NEWTON, Iowa — Sam Mayer took control of Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway after a Lap 221 restart and maintained it the rest of the way to record the first victory for the Haas Factory team and the first in the series for Ford this season.
Mayer won at Iowa for the second straight year, having triumphed in a JR Motorsports Chevrolet last season. The eighth victory of his career ended Sunoco rookie Connor Zilisch’s three-race winning streak.
Driving the No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford, Mayer edged ahead of pole winner and runner-up Jesse Love on Lap 223 before Brandon Jones spun in oil from Matt DiBenedetto’s Chevrolet to cause the eighth caution of the afternoon.
On the subsequent restart on Lap 234, Mayer streaked away and left Love and other pursuers in his wake. After taking the white flag, Mayer was cruising to the victory when Garrett Smithley’s spin caused the ninth and final caution and froze the field, with Mayer in the winning position.
“This one’s everything right here,” Mayer said. “First win for Haas Factory Team — that’s awesome. This car was fast all day long. I tried to botch it on pit road, but we didn’t.
“I can’t believe it. This is one of the most special wins I have. These guys (Mayer’s team), they love me to death, I love them to death, and we’re just some good ol’ boys trying to go racing.”
After finishing fourth in the first stage, Mayer overshot his No. 1 pit stall, which sits at a difficult angle around a curve near the exit from pit road. Mayer restarted 16th on Lap 71 but worked his way back through the field and regained the fourth spot by the end of Stage 2.
“I missed my pit box, but the car was so good it didn’t even matter,” Mayer said. “We ran up through there — no problem. It was great.”
Ross Chastain finished third behind Mayer and Love, with Zilisch running fourth and Harrison Burton fifth.
For practical purposes, Zilisch’s bid for a fourth straight Xfinity Series ran into immediate trouble during the first stage break. After winning Stage 1, Zilisch brought his No. 88 Chevrolet to pit road for service, but the front tire changer failed to get all lug nuts tight on the left-front wheel.
Zilisch restarted 25th on Lap 71 and initially made rapid progress through the field. As the second stage progressed, Zilisch stalled out in traffic, with his Camaro getting increasingly loose behind other cars.
The 19-year-old phenom finished the stage in 17th place and restarted the final stage in the same position on Lap 130. He climbed as high as third in the running order but couldn’t find a way to prevail during a succession of late restarts.
In fact, Zilisch’s car broke loose in a three-wide scenario with teammates Chastain and reigning series champion Justin Allgaier on Lap 214. Contact from Zilisch’s car knocked Chastain sideways into Allgaier’s Chevrolet.
With Allgaier finishing 16th, he and Zilisch are now tied for the series points lead with four races left in the regular season.
Burton took a major step toward the playoffs with his second top-five finish of the season. He’s now 11th on the current playoff grid, 17 points ahead of 12th-place Ryan Sieg and 19 points ahead of cousin Jeb Burton, the first driver below the elimination line.
Jeb Burton finished 29th and one lap down Saturday after dealing with a cracked track bar and suffering through the afternoon with an ill-handling car.
Driving the No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet after the abrupt release of Josh Williams from the ride, Carson Hocevar finished sixth, followed by Sheldon Creed, Ryan Sieg, Carson Kvapil and Christian Eckes.
The Xfinity Series returns to action next Saturday for some road-course racing at Watkins Glen International (3 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Mayer as the race winner. The No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, driven by Taylor Gray, had one lug nut not safe and secure, which will result in a monetary fine.
NEWTON, Iowa — “I like him less and less every year.”
Ryan Blaney couldn’t help but throw another verbal jab at best friend Bubba Wallace, the perfect example of their ongoing banter as they continue to experience professional success together in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The pair celebrated the latest milestone with each other at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last Sunday when Wallace won the Brickyard 400, his first Cup win since 2022 and breaking a 100-race winless drought. The victory signified both drivers owning crown-jewel triumphs with Wallace joining Blaney, who won the Coca-Cola 600 in 2023.
Their history dates back two decades as Blaney and Wallace crossed paths as kids beginning their respective racing journeys.
