Posted on by Zack Albert

Greg Biffle, one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers who became known in his later years for his humanitarian work, died along with three family members in a plane crash Thursday. He was 55.

Officials said seven people died in the crash, and the families of those involved confirmed Biffle was a passenger on a Cessna Citation business jet that crashed while attempting to land at Statesville (N.C.) Regional Airport at around 10:15 a.m. ET.

Biffle’s wife Cristina, son Ryder and daughter Emma also died in the crash. Others on board were Dennis Dutton and his son, Jack, and Craig Wadsworth.

The families of those involved released a statement Thursday afternoon:

“We are devastated by the loss of our loved ones. This tragedy has left all of our families heartbroken beyond words.

Greg and Cristina were devoted parents and active philanthropists whose lives were centered around their young son Ryder and Greg’s daughter Emma (mother – Nicole Lunders).

Emma was a wonderful human being with a kind soul who was loved by many people. Ryder was an active, curious and infinitely joyful child.

Dennis Dutton and his son Jack were deeply loved as well, and their loss is felt by all who knew them.

Craig Wadsworth was beloved by many in the NASCAR community and will be missed by those who knew him.

Each of them meant everything to us, and their absence leaves an immeasurable void in our lives.

We ask for privacy, compassion and understanding as we grieve and begin to process this unimaginable loss. We are grateful for the kindness and support that has been extended to our families during this incredibly difficult time. At this moment, our focus is on honoring their lives and supporting one another.”

NASCAR released the following statement Thursday afternoon:

“NASCAR is devastated by the tragic loss of Greg Biffle, his wife Cristina, daughter Emma, son Ryder, Craig Wadsworth and Dennis and Jack Dutton in a fatal plane crash.

Greg was more than a champion driver, he was a beloved member of the NASCAR community, a fierce competitor, and a friend to so many. His passion for racing, his integrity, and his commitment to fans and fellow competitors alike made a lasting impact on the sport.

On the track, Greg’s talent and tenacity earned him championships in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, as well as numerous wins and accolades in the NASCAR Cup Series. Beyond his racing career, he gave of himself for the betterment of our community. Most notably, Greg spent countless hours of his time helping the citizens of North Carolina during the disasters that followed Hurricane Helene. His tireless work saved lives.

Our thoughts and deepest condolences go out to Greg’s entire family, friends, and all who were touched by his life.”

biffle celebrates in victory lane
John Harrelson | Getty Images

The NTSB provided updates Friday afternoon, with board member Michael Graham saying that a preliminary report into the crash was expected within 30 days with a full investigation expected to last 12-18 months before a full report is produced. Graham indicated that officials had recovered the plan’s cockpit voice recorder, which he said was on its way to Washington, D.C., for analysis.

Graham said that the plane, which was manufactured in 1981, was in flight for approximately 10 minutes before it crashed short of the runway, and that investigators were still looking into why the plane turned around nearly five minutes after takeoff. Graham also said that at this time, the NTSB was unable to verify who was flying the aircraft, and that three occupants possessed pilot’s licenses.

In an NTSB update Saturday, investigators confirmed a passenger aboard the Cessna Citation sent a single text message reading “emergency landing” to a family member, with no other communications or mayday calls reported from the aircraft.

Investigators noted “strong indications” but cannot yet confirm who occupied the left seat (pilot position). Full details are expected in the preliminary report.

Additionally, witnesses and video footage indicate the jet was stable and configured for landing with lights on, but flew unusually low, striking a runway lighting stanchion 1,800 feet from the runway. Weather at the time included 5 miles of visibility under visual flight rules and heavy drizzle, though its role remains under review.

Biffle won 19 races in a 15-year Cup Series career that spanned 515 starts, nearly all for car owner Jack Roush. In his climb up the NASCAR ladder, he became champion in both the Xfinity Series (2002) and the Craftsman Truck Series (2000).

