Fantasy Fastlane: Kyle Larson, Joe Gibbs Racing vs. the field at Bristol

Posted on April 10, 2026April 11, 2026 by Dustin Albino

Editor’s Note: Keep tabs on this page for lineup advice following qualifying, including changes you should consider.

Fantasy Update: Drivers had their hands full during practice and qualifying for the Food City 500, leading to a jumbled starting grid at Bristol Motor Speedway. Ryan Blaney appeared to have the best car over the long haul, topping the scoring pylon on 15-, 20-, 25- and 30-lap averages. I’ve only got six uses remaining with both Blaney and Denny Hamlin over the course of the regular season, and am leaning in the direction of the No. 12 car banking more points on Sunday. The only other adjustment is dropping Chase Elliott, who ranked 28th on 10-lap averages in practice, with Carson Hocevar.

My lineup: Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell.
Garage: Carson Hocevar.

With a pair of unforgettable, extreme tire-wear races over the last two seasons, Goodyear will debut a new tire compound this Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It’s important to note because some of the heavy favorites have struggled under those conditions. This weekend could be a return to normalcy, where the drivers who rip it around the “World Fastest Half-Mile” become mainstays at the front once more.

Returning to Fastlane this year is my weekly NASCAR 36 for 36 pick, where you can come play along. It’s a season-long points battle introduced in 2024 where strategy is the primary emphasis. With 36 chartered cars and 36 races on the 2026 schedule, players can choose each car once for the duration of the season.

RELATED: NASCAR Fantasy Live hub | Play 36 for 36

MUST START

Driver: Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Selections remaining: 8
Comment: Since joining Hendrick, Larson has been virtually untouchable at Bristol. Before a wreck there in the fall, he had six consecutive top-five finishes to start his tenure with Hendrick, including a trio of victories. In the last two non-tire-wear races, he led 873 of 1,000 laps.

Driver: Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Selections remaining: 6
Comment: Hamlin has been the only driver who has challenged Larson consistently at Bristol over the last several seasons. He is a four-time winner here, including two of the last five races. The No. 11 team has placed inside the top 10 in six of the last seven trips at “The Last Great Colosseum.”

Driver: Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Selections remaining: 7
Comment: Bell enters this weekend as the most recent Bristol winner. In nine career Cup starts there, he has a quartet of top fives, with a grand total of seven top 10s. He is the only driver to crack the top 10 in all six Next Gen events at the Tennessee short track.

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

DRIVERS TO AVOID

Driver: Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
Selections remaining: 8
Comment: Admittedly, Reddick’s most glaring flaw since moving to the Cup Series has been short tracks. Bristol fits that bill, with a lone top 10 in nine tries and an average finish of 19.4. In five Bristol starts with 23XI Racing, he hasn’t placed better than 15th.

Driver: Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
Selections remaining: 7
Comment: Knowing full well how successful Penske has been at short tracks recently, this could look like a boneheaded decision in retrospect. After all, Logano rounded out the top five at Bristol last fall and has a pair of wins on his resume. However, that fifth-place finish is Logano’s lone bright spot in six Next Gen races here as the No. 22 car has five finishes of 22nd or worse during that span.

David Jensen | Getty Images

SLEEPERS OF THE WEEK

Driver: Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Selections remaining: 10
Comment: Gibbs is on a career heater entering Bristol, earning five straight top-10 finishes, matching the longest streak of his career. Bristol has been his best track since jumping to Cup, earning a pair of top-five finishes and four top-10 finishes in six starts. The 440 laps that he’s paced the field for are his most of any track, netting a 12.8 average finish.

Driver: Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Selections remaining: 9
Comment: Ever since Hocevar first turned laps in a Cup car at Bristol with Legacy Motor Club in 2023, he’s run toward the front. He has three finishes of 11th or better in five starts, including a personal best of seventh in the most recent outing.

Jacob Kupferman | Getty Images

FEATURED MATCHUPS

Chase Elliott vs. Brad Keselowski
Pick: Elliott
Comment: While Elliott has never hoisted one of the coveted Bristol swords in Victory Lane, he has five top-five and nine top-10 finishes in 17 starts, leading 444 laps. Keselowski has just two more top 10s than Elliott (11) in 12 additional starts (29). Elliott also brings added confidence, having won the most recent short-track race at Martinsville Speedway.

Denny Hamlin vs. Kyle Larson
Pick: Larson
Comment: This heavyweight battle could go either direction, but the recent numbers back Larson. Both drivers have won two races in the Next Gen car at Bristol, but Larson spends a significant amount of time at the front, having led 1,762 laps in only 19 career starts.

Ty Gibbs vs. Chase Briscoe
Pick: Gibbs
Comment: Briscoe enters this weekend on a streak of three consecutive top 10s at Bristol, finishing fourth in this event last spring. His 12.6 average finish here is a personal best among all circuits on the schedule. But Gibbs is the pick because of his consistent success on the track and the No. 19 team’s tendency to beat itself through the opening two months of the 2026 campaign.

Carson Hocevar vs. Josh Berry
Pick: Hocevar
Comment: Berry had an impressive showing at Martinsville, leaping seven spots in the driver standings. And while he’s a short-track enthusiast, his Bristol numbers aren’t staggering, with a best finish of 12th. Hocevar tends to stay out of trouble at Bristol, and the raw speed of the No. 77 car is impressive.

