As Justin Allgaier begins the defense of the long-awaited NASCAR Xfinity Series title he won last year at Phoenix Raceway, the focus, appropriately enough, is on his rookie JR Motorsports teammate, Connor Zilisch.
The 19-year-old driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet has won seven of the last eight races, including the last four straight, tying Sam Ard (1983) and Noah Gragson (2022) for the Xfinity Series record for consecutive victories.
Zilisch, the Regular Season Champion, is 59 points above the current elimination line for the playoffs’ Round of 8 entering Friday night’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 ET on The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
He plans to keep his remarkable streak going as the postseason begins.
“This No. 88 team has been on a run this year, and four wins in a row is a rare feat, but we aren’t going to take any of that for granted going into the playoffs,” Zilisch said. “(Crew chief) Mardy (Lindley), my whole team and my pit crew continue to execute every week, and we don’t plan on turning down the intensity anytime soon.
“It has been awesome to have the success we have had this season, and we plan to unload another fast WeatherTech Chevrolet this Friday.”
At 30 points above the current cutline, Allgaier is the only playoff driver besides Zilisch with any degree of comfort entering the playoffs.
The remaining 10 playoff drivers, from Sam Mayer in third to Austin Hill in 12th, are covered by a spread of 16 points. Mayer is 11 points to the good while Hill, who lost his regular-season playoff points under penalty for wrecking Aric Almirola at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is five points below the elimination line.
The extraordinary closeness of the playoff field all but guarantees an intense scramble for position in Friday night’s playoff opener at Thunder Valley.
The following two drivers have clinched a spot in the 12-driver field of the next round: Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe.
Can clinch via points
If there’s a repeat winner or a win by a driver who cannot advance to the next round, the following drivers could clinch by being ahead of the 11th winless driver in the standings.
The same point requirements listed below would hold true if a new win comes from among Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain or Austin Cindric.
— Kyle Larson: Would clinch regardless of finish.
— Bubba Wallace: Would clinch with 7 points.
— Ryan Blaney: Would clinch with 15 points.
— William Byron: Would clinch with 18 points.
— Tyler Reddick: Would clinch with 19 points.
— Christopher Bell: Would clinch with 25 points.
— Chase Elliott: Would clinch with 29 points.
— Joey Logano: Would clinch with 36 points.
— Ross Chastain: Would clinch with 38 points.
— Austin Cindric: Would clinch with 46 points.
— Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen, Alex Bowman and Josh Berry: All could only clinch with help.
If there is a new winner from Austin Dillon or another winless driver lower in the standings but still eligible to advance to the next round, the following drivers could clinch by being ahead of the 10th winless driver in the standings.
— Kyle Larson: Would clinch with 8 points.
— Bubba Wallace: Would clinch with 18 points.
— Ryan Blaney: Would clinch with 26 points.
— William Byron: Would clinch with 29 points.
— Tyler Reddick: Would clinch with 31 points.
— Christopher Bell: Would clinch with 36 points.
— Chase Elliott: Would clinch with 40 points.
— Joey Logano: Would clinch with 47 points.
— Ross Chastain: Would clinch with 49 points.
— Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen, Alex Bowman and Josh Berry: All could only clinch with help.
Before heading to Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday’s Round of 16 elimination race in the Cup Series Playoffs (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, NBC Sports App, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Kyle Larson watched his 7-year-old daughter Audrey grab her first career victory on Tuesday at Millbridge Speedway.
The dirt track in Salisbury, North Carolina, plays host to the beginnings of many racing careers and has been the go-to venue for the children of retired and active NASCAR drivers.
“It was really cool,” Larson said Wednesday during a Zoom teleconference. “Obviously, you don’t ever forget a first win. I remember being at Millbridge for (son) Owen’s first win, and then lucky enough to be able to be there for Audrey’s first-ever win as well last night. It was really neat. She’s been doing a really good job. She’s only been racing for about a year and she’s really competitive, and she’s driven and works at it. It was a cool moment for sure. You could see she was happy and she was getting choked up a little bit in her interviews, so it was cool.”
While Larson said he didn’t get emotional immediately after Audrey’s win, he said he had a moment with her that almost got the waterworks going.
“I had moments, and then when she told me that she was getting ready to cry afterwards in the trailer, that’s probably when I mostly got choked up,” Larson said. “I was the video-taping dad on my phone. So maybe if I’d had my phone down and I really was absorbing the moment, I probably would have cried. It was awesome. She’s my only daughter, so she’s got a soft spot in my heart.”
