“A full field for a full-length Cup race at North Wilkesboro? Come on!” Christopher Bell, last year‘s All-Star winner here, told PRN Radio. “It‘s gonna be a wild race, I think it‘s going to be a great race. I‘ve been excited about this one for a long time.”
Reminder: The top 16 drivers in points make The Chase. There is no more win-and-in. The regular-season points leader starts The Chase with 2,100 points and second place starts with 2,075. Third place starts with 2,065 points, then drivers are separated by five-point increments through 16th place.
RELATED: Cup Series standings | Iowa weekend schedule
The Race for No. 1
| RANK | DRIVER | POINTS | POINTS TO LEADER |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denny Hamlin | 886 | — |
| 2 | Tyler Reddick | 802 | -84 |
| 3 | Ryan Blaney | 766 | -120 |
Taking a look at the top of the Cup Series standings, Denny Hamlin maintained his advantage as the provisional top Chase seed and now leads Tyler Reddick by 84 points after the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Despite dropping from the front row on the final restart at the 2.5-mile Indiana track to a fifth-place finish, Hamlin still gained 16 points on the path to potentially entering The Chase as the No. 1 seed and having the championship battle go through the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney‘s hopes of being a contender for the top Chase seed took a major hit Sunday at Indianapolis. Late-race contact with John Hunter Nemechek sent the No. 12 Team Penske Ford spinning into the Turn 3 wall, leading to a 26th-place finish.
When The Chase begins, this might be the moment that not only costs Blaney $1 million in the 2026 NASCAR In-Season Challenge to Todd Gilliland, but also the No. 1 Chase seed as he sits 120 points behind Hamlin in the Cup Series standings.
The Mythical Top Six
| RANK | DRIVER | POINTS | POINTS TO LEADER |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Ty Gibbs | 751 | -135 |
| 5 | Carson Hocevar | 638 | -248 |
| 6 | Chase Elliott | 635 | -251 |
| 7 | Chase Briscoe | 623 | -263 |
| 8 | Kyle Larson | 617 | -269 |
After scoring 43 points at Indianapolis, Ty Gibbs became the fourth driver to clinch a spot in this year‘s Chase. He joins Hamlin, Reddick and Blaney as the only drivers to earn a postseason berth with four races left in the Cup Series regular season.
One of the biggest movers in the provisional Chase grid was Carson Hocevar, who jumps two spots to fifth in the Cup Series standings. This is important, according to Racing Insights, which provided all the data here and has hypothesized that a driver‘s best chance of competing for the championship is to enter The Chase in the top six in points.
With Hocevar now sitting 158 points above the cutline and in a prime postseason position, a 37th-place finish in the Brickyard 400 dropped Chase Elliott to sixth in the table, costing him 43 valuable markers to the top of the standings. Indiana native Chase Briscoe earned a strong fourth-place result at his home track; he moved up to seventh in points, knocking on the door of entering the “mythical top six.”
A downed left-rear tire and spin into the Turn 3 wall ended up costing Kyle Larson two spots in the standings as the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver dropped to eighth. If the defending Cup Series champion wants to get back into the top six and have a better shot at winning back-to-back titles, he will have to break out of his recent slump.
In the last four Cup Series races, Larson has three finishes of 34th or worse. Something needs to change now for the No. 5 team, or the downward slide could continue as the two-time champion faces the possibility of slipping outside the top 10 in points in the weeks ahead.
The Middle Ground
| RANK | DRIVER | POINTS | POINTS TO CUTLINE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Chris Buescher | 613 | +133 |
| 10 | Christopher Bell | 609 | +129 |
| 11 | Daniel Suárez | 583 | +103 |
| 12 | William Byron | 568 | +88 |
| 13 | Joey Logano | 545 | +65 |
| 14 | Bubba Wallace | 540 | +60 |
The middle ground is tightening up in the closing weeks of the regular season as drivers hope to safely make The Chase and put themselves in a better position to fight for a championship. Only 29 points separate Christopher Bell in 10th place from Hocevar in fifth place, so a lot of jockeying for position could occur over the next four races.
That said, the middle ground stayed relatively quiet after Indianapolis with Chris Buescher, Bell, Daniel Suárez and William Byron maintaining their positions in ninth through 12th place, respectively. Joey Logano was the biggest mover in this section, moving up two spots and gaining 16 points against the cutline thanks to his third-place finish at Indianapolis.
Coming off a win at North Wilkesboro and following that up with another solid result at Indianapolis, look for Logano to possibly continue his hot streak in the coming weeks. The remaining regular-season tracks — Iowa Speedway, Richmond Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway — are good spots for the No. 22 team to increase the 65-point margin above the cutline.
Last year‘s Brickyard 400 winner Bubba Wallace did not have a good day in Indiana, losing nine points to the cutline after a disappointing 28th-place result. The 23XI Racing driver currently sits 60 points to the good before Iowa, but cannot afford to miss out on scoring valuable points in the last four weeks of the regular season if he wants to compete deep into The Chase.
The Cutline Battle
| RANK | DRIVER | POINTS | POINTS TO CUTLINE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Shane van Gisbergen | 537 | +57 |
| 16 | Austin Cindric | 518 | +38 |
| 17 | Ryan Preece | 480 | -38 |
| 18 | Erik Jones | 474 | -44 |
| 19 | Brad Keselowski | 468 | -50 |
| 20 | Michael McDowell | 442 | -76 |
MORE: NASCAR video highlights
The final four weeks of the regular season will be intense for drivers slightly above The Chase cutline and those on the outside looking in. Despite a quiet and respectable 16th showing at Indianapolis, Shane van Gisbergen dropped to 15th in the Cup Series standings and maintains a 57-point advantage above the cutline. If the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing driver can stay afloat on the next four ovals, he should make The Chase, with a 94.5% probability entering Iowa.
Team Penske‘s Austin Cindric remains on the bubble, 16th in points. The No. 2 Team Penske Ford driver currently sits 38 points above the cutline with an 89.3% Chase probability and hopes to hold off a late regular-season charge from the first driver out, RFK Racing‘s Ryan Preece, who is 17th in the standings and needs to overcome an uninspiring 6.6% Chase probability.
The last three drivers in the cutline battle — Erik Jones (minus-44), Brad Keselowski (minus-50) and Michael McDowell (minus-76) will need to have big points-scoring days in the last four regular-season races if they want to have any shot at making the postseason.
According to Racing Insights, Jones has a 5.6% Chase probability, while Keselowski sits at 8% and McDowell brings up the rear with a 0.5% chance of advancing to the postseason.
]]>“They can all stand up to the plate and bring it on … I don‘t know if anyone wants that war.”
After Sunday‘s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it‘s clear Corey Heim wants the smoke Hocevar throws his way. But to truly understand the rivalry we have on our hands between these two drivers, we have to go back several years to when it was first forged in the Craftsman Truck Series.
RELATED: Heim establishes himself as NASCAR‘s ‘Next One‘ | Heim responds to Hocevar: ‘He lost and I won‘
Back in 2023, Heim and Hocevar found themselves fighting for a Truck Series title at Phoenix Raceway and on Lap 120, Heim passed Hocevar for sixth place — which made him the highest-running driver eligible to win the championship and provisionally in line to be crowned under that format. Seconds after being cleared by Heim, Hocevar first delivered a bump to the No. 11 Truck, then made contact that sent Heim around, ruining his hopes. Hocevar visibly looked disappointed in himself for spinning Heim and admitted over the radio that his contact was an accident, but mistake or not, Heim wasn‘t letting that slide.
As the title fight shifted between Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes, Hocevar was mired back late in the race and again had Heim in his sights. This time, it was the No. 42 Truck that took most of the damage as Heim squeezed Hocevar into the fence, getting immediate payback.
Neither walked away with top honors that night, but the feud foundation was laid.
Since that fateful night in the desert, both drivers have carved their own path in the sport. Hocevar has grown to embrace his “Hurricane” nature, whether it‘s ruffling veteran drivers‘ feathers with daring moves or showing his full, unfltered personality over the radio and in media sessions. He‘s admitted time and time again that he‘s willing to go for wins at whatever the cost may be, drawing comparisons to a young Dale Earnhardt. His breakthrough victory at Talladega Superspeedway perfectly encapsulates the Hocevar Experience as he charged to the front late and then delivered a one-of-a-kind celebration.
Meanwhile, Heim has demonstrated to be the complete opposite. He finally collected that Truck Series championship last fall — breaking numerous records along the way — and inked a deal with 23XI Racing where he will start driving the No. 35 Toyota on a full-time basis next year after serving as the team‘s development driver. He‘s shown to be cool, calm and collected not just in the race car, but even outside of it, delivering sharp, straightforward interviews.
But time has not healed anything between them. In fact, they have been serving up plenty of beefy appetizers to whet the appetite with the tasty drama that exists between them.
At Naval Base Coronado, Hocevar was running second with Heim hounding him for the position, and once again there was no shortage of contact. Heim bumped Hocevar in the chicane at Qualcomm Circuit, sending the No. 77 Chevrolet around and leaving Hocevar with a 19th-place finish after starting on the front row and scoring points in both stages.
Heim, of course, went on to score his first career win in San Diego, and soon fans flooded social media to talk about the late contact between the drivers. However, Heim was ready to take exception on X, replying to Hocevar supporters by reiterating Hocevar‘s own words — “Well, just get the [expletive] out of the way, and there wouldn‘t be a wreck. You know what I mean? Just move. Just move out of the way.”
The fallout continued when Hocevar hosted the “Dale Jr. Download” podcast after San Diego and teased Heim about not calling into the weekly winner interview section: “I was excited to do the interview,” Hocevar said during the episode. “I was excited to do the winner‘s segment here. They must not have cell service in California. Can‘t call in?”
Corey Heim was unavailable to call in, but we sense the rivalry will continue. pic.twitter.com/4USfNmtcTT
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) June 23, 2026
MORE: Heim, Hocevar square off in Brickyard 400
Sunday‘s crown-jewel event at Indianapolis was just the latest chapter.
Hocevar started the afternoon by claiming the pole for the Brickyard 400, but it wasn‘t long before he and Heim were sharing the same piece of race track again. During a cycle of green-flag pit stops in Stage 2, Hocevar blended back onto the track directly behind the race-leading Heim, who immediately began aero-blocking to keep the No. 77 Chevrolet pinned behind him.
The defensive driving clearly got under Hocevar‘s skin. A few laps later, as Heim peeled to pit road for service, Hocevar pulled alongside and flashed the middle finger out the window before continuing. Heim ended up with the last laugh, flashing his new Brickyard 400 championship ring on the post-race show before being asked about the incident with Hocevar, saying he “handed him a big fat L.”
“I‘m just a fan, wanted to wave at him,” Hocevar told USA Sports. “He‘s No. 1, he won. It‘s fun, we don‘t like each other, but we race really hard, and his stuff is super fast, obviously with the car he‘s in — he does a really good job with it. I‘m looking forward to when we get our stuff a little better, being in front of him and, you know, maybe holding him up.”
Heim seemed almost annoyed by the constant push of a rivalry in his post-race presser at Indy, however.
“Where did he finish today? … You guys love talking about a guy who finished ninth. I mean, holy crap,” Heim said. “Yeah, I mean, all I did was make sure he stayed behind me, and I did, and I finished in front of him. I don‘t worry about a narrative or a genre. Like, he‘s got a ton of talent, and he‘s going to win a lot of races, and I‘m focused on myself and trying to do the same. That‘s really all there is to it.”
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Monday after the race, Heim went on the “Door, Bumper, Clear” podcast and had more words for Hocevar: “In honor of Carson, I‘ve got my ring on my middle finger.”
A clash between these two in 2027 feels inevitable, but judging by the way things keep escalating, the next chapter probably isn‘t very far away.
Despite a tumultuous rookie year at the Cup Series level, the 20-year-old driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet remains one of the early rumored candidates for a coveted seat at Hendrick Motorsports for the 2028 season.
MORE: Cup Series standings | Indianapolis results
In a Monday appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Trackhouse team owner Justin Marks addressed the recent rise in attention Zilisch has received since Hendrick Motorsports and Alex Bowman announced Bowman‘s impending retirement following the 2027 campaign.
“He‘s probably coveted for everybody,” Marks said on “SiriusXM Speedway” with host Dave Moody. “He‘s a very talented driver. He‘s a very smart young man. He‘s got a big career in front of him. And I think for us, we are committed to Connor; Connor is committed to us through the end of 2027. And 2028, although it‘ll be here quickly, is a little too far away I think for us to be spending a lot of bandwidth on at the moment. Because what we‘re trying to solve for right now is get him the experience, get him comfortable. We‘ve got a great relationship with Red Bull and a lot of our other partners on the Chevrolet that he drives, and it‘s important for us to be executing on the agreement and the relationship and partnership that we have now.”
ud83dudc40 “2028 [. . .] is a little too far away I think for us to be spending a lot of bandwidth on at the moment.”@TeamTrackhouse owner Justin Marks on the rumors about @ConnorZilisch‘s future after 2027.
Full Interview u27a1ufe0f https://t.co/MKhd9eLpQA pic.twitter.com/6Df51UmE2m
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) July 28, 2026
Zilisch won 10 times in the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series last season before finishing second in the final standings. However, that success has yet to translate to the Cup Series, where Zilisch has finished outside the top 30 in seven of his last 10 starts, with six DNFs due to crashes.
“I think that it‘s on Trackhouse to continue to work really, really hard to try to give him good race cars,” Marks said. “It‘s on him to continue to do the work to be prepared and to show up and be the best race-car driver that he can be. I think 2027 can be a really big year for him and for us. (He‘ll have) a whole year under his belt and he can go to all these races for the second time or third or fourth time and really know what he‘s up against. And I say all that to say that that‘s really where our mind is at right now. I think when it comes time to talk about the future, we‘ll have that conversation with him knowing that he‘s a highly sought-after driver.”
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
As teams seek a path toward a possible future with Zilisch, Marks is keen on making Trackhouse Zilisch‘s most attractive option.
“I think that those conversations around him probably want to start sooner rather than later, and it‘s our job to present ourselves as a place that he wants to be,” Marks said. “And if that happens and he‘s at Trackhouse for a while into the future, great. If something different happens, then that‘s the way it goes. We‘ll all go on and try to be the best that we can be. But right now, I just want to try to get him up the order and hopefully get him in Victory Lane while he‘s contracted with us now.”
]]>Smith is a nine-time winner in Truck Series competition, collecting four of those victories with Front Row since joining the program ahead of the 2025 season.
MORE: Truck Series standings
Smith has one win and four top fives in his last six starts, including a fourth-place finish Friday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
“Chandler Smith will not return to Front Row Motorsports in 2027,” the team said in a statement posted to its social media platforms. “We would like to extend our gratitude to Chandler for being a great representative of our Craftsman Truck Series program. The list of accomplishments that he and (the) No. 38 team have obtained are impressive, with four wins to-date over the past two seasons, and we wish him the best on his continued career path.”
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Smith, 24, has two victories this year in the Truck Series, winning the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in addition to a dominant performance at North Wilkesboro Speedway on July 18. Smith currently sits third in points, 153 points behind series leader and teammate Layne Riggs.
The Georgia native has previously competed full-time in the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2023 and 2024, combining for three wins, 25 top fives and 36 top 10s in 71 total starts. Additionally, Smith has made three starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, posting top 20s in each of his appearances with a best finish of 11th at Talladega Superspeedway in 2023.
]]>RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Cup Series standings
Analysis: Corey Heim may have stolen the Brickyard spotlight, but Hamlin still had a productive day alongside his employee and strengthened his claim to the No. 1 Chase seed. No. 11 finished fifth, ranked third in speed and collected his seventh top five in the last 10 races to expand his regular-season lead over Tyler Reddick — another employee of his — to 84 points. Indianapolis did expose one recurring concern, however: Hamlin controlled the late restart but could not hold off Heim when the race was ultimately decided — another clutch restart that slipped away. Iowa has somehow been equally troublesome, producing 24th-place finishes in both Cup races there thus far. The off week gives the championship leader time to address one of his few weaknesses before returning to one of the few tracks that has given him nothing.
Analysis: Reddick‘s Indianapolis result was perfectly respectable, particularly after battling his own car in practice Friday, but 10th place did nothing to stem Hamlin‘s growing advantage atop the standings. He ran near the front early and gained ground relative to The Chase cut, but lost another 16 points to the leader as a once-firmly held regular-season crown continues slipping further out of reach. Iowa has not provided much relief to date, either, with finishes of 22nd and 19th in the first two Cup visits. Reddick remains safely clinched and still owns the most victories in the series, but the next month is increasingly about rediscovering the overwhelming force that controlled the first half of the year before the misses start becoming truly costly.
Analysis: Gibbs climbs into the top three after another performance that was substantially stronger than the final result suggests. The No. 54 won Stage 1, finished third in Stage 2, ranked second in speed and led 46 laps before strategy and late restarts shuffled him to 12th. More importantly, Gibbs officially clinched his Chase berth and now owns a career-best nine top fives and 14 top 10s through just 22 races. His Cup finishes at Iowa — 25th and 21st — leave plenty to improve upon, but he won both ARCA Menards Series races he entered there. This is no longer a promising season searching for legitimacy; Gibbs is now firmly among the drivers everyone else will have to deal with this fall, and a championship is very much on the table.
Analysis: Blaney‘s Brickyard afternoon ended in the Turn 3 pileup and a 26th-place finish, dropping him one spot here and costing him some momentum heading into the off weekend. It also officially closed the book on his In-Season Challenge pursuit in the finale against Todd Gilliland, though a clinched postseason berth and the most top 10s in the series at the break offer ample consolation. Iowa should restore the swagger quickly. Blaney dominated the inaugural Cup race there in 2024, leading 201 laps, then returned to finish fourth with another 29 circuits out front last season. Few track-driver-team pairings on the schedule are as straightforward as this one, and the week off gives Team Penske ample time to prepare for a very obvious rebound opportunity.
Analysis: Briscoe has a bit of work remaining in the standings, but his surge has officially made him the hottest driver in the garage. Fourth at Indianapolis gave him top-four finishes in four of the last five races, and the No. 19 team again maximized its opportunity with the race‘s top-ranked pit crew. Iowa arrives as another venue with real history attached: Briscoe led 81 laps and finished second there last season, in addition to prior victories in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and ARCA Menards Series. A driver who sat 15th in these rankings earlier this year is now fifth and probably wishes the off weekend were anywhere else on the schedule so he could keep riding this high.
Analysis: Hocevar‘s first Brickyard pole quickly became something more than a ceremonial achievement and nearly sent him to everlasting prominence. The No. 77 launched into a quick 2.5-second lead, paced the opening 31 laps and ultimately finished ninth, moving to fifth in The Chase standings and sixth here. Oh yeah, and his gesture toward Heim as the eventual winner came to pit road added another very public chapter to a rivalry that no longer requires much interpretation. These dudes don‘t like each other. Iowa has already produced a tidy upward line for Hocevar, from 14th as a rookie to eighth last season. The consistency is becoming every bit as real as the speed — and the rivalry with Heim may be becoming just as real as both.
Analysis: It is becoming increasingly difficult to determine whether Bell should feel encouraged or tortured, though he was more upbeat after this runner-up than the previous five this year. He climbed from 23rd to second at Indianapolis, ranked first on restarts and closed to within one car length of Heim before finishing just 0.287 seconds short — his sixth runner-up result in a Toyota-dominant year in which he somehow remains winless. Per Racing Insights, Bell‘s six runner-up finishes are tied for the second most ever in a winless NASCAR season, matching Kyle Larson in 2018 and Terry Labonte in 1982. (Harry Gant holds the mark with seven in 1981.) Iowa adds more fuel to both sides of the argument: Bell finished fourth in the inaugural Cup race but only 17th last year, though he previously won consecutive O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series races there. We‘ve gone past the point of ordinary frustration and are heading toward historically weird territory.
Analysis: Elliott‘s recent slide reached its ugliest point at Indianapolis, where contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sent him into the wall and eventually to a 37th-place finish. The No. 9 still ranked second in passing and remains 155 points above The Chase cut, but he has now fallen from fifth to eighth in these rankings over two weeks while the front of the field grows more crowded. Iowa offers a decent but not overwhelming recovery case after finishes of third and 14th in the two Cup races there. The standings provide breathing room; the off week should be used to determine why one of the season‘s early heavyweights has lately become so easy to overlook.
Analysis: Larson‘s Indianapolis wreck transformed an already strange season into a full Hendrick Motorsports concern, as its three drivers among these rankings fell to their lowest spots of the season. No. 5 ranked fourth in speed before a left-rear tire failure sent him hard into the wall and left him last, his third finish of 34th or worse in four races. Larson is now winless in 46 straight starts, and Hendrick has gone three consecutive races without placing any car inside the top 10. Iowa unfortunately reads like a preview: Larson led 80 laps in the inaugural race before crashing and finishing 34th, then returned last year and finished 28th. His 637 laps led still demonstrate championship-level speed, but the gap between potential and production is not just Larson‘s problem. It is starting to define the entire organization‘s 2026 campaign at a crucial time.
Analysis: Buescher continues to live in the space between good season and genuine title threat. He finished 11th at Indianapolis, scored Stage 1 points and increased his Chase cushion to 133, but again lacked the unmistakable front-running presence that would push him back toward the first half of these rankings that he saw earlier this year. The Cup results at Iowa have been similarly modest — 18th with 16 laps led in 2024 and 22nd last season — though Buescher won there in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series. Still, the No. 17 team remains wonderfully difficult to knock down and just so darn consistent. The remaining question is whether it can still rise meaningfully higher.
Analysis: Suárez‘s 17th-place Brickyard finish undersold another race in which the No. 7 showed more substance than the final line. He ranked fifth in both passing and defense, ninth in speed and scored points in both stages before losing track position through the later strategy swings. His Iowa resume is split cleanly between a ninth-place result in 2024 and 25th last season, and the current Spire Motorsports version of Suárez remains a little difficult to project from one week to the next. Still, 103 points above The Chase cut with four races remaining is a strong place to be, and his season has repeatedly demonstrated that ordinary-looking weekends can become much more interesting in a hurry.
Analysis: The Logano revival has officially moved beyond a one-track North Wilkesboro phenomenon. He followed the victory with a third-place finish at Indianapolis, climbing 16 positions through a well-timed two-tire call and extending his season-best top-10 streak to three races. That surge has carried him from below The Chase cut to 65 points above it and from 18th to 12th in these rankings in only two weeks. Iowa has been reliably productive as well, with finishes of sixth and ninth in the two Cup events. The three-time champion spent much of the season circling the postseason picture from the outside; suddenly, it looks far more likely that The Chase field could, somehow, once again revolve around him. 
Analysis: SVG‘s Indianapolis race was hardly another North Wilkesboro revelation, but 16th was still a functional afternoon at a track that offered little familiarity or obvious advantage. He gained three points on The Chase cut and now sits 57 above it; a meaningful cushion with the road-course-heavy portion of the regular season behind him. Iowa represents a sharper challenge after he finished 31st in his lone Cup start there last year. The encouraging counterargument is that SVG has already produced top-six oval finishes at Nashville, EchoPark and North Wilkesboro this season. The floor remains uneven, but any assumption that every unfamiliar oval will expose him is aging rapidly.
Analysis: Indianapolis delivered another muted finish for Byron and that Chase cut is a little too close for comfort, but the next stop could hardly be more accommodating. He finished 21st at Indy despite ranking first in passing and carrying the third-ranked pit crew for the race, gaining four points against The Chase cut without ever threatening the win. Iowa, however, is where the No. 24 finished second in the inaugural Cup event, then returned last season to lead 141 laps and win. Byron remains without a victory and only 88 points above the cut, an uncomfortable position for someone who opened the year looking like a championship favorite. The defending Iowa winner now gets two weeks to prepare for the most obvious get-right spot left on the regular-season schedule.
Analysis: One year after winning the Brickyard 400, Wallace left Indianapolis with one of his rougher afternoons of the summer. The No. 23 finished 28th after a problematic final pit stop that included contact with crew members, losing nine points against the cut and slipping to 60 above it. Iowa provides a potentially useful recovery spot, though, after Wallace improved from 17th in 2024 to sixth last season. The recent run still includes four finishes of sixth or better across the last eight races, so this is not a collapse. It is, however, an ill-timed reminder that The Chase cushion is still small enough for one messy day to matter.
Analysis: Cindric‘s Indianapolis result did not attract much attention, but 14th and five additional points against the cut were perfectly acceptable in the bubble fight he is trying to survive. His margin now sits at 38 points, with Cindric the final name on our standings page above the yellow line. Iowa produced one of the worst finishes of his 2024 season at 30th, but No. 2 improved to 12th and led 20 laps there last year. That progress needs to continue because Logano‘s resurgence has removed one potential postseason opening, leaving his teammate Cindric to protect the last available seat with increasingly little room for error.
Analysis: Preece finally turned a major charge into the kind of result his Chase bid desperately required. Starting 34th, the No. 60 navigated the Indianapolis strategy shuffle to finish eighth, gaining 10 points against the cut and trimming the deficit to 38. Iowa should inspire considerably more confidence than most remaining venues: Preece finished fifth there last season and previously won an O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series race at the 0.875-mile track. The path is still difficult, but it no longer requires a miracle. A repeat of last year‘s Iowa performance would place real pressure on Cindric and everyone immediately above him.
Analysis: Keselowski‘s season finally has something resembling momentum, and it has arrived at the last plausible moment. Sixth at Indianapolis followed seventh at North Wilkesboro, giving the No. 6 consecutive top 10s after an 11-race drought and cutting The Chase deficit to 50 points. Iowa may be his best remaining opportunity to turn that into an actual charge: Keselowski finished 10th in 2024, then led 68 laps and placed third last season, supplementing three prior O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series victories at the track. The hole remains significant, but this is no longer theoretical optimism built around an RFK-friendly stretch. The results have finally joined the argument.
Analysis: Jones slips two positions after Indianapolis further complicated a Chase pursuit that had already changed direction at North Wilkesboro. He finished 27th, lost another 11 points against the cut and now sits 44 below Cindric with four races remaining. The Cup record at Iowa — 32nd and 16th — offers limited encouragement, but Jones won consecutive Craftsman Truck Series races there before adding an O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series victory in 2016, so he clearly understands what the track asks of a driver. The problem is that the current margin no longer rewards understanding without a corresponding finish.
Analysis: McDowell enters the rankings after an Indianapolis afternoon that was better than 18th will ever advertise. He started sixth, finished third and eighth in the stages, ranked third on restarts and spent much of the race inside the top 10 before the final strategy sequence shuffled him backward. Iowa offers much less obvious optimism after finishes of 23rd and 27th, and The Chase deficit still stands at 76 points. Still, the No. 71 showed enough at the Brickyard to earn another look during the off week — especially as several drivers around the final ranking spot continue to provide very little worth looking at.
23XI Racing‘s part-time phenom has stolen the show this summer, erupting onto the scene to win two of the summer‘s biggest NASCAR Cup Series races, first in the inaugural race at Naval Base Coronado and again in Sunday‘s Brickyard 400 at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“For a part-time driver, it looks like they are doing a pretty great job,” said Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI, ninth on NASCAR‘s all-time Cup Series wins list.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Indy
Heim has firmly established himself as NASCAR‘s ‘Next One‘ — a can‘t-miss prospect who Hamlin bet on in 2024 by signing him to a driver-development contract. It‘s taken time for Heim‘s opportunities at the sport‘s top level to materialize. But after 15 starts, he‘s proven that patience is indeed a virtue.
“On Corey specifically, we‘ve really got to tip our hat to his maturity and his discipline,” Dave Rogers, competition director of 23XI Racing, told NASCAR.com in Victory Lane. “You know, turning down full-time rides — he could have been in cars full time this year. He chose to be patient, do it right, come through our development program and prepare for each of these events very thoroughly. And I think we‘re showing that it‘s paying off, so he deserves a lot of credit for that discipline.”
With a full season of Cup Series competition awaiting him in 2027, when he‘ll slot into the No. 35 car full time for 23XI, Heim has already won more this season than many of the Cup Series‘ best, including second-place finisher Christopher Bell and third-place driver Joey Logano, a three-time Cup champion. To do so on the sport‘s biggest stages of 2026 — including laps led in his Daytona 500 debut in February — signifies a mental prowess that allows Heim to perhaps be the Cup Series‘ first turnkey prospect in the Next Gen era.
“Just a lot of prep, man. A lot of mental prep, a lot of physical prep,” Heim said. “Just really happy to be a part of this organization of 23XI and Toyota. They‘re at the top of their game right now, and once again, talking about what I said earlier, if I can just execute and do what I need to do, the cars have so much speed right now that it just speaks for themselves. And I‘ve done a not-so-great job at some of the races. Like Nashville is one that sticks out to me. I was probably destined to finish anywhere between second and fifth that race, if not maybe getting lucky on that last restart and winning the race, so that was a tough one. That was like our best shot at having a good run, and ever since then, I‘ve just kind of elevated my prep and game to make sure I don‘t make these like vital mistakes throughout the race anymore. It just takes 100% out of me, and I‘m trying to get it.”
MORE: Full Brickyard 400 recap | Watch NASCAR video highlights
The stats in his three starts since Nashville Superspeedway support his theory, with two wins and a ninth-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway as evidence. Across those eight starts, Heim is averaging 28.5 points per race — a clip that outpaces Chase Briscoe (28.3), who sits seventh in the series points standings.
What‘s more notable about Heim‘s development is his obvious versatility. His victories have come at two vastly different styles of tracks — one a street course in its inaugural year with myriad unknowns, another at a tried-and-true oval that teams have decades of experience at.
“It‘s two totally different race tracks that we‘ve been able to execute on,” Heim said. “Just being here at the Brickyard just means so much. Even just being able to start the race, I remember getting goosebumps on the grid with the flyover — not even thinking about the result of the race and whatever it would be in a couple hours from then. But yeah, to come here and win, it‘s absolutely surreal. I mean, I just couldn‘t fathom telling myself as a little kid that I was going to be a crown-jewel winner one day. So to sit here and be able to soak that all in, it‘s a really special feeling for sure.”
Crew chief Bootie Barker has emphasized Heim‘s talent and work ethic in his short time working with Heim. But even he was impressed with how poised the 24-year-old remained with championship-caliber drivers breathing down his neck in the stretch run of the Brickyard 400.
“This is the most difficult race to win,” Barker said. “For Indy, you must have everything right and make no mistakes, and you have to execute the whole weekend. So even when he got the (lead) back, I knew here the problem is if you‘re in traffic, to be good, you tend to get tight, so then when you get up front, it‘s going to be loose. It‘s going to be the same for everybody, and (there‘s) not so much I can do about it. But in other words, when he was in position, he knew how disciplined he was able to (be). The mental fortitude to nail every corner — it was difficult. I‘m telling you, what he just did was incredibly difficult. But that‘s kind of what it takes.”
Lurking in his tire tracks, Bell was waiting on a mistake from Heim to pounce for the lead. Heim had one notable slide through Turn 4 that allowed Bell to close the gap, but the run never properly materialized.
“Corey put together a magnificent last run,” Bell said. “He was loose. My guys were saying he was loose. I could kind of see him wiggling a little bit. He did a great job, and he didn‘t make a mistake and won the race. He did good.”
MORE: Heim, Hocevar duel at the Brickyard
Despite making 14 fewer starts than his competitors this season, the reigning NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion remains plenty busy even when he isn‘t slated to run a Cup race on a given week.
“He‘s one of the hardest-working drivers in the business, so he capitalizes on every opportunity,” Rogers said. “He doesn‘t sit around for two weeks and then prepare the third. He‘s preparing all three weeks between events, or however many weeks he has. He does drive the TRD wheelforce transfuser car, but those tests are limited. He really spends a lot of time in Toyota‘s DIL simulator, so a lot of sim time, which puts him hand-in-hand with our race engineers. He‘s getting a lot of exposure to our race engineers, which makes him very familiar with this setup and how the car is going to handle when he gets there. I dare say he probably has more simulator laps than anyone when we unload, so he‘s capitalizing on the time that he has available to him, which I‘m not convinced that all drivers would do that.”
With such a marvelous start to his Cup career, the expectations for his full-time opportunity will be sky high. Heim has remained firm on not letting external factors impact his preparation or execution, exuding a confident but steady demeanor with results to back it. But right now, the ceiling for his success seems “unlimited,” Rogers said.
“Right now, if you look at it, we have a really good program with Toyota and the Joe Gibbs Toyotas and 23XI Toyotas,” Rogers said. “It‘s really fast, and it doesn‘t always stay that way, right? We know that the other OEMs are going to work really hard, and they‘re going to find an advantage. And this sport goes in cycles, and right now it‘s our turn. So you can‘t forecast too far, other than knowing that the Hendricks of the world are working very hard to catch us. But right now our cars are very strong, and Corey has a tremendous amount of talent. If we keep doing what we‘re supposed to do, and he keeps doing what he‘s supposed to do, I don‘t think there is a ceiling. I think he can do great things in this sport.”
]]>Heim handled it just fine, surging to the lead late and winning the Brickyard 400 Sunday afternoon to score his first crown-jewel victory in the NASCAR Cup Series and second win in just his 15th career start, all on a part-time schedule.
MORE: Race results | At-track photos
Heim was busy heading to pit road when the one-finger salute sailed out the window from Hocevar‘s No. 77 Chevrolet, so it wasn‘t until Heim was with the crew of TNT Sports‘ post-race show that he learned his adversary signaled anything at all. Fresh off a Victory Lane celebration, Heim was unfazed.
“Handed him a big fat L,” Heim quipped.
Hocevar just wanted to acknowledge a rival in passing.
“I‘m just a fan, wanted to wave. He‘s number one. He won,” Hocevar said. “It‘s fine. We don‘t like each other, but we race really hard and his stuff‘s super fast, obviously. Yeah, the car he‘s in, but he does a really, really good job with it. I‘m looking forward to, when we get our stuff a little better, being in front of him, and maybe holding him off.”
The on-track action was certainly a storyline. Heim and Hocevar were both fighting inside the top five when battling for position, and Heim eventually needed to block Hocevar‘s momentum. Despite their history — which dates back to heated clashes in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series — none of the action at Indianapolis was personal.
“I was blocking him, not really too bad, I thought,” Heim said. “I mean, I was trying to just hold my position, and I never threw like a bad block. I was just trying to protect my entry, and he didn‘t like it, but he lost, and I won, so I don‘t really care.”
Hocevar added that their strengths on the track factor into how often they battle each other — and why those interactions sometimes go awry.
WATCH: Hocevar still sour after P9 | Watch NASCAR video highlights
“We‘re both good at manipulating air, so a lot of times, we‘re just pissing each other off,” Hocevar said. “I mean, clearly for him, he won, so he don‘t care. But for me today, I‘m like, damn it. It just makes it more difficult than some of the other guys in the field you can take advantage of. So it‘s just like, damn! I wish they were still holding him out and running him part-time because that‘s eventually a car I‘ll have to race.”
Indeed, Heim will join the full-time Cup ranks in 2027, driving the No. 35 Toyota for 23XI Racing. And after he was posed with a third question about Hocevar in his post-race winner‘s press conference, Heim emphasized Hocevar was not a topic occupying much space in his brain.
“Where did he finish today? … You guys love talking about a guy who finished ninth. I mean, holy crap,” Heim said. “Yeah, I mean, all I did was make sure he stayed behind me, and I did, and I finished in front of him. I don‘t worry about a narrative or a genre. Like, he‘s got a ton of talent, and he‘s going to win a lot of races, and I‘m focused on myself and trying to do the same. That‘s really all there is to it.”
]]>Johnson, owner of Legacy Motor Club, will pilot the No. 48 Toyota in an agreement with Hendrick Motorsports to allow Johnson the fitting sendoff.
RELATED: Buy tickets to 2027 Daytona 500 | Watch NASCAR video highlights
“This is far more than a number,” Johnson said in a release. “The 48 represents people, relationships, memories and a chapter of my life that shaped who I am. To have the opportunity to make one final Cup Series start carrying that number is something I never imagined. I‘m incredibly grateful to Rick, Hendrick Motorsports, Ally and everyone who made this possible. It‘s a gesture I‘ll carry with me forever.”
The entirety of Johnson‘s illustrious full-time NASCAR career came while driving the No. 48 car at Hendrick Motorsports, collecting each of his 83 race wins and seven championships with that number donning the side of his vehicle.
A two-time Daytona 500 champion and four-time Brickyard 400 winner, Johnson made his Cup Series debut in the No. 48 car in 2001 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and carried the number in 686 of his 702 career starts, making his most recent appearance in the No. 48 in the 2020 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
“The No. 48 is part of Hendrick Motorsports‘ history, and it‘s forever connected to Jimmie,” Hendrick, the owner of Hendrick Motorsports, said in a release. “When Jimmie asked about using the number for his final race, it just felt right. Ally immediately understood why it mattered, too. They‘ve always valued relationships, and their willingness to be part of this says everything about the kind of partner they are. Seeing Jimmie back in the No. 48 at Daytona one last time will be quite a moment.”
MORE: Jimmie Johnson through the years
Since returning to NASCAR in 2023, Johnson has 16 part-time starts for Legacy, all while driving the No. 84 car. Johnson has led 18,941 laps in his career but none since piloting the No. 84. His return to the No. 48 for one final race creates the opportunity to add to his already enshrined legacy with a number near and dear to his heart.
Alex Bowman is the current driver of the No. 48 car for Hendrick Motorsports. In conjunction with Johnson‘s reunion with the number he made famous, Bowman will instead drive a different numbered car to be determined later for the 2027 Daytona 500. Bowman announced Thursday the 2027 season will be his last before retiring from full-time NASCAR competition.
This story will be updated.
]]>“We were fortunate to get that lead on that jump [of the penultimate restart], so you start thinking about [whether] it‘s possible,” Hamlin said.
But the final caution flew on Lap 120 when John Hunter Nemechek tangled with Ryan Blaney entering Turn 3. Hamlin‘s comfortable lead vanished, leaving him alongside his 23XI Racing driver Corey Heim for the ensuing restart.
That‘s when everything unraveled — not only for Hamlin, but for Joe Gibbs Racing.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos
Before getting inside the restart zone on a Lap 126 reboot, three JGR drivers — Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe in order — started playing bumper tag on the inside line. Hamlin was vulnerable as the leader, not wanting to get called for a restart violation. When he accelerated, Joey Logano, the second car on the outside line, gave Heim a push to clear Hamlin for the lead, blocking Hamlin to the apron off Turn 2.
Hamlin lost momentum down the backstretch as the No. 11 Toyota plummeted to fifth within a single lap; he remained there for the final 34 circuits. Meanwhile, Heim scored his second signature victory of the summer, also winning last month at Naval Base Coronado.
“It‘s on the JGR guys that didn‘t execute the restart very well,” Hamlin said of the organization‘s collective loss. “I had [Bell] pushing me like 500 yards before the restart zone, and I can‘t go until we get to the restart zone. He said he was getting shoved by [Briscoe] way, way, way back there.
“I don‘t know, just definitely didn‘t time it very well. Into (Turn) 2, I‘m in the [marbles], and we‘re not going to make a good corner. Everyone is fighting to try to win.”
WATCH: Bell on runner-up | Briscoe talks top-four finish | Hamlin chats about P5
Bell stalked Heim in the closing laps but never found a way around him, crossing the start/finish line second for the sixth time in 22 races this season.
Ironically, Bell‘s plan on the final restart wasn‘t to challenge for the lead. It was to push Hamlin there.
“It obviously didn‘t work out for Denny. Briscoe got onto me way early, and I was into Denny and Denny can‘t go before the line,” Bell said. “It was very poorly timed between the three of us. It worked out for me, it didn‘t work out for him, but we certainly could have executed that better.”
Briscoe took the checkered flag in fourth position, though he thought he was in position to capitalize on the poorly-executed restart. Down the backstretch on the launch, Logano side-drafted him, dropping the No. 19 Toyota back to defend Hamlin for the remainder of the race.
Briscoe‘s mindset for the re-rack was to shove Bell into Hamlin so the three of them could have the best shot at delivering the crown-jewel victory for JGR. Instead, it got discombobulated; the organization hasn‘t won at Indianapolis since 2016 when Kyle Busch won his second consecutive Brickyard 400.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
“I was shoving the 20, just trying to get him and the 11; if we all stay connected, that would have been the best chance,” Briscoe told NASCAR.com after the race. “I don‘t know if that hurt us or not; I haven‘t watched it back.
“It‘s all about the restart and execution, and I thought we did a good job of that [throughout the race]; we just needed a little bit more.”
It wasn‘t the first time Joe Gibbs Racing let a crown-jewel opportunity slip away because of late-race coordination in 2026. Toyota dominated the Coca-Cola 600 in May, but Hamlin and Bell battled each other at the front of the field, allowing Daniel Suárez to clear before inclement weather ended the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway 27 laps before the scheduled distance. Bell settled for second in that one, too.
MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule
“We talked about what we can do better in pushing situations,” Hamlin said. “At Charlotte, we didn‘t do great. I thought we‘ve had a few that were certainly good, like the one before when we got the lead; [Bell] did a really good job of getting us to the lead.
“These things are about timing, and we just didn‘t time it right.”
Another opportunity slipped away at Indianapolis for Hamlin. He now owns seven top-five finishes in 18 Brickyard 400 starts but is still searching for his first chance to kiss the bricks.
]]>In a race that produced an unexpected winner and an unexpected millionaire, Heim held off Christopher Bell and Joey Logano over the final 34-lap green-flag run on Sunday to win his second Cup Series race in his 15th start.
Not bad for a part-timer who won‘t step into a full-time seat with 23XI Racing until next year. Heim, who won at Naval Base Coronado in June, was driving the No. 67 Toyota for the eighth time this season in his first visit to the Brickyard.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Indy
“Yeah, that was a damn handful,” Heim said of the final run. “I was hanging on for dear life once the shade went down and the pace picked up. My car got really loose. And I had never really been in a lot of clean air throughout the day, so that was the hardest I‘ve ever fought in my life to just make sure I focused on exits and kept them (Bell and Logano) in dirty air.
“I‘m pretty out of breath. That was a workout. It was a dream come true. Winning at the Brickyard. That‘s unbelievable. Caught a break early with the pit cycle. And just executed all day. Made no mistakes.”
In the finals of the Cup Series In-Season Challenge, 25th-seeded Todd Gilliland took advantage of third-seeded Ryan Blaney‘s unfortunate wreck on Lap 120 to win the $1-million winner-take-all prize by two positions, 24th to Blaney‘s 26th.
Blaney was comfortably ahead in the race for the Challenge bounty when his No. 12 Ford turned off the nose of John Hunter Nemechek‘s Toyota to ignite an accident that collected nine cars.
IN-SEASON CHALLENGE: Recap championship round at Indy
“It feels really good,” said Gilliland, who survived five rounds to prevail in the Challenge. “Obviously, we wish we ran a little bit better than 24th today, but we did what we had to do. Really, that was the name of our game all the way throughout this Challenge. We just barely skated by.
“We were obviously a bit lucky, but we still stuck out these races. We did the best we could, and luckily it was good enough, just barely every single round. It‘s a big prize. One million dollars going to the team. That‘s just massive.”
The restart on Lap 127 — after the nine-car wreck that ruined Blaney‘s chances in the In-Season Challenge — made all the difference in the outcome of the race.
Leader Denny Hamlin chose the preferred inside lane, while Heim picked the outside. Hamlin had two of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Bell and Chase Briscoe, behind him on the bottom row, but they failed to organize a coordinated push.
Heim, on the other hand, got a strong, sustained shove from Logano in the top lane and barely cleared Hamlin before slipping in front of his 23XI Racing team owner and stalling his momentum. Hamlin fell to fifth in the running order behind Heim, Bell, Logano and Briscoe, and that‘s the way the race ended more than 30 laps later.
In the final green-flag run, Heim slipped noticeably only once — entering Turn 1 on Lap 198 — and allowed Bell to close within a car length.
But by keeping Bell‘s No. 20 Toyota in dirty air, Heim extended his advantage over the final two trips around the 2.5-mile track and crossed the famous “Yard of Bricks” 0.287 seconds ahead of the JGR driver, who finished second for the sixth time this season without a win.
Bell had nothing but praise for the 24-year-old race winner.
“Honestly, I didn‘t think I was going to be able to get there at all,” Bell said. “My guys were telling me he was going loose. I knew really that was going to be my only opportunity; it was a mistake from him. I knew whatever it was, 35 laps, was a very long run. I just needed one bobble. If he had one bobble, I was going to be able to get there.
“Yeah, he did a great job. He showed excellent mental toughness. Put together 35 really good laps. I didn‘t have an opportunity.”
Hamlin rued the restart that cost him the chance to win the only Crown Jewel race that has eluded him.
“Yeah, everyone is trying to fight to win the race,” said Hamlin, who extended his series lead to 84 points over 10th-place finisher Tyler Reddick. “When you‘re clear by an inch, you‘re going to take that inch. It‘s really more on us and the 20 (Bell) and the 19 (Briscoe) of just not orchestrating good pushes there. We came detached at the wrong time.
“I thought the 20 obviously was on board with getting us the push. It was way too early before the restart zone. I can‘t go till we get to the restart zone. He said that Briscoe was on him way, way early or laying back, one of the two.
“Yeah, that‘s how you lose ‘em. These restarts, when everyone kind of knows when you‘re going to go, it‘s about the pushes. That‘s essentially where I got the lead from the 67, the restart before (on Lap 120). Just came back the other way around. I maybe was in there just a hair into Turn 2. (Heim) shut the door. I mean, yeah, everyone‘s fighting for a big Brickyard victory.”
Two other factors helped Heim‘s cause. He was on pit road on Lap 44 when Kyle Larson‘s wreck caused the first caution. Gaining spots as the field slowed for the yellow, Heim finished second in Stage 1 after a one-lap dash.
After a debris caution on Lap 114, Heim was first off pit road after running long in Stage 2 and needing a shorter stop for fuel. Though Hamlin regained the lead on the Lap 120 restart, Heim took it back on the restart that proved decisive.
Brad Keselowski finished sixth, followed by Josh Berry, Ryan Preece, pole winner Carson Hocevar and Reddick. Ty Gibbs won the first stage, led twice for 46 laps — second only to Heim‘s 58 — and clinched a spot in the Chase with a 12th-place finish.
Four races remain before the 16-driver Chase field is set.
Rotten luck continued to follow reigning series champion Kyle Larson, who maneuvered himself into a race-leading position with an early pit stop on Lap 28, only to have his strategy fall apart thanks to a blown left-rear tire 17 laps later.
When the tire lost air near the end of the backstretch, Larson‘s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet backed into the outside wall, severely damaging the car.
“It‘s obviously disappointing,” Larson said after his release from the infield care center. “To go from 10th to the lead on a good start and race strategy set ourselves up well to gain a lot of points there and set ourselves up well to maintain that track position the rest of the race.
“It‘s a bummer but just a part of racing … I had no warning. When I lifted, I felt it drop and spun.”
MORE: Cup standings | Cup schedule
Larson, coming off a 15th-place finish at North Wilkesboro after consecutive 34th-place results at Chicagoland and Atlanta‘s EchoPark Speedway, fell out of the race in last (39th) place.
On a star-crossed day for Hendrick Motorsports, Chase Elliott fared little better than his teammate. Racing in close quarters with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on Lap 60, Elliott slammed the outside wall just beyond the Turn 2 exit.
Attempts to repair the car on pit road proved futile, forcing Elliott to drive the No. 9 Chevrolet to the garage. Elliott returned to the track 41 laps down and finished 37th.
The Cup Series takes a week off and then heads to Iowa Speedway on Aug. 9 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with four races to go until The Chase.
STAGE 2
Ross Chastain took the Stage 2 checkered flag of Sunday‘s Brickyard 400 (watch live on TNT Sports, HBO Max) under caution after Daniel Dye crashed in Turn 3 on Lap 96.
Tempers flared as the continued saga of the Carson Hocevar-Corey Heim rivalry wrote its latest chapter.
Similarly to Stage 1, the No. 67 23XI Racing driver ran the stage long while most of the field came down pit road during the green-flag cycle. Hocevar came off pit road just behind Heim, who led the race at the time, trapping the No. 77 Spire Motorsports driver a lap down. Hocevar tried getting around the No. 67 early on fresh tires, but Heim threw a block to prevent the occurrence.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
As Heim came to pit road for service, Hocevar came down the track off Turn 4 and buzzed near the No. 67, giving a No. 1 gesture out the window to Heim.
Completing the top 10 in the second frame: Todd Gilliland, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Heim, Hocevar, Ryan Preece, Michael McDowell, Erik Jones and Daniel Suárez.
Early in Stage 2, Chase Elliott went to the garage after hitting the wall down the backstretch of the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The race claimed another Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet after the No. 9 made contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on Lap 60, turning Elliott into the wall. The contact bent a toe link on the right-rear of the No. 9, forcing the team to make extra repairs behind the wall.
MORE: Stage 2 results
Ty Gibbs led the field back to green for the start of Stage 2 after claiming the Stage 1 checkered flag.
STAGE 1
Gibbs took the Stage 1 checkered flag in Sunday‘s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway following a one-lap shootout to the line on Lap 50.
A dramatic twist unfolded late in the stage on Lap 45 as Kyle Larson, who was on his way to cycling to the lead and the stage victory after opening pit stops, had a tire go down entering Turn 3. The No. 5 Hendrick Chevrolet then spun and crashed into the outside retaining wall, bringing Larson‘s day to an abrupt end. He entered Sunday‘s race sixth in points.
MORE: Stage 1 results | Watch Gibbs clinch Stage 1 win
Corey Heim, Michael McDowell, Carson Hocevar and William Byron finished top five in the opening frame, while Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suárez, Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick completed the top 10 and those collecting stage points to open the crown-jewel event.
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Cup Series garage, confirming Corey Heim as the winner.
Contributing: Staff Report
The No. 34 driver — seeded 25th in the tournament — earns $1 million and bragging rights for surviving the five-week, 32-driver knockout bracket.
Gilliland earned a two-position victory after Blaney suffered damage in a Lap 120 crash.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Indy
“My heart was pounding those last 25 laps,” Gilliland said in a post-race press conference. “Seemed like one slipup and I was going to be right in front of the 12 or right behind him even coming down to the very end.
“I still feel like we kind of earned it coming down the stretch. Yeah, I think I kind of talked about it before, but the biggest thing for me that was really cool through this whole process was seeing how my team really elevated themselves, really grabbed another gear. They worked super, super hard, long hours for this week, just really ramped up throughout this whole In-Season Challenge. I think it‘s cool. They unlocked another level within themselves.”
Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Ford, led the fifth-year driver for most of the race. With 40 laps to go, he and John Hunter Nemechek made contact, resulting in a nine-car melee and damage to both ends of his car. Blaney came down pit road for repairs and restarted 30th on Lap 126.
“I was nose to tail with five other cars in front of me,” Gilliland explained of his thought process once Blaney spun. “I just see a little bit of yellow out of the right side of my eye. I was like, man, even if he just spins here, he‘s going to be back in the pack. Obviously it‘s pretty tough to pass once you get settled in. Then he hit the nose. I was like, All right, maybe that will slow him down a little bit. Maybe it did a little bit, but he was just as fast as us.
“It‘s one of those things where you never cheer against someone. After it‘s over with, you‘re like, All right, that definitely helped us out. Now we definitely need to take advantage of it.”
Gilliland, who refired 15th, dropped significantly over the final stint of the race, and Blaney got within two spots of him. But Blaney got no higher than 26th the rest of the race, and Gilliland won by two spots.
