Bell details apology to No. 38 team after Indy incident: ‘I wanted to take accountability to them’

Posted on August 2, 2025August 2, 2025 by Cameron Richardson

NEWTON, Iowa — Christopher Bell addressed his contact with Zane Smith in overtime of last Sunday’s Brickyard 400 that sent the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford crashing into the wall.

The incident came to light as replays showed the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota hit the backend of Smith’s car and turn him to the right, initially indicating a right-rear hook down the backstretch of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. However, there was no prior run-in between the two drivers and immediately after the race ended, Bell walked over and issued apologies to every member of the No. 38 team.

“It was really bad,” Bell said Saturday at Iowa Speedway. “That was a really, really bad mistake on my part. I made my mind up literally the second after I said, ‘I have to go apologize to everyone.’ I walked by their pit box, saw their pit-crew guys — they were tearing down the pit box, I apologized to them. Then wandered over to the hauler. Tried to find Zane, he wasn’t around, but was able to talk to the crew guys. Even ran into the crew chief [Ryan Bergenty] on the way there. I felt really bad about it. It was obviously a great run for them and they were doing really good. My mistake took them out.”

The No. 38 team’s front-tire changer, Ryan “Skip” Flores, commended Bell on this week’s “Stacking Pennies” podcast for going up to every team member after Sunday’s race.

“For the first time ever, a driver walked up to all of our pit crew guys and apologized,” co-host Flores said on the podcast. “He went to our truck and apologized to all our road crew guys. That takes balls after you wreck somebody’s stuff to go and stop and say ‘Hey man, I’m sorry.’ It’s one thing to call the driver on Tuesday, but to go face all the guys and do that, that’s really one of the first times I’ve remembered that.”

Bell added that going up to the crew members made him nervous, and he was prepared for any outcome from approaching them.

“I knew I deserved what was coming,” Bell said. “I’m gonna own it. If I want to walk up there and they want to ‘M-F’ me and tell me to get out, I deserve that in that moment. I felt like I owed them the respect. I wanted to take accountability to them, and hopefully — I tried to show them accountability and tell them that it was on me. I didn’t know what I was walking into, but they were pretty busy just trying to get loaded up and doing their thing.”

The sting was felt even more by the No. 38 team as Bell and Smith were fighting for 10th after the first overtime restart.

Bell wound up scoring an eighth-place result, while Smith fell to 31st after going to the garage.

It continued a streak of Smith getting the short end of the stick in late-race incidents at Sonoma Raceway, Dover Motor Speedway and Indianapolis. According to Bergenty, the team lost out on 51 points combined over the last three weeks.

The contact also came just one day after Austin Hill’s right-rear hook of Aric Almirola that resulted in a one-race suspension for Hill. Bell was unsure how the incident would be viewed by NASCAR.

MORE: Hill spins Almirola at Indy | Hill suspended one race

“I honestly didn’t know how it was going to go,” Bell said. “I felt like it probably could go either way. Obviously, it was a mistake and I think the general consensus was the 21 (Hill) deal wasn’t a mistake. It sucks because I did hook him to the right and there’s been plenty of cases where people have done that exact same mistake, but it’s been to the inside. The one that comes to mind is Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott in 2020 at Darlington. Kyle was just trying to squeeze up into a gap and misjudged it exactly like I did, and hooked Chase and his car went left instead of right. That was the exact same thing I did. He turned right and the right turn has been a talking point over the last couple years.”

Over his career, Bell doesn’t have a laundry list of enemies or run-ins that would’ve made the contact with Smith a pattern of behavior that loses him respect in the garage.

Bell understands that on-track ethics vary from driver to driver, but he’ll turn his focus to Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where he will start 17th in the running order.

“Everyone has a different code of racing hard and what’s clean and fair,” Bell said. “But I try and do my best to race as fair as possible. I feel like I’ve demonstrated that to my peers and competitors and industry personnel throughout the years. I hope that whenever people see that, they’re like ‘yeah, he didn’t mean to do that.’ “

Posted on August 2, 2025August 2, 2025 by Reid Spencer

NEWTON, Iowa — Kyle Busch had just posted the second-fastest lap in Group A in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice at Iowa Speedway when calamity struck.

