KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Haas Factory Team will align with Chevrolet beginning in 2026, a move that encompasses its full-time NASCAR Cup Series program and two full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series entries that will compete in the soon-to-be-renamed NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
As part of the manufacturer switch from Ford to Chevrolet, Haas Factory Team will have a technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, which will include using Hendrick-built engines across both series.
“First and foremost, we want to thank Ford for its partnership. Their support allowed us to establish Haas Factory Team and we remain dedicated to delivering results for them in Cup and Xfinity all the way through the season finale in Phoenix,” said Joe Custer, president, Haas Factory Team.
The alignment with Chevrolet in 2026 represents a full-circle moment for Haas Factory Team. Its origins began with Haas CNC Racing, which team owner Gene Haas founded in 2002. When Haas partnered with NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart in 2009 to form Stewart-Haas Racing, the organization campaigned Chevrolets through the 2016 season.
“Personally, I have a deep history with Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports,” Haas said. “Both helped in establishing not only my presence as a team owner in NASCAR, but also the presence of Haas Automation. Together, we were able to build a race team that competed for wins and championships while growing the use of Haas CNC machinery throughout the racing and manufacturing industries.”
“We have a long history with Gene and his organization, including winning championships together, so this feels almost like a homecoming,” said Rick Hendrick, owner, Hendrick Motorsports. “Our relationship started many years ago with Haas CNC machines in our facilities, and I’ve always admired the passion that he and Joe Custer have for the sport and their desire to win. We’re proud to support Haas Factory Team and thrilled to work together to deliver more victories for Chevrolet.”
Cole Custer will continue to drive Haas Factory Team’s No. 41 entry in the Cup Series. Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer will also return to Haas Factory Team’s Nos. 00 and 41, entries, respectively, in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Haas Factory Team will make its official re-debut with Chevrolet in the Feb. 1 Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Custer will drive his No. 41 Chevrolet in the exhibition, non-points Cup Series race. Creed and Mayer will join the Bowtie Brigade in the season-opening O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race Feb. 14 at Daytona International Speedway.
While the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs are in full swing at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, the field for the 2025 Xfinity Series Playoffs won’t be solidified until after Saturday night’s Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blues Hog at the 1.25-mile track (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
There are three playoff spots still available to the Xfinity Series drivers, who will race at Gateway for the first time since 2010. If there’s a repeat winner on Saturday — or a win by a driver who can’t advance to the playoff — both Sheldon Creed and Taylor Gray would advance to the postseason on points.
That would leave cousins Harrison Burton and Jeb Burton to battle for the last playoff berth. Harrison Burton currently enjoys a 31-point cushion over Jeb Burton and would need to score 27 points at Gateway to advance to the postseason.
Harrison Burton has three Cup Series starts at Gateway, with a best finish of 23rd in 2023.
“I’ve been fortunate to get a few Cup starts at the track, and while the results don’t necessarily show everything we had, I learned a lot about the rhythm of the place and how important track position and execution are over a long run,” he said.
“That experience should definitely help as we go back with our AM Racing team. We know how critical this race is for our playoff hopes, and I believe if we can put together a smart, solid night, we’ll be in good shape to accomplish our goal.”
At the top of the standings, the Regular Season Champion won’t be crowned until Saturday night. Connor Zilisch, winner of six of the last seven Xfinity Series races, leads JR Motorsports teammate and defending series champion Justin Allgaier by only 20 points entering the regular-season finale.
At 50 markers back, Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer is still mathematically alive for the title, but he would need disastrous results from both Zilisch and Allgaier to prevail.
There is no former Xfinity winner at Gateway entered in the field for Saturday’s race; however, Riverton, Illinois, native Allgaier did claim the pole for the most recent event there in 2010, won by Brad Keselowski.
“Hopefully we can go out and have a great day, run up front and gain points on our teammate to get this Regular Season Championship,” Allgaier said. “Either way, our goal remains the same, and that is to win the race.”
