Racing Insights is doing something different with its NASCAR Insights stats for the playoffs by providing numbers specifically tailored to the Round of 16. By looking at statistics at similar tracks, they’ve come up with rankings in the categories of speed, long-run speed, passing, defense and restarts to give a glimpse of drivers’ strengths and weaknesses for the first three races of the Cup Series Playoffs at Darlington Raceway, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and Bristol Motor Speedway.
What’s immediately noticeable in the numbers is Daytona winner Ryan Blaney ranks first among full-time drivers in speed, long-run speed and passing. At seventh in defense and fourth in restarts, Blaney’s total score of 14 puts him at the very top of the list (see table below). This is notable because Blaney has yet to win at any of the tracks in the Round of 16 — but he has had some strong performances there lately, where it’s not hard to imagine him being in Victory Lane at any of the three tracks.
That said, Denny Hamlin and William Byron aren’t that far off from Blaney with total scores of 16 and 17, respectively. Hamlin ranks second in long-run speed and defense, third in speed, fourth in passing and fifth on restarts. Byron is first on restarts, second in both speed and passing, third on long-run speed and ninth on defense. Expect Hamlin and Byron to be like Blaney and advance to the Round of 12 rather easily, barring unforeseen circumstances such as wrecks or mechanical issues.
On the flipside of the equation are Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Dillon. SVG is the lowest playoff driver on the list with a total score of 156 as he ranks 28th in defense, 29th in long-run speed, 31st in speed, 33rd in passing and 35th in restarts on tracks similar to the ones in the Round of 16. Therefore, for the Round of 12 race at the Charlotte Roval to be a factor for the road-course ace, he’ll need to buck the statistical trends and hope for some bad luck for other playoff drivers in the opening round.
Dillon, meanwhile, is more within reach of the other playoff drivers than SVG with a total score of 102. He ranks 14th in defense, 18th in long-run speed, 21st in passing, 22nd in speed and 27th on restarts. Darlington is probably Dillon’s best chance for a top-10 finish in the Round of 16, so it’s imperative he gets off to a good start there.
But if you’re looking for a dark-horse driver who might punch above his weight so to speak, look no further than Tyler Reddick. Although Reddick enters Darlington below the cutoff line 14th in the standings, he’s the sixth-best driver on the NASCAR Insights list with a total score of 41. Reddick ranks third in passing, sixth in speed, ninth in long-run speed, 11th on defense and 12th on restarts. Reddick hasn’t had the statistical growth this season that he’s enjoyed in the past, but the possibility is still there for him to put things together and go on a run.
Shane van Gisbergen might be entering his first NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs campaign as the most lightly regarded four-race winner in recent memory. Chalk some of the shorter shrift up to his designation as a Cup Series rookie, even one with veteran credentials, but also for his role as a road-course specialist and a relative newbie on oval tracks.
Either way, van Gisbergen seems OK with it.
“It’s always fun to have your back against the wall, right, and have to push hard,” the 36-year-old New Zealander said during Wednesday’s Cup Series Playoffs Media Day rounds. “I don’t use it for motivation or anything, but it’s cool being the underdog.”
Van Gisbergen enters the 10-race postseason as one of the field of 16’s largest question marks heading into Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) at the historic Darlington Raceway. He joins a handful of others with aspirations of making a deep charge into the elimination-style bracket in spite of how their spot in the Cup Series standings might favor them.
Van Gisbergen — who finished the regular season 25th in points before the standings were re-seeded — dashed onto the playoff grid with four dominating victories on road courses, prevailing in Mexico City, Chicago, Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International in order. His next prime road-race opportunity comes in the Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, meaning he’ll have to survive the oval gauntlet of Darlington, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and Bristol Motor Speedway to advance past the opening round.
Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain says he’s seen strides from SVG on the oval tracks that make up the majority of the Cup Series schedule. Though van Gisbergen has yet to post a top-10 finish on an oval this year, Chastain said his teammate’s progress is enough to boost his company-wide confidence.