On his 18th circuit of the session, Busch drove hard into Turn 1, but his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet lurched out of control and slammed nose-first into the outside wall.

With the car destroyed, Busch will start Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) from the rear of the field in a backup car.

MORE: Full Iowa Cup lineup | Full projected results

Busch said he was trying to build more security into the rear of the car.

“Anywhere I would push it a little harder, I would feel rear chatter,” Busch said. “I felt really good about the changes that we made there, came out of Turn 4 really hot and heavy and hard on it and went off into Turn 1 with too much trust and chattered the right rear and wrecked it.

“I’m not real sure how to find more trust when you feel something good in one corner, and it’s not there in the next.”

In danger of missing the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the second straight year, Busch almost certainly must win one of the next four races to qualify for the postseason. He’s 81 points below the current elimination line.

Posted on August 2, 2025August 2, 2025 by Reid Spencer

NEWTON, Iowa — Superspeedway, intermediate, road course or short track, Chase Briscoe has shown blistering speed in his first season in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on all sorts of venues.

On Saturday at Iowa Speedway, a 0.875-mile short track, Briscoe won his sixth pole of the season with a 136.933 mph (23.004 seconds) lap to earn the top starting spot in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

RELATED: Qualifying results | At-track photos

That effort followed a pole run last Saturday at the mammoth 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In fact, in the last 11 NASCAR Cup Series qualifying sessions, Briscoe has put his car on the front row seven times with five Busch Light Pole Awards and a pair of second-place starts.

Briscoe, who has eight career poles, attributed his qualifying success to a burgeoning working relationship with crew chief James Small.

“I just feel that James and the engineers on the No.19 crew have done a really, really good job, especially these last two months, of understanding what I want and what I need out of the race car,” Briscoe said.

“I’ve even kind of noticed a switch with James over the course of the last two or three weeks, even, where it went from ‘We’ve got to be doing this different’ to ‘We’ve got to get the car better for you now.’

“I think that came as they started to understand me more, and our performance has been better. James does such a great job of understanding what I need, especially on Saturdays for qualifying.”

Briscoe edged William Byron (136.435 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.084 seconds. Kyle Larson, Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, was third fastest at 136.429 mph.

Byron, Larson and teammate Chase Elliott, who qualified eighth, are locked in a tight battle for the Cup Series Regular Season Championship, with Elliott leading the series by four points over Byron and 15 over third-place Larson.

Austin Cindric (136.358 mph) qualified fourth in the fastest Ford, followed by Brad Keselowski and defending race winner Ryan Blaney.

Carson Hocevar, Elliott, AJ Allmendinger and Justin Haley completed the top 10.

RFK Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece will start 27th and 33rd, respectively, as they battle for a berth in the Cup Series Playoffs. Preece trails Buescher by 42 points in the race for what is currently the final spot.

Briscoe’s machine was the only Camry in the top 10. Denny Hamlin, who scraped the Turn 1 wall during practice, was 11th fastest in the No. 11 JGR Toyota.

Bell tops practice

Three-time 2025 Cup Series winner Christopher Bell topped Saturday’s practice session, sending the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the top of the leaderboard with a 133.980 mph lap.

Brickyard 400 winner Bubba Wallace (133.894 mph), Chase Briscoe (133.781), William Byron (133.752) and Kyle Larson (133.678) rounded out the top five. Tyler Reddick (133.639), Alex Bowman (133.616), Brad Keselowski (133.599), Chase Elliott (133.525) and Denny Hamlin (133.497) completed the top 10.

MORE: Practice results

Kyle Busch, piloting the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, wrecked with 8:45 remaining during the opening 25-minute practice session, losing control entering Turn 1 and hitting the outside wall head-on. Busch completed 17 laps during practice, completing the 17th-fastest lap (133.147 mph) before the incident. The No. 8 team will transition to a backup car, RCR announced on social media.

Posted on August 2, 2025August 2, 2025 by Staff Report

See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers will pit this weekend at Iowa Speedway.