Blaney, who had the No. 3 seed, had finished no worse than 11th through the first four In-Season Challenge races. He advanced to the Champions Round with relative ease, as each of his four previous matchups was decided by eight or more positions. Notably, Blaney earned a berth in the semifinal Round 4 with a rousing, 171-lap led victory into the night at EchoPark Speedway to knock out No. 11 seed William Byron. He defeated No. 10 seed Christopher Bell last Sunday at North Wilkesboro to secure a spot in the championship.
Ultimately, that dominating early effort went for naught, as he also snapped an eight-race top-10 streak and dropped 33 points to Denny Hamlin in the quest for the top seed in The Chase.
MORE: In-Season Challenge hub
“Not a fun day,” Blaney told TNT Sports after the race. “It‘s a shame to end it that way; we‘re just kind of scrapping along, and yeah, it stinks. I wanted to put together a good run today, just try to have a shot to run well here, a place we try to run really well at, and unfortunately, it didn‘t go the way we wanted.
Gilliland had three top 20s during the event, including a banner eighth-place effort last week in an upset of Chase Elliott. Despite finishing 29th in the opener at Sonoma, he knocked out No. 8 seed Daniel Suárez before a 16th-place effort at Chicagoland propelled him past No. 9 seed Carson Hocevar — who suffered damage in an incident with Zane Smith. Gilliland benefited from a late-race crash at EchoPark to beat No. 32 seed Alex Bowman in Round 3, before setting up the Cinderella-like victories over two Cup champions in the final two rounds.
“When you‘re the 25th seed looking up at that mountain of we have to beat this guy or this guy, it seems like a very tall task,” Gilliland said. “Even for myself, I never really thought this was a realistic goal. When you get a little bit closer, you go past one round, two rounds, then you‘re in the final eight, final four, then the finale, it really ramps up a lot.
“It‘s cool. I think you kind of saw that with my team in the shop and everywhere. I honestly feel like they were more into it at the very beginning. They were like, ‘C‘mon, dude, we‘re in this thing.‘ I‘m like, ‘Yeah, there‘s still a long ways to go, though.‘ They definitely cared about it a ton from the very beginning.”
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Now up to 23rd in points with 14 races remaining this season — and a new contract in hand — Gilliland is hopeful this creates momentum beginning at Iowa (Aug. 9, 3:30 p.m. ET, USA Sports, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) after the off-week.
And he‘d certainly like to see the In-Season Challenge return in 2027.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Realistically, it‘s not going to be someone that is 23rd in points that makes a run through it. I think, obviously, we got super lucky along the way.
“We‘re racing against the best of the best every single week. That‘s the coolest thing. All of these guys are capable of so much. Hopefully I can do my job to the best of my ability and show them we can do that and close out the season strong.”
]]>Keselowski stated that the team exercised the 35-year-old driver‘s option after joining the organization on a multiyear contract.
RELATED: Key figures in Silly Season | Cup Series standings
“We had a multiyear contract with Ryan and we picked up his option a few months ago,” Keselowski said. “We‘re going to continue to keep him as a part of the family for a while.”
Preece, who joined RFK in 2025 after two years at Stewart-Haas Racing, is in his seventh full Cup Series season. He won 26 races and the 2013 championship in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, which helped launch his national-series career.
The highlight of Preece‘s year so far came at the outset, with a rousing victory in the preseason Cook Out Clash exhibition at Bowman Gray Stadium. He ranks 18th in the Cup Series standings this season, with a three-race stretch of DNFs from late May to early June bumping him from the provisional postseason picture.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Preece just missed the Cup Series playoffs in 2025, but assembled his strongest Cup Series campaign to date. The Connecticut native placed 18th in the final Cup standings, with a career-best three top-five finishes.
]]>Hocevar knew at that moment that Saturday‘s time trials at the historic 2.5-mile oval would not be a repeat of Michigan in June, when Hamlin, as the final qualifier, knocked Hocevar off the provisional pole at the 23-year-old‘s home track.
In fact, after earning his second Busch Light Pole Award of the season and the third of his career, Hocevar will lead the field to green in Sunday‘s Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO MAX, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Indy
“I got out of the car, and they were cheering,” Hocevar said of the crowd in the grandstands near the “Yard of Bricks” start/finish line. “I don‘t know if they were cheering for me or because I beat Denny (who qualified fifth at 185.835 mph).
“Denny stole one from me at Michigan. That‘s my home track, but this is my favorite track. I love Indy.”
With a pole-winning lap at 186.598 mph in the No. 77 Chevrolet, Hocevar edged Suárez (186.382 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.056 seconds. The session was a triumph for Spire Motorsports and owner Jeff Dickerson, an Indianapolis native.
With Michael McDowell qualifying sixth at 185.762 mph, Spire put all three of its cars within the first three rows of the grid.
“It felt really good,” Hocevar said of his blistering lap. “Michael McDowell went out early and gave me the confidence that the car was going to be able to stick with him putting up a good lap.
“I felt really comfortable. I love this place… You race differently if you‘re comfortable and confident here. I‘ve been confident since the first lap I‘ve been here.”
MORE: Friday‘s practice recap
Toyota driver Tyler Reddick posted the third fastest lap at 186.077 mph and will start next to Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Ty Gibbs (185.966 mph). Naval Base Coronado winner Corey Heim (185.456 mph) claimed the seventh starting spot, followed by Alex Bowman (185.368 mph), AJ Allmendinger (185.345 mph) and Kyle Larson (185.315 mph).
The top 10 featured six Chevrolets and four Toyotas. Ryan Blaney, competing against Todd Gilliland for the $1-million In-Season Challenge prize, drove the fastest Ford (185.197 mph) to a 13th-place starting spot. Gilliland qualified 36th at 182.460 mph.
Blaney will make his 400th career Cup Series start on Sunday.
Defending race winner Bubba Wallace (183.861 mph) earned the 29th grid position.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Suarez was ahead of Hocevar‘s pace early in his lap but lost time through the final two corners.
“I felt like I left a little bit out there,” Suárez said. “A little mistake in corner 3, but I‘m very proud of my team.”
]]>Location: Speedway, Indiana
Track length: 2.5 miles
When: 2 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 160 laps | 400 miles
Stages: 50 | 100 | 160
Sunday‘s starting lineup | Pit-stall assignments
No margin for error in pursuit of Indianapolis victory
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Excellence is rewarded at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After 400 grueling miles, the sport‘s biggest stars are those who usually end up smooching the grimy, oil-stained bricks after a long day‘s work.
Only three of the 39 drivers in Sunday‘s Brickyard 400 presented by PPG have experienced that coveted first kiss. Bubba Wallace is the most recent victor, snatching his third career Cup Series victory in the 2025 edition. Nine of the 29 prior winners of the crown jewel event went on to hoist the Bill France Cup at the end of the season, securing the championship. That coveted list includes Jeff Gordon (1998, 2001), Dale Jarrett (1999), Bobby Labonte (2000), Tony Stewart (2005), Jimmie Johnson (2006, 2008, 2009) and Kyle Busch (2015).
MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos
“It‘d be interesting to see, like, what other race tracks have similar stats like that,” Denny Hamlin, who has coined being raised in IMS‘ Victory Lane as the top of his bucket list of races left to win, said on Friday. “Ultimately, you have to kind of have everything. You have to have the downforce for the corner, so you have to have straightaway speed, so you need your engines, good for the straightaways. You have a great team to call a great race for strategy. You‘re going to need to qualify somewhat pretty well.
“There are not really any weaknesses, and there‘s probably four to five key components to a race team and their ability to win, and you had to have all five. (If) you come out on the last pit stop, last fuel stop, fifth or sixth, I mean, you‘re cooked.”
Ryan Blaney, the 2023 Cup Series champion, is aiming to deliver bossman and track owner Roger Penske his second Brickyard win. He concurs with Hamlin‘s thoughts, believing drivers need to be near perfect to have a chance at the end of the race. Qualifying is of the essence, with 15 of the 29 winners coming from a top-five starting position.
“I think everything has to be right here,” Blaney stated. “I think it‘s hard to come back after a mistake here, so I think that speaks to a lot of teams who can execute a full day, who can qualify well on Saturday, who can run a good race on the race track and on pit road and on the pit box. Teams that have all of that in line, I think those teams are very deserving of winning championships. That‘s just a good functioning group. Here, you can‘t afford any mistakes, and the best teams, while they are able to overcome a lot of mistakes, it‘s just hard to do here with the way the track is.”
MORE: Goodyear tire notes: Indianapolis
Two-time Cup champ Kyle Larson is among the three drivers in the field to win on the Indianapolis oval, alongside Wallace and Brad Keselowski. While track position is important at Indy, Larson drove through the field at a rapid pace in the closing stages of the 2024 event, moving from 12th to the lead in the final 32 laps en route to victory.
Larson knows that having the ideal team behind him helped score that triumph. If there is one weak link on that singular day, that driver is doomed.
“You know, everybody has to be on the top of their game to have a shot to win,” Larson added. “You have to have a fast car, which is all the things you need every weekend, but you have to have a fast car, good starts and restarts, pit stops, strategy. All of it has to come together here to have a good shot at winning.
“It‘s a really fun race because it does take everybody. I always enjoy this one. It‘s a crown jewel as well, so it just means a lot. When you win here, it just means more for the whole team.”
In the details …
One year ago, Ty Gibbs left Indianapolis Motor Speedway $1 million richer after winning the inaugural In-Season Challenge. He won‘t be so lucky this year, but he can accomplish another rare feat in 2026 by scoring his fifth straight top-10 finish.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Gibbs and Tyler Reddick are the only two drivers to have multiple streaks of four straight top 10s this season, and only Gibbs (seven) and Blaney (eight) have strung together more consecutive top 10s this season. Take a look at the longest top-10 streaks of 2026:
| Driver | Streak Length | Start | End |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan Blaney | 8 | Charlotte | Atlanta-2 |
| Ty Gibbs | 7 | COTA | Kansas |
| Kyle Larson | 4 | Michigan | Sonoma |
| Denny Hamlin | 4 | Charlotte | Pocono |
| Tyler Reddick | 4 | Texas | Nashville |
| William Byron | 4 | Phoenix | Martinsville |
| Tyler Reddick | 4 | Daytona | Phoenix |
| Ty Gibbs | 4 | Sonoma | (active) |
Speed reads
Race-day essentials:
• Indianapolis hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: See what crew chiefs have in mind at the Brickyard | Read more
• In-Season Challenge: Bracket, format, schedule and more for Sunday‘s final | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks ready for the Brickyard 400 spotlight | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: Breaking down North Wilkesboro and an Indy look-ahead | Listen now
• NASCAR Classics: Dig into the video vault for full-race replays from Indianapolis | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Chase Briscoe heads to home state with momentum | This week‘s ranks
Kvapil‘s emotional victory in Saturday‘s Pennzoil 250 presented by Take 5 Oil Change at Indianapolis Motor Speedway—one of the biggest stages in motorsports—had the driver shedding tears and team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. temporarily at a loss for words.
It was a day of milestones. With Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain and Chase Elliott in positions two through four, respectively, JR Motorsports scored the first four-driver sweep of an event in series history.
The victory was the 14th of the season for JRM with six different drivers, the latter number tying the record the organization set last year. For the 79th straight race, JR Motorsports placed at least one driver in the top 10, tying the record set by RFK Racing from 2008-2010.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Indy
“It means the world to me,” Kvapil said, as his No. 1 Chevrolet team climbed the frontstretch catchfence in celebration of the victory. “It‘s very emotional. I rode around on that lap backwards (after taking the checkered flag), and I sat there just thinking about all the hard work I‘ve put in—me and my dad Travis—to get to this point.
“And the faith (team principals) Dale Jr., L.W. Miller and Kelley Miller put behind me to give me this opportunity—a second chance, I guess you could say, to come back at it this year…. I‘m going to try not to cry too much. I‘ve already shed a few tears—just trying to hold it together right now.”
In an event that featured just one caution for an on-track incident, Kvapil passed Chastain on Lap 79 of 100 and held it the rest of the way. Allgaier powered past Chastain into second place on Lap 94 and closed his deficit to Kvapil to less than a car-length on the white-flag lap.
Crossing the Yard of Bricks with one lap left, Allgaier trailed by a scant 0.283 seconds, but his efforts to shrink the distance on the final circuit proved fruitless, and Kvapil crossed the stripe with a 0.643 second advantage to score his first victory.
Kvapil accomplished more than just a win. He moved into second place in the series standings, 265 points behind Allgaier, who already has clinched the already clinched the top Chase seed.
Kvapil also joined Allgaier and Jesse Love in the Chase with two regular-season races left—as did Sheldon Creed (eighth Saturday), Corey Day (seventh), Brandon Jones (ninth) and Austin Hill (10th).
Allgaier, a six-time winner this season, felt the race slipped away from him when his No. 7 Chevrolet fell from first to fourth after the Lap 67 start of the final stage.
“That was kind the difference maker for us, I feel like, over the day,” Allgaier said. “I guess, in some ways, we kind of set up to be good on long runs, and it showed through. That‘s why we were able to be really good at the end of that run…
“We made good adjustments. We did all the right things. We just came up a couple of laps short. I think if we have a couple more laps, if we have maybe a little bit different help from some of the lapped cars, there‘s things that we maybe could have done different.
“But again, super proud of Carson and the whole No. 1 team. He‘s done a really good job, and as a company, to do what we did today shows really where we‘re at and what we‘re able to accomplish, and for that I‘m super proud.”
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Crew chief Rodney Childers and the No. 1 team kept Kvapil in the mix from start to finish, but that was no surprise. While working as Kevin Harvick‘s crew chief, Childers fashioned two NASCAR Cup Series victories at the Brickyard.
Kvapil has cobbled the current season together in three different cars with three different teams—the Nos. 1 and 9 at JR Motorsports and the No. 91 fielded by Mario Gosselin for DGM Racing.
Saturday‘s victory was vindication of Kvapil‘s determination to sustain a career despite some imposing obstacles in his path.
With seven of 12 Chase positions now filled, the fight for the final spots intensified at Indy. After finishing 12th, Taylor Gray holds the final berth above the current cut line by seven points over Joe Gibbs Racing teammate William Sawalich and 20 over Rajah Caruth, who stayed out on old tires to win the second stage before finishing 22nd.
Just two races remain in the O‘Reilly Series before the Chase begins at Darlington Raceway. Up next is a date at Iowa Speedway on Aug. 8 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series garage, confirming Carson Kvapil as the winner. The Nos. 2 and 20 cars had one lug nut not safe and secure, which will result in loss of pit-stall selection for both teams at Iowa Speedway.
]]>The driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford led 198 of 200 laps, swept both stages and took the checkered flag 1.148 seconds ahead of persistent runner-up Connor Mosack to claim his second straight victory at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
“I think it‘s just a statement win,” Riggs said of his fifth triumph of the season and the 10th of his career. “What a truck! I was just on cruise control…”
As far as the series championship goes, Riggs pulled no punches.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Indy
“I think we‘re the ones to beat, for sure.”
Riggs‘ only bobble of the race came the Lap 72 restart after the first stage break. Choosing the preferred top lane for the restart, he spun the tires and allowed Front Row teammate Chandler Smith to take the lead for two laps.
On Lap 74, however, Riggs made an emphatic pass of Smith, diving underneath Smith‘s No. 38 truck entering Turn 1 and sliding up in front of his teammate in Turn 2. From that point on, Riggs maintained control, though Mosack was able to stay close in the closing laps.
Ty Majeski, a two-time winner at the 0.686-mile short track, finished third and remained solidly in sixth place in the Truck Series standings with two races left in the regular season. Smith came home third, having clinched a berth in the postseason Chase — joining Riggs and Kaden Honeycutt — with a third-place run in Stage 1. Christian Eckes and Gio Ruggiero also added their names to the list of those who have clinched berths in the Chase.
Driving the same Ford F-150 he raced in last year‘s IRP event, Riggs expanded his lead in the standings to 99 points over second-place Honeycutt, who pitted late for fresh tires and worked his way up to seventh by the end of Friday‘s race.
With a solid sixth-place run, Stewart Friesen broke a tie with Tyler Ankrum (ninth Friday) for 10th in the standings, the last Chase-eligible position. With two races left to decide the issue, Friesen holds an eight-point advantage over the driver of the No. 18 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet.
Daniel Hemric‘s hold on a Chase spot suddenly became more tenuous when he spun in Turn 3 to cause the only caution of the night for an on-track incident. With no way to escape the wreck, Landen Lewis plowed into Hemric‘s Chevy, eliminating both drivers from the race.
Hemric finished 34th, fell to ninth in the standings and leads Ankrum, the first driver below the current Chase cutline by only 14 points.
Nick Sanchez finished fifth in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. Driving the No. 1 Tricon Garage Toyota, 18-year-old Gavan Boschele ran eighth in his Truck Series debut.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
“I had a goal,” said Boschele, who will make his second start in the series Aug. 22 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “I told myself I wanted to run top-10, and we did that. I can‘t do without these guys — the No. 1 American Land Partners Toyota group helped me be really, really fast tonight.
“They a really good job to get me everything I needed and make me comfortable. Everyone on this team was really solid, so I‘m excited for the three more that I have left this year. We were really fast tonight.”
Friesen‘s teammate and fellow modified driver Michael Christopher Jr. came home 10th in his third Truck Series outing.
The Truck Series races next on Aug. 14 at Richmond Raceway (FS1, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Craftsman Truck Series garage, confirming Layne Riggs as the winner.
]]>Bell‘s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota posted a best lap of 183.512 mph in the first on-track activity ahead of Sunday‘s Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the 2.5-mile oval.
RELATED: Practice results | Weekend schedule: Indy
John Hunter Nemechek was second-fastest in the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota, clocking in at 183.180 mph. Ty Gibbs ranked third in practice, with Erik Jones and Cup Series points leader Denny Hamlin completing the top five in that order.
A handful of drivers encountered trouble early on in the 50-minute session. Defending Brickyard 400 winner Bubba Wallace was the first to find a snag with a scrape of the outside retaining wall in Turn 1. He took his No. 23 Toyota to the garage, where his 23XI Racing crew went to work on the car‘s right-side damage. Wallace was back on track with 20 minutes to go in practice, recording the 20th-fastest lap overall.
Austin Cindric‘s Team Penske crew also spent extra time in the garage after the No. 2 Ford lost power. TNT Sports reported that the team addressed an electrical issue. Though Cindric returned to the track halfway through the session, he was back in the garage with another apparent electrical issue near the end of practice.
Ryan Preece‘s No. 60 RFK Racing Ford also slowed when his left-rear tire went down with 22 minutes left in practice.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
The Cup Series returns to the track for Busch Light Pole Qualifying on Saturday (1:30 p.m. ET, truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
]]>“You want to be in the right place, going in the right direction as you start The Chase,” Reddick said on Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, moments after concluding a frustrating practice session that still was good enough for eighth on single-lap speed. “We really need to get out of whatever hole we‘ve found ourselves in.”
RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos
No driver over the last 39 seasons enjoyed a better start than Tyler Reddick‘s opening 14 races in 2026. His 5.6 average finish, highlighted by nine top-five finishes, was the best through the first 14 races of a season since Dale Earnhardt posted a 4.8 average in 1987. That blistering run produced an average of 44.6 points per race through the opening 15 events.
The last six races have told a much different story. Reddick has averaged just 17.5 points per race during that span, watching a commanding 129-point lead atop the regular-season standings disappear. He now trails Denny Hamlin by 68 points in the battle for the No. 1 seed for The Chase.
The sheer pace of Reddick‘s No. 45 Toyota hasn‘t been nearly as dominant over the last seven races as it was during the opening 14 events. Misfortune has also played a major role. Reddick was an innocent victim in a restart stack-up at Michigan International Speedway, suffered a downed tire while battling for the victory at Naval Base Coronado and endured mechanical issues at both Sonoma Raceway and Chicagoland Speedway. Last weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway, Reddick was collected in an incident with Alex Bowman while the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet entered pit road.
“It has been a little bit of hit or miss at times,” Reddick said of the No. 45‘s pace. “We just have to figure it out.”
It hasn‘t all been doom and gloom for the No. 45 team, but the recent stretch has been far from ideal. Reddick believes there is still time to track the No. 11 car down for the top Chase spot.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
“If we run like we did the first 14 races of the season, absolutely,” Reddick said. “We‘ve been going the wrong way for a while, and some of it is just racing. A couple of times we haven‘t had the speed that we‘ve come to expect out of ourselves. A little bit of both, but a lot of it has been crazy circumstances.
“It‘s not over until The Chase starts. We will just keep fighting as hard as we can and not settle for days like today.”
Friday‘s practice session wasn‘t ideal for Reddick. He clocked in eighth on single-lap speed — Toyota owned the top five between Joe Gibbs Racing and Legacy Motor Club — but fought an ill-handling machine. It was out in left field so much that he even joked with his crew chief, Billy Scott, that it felt like he had never visited the famed 2.5-mile speedway before.
“The last few years we‘ve come here and felt good about what we had and knew where we needed to go from practice into qualifying,” Reddick said. “Today, I felt like I had never raced here before. Just lost. Struggling to find speed, struggling with the balance of the car. It was like I never raced here before.”
MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule
Spirits remain high, however. 23XI Racing enters Sunday‘s Brickyard 400 as the defending winner with Bubba Wallace scoring his most recent checkered flag. Reddick was in the mix throughout the race, placing fourth in the opening stage but wrecked out in overtime.
Reddick intends to spend the rest of Friday debriefing with 23XI and revisiting past setups from Indianapolis over the prior two seasons.
“Yes, Bubba won and had a successful weekend, but we felt good about our car too,” Reddick said. “Whether it‘s his race, our first 30 to 40 laps of last year‘s race, we have some good stuff to go through.”
]]>Bowman will step away from full-time Cup Series competition after the 2027 season, he and the team announced Thursday, bringing the eight-time winner back for next year‘s campaign on a one-year contract extension.
MORE: Bowman to retire after 2027 | Cup Series standings
His impending departure means a rare, coveted opening at NASCAR‘s winningest organization, backed by Hendrick Motorsports‘ 15 NASCAR Cup Series championships and 322 race victories.
The immediate focus lies upon Bowman himself, who emphasized in a Friday press conference at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that retiring within this time frame was always part of his long-term plan. Bowman, 33, has missed parts of three seasons in the past five years, including a four-race absence this spring due to vertigo. The physical toll of those injuries is not driving his decision to step away, Bowman said, but it is reinforcing that the time is right.
“I think with what went on in March, I feel like in my head, I had looked at this year being it quite a bit and talked about that,” Bowman said. “But yeah, just trying to make the best decision for me and obviously the best decision for Hendrick Motorsports. I think I really want to end on a more positive note than how this year‘s been, so that gave me a little more motivation to come back and go one more year.”
Bowman‘s commitment to drive for another full season allows Hendrick Motorsports to find its next potential star at a company with a history of high achievers: seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson; four-time champ Jeff Gordon; two-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr.; defending and two-time champion Kyle Larson. The next year and a half remains Bowman‘s to write, but team president and general manager Jeff Andrews will be one of the major players responsible for signing that team‘s next driver.
“We‘re fortunate enough that we don‘t go through this all that often at Hendrick Motorsports,” Andrews said Friday. “And when these cycles do happen, obviously there‘s a process there of looking for someone for the right fit, not only from a performance standpoint, but for our company and our culture. And so again today, as you mentioned, is about Alex and the near future will be about Alex and his story, and we‘ll begin that process on what‘s next for the 48 team in 2028 very soon.”
More time in the bank with Bowman behind the wheel allows more opportunities for young prospects around the sport to develop before landing in one of the most desirable seats in motorsports.
Connor Zilisch, a rookie at Trackhouse Racing, has quickly garnered the most attention as a possible replacement at Hendrick Motorsports when Bowman departs. One source confirmed Hendrick is one of many teams in the garage that have taken an interest in Zilisch despite his rookie-year struggles. Zilisch‘s time in the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series was spent at JR Motorsports, a Hendrick-affiliated program, establishing an early relationship within the Chevrolet powerhouse.
Zilisch has had a miserable stretch of races at the Cup level, finishing outside the top 30 in five of the last eight races. But his talent and potential are well established, evidenced by a 10-win slate in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series one year ago and a rousing resume to accompany the stats. With more time to flourish in the Cup Series — perhaps bolstered by the upcoming slate of full 50-minute practice sessions — Zilisch could develop into Hendrick‘s next long-term driver.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Another prime prospect is Corey Day, who currently drives for Hendrick Motorsports in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series. Day has won at both Talladega Superspeedway and Dover Motor Speedway this season and has quickly grown into a legitimate contender as a stock-car racer, adapting to the craft after years spent in the dirt-racing scene. Through 21 starts this year, Day sits fourth in the standings with six top fives and 14 top 10s to his credit and just three races remaining in the regular season. Day‘s development has come under Hendrick‘s watchful eye and would therefore be a likely contender for the No. 48 seat in 2028 if progress continues.
The phone has already begun ringing at Hendrick Motorsports as drivers and agents around the garage recognize the rare opportunity that has presented itself for the 2028 season. Until then, Alex Bowman will be able to write his final chapter in his own words, using the next year and a half to potentially leave on a high note.
]]>Bowman, an eight-time Cup Series winner, has competed full-time for Hendrick Motorsports since 2018 and currently drives the team‘s No. 48 Chevrolet. The 33-year-old Tucson, Arizona, native missed four races earlier this season due to vertigo and sits 29th in points with three top fives and four top 10s in 17 starts this season.
RELATED: Alex Bowman driver page | Cup Series standings
His departure will come at the conclusion of his 12th full season of Cup Series competition, a venture highlighted by a four-win season in 2021.
“Alex has meant so much to our organization for a long time,” Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, said in a team press release. “He‘s overcome adversity, won big races and represented our team and partners with professionalism, personality and class. Alex is a tremendous talent in the race car and an even better person outside of it. We‘re proud he‘ll have the opportunity to finish his full-time career with us on his terms. He‘s family.”
Bowman‘s tenure marked the culmination of a successful rise from underfunded upstart teams to one of the sport‘s premier organizations. He first joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2016, substituting for an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. and sharing driving duties with Jeff Gordon. Bowman parlayed the part-time role into a full-time gig starting in 2018, driving the No. 88 car until seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson retired after 2020, when Bowman moved into the No. 48 Chevy.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Bowman won at least once each season from 2019 through 2022, earning a career-best points finish of sixth in 2020 before winning four races the next year.
“I‘ve spent a lot of time thinking about what‘s next, and this feels like the right decision at the right time,” Bowman said. “The sport asks a lot of you, and I‘ve learned it‘s important to listen to your body and make the right choices for yourself. To say I‘m incredibly grateful to Mr. Hendrick, our partners at Ally and Chevrolet, and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports would be an understatement. They believed in me and gave me the biggest opportunity of my life.
“My focus now is on making the most of my time on the race track and competing for wins. We still have a lot to accomplish, and I want to close my career on a high note for our team and our fans. To have the chance to do that with this organization and these people is really special.”
RELATED: Silly Season updates | Bowman career highlights
Injuries led to missed time behind the wheel over the last few years. Concussion-like symptoms sidelined Bowman from the car for five races in 2022. The next spring, Bowman was leading the Cup Series standings before a sprint car crash left him with a broken vertebra and forced him to miss three races in 2023. Bowman returned to Victory Lane in 2024, scoring his most recent win at the Chicago Street Course.
Bowman‘s 2026 campaign has not gone to plan, ranking 29th in points after 21 races with three top fives and four top 10s. His 21.8 average finishing position is on track to be his poorest since 2015, when he competed for Tommy Baldwin Racing.
]]>The event is scheduled Saturday, March 6, sharing the bill with the NTT IndyCar Series‘ Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 7. The race weekend, announced Thursday morning by Green Savoree Racing Promotions, marks one of the first pieces of the 2027 NASCAR national-series schedule to take shape.
RELATED: Craftsman Truck Series standings
Truck Series points leader Layne Riggs prevailed in the inaugural OnlyBulls Green Flag 150 at St. Pete on Feb. 28. The event marked the tour‘s first event on a street circuit, and Riggs expressed optimism for the return after his victory — then his first on a road course.
“It is an amazing place to come and I don‘t know why we couldn‘t come back next year,” Riggs said, noting the festival atmosphere of the 1.8-mile marina circuit. “… I couldn‘t believe how packed the grandstands were and I thought it was one of the best road-course races the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has ever seen.”
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Promoters indicated ticket sales would begin in the fall. The rest of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule will be announced at a later date.
“The 2026 event was our best yet,” said Kim Green, co-owner and chairman/CEO of Green Savoree. “Spectator attendance was tremendous on all three days to witness history made with the NASCAR Trucks racing for the first time on a street circuit and IndyCar kicking off its season once again. We look forward to having both of these series back together on track for our fans to enjoy at the 23rd annual Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg weekend.”
]]>From 2023 through 2025, SVG made 12 starts on road courses and 38 everywhere else. In the former, he had six wins, an average finish of 7.6, an Adjusted Points+ index of 279 (meaning his finishing quality was 179% better than Cup average) and a Driver Rating of 121.9. In the latter, his average finish was 25.0, with an Adjusted Points+ of 48 (i.e., 52% worse than average) and an average rating of 50.0, numbers that paled in comparison to his road dominance.
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Among modern-era drivers (debuting since 1972), nobody had bigger gaps in their Adjusted Points+ or Driver Rating on road courses versus all other track types through their first 12 career road races — and it wasn‘t remotely close:
As great of a race-car driver as SVG is, it seemed like that might forever be his fate — sure, maybe he could at least improve some on non-road courses, but van Gisbergen always seemed destined to be a specialist first and foremost.
But just like when Happy Gilmore learned how to putt, the rest of NASCAR has been put on notice recently by van Gisbergen‘s performances on ovals. More than just being less-bad, or even merely achieving competence, SVG has actually been pretty good on the non-road courses this year — and it‘s already affecting the big-picture story of the 2026 season.
Following a sixth-place run at EchoPark Speedway (a drafting track) two weeks ago and a fifth-place finish at North Wilkesboro Speedway (a short track) on Sunday, van Gisbergen now has seven finishes of 11th or better on non-road courses in 17 starts, with an average finish of 19.3, and Adjusted Points+ index of 97 — remember, Cup average is 100 — and a Driver Rating of 67.4, just shy of average (70) there as well. In essence, van Gisbergen has gone from being a significantly below-average driver across all ovals to basically a dead-average one, in less than the span of a season.
And he has shown quicker mastery of certain types of ovals. While his numbers at intermediates, though improved, remain below the Cup Series norm — 21.6 average finish, 77 Adjusted Points+, 58.2 rating — he has been comfortably above average at both superspeedway/drafting tracks and short tracks, form he showcased in each of the past two weeks:
In all of NASCAR history, it‘s incredibly rare to see a good road-racer who struggles on ovals suddenly become decent on them over any extended span of races.
If we once again look at drivers whose careers began after 1972, only three had shown real road-course ability — with at least five starts and an Adjusted Points+ above 100 on twisty tracks — while compiling a genuinely bad record (at least 10 non-road starts and a career Adj. Pts+ below 50) everywhere else, before turning that around with an index of 90 or above over the following 20-race non-road stretch:
- Jerry Nadeau (2000-2001): Five previous road starts (116 Pts+), 81 non-road starts (35 Pts+), 128 Pts+ over next 20 non-road starts
- Robby Gordon (2001-2002): Seven previous road starts (166 Pts+), 54 non-road starts (33 Pts+), 91 Pts+ over next 20 non-road starts
- Shane van Gisbergen (2025-2026): 12 previous road starts (279 Pts+), 35 non-road starts (44 Pts+), 96 Pts+ over next 20 non-road starts
Similarly, SVG is also one of three historical drivers with an above-average Driver Rating on road courses but an abysmal one (less than 50.0) everywhere else who then posted a rating of at least 65.0 over his next 20 non-road races:
- Michael McDowell (2023-2024): 39 previous road starts (70.1 Rating), 408 non-road starts (48.1 Rating), 70.0 Rating over next 20 non-road starts
- Robby Gordon (2001-2002): Seven previous road starts (92.0 Rating), 52 non-road starts (47.7 Rating), 67.5 Rating over next 20 non-road starts
- Shane van Gisbergen (2025-2026): 12 previous road starts (121.9 Rating), 35 non-road starts (48.5 Rating), 67.2 Rating over next 20 non-road starts
The transformation of van Gisbergen from quite-bad to not-bad at ovals has transformed his Chase odds accordingly, as we predicted it would back in mid-May. He currently ranks 14th in the standings with a 54-point cushion over No. 17 Erik Jones, the top driver outside the current cutline. According to my Chase odds forecast model, SVG now has a greater than 90% probability of making the postseason cut — which would be his second playoff trip, but this time without the benefit of a win-and-in reward for his road-course domination.
SVG‘s near-assured Chase odds are having a ripple effect on the rest of the bubble picture as well. Because of his recent success, in combination with better days from North Wilkesboro winner Joey Logano — who was also recently sitting on the bubble — there now is only one Chase slot whose favorite is below 90% to make it in: Austin Cindric in 16th place. That means a dogfight is brewing between Cindric and the next few drivers below the current cutline (Jones, Ryan Preece, Brad Keselowski), all fighting over one fewer available spot than it seemed when SVG‘s fate was more up in the air.
Van Gisbergen, though, doesn‘t have to worry much about that scrap with five races to go in the regular season. NASCAR‘s greatest road-course specialist is becoming a more complete racer — and now everyone else has to worry about what his improvement has done to them instead.
]]>In dueling Ford Racing teleconferences Tuesday, Blaney and Gilliland expressed their anticipation for Sunday‘s Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and their head-to-head clash for the challenge‘s $1 million prize. Their friendly face-off pits a 25th-seeded underdog in Gilliland against a favored heavyweight in Blaney, the No. 3 seed and a former NASCAR Cup Series champion.
RELATED: In-Season Challenge hub | Weekend schedule: Indy
The stakes might be high for a crown-jewel event with a seven-figure bonus for the taking, but the pre-race banter has been light-hearted. “Gillie for a Milli” has been a recent rallying cry for the 26-year-old Gilliland, who — when prodded for an origin story for his best-known nickname — jokingly said, “Blaney‘s gonna be calling me the Toddfather after this weekend, dude, when we wax him, hopefully.”
Blaney‘s introduction to his own video conference moments later including a tongue-in-cheek warning about the pre-emptive smack-talk barbs that Gilliland was hoping to land. “Is he?” Blaney said with a smile. “Wow.” But both drivers made it clear that no deep-rooted rivalry exists. Instead, their common connections bind them.
Both of their fathers — Dave Blaney and David Gilliland — had long Cup Series careers, with no friction between the two that their sons could recall. Their dual upbringings in a racing family meant travel, time at the track and a greater understanding of the value of hands-on work to make their race cars find speed.
“You have a huge appreciation for that, and I‘m sure Todd was the same way,” the younger Blaney said, “and we‘re both very lucky to do what our fathers did and have really good careers. No, I don‘t think there‘s a rivalry there that has stemmed down like a Hatfield-McCoy situation. It‘s just two kids trying to win their teams a bunch of money.”
The good-natured fun didn‘t just start this week. When both were asked to share their favorite stories about the other, both Blaney and Gilliland zeroed in on a shared moment from a few years back at a Ford Racing team-building retreat. This particularly memorable semi-annual gathering was held at the Pursell Farms golf resort outside of Birmingham, Alabama, with an afternoon of activities planned, dinner and an overnight stay heading into a race weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.
The bonding extended into the evening, and before long, about a half-dozen drivers had jammed onto a golf cart hurtling through the deep Alabama night. Blaney said he had been teasing Gilliland about the potential for tree-dwelling evil that lurked in the dark woods, aiming to give him chills.
“There were some liquid courage-builders that I think a lot of us indulged in and we were on a golf cart,” Blaney recalled. “We were having a fun time, and I might have ended up off the golf cart by the end of this ride through no fault of anybody‘s.”
Gilliland‘s retelling was far more dire.
“It‘s pitch black, we can‘t see anything and we hit a ditch,” Gilliland said. “None of us could see it, and Blaney flew off the back and we‘re like, ‘Oh, no. We just killed Ryan Blaney.‘ But, luckily, everyone survived. I don‘t know if the Ford guys were very happy with us after that, but we were like, ‘We won‘t get in trouble because Ryan is with us.‘ He was the champion at that point, but then we thought we hurt him, so that was probably an all-time Ryan Blaney story for me.”
Levity or not, neither driver is taking a face-value assessment of their title matchup. Gilliland‘s best finish in his march through the tournament bracket was an eighth-place outing last weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway, but his other results have been enough to unseat a pair of teammate duos — Spire Motorsports‘ Daniel Suárez and Carson Hocevar, plus Hendrick Motorsports‘ Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott. Placing eighth last Sunday marked just his second top 10 of the year, moving the Front Row Motorsports driver to 23rd in the Cup Series standings.
MORE: Power Rankings | Check your bracket
Blaney, meanwhile, has finished no worse than 11th in the four In-Season Challenge races leading into Sunday‘s final at Indianapolis. That stretch included a dominant win at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta, a victory that fortified the Team Penske driver‘s third-ranking spot in the Cup Series standings and tightened the top of the points race with just five regular-season races remaining this year.
Blaney, however, said the Sunday showdown shouldn‘t be considered a walkover, especially since the Brickyard rates as one of Gilliland‘s best tracks. In the two years since the Cup Series‘ Indianapolis stop returned to the 2.5-mile oval course, Blaney‘s average finish there is fifth place. Gilliland‘s is sixth.
“Todd is a great driver, and they have a really good team over there, so it‘s gonna be tough,” Blaney said. “I don‘t think people should write anything off. I‘m not going into this weekend thinking that it‘s going to be a layup because it‘s not. It‘s gonna be incredibly difficult, and we have to be on top of our game to try to not only compete for the win, but also race that 34 car too. I don‘t think that‘s accurate, what people are saying. I think it‘s gonna be just as tough as ever no matter who you‘re facing because you‘re not gonna be able to have any mistakes. You better be fast on the race track. You better be good on pit road, and your strategy better be where it should be. I think it‘s gonna be a heck of a battle, for sure.”
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Gilliland agreed, but couldn‘t resist one last jab.
“Put the house on us, that‘s what I would say,” Gilliland said. “We made it this far, why not us? We‘ll see. I‘m with you. I would probably agree with all of those people who say we‘re fighting an uphill battle, but, honestly, we‘ve been the underdogs in however many matchups there‘s been, but it‘s doable. It‘s crazy. It‘s only one person standing between us and winning this thing, so I‘m excited about it.”
]]>So, what is this thing, anyway? It will be a relatively quick and easy way to see where the drivers competing to make The Chase stand after their most recent race and before their next race. But before we get into how the drivers are doing, let‘s review the format for The Chase, which is back after a 13-year hiatus, albeit in a modified form.
RELATED: Cup Series standings | Indianapolis weekend schedule
The Chase Returns
Hall of Famer Mark Martin, former Cup champion Chase Elliott and NASCAR CEO Steve O‘Donnell were among those on hand back in January at the NASCAR Productions Facility in Concord, North Carolina, when NASCAR announced The Chase was back.
What this meant was there was no more “win and you‘re in” for the playoffs. Instead, the top 16 drivers in points make The Chase. Then, at the end of the 10 races making up The Chase, the driver with the most points wins the championship.
Instead of 40 points, wins are now worth 55 points to incentivize drivers and teams to still play for the win and not just go for points.
After the regular-season finale on Aug. 29 at Daytona International Speedway, The Chase field will be set. The regular-season points leader will reset at 2,100 points and start the Southern 500 on Sept. 6 at Darlington Raceway with a 25-point advantage over the second-place driver, who will then have a 10-point advantage over the third-place driver.
After that, each driver will be separated by five points down to the 16th-place driver, who will start The Chase with 2,000 points, a full 100 points behind the No. 1 seed.
Unlike the most recent playoff format, there will be no eliminations in The Chase. All 16 drivers will be in it for the duration, although they may eventually get mathematically eliminated from championship contention.
The Race for No. 1
| Rank | Driver | Points to Leader | Points to Cutline | Chase probability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denny Hamlin | — | +380 | 100% |
| 2 | Tyler Reddick | -68 | +312 | 100% |
| 3 | Ryan Blaney | -87 | +293 | 100% |
First, let‘s focus on the top of the standings, where Denny Hamlin holds a distinct advantage for the No. 1 seed and the all-important 25-point head start. Hamlin leads Tyler Reddick by 68 points and Ryan Blaney by 87 points after the race on Sunday at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
It‘s important to note that all three of these drivers have clinched a spot in The Chase, and they are the only ones to do so at this point. But before we just go ahead and crown Hamlin the regular-season points winner, please consider how much this situation has changed over the past couple of months.
In nine races, Hamlin has gone from 129 points behind Reddick for the No. 1 spot to 68 points ahead of him. This stretch included a run where Hamlin won three straight races (Nashville, Michigan and Pocono) and where he posted six top-five finishes. Meanwhile, Reddick finished 25th or worse five times in this span.
The point we‘re trying to make is a lot still could change during races at Indianapolis, Iowa, Richmond, New Hampshire and Daytona, so keep your eyes focused on the top spot.
The Mythical Top Six
| Rank | Driver | Points to Leader | Points to Cutline | Chase probability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Ty Gibbs | -134 | +246 | 100% |
| 5 | Chase Elliott | -208 | +172 | 100% |
| 6 | Kyle Larson | -226 | +154 | 100% |
| 7 | Carson Hocevar | -244 | +136 | 100% |
| 8 | Chase Briscoe | -255 | +125 | 100% |
Some prognosticators, including our friends at Racing Insights, who provided all the data here, are pointing to the top six in the points standings as where a driver needs to be to have a legitimate shot at winning the championship. And the top six has stayed relatively consistent throughout the regular season.
After Hamlin, Reddick and Blaney, it‘s Ty Gibbs, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson completing the top six. Gibbs has a healthy 74-point lead over Elliott for fourth place as he continues to enjoy a breakout season that included his first Cup Series win (Bristol).
Elliott has two wins (Martinsville, Texas) but just an 18-point cushion between himself and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Larson. Meanwhile, the two-time champion Larson is still searching for his first win in 2026, having gone 46 races since his last victory in the spring of 2025 at Kansas Speedway.
Creeping up on Larson for the sixth spot is Spire Motorsports‘ Carson Hocevar, who sits in seventh place just 18 points back. He, like Gibbs, is also enjoying a breakout season that included his first Cup win back at Talladega Superspeedway.
Eleven points behind Hocevar is Chase Briscoe, who recently got his first win of the 2026 season at Chicagoland Speedway and is riding a run of three top-three finishes in four races. Winning at the Brickyard certainly would be a big boost for the Indiana native.
Plus, if Hamlin‘s hot streak taught us anything, it‘s that a well-timed run can help a driver make up ground in a hurry, especially with the 55 points awarded for race wins. So perhaps somebody outside the mythical top six could make a charge into championship contention, too.
The Middle Ground
| Rank | Driver | Points to Leader | Points to Cutline | Chase probability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Chris Buescher | -257 | +123 | 100% |
| 10 | Christopher Bell | -268 | +112 | 100% |
| 11 | Daniel Suárez | -284 | +96 | 99.9% |
| 12 | William Byron | -296 | +84 | 99.9% |
| 13 | Bubba Wallace | -311 | +69 | 97.5% |
The middle ground contains some drivers who are sometimes going in opposite directions but always looking for incremental gains and a step up in The Chase standings in order to improve their chances of getting closer to a championship.
Daniel Suárez continues to have a renaissance at Spire Motorsports and has gained 78 points against the cutline in the last nine races. Suárez was just +18 after Watkins Glen but is now +96 after North Wilkesboro. This span included his win in the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The only driver who gained more ground over that span was Briscoe, who improved his position by 131 points.
Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell are a couple of drivers to watch at Indianapolis this weekend. Wallace won the Brickyard 400 last year and has finished top 10 in his last four Brickyard 400 starts. Meanwhile, Bell has an average finish of 8.0 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, his best for all tracks.
The Cutline Battle
| Rank | Driver | Points to Leader | Points to Cutline | Chase probability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Shane van Gisbergen | -326 | +54 | 89.0% |
| 15 | Joey Logano | -331 | +49 | 95.9% |
| 16 | Austin Cindric | -347 | +33 | 87.2% |
| 17 | Erik Jones | -380 | -33 | 19.5% |
| 18 | Ryan Preece | -395 | -48 | 3.8% |
| 19 | Brad Keselowski | -405 | -58 | 5.9% |
| 20 | Ross Chastain | -430 | -83 | 0.8% |
Some big swings will need to occur in the next five weeks for the battle at the cutline to change much. Austin Cindric, the 16th-place driver, sits a relatively comfortable 33 points ahead of 17th-place Erik Jones and has an 87.2% chance to make The Chase. Meanwhile, Jones has only a 19.5% chance to make it.
Ryan Preece, in 18th place, is 48 points behind Cindric, while Brad Keselowski (minus-58) and Ross Chastain (minus-83) round out the top 20. None of these drivers has a higher percentage than Keselowski at 5.9 to make The Chase.
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Glancing above the cutline, one can see it has gotten more comfortable recently for Shane van Gisbergen after his fifth-place finish at North Wilkesboro. The road-course ace was in for a nailbiter after he crashed out of the San Diego street-course race and missed a golden opportunity to pad his Chase standing. However, the unexpectedly good performance at the short track jumped his probability of making The Chase from 44% to 89%.
Similarly, Joey Logano‘s chances of making The Chase went from 70.4% to 95.9% after his dominating win at North Wilkesboro. After Indianapolis is over, Logano will get the advantage of two more short tracks with Iowa Speedway and Richmond Raceway to potentially pad his 49-point cushion to the cutline.
]]>Those that spoke with media included the USA Sports booth of Leigh Diffey, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte, Hall of Famer and analyst Dale Jarrett, along with USA Sports Executive Producer and SVP of Sports Production Jeff Behnke and Lead NASCAR Producer Rene Hatlelid.
One of the key topics Behnke tackled was establishing the USA Sports brand as its own entity now under parent company Versant Media.
RELATED: 2026 Cup schedule | How to watch NBC, USA Sports events
“All 14 (races) will be branded USA Sports,” Behnke said. “Daytona, Talladega, Martinsville, and (Homestead) Miami will all air on NBC, but that is the only branding that you will hear or see when we first come on the air. It will all be USA Sports, whether it‘s mic flags, billboards, wardrobe by announcers, at-track branding on the track and the infield grass, pit walls, everything. All 14 races is USA Sports.”
Behnke also unveiled the on-air talent for the 2026 season.
Marty Snider, Brad Daugherty and Jarrett will be on the USA Sports Pit Box for a pre-race show with a driver guest before each race. Along with Snider, Kim Coon, Dave Burns and Trevor Bayne will serve as pit reporters for the 14-race window, and Behnke also unveiled the debut of the pace-car analyst that Bayne will take part in for select races.
“Trevor Bayne will be live at select races, reporting live from inside of the pace car,” Behnke said. “We couldn‘t have pulled this off without the help of Elton (Sawyer, Senior Vice President of competition at NASCAR) and his entire team. More to come on that, but having Trevor live inside of a pace car at select races we think is going to be really game-changing and really create some new experiences for the fans.”
A new documentary titled “NASCAR Americana” will also debut on USA Sports after the Cup Series Iowa Race on Sunday, Aug, 9 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The documentary will break down the symmetry between NASCAR and the United States and consists of three one-hour episodes.
This will also mark the first season of USA Sports tackling The Chase after the 12-year run of the NASCAR Playoffs.
Letarte, who competed in The Chase behind the pit wall, added how his analysis will change with The Chase from previous years in the booth of only covering the playoffs.
“It frees us up because we get to give our opinion on what the cutline is,” Letarte said. “So when the cutline was determined by the system and drivers were officially eliminated, while that was dramatic, it was also definitive and and you could make it in a graphic. Where now I believe that the concept of being cut or eliminated now comes down to the magical question: ‘Jeff, how far back can someone make a run? Leigh, can this guy get here?‘ And I think it opens up to generate whatever narrative we believe as experts and what we feel from the garage, and we can take the momentum, both positive and negative, right? Someone could look good in the standings, but we may not feel they have positive momentum. So I think it‘s a much more open narrative of conversation as The Chase continues.”
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Diffey, play-by-play announcer, is excited for the opportunity to tell the story of the race to make The Chase, along with the 10-week battle leading up to crowning a Cup Series champion in November at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“We kind of get two bites at the cherry because we get those last four (regular-season) races, but we have to tell the story of who‘s going to make The Chase,” Diffey said. “It‘s great to have The Chase again, right? And then we have to have the accuracy and the authenticity and the enthusiasm of crowning a champion and that drive towards a champion. You want to do everybody justice, so that‘s not lost on us. We feel very spoiled and we feel very honored to have this portion of the season.”
]]>Cup Series teams will use the same left-side tire that previously was in play more recently at Chicagoland Speedway‘s 400-miler July 5 and used at eight other intermediate-sized tracks earlier this season. The new tire combination was determined by Goodyear officials after a tire test at the Indianapolis track early last month, with Chevrolet‘s Ross Chastain, Ford‘s Ryan Preece and Toyota‘s John Hunter Nemechek representing the series‘ three automakers.
RELATED: Indianapolis weekend schedule | Entry lists for Indy | NASCAR video highlights
The NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, which shares the weekend bill at Indianapolis, will use the same tire configuration that it utilized last month at Pocono Raceway — another 2.5-mile track. Both the Cup Series and O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series will have 50-minute practice sessions Friday afternoon.
“It‘s always trying to get fall-off,” Blaney said. “The big talk is, if you abuse your stuff, are you going to pay a penalty for it, and that‘s what racing is all about, and that‘s how racing should be. And I think Goodyear‘s done a really good job of working incredibly hard on not only trying to work on the short-track tire, but also the intermediates and bigger places like that, of just trying to find something that falls off, and you can really pay the penalty for something if you kind of abuse it. So I‘m looking forward to seeing what that is. It‘s nice that we have the kind of extended practice weekend, getting a few sets of tires on Friday, be able to make some longer runs, kind of see where that goes and get a feel for that.”
“Indianapolis is clearly a unique track,” said Rick Heinrich, Goodyear NASCAR product manager. “We see teams running aggressive setups here to account for the flat corners. Our new right-side tire for the Cup Series has been developed with this in mind, and our Pocono setup for the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series performed as expected on a track with similarly flat corners.”
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is also in action this weekend in the Indianapolis area, racing at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in nearby Clermont. Truck Series teams will have the same Goodyear combination for the second straight week, using the tire setup from last weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway for their Friday night show at the 0.686-mile oval.
Tire allotments for each team competing this weekend:
- Cup Series: 14 total sets — 10 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 3 for practice.
- O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series: 6 total sets — 3 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 2 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; if needed, 3 wet-weather sets will also be available.
From its roots on Southern back roads to its rise as a national institution, NASCAR AMERICANA traces the people and traditions that have shaped stock car racing. Each episode homes in on a theme which reveals how a regional pastime evolved into an American cultural phenomenon:
- Part 1 (Aug. 9) — “Rebel Roots” traces NASCAR‘s origins from rebellious moonshiners to the founding of the sport in 1948, revealing how the Daytona 500 became an American tradition and how the 1979 edition transformed NASCAR into a national phenomenon. Part 1 follows third-generation NASCAR driver Ryan Blaney as he prepares for the 2026 Daytona 500.
