Posted on by Cameron Richardson

NASCAR completed a two-day Goodyear tire test at Chicagoland Speedway on Tuesday and Wednesday in preparation for the sport’s return to the 1.5-mile facility just outside Chicago, Illinois, during Independence Day weekend.

Representatives from all three Cup Series manufacturers took part in the test: Ryan Blaney (Ford), Kyle Larson (Chevrolet) and Denny Hamlin, while Justin Allgaier (Chevrolet) and Brandon Jones (Toyota) put down laps for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.

The test marked the first time Chicagoland had seen cars on track since 2019.

RELATED: Buy Chicagoland tickets now!

“You’ve raced so much between then and now that I didn’t really remember a whole lot of the track other than just the big bump in one and some bumps in [Turns] 3 and 4, and those are all still there,” Larson told media at the track. “It’s just cool. It’s really fast. A lot faster pace than what I remember the old car being here. We’re on the throttle quite a bit, but it’s also not as hot as what it was the last times we were here. It’ll be hot when we come back, so the pace should slow down.”

Larson had quite the history at Chicagoland. Before piloting the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports, he was on the short end of two dramatic finishes in the most recent Cup races at the oval, finishing runner-up to Kyle Busch in 2018 and now-Hendrick teammate Alex Bowman in the last Chicagoland event in 2019.

Larson said he reviewed some of those highlights to get a sense of how to approach the test.

“I was more just trying to get out of it seeing what lines we were running, which we could run kind of everywhere,” Larson said. “I didn’t really remember that. You could run all lanes. It’s aged and gotten rougher, I’m sure, since then. The bumps in [Turns] 3 and 4 are really, really rough. So I don’t know how much we’ll be able to move. I’m sure eventually we’ll move around, but it’s hard right now as the pace is so fast to move around and commit. The little bit I’ve moved up just a few times in 3 and 4, like one lane, I’ve bottomed out. So it’s pretty sketchy. Just trying to find lanes that you think your car can maybe go through will be beneficial.”

Blaney, originally from the Midwest, was fond of Chicagoland before it came off the schedule and added the importance of NASCAR continuing to race near a major metropolitan area like Chicago.

“One of the neatest things about this place, I thought the surface was at a really good point of like, very well aged, to where we’re going to use the whole race track,” Blaney said. “Tire falloff is going to be pretty big, especially when we come back in the summer. So we’re going to be able to use everything of the race track, which is good, but that’s always nice when you have mile-and-a-halfs that are wide. I just remember it puts on really good races, and the curved backstretch is different, but I have a lot of fun memories about this place.

“I was personally hurt a little bit when this place got taken off the calendar. It was nice for a few years to go to the streets of Chicago, but it’s nice that we still have a race in Illinois here, close to Chicago, close to the city. I was just happy that this track came back because I thought it always did a great job and draws a good crowd and puts on a good race too.”

Seven years removed from action, but Chicagoland is more than ready to host the coveted Fourth of July weekend on the NASCAR calendar, and the roar of Cup Series and O’Reilly Series cars will inject the racing spirit back into Joliet, Illinois.

“It looks great,” Larson said. “The track surface itself, I think, too, is in a better place than I expected it to be. I’m sure they have had to pull weeds and things like that. But yeah, it looks good. I think it’s a completely raceable facility and I’m excited to get here in a couple months.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

CONCORD, N.C. — There’s an old phrase in NASCAR that Darrell Waltrip often floated when broadcasting a race: “coopetition.”

Cooperation meets competition. We’re still battling each other, but let’s not hold each other up either.

Plenty has changed in NASCAR over the last 25 years, but Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Denny Hamlin rehashed that old gentlemen’s agreement during Sunday’s Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.

MORE: Talladega schedule | Cup standings

Hamlin was leading as Stage 1 drew to a close, lapping past Stenhouse’s No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet. In tow was Todd Gilliland, whose No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford kept pace with Hamlin but was also one lap in arrears. Ever conscious of the race’s dynamics, Hamlin keyed in to what was playing out.