NASCAR Cup Series

Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

NASCAR Xfinity Series

Hy-Vee Perks 250 at Iowa Speedway on Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: How to watch NASCAR on The CW

Posted on August 2, 2025 by Staff Report

Christopher Bell will substitute for Stewart Friesen in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Watkins Glen International, Halmar Friesen Racing announced Saturday.

Friesen, driver of the team’s No. 52 Toyota, was seriously injured during a Super DIRTcar Series modified race Monday at Autodrome Drummond in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada, sustaining a fractured right leg in addition to an open-book pelvis fracture. The 42-year-old underwent successful surgery in a New York hospital Thursday night to address both injuries, his wife Jessica shared in a social media post, as Friesen recovers from the incident.

MORE: Friesen injured in crash | Truck standings

“I want to thank everyone for their outreach and support as I continue to recover,” Friesen said in a team press release. “I know Christopher will give our truck a great run. We will be watching and cheering the team on this Friday.”

Friesen is tentatively locked into the 2025 Truck Series Playoffs thanks to his June win at Michigan International Speedway. The team intends to compete each week moving forward so that it will remain eligible for the Truck Series owners’ championship this season, HFR said in the release. Driver announcements for future races will come at a later time, the team said.

Bell, the 2017 Truck Series champion, is a seven-time winner in truck competition but has made just four combined starts since his title campaign. His most recent appearance in the Truck Series came at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March 2024, when he drove the No. 1 Tricon Garage Toyota to a fifth-place finish.

“I was honored to receive the call to run this truck for Stewart, a fellow dirt racer and Toyota teammate, in Watkins Glen,” Bell said in a statement. “I’ve spent time with the team these past few days and we are working hard to continue the great season Stewart has had and deliver a great finish for him and his partners.”

The Truck Series returns to action at 5 p.m. ET on Friday at Watkins Glen with live coverage on FS1, NRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Posted on August 1, 2025August 1, 2025 by Nate Ryan

The inaugural In-Season Challenge is over. The third of four crown-jewel races is complete. A highly anticipated summer stretch has concluded after showcasing NASCAR’s first exclusively streamed broadcasts and the Cup Series’ first international points since 1958.

Yet four races remain before the playoffs get cranked up with 16 drivers competing for the 2025 championship.

It might be tempting to suggest August is when NASCAR’s premier series enters a natural lull. A quiet period seems inevitable during a 36-race season stretched across 10 months and thousands of miles.

But consider what transpired over the final four races of the regular season last year.

After the Brickyard 400, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace were fiercely jostling for playoff spots. Each spent a significant amount of time above the elimination line in August. But when the dust settled after Darlington Raceway, none of the three was in the playoff field as the final two races of the regular season yielded new 2024 winners in Harrison Burton and Chase Briscoe.

The disruption would have been larger if Austin Dillon’s controversial victory at Richmond Raceway (where he wrecked Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano in the last two turns) had stood as playoff eligible and eliminated another winless driver from title contention.

Dillon’s desperation is a good reminder of the lengths that drivers will go to if a win offers the chance to save a disappointing season. In NASCAR, the dog days of summer tend to turn dog eat dog with playoff berths at stake.

In every year since the Next Gen’s 2022 inception, at least one driver has clinched a playoff spot by winning from below the elimination line in the last four races of the regular season.

And 2025 could present the greatest opportunity yet for upsetting the establishment.

Iowa Speedway and Watkins Glen International — a short track and a road course — are in the four-race push to the playoffs this year in place of Michigan and Darlington — two tracks known for more straightforward results.

As NASCAR on NBC picks up the rest of the schedule starting Sunday at Iowa Speedway, the fresh broadcaster provides a fitting delineation for the Cup season’s final 14 weeks.

Before the 10-race run to determine the champion, here are three things to watch in four pressure-packed races to set the field:

— A deceptively large bubble: Buescher currently is in the final playoff spot by 42 points over Roush Fenway Keselowski teammate Ryan Preece, the biggest gap for a driver on the elimination line this season. But it’s of little comfort to Buescher given the remaining track lineup, which easily could produce a first-time winner from below the line.

Iowa and Richmond are short tracks where underdogs can thrive. Watkins Glen’s winding circuit surely has road-course aces AJ Allmendinger and Michael McDowell salivating (if they can outrun Shane van Gisbergen). And the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway is guaranteed to be a wide-open affair.

