KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Tyler Reddick emerged from Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Kansas Speedway with a rugged rally to seventh place, snapping a three-race drought without a top-10 finish. But the visit also left him with a significant points deficit and a virtual must-win scenario for Sunday’s elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s ever-difficult road-course-slash-oval layout.
“It’s tough,” Reddick said post-race. “Yeah, obviously there’s only one thing we can do at Charlotte, and that’s what we’ll be focused on.”
The 23XI Racing driver’s postseason plight and on-track performance, though, were secondary to more critical personal concerns. Reddick’s wife, Alexa, shared Sunday that 4-month-old son, Rookie, was in a cardiovascular intensive care unit at Leavine Children’s Hospital with signs of heart failure.
“It’s difficult. It’s not what you want for your kids,” Reddick said. “You know, as a father, it’s … my first son Beau’s hit his head, you know, bruised himself up, cut himself up, but yeah, what my son Rookie’s going through is serious. So yeah, a tricky situation, and just more than anything, just ready to get on a plane and go home.”
Measures were taken post-race to expedite Reddick’s return to North Carolina. The 29-year-old driver said that some consideration was given to potentially skipping the event to be with his family before ultimately deciding to race on.
“I wouldn’t say it was off the table, depending on how things were going,” Reddick said, “but thankfully he’s doing well enough to where me and my wife were on the same page about staying.”
Reddick started 12th in the Hollywood Casino 400, and pit-road miscues in each of the first two portions of the race hindered him from making incremental gains on his points gap at the stage breaks. On Lap 60 of 273, Reddick made an additional stop because of a right-rear tire that wasn’t fully fastened, a move that left him 24th at the end of the first stage. During the Stage 1 intermission, he took evasive action to avoid a car leaving its pit stall for the second consecutive week. Missing his own stall to miss hitting fellow Toyota driver Christopher Bell left him 28th for the restart, and Reddick was only able to claw back to 14th when the second batch of stage points were paid out.
Reddick was eventually able to battle into contention as the final stage progressed, but nine of the remaining 12 playoff drivers collected points with top-10 finishes at the stage breaks. Five of those drivers made double-digit additions to their points hauls, while Reddick received none — eventually leaving him 29 points below the elimination line ahead of Sunday’s Charlotte Roval race (3 p.m. ET, USA, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
“It was a rebound, for sure. Just the tough thing about it, just didn’t get any stage points today and I think we were definitely good enough to do that,” Reddick said. “So yeah, when that happens, you lose ground and that’s what happened to us today.”
Reddick still had the opportunity to convert with a victory once a series of late-race yellow flags flew, all following a rally into the top 10 and eventually the top five. A mix-up on lane choice before the first overtime left race-leading 23XI teammate Bubba Wallace without an aerodynamic push, though the No. 45 team remedied that oversight for the final clinching restart.
Reddick said he had a shot at the checkered flag, but that his efforts needed help.
“It was going to have to play out a very specific way,” Reddick said. “I feel like I was about as good as what was ahead of me. You work hard to get that track position, and we were still climbing back up before those cautions at the end.”
Chase Elliott muscled his way to a second 2025 victory on Sunday at Kansas Speedway, clinching a NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8 bid in the process. With his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson a near-lock to advance to the Round of 8, No. 5 will likely be joining him — but which one will be riding the wave of momentum?
NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola ranks the 2025 Cup Series Playoffs contenders after the Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN Bet at Kansas Speedway and before Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Analysis: Elliott led just 24 laps in a race dominated by Denny Hamlin, but — as alluded to in last week’s Turning Point — Toyota gave an inch, and Hendrick Motorsports took a mile, led by No. 9’s bruising final lap at Kansas as he rode to the win. He now gets to race pressure-free at one of his best tracks, looking to cement the mojo he and the No. 9 group are building together in the quest for title No. 2.
Analysis: Blaney led exactly one Kansas lap, and that may have been the highlight for all of Team Penske, which walked out of the Midwest with a trio of sub-20 finishes among its three playoff drivers. Thankfully, one of them (Blaney) is already locked in to the Round of 8, but with one teetering on the edge (Joey Logano) and the other in must-win territory (Austin Cindric), it’s extremely unlikely all three will advance.