Biffle was added to the list of nominees for induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2024. That same year, he was recognized with the NMPA Myers Brothers Award for outstanding contributions to the sport of stock-car racing for providing aid to Western North Carolina mountain communities in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

Biffle hailed from Vancouver, Washington. He first drew Roush’s attention after his success in the annual offseason “Winter Heat” series of late model races in Tucson, Arizona, with Hall of Famer Benny Parsons urging him to take note. “Six months ago, I didn’t know who Greg Biffle was. Benny Parsons kept telling me I should look at him,” Roush told The Oregonian in January 1998. “We have been friends a long time, and I have learned to respect what Benny has to say.”

Impressed with his work ethic after a test, Roush tapped Biffle for his first Craftsman Truck Series season in 1998, and he was a leading candidate for Rookie of the Year honors. “That would be nice, but I’m not focused on that,” Biffle told The Oregonian, nodding toward the award that would eventually come to fruition. “I have my eyes on something bigger.”

He won nine races in his second season, placing second in the series standings, then converted a consistent five-win season into the Truck Series title in 2000. He won 17 races in the Truck Series, including a final victory in a Kyle Busch Motorsports entry in 2019 at age 49.

His winning ways continued with a 2001 move to the Busch (now Xfinity) Series, and he was crowned champion the following year. Biffle won 20 times on that circuit, setting his course to the Cup Series in 2003 with a newly expanded Roush Racing organization. “Greg Biffle is a young man in a hurry,” Roush said before his rookie campaign in NASCAR’s big leagues, setting a goal of a win and a pole for his incoming driver.

Biffle broke through with a triumph at Daytona International Speedway as a rookie, holding off teammate Jeff Burton in the summertime 400-miler. He won at least one race in each of his first six Cup Series seasons, finishing a career-best second in the standings after a five-win year in 2005.

Biffle and Roush parted ways after the No. 16 Ford team’s 2016 campaign, with the veteran driver expressing his appreciation for “an incredible run” together. “For a kid that grew up in Washington, I’m extremely proud of everything we have been able to accomplish over the last 19 years — both on and off the track,” Biffle said. “I’ve enjoyed every minute.”

The veteran driver competed on a part-time basis in recent years, making five Cup Series starts for the NY Racing organization in 2022. Just this past season, Biffle returned to the ARCA Menards Series West for a pair of races in the Pacific Northwest, scoring top-five finishes in each.

Biffle was named to NASCAR’s list of 75 Greatest Drivers during the sport’s diamond anniversary season in 2023. The honor came at Darlington Raceway, where Biffle notched two of his biggest Cup Series victories in back-to-back years (2005, ’06) in the Southern 500.

Biffle’s name, however, became more prominent after Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic flooding and damage across the Southeastern U.S. in late September 2024

Biffle took a leadership role in the efforts to bring relief to Western North Carolina, running helicopter rescue routes into ravaged and remote mountain communities. His social-media posts from his bird’s-eye vantage point shed light on the destruction, and he used his platform as a NASCAR star to amplify the need for help.

“There’s communities over there that we discovered that are just devastated,” Biffle told NASCAR.com, nearly a week after the storm. “The reason why I’m still going is people are still in need, and I don’t want to leave a soldier behind. That’s why I’m still at it.”

Posted on by Nate Ryan

For Greg Biffle, the incessant dedication to his work was all play.

That’s what possessed a future champion and NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee to start a chassis shop as a teenager – four years before he even raced a Late Model, much less won a race.

“I thought, ‘If I can build race cars all day and not have to work, I’m going to be in heaven,’” he said. “So that’s what I did.”

Biffle’s vision of heaven was a workaholic’s dream.

For the better part of a decade, he toiled nonstop straight out of high school – starting as a fabricator, working six-day, 60-hour weeks at a pipe welding company. After socking away $20,000, he switched to a job at his parents’ steel company and slightly reduced his working hours.

But he never took a day off from racing.

