Posted on by Reid Spencer

MADISON, Ill. — In a race that featured a strange brew of divergent strategies, pole winner Denny Hamlin claimed his series-best fifth victory of the season and advanced to the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Finishing 1.620 seconds ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe in front of a sellout crowd, Hamlin won Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway to earn his first victory at the 1.25-mile track and 59th of his career—11th all-time and one win short of Kevin Harvick in 10th.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Gateway

Hamlin also delivered the 200th victory for Toyota. After taking the checkered flag, the 44-year-old driver had some choice words for his detractors in the grandstands.

“You can either get on the bandwagon or get run over by it,” Hamlin told the crowd, generating another chorus of boos.

But the reality is that Hamlin announced emphatically his stature as a serious contender for the championship that has eluded him during his 20-year Cup career.

“Yeah, it’s so big for everyone at Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing,” Hamlin said. “Progressive Toyota was great there at the end. So happy to get this victory. My dad’s not feeling well at home. Just shout-out to him…

“Fantastic day. Man, couldn’t be better.”

Before the race, grand marshal Bill Murray, who typically plays in Hamlin’s annual golf tournament, leaned into the No. 11 Toyota and talked to the driver.

“Yeah, I just told him to talk to the guys behind me and make sure they stay behind me the rest of the race,” Hamlin quipped. “We made that happen.”

SHOP: Denny Hamlin winner gear

Both Hamlin and Briscoe pitted early during a cycle of green-flag pit stops with roughly 65 laps left in the race. After Ty Dillon’s contact with the outside wall caused the 10th and final caution on Lap 209 — effectively negating the strategy of drivers who were stretching fuel to the end of the event — Hamlin passed Brad Keselowski for the lead moments after the subsequent restart on Lap 216 and held it the rest of the way.

Slowed by an issue with the left-rear tire on pit road, Briscoe recovered to secure the runner-up spot.

“I would say our strength was our speed,” Briscoe said. “We had a really good Bass Pro Shops Toyota. Our weakness was just the sloppiness, right? Whether it was me behind the wheel or pit road. I don’t know what the left-rear issue was.”

The second race of the 2025 playoffs widened the chasm between the top 12 in the standings and the four drivers below the current elimination line.

Austin Cindric came home 19th and held onto 12th on the playoff grid, 11 points ahead of 13th-place Austin Dillon. Four-time winner Shane van Gisbergen finished 25th after a Lap 156 spin and fell 15 points below the elimination line.

Continued pit-road woes left Alex Bowman (26th) 35 points behind Cindric. An early crash relegated Josh Berry to a second straight last-place finish that left him 45 points below the cut line, almost certainly needing a victory in Saturday’s Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway to advance to the Round of 12.

MORE: Berry out after Stage 1 crash

At the opposite end of the spectrum, other playoff contenders solidified their positions in the standings. Briscoe, already exempt into the next round on the strength of last Sunday’s win at Darlington, won the first stage.

Bubba Wallace took the honors in Stage 2 on the way to an eighth-place result. Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano ran third, fourth and fifth, respectively, as both Hendrick Motorsports and Team Penske reasserted their strength after disappointing performances at Darlington.

For Logano, the inaugural Cup winner at Gateway in 2022, the top-five finish was his fourth straight, a feat no other driver in the series has been able to accomplish.

Christopher Bell ran consistently in the top 10, finished seventh and leaves the St. Louis-area track 32 points above the elimination line. Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron were 11th and 12th, respectively, and are third and sixth in the playoff standings, needing only to avert disaster at Bristol to advance the Round of 12.

Larson, however, was the source of antagonism for Blaney. On Lap 135, five circuits before the end of Stage 2, Larson charged into Turns 3 and 4, slipped up the track and sent Blaney spinning.

MORE: Blaney, Larson tangle in Stage 2

Though Blaney recovered to finish fourth, he was not happy with the incident.

“I just wanted to know what I did to deserve it,” Blaney said after talking to Larson on pit road. “He just said he made a mistake. That’s fine. Make mistakes. But like at the end of the day, I still got turned. Came from all the way up the bottom of the race track, hit me in the left rear. I know he most likely didn’t mean to do it, but it happened anyway.

“That’s one I’ve got to remember.”

Larson was duly apologetic.

