DOVER, Del. — Remaining apologetic continues to be Ross Chastain’s takeaway one week removed from his on-track incident with Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suárez at Sonoma Raceway.
Chastain’s No. 1 Chevy tangled with Suárez’s No. 99 machine on Lap 45 in Turn 11 during last Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the California road course, resulting in the latter falling from 14th to 29th in the running order; Suárez later finished the contest in 14th, while Chastain tallied a 24th-place result.
The Florida native mentioned Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway that he’s had conversations with Suárez and the No. 99 team during the week and that he meant no ill will regarding the maneuver, taking responsibility for the incident.
“It is just conversations,” Chastain said, “and I’m not gonna let one bad instance get in the way of a lot of good times. One bad time is not gonna affect that for me, and Daniel and I’s relationship will survive.
“I wrecked him, I mean, he should be upset, that team should be upset. So I went to the crew chief and him, and wanted them to make sure they knew that they knew. I wanted to make sure that, like, it was the last thing I wanted to do. And for the first half of the brake zone, I thought I was fine. And then the second half of the brake zone, I realized I’m going too fast, and I should have reacted better, and I didn’t. So that’s just a non-negotiable to wrecking, spinning teammates out. We had conversations this week.”
Chastain — who additionally made his apology known on the June 16 episode of the “Like a Farmer” podcast — understands both perspectives, whether it be on the committing or receiving end of any particular conflict. To the 32-year-old, bringing the right intention to any conversation regarding an on-track incident is critical as opposed to attempting to rectify a situation that has already occurred.
“I don’t try to solve things. The thing already happened,” Chastain said. “When I’m on the other side of it, I just don’t need people coming to me and explaining their side or anything. I can watch the video, I know what I felt and saw in the car, and get some outside perspective, but I don’t need the other driver to come say a lot, so I think I’m in the very much minority of that.
“So, I have to go talk to other people. I don’t ever know for sure if I gave them all that they were looking for, but I just know the intention is there. If I say, I’m sorry, or whatever the thing is. I know earlier in the season, I had a couple guys that I felt like had gotten into me a couple times. I didn’t wreck, but gotten into me, and it was starting to be a pattern. And like, I’ve already forgot, like all that, all those scenarios, so I just don’t hold that in my memory like other guys, I feel like.”
Chastain enters Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Dover (4 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 10th in the playoff standings, with one victory — the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway — in his 2025 ledger. Suárez, meanwhile, sits 29th in the playoff table, 139 points below the elimination line. Suárez and Trackhouse announced July 1 that they had mutually agreed to part company at the end of the 2025 season.
Practice and Busch Light Pole Qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Dover Motor Speedway was canceled due to inclement weather Saturday afternoon.
Through a metric established by NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott was awarded pole position for Sunday’s race. He’ll start out front in the No. 9 Hendrick Chevrolet alongside Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 Toyota.
NASCAR combines owners’ points, a driver’s finishing position in the preceding race, and his fastest lap time in that race to rank the teams and establish a lineup when qualifying is not possible.
Championship points leader and Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron will start fifth Sunday, sharing the third row with Trackhouse Racing rookie Shane van Gisbergen. SVG has won the last two races (road-course events at Chicago and Sonoma), coming into the Dover 400-lapper.
The defending Dover winner, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, will roll off 13th. A three-time Dover winner, Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch, will start 10th.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, a three-time race winner in 2025 who leads NASCAR’s playoff standings, will start 25th. The 2019 Dover winner has only a single top-five (fifth place at Michigan) and three top-10s in the eight races since his last victory at Kansas in May.
With a new tire compound for cars this weekend, drivers were hoping for some laps on track. “Brand new tire or not, practice is always important,’’ Larson said, acknowledging he is hopeful his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team can return to early-season form this week at the famed “Monster Mile.”
“I wouldn’t deny that we’re in a slump, results kind of show that,’’ Larson said. “But I think some of it has been a little bit out of our control, and some of it is execution with a car that’s been a little bit off on speed. But confidence in our 5 team is strong, and hopefully we can turn it around at Dover.”