Biffle slept four hours a night while spending five months (and a large chunk of his savings) on a Street Stock whose gorgeous precision handiwork caught everyone’s eye in its debut among a 70-car field at Portland Speedway in Oregon.

“People said, ‘Who the hell are you and where’d you get this car?’” Biffle recalled. “I said, ‘I built it.’ It wasn’t a big deal to me, but suddenly, everyone wanted me to build them cars. You didn’t have to tell me that twice. So I took all my money and started building race cars.”

After his death Thursday at 55 in a plane crash, Biffle, the only driver ever to win NASCAR Truck and Xfinity championships and finish second in the Cup Series, was memorialized in many ways.

He was prodigiously talented with a loose race car, outdueling the best of his generation by racing on the absolute limit. He was a selfless teammate and doting father. He had a remarkable second act as a renowned humanitarian and philanthropist who made national headlines by flying countless helicopter sorties to western North Carolina regions ravaged by Hurricane Helene (and his foundation also had rescued thousands of dogs long before that).

“Thanks for the hospitality today Pensacola, NC! Felt good to see the progress over the last 8 months since the devastation of Hurricane Helene – there’s still so much to do but love seeing all the new bridges and roads” — @GBiffle on X

All of the accomplishments were rooted in the simple tenet that his hard work could overcome any obstacles.

MORE: Biffle finds purpose in guiding Hurricane Helene relief efforts

“I’m kind of a self-made guy,” he once said. “I like to do things on my own.”

Biffle will be remembered as one of the last of the true blue-collar racers in NASCAR.

It’s a line of stars perhaps best embodied by homebuilder-turned-driver Harry Gant, another late bloomer who once won a Cup race on a Sunday and celebrated by constructing an addition on his garage Monday.

The same sense of purpose drove Biffle, who would think nothing of tinkering with a home improvement project the day after taking a checkered flag.

“Some people call me the last driver’s driver,” Biffle told USA TODAY Sports in 2006. “I’ve heard that. The David Pearsons, the Dale Earnhardts. That’s how all these Cup drivers got here, like Sterling Marlin, Ricky Rudd and whoever. I came up like a normal driver. I do take a lot of pride in that, but I wouldn’t have minded getting (to the Cup Series) at 20, either.”

Generational and societal shifts have erased the path to Cup that was taken by Biffle, who started his racing career as an adult and caught a big break in his mid-20s.

The racing phenoms of the 21st century are in go-karts by 5 years old. A superstar emerging from obscurity in post-adolescence now would be considered a remarkable story.

But such a narrative still would have a hard time topping the force of will and self-determination in Biffle, whose early life was singularly guided by a manifest destiny in motorsports.

At 19, he started J&S Racing (named after his parents, Jack and Sally Biffle) with longtime friend Rodger Ueltschi. Their chassis business made good money – generating a few dozen cars and more than $150,000 annually during the mid-1990s – but Biffle plowed it all back into his Late Model while living in a double-wide trailer in Vancouver, Washington, and driving a battered old Ford pickup truck.

He and Ueltschi worked weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on their chassis shop’s customer cars. Then they’d wrench on Biffle’s race car until midnight.

Their weekends were spent racing at two tracks four hours apart — Friday at Portland Speedway and Saturday at Tri-City Raceway. They’d arrive home from Portland at 1 a.m., wake up at 6 a.m. Saturday morning to work on the race car until noon, drive to Tri City and return at 5 a.m. Sunday. They were up by 11 a.m. to repair customer cars.

Sleep deprivation had little effect on Biffle, who once won 57 of 60 races at Tri-City and 30 of 37 at Portland.

“There were some nights we didn’t have enough gas to get back and forth to Tri-City,” Ueltschi once said. “But it paid $800 to win, and that would get us home.”

Yet it still wasn’t enough to fund Biffle’s long-term career aspirations. With J&S Racing serving as his car’s sponsor and parts supplier, he searched for other revenue streams.

