Posted on by Pat DeCola

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell put himself back on top of the championship conversation on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway for the first time since an early-season, three-race win streak. Bell should be able to keep it rolling this weekend in the “Granite State,” where he has excelled in recent years and tested in July. Fellow Round of 12 competitor and New England native — not to mention defending and three-time champion — Joey Logano was also part of that test, and could be the first to clinch a Round of 8 spot in search of a landmark fourth title.

NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola ranks the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs contenders after the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway and before Sunday’s Mobil 1 301 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

HOW TO WATCH: NASCAR on NBC, USA | Driver Cams on HBO Max

Analysis: Bell’s dramatic Bristol win cements him as the driver to beat at the worst possible time for his competitors. The Round of 12 is tremendously suited for Bell’s skillset, with the No. 20 driver being in a class of his own at Loudon to start. The Oklahoman being in the Round of 8 by Sunday night is a realistic scenario — expect Bell to leverage his momentum and JGR’s supreme playoff hot streak into perhaps a second straight victory.

Analysis: After a rare off night at Bristol — finishing 31st and five laps down — Hamlin’s extensive history of success at Loudon offers optimism, even if mixed with a little phobia. A three-time NHMS winner (2007, ’12, ’17) with eight additional top fives and a total of 19 top 10s in 31 career starts, he knows how to manage tires and late restarts at the “Magic Mile,” even if he’s not thrilled about the creature that greets him in Victory Lane. Despite Bristol’s setback, his status as points leader and master of tire wear suggest he’ll rebound as a favorite at New Hampshire.

Analysis: A ninth-place result at Bristol added to Briscoe’s momentum after his Darlington win, completing a trio of top 10s in the Round of 16. A Loudon win feels imminent in his future, showing he is more than capable of competing there with his past team and now getting a chance to drive for the team to beat in JGR — a team that also just swept the Round of 16.

Analysis: Blaney thrived at Bristol with a fourth-place run, leading 30 laps and capturing Stage 1. Though much has been made of Team Penske’s flat-track program, Blaney has just one top 15 at Loudon this decade and has led laps in just two of his 12 starts there. That said, Blaney’s smooth driving and Penske’s generally strong history up north make him a dark horse for a New Hampshire victory.

Analysis: Larson endured a challenging Bristol, finishing a brutal 32nd in a race he was favored to win, but his record at Loudon is stout and a rebound should be in store. Despite having yet to win there, No. 5 owns six top fives in 14 starts — including a pair of top threes to open his career there as a 2014 rookie — and proven consistency on mile-long flat tracks bodes well for him in the “Granite State.”

Analysis: A mediocre 12th at Bristol underscored Byron’s playoff form, which thus far has not been great — he struck out on top 10s in the Round of 16. Another spot where he’s seen a dearth of top 10s? New Hampshire Motor Speedway: the track at which he has the most starts with no such finishes. Hendrick certainly has this one circled with that in mind, but there’s no guarantee one of the year’s best drivers gets it going again in time at this pivotal point.

Analysis: Logano, despite a rough recent Bristol resume and murky points outlook entering Saturday night, did what a champion does and survived to race another day, turning in a top-five run and moving on to the Round of 12. He now gets to go home to New England, to a track he tested at over the summer and one at which he’s one of a small handful of drivers to beat. We may be about to go from “is defending champ Joey Logano about to be eliminated in the Round of 16 at Bristol?” to “actually, he’s the first driver in the Round of 8” in a span of eight days.

Analysis: Despite a 38th-place DNF disaster at Bristol, Elliott advances by points after nobody below the cutline was able to advance and knock him out. He’s shown some decent capability at New Hampshire in the past — No. 9 has led double-digit laps in four of his 11 starts there — but it’s only translated to three total top 10s.

Analysis: Reddick started the Round of 16 hot with a runner-up at Darlington and was then held out of the top 10 the remaining two races, but he could be getting back on the horse this weekend at Loudon. No. 45 led 53 laps there last year en route to a second straight sixth-place finish at the track, and he’s seemed to pick things back up a bit overall the past month after a summer swoon. Don’t be surprised if Reddick claims his first lobster this weekend and starts carving out his Championship 4 path, with a favorable Round of 8 for him ahead as well.