“The gap from the 1 to the 88 on the ovals has shrunk,” said Chastain, using the car numbers belonging to him and his teammate. “If we’re fast, I expect him to be right there with us. He’s put the time in and learned the cars. You’ll always be better with more experience, but there’s enough there that if Trackhouse performs the way we want to, he can make a lot of people wrong, and one of them won’t be me. I expect him to be right there with me wherever I’m at.”
Other one-time winners face similar questions about their postseason expectations. On his “Actions Detrimental” podcast, Denny Hamlin was asked which four drivers would be the first to be eliminated from playoff contention. His answers: Josh Berry, Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon and van Gisbergen. Those same four also dwell at the lower end of the oddsmakers’ betting boards for the Cup Series championship.
“Guess we’ll have to watch, won’t we?” Cindric said with a smile after learning of Hamlin’s picks. The Team Penske No. 2 Ford driver had the best points finish of that group before re-seeding, ending the regular season 15th. He also has recent success at a pair of playoff tracks, winning at Talladega Superspeedway in April to clinch his third postseason berth in four years, and prevailing at World Wide Technology Raceway last season.
Is Cindric entering the playoffs under the so-called radar? “I would love to be invisible for the first two rounds, because I know I’ll make it to the Round of 8,” he quipped.
Berry, driving for the Penske-affiliated Wood Brothers team, ended the regular season 21st in the Cup Series standings. He provided a highlight to his first season in the No. 21 Ford early on, winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the fifth race of the year to ensure his place on the playoff list.
Since then, positive results have been a little harder to come by. Berry has not posted a top-five result since Vegas, though he stacked finishes of eighth at Richmond and ninth at Daytona to close out the regular season with some modest momentum.
“We’re in a day and age right now, everybody’s worried about consistency, right?” Berry said. “Everybody’s worried about, they want to bring back the old point system, and they want to do this different. It’s just the flavor of the week right now, I feel like. So it’s easy to look at us and feel like we’re not deserving, but ultimately, we won our race, won my first race that advanced us to the playoffs, and I feel like there’s plenty of races along the way that we’ve been fast. And so yeah, I don’t view us as a team that’s an easy first-round exit. I feel like we can hold our own and we’re ready to do it.”
Several drivers and teams view the postseason as an opportunity to reset, but Dillon and his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team elected to start that process sooner. Dillon said that after Dover Motor Speedway on July 20, the No. 3 group made a wholesale re-evaluation of its plan for the final five races of the regular season. That stretch yielded a convincing repeat win at Richmond Raceway, sealing one of the last available playoff berths.
Even with Dillon’s net gain, he still ended the regular season 26th in points — lowest of the 16 playoff drivers before re-seeding. If that’s reason to discount his playoff aims, Dillon says that’s where he’s found motivation.
“I always use it as fuel, but I feel like I have really a good confidence and a calm about it, like I don’t have anything to prove in that sense,” Dillon said. “I’m just really happy with where we’re at as an organization because the first quarter of the season, I would have said differently. But now I feel confident, like I feel good that we can execute and make a good push and run.”
That road starts this weekend at Darlington, a grueling, asymmetrical oval where van Gisbergen has competed twice before in the Cup Series and has a best finish of seventh in Xfinity competition. The chatter about writing him off, SVG says he’s already tuned that out.
“Yeah, which is great. Doesn’t worry us and puts no pressure on us, right?” van Gisbergen said. “So if we have a good week this week, it makes the next few harder, but if we have a tough week, it puts us in a hole, and it’s gonna be hard to get out of it. So hopefully it’ll be nice to prove people wrong, too.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C.— Unlike in previous years, none of the frontrunners competing in this season’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs could — or were willing to — name an absolute favorite to hoist the champion’s trophy Nov. 2 at Phoenix.
In fact, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, a three-race winner, said he’s feeling as calm as he’s ever felt entering the 10-race playoff stretch that begins Sunday in the Cook Out Southern 500 at historic Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
That was a pervasive vibe throughout Wednesday’s Playoff Media Day among the 16 drivers who will race for the 2025 title.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin was first to meet with reporters at the Charlotte Convention Center. His 19-year string of playoff appearances is the longest in the series. Hamlin’s four victories this season are also tied for most in the series, but the 44-year-old insisted his expectations are no different this year as he tries once again to secure a first championship.
