What to Watch: Indianapolis sparks chase for Brickyard 400 glory

Posted on July 26, 2025July 27, 2025 by Zach Sturniolo

Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Location: Speedway, Indiana
Track length: 2.5 miles
When: Sunday, 2 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,055,250
Race distance: 160 laps | 400 miles
Stages: 50 | 100 | 160
Defending winner: Kyle Larson, July 2024
Starting lineup: Chase Briscoe to lead field to green Sunday

Glory, history of Brickyard 400 looms large in Indy

Ryan Blaney remembers it as if it were yesterday. He was standing on pit road at Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the end of the impossibly long frontstretch, his father Dave Blaney preparing to qualify for the 2010 Brickyard 400.

Robby Gordon, driving the fluorescent orange No. 7 car, was peeling off Turn 4 at speed.

“I saw just a little orange dot, like, all the way down there. I can’t even see it,” Blaney recalled Friday. “And then before you know it, they go by you so fast. Like, how are they gonna make this flat, 90-degree corner? And somehow it does. And that just stuck in my brain for a long time, just that whole surreal experience.”

The difference 15 years later is that Blaney finds himself behind the wheel against 38 other hungry racers trying to achieve Brickyard glory Sunday afternoon.

MORE: NASCAR In-Season Challenge hub | Championship preview

Blaney and Joey Logano are Team Penske’s two defending champions of the NASCAR Cup Series, but neither has yet delivered a Brickyard 400 victory. The hunger within both of them burns brightly to deliver team owner Roger Penske a second NASCAR victory at the track he owns — literally and figuratively, with a record 20 Indianapolis 500 wins in addition to the 2018 Brickyard 400 win with Brad Keselowski.

Matt Wishart | For NASCAR Digital Media

But inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum’s Penske Galleries on Friday afternoon, surrounded by Team Penske’s lore at the 2.5-mile track, Logano made it known he’s got his own desires to attach his name to history in the 29th NASCAR race on the Indy oval.

“Obviously, I want to win for Roger everywhere, and I want to continue those things that he’s built here, like adding to this exhibit here,” Logano said. “But I want to win the Brickyard for me. That’s one that for me is on the list. I get we all enjoy it. But I have a selfish motive behind this race a little bit that I really want to win.”

The canyon of grandstands cradling the frontstretch creates a truly striking visual, particularly for the drivers behind the wheel. The straightaway feels as narrow as it is long, its SAFER barriers, concrete walls and the pit-road attenuator allowing little room for error. Blaney’s childhood memory of cars seemingly defying physics has only been reinforced now that he gets to take these corners behind the wheel.

“It’s such a weird look here with 90-degree corners,” he said. “Like you come off of (Turn) 4 and you’re literally just staring at a white wall that looks like a barricade. You’re like, ‘uh, how are we gonna make it?’ And somehow it does. So it’s just a cool place. It’s not only historically amazing, but driving it as well, you feel (like there’s) just no place like it. I’ve had a lot of cool memories here as a kid and as an adult as well.”

A crown-jewel event since its inaugural running in 1994, the Brickyard 400 propels drivers into racing history, placing a premium on kissing the bricks after taking the checkered flag.

“Every driver wants to win here, right?” Logano said. “Like, you gotta win at Daytona and you gotta win Indy. It’s just something you want to know what it feels like. I’m human; I get jealous every time I see someone kiss the bricks because I haven’t done it. And like, I want to know what that feels like, right? … I want to win. And I see that, and it makes me mad. I want to do that, you know? And I’ve been close so many times — been really close. Even last year, we were close before we got wrecked. We were in position to win it. And, yeah, just hasn’t happened yet. Hopefully it happens soon.”

MORE: Full Saturday recap

Torey Fox | NASCAR Digital Media

From atop the pit box …

What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?

Long straightaways, a narrow racing groove and 90-degree left-handers make Indianapolis a bear for crew chiefs to conquer.

Performing well at the Brickyard demands a car that is strong both in power and in aerodynamics, yet simultaneously one that achieves efficient fuel mileage.

RELATED: Cup standings | Full 2025 schedule

Last year, crew chief Cliff Daniels guided Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to victory in NASCAR’s return to the oval. The balance of a good car at Indy, he said, hinges on lift over drag.

