Posted on by Zack Albert

LAKEVILLE, Conn. — Landen Lewis’ best finish of his still-budding NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career came with a significant detour midway through. Re-routing proved successful.

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

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.

Thomas Annunziata's No. 1 Toyota is pressured by the No, 45 Chevy of Landen Lewis at Lime Rock Park.
Jaiden Tripi | Getty Images

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.”

Posted on by Dustin Albino

HAMPTON, Ga. — Ford has spent much of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season searching for answers, as its 10 full-time drivers have combined for a single points-paying victory through five months. Yet with seven races remaining before the postseason, former series champions Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski still control their own Chase fate.

The spring and early summer months haven’t treated the former Team Penske teammates kindly. Logano has hovered around The Chase cutline for the bulk of the regular season, rising no higher than 12th in the standings since the eighth race of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway. Keselowski has had a string of races to forget, with his last top 10 a distant memory, dating back to Kansas Speedway. Rewinding to Watkins Glen International in early May, the No. 6 team hasn’t finished better than 15th in the last eight events.

Yet both drivers still have a fighting chance to make The Chase, with Logano ranked 18th in the standings, 16 points below bubble driver Erik Jones. Keselowski has plummeted to 20th in points, 19 points to the bad.

“I’m the type of person who likes to point the finger at themselves and think what could I have done better?” Keselowski said on Saturday at EchoPark Speedway. “You are looking at those moments and the things that just happen are life. There’s been a little bit of both.”

MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos

Opportunity looms for both future Hall of Famers. They are arguably the best superspeedway drivers of their generation, with Keselowski leading active drivers with seven victories. Logano has won two of the last seven races at the reconfigured EchoPark 1.5-miler and is on a short list of three active drivers — along with Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and William Byron — to score multiple victories at the Atlanta venue.

Add in the fact that few organizations have enjoyed as much success on NASCAR’s short tracks in the Next Gen era as Team Penske. That trend could work in Logano’s favor as the regular season enters its final stretch of races.

“I feel good about the tracks coming our way,” Logano stated. “The short tracks coming up, too — the speedways are one thing, but look at [North] Wilkesboro, Richmond [Raceway], [New Hampshire Motor Speedway] — all of them are tracks we typically excel at.

“I think we’ve made good gains on some of the mile-and-a-halves stuff. I know last week, the first two stages were ugly, but we hit on it eventually and started rolling the last run really well. I wish we had that earlier in the race, but there are definitely signs of light, which I can’t say we’ve had that here recently. We just have to execute through these next few weeks really well and make sure we maximize it.”

Before the Cup Series resets at Darlington Raceway to begin The Chase, the schedule features four races on tracks measuring 1 mile or less, beginning next weekend at North Wilkesboro. Logano has been particularly dominant at the historic venue, leading 199 of 200 laps to win the 2024 All-Star Race and collect the $1 million prize. He backed up that performance last season by leading another 139 laps before finishing runner-up to Christopher Bell.

In the not-too-distant future, there are battles at Iowa Speedway, Richmond and New Hampshire, all tracks favorable to the Ford camp.

“I don’t think they are make-or-breaks, but when you have opportunities at tracks like that where you typically run well, you have to make sure you capitalize on the opportunities that are sitting there,” Logano added.

The No. 6 team remains optimistic, too. While Keselowski has lost 11 positions in the standings over the last seven races — highlighted by four consecutive finishes of 34th or worse — he knows RFK Racing can excel on short tracks. Ryan Preece, another driver fighting for a Chase berth, won the season-opening exhibition Busch Light Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. And with a pair of drafting tracks on the horizon — Sunday evening at EchoPark and the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway — the 2012 champion has six runner-up finishes at drafting tracks since last reaching the Winner’s Circle in the draft at Talladega Superspeedway in 2021.

“We feel really good about a number of the tracks coming up,” Keselowski said. “We’ve had a not-so-great last four or five weeks. I felt like we got out of Sonoma with a decent race and had high expectations for Chicago, and fell flat. That was really disappointing.

