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The question has become a regular occurrence after every Denny Hamlin win (so it’s lately been occurring quite regularly).
Each win moves the Joe Gibbs Racing star up the career win list while also moving him closer to the checkered flag on an illustrious career.
Hamlin is racing to an expiration date – the end of the 2027 season. He’s been open that the contract he has signed through next year will be his last in the Cup Series.
So it’s become natural to wonder: Will Hamlin reconsider driving beyond next year if his performance remains so high level?
Team owners Joe and Heather Gibbs each were asked about it after Hamlin’s past two wins (and both hoped he might change his mind).
After his 63rd career victory (and fourth this season, including the All-Star Race), Hamlin got asked about it twice in the span of 20 minutes.
“I feel there’s three things that happen,” Hamlin said after being pressed by analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the Amazon Prime postrace show. “You lose your eyesight. You lose your reaction (time). And your body hurts.
“The body hurts are there. During the week, I’m not recovering as quick. But the other two things, I still feel sharp. So, yeah, I want to go out like this. It’s a fantasy land to do it.”
Brett Farmer | Getty Images
Hamlin added some context later when asked by journalist Matt Weaver in the Michigan International Speedway media center.
“If — and that’s a big if — I’m at this point and this fast at this point next year, it would be a tough, tough decision,” he said. “Because, again, I’m planning for the downfall that I know will come.”
A studious driver who has stayed sharp into his mid-40s by spending countless hours in the simulator and burying himself in data, Hamlin has undoubtedly looked at how NASCAR stars tail off late in their careers.
When the decline begins – and there’s no way to predict the starting point – even the results of NASCAR Hall of Famers tend to fall off a cliff.
Jimmie Johnson won three times in the 2017 season following his seventh championship … and then didn’t win again (and hardly got close) over the final 95 races of his full-time career.
Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip each went winless in their final eight Cup seasons, which became painfully ignominious stretches that exposed even legends are no match for Father Time.
As race car drivers rage against the dying of the light, there’s invariably a popular phrase that gets bandied about: “Well, they didn’t forget how to drive!”
It implies the blame lies with their cars or their teams. Somehow, it’s those factors that are betraying them instead of their bodies.
It’s an objective fallacy.
The greats don’t forget how to turn the wheel and stomp the accelerator, but their hand-eye coordination will inevitably deteriorate.
Petty recently admitted as much in explaining that “I love to drive race cars. It’s hard to get out. I should have stopped earlier” when asked about his farewell 1992 season.
“The longer we run, the slower I got,” Petty said. “I should have seen it coming enough to say, ‘I don’t need to be doing this.’ But again, I love to drive the race car so much that if they hadn’t made me, I’d probably still be driving.”
As a 1963 standard by Barbra Streisand goes, “I Stayed Too Long at the Fair.”
Hamlin, who turns 46 in November, is acutely aware that there’s no way to time a perfectly graceful exit. The best way is to err on the side of leaving too much on the table.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
It’s a strategy that worked for Jeff Gordon, Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson and Fred Lorenzen, all of whom left at or near the peak of their powers.
Why shouldn’t Hamlin do the same?
His next win will put him alone in ninth place among NASCAR’s career winners. The next spot on that list – Dale Earnhardt’s 76 victories – is probably unattainable.
“I ain’t getting to eighth,” Hamlin said. “So what am I doing? I’m content. If I quit tomorrow, I swear I will feel no more gratified than if I go out there and win 72 races. It makes no difference.
“Nobody cares. You’ll be forgotten within six months of when you’re not here. I might as well just enjoy life while I’m still somewhat young and be able to be there a little bit more for the kids.”
Hamlin did leave the door open a crack.
If he wins three times in the first four months of the 2027 season, the decision gets harder, “but I find it hard to believe we’re going to be at this level at this time next year.”
And he revealed that Gibbs, the only car owner he has had since entering Cup in 2006, will get one more chance to persuade him to stay in the offseason.
“I have a commitment to Joe no matter what,” Hamlin said. “I told him, ’Just check with me in six months.’”
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — What a difference six months has made for 23XI Racing.
The 2025 campaign was respectable: Bubba Wallace earned a crown-jewel victory in the Brickyard 400, and both he and teammate Tyler Reddick made the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. But team president Steve Lauletta was among the many inside the shop who felt they underperformed last year, a season made more complicated by the addition of a third full-time team and off-track distractions.
Midway through June, Reddick has led the NASCAR Cup Series points standings since winning the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, right before becoming the first driver in Cup Series history to win the opening three races of the season — and five of the first nine overall. Team co-owner Michael Jordan — arguably the most recognizable face and name in American sports history — was visible everywhere from pit road at Darlington Raceway to “CBS Mornings.” Wallace ranked inside the top three in points for five of the first six races of the season, and Riley Herbst has shown significant statistical improvement in his sophomore campaign driving the team’s No. 35 Toyota.
“Last year was not what we wanted it to be,” Lauletta told NASCAR.com in a sit-down interview at his Airspeed office. “[…] There were off-the-track things that were needing attention. So putting all that behind us and starting out the way we started out has just been really gratifying for everybody here to know that we didn’t lose our way.”
This year marks 23XI’s sixth in competition. Just past the regular season’s midpoint, it has unquestionably been its most successful. That says a lot for an organization that had already hung plaques for nine points-paying wins before 2026, plus another for Reddick’s Regular Season Championship in 2024.
The fuel to this season’s charge, Lauletta said, largely stems from a preseason meeting in which Jordan and co-owner and racer Denny Hamlin addressed expectations for the 38 races ahead, a meeting that featured “a lot of looking in the mirror by everybody,” and challenged each team member to question what they could do to change the team’s trajectory.