A friend convinced him to chip in $50,000 and partner on a revamped bar and grill that specialized in microbrews. It meant shouldering a half-million in debt, but there was enough growth potential to provide a touring series budget for Biffle.

“It made business sense and sounded fun,” he said.

But six months to the day after Biffle became a quasi-restaurateur, he received a cold call from Geoff Smith on the recommendation of 1973 champion and analyst Benny Parsons, who raved about watching Biffle dominate a 1997 winter series in Tucson, Arizona.

Roush Racing was offering a golden opportunity in NASCAR virtually sight-unseen.

Ever the “Prove It” guy, Biffle hung up on Smith, looked up the Roush Racing president’s phone number and then called him back to verify authenticity.

NASCAR Research & Archives Center

That started a nearly three-decade career with Roush and ended his time as a driver-owner-sponsor whose entrepreneurial spirit and boundless work ethic were well-suited for grassroots racing but had limited prospects for high-dollar advancement.

“The more money I could make, the more racing I could do,” Biffle said. “I was supporting my habit. It was easier to work hard and make money than it was to put on a polo shirt and knock on doors to solicit money from (sponsors) because I didn’t know how. I had no marketing background. I can tell you how to put a motor in a car, but I couldn’t put a presentation together to save my life.

“And I have a hard time bullshitting people. I couldn’t do that part of the business.”

As noted in the endless tributes after Thursday’s tragedy, Biffle’s complete lack of pretense was adored by fans, media and his peers.

In the no-nonsense style of someone who had spent a lifetime in manual labor with tight deadlines, he was one of NASCAR’s most unvarnished straight shooters and often was candid to a fault.

After his fourth and final win at Michigan International Speedway in 2013, Biffle apologized for a radio transmission in which he celebrated a crash by Jimmie Johnson (who was trying to catch the leader).

During a late 2000s interview in his No. 16 hauler with longtime racing journalist Brant James, Biffle was grumbling about his Ford’s lack of performance and his frustration with contract extension negotiations. Team owner Jack Roush entered the lounge mid-interview, but Biffle never stopped airing his grievances during the stream of consciousness.

“He is very transparent in a positive way,” Smith once said of Biffle’s blunt manner. “If something’s not working right, he talks about it.”

Well, naturally, he would.

Because working is ultimately what mattered most to Greg Biffle.

Posted on by Staff Report

RFK Racing announced Friday afternoon that Brad Keselowski underwent successful surgery after suffering a broken leg during a ski trip on Thursday with his family.

The news came from the RFK Racing team that he co-owns and drives for in the NASCAR Cup Series. The organization indicated the 41-year-old veteran aims to be ready in time for the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 15 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Keselowski’s season in review | 2026 schedule

“I’m grateful for the medical team who took great care of me and for the support system around me,” Keselowski said in a statement. “My attention now is fully on recovery. I’m motivated to get back to full strength as quickly as possible and will work relentlessly to be ready for Daytona.”

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Life has a way of reminding you to slow down. Grateful for my family by my side, an excellent medical team, and the ability to take a few steps forward today. Focused on Daytona. Bonus – I&#39;m now bionic! <a href=”https://t.co/AZD2ejHGgc”>pic.twitter.com/AZD2ejHGgc</a></p>&mdash; Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) <a href=”https://twitter.com/keselowski/status/2002134049801056703?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 19, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

Keselowski, the 2012 Cup Series champion, finished 20th in last season’s Cup Series standings with six top-five finishes that included three runner-up efforts. He enters the 2026 season seven starts shy of 600 for his Cup Series career.

Keselowski became part-owner of the organization founded by Jack Roush in the summer of 2021, and the team relaunched as RFK Racing for the next season. RFK expanded to a three-car operation last season, with Ryan Preece joining the group as a new teammate to Keselowski and Chris Buescher.