Zilisch will try for a fourth straight victory for the second time this season. Only Sam Ard in 1983 and Noah Gragson in 2022 have been winners of four consecutive Xfinity Series races.
“I’m looking forward to going to World Wide for the first time this weekend,” said Zilisch, who has posted 13 straight top-five finishes, including seven victories, since returning from an injury sustained at Talladega in the 11th race of the season.
“Since our win at Portland (last Saturday), that left World Wide as the only track on the current schedule that JRM has not won at, so I’m hoping we can keep the momentum going and cross that off, too. It’s been fun to win a lot of races lately, but we still have to go out and execute and do our job every week.”
SOUTH BOSTON, Virginia — While the spotlight is tightly focused on the tie at the top of the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division point standings between former NASCAR national champion Peyton Sellers and Trevor Ward heading into the Saturday night, September 6 Halifax County Farm Bureau Championship Night event at South Boston Speedway, a spoiler could possibly come into play.
That spoiler could be Landon Pembelton.
Neither Sellers, who is bidding for a record-breaking eighth career South Boston Speedway championship, nor Ward, who is chasing his first championship, can forget about Pembelton.
The Amelia, Virginia, resident stands just eight points behind the two leaders and could be the spoiler in the championship chase if he wins Saturday night’s 100-lap Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division race, the final points race of the 2025 season at South Boston Speedway, and Sellers and Ward stumble.
“This last race is going to be a dogfight,” Pembelton remarked. “This thing is going to go down to the wire. I’m looking forward to it.”
There are multiple scenarios in which Pembelton could earn his first career South Boston Speedway Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division title. One of those scenarios is if he wins the race and Sellers and Ward finish ninth or worse. Another scenario is Pembelton can win the championship if he starts at the rear of the field, wins the race, and Sellers and Ward finish eighth or worse. A third scenario is that if none of the three drivers wins the race and Pembelton finishes nine positions ahead of Sellers and Ward, he can win the championship.
Pembelton arguably has the best overall record among the three title contenders over the last three races with a second-place finish, a third-place finish and a win. Ward has a 10th-place finish, a win, and a second-place finish in his last three races. Sellers has a third-place finish, a fourth-place finish, and a fifth-place finish in his last three starts. Ward and Pembelton split wins in the twin-race event on August 23 at South Boston Speedway.
Saturday night’s 100-lap race will be the longest single race for the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division since the 200-lap race on June 28. Pembelton sees that as a good thing.
“I think it’s going to play into our favor,” Pembelton said. “This car (the car driven to the August 23 win) seems to be better on the longer runs. If we qualify in the top four or top five, it’s going to be okay.”
Pembelton sees the pressure factor in his favor as well.
Landon Pembelton (0) races around the outside of Trevor Ward during an event this season at South Boston Speedway. (Photo: Joe Chandler/South Boston Speedway)
“I have no pressure on me,” Pembelton pointed out. “I’ve just got to go into it, not tear up the racecar, finish the race, and it all will play out how it should.”
All four of South Boston Speedway’s division championships will be determined in Saturday night’s Halifax County Farm Bureau Championship Night event. Along with the 100-lap Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division race there will be a 50-lap race for the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division, a 25-lap race for the Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division, and a 20-lap race for the Dollar General Hornets Division.
A special Championship Night Fireworks Show presented by Italian Delight Family Restaurant will follow the final race of the night.
Zach Peregoy of Clarksville, Virginia leads Tristan Brunelli of Powhatan, Virginia by 18 points in the title chase in the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division. South Boston, Virginia resident B.J. Reaves, who is seeking a second straight Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division title, has a 25-point advantage over Dillon Davis of Nathalie, Virginia entering Saturday night’s 25-lap Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division race.
Jason DeCarlo of Chase City, Virginia, who is seeking his second career Dollar General Hornets Division championship, leads Landon Milam of Keeling, Virginia by 14 points entering the final race of the season.
