WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – The NASCAR world got the first glimpse of a likely pairing that will be competing at the front of the field for years to come during Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series race at Watkins Glen International.
Connor Zilisch and Brent Crews – close allies away from competition – combined to lead 47 of the 73 laps in the Bully Hill Vineyards 176, with Zilisch taking the checkered flag in second while Crews came home seventh. The two upstarts traded paint on multiple occasions, the first coming at the start of Stage 2 and dropping Crews’ No. 1 Tricon Garage truck from the lead.
Four newly implemented tire-pack barriers – ranging from 11 feet off the course to a mere six feet with the esses approaching on the exit of Turn 1 – had thrown Zilisch for a loop.
“Off of [Turn] 1, it was my fault,” Zilisch admitted. “I didn’t mean to run up the track and get into [Crews] like that. It’s hard when the track is that much tighter, you don’t realize where you are.”
The two drivers banged fenders again on another restart at Lap 50. Crews was on the wrong side of that skirmish yet again, dropping in the running order. He even radioed to the No. 1 Tricon bunch that Zilisch was “a weapon.”
“I don’t think anybody was more guilty than the other, but I don’t know,” Crews said. “I haven’t talked to [Zilisch] yet. I don’t know if he’ll talk to me or not, but definitely felt like he probably ran me harder than he needed to, especially with that many laps left, but we both have nothing to lose at the same time.
“I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose, but when you’re racing hard up there, stuff happens.”
Crews didn’t forget the earlier contact when the field lined up for the penultimate restart. He bumped Zilisch entering the Turn 1 brake zone, costing the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet the race lead.
Zilisch said he plans to connect with Crews, as the duo will battle again in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race.
Zilisch said: “We race hard. I will go talk to him about it.”
In a caution-filled 15 laps, Zilisch traded the lead back and forth with Ross Chastain, Gio Ruggiero and Kaden Honeycutt. Ultimately, it was Honeycutt who prevailed, shotgunning a beer on the frontstretch, scoring his first triumph in his 67th series start.
Both Zilisch and Crews were among those ping-ponged around in a series of late restarts, which pushed the event to overtime. Zilisch said he opted against using rougher tactics to steal a win away.
“Anybody could have chosen the inside and done that, but I didn’t want to be that guy,” Zilisch added. “I wanted to race without having to move a guy for the win. I was hoping Kaden would do that; I probably should have realized that he was going for his first win. It’s all good. We learned, we moved on and go get them the rest of the weekend.”
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.—A week after chastising himself at Texas for repeated failure to win NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races, Kaden Honeycutt pulled off his first career victory over the two drivers who have dominated NASCAR road courses over the past two years.
Honeycutt grabbed the lead from Connor Zilisch through a tight Turn 1 on the first lap of overtime and pulled away for his first victory in the series in Friday’s Bully Hill Vineyards 176 at The Glen.
A few hours earlier, Honeycutt had won the ARCA Menards Series race on the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International circuit. With the Truck Series win, he became the second driver to win both an ARCA race and Truck Series event on the same day, joining Sam Mayer (2020 at Bristol) in that distinction.
“It’s just amazing,” said Honeycutt, who got to the finish line 0.902 second ahead of Zilisch. “I can’t believe I just won on a road course. It’s just unbelievable.”
Honeycutt proceeded to shotgun a beer beneath the flag stand, reveling in the liquid pouring across his face.
The victory was no easy accomplishment for the driver of the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota, which went to Victory Lane last year at The Glen with Corey Heim behind the wheel.
Honeycutt drew a penalty near the end of the second stage for pitting when pit road was closed and was forced to restart the final 32-lap stage from the rear of the field. A series of cautions and restart violations by both Ross Chastain and Gio Ruggiero, however, helped Honeycutt on his march back to the front.
Ruggiero’s infraction while leading on Lap 69 put Honeycutt on the front row next to then-leader Zilisch for the overtime restart. Zilisch chose the outside lane for the two-lap shootout but lost the top spot to Honeycutt as they navigated the right-hand first turn.
“On the restart, I think Zilisch missed a shift a little bit coming off of (Turn) 7, and I was tight to him,” Honeycutt said. “The only option I had… we were three-wide going into (Turn) 1, and I barely got to his right rear and touched him a little bit.
“It was just enough to scoot by him. As soon as I got the lead, I pulled my visor up, and I was full-blown focused after that.”
After the race, Zilisch rued his lane choice for the overtime.
“It was just an unfortunate way to end that race,” said Zilisch, who was denied his first Truck Series victory in his ninth start. “I chose the top, hoping we could get through there without making contact. I knew that the bottom would be better if that happened, but I didn’t want to be that guy.
“Yeah, I just wish I could go back and re-do it and pick the inside, but we’ve got two more races this weekend (O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Cup Series). I appreciate Spire Motorsports for giving me a really fast truck.”
