five races. (The only exception was a 9th-place run at Texas.) Bubba, too, isn‘t in terrible Chase shape despite sitting 15th in the standings, but he needs better finishes soon.

4. Kyle Larson: “What‘s wrong with Kyle Larson?” is a question that‘s growing from a whisper to a full-blown storyline as the No. 5 has now failed to find its way to Victory Lane in 38 races and counting. Despite the lack of wins, Larson‘s 2026 start wasn‘t much of a concern — he had six top 10s in the first nine races of the year, and his two finishes outside the top 30 still carried a Driver Rating at or above 88.0, mainly indicating a luck issue. But since finishing dead-last (40th) at Talladega, Larson has a single finish better than 23rd (fifth place at Charlotte) and a mortal-seeming 75.6 average rating. By Adjusted Points+ index, this is Larson‘s worst stretch of five races (70 Pts+) since April 2019.

5. Ryan Preece: As he was establishing himself as one of the best breakout stories of 2025 after a move to RFK Racing, Preece‘s hallmark became a downright scary level of consistency: From Kansas in May 2025 through the end of the schedule, he scored 11 top 10s in 25 races, finishing outside the top 21 just three times. Following a 25th-place run at Daytona to open 2026, Preece seemed to continue the same trend, with two top 10s and all top 20s in the next 11 contests. But back-to-back runs of 33rd and 36th at Charlotte and Nashville, respectively, are Preece‘s first set of consecutive finishes outside the top 30 within a season since July 2024.

Next up: Josh Berry, Joey Logano, William Byron.

One important addendum to the idea of upward or downward trends is that some drivers have more room to rise or fall than others without necessarily changing their general level of performance relative to the overall Cup pecking order. Here‘s a plot of Driver Rating changes in May versus the previous races on the calendar, with positive changes in green and negative ones in red, but ordered by May rating:

While some of the recent orderings will raise eyebrows — SVG is up to No. 3 in the past month, while Hendrick drivers Larson, Chase Elliott and William Byron are borderline top 10 — a driver like Stenhouse could gain 16 points of rating and still be nearly double-digits behind, say, Byron, even after the latter lost 13 points from his own rating. In other words, up/down stock trends are not power rankings.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

But trends still matter, especially at this point in the calendar. In this new Chase format, one hot month can change a driver‘s entire outlook, whether it‘s SVG and Suárez moving from the bubble toward safer playoff odds, or Chastain and Preece watching once-promising bids start to look shaky. And with just 12 weeks left before the Chase cutoff arrives, the next handful of weeks will tell us which of these May moves were merely temporary, and which will end up being the start of something truly meaningful.

Ruggiero grew up in Seekonk, a Massachusetts suburb of Providence, Rhode Island. He began racing at 11 at the famed Seekonk Speedway — a twice-a-year stop on the Whelen Modified Tour. But instead of racing the ground pounders, he drove Bandolero and Legend cars, eventually traveling across the Northeast before first participating in Charlotte Motor Speedway‘s Summer Shootout. He then transitioned into Late Models, driving for Anthony Campi Racing in Florida before moving to North Carolina at just 15 to further pursue a racing career.

In 2023, Ruggiero signed with Toyota Racing Development and Wilson Motorsports, embarking on a super late model schedule. He won the prestigious Winchester 400 that fall, setting up his debut in the ARCA Menards Series the next year.

RELATED: Craftsman Truck Series standings

Ruggiero contested the entire East Series schedule in 2024, finishing third in points after winning the season opener at Five Flags Speedway. He made a handful of additional ARCA starts, finishing second three times.

Soon after turning 18, Ruggiero had a full-time ride at Tricon Garage, piloting the team‘s No. 17 Toyota. But he had made just one start in any series on ovals larger than a mile.

“It definitely was the biggest jump so far in my career, going from super late model racing right to Trucks,” Ruggiero told NASCAR.com this week. “It was definitely a super big learning deal for me, and had some growing pains as well to start, but I think what made it easier was racing for Tricon and having a team with super fast trucks and really good teammates.

“I had Corey [Heim] my first year, which was great to have him as a teammate and kind of be able to try and learn from him. And really the biggest learning point for me for the mile-and-a-half stuff is just the dirty air. It‘s so tough at first trying to figure out how to set up passes, and really just race craft is so much different than short-track racing, so that was the biggest part of the learning curve for me, and I feel like once I figured that out, I definitely had a lot more success and just better results.”

Despite the steep adjustment, Ruggiero nearly made the playoffs in his maiden campaign. He finished the regular season with three top-six finishes in the final four races but ultimately missed the postseason by just 12 markers.

Two months later, Ruggiero wheeled to a win at Talladega Superspeedway, leading 37 of 90 laps and bookending a stretch of three consecutive top-four results. For someone who had never raced in the draft before 2025, he‘s pretty good at it. He has two career second-place Daytona finishes, as well as a win in the ARCA race there this spring.

And Ruggiero‘s honestly not sure why that‘s a strong suit.

“Our trucks just had so much speed at the superspeedways, and that made it a lot easier for me,” he said. “You have to be cautiously aggressive, and I feel like that‘s something I was good at last year, and just being really patient at the superspeedways is important. Just starting off in the trucks, I was probably a little bit more timid than I am now, and I think that may have just kind of helped me at the superspeedways.”

Around the same time as Ruggiero‘s Talladega victory, Tricon added veteran crew chief Jeff Stankiewicz to the organization‘s competition staff, later announcing him as crew chief of the No. 17 Toyota. Ruggiero worked with Jerame Donley in 2025, with Donley moving to the team‘s No. 1 all-star truck for this season.

Stankiewicz previously served as shot-caller for Grant Enfinger, before that working with Sheldon Creed in ARCA, Trucks and the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series. With Creed, he won the 2020 Truck Series title.

“[Tricon] felt like they were wanting to do something different with Gio, try and get a better working relationship with him,” Stankiewicz told NASCAR.com. “I didn‘t really know a whole lot about Gio when [competition director Matt Puccia] first brought it to my attention, and I kind of did some research on him and looked at the stats and was honestly pretty impressed with his rookie, first-year stats in the Truck Series.

“It‘s a learning curve. I got to keep reminding myself that he‘s only 19 years old, and he still has a long way to go. But he‘s excelling really fast, and I‘m very impressed at how hard he works at this.”

So far, so good for the first-year pairing. Through 11 races, Ruggiero has four top fives and six top 10s, ranking fifth in points and above former champions like Ty Majeski and Ben Rhodes. But that still doesn‘t tell the full story.

At Texas, Ruggiero drove from fourth to the lead before a caution with three laps to go set up an overtime restart. Carson Hocevar cleared him on the jump, but while battling three-wide for second on the final lap, Ruggiero slid up the track and plummeted outside the top 10. A week later at Watkins Glen, Ruggiero was penalized for jumping a restart from the lead, with NASCAR officials confirming afterward he should not have been penalized. At Dover, a flat tire derailed a potential top-five effort.

MORE: Gio Ruggiero driver page

“Just really need to finish these races off, minimize mistakes and just execute a good day all around from all perspectives,” Ruggiero said. “Sometimes that‘s just the way it goes in racing. You lose some that you should have won, and sometimes you‘ll run into a win [where you] shouldn‘t have won the race. The way that I look at it, I‘ve always kind of had this evaluation of it, but if you‘re going to win three races, you probably should have been in contention for five or six of them to get that three. That‘s just how racing works. There‘s always so much that could go wrong or right, and you really need to have speed multiple times just to get one win.”

Ruggiero‘s average start is more than four positions better than last year. His average running position is up over two positions as well, good for third among series regulars. He also ranks third in quality passes and fourth in driver rating.

Why the big jump, and why right now?

“Just probably going back to the same race tracks again with notes,” Stankiewicz said. “Him being able to go back to that race track, understand the tendencies of the race track, understand the tendencies of the race car from the start of the race to the end of the race, too, has been a big thing for him to understand, what the tracks do when they take rubber.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

“When we unload and execute, we have an opportunity to run in the top five week in and week out … There‘s a little disappointment on the front we haven‘t won, but we also feel very confident that we are maintaining top five in points, getting good stage points, unloading with good speed off the truck.”

Stankiewicz believes the team isn‘t far from championship-caliber. Michigan International Speedway lies ahead this Saturday (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), a place where Ruggiero contended and led laps last year before suffering damage in a late crash. But it won‘t be until late September when the tailgaters return to intermediates. Two road courses and a slew of short ovals lie ahead, including his home race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

No matter where the series goes, Ruggiero‘s confidence is clear. He‘s hungry and looking to keep building his meteoric — yet possibly overlooked — rise in NASCAR.

“The competition and the series is so tough, which is why I love the Truck Series,” Ruggiero said. “I really like racing with all the Cup guys and I feel like I‘ve learned a lot just really last year, but as well in the first few races this year racing with Cup guys and just racing up front for the win a couple times for the lead of these races has taught me a lot.

“I have a super big drive to succeed and win, which I feel like a lot of people do have, but also not as many as you may think have the determination that I feel.”

ATLANTA, Ga. — Following last year‘s exhilarating EchoPark Speedway summer race win, the Chase Elliott Foundation is continuing its partnership with NAPA Auto Parts and Hendrick Motorsports for the 10th edition of its Desi9n to Drive art collaboration with Children‘s Healthcare of Atlanta. Launched in 2017, the foundation‘s Desi9n to Drive program has raised and donated more than $545,500 to Children‘s over its first nine years.

Elliott‘s No. 9 race car and race uniform, from head to toe, will feature a design imagined by two pediatric patients at Children‘s for the NASCAR Cup Series race at EchoPark on Sunday, July 12. Race fans can enter an online sweepstakes fundraiser to win a flyaway race weekend trip for two to meet Elliott, with donation proceeds benefiting Children‘s.

Magnussen, a 10-year veteran of Formula One and a noted sports-car racer, will drive the No. 91 Qualcomm Technologies Chevrolet in NASCAR‘s inaugural race on an active United States military base, as Qualcomm will serve as the Official Circuit Partner of NASCAR San Diego race weekend.

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A native of Denmark, Magnussen made 185 career starts in F1 from 2014 through 2024, competing for McLaren, Renault and Haas throughout his time in the sport, earning a career-best second-place finish in his debut at Melbourne in the 2014 Australian Grand Prix for McLaren. In a move to sports cars in 2021, Magnussen won the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition for Chip Ganassi Racing at Belle Isle alongside co-driver Renger van der Zande. He also made one NTT IndyCar Series start in 2021 at Road America before rejoining F1 from 2022 through 2024.

In an already diverse career, Magnussen will now add stock-car racing to an already impressive resume.

“I‘m incredibly excited and honored to have the opportunity to compete in NASCAR,” Magnussen said in a team release. “What Justin Marks and Trackhouse have done with Project 91 is unique, to provide drivers from outside of the NASCAR world with a chance to compete at this level. I‘m proud to have this opportunity.

“I‘ve already spent time with the team in North Carolina — meeting everyone, doing the seat fit, going through pit-stop procedures and all the details that come with preparing for a NASCAR weekend. They‘re an awesome group of people, incredibly dedicated, and just as excited about this debut as I am. I really can‘t wait to get to San Diego and experience it all for the first time.”

Magnussen will have three teammates on track at the San Diego street course, joining full-time competitors Ross Chastain, Connor Zilisch and Project 91 alum Shane van Gisbergen on track. Phil Surgen, the team‘s director of technology, will serve as Magnussen‘s crew chief on the No. 91 car. Surgen previously served as crew chief for five years alongside Chastain. As part of the team‘s partnership with Qualcomm, Trackhouse notes in its press release that the technology company will aid the four-car organization‘s on-track performance with artificial intelligence.

“Through the Qualcomm Dragonwingu2122 AI on-prem appliance, the competition and performance team will gain efficient insights into real-time data, streamlining faster and more strategic in-race decision-making,” the release states. “The technology will analyze and distribute complex data and radio communications to race engineers at both the track and race shop.”

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While the 33-year-old has never competed in NASCAR, the Danish driver has gotten behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car before. His time as a competitor for Haas F1 Team led to a NASCAR crossover in 2022, when he and then-teammate Mick Schumacher traveled to Charlotte Motor Speedway, riding shotgun with Chase Briscoe around the track‘s Roval in a Gen 6 Cup car before ripping laps of their own.

“NASCAR, it‘s a different animal to a Formula One car,” Magnussen said after his first experience. “That‘s what we‘re used to. When you drive in NASCAR, as a Formula One driver, it‘s like you‘ve never driven a race car before. It‘s completely different.

“Everything you know is out of the window. It‘s a lot of fun. You‘ve got to relearn everything again, and it‘s like driving a race car for the first time. It‘s awesome.”

Briscoe watched as the duo caught on quickly, noting lap times were only “three or four seconds off” in only a handful of laps.

“I think if they ever wanted to come try it, they‘d definitely be competitive,” Briscoe said.

Magnussen will get his first legitimate chance when NASCAR travels to Coronado for its own moment of history.

Trackhouse fields its Project 91 program with the intent of expanding Trackhouse Racing‘s global reach by fielding an Open entry in the Cup Series for renowned international racing drivers, an effort led by team owner Justin Marks that has hit the track five times since the program‘s inception in 2022. Magnussen‘s appearance marks the first for Trackhouse Racing‘s Project 91 entry since the 2025 Daytona 500, when four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Hélio Castroneves made his NASCAR debut.

“I‘m thrilled to be able to bring back Project 91 again this year, especially at San Diego,” said Marks. “We were waiting for the right opportunity with the right partner and driver to bring this Project 91 entry to fruition. Qualcomm is a worldwide brand, and Kevin Magnussen is a global driver, and both are elements we look for when it comes to running Project 91.”

Kimi Räikkönen, the 2007 Formula One World Champion, served as the team‘s proof of concept when he debuted at Watkins Glen International in 2022, ultimately making two Cup starts for the organization.

The program exploded on the scene, though, thanks to three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen, when his NASCAR debut culminated in a stunning victory in July 2023 in NASCAR‘s inaugural race on the Chicago Street Course. The New Zealander made one more Project 91 start that year for Trackhouse but ultimately springboarded a full career shift to NASCAR, with SVG now in the midst of his second full-time season and sitting 12th in the current points standings.

MORE: SVG earns career-best oval finish at Nashville

Magnussen will make Project 91‘s sixth start in the Anduril 250 at Naval Base Coronado on Sunday, June 21 (4 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Six NASCAR Cup Series stars, all with call signs — Christopher Bell (Twister), Ryan Blaney (Whiskey), Chase Briscoe (Hoosier), Noah Gragson (Rizz), Carson Hocevar (Hurricane) and Connor Zilisch (Nugget) — will go head-to-head with United States Navy SEALs in a series of elite challenges. Set against the backdrop of San Diego, the showdown celebrates grit, competition and American pride, all while introducing NASCAR to a new audience in thrilling fashion.

RELATED: Buy Naval Base Coronado tickets now! | Watch NASCAR video highlights

“We got some insights and the history of the base and got to tour a lot of neat things,” Blaney said regarding the experience and the upcoming special. “I‘ve always found I‘ve been really fortunate in my life to visit a lot of different branches of military and to be able to go around the base and see some of the amazing things that they have, a lot of cool aircraft, aircraft carriers, stuff like that. That stuff just kind of geeks me out a little bit, you know? Just getting to talk to all the folks that are on the base, and, you know, the soldiers that are there every single day and show our appreciation of what they do. It‘s neat. So, I‘m excited for everybody to see that. I think it‘s going to turn out well.”

Openness, honesty and a fair bit of laughs will be several themes throughout the mini movie, with drivers getting a taste of the atmosphere ahead of the sport‘s inaugural racing event there in just a few weeks‘ time.

“It was so much fun, really cool,” Bell said. “I just think that that race is going to be such a cool atmosphere, racing on the Navy base out there, and I‘m really looking forward to it. I think it‘s going to be a very unique experience, and something that‘s gonna create really, really cool images, and something that we‘re gonna cherish forever.”

MORE: Cup Series schedule | O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule | Craftsman Truck Series schedule

All three NASCAR national series will race at the base June 19-21, doing battle on the 3.4-mile street-course layout. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will race Friday, June 19 (7 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series will compete Saturday, June 20, in the United Rentals Driven to Serve 250 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Cup Series will conclude the weekend‘s festivities on Sunday, June 21, in the Anduril 250 (4 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Once again, it was the sophomore driver that led the way for Trackhouse Racing, spending much of the Cracker Barrel 400 inside the top 10. Van Gisbergen even traded the lead back and forth with two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Larson before rallying to fifth at the checkered flag — scoring his first top five on an oval in his 64th NASCAR Cup Series start.

“It‘s amazing, you start up front and your car feels so nice and then you go to the back on strategy and it felt like a bucket of [expletive],” van Gisbergen said, celebrating his accomplishment but also noting a critical track-position deficit in the middle of the event. “It was good getting strategy back and we got to the front again. It‘s so good racing up front, you get better and better. I enjoyed myself tonight.”

With qualifying canceled by Saturday rain, having a solid outing in the Coca-Cola 600 helped van Gisbergen from the drop of the green flag. The No. 97 Chevrolet took the initial green flag in 10th position and hung around the back half of the top 10 for the opening stint. Crew chief Stephen Doran went off strategy and took two Goodyear tires during a Lap 35 competition caution, getting SVG ahead of the field for the restart.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Nashville

Van Gisbergen led 12 of the next 16 laps, with Joey Logano getting the jump on the restart, only to get passed by the No. 97 car. Larson charged as the first driver on four fresh tires but tussled in taking the lead from van Gisbergen. He bobbled from the top spot on Lap 53, allowing the No. 5 Chevrolet to take control of the race.

“It was fun and I was surprised how much grip we had on the two tires,” van Gisbergen said of the battle. “It was cool to try to put myself in a good spot and [put] air on him in a bad spot. It was cool to battle. I took back the lead at one point; it was really fun.”

Entering the weekend, van Gisbergen wasn‘t confident in Nashville, noting that concrete surfaces hadn‘t been his strong suit. But he remained poised throughout the race and continued his progression on ovals.

“Something we saw last week, just progress, getting so much better at knowing where to place the car and restarts,” Doran told NASCAR.com. “Just getting better at all the stuff we talked about makes for fun nights.”

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Between NASCAR‘s annual marathon at Charlotte Motor Speedway and another endurance race where fellow Trackhouse drivers Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch both had brake-rotor failure in the opening 81 circuits, van Gisbergen carried on with a slight concern that he might be next.

The No. 97 bunch assured him that their setup was different, allowing him to focus on hanging around the top 10.

“This is what we need to do with all the ovals,” Doran added. “Top 10s are now the benchmark for us to be satisfied with. I think we can do it the next two, and then we‘ve got two road courses after that.”

With multiple bubble drivers having issues at Nashville, van Gisbergen‘s clean showing banked 32 points and netted two positions in the regular-season championship standings. He sits 12th, 44 points above The Chase cutline with 12 races remaining.

MORE: Cup Series standings | 2026 schedule

With the No. 97 team‘s recent performance, van Gisbergen says he believes they have turned the corner. Dating back to van Gisbergen‘s beatdown at Watkins Glen International, he ranks second in the series with a 5.67 average finish across the last three races. Only five-time 2026 winner Tyler Reddick is better at 5.0 during that span.

“We had a bad couple of months and a few weeks ago, it feels like it‘s turned around,” van Gisbergen said. “It‘s a real momentum-based sport and confidence-based as well. We just need to keep that and lift our teammates up with us. If we‘re all running good, it will really help the team.”

While Denny Hamlin bounced back from a start violation at the beginning of the Cracker Barrel 400 and survived the chaos around him to win at the Tennessee track, a few of his competitors also found some good fortune in the Volunteer State.

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In contrast, others need a lucky break as the second half of the regular season kicks into gear, with the Cup Series heading to Michigan International Speedway on Sunday to compete in the FireKeepers Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Race results | Nashville photos

THREE UP 

1. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Started: 4th

Finished: 2nd

What happened: For the second straight week, Bell was the bridesmaid after coming up short of his first Cup Series victory of the 2026 season. Coming to the white flag, the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota pilot was the race leader. Then, he engaged in a three-wide battle with teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe entering Turns 1 and 2. On the exit of Turn 2, Hamlin slid up in front of Bell and held off the No. 20 Toyota for the win.

What‘s next: Although Bell might feel disappointment in back-to-back runner-up finishes in the Cup Series, there is good reason for the No. 20 team to believe that momentum is finally on their side. Before a pair of second-place finishes the last couple of weeks at Charlotte and Nashville, Bell was riding a streak of finishing 17th or worse in five straight races. However, looking at Bell‘s history at Michigan, it might be a challenging day in the Irish Hills for the Norman, Oklahoma, native. In seven career Cup Series starts, Bell has never finished in the top 10 at Michigan, with a best finish of 13th in three of those starts.

2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet

Started: 15th

Finished: 4th

What happened: Toward the end of the Cracker Barrel 400, crew chief Mike Kelley made the call to bring Stenhouse‘s No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet down pit road for a set of fresh Goodyear tires. Then, on the final restart, Stenhouse made good use of the new rubber by sailing into the top five as the checkered flag waved Sunday night.

What‘s next: Despite picking up his best finish of the 2026 season at a non-drafting style track in Music City, it might be tougher to replicate that result at Michigan. In his last 12 Michigan starts, the 38-year-old driver has not finished higher than 12th. Stenhouse has only one career top-10 finish in the Irish Hills, and that was nearly a decade ago (June 2017).

3. Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford

Started: 11th

Finished: 9th

What happened: Ryan Bergenty, Smith‘s crew chief, tried an alternate strategy by attempting to stretch the No. 38 Ford‘s fuel until the end. Unfortunately, drivers with fresher tires caught up to Smith before a late-race yellow. Although he was no longer in contention for the win, the caution allowed Smith to come down pit road for a fresh set of Goodyear tires for the final restart that ultimately resulted in a ninth-place finish.

What‘s next: After moving into the top 20 in the Cup Series standings, Smith could continue the upward trajectory at Michigan. The No. 38 driver has only two career Michigan starts at the premier level, with both visits resulting in seventh-place finishes. With five top 10s this year and three top 10s in the last five Cup races, Smith might keep the good times rolling.

THREE DOWN

1. William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Started: 8th

Finished: 30th

What happened: Byron was a victim of a Lap 205 incident when Carson Hocevar and Chris Buescher made contact, sending the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford up the track in Turns 1 and 2 into Bubba Wallace, with Byron having nowhere to go as he ran into the back of the No. 23 Toyota. This damage affected the rest of Byron‘s night as he limped his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a 30th-place finish.

What‘s next: In the last five Michigan races, Byron has taken the runner-up position twice. This could be a place for the No. 24 team to start building momentum after finishing 30th or worse in four of the last seven Cup Series races.

2. Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford

Started: 28th

Finished: 36th

What happened: Preece entered the night in Music City with the last spot in the provisional Chase standings and left the 1.33-mile Tennessee track one spot out, 17th in the standings and two points below the cutline. The No. 60 RFK Racing driver had a piece from a brake rotor puncture his radiator, forcing a DNF after 90 laps.

What‘s next: Michigan comes at the right time for Preece, who has two top 10s at the 2-mile oval and has finished 11th or better in his last two trips to the Irish Hills. RFK traditionally runs well at Michigan, and given the extra motivation to perform in Ford‘s backyard, Preece could slide his way back into the top 16 in points.

3. Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Started: 35th

Finished: 37th

What happened: For the second consecutive week, Chastain picked up a DNF and continued his downward slide in the Cup Series standings. At Charlotte, Chastain‘s race came to an end after contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sent his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet spinning into the inside wall on the backstretch. One week later at Nashville, a brake rotor failure on Chastain‘s car sent him hard into the Turn 1 wall at the 1.33-mile concrete track.

What‘s next: If Chastain wants to turn his luck around, it may or may not come at Michigan. In his last four Michigan starts with Trackhouse, Chastain has two top 10s and two finishes of 24th or worse. In the last six Cup Series races, Chastain has finished 26th or worse five times. The Trackhouse driver really needs to be on the right side of the equation in the Irish Hills if he wants to get himself in a better position to contend for a spot in The Chase later in the summer.

For viewers, the Music City mayhem capped a thrilling weekend in the Volunteer State. For most drivers other than Denny Hamlin, the chaos left their stomachs in knots.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Nashville

Sunday‘s Cracker Barrel 400 marked the NASCAR Cup Series‘ official start to the second half of the regular season and another grueling test on both man and machine in the Tennessee heat with a new racing package, featuring lower downforce and 750 horsepower under the hood.

That added speed and reduced aerodynamic stability appeared to lead to extra wear on the brakes, resulting in numerous failures in brake rotors Sunday, including Trackhouse Racing teammates Connor Zilisch and Ross Chastain as well as then-leader AJ Allmendinger, who surged through strategy to score a Stage 1 victory.

But brakes weren‘t the only source of misfortune. Mistimed contact led to multiple incidents, many collecting those around the 16th-place bubble in the Cup Series points standings where the cutoff will be determined for The Chase at the end of August. In total, 24 of Sunday‘s 38 cars were involved in an accident, according to Racing Insights. That list includes Chastain, Austin Cindric and Bubba Wallace.

Chastain, runner-up in the 2022 season standings, has fallen to 26th in points after his second consecutive DNF left him 37th at Nashville and sits 67 points behind Cindric for the provisional 16th and final spot in the 10-race postseason run. Cindric was collected in a Lap 193 crash off Turn 4 when Brad Keselowski and Austin Dillon collided, sending Keselowski into a spin and into Cindric‘s door. Keselowski, 13th in points, was unable to continue and finished 34th while Cindric trudged on to a 26th-place result. Ryan Preece, Keselowski‘s RFK Racing teammate, wasn‘t involved in an incident but fell outside The Chase after a radiator issue sent his No. 60 Ford to the garage early, resulting in a 36th-place finish.

Wallace, meanwhile, was involved in an incident not of his doing for the fourth consecutive week, including the exhibition All-Star Race at Dover on May 17. Wallace started the year strong and sat inside the top three in the points standings for five straight weeks. But in a dismal stretch since Darlington Raceway in late March, Wallace has finished 22nd or worse in six of the last nine races, including three straight after finishing 32nd at Nashville, and now sits 15th in points, just 34 points inside The Chase bubble.

“It‘s been a long couple weeks,” a dejected Wallace said after being evaluated and released from the infield care center. “Just tired. But I become the [expletive] when I let this carry over in the Mondays and Tuesdays, so I‘ve got to somehow put on a face.

“Just a weird race. A lot of cautions. I‘m just beyond devastated.”

That frustration was not reserved for the rear of the field. Third-place finisher Chase Briscoe was gutted by not winning Sunday‘s race against Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell in search of his first win of 2026, particularly because he has his eyes set on a run to the top five in points despite sitting 14th in standings post-Nashville.

“I‘ve never been so frustrated to not win a race before,” Briscoe said.

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But as he inches up the standings leaderboard, Briscoe found slight solace on a night where he finished where he was running, as opposed to Charlotte one week earlier where he crashed out after a top-five day was rounding into form.

“I mean, I‘m frustrated and annoyed right now, just because I felt like I certainly had a car that could have won the race, and then ended up third with it,” Briscoe said. “But to have a fast car, right? There‘s been a lot of points this year where we‘ve had cars that were capable of running up front and we haven‘t been able to have the finish, so yeah, it‘s nice to get the finish tonight.”

Briscoe said fifth place in points is the goal for the No. 19 team after a poor start to the season left him outside the top 20 for the first seven weeks of 2026. After Sunday, he trails Kyle Larson by 66 markers for sixth place and is 106 points behind teammate Ty Gibbs for fifth.

“We‘re slowly chipping away at it,” Briscoe said. “Just really want to win.”

Hendrick Motorsports, another perennial contender, has been to Victory Lane twice this season with Chase Elliott, who sits fourth in points after a seventh-place finish at Nashville. But its other three drivers — Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman — are still seeking that first breakthrough of the year after uncharacteristic misfortune or mistakes.

MORE: Cup Series standings

Team president Jeff Andrews has no doubt the No. 24 team will sort its way up the pylon as Byron is 11th in points and Bowman in the No. 48 plays catch-up from a four-race absence for vertigo earlier this season. But this is the time of year where any weaknesses must be addressed.

“Between now and September, you want to start seeing some consistency, and that builds confidence,” Andrews told NASCAR.com. “The 24 has just had some terrible luck here. We‘ve just got to get that turned around, and it will. That‘s too good of a race team not to get that turned around. And the 5 (Larson), I mean, ran over a brake rotor tonight, running fifth. Not much we can do about that. That‘s not in our hands. So we‘ve just got to go back and pump each other up and take the positives from the night and carry that on into September, and we will.

“We‘ve got Michigan and Pocono coming up, and should be two good tracks for us. Just go race there, take it one week at a time. And as long as the momentum is going forward, and as long as the gains are going in the forward direction, by the time we get to September, I feel like we‘ll be right in the middle of it.”

Pole starter Denny Hamlin took the lead at the drop of the green flag, was penalized and reset to last in the 38-car field for jumping that start, then rallied his way forward again over the rest of the 300-lap race to be in front for the checkered flag in Sunday night‘s NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

After a back-and-forth among teammates on a final restart with four laps remaining — featuring a three-wide last-lap challenge for the win among three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas — Hamlin delivered Toyota its first victory at the 1.33-mile Nashville concrete oval, with his No. 11 Toyota finishing 0.115 seconds ahead of teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe.

“The 20 [Bell] and 19 [Briscoe] were battling so hard on that first corner it just let me get to the inside of the 20 at the first corner after the restart and from there, side-by-side with the 20,‘‘ Hamlin, 45, said, describing the dramatic final laps that resulted in his 62nd career win.

“He [Bell] drove in so deep on that last lap into [Turn] 1 that it just allowed me to barely clear off of [Turn] 2.

“What an unbelievable day starting first, going to last and then back to first.‘‘

For Bell, the close finish marked his second runner-up showing in as many weeks — simultaneously frustrating and encouraging. He recovered from an early-race challenge, a pit stop miscue dropping his No. 20 JGR Toyota from running among the top five to 30th place for a restart just before the finish of Stage 1.

“It was great racing, I hope the fans enjoyed that,‘‘ Bell said. “Just disappointed in myself, disappointed for my team. We brought a great race car and I didn‘t get the job done.”

The finish was certainly indicative of the close racing, important strategy calls and flat-out team speed ultimately necessary to finally settle a race that featured a race-record 31 lead changes among a record 15 drivers.

The race was delayed over an hour because of weather, but when the action kicked off, there was plenty of drama and intrigue.

The sold-out Nashville crowd issued a silent salute on Lap 8 to the late two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, 41, a beloved four-time Nashville winner twice each in the Craftsman Truck Series and O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, who died May 21 due to severe illness.

SHOP: Denny Hamlin winner gear

In the laps thereafter, the intense action quickly settled in. Hamlin‘s 57 laps out front were a race high, but nine different drivers led double-digit laps. Eleven caution flags affected strategy throughout the night.

Hyak Motorsports‘ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished fourth in the No. 47 Chevrolet, followed by a career-best oval effort of fifth by Trackhouse Racing‘s Shane van Gisbergen. The popular New Zealand road-course ace turned in one of his best flag-to-flag oval performances, running among the top 10 nearly all night. His 12 laps led in the No. 97 Trackhouse Chevrolet were the most for him on an oval track.

Reigning championship leader Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing and Hendrick Motorsports‘ Chase Elliott were scored sixth and seventh but were collected in an accident just after taking the checkered flag in a hard push by the field to the finish.

Last year‘s race winner, Ryan Blaney, was eighth, followed by Zane Smith, whose No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford led until 12 laps to go. Spire Motorsports‘ Carson Hocevar was 10th. Hendrick Motorsports‘ Kyle Larson, the reigning series champion, led 56 laps, one lap fewer than Hamlin, but finished 23rd.