“It’s too hard to predict because it’s unpredictable,” said Hamlin, who goes into the championship run ranked third in the points standings, three points behind co-leaders Kyle Larson and William Byron.
“Our average finish drops every year in the playoffs,” he continued. “We run better in the final 10 (races) than we do the rest of the season. It’s just a matter of all the other variables. Does someone below the cutline win and get in and knock us out, or does someone ride the wall and knock us out?
“I’m so tainted that I’m just very nonchalant and like, ‘Let’s just win races and see where this thing ends up.’”
Although he has qualified for the playoffs for seven straight years, 2025 Regular Season Champion William Byron is also looking to land his first NASCAR Cup Series title after finishing third the previous two seasons.
The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet won his second consecutive Daytona 500 in February, added a win at Iowa earlier this month and ultimately wrapped up the regular-season title with one race still remaining.
“I think in our position, we’ve had that conversation of just trying to stack some more points and stack some more race wins,” Byron said. “We’ve been in this position before and feel like we kind of understand the cadence of this first round.
“It’d be really nice just to go out there and win one of these just to take the pressure off and have some forward momentum as well. They are good tracks for us.”
Here’s what’s happening in NASCAR with the Coke Zero 400at Daytona International Speedway in the rearview and Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway up next (6 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron enter tied for the points lead — with just 26 points separating them from the cutoff line. It’s the smallest cushion any top seed has ever possessed in the current playoff format, turning what has historically been a comfortable advantage into barely enough breathing room right from the get-go.
Previous No. 1s entered with cushions ranging from 40 to 57 points; margins that could absorb a mechanical failure or late-race accident in the opening round. Larson and the Regular Season Champion Byron’s predicament reflects a season where excellence found peaks and valleys, competition at the top was spread super thin, and no driver truly separated themselves from the pack for the bulk of the 26-race regular season.
The implications ripple throughout the entire field, too.
Historical data shows the bubble to advance from the Round of 16 typically has been five or fewer points in eight of the past 11 seasons, meaning roughly half the field could realistically flip positions based on a single race’s outcome. When the supposed championship favorites are this vulnerable, everyone below them becomes a legitimate threat.
Alex Bowman, who made the playoffs about as narrowly as one can, exemplifies this volatility. Sitting five points below the cutline in 16th place, he needs to average 24.3 points per race to advance; historically achievable but requiring consistency he hasn’t demonstrated at playoff tracks. His spring performances at Darlington (35th) and Bristol (37th) netted just 20 total points, second-fewest among playoff drivers. Yet Bowman has won poles at the two most recent Bristol races and led significant laps before mechanical failures intervened. The margin between disaster and triumph has never been thinner.
The compression extends beyond individual drivers to entire teams. Hendrick Motorsports, with four playoff entries, could hypothetically see half its roster eliminated in the opening round despite dominant regular-season statistics. Its drivers combined have won seven races this year, yet three of them — Chase Elliott (7th), Byron (2nd) and Larson (1st) — start with smaller point advantages than any top-seven seeds in playoff history.
The tight standings also amplify the importance of track-specific performance. Tyler Reddick enters 14th, one point below the cutline, but has led 317 laps at Darlington in the Next Gen era — third-most of any driver. His spring fourth-place finish demonstrates the speed that could vault him forward at a track that feels tailor-made for him. Conversely, 2023 champion Ryan Blaney’s six-race top-10 streak — including a Daytona win — masks concerning struggles at Darlington, where his 18.8 average finish ranks among his worst at any track.
Historical precedent suggests this compression could also produce dramatic swings.
Chase Briscoe overcame a 21-point deficit in 2024’s opening round, while Joey Logano advanced to win last year’s championship despite earning the 12th seed. With the top seeds this vulnerable, the entire hierarchy becomes fluid.
And the psychological pressure compounds the mathematical reality, as drivers accustomed to points cushions must now toil with elimination urgency from the opening green flag.
