‘I don’t think I could ever win a race that would mean more to me’: Chase Briscoe on Brickyard 400 importance

Posted on July 25, 2025July 25, 2025 by Cameron Richardson

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — With adjacent streets decked out in Indianapolis Motor Speedway banners and neighborhoods displaying NASCAR and other motorsports-related memorabilia on front lawns, Brickyard 400 weekend feels big around the 2.5-mile facility just outside Indiana’s capital city.

No other driver in the Cup Series garage understands the sense of that spectacle more than Indiana native Chase Briscoe.

From the town of Mitchell, around 90 minutes south of the track, Briscoe frequented Indianapolis and discussed his very first trip to the track.

“I was seven years old and that was the first time I’d ever seen this race track, and I remember getting my uniform embroidered,” Briscoe said Friday during a press conference. “Getting my name on it, coming over here, coming inside the race track, and that was the first time I’d ever been inside the walls at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Just being in absolute awe. First off, the race track that’s this big. I’ve been to dirt tracks my whole life that were a quarter of a mile, and then to see this place and the grandstands, it was just unbelievable.”

Briscoe also mentioned attending the Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400 as a kid and sliding past the notoriously strict security to get to the garages for autographs.

But one of the standout memories for Briscoe is fellow Hoosier and NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart winning his first Brickyard 400 in 2005 with Joe Gibbs Racing. Twenty years later and also piloting a hot rod for JGR, a victory at Indy would mean everything for Briscoe.

“It’d definitely be really, really special,” Briscoe said. “I actually texted Tony this week about that. We went to the new museum and they had that 2005 car over there, and I took a picture of it. I sent it to him. I said, ‘hopefully another Hoosier can win 20 years later.’ So, yeah, it would be super, super special. I mean, there’d be nothing like it for me, just from a personal standpoint, than to win this race.”

Briscoe has won at Indianapolis, but it came on the road-course layout in 2020 amid a nine-win Xfinity Series campaign for him. He nearly shocked the Cup field in 2021 on the road course. However, a late scrap with Denny Hamlin for the lead resulted in Briscoe going off-course and rejoining the track before spinning the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver. Briscoe was penalized in the final laps for cutting the course and he ultimately finished 26th.

In the lead-up to Sunday’s Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, IMS Radio, HBO Max, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the idea of winning at the famed oval began seeping into Briscoe’s mind after hopping off the simulator in preparation for the 160-lapper.

“I was driving home and just kind of running laps through my head, and, yeah, I’ve never really thought about winning a race before,” Briscoe said. “It was just kind of like imagining what it would be like to win here and do it in the Brickyard 400 and I’ve watched Tony’s race the night before just randomly on YouTube, and just watching his celebration, everything. I just kind of put myself in that moment just as an Indiana guy, and it’s just different. I don’t know how to explain i. I just thought about it. I mean, there’s a quick 20-second thought, but just got goosebumps literally as I was driving down the road thinking about it.”

Briscoe admitted that he wasn’t in a position to win last year’s Brickyard 400. It was his first on the oval after the Cup Series ran the road course from 2021-2023.

This year, he’s got a different attitude and the results prove it.

MORE: Where Briscoe is projected to finish Sunday

While Briscoe’s had growing pains adapting to his first campaign piloting the No. 19 Toyota for JGR, he’s already scored the most top fives he’s ever had in a Cup season (eight entering Indy) and matched his career high in top 10s (10, 2022). With a win at Pocono last month to clinch a playoff berth and entering this weekend off back-to-back runner-up results at Sonoma and Dover, Briscoe can sense that he’ll have the car under him to compete and fully understands the magnitude the moment would mean for his career to have his first crown-jewel win be at Indianapolis.

“If I was able to win the Brickyard 400, it would be the biggest win of my career,” Briscoe said. “I don’t think I could ever win a race that would mean more to me. I just was talking about how many times I came here as a kid and what this place meant to me. So for me, yeah, winning on Sunday, there’s no race I’d rather win in the world.”

Posted on July 25, 2025July 27, 2025 by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series take on the famed Brickyard this weekend for their annual stop at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, while the Craftsman Truck Series is back in action at nearby Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on TNT Sports. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Fifteen sets (11 race sets plus one set transferred from qualifying). Teams will also have three sets for practice.