Advance adult tickets for the Saturday, September 6 Halifax County Farm Bureau Championship Night event are priced at $12. Tickets at the gate on race day will be $15 each. Suite tickets are available for $40 each. Seniors ages 65 and older, military, and students (with ID) can purchase tickets for $12 each at the gate only on the day of the event.
Saturday’s tentative race-day schedule has registration and pit gates opening at 2 p.m. and practice going from 3:25 p.m. to 5:05 p.m. Frontstretch grandstand gates open at 3:30 p.m. and backstretch and Turn 4 trackside parking gates open at 5:30 p.m. Qualifying starts at 6 p.m. and the first race of the night will get the green flag at 7 p.m.
The latest news and updates about the September 6 Halifax County Farm Bureau Championship Night event and all South Boston Speedway events can be found on the speedway’s website, www.southbostonspeedway.com, by calling the speedway office at 434-572-4947 or toll free at 1-877-440-1540 during regular business hours, and through the track’s social media channels.
Sometimes, the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs are about which drivers and teams can exceed expectations by the most — think about Joey Logano’s history of clutch wins that always seem to have him outperforming his regular-season output. But in other cases, it’s about doing what’s expected and producing at tracks where you’re supposed to.
That was theoretically the plan for Rick Hendrick’s team at Sunday’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. In the modern era of the Cup Series — since 1972 — Hendrick Motorsports owns the most wins (16), top fives (58) and top 10s (97) at the track “Too Tough to Tame,” and the team had a streak of five consecutive years with at least one driver finishing eighth or better at the Southern 500 going into this year’s race. Simply holding serve and doing their usual thing would have helped a Hendrick lineup that went into the playoffs with the top two statistical championship favorites (William Byron and Kyle Larson) and a 43 percent chance of winning the title in our initial playoff simulation model.
Instead, Hendrick’s quartet of drivers had one of the team’s worst days ever at Darlington. No Hendrick driver finished better than Chase Elliott at 17th, which represented the first time at a Southern 500 that all Hendrick Motorsports entries were outside the top 16. The team’s overall average finish of 22.0 was also its fourth-worst showing in a four-car race at the track in its history:
Between Alex Bowman’s problems on pit lane early — from which he never really recovered en route to a 31st-place finish — to the other cars mostly lacking their usual pace (Larson was the only Hendrick driver to carry a Driver Rating over 80), Hendrick missed its marks in the playoff opener. So how much should the team be concerned now, and what did its disappointing evening in South Carolina do to its overall playoff chances?
Here’s a look at how the playoff odds changed for each team between the pre- and post-Darlington simulations:
Whereas Hendrick was the biggest favorite to produce the eventual title winner going into the playoffs, the model has now shifted toward Joe Gibbs Racing, with Chase Briscoe gaining a series-high 9.6 percentage points to his championship odds with an absurdly dominant win at Darlington. Byron remains the model’s favorite, as he stays the runaway leader in average Driver Rating this season — at 98.5, well clear of teammate Larson’s 90.5 mark — and has a series-best 106.9 rating on ovals specifically. But he has dipped from 22.5 percent title odds to 18.9 percent after a 21st-place finish and 76.2 Driver Rating at Darlington.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the title-odds ranking, Bowman’s nightmare day shaved 33.6 percentage points off his chances to advance to the Round of 12, dropping him from a solid 55.3 percent chance to just 21.8 percent. (Only Josh Berry, who had his own immediate problems at Darlington, lost more advancement potential in the opening race of the playoffs.) Sitting 19 points below the cutline, Bowman now is in the unenviable position of needing to score at least one — if not two — top-10 finishes at Gateway and Bristol to even have a chance of advancing to the Round of 12:
He could still win one of these races, of course, and punch his ticket instantly. But short of that type of heroics, Bowman will probably cut Hendrick’s crew of playoff drivers down to (at most) three when the Round of 16 is complete.