The first car one lap down at the time of the caution flag gets a free pass to get back onto the lead lap, formerly referred to as the “lucky dog award.” With Gilliland hot on Hamlin’s tail and his friend Stenhouse in need of a favor, Hamlin threw Stenhouse a bone:

“Let him (Gilliland) know I’m going to give it to him,” Hamlin said. “I’m going to give it to him so I can give Ricky the lucky dog.”

And thus, as the three exited Turn 4 on the final lap of Stage 1, Gilliland scooted past Hamlin to remain on the lead lap, and Hamlin took the green-checkered flag to win Stage 1, all while Stenhouse was able to slot into position as the first car one lap down and receive the free pass to begin Stage 2 on the lead lap.

“When I got into the sport, I mean, I would say everybody raced that way,” Stenhouse explained Wednesday at the NASCAR Productions Facility. “Now that a lot (of drivers) have retired since I started in this sport, a lot of that has gone away. But Denny’s one of those guys that he’s always looking at the long game. And we’re buddies, but he knows that, if things come around, that I will help him out given the opportunity.

“Do I want to get lapped by Denny all the time? No, but if he’s leading the race and I can help him out, I will, just because he looks out for me as well. Those are the things that have always been part of NASCAR since I got into the sport that have definitely gone away for the most part.”

That portion of driver etiquette largely fell out of vogue over time. Prior to 2003, protocol was to race back to the yellow flag at the start/finish line rather than freezing the field at the time of caution. As such, leaders would often lay over to allow nearby lapped traffic to get back onto the lead lap before taking the yellow flag. That went away in the fall of 2003 when the running order was frozen at the time of caution, but drivers still exercised discretion at certain points of the race: If you’re faster than me now, go ahead — but I expect the favor returned when the shoe’s on the other foot.

The sport became more cutthroat over the years with things like stage points and playoff berths on the line at the cost of a single position on track. But some drivers, like Stenhouse and Hamlin, still find that balance on any given Sunday.

“We’re friends off the track, but we also have a lot of respect for each other,” Stenhouse said. “I know that there’s people that are like, ‘Hey, you can’t have friends at the race track. You want to go beat them.’ But they clearly didn’t grow up playing sports in the backyard with your friends. You wanted to beat and kill everybody that you could because we’re competitive. Denny and I playing golf together, we’re friends, but I want to beat him really bad. So you can have friends and be out on the race track no problem. I mean, I grew up again wanting to win everything that I played because I’m super competitive. And I know Denny’s the same way.”

It all comes full circle at a track like Talladega Superspeedway, where the Cup Series will race on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Drivers rely on pushes from their competitors to stay in the draft and work toward the front of the field, forcing the competition to fraternize in an effort to mutually benefit each other.

“He’s not gonna let me win Talladega,” Stenhouse laughed. “I’ve actually drafted a lot with Denny and some of those guys. Especially before he started 23XI, (Toyota) had four cars and we were sometimes the odd man out in our group, and so we would pit with them very often and had good success with that. They needed more numbers and there was times that that definitely benefited us. So it just kind of depends on where you shake out on the race track. … But yeah, I mean, you have people that give you favors for sure at all different race tracks.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Denny Hamlin race in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Jeff Curry | Getty Images
Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series head to Talladega Superspeedway for their first of two visits to the 2.66-mile drafting tracks this year. See the qualifying orders for the weekend below.

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on TV

Cup Series
Single-car qualifying will occur at 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday (Prime Video).

POSITIONNUMBERDRIVERMETRIC
162* Casey Mears41.9
278* Daniel Dye(i)41.0
344* Joey Gase(i)40.7
466* Chad Finchum(i)40.4
533* Jesse Love(i)40.1
651Cody Ware36.7
710Ty Dillon32.7
88Kyle Busch32.6
997Shane Van Gisbergen30.6
1088Connor Zilisch #30.2
1171Michael McDowell29.5
1238Zane Smith29.0
134Noah Gragson28.9
1416AJ Allmenedinger28.0
1541Cole Custer27.7
1621Josh Berry26.7
1722Joey Logano25.2
181Ross Chastain24.2
1942John Hunter Nemechek24.1
2047Ricky Stenhouse Jr.23.7
2143Erik Jones23.3
2248Alex Bowman23.1
2334Todd Gilliland18.8
243Austin Dillon18.7
2535Riley Herbst18.2
267Daniel Suárez18.1
2712Ryan Blaney17.7
2820Christopher Bell17.0
292Austin Cindric13.5
3077Carson Hocevar12.7
3160Ryan Preece11.6
3217Chris Buescher10.3
3354Ty Gibbs7.5
349Chase Elliott7.4
3524William Byron7.0
366Brad Keselowski6.9
3719Chase Briscoe6.6
3823Bubba Wallace5.9
3911Denny Hamlin3.4
405Kyle Larson2.9
4145Tyler Reddick1.0