MY LINEUP

Starting five: Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Chase Elliott.
Garage pick: Chase Briscoe.

36 FOR 36

Pick: Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Comment: At this point, it seems like a matter of time before Gibbs scores that elusive first Cup victory, and it’s entirely possible Bristol is where he gets it accomplished. He enters his best venue with momentum thanks to five consecutive finishes of sixth or better, jumping to sixth in the standings. In September, Gibbs led a career-high 201 laps and has hit the century mark in three of his six Bristol attempts.

Posted on April 9, 2026April 9, 2026 by Reid Spencer

When it comes to racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, there’s not much Corey Heim hasn’t accomplished.

The 23-year-old from Marietta, Georgia, accumulated a single-season series record of 12 victories last year in winning his first championship.

This year, Heim is driving part-time for Tricon Garage, and he has the chance to do something unprecedented in Friday night’s Tennessee Army National Guard 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

In the first of three Triple Truck Challenge races March 20 at Darlington, Heim pulled off a dramatic win in the No. 5 Tricon Garage Toyota, collecting $50,000. Two weeks later, he triumphed in the No. 1 Tricon Tundra at Rockingham to up his bonus to $150,000 in the second race of “The Trip.”

Should he become the first driver to win all three races of a Triple Truck Challenge, Heim would collect a total of $500,000 for his efforts.

“I don’t really think about it in the truck, but being able to reflect on it, it would be cool to be the first person to sweep all three if we are able to do it,” Heim said after the Rockingham win.

“There is a lot of motivation for these guys in the No. 1 camp with Celsius as our primary (sponsor at Bristol), so super excited about that.”

Heim won at Bristol in 2023 and has finished second, third and third in his last three starts there.

MORE: Triple Truck Challenge hub | All-time Triple Truck winners

Foremost among Heim’s competition for the Triple Truck Challenge bonus are Front Row Motorsports teammates Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith, both two-time winners at Thunder Valley (with Riggs winning two of the last three races there).

The field also features a handful of NASCAR Cup Series regulars, including five-time Truck Series winner Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suárez. The Cup drivers are not eligible for the Triple Truck Challenge bonus money.

Posted on April 9, 2026 by Nathan Solomon

Stewart Friesen remembers everything about July 28, 2025.

It would’ve been easy for the veteran driver to walk away. But that thought never crossed his mind.

Racing in the Super DIRTcar Series — as he often does, along with his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series duties — Friesen suffered major injuries in a crash during an event at Autodrome Drummond in Quebec, Canada. His No. 44 car jumped the cushion on the 3/8-mile track and hit the end of the Turn 3 wall, with Friesen calling it a “blunt abutment.” He pirouetted through the night sky in a ball of fire before landing, when he was then struck by an oncoming race car at full speed.

Friesen was extricated from his car and rushed to a local hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with a plethora of injuries, including a broken pelvis and three separate fractures in his right leg. He was later transferred to a larger hospital in New York for surgery and recovery.

Friesen spent several days in medical facilities before returning home, where heavy rehabilitation awaited. He rested for several weeks before starting physical therapy to rebuild significant muscle loss in his legs. Once winter arrived, he ramped up his training with the intention of returning to race action by Speedweeks.

That he did.

RELATED: Stewart Friesen driver page

“I’m feeling pretty good,” Friesen told NASCAR.com ahead of Friday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “Definitely more comfortable in the race car than I am out of it walking around and stuff. Still fighting some nerve damage in my ankle — that’s been a little bit of a challenge. But overall, it’s going good. We’re back rocking and rolling.”

While Friesen nursed his injuries, his Truck Series team still had plenty to fight for last season. As a result of Friesen’s win at Michigan International Speedway last June, the Halmar-Friesen Racing No. 52 team was locked into the Truck Series Playoffs on the owner side. HFR tapped Christopher Bell to pilot the truck at Watkins Glen International before Kaden Honeycutt joined the program for the final eight races.

Friesen watched from afar, rooting for both his team and Honeycutt as they made the Championship 4 in both driver and owner points. Honeycutt earned five top 10s during his stint, including a pair of top-three finishes in the final two races.

“We had the win at Michigan and ran really good at IRP, and then I got hurt the next week. So I felt like the team was on an upward trajectory at that point and best it’s ever been,” Friesen said. “Chris (Larsen, team co-owner) and everybody at Halmar were like, yep, no, we want to keep the team going, and we were able to put Kaden in the truck, and he did a great job and kept the momentum going. That definitely translated into a strong end of the year for HFR and being in the final four, and then some good momentum through the off-season.”

In January, less than six months after the crash, the 42-year-old tested his big block modified at Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin, North Carolina. He was cleared to return to racing.

And it didn’t take him very long to return to Victory Lane, either.

Friesen raced three events at All-Tech Raceway in Florida before heading to Volusia Speedway Park for the Super DIRTcar Series opener. On February 11, just 198 days after his injury, Friesen returned to glory.

“That was really, really big to get a win, get back in Victory Lane and just get those juices flowing for everybody,” Friesen said. “It’s been a busy start to the season. We’ve had some good speed, and it’s been kind of back to our crazy normal.

“[I have] a deeper appreciation for being able to do this, being able to make a living in motorsports. Getting back to the track with Jess (Friesen, his wife) racing at Fonda in September, it was like OK, not being at the race track for almost a whole month, and then being able to get to the track and just watch her and help her out just kind of re-ignited that fire that, damn, I really love this stuff and this is what we want to do. I’m just lucky to have a lot of partners that stuck with me, and teammates that helped make the transition back smooth.”