- Part 2 (Aug. 15) — From hometown dirt tracks to NASCAR‘s biggest stages, “Family Bonds” explores the love of racing that has united families across generations and made it one of America‘s most enduring communities. This episode features the first formal sit-down interview with Hall of Fame driver Kurt Busch since the sudden loss in May of his younger brother Kyle Busch, the all-time winningest driver across NASCAR‘s three national series. It focuses on the relationships that define NASCAR as drivers, teams and fans come together to honor Busch at the 2026 Coca-Cola 600.
- Part 3 (Aug. 23) — “Enduring Spirit” follows NASCAR‘s transformation from a regional pastime into a national institution while celebrating the patriotism and traditions that remain at its heart, proving that progress and heritage can race side by side. Part 3 explores modern day NASCAR through the eyes of five-time 2026 Cup Series winner and Daytona 500 champion Tyler Reddick and three-time Cup Series race winner Bubba Wallace at the 2026 Anduril 250, the first-ever race at a U.S. Naval Base.
The series leans on interviews and stories spanning generations of drivers teams, and families to examine how NASCAR has reflected and shaped the culture, identity and character of a changing nation. Prominent figures featured in the series include four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers of all time, country music star and NASCAR team co-owner Darius Rucker, actor turned stock car driver Frankie Muniz and NFL legend Manning.
The limited documentary series premieres on USA Network on Aug. 9 at 7 p.m. ET, immediately following the Iowa Corn 350 post-race show. The Iowa Corn 350 is the first race of USA Sports‘ NASCAR coverage in 2026, which features 10 races live on USA Network. The second and third episodes of NASCAR AMERICANA will air on USA Network following live coverage of the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on Saturday, Aug. 15 (7 p.m. ET), and the Dollar Tree 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, Aug. 23 (3 p.m. ET).
Directed by Emmy-winner Max Gershberg (“Miracle: The Boys of ‘80”), NASCAR AMERICANA is produced by Full Speed Entertainment, the production partnership between NASCAR Studios and Words + Pictures, which focuses on elevating the cultural footprint of NASCAR through bold storytelling, premium content and large-scale specials. Words + Pictures is led by the creators and producers of the critically acclaimed documentary series The Last Dance and the Academy Award-winning documentary feature OJ: Made in America. NASCAR AMERICANA was also produced by Omaha Productions, Peyton Manning‘s media company dedicated to creating content that unifies and uplifts audiences.
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Analysis: Hamlin could not pry North Wilkesboro away from Logano, but second place was still another emphatic reminder that the No. 11 remains on a scorcher as the regular season winds down. He ranked first in passing and second in speed, stayed within range throughout the final 175-lap green-flag run and expanded his standings lead over Tyler Reddick from 24 points to 68. Indianapolis has been less cooperative for him but remains a white whale. In recent trips, Hamlin crashed after leading 21 laps in 2024, then charged from the rear in a backup car to finish third last summer, but has yet to kiss the bricks in his career. This weekend is as good a time as any.
Analysis: North Wilkesboro turned into exactly the kind of costly night Reddick could not afford in the race to the No. 1 Chase seed. No. 45 was caught in the Alex Bowman pit-entry incident, later added a speeding penalty and finished 30th, giving away 44 points to Hamlin in one race. Indianapolis offers a compelling counterpoint, however: Reddick led 40 laps and finished second in 2024 before crashing out of last year‘s event in 29th — in a race won by his 23XI Racing teammate. He remains one of the season‘s two most defining drivers, but the gap is suddenly large enough that “keeping pace” is no longer the assignment.
Analysis: Blaney‘s North Wilkesboro result was a rare interruption to his summer march, though the damage came with a reasonable consolation prize. Sent to the rear before the start, he worked forward before a late pit-road speeding penalty left him 11th and two laps down — but it‘s not nearly as catastrophic as it could‘ve been and he still advanced to the In-Season Challenge final against Todd Gilliland. Recent Brickyard — and overall 2026 — form is strong enough to make him the clear favorite in that matchup: third in 2024, seventh last season and 14 laps led in the latter. One bad stop slowed the No. 12 for a night; it did not alter Blaney‘s broader trajectory.
Analysis: Gibbs authored one of the night‘s more impressive recoveries and overall continues to be a factor. He led the opening 47 laps, won Stage 1, sped on pit road during the break and still drove back through the field to finish fourth for his career-best ninth top five in a season. That performance moved him 246 points above The Chase cut and reinforced how much harder the No. 54 has become to knock off kilter. Indianapolis remains a work-in-progress after finishes of 23rd and 21st since the oval‘s return, but Gibbs arrives considerably more complete than either of those results suggests.
Analysis: Briscoe launches five positions after charging from 30th to third at North Wilkesboro, giving him top-three finishes in three of the last four races. The No. 19 ranked third in speed and first in defense, and he gained another 21 points relative to The Chase cut during a stretch that has completely changed the tenor of his season. Indy has shown flashes without delivering the payoff (on the oval, at least): Briscoe finished 24th in 2024, then started from the pole, led 34 laps and wound up 18th last year. The recent version of Briscoe looks far better equipped to finish that story, and kiss the bricks after a Cup win on the traditional layout at long last.
Analysis: Elliott‘s North Wilkesboro speed was better than his finishing position of 17th, but the Lap 183 caution could not have arrived at a worse time for him. He was trapped two laps down during the green-flag pit cycle, eventually finished three laps behind and lost his In-Season Challenge semifinal to Gilliland, busting many brackets. The good news is that his Chase cushion remains unchanged at 172 points, and Indianapolis has produced respectable finishes of 10th and 13th since the series returned to the oval. Sunday is less about repairing the standings than restoring the sharpness that has faded from the No. 9‘s recent results. 
Analysis: Larson still hasn‘t quite stumbled this year, but he still remains (for now) just below the elite tier that he‘s occupied for much of this decade. Contact with Connor Zilisch during an early North Wilkesboro pit stop broke a wheel, and the No. 5 never fully recovered before finishing 15th. Indianapolis, however, presents the strongest possible palate cleanser: Larson won the 2024 Brickyard 400 and finished second last year, leading in both races. He also may have taken part in a couple of other races there the past two seasons you might‘ve heard about. After another month of race-winning pace without a race win, the two-time defending top-two finisher returns to the place most capable of ending the discussion.
Analysis: Hocevar rose another position despite a 13th-place finish, as the final result very much did not fully reflect how competitive he was. He ran inside the top five for much of North Wilkesboro‘s opening half, ranked first on restarts and sixth in Stage 2 before the pivotal caution left him two laps down. The Brickyard has already produced a tidy young resume, too: 12th as a rookie and 10th last season. Hocevar is no longer climbing these rankings through isolated flashes; the No. 77 keeps building a season that holds together from one discipline to the next.
Analysis: Bell drops three places through little fault of his underlying pace. He started third, ran near the front early and scored Stage 1 points before pitting ahead of the Lap 183 caution, which buried him in traffic and two laps down. Later contact with Josh Berry compounded the damage, resulting in a 19th-place finish. The fifth-ranked driver in season-long speed now heads to Indianapolis, where he finished fourth in 2024 and eighth last year. Bell‘s wait for victory No. 1 remains maddening, but the Brickyard background gives him another immediate route back toward the front if he continues to show this speed.
Analysis: North Wilkesboro became another afternoon of respectable early positioning washed away by timing. Buescher ran inside the top 10 before the green-flag cycle and ensuing cautions trapped the No. 17 two laps down, leaving him 20th and costing seven points relative to The Chase cut. Indianapolis has not been especially generous since the oval returned, with finishes of 22nd and 14th, though last year at least moved the arrow in the correct direction. The Chase cushion remains healthy at 123 points; the concern is that Buescher has spent too many recent weeks protecting it rather than enlarging his contender case.
Analysis: Suárez quietly stitched together one of his better complete races of the summer. The No. 7 finished ninth at North Wilkesboro, scored a Stage 2 point and spent enough time inside the top 10 to leave 96 points clear of The Chase cut. His two recent Indianapolis results could hardly be more different — eighth in 2024, 27th last season, and he‘s now with a new team — making his current form the more useful guide. After several weeks in which the result obscured the speed, Sunday finally allowed both to show up together and could again this weekend.
Analysis: SVG‘s fifth-place run may have been the most important oval performance of his Cup career to date. He led 49 laps, ranked fourth in speed and third on restarts, remained inside the top 10 all night and gained 23 points on The Chase cut, pushing his cushion to 54. Last year‘s 19th-place Brickyard debut offers only a modest baseline, but North Wilkesboro altered the premise entering Indy. The question is no longer whether SVG can merely survive on unfamiliar ovals; it is how often the No. 97 can start becoming a genuine factor on them. And that rate is increasing.
Analysis: Byron‘s 12th-place finish was an acceptable salvage job after another strategy cycle broke against him, but acceptable remains an underwhelming standard for the No. 24. There‘s still some smoke here, though — Byron scored in Stage 1, carried the fourth-ranked pit crew for the race and gained two points on the cut despite not quite producing anything resembling a winning threat. Indianapolis has been equally muted for him lately: a crash and 38th-place result in 2024 followed by 16th last year. The proven winner continues to own enough raw speed to turn around any weekend; the issue is how long his 2026 prospects can keep surviving on that premise.
Analysis: Wallace arrives at Indianapolis with arguably the cleanest next-track case in the field, and after a strong run. He drove from 26th to sixth at North Wilkesboro, finished fourth in Stage 2 and gained 14 points against The Chase cut despite the race eventually shrinking to only six lead-lap cars. Now the defending Brickyard winner returns to a track where he also finished fifth and led 26 laps in 2024, with another 30 laps led in last year‘s victory. Wallace has finished sixth or better in four of the last seven races, and the schedule is about to meet him halfway.
Analysis: Logano‘s season did not merely turn around at North Wilkesboro; it snapped violently into place for the three-time champ. He led a career-high 323 laps, won Stage 2, ranked first in speed and pit-crew performance and ended a 45-race winless drought while vaulting from eight points below The Chase cut to 49 above it. Indianapolis is an awkward follow-up statistically — crashes have left him 34th and 32nd in the two races since the oval returned — but Sunday‘s performance was too comprehensive to dismiss as a track-specific anomaly. This had been building for a few weeks, and Logano is no longer trying to sneak into The Chase. Everybody behind him now has to find a way to remove him from it.
Analysis: Cindric‘s North Wilkesboro result was ordinary, but the postseason math remained intact. He finished 14th, added Stage 1 points and gained one marker on the cut, leaving the No. 2 with a 33-point cushion after Logano‘s win reshaped the bubble. Indianapolis has suited him considerably better: seventh in 2024, then 40 laps led and a 15th-place finish last season at his boss‘ track. With Blaney racing Gilliland for the In-Season Challenge title and Logano fresh off a dominant win, Cindric enters the Brickyard as the only Penske driver still fighting primarily for Chase security, which could add a layer of motivation for him.
Analysis: Jones did not have a catastrophic North Wilkesboro race, but the ground shifted underneath him anyway. His 21st-place finish combined with Logano‘s victory moved the No. 43 from eight points above The Chase cut to 33 below it, turning bubble defense into now a five-race pursuit. Indianapolis offers little recent reassurance: 28th in 2024 and 36th after an early crash last season. Legacy Motor Club has shown enough improvement to keep this alive, but the path just became much narrower than Jones‘ actual Sunday performance would suggest.
Analysis: Preece finally delivered the top 10 he needed and somehow left farther from The Chase. Tenth at North Wilkesboro marked his best result in weeks, but Logano‘s win moved the cutline and dropped the No. 60 from 26 points out to 48. There is real Indianapolis hope, however: Preece finished fourth there last season after leading 12 laps, a massive improvement from 26th in 2024. He no longer needs a tidy accumulation of decent afternoons. He needs another Brickyard-level swing.
Analysis: Keselowski‘s seventh-place finish ended an 11-race drought without a top 10, even if Logano‘s win meant The Chase deficit still grew from 43 to 58 points. The No. 6 ranked ninth in speed and third in defense at North Wilkesboro, finally producing something tangible from the stronger form RFK Racing has periodically flashed. Indianapolis keeps the door open: the 2018 Brickyard 400 winner led 35 laps before finishing 21st in 2024, then returned to finish fifth last season. One good race does not constitute a charge, but this is the first time in a bit that the schedule and the result appear to be working together for him.
Analysis: Gilliland enters these rankings because his summer has suddenly acquired a million-dollar storyline and he appears to have a decent shot to convert. An eighth-place North Wilkesboro finish knocked Elliott out of the In-Season Challenge and sent the Front Row Motorsports driver into Sunday‘s winner-take-all final against Blaney. Better yet, Indianapolis has quietly been one of Gilliland‘s best tracks: sixth in both oval races since its return. He remains 111 points outside The Chase and is not suddenly a championship threat, but for one weekend at least, No. 34 has a legitimate chance to leave the Brickyard with the loudest result of anyone. And who knows what that kind of momentum could bring.
All that talk turned on an old-school Sunday night at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where Logano‘s flourish of trend-breaking dominance altered both his team‘s direction and the NASCAR Cup Series playoff picture. Logano set the pace for 323 of the 450 laps without so much as a blip in the team‘s performance, a showing that had even longtime rival Denny Hamlin — his closest pursuer and Sunday‘s runner-up — tipping his cap post-race with meme-reviving effect.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: North Wilkesboro
While a one-race turnaround may not represent the full reawakening of a sleeping giant, it‘s at least a sign that a thrice-over Cup Series champion might be rousing at the right time.
“I‘ve always said this team doesn‘t crack under pressure,” Logano said after coming down from the Victory Lane rooftop at the historic track. “Like, that‘s our biggest strength, is that we‘re an even-keeled team. You just keep going along. Obviously, the pressure‘s on us right now. This team usually excels in those situations, under pressure. We‘ve seen that for years in the playoff system we‘ve had for years. It really put us under that crazy amount of pressure for years. Our team‘s gotten really good at that. This point of the season where we are, yeah, we‘re in the crazy amount of pressure territory just to get in. I like that. I like that our team excels in that. I think all of us do. A lot of that‘s just ‘cause of experience that we‘ve been there, done that. Like I said, the pressure‘s still on. It‘s not a comfortable situation. Still it‘s a long ways from the ultimate goal.”
How the No. 22 team got here in the first place was confounding, with just two top-five finishes in an uneven 20 races before Sunday night‘s showdown from a perennial title contender. A pair of crashes derailed Logano‘s promising pole run in March at Phoenix, the No. 22 lacked all sorts of competitive pace in a 33rd-place outing at Darlington, and back-to-back weeks of wreck-related DNFs (Talladega, Texas) completed the team‘s springtime free fall to the outer boundaries of the Chase grid.
By the end of June, Logano was an uncharacteristic 20th in the Cup Series standings — enough of a hardship that even unflappable crew chief Paul Wolfe, himself a three-time Cup champ, gently started to feel the effects of uncertainty‘s dread.
“There‘s doubts, for sure at times,” Wolfe said. “I don‘t know how anyone can struggle at times like we did this year and not doubt are we doing this right, are we ever going to win again? I guess that‘s how I approach it in general. It‘s not about what we did last week, it‘s about what are we doing right now, right? But I‘m good at trying to keep a level head and keeping everyone around me the same way. I don‘t get too emotional over the highs and the lows. I hope that that kind of rubs off on everyone to keep them kind of focused and doing their job, knowing that if we all continue to work hard and work smart, make sure we‘re working in the right areas, been doing it long enough that it goes in waves, and we‘ll eventually get back to where we need to be.
“We made the most of our opportunity tonight. I think that proves that point a little bit, letting everyone know that we can‘t give up on this ‘cause we still have a lot of talent and ability here.”
Finishes of 12th at Chicagoland to start the month and ninth last weekend at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta helped Logano, Wolfe and the rest of the 22 crew inch back into more credible contention. But the struggles also prompted some soul-searching within the Roger Penske-owned organization, talks that the team characterized as positive but with an unflinching honesty that confronted their shortcomings head-on.
“I have had some candid conversations with Joey over these last 10 or 12 weeks,” said Walt Czarnecki, Team Penske vice chairman. “He‘s never lost his positive attitude. He never lost the fact that he‘s a three-time champion. Didn‘t forget how to drive the car, a cliche. He‘s frustrated, as Paul said. He‘s expressed it. At least with me, he‘s not been, what, really — I don‘t want to say wild about it, but he hasn‘t lost his composure. He‘s very analytical about it. What can we do to get better? I think it‘s really been great to see the way he and Paul have continued to work together over these past several weeks, have a conclusion and a result like we had here tonight. This isn‘t the end of the season for sure, but it‘s really a boost for them and for the team for the rest of the year.”
Candid conversation meant no sugar-coating, so Logano‘s forthright veteran voice cut right to the point. Plenty was riding on it — an eight-year streak of making the postseason and a chance to go 15 consecutive seasons with at least one victory, but also restoring the No. 22 team‘s general relevance at the front of the pack.
A level of honesty was needed, and Logano met the requirement.
“It‘s the one thing I take a lot of pride in is telling the truth about where things are at and what‘s going on, where it is,” Logano said. “A lot of the things we talked about is I don‘t knows, right? Obviously if we knew the answer, we would fix it. There‘s definitely a lot of challenging conversations, a lot of things looking inward at yourself, figuring out what are we missing, where is it at, what am I doing wrong. Those things are all real. We‘re human. We can come here and try to BS everyone about how confident everyone is. Obviously those Mondays after a bad race, you‘re looking inward first before anything else, as you should.
“Those are real conversations sometimes with yourself. You just keep fighting and keep grinding away. It‘s how I‘ve done it my whole career. You just keep going. Just keep running, and eventually you start to see some progress. It just takes a while.”
Those strides came early in the Wilkes County evening for Logano, who launched well from his 11th starting spot. As the No. 22 climbed the leaderboard, showing some of the sport‘s other heavyweights his back bumper, Logano had a realization. “I got something here,” he recalled thinking, cognizant of his team‘s short-track strong suit.
MORE: Cup Series standings | 2026 NASCAR schedule | NASCAR video highlights
Logano & Co. weathered all the challenges — a clever parry in pit strategy from Hamlin‘s No. 11 team, dense lap-down traffic, and a Stage 2 caution period that trapped several other contenders on the wrong side of a pit cycle. “Just wildly impressive,” said Hamlin, who was magnanimous in defeat and extended a gracious post-race handshake to Logano over the track‘s pit wall.
Logano was eight points below the Chase cutoff entering the race, but Sunday night meant a sizable upward swing. The 36-year-old driver now sits plus-49 after a 57-point gain relative to the elimination line, a much-needed win in hand and a favorable schedule of more short-track-style races to close the regular season.
While he might not be all the way back to week-in and week-out eminence, a short-track shellacking at North Wilkesboro put Logano and his team back in the postseason conversation — a daunting prospect for the rest of the field that may have to face him in the final 10 races. That‘s some real talk, too.
“Our goal is to win the championship every year,” Logano says. “Anytime you‘re at the point of the season where you‘re happy with a ninth-place finish, that‘s not a good place to be. It‘s nice to be able to, like I say, get up front here. The job‘s not done. We still want to win the championship. We got some great tracks coming up ahead of us, so there‘s definitely a lot of confidence in that. That‘s definitely real, that we feel like we can capitalize on it. We capitalized on it today.”
]]>Tempers often flare at short tracks, with drivers not afraid to make contact inside their cars or out — a movie we‘ve seen a handful of times between Hamlin and Logano alone. Whether it was a scuffle at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2013 or memorable post-race mockery at Martinsville Speedway in 2019, these two past teammates have had a handful of notable clashes through the years.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: North Wilkesboro | NASCAR video highlights
That‘s just short track racing ud83dude06 pic.twitter.com/4B0szi4nNE
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) July 20, 2026
North Wilkesboro offered something different.
Instead of another flashpoint, Sunday‘s battle became a showcase of mutual respect. Hamlin spent much of the night stalking Logano‘s No. 22 Team Penske Ford but never crossed the line, while Logano withstood the pressure to earn his first victory of the season.
After an extra-long celebration, Hamlin sought out Logano on pit road. Gone were the heated exchanges and post-race theatrics that once defined their rivalry. Instead, the two shared a handshake, a thumbs-up and mutual admiration — an understated moment that reflected just how much both competitors have evolved.
Sunday‘s finish marked just the sixth time Hamlin and Logano have finished 1-2 in a Cup Series race, with each driver owning three victories in those head-to-head results.
“Just wildly impressive,” Hamlin said post-race. “I thought it was a really impressive drive from him. Maneuvered through traffic really well. Did everything that we know Joey to do.”
It wasn‘t the reaction many would have expected from two drivers whose rivalry once produced some of NASCAR‘s most unforgettable confrontations. But after years of battling one another, appreciation has become just as much a part of the relationship as competition.
“The last run was definitely tougher,” Logano said. “I ran harder than I wanted to early in the run when Denny was putting the pressure on us. Our weakness was the short run. He got to us. I had to run pretty hard there.”
A clash that once made headlines for confrontation now has room for acknowledgment, too.
]]>RELATED: In-Season Challenge hub page | Check your bracket |NASCAR video highlights
North Wilkesboro race winner: Talk about your mountainside revivals — Joey Logano did just that for his 2026 season by dominating the Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway, leading a career-high 323 laps en route to his 38th Cup Series victory. The Team Penske driver won for the first time in 46 races and shot above The Chase cutline by 49 points after entering the race 15 points to the bad. It was a monumental turnaround for the three-time champion who hadn‘t shown many positive signs to this point in the season. Now, the competition has to wonder whether someone of Logano‘s caliber could become a major obstacle in the championship run.
Who advances to Round 5?
But that‘s not the championship we came here to talk about, because $1 million will be on the line between Ryan Blaney and Todd Gilliland in the In-Season Challenge Championship Round on Sunday at Indianapolis.
Blaney (No. 3 seed) got here by defeating Josh Berry (No. 30) in the opening round at Sonoma Raceway before getting past Shane van Gisbergen (No. 14) at Chicagoland Speedway, William Byron (No. 11) at EchoPark Speedway and Christopher Bell (No. 10) at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Blaney had to bounce back at North Wilkesboro after NASCAR sent him to the rear for unapproved adjustments, rising to eighth place after Stage 2 and eventually an 11th-place finish that put him comfortably ahead of Bell in 19th place.
Todd Gilliland, the No. 25 seed and a.k.a “The Toddfather,” upset Daniel Suárez (No. 8) in Round 1 at Sonoma before knocking off Carson Hocevar (No. 9) at Chicagoland, Alex Bowman (No. 32) at EchoPark and Chase Elliott (No. 4) at North Wilkesboro. Elliott got trapped laps down while he was on pit road when Alex Bowman collided with Tyler Reddick on Lap 183 and brought out a caution. But even with that advantage, Gilliland still was going to be hard to beat as he finished in eighth place to Elliott‘s 17th-place showing.
Matchup of the week
(No. 3) Ryan Blaney vs. (No. 25) Driver: Todd Gilliland: There‘s only one matchup this week, so, of course, we have to talk about it. And the difference between this year and last year is that it feels like the underdog driver has a legitimate chance to win this one. In two career Cup Series appearances at Indianapolis, Gilliland has finished in sixth place both times. If he can repeat that type of outing again, he‘ll be tough to beat.
But Blaney is no slouch at Indianapolis, either, with three top-10 finishes in his last four outings there, including a third-place run in 2024 that would have been enough to beat Gilliland. Whoever comes out on top will make Ford proud as the manufacturer is riding a two-race winning streak into what is a home track for them thanks to Roger Penske‘s ownership.
]]>Van Gisbergen feigned at least a measure of surprise.
“I‘m leading. What the [expletive] do I do now?” van Gisbergen cracked through the No. 97 team communications.
The road-racing specialist knew more than he let on, maintaining a steady presence in the top five throughout Sunday‘s Window World 450 and sealing a fifth-place result — a Cup Series career-best on a short track. The outcome capped a consistent weekend at the 0.625-mile circuit, where he backed up a noteworthy third-place run in Saturday‘s Craftsman Truck Series race.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos
Getting the better of Hamlin in the 52nd of 450 laps to top the scoring pylon provided both a statement and the opportunity for some levity.
“Yeah, I‘m just having fun,” van Gisbergen said post-race after dousing himself with water and pausing to recover from the heavy evening heat. “Yeah, just pretty cool to get up front and then be able to pass for the lead genuinely, and just got to enjoy ourselves.”
Van Gisbergen started eighth in the 37-car field, but vaulted to fourth place when crew chief Stephen Doran opted for a two-tire stop in the first cycle through pit road. From there, SVG picked off three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers in a row — Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs and ultimately Hamlin — to lead for the first time on an oval track since Nashville in late May. The charge forward came at the expense of his rear-tire grip, and Gibbs caught him in the final lap of Stage 1 to take the green-checkered flag by half a car-length.
The remaining portions of the race morphed into a show of dominance by eventual race winner Joey Logano with a valiant pursuit by Hamlin, the runner-up. But van Gisbergen kept both his poise and his positioning the rest of the way, netting not only his first short-track top five but his first such result inside the top 10.
Van Gisbergen led four times for 49 laps — second only to Logano‘s impressive 323. Post-race, he said he enjoyed the company up front and the change of pace.
“I mean, it‘s just calmer when you get up there,” van Gisbergen said. “Everyone‘s racing really respectful. … I passed Denny and mucked that up and let him back through, like it‘s a lot friendlier type of people up there.”
The oval-track lessons he‘s learned since joining the Cup Series full-time last year have been valuable, but the knowledge from participating in Saturday‘s Truck Series event here was a worthwhile supplement.
“It was just a real solid day,” Doran told NASCAR.com. “You speak about the the race yesterday, I feel like that helped him a ton. Just learned the track. He used some of the lines that he figured out yesterday in the truck, so thanks to Spire for letting him do that. I feel like it benefits us a ton at these places, so the more of those we can do, the better, the more laps he can get at these tracks. He‘s so good. He‘s just got to figure out how to make the speed, and that just gives him a step ahead when we get to our stuff, if he has laps in a truck or an O‘Reilly car.”
Intriguingly enough, some of the old habits from his road-racing background also translated to the venerable, old-school bullring.
“It‘s a bit like a road course here,” van Gisbergen said. “I tried right-foot brake for a bit. Half the race, I right-foot braked and just felt comfortable doing that. It‘s a real balance track, and you can really affect the car with your driving technique. So yeah, I felt comfortable doing that.”
Additional comfort came after the points were tabulated. Van Gisbergen now sits 54 points above the provisional Chase elimination line, a 23-point jump in his bid to make the 16-driver Cup Series postseason for the second consecutive year.
MORE: Cup standings | Watch NASCAR video highlights
Last year‘s playoff berth came via a win-and-in format, where his road-course excellence provided him easy passage to championship eligibility. Van Gisbergen‘s quest this year — while aided by two road-race wins — will require a greater measure of consistency on ovals. Five races remain in the regular season to close that goal out, and though van Gisbergen said there‘s more work to be done on intermediate-sized tracks, Sunday‘s short-track effort produced another sizable leap.
“It‘s a huge one for the numbers,” Doran said. “We had a little buffer, but not big enough to be comfortable by any means. I haven‘t looked at what they are after this, but those stage points help, all of it helps. So yeah, a little bit more comfortable, but still got to keep pushing.”
More strides like Sunday‘s and those appearances in the lead won‘t seem so surprising. Don‘t expect it, however, to keep van Gisbergen and his No. 97 group from mining for the occasional laugh over the team radio.
“I think that‘s the M.O. of this team,” Doran said, smiling once reminded of SVG‘s Stage 1 transmission. “We have fun with all of it. We try to stay light. There‘s a lot of inside jokes going on throughout the race between him, myself, Josh (Williams), the spotter. Just keep it fun. That‘s why we all do this, to have fun, win races. So it‘s fun to run up front like that.”
]]>“I think we have a fast car,” Logano opined optimistically before taking the green flag in the first NASCAR Cup Series points race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 30 years.
Logano was right, but his assessment turned out to be a massive understatement. After leading a single-race career-best 323 laps, Logano crossed the finished line 0.859 seconds ahead of series leader Denny Hamlin to win for the first time since May 2025 when he triumphed at Texas Motor Speedway.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos
The victory was Logano‘s first in a points race at the 0.625 short track, though he also won the 2024 NASCAR All-Star Race at revitalized North Wilkesboro. In front of an enthusiastic sell-out crowd, Logano recorded the 38th Cup victory of his career, 23rd-most all-time.
“It‘s good to get back into Victory Lane,” Logano said. “It‘s been a tough year. So getting the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang doing some big, smoky doughnuts around this place felt really good.”
The victory was a distinct bright spot in a troublesome season for the three-time Cup Series champion, who vaulted from 17th to 15th in the series standings, 49 points clear of the current cutline for the postseason Chase.
“(Crew chief) Paul (Wolfe) put together a good car,” Logano said. “I think I know exactly what I need to go fast around this place. He‘s able to give it to me.
“I knew coming into this weekend, we‘ve got to capitalize on the points. A win was great, but we really need the points. Really capitalized on those tonight.”
Hamlin was able to stay close to Logano in the final stage, but the race winner worked traffic adroitly and never gave Hamlin a chance to close within striking distance.
The critical juncture came during a green-flag pit stop cycle in the final stage, with Hamlin steering his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to pit road on Lap 359 of 450. Logano followed a lap later and exited the pits roughly a half-second ahead of Hamlin.
That pit cycle proved decisive.
“Yeah, the pressure was there, for sure,” Logano said. “Denny got really good there the last run. Honestly, it was whoever was out front was going to win the race.
“We were pretty dominant. But as the race went along, Denny got better at the last run. Just did a decent job keeping up with the track. They did a good job keeping up.”
SHOP: Winner gear | Watch NASCAR video highlights
Though his extended pursuit of Logano proved fruitless, Hamlin expanded his series lead over second-place Tyler Reddick to 68 points, with five races left before The Chase field is set.
“You just have to compliment them on a great day and a great drive,” Hamlin said of Logano‘s effort. “They were really good. There were a lot of times that I felt like my car was really close to where it needed to be; it was just a smidge off.
“Great battle. At least I was able to keep them honest there, but he had a lot of speed and never gave up on the short run or the long run, so great job to our whole Progressive Toyota team for keeping us in the ballgame, but we will have to go regroup.”
Chase Briscoe ran third and Ty Gibbs fourth, despite an early pit road speeding penalty. Shane van Gisbergen, who maintained a presence in the top 10 for the entire race and led 49 laps (second most to Logano), placed fifth and climbed one position to 14th in the standings, 54 points above the current Chase cutoff.
In the semifinal of the NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge, Todd Gilliland continued his unlikely march to the winner-take-all $1-million payday with an eighth-place finish to Chase Elliott‘s 17th.
Elliott was buried two laps down when caution for a collision between the Chevrolet of Alex Bowman and the Toyota of Reddick — as Bowman turned across traffic trying to enter pit road on Lap 183 — interrupted a cycle of green-flag stops.
Elliott finished three laps down after a late pit stop.
Ryan Blaney, who finished 11th, two laps down, after a speeding penalty, ousted Christopher Bell from the In-Season Challenge. Like Elliott, Bell was a victim of the Lap 183 caution after pitting early in the cycle. He finished 19th, three laps down.
Blaney will face Gilliland for the In-Season title in next Sunday‘s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The race featured five cautions for 43 laps, with the final stage running caution-free for 175 green-flag laps. There were 17 lead changes among nine drivers, the majority coming during green-flag pit cycles.
Gibbs won the first stage before drawing his speeding penalty, with Logano exerting his dominance in winning Stage 2.
Sixth-place Bubba Wallace was the last driver to finish on the lead lap. Brad Keselowski, Gilliland, Daniel Suarez and Ryan Preece — all one lap down — completed the top 10.
Stage 2 recap
Joey Logano scored the Stage 2 victory at North Wilkesboro Speedway in Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series race.
Denny Hamlin was second ahead of Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace and Shane van Gisbergen, who nabbed points in both stages Sunday night. Carson Hocevar, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Todd Gilliland and Daniel Suárez concluded the top 10.
Two mid-stage incidents shook up the running order and trapped multiple contenders one lap down.
A Lap 183 caution altered the event when Alex Bowman dove across Tyler Reddick‘s nose exiting Turn 2, sending both cars into a spin. Bowman was attempting to pit but was running in the outermost lane with Reddick to his left. The incident occurred in the midst of green-flag pit stops, trapping multiple drivers like Chase Elliott, William Byron, Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric and Christopher Bell two laps down at the time of caution before taking advantage of the wave-around rule, earning one lap back.
At the time of the Lap 193 restart, just 15 cars remained on the lead lap.
Shortly thereafter, Bell got loose entering Turn 3 while racing with Josh Berry, sliding high into Berry‘s left rear. Berry spun and smacked the SAFER barrier in Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 199, breaking left-side suspension parts that sent the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford to the garage for repairs.
MORE: Stage 2 results | Watch Logano seize Stage 2 victory
Logano has led over 160 laps, his most since the 2022 season finale in which he won the Cup Series championship. Among the drivers who were trapped one lap down were Hendrick Motorsports teammates Elliott, Kyle Larson and Byron as well as Reddick and Bell.
Stage 1 recap
Ty Gibbs eked out a Stage 1 victory over Shane van Gisbergen in Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Carson Hocevar completed the top five after 80 laps at the historic 0.625-mile short track. Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric and William Byron rounded out the top 10.
RELATED: Stage 1 results | Watch Gibbs clinch Stage 1 win
The yellow flag waved for the first time on Lap 40 when contact between Zane Smith and John Hunter Nemechek sent Nemechek for a spin through Turn 2. Hamlin was the only driver who stayed out under that caution period midway through the first stage. Kyle Larson and Connor Zilisch made contact on pit road, however, during those stops on Lap 45. Larson was leaving his stall after a two-tire stop and exited just in front of Zilisch, whose left-front fender slammed Larson‘s right-front wheel. Both continued without apparent issue, but Larson only mustered a 34th-place finish at the conclusion of Stage 1.
Ross Chastain started from the rear due to multiple inspection failures on Saturday and had to serve a pass-through penalty at the start of the race, losing a lap early. However, the Trackhouse Racing driver received the free pass when the yellow waved to end Stage 1 and started Stage 2 back on the lead lap.
Gibbs won the race off pit road during the stage break but incurred a penalty for speeding on pit road, sending him to the rear of the field for the restart to start Stage 2.
Contributing: Staff report
Note: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming Logano as the race winner. No cars were taken back to NASCAR‘s R&D Center.
]]>Searing mid-July heat toasted the speedway grounds Friday and Saturday as anticipation built for Sunday‘s Window World 450 (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the historic short track‘s first Cup Series points race in nearly 30 years. Though Sunday‘s main event will be held in the relative cooling of nightfall, temperatures cresting the 90-degree mark during the height of the day have created far different conditions for Sunday‘s summertime showdown.
RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: North Wilkesboro
“We did learn some things, but to say we learned what the balance needs to be to come back here in July is is pretty far-fetched,” said Spire Motorsports crew chief Ryan Sparks, who estimated it to be “about 30 degrees” when his driver, Daniel Suárez, tested the team‘s No. 7 Chevrolet here last winter. “So with extreme temperatures this weekend, you know grip is going to be at a premium. So, but it‘s good, old-fashioned short-track racing, just looking for mechanical grip. I‘ve got a good group of guys that know what they‘re doing here and looking forward to just getting on track. But yeah, the times that we‘ve been here, I don‘t think are going to relate at all. So you‘re just going to have to go with your gut instinct on a lot of these calls.”
Sunday‘s event will also be vastly different from a procedural standpoint. North Wilkesboro has been a part of the NASCAR calendar since its revival from the ruins for the 2023 schedule, but the last three seasons, the track has hosted the non-points NASCAR All-Star Race for a shorter field running a shorter distance. The return of a points-paying event will mean a full 37-car grid set for a record 450 laps, later in the year than the mid-May All-Star exhibition and with a full field filling the allotment of pit stalls.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Another new wrinkle — a potentially literal wrinkle — is a new front-bumper configuration for Cup Series cars on short tracks. The rules update makes its debut this weekend, and the removal of some energy-absorbing foam and other bumper bracing is expected to discourage drivers from initiating harsh contact by increasing the potential for cars to sustain damage more easily.
The concern that introduces for teams is the likewise potential for terminal damage to the front-mounted radiator, something crew chiefs will coach their drivers to manage — especially on a tight 0.625-mile layout where close-knit contact and restart jam-ups come with frequency.
“I mean, obviously it‘s still a bit of an unknown,” said Paul Wolfe, crew chief for Joey Logano‘s Team Penske No. 22 Ford. “We looked it over this week together and just kind of talked through it. I don‘t think anybody really knows exactly how it‘s going to react, but it‘s definitely not going to be robust like what we‘ve gotten accustomed to, right? So just being mindful. The radiator and all, that‘s the biggest concern, like it used to be. That‘s what used to happen. We‘d have those big stack-ups and knock radiators out of them. So yeah, I think until we just get on track and really see what they are, I don‘t think we‘re really going to know what we have. So we‘re mindful of it, and you try not to be the ones that have the first issue.“
MORE: Weekend schedule | Goodyear notes for North Wilkesboro
One factor that could provide a constant is the Goodyear tire configuration for the weekend, a familiar setup that‘s been used in other short-track settings — most recently at Martinsville Speedway in late March. Cup Series teams put the package to the test Saturday evening in a 50-minute practice, topped by 2025 North Wilkesboro All-Star winner Christopher Bell.
The session was held later in the day Saturday after pole qualifying was washed out by afternoon storms, potentially giving teams a more apt comparison point that aligns with a 7 p.m. ET start time. While those rains provided a brief respite from the punishing heat, another scorcher is expected for Sunday, when teams are expected to fight anew for grip.
“I mean, obviously, we kind of know what our limits are with load, cambers, toes, things like that, so it puts us in a good spot coming here,” Sparks says. “But like I said, this is going to be such a different animal we‘re having to attack, with just the style of this race track and the way it loads up itself, and then with the extreme temperatures. So you can‘t do exactly what your historical notes show, but you at least have some good data points on knowing what has been a good direction previously.”
]]>Of course, there was no lap after rain drenched the 0.625-mile short track and forced the cancellation of qualifying for Sunday‘s Window World 450 (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
As a result, Blaney will lead the field to green in the first NASCAR Cup Series points race at the track in three decades.
Last Sunday‘s winner at EchoPark Speedway, Blaney is third in the series standings, 65 points behind leader Denny Hamlin and 41 behind second-place Tyler Reddick.
With the top starting spot in Sunday‘s race, he‘s poised to make a dent in those deficits. Nevertheless, there are potential hazards that concern Blaney entering the race, notably the “softer” noses of the Cup cars.
RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: North Wilkesboro
“It‘s the first race with the new bumper structure, and there‘s nothing behind that bumper,” Blaney said. “I mean, all the foam is gone. It‘s just body work, so they‘re going to be pretty flimsy, for sure.
“Some guys, I think, who have only driven this car, they didn‘t get to experience that in the other (previous generation) car, but that stuff is going to be flimsy, so you‘re really going to have to be careful on stack-ups, laying the bumper to somebody.”
Ty Gibbs will take the green flag from the second position, with Christopher Bell and Carson Hocevar third and fourth, respectively, on the second row. Reddick is fifth on the grid, followed by Erik Jones, Hamlin, Shane van Gisbergen, Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott.
Blaney faces Bell in the semifinals of the $1-million In-Season Challenge, with Elliott taking on 18th-place starter Todd Gilliland in the other semi.
“I feel like that‘s going to be a real heck of a battle between me and Christopher this weekend,” Blaney said. “They run really good on short tracks. We have a history of running really good on short tracks.
“He won the All-Star Race here last year, so he‘s going to be really tough competition. So that‘s going to be a heck of a battle… It‘s been fun to be a part of it, that‘s for sure. I got knocked out after Round 1 last year, so it‘s been fun to go through the bracket and see who you‘re up against.”
Three teams had inspection issues on Saturday. The No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Austin Hill and No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet of Connor Zilisch failed pre-race inspection twice and lost pit-stall selection and the services of their car chiefs.
The No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet of Ross Chastain failed three times. In addition to losing pit-stall selection and having car chief David Fero ejected, Chastain must drop to the rear of the field before the start and serve a pass-through penalty after taking the green flag.
Bell tops leaderboard in practice
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell topped Saturday‘s delayed 50-minute NASCAR Cup Series practice session at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
The driver of the No. 20 Toyota set the pace at 123.477 mph over teammate Denny Hamlin (123.382 mph) and Trackhouse Racing‘s Ross Chastain (123.065 mph).
Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron (122.816 mph) and Chase Elliott (122.809 mph) rounded out the top five.
MORE: Practice results | Watch NASCAR video highlights
Ty Gibbs (122.803 mph), Kyle Larson (122.762 mph), Josh Berry (122.749 mph), Joey Logano (122.622 mph) and Chris Buescher (122.522 mph) completed the top 10.
While Chastain was quickest in five-lap average speed, Bell led the 10-, 15-, 20-, 25- and 30-lap averages.
]]>In sharp contrast, Smith was the quintessence of dominance on Saturday, leading the final 105 laps to claim victory in the FaithFest 250 presented by Mercer Transportation, again with series leader Riggs securing second place.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: North Wilkesboro
Last year‘s race ended under caution after the trucks of Riggs and Corey Heim collided on the last lap. On Saturday, Smith ran away with the race in the final stage, beating Riggs to the finish line by 8.479 seconds — a record margin of victory on a short track in Truck Series history.
“We‘re ready to rip,” Smith said after a race run in extreme heat on the 0.625-mile asphalt surface. “If the Lord wills it, we don‘t plan on backing down from here going forward. We were just biding our time, keeping the fenders clean and taking what (the No. 38 Ford) would give me.”
Smith took the lead off pit road for a Lap 152 restart to begin the final stage and never looked back. Riggs restarted eighth and worked his way to second on Lap 210 but had nothing for his teammate over the final 40 circuits.
The race ran without a caution for the final 99 laps.
“Part of me wanted to have a restart,” Riggs said. “Part of me knew if that happened there was probably going to be some carnage. So I was very happy just finishing the race there, knowing our teammate got the win. Congratulations to Chandler. He did a great job.”
Riggs, who won the opening stage and led 25 laps, had to overcome the heat to hold second over third-place finisher and Cup Series regular Shane van Gisbergen, who matched his best NASCAR national series finish on an oval track.
“It was hot today,” Riggs acknowledged. “I ice-bagged on every stop. My cool shirt was on—I took it off already. It was probably one of the hottest races I‘ve ever been in. I think we need to add some heat shields to these things…
“But my mind stayed sharp, and I stayed in the game.”
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Riggs extended his series lead to 59 points over 11th-place finisher Kaden Honeycutt.
Christian Eckes finished fourth, followed by Landen Lewis, who scored his second straight top-five finish after a runner-up run last Saturday at Lime Rock Park.
Gio Ruggiero, Chase Elliott, Stewart Friesen, Heim and Stage 2 winner Ty Majeski completed the top 10.
The race for the final spots in the postseason Chase tightened on Saturday. With three races left to set The Chase field, Friesen and 19th-place finisher Tyler Ankrum are tied for the 10th and final postseason berth, with Jake Garcia just 11 points back in 12th place after coming home 13th at North Wilkesboro.
MORE: Eckes holds off the heat, perseveres for North Wilkesboro top five
Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar led 74 laps but couldn‘t recover from a cut left-front tire that dropped him two laps down and relegated him to a 27th-place finish.
The Craftsman Truck Series returns to action on Friday for the TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (8 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the Craftsman Truck Series garage, confirming Smith as the winner. The No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet had one lug nut not safe and secure and will lose pit-stall selection at its next event.
]]>Location: North Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Track length: 0.625 miles
When: 7 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 450 laps | 281.25 miles
Segments: 80 | 265 | 450
Sunday‘s starting lineup | Pit-stall assignments
Turning back the clock for a historic track‘s next milestone
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — It was 30 years ago that North Wilkesboro Speedway last hosted a points-paying event for NASCAR‘s top division. How times have changed in the 10,885 days since.
Sunday night‘s Window World 450 marks another step in the remarkable revival of the historic foothills oval, which hosts a by-God points race at a cornerstone track in stock-car racing‘s foundation. It‘s a crucial one, the semifinals of a lucrative In-Season Challenge tournament, plus another progress checkpoint before the Cup Series winds down the regular season to decide who races for a championship and who doesn‘t. It‘s also a reminder of the sport‘s evolution and how the old-school formula that‘s been here since NASCAR‘s earliest days still works.
MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos
When the series, then known as the Winston Cup Series, last raced a full-fledged event here in 1996, there were no tournaments (in-season or otherwise), overtimes, playoffs, eliminations or Chase postseasons. The two drivers named Chase in Sunday‘s field — Briscoe and Elliott — had blown out one birthday candle between them at that point, and two more current-day drivers — Tyler Reddick and Erik Jones — would be just months old then. All four would become Cup Series winners, nearly a generation-plus after North Wilkesboro‘s supposedly final checkered flag flew.
Jeff Gordon was the no-surprise victor that seasonable September afternoon, leading 207 of 400 laps to score the last of his 10 wins in a meteoric breakout season. Thirty years later, he‘s still with Hendrick Motorsports but as a senior executive in the team‘s front office. Three generations of Cup Series cars have also passed in the three-decade interim since Gordon‘s dominant Wilkes County drive, with the more advanced Next Gen racer replacing the Gen-4 model that made mid-‘90s crew chiefs the sultans of skew.
Drivers have always had to watch their bumpers here, dating back to the days when Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Bobby Allison weaponized their cars like lancers trying to knock their opponents off their mounts. This weekend, NASCAR rules have mandated a less-rigid front bumper configuration, decreasing some of the energy-sapping foam and bracing to keep drivers from absorbing some of the hard knocks that come with short-track contact. The car may pay the penalty, instead.
“There‘s nothing behind that bumper. I mean, all the foam is gone,” said pole-starter Ryan Blaney. “It‘s just bodywork, so they‘re gonna be pretty flimsy, for sure. I was fortunate in the previous generation car that that was what it was. You had to be really, really careful with the nose and the right side and stuff like that, so I feel like I have some experience [with how] you have to really be mindful of that stuff. Some guys, I think, who have only driven this car, they didn‘t get to experience that in the other car, but that stuff is gonna be flimsy, so you‘re really gonna have to be careful on stack-ups, laying the bumper to somebody.”
The on-track jockeying that‘s sure to come Sunday night will have some big-picture corollaries in the points standings with just six races remaining in the Cup Series regular season. The heavyweight clash for The Chase‘s top seed has already been a slugfest, and Denny Hamlin‘s snug 24-point edge over early leader Tyler Reddick has the potential to be a back-and-forth affair — with recent riser Ryan Blaney possibly making it a three-driver fight.
The half-dozen races before the 16-driver Chase field is set should also be hotly contested near the postseason‘s elimination line. Jones has a less-than-commanding grip on the provisional final spot, by just eight points over three-time Cup champion Joey Logano, with five more drivers within just a 50-point span behind that transfer position.
In the later years of its first era, North Wilkesboro traditionally held a late September date near the season finale. That placement on the racing calendar often made the 0.625-mile bullring a pivotal venue, where championship races could often hinge on the outcome.
MORE: Goodyear tire notes: North Wilkesboro
The results didn‘t matter in terms of Cup Series points the last three years, when North Wilkesboro hosted the annual NASCAR All-Star Race as part of the facility‘s resurrection. But the atmosphere was the most electric of all the All-Star venues since the race went into a rotation mode post-COVID, feeding the prevailing thought that the historic track was deserving of a points event. A grandstand sellout, announced by the track Saturday afternoon, bears that out.
Two of the few things missing from fully reviving the North Wilkesboro tradition are a 1 p.m. start time and the lovingly prepared fried chicken that made up the track‘s proper Sunday lunch. In later years, the locally favored Holly Farms poultry brand had been absorbed by corporate overlord Tyson, but it never stopped the customary meal from finding race-day plates, frizzled to a succulent golden brown.
The Sunday table is once again set for a pure throwback to the sport‘s roots. Enjoy the feast.
In the details …
Despite a fractured wrist, Christopher Bell has regained his peak form with three consecutive top-five results, including back-to-back runner-up results at Chicagoland Speedway and EchoPark Speedway.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver now owns five second-place finishes this season, joining a list of elite drivers who have been a bridesmaid many times in a single season. Can Bell finally break through for his first 2026 triumph at a track where he‘s the most recent winner?
| DRIVER | SEASON | SECOND-PLACE FINISHES |
|---|---|---|
| Harry Gant | 1981 | 7 |
| Terry Labonte | 1982 | 6 |
| Kyle Larson | 2018 | 6 |
| Glen Wood | 1959 | 5 |
| Richard Petty | 1982 | 5 |
| Kasey Kahne | 2004 | 5 |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 2013 | 5 |
| Chase Elliott | 2017 | 5 |
| Christopher Bell | 2026 | 5 |
Contributing: Cameron Richardson
Speed reads
Race-day essentials:
• North Wilkesboro hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: See what crew chiefs have in mind for Sunday night | Read more
• In-Season Challenge: Bracket, format, schedule and more for Round 4 | Read more
• Analysis: How Blaney forced his way into Hamlin-Reddick title fight | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks for Sunday‘s 450-lapper under the lights | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: NASCAR on reasoning behind penalizing Wallace for line violation | Listen now
• NASCAR Classics: Reminisce with full-race replays from North Wilkesboro | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Hocevar backs up talk, shines, surges in EchoPark spotlight | This week‘s ranks
Gilliland, 26, has been a long-term piece of the organization‘s equation and will now remain a cornerstone for the three-car operation.
RELATED: North Wilkesboro schedule | Todd Gilliland driver page
Originally from California, Gilliland first joined Front Row for the 2020 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season. He spent two years driving the No. 38 Ford in Trucks, winning once and making the playoffs in both seasons, before earning a Cup call-up in 2022.
As a rookie, Gilliland scored a pair of top 10s, including a banner fourth-place effort at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He made noticeable gains in 2023, upping his top 10 total to four in a year split between four entries across two organizations. Most of his races came in the team‘s No. 38 entry, but he also made a start in Front Row‘s part-time No. 36 car while contesting five races for Rick Ware Racing. He returned to the No. 38 Ford full-time in 2024, finishing a career-best 22nd in series points and scoring four more top 10s.
Last year, after the departure of Michael McDowell to Spire Motorsports, Gilliland moved into the team‘s flagship No. 34 entry and paired with crew chief Chris Lawson. He recorded a personal-best 20.8 average finish with five top 10s, nearly winning in the fall at Talladega Superspeedway.
MORE: Gilliland on underdog In-Season Challenge run | Watch NASCAR video highlights
Through 20 races this season, Gilliland sits 24th in points, 93 markers below the provisional Chase cutline. He‘s set to compete in the semifinal Round 4 of the In-Season Challenge on Sunday at North Wilkesboro Speedway (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and owns a best finish this season of sixth at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Gilliland is the son of former NASCAR driver and Truck Series team owner David Gilliland. Todd has a win driving for his father‘s Tricon Garage team, as well as a win in 2019 with Kyle Busch Motorsports. He‘s also a two-time ARCA Menards Series West champion and first began racing on his fifth birthday.
]]>Beginning this Saturday at North Wilkesboro (12:30 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the tailgaters begin a stretch of five races at tracks a mile in length or shorter, spanning through the regular-season finale at New Hampshire and to the Chase opener at Bristol in September. While some drivers yearn for the rough-and-tumble style of racing ahead, others may be looking back at missed opportunities at recent road courses and intermediates.