O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Single-car qualifying will occur at 5:30 p.m. ET on Friday (The CW App).

POSITIONNUMBERDRIVERMETRIC
138Patrick Emerling(i)41.0
25JJ Yeley35.0
335Natalie Decker34.3
487Austin Green32.6
591Mason Maggio31.8
6274Dawson Cram31.7
755Joey Gase29.7
899Parker Retzlaff29.1
996Anthony Alfredo27.9
101Carson Kvapil27.7
1107Josh Bilicki27.2
1224Harrison Burton27.1
1328Kyle Sieg26.8
1421Austin Hill26.8
1542David Starr25.2
1602Ryan Ellis25.0
1731Blaine Perkins22.7
1892Josh Williams21.8
1945Lavar Scott #20.7
2032Tyler Ankrum(i)19.5
2144Brennan Poole18.4
2251Jeremy Clements17.7
2318William Sawalich17.6
2448Patrick Staropoli #16.1
2527Jeb Burton14.5
2626Dean Thompson13.7
278Sammy Smith13.6
280Garrett Smithley12.7
2939Ryan Sieg11.2
3041Sam Mayer10.8
3117Corey Day9.9
3220Brandon Jones7.7
3319Brent Crews6.2
3488Rajah Caruth4.8
3554Taylor Gray4.0
362Jesse Love4.0
377Justin Allgaier2.4
3800Sheldon Creed2.3

* Required to qualify on time
# denotes series rookie
(i) denotes ineligible for driver points

Posted on by Dustin Albino

Being compared to a goldfish is something Sam Mayer never thought he’d hear. But a directive by No. 41 Haas Factory Team crew chief Jason Trinchere reminded Mayer that goldfish — thanks to a 10-second memory — are the happiest animal on Earth.

Trinchere is a fan of “Ted Lasso,” a sports-comedy drama about an American football coach hired to manage a British soccer team despite having no prior experience. Initially, Lasso was hired to sabotage the club, but ultimately, the players rallied around the optimistic coach and succeeded.

“He is a really big motivator. He is a fantastic leader,” Mayer told NASCAR.com of Trinchere. “He does a great job in the shop, at the race track, everything that he does. The ‘Ted Lasso’ thing is something you can lean into and relate to when you’re in this scenario. You have to believe, roll and have to be like a goldfish.”

RELATED: Sam Mayer driver page 

Mayer’s 2026 season has been one of change after a successful debut campaign with HFT in 2025. The No. 41 team swapped from Ford to Chevrolet, reuniting with Hendrick Motorsports horsepower. The speed has been apparent, with a pair of Kennametal Pole Awards.

The results tell a different story. Through 10 races, Mayer has a quartet of top-10 finishes, with a best effort of fifth at Phoenix Raceway. Due in part to a collection of crashes and mechanical woes, Mayer currently has a 19.2 average finish, on pace to be the worst of his five years as a full-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver. By contrast, teammate Sheldon Creed — who ranks second in the driver standings — has the second-best average finish (6.8) among all full-timers. (Justin Allgaier ranks first with a 6.0 average finish.)

“Tough. Painful. Rough. Long,” Mayer said, giving a laundry list of adjectives to describe the 2026 season. “We have two poles, a bunch of laps led and it’s been awesome on the frontside of things. But finishing races has been challenging. It’s one of those things where you can’t point fingers at anybody. No one is not doing their job, and everyone is executing how we need to. We just have to get the monkey off our back a little bit and make sure everything is buttoned down.

