Dominion Raceway set for a historic season opener this weekend

Posted on April 2, 2026April 2, 2026 by Press Release

The ground shakes and the engines roar as history returns to Dominion Raceway. The Flying VA Classic is a high-octane tribute to the legendary Ray “Mr. Modified” Hendrick.

With over 700 career wins and a legacy that defined Southern modified racing, Dominion honors the “Flying 11” by bringing the baddest asphalt machines on the East Coast to the premier 4/10 mile facility that is Dominion Raceway.

THE HEADLINER: The SMART Modified Tour Flying VA Classic (99 Laps)
THE SHOWCASE: The Carolina Crate Modified Series debut
THE QUEST: NASCAR Division I Season Opener for America Racer Late Models
THE STARS: Pre-race Meet & Greet with Ryan Newman, Burt Myers, & Luke Baldwin
THE FAMILY: Massive Easter Egg Hunt (5 PM) + Easter Bunny on-site!
THE DEAL: Adults $25 | KIDS 15 & UNDER FREE (Grandstands) sponsored by McGeorge’s RV a Camping World company!
THE PERK: First 50 fans through the gate get a Limited Edition T-Shirt! “Domin10n” Celebrating the next 10 years of racing at Dominion! (Friday and Saturday we have 100 total)

You think it’s just a season opener? Wrong. It’s the birth of the “Domin10n” era. Dominion Raceway is kicking off a new decade of speed with a two-day, high-octane takeover that honors the legendary Ray “Mr. Modified” Hendrick and brings the most elite asphalt machines on the East Coast to the 4/10-mile “Ring of Fire.”

(Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)

The main event: Saturday, April 4

Saturday night is the crown jewel. The Flying VA Classic returns with the Pace-O-Matic SMART Modified Tour headlining a 99-lap war.

NASCAR legend Ryan “Rocketman” Newman is back to defend his turf, but he’s walking into a hornets’ nest. Luke Baldwin is coming off a massive 2025 when he secured back-to-back SMART championships, and veteran Burt Myers is looking to prove why he’s a “Madhouse” icon.

But the SMART mods aren’t the only ones shaking things up. Dominion is also hosting the debut of the Carolina Crate Modified Series, bringing a massive field of hungry drivers from the Carolinas for high-stakes, door-to-door action.

The hunt for national points: Truckin Thunder D1 late models

Dominion Raceway’s America Racer Late Models NASCAR Division I stakes have never been higher. These drivers aren’t just racing for a trophy; they are hunting for national points to bring a D1 title to Dominion.

Keep your eyes on Chase Johnson. This kid is on fire; last year alone he racked up 15 wins on his way to a track championship and the NASCAR Southeast Region title. He narrowly missed the national championship, so he’s coming back with a massive chip on his shoulder.

He’ll have his work cut out for him. Charlie Beals is locked in for a full-season run, and in a huge “return to roots” story, JJ Pack, is back. After years of tearing up the old Dominion Speedway, JJ is returning to the new facility to prove he’s still the man to beat in the D1 America Racers.

Youth movement and local heroes

The future of racing is bright at Dominion. The INEX Bandoleros are back both Friday and Saturday nights. These kids are the lifeblood of our youth movement, and seeing them wheel these cars at such a high level is incredible.

Saturday’s full card also includes:

Auto Glass Plus Inc. INEX Legends: Part of the massive Showdown Series.
Renewal By Andersen UCARS: The grassroots, fender-rubbing action everyone loves.
Carlisle III Home Inspection Bandoleros: Round two of the weekend for our youngest stars.

(Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)

Friday night double feature (April 3)

We aren’t waiting for Saturday to get loud. Friday night is a total spectacle starting at 5 p.m. ET.

The Legends Showdown Series, the first half of their double-header weekend. NASCAR Local Oval Racing featuring the Dominion Lightworks, Dominion Stocks and the wild SixEight Training Group 4/6/8 cylinder ANYCARS.

No Prep Street Racing: Dominion is opening up the 1/8 mile straight stretch. Bring your daily driver, your truck or your bike and see what it can do for just $25.

Family, fans and fast food

Saturday is also Dominion’s Easter Family Spectacular. At 5 p.m. ET, the massive Easter Egg Hunt begins. At 6 p.m. ET, the pre-race Pit Party begins. Head to the front stretch for a meet and greet with Newman, Myers, Baldwin and the gang as well as Carolina Crate Mod drivers, NASCAR O’Reilly Local Series and INEX drivers.

Adults are $25, but thanks to McGeorge’s RV, a Camping World company, kids 15 and under are free in the grandstands all year long.

This weekend, the first 50 fans through the gate get a Limited Edition “Domin10n” T-Shirt to celebrate the track’s next 10 years.

CLAIM YOUR TICKETS NOW: DominionRaceway.com

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Nathan Solomon

If you were familiar with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series early on, you’d now find two significant differences with Tricon Garage’s flagship No. 11 team.

That’s because Kaden Honeycutt is the team’s new driver, taking over for Corey Heim after his historic 12-win campaign led to a 2025 title.

But missing from the garage is Scott Zipadelli, one of the most successful crew chiefs in series history. And that wasn’t by design.

Five days before the season opener at Daytona, Zipadelli suffered severe injuries to his left leg in a dirt bike crash. He shattered the top of his tibia, breaking it all the way down toward his ankle. He dislocated his knee, creating internal damage, and also cracked multiple bone chips on his femur. The crash sidelined Zipadelli, a 36-time winning crew chief in the Truck Series, for the first three races of the 2026 campaign, which featured a brand-new driver in his championship-winning Toyota.