Five-time 2025 NASCAR Cup Series road-course winner Shane van Gisbergen finished third, thanks to the New Zealander’s ability to pick off cars during the series of late restarts.
Daniel Hemric was fourth and Chandler Smith fifth, followed by Ram Free Agent driver AJ Allmendinger, pole winner Brent Crews, Mini Tyrrell, Brenden Queen and Connor Mosack. The race marked the first time multiple Ram drivers (Allmendinger, Tyrrell and Queen) finished in the top 10 in the brand’s return to NASCAR racing this year.
Honeycutt led only the two overtime laps. Zilisch led a race-high 28 laps and won the second stage. Crews led 17 laps from the start (19 overall) before pitting and handing the stage win to Daniel Hemric.
Honeycutt leaves The Glen with the series lead by 29 points over Smith.
Chastain held the lead over Zilisch for a restart with eight laps left in regulation, but powered his No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet before he reached the restart zone.
“What?!” exclaimed Chastain over his radio. “You can’t get a penalty when you’re the control car.”
Video, however, showed the car launching early. Sent to the back, Chastain fell victim to a wreck in Turn 5 on Lap 70 and finished 28th. That incident forced overtime.
Carson Hocevar, last week’s Truck Series race winner at Texas, ran in the top 10 for most of the afternoon before checking up on a Lap 62 restart and nosing into the inside frontstretch wall off Allmendinger’s bumper.
“I’m sure AJ didn’t plan on me lifting,” said Hocevar, who will race in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Go Bowling at the Glen on Sunday. “I just enjoyed getting my butt kicked by the teenagers.”
Hocevar is 23 years old.
The Craftsman Truck Series returns to action Friday, May 15, at Dover Motor Speedway (5 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Craftsman Truck Series garage, confirming Honeycutt as the winner.
CONCORD, N.C. — Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen know how to thrill in battles for the win in a NASCAR road race.
But the Trackhouse Racing teammates haven’t fought each other for victory in the Cup Series yet. There’s a good chance that changes Sunday at Watkins Glen International (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with both seeking their first victories of 2026.
SVG’s streak of five consecutive wins on a road or street course came to an end at Circuit of The Americas back in March when he finished second to 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, but Zilisch remains confident in Trackhouse’s ability to contend this weekend, where teammates van Gisbergen won by over 11 seconds in 2025 and Ross Chastain won the pole in 2024.
“Based off the speed we had at COTA, I feel like our road-course program is really solid,” Zilisch said in a Tuesday teleconference. “I think obviously, with the success Shane has had, he’s done a lot to build our road-course program over the last few years with just his knowledge and and what he brings to the table. So I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be competitive going to Watkins Glen this weekend. Obviously, he won there last year, and has had a lot of success in the past. Ross has had success there, too. been close to winning races there multiple times and sat on the pole a few years ago. So I’m looking forward to getting there and hopefully continuing to build on the momentum we have on road courses in the past 12 months.”
SVG is unquestionably the series’ most dominant road-course racer since his debut at the Chicago Street Course in 2023, crushing the competition last season with five wins on road or street courses. In four of those races that ended under green-flag conditions, he averaged a margin of victory of 10.992 seconds. But he doesn’t see himself or Zilisch as the favorites this weekend.
“No, definitely not,” van Gisbergen said Tuesday at the NASCAR Production Facility. “The 45 car (Reddick) is. He was amazing at COTA and he’s been amazing all year. So yeah, he’s the one I’m looking at. But as I said earlier, there’s six or eight guys I could pick out of the entry list that are going to be up at the front. So yeah, you’re racing everyone, I guess, but first person you compare to is your your teammate, and if you’re racing him for the win, that’s a good thing. That means our cars are doing all right.”
For all of SVG’s road-course glory, Trackhouse has lost some of its steam elsewhere on the Cup Series calendar. Some combination of bad luck and a lack of speed has resulted in a downturn in points, with Chastain 18th in the standings, SVG 19th and 19-year-old rookie Zilisch 33rd, all outside The Chase. Their hope is that road racing can turn their fates back toward the good, particularly with the resumes van Gisbergen and Zilisch bring to the table.
“You definitely feel a buzz in the shop. Like it’s no secret it’s been pretty difficult, I think, to start the year,” van Gisbergen said. “We haven’t been where we expected or hoped to be, obviously. But you’re never just going to turn up and have magically fast cars. The fast cars are still going to be good. We still lack in some areas, and drivers still need to be better too. So yeah, I think collectively, we need to manage our expectations a bit. But yeah, you see, especially at COTA, we saw a big improvement from other teams, how much better they are this year. So yeah, not expecting to have it as nice as we did last year, but certainly hope and we’re preparing like we can fight for it.”
