Goodyear will bring a familiar tire setup for the NASCAR Cup Series’ longest race of the season Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Cup Series teams will have the same Goodyear Racing Eagle tires used four previous times this season, all at intermediate-style tracks: Las Vegas, Darlington, Kansas and Texas. Of those four, three are 1.5-mile circuits, the same length as the Concord, North Carolina, facility. The left-side tires debuted in this race last spring, while the right-side tires hit the track last fall at Kansas.
“This will be the fifth time Cup Series teams have run this setup in 2026, so they come to Charlotte with valuable data under their belts,” said Justin Fantozzi, Goodyear director of racing for the Americas. “This setup is the latest evolution of our intermediate track tire package, and we have been pleased with its performance at comparable high-speed 1.5-mile tracks.”
O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series teams will need to adapt to a new right-side tire. They will run a similar left-side tire, which Goodyear featured earlier this season at Las Vegas, Kansas and Texas.
Additionally, for the eighth consecutive Memorial Day weekend, Goodyear branding on all tires will be replaced by the Honor and Remember logo.
Tire allotments for each team competing this weekend:
Cup Series: 14 total sets — 12 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 1 for practice.
O’Reilly Auto Parts Series: 6 total sets — 4 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 1 for practice.
Craftsman Truck Series: 5 total sets — 3 new sets for the race, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and 1 for practice.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — One year removed from his second and most recent try at the Double, Kyle Larson is able to look back and smile. Both attempts to complete 1,100 miles in the same day — starting with the Indianapolis 500 and finishing with the Coca-Cola 600 — went awry, with inclement weather the culprit in 2024 and both weather and crashes affecting the try in 2025.
In “Kyle Larson vs. The Double,” launching Thursday on Prime Video, fans will get a behind-the-scenes look at the Californian’s herculean efforts across the two famed venues and racing disciplines.
Larson invited camera crews into the most private environments, including race shops, planes and even his home. More than two years of filming were cut down into just over 90 minutes, and days before the official release, the 33-year-old — who became just the fifth driver to make the historic attempt — couldn’t be prouder.
“It turned out really good,” Larson told NASCAR.com on Monday, standing on the blue carpet before a private screening of the film. “You’re never sure how it’s quite going to turn out when you’re not the one piecing it together, so I was happy with how good of a job they did. In my mind, the competition side of it didn’t go quite like I had hoped, so I was just like ‘man, I don’t know how they’re gonna make this thing entertaining.’ But I actually feel like it made it more entertaining, just seeing all the motion and drama behind the experience.
“Just happy to get it out there, and kind of put the final closing on the Double.”
More than 100 members from Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR attended the first screening of the feature-length film, which opened with remarks from Jeff Gordon, Hendrick’s vice chairman, and John Dahl, NASCAR’s senior vice president of content — both executive producers of the documentary. Afterward, Larson and director Cynthia Hill took the stage, reflecting on the marathon shoot and friendships forged along the way.
Every aspect of Larson’s first attempt in 2024 had cameras covering it. Starting with the IndyCar simulator and moving to the Arrow McLaren shop, he quizzes 2013 Indy 500 champion Tony Kanaan, who also served as Larson’s stand-by driver and coach. Larson then tested an IndyCar at Phoenix Raceway — site of both his Cup Series championships — before hitting the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway that April.
But as race day neared and weather became a factor in both Indianapolis and Charlotte, Larson and Hendrick Motorsports were concerned. Camera crews sit in as Hendrick Motorsports’ Rick Hendrick, Gordon and crew chief Cliff Daniels decide to let Larson prioritize Indy instead of the Cup Series, understanding the consequences. After ultimately missing the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600, it took multiple weeks for NASCAR to grant Larson — who led Cup points before Memorial Day weekend — a waiver to remain eligible for the playoffs.
But believe it or not, Larson didn’t quite live all of it. By watching the film for the first time, he gained perspective on Daniels and the No. 5 team as they made preparations for the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro and the Coca-Cola 600 — all while he raced several hundred miles away in Indy.
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“Anything that I got to see on here that I didn’t actually live through myself was great,” Larson said. “It’s so easy to think about all the negative sides of not completing the Double that this was a good reminder of how much I loved the experience and had so much fun on qualifying days, the practice days and just different team events. It was just a good reminder that, yeah, it wasn’t all bad.”