Larson said both Audrey and Owen race at a consistent level, but isn’t committed for now to putting in the time that fellow racing dads Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick are currently investing into their own children, but did note that Audrey has the more competitive edge compared to her older brother.
“We don’t take it quite yet as serious as Kyle or Kevin do,” Larson said. “I would say Owen’s pretty laid back with it, and I think racing is just kind of fun for him and a way to hang with his friends, and get a little competitive. Audrey, I would say, (has) more got the competitive mindset. (She) wants to watch video, run on the simulator, go to the go-kart track and practice, go testing at Millbridge, race as much as she can. I have fun with that because she’s more similar to me in that aspect. But I also want to just keep it fun for them, not burn them out at a young age, which is, I think, easy to do.
“I think Audrey is going to run like 30 races this year, and Owen’s like in the mid-50s. It sounds like a lot, but it’s not that crazy when you factor in Brexton’s probably running 400 races this year. But it’s fun and I just enjoy seeing them have a good time and building memories.”
NASCAR will warn Cup Series teams of significant penalties — possibly up to a disqualification — awaiting cars that take off-road excursions after the checkered flag in the future.
During the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, managing director of communications Mike Forde said NASCAR’s weekly competition update would address the Trackhouse Racing Chevrolets of Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen running through the infield grass during the cooldown lap of Sunday’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
“We did not care for it, not one bit,” Forde said. “We’re going to just remind teams this is something where we actually have a rule. I think we’re going to give (Trackhouse) a little bit of a warning. But there is a rule that says what they did — you could argue — broke a rule, and there could have been repercussions for it. But I think we’re going to allow the teams sort of a gimme here and say moving forward be aware that we are going to be looking at this.”
Per Rule 6421.b, cars are considered to be under impound conditions immediately after the checkered flag and must not be altered or adjusted in any manner during the cooldown lap or on pit road prior to reporting to the inspection areas.
“That is something that we’ll frown upon in a significant way,” Forde said. “Whether that is going to be an in-race penalty or a DQ, that is going to be determined after the event. It depends on how blatant the violation was. I don’t think we’re going to outline exactly what the repercussions would be because we’re going to take it on a case-by-case basis.”
With Chastain and van Gisbergen both in the playoffs and facing post-race inspection at Gateway, Forde said the Trackhouse drivers likely were trying to ensure their cars made minimum weight, adding NASCAR has noticed cars trying to run over debris after the race. Last year, Alex Bowman was disqualified and subsequently eliminated from the playoffs for failing to make minimum weight after the second-round cutoff race at the Charlotte Roval.
“These teams are pushing it so close to the line on weight,” Forde said. “They know exactly how to math it out where we give them a 17-pound tolerance after the race. In Darlington, we measured every single playoff car, and there were a couple of cars that were within a pound of almost failing and being DQ’d.”
Other topics covered by Forde and NASCAR senior director of racing communications AmandaEllis during the 32nd episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues:
— The backstory of how a brake marker sign fell on the track during the race at World Wide Technology Raceway.
— Round 2 clinch scenarios for the Cup Series playoffs.
— The impact of Austin Hill’s loss of Xfinity Series playoff points.
— What’s ahead for the Cup Series Playoff Committee.
Click on the embed above to listen or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.
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 also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for Thursday’s UNOH 250 presented by Ohio Logistics (8 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It marks the second event in the seven-race tilt for the championship. Truck Series qualifying will begin at 4:10 p.m. ET on Thursday after practice, which starts at 3:05 p.m. ET. Practice and qualifying will both air on FS2.
The NASCAR Cup Series completes the Round of 16 in the 2025 playoffs with the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Qualifying at the 0.533-miler begins at 5:40 p.m. ET on Friday (truTV, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). A 60-minute practice split into two 25-minute groups with a 10-minute break in between is at 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday, also on truTV.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Tennessee this week for Friday’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The CW App will air Xfinity Series qualifying Friday at 3:05 p.m. ET. A 50-minute practice session is scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. ET, also airing on The CW App.
By the numbers, Sammy Smith had an average regular season. But he doesn’t think that should sway you from believing that the No. 8 team is not a realistic threat for the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
“It’s been up and down; we haven’t been as consistent as we need to be,” Smith told NASCAR.com. “We’ve learned a lot about each other as a team. We’ve improved and made mistakes as a team as well. I feel like we’re in a really good place going into the playoffs.”
Speed hasn’t been an issue. To Smith, it was a lack of execution and failing post-race inspection at Charlotte Motor Speedway that cost the No. 8 bunch valuable points. The fourth-year driver is still on track to set new personal bests in top 10s and average finishes.