The race featured two first-time stage winners on the season: Kaulig Racing‘s AJ Allmendinger in Stage 1 and last week‘s Charlotte race winner, Spire Motorsports‘ Daniel Suárez, in Stage 2.

With his sixth-place finish, Reddick remains atop the standings, 97 points ahead of Hamlin and 174 points ahead of Blaney in third place.

The series heads north to Michigan International Speedway for next Sunday‘s FireKeepers Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hamlin is the defending race winner.

Stage 2 recap

Last week‘s winner, Daniel Suárez, won Stage 2 of Sunday‘s Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway after staying out during a late caution. The strategy nearly mirrored Ryan Sparks‘ winning call in the Coca-Cola 600, when Suárez fired off on a restart on old Goodyear rubber while others pitted for fresh tires.

Alex Bowman finished second, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Cindric and Denny Hamlin. Michael McDowell, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski completed the top 10.

MORE: Full Stage 2 results

Kyle Larson led from the jump in the segment until Lap 126, when Briscoe passed him to take his first lead of the night. The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing driver entered Sunday without a finish better than 17th in his career at the 1.33-mile concrete oval.

The first batch of drivers pitted on Lap 139, led by Reddick coming in from third followed by Larson from second a lap later. Briscoe pitted from the lead on Lap 141, telling his team he was battling a loose condition like many other drivers.

Toward the end of the pit cycle, Austin Dillon went for a wild spin down the frontstretch on Lap 145, causing a caution. He spun off the bumper of Chris Buescher as the cars were tied up after slowing for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who made a move for pit road.

The rest of the cars who hadn‘t made a pit stop came for service under the yellow, led by Ryan Blaney, who paced the race when the caution came out.

After wave-arounds, Blaney restarted from the lead with 34 to go in the stage, followed by Chase Elliott in second.

With 12 laps to go in Stage 2, AJ Allmendinger crashed entering Turn 1 with what appeared to be the third brake rotor failure of the night. He ran third before the accident and won Stage 1 earlier in the night.

“I had no warning signs of like, the pedal going soft,” Allmendinger told reporters after being evaluated and released from the infield care center. “That was gonna be two really good stages, and you know, at that point, if you can finish in the top 20, I mean, that’s a big points day. Disappointing, but nobody’s fault.”

Six drivers — Suárez, Bowman, Stenhouse, Cindric, Keselowski and Byron — stayed out for a four-lap dash to end Stage 2. A lap after the restart, Corey Heim contacted Todd Gilliland, causing a three-car crash that also collected Cole Custer to effectively end Stage 2.

Additionally, Ryan Preece went behind the wall with a radiator issue between Stages 1 and 2.

Stage 1 recap

AJ Allmendinger won Stage 1 of Sunday’s Cup Series race at Nashville in a 90-lap segment that included a pair of Trackhouse Racing drivers crashing with brake issues.

Kyle Larson finished second, followed by Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick. Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Chase Briscoe, Riley Herbst and Corey Heim completed the top 10.

MORE: Full Stage 1 results

Reddick led the first 37 laps until pit stops under the first yellow of the night, a competition caution for teams to check tire wear. He started the race second next to Denny Hamlin, who jumped the initial start and needed to serve a pass-through penalty on Lap 4. Hamlin finished 19th in the opening frame.

Shane van Gisbergen restarted from the lead on Lap 41 after his No. 97 Trackhouse Racing team elected to take just two tires during the yellow. He led 12 laps out front, battling with Kyle Larson for the top spot before finally surrendering the lead on Lap 54.

On Lap 72, Connor Zilisch blew a right-front brake rotor, forcing him hard into the Turn 1 wall for the first for-cause caution. He ran 24th before the incident, becoming the first retiree of the evening and finishing 38th, where he started after the cancellation of Saturday’s qualifying session. Zilisch was evaluated and released from the infield care center.

That forced all but three lead-lap cars down pit road with 14 laps remaining in the stage. Ryan Blaney and Elliott took two tires, while all the other leaders elected for four fresh Goodyear tires. Christopher Bell, who was second at the time of the caution, dropped to 29th under yellow after a slow stop.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Allmendinger, Herbst and Cole Custer stayed out for the restart with 11 to go, but it was Blaney who ultimately took the lead.

Two laps later, a second Trackhouse driver, Ross Chastain, suffered a brake rotor failure, causing another caution as Michael McDowell spun behind him as well. Chastain, the 2023 Nashville winner, started 35th but had the quickest 15-, 20- and 25-lap averages in practice. He was evaluated and released from the infield care center.

Neither Trackhouse driver had any indication their brake rotors were set to fail. Chastain believes added horsepower at Nashville could be part of the cause.

“We’re accelerating faster, so we must have to slow down faster,” Chastain told reporters. “We haven’t had the issues others have had here. We’ve seen others have these issues in the past. Miscalculation somewhere.”

“Definitely something that we need to look at as a team,” Zilisch said.

The race restarted for a one-lap dash to the end of the stage, where Allmendinger won in a photo finish.

NOTE: Inspection in the Cup Series garage was completed without issues, confirming Hamlin as the winner.

Contributing: Staff Reports, Zach Sturniolo

Austin Dillon, driver of the No. 3 Chevrolet for the team owned by his grandfather, Richard Childress, has become a leader inside the walls of the team‘s shop in Welcome, North Carolina, where his father, Mike Dillon, serves as the team‘s chief operating officer.

As a trusted voice at the shop, Austin Dillon revealed Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway that he was keeping team members abreast of the unfolding situation on May 21, the day Busch died after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis.

RELATED: NASCAR community honors Busch

“My grandfather and my dad were at the hospital. I was at the shop with everybody and trying to keep them updated, and going through that was tough,” Dillon said. “And then, when I got home, I just told (wife) Whitney, look, I‘ve got to write him a letter. Most of you probably have read what I wrote, and that was the biggest reason I feel like I could go forward because it was from the heart, and it‘s how I felt about Kyle. And it‘s gonna hurt for a long time, but I know the character he was, he‘d want us to go kick butt.”

The team will have its next chance to compete at Nashville on Sunday, and with that chance comes a new normal the team will have to find. The No. 8 team that Busch built is now the No. 33, with Austin Hill currently driving the entry in what is at least an interim role as the team has not announced its long-term plans.

But how can a team carry on in the wake of tragedy just days after losing its shining star? For Dillon, the answer lies in unity and faith.

“The longer I do this, I learn what the family aspect of RCR is,” Dillon said. “I‘m so proud of our people, our employees, our fans. Some of the nicest things that could be done were done over the last week and a half. The garage, NASCAR took really good care of us in Charlotte, but I mean I‘m just really proud to be a part of RCR and proud of our employees for doing what they can. It was obviously one of the toughest weeks of RCR‘s history. Being a part of, from my side, for the first time, really being able to understand what everybody‘s going through, it was hard, and it‘s going to be hard, but the people that we have at RCR are the ones that I would want to go through with this.”

In the wake of Busch‘s passing, the team gathered together as some of its leaders addressed the organization. One of those voices was team president Mike Verlander, who previously served as team president of Kyle Busch Motorsports.

“Mike Verlander did an amazing job,” Dillon said. “He spoke to the entire company. It was beautiful. I mean, he did a great job. Proud to have him as our president. I mean, him and Kyle were very close. He has done a great job going through this because he was right through the thick of everything. But the way he spoke to our people, I was super proud to be a part of that and watch it. We had Nick Terry speak from [Motor Racing Outreach] to everyone, and that was very touching. And then I kind of finished it off and told a couple things and stories but brought it back to, hey, let‘s go out there and do what we can to make him proud.”

Part of Dillon‘s influence in addressing his fellow team members stemmed from a story shared by his grandfather Childress, and a conversation he had with Earnhardt decades ago.

“I go back to what my grandfather and Dale talked about before on the ‘Great Horse Wreck,‘ is what my grandfather calls it, on their hunting trip that they would go on,” Dillon said, “whether one of them passed away or not, that they would be there racing and putting their heart and soul into it. And I think Kyle Busch, his character would have wanted all of us to do what we could to get back to Victory Lane and to work as hard as possible. And I mean, I knew what he cared about, and that was being here on Sunday, racing hard as he could for his guys and for himself and for his family, and to try and create history in this sport. And we have a great opportunity to do that here at RCR to go back out there and make him proud.”

Childress is slated to speak publicly on June 6 at Michigan International Speedway for the first time since Busch‘s passing, but Dillon offered some insight on how the events of the last 10 days have impacted the 80-year-old team owner.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

“Obviously, it‘s been very hard for him,” Dillon said. “But he‘s a very resilient person, as everyone knows. And he‘s got that cowboy brand that he likes to show everybody, but he‘s also got a soft side, and I think it‘s been pretty wearing on him. He‘s also had a cold, but he‘s got over that, so today it was nice. We flew up here, and my daughter jumped in his lap, and I think that was just nice to see them hanging out together. And she‘s never done that before, so kids just have this weird way, I think, of knowing. And you could tell they had a good time up there.”

When the green flag flies Sunday night at Nashville (7 ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Dillon and Hill will be on track once again with hopes to make Busch proud, riding for the brand, Dillon said, as he rolls off 32nd and Hill 25th.

“We all really want to go out there and run well for him and for my grandfather and for all the RCR fans out there,” Dillon said. “There‘s a lot of hard work and effort going on right now, working hard with Austin Hill and doing what we can to make everybody proud.”

The results won‘t always tell the full story. A slow pit stop dropped van Gisbergen to an 11th-place finish in last week‘s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, despite having an average running position of 7.81. According to NASCAR Insights, the No. 97 Chevrolet ranked seventh on sheer speed and sixth on defense among the 39-car field in NASCAR‘s marathon race.

RELATED: At-track photos: Nashville

“It was a decent day,” van Gisbergen said on Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway, reflecting on Charlotte. “I was just frustrated at the moment because our finishing position wasn‘t as good as we probably deserved. We ran pretty decent all day, but I just mucked up at the end. We had a bad pit stop, and then with the strategy, maybe we could have done better.

“Everyone was pretty stoked all week, and we just got to keep that momentum going. Even when we fell out of the top-10 last weekend, we were able to get back in it. It was pretty awesome racing up there.”

The primary challenge for van Gisbergen, as he said earlier this month at Dover Motor Speedway, is getting up to speed quickly off the hauler. After a handful of laps, he‘s confident in the feel of the No. 97 car, but by then, his tires are worn off at most venues.

With a 33-point showing at Charlotte, van Gisbergen hopped two positions in points, ranking 14th on The Chase grid, with a 28-point cushion over the bubble. He netted 22 points on the cutline last week alone.

“I think it‘s always just time and always learning stuff,” van Gisbergen said of his growth. “Even [at Charlotte], just learning stuff throughout the race and learning the flow of the race better. And then the further up front you are, the better people race you, as well, so that‘s always nice. It‘s a real dogfight in the back, so getting away from that is a nice break. I think it really shows the importance of qualifying, getting up front, making no mistakes, and you can stay out there all day.”

With Trackhouse Racing wrestling with results in 2026, it‘s noticeable that van Gisbergen is ahead of teammates Ross Chastain and rookie phenom Connor Zilisch most weeks at ovals. The No. 97 team has five top-15 finishes — including a personal oval best of sixth at EchoPark Speedway — in 11 oval starts to begin 2026.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Chastain, a five-time oval winner, has noticed his stablemate‘s development.

“He just didn‘t do a lot of it in his past,” Chastain said of van Gisbergen‘s oval surge. “He did some dirt-track stuff, but no big concrete, big, steep banked asphalt, high-speed mile and a halves. I think he‘s just learned. He‘s a racer and puts the tire to the limit — and he‘s finding that limit. Stephen (Doran, crew chief) is giving him the cars he needs. He pushes the gas.”

Notably, van Gisbergen is having fun competing at a high level in NASCAR. The seven-time Cup victor is striving to continue his progression and learning from the best every week.

“I love the series and love racing everyone in it,” van Gisbergen said. “Certainly, the good guys in this series and the level they‘re at is pretty impressive to see how they‘re just always up there every week, so I‘m trying to emulate that a bit.”

With qualifying getting canceled on Saturday due to rain, van Gisbergen will start Sunday‘s Cracker Barrel 400 in 10th position per the metric, 25 spots better than his next closest Trackhouse teammate. During practice, however, Chastain paced the field on 15-, 20- and 25-lap averages, a promising sign for the Trackhouse bunch.

The 2024 series champion had to hold off talented 18-year-old rookie Brent Crews, who called the close-quarters racing in Saturday night‘s Sports Illustrated Resorts 250 at Nashville Superspeedway “the most fun I‘ve had without winning.”

Allgaier‘s win in the No. 7 JRM Chevrolet, ultimately by 1.4 seconds over Crews, was his third at the 1.33-mile Nashville concrete oval and the 32nd overall win of his championship career. It took hard, clean side-by-side racing lap after lap for Allgaier to eventually get by Crews‘ No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for good with 20 laps remaining and hold on for the victory.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Nashville

The veteran Allgaier celebrated by climbing out of his Chevrolet‘s roof hatch, then bowed to the Nashville crowd, an ode to the trademark winning celebration of two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, who died May 21 after being ill with pneumonia and sepsis.

“First of all, it‘s been a rough couple of weeks, and lots of prayers to [Busch‘s wife] Samantha and [their children] Brexton and Lennix — it‘s been an emotional couple weeks,‘‘ said Allgaier.

“This team, right here, they are incredible. To win in Nashville, you fans … this place is electric. I love coming to Nashville.

“I told them before the race, that we were going to go to Victory Lane,‘‘ said a grinning Allgaier, who turns 40 years old next week and is capping his winning race weekend by running a triathlon in downtown Nashville on Sunday.

“What a race,‘‘ he added with a grin.

The near-miss marked Crews‘ second runner-up finish this season. He led twice for a total of 45 laps, the most he has ever led in a single race.

“Man, the positive was, I thought we were going to win that race,‘‘ Crews said when asked about the takeaway from the race. “I‘m happy for our guys.

“Had to start 33rd and worked our way up to the lead and led a lot of laps and got to race one of the best guys in our series of all-time for the win in the last few laps,‘‘ he said. “Couldn‘t ask for much more, other than to beat him.‘‘

Crews‘ teammate William Sawalich finished third to claim his third consecutive top five. Haas Factory Team‘s Sam Mayer finished fourth, his fifth straight top 10 at Nashville, with another JGR driver, Brandon Jones, rounding out the top five.

Corey Day, Carson Kvapil, reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, Taylor Gray and Sammy Smith rounded out the top 10. Smith, of note, is competing in the Nashville triathlon with his JRM teammate Allgaier.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Richard Childress Racing‘s Jesse Love finished 16th after leading a race-high 87 laps. A late-race pit stop miscue put the reigning series champion a lap down at one point before he rallied back. He lost some ground in the title race and now sits 179 points behind the 2024 series champion Allgaier in the championship standings.

“Definitely really frustrating,‘‘ a disappointed Love said after the race. “Our Camaro was really fast and I know we had a misstep on pit road, but we‘ve got the best pit crew in the garage right now, it‘s not even close.

“The only thing I can control is the way I prepare and keep showing up even when it hurts and I know right now, my path isn‘t necessarily coming with a lot of wins and that can be frustrating but it‘s the past now, so all I can do is keep showing up and preparing. It‘s going to turn around. It has to. There‘s no other possible way it‘s not going to and having faith in that will get me through all this.‘‘

YouTube personality Cleetus McFarland finished 36th in his second O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series start — rallying from a series of late-race pit stop miscues and penalties to take the checkered flag in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

After a streak of 16 consecutive races, the series has its first off-week next weekend before returning to competition June 13 in the MillerTech Battery 250 at Pocono Raceway at 4 p.m. ET (The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Connor Zilisch is the defending race winner.

NOTE: Post-race technical inspection was completed in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series garage at Nashville with no issues, confirming Allgaier as the race winner. The No. 91 DGM Racing Chevrolet was found with one unsecured lug nut, which will result in a monetary fine.

Preece remained steadfast on Saturday at Nashville Speedway when discussing the appeal process. He referred to RFK‘s statement from Wednesday multiple times, nothing, “It doesn‘t matter what I think.”

“I have a lot of thoughts, but I‘m looking forward to racing here this weekend,” Preece told a group of media members on Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway. “It is what it is.”

Brad Keselowski, co-owner of RFK Racing, wasn‘t in the room for the Wednesday hearing. He feels for his driver but believes the No. 60 team can put the penalty in the rearview and focus forward. 

“I didn‘t sit in the room, so I can‘t articulate everything that happened by any means,” Keselowski stated. “I did get some blow-by-blows. It‘s a tough situation. I feel for Ryan. I know he‘s frustrated by the outcome. Ultimately, it is what it is and we have to move forward.”

RELATED: Nashville lineup | At-track photos

Preece leaned on RFK president Chip Bowers through the process. He alluded to his crew chief, Derrick Finley, along with other members of the RFK family, gathering data and having a believable case. 

“Chip looked at [the data] and said, ‘This is absolutely worth appealing over,‘” Preece noted. “I thank him. He knows I‘m a very passionate person about racing, put a lot into it. When I say I didn‘t do something, I didn‘t.”

When a situation occurs in the future, Preece admitted he won‘t be hitting his radio button to express his displeasure. He alluded to a singular conversation with Jack Roush where he stated, “I can promise you, I wouldn‘t hit that button.”

“I‘ve got a lot of respect for him,” Preece said of Roush. “There was a lot of interviews on how drivers use their radios to vent — it‘s kind of like going to a psychiatrist. You aren‘t going to sit into a mirror and talk to yourself, you need somebody to hear it. Certainly, won‘t be hitting that button anymore.”

With the 25-point loss, Preece sits squarely on The Chase bubble at the halfway point of the regular season, 15 markers ahead of Austin Cindric. The No. 60 team has a best finish of eighth at Bristol Motor Speedway, with another top 10 at EchoPark Speedway. However, Preece holds a 15.3 average finish, on pace to be the best of his career. 

Another 13 weeks need to pass before Preece can determine how costly those 25 points could be to his regular-season aspirations, even should he qualify for the championship battle. He equates it to a DNF, believing that an average of 26 points per race through the regular season will get a team into The Chase. 

But Preece is also not sweating his position, believing the No. 60 team has a good foundation to be a part of the postseason, but knows it could be a battle until the regular-season cutoff race at Daytona International Speedway.

“I‘m not too concerned,” Preece added. “I like the fact that it puts us in this situation of playing offense more than being concerned of we need to keep it in 12th or hopefully above. Now, we have to fight to go forward and that‘s where our goals are.”

MORE: Cup standings | NASCAR video highlights

Keselowski remains optimistic that RFK can keep all three cars inside the cutline.

“It‘s nice to have all three cars currently sitting inside of The Chase line,” Keselowski said proudly. “Certainly, would be more comfortable without that penalty.”

With qualifying getting canceled at Nashville, Preece will take the green flag for Sunday‘s Cracker Barrel 400 in 28th position. Keselowski will lead the RFK brigade in 12th spot.

On Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway, Heim‘s dream came true.

23XI Racing announced Heim will drive the team‘s No. 35 Toyota in 2027, joining the Cup ranks on a full-time basis next season after a part-time campaign in 2026.

RELATED: 23XI Racing team site | Nashville schedule

A development driver for 23XI since 2024, Heim has been touted as one of the sport‘s top prospects for years, collecting a record 12 wins in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series last season en route to the 2025 championship. In total, Heim has earned 25 Truck victories since 2022, fifth-most all-time. After 11 Cup starts for 23XI across the past three seasons, including four this year with eight more slated in the No. 67 Toyota, Heim has officially been granted a promotion to NASCAR‘s top level.

“It means the world to me,” Heim said Saturday. “I‘ve been a part of 23XI Racing for a couple years now on part-time basis, and I firmly believe that as a driver, you just have to be around the right people to succeed. I‘ve been driving in NASCAR the last three or four years, and even in the trucks, I felt like I was with the right people and we did the right things, and it‘s so important to have the right group around you to succeed. I‘ve only started (11) races at 23XI Racing, but I really feel like that is my home, and these people treat me very well.”

Team co-owner Denny Hamlin has been keen to see Heim develop, trying to place his young driver in as many Cup races as possible ahead of his first full-time opportunity. In those 11 Cup starts, Heim has a best finish of sixth, which came last fall at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“Generational drivers only come by every now and then, and I firmly believe that we have one here,” Hamlin said. “So I‘m really excited about what he‘s going to bring our team and the performance that he‘s going to bring, and obviously his work ethic is very, very good, and looking forward to working with him in the future.”

Saturday suffices as dream becoming reality for Heim, but with a hint of extra meaning. Heim grew up as a Denny Hamlin fan — with photos to prove it, his father Ray confirmed during Saturday‘s press conference.

“2015, I was standing on the grid of the Coke 600 next to (Denny‘s pit) box with my Hamlin gear on,” Heim said. “Just a really cool full-circle thing for me to be driving for him. Obviously he didn‘t have team back then, so I never like had an aspiration to drive for Denny just because it didn‘t exist at that point. But just looking back on it, you just can‘t make this stuff up.”

I‘ve always been a Denny guy pic.twitter.com/otG8hIoFzx

— Corey Heim (@CoreyHeim_) May 30, 2026

There will be a learning curve for Heim as he devotes himself to the full Cup schedule in 2027, a 38-week grind that tests even the most veteran drivers each season. Heim is set for just 12 Cup starts in 2026 alongside a handful of Craftsman Truck Series appearances. He admits that was a thought he contemplated before the season began, but he said that concern has dwindled throughout the season.

Heim has been testing for Toyota in its wheelforce car, collecting single-car data in six test sessions this season in addition to part-time Truck Series competition and late-model racing.

“It may not be as valuable as straight-up Cup starts by any means, but it just keeps me in the seat and keeps me prepared,” Heim said. “So I‘ve got a really solid schedule regardless of only my 12 Cup starts this year. And it also gives me a little bit of opportunity to debrief a little longer on the race. Guys that are rookies this year or last year, I‘ve kind of wondered, I‘m like, dang, you guys had a fast turnaround to think about what just happened.

“I mean, you‘re drinking through a fire hose, as far as all these new things that are happening in the race, and you have like two days or maybe a day to kind of debrief and soak it all in until you have to start preparing for the next one. So this every-two-to-three-week Cup race schedule for me has given me a chance to kind of just think about what just happened and then give me some extra time to prepare for the next one.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Heim will join 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Champion Tyler Reddick and 2025 Brickyard 400 winner Bubba Wallace as teammates in 2027. The duo of veterans have already been impressed by what Heim has brought to the table, and Reddick believes even more is ahead.

“I‘m not quite sure how he does it different, but he does go about it in a different way,” Reddick said of Heim‘s racing style. “And the more that I‘m around him, I get to understand that. I feel like some of his strengths are stronger than mine, and going forward, it‘ll be nice to work with him and hopefully I can learn from him. And obviously, as a teammate, you want to help the other teammates you have and help him learn as he figures it out too.”

“He‘ll be competitive for sure,” Wallace added. “He‘ll be a lot of fun. I‘m excited for him. He‘s come to me for a lot of questions and advice over the last couple years that we‘ve worked together. It‘s been really good.”

With Heim‘s entry comes an exit for Riley Herbst, who has driven the No. 35 Toyota for 23XI since the start of the 2025 campaign. And while Reddick and Wallace are happy to see Heim enter the fold, Wallace expressed his appreciation for the departing Herbst.

“Riley Herbst is one of the best, genuine dudes to ever be around,” Wallace said. “One of the most humble kids ever and I‘ve always enjoyed our conversations together and our times spent together. So I‘d be remiss if I didn‘t say I‘m pulling for him in every aspect and his future endeavors, wherever that may be and wherever he may end up.”

Heim returns to Cup Series competition at Nashville in the Cracker Barrel 400 on Sunday evening (7 ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Riggs, who started sixth on the race‘s eighth and final restart with 16 laps to go, passed defending race winner Rajah Caruth coming off Turn 2 on the last lap after getting a strong push from Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith. Riggs held the top spot from there, scoring his second consecutive victory and third win of the 2026 season in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford.

After leading all of the opening 90 laps and winning both Stage 1 and Stage 2, Riggs restarted the final stage from the fifth row after varying pit strategies shuffled the field. His charge forward afterward, however, provided an exhilarating ending to a long night.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Nashville

Ultimately, the 23-year-old North Carolina native and second-generation NASCAR driver took the checkered flag by 0.468 seconds over Caruth, who drove the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet originally intended to be raced by Kyle Busch, who died on May 21 at 41.

It was an emotional win for Riggs, who dedicated the victory to Busch, and an equally emotional outing for Caruth, who honored Busch with his own impressive run toward the trophy.

“Not till I passed him and cleared him,” Riggs said of feeling confident in his dramatic comeback. The victory came at a track where his father, Scott Riggs, won the series‘ inaugural Truck race in 2001 and two O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series races from 2002-03.

“That‘s how you win a NASCAR Truck race there, boys and girls. I hope I put on a show for you. I didn‘t want to fall back, but I don‘t know what happened with that set of tires. It was literally undrivable.

“[Crew chief] Dylan [Capello] made the right adjustments there, got me the tires, got me the motivation and drove to the front,” he said of a late-race pit stop gamble for an adjustment and new tires with 32 laps remaining.

“So proud of the awesome finish there with the 38 truck,” Riggs added of Smith, his teammate, who finished third. “He gave me the push for the win and good racing there with Chandler tonight.”

Caruth, who led 44 laps and looked to become only the second driver in history to earn back-to-back wins on the 1.33-mile Nashville concrete oval, had the emotional support of many NASCAR fans who would have loved to see Busch‘s truck return to Victory Lane.

“I was trying to make this thing as wide as possible,” Caruth said of trying to hold off Riggs, who was on fresher tires. “But that was a great call by Brian. We were strong, but starting at the back because of qualifying [being rained out] kind of impacted our night. We got the car really strong there and probably some things I could have done better.

“Glad to give these guys a good result. … Really wanted to get that one obviously for everybody that was at KBM [Kyle Busch Motorsports], especially KB‘s family. Close. I just didn‘t close it out.

“Wanted to get a trophy tonight. So close. But proud of the effort and the team.”

MORE: Layne Riggs driver page | NASCAR video highlights

Cup Series regular Ross Chastain finished fourth in the Niece Motorsports Chevrolet, followed by Tyler Ankrum in the No. 18 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevrolet.

Stewart Friesen, Grant Enfinger, 2024 Nashville winner Christian Eckes, Gio Ruggiero and Daniel Dye rounded out the top 10.

With his victory and a rare finish off the lead lap for Tricon Garage‘s Kaden Honeycutt, Riggs took over the championship lead by 37 points over Honeycutt.

The Craftsman Truck Series returns to action next Saturday at the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway with the DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 at 1:30 p.m. ET (FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Stewart Friesen is the defending race winner.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Craftsman Truck Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Riggs as the winner.

The 2024 series champ has been so strong this season that his points lead (145 points) over second place, reigning series champion Jesse Love, is greater than the margin between Love and eighth place Carson Kvapil. And the veteran Allgaier, a two-time Nashville winner (2022 and 2025), is the only former winner in Saturday‘s race.

RELATED: O‘Reilly Series standings | Nashville weekend schedule

On the other side of the experience metric, this will mark Hendrick Motorsports‘ Corey Day‘s second Nashville start. The talented 20-year-old Californian earned his career-first wins at Talladega Superspeedway and Dover Motor Speedway in just the last month.

Richard Childress Racing teammates Love and Austin Hill finished second and third last week at Charlotte, marking the first time they‘ve both been in the top five in a race since February at Austin‘s Circuit of The Americas road course.

Their teammate this weekend at RCR is popular YouTube personality and ARCA Menards Series regular Cleetus McFarland, who will make his second career series start and first race ever on the Nashville oval, driving the No. 33 RCR Chevrolet.

MORE: Remembering Kyle Busch | NASCAR video highlights

Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champ Larson will be competing Saturday night, driving the JR Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet. He‘s already won two of his four previous O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series starts — at Las Vegas and Texas — this season and has earned top-10 finishes in his last 10 starts in the series.

An interesting note about Nashville … the Stage 2 winner has gone on to win the race four of the last five years.

Practice is at 2 p.m. on Saturday, followed immediately by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 3:05 p.m. ET (The CW App). Joe Gibbs Racing‘s William Sawalich is the defending pole winner.

Suárez can trace back many connections to Busch, who died at age 41 last week. Not only were the two friends and former teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing, but Suárez‘s first full season in a NASCAR national series, 2015, was spent driving for JGR in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series.

After winning at Charlotte, Suárez credited the mentorship he received from Busch with making him a better driver. “Back in 2015, Kyle and I used to be on the phone every single week,” he said. “Because he was helping me, trying to understand what I needed to look for, trying to understand the race track.”

RELATED: Remembering Kyle Busch

“He didn‘t have to help me. … He didn‘t have to help this Mexican kid who could barely speak English,” Suárez said. “He was a real legend of the sport, and he took the time every single week to help me. For me, that spoke very highly of not who he is as a driver, [but] who he is as a person. And most people didn‘t know that side of him. I got to know that side of him.”

Among those in the current Cup Series garage, though, Suárez wasn‘t alone in seeing that side of Busch.

In the days since his death, much has (rightly) been made about Kyle Busch‘s greatness as a driver. All of the wins — 63 in Cup (ninth-most all-time) and 234 across all national series (by far the most in history) — and the talent, the run-ins and the hilarious quotes. Busch was a one-of-a-kind, larger-than-life personality and performer whose individual impact will be irreplaceable.

But just as irreplaceable as part of Busch‘s legacy is what he did as a team owner. It was clear from the number of KBM hats worn in tribute around the garage this past weekend at Charlotte that Busch‘s team left its fingerprints all over the modern Cup Series. And the numbers make that fact even clearer.

From its start in the Truck Series during the early 2010s, Kyle Busch Motorsports has seen the influence of its alumni base grow by leaps and bounds over the past 15-plus years. So far this season, 27.2% of all Cup Series starts have been made by drivers (other than Kyle Busch) who drove for KBM in either the O‘Reilly, Trucks or ARCA Menards Series, including 22% by drivers who effectively broke through after driving for KBM — those who‘d made fewer than 10 career Cup starts before their KBM debut.
And while the share of wins for KBM alumni and pipeline drivers is down to start 2026 — Tyler Reddick (a non-KBM alumnus) winning so many races will do that — last season saw 38.9% (!) of all Cup Series wins belong to former KBM drivers, including 22.2% for pipeline alumni for the fourth consecutive season. (That was an average of eight wins per season in a 36-race schedule, for four years running.)

Suárez provided the latest entry in that category this season, while last year saw additions by William Byron, Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace. (The overall total was also padded by plenty of wins by Denny Hamlin via his five career KBM starts in the Trucks.) Before that, the KBM tally saw contributions from Harrison Burton, Erik Jones, Kasey Kahne, and even other all-time greats like Martin Truex Jr., Greg Biffle and Kyle‘s brother, Hall of Famer Kurt Busch.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

And remember, these stats all exclude Kyle Busch himself — so nothing is boosted by his own 47 wins since 2010, which rank third-most in Cup behind only Hamlin and Kevin Harvick.

Overall, the best post-KBM career in Cup belongs to Hamlin, which makes sense — he‘s one of the defining drivers of the 2010s and 2020s. (Though, in a testament to Busch‘s greatness, Hamlin hasn‘t quite passed Busch yet on the all-time Cup wins list even after posting some of his best seasons recently amidst Busch‘s late-career slump.) But among those who came up in the KBM pipeline, Byron and Bell have established themselves as perennial title contenders — we flagged both as potential first-time champs in preseason — while Jones, Wallace, Suárez, Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland and many more (including the talented Corey Heim) have either tasted success in Cup or could find the winner‘s circle someday.
Obviously, Busch will (and should) always be remembered first for what he did behind the wheel, because few drivers in NASCAR history ever did more. But KBM ensured that his impact didn‘t stop when he climbed out of the car. Even now that he is gone, Busch‘s legacy will keep showing up in the drivers he taught, the careers he launched and the Cup Series garage he helped shape — with roughly a third of all cars in the field in any given week, and nearly half of all winners, like Suárez on Sunday, being able to say they trace back some part of their story to the team that Rowdy built.