“It’s one of those things that is tough, but it will make you stronger on the backside.”

Throughout Trinchere’s career as a crew chief, positivity has been a core theme. While that is being tested early in 2026, the fact that the sheer speed is visible doesn’t make him concerned as the season progresses.

“The finishes are frustrating,” Trinchere said. “We have the speed; we just need to have a complete race. I feel like once we have one, it will start clicking off. That’s how it was last year. Last year, Connor (Zilisch) went on that run that was so impressive, but we were in the top five in pretty much all of those races. If we can build that momentum back again like we had last year, points will take care of themselves.”

Sam Mayer drives the No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet at Kansas Speedway.
David Jensen | Getty Images

Early issues have taken Mayer out of the running most weeks in 2026. He’s missed out on ample stage points, totaling 44 through 10 races. He’s banked stage points in six out of 20 stages.

The pairing doesn’t believe their strategy will change heavily throughout the remainder of the regular season. But if there is a chance to be creative and secure stage points, the No. 41 team will adopt that philosophy.

Trinchere noted: “Right now, I think we’re back so far that if I can put him in the top three and let him do his thing on a restart, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Sitting 14th in the regular-season championship battle and 29 points below the cutline currently held by Rajah Caruth, Mayer recognizes his championship aspirations are running thin. Mayer and the O’Reilly Series will next do battle at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway (The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule

“I’m at a spot now where I’m going to go trophy hunting every week and let the points take care of themselves because I know this team is capable of it,” Mayer said. “It’s just about having everything go your way. It’s never over until it’s over.

“It’s going to be tough, and that’s why I’m focusing on wins because that is the most short-term success that you can look for, and a championship at the end of the year is going to be a bonus on top of that. If we can bust off six wins this year, there’s a chance, you never know.”

Before competing at Bristol Motor Speedway, Mayer got a new hairdo — a complete buzzcut — to hopefully provide a spark in the No. 41 team’s performance.

“It was another thing I could do, like, I’m trying everything,” Mayer said. “We’re going to go to battle every week and do our absolute best, and we’re going to do whatever we can to get our mojo back.”

From contending to wins to trying new things, Trinchere additionally believes there is a chance for the No. 41 team to grind into the upper echelon of the championship table, especially if huge points performances can be achieved.

“I would be happy at the end of [the regular season] if we’re top six in points,” Trinchere said. “When you look at the fact that you have a maximum day is 76 points, it can make a big swing quickly, which we saw in the opposite direction. We had two races where we barely scored two or three points.

“A lot of things that have happened outside of our hands. We try not to dwell on and mope around and be ‘Why us?’ We just keep our heads down, be a goldfish and forget about it.”

Posted on by Nate Ryan

NASCAR officials don’t meddle in teams’ strategic decisions, but they will judge the merits if a questionable tactical call affects the outcome of a race.

That was the case Sunday at Kansas Speedway, where a late caution sent the race into overtime after Denny Hamlin had been barely a lap away from victory.

Hamlin lost the lead on the final restart and then noted the yellow flag had flown for a spin by Cody Ware, who was multiple laps down and stretching a set of tires to the max when he lost control.

On the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, NASCAR vice president of race communications Mike Forde explained how teams outside of contention are warned about impacting the fortunes of front-running cars. NASCAR uses a blue flag to make slower cars aware when lead-lap cars are approaching, and officials also use a Microsoft Teams chat system to communicate with teams during the race.

“In so many words, it’s ‘Don’t be part of this outcome, be aware that there are leaders battling for the win here, so don’t be part of the story,’ ” Forde said. “If they do become part of the story, nothing will happen to them. We’re not going to lay down any penalties unless they do something intentional, in our opinion. But as far as what Cody did, it’s kind of a racing deal, as they say.”

But Forde said NASCAR will meet with teams when a race’s dynamics are affected by a team outside contention.

“There are times where we have called people to the hauler — spotters, crew chiefs, drivers — if they’ve done something that we consider unintelligent,” Forde said. “There’s been examples of guys who have stayed out on a crazy amount of tires and are in the lead, and then the restart is a disaster area. Sometimes we’d call them into the hauler and say, ‘Hey, next time, let’s be a little bit smarter here.’ You’re just not going to win a race with that strategy that you just tried to employ. All you’re going to do is really piss off everyone else in the garage. And that’s just not something you want to do if you want to have any success in the sport.”