The Chicago Street Course will not return to the NASCAR calendar in 2026, the sanctioning body announced Friday afternoon. The door remains open, however, for a future return.
The streets of the “Windy City” played host to NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series action for each of the past three seasons, culminating in the premier series’ first street races of the modern era. From Columbus Drive to DuSable Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue, a 12-turn, 2.2-mile course became one of the most unique stops on the NASCAR slate.
A pause will result in at least one year without a race in downtown Chicago, but both NASCAR and city officials are working towards a goal of returning to the streets of Chicago in 2027.
A statement shared to the event’s social media accounts read: “Following the success of the first three years, the Chicago Street Race will hit pause in 2026 to afford us the time necessary to work collaboratively with the City of Chicago to explore a new potential date and to develop a plan that further optimizes operational efficiencies, with a goal to return to the streets of Chicago in 2027.
“Together, we have built and grown an expanded community of fans that consists of longtime NASCAR enthusiasts and first-time racegoers from around the globe, and for that, we are immensely grateful.”
Shane van Gisbergen won two of the three Cup Series races on the Chicago Street Course in addition to two of three Xfinity races. His 2023 victory in the event’s inaugural run was historic as the New Zealand native became the first driver in 60 years to win his first Cup start, sparking what has become a full-time NASCAR career.
“This place has changed my life,” van Gisbergen said ahead of the 2025 edition of the event. “I’m going to have special memories of this place forever.”
The inaugural Chicago Street Race was named the “Event of the Year” by Sports Business Journal, recognizing the race as one of the boldest events in the history of NASCAR and American motorsports.
NASCAR also reiterated its intent to continue delivering benefits to local Chicago residents, particularly the city’s youth and local business community by maintaining involvement with organizations like Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Park District, Boys & Girls Clubs, After School Matters, local hospitals and others.
Rex White, who became just the seventh driver to capture NASCAR’s premier series championship in 1960, has died.
During a nine-year career competing at NASCAR’s highest level, White won 28 times in 233 starts. He had 110 top-five and 163 top-10 finishes when he retired from competition. He also won 36 pole positions.
White, 95, was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015, along with fellow drivers Bill Elliott, Fred Lorenzen, Wendell Scott and Joe Weatherly.
In addition to his 1960 championship, White finished second to Ned Jarrett in the points battle the following season. He placed in the top 10 in points six times.
“We mourn the loss of NASCAR Champion and Hall of Famer, Rex White,” Jim France, NASCAR chairman and CEO, shared in a statement. “Rex epitomized the formative days of NASCAR — a true pioneer whose contributions helped shape the foundation of our sport. His hard work, dedication and talent allowed him to make a living doing what he loved most – racing cars. He was the model of consistency – finishing in the top five in nearly half of his races — and dominated the short tracks. On behalf of NASCAR and the France family, I want to offer our condolences to the friends and family of Rex White.”
White, who was 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed just 135 pounds during his heyday, was considered one of NASCAR’s fiercest competitors in spite of his slight size and a right leg damaged by childhood polio.
One of NASCAR’s top independent drivers, White had a knack for saving his equipment and making his push to the front during the latter stages of a race. It was a game plan born of necessity, according to White.
NASCAR Research & Archives Center | Getty Images
“I beat some good drivers in my career but my biggest thing … I had a habit of eating every day,” White said in 2015. “In order to eat and pay your bills, you’ve got to take in money. If you’re supporting a race car with your funds, doing the work yourself, you don’t race until the end of the race when you get the money.”
The bulk of White’s victories came on the series’ smaller venues – he was a six-time winner at Bowman Gray Stadium and won at Martinsville, Nashville Fairgrounds and Richmond as well. His lone victory on an intermediate track came at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1962. It was also his final victory in the series.
Best known for piloting a gold and white No. 4 Chevrolet, White was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 and was named the series’ Most Popular Driver in 1960. In addition to his Cup wins, White also scored a victory in the NASCAR Convertible Series, winning at Marlboro, Maryland, in April of 1959.