“It’s been super unique,” Blaney said. “We started racing bandoleros together when we were 9 and raced together for a long time. Then our career paths kind of separated a little bit. He went a different form of late-model racing than me and then ran K&N East [now ARCA Menards Series East] for a while, while I was still late-model racing and figuring out what we could do. Then our paths crossed back again a little bit in K&N and then Trucks and all the way up to Cup. I don’t think either of us, when we were 9 or 10 years old, would ever think we’d be where we are 20 years later.”
In the transition from childhood to adulthood, the meaning of friendship can change and be undervalued as individuals focus on career and family.
However, the proximity of the racing world keeps drivers close to each other on the weekends. And in Wallace and Blaney’s case, they even live near one another.
“In such a masculine and competitive sport, friendships kind of get lost,” Wallace said. “But that’s the cool thing about motorsports and us in general. There’s still six or seven of us that grew up racing together since we were kids and you kind of feel that bond from the get-go because of those moments. Blaney and I, we live 10 minutes apart from each other. We see each other all the time. He’s there for me and I’m there for him, and through the good, through the bad, you always try to be like that shoulder to lean on. I truly appreciate him and what he’s been able to do for me in my career.”
As Blaney has collected 14 Cup wins and a series championship in 2023, one could think it would make a friend loathe the success. But that’s not the case for Wallace. That goes back to their days as kids where he says he used to get the better of Blaney.
“You watch him and all the success that he has here, and what he’s been able to do in his career has been super cool,” Wallace said. “I can easily get jealous and not want to be a part of it, but it’s cool as hell to see us all where we came from. The thing that also kept me going is I do look back on the days when we were kids and I used to kick his ass. It’s like, you did it then. Why can’t you do it now, you know? I kind of kept that as fuel too, so we are super competitive.”
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
It’s not just the career milestones the two to get to celebrate together.
Wallace and his wife Amanda now have a son, Becks, who was born last September, while Blaney and wife Gianna are expecting their first child later this year.
From chartering planes to the track together to now beginning their journey as fathers, the bond between Blaney and Wallace continues to evolve and they hope they’ll be able to pass down that friendship to their kids.
“It’s just cool to have that relationship,” Wallace said. “You have your family here at the race track and when you have people you can lean on, it makes the bad weekends a little bit easier.”
“It’s an interesting dynamic,” Blaney said. “You’re competing with everybody out there, but you’re happy when your friends are successful and they win. I went over to Bubba’s house Sunday night after Indy to celebrate that. Couldn’t miss that one. So, yeah, it’s cool and then next stages of your life, right? Marriage and his kid’s nine months, mine’s on the way, and hopefully they’ll have the same friendship that he and I had growing up together. We’re both really lucky that [we’ve] been able to do what we’ve been able to do and stay really close through the years.”
Unique stretch of tracks to settle playoff grid runs through Iowa
A quartet of races is all that separates the NASCAR Cup Series from its 2025 playoff campaign. That journey starts in the cornfields at Iowa Speedway.
The 0.875-mile tri-oval is short, high-banked and action-packed, the only track on the Cup schedule that measures in at 7/8-mile. In fact, none of the four tracks that close the Cup Series’ regular season are quite alike. Next week brings the sport to Watkins Glen International, a 2.45-mile road course with sweeping elevation changes in Upstate New York. That’s followed by a Saturday night showdown at the 0.75-mile Richmond Raceway — the track that Iowa was inspired — before propelling to the superspeedway high banks of Daytona International Speedway to close the run to the postseason.
With only three playoff spots remaining, starting on the right foot at Iowa can make a world of difference.
Tyler Reddick is currently safe, entering 138 points above the elimination line. But if three other new winners join the fray and Reddick isn’t one of them, Reddick will be left on the outside of the 16-driver postseason party.
Erik Jones is hoping he’s one of those potential new winners to make Reddick sweat. The driver of the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota has won two Craftsman Truck Series races at Iowa and one Xfinity race there in addition to a Daytona Cup win. But with only one Cup race at Iowa in the books — and one that didn’t go well at all for Jones with a 32nd-place finish — bad notes contribute to making this stretch of the season “challenging,” he said Saturday.
“It’s extra challenging I think for us, just because we weren’t any really good at these places last year, so we’re kind of coming back like (it’s the) first time for us almost,” Jones said. “I sure hope we didn’t bring anything that we had last year here. So it’s kind of just starting over a little bit. It is a tough grouping of tracks to begin with, but for us, just real limited notebook on it.”