With just over a month until The Chase, see how the standings look before the truckers head for the North Carolina foothills, and which drivers are on the right and wrong sides of the bubble.
RELATED: North Wilkesboro schedule | Truck Series standings
LOCKED IN
Just two drivers have secured postseason berths so far, and they are in the midst of a heated battle for the elusive No. 1 seed. Riggs leads the series by 41 points over Tricon Garage‘s Kaden Honeycutt, but Honeycutt made a noticeable dent into his deficit at Lime Rock. The two were caught up in a late-race incident, and Riggs suffered the worst of it, finishing 23rd after leading 48 circuits. Honeycutt finished third and boasted a 54-point afternoon, shaving 21 points off Riggs‘ series lead. The two spoke after the race and calmly found an understanding.
Both, obviously, are among the top championship contenders come November, and their numbers back it up. Riggs‘ four wins are best in class, but Honeycutt tops him in top fives, top 10s and average finish, also earning three poles. He owns just one win at Watkins Glen in May, but it certainly feels like the No. 11 driver has more in the tank down the stretch. But if Riggs continues his torrid pace — winning three of the last five — he‘ll be tough to track down in the next four races.
SAFE
Chandler Smith, Christian Eckes and Gio Ruggiero are near shoulder-to-shoulder in the ranks, making up spots three through five with just ten points separating the trio. Of them, Smith is the only one with a victory, winning the season opener at Daytona and pacing the series after each of the first four races. But after taking the checkered flag fourth at Rockingham, the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports team was disqualified following post-race inspection, a major points swing that will likely remove Smith from contention for the No. 1 seed. He‘s 154 points back from Riggs, but also 140 points above the cutline.
Eckes and Ruggiero are among the most consistent in the series, each scoring four top fives this season and ranking inside the top five in average finish. Surprisingly, despite four victories apiece in 2023 and 2024, Eckes hasn‘t scored a win thus far in his return to McAnally-Hilgemann Racing after a year in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series. Meanwhile, Ruggiero is searching for his first dub since his maiden victory at Talladega last fall, though both he and Eckes are comfortably above the cutline at +130 and +139, respectively.
ABOVE THE BUBBLE
This is where The Chase tightens, starting with 2024 champion Ty Majeski — currently sixth in points. It‘s pretty much feast or famine right now for the No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford, alternating top-12 efforts with finishes of 23rd or worse. He‘s +62 to the cutline. Meanwhile, his teammate and two-time champion Ben Rhodes is right behind him at +54, going on three years without a series victory. Rhodes started the year strong with three straight finishes of 12th or better — including a pair of top fives — but enters North Wilkesboro finishing 21st or worse in three of the last four.
McAnally-Hilgemann‘s Daniel Hemric is eighth at +53 and quietly on an upturn after sitting 18th in the series ranks through five races. He‘s earned seven finishes of 15th or better in the last eight races, including a runner-up last month at Naval Base Coronado. Could he be a postseason dark horse? Grant Enfinger turned his season around in the biggest way possible last weekend at Lime Rock Park, prevailing in a wild race for his first win in nearly two seasons. That victory shot him inside the top 10 in points for the first time all season (+42 to the cutline), but the question is, can he sustain this? Enfinger has just four top 10s so far, and seven finishes of 22nd or worse. Finally, Tyler Ankrum is the 10th and final driver above the cutline for now, but he has just one top-five finish. Road courses have been his weakness this year, finishing 25th or worse in three of the four, but maybe he can heat up with ovals the rest of the way.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
BELOW THE BUBBLE
The six drivers immediately below The Chase cutline are within 41 points of Ankrum, further emphasizing the postseason hunt. Stewart Friesen and Jake Garcia are the closest, each just 17 points behind. Friesen scored a much-needed top 10 at Lime Rock after a Naval Base Coronado DNF, jumping him two spots in the series ranks. He‘s shown flashes of speed, but the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing squad hasn‘t had sustained consistency. The same goes for Garcia, who‘s failed to finish two of the last four after surging as high as eighth in points.
Leading the Kaulig Racing brigade is Brenden Queen in 13th, 21 points below the cutline. Growing pains were certainly expected for the five-truck operation in its first year in Trucks and with Ram. But with back-to-back strong road-course efforts, the longtime late model ace is right in the thick of it. Andrés Pérez is 14th, and despite just two top 10s — both at road courses — he‘s only 31 points back in Niece Motorsports‘ No. 44 Chevrolet. He‘s finished inside the top 20 at each of the last three ovals, so maybe a breakout is on the way. Justin Haley (minus-34) and Tanner Gray (minus-41) make up spots 15 and 16 in the ranks, and both are looking for sustained consistency over the final weeks of the regular season.
The bubble battle couldn‘t be tighter, and with a short-track swing on the horizon, it‘ll make or break drivers‘ hopes to pursue a championship.
]]>For those who have been counting the days between points races at the iconic 0.625-mile short track, 10,885 days will have passed since Jeff Gordon beat Dale Earnhardt by 1.73 seconds on Sept. 29, 1996.
At 450 laps (281.25 miles), Sunday‘s race will be the longest in North Wilkesboro history on an asphalt surface that was repaved in November 2023.
The Window World 450 comes at a point in the Cup Series season when the race for the top seed in the Chase has tightened considerably, the quest for the final spots in the Chase is excruciatingly close, and the battle for the $1 million In-Season Challenge prize has gotten serious.
Denny Hamlin wrestled the series lead from fellow Toyota driver Tyler Reddick on June 28 at Sonoma Raceway, but last Sunday at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta, his advantage shrank from 44 points to 24.
RELATED: Cup standings | North Wilkesboro schedule
Ryan Blaney‘s victory at the Georgia track left him 65 points behind Hamlin, the closest margin from first to third since the second race of the season, also at EchoPark.
With six events left before the Chase field is set, and with huge swings in the points already an established fact, the battle for the top seed in the Chase is far from settled.
Though three editions of the NASCAR All-Star Race were contested at North Wilkesboro (2023-2025), this will be the first full-field event there in 30 years.
“I would never have thought five years ago that we‘d have a points race there, but now we are,” said Blaney, the only Ford driver to visit Victory Lane since Team Penske teammate Joey Logano won at Texas Motor Speedway on May 4, 2025.
“I think it‘s great for the series, great for that race track, obviously, but it‘s just good to be racing around there. I think it puts on a great show, and it‘s going to be a fun one … It‘s going to be a long race — that‘s for sure — a little bit different from the All-Star Race, a different feel with a full field of cars.
“It‘ll take rubber a little bit differently, but last year that place got really wide. I think the race will continue that way as we put laps on it. So, I think it‘s going to be the best race that we‘ve seen at that race track.”
Blaney is one of four drivers still competing for the winner-take-all $1-million prize in the In-Season Challenge. He is paired against 2025 All-Star Race winner Christopher Bell, with the higher finisher at North Wilkesboro advancing to the tournament finals on July 26 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
PREVIEW: Round 4 of the 2026 In-Season Challenge at North Wilkesboro
On the other side of the bracket, Chase Elliott faces underdog Todd Gilliland for the right to race for the In-Season title.
The intensity in the battle for the final Chase spots can‘t be understated. Just 50 points separate 16th-place Erik Jones (in the last Chase-eligible position) from 22nd-place AJ Allmendinger. Jones is eight points ahead of Logano, who won the 2024 All-Star race from the pole.
With a sixth-place finish at EchoPark, Shane van Gisbergen held 15th place in the standings, 31 points above the current cut line. With six tracks left — all ovals — the road-course ace from New Zealand faces a challenging path to remain in the Chase, but the Atlanta run was encouraging.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
“I was thinking about it at the end of the race,” van Gisbergen said. “There was no one around me that I was racing for points, so really needed to consolidate where I was. It didn‘t change my approach.
“Got a P6 out of it, and it gives us really good momentum heading to North Wilkesboro. It‘s a short track — those seem to be good for us — so hopefully we are able to grab some points and get a good result.”
]]>The comments come after Allgaier, the 2024 champion, recently admitted that he has considered retiring following the 2026 season.
RELATED: O‘Reilly Series schedule | O‘Reilly Series standings
“I‘m so glad that we talked him into coming back for a couple more years and not retiring yet,” Earnhardt-Miller told SiriusXM. “We might have him sticking around … I think you can count on him being with us and seeing him here at JR Motorsports in the future, for sure.”
In 21 races this season, Allgaier has racked up a career-high six victories and leads the series standings by a whopping 240 points. His victory at EchoPark Speedway last weekend clinched the No. 1 seed for the Chase, which begins in September at Darlington Raceway.
After a win at Nashville Superspeedway in May, Allgaier revealed his thoughts about stepping away from full-time competition after this year.
“We‘re kind of working through what that looks like,” Allgaier said in a press conference. “There‘s a lot of factors that kind of weighed in on my decision of what 2027 and what the future looks like. If you asked [JRM Director of Communications] [Mike] Campbell in January, he would tell you that it was 100% I was retiring. Actually, 105% — I mean, I bought a house in Illinois, if that gives you any consolation.
“I don‘t know what the future looks like. What I know is that I‘m having probably the most fun I‘ve ever had in my entire career right now … I would say today you‘ll probably see me — there‘s a higher likelihood of you seeing me next year than there isn‘t.”
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Allgaier‘s 34 career series victories rank sixth all-time, four behind Carl Edwards for fifth. He‘s in his 16th full-time season in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and his 11th with JRM. Additionally, Allgaier has made 87 Cup Series starts, racing full-time in 2014 and 2015. He also delivered a ninth-place result in JRM‘s first-ever Cup race, the 2025 Daytona 500.
]]>Starting with Saturday‘s FaithFest 250 presented by Mercer Transportation at North Wilkesboro Speedway (12:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), positions in the Chase will be set in races at three traditional short tracks (North Wilkesboro, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and Richmond Raceway) and a 1-mile flat oval that races like a short track (New Hampshire Motor Speedway).
Against that backdrop, seven drivers are locked into a tight battle for the final spot in the 10-driver Chase, which begins Sept. 17 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Tyler Ankrum currently holds the 10th position, but he‘s only 17 points ahead of 11th-place Stewart Friesen.
Tanner Gray, currently 16th in the standings, trails Ankrum by a mere 41 points, with Jake Garcia (tied with Friesen), Brenden Queen (13th), Andrés Pérez (14th) and Justin Haley (15th) all within 34 points of Ankrum.
With a 25th-place finish last Saturday at Lime Rock Park, Ankrum‘s position in the standings became a bit more tenuous, but the next four races offer the opportunity to solidify his claim to a Chase spot.
RELATED: North Wilkesboro schedule | Truck standings
“I‘m super thankful the road courses have come to an end this season, that‘s for sure,” said Ankrum, who finished eighth and third in his last two trips to North Wilkesboro. “It has been a disappointing start to the season, but we‘re headed back to a short track where I‘m always ready to get out there and get rolling.
“North Wilkesboro has been so good to us in the past, and it‘s such a fun track to race at. Looking forward to it this weekend, and hopefully we can be in contention for a solid finish.”
If Lime Rock was a struggle for Ankrum, such was not the case for Grant Enfinger, whose upset victory at the road course left him ninth in the standings with a 42-point cushion over the current Chase cutoff.
At the top of the standings, series leader Layne Riggs holds a 44-point lead over second-place Kaden Honeycutt in what has evolved into a two-driver battle for the top seed in the Chase.
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In his two North Wilkesboro starts, Riggs has finished third and second, tying Butch Miller for best average Truck Series finish (2.5) all-time at the track. Honeycutt ran 17th at the 0.625-mile track in 2023 and eighth in 2025 in his only two starts there.
]]>“It‘s an honor to host the Kyle Busch Invitational at Bowman Gray Stadium and celebrate the life and legacy of one of racing‘s most accomplished drivers,” said Clay Campbell, President, Martinsville Speedway, and VP, NASCAR Mid-Atlantic Division. “This event brings together the passion of our fans, the rich history of the Madhouse and an incredible cause through The Samantha and Kyle Busch Bundle of Joy Fund. This will be a special night for our fans, our community and everyone involved.”
The Kyle Busch Invitational will feature up to 51 Legend Cars and 18 additional Bandolero Cars competing at the historic quarter-mile oval.
Drivers will earn an automatic bid if they are in the top five of the 2026 Summer Shootout final point standings in Pro, Semi-Pro, Masters, and Young Lions. Any Pro, Semi-Pro, Masters, or Young Lions drivers with an A-Main Feature victory during the 2026 Summer Shootout who do not finish in the final top five in points will also receive an automatic bid.
RELATED: Charlotte to host Kyle Busch celebration of life in October
“The Legend Car played an important role in Kyle‘s development on his path to becoming one of the greatest race car drivers of his generation,” said G.E. Chapman, Vice President of U.S. Legend Cars International and the INEX Racing Series. “To celebrate Kyle‘s life and legacy with a Legend Car and Bandolero event at Bowman Gray Stadium, while also recognizing the incredible impact he and Samantha have made through The Bundle of Joy Fund, is a tremendous honor. We‘re proud to be part of an event that celebrates both his accomplishments in motorsports and the lasting difference he continues to make off the race track.”
The Samantha and Kyle Busch Bundle of Joy Fund is a proven difference maker. Founded by Samantha and Kyle Busch in 2015, The Bundle of Joy Fund is a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance to individuals and couples facing the challenges of infertility. Inspired by their own journey to parenthood, the fund awards grants for fertility treatments and helps families pursue their dream of having children.
And now race fans will have an opportunity to add to that legacy by attending the Kyle Busch Invitational on Friday, Aug. 21. Ticket gates open at 2 p.m., with practice and qualifying taking place from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Racing begins at 5 p.m. with five 10-lap Legends Car heat races. The evening will continue with two 15-lap Legends Car B-Main races before culminating with the Bandolero and Legends Car feature races.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Bowman Gray Stadium is offering a two-day ticket package that includes admission to the Kyle Busch Invitational on Friday night, as well as Saturday‘s Weekly Racing Series Championship, the AGSouth Farm Credit 150. Single-day tickets may be purchased at the gate or online through the TicketHoss App, while two-day tickets are available online only.
For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit the event page.
]]>Between Reddick and Hamlin, one of those two has led the 2026 point standings each week of the season (Reddick in Rounds 1-17; Hamlin ever since) and they still have the best odds to win either the regular-season or Chase trophies when all is said and done.
But recently, another name has forced himself into what seemed like a closed conversation: Ryan Blaney.
After winning the rain-delayed Quaker State 400 in the wee hours of Monday morning, Blaney has finished no worse than 11th in any of his past 10 starts — while no other driver can say their worst finish is any better than 23rd (Erik Jones) over that same span. Blaney is on such a heater recently that his worst finish is better than every other regular driver‘s average finish, with the exception of Hamlin (whose average is 7.9).
RELATED: Cup standings | North Wilkesboro schedule
The early narrative of Blaney‘s season was that of speed — and an early win at Team Penske‘s favorite playground, Phoenix — but also mistakes and missed opportunities for the No. 12 car. He picked up infractions in five of the first 10 races of the season, and had one of the lowest-rated pit crews according to NASCAR Insights‘ metrics. Through 10 races, he only ranked No. 7 in average finish despite sitting No. 3 in average Driver Rating. Clearly, Blaney and his Penske team had better finishes that they could wring out of the days they were having.
And over the past two-and-a-half months, that‘s exactly what they‘ve done. The race craft has been decidedly improved: Despite starting near the back and running 19th on average at Texas, Blaney worked his way toward the front late and grabbed a top 10, and he also squeezed top-11 finishes out of less-than-fully-dominant days at Watkins Glen, Michigan, Pocono and Chicagoland.
But when the 12-car‘s peak performance level has been there, Blaney has also taken advantage. He‘s posted a Driver Rating of 99.5 or higher five times in the past 10 races — only Reddick, Hamlin and Kyle Larson have more over that span, at six apiece — finishing ninth or better each time. (Contrast that with Larson, who has managed to turn a 112.0 rating into a 23rd-place finish at Nashville and a 97.5 rating into 34th-place run Monday morning.) We‘ve always known that when Blaney‘s speed and execution align, watch out.
The most impressive run of all for Blaney? It might have come just this past week, south of Atlanta.
While EchoPark Speedway is shorter than your traditional superspeedways, it has behaved like them in terms of drafting and pack-racing since its reconfiguration in 2021-22 — and that means the expectations for mayhem and chaos run high. Forget dominance; survival is the keyword here. So for Blaney to come out and lead 171 of 263 possible laps (65.0%) en route to victory at this type of track is a special accomplishment indeed.
In NASCAR‘s modern era (since 1972), that was the 19th-highest share of laps led by a race-winner at a superspeedway — and the most in just over a decade, since Brad Keselowski led 71.4% of laps at Daytona on July 2, 2016:
Along with all of those laps led, Blaney also finished with a 134.5 Driver Rating at EchoPark, his best showing of the 2026 season thus far and the sixth-highest of his career overall. (Four of his top fives came at intermediate ovals, with his career-high of 146.0 coming at Iowa, a short track, in 2024.) Including Monday morning‘s win, Blaney‘s average Driver Rating over his past five starts is 107.1, including five straight over 90.0 and three in triple-digits.
In recent terms at least, then, Blaney‘s form has surpassed that of both Hamlin and Reddick, as he pulls within 65 points of both in the standings. What once looked like a two-man show now has a third headliner.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Even better news for Blaney? We‘re coming up on another short track, North Wilkesboro, where he finished top-six in the 2023 and 2024 All-Star races, and where only Hamlin projects to be better based on similar tracks. Then it‘s on to the Brickyard, Iowa, Richmond and Loudon, all places where Blaney ranks among the Cup Series‘ best drivers in the Next Gen era.
It‘s still going to be tough to unseat Hamlin and/or Reddick for the regular-season crown — my simulation model only gives Blaney a 10% shot at it, though that‘s higher than anybody outside the Reddick/Hamlin duo has had in a while. More importantly, though, Blaney is very unlikely to rank any worse than third in the Chase standings, placing him within striking distance of what will probably be Hamlin and Reddick at Nos. 1-2 to begin the championship hunt.
And based on how he‘s been converting speed into results lately, that may be all the opening Blaney needs to add another Cup championship to his trophy shelf — stealing the ending from a season that had seemed destined to belong to Hamlin and Reddick.
]]>Round 3 at EchoPark provided plenty of excitement and tightly contested battles, including No. 25 seed Todd Gilliland advancing over No. 32 seed Alex Bowman by just two positions. No. 4 Chase Elliott advanced by 23 positions over No. 12 Chase Briscoe, but that doesn‘t tell the story, as both drivers contended for the win until Briscoe crashed late. No. 10 seed Christopher Bell knocked off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and No. 2 seed Denny Hamlin, and of course, No. 3 seed Ryan Blaney dominated the night to win the race and eliminate No. 11 seed William Byron.
If you‘re a fan of college basketball, this semifinal round couldn‘t line up any better. Three drivers represent three blue-blood organizations, while a Cinderella story looks to continue wreaking havoc throughout the bracket.
RELATED: Check your bracket! | In-Season Challenge hub
ROUND 4 MATCHUPS:
- (No. 3) Ryan Blaney vs. (No. 10) Christopher Bell
- (No. 4) Chase Elliott vs. (No. 25) Todd Gilliland
TRACK BREAKDOWN
Because the Cup Series hasn‘t contested a points-paying race at the 0.625-mile short track in this era, it‘s tough to pin down the exact list of contenders. The All-Star Race gives at least some sample size, but a much shorter race combined with a much smaller field doesn‘t fully paint the picture. All four remaining drivers, however, have stout short-track resumes.
This season, Blaney has the second-best average finish at 4.0 in this style of racing — only to Ty Gibbs — and is third best in both total points (94) and laps led (192). His seven consecutive short-track top 10s are tops in Cup, and he won earlier in the season at Phoenix. Speaking of winners, his opponent, Bell, banked the 2025 All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro. Previous victories at Bristol, Martinsville, Phoenix and New Hampshire show he‘s plenty capable — even though a win hasn‘t been in the cards … yet … this season.
Meanwhile, Elliott has a victory in the two true short-track races this season, winning this spring at Martinsville. He‘s generally a factor at every type of track, and North Wilkesboro could provide an opportunity for Chevrolet to catch up to red-hot Toyota. Don‘t forget about Gilliland, though. While he hasn‘t contended at short tracks, he owns four top 10s in 25 starts and finished sixth this spring at Bristol.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Bigger picture, according to Racing Insights, the driver who led the most laps won just once in the last five short-track races. At both Martinsville and Bristol earlier this year, a driver swept the stages but didn‘t win the race, and two of the last four short-track winners didn‘t score any stage points. What does this mean? One strategy call could easily shake up how Round 4 plays out.
MATCHUP OF THE WEEK: (No. 3) Ryan Blaney vs. (No. 10) Christopher Bell
With a spot in the Champions Round on the line, two of the best at flat tracks will go head-to-head in the Cup Series‘ first points-paying race at North Wilkesboro Speedway since 1996.
Through three In-Season Challenge races, these two drivers have been flawless. Blaney won a thriller on Sunday at EchoPark Speedway — leading a race-best 171 laps — and hasn‘t finished worse than seventh all tournament. Bell doesn‘t have a win yet this season, but his stretch of three consecutive top fives nearly one-ups his rival.
But with both riding significant momentum — and both carrying impressive short-track resumes — this matchup is a complete toss-up. Six of Bell‘s 13 Cup victories are at shorter, flatter tracks, and he also boasts a North Wilkesboro victory in last year‘s exhibition All-Star Race. Blaney has similar numbers with six short-track wins — and Ford always seems to thrive at those types of circuits. In three All-Star events at North Wilkesboro, Blaney has two top 10s.
Heading into the semifinal round, both of these drivers have found their stride at the right time — and this head-to-head in the North Carolina mountains will surely come down to the wire.
MORE: Recap Round 3 action
KEY MATCHUP: (No. 4) Chase Elliott vs. (No. 25) Todd Gilliland
Gilliland‘s certainly facing an uphill battle both on the track and in popularity contests by facing 2020 Cup champion and perennial most popular driver Elliott. In three All-Star Races at North Wilkesboro, Elliott‘s been one of the best, never finishing worse than eighth. Meanwhile, Gilliland never qualified for an All-Star Race at the track and has never finished better than 12th in the All-Star Open.
The odds are certainly in Elliott‘s favor here. Even though the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports driver is quietly on a slide with just one top 10 in his last nine races, he still finds a way to maximize days and finish races. That said, both he and Gilliland have had lady luck on their side over the last three weeks. The Front Row Motorsports driver hasn‘t finished better than 16th during the In-Season Challenge, but benefited from uncharacteristically bad days from opposing Spire Motorsports drivers Daniel Suárez and Carson Hocevar in the first two rounds, before last week‘s opponent, Bowman, suffered damage in a late wreck. The same goes for Elliott‘s opponent last week, Briscoe, who contended for a chunk of the night before exiting in the same crash.
Is it likely for Gilliland to pull another upset? No. But with some unknowns heading to North Wilkesboro and an opportunity for some potentially wild strategy, a window at least exists.
]]>The rear spoiler will be shortened from 7 inches to 4 inches, the same height as intermediate tracks, in an effort to reduce drag, along with a slight reduction in horsepower from 510 to 465 to adjust for the reduced downforce. NASCAR officials anticipate single-car runs to be approximately 3 mph faster than the current package, but cars in a pack are expected to run about the same speeds.
MORE: Cup standings | Cup schedule
The changes come in advance of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, with hopes of less drag providing more opportunities for drivers to better move through the field by passing rather than relying upon track position through various fuel-saving strategies.
Three-time Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin and NASCAR Event Management president John Probst both served on a larger working group that determined possible adjustments. While these changes are set for the upcoming race at Daytona, any determination for future superspeedway races will be confirmed at a later date.
Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and co-owner of 23XI Racing, noted the high quality of racing in Sunday night‘s event at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta in an appearance with former crew chief Steve Letarte and Probst on “Inside the Race.” He pointed to EchoPark‘s 1.5-mile track length as a benefit of the 7-inch spoiler, but the 2.5-mile Daytona and 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway layouts offer fewer passing opportunities with the higher-drag 7-inch spoiler.
“What we‘re essentially trying to recreate is Atlanta at Daytona and Talladega,” Hamlin said. “It happens organically at Atlanta, the space between the cars, because the cars themselves are grip-limited, and the fuel-mileage (racing) really doesn‘t happen because you have to be on offense constantly. If you watch the pack, there is no saving. Guys are dicing it up the entire race. So this is what we‘re aspiring to get to at some point. And it‘s going to take chunks here and there. This is our first bite of the apple at this, so what I believe is that from the numbers that I‘ve seen, it‘s going to be roughly a 33% gain in the right direction.”
Letarte explained that the ultimate goal of switching to a shorter spoiler is to give drivers stuck mid-pack an outlet to create their own moves and build runs on the cars in front of them to overtake, rather than riding stuck in line.
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“When I watch superspeedway racing currently, it seems like the leader is basically at terminal velocity,” Letarte told NASCAR.com. “It‘s very easy to get a run on the leader and very hard to do anything with it. You pull out of line, you hit this wall of air, and for that reason, they‘re just kind of stuck two-wide around the bottom. When superspeedway racing is most entertaining for me, it takes more work to generate an advantage or a run. But when you do generate that run, you are paid off in a dividend of overtaking. And really, I think it‘s as simple as that.
“I think what I see currently is our biggest track-position races of the year are the superspeedways. That‘s never been their signature. And we can talk about fuel and strategy, but the garage is going to try to win the race. So if the strategy demands track position, they‘re going to do everything to get it. If the aero changes can allow teams to overtake to have faster cars and slower cars, I think it could open up the field a little bit and have just varying-speed cars because right now they all look like they run the same speed.”
The change comes in an attempt to improve superspeedway racing at NASCAR‘s top level after adjustments made to do the same at other track types.
“As you‘ve seen with NASCAR over the last few years, since the Next Gen, they‘re not afraid to just keep fine-tuning it and getting it good at all these race tracks,” Hamlin said. “We‘ve seen them make some horsepower adjustments on the short tracks in order to make those and road courses race better. Intermediates obviously speak for themselves; they don‘t need a whole lot with how well the Next Gen races there. But then the next step is OK, let‘s work on our superspeedway package from here on out. So I think that this was a great collaborative effort to get the racing product as good as it can be for the fans.”
Making this alteration with two superspeedway races remaining on the Cup Series calendar also feels like the right time for an adjustment, Letarte said.
“The unfortunate or fortunate part is our season kicks off with the biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500,” Letarte said. “And I believe that our car cycles, our rules cycles, are not the same. Everything doesn‘t happen in the winter for another upcoming season. So I actually think this is the appropriate cycle for speedway racing. You have to remember, there‘s no more win and you‘re in. The Chase is about accumulating points. You‘ve had 25 other races to score enough points to go down there with the unknown of what this race is going to be. We have a speedway race in The Chase that I think will be tough to then try something brand new. So I actually believe that this is the correct cycle. I think Daytona in August becomes a great test bed for then the ‘Great American Race‘ in February.”
For NASCAR to act quickly in correcting a perceived issue is not a coincidence. A separate change was made to stage lengths at Talladega in the spring in an effort to reduce the incentive to save fuel. Probst points to leadership from the sport‘s front office as a key driving force toward bettering the racing product.
“We want to react quickly,” Probst said. “You know, Steve O‘Donnell, our new CEO, is on us all the time to get the feedback and react on the feedback as quick as we can. And I think that working with Denny and the working group there, we made changes that we felt had the highest potential to make a big change, but with the lowest risk as well. Like, we didn‘t pull every lever that we could because some of those would frankly require us to get 15 cars down to Daytona and try some more radical stuff. We‘re not against doing that, but that certainly would affect the timing in which you unroll that level of a change for.
“So we got that group together. I feel like everybody in there brought their opinion and provided really good feedback. And I think that where we landed is the biggest change we feel like we can make without doing a full-blown test.”
What comes next, officials anticipate, is maneuverability that allows drivers to reclaim their star power by earning their way back through the field on the track rather than through pit strategy.
“I can tell you from the driver‘s seat what happens for us is that we spend the entire race fuel-mileage saving all for that last pit stop,” Hamlin said. “We basically know you have to be in the top four inside that last fuel window, unless there‘s a big wreck, to have a shot at winning. I mean, if you come out 10th, you are log-jammed; you‘re not going anywhere. And with the cars having as much drag as they have on them, then you can‘t pull out of line to be offensive to get your track position back.
“So we‘re trying to make it to where it allows the drivers to pull out of line when they get a run, and then hopefully create a little bit of space between them to allow them to get back in line, so it‘s not going to make them so apprehensive to go make that bold move with 30 to go.”
The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is set for Saturday, Aug. 29, at Daytona International Speedway, with coverage at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
]]>“On The Gas with Ryan Blaney” — presented by BodyArmor Sports Drink — will run the first four Wednesdays of July exclusively on NASCAR‘s YouTube channel beginning July 1. The first season consists of four episodes, each approximately 20 minutes long and features celebrities Keegan-Michael Key and Chad Ochocinco, plus popular YouTube creators Westen Champlin and The Stradman.
WATCH: Episode 1: Keegan-Michael Key | Episode 2: TheStradman | Episode 3: Chad Ochocinco
Fresh off his starring role in the latest installment of Amazon Prime Video‘s “Eli Manning Presents: The Undercovers,” Blaney gives his guests far more than a typical pace car or hot laps ride. The No. 12 Team Penske Ford driver treats them to a real NASCAR racing experience, blending the adrenaline of the sport with the spontaneity of unscripted interviews, capturing authentic and often hilarious moments as they react in real time to the intensity of the ride.
“Getting the chance to share what makes NASCAR so exciting with people from different worlds was a lot of fun,” said Blaney. “Whether it was taking Keegan, Chad, Westen or The Stradman around the track, every episode brought a different perspective and some unforgettable moments. I think fans are going to enjoy seeing these big personalities experience the speed, competition, and culture of our sport up close.”
With more than 2.7 billion active users globally, YouTube is the world‘s largest streaming platform. In the United States, viewers now spend more time watching YouTube on television screens than on mobile devices, streaming more than 1 billion hours of content on TVs each day. Debuting “On The Gas with Ryan Blaney” exclusively on YouTube reinforces NASCAR‘s commitment to reaching fans where they consume content and expanding its presence among digital-first audiences.
“With NASCAR Studios and Full Speed Entertainment, we‘re focused on creating original content that connects with fans in fresh and unexpected ways,” said John Dahl, senior vice president, original content, NASCAR. “‘On The Gas with Ryan Blaney‘ delivers exactly that by pairing one of NASCAR‘s biggest stars with guests experiencing the speed and intensity of our sport firsthand. As we continue to grow our presence on YouTube, this series represents another step in bringing NASCAR‘s personalities and culture to a broader audience through premium digital storytelling.”
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Blaney has become one of NASCAR‘s most recognizable personalities on and off the track. In addition to competing full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, he‘s recently been featured in Prime Video‘s “NASCAR vs. The Navy” mini-movie and “Eli Manning Presents: The Undercovers — Ryan Blaney.”
The project was produced by Full Speed Entertainment, the production partnership between NASCAR Studios and Words + Pictures, which focuses on elevating the cultural footprint of NASCAR, its drivers, and teams through bold storytelling, talent-driven initiatives, premium content, and large-scale specials.
]]>The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing driver has simply been too good for too long for this year to be framed as a competitor who simply cannot close, either — Bell‘s 13 career Cup Series wins over his first six seasons, four of which came last year alone, settle that argument before it starts. The Oklahoma native has repeatedly demonstrated that he knows what to do with a race-winning car, whether on dirt, asphalt, concrete, concrete covered in dirt, you name it.
And yet, 20 races into 2026, his season is becoming defined by everything but that final step — and it‘s the one that matters most.
Five runner-up finishes. Eight top fives. A pole. Three stage wins. A fifth-best-in-the-series 422 laps led.
Zero wins.
That combination has placed Bell in increasingly rare company. His five runner-up finishes are the most by a winless driver in a season since friendly rival Kyle Larson had six in 2018. Through 20 races, only Terry Labonte in 1982 had more second-place finishes without a win; Harry Gant also had five at the same point in 1981.
The easiest read would be that Bell has repeatedly failed to convert opportunities. Dig deeper, and the accurate analysis reveals significantly more confounding context.
RELATED: See Bell in latest Power Rankings
At Phoenix Raceway this spring, Bell led 176 laps, won the second stage and finished second to Ryan Blaney. Dominant, but a near-miss. He then came from 17th to finish second at Charlotte, leading 44 laps before rain helped hand the victory to Daniel Suárez. Bell started fourth and led 29 laps at Nashville before watching teammate Denny Hamlin nearly double his points output despite finishing just one spot higher. At Chicagoland, he followed another JGR teammate, Chase Briscoe, across the line, furiously chasing him down to no avail. Then, at EchoPark Speedway, Bell drove from 32nd to second and finished a frustrating 0.068 seconds behind Blaney, pushing the No. 12 to his second win of the season.
Those are five runner-up finishes, but not quite five copies of the same outcome. Bell sometimes had the dominant car. Sometimes he recovered from deep in the field. Sometimes, another championship-caliber driver was simply better by the end of the race.
Every time, though, the result was frustrating.
That said, the EchoPark run was the latest example of how much of the operation remains sound. NASCAR Insights ranked Bell fourth in defense and ninth in speed during the race, while the No. 20 pit crew ranked first. Bell‘s season-long profile is even stronger: sixth in passing, fifth in speed, fourth on restarts and fourth in pit-crew performance — certainly championship-caliber.
Racing Insights‘ deeper pit crew numbers support that ranking, too. Bell‘s team owns the fastest average clean four-tire stop in the series at 9.56 seconds, a 95% clean-stop rate, and ranks second in line-to-line performance, retaining position on 82% of stops. The No. 20 team has not been consistently losing races because it lacks support around the driver on pit road.
It‘s almost entirely race-context-driven. Not performance.
There may be no statistic that captures Bell‘s season better than this one — his 422 laps led through 20 races are actually an increase of 268 over the same point last year. Bell had already won three times through 20 races (believe it or not, they actually all came in the first four races) in 2025 despite leading just 154 laps. This season, he has nearly tripled that total without reaching Victory Lane once.
Bell has also led more laps this year than JGR teammates Briscoe and Ty Gibbs combined. Both have won. Bell has not.
That is not remotely an indictment of No 20, but rather a notion worth investigating as to why his missing win remains so dubious.
The near-misses, of course, also extend beyond the five runner-up finishes. Bell was running second in overtime at Atlanta in February when contact from Carson Hocevar left him 21st. He was third before being collected in overtime at Kansas and fourth before running out of fuel with two laps remaining at Pocono. Racing Insights calculated those three results alone as a costly combined swing of 58 points.
Those are just regular-season losses now; not ideal, but survivable. The same pattern would carry much more weight in The Chase, particularly if he continues to be held out of Victory Lane.
Bell is ninth in points and sits 113 above the cutline, so Chase qualification is not the pressing concern. His 127 stage points rank sixth in the series, another indicator that the No. 20 has regularly operated near the front and will likely continue to do so a month and a half from now. The larger question is whether a driver — who certainly was among the preseason chalk picks for the championship — can reasonably be viewed as a title favorite after going an entire regular season without winning, regardless of how encouraging the underlying data may be. Numbers are numbers, after all, but you either have the points or don‘t.
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A winless Bell would still enter The Chase as dangerous, sure. He would also enter mostly as a projection of what could happen, not necessarily what will. Sure, Bell, perhaps more than most, is capable of ripping off consecutive victories, which would perhaps be necessary if he‘s stuck in the middle of the Chase field and has title aspirations. But “can happen” and “will happen” are not the same. At all.
That does not make a title impossible; it just makes his case harder to trust.
Which leads us here — North Wilkesboro is the logical place for Bell to take everything that was just laid out and turn it completely on its head.
The Cup Series has not held a points race there since 1996 — when a not-yet 2-year-old Bell had probably just mastered walking, let alone holding a steering wheel — so the modern evidence comes from three All-Star events (2023-25) rather than a conventional track history. But Bell‘s sample is still meaningful. He won last year‘s All-Star Race at the track, leading 28 laps, and his broader short-track resume makes the fit more than circumstantial. Bell has two wins, 21 top 10s and an 11.9 average finish in 35 career short-track starts. He has finished in the top 10 in 12 of the last 17, including a Bristol victory last September — his most recent Cup win, 27 races ago.
He also enters this weekend with three consecutive top-five 2026 finishes and back-to-back runner-ups, with the In-Season Challenge adding another layer on top. Bell‘s matchup with Blaney — another of the series‘ hottest drivers and Sunday‘s EchoPark winner — puts the pairing under the spotlight as the ISC matchup of the week, adding even more pressure for Bell to perform. The duo is dead even at 82-82 in head-to-head better finishes during the Next Gen era, although Blaney owns a 12-8 advantage this season and a narrow 13-12 edge on short tracks since 2022.
Bell beating Blaney would advance him to the championship matchup next weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Winning North Wilkesboro itself would accomplish that — but would also signify much more.
It would not retroactively ease the pain of every missed victory or erase the days that slipped away for reasons outside his control, but it would provide the one piece of evidence his otherwise formidable season still lacks: proof that all this speed, track position and organizational strength can produce a complete Sunday before the Chase begins. That may be the one remaining box to check over the next six weeks for him and crew chief Adam Stevens.
Bell does not need a win to validate his ability. He needs one to change the way his 2026 season — along with his championship prospects — is shaping up.
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Analysis: Hamlin‘s EchoPark night was mostly damage control, and it worked well enough to keep him atop both the standings and these rankings. Starting 28th, the No. 11 never became a true win factor but salvaged 12th, added Stage 2 points and left with a 24-point advantage over Tyler Reddick — but has a hard-charging Ryan Blaney behind him who is now a concern for both. North Wilkesboro should offer considerably more upside: Hamlin finished second there in the 2024 All-Star Race and the short-track star also led 292 laps before finishing runner-up at Martinsville earlier this season. The early summer winning streak has cooled, but his command of the championship picture has not disappeared with it.
Analysis: Reddick did not reclaim the points lead at EchoPark, but he made the conversation much tighter. No. 45 charged from 31st, finished second in both stages and came home eighth, cutting Hamlin‘s cushion nearly in half without ever truly controlling the race. His North Wilkesboro sample carries more promise than warning, highlighted by a third-place run in the 2023 All-Star Race and seventh there last season. Reddick is back within one strong weekend of turning the points lead again, though the short-track portion of his resume is not quite as imposing as the season built around it — or that of the guy he‘s chasing.
Analysis: So much for merely occupying a sturdy third lane. Blaney obliterated the field for much of the night at EchoPark, sweeping the stages, leading 171 of 263 laps and reclaiming the top spot on the final circuit to earn his second victory of 2026 in dominant yet dramatic fashion. He has now finished in the top 10 eight straight times — the longest such streak of his career — and has thus cut a once-massive points deficit to 65. Between his Phoenix win earlier this year and top-six results in two of the past three North Wilkesboro All-Star Races, the schedule offers no obvious reason for the No. 12‘s momentum to stall now.
Analysis: No. 54 did not win at EchoPark, but leading 32 laps and finishing fourth after starting 23rd while also facing the pressure of holding a provisional top-five Chase standing added another entry to the growing file labeled “serious contender, Ty Gibbs.” He now owns eight top-five finishes through 20 races, remains fourth in points and continues to extract strong days from races that initially appear headed elsewhere. North Wilkesboro is also the perfect place to revisit what Gibbs can do on a short track: He led 53 laps in the 2023 Open before finishing second, then led all 100 circuits to win it in 2024. Add his Bristol victory and Martinsville fourth earlier this season, and the No. 54 has a far stronger argument this week than merely being the youngest guy near the top.
Analysis: Elliott‘s 13th at EchoPark was serviceable (he did advance in the In-Season Challenge, after all), albeit not memorable, though he briefly led and emerged from the chaos with another intact points day. The No. 9 remains fifth in the standings, but the gap between his early-season punch and current rhythm is noticeable. North Wilkesboro may be the venue that closes it: Elliott has finished fifth, eighth and fifth in the three modern All-Star Races there, and his Martinsville victory in March remains a top-tier short-track credential. Nothing about Sunday guarantees a breakthrough, but few drivers bring a cleaner combination of recent track form and 2026 short-track success.
Analysis: Bell‘s climb continues, and EchoPark required him to earn every inch of it. After starting 32nd, he worked to the front, led twice, supplied the decisive push that launched Blaney toward the win and finished second for his fifth runner-up result of the season. That is a maddening number for a driver still seeking victory No. 1, but he‘s clearly close, with five top fives in the last eight races. Now comes North Wilkesboro, where Bell chased down Joey Logano late to win last year‘s All-Star Race. He is no longer searching for normalcy — and should be close to or at 100% this weekend in terms of his wrist injury — he is searching for the final few feet between repeated contention and finally closing on a win.
Analysis: Larson‘s season continues to be a weekly exercise in finding new ways to separate speed from outcome. No. 5 ran near the front again at EchoPark, led four laps and remained in the mix deep into the night before two late incidents left him 34th and five laps down. There‘s hope on the horizon, however. North Wilkesboro is not simply a potential rebound spot — it is where Larson won the 2023 All-Star Race after leading 145 laps and the Craftsman Truck Series race the same weekend after pacing 138. His broader short-track record includes six wins, 22 top fives and 36 top 10s in 66 starts. At some point, one of these tailor-made opportunities will stop turning into another paragraph about what might have been, along with his growing winless streak.
Analysis: Buescher‘s 10th-place EchoPark finish was vintage No. 17: not especially noisy, but useful enough to keep the larger season picture on task. The RFK driver remains in the championship picture, though he watched faster Toyotas and Penske Fords command most of the night. North Wilkesboro has offered both ends of the spectrum — 16th in 2023, third in 2024 and 10th last season — which makes the 2024 result the more important clue given RFK Racing‘s short-track capability; he can definitely get it done here. Buescher is still accumulating the body of work of a true 2026 title contender, but the only missing ingredient remains a race that unmistakably belongs to him.
Analysis: The spotlight found Hocevar before EchoPark and stayed on him until the checkered flag, yet he never appeared an ounce bothered by it. After a highly public weekend centered on his Zane Smith feud, the No. 77 led five times for 25 laps, carried the field to the white flag and finished third after one final frantic exchange with Blaney and Wallace. North Wilkesboro is hardly unfamiliar terrain: Hocevar won last year‘s All-Star Open after leading the final 46 laps and finished fourth in the 2023 Craftsman Truck Series race after leading 16. He is having one of the best seasons of his young career while everybody is looking directly at him — and so far, that appears to be exactly how he likes it.
Analysis: One ugly result does not erase the Sonoma runner-up and Chicagoland victory, but Briscoe‘s EchoPark crash stopped his surge cold enough to drop him three positions here. He scored points in Stage 1 and remained on the lead lap until the late pileup, ultimately finishing 36th and giving back 27 points relative to the Chase cut. His North Wilkesboro results are encouraging — all top 10s — but trending the wrong way: fourth in the 2023 All-Star Race, seventh in the 2024 Open and ninth in last year‘s main event. The No. 19‘s midsummer form still carries more weight than one drafting-track wipeout, but the immediate task is proving the heater survives outside its two headline weekends.
Analysis: Suárez‘s EchoPark finish landed him 21st, yet the day contained more substance than that number suggests. He finished fifth in Stage 2, charged from 20th to fifth after one restart and spent portions of the middle stage looking capable of something much better before fading from contention. North Wilkesboro carries a similar split personality: Suárez led the opening 54 laps of the 2023 All-Star Race and finished seventh, then produced 15th and 23rd in the next two editions. With 91 points separating him from the cutline, he can afford a modest week; what would help more is rediscovering the version of No. 7 that dictated terms earlier this year rather than merely hoping to bank what remained.
Analysis: Byron‘s Chicagoland revival did not travel cleanly to EchoPark. He started 26th, scored no stage points and finished 16th, returning the No. 24 to the murky middle ground it has occupied too often since the spring, all the while trading barbs with his crew chief. North Wilkesboro has not been a natural showcase either, though sixth place with 12 laps led last season was a substantial step forward from 20th and 19th in the previous two All-Star Races. His fifth earlier this year at Martinsville provides a stronger short-track indicator than the exhibition history alone. The talent and speed are still easy to locate; the uninterrupted run of weekends proving it lately remains far more elusive.
Analysis: SVG‘s sixth-place EchoPark finish deserves more attention than it will probably receive, but it‘s very much worth commending. He finished sixth in both visits to the track this season and now owns three oval top 10s in 2026, continuing to chip away at the idea that his relevance begins and ends when the schedule turns left and right. North Wilkesboro supplied another piece of that development last year, when he led the first 54 laps of the Open before Hocevar took control, while an 11th-place Martinsville run showed he can navigate a traditional — and difficult — short track without disappearing. This is not yet a weekly oval contender, but it is no longer especially wise to assume the No. 97 will be overwhelmed by one.
Analysis: Cindric quietly had one of the richest points nights around the Chase bubble at EchoPark. He finished fifth and fourth in the two stages before settling 14th, gaining five points on the cut and stretching his advantage to 32. His North Wilkesboro record is considerably less flattering — 21st, 20th in the Opens and 18th in the 2025 race the last three years — though eighth at Martinsville earlier this season offers a more current reason for confidence. No. 2 does not need to become a short-track revelation Sunday. Cindric simply cannot let one of his weakest recent venues erase the margin he just worked to create.
Analysis: Wallace crossed the line second at EchoPark and left with a 29th-place finish, which is a violent swing after an extremely long night. He led 11 laps and helped liven the race‘s closing act, but NASCAR ruled that he advanced below the yellow line on the final lap and dropped him down the running order, costing him 22 points against the cut. North Wilkesboro is a far more conventional opportunity for the No. 23: Wallace finished second in the 2023 All-Star Race, sixth in 2024 and fifth in that weekend‘s 2023 Truck race after leading 13 laps. The ranking drop reflects the points damage, not a disappearance of speed, and this may be one of his cleaner rebound spots left.
Analysis: Jones has gone from bubble occupant to bubble survivor, and EchoPark bought him another week of oxygen. His fifth-place finish helped him match his entire 2025 top-10 total at five and moved him eight points above Joey Logano for the final provisional Chase position. North Wilkesboro has been uneven — eighth in the 2023 All-Star Race, 18th in the 2024 Open and fourth in last year‘s Open — but the most recent result at least points in the preferred direction. The Jones-led Legacy Motor Club revival does not need a trophy Sunday, but it does need another day that keeps No. 43 from handing a spot back.
Analysis: The landscape could be about to change, because here comes the track Logano has probably had circled since the schedule was released. His ninth-place EchoPark result, supported by fourth- and third-place stage finishes, pulled him to eight points below the cut and supplied another hint that Team Penske is finally gaining traction beyond Blaney. North Wilkesboro is where Logano led 199 of 200 laps to win the All-Star Race in 2024, then dominated another 139 before Bell passed him late last season. He also finished third at Martinsville this spring. For weeks, No. 22‘s potential rebound has felt like a low simmer, and Sunday offers the most credible chance yet to convert it into something real.
Analysis: Preece‘s EchoPark result did nothing to slow the points leak. He led one lap during the pit cycle but finished 24th, losing 22 more points against the cut and falling 26 below Jones after briefly working his way onto the good side of the line last month. North Wilkesboro is not entirely hopeless territory — Preece placed fourth in the 2023 Open, eighth in 2024 and 11th last season — and his 12th at Martinsville suggests a competent baseline. But with six races remaining, the No. 60 needs to stop producing weekends that require the next one to repair the previous one.
Analysis: Chastain re-enters after an 11th-place EchoPark run that looked modest on paper but moved him within 45 points of The Chase. That is still a substantial deficit, though not quite the dead zone it resembled earlier in the summer. North Wilkesboro has become increasingly productive for him: 11th in 2023, seventh in 2024 and third last season. Add 14 laps led at Martinsville this spring, and there is enough short-track evidence to view this as an opening rather than another survival exercise. No. 1 still needs a much bigger swing than 11th, but at least the schedule is beginning to cooperate.
Analysis: Keselowski remains last here because every supposed launch point keeps becoming another missed departure. He started 10th at EchoPark, finished 26th, scored no stage points and fell 43 below the cut despite entering a stretch built around tracks expected to suit Ford and RFK Racing. North Wilkesboro provides one last compelling historical case: Keselowski led 62 laps in last year‘s All-Star Race before crashing from contention, though his other modern finishes there are 19th and 16th. The No. 6 clearly knew how to find speed at this place 14 months ago. Whether any of it survived the season-plus since is now the more urgent question.
Cup teams will use a package utilized twice in the past: each of the last two races at nearby Martinsville Speedway. Additionally, the right-side tires have raced twice this year at Bowman Gray Stadium and Phoenix Raceway.
While this is a new addition to the official Cup schedule, premier series teams visited the 0.625-mile short track each of the last three years for the exhibition All-Star Race.
RELATED: North Wilkesboro weekend schedule | NASCAR video highlights
“Three years of All-Star Race data has helped us prepare for the NASCAR Cup Series‘ first points race at North Wilkesboro in 30 years,” said Rick Heinrich, Goodyear NASCAR product manager. “The Goodyear Racing Eagle tire package we are bringing is one teams know well and is backed by years of short-track data at the likes of Martinsville, combined with what we‘ve learned in previous years at North Wilkesboro, one of NASCAR‘s most historic tracks.”
Meanwhile, the Craftsman Truck Series will utilize a new tire setup. The right-side tires have raced several times, including last year at North Wilkesboro, but the left-side tires are brand new. The specifications used by the tailgaiters were first introduced for the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series at Phoenix Raceway, but have yet to debut in the Truck Series.
Tire allotment for each team competing this weekend:
Cup Series: 10 total sets — 8 new for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 1 for practice. Teams will also have 4 wet-weather sets available, if needed.
Craftsman Truck Series: 5 total sets — 3 new for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 1 for practice. Teams will also have 3 wet-weather sets available, if needed.
Here‘s where things stand in the In-Season Challenge as the NASCAR Cup Series gets ready for its first points-paying race at North Wilkesboro Speedway since 1996 in Sunday‘s Window World 450 (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: In-Season Challenge hub page | Check your bracket
EchoPark race winner: Ryan Blaney may have just delivered his best performance to date as he swept his way to a dramatic overtime win near Atlanta, scoring 75 points and leading 171 laps in the type of superspeedway dominance not seen since 1964 with Richard Petty. But it wasn‘t just the sheer numbers that were impressive; it was the way Blaney handled the pressure of multiple drivers trying to hunt him down — who sometimes overtook him — while he patiently waited for his opportunity to pounce. He said it was that patience, learned from Dale Earnhardt Jr. and other great drafting-track drivers, that was foremost in his mind when the chips were down last night/this morning at EchoPark.
Blaney‘s first-place finish was, of course, enough to knock off William Byron, a two-time winner at EchoPark Speedway, who finished 16th with an ill-handling No. 24 Chevrolet that he expressed frustration with to crew chief Rudy Fugle over the team radio.
Who advances to Round 4?
Advancing alongside the No. 3 seed Blaney and the No. 10 seed Bell were the No. 4 seed Chase Elliott and the No. 25 seed Todd Gilliland. Elliott‘s 13th-place finish was a bit of a disappointment for the two-time EchoPark Speedway winner and hometown Georgia favorite who had moments of dominance throughout the race, but it was enough to knock off No. 12 seed Chase Briscoe, who got caught up in a multicar melee that sent him to the garage for good.