White nabbed his first NASCAR Cup Series win on Nov. 3, 1957 at Champion Speedway in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He took over the lead in the 50-mile, 150-lap race when then-leader Jack Smith lost a wheel after 145 laps. White led the remaining five laps. The victory came in his 34th start in the series.
He put the wraps on his 1960 championship well before the season’s final race, winning at Martinsville for the second consecutive year and with four races remaining on the schedule. White bested Weatherly for the Old Dominion 500 victory and thanks to the win, he expanded his lead over second-place Richard Petty to more than 13,000 points in an earlier points structure.
According to an Associated Press report on the Martinsville race, White’s winning margin was “a mere 200 yards” and came “after waging a bumper-to-bumper, fender-to-fender duel with (Weatherly) for the last 30 laps.”
White won the next week, at North Wilkesboro, as well for his sixth win of the season. He won seven races the following season when he finished second to Jarrett in the points standings, then captured a career-best eight victories in 1962 but finished fifth overall.
In addition to induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, White is also a member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame and the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.
Editor’s note: Joey Logano became the 34th driver to make 600 Cup Series starts when the green flag dropped Sunday at Dover.
On the eve of becoming the youngest driver to make his 600th Cup start, Joey Logano somehow has emerged as the wise old man of NASCAR’s premier series.
Logano, a seasoned 35 years old, is a far cry from the wide-eyed and understandably overwhelmed teenager who made his first Daytona 500 start in 2009.
The youngest driver in the history of NASCAR’s biggest race was pitted against experienced stars who were more than twice his age. Bully tactics and intimidation greeted Logano at virtually every turn of his early years in Cup.
The rookie also was thrust into the untenable position of pretending to be something he wasn’t while trying to fill the shoes of legendary firebrand Tony Stewart.
Imagine being barely old enough to vote, much less shoulder a mortgage, and being tabbed as the corporate spokesman for a home improvement chain that markets to families.
In an amusing twist, Logano now fills that role perfectly as a happily married father of three.
After a rough start to his NASCAR career of trying to meet others’ expectations despite unrealistic circumstances, he shook loose from the chains of impostor syndrome long ago. He loves his family, cars and competing for wins with the verve of a madman whenever he dons a helmet.
“Those are the things that make Joey Logano who he is,” he said.
He never has sounded more confident of his place in the world, and it’s because he is comfortable in his own skin in a way that was impossible for an 18-year-old still trying to figure out his own personality while also navigating a major-league sport.
Yes, three Cup championships and a rock-solid ride with Team Penske helps in feeling more secure.
But when asked recently about what’s most important for building a driver’s brand, Logano skipped the part about being enormously successful. He instead offered sage and simple advice.
“The No. 1 most important thing is being authentic to your brand,” he said. “Be who you are. When someone is being fake, it’s so obvious. You can pick them out so easy. You know when someone is not being who they are. Being yourself is the most important thing.”
The words came from experience. They were spoken with the authority of a true elder statesman.
Maybe it’s the role Logano was always meant to play.
Joey Logano will hit another milestone this weekend at Dover Motor Speedway, becoming the 34th driver in NASCAR history to reach 600 Cup Series starts.
It was nearly all for naught.
Prior to hitting a national series track, Randy LaJoie coined Logano the “greatest thing since sliced bread” … quite a moniker to live up to. Immediate success in the Xfinity Series – winning in his third career start – at a ripe age of 18, opened the eyes of many, including his then-team owner Joe Gibbs. When Tony Stewart, then a two-time Cup champion, departed Joe Gibbs Racing to co-create Stewart-Haas Racing, the team tabbed Logano as the new driver of the No. 20 Toyota, slotted into NASCAR’s highest level at just 19 years old.