“I just told him I messed up,” Larson said. “I wasn’t meaning obviously to go in there and hit him. The lap before I had got in there and got inside of him, slid up, got to his door, got him tight, got to where I could race him down the frontstretch. I was just trying to do that again. I was a little further back into (Turn) 3 than I was the lap before. Just misjudged the point of where I (was) going to get next to him and tuck in. I just clipped him.

“Yeah, all on me. But wasn’t intentional at all. I hope he understands that. Obviously, I hurt his day where he could have gained more points.”

The Cup Series’ next race is Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) at Bristol Motor Speedway, where four drivers will be eliminated from playoff contention after the 500-lap event.

Notes: Post-race technical inspection was completed without issue, confirming Hamlin as the race winner. Competition officials indicated that no cars would travel back to the NASCAR Research & Development Center for further inspection. … John Hunter Nemechek was the highest finishing non-playoff driver in sixth… Hamlin led a race-high 75 laps to 73 for Wallace… There were 15 lead changes among nine drivers… The race featured 10 cautions for 52 laps.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Dustin Albino

MADISON, Ill. — After waiting two minutes for Kyle Larson to speak with reporters, Ryan Blaney butted in for clarification. He wanted an answer for a Lap 135 skirmish with the No. 5 Chevrolet during Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

“I just asked what I did to deserve getting turned,” Blaney stated. “He said he made a mistake, and I don’t think he did it on purpose, but at the end of the day I got spun around.”

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Gateway

The two former Cup Series champions had a hard-nosed battle for fifth position, spanning multiple laps. They jockeyed back and forth before Blaney got ahead. Larson dove off into Turn 3 and washed up the race track and tagged the left-rear quarter panel of the No. 12 car. Blaney spun to bring out the caution.

“I misjudged it,” Larson said. “The lap before, I went in, I was able to get to his door and get him tight. The next time, I was trying to do the same thing and wasn’t going to get there and was going to tuck back in line and just clipped him. He should be upset. I just misjudged it.”

Believing he had the faster car, Larson wanted to jump on the opportunity to get ahead of Blaney. Hounding the No. 12 car for several laps, frustration grew but he ultimately mistimed his speed in the center of the corner.

“It was frustrating, but it didn’t warrant me to get into him or anything like that,” Larson added. “The first time I got to his inside, I was expecting him to not necessarily let me go and he left me room, but I ran into [Turn] 1 hard and he chased me in and I was sideways underneath him and was kind of like, ‘OK, we’re going to be racing hard for this position going forward’ — and we did. It led to me making contact with him a few laps later.

“It wasn’t anything malicious and I probably hurt his second stage and potentially his finish, but it wasn’t on purpose.”

After a quick stoppage of action, Larson earned seven stage points by finishing fourth in a one-lap dash to conclude Stage 2. Blaney missed out on valuable stage points, dropping to 17th in the running order.

With strategy all over the board and having a hot rod, Blaney drove back to fourth position at the checkered flag. Larson was on the wrong side of a late caution with 32 laps remaining when Ty Dillon had a brake rotor explode. Championship-winning crew chief Cliff Daniels called the No. 5 car to pit road during the caution, believing tires would play a role in the outcome. Larson drove up to finish just 12th despite leading 52 laps.

WATCH: Blaney: ‘That’s one I’ve got to remember’

Rebounding to fourth notched Blaney’s 11th top-five finish of the season, one shy of his career high of 12 (2022 and 2024) and tied with Larson for third-most this year. Had it not been for Blaney’s late charge, the chat with Larson may have gone differently, Blaney noted.

“If we (hadn’t) recovered as well as we did, it probably would have been a different conversation,” he said. “I just tried to get an understanding (why) he came from all the way at the bottom of the race track all the way up and hit me in the left rear, so I was just trying to get a clear understanding of that.

“Even though it wasn’t done with malicious intent, I’ll still remember it. I still got the [expletive] end of it and got turned around and had to come from the back. You remember stuff like that. It’s not anything grudgey or something like that; it’s just those racing situations that you think about the next time you run with that person. You probably run them a little tighter and don’t give them as much space. There is no ill-will or anything; it’s just racing people how I get raced.”

Both drivers are in solid points positions entering the Round of 16 elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Larson has the biggest cushion — 60 points — of drivers who haven’t advanced via victories. Blaney is fifth on the playoff grid, 42 points above the line.