Zilisch entered the series as one of the most highly touted prospects the Cup Series has seen in ages, especially after scoring an incredible 10 wins in O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition as a rookie in 2025 and nearly scoring the championship. But as driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet in Cup this season, Zilisch hasn’t led a lap, scoring a season-best 14th-place finish at COTA in March.
“We definitely need a good weekend,” Zilisch said. “I’m yet to get a top 10 in the Cup Series, and obviously that’s something that we need to get done sooner than later. The best opportunity is the weekend coming up and each and every race ahead of us. So yeah, we reset every weekend. We don’t let the bad results get to us. We keep our heads down and continue to work and make changes and try and do things differently to make a difference, because at the end of the day, if nothing changes, nothing changes, and we know that.”
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Seventeen years Zilisch’s elder, van Gisbergen went through the rookie Cup experience last season as well — one that started similarly to Zilisch’s. SVG averaged a 27.5 finish through the first 11 races of 2025 with three DNFs. Zilisch is averaging a 26.0 finish through 11 races with two DNFs.
This year, the 36-year-old van Gisbergen began far better and sat as high as fifth in the Cup Series standings through four races. But that hot start cooled quickly with three finishes of 34th or worse in a five-race span. The driver of the No. 97 Chevrolet has started to turn things the right direction again with finishes of 20th (Talladega Superspeedway) and 17th (Texas Motor Speedway) in the last two weeks, but he’s just as eager as anyone to run inside the top 15 again.
“It’s hard. Like I had an amazing start to the year. I felt like we were really going well,” van Gisbergen said. “And then the last four weeks, five weeks, we had a bit of a dip, so we’ve just got to get it right and eliminate mistakes, because I still feel like there’s potential for us to get it right when we execute, and I’m still improving and learning a lot. I felt like I went backwards a bit going to Texas. It’s a track I haven’t been to much. And yeah, I went there and (it’s like), ‘Oh [expletive], I’ve still got so much to learn here,’ whereas other tracks, I’m really getting to know them and know what I want the car to feel like and stuff. So yeah, it’s just keeping on building experience and the guys and myself knowing what we want from the car.”
Road courses clearly offer van Gisbergen his best chances at victory — and that’s likely the case for his rookie teammate, Zilisch, as well. But in his first NASCAR campaign, in which wins don’t guarantee a spot in the postseason, SVG believes consistent top 20s on ovals could help him make The Chase this fall.
“I think so — yeah, maybe,” he said. “Obviously doing that, we’ve got to score big on the road courses. Getting a win is huge, and that’ll really help us. But yeah, I would rather be fast every week and not have to rely on the road courses. And it was kind of trending that way at the start of the year, so we just kind of need to get back to that.”
Watkins Glen can be that turning point for Trackhouse. Zilisch won each of his two O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at the 2.45-mile road course, including his series debut in 2024. And nearing the midpoint of the 26-race regular season, there’s no time to waste to climb out of a points hole.
“No doubt, it’s one we look forward to as a team,” Zilisch said. “This is a great opportunity for all of us to get back on the right track, get some good points. And Ross and Shane are obviously really close to the cutline, so them having a good weekend would be really important for just the energy inside the building. We’ve been really hungry and there’s no sense of giving up. We know that this is not where we want to be as a team.
“It’s certainly shocked us at the speed we’ve had, and we know that we need to get to work and make things better. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen the people inside the building work this hard to try and get us back to where we need to be. So it’s really cool what we’re working on and what we’re building and I think it presents a unique opportunity for us to grow and get better as a team.”
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Austin Dillon saw a whole new side of Tyler Rader, his friend and Richard Childress Racing pit-crew member, Thursday at Fort Bragg.
Dillon and Rader visited the Eastern North Carolina base for a hands-on experience with the United States Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, part of the Mission 600 leading into the annual Coca-Cola 600 on May 24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The visit held extra meaning for the RCR duo. Rader, the fueler for Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet, stepped away from NASCAR seven years ago to enlist in the Army. He was stationed at Fort Bragg as part of the 75th Ranger Regiment. And returning to the base he used to call home, Rader spent seven hours Thursday doing exercises he never imagined he’d complete again.
“Getting back here and absorbing back into the military life and kind of getting to do the day-to-day things is surreal,” Rader told NASCAR.com.
The morning started with an escort to the shooting range, where Rader and Dillon worked on their aim with three different weapons: an M4 carbine, a Beretta M9 and finally, an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). Then, they headed to a field for a howitzer cannon demonstration, where seven soldiers set up and fired the versatile field weapon in just four minutes. Rader and Dillon each fired a round, too.
Afterward, they visited the Devil’s Den Warrior Restaurant for lunch before moving to jump tower demonstrations. The RCR mates started inside the body of a retired C-130 aircraft, where soldiers simulated the process of air drops from over 1,000 feet. Rader then headed for the 34-foot tower, where he suited up for a drop, tethered to a zip line. A trip to the flight simulator ended the day, where both Rader and Dillon tested their aviation skills in Apache and Black Hawk helicopters.