Note: A 50-minute practice session scheduled for Friday was canceled due to weather. Teams will have a 25-minute session Saturday at 2 p.m. ET before qualifying.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR Xfinity Series

Race day: Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Six sets (three race sets plus one set transferred from qualifying). Teams will also have two sets for practice.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Race day: Friday at 8 p.m. ET on FS1. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Five sets for dry conditions (three race sets plus one set transferred from qualifying). Teams will also have one set for practice and three sets of wet-weather tires for Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Starting Lineup (QUALIFYING CANCELED; LINEUP SET BY RULE BOOK)
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

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

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Kyle Larson is the only driver to win the Brickyard 400 in the Next Gen car.

His hope is to keep it that way.

MORE: Indianapolis schedule | Cup standings

Larson wheeled his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the crown-jewel victory in the 2024 edition of the event at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, carving through the field with more fuel than most. But that was last year. A new task awaits on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“Just happy to be back,” Larson said Friday before practice. “Hopefully, our car is good again. I believe it should be fast, if not better than it was last year. So hopefully have a good practice, good qualifying tomorrow and execute your race on Sunday.”

Despite his California roots, Larson is linked to Indy more than any other active NASCAR Cup Series driver, thanks in large part to his 2024 and 2025 attempts of the Memorial Day Double — competing in the storied Indianapolis 500 as well as the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the same day.

Neither attempt went to plan. Year 1 was marred by weather delays and a speeding penalty in the Indianapolis 500 that sank his finish, with the weather in both Indy and Charlotte ruining his chances of getting behind the wheel of his Cup car. This year’s try was arguably more heartbreaking. Time allotted him to compete in both events, but crashes in both races after the intense logistical planning and preparation ultimately soured the experience.

Returning to the Racing Capital of the World gives Larson an opportunity to put those disappointments behind him for good.

“It’s great to be back here in Indy and back in the stock car,” Larson said. “Hopefully, I’ll do a much better job than I did in May. It’s a privilege to get to run here and race this facility and would love nothing more than to have a good run, and hopefully put the bow on the Double stuff with another Brickyard 400 win.”

Larson enters Indianapolis with some much-needed momentum. Though he sits third in points heading into the 160-lap race, Larson had finished 13th or worse in five of the eight races since winning at Kansas Speedway in May, including a 37th-place DNF in the Coke 600. His fortunes changed for the better last weekend, however, with a fourth-place finish at Dover Motor Speedway.

“I knew that Dover would be a great opportunity for us to have a day like that,” Larson said, “where we could just be clean all race long and have speed and have things work out. But yeah, I mean, it got a little sketchy there when Bell spun. I thought I was going to get collected in that and be like, ‘Oh yeah, just continuing on our bad finishes here.’ But that was good. Hopefully that’s the beginning of us turning it around for us, but we’ll see.”

His track record at Indianapolis is stout: In seven starts on the Indy oval, Larson has one win, two top fives and four top 10s. Crew chief Cliff Daniels attributes that success to Larson’s persistence behind the scenes.

“He’s such a student of the game, and he has such versatility in so many different types of cars,” Daniels told NASCAR.com Friday. “He’s so adaptable. There are certainly some techniques that are different in clean air, fast pace here, versus being in traffic and the approach you have to take there. He’s studied that. He’s good at kind of changing himself to adapt to the moment. And he does that everywhere, really, but certainly at this place, he catches on pretty quick. So it’s a lot of fun to be here.”

Posted on July 25, 2025July 25, 2025 by Cameron Richardson

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Joe Gibbs Racing announced Friday that Denny Hamlin signed a multiyear contract extension that keeps the No. 11 driver behind the wheel with the organization through 2027.

Hamlin ranks 11th all-time with 58 NASCAR Cup Series victories and currently leads the field in wins this season after collecting his fourth at Dover Motor Speedway last Sunday.

When asked if the extension would be his last, Hamlin replied with a simple “most likely,” but laid out why the door remains open to continue racing beyond his 45th birthday in November.