After hearing the testimony, the three-member panel affirmed and upheld the original penalty assessed by NASCAR for Preece‘s rough driving as he competed for position with Ty Gibbs during the May 3 Würth 400 presented by Liqui Moly at the Fort Worth track.

In reaching the above decision, the panel provided the following explanation: “Although not a unanimous decision, NASCAR and RFK Racing presented competing interpretations of common data. Neither side clearly proved their point, but Mr. Preece‘s comments showed that he chose to not cut his competitor any breaks.”

RELATED: Cup Series standings | NASCAR video highlights

The Appeals Panel members for this hearing were Tom DeLoach, Dixon Johnston and Lake Speed.

“RFK Racing is extremely disappointed in today‘s ruling by the National Motorsports Appeals Panel,” RFK Racing said in a statement on X. “We stand by Ryan Preece and believe our argument was fair, sound and without question.

“We appreciate the forum provided by NASCAR to both provide detailed evidence and defend our stance through thoughtful data and digital evidence.”

Competition officials levied a $50,000 fine and a 25-point deduction in the Cup Series driver points after the violation of Sections 4.3 and 4.4A in the NASCAR Rule Book (member conduct guidelines). After Wednesday‘s hearing, that penalty stands. Preece and his RFK Racing team have the option of filing a final appeal. 

MORE: Ryan Preece driver page | Weekend schedule: Nashville

Gibbs‘ No. 54 Toyota crashed after close-quarters racing with Preece‘s No. 60 Ford on the 101st of 267 laps at Texas. Another run-in between the two drivers led up to that final battle, prompting Preece to hint at on-track retribution — a factor that NASCAR Vice President of Racing Communications Mike Forde said weighed into the decision to issue a penalty.

Post-race, Preece said in part: “I was not going to cut him a break because in the past, him and I have had problems. So I‘ve got a little bit of a short fuse with him and I, with how we‘re racing.” In a pre-race availability the next weekend at Watkins Glen International, Preece said he looked forward to having his voice heard in the appeals process.

Preece ranks 16th in the Cup Series standings after crashing out of the Coca-Cola 600, provisionally holding the final position in The Chase postseason picture.

NASCAR Vice President of Racing Communications Mike Forde explained why lightning strikes don‘t always result in 30-minute holds. NASCAR kept a yellow flag for lightning toward the end of the Coca-Cola 600 out for only a few minutes after officials determined the storm was moving away from the region.

Forde said NASCAR race control receives text messages for lightning strikes within 20 miles of the track and typically stops races for a 30-minute hold when there‘s a strike within eight miles.

RELATED: Charlotte race recap | Weekend schedule: Nashville

“There is a caveat there, however,” Forde said. “More often than not, the lightning is either coming toward us or kind of hovering in that eight miles. But there are times, and typically it kind of happens in the background even before it gets to eight miles, we‘re on the phone with our weather partners. And if our meteorologist partners say, ‘Hey, look, the lightning did hit within eight miles, however, it is moving away from the race track. There is no danger to any of the fans in the stands, the officials on the ground, the crew members, the television partners,‘ then we can continue racing.”

Forde said NASCAR threw the yellow during that conversation with the meteorological experts.

“Better safe than sorry,” he said. “After a pretty quick conversation, our partners at the weather company said, ‘No, this is moving northwest, away from the race track. You‘re not going to have to worry about this lightning strike.‘ We were able to get back to green-flag racing. So, certainly a unique situation, but not a rule change for the Coca-Cola 600. It has happened before, maybe not to this extent where there was a caution, and then we immediately have gone back to green, but it has happened in the background.”

NASCAR has used the lightning hold policy since a fan died at Pocono Raceway in 2012. Forde said tweaks were made a few years ago to account for lightning moving out of the area. During their weekly Tuesday debrief, NASCAR officials discussed whether there were better ways to walk the line between throwing a caution and waiting to assess the situation.

After weather delayed the Craftsman Truck Series race at Charlotte from Friday night to Sunday morning, NASCAR put the race under an adverse conditions policy that made noon the race‘s end time. Senior Director of Racing Communications Amanda Ellis explained during “Hauler Talk” that NASCAR based the decision on the preparation required for the pre-race ceremonies and concert before the Coca-Cola 600, which started around 6:30 p.m.

MORE: Cup Series standings | NASCAR video highlights

“There are also just a lot of elements from the military side because of the significance of the weekend,” Ellis said. “And so ultimately, with everything that was in play and knowing what needed to be done, we wanted to make sure that the fans received all the things that they were essentially promised when they purchased those tickets.”

In the event of a postponement to Sunday, FOX had already agreed earlier in the week to move up the start time from 10:30 to 10 a.m. Forde said the network didn‘t request a noon end time for the truck race on FS1 because the Indy 500 started at 12:45 p.m. on FOX.

“They were supportive of whatever we wanted to do,” Forde said. “They did not put their thumb on the scale.”

On Saturday night, NASCAR called the delayed O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series race just past halfway after the field ran the final 18 laps under caution. Forde said that was partly because an oil cleanup after an earlier crash delayed crews from clearing the track.

“We kind of burned probably five laps during that cleanup session,” he said. “That was pretty unnecessary. We probably would have been back to green a little bit faster. When we finally got the track cleaned up and were ready to go, rain started. It was Murphy‘s Law.”

Forde said a grim weather forecast over the holiday weekend demanded that NASCAR try to complete at least one race Saturday.

“We couldn‘t go into Sunday with three races not complete,” he said. “We weren‘t going to be able to run a tripleheader on Sunday. Running a doubleheader was kind of a tall task.”

Other topics covered by Forde and Ellis during the 55th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:

• The backstory of the Kyle Busch tributes before the Coca-Cola 600
• The status of Busch‘s NASCAR Hall of Fame candidacy
• Why Christopher Bell drew a penalty in the pits for a misplaced tire
• An update on the Ryan Preece penalty appeal hearing
• A preview of Nashville Superspeedway

Click on the embed below to listen, or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.

Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.

Cup Series teams will have the same Goodyear Racing Eagle left- and right-side tire combinations used in last weekend‘s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This will be the sixth time this tire compound has appeared this season, all at intermediate-style tracks: Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Kansas Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Charlotte.

RELATED: Nashville weekend schedule

“One of our main goals at concrete tracks like Nashville is to rubber in the racing surface,” said Rick Heinrich, Goodyear NASCAR product manager. “Concrete surfaces always present a challenge when it comes to taking rubber, so we design the tread compounds to do that as quickly and consistently as possible. This will be the sixth race this season that teams use this setup designed for intermediate tracks, and we‘ve been pleased with its performance at similar high-speed ovals.”

NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams will have a slightly different tire setup, with the left-side tires from Charlotte and right-side tires from Dover Motor Speedway set for use in Music City.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Meeting the standard for 1-mile tracks or longer, the 15-inch Goodyear tires will also feature inner liners.

Tire allotments for each team competing this weekend:

• Cup Series: 11 total sets — 9 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 1 for practice.
• O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series: 5 total sets — 3 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 1 for practice.
• Craftsman Truck Series: 5 total sets — 3 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 1 for practice.

His shocking death on Thursday devastated her.

Busch became famous and better yet infamous driving the M&M‘s car. Vickers worked for Mars Inc. (which makes M&M‘s) for 38 years, and she met Kyle and his mom, Gaye, when they toured the facility two decades ago. She took a break from her job coloring M&M‘s to meet them, which is just about perfect: She made M&M‘s colorful and became a devotee of a driver who made NASCAR colorful.

Vickers and Gaye hit it off, and their friendship has grown through Kyle‘s two championships, his marriage, the births of his two children, and now, his death.

Vickers learned the crushing news when Gaye called to tell her on Thursday. “I was bawling like a baby,” she says. “I couldn‘t grasp it at all.”

Vickers‘ heart was broken for Busch‘s wife, Samantha; his children, Brexton and Lennix; his parents, Tom and Gaye; his brother, Kurt; and the sport she loves so much. That grief brought her to the race track, where she stood waiting, watching, mourning, just outside the metal fence that separates the garage area from the campground.

She had driven from her home in New Jersey to Charlotte in search of healing, relief from the pain. She hoped, no, she knew, she‘d find it within the NASCAR community. To get it, there was something she needed to give, something she needed to get, and something she needed to share.

Love your enemies

At its best, most fascinating, most entertaining, the NASCAR industry is a traveling circus crossed with Lollapalooza, all set at a family reunion where half the people dislike the other half. There is nothing like it in the sports world, or even the broader culture, an insular nation with its own ethics (race him like he races you, the opposite of the Golden Rule), its own language (loose, tight, whoa‘d up, etc.) and its own cultural standards (wrecking someone to win is wrong; unless you really want to win, then it‘s fine).

The drivers can see each other as arch enemies. The stakes feel massive, and within the context of this self-contained NASCAR bubble, they are. It‘s a zero-sum game. One driver wins, and all the rest lose. Millions of dollars hang in the balance. They fight for speed, they fight for sponsors, they fight for trophies and they fight because they get on each other‘s nerves … all while living right next door to each other 38 weeks a year. If “normal” neighbors fought like that, one of them would move away. But in NASCAR, they move together.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

And yet somehow, when tragedy strikes — as it has repeatedly in the last 13 months, with the sudden deaths of Hendrick Motorsports‘ Jon Edwards, Denny Hamlin‘s father, Dennis, Greg Biffle and Busch — NASCAR stops being a cutthroat sport and becomes a heartfelt community.

“It‘s bad when you can‘t get away from it. It‘s good when you‘ve got that to lean on,” says driver and team owner Brad Keselowski, who learned that lesson firsthand when his daughter had a life-threatening illness and the sport rallied around him. “There‘s more support here just in terms of life than there is in other sports because of that community.”

Keselowski first saw the sport‘s family dynamic through his relationship with his own brother, Brian. They fought like, well, like brothers. “Wait a minute,” Brad says. “At home, away from the race track, we‘re damn near enemies, adversaries. But when someone else is mad at me, you‘re going to defend me? It‘s hard to rationalize.”

Hard, yes, and also beautiful.

That dichotomy provides a powerful source of comfort in NASCAR, a fact magnified this weekend. These drivers who just last weekend were trying to rip each other‘s guts out were now hugging each other‘s necks. “Life‘s fragile. The people who you think are evil” — and here Keselowski laughed, as he doesn‘t mean that word, not really, except he kind of does — “you find out they‘re not.”

Jeff Burton, the former driver and current TV analyst who was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame last week, says being in the NASCAR community requires “a split personality.”

Burton said after Busch‘s death several rough, tough “unbelievable bad asses” told him ‘I love you.‘

“And I‘ve said it to them, too,” he added.

Only the NASCAR garage fosters that kind of relationship.

“If you don‘t have that mentality of I have to destroy you, you can‘t exist,” Burton says. “But you have to find a way to take the helmet off, take the crew uniform off, and have compassion and care for someone. It‘s very hard to do both.”

Sometimes the disdain is real.

Always the love is.

This weekend proved it.

Stories live on

At its best, most fascinating, most entertaining, NASCAR fandom is a traveling circus crossed with a high school beer bash crossed with a campground whose owners have completely given up on enforcing the rules because nobody follows them. Quiet hours are 2 p.m. until 2:01 p.m. unless you want to be loud then, too, in which case go ahead.

Like the driver community, the fan community comprises a unique, self-contained world. A neighborhood forms, disappears and reforms the next week as fans travel from race to race, just as the drivers do. The stakes are lower, of course, but NASCAR has thrived for 78 years because fan passion is real. Fans root for their heroes and rail against villains and share food, beer and laughs with fans of both.

And this week, all across the Charlotte Motor Speedway campground, they shared stories — stories about Kyle Busch and why they loved him, hated him and loved to hate him.

A Kyle Busch flag flew overhead as Steve Gordon cut and salted cantaloupe outside his refurbished 1969 school bus, painted white, in the same site near Turn 3 that he has occupied since the 1990s. He loved Busch because he loved Dale Earnhardt first, and it wasn‘t lost on him that Busch‘s loss is perhaps the biggest and most unexpected since Earnhardt.

In addition to tragic deaths, they had this in common: You always needed to know where each was on the track. If Busch was leading, you‘d watch because a post-race victory bow and a zinger of a quote were coming. It was even better if he was deep in the field because he‘d slice his way forward, part ballet dancer, part MMA fighter, and then the bow would be more dramatic, and the quote would be a double zinger.

Between Steve, his wife, Leslie, and their daughter, they own 40 Kyle Busch T-shirts. Leslie Gordon was shocked, crushed and confused when their daughter called to tell her the news. She‘ll miss the way he pissed the whole of NASCAR off, and she‘ll miss being delighted hearing people gripe about him. “I loved it when everybody booed Kyle,” she says. “That pumped me up. I was like, YEAH! Because they knew he was going to kick their ass.”

Over near Turn 4, Dominic Elliott stood under a Kyle Busch flag flying over his motorhome. He grew into his Busch fandom as Busch grew as a man and father. Elliott was there when Greg Moore died in 1999 at California Speedway, he was there when Dan Wheldon died in 2011 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and he lives in Statesville, North Carolina, and saw the smoke from Biffle‘s fatal plane crash in December.

Elliott never considered not coming to the race. He, his wife and daughter instead wanted to be around people who love what they love. “It‘s the only way to heal,” he said.

That healing came through stories. Grief makes you cry, grief makes you angry, and grief makes you laugh, and the stories about Busch make you do all three. He was lightning in a fire suit, a beast of a driver who fans loved and hated and for the same reasons: He was smirky, cocky, strutting and you were never quite sure when Kyle stopped and his alter ego Rowdy started or if they were really the same guy. He could slice you with a scalpel or pummel you with a sledgehammer, and either way he‘d bow and you‘d lose.

Vickers was eager to share her Busch stories. “First,” she said, “let me show you something.”

She pulled out her phone and scrolled through pictures. She skipped over one of her hugging Busch on stage after his first championship, kept going by another of her hugging him on stage after his second championship, zoomed right on by any number of pictures of them in any number of places.

Finally, she found the one she was looking for and held it up.

Taken two Friday nights ago, it showed her and Busch smiling broadly together in Victory Lane at Dover after the last of Busch‘s unapproachable record of 234 national series wins.

Oh, the love Vickers has for the story behind that photo, and every other one on her phone. And, oh, how they make her sad to tell. Vickers‘ stories about Busch sustain her now, and team owners, drivers, and other fans said the same thing.

In the garage and the campground, these stories were passed around all weekend, as if by sharing them the tellers could laugh at the memories instead of cry about the fact that there won‘t be any more.

Daniel Suárez, whose Coca Cola 600 win was an emotional high point of the weekend, told one about an ass-chewing he received when he raced a truck owned by Busch. Team owner Joe Gibbs, for whom Busch won both of his championships, told of watching Busch grow as a man, husband and father and of what a pain Busch could be. NASCAR CEO Steve O‘Donnell told one about Busch mocking NASCAR for making him go (unnecessarily, he thought) to the infield care center. He sprawled on a cart like a chalk outline. “I was mad at the time, but I look back, and that was damn funny,” O‘Donnell said, a quote that just about everybody could have ended their stories with.

The stories will be told and retold today, tomorrow, and if conversations this weekend were any indication, for decades to come.

That‘s what happens with legends.

The power of shared suffering

Only people we love can hurt us like this.

Ryan Blaney wore shock like a mask he couldn‘t take off. William Byron said he didn‘t want to get out of bed Saturday morning. Chase Briscoe drove to the track in an emotional fog as thick as the clouds that covered the track.

Like Vickers, Elliott and the Gordons, the drivers didn‘t know what to do with their grief. They didn‘t know how to process it, they couldn‘t make sense of the dual facts that Kyle Busch won a Craftsman Truck Series race last Friday in Dover and tragically died the following Thursday.

It didn‘t feel real in the garage.

It didn‘t feel real in the campground.

The grief of drivers in the garage ran parallel to the grief of fans in the campground, just as their lives run parallel as they caravan from track to track. They were alone and yet together, telling the same stories, feeling the same fears, choking on the same emotions, separated only by the metal fence.

But as Darnette Vickers waited outside that metal fence, those parallel griefs converged, inched closer together, until they wrapped around each other like strands in a rope.

These two communities that rely on each other for their existence now rely on each other for healing.

Noah Gragson emerged from behind the metal fence riding a two-wheeled motorized scooter. Someone sitting on a golf cart mimed the motion to do a wheelie, and Gragson obliged by lifting up, leaning back and zooming away.

Vickers caught Gragson‘s eye. She had met and befriended him when he drove for Kyle Busch Motorsports. He stopped his scooter next to her, leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her in a deep, full-bodied, heads-on-each-others-shoulders hug. They pulled back, looked each other in the eye, spoke for a minute, and hugged again.

Then Bubba Wallace, another former KBM driver, came out of the garage area. He signed a few autographs, and when he saw Vickers, he embraced her. She heaved as she rested her chin on his shoulder. He looked stricken as he held her tight.

They split up to stand at attention for the national anthem.

When it was over, they hugged more.

She walked away as if unburdened of a heavy weight, even if just momentarily, even if it would soon reattach itself to her. Maybe it would weigh a little less the next time, and still less the time after that.

She came to Charlotte Motor Speedway to give those hugs, to get hugged, to share her grief.

“The thing that saves me are the people that you saw me hug,” she says. “It also saves me that I have tons of beautiful memories from Kyle. In life, that‘s what you want. People who know you, love you, care about you and want to help you heal as best you can.”

In the garage and the campground, she was surrounded by those people. Only people we love, who share our suffering, can heal us like this.

Busch died Thursday after a bout with severe pneumonia and complications from sepsis, which stopped the sport in its tracks hours before one of its marquee weekends.

MORE: Reflecting on Busch‘s life

NASCAR CEO Steve O‘Donnell addressed the media in Sunday‘s pre-race drivers meeting, approximately one hour before the green flag waved. In the meeting, a front-row seat was left open for Busch in his remembrance, with Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Dillon and Austin Hill just behind. Hill is driving the No. 33 Chevrolet in Sunday‘s race, piloting the vehicle previously numbered No. 8 that belonged to Busch.

“It‘s not lost on me, and I think everyone here, the loss of Kyle looms heavy, I think, on our entire industry,” O‘Donnell said. “And like me, I‘m sure you‘ve read many of the tributes, heartfelt, from competitors, how Kyle maybe shared a bit of wisdom about how to go about a certain turn, or how to maybe make a tweak to the race car. …

“I think we‘ve all long known Kyle as a giant in our sport, but the outpouring of support outside what it is to be in the NASCAR garage has truly proven just how deeply he impacted so many. While we‘re all grieving in our own way. I believe it‘s our job now as an industry to carry on Kyle‘s incredible legacy and support his beautiful family, Samantha, Brexton, Lennix, Kurt, their parents, everyone at RCR, JGR, and everywhere that Kyle raced, including at KBM.

“And as I said Friday in the media, our race and community is one big family, and I believe that with everything in my being. We carry this immense loss together. We‘re going to miss Kyle, and I want to thank Kyle for being him. He was truly NASCAR.”

Following Memorial Day military performances and driver introductions conducted as part of pre-race ceremonies, O‘Donnell gathered with the Busch family as Kyle‘s wife Samantha and children Brexton and Lennix joined Kyle‘s parents Tom and Gaye as well as his brother and NASCAR Hall of Famer Kurt Busch. Backed by the NASCAR Cup Series field, they surrounded a black No. 8 logo painted into the infield turf adjacent to pit stall No. 3 in an emotional tribute as the Busch family made its first appearance since losing its husband, father, brother and winner.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

O‘Donnell addressed the crowd, honoring the two-time champion who departs as NASCAR‘s winningest driver with 234 victories across the sport‘s three national series.

“What I think we‘ll miss most isn‘t the wins,” O‘Donnell said. “It‘s the guy who quietly wanted to help a teammate or give some advice. It was the husband, the father or the guy who quietly did things for others when no one was watching.”

O‘Donnell then took a moment to address Busch‘s immediate family.

“Samantha, I want you to know that this sport stands with you, and that you and your children are NASCAR family forever,” O‘Donnell said, the crowd cheering in agreement as a “Rowdy” chant broke from the grandstands. “Brexton and Lennix, your dad loved you with all his heart. Everyone gathered here, everyone behind you, everyone watching on TV, and all those people up in that grandstand are your family. And we‘ve got you.”

Once the 39 drivers climbed behind the wheel and fired engines, the field paid tribute once more before the green flag. Polesitter Tyler Reddick left an opening space on the front row, creating a “missing man” formation for Busch in pole position.

The NASCAR Cup Series then took its first green flag without Busch since 2015. Fans paid tribute at Lap 8, saluting Busch in his absence.

“Let‘s put on a race Kyle would be proud of,” Sawyer said, referring to two-time series champion and certain NASCAR Hall of Famer Kyle Busch, who died Thursday after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis.

The drivers took those words seriously and put on a quality show that ended improbably, with Daniel Suárez claiming the third victory of his career when NASCAR called the event 27 laps short of its scheduled finish after a rainstorm drenched the track.

RELATED: Race results | Photos: Kyle Busch tributes

The win was especially poignant for Suárez, who received repeated encouragement and advice from Busch after arriving from his native Mexico and launching his NASCAR career.

“It really means a lot,” Suárez said of the victory. “I‘ve been saying for years this is my favorite race of the year. I get to have my family here every year. This is most of the time the only race (they) get to come.

“It‘s been a very tough week. Kyle, he was special, man. This one is for Kyle. For Kyle, for (wife) Samantha, for (son) Brexton, for (daughter) Lennix, all his family … Definitely, this one has a special flavor because of Kyle. This win is for him. If it wasn‘t for Kyle, I wasn‘t going to be an Xfinity champion. I wasn‘t going to have my shot in the Cup series. To win this race for him is unbelievable.”

Ryan Sparks, Suárez‘s crew chief, made the call that won the race during pit stops under caution for lightning in the area on Lap 356. Taking two right-side tires only, Suárez gained 13 positions on pit road and led the field to green on Lap 360.

Rain slowed the race on Lap 361, with Suárez barely in the lead over Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin. With a strong push from fellow Chevrolet driver Kyle Larson, Suarez pulled ahead after the Lap 370 resumption and held the lead until the rains started in earnest three laps later.

For the final restart, Suárez lined up on the inside lane with Bell to his outside. The push from Larson helped Suárez clear Bell‘s Toyota almost immediately.

“I knew after the first restart, I knew he couldn‘t get clear,” said Bell, who won a rain-shortened Coke 600 two years ago. “I was going to have to stay beside him. I couldn‘t stay beside him. He cleared me. Once he cleared me, I knew it was going to be a really tough pass with it being a short run.

“If we would have had all the laps, he was going to block like hell and probably … yeah, he did a good job blocking — but he won the race.”

Suárez, who recovered from two unscheduled green-flag pit stops for tire vibrations, led once for the final 17 laps in scoring his first victory of the season and his first in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.

Bell finished second and Hamlin third, with polesitter and series points leader Tyler Reddick and Larson completing the top five.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Reddick led a race-high 119 laps, followed by Hamlin with 75 and Bell with 44. All told, there were 32 lead changes among 13 drivers on the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway and 12 cautions for 75 laps.

Reddick leaves Charlotte with a 122-point series lead over Hamlin in second.

The event got emotional before it started. Busch‘s widow, Samantha, and son Brexton and daughter Lennix made their first public appearance since Busch‘s death on Thursday.

Before the cars fired their engines, NASCAR CEO Steve O‘Donnell gave Samantha heartfelt assurances that she and her children would always be part of the NASCAR family.

On a day and in a race that traditionally has made a point of recognizing fallen soldiers on Memorial Day Weekend, the special remembrance was also for Busch, who was so suddenly and unexpectedly taken from the NASCAR community.

And there was no lack of action in NASCAR‘s longest race.

Chase Elliott‘s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet didn‘t make it to the end of the first stage. On Lap 90, Elliott spun off Turn 2 and nosed into the inside wall to cause the third caution of the race.

“I just made a mistake, spun out and hit the wall,” said Elliott, who was running 17th at the time. “I hate it. It‘s been a terrible race, I feel like, throughout the course of my career. I‘ve just crashed a bunch. There‘s a lot of race left. I was trying to find something — we were bleeding pretty bad.

“I moved up to the top there, trying to click off some faster laps. I made a mistake, stepped over the line and paid the price.”

Toyotas dominated the first three stages of the race. Though Kyle Larson won Stage 1, Toyota drivers Chase Briscoe, Reddick and Hamlin claimed the next three positions.

Hamlin led a Camry sweep of the top four positions of Stage 2, and Bell did the same in Stage 3 by pitting late and charging to the front near the end of the segment.

Briscoe, however, was collected in a wild four-car incident on the backstretch on Lap 318. The collision knocked him out of the race, along with Ryan Preece.

Ty Gibbs ran a solid, consistent race and finished sixth, followed by Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, William Byron and Zane Smith.

Katherine Legge was running at the finish of the Coca-Cola 600 in the second leg of her Indianapolis 500/Charlotte “Double.” An early crash took Legge out of the race at Indy. After the commute to Charlotte, she finished 31st, 12 laps down in the 600.

The Cup Series‘ next race is the Cracker Barrel 400, scheduled Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway (7 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Christopher Bell bounces back for Stage 3 win

Christopher Bell prevailed in the third of four stages in Sunday‘s Coca-Cola 600, rallying from a pair of earlier pit-road issues.

Bell has led just 15 of the first 300 laps in NASCAR‘s longest race, scheduled for 400 laps and 600 miles on the 1.5-mile North Carolina track. His No. 20 Toyota was 2.408 seconds ahead when the green-checkered flag flew for his third stage win of the season.

MORE: Stage 3 results | Watch Bell win Stage 3

Denny Hamlin came home second in Stage 3 in the No. 11 Toyota, with Ty Gibbs third and Chase Briscoe fourth as Joe Gibbs Racing swept the first four spots. Defending Cup Series champion Kyle Larson capped the top five in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Austin Hill, a regular in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, was 30th at the Stage 3 break as he drives for Richard Childress Racing in place of Busch.

Katherine Legge, who became the first woman to attempt the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 “Double,” brought out the stage‘s only caution period when her No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet lost its right-front wheel on the track‘s apron. Legge was scored 36th, 12 laps down at the stage intermission with 100 scheduled laps remaining.

Denny Hamlin leads at halfway mark, wins Stage 2

Denny Hamlin found his way to the front by the midway point of the Coca-Cola 600, leading a sweep of Joe Gibbs Racing entries in winning Stage 2 on Sunday as the NASCAR Cup Series races and honors the memory of Kyle Busch at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Denny Hamlin drove his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota under the green-checkered flag in first place by a 3.767-second margin, landing his fourth stage win of the season. Hamlin had led 51 of the 200 laps in NASCAR‘s longest race, a 400-lap, 600-mile marathon on Memorial Day weekend.

MORE: Stage 2 results | Watch Hamlin capture Stage 2 win

Ty Gibbs placed second in the Stage 2 order, with teammate Chase Briscoe third to complete a 1-2-3 JGR sweep. Polesitter Tyler Reddick was fourth, with Stage 1 winner Kyle Larson finishing out the top five as the segment went caution-free.

Austin Hill was 20th as he races the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in place of Busch. Katherine Legge, the first woman to attempt the Indianapolis-Charlotte “Double,” was 35th in the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevy, midway through the NASCAR portion of her day.

Kyle Larson surges to Stage 1 victory

Kyle Larson prevailed in the opening stage of Sunday‘s Coca-Cola 600, driving from the 18th starting position to the front as the NASCAR Cup Series races and honors the memory of Kyle Busch at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Larson‘s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led just four of the 100 laps in the first of four stages in the 400-lap, 600-mile event — the longest on the NASCAR schedule. The green-checkered flag marked the defending series champion‘s fourth stage win of the season.

Chase Briscoe was second at the Lap 100 point in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Polesitter Tyler Reddick was third, with Denny Hamlin fourth and Erik Jones closing out the top five.

The 600-mile event went green after a host of pre-race memorial observances for Busch, the legendary driver and champion who died Thursday after a bout with severe pneumonia. Busch‘s family joined the rest of the Cup Series field in a moving tribute on pit road, with remarks provided by NASCAR CEO Steve O‘Donnell. The field also ran pace laps in a “missing man” formation, leaving the pole-position slot open.

NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series regular Austin Hill was 20th at the end of the first stage, subbing in for Busch in Richard Childress Racing‘s No. 33 Chevrolet — renumbered from Busch‘s No. 8.

MORE: Stage 1 results | Watch Larson clinch Stage 1 win

Josh Berry forced the race‘s first caution period with a spin through Turn 2 with the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. The second yellow emerged after Austin Cindric‘s No. 2 Team Penske Ford spun in the same corner, collecting Connor Zilisch‘s No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet in a heavy impact.

Chase Elliott also found early trouble after a solo wreck, nosing his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet into the inside wall on the backstraight after losing control as he left Turn 2 on Lap 89.

Zane Smith led a career-best 31 laps in Stage 1 but dropped back after a pit-road speeding penalty in an exchange of stops after Elliott‘s crash.

Katherine Legge was scored 35th in the 39-car field as she raced in the second part of her bid to run the Memorial Day weekend “Double.” Legge was involved in an early crash in the Indianapolis 500, finishing last after completing 18 of the 200 laps.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Suárez as the Coca-Cola 600 winner.

Contributing: Staff reports

Two years ago, Christopher Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team were beneficiaries of the shortened crown-jewel event. Sunday evening, however, they fell one spot short as Daniel Suárez led at the time of caution on Lap 373 as the skies opened at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The last 72 hours have been a time of shock and mourning for the racing community as legend and icon Kyle Busch tragically died Thursday after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis.

One of the members of the NASCAR family feeling the weight of Busch‘s passing the most is No. 20 crew chief Adam Stevens, who won 28 races and two Cup Series championships with “Rowdy” from 2015-2020.

RELATED: Race results | In loving memory of Kyle Busch

“It was especially hard on myself and a lot of people. Not something I‘ve been through before,” Stevens said post-race. “Just the constant lot of emotions and just not knowing how to feel, you know, I am just heartbroken for his whole family. Somewhere, you‘re grateful for the time you had with him too. It‘s really mixed emotions and it hasn‘t been easy.”

Bell led 44 laps Sunday evening in a heated contest throughout the 600-mile marathon with the likes of his JGR teammates Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs.

All four drivers for the organization Busch drove for for 15 years led over 10 laps in the race and occupied the top four spots in the final 200 laps.

Bell was within reach of a second Coke 600 victory, but couldn‘t find the space to sneak by a fellow Kyle Busch Motorsports alum in Suárez.

“Daniel did a great job,” Bell said. “He did everything right to defend the position and win the race. I knew that it was going to come down to keeping him pinned on the restart, not letting him clear me for the lead, and he cleared me for the lead.”

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

The overall picture of the weekend at Charlotte was bigger than the results sheet, but there is a sting Stevens will leave with not taking the No. 20 to Victory Lane.

Winning the 2018 Coca-Cola 600 with Busch, Sunday was one Stevens wish he could‘ve accomplished.

“I wanted to win this race. This was Kyle‘s favorite track,” Stevens said. “We‘ve had a heartbreaker here and we‘ve won one here, and Bell and I have already won one here. It‘s a special place to win a race. This is a very special day, being Memorial Day with soldiers on the cars and meeting the families and then you put the KB layer on top of it. It was something that I deeply, deeply wanted to do.”

“Did it for Kyle, man, did it for Kyle,” Riggs said in a dedication to two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, who lost his life to a sudden illness Thursday at age 41.