“Basically, I crashed my dirt bike pretty hard and drove my leg into the ground when it was straight … my leg went in a direction it’s not supposed to,” Zipadelli told NASCAR.com this week. “Overall, I can’t really complain. A little bit frustrated. Wish I was a little bit further along than I am in my recovery. But, I watched these videos of Lindsey Vonn, and I’m like, ‘How is she doing that?’ But my doctor tells me it’s a different injury, [to] just stay the course. But overall, I’m doing OK.

“It’s just really exhausting being on crutches all day, and my body’s trying to heal and I’m trying to work and do too much. By the end of the day, I’m just completely exhausted.”

Obviously, that all threw an unexpected wrench in the team’s plans for a big 2026 season. But while Honeycutt is new to the organization, he certainly isn’t new to the series. The 22-year-old driver from Willow Park, Texas, has over 60 starts in Trucks dating back to 2022, and unexpectedly joined the Toyota family midway through last year. He raced full-time in 2025 with three different teams, making the first 16 starts of the season for Niece Motorsports and a one-off for Young’s Motorsports at Watkins Glen before filling in for the injured Stewart Friesen the rest of the way.

Despite the unusual circumstances, Honeycutt made the most of it. His performance during the Niece races qualified him for the playoffs, eventually making the Championship 4 in the Halmar-Friesen Racing truck and finishing third in driver’s points.

So battling a little on-track adversity isn’t foreign to the longtime late model ace. Tricon tapped David Stewart, a team engineer, to take over official crew chief duties while Zipadelli stayed back in the Charlotte area for recovery. Zipadelli explained that he’d regularly communicate with Honeycutt and the road crew for his input, and occasionally visited the shop and worked out of the team war room during races — as long as he could access his ice machine.

The two-time championship crew chief returned to the track at Darlington two weeks ago with a large brace on his knee and guided Honeycutt to a fourth-place finish, leading 59 laps. All in all, though, Honeycutt believed the No. 11 pushed through the extraordinary conditions seamlessly.

MORE: Honeycutt ‘really upset’ after Darlington near-miss

“My team is so self-sufficient without Scott at the race track; it was actually pretty mind-blowing,” Honeycutt said in a media availability this week. “I think it shows Scott, as the leader of the team, that he has propelled this team to even be more self-sufficient without him there.

“Having him at Darlington was a huge step. I think it definitely made our relationship good. We were able to communicate with each other, and I can hear his voice and know how he talks and how he is on race weekends. I think we had a really good weekend at Darlington. It definitely sucked not having the first three weeks, but not having him wasn’t a huge challenge just because of the race tracks we raced at and the situations we were dealt as a team.”

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Zipadelli agreed. With two drafting tracks and a road course to start the 2026 season, he said those were the best three races he could have missed. The team had a 50-minute practice session at Daytona, and just a few laps at St. Petersburg before rain halted on-track activity. As far as communication and setups go, they aren’t lagging behind as much as one might think.

With Zipadelli now on the mend, saying that he hopes to ditch the crutches in three weeks and begin physical therapy, he and Honeycutt can officially hit the ground running with a crew nearly identical to last year’s with Heim.

“Kaden, in his career, hadn’t had all the tools that we have here from Toyota, so a little bit of a learning curve there,” Zipadelli explained. “He’s adapted really well. I thought it showed at Darlington, where we practiced our sim stuff how we’re going to race, and he applied it to what he learned and he applied it at the race track, and it was pretty seamless. So it’s probably what you’d expect having a new driver come into your program, really. I would say, you know, in a year or two, it would be just like Corey, but the first six months are crucial that you learn these tools the proper way and you don’t pick up any bad habits.

“It’s so hard to get to know a new driver and go through rule changes as they have, procedure changes, and then also have a new crew or even a couple of guys. I’ve been fortunate over the past six, seven years that most of my guys have all stayed together, and it’s just business as usual. They all know their roles and they help each other. They double-check, triple-check each other and work really well together, very efficient. So that’s really huge, and I know that was very important to try to keep our group together, and that gives Kaden a lot of confidence as well.”

Confidence, indeed. And Honeycutt understands that he’s under the microscope. Heim won 21 times in three seasons under Zipadelli’s tutelage, and the Texan realizes it’s now or never to start banking victories and show he belongs with the highly touted team.

“I’d like to say there isn’t, but honestly, there kind of is,” Honeycutt said regarding any added pressure. “I just want to get my first [win]. I definitely have more starts and not enough wins as what the stat sheet says, but I feel like once I can get the first one, I can understand where I was missing in the past starts on running up front. I think Darlington was the first legit race that I was able to lead the race and take control, and also be put in the situation to know what could have happened if I lost it. So now that I have that feeling and knowing what I did wrong to lose that race, I feel like I can go every week now and be in the situation and not make that mistake again and start capitalizing and winning them.

“So I think losing that race was definitely not a bad thing at all, I think, as far as a learning perspective from my end to correct it and just move forward from it.”

David Jensen | Getty Images

With as close as Honeycutt found himself to championship glory a year ago, he and Zipadelli both believe the 11 team is plenty capable of hoisting the trophy come November. They sit second in points entering Rockingham on Friday (4:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), only 33 markers behind series veteran Chandler Smith.

But with still 21 races to go and a new championship format in play, it’s a why-not-us mindset as Honeycutt enjoys the best opportunity of his young NASCAR national series career.

“We have 100% a chance at winning the title at the end of the year, especially from the way the points format is. I think it honestly falls into our favor a little bit easier, just from on a consistent basis on what we can bring to the race track every week, and winning pays a lot,” Honeycutt said. “I feel like we can do that a bunch this year, just need to get the first one and keep on working after that and just keep on rolling through it the rest of the year.”

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Neil Paine

After a seven-week sprint from the Daytona 500 through the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville, the Cup Series gets to take a one-week breather for Easter before getting back to another 16 uninterrupted weeks of action from Bristol until the summer break in early August.