“I didn’t feel the pressure that much at the time, I think, because I was young,” Logano told NASCAR.com ahead of career start No. 600. “I didn’t have any responsibilities either; I was a kid. I didn’t have to support my family. I had a ridiculous amount of confidence for no reason at all. When I first started out, I drank all my Kool-Aid. All of the hype that was around me before I came in, I made the mistake of believing that I was going to be the man.”
Logano recalled having commercials featuring him that aired during Cup Series races even before he strapped into an Xfinity car. It was a big deal that he was getting his shot, and he believed every bit of it. In retrospect, he wished he hadn’t had so much attention, but “when you’re 18, you don’t know any better.”
Before transitioning to Cup, Logano made a trio of premier series starts in 2008, splitting time between JGR and Hall of Fame Racing. He unloaded off the hauler with immediate speed for his debut at Richmond Raceway, but Mother Nature washed away his chances of qualifying for the show. His much-anticipated debut was put on hold for another week, coming at his home race track in New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
In those three 2008 starts, Logano had a best finish of 32nd, finishing multiple laps down in each of them. That was the proverbial wake-up call.
“I remember that was the humble pie,” Logano stated. “We went to Richmond to practice and were third on the board. We were fast, and I’m like, ‘sheesh, I can do this. I’m going to win immediately in the Cup Series too, look at this.’ Then, we went to Loudon and I finished three laps down, and it was a miserable experience.
“I remember seeing the cars that I used to make fun of because they were the slowest cars on the race track all the time, and they were laying black marks off the corner. I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got a lot to learn here.’ At that point, I got pretty nervous that this might not go the way I was hoping it was going to go.”
Logano’s first full-time foray at the Cup level was a negligible experience. Mother Nature was on his side in his return visit to New Hampshire, however, helping him score the upset victory as the No. 20 team’s crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, left him out with a storm emerging and eventually ending the race under caution with him in the lead. Logano was the Sunoco Rookie of the Year, tallying three top-five and seven top-10 finishes with a 20th-place finish in the championship standings. The next three seasons saw incremental improvements — including one more win in 2012 — but some dips as well, and Gibbs elected to move on from him at the end of that year.
Getting thrown to the wolves at an early age toughened Logano up. He acknowledges that the humiliation of losing his ride to Cup champion Matt Kenseth prompted him to change course. Otherwise, he thought, his career would be over before it fully began, despite winning frequently in the Xfinity Series and routinely holding off some Cup drivers.
“I think that’s what saved my career on one end of it because I could win on Saturday and it confused the hell out of everybody, and me too, on why I can win on Saturday quite a few times,” Logano noted. “We had a season (2012) where I won nearly half of the races that I was in, but I couldn’t run top 15 in a Cup car.
“Looking back at it, everything has to be put in the right places, and I wasn’t a smart enough racer back then as to how to put the right people in the right place or how to handle certain situations. I didn’t know what was off. I knew something was off because we sucked.”
Logan Riely | Getty Images
Brad Keselowski became Logano’s savior. During his 2012 championship-winning season, Keselowski reached out to Roger Penske to give his thoughts on who should take over the troubled No. 22 ride. In previous years, driver Kurt Busch and team management didn’t see eye-to-eye, leading to AJ Allmendinger taking over the car in 2012. Midway through the season, Allmendinger failed a random drug test and NASCAR indefinitely suspended him. Sam Hornish Jr. filled in the rest of the season, though Penske wanted to build its future with Logano.
Penske legend and NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace disagreed with the signing. But Logano was out to prove to his naysayers that he wasn’t a bust.
Logano won from the pole at Michigan International Speedway in 2013 before posting monster numbers through 2014 and 2015, making the inaugural Championship 4 and accumulating 11 wins over the two seasons. The once prodigy proved his legitimacy.
“When I got here to Penske, it was a fresh start,” Logano added. “They needed a fresh start. They needed somebody that was just going to not get in any trouble. Todd [Gordon, crew chief] was a great match for me at the time. Todd acted as a father figure in a lot of ways and helped guide me along, and that’s what helped put us in a good position.