Posted on by Staff Report

Emotions and tributes from the motorsports community poured in after the news that NASCAR veteran Greg Biffle and his family were among the seven on board in a fatal plane crash Thursday in Statesville, North Carolina.

RELATED: Greg Biffle, 1969-2025 | All of Biffle’s Cup Series wins

Biffle’s influence spanned his successful racing career, which included 56 victories in NASCAR’s three national series and his addition to the list of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers. But his impact extended beyond the motorsports world with his lifesaving efforts to bring relief to Western North Carolina after the devastation left by Hurricane Helene in September 2024.

Here is a selection of the tributes and remembrances of Greg Biffle, from the motorsports world and beyond.

Posted on by Jerry Bonkowski

Editor’s note: This is the 24th in a series in which we review the top 30 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in reverse order of the 2025 final standings.

Driver: Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
Crew chief: Paul Wolfe
Final 2025 ranking: 7th
Key stats: 1 win, 7 top fives, 13 top 10s, 2 poles, 577 laps led

How 2025 ended: After winning two of the three previous NASCAR Cup Series championships (2022 and 2024), Logano had an uncharacteristic off-year in 2025, finishing seventh. However, he came on strong during the 10-race playoffs, with four top fives and two other top-10 finishes, advancing to the third-round semifinals before he was eliminated in the Championship 4 season finale. Even though he finished a respectable seventh, statistically it was his overall worst-performing season with the fewest wins (tie), top fives (tie) and top 10s (tie) since 2012.

Best race: Logano had two best races in 2025. There was his lone win of the season with the playoff qualifying victory in the spring race at Texas Motor Speedway, where he led just seven laps to take the checkered flag. But from a dominating standpoint, his fourth-place finish in the Loudon playoff race was his best overall performance, starting from the pole and leading a season-high 147 laps before trailing off in the closing laps.

RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Joey Logano driver page

Other season highlights: Logano finished the year with a fourth-place finish in the season-ending race at Phoenix Raceway, but it unfortunately was too little, too late, as he had been eliminated from potentially earning the fourth Cup championship of his career a week earlier at Martinsville Speedway. … Logano ended with a top-10 finish for the ninth time in the past 11 seasons.

Stat to know: Track position was arguably Logano’s biggest problem in 2025. He failed to lead even one lap in 19 of the season’s 36 points-paying races, including a 15-race stretch from the spring race at Charlotte to the playoff opener at Darlington, where he failed to lead a lap in 11 of those events.

Quotable:  Two quotes pretty much summed up how 2025 turned out. After he was eliminated from advancing to the Championship 4 at Martinsville, Logano said, “We didn’t deserve it.” And when asked about weaknesses and deficiencies of the overall season, particularly inconsistency and failure to execute when he needed to, Logano admitted, “We just weren’t good enough.”

Looking ahead: When it comes to bouncing back from disappointing seasons, history has been on Logano’s side, particularly with winning championships the following season. After finishing 17th and not making the playoffs in 2017, he roared back to win his first Cup crown the following year. Then, after finishing eighth in 2021, he won his second championship in 2022. And when he dipped down to a 12th-place finish in 2023 (when teammate Ryan Blaney earned his first Cup championship), Logano scored his third Cup title in 2024. So if history once again repeats itself, he should be in contention to win his fourth Cup title in 2026.

Posted on by Staff Report

Legacy Motor Club announced Thursday that seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will race in the season-opening Daytona 500, driving the No. 84 Carvana Toyota in the 2026 “Great American Race.”

The organization revealed the design of the owner/driver’s entry on Thursday morning, highlighting the fifth year of Johnson’s partnership with Carvana with halo accents and neon details in the paint scheme. He’ll attempt to make the field as an open, non-chartered entry in a bid for his 23rd Daytona 500 start on Feb. 15, 2026 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, HBO Max).

RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Silly Season’s key players

“Carvana has been an incredible partner, and every season we’ve found new ways to celebrate what makes racing so special,” Johnson said in a release provided by the team. “This year’s scheme is sharp, it’s fresh, and I can’t wait for fans to see it on the track in Daytona.”