The good news for Team Hendrick, however, is that its other drivers are not in nearly as dire a position as Bowman.
Larson actually gained advancement odds with his 19th-place showing at Darlington, because he ran better than his final placing would have indicated — he scored 12 stage points and had a solid 90.3 Driver Rating, ninth-best in the field. He’s 38 points above the cutline and we’re coming up on two of his best tracks; Larson should be just fine.
So should Byron, despite the unimpressive run at the Southern 500. He has a 25-point cushion of his own in the standings, and that top-ranked average Driver Rating for the season as a whole should portend success at an oval and short track in the next two weeks.
Elliott is a bit less secure, sitting in 11th place with just a nine-point edge over the cutline. But his hallmark is consistency, and that should come in handy for nursing that lead in the standings, even if Gateway and Bristol aren’t his very best tracks. In the model, Elliott can probably still make the next round if he has just one good showing and avoids a truly bad outing in the other race:
In other words, it’s not quite time to panic at Hendrick Motorsports yet, even if they didn’t have a field day at a track where they usually run wild. Barring total disaster, they ought to still be fairly well-represented in the Round of 12, even if Bowman will probably drop out of the championship chase.
But still, Darlington proved that even the strongest team on paper isn’t immune to sudden changes in the postseason — and Hendrick’s championship road does look rougher now than it did just a week ago.
The NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series head to the St. Louis area this weekend for some Midwest action at World Wide Technology Raceway. The Cup Series Playoffs Round of 16 rolls on at Gateway, while the Xfinity Series concludes its regular season and solidifies its postseason field. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.
Here’s what’s happening in NASCAR with the Cook Out Southern 500at Darlington Raceway in the rearview and the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway up next (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
1. Chase Briscoe tops title talk — but don’t forget about his teammates
The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing driver entered the season as the third-most-likely among the team to win the championship, but he just jolted to the top after a rousing Southern 500 win to open the playoffs. His teammates, though? You haven’t heard the last from them.
Chase Briscoe took what you thought you knew about how these playoffs were going to go and completely shredded it Sunday night at Darlington.
The No. 19 driver went from a “yeah, I could see that happening” kind of contender to “holy cow, this guy is the favorite” in short order, dramatically shifting his 2025 campaign into overdrive after sputtering out of the gates in his first year at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Entering the season as the presumptive third in the pecking order among JGR drivers as most likely to claim the title, Briscoe’s second-half surge — and really since about Kansas, in May — has vaulted him firmly into the title conversation, and Darlington ensured it now starts with him.
The Indiana native’s second straight Southern 500 triumph was emphatic, leading a career-best 309 laps. His dominance extends beyond that single race, however, boasting the best 12-race stretch of any driver since Mexico with first-place rankings in average speed per NASCAR Insights, average finish (11th), points per race (34.7), top-five finishes (6), stage wins (4), and laps led (536).
I’m not here to further cement Briscoe’s favorite status, though — NASCAR.com’s Cameron Richardson did that on site at Darlington — but instead to mention that his teammates, the ones who at different times have each looked like Championship 4 locks this year, are coming for that spot.
Denny Hamlin, participating in his 19th playoffs and in search of his fifth Championship 4 appearance, is not locked into the Round of 12 yet but is not far off Briscoe’s tail, with a hefty plus-43 points above the cutline after finishing seventh at Darlington. He’s also collected more wins and top 10s this year than Briscoe, and, apart from sealing the deal at the end, arguably has a better handle on this playoff system than any other driver in its history. Riding two straight runner-ups at Gateway, he may just be the favorite this weekend and, if he capitalizes on it, could immediately leapfrog Briscoe based on history and upcoming tracks alone.
There’s also Christopher Bell, another vital cog in JGR’s 2025 title aspirations — and a driver that was essentially penciled into the Championship 4 just four races into the season, because he won three of ‘em.