Ross Chastain, making his 250th career start at Darlington, sits just one point above the cutline and risks being eliminated in the playoffs’ first round for the first time. Even his proven track record — seventh or better in three of the last four Darlington races — provides little comfort, when a single mistake could end his championship hopes at one of the most volatile tracks on the schedule.
Shane van Gisbergen’s presence adds another variable. The road course specialist’s 16-point cushion looks substantial (relatively speaking) until considering his oval inexperience. His 20th-place spring finish at Darlington, though, represents unknown territory for a driver whose four wins came exclusively on road courses. If the rookie van Gisbergen struggles, as some but not all anticipate, it creates opportunities for drivers currently below the cut.
The 2025 playoffs begin not with the usual collection of safe favorites and desperate long shots, but with 16 drivers genuinely threatened by elimination. When mathematical certainty dissolves, racing’s fundamental truth emerges: on any given Sunday, anyone can win.
And this year, everyone must.
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
2. The Denny Hamlin paradox: Master of Darlington, stranger to championships
The future Hall of Famer dominates Darlington yet struggles to secure a NASCAR title, embodying a career of individual-race brilliance but playoff heartbreak.
Denny Hamlin’s talent level when he’s holding a steering wheel and whipping around Darlington Raceway borders on the supernatural.
The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver owns a pristine 7.9 average finish there, standing as the best in track history among drivers with more than two starts. He’s led laps in 11 consecutive races at the track, a streak spanning five years and rivaling legends like Darrell Waltrip’s 17-race run from the 1970s and ’80s. Hamlin owns five wins at the South Carolina venue, including this past spring, and scored stage points in all but six of the 30 stages attempted.
Yet Sunday night’s Southern 500 serves as the perfect metaphor for Hamlin’s career: complete mastery of individual moments — and persistent failure when championships hang in the balance. At 44 years old, turning 45 in November, he would become the third-oldest champion in NASCAR history if he finally breaks through 10 weeks from now. It’s almost poetically fitting how it starts, though: the track that loves him most opens the playoffs that have consistently rejected him, specifically.
By every measurable standard, Hamlin should dominate the playoffs’ opening round, at least. He arrives Sunday having won the spring Darlington race, finishes of second at Gateway each of the past two years and has recorded four consecutive top-four finishes at Bristol, two of which were wins.
But NASCAR’s elimination format has never played out on logic alone, especially where Hamlin is concerned.
Despite 19 playoff appearances — more than any active driver — he’s reached the Championship 4 just four times and never captured the title that would put the final stamp on his already locked-down Hall of Fame credentials. His playoff history reads like a catalog of near misses: second in points in 2010, an appearance in the debut Championship 4 in 2014 and then three more consistent Championship 4 bids from 2019-2021.
All were opportunities. All came up short.
Darlington rewards patience and punishes desperation — idiosyncrasies that should favor the experienced Hamlin against a field containing two first-time playoff participants and several drivers with poor track records. Shane van Gisbergen finished 20th here in April, his best Cup oval finish. Josh Berry managed just 36th in the spring despite a third-place run in 2024. Alex Bowman, sitting five points below the cutline, scored just three points in his last Darlington start.
The strongest threats to Hamlin come from drivers who, like him, have mastered Darlington’s unique demands. Tyler Reddick — his 23XI Racing employee — has three top-three finishes there in the Next Gen era, more than any other driver, and his 319 laps led at the track represent his highest total anywhere. Chase Briscoe won here last September when facing elimination, proving the track rewards aggressive racing under pressure — if a driver can keep his cool.
William Byron presents the most intriguing challenge. His spring performance, leading the first 243 laps before finishing second, demonstrated both speed and the kind of pit-strategy mistakes that can doom championship campaigns if they happen at the wrong time. Byron has the best average finish (9.14) among active drivers at Darlington in the Next Gen era, but his tendency to excel early and struggle late (both in races and as a season-long trend) mirrors Hamlin’s career-long championship timing issues.
Sunday night, then, will determine whether Darlington rewards its most accomplished master or delivers another cruel lesson about the difference between individual excellence and championship timing.
And whether that’ll be the case for Hamlin the rest of the way, like it historically has been.