Johnson, 50, is now scheduled for two part-time starts next year, with the potential for more. He previously announced his intentions to enter the inaugural Cup Series race in San Diego on June 21 at Naval Base Coronado, competing just a half-hour’s drive from his hometown of El Cajon, California.

Johnson has raced a partial Cup Series schedule the last three seasons. He retired from full-time competition after the 2020 season, amassing a record-tying seven titles and 83 victories — figures that earned him a landslide election to the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.

Johnson sits at exactly 700 Cup Series starts, reaching that milestone in last year’s Coca-Cola 600. His only other appearance on the Cup grid last season came in the Daytona 500, where he collected a respectable third-place finish.

MORE: Most all-time Cup Series starts

Johnson is a two-time winner of the “Great American Race,” prevailing for the first time in 2006 as a springboard to his first Cup Series championship. His second 500 victory came in 2013, a year in which he made a season sweep of Cup events at Daytona International Speedway.

Posted on by Holly Cain

Editor’s note: This is the 23rd in a series in which we review the top 30 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in reverse order of the 2025 final standings.

Driver: Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Crew chief: Alan Gustafson
Final 2025 ranking: 8th
Key stats: 2 wins, 11 top fives, 19 top 10s, 454 laps led

How 2025 ended: Elliott qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the ninth time in his 10-year career, winning the Kansas Speedway postseason race in the Round of 12 and earning six top-10 finishes during the 10-race playoff stretch. Elliott was eliminated from a shot at his second championship, finishing third at Martinsville Speedway in the Round of 8 finale behind his Hendrick teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson, who both advanced to the championship bout. A 10th-place finish in the Phoenix Raceway finale placed Elliott eighth in the championship final standings.

Best race: A last-lap pass at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) in June thrilled a sold-out crowd and earned Elliott his second career Cup Series victory at his “home” track. Although it was a dramatic last-lap pass that earned the trophy at Atlanta, Elliott led 41 laps on the day at the 1.5-miler and snapped a 44-race winless streak.

RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Chase Elliott driver page

Other season highlights: The 2025 season marked the first time Elliott won multiple races since 2022. However, his best race statistically came in a sixth-place finish after leading 238 of 407 laps at Dover Motor Speedway.  His six-race top-10 showing in the 10-race playoff stretch was certainly a sign that the No. 9 team was prepared for a real fight for the championship. Three times Elliott strung together three consecutive top-10 runs, including an impressive stretch in the playoffs at three vastly different venues; he scored fifth at the one-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway, tallied a win at the Kansas 1.5-miler and landed eighth at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.

Stat to know: Remarkably, Elliott’s final season statistics beyond the two wins — his 11 top fives and 19 top-10 finishes — exactly match his 2024 output. His 454 laps led were his most out front since 2022. His 12.6 average finish was impressive, considering his 16.1 average start was the second-lowest of his career (17.3 in 2023).

Quotable: “The way I’ve kind of progressed through the playoffs this year is just to fight as hard as I can each week, try to earn myself and our team three more weeks, and you never know what can happen in three weeks. … That can be the difference in somebody being mediocre to potentially getting on a hot streak or even a team collectively getting better throughout that course of time.” — Elliott said of his 2025 playoff strategy.

Looking ahead: The good news for Elliott is that his Hendrick Motorsports organization earned its series-record 15th Cup Series championship. The tough news is that it wasn’t Elliott but his teammate, Larson, hoisting the trophy this season. A multi-time winner for the sixth time in his career and first time in three years, Elliott and Alan Gustafson, his longtime crew chief, finished the year feeling optimistic about their progress. Elliott led the most laps since 2022 and advanced to the Round of 8, all positive progress for a former series champion who enters every year expecting to claim another trophy and showing up on the grid with all the resources to do so.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR Cup Series rookie Connor Zilisch is set to compete in IMSA’s Rolex 24 next month, officially joining the Action Express Racing group for the 2026 season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

Zilisch will make his third consecutive start in the twice-around-the-clock endurance classic, but his first in the premier GTP class. He’ll drive the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R as a teammate to Earl Bamber, Jack Aitken and Frederik Vesti on Jan. 24-25, 2026.