“Dave Rogers, our competition director, did a really nice job of laying out five focus areas for all of us to pay attention to,” Lauletta said, “and had Michael and Denny sort of giving their thoughts on their experience of how they wanted to see those five things come to life. And everybody really bought into it. And coming out of the gates the way we did showed them that that’s the way we need to continue for the entire season and into the future.”
With success, high-profile sponsors and an even higher-profile team owner like Jordan, 23XI Racing has reaped the rewards of brand exposure that has transcended the typical NASCAR bubble. New sponsors like Hardee’s and Rockstar Energy Drink have joined the team’s stable of partners while also attracting attention from other stars from the sports world, like Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua and retired NFL running back Marshawn Lynch. The team has even been featured on Nice Kicks, an influential brand on social media focusing on sneaker culture.
“Those folks wanting to be around us because of what we were doing and are doing is great for the brand,” Lauletta said. “It’s great for our partners, right? So our partners get tremendous exposure from not only what’s happening on the track, but all the other opportunities that we are putting them in front of people in unique ways. It has helped us bring new partners onto the team that see what we’re all about and want to be part of the fact that we are making the impact that we’re making within the sport of NASCAR — which has millions and millions of fans — but also beyond that.
“It’s a tremendous benefit for us. And again, [15] races into our sixth year, we’re still growing the brand of who we are and what 23XI is going to be decades from now.”
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images
Part of Year 6 has involved making plans for Year 7, including a multiyear contract extension for Reddick and the introduction of top prospect Corey Heim, who will replace Herbst in the No. 35 Toyota full-time in 2027 after making part-time starts as the team’s development driver since 2024.
Rookie expectations are difficult to set and even harder to live through. Herbst, a three-time winner in NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition, experienced that firsthand in 2025, ranking 35th in the standings, only above Cody Ware among full-time drivers. Herbst has improved to 26th in the standings so far this season, more impressively boosting his average finish five positions from 26.4 in 2025 to 21.5 this year, along with better qualifying efforts: an average of 27.0 in 2025 to 20.5 this season.
Heim, the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, will enter with more Cup experience than his recent rookie counterparts, Herbst and Connor Zilisch, the latter ranked 34th in points. But Lauletta is cautious to set any high bars for Heim in his first full Cup campaign.
“It’s still going to be really hard,” Lauletta said. “We know that we’ve given him the opportunity to run these Cup races. And I try to grab him after every one, and he’s usually super hard on himself. And I’ll just say to him, ‘Did you learn something?’ And he goes, ‘Yes.’ I go, ‘That’s why we’re doing this, right? We’re doing this so you learn things.’
“He led laps for the first time a couple of races ago (at Texas). He’s made mistakes on the track. He’s made mistakes in pit lane. Did you learn something? And he’ll continue that for a number of years, and we know that that’s the case. So for me, and I think for many of us, it’s just how much can he learn over the next few years that puts him in the position that we know he could be successful.”
Adding a third team to 23XI’s fleet in 2025 proved to be “bigger than I anticipated,” Lauletta conceded, adding the people necessary to operate a successful program and incorporating them into the team’s ways. That task only grows tougher when Heim competes in a fourth entry, like he is 12 times this season. The team currently has no intentions of running a fourth car in 2027 unless a sponsorship opportunity arises that makes sense for the team, like fielding an Open entry for Travis Pastrana in the 2023 Daytona 500 or for Juan Pablo Montoya at Watkins Glen International in 2024.
“Those kind of things are interesting for a brand standpoint, a partner standpoint, but it’s not something that we’re going to focus on,” Lauletta said.
David Jensen | Getty Images
Lauletta’s resume spans decades across the sports business market, including 11 years as team president of Chip Ganassi Racing. As 23XI Racing’s brand continues to expand, Lauletta sees the rest of the sports business world paying attention to how his team is navigating the landscape, most recently highlighted by a nomination as Sports Team of the Year by the Sports Business Awards.
“I have a lot of friends at different leagues and teams and agencies, and they call and want to know what we’re up to and ask questions,” Lauletta said. “And I think we’ve been able to bring people into the team that bring different experiences and are able to open our eyes for some of us that have been around the sport for a long time of thinking and doing things differently. And that’s all good, and I think that allows the recognition we’re getting because we’re not just doing the same thing that everybody else is doing.
“I say this internally a lot: A good day for me is all the teams are piled together in a place, and we’re in a different place. And sometimes being in that different place isn’t going to be right, but I’m okay, because we’re trying something different than anybody else, and most of the time that’s going to be good. Sometimes it’s not, and thankfully, Denny and Michael give us the ability to do those things, make those choices, and learn from them, which is what has allowed us to, I think, get the recognition that we have in the short amount of time.”
Whatever lies ahead for 23XI will almost certainly remain in the space of the Cup Series. Particularly since overseeing Ganassi, which fielded cars across myriad motorsports series, Lauletta currently sees no benefit to expand 23XI to either the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series or Truck Series as the goal for owners Hamlin and Jordan was “to form a top-notch, world-class NASCAR Cup Series team.”
But what remains a focus within the walls of Airspeed is pushing the boundaries of what can be expected from a NASCAR team, transcending the sport’s own sphere and entering a more culturally relevant space.
“I think it’s continuing to drive where the brand can go,” Lauletta said. “So from an off-track perspective, delivering value to our partners, driving the brand both in the sport of NASCAR and outside of the sport of NASCAR, building a new fan base, all of the things that are going to allow us to keep the partners that we have, because we’re helping their business bring new partners on board.
“And then from an on-track perspective, I feel like we just need to continue to build fast race cars, enhance our processes that are still fairly new, attract the best talent we can attract, and give these guys a chance to compete at the highest level. And that will allow us to keep building on what Denny wanted, which is this to be a consistent race-winning team that can challenge for championships.”