“2014 is probably when we started to reach that point. 2015 solidified it. We’ve been a threat to win the championship from then on, in different ways, but I would say we have our own way of doing it and it is very different from everybody. I like that. I pride myself on being different from other people.”
Fast forward a decade, and Logano is part of a small list of 10 drivers to win three Cup Series championships. The first title came in 2018, when he dubbed it “the big three and me” as he upset Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. He entered rarified air in 2022, becoming a multi-time champion. The No. 22 team followed that up last year, winning its third title in seven seasons to cement his legend status.
Potential fulfilled — though Logano still isn’t satisfied, feeling like he should have even more checkered flags.
“To me, you can never carve the future and know what your own future is going to look like,” Logano stated. “Did I expect when I was 18 years old when I first started to win three championships? Absolutely, probably win more than that. Did I expect to win a championship after 2010 or 2011? No, not at all.
Logano won his first of three Cup titles with crew chief Todd Gordon. (Brian Lawdermilk | Getty Images)
“It’s kind of like God gives you things that you don’t know you need, but you need them in retrospect. In the trenches, you don’t realize it. I know this doesn’t relate to everybody because it’s like, ‘OK, you’re driving Cup cars, big deal, it’s not that bad.’ And I get that, but at the same time – if you don’t minimize what you’re actually doing and think about that – I needed every lesson that came my way, and there are lessons that are still coming.”
Those tutorials began when Logano was a teenager. He still applies lessons learned some 17 years later, with nearly half of his life being in the national spotlight.
“The two things (in NASCAR) that are the most amount of pressure that you can possibly put on yourself is trying to race for a championship or trying to keep your job,” Logano noted. “The road map to the two are the same, in a way, because it’s either your career is going to be over, or you have the opportunity to reach the ultimate goal. Both are massive amounts of pressure and I’ve been in that position so many times now that I know how to do that. I think back then helped me.”
Admittedly, Logano doesn’t think much about his legacy. He pays more attention to the health of the sport and how it grows during his stint. However, with his 600th start, he’s beginning to realize the significance of such an achievement.
“Considering I wasn’t going to make it to 150, 600 feels pretty good,” Logano said. “You don’t remember most of them. I’ve probably remembered 10% of the races that I’ve run, which is funny because I think about it now, and you have bad races and you get pissed off. But then, I think about it and there have been a lot of races where I’ve been pissed off and I don’t remember them eventually, so it’s going to be OK.”
Logano wants to become NASCAR’s next “Iron Man.” During Jeff Gordon’s retirement sendoff in 2015, the four-time Cup champion passed Ricky Rudd for the most consecutive starts in Cup history (797). To reach that goal, Logano must compete in every race for the next five-and-a-half seasons.
And even getting to 906 total starts, which Rudd ranks second on the all-time list, isn’t out of the question. That said, Richard Petty’s mammoth record of 1,184 starts seems safe for the time being.
“I’ve thought about it and I think I can do it,” Logano added of getting to 798 straight starts. “I need to start by staying healthy and not missing a race. I’m the only one that can do it right now. Why not go for it?”
Logano is determined to win his fourth championship this season, already locked into the playoffs via a victory at Texas Motor Speedway. Logano is two wins away from tying Wallace as the winningest driver in the Cup Series for Penske. He’s hoping to join Petty as the only driver to win their 600th start (Richmond Raceway, 1973).
“I always say that I’m going to race until I’m not competitive, especially now that the schedule is a lot easier than it used to be. If you can cut out a lot of other things in your life and can just race, it’s not that bad. It’s taxing, but my body feels OK. And we can compete for wins and I’m not holding back my team; I would do it. As soon as I start holding people back, I’m out.”
If there’s one aspect Lavar Scott recollects, it’s the noise.
Scott remembers attending Dover Motor Speedway during his childhood, and the experience wasn’t exactly pleasant. In fact, Scott recalls cupping his hands over his ears in an attempt to drown out the loud atmosphere.