The documentary also expands on the upbringing and career of the superstar, starting with home videos and narrations from his father, Mike. Beginning his Cup Series career with Chip Ganassi Racing, Larson also opens up about his 2020 suspension from NASCAR after saying a racial slur on a livestream. Fans see how he learned from that mistake, and less than a year later, Hendrick signed him, leading to a 2021 season for the ages with 10 wins and a series title.
“I just want [fans] to have their own opinion,” Larson said. “I just hope they enjoy the film and what it takes, because being a race-car driver is not easy, and I think that’s what this showcases, is that not everything goes exactly how you want it in life, but you’re going to persevere and you’ll come out a stronger human being, or athlete or whatever the case may be.
“It didn’t quite go perfectly with the weather. Both years you have weather delays, obviously the first being catastrophic — and then the second year, even the delay that we had before the 500 — it was ultimately going to keep us from finishing the 500 even without me crashing. I wish I didn’t crash, but odds are I still was probably not gonna be able to finish the race, which was a bummer. So yeah, that was the most upsetting part, but still overall, the experience was awesome.”
“Kyle Larson vs. The Double” premieres Thursday on Prime Video, leading into the platform’s telecast of Sunday’s crown-jewel Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will battle in the Queen City at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday (10 a.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
This will be the 10th points-paying race of the 2026 Truck Series season, as drivers take on the 1.5-mile North Carolina track.
Multiple Cup Series regulars are entered in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will drive the No. 4 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet as a teammate to Ross Chastain, who will pilot the No. 45 Niece truck.
Travis Pastrana returns to the Truck Series in his second start of the 2026 season, driving the No. 25 Kaulig Racing Ram in the Free Agent truck.
Thirty-seven trucks are entered into this weekend’s event.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series travels from Delaware to North Carolina to take on Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The event will be the 15th points-paying race of the 2026 O’Reilly Series campaign.
For the second consecutive week, last week’s O’Reilly Series Dover polesitter and Cup Series regular Ross Chastain will pilot the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Connor Zilisch will also return to the No. 1 JRM Chevrolet, as Carson Kvapil shifts back to the No. 91 DGM Racing Chevrolet in the Queen City.
Cole Custer is set to make his third O’Reilly Series start of the year in the No. 0 Chevrolet for SS GreenLight Racing.
Thirty-eight cars are entered into this weekend’s event.
The NASCAR Cup Series prepares for its longest race of the year on Memorial Day Weekend, with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain enters the 600-mile endurance race as the defending winner of the crown-jewel event at the 1.5-mile North Carolina track after making a late-race pass on William Byron to claim glory in the Queen City one year ago.
All eyes will be on Katherine Legge, who is entered in the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet as she looks to make history. Legge is set to become the sixth driver and first female driver to attempt the iconic “Double” by competing in the NTT IndyCar Series’ Indianapolis 500 and the Cup Series’ Coke 600 on the same day in the quest of completing 1,100 miles Sunday.
Timmy Hill will get behind the wheel of the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford, while Corey Heim returns to the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota.
Thirty-nine cars are entered into this weekend’s event.
Through the Class of 2026, 70 people have reached the ultimate honor of being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Even more have been nominated since the inaugural class in 2010, representing an expansive cross-section of stock-car racing’s best, spanning from the sport’s humble roots through today’s Hollywood-level glory.
All who have been fortunate enough to land on the ballot have a case to be deservedly enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
But what about the names that are not currently on the list? Here are five people worthy of consideration to be on the ballot for the NASCAR Hall of Fame in future years, people who deserve to be in the conversation for enshrinement thanks to their unique and historic contributions to NASCAR racing.
Smokey Yunick
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Smokey Yunick is one of the most innovative minds that has ever walked through the NASCAR garage. Legends of his ability to work around the guidelines of the NASCAR Rule Book in the sport’s earliest decades glimmer with lore, from tales of extended fuel lines to extreme chassis modifications to tricked-up oil lines and more.
A two-time Cup champion as crew chief for Herb Thomas in 1951 and 1953, Yunick was a staple of NASCAR’s early years. The Pennsylvania native won the 1961 Daytona 500 as crew chief for Marvin Panch and again one year later with driver Fireball Roberts and car owner Jim Stephens. A car owner, mechanic and shot-caller throughout his career, Yunick was also victorious twice in Darlington Raceway’s Southern 500, winning in 1951 and 1955 while working with Thomas. The 1955 win marked Chevrolet’s first speedway victory ever.