NASCAR senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis explained how the virtual chat system is used to communicate with team members during a race.

“It was used a couple of times this past weekend at Kansas just to send a note,” Ellis said. “Friendly reminders that we’re watching and what the expectation is.”

Forde noted race director Tim Bermann sometimes relays the message via NASCAR’s public radio channel.

“That’s Tim using his 40 years of race directing experience and having a gut feeling that something bad may happen, so let me just say something so something bad doesn’t happen,” Forde said. “If it’s pretty tight and there’s a lot of lapped traffic, he’ll just remind everyone to mind their P’s and Q’s.”

Other topics covered by Forde and Ellis during the 50th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:

— The possibility of racing Crossover Utility Vehicles, which won’t be coming to any NASCAR national series in the near future.

— Why no driver was penalized for the incident in the pits between Ryan Blaney and AJ Allmendinger.

— The review of Carson Kvapil’s airborne crash and flip in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Kansas Speedway.

— NASCAR’s evaluation of the racing on 1.5-mile speedways this season.

— A report on Day 1 of tire testing at Chicagoland Speedway, which drew a crowd of about 1,000 fans to the track in Joliet, Illinois.

Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He has also covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.

Posted on by Staff Report

Talladega Superspeedway hosts a doubleheader of NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series action this weekend with well-known Goodyear treads hitting the asphalt.

Cup teams return for the Jack Link’s 500 on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) on the same Goodyear Racing Eagle tires utilized in both trips to the 2.66-mile superspeedway in 2025. Additionally, Cup teams raced on this rubber compound during Daytona Speedweeks in February, including the 68th annual Daytona 500.

MORE: Talladega schedule | Cup standings

“We have seen tire wear increase at Talladega in recent visits, but the tire setups we’ve selected for this weekend provide teams with a familiar base,” Rick Heinrich, Goodyear NASCAR product manager, said. “Strategy here is often dictated by drafting position, but it’s common to see teams add two-tire and fuel-only stops into the mix throughout the race.”

Teams will have seven total sets of tires to complete the scheduled 500-mile distance Sunday — one set for qualifying and six fresh sets for the race.

In the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, teams will use the same left-side tire compounds used at Daytona earlier this season as well as the same right-side compound as EchoPark Speedway. Four sets of tires will be available for their 300-mile contest — one to transfer from qualifying and three fresh sets for their scheduled 113 laps.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

NASCAR.com’s Zach Sturniolo ranks the top 20 Cup Series drivers competing for the 2026 championship after Tyler Reddick’s win at Kansas Speedway and before Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Austin Cindric enters as the defending winner.

RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Cup Series standings

Power Rankings graphic for Tyler Reddick.

Analysis: Another week, another historic victory for Reddick. The No. 45 team keeps on rolling with its fifth win in nine races, continuing a simply staggering start for Reddick. Surely, the magic will run out at some point, right? Maybe, but maybe not. Reddick is 2-for-2 on drafting tracks in 2026 after winning the Daytona 500 and at EchoPark Speedway, plus he won Talladega in the spring of 2024.Power Rankings graphic for Denny Hamlin.

Analysis: So close to another Kansas win for Hamlin, and yet still so far. For the second Kansas race in a row, Hamlin battled a 23XI Racing car for a victory, and for the second time, came up short. This time, Hamlin had to settle for fourth place after leading a race-high 131 of 274 laps. Hamlin may be frustrated he didn’t earn career win No. 62, but there are plenty of positives to take away: He’s up to second in the standings after winning a stage on Sunday and has led 130 or more laps in three of the last five Cup races.

Power Rankings graphic for Kyle Larson.

Analysis: Larson was one lap away from snapping that 32-race winless drought … until Reddick did what Reddick does. But Larson walks away with his first runner-up finish of 2026 instead, with a second consecutive week earning 54 points. He’s still looking for his first Talladega Superspeedway win, but he did finish second in last spring’s race to the checkers.Power Rankings graphic for Ryan Blaney.