David Jensen | Getty Images

Through five races on the Truck Series side, it’s been so far, so good for Friesen heading into Friday’s race at Bristol. He sits ninth in points with a pair of top 10s, highlighted by a fourth-place finish last weekend at Rockingham Speedway.

His early numbers, though, aren’t fully indicative of the speed the No. 52 Toyota has shown. Friesen led 10 laps and won a stage at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta, and for most of that race, he seemed poised to take down Kyle Busch in what could’ve been Round 2 between the drivers after last year’s photo finish. But a late mechanical failure relegated him to 20th. Contending for at least a top 10 at Darlington Raceway three weeks ago, Friesen suffered damage in an overtime restart and finished 25th.

MORE: Truck Series Power Rankings

Otherwise, he could be much higher in the Truck Series totals.

“We’ve had really fast trucks, probably the best trucks we’ve had in years,” Friesen said. “That’s thanks to all our guys and our association with Toyota; it’s been awesome to see that, see the growth of the team and the speed come out of that.

“[Rockingham was] definitely a lot of relief. Big shot in the arm for the team and a big momentum builder. Having the speed but not the finishes is frustrating at times, so to be able to get the finish out of it was — have the bounce go the right way there with staying out in that long run and not losing a lap trying to do a green flag stop. So it kind of worked out in our favor, and we were able to capitalize there.”

After Bristol, it’s a three-week hiatus for the Truck Series before a stretch of seven races in eight weeks, spanning both coasts and including a pair of road courses. The other five races are intermediate-style tracks, a burst that, once completed, will mark just five regular-season races remaining.

The season is still quite young, but The Chase is already top of mind for the Canadian-turned-New Yorker.

“I got to do a better job of qualifying, to try to get some stage points per second stage,” Friesen said. “But trying to seed ourselves a little bit better so we’re not playing catch-up for most of the races is kind of what we’ve been doing. We’ve had race speed, but the qualifying hasn’t been great the last two weeks. So as we go through that stretch, just try to be consistent, qualify well and make as much points as we can.”

MORE: Craftsman Truck Series standings | Craftsman Truck Series schedule

As Friesen forges ahead through salvation, one thing’s clear: He isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. The veteran said he’s re-watched his brutal crash, but that won’t deter him from racing and embarking on another loaded schedule across both the dirt and NASCAR realms.

To a much smaller scale, Friesen is like a modern-day version of The Beatles. When he shows up at a dirt track in the Northeast, no matter the venue, the fans will follow. They swarm him for autographs in the pits. They pile into the grandstands, whether it’s a 35-degree day in April or a 95-degree day in August.

Friesen is just as hungry as ever and isn’t lifting off both the literal and figurative throttle.

“It’s going to be kind of more of the same as years past,” Friesen said. “Focus on the midweek Super DIRTcar Series and Short Track Super Series races throughout the month of May, June, July, just hit as many of those as I can in the off weeks. And yeah, kind of business as usual. Try to stay racing as much as I can and keep myself in good shape.”

Posted on April 9, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

Rajah Caruth is living a double life in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.

Some weeks, he’s the driver of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, heading to its shop in Mooresville, North Carolina, to prepare for a race weekend with engines from Hendrick Motorsports and sponsorship from HendrickCars.com. Others, he’s the driver of the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet, heading to its shop in Statesville, North Carolina — 25 minutes north of JRM — to prepare for a race weekend with Earnhardt-Childress Racing engines and sponsorship from other partners.

But no matter what day it is, what team he’s driving for, or how far his commute is to Chevrolet’s GM Charlotte Technical Center, he’s a driver fighting for stability in search of stock-car racing’s highest levels.

“It presents difficulties in the week-to-week logistics whenever I go back and forth, and obviously knowing the differences of the cars,” Caruth said of his dual rides in a Tuesday teleconference. “But honestly, at the race track, it’s not too complicated. I try to get each car driving to where I feel like I need it to go fastest, and we see where we stack up.”

This week, Caruth will be back in the No. 32 Chevrolet. Through eight races, the 23-year-old sits 10th in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series points standings after running five races for JR Motorsports and three for Jordan Anderson Racing. The back-and-forth nature of his current situation is taxing. He is chasing a championship by running the full season, but the unsteadiness of his circumstances isn’t confined to logistics. Caruth is also managing different personnel and different equipment on any given week.

There may not be many short-term benefits to the split duties he’s balancing, aside from a guaranteed full season of competition. But for Caruth, it’s all about the future.

“I feel like at the end of day, my goal is to race on Sundays, and I obviously can’t lose sight of where I’m at now, right? Because that impacts how or if I get to that level,” Caruth said. “But yeah, I think it’s the road less traveled. It’s not the easiest, and it wasn’t by design by any means. You’ve got to take what you get and what you’re able to make the most of. But I feel like the strengths and lessons I’ll receive will definitely benefit me long term in terms of going from running in the top five to fighting for a top 20, right? I think the race-craft that I’ve learned through that in my years, not only in the O’Reilly Series, but truck racing will just help for hopefully when I have the chance to race on Sundays in the future.