RELATED: Race results | Photos: Kyle Busch tributes

In a race thrice delayed by rain from its scheduled Friday night start and run under NASCAR‘s adverse conditions provision with a noon ET time limit, Riggs completed 110 of a scheduled 134 laps before the clock ran out.

He earned his second victory of the season, his first at Charlotte and the seventh of his career in a race that featured a record 11 cautions.

After a celebratory burnout in the tri-oval, Riggs, who led a race-high 52 laps and won the second stage, collected the checkered flag, exited his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford and performed a deep bow to the crowd in the grandstand — emulating Busch‘s signature victory move.

Despite the win, however, Riggs‘ mood was restrained.

“Our hearts are really heavy this weekend,” he said after giving Ford its first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory on a 1.5-mile intermediate speedway since Ben Rhodes won in 2023 at Charlotte. “I‘ve been kind of struggling with it a little bit, just trying to keep my game face on and ride … I was borderline sobbing there at the end.”

“But these guys (the No. 34 team) have put a smile on my face. Great job to everybody at Front Row Motorsports. Thank you so much to my teammate Chandler Smith. We had a little teammate restart there (on Lap 104). He stuck with me and pushed me.

“I‘m super proud of him and the performance we had today.”

After pushing Riggs to the lead, it was Smith who spun underneath third-place finisher Connor Zilisch off Turn 2 on Lap 106 to cause the final caution and allow Riggs to claim the win under caution after the clock struck noon.

Kaden Honeycutt was second when the yellow slowed the race for the last time, and with the runner-up finish, he retained his series lead by 11 points over Riggs.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

“I definitely wanted to be the guy that gave Kyle (Busch) the bow there, because he definitely deserved it,” Honeycutt said. “If I had won, I was planning on giving (Busch‘s son) Brexton the flag, because he (Kyle Busch) probably would have laid another butt-whipping on us if he was here.

“Just a bad week for all of us; a tough weekend for the whole community. Hug your loved ones, appreciate them, tell your mom and dad that you love them even if you don‘t have a great relationship with them. Life means more than racing, for sure. Second is good, still have a points lead and we will fight in Nashville next week.”

Rhodes ran fourth behind Zilisch, followed by Gio Ruggiero. Stage 1 winner Christian Eckes, Brandon Jones, Tanner Gray, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and William Sawalich completed the top 10.

Corey Day started from the pole in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Busch had been slated to drive, but Day‘s race ended early in a dramatic accident on Lap 47.

Running in the top 10, Day threw a block on the No. 17 Toyota of Ruggiero on the backstretch, but contact from Ruggiero‘s truck turned Day‘s Silverado sideways and airborne.

Day‘s truck completed one full rotation in mid-air before landing upright and colliding with the inside wall near the entrance to Turn 3 with bone-jarring impact.

After leaving the infield care center, Day expressed disappointment at not being able to deliver a good finish in Busch‘s honor.

“The 17 got a big run there off of (Turn) 2,” Day said. “He kind of started to shade down, and I shaded with him. He shaded back up, and that was it.

“My spotter didn‘t do anything wrong. He told me he was there. I thought I was clear, and I wasn‘t. I hate it for the No. 7 guys. This is exactly what I didn‘t want to do there. I just wanted to give them a good run. I feel terrible.”

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns Friday at Nashville Superspeedway (8 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The victory was Chastain‘s first in the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series since 2019, his first at Charlotte and the third of his career. The race was stopped for rain for the second time after Chastain crossed the finish line to win the second stage on Lap 90.

RELATED: Race results | Photos: Tributes to Kyle Busch

With no hope of continuing, NASCAR called the race after Lap 91 and declared Chastain the winner.

“I did not think we would win one like this, driving into the fence in liquid,” said Chastain, who was driving the No. 9 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports. “I have no idea what it was. I went into Turn 1 like normal, and there was something on the track.

“No matter how we win, I feel like we could have raced with them again at the end.”

Chastain‘s thoughts quickly turned to the absence of champion driver Kyle Busch, who on Thursday lost his life to a sudden illness at age 41.

“This weekend, it‘s just incredible trying to grasp losing Kyle,” Chastain said. “I don‘t understand how he‘s not here racing. I don‘t grasp it mentally or spiritually.

“Obviously, racing is the best thing we can to celebrate what he did in the sport and in his life.”

Defending O‘Reilly Series champion Jesse Love, who drives for Richard Childress Racing — as did Busch in the Cup Series — was second when the race was called.

“If this week taught us anything, it‘s that all this doesn‘t matter as much as we think it does,” Love said. “As much as I‘m angry and confused and upset (about the way the race finished), I also realized there‘s a lot of hurt people right now.”

A spate of cautions punctuated the second stage of the race after a rain delay of more than four hours, but the real damage came on Lap 73, when the drivers of eight cars — including Chastain — slid through fluid deposited by the No. 35 Chevrolet of Dawson Cram.

Chastain kept his car on the track with seemingly minimal damage. Other drivers weren‘t as fortunate.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Victims of the oily track included series leader Justin Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, Taylor Gray and Jeremy Clements. Allgaier stayed on the lead lap after repeated trips to pit road for repairs but finished 29th as the final 18 laps of the race remained under caution, thanks to drizzling rain and mist that wet the track and obscured spotters‘ views from the top of the grandstand.

Austin Hill, Love‘s RCR teammate, finished third, followed by William Sawalich and Corey Day. Connor Zilisch, Ryan Sieg, Cole Custer, Carson Kvapil and Rajah Caruth completed the top 10, as JRM placed three drivers in the top 10.

Rain slowed the race twice in the first 33 laps, the first time for a drizzle under caution for Harrison Burton‘s spin in Turn 4, the second time for a harder rain that fell after NASCAR called a competition caution on Lap 26.

The rain persisted while the cars circulated under the yellow flag for seven more laps, with Allgaier in the lead behind the pace car. Ultimately, NASCAR red-flagged the race after Lap 33, and the cars sat covered on pit road waiting for a resumption.

At 9:45 p.m. ET, NASCAR called the drivers back to their cars, and the race resumed with eight laps left in Stage 1 after a stoppage of four hours, 21 minutes, 58 seconds.

On Lap 42, Allgaier got loose over the bumps in Turn 3 and gave up the lead to Zilisch, who took the green-checkered flag as the stage winner three laps later.

Then came the decisive second stage, fraught with all its perils. And after it was over, Chastain took a bow, mimicking Busch‘s signature move, before making his own familiar move — a watermelon smash — from the roof of his car.

The O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series‘ next race is the Sports Illustrated Resorts 250, scheduled Saturday, May 30 at Nashville Superspeedway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race technical inspection was completed in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series garage at Charlotte with no issues, confirming Chastain as the race winner. The No. 9 JRM Chevrolet of Chastain was found with two unsecured lug nuts, resulting in a $5,000 fine and a one-race suspension for crew member Michael Roberts.

Contributing: Staff reports

The Richard Childress Racing team, for which Busch drove, was first to unload its cars in the NASCAR Cup Series garage Saturday. What was previously the No. 8 Chevrolet is now the No. 33. That group of men and women entered the hauler containing what should still be Busch’s car and lowered it from its top storage in silence, with all teams watching in heartbreak as the finality of Busch’s sudden death began to sink in.

MORE: Kyle Busch dies at 41 due to severe pneumonia, sepsis

The backdrop to one of NASCAR’s darkest weekends was apt: overcast and gloomy under an eerie chill that left Busch’s former competitors in a daze, trying to process the news less than 48 hours after Busch’s passing was announced.

“It just doesn’t seem real,” Ryan Blaney said. “Like I just don’t… It feels like a dream that you’re waiting to wake up out of, you’re just not.”

“I’ve never really felt anything like this before at the race track,” said Joey Logano.

Busch’s presence throughout the sport since his booming arrival in 2001 at age 16 was unmistakable — brash, arrogant, thrilling, victorious. His absence on the Cup Series’ first day back without him was just as obvious, though, an emptiness occasionally interrupted by the laughter that comes naturally from the myriad stories that made Busch “Rowdy.”

“Our hearts are broken,” Logano said. “I think our community couldn’t be more surprised. Our eyes have been opened to a lot of different things here in the last couple days, and it’s affected everybody here, I think, in a very unique way and in a very heart-touching way as well throughout this week. And seeing how everybody comes together in moments like this is pretty impressive to see.”

Throughout his career, Busch seemed to have as many clashes as he did wins, even if he didn’t have the 234 trophies to show for those disagreements along the way.

“He was quite the highlight reel,” Logano said.

Among his most public were with Logano, a three-time champion, and 2012 title winner Brad Keselowski. Both came a long way in their relationships with Busch over the years. As Busch rounded into a two-time Cup champion himself — and more notably a doting husband to wife Samantha and father of Brexton, 11, and Lennix, 4 — Busch matured, mellowed and grew to become more calculated. That led to better encounters with those he raced against — still carrying a fire to beat them behind the wheel but separating that off the track.

“I feel like we probably had a roller coaster of a relationship,” said Logano, who served as teammates with Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing from 2008 through 2012. “Early in my career, he was my teammate, so obviously I watched and learned and created a good relationship there. We went on vacation together, I remember. And that relationship I still think was there deep down inside. Unfortunately, sometimes competition gets in the way of things and kind of was there for a little bit, but I do think over the last five or six years, that relationship was growing — maybe not at a very fast rate, but you know it was definitely mending.”

Keselowski made his opinions known with his famous 2010 introduction at Bristol Motor Speedway: “Kyle Busch is an ass!” But the once-frosty foes grew to respect one another in time, particularly as Busch gained perspective as his winning ways in the Cup Series slowed in recent years.

“I would say there was a small thaw over the last year, maybe two, that came from his circumstances being different with respect to race teams and positions on the grid, and it was interesting to see,” Keselowski said. “And it was thawing almost more by the weekend. I flew with Kyle Busch on the way to Dover last Friday, and those are things that I never thought I would say three, five, 10 years ago. So I think it was on that path.

“Selfishly, I was just hopeful for a long time that you know our racing career would continue on the journey that saw us in Hall of Fame and doing those types of things together, and who knows, maybe one day competing in the Truck Series against each other when we’re done with Cup. Obviously, that’s not going to be the case now.”

“Kyle’s loss is the whole industry’s loss,” Keselowski said.

Busch’s voice and driving style helped shape NASCAR’s on-track etiquette. Chase Elliott, named the sport’s most popular driver each year since 2018, said Saturday the best way to trudge forward is to lead by example.

“He was the guy that raced the right way, in my opinion,” Elliott said. “And when you have a guy that raced what I view to be the right way, that rubs off. You don’t have to be the biggest asshole on the race track to win, and I think that Kyle taught me that lesson early on.

“We have to press on. I don’t think anybody here really wants to press on right now, but that is an unfortunate part of what we do and just life in general when things happen. Just an unfortunate reality that we just have to keep our heads down and lend the support to the Busch family as much as we can — not just today, not just next week, not just next month, not just next year. This is not going away. When stuff like this happens, it’s a big topic right now, and it’s on every news outlet that you turn on TV, and next week it won’t, right? But that family is still going to have difficult times ahead, that they’re going to need support from this community that does mean a lot to them, and I certainly intend to do that if I’m ever called upon to be asked for help.”

Ty Gibbs grew up idolizing Kyle Busch. Driving the No. 54 Toyota that previously belonged to KB — back when it was the No. 18 car — Gibbs grew up going to race tracks with Busch, who drove for his grandfather’s company at JGR for 15 years, during Ty Gibbs’ most formative years. Busch’s passing was another significant blow to Gibbs, who lost his father and JGR co-owner Coy Gibbs in November 2022.

“I don’t really have any words right now, to be honest with you guys,” Gibbs said. “I’m just very upset. Obviously, feel for Samantha, Brexton and Lennix, and understand, obviously, somewhat how Brexton feels. It’s just, it’s very sad.”

Busch’s on-track life will live in lore. Busch’s life off the race track, Gibbs said, meant so much more.

“I saw a great role model, somebody I looked up to,” Gibbs said. “I saw a great father, and I saw somebody that was very driven and motivated. I think Kyle was probably one of the toughest dudes that I knew. My dad was a very tough dude and respected Kyle all the way.”

On Saturday, there was a return to action, but in no way was it normal. Zane Smith, a West Coast racer just like Busch, entered the weekend tied for 23rd in the Cup Series standings with Busch. That meant his hauler lined up directly next to Busch‘s in the garage area Saturday morning, with his No. 38 Ford parked between the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets.

“Just eerie. I don‘t know if there‘s a word for it,” Smith said. “Kyle and I are tied in points, and I went into today, I‘m like, man, our haulers are gonna be right next to each other, and I‘m right in between the 3 and the 8 in the garage. It doesn‘t feel real. I don‘t really know how else to describe it. He just impacted the sport massively, and yeah, just it doesn‘t feel real.

“For me, I just always wanted to be like Kyle Busch. When I was growing up, he was winning on Friday, Saturday and dominating Sunday. He was Superman, and that‘s all there really was to it.”

There was a sense that no one wanted to be at the race track on Saturday. Just 48 hours removed from receiving word one of the sport‘s pillars passed, drivers, fans and officials alike rallied around one another through their own daze, checking in on one another to share stories, offer condolences or simply exist together doing what brought everyone together in the first place: racing.

As NASCAR CEO Steve O‘Donnell said Friday: “Kyle Busch would probably be pretty pissed off if we didn‘t race, so we‘re going to honor his memory.”

But it‘s fair for the NASCAR community to be pissed off that Kyle Busch isn‘t here to race one more time.

One day after the sudden, shocking death of NASCAR giant Kyle Busch, Charlotte Motor Speedway opened its doors to what would under normal circumstances be one of its most celebrated weekends of the year. The gray skies and spitting rain fit the collective gloom, and the track‘s scoring pylon went dark, save for one beaming marker. Kyle Busch‘s No. 8 stood alone in the P1 spot.

Busch was always a bright light and a towering presence, over stock-car racing‘s home court and beyond. The loss is difficult to measure, a past-tense reality that doesn‘t feel possible.

RELATED: Kyle Busch dies at 41

As the flowers and memorials began to pile up at his Richard Childress Racing team‘s front doors about an hour up the road, the industry felt the weight of Busch‘s impact. For fans, Busch left little room for middle-ground indifference. His backers were unwavering in their faithfulness and easy to spot, wearing colorful M&M‘s gear brandished with his No. 18 during some of his most prolific years. The other side of the fan spectrum was equally vocal, showering boos from the bleachers each time Busch grabbed a checkered flag — often, in other words.

Busch leaned into the role of NASCAR‘s ruling-class villain with swagger and humor. He was confident, sometimes even cocky, but equipped with the quick wit that made him endlessly meme-ready. His competitive drive was laced with the type of honesty and old-school sensibility that helped move the sport‘s needle. You couldn‘t help but watch Kyle Busch.

Many memories stand out from his future Hall of Fame career, but 2015 keeps coming back as a flashpoint. Busch opened the season with a devastating crash that severely injured both legs, and the void on the grid was palpable. He held his first public press conference nearly two months later, and the detailed explanation of the wreck and the events that followed felt like a well-tenured professor‘s lecture. What sort of broadcaster would Kyle Busch have been? His gripping analysis that day provided a glimpse.

One month more passed and Busch became a father, joining his wife, Samantha, in welcoming Brexton into the world. The couple had been strikingly candid about their fertility struggles, helping spread awareness and raising funds for couples in similar straits through their Bundle of Joy Fund. But the first half of that season had created two life-changing moments, and he opened up on how it had shaped him in a 2022 interview: “I was like, ‘man, OK, I need to really have a different perspective on what all I do.‘ ” He funneled that into making Brexton a racer, just as his father had done for him.

Another two weeks passed and Busch was back on the grid. Questions about how he might perform were answered quickly with a victory in his fifth race back. A three-race win streak that included a Brickyard 400 triumph followed, and the Rubik‘s Cube of the 10-race Chase that had almost always foiled him finally came together that fall with all the sides and colors aligned to make him — at long last — a Cup Series champion.

It‘s too early to take a full assessment of Busch‘s legacy. The tangible measure of 234 NASCAR national-series wins now feels like one of those unbreakable records that goes from statistics to lore — both in racing and in sports. Incredibly, he was still adding to the stats and the legend as of a week ago, with a final victory and signature bow after a dominant day in the Craftsman Truck Series at Dover Motor Speedway.

Busch‘s RCR team announced later Friday that it has opted to shelve the No. 8 that Busch last drove, switching to the car No. 33 for the foreseeable future and indicating that it has No. 8 reserved for Brexton Busch when he is ready.

The No. 8 burned bright atop the track‘s leaderboard on an otherwise dreary Friday. Kyle Busch‘s legacy always will.

The change comes a day after the tragic death of driver and icon Kyle Busch, who piloted the No. 8 Chevrolet for RCR since the start of the 2023 season. Busch, 41, died Thursday after a severe illness led to hospitalization.

RCR announced it will save the No. 8 designation for Busch‘s 11-year-old son, Brexton, whenever he advances to NASCAR.

“Kyle Busch was instrumental in the design of RCR‘s stylized No. 8 and it has become synonymous with Kyle and an important symbol for his fans and the NASCAR industry,” RCR said in a team statement. “No one can carry it forward to the level that he did. The No. 8 is reserved and ready for Brexton Busch when he is ready to go NASCAR racing.”

NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series regular Austin Hill will compete in Sunday‘s Coca-Cola 600 in the No. 33 Chevrolet in place of Busch.

In a 20-minute press conference in which he took questions from the media, O‘Donnell summarized Busch succinctly: “Kyle Busch defines what it means to be a racer in NASCAR.”

O‘Donnell likened NASCAR to weekly family reunions. And as Busch‘s bristling personality would show in his rise to greatness, not all family members always saw eye to eye.

“For me personally, the family reunions week to week are just not going to be the same without him,” O‘Donnell said. “But we‘re going to do our damn best to continue his legacy and support his family.”

Busch collected 234 wins across NASCAR competition, the most all-time in the Craftsman Truck Series (69) and O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series (102) and the ninth-most in Cup with 63. At age 41, Busch collected his final win May 15 at Dover Motor Speedway in the Truck Series, just six days before his passing.

“Kyle Busch, to me, is an American badass,” O‘Donnell said. “Behind the wheel, he‘s who you want to be. And I think when you look back at all those things, that‘s part of being a race-car driver. That‘s part of representing the sport. We‘re not always going to agree — if we did, I think people would be really bored. And we certainly had our battles. But I‘d give a lot of money to have a few more battles going forward.”

Busch‘s intensity as a competitor led to contentious moments with the sanctioning body at times. On Friday, O‘Donnell recalled one of his favorite moments with Busch was an incident during Cup practice at Texas Motor Speedway in 2017 in which Busch spun and contacted the wall.

“He would challenge NASCAR on some rules,” O‘Donnell said. “[He] maybe spun out, maybe hit the wall. [NASCAR] decided that we needed to take him to the care center. He laid flat out on a pit cart, made fun of us. I was mad at the time, but I look back, and that was damn funny — and that was Kyle.”

O‘Donnell praised Busch‘s ability to play the villain role, egging on fans while continuing to help grow the sport in ways only he could. His presence was polarizing — particularly at his winningest peaks. Busch made clear his fire never cooled, driven to find success as his 11-year-old son Brexton and 4-year-old daughter Lennix watched on.

“What I look back on is a text from Kyle Tuesday, as only Kyle could do,” O‘Donnell said. “And I keep looking at it, and he said, ‘Hey, man, what do you think about an over-40 rule to be able to compete in all the Truck Series races next year?‘ And I said, ‘You know, we put that [race-restriction] rule in place because you were winning so much.‘ But when we looked at it and we had a meeting Wednesday internally, we said, damn, that‘s actually good. We need Kyle in the Truck Series.

“And it was twofold, because he knew he could help the series, but I think one day had a dream to race against his son in a national series event. And that was Kyle, always thinking about the sport and going forward.”

Additionally, O‘Donnell also touched on the following topics:

• Postponing Sunday‘s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte was briefly discussed, but through conversations with RCR and the Busch family, O‘Donnell said: “Kyle Busch would probably be pretty pissed off if we didn‘t race, so we‘re going to honor his memory.”

• O‘Donnell offered condolences to team owner Richard Childress and the Busch family, notably Busch‘s wife Samantha, children Brexton and Lennix and Busch‘s NASCAR Hall of Fame brother Kurt Busch. “A lot of us were in the Hall of Fame voting (Tuesday), and you think about the future. And I think about Kyle‘s future and the ability for all of us to sit in that room and celebrate him and listen to him speak and talk about that final chapter and see his kids maybe one day race. And it makes me really sad not to see the end of that chapter.”

• O‘Donnell said adding Kyle Busch to the NASCAR Hall of Fame‘s Class of 2027 has been considered. “We have a little bit more time to think about what we could do as well in the future, and who knows? That could be something we look at.”

After practice and qualifying were canceled earlier in the day Friday, Truck Series drivers loaded onto the track in anticipation of a 7 p.m. ET start. But moments before the race was slated to begin, it began raining, eventually leading to NASCAR pushing the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 back a day.

RELATED: Weekend schedule: Charlotte | Starting lineup | NASCAR video highlights

Corey Day is set to lead the field to green in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet at the 1-5- mile Concord, North Carolina, facility.

Day is driving the truck that Kyle Busch was scheduled to drive until the two-time Cup Series champion passed away Thursday after battling severe illness. One week ago at Dover Motor Speedway, Busch won his 69th career Truck Series race in the Spire entry.

Busch‘s death, which was announced by the Busch family, NASCAR and Richard Childress Racing, marked a sudden, staggering blow to the motorsports community. His team had indicated earlier Thursday that Busch had been hospitalized with a severe illness. The Busch family released a statement on Saturday morning with more details, indicating that “the medical evaluation provided to the Busch family concluded that severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis, resulting in rapid and overwhelming associated complications. The family asks for continued understanding and privacy during this difficult time.”

Busch was in his 22nd full-time season in NASCAR‘s top division, where he won two Cup Series titles (2015, 2019) and 63 races — a figure that ranks ninth on the circuit‘s all-time win list. His numbers across the other two national NASCAR series are record-setting, with 102 victories in what is now called the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and 69 wins in the Craftsman Truck Series.

The Busch family, Richard Childress Racing and NASCAR made the following joint statement: “On behalf of the Busch family, everyone at Richard Childress Racing and all of NASCAR, we are devastated to announce the sudden and tragic passing of Kyle Busch.

“Our entire NASCAR family is heartbroken by the loss of Kyle Busch. A future Hall of Famer, Kyle was a rare talent, one who comes along once in a generation. He was fierce, he was passionate, he was immensely skilled and he cared deeply about the sport and fans. Throughout a career that spanned more than two decades, Kyle set records in national series wins, won championships at NASCAR‘s highest level and fostered the next generation of drivers as an owner in the Truck Series. His sharp wit and competitive spirit sparked a deep emotional connection with race fans of every age, creating the proud and loyal ‘Rowdy Nation.‘ Our thoughts are with Samantha, Brexton and Lennix, Kyle and Samantha‘s parents, Kurt and all of Kyle‘s family, Richard and Judy Childress, everyone at Richard Childress Racing, his teammates, friends and fans. NASCAR lost a giant of the sport today, far too soon.

“During this incredibly difficult time, we ask everyone to respect the family‘s privacy and continue to keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Further updates will be shared as appropriate.”

Busch drove for three Hall of Fame team owners in Cup, getting his start with Hendrick Motorsports as a heralded rookie in stock-car racing‘s big leagues in 2005. He joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, establishing a long-running partnership that made him the face of Toyota‘s NASCAR endeavors. He spent the final stages of his career with Childress, arriving in 2023 and taking the reins of the No. 8 Chevrolet.

At each phase of his career, Busch was a polarizing figure among fans — intensely popular for his adoring supporters and booed loudly by his detractors. He entered the sport as a brash teenager with the nickname “Shrub” as the younger brother to Hall of Famer Kurt Busch, but the alias of “Rowdy” — a nod to one of the main characters in “Days of Thunder” and to his aggressive style — is what stuck with him.

Kyle Thomas Busch was born May 2, 1985 into a racing family in Las Vegas. His father, Tom, was a mechanic who raced locally after he and his wife, Gaye, relocated from Schaumburg, Illinois. His brother, Kurt, was seven years older and set a competitive benchmark for him to aspire to on the track.

Kyle Busch followed many of the same steps that his brother did in accelerating up the racing ladder — family go-karts on makeshift tracks in cul-de-sacs and parking lots, Legends Cars at the Vegas bullring before a move to full-bodied Late Model competition. Kurt hinted at the impact his brother would make in 2001: “You think I‘m a pretty good race car driver? Wait until you see my brother. He‘s the best driver in the family.”

Kyle Busch‘s path to NASCAR was also in line with his brother‘s career arc, and Kyle joined his team when he signed with team owner Jack Roush as a 16-year-old junior in high school. That deal was derailed shortly after it began, when NASCAR raised its minimum age requirements to 18 for national-series competition in 2001.

The rule-mandated break from Roush also gave the younger Busch an opportunity to “step out of the shadow of Kurt,” he said, to forge his own identity. “I need to be my own person and make my own way and show everybody that I can drive,” he told the Associated Press in 2003, the same year he signed on to Rick Hendrick‘s organization.

Showing everybody his talent came quickly. Busch made his O‘Reilly Series debut for Hendrick on May 24, 2003, finishing second to Matt Kenseth at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He made a splash when he entered the series full-time the next year, winning five races and finishing second overall to Martin Truex Jr.

As those victories began to accumulate, Busch created what would become a patented celebration, punctuating each win with a showman‘s bow. The gesture served a tribute to his roots as a Vegas native but also a flourish like a magician appearing from the smoke of another triumphant burnout.

Busch reached the Cup Series with a six-race audition in 2004 before a full-fledged rookie campaign the next year, paired with crew chief Alan Gustafson in the No. 5 Chevrolet. He became the premier series‘ youngest winner in his 31st Cup start, prevailing at Auto Club Speedway for the first of four wins he‘d collect in his three full seasons with Hendrick.

Busch made what would become a pivotal move after Hendrick signed Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the 2008 season, aligning with Coach Joe Gibbs and Toyota in another blockbuster deal. Busch was already becoming an established Cup Series star, but the combination of his colorful No. 18 car with M&M‘s sponsorship became one of the sport‘s most recognizable.

His 15-year association with Joe Gibbs Racing was one of the sport‘s most successful tenures, with at least one victory in each of those seasons. Busch scored 56 of his 63 Cup Series wins with the former NFL coach, adding 90 more O‘Reilly wins and a series championship in 2009.

Busch also made his mark during that time as a team owner in the Craftsman Truck Series, fielding trucks for himself and a host of future Cup stars. His Kyle Busch Motorsports entries won 100 races from 2010 to 2023, adding two championships — one with Erik Jones in 2015 and another two years later with Christopher Bell.

Busch left JGR after the 2022 season and a series of drawn-out negotiations, starting a new chapter with Childress and joining the Chevrolet camp in the No. 8 Camaro. The agreement seemed to be a tenuous one, struck nearly a dozen years after Childress initiated a post-race physical altercation in the Kansas Speedway garage. The Hall of Fame team owner made it known that the bygones had passed, making a humorous reference to his “hold my watch” comment before their scuffle as he gave Busch his own timepiece as a welcoming gift.

Busch won three races in the No. 8 Chevy in the first half of the 2023 season but was mired in the longest dry spell of his career at the time of his passing. His final Cup Series win came June 4, 2023 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

Kyle Busch is survived by his parents and his wife, Samantha, whom he married on New Year‘s Eve in 2010, and two children — son Brexton, who turned 11 on Monday, and 4-year-old daughter Lennix.

That consistency, however, is missing through the first 14 races of the 2026 season, despite winning the season opener at Daytona International Speedway for the fourth time in five years. Last weekend at Dover Motor Speedway, the No. 21 team banked its first top-five finish since Circuit of The Americas, snapping a 10-race drought, the longest of Hill‘s O‘Reilly career.

RELATED: Austin Hill driver page | Richard Childress Racing site

“It‘s been one of those roller coaster starts to the season,” Hill told NASCAR.com. “We haven‘t performed like we should. The entire 21 team knows it. We‘ve shown signs of good runs.

“I think there‘s light at the end of the tunnel. We are still a contender; we‘re still a top-five team each and every time we go on the race track. It‘s just putting these races together, minimizing our mistakes on the track and minimizing things that have happened with the race that the outside world doesn‘t see, but we see it. If we can clean all that stuff up, I think you will see us back inside the top five in points, and you will see us back up front, contending to win races.”

With the fifth-place effort at the “Monster Mile,” Hill sits 50 points below Brandon Jones for that benchmark. He trails Sammy Smith by only three points for sixth in the championship standings.

Hill sees promise within the No. 21 team as it attempts to climb back to the top. He placed sixth at Martinsville Speedway, a track he normally wrestles with. On the flip side, Bristol Motor Speedway continues to be a hindrance for Richard Childress Racing. Intermediate venues, where Hill typically excels, have been spotty.

“Our expectations for the 21 is to be winning races,” Danny Lawrence, RCR‘s vice president, alliance operations director, O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, told NASCAR.com. “Nobody is happy when you don‘t win. Our biggest focus right now is execution across the board. The speed has been there from time to time. We just need to execute better.”

Despite the abnormal start for Hill, his average finishing position is only 0.3 positions worse than a rough-and-tumble 2025 season. But the highs were higher in previous seasons, reaching double-digit top fives in all four years and never having fewer than 18 top-10 finishes. He is on pace to have career lows in both categories.

That is aggravating for a driver who has made a living being steady.

“It‘s been very frustrating and mentally taxing on me as a driver,” Hill said. “Just because I had these big talks about liking that we were going this route with The Chase format, and that consistency was going to be huge, and that would work well for our 21 team. To start the season off earlier in the year, I‘m like, this is the 21 team, this is what we do, we run inside the top five every week. Then, it slowly digressed.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

“I think it‘s starting to come back around for us. I still do think the way the format is, it‘s going to benefit our team and how we perform every week. You‘re going to have these slumps, and we‘re going through a little bit of a slump. I‘d rather have it early in the season like we‘re having it now than later in the year when The Chase comes.”

The O‘Reilly dip extends throughout the RCR camp, which includes defending champion Jesse Love and the No. 2 team, with only a pair of top fives in the last 10 events. This is in addition to the challenges within the RCR walls on the Cup side. Of late, however, the Cup program at RCR has found an uptick in speed, with both full-time drivers finishing inside the top 10 at Watkins Glen International.

Team spirit has been put through the wringer in the opening three months of the NASCAR season, but Lawrence is optimistic the legacy team can turn it around.

“We‘re not in panic mode,” Lawrence said. “I think you‘re going to see the progression. Top fives are great, but it‘s not what we want. We want to be winning. Our plan is for Austin Hill and Jesse to win nine races each. We‘re going to keep working on it and pushing hard.”

MORE: O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series standings | O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule

To have a legitimate shot at the 2026 title, Hill believes he needs to rank inside the top five in points. That would put him within striking distance of Justin Allgaier, who is currently on a runaway with the Regular Season Championship, two-and-a-half races ahead of second-place Sheldon Creed. The next O‘Reilly race is slated for Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“To be comfortable, a bare minimum fifth,” Hill said. “I would still be disappointed in that, but bare minimum, we need to be fifth for when we get done with the regular season and go into The Chase. Perfect case would be somewhere in the top three. I still think that‘s obtainable and reachable.

“There are a decent amount of races coming up that we have left to do, and if we can do what we think we can do and start being consistent each week, and some other guys start having some issues, it could bring us right back into it.”

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

With the seven-race postseason inching closer, NASCAR.com‘s John Crane ranks the top 10 Craftsman Truck Series drivers at the halfway mark of the regular season.