Analysis: Blaney was a distant 24th-place finisher in Sunday’s race at Kansas, marking his first truly miserable day of the season and earning a season-low 13 points. His day appeared to be on the right track until contact on pit road with AJ Allmendinger damaged his right-front fender, and Blaney never recovered. Now he turns toward ‘Dega, where he’s a three-time winner, most recently in the fall of 2023.Power Rankings graphic for Chase Elliott.

Analysis: That’s more like it. Elliott returned to form at Kansas, where he was in contention late for a top-five finish but ultimately finished eighth, squarely where he averaged all day, per NASCAR loop data. That was a needed rebound for Elliott, who slid to a 22nd-place finish at Bristol after a spin in overtime. Building momentum is a tall task at Talladega, but perhaps that’s what the No. 9 team can do after a season full of peaks and valleys early on.Power Rankings graphic for Ty Gibbs.

Analysis: Gibbs keeps riding this wave of top 10s since COTA, now extending his streak to seven races after a ninth-place showing at Kansas. His one Achilles’ heel this year, though, has been superspeedways, finishing 23rd at Daytona and 37th at EchoPark after crashing out. His resume at Talladega isn’t stellar, but a third-place finish there last fall should be encouraging to the No. 54 camp.Power Rankings graphic for Bubba Wallace.

Analysis: And just like that, Wallace looks like he’s back on track. That two-race skid at Darlington and Martinsville certainly tanked some momentum, but a strong fifth-place run at Kansas has Wallace back in his groove. Those two anomalies are Wallace’s only races with fewer than 30 points scored this season. Now he returns to the site of his first career win back in 2021, and has top 10s in each of his last three Talladega trips.Power Rankings graphic for William Byron.

Analysis: It’s been a weird start to the year for Byron, who averaged a 13.54 running position Sunday at Kansas, but he capitalized on an overtime restart to walk away seventh and put his Bristol nightmare in the past. Talladega may not have given him a victory yet, but his recent finishes are notable, racking up five top 10s in his last six visits.Power Rankings graphic for Christopher Bell.

Analysis: What could have been, huh? Bell lined up behind Reddick on the final restart in Sunday’s race and rocketed to the outside with hopes of fighting Larson for the win. Instead, contact from Reddick put Bell into the wall and broke a toe link on the No. 20 Toyota, dropping Bell out of contention and into a 20th-place finish, one lap down after leading 47 laps. After finishing inside the top five in three straight races, Bell has one top 10 in the four races since. Talladega hasn’t quite been his friend either, with two DNFs in the past four races – both in the spring.Power Rankings graphic for Chase Briscoe.

Analysis: What a finish for Briscoe, who earned his second straight top-five finish after an insane restart on four fresh tires launched him from 11th to third in two laps. Briscoe has finally entered The Chase territory, fittingly, and returns to the site of his most recent victory at Talladega. These are the kinds of finishes expected from Briscoe and the No. 19 team. The question is whether they’ve truly found some steady ground.

Power Rankings graphic for Brad Keselowski.

Analysis: Keselowski capitalized on the late-race restart to score a sixth-place finish at Kansas, earning his third top 10 in the last five races. Now he heads to Talladega, where his six wins are the most among active drivers and tied with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon for the second-most all-time. Keselowski has led in 26 of his 34 Talladega starts, so expect the No. 6 Ford up front again Sunday as the 2012 champ seeks his first ‘Dega win since 2021.Power Rankings graphic for Chris Buescher.

Analysis: A steady showing for Buescher at Kansas produced his fourth top-10 finish of the season, snapping a two-race stretch in the teens. The RFK Racing Fords are always fast on superspeedways, as evidenced by laps led in 10 of his last 13 Talladega trips. But so far, Buescher has just one top-five finish to show for it after finishing third in the 2023 spring race. After two DNFs there in 2025, Buescher may just be glad to see the checkered flag Sunday.Power Rankings graphic for Ryan Preece.