RELATED: 2026 Rolex 24 entry list | Zilisch, Allmendinger test at Daytona

“I’m excited to be with Action Express Racing for the Rolex 24 at Daytona,” Zilisch said. “The Rolex 24 is one of my favorite races, and I’m thrilled to be with one of the best teams in the IMSA paddock. I’m very thankful to everyone at GM and Cadillac Racing for their help in making this happen. This is such a cool opportunity. We had a solid test in November at Daytona. I really enjoyed working with all the guys on the Whelen team and can’t wait to get back there for the race.”

Zilisch will move to the Cup Series next season as a Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate for Trackhouse Racing in the No. 88 Chevrolet. The 19-year-old driver’s rise to NASCAR’s top division comes after a sensational campaign with JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, where he won a tour-best 10 races and placed second in the final standings.

Zilisch’s Rolex 24 debut as a 17-year-old standout was a winning one, co-driving an Era Motorsport entry to victory in 2024 in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class. Last year’s effort came in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class, driving the Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R with current NASCAR teammate Shane van Gisbergen, IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin and veteran sports-car racer Ben Keating.

“The first time I came to Daytona racing was in (Mazda) MX-5 Cup, and I’ve loved it ever since,” Zilisch said, “and just being able to race in the 24 hours is something that I dreamed of as a kid, and that’s why I always come back and keep doing it. And, you know, it’s my third time doing it and my third different car that I’ve done it in. I’m just excited for the opportunity to even be here today and get this chance to test the car. It’s been such a dream of mine to get to drive in the highest class of IMSA, and doing that today has been really cool.”

MORE: 2026 IMSA schedule

The Action Express team — managed by veteran racing executive Gary Nelson — was a winner its last time out, claiming victory in the Motul Petit Le Mans 10-hour season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta last October. The organization finished second in last year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for GTP cars and is a seven-time champion in the Michelin North American Endurance Cup.

Cadillac will have a three-car lineup for the 2026 schedule, with two entries from Wayne Taylor Racing and one from Action Express.

This year’s Rolex 24 is slated for a full grid of 61 cars racing in three classes. On-track preparations for the 24-hour race begin Jan. 16-18 with the Roar before the Rolex 24 event on the 3.56-mile Daytona course.

Posted on by Press Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR Studios today announced “Kid Racers,” an original feature-length documentary capturing one of the most raw, electric, and little-known corners of American motorsports. The film debuts Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 7 p.m. ET, airing live and exclusively on The NASCAR Channel.

Filmed at the legendary Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, North Carolina, “Kid Racers” follows five families and their fearless 8-and 9-year-old racers as they chase dreams on a red-clay track that has become a proving ground for NASCAR’s next generation. These kids, fresh out of car seats and already piloting winged Outlaw karts at 45–55 miles per hour, go head-to-head with the children of NASCAR greats, including Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson and Clint Bowyer. At Millbridge, the message is universal: “If you can win here, you can win anywhere.”

“‘Kid Racers’ shines a light on one of the most authentic and emotionally charged corners of our sport, where passion is born, families rally together, and the next generation of NASCAR talent takes shape,” said John Dahl, NASCAR senior vice president of content. “This documentary captures the heart of our sport, and we’re proud to debut it on The NASCAR Channel.”

The film spotlights five unforgettable young competitors:

• Tanner Tucker, the fierce 2022 season champion carrying his father’s unfinished NASCAR dream.
• Giselle Hicks, a fourth-generation racer learning to rise above doubt in a male-dominated class.
• Jackson Darnell, the analytical “nicest guy on the track,” with the instincts of a future broadcaster.
• Gabe Yacono, the track’s beloved sportsman, racing for the joy and community it brings.
• Chase DeMarco, a multi-talented racer and diehard fan overcoming late-season setbacks.