Editor’s Note: Keep tabs on this page for lineup advice following qualifying, including changes you should consider.
The spotlight at Pocono Raceway will shine squarely on Denny Hamlin this weekend. The 63-time Cup Series winner has long been the master of the “Tricky Triangle” since his first start in the Pocono Mountains, collecting a track-record seven bald eagle trophies. Hamlin is white-hot entering the weekend, aiming to score three straight victories for the first time in his Hall of Fame career. But there are multiple serious threats to challenge him.
Returning to Fastlane this year is my weekly NASCAR 36 for 36 pick,where you can come play along. It’s a season-long points battle introduced in 2024 where strategy is the primary emphasis. With 36 chartered cars and 36 races on the 2026 schedule, players can choose each car once for the duration of the season.
Driver: Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing, No. 11 Toyota Selections remaining: 3 Comment: Hamlin will soon have a boulder of his own in the Pocono infield, joining the likes of Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty and former No. 11 wheelman Cale Yarborough. His seven victories nearly match the combined total of his competition (eight). Hamlin has six top-two finishes – three wins – in the last nine Pocono visits and would have added a fourth victory in 2022 had he not been disqualified because of a technical infraction with his No. 11 car. He leads active drivers in top fives (17), top 10s (24) and laps led (890).
Driver:Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports, No. 9 Chevrolet Selections remaining: 6 Comment: The beneficiary of Hamlin’s 2022 DQ was Elliott, who earned his lone Pocono victory that year. Don’t let that fool you, though, as he is the only driver to place inside the top 10 in all four Next Gen races here. Hendrick also leads the way with 19 Pocono wins.
Driver: Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing, No. 19 Toyota Selections remaining: 7 Comment: With teams able to flip the first two stages without sacrificing a lap, Pocono can become a fantasy headache when it comes to building the optimal lineup. Briscoe, however, nearly scored maximum points last year on the way to his first victory with JGR. Given the No. 19 team’s championship ranking, it’s shaping up to be a conservative, points-focused weekend.
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
DRIVERS TO AVOID
Driver: Joey Logano, Team Penske, No. 22 Ford Selections remaining: 7 Comment: Among all non-drafting ovals – or triangles – Pocono has historically been Logano’s weakest with an average finish of 17.4. He scored a signature win here in 2012, ultimately earning the ride with Penske shortly thereafter. But the three-time champion has only five top fives in 30 Pocono starts.
Driver: Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing, No. 1 Chevrolet Selections remaining: 8 Comment: Chastain is known for punching above his weight class, but 2026 has been a tussle for Trackhouse. The No. 1 team has a pair of finishes better than 16th though 15 starts, and Chastain has only finished better than 24th once in 10 Pocono races (13th, 2023).
James Gilbert | Getty Images
SLEEPERS OF THE WEEK
Driver:Brad Keselowski, RFK Racing, No. 6 Ford Selections remaining: 7 Comment: With consecutive DNFs, Keselowski has plummeted to 15th on The Chase grid, desperately needing a bounce-back weekend. Fortunately for the 2012 champion, he leads active drivers in average finish at Pocono, sitting at 10.7 through 28 starts.
Driver:Erik Jones, Legacy Motor Club, No. 43 Toyota Selections remaining:10 Comment: With two crown-jewel wins at Darlington Raceway, the egg-shaped 1.366-mile track leaps off the page as a personal best for Jones. But it’s Pocono where Jones has excelled in the Next Gen era, tied for the fifth-best average finish (11.25) and sixth in points scored (131), according to Racing Insights.
James Gilbert | Getty Images
FEATURED MATCHUPS
Denny Hamlin vs. Chase Elliott Pick: Hamlin Comment: Track position will be of the essence at Pocono, and it’s hard to think Hamlin won’t have it in spades throughout the 400 miles. Based on the metric, he will have the advantage from the get-go in qualifying and should use that to his advantage.
Chris Buescher vs. Joey Logano Pick: Buescher Comment: Given Logano is currently three points below the cutline, the Paul Wolfe-led team will likely optimize points at Pocono. That might not set up best for an overall finish, though Buescher netted 48 points last year and still finished fourth. I’m hedging with the No. 17 bunch.
Ryan Blaney vs. Chase Briscoe Pick: Briscoe Comment: The two most recent Pocono winners make for a powerhouse matchup. Toyota has been far and away the strongest manufacturer in 2026 and Briscoe should have the ability to let that TRD horsepower ring down the long straightaways. Blaney has been feast or famine in the last four Pocono races, with a pair of podium efforts and two finishes of 30th or worse.
Erik Jones vs. Alex Bowman Pick: Jones Comment: Historically, Bowman has gotten the job done at Pocono, earning six finishes of 11th or better, including a 2021 win, in the last seven events. But the No. 48 team has had a miserable year while Jones is surging, gaining 51 points on The Chase cutline over the last three races.
Pick: John Hunter Nemechek, Legacy Motor Club, No. 42 Toyota Comment: As I’ve experienced the last two weeks, every race isn’t going to be a grand slam, collecting a mere 11 points. Nemechek has performed better than the results have reflected through 15 races, getting taken out while running inside the top 10 on multiple occasions in 2026. He qualified fourth last spring at Pocono and stretched the fuel tank to a sixth-place effort.
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — On the brink of becoming the dean of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Jeremy Clements feels he’s earned his place in NASCAR history but isn’t interested in analyzing it.
“I’m just worried about the racing,” he said with a laugh.
Kenny Wallace, whose all-time series starts record Clements will tie this weekend in Pocono then break with his 548th race next week in San Diego, California, has anointed his successor as “The Mayor” of the O’Reilly Series.
That moniker might not be the right fit for a driver whose story is overwhelmingly about dogged perseverance rather than bombastic congeniality.
