For the first time in five years, two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch is returning to Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, to take part in the Snowball Derby on Dec. 4-7.
Busch will drive the No. 51 Lucas Oil-sponsored entry for Bryson Lopez Racing in the annual Super Late Model crown jewel event. The team will be led by Danny Stockman, who guided Jesse Love and the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 team to the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship in 2025.
“It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Pensacola, but I haven’t forgotten how to get around Five Flags,” Busch said. “The Snowball Derby is one of those bucket-list races you always want to win again and again, and I’m fired up to be back with the No. 51 Lucas Oil team and FloRacing. We’re showing up to take that trophy home.”
Busch is no stranger to Five Flags Speedway and the Snowball Derby, as he has made five previous starts in the event since 2002.
After finishing 33rd in his first start in the event in 2002, he returned for his second Snowball Derby start in 2009, where he led a race-high 91 laps to claim the Tom Dawson Trophy for the first time. He returned to the Snowball Derby again in 2012, leading 15 laps and finishing third.
Busch’s next start came in 2017, which saw him start 15th, lead 28 laps and secure his second triumph in the prestigious race. During his most recent Snowball Derby appearance in 2020, Busch started ninth and finished in seventh.
The Snowball Derby, first held in 1968, has a long history of NASCAR involvement.
The Snowball Derby is widely considered one of the most important short track races in the country and annually attracts stars from NASCAR to compete. (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
Among the early winners of the Snowball Derby who have also enjoyed success in NASCAR are 1970 Daytona 500 winner Pete Hamilton, 10-time Cup Series winner Donnie Allison and three-time Cup Series champion Darrell Waltrip.
More recently, many NASCAR drivers have used the event as a launching point for their careers. They include current stars like Busch, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, Christian Eckes, Noah Gragson, Ty Majeski, Chandler Smith and Kaden Honeycutt.
All of them are Snowball Derby winners.
This year, several active NASCAR competitors will again be among the more than 50 drivers looking to earn starting positions in the Snowball Derby.
Joining Busch on the entry list are Jones, Gragson and Ryan Preece. In addition, several drivers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series are also entered.
Among them are Honeycutt, Majeski, Jake Garcia, Dawson Sutton and Bayley Currey. Johnny Sauter, the 2016 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, and David Gilliland, the 2007 Daytona pole winner and owner of Tricon Garage, have also filed entries.
Snowball Derby weekend begins with practice on Thursday, Dec. 4. Teams will qualify on Dec. 5, with the top 30 qualifiers locking into the race. The remainder of the field will be set Dec. 6 via a last-chance race and a pair of provisionals.
The 58th running of the Snowball Derby goes green at 1 p.m. CT / 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, Dec. 7. Action all week at Five Flags Speedway airs live on FloRacing, with Friday’s qualifying session also scheduled to be broadcast live on the NASCAR Channel.
NASCAR on Wednesday announced the start times and networks for all of its national series races for the 2026 season, with the Daytona 500 set for 2:30 p.m. ET on Feb. 15 on FOX.
Two weeks earlier, on Feb. 1, FOX will televise the Cook Out Clash’s return to Bowman Gray Stadium at 8 p.m. ET. This will be the second straight season that the annual exhibition race will take place in the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, venue affectionately known as “The Madhouse.”
Prime Video will kick off its second year of NASCAR coverage at 6 p.m. ET on May 24 with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Another highlight of Prime’s five-race run will be the 4 p.m. ET race on June 21 at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego as NASCAR celebrates the 250-year anniversary of the U.S. Navy.
TNT Sports will take over with a 3:30 p.m. ET start time on June 28 from picturesque Sonoma Raceway. This road-course showdown will also mark the beginning of the In-Season Challenge, a five-race segment where the top drivers will battle for a $1 million prize in a tournament-style format.
USA Sports will close out the season with the final 14 races across USA Network, NBC and Peacock, starting at 3:30 p.m. ET on Aug. 9 from Iowa Speedway on USA Network. The season will culminate with the NASCAR Championship airing on NBC at 3 p.m. ET on Nov. 8 from Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The newly named NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (formerly Xfinity) will be televised exclusively on The CW again and will start its 2026 season at 5 p.m. ET on Feb. 14 from Daytona International Speedway.
The Craftsman Truck Series will once again be carried on FOX Sports and will get underway on FS1 at 7:30 p.m. ET on Feb. 13 from Daytona International Speedway.