“We will see what we have this weekend; we have high expectations for here. There’s not a track in front of us that I don’t feel we can run well at, which is good. But it’s on us to go do that and earn our way into the NASCAR Chase.”

First up is the new Atlanta, where Logano leads the league with 359 laps led in nine starts since the 2022 reconfig and will start alongside Penske teammate Ryan Blaney on the front row.  Two of Keselowski’s six second-place efforts on superspeedways in the last five seasons have come at the action-packed circuit.

Posted on by Mike Hembree

HAMPTON, Ga. – It was a night when pretenders became contenders, enough car parts flew through the air to fill a junkyard and several of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series non-winners threatened to eliminate the “non” from their resumes.

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

“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.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

HAMPTON, Ga. — After a nearly four-hour race that ended in double overtime, a familiar name hoisted the trophy as NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series points leader Justin Allgaier made a last-lap pass to claim his sixth win of the season in Saturday night’s Focused Health 250 at EchoPark Speedway.

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.

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.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“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.

“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.

Posted on by Staff Report

For the first time this season, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to a track for the second time, as stock-car racing’s best converge at EchoPark Speedway on Sunday (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

With the unpredictable nature of the Atlanta-area drafting track, these 260 laps could ultimately make or break drivers’ Chase hopes as just seven regular-season races remain. Look no further than Team Penske as Austin Cindric enters EchoPark 15th in points on the right side of the bubble, while three-time series champion Joey Logano is 18th and has plenty of work to do. But anytime the Cup Series heads to the draft, Penske and Ford are always a factor.

RELATED: Starting lineup | Saturday recap

But other drivers continue to fly under the radar. Erik Jones quietly sits 16th in the standings, with AJ Allmendinger in 19th and Michael McDowell in 21st. This could be a prime opportunity for these drivers to bank a boatload of points and better their postseason outlooks. Read on to see other drivers worth watching, as well as Racing Insights’ full race projections for Sunday’s expected Cup Series thriller.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

RYAN BLANEY: Don’t count out Ryan Blaney just yet for the season points lead quest. Though the wins aren’t piling up, the 32-year-old Penske ace is on arguably one of his best stretches to date, finishing inside the top 10 in his last seven races — a career best. His 14 top 10s are better than teammates Cindric and Logano combined (nine). Best yet, this shapes up as likely his best part of the schedule, with drafting tracks and short tracks comprising six of the next seven races. If there’s an opportunity for Blaney to make a run, it starts Sunday — and while he’s 113 markers behind Denny Hamlin for the series lead, Hamlin erased a larger gap on Tyler Reddick earlier this year. It’s possible.

TYLER REDDICK: Speaking of Reddick, the No. 45 23XI Racing driver is in desperate need of something to go right. He’s finished 25th or worse in four of the last five, plagued by mechanical failures, a crash at Michigan International Speedway (not of his doing) and a flat tire in the final moments at Naval Base Coronado. Over the last four weeks, Reddick has averaged 12.8 points — 27th in the series — after scoring 44.6 over the first 15. Fortunately for him, he’s the most recent winner at EchoPark, leading 53 laps for a thrilling springtime victory. Reddick has three career Cup wins on drafting tracks and is arguably the best among Toyotas.

CHASE ELLOTT: Dawsonville’s finest returns to Georgia as the defending summer race winner, and his stats here back it up. Elliott’s 9.38 average finish in nine races since the reconfiguration is best among all Cup drivers in the Peach State, and he’s placed 11th or better in six of the last seven drafting-track events. In total, the 2020 Cup Series champion has four wins in this discipline, including two at EchoPark. Somehow, Elliott’s pair of wins in 2026 are the only dubs for Hendrick Motorsports this season, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he tacked on another come Sunday night.