“It’s really, really cool to hear, but I don’t know if I want ‘The Mayor’ because this was never a goal of mine, and it’s really badass to do at this age,” said Clements, who at 41 is 10 years younger than when Wallace retired. “This is phenomenal. To be in a sport this long, something I always wanted to do as a kid, and to have my best opportunity right now.
“I foresee myself racing years and years if I can keep the funding rolling in.”
Forget about “The Mayor.”
“The Businessman” might be a better label for Clements, who has chased down money to stay on track for three decades (and brokered deals to cover an extra half-million dollars for his team’s budget this year).
“The Bionic Man” could also be an apt descriptor for Clements, whose right arm was so mangled in a dirt racing crash 22 years ago, his first O’Reilly Series start (a few months earlier) also could have been his last.
Or maybe it’s “The Family Man,” for the doting husband who shoots social media content for his wife, Cortney (an influencer with close to a million followers across multiple platforms) while raising their 2-year-old daughter, Kennedy.
The new face of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is a bit of a Renaissance Man. But at his core, Clements is most simply defined by one word.
Racer.
Motorsports runs richly through his veins. His family has achieved significant measures of fame in the major leagues of both dirt and asphalt racing.
It’s all Jeremy Clements has ever known, and despite a NASCAR career marked by nearly constant adversity, he never considered giving up on it.
“Oh, hell no,” he chuckled. “What else am I going to do? I get asked all the time, ‘What would you do if you didn’t race?’ Hell, I don’t know. I never had to think about it.”
Cortney said her husband has had to work “10 times as hard” to make it this far.
“Sometimes it’s hard for me to even watch at this point, knowing how bad he wants it,” she said. “This sport’s truly the most brutal, and there’s no backup plan for him. He’s not going to build engines. He’s not going to work at Lowe’s. He’s a race car driver.”
A very modestly successful one at that – which might be the most astounding part of his longevity.
Clements is on the cusp of having more starts than anyone in series history, yet still has only two wins (and one he had to fight to keep after being initially stripped for a rules violation).
“I won everything until I got in the series, and then I got my ass put in place,” he said. “I don’t want to be good at losing, but I have learned to accept it a little easier. I don’t let it ruin my life. Man, you’ve got to shake that off. There’s another race. What keeps me driving is knowing I can do it, and if I’m placed in the right opportunity, I can definitely get the job done.”
Clements has the right opportunity this year as his family-run No. 51 Chevrolet has entered into a technical alliance with the Haas Factory Team. The leveling-up has relocated the gritty single-car team based in Spartanburg, South Carolina from a cramped, 5,000-square-foot shop to a sprawling facility of vast resources in Kannapolis, North Carolina.
Clements recently notched his first top five in four years, and his team has a goal of making the Chase for the first time since his most recent win (at Daytona in 2022).
“This is his best opportunity to win races and run up front consistently,” crew chief Matt Weber said. “It’s his time, and he’s in his prime. It’s really kind of cool.”
Everything seems to be coming together at a career-defining milestone.
“This is perfect timing,” Clements said. “And to do it at San Diego is going to be awesome. I’m looking forward to taking it all in. And it’d be cool if they give you something (for the record). Maybe a little participation trophy.”
* * *
The Clements family has been racking up trophies since the early days of NASCAR.
Jeremy’s grandfather, Crawford, was a crew chief for wins by Junior Johnson, Buck Baker and A.J. Foyt. Jeremy’s great uncle, Louis, was the crew chief for Hall of Famer Rex White’s 1960 Cup Series championship. The brothers started in Owensboro, Kentucky, with a car called “the Flying Saucer” that was legendary on short tracks.
“They were pioneers of the sport and super smart to come up with all the innovation to be that competitive then,” said Jeremy Clements, who recalls his grandfather “always working on something. I just remember workbenches everywhere and carburetors always around.”
Former NASCAR champion Rex White celebrates a North Wilkesboro Speedway victory with crew chief Louis Clements in 1961. (NASCAR Research & Archives Center | Getty Images)
In the 1970s, the family refocused on engine building. Since taking over as an 18-year-old, Jeremy’s father, Tony, has been running Clements Automotive for 52 years. Supplying engines for many top dirt teams, its Clements Racing Engines arm has been named engine builder of the year multiple times in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.
Tony Clements said his generation (younger brother Glenn also helps run the business) gravitated away from NASCAR toward dirt because of “a burning desire” for racing machinery. CRE develops all its intake manifolds and cylinder heads while building a lot of parts in-house. The waiting list for an engine has stood at roughly 100 teams for as long as anyone can remember.
“We’ve just had a passion growing up in the sport, and it’s been a day and night thing,” Tony Clements said. “We’ve worked 60 to 80 hours a week for almost 50 years. We wanted to be in a position that we weren’t just working for somebody and possibly be held back in that manner. If you have a big enough passion for the sport and the competitiveness and want to be not held back, I think that’s why we pursued it on our own. You put your heart and soul into it and never say never and just don’t give up.”
* * *
In his final years, Crawford Clements took an interest in his grandson Jeremy’s career, starting him in go-karts at 7 years old. After his grandfather’s death, an 11-year-old Jeremy Clements had his mom drop him off at go-kart tracks so he could hustle for rides, eventually finding enough winners to amass 47 victories that propelled him into four-cylinder stock cars in 1999.
“I guess I’ve always been resourceful, and you just don’t give up,” he said. “You just go after what you want, and racing is what I’ve always wanted. You just find a way to keep making it happen.”
Tony Clements began shepherding his son’s career through a pivotal period in his late teens. Jeremy Clements won two races in six days that paid $28,000 and sold his cars for slightly more than that after another win.