In addition, and as announced previously, FOX will air all 20 ARCA Menards Series races across FOX, FS1 and FS2, beginning with the season opener at noon ET on Feb. 14 from Daytona International Speedway.
Look below for the full slate of start times for the NASCAR national series and start making your plans to attend the 2026 NASCAR races:
On the eve of the NASCAR Cup Series season finale, team co-owner and driver Brad Keselowski held court in the Phoenix Raceway media center to size up the 2025 campaign for his RFK Racing operation.
“A handful of seconds,” Keselowski said in summation, “so just need to convert those into wins going forward.”
One day later, that handful got just a little fuller. Keselowski had stayed on track on older tires for an overtime restart in the year-ending race, but the upper hand he gained in track position went away in the final set of corners. Fellow Ford driver Ryan Blaney slipped by for the victory, leaving Keselowski’s No. 6 Mustang half a car-length back as the runner-up for the third time in the season.
“It’s kind of the story of our season,” Keselowski said post-race. “We’re just needing a little bit of speed, trying to put ourselves in position. We were in position as well as we could, I just wasn’t quite fast enough. Another second place.”
The 2025 campaign represented growth and change for the organization in its fourth season under the Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing banner, if not the same level of on-track success that recent years had produced. RFK expanded to three full-time teams for the first time since 2016, adding the No. 60 Ford for Ryan Preece alongside the incumbents in Keselowski and Chris Buescher in the No. 17 ride. RFK officials also announced in September that Chip Bowers would become the new team president, replacing longtime executive Steve Newmark.
Both Keselowski and Buescher won races in 2024, and the two drivers went 2-for-2 in reaching the Cup Series Playoffs the year before that. This season, the new-look RFK Racing outfit went winless and was 0-for-3 with its postseason aspirations.
“It takes one extra step to truly be in contention, to fight to win more of them,” Buescher said during Phoenix weekend. “We had a good handful that we had a good shot at, and just didn’t seal the deal at the end of the day. So, definitely missed opportunities, a little bit of rough luck along the way, which anybody in here would say the same thing. So it’s just a good year without being stellar.”
Keselowski dismissed the notion that expansion may have stretched the team too thin performance-wise. Though Keselowski’s average finish dipped (from 15.6 to 18.5), his and Buescher’s other statistics and metrics were comparable to numbers from previous seasons. Buescher improved to a career-best average start of 12.5, and Preece enjoyed the best of his six full seasons at the Cup Series level — all with a team that was only a rarely used part-time effort a year ago.
“Actually, it’s been really good, adding a third team. It’s helped us in a lot of ways,” Keselowski said. “Hardly any area I would say it’s hurt us at all, so it’s been terrific. Ryan Preece has done a great job. To see that team take off and kind of grow its wings so quickly, it’s been very rewarding.”
Preece said that when RFK’s playoff goals weren’t met, the final 10 races of the season could have been a write-off. Instead, he said that the organization redoubled its efforts on closing strong, creating momentum for 2026.
Keselowski found some of that stride with four top-10 finishes in the final six races, and Preece followed suit with four top 10s in the final five events. Those measures included a shift in Preece’s approach — away from feeling like he needed to micro-manage all of the team’s aspects as an unofficial crew chief and instead directing his focus toward maximizing what he could do in his role as a driver, trusting in the rest of the team’s processes.
“So a change in mindset was probably a big piece of that, as well as coming over to RFK and seeing what Brad’s been able to help build and continue to build back up of what we can be,” Preece said. “We’re all frustrated we didn’t make the playoffs, but there’s a ton of potential between all three of us, and I’m excited for that. For me, it was probably a change in mindset as well as a great group of people that came together and are working on accomplishing the goal.”
Besides momentum, the group also built camaraderie. Buescher and Preece participated in an escalating series of pranks on each other as the season wound down, with rental cars being towed, cinched in plastic wrap and doors removed. The two also unwittingly dressed up as each other for Halloween.
The development was met with amusement from Keselowski, who said he felt no need to intervene. The 41-year-old team leader did caution, however, to best leave him out of the practical jokes.
“Buyer beware,” Keselowski warned. “Yeah, anybody that comes for me better not miss.”
As a child, Jacque Herrera was heading to Chicagoland Speedway to watch the stars of NASCAR rip around the 1.5-mile oval in Joliet, Illinois.
She gets to relive those glory days in a new way now as Herrera was introduced as general manager of Chicagoland Speedway on Tuesday, just under eight months before NASCAR makes its triumphant return to Will County for the 2026 Fourth of July weekend.