Analysis: Hamlin certainly would’ve preferred to have won that battle at the line at Kansas, but, big picture, walking into the Charlotte Roval cutoff race with a plus-48 to the bubble is still close to about as best-case-scenario as one can hope for, short of a prior victory. There’s no slowing down the series’ elder statesman, and Sunday marks as good a time as any for him to corral his second career top 10 at the Roval, but he may not even need to.
Analysis: Seeing Larson lead just a single lap in a race at which he was the heavy favorite — and his teammate went on to win — isn’t quite as heartening a weekend in the Heartland the No. 5 team was hoping for, but as good as Hamlin’s points position is, Larson’s is even better at plus-54. It would be an all-time collapse for Larson to miss the Round of 8, particularly at a track he enters as the defending winner, so look for a refocused No. 5 team to lock in and be ready for the Round of 8 in two weeks.
Analysis: Don’t let the dip fool you — Bell had a strong Kansas showing, running third and leading his second-most laps in a race since a Phoenix win in March. The 2022 Roval winner is getting hot once again and could find his way to a second win there after turning in a P2 on NASCAR’s home court last fall.
Analysis: Byron has led exactly five laps since a dominant win at Iowa Speedway to open August, a lack of speed that is starting to look increasingly concerning as we hit the playoff halfway point. He also hasn’t led any laps at the Roval since 2021, but could actually see a decent turnaround this weekend after turning in a pair of top threes there the past two seasons.
Analysis: All this guy does is turn in top fives, with Sunday’s 13th such result of the season matching his entire top-five output from the past three seasons combined. No laps led and a career average finish of 23.8 in his four Roval starts don’t scream “win” this weekend, especially with a certain New Zealander in the field, but it’s hard not to see how he significantly betters his prior output there on Sunday.
Analysis: No. 22 crew chief Paul Wolfe told NASCAR.com after Loudon that he didn’t “feel good about Kansas at all” and, as it turns out, his concerns were well-founded, as Logano finished outside the top 20 after the weekend started poorly with an issue in practice. He’s on the edge of missing the Round of 8 at the Roval for the second year in a row, but actually sneakily excels there (8.6 average finish) despite no wins to his credit.
Analysis: There just doesn’t seem to be anything resembling race-winning speed in the No. 1 car right now as Chastain has led double-digit laps on a non-drafting track just once this year (in March), but he’s still consistent enough to be collecting points (35 points in an 11th-place Kansas run). He isn’t in a must-win situation despite being below the bubble, but still, the Roval isn’t the road course Chastain would hope to hinge his championship hopes on, with just one top 10 in six tries for an overall 24.0 average finish.
Analysis: Reddick gave it his all at Kansas, a potential winning spot for the lone remaining winless playoff driver, but he had to settle for a thin, 30-point P7 after failing to lead a lap or collect crucial stage points. Though it hasn’t happened yet, the Roval could potentially produce a victory for the prolific road-course winner, with a sterling 7.8 average finish there in his starts. Otherwise, we could see our first 2024 Championship 4 driver knocked out.
Analysis: All that to only pick up a point in the standings is wild, but there’s no denying that Wallace took a tremendous leap forward this year and deserves to be in the championship conversation, even if the end of his 2025 playoffs comes at Charlotte. There’s no guarantee it does, however, as despite road courses historically being Wallace’s pain point, No. 23 owns a respectable 11.5 average finish there in his four starts with 23XI Racing.
Analysis: Cindric has just one top 10 since Pocono Raceway, exactly none of which have come in the playoffs. Unfortunately, that’s no way to win a title, and No. 2 essentially has to win the Roval in order to advance. Fortunately for him, the accomplished road racer could actually do it, netting a P4 at the track last year. With none of his five 2025 top 10s coming on road courses, however, it doesn’t appear likely to happen.
In the latest episode of his “Actions Detrimental” podcast on Monday, Denny Hamlin said he holds no regrets for chasing the victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Kansas Speedway despite last-lap contact with his employee, Bubba Wallace.
The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver also serves as the team co-owner of 23XI Racing, for which Wallace drives the No. 23 Toyota. Hamlin charged into Turn 3 on the final lap of the Hollywood Casino 400 alongside Wallace, and both slid up the track, leaving Wallace in the wall and Hamlin slow enough to allow Chase Elliott to dart past both and score the win in NASCAR Overtime.