After tangling with Taylor Gray on the final lap at Martinsville Speedway in the spring, Smith felt he needed to reshape his image. He’s worked tirelessly to avoid any additional controversy, though it hasn’t hampered his performance.
“I think it made me grow better as a driver and as a person,” Smith said, reflecting on Martinsville. “In the moment, I thought it was the best thing to do to try and win the race. Obviously, after the fact, I didn’t win the race, and it wasn’t the best thing to do.”
Smith shies away from listening to outside noise. Unless he’s getting critiqued by NASCAR Hall of Famer/JRM co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. or someone with senior experience, he handles himself accordingly.
“We told him, everyone thinks [you’re] a punk, you’re giving them a good reason to think that, don’t give them the reason,” Earnhardt said on the Sept. 2 edition of the “Dale Jr Download.” “Go out there and figure it out. Go out there and rebuild, gain back your reputation. He’s worked hard to be solid, and he has. I’ve seen him get better as a driver.”
With the points reset, Smith jumped to the sixth seed on the playoff grid, four points above the cutline entering Friday’s Round of 12 opener at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The playoff venues line up well for the No. 8 team, with past victories at Phoenix Raceway (2023) and Talladega Superspeedway (2024).
“It’s the best place that I’ve been in probably the past few years,” Smith said of entering the playoffs. “We have a stronger team. We’ve had a lot more speed this year than we had last year. The races that are in the playoffs suit our style, my style and what I like. I think that’s to our advantage.”
Smith has come up clutch in the playoffs in the last two years. His Talladega victory came in Hail Mary fashion; his only path to the Round of 8 in 2024 was by winning. As pilot of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, he was in position to win the penultimate race of the 2023 season at Martinsville, leading a career-high 147 laps from the pole until the race went haywire in the waning laps.
“It’s that mindset of being back on an even playing ground,” Smith said. “Momentum is a big thing in racing, and once you get it and are on it, you can keep riding that.”
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
The opening round in 2025 could be the most challenging round for Smith. He has a pair of top-10 finishes in four Bristol starts, including a fourth-place effort in the spring. He has an average finish of 21.7 in three attempts at Kansas Speedway. With an average finish of 10.5 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, he’s also respectable at the 17-turn layout.
The mindset, according to the No. 8 team, will be a straightforward one.
“You have to take it one stage at a time,” Phillip Bell, crew chief of No. 8 Chevy, said. “You can’t overthink it. You have to take it one race at a time.”
According to Bell, no tracks in the opening two rounds of the playoffs scare the No. 8 team. Smith has been mediocre through five starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he is a threat on superspeedways and is normally in the mix at Martinsville.
“I don’t want to look too far out, but there’s not a track in the Round of 12 or Round of 8 that is worrying me,” Bell said. “Last year, we struggled pretty bad at Bristol, and we hit on something in the spring with Sammy and fought for a win there and was solid top five all day. Kansas, JRM always runs well there. Roval, we’ve made gains on it. Round of 8: Vegas, Talladega, Martinsville, that’s three tracks that you go there and expect to win.”
Given Smith has only five top fives (tied for the second fewest among all playoff drivers) and led 62 laps this season (second fewest), he could be considered a sleeper. Just don’t tell that to the No. 8 crew.
“The people that are around me and the team know what we’re capable of,” Smith said. “We expect to be in the final four. I’m sure to a lot of people on paper, it probably looks like we’re not very good as a team and we struggle, but I think we can prove a lot of people wrong and prove to ourselves that we can do it.”
Bell’s goals are loftier, expecting to hoist the title come the championship race at Phoenix.
“The expectation is to win the championship,” Bell said. “The expectation is to be in the final four, and he’s won at Phoenix before. Anything less than that is failure.”
Such a bond translates to the race track, where endless competitiveness drives both to achieve their absolute best.
This friendship-competition mix will transition to the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, beginning at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where both drivers will embark on their respective quests for championship glory.
“It’s easy to blend the two together, your outside friend life and your racing job, almost, and it’s easy to forget that we are different people when we put our helmets on,” Zilisch, driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, said during Xfinity Series Playoffs Media Day. “But thankfully, I’ve got a great friend group that we can go out and compete and be fierce competitors on the race track, and then come off the track and not treat each other how we do on the race track and be friendly. And it’s a hard balance because you don’t want to wreck your friend, you don’t want to have incidents with friends of yours, but you just kind of have to expect it if you’re going to race around each other. And if you’re going to kind of be friends, you have to understand that on the other side of it, you’re gonna have to race against each other, too. And some things could happen.”