“I would say it’s kind of a two-fold thing,” Hamlin said Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “Some of it is myself, motivating, right? I have goals I’d like to reach in the Cup Series and a really strong relationship with [team owner] Joe [Gibbs] and doing it for them and their family as well to keep going. Then, obviously, the ability to win week in, week out, that certainly is a high-motivating factor in wanting to do this. I think about on a weekly basis, would I want to do this if I didn’t have the ability or couldn’t win as much? It probably would not. The motivation wouldn’t be there. But certainly, as competitive as I am, I’m motivated by being able to win.”

Hamlin’s resume is prestigious, and he’s certainly in line to be a Hall of Famer when he chooses to step aside from full-time racing.

The 20-year Cup veteran owns three Daytona 500 trophies (2016, 2019, 2020), three Southern 500s (2010, 2017, 2021) and a Coca-Cola 600 triumph (2022). Hamlin owns the record for Cup Series Playoffs appearances with 18 and has made the Championship 4 on four occasions (2014, 2019, 2020, 2021).

From raising three kids to running a Cup team, Hamlin’s life is consumed with factors outside of piloting the No. 11 Toyota on a weekly basis. However, regardless of age, Hamlin says he won’t wait until the proverbial cliff approaches on his on-track abilities before hanging up the fire suit.

MORE: Indianapolis schedule

“I want the ability to know I can win my last race,” Hamlin said. “That’s going to be the deciding factor. I’m not going to wait until I start to head downward and then retire. I don’t want to go through a whole year of that. I understand if it just happens naturally in the second half of the final year — then it just happens. But I don’t want to have to go through another season, if I start tailing off, then the next year I’ll just retire. I can retire whenever I want to retire.”

Posted on July 25, 2025 by Nate Ryan

It’s been a devilishly delightful highlight of Ty Dillon’s miracle run through the In-Season Challenge.

After each unbelievable upset, the 32nd seed lightheartedly calls out the favored driver (or team) that he just vanquished.

Dillon stole the thunder of “I beat your favorite driver” in saying farewell to Denny Hamlin. He teased Brad Keselowski for his subpar basketball skills (a deep cut for fans of Charlotte’s NBA team).

Hendrick Motorsports and Alex Bowman were scolded for a failed promise to silence NASCAR’s Cinderella story, and fans were encouraged to buy the “extra small size” Ty Dillon T-shirt that John Hunter Nemechek wore (and then playfully ripped up) before being beaten at Dover Motor Speedway.

“I just want to have fun,” Dillon said. “I try not to be too personal and keep it somewhat light.”

It will come as no surprise to learn that Dillon and his kids are fans of pro wrestling. “I love those mic moments that create the character,” he says, but this goes deeper than just “cutting a promo” (as the men in the colorful tights would say).

“I’m a huge sports fanatic, and I love the entertainment side of sports,” Dillon said. “I feel a lot of drivers hone in just on their personal performance, but we are entertainers. This is an entertainment sport. I always try to think of ways that I can be a more entertaining athlete, and this in-season tournament opened up the opportunity.”

It’s done much more than that for a journeyman driver whose prior claim to fame was being the grandson of Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress.

Dillon, 33, has made 266 starts in the Cup Series and driven in seven full-time seasons since 2017, and yet he admittedly was “invisible” when the $1 million bracket-style challenge began a month ago.

With NASCAR Nation finally getting to appreciate his affable charm, Dillon has noticed a massive surge of supporters. Fellow Cup drivers, fans and even security guards at Dover are cheering on a pilot who has been quite likable now that he commands the midsummer attention usually sucked up by playoff races.

“Our story doesn’t get told in years past,” Dillon said. “So I’m grateful that we’ve been able to show our personality as a team and myself as well in this run.

“It’s been really cool this in-season tournament has given us a spotlight that typically at this point in the season a team like ours isn’t getting, even though we’re still improving.”

His No. 10 Chevrolet still is far from setting the world on fire, but Dillon has enjoyed big moments. Starting with an eighth-place result at EchoPark Speedway, formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway (his first top 10 since April 2022), he advanced to the final round by ripping off four consecutive top 20s for the first time in nearly three years – and with a dramatic flair.

Whether moving Alex Bowman aside on the final turn of the last lap at Sonoma Raceway or taking Nemechek and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. three-wide into Turn 1 on an overtime restart at Dover, the feel-good story line of the inaugural In Season Challenge has been defined by the grit and determination of Kaulig Racing.