Posted on by Zack Albert

Bill Davis, a longtime team owner who won in all three NASCAR national series including triumphs in the Daytona 500 and Southern 500, has died. He was 74.

Bill Davis Racing fielded cars for multiple NASCAR Hall of Famers, including Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte and Jeff Gordon. All five of his Cup Series victories came with Ward Burton driving the team’s flagship No. 22 entry, including the Southern 500 at Darlington in 2001 and the “Great American Race” the next season.

Davis’ teams also won 11 races in what’s now called the Xfinity Series and 24 times in the Craftsman Truck Series, a tenure that included the 2008 championship with driver Johnny Benson Jr.

William A. Davis III was born January 18, 1951 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He followed his father’s path into the trucking industry, starting his career as a Peterbilt salesman before forming his own company in 1975 in Batesville. Along the way, Davis competed in motocross events at a local and eventually national level.

Through his trucking connections, Davis crossed paths with Julian Martin and his son Mark, then an aspiring racer with shared Arkansas roots. Davis supported the young Martin’s exploits in the American Speed Association (ASA) through the early 1980s and fielded cars for him in Xfinity competition once Martin partnered with Jack Roush in the Cup Series in 1988. Davis’ jump to NASCAR would last another 30 years, bringing him and his wife, Gail, to North Carolina in 1990.

Davis later gave Gordon — then a little-known but highly regarded sprint-car driver — his first shot at a NASCAR career in the Xfinity Series. Gordon won that circuit’s Rookie of the Year award driving the Bill Davis Racing No. 1 Ford in 1991, then pairing with Davis for their first NASCAR wins the next season.

Davis had planned to go to the Cup Series level with Gordon in 1993, with the team close to reaching a deal for sponsorship from Target. After a promising meeting the preceding May with Target executives, Gordon told Davis that he had signed a contract with Rick Hendrick and Chevrolet on the elevator ride out of the company’s Minneapolis headquarters.

That set Gordon — then a 20-year-old prodigy — on a career-long journey with Hendrick Motorsports, where he scored 93 wins, four Cup championships and is now vice chairman. Davis instead signed Labonte, giving another future Hall of Famer his start in the rookie class of ’93. Davis later downplayed the bitterness he carried over Gordon’s departure, saying the exposure from their successes together helped him to establish his stock-car ownership roots.

Davis first paired with Burton in 1995, forming a long-running union that produced the first Cup Series win for both that fall at Rockingham Speedway. Burton stayed with Davis as the team eventually expanded to two cars and switched manufacturers from Pontiac to Dodge, and two crown-jewel wins followed — including the team’s most prestigious at Daytona.

“This just adds so much credibility,” Davis told the Associated Press in 2002. “It doesn’t get any bigger than winning the Daytona 500. Hopefully, it earns us the respect we think we’ve lacked down through the years.”

Davis sold his NASCAR operations after the 2008 season, eventually moving back to Batesville to focus on his trucking company and expand into the cattle industry. He was inducted to the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.

Bill and Gail Davis celebrate with Ward Burton at Daytona International Speedway in 2002
Jonathan Ferrey | Allsport, Getty Images
Posted on by Staff Report

Josh Berry found early trouble for the second consecutive week in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, crunching the outside wall after contact with Chase Elliott’s car at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and imperiling his playoff hopes.

Berry was running 15th in the 35th of 240 laps in the Enjoy Illinois 300 when his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford was bumped in Turn 1 by the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Elliott. Berry scraped the left side of his car against the SAFER barrier, and he limped back to the Cup Series garage with significant damage.

Berry was evaluated and released from the infield care center, but the team was unable to repair the vehicle, ending his day prematurely. He opened the playoffs with two straight last-place results.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Gateway

Berry was in the middle of a three-wide jam with fellow Ford driver Joey Logano to his outside when Elliott looked to the low side entering the first turn.

“It looked like Chase just made a late move and got a little loose and was just enough to slide up into us,” said Berry, who subbed in the No. 9 Chevy for five races when Elliott suffered a snowboarding injury early in the 2023 season. “I don’t think it was anything intentional by no means. Just an unfortunate scenario, I guess.”

Elliott drove on to finish third, marking his first top-five result in an eight-race span. He opened his post-race interview with USA Network’s crew by expressing remorse for the incident that derailed Berry’s day.