“I think that versatility, that race-craft is going to be important to know. And I feel like kind of getting a balance of both worlds is something that’s going to help me in the long run. So obviously got to be successful and get wins at this level and be competitive, but I really hope that in the long run, it will benefit me, because obviously it’s not the easiest right now, but I’d much rather take the path that I’m on now than having the best rides for my whole career and kind of having it easy to a certain point.”

Getty Images

With JRM, Caruth has one top five and three top 10s. With JAR, Caruth has one top 10. A Class of 2024 graduate of Winston-Salem State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Motorsports Management, Caruth dubs himself a tough critic and grades himself just a C-plus or B-minus through the early run of the schedule.

“I think there’s definitely been some highlights, but then there’s also been more left to be desired, whether it’s been in my control or out of my control, and opportunities left on the table,” Caruth said. “I’ve learned a lot. I’ve had a lot of fun this year for sure, but yeah, definitely some ups and downs.”

One of those highs was a daring late-race move for JRM last Saturday at Rockingham Speedway that vaulted Caruth to a career-best fourth-place finish, qualifying him for a shot at the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Another was an eighth-place finish in the No. 32 Chevy at Phoenix Raceway last month.

MORE: O’Reilly Auto Parts Series entry list for Bristol

His most public down, though, came at Martinsville Speedway when he initiated contact late with Jesse Love while both were racing inside the top 10. Neither finished inside the top 10, and Caruth spun on the final lap, falling to 25th. Caruth also points to his eighth-place run at EchoPark Speedway in the second race of the campaign as another missed opportunity in a season when points are more critical than ever.

“I made one move that was pretty low percentage — and I didn’t crash or anything,” Caruth said. “But I put myself in a spot where I made it to where I had to fight back to get a top 10 versus if I just waited for the next corner or didn’t put myself in that spot, that goes from eighth to fighting for the win. Same thing with Martinsville last week, right? Like just having a big picture kind of mentality of, ‘I need to live to the next corner.’ I’ve had a couple of moments like that this year where there’s points on the table that I probably gave away, where if I didn’t have those, if I didn’t make those decisions or have those emotional reactions, then that positively impacts my finishing position.”

It’s hard to fault Caruth for overstepping that aggression. Though only 23, Caruth has been on a path toward seeking NASCAR Cup Series glory for nearly a decade, a path forged through sim racing that led to real opportunities and required unrivaled determination. But there are no guarantees for what’s next. He has now. That’s all he knows.

“There’s no other shot. Like, this is it for me,” Caruth said. “For this year, this is my shot. There’s not a next-year contract. I don’t have a Sunday ride waiting for me. There’s nothing waiting for me. This is it for this year, so I’ve got to race like my life depends on it and do my best. And whatever the season looks like when we get to November, I’ll be proud of it because I did my best.”

James Gilbert | Getty Images

Posted on April 9, 2026April 9, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

Alex Bowman has been medically cleared to return to NASCAR Cup Series competition at Bristol Motor Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports announced Thursday morning.

Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, missed the past four races with vertigo, stepping out of his car during the March 1 race at Circuit of The Americas when symptoms arose.

MORE: Cup standings | Bristol schedule

Sunday’s Food City 500 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will mark Bowman’s first race since symptoms began.

“I’m grateful for the support I’ve had from Hendrick Motorsports, my sponsor Ally, our fans and the medical team throughout this process,” Bowman said in a team release. “It’s been tough being out of the car, but we all wanted to make sure I was 100% ready before returning. I feel really good, and I’m excited about being at the track with my team and getting back to racing.”

In a release, Hendrick Motorsports said Bowman turned laps Tuesday in a street car at the Ten Tenths Motor Club road course in Concord, North Carolina, then participated in a Wednesday pit practice in addition to simulator testing. Bowman then underwent a medical evaluation before being formally cleared for competition without restrictions.

“We’re proud of Alex and the way he’s handled this situation,” Jeff Andrews, president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports, said in a release. “He’s put a lot of work into his recovery and followed the medical team’s plan every step of the way. From the outset, our goal was to prioritize his health and have him return when he was fully recovered and medically cleared. We’re looking forward to seeing Alex back in his race car this weekend.”

Myatt Snider stepped into the No. 48 Chevrolet to complete the race at COTA when Bowman exited the vehicle at Lap 71. Anthony Alfredo, a simulation driver for Hendrick Motorsports, drove the No. 48 car in Bowman’s absence at Phoenix Raceway while Justin Allgaier, the 2024 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion, substituted at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway and Martinsville Speedway.

Bowman, an eight-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, is in his ninth season with the Rick Hendrick-owned team. He returns to action sitting 36th in the Cup standings with a best finish of 23rd (EchoPark Speedway) in three starts this year.

Posted on April 9, 2026 by Neil Paine

Ever since he won his first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Feb. 20, 2021 at the Daytona Road Course — as an 18-year-old making his first career start at any level of NASCAR national series — Ty Gibbs has been on everyone’s radar as a future winner at the Cup level.

At the time (before Connor Zilisch came along), Gibbs was the third-youngest O’Reilly Series winner in history, trailing only future champions Joey Logano and Chase Elliott. And nobody had ever won with zero national-series experience before. Gibbs went on to win three more races in a part-time schedule that season, then added seven more checkered flags en route to a dramatic 2022 O’Reilly championship win over Noah Gragson, clinched just weeks after his 20th birthday.