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

“We’re finding ourselves as a bulldog of a team,” Dillon said. “We’re going to fight until the end, and don’t count us out until the last lap.

“We want to pull all these teams out to the deep water and then see who can survive the deep, deep water with us. Because we know we’re tougher than them.”

He speaks from surviving a career on the brink many times. If there’s been a knock on Dillon, it’s his lighthearted nature that he believes has been misunderstood as a lack of competitive fire.

But his goofy and blustery post-race barbs belie the fact that he is battle-tested. A winless decade of toiling in obscurity taught him the value of competitive persistence balanced with vulnerability and introspection.

“I’ve worked hard in the dark and not really had any recognition for a long time — and probably rightfully so as we haven’t done anything in the sport since my Xfinity career,” said Dillon, whose lone Xfinity victory was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014. “So I found peace in my own journey when nobody was watching or talking about me. Grinding in my own hard work and being pleased with what I’m putting into my career and my life and the way that I handle myself.

“When you find that satisfactory and you’re not really worried about the attention, but then the results and the attention start coming, you’re able to appreciate it in a different way.”

MORE: Indianapolis schedule | A look at the In-Season Challenge trophy

Sunday at the Brickyard, he will face off against Ty Gibbs, with the highest finisher earning $1 million.

Dillon aims to continue riding the momentum and spotlight for as long as he can.

“I keep telling my friends like I’m riding this wave and we’re going to ride it as long as it goes, but it is just that,” Dillon said. “Life comes in waves, and it’s always good to stop in the moments that are good and just be so present and happy. And to not look past the good moments in life because you have to find peace in your own journey and the things that you’re accomplishing when no one’s really looking.”

OK, but what bulletin board material does he have ready if he manages to beat Gibbs, the grandson of another NASCAR Hall of Famer?

Dillon laughs off the suggestion while explaining his next In-Season Challenge win would stand on its own without the need for any bravado.

“And I feel like we’ve already won this thing no matter what happens on Sunday anyway,” he said.

Posted on July 25, 2025 by Zack Albert

Just five races are left until the 2025 Cup Series Playoffs begin, and the current postseason leaderboard has some signs of movement after the most recent stop at Dover Motor Speedway.

Playoff Probabilities provided by Racing Insights (entering Indianapolis)

Four spots are still up for grabs, and the same four drivers above the elimination line before Dover are still in position to clinch one of the 16 playoff berths. All four, however, gained points relative to the playoff threshold at the “Monster Mile” to solidify their place.

At the top end of the playoff standings, Dover winner Denny Hamlin moved ahead of Kyle Larson as the provisional No. 1 seed on the playoff grid with his fourth victory of the 2025 season. Larson is the defending winner of Sunday’s Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), and Hamlin is seeking his first Indianapolis Motor Speedway win, a potential triumph that would complete the circuit’s grand slam of crown-jewel events.

With the latest postseason projections provided by Racing Insights, let’s dive into the probabilities to see who has the upper hand for a playoff spot heading to Indy and who could be in a post-Brickyard bind.

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

Tyler Reddick has tasted victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before, but that triumph came back in 2022 when the road-course configuration was in place. When Indy went back to the traditional 2.5-mile oval for NASCAR competition last season, Reddick remained a contender, rolling to the pole position and backing that speed up with a runner-up finish in the main event. Regardless of his Indy fortunes, Reddick’s 156-point cushion above the elimination barrier has him in the running to clinch a spot early — barring a rash of first-time winners in the regular season’s final five.

Alex Bowman made the week’s biggest jump in the probability spectrum after finishing third at Dover, rising nearly 22 points to an 84% likelihood of making the playoff field. Chris Buescher’s chances also received a boost after a Dover top-10 result. He’s plus-44 to the cutline, but has an upcoming stretch that bodes well for him with Watkins Glen, Richmond and Daytona — the regular season’s final three races — all tracks where he has recent wins.

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

Bubba Wallace stemmed an early summer string of four straight finishes outside the top 20 by converting a seventh-place outcome at Dover, putting him in the “Last 4 In” category, probability-wise. He has landed top 10s in his last three Brickyard oval starts, giving the 23XI Racing driver extra reason for optimism — even though he’s just plus-16 relative to the bubble.