The opportunity comes with great responsibility, Herrera recognized in a Tuesday teleconference with NASCAR.com, but it is also coupled with a strong sense of pride for a woman who was born and raised in Chicago.
“Being a lifelong NASCAR fan, attending races as a kid with my dad, I went to Joliet so many times on the weekends with my aunts and cousins, spending the weekends out there,” Herrera said. “So Joliet is very near and dear to my heart. And to see it come full circle, never in my wildest dreams did I expect the little girl from Chicago that used to attend the races to become the GM of Chicagoland Speedway.”
Those memories as a little girl come flooding back to her now. Herrera, the self-proclaimed tomboy among her two sisters, recalls her first experience at the track when Tony Stewart won on a day she and her father went to the race by themselves. Forgotten sunscreen left her burnt in the summer sun, but “that was actually probably one of my best memories with my dad.”
“It was just exciting to see, being there as a young kid, seeing all the race fans my first race and actually seeing what racing was about,” she said. “My dad had always talked about it. He had been to a few races without us and with a couple buddies, and we all became die-hard NASCAR fans growing up.”
Years later, Herrera returns to Chicagoland as NASCAR heads back to the 1.5-mile tri-oval for the first time since 2019, but with plenty of experience under her belt, to boot. Herrera spent the last three years as Director of Community Relations for the Chicago Street Race, fostering relationships within the city that connected both her and NASCAR to local leaders and organizations around the area.
Those experiences, she said, will be invaluable as she transitions that focus to the Joliet property.
“One of the most important parts of my job,” Herrera said, “is getting to know and build these relationships with the local community, with city officials and different departments and just see and listen to the people that live in this area as well. See what’s working, what’s not working. How can we better ourselves? Better what we’re doing in the community, how we can implement new initiatives, either with partnerships with Chicago Public Schools, or After School Matters or anyone that we’re working with.
“To see those kids become race fans, I think that’s probably the best part of my job – basically being out there serving the community that we race in and making sure that we are actually having an impact in the community.”
Dylan Buell | Getty Images
Before her time with the Street Race, Herrera held a similar role as Director of Community Engagement at Tapestry 360 Health in addition to time as Director of External Affairs and Communications at Humboldt Park Health. There, her teams worked in government relations, public information, marketing and event management.
But the common thread for Herrera has always been community, a staple ingrained in her by her upbringing.
“My mother is from the South,” Herrera said. “That Southern hospitality of always just making sure everyone feels like family as soon as they step in the door, as soon as you have a conversation. I’m also Mexican, so I think a lot of that comes from my culture. Whereas we’re used to giving handshakes, I’m very much like a ‘hug and a kiss on the cheek’ kind of person. Even if I first met you, I mean, we’ll be best friends.”
NASCAR’s return to Joliet is set for July 3-5, with ARCA Menards Series racing slated for July 3, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series racing on July 4 and the Cup Series headliner on July 5. There is work to be done around the facility, but Herrera is optimistic about what’s to come.
“The property’s already in good condition,” Herrera said. “We do have our team — shout out to Dawn (Martin) and Collette (Nelson) at Chicagoland. They are already starting to make those updates and renovations, and then we have a lot of work ahead of us in the coming months, weeks, days.”
Ultimately, Herrera’s hope is that she can help deliver families attending NASCAR races at Chicagoland the same experiences that shaped her life as a child in the grandstands years ago. Her goal?
“To make it the best race a NASCAR fan has ever attended,” Herrera said. “At the core of it, that’s exactly what I want. I want any person that walks through our doors to walk away and say, ‘This is the best damn thing I’ve ever done,’ and walk away with thinking, ‘I’m going to return to a NASCAR race,’ or ‘I’m going to go to another race.’ Just to have them come experience NASCAR, come out to Chicagoland and see that, hey, this is a badass event.”
Tickets are now available for purchase for NASCAR’s return to Chicagoland Speedway over Independence Day weekend on July 3-5, 2026, featuring the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (previously NASCAR Xfinity Series) and ARCA Menards Series at ChicagolandSpeedway.com or 855-796-7223.
To stay up-to-date with Chicagoland Speedway, fans can subscribe to receive exclusive emails, follow @Chicagolndspdwy on Facebook, Instagram and X and download the NASCAR Tracks App for the latest real-time updates on all aspects of the event.
A two-day Goodyear tire test is scheduled this week at Bristol Motor Speedway, with the goal of dialing in an optimal setup for the NASCAR Cup Series’ two visits to the Tennessee short track next year.