Hamlin admits he would do things differently had he known how tight his car was to Wallace’s, but he did not anticipate saying ‘sorry’ soon, either.
“If (listeners are) wanting an apology, they can turn it off now,” Hamlin said on his weekly Dirty Mo Media show, “because I’m racing for the win and I definitely won’t apologize for racing for the win.”
Hamlin reiterated his commitment as driver of the JGR No. 11 when he is behind the wheel, meaning his goal is to get that car into Victory Lane no matter who stands in its way.
“On Sunday, I am the driver. The person in the 11 car is the driver,” Hamlin said. “That’s where the disconnect, I think, comes from, is that people expect me to be a different person. They expect me to be the guy with the 23XI shirt on when I’m in the 11 car, and that’s just not possible. It’s not possible.
“My responsibilities as team owner come Monday through Saturday. Like, it is not up to me to get 23XI into the Round of 8, if that makes any sense. That’s not my responsibility. My responsibility is to get the 11 into the Round of 8. I’m the driver on Sunday of that 11. Joe (Gibbs) pays me a lot of money to make sure that that car wins a championship, or has a shot to. And I mean, could you imagine the outrage if I had just backed off and let him have it? Holy [expletive]. People would lose their minds. But instead, I think Bubba said it very accurately — we were going for the win. Both guys were going for the win.”
Hamlin, who made his Cup Series debut at Kansas in 2005, currently holds 59 career wins in NASCAR’s premier series and sits 11th behind Kevin Harvick. Wallace is eyeing a spot in the Round of 8 for the first time in his blossoming career and would have been guaranteed that spot by winning Sunday’s race. But chasing a milestone win after signing a two-year contract extension over the summer, the 44-year-old Hamlin is not willing to back down when staring a potential victory in the eyes.
“My mentality into the last corner was, I hope I win,” Hamlin said. “I’ve got 70 races left in my career. Three opportunities left to win a championship. I can win a championship as an owner for decades. The window is closing. Sixty is right in front of me at the track I got my very first start. Like, I want to be sympathetic and I am sympathetic and I hate it that the 23 is below the cut, but 23XI ran like dog-[expletive] at [expletive] New Hampshire and that’s why they’re below the cut. And I hate that for the drivers because unfortunately they had to drive that.”
Hamlin explained his goal entering Turn 3 was to side-draft Wallace and draw Wallace back, which ideally would have allowed Hamlin to drive to the bottom and clear Wallace entering the corner. Instead, Hamlin explained, Wallace side-drafted back and added an estimated 80% increase of rear downforce and Hamlin’s car couldn’t turn as well as he anticipated, sending both cars up the track.
“I think there’s only a couple ways to win it,” Hamlin said. “I run lower on corner entry, even though my angle is horrible, but I at least hit the bottom and create a gap between me and him; or I need to let off sooner, count on him missing the corner and then trying to get it back on the exit. That’s the only thing I feel like, if I could do it again, I’d like to try that. I’m not saying it would have been successful, but that’d be something that I will psychoanalyze of, here’s what I think I could have done better if I had known all these factors.”
As Hamlin alluded, Wallace now enters Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval 10th in the standings, 26 points beneath the cutline to advance into the Round of 8. A win for Wallace at Kansas would have locked his spot into the next round instead. Asked if their Sunday contact would make things awkward walking into 23xI Racing Monday, Hamlin understood if that answer was yes, especially after Hamlin’s second collision with a team car in as many weeks.
“I think that’s where feelings can get hurt is when you have expectations and those expectations aren’t met,” Hamlin said. “It’s why I lost my temper last weekend is that I had an expectation. I thought we knew that if you’re in the playoffs versus out, the rules are different. And so the actions didn’t meet my expectations. And so then I got hot. And so I think sure. If you think that I owe you this or that, your feelings are probably hurt today. But I can tell you, anybody that had the run that I had off of Turn 2 (and) got to the inside of the 23, any car that was on the race track was going to do that exact same thing.”
Wallace, who qualified for the playoffs by winning the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July, has had a career year in some measures. The Brickyard marked his first crown-jewel victory and he’s led a career-high 368 laps in 2025, all with rookie crew chief Charles Denike calling the shots. Hamlin has taken notice of just how dramatic the No. 23 team’s rise from past years has been.