Wallace may have corrected a brief dip in the results column, but fellow Toyota driver Ty Gibbs has been a recent riser with seven consecutive top-15 finishes and a string of three straight top 10s. His 15.23% number in the probability index could use the same sort of sustained oomph.

RACING INSIGHTS: Full race projections for Indianapolis

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

Ryan Preece’s season has been marked by overachieving, especially for an RFK Racing expansion team that didn’t exist before the dawn of the season. That said, the prospects for more bright spots seem dim on the Indy oval, where Preece has raced just three times, exiting after a crash his last two times out.

Preece fell from “Last 4 In” territory onto the outside of the probability bubble after a 19th-place Dover effort — a drop of just more than 20 percentage points. He’s also slotted to finish 25th in Racing Insights’ Brickyard 400 projections, leaving it up to the talented 34-year-old and his No. 60 team to buck the indicators at Indy.

Posted on July 24, 2025 by Staff Report

iRacing and NASCAR announced the new “NASCAR 25” console game will launch this fall, Oct. 14, 2025, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox X/S, with PC via Steam at a later date.

“NASCAR 25,” the first standalone console game produced by iRacing, is set to feature the Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck series.

For the first time, the ARCA Menards Series will be a part of the console gaming experience and play a key role in career mode.

MORE: Visit “NASCAR 25” website

With real drivers from their respective series, in career mode, gamers will be able to customize their own driver and vehicles, manage contracts, money, facility and staff. Making strategic decisions on and off the track will play a pivotal role in the journey from ARCA to becoming a Cup Series champion.

All four series will also be playable in other gameplay modes, such as quick races, seasons and online multiplayer.

Posted on July 24, 2025 by Neil Paine

It took a rain delay and multiple overtime restarts before sealing the deal, but Denny Hamlin’s victory last week at Dover was the latest in what has been a vintage season for the driver of the No. 11 car. The 11th-winningest driver in Cup Series history now has four trophies on the year — the most of anybody in the field — and he ranks fourth in the standings with the third-best average finish, third-best average Driver Rating and top-ranked Adjusted Points+ index of any Cup regular this season.

Denny has had plenty of great seasons before, of course. He’s made the Championship 4 on four separate occasions, in addition to finishing second in the Chase in 2010 and third during his rookie season of 2006. He also led the Cup Series in wins in both 2010 and 2012, and is one of just 11 modern-era (since 1972) drivers to have six different seasons with at least four wins.

That’s impressive enough by itself. But it cannot be ignored that Hamlin is doing all of this at age 44 this season, tying him for the fourth-oldest driver ever to rattle off a four-plus win season in modern Cup Series history — only Harry Gant (age 51 in 1991), Mark Martin (50 in 2009) and Bobby Allison (45 in 1983) did it at a more advanced age.

By conventional NASCAR wisdom, drivers shouldn’t be anywhere near this good at age 44. Even the greats tend to slow down — literally and figuratively — by their mid-40s. If you chart the cumulative share of career wins, top fives and top 10s for all retired modern-era drivers with at least 10 Cup Series victories, a clear pattern emerges: success peaks around age 34, begins a meaningful decline by 40 and is all but entirely out of fuel by 45.

Through their age-44 seasons, the same age Hamlin is now, our group of great historical drivers had claimed 93.4 percent of all the checkered flags they would ever win in their careers, with 92.6 percent of their eventual top fives and 91.3 percent of their lifetime top 10s. Whatever time they had left as a contender was running out fast.

And yet, Hamlin isn’t backing off the gas at this stage of his career — he’s speeding up. By multiple measures, this is his best performance since NASCAR introduced the Next Gen car in 2022. The only recent year that might compare is 2021 — the final season of the Gen 6 era — when he led the Cup Series in average finish and ranked second in both Adjusted Pts+ and Driver Rating. In fact, 2025 is just the third time in his career that Hamlin has finished among the top three in all three of those categories, joining 2021 and 2023.

Again, it’s remarkable that all of those performances have come during this, Denny’s third decade as a NASCAR driver. After a few seasons of seeming decline in 2022 and 2024, Hamlin’s numbers this year are just about as good as they’ve been throughout his whole time in Cup, with the only competition being his previous peaks from 2009-12 and 2019-21.

It’s the kind of late-career campaign that invites real speculation that this could finally be the year for Hamlin … or if not now, then when?