Analysis: Wallace saw the power of a points cushion at Bristol, wrecking out for a 34th-place finish but moving on to the Round of 12 before the race even concluded. Loudon generally has not been a great track for him, with two finishes better than 22nd and no laps led, but those two results were in the past three races there and for an average finish of 5.5. He’s been strong lately, and there’s a good chance it continues.

Analysis: Chastain finished the Round of 16 with no top 10s and has just one of those since Chicago as well, yet here he is, still in championship contention with seven races remaining. With three top 10s in his four most recent NHMS starts, it’s quite likely he turns things around this weekend and could even re-enter the serious title talk.

Analysis: Maneuvering through a cockpit fire to finish 30th and advance, Cindric showed grit at Bristol as he defied the many who had him penciled in as a Round of 16 cut. He’s yet to lead a lap or finish in the top 10 at Loudon, but this race will be one that he and Team Penske absolutely have dialed in as a place to finally pounce, and it would be quite a surprise to see him not turn in a competitive weekend.

Posted on by Press Release

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Six-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby is making a comeback Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Coby will pilot the historic No. 7NY for Tommy Baldwin Racing in the Mohegan Sun 100, the 13th race of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.

The event is scheduled for 9:15 a.m, set to run before the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoff race on Saturday afternoon and the NASCAR Cup Series playoff showdown on Sunday.

It will be Coby’s first start of the season on the Whelen Modified Tour. The Tommy Baldwin Racing team competed in 11 of the first 12 events of the 2025 season with Luke Baldwin behind the wheel, scoring seven top-10 finishes. Baldwin is committed to racing for the championship on the SMART Modified Tour with Sadler-Stanley Racing and will be racing at Franklin County on Saturday.

Coby, a six-time Whelen Modified Tour champion, is no stranger to winning at New Hampshire. He has four previous wins at the ‘Magic Mile’, just some of his 35 career victories on the Whelen Modified Tour.

“I’m excited to do it at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and it’s actually my 40th year racing and I want to keep the streak going, it’s a cool milestone,” Coby said. “It’s been 40 years in a row of racing something competitive… definitely fired up to be racing with Tommy and his team.”

“We’re getting the band back together with Doug in the 7NY,” Tommy Baldwin Jr. said. “When we have raced with Doug in the past, we’ve always had a good opportunity to get to Victory Lane. There is no one better for us to have behind the wheel with Luke committed elsewhere. With his experience at New Hampshire and our newer PSR Chassis that has only one race on it, we are confident.”

The schedule for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway includes practice and qualifying on Friday. The race will take the green flag at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday morning, live on FloRacing. Tickets to see the race in person on NASCAR playoff weekend are available online at NHMS.com.