There’s a common saying in motorsports: “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” No one seemed to personify that more than Yunick.
“If you’re an innovator, and you’re a smart guy like Smokey was, and there is no rule, is there really a gray area?” Hall of Famer Ray Evernham said in a 2016 documentary. “He made (NASCAR) write rules.”
Naturally, the sanctioning body didn’t take kindly to some of Yunick’s advanced methods of creativity. Officials were tasked with surveying cars within the spectrum of the rule book. But Yunick knew what the rule book said, and more importantly, what it didn’t say. That created tension between Yunick and NASCAR’s top brass.
Twenty-five years since his passing in 2001 — and nearly 50 since his last entry as a Cup owner in 1969 with Charlie Glotzbach — opinions are still split on whether Yunick deserves consideration for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
“Sometimes — and I’m just going to be blunt — legend is not reality. Myth is not fact,” Hall of Fame voter Kyle Petty said May 12 at the NASCAR Productions Facility. “All the B.S. stories you hear about Smokey doesn’t mean every one of them is a fact. If it was, then Paul Bunyan should be in the freaking Loggers Hall of Fame, right? It’s a myth. Some of this stuff’s myth, and you got to call it out when it’s a myth. I can’t help that the general public has bought it hook, line and sinker. But if you talk to people that actually knew the guy, that actually raced against the guy, then he’s right where he should be. He should be part of the conversation, but not the focal point.”
Dale Jarrett, another Hall of Fame voter, told NASCAR.com he sees no reason why Yunick should be excluded from the ballot.
“When you talk about names at the beginning of this sport that made a difference, I do not understand,” Jarrett said. “Were some of the things that he did outrageous to the point that (they were) probably not legal? We could say that about everybody in this sport. That’s a lot of people that are in that Hall of Fame and others that are being talked about. It was just skirting the rules as much as they could. But with his reputation, I think he was scrutinized more than others maybe, and so maybe some other people were getting away with stuff because they didn’t have the reputation that that’s how they did things. But that wasn’t the only way that he made his race cars go fast. And I just don’t understand why someone of this importance, a name like this, that he’s not on the ballot and why he shouldn’t go into this Hall of Fame, personally.”
The time seems appropriate to recognize Yunick’s innovation as ingenuity that drove NASCAR toward the future by at least including his name on the ballot for discussion.
Jimmy Makar
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For more than three decades, Joe Gibbs Racing has been a powerhouse team in the NASCAR Cup Series. That success is in large part thanks to Makar.
Makar was the guiding hand at JGR for decades, from its inception before the 1992 season through 2022 as Senior Vice President of Racing Operations. Dale Jarrett, JGR’s inaugural driver, was adamant before signing his contract with Gibbs that Makar’s addition was mandatory. There is an admitted obvious bias: Makar is Jarrett’s brother-in-law and is married to Jarrett’s sister, Patti. But Jarrett knew Makar’s supervision and hands-on method to building the organization was imperative if JGR was going to be successful long-term.
“Jimmy made every hire to start Joe Gibbs Racing,” Jarrett said. “Everyone that was there was because of Jimmy Makar.”
Jarrett was driving for Wood Brothers Racing in 1991 when Gibbs approached him with an opportunity to drive the No. 18 car in 1992. The team had sponsorship from Interstate Batteries, but Jarrett needed to be sure whoever was tasked with building JGR was reliable, dedicated and knowledgeable about what a successful race team looked like.
“And so I said, I will do this 100% for sure, if you can hire Jimmy Makar as the crew chief and the person to get this started,” Jarrett recalled to NASCAR.com. “And Jimmy’s name had come up before, just as we talked about different people, and I brought Jimmy’s name up at that time. But now I was was making a request and demand that this is who they go hire. And to be quite honest, I think Joe Gibbs would tell you the same thing that it was — to this day — the most important hiring of Joe Gibbs Racing.”
The resulting success has firmly established JGR has one of NASCAR’s winningest teams. From 1992 through 2022, JGR collected 200 Cup Series wins and 194 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victories, along with five Cup titles and four drivers’ championships in the O’Reilly Series. That list of wins includes four Daytona 500s, seven Coca-Cola 600s at Charlotte, five Brickyard 400s at Indianapolis and nine Southern 500s at Darlington.