That gives us a nice early-season checkpoint, then, to stop and assess what we can already take away from the first fifth of the schedule. Some things we thought would happen have, some definitely have not, and there are some we’re still reserving judgment on. Here are nine early takeaways worth paying attention to — with nine charts to match — as we look ahead to the rest of the 2026 campaign:

🏁 Tyler Reddick is a top-tier championship threat again.

When Tyler Reddick was going winless last season, it might have been easy to write off his sole Championship 4 appearance in 2024 as the peak of what he was capable of in 23XI’s No. 45 Toyota. Aside from that year, he’d made the playoffs four times, but bowed out in the Round of 16 three times (2021, 2022, 2025) with a Round of 8 bid in 2023. Instead of settling in at a lower level, though, Reddick has used 2026 as a springboard for one of the greatest starts to a season in NASCAR history — winning four races already and building a massive 82-point lead in the standings.

Perhaps surprisingly, DraftKings’ title odds still favor Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson — the two primary drivers who did battle for last year’s title — at +550 apiece over Reddick at +600. But nobody has been stronger on the track to start the 2026 season, as evidenced by Reddick’s Cup-leading 110.0 Driver Rating (well clear of Hamlin’s second-best 102.0) in addition to his four wins. And his ability to perform at different track types has Reddick set up to be a real problem for the other contenders when The Chase gets underway.
🏁 Denny Hamlin’s still got it at age 45.

Again, Hamlin — not Reddick — sits atop the odds chart above, indicating that the road to the Cup Series title will probably go through him once again, one way or another, even though he’s still personally seeking career championship No. 1. Hamlin currently sits third in the points standings behind Reddick and Ryan Blaney, and he’s second (ahead of Blaney) in average Driver Rating with his best mark since posting a 109.4 in 2021.
It might sound strange to be the least bit surprised that Hamlin remains in the championship mix, as he drove the No. 11 car to Victory Lane a series-high six times last season and has won multiple races in each of the previous seven seasons. But our previous research shows that even great drivers are almost entirely finished as winning drivers by this age, so there is always the risk that a 45-year-old driver falls off with little warning. So far, though, Hamlin is even better than he was last season — one of the best of his career — by just about any measure you might care to consult.

🏁 Ryan Blaney has the fastest car on the track most weeks.

Watch any Cup race, and chances are the No. 12 Ford of Ryan Blaney will be near the front at the end, either leading or at least threatening to pass the leader during the closing laps. That’s no coincidence — Blaney usually has the fastest car on the track and is able to pass his way into at least striking distance more often than not. According to NASCAR Insights’ statistics, Blaney has the best Speed Rating and Passing Rating of any Cup Series driver in 2026 thus far, and he is also well above the field average on restarts and at defending against passes. When it comes to those four categories, he has much better ratings than the other members of the standings top five:
The glaring downside for Blaney, of which much has been made early in the season, is his success (or lack thereof) along pit road, where the No. 12 ranks among the lowest-rated teams in the series. But it’s worth noting Blaney’s team was closer to average last season, so there may be a lot of potential to clean up the problems and give the No. 12 more of a chance to harness its speed later in the season.

🏁 The increased horsepower package is having some effect already.

In addition to the new Chase standings format — more on that later! — the other main structural change for this 2026 Cup season was the adoption of a new horsepower package for road courses and short tracks (technically anything shorter than our standard mile-and-a-halfers), in addition to some aero adjustments. The change was designed to encourage more tire fall-off and help make passing easier with the Next Gen car — and the results thus far are intriguing at the very least.
While there were slightly fewer lead changes and green-flag passes per driver on the road course (COTA) and the true short track (Martinsville), there was significantly more passing at Darlington and especially Phoenix this season than in years past. We will surely get more data as the season progresses and more tracks get added to this sample, but some kind of effect already seems apparent for the mile-and-longer tracks that the new setup applied to.

🏁 Hendrick seems to be ironing things out.

One of the big questions in the early phase of the 2026 Cup season has been a version of “What’s going on at Hendrick?” Between the engineering challenges of adapting to Chevrolet’s new Camaro ZL1 chassis and the natural disruption of having one of their star drivers, Alex Bowman, miss four of the first seven races with vertigo symptoms, it has not been an easy start to the year for NASCAR’s all-time most successful organization. However, their collective performance has generally been ticking up throughout the season, capped off by Chase Elliott’s win at Martinsville:
There’s no doubt Hendrick still has plenty of room to improve over the rest of the schedule, too, considering Larson has recorded just a single top five so far — and Byron has yet to win a race despite posting Driver Ratings of 95 or above in each of the past six races. One of those two will get a breakthrough soon.

🏁 SVG is still improving; Zilisch has hit the learning curve.

Two of the more interesting drivers we’ve had our eye on from the very beginning of the season are Trackhouse Racing teammates Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch. Both are known road-racing savants, and each had their moments of speed at Circuit of The Americas last month — despite neither winning. But the real questions were around their performances at non-road courses. And it’s fair to say SVG has delivered a much more well-rounded performance than Zilisch in the early going.
Looking at both Adjusted Points+ index (which rates a driver’s finishing quality relative to a Cup average of 100) and Driver Rating, it’s clear SVG has made great progress since last season — improving to become an above-average driver at both drafting and short tracks in 2026, albeit in small sample sizes for each type. Even at regular ovals, where he still sits below the overall Cup average, van Gisbergen is much closer to average than his numbers (45 Pts+; 47.8 rating) were a year ago. Zilisch, by contrast, has definitely experienced more of a rookie learning curve than perhaps we might have expected from his stats in the Xfinity Series last season, though he gets some grace at age 19. He might now look even more to his older teammate for tips about how to improve quickly on non-road course tracks as the season progresses.