Posted on by Adam Fenwick

Mohegan Sun 100

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

  • Entry list
Car No. Driver Team Crew Chief Chassis Sponsor
1 Patrick Emerling KPL Racing LLC Dale Hedquist LFR Fleetworks, Inc.
3 Tyler Rypkema Boehler’s Racing Equipment Greg Fournier Boehler Racing USNE; SYP; Northeast Drilling
06 Sam Rameau Rameau Family Motorsports TBA FURY Race Cars Quality Fleet Services; Powell’s Stone and Gravel
7 Doug Coby Tommy Baldwin Racing LLC Tommy Baldwin PSR Products TBD
8 John-Michael Shenette Eighty-Two Autosport Scott Morin LFR USNE Power Midwest Operations; Eighty-Two Services General Contractor
14 Jake Lutz Advantage Motorsports Bill Putney LFR Advantage Trucks; Washtronic’s; Anastasi Trucking
15 Joey Cipriano III Fueled Up Motorsports Ryan Plourde FURY Race Cars Eastern Propane & Oil; The Bass Plating Company
16 Ron Silk Haydt Yannone Racing Phil Moran FURY Race Cars Blue Mountain Machine; Future Homes
17 Anthony Nocella Michele Davini TBA LFR Keene Towing & Recovery; Copart; Xtreme Autobody; Sontag Motorsports; Bells Septic
18 Ken Heagy Christopher Fleming Greg Gorman FURY Race Cars Speed 77
21 Stephen Kopcik Wanick Motorsports Nick Kopcik Troyer Wanick Constructions, Inc.; Newtown Pools
22 Kyle Bonsignore Kyle Bonsignore Keith McDermott FURY Race Cars MTT; ChaLew Performance; Munns Auto
43 Matt Kimball William Kimball Jr. TBA LFR J&M Towing; Birch Financial; Central Mass Tree
44 Chase Dowling Tinio Motorsports Danny Gamache LFR S&S Paving / Harshaw Paving
46 Craig Lutz Goodie Racing Douglas Ogiejko FURY Race Cars Riverhead Building Supply
51 Justin Bonsignore Kenneth Massa Motorsports, LLC Ryan Stone FURY Race Cars Phoenix Communications, Inc.
54 Tommy Catalano Catalano Motorsports Rick Kluth Troyer FX Caprara
56 Trevor Catalano Catalano Motorsports David Catalano Troyer USNE Power
58 Eric Goodale Goodie Motorsports Rob Hyer FURY Race Cars GAF Roofing
60 Matt Hirschman Pee Dee/Elite Motorsports Mike Stein LFR Elite Towing; Bar Harbor Bank and Trust
64 Austin Beers KLM Motorsports Ron Yuhas Troyer G&G Electrical Supply, Lumiere Electrical, Dell Electric, Fastrack Electric, Andrew James Interiors, AP Marquadt & Sons, Hugh
70 Andy Seuss Steve Seuss Steve Seuss LFR Rockingham Boat
77 Gary Putnam Mike Curb Kaitlyn Tarantino Troyer Curb Records; Mohawk Northeast
79 Jonathan McKennedy Jonathan McKennedy Racing TBA FURY Race Cars Stuarts Auto; Christophers Towing; John Young Landscaping
82 Woody Pitkat DWR Racing Corp. TBA LFR USNEpower, McKinney Construction and Horton Avenue Materials LLC
113 Michael Christopher Jr Mike Christopher, Sr TBA LFR Mohawk Northeast
129 Mike Marshall TLC Performance Kevin Ledoux Troyer MLM Diagnostics; Jusczak Electric

 

Posted on by Staff Report

With one race remaining in the Round of 10, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs drivers are set to battle Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Noon ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | Truck Series

The “Magic Mile” will serve as the Round of 8 scene setter, with only two drivers, Corey Heim and Layne Riggs, advancing to the next round by virtue of wins.

Christian Eckes returns to his Truck Series roots this weekend, piloting the No. 16 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet. Carson Kvapil will once again be in the No. 97 for CR7 Motorsports and Michael Christopher Jr. will drive a second entry for Halmar Friesen Racing in the No. 62 Toyota.

HOW TO WATCH: NASCAR on FOX, FS1, more

See the full entry list below:

Posted on by Staff Report

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs continue in New England, where the remaining 12 title hopefuls will do battle at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to begin the Round of 12 (Sun., 2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | Truck Series

The Mobil 1 301 begins the first of three Round of 12 events, with Kansas Speedway (Sept. 28) and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (Oct. 5) to follow. Four drivers will be eliminated following the Round of 12’s conclusion; Austin Cindric (minus-1), Joey Logano (minus-2), Ross Chastain (minus-2) and Tyler Reddick (minus-3) currently sit below the playoff cutline.

HOW TO WATCH: NASCAR on NBC, USA | Driver Cams on HBO Max

View the full entry list for the event:

Posted on by NASCAR Official Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR today announced that the annual NASCAR Awards will take place in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Nov. 4, capping off what promises to be a thrilling Championship Weekend.

The prestigious event will bring together drivers, teams, industry executives and fans to celebrate the 2025 season and honor the newly crowned champions from the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Most recently held in Charlotte, North Carolina, this marks the first time the event will be held in Arizona, reflecting NASCAR’s continued commitment to delivering memorable experiences in new and dynamic markets.