There has yet to be a regular season with more than 16 winners, so the points bubble likely will come into play in creating the championship field. But it seems foolish to focus on the elimination line until the final 40 laps at Daytona — where the capricious draft could turn that into a futile exercise anyway.

— Timely breakthroughs: Ty Gibbs and Carson Hocevar have little hope of cracking the playoff field on points, but there also is little doubt that the pair of 22-year-olds eventually will be Cup winners.

Hocevar has been agonizingly close multiple times this year, and Gibbs is even more overdue while also carrying the million-dollar momentum of winning the In-Season Challenge.

It would come as no surprise if either — or both — are locked in a playoff berth with an inaugural win in Cup this month.

— Hendrick high heat: The regular-season championship is worth 15 playoff points and seems destined to be won by Hendrick Motorsports, which has led the standings for 20 consecutive races.

Chase Elliott currently leads by thin margins over teammates William Byron (by four points) and Kyle Larson (by 15 points). Denny Hamlin (despite missing Mexico City) lurks only 20 points behind, marking the tightest separation of the top four through 22 races since 2012.

Much of the focus in August rightfully will be on the elimination line. But the top four’s results over the next four races will determine how 42 playoff points are divvied up, and that could have a pivotal impact on who makes the championship round in Phoenix.

Posted on August 1, 2025August 1, 2025 by Cameron Richardson

On one hand, the Cup Series playoff picture is pretty set in stone.

Playoff Probabilities provided by Racing Insights (entering Iowa)

Chris Buescher holds the 16th and final spot for the postseason by 42 points over RFK Racing teammate Ryan Preece. That’s nearly a race in hand while Tyler Reddick (plus-138) and Alex Bowman (plus-63) are sitting pretty as the current field is.

However, the other hand says the final four races of the regular season could all produce unique winners with just three spots up for grabs.

Preece is an Xfinity Series winner at Iowa. Michael McDowell and AJ Allmendinger will be in the mix of competitors who could win at Watkins Glen. Austin Dillon won at Richmond in controversial fashion, but was on his way to Victory Lane without it becoming encumbered if there wasn’t a caution in the closing laps. The regular-season finale at Daytona can produce a winner from anybody in the field, so while a long shot, there’s a realistic chance for huge surprises before the postseason begins at Darlington.

Let’s take a look at the latest playoff probabilities provided by Racing Insights and which drivers are in a good or compromising spot for Iowa Speedway on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

RELATED: Iowa schedule | Cup Series standings

GREEN FLAG [Who’s in a great spot for Iowa]

Preece (6.33% playoff probability) is coming off a top-five run in the Brickyard 400 and will enter a track he’s won at with plenty of momentum to finally break through for his first Cup triumph. On paper, a 42-point gap to make up wouldn’t be considered a “great spot,” but Iowa is certainly a track that the No. 60 team has circled to perform at its best.

Alex Bowman (74.88% playoff probability) should continue to increase his cushion on Sunday. He’s finished top 10 in four of the last five races and put together an eighth-place run last year at Iowa amid an event where three of the Hendrick cars finished inside the top 10, while Kyle Larson wrecked out early after leading 80 laps and grabbing a stage win.

YELLOW FLAG [Who’s on the fringe for Iowa]

This is going to Tyler Reddick, who should still be considered a playoff lock with a 97.89% probability to make the 16-driver field. The No. 45’s playoff hopes simply come down to no one outside of the bubble stealing a win. Reddick would love to win before the postseason begins, but sitting sixth overall in points is nothing to scoff at. The sour note for Reddick entering Iowa is that smaller tracks are a vulnerable spot for the California native. 23XI Racing did not show great speed in last year’s inaugural event in The Hawkeye State as Reddick finished 22nd and Bubba Wallace tallied a 17th-place result.

RACING INSIGHTS: Full race projections for Iowa

RED FLAG [Who I’m concerned about heading to Iowa]

This spot goes to Buescher simply for where he’s positioned in the playoff picture. It’s the ultimate conundrum for RFK as two of its cars sit 16th and 17th while co-owner Brad Keselowski lurks to possibly knock both out of the top 16. Buescher was also not fast at Iowa last year as he placed 18th.