“First off, just want to apologize to Josh and the 21 team,” Elliott said. “I had no intention of getting into him. You know, I’ve known those guys my whole life, so I just hope that they at least know it wasn’t anything intentional, and I’ve known Josh for a long time, too. So just want to make sure those guys know that I feel terrible about that. Felt terrible about it right when it happened, and wish I could take it back. But yeah, unfortunately that transpired, but beyond that, really proud of our effort.”

Berry — who reached the playoffs by winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March — also crashed on the first lap of last week’s playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, finishing last in the 38-car field. The pitfall knocked him to the bottom of the Cup Series Playoffs standings and in danger of elimination with one race left in the opening Round of 16.

That playoff fate will be decided 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) at Bristol Motor Speedway, where the bottom four drivers in the postseason picture will be knocked from championship eligibility. He remains last among the 16 playoff drivers, staring down a 45-point deficit below the elimination line.

“We’ve got no choice,” said Berry, when asked if he could rebound to keep his title aims intact. “It’s been a rough couple weeks, for sure, but I know these guys are working really hard and just gotta do the best you can next week.”

Posted on by John Crane

MADISON, Ill. — As temperatures gradually dip as summer transitions to fall, Josh Berry, too, is keeping it cool.

Such a calm mindset could prove beneficial. Following a last-place finish at Darlington Raceway last weekend to begin the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, the 34-year-old Wood Brothers Racing pilot enters the second Round of 16 bout 19 points below the playoff cutline, last among 16 title hopefuls ahead of World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

RELATED: How playoff drivers are trending ahead of Gateway | At-track photos

“Nothing much has changed, really,” Berry said regarding the No. 21’s playoff preparation. “I mean, we just got to go out and try to have two good weeks, really. That’s really all there is to it. You can’t worry about too much of everything else. You just need to go out and try to score as many points as you can, get a good finish. If we’re able to do that this weekend, I think it’ll give us a shot going into Bristol (Motor Speedway). And if we don’t run like we want, we’ll probably be must-win.”

After clinching a playoff berth outright via his Las Vegas Motor Speedway victory in March, Berry’s 2025 postseason campaign started off on rocky footing, with the No. 21 Ford involved in an opening-lap wreck at the “Lady in Black.” Though Berry limped his machine to the garage for repairs and returned to action afterward, the damage was done; Berry finished 38th, 128 laps down.

Enter Gateway, where, despite finishing last in only one career Cup start (36th, 2024), Berry has analytics on his side. According to NASCAR Insights, Berry ranks fourth in Passer Rating and seventh in Speed Rating, Long-Run Speed and Restart Rating at comparable tracks to St. Louis in 2025 (Phoenix Raceway, Iowa Speedway, Richmond Raceway).

Then, there’s the alliance portion of the equation. With Wood Brothers Racing aligned with Team Penske — an organization that has statistically performed well on flat race tracks and won two of the three St. Louis Cup races — the optimism to replicate such success certainly provides more positivity and clarity toward a potential rebound.

“Obviously, we have a tight alliance with those guys, and they’ve had a lot of success here, so that gives us a little extra confidence coming here, that we can go run well,” Berry said. “Obviously, it’s a little different tire, a little different time of the year compared to what they’ve had the last couple years. But you know, like I said, I still feel pretty good about all we’ve got, and we just gotta go out and execute.”

And execute Berry will have to do. According to Racing Insights, no driver has ever finished worse than 25th multiple times in the Round of 16 and advanced to the Round of 12; Berry, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman and Shane van Gisbergen all finished 29th or worse at Darlington.

“If we don’t finish well this weekend, then yeah, we’re going to be must-win, right?” Berry said regarding the urgency to rebound at St. Louis. “So that’s just how it’s going to be. So, yeah, we just got to try to do our best to score as many points on Sunday as we can, and just give ourselves a shot at Bristol.”

Consistency and speed will be key for Berry and the No. 21 team ahead of Sunday’s Gateway contest. After logging the 21st-fastest practice time during Saturday’s practice session, Berry improved with a crisper qualifying result, logging the 12th-best time. Following Gateway, the long time short-track standout will have one final shot to reclaim upward footing, with the Round of 16 finale scheduled at Bristol Motor Speedway next Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule 

In what is his first full-time Cup campaign under the Wood Brothers Racing banner, Berry believes there is much to be satisfied with in 2025. And while the Round of 16 started off on the wrong note, there’s plenty of reason to think greener pastures could be looming.