Meanwhile, Gilliland finished 19th and edged out No. 32 seed Alex Bowman in 22nd place to take over the role as Cinderella in this tournament. Gilliland‘s best performance in the In-Season Challenge was a 16th-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway, but he‘s done just enough to get by in all his matchups to date.
Matchup of the week
(No. 3) Ryan Blaney vs. (No. 10) Driver: Christopher Bell: This could be an old-school donnybrook, as each driver has a strong history on tracks less than one mile long. In the last 10 races on such tracks, Blaney leads all drivers in points, while Bell isn‘t too far behind in sixth place. But those stats don‘t include Bell‘s victory in last year‘s All-Star Race held at North Wilkesboro. Plus, Bell is riding a streak of three straight top-five finishes and is still hungry for a win in 2026.
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Who‘s up
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford. It might sound like a broken record, but it has to be Blaney owning this category. He‘s coming off his best win and is taking a streak of eight straight top-10 finishes into the foothills of the Appalachians.
Who‘s down
Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford. In all fairness, nobody who has advanced this far in the In-Season Challenge is really “down,” but Gilliland will likely have the toughest road to advance from here. He has four top-10 finishes in 25 career short-track races, while his opponent, Elliott, has two wins and an average finish of 11.9 in 60 short-track starts.
]]>There was Chase Elliott. Christopher Bell. A late-charging Shane van Gisbergen, who was so sharp he might have thought he was road racing. Ty Gibbs. Bubba Wallace. And Carson Hocevar, who, with a win, would have completed a wacky, controversial weekend in an unlikely spotlight.
All pushed into or near first place at some point in the final stage, but the critical moments — and the final lap — were controlled by Blaney. With his bushy mustache arriving at the finish line perhaps before the rest of his body, the 32-year-old former Cup Series champion put on one of the finest performances of the season — and of his career — in winning for the second time this year.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos
In the sometimes frantic racing that colored the closing miles, with pretenders firing at him from every lane and every angle, even occasionally taking over the lead, Blaney never wilted. He had enough strength and presence of mind at the end to win by 0.068 seconds, leaving Wallace, Bell and Hocevar in a three-wide battle behind him. (After the race, Wallace was penalized for dropping below the double-yellow inside line while passing, sliding him to 29th place).
Elliott, Gibbs, Hocevar and others powered past Blaney‘s Ford to take the lead at various junctures, but Blaney, in a car crew chief Jonathan Hassler called one of the best the team has built, bounced back to lead every time. He led 171 of the race‘s 263 laps, almost matching an odd sort of record — laps led on a drafting-style track. Richard Petty led 184 laps in winning the 1964 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway when it was the only “drafting-style” track.
“He would take his medicine and make moves to get back to the front,” Hassler said of the scattered occasions when Blaney lost the lead.
Blaney said his car was “incredibly fast leading. I could defend moves without having to throw low-percentage blocks. Some moves at you are unbeatable as the leader. I let them go and thought I could develop a run to get them back.”
Blaney called that sort of work “managing the lanes.”
The only downside of Blaney‘s accomplishment might be the fact that most of his younger fans probably were in deep slumber when he crossed the finish line at 1:45 a.m. ET. The 400 was such a long race that it started on one day and ended on another. He was still answering media questions about the win at 3 a.m.
Rain, rarely a friend to the race car driver or the race promoter, was expected Sunday night at EchoPark Speedway, and that expectation was met. A few minutes after the race was stopped after 108 laps because of lightning popping from nearby storm clouds, the rain arrived in great swaths, soaking the racing surface, pit road and any fans who had been slow to seek shelter.
It rained hard enough and long enough to force a three-hour, nine-minute delay.
RELATED: Watch final laps | Blaney on battling Hocevar, others
Among the results — two different races on two different days. When green-flag racing resumed at 12:01 a.m. Monday, quite deep into the night, the super-fast track surface was a new animal, cooler and a somewhat different challenge, at least until the field put down enough laps to return it to something like normal.
Blaney beat the rain, the track changes, the tension that comes automatically with an overtime finish and even a late-race moment when his ride briefly threatened everything he had done. He bounced lightly off the wall with 30 laps to go, causing a vibration and accelerating heartbeats in the Team Penske pit.
It turned out that the only significant damage was to the hopes of the pretenders.
For Ford, burdened by a 15-race winless string, the racing both before and after midnight was a great salve to what has been a tough season. It also was a big boost for Blaney and his team, which has pushed through some pit-road issues and now is making a run at the No. 1 seed in The Chase.
On a rainy night in Georgia, he was Superman.
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
]]>As the field prepared for the overtime restart, Hocevar‘s spotter, Tyler Green, cued up the 1980s pop-rock band‘s signature hit “(I Just) Died in Your Arms” over the No. 77 radio. Hocevar couldn‘t help but belly laugh before refocusing on the task at hand: trying to hold off a dominant Ryan Blaney for the win at EchoPark Speedway. Blaney eventually prevailed in NASCAR Overtime, with Hocevar eventually settling for a respectable third.
RELATED: Race results | Best EchoPark photos
“I just hang out and start passing them one at a time, get to the front and start laughing about it,” Hocevar said. “The guys started playing music on the radio, and I was laughing my ass off. It‘s a really fun night.”
Hocevar was a contender throughout the race. After finishing sixth in the opening stage, he appeared poised to score more stage points in Stage 2 before getting caught in what his crew chief Luke Lambert described as a “bad aero situation,” causing him to tumble to 29th.
Once the final stage began, however, Hocevar quickly soared up the leaderboard.
“He has got a knack for it. He studies it a lot,” Lambert told NASCAR.com of Hocevar‘s ability at drafting tracks. “He has a natural talent and is able to read situations at a little bit higher level than most guys. There‘s other guys that can do it, but it‘s a small group that can operate that he‘s able to operate here. This track, in particular, has a good balance of driving the car really hard and keeping the intensity level up for a long period of time. It suits him.”
Coming to the overtime restart, Hocevar controlled the field with Tyler Reddick in tow behind him on the outside line. The inside lane was led by Blaney, who led 171 laps — the most in a drafting race since Richard Petty paced the field for 184 laps in the 1964 Daytona 500 — and won the first two stages. Behind him was his ally, Bubba Wallace.
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
A push from Reddick down the backstretch gave Hocevar the lead at the white-flag lap. But the Nos. 12 and 23 cars got reconnected down the frontstretch, with Blaney going wide around the No. 77 Chevrolet. Down the backstretch, Wallace swooped below the yellow line — which ultimately resulted in a penalty — and Christopher Bell gave Blaney one final push to propel him to the checkered flag.
Hocevar crossed the start/finish line in fourth during the wee hours of Monday morning but was later credited with a podium effort, with Wallace getting bumped to the final car on the lead lap in 29th.
Hocevar was having flashbacks to the spring 2025 race in the Atlanta suburb, another thrilling three-wide finish that he barely lost to Bell.
“I could block the second car; it was way too big of a run to block the first guy,” Hocevar said. “I got three-wide somewhere, and you are trying to figure out where you‘re going to end up based on the pusher behind me — and it‘s all Toyotas. I was like, ‘[Expletive], they are not pushing me.‘ It was fun, a good time. We were up front in contention for another win.”
MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule
Hocevar has been a threat at all four drafting tracks thus far in 2026. He has led parts of the final lap in three of the four to date, scoring his first Cup victory in late April at Talladega Superspeedway.
“I‘m super confident in the moves I make,” Hocevar said of his superspeedway success.
The 39-point effort elevated Hocevar to eighth in the regular-season standings, leapfrogging Chase Briscoe with six races remaining before The Chase.
]]>The throwback in honor of Team Penske‘s 60th anniversary comes just in time for North Wilkesboro‘s return to the NASCAR Cup Series calendar, hosting a points-paying race for the first time since 1996 on Sunday (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
MORE: Cup Series schedule | All angles of Cindric‘s scheme
Wallace, the 1989 Cup Series champion and grand marshal of Sunday‘s Window World 450, dominated the short tracks in 1993. Driving Team Penske‘s No. 2 car some 33 years later, Cindric pays tribute to the man who built the foundation of Team Penske‘s modern-day NASCAR program with a mosaic of photos across the scheme, accentuated by the names of Team Penske employees on the rear decklid.
“I think when you think of the No. 2 car, you think of Rusty Wallace. That‘s the first thing you think of,” Cindric told NASCAR.com. “And obviously it‘s the car, the team, the driver that really built Team Penske‘s NASCAR program into what it is today, or at least a great foundation for it. So to be able to go through our 60th anniversary of Team Penske and to not have anything about Rusty Wallace, I think, would be a miss. …
“Actually talked to him (Wednesday). He‘s all excited about how much he loved that car. Like, ‘Oh man, that‘s a badass car!‘ Like, all right, good, we‘re gonna run it again. So it was cool to talk to him about that, and I think it‘s gonna be great to have it out there, and most importantly, do my part in representing those colors well.”
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
In addition to the familiar colors will be the names of every current Team Penske employee. But four particular names will stand out: Mike Wingate, Jeffrey Thousand, Gary Brooks and Dave Munari. Each of those four worked on Wallace‘s 1993 ride at Team Penske. More than three decades later, they‘re still making a difference inside the shop walls in Mooresville, North Carolina.
“When you walk in the employee entrance at Team Penske, there‘s a big board that has the 10-year and 20-year-plus employees on the board, and there‘s a lot of names on that board,” Cindric said. “And I don‘t think there‘s too many race teams that have the success and the history that Team Penske has, but there‘s not too many race teams that have that kind of tenure, that kind of workforce that can really provide championship-level experience. But also through the years and through the changes and how everything‘s gone, I mean, those guys that you mentioned, I know most all of them. I see them every day. Those guys are still playing a very active role in the race shop, building our race cars. So as much as they are part of the furniture here, they are definitely still part of the workforce to make things happen and make these Ford Mustangs go fast.”
RELATED: Cup standings | Blaney wins at EchoPark
The quartet of employees remembers their 1993 campaign with Wallace fondly, and for good reason. Wallace earned a career-high 10 wins that year, sweeping races at both North Wilkesboro and Rockingham Speedway en route to a runner-up finish in the points standings.
Munari, then a fabricator and windshield cleaner on the No. 2 car, remembers the April race at North Wilkesboro particularly well for a radio conversation between Wallace and crew chief Buddy Parrott.
“Wilkesboro was the worst for traffic, but Rusty could really get through traffic,” Munari said in a teleconference. “I‘ll tell you a little funny story about the Wilkesboro race, the spring race. Buddy Parrott was the crew chief, and we‘d run 30 laps. We‘re leading the race. Buddy said, ‘Rusty, come in here and pit for four tires.‘ He said, ‘Buddy, are you crazy? We‘ve only run 30 laps!‘ He said, ‘I said get in here.‘ We come in, change four tires. Rusty went out and just about lapped the second-place car. That‘s how much tires meant. So we run about 20 laps, and Rusty goes, ‘Hey, Buddy, is it time to put tires on yet?‘ “
Bill Hall | Getty Images
Together, Munari, Wingate, Thousand and Brooks represent a key quality of Team Penske‘s long-tenured success: long-tenured employees. Each has remained with the company for more than half of Team Penske‘s entire existence. For a company celebrating 60 years on the track, that says plenty.
“We have an owner that loves racing,” Thousand said. “And with that being said, he‘s going to give us all the resources that we need to perform. Not to say (you don‘t have your) typical ups and downs with racing, but we knew from the get-go with Roger supporting Team Penske that what we needed, we were going to get.”
Brooks had previously worked for Ranier Racing in 1980 and 1981, J.D. Stacy‘s team in 1982 and ‘83 and Precision Products Racing from 1984 through 1990 before joining Penske in 1991.
“When I first came to work here, just getting a chance to go to work for Roger Penske meant a whole lot to me. I always wanted to do that,” Brooks said. “I worked for other teams, and whenever they (Penske) would show up, you‘d sit there and see them unload the stuff they had and the equipment they had, and whatever. It was like, man, look at that. These guys have got it going on over there. So that‘s what enticed me to actually just want to be here and take the job, and then it‘s just caliber of the people. Everybody tries to do their best at whatever you‘re doing, and that always makes you still try to do the best that you can do at whatever it is you‘re doing. And it doesn‘t matter what job it is. It takes everybody to make the whole thing click. And just being part of that, being a part of the camaraderie of all the guys, they work hard to do whatever, it‘s just part of it, and I enjoy being here.”
Cindric is still seeking his first win of 2026 but knows the short tracks and superspeedways are where Team Penske has generally excelled. He‘s not relying on past success heading into Sunday night‘s feature race, but he will be using those notes to prepare for an important showing as driver of Team Penske‘s flagship car — a No. 2 entry that represents the brunt of Team Penske‘s success, including a combined 82 wins between Wallace (37), Brad Keselowski (34), Kurt Busch (eight) and Cindric (three) to pair with Keselowski‘s 2012 Cup Series championship.
“For me, the biggest win is getting the employees involved and it being a home race in a lot of sense,” Cindric said. “I mean, you think of Charlotte being a home race, but this is still very much a home race to have this all in-house and be able to thank the people that really make Team Penske what it is.”
]]>Wallace was credited with a 29th-place effort, a massive 27-point swing.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos | NASCAR video highlights
“[The rule] says advancing your position, which I did not do,” Wallace stated to a group of media members after the penalty was issued. “I stayed third and I was all over the brakes to make sure I did not advance. As soon as I turned, I was like, ‘I am going to wreck.‘ I got on the brakes, kept it underneath me and still ended up side-by-side.
“That move should have propelled us to the lead and it didn‘t because I knew it was wrong because my car did not like that move. We will see what we can do, but I did not advance my position. I stayed third from the entry to three, all the way until 50 yards away, [Ty Gibbs] gave us a shot.”
Wallace took the white flag in third position and shoved Ryan Blaney to the race lead entering Turn 1. As the No. 12 car swung high on Carson Hocevar, the No. 23 Toyota darted to the bottom down the backstretch, making it three-wide for the top spot. In the process, he dropped below the yellow line and remained next to Hocevar and Blaney through Turns 3 and 4, when a shove from Christopher Bell propelled Blaney to the victory.
“You go back and look at the SMT; I‘m on the brakes trying to keep it underneath me and not advance my position,” Wallace added. “We‘ve seen that in the past, all day, two cars get side by side into the corner, the guy that pops bottom — clears. I didn‘t clear, and that‘s why we didn‘t win the race, because I had to bail because I was going to crash. We will talk to the team to figure out what we want to do.”
Wallace bolted over to his 23XI Racing hauler to review the data with No. 23 crew chief Charles Denike and Dave Rogers, director of competition for 23XI Racing. After briefly evaluating their case, the trio walked to the NASCAR hauler for a 31-minute meeting with NASCAR officials.
Case closed.
It was deemed official that Wallace violated Sections 8.7.2.A of the NASCAR Rule Book. The rule states, “Passing below the double painted lines to advance position will result in a black flag.”
“A penalty is a penalty,” Wallace said as he departed the series hauler.
MORE: Watch wild final lap at EchoPark | Recap Blaney‘s win
The final-lap penalty cost Wallace 27 points alone. Add in the points he lost at the end of Stage 2, when Gibbs bumped him out of sixth coming to the green-white-checkered finish, and it made for a costly race, tallying a mere nine points despite racing at the front for the bulk of the evening, including 11 circuits ahead of the field.
After the race, Wallace and Gibbs met on pit road.
“I just said lift,” Wallace noted after having a post-race discussion with his Toyota quasi-teammate. “I said there‘s an opportunity to give, and you didn‘t. He was like, ‘Well, don‘t block me.‘ It‘s like, bro, you hit me square in the bumper. The block was well ahead; you seen it coming.”
On the final lap, it was a shove from Gibbs that propelled Wallace into the runner-up spot before the penalty was assessed. Gibbs went over to apologize for the Stage 2 mishap but didn‘t enjoy the interaction.
“I went to tell him sorry because he cleared himself and then, unfortunately, he showed a lot of disrespect,” Gibbs stated. “It seems like it didn‘t work out for him. I tried to help him out there at the end and push him to win.”
With the 29th-place showing, Wallace has finished outside the top 20 in six of the last nine events. He remains 13th in the regular-season standings, 55 points above the cutline. He lost 22 points to The Chase cutline at EchoPark.
]]>As impressive as the big number of laps led is the night-long extra effort Blaney turned in to mark his second win of the season and first since Phoenix in March. The 32-year-old North Carolinian made the winning pass on the last lap in what had been a dramatic lap-by-lap night-long battle up front, showcasing — and necessitating — some of the 2023 series champion‘s best work.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos | NASCAR video highlights
His laps-led total on the 1.5-mile Atlanta high-banks is the most for a race winner at a drafting track since Richard Petty led 184 of 200 laps in his 1964 Daytona 500 victory.
Blaney‘s No. 12 Team Penske Ford got the race-winning nudge forward on the last lap of overtime by Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Christopher Bell, whose No. 20 Toyota ultimately crossed the finish line three-wide alongside 23XI Racing‘s Bubba Wallace and Spire Motorsports‘ Carson Hocevar. Hocevar was leading when the field took the white flag.
Wallace was later penalized for being out of bounds, dropping below the track‘s yellow line at one point as he corrected his car on that final overtime restart, battling Hocevar for position. The adjusted top-five with the penalty then placed Bell second to Blaney by 0.068 seconds — the JGR Toyota driver‘s fifth top-five in the last eight races. Hocevar was scored third, followed by the Toyotas of JGR‘s Ty Gibbs and Legacy Motor Club‘s Erik Jones.
“Pretty wild,‘‘ said a smiling Blaney, who started on the pole and swept the stages.
“Bubba gave me really good shoves on the restart. We got hooked up really good and then Bubba and I got a huge run down the front straightaway and I was able to get to the outside of Carson. Wasn‘t able to clear him [then]. And then Bubba went three-wide bottom down the back, which lined up for a really cool finish at the line.
“I really have to shout out Christopher Bell being right on my bumper through [Turns] 3 and 4 and a big push. He was a big reason why we won the race, so I appreciate that, Christopher.”
It was an adventurous victory for Blaney, who faced challenges every lap and was forced to re-establish his position out front even after a more than three-hour red flag for weather at Lap 109 and the changing weather conditions.
Blaney has now earned Ford Motor Company‘s last six NASCAR Cup Series wins, and it marks a significant 750th victory for Ford Motor Company.
Despite the impressive race statistics, it took hard work and unrelenting spirit to pull off this second victory of the season. Hocevar ran among the frontrunners for much of the night and was a serious threat to win. The 23-year-old driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet earned his first career win in April at the series‘ previous drafting track stop — Talladega Superspeedway. And he came into the race full of confidence and vigor.
Hocevar was so optimistic about his chances that he joked with his team on the radio during the final restarts, even singing into the radio just before the overtime green flag flew. He said he was part disappointed and part encouraged with the third-place finish.
SHOP: Race winner gear
“Is there a song for loser, we didn‘t win,‘‘ Hocevar joked after the race. “I don‘t know; I‘m super happy with our day. I‘m sitting there hanging around, looking at the fans, sitting about for the first part of Stage 3. Then, all of a sudden with about 12 laps [remaining], we were up front and in contention to win
“It‘s fun. Zero nerves up front,‘‘ he added with a grin.
It was also an impressive night for Trackhouse Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen, the series‘ road course ace, finishing sixth for his third top-10 showing on an oval this season.
Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Dillon was seventh, followed by the season‘s five-time race winner Tyler Reddick, who won at EchoPark in February. Blaney‘s Penske teammate, three-time series champ Joey Logano, was ninth, scoring his sixth top-10 of the season. RFK Racing‘s Chris Buescher was 10th.
The night had a big effect on the $1 million-to-win In-Season Challenge, with Bell‘s runner-up showing bettering his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin‘s 12th-place showing to advance to next week‘s semifinal round. He‘ll join Hendrick Motorsports‘ Chase Elliott, who finished 13th, out-dueling JGR‘s Chase Briscoe, who finished 36th after being collected in a crash.
Blaney‘s win advances him past Hendrick‘s William Byron, who finished 16th. And Front Row Motorsports‘ Todd Gilliland advances with a 19th-place effort, bettering Hendrick‘s Alex Bowman, who finished 22nd.
The night also had major implications in the championship standings, now with only six races remaining to set the 16-driver field that will compete in the Chase.
Hamlin retains the championship points lead, however, Reddick cut the margin nearly in half at EchoPark with strong stage showings in addition to his top-10. He now trails his 23XI Racing team co-owner by 24 points. Blaney‘s victory also moved him into Regular Season Championship talk, cutting what was once a 100-plus-point deficit to now only 65 points.
Jones‘ finish kept him ranked 16th, but Logano‘s effort moved him up a position in the standings, and he now trails Jones by only eight points. RFK‘s Ryan Preece is ranked 18th, 26 points off Jones.
The NASCAR Cup Series next makes a nostalgic return to North Wilkesboro Speedway for Sunday‘s Window World 450 (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bell won the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro in 2025. The last regular-season race at the historic track was won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon in 1996.
Stage 2 recap
Ryan Blaney won Stage 2 of the NASCAR Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway after a delay of more than three hours due to inclement weather.
Reddick finished second, followed by Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and Daniel Suárez. Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell, Erik Jones, Denny Hamlin and Shane van Gisbergen.
MORE: Full Stage 2 results
The first lead change of the evening came during the Stage 1 caution, as Tyler Reddick — the EchoPark springtime winner — exited pit road first. But that didn‘t last long. Kyle Larson and Blaney each took turns leading early in the second frame, before Carson Hocevar rocketed past both at Lap 83 for his first lead of the night.
Hocevar led the next 12 circuits as intensity picked up, with inclement weather potentially threatening. Blaney returned to the top spot at Lap 95 with Bubba Wallace right behind him, and led until weather hit the Atlanta-area facility at Lap 108.
The race was paused until 11:37 p.m. ET, and the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart returned to green-flag conditions at 12:01 a.m. ET after a pit cycle.
But the long delay didn‘t deter the No. 12 Team Penske driver. Aggression level clearly picked up after the stoppage, but Blaney successfully defended every threat to pace every lap during the green-flag stint.
Coming to the green-and-white checkered flag, Wallace went spinning after contact from Ty Gibbs exiting Turn 4. Wallace was battling for fourth and challenged Blaney throughout the segment for the race lead.
Stage 1 recap
Ryan Blaney earned a wire-to-wire Stage 1 victory in Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway. The pole starter led all 60 laps in the opening frame, fending off Tyler Reddick — who started outside the top 30 — in the closing circuits.
Reddick held on for second, followed by Kyle Larson, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric. Carson Hocevar, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top 10 and early points earners.
MORE: Full Stage 1 results
In the opening moments, Brad Keselowski got loose in Turns 3 and 4 and brushed the wall, plummeting back through the field and eventually falling a lap down.
After just 10 laps, Team Penske ran 1-2-3 with Blaney pacing Logano and Cindric, who started eighth. They, along with Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson, broke ahead from the rest of the field. By Lap 26, Spire Motorsports‘ Hocevar climbed from a 14th-place starting position up to third, briefly breaking up the blue oval brigade for the first time.
But as the opening stage reached the halfway mark, the field retightened as drivers gained feel for their cars. There was no practice for Sunday‘s race, so the opening stint of the 260-lapper was the first time all weekend that teams worked together in the Peach State draft.
Stage 1 was completed without a caution.
__
Note: Inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Blaney as the EchoPark winner.
Contributing: Staff reports
]]>In the end — and it seemed the end might not come before Saturday turned to Sunday — series veteran Justin Allgaier slipped through the late-race chaos to win the Focused Health 250 at EchoPark Speedway, shutting out promising runs by Carson Kvapil, Jeremy Clements, Ryan Sieg, Nick Sanchez and a chorus of other drivers who got a passing glimpse of Victory Lane.
Kvapil had the best shot at scoring a career-first victory. He led 29 laps and was a key player in the late-race mix of incredibly tight competition and the string of wrecks that made the closing miles brim with anxiety.
The final restart with two overtime laps to go was disrupted when Sieg, battling at the front for his first win in 421 series starts, ran out of gas as the green flag flew, and his slowing car rattled the packed drafting lines and made the finish a free-for-all between the charging Allgaier, Kvapil and Parker Retzlaff.
Kvapil lost to his JR Motorsports teammate by 0.139 seconds.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos | NASCAR video highlights
“I felt like we were the fastest car,” Kvapil said. “Everyone on this team brought an absolute rocketship. I mean it was unbelievably fast and had good handling, too. We could make moves, and it just did everything right.
“I thought, man, just what could go wrong, right? I feel like we pretty much had it in the bag with all the cars around us. They weren‘t at the speed that I thought we were.
“I thought as soon as we got all cleared off Turn 2 and then Turn 4 that we were going to be in good shape, but when the 39 ran out of gas there on the restart, it just really screwed us, honestly kind of took us out of the race.”
The wild nature of the final stage repeatedly put surprise drivers near the front. The longest green-flag run in the third stage was seven laps, and the sometimes ferocious racing at the front was interrupted by seven cautions. The stop-and-go racing cut into the strength of Kvapil‘s car, which was strong on long runs.
“I felt like we had the best car tonight,” said Rodney Childers, Kvapil‘s crew chief. “Carson did a great job, and we‘ve had great cars over the last month. Everybody‘s clicking and we‘re doing the right things. Hopefully, we can continue that and get Carson into Victory Lane before long.”
The runner-up finish was Kvapil‘s fifth and his third finish of sixth or better in the past four races.
Team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a quick chat with Kvapil on pit road after the race. Kvapil has rotated in and out of the car No. 1‘s driver seat this year but will be in the car the rest of the season.
“Tonight there was not much he could have changed about what happened,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “It was out of his control. His help was dissipating on the restart. I would say to him in these moments, you have to look at what you‘re in control of and did you do a good job. He did all the things besides winning the race that you need to do.
“We had a great points night. Now he‘s in this car from here on out, and he can truly build on that momentum with Rodney.”
]]>Lewis‘ No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet wound up facing the wrong way when a Stage 2 restart on Lime Rock Park‘s long main straight bogged down the front of the pack, creating a maelstrom of trucks in the wake. “Sorry, guys,” Lewis told his crew on the radio as he righted his truck, but after a sizable rally, the 20-year-old driver had little reason to apologize.
RELATED: Lime Rock results | Craftsman Truck Series standings | NASCAR video highlights
Lewis came home with a career-best second place in Saturday‘s LiUNA 150, which marked just his seventh Truck Series start. Lewis also notched his second consecutive top-five run in his partial schedule with the Niece group, backing up his solid fourth-place effort from Naval Base Coronado near San Diego.
There was elation from Lewis as he spoke from the back of the No. 45 hauler, but also the bittersweet feeling of finishing just 0.483 seconds behind race winner Grant Enfinger in a bid for his first career Truck Series win. But it also marked another step toward putting him more squarely on NASCAR‘s national-series radar.
“Definitely mixed emotions, for sure, getting spun out and just all these different things going on,” Lewis told NASCAR.com. “But like I told my guys, we‘re gonna keep fighting till the very end. I think we had 30-something laps to go, so plenty of time to get back to the front, and we all rallied together. Just so proud to be a part of this group.”
Lewis started sixth in Saturday‘s 100-lap show, and he worked his way to third place by the end of the first stage — right behind early dominators Layne Riggs and Kaden Honeycutt, the front-runners in the Craftsman Truck Series standings. He was in the same position when the yellow flag flew for Ty Majeski‘s Turn 1 crash at the midpoint of Stage 2.
Lewis was in the inside lane behind Riggs‘ No. 34 Ford for the next restart, where bedlam broke out. The Niece No. 45 was one of four trucks involved, but a quick assessment showed the damage to be tolerable — steering-wheel alignment still straight, new tires needed, and a patched-up hole on the truck‘s nose.
That‘s when veteran crew chief Phil Gould pivoted on strategy, saying he had no choice but to flip the stage and skip the trip to pit road in the approaching break. Staying out when other contenders pitted placed Lewis in the seventh spot for the start of the final stage, in front of both Riggs and Honeycutt and in position to make up late-race ground on slightly older tires.
“Keeping pace with the 34 (Riggs) and the 11 (Honeycutt), I‘d like to have run the whole race straight up,” Gould told NASCAR.com. “I think with one more adjustment, we might‘ve had something for them.”
Lewis‘ Truck Series opportunity comes after a championship march last season in the CARS Tour Late Model Stock Series. While that short-track bullring background might not seem to mesh with the challenges presented by Lime Rock‘s twisty layout, Lewis‘ versatility primed him for a fast-paced romp through the Connecticut countryside.
MORE: Craftsman Truck Series schedule
Lewis has also excelled in karting, dirt modifieds, Legend Cars and ARCA‘s regional tours on his way up the motorsports ladder. He‘s also learned from working with NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. as a mentor, and the youngster also has the backing of Kevin Harvick‘s agency in his corner. The support system and his raw talent were part of why Niece signed him last October as one of the team‘s “anchor drivers” with a part-time schedule for 2026.
“I mean, his talent is high-level, right?” Gould said. “I think he‘s an A-level driver. He has a lot of experience in different disciplines, so I think the road-course stuff kind of played into his hands. And I think three of his first four races have been road courses. So, we get to go short-track oval racing in the next couple weeks, and I know he‘s excited about that.”
Lewis does so carrying a head of steam into the final stretch of the Truck Series‘ regular season.
“Obviously, just a huge amount of confidence with my truck and my team,” Lewis said. “I feel like it‘s not just me; it‘s all of us together. We have a lot of confidence and momentum building, so just want to continue to build that and not go backward.”
]]>On the negative side is where their parallel paths became all crossed up.
Riggs and Honeycutt kept their 1-2 hold on the Truck Series standings, but their two trucks came together in the wake of a calamitous final-stage restart in Saturday‘s LiUNA 150. Honeycutt emerged with the better end of the damage after their off-course excursion in the sweeping first turn, rallying his No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota for a third-place finish. Riggs‘ No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford was more severely bashed, and the series points leader limped to a 23rd-place result, the top driver one lap down.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos
Both expressed frustration after the contact that thwarted their days on Lap 75 of 100, but neither blamed the other. Honeycutt walked over to Riggs‘ No. 34 team hauler after a cooling-off period for both, and the two drivers shook hands after a brief discussion that never became heated. The only time it became animated was when the two made racing gestures, motioning about how they had turned the wheel after contact and the trajectory of other cars on the final restart.
“It is what it is,” Honeycutt told NASCAR.com as he helped his crew push his No. 11 Toyota back to the garage. “I know Layne wouldn‘t do something like that on purpose, so I‘m sure he got hit from the back and it jumbled all of us up there in the front and unfortunately got us wrecked and him wrecked and a bunch of others. So that was definitely unfortunate. But had a great truck, man. Mobil 1, thanks for the support coming aboard this weekend, Safelite, Toyota Racing, Tricon Garage. My whole pit crew is our shop crew, and it was a tough day for them today. I appreciate them sticking with me, and man, it‘s battered up and bruised, but it‘s good top five. We‘ll take it.”
Riggs didn‘t have a much clearer view of what had transpired, with his No. 34 part of the aftermath behind a coming-together of Gio Ruggiero and Cole Butcher that sent race leader Stewart Friesen spinning. By the time the chain reaction fully played out, Honeycutt had cut to the inside where Riggs‘ truck — under intense pressure and pushing from the rest of the pack — was there to meet him.
“I didn‘t see a whole lot,” Riggs told NASCAR.com. “I was in line on the bottom behind the 11. Me and him were going to both drive to the front, and next thing I know, I was jacked up, wrecking him, wrecking the guy in front of him. I need to look at the replay, but I have no clue who ran into me from behind, or even if it wasn‘t from two or three rows back, I have no clue. We got back there, then we were just trying to salvage at that point. I thought I had an alternator issue. We were mid-battery change and didn‘t get it changed and went a lap down. That‘s very unfortunate, and I feel like it could have been avoided. So just kind of frustrating when you‘re helpless in the seat.”
Riggs said he felt his conversation with Honeycutt was a productive one.
“I think me and him both feel the same, that we both got run over,” Riggs said. “He knew right away. I was like, ‘Hey, it wasn‘t me.‘ He said, ‘I know it wasn‘t you. I know it was behind you, and you got ran over.‘ Just to try to get an understanding of why we can‘t get through Turn 1 when we feel like we put ourselves in good spots, trying to be safe and get our way back to the front, we both just get wrecked. So I need to see a replay, see what happened, see who either made a mistake or who was too aggressive when it didn‘t need to happen.”
Honeycutt and Riggs were the only leaders through the first two stages, but the strategy tilted after a Lap 51 wreck on the frontstretch prompted a caution period just before the Stage 2 end. A handful of teams — including eventual runner-up Landen Lewis, who was involved in the stack-up — took the opportunity to flip the stage when the front-runners pitted at the intermission.
MORE: Craftsman Truck Series standings | NASCAR video highlights
That shift put Honeycutt 10th and Riggs 11th after their stops for service before the start of the final stage, and eventually in the heart of the mishap that curbed their dominance. Honeycutt‘s comeback was the more effective of the two, and the 54 points he earned Saturday were second only to the 65-point payday for race winner Grant Enfinger.
“We‘ve got to focus forward when things happen and they don‘t go our way, and whatever we can do to bounce back and get points out of that, for sure,” Honeycutt said. “So we‘ll take it. Unfortunately, it‘s not a win, but we‘ll go on and finish and go to North Wilkesboro next.”
Saturday was the last of the four road-course races on this year‘s Craftsman Truck Series schedule. Riggs had won two of the previous three (St. Petersburg, San Diego), bookending the other — a breakthrough triumph for Honeycutt at Watkins Glen.
Riggs still holds a convincing advantage in the Truck Series standings, but that margin shrank Saturday from a 65-point cushion to 44. He spoke pre-race Friday about a renewed emphasis on minimizing both miscues and bad breaks. Saturday brought some of those bad breaks, snapping Riggs‘ five-race streak of top fives, but the 24-year-old driver was eager for a return to North Wilkesboro Speedway next Saturday (12:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) for a potential rebound.
“We‘ve still got a pretty good lead right now,” Riggs said. “It‘s just frustrating when you definitely are bleeding points when you don‘t feel like you have to, or we could have salvaged a top-five day. So that‘s very disappointing, but yeah, North Wilkesboro has been a good track to us. We finished third there in ‘24 and finished second there in ‘25, so one spot better, right?”
]]>Location: Hampton, Georgia
Track length: 1.54 miles
When: 7 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 260 laps | 400.4 miles
Segments: 60 | 160 | 260
Sunday‘s starting lineup | Pit-stall assignments
How wild could Sunday‘s show get?
HAMPTON, Ga. — With seven races remaining until the NASCAR Cup Series‘ 16-driver Chase lineup is decided, Sunday‘s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway looms as the first of two “wild card” events in the regular-season homestretch.
EchoPark, known for high speeds, huge drafting packs and teams using different chassis setups and tire strategies, could result in major changes in the points standings, a reputation it shares with Daytona International Speedway, which will host the final race of the regular season Aug. 29.
Prime evidence can be found with a look at the results from last year‘s EchoPark summer race.
MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos
Eleven of the 40 cars in the field parked with damage from accidents. Among them were Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain. Twenty-two cars were damaged in a massive wreck on Lap 69, only 12 laps after a seven-car incident.
Race winner Chase Elliott led the final lap after not leading any of the previous 34 laps. He passed Brad Keselowski to win by .168 of a second, ending a 44-race winless string.
The mushy middle of the Chase standings — the area above and below the 16-driver cutline — offers the chance for significant position changes entering Sunday‘s race. Shane van Gisbergen (plus-30), Austin Cindric (plus-27) and Erik Jones (plus-4) float above the line. Hovering below are Ryan Preece (minus-4), Logano (minus-16), AJ Allmendinger (minus-16) and Keselowski (minus-19).
The In-Season Challenge reaches its midpoint (the third of five races) Sunday with intriguing matchups. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell will race for a spot in the semifinals, and there‘s also a Chase versus Chase matchup, with Elliott, winner of this race last year, against Briscoe, last week‘s Chicagoland winner.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
The race also will provide the latest backdrop for two ongoing — and somewhat heated — rivalries: Shane van Gisbergen versus Austin Hill, and Zane Smith versus Carson Hocevar. NASCAR officials met with the four drivers at the track Saturday to discuss past issues and to emphasize that cooler heads should prevail going forward.
Atop the point standings, Hamlin will look to pad his 44-point lead over Tyler Reddick, whose sagging season includes three finishes of 35th or worse in the past five races.
In the details …
Late-race heroics have defined the Cup Series at drafting tracks as of late, and EchoPark is certainly no exception. Overall, 14 of the last 17 drafting-track races have featured lead changes in the final two laps, but narrowing the scope, seven of the last eight Atlanta-area races have featured the same.
Including Daniel Suárez‘s three-wide 2024 frenzy with Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch — which produced the fourth-closest margin of victory in series history — look back at how the final laps played out in the last eight Peach State thrillers.
| DATE | WINNER | TOOK LED FROM | LAPS TO GO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7/10/2022 | Chase Elliott | Corey LaJoie | 2 |
| 3/19/2023 | Joey Logano | Brad Keselowski | 1 |
| 7/9/2023 | William Byron | AJ Allmendinger | 19 |
| 2/25/2024 | Daniel Suárez | Ryan Blaney | 1 |
| 9/8/2024 | Joey Logano | Daniel Suárez | 2 |
| 2/23/2025 | Christopher Bell | Kyle Larson | 1 |
| 6/28/2025 | Chase Elliott | Brad Keselowski | 1 |
| 2/22/2026 | Tyler Reddick | Bubba Wallace | 2 |
Contributing: Nathan Solomon
Speed reads
Race-day essentials:
• EchoPark, Lime Rock hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: See what crew chiefs have in mind for Sunday night | Read more
• In-Season Challenge: Bracket, format, schedule and more for Round 3 | Read more
• Analysis: Penske in unfamiliar Chase bubble territory | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks for Sunday‘s 400-miler under the lights | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: NASCAR to meet with Hill, SVG after Chicagoland | Listen now
• NASCAR Classics: Reminisce with full-race replays from EchoPark | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Will Reddick punch back in the Peach State? | This week‘s ranks
Just after taking the white flag, signaling one lap remaining, race leader Brennan Poole and defending race winner Nick Sanchez collided during a frantic final charge to the checkered flag. As their cars hit the outside wall at the 1.5-mile track, Allgaier drove underneath in his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, with teammate Carson Kvapil giving chase in pursuit of his first career win.
But the 2024 series champion was too good at just the right time, holding off Kvapil by 0.139 seconds to secure a career-high sixth win of the season and clinch the 2026 regular-season championship.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos
The result also moved JR Motorsports within one top-10 finish of tying the record of 79 consecutive races with at least one team car finishing in the top 10. Roush Fenway Keselowski currently holds the mark.
“This team, I‘m so proud of everyone here at JR Motorsports,‘‘ a rather emotional Allgaier said immediately after the checkered flag. “Great Chevrolets today. I knew at the end, there would be some guys close on fuel. You just never give up … That‘s what this team is all about.”
All the storylines provided a fitting ending to a long, thrilling night of competition that included a track-record 13 caution flags and four red flags — accounting for nearly half an hour of stoppage. There were 11 different leaders and 19 lead changes, including nine over the final 70 laps of the 172-lap race.
Five cautions, two of which led to red flags, over the final 11 laps defined the stop-and-go ending, which featured no sustained green-flag run. A huge 11-car accident near the front on a restart with 11 laps remaining in regulation eliminated some of the evening‘s strongest cars, including Allgaier‘s teammate Sammy Smith, who led a race-high 34 laps in the No. 8 JRM Chevrolet, and reigning series champion Jesse Love in the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
“Definitely disappointing,‘‘ Love said, adding, “It was going to be a tough mountain to climb with all the JRM cars doing a really fabulous job working together so it was going to be tough.
“I could hear my amazing spotter‘s voice that we were going to tear some stuff up and we sure did.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
“Overall, honestly not a terrible points day, we got some good stage points, so try to do our best Tony Stewart in the Chase and win some races,‘‘ he added of NASCAR Hall of Famer Stewart‘s amazing five-win run in the playoffs to win the 2011 championship despite being winless in the regular season.
“We‘ve got some really good speed and our team is clicking really well,‘‘ Love said. “Shame what happened tonight, but you‘re going to land on that side of it sometimes on this style of race tracks.‘‘
Love‘s RCR teammate Austin Hill, a five-time Atlanta winner, also appeared headed for a strong finish as he moved forward amid the crashes. The Georgia native was making a run at the trophy with three laps remaining in regulation when he was involved in a seven-car melee that brought out the final red flag and eliminated another group of contenders, including JR Motorsports‘ Rajah Caruth, who led 18 laps and ran among the top five throughout the night.
In the end, Viking Motorsports teammates Parker Retzlaff and Anthony Alfredo, along with Joe Gibbs Racing‘s William Sawalich, survived the action-packed closing laps to complete the top five.
Garrett Smithley, Brandon Jones, Kyle Sieg, Caruth and Jeremy Clements rounded out the top 10.
The race significantly affected the standings with only three races remaining before the 12-driver championship field is set. Allgaier extended his lead to 240 points over Love, who remains winless.
Around the cutline, Brent Crews and Taylor Gray — both eliminated in crashes — sit 11th and 12th. Gray holds a 17-point advantage over Caruth and a 21-point edge over William Sawalich as the series heads into a rare off weekend.
Teams return to action Saturday, July 25 with the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (4 p.m. ET, The CW, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Connor Zilisch is the most recent race winner at the Brickyard.
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series garage, confirming Justin Allgaier as the winner.
]]>“I don‘t really want to do it again,” van Gisbergen quipped about his maiden visit to the NASCAR hauler.
The duo has clashed three times in the last four races, beginning at Pocono Raceway. The following week at Naval Base Coronado, the No. 33 Chevrolet clipped the inside wall and ricocheted into the Trackhouse Racing duo of Connor Zilisch and van Gisbergen, ending both of their races. The two competitors stayed clear of each other at Sonoma Raceway, where van Gisbergen scored his second checkered flag of the season, holding off a mad fury from Chase Briscoe in the waning laps.
RELATED: EchoPark lineup | At-track photos
It took only 48 laps for van Gisbergen and Hill to clash at Chicagoland, however. The No. 97 Chevrolet got into the rear of Hill‘s No 33 car racing through Turns 3 and 4, ending the Richard Childress Racing driver‘s evening.
“I was racing hard and the outcome wasn‘t what I wanted,” van Gisbergen said of the contact six days later. “I intended to run in there hard and get inside him and it didn‘t work out. I definitely didn‘t want to wreck a race car and didn‘t want it to escalate — I don‘t know if it‘s a rivalry, but whatever it‘s been between us the last three years.
“We never seem to race well together. I don‘t want to escalate it, and I‘m the one with a lot to lose. It was a weird dynamic in the meeting and a weird way with how it ended.”
Van Gisbergen felt like he was more remorseful of the two drivers in the closed-door meeting. But sitting 14th on The Chase grid, 30 points above the cutline, the New Zealander knows he has more to lose than Hill, who is chasing a championship in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series.
“That‘s what has always been cool about the sport, you can sort it out yourselves and then it gets to that point,” van Gisbergen stated. “To me, it‘s at that point, but to him it‘s not. He‘s that kind of personality that feels like he‘s got to get the last laugh and the last one to strike — and he threatened that, I guess. It is what it is. I will try to race clean and do my own thing, but I guess he‘s on his own agenda.”
Hill doesn‘t have an answer for why the duo has tangled a handful of times since the beginning of the 2024 season. In van Gisbergen‘s fifth race as a full-time NASCAR competitor at Circuit of The Americas, Hill shoved SVG wide on an overtime restart, moving to the race lead. Van Gisbergen laid the bumper back on the final lap, though Kyle Larson passed both cars to sneak by for the win. The pairing made contact later that season at Sonoma, with SVG pushing Hill off into the dirt. On the cool-down lap, van Gisbergen did an exuberant smoke show around the No. 21 car.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Asked jokingly if Hill was “grunting” during the meeting — a reference to van Gisbergen‘s response following last week‘s incident in Chicagoland — Hill said the two simply had a conversation.
“NASCAR let us know what we need to do going forward,” he stated. “We‘re going to go race and I‘m looking forward to it.”
While their driving styles differ in many ways, van Gisbergen believes he and Hill share a similar mentality.
“I‘m probably a bit more reserved than him, but I‘m aggressive on track, I guess, you are always going to clash with people like that,” van Gisbergen said. “I don‘t know, I‘m not going to back down or be threatened by someone, but I don‘t want to fight anyone, either.”
Respect needs to be earned among the pair of Chevy drivers. They are restarting at Ground Zero this weekend, with van Gisbergen‘s focus centered on remaining inside The Chase.
“I‘ve got to race with respect and start building that up and try cutting him breaks,” van Gisbergen noted. “If it doesn‘t come my way, I don‘t know how to fix him. I‘m going to try to carry on and race clean, but obviously there is risk these next seven races. I‘ve got to get into the top 16, right, and he‘s probably going to try to threaten that. That kind of sucks, but it is what it is.”
Van Gisbergen, who placed sixth in the spring at EchoPark, will take the green flag in 12th position for Sunday‘s Quaker State 400 (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hill, a drafting merchant in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, will line up 30th.
]]>Zane Smith has remained abundantly clear: He is not a Carson Hocevar fan.
The driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford reemphasized that point in a new episode of “Racin‘ With The Boys,” alongside fellow driver Riley Herbst and show host Taylor Lewan, which debuted Thursday.
MORE: Cup standings | EchoPark schedule
Hocevar, driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and a frequent topic of conversation because of his on-track aggression, came up in an exercise in which Lewan asked his guests to describe a driver in one word. Smith didn‘t hesitate to call him a “bum-[expletive]” before later explaining his disdain for Hocevar.
“You‘ll have run-ins with certain guys, and you‘ll have that throughout your career with certain people,” Smith said. “He‘ll try to talk to you after saying, ‘Oh, I don‘t talk to anybody out there.‘ But he‘s full of [expletive]. He tries to be your buddy and then will go and screw you. Like, just don‘t talk to me in the first place because, one, I don‘t like you, and we‘re gonna eventually have a run-in together, so let‘s just not talk in the first place.”
There is a history of animosity between the pair. During last year‘s race at Iowa Speedway, contact from Hocevar sent Smith crashing into the wall, ruining Smith‘s day. One week later, Smith shared similar thoughts on Hocevar, and those feelings do not appear to have cooled a year later. Last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, Smith made contact with Hocevar on Lap 32, sending both drivers up the track and into the wall. Each made his 100th career NASCAR Cup Series start that evening.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
“Honestly, my approach with Carson — because he‘s fast — me and him had a run-in at Iowa, and we‘ve raced hard and whatnot,” Smith said. “And there‘s a difference (because) certain guys will race you hard, but he‘ll just put us both in a bad spot to where it‘s costing us lap time and neither of us are benefiting from it. That part gets frustrating. But I remember he made a mistake — I don‘t know if he made a mistake — but he wrecked us and then spends the rest of the race waving at me like playing nice guy of, ‘So sorry! I‘m so sorry!‘ Then he goes on social media and posts like ‘Admit One‘ like ‘I don‘t give a [expletive].‘ “
“Like ‘take a number,‘ ” Herbst added.
Hocevar addressed their most recent run-in during a Wednesday night Twitch stream after a question was posed in the live chat.
“What‘s Zane‘s problem? I don‘t know, man, maybe his T-shirt sales were low,” Hocevar said. “I don‘t know. Who cares?”
Smith said Hocevar puts on “an act to get people to buy in,” which Smith takes exception to.
“It‘s like if you‘re going to be the guy like hiding behind social media, like I don‘t know. That‘s a coward in my opinion,” Smith said. “Like, act that way in person. Say that to my face. And it‘s like, all right, I‘m going to be the same way. But don‘t be one way in person and then hide behind your phone. …
“You don‘t try to go down a road of like, ‘Oh my gosh, I hope he gets wrecked,‘ or something like that. You‘re focused on your own race. But it‘s just the hiding behind the phone is what‘s the most annoying part.”
RELATED: Smith: ‘Treat him like he‘d treat me‘
Drivers have not shied away from weighing in on Hocevar‘s persona, including on Lewan‘s show.
“Every single driver that‘s come on this bus — and you guys have been the most blunt about it — but after, will be like, ‘no dude, [expletive] that guy. The way he drives,‘ all this,” Lewan said. “I think [Kyle] Larson basically said, ‘I don‘t respect the guy because of the way he drives.‘ And [there‘s] something about some dude just solely sitting on an island and being hated by everybody — essentially being the Joker from Batman — he‘s just like [expletive] it.”
NASCAR reviewed the contact between Smith and Hocevar after Chicagoland and issued no penalties. The two drivers, however, will meet with NASCAR officials prior to Sunday‘s race at EchoPark Speedway (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
]]>“For somebody that don‘t have a job next year in the industry, I‘m probably going to be working for my dad on the construction side, just because of how some things are unfortunately playing out,” Smith said in an NBC Sports interview at Martinsville Speedway. “I feel like I don‘t owe anybody anything.”
RELATED: Lime Rock schedule | Truck Series standings
The Talking Rock, Georgia, native fell short of a title-race berth, but lived up to that quote. Smith had a heated scuffle on pit road with Cole Custer after the then-Stewart-Haas Racing driver moved him as they battled for the win late, with Smith quite literally fighting for every inch, unsure what would come next.
“I was very much serious about it because of how late in the season I was notified that I wasn‘t going to be back at [JGR],” Smith told NASCAR.com this week, reflecting on that interview. “There was no open seats available for the following year, really.”
Smith learned late that summer he wouldn‘t be returning to JGR in 2025. He kept in contact with Bob Jenkins, Front Row Motorsports‘ owner and founder, after building a relationship with him while driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Smith said a NASCAR Cup Series ride with the organization was on the table, but Front Row hired Zane Smith to drive the No. 38 Ford.
Instead, a different No. 38 Ford came into the picture. Just days before Christmas, Chandler received a call from Jerry Freeze, FRM‘s general manager, about driving in the Truck Series. He accepted almost instantly. Freeze went to work on securing race trucks and a hauler for FRM‘s second full-time foray and tapped Smith to build out the team‘s personnel from scratch.
‘”You go start building your team,” Smith said, recalling the conversation with Freeze. “I was like, ‘What do you mean by that?‘ He‘s like, ‘Well, do you know any crew chiefs that are available, any engineers? Like, we don‘t have anybody at all.‘ I was like, ‘You want me to start actively pursuing people?‘ He‘s like, “Yeah, I‘m giving you the liberty and freedom to go do that.‘
“I‘ve never been in a situation like that, but it made me have a deep respect for the people that have to go through that year after year of finding engineers, finding crew chiefs, all the things that have to go into motion to making a race team successful. Man, I was in the trenches of it at the very start of it, and I‘ve never been in that situation where I‘ve seen that part of it, looking through those lenses.”
Smith first called Danny Stockman, his former crew chief at KBM from 2020-22, for recommendations. Stockman immediately mentioned Jon Leonard, who, at the time, called shots for a Niece Motorsports entry. It didn‘t take much convincing from either party.
MORE: Chandler Smith driver page | Front Row Motorsports website
“It kind of fell in my lap,” Leonard told NASCAR.com. “To be able to have an opportunity to come to a company that wants to win, or the driver that wants to win, and have that chance … it was a pretty quick and easy decision on my part.”