Though Bell has just three top 10s in the 11 races since Mexico, this is still a championship-caliber team with a driver/crew-chief combo to match. Bell and Co. also boast a strong record at St. Louis, averaging a 9.0 average finish in the three Cup races there and leading 80 laps in the most recent one. A dismal Darlington will have this team digging deep for a rebound this weekend, and Bell’s sustained competitiveness (despite the weak actual finishes of late) keeps him a clear contender.
They’re both likely to be in the mix for the win at Gateway, and, should either win, the spotlight immediately shifts back to them, especially with each having some of their best tracks remaining in the weeks ahead.
Although Briscoe is the current flame, teammates like Hamlin and Bell honestly look like they could be his biggest competition at the moment, especially considering Chase Elliott’s P17 was Hendrick Motorsports’ top Darlington finish and the powerhouse team, thus far, hasn’t found the strongest hold on this weekend’s 1.25-mile track, still in its Cup infancy.
Onto Gateway!
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
2. Below the cut and running out of time — desperation sets in for some at Gateway
Darlington brought the playoff chaos early, with several contenders running into catastrophic issues at the track “Too Tough to Tame.” With a fresh playoff track and its unknowns ahead, who might rebound, and who might sink deeper?
An early dose of playoff chaos was delivered Sunday at Darlington, leaving key contenders below the cutline and in desperate need of redemption as they head to World Wide Technology Raceway. With only two races remaining in the Round of 16, the intensity is already at a fever pitch as drivers battle the pressure of securing their advancement to the Round of 12 … or at least not digging the hole any deeper, for some.
The St. Louis-area track, a relatively fresh Cup Series venue and a first-time playoff locale, looms as both an opportunity and a threat for those fighting for survival.
Darlington’s grueling nature resulted in multiple run-ins and pit-road mishaps that severely damaged the playoff hopes of some drivers; some were able to recover, but not all. Austin Dillon ended the race with a 23rd-place finish after contact with Ryan Blaney on Lap 210, dropping him eight points below the cutline in a race he needed to maximize. Alex Bowman suffered a catastrophic 40-second pit stop due to a disconnected air line at Lap 69, resulting in a 31st-place finish to live 19 points below the cutline. Joey Logano, the defending three-time Cup champion and former St. Louis winner, had a 20th-place finish and slipped just below the cutoff.
Adding to the list, Chase Elliott suffered a costly 16-second pit stop adjustment, resulting in a 17th-place finish — again, somehow a team-high — while Bubba Wallace needed to overcome a pit-stop issue of his own to finish sixth.
Dillon (-8 points), Bowman (-19) and Berry (-19) aren’t yet in “must-win” mode, but there just isn’t much time to count on making up that ground; winning is always going to be the safest, yet most difficult path. But if you’re a playoff driver struggling to string together consistent finishes or doing your best just to wade through poor pit performances it likely means, unfortunately, you’re gonna face the very real risk of elimination, and a lot sooner than you think.
Bowman’s St. Louis results also include no top-10 finishes (with an average finish outside the top 20). Combined with just one finish better than 20th in the past four weeks, it signals potential continued difficulties on this demanding track and an earlier exit than his Round of 8 miss last year.
Similarly, the under-pressure Dillon, whose last few races have been marked by misfortune and contact after looking like a potential contender at Richmond, will need to overcome hurdles to avoid playoff elimination.
Though Team Penske’s St. Louis excellence could theoretically rub off on Berry in an aligned Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford, he faces long odds to rebound at Gateway, especially against the track’s demanding conditions and competitive field in his maiden playoff stint.
Gateway represents a critical juncture in the NASCAR playoffs, where desperation and determination are on a collision course, as drivers are sharply divided between those poised to rebound with strong track history and those who risk sinking even deeper. The unforgiving nature of the track, combined with the psychological pressure of playoff survival, ensures that the drama will only intensify as the Round of 16 edges closer to its climax, before we even reach the showcase race that is Bristol Motor Speedway under the lights.