🏁 Toyota is having arguably its best season ever.

While Reddick has deservedly grabbed many of the early headlines for his own individual dominance, he has been only part of the overall Toyota machine that is off to a very fast start in 2026. Between all of their partner teams — Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI Racing and Legacy Motor Club — Toyota cars have more wins (5), podiums (9), top fives (15) and top 10s (27) than any other manufacturer this season.
Furthermore, if we compare across seasons by adjusting for the share of all races run by Toyotas each year, they are outwinning their share of the field by 46.7 percentage points this year, their best such differential since joining NASCAR as an OEM in 2007. While they have had a few other seasons with better differentials above their share of car entries in top fives (2018) and top 10s (2024), taken on balance, this is one of — if not the — best showings for the Japanese manufacturer in its history with the sport.

🏁 Kyle Busch and RCR are definitely not having their best season ever.

Two-time champion Kyle Busch cannot seem to find a way to get anything close to even an average level of performance out of his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevy to start the year. Including another miserable day at Martinsville — in which he posted a 41.0 Driver Rating, both his worst mark of the season and his worst-ever showing at the track in his career — Busch has just two above-average Driver Rating runs in seven starts, and he ranks 24th among regular drivers with a 57.9 average rating on the season.
It’s the latest in a fairly long-running trend that has seen Busch’s performance metrics (relative to Cup average) drop off almost continuously since the late 2010s. Since Busch is such a great driver, he had more room to fall from his peak while still driving at an above-average level, but he’s been running out of space to stay above average over the past two seasons. Since RCR as a whole is also having maybe its worst season ever — with zero top 10s and a collective average finish of 23.2 — it’s tough to tell how much Busch would have staved off the decline with a better team.

🏁 The Chase is already on everyone’s minds.

More than just the horsepower change, the biggest change of all in NASCAR for 2026 — The Chase, which did away with the old round-based playoffs and its win-and-in clinching system to instead emphasize points racing among the best drivers in the world at season’s end. And we’re already seeing its effects show up in the way drivers approach each race. At each ranking position in average finish (among regular drivers through seven races in the schedule), the 2026 occupant of that slot has a lower average finish than his 2025 counterpart — sometimes significantly so, as in the case of ‘26 leader Tyler Reddick (5.7) versus ‘25 leader Kyle Larson (10.4):
That is obviously driven on some level by Reddick’s incredible number of wins to start the year, but the pattern persists at literally all of the top ranking slots for average finish. This year, top drivers are prizing consistency far more than in the past — something they even admitted to going into Martinsville.

“I think everybody knows the importance of maximizing your day now, where in the previous format you didn’t have to maximize your day,” Christopher Bell said. “It was a win-or-bust mentality, whereas now I think the racing is a little more compelling and aggressive. Everyone knows that every position matters more now than it did in years past.”

“I notice guys are just a little more protective of their finish,” Byron added.

Posted on April 1, 2026April 1, 2026 by Press Release

SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — “C-Weed” may not be a familiar nickname around fans that follow racing at South Boston Speedway. If young Conner Weddell continues to log performances like he did in South Boston Speedway’s March 21 Late Model Stock Car season-opener the familiarity of his nickname will certainly grow.

Weddell finished a close second after a tough battle with former NASCAR and South Boston Speedway champion Lee Pulliam in the 100-lap race that opened the season for South Boston Speedway’s Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division. If not for a late-race caution, Weddell could possibly have earned a victory in his South Boston Speedway debut.

“To run up front and lead laps and finish second to one of the best, it’s insane,” Weddell remarked. “It just makes us hungry to be one spot better. There is nobody better to run second to. I’m just super grateful for the opportunity to race at South Boston Speedway and be so competitive.”

The 16-year-old racer’s unusual nickname is a spinoff from his real name.

“I got my nickname pretty much from my last name,” the teenager explained. “My dad used to race in the arena racing series, and because of our last name, Weddell, people used to always call him “Weed.” When I was born, they called me something else for awhile, and eventually moved on to “C-Weed.”

Racing has been a core part of Weddell’s life from the start.

“I have been around racing ever since I was born because my father was around it,” Weddell noted. “I just fell in love with it when I was little and it’s really all I ever talked about since I could talk. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

The talented teenage racer began his racing journey in much the same fashion as most other young racers.

“I started racing a quarter midget,” Weddell said. “The car I started racing in was Tyler Hughes’ car, who is my crew chief now. I started in one of his cars when I was four-and-a-half. The first laps I ran in it was around a high school parking lot. I went through the rookie school at our local track and started from there.”

Conner Weddell (8, right) leads former NASCAR national champion Lee Pulliam (1, left) through the first turn during the season-opening 100-lap race for the Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division on March 21 at South Boston Speedway. (Photo: Victor Newman/South Boston Speedway)

Success has come to Weddell in his climb up the racing ladder. Last season he finished fifth in the final point standings in the American Racer Late Model Division standings at Dominion Raceway with three wins, 13 Top-5 finishes and 16 Top-10 finishes in 20 feature races. The stats were good enough to put him 13th in the NASCAR Division I national standings.

Weddell moved up this season to the Late Model Stock Car ranks and is competing for the championship in South Boston Speedway’s Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division.

The Centerville, Maryland resident said the competition at South Boston Speedway is what drew him to focus his attention at the .4-mile oval this season.

“If you want to be one of the best you have to race against the best every week,” Weddell pointed out. “This is like racing a Martinsville heat race every week. The heat race I ran in at Martinsville had Peyton Sellers, Landon Pembelton, Trevor Ward, about everyone that has won a clock and is super-talented. I think the competition at South Boston Speedway this season is harder than running the CARS Tour.”

Next up for Weddell and his fellow Late Model Stock Car Division competitors are twin 75-lap races that will headline the Danville Toyota Race Day event on Saturday afternoon, April 4 at South Boston Speedway.