Three teams — one from each of the series’ three manufacturers — are scheduled to test Wednesday and Thursday at the 0.533-mile concrete oval. Participating teams are:
• No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota; driver Bubba Wallace
• No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet; driver Alex Bowman
• No. 60 RFK Racing Ford; driver Ryan Preece
Competition officials indicated that one of the test’s objectives is to determine a tire setup that promotes fall-off and an emphasis on tire management, but without the excessive wear from the Cup Series’ most recent race on Sept. 13. Another prime goal is to zero in on a setup that’s more temperature neutral, with tires that react the same regardless of any swings in temps.
The teams will also be testing with the new target 750-horsepower package, which will be used on road courses and oval tracks measuring less than 1.5 miles in 2026.
The Cup Series will make two stops at Bristol Motor Speedway next season — April 12 for the Food City 500, and Sept. 19 for the annual Bass Pro Shops Night Race in the playoffs.
For the eighth consecutive year, Riverhead Raceway is continuing a cherished Modified tradition with the running of the Islip 300 on Saturday.
The event gets its name from the defunct Islip Speedway, which hosted six NASCAR Cup Series events between 1964 and 1971. After the Cup Series departed the 0.2-mile complex, the Islip 300 became a NASCAR Grand National East and All Star Racing League event before becoming synonymous with the popular Modified class.
No driver was more efficient in Islip’s endurance events than Modified legend and NASCAR Hall of Famer Richie Evans. A master around Islip’s compact layout regardless of the race distance, Evans prevailed in the final four 300-lap Modified races at the facility and continued to add wins there prior to the track’s closure in 1984.
Islip may now solely belong in the record books, but the complex and its prestigious Islip 300 left a lasting impact on the Modified community as it evolved over the following decades. In 2017, Riverhead Raceway revived the Islip 300 as a spiritual successor to the crown jewel event, which now serves as Riverhead’s season finale.
With the Islip 300 also being one of the last major Modified races of the year in the Northeast, it regularly attracts a healthy field of cars. Riverhead regulars will look to defend their territory against several Modified veterans as each of them look to add their name to the Islip 300’s growing legacy.
Below is everything to know about the 2025 edition of the Islip 300 at Riverhead Raceway.
The Islip 300 presents one last opportunity for Riverhead regulars like Matthew Brode (96) to earn a win in 2025. (Photo: Mike Lawrence/NASCAR)
TV channel, live stream for Islip 300 at Riverhead Raceway
Saturday’s Islip 300 at Riverhead Raceway will be shown exclusively on FloRacing, the official streaming home for all NASCAR Regional properties.
The event will not be shown on a traditional TV channel.
Below is how to watch the 2025 Islip 300 on Saturday, Nov. 15.
Joining the Modifieds for the Islip 300 will be four support classes, the Eddie Partridge All Stars, Legends, Crate Modifieds and Street Stocks.
Each division gets one round of practice prior to qualifying at 12:30 p.m. ET. The Modifieds get a 40-minute practice session, while Legends, Crate Modifieds and Street Stocks have 20 minutes to shake down their cars.
The starting field for the Islip 300 will be set by a two-lap, single-car qualifying session. Legends, Crate Modifieds and Street Stocks have 10 laps to determined where they will line up in their respective features. There will also be consolation races for the Modifieds and Legends if necessary.
Below is the complete race-day schedule for Riverhead on Saturday.
(All times ET)
Time
Event
7:30 a.m.
Pit window opens
8 a.m.
Pit gates open
9:30 a.m.
Modified drivers meeting
10 a.m.
General admission opens
10-10:20 a.m.
Legends practice
10:20-11 a.m.
Modified practice
11-11:20 a.m.
Crate Modified practice
11:20-11:40 a.m.
Street Stock practice
11:40 a.m.
Eddie Partridge All Stars
12:30 p.m.
Qualifying begins ((Modifieds: 2 laps/single car … Legends: 10 laps … Crate Modifieds: 10 laps … Street Stocks: 10 laps … Legends Consi: 12 laps … Modified Consi: 15 laps)
To follow…
Opening ceremonies/National Anthem
To follow…
Feature Races (Eddie Partridge All Stars: 15 laps … Legends: 40 laps … Crate Modifieds: 40 laps … Street Stocks: 40 laps … Modifieds: 300 laps)
The Islip 300 is a continuation of not only a proud Modified tradition, but also the legacy of late Riverhead Raceway co-owner Eddie Partridge. (Photo: Mike Lawrence/NASCAR)
Islip 300 entry list
Last year’s Islip 300 saw Riverhead Raceway regular Chase Grennan surprise many by besting many seasoned veterans to prevail in the prestigious event.