“It’s a really good balance of L over D,” Daniels told NASCAR.com Friday. “And then there’s still a big amount of mechanical setup, getting just the timing of the corner right. I think it’s one thing to be fast in clean air when you can use a big, wide arc on entry and get down to the bottom and have your nice run on exit. It’s another thing in traffic when you kind of have to be choked off on your line. So there’s just a lot about getting your setup right with the timing of the corner. Certainly, we love coming here. Kyle’s got a good knack for this place. Hopefully, we get it all put together.”

Part of their advantage stemmed from an early mistake. A loose wheel at Lap 73 necessitated an extra pit stop for the No. 5 team, but that hiccup provided an opportunity to put more fuel in the tank. It was a fortunate break, but Daniels went to work on what could have happened had things not gone wrong.

“We went back through and looked at some of the calls that we made, and some of the calls that we made were specifically to be different,” Daniels said. “And had the race played out differently with the way the yellows fell, it could have had a lot different look for us, and it wouldn’t have been the same result, of course; it could have been a lot different. So we’ve come up with our what-if scenarios of when the cautions may fall, how and when to take fuel around the stages, around the fuel windows and things like that. Obviously, you’ve just got to see how the race plays out and hope to be on the right side of the track position at the right time.”

Another quirk of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is its tight pit lane, the second-narrowest on the NASCAR schedule, measuring just 24 feet wide. Pit boxes are just 15 feet wide — also the second-narrowest — despite pit road being the longest on the circuit at 2,515.5 feet.

Bubba Wallace, in the midst of trying to solidify his position in the playoffs, qualified second on Saturday. With that comes the second choice of pit-stall selection, a massive benefit while also having track position to start the race.

“It’s probably the sketchiest pit road, for sure,” Wallace said Saturday. “Obviously, seen a lot of crashes here, a lot of injuries. So if we can keep ourselves out of harm’s way, the better. I’m excited. That’s what we want. We want a good qualifying effort. It opens up options for pit selections, for strategy, for everything.”

Justin Casterline | Getty Images

History tells us …

Hendrick Motorsports remains the top target. Hendrick has had a stranglehold on Indianapolis since Jeff Gordon won its inaugural running in 1994. As a whole, the organization has claimed a record 11 wins on the Indy oval — six more than the next-best — with the series-best numbers of top fives (28), top 10s (44) and laps led (1,080), according to Racing Insights. Hendrick Motorsports has never gone more than three races at Indianapolis without a win and has won four of the last 10 Brickyard 400s with four different drivers.

He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …

BUBBA WALLACE. Wallace’s track record at the Brickyard is severely underrated. In four starts, Wallace has two top fives and three top 10s on the Indy oval and is averaging a 5.7 finish across his last three Brickyard 400s. The No. 23 Toyota got back on the right track with a seventh-place finish at Dover that ended a five-race skid outside it. Heading to one of his best tracks — and qualifying second — could be the catalyst he needs to better bolster his playoff positioning.

Fantasy update

NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.

Eventful practice and qualifying sessions for the Brickyard 400 have led to a near-complete overhaul for my fantasy lineup. Drivers were on the ragged edge during qualifying with more than a handful slapping the wall, highlighted by Denny Hamlin wrecking hard off Turn 2. Legacy Motor Club had a strong showing throughout the day, though John Hunter Nemechek pancaked the wall twice during his qualifying effort. Drivers that stood out were Chase Briscoe, earning his series-high fifth Busch Light pole award of 2025 and Bubba Wallace, who has the longest top-10 streak of active drivers at Indy (three). Strategy will be a heavy focus on Sunday, but I’ve changed my 36 for 36 pick to Wallace, believing the No. 23 team will chase stage points.

Lineup: Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, William Byron
Garage: Ty Gibbs

MORE: Lineup advice in Fantasy Fastlane

Matt Wishart | For NASCAR Digiral Media

Speed reads

Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.

• NASCAR at Indy: Key info, practice reports and more from doubleheader weekend | Read more
• Hello, San Diego: NASCAR announces 2026 race at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego | Read more
• In-Season Challenge: Preview the $1 million showdown set between Gibbs, Dillon | Read more
• Racing Insights: Where your favorite driver is projected to finish Sunday | Read more
• Field of 16: Reddick, Bowman in prime playoff position heading to Brickyard | Read more
• Turning Point to the Brickyard: Don’t assume anything about Indy | Read more
• At-track photos: Scenes, sights from a tripleheader in Indianapolis | View gallery
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full-race Indy replays from the vault | Watch now
• Paint Scheme Preview: Schemes shining under the Indiana sun | View gallery
• Power Rankings: Is Ty Gibbs’ rise for real? | This week’s top 20

Posted on July 26, 2025July 26, 2025 by Cameron Richardson

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Safe to say that Ross Chastain and Joey Logano haven’t been the kindest to each other on the track over the last month.