MORE: EchoPark photos | What to Watch: EchoPark

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR QUAKER STATE 400 AVAILABLE AT WALMART (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports)

FINISHCAR NUMBERDRIVER
19Chase Elliott
245Tyler Reddick
312Ryan Blaney
477Carson Hocevar
57Daniel Suárez
65Kyle Larson
717Chris Buescher
823Bubba Wallace
911Denny Hamlin
101Ross Chastain
1148Alex Bowman
1220Christopher Bell
1322Joey Logano
1447Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
1554Ty Gibbs
1619Chase Briscoe
1743Erik Jones
182Austin Cindric
1924William Byron
2060Ryan Preece
2171Michael McDowell
2297Shane van Gisbergen
2338Zane Smith
246Brad Keselowski
2516AJ Allmendinger
2642John Hunter Nemechek
273Austin Dillon
2810Ty Dillon
2934Todd Gilliland
3035Riley Herbst
3133Austin Hill
3288Connor Zilisch
3341Cole Custer
344Noah Gragson
3521Josh Berry
3651Cody Ware
3778BJ McLeod
3866Chad Finchum
Posted on by Mike Hembree

Track: EchoPark Speedway
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: Goodyear tire notes: EchoPark

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.

NASCAR Cup Series races at EchoPark Speedway.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images

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.

DATEWINNERTOOK LED FROMLAPS TO GO
7/10/2022Chase ElliottCorey LaJoie2
3/19/2023Joey LoganoBrad Keselowski1
7/9/2023William ByronAJ Allmendinger19
2/25/2024Daniel SuárezRyan Blaney1
9/8/2024Joey LoganoDaniel Suárez2
2/23/2025Christopher BellKyle Larson1
6/28/2025Chase ElliottBrad Keselowski1
2/22/2026Tyler ReddickBubba Wallace2

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

Posted on by Dustin Albino

HAMPTON, Ga. – Shane van Gisbergen got his first trip to NASCAR’s principal office on Saturday at EchoPark Speedway, as officials summoned both him and Austin Hill to the NASCAR hauler for a 17-minute meeting following their on-track incident last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.

“I don’t really want to do it again,” van Gisbergen quipped about his maiden visit to the NASCAR hauler.

RELATED: EchoPark lineup | At-track photos

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.

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.”

MORE: Cup Series standings | How SVG/Hill feud got here

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.

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.

Posted on by Zack Albert

LAKEVILLE, Conn. — Like a microcosm of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, Kaden Honeycutt and Layne Riggs raced along parallel paths in Saturday’s show at Lime Rock Park. On the plus side, both spent time leading laps, both secured stage wins and both eventually clinched spots in the Chase postseason.

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

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?”

Posted on by Mike Hembree

HAMPTON, Ga. – Despite their meeting Saturday with NASCAR officials, there appeared little chance that the roiling controversy between drivers Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar is any closer to a resolution.

In fact, quite the opposite.

RELATED: EchoPark lineup | At-track photos

“I just don’t like him,” Smith told reporters after his Saturday qualifying run. It is far from the first time Smith has indicated the two won’t be going bowling together or sharing a bag of peanuts.

Asked about the result of the session with NASCAR officials, Smith said, “I think we both understand where we’re at with everything, but it doesn’t change how much he dislikes me and how much I dislike him.”

Hocevar, interviewed earlier in the day, said he is surprised that the controversy with Smith continues and that he was summoned to meet with officials.

“I’ve never been called to the hauler after getting wrecked,” he said. “It’s funny. It seemed like a racing deal.”

Hocevar was referring to contact between Smith’s car and his during last week’s race at Chicagoland Speedway, the latest incident in a continuing saga featuring the two.

There were no penalties issued by NASCAR during or after the race, but the two were called to meet with series officials at EchoPark, as were Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill, who have their own ongoing set of issues.

Asked if he could race Smith going forward without incident, Hocevar said, “I already did. I’m looking forward to it. I told the guys in the NASCAR hauler, if you expect it to continue, I don’t know if I would have picked this week. We’re going to Atlanta. If we were going to Martinsville or something, yeah, it makes sense. I don’t know if you could wreck anybody intentionally here at Atlanta. It will be hard to do.”