Weddell will face a new challenge in the April 4 twinbill.

“I raced twins at Dominion Raceway, and we used to run twin 50s, so this will be the longest twin races I’ve ever run,” he pointed out.

The teenager says he likes the idea of twin-race events.

“I like the aspect of running a race and then getting to come back, work with your team, tell them what the car did, the way the balance of the car shifted, get a moment to reset and go at it again and get another shot at it.”

In addition to the twin 75-lap races for the Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division the Saturday afternoon April 4 Danville Toyota Race Day event will include a 50-lap race for the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division, a 25-lap race for the Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division and a 20-lap race for the Dollar General Hornets Division.

As this is an Easter Weekend event South Boston Speedway will hold an Easter Egg Hunt and a visit by the Easter Bunny at the kids’ playground at 12:45 p.m. God’s Pit Crew will be part of Saturday’s activities and will have a tent and table at the playground. Volunteers from God’s Pit Crew will have Kids Play Pails that kids can color and decorate. Those pails will go to kids in areas that God’s Pit Crew helps.

Practice will start at 10:25 a.m. and frontstretch spectator gates will open at 10:30 a.m. Qualifying starts at 1 p.m., pre-race ceremonies will start at 1:45 p.m. and the first race of the day will get the green flag at 2 p.m.

Adult advance tickets are priced at $12 each. Adult admission at the gate on race day is $15. Suite passes are $40 each. Seniors ages 65 and older, veterans and miliary personnel, first responders, healthcare workers and students with ID may purchase tickets for $12 each at the gate on race day. Kids ages 12 and under are admitted free.

The latest news and updates about the Danville Toyota Race Day event and South Boston Speedway may be found online on South Boston Speedway’s website, www.southbostonspeedway.com, the track’s social media channels. or by calling the speedway office at 434-572-4947 or toll free at 1-877-440-1540 during regular business hours.

Posted on April 1, 2026April 3, 2026 by Staff Report

See where your favorite NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers will pit this weekend at Rockingham Speedway.

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series North Carolina Education Lottery 250 Presented by Black’s Tire at Rockingham Speedway on Saturday (2:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Black’s Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway on Friday (4:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: How to watch NASCAR on FS1

Posted on April 1, 2026 by Staff Report

O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Single-car qualifying will take place at 2:35 p.m. ET on Friday, with practice earlier in the day at 1:30 p.m. ET (The CW App).

POSITION	NUMBER	DRIVER	METRIC
1	33	Cleetus McFarland	58.7
2	35	TBA	41.6
3	74	Dawson Cram	40.7
4	5	JJ Yeley	37.4
5	02	Ryan Ellis	35.7
6	92	Josh Williams	33.8
7	51	Jeremy Clements	33.7
8	28	Kyle Sieg	33.1
9	07	Josh Bilicki	32.6
10	87	Austin Green	28.7
11	24	Harrison Burton	27.2
12	55	Blake Lothian	27.0
13	27	Jeb Burton	26.7
14	0	Garrett Smithley	26.1
15	32	Andrew Patterson	25.9
16	45	Lavar Scott	25.0
17	42	Nathan Byrd	24.6
18	1	Carson Kvapil	22.0
19	41	Sam Mayer	19.7
20	18	William Sawalich	18.8
21	31	Blaine Perkins	18.5
22	88	Rajah Caruth	18.4
23	48	Patrick Staropoli	17.5
24	96	Anthony Alfredo	16.5
25	20	Brandon Jones	15.6
26	44	Brennan Poole	15.2
27	91	Alex Labbe	13.1
28	54	Taylor Gray	13.0
29	26	Dean Thompson	11.8
30	39	Ryan Sieg	11.4
31	99	Parker Retzlaff	11.0
32	19	Brent Crews	9.7
33	2	Jesse Love	9.0
34	21	Austin Hill	5.7
35	00	Sheldon Creed	4.0
36	8	Sammy Smith	3.9
37	17	Corey day	3.5
38	7	Justin Allgaier	1.0

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on TV

Craftsman Truck Series
Single-car qualifying will take place at 12:05 p.m. ET on Friday, with practice earlier in the day at 11 a.m. ET (FS2).

POSITION	NUMBER	DRIVER	METRIC
1	69	Jonathan Shafer	40.4
2	4	Connor Hall	39.2
3	22	Clayton Green	33.8
4	14	Mini Tyrell #	32.5
5	81	Kris Wright	31.5
6	76	Spencer Boyd	30.9
7	93	Caleb Costner	30.0
8	90	Justin Carroll	29.6
9	2	Luke Baldwin	29.3
10	99	Ben Rhodes	28.2
11	13	Cole Butcher #	27.4
12	44	Andrés Pérez	26.6
13	88	Ty Majeski	24.1
14	52	Stewart Friesen	23.5
15	26	Dawson Sutton	22.9
16	98	Jake Garcia	22.7
17	18	Tyler Ankrum	22.5
18	25	Ty Dillon(i)	22.2
19	33	Frankie Muniz	20.7
20	56	Timmy Hill	20.0
21	12	Brenden Queen #	19.4
22	77	Carson Hocevar(i)	19.0
23	42	Parker Eatmon	16.3
24	15	Tanner Gray	16.0
25	16	Justin Haley	15.3
26	19	Daniel Hemric	12.6
27	10	Corey LaJoie	12.2
28	38	Chandler Smith	12.2
29	9	Grant Enfinger	12.1
30	1	Corey Heim	10.3
31	34	Layne Riggs	10.2
32	62	Michael Christopher Jr.	8.1
33	17	Gio Ruggiero	7.7
34	91	Christian Eckes	4.8
35	7	Sammy Smith(i)	4.4
36	11	Kaden Honeycutt	4.3
37	45	Landen Lewis	2.0
38	5	Adam Andretti	1.9

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

Posted on April 1, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Members of Team Penske left Martinsville Speedway smiling Sunday after a strong showing from their entire stable.