A fast-paced short track like Iowa can also play into the hands of drivers in jeopardy. Ryan Preece is currently outside the playoffs by 42 points but has tasted success at Iowa before, launching his NASCAR career forward by winning an Xfinity Series race here in 2017 with Joe Gibbs Racing. Now driving the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford, Preece could propel his career to the next level by earning his first Cup Series win and appearance in the playoffs.
Long runs, patience and team execution will all be imperative Sunday afternoon.
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
NEWTON, Iowa — Iowa sets the stage for a string of smaller ovals that will continuously build the notebook for the championship race at Phoenix Raceway in November.
Team Penske has been the dominant organization on such tracks, winning at Iowa, World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway) and the Arizona finale last year as Joey Logano captured his third Bill France Cup.
Iowa also brings new left and right-side tires this weekend, which could help offer insights for the middle race of the Round of 16 at Gateway.
“This race in particular, I think with the tire change that we’re seeing here, pretty much a very similar change going into Gateway,” Jonathan Hassler, the defending race-winning crew chief at Iowa with Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 team, told NASCAR.com on Saturday. “Good opportunity to build our notebook for that race specifically, and a little bit for Loudon as well. We definitely took a lot last year from here to Loudon, so it’ll definitely be a good building block for those races.”
The age of Iowa’s surface continues to be a hot-button topic, specifically in the corners that were repaved on the bottom last year.
A Goodyear test was held earlier this season to assess the new tire structure and how it would react to the track.
“It was a tire test and then a wheel force tire test with Cup cars here, so a lot of information there,” No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Rudy Fugle told NASCAR.com. “Then, the IndyCar race, just to kind of see where they ran and the biggest thing was the color of the corners lightening up so quickly. Last year, they stuck out. They were really, really dark, and this year, they lightened up almost the same color as the rest of the track. So that was super interesting. We’ll just see what the grip level is. I think the grip level is similar, but I’m sure it’s down from last year. So it’ll lend to some good racing.”
The last few race weekends and back at the team shops in the Charlotte, North Carolina area have packed a punch in the summer heat, but there will be some relief from the temps in the “Hawkeye State” as highs are expected to remain in the 70s through Sunday.
“The drivers and the teams are going to enjoy the fact that when they get their fire suits on, this is going to be a little less brutal,” Fugle said, referring to the forecast. “They get a little bit of a break, so we’re thankful for that.”
Short-run speed isn’t key on short tracks. Being quick over just a few laps doesn’t seem to pay off on short tracks. According to Racing Insights, the last four short-track races have ended with a green-flag run of at least 75 laps, the longest streak on short tracks since at least 1978. That logic holds up for qualifying, too — no polesitter has won a short-track race since Denny Hamlin went to Victory Lane at Bristol back in August 2019.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
JOSH BERRY. Berry has just one top-10 finish since winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March, that top 10 coming at Kansas Speedway in May. But Iowa seems like exactly the track Berry could use to right the ship for the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. Team Penske has been strong on short ovals like Iowa, Richmond and Phoenix in recent years, and Berry’s No. 21 car is an affiliate of the Team Penske fleet. In the inaugural Iowa Cup race last year, Berry led 32 laps and finished seventh driving the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Perhaps he can find momentum before the playoffs begin with a strong run at Iowa.
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
Not much movement in my lineup from earlier in the week, though I’ve replaced Joey Logano with Chase Elliott. Long-run pace mattered in the inaugural Iowa race, and Elliott was in command over 20-, 25- and 30-lap averages in practice. Meanwhile, Logano tanked to 36th on single-lap speed in practice and was the slowest of the 33 cars that made a 10-lap run. The Hendrick Motorsports cars looked to be the best across the board, though Joe Gibbs Racing driver and polesitter Chase Briscoe barely missed the cut to be in my lineup. Another change this weekend is benching Ryan Preece in 36 for 36 as the No. 60 RFK Racing team also struggled mightily on Saturday. I’m playing the conservative route with Cole Custer, earning a 19th-place starting spot, his best effort on a traditional oval in 2025.
Lineup: William Byron, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell.