The stakes are immediately high at one of NASCAR’s newest playoff battlegrounds, and the question remains: Who will rise to the occasion — and who will fall farther behind?
Kyle Petty dissects Chase Briscoe’s Southern 500 win from Darlington and why it’s so hard to go back-to-back in the Next Gen era.
4. Is Kyle Busch going to play playoff spoiler this weekend?
Fresh off missing the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in his career, Kyle Busch returns to the site of his most recent Cup Series win, 84 races ago. He’s shown shades of the old “Rowdy” in all three Gateway races so far, so could he remind everyone why he’s a future Hall of Famer with a Sunday win — and spoil a potential clincher for his Round-of-12-seeking teammate? (Credit: Racing Insights)
Date
Start
Finish
Laps Led
Status
Note
6/5/2022
12
2
66
Running
Passed for the win on an overtime restart
6/4/2023
1
1
121
Running
Last Cup win
6/2/2024
10
35
15
Accident
Accident with Kyle Larson at the end of Stage 2
5. Catch the pack — news and notes from around the garage
The NASCAR Cup Series continues the Round of 16 in the 2025 playoffs with the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Qualifying at the 1.25-miler begins at 5:40 p.m. ET on Saturday (truTV, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to the Midwest Saturday for the Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blues Hog at World Wide Technology Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The CW App will air Xfinity Series qualifying earlier Saturday at 3 p.m. ET. A 50-minute practice session is scheduled for Friday at 5:05 p.m. ET, also airing on The CW App.
NASCAR will consider altering its eligibility standards for awarding a point to the driver with the fastest lap after another last-place car earned the bonus at Darlington Raceway.
After wrecking in the second turn of the Southern 500, Josh Berry went to the garage for repairs that took several dozen laps. He returned to set the fastest lap (29.038 seconds) on the 1.366-mile oval despite completing only 239 of 367 laps in a 38th-place finish.
During the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, managing director of communications Mike Forde said NASCAR executives discussed a review of tweaking the fastest lap rule, possibly by making it necessary to be on the lead lap while setting the mark.
“I think that’s some of the conversation in the offseason, nothing’s going to be changing over the next nine races, but that is something we plan to look at as we move forward into 2026,” Forde said.
Kyle Larson has earned the bonus point twice after returning to the track following major repairs to his No. 5 Chevrolet. He set the fastest laps despite finishing 42 laps down in 36th at Mexico City and 15 laps down in 39th at Watkins Glen. Having also set the fastest laps at Circuit of The Americas and Kansas, those four extra points helped Larson finish ahead of teammate Chase Elliott in the 2025 regular-season standings and gain an extra playoff point.
Just as Larson’s car went through postrace inspection scrutiny at Watkins Glen, Forde said Berry’s No. 21 Ford also passed body and underbody scans after Darlington to ensure its legality.
Forde said “there are conversations on both sides” about whether to change the eligibility for the fastest lap, which helps incentivize teams to continue racing after being caught in an early crash or suffering a mechanical problem.
“Fans of Kyle Larson came out to watch him, and they want to continue seeing him strive and compete for something when you’re double- or triple-digits laps down,” Forde said. “So there are good reasons to keep it in there.”
“I imagine if you ask the teams, they probably are for it. They’re competitors, and it gives them something to race for … no one’s knocking down the doors of the hauler to gripe about it.”
Other topics covered by Forde and NASCAR senior director of racing communications AmandaEllis during the 31st episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— How NASCAR officiated the overtime restart of the Xfinity Series race at Portland International Raceway after race winner Connor Zilisch missed the first turn and several drivers missed the second corner.
— Whether NASCAR will make any policy changes after the latest instance of a driver stop in another team’s pit stall for service.
— The new Goodyear tire this weekend for World Wide Technology Raceway after getting tested in June.