The NASCAR Hall of Fame is a sacred Hall to enshrine those who have left lasting impacts and legacies in this sport. Makar’s contributions to one of the sport’s winningest organizations deserve to be in the conversation for a position in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Mike Trower
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Trower’s name may be least recognized in this list of five, but his accomplishments as one of NASCAR’s foremost pioneers of modern pit-road performance should place him in consideration for a spot on the ballot.
Trower contributed to a whopping 73 Cup Series wins as a tire changer for some of the sport’s finest drivers and Hall of Famers, collecting nine wins with Jarrett, 15 with seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson and 49 with four-time champ Jeff Gordon.
His legitimacy for candidacy consideration is perhaps best verbalized by NASCAR.com’s Zack Albert, himself a Hall of Fame voter: “Trower’s name might not come first when reflecting on stock-car stardom, but for those who know, his track record and longevity as one of NASCAR’s top tire changers during a revolutionary era in pit-stop performance have made him a legend.”
Trower’s success sparked as an original member of Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 24 Rainbow Warriors on Gordon’s Chevrolet. What followed were five Cup championships, four Daytona 500 victories and a win in the inaugural Brickyard 400, among other accomplishments. But what separates him from any other successful pit-crew member?
Through the guidance of NASCAR’s first pit-crew coach, Andy Papathanassiou, Trower’s relentless work ethic, training and coachability refined him into an elite talent that not only produced success but longevity. Like the Wood Brothers’ led crews before him, Trower’s work on pit road pioneered a new era of speed in a stop, helping launch his drivers into race-winning contention on a regular basis.
Trower was led by No. 24 crew chief Ray Evernham at Hendrick, departed for Robert Yates Racing with Jarrett, then eventually worked back to Hendrick with Chad Knaus on the No. 48 team. The thread that tied it all together was Trower’s leadership in setting the standard.
“Mike was, in his day, one of the best, if not certainly the best, on pit road,” Evernham said in a 2024 interview. “Mike was good, he was steady, he was fast and he just didn’t make mistakes. When he came to the 24 car, that immediately set the bar for what everybody else had to do. You had to keep up with Mike. The jack man, the rear-tire guy, the tire handler — Mike was our target.”
No pit-crew member has ever been placed on the Hall of Fame ballot — at least not one whose sole job was pitting a race car. If there was one who deserves to be in the conversation from the sport’s transition into today’s lightning-quick stops, Trower tops the list.
Sam Ard
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Unlike the three names listed above, Ard has previously found himself on the NASCAR Hall of Fame ballot. But in each of the past two years, Ard’s name has been absent from the list.
Ard was a pioneer in what is today known as the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. A native of South Carolina, Ard was legend in Late Model Sportsman racing throughout the Southeast. And when the O’Reilly Series went national in 1982 — then known as the NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series — two names dominated the domain: Hall of Famer Jack Ingram and Ard.
Ingram, the series’ inaugural champion, was inducted into the Hall in 2014 with 31 series wins and two titles to his name, those championships separated by two runner-up results in 1983 and 1984. The man standing between Ingram and four straight titles? Sam Ard.
In just three seasons — 92 starts — of O’Reilly racing, Ard collected a remarkable 22 victories, 67 top fives and 79 top 10s to pair with 24 pole positions. He may have lost the inaugural series title to Ingram in 1982, but he trailed Ingram at season’s end by just 47 points as the runner-up. Tommy Houston, in third, was 622 points behind Ingram.
Those 92 starts — limited to that number due to a career-ending injury in 1984 — created records that still resonate nearly 45 years after the series’ inception. Ard won 10 races in 1983, the only driver to score that many victories in a single season until Kyle Busch matched the feat in 2008 and 2016, and bested it in 2010 (13 wins) and 2013 (12).
The identity of the series has changed significantly throughout its 44 completed seasons, from regional, blue-collar short-track aces reaching a national stage to today’s highly sought-after second-series as proving ground for up-and-coming talent. But the story of today’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series cannot be told without the legend of Sam Ard.
John Holman
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Holman, like Ard, has appeared on the ballot previously in 2019 and 2020. And like Ard, Holman’s name is forever tied to another Hall of Famer: 2025 inductee Ralph Moody.
Holman-Moody Racing, formed in 1957, was a stalwart in NASCAR’s early years, winning 96 races over its storied history, including Daytona 500 championships with Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen (1965) and racing legend Mario Andretti (1967). David Pearson, second in all-time wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, collected 30 of his 105 career victories and two Cup championships driving Holman-Moody Fords.