Keeping it cool could very well do that.

“I’m proud of a lot of things we’ve done,” Berry said. “I feel like we’ve shown a lot of potential, a lot of speed at times. [We] just need to clean things up. I mean, obviously, last weekend was super disappointing, but I don’t think, as a driver, there was much different I could have done in that situation. The car was too low, we bottomed out and it wrecked. But it’s been a lot of fun racing with these guys. Learned a lot and excited to continue.”

Posted on by PJ Walsh

The overwhelming sentiment following Saturday’s practice sessions for the NASCAR Enjoy Illinois 300 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway is that passing will be very difficult today.

MORE: Gateway starting lineup in photos | Full race preview

This means track position and pit-stall selection — both determined by qualifying results — will be extremely important for teams and drivers on Sunday afternoon.

Live NASCAR odds list Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin at +450 as race co-favorites, followed by Kyle Larson (+550), Christopher Bell (+700) and Chase Briscoe (+850).

But with so much uncertainty regarding the ability to pass, and considering this could become a track-position and even fuel-mileage race, I’m passing on outrights and am instead backing a race favorite to score a top-three finish.

NASCAR Odds, Best Bet Pick for Gateway

*Odds as of Sunday morning

Christopher Bell is known for his prowess at short, flat tracks, so I already had my eye on the No. 20 Toyota heading into Saturday’s on-track activity.

Interestingly, Bell didn’t exactly light the practice sheets on fire yesterday, but there’s often more than meets the eye when it comes to speed charts.

My Bell interest was later piqued when Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe mentioned Bell as a driver he thought was best in practice.

After consulting with Action Network’s NASCAR guru Nick Giffen, I learned that Bell topped Giffen’s proprietary practice FLAGS metric, which examines many factors, like practice grouping, track conditions and short- and long-run speed to cut through the noise and determine which drivers truly had the best cars.

I’m not necessarily against betting Bell to win outright either, but my worry is that strategy or a slower late-race pit stop could lose front-running cars track position — position that may be hard to make all the way back up.

Therefore, I’m grabbing Bell to score a top-three finish at +210.

NASCAR Pick: Christopher Bell (+210) for a Top-3 Finish — DraftKings

Posted on by Nathan Solomon

The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs march on to World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) with many championship contenders already at a deficit after the opener at Darlington Raceway.

Twelve playoff drivers had some sort of issue last weekend in the Cook Out Southern 500, while just four Round of 16 drivers finished inside the top 10 — the fewest to ever do so in a playoff opener. For those who struggled in the South Carolina sun, relief could be on the way as NASCAR makes its annual stop in the St. Louis area.

RELATED: Gateway schedule | Playoff standings

According to Racing Insights, Christopher Bell is projected to win at the 1.25-mile egg-shaped oval and earn his first victory since rattling off three straight in the first month of the regular season.

Bell has never finished worse than 11th in three starts at Gateway, navigating the flat track to a career-best seventh-place finish there last year. He’s always performed well at shorter, flatter ovals, registering a pair of victories at both Phoenix Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway — both upcoming playoff tracks.

But while Joe Gibbs Racing has never won in St. Louis, Team Penske has. Racing Insights projects Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano to finish second and sixth, respectively, after practice and qualifying; Blaney led last year’s race before running out of fuel coming to the white flag, while Logano won the inaugural event in 2022 and has an average finish of 3.0 — his best among all tracks. Austin Cindric, the beneficiary of Blaney’s fuel miscalculation and defending winner, has never finished worse than 13th at Gateway. Like Logano, WWT Raceway is Cindric’s best track on the circuit with an average finish of 8.3.

All four Hendrick Motorsports cars finished 17th or worse last week, but expect an improvement this weekend with Regular Season Champion William Byron, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott all projected to finish inside the top seven. Larson (plus-38) and Byron (plus-25) both sit comfortably above the cutline with two races until the first set of eliminations at Bristol Motor Speedway, but Chase Elliott (plus-9) has much more work to do. Elliott’s finished outside the top 25 in two of the last four races after starting the year with 23 consecutive top-20 results. If he can win on Sunday, the perennial most popular driver would become the fourth driver to win in his 350th series start.