By now, it’s widely known that Hamlin is easily the winningest driver to never win a Cup Series crown. And if you visualize the all-time leaderboard of drivers without a championship, it becomes clear that he and Martin tower over the rest of NASCAR’s title-less elite:

One would think that a season like the one Hamlin is enjoying in 2025 would eventually end his championship drought and secure him his first-ever Cup title. But of course, we’ve had that same thought before: Denny’s career arc has long been defined by near-misses and close calls, stretching back nearly two decades.

That’s part of what makes this season so compelling. At +425, Hamlin trails only longtime nemesis Kyle Larson (+350) in DraftKings’ championship futures odds. And after last week’s Dover win, my model projects him as the favorite to win again on Sunday at Indianapolis — a track he’s never conquered in 16 tries, but one whose close cousins (Pocono, Michigan) have historically suited him very well. If Hamlin does take another checkered flag, it would mark his second back-to-back streak of the season — something only the serious title contenders can manage.

But the truth is, no amount of midseason success will mean much if Hamlin’s postseason journey finds a way to go sideways the way it so often has. That’s always been the story with Denny: Brilliance in the regular season, heartbreak in the playoffs. And so we’re left wondering — again — how many more chances like this he’ll get. How long can a 44-year-old driver keep his championship window open before he either gets his long-awaited breakthrough or Father Time finally slams it shut for good?

Posted on July 24, 2025July 24, 2025 by Reid Spencer

After three weeks off, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to action in Friday night’s TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (8 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

That’s good news for reigning series champion Ty Majeski, whose victory at the 0.686-mile short track last year proved to be a springboard to the series championship.

Majeski added a win at Richmond and a runner-up finish from the pole at the Milwaukee Mile in his next two starts. After qualifying for the Championship 4, he won from the pole at Phoenix Raceway to secure the title.

Majeski was fourth in the Truck Series standings when he came to IRP last year. This season, his position is considerably more tenuous. With three races left in the regular season, the driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford is 10th on the potential playoff grid, just 38 points above the current elimination line.

Accordingly, the TSport 200 couldn’t come at a better time for the 30-year-old short-track ace from Seymour, Wisconsin, who won the prestigious Slinger Nationals super late model race in his native state on July 8 during the downtime for the Truck Series.

Watkins Glen International and Richmond Raceway follow Indianapolis, and that portion of the schedule bodes well for Majeski in an underwhelming year for ThorSport. Majeski is the only one of the organization’s drivers currently above the elimination line.

Jake Garcia is 11th, 38 points behind his champion teammate. Two-time title winner Ben Rhodes is 13th on the current playoff grid, 68 points out, and three-time champion Matt Crafton is 153 points down in 16th, needing a win in the next three races to advance to the 10-driver playoffs.

Posted on July 24, 2025 by Brandon White

The past few weeks have been some of the most challenging of Cole Bruce’s life.

Cole lost his father Robert Bruce, a respected veteran racer in Virginia, on July 1 due to complications stemming from a heart attack he suffered at Langley Speedway. Since then, Cole has grappled with the sudden loss of Robert, understandably leaving racing on the backburner during the grieving process.

Saturday’s twin Late Model features at Langley will serve as Cole’s first time back behind the wheel following Robert’s death. Numerous emotions are occupying Cole’s mind ahead of the upcoming races, but from his perspective, doing what he and his dad loved the most is the best way to move forward.

“Overwhelmed would probably be the right word,” Cole said. “I’m trying to get everything prepped for this weekend. Obviously, it’s different because before it was always me and dad doing everything. I’m a little bit relieved, too, because it’s been about a month since I’ve been racing. We’re trying to get back into the realm of normal, everyday life.

“It’s going to be super weird and abnormal because I think this is the first race I’ve ever run without dad being there in the big car.”

Robert’s passion for motorsports in general was the primary influence behind Cole’s decision to become a racer himself.

Among the cars Robert raced included Grand Stocks at Old Dominion Raceway, and he was heavily involved in Late Model Stocks. Robert also occasionally made appearances in major touring divisions like the NASCAR Goody’s Dash Series and the ARCA Menards Series.

The only start Robert made across NASCAR’s top three series was a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway in 2013. He finished 28^th in the No. 84 Ford for Mike Harmon.