What separated Holman from Moody was Holman’s business acumen. Holman oversaw the business end of the company while Moody was the team’s mechanical mind. The general area of Charlotte, North Carolina, became a hub for NASCAR teams because of Holman’s lasting legacy, with Holman establishing the team’s race shop near Charlotte Douglas International Airport to allows parts to be flown in daily.
Holman was a mastermind of both business and engineering, combining his expertise into Moody’s excellence as a builder that led to historic success, with wins for Hall of Famers like Pearson, Lorenzen, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly, Fireball Roberts and Bobby Allison from 1958 through 1971.
If Moody is enshrined in the Hall — as he most certainly deserves to be — then Holman deserves a place in the conversation to remain on the ballot.
Contributing: Ken Martin, Director of NASCAR’s Historical Content
DOVER, Del. — As each NASCAR Cup Series team made its move during the 2026 Mechanix Wear Pit Crew Challenge at Dover Motor Speedway, Zane Smith’s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports team eagerly watched.
The group, after being the 14th team to qualify during Saturday’s competition, congregated in front of the designated pit stalls for the All-Star event after tallying a 12.612-second time. Members swiveled between Dover’s infield video board and other teams’ pit-stop sessions to see if their strong showing would hold serve.
Cup Series points leader Tyler Reddick and the No. 45 23XI Racing team closed out the competition, and even before the stop was completed, the No. 38 team started celebrating. The No. 45 Toyota leaving the stall after a hold-up on the left side was only a formality. No. 38 team members erupted, clapping, hugging and huddling together in celebratory fashion after clinching the 2026 Pit Crew Challenge victory.
“That was great,” No. 38 fueler Ray Hernandez told NASCAR.com. “… That’s what we do for a living. We take it really serious. So, it’s one of those things where we finally had a chance to show up and give our best. So, it’s very exciting for us.”
Michael Louria, front-tire changer for the No. 38 team, echoed Hernandez’s statements and credited Smith for setting the team up for success.
“Started off just like a regular stop in practice,” Louria told NASCAR.com. “Zane hit his mark really well, which helped a lot. He’s a bigger part in this competition than you think, but yeah, we just did our job clean on all four tires and then got out of there smooth.”
The No. 38 team swiftly congregated to Victory Lane to not only accept the winning trophy — an honorary car jack and pit gun — but also the $100,000 check. “Don’t hurt yourself – we need you tomorrow!” yelled a team member as the crew attempted to hoist the trophy, noting an All-Star Race was still in need of running. (The No. 38 team finished 21st and 22nd in the two opening segments and did not advance to the main event on Sunday.)
Of course, such giddiness was certainly warranted. After the May 10 race at Watkins Glen International, the No. 38 pit crew ranks 15th among all Cup Series teams, with a best stop of 9.20 seconds, ranking 18th.
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Steady results, for sure, but one aspect that helps make the stats shine is the exposure the No. 38 team has to other strong pit crews. The No. 38 crew is supplied by Joe Gibbs Racing, and with experience around JGR crews — with the No. 20 team (first), No. 11 team (fifth) and No. 54 team (seventh) all statistically ranking inside the top 10, according to Racing Insights — such visibility pays off.
Character is just as important as the metrics, though, and the No. 38 team might prove this case in point. Want proof? Hear from the team’s driver.
“I feel like just their humbleness,” Smith said during the 2026 Pit Crew Challenge regarding the team’s biggest quality. “I feel like they are the fastest crew so far by a good bit … they just stay humble, and I think that goes a long way, and it’s incredible to have them.”
“I’d say humbleness and just togetherness,” Louria said regarding the crew’s strength. “This is my first year on the crew, and I’ve never felt more heart in a team and a family since I’ve been doing this, so yeah, humbleness.
“We just work hard, do our jobs, and then yeah, have a lot of fun with it, too, is the most important thing.”
To Hernandez, such a combination of character, with experience around powerhouse teams, creates a bond that only makes the team stronger.
“Us being at Gibbs, we get to see fast pit stops every single day, we work every day with it,” Hernandez said regarding the arrangement. “We have a lot of other drivers, other teams that are very fast, just like us. So it’s easy for us to be humble, because we’re not, quote-unquote, on a house car like we’d want to be, which is one of the Gibbs cars. Just kind of easy for us to be humble. Our position is a humbling position in the sport, where we race for Front Row, but we have Gibbs speed, if that makes sense. Very good situation for us.”