The two had a run-in at the Chicago Street Course where Chastain spun Logano late in the race, leading to a frustrated Logano confronting the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing driver on pit road.

Two weeks later at Dover Motor Speedway, the pair made contact on a handful of occasions running side-by-side at the “Monster Mile.”

Both drivers are well-known for their aggressive, unapologetic demeanor on track, which is something Chastain said he appreciates.

“Joey and I, we’re so similar, and I like it,” Chastain said Saturday at Indianapolis. “For me, I think it’s a compliment that we think that way just in life and business and racing. Occasionally, that comes to a physical contact on the track, and it did recently. We had a good time in Loudon for the tire test, good conversation and good laughs in the garage yesterday.”

Logano has made it clear that he separates his on-track behavior from who he is out of the car, and letting the tensions subside with a civil conversation and some good banter is what he believes is best for the two to let bygones be bygones for now.

“The best thing you can always do is talk things out and try to come to a common ground, try to come to a resolution somehow,” Logano said. “I think it was pretty clear to probably both of us, it wasn’t gonna end pretty. So probably best for both of us to find a common ground to where we can move forward and race each other in a respectful way.

“That’s kind of the conversation. I went up to him and said ‘hey, there’s two ways we can handle it. There’s one way that’s pretty ugly and there’s one way that we can maybe show a little respect to each other and move forward.’ He chose the latter, which I think was probably a good move. Hopefully, we’re able to work that moving forward.”

Posted on July 26, 2025July 26, 2025 by Reid Spencer

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — A rash of ill fortune finally caught up with William Byron.

When he crashed out of last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway — through no fault of his own — the 31st-place finish cost him the series lead.

Byron now trails Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, a model of consistency this season, by 16 points. Three-time winner Kyle Larson, another Hendrick teammate, is third in the standings, 38 points behind Elliott.

For his part, Byron relishes a battle that’s staged within the same shop.

“I think it’s great,” he said. “I think it’s a really good thing, because it’s elevating all of our programs and elevating the importance of this part of the season.

“It’s obviously always important, but when you have three of us going for it, it’s like, ‘OK, it’s going to take your best for the next five weeks.’ I look at it like it’s going to give you more of an idea of what the playoffs are going to be like.”

Before the Dover race, Byron had held the series lead for 17 of 20 weeks, but only one finish better than 27th in the last five races has proven costly. That streak has been unlucky enough for Byron to acknowledge he might have been “snakebit.”

FANTASY: Pick or stay away from Byron at Brickyard?

“You could definitely say that,” he acknowledged. “I try not to use the ‘luck’ word a lot, but if you look at Atlanta and Dover and how we got crashed, I mean, we just got run over from behind. Like, I check up for the wreck, and not everyone does.

“So I guess in those two instances you could say that definitely we weren’t in control of those two results … It’s just part of the nature of the schedule and the way things play out.

“We’ve had top-five speed everywhere, but the results haven’t been there every week. Chicago was definitely on me in practice (a clutch issue), and Pocono was also on me in qualifying, and unfortunately those race results weren’t there. Then other things happened, but yeah, I think it’s still within reach—we’ve just got to do it.”

The 27-year-old hopes to turn things around Sunday in the Brickyard 400 Presented by PPG (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on July 26, 2025July 26, 2025 by Staff Report

See where your favorite drivers will pit this weekend with the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

NASCAR Cup Series

Brickyard 400 Presented by PPG on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

NASCAR Xfinity Series

Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: How to watch NASCAR on The CW

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday (8 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: How to watch NASCAR on FS1

Posted on July 26, 2025 by Cameron Richardson

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — The stakes will be high for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Not only will a coveted trip to Victory Lane in the crown-jewel event be on the line, but the In-Season Challenge crown is also up for grabs. Ty Dillon and Ty Gibbs will square off in the final of a five-round tournament that began with 32 drivers at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta and dwindled to two, with the pair matching up for a trophy and a $1 million prize at one of the most iconic locations in motorsports.