The awards ceremony and preceding red carpet will be livestreamed exclusively at 6 p.m. ET on The NASCAR Channel, allowing fans to join in the celebration. The NASCAR Channel — a free ad-supported streaming channel — can be found on Xumo Play, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus and Prime Video.

“Scottsdale offers the perfect backdrop for this year’s NASCAR Awards,” said Tim Clark, executive vice president and chief brand officer for NASCAR. “The incredible excitement from Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway will immediately carry into this year’s Awards, adding a level of energy we’ve never seen for this celebration.”

Watch NASCAR Channel on Prime Video, Roku, Samsung TV Plus, Tubi and Xumo

Following the championship races at Phoenix Raceway, which conclude on Sunday, Nov. 2, with the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race, the move to Scottsdale allows for a seamless transition into the awards celebration. The city’s renowned hospitality, culture and scenic desert landscapes are expected to deliver an unforgettable experience for both guests and viewers.

NASCAR will host a celebration for the NASCAR Regional Series (ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East, ARCA Menards Series West, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series) and the NASCAR International Series (NASCAR Brasil Series, NASCAR Canada Series, NASCAR Mexico Series and NASCAR Whelen Euro Series), on Friday, Nov. 21, in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the Charlotte Convention Center.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Don’t expect the Joe Gibbs Racing juggernaut to lose steam anytime soon.

After Christopher Bell charged to victory in Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway — completing the organization’s sweep of the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs — team owner Joe Gibbs basked in the afterglow of yet another job well done.

“Yeah, just so excited about the start to the playoffs,” Gibbs said. “Just appreciate everybody back at our race shop. I talk about that all the time. We’ll hang a banner on Monday, and I get a chance to thank them, but it honestly takes everybody to be able to get our cars to the race track like this.

“We’ve got fast cars right now. It means a lot.”

All three of JGR’s playoff drivers had a hand in the sweep. Chase Briscoe opened the postseason with a victory in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Denny Hamlin followed with a win at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

RELATED: Round of 12 set at Bristol | Full race results

Bell completed the sweep by grabbing the lead after a restart with four laps left, as unexpectedly extreme tire degradation dictated a hodgepodge of strategies that produced 38 lead changes among 14 drivers and repeatedly shuffled the running order.

“I would have bet my house that it was going to be a normal Bristol race,” said Bell’s crew chief Adam Stevens, who was shocked by the fall-off of the new right-side tires Goodyear provided for the elimination race.

Fortunately, Stevens still has a place to live, and he and Bell will head to the Round of 12 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with confidence born of two sources: Bell’s victory at Bristol and his overwhelming success at the 1-mile flat track in the Granite State.

In five Cup Series starts at the Magic Mile, Bell has two victories, a runner-up finish and a pole. Last year, he used his dirt-track background and ability to find optimal racing lines to win a Loudon race that concluded on wet tires.

In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Bell is undefeated in four starts at New Hampshire. He also participated in a July tire test at the track, along with fellow playoff drivers Joey Logano and Ross Chastain.

To explain JGR’s blazing start to the playoffs, look no further than the choice of tracks this year.

MORE: Playoff Pulse: Tires and tribulation jumble up the title hopefuls at Bristol

After hosting the regular-season cutoff race in 2024, Darlington returned to its typical spot as the playoff opener, replacing Atlanta. Hamlin is the leading active winner at the “Lady in Black” with five victories, and Briscoe was the defending winner of the Southern 500, in a Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, before moving to JGR in 2025.

At Gateway, which supplanted the Watkins Glen road course as the site of the second playoff race, Hamlin was a two-time runner-up before winning last Sunday, and Bell showed potential race-winning speed and swept the first two stages last year before engine issues dropped him to seventh at the finish.

The change of venues in the Round of 16 certainly helped, but the speed in the Gibbs cars is also undeniable. JGR’s Ty Gibbs, who missed the playoffs, led a race-high 201 of 500 laps at Bristol before trouble accessing pit road and a collision with Austin Hill’s Chevrolet sapped his winning chances.