RELATED: Craftsman Truck Series standings | Craftsman Truck Series schedule

Analysis: No. 11 is No. 1. Save for a 31st-place DNF at Bristol Motor Speedway, the 22-year-old has been on an absolute heater, especially of late; Honeycutt has finished inside the top five in six of the last seven races and has led at least one lap in six straight contests. He‘s averaging 43 points over those six races. Oh, and he beat Connor Zilisch at Watkins Glen International for the first Truck victory of his career. The rest of the field might be in trouble.

Analysis: A 36th-place finish due to a disqualification at Rockingham Speedway stung, but aside from that blemish, it has been a blossoming season for the No. 38 pilot. Every other result has been 17th or better, and he‘s averaged 38 points in those races. Smith has not led a lap since St. Petersburg, though, and his 15 laps led rank eighth among all full-time drivers. Consider it the next item on the bulletin to tackle.

Analysis: Though Riggs still has the point accumulation to soften the demotion from No. 1 to No. 3 in this installment, the 23-year-old has yet to put together a dominant performance that netted the North Carolina native a 70-point victory at St. Petersburg in February. In the six races since, Riggs has only led six laps and collected three top-10 finishes, though all three of those top 10s were sixth-place results or better, with the most recent coming at Dover (third). In other words, I wouldn‘t worry.

Analysis: Starting second and finishing second at Dover will certainly play in the points department, with Majeski‘s 52-tally day the best of his season. Now, it‘s about consistency for the 2024 Truck Series champion, who has alternated single-digit and double-digit race finishes since the start of the campaign. Just a touch more refinement is needed, and who knows, perhaps a Victory Lane appearance could be in the works, too; all six of his Truck wins are at tracks that are still on the schedule this season.

Analysis: A theme has resonated with Ruggiero and the No. 17 camp through the opening nine races of the season. That theme? The team certainly starts races well; Ruggiero has started 10th or better in all nine contests. Now, it‘s about parlaying that strong start into consistently (and equally) steady finishes. In four starts this season, the 19-year-old started sixth or better but finished 14th or worse. There is still homework in need of completing.

Analysis: Glimpses of vintage Eckes have started to show, most of all at Bristol Motor Speedway in March, leading 132 laps and finishing fifth. It wasn‘t all good news, though; Eckes tagged Corey Heim during the contest, leading to a multi-truck crash that, while no penalties were levied, resulted in NASCAR officials “having a chat” with the 25-year-old. Two top 10s since still have Eckes on a decent momentum swing. Will the nine-time Truck winner find a 10th this season?

Analysis: There have been some down stretches for the 21-year-old Garcia, finishing 23rd or worse in three races this season, most recently at Texas Motor Speedway (29th) … after starting the race in second. That said, Garcia has still averaged 33 points per race in four of the last five contests. Not too shabby. If Garcia can consistently levy his excellent qualifying (his 8.1 average start ranks third among all full-timers) with elite finishes, he could soar up this ranking.

Analysis: There have been glimpses of a potential breakout. Rhodes started 2026 with three straight finishes of 12th or better before following it up with a P36 at Darlington Raceway and P18 at Rockingham. The same theme has carried over into the next four races, with two consecutive top-11 finishes (Bristol, 11th; Texas, fifth), followed by a stretch of 32nd and 19th at Watkins Glen and Dover, respectively. Will Rhodes go on an extended run of productive finishes? This is the big-hitting question.

Analysis: The defending ARCA Menards Series champion — nicknamed “Butterbean” due to his resemblance as a baby to boxer Eric “Butterbean” Esch — makes his debut in this ranking series, and for good reason. Queen has finished 13th or better in four straight races, compiling an 11.25 average finish. Talk about a stark difference compared to the three races prior; Queen possessed a 21.75 finish from St. Petersburg to Rockingham, brought down by three results of 20th or worse. The Truck Series rookie is learning the full-time ropes.

Analysis: Despite the 42-year-old Canadian not following up his top five at Rockingham with a top 10 in any of his next four starts, Friesen has kept it level, with all four starts resulting in finishes inside the top 20. That is all you can ask for, and when coupled with zero DNFs so far this year, that is a decent recipe to follow. The throttle cannot be eased, though; Tyler Ankrum, Daniel Hemric and others could pounce if there is the slightest error.

Harvick landed on the Hall‘s ballot this year as a near-certain lock for induction, and 46 of the 50 voters agreed on their ballots. Harvick said later, however, that he felt it would be presumptuous to be inside the shrine‘s Great Hall to watch Tuesday‘s announcement in person. The anticipation, though, kept him close by. He waited in a pickup truck in a nearby parking lot when the notification came in.

Burton was out on the golf course on a steamy Tuesday afternoon, participating with a group of friends as part of an annual engagement of roughly six tournaments. “This is the third one, and I play the worst golf of my life when I play in these tournaments for some reason,” he said. “So I was doing it again.” He‘d taken previous Voting Day disappointments to heart, but said in time that he‘d learned to let it go. This year‘s call gave him cause to leave the links behind, saving him from more shanks and yips.

RELATED: Class of 2027 announced | More about the NHOF

From divergent locations, Burton and Harvick came together to embrace under the same roof Tuesday to celebrate their enshrinement alongside stock-car racing‘s greats. The two former teammates were chosen from the Modern Era Ballot and will be honored in January alongside Pioneer Ballot selection Larry Phillips and Landmark Award recipient Lesa France Kennedy during the Hall‘s Class of 2027 ceremonies.

Though their stat lines vary, Burton and Harvick carved out long careers at the sport‘s highest level by climbing the local and regional ladders — Harvick in his native California and around the Southwest, Burton from his home state of Virginia and throughout the Southeast. Their paths met again in the same building in 2004, this time at Richard Childress Racing, establishing a long-running connection as teammates for nearly 10 seasons.

Their overlapping tenures were marked by prosperous years and some lean ones, but their contrasting styles gave RCR a measure of balance on their driver roster, with Burton‘s steady approach acting as a counterweight to Harvick‘s fire.

“I went to RCR at a point where they were struggling a little bit, and we got our hands dirty and all of us went to work,” Burton said, “and it took us a few years, but there for a while we put a lot of cars in the postseason for a lot of years in a row, and those were really, really fun years. Kevin pushed me hard, and I want to think that I pushed him. But what‘s fun about Kevin is our personalities are so different that when the doors are shut, there‘s a lot of stuff that happens, and when the doors are shut and you‘re trying to fix problems, and Kevin, he just is willing to put everything in a blender and put it on high, and whatever flies out flies out. I mean, he gets super-aggressive, and so I‘m more diplomatic than that. I mean, we had some really interesting meetings coming in completely different ways, and there were times I wasn‘t being forceful enough, so Kevin would, and there were times that Kevin would be forceful enough where I‘d have to go clean it up. It really was a fun time.”

Diplomacy became one of Burton‘s trademarks, during his driving days and in his more recent years as a trusted broadcaster. In both of those career phases, Burton often served as an intermediary who advocated for drivers and bridged the communications with NASCAR officials.

It‘s a leadership role that Harvick has also emulated in his transition to the broadcast booth and as a mover in the industry, staying involved at all levels of the sport — from grassroots to the majors. Burton was key in setting that example.

“Well, you don‘t get the nickname ‘The Mayor‘ for no reason,” Harvick said. “Jeff has been an ambassador of the sport, been a part of the sport, his family‘s been a part of the sport, and he‘s been a good friend of mine for a long, long time and helped through those middle years at RCR to keep it all together, and we learned a lot about each other. It‘s kind of going back to the respect part, right? You have a reputation, and you hope that your reputation is respected from your credentials and the results that you have, not only in the race car but out of the race car, and Jeff‘s 100% that guy. In and out of the race car, he had the respect of the whole sport.”

For both former RCR stablemates, the Hall‘s recognition was humbling. Though both enjoyed sustaining careers of 20-plus years in NASCAR‘s top division, the sport‘s whirlwind pace doesn‘t always allow much time for reflection. Harvick found a dose of that in his final Cup Series season in 2023, when his then-team owner Tony Stewart mandated it.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

“I mean, even though you‘re expecting the call, it‘s still somewhat weird to get the call, because you just … when this all started, I was just a kid out in the middle of a field racing go-karts, right?” Harvick said. “And then you go through the years of just ‘what‘s next week, what‘s next week, what can we do? OK, where can we go? How do we make our cars faster?‘ It‘s always been look forward, look forward, grind, grind, grind, grind, and you never really stop and think to look around, and so I was fortunate to do that. Tony made me do that my last year. I didn‘t want to do it, and he had to sit me down and say, ‘You‘re going to do this because I‘m telling you it‘s the right thing to do to enjoy it every single week.‘ This feels very similar to me. I don‘t really know what it‘ll feel like when we get to January, but to be amongst the best that have ever done it in our sport, it‘s pretty, pretty rewarding.”

The two will share those rewards next offseason.

“I have so much respect for this sport, and I have a passion for it, the same as I did 20 years ago, 30 years ago. I feel the same way,” Burton said. “My role is different, but the fact that I have a role, for me, is really special, because I want to be part of this community. I love this community, it‘s full of great people. This sport is … it‘s hard, it‘s grueling, it‘s difficult, it‘s challenging, which is what makes it great, and when you can, those few moments when you can have success, it‘s nothing like it because you know how hard it is. To me, what makes it so special is being part of something that so many people that I look up to and have respect for were part of before me, because without all them, there is no opportunity for me or Kevin or the next class. The generations before us made this happen.”

In “Kyle Larson vs. The Double,” launching Thursday on Prime Video, fans will get a behind-the-scenes look at the Californian‘s herculean efforts across the two famed venues and racing disciplines.

Larson invited camera crews into the most private environments, including race shops, planes and even his home. More than two years of filming were cut down into just over 90 minutes, and days before the official release, the 33-year-old — who became just the fifth driver to make the historic attempt — couldn‘t be prouder.

RELATED: More information about the film | How to watch NASCAR on Prime Video

“It turned out really good,” Larson told NASCAR.com on Monday, standing on the blue carpet before a private screening of the film. “You‘re never sure how it‘s quite going to turn out when you‘re not the one piecing it together, so I was happy with how good of a job they did. In my mind, the competition side of it didn‘t go quite like I had hoped, so I was just like ‘man, I don‘t know how they‘re gonna make this thing entertaining.‘ But I actually feel like it made it more entertaining, just seeing all the motion and drama behind the experience.

“Just happy to get it out there, and kind of put the final closing on the Double.”

More than 100 members from Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR attended the first screening of the feature-length film, which opened with remarks from Jeff Gordon, Hendrick‘s vice chairman, and John Dahl, NASCAR‘s senior vice president of content — both executive producers of the documentary. Afterward, Larson and director Cynthia Hill took the stage, reflecting on the marathon shoot and friendships forged along the way.

Every aspect of Larson‘s first attempt in 2024 had cameras covering it. Starting with the IndyCar simulator and moving to the Arrow McLaren shop, he quizzes 2013 Indy 500 champion Tony Kanaan, who also served as Larson‘s stand-by driver and coach. Larson then tested an IndyCar at Phoenix Raceway — site of both his Cup Series championships — before hitting the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway that April.

But as race day neared and weather became a factor in both Indianapolis and Charlotte, Larson and Hendrick Motorsports were concerned. Camera crews sit in as Hendrick Motorsports‘ Rick Hendrick, Gordon and crew chief Cliff Daniels decide to let Larson prioritize Indy instead of the Cup Series, understanding the consequences. After ultimately missing the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600, it took multiple weeks for NASCAR to grant Larson — who led Cup points before Memorial Day weekend — a waiver to remain eligible for the playoffs.

But believe it or not, Larson didn‘t quite live all of it. By watching the film for the first time, he gained perspective on Daniels and the No. 5 team as they made preparations for the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro and the Coca-Cola 600 — all while he raced several hundred miles away in Indy.

“Anything that I got to see on here that I didn‘t actually live through myself was great,” Larson said. “It‘s so easy to think about all the negative sides of not completing the Double that this was a good reminder of how much I loved the experience and had so much fun on qualifying days, the practice days and just different team events. It was just a good reminder that, yeah, it wasn‘t all bad.”

The documentary also expands on the upbringing and career of the superstar, starting with home videos and narrations from his father, Mike. Beginning his Cup Series career with Chip Ganassi Racing, Larson also opens up about his 2020 suspension from NASCAR after saying a racial slur on a livestream. Fans see how he learned from that mistake, and less than a year later, Hendrick signed him, leading to a 2021 season for the ages with 10 wins and a series title.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

“I just want [fans] to have their own opinion,” Larson said. “I just hope they enjoy the film and what it takes, because being a race-car driver is not easy, and I think that‘s what this showcases, is that not everything goes exactly how you want it in life, but you‘re going to persevere and you‘ll come out a stronger human being, or athlete or whatever the case may be.

“It didn‘t quite go perfectly with the weather. Both years you have weather delays, obviously the first being catastrophic — and then the second year, even the delay that we had before the 500 — it was ultimately going to keep us from finishing the 500 even without me crashing. I wish I didn‘t crash, but odds are I still was probably not gonna be able to finish the race, which was a bummer. So yeah, that was the most upsetting part, but still overall, the experience was awesome.”

“Kyle Larson vs. The Double” premieres Thursday on Prime Video, leading into the platform‘s telecast of Sunday‘s crown-jewel Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Cup Series teams will have the same Goodyear Racing Eagle tires used four previous times this season, all at intermediate-style tracks: Las Vegas, Darlington, Kansas and Texas. Of those four, three are 1.5-mile circuits, the same length as the Concord, North Carolina, facility. The left-side tires debuted in this race last spring, while the right-side tires hit the track last fall at Kansas.

RELATED: Charlotte weekend schedule

“This will be the fifth time Cup Series teams have run this setup in 2026, so they come to Charlotte with valuable data under their belts,” said Justin Fantozzi, Goodyear director of racing for the Americas. “This setup is the latest evolution of our intermediate track tire package, and we have been pleased with its performance at comparable high-speed 1.5-mile tracks.”

O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series teams will need to adapt to a new right-side tire. They will run a similar left-side tire, which Goodyear featured earlier this season at Las Vegas, Kansas and Texas.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Additionally, for the eighth consecutive Memorial Day weekend, Goodyear branding on all tires will be replaced by the Honor and Remember logo.

Tire allotments for each team competing this weekend:

• Cup Series: 14 total sets — 12 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 1 for practice.
• O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series: 6 total sets — 4 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 1 for practice.
• Craftsman Truck Series: 5 total sets — 3 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 1 for practice.

The three honorees were selected by the Hall of Fame Voting Panel, which met Tuesday afternoon at the Charlotte Convention Center. The voting results were presented by NASCAR CEO Steve O‘Donnell in the Hall of Fame‘s Great Hall, where Lesa France Kennedy was also announced as the recipient of the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.

RELATED: NASCAR Hall of Fame members | More about the NHOF

Harvick and Burton were chosen from a list of 10 candidates on the Modern Era Ballot, and Phillips was voted in from the five nominees on the Pioneer Ballot.

Harvick‘s election to the Class of 2027 came in his first year of eligibility. The 50-year-old California native retired from a full-time driving career after the 2023 season, finishing with 60 Cup Series victories — 11th on the all-time list — and championships in Cup (2014) and what‘s now known as the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series (2001, 2006).

Among Harvick‘s accomplishments were several prestigious triumphs — the Daytona 500 (2007), Southern 500 (2014, 2020), Coca-Cola 600 (2011, 2013) and Brickyard 400 (2003, 2019, 2020). He has remained active in the sport as an analyst for FOX Sports‘ NASCAR coverage since 2024.

MORE: Kevin Harvick through the years

Like Harvick, Burton was named one of NASCAR‘s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023, and he earned election in his sixth year on the ballot with a resume that included 21 Cup Series victories and 27 O‘Reilly Series wins. In the years since his driving days ended, the 58-year-old Virginian has been a trusted voice as a broadcaster with NBC Sports and an advisor for the sport‘s drivers‘ council.

Crew chief James Ince once estimated Phillips — another of NASCAR‘s 75 Greatest Drivers — won 1,000 times; maybe 2,000. What is a hardened fact is that Phillips was the first of two drivers to win five NASCAR Weekly Series national championships. During an 11-year span — from his first title in 1989 through 1996 — the Springfield, Missouri, competitor won 220 of 289 NASCAR-sanctioned starts, including 13 track championships in three states.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

France Kennedy is Executive Vice Chair of NASCAR and one of the most influential women in sports. Over a 30-plus-year career with International Speedway Corporation, Kennedy rose through a series of executive leadership roles, including secretary, treasurer, executive vice president and CEO. She led the revitalization of Phoenix Raceway, oversaw the Daytona Rising redevelopment of Daytona International Speedway and helped establish NASCAR‘s footprint in the Midwest through the development of Kansas Speedway. Kennedy has been recognized by Forbes, Adweek, Sports Business Journal and the National Women‘s History Museum, and is a member of the Cynopsis Sports Hall of Fame.

This year‘s class was selected by the 51 attending members of the Hall of Fame Voting Panel. A final ballot was cast from the cumulative results of fan voting, which ran from April 14 to May 17. Results for the Fan Vote were Harry Hyde (Pioneer Era), Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick (Modern Era).

Even more have been nominated since the inaugural class in 2010, representing an expansive cross-section of stock-car racing‘s best, spanning from the sport‘s humble roots through today‘s Hollywood-level glory.

MORE: Watch the Class of 2027 revealed Tuesday on the NASCAR Channel

All who have been fortunate enough to land on the ballot have a case to be deservedly enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

But what about the names that are not currently on the list? Here are five people worthy of consideration to be on the ballot for the NASCAR Hall of Fame in future years, people who deserve to be in the conversation for enshrinement thanks to their unique and historic contributions to NASCAR racing.

Smokey Yunick

Smokey Yunick is one of the most innovative minds that has ever walked through the NASCAR garage. Legends of his ability to work around the guidelines of the NASCAR Rule Book in the sport‘s earliest decades glimmer with lore, from tales of extended fuel lines to extreme chassis modifications to tricked-up oil lines and more.

A two-time Cup champion as crew chief for Herb Thomas in 1951 and 1953, Yunick was a staple of NASCAR‘s early years. The Pennsylvania native won the 1961 Daytona 500 as crew chief for Marvin Panch and again one year later with driver Fireball Roberts and car owner Jim Stephens. A car owner, mechanic and shot-caller throughout his career, Yunick was also victorious twice in Darlington Raceway‘s Southern 500, winning in 1951 and 1955 while working with Thomas. The 1955 win marked Chevrolet‘s first speedway victory ever.

There‘s a common saying in motorsports: “If you ain‘t cheating, you ain‘t trying.” No one seemed to personify that more than Yunick.

“If you‘re an innovator, and you‘re a smart guy like Smokey was, and there is no rule, is there really a gray area?” Hall of Famer Ray Evernham said in a 2016 documentary. “He made (NASCAR) write rules.”

Naturally, the sanctioning body didn‘t take kindly to some of Yunick‘s advanced methods of creativity. Officials were tasked with surveying cars within the spectrum of the rule book. But Yunick knew what the rule book said, and more importantly, what it didn‘t say. That created tension between Yunick and NASCAR‘s top brass.

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Twenty-five years since his passing in 2001 — and nearly 50 since his last entry as a Cup owner in 1969 with Charlie Glotzbach — opinions are still split on whether Yunick deserves consideration for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

“Sometimes — and I‘m just going to be blunt — legend is not reality. Myth is not fact,” Hall of Fame voter Kyle Petty said May 12 at the NASCAR Productions Facility. “All the B.S. stories you hear about Smokey doesn‘t mean every one of them is a fact. If it was, then Paul Bunyan should be in the freaking Loggers Hall of Fame, right? It‘s a myth. Some of this stuff‘s myth, and you got to call it out when it‘s a myth. I can‘t help that the general public has bought it hook, line and sinker. But if you talk to people that actually knew the guy, that actually raced against the guy, then he‘s right where he should be. He should be part of the conversation, but not the focal point.”

Dale Jarrett, another Hall of Fame voter, told NASCAR.com he sees no reason why Yunick should be excluded from the ballot.

“When you talk about names at the beginning of this sport that made a difference, I do not understand,” Jarrett said. “Were some of the things that he did outrageous to the point that (they were) probably not legal? We could say that about everybody in this sport. That‘s a lot of people that are in that Hall of Fame and others that are being talked about. It was just skirting the rules as much as they could. But with his reputation, I think he was scrutinized more than others maybe, and so maybe some other people were getting away with stuff because they didn‘t have the reputation that that‘s how they did things. But that wasn‘t the only way that he made his race cars go fast. And I just don‘t understand why someone of this importance, a name like this, that he‘s not on the ballot and why he shouldn‘t go into this Hall of Fame, personally.”

The time seems appropriate to recognize Yunick‘s innovation as ingenuity that drove NASCAR toward the future by at least including his name on the ballot for discussion.

Jimmy Makar

For more than three decades, Joe Gibbs Racing has been a powerhouse team in the NASCAR Cup Series. That success is in large part thanks to Makar.

Makar was the guiding hand at JGR for decades, from its inception before the 1992 season through 2022 as Senior Vice President of Racing Operations. Dale Jarrett, JGR‘s inaugural driver, was adamant before signing his contract with Gibbs that Makar‘s addition was mandatory. There is an admitted obvious bias: Makar is Jarrett‘s brother-in-law and is married to Jarrett‘s sister, Patti. But Jarrett knew Makar‘s supervision and hands-on method to building the organization was imperative if JGR was going to be successful long-term.

“Jimmy made every hire to start Joe Gibbs Racing,” Jarrett said. “Everyone that was there was because of Jimmy Makar.”

Jarrett was driving for Wood Brothers Racing in 1991 when Gibbs approached him with an opportunity to drive the No. 18 car in 1992. The team had sponsorship from Interstate Batteries, but Jarrett needed to be sure whoever was tasked with building JGR was reliable, dedicated and knowledgeable about what a successful race team looked like.

“And so I said, I will do this 100% for sure, if you can hire Jimmy Makar as the crew chief and the person to get this started,” Jarrett recalled to NASCAR.com. “And Jimmy‘s name had come up before, just as we talked about different people, and I brought Jimmy‘s name up at that time. But now I was was making a request and demand that this is who they go hire. And to be quite honest, I think Joe Gibbs would tell you the same thing that it was — to this day — the most important hiring of Joe Gibbs Racing.”

The resulting success has firmly established JGR has one of NASCAR‘s winningest teams. From 1992 through 2022, JGR collected 200 Cup Series wins and 194 O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series victories, along with five Cup titles and four drivers‘ championships in the O‘Reilly Series. That list of wins includes four Daytona 500s, seven Coca-Cola 600s at Charlotte, five Brickyard 400s at Indianapolis and nine Southern 500s at Darlington.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame is a sacred Hall to enshrine those who have left lasting impacts and legacies in this sport. Makar‘s contributions to one of the sport‘s winningest organizations deserve to be in the conversation for a position in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Mike Trower

Trower‘s name may be least recognized in this list of five, but his accomplishments as one of NASCAR‘s foremost pioneers of modern pit-road performance should place him in consideration for a spot on the ballot.

Trower contributed to a whopping 73 Cup Series wins as a tire changer for some of the sport‘s finest drivers and Hall of Famers, collecting nine wins with Jarrett, 15 with seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson and 49 with four-time champ Jeff Gordon.

His legitimacy for candidacy consideration is perhaps best verbalized by NASCAR.com‘s Zack Albert, himself a Hall of Fame voter: “Trower‘s name might not come first when reflecting on stock-car stardom, but for those who know, his track record and longevity as one of NASCAR‘s top tire changers during a revolutionary era in pit-stop performance have made him a legend.”

RELATED: The Legend of Mike Trower

Trower‘s success sparked as an original member of Hendrick Motorsports‘ No. 24 Rainbow Warriors on Gordon‘s Chevrolet. What followed were five Cup championships, four Daytona 500 victories and a win in the inaugural Brickyard 400, among other accomplishments. But what separates him from any other successful pit-crew member?

Through the guidance of NASCAR‘s first pit-crew coach, Andy Papathanassiou, Trower‘s relentless work ethic, training and coachability refined him into an elite talent that not only produced success but longevity. Like the Wood Brothers‘ led crews before him, Trower‘s work on pit road pioneered a new era of speed in a stop, helping launch his drivers into race-winning contention on a regular basis.

Trower was led by No. 24 crew chief Ray Evernham at Hendrick, departed for Robert Yates Racing with Jarrett, then eventually worked back to Hendrick with Chad Knaus on the No. 48 team. The thread that tied it all together was Trower‘s leadership in setting the standard.

“Mike was, in his day, one of the best, if not certainly the best, on pit road,” Evernham said in a 2024 interview. “Mike was good, he was steady, he was fast and he just didn‘t make mistakes. When he came to the 24 car, that immediately set the bar for what everybody else had to do. You had to keep up with Mike. The jack man, the rear-tire guy, the tire handler — Mike was our target.”

No pit-crew member has ever been placed on the Hall of Fame ballot — at least not one whose sole job was pitting a race car. If there was one who deserves to be in the conversation from the sport‘s transition into today‘s lightning-quick stops, Trower tops the list.

Sam Ard

Unlike the three names listed above, Ard has previously found himself on the NASCAR Hall of Fame ballot. But in each of the past two years, Ard‘s name has been absent from the list.

Ard was a pioneer in what is today known as the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series. A native of South Carolina, Ard was legend in Late Model Sportsman racing throughout the Southeast. And when the O‘Reilly Series went national in 1982 — then known as the NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series — two names dominated the domain: Hall of Famer Jack Ingram and Ard.

Ingram, the series‘ inaugural champion, was inducted into the Hall in 2014 with 31 series wins and two titles to his name, those championships separated by two runner-up results in 1983 and 1984. The man standing between Ingram and four straight titles? Sam Ard.

In just three seasons — 92 starts — of O‘Reilly racing, Ard collected a remarkable 22 victories, 67 top fives and 79 top 10s to pair with 24 pole positions. He may have lost the inaugural series title to Ingram in 1982, but he trailed Ingram at season‘s end by just 47 points as the runner-up. Tommy Houston, in third, was 622 points behind Ingram.

RELATED: Why Ard received Albert‘s 2024 vote

Those 92 starts — limited to that number due to a career-ending injury in 1984 — created records that still resonate nearly 45 years after the series‘ inception. Ard won 10 races in 1983, the only driver to score that many victories in a single season until Kyle Busch matched the feat in 2008 and 2016, and bested it in 2010 (13 wins) and 2013 (12).

The identity of the series has changed significantly throughout its 44 completed seasons, from regional, blue-collar short-track aces reaching a national stage to today‘s highly sought-after second-series as proving ground for up-and-coming talent. But the story of today‘s NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series cannot be told without the legend of Sam Ard.

John Holman

Holman, like Ard, has appeared on the ballot previously in 2019 and 2020. And like Ard, Holman‘s name is forever tied to another Hall of Famer: 2025 inductee Ralph Moody.

Holman-Moody Racing, formed in 1957, was a stalwart in NASCAR‘s early years, winning 96 races over its storied history, including Daytona 500 championships with Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen (1965) and racing legend Mario Andretti (1967). David Pearson, second in all-time wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, collected 30 of his 105 career victories and two Cup championships driving Holman-Moody Fords.

What separated Holman from Moody was Holman‘s business acumen. Holman oversaw the business end of the company while Moody was the team‘s mechanical mind. The general area of Charlotte, North Carolina, became a hub for NASCAR teams because of Holman‘s lasting legacy, with Holman establishing the team‘s race shop near Charlotte Douglas International Airport to allows parts to be flown in daily.

Holman was a mastermind of both business and engineering, combining his expertise into Moody‘s excellence as a builder that led to historic success, with wins for Hall of Famers like Pearson, Lorenzen, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly, Fireball Roberts and Bobby Allison from 1958 through 1971.

If Moody is enshrined in the Hall — as he most certainly deserves to be — then Holman deserves a place in the conversation to remain on the ballot.

Contributing: Ken Martin, Director of NASCAR‘s Historical Content

The group, after being the 14th team to qualify during Saturday‘s competition, congregated in front of the designated pit stalls for the All-Star event after tallying a 12.612-second time. Members swiveled between Dover‘s infield video board and other teams‘ pit-stop sessions to see if their strong showing would hold serve.

Cup Series points leader Tyler Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing team closed out the competition, and even before the stop was completed, the No. 38 team started celebrating. The No. 45 Toyota leaving the stall after a hold-up on the left side was only a formality. No. 38 team members erupted, clapping, hugging and huddling together in celebratory fashion after clinching the 2026 Pit Crew Challenge victory.

RELATED: Qualifying, Pit Crew Challenge recap | All-Star Race recap

“That was great,” No. 38 fueler Ray Hernandez told NASCAR.com. “… That‘s what we do for a living. We take it really serious. So, it‘s one of those things where we finally had a chance to show up and give our best. So, it‘s very exciting for us.”

Michael Louria, front-tire changer for the No. 38 team, echoed Hernandez‘s statements and credited Smith for setting the team up for success.

“Started off just like a regular stop in practice,” Louria told NASCAR.com. “Zane hit his mark really well, which helped a lot. He‘s a bigger part in this competition than you think, but yeah, we just did our job clean on all four tires and then got out of there smooth.”

The No. 38 team swiftly congregated to Victory Lane to not only accept the winning trophy — an honorary car jack and pit gun — but also the $100,000 check. “Don‘t hurt yourself — we need you tomorrow!” yelled a team member as the crew attempted to hoist the trophy, noting an All-Star Race was still in need of running. (The No. 38 team finished 21st and 22nd in the two opening segments and did not advance to the main event on Sunday.)

Of course, such giddiness was certainly warranted. After the May 10 race at Watkins Glen International, the No. 38 pit crew ranks 15th among all Cup Series teams, with a best stop of 9.20 seconds, ranking 18th.

Steady results, for sure, but one aspect that helps make the stats shine is the exposure the No. 38 team has to other strong pit crews. The No. 38 crew is supplied by Joe Gibbs Racing, and with experience around JGR crews — with the No. 20 team (first), No. 11 team (fifth) and No. 54 team (seventh) all statistically ranking inside the top 10, according to Racing Insights — such visibility pays off.

MORE: Top 10 pit crews so far this season

Character is just as important as the metrics, though, and the No. 38 team might prove this case in point. Want proof? Hear from the team‘s driver.

“I feel like just their humbleness,” Smith said during the 2026 Pit Crew Challenge regarding the team‘s biggest quality. “I feel like they are the fastest crew so far by a good bit … they just stay humble, and I think that goes a long way, and it‘s incredible to have them.”

“I‘d say humbleness and just togetherness,” Louria said regarding the crew‘s strength. “This is my first year on the crew, and I‘ve never felt more heart in a team and a family since I‘ve been doing this, so yeah, humbleness.

“We just work hard, do our jobs, and then yeah, have a lot of fun with it, too, is the most important thing.”

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

To Hernandez, such a combination of character, with experience around powerhouse teams, creates a bond that only makes the team stronger.

“Us being at Gibbs, we get to see fast pit stops every single day, we work every day with it,” Hernandez said regarding the arrangement. “We have a lot of other drivers, other teams that are very fast, just like us. So it‘s easy for us to be humble, because we‘re not, quote-unquote, on a house car like we‘d want to be, which is one of the Gibbs cars. Just kind of easy for us to be humble. Our position is a humbling position in the sport, where we race for Front Row, but we have Gibbs speed, if that makes sense. Very good situation for us.”

Pride, not points, was the weekend theme, and the No. 38 team gained plenty. Such momentum could be the very spark needed for Smith and the Front Row Motorsports organization to take the next leap forward. Smith ranks 23rd in the Cup Series standings as the Cup Series field returns to points action at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule

So, what does the victory mean in terms of the remainder of the 2026 campaign? Plenty. After all, any team contending for a Cup Series title usually has a strong pit crew to boot.