Dillon, who has visited Fort Bragg before, was a sponge. He asked rounds of questions to soldiers hosting each exercise and picked Rader’s brain during escorts around the massive base.
“They’re elite at their job. They train and train until they can’t get it wrong, and that’s one of their sayings,” Dillon told NASCAR.com. “You get cool hints, especially from a shooting aspect. I’m a big shooter, and Winchester is a partner of ours, and learning some handgun tips was really nice today. And yeah, getting a pull back on that howitzer — that was awesome getting to pull the trigger on that.
“What they do and what they sacrifice for our country, and the time spent to be ready, I think, is the biggest thing I love and respect about these guys. … Each one of them have so many crafts that they’ve learned in a trade that you can’t anywhere but here in the Army.”
Rader said he enjoyed scratching the itch of jumping again, but admitted he actually hated it during his time as a Ranger — a mission he completed at least 14 times. His favorite part of the day, as Dillon agreed, was the hour and a half spent on the shooting range.
Of course, the two NASCAR Cup Series athletes were ready to compete. They went head-to-head as other members of the travel party shot beside them, with Rader naturally coming out on top.
“He’ll admit to that,” Rader said. “We should have got a picture of the groupings, but yeah, just kind of going out there and poking fun. And honestly, I haven’t shot like that in years, so to do that again was awesome.”
Courtesy of Speedway Motorsports
And upon arriving at Fort Bragg, Rader immediately found a friend. First Sergeant Omar Melendez, who led the group tour around the base, served with Rader in the 75th. Their bond appeared unbroken.
“Just kind of reminiscing with [Melendez] and talking about the guys that we served with there,” Rader said. “I honestly attribute the 72nd Ranger Regiment to all of my leadership abilities. When you first get into regiment … they instill in you leadership from Day 1, even if you’re the small, youngest private, newest private in the platoon, to the oldest, most senior NCO (non-commissioned officer). Leadership, integrity and selfless service was something that was instilled in us, and I try to do that day to day at RCR.”
The focus shifts to the annual Coca-Cola 600 in two weeks, which comes after the Cup Series’ stop at Watkins Glen International on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and follows the non-points-paying All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway. Dillon won his first career race in the crown-jewel marathon nine years ago, squeezing every drop out of his No. 3 Chevy to pass Jimmie Johnson with three laps to go.
But despite success at Charlotte’s 1.5-mile oval, Dillon reaffirmed that the meaningfulness of the Coca-Cola 600 is what happens off the track and behind the scenes. Many of the soldiers he met on Thursday will attend this year’s Memorial Day Weekend race.
“Honoring those who have served our country and our veterans, the Gold Star Families that are on our cars, it’s always special to me because America is really represented there and the patriotism behind it, and then all of our military branches coming out and just giving them some love that they deserve,” Dillon said. “We always make connections, and then we go see each other [pre-race], and that’s a big part of Mission 600.”
Editor’s Note: Keep tabs on this page for lineup advice following qualifying, including changes you should consider.
Fantasy Update: Tire wear was evident during practice and qualifying, and it could play a factor in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen. The normal road-course suspects will lead the field to the green, with Shane van Gisbergen and Michael McDowell splitting the front row. The only change this week is removing AJ Allmendinger from my garage pick and adding Ross Chastain. Saturday marked an important day for Trackhouse as all three cars cracked the top five in qualifying.
My lineup: Shane van Gisbergen, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Connor Zilisch, Michael McDowell. Garage: Ross Chastain.
In a change of scenery, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Watkins Glen International three months earlier than normal this Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Expect the usual road-course aces to lead the pack, highlighted by Shane van Gisbergen, who is looking to defend his win from last August. But if the first road-course race of the season at Circuit of The Americas taught us anything, it’s that SVG is human and can be defeated.
Returning to Fastlane this year is my weekly NASCAR 36 for 36 pick, where you can come play along. It’s a season-long points battle introduced in 2024, with strategy as the primary emphasis. With 36 chartered cars and 36 races on the 2026 schedule, players can choose each car once for the duration of the season.
Driver:Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Selections remaining: 9 Comment: Last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, van Gisbergen stated that he realized during the COTA weekend that Trackhouse’s road-course program isn’t up to par compared to 2025. But the six-time victor has terrorized the field recently, leading 303 laps across the last seven road-course events; the rest of the pack has led 371 combined. He has run inside the top five for 84% of all laps during that time. Inside the top 10? 95%.
Driver:Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Selections remaining: 6 Comment: Even Bell didn’t seem like his normal road-course self at COTA, but he rallied for a third-place effort. His recent numbers when turning left and right are staggering, placing him inside the top five in seven of the last eight, with four of those being top-two finishes.