Fast forward to 2025, and what was once displeasure is now excitement, with Scott looking to make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at the “Monster Mile” on Saturday as driver of the No. 45 Alpha Prime Racing Chevrolet in the BetRivers 200 (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). In a deal announced on July 1, the Dover date will be the first of two Xfinity Series races Scott will attempt with the team this season, with the other scheduled for September at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
“I think I’m definitely mentally ready,” Scott said. “I mean, I’m 21 now. I’ve been in ARCA for two years, so this is something that could have happened years ago, right? I could have expedited this process a long time ago, but I just waited to, I felt like, mentally, it was the right time. I have the experience on my belt, and I’ve raced mile-and-a-half tracks, short tracks, Daytona (International Speedway), Talladega (Superspeedway). So I feel mentally, this is the time to do so.
“So I’m ready for that. I have no type of nerves in that way, or kind of scared, or ‘am I ready’ doubtful mindset at all, just pure excitement. I know I’ve put in the work in the past five years with Rev Racing, and I’ve learned, I’ve watched, I’ve talked to many people and I think I’ve done the true underwork to have a good performance and have a good debut in this. I think we’ll do it.”
While a potential NASCAR national-series start is a new frontier for Scott, racing is anything but. As part of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program, Scott wheeled his way through the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series in 2021-22 before making the jump to the ARCA Menards Series in 2023. After a 2023 campaign where he tallied five top fives and seven top 10s in the East Series, Scott transitioned to full-time competition in 2024. Upward momentum continued; the No. 6 Rev Racing Chevrolet driver compiled 15 top 10s out of 20 races, finished second in the championship standings and won the 2024 ARCA Menards Series Rookie of the Year Award.
Visual acclimation and simulator work have helped Scott prepare for the weekend. Even still, Scott can’t ignore ARCA (which he describes as his “office”), where he has sharpened his racing craft with Rev Racing; Scott is currently third in the 2025 championship standings and has six top fives and nine top 10s in nine races, with Friday’s General Tire 150 (5 p.m. ET, FS1) the opportunity to continue positive momentum.
“I think I’m balancing the two pretty well, like, I know I need to put in extra work for the Xfinity side of things, because it’s something I haven’t done before, right?” Scott said. “But I’m definitely not forgetting the main thing is the ARCA car. That’s obviously a fight for the championship, so I got to keep the main thing, but I know I need to work hard on the Xfinity side of things, so when I do go to practice and unload, we’re not off pace, right? But just gotta balance the two. I think I’ve done it pretty well.”
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Dover will act as a homecoming of sorts for Scott, who, as a New Jersey native, considers the 1-miler to be his “home” track. As such, eagerness (and, admittedly, impatience) to hit the Delaware concrete has only grown, and talking to drivers — including Craftsman Truck Series full-timer Rajah Caruth — has further provided an avenue to prepare for the big day.
Adjusting to the field will also receive emphasis, especially since Scott has raced against several full-time Xfinity Series drivers before at the very same track. Look no further than the 2024 General Tire 150, where Scott finished fourth and Connor Zilisch and Carson Kvapil (now JR Motorsports teammates) scored first and third, respectively.
“I feel like every lap you’re around somebody or you’re racing somebody,” Scott said when speaking about the strength of the Xfinity Series field, “you have to do something different to try to get around somebody or block somebody. So I think with that, I’m trying to get acclimated to that racing because I feel like in ARCA you have multiple laps to kind of think about before you do it, whereas in Xfinity, I mean, every single lap is gonna be different racing around with somebody, and if you make a move, you’re gonna get passed by 10 people, right? So, I think with that, it’s good for me because I get to learn. And that’s what I’m doing this for is to learn and get experience.”
Representation also plays a factor in Scott’s mindset heading into the weekend. As part of the Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program’s 2024 class, Scott not only has grown his racing portfolio, but has also encouraged kids from diverse backgrounds to gain an interest in racing.
Understanding his impact has only made his upcoming Saturday start that much more exciting, and to do so with Alpha Prime Racing — the same team Caruth debuted with in 2022 — is an opportunity Scott won’t forget.