“It just goes to show that there‘s speed all over the track,” Hernandez said. “Oftentimes, fans kind of just see what you see on the race track, but there‘s a lot that whoever ends up being a champion this year, odds are that pit crew is probably good. Very, very, very unlikely that the fastest team or the team that wins the championship will have a slow pit crew. So, hopefully this does carry over because being a fast pit crew should help on the track as well, you know, gaining spots.”

With smiles and cheers to go along with fresh hardware and cold, hard cash, there is no limit to what‘s next.

“It‘s a huge confidence booster, for sure,” Louria said. “When you‘re going up against all these crews, everybody‘s amazing, and then just to do a good job and get first place in something like this, it‘ll give us a huge confidence boost, for sure, for the rest of the year.”

Fans can tune in to The NASCAR Channel at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, when the three future inductees and the Landmark Award recipient will be announced from the NASCAR Hall of Fame‘s Great Hall.

RELATED: How to watch The NASCAR Channel | Learn about Class of 2027 nominees

The voting panel is scheduled to meet at 12:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday at the Charlotte Convention Center to discuss and cast ballots for this year‘s nominees. Two inductees will be elected from the 10 names on the Modern Era portion of the ballot, and one will be chosen from the five Pioneer Ballot nominees. Those three will be inducted next year as the Hall of Fame‘s 17th class.

Voters will also select the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR from a list of five nominees.

The Hall of Fame announced last month that Ray Elder, Ernie Elliott and Kevin Harvick were among the Class of 2027‘s newest nominees, joining the Modern Era Ballot this year. Ray Fox and Herb Nab are this year‘s new names on the Pioneer Ballot, and T. Wayne Robertson has filled the most recent vacancy on the Landmark Award‘s list.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

The cumulative results of fan voting — which opened April 14 and closed Sunday — will count as one ballot toward the Hall of Fame‘s Class of 2027 and Landmark Award.

Saturday marked a tale of different tapes for Jones and Zilisch. Through the three-lap qualifying session, which included a four-tire pit stop, Jones lined up third for the opening segment of the All-Star Race. Zilisch looped the No. 88 Chevrolet around entering pit road during his qualifying effort, rolling off 27th for the green flag. 

In an attrition-filled opening stint, highlighted by a pair of nine-car melees, Zilisch jumped to 11th position. The No. 43 Toyota, meanwhile, faded to 15th, both in a good position to make the All-Star Racebased on cumulative positions between the first two segments. 

As the second segment progressed, both drivers climbed the leaderboard, with Zilisch scored fifth and Jones right behind in sixth. That‘s when the pair knew they were in the mix, advancing to the All-Star Race, having the fourth (Zilisch) and seventh- (Jones) best cumulative finishes among all drivers in the field.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Dover

“I knew we had to get inside the top 26 and try to give ourselves in the invert and we were able to drive up to 11th in that first stage and continue to move forward in Stage 2,” Zilisch noted. “That‘s when I really started to realize we had a shot. It was cool to be on offense for once, have good restarts and not feel like a fish out of water.”

During a long 75-lap run to begin the final segment, Zilisch passed Tyler Reddick for the runner-up spot coming to the planned caution. Jones wasn‘t far behind, sliding into fourth position ahead of a fading Chase Briscoe. 

The No. 88 team was assessed a pit-road penalty for interference on the pit stop, however, dropping Zilisch to the rear of the field. Over the final 125 laps, he rallied to fifth position. Jones was two spots better in third, best in class behind Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Denny Hamlin and Briscoe. 

“It‘s about putting it all together and that starts with qualifying,” Jones stated. “I think just having practice — a real practice — and making changes and a good hour-and-a-half to run through stuff and figure things out. Obviously qualifying up front made our day a lot better. We got a good starting spot for the final run. We haven‘t run great here in the last handful of years, so All-Star Race or not, just glad to run well.”

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Zilisch is accustomed to running up front at Dover, entering the weekend undefeated in O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and ARCA Menards Series competition at the “Monster Mile.” Dover marked the first oval race of his rookie campaign where he was able to battle with the contending cars at the front of the pack. 

Despite being an exhibition event, both drivers had a pep in their step leaving the “First State.” 

“It was a really good day for Trackhouse and this 88 team,” Zilisch added. “We needed a day like this where we had contending speed. It‘s been a long year and moments of hope like this certainly feel good. 

“It would definitely hurt if it was another day where we had speed and didn‘t get a result. Although it‘s not a points race, I feel like everybody shows up to these races trying to win and be competitive and run inside the top five. Running with the Gibbs cars and getting as high as second, that‘s stuff we need.”

Jones hadn‘t finished inside the top five in any event since last year‘s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in early September. He had a single top five in 12 prior Dover attempts, placing fourth in October 2018. 

“Any momentum is good,” Jones said with a laugh. “You say it‘s an exhibition and whatever, but if you can run well, it makes you feel good and makes you look forward to Nashville coming up. We have this package again that we can take and learn.”

MORE: Cup standings | Charlotte weekend schedule

With the regular season resuming in next Sunday‘s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Jones is 25th in the standings and Zilisch sits 32nd.

Back-and-forth runs between the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Toyota encapsulated the slam-packed crowd during the final segment of the 2026 NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway, and while the 31-year-old Briscoe had stretches of overcoming the NASCAR Cup Series veteran, the end result was a runner-up finish at the “Monster Mile.”

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“I thought we were obviously close,” Briscoe said. “I just needed a little bit more. And then there at the end, I kind of caught him there for a second, and then I just started trying stuff, trying to see if I could find something, and just couldn‘t get anything to really work. So yeah, obviously I wish we would‘ve won … I wish this was a points race because we kinda need that, too, but overall, great day for our Bass Pro Shops Toyota.”

Based on the speed Briscoe and Hamlin showed through the opening two segments of the 2026 exhibition, a thrilling last-segment battle almost seemed inevitable. Hamlin prevailed head-to-head in the first 75-lap segment, finishing second compared to Briscoe‘s fourth.

Denny 1, Chase 0.

Then, it was Briscoe who triumphed in the second 75-circuit segment, finishing second to Hamlin‘s third. They were both the hard chargers, coming from the back of the top-26 invert.

Denny 1, Chase 1.

Then came the 200-lap finale. After Hamlin led the opening circuit, Briscoe overtook the No. 11, leading the next 39 laps. Hamlin then led in three separate stints before the pair converged again, with Briscoe overtaking the 45-year-old and leading the next 22.

Inconsistent grip, however, couldn‘t keep Briscoe ahead, with Hamlin seizing the lead on Lap 171 and holding it the rest of the way en route to the victory.

Final score: Denny 2, Chase 1.

“I just didn‘t have the rear grip,” Briscoe said. “Anytime that I was not the leader, I would be really, really good, and as soon as I would take the lead, I would go into the next corner, I‘m like, man, I‘m way too loose. … I honestly kept trying to back up to him, just not trying to run too hard to burn my right-rear off, and that‘s what happened. I get around that lap 30 mark, I would just start getting really swingy, and then I would get passed from the lead, and then I‘d be able to always run it back down because my car would kind of come back to me being in dirtier air.

“So I just needed more rear-grip taking off if I was in the lead. It was hard because we started 16th and then 22nd or whatever (in the first two segments), so we were never adjusting on our car for clean air, and when we got up there, we just weren‘t as good, where the 11 was up there a lot.”

MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule | NASCAR video highlights

Though a race win couldn‘t be secured, momentum was; Briscoe‘s second-place result is his best in an All-Star Race, eclipsing his fourth-place finish at North Wilkesboro Speedway during the 2023 running. Combined with his fourth-place finish at Watkins Glen International last weekend, Briscoe enters the next points-paying contest at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) on a streak worth expanding. He sits 17th in the Cup Series ranks.

Perhaps the next battle will be a winning one.

“I mean, this is what we should be doing week in and week out. We‘ve just executed the last two weeks, so our speed is clearly there,” Briscoe said. “It‘s just a matter of putting that speed to use and capitalizing on it. So, yeah, really excited for next week. I think we‘re having a good opportunity to score a lot of points, so hopefully we can do that.”

RELATED: All-Star Race results | At-track photos: Dover

A side-by-side battle with Ryan Preece and Todd Gilliland that went awry snared nine cars in the pileup, including former All-Star winners Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney. Preece‘s No. 60 RFK Racing Ford burst into flames as it skidded to a stop.

“I must have just come down on Todd going into Turn 1, and I got sideways from that,” Preece said after an evaluation at Dover‘s infield care center, “so that pushed an issue that I probably shouldn‘t have pushed that lap, and we‘ll move forward to next week.”

Gilliland‘s No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford and the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet driven by Cole Custer were sidelined before the race resumed. Several other teams involved went to work on repairs in the garage, aiming to compete in the final 200-lap segment.

MORE: In-car views, replays of early wreck | NASCAR video highlights

“I knew the group in front of me was three-wide, and from what I‘ve seen, it kind of seems like someone just got tight, someone got turned,” said Blaney after a check at the infield care center while his No. 12 Team Penske crew made repairs, “and I thought I missed the main wreck that kind of happened above me, and then I guess some other guys got tangled underneath, and then came back up into me.”

The event, held at the “Monster Mile” for the first time, was stopped for 13 minutes and 26 seconds with two laps showing on the leaderboard. Others listed as involved on the official race report were Chase Elliott, John Hunter Nemechek, Daniel Suárez and Michael McDowell.

Blaney and Larson were both able to return with repairs in time for the 200-lap final segment. Suárez advanced to the last portion of the All-Star Race by winning the Fan Vote berth.

The Cup Series returns to points-paying action Sunday with the crown jewel Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

With the field racing with varying degrees of tire wear in a dash to the segment end, Riley Herbst‘s fading No. 35 Toyota was tagged by Alex Bowman‘s No. 48 Chevrolet, setting off a chain-reaction melee involving nine cars on the front straightaway.

RELATED: All-Star Race results | At-track photos: Dover

Among those also caught up in the wake were Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Zane Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, Chris Buescher and AJ Allmendinger. Smith‘s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford team was the winner of the Pit Crew Challenge in Saturday‘s qualifying session.

“Certainly different tire strategies, I think, had people doing some different stuff there to close out the stage, and then obviously trying to figure out where you‘re going to reset and all those things,” said Elliott, who was out of the race after his Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 crew determined his damage was terminal. “So yeah, just a little strategy being played and unfortunately, I got caught up in the mess.”

Nemechek‘s crash-damaged No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota finished 26th in the first segment, leaving him in position to start the second 75-lap segment in first place. His car, however, was too far gone and he did not return to the race.

“The 35 (Herbst) about lost it two or three times that last run, and I don‘t know if he got help, but he finally lost it on the front straightaway, and I think I got tagged in the left-rear,” Nemechek said. “Everyone was just trying to check up not to hit him, and got spun and hit the inside wall getting into Turn 1 and ruined the race, but overall, really solid day for us. We had a really good shot there. I felt like we were able to make hay there on that for sure on that restart there, and yeah, it sucks. We should be starting on the pole here for the second segment, even being wrecked, so sad day, tough day, but we‘ll move on from it and go to Charlotte. Sucks that we weren‘t racing for a million dollars.”

MORE: Replays of the wreck | NASCAR video highlights

The opening 75-lap portion of the non-points race was marked by another nine-car wreck on Lap 2. Bubba Wallace was in front at the end of the first segment.

Of those involved, only Jones, Busch, Bell and Allmendinger were either able or eligible to compete in the final 200-lap segment. Jones fared best with a solid rally to a third-place finish overall. Allmendinger was 12th. Busch was penalized twice, once for speeding on pit road and again for a pit-road commitment line violation, and finished 17th. Bell parked his ill-handling car 36 laps short of the full 200-lap segment distance and took 23rd place.

“Yeah, we kind of knew that we were good on the long run with our AdventHealth Camry,” Jones said. “We had some good track position to start that run, and we just kind of needed to keep the distance with the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and 19 (Chase Briscoe) and 45 (Tyler Reddick). Then he had an issue, and once I got behind the 11 and 19, I just couldn‘t keep pace. They were really hooked up. We started going a bit free and lost some ground but just needed a longer run. We were super strong past 70 on. The one run before the last one, we had the pace to run those guys down and challenge them. Just lacking a little speed. The balance was close, just needed a little more pace in the car, but this is a big gain. We‘ve been pretty bad at Dover the last handful of years, so I know it is a little bit of a unique deal, but a great run.”

Points-paying action returns for the Cup Series on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the crown jewel Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Hamlin‘s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota went on to win by a .887-second margin over Briscoe‘s No. 19 JGR Toyota, prevailing in the 200-lap final segment of competition in the three-phase non-points race taking place for the first time at Dover Motor Speedway‘s famous 1-mile concrete track.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Just finishing the third and final phase of this race was essentially an accomplishment for many of the sport‘s best. A pair of nine-car accidents bookended the first of two 75-lap stages and either eliminated or badly handicapped perennial favorites such as past All-Star winners Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney.

Toyota drivers Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, who drive for the 23XI Racing team Hamlin co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan, each won one of the opening two segments. And ultimately it came down to another three Toyotas to settle the popular Final Segment in front of a packed house at the venerable “Monster Mile” on a steamy Sunday afternoon.

“Makes it a lot easier when you have a car this fast,” said Hamlin, who at 45 years old, is the second-oldest driver to claim a trophy in the annual All-Star race. “Hats off to this whole Progressive team.

“We strive to be No. 1, and we did it today,” he said, adding, “I just knew the game-changer for us was long runs and obviously the ability to pass when behind someone.”

Of the $1 million prize, Hamlin smiled and did not hesitate to say, “I‘ll probably give it to mama,” — an especially moving gesture considering he lost his father in December in a fire that destroyed his parents‘ home.

Hamlin (103) and Briscoe (61) combined to lead all but 36 laps of the Final Segment, and the runner-up showing for Briscoe was a career best in the All-Star Race.

“It was obviously a really fast car and just proud of our group,” Briscoe said. “I knocked the wall down in practice and we basically rebuilt the whole car. So, for them to be able to get the car back to where it‘s competitive says a lot about the guys. It was a good day.

SHOP: Denny Hamlin winner gear

“Wish it were a points race because we definitely need the points. But it was a hard-fought day,” added Briscoe, who said he‘d been battling a stomach bug all weekend.

“Had a shot there at the end for a million bucks and you can‘t ask for anything more.”

Erik Jones rallied to a third-place finish in the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota — his best showing of the season — followed by the Chevrolets of Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Dillon and Trackhouse Racing rookie Connor Zilisch, who both also turned in their best finishes of the year.

It was an especially impressive day for the 19-year-old fan-favorite Zilisch, who absolutely dominated the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series last year, winning 10 times, but has endured some expected growing pains in his move up to the premier NASCAR Cup Series this year.

His fifth-place finish proved a remarkable comeback Sunday, considering he received a pit-road penalty after exiting the pits in second place near the race‘s midpoint. He steadily rallied back from the penalty, moving into the top-10 with 20 laps remaining and then into that fifth-place showing by the checkered flag.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

“It would have taken a lot to beat the 11 [Hamlin] and 19 [Briscoe]; they were both really good,” Zilisch said. “Regardless, it was a really good day for Trackhouse and this 88 team. We needed a day like this, where we had contending speed. It‘s been a long year, and moments of hope like this certainly feel good.

“It was cool to be on offense for once, have good restarts and not feel like a fish out of water,” he added.

Team Penske‘s Austin Cindric, Hendrick Motorsports‘ William Byron, Spire Motorsports‘ Michael McDowell, Hendrick‘s Alex Bowman and RFK Racing‘s Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-10. It was a notable comeback performance for the former series champion Keselowski, who started alongside Hamlin on the front row, but was collected in a multi-car accident in the second 75-lap segment.

Hamlin‘s victory was his second in 20 All-Star starts, and he becomes the third driver in NASCAR history to win the race at multiple tracks after claiming his first trophy at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2015.

The NASCAR Cup Series championship resumes Sunday in the annual Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Trackhouse Racing‘s Ross Chastain is the defending race winner.

Note: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Hamlin as the All-Star Race winner.

Segment 2 recap

Tyler Reddick passed Chase Briscoe with nine laps to go to win a much calmer Segment 2 of Sunday‘s NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover (Live on FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Chase Briscoe finished second, followed by Denny Hamlin, Carson Hocevar and Connor Zilisch. Erik Jones, William Byron, Alex Bowman, Michael McDowell and Noah Gragson completed the top 10.

At Lap 6, Ross Chastain and Brad Keselowski made contact exiting Turn 2, with Segment 1 winner Bubba Wallace also suffering damage for the first yellow of the sprint. Chastain spun down the backstretch and pancaked the inside wall, but Keselowski took the brunt of it, driving his battered No. 6 Ford backward to pit road.

A few laps later, leader Shane van Gisbergen got sucked around in Turn 4, forcing another caution as he spun in front of heavy traffic from the restart.

That caution handed AJ Allmendinger the lead, but five laps after the restart, Reddick, 2026‘s most dominant driver so far, passed him at Lap 25 to take top position.

With 24 laps remaining in Segment 2, Ty Gibbs went spinning out of Turn 4 after a tire issue took him from sixth place.

Every lead lap car beside Allmendinger and Jones pitted for fresh Goodyear rubber, with the two leading the field for the restart. Briscoe took the lead from Allmendinger under green two laps later, but it didn‘t last long as with nine laps to go, Reddick sailed past to return to point. Allmendinger faded to 19th on the final run.

Segment 1 recap

Bubba Wallace won Segment 1 of Sunday‘s NASCAR All-Star Race (Live on FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in a mini-race that featured two large wrecks bookending the dash.

Kyle Larson, Todd Gilliland and Ryan Preece all made contact down the frontstretch after completing Lap 1, causing a crash toward the rear of the field involving nine cars. Preece backed into the Turn 1 wall and his No. 60 Ford ignited, ending his day early. Ryan Blaney suffered heavy front-end damage, and Chase Elliott, Daniel Suárez, Michael McDowell, John Hunter Nemechek and Cole Custer were also involved.

MORE: See Lap 2 crash replays

After a lengthy red-flag period, the segment restarted at Lap 6 with Brad Keselowski in the lead. Denny Hamlin, who‘s won the last two points-paying races at the 1-mile concrete oval, took over the top spot at Lap 19 and set sail.

With 14 laps to go in Segment 1, Carson Hocevar suffered a flat right-front tire, hitting the wall in Turn 3 before a debris caution came out for the No. 77 Chevrolet‘s tire carcass. Hamlin, the leader, stayed out on old Goodyear tires, but William Byron led a group of 17 cars down pit road for fresh rubber before a six-lap dash to the checkered flag.

Bubba Wallace stayed out and restarted second, passing his 23XI Racing owner Hamlin in Turn 4 for his first lead of the afternoon.

With three laps to go, another large crash claimed several other contenders down the frontstretch. Riley Herbst got loose exiting Turn 4 and received contact from Alex Bowman, causing a stack-up that claimed Elliott, Nemechek, Zane Smith, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch, Noah Gragson and others. Nine cars were involved. The segment ended under yellow with Wallace taking the top honors.

MORE: See late Segment 1 crash replays

Hamlin finished second with Ross Chastain third, Chase Briscoe fourth and Keselowski fifth. Austin Cindric, William Byron, Joey Logano, Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top 10.

Contributing: Staff Reports

Allgaier, a three-time winner already this season and the current championship leader, looked poised to add yet another trophy at Dover‘s famed “Monster Mile,” but ultimately Day was able to run up high against the outside wall — he and Allgaier splitting Blake Lothian‘s lapped car — with Day pulling ahead of the three cars and driving away from Allgaier down the stretch.

It was enough momentum to propel Day‘s No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a 0.461-second victory over Allgaier, who led a race-high 71 of the 200 laps, and it follows Day‘s career first victory at the series‘ largest track, Talladega Superspeedway coming only three weeks ago.

RELATED: Race results | O’Reilly Series standings

“Man, I was hoping that‘s how it would play out, I saved so hard there early in the last run once we put on tires and the yellow came out and I thought, aww, this is just going to be a caution-fest and it was all for nothing, but oh man, it all just worked out good,” said an elated Day, who screamed congratulations to his crew on the cool-down lap. His “mentor” reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, sitting in the pit stand, was all smiles watching the outcome.

“This one feels really, really good,” said Day, who only led the final four laps. “The Talladega one [win] was unexpected at a superspeedway, but we earned this one.”

Saturday‘s effort from Allgaier, already a series-best three-race winner this season, boosted his championship points advantage to an amazing 175 points over Haas Factory Team‘s Sheldon Creed, who finished 18th.

Allgaier acknowledged he was disappointed — perhaps frustrated — with a lapped competitor playing such a crucial role in deciding Saturday‘s outcome.

“Good teaching moment,” Allgaier said after speaking with Lothian on pit road post-race. “He kind of made a move to inside then back outside and I just didn‘t know which lane he was going to go in. And unfortunately, it allowed the 17 (Day) to get to my outside.

“But hats off to Corey and that whole 17 team. He was running me down there at the end. Proud of our team. It wasn‘t the day we wanted early on, but the team worked really hard all day long. Just disappointed to walk out of here with a second after leading that many laps at the end, but hats off to Corey and everyone on that team.”

The race featured nine caution periods and a lot of short-run strategy.

Creed‘s Haas Factory teammate Sam Mayer finished third. Joe Gibbs Racing‘s William Sawalich was fourth and Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Hill claimed fifth place — the perennial championship contender‘s best finish since a runner-up showing on the Circuit of The Americas road course back in March.

MORE: Corey Day driver page | NASCAR video highlights

JGR‘s Brandon Jones won the first stage and NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain won the second stage after pacing the field four different times for a combined 68 laps. Chastain‘s shot at a trophy ended just past race‘s midpoint when he and JGR‘s Taylor Gray collided and spun out.

JR Motorsports‘ Carson Kvapil finished seventh and extended the team‘s top-10 streak to an amazing 71 races. Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith and Anthony Alfredo rounded out the top 10.

The O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series moves to the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway for next Saturday‘s Charbroil 300 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage, confirming Corey Day as the winner. The Nos. 39 and 41 each had one lug nut not safe and secure and will lose pit-stall selection at Charlotte next week. The No. 07 team had two lug nuts not safe and secure and will be fined $5,000. Crew member Cory Selig will be suspended for the Charlotte O’Reilly race.

“I don‘t feel like I really lost anything,” Busch said after Friday‘s truck win. “It‘s just a matter of being able to go out there and do a good job and have the team be there with me to do a good job.”

But 105 Cup races have come and gone since the two-time Cup Series champion has visited Victory Lane. Next month will eclipse the three-year mark since his most recent triumph at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. He won in three of his first 15 starts with Richard Childress Racing before going cold.

RELATED: Cup starting lineup | At-track photos: Dover

In that span, Austin Dillon has won a pair of races at Richmond Raceway. With both Nos. 3 and 8 teams cracking the top 10 at Watkins Glen International, the organization is coming off its best collective performance since the Chicago Street Course last year, when Busch and Austin Hill — in a third entry — were scored inside the top 10. It was the first time Busch and Dillon placed in the top 10 in the same event since April 2024 at Texas Motor Speedway, some 75 races ago.

Busch has top 10s in two of the last three races in 2026 and had his best overall speed at Texas Motor Speedway, fading to finish 20th after contact with John Hunter Nemechek with two laps remaining. In that period, Andy Street joined the No. 8 team to call the shots for Busch, replacing rookie Cup crew chief Jim Pohlman.

Busch credits Street for the bump in speed.

“I guess I just remembered how to drive,” Busch quipped on Friday. “It‘s Street — I don‘t know what he‘s doing different. I don‘t feel like I‘m talking to anybody any differently. I don‘t feel like I‘m relaying any of the information any differently. I just feel like it‘s construed or thought about in a different way, and the execution of being able to listen to my words and being able to put it into the race car translates differently.

“It‘s no different than Adam Stevens, I had him for five years, made the [Championship 4] five years in a row and we were unstoppable. We won [28] races in those years. It was crazy and easy. I was like, ‘This is Jimmie and Chad.‘ When you can find those moments and those guys that you can click with, you try to do everything in your power to keep it all together as much as you can.”

MORE: Get to know Andy Street | NASCAR video highlights

The driver-crew chief relationship between Busch and Street has just clicked. In a handful of races at the conclusion of the 2025 season, they scored two top 10s, including a fifth-place effort in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway, matching Busch‘s best result of the campaign (Circuit of The Americas and Chicago).

Dillon has noticed how the pairing has connected.

“I think they had a little chemistry and it‘s just bled over,” Dillon told a group of reporters at Dover. “Andy has a positive mindset with Kyle, and he can ask more out of Kyle and Kyle can ask more out of him. Their relationship is good — that‘s the biggest thing. They feel confident talking around each other and putting it out there.”

Immediate speed in practice has been critical for Busch. The No. 8 team ranked fourth in single-lap speed during practice for the All-Star Race, and clocked in second on 10-lap averages, trailing only Carson Hocevar. That follows a recent trend that Busch has noticed.

“I feel like we‘ve had good speed off the truck at Watkins Glen. Texas, I was working my way into it. It‘s nice to be able to score top five in practice, even though it doesn‘t pay anything. It‘s better than the alternative of unloading in the bottom five.”

The most noticeable difference, Busch believes, lies within the data. It‘s not even about the gathering of numbers, but rather who is dissecting the information and how it‘s being decoded.

“I think sometimes it‘s just how you interpret the data, who is interpreting the data and things like that,” Busch added on Saturday. “I‘ve seen it in years prior where some engineer might be looking at the squiggly lines and they are upside down. It sounds as dumb as it may be, like, ‘Uh, that doesn‘t quite look right, flip that section over‘ and it tells you a different story.”

Positivity is beginning to flow within the RCR walls. Having momentum and confidence “gives you that vote of confidence that we‘re doing our job,” Busch said. The No. 8 car will take the green flag for Sunday‘s All-Star Race (1 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in 11th position.

Entering Sunday‘s All-Star Race action at Dover Motor Speedway (1 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), William Byron sits 12th in the Cup Series standings; the 28-year-old driver dropped two markers to outside the top 10 following his 36th-place result at Watkins Glen International last weekend, his third finish of 30th or worse in the last five races.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos

“I just looked when I was in the bus, I mean, it‘s like we finished top 10, we finished 30th, we finished top 10, 30th,” Byron said on his recent rocky stretch. “It‘s kind of been that for five weeks now, so yeah. Some of it was just bad luck. I mean, last week we just got crashed out and kind of that restart in the way that that went, just got cleaned out there. Talladega, there‘s not much we could do with the big ones, so yeah.

“The saying kind of goes: If you‘re in the middle of the back or you‘re back there, you‘re bound to get in stuff. So that was unfortunate last week because I thought we were on the back side of the top 10 and had a shot to finish there, and I feel like we would‘ve, but yeah, got cleaned out there, and yeah, it‘s just been not gathering a lot of stage points, either, and so that‘s kind of where we‘re at.”

Byron‘s No. 24 Chevrolet has shown glimpses of the high-upside speed that has netted the star at least one Cup victory every season since 2020. Aside from a 28th-place DNF at EchoPark Speedway in February, Byron began the year with six finishes of 13th or better in the first seven races, including a season-best fifth-place result at Martinsville Speedway in March.

Since Martinsville, however, turbulence has increased, with no laps led since and a dip from fifth in the Cup standings to 12th. Byron‘s 57 stage points rank 12th among all drivers, and his 34 laps led rank 16th. Through the first 12 races of 2026, Byron possesses two top fives and six top 10s with a 16.0 average finish.

MORE: 2026 All-Star format | NASCAR video highlights

Though there are no points on the line during All-Star competition at the “Monster Mile,” Byron believes a strong exhibition showing from practice to the race itself can be just the momentum needed to get the No. 24 camp back on track. Byron, already locked into the main event, will start fifth in the opening segment. Byron‘s best All-Star Race finish came at North Wilkesboro Speedway last season (sixth).

“I think the speed is encouraging this weekend,” Byron said. “I think the speed was good at Texas, and we‘re working super hard, so just got to put it all together and have smoother races, calmer races where you‘re just up toward the front and have a chance to gather a bunch of points, so yeah, it‘s just tough when you‘re kind of in the middle and things can happen.”

“I got wiped out by [Nemechek],” Wallace told reporters on Friday at Dover Motor Speedway. “We were in potential for a top-10, top-12 day. I got wiped out following [Tyler Reddick], and when I put so much freaking effort into becoming a better road-course racer — I joke with you guys that I suck and I don‘t give a damn about road courses; I really do. It‘s a competitive nature and I push hard every time we get into the car and at that point in the race, everything was clicking.”

Wallace was on the cusp of bettering or equaling his lone Watkins Glen top 10 from 2025, when he placed eighth. He was rivaling the lap times of Reddick, his 23XI Racing teammate, and when he was clipped entering Turn 1 by a fellow Toyota teammate, all bets were off.

RELATED: Schedule: TV times, info | At-track photos: Dover

“When that happens, you see freaking red and you don‘t care who is out there. You don‘t care if your wife and kids are out on the race track, you are going to race the dog [expletive] out of them because you had everything ripped away from you.

“[Riley Herbst] was in that mix, I raced the [expletive] out of him. [Christopher Bell] was in the mix, I raced the [expletive] out of him. Whoever else was in that mix, I didn‘t care just because my race was ruined 30 seconds beforehand. They have no idea, so I put myself in their shoes. What you see on pit road, C-Bell is pissed that I raced him so hard and that was simply me saying, ‘I don‘t give a damn.‘ I just had my race ruined and so I‘m going to race everyone hard. I don‘t care who it is.”

Later on Sunday evening, Wallace called Bell to further discuss their on-track battle. It led to a civil conversation with both drivers putting their fierce battle in the rear view.

“We didn‘t even have a run-in on track,” Bell told NASCAR.com after rounding out the top five in Friday‘s Ecosave 200 Craftsman Truck Series race. “He was very aggressive towards me, and I asked him what was up. He obviously had a rough day and a rough go of it. I get it.

“If I wouldn‘t have confronted him, I don‘t think he would have known that I was upset. We‘re all great.”

MORE: NASCAR video highlights

Before their tight-quarters racing, Bell had no knowledge that Wallace had spun. He thought that Wallace was dropping positions on old tires.

Wallace ended: “I said, ‘I would understand that scenario and you would expect me to point you by,‘ and I damn sure would. Just like every other time I‘m on a road course bleeding spots, have at it. In that one, when I just went from everything is clicking — everything is still clicking — but I‘m pissed off doing it now, so you were just caught in the crosshairs.”

Bell took the checkered flag in 21st position, his worst showing in six Watkins Glen attempts. Wallace plummeted to 29th after the contact.

Busch claimed his record fifth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series trophy and 13th overall at the famous concrete one-miler, dominating Friday‘s Ecosave 200 leading 147 of the 200 laps in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and sweeping both stage victories en route to a 3.039-second victory over former series champ, ThorSport Racing‘s Ty Majeski.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Dover

After a well-deserved, deep bow to the crowd at the finish line, a grateful Busch spoke of his fondness for the high-banked track where he will compete in the NASCAR Cup Series‘ annual All-Star Race on Sunday. It marked his series best 69th career win — and second in four starts this season.

“You never know when the last one is,” Busch said of savoring the victory. “I know all too well unfortunately with the Cup stuff, but here with the Truck stuff now, it‘s awesome to be part of Spire Motorsports.

“I‘m sure it looked great out front, leading the race,” and, he added with a grin. “It wasn‘t just Kyle Larson doing it. Feels good to have another Kyle able to do it and put ourselves in Victory Lane. Love coming to Dover, always one of my favorite places to race.

“Definitely some managing of the fuel there, managing the tires there. It was an interesting strategic battle I guess from the driver‘s seat. Thanks to the fans and all the people for being here.

“All in all, takes a lot of great people behind you and with you,” he added of the Spire Motorsports team. “It‘s fun and want to keep doing it.”

The only other driver to truly challenge Busch in the series‘ return to Dover after a six-year break was fellow NASCAR Cup Series regular, Ross Chastain, who led 49 laps but had to pit late in the race for fuel after a spirited side-by-side battle with Busch midway through the event.