Analysis: Preece has been the model of consistency lately. His 11th-place showing at Kansas continued a six-race span of finishes between eighth and 13th, planting him 13th both in our rankings and the Cup Series standings. Talladega hasn’t given him much to write home about with one top five and three top 10s in 12 starts, but only one DNF here in his last five starts is encouraging, considering the calamity that abounds.Power Rankings graphic for Joey Logano.

Analysis: Well, that was an ugly run. Logano finished 30th at Kansas, two laps down and earning just seven points, marking his second run of 30th or worse in the past four weeks after a dismal Darlington day in March. It’s been feast or famine lately for the No. 22 team, which earned finishes of third (Martinsville) and seventh (Bristol) in between these recent gut punches. If it’s any consolation, Logano is a three-time Talladega winner with 19 or more laps led in each of his last five races there. His last top five at Talladega came in 2021, though.Power Rankings graphic for Austin Cindric.

Analysis: For as poorly as Kansas went for his teammates, Cindric had a fine day, taking home a 12th-place finish for his third top 15 in four races. Cindric returns to Talladega as the defending winner of the spring race, but he’s another driver that has seen checkers or wreckers here: He has one win, two top fives and three finishes of 23rd or worse in his last five ‘Dega appearances.Power Rankings graphic for Carson Hocevar.

Analysis: A strong day for Hocevar was thwarted by a crummy day on pit road. NASCAR Insights ranked the No. 77 crew 31st of 37 entrants in Sunday’s race, dropping Hocevar from an average running position of 9.87 to a 13th-place finish. Talladega treated the Spire driver well last year with dual sixth-place finishes. He was also fighting for the lead late at Daytona and EchoPark earlier this year, so don’t be surprised if Hocevar is in the mix for his first win Sunday afternoon.Power Rankings graphic for Daniel Suárez.

Analysis: Kansas was pretty average for Suárez, who finished 19th on Sunday and averaged an 18.56 running position. Suárez isn’t a spectacular superspeedway racer, but he sure isn’t bad. The No. 7 driver has four top 10s in his last seven Talladega starts, including a ninth-place showing last spring. He does, however, have a drafting-track victory at EchoPark Speedway in 2024.Power Rankings graphic for Todd Gilliland.

Analysis: For the first time since 2024, welcome back to the Power Rankings, Todd. This has been a decent stretch for Gilliland, netting a strong sixth-place finish at Bristol before earning a respectable 17th-place result at Kansas. It’s a good time to have some positive momentum, too: he finished second at Talladega last fall and has an average finish of 13.1 in eight starts here – his best at any track with three or more starts.

Power Rankings graphic for Shane van Gisbergen.

Analysis: A season that started so well has gone so sour. Van Gisbergen’s 36th-place finish at Kansas is his third showing of 34th or worse in the last five races, earning a combined five points in those three events. He’s been perfectly respectable at Talladega in four starts, though, finishing 11th last fall and 15th in the 2024 fall race.Power Rankings graphic for Ross Chastain.

Analysis: Hard to find a bright spot for Trackhouse Racing as a whole when its premier driver, Chastain, is 26th, two laps down at Kansas – a track he won at a year and a half ago. Nonetheless, there should be far fewer concerns heading to Talladega, another track he won at back in 2022.

Posted on by Cara Cooper

Racing alongside his son and grandson is a huge joy for Dale Sherman.

Well, for the most part.

“It’s fine until the kids beat me,” Dale said with a laugh.

“Pretty fun for the kids though,” Dale’s grandson, Hayden Sherman, added.

The Sherman family includes three generations of drivers, and they all compete in the Anderson Automotive Hobby Stocks division at Hawkeye Downs Speedway, a NASCAR Local Racing Series Powered by O’Reilly Auto Parts track in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Dale’s son, and Hayden’s dad, Jason, also competes in the class. Last year, Hayden finished second in the final points standings. Jason finished third.

Dale began racing at Hawkeye Downs more than five decades ago after initially going to the track with a friend.

“My best friend raced there back when I was in high school, he was a couple years older than me, so then I just went with him when he started,” Dale said. “I started racing then, that was 51 years ago.”

Dale raced just once last year because he had a knee replacement surgery, but he plans to compete in every race this season.

Jason got into racing simply because he enjoyed going to the track and watching his dad.