The hope inside the team is for this to become the norm, because it’s certainly the expectation.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Martinsville results

Joey Logano led the day with a third-place finish in Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville, with teammates Ryan Blaney sixth and Austin Cindric eighth, followed closely by their affiliate teammate Josh Berry in 10th, repping Wood Brothers Racing.

Success is the standard for the team owned and operated by Roger Penske. His NASCAR program has consistently found that success on short ovals since the sport shifted to its Next Gen car, and that shone again at the 0.526-mile Martinsville track before the Cup Series takes its first off week of the season.

“It was a good, solid day,” Travis Geisler, Team Penske’s competition director, told NASCAR.com Sunday. “It was really nice to have everybody in the top 10. It’s always good to go into an off week with just a stable, good, solid week.”

Ryan Blaney has already delivered the team one victory this season at Phoenix Raceway, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing for Team Penske to begin 2026. According to NASCAR Insights, Blaney’s No. 12 pit crew ranks 35th of 36 title-eligible teams while averaging the worst average four-tire stop in Cup this season. He has overcome those stats, finishing outside the top 10 just twice in seven races. The same can’t always be said for his teammates.

Austin Cindric and the No. 2 team began the season with four straight finishes of 26th or worse before a 19th at Las Vegas and finishes of fifth at Darlington Raceway and eighth at Martinsville. Berry’s No. 21 team, which operates out of Team Penske’s shop, has followed a similar trajectory as Cindric with two top 10s in his seven starts – ninth in the Daytona 500 and 10th at Martinsville.

And while Logano led a strong showing at Martinsville, that performance came off the heels of a Darlington Raceway effort that left his No. 22 team 33rd, three laps down.

“I think there’s a few areas that obviously we’re not where we want to be yet, a couple things we need to improve and focus on,” Geisler said. “Is it just the result, or is it actually the process that’s not getting you the result? You know, sometimes in racing, you can’t always measure the end result because there’s a lot of things going into that. But you kind of look at those – the style of track where we struggle a little bit. Vegas was certainly a place where we weren’t as strong as we wanted to be. So you look at that with Kansas coming up and a couple of those races and you focus on your weaknesses, really.

“I think our strengths, we just kind of keep plugging along with those. But we’ll try to look at the areas you need to shore up because you’ve got to be good across every discipline now, right? You can’t have a weak spot, and we’ve got a few to work on.”

Ethan Smith | For NASCAR Digital Media

For all that adversity, there is resilience in the rebound. During the Martinsville race, all three Penske cars were nose-to-tail running inside the top five. But each team was looking for that finish, too.

Let’s start with Cindric, whose last win came 11 months ago at Talladega Superspeedway. In the two weeks since leaving Las Vegas Motor Speedway 30th in the points standings, he and the No. 2 have vaulted up the charts into 18th place, 18 points behind the 16th and final spot in The Chase.

“I think we certainly had a huge hole to dig out of with the 2 car where we were in points, and the progress he’s made over the last couple of weeks here and getting top 10s and really running well is great to see,” Geisler said.

Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 champion, is now in his fifth year of full-time Cup racing. He owns wins in three of the past four seasons and has netted stage points in all but one race this year for the seventh-most stage points in Cup. But with three-time Cup champion Logano and 2023 title winner Blaney sharing the building, there’s no mistaking the expectation.

“There’s certainly a lot of pressure on that group to perform,” Geisler said. “You’re measuring yourself against four championships. And that’s what it is. That’s the bar. And I think that, really, when you look at his whole season, he’s been in the top 10 every week. He got wrecked running ninth at (Circuit of The Americas). He was easily a top-10 car at Phoenix and got wrecked. He ran within a spot of the 12 car at Vegas and got caught on pit road after a pit stop. And then it was finally like, OK, let’s just finish where we belong and we’re going to be fine. And that was really the last couple of weeks.

“I think if you look at his stage points for the season compared to anybody else, pretty darn competitive. … That’s what you need out of a group that needs to go perform. And I think for Austin, he’s just got himself in a spot now where he’s confident in his process, he’s confident in his abilities. Now he just has to go execute each week, which is a lot different than kind of scrambling trying to figure out how to be competitive.”

Cindric has long been a part of the Penske fold, his father a longtime executive within the company before a brief departure last year. He found joy in his No. 2 team’s execution at Martinsville, but only briefly.

“It’s what I expect out of myself and my race team,” Cindric said, “and it’s nice to sometimes meet expectations.”

Logano’s Darlington disappointment was dreadful. While his in-house teammates earned top fives, he struggled to stay within four laps of the race leaders’ pace.

“First off, you’re kind of like, what’s going on? Where are we off?” Logano said, recalling his in-race emotions. “And you’re trying to fix it, and then you swing the bat a couple times and you make minor progress, if any, then you start to get pissed off. That’s the normal reaction. And then by the end, you’re a little depressed, and then you’re a little embarrassed at the end of all that, even. So you get all the negative emotions. It’s just part of competing, right? And it’s hard. If you want the glory of winning, sometimes you’ve got to go through the agony of defeat.”

Ethan Smith | For NASCAR Digital Media

That agony was glorified during team debriefs on Monday and Tuesday as Logano, No. 22 crew chief Paul Wolfe and the team dissected their missteps. But after numerous wins and multiple championships together, rarely is there a doubt that the No. 22 team will figure out its shortcomings.