Hocevar said controversy fuels racing. “That’s what drives the sport – passion and clashing,” he said. “It’s good.”

Smith was asked if he could race Hocevar without any trouble resulting. “No,” he said bluntly.

MORE: Smith calls out Hocevar on ‘Racin’ With The Boys’

Asked if he has issues with Hocevar, who has built a reputation as an aggressive driver, because of his racing style or his attitude, Smith said, “It’s both.”

The issues between the drivers have spilled over into social media and have sparked a back-and-forth in website stories and radio/television reports.

“I have no problem with anyone else, and I’m not going to go create the trouble,” Smith said. “I believe in racing people like they race me. But if he brings that to me, we’ll go from there.”

Sunday’s Cup Series race at EchoPark is slated for 7 p.m. ET (TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hocevar qualified 14th while Smith will roll off 34th.

Posted on by Holly Cain

HAMPTON, Ga. – Ryan Blaney claimed his second pole position of the season Saturday evening at Atlanta’s fast, high-banked EchoPark Speedway – leading a Team Penske Ford front-row sweep for Sunday night’s Quaker State 400 (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford turned in a lap of 179.912 mph around the 1.54-mile track, besting his teammate Joey Logano’s No. 22 Ford by a slight .016-second in Busch Light Pole Qualifying.

It’s the 32-year-old Blaney’s 14th career pole and marks the first front-row Penske sweep this year. All three Penske machines advanced to Saturday’s 10-car second round after dominating the top of the speed charts in round one. Austin Cindric will roll off eighth in the No. 2 Penske Ford.

The typically low-key Blaney was thrilled with the result, crediting his team for the hard work. However, the 2023 series champion was quick to remind that at a high-speed, drafting track such as EchoPark, he was confident that starting up front doesn’t automatically translate into a trip to Victory Lane.

Toyota, which is enjoying a dominant season in wins, failed to place a single car into the final round of qualifying.

NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Denny Hamlin will roll off 28th in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who trails Hamlin by 44 points in the standings, will start 31st in the No. 45 Toyota. A five-time race winner this year, Reddick won at Atlanta this February.

Gibbs drivers Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell will start 23rd and 32nd. And Reddick’s 23XI teammates Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst are 22nd and 29th on the grid.

RELATED: EchoPark lineup | At-track photos

“I feel like we’ve seen that,’’ Blaney said of the Toyotas qualifying effort. “They don’t really qualify great at these speedways, just the build of their race car. So usually that means they can probably be aggressive in the draft and get in the middle and get to the top and things like that. I’m sure we’re going to see them up there.

“If you look at the spring race here and Toyotas were really, really good when it came race time. Hopefully, our balance in the race is good enough to be able to either maintain the lead or, if we get shuffled back, be able to go forward. You really don’t know that until the race starts.’’

The Chevrolets of Kyle Larson (No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports) and Austin Dillon (No. 3 Richard Childress Racing ) make up row two.

Daniel Suárez will start fifth with the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets of Alex Bowman and defending race winner Chase Elliott, Cindric, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and Brad Keselowski, owner-driver of the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, rounding out the top 10.

The front row start is especially significant for the three-time series champion Logano, who is enduring one of the most challenging seasons of his Hall of Fame-bound career. He’s still not in the top 16 field that will ultimately settle the title in the 10-race Chase. Logano’s ranked 18th, 16 points behind 16th-place Erik Jones.

“The good news is the Hunt Brothers Pizza Mustang is fast and that speed you see in qualifying will usually show up in the race,’’ said Logano, a two-time EchoPark winner. “I’m proud to see the speed that’s there and the handling seemed fine in qualifying.

“I feel like our team can handle these speedways really well and you can remember what happened here last fall [he wrecked after leading laps and winning the pole position], so there’s no guarantee you see the end of it.

“But,’’ he added with a smile, “The speed’s there, and that’s half the battle, so we know we have that.’’