Pride, not points, was the weekend theme, and the No. 38 team gained plenty. Such momentum could be the very spark needed for Smith and the Front Row Motorsports organization to take the next leap forward. Smith ranks 23rd in the Cup Series standings as the Cup Series field returns to points action at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
So, what does the victory mean in terms of the remainder of the 2026 campaign? Plenty. After all, any team contending for a Cup Series title usually has a strong pit crew to boot.
“It just goes to show that there’s speed all over the track,” Hernandez said. “Oftentimes, fans kind of just see what you see on the race track, but there’s a lot that whoever ends up being a champion this year, odds are that pit crew is probably good. Very, very, very unlikely that the fastest team or the team that wins the championship will have a slow pit crew. So, hopefully this does carry over because being a fast pit crew should help on the track as well, you know, gaining spots.”
With smiles and cheers to go along with fresh hardware and cold, hard cash, there is no limit to what’s next.
“It’s a huge confidence booster, for sure,” Louria said. “When you’re going up against all these crews, everybody’s amazing, and then just to do a good job and get first place in something like this, it’ll give us a huge confidence boost, for sure, for the rest of the year.”
Voting Day for the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Class of 2027 was Tuesday afternoon in Charlotte, and the Class of 2027 was revealed.
The NASCAR Channel aired the announcement when the three future inductees and the Landmark Award recipient were announced from the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Great Hall.
The voting panel met at 12:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday at the Charlotte Convention Center to discuss and cast ballots for this year’s nominees. Two inductees were elected from the 10 names on the Modern Era portion of the ballot, and one was chosen from the five Pioneer Ballot nominees. Those three will be inducted next year as the Hall of Fame’s 17th class.
Voters also selected the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR from a list of five nominees.
The Hall of Fame announced last month that Ray Elder, Ernie Elliott and Kevin Harvick were among the Class of 2027’s newest nominees, joining the Modern Era Ballot this year. Ray Fox and Herb Nab are this year’s new names on the Pioneer Ballot, and T. Wayne Robertson has filled the most recent vacancy on the Landmark Award’s list.
DOVER, Del. — When Erik Jones and Connor Zilisch woke up on All-Star Sunday, neither were guaranteed a spot into the main event. As it turned out, both secured personal bests in 2026.
Saturday marked a tale of different tapes for Jones and Zilisch. Through the three-lap qualifying session, which included a four-tire pit stop, Jones lined up third for the opening segment of the All-Star Race. Zilisch looped the No. 88 Chevrolet around entering pit road during his qualifying effort, rolling off 27th for the green flag.
In an attrition-filled opening stint, highlighted by a pair of nine-car melees, Zilisch jumped to 11th position. The No. 43 Toyota, meanwhile, faded to 15th, both in a good position to make the All-Star Racebased on cumulative positions between the first two segments.
As the second segment progressed, both drivers climbed the leaderboard, with Zilisch scored fifth and Jones right behind in sixth. That’s when the pair knew they were in the mix, advancing to the All-Star Race, having the fourth (Zilisch) and seventh- (Jones) best cumulative finishes among all drivers in the field.
“I knew we had to get inside the top 26 and try to give ourselves in the invert and we were able to drive up to 11th in that first stage and continue to move forward in Stage 2,” Zilisch noted. “That’s when I really started to realize we had a shot. It was cool to be on offense for once, have good restarts and not feel like a fish out of water.”
During a long 75-lap run to begin the final segment, Zilisch passed Tyler Reddick for the runner-up spot coming to the planned caution. Jones wasn’t far behind, sliding into fourth position ahead of a fading Chase Briscoe.
The No. 88 team was assessed a pit-road penalty for interference on the pit stop, however, dropping Zilisch to the rear of the field. Over the final 125 laps, he rallied to fifth position. Jones was two spots better in third, best in class behind Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and Briscoe.
“It’s about putting it all together and that starts with qualifying,” Jones stated. “I think just having practice — a real practice — and making changes and a good hour-and-a-half to run through stuff and figure things out. Obviously qualifying up front made our day a lot better. We got a good starting spot for the final run. We haven’t run great here in the last handful of years, so All-Star Race or not, just glad to run well.”