“They spent a good solid day or two going through everything they could to try to understand where that weekend didn’t go the way we needed to,” Geisler said. “But man, I’d say really by midday Tuesday, they were 100% just focused forward the way they always do. And that’s the nice part about a group that’s won a lot together. There’s a lot of confidence in everybody. And it’s just, hey, let’s look at all the details, make sure we didn’t miss anything, but we’re not gonna change how we’re approaching the race weekend. Pit crew has been really solid on that group, and they just plugged along, did their thing (Sunday). And it was great to get them back up there and send them off into Easter with a little bit of a breath of fresh air.”

Logano agreed. Seeking his first win since Texas last May – one week after Cindric’s Talladega triumph – Logano saw Martinsville as a step closer toward normality after a derailed day at Darlington.

MORE: Logano continues Martinsville top 10 streak

“It was nice to stop the bleeding. Everything feels normal again,” Logano said. “Last weekend, you start wondering if the earth is round or not. You’re kind of confused on everything. But it was nice to have a normal weekend and be solid off the truck, and solid on pit road, which they have been; that’s no surprise. But just a solid race, which, running top five the whole race, proud of that. Proud of the effort.”

For Blaney, Martinsville was the continuation of his recent stature as Penske’s most consistent contender. His No. 12 Ford was fighting Denny Hamlin for third when late contact stuffed him into the wall instead, but he still hung on to finish sixth.

“I thought all of our cars were really, really good,” Blaney told NASCAR.com. “I thought myself, Joey, Austin and Josh had a really strong showing. I think all of us finished in the top 10. For my side, I thought we got our car a little better each run. At the start of the race, I thought I was about an eighth-place car, and then sixth, fourth, top-two car before the last yellow. So yeah, really, really proud of the effort. Bringing us some good speed and hopefully build off of it for the future.”

Posted on April 1, 2026 by Adam Fenwick

REGGIO EMILIA, Italy — After a decade of competition in the NASCAR Euro Series and becoming the first female driver to compete in NASCAR Brasil, Italian driver Arianna Casoli is set to take the next step in her career.

Casoil has announced a program in the United States with the NASCAR Late Model platform andMKM Racing Development.

She is paving the way for European female drivers in U.S. NASCAR competition as the first female NASCAR Euro Series driver to compete in the United States, marking a significant milestone in her career and in the international NASCAR series. Following the recorded female drivers to race in a U.S. NASCAR sanctioned series, she will became the first Italian in nearly 50 years, following in the trailblazing path of the legendary Lella Lombardi in 1977.

Arianna, also known as “Lady NASCAR”, adds another milestone in an already record-filled career: first woman to compete in NASCAR Brasil, five Lady Trophy titles and one Legend Trophy (for drivers over 40) secured in NASCAR Euro Series achieving more than 50 class victories.

She will focus on gaining experience on American short tracks with MKM Racing Development, working closely with the team to adapt her driving style to NASCAR Late Model stock car racing. The first step includes three races at the iconic Hickory Motor Speedway, known as the “Birthplace of NASCAR Stars.”

With more than 100 race starts in the NASCAR Euro Series, Casoli has built her experience through consistency, determination, and a long-term commitment to the discipline. Her move to the U.S. marks a natural evolution of her career. With this new venture, she aims to break new barriers while building on a journey shaped over years of NASCAR competition.

“The United States is the cradle of NASCAR,” said Casoli. “After ten years in Europe, I knew it was time for a big change. At my age, this step isn’t guaranteed. I feel blessed to approach it with the same enthusiasm I had in my 20s. This move aligns perfectly with the path I’ve been building over the years. Oval racing in the U.S. is demanding, but I’ve always loved it. In Europe, ovals are no longer on the schedule, but I enjoyed Raceway Venray (half-mile oval) and Tours (short track). Even my debut in NASCAR Brasil was on an Oval. I’m motivated to learn, adapt, and push my limits, making the most of every opportunity on track, and showing once again that women in motorsport can pursue their dreams at any age.”

For European drivers that are traditionally accustomed to road courses, transitioning to American short tracks presents both a technical and mental challenge: mastering oval racing lines, throttle control through corners, tire management, and constant close-quarters racing all require rapid adaptation. For Casoli, known for her technical approach and resilience, this represents a decisive step into the core of American stock car racing.

Late Model Stock Cars represent one of the most competitive and formative categories within NASCAR. With more than 400 horsepower, lightweight construction, and no electronic aids, they demand precision and constant close-quarters racing on short ovals such as Hickory (0.363 miles), where traffic, continuous lapping and high intensity leave little margin for error.

“We are proud to welcome Arianna to MKM” said Michael Klein, team owner of MKM Racing Development “With her experience in the NASCAR Euro Series competition, she adds strong racing knowledge to our program. At MKM, we’ve built an extremely experienced crew with a background at the top level of NASCAR, including being part of a championship-winning team in 2017. We field multiple cars every week in late model races across the Southeast, competing in one of the most demanding environments in the country. We’re excited to combine our expertise and guide her through this transition into American NASCAR with a strong development path.”

Female participation in top-level NASCAR remains limited, especially for drivers pursuing continuous careers and women over 40. In this context, Casoli’s journey is even more significant: entering the U.S. NASCAR Late Model Series, she joins only a handful of women continuing to break barriers and redefine the role of women in motorsport.

“This new adventure is driven by personal motivation but also by the desire to reconnect with that unique feeling of adrenaline and satisfaction that I had lost last season,” said Casoli. “I’m not focused solely on results; I’m chasing the positive vibes that setbacks had dampened. I want to show that it’s never too late to pursue a dream, and perhaps inspire the next generation, often hesitant to embrace change, especially women. American short tracks are demanding and require respect. Being a rookie makes it a true challenge, and that’s exactly what makes it thrilling.”