A native of Glen Cove, New York, Grennan primarily spent the 2024 season competing in Riverhead’s Crate Modified division. The Islip 300 was just his second Modified start of the year. Grennan enjoyed a solid season at Riverhead this year, where he collected three Modified victories to go with his Islip 300 victory last November.
Among the drivers looking to dethrone Greenan as Islip 300 champion is Matt Hirschman, a 10-time winner in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Hirschman won the Islip 300 in 2023 and seeks to cap off a stellar year of Modified competition around the country by joining Ryan Preece as a two-time winner of the event.
Paulie Hartwig III makes his return to the Islip 300 after his first attempt saw him earn the pole in 2023 at the age of 12. Now with more experience on his side, Hartwig heads to Riverhead looking to make a statement.
Other names set to compete in the Islip 300 on Saturday include Andy Jankowiak, Ken Heagy, Max Zachem, Roger Turbush, Joey Braun and Mark Stewart.
The current entry list as of Nov. 11 for the Islip 300 can be found below:
Car No.
Driver
00
Chris Rogers
4
Joey Braun
10
Dylan Slepian
15
Joey Warren
18
Ken Heagy
20
Max Zachem
36
Kyle Ellwood
38
Owen Grennan
49
Chris Young
55
Chase Grennan
60
Matt Hirschman
73
Andy Jankowiak
73
Paulie Hartwig III
78
Walter Sutcliffe Jr.
81
Mark Stewart
88
Roger Turbush
96
Matthew Brode
Matt Hirschman seeks to become the second two-time winner in the Islip 300’s modern history. (Photo: Mike Lawrence/NASCAR)
More than 45 short tracks across the United States and Canada were part of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series in 2025. A select few drivers at those tracks can now call themselves NASCAR champions after a busy season of racing.
From Salina Highbanks Speedway in Pryor, Oklahoma, to Claremont Motorsports Park in Claremont, New Hampshire, drivers from across the continent worked endlessly toward the goal of becoming NASCAR track champions this year. For a select few, that dream was realized.
They include Michael Bumgarner, who won more than 15 races on his way to the track championship at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway. Also among the list of track champions is Kenna Mitchell, who won a pair of championships for the second consecutive season at California’s All American Speedway.
Peyton Sellers won his eighth track championship at Virginia’s South Boston Speedway, breaking the all-time record for championships at the track he previously shared with David Blankenship. Brian Robie secured two track championships this season, claiming the 604 Modified crown at Claremont Motorsports Park and Monadnock Speedway.
Below is a list of NASCAR-sanctioned division champions from all of the tracks that are part of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series.
2025 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series track champions
Team Penske stormed into the offseason with a Ryan Blaney victory and a Joey Logano top five, but its streak of NASCAR Cup Series championships ended after collecting titles from 2022 through 2024, handing the reins to Hendrick Motorsports after Kyle Larson exited Phoenix Raceway with the 2025 championship.
There is certainly disappointment for three-time champion Logano and 2023 title-winner Blaney that their reign is over. But both advanced to the Round of 8 two years in a row, and after being one spot short of another Championship 4 berth, Blaney couldn’t help but reflect with pride instead of regret.
“It’s been amazing what all of Team Penske has been able to do since 2022 and it was fun to be a part of it,” Blaney said at Phoenix Raceway ahead of the season finale. “It’s fun to be a part of a team that is winning and winning championships and have great people working for the organization. And yeah, it’s a shame that we don’t have a shot at it, but very proud of the effort that we’ve put in through the years and this year to try to get there. And yeah, just a little bit short, but that’s just the way it goes.”
Logano was hoping for one last week of playoff intensity to end his season and become the first repeat champion since Jimmie Johnson’s string of five consecutive titles from 2006-10. The driver of the No. 22 Ford matched his 2024 totals in top fives (seven) and top 10s (13) and bettered his average finish from 17.1 to 15.3. But with just one win — down from four in 2024 — Logano couldn’t muster a final charge into the Championship 4.
“Obviously not everything we hoped for. Our goal is to win the championship every year and we fell short of that,” Logano said. “Our goals are really high. By the same token, I feel like there were moments of the year we looked really strong. There were moments of the year where we didn’t capitalize on opportunities to win that we could have, and then I look at the playoffs as OK. We didn’t really stack any wins in there, but we were able to work our way into the Round of 8 and be a threat up until the last race in Martinsville.