Posted on August 1, 2025August 1, 2025 by John Crane

While NASCAR is racing in corn country this weekend at Iowa Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway is on deck to host a Field of Dreams-caliber event of its own.

In a matchup where baseball meets motorsports, the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds will clash inside the confines of the “Last Great Colosseum” this Saturday, Aug. 2, in the MLB Speedway Classic presented by BuildSubmarines.com (7:15 p.m. ET, FOX), the first MLB game ever played in the state of Tennessee.

“We love hosting the races that we host, but it’s always fun to showcase our facility in a different light, and we’ve done that with football, and now we’re thrilled to be able to do that with Major League Baseball,” Jerry Caldwell, president of Bristol, told NASCAR.com. “They’ve been great to work with. We’re blessed with a world-class team within Speedway Motorsports and at Bristol Motor Speedway. And then you couple that team with the team that Major League Baseball has assembled, and it’s really putting together something special, and I can’t wait for folks to get here and see it and just be wowed.”

With the event, Bristol continues to expand its non-racing resume. In addition to hosting a National Football League exhibition between Philadelphia and Washington in 1961, the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” laid the gridiron for the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech during the “Battle at Bristol” in 2016, which drew 156,990 spectators, an NCAA football record.

Bristol’s attendance muscle will again be flexed this weekend, with MLB announcing that more than 85,000 tickets have been sold for the event, surpassing the previous record of 84,587 set on Sept. 12, 1954, when Cleveland Stadium hosted the New York Yankees.

Any collaboration of this magnitude requires plenty of planning, and the MLB Speedway Classic is no exception. Soft demolition of several walls and buildings began May 27, with the property being turned over to MLB and associated partners and vendors June 23. Roughly 100-150 workers were involved in the demolition process, while a crew of approximately 400 was responsible for building the baseball infield.

Plenty of material went into the effort, too, including 340 tons of infield clay, 450 wall pads (based on MLB’s London Series build), 17,500 tons of rock, 80,000 square feet of backstop netting, 124,000 square feet of Diamond Series AstroTurf (the same turf type utilized by Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays) and much more. The final product? A Bristol diamond with dimensions spanning from 330 feet down both foul lines to 400 feet dead center.

“It’s kind of dreaming up this concept and saying, what if?” Caldwell said regarding the event, which has been years in the making. “Then we get computer renderings of what it could look like, and then now we’re showing pictures of what it really is like, and you’re seeing all that stuff come together. It’s a great sense of accomplishment and fun for me to see and for our team just because our teams work so hard on it, getting everyone to see this kind of work of art, almost, that they’ve created.”

Photo courtesy of Speedway Motorsports

Baseball players have taken notice, with “Talladega Nights”-inspired catching gear, racing-centric uniforms and simulator attempts all the rage. While NASCAR drivers continue their regular-season push at Iowa, they, too, recognize just how significant an event like this can be in getting more eyeballs on Bristol and NASCAR as a whole.

“A lot of baseball fans are going to go to Bristol and be like, man, this is wild. I can’t imagine they race on the banking and stuff like this. And hopefully, they come back for a race,” Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe said. “And even for the players, I know that I was able to do some stuff with the Reds. And even Elly De La Cruz (Reds’ shortstop), right? He was racing around the track, and he was so intrigued by it. So hopefully, we can get some more of those guys to the race track. I think the more we can do that kind of stuff just helps you know push all this in the right direction.”

“Any time you can introduce yourself and expose yourself to new fans and create new opportunities, great, and I think we’ve done a good job of doing that with a lot of different opportunities, whether (Clash at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum), whether it’s street races, whether it’s going to cities, going to different places, engaging in other sports and engaging with other athletes,” Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell said. “I feel like that’s a big part of just overall growing our brand as a NASCAR brand.”

The MLB Speedway Classic isn’t the only major event on Bristol’s docket. After all, the 0.533-mile short track will host all three of NASCAR’s national series in September, headlined by the Bass Pro Shops Night Race as the Round of 16 elimination race in the Cup Series Playoffs (Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). According to Caldwell, the process to transition the facility back to a race track is already in motion. Approximately 200 crew members from MLB, along with 90-100 from Bristol, will aid in the dismantling process of the baseball field.