The family then reinvested in his career, buying a Super Late Model dirt car in 2002 and dabbling in ARCA. Clements finished third in a May 23, 2003 race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the night of his high school graduation. He made his O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut two months later and had feelers for a part-time ride with an established team.
But it would be more than four years until he made his second O’Reilly Series start.
* * *
Clements was running near the back with a handful of laps left in a Late Model race on July 24, 2004 – he remembers the date well because his grandfather died eight years to the day earlier – when he heard an explosion.
A torque arm failure launched his car’s driveshaft through the cockpit and nearly severed his right hand.
“My arm was going one way with the hand hanging off the other way,” he said. “The worst pain you can ever imagine.”
The incident happened at 311 Speedway in Pine Hall, North Carolina, which was about 30 miles from Wake Forest Baptist Memorial Hospital in Winston-Salem.
“My wife and I left that race track following the ambulance, going 100 mph on some back roads, and she was screaming,” Tony Clements said. “I said, ‘We can’t lose this ambulance because I don’t know where it’s going.’
“It was a horrible situation. I was in the ER holding his arm, and they were washing it out and shocked at how bad it was tore up. They were saying, ‘It’s so destroyed, we might have to cut it off,’ and I said, ‘That ain’t happening. We’ll go somewhere else.’ ”
The first of 10 surgeries took nine hours as two large plates were inserted.
Tony stayed at the hospital for three weeks as Jeremy underwent rehab that included bone grafts from his hip (the hand was sewed to his body for a month) and tendon replacements from his right foot.
“It was a nightmare, really,” Jeremy said, pausing to joke, “I can’t get in a fight with that hand now. It would mess some stuff up in there.”
It took a year before he was able to test a dirt Late Model car. He soon finished second in his return to a race at Thunder Valley Speedway (“it looked like he hadn’t even been out of the car,” Tony said).
The injury caused no change in reflexes, but his grip diminished. Today, Jeremy compensates with extra padding for the steering wheel. He otherwise has been unaffected by an accident that doctors said would end his racing career.
“I just thought, ‘Ahhh, they’re wrong. There ain’t no way. Just do the best you can and fix this thing up and let me see about that,’ ” Jeremy said. “They were good doctors, but they were a little negative. They’re like, ‘You’ll never race again! You’re done.’ I’m like, ‘Damn! OK. Why you even got to say that?’ I just was persistent and wasn’t going to give up.”
* * *
In becoming the all-time starts leader, Clements has already set an O’Reilly Auto Parts Series streak that might never be broken. Pocono will mark his 443rd consecutive start (the previous record was 383) dating to a two-race behavioral suspension in 2013.
The past 510 starts since 2011 have been with Jeremy Clements Racing, which was founded in the same autonomous spirit of Clements Racing Engines.
“I did that so that somebody couldn’t put him out or do something different than what we wanted to keep his racing going,” Tony said. “Because if you put your eggs in somebody else’s basket, they may change their mind or do something different if somebody else has got more money. We wanted to control our own destiny.”
Stacy Revere | Getty Images
The team broke through for its first win at Road America on Aug. 27, 2017 – three months after Jeremy married Cortney, who had been working in team PR and management.
“I walked by him at the track, and he goes, ‘Uhhh, you’ve got a cute dog,’ and it was the first time he’d spoken to me,” Cortney said. “If you’re going to compliment me, a cute dog is a good one. I know a lot of race car drivers, and they’re usually not that good of a guy, so I’m like, ‘There’s no way that this is going to work out.’ Jeremy seemed too good to be true, but he was so sure. I had to slow it down because he was like, ‘Let’s get engaged,’ and it hadn’t even been a year.
“There was a TikTok trend recently, and it made me go all the way back in my text messages to see the first thing he ever said to me. It was, ‘You’re perfect for me.’ ”
Jeremy has been a valuable asset as an ace photographer for his wife, who became a full-time social media influencer after getting married and leaving the NASCAR industry to live in Spartanburg. Cortney laughs about dragging her husband to quaint downtowns and picturesque Southern settings for content shoots.
New video equipment has made Jeremy’s help less necessary, but he still gets pressed into service – sometimes minutes before a race.
“It kills me sometimes when I see the videos,” Cortney said. “We’ll be at the track, and I’m like, ‘Well, Jeremy knows how to get the perfect picture of me, so let’s give the driver the camera.’ So it’s so pitiful, but you’ll walk by Jeremy’s car sometimes and see me and my girlfriends with him as the photographer. He’s an OK sport about it. Having a little girl is expensive, so he has to be a sport about it.”
* * *
Expenses have also spiked for Jeremy Clements Racing this season – and with good reason.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Weber, the team’s crew chief, was overseeing work on cars that were nearly three weeks ahead of schedule. Since joining the team last year, he has noticed a change in his driver’s demeanor.
“Everything’s looking up and trending in the right direction, so it’s awesome to be a part of,” Weber said. “Last year, the results were so bad, that you could tell after the race, Jeremy just wanted to go hide. He didn’t interact much at the shop, and the phone calls were short. We didn’t know how to get out of this hole. And now the speed’s there. Some results are there. The sponsor interest is up. He just acts younger and is excited to go to the track.”
Seeking to replace old chassis that dated to 2019, Jeremy Clements Racing shopped for nearly 18 months before stumbling on the opportunity at Haas, which wanted to partner on new cars instead of selling them.
“All these other teams kind of screw you around, and they ain’t going to sell you what they’re actually running,” Clements said. “And (Haas president) Joe (Custer) was like, ‘I’m going to offer you this instead.’ And I was like, ‘We need this, but there’s no way we can make this work because we need more money.’ ”
The new partnership would require about an extra $15,000 per race.