“Bubba’s turnaround over the last few years has just been — I can’t believe it, truthfully,” Hamlin said. “The maturity he has shown — he’s been the lead car at 23XI really the entire year. I think the 45 (Tyler Reddick) might have him on average finish because he doesn’t have as many DNFs, but the 23 has been the fastest freakin’ car we’ve got, and that’s something that just, I can’t believe it.
“Whether it’s Charles Denike and his setups or Bubba’s mentality, something changed over there that has made Bubba someone you’re going to have to contend with every single week. And you’re gonna have to contend with him this weekend, by the way. If you haven’t seen his road-course skills, they’ve dramatically improved. I couldn’t be more proud of that 23 team and what they’re doing week in, week out.”
Hamlin enters the Round of 12 finale fourth in the playoff standings, 48 points above the provisional cutline heading to the Charlotte Roval on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The NASCAR Foundation announced the four NASCAR fans named as finalists for the 15th annual Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award, recognized for the work they do through local children’s organizations in their communities.
The NASCAR Foundation’s Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award, named in honor of the foundation’s late founder and chairwoman Betty Jane France, recognizes NASCAR fans who volunteer for children’s causes in their local communities. Each finalist receives a minimum $25,000 donation for their organization with the overall winner receiving a $100,000 donation from The NASCAR Foundation to further their efforts.
“These four finalists represent the true spirit of the sport, not just in their passion for NASCAR, but in their tireless commitment to making a difference in their communities,” said Nichole Krieger, Executive Director and Vice President, The NASCAR Foundation. “John, Gregg, Kate and Hannah all support amazing organizations, doing important work in so many different capacities, and they truly embody everything the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award represents.”
The 15th annual Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award finalists include:
John Grieshaber of Wilmington, Delaware, a volunteer of A Better Chance for Our Children, an organization that focuses on finding families for waiting children, most from foster care and many with special needs. John has been a volunteer with ABCFOC for eight years assisting with their Rec-n-Respite program.
Gregg Morton of Bradenton, Florida, a volunteer of CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, supporting their mission of ending childhood cancer. Gregg has been a volunteer with CureSearch for five years and devotes 20 plus hours a week to the organization.
Kate O’Neal of Hazel Green, Alabama, a volunteer of Caring Link, an organization that meets the needs of local students by providing essential items through on-site Care Closets at local schools. Kate founded the organization in 2022.
Hannah Smith of Richmond, Virginia, a volunteer of Sportable Adaptive Sports and Recreation supporting their mission of providing sporting opportunities to athletes of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. Hannah has been a volunteer of the organization for 10 years and was previously a Sportable athlete.
The overall winner will be determined by an online vote, which is open now, every day through Nov. 3. Those who wish to vote for their favorite finalist and their impact on the community may vote once a day.
The overall winner will be announced during the NASCAR Awards in Phoenix on Nov. 4.
To learn more about The NASCAR Foundation’s Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award and the 2025 finalists, visit www.NASCARfoundation.org/Award.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs continue at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, with the Round of 8 being solidified after Saturday’s cutoff race (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Craftsman Truck Series regular Daniel Hemric returns to his former team at Kaulig Racing to pilot the No. 11 Chevrolet. Connor Mosack will join JR Motorsports, driving the No. 9, while Corey Day will hop behind the wheel of the No. 17 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.
Road-course ace and Xfinity Series Regular Season Champion Connor Zilisch, already locked in to the Round of 8 via points from this past weekend at Kansas Speedway, will look to conquer the Charlotte Roval and beef his stats even more as he continues his journey toward a Championship 4 berth.
The twists and turns of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval will be the site of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12 finale on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
With Chase Elliott’s electric win at Kansas Speedway, two postseason drivers have officially clinched a Round of 8 berth heading into the Charlotte Roval bout; Ryan Blaney claimed the first at New Hampshire Motor Speedway the weekend prior. Ross Chastain (minus-13), Bubba Wallace (minus-26), Tyler Reddick (minus-29) and Austin Cindric (minus-48) all sit below the provisional playoff line and will need to put on a top-flight performance to avoid elimination following the Round of 12’s conclusion.
Josh Bilicki makes his sixth Cup start of the season this weekend as pilot of the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford. The Wisconsin native raced on Charlotte’s oval configuration in May, finishing 33rd in the crown-jewel Coca-Cola 600.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs Round of 8 begins at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, with the series’ inaugural race on the Queen City’s road course slated for Friday afternoon (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The Charlotte Roval is the first of three Round of 8 contests, with Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway to follow in the coming weeks.