“I always say the goal every year when we start the playoffs is to make it 10 weeks of hell. Make sure you have the pressure on you for 10 weeks. Well, we got nine — nine hard weeks. That’s better than six, but it’s not exactly where you want to be. In some cases, you can look at it and say we’ve done a decent job, but on the other hand, it’s just not what our expectation is of ourselves.”
Blaney rallied the No. 12 team to the Championship 4 in both 2023 and 2024 with walk-off wins at Martinsville, but a runner-up effort there in 2025 left him on the outside looking in at Phoenix — where he went on to win the season finale.
“I thought our group, personally, was better this year than what we were last year,” Blaney said. “And I thought (in) ’24, we were even better than ’23. I feel like we’ve gotten better every year. I’m not a big stat-looker as far as judging success, and I know that we didn’t make the Champ 4 this year, but I feel like this team was even better than last year. Just our integrity of how we clawed back from some early miscues and a lot of DNFs early, and just the mental strength of this whole group. I was really proud. I was proud of my guys for getting better and better every week and every year.”
James Gilbert | Getty Images
All four cars affiliated with Team Penske made the Cup Series Playoffs this season, with Austin Cindric wheeling the No. 2 Ford to a Talladega Superspeedway win this spring and Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry scoring a March victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for his first Cup triumph.
Cindric led a career-high 325 laps in 2025, bettering his previous best by 69 laps, but the fourth-year racer earned just two top-10 finishes after scoring his Talladega victory in April. He leaves the season with less top fives and top 10s than he had in 2024 with a lower average finish, but Cindric felt he made progress this year. His average running position through 2025 was 16.9, according to NASCAR Loop Data, despite an average finish of 20.9.
“It’s definitely been my best season and most complete season behind a Cup Series car, but not getting the end results of races has been frustrating for us,” Cindric said. “Like even [at Martinsville], the worst we were running was where we finished, and that’s for a number of reasons. And it’s not just one race, but it’s a great example. I feel like there’s been so many races where we’ve had so much potential, and so I think we carry that, and you can either look at that as a negative or a positive.
“We’ve been in the hunt all year, and I think that’s been a big positive where I don’t feel like we really dropped the ball at all. That’s from the top down on the 2 car. So I feel like as a group as well, I’m really proud of my guys, because I feel like we’re really contributing at a high level to the team as a whole, and I think that’s really important for us moving forward.”
Through Wood Brothers Racing’s affiliation with Team Penske, Berry was new to the group as driver of the iconic No. 21 Ford. A miserable Round of 16 left Berry with no shot to advance through the postseason, but the sophomore Cup driver adapted quickly to Penske’s methods throughout the campaign after spending his rookie year at Stewart-Haas Racing.
“Going back to these places for a second, third time definitely made me feel more comfortable, and obviously in a much different situation than I was in last year,” Berry said. “Obviously, had a great group around me last year, but the place was closing down so it made it difficult on all of us. I think having the group I have around me, I’m excited for next year, excited to build off what we did this year. And I think there’s a lot of positives to look from our season.”
Cindric and Blaney echoed how well Berry has fit into the group, with all four drivers working well together to drive each other toward better performance. Cindric has been in the Cup Series two years longer than Berry, but Berry’s extensive stock-car background racing late models gives him a particularly unique vantage point compared to Cindric, who grew up racing a variety of vehicles, including sports cars, rally cars and open-wheel cars.
“I think Josh has been a great fit … whether if that’s from team dynamics in meetings or speedway racing, or just kind of thoughts in general,” Cindric said. “He kind of brings in a different perspective, especially than I have. I mean, you can’t really pick two more different guys as far as their racing backgrounds than myself and Josh. I haven’t even sat in a late model where he could probably build one before I could ever figure out how to drive it. So, no, it’s been good to have him, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know him.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
What comes next for Team Penske to find itself back in the championship hunt in 2026? First comes a reset, Logano said — “I think it’s important to take a second and take a breather” — but then it’s back to the grind to figure out where things went awry.
“You’ve got to do something different because what we did wasn’t good enough, so you can’t do the same thing and expect a different outcome,” he said. “We have to look to do some different things, and how can we approach things differently. How do we approach race weekend? What do we have to do to be faster on the race track? We just have to try to be better because the bottom line is we were not good enough. That’s the fact. There’s no way to hide from that. You can’t make up all these different scenarios on why you weren’t. We weren’t good enough, so we have to identify those weaknesses and figure out what to do to change those, and that will happen really quickly.”