All of which is to say that Ty Gibbs knows how to win races against tough competition. So it has long seemed to be a matter of when the No. 54 JGR Toyota would drive to Victory Lane in the Cup Series, not if. But what seemed like a foregone conclusion has proven to take longer than we might have expected: Gibbs is now 130 starts into his Cup career, and the best showings he has put together have been a pair of runner-up finishes in 2024 at Darlington and in 2025 in the Chicago Street Race.

Should this worry Gibbs? The eventual list of winningest modern-era drivers who took at least 130 races to claim their first win is surprisingly sparse:
Among that group, only the great Ricky Rudd — who took 161 career races before reaching Victory Lane — even won more than 10 times in his career. Go a bit longer than that, and it was considered remarkable that guys like Sterling Marlin (no wins until his 279th start) or especially Michael Waltrip (0-for-462 before winning in 2001 at Daytona on that fateful day) managed to even win the handful of races that they did after coming up short so many times at first.

Gibbs isn’t quite at that point yet. He’s still only 23 years old; Rudd, Kyle Petty and Alex Bowman all won their first races at age 26 and Austin Dillon was 27 when he broke through, to say nothing of Marlin (37) and Waltrip (38). Sometimes, getting an early head start on your career can help you earn experience without burning too many of your prime-aged years.

And the other encouraging factor for that long-awaited Gibbs win? He’s been driving extremely well so far this season, even if he doesn’t have the trophy to prove it — though that may be coming next, very soon.

With an average Driver Rating of 88.6 through seven races, Gibbs is tracking for both his best career single-season mark — surpassing his 81.4 average from 2024 — and his best ranking among Cup regulars. (At No. 8 in the series, he currently sits above Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski and Ross Chastain.) Moreover, Gibbs has improved almost across the board so far this year. Here’s a comparison of his ratings in each race of the 2026 season versus his previous career averages at the same tracks:
Aside from a tough day at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, which saw him get caught up in traffic with Josh Berry and crash out of the race — finishing 37th with a 38.4 rating — Gibbs has beaten his previous career norms at every other track on this year’s schedule. That’s been especially true over the past five races, when he’s posted a Driver Rating of 89.2 or higher every race, including three in triple-digits (a threshold he broke only six times all of last year in more than five times as many races).

One final stat on Gibbs’ 2026 form to really underscore his improvement: After producing a cumulative head-to-head record of 119-220 (.351 winning percentage) against his JGR teammates over his first four seasons in Cup, Gibbs has gone 13-8 (.619) against teammates this season. Only four other drivers — AJ Allmendinger, Erik Jones, Chase Elliott and Shane van Gisbergen — have shown more improvement in record relative to teammates in 2026 versus 2025.

But while steady improvement is great — and a No. 6 ranking in the standings has Gibbs in excellent early position to make The Chase — we still have to ask: When will that maiden win finally happen?

Well, it could happen this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Among active drivers, Gibbs is tied with Elliott for fourth-best with a 12.8 career average finish; after a 35th-place run in his Cup Series Bristol debut in 2022, he recorded a top 10 in four of his next five starts here (and counting), finishing no worse than 15th in that span. Also, in the Next Gen Car era (since 2022), only Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin have a better average Driver Rating at Bristol than Gibbs’ 98.3 mark:
Beyond that, Gibbs also had a top-10 average Driver Rating (91.5) in the Next Gen era at Dover, back when it was a points-paying race track — which is relevant because Dover is the only other track that’s even vaguely comparable to Bristol on the schedule. Gibbs simply has a knack when it comes to these steep concrete tracks, and they probably offer him his best chance to claim that first career victory. That may particularly be the case when we consider that this is all pre-2026 data, predating his overall improvement as a driver so far this season.

In other words, all the ingredients seem to be finally lining up for Gibbs, and when that’s the case, the breakthrough usually isn’t far behind. For years, his first Cup win has felt like just a matter of time. Now — with the way he’s been driving, and with Bristol coming up — that time might finally be here.

Posted on April 8, 2026April 9, 2026 by Nathan Solomon

Front Row Motorsports is used to flying under the radar.

So it shouldn’t be a shock that through seven races, Zane Smith is reaping the rewards of what’s been a career year thus far.

In his second season with the team’s NASCAR Cup Series program, Smith has a pair of top 10s and has vaulted as high as fourth in the standings after leading 10 laps in the season-opening Daytona 500. Crashes have hindered the No. 38 Ford’s finishing position at times, including the last race at Martinsville, where a potential top 15 turned into 34th after suffering damage in the giant Lap 324 melee. He enters Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 22nd in the series ranks.

Overall, Smith believes FRM has become more of a premier Ford organization while still outpunching its weight class, with far fewer resources and manpower than some of the other top Cup squads.

“We’re like a Ford A-team. That’s been a big step in the right direction,” Smith said in a media availability on Wednesday. “I still feel like we aren’t quite there, nearly comparing to like the top teams, but those top teams didn’t get there overnight.

“But from comparing last year to this year, I really like where we’re at. I feel like we’ve taken that next step and are a lot stronger in a lot of areas. Our whole weekend seems to be going smoother and just better from a performance standpoint, and I feel like that next step for us is just trying to find ourselves in the top 10 every week. That’s a big step.”

Smith rejoined FRM in 2025 after spending his rookie Cup Series season with Spire Motorsports, briefly driving for the organization as a Trackhouse Racing development driver. The 26-year-old from Huntington Beach, California, previously drove two seasons in Front Row’s Truck Series operation, culminating with a title in 2022.