Dillon has taken the NASCAR world by storm over the past month-plus. Entering as the 32nd and lowest seed, the No. 10 Kaulig Racing driver has upset top-seeded Denny Hamlin, 2012 champ Brad Keselowski, perennial playoff contender Alex Bowman and an upstart John Hunter Nemechek along his journey to the championship round. He and the Kaulig shop have also celebrated their weekly successes as little victories.

“The last couple weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind from Monday till the race, just everything that’s been going on with the in-season tournament,” Dillon said Saturday during a press conference. “It’s been quite welcomed and very fun. We had a team luncheon on Tuesday, led by [Kaulig President] Chris Rice, which I appreciate. We started it with saying, like, it’s weird that we’re having a luncheon after finishing 20th. But what this has done for our team, the morale, even just talking to guys, just these are the summer months that are hard for these people — the men and women at Kaulig Racing and all the race teams — to keep finding motivation to work hard and build the best of the best each week.

“I appreciate the fact that Kaulig Racing, Chris Rice, [team owner] Matt Kaulig, aren’t afraid to pause and say, ‘Hey, this is a good thing, and let’s take this moment in because this is a lot of fun and good for everybody.’ It was a great moment on Tuesday, and we’re all excited for this weekend.”

Not only has the In-Season Challenge been a chance for Dillon and the No. 10 team to share their journey as the 33-year-old journeyman adapts to life back as a full-time Cup Series driver, but Dillon has taken full advantage of the spotlight — becoming the face of the tournament and bringing out unabashed personality with inspiration from professional wrestling.

“My kids and I watch a lot of WWE,” Dillon said. “It’s something we do, and the heels and the babyface, and learning how to entertain people is something that I think every driver should do homework and watch a little bit of because we deserve to give our fans a little bit more. I would say one of the unwritten stories that I give a lot of credit to is the fact that Denny Hamlin, in the last year and a half, has leaned into his ‘Denny versus the world’ thing and played into a personality to kind of go at the fans. Denny leaning into that and telling everybody that he’s beat your favorite driver, and the reaction, I mean, he’s the loudest boo, and boos aren’t a bad thing always. Him doing that allowed me to have a little fun when we beat him in Atlanta.

“I hope me being a little jovial and playing will allow some more people to feel like they can have a little more personality. We have some great, wonderful race car drivers, but I think our sport’s only going to grow if the best of our best can grow into a personality and really take the moment, harness the fans and the entertainment side of what we do, too.”

For Ty Gibbs, his outlook hasn’t changed based on the success he’s had in the In-Season Challenge, but it’s been a testament to the drastic turnaround the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team has had this summer.

It took eight races for the third-year Cup driver to log his first top 10 of 2025 (Darlington), and he had finishes of 22nd or worse in nine of the first 14 races of the year. Since a third-place result at Michigan in early June, however, Gibbs hasn’t finished worse than 14th in the last seven events. He currently sits on a three-race stretch of top 10s, including a season-best runner-up at Chicago.

At Indianapolis for his second Brickyard 400 start, Gibbs has a great admiration for the history of the facility.

MORE: Indy schedule | Cup Series playoff picture

“This is the most historical track in the world,” Gibbs said. “Outside of Monza [in Italy], I think is another one like this, I don’t think there’s anywhere like this, and I really respect and appreciate the history of this place. I’ve been able to go to the museum two times now and check everything out, and all the history back to when they first opened. It’s insane to be here. Insane to race here. I think this is race-car country — is what we would call it.”

With late-race theatrics that advance them across the tournament, the conversation may arise if a scenario occurs in the closing laps on Sunday where Dillon and Gibbs are running near each other. While Indy’s high speeds will likely deter any intentional contact between the two for the trophy, the pair shared their thoughts on what they are willing to do for the $1 million prize.

“Hopefully we’re not bumper to bumper, and hopefully we’re going for the win, so we’ll see,” Gibbs said. “But maybe we are both going for the win, so I don’t know. I feel like we’ve been really good with our strategy lately and hopefully that puts us up front.”

And Ty Dillon summed his strategy up succinctly — “Ask Alex Bowman.”

Posted on July 26, 2025July 26, 2025 by Reid Spencer

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Five was the magic number for Toyota at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 presented by PPG (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

First and foremost, Indiana native Chase Briscoe won his fifth pole of the season with a lap at 183.165 mph (49.136 seconds), edging Bubba Wallace of 23XI Racing (183.117 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.013 seconds.