For the second time this season, Xfinity Series regular and road-course magician Connor Zilisch returns to the Truck Series, with the 19-year-old sensation driving the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in a double-duty affair.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports crew ate barbecue ribs in the setting autumn sunshine Sunday at Kansas Speedway. The sauce-slathered delicacy — provided by local purveyor Jack Stack — is a relatively new Victory Lane tradition at the 1.5-mile track, and Chase Elliott and track president Pat Warren shared the first bites as the camera shutters from the press clicked away.
There was plenty to go around, though, after Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400, a race won in dazzling fashion with a captivating 10th-to-first sprint in overtime by the 29-year-old driver that splintered Toyota’s short-lived monopoly on the top five on the final lap. Elliott’s powder-blue Chevrolet sat in front of the winner’s stage, pockmarked by the grit and grime from 400-plus miles on one of NASCAR’s most competitive tracks.
Ribs and champagne might not seem like a tailor-made food pairing, but for No. 9 jackman T.J. Semke, that taste meant everything. The former Kansas University football walk-on grew up in Lee’s Summit, Missouri — 5 o’clock on the dial to downtown Kansas City, and a roughly 40-minute drive to the west-of-town speedway. He has Kansas City’s NFL team logo tattooed on his chest and named his dog Chief, naturally. So the post-race grub that he grew up on was not just celebratory, but also educational for the rest of the No. 9 crew.
“You know, bottles and barbecue is a great combo,” Semke said, just after posing for photos with his brothers in Victory Lane. “But you tell these guys from North Carolina, from wherever they’re from about this Kansas City barbecue, and they … just … don’t … get it. So I was excited that they got to have a big slab of ribs in their face, sauce all over, doing it right in Kansas City.”
The sweet-heat taste was everywhere Sunday, and drivers and teams left the Sunflower State with a grab bag of results and outlooks for the rest of the Cup Series Playoffs spanning both sides of the flavor spectrum. One team had ribs. The others had the bones to pick.
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Bubba Wallace entered Sunday’s race as a former Kansas winner, but one who was left smarting from a 26th-place effort the weekend before at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The finish left him at the bottom of the playoff standings, with 27 points to make up to avoid elimination. Wallace said he stewed on the result for a few hours as he traveled home, but quickly moved past those blighted feelings, and his Saturday demeanor was relaxed but focused.
In past years, Wallace said the stress would have gotten to him. He’s made a 180-degree turn since.
He compared last weekend’s blip to playing a round of golf with a tour-level player, then watching that pro make an unforced error that demonstrates that they’re mortal. That’s the message he had for his 23XI Racing team after New Hampshire. We’re human. We just showed that to the rest of the Cup Series field. “So the next thing we’ve got to do is walk back up to the tee box and get ready to swing again,” Wallace said Saturday. “So today is our tee box.”
Sunday’s effort represented a big swing from Wallace that would have rated high in a long-drive contest. His No. 23 Toyota missed the handle early but came to life late, and Wallace guided it into the scoring pylon’s upper reaches just as the purse was ready to be paid out. A win would make that points deficit mathematically moot. When the field lined up for overtime, Wallace was the control car in the lead. The low-pressure approach he entered the weekend with was about to get a late-race jolt of motivation over the No. 23 team radio.
“You tell that (expletive) I’m talking about MJ from the free-throw line slam.”
“Message delivered.”
“… Take what’s yours.”
But then, here we go again. A version of the New Hampshire race’s intrasquad schism that pitted Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs in opposite corners a week ago flared anew in Kansas. This time, the drama again had Hamlin as a protagonist in the No. 11 he drives for JGR, but against the No. 23 Toyota he co-owns with famed free-throw-line dunker Michael Jordan, with Wallace behind the wheel of the friendly opposition in an allied 23XI Racing entry. That “how do you race your teammate” story line burbled all week. But now, Toyotas occupied all of the top five positions in relative harmony, and the team brass wanted to keep it that way.