Briscoe led 127 laps and Bell 12 — including the one that counted.

At New Hampshire, the JGR drivers will try to extend their winning streak to four. Then it’s off to Kansas Speedway, where Hamlin is the leading active winner with four victories.

It’s convenient — not to mention encouraging to other teams — to recall the words of Hal Holbrook to Charlie Sheen in the movie Wall Street: “You’re on a roll, kid. Enjoy it while it lasts — because it never does.”

The current tidal wave at Joe Gibbs Racing, however, feels more enduring. The remaining tracks on the playoff schedule set up beautifully for the organization, which seems poised to break Team Penske’s three-year stranglehold on the series championship.

But which Gibbs driver will do the honors? That’s where the guesswork is involved.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Heated, frustrated, annoyed. Christopher Bell was simply tired of losing.

Six days after a rare radio eruption following the NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway, Bell and crew chief Adam Stevens found themselves back in Victory Lane for the first time since March, winning the Round of 16 finale at Bristol Motor Speedway.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

The boil-over at Gateway led to a midweek conversation between the driver and crew chief who have worked in tandem since 2021. Now in their fifth year together, the trust they’ve built in one another and the professionalism each exudes allowed for a quick dispatch of any hard feelings and made room for flawless execution in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol. The result? Bell’s first points-paying win since Phoenix Raceway on March 9, over six months ago.

“I think it goes to show that any week, it can happen,” Bell said. “I got really frustrated last week because we had an opportunity to win and we didn’t win. We’ve had several opportunities to win throughout the summer and we didn’t win.

“Every week, every week we can do it. And Adam, while I was frustrated with the calls last week, he nailed every call this week, and we ended up in Victory Lane. You’re going to have that. Tonight was just a perfect example of everybody doing the right things and not making mistakes and keeping us in it. We got the fruit of that.”

After Gateway, Bell shouted “I’m over it!” over his radio after finishing seventh with what he deemed the best car on track. The tone over the radio after Bristol was, of course, notably more positive.

“Way to never give up despite a little adversity this year in these playoffs,” Stevens keyed after the checkered flag. “Proud of you, Bell.”

“I’m proud of you boys,” Bell said. “Excellent, excellent job.”

The evolution of Saturday’s race required strong trust and communication between Bell, Stevens and spotter Tab Boyd. With a new, softer right-side tire from Goodyear, higher wear arose throughout the race than was originally anticipated after Friday’s lone practice session.

ANALYSIS: New tire tests Cup’s best in Bristol finale

Christopher Bell and Brad Keselowski race into Turn 3 at Bristol.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

Once Bell’s approach needed to change, so too did Stevens’ atop the pit box.

“It’s definitely a lot of conversation between you and your crew chief and just asking him, hey, what is the plan here?” Bell said. “There are so many people on different strategies and different plans. We had a 125-lap stage, and all of sudden, people are having tire issues at like Lap 30. Are we going to two-stop this? Are we going to one-stop this? Do you need me to go hard? How long do I have to make these tires last?”

Together, the duo combined to produce all the right answers. The race ultimately came down to a restart with four laps remaining. Bell lined up in third place — second on the bottom lane behind Zane Smith — and was able to charge through the bottom lane in a three-wide pass on Smith and Carson Hocevar and held off a late charge from Brad Keselowski, who attempted a bump-and-run pass in the final set of corners.

Bell’s victory marks the 13th of his Cup Series tenure. It’s his fourth of the season, tying him with Shane van Gisbergen for the second-most wins of 2025. And while Bell’s elation was obvious Saturday night, so too was his unrelenting dissatisfaction.

“Winning, that’s what makes your career. That’s what makes your status in the industry,” he said. “That’s literally everything. In order to make it in this sport, you have to win. Frankly, I haven’t won enough. That’s what, win 13 in my career? That’s not enough, and I need to win more. But it starts with — every win gets it up a tick so I’m glad we got this one tonight.”

As the head of this team’s leadership, Stevens plays a key role in tempering those eager expectations, no matter how realistic they are.