And that driver/crew chief pairing didn‘t take long to develop, either. Both joke that they see and speak to each other more than their spouses.
“[My wife] calls me three times a day, and I feel like I probably talk to Chandler as much or more,” Leonard said with Smith laughing in the background. “You‘re around your race team more than you‘re around your family a lot of times, and that relationship is super important to me because I can‘t have success without him having success, right?
“Everything takes time. The longer we work together, the more we understand, and once you get a baseline, the next step is, OK, what can we do to make this a little bit better, and what‘s the next knob we can turn, and what‘s the next little tiny thing that will make a difference. Maybe it isn‘t a wedge or an easy adjustment, it‘s a theory-based conversation, and that‘s where me and Chandler talk a lot — I‘m able to pawn stuff off of him and he‘s able to give me some feedback on what he needs to be better, and I feel like I can give him some stuff that maybe would help that isn‘t such an easy knob to push.”
In their first season together, they won two of the first 10 races and entered the playoffs as the No. 3 seed. But in the opener at Darlington Raceway, Smith pushed too hard early, resulting in contact with the wall and a DNF. The No. 38 team suffered a mechanical issue at Bristol Motor Speedway, forcing a must-win situation in the Round of 10 cutoff at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. They ultimately finished second in Loudon and were eliminated.
Smith and Leonard used that disappointment as motivation. When the calendar flipped to 2026, it didn‘t take long for them to find Victory Lane. Smith survived an epic overtime restart in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, going from sixth to first in the final set of corners and prevailing in a four-wide finish.
“I really do think that is a huge part of why we did win Daytona. We didn‘t turn and start pointing fingers [after last season]. We said, yeah, you‘re right, it‘s pretty evident this was not meant to be,” Smith said. “It truly wasn‘t a good reflection of what we were capable of, and we showed that even throughout the entire playoffs. The Lord didn‘t will it that way for us to make it to Phoenix and make it to the final four, but it wasn‘t a lack of being able to go out and perform.”
That “childhood dream come true” of winning at Daytona set the tone for a season where Smith remains a top championship threat. Through 13 races — and with just five remaining in the regular season — the No. 38 team sits third in the series ranks, trailing shopmate Layne Riggs by 128 markers heading into Lime Rock on Saturday (1 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Overall, the numbers are stout, with six top fives and eight top 10s. But the 24-year-old wheelman points to a few races in particular where there were missed opportunities. The team surrendered a top-five finish at Rockingham Speedway in the spring after failing post-race inspection, resulting in a disqualification and just one point. Wrecks took him out of contention at both Charlotte Motor Speedway and Naval Base Coronado, accepting blame for the former. He felt that Dover Motor Speedway was the only race all season where he lacked pace.
MORE: Truck Series schedule | Watch NASCAR video highlights
“Taking out those four races … I would say we‘ve been performing really well,” Smith said. “All those other performances where crap happened, we were still performing at a high level, so I would say on paper it‘s kind of rocky, but reality is we‘ve been running pretty well, so just need to clean up a few small things. I feel like our pit crew is starting to progressively get a little bit better, which that‘s been a weakness of ours.”
And after Lime Rock, the schedule lines up right in Smith‘s wheelhouse. The next five races are at tracks a mile or shorter, spanning The Chase opener at Bristol. Five of his eight career Truck wins came at those types of tracks.
Expecting a strong stretch ahead, Smith and Leonard target a final push for the Regular Season Championship — knowing the benefit of additional points to start The Chase. The top team after 18 races begins with 1,100 points — 25 above second and 35 above third.
Is that attainable?
“If you look at Denny‘s run [in the Cup Series] and obviously even Layne‘s run, I feel like if you do your job and you win stages and you win races, you go string together two, three, four of these next races, I think we can,” Leonard said. “It‘s gonna be hard. I think you‘re going to need a little bit of help. I do feel like Layne and Kaden [Honeycutt] are probably the two that we got to compete with every week, but he made up a good chunk of ground in a good amount of time, and we‘re just kind of feeling like we‘re coming into our stretch of tracks we‘re really strong at. It‘s gonna be work, but I feel like we can do it as a team and a company, for sure.”
]]>The service will be free and open to the public, providing fans, members of the motorsports industry, friends and loved ones an opportunity to come together in remembrance and tribute to one of racing‘s most influential and accomplished competitors.
MORE: Kyle Busch through the years
Additional details regarding the service, including timing, speakers and other event logistics, will be announced in the coming days and weeks as plans are finalized.
Please save the date and join us as we honor Busch‘s remarkable life and enduring impact on the sport of NASCAR and generations of racing fans.
]]>But for the first time since May, that work paid off with a top-five finish in Sunday‘s eero 400, a much-needed boost for a driver and team that have heard all the noise in the midst of a season in which Bowman and Co. sit 29th in the points standings with just seven races remaining before The Chase.
“Everybody here sees all the bull-[expletive], just like I do,” Bowman said. “They all care a lot and work really hard, and how this car runs means a lot to a lot of people. So having those people have a good week — a good start to their week at least and not be starting the week mad about the weekend — is good. Hopefully, we can keep it up.”
MORE: In-Season Challenge hub | Cup standings
The last time NASCAR raced at Chicagoland in 2019, Bowman was celebrating in Victory Lane. Sunday‘s performance may not have been a literal win, but it checked several boxes, including a top-15 qualifying effort, stage points earned and a second straight top-10 finish.
“We unloaded happier with the car than we have lately and felt like sim was better than it has been for us lately, and just every little part and piece was a little bit better,” Bowman said. “And nothing went wrong throughout the course of the race, even though we fired off way too tight, not where we needed to be. But yeah, I feel like we put together a solid day and keep digging at it.”
He also continued his underdog run in the second edition of the In-Season Challenge, which pays $1 million to the tournament winner following the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Bowman advanced as the bottommost No. 32 seed into the quarterfinal Round of 8 after upsets against No. 1 Tyler Reddick at Sonoma Raceway and No. 16 seed Austin Cindric on Sunday at Chicagoland. He‘ll face No. 25 Zane Smith next as the series shifts to EchoPark Speedway on Sunday (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
“Had a whole lot of personality with me versus Cindric on that one,” Bowman joked. “But yeah, it definitely pays a lot of money, so you‘ve gotta pay attention to it. But at the same time — I feel like it‘s my answer to every single question that I get asked — but we‘re just super focused on trying to turn things around and get pointed back in the right direction on this team. That means a lot more than the in-season deal for us.”
To finally have positive momentum following the No. 48 team is a welcome change — not just for those directly working on that car — but also for the whole of Hendrick Motorsports. Bowman missed four races this spring after a bout with vertigo and has just seven top-20 finishes in 15 starts in what is a contract year for him.
Chad Knaus, Hendrick Motorsports‘ vice president of competition and a seven-time Cup Series champion crew chief, has seen the work put into turning the No. 48 team‘s results around, making Sunday‘s finish more rewarding.
“That team has been rebuilding and growing and getting stronger and tougher all year long,” Kanus told NASCAR.com. “And it‘s good to see Alex comfortable enough in the car that he can get out there and race and put the car in situations that are compromising (and) be able to pull it off. So I‘m really proud of those guys. They‘ve needed a little bit of momentum, and the last couple weeks they‘ve been getting some, so it‘s nice to see.”
RELATED: Bowman: ‘I don‘t feel like I‘m racing for my job‘
At the core of the No. 48 team‘s success is Bowman and crew chief Blake Harris. The duo has been paired together since 2023, and they‘ve collected one win, claiming the 2024 Chicago Street Race victory. Their chemistry remains strong, bolstered through adversity rather than weakened by it, Harris told NASCAR.com.
“I think what people don‘t see behind the scenes is we‘re always building this team,” Harris said. “And I‘m always good with this guy (Bowman). Like, guys talk about radio chat or whatever, but like I hang out with this guy in my free time, right? So he and I, our team, we‘ll go into next week with the same prep as if something bad happened to be finished 36th this week, right? It doesn‘t change for us. That‘s kind of what the Cup Series is, though, right? The day you think you‘ve got it figured out, you come back the next week and get your teeth kicked in, and you just can‘t afford to ever lay down.
“Everybody‘s been working hard, been working no different than if we‘d have been running top five every week. Just, it feels like once the metric flips and you get some good finishes and get those later qualifying spots, pit stalls come with that. The whole day just becomes a little bit easier. That‘s kind of why I say momentum is not a fake thing in the Cup Series. It just helps your odds of pushing forward when you have things go right.”
]]>RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Reddick, who drives for the Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin-owned 23XI Racing, won the season-opening Daytona 500 and followed it by winning the next two races, becoming the first Cup Series driver to start the year with three consecutive victories. His momentum carried over to wins at Darlington Raceway and Kansas Speedway as Reddick matched Dale Earnhardt‘s 1987 feat of winning five of the first nine races.
RELATED: Tyler Reddick‘s driver page | Relive Reddick‘s career journey
Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris from Formula One and IndyCar‘s Alex Palou were also nominated for the award. The winner will be announced during the show at 8 p.m. ET on July 15 at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City (televised on ABC and streaming on the ESPN App). Comedian Marcello Hernández will host the show.
Reddick looks to become the first NASCAR driver to win the award since Kyle Larson took home the honors in 2022. In total, 19 NASCAR drivers have won the Best Driver Award, with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon each winning four times.
Fans can vote for Reddick here. Reddick‘s category is the 17th, so scroll through to reach it and cast your vote.
]]>After 137 prior attempts, Creed was the beneficiary of a last-lap tangle between Austin Hill and Ross Chastain. The No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet scooted by and held off the roaring field for the elusive win. He put to rest the moniker of being the driver with the most runner-up finishes — 15 to be exact — in series history without hoisting a trophy.
RELATED: Sheldon Creed driver page
“It wasn‘t very fun going that long without winning,” Creed told NASCAR.com last week. “It would be one thing if I ran 10th to 15th every week, but I was so close so many times and something would happen or go wrong.”
The narrow defeats began to build frustration. In 2024 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he tied Dale Jarrett and Daniel Hemric for the most second-place efforts before winning (10). He shattered that record, finishing second with three different organizations: Richard Childress Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Haas Factory Team.
Snagging a victory early in 2026 was a morale boost for the entire No. 00 team. Creed had an average first year with Haas in 2025, recording eight top-five and 16 top-10 finishes.
“I think that was massive for confidence for myself and the team, getting these guys back into Victory Lane,” Creed said.
Crew chief Jonathan Toney, the always upbeat leader of the No. 00 bunch, knew a victory was within reach. He was adjusting to Creed‘s style last year, spending the prior two years with Cole Custer. Naturally, the two drivers billed from Southern California were more parallel than Toney could have even imagined with their Southern California swagger.
Toney always believed Creed could get the job done.
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
“I always said, you don‘t finish second [15] times and not be capable of winning races,” Toney said. “Things just didn‘t fall his way on several occasions that kept him out of Victory Lane. We all knew he was capable of winning.
“Just getting that win for him and the smile on his face and the next couple of weeks was such a blessing to be a part of and see that.”
The triumph came earlier than expected in 2026. Over the offseason, Haas Factory Team put in plenty of labor to switch from Ford to Chevrolet, returning to the Hendrick Motorsports engine pipeline.
Aside from the signature EchoPark win, Creed has pumped out his most consistent season to date. He believes he had more raw speed in 2024, his stopgap season at JGR, but this is the most comparable year he‘s had, already matching the top-five finishes he posted in his first season with HFT. That total is tied for second in the series (Brent Crews) behind Justin Allgaier‘s 12 top-five results.
Consistency has been one of Creed‘s biggest strengths in 2026. With 13 races remaining, he‘s on pace to eclipse his previous best average finish — lowering it from 11.7 in 2024 to 10.3 — while avoiding the incidents that plagued him in past seasons, with just one DNF in 20 races.
“This year, we‘ve been clicking it off,” Creed said. “Even when we‘re not a winning race car, we can go and finish fourth or fifth. I feel like our window is a little bit bigger this year on speed. Last year, we had to hit it perfectly to be fast.”
The No. 00 team is still working to unlock more raw speed, but Creed has remained competitive, ranking 10th among series regulars in laps led (93). He also sits seventh in stage points at 118 — less than half of Allgaier‘s 250.
“I think that‘s just maturity on [Creed‘s] part and learning race craft,” Toney said of the uptick in finishes, noting the core group of the No. 00 team has been together since 2023. “He has been with some great organizations that he was able to learn from, so we were benefiting from that and the experience.”
With four races remaining in the regular season, Creed sits one point behind Corey Day for third in the driver standings. He is within 30 points of reigning series champion Jesse Love for second but is also only 43 points above Carson Kvapil in seventh.
It‘s paramount for the No. 00 team to conclude the regular season strong to be closer to the front of The Chase field come September. Regardless, Creed believes he can be a player for the 2026 championship. He isn‘t counting out Austin Hill or fellow Haas driver Sam Mayer as title threats.
MORE: O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series standings | O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule
“I think a lot because we can run consistently,” Creed said. “I think it‘s going to be between six of us. You could probably throw a couple more in if they get consistent. It‘s hard to count anybody out, but just looking at the season, I would say it‘s those four to six.”
First on the docket is a return to the Peach State on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Creed hopes to pick up right where he left off in February.
“It will be like every other week,” Creed said. “We‘re going to go with the same goal of trying to win. I know we‘re not going to go back the same. Our car was good, but I thought it could have been a little better.”
]]>Ian Fleming‘s Goldfinger was nowhere to be found in the Midway this past weekend, but there was no shortage of high stakes and high drama. We‘re now past the point of happenstance and coincidence in the feud between Austin Hill and Shane van Gisbergen, a pair of road-course rivals whose burgeoning bristling spilled over into a hearty serving of Chicago beef this past weekend.
That does not mean every bump and scrape between the two over the past three seasons has been intentional, but the file is thick enough now, and the war of words is only extending to where it can no longer be just chalked up to hard racing. What started as two aggressive road-course racers fighting for O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series wins in 2024 has followed both drivers into the NASCAR Cup Series this season after Hill took over the No. 33 Chevrolet following Kyle Busch‘s death, where the feud has been spotlighted, and every restart and on-track battle between them now comes with a full — and growing — set of receipts.
Sunday night at Chicagoland Speedway added the latest page.
On Lap 48, van Gisbergen‘s No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet made contact with Hill‘s No. 33 Richard Childress Racing entry as they raced through Turns 3 and 4 while battling in traffic. Hill‘s car shot into the outside wall, ending his day early and prompting a pointed response from the RCR camp and the Georgia native afterward.
“I‘m sure y‘all have seen the replay,” he said. “So if I have to explain it, people probably need to get glasses.”
Van Gisbergen, who continued and finished 25th, denied that the contact was retaliation. He said he was trying to get to the bottom for clean air, was tight and that Hill “chopped (his) nose” before Hill got into the wall. Before heading to the garage, Hill showed his own displeasure by sideswiping van Gisbergen‘s car under caution.
NASCAR reviewed the incident and issued no penalties to either driver in Tuesday‘s penalty report. That closed the official infraction process. It did not, however, close the matter.
RELATED: Chicagoland penalty report | NASCAR official explains no-penalty call
During this week‘s “Hauler Talk” podcast, NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde said officials reviewed data, radio transmissions, camera angles and prior laps involving Hill and van Gisbergen before determining nothing proved the Chicagoland contact was “100% intentional and penalty-worthy.” Forde also said NASCAR still planned to meet with both drivers this weekend at EchoPark Speedway to make sure the situation does not “boil over” into something larger.
There is a reason for that — because Chicagoland was not a one-off.
The Hill-SVG history begins in earnest at Circuit of The Americas in March 2024, when both were still running in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series. Van Gisbergen, early in his first full-time NASCAR season and still somewhat introducing himself to the field, had control of an overtime restart, but Hill stayed attached to his bumper up the hill into Turn 1 as SVG ran wide and the No. 21 moved into the lead.
Van Gisbergen got back to Hill later on the final lap, using the front bumper into Turn 15 and pushing both cars wide. Kyle Larson slipped past both of them and drove away with the win. Hill finished second. Van Gisbergen crossed the line second but was later penalized 30 seconds for shortcutting the course, dropping him to 27th.
Neither driver left COTA content.
Van Gisbergen told FOX Sports that Hill “drove through me” in Turn 1 and said he “stood up for (himself).” Hill said from his perspective, van Gisbergen “just ran through us” into Turn 15.
At that point, it appeared to be just a heated finish. Two months later, we all realized it was actually the ember that sparked a thing.
The next flashpoint came at Sonoma Raceway in June of that season. Hill led on a restart with 11 laps remaining and chose the left lane, with SVG alongside on the front row. Hill got the edge through Turn 1, but van Gisbergen had the inside line entering Turn 2. Contact followed, Hill slid wide, and van Gisbergen went on to win.
Hill kept his public comments restrained but pointed, saying he would “leave it to the keyboard warriors” and later, “I plead the fifth.”
The postrace cool-down lap was … a bit less civil. As van Gisbergen celebrated with a lap-long burnout, Hill drove by and gave him a one-finger salute. Van Gisbergen later said the gesture changed the intent of his celebration from fan service to something more pointed, saying on Corey LaJoie‘s “Stacking Pennies” podcast: “This is for (Hill) now, not the fans.” From there, van Gisbergen followed Hill around the course, eventually passing him and waving as the moment became one of the rivalry‘s signature visuals.
Van Gisbergen was more willing to connect the moment to COTA. Asked whether it was “fair game” after what had happened in Austin, van Gisbergen said, “One-hundred percent … ”
“ … I hate racing and thinking like that, but to me, we‘ve both taken a race win off each other now,” van Gisbergen said after Sonoma.
From that moment, the rivalry became easier to label as such. COTA created the receipt, Sonoma cashed it, and this feud is still open for business.
The beef quieted down a bit last year, but the history resurfaced when their paths crossed in the Cup Series as things heated up again this summer.
Pocono Raceway added a tricky layer of frustration here as well, though not as straightforward as the incidents that came before and after it. During Stage 2 in last month‘s race, SVG and Wood Brothers Racing‘s Josh Berry made contact while racing off Turn 3 before Hill made it three-wide on the bottom. The stack-up sent Berry into the wall and triggered a chain reaction that collected several Chase hopefuls, including van Gisbergen, who finished 31st.
A week later at Naval Base Coronado, the connection was a bit harder to miss.
On a Lap 32 restart, Hill slid into Connor Zilisch entering the fast Turn 1, sending both cars into the fence. Van Gisbergen, who had little room to avoid the wreck, was collected in the pileup as both Trackhouse Racing entries were eliminated. Hill, Zilisch and van Gisbergen were credited with 36th through 38th.
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
For SVG, the damage extended beyond the race car. San Diego was a major opportunity for him specifically, needing to maximize there with a Chase spot still very much up in the air.
He left with one point, knowing exactly who to blame.
Van Gisbergen was even more direct, saying he had been taken out “two weeks in a row” by the same “spud,” grouping San Diego with the Pocono crash a week earlier.
The following week at Sonoma, van Gisbergen said it took him a couple of days to decompress and that he was “pretty pissed” about a strong opportunity gone. (Needless to say, he came out to Wine Country with a chip on his shoulder and stomped the field en route to victory.)
Still, that backdrop followed both drivers to Chicagoland.
From Hill‘s side, the Lap 48 contact in the return to the 1.5-mile speedway looked obvious enough that he did not see much need to explain it. From SVG‘s side, it was a racing incident caused by dirty air, a tight race car and Hill blocking his air. Over RCR‘s radio, team owner Richard Childress viewed it as retribution.
The radio traffic made clear how hot the No. 33 team was. Childress called it “payback for California,” while spotter Derek Kneeland referred to van Gisbergen as “Van Guggenheimer,” adding a little mispronunciation-fueled venom to the moment in a work of linguistic art fit for museum placement.
RADIOACTIVE: Tempers flare on No. 33 team radio after SVG incident
Van Gisbergen had his own jab afterward — asked whether he would speak with Hill, he kept it short: “I‘ll talk to him, but he just grunts.”
From NASCAR‘s side, however, it was not clear enough to warrant a penalty.
That may be the most important piece entering EchoPark. NASCAR did not say nothing happened. Officials said they did not find enough to remove reasonable doubt and issue discipline. That leaves the feud in an uneasy middle lane: serious enough for a meeting between the sanctioning body and both drivers this weekend, not definitive enough for a deterrent penalty.
It also leaves the door open, in theory, for escalation.
And that is where Hill and van Gisbergen sit now. Two drivers with different racing backgrounds, different explanations of the same incident(s) and enough shared history that the next piece of contact cannot be judged on its own in a vacuum.
The penalty report closed Chicagoland‘s official review.
It did not remotely close this Hill-SVG beef.
RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Cup Series standings
Analysis: Hamlin didn‘t return to Victory Lane at Chicagoland, but he still posted a viable bounce-back after Sonoma. He started from the pole, led 30 laps, ranked No. 1 in speed per NASCAR Insights, finished third and extended his now-growing regular-season points lead to 44 over Tyler Reddick. That is a pretty reasonable consolation prize on a night when he finished third among his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, which generally has not been the case this year. EchoPark Speedway keeps the argument interesting, too. Hamlin owns a win, six top fives, 11 top 10s and 462 laps led there, though the modern version of the track has a different kind of chaos attached to it, as we know. The crown still fits No. 11, but the 23XI/JGR family fight is not exactly quieting down.
Analysis: Reddick‘s Chicagoland was a rare total miss in a season with very few of them. The No. 45 finished 36th after a fluid issue, scored just two points and watched his boss stretch the standings gap from one tally to 44 in a single night. That doesn‘t undo five wins, 12 top 10s and the best overall speed profile in the series, but it does make the regular-season title fight feel a lot less theoretical as it quickly appears to be getting away from him. EchoPark is the right place for a counterpunch, however, because Reddick won there earlier this season after starting first and owns a win, three top fives and five top 10s in 12 starts at the track. If he wants the top spot back, this is a pretty direct runway.
Analysis: Blaney keeps living in that sturdy third lane, and Chicagoland did nothing to knock him out of it — up or down. He finished seventh, led eight laps, scored Stage 2 points and now has a series-best 14 top 10s through 19 races. The No. 12 still doesn‘t feel as electric as Hamlin or Reddick, but the week-to-week floor is about as stable as anything in the garage. EchoPark has been kind to him historically, too, with a win, seven top fives, 10 top 10s and an 11.5 average finish in 16 starts. At some point, all this reliability needs to turn into another trophy, but this track gives him a decent shot at making that happen.
Analysis: Gibbs climbs yet again, and it‘s not just because others keep slipping around him. Chicagoland was another mature points night for the No. 54, with an eighth-place run, Stage 1 and Stage 2 points and a leg up to fourth in the standings. He didn‘t have the winning speed of his teammates Briscoe or Bell late, but he did exactly what strong Chase-caliber seasons require: stayed in the mix, scored points and left cleaner than several contenders. EchoPark is a little more complicated, with Gibbs owning just two top 10s and a 21.9 average finish in seven Cup starts there, but the 2026 version of Gibbs has repeatedly outgrown the old resume and previous limiting factors. This would be a useful place to do it again.
Analysis: Elliott moves back into the top five without a headline-grabbing Chicagoland, which feels about right for the way his season has been shaping up lately. He finished 11th, scored Stage 2 points and remained fifth in the standings, one point ahead of teammate Kyle Larson, even as the No. 9 still hasn‘t quite rediscovered the sharpest version of itself from early in the year. EchoPark — Elliott‘s home track — is a natural place for the tone to change. The Georgia native has two Cup wins there, including last year‘s summer race, with three top fives, nine top 10s and a strong 11.3 average finish in 15 starts. If this season is going to heat back up before The Chase, this feels like a logical spark point.
Analysis: Larson drops two spots because Chicagoland became the latest “how did that turn into that?” race for the No. 5. He started second, led 23 laps, finished second in Stage 1 and looked fully capable of winning before spinning off Turn 4, getting stuck in the infield grass and limping home 34th, two laps down. The speed is still ridiculous — 633 laps led without a win is almost comical at this point — but the finishes keep refusing to match. EchoPark is another tricky proposition. Sort of like his 2026 season in general, Larson has led 500 laps there but still has no Cup wins and a 19.6 average finish in 17 starts. The countdown may still be on, but the clock‘s tick must be getting pretty annoying for him.
Analysis: Briscoe‘s Chicagoland win felt less like a surprise and more like a confirmation of what we‘ve been seeing the past several weeks. The No. 19 started seventh, led 51 laps, ranked third in speed and second on restarts and held off Christopher Bell by 0.276 seconds after Bell came charging through lapped traffic in the closing laps. Add in the Sonoma runner-up one week earlier, and this is no longer just a nice run. EchoPark is not exactly a slam dunk, with just one top 10 and a 22.0 average finish in 11 starts, but Briscoe now has seven top fives, nine top 10s and a win on the season. The track history matters, but his — and Toyota‘s — current form might matter more.
Analysis: Bell keeps climbing after his early- to mid-season lull, and Chicagoland made it feel deserved. He finished second, pushed his teammate to the final lap, scored Stage 2 points and has now stacked back-to-back top fives after a miserable stretch of engine trouble, wrist drama and fuel heartbreak. The No. 20 also sits fifth in season-long speed rating, so the rebound is not built on smoke — and EchoPark only strengthens the case that he‘s on an upward trajectory. Bell won there last year for the first time in Cup and owns three top fives and four top 10s in 12 starts while also having O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series wins at the track. His apparent bad-luck tax may not be gone forever, but Bell looks a whole lot closer to normal again.
Analysis: Buescher falls two spots because Chicagoland was one of the few recent races where the No. 17 just didn‘t quite cash in on its typical consistency. He started third, scored Stage 1 points and showed early pace, but finished 19th, a lap down, on a night when several drivers around him made bigger statements. The season is still in good shape — seventh in points, 134 above the cutline, still no panic button — but the argument for keeping him near the front needed a little more than that. EchoPark is not the easiest reset, either. Buescher has five top 10s in 16 starts there, but no top fives and a 20.0 average finish. The floor remains trustworthy. The ceiling needs to reappear quickly if he wants to get back into the top tier and have a realistic shot at this year‘s title.
Analysis: Hocevar’s Chicagoland was a step backward from the cleaner runs he‘d been putting together of late. He got tangled with rival Zane Smith while racing near 17th, finished 22nd and has lost just a bit of the shine that had built from his midseason surge. The bigger picture is still strong, though, still ninth in points, 117 above the cutline and already a Cup winner. EchoPark offers a fascinating reset. Hocevar has been excellent there in a small sample, with two top fives, three top 10s and a 10.2 average finish in five starts, on top of winning at Talladega earlier this year. The opportunity is there.
Analysis: Byron finally looked like Byron again for most of Chicagoland, even if the win got away. He led a race-high 94 laps, swept both stages, ranked second in speed, first on restarts and first on pit crew performance for the race, then settled for fourth in the running order after Briscoe and Bell took over late. That is still a major performance correction for a team that badly needed one. Plus, EchoPark gives the No. 24 an even louder rebound case. Byron owns two Cup wins there, including on the modern configuration, with 181 laps led in 14 starts. If Chicagoland was the reminder, EchoPark could be the part where the No. 24 starts becoming a problem again.
Analysis: Suárez stayed parked at No. 12 because Chicagoland was neither great nor damaging enough to force a bigger conversation. He finished 14th after starting 26th, gained a little in the overall points column and remains 100 points above the cutline, which is still a useful place to be with seven regular-season races left. EchoPark is where the story gets more interesting, however. Suárez won there in 2024 and owns five top fives, seven top 10s and a 16.4 average finish in 15 starts. The consistency has been a little bumpy lately, but if there is a place for No. 7 to look spicy again, this qualifies.
Analysis: Wallace‘s sixth-place finish at Chicagoland was probably better than it will get credit for, especially among a slew of Toyotas in the top 10. But the No. 23 led 35 laps, ranked first in both passing and defense and spent long chunks of the race as a legitimate front-end player before the final cycle shuffled the win out of reach. That is a good sign after the Sonoma dent. EchoPark is not a bad follow-up, either, even if the raw stats are more solid than spectacular: one top five, three top 10s, 65 laps led and an 18.7 average finish in 14 starts. Wallace remains 77 points above the cutline, and the speed is showing up often enough that the next step is turning these strong runs into something with teeth.
Analysis: SVG‘s road-course annihilation vacation is over, and Chicagoland made that pretty clear. He started 30th, had contact with Austin Hill that triggered an early caution and finished 25th, one lap down, as the schedule snapped back to the kind of track that is still shaping his full-season ceiling. That does not erase the two wins or the road-course brilliance, but it does explain why he slips three spots and may not be done dropping. EchoPark is at least not empty for him. He has one top 10 in four starts there, but the average finish is still 21.3 and the sample remains thin. The mission now is less about fireworks and more about keeping The Chase cushion from shrinking before the next chance to strike, which is not obvious.
Analysis: Cindric moves up a spot because Chicagoland was quietly one of the more useful bubble nights on the board. He led 18 laps, finished fourth in Stage 1, ninth in Stage 2 and came home 13th, stretching his cushion to 27 points above the cutline. The No. 2 still doesn‘t feel especially explosive, but Sunday was a reminder that Cindric can still manufacture real points when the race gives him an opening. EchoPark has been reasonably workable, too, with two top fives, three top 10s and 226 laps led in 10 starts. That is enough of a resume to matter when the bubble is this tight, and having a Daytona 500 win up his sleeve doesn‘t hurt, either.
Analysis: Jones moves up one spot, though Chicagoland was more of a salvage than a surge. He finished 15th after brushing the wall and fading on a restart, which was enough to keep him barely above the red line but not enough to make the bubble feel comfortable. The Legacy Motor Club push is still alive, just a little less solid than it was after Michigan and Pocono. EchoPark offers a decent place to keep it upright, as Jones has two top fives, four top 10s and a 17.1 average finish in 15 starts there. With only four points separating him from the cutline, upright is not a boring word. It‘s the whole job right now.
Analysis: Preece gives back two spots after Chicagoland undid much of the progress he made on the road-course swing. He got swept up in the opening-lap stack-up and later received the free pass twice, but still finished 32nd and fell four points below the cutline. That is a brutal reset for a driver who had just started to make his Chase picture feel a little less fragile. EchoPark does not offer much comfort, either. Preece has one top 10 and a 21.7 average finish in 11 starts there. The No. 60 has been better than the math suggests at times, but the math is getting a little less favorable.
Analysis: Logano climbs two spots, which says as much about the bottom of the list as it does about a 12th-place finish, but there were still positives at Chicagoland. He started 31st, finished 12th, led a lap through the pit cycle and had the second-best pit crew performance of the race, matching a season-long pit crew profile that remains one of the best in the garage. The standings position still stinks considering who‘s driving the car — the three-time champ is 16 points below the cutline — but EchoPark gives him a real lifeline. Logano owns two wins, four top fives, eight top 10s, three poles and 554 laps led there. If this season is going to stop feeling like a survival fight, this would be a very convenient place to start acting like the championship-caliber No. 22 Team Penske team that it is.
Analysis: Allmendinger holds 19th after finishing 17th at Chicagoland; basically the definition of staying alive without changing anything about the conversation. He remains tied with Logano in points, 16 below the cutline, and the schedule has moved away from the tracks where he had his cleanest shot to flip everything. But he‘s a reasonable superspeedway racer, and EchoPark has not been terrible for him. Allmendinger owns one top five, four top 10s and a 16.7 average finish in 18 starts there, which is respectable enough to keep him in the discussion and afloat in The Chase mix. The problem is that “respectable” may not be enough for much longer, and points need to be accumulated consistently from here on out.
Analysis: Keselowski drops to the final spot, and the urgency is now impossible to ignore. Chicagoland should have been a place where the No. 6 could build off his strong track history, but instead, the 2012 champ finished 21st, lost more ground and slipped to 19 points below the cutline. EchoPark offers another veteran-friendly lifeline, and his history there is strong: two wins, six top fives, 12 top 10s, 259 laps led and a 15.7 average finish in 23 starts. That‘s the good news. The bad news is that good track histories only matter if they start producing current points, and it feels like he can‘t count on a clean weekend ahead. The Chase picture has not moved on without him yet, but it is absolutely checking its watch for when No. 6 might strike. And that‘s a bigger “if” than “when.”
Here‘s where things stand after Round 2 at Chicagoland:
RELATED: In-Season Challenge hub page | Check your bracket
Chicagoland race winner: During the final pit cycle of the eero 400, crew chief James Small used the undercut strategy by calling Chase Briscoe‘s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the pits earlier than his competitors battling up front. Briscoe cycled to the lead and sailed to his first Cup Series win of the 2026 season despite a late-race challenge from JGR teammate Christopher Bell. The Hoosier driver advanced to the third round of the In-Season Challenge over teammate Ty Gibbs, who earned a solid eighth-place finish at the 1.5-mile Joliet, Illinois, track.
Who advances to Round 3
Advancing with the 12th-seeded Briscoe to the next round are: (2) Denny Hamlin, (3) Ryan Blaney, (4) Chase Elliott, (10) Christopher Bell, (11) William Byron, (25) Todd Gilliland and (32) Alex Bowman.
When Bowman missed four Cup Series races earlier in the year while recovering from vertigo, it all but ended his hopes of making up the points deficit to earn a Chase berth this fall. However, the In-Season Challenge gives the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports driver some extra motivation, with something to fight for after the 32nd- and lowest-seeded competitor advanced to Round 3 by defeating 16th-seeded Austin Cindric at Chicagoland. Matching up against 25th-seeded Gilliland this Sunday at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta, the unpredictable nature of a drafting-style track should give both Bowman and Gilliland an equal chance of advancing to the semifinal round. Both drivers may fit the bill for a “Cinderella story” in this year‘s In-Season Challenge.
Matchup of the week
(No. 2) Denny Hamlin vs. (No. 10) Christopher Bell: In Round 3 of the In-Season Challenge, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin and Bell will go head-to-head at EchoPark. Both drivers finished second and third at Chicagoland, respectively, with Bell beating seventh-seeded Chris Buescher and Hamlin topping 15th-seeded Erik Jones. With the third round taking place at the Georgia drafting-style track, Bell might be the early favorite, having won at EchoPark in 2025 and earning three top-five finishes. Plus, the driver of the No. 20 Toyota will have some extra motivation to earn a breakthrough trip to Victory Lane after expressing frustration over his fourth runner-up finish this year.
On the other hand, Hamlin has not found the same level of success on superspeedways in the Next Gen era, picking up only two top 10s in nine EchoPark races since the track was reconfigured. Nevertheless, the unpredictable nature of drafting-style tracks could shift the battle between teammates in either direction, as both drivers will need a little bit of luck to prevail in this matchup.
Who‘s up
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. After getting up front and leading 94 of 267 laps, Byron‘s No. 24 Hendrick Chevrolet showed glimpses of the team we saw last year that led 1,330 laps. In 2026, Byron has not had the same level of success, with only 136 laps led after Chicagoland. Although Byron faded to a fourth-place finish after the final pit cycle, it was good enough for the 11th-seeded driver to defeat sixth-seeded teammate Kyle Larson to advance to the third round of the In-Season Challenge. At EchoPark Speedway, Byron is set to face third-seeded Ryan Blaney.
MORE: Byron, 24 team on wrong side of Chicagoland strategy | Watch NASCAR video highlights
Who‘s down
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Sunday night in Illinois was relatively quiet for Elliott, who earned an 11th-place finish. He also finished 15th and seventh in both stages with no laps led. Still, the No. 9 Chevrolet driver bested 29th-place finisher and 20th-seeded driver Michael McDowell to move on to the third round of the In-Season Challenge. Although the performance at Chicagoland was not super flashy, the Georgia native and fourth-seeded driver has to be excited for his matchup against 12th-seeded Chase Briscoe at his home track. Elliott is the defending summer race winner at EchoPark Speedway.
]]>Instead, a battle of crew chiefs‘ calls to pit road allowed Chase Briscoe to leapfrog Byron‘s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with 50 laps remaining, with Briscoe prevailing to a rousing victory in the eero 400 and Byron settling for fourth.
RELATED: Race results | Photos: Chicagoland returns
Briscoe entered the final green-flag pit cycle in second place behind Byron before crew chief James Small called the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to pit road at Lap 215. No. 24 crew chief Rudy Fugle drew Byron to pit road one lap later at Lap 216, but by then, the damage was done: Briscoe‘s momentum on one-lap fresher tires caught Byron midway down the backstretch as Byron returned to the racing line. Briscoe flew by Byron‘s outside and ultimately sailed to victory as Byron faded in the closing 50 laps.
“Those guys were just fast,” Byron said. “I mean, even when I was leading, they could just stay right with me, and everything had to be perfect. And ultimately, we got jumped there on the cycle, but it‘s hard to know. They have the advantage of being second and being able to do that. So I don‘t know. I feel like if I was perfect that last run, I could have gotten a little closer and just didn‘t quite have the pace that they had. I don‘t know. I think that was probably pretty maxed out for us. They just eventually got the clean air, and it was hard to defend.”
Like all strategy shot-callers, Fugle watched the laps tick away as the fuel window neared, targeting a particular lap number to hit pit road and leave with enough fuel to last until the checkered flag.
“We wanted to run a little longer, and we were right at the one-lap gap to the 19,” Fugle told NASCAR.com, “but it was probably just under. I was hoping for a faster pit stop and the best clean in and out that he could get and just missed it by a little bit. Yeah, that sucks. I don‘t know how the race finishes and how we manage it otherwise, but yeah, keep gaining on the little things.”
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While Fugle had to plan strategy to defend, Small and Briscoe were on offense, searching for any advantage they could find to jump past the No. 24 car.
“Every lap is just a process. OK, what are we going to do right now? What are we going to do?” Small said. “You are constantly managing the gap there, and you know what the undercut is worth. It‘s like you said, a game of cat and mouse. You don‘t want to go too early because you don‘t want to risk burning your tires off at the end. All it can take is two or three laps‘ difference. I knew we were getting close enough there and close enough to the number I had in my mind where I thought everything would work out and be safe at the end. We got to that, and thankfully he hadn‘t pulled the trigger yet, either, and it gave us that opportunity. And then it just kind of started the chain of reaction with everybody else.”
To fall short of victory was disappointing for Byron and Co., but having contending speed was a certain step forward. Sandwiched around a double dose of road courses on the Cup Series slate, the No. 24 team displayed an apparent gain of speed on larger, intermediate ovals, evidenced by a third-place effort at Pocono Raceway before leading a race-high and season-best 94 laps Sunday at Chicagoland.
“I think we‘re starting to gain,” Byron said. “I think, honestly, it makes a lot more sense now the way the car feels. And now in the last two oval races, we‘ve had a shot to win. Here and Pocono, we‘ve been top four, so yeah, we‘ve just gotta keep inching up on it and hopefully find a little bit.”
MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule
After its fourth top five of the season, that momentum is felt throughout the No. 24 team, particularly with a stretch of diverse ovals standing between now and The Chase over the next seven weeks.
“I think since Dover, we‘ve been making small gains,” Fugle said. “And the results haven‘t always shown it — or hardly ever shown it until recently — but we‘ve just got to keep our heads on straight and keep making small gains, and we‘ll get where we need to be by the time the playoffs start.”
]]>Going winless through the first half of this season “has really burned me up,” he said Saturday, on the eve of Sunday‘s first Cup Series go here in seven years. That feeling was new, too.
So it says something about the 31-year-old driver‘s expectations when the celebration he unleashed Sunday night at Chicagoland was premeditated, something he‘d thought of springing on spectators last season in a nod to his outdoorsman roots and his Bass Pro Shops sponsor. After a smoky frontstretch burnout, he stood on the roof of his No. 19 Toyota, cast an imaginary fishing rod and reeled in this triumph.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Chicagoland
As far as Cup Series victories go for Chase Briscoe, this one was a lunker, scratching the win column and providing a boost — both in points and morale — back toward the Chase postseason. He called driving a patriotic paint scheme to victory on July 4th weekend “the most American I‘ll ever feel in my life,” but in the context of the season as a whole, the moment provided a statement about his championship bona fides and his capabilities after an uncharacteristically slow start to the 2026 campaign.
“There‘s been a couple that have kind of slipped away I feel like this year,” Briscoe said. “Then when your teammates are winning, it makes it worse as a competitor, because you know they have every equal opportunity that you have, and they‘re performing better. So, yeah, there‘s definitely a lot of pressure to go and run good. It goes in ups and flows.”
There was plenty of special to spread around in this latest up. Crew chief James Small was all smiles, savoring a moment when his No. 19 team‘s potential was realized. A rocky start to the year with crashes or mechanical breakages in three of the first four races had left Briscoe and Co. 33rd in the early Cup Series standings. Sunday marked a 25-spot rise in the 15 races since.
Small‘s role was crucial, and when he opted to bring Briscoe to pit road before fellow contender William Byron for his final green-flag stop, that move helped the team leapfrog an especially strong No. 24 Chevrolet, providing him an advantage that he‘d keep to the end. He also spurred his driver on with pep and encouragement on the No. 19 radio, even with Christopher Bell — an equally hungry JGR teammate — chasing him down the stretch.
“We‘ve had pace all year, it‘s just been very yo-yo,” Small said from the side of the Victory Lane stage. “We‘ve had incidents or mechanical failures, and we just needed clean races, and that has been the key since Pocono — just trying to have clean races, execute, put ourselves in position to win and just try to accumulate the points. And we knew if we could keep our car up front all night, we‘d always have a chance, and tonight proved that.”
Helping sweeten the celebration, Sunday was Small‘s 43rd birthday, and he marked it with a win for the first time. “This is a world‘s first, and also the birthday of America, my first one as a U.S. citizen,” the Australian-born Small said, “so it‘s been a great weekend.”
The moment was also a cherished one for Lee Cunningham, the No. 19‘s veteran rear-tire changer and an Illinois native hailing from the township of Leaf River (population 432), some 80 miles northwest of the track. Cunningham motioned toward the Turn 1 side of the main grandstands to show where he sat as a teenager for Chicagoland‘s first Cup Series race in 2001. In the years since he joined the NASCAR grind, he‘s been on crews that have won multiple times here — including one where he caught some slime shrapnel from a Nickelodeon-themed Victory Lane for one of Martin Truex Jr.‘s wins here nearly a decade ago.
As the team‘s last pit stop approached Sunday, Cunningham admitted to some anxiety in the anticipation of their final service. The veteran presence, though, came through. The No. 19 crew members were careful not to tip their hands to other teams about their strategy, waiting until the last possible moment to position themselves on the pit wall.
MORE: Cup Series standings | NASCAR Classics: Chicagoland
The longing that Briscoe had for a return to winning ways? Cunningham says it was shared among the steady over-the-wall group.
“I mean, no matter how many races you win, you always want to win another one, right” Cunningham said, “and to win it with this group of guys, we‘ve had a new guy come into the picture the last couple years, and it always seems to take us a little while to jell, so it‘s kind of nice to get the win today, and now we get to look forward to the playoffs. We‘re on a roll, we‘re climbing in points. There for a while, we were way back in points, so as a team it just really kind of solidifies … like, we knew what we were capable of, but it kind of shows everybody else now.”
Sunday showed Briscoe that the path to a potential first Cup Series championship is a difficult-but-viable one, a journey that would be made more feasible if the wins were to accumulate. Toyota mates Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick still hold a significant advantage in the standings with seven races remaining before the 16-driver Chase field is locked, but the points premium on winning in this year‘s new-look format provides an avenue.
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
A day before Sunday‘s 400-miler, Briscoe hinted that he might have to channel his inner Tony Stewart, referencing both his former employer and a NASCAR Hall of Famer who famously went on an all-timer postseason tear to score his third Cup championship in 2011.
“I definitely think it‘s it‘s possible,” Briscoe said in Saturday‘s preliminaries. “It‘s not going to be easy. You‘re going to have to go win races, but yeah, I think we‘re more than capable of doing that.”
Sunday night, with a soundtrack of Chicago blues blaring in Victory Lane‘s background, Briscoe showed he can still reel it in.
]]>Bell reeled in Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe in the closing laps but ultimately couldn‘t pass the No. 19 car and finished second, rebounding from mid-race contact on pit road to earn his second straight top-five finish.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos | NASCAR video highlights
On the surface, there was plenty to be happy with, especially with Bell earning such a strong result while actively recovering from a fractured left wrist. Instead, Bell climbed dejectedly from his No. 20 Toyota, walked to his right-front fender to assess the damage and returned to his driver-side door, slamming the side of the car in frustration with his healthy hand.
“I don‘t know. It was a great race for us, great track, great car,” Bell said seconds later. “I don‘t know. I don‘t know what else to say.”
Bell‘s disappointment overshadowed any positives from Sunday‘s comeback in a race where he at one point fell far behind the leaders. His post-race demeanor was reminiscent of his Nashville Superspeedway runner-up on May 31, where he blamed himself for not beating Briscoe and fellow JGR driver Denny Hamlin in the final lap.
“It‘s just disappointing to continue to lose races,” Bell said. “We‘ve lost them every way possible, and … I‘m just not good enough, man. Just not good enough. Our cars are amazing. I have the fastest car a lot. Toyota is great, and I‘m not winning the races. Just not good enough right now.”
Being close offered him no solace. Bell closed to Briscoe‘s bumper with five laps to go, but a mixture of lapped traffic and elite defense from Briscoe and spotter Drew Herring kept Bell from making the winning pass.
“Him and Drew do really good at blocking, and the game was on the line,” Bell said. “The race was on the line, and he knew that. I knew that, and yeah, I didn‘t get it done.”
Briscoe admitted he was glad it was Bell who was in pursuit because he knew he could trust Bell to race him cleanly. But he also knew Bell would make him earn it.
“It was super close. He about won the race in (Turns) 3 and 4 with like two or three to go,” Briscoe said. “We caught a lapped car, and we were going to have to run the top because the lapped car was going to the bottom, and I kind of ran a little too high and he almost — I mean, he was so close to getting my left-rear. And if he gets to my left-rear, he instantly wins the race. But I was able to just barely squirt in front of him. And then the lapped cars is what made it — he was gonna catch me, I think, either way, but the lapped cars really just made it happen way faster.
“But then, honestly, at the end, the last two laps, lapped cars are what saved me because it made it where he didn‘t have a clean lane. Like there was always another lapped car running the bottom or running the middle, but I could just kind of block him in a sense. I had to make sure I drove it in deep enough he couldn‘t get to my left-rear, then just make sure I had a somewhat decent exit, but I was, I mean, sideways and drifting on exit a lot of the time. It was a super intense battle. Out of all the people that were going to catch me, I was glad it was him just because I knew he was going to race me super clean.”
Bell‘s race was nearly derailed during the Lap 49 caution. After stopping for two tires under caution, crew chief Adam Stevens released Bell from his pit stall — but Todd Gilliland was wheeling his No. 34 Ford into a nearby stall just ahead. Bell‘s right front hit Gilliland‘s left-rear and spun Gilliland into his stall. Bell said the result of that contact was a loss in car performance that made his car “really, really loose,” necessitating multiple pit stops to repair the damage. Stevens took the blame over the radio for not informing his driver of the oncoming Gilliland, but Bell backed his crew chief.
“I just didn‘t get the information quick enough to stop in my box and not accelerate out,” Bell said. “It‘s just a mistake. It‘s 50-50 — I‘m driving the car. He‘s the one on top of the pit box. We work together, so it‘s not all on him.”
]]>It was sheer determination that kept him there in a triumphant return to the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway after a seven-year hiatus.
In the closing laps of the 19th NASCAR Cup Series race of the season, Briscoe stayed off the charge of his equally determined Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Christopher Bell, to win for the first time this season, the first time at Chicagoland and the sixth time in his career.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Chicagoland | NASCAR video highlights
Bell‘s pursuit of Briscoe fell short when his No. 20 Toyota tightened up in dirty air on the final lap, allowing Briscoe to power his No. 19 Toyota across the finish line 0.276 seconds ahead of his teammate.
With pole winner Denny Hamlin running third, Joe Gibbs Racing fashioned a 1-2-3 finish for the eighth time in organization history, most recently this season at Nashville Superspeedway. Seven Toyotas finished in the top 10—a high-water mark for the manufacturer in a Cup Series race.
“I feel so American winning in the Bass Pro Shops red, white and blue car, Fourth of July weekend, 250 years,” an elated Briscoe said after climbing from his car. “Man, just what an unbelievable race car. (Crew chief) James (Small) did a great job. Team did a (great) job. Honestly did not see this coming.
“I kind of felt like I was struggling in practice, in qualifying, but James and the group did a great job. Man, just so cool to get this paint scheme back in Victory Lane.”
In the fight for the win, lapped traffic helped Briscoe maintain his edge over Bell.
“I kind of got lucky having lapped cars,” Briscoe said. “I was struggling pretty bad. Christopher was certainly coming. Out of all the people to race against, I knew Christopher was going to be clean with me.
“I thought that was about as good a race as you could get. The cat-and-mouse game, and we were slipping and sliding around. Hopefully, you could see it on TV. So excited to be back in Chicagoland. Hopefully we can be back.”
SHOP: Winner gear
Bell has led 417 laps this season but has posted four runner-up finishes without a win.
“Yeah, it was a great day,” Bell said despite the obvious disappointment of finishing second. “First race with (sponsor) Saia on the Toyota. We almost went to Victory Lane. Yeah, Toyotas are fast. It seems like a monkey can drive them, so it‘s just disappointing when you get beat by another monkey …
“I‘m just a second-place driver. That‘s what I am.”
Fourth-place finisher William Byron held the lead, with Briscoe running second, when Briscoe steered his car to pit road for his final stop on Lap 215 of 267. Byron followed suit a lap later, but the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet lost the lead in the exchange.
Briscoe held the top spot for the final 46 laps, as both Bell and Hamlin passed Byron for position in the closing laps.
“A win would have been awesome,” said Byron, who posted his fourth top-five finish of the season. “We‘ve been craving that for a long time and working really hard to get there. We could kind of taste it there with a couple runs to go.
“We got jumped by the No. 19 (Briscoe) there on that last green flag pit cycle, but I just didn‘t quite have the pace that last run to keep up with him, and then those other guys had fresher tires at the end.”
The final stage ran caution-free from a restart on Lap 172.
Alex Bowman ran fifth, his first top-five result since finishing third at Texas in May. Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Corey Heim and Riley Herbst completed the top 10.
MORE: In-Season Challenge hub
Advancing to the quarterfinals of the In-Season Challenge were Briscoe over Gibbs, Byron over Larson, Bowman over Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott over Michael McDowell, Hamlin over Erik Jones, Bell over Chris Buescher, Todd Gilliland over Carson Hocevar and Blaney over Shane van Gisbergen.
The race featured 28 lead changes among 13 drivers, with Byron leading 91 laps, Briscoe 51, Wallace 35 and Hamlin 30. There were seven cautions for 43 laps.
The In-Season Challenge continues in next Sunday‘s Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Stage 2 recap
William Byron won Stage 2 of Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway, making it a sweep of the first two frames.
Chase Briscoe finished second, Denny Hamlin third, Ty Gibbs fourth and Ryan Blaney fifth. Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric and John Hunter Nemechek completed the top 10 and points earners.
MORE: Stage 2 results | Watch Byron sweep the stages
On Lap 93, just moments into the second frame after a brief repair for a pothole, Kyle Larson went for a single-car spin exiting Turn 4 while running third. He got stuck in the infield grass, and safety crews needed to pull him out, ultimately resulting in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver falling multiple laps down.