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• NASCAR at Iowa: Key info, practice reports and more from doubleheader weekend | Read more
• It’s baseball, baby!: Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds face off in historic MLB Speedway Classic at Bristol | Read more
• Williams out at Kaulig: Josh Williams, Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice on Xfinity split | Read more
• Hauler Talk: Inside the decision to suspend Xfinity driver Austin Hill; Cup Series Playoffs committee to reconvene | Read more • Racing Insights: Where your favorite driver is projected to finish Sunday | Read more
• Field of 16: RFK teammates Buescher, Preece in spotlight before Iowa | Read more • Turning Point to Iowa: What’s next for Bubba after Brickyard triumph? | Read more
• At-track photos: Scenes, sights from Iowa’s corn country | View gallery
• Paint Scheme Preview: See full field of schemes set for Iowa | View gallery
• Power Rankings: Will Blaney match best bud Bubba and go back-to-back? | This week’s top 20
NEWTON, Iowa — Three Hendrick Motorsports drivers are 1-2-3 in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with four races left in the regular season, the closest competition for the 15-playoff-point bonus that goes to the regular-season winner since the current system was installed in 2017.
Chase Elliott has a four-point lead over teammate William Byron in second, with Kyle Larson 15 points in third ahead of Sunday’s Cup contest at Iowa Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Byron finished second in last year’s Iowa race, and Elliott ran third, but Larson, despite his 34th-place finish, arguably had the fastest car in the field.
Larson won the pole for the inaugural Cup race at the 0.875-mile track and scored a stage win before contact from Daniel Suarez’s No. 99 Chevrolet spun Larson’s No. 5 Camaro into the outside wall, putting a damper on the latter’s day.
“I feel like our team was really, really strong to start the year (this season),” Larson said. “We had those five or six weeks where we had fallen off a bit, but these last two have gone well. We were competitive here at Iowa last year …”
In all probability, the teammates will battle for the regular-season title until the final regular-season race at Daytona International Speedway. If there’s a spoiler, it’s likely to be Denny Hamlin, who trails Elliott by 20 points despite missing the race in Mexico City for the birth of his son.
“It’s great to see Hendrick Motorsports atop the standings right now — at least three of us are — with just a few races left till the end of the regular season,” Larson said. “That’s something to be proud of, but there’s still a lot of racing left, and the playoffs can be crazy.”
NEWTON, Iowa — The new pavement at Iowa Speedway has aged for only a year. Still, NASCAR Cup Series drivers can expect a different track when they line up for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Strips of new asphalt in the corners provided more grip in last year’s race, won by Ryan Blaney. But with a year of weathering, Blaney expects the advantage of the “grip strips” to have dissipated to some degree.
“The asphalt definitely looks a lot lighter than last year, like it’s taken some wear,” Blaney said. “And in the Xfinity practice (on Saturday), it was nice. They were in the second groove immediately. So I think it’s going to be pretty racy.
“Honestly, this race track was pretty racy last year when the second lane came in. It kind of had two-and-a-half, three lanes, really, at the end of the day. I’m curious to see what the tire does.
“Talking to some Xfinity guys after practice, they thought it was a little less grip than what it was last year, and I think that’s just going to get worse and worse as the weekend goes on and rubber gets laid down, and the track continues to lose a little grip.”
Brenden “Butterbean” Queen, winner of Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race at Iowa, can attest to some of Blaney’s suppositions. Queen picked the outside lane for restarts at the 0.875-mile short track, expecting to find more grip in the repaved strips.
“It makes it really fun to drive, ‘cause we like to be able to slip around and have to manage it,” Queen said. “The thing that caught me off guard was I thought the top was going to be so dominant on a restart, and it was, if you could maintain into Turn 1.
“The problem was that long patch to the restart line I thought was going to be extra grip, but it was kind of like a sandy dust, and I had a ton of wheel-spin issues, and even worse when I transitioned to the old pavement versus that patch.”
NEWTON, Iowa — Christopher Bell addressed his contact with Zane Smith in overtime of last Sunday’s Brickyard 400 that sent the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford crashing into the wall.
The incident came to light as replays showed the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota hit the backend of Smith’s car and turn him to the right, initially indicating a right-rear hook down the backstretch of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. However, there was no prior run-in between the two drivers and immediately after the race ended, Bell walked over and issued apologies to every member of the No. 38 team.