Click on the embed above to listen or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
If Hendrick Motorsports wants to win its first NASCAR Cup Series championship since 2021, it will have to find a way to improve at Phoenix Raceway.
That plan is in progress, with visible steps forward on similar shorter tracks in August, like at Iowa Speedway — where William Byron won — and Richmond Raceway — where Alex Bowman finished second. But another flat track is ahead Sunday at the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Has the team improved enough to be true title contenders if any of its four Chevrolets advance to the Championship 4?
“I think we’ve been sneaking up on it,” Byron told NASCAR.com in a recent teleconference. “I think we’ve been making progress at those tracks. Definitely the focus point after last season was, how do we get better at those tracks? Because I feel like we feel like we were actually better in 2023 than we were last year at Phoenix, and we knew we had to go to work and just figure out this 1-mile aero package and just how the car needs to drive and everything.
“We put a lot of work into that this year, development-wise, behind the scenes, a lot of people back at the race shop, and it seems like we’re starting to see some of those gains in small ways at those tracks. Still got a ways to go, but I think we’re getting there.”
It would be an exaggeration to say Hendrick Motorsports has been terrible at Phoenix, where the championship has been decided each November since 2020. But the team has been vocal in acknowledging its place a step behind Team Penske.
In last year’s title race, Byron was the team’s lone Championship 4 contender and finished third after leading 19 laps — with teammates Kyle Larson fourth, Chase Elliott eighth and Bowman 14th. In 2023, both Larson and Byron were title-eligible and placed third and fourth, respectively, behind race-runner-up Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who claimed that season’s championship. Under the current playoff format, all that matters at Phoenix is finishing the best of the four title contenders that day. Since 2022, no one has toppled Team Penske at Phoenix in the fall, with Joey Logano winning the 2022 and 2024 titles to bookend Blaney’s triumph.
Phoenix’s layout separates it from most tracks — a perfectly straight backstretch connects the flat, sweeping Turns 1 and 2 to a more steeply banked Turns 3 and 4, leading to a high-banked tri-oval that leads to plenty of action. Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon expressed a cautious optimism for the season finale based on the late-summer performances he saw at Iowa (0.875 miles) and Richmond (0.75 miles). But Gordon is still holding his breath for two early postseason tests as Gateway (1.25 miles) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1.058 miles) join the 2025 postseason schedule.
Logan Riely | Getty Images
Hendrick Motorsports has just three top 10s at Gateway through 12 combined starts — its worst total at any track with at least 12 starts — and the team has not won at New Hampshire since Kasey Kahne went to Victory Lane in 2012.
“Let’s look at Gateway. Let’s look at New Hampshire,” Gordon said. “Because I feel like Iowa, as well as Richmond, although they’re short tracks and we’ve made gains, they’re still not Phoenix. That’s a flatter track, unique to itself. You need to have good braking stability, but you need to have good turn. You got to have long-run (speed), short run. So it’s a tough, tough place to get right. I like the direction we’re heading, though.”
Larson was one of three drivers who participated in a Goodyear tire test at Gateway earlier this summer, representing Chevrolet as Erik Jones (Toyota) and Brad Keselowski (Ford) joined him. Larson owns Hendrick’s lone top five in three Cup races at Gateway — a fourth-place finish in 2023. According to Larson, there are reasons to believe the team has made meaningful gains, and that could be realized Sunday in the second race of the 2025 Cup Series Playoffs.
“I think still the shorter, flatter tracks [are a challenge], so seeing Gateway and New Hampshire in the playoffs is not something that I was thrilled about,” Larson said during Playoffs Media Day. “But I do think we’ve made our package better on that style of track. I look at Iowa, we were fast, William won, Chase was fast, Alex was fast. We went to Richmond, we were all really good again. So I do think we’ve gotten our cars better on those places, but yeah, still need to probably be better, but we’ll see when we get to Gateway and New Hampshire.”