Blaney knows perfection isn’t possible, but that goal is still the standard at Penske after three straight championship triumphs.
“You’re never going to be perfect for years and years on end,” he said. “You’re going to have to go through some times where you’ve got to figure out how do we be a little bit better than what we were?”
Gary Putnam has poured everything he has into NASCAR.
A native of Vernon, Connecticut, he’s spent 30 years grinding away in garage areas across the country working with a who’s who of drivers and team owners including Richard Petty, John Andretti, Bill Elliott and Jamie McMurray, among others.
However, Putnam has always maintained one true love: Modified racing.
He grew up attending events at Stafford Speedway, Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park and the New-London Waterford Speedbowl, where he watched Modified drivers like Richie Evans, Fred DeSarro and Rod Spalding compete for supremacy on a weekly basis.
Even while he worked at the top levels of NASCAR, Putnam’s heart stayed with the Modifieds. That’s why he dabbled on the side as a driver on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, making 34 starts between 2014 and 2025.
Now Putnam, who resides in Concord, North Carolina, will be able to focus all his attention on the division he loves as the new Modified Tour series director.
Gary Putnam at Seekonk Speedway in 2019 (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
“Growing up in Connecticut, (Modifieds) were the premier division in the Northeast. So I was a huge fan,” said the 55-year-old Putnam, who becomes the fifth series director in the history of the modern Tour. “I grew up at Stafford, Thompson and Waterford spending every race night there. I remember getting my first autograph at 6 years old at Thompson when I walked up to Fred DeSarro. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world.”
Putnam is a first-generation member of the motorsports industry. He had to convince his father to bring him to races, and as he grew, he found creative ways to get into garage areas at tracks in the Northeast with the goal of eventually landing on a crew.
That determination paid off when he landed a job working on the Modified Tour for Charlie and Carl Pasteryak.
“I started sneaking into the pit area when I looked old enough,” Putnam admitted. “I helped out wiping down the car of Corky Cookman after races, and then I started working for Ed Spires, who was a local Danbury guy who raced at Stafford and Waterford weekly.
“I helped Rod Spaulding on the Modified Tour in ’87 and ’88; then I got to know Charlie (Pasteryak) a little bit at Riverside Park. I helped Charlie at the races as volunteer help, and eventually the opportunity arose to actually go work for him and Carl in 1993.”
(Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Putnam spent the next few years working for and learning from the Pasteryak family. He relocated to North Carolina in 1996, and with the help of Tommy Baldwin Jr. and Kevin “Bono” Manion, he landed his first job in NASCAR at Larry Hedrick Motorsports working with Ricky Craven.
In the years that followed, Putnam worked for and with a variety of teams and drivers, including Bahari Racing, Bill Elliott Racing, PPI Motorsports, NEMCO Motorsports, Petty Enterprises, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.
By the time Putnam landed at Petty Enterprises in 2002, he had worked his way to crew chief. In that position at Petty Enterprises, he worked with a strong list of drivers that included John Andretti, Christian Fittipaldi, Jerry Nadeau and Jeff Green.
Putnam departed Petty Enterprises for PPI Motorsports in 2006 to serve as crew chief on the No. 32 Tide Chevrolet driven by Travis Kvapil. However, his greatest success came during the 2010 season while working as car chief on the No. 1 Chevrolet driven by Jamie McMurray.
The team began that year by winning the biggest race of all, the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. To this day, Putnam considers it his favorite moment from his more than two decades in NASCAR.
“That’s probably my highlight,” Putnam said. “2010 was quite the year. We won three Cup races, and Bono (Manion) and I won three Modified races, both Loudon races and Bristol, with Ryan Newman driving.”
(Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
The success at NASCAR’s top levels did not scratch the itch, however, that was his desire to involve himself in Modified racing. In his early 40s, he finally tried his hand behind the wheel.
“It was my lifelong dream to drive a Modified after growing up idolizing them,” said Putnam, who becomes the first Modified Tour director who has also competed in the series as a driver. “The opportunity arose to buy one of Bob Garbarino’s old cars. I did that, put it together, put my seat in it and went and tried it to make sure I could do it.”
In 2010, Putnam made his debut on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. He went on to make 63 starts in the southern series, earning a best finish of fifth.