So while his familiarity with the Bob Jenkins-owned team is certainly crucial, his career adversity is, too. Smith lost his Truck Series ride with GMS Racing after 2021, despite finishing second in points. Combined with his short time at Trackhouse and Spire, he explained that he’s learned to enjoy the small wins and be willing to alter his expectations.

And in an era of stage racing and constantly swimming upstream as an underdog, that perspective means everything.

MORE: Power Rankings ahead of Bristol

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

“You got to take your little wins, which are big wins when you can, and it’s really hard to change your mindset with that,” Smith said. “[I] came up winning in the lower ranks, and it becomes the normal. And you know, you go into a weekend – even if it’s not a great track for you — you still might win a stage and get a lot of stage points, and have a shot to win the race, and then you get on the plane and you’re happy at the weekend, but you’re not excited or just amped.

“What feels really good at this level, but at the same time really frustrating, is when you do damn near everything right in a weekend and you run 12th. You got to dive deep and dig deep to see where you can improve on and move the needle, but that’s just Cup racing.

“I feel like nowadays, if you could get some good stage points or have a shot at a stage win or at the end of these things, it’s crazy how they play out. You could be completely out of it for 90% of the race, and then strategy and weird, timely cautions fall, you find yourself in the first couple rows and you have a shot to win the Cup race. I feel like that’s what really just fuels you up for the next one, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be in that position a few times.”

And one of those times came when the Cup Series last visited Bristol. In a race filled with attrition, tire management, and pure chaos, Smith took what he called “at best, a mid-pack car” and took it all the way to the front. He fired off second on a restart with four laps to go, but Christopher Bell ultimately powered past him and Carson Hocevar, relegating the Ford driver to third in the final running order.

Like most drivers, Smith isn’t sure if the same type of Bristol race is in store this Sunday. But with expected temperatures close to 80 degrees and another new tire from Goodyear on the way, anything is possible — and he’s ready for it.

“I’m good with whatever,” he said of the changes. “I’m a big believer of if you put yourself in contention enough, one will go your way. Once you get that first one out of the way, they sure do come easier.”

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will race at the iconic Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend. Below are the qualifying orders for all three series.

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on TV

Cup Series
Single-car qualifying will occur at 5:40 p.m. ET on Saturday, with practice earlier in the day at 4:30 p.m. ET (Prime Video).

Position	Number	Driver	Metric	Group
1	66	Chad Finchum (i)	40.4	1
2	10	Ty Dillon	35.5	1
3	35	Riley Herbst	33.5	1
4	51	Cody Ware	33.2	1
5	41	Cole Custer	32.2	1
6	38	Zane Smith	30.4	1
7	47	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	30.3	1
8	23	Bubba Wallace	28.5	1
9	4	Noah Gragson	28.3	1
10	88	Connor Zilisch (#)	28.1	1
11	42	John Hunter Nemechek	28.1	1
12	48	Alex Bowman	25.6	1
13	3	Austin Dillon	25.6	1
14	16	AJ Allmendinger	24.9	1
15	34	Todd Gilliland	24.5	1
16	8	Kyle Busch	24.0	1
17	43	Erik Jones	21.6	1
18	7	Daniel Suárez	18.8	1
19	71	Michael McDowell	17.7	1
20	1	Ross Chastain	16.9	2
21	77	Carson Hocevar	16.4	2
22	17	Chris Buescher	16.3	2
23	19	Chase Briscoe	16.1	2
24	21	Josh Berry	14.5	2
25	60	Ryan Preece	12.3	2
26	97	Shane van Gisbergen	11.9	2
27	6	Brad Keselowski	11.5	2
28	2	Austin Cindric	11.0	2
29	45	Tyler Reddick	10.8	2
30	5	Kyle Larson	9.0	2
31	20	Christopher Bell	7.0	2
32	22	Joey Logano	5.7	2
33	24	William Byron	5.0	2
34	12	Ryan Blaney	4.8	2
35	54	Ty Gibbs	4.6	2
36	11	Denny Hamlin	2.3	2
37	9	Chase Elliott	1.9	2

O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Single-car qualifying will occur at 3:05 p.m. ET on Saturday, with practice earlier in the day at 2 p.m. ET (The CW App).

Position	Number	Driver	Metric
1	74	Gray Gaulding	40.4
2	28	Kyle Sieg	36.4
3	07	Josh Bilicki	34.5
4	35	Blake Lothian	34.3
5	9	Carson Kvapil	34.1
6	87	Austin Green	32.1
7	55	Joey Gase	31.8
8	41	Sam Mayer	31.1
9	48	Patrick Staropoli	30.4
10	0	Garrett Smithley	28.1
11	26	Dean Thompson	26.5
12	51	Jeremy Clements	25.6
13	02	Ryan Ellis	25.3
14	92	Josh Williams	24.4
15	5	J.J. Yeley	24.2
16	96	Anthony Alfredo	22.8
17	31	Blaine Perkins	22.4
18	19	Brent Crews (#)	21.5
19	42	Logan Bearden	19.9
20	91	Mason Maggio	19.8
21	2	Jesse Love	19.8
22	45	Lavar Scott (#)	18.9
23	32	Rajah Caruth	18.9
24	27	Jeb Burton	17.6
25	24	Harrison Burton	16.6
26	44	Brennan Poole	14.9
27	39	Ryan Sieg	11.1
28	8	Sammy Smith	10.5
29	21	Austin Hill	9.2
30	54	Taylor Gray	8.8
31	17	Corey Day	8.8
32	99	Parker Retzlaff	8.6
33	1	Connor Zilisch (i)	5.9
34	00	Sheldon Creed	5.4
35	18	William Sawalich	4.3
36	20	Brandon Jones	4.1
37	88	Kyle Larson (i)	3.4
38	7	Justin Allgaier	2.4

Craftsman Truck Series
Single-car qualifying will occur at 4:35 p.m. ET on Friday, with practice earlier in the day at 3:30 p.m. ET (FS2).