“Kid Racers” is directed by Cynthia Hill, the Peabody Award–winning and Emmy-nominated filmmaker known for several documentary projects including: “A chef’s Life,” “Burden of Proof,” “Road to Raceday”, and “What happened, Brittany Murphy?” It is executive produced by Tim Clark, John Dahl and Tally Hair from NASCAR Studios, and produced by Sandra Davidson.

The NASCAR Channel is NASCAR’s free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) network. It offers 24/7 programming with no subscription required and is available on The Roku Channel, Xumo Play, Tubi, Samsung TV Plus and Prime Video.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Editor’s note: This is the 22nd in a series in which we review the top 30 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in reverse order of the 2025 final standings.

Driver: Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
Crew Chief: Billy Scott
Final 2025 Ranking: 9th
Key Stats: 0 wins, 7 top fives, 14 top 10s, 169 laps led

How 2025 ended: The 2024 Regular Season Champion netted five finishes of 11th or better in the final six races of 2025, leading the No. 45 group toward a better conclusion of a shaky season. Much of Reddick’s focus shifted away from racing through the final month of the season as off-track priorities — namely the health of his newborn son, Rookie — took precedence over anything on the track. Nonetheless, with his son now in better health, Reddick returned to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the fifth consecutive season and finished the year inside the top 10 in the final standings for the third consecutive season.

Best race: Reddick was twice a runner-up in 2025, placing second both in the season-opening Daytona 500 as well as the playoff-opening Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Of the two races, Darlington was where Reddick shone most, consistently pressuring eventual race winner Chase Briscoe for the crown-jewel victory before settling for the second spot. Reddick’s evasive maneuvers led him through a last-lap crash at Daytona in February, narrowly avoiding a spinning Denny Hamlin and giving chase to William Byron, who prevailed in the “Great American Race” for the second straight year.

RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Tyler Reddick driver page

Other season highlights: Reddick had a front-row seat to an electric finish at Circuit of The Americas, where he won the pole and finished third after a fierce battle between Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell and William Byron resulted in a win for Bell. The No. 45 car was also up front for 42 laps in the spring race at Darlington, leading to a fourth-place finish. A three-race stretch through the summer produced consecutive top-six finishes for Reddick at EchoPark Speedway (fourth), the Chicago Street Course (third) and Sonoma Raceway (sixth).

Stat to know: Reddick’s average finish of 14.5 was tied for seventh-best with William Byron in 2025, proving the No. 45 was firmly in the mix all season. However, Reddick’s other stats took a notable step back in 2025, going winless and posting his fewest top fives, poles and laps led since 2021 and his fewest top 10s since 2022.

Quotable: “My focus was not on racing at all, but I felt like we were still able to go out and perform well. I was able to, in a very condensed way, look back at my notes, do sim. Only a couple times through the process was I able to do some preparation, which, again, wasn’t a high priority. Things just fell in the right place, where I was able to still go race. But, yeah, I mean, in a lot of ways, it’s hard to say how it affected my performance because racing was the last thing on my mind for a long period of time.” – Reddick on racing through his son Rookie’s health concerns.

Looking ahead: Although the No. 45 team statistically regressed in 2025, there’s plenty of reason to believe Reddick will be back to winning form in 2026. Six of his seven top fives in 2025 came on different styles of tracks, collecting multiple top fives at Darlington while also placing there at a traditional superspeedway (Daytona), a 1.5-mile superspeedway (EchoPark), street course (Chicago), road course (COTA) and intermediate (Las Vegas). This year marked Reddick’s first winless season since 2021, but the No. 45 team showed impressive resolve under unusual circumstances, particularly late in the season. Expect Reddick to contend for a deep playoff run again in 2026.