MORE: Most Cup Series starts for Hendrick Motorsports

But on the other side of the coin, some of the playoff drivers tighter on the bubble are at risk of continuing their postseason slide into “The Lou.” Austin Dillon, winner three weeks ago at Richmond Raceway, is projected to finish 23rd after P&Q despite coming home sixth in last year’s race. He also won Richmond, a track with similar characteristics, so it’s certainly not out of the cards to see the 35-year-old in the mix come Sunday. According to Racing Insights, Dillon will likely advance in the playoffs if he can average 30 points over the next two races. He enters Gateway eight points below the cutline.

Maybe the biggest question mark of them all is road-course ace Shane van Gisbergen, who won four times in the regular season but essentially used up his entire playoff cushion with a 32nd-place finish last weekend. SVG hasn’t been to Gateway before in any series and is projected to finish 31st after P&Q, which, at three points above the cutline, would complicate his postseason aspirations. But with long straightaways and tight corners leading to shifting and heavy braking, the Kiwi might have an advantage. To compare, AJ Allmendinger, another road-course phenom, has an average finish of 12th in two Gateway starts. Maybe SVG can follow on a similar trajectory and keep himself afloat heading to Bristol.

For some drivers, WWT Raceway provides a Gateway into the Round of 12, while others could remain arching the wrong way before the first elimination race of the playoffs.

FANTASY: Set your lineup | Make a 36 for 36 pick

OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH

KYLE LARSON: The 2021 series champion has never finished worse than 12th at Gateway and could use an old-school Larson performance. He’s nearly broken out of his summer rut with top 10s at Richmond and Daytona, but is winless since Kansas in May. A strong run would set him up well for Bristol, where he’s won the last two races.

DENNY HAMLIN: There are just four ovals on the current Cup schedule that Hamlin hasn’t won at, and Gateway is one of them. He finished second in two of the three St. Louis-area races, with his feud with Ross Chastain in 2022 as the exception. A win on Sunday would make him the series leader with five 2025 triumphs.

TYLER REDDICK: A runner-up to Chase Briscoe at Darlington, Reddick heads to the Midwest on one of his best stretches of the year, finishing 12th or better in six of the last 10. He scored a top five in this race last year and led 41 laps last month at Richmond before a crash took him out of contention.

ALEX BOWMAN: The No. 48 driver finished 31st at Darlington after a 40-second pit stop, but in a race with massive postseason implications, expect Bowman to show well. He’s finished 11th or better in eight of the last 12 races with a second at Richmond. While he’s yet to finish better than 13th in three Gateway starts, some of the similar characteristics from Richmond could be used to his advantage.

KYLE BUSCH: The future Hall of Famer is the only non-Team Penske driver to win at Gateway — a 2023 triumph that is his most recent trip to Victory Lane. He’s led laps in all three races, turning 202 out front to pace the series, and also won a 2009 Xfinity Series race at the track. A win Sunday would break a career-long 84-race winless drought and provide some needed momentum into 2026 as Busch sits on the outside of the playoffs for the second year in a row.

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE ENJOY ILLINOIS 300

Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula incorporates current track, track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to predict a projected winner and provide full race results. Updated on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.

FINISHCAR NUMBERDRIVER
120Christopher Bell*
212Ryan Blaney*
35Kyle Larson*
424William Byron*
511Denny Hamlin*
622Joey Logano*
79Chase Elliott*
845Tyler Reddick*
919Chase Briscoe*
102Austin Cindric*
116Brad Keselowski
121Ross Chastain*
1323Bubba Wallace*
1448Alex Bowman*
1517Chris Buescher
1654Ty Gibbs
1716AJ Allmendinger
188Kyle Busch
1999Daniel Suárez
2077Carson Hocevar
2160Ryan Preece
2271Michael McDowell
233Austin Dillon*
2443Erik Jones
2538Zane Smith
267Justin Haley
2721Josh Berry*
2842John Hunter Nemechek
2934Todd Gilliland
304Noah Gragson
3188Shane van Gisbergen*
3247Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
3341Cole Custer
3410Ty Dillon
3535Riley Herbst
3651Cody Ware

*Denotes playoff driver

Posted on by Dustin Albino

MADISON, Ill. – Limping around World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway with a wounded No. 25 Ford, Harrison Burton was watching the closing laps intensely. He was aware of the possible ramifications.