Driver:Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford Selections remaining: 9 Comment: Since the Next Gen car was implemented in 2022, Buescher is frequently in the mix at road courses. He beat SVG in head-to-head fashion at Watkins Glen in 2024, the site of his last checkered flag. He is the only driver to have top 10s in all four Watkins Glen Next Gen races.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
DRIVERS TO AVOID
Driver:Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Selections remaining: 6 Comment: Not using Larson, a two-time Watkins Glen winner, could come back to bite. But since last winning at The Glen in 2022, he has three straight finishes of 12th or worse, with two of those being 26th or worse. On the bright side, he has consecutive finishes of sixth or better on road courses after a string of four finishes of 32nd or worse in the previous five tries.
Driver:Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Selections remaining: 9 Comment: Hamlin has admitted that his main objective for Watkins Glen is to minimize points lost. He placed runner-up here in 2023 but has primarily struggled at road courses in the Next Gen era, with three top 10s in 23 attempts.
James Gilbert | Getty Images
SLEEPERS OF THE WEEK
Driver:AJ Allmendinger, Kaulig Racing, No. 16 Chevrolet Selections remaining: 10 Comment: In Allmendinger’s Cup tenure with Kaulig, the road-course stud has been sporadic on road courses. With five top-five finishes and an average finish of 10.9 (both personal bests), Watkins Glen is Allmendinger’s best track on the schedule.
Driver:Daniel Suárez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Selections remaining: 9 Comment: The immediate Spire driver that sticks out at road courses is Michael McDowell. But Watkins Glen is in Suárez’s wheelhouse; he has three top-five and four top 10s in seven starts. His 12.8 average is his best among all tracks.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
FEATURED MATCHUPS
Chase Elliott vs. Kyle Larson Pick: Elliott Comment: This could go either way, with both drivers having multiple wins here. While Elliott is admittedly not confident entering Watkins Glen with three consecutive finishes of 19th or worse here, he still gets the nod. His average finish in the Next Gen car at road courses is still a savvy 10.3.
Shane van Gisbergen vs. William Byron Pick: Van Gisbergen Comment: Van Gisbergen should be the heavy favorite, but Byron is a former Watkins Glen winner himself (2023). The inconsistency he’s shown, however, matches his 2026 campaign, alternating with top 10s or finishes of 21st or worse in seven attempts. If that trend continues, he’s due for a poor finish.
Ty Gibbs vs. Michael McDowell Pick: McDowell Comment: Gibbs could surely give McDowell a run for his money at Watkins Glen. But of all the road courses, he’s struggled most at Watkins Glen, with one finish better than 22nd in four attempts. McDowell is typically in the mix, wrestling his car around the famed road course.
Kyle Busch vs. John Hunter Nemechek Pick: Busch Comment: Wisdom prevails at Watkins Glen. Even with Busch’s woes with Richard Childress Racing, he remains a formidable road-course competitor and has a pair of wins at The Glen, trailing only Jeff Gordon (262) in laps led (249). Meanwhile, Nemechek has one top 10 in 14 road-course starts.
MY LINEUP
Starting five: Shane van Gisbergen, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Connor Zilisch, Michael McDowell. Garage pick: AJ Allmendinger.
36 FOR 36
Pick:Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Comment: With the high speeds Watkins Glen possesses, qualifying will be of the utmost importance for Zilisch this weekend. The young phenom is undefeated in NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition entering the weekend at Watkins Glen, taking the series by storm in his 2024 debut. The likelihood of using Zilisch at a road course in this spot is high, and WGI is where he has the most experience.
DUNDEE, N.Y. — One of the first pieces of the 2027 NASCAR schedule took shape Thursday, with Watkins Glen International announcing that its race weekend will move to September next year.
Watkins Glen track president Dawn Burlew first announced the news at an event welcoming campers to the road course’s grounds for this weekend’s NASCAR tripleheader.
Though an exact date wasn’t specified, officials indicated that the NASCAR Cup Series race will take place in one of the earliest slots in the 10-race Chase next year. It’s a shift back to a more traditional date on the NASCAR schedule for the 2.45-mile circuit, which plays host to a rare springtime event this weekend.
Since debuting on the NASCAR circuit in 1957, the road-course race in New York has primarily occurred in August, late in the regular season. Before this year’s May date arrived, the lone exception was a mid-September show in the 2024 postseason, when Chris Buescher passed Shane van Gisbergen to win a thriller on the final lap.
“People actually really liked that recognition for The Glen as well as all our fans that come here,” Burlew said Thursday from a lakeside vista at Glenora Wine Cellars, where she participated in a fan event and tour with van Gisbergen, the defending Watkins Glen winner. “So being in [The Chase] going forward, I think they’re going to be thrilled that we’re at the first part of that and really kind of set the stage for the rest of the playoff season. So again, if we can be part of that and kick it off, there’s no better place than to do it at The Glen.”
Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) marks the earliest date Watkins Glen has appeared on the Cup schedule. It leads into a highlighted stretch of the schedule this month that includes the new-look All-Star Race at Dover, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and a trip to Nashville Superspeedway.
Burlew – who became track president before the 2024 season – acknowledged challenges with this year’s springtime date, with brisk weather in this weekend’s forecast for the state’s Finger Lakes region. The area has had a variable mix ranging from seasonable warmth to late-season chill in recent weeks, but she says the spring bloom is well underway at one of racing’s most picturesque venues.
The annual NASCAR weekend is among the facility’s biggest, and Burlew says its placement at the early end of the track’s schedule hasn’t given the Watkins Glen staff much time to ease into its event calendar. Burlew says everyone involved has pivoted.
“I think what we’ve done is our merchandise, we’ve looked at it when we saw the date, and we said, OK, we need to shift our merchandise from all T-shirts and tank tops to long sleeves and things like that,” Burlew said. “But then again, we did some really cool stuff for Mother’s Day with our merchandise, so we just took a whole different twist to it when we started getting ready and planning for this weekend. We’re more celebrating just a different date, because it gave us a whole different way to plan. Instead of just doing traditional flowers, we did more mulch and tulips that my team planted last fall, which normally we wouldn’t do, but we said, OK, that’s something different. So we just embraced it that way.”
Shane van Gisbergen will race on a road course for the first time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Connor Zilisch is trying for his first win in the series.
Ross Chastain is making his 121st Truck Series start, hoping to add to his career total of five victories.
All three drivers, Trackhouse Racing teammates in the NASCAR Cup Series, are starting a full weekend of triple duty in Friday’s Bully Hill Vineyards 176 at Watkins Glen International (4:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Van Gisbergen and Chastain are competing for Niece Motorsports in the Truck Series race. Zilisch is driving for Spire Motorsports as a teammate to last Friday’s Truck Series winner at Texas, Carson Hocevar.
Reigning series champion Corey Heim, who won last year’s race during a streak of five straight road course victories, is not entered this week. In fact, no former Watkins Glen winners are in the field.
Front Row Motorsports’ Layne Riggs, a Truck Series regular, won NASCAR’s debut at St. Petersburg on Feb. 28 in the first road-course race of the 2026 season. Friday’s event also will include road-course expert AJ Allmendinger, who will drive Kaulig Racing’s No. 25 Free Agent Ram.
“Watkins Glen will always be special to me,” Allmendinger said. “It’s where I earned my first NASCAR Cup Series win, and it’s a place I’ve always enjoyed racing. Kaulig Racing has made solid progress on the truck side, and I’m looking forward to getting in the No. 25 Ram 1500 through the Free Agent Program and contributing to that.
“We had a good Darlington run to get a feel for the trucks, even though it’s a completely different challenge from a road course. Hopefully, we can unload with speed, contend up front, and put ourselves in position to fight for a win.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — One of the most coveted achievements in Late Model Stock Car racing is set to take center stage once again as the Virginia Triple Crown presented by FloRacing returns in 2026 with heightened intensity, elevated competition and continued investment in grassroots racing’s premier showcase.
Following last year’s landmark announcement, FloSports and NASCAR are once again teaming up to deliver an enhanced Virginia Triple Crown presented by FloRacing, reinforcing their commitment to the drivers, teams and fans who define short-track racing. Building on the momentum of 2025, this year’s championship will continue to feature one of the richest purses in the event’s history, $50,000 total with a $20,000 prize awarded to the overall champion.
FloRacing remains the presenting partner of the Virginia Triple Crown, continuing its role as the nation’s leading destination for live and on-demand grassroots motorsports coverage. With its ongoing investment in regional racing, FloRacing ensures that the Virginia Triple Crown reaches a broader national audience while maintaining its deep roots in the sport’s most passionate communities.
“We’re proud to continue our partnership with NASCAR and further grow the Virginia Triple Crown,” said Michael Rigsby, GM of FloRacing. “This event represents everything that makes Late Model racing special: elite competition, passionate fans and historic tracks. We’re looking forward to building on that foundation and bring even more visibility to this incredible championship.”
“The Virginia Triple Crown is late model stock racing at its best: tough, gritty and intense,” said Joey Dennewitz, Vice President, Industry Development, NASCAR. “With FloRacing’s continued support, we’re building even more momentum around one of short-track racing’s most exciting championships while delivering the kind of must-watch racing our fans love.”
The payout structure will once again reward the top 10 drivers in the final standings:
All payouts will be distributed following the final leg of the crown – the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway.
The Virginia Triple Crown presented by FloRacing will once again be determined by a driver’s average finish across three of Virginia’s most prestigious Late Model events:
June 27 – Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway
July 25 – Hampton Heat at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway
Sept. 26 – ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway
Connor Hall, a two-time NASCAR Local Racing Series national champion, won the 2025 Virginia Triple Crown. (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
To be eligible for the championship and prize money, drivers must compete in all three events.