“It was really bad,” Bell said Saturday at Iowa Speedway. “That was a really, really bad mistake on my part. I made my mind up literally the second after I said, ‘I have to go apologize to everyone.’ I walked by their pit box, saw their pit-crew guys — they were tearing down the pit box, I apologized to them. Then wandered over to the hauler. Tried to find Zane, he wasn’t around, but was able to talk to the crew guys. Even ran into the crew chief [Ryan Bergenty] on the way there. I felt really bad about it. It was obviously a great run for them and they were doing really good. My mistake took them out.”
The No. 38 team’s front-tire changer, Ryan “Skip” Flores, commended Bell on this week’s “Stacking Pennies” podcast for going up to every team member after Sunday’s race.
“For the first time ever, a driver walked up to all of our pit crew guys and apologized,” co-host Flores said on the podcast. “He went to our truck and apologized to all our road crew guys. That takes balls after you wreck somebody’s stuff to go and stop and say ‘Hey man, I’m sorry.’ It’s one thing to call the driver on Tuesday, but to go face all the guys and do that, that’s really one of the first times I’ve remembered that.”
Bell added that going up to the crew members made him nervous, and he was prepared for any outcome from approaching them.
“I knew I deserved what was coming,” Bell said. “I’m gonna own it. If I want to walk up there and they want to ‘M-F’ me and tell me to get out, I deserve that in that moment. I felt like I owed them the respect. I wanted to take accountability to them, and hopefully — I tried to show them accountability and tell them that it was on me. I didn’t know what I was walking into, but they were pretty busy just trying to get loaded up and doing their thing.”
The sting was felt even more by the No. 38 team as Bell and Smith were fighting for 10th after the first overtime restart.
Bell wound up scoring an eighth-place result, while Smith fell to 31st after going to the garage.
It continued a streak of Smith getting the short end of the stick in late-race incidents at Sonoma Raceway, Dover Motor Speedway and Indianapolis. According to Bergenty, the team lost out on 51 points combined over the last three weeks.
The contact also came just one day after Austin Hill’s right-rear hook of Aric Almirola that resulted in a one-race suspension for Hill. Bell was unsure how the incident would be viewed by NASCAR.
“I honestly didn’t know how it was going to go,” Bell said. “I felt like it probably could go either way. Obviously, it was a mistake and I think the general consensus was the 21 (Hill) deal wasn’t a mistake. It sucks because I did hook him to the right and there’s been plenty of cases where people have done that exact same mistake, but it’s been to the inside. The one that comes to mind is Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott in 2020 at Darlington. Kyle was just trying to squeeze up into a gap and misjudged it exactly like I did, and hooked Chase and his car went left instead of right. That was the exact same thing I did. He turned right and the right turn has been a talking point over the last couple years.”
Over his career, Bell doesn’t have a laundry list of enemies or run-ins that would’ve made the contact with Smith a pattern of behavior that loses him respect in the garage.
Bell understands that on-track ethics vary from driver to driver, but he’ll turn his focus to Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where he will start 17th in the running order.
“Everyone has a different code of racing hard and what’s clean and fair,” Bell said. “But I try and do my best to race as fair as possible. I feel like I’ve demonstrated that to my peers and competitors and industry personnel throughout the years. I hope that whenever people see that, they’re like ‘yeah, he didn’t mean to do that.’ “
NEWTON, Iowa — Kyle Busch had just posted the second-fastest lap in Group A in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice at Iowa Speedway when calamity struck.
On his 18th circuit of the session, Busch drove hard into Turn 1, but his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet lurched out of control and slammed nose-first into the outside wall.
With the car destroyed, Busch will start Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) from the rear of the field in a backup car.
Busch said he was trying to build more security into the rear of the car.
“Anywhere I would push it a little harder, I would feel rear chatter,” Busch said. “I felt really good about the changes that we made there, came out of Turn 4 really hot and heavy and hard on it and went off into Turn 1 with too much trust and chattered the right rear and wrecked it.
“I’m not real sure how to find more trust when you feel something good in one corner, and it’s not there in the next.”
In danger of missing the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the second straight year, Busch almost certainly must win one of the next four races to qualify for the postseason. He’s 81 points below the current elimination line.
NEWTON, Iowa — Superspeedway, intermediate, road course or short track, Chase Briscoe has shown blistering speed in his first season in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on all sorts of venues.