Majeski did his best to keep Busch honest in earning his runner-up finish — which equaled his previous top effort of the season. Front Row Motorsports‘ Layne Riggs finished third. Last week‘s winner, Tricon Garage‘s Kaden Honeycutt, finished fourth in the No. 11 Toyota after an impressive rally from an early-race pit stop penalty. NASCAR Cup Series driver, Christopher Bell rounded out the top-five.

With his work Friday, Honeycutt now holds a 38-point advantage on Riggs atop the championship standings. Chandler Smith is third, 39 points back.

Brandon Jones, Christian Eckes, Corey LaJoie, Jake Garcia and Justin Haley rounded out the top-10. Former NASCAR Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer, who works fulltime in the FOX Sports NASCAR booth calling Cup Series races made a spot start for Kaulig Racing‘s RAM truck program, finishing 29th after a tire problem in the closing laps.

MORE: NASCAR video highlights

“I had a ton of fun,” Bowyer said. “This is a cool race track, a demanding race track and neat to see Kyle Busch in Victory Lane, NASCAR needs that and it gives him so much confidence moving into tomorrow‘s event and Sunday.

“Proud of being a part of this, and who knows maybe I be a part of it again.”

The race was also significant in having three women drivers in the field — equaling a high mark last set in 2021.

Although she spun out 37 laps into the race, Dystany Spurlock became the first black woman to ever start a NASCAR national series race and although she spun and took a 36th-place finish, she was also encouraged by her debut.

“Today is a great day,” Spurlock said. “We did make history which is phenomenal. Of course I wanted to finish the race, but this is racing and things like this happen. Just going to get ready for the next race.”

Toni Breidinger finished 25th and Natalie Decker was 34th.

The Craftsman Truck Series‘ next race is the North Carolina Education Lottery 200, scheduled next Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The 2025 series champion Corey Heim is the defending race winner.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Craftsman Truck Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Busch’s Dover victory. Competition officials designated four trucks for further inspection next week at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina: No. 10 Kaulig Racing Ram, No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford, No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet.

Larson — a three-time All-Star winner (2019, 2021, 2023) — posted a fastest lap of 157.950 mph in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the first on-track tune-up ahead of Sunday‘s first All-Star Race running (1 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the 1-mile concrete oval. His best lap time was 0.018 seconds quicker than second-fastest Michael McDowell‘s No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevy (157.826 mph).

RELATED: Cup Series practice results | Weekend schedule

Denny Hamlin slotted third-fastest, with Kyle Busch and Ty Gibbs rounding out the top five in that order.

The extended 90-minute session included pit-stop practice time available to all teams in preparation for Saturday‘s qualifying (noon ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Those time trials will feature multiple laps and include a four-tire pit stop, which will determine the winning team in the annual Pit Crew Challenge.

Sunday‘s 350-lap All-Star event will be divided into three segments, with the 36-car field pared down to 26 for a 200-lap final portion. That final 26 will include 19 already eligible drivers (race winners since 2025, plus former Cup champions and All-Star Race winners), six drivers transferring from the first two segments, and the top vote-getter in fan balloting who is not otherwise qualified.

MORE: At-track photos: Dover | All-Star format explained

McDowell was fastest in practice among drivers who enter Dover without a guaranteed spot in the final segment, followed in that category by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (13th) and Riley Herbst (14th), Erik Jones (16th) and Connor Zilisch (17th).

Chase Briscoe made contact with the outside retaining wall at the Turn 2 exit with roughly five minutes left in practice, scraping the right side of his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He posted the 27th-best lap in the session.

MORE: NASCAR video highlights

Defending All-Star Race winner Christopher Bell was sixth-fastest in Friday‘s practice. 

The one-year anniversary of Larson‘s last checkered flag at Kansas Speedway was on Monday, May 11. In that time frame, he was crowned the 2025 champion, consistently pushing through the playoff format. 

“I think you guys pay attention to it way more than I pay attention to it,” Larson sarcastically said last weekend at Watkins Glen International. “But yeah, obviously I would have loved to have won to this point, but we just haven‘t been good enough. I feel like at times, we‘re really close to getting a win. And then at other times, I feel like we‘re far from getting a win.” 

Recently, it‘s been the latter.

RELATED: Dover schedule | At-track photos

The No. 5 team is on a streak of three straight finishes of 23rd or worse, barely racking the top 20 at any point of the 100 circuits at Watkins Glen. All three Hendrick Motorsports cars finished outside the top 20 for the first time on a road course since 2005 at Sonoma Raceway. The week prior at Texas Motor Speedway, Larson crashed out from 18th position.

Through the first third of the season — nearing the halfway point of the regular season — Larson ranks eighth in the regular-season championship standings, a distant 235 markers behind five-time 2026 winner Tyler Reddick. He sits 106 points below Denny Hamlin in second and 90 markers below HMS teammate Chase Elliott in third. 

“I would say we‘re not where we want to be — that‘s pretty obvious,” Larson reiterated on Friday at Dover Motor Speedway. “I feel like we started the year off better than where we‘re at right now. We had a couple of good races with Bristol and Kansas, but the last few have not gone well. Talladega, we got caught up in a crash, was miserable at Texas and almost as miserable at Watkins Glen. It‘s been disappointing, but we‘re working really hard.” 

That leads to optimism for Larson. However, his three top-five finishes and 17.3 average finish is his worst through 12 races in six seasons at Hendrick. 

“The good thing about Hendrick Motorsports is they always figure it out,” Larson stated. “Whether it takes a week, a year, two years, they are going to be dominant once they do. That keeps me motivated and excited going to the race track every week because you always have belief.” 

Despite the dry spell, Larson remains confident in the No. 5 team. Chevrolet is still adapting to its updated body, with Elliott and Carson Hocevar being the only drivers to breakthrough to Victory Lane for the manufacturer. 

The Cliff-Daniels led team has “just got to work hard.”

MORE: NASCAR video highlights

Larson stated: “It‘s honestly what made the drought and struggles fun because you can see everyone working hard and know there‘s light at the end of the tunnel wherever that might be.” 

That effort paid off during practice for the All-Star Race on Friday at Dover, with Larson sitting atop the leaderboard at the conclusion of the 90-minute session.

The NASCAR Cup Series exhibition — with a $1 million prize on the line — transitions from the North Carolina confines of North Wilkesboro Speedway — which hosted the All-Star Race from 2023-25 — to Delaware‘s “Monster Mile” on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The 2026 edition of the exhibition will conclude an action-packed race weekend featuring events for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series.

RELATED: 2025 All-Star Race recap | Weekend schedule

In addition to a change of venue, the 2026 All-Star Race format itself will have a different flavor, starting with a larger emphasis on Saturday‘s qualifying. Competitors will take the green flag and run one full lap at speed around the 1-mile circuit. The second lap will feature the Mechanix Wear Pit Crew Challenge, where each pit crew will perform a single four-tire stop with no gas. Competitors will then race back to the start/finish line, with qualifying encompassing the total time from green flag to checkered flag. The pit crew with the fastest pit stop and no penalties will win the Pit Crew Challenge, with the results determining pit selection order for the All-Star Race.

In place of an All-Star Open, qualifying results will instead determine the full field for Segment 1, a 75-lap sprint as part of the 350-lap event. Following the conclusion of Segment 1, a second 75-lap dash will occur; the lineup for Segment 2 will be an inversion of Segment 1‘s top 26, with the remaining drivers lined up by finish.

The final 200-lap segment of the 2026 All-Star Race will consist of 26 drivers. The field for the final segment will include 2025 and 2026 Cup Series race winners, former Cup Series champions who compete full-time, a Fan Vote winner and remaining drivers based on the lowest combined finishing positions among Segments 1 and 2.

MORE: Past All-Star Race winners | Memorable All-Star Race moments

Christopher Bell won the 2025 All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro. Those locked in so far include (in alphabetical order): Bell, Josh Berry, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Shane van Gisbergen, Denny Hamlin, Carson Hocevar, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace.

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Sonia Scott, Lavar‘s mother, was a drag racer, competing in regional events. Both his grandfather and brother — both named Wayne — raced micro sprints, while his grandfather was the one preparing them to go fast. The younger Scott began his career at 5 years old on dirt in quarter midgets.

RELATED: O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule | Current standings

“I remember winning my first [race],” Scott recalled to NASCAR.com. “I remember watching my mom race. I remember bits and pieces of helping my grandfather at the shop and he would put an egg under my foot to practice throttle control. I don‘t remember the full, complete scenery, but there are some things that I always think about.”

After running dirt cars for a decade, Scott was accepted into NASCAR‘s Drive for Diversity program in his second attempt as a 16-year-old. To get acclimated into the racing lifestyle, he relocated to the zMAX campsite at Charlotte Motor Speedway, living out of a camper with his grandmother. He biked to Rev Racing‘s race shop, a stone‘s throw away from the 1.5-mile track. Sonia made the voyage South each week to watch him compete in the Summer Shootout.

“I was hoping it was going to work out,” Scott said. “I made it happen and it made it to where I was happy to go through all of that. Grateful that I did because it led to this opportunity and I wouldn‘t take it back for the world.

“Definitely not the most ideal situation, but in the grand scheme of things, with where we‘re at right now, I would do anything for that opportunity.”

After winning in late models in 2021 and 2022, Scott was ready to tackle the ARCA Menards Series with Rev Racing. He ran the full eight-race slate in the ARCA East Series division in 2023, ranking third in the final standings.

Scott ran two full ARCA campaigns, but he never found Victory Lane even though he was close on several occasions. He cracked the top five in 55% of his full-time starts and ranked inside the top 10 in 77.5% of starts. He was ready for the next jump.

In 2025, Scott dipped his toes into the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, running a pair of races with Alpha Prime Racing, hoping it would set him up for the future. He impressed co-owner Tommy Joe Martins enough to strike a full-time deal for the 2026 season.

“He was able to know that he would be competitive in our series,” Martins said. “I think it was big for his confidence and to go out, raise sponsorship and try to do something full time. That was the main thing for him; he was trying to race full time. I know he would like to be in a car that has the chance to go win the championship someday and I think this is step one on doing that.”

The emotions ballooned for Scott ahead of his O‘Reilly Series debut at Dover Motor Speedway last summer with countless friends and family in attendance. He needed to qualify into the show, which he did.

However, he erred on pit road during his first live pit stop, sinking to 28th before Mother Nature cut the race short. He rebounded at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway with a 19th-place effort.

“If I didn‘t do those two races last year, I don‘t think I would be in this series or spot right now for the unknown of what it‘s like,” Scott said. “I took the positives out of that. I had speed, got to race. People would pack air on me and I saved it. I got to pack air on other people and got to race and learn. Made the start at St. Louis and finished top 20. That was when I was like, ‘OK, I can do this series; I can compete here.‘”

Through the opening 13 races of his rookie year, Scott has four top-20 finishes, with a best outing of 15th at Rockingham Speedway. That‘s ahead of the original goal, which was breaking the top 25 on a consistent basis, as his average finish is 24.5.

MORE: Lavar Scott‘s driver page | Watch NASCAR video highlights

The ambitions have jumped now that he‘s seen he can be competitive. He thrives at intermediate venues, being able to search around for another lane.

“Our goal is to try to chase the top 20 every week that we can,” Scott added. “You are going to have bad days on the weeks you don‘t have it, but the expectations vary on where we‘re going that weekend. The grand scheme of things, with the way we‘re going, pure pace and speed wise, we are doing better than I anticipated later in these races.”

Martins, who also fills the spotter role for Scott, found the pairing frustrated through the first month of the season, getting involved in incidents out of their control. Scott was gaining experience on letting longer races play out.

“I think he‘s done a terrific job,” Martins relayed. “He‘s a humble kid that asks a lot of questions and is open to feedback. I‘m seeing Lavar get so much more confident in asking for the changes and what he needs to feel in the race car. He knows he‘s going to have the chance to keep working on it, get better and he needs to make the car better for the end of the race. I think that‘s what has started happening in the last month or so. He‘s been able to get more consistent finishes.”

Scott will return to his home track of Dover this weekend, with many of the same family and companions in attendance.

The Double stands as one of the sport‘s ultimate tests of endurance, requiring a driver to compete in two of motorsport‘s crown jewel events in a single day across the NTT INDYCAR Series and NASCAR Cup Series — covering more than 1,100 miles with virtually no recovery time between races.

Legge will compete in the Indy 500 in the No. 11 for HMD Motorsports with AJ Foyt Racing, before immediately transitioning to the No. 78 for Live Fast Motorsports in the Coca-Cola 600 later that evening — compressing two elite disciplines into a single, relentless day.

Legge‘s attempt places her in rare company. Only five drivers have attempted “The Double” — John Andretti, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon, Kurt Busch, and Kyle Larson, most recently in 2024 and 2025. Notably, Andretti‘s historic 1994 effort was also associated with AJ Foyt Racing, adding another layer of legacy to Legge‘s attempt more than 30 years later.

For Legge, the challenge aligns with a career defined by endurance, adaptability and competing across disciplines at the highest level. In addition to her accomplishments in INDYCAR and NASCAR, she has spent decades racing in endurance formats, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Sebring. She was also the first woman to lead the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Her attempt also carries historical resonance.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

In 1976, pioneer Janet Guthrie, after failing to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, traveled to Charlotte and successfully made her NASCAR Cup debut in the World 600 (now the Coca-Cola 600) — becoming the first woman to compete on a NASCAR superspeedway, and helping to silence doubts about women‘s ability to endure long-distance racing.

The effort also carries another layer of continuity within the sport: Legge‘s Indy 500 program will be crew chiefed by veteran Andy O‘Gara, husband of nine-time Indy 500 starter and former team owner Sarah Fisher — another pioneering figure who helped expand opportunities for women in American open-wheel racing.

Legge has qualified for all four Indianapolis 500s she has entered, and recently completed her veteran refresher test as she prepares for her fifth start in the race, driving the No. 11 e.l.f. Cosmetics Chevrolet. In 2012, she became only the ninth woman to qualify for the event, and in 2023 set the record as the fastest woman to ever qualify. This year, she will again be the only woman in the field.

On May 10, she made her first NASCAR Cup Series start of the 2026 season at Watkins Glen International, where she previously won from the pole position in the GTD class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The triumph was part of a back-to-back win streak, following a victory at the Detroit Grand Prix. In 2025, she became the first woman to qualify for a NASCAR Cup Series race since Danica Patrick‘s 2012 debut, and recorded the top finishing position among NASCAR Cup Series rookies in her debut race.

Cup Series teams will use a left-side Goodyear Racing Eagle that debuted at Bristol Motor Speedway in April, and the specially designed right-side rubber that ran in Dover‘s 400-miler last July. Through Bristol‘s 0.533-mile layout is roughly half the size of Dover‘s “Monster Mile,” both tracks have concrete surfaces and speedy, high-banked turns.

RELATED: Dover All-Star weekend schedule | Tire test set for Iowa | NASCAR video highlights

“Teams will be able to combine their data from Bristol in April with their running from Dover last season to optimize their setups ahead of this weekend,” said Goodyear NASCAR product manager Rick Heinrich. “We are bringing a tire setup specifically designed to withstand the track‘s high speeds and heavy loads, while also helping lay rubber on its concrete surface, particularly given how smooth it is.”

Cup Series teams will have one additional set than usual in qualifying for Sunday‘s All-Star Race (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, FOX One, HBO Max). The format includes the Pit Crew Challenge in its qualifying procedures, with a four-tire pit stop included in the time trials.

The NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series will have a new combination for their 200-mile races this weekend. The right-side tires in both those series will make their debut at Dover, with a design aimed at handling the track‘s speeds and heavy loads. The left-side tires for this weekend were also used at Darlington Raceway, Rockingham Speedway and Bristol earlier this season.

The tire allotments for each team competing this week:

• Cup Series: 10 total sets — 6 new sets for the race, 2 for qualifying and Pit Crew Challenge, 2 for practice.
• O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series: 5 total sets — 3 new sets for the race, 1 for practice and 1 from qualifying that transfers to the race.
• Craftsman Truck Series: 5 total sets — 3 new sets for the race, 1 for practice and 1 from qualifying that transfers to the race.

While Shane van Gisbergen rallied from 29 seconds back to win by 7.288 seconds, the rest of the field ebbed and flowed around him. See who left New York‘s Finger Lakes region on an upswing — and who didn‘t — after the Go Bowling at The Glen and ahead of Sunday‘s NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway (1 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Race results | Watkins Glen photos

THREE UP

1. Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Started: 9th

Finished: 4th

What happened: After a couple of poor finishes, Briscoe bounced back with a strong fourth-place finish Sunday at Watkins Glen, advancing from an already-solid top-10 starting spot. Briscoe‘s qualifying pace is beginning to resemble his 2025 form again, with top-five time-trial efforts in four of his last five races. A fairly quiet day through the rolling hills of New York produced his fourth top five of the season.

What‘s next: This is about the time of year Briscoe established himself as a title contender last year — coincidentally also finishing fourth in the 12th race of the season in 2025 (Kansas). What came next were three straight pole positions in points-paying races. We‘ll see if that happens again once we get to Charlotte on Memorial Day Weekend, but first comes the All-Star Race at Dover, where he finished second last season and led 13 laps in his first appearance at the Delaware mile with JGR.

2. AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Started: 12th

Finished: 7th

What happened: Allmendinger notched his best finish of 2026 with an exceptional drive at one of his best race tracks. His day started quietly, but the 2014 Watkins Glen winner methodically remained in contention for a strong finish after staying out to score fifth-place stage points in Stage 1. He leaves Watkins Glen 20th in the Cup Series points standings, 48 points behind SVG for the final provisional berth in The Chase.

What‘s next: Dover has been hit or miss for Allmendinger in recent years. He earned top-20 finishes in 2023 (18th) and 2024 (13th), but suffered mechanical DNFs in both 2022 and 2025. He‘ll also attempt to return to the All-Star Race after missing the main event in 2025.

3. John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota

Started: 17th

Finished: 10th

What happened: Nemechek earned his first top 10 of 2026 with a 10th-place run at The Glen. That didn‘t come without some on-track dustups, though. While battling for 17th, Nemechek contacted Bubba Wallace heading into Turn 1 with 14 laps remaining, spinning Wallace into a 29th-place finish while Nemechek rallied up the leaderboard for his season-best finish. The results have been consistent for JHN as of late, stringing together finishes of 22nd (Kansas), 22nd (Talladega) and 21st (Texas) before The Glen, and Texas likely would‘ve ended better if not for late contact with Kyle Busch.

What‘s next: Nemechek‘s consistency extends to Dover, where he‘s placed 20th, 20th and 21st in his last three starts at the Monster Mile. To extend that streak — albeit not in a points race this time around — Nemechek will have to advance to the main event of the All-Star Race, which he did for the first time last year at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

THREE DOWN

1. Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Started: 11th

Finished: 28th

What happened: The hot streak had to come to an end at some point, right? NASCAR‘s newest winner had his six-race stretch of top 20s snapped at Watkins Glen, where he finished outside the top 25 for just the second time all season, capped by a final-lap incident. Road courses haven‘t been his friend this year, as emphasized by his worst finish of the season at Circuit of The Americas (31st) back in March. Turns out his best day in New York happened long before he made it to the track.

What‘s next: Two starts at Dover have not boded well for Hocevar, with a 22nd-place finish, three laps down, in 2024 and a 35th-place DNF last year. The good news: He‘s locked into the All-Star Race for the first time in his career thanks to his Talladega victory, so he‘ll have better memories ahead in the First State.

2. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Started: 8th

Finished: 21st

What happened: A rough patch for the No. 20 team continued Sunday as Bell fell outside the top 10 for the sixth time in the last seven races. Bell also exchanged words with Bubba Wallace after Sunday‘s race, a moment captured by cameras at Watkins Glen.

What‘s next: Bell is the defending All-Star Race winner, but that came at North Wilkesboro. Dover has been hit or miss for the No. 20 bunch, with top 10s in 2022 and 2023 but a DNF in 2024 and two spins from the front of the field in last year‘s contest.

3. Hendrick Motorsports, Nos. 5, 9, 24, 48 Chevrolets

Started: Kyle Larson, 23rd; Chase Elliott, 27th; Alex Bowman, 28th; William Byron, 13th.

Finished: Kyle Larson, 23rd; Chase Elliott, 24th; Alex Bowman, 25th; William Byron, 36th.

What happened: Hendrick Motorsports struggled as a whole this weekend at Watkins Glen, never establishing itself as a true threat to Shane van Gisbergen. In fact, most of the Chevrolet teams — like Trackhouse Racing and Spire Motorsports — managed to outperform Hendrick, Chevrolet‘s typical standard bearer. Byron got the worst of it despite showing perhaps the organization‘s best speed throughout the weekend. His No. 24 Chevrolet was sent spinning in the inner loop in the midfield and was struck by another car, breaking a toe link and plummeting Byron to a 36th-place finish, three laps down.

What‘s next: Hendrick cars have typically been great at Dover, and they‘ll hope to show that again with their 2026 Chevrolet body this weekend. Chase Elliott is a two-time winner at the Monster Mile, while Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman each have one apiece. In fact, this is one of Bowman‘s best tracks on the circuit, notching one win and six top fives and seven top 10s in his last eight Dover starts. A win for any of these four drivers Sunday would net them the $1 million prize.

On Sunday, van Gisbergen left no doubt about which veteran driver category applies to him.

“My mates were all giving me (expletive) yesterday about how I‘m getting too old for my birthday,” van Gisbergen said. “You know, I don‘t feel old. I felt like that‘s the best I‘ve driven. It was pretty cool.”

A sterling drive from a staggering deficit wrapped up another Shane van Gisbergen masterclass in his second consecutive Watkins Glen triumph, providing his Trackhouse Racing team with a much-needed jolt to its 2026 campaign. Aided by fresher tires at the end and a strategy that positioned him on full attack for the home stretch, SVG overcame a 29.2-second gap with 24 laps remaining, regained command in the 93rd of 100 laps and powered away to a 7.288-second margin of victory — fourth-largest in the track‘s NASCAR history.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Sunday marked the latest chapter in a meteoric rise for the New Zealand import, whose road-racing acumen has resulted in seven Cup Series wins in just 14 road-course starts. His victorious Cup debut nearly three years ago at the first Chicago Street Race looks less and less like a surprise now, given how his Australian Supercar skill has translated to the NASCAR world.

Trackhouse owner Justin Marks said he was stopped on pit road post-race by distant Watkins Glen runner-up Michael McDowell, who cracked that he would have roughly three more Cup Series wins on his resume if Marks hadn‘t brought SVG stateside. Marks, who had respectable road-racing chops during his own driving days, says he still marvels at what he‘s wrought, but also that van Gisbergen‘s performance benchmark remains such a high bar to clear.

“He still surprises me, yes,” Marks said during a break in Victory Lane photos, “and the reason is that after his maybe third win on the road courses, I was like, all right, so competitive response is going to start creeping in here, because everybody can see the data, everybody can study what he‘s doing, but they haven‘t closed the gap on it, which is just truly, truly remarkable. And I‘ve had the pleasure in my career to be teammates with some incredible drivers back in the sports car days, Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand, some of these amazing drivers, AJ Allmendinger, and when I‘m watching what he‘s doing, there‘s a touch to it and a style and an elegance to it that is just so unique and so special. And I‘ll say it again, I‘m just really glad he‘s in a Trackhouse car.”

Van Gisbergen led 74 of the 100 laps, but his dominance had some crept-in doubt after a pivotal shake-up in the final stage. When a caution flag waved on Lap 60, the yellow split the field on strategy, with nine lead-lap cars staying out and the rest hitting pit road for what they hoped would be a final stop. The teams that chose to pit were at the edge of their fuel window, and their drivers would need to stretch their mileage to make it to the end.

When the majority of the field zigged in his rearview mirror, SVG cursed over the No. 97 team radio, knowing he‘d have to stop again and feeling his shot to win may have fizzled. But crew chief Stephen Doran reassured him that his peers‘ pace would slow, and that fresher tires and no fuel concerns would sustain him. Even then, Doran had reservations.

“There were about 10 laps where I was a little nervous. Like, are we going to get there?” Doran said. “But then they started to fade, having to save, their tires were going away. With 15 to go, I felt pretty good about where we were at, but when he got back out there, we just told him go like hell, you‘re going to have to pass all these guys.”

Those worries were shared down in the No. 97 team‘s pit box.

“Man, to be honest with you, when Stephen made the call … obviously I don‘t get paid to be a crew chief to make those calls, but as a pit crew guy, I‘m like, ‘Man, was that the right decision?”” said No. 97 jackman Marshall McFadden, carrying an empty bottle of the champagne that had soaked his fire suit moments earlier. “But after about 10 laps in and I saw SVG slice through the field, I was like, we‘re gonna be all right. But if you‘re going to draw it up, I think that‘s the way to draw it up right there. To watch him just drive through the field, I‘m talking about 18 spots, it was just beautiful to see, bro. That‘s beautiful to see.”

The beauty eventually had its bloom. As his rivals raced onward with a defensive stance, van Gisbergen‘s pace picked up on offense and his methodical path up the leaderboard was cast. Shortly after his final stop on Lap 76, SVG‘s gap seemed insurmountable. On the clock, the deficit to then-leader Ty Gibbs was nearly half a minute. In physical distance, Gibbs was rounding the Turn 5 carousel on the other end of the property as SVG completed the 90-degree Turn 1.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Watch NASCAR video highlights

The gap shrank in big chunks, and SVG‘s focus narrowed. When his crew gave him updates on his running position, van Gisbergen dismissed it, saying all he needed to know was how many laps were left and how many seconds separated him from the lead. “He‘s made it pretty clear, especially at these tracks, he likes to be on offense,” Doran said, “so we put him there.” Van Gisbergen reacted accordingly, turning that initial fear into a determined drive to the finish.

“That‘s the best feeling you can get when you have a tire advantage and an awesome car. Like, I was just carving everyone up,” van Gisbergen said. “Some people were nice and laying over, which is cool. The people that didn‘t, you had to put good moves on. Yeah, that‘s the most fun. Then, especially when the gap started getting less seconds than how many laps to go, I sort of knew it was going to happen at that point. Yeah, that‘s one of the best moments you can have as a driver.”

The victory was easily the best moment in what‘s been a challenging-at-best season for Trackhouse, which had struggled for speed in the year‘s first 11 races. Though the shift to The Chase postseason format this year means that SVG‘s win doesn‘t include an automatic playoff berth, the correlating three-spot bump in the Cup Series standings handed him the 16th and final spot on the provisional grid.

Marks was quick to acknowledge that more headway is needed. Teammate Ross Chastain rests 19th in the Cup Series points, and rookie Connor Zilisch sits 32nd after his bid for a career-first top five soured in Sunday‘s late going. Van Gisbergen‘s adaptation to oval-track racing also continues to be a work in progress, and while Sunday‘s showing provides a morale boost, Marks has his eyes trained on long-term improvement relative to the rest of the field.

“It‘s kind of like turning a Titanic. I mean, it‘s one race at a time,” Marks said. “There‘s not gonna be one event. This win today doesn‘t change anything. We‘ve got to go to Dover next week, and we‘ve got to maximize the downforce and the setup, and we‘ve got to do the same at Charlotte, the same at Nashville. So it‘s going to make for some nice, good mood in the shop this week, but it‘s right back to work tomorrow.”

Before that work was set to resume, the No. 97 group soaked up every bit of the season‘s top highlight in an especially jubilant Victory Lane early Sunday evening. Their driver was one year older and battle-proven better, and the organization reaped what it hopes will be a lasting benefit.

“I think it‘s everything for Trackhouse, you know. I just think it‘s a jump-start,” McFadden said. “It‘s been some tough outings, but I think this will give us a little life, man. It‘s that jump-start we needed.”

Stenhouse has driven the program‘s No. 47 Chevrolet since 2020, earning two wins in his time there, including a triumph in the 2023 Daytona 500. In a team release, Hyak says the extension “continues the organization‘s commitment to building long-term stability and competitiveness as Hyak Motorsports continues to grow both on and off the track alongside Stenhouse.”

“Ricky has been a huge part of what we‘re building at Hyak Motorsports, and we‘re proud to continue this partnership for years to come,” team owner Gordon Smith said in a release. “He brings experience, leadership, and a competitive mindset every weekend, and we believe there‘s still a lot ahead for this team with Ricky in the No. 47.”

MORE: Cup standings | Stenhouse through the years

Stenhouse, whose four career Cup victories have come on the superspeedways of Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, has one top five and two top 10s through 12 races in 2026. Both season-best results came at Daytona (second) and Talladega (sixth).

“I‘m thrilled to finally get this contract extension done,” Stenhouse said in a team release. “It‘s something we‘ve been working on for a while, and I‘m really thankful to everyone at Hyak Motorsports, especially Gordon. His vision for this race team and the passion he brings to it every single day is special. A lot of people may not know Gordon that well yet, but he truly cares about motorsports, NASCAR, and this No. 47 team, and that shows in everything he does. Along with Gordon, (co-owners) Brad (Daugherty), Mark (Hughes), Ernie (Cope), and everyone at Hyak Motorsports, I feel like we‘re continuing to improve week after week.

“It‘s never easy being a single-car team, but the experience we‘re gaining and the notebook we‘re building is helping us get better and better. More than anything, this team feels like one big family. On and off the race track, we‘re building something that has me really excited about the future of Hyak Motorsports and what we can accomplish together moving forward.”

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

A two-time champion in what is now known as the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, Stenhouse has made the Cup Series‘ postseason twice in his career, first in 2017 and again in 2023. Competing full-time since 2013, Stenhouse has four wins, 27 top fives and 65 top 10s in 484 career starts. He currently sits 27th in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings, 90 points behind Shane van Gisbergen for the final spot in the provisional 16-driver field for The Chase.

But as van Gisbergen stretched the lead quickly in the first stage, McDowell and the No. 71 bunch realized that they might be racing for the runner-up position if the race played out naturally.

“I knew it was going to be a race between myself, SVG and Connor (Zilisch), just seeing how the pace was that first stage,” McDowell told a group of reporters. “I‘m not sure what happened to Connor at the end, but those guys were really fast, had a bit more than us. We have a little work to do, but we will be there.”

MORE: Race results | At-track photos

Travis Peterson, crew chief of the No. 71 car, left McDowell out on track at a Lap 60 caution with teams on the edge of their fuel window of making it the distance. The plan was to charge hard for the duration of the final stage, with other drivers needing to save maximum fuel, and the fresh tires would pay dividends.

Plan fulfilled.

McDowell followed van Gisbergen through the field, a couple of seconds in tow. When the checkered flag flew, the No. 71 car was second, 7.288 seconds behind van Gisbergen, but marking McDowell‘s best finish in 48 starts with Spire Motorsports.

“It‘s not a win by any means, but it‘s what we needed on this 71 team,” McDowell said. “We‘ve been having a rough few weeks, so it‘s good to get some points, momentum and confidence back.

“We weren‘t far off. I know it feels like it because SVG stretched a pretty good lead. He got through the traffic a little bit better than I did. It‘s so hard to tell with him because as soon as I would close the gap, he would step the pace up a little bit, and I would feel like that I would close the gap more and he would step the pace up. You never know when he‘s going all out.”

Dating back to last June in the inaugural race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, van Gisbergen has won six of the most recent seven road-course battles contested. His only defeat was at Circuit of The Americas in March when Tyler Reddick outlasted the No. 97 machine.

The gap from van Gisbergen to McDowell, another elite road-course talent, is not much, McDowell thinks. He witnessed the difference firsthand at Watkins Glen.

“He just gets through the bus stop; we saw it in qualifying,” McDowell said of where SVG was better than him. “I followed him in there a couple of times, and my car doesn‘t quite recover as good as his over the curbs. We have to work on that package a little bit. He just comes off that second curb with so much control and momentum. I feel like we have a little work to do to make it better. There were sections of the track that we were better too.