“Growing up, watching my dad race and going to the racetrack the whole time growing up, eventually I got to a point where I was able to get my own car and go out later on in life. And then it just kind of drew dad back in,” he said.

Hayden, a sophomore in high school, followed in his family’s footsteps and began racing last year.

“Watching it my whole life, it made me want to try it,” he said. “And I’ve always grown up with cars and liking cars, so thought I’d go out too, if I could.”

“With my son, Hayden, coming to the track with me, watching me race and helping me out, it was just like back when I was going with my dad,” Jason said. “And now Hayden’s to the point where he’s old enough and can get his own car and now he’s out there… The hardest part was convincing his mom to let him go out and race.”

The trio all work on the cars together in the garage during the week leading up to the races, and they admit they aren’t that competitive with each other … until they are.

“It’s not that competitive until somebody makes a mistake and then you get to pass them,” Dale said. “Then, it’s on.”

The first time they all raced together was last June. They finished first, second and third in the heat race. After battling with each other in the feature, Hayden came away with not only the family win, but also the overall victory. It was his first win at Hawkeye Downs.

“That was pretty exciting,” Hayden said. “Honestly, I was lost for words. When the announcer was talking to me after the race, I couldn’t say anything. He asked so many questions and I couldn’t answer any of them. I couldn’t talk. I was so excited.”

Ultimately, even though they were defeated, the elder Shermans were happy to see the youngest generation find success.

“On the one hand, it’s great,” Dale said. “On the other hand, he’s beaten me, so…”

“We can be competitive. Our cars are all pretty even, so actually it’s just a lot of fun,” Jason said. “I’m just there to have fun, and it’s fun having my dad and my kid both there at the same time. I couldn’t be happier, no matter what the outcome. No matter who wins, no matter who finishes ahead of who, as long as everybody had a good race and everybody had fun, it’s a joy. If somebody had troubles during the race or their car broke down or whatever, everybody gets to participate in the fun and everybody gets to participate in the work if something doesn’t go right.”

Hawkeye Downs will kick off the season on Saturday with NASCAR Opening Night.

This week, the Shermans are focusing on getting the cars ready for the season. They’re de-winterizing, changing the fluids, getting the setups right, and replacing any broken parts from last year.

When asked what he’s most looking forward to this season, Dale said simply, “To finish the race.”

They all have different goals when they hit the track. Hayden said he’s just looking forward to seeing what every other driver has done with their cars.

Jason just wants to keep having fun and spending time together.

“I’m looking forward to just getting the season started,” Jason said. “There’s always a lot of unknowns until you get out there on the track, not knowing what the car is going to do. So, I’m just anxious to see how it does and to get it right.

“As long as everybody’s still having a good time doing it. As far as working on the car during the week, getting it ready for the race, everybody has fun during the race, we get to load it on the trailer and take it all home in one piece and everybody has a good night, that’s all that matters.”

For all three Shermans, racing is about more than what happens on the track. It’s about the opportunity to be together while they’re there.

“If there wasn’t any family, it wouldn’t be much fun going,” Hayden said.

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series next travels to Talladega Superspeedway for a contest at the Alabama venue on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Austin Hill is the defending race winner, and while the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing driver will look to clinch three consecutive wins at the superspeedway, four other drivers — Taylor Gray, Sheldon Creed, Justin Allgaier and Jesse Love — will contend for the win and also do battle for $100,000 in the third of four Dash 4 Cash races this season.

ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series 

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Tyler Ankrum will make his O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut as driver of the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet. Rajah Caruth returns behind the wheel of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet this weekend.

Thirty-eight cars are entered into this weekend’s event.

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Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series shifts from Kansas Speedway to the high banks of Talladega Superspeedway this Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Austin Cindric is the defending spring winner. Tyler Reddick, meanwhile, continues to be red-hot in 2026, collecting his fifth win in nine races at Kansas and will aim to back it up again at the Alabama track.

ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series 

Jesse Love is making his second start for Richard Childress Racing this season, driving the No. 33 Chevrolet. Part-time drivers Chad Finchum and Joey Gase are also entered for Sunday’s race.

Forty-one cars are entered into this weekend’s event.

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