To secure the extra funding, Clements brought all of his team’s major sponsors to Haas for a tour of the facilities last fall. They hammered out the framework for a two-year contract in a Haas meeting room, turning around the deal in about a week.
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images
Tony Clements credits his son’s business acumen for the game-changing arrangement.
“He has developed that skill in a way that people enjoy and respond to it,” Tony said. “I can’t necessarily use all the right methods or personality to sell them on helping us race. Jeremy’s much more capable of doing that.”
Though he didn’t ever “want a job that I’ve got to dress up in a suit,” Jeremy said he can be a salesman by necessity.
“There’s been times I’ve been scared the sponsorship wasn’t there that we might not be able to continue,” he said. “You’re always got that in the back of your mind because this is an expensive sport, whether you’re racing go-karts, dirt Late Models or NASCAR. There’s been times I was worried. Hell, I’m still worried. It’s always a concern to keep the funding rolling in to do it.”
As long as the money is there, Clements wants to race into his 50s on a circuit that he relishes because it’s fun but yet still difficult to drive.
“That’s the way it should be,” he said. “This is the purest series. I love the cars. Ask any Cup driver that races this series, they say the same thing: ‘If we got paid the same money, we would be doing this full time.’ That’s the truth.”
If he races for another decade, Clements would cross 800 starts – making his record seemingly untouchable while validating his family’s support and its legacy.
“It’s just what we do and what we’ve always done,” Tony said. “It’s really almost kind of shocking if you stop and think back about 548 races. We’re so proud that he could follow his dream. It’s what has driven me. He’s always said that’s his whole life. He just wants to be a professional race car driver.”
Said Jeremy: “I’m just a racer. As long as I stay healthy and keep the train rolling, I’m blessed to do this.”
After a rare weekend off, only eight races remain to set the 12-driver Chase field, with the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returning to action at Pocono Raceway in Saturday’s MillerTech Battery 250 presented by KOA (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Connor Zilisch is the defending race winner. The only full-time O’Reilly driver with a past victory in the series’ 10-year history at the track is Austin Hill, driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, who won in 2023.
As has become the theme for the season, the question is whether anyone can slow JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier’s torrid pace. The 2024 series champion is turning in a career year — his four wins already one victory shy of his career best mark.
Allgaier leads all drivers in everything from trophies to top fives (11), top 10s (13), average finish (7.9), laps led (422) and stage wins (six). He’s finished first or second seven times. Perhaps most impressive is that his 179 points over Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love (the defending series champion) atop the driver standings is larger than the gap between second place and 11th place (Sam Mayer).
Rather than discouraging the competition, Allgaier’s dominance has instead been motivating.
Love, who finished second to Zilisch last year at Pocono, has been close to a trophy, finishing runner-up three times and failing to win even after leading the most laps at Nashville Superspeedway, the series’ most recent race.
He’s the only driver ranked among the top four without a victory. Yet only halfway through the calendar, and he’s already led more laps (374) than he has in any previous entire season.
The competition at the other end of the Chase standings is tight; positions 10th (Parker Retzlaff) through 15th (Ryan Sieg) are separated by only 32 points.
The last three Pocono race winners — Hill, Cole Custer and Zilisch — are all entered this weekend, as is Cup Series regular William Byron. Practice gets underway at 10:30 a.m. ET Saturday, followed by qualifying at 11:35 a.m. ET, with both sessions airing on The CW App. Custer is the only polesitter (2019) to win at Pocono.
NEW YORK —Today, Prime Video launched a new installment of “Eli Manning Presents: The Undercovers,” featuring NASCAR championand Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney. The new installment arrives as NASCAR on Prime revs up the engines for live coverage of theCup Series Raceat Pocono Raceway beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Prime Video also released the official trailer and key art from the Blaney installment, which premieres exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide and is the latest addition to the Prime membership. Prime members enjoy savings, convenience and entertainment, all in a single membership.
Presented by Prime Video Sports, “Eli Manning Presents: The Undercovers”is produced by Range Studios and Ten Till Productions. “Eli Manning Presents: The Undercovers”is executive produced by Mark Herwick and Simon Andreae of Range Studios; Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Tim Brown and Jamie Horowitz of Ten Till Productions; and JD Amato. Amato also serves as showrunner. The series was nominated for Outstanding Edited Sports Series: Hosted at the 2026 Sports Emmy Awards.
About Eli Manning Presents: The Undercovers — Ryan Blaney
Eli Manning recruits NASCAR champion and Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney to go undercover at the Team Penske Race Shop in Mooresville, North Carolina. Blaney transforms into Hamish Wimsley, a British gent who’s long in the tooth and even longer in the beard. He gets under the hood of NASCAR and Team Penske before showing some diehard fans that he’s still got plenty of petrol left in the tank. Once transformed by a team of Hollywood makeup artists, Blaney tests his prosthetic disguise on IndyCar driver and Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin before joining a group of NASCAR superfans at the Team Penske Race Shop. With an unprecedented level of access, Blaney secretly tags along as the fans get a rare look behind the scenes of the championship-winning operation. They get a close-up view of the Next Gen assembly line, historic Team Penske cars and private head-to-head pit crew competition. In the end, a trip to a local go-kart track gives Blaney the chance to show them that Hamish Wimsley might not be who he says he is — and that he drives like a madman.
It wasn’t too long ago that Tyler Reddick seemed to be completely running away with the 2026 Cup Series’ points lead — and therefore, the coveted No. 1 seed in The Chase — as he pursued his first career championship. In the debut year of the retooled Chase format, each win is worth 15 more points than under the previous system, and nobody won more in the early going of this season (or, really, any season) than the driver of the 45 car. At one point, the wins helped supercharge his lead to 129 points with 14 races to go before the end of the regular season, a cushion that looked borderline insurmountable.