Rookie drivers William Sawalich and Christian Eckes were hounding race leader Connor Zilisch. If the No. 88 Chevrolet slipped, those two drivers would be there to duke it out. Both drivers needed to secure a victory to punch their ticket to the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Gateway

Zilisch dominated the Nu Way 200, leading 121 of 160 laps. Even with the field bunched up for a restart with 12 laps remaining, Zilisch powered out to a sizable lead. When the checkered flag dropped, Sawalich was 1.5 seconds shy of the victory. Eckes placed third. Both drivers matched the best finish of their young Xfinity Series careers.

“I was looking at the leaderboard and we had old, used tires from the spin,” Burton said, clarifying that he was aware of the potential playoff-stealing drivers. “I wasn’t really racing anybody, so I spent a lot of time watching the race for the win at the end. We left it up to chance and got lucky.”

Burton clinched a spot into the playoffs with a youthful AM Racing organization that placed 32nd in the 2024 owners standings. The revamped No. 25 team finished the regular season with a team-best nine top-10 finishes.

“I knew that the team had struggled in the past, I’m coming off of getting fired and knew that we were both hungry and eager to get ourselves into a situation like this,” Burton stated. “I felt like there were some races that we’ve thrown away, some that we’ve [run] better than we should have. I’m really proud of this team to go from [32nd] or something in points to the playoffs is a big accomplishment.”

Sawalich knew Zilisch had the superior race car. His odds of winning were low without going into desperation mode. He ended the regular season with consecutive runner-up finishes.

“It’s bittersweet,” Sawalich said of his emotions. “I can’t thank my guys enough for bringing me a good car, we just weren’t good enough as the 88. Just didn’t have the pace at the end. He definitely had better long-run speed than everyone else, but we gave him a run for their money.”

Christian Eckes after Xfinity race at Gateway.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Eckes made a late rally to third, the best track position he had all evening. He ended the regular season with a handful of top-five efforts and 12 top 10s, the 2025 benchmark for Kaulig Racing. Yet he’s still frustrated the No. 16 Chevrolet wasn’t able to reach the front.

MORE: Weekend schedule: Gateway

“I felt like we had a race-winning car, and with a restart, who knows what could happen,” Eckes said. “Disappointing not to get this team in the playoffs. They deserve being in the playoffs, but just about seven too many DNFs and a lot of problems.

“We knew we had to come here and win. We didn’t achieve that, so it is what it is, and we move on.”

Both rookie drivers had strong results down the stretch. Eckes had five top-10 finishes in the last seven races, while Sawalich the same amount in eight races. Both drivers said there is room to improve for their sophomore season.

“There is always next year,” Sawalich said. “That is how I was looking at it when we crossed the line. We had the speed no matter what and we know what it takes to win these races now. The start of the year was definitely rough, there’s no doubt about that. It shows how we can bounce back as a team and get ourselves together.”

With the reset, Burton ranks 11th on the playoff grid, only ahead of Austin Hill who lost 21 playoff points after a one-race suspension for wrecking Aric Almirola at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Posted on by Staff Report

With Connor Zilisch winning his series-leading ninth race of the 2025 season, Sheldon Creed, Taylor Gray and Harrison Burton clinched the last three spots in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs in Saturday’s regular-season finale at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Zilisch clinched the Regular-Season Championship, fending off JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier for the crown and the bonus payday of 15 playoff points. Zilisch entered Saturday’s 200-miler with a 20-point margin over Allgaier, then padded that advantage when Allgaier encountered a pair of issues — a pit-road speeding penalty during the Stage 2 break and a final-stage crash.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Gateway

Zilisch’s fourth consecutive win — and his seventh in the last eight races — helped the talented rookie launch into the seven-race postseason with a hefty 59-point cushion above the elimination line.

Harrison Burton clinched the last of 12 playoff berths at the expense of his cousin Jeb, who was the only driver with a mathematical chance to advance on the basis of points. Jeb Burton’s quest ended after a hard crash that halted his bid 51 laps short of the 160-lap distance.

Including Zilisch, eight drivers secured playoff spots with wins earlier in the season. They are: Justin Allgaier (3 wins), Austin Hill (3 wins), Nick Sanchez, Sam Mayer, Brandon Jones, Sammy Smith and Jesse Love. Carson Kvapil clinched his spot on points last weekend at Portland International Raceway.

See the unofficial standings heading into next Friday’s Xfinity Series Playoffs opener at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The bottom four drivers will be eliminated after the first three races.