RELATED: Starting lineup | Best photos from Indy

Briscoe, driving the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Camry, and Wallace led a Toyota sweep of the first five starting positions, the first time the car maker has claimed the top five spots for any Cup Series race at any track.

Erik Jones of Legacy Motor Club qualified third at 182.749 mph, followed by Tyler Reddick (182.678 mph) and Ty Gibbs (182.445 mph).

William Byron (182.031 mph) was sixth in the fastest Chevrolet, and seventh-place starter Chris Buescher led the Ford contingent with a lap at 182.013 mph.

In Sunday’s race, Briscoe will start from the front row for the seventh time this season, having been second on the grid for the previous two races at Sonoma and Dover. Briscoe has claimed the Busch Light Pole Award for all three Crown Jewel races this season: the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and now the Brickyard 400.

For a driver who spent his childhood as a spectator at Indianapolis, the pole is a dream fulfilled.

“I thought I was going to lose it a couple times, but I was able to hold onto it,” Briscoe said of his edgy qualifying lap. “I’m holding back tears. This is such a special moment for me. Even hearing the crowd as I got the pole is just super cool.

“Hopefully, I can keep it up there (Sunday). That’s the one that we want to win … Just being from literally 70 miles down the road (in Mitchell, Indiana) and coming here as a kid … and just dreaming of being able to come to this place, sitting in the same grandstands as the fans are, I dreamed of being on the other side of the fence, and now to do that is just unbelievable.”

The seventh pole of Briscoe’s career wasn’t secure, however, until his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin (the final qualifier) caromed off the Safer Barrier in Turn 2 and nosed into the inside wall, destroying his No. 11 Camry.

Hamlin had an edge of more than 0.2 seconds over Briscoe through the first corner before his car stepped out in the second turn at the 2.5-mile track. Hamlin will start at the rear in a backup car on Sunday.

Gibbs will start 21 positions ahead of Ty Dillon as the two drivers battle for the $1-million top prize in the In-Season Challenge. The higher finisher will take home the check.

Series leader Chase Elliott made an adroit save in Turn 2 on his qualifying lap but lost time in the corner and will start 30th. Elliott has a 16-point lead over Byron with five races left in the regular season.

Wallace, the last driver above the current elimination line for the Cup Series Playoffs, will start Sunday’s race with a 16-point edge over Ryan Preece, who qualified 23rd.

Carson Hocevar, AJ Allmendinger and Austin Cindric completed the top 10 on the grid.

Hamlin paces 25-minute practice session

In a quest to complete his career Grand Slam, Hamlin paced practice Saturday afternoon in Indianapolis. Teams were scheduled to receive 50 minutes on Friday, but due to rain, teams had just 25 minutes in a reduced session before qualifying.

Nemechek, Keselowski, Gibbs and Zane Smith completed the top five. Austin Dillon, reigning Brickyard 400 champion Kyle Larson, Jones, Hocevar and Cindric rounded out the top 10.

Nemechek paced the field in 5-, 10- and 15-lap averages.

The session was completed without incident.

Posted on July 26, 2025July 26, 2025 by Cameron Richardson

CLERMONT, Ind. — Corey Heim has dominated the 2025 Craftsman Truck Series season and added another piece of hardware to his superb resume this year as he scored his second Regular Season Championship in three years Friday evening at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Heim needed 39 points at the 0.686-mile short track and pocketed 45 with a third-place result. Securing the title two races early was a solid consolation for a rare night where Heim didn’t believe he had the best truck.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Indy

“Feels really good. Just a testament to how good I’ve been this year,” Heim said after the race. “I feel like this is probably the first race where I haven’t had a legitimate shot to compete for the win, so that really says something.”

Heim started the race on pole after qualifying was washed out earlier in the afternoon due to inclement weather. The No. 11 Tricon Garage driver paced the first 20 laps out front before Layne Riggs took over and never looked back. Riggs dominated the night, leading 160 of the 200 laps to secure his second victory of 2025.

Heim’s night matched the trends of the previous three races he’s competed in at IRP. He led just 18 laps combined in three previous races at the track entering the night, which was the fifth fewest he’s led at any active track on the Truck calendar. However, his 20 laps led and fourth-place result Friday were both career bests for the 23-year-old.