“I mean, it’s been so big for me,” Scott said. “I mean, the message that I’ve got from kids that are kind of looking up to me now, saying they support me, watching me and trying to come to the race, has been so much for me. That’s a lot of reason why I’m here, right, if I want to do things that I do. So it’s exciting for me, and I’ll try to have a good result for, really, all my fans and supporters. Like I said, I just can’t wait, and I’m so excited.”
The next step in the racing journey begins in familiar territory for the young Scott, and while Dover might’ve turned Scott away all those years ago, nothing is doing so now.
This time, there will be much more to remember.
“This is something that I’ve always wanted my whole life was to have this moment,” Scott said. “So I’m just happy. Life is very good right now.”
Six races remain until the 2025 Cup Series Playoffs begin, and the picture around the cutline is looking clearer.
Playoff Probabilities provided by Racing Insights (entering Dover)
Four spots are still up for grabs, but Ryan Preece appears to be the only driver within reasonable striking distance as he sits just three points back of Bubba Wallace after a pair of road courses. Kyle Busch scraped together a top 10 at Sonoma despite spinning last weekend in Wine Country and now he sits just 37 points below the cutline.
This Sunday, NASCAR returns to its more traditional tracks on the circuit with a trek to Dover Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). With the latest postseason projections provided by Racing Insights, let’s take a look at who is in a good spot entering the “Monster Mile” and whose playoff hopes could dip.
Sticking with Preece (37.18% playoff probability) to continue his climb amid a great summer stretch. He hasn’t finished worse than 15th dating back to Michigan and upcoming tracks like Dover, Iowa and Richmond should play into the short-track ace’s favor, which is why he slots into the playoff predictor as the last man in over Wallace. Preece has yet to score a top 10 in eight Dover starts at the Cup level, but his numbers at a different concrete track (Bristol) are good enough to make the case that the No. 60 RFK Ford will be a factor this weekend.
Most eyes this weekend will be on Kyle Larson to see if he can snap out of a funk he’s been in since a disastrous Memorial Day weekend “Double,” but Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman (62.19% playoff probability) shouldn’t be overlooked at Dover. Bowman has placed eighth or better in three of the last five races and Dover has been one of his best tracks lately. Highlighted by a 2021 win, Bowman has placed inside the top five in five of the last seven races at the “Monster Mile.”
YELLOW FLAG [Who’s on the fringe for Dover]
Tyler Reddick (99.07% playoff probability) is an interesting case here. A whopping 149-point cushion to the cutline should have the No. 45 23XI Racing team feeling good about their playoff hopes, but it’s the element of surprise from someone winning outside the picture or a couple slip-ups that could put Reddick in some serious trouble. His Dover numbers aren’t the worst, but Reddick finished just 11th in last year’s event. Now, he enters this weekend with three consecutive top 10s. Those results could be a deciding factor to get Reddick into the postseason on points if he ends up needing mulligans at tracks like Iowa, Watkins Glen or Daytona.
RED FLAG [Who I’m concerned about heading to Dover]
I just don’t think there’s anyone you can slot in here other than Bubba Wallace until he turns the corner (no pun intended). Top 10s at Nashville and Michigan appeared to be the lift Wallace needed to start a summer surge, but it’s all gone downhill since his No. 23 Toyota didn’t fire for qualifying at Pocono. His best finish in the last four races was 22nd at Atlanta, where he was involved in two separate incidents. He then finished 28th at Chicago after a back-and-forth with Bowman in the closing laps led to the No. 23 being spun. Wallace was able to collect a chunk of stage points at Sonoma to maintain his slim gap above the cutline, but he still finished 26th.
Dover is another proving ground for Wallace. He doesn’t own a top 10 in 10 starts at the concrete oval and crashed out in the final stage of last year’s race. If it’s not a top 10 this weekend, Wallace needs to stay with Preece and, at the very least, bring the No. 23 to the checkered flag Sunday without a scratch.