Wallace had the upper hand for most of the two-lap dash to the end, parrying challenges by Toyota mates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe while Hamlin moved close enough to strike. Hamlin crossed Wallace over for the final set of corners, then carried his employee up to the limits of the Turn 3 wall. As they made contact, the high-side momentum for both slowed while Elliott steamed forward in the low lane. Broadside contact with Hamlin’s No. 11 couldn’t keep Elliott from getting to the line first. For the fourth straight Kansas race, a Chevrolet team had dinner reservations for ribs in the center of the track. “That’s what’s frustrating the most,” said Wallace, who was last of the Toyota drivers placing second through fifth.
“We race hard every week. Toyota drivers race really hard every week, but we respect each other,” Wallace said, “and there’s a fine line that sometimes gets crossed, and you have to understand that.”
There appeared to be at least some understanding in the immediate aftermath. Wallace and Hamlin both leaned on their cars after unbuckling post-race, decompressing without any measure of confrontation. After a cooling-off period and a round or two with the media, Wallace walked over and told Hamlin “good job” with a brief embrace, clapping his hand on his back.
Hamlin had his own aspirations, a task made far more difficult with the loss of nearly all of the power steering on his No. 11 Toyota in the final stage and a slight misstep on his final pit stop. Playoff advancement would be a big-picture bonus, but foremost on the list of goals was a milestone 60th win at the track where he made his Cup Series debut in 2005. Balancing the outcomes of the team he drives for versus the team he owns was the fine line he stepped over, but Hamlin maximized his performance as he has so many times in his 20th big-league season with 59 victories so far.
“If the 23 knocks him out, if the 23 wins, Joe Gibbs Racing is in a lot worse points scenario, let alone the 11. There’s a 20-some-point swing there, and Joe Gibbs Racing built his legacy as a driver,” said JGR competition director Chris Gabehart, Hamlin’s former crew chief. “And so I’m just … I hate it for the 23, but I’m so proud of Denny for giving it all he had. I think he’s in a tough spot here as the owner and driver on every given Sunday, because that microscope’s on him, and today he passed the test. I don’t know how else you look at it. As a driver of our cars — set aside the emotions of an alliance — as a driver of our cars, I don’t want anything less than what I just saw.”
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Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Pit stall 41 at Kansas Speedway is the last of the bunch by number, but the first one that drivers approach on their pit-road entry as they peel off Turn 4. The unimpeded path it provides for pit-stop service makes it an attractive choice, but the No. 9 crew had other reasons for wanting it.
A fourth-place qualifying effort by Elliott on Saturday afternoon afforded crew chief Alan Gustafson that luxury when it came time to pick.
“Coming here in the spring, we were in the same exact pit stall,” Semke said. “We had a bad stop that ultimately cost us the race, and I told Alan earlier this week, if we get a chance to get that same stall, I want some redemption. We got the exact same stall, got what we wanted, we laid down a great race and came out with the victory. So, damn it feels good.”
Redemption came in the form of consistent stops in the nine-second range, a rinse-repeat efficiency that gave the No. 9 crew the day’s top ranking and solidified its season-long No. 1 perch, according to NASCAR Insights analytics. But it also took shape thanks to a clever call from Gustafson to set Elliott up for overtime success. The final pit cycle landed under caution on Lap 255 — 12 laps to go in regulation and with two overtimes yet to come.
Gustafson opted for four fresh Goodyear tires while other front-runners took two. Elliott entered the pits in fourth place and exited in eighth, a drop in position chalked up to the extra time required for full service. The No. 9 was the first car to leave pit road on that strategy, and the redemption arc that the over-the-wall group so dearly wanted was then in Elliott’s hands.
“I think the key is we just all stick together and work through it, and those guys are performing at a super, super high level,” Gustafson said of the No. 9 pit crew. “… Yeah, do I think it was in the back of everybody’s mind that we wanted to atone for that? Sure. But I think the bigger picture, we’re focusing on the bigger picture and we want to try to win every week. Yeah, super proud of those guys. They deserve a lot of credit. They don’t get the credit they deserve. They’ve done an amazing job.
“I don’t know where they rank — everybody’s got a different metric — but they’re really high on the sheet every week, and I’m proud of them. They were, in my opinion, the best crew on pit road all day today and a huge part of our win.”