MORE: Cup Series schedule

“We’ve got to make sure we’re keeping our eye on the ball, and we can do that,” Caldwell said. “There are lots of major facilities that host huge events weeks apart, and we’re going to be able to do that, but it takes a tremendous amount of planning, a tremendous amount of cooperation, and that’s what we’ve done. … From the partners with Major League Baseball, understanding that we have to get ready for the race, and then partners that we’re going to bring in that are from the construction space that will help us execute as we head towards the playoff race, and we’ll be ready, but it’s really just a tremendous amount of planning and making sure we’re all on the same page.”

At a venue with plenty of history, “Thunder Valley” will have another vaulted chapter written in its annals, and whether as a regular or first-timer, the MLB Speedway Classic will be a wonder under the lights for all in attendance.

Batter up.

“It’s one of those places you have to see to believe it,” Caldwell said about Bristol. “It’s a football stadium or baseball stadium on steroids, if you will. But you really want to get in and just take in the magnitude of the place. Enjoy every aspect of it. Walk around the facility. Make sure you see it from different angles. It’s in a beautiful part of the country, but it’s also just an amazing facility to think that this is built in Bristol, Tennessee, and is one of the largest spectator facilities in the country and in the world.”

Posted on July 31, 2025 by Reid Spencer

It would be difficult to imagine a performance more dominant than the one JR Motorsports driver Connor Zilisch has fashioned over the last nine races since returning from a back injury he sustained at Talladega.

In that span, Zilisch won four races, including the last three in a row. He also finished second three times, along with two more top-five finishes, to post an average finish of 2.1 since Charlotte.

With his win last Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he notched the 100th victory for JR Motorsports. At 19 years, 4 days, he’s now the youngest driver to win three straight races in Xfinity Series history and to reach six career victories in the series, dethroning Joey Logano.

All six of Zilisch’s Xfinity wins have come in his series debuts at the respective tracks, a streak he’ll attempt to maintain in Saturday’s HyVee Perks 250 at Iowa Speedway (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Only two drivers in series history have won four straight races: Sam Ard in 1983 and Noah Gragson in 2022.

Though Zilisch has never raced an Xfinity Series car at Iowa Speedway, two facts argue in his favor: he won last year’s ARCA Menards Series race at the 0.875-mile short track, and Sam Mayer won last year’s race with Zilisch’s current crew chief, Mardy Lindley, calling the shots from Mayer’s pit box.

“I was fortunate enough to win the ARCA race at Iowa last year, so I’m looking forward to using what I learned in that race with a new challenge in the Xfinity car,” Zilisch said. “My crew chief, Mardy Lindley, won the race there with Sam Mayer last year, so I know we’ll have a really good KOA Chevrolet when we get to the track this weekend.

“We’ve been on a roll lately with top-five finishes and trips to Victory Lane, so I’m ready to get to the track and continue that.”

The HyVee Perks 250 is the third of five short-track races on the Xfinity Series schedule this year, but neither of the winners of the first two such races will compete on Saturday.

NASCAR suspended Martinsville winner Austin Hill for one race for intentionally wrecking Aric Almirola last Saturday at Indianapolis, and Bristol winner Kyle Larson is not doing double duty this weekend.

Full-time Cup Series driver Austin Dillon will take Hill’s place in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at Iowa.

With five races left in the Xfinity Series regular season, there are five berths left in the playoffs. Cousins Jeb Burton and Harrison Burton are on opposite sides of the eligibility bubble, with Jeb Burton holding a 10-point edge for the final spot in the playoffs.

Posted on July 31, 2025July 31, 2025 by Dustin Albino

Kaulig Racing announced on Wednesday it was parting ways with driver Josh Williams after more than a year and a half together. Both sides felt it was for the best.

After a 22nd-place finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, discussions began internally about the immediate future of the No. 11 car. Williams is 19th in the regular-season championship standings and needed a Hail Mary to make the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, so there was no sense in delaying the inevitable.