Four years later, he made his debut on the NASCAR Whelen Whelen Modified Tour. In 34 starts spread across 11 seasons, Putnam scored a pair of top-10 finishes.
Now, decades after his infatuation with Modified racing began, Putnam will be able to focus all his attention on growing the division he’s loved since his youth.
It’s nothing short of a dream job for Putnam, who is suspending operations of his own Modified team to put 100 percent of his effort behind growing the Modified Tour.
“This opportunity came at the right time in my life and career,” Putnam said. “I’m super excited. This division has always been a passion of mine, from infancy probably. I’m looking forward to this a lot.”
The book on Daniel Suárez’s NASCAR Cup Series career is taking another direction next season, marking his first venture with a new team in five years. The 33-year-old driver will stay in the Chevrolet camp, but will switch to Spire Motorsports in 2026 after his long tenure with Justin Marks’ Trackhouse Racing team.
“It’s a chapter that we’ve had good times together, bad times together,” Suárez said, “and I’m looking forward to a new chapter.”
Suárez will attempt to make a new home in Spire’s No. 7 Chevy, but he was in a reflective mood nearly two weeks ago as he closed out his Trackhouse stint. The Mexican-born driver helped launch Trackhouse as a single-car effort in 2021, and the organization had a hand in his two Cup Series wins — in 2022 at Sonoma and just last year at Atlanta.
The tougher times that Suárez mentioned were performance dips over the last year and a half that resulted in on-track struggles. Suárez ended up 29th in the final Cup Series standings this season, and by early July, the driver and team had mutually agreed to cut ties.
Suárez said he had known that their parting of ways was coming for much longer than that. Even with the impending split, Trackhouse honored Suárez at the Nov. 2 season finale at Phoenix Raceway with a heartfelt farewell message and a commemorative paint scheme for his final ride in the No. 99 Chevrolet, which was signed by his whole team on the rear deck lid.
“I’m not sad, I’m just excited for what is next,” Suárez said on the eve of his last Trackhouse race. “But I’m not like tired of them, no, no, no. It’s just, the cycle was over, you know. You guys have known this for a couple of months, but I have known this for six, eight months. So I’m actually excited for the next team, but there is absolutely no hard feelings at all. I wish Trackhouse nothing but the very, very best. Justin, Ross (Chastain), Shane (van Gisbergen), a great group of people. It just wasn’t for me anymore, and I’m super happy and excited for what is coming next.”
The next endeavor for Suárez comes with another organization that’s made significant growth and moves in its brief time in the Cup Series garage. Spire expanded to a three-car outfit ahead of the 2024 season, and the team has made several key personnel decisions to find the right fit. Carson Hocevar, the Sunoco Rookie of the Year in 2024, will actually be the longest-tenured Spire driver next season as he returns for his third year in the No. 77 Chevy. Veteran Michael McDowell will be back for Year 2 in the No. 71 Chevrolet, and Suárez replaces Justin Haley as a newcomer with the No. 7 team.
Suárez has already been initiated into Spire’s system, making the delicate balance of getting to know his new team while finishing up with his former team as the 2025 campaign wound down.
“I’m super-excited for the transition, but it’s been tricky,” Suárez said. “The last couple weeks, I’ve been in the shop. I’ve been having a few meetings here and there, but it’s also tricky, because I know that for me, my priority right now is not to think about the 7. My priority is to close my chapter with Trackhouse and the 99 strong. So it’s been tricky to balance those two. Last week I was at Trackhouse doing my meetings, and then from there I went straight to Spire. So it’s been a little bit tricky to balance those things out.”
Spire aims to find its own balance after a season where its high hopes did not produce a win or any appearances in the Cup Series Playoffs. McDowell and Hocevar finished 22nd and 23rd in the Cup Series standings, respectively. McDowell scored all three of his top-five finishes for the year on road courses, and Hocevar came closest with runner-ups at Atlanta and Nashville and a strong effort in his home state of Michigan before a flat tire knocked him from contention.
The addition of Suárez will give Spire a veteran presence entering his 10th Cup Series season, another resource for the team to lean on.
“I think he brings experience,” McDowell said. “Also too, don’t forget he’s a Cup winner. There’s not a lot of Cup winners that are available and that are in the series, really. And he’s got a fire and a hunger. You guys have seen that, and we’ve all seen it. If we give him cars and put him in positions, he’s going to fight hard to get a win. In the format that we have right now, that’s what it’s all about. So we’ve just got to create those opportunities for all of our teams and feel like he’s a guy that will go out there and get it.”