PositionDriverPoints+/-
1Connor Zilisch2064+59
2Justin Allgaier2035+30
3Sam Mayer2016+11
4Jesse Love2013+8
5Brandon Jones2013+8
6Sammy Smith2009+4
7Nick Sanchez2006+1
8Taylor Gray20050
CUTOFF LINE
9Carson Kvapil20050
10Sheldon Creed2003-2
11Harrison Burton2002-3
12Austin Hill2000-5
Posted on by Reid Spencer

MADISON, Ill. — Connor Zilisch’s dream season continued on a track he’d never raced before.

Holding off the rest of the NASCAR Xfinity Series field over a succession of restarts late in Saturday night’s Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blues Hog at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Zilisch achieved a litany of milestones with his ninth victory as a rookie and 10th career.

First, and perhaps most important, the 19-year-old phenom secured the Regular Season Championship and accompanying bonus of 15 playoff points, beating reigning series champion Justin Allgaier for that distinction by 53 points.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Gateway

With four straight victories, Zilisch tied the series record for consecutive wins shared by Sam Ard (1983) and Noah Gragson (2022). His win was the 16th this year for JR Motorsports, a single-season record for the team.

Driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Zilisch led 121 of 160 laps in posting his seventh victory in the last eight races and his first-ever from the pole in an oval race.

Zilisch’s triumph also made a playoff driver of Harrison Burton, who advanced to the postseason on points in the first Xfinity Series race at Gateway since 2010.

“Four in a row, seven of the last eight, that’s awesome,” said Zilisch, who enters next week’s playoff opener at Bristol Motor Speedway with 59 playoff points. “We’re going to celebrate this — and the Regular Season Championship.

“Man, this is going to be tough to keep up, honestly. It’s rare that you can go on a run like this. Every week I show up thinking, ‘Man, this is going to be the weekend that we just run eighth,’ and just aren’t great, but every weekend we show up and we’re a winning race car, and my pit crew executes, my team executes, everybody does their job, and we end up doing burnouts on the frontstretch.

“Yeah, it’s awesome to be able to do this and win this many races.”

There is one unique twist to Zilisch’s string of four victories. He broke his collarbone while celebrating in Victory Lane at Watkins Glen, started the subsequent race at Daytona on Aug.22, but gave way to relief driver Parker Kligerman, who took the checkered flag after completing 91 of the 104 laps.

Having started the race, Zilisch got credit for the win.

William Sawalich passed fellow Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver Aric Almirola for the second spot on Saturday after a restart on Lap 149 and finished 1.506 seconds behind Zilisch. Christian Eckes ran third, Brandon Jones fourth and Jesse Love fifth, as Almirola faded to sixth.

Sawalich needed a win to advance to the playoffs at Burton’s expense. Instead, he was runner-up for the second straight weekend.

“The 88 (Zilisch), he was on rails tonight,” Sawalich said. “I think he was definitely the best car all night… We didn’t make the playoffs, but we certainly gave them a run for their money.”

WATCH: Sawalich reacts coming one spot short of playoff berth

Jeb Burton’s long-shot hopes of securing a playoff spot ended on Lap 100. With his right-front tire suddenly losing air, Burton rocketed into the outside wall near the exit from Turn 2.

With a fire raging in the right-front wheel well of his No. 27 Chevrolet, Burton drove the car to pit road and climbed out, his race over.

“That was a hard hit,” Burton acknowledged. “It sucks, but we’re going to Bristol next week.”

That accident, combined with Zilisch’s win, sealed a playoff position for Burton’s cousin, Harrison, on points. Coincidentally, Harrison spun in Turn 2 on Lap 129 after contact from Brennan Poole’s Chevrolet.

Harrison finished 22nd and claimed the final playoff berth by 45 points over his cousin.

Allgaier’s bid for the Regular Season Championship came to an abrupt end on the subsequent Lap 135 restart. His No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet was badly damaged in an 11-car melee in Turn 1 and effectively deprived of a chance to contest Zilisch for the top spot in the standings.

Sam Mayer was eliminated in the same wreck and ended the regular season third in the standings.

The Xfinity Series’ next race is Friday’s Food City 300 at Bristol (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Xfinity Series garage, confirming Zilisch as the race winner. The No. 2 Chevrolet, driven by Jesse Love, was found with one lugnut not safe and secure, which will result in a monetary fine.