“With the continued support of FloRacing and NASCAR, the Virginia Triple Crown has never been stronger,” said Martinsville Speedway President Clay Campbell. “This championship connects three historic tracks and showcases the very best of Late Model racing. Fans can expect incredible competition from start to finish.”
South Boston Speedway General Manager Brandon Brown emphasized the importance of a strong start to the series: “Kicking off the Virginia Triple Crown at South Boston Speedway is something we take a lot of pride in. Every lap matters, and a strong performance in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 is absolutely crucial to a driver winning the Triple Crown.”
Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway owner and operator Bill Mullis echoed the sentiment: “The Virginia Triple Crown continues to grow in prestige, and FloRacing and NASCAR’s involvement has played a key role in that evolution. It’s exciting to see the tradition continue to thrive and bring even more value to Late Model racing.”
Past champions of the Virginia Triple Crown include some of the biggest names in Late Model Stock Car history, such as Peyton Sellers, Lee Pulliam, Trevor Ward and Bobby McCarty.
Established in 2012, the Virginia Triple Crown remains one of the most respected and challenging accomplishments in short-track racing, testing drivers’ consistency, resilience and performance across three unique and demanding venues.
Fans can catch every lap of the Virginia Triple Crown presented by FloRacing live or on demand with a FloRacing subscription via https://www.floracing.com/signup or the FloRacing app. FloRacing will simulcast the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 on the NASCAR Channel.
FloRacing fans are encouraged to watch more than 1,000 races annually on the updated FloSports Connected TV app, which features enhanced discoverability and streaming capabilities, providing the ultimate viewing experience on Samsung, LG, and VIZIO smart TV’s, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV devices.
Remember when we were wondering if Chase Elliott — in the midst of multiple 40-plus-race winless streaks during the 2024 and 2025 seasons — had a high enough ceiling to consistently win races?
Clearly, that’s not a concern anymore. After snapping a 44-race drought last June at his home-state track (EchoPark Speedway), it took Elliott just 12 races to win his next one (in September at Kansas) … then only 11 more until Martinsville this March … and now, just three before his most recent in Texas.
If you’re sensing a pattern, it’s that Elliott’s winning drives are becoming more frequent — a callback to earlier seasons like 2020 and 2022 when he won every 7.2 races, on average. But the impressive thing about Elliott’s development as a driver is that he hasn’t abandoned his high-floor approach from his drought era, either. Instead, he’s found an optimal way to blend going for wins with managing solid finishes every week.
Elliott’s average finish of 8.9 in 2026 ranks second among Cup drivers, trailing only Tyler Reddick’s 5.7 — which makes sense, given Reddick’s winning percentage matches his car number (45 percent). But in their non-wins, Elliott is much closer (10.7 versus Reddick’s 9.7), and over the past season-and-a-half or so nobody has been better at consistently avoiding bad finishes. Here’s a look at every Cup Series driver with at least 10 races since the start of 2025, sorted by their median finish but with their 10th-percentile finish — basically a “really bad day” benchmark they surpass 90% of the time — highlighted:
Elliott’s worst days (with a 10th-percentile finish of 22.4) are better than a number of lower-tier drivers’ median showings — and even better than merely below-average outings from some other contenders. The only other drivers even remotely in the same neighborhood in avoiding disastrous days are Reddick (24.8) and Chris Buescher (26.6), and even they aren’t that close.
Under the current format, avoiding bad Sunday runs is certainly valuable. For one thing, it helps you ensure a spot in The Chase itself — and Elliott already has a 174-point cushion over the No. 17-ranked driver, Joey Logano after 11 races.
Before the season, we reconstructed Chase points for previous years under the old system, calculating that it would take somewhere between 580 and 600 points to secure the No. 16 seed at regular season’s end. Elliott is just 181 points shy of 590 with 15 races left in the regular season; to get there, he’d need to average merely 12.1 points per race, which works out to a 25th-place finish (before considering stage points). We just got done showing that Elliott never finishes that low, so this explains why he effectively has 100% odds to get into the Chase, joining Reddick, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney in that regard.
Avoiding disaster is also essential during The Chase itself. According to my simulation-based Chase odds, a contending driver’s chance to win the title gets cut roughly in half with each successive finish outside the top 20 in a Chase race:
The only issue with a “high-floor” type of strategy is that, eventually, you do also have to directly outscore the points leaders, which is why Elliott’s championship hopes also hinge on those all-important Chase seeds.
We know championship points are reset before the final 10 races on the calendar, based on a driver’s placement in the final regular-season standings. But the gaps between different slots in the seedings are not equal; No. 1 starts The Chase with a 25-point lead over No. 2, who has a 10-point lead over No. 3, whose lead over No. 4 is five points. (That’s the standard gap between each successive slot; No. 15 also starts out five points ahead of No. 16.)