Robert’s versatile career helped him acquire a plethora of knowledge he would share with other drivers that eventually included his son Cole. With Robert by his side, Cole gradually got himself acclimated to Late Model Stocks and earned his first victory in the discipline at Langley earlier this year.

The path to that milestone required Cole to diligently absorb everything Robert was trying to teach him about Late Model Stocks. This tutelage extended to the financial side of the Bruces’ operation, which allowed Cole to develop a careful, pragmatic approach with how he races his fellow competitors.

“[He wanted me] to understand the actual sport itself, whether it was behind the wheel or on the business side of stuff,” Cole said. “He taught me how to save a penny, that’s for sure. One lesson I learned growing up was not putting my nose in places it shouldn’t be, because then he’d make me fix all my wrecked cars.

“That helped me understand how expensive things [are] and how much funds we actually had, so I kind of matured a lot in those stages.”

Cole Bruce broke through for his first Late Model Stock victory at Langley Speedway on April 19, 2025. (Photo: John Bechtel Photography)

Cole is thankful for all the information he was able to retain from Robert. Now responsibility falls upon him to keep applying that knowledge, something Cole admits has been challenging during his first race week without Robert.

When Cole was attending classes at Liberty University, Robert would oversee the day-to-day operations of the team and get his Late Model Stock ready. Effectively stepping into his dad’s role has provided Cole a fresh perspective on short-track racing when it comes to the intricacies of making a small operation sustainable.

Nothing about the transition has been easy, but Cole is taking everything day-by-day with his scenario.

“[It’s been hard] doing a lot of the stuff on my own,” Cole said. “I have people around me who will come over and help me get the car ready, as well as answer my questions if I have any. Another logistical challenge is race week prep like cleaning up tires every week, scaling the car or, hell, just trying to find stuff in the shop.

“Now that [my dad’s] gone, I have a greater appreciation for [what he did], because there’s a lot more of a workload trying to do it yourself.”

With so much effort being exerted into preparing his No. 31 Clubtails Toyota just for Saturday evening, Cole has not given substantial thought into the long-term future of his team.

Cole does intend to finish the 2025 season at Langley and chase more victories in honor of his dad. With the Hampton Heat not being a points event, Cole did not have that race on his schedule prior to Robert’s death, but the two discussed potentially entering the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway again after skipping the race last year.

Funding will dictate whether Cole makes the trip to Martinsville in September, but he is determined to find a way into Late Model Stock’s crown jewel event. Robert was unable to make the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 during his lone attempt in 2013, with Cole himself failing to qualify for the race in 2022 and 2023.

A busy slate of events at Langley awaits Cole before the ValleyStar Credit Union 300. He sits fourth in Langley’s Late Model Stock standings with five races remaining and is confident the speed his car possessed earlier in the year will be prevalent as he closes out a productive-but-solemn year.

Cole knows he can win Saturday, but doing so would bring mixed emotions — just like the entire week preceding the twin Late Model Stock features.

“[A win would] mean the world to me, but it would definitely suck since it’d be my first win without dad,” Cole said. “It’ll be a very emotional night if so, but I know he’ll be with me this weekend and all the other races moving forward. That’s all he wanted to see me do, succeed. We’re ready to go out there and do what we normally do.”

Cole Bruce intends to finish the 2025 season at Langley Speedway in honor of his dad Robert Bruce (Photo: Dinah Marie Photography)

Cole has never known a life in motorsports without Robert. The two spent years developing their small operation into one that could regularly contend for wins in Langley’s competitive Late Model Stock class, with Cole believing the two had many more chapters in that journey ahead.

One positive through a tumultuous period for Cole and the Bruce family is that he has had plenty of time to reflect on numerous great memories with Robert. Cole will always remember Robert as a great short-track competitor, but an even better father.

“Dad was always in my corner,” Cole said. “We’ve gone through a lot of trials and errors, but whether I was in the wrong or right, he was always there backing me up but made sure I understood where I messed up. We finally got to a point where we understood each other well, and he always supported everything I wanted to do.

“He always sacrificed a lot for us to make sure that me, my sister and my family were always able to do what we wanted to do.”

Robert may be gone, but his spirit lives on through Cole, a son determined to carry on his father’s love and commitment to motorsports.