“You don’t have a race, especially like this or really any race, without some circumstances affecting the outcome,” Stevens said. “My point to him last week was whatever gap there is between where we are and where we want to be, it might feel big, but it’s not big. It just takes a couple pieces of the puzzle — a right restart here and there, a little better qualifying — and we can have nights like this.”

Now, the No. 20 team is onto the Round of 12 in the Cup Series Playoffs, completing Joe Gibbs Racing’s three-race sweep of the opening Round of 16 with three different drivers. Its goal is to win a championship, which would mark Bell’s first and Stevens’ third in their third Championship 4 appearance in four years. They have to get there first, but Bell has won the last two spring races at Phoenix.

But gone are the frustrations of Gateway. Back are the good vibes after Bristol.

“Winning fixes everything, that’s for sure,” Bell said.

Posted on by Staff Report

After 500 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway, the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs field is four drivers lighter.

An intriguing Saturday evening of high stakes and high tire wear produced a compelling Bass Pro Shops Night Race, the elimination event in the postseason’s Round of 16. The dozen who move on will grid back up for the playoffs’ next phase, which begins a week from Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

WINNER

Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Bell got the best of Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar on the final restart, then fended off Brad Keselowski to lead the last four laps of his fourth win of the Cup Series season. Bell was already in a reasonably safe zone for making the Round of 12 on points, but his Bristol victory gave him an automatic spot, making the math a moot point. The triumph also made it a clean sweep of the opening round for Joe Gibbs Racing, which has won the postseason’s first three races.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Bristol

WHO’S HOT?

Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford. No driver earned more points than Blaney on Saturday night, thanks to his second straight fourth-place result and first- and second-place finishes at the stages. The former Cup Series champ led three times for 30 laps in his 52-point night, and his No. 12 team was able to sidestep many of the tire issues that short-circuited his fellow competitors. Overall, Blaney has been piping hot in recent weeks, and Saturday’s outcome at Bristol marked his eighth top-10 finish in the last nine races.

Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Briscoe managed quite the rally from an uncharacteristically poor qualifying effort, a season-worst 31st for the driver who leads the series with six pole positions. He ended up leading 127 laps — second only to JGR teammate Ty Gibbs’ 201 — and kept his postseason momentum rolling, even after an ill-timed final caution flag trapped him on pit road and cost him a better finish. Briscoe had already advanced to the Round of 12 on the strength of his convincing Southern 500 victory, but he now has three straight top-10 results as the playoffs enter its next chapter.

WHO’S NOT?

Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. SVG’s oval-track growing pains had an untimely achy night at Bristol, where the affable rookie dipped out of the playoff picture with a 26th-place finish, three laps off the pace. Van Gisbergen was just minus-15 below the elimination line entering the 500-lapper, but lost more ground as the night went on, with a pair of midrace spins just 31 laps apart slowing his progress. A prime opportunity to regroup comes in the next round, where SVG could play the role of playoff spoiler in the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval event Oct. 5.

Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. The worst-case scenario spelled an early end to Berry’s brief playoff run, with three Round of 16 races resulting in last-place finishes. Saturday night’s early ouster was a fire that erupted from the No. 21 Ford’s right-front, filling the car’s cockpit with smoke and ending his race after just 75 laps. “We’ll try and win some races here coming up in this stretch,” Berry said, looking at the seven races left on the 2025 calendar. Among those is Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Oct. 12), where he is the Cup Series’ most recent winner.

BUBBLE WATCH

RANKDRIVER+/-
4Christopher Bell+20
5Ryan Blaney+19
6Chase Briscoe+10
7Chase Elliott+5
8Bubba Wallace+1
CUTLINE
9Austin Cindric-1
10Joey Logano-2
11Ross Chastain-2
12Tyler Reddick-3

QUOTABLE

“Crazy race. I didn’t have that one on the bingo card going into tonight. I don’t know if anyone did — truthfully. I don’t know. It was wild. I don’t know – I’m still processing what we just did.” — Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, after tire management emerged early as a crucial strategy element.