Posted on April 1, 2026 by NASCAR Official Release

For NASCAR fans, patriotism has long been part of the sport’s DNA — from paint schemes and pre-race tributes to our service members, to moments of remembrance in honor of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. And as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, NASCAR is helping support a new national effort to ensure those fallen service members, and the Gold Star families who keep their legacy alive, are never forgotten.

The Declaration of Remembrance, led by the nonprofit Honor and Remember, calls on Americans to recognize the nearly 1.4 million service members who have lost their lives in military service over the country’s history. As a NASCAR Impact partner, Honor and Remember is working toward a goal of 1.4 million signatures by Memorial Day Weekend 2026 — a symbolic tribute of one signature for every fallen hero.

RELATED: More info about NASCAR Impact

NASCAR fans are encouraged to read and sign the Declaration of Remembrance at DeclarationofRemembrance.com/signnow.

Aligned with the broader America250 commemoration, the initiative reflects a nationwide moment to honor both 250 years of freedom and the cost required to secure it.

“It’s important for all Americans to remember and acknowledge that the freedoms we enjoy today are ours because of 250 years of sacrifice,” said George Lutz, founder of Honor and Remember. “It’s a critically important message that cannot get lost as our nation celebrates this milestone, and it’s why we started the Declaration of Remembrance.”

In addition to the signature campaign, organizers are building support for H.R. 1363, the Honor and Remember Flag Recognition Act, a new piece of bipartisan legislation that would designate the Honor and Remember Flag as a permanent national symbol of remembrance.

For more than a decade, NASCAR has worked alongside Honor and Remember to elevate the stories of fallen service members and recognize Gold Star families. That relationship deepened in 2025 when Honor and Remember was officially named a partner of NASCAR Impact, expanding opportunities to integrate moments of remembrance into race weekends across the country.

“NASCAR is a uniquely patriotic sport, and we feel a responsibility to ensure these heroes are never forgotten,” said Eric Nyquist, NASCAR’s chief impact officer. “Our goal is to keep the memory of these brave men and women alive and to show their families how much they are appreciated.”

From the unfurling of the Honor and Remember Flag during pre-race ceremonies to hosting Gold Star families at marquee events like the Daytona 500, NASCAR continues to use its biggest stages to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The campaign is deeply personal for Lutz, a Gold Star father whose son George Anthony “Tony” Lutz II was killed while on patrol in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2005.

“My hope is that as we mark 250 years of freedom, we also take time for collective gratitude — not just for the victories, but for the cost of securing and sustaining our nation,” Lutz said. “This effort is about honoring every life lost in service and inviting Americans to stand together in remembrance.”

With one of the most passionate fan bases in sports, NASCAR is uniquely positioned to help amplify the campaign across the industry leading up to and during NASCAR Salutes Together with Coca-Cola, which will launch in May.

“Our fans understand and appreciate the sacrifice that these men and women have made,” Nyquist said. “We encourage everyone to join us in supporting Honor and Remember and to take part in this national moment of remembrance.”

Posted on April 1, 2026April 1, 2026 by Cameron Richardson

Seven races down in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, and we have somewhat of an idea of who will be contesting for the championship when The Chase begins in September.

At the top of the Cup Series standings sit Tyler Reddick (already with four wins this season), followed by Ryan Blaney, who snagged his first checkered flag of the season at Phoenix Raceway.

While the two drivers are undoubtedly fast during green-flag action, the same can’t be said so far for their respective pit crews. Let’s dive into where the No. 12 and No. 45 pit crews rank so far and what it could mean for Blaney and Reddick’s hopes at hoisting the Cup Series trophy in November.

The aforementioned speed for both Blaney and Reddick is undeniable when looking at the numbers. According to NASCAR Insights, both drivers rank inside the top five in passing, speed and restarts. Specifically, Reddick charts second in passing, second in speed and fifth in restarts. Blaney tops the board among Cup drivers in passing and speed, and ranks fourth on restarts.

The standalone speed has translated into strong results, with both winning five combined times in the first seven races and holding the top two spots in points.

Where troubles have become apparent have been on pit road. Pivotal to success on Sundays, the No. 12 and No. 45 have struggled to provide clean stops to give their drivers advantageous track position, forcing their wheelman to really drive their cars harder to make up spots.

Post-Martinsville, the No. 45 pit crew ranks 21st, while the No. 12 crew sits at 35th — second worst of all title-eligible drivers, only ahead of the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing crew.

Neither teams were all that good at Martinsville. Reddick’s crew was 18th at the Virginia short track, and Blaney’s crew was 25th.

The biggest shock of all is that NASCAR Insights lists Blaney with the worst average four-tire stop in Cup this season, with a time of 12.89 seconds. To compare, Christopher Bell has the fastest four-tire stop on average at 10.18 seconds. Mistakes compiled for the No. 12 team at Phoenix, which Blaney was able to overcome and win, and most recently at Darlington, where the team had a loose wheel and needed to pit in a teammate’s stall to get it tightened.

As we’ve seen in past years, championships have come down to execution on pit road — think of 2019 when the No. 19 crew gave Martin Truex Jr. the wrong tires and the No. 11 team slapped on a comical amount of tape to Denny Hamlin’s grille that cost the engine to overheat. Of course, there’s Hamlin’s heartbreak from the Phoenix title race last year, where crew chief Chris Gayle opted for a four-tire stop, while Kyle Larson and the No. 5 team took two tires and entered that race as the No. 1 pit crew, according to NASCAR Insights. Larson eventually went on to finish ahead of Hamlin on the short run to the checkered flag to win his second championship.

MORE: How NASCAR’s new championship format works

While The Chase eliminates the one-race showdown for the title, pit road will still be a huge factor in crowning a champion. If Blaney and Reddick want to solidify bids as championship favorites, they’ll need their crews to match their raw speed.

Kevin C. Cox | Getty Images