In the end, Elliott delivered on at least two things he discussed during media day a month ago before the playoffs began. “Consistency’s great,” he said Aug. 27, “but it’s not the end goal by any stretch.” That rang true in one of his radio exchanges with Gustafson before the last restart. When the veteran crew chief talked over the potential playoff implications of a Wallace win and how it might alter the elimination line, Elliott shot back to say forget the bubble. A win, even lined up at the back end of the top 10, was within reach.
Elliott also reiterated verbatim a pre-playoffs point he’d made five weeks ago: “A lot can happen in 10 weeks.” He noted that the length of the postseason allows for teams to have surges of success and cold patches, with enough time for the performance to undulate between each extreme. After a sweep of the opening three-race round, it appeared Toyota might boat-race the playoff field. Two-thirds through the Round of 12 and exactly halfway through the full 10-race bracket, that manufacturer balance has had some leveling.
Elliott caught one of those warming swells just right Sunday, earning another three races of playoff eligibility in the next round.
“What did I tell you? Playoffs is a long time. A lot can happen in 10 weeks,” Elliott said. “That can be the difference in somebody being mediocre to potentially getting on a hot streak or even a team collectively getting better throughout that course of time. So it’s all about buying yourself more time. If you’re not where you want to be, you’re just trying to buy yourself more time. Fortunately, we bought ourself three more weeks, and we’ll fight like hell until they tell us to not.”
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Hendrick Motorsports arrived in the Heartland with speed and determination to counter the dominance Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske have shown through the first four NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs races.
Chase Elliott’s late victory and Kyle Larson’s steady sixth-place finish proved the organization had plenty of firepower up front. But the bigger storyline may have been William Byron, the 2025 Regular Season Champion, who finished ninth after never truly being a factor on a track that should have suited his strengths.
Byron voiced his frustration all afternoon on a track that he and crew chief Rudy Fugle felt should’ve played into their hands.
“I just have no speed. … I’m just super-slow. I don’t know what to do,” Byron said over the No. 24’s radio at the end of Stage 2, adding later: “We clearly are missing something bad.”
“I know, just keep fighting here,” Fugle responded after he called for wholesale adjustments that brought Byron within the top 15 in the final stage.
“We struggled there at the beginning,” Byron said post-race. “We missed something, but we made a bunch of changes and came to life there in the final stage. I’m not sure … It was really confusing, honestly.”
Confusing is one way to put it. For much of the race, Byron hovered outside the top 20, failing to score stage points and visibly lacking the speed that defined his regular-season consistency. In the last true intermediate race — the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway — Byron was dominant as he swept all three stages and finished second in the crown-jewel event.
Yet, on a day when his teammates were showing signs of returning to championship form, Byron was left searching for answers.
“It sucks that we’re having to throw Hail Marys this time of year … we don’t want to do that,” Byron said. “But this team is resilient. We weren’t going to give up. The fact of the matter was that we had to fix it and work on it. We just had to try a bunch of stuff, and we got the car going in the right direction. I could carry speed and do the things we needed to do there at the end.”
That resilience salvaged a decent finish, but it didn’t erase the mystery. Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports’ vice chairman and Hall of Fame driver who once piloted the No. 24, was candid in his assessment.
“The 24 was the one that was kind of the eye opener today. They were pretty far off,” Gordon said. “They come out of here with a top 10 because they didn’t give up either. That one’s got (us) scratching our heads, and we’ll go back and diagnose what they went through and why they were in that position.”
Gordon’s concern is warranted. In the last eight races, Byron has only three top-10 finishes and five laps led. However, Kansas was supposed to be a momentum builder, not a setback, instead uncovering more concerns about whether Byron can return to the Championship 4 for a third consecutive year.
“This late in the season, this stage and round in the playoffs, it’s so important to get some things to go your way,” Gordon said, “to give you that extra incentive or just extra motivation to go win a championship and believe that you can do it.”
Momentum is everything in the playoffs. The back-to-back Daytona 500 champion knows that better than anyone. But Sunday’s race felt like a missed opportunity — not just for points, but for confidence to close out the Round of 12.
Now, the pressure shifts to the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), a road course where Byron has shown flashes of brilliance. A strong run there is essential, not just to advance but to reset the tone heading into Las Vegas Motor Speedway — another 1.5-mile track that looms large to open the Round of 8.