Position	Number	Driver	Metric
1	71	Daniel Suárez (i)	58.7
2	56	Timmy Hill	31.5
3	33	Frankie Muniz	30.1
4	22	Clayton Green	29.9
5	76	Spencer Boyd	29.5
6	44	Andrés Pérez	29.0
7	77	Carson Hocevar (i)	28.3
8	5	Chase Briscoe (i)	27.5
9	38	Chandler Smith	27.0
10	14	Mini Tyrrell #	26.2
11	12	Brenden Queen #	26.1
12	42	Tyler Reif	24.5
13	19	Daniel Hemric	24.3
14	4	Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (i)	24.2
15	2	Luke Baldwin	24.0
16	25	Carson Ferguson	23.2
17	81	Kris Wright	21.4
18	62	Christopher Bell (i)	20.3
19	26	Dawson Sutton	19.5
20	15	Tanner Gray	17.2
21	99	Ben Rhodes	15.9
22	17	Gio Ruggiero	14.3
23	13	Cole Butcher #	13.9
24	16	Justin Haley	13.2
25	98	Jake Garcia	12.0
26	91	Christian Eckes	11.8
27	45	Ross Chastain (i)	10.7
28	18	Tyler Ankrum	9.3
29	9	Grant Enfinger	8.9
30	7	Kyle Busch (i)	8.9
31	10	Corey LaJoie	8.5
32	88	Ty Majeski	7.7
33	52	Stewart Friesen	6.7
34	34	Layne Riggs	3.6
35	11	Kaden Honeycutt	2.0
36	1	Corey Heim	1.0

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

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Adam Fenwick

Life has a habit of getting in the way of racing. Just ask Doug Coby.

The six-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion hasn’t run the full series schedule since 2020. He missed one race in 2021 and has stuck to a part-time schedule since while he focused on other business ventures. He competed in just one race last season, the fewest Coby has contested since he made his series debut in 2002.

Fans can expect to see Coby a lot more this year thanks to a new partnership with Jett Motorsports, which will see the driver from Milford, Connecticut compete in nine events beginning with Sunday’s Icebreaker 150 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (4:30 p.m. ET on FloRacing).

ENTRY LIST: Mods at Thompson

Coby credits Cam McDermott, crew chief for Kyle Bonsignore, for making the connection that led to Coby’s opportunity with Jett Motorsports.

“Last fall, Cam McDermott introduced me to Jariah Roderick and Steve Rollins, who had a Tri-Track team that they were working with Woody Pitkat on,” Coby explained. “Through the course of me racing the Fall Final for them at Stafford last year, they kind of made it known that they wanted to put a Whelen Modified Tour car together for a few races the following season. They expressed some interest in working with me on that.

“At the time, we had just met each other, and we didn’t know how things were going to unfold. When the schedule came out for the Tour this year, they decided they wanted to do a few more than the original number that they had picked.”

Doug Coby has made nearly 300 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour starts since 2002, earning 35 wins along the way. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

According to Coby, the original plan was to enter somewhere between one and four races this year. However, after Roderick and Rollins saw the 2026 schedule, they decided to expand the team’s slate to include nine events at tracks like Thompson, Stafford Speedway, Seekonk Speedway, White Mountain Motorsports Park, Monadnock Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

“I told them, ‘You can build the team you want to build and go whatever direction you want to go. I’m available,’” Coby explained. “They decided to go with the nine races and kind of build the team from there.”

The team may be new to Coby, but many of the faces working on the car will be familiar. The crew is made up of people he’s previously worked with, including crew chief John McKenna.

That kind of familiarity means Coby will have an instant bond with many of the crew, which can only help get the team up to speed quicker.

“I was excited to see it coming together with a lot of people involved who are very familiar to me,” Coby said. “My crew chief, John McKenna, from the No. 52 and my No. 10 team and then basically all my crew guys from Mike Smeriglio Racing, most of whom were available, and my No. 10 team.

“It’s not like it’s a whole new team. It’s really a lot of familiar people. A lot of us are pushing on 15 years working together.”

While the Jett Motorsports team has fielded Modifieds before, the car Coby will be driving Sunday is a new LFR chassis that was built specifically for the Whelen Modified Tour.

The team will have sponsorship from Nucar, a Northeastern-based car dealership. Perhaps more importantly to Coby, the car will carry the No. 28, which is a tribute to his friend and mentor Don King.

Doug Coby (28) during the 2003 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season. Coby drove the No. 28 for team owner Don King early in his career. (Photo: NASCAR Archives)

“Don wasn’t just my first car owner; he was one of my best friends,” Coby said. “The King family and I go well into aunts, uncles, cousins of all of us having a strong relationship. It’s definitely a family thing.”