Love and Zilisch’s first interaction came at the Trackhouse Motorplex, where a young Love — then a Toyota Racing Development (TRD) driver — was learning the go-karting ropes. While Love liked Zilisch, he wasn’t ready to heed advice from him; initial attempts by Zilisch to provide pointers to Love were rebuffed.
That is, until Zilisch — a well-known karting phenom — hopped into a machine himself and turned a few laps. Such speed from Zilisch on the course resonated with Love, and following a transition from squashing to receiving advice, the two popped off.
“We got along then, and then basically have hung out and realized we like the same music, talk about the same things, have the same sense of humor, like the same food,” Love, driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, said during Xfinity Series Playoffs Media Day. “So yeah, we’ve obviously hit it off since.”
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images
Fast forward to 2025, and both drivers aim to leave their mark in championship-clinching fashion. Entering the Round of 12 opener at Bristol, Zilisch has taken the field by storm; the 19-year-old begins postseason play 59 points above the playoff cutline, riding a four-race winning streak. The 20-year-old Love — who won the 2025 season opener at Daytona International Speedway — enters the playoffs eight markers to the good.
Although the 2025 playoffs will be the first time both drivers have competed against each other for championship hardware in one of NASCAR’s national series, neither believes the raised stakes will alter their friendship.
“I don’t think the playoffs really will change too much,” said Zilisch, who is now one of 25 different rookies to qualify for the Xfinity Series Playoffs since its inception in 2016. “I obviously hope that we don’t have any run-ins, and we’re not battling for a transfer spot into the playoffs or anything like that. And that could create some tension, but we don’t let what happens on the track affect our relationship and friendship off the track. It’s easy to forget sometimes, but it’s important for us to have each other to lean on off the track and have that friendship, but not let it get in the way of what we’re doing on the track.”
Motivation abounds for both drivers as the postseason looms. For Zilisch, the opportunity is present to cap off an adventurous season with an Xfinity title ahead of his full-time move to the Cup Series next season with Trackhouse Racing.
To Love, the opportunity is also present to not only seize an Xfinity Series title but do so against a good friend, with motivation from past competitions with Zilisch as steady fuel to continue improving. Love and Zilisch have finished inside the top five together five times, including a 1-2 finish at Pocono Raceway in June.
“Does it suck? Getting beat by your friend, yeah, it sucks,” Love said. “I’m not going to try to lie about that and say it doesn’t exist. It does exist. It isn’t fun. I do wish I was on the other side of that coin right now. But I also know that my timing is what it is for a certain reason … so I’m not necessarily worried about it. It does motivate me to get better. I’ve definitely gotten better this year as a driver, as a leader, as an athlete, because Connor’s motivated me because I don’t want to be second fiddle to him. That is something that gets my mood. It is something that bothers me, something that I’m not OK with, but at the same time, what’s the mindset that I have to have to achieve my goal is to try to a little bit disassociate from the result and focus more on maximizing my day every weekend.”
And maximize every weekend, these friends and competitors are sure to do so in their next adventure.
Hendrick Motorsports will have new pit-crew personnel set to go over the wall for Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Chevrolet this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, aiming to provide a boost to the team’s fortunes in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
The No. 48 Chevy team will use four pit-crew members previously with the No. 77 Spire Motorsports group and driver Carson Hocevar in Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Hendrick Motorsports supplies Spire’s three-car operation with pit-crew athletes.
The move comes after pit-stop gaffes for the No. 48 team in consecutive weeks to open the Cup Series Playoffs. Bowman was slowed by a nearly 40-second stop in the postseason opener at Darlington Raceway two weeks ago, when the pit-gun air hoses became disconnected. Bowman never recovered from the lost ground and finished 31st, two laps down. Last Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, the jack dropped before the left-rear wheel was fully fastened in a mid-race stop, and the time lost knocked Bowman from seventh to 30th in the running order. He finished 26th after a pit-road speeding penalty compounded his issues.
“It was just really poor execution on all angles today,” Bowman said Sunday at Gateway. “It was a bummer.”
Bowman ranks 15th of the 16 drivers eligible for the Cup Series title, and he faces a 35-point deficit entering Saturday’s elimination race, which will trim four drivers from the playoff field.
The No. 48 team did not make a switch at the fueler position. Pitting the No. 48 this weekend will be: Daniel Bach (front changer), Rod Cox (rear changer), Jarius Morehead (tire carrier), Cody French (jack) and Jacob Conley (fueler).
Pitting the No. 77 Chevrolet this weekend will be: Donnie Tasser (front changer), Andrew Bridgeforth (rear changer), Brandon Grier (tire carrier), Allen Holman (jack) and Zico Pasut (fueler).