The race returned to green-flag conditions on Lap 99 and headed into the longest run of the night, as teams began peeling toward pit road for service. But on Lap 131, Tyler Reddick reportedly ran over a splitter stay from another car in his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, which destroyed his radiator. Fluid began spewing out of his car, forcing a caution as he went behind the wall for repairs.
Reddick fell several laps down, and it marked a significant issue for the fourth time in the last five races for the five-time 2026 winner. He led the series by as many as 129 points after Watkins Glen, but with a power steering issue last weekend at Sonoma, Hamlin took the points lead for the first time all year.
Hamlin had pitted just before the yellow, along with the likes of William Byron, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace. Other contenders like Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell needed to pit as track crews cleaned the racing surface.
Stage 2 ended with a 22-lap green-flag run.
Stage 1 recap
William Byron won Stage 1 of Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway in an 80-lap segment that featured a pair of renewed rivalries.
Kyle Larson finished second, followed by Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe. Chris Buescher, Riley Herbst, Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Tyler Reddick completed the top 10.
MORE: Stage 1 results | Watch Byron capture Stage 1 dub
On the opening lap, Ryan Preece went spinning off Turn 2 after contact from Erik Jones following a stackup. Preece slid in front of rookie Connor Zilisch, who veered left down the backstretch to avoid the crash, but lost control and nosed into the inside wall. The crash marked Zilisch‘s seventh DNF of the season and his fifth over the last seven races. He earned a top 10 last weekend at Sonoma Raceway — the 19-year-old‘s first in Cup competition. He was evaluated and released from the infield care center.
Meanwhile, Preece fell multiple laps down for repairs, losing crucial points as the No. 60 RFK Racing driver entered Sunday 15th in the standings, 13 markers above the provisional Chase cutline.
On Lap 32, Zane Smith bumped Carson Hocevar in Turns 1 and 2, resulting in both drivers contacting the outside wall and causing the second yellow of the evening. Both drivers made their 100th Cup starts on Sunday and faced off in Round 1 of the In-Season Challenge last weekend. They have history, too, dating back to an incident at Iowa Speedway last summer.
For the third caution of the race, Austin Hill crashed in between Turns 3 and 4 after contact from Shane van Gisbergen on Lap 48 — an incident Hill believed was intentional. At both Pocono Raceway on June 14 and Naval Base Coronado on June 21, the drivers were involved in crashes together, with the latter coming during a battle for the lead.
During the caution, Hamlin had a slow pit stop and dropped outside the top 20, but clawed back for stage points. Of note, Cindric stayed out during that yellow and held on with older tires to earn seven key points in his postseason quest.
Note: Inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Briscoe as the Chicagoland winner. The Nos. 11 and 48 will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for teardown inspection.
]]>“I‘m sure y‘all have seen the replay,” Hill said, “so if I have to explain it, people probably need to get glasses.”
Questions about corrective lenses aside, his Richard Childress Racing team had the view that the consequential bump that knocked Hill from Sunday‘s eero 400 was intentional, causing terminal damage to his No. 33 Chevrolet after hard rear-end contact with the outside retaining wall.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Chicagoland | NASCAR video highlights
Hill was out after completing 47 of a scheduled 267 laps, saddled with a 37th-place result and his second DNF in three weeks. Before heading to pit road and eventually the garage, Hill showed his displeasure by sideswiping van Gisbergen‘s No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet under caution.
“I was entering the corner normal,” Hill said. “Everyone blocks everybody‘s air off, right? That‘s the way these Cup cars are. I was just going down to block his air off, and from my standpoint, it just looked like he sped up. So, who knows?”
Van Gisbergen — who continued after the contact to a 25th-place finish — chuckled as he discounted the notion that his contact was retaliation, pointing out Hill‘s role in their run-in while also apologizing for the outcome.
“I was shooting for the bottom, trying to get clean air,” van Gisbergen said post-race. “I was so tight, and he just chopped my nose and got in the wall. So, sorry about that. Sorry to his guys, they‘re always nice people, and it happens.”
Childress, the NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner, said through the No. 33 radio communications that van Gisbergen‘s nudge “was just payback for California,” referring to the crash that Hill caused at the Naval Base Coronado street race in San Diego two weeks ago. On a restart that weekend, Hill slid into SVG teammate Connor Zilisch while battling for the lead, sparking a multicar crash that eliminated both Trackhouse drivers and threw a wrench into van Gisbergen‘s postseason hopes. Additionally, a week earlier at Pocono Raceway, both Hill and SVG were involved in a crash exiting Turn 3 after Hill inadvertently slid up from the bottom racing groove.
Hill, who‘s in the No. 33 Chevrolet for the seventh consecutive week after the death of Kyle Busch, was evaluated and released from the infield care center. After his medical check, Hill said, “I have no idea,” when asked if the contact was retaliation for San Diego.
He was pessimistic about having a productive post-race conversation with his rival. “I don‘t know how much I‘m gonna get out of him,” Hill said.
Van Gisbergen also had low expectations.
“I‘ll talk to him,” Van Gisbergen said, “but he just grunts.”
Contributing: Staff reports
]]>Running 20th at Lap 131 during a pit cycle, Reddick‘s No. 45 23XI Racing machine suddenly went off the pace as fluid began spewing out of his Toyota. A manufacturer spokesperson said that a splitter stay from another car went through the radiator of his car and punctured the oil cooler. Fluid on the racing surface resulted in a caution.
Reddick returned to the race 30 laps down and was ultimately scored in the 36th position. He started Sunday‘s race 13th and finished 10th in the opening frame before the catastrophic issue.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos | NASCAR video highlights
After leading the Cup Series by 129 points after Watkins Glen, Reddick, a five-time winner in 2026, surrendered the top spot for the first time all season last Sunday at Sonoma Raceway. He suffered a power steering issue in Wine Country and lost multiple laps before finishing 36th.
Before that, Reddick contended for the win with teammate Corey Heim at Naval Base Coronado, but cut a tire with two laps to go and finished 25th. Two weeks earlier at Michigan International Speedway, he was involved in a Lap 83 restart crash and finished 35th.
Unofficially, Hamlin leads the Cup Series standings by 44 points after the 23XI bossman finished third at Chicagoland. Since May 10, Reddick has scored 173 fewer points than Hamlin.
“Obviously, the 45 just continues to bleed out here with some bad luck stuff going on or some mechanicals,” Hamlin told TNT Sports. “Once we get that figured out, we‘ll race it out.”
]]>Running in third moments after a restart, Larson lost control in a single-car incident, keeping his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports ride off the Turn 4 wall and coming to rest in the tri-oval ballfield.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Chicagoland | NASCAR video highlights
But due to excess rain in the area, Larson was unable to motor out of the wet grass. Safety trucks came to his assistance and pulled Larson out of the muck with the help of a long tow strap. With four flat Goodyear tires, Larson also needed a push to begin rolling as his Chevrolet was not equipped with an air jack system to assist in similar situations. Larson limped back around the race track to pit road and suffered damage to the underbody of his machine, falling two laps down.
The two-time Cup Series champion could never recover. He took the wave around at the next caution to gain one lap back, but fell another lap down on the final laps of Stage 2. That put him in position for the free pass, but with 63 laps to go, Larson again lost a lap to the leaders and finished 34th.
Entering Sunday‘s race on a streak of four consecutive top-five finishes, Larson‘s winless drought now extends to 43 races, dating back to last spring at Kansas Speedway. He dropped one spot in points to sixth, 181 markers behind series leader Denny Hamlin.
]]>In the first O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series race to require overtime this season, Jones‘ No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota stayed side-by-side with Elliott‘s No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet through the first two corners on the decisive Lap 200 restart.
Jones took control in Turn 3 on the white-flag lap. Elliott made a determined run at the top of the track on the final circuit, but Jones blocked the lane and crossed the finish line 0.171 seconds ahead of the 2020 Cup Series champion.
RELATED: Unofficial results | At-track photos: Chicagoland | NASCAR video highlights
“It‘s been an up-and-down year,” Jones said after climbing from his car. “We had some success early on. We‘ve been in a little rut the last couple weeks, so it‘s just nice to do it like we did today. We had to earn that one.”
The victory was Jones‘ first at Chicagoland (which hosted its first race since 2019), his first of the 2026 season and the eighth of his career, and he achieved it by outrunning an elite Cup Series driver.
“I think it says a lot about how resilient we are and how hard we‘re working out there,” Jones said. “Chase made it really difficult on me. He‘s one of the best in the sport. We were on old tires, and that was a blast, sliding around and dueling it out like that.”
Elliott chose the top lane for the final restart and didn‘t get the push he needed from third-place finisher Jesse Love, the culprit being well-worn tires.
“I don‘t think that was why we lost by any means,” Elliott said. “I know he was planning on giving me a good push … We ended up kind of having the momentum going the wrong way into Turn 3. I tried to drive in way hard and got myself super tight.
“Credit to Brandon. He did a good job. He had a good restart, stayed side-by-side through 1 and 2 and had the momentum going his way into Turn 3. I got myself in a bad spot and paid the price.”
Austin Hill finished fifth behind Love and rookie Brent Crews.
For JGR teammates Crews and Taylor Gray, the race was eminently productive in the battle for positions in the postseason Chase. Gray led 55 laps — second only to Elliott‘s 78 — and ended the evening seventh in the race and 11th in the standings with a 52-point cushion above the current Chase cutline.
Crews is 12th, the final Chase-eligible position, with a 44-point margin over teammate William Sawalich, the first driver below the current cutoff.
But Sawalich was seething after contact from Crews‘ front bumper sent him spinning through the infield grass on Lap 165 of a planned 200 to cause the fifth of seven cautions. Sawalich finished 29th and faces an uphill battle with only four races left before The Chase field is set.
With qualifying canceled in favor of practice after rain wiped out O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series practice on Friday, Connor Zilisch started on the pole via the NASCAR Rule Book after a rain delay of more than four hours. He led the first stage wire-to-wire, finishing 4.935 seconds ahead of second-place Love.
Under caution, however, Zilisch‘s No. 1 JRM Chevrolet ran out of fuel and had to be pushed to pit road. Zilisch restarted Stage 2 in 26th place and climbed to ninth by the end of the stage on Lap 90.
Elliott was first off pit road during the first stage break and held the top spot through the end of Stage 2.
Zilisch‘s rotten luck continued after the break. He cut a tire after contact with the outside wall and started from the back once again, only to spin on Lap 156 and repeat the process. For a third time, he climbed through the field to finish 10th.
Justin Allgaier, Zilisch‘s JRM teammate, had a similarly adventurous night. Allgaier started 17th and charged to fourth by the end of Stage 2. But a safety violation on pit road for an improperly uniformed crew member sent him to the rear for a restart at Lap 100.
Allgaier rallied to finish sixth and leaves Chicagoland with a 195-point series lead over second-place Love.
MORE: O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series standings
Behind Allgaier and Gray, Sam Mayer, Cole Custer and Zilisch completed the top 10. With Elliott, Allgaier and Zilisch in the top 10, JRM extended its streak of placing at least one car in the top 10 to 77 consecutive races, two short of RFK Racing‘s series record, set from 2008 through 2010.
The O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series moves to EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta for next Saturday‘s Focused Health 250 (7 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: Inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage, confirming Jones as the Chicagoland winner. The Nos. 0 and 54 each had one lug nut not safe and secure, resulting in a loss of pit selection at EchoPark. Additionally, the Nos. 54, 88 and 99 will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for teardown inspection.
Location: Joliet, Illinois
Track length: 1.5 miles
When: 6 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 267 laps | 400.5 miles
Segments: 80 | 165 | 267
Sunday‘s starting lineup | Pit-stall assignments
Veterans, first-timers share new-car feel in Chicagoland‘s rebirth
JOLIET, Ill. — Coming back to Chicagoland Speedway for the first time since 2019 has felt in some ways familiar. The trappings of race tracks that sprang up in the late 1990s and early aughts are all still here, and many of the faces that starred in the track‘s first era are still stars during its rebirth.
Several Chicagoland memories have been replayed — the Kyle Busch crying-eyes meme, the Tropicana orange invasion, the Victory Lane slimings — in the buildup to Sunday‘s revival, but many other facets of big-league stock-car racing have changed in the years since. Three organizations — 23XI, Trackhouse and Kaulig — didn‘t exist as Cup teams back in 2019, and the current-generation Cup Series car that bowed in 2022 is a radical shift from its on-track predecessor.
MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos | NASCAR video highlights
Nostalgia notwithstanding, there‘s plenty of reason for drivers to approach Sunday‘s eero 400 as a new race at a new venue on the schedule after three years of racing on Chicago‘s downtown streets. It‘s also another moment for the In-Season Challenge — another feature that wasn‘t around in 2019 — with 16 drivers moving into the second round of the second-annual tournament.
With the degree of newness comes a measure of mystery. Of the 38 drivers in the field Sunday, 21 of them have Cup Series starts at Chicagoland. Those Joliet veterans, however, say that their experience in the track‘s previous era may not tip the performance scales in their favor.
“I definitely thought coming into this, past experiences would matter,” 23XI‘s Tyler Reddick said before qualifying 13th Saturday. “I mean it‘s just one sample of it and that was yesterday‘s practice, but just based off yesterday, I would say past experience doesn‘t matter quite nearly as much as I thought it was going to. I remember coming here in an O‘Reilly (Auto Parts Series) car, and lots of (tire) fall-off, having to move around. I‘m sure they‘re experiencing that right now, but just by nature, how different the Cup car can be kind of showed itself a bit yesterday.”
While there are comparable 1.5-mile tracks, the idiosyncrasies of each one present distinct challenges. The bumps from the original, sealed-up asphalt surface remain, but those quirks have hit differently with the Next Gen racer. A sizable drop in Turn 1 has unsettled several cars in practice and qualifying, and another dip through Turns 3 and 4 has provided another series of character marks. Finding reference points elsewhere on the Cup schedule has been a speedway scavenger hunt.
“No, because it‘s like really smooth, and then it‘s just the biggest slam that I think we have, and then you‘re smooth again,” said Carson Hocevar, who was 16 years old when NASCAR last visited here and who connected Chicagoland‘s traits to everything from the rough San Diego street-course runways to the treacherous portions of Texas.
In the short span of the first weekend back so far, several trends have already emerged. Cup Series drivers were reluctant to be the first to test the higher lanes in Friday‘s 50-minute practice, but the groove widened upward once O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series cars ventured that direction in Saturday‘s preliminary sessions, hinting at more of the same in Sunday‘s main event.
MORE: Goodyear tire notes: Chicagoland
The other trend was speed from the Cup Series points leader as Denny Hamlin secured the top starting spot for the fourth consecutive oval race. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver was one of three who participated in a Goodyear tire test here in April, with fellow front-runners Ryan Blaney and defending champ Kyle Larson joining him.
That experience might not tilt the playing field. Same goes for the experience from the first Chicagoland incarnation.
“I‘ve been here a lot through the years, and that being said, going out there in this car after that long, felt like the first time,” said RFK Racing‘s Chris Buescher, who made four Chicagoland starts from 2016-19. “Yes, I knew the bump into (Turn) 1 is big and has that big moment. I knew the roughness in (Turns) 3 and 4 was going to be there, but I‘m still relearning where it‘s all at and what this car does with it. So, is there an advantage there? Probably not a ton. Denny pointed out, even from the test here, there‘s a couple cars that did a test, and you‘d think that they would have a big advantage, and they may have for about five laps, but ultimately stuff changes really quick and everybody‘s going to figure it out rather quickly.”
In the details …
The Cup Series schedule has made four trips to 1.5-mile tracks this season, excluding the same-length EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta and its superspeedway-hybrid style of racing. The intermediate-sized circuits have been a leading indicator for teams‘ overall performance, but success at this specific track type doesn‘t necessarily correlate to stature in the Cup Series standings.
Another 1.5-mile layout arrives Sunday in Chicagoland, and there‘s a level of uncertainty looming, given the track‘s seven-year absence from the schedule. Here‘s a look at top performers on 1.5-mile tracks this year and their points placement heading into Sunday‘s showdown:
| Driver | Average finish | Points position |
|---|---|---|
| Denny Hamlin | 2.5 | 1st |
| Tyler Reddick | 5.5 | 2nd |
| William Byron | 6.8 | 12th |
| Brad Keselowski | 11.0 | 18th |
| Daniel Suárez | 11.0 | 9th |
| Bubba Wallace | 11.3 | 13th |
Speed reads
Race-day essentials:
• Chicagoland hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: Navigating the nuances, tires and strategy in Chicagoland | Read more
• Revisiting greatness: A look back at Kyle Busch‘s 2018 triumph in Joliet | Read more
• In-Season Challenge: Bracket, format, schedule and more for Round 2 | Read more
• Analysis: Predictors, expectations abound in Chicagoland‘s return | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh at-track looks for Sunday‘s 400-miler | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: A glimpse inside the Remote Race Control center | Listen now
• NASCAR Classics: Reminisce with full-race replays from Chicagoland | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Bell looking for a spark after Sonoma | This week‘s ranks
Despite 19 prior races on the 1.5-mile oval dating back to 2001, the Cup Series has never raced at the Joliet speedway with its Next Gen car. That alone provides an extra challenge to crew chiefs ahead of Sunday‘s eero 400 (6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
MORE: Starting lineup | At-track photos | NASCAR video highlights
All 38 teams received 50 minutes of practice on Friday afternoon, but three cars came with some semblance of a reference point. Chris Gayle, crew chief of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and driver Denny Hamlin, got a step forward with a two-day tire test at Chicagoland in late April, earning extra laps along with the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team and No. 12 Team Penske group.
“It‘s not huge, but it is an advantage, right?” Gayle told NASCAR.com on Saturday. “You get a leg up on where the place is. You get to try a few more things than what you would have tried in a 50-minute practice session, right? So our notebook for, ‘OK, we need to do this many things in practice and hustle through‘ is a little different than other guys. And then it gives you a baseline setting for, OK, I think this is where I need to come back.
“But a lot of cars that get on the race track and start laying rubber down, and that kind of always shifts your target for balance where you need to be compared to the test, and so that‘s always still a little bit of a guess and not gonna be fully fixed for you. But it helps. And then the driver obviously has a lot of experience here, but it‘s been a while, so it kind of refreshes (Hamlin) on what to expect on the first few laps versus some of these other guys that you hear them on the radios, like, ‘oh my gosh, it‘s so rough. This is terrible.‘ He‘s already tuned in and ready for that.”
Those bumps may create the most unique test this weekend. Other 1.5-mile tracks on the circuit feature worn pavement, but seven years of unraced asphalt mixed with the age of seven Chicagoland summers and winters have given the track‘s aging pavement years of character development that would make any Hollywood director proud.
“I think the bumps are really aggressive,” Gayle said. “Particularly, two different styles, right? There‘s basically a big spike bump in (Turns) 3 and 4 at the tunnel, which has a huge amplitude. And then Turn 1 is a little different, where it‘s got kind of a longer duration of bumps, but a lot higher frequency on the way in. So I think you get the variety of everything. It feels rough in general everywhere, and there are big seams and cracks, and they‘ve had to fill a lot of that.”
Rudy Fugle, crew chief of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and driver William Byron, described that variety of bumps through Turns 1 and 2 as “ripple bumps” and “washboard bumps.” There is a particular section of bumps at the end of the frontstretch, though, that has caught Fugle‘s eye.
“The bump into Turn 1, which has been there forever, it‘s a patch. But now it‘s a launch point,” Fugle told NASCAR.com. “You almost take off. It reminds me of a little bit of San Diego, where some of us were airborne. I know the cars aren‘t airborne, but the car gets super, super light through there, so it‘s a big, big jump.”
That added texture places responsibility on the crew chief, who must set up the car for smooth straights and various track surfaces throughout each 1.5-mile lap.
“You have to make the car ride over the bumps and not hit the race track in different ways,” Fugle said. “There‘s bumps here that the car bottoms out, and actually the bottom of the car hits the track. There‘s plenty of bumps where you hit the (shock) stop limiters that we talk about all the time, and that‘s a ride-quality thing we try to find. It‘s a fine line. We try to be on one side or the other of that, but we‘re right on the edge of it.”
With added track texture comes the question of tire wear. Fugle said the tire wear he observed in Friday‘s session didn‘t deviate much from other mile-and-a-half tracks on the circuit like Kansas Speedway or Texas Motor Speedway, with Gayle noting “it‘ll be Charlotte-ish.” But how they manage eight new sets of Goodyear tires throughout a 267-lap race will help dictate the outcome Sunday — particularly in a rash of quick cautions.
“I will be surprised if you get 20, 25 laps in, if there‘s any varying strategies,” Gayle said. “I think you‘re going to want tires and you‘re probably going to want four at that point. I just am curious about running out of tires, maybe. Like, you would want them every time you get cautions, and I think that‘s just going to be about those cautions, right? If you get the quick cautions that are only two or three laps on tires on a restart, then everybody‘s safe. It‘s when you get those every 15 laps that you could ultimately be short on tires.”
MORE: Cup Series standings
That particular fear may be every crew chief‘s nightmare.
“Whenever the cautions come out every 10 laps, you‘re scared to death,” Fugle said. “The five-lap cautions are, they‘re kind of fun because you have the opportunity to trade and get ahead of something. If you pit (after) the five laps, it‘s probably not advised, but if you get another one in five laps, everybody in front of you is going to pit, and then you get to stay, so some of those are fun. But when you get to 10, 12, 15 laps on tires and you stack those, you get really scared.”
But how long will tires last on a given run? That answer may change between Friday‘s practice and Sunday‘s checkered flag.
“At most of these intermediates, we would see cords in 35 laps,” Gayle said. “I don‘t think anybody ran that long (in practice) with the number of tires we had yesterday. Somebody I thought ran 29 or 30, but I never heard of any cords or anything. But again, we‘re going to need to go 40, 42, laps in the race, maybe a little longer (with) Stage 3 going green. I think it‘ll be OK by then, but for as abrasive as it is, I think it‘s more about the bumps and handling those because the fall-off isn‘t all that different than a Kansas or anywhere else.”
]]>With this serving as the first race for the Next Gen car at Chicagoland, expect drivers to face challenges from the track‘s aged and bumpy nature while navigating multiple grooves from the bottom to ripping the fence. Several drivers need a strong showing at a crucial point in Sunday‘s eero 400 (6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), as just eight regular-season races remain.
RELATED: Starting lineup | Saturday recap
With no on-track action at Chicagoland in the last seven years, could experience at the 1.5-mile Illinois track be key to reaching Victory Lane? Here‘s a look at other drivers to keep an eye on, as well as the full projected results for Sunday‘s Cup Series race.
DRIVERS TO WATCH
KYLE LARSON: With his winless streak reaching 42 races entering Chicagoland, this feels like the perfect opportunity for the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to return to Victory Lane. The defending Cup Series champion has led laps in the last 12 of 13 races on 1.5-mile tracks. Larson is also riding some momentum lately, with five top-five finishes in the last six Cup Series races. After qualifying second for Sunday‘s race, look for Larson to contend for the win.
TYLER REDDICK: Only 21 Cup Series drivers have made a start at the premier level at Chicagoland. Reddick, however, is not one of them. The 23XI Racing driver last competed at the 1.5-mile Illinois track in 2019 in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, finishing ninth. Despite not having Chicagoland Cup Series experience, don‘t expect that to slow Reddick down. The driver of the No. 45 Toyota has five top 10s in the last six races on 1.5-mile tracks. He also has an average running position of 5.16 on these tracks this year, ranking second behind polesitter and bossman Denny Hamlin. Reddick qualified 13th for the eero 400, but paced 10-, 15-, 20- and 25-lap averages in practice. Expect the No. 45 Toyota to be a factor on Sunday.
RYAN BLANEY: After six consecutive top 10s, Blaney comes to Joliet on a summer heater. The Team Penske driver very well could pick up his seventh straight top-10 finish on Sunday. He has two top 10s at Chicagoland in four career Cup Series starts, and his average finish of 9.8 here is his best among all 1.5-mile tracks. Rolling off the grid in 14th, the No. 12 Ford should lead the charge again for the Captain‘s organization.
MORE: Chicagoland photos | What to Watch: Chicagoland | NASCAR video highlights
FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR EERO 400 (6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports)
| FINISH | CAR NUMBER | DRIVER |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | Denny Hamlin |
| 2 | 5 | Kyle Larson |
| 3 | 9 | Chase Elliott |
| 4 | 24 | William Byron |
| 5 | 12 | Ryan Blaney |
| 6 | 17 | Chris Buescher |
| 7 | 45 | Tyler Reddick |
| 8 | 23 | Bubba Wallace |
| 9 | 6 | Brad Keselowski |
| 10 | 54 | Ty Gibbs |
| 11 | 20 | Christopher Bell |
| 12 | 19 | Chase Briscoe |
| 13 | 67 | Corey Heim |
| 14 | 7 | Daniel Suárez |
| 15 | 43 | Erik Jones |
| 16 | 48 | Alex Bowman |
| 17 | 60 | Ryan Preece |
| 18 | 77 | Carson Hocevar |
| 19 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger |
| 20 | 1 | Ross Chastain |
| 21 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 22 | 3 | Austin Dillon |
| 23 | 2 | Austin Cindric |
| 24 | 38 | Zane Smith |
| 25 | 71 | Michael McDowell |
| 26 | 22 | Joey Logano |
| 27 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek |
| 28 | 33 | Austin Hill |
| 29 | 35 | Riley Herbst |
| 30 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen |
| 31 | 10 | Ty Dillon |
| 32 | 34 | Todd Gilliland |
| 33 | 88 | Connor Zilisch |
| 34 | 4 | Noah Gragson |
| 35 | 21 | Josh Berry |
| 36 | 41 | Cole Custer |
| 37 | 51 | Cody Ware |
| 38 | 44 | JJ Yeley |
]]>
RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos | NASCAR video highlights
The No. 71 Chevrolet failed three times before passing on its fourth try. Consequently, driver Michael McDowell was not permitted to attempt a qualifying lap and will forfeit pit-stall selection. He‘ll start Sunday‘s eero 400 (6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) from 38th and will also serve a pass-through penalty upon the green flag. Additionally, car chief Travis Young has been ejected for the remainder of the race weekend.
The No. 5 Chevrolet, driven by defending series champion Kyle Larson, failed inspection twice before passing on its third try. As a result, the team also lost pit-stall selection, and car chief Jesse Saunders was ejected for the remainder of the race weekend. Larson qualified second for the 400-miler.
McDowell enters the weekend with consecutive top-10 finishes at Naval Base Coronado and Sonoma Raceway, and sits 21st in points — 32 markers behind the provisional Chase cutline. Larson is fifth in points and finished runner-up in each of the series‘ last two visits to the 1.5-mile track in 2018 and 2019.
]]>“Yeah, I was down bad,” Blaney said Friday, five days later. “I was down bad. Your boy was struggling.”
Blaney gutted out a sixth-place finish last weekend at Sonoma, visiting the track‘s care center post-race for fluids after exiting his No. 12 Team Penske Ford. He arrives this weekend at a revived Chicagoland Speedway in better health, riding a consistent streak into Sunday‘s eero 400 (6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Blaney said when he flipped on his driver-cooling suit after Stage 1 of last weekend‘s event, the system malfunctioned. Cycling through and resetting it didn‘t work. As the cool suit‘s fluid warmed, his No. 12 crew handed him a pressure-filled tool during a pit stop to help him flush the system. The race, however, stayed under mostly green-flag conditions the rest of the way, and Blaney didn‘t have much chance for a water-bottle break as he navigated the intricate road course at speed.
RELATED: Chicagoland schedule
Blaney tried to stash the tool in a small compartment inside the driver‘s door, but it rattled loose to the floorboard — “into the abyss,” he said. Then leg cramps cropped up with 20 laps left, especially in his left calf entering the Turn 11 hairpin.
“I haven‘t had that in a while, and like the worst place to cramp is your left calf at a road course, and I was happy I didn‘t run off anywhere,” Blaney said. “But we got through it, and the AMR (medical) folks were great. They were at me really quick and got me fixed up after, so appreciate them for responding really quick from when I needed them. I think we diagnosed the problem, so that was good that we found the gremlin and were able to fix it, so hopefully it doesn‘t happen again.”
Blaney has equaled a career-best streak of six consecutive top-10 finishes heading into Sunday‘s 400-miler, the first event of the season‘s second half. He‘s also heading into a potentially opportune time to heat up — his last two summers have been marked by multirace performance spikes, and 11 of his 18 career Cup Series wins have arrived in the back half of the season.
Other bellwethers are a little less favorable. Ford is winless in the last 14 Cup Series races, dating back to his March 8 victory at Penske stronghold Phoenix Raceway. Ford drivers have also managed just one top-five result in the four events on 1.5-mile tracks in 2026, and Team Penske has weathered the last 10 races without a top-five finish — its longest dry spell since 2008.
Blaney has stayed steady through the season‘s first half, slotting him third in the Cup standings but still 100-plus points behind Toyota drivers Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick, the campaign‘s front-runners. Before his top-10 streak began, Blaney was 162 points off the top, but now stands 104 points back of Hamlin, the new series leader.
Just eight races remain until the 16-driver Chase field is determined, and there‘s more ground to gain to fulfill Blaney‘s aspirations of claiming the Regular Season Championship and the advantageous No. 1 seed. Difficult but doable is how he sees it.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
“You never know,” Blaney said after Friday‘s practice. “I don‘t know. You can see big, big swings week to week. Denny was able to do it off of really, really good performance, and tons and tons of points winning races. I think the 45 (Reddick) might have had a little bit of trouble while he was winning. Like, Michigan was a big one, then like in our case, we just kind of banged out some top 10s. Those guys had some problems, and we cut down a lot of points in the last just two weeks. So, you never know. We just try to focus on us. Like, I look at the points, but I don‘t study it methodically. I kind of look at it a few times through the week to remind myself where we‘re at, and just try to put together the best weekend.
“So you never know, the last couple months could get interesting, and we just try to get better week in, week out, and you never know where that stuff could go. So I‘d say it‘s not out of the question, but it‘s going to be really, really hard to achieve.”
Blaney made four Chicagoland starts in Cup Series competition before the track was temporarily shuttered after the 2019 season, but he‘s among a handful of drivers with recent experience here. Blaney joined Hamlin and defending Cup champion Kyle Larson in participating in a Goodyear tire test in April, and those laps may prove to be beneficial.
“They helped,” Blaney said. “Give us a little bit of a … I wouldn‘t say head-start, but we were able to come here and learn for two days. Then as a driver, for me, up to speed a little bit faster of how to approach the race track. So, I hope it helps. We‘ll see come Sunday.”
]]>RFK Racing team co-owner and driver Brad Keselowski said Friday at Chicagoland Speedway he believes the manufacturer has earned its flowers. But he also sees lessons Ford and Chevrolet can learn from what a rival Original Equipment Manufacturer is accomplishing behind the scenes.
With 10 weekly entries from Team Penske, RFK Racing, Front Row Motorsports and Wood Brothers Racing, Ford has combined for just one points-paying win this year, courtesy of Penske‘s Ryan Blaney at Phoenix Raceway in March. Ford will get a new body on the race track in 2027 via its Mustang Dark Horse SC, but no body updates can be made until then.
RELATED: Chicagoland schedule
In Keselowski‘s opinion, “dramatic” rules changes made in the last decade have altered the NASCAR paradigm, specifically as engineering responsibilities pivoted from the teams to the manufacturers, creating “a tremendous dynamic shift in the sport” triggered after Furniture Row Racing‘s alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing led to a 2017 championship followed by a departure from the sport after the 2018 campaign.
“So the rules and all the things behind the scenes got altered and pushed in such a way as to prevent that from possibly happening again, and I think that‘s where they are right now,” Keselowski said. “The unintended consequences, whether that was second-order or third-order effect, is you created this stalemate of organizations. And the OEMs all either consciously or subconsciously decided who their favorite was because they had to — or felt like they had to. And I think you‘ve seen that now with how the last six or seven seasons have played out where it‘s the top organization at each OEM.”
Today, Toyota is excelling above its counterparts, notably through the performance of Joe Gibbs Racing‘s four-car operation and an alliance shared with 23XI Racing, sharing 11 wins this year among four drivers. Other manufacturers‘ lead programs share alliances, such as Chevrolet‘s Hendrick Motorsports with Spire Motorsports and Ford‘s Team Penske with Wood Brothers Racing. But those partnerships haven‘t produced the same results as Toyota‘s.
“What‘s become unique, I think, over the last two or three years specifically is — and I‘ll give a lot of credit to Toyota for this — is they‘ve recognized that that stalemate is not necessarily good for the sport or for them as an OEM,” Keselowski said. “And they‘ve done a lot of things to push elite collaboration amongst their top organizations so that they have, for reference, two ‘A‘ organizations, rather than an ‘A,‘ ‘B‘ and ‘C.‘ As I‘ve seen to date, the other OEMs have not done that, and Toyota is making them pay for that with results on the race track. They deserve credit for that.
“The challenge that I see is: Will the other two OEMs actually react to that? I haven‘t seen that at the moment. I think RFK is doing all the things it needs to do to position itself to be successful if that were to happen, particularly in the Ford camp. But at this point we have not seen the level of collaboration at Ford that we see at Toyota, and it creates challenges for the program. And I have not seen from the outside — I‘m not inside Chevrolet — the same things there. So we‘re having one of these seasons where it looks like Toyota is going to dominate throughout, and there‘s a great argument to be made that they‘re winning races in the boardroom with really great decision-making.”
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RFK Racing and Penske, both of which are three-car operations, sit atop the pecking order in Ford Racing, though Penske has been considered the manufacturer‘s most successful outfit with championships in four of the last eight NASCAR Cup Series seasons. If the information among Ford‘s top teams could be shared equally the way Keselowski believes it should, he sees a path in which the rising tide could lift Ford‘s boats.
“In my mind, at least, I think the burden is on the OEMs and the decision-makers at the highest of levels that want their programs to be successful in NASCAR to react accordingly within the rules,” Keselowski said. “And there‘s means and measures to do that. As it works its way specifically into RFK, I think we‘ve proven our merit. We have three teams that are in a position that I‘m proud of. Are we winning races every week? No. We only have one win this season in the non-points-paying race with the Clash. But we continue to show that we have, I think, the organization to push to that next level, given the right opportunities. And I‘m really proud of that.”
The team isn‘t going anywhere any time soon, Keselowski said, as he confirmed RFK Racing has a long-term contract in place with Ford Motor Company.
“We‘re committed to that. We want to be successful with them,” he said. “We‘re hopeful that we can continue to innovate with them to this next level. We‘re in a lull right now that we don‘t want to be in. Ford doesn‘t want to be in the same lull — I feel pretty safe in saying that. The onus is on us to step it up and figure it out.”
]]>At least twice before — after wins at Bristol Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen International — “Rowdy” had gleefully pantomimed the supposed tears of the detractors who were resigned to his inevitability.
But this time was different — and not only because it became perhaps the defining episode of Busch being cast in the role of NASCAR‘s greatest villain.
Walking down the banking while clutching the checkered flag from a slam-bang win over Kyle Larson at Chicagoland Speedway, Busch removed his headsock and stopped to mug directly into an NBC camera. He rubbed his left eye with the poutiest of faces before flinging away his earbuds in a dramatic flourish.
The scene was captured for a live national TV audience of millions who watched a classic GIF being born in real time.
While it‘s a quintessential moment in the colorful career of a captivating champion whose polarizing personality always commanded the main stage, there was also something unique about this turn as the bad guy.
Of all the iconic instances in which Busch is remembered for playing the heel, this was among the least performative. The crying eyes gesture hardly required an acting job.
RELATED: In loving memory of Kyle Busch
Busch was channeling his authentic disappointment at the perceived lack of appreciation that thousands showed for the enthralling series of haymakers just traded by two Hall of Fame-level talents.
In a failed attempt at a “slide job” (a dirt-racing maneuver involving out-braking to gain a spot), Kyle Larson drove into the side of Busch and then into the lead on the backstretch. Busch repaid the contact in the last turn and reclaimed the position for the win.
Epic stuff.
Yet a familiar chorus of boos still erupted as Busch triumphantly exited his No. 18 Toyota.
“When you put on a great show and have a really fun time being able to do everything as hard as you can to try to win a Cup Series race, for as hard as they are to win, it would certainly be nice to have some appreciation for putting on a good show for those fans,” he would later say. “When the boos are raining down on you in that moment, it certainly doesn‘t make you feel good about yourself or what you just did, and so you sometimes aren‘t thinking straight or clearly in those moments.”
His interview in the immediate aftermath underscored the genuine befuddlement with the negative reaction to a final lap destined to be replayed for eternity.
“I don‘t know what you are all whining about, but if you don‘t like that kind of racing, don‘t even watch,” Busch said with a dismissive wave of his right hand that he followed by later blowing a kiss to the crowd. “Pretty cool going to Victory Lane.”
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
When he got there several minutes later, the next interview revealed he was still hung up on the crowd‘s reaction.
“My fans, they‘re pretty passionate, they‘re pretty powerful for what we got going on with Rowdy Nation,” he said. “The rest of them, I don‘t know what they‘re booing about. That was a hell of a race. You got problems if you don‘t like that.”
Of course, Busch could understand their reaction because he often was the one who stoked it over two decades and 234 wins in NASCAR‘s top three national series.
Among stars who were comfortable and secure enough to wear the black hat, he was unequaled at effortlessly embracing the opportunity.
Smashing a guitar in Victory Lane at Nashville Superspeedway … literally dropping a mic in the Charlotte Motor Speedway media center … giving a sarcastic thumbs up in a post-Bristol Motor Speedway care center interview.
The visuals are among the many reasons Busch was the “Most GIF-able Driver in NASCAR History.”
As he once put it, “people are obsessed with everything I do.”
And on July 1, 2018, there was ample reason to be mesmerized.
What‘s forgotten about Busch‘s win at Chicagoland is how unlikely it was.
He qualified 16th, failed to score a point in either stage and hardly factored until seizing control to lead the final 59 laps. On a scorching summer day, crew chief Adam Stevens was struck by how, “given how poor our car was,” Busch stayed focused on improving by giving strong feedback without giving up.
“We missed it all weekend,” Stevens said. “But he‘s a one-in-a-million talent. The sport hasn‘t seen too many people with his level of talent. To get the chance to win races with him is what every little boy dreams about.”
Even the runner-up was somewhat in awe of the finish.
“I love racing Kyle,” Larson said. “I know all you fans are probably mad at him, but hey, we put on a hell of a show for you guys. That was a blast. That‘s got to be one of the best NASCAR finishes of all time.”
Maybe it‘s also the way to reinterpret Busch‘s gesture eight years later.
Cry your eyes out, fans.
You witnessed greatness … before it was gone.
]]>And, of course, nobody has run Chicagoland in a Next Gen car yet, until now.
RELATED: Chicagoland schedule | Cup standings
In other words, this is basically a brand-new track for the majority of drivers in the Cup Series. A few weeks ago, we dove into who does the best at learning new tracks, so go read that if you want to know about the “quickest studies” in the sport ahead of an unfamiliar test. But this week, we wanted to focus on the particulars and attributes of the track itself to re-familiarize ourselves with NASCAR‘s latest return to a track that was previously on hiatus.
Let‘s start with a snapshot of how Chicagoland tended to compare with other intermediate tracks during its original run from 2001 to 2019:
When we judge Chicagoland against its fellow intermediate cousins, we see that it was relatively middle-of-the-road in many regards. The polesitter did slightly better than average, and there were slightly more lead changes per lap than the typical standard oval. At the same time, the favorite did slightly worse than average here — though nowhere near a Daytona/Talladega level, or, among intermediates, Pocono or Texas — and the long-term projected quality of the winner was slightly worse than the average track. There were also slightly fewer cautions per lap, and a lot fewer laps spent under caution as a share of the race (indicating longer green-flag runs than typical intermediates).
The main outliers, though, were about how winners tended to get to the checkered flag. The average Driver Rating for winners within the race itself (129.2) was lower than 83% of all other intermediate tracks, meaning a winning driver was not necessarily a dominant driver. And relatedly, the eventual winner‘s average starting position on the grid (14.6) was worse than any other intermediate of the era except Rockingham (14.7). That means the winner often needed to make their way from deeper in the field to the front of the pack than on the average oval — early-race track position was less important than usual.
This means the traditional book on Chicagoland, which emphasizes managing tires over the long run — and other tactical considerations like fuel-saving (see Tony Stewart, 2011) and pit calls — should reign supreme again this week. A fast car is nice, and so is clean air up front. But the winner tends to come from relative obscurity throughout most of the day, getting to the front at the end through a combination of smart strategy and timely passing, using the multiple grooves of the track to win late. (Or maybe just a timely slide job like in the Kyle-and-Kyle show from 2018.)
In that sense, this track also drew easy comparisons with Homestead — few other places let you run so close to the fence throughout the corner. But as a high-tire-wear mile-and-a-half track, Chicagoland also rates as similar to Kansas and, to a lesser extent, Darlington, Las Vegas, Charlotte and Texas.
And I happen to have a system that, for each track, measures an average of recent Driver Ratings at similar tracks for any given stop on the schedule, weighted toward more recent results at more similar tracks. Putting the greatest emphasis on recent results at Homestead and Kansas, with some additional consideration paid to the other tracks mentioned above, here are the best (and worst) projected drivers at Chicagoland, particularly relative to their typical performance at all tracks:
Unsurprisingly, Denny Hamlin, the king of intermediates — and the king of tire management and fuel saving — should be the best at Chicagoland as well. (He‘s also won here before, so Denny has the experience factor on his side, too.) Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick, two more of the most talented mile-and-a-half merchants in the sport, ought to also be among your favorites. But one driver who might not be is Ryan Blaney — he doesn‘t tend to do quite as well as usual at this type of track, at least not recently.
The real drivers who are set to do worse here, though, are your usual road-course specialists — Shane van Gisbergen, Michael McDowell, Connor Zilisch — plus Ty Gibbs, Joey Logano and Ross Chastain, all of whom do worse at similar tracks than we‘d expect from their overall résumé.
And what implications might all of this have for the In-Season Challenge, now in its Round of 16? Here are the weekend‘s matchups, compared according to projected Driver Ratings at Chicagoland:
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
Unsurprisingly, the matchups featuring seeded favorites Hamlin, Blaney and Chase Elliott look lopsided by this accounting. (Even a less-good-than-usual Blaney against an improving-on-ovals van Gisbergen is a matchup tilted heavily toward the No. 12 Penske car.) A few other battles look like they are fairly even matchups on paper, or could at least be highly compelling to watch — such as Larson vs. William Byron, Christopher Bell vs. Chris Buescher and Chase Briscoe vs. Ty Gibbs.
And then there‘s No. 32 seed Alex Bowman, fresh off toppling top overall seed Tyler Reddick, facing No. 16 seed Austin Cindric in a matchup where the No. 48 Chevrolet could have a very real chance to grab another upset and, for the second straight year, power the 32nd seed through Round 2.
Seven years is a long time in NASCAR, of course. The cars are different, the drivers are different and the standings format is different. But if Chicagoland‘s historical tendencies hold, the winner will probably come from somewhere other than the front of the field for much of the day — and he‘ll probably get there by being smarter than everybody else.
]]>While the entire right side of the bracket was chalk at Sonoma Raceway, the left side featured three upsets — including top-seeded Tyler Reddick losing to No. 32 Alex Bowman after an early mechanical issue. To add insult to injury, Reddick lost the series points lead for the first time all season. No. 25 Todd Gilliland also upset No. 8 Daniel Suárez despite finishing outside the top 25, and crafty road racer Michael McDowell defeated No. 13 Bubba Wallace. Three of the 16 Round 1 matchups were decided by two spots or fewer.
This week features a handful of matchups between heavy hitters that could ultimately make or break your bracket. Chicagoland certainly has unknowns from sitting dormant for seven years, but generally, expect the cream to rise to the top just like a typical intermediate race.
RELATED: Check your bracket! | In-Season Challenge hub
ROUND 2 MATCHUPS:
- (No. 2) Denny Hamlin vs. (No. 15) Erik Jones
- (No. 3) Ryan Blaney vs. (No. 14) Shane van Gisbergen
- (No. 4) Chase Elliott vs. (No. 20) Michael McDowell
- (No. 5) Ty Gibbs vs. (No. 12) Chase Briscoe
- (No. 6) Kyle Larson vs. (No. 11) William Byron
- (No. 7) Chris Buescher vs. (No. 10) Christopher Bell
- (No. 9) Carson Hocevar vs. (No. 25) Todd Gilliland
- (No. 16) Austin Cindric vs. (No. 32) Alex Bowman
TRACK BREAKDOWN
It‘s difficult to predict exactly how Chicagoland will play out, but expect significant tire conservation efforts. The revived speedway features its original racing surface since opening in 2001, and Cup Series teams will have 12 sets of Goodyear rubber for the weekend.
Races where tires are at a premium tend to favor veteran drivers, so look no further than Denny Hamlin. He‘s the best remaining seed and faces No. 15 Erik Jones, who‘s on an upswing over the summer months. But Hamlin has a whopping 2.5 average finish on intermediates this season with an average running position of 3.89. Hamlin also participated in a Goodyear tire test at Chicagoland this spring with Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney. And speaking of Larson, he owns the best average finish in six starts at the track (6.17), with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott right behind him (8.75) in four starts.
Sunday could be busy on pit road over 267 laps, but all trends seem to favor Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. 23XI Racing should also be strong, but none of the Hamlin-co-owned cars remain in the bracket.
MATCHUP OF THE WEEK: (No. 6) Kyle Larson vs. (No. 11) William Byron
This matchup has some serious star power, and yeah, they‘re teammates, too. A pair of the best on intermediate tracks, Larson and Byron will square off in Round 2 at Chicagoland — both coming off relatively decisive wins at Sonoma Raceway. Larson stomped Riley Herbst in Round 1, finishing fourth while the 23XI Racing driver placed 30th. Meanwhile, Byron finished 12th at the road course compared to 21st for opponent Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Hendrick Motorsports is seemingly off on pace at larger ovals this season, at least compared to Toyota — this year‘s benchmark. But both Larson and Byron showed plenty of life in recent weeks at Michigan International Speedway and Pocono Raceway. Larson‘s riding a streak of five top fives in the last six races. With a third-place finish at Pocono, the “Tricky Triangle” served as arguably Byron‘s best race of the season.
So as the 2026 campaign inches toward The Chase, this head-to-head battle could serve as an important marker for Hendrick with both drivers looking for their first wins of the season. On paper, Larson has the advantage, with more momentum and a stronger record at Chicagoland — a track dormant since 2019 — but this matchup could be a nailbiter.
MORE: Recap Round 1 action | Watch NASCAR video highlights
KEY MATCHUP: (No. 5) Ty Gibbs vs. (No. 12) Chase Briscoe
Another teammate matchup, this time inside Joe Gibbs Racing — and it should be just as entertaining as the Hendrick drivers. Gibbs is enjoying a career-best season, sitting fourth in the series ranks with a win at Bristol Motor Speedway this spring and the fifth-best average finish (13.17). On the other hand, Briscoe is finally beginning to surge after a brutal spring stretch, recording top 10s in four of the last seven races and nearly outgunning Shane van Gisbergen last weekend at Sonoma.
Neither driver has raced in the Cup Series at Chicagoland, and Gibbs hasn‘t raced at the facility at all. Briscoe has four previous starts in lower series, including an ARCA Menards Series win in 2016. That experience honestly might not be relevant in the Next Gen car, but it‘s at least something. Overall, Gibbs has shown more consistency in 2026 and has top 10s in three of the first four 1.5-mile races this year. This is as big a toss-up as you can get, but with the No. 19 team heading in the right direction, Briscoe may have a slight edge — and he could hand Gibbs his first-ever In-Season Challenge loss.
KEY MATCHUP: (No. 7) Chris Buescher vs. (No. 10) Christopher Bell
This battle might be less heralded than the others, but it could very well come down to the wire. Buescher is one of the most consistent drivers in the series, earning nine top 10s through 18 races and finishing outside the top 20 just three times. Bell is quite the opposite in a season defined by feast or famine, with three finishes outside the top 20 in just the last four weeks. But when the No. 20 JGR team has a clean race, he‘s almost always a contender.
Bell has earned six top-five finishes this season and continues to nurse a broken wrist — although his P5 effort at Sonoma shows it isn‘t inhibiting him from logging marquee finishes. His ceiling is generally higher than Buescher‘s on a week-to-week basis, and with Toyota‘s stellar intermediate speed in 2026, Bell should be the favorite in this matchup. But if his day starts to unravel, Buescher will almost certainly take advantage.
UPSET WATCH: (No. 3) Ryan Blaney
Blaney has data from the spring tire test in his back pocket, but faces No. 14 van Gisbergen in Round 2, who‘s fresh off a victory last weekend at Sonoma Raceway. SVG is clearly improved across the board in 2026, as evidenced by his +5.6 gain in average finish compared to this time last year.
But specifically, van Gisbergen has shown an ability to perform well at larger tracks when he has a favorable qualifying draw. This weekend, he‘ll be the fifth-to-last driver to roll out for a hot lap. The qualifying metric is weighted between the team‘s finish in the prior race and owners‘ points. After finishing second at Circuit of The Americas in March, he earned a favorable draw and ultimately finished 11th. He then won at Watkins Glen International in May, followed by a pair of top-10 qualifying results at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway. He finished 11th and fifth in those events, respectively.
Meanwhile, Blaney is third in points, yet Ford‘s pace remains off at intermediates. The No. 12 Team Penske driver is usually the best of the bunch, but he hasn‘t finished better than seventh all year at traditional ovals 1.5 miles or larger. Blaney is favored here, but it‘s a dangerous matchup for the 2023 Cup champ.
]]>What comes next — whether that includes a return in 2027 or otherwise — has yet to be determined. But sorting next year‘s plans hasn‘t been Bowman‘s No. 1 priority, he said in a Tuesday teleconference.
Entering Sunday‘s eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, Bowman sits 29th in the points standings with two top fives and three top 10s, all after missing four races earlier this spring due to vertigo. His future plans have not been announced, but his focus remains on righting the No. 48 team‘s performance in the second half of the NASCAR Cup Series season.
“I‘m just trying to do my part to try to help (Hendrick Motorsports) be the best it can be right now and obviously trying to get things turned back around on the 48 side of things,” Bowman said Tuesday. “But yeah, definitely not — I don‘t feel like I‘m racing for my job or anything like that by any means. Really just kind of week-to-week focused on trying to get pointing back in the right direction.”
RELATED: Cup Series standings
Bowman, who finished 10th last week at Sonoma Raceway for his best finish since a third-place result at Texas Motor Speedway in May, added he doesn‘t have a specific timeline set to solidify plans for 2027 or beyond, but discussions behind the scenes have continued at Hendrick.
“It‘s been interesting,” Bowman said. “Obviously, we‘ve had a lot of different conversations and kind of trying to figure out what the best thing to do is, so I would say sooner rather than later, for sure. But really, I guess I haven‘t really thought about (it). Like, it hasn‘t been the first thing on my mind by any means, and really just been working hard at trying to get things pointed in the right direction. But definitely, (I) think sooner rather than later.”
After missing races in three of the past five seasons for medical reasons, Bowman says he feels OK after 11 races back from his most recent absence. But his results have also left him disappointed, scoring just two wins since the Next Gen debuted in 2022 and winless since the Fourth of July weekend at the Chicago Street Course in 2024.
No matter what comes next, Bowman is carefully considering his options both for himself and his current team.