Coby made his Modified Tour debut in 2002 driving the No. 28 entry owned by King. He went on to make 36 starts driving King’s car, and the pair remained close until King’s passing in 2021.

“The team knew we needed a car number, and we tried to get the No. 2, which the owner was pretty supportive of even though that was Smeriglio’s number,” Coby said. “The Bertuccio’s have that number, and they were keeping it. So, really, we just threw around some options, and even though the No. 10 was available we kind of had some options that were thrown out there.

“One of the car owners, Steve, of all the options said he really liked No. 28 the best. Secretly, even though it wasn’t many of the crews first choice, it was really my first choice all along.”

He may be racing for a new team, but the goal is still the same for Coby. He wants to win races – his next win would break a tie with Tony Hirschman for fifth on the all-time win list – and he believes the team Roderick and Rollins has assembled can be competitive right away.

“I think the goal is to win nine races,” Coby said. “I think we have some expectation to be competitive. That’s definitely why everybody got on board to do it. If we don’t win nine races, which might be unrealistic, we’re certainly going to go try and contend for wins.

“Obviously there have been lots of changes with format with the tire and the pit stop format change since our guys have been together. There are lots of things for us to adapt to.”

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Dustin Albino

Before hopping into the No. 24 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota at Martinsville Speedway, Harrison Burton stated that the beginning of the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series has been the roughest start to any season he’s endured.

The results back up that statement.

Through the opening two months of the 2026 campaign, Burton has a pair of DNFs with a 24.3 average finish, earning a best effort of 13th last weekend at Rockingham Speedway. He sits 22nd in the regular-season champion standings. The laundry list of misfortune is piling up.

RELATED: Harrison Burton driver page

“I know this might sound strange, but I think I speak for everyone at SHR when I say I have more confidence in Harrison being successful here now than I even did back in January,” team owner Sam Hunt told NASCAR.com earlier this week. “As much as we all prefer to be free of adversity, it’s not the reality of our sport and never will be.

“Seeing the leader Harrison has been to his team through countless adverse scenarios, many of which were out of his hands, has solidified who I thought he was when I signed him. He’s the first to pick his guys up, first to say he needs to be better, and first to jump in the fire with them. The entire organization is pulling the rope hard to be better each week, and as one of the few independent teams left in our garage, we know the legwork going in now will show dividends before too long.”

Burton reunited with Toyota after a four-year stop with Ford. From the age of 13 until he jumped to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2022 with Wood Brothers Racing, he was under the Toyota umbrella, rising through the ranks with Kyle Busch Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.

“I feel like I grew up in that pipeline,” Burton said. “They have always supported me with the utmost respect and the most opportunities I could ever ask for. To be back with that group is big.”

Watching from a distance, Burton was impressed by what Hunt was building within the Toyota camp. He appreciates the sacrifice and dedication that the 32-year-old has made, including how he started the two-car organization from scratch while living in a van outside of Robert Yates Racing’s old engine shop.

“I know the people that are here, I know the race cars, and I know the goal of the race team,” Burton said. “The goal of the race team is to go win races. It’s not to make a profit here, and let’s make our ownership rich and cut corners. It’s about going to win races and being aggressive.”

Getting an established, full-time driver was important for Hunt. In prior years, it’s been a stomping ground for young drivers to develop, including Dean Thompson. The No. 26 car’s wheelman is one spot ahead of Burton in the driver standings. Having someone with top-level NASCAR experience is rare for a younger O’Reilly team.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

“Having Harrison’s knowledge is going to be helpful for someone like Dean, someone Dean can lean on in the good and bad times,” Hunt said. “There is no ego. He is the perfect teammate for a lot of people. It means a lot to me that Harrison wants to be at SHR. He has made it clear that this is home and he wants to be a part of making it better, and like them all, they want that first win [for our team].”

Returning to a second full-time entry for the first time since 2023 made sense for SHR. The organization ran multiple cars 18 times last season and had enough employees to be efficient.

“You see these four- or five-car teams do so well because there is so much data that each team is gathering and sharing between each other,” Hunt said. “As a one-car team, you are on an island. I think that’s how we get better, is trying a little bit more throughout the season and using each team as a resource.”

Burton is a proven winner at the O’Reilly level, scoring a quartet of checkered flags in 2020 while driving for JGR. He knows a thing or two about significant victories; he won at Daytona International Speedway in the summer of 2024 for Wood Brothers Racing’s 100th race win.

Chasing SHR’s first victory is reminiscent of Burton’s quest for No. 100 in the No. 21 car. Seven different drivers have delivered a top-five finish for Hunt, totaling 13 across 246 starts.

“They have been close, and the cars have shown the potential to do so, and the people are capable,” Burton said. “It’s just about executing and getting it done. I think myself and Dean both want to be the guy that does it, but whoever does it, it’s going to be a big deal.”

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

The goal for Burton, however, is to return to the Cup Series on a full-time basis. He excelled in 2025, delivering AM Racing a postseason appearance. And while he’s currently 98 points below The Chase cutline, there are still two-thirds of the regular season remaining, with Bristol Motor Speedway next on tap (Sat., 7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I’m going to give this race team every single thing I have every single weekend, and I think it will make me a better driver,” Burton said. “The end goal might be wanting to get back to Cup and win races, but so does everyone else. So what do you do that differentiates yourself? For me, what that would be is to kick ass in this car and work well with my teammates and go try to win some races.”