The hosts of NASCAR Inside the Race break down what Shane van Gisbergen needs to do to advance out of the Round of 16 in the Cup Series Playoffs.
4. Playoff stalwarts — drivers, teams with most postseason wins
Four of the six winningest organizations and three of the seven winningest drivers in playoff history will be competing for this year’s title as well. Will their past successes portend future postseason gains? (Credit: Racing Insights)
Team
Wins
Driver
Wins
Hendrick Motorsports
60
Jimmie Johnson
29
Joe Gibbs Racing
37
Kevin Harvick
16
Team Penske
32
Joey Logano
15
Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing
24
Denny Hamlin
13
Stewart-Haas Racing
19
Kyle Larson
11
Richard Childress Racing
12
Tony Stewart
11
–
–
Martin Truex Jr.
10
5. Catch the pack — news and notes from around the garage
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series heads to Darlington Raceway on Saturday for the Sober or Slammer 200 (Noon ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) to kick off the seven-race playoffs. Truck Series qualifying will begin at 4:10 p.m. ET on Friday after practice, which starts at 3:05 p.m. ET. Practice and qualifying will both air on FS2.
The NASCAR Cup Series begins the 2025 postseason with a crown jewel in the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Qualifying at the 1.366-miler begins at 10:10 a.m. ET on Friday (truTV, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The NASCAR Xfinity Series treks to the Pacific Northwest for its penultimate regular-season contest in the Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Qualifying will be earlier that day at 4:05 p.m. ET on The CW App.
Saturday’s qualifying session will consist of one round, split into two 20-minute groups. The groups below are determined via a metric that combines the previous race finish by owner (70%) and current owner points position (30%). There will be a 50-minute practice session for all cars beforehand, which will be available on The CW App at 3 p.m. ET.
The ejection of crew chief Rudy Fugle at Daytona International Speedway occurred during NASCAR’s ongoing effort to reduce the rate of prerace inspection failures.
During the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, NASCAR managing director of communications Mike Forde said a team member was spotted pushing down the splitter of William Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet after the car passed prerace inspection. The underbody was re-examined after the unapproved adjustment, and the car’s subsequent failure resulted in Fugle’s ejection from the track.
“We want fans to understand that every car here has been closely scrutinized and is on an even playing field,” Forde said. “So, when you make an adjustment with an official’s back turned, that’s going to be a bigger penalty than just if you fail a body measurement. You very rarely hear of a crew chief getting ejected; probably 90% of the time, it is the car chief. So, when you see the crew chief ejected, that is why. When you do something after inspection’s clear, we ramp it up.”
Byron, who had clinched the regular-season championship before the finale at Daytona, also was hit with a loss of pit selection, starting from the rear and a stop-and-go penalty. Because it was applied entirely at the track (without a fine or points deduction), the penalty could not be appealed, but Forde said there was no pushback from Hendrick Motorsports.
“It was even the opposite,” Forde said, alluding to a discussion between NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer and Hendrick executives. “I think the Hendrick brass themselves were not thrilled with their team on this one because it does draw attention to the Regular Season Champion in a negative way.”
During a meeting with Cup teams in mid-July before the Dover Motor Speedway race, NASCAR announced a new policy in which a prerace inspection failure would relegate a team to the back of the inspection line for the next race. (Prerace inspection order is set through the points standings.)
Forde said NASCAR recorded a 55% failure rate for prerace inspections during the season’s first 20 races. The goal of the policy change was to reduce the inspection failure rate to about 25% because the delays from the failures adversely affect the cadence of the weekend schedule. On race weekends with practice sessions, starting from the rear of the prerace inspection line makes it a larger scramble to prepare the car.
At Watkins Glen International, 38 of 40 cars passed inspection on the first attempt, which Forde said was a Cup series record. The failure rate was about 50% at Daytona, which had no practice sessions.
Other topics covered by Forde and NASCAR senior director of racing communications AmandaEllis during the 30th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— Whether NASCAR would review its policy of crediting relief drivers with a victory after Connor Zilisch turned his No. 88 Chevrolet over to Parker Kligerman in an Xfinity Series win at Daytona.