“We had our differences a little bit. I don’t think they were happy, and I wasn’t happy,” Williams told NASCAR.com. “It seemed like it was the best thing to do for both of us that we can all move forward and work towards the future a little bit faster. It worked out for both of us.”

MORE: Xfinity standings | Iowa schedule

Chris Rice, team president for Kaulig Racing, agreed with Williams. The relationship just wasn’t working out for either party.

“Sometimes, chemistry just doesn’t work in marriages, life, anything,” Rice told NASCAR.com on Thursday morning. “When you look at our Xfinity program, there’s a lot of potential there, but we haven’t been putting it to work. Those decisions are tough. When you think about our M.O., we’re all about having fun and trying to win trophies. At the end of the day, it’s not about that — it’s about giving people opportunities to showcase their talent and making sure our stuff is up to par for everybody else.”

Williams earned six top-10 finishes in 54 starts in Kaulig’s flagship No. 11 Chevrolet, with a best effort of sixth in May at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Williams led 14 laps total in those starts.

Kaulig Racing is winless through 21 races in 2025, with Rice considering the season unacceptable. That is on the heels of a 2024 season where Shane van Gisbergen dominated three road-course races in Kaulig equipment and AJ Allmendinger ultimately made the Championship 4 by scoring an upset victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Round of 8.

“We all want to win, but we want to be in contention to win and have a better opportunity to win and run top 10, run top five and we haven’t even come close to that,” Rice added. “We’ve got to figure that out. I think over the next couple of weeks, before we get into the playoffs, we can judge our Xfinity program and see what needs to be changed and what we need to do for 2026.”

Rookie Christian Eckes is the only Kaulig driver to score a top-five finish in 2025, earning three so far this year. He leads Kaulig with eight top-10 finishes, while fellow rookie Daniel Dye has seven top 10s.

Williams wouldn’t go as far as saying he didn’t get a fair shot with Kaulig, but he said, “It wasn’t an ideal situation.”

“The past few years, as a whole organization, the performance wasn’t as good as it was a few years before I even got there,” Williams said. “Teams go through cycles. A lot of times, teams are really good and then they fade off a little bit and go back to being good. We were in that low part. I don’t think it’s anybody’s fault; it’s just the position that we were in.”

Since the news dropped on Wednesday, Williams’ phone hasn’t stopped buzzing. Countless people within the racing industry reached out, making the process easier to reconcile. Rice said the same with the No. 11 car being a key opening leading into the offseason. Currently, he’s unsure if Kaulig will operate two or three full-time Xfinity cars come 2026.

“I’ve had numerous Xfinity teams, numerous truck teams reach out to me,” Williams said. “A lot of team owners, other drivers, people very high up in NASCAR, Hall of Fame drivers — I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me today and they are all on my side and everyone is behind me.”

With a host of people checking in on Williams, he feels satisfied despite the circumstances. Every colleague working directly on the No. 11 Chevrolet reached out to him, aside from crew chief Eddie Pardue, Williams added.

“It goes to show you what type of person that I am,” he said. “I can’t walk down pit road without being late to the car because I’ve got to stop and talk to 100 people on the way. Everyone respects me and knows who I am as a person and how I treat people.

“I never burn a bridge because you don’t know what the future holds. Motorsports is the smallest community in the world. Everything is a circle, no pun intended. We’re all in this small circle and you never know when you’re going to need that person one day. I might need Kaulig Racing one day and they might need me one day. You’ve got to keep those doors open.”

Rice appreciated the opportunity of getting to work with Williams and alluded to being thankful for the partnership they had.

Williams isn’t done racing in 2025. Highlighted by primary partner Alloy Employer Services, Williams has a loyal sponsorship following that is committed to four more races this season. He couldn’t confirm yet which races he will participate in or with which team.

“I have the people who are important to further my career on my side and that means a lot,” Williams said.

Nailing down 2026 plans is top of mind for Williams. Separating from one of the series’ mainstays didn’t hurt too much, Williams said, because “I know where my future is going.”

“It’s still upsetting because I’m a racer; I want to go race,” he said. “I have a plan for the future, so I feel like that makes it easier. I feel like I’ve got more drive than ever.”