“I don‘t feel like he‘s unbeatable, he‘s just really hard to beat because he executes so well and manages tires well. A place like this where there was that much falloff, he‘s a hard guy to beat.”

RELATED: Race Rewind | Watch NASCAR video highlights

McDowell ended the race with 36 points, his second-most for a race in 2026. That sum could have been padded more had the No. 71 car not faded on older tires at the end of Stage 2 in an eight-lap dash to the stage end. He led a handful of laps before dropping to 12th position.

With a couple of untimely cautions derailing strategy plans for multiple drivers and a sizable amount of tire falloff, the combination led to tricky calls atop the pit box.

“It does make for an interesting dynamic,” Peterson told NASCAR.com. “The biggest thing was SVG kept slowly driving away all day. I think we were a second-place car all day, and the problem is, you have to do something different to beat that guy. We tried it at one point and that yellow hurt our chances of having the better tires all of Stage 3.

“In the end, we were able to see him, stay with him through the field. We just didn‘t quite have enough on that last run.”

McDowell jumped a pair of spots in the regular-season championship standings to 21st. It was needed for the No. 71 team, which collected seven consecutive finishes of 18th or worse dating back to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in mid-March. With van Gisbergen‘s dominant performance, however, McDowell lost five points to the cutline and now sits 58 points below.

“It‘s nice to get a decent finish but we wanted to win,” McDowell added. “You only get so many shots at it. I feel like today we had a car that was close — not quite capable — but almost there.”

After taking a dive in the regular-season standings, Peterson believes a run like Watkins Glen was needed to mitigate the damage.

“This was a huge points day for us, a good reset to build momentum to go into the next stretch,” he said. “Just hitting that reset button is the biggest thing. Got to stop the bleeding, this was it. We wanted to win, but we will take second.”

Zilisch‘s luck failed to turn again Sunday in an otherwise stellar drive at Watkins Glen International, where a potential first top-five result transformed into a 20th-place finish in the Go Bowling at The Glen. His No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet slowed from second place when its right-front tire went down with eight laps to go, forcing him to pit road and unraveling an otherwise promising day.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“I mean, I don‘t really know. Just kind of sucks,” Zilisch said on pit road post-race. “I feel like I did almost everything right today that I could, but yeah, it just goes like that sometimes. So yeah, I‘ll keep my head up. We‘ve got a couple more road courses to go to, a couple good tracks coming up for Trackhouse. So, yeah, keep my head down and keep digging.”

Zilisch was seemingly set up for success after a final-stage caution for debris from Joey Logano‘s No. 22 Ford brought him and a host of other contenders to pit road for what was scheduled to be a final stop on Lap 61 of 100. After Trackhouse teammate Shane van Gisbergen and others on alternate strategies stopped roughly midway through the closing stage, Zilisch eventually rotated to second place behind Ty Gibbs, and both raced in fuel-save mode in their quests to make it to the end.

Van Gisbergen eventually blew past both with a brilliant final charge through the field, but Zilisch was still hopeful of salvaging what would easily have been his best Cup Series finish. His tire trouble sealed the fate, though he managed to tack on one extra point with the race‘s fastest lap — his 95th — after his unplanned pit-road visit.

“We had a little bit of an up and down day,” No. 88 crew chief Randall Burnett told NASCAR.com. “Obviously, the first stage went really well. After that caution in the second stage, we lost the track position, so we were trying to battle back from that a little bit. We‘ve been here a lot of times, and you get close to your window there, that caution comes out on whatever (Lap) 60, 61, you know you‘re a lap or two short of making it, it‘s hard to not pit and do that. So, we went for it, tried to save what we can. We were going to make it on the fuel deal. Shane was so fast when he came back out, I don‘t think we were going to hold them off, but in hindsight, I‘d have probably gone a little different on my end and made some different choices, but it‘s what it is.”

The outcome extended what‘s been an uneven start to the 19-year-old‘s first Cup Series campaign. Zilisch gained one position in the Cup Series standings on Sunday, but a third of the way into his first full season, he ranks 32nd with a best finish of 14th at Circuit of The Americas in early March.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Watch NASCAR video highlights

Burnett said he‘s aiming to keep putting Zilisch in positive positions and gaining ground in the points after the All-Star Race break next weekend.

“I mean, this deal‘s hard, and he‘s certainly taking his rookie licks this year,” said Burnett, also in his first year with Trackhouse. “We‘ve had a lot of stuff go on, and it‘s kind of buried us this year, and he‘s handling it really well, whole team‘s handling it well. We know we‘ve got a whole lot of potential. We‘ve just got to have a couple things go our way and get a good finish from these days to show what this team can really do. I‘m really proud of everybody at Trackhouse and everybody that puts their hands on these cars, building good cars. We‘ve just got to keep bringing good stuff for Connor and just keep the battle going forward.”

Sunday brought a rapid pendulum swing of emotions the other way, one day after Zilisch‘s compelling last-lap win in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series at The Glen.

“Just upset,” Zilisch said. “I mean, at the worst, I was going to finish inside the top five probably and have my best day in the series by far. I don‘t think I could have beaten Shane, but yeah, it‘s just frustrating when you‘re so close. It sucks.”

It‘s not just that the New Zealander beat runner-up Michael McDowell to the finish line to win Sunday‘s Go Bowling at The Glen by 7.288 seconds. It was the way SVG ran down late-race leader Ty Gibbs to the tune of 29.2 seconds in 18 laps at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International road course.

The mythical shark “Jaws” couldn‘t have been a more relentless or terrifying pursuer.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

In defending last year‘s win at The Glen, Trackhouse Racing‘s van Gisbergen scored his seventh NASCAR Cup Series victory — all on road or street courses — and his first this season.

“Unbelievable to win with (the No.) 97,” van Gisbergen said. “Thank you to Trackhouse. We weren‘t very good in practice, and then qualifying was amazing. Good tweaks, and then today, so what a race car.

“Then (crew chief) Stephen (Doran) made great calls. I wasn‘t sure how it was going to work. Then to run them down, very, very special to do two in a row. Just stoked for these guys, you know, to execute every facet of our game. Speechless. This is so cool.”

Starting from the pole, van Gisbergen led the first 18 laps before short-pitting the first 20-lap stage. He pitted once again on Lap 41 under a bizarre caution caused by a tent blowing through the air from the camping area onto the race track.

After passing McDowell for the lead on Lap 47, van Gisbergen stayed on the track to win the second stage at Lap 50 and declined to pit on Lap 61 under caution for debris from Joey Logano‘s left-front tire. That strategy was contrary to most of the rest of the field.

Van Gisbergen built a lead of more than six seconds before making a green-flag stop on Lap 76. That‘s when the heroics began in earnest. 

SHOP: Winner‘s gear

Leaving pit road more than 29 seconds behind Gibbs and Trackhouse Racing teammate Connor Zilisch, van Gisbergen charged through the field in pursuit of the first- and second-place cars. Both Gibbs and Zilisch were saving fuel after pitting on Lap 61 and were racing on tires that were degrading rapidly.

Zilisch dropped from contention on Lap 92 with a flat right-front tire and finished 20th after posting the race‘s Xfinity Fastest Lap. One lap later, van Gisbergen muscled past a helpless Gibbs into the lead and stretched his advantage until the finish.

McDowell, on a similar pit strategy to SVG‘s, passed Gibbs for second on Lap 95. Gibbs held third, followed by Chase Briscoe and series leader Tyler Reddick, who leaves Watkins Glen with a 129-point lead over second place Denny Hamlin (16th on Sunday).

“Yeah, it‘s great. It‘s great to get this Chevrolet in the top five,” said McDowell, who had to settle for best-in-class in his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. “There were moments where I thought, ‘Oh, maybe we can hang with SVG,‘ and it felt like he was just pacing himself back off me, and he would take back off.

“In that second stage there, we got a little off strategy and then recovered well, which (crew chief) Travis (Peterson) did a great job of getting the track position when we needed it. Just not quite enough to run him down.

“Like I said, it‘s just tough, man. Second is awesome. It‘s great to get momentum back on our side. We needed it after a rough few weeks, but we wanted to get to Victory Lane.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

In fuel-saving mode over the last 39 laps, Gibbs couldn‘t run the pace he needed to stay ahead of the race winner.

“Honestly, just a little frustrating,” said Gibbs, who picked up his first career Cup Series victory at Bristol in April. “I wish we could keep racing, but unfortunately, just had to save some fuel there.

“Yeah, good to come home with a third-place finish. Obviously, wish it was another win, but you know, had a lot of fun today. Always fun to come to Watkins Glen.”

Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Dillon finished sixth — his first top 10 of the season — followed by AJ Allmendinger, RCR teammate Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric and John Hunter Nemechek.

In a race that featured six lead changes among four drivers, van Gisbergen led 74 of 100 laps, followed by Gibbs with 17. There were four cautions for 12 total laps.

The Cup Series travels to Dover Motor Speedway for next Sunday‘s NASCAR All-Star Race on May 17 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Ryan Blaney, who signed a long-term contract extension this week with Team Penske, finished 11th with Chris Buescher, Daniel Suárez, Ryan Preece and Cole Custer rounding out the top 15.

A tough day for Hendrick Motorsports resulted in a 23rd-place finish for Kyle Larson with teammate Chase Elliott — last week‘s Texas winner — 24th and Alex Bowman 25th. William Byron suffered damage in Stage 2 that dropped the No. 24 car to a 36th-place finish, three laps down.

Logano, a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, finished last in 38th place, 15 laps down after his tire issue.

Stage 2 recap

Shane van Gisbergen charged from seventh to first in just two laps at Watkins Glen International to score the victory in Stage 2 of Sunday‘s Go Bowling at The Glen.

SVG surged back to the front of the field after a mid-stage yellow flag shook up pit strategy for some. Tyler Reddick finished the stage second ahead of Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric, Connor Zilisch, Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace.

RELATED: Stage 2 results

A burst of wind at Lap 40 led to the first caution for cause in Sunday‘s 100-lap contest when a tent from infield blew skyward and landed squarely atop the pavement exiting the esses.

Six cars stayed out under that caution period to gain track position: Michael McDowell, Daniel Suárez, Christopher Bell, Wallace, Riley Herbst and John Hunter Nemechek. SVG had led every lap of the stage until that point and restarted seventh, ahead of Connor Zilisch, Ty Gibbs, Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon. Wallace was the only driver of those who stayed out to score stage points.

Trouble occurred on the ensuring restart twice at Lap 44. Herbst spun to the excess pavement in Turn 1 and ended the stage 31st. Once the field approached the inner loop, Buescher and William Byron were in a side-by-side battle that led to an incident.

MORE: Byron around in the bus stop

Buescher hopped the curb to driver‘s left entering the chicane and caught Byron‘s left rear, sending the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for a spin. Byron, who made his 300th NASCAR Cup Series start Sunday, suffered a broken toe link that needed repair. In total, Byron lost four laps as a result of the incident and runs last, 38th, entering the final stage. Todd Gilliland also spun in the melee while drivers like Connor Zilisch, Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith bolted to the grass to driver‘s right exiting the bus stop to avoid the spun car of Byron.

The top nine finishers in Stage 2 stayed out under caution with Ross Chastain moving into the top 10 when Wallace hit pit road.

Stage 1 recap

Shane van Gisbergen controlled the pace early at Watkins Glen International, but his Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain won Stage 1 of Sunday‘s Go Bowling at The Glen (FS1).

Chastain stayed out to collect the stage win, while van Gisbergen and other leaders opted to hit pit road to maintain track position for the Stage 2 restart. Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric and AJ Allmendinger completed the top five at the end of the 20-lap opening segment.

MORE: Stage 1 results

John Hunter Nemechek, Christopher Bell, van Gisbergen, Riley Herbst and Michael McDowell rounded out the top 10. Van Gisbergen and McDowell, who both started on the front row and ran first and second before pit stops began, were the only two leaders who managed to both pit and score stage points. Van Gisbergen led the opening 18 laps before surrendering the lead to Chastain to hit pit road.

Only 15 of the 38 teams in Sunday‘s race opted not to pit before the stage break. Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott both elected to stay out in an attempt to score stage points but ultimately were bested by van Gisbergen and McDowell, who were leading but pit.

NOTE: Post-race inspection concluded without issue, confirming van Gisbergen‘s victory. The Nos. 17 and 88 cars will be taken back to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further inspection.

Contributing: Staff report

Love finished with the hardest of hard-luck second places in Saturday‘s NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series tilt at The Glen, letting the lead and what would have been a first victory of the year slip away in the last turn of the last lap. Connor Zilisch, his longtime friend and a road-course standard bearer, was there to pounce, easing by to win by a scant 0.262 seconds.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Love, the defending series champion, had been in the unenviable task of managing a fuel conservation strategy over the final stretch of the Mission 200 at The Glen, all while watching Zilisch close in through his rearview mirror. The 21-year-old Richard Childress Racing driver said he felt those factors broke his focus. A late entry to the last turn and a right-front tire lock-up were the miscalculations that gave Zilisch the room he needed.

“It‘s been a lot of work,” Love said, apologizing as his voice cracked with emotion. “Sorry, I put so much effort into the road-course side of things over the last year and a half, and because of that, I care so much about it. The pieces were there today, this weekend, and I probably wasn‘t missing the skill today, I was missing the mental strength to do my job in a situation like that, and it catches me off guard because that‘s not who I am, and I‘m better than that. And you know, I probably need to feel this pain for a while to be better because of it.”

Zilisch‘s mother was among the first to arrive at the No. 2 Chevy to console Love, and the race winner noted the level of respect that the two have held for each other. Love got the better of Zilisch in a bit of turnabout here in an ARCA Menards Series thriller, brushing his way by at the same point of The Glen course in 2023. It was also Zilisch on the crushing end of their championship battle in last year‘s O‘Reilly Series finale at Phoenix Raceway.

Saturday, Love took the loss especially hard.

“I‘ve been very fortunate to not have many traumatizing experiences in my life, but this is the worst pain I‘ve ever experienced,” Love said. “I don‘t know why. I think I‘m just embarrassed at myself and frustrated. He‘s been my pedestal on this style of racing since I met him, and I‘ve worked so hard, and so many people have worked so hard for me to have days like this where I come out on the other side of it, and you know, I let those people down today so that I don‘t take that lightly.”

On a day where Zilisch, Brent Crews and Shane van Gisbergen had some of the strongest showings, Love eventually rotated to the lead after a pit stop on the 48th of 82 laps, positioning him for a 34-lap run to the finish on his final tank of gas. Love took the top spot on Lap 64 after the pit-road cycle was complete.

Zilisch launched a furious pursuit over the final stretch, pressing on even after his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet suffered damage in a pair of incidents — clipping the inner loop grass and also brushing the final-turn barrier on Lap 77. Love was forced to manage an aggressive fuel-conservation play, all while staying aware of Zilisch‘s resilient charge.

It was a tough spot, conceded No. 2 RCR crew chief Danny Stockman Jr. told that Love was reeling after the turn of events, Stockman said, “Yeah, I‘m struggling myself.”

“I‘m struggling, but these races are so hard to win, and it‘s difficult,” Stockman told NASCAR.com. “It‘s a difficult pill to swallow, but I‘m behind my driver 110%. I try to teach these kids right and right from wrong, and I‘m glad to hear that he did a good interview and all that stuff, but it‘s just when you‘re that close and you‘re however many feet it was (behind), it‘s just a heartbreak, for sure.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

The defeat extended Richard Childress Racing‘s void in O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series races on road courses. The last such triumph came in August 2016, when Michael McDowell scored his lone O‘Reilly win driving the RCR No. 2 Chevrolet.

For a time, it appeared Love‘s teammate Austin Hill might also carry the team‘s hopes. He ran second to Love in the late stages until giving way to Zilisch with seven laps remaining. Hill was on the same pit strategy as Love, but his No. 21 Chevy sputtered dry on the final lap and he coasted home in 11th place. “Very surprised,” was how Hill reacted when a nearly assured top-five finish evaporated.

“I mean, with how the season‘s been for us and things that have happened, that‘s just another thing to add to it,” said Hill, who has now gone 10 consecutive races without a top five. “You know, I don‘t want to call it luck or anything like that, but just the way that we execute throughout the day and the things that have happened to us, I don‘t know what we‘ve got to do to, like, have some solid days and finish where we think we should have finished. But all in all, hats off to everybody — RCR, ECR Engines. We went for it. We at least tried.”

Running down Jesse Love after pitting with 25 laps left, Zilisch shot past Love‘s No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in Turn 7 and won a drag race to the finish line to win Saturday‘s Mission 200 at The Glen by 0.262 seconds. 

The victory was Zilisch‘s third straight at the 2.45-mile road course in as many starts, and his second in his fifth NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series start of the season. It is the 13th win of his O‘Reilly Series career. 

Zilisch joins Terry Labonte and Marcos Ambrose as the only drivers to win three consecutive O‘Reilly Series races at Watkins Glen.

For the 70th straight race, JR Motorsports put at least one car in the top 10, nine short of RFK Racing‘s record (2008-2010). JRM also collected its 11th straight road course victory.

The victory came after Zilisch relentlessly chased down Love, who pitted on Lap 48 of 72 and saved fuel the rest of the way, with Zilisch — after trailing by 18 seconds — chopping significant chunks out of Love‘s lead over the final 25 circuits.

With six laps left, however, Zilisch hit the grass as he sped through the bus stop chicane and damaged the undercarriage of his car. Adjusting to the altered feel of his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Zilisch continued his pursuit and closed on his friend.

On the final lap, Zilisch made up significant ground through the bus stop and took advantage when Love ran wide through the final corner.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“That was driving as hard as I could for all 30 of those laps (from a restart on lap 51), just trying to make up that gap,” Zilisch said. “I wasn‘t going to move Jesse in the last corner there, but he got in deep, and I was able to get by.” 

“It‘s so cool to come back and get my third win at Watkins Glen in a row with JRM. Cool to get it with Rodney (Childers). He‘s my third different crew chief here.” 

This was the second significant battle between Zilisch and Love in the last six months. At Phoenix Raceway in November, Love outdueled the heavily favored Zilisch to win the series championship. 

On Saturday, it was Love who was disconsolate. 

“At the end of the day, the glaring piece of it is I had a bad corner,” Love said. “It was definitely a challenging but good experience for me. I‘ve never saved fuel on a road course. What a good mental challenge for me.

“All I want to do is beat Connor here (on a road course), right? We‘re best friends, and we‘ve caused each other a lot of pain. I didn‘t execute when I needed to. I think the reason I‘m so quiet is I‘m just embarrassed, right? As a driver, you just can‘t make those mistakes.” 

As a measure of the friendship between the two drivers, the first person to Love‘s car after the race was Zilisch‘s mother, who gave Love a consoling hug.

Taylor Gray and Ross Chastain finished third and fourth, respectively, both on fuel-saving strategy. Brandon Jones was fifth, followed by rookie Brent Crews, Parker Retzlaff, Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Green and Justin Allgaier, whose series lead over second place Sheldon Creed (29th Saturday) grew to 155 points. 

Van Gisbergen was in the mix for the win before contact between his car and Zilisch‘s on pit road tore the left front fender on Zilisch‘s No. 9 JRM Chevrolet. Van Gisbergen had to pit again for repairs, his chance at a win all but evaporated. 

Crews led a race-high 32 laps, followed by Zilisch with 20 and Love with 18.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

After the victory, Zilisch climbed from his car with utmost care, determined not to repeat the fall from the window ledge that cost him a broken collarbone last year.

“It really means a lot to get another one here and get out of the car safely and get onto the ground without killing myself,” Zilisch quipped.

Zilisch and van Gisbergen will race as Trackhouse Racing teammates in Sunday‘s Go Bowling at The Glen, with the New Zealander on the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series event (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series garage, confirming Connor Zilisch as the winner.

Ambrose won four NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series races at Watkins Glen International, including three in succession from 2008 through 2010. Driving for Richard Petty Motorsports, Ambrose won two NASCAR Cup Series races at The Glen (2011 and 2012).

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos

As invariably happens, however, Ambrose forced the rest of the Cup Series field to improve on performance, and the gap between Ambrose and his fellow competitors narrowed considerably.

After Ambrose‘s departure, Chase Elliott held sway for four years, winning seven times on road courses from 2018 through 2021, including twice at Watkins Glen.

The arrival of New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen has raised the bar even higher. SVG won his first Cup Series start on the Chicago Street Course in 2023. Last year, he won five of the six road course races on the schedule.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Elliott believes the gap between SVG and the rest of the Cup field will narrow once again.

“Yeah, I‘m not sure that I have a really good overhead view of what that looks like,” Elliott said. “I‘m obviously very zoned in to just my perspective of it, and I certainly feel like we — and myself in particular — have a lot of work to do to get to the performance that those guys have had. I think it‘s there. I think we‘re capable of doing that. I have no doubt, to your point, I do think he and his performance and the job that he and his team have done are going to make the rest of the field better. I think that‘s just how it works.

“So, how far behind some are or aren‘t or have closed that gap or not, I‘m not sure. I think for me, I still have a lot of room and work to go. But yeah, I think it‘s totally doable. I think there is no question it will make everybody better, and I hope that we‘re among those that improve and can at least catch up at some point in time.”

MORE: Active road-course winners | Memorable Watkins Glen moments

Elliott‘s first Cup victory came at The Glen in 2018, but the 2020 series champion doesn‘t have much time for nostalgia as he attempts to win his third race of the season in Sunday‘s Go Bowling at the Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I‘m not coming up here to reminisce,” Elliott said. “I‘m coming up here to do a job. It certainly is a special place, but I also want to add to the success that we‘ve had here. We have another opportunity to do it again this weekend.”

The ambient temperature in New York‘s Finger Lakes region hit the 90-degree barrier on race day last August, one of the warmest races in track history despite the sun blistering the area during the summer months. The projected high on Mother‘s Day is a crisp 63 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

MORE: Starting lineup | Watkins Glen photos

Naturally, that will lead to a drastic track-temperature swing come the green flag of Sunday‘s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Goodyear is returning the same road-course tire that debuted last year, creating more tire wear throughout the course of a run and throwing teams for a loop with ill-handling cars in practice.

“We had higher track temps, like 120 degrees throughout the (August) race, which was one of the hotter ones we‘ve had in a while, which I feel like led to some of the [tire] falloff,” Scott Graves, crew chief for Chris Buescher‘s No. 17 RFK Racing Ford and native to nearby Union Springs, New York, an hour northeast of Watkins Glen, told NASCAR.com. “If it‘s dry and we‘re around 60 degrees, partly cloudy — we‘re going to see cooler temps. The big question we have is how much that affects the falloff. Does it look more like traditional Watkins Glen, where it‘s lower falloff?

“The tire is designed to have some falloff to it, but these temperatures might bring some of that back to us a little bit.”

Tire falloff showed up in spades during Saturday‘s practice session, with multiple drivers out of control while soaring through the esses. A dust of marbles was trailed around the course after practice, with the track crew having to bring out the sweepers before qualifying began.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Despite Watkins Glen normally being a high-speed road course in the warmth, the cooler temperature has brought out even more pace. Another curveball could be the implementation of the 750-horsepower package, which made its road-course debut at Circuit of The Americas in early March.

“I would imagine with the cool temperatures, the pace being faster, it will be even harder to pass than it normally is here from the additional grip of the lower temperatures,” Randall Burnett, crew chief for Connor Zilisch‘s No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, told NASCAR.com. “I think you will get a little more tire wear and tire slip, especially in the rears with the additional horsepower. The pace should be faster, so you‘re going to wear the tires more, in general.

“I think you will see a little more falloff. I don‘t think it will be dramatic, but I think it will be more than the past.”

Add in that the race distance was extended by 10 laps this year, and there could be an impact on in-race strategy. Teams still have the option of splitting their race into a two- or three-stop event. But teams that flip the first stage, which ends at Lap 20, shouldn‘t be able to stretch their fuel mileage until the midway point of the final stage, like years prior.

“One of the strategies, if you were doing two stops, you could pit before the end of Stage 1 and not again until the middle of Stage 3 when you got to the fuel window — it eliminates that version of it,” Graves said. “If you are looking at a two-stop, it changes that up. If you are looking at a three-stop, it doesn‘t change if you are going to do before the stage break kind of thing and doesn‘t change that up a whole lot. It does make it a little different if you are trying to play some of those long-shot moves.”

MORE: Paint Scheme Preview

Burnett added: “You are not going to be able to short the first stage and make it to the end on one more stop. With the stage points meaning so much now and the points not having to win to be locked in [the postseason] anymore, I think some guys could [go for] stage points, especially the guys that don‘t feel like they might have a shot at winning. Those guys might try to risk that and get stage points.”

And even while Graves, who moved away from New York in the mid-1980s, is accustomed to the damp Empire State spring conditions, he doesn‘t believe that gives him a leg up on the competition. Instead, he‘s going to rely on Buescher‘s road-course prowess, as he leads the league with an average finish of 9.67 on road courses in the Next Gen era with drivers that have made at least 14 starts. Meanwhile, Zilisch is highly regarded as one of the best NASCAR road-course competitors, even though he‘s a rookie.

SVG a constant in a season of change at The Glen

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — This winding road circuit has hugged these hills for 70 years now, but even a venerable, veteran track can take on something new.

The NASCAR Cup Series‘ second road-course race this season will feature a handful of novel concepts in Sunday‘s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as the 2026 campaign churns toward the halfway mark of the regular season. Track limits will have some new, barrier-backed reinforcement in a pair of key areas, the weather will be cooler for a one-off springtime date and the race will be the longest — by 10 extra laps — in NASCAR‘s rich history here.

MORE: Weekend schedule, TV info | At-track photos

If there‘s a constant among all the Watkins Glen twists, it‘s the looming, dominant presence of Shane van Gisbergen. The defending race winner enters as a heavy favorite, and his road-racing expertise will set the bar that the rest of the Cup Series field aspires to clear.

SVG topped Saturday‘s practice in the consecutive 5-lap, 10-lap and 15-lap average categories, suggesting his long-run speed will be formidable. Between practice and qualifying, van Gisbergen fretted over how rough his car was driving, suggesting just how much more impressive he might be if his No. 97 Chevrolet got dialed in. Properly tuned a session later, he landed the pole, and Trackhouse Racing teammates Connor Zilisch and Ross Chastain both joined him among the top five.

“Obviously, SVG is coming into the NASCAR world and has instantly shown to be an exceptional talent, very specifically as we see on road races, right from the get-go,” said RFK Racing‘s Chris Buescher, who outdueled van Gisbergen here in 2024. “That‘s been a benchmark for the entire garage, and that‘s been something that there‘s been a handful of race tracks, and Watkins Glen is one that I feel like everybody‘s run here so much through the years that we‘re all closer here, but, man, we went to new race tracks and we realized we‘ve got some work to do.”

The whole field will face an unavoidable challenge in Sunday‘s 100-lap showdown, with new tire-pack barriers establishing track limits in two crucial spots — the exits of Turns 1 and 5. In past years, those areas outside the racing groove have been either grass, gravel traps, or most recently, pavement, allowing cars to sweep wide and sometimes creating a treacherous funnel effect when drivers try to get back in line.

The barriers have made those areas narrower but safer, but also a little less forgiving when the racing room tightens up.

“Only Turn 1, I find different,” van Gisbergen said after qualifying. “You really have to brake a bit earlier and harder to stop the corner, and then you‘ve got no margin for error. Like you‘re trying to stay relatively tight last year, but you could blow the corner if you needed to and still make time. So yeah, it has changed how accurate you need to be at Turn 1. (In Friday‘s Truck Series race) in the restarts, I really found how much tighter of a corner it was and how much you don‘t want to be on the outside, I guess, but sometimes you can‘t help it. So yeah, it‘s a tough corner. The (Turn 5) carousel is not really different, I don‘t think.”

NASCAR competition officials also made adjustments Saturday morning to the restart zone, which was moved to the short chute before Turn 7 for last year‘s race. The zone remains in the same place, but officials shifted the tire-pack barriers to make the markings along the retaining walls more visible. The move came in response to complaints from a handful of drivers and two key restart-violation penalties in Friday‘s Craftsman Truck Series race.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

In the details …

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Watkins Glen hub: Key information, pit-stall assignments, results | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Paint schemes set to dazzle in the Finger Lakes | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: Why Preece was penalized and why Busch wasn‘t after Texas | Listen now
• Elliott‘s greatest strength: Wins are nice, but No. 9‘s consistency rises above | Read move
• Power Rankings: Cup Series‘ top 20 drivers after Texas | This week‘s ranks
• NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Watkins Glen | Watch now

Contributing: Zach Sturniolo

In Saturday‘s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session, however, it was the section of the 2.45-mile road course where defending race winner Shane van Gisbergen gained light years over the competition, relatively speaking, in securing the pole for Sunday‘s Go Bowling at the Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The New Zealander, celebrating his 37th birthday, navigated the seven-turn circuit in 71.165 seconds (123.937 mph) on the first of two qualifying laps to beat Spire Motorsports‘ Michael McDowell (123.488 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.259 seconds.

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“I did nail it on my first lap,” van Gisbergen said of the bus stop at the end of the long backstretch, where he gained more than two tenths of a second on the field. “The first half of the lap was pretty average, I thought.

“My second lap, I had less tire grip, but it was a better lap, so I think I was ahead until the bus stop, and then I mucked it up. My first lap was really good there — probably got it right, and maybe the others got it wrong. But generally, that is a really strong point for me.”

Team Penske‘s Austin Cindric (123.452 mph) claimed the third starting spot, followed by van Gisbergen‘s teammates at Trackhouse Racing, Ross Chastain (123.445 mph) and Connor Zilisch (123.386 mph).

Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, last year‘s pole winner, were sixth and seventh, giving Team Penske three of the top seven starters. The Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs completed the top 10.

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Van Gisbergen expects tire wear to play a major role in Sunday‘s race, which has been lengthened from 90 to 100 laps, featuring stage lengths of 20, 30 and 50 laps.

“The fall-off was insane,” van Gisbergen said. “I didn‘t expect that. The marbles and the fall-off was extreme today. It‘s kind of like Bristol when it‘s cold. The tires would fall apart. It was very interesting. We fell off four seconds or so.

“Crazy. It‘ll be a good race to watch but probably a hard one to manage.”

Series leader Tyler Reddick, a five-time winner this season and the most recent road course winner at Circuit of The Americas, qualified 15th. Chase Elliott, last Sunday‘s winner at Texas Motor Speedway, will start 27th on Sunday.

Cindric leads Cup practice at Watkins Glen

Austin Cindric posted the fastest lap in NASCAR Cup Series practice at Watkins Glen International, posting a lap at 122.147 mph in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford on Saturday afternoon.

Carson Hocevar was second-quickest in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet at 122.073 mph, with Ty Gibbs (122.032 mph), Christopher Bell (122.031 mph) and Chris Buescher (121.971 mph) completing the top five in single-lap speeds.

MORE: Practice results, lap averages, more | Weekend schedule: Watkins Glen

Shane van Gisbergen, who dominated this race last August, posted the best times in five-lap, 10-lap and 15-lap averages across Saturday‘s practice. Of the 14 drivers who posted runs of 10 or more consecutive laps, SVG‘s 10-lap average was a lap time of 73.53 seconds, with Tyler Reddick second, Hocevar third, Ryan Blaney fourth and Cindric fifth.

Van Gisbergen, a five-time road-course winner in 2025, said this week he believes Reddick is the favorite this weekend after Reddick won the series‘ most recent road race at Circuit of The Americas in March.

The session began with many teams opting for wet-weather Goodyear tires as rain washed through the Finger Lakes region of New York State early Saturday morning. As teams eventually transitioned back to slicks, two drivers and teams incurred issues: Ross Chastain and his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet cutting a left-rear tire and Chase Briscoe‘s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota cutting a left-front tire.

Contributing: Staff reports.