There’s no panic in the 24 camp, but there is urgency, the kind that comes when a championship-caliber team finds itself off-kilter at the worst possible time. Kansas didn’t break Byron’s playoff hopes as he sits above the cutline with a 40-point cushion, but it does make this weekend’s Roval race important not to let one troublesome weekend turn into two.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s fall trip to Riverhead Raceway has carried plenty of sentimental value over the past few seasons.
Riverhead’s longtime co-owner Eddie Partridge passed away in 2021 shortly after his team won a Modified Tour race at Richmond Raceway with Ryan Preece. To honor his memory, the fall Tour event at Riverhead was renamed the Eddie Partridge 256, all while a replica of Partridge’s car remains suspended over the track.
During his time overseeing the speedway, Partridge built upon everything that made Riverhead successful since it opened in 1951. Partridge’s legacy lives on through the current owners in his widow Connie Partridge and Tom Gatz, as Riverhead remains a staple of motorsports culture in the northeast with two Modified Tour events a year.
Many talented names like Mike Stefanik, Richie Evans, Donny Lia, Ted Christopher and others have won at Riverhead over the years. Saturday’s race will feature an even mix of Modified Tour regulars and local Riverhead heroes, all of whom look to secure a victory in honor of Partridge.
Below is everything to know ahead of the 14th race of the 2025 Modified Tour schedule.
Since 2022, the fall NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at Riverhead Raceway has been named after the track’s late co-owner, Eddie Partridge. (Photo: Mike Lawrence/NASCAR)
Eddie Partridge 256 at Riverhead Raceway
No NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour competitor has earned more victories at Riverhead than four-time series champion Justin Bonsignore.
Riverhead was the site of Bonsignore’s debut on the Modified Tour in 2007, when he finished fourth out of 28 cars. Since that day, Bonsignore has found Victory Lane at Riverhead on 12 different occasions. In June, he broke the previous record of 11 held by Mike Ewanitsko.
Following a runner-up finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway two weekends ago, Bonsignore is now just seven points behind Austin Beers in the battle for the 2025 championship. A 13th Riverhead win would be a huge boost to his championship hopes.
Among the drivers expected to stand in the way of Bonsignore on Saturday night is his long-time Modified Tour rival Ron Silk. A three-time Riverhead winner, Silk has engaged in numerous clashes with Bonsignore at the facility, including last year’s Eddie Partridge 256 when Silk prevailed after late contact with his rival.
Beers enters Saturday’s Eddie Partridge 256 with a narrow seven-point advantage over Bonsignore in the Modified Tour standings. Although Beers struggled at Riverhead during the early days of his career, he has improved at the facility in recent years with three top-five finishes, including a runner-up result in 2024.
Craig Lutz, Matt Hirschman and Patrick Emerling enter Saturday’s race in a dog fight over third in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings. All three are still in the race for the championship and a win by any of them could significantly close the gap to Beers and Bonsignore.
Speaking of Hirschman, the 10-time series winner will make his 150th career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start on Saturday night.
The complete entry list for the Eddie Partridge 256 is available here.
Everyone at Riverhead Raceway will be chasing Justin Bonsignore on Saturday evening as he pursues a 13th NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win at the facility. (Photo: Mike Lawrence/NASCAR)
SCHEDULE: Saturday, Oct. 4; Practice from 3:30 – 3:55 p.m. ET … Final practice from 4:05 – 4:35 p.m. ET … Qualifying at 6:15 p.m. ET … Start of the Eddie Partridge 256 at 8 p.m. ET.
RE-DRAW: The fastest qualifier will spin the wheel to determined the number of drivers that will re-draw for their starting positions: 4, 6, 8, or 10 positions will re-draw. Once the fastest qualifier spins the wheel, NASCAR will have the various buckets ready to immediately start the re-draw procedure. Driver will re-draw in their qualifying order after qualifying has been completed (1 through 10, or however many are applicable). The pole position and/or any bonus point(s), if applicable, will be awarded to the fastest qualifier and will be the pole of record. If, due to adverse conditions, qualifying is canceled, the field will be set in accordance with the 2025 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Rule Book.
QUALIFYING: Two consecutive qualifying laps. (EIRI) Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for The Eddie Partridge 256 is limited to 26 starters including Provisional Positions.
TIRE ALLOTMENT: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is eight (8) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is one (1) tire per stop. Maximum of three (3) crew members are permitted in the car servicing area during a pit stop.