That means the value of being No. 2 versus No. 3 is in automatically being about 30% closer to the leader, while No. 3 is about 15% closer than No. 4. It’s much easier to execute a high-floor game plan, minimizing mistakes and capitalizing on those made by others, the closer you are to the top.
That means the fight around who’s in those slots should begin to take focus as we look ahead to the last 15 races before The Chase field is solidified. Reddick is nearly unassailable for No. 1 with his 109-point lead over second-ranked Denny, sitting at about 80% odds to win the regular-season title as things currently stand. But the battle to grab another of those valuable seeds is still very much up in the air, with Hamlin, Elliott and Blaney primarily doing battle over who’ll finish 2-3-4 heading into the Chase:
That fight will continue to rage this weekend at Watkins Glen (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Blaney should have an edge on Elliott based on projected road-course prowess — it not being 2020 or 2021 anymore — but Elliott, in turn, is due for a better showing than Hamlin, which feeds into the pressure already starting to build around each remaining race. Calculating the leverage index on a driver’s seeding status based on how he finishes at The Glen, Hamlin and Elliott have the most potential swing in their odds of a top-two seed this weekend, while Elliott and Blaney have the most swing around their odds for a top-three seed:
Elliott’s combined ability to avoid catastrophes while still gunning for checkered flags will undoubtedly help him in that effort. In a format where one bad day can begin to undo everything, even at this early phase of the proceedings, that kind of downside protection is already starting to look like a big competitive advantage.
There aren’t many Cup Series drivers who can say they’ve beaten Shane van Gisbergen on a road course.
Chris Buescher is one of them.
The Prosper, Texas, native — who just scored his best career finish at Texas Motor Speedway of fifth last weekend — defeated SVG at Watkins Glen International two seasons ago in a finish for the ages. Van Gisbergen fired to the lead in overtime, but on the final lap, the Kiwi bobbled coming through the bus stop, allowing Buescher to use his bumper and surge for a win in the Finger Lakes.
Since turning to the Next Gen chassis in 2022, Buescher has quietly been one of the best on the road. The Glen is his only triumph, but over the last 24 races turning left and right, the No. 17 RFK Racing driver has 17 top-10 finishes.
That road course prowess dates back to his O’Reilly Series days and early years in Cup, when Buescher benefited from additional time in Ford’s simulator. While veteran drivers didn’t prioritize that type of preparation, Buescher became a sponge.
“When the Ford simulator was pretty new and a lot of our veteran drivers weren’t really keen on spending much time over there yet, there was a lot of open windows,” Buescher said in a Wednesday teleconference. “There were many eight-hour sessions spent over there, just across the street, getting to know a lot of race tracks that I hadn’t been to before O’Reilly or Cup racing at the time. And then trying to figure out how to be better at the types of race tracks that we don’t get to see that often and that’s road courses for us.
“We’ve spent our fair share of time over in the simulator through the years. We just came from there this morning. We were over there for four or five hours to start the day with all three of our teams. We still use it pretty religiously to hone in on how to be better at these things and I’m excited to be heading into Watkins Glen.”
And that simulator time will likely pay off come Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Watkins Glen has three added variables for this year’s annual visit to New York’s Southern Tier region: cooler weather, track limits and 10 additional laps.
A shift from the summer to Mother’s Day weekend brings temperatures forecasted in the 60s, which Buescher expects will make for a faster track. As explained in this week’s episode of Hauler Talk, NASCAR officials are adding tire packs in Turns 1 and 5, narrowing the available real estate in run-off areas. And finally, the race distance increases from 90 to 100 laps for the first time, marking the longest scheduled race at the 2.45-mile facility.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
“I certainly understand what we’re after. All of the rumble strips did not cut it,” Buescher explained of the track limits. “It just did not do enough to keep us off the runout areas and what the run-offs were doing was creating these really tight moments when everybody merged back on the race track and was creating these massive accidents.
“With the sporadic tire packs, it’s worked at a lot of places when they’ve been used more for the apex, not so much as an invisible wall in between a handful of them. I’m not saying it won’t work. It’s kept us exactly where they want us to be in the simulator. The idea behind it is at least working right now, but we’ll have to see how it works in practice once we get everybody on track. I like what we’re doing.”
But regardless of the variables, Buescher’s confidence isn’t wavering.
“We have a very good grasp of that race track and are able to make several different setup options or race car builds work at that kind of race track,” he said. “We’ve kind of touched on both sides of long run and short run, and maybe that’s what I was trying to allude to, was trying to find that balance in the middle of how do we fire off good, but also maintain the long run pace.
“It’s been a good road course to us for a good, long time now, so I am really excited to head back up to that one. I’m ready to get up there. It’s gonna be a good weekend.”