“I was actually excited to come here and try to improve,” Heim said. “I’ve never felt like this track has been my best, but unfortunately, just kind of roamed around the outside of the top five all day and had a really good restart there at the end to get us track position to finish fourth.”

MORE: Stewart Friesen disqualified at IRP

Another 15 playoff points to what was already 39 in the bank for Heim can never hurt. However, nothing is guaranteed when the 10-driver Truck Series Playoffs begin at Darlington Raceway on Aug. 30 (Noon ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), and still seeking his first series championship, Heim is going to take the remainder of the season one race at a time.

“I don’t really look at it any sort of way to be honest with you,” Heim said of the extra playoff cushion. “I think we focus on every given week as much as we possibly can to give 100 percent, so the playoffs will be no different. Just very proud of the effort throughout the year for us to get here and onto Watkins Glen.”

Posted on July 26, 2025July 26, 2025 by Staff Report

CLERMONT, Ind. – The No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota driven by Stewart Friesen was disqualified following post-race technical inspection after Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Friesen was third when he drove underneath the checkered flag in Friday’s TSport 200, but his No. 52 truck failed to meet the height requirement, measuring too low in the front during post-race inspection. As a result, Friesen was dropped to 35th place – last – on the official finishing order and will be credited with only two points earned in his 200th Truck Series start, which came on his 42nd birthday.

RELATED: Race results | Riggs rolls to victory

Friesen, a winner in June at Michigan International Speedway, led 20 of 200 laps in Friday night’s event. The result would have been the Canadian driver’s third top-10 finish in the past four races. Instead, Friesen is credited with his fifth result of 13th or worse in the past seven races.

The team announced Saturday morning that it intends to appeal the penalty.

pic.twitter.com/OuIZctzjmy

— Stewart Friesen (@StewartFriesen) July 26, 2025

Layne Riggs won Friday’s race after leading 160 laps, besting Corey Day by 1.864 seconds. Regular Season Champion Corey Heim is credited with a third-place finish as a result of Friesen’s disqualification, while Grant Enfinger and Ty Majeski complete the top five.

Chandler Smith, Daniel Hemric, Tyler Ankrum, Ross Chastain and Rajah Caruth rounded out the top 10.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to action on Friday, Aug. 8 at Watkins Glen International at 5 p.m. ET with live coverage on FS1, NRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Posted on July 25, 2025July 26, 2025 by Reid Spencer

The post-race celebration said it all.

Layne Riggs planted the nose of his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford firmly against the outside of the pit row wall and lit up his tires as members of his team stood on the barrier and pumped their fists repeatedly.

The elation was well-deserved after Riggs scored his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Friday night’s TSport 200.

With his second victory of the season and a sweep of the first two stages, Riggs cut into the dominating lead of Corey Heim with two races left in the regular season.

Nevertheless, Heim, who ran third in a balky No. 11 Toyota, clinched the regular-season title.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Indy

“I’ll tell you, this truck was badass, man,” Riggs said after climbing from the F-150 on pit road. “It was so great. I was just out front saving my tires at the end. Then I was just waiting for a late-race caution (which never came), trying to run the bottom and trying to keep the least amount of distance to keep the distance off my tires.

“It’s so great to get (sponsor) Clew Nicotine Pouches in Victory Lane. That’s only their second race with us, and we’re super excited to have them. That was a pretty cool celebration.”

Riggs led 160 of the 200 laps at the 0.686-mile short track and beat Corey Day to the finish line by 1.864 seconds. The runner-up result was a career-best for Day, who had run fifth at Nashville Superspeedway in his most recent Truck Series outing.

“It was good to back up Nashville,” said Day, 19, who is running part-time schedules with Spire Motorsports in the Truck Series and Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. “I was telling everyone it clicked, and it felt like it clicked, but unless I come here and back it up, it means nothing.

“I’m really glad to finally be delivering results. I’ve been working really, really hard at this to be delivering results, and I really want to be doing the burnout up there.”

Stewart Friesen parlayed an early pit stop in the second stage into an ostensible third-place finish but was disqualified after failing height requirements in post-race inspection. The disqualification ruined an astute strategic call by the No. 52 team.