On Saturday at Iowa Speedway, a 0.875-mile short track, Briscoe won his sixth pole of the season with a 136.933 mph (23.004 seconds) lap to earn the top starting spot in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
That effort followed a pole run last Saturday at the mammoth 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In fact, in the last 11 NASCAR Cup Series qualifying sessions, Briscoe has put his car on the front row seven times with five Busch Light Pole Awards and a pair of second-place starts.
Briscoe, who has eight career poles, attributed his qualifying success to a burgeoning working relationship with crew chief James Small.
“I just feel that James and the engineers on the No.19 crew have done a really, really good job, especially these last two months, of understanding what I want and what I need out of the race car,” Briscoe said.
“I’ve even kind of noticed a switch with James over the course of the last two or three weeks, even, where it went from ‘We’ve got to be doing this different’ to ‘We’ve got to get the car better for you now.’
“I think that came as they started to understand me more, and our performance has been better. James does such a great job of understanding what I need, especially on Saturdays for qualifying.”
Briscoe edged William Byron (136.435 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.084 seconds. Kyle Larson, Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, was third fastest at 136.429 mph.
Byron, Larson and teammate Chase Elliott, who qualified eighth, are locked in a tight battle for the Cup Series Regular Season Championship, with Elliott leading the series by four points over Byron and 15 over third-place Larson.
Austin Cindric (136.358 mph) qualified fourth in the fastest Ford, followed by Brad Keselowski and defending race winner Ryan Blaney.
Carson Hocevar, Elliott, AJ Allmendinger and Justin Haley completed the top 10.
RFK Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece will start 27th and 33rd, respectively, as they battle for a berth in the Cup Series Playoffs. Preece trails Buescher by 42 points in the race for what is currently the final spot.
Briscoe’s machine was the only Camry in the top 10. Denny Hamlin, who scraped the Turn 1 wall during practice, was 11th fastest in the No. 11 JGR Toyota.
Bell tops practice
Three-time 2025 Cup Series winner Christopher Bell topped Saturday’s practice session, sending the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the top of the leaderboard with a 133.980 mph lap.
Brickyard 400 winner Bubba Wallace (133.894 mph), Chase Briscoe (133.781), William Byron (133.752) and Kyle Larson (133.678) rounded out the top five. Tyler Reddick (133.639), Alex Bowman (133.616), Brad Keselowski (133.599), Chase Elliott (133.525) and Denny Hamlin (133.497) completed the top 10.
Kyle Busch, piloting the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, wrecked with 8:45 remaining during the opening 25-minute practice session, losing control entering Turn 1 and hitting the outside wall head-on. Busch completed 17 laps during practice, completing the 17th-fastest lap (133.147 mph) before the incident. The No. 8 team will transition to a backup car, RCR announced on social media.
Christopher Bell will substitute for Stewart Friesen in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Watkins Glen International, Halmar Friesen Racing announced Saturday.
Friesen, driver of the team’s No. 52 Toyota, was seriously injured during a Super DIRTcar Series modified race Monday at Autodrome Drummond in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada, sustaining a fractured right leg in addition to an open-book pelvis fracture. The 42-year-old underwent successful surgery in a New York hospital Thursday night to address both injuries, his wife Jessica shared in a social media post, as Friesen recovers from the incident.
“I want to thank everyone for their outreach and support as I continue to recover,” Friesen said in a team press release. “I know Christopher will give our truck a great run. We will be watching and cheering the team on this Friday.”
Friesen is tentatively locked into the 2025 Truck Series Playoffs thanks to his June win at Michigan International Speedway. The team intends to compete each week moving forward so that it will remain eligible for the Truck Series owners’ championship this season, HFR said in the release. Driver announcements for future races will come at a later time, the team said.
Bell, the 2017 Truck Series champion, is a seven-time winner in truck competition but has made just four combined starts since his title campaign. His most recent appearance in the Truck Series came at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March 2024, when he drove the No. 1 Tricon Garage Toyota to a fifth-place finish.
“I was honored to receive the call to run this truck for Stewart, a fellow dirt racer and Toyota teammate, in Watkins Glen,” Bell said in a statement. “I’ve spent time with the team these past few days and we are working hard to continue the great season Stewart has had and deliver a great finish for him and his partners.”
The Truck Series returns to action at 5 p.m. ET on Friday at Watkins Glen with live coverage on FS1, NRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