Zilisch is accustomed to running up front at Dover, entering the weekend undefeated in O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and ARCA Menards Series competition at the “Monster Mile.” Dover marked the first oval race of his rookie campaign where he was able to battle with the contending cars at the front of thepack.
Despite being an exhibition event, both drivers had a pep in their step leaving the “First State.”
“It was a really good day for Trackhouse and this 88 team,” Zilisch added. “We needed a day like this where we had contending speed. It’s been a long year and moments of hope like this certainly feel good.
“It would definitely hurt if it was another day where we had speed and didn’t get a result. Although it’s not a points race, I feel like everybody shows up to these races trying to win and be competitive and run inside the top five. Running with the Gibbs cars and getting as high as second, that’s stuff we need.”
Jones hadn’t finished inside the top five in any event since last year’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in early September. He had a single top five in 12 prior Dover attempts, placing fourth in October 2018.
“Any momentum is good,” Jones said with a laugh. “You say it’s an exhibition and whatever, but if you can run well, it makes you feel good and makes you look forward to Nashville coming up. We have this package again that we can take and learn.”
With the regular season resuming in next Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Jones is 25th in the standings and Zilisch sits 32nd.
DOVER, Del. — Someone has to end up on the losing end of a teammate battle. On Sunday, it was Chase Briscoe.
Back-and-forth runs between the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Toyota encapsulated the slam-packed crowd during the final segment of the 2026 NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway, and while the 31-year-old Briscoe had stretches of overcoming the NASCAR Cup Series veteran, the end result was a runner-up finish at the “Monster Mile.”
“I thought we were obviously close,” Briscoe said. “I just needed a little bit more. And then there at the end, I kind of caught him there for a second, and then I just started trying stuff, trying to see if I could find something, and just couldn’t get anything to really work. So yeah, obviously I wish we would’ve won … I wish this was a points race because we kinda need that, too, but overall, great day for our Bass Pro Shops Toyota.”
Based on the speed Briscoe and Hamlin showed through the opening two segments of the 2026 exhibition, a thrilling last-segment battle almost seemed inevitable. Hamlin prevailed head-to-head in the first 75-lap segment, finishing second compared to Briscoe’s fourth.
Denny 1, Chase 0.
Then, it was Briscoe who triumphed in the second 75-circuit segment, finishing second to Hamlin’s third. They were both the hard chargers, coming from the back of the top-26 invert.
Denny 1, Chase 1.
Then came the 200-lap finale. After Hamlin led the opening circuit, Briscoe overtook the No. 11, leading the next 39 laps. Hamlin then led in three separate stints before the pair converged again, with Briscoe overtaking the 45-year-old and leading the next 22.
Inconsistent grip, however, couldn’t keep Briscoe ahead, with Hamlin seizing the lead on Lap 171 and holding it the rest of the way en route to the victory.
Final score: Denny 2, Chase 1.
“I just didn’t have the rear grip,” Briscoe said. “Anytime that I was not the leader, I would be really, really good, and as soon as I would take the lead, I would go into the next corner, I’m like, man, I’m way too loose. … I honestly kept trying to back up to him, just not trying to run too hard to burn my right-rear off, and that’s what happened. I get around that lap 30 mark, I would just start getting really swingy, and then I would get passed from the lead, and then I’d be able to always run it back down because my car would kind of come back to me being in dirtier air.
“So I just needed more rear-grip taking off if I was in the lead. It was hard because we started 16th and then 22nd or whatever (in the first two segments), so we were never adjusting on our car for clean air, and when we got up there, we just weren’t as good, where the 11 was up there a lot.”
Though a race win couldn’t be secured, momentum was; Briscoe’s second-place result is his best in an All-Star Race, eclipsing his fourth-place finish at North Wilkesboro Speedway during the 2023 running. Combined with his fourth-place finish at Watkins Glen International last weekend, Briscoe enters the next points-paying contest at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) on a streak worth expanding. He sits 17th in the Cup Series ranks.
Perhaps the next battle will be a winning one.
“I mean, this is what we should be doing week in and week out. We’ve just executed the last two weeks, so our speed is clearly there,” Briscoe said. “It’s just a matter of putting that speed to use and capitalizing on it. So, yeah, really excited for next week. I think we’re having a good opportunity to score a lot of points, so hopefully we can do that.”