In recent weeks, however, Reddick has also been on the receiving end of the outsized effect that wins can have on the points race — specifically courtesy of his boss, Denny Hamlin.
From that peak gap of 129 points following Reddick’s top-five run at Watkins Glen, Hamlin’s own recent hot streak (finishing third at Charlotte and scoring back-to-back wins at Nashville and Michigan) has more than cut Reddick’s advantage in half. After Reddick crashed into a 35th-place finish Sunday, Hamlin is just 51 points back of Reddick with 11 races before the cutoff; a much more workable deficit to overcome.
Now a battle for the points lead is back in play, even if Reddick still holds the edge. My latest forecast model simulations give Reddick a 74% chance to hang on and retain the No. 1 seed, with Hamlin sitting at 26%.
Fractionally, Ryan Blaney has a 0.5% chance to swoop in and steal it from both of the front-runners — but he’s currently 157 points back, so it would require a superhuman series of races from here. Effectively, this is a two-man race between the No. 45 team and the man who signs their paychecks for 23XI Racing.
What needs to happen for Hamlin to continue hunting Reddick down — or for Reddick to hold Hamlin off?
Looking at the leverage of each race on the odds for either driver to be the No. 1 seed, it’s critical to avoid disaster at the chaotic, high-speed environment of Daytona and the pack-racing of Atlanta — but also big, flat Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the upcoming “Tricky Triangle” of Pocono, both of which can be underrated stumbling blocks for favorites as well. In simulations where Reddick finishes 30th or worse in at least two of the four remaining races at Pocono, Atlanta, Indy and Daytona, his odds at the No. 1 seed fall to 51%, while Denny’s drop to 8% under the same set of finishing circumstances. (Alternatively, those figures become 47% and 6%, respectively, in sims where they finish 20th or worse in 3 of those 4 races.)
Of course, each driver needs to take advantage of their specialties from here, too. On the remaining regular-season schedule, there are 11 total races:
Two at superspeedway/drafting tracks (Atlanta, Daytona)
Two at road/street courses (San Diego, Sonoma)
Either three or four at both intermediate ovals (Pocono, Chicagoland, Indy) and short tracks (North Wilkesboro, Iowa, Richmond), depending on how you treat Loudon — which is 1.058 miles and flat, technically making it an oval, though it acts like Richmond and other short tracks.
Reddick is fairly close to Hamlin on ovals — he has a 114.3 Driver Rating to Denny’s 116.2 on them so far this season — which makes those either a wash or a slight advantage to the No. 11, at best. But Reddick is massively better on road courses; he has a 95.7 average rating on right- and left-turn tracks over the past three seasons, versus just 59.5 for Hamlin. And Hamlin is massively better on short tracks; he has a 105.2 average rating there over the past three seasons, versus just 73.4 for Reddick.
The greater number of additional short-track races relative to road courses is a built-in advantage for Hamlin. But Reddick has that 51-point lead in the standings, which more than balances things out. Either way, whichever driver can stick closer to their rival on the other’s preferred stomping grounds will have the inside track to the top seed.
And maybe the most important thing of all for Hamlin is to keep defying Father Time. He is already one of the most productive and successful Cup drivers ever in his 40s, running side-by-side with the great David Pearson for the title of sixth-best modern-era driver in the 40-or-over set, according to a combination of actual and expected (based on race-to-race Driver Ratings) wins:
But he’s outdoing himself this year at age 45. A year after the age at which Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. had stopped being full-time drivers — or when Jeff Gordon last drove, period (just to name a few greats that put down the steering wheel by this point) — Hamlin just won his third race in 15 starts and is arguably having his best season ever. That’s at least true in terms of finishing quality relative to the field: His average finish of 8.3 — 57% better than Cup average — is the lowest he’s ever had in a season and his 227 Adjusted Points+ index is the highest it’s ever been, while his average Driver Rating of 103.7 is second only to the 109.4 he put up in 2021.
It’s nearly unprecedented to see that level of performance from a 45-year-old. Hamlin’s normalized average finish is just 43% of the Cup average — lower is better — which ranks second all-time to Bobby Allison in 1983 and Cale Yarborough in 1984 among 45-plus year-olds. His 227 Adjusted Points+ index is fourth-best behind Allison/Yarborough and Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 2000. And his 103.7 Driver Rating once again trails only Yarborough and Allison.
(It’s no coincidence to see Mark Martin well-represented on the list; he was putting up seasons to rival Hamlin’s 2026 at age 50! And he’s also Hamlin’s only real rival for the crown of “best driver to never win a championship”, with apologies to Junior Johnson and Fireball Roberts.)
As long as Denny keeps driving at a historically ageless level — which he’s been doing for a long time now, yet he keeps topping himself — he will give himself a chance to track down Reddick by the end of the regular season, which in turn would provide a nice cushion in the standings ahead of The Chase as Hamlin seeks that elusive first Cup title.
Maybe this just proves that no points lead is truly safe under the new system’s win bonus. Or maybe just that Denny Hamlin still isn’t done adding to his future-Hall-of-Fame resume, not by a long shot.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to rural Pennsylvania for race 16 of the 2026 season at Pocono Raceway, while the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action after its first off weekend of the year at the “Tricky Triangle.” Bookmark this page for everything you need throughout race weekend, including qualifying orders, practice speeds, race results and more.
Race day: Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on Prime Video. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
Tires: Eight sets for the weekend (six new sets for the race, one set for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and one set for practice).
Entry List Qualifying Order Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times Starting Lineup
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results Race Results
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Race day: Saturday at 4 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
Tires: Five sets for the weekend (three new sets for the race, one set for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and one set for practice).
Entry List Qualifying Order Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Starting Lineup Pit Stalls Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results
Of all the big Super Late Model events Ty Majeski has won, Berlin Raceway’s Money in the Bank 150 was one that had eluded him.