Grant Enfinger ran fourth. Reigning series champion Ty Majeski, currently the last driver above the elimination line for the 10-driver playoffs, came home fifth after Friesen’s disqualification and extended his advantage over ThorSport racing teammate Jake Garcia (15th Friday) from 38 to 61 points.

Chandler Smith, Daniel Hemric, Tyler Ankrum, Ross Chastain and Rajah Caruth completed the top 10.

Though he scored no playoff points on Friday, Heim, who set the fastest lap on his second circuit, already has banked 39 this season. With the seven he added in the TSport 200, Riggs now has 16, second most among Truck Series drivers, with the playoffs set to begin Aug. 30 at Darlington Raceway.

With two races remaining in the regular season, the Truck Series heads to Watkins Glen International Friday, Aug. 8 (5 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Inspection was completed in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series garage, and the No. 52 truck was disqualified for failing front-end height requirements (too low). There were no other issues.

Posted on July 25, 2025July 25, 2025 by Zach Sturniolo

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Chase Elliott has seen the magnitude of the Brickyard 400 firsthand.

As a kid watching his dad racing the No. 9 car around the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the aura of the 2.5-mile behemoth was obvious.

Seeing his father Bill Elliott win the Brickyard 400 in 2002 solidified one thing on 6-year-old Chase Elliott’s mind: He wanted to win it too.

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That goal remains the same 23 years later, as the younger Elliott chases his first Brickyard triumph in his eighth start on the Indianapolis oval (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and his fifth driving the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“There’s very few, if any, races that mean more to me than this one,” Elliott said Friday. “We want this one really bad.”

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion returns to the famed “Yard of Bricks” as the series points leader for the first time this season. A winner at his home track of EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) in Hampton, Georgia, in June, Elliott is setting his sights on another title pursuit. What comes first, however, is the hunt for his second Regular Season Championship.

Momentum is in favor of the No. 9 team’s hands. Elliott led a season-best 238 laps last weekend at Dover Motor Speedway before ultimately finishing sixth for his fifth top 10 in the last six races. He hasn’t finished worse than 20th all year, breaking a personal record he originally set last year.

“I think being the points leader is a product of a lot of different pieces of the puzzle that go beyond just us,” Elliott said. “But certainly from my perspective, I take pride in our team’s efforts over the course of the last four months and the things that we’ve accomplished. I don’t need a sheet of paper that adds up the points to know that we’ve been doing a good job.”

Elliott holds a 16-point advantage over Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron and a 38-point gap over another teammate, Kyle Larson, who won the Brickyard 400 in 2024. Denny Hamlin — who Friday announced a multiyear extension with Joe Gibbs Racing — sits fourth, 39 points behind Elliott. Elliott won the 2022 regular-season title, claiming the bonus of 15 playoff points with it. Every one of those points matters as playoff points carry with a driver through the course of the postseason.

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“Especially only having one win, the extra points would be extremely valuable for us,” Elliott said. “And we would love to get another win or two before the end of the regular season too. It’s not just that we’re happy with one. We want to get the regular season deal, but yeah, we want it all, like everybody does.”

Elliott knows the struggles of trying to go through the playoffs without the added benefit of those playoff points.

“I’ve been on both sides of the coin there,” he said. “(There have) been years where I feel like we’ve not had many playoff points, and we’ve had a couple years where we had a bunch, and I promise, it is a lot easier when you have a lot in the bank. That’s a much, much better way to go about it. The way the system is, so many things kind of being out of your control, it’s nice to have something to fall back on.”

The sting of a win that slipped away at Dover lingered slightly for Elliott, the 2022 winner at the “Monster Mile,” but he opted to look at the positives instead after a late pit stop for two tires ultimately didn’t play in their favor as Hamlin fended off the field on old tires to score his series-best fourth win of the year.

“When you have all the answers to the test after it’s over, it’s really easy to sit back and look at what was the right thing to do and what wasn’t,” Elliott said. “I thought that Denny did a really good job holding off the tires behind. Does he stay out if we stay out as well, knowing that tires (were) going to line up right behind us on the second row, and he didn’t have control of the restart? I don’t think they do, but maybe they do. Regardless, it’s a tough spot to be in, and it went the way it went. We can’t change it, but we can certainly take some lessons from the day and from the weekend and try to apply that forward to put ourselves in positions like that more often.”

What’s next is Indianapolis, where Elliott will have another chance to kiss the bricks if he can break through for his first Brickyard 400 triumph.