“I think for me, I just want to make the right decision for myself, I guess,” Bowman said. “And yeah, certain things haven‘t gone how we want them to go. And honestly, I‘m at a point in my life where I‘m super blessed to be in a position where I don‘t have to do this forever. So I‘ve just got to make the right decision, and I want Hendrick Motorsports to make the right decision and everybody to be on board with whatever we do. I think I have a lot of faith in Rick (Hendrick, team owner) and Jeff (Gordon, vice chairman) and everybody to guide all of us the right way, and whatever happens, happens.”
Bowman returns to Chicagoland on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as the track‘s most recent winner. That, of course, was seven years ago, when the Cup Series last visited in 2019. That day, Bowman battled his future teammate Kyle Larson for victory, losing the lead and snagging it right back in the closing laps. That marked Bowman‘s first of eight Cup wins so far.
“It feels like a really long time ago,” Bowman said. “I‘m definitely looking forward to getting back there.”
Like most of the Cup field, Bowman has no experience driving around the track in a Next Gen car. But Larson was Chevrolet‘s representative for a Goodyear tire test earlier this spring, turning laps around the oval‘s aging and worn pavement and relaying his feedback to his teammate.
“I just think it‘s going to be tricky with the Next Gen car,” Bowman said. “That place is slick, so you‘re going to be sliding around a lot, which the Next Gen car is just inherently hard to slide much without it getting away from you. And it‘s very bumpy, and Next Gen is tough through the bumps, so it‘ll be interesting to see how the track widens out, what grooves are and aren‘t at play because of the bumps and see what works.
“It‘s kind of fun to go to a place without a huge notebook. I‘ll be in the sim tomorrow morning, so I don‘t really have any idea yet on how it‘s going to drive other than talking to Kyle from the test, but yeah, looking forward to the challenge.”
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Speaking of challenge — Bowman earned the ultimate upset in the In-Season Challenge Sunday at Sonoma by ousting No. 1 seed Tyler Reddick, allowing the No. 32 seed Bowman to advance into Round 2. Reddick suffered mechanical issues that led to a last-place finish while Bowman earned a much-needed top 10. After making a run into the third round in 2025, Bowman will go head-to-head with No. 16 Austin Cindric at Chicagoland, and he‘s definitely conscious of the $1 million prize that goes to the winner.
“Yeah, certainly pays pretty well to win, so we want to do the best we can and try to give ourselves the best shot at doing that,” Bowman said. “I think we probably got a little bit of a gift with the 45 (Reddick) having an issue, but we also went to Sonoma and put together a good, solid day. So yeah, think we‘re plenty capable. Obviously, we went pretty far last year. Hopefully, we can do that again and try to make something happen, but at the same time, just really focused on trying to get back to normalcy on the 48 side of things.”
For Bowman, that “normalcy” he feels his team is missing entails both speed and results after a two-month stretch where “nothing went our way.” Sonoma was a step in the right direction, but the question remains whether the No. 48 team can find its footing once again as a regular contender on ovals.
“I think it‘s just really easy to be a little bit off and it to look like you‘re way off with how small the margins are in the Cup Series,” Bowman said. “And like I said before, once you get stuck in group one and qualify early, you end up qualifying bad, you have bad pit stalls, so then your race suffers, and you can‘t get any track position, and then you‘re stuck in group one the next week. And it just continues and continues. So trying to get out of that cycle and get back to group two and be back on the right side of things, qualifying later so you have a better pit-stall selection, and kind of inherently — like the group (two) cars are just always faster, right? You can watch the first session and take data from whoever is on your team in that session or whatever and go from there.
“As buried as we are in points, it‘s really hard for us to get into group two, so I think that‘s the biggest hurdle that we have, and yeah, good days fix that. So just need to continue to have good days.”
]]>Rookie sensation Brent Crews — Sawalich‘s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate — banked a race-high 50 points, while Sawalich lost 25 points on The Chase bubble. Over the last two races, he‘s bled 36 points.
Being on the outside looking in isn‘t a place Sawalich desires to be with only a handful of races remaining in the regular season, especially with two of those events being at drafting-style tracks. But he‘s among a trio of JGR drivers ranked 11th through 13th in the standings.
“We are very aware of that,” Steve de Souza, executive vice president of O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and development for JGR, told NASCAR.com at Sonoma. “We have a weekly points system that we put out. The drivers know, and that creates a lot of stress in their minds, but this is a pro sport. They need to know what they are up against.”
RELATED: William Sawalich driver page
Sawalich feels the pressure to make the postseason after missing out as a rookie in 2025. He doesn‘t want to overthink the final stretch of races, however, knowing how crucial each race is.
“It‘s only on your mind if you lose out on a point,” Sawalich said of his position. “When you‘re actually racing, you are racing the race and then try to figure out points after. You can‘t let it get in your head during the race.
“The goal for the season is to make the playoffs in this new Chase format. We were ninth for a while, so we are fast enough to be in there, no problem. It comes down to putting together good, consistent finishes.”
Consistency has been the biggest hurdle for the No. 18 team over the past year and a half. While Sawalich has shown race-winning speed — charging from the middle of the pack to earn his first victory at Rockingham Speedway in April — those standout performances have been difficult to sustain. In 49 starts as a full-time competitor, he has recorded seven top-five finishes and 16 top 10s.
There have been signs of progress during Sawalich‘s sophomore campaign. The No. 18 Toyota emerged as a consistent top-five contender in May, highlighted by a career-best streak of three consecutive top-five finishes spanning Dover Motor Speedway through Nashville Superspeedway.
“Since Rockingham, he won that race, that taught him what it takes to win a race, the level you have to compete at,” de Souza said. “I think he‘s aware from a competitive standpoint what needs to happen. He is aware that he has to finish races. There is a lot there, and I think that‘s an ongoing discussion throughout the week of where we are and what we need to continue to improve.”
Admittedly, Sawalich‘s rookie season was a difficult transition, moving two full rungs up the proverbial developmental ladder from being full-time in the ARCA Menards Series in 2024. It was a wake-up call for the Minnesota driver.
“The competition level is just different,” Sawalich said. “You have to fight hard for even a top 10. When the car is good, it‘s an easier day. But when the car is a little off, and I have to adjust for it, that‘s probably what I‘ve had to learn.”
Learning techniques at mile-and-a-half tracks was the biggest adjustment. The success rate is naturally lower after his jump to the O‘Reilly Series, given how challenging the field is. He is one of six series regulars to win through the opening 19 events in 2026.
“The wins are a lot more prestigious here,” Sawalich said. “Some of the best guys haven‘t even won this year. It‘s really tough. To get that win early on was good and relieved a lot of the pressure.”
After leaning on Aric Almirola for a chunk of 2025, Sawalich joined a program led by former drivers Trevor Bayne and Blake Koch this season. They have worked with Toyota drivers to help refine their skills.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Sawalich‘s finishes have slightly improved. His average starting position is almost in line with 2025 (10.1 in 2025 vs. 10.3 in 2026), while his average finish has improved 1.7 spots (18.9 in 2025 vs. 17.2 in 2026).
“It probably looks like a heart-rate monitor,” Sawalich said of his season. “Our finishes are either really good or we get caught in something that we don‘t want to be in and lose some points from it. Now, we are definitely in a big hole that we need to get out of.”
The 20-point deficit isn‘t insurmountable. He‘s still new to the game at 19 years old, meaning there is plenty of room to grow. The next chance at growth will be at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday (5:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The July 4 event will be the first time the O‘Reilly Series has raced at the 1.5-mile track since 2019.
“The biggest thing I would say now is remember his age,” de Souza said. “If he‘s 25, 30 years old and doing this a long time, the lesson should already be learned. But he‘s 19 and doing this for two years and has had success in the ARCA car, which is great to learn race craft, learn to compete and how to win races. But jumping up the next couple of levels, now you‘re racing against much better race teams, better drivers, better pit crews and you have to be part of that process that excels.”
]]>Dressed in bold-colored The NASCAR Foundation T-shirts, the students ranging from kindergarten to middle school-age from the base‘s Navy Child Youth Program ran into the designated area as NASCAR race car engines screamed from the track in the distance. The NASCAR Foundation members and Ally representatives shook pom-poms high above their heads and shouted cheers to welcome the group to San Diego‘s installment of the Speediatrics Fun Day Festival — one of 16 held across the United States this year.
A tire “roll,” a “gas can relay,” and a “find the lug nut” challenge were among the creative hands-on activities the kids tried out. Most notably among the setup was a series of long tables with bicycle helmets piled high — that station designed to fit each of the 121 students with a brand-new helmet.
Within the hour, the students would find out that each of them was not only receiving a personalized helmet but also receiving a new bicycle — courtesy of Ally. The bikes were custom-built only days earlier by dozens of supportive people in the NASCAR industry. Volunteers from groups like Stepp‘s Towing drivers to race team mechanics to Kaulig Racing team owner Matt Kaulig and team executive Chris Rice — the Kaulig team being a full-season sponsor of the Fun Day events across the country are the first to raise their hands to turn wrenches as master bike builders for the Foundation.
RELATED: Learn more about The NASCAR Foundation
“The NASCAR Foundation does incredible work keeping youth active and engaged in our race communities,” said Bridget Sponsky, executive director of brand, sponsorship and creative marketing at Ally. “A new bike and a day at the track might seem like small things, but they can easily spark a lifelong love for the sport. Supporting the foundation‘s initiatives over the years is one meaningful way we ‘do it right‘ and leave the communities where we race a little better than we found them.”
Before the dramatic two-wheel reveal, NASCAR Cup Series driver Alex Bowman made an appearance. The No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver posed for photos and signed autographs and shared the Foundation‘s message with the kids about the importance of healthy eating and staying fit.
Then, Nichole Krieger, The NASCAR Foundation‘s vice president and executive director, took the microphone and announced that not only was the organization donating $15,000 to the Navy Child Youth Program, but every one of the youngsters would also be receiving a new bicycle.
“I can‘t believe it, I can‘t believe it, I can‘t believe it,” 11-year-old Jack Hamby shouted over and over again.
There was no question what this Foundation-led experience had meant to these kids on this day and to families across the country so many other days as the organization officially marks 20 years of service to the sport.
The NASCAR Foundation isn‘t just an admirable and generous concept developed and fostered by the late Betty Jane France. The organization has been a real-life difference-maker for kids and families since its inception, raising and donating more than $55 million and serving almost two million children and their families.
NASCAR Vice Chairman and Senior Adviser Mike Helton — a highly respected longtime steward of the sport — is a founding board member and the current Chairman of The NASCAR Foundation. And he doesn‘t lead from an office in Daytona Beach, Florida; he makes it a point to attend the events around the country and forge a bond with the people this impactful organization is helping.
He often assures Krieger that his close friend, the late Mrs. France, would have loved seeing the joy and solace the Foundation has given to families. And that it is still going strong two decades after its inspired beginning.
“I think what the Foundation has done now in its 20 years, it has created a culture in our industry that represents that family spirit of helping,” Helton said. “I think that‘s the synergy that Betty Jane led the charge on for the Foundation. But the bigger and broader part, in addition to millions of dollars of help with children that need help, whether it‘s medically or quality of life, it was also a statement made that NASCAR, everywhere we go, our footprint is across America, but everywhere we go, we‘re still a local community-driven event.”
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
“I think in a way, NASCAR kind of created the idea that our sport is big-hearted. Before there was a Foundation, that spirit existed. It certainly existed in Daytona, where our headquarters is at the Speedway and is still a huge part of the community. But that model got to be able to be spread across the country as we traveled on our national series and even our local series.”
Now in her 14th year with The NASCAR Foundation, Krieger is proud that it has continued to play such a significant role in NASCAR communities and beyond.
“Mrs. France was so passionate about kids,” Krieger recalled of the organization‘s beginning. “So we honed our mission to really be about children‘s health and wellness. It could be kids in the hospital, and it could be kids like here at San Diego learning about health and wellness. It‘s all of that.
“I think the other thing our team has worked really hard at is we‘re about more than just writing a check. We do that. We write checks to hospitals and charities, but the programs we run — the Speedy Bear Brigade, for example, where we go into the hospital, we deliver the teddy bears and bring the drivers to meet the kids. Our track presidents get involved, and employees and sponsors get involved. I feel like it has distinguished the Foundation to be more than just writing a check. It‘s more about, how do we rally our sport?”
The support has come from the entire sport. From the corporate sponsors who support the race teams, to the insiders who make the industry tick and certainly the race car drivers themselves — all cherish the opportunities to make a difference for these children.
From visiting young patients in hospitals all around the country, to supporting youth sports to building the bicycles, as they did in San Diego — the “ask” is invariably met by a “thank you” from the sports stars, whose time supporting The NASCAR Foundation turns out to be as impactful for them as the kids they make smile.
“It‘s really easy to forget we do a job that kids idolize and they put us on a pedestal,” said RFK Racing driver Ryan Preece, who has made several hospital visits on behalf of The NASCAR Foundation and says it especially hits home for him now as a father of two young children.
“You can go to a hospital and see some of these kids, and they need that little bit of something to lift them up, you see it lift their spirits, just them spending five minutes with a race car driver.
“And when you‘re around them, they‘re doing something for us as well. Everybody goes through tough times, but when you‘re able to take a minute and really put things into perspective. Those are the moments that impact.”
NASCAR Chairman Jim France has been a strong supporter of The NASCAR Foundation from the very beginning and considers it a vital part of the sport — its present-day impact something he knows his late sister-in-law would be especially proud of.
“I think it reflects the value, the core of our sport and our industry and the folks that are around that are teams and drivers,” France said. “We‘ve got a very big community of people that have important social projects and things that they‘re trying to support. Our Foundation has become kind of a hub of that for the entire sport, so to speak.
“So, watching it step up and help organize a lot of different things is gratifying.”
One of the most impactful moments Krieger says she‘s ever experienced with The NASCAR Foundation happened this summer at Michigan International Speedway during another of the Foundation‘s Fun Days.
Among the more than 100 youth that attended the Michigan event was a fifth-grade girl, Dayton, with spina bifida — a spinal cord condition that affects the ability to walk and can often make wheelchairs necessary for patients. As the Foundation was preparing bicycles to give away, Krieger was adamant that Dayton received a bicycle, too — and a specially made version just for her was presented along with the others.
The surprise and thrill … and complete gratitude from this young girl and her family was one of the more emotional moments for Krieger in all her years witnessing the Foundation‘s service to the community.
“It was the right thing to do, and I always want to be guided by that,” Krieger said, recalling how Dayton got on the bike and rode it around within minutes. “She was thrilled, and her mom texted me with videos and photos afterward of her outside riding her bike at home along with everyone else now.
“As a sport, it makes me proud that we can do that. It‘s just one child, but we may have really changed her life. We don‘t know what the impact will be like later. That‘s why we do this.”
In so many ways, The NASCAR Foundation is NASCAR‘s ultimate “win-win” — powering the sport and fueling the future with generosity and kindness that will provide its own substantial legacy.
As France puts it, “It‘s a community effort by everybody within the sport, and it makes you proud of our folks and people that participate.”
]]>Smith will hit that milestone himself in Sunday‘s eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. And you‘d better believe winning is on his mind.
“I hope to get my first Cup Series win,” Smith said in a Tuesday teleconference. “I don‘t know if that counts before 100 starts, but it‘d be awesome.”
MORE: Chicagoland schedule
Driving the No. 38 Ford for Front Row Motorsports, the 27-year-old Smith understands the odds, but confidence is high among his team, particularly after top-five runs at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway at the end of May.
“It would be awesome to pull that off, and mile-and-a-halves have been good for us since Charlotte,” Smith said. “So it‘s exciting, and I think definitely possible.”
Across his prior 99 starts, Smith has raced for RFK Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports via Trackhouse Racing and Front Row Motorsports, including a full rookie campaign with Spire in 2024 before transitioning to FRM for 2025 and 2026. After collecting a personal-best five top 10s last year, Smith has already set new high marks for himself this year, earning six top 10s in the first 18 races this season and equaling his 2024 best of two top fives after a fourth-place finish at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Smith has just one runner-up finish to his credit, along with four other top fives. But the flashes he has shown, he believes, indicate he is nearing a breakthrough.
“Everything has to go right for a race win, but showing that you‘re running up front and having good runs, I think, is what‘s super important,” Smith said. “And fortunately, I‘ve had glimpses of that throughout my early starts, but I would say since my, like, 80-ish start, it‘s been more consistent of being able to run up front more consistently. And recently, since Charlotte, I‘ve been able to lead laps and contend for a race win. And I have a few seconds and thirds, whatever, but just honestly leading these races at the wrong time. Just need to do it a little bit later. But I feel like that‘s what‘s mostly important.
“I feel like everyone understands in the industry how hard these races are to win — and then on top of that, we‘re a smaller team, too, so we‘re doing a lot with a little and trying to make big strides each year. So proud of that and just proud of how we‘re running, but yeah, would love to put an exclamation mark on this on the 100th start.”
Perhaps Smith‘s most significant takeaway through 99 prior Cup starts has been how to overcome adversity. Multiple strong performances have been crushed by late incidents, most recently including Michigan, where he crashed while running ninth at Lap 142, and again a week later at Pocono, where he spun and crashed out from a third-place battle at Lap 41. But a San Diego top five and a Sonoma top 20 have helped steady the stretch, providing momentum as Smith enters the second half of the regular season.
“In just one Cup race, you will experience so much. There are so many ups and downs throughout a Cup race and it‘s like that every weekend,” Smith said. “I can probably count on one hand how many Cup races I‘ve had where it‘s like, ‘Man, that went really smooth and everything went right.‘ I just feel like the main thing is you‘ve got to take the little wins and pile them into bigger wins and eventually you‘re gonna be racing for a race win.
“The harder thing is when you‘re part of a smaller team going against a powerhouse team like a Penske, a Hendrick, a Gibbs, they have more people and we‘re trying to become that one day. By doing that, you‘ve got to win races and run up front and prove your worth, and I feel like we‘re accomplishing that. I hope to keep that going, but there are so many ups and downs and I‘m certainly a way different race car driver now versus what I was in my rookie year and certainly what I was in the Truck Series.”
The next step is turning those strong runs into consistent top-10 finishes, a task Smith believes is reasonable as the schedule turns back to ovals for the rest of 2026.
“Our whole group is a really fun group to work with, which says a lot,” Smith said. “We just had a year last year of past communication and past times to know what to do for adjustments going from practice to qualifying, and qualifying to the race more importantly, and I feel like some of that is showing. But just trying to carry the momentum is the main thing.”
]]>The track has not hosted NASCAR national series competition since 2019, but teams in both series will have recent experience with the Goodyear Racing Eagle tires selected for the weekend. Chicagoland puts similar demands on tires to other intermediate ovals, and Goodyear has chosen setups that have already been used several times this season.
RELATED: Chicagoland schedule
The Cup Series tire setup for Sunday‘s eero 400 was most recently used at Nashville Superspeedway. The left-side tire also has been utilized at Michigan International Speedway and Pocono Raceway.
The O‘Reilly Series will use a right-side tire that debuted at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, along with a left-side tire that has raced several times this year, most recently at Nashville. As is customary on tracks 1 mile or longer, teams in both series will run inner liners inside their tires.
This weekend‘s tire selections follow an April test at Chicagoland that included Cup Series drivers Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin — representing all three manufacturers — along with O‘Reilly Series drivers Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
“Although teams have not raced at Chicagoland Speedway since 2019, they have lots of data on their Goodyear Racing Eagle tire setups for this weekend,” said Rick Heinrich, Goodyear NASCAR product manager. “The April test gave us valuable information and confirmed that our proven intermediate package is the right choice for this event. With the race falling on the Fourth of July weekend and plenty of excitement around NASCAR‘s return to Chicagoland, our focus remains on providing teams with proven performance.”
Tire allotments for each team competing this weekend:
- Cup Series: 12 total sets — 8 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying that transfers to the race and 3 for practice.
- O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series: 7 total sets — 4 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying that transfers to the start of the race and 2 for practice.
RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule
Analysis: Hamlin picked a pretty convenient week to have his first truly rough finish in a while (and worst since the Daytona 500 — in February). The No. 11 came home 26th at Sonoma after spinning from seventh on a Lap 64 restart, but Tyler Reddick‘s day was even worse, handing Hamlin the regular-season points lead by a single marker (also for the first time since Reddick claimed it after winning the Daytona 500). That doesn‘t make Sonoma a “good” result for him, but it does make it survivable with a silver lining — and surviving bad weeks at the exact moment your closest rival stumbles is, at the very least, fortuitous. Chicagoland is a much better place for Hamlin to steady the whole thing, too. He won there in 2015 and owns seven top 10s in 14 starts at the 1.5-mile track with a level of experience there that significantly outweighs the field, so the first trip back since 2019 should quickly remind everyone why he‘s wearing the crown for now.
Analysis: Reddick‘s Sonoma started badly and got worse from there. A power-steering issue sent the No. 45 in for repairs early, and while he eventually returned five laps down, the damage was already done, as it resulted in a 36th-place finish that cost him the points lead for the first time all season. The five wins, 12 top 10s and overall 2026 profile still keep him firmly in the top two, but the untouchable version of Reddick‘s season is officially gone. Chicagoland doesn‘t offer any Cup history to lean on, either, which makes this weekend a little more of a pure-form test than a track-stat bounce-back spot. He‘s still one of the two standards of the season, but now he‘s the hunter instead of the rabbit being chased.
Analysis: Blaney‘s Sonoma race was quite useful for No. 12, as a top-six finish on a road course has historically been about his best-case scenario on these types of tracks. He finished sixth, grabbed a Stage 2 point, led a lap through the pit cycle and kept himself comfortably third in the standings while the top two continue to trade haymakers. The gap to Hamlin and Reddick remains substantial, but Blaney is building a very sturdy third lane behind them and could theoretically strike before the regular season is up. Chicagoland backs that up better than most upcoming tracks might, too. In four Cup starts there, Blaney owns a 9.8 average finish, one top five and two top 10s. If the No. 12 is going to turn “reliable” into “dangerous” again, this is a reasonable place to start.
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Analysis: Larson finally has something resembling week-to-week stability again, and that matters tremendously in this Chase system. He finished fourth at Sonoma after spending most of the day in the top five, briefly led late through the final pit cycle and now has five top-five finishes in his last six races. This no longer looks like a winless drought but a countdown until he unleashes the summer afterburners and jets off. Chicagoland is exactly the kind of place that could serve as the launching pad. Larson has never won a Cup race there, but he owns four top fives, five top 10s and a ridiculous 6.2 average finish in six starts. If there is a “how has he not won yet?” track, it‘s probably this one. If it had remained on the schedule the past several years, this certainly would not still be a question.
Analysis: Gibbs turned in the strongest race of anyone not named SVG at Sonoma. The No. 54 started from the pole, swept both stages, led 31 laps and finished third, putting together the kind of complete road-course weekend that he needs to remain capable of contending while he continues rounding into form elsewhere. The 2026 emergence overall is real, though — we‘re at the halfway mark, and he‘s fourth in points, with three stage wins and 139 stage points. There is nothing prospect-y about that anymore. Chicagoland is a blank Cup sheet for Gibbs, but that might not matter much with the way Joe Gibbs Racing is operating, particularly on the intermediates. The next step is obvious and getting louder: No. 54 is good enough to win again, and soon.
Analysis: Elliott held sixth in these rankings, as Sonoma was not a convincing argument to move him back up. He finished 17th after spinning in Turn 6, scored no stage points and watched Gibbs, Larson and SVG all make louder statements on a track type where the No. 9 typically expects to matter more. The broader season is still strong enough, with two wins and eight top 10s while sitting sixth in points, but the edge has dulled a bit lately. Chicagoland is a much better setup for a correction, however. Elliott owns two top fives, two top 10s, 117 laps led and an 8.8 average finish in four Cup starts there. If he‘s going to remind everyone he belongs closer to the front of this list, the track gives him a real opening.
Analysis: Buescher‘s Sonoma was a rare recent week in which the No. 17 didn‘t get much out of the day, on one of his better track types, to boot. He finished 19th, lost a bit of ground to the cutline and gave back two spots in these rankings after briefly cracking the top five. Still, this is not a collapse — he remains seventh in points and 129 above the cutline even without a win, which says plenty about how much weekly value he has banked. Chicagoland, historically, does not exactly scream automatic rebound, though he was in a much different place in his career while these stats were accumulated. Still, Buescher has four Cup starts there with no top 10s and a 23.8 average finish. The season-long floor is still trustworthy, but this weekend will test how portable that really is.
Analysis: Hocevar‘s Sonoma was a bit quieter than San Diego, and that might have been the best thing for him. He started second, ran near the front early, finished 11th and avoided turning another high-upside day into a headline for the wrong reason. He remains eighth in these rankings, eighth in points and 120 points above the cutline, which is still a pretty wild sentence for this stage of the season for a driver who entered the year with zero Cup wins and no guarantee the first would come this season, which it did. Chicagoland will be new territory for him in Cup, but a worn 1.5-mile track should not scare the No. 77 team given the intermediate-track gains Spire has shown all year.
Analysis: Briscoe jumps two spots because Sonoma was not just a good race for No. 19; it was nearly season-changing. He finished second to what appeared to be an untouchable SVG by a mere 0.357 seconds, kept pressure on the best road-course driver in the field all the way to the end and briefly looked like he might have a shot before overcooking Turn 1 in the closing laps. That one stings for sure, but it also reinforces that Briscoe, a Championship 4 driver last fall, is more than just hanging around here. Chicagoland is interesting because he has no Cup history there, but he did win an ARCA Menards Series race at the track in 2016. Add that to five top fives and seven top 10s this season, and this feels less like a strong recent run and more like a 2026 identity finally forming.
Analysis: Bell needed a clean result in the worst way, and Sonoma finally gave him one. The No. 20 finished fifth, scoring points in both stages and recovering from a messy pit stop where he left with the left-front wheel not tight and had to back up. Given the recent run of engine trouble, wrist drama, fuel heartbreak and general nonsense, a top five counts as a deep, midway-point exhale. Chicagoland is a place without Cup history for Bell, as well, but the track still carries a nice little footnote: he won the ARCA race there in 2017, and there‘s little reason why he won‘t be fast. The speed has rarely been the issue. If the bad-luck tax is finally easing up, Bell could climb fast, especially as he continues to heal and with a “normal” track this weekend.
Analysis: SVG did exactly what he was supposed to do at Sonoma (and what he intended to do at San Diego … ), and that almost makes it harder to appreciate how absurd and impressive it actually was. He won from sixth with a car he was very much not happy with on Saturday, led 74 of 110 laps, posted 23 fastest laps by the late stages and spent basically the entire race in control before holding off Briscoe, who had a faster car, at the finish. That moved him back above the cutline by 36 points and gave him his second Cup win of the season. The reason he is still only 11th is simple: Chicagoland — along with the rest of the schedule — has no right-hand turns. There is no Cup history for him there, of course, and the next question is how much of this momentum survives away from the road courses. His ceiling on those tracks is literally non-existent. His full-season ceiling, however, is still being established.
Analysis: Suárez took a small rankings hit because Sonoma — a track he‘s won at — never got going the way it needed to. An early tire concern sent him to pit road from deep in the field, and he never fully recovered on the way to a 31st-place finish that cost him ground to the cutline. The good news is the overall position remains sturdy enough, with No. 7 still ninth in points and 95 markers above the bubble. Chicagoland is at least not a total mystery, either. Suárez owns a 15.7 average finish in three Cup starts there, which is fine, if not especially spicy. The mission this week is simple: get back to collecting useful points before a quiet wobble turns into a louder one.
Analysis: Byron‘s Sonoma was fine — normally a positive adjective as it pertains to Wine Country — but “fine” is not really where the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet expects to live. He finished 12th, led a lap through the pit cycle and gained enough to move up one spot in the standings, but the larger picture remains frustrating for a driver who should feel more dangerous than his week-to-week finishes in 2026 suggest. Chicagoland gives him one of the better cases for a rebound, though. Byron has only two Cup starts there, early on in his career, but he owns a top 10, a 14.0 average finish and a respectable 9.5 average start. The sample is old and small, but the broader point still holds: this is a 1.5-mile chance for a Hendrick driver who badly needs a more convincing summer and should be heating up soon, in theory.
Analysis: Wallace gives back four spots after Sonoma, which was not a shock so much as a reminder that road courses, while he‘s improved on them lately, remain his pain point. After the San Diego runner-up raised the expectations, No. 23 qualified into the trouble portion of the pack, furthered the issue by going to the rear for unapproved adjustments, got bounced around during the race and ultimately finished 22nd, which honestly isn‘t as poor of a result as it was looking like. He remains 55 points above the cutline, so there‘s no need to panic, but the prove-it nature of his jump last week did not exactly get answered. Chicagoland doesn‘t offer a huge safety net, either. Wallace has two Cup starts there, no top 10s and a 24.0 average finish. The momentum isn‘t gone, but it has taken a pretty obvious dent.
Analysis: Preece keeps inching upward, and it no longer feels accidental or circumstantial. He followed the San Diego stage-win surge with an eighth-place finish at Sonoma, giving the No. 60 team another badly needed points day and a 13-point cushion above the cutline as Preece rounds into a respectable road racer. The early-season penalty still hangs over the math, but Preece has done a pretty good job of making sure it did not define the whole season. There isn‘t much Chicagoland on the resume for obvious reasons — one Cup start, 28th-place finish — so this one leans more on current form than track history. That is not the worst thing, because his current form is the best argument he has right now.
Analysis: Cindric continues to live on the narrowest part of the bubble, which is a stressful but still reasonable place to be, given his three-time champion teammate is below it. He finished 13th at Sonoma, scored Stage 2 points and remains 12 points above the cutline with eight races left before The Chase. The No. 2 team still does not feel especially explosive — even teammate Ryan Blaney has had trouble converting obvious speed into wins this year — but it‘s doing just enough to stay upright while others wobble. Chicagoland brings no Cup history for Cindric, making the Penske baseline more relevant than anything else. And in 2026 that‘s lower than it historically is, so it could be an uphill battle this weekend.
Analysis: Jones drops three spots in the standings because Sonoma put a real dent in what had been one of the better bubble pushes of the past month. He went to the rear after unapproved adjustments, finished 23rd and slipped 12 points below the cutline after briefly looking like he had grabbed firm control of a Chase spot. The Legacy Motor Club surge still hasn‘t disappeared, but the cushion sure has. Chicagoland offers a sneaky good lifeline, though. Jones has two top 10s in three Cup starts there, plus O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series wins at the track in 2015 and 2016. If there is a place for No. 43 to stop the slide quickly, this is a pretty good candidate.
Analysis: Keselowski moves up two spots, but this still does not feel especially healthy. He finished 15th at Sonoma, a step forward on paper, yet still lost ground to the cutline and sits 25 points out with time starting to get uncomfortable. The encouraging part is that Chicagoland might be the best track on the board for him right now. Keselowski, on top of having an experience edge on the field like Hamlin, owns two Cup wins, five top fives, nine top 10s and an 8.8 average finish in 11 starts there. If the veteran‘s program is going to reinsert itself into The Chase picture, it almost has to look alive this weekend. His track history is too good for anything less.
Analysis: Allmendinger‘s Sonoma wasn‘t bad, but it also wasn‘t the kind of road-course swing he needed on a track he needed to maximize. He finished 16th, lost five points to the cutline and remains 26 points outside the provisional Chase field as the schedule moves away from one of his best disciplines for the remainder of the season. That‘s the problem. The road stretch kept him relevant, but it did not fully change the math, and Chicagoland does not help much historically, either. Allmendinger has 10 Cup starts there with no top 10s and a 21.3 average finish. The door is still cracked, but he may have missed his best chance to kick it open.
Analysis: Logano falls to the final spot, and even that feels a little generous given the standard attached to the No. 22. Sonoma ended with a 24th-place finish, another quiet points day and a 31-point deficit to the cutline, leaving the three-time champ in a slow-motion fight just to stay relevant amid one of the most challenging seasons of his career. Chicagoland is the hope, and at least it‘s a credible one. Logano has three top fives, seven top 10s, a pole and an 11.5 average finish in 11 Cup starts there, plus two O‘Reilly wins at the track. If Penske is going to drag this season back toward normalcy, Chicagoland is a logical place to start. If it doesn‘t happen there, the questions get a whole lot louder.
Placing 26th in Sunday‘s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway gave Denny Hamlin the regular-season championship lead by the slimmest of margins — one point. He tallied 11 points while Tyler Reddick, who has been in command of the series lead since winning the Daytona 500 four-and-a-half months ago, drove around with power steering issues throughout the race, finishing last in the 36-car field.
RELATED: Race results
“We don‘t really know what the issue was,” Billy Scott, crew chief of the No. 45 Toyota told NASCAR.com on pit road. “It sounds like we were able to help it some, but not fully. I think we missed an opportunity to have a solid top-10 day, had decent speed, got the fastest lap and did what we could. Certainly, disappointed to not get many points on the day.”
While sitting idly on pit road at the end of the opening stage for six excruciating laps, the No. 45 bunch went under the hood to assess the issue. Through a pair of caution flags, Reddick was able to get within four laps of the lead, three laps behind any other competitor.
“It was just a very odd issue,” Reddick told TNT Sports following the race. “Everything seemed fine when we left the pit stall that first green-flag cycle, we just had some issues with the steering and the power steering going in and out. I didn‘t know what was going on, if we had a wheel issue or what was going on. It was really hard to make any kind of lap time with it.
“It‘s so hard to say, in hindsight, if we made the right decision to work on it. I definitely don‘t think I would have been within seconds of the pace. Either way, we had a difficult road ahead.”
Hindsight also would have worked in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team‘s favor Sunday. Hamlin was a contender throughout the road-course race, spending much of the opening two stages inside the top six. The plan, if he remained in contention, was to sacrifice stage points by flipping both stages in exchange for track position over the final stint, which covered roughly half the race.
But Hamlin was tagged from behind by Carson Hocevar in a restart on Lap 64 entering Turn 7. The No. 11 car looped around in the dirt, returning to the race at the rear of the field. With a damaged splitter hindering performance, Hamlin gained nine positions for the remainder of the event to clock in 26th.
“Extremely frustrated. We put a lot of time into it,” Hamlin said of the finish. “If you get wiped out in one corner, it changes the complete result.”
Chris Gayle, crew chief for the No. 11, knew the possible repercussions of not collecting stage points. If anything went haywire during the final stage, the chances of having a minuscule points day were on the table. Hamlin kept his composure, however, and made something out of nothing.
“It‘s frustrating, but what do you do about it other than the drivers have to handle that stuff themselves and the guys behind should be more cognizant and be aware,” Gayle told NASCAR.com. “I realize some of that is the guys behind seeing what‘s coming from behind, and it‘s either me spin somebody, or I get [spun], potentially. It‘s kind of chaotic with what happens here. From the crew guy side, what can you do about it?
“I‘m more proud of the fact that Denny stayed in it at the end, we picked up [nine] spots, he got by [Ty Dillon] so we weren‘t eliminated from (the In-Season Challenge). We picked up enough points after that to get the points lead. That‘s the only thing you can do and focus on.”
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Hocevar took blame for the incident, though knew he got hammered from behind. He was afraid he was going to get accused of fixing the race as he was praising Dillon throughout the week, believing he would advance to the second round of the In-Season Challenge.
“I just know I got hit,” Hocevar said. “I was going to be left, and I was looking in my mirror and they were all lining up, and I said, ‘If I don‘t get right, I‘m probably going to get spun.‘ I remember getting hit and full-rocked right.”
Yet Hamlin seized the championship lead for the first time in any regular season since a runner-up finish in June 2024 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. He has climbed from a 129-point deficit to Reddick in the last six races, which included a three-race winning streak for the first time in his career.
And when it came to road courses, a distinct advantage for Reddick, it was Hamlin who came out with the upper hand through the inaugural event at Naval Base Coronado and Sonoma, gaining 20 points on the No. 45 car in the last two races.
“They‘ve had misfortune and today we had misfortunate,” Hamlin said. “We just got to race it out. I don‘t know where the points are, but I don‘t control anything. As we see, things can happen.”
Gayle took a measured approach, recognizing the No. 11 team had its back against the wall over the past two weeks. The team responded by overcoming one of its biggest weaknesses in climbing to the top of the mountain.
“If you would have written that down going into this stretch, we would have been happy with that regardless of the finishes or what happens. It‘s kind of sour today because we thought we had a lot better car. Maybe we could have finished eighth or so last week, but this week, we felt like we could have finished in the top six, getting caught up in someone else‘s stuff and got punted from behind in that chaos.”
The No. 45 team knows that with eight races remaining in the regular season, plenty of racing is still to be completed before any driver gets a 25-point advantage leading into The Chase.
“I think the hope and plan coming into this was to gain ground,” Reddick told reporters on Saturday. “I guess it can be won or lost on any given race when all the races are in the books, and you‘re able to go back and look at it, but there‘s still a lot of racing.
“We‘re right in the mix, and it‘s very much still there for either one of us. Obviously, anyone else back there, if we hit a slump, could close the ground if they win some races. I think there‘s a couple of tracks coming up where I think Denny could have the upper hand from the experience side of things, but there‘s a lot of racing left.”
Scott quipped: “The reality is there is a reset coming in eight weeks, so this is good practice for that. We‘re going to keep focusing on what we can do, and we think that‘s going out to win more races before we get to The Chase.”
Sunday was a double-whammy for Reddick, however. Alex Bowman took the checkered flag in 10th, his first top-10 finish since rounding out the podium at Texas Motor Speedway nearly two months ago. For the second consecutive year, the No. 1 seed was bounced from the In-Season Challenge in the opening week.
Bowman played the role of this year‘s UMBC or Fairleigh Dickinson, stunning the tournament‘s top overall seed.
“To be honest with you, after the last two months we‘ve had, it feels good to have a solid day at the race track and finish halfway decent,” Bowman told NASCAR.com. “Obviously, it‘s been pretty horrendous the last two months. It feels good to have a good day; it‘s been a while since we‘ve had an enjoyable day at the race track.
“The bracket was what it was. I didn‘t have any idea that we were going to beat Reddick, and I caught up to him pretty early in the race and thought we might have a shot, the car was pretty good.”
With Dillon having a power steering issue of his own in the closing laps, Hamlin scooted by with 11 laps remaining, assuring the top two seeds didn‘t go down in Week 1 in consecutive years.
]]>“On The Gas with Ryan Blaney” — presented by BodyArmor Sports Drink — will debut the first four Wednesdays of July exclusively on NASCAR‘s YouTube channel beginning July 1. The first season consists of four episodes, each approximately 20 minutes long and features celebrities Keegan Michael Key and Chad Ochocinco, plus popular YouTube creators Westen Champlin and The Stradman.
Fresh off his starring role in the latest installment of Amazon Prime Video‘s “Eli Manning Presents: The Undercovers,” Blaney gives his guests far more than a typical pace car or hot laps ride. The No. 12 Team Penske Ford driver treats them to a real NASCAR racing experience, blending the adrenaline of the sport with the spontaneity of unscripted interviews, capturing authentic and often hilarious moments as they react in real time to the intensity of the ride.
RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights
“Getting the chance to share what makes NASCAR so exciting with people from different worlds was a lot of fun,” said Blaney. “Whether it was taking Keegan, Chad, Westen or The Stradman around the track, every episode brought a different perspective and some unforgettable moments. I think fans are going to enjoy seeing these big personalities experience the speed, competition, and culture of our sport up close.”
With more than 2.7 billion active users globally, YouTube is the world‘s largest streaming platform. In the United States, viewers now spend more time watching YouTube on television screens than on mobile devices, streaming more than 1 billion hours of content on TVs each day. Debuting “On The Gas with Ryan Blaney” exclusively on YouTube reinforces NASCAR‘s commitment to reaching fans where they consume content and expanding its presence among digital-first audiences.
“With NASCAR Studios and Full Speed Entertainment, we‘re focused on creating original content that connects with fans in fresh and unexpected ways,” said John Dahl, senior vice president, original content, NASCAR. “‘On The Gas with Ryan Blaney‘ delivers exactly that by pairing one of NASCAR‘s biggest stars with guests experiencing the speed and intensity of our sport firsthand. As we continue to grow our presence on YouTube, this series represents another step in bringing NASCAR‘s personalities and culture to a broader audience through premium digital storytelling.”
Blaney has become one of NASCAR‘s most recognizable personalities on and off the track. In addition to competing full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, he‘s recently been featured in Prime Video‘s “NASCAR vs. The Navy” mini movie and “Eli Manning Presents: The Undercovers — Ryan Blaney.” He makes his next appearance on the track this Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway (6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The project was produced by Full Speed Entertainment, the production partnership between NASCAR Studios and Words + Pictures which focuses on elevating the cultural footprint of NASCAR, its drivers, and teams through bold storytelling, talent-driven initiatives, premium content, and large-scale specials.
]]>Here‘s where things stand after Challenge Round 1 at Sonoma:
RELATED: In-Season Challenge hub page
Sonoma race winner: Shane van Gisbergen secured a weekend sweep of the Cup Series and O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series events on the 1.99-mile road course, fending off a stout challenge from Chase Briscoe to prevail in Sunday‘s main event. SVG led 74 of the 110 laps in Trackhouse Racing‘s No. 97 Chevrolet, landing his second win of the Cup Series season and his second straight at Sonoma. He advanced to the In-Season Challenge‘s second round over No. 19 seed Ryan Preece, who placed a respectable eighth.
Who advances to Round 2
Advancing with the 14th-seeded van Gisbergen to the next round are: (2) Denny Hamlin, (3) Ryan Blaney, (4) Chase Elliott, (5) Ty Gibbs, (6) Kyle Larson, (7) Chris Buescher, (9) Carson Hocevar, (10) Christopher Bell, (11) William Byron, (12) Chase Briscoe, (15) Erik Jones, (16) Austin Cindric, (20) Michael McDowell, (25) Todd Gilliland, and (32) Alex Bowman.
The top upset from first-round action was Bowman, who rolled into the Round of 16 with a 10th-place effort after top-seeded Tyler Reddick stumbled with mechanical trouble and finished last. The outcome marked the second consecutive year that the lowest seed has advanced, and he‘ll face off with Austin Cindric in the second round. Bowman is also the most recent race winner at Chicagoland, where he netted his first Cup Series victory in 2019.
Matchup of the week
(No. 6) Kyle Larson vs. (No. 11) William Byron: This intrasquad matchup of Hendrick Motorsports teammates has some serious star power. A pair of the best on intermediate tracks, Larson and Byron will square off in Round 2 at Chicagoland — both coming off relatively decisive first-round wins at Sonoma Raceway. Larson stomped Riley Herbst in Round 1, finishing fourth while the 23XI Racing driver placed 30th. Meanwhile, Byron finished 12th at the road course compared to 21st for opponent Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Larson has a momentum advantage, riding a streak of five top fives in the last six races. But as the 2026 campaign inches toward The Chase, this head-to-head battle could serve as an important turning point for the Hendrick organization with both drivers looking for their first wins of the season.
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Who‘s up
Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Almost the only thing Gibbs didn‘t do Sunday at Sonoma was win, assembling a sizable 54-point day — second only to SVG‘s 63 — with a sweep of the stages from the pole position and a third-place result. That equaled a convincing first-round victory over No. 28 seed Austin Dillon, who finished 27th. Gibbs‘ path to a second straight In-Season Challenge title will have to go through teammate Chase Briscoe, who makes for an enticing Round 2 matchup after a stellar runner-up finish Sunday.
Who‘s down
Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford. Gilliland survived a bumpy Sonoma ride, including a pair of run-ins with 23XI Racing‘s Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst in Stage 2. He finished where he started in 29th place, but it was just enough to advance over 31st-finishing Daniel Suárez, a former Sonoma winner whose race went awry after a first-stage flat. Gilliland is among a handful of drivers heading into unknown territory for their first Cup Series start at Chicagoland, and he‘ll face off with No. 9 seed Carson Hocevar in a second-round test.
Contributing: Nate Solomon
]]>With a long 57-lap stint to the finish, it forced drivers to make their final pit stops of the afternoon under green-flag conditions. Briscoe, running second at the time, exited the 1.99-mile racing surface at Lap 81 for four fresh Goodyear tires and fuel. Van Gisbergen followed one lap later.
Despite the time gained in the closing laps and a last-ditch push into Turn 11, Briscoe saw the Kiwi take the checkered flag out the front windshield for the second year in a row at the California road course.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Sonoma
“Last year, I felt like I never really knew what he had,” Briscoe said. “Today, like 15 or so to go, I was like, ‘Oh, he‘s letting me catch him and he‘ll just drive away‘, and then I realized I was like, man, I‘m actually better here, like I could see him struggling. I could tell the last 10 laps, it was everything he had. I just, I made a mistake with like three or four to go getting into Turn 1.
“Just have to be absolutely perfect to beat him, and I wasn‘t perfect. I thought I definitely had the superior car. I just didn‘t do as good of a job as he did driving.”
As the laps ticked down, Briscoe was encouraged by his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team to conserve rear tires while van Gisbergen struggled on pace. With four laps to go, Briscoe shaved the deficit down to under a second before missing Turn 1, causing him to lose an additional half second.
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Briscoe credited his braking during the final run that gave him a fighting chance to pull off the upset on van Gisbergen.
“I just kept pushing harder and harder and harder,” Briscoe said. “I didn‘t feel like I was really that bad under braking, but then at the end I just kept pushing it, like I said, extremely hard. I knew that was the one thing, if I could just try to make him get pressured in, and I honestly kind of baited him into it there on the white flag into (Turn) 7. He kind of missed, and I just unfortunately missed with him.”
But his second consecutive Sonoma runner-up shouldn‘t come as a surprise. His crew chief, James Small, has a knack for success in Wine Country.
Combined with Briscoe and the retired Martin Truex Jr., the No. 19 team leader has scored four top-three results in his last six Sonoma events, including a win with Truex in 2023.
While not revealing his secret to success in Northern California, Small credited Briscoe for his growing ability to navigate the course and compete for wins.
MORE: Cup Series standings
“It‘s like training a dog, and it‘s just trying to show him that it can be done,” Small told NASCAR.com. “Just repetition and we‘ve got the perfect playbook by seeing Shane, who‘s honestly one of the best drivers in the world when it comes to managing his stuff. I think if we could have had track position on him there at the end … we had a better long-run car. Credit to Chase for really not going too hard there and managing that whole run.
“It‘s frustrating to finish second again here and would have been nice to be back in the winner‘s circle.”
Entering the middle of the summer stretch, Briscoe has established some consistency following a rough start to 2026.
Once outside The Chase picture after Watkins Glen, the Indiana native has climbed to 11th across the last six races and has built a 79-point cushion to the cutline.
Briscoe matched his season-best result Sunday (second at EchoPark Speedway in February), but with a goose egg still in the win column for 2026, there will certainly be a bitter taste leaving Wine Country despite nearly conquering the king of the road.
“I think that Shane is one of the greatest road-course drivers in the world,” Briscoe said. “I felt like I was playing one-on-one against Michael Jordan. I didn‘t have the lead, but I had every opportunity to beat him, and I blew it.”
After qualifying 11th on Saturday, Reddick faded throughout the 25-lap opening stint at the 1.99-mile road course, complaining to his No. 45 23XI Racing team about power steering issues. He finished Stage 1 30th before coming down pit road for repairs, losing six laps to the field. He gained two laps back at the Stage 2 end, with a caution for debris soon after.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Sonoma
“It‘s disappointing. We don‘t really know what the issue was,” No. 45 crew chief Billy Scott told NASCAR.com. “It sounds like we were able to help it some, but not fully. I think we missed an opportunity to have a solid top-10 day, had decent speed and got the fastest lap and did what we could. Certainly disappointed to not get many points on the day.”
Speaking to TNT Sports after the race, Reddick explained that he was unsure whether to let the issue ride or spend laps on pit road diagnosing it.
“It‘s so hard to say, in hindsight, if we made the right decision or not to work on it,” Reddick said. “Either way, we had a difficult road ahead, so I don‘t know. I do feel good that it was nice we did decide to pit there, work on it, so we were able to get the Xfinity Fastest Lap out of the day, at least.”
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Reddick, a California native, won five of the first nine races this season, including the season-opening Daytona 500. He led the series by as many as 129 points after Watkins Glen International in May. But after finishing 36th at Sonoma, he surrendered the points lead to Denny Hamlin for the first time this season.
“The reality is there is a reset coming in eight weeks or whatever it is, so this is good practice for that,” Scott said. “We‘re going to keep focusing on what we can do, and we think that‘s going out to win more races before we get to The Chase.”
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Despite gaining the points lead, Hamlin had his own issues. Entering Sonoma with wins in three of the last four races, he went spinning on a restart and plummeted through the field after showing early top 10 speed. He unofficially leads the series by one marker heading to Chicagoland Speedway next Sunday (6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“We got pretty fortunate today,” Reddick said. “[Hamlin] was running really, really good. Something happened, don‘t really know what it was, but something coming out of the dirt right in front of me there. So all things considered, for the issues we had, we were very fortunate to really only lose nine points on the day to Denny, finishing dead last.”
]]>Piloting the No. 16 Chevrolet, the 44-year-old has found a home at Kaulig Racing since the start of the decade and has held full-time roles in both the Cup Series and NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series with the organization. He returned to full-time Cup action in 2025 and is under contract with the team through at least 2029.
RELATED: Race results | Allmendinger through the years
“I guess the way my mentality is still of I‘m always out there trying to prove it to myself that now you still belong here, and it‘s what drives me insane sometimes,” Allmendinger said. “It‘s also what pushes me to want to be at my best every second of the day. I think there‘s two ways, and it‘s just the way I am mentally about myself — thinking 500 starts — it‘s like immediately my mind goes, ‘well, damn, I wish I had won more.‘ Like, I wish in these 500 starts there‘d be kind of more, more ups. But if you‘d asked 2007 AJ, as I was missing most of the races on a brand new race team, like, hey, by the way, 19 years later, you‘re going to be at start 500 at Sonoma, I would‘ve been like, ‘there‘s not a chance in hell.‘ “
Allmendinger has competed in the Cup Series since 2007, running for now-defunct teams Red Bull Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports. He also ran part-time schedules for Team Penske and Phoenix Racing in 2012-13. Allmendinger then moved to JTG Daugherty Racing (now Hyak Motorsports) at the end of 2013 and became its full-time driver at the start of 2014.
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In 2014, Allmendinger broke through for his first career Cup Series victory at Watkins Glen International after 213 starts.
Allmendinger went on to win two more Cup Series races after joining Kaulig, winning the first Cup event on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in 2021 and two years later at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. Those victories came after not making a Cup start in 2019 and 2020.
Allmendinger entered Sunday‘s Cup race 20th in points, 21 markers below the cutoff for The Chase. He is seeking his first postseason berth since 2014. The Los Gatos, California, native has also qualified for the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series postseason on three occasions, reaching the championship round in both 2021 and 2024.
Saturday at Sonoma, Allmendinger took time to thank owner Matt Kaulig and Kaulig CEO Chris Rice for the success he has garnered deep into his career.
“This is like my home, and sometimes it can be a dysfunctional home on all ends. I‘m a little crazy, you hear it on the radio, but we love each other, and we will fight to the death for each other,” Allmendinger said. “I‘ve gotten to kiss the bricks at Indianapolis, got to win at Charlotte, got to win on ovals, got one of the coolest finishes ever in Bristol. Like, I owe the happiness of my career, whether it‘s ever good enough in my mind, I wish it was. We‘ve done some pretty damn cool things. Hopefully, we got more to go, but I owe my happiness of my career when I‘m done to Matt and Chris.”
Contributing: Cameron Richardson | NASCAR.com
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