NEXT RACE

The Cup Series Playoffs re-racks next weekend with the circuit’s lone stop this year at New Hampshire, which returns to the postseason rotation for the first time since 2017. Toyota drivers have won the last three races at the 1.058-mile Loudon oval, including two by the series’ most recent winner — Bell. He’ll be among the 12 remaining title-eligible aces aiming to get the next round of the playoffs off to a substantial start, carrying his Bristol sword into the fray.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

BRISTOL, Tenn. — “If anybody said that they knew what was gonna happen tonight, we were all lying to you. We all got it wrong.”

After sweating out a curveball of a Bristol Night Race, Alex Bowman nearly got it right with a walk-off to advance in the Cup Series Playoffs.

However, when the checkered flag waved after 500 rip-roaring laps, Austin Cindric was the last driver to advance to the postseason’s Round of 12 while Bowman was the first driver eliminated, 10 points shy.

The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was in one of the best positions to win the race in the latter half, maintaining track position despite a Stage 1 spin. However, a late caution for Bubba Wallace’s Turn 2 incident bunched the field for one more restart with four laps to go. Restarts were the Achilles’ Heel for Bowman all race long and ultimately cost him a berth to the second round as he dropped from third to eighth at the finish.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“I thought our car, when we had some green-flag running, was really good,” Bowman said. “It just cycled really poorly for restarts. I would drive off into Turn 1 and just hope to make the corner. For whatever reason, it just wouldn’t take off. Then after five laps or so, go again. I couldn’t figure it out if it was something that I was doing, not cleaning the tires off enough, but I felt like I was cleaning the tires off too much at some point. I don’t really know what we lacked there.”

Bowman flirted with the cutline on points late as attrition became rampant among playoff drivers.

Most notably, his Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott crashed in the final stage after contact with John Hunter Nemechek. But Elliott was spared a shock upset after fellow playoff contender Austin Cindric suffered a fire in the right-front of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford that forced Cindric to pit road.

As the fire continued and Cindric’s cockpit began filling with smoke, the No. 2 pit crew managed to put on a scuff right-front tire amid the blaze and kept Cindric in the race. It ultimately paid off in Cindric’s favor as he advanced — willing his way to the finish line four laps down in 30th.

“I was gonna wait till I saw a color other than smokey gray,” Cindric said about staying in his hot rod. “I don’t think the stress was there. I think everyone was pretty well prepared with the transfer of information once I got back out on track and with a scuff right-front tire, old-as-hell left-side tires and an old right-rear tire. I got a handle on the car and got all the fire-extinguisher stuff burned off the tires and dripping everywhere, and was able to finish the race. Hectic, and I’m sure it was crazy for a little while on paper.”

Saturday night was a summarization of a difficult 2025 for Bowman, who remains winless since his Chicago Street Course triumph in 2024, and to put the icing on the cake, he struggled to hear his crew chief and spotter all night amid the discombobulation on track.

“My radio didn’t work all night, so I didn’t have a clue what was going on,” Bowman added. “I didn’t know who we were racing on green-flag cycles. I couldn’t hear hardly anything. That was frustrating, but honestly, it didn’t really matter.”

Cindric joins his teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano in the Round of 12, while Bowman was the only Hendrick driver eliminated in the opening playoff round.

Also eliminated after Bristol were Austin Dillon (minus-14), four-time 2025 race winner Shane van Gisbergen (minus-16) and Josh Berry (minus-56).

“Everyone kept their cool,” Cindric said. “Credit to all the guys from the top down, transferring information, being prepared, not getting any penalties for going over the wall. I mean everything that went on there and still being able to come out and only lose a handful of laps and be in the position we needed to. Whenever we do great things, we do it as a team.”

“A top 10 with stage points and a solid day — the guys on pit road did a really good job,” said Bowman, who swapped pit crews with the No. 77 Spire Motorsports team for Bristol. “I’m sure the guys on the 77 did a good job, too. Those guys are like family, so it’s been a rough week. Just got to keep digging, right? There’s a lot of points we can still score. We can still finish way better than wherever we’re at in points right now.”