Majeski needed to be patient through a prolonged rain delay and divergent strategies Wednesday, but he finally added his name to the short-but-notable list of Money in the Bank 150 winners in the event’s 10th running.
The triumph also marked the first time Majeski had visited Berlin’s Victory Lane during his career.
While Majeski has always appreciated his trips to Berlin, that affection never translated into the results he wanted. The catharsis Majeski felt as he piloted his bright yellow No. 91 Menards Ford across the finish line only cemented how important Wednesday’s milestone was.
“I haven’t felt this way in a while,” Majeski said. “I’m proud of our team. This is a tough race track, and it forces you to step outside your comfort zone from a race car standpoint and as a driver. I love the challenge and the discipline it takes to get around here.
“It took us five tries, but we finally conquered it tonight.”
Momentum was on Majeski’s side entering this year’s Money in the Bank 150. Along with two Super Late Model victories at Slinger Speedway, Majeski also won the Rattler at South Alabama Speedway in March.
Yet Majeski carried this confidence into Wednesday fully aware of the past disappointments he endured at Berlin. Across his four previous appearances at the half-mile oval, the closest Majeski came to Victory Lane was last year’s Tekton 250 Battle at Berlin, where he led a race-high 83 laps but ended up fourth.
Ending the Berlin winless streak would require Majeski to go through plenty of talented drivers from Berlin’s local division. This group included Austin Hull, the most recent Battle at Berlin champion, along with Brian Campbell.
There was also the presence of two other past Money in the Bank 150 winners in Wednesday’s field: NASCAR Cup Series regulars Carson Hocevar and Erik Jones.
With Jones unable to acquire the track position he needed, it was Hocevar exchanging blows with Campbell during the first half of the 150-lap feature while Majeski settled into a rhythm. Several cautions mixed up the running order as drivers came down pit road for tires and adjustments, which played into Majeski’s favor with his car improving in nighttime conditions.
Majeski made a critical pass with 48 laps remaining to take fourth from Hocevar, whose night ended moments later after getting into Andrew Scheid. With one of his primary challengers was eliminated, Majeski cycled to the lead and cruised to a victory for which he’d long awaited.
😬 Contact between Carson Hocevar and Andrew Scheid brings out a late caution at @BerlinRaceway!
Campbell ended up following Majeski home in second after an intense battle with Hocevar to open the Money in the Bank 150. While he would have loved to tie Hocevar’s record with three victories in Berlin’s crown jewel, Campbell took pride with how competitive his car was against so many other stout competitors.
“Messing around with Carson [Hocevar] there was fun,” Campbell said. “I got to talk to him at the rain break, and it was pretty good. Second place to Ty [Majeski] and Ty does this for a living, so we’re OK. Car was good, car was in one piece. We could go back and make it faster. We don’t have to fix anything, so yeah, pretty happy.”
Campbell will now regroup during Berlin’s upcoming local events while simultaneously preparing for the facility’s other prestigious event in August, the Battle at Berlin. Campbell is going for his second victory in that race; Majeski will pursue his first.
There is unfinished business for Majeski in the Battle at Berlin after last year’s near miss. Now that he has a Money in the Bank 150 on a record that includes triumphs in the Snowball Derby, Rattler, Winchester 400 and countless other races, Majeski knows he can pull off a clean sweep of Berlin’s crown jewels this year.
“We’ve been having tire issues all weekend with our right fronts coming apart,” Majeski said. “We weren’t good that first part of the race in the daytime. Once we put right sides on, the sun went down, and my right front held up a lot better. We were able to show the race car we had. We stayed the course.
Team Penske revealed Wednesday that Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford will run a throwback scheme paying homage to Ryan Newman’s 2008 Daytona 500 victory for Sunday’s Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The No. 12 will be decked out in the light blue base with the white streak that made Newman’s Alltel scheme stand out under the lights as it took the checkered flag with teammate Kurt Busch completing a 1-2 finish for Penske in the 50th running of the “Great American Race.” The scheme comes as the organization continues to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
Blaney, Newman and members of the 2008 Daytona 500-winning crew were at the Penske shop this week and were surprised with the throwback scheme, placed alongside Newman’s car.
“That win has a lot of history,” Blaney said. “That paint scheme is very memorable. It’s one of my favorite paint schemes growing up. The Alltel scheme was really iconic. The blue is beautiful, and with the 60th anniversary of Penske, we’re really utilizing a lot of iconic wins for the organization. I had the pleasure to race with Ryan for a handful of years before he retired. He’s one of my favorite drivers to watch growing up and heck of a competitor. We’re really honored to be able to run it this weekend at Pocono.”
Newman is fifth all-time on Team Penske’s win list in the Cup Series, compiling 13 victories from 2002-2008. Newman also scored his first big oval win at Pocono, running in the ARCA Menards Series for Penske in 2000.
“Throwback schemes have always been cool, but keeping it internally is a different kind of special,” Newman said. “Really proud and honored to be a part of the history at Penske. Ryan and I have always had a good relationship. It’s cool to see the car go back in that livery at a track where we won our first race at.”
Blaney’s No. 12 will also carry a commemorative sticker honoring crew chief Roy McCauley, who died in 2024. McCauley was atop the pit box for Newman when they won the Daytona 500, and the pair combined for seven triumphs across the Cup Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
“We dominated the [O’Reilly Auto Parts] Series back in ’05. We won six out of nine races and had a great experience,” Newman said. “Roy was such a big part of so many things here at Penske after he was a crew chief. He had a lot of different roles and was successful at all of them. It’s really special for me to be able to put that sticker on because I know his wife Amy was a big part of it and a big supporter of what we did on the race track.”