— How car numbers are assigned by NASCAR.
— The efficacy of the new A-post flaps at Daytona and why they were painted orange.
Click on the embed above to listen or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
Just five races remain in the 2025 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season as the series returns to historic Oswego Speedway in New York for the running of the Toyota Mod Classic 150 this Saturday night (8 p.m. ET on FloRacing).
Saturday’s race marks the Modified Tour’s 18th visit to Oswego, with the first four visits occuring in 1988. Brian Ross captured the first two checkered flags at the track, with Mike McLaughlin and George Kent Jr. capturing the next two at the 0.625-mile oval.
Additional winners at Oswego through the years include Tony Hirschman, Mike Stefanik, Doug Coby, Ryan Preece, Matt Hirschman, Justin Bonsignore, Ron Silk and the most recent winner, Patrick Emerling.
Tickets for Saturday’s Toyota Mod Classic 150 at Oswego Speedway are available here. Below is everything you need to know about the 12th race of the 2025 Modified Tour season.
A rainbow forms over Turn 4 prior to the start of the Toyota Bud Mod Classic 150 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Oswego Speedway on Sept. 3, 2022. (Photo: Bryan Bennett/NASCAR)
Toyota Mod Classic 150 at Oswego Speedway
Entering Saturday’s race at Oswego, the battle for the Modified Tour championship appears to go through 22-year-old Austin Beers.
The driver from Northampton, Pennsylvania holds a 10-point advantage on defending series champion Justin Bonsignore with five races left in the season. Statistically speaking, Beers has been the class of the Modified Tour field throughout the 2025 campaign.
He only has one win this year, but he leads all drivers in top fives, top 10s, average qualifying position, average finish and laps completed. He’s also the only driver to finish on the lead lap in all 11 events held thus far.
Bonsignore’s advantage lies in the experience he and crew chief Ryan Stone have at the remaining venues on the schedule. Oswego is a prime example. Bonsignore has two wins and seven top-five finishes at the track, whereas Beers has only made four starts at the track during his short career.
Could that prove to be the difference at Oswego and the other four venues — Riverhead Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park and Martinsville Speedway — on the schedule? Only time will tell.
If Beers or Bonsignore hope to win Saturday night, either will have to go through defending race winner Patrick Emerling. The driver of the No. 1 Fleetworks Modified isn’t out of the championship battle, either, as he sits 22 points behind Beers. A strong performance Saturday will be vital if he hopes to make up pivotal points going into the stretch run.
Ron Silk, who won the 2023 event at Oswego Speedway, returns to the Modified Tour in pursuit of his third victory this season. The Catalano clan will field cars for brothers Tommy, Trevor and Tyler during Saturday’s event.
One driver, Andy Lewis Jr., will make his Modified Tour debut Saturday night. Lewis will pilot John-Michael Shenette’s No. 8 during the Toyota Mod Classic 150. Other notable entries include Matt Hirschman, Mike Christopher Jr., Stephen Kopcik, Jake Lutz and Kyle Bonsignore.
The full entry list for Saturday’s Toyota Mod Classic 150 is available here.
Patrick Emerling (1), Justin Bonsignore (51) and Matt Hirschman (60) battle for position last season at Oswego Speedway. (Photo: Bryan Bennett/NASCAR)
SCHEDULE: Saturday, Aug. 30; Practice from 3 – 3:30 p.m. ET … Final practice from 4 – 4:30 p.m. ET … Qualifying at 5:30 p.m. ET … Start of the Toyota Mod Classic 150 at 8 p.m. ET.
QUALIFYING: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the Toyota Mod Classic 150 is limited to 28 starters including Provisional Positions.
TIRE ALLOTMENT: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is eleven (11) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. Maximum of nine (9) tires may be used for the race, not including Emergency Change Tires. Teams will declare to NASCAR Officials at the conclusion of practice the tires they will use during the race. The tire change rule is two (2) tires per stop.
Entering Saturday’s race at Oswego, the battle for the Modified Tour championship appears to go through 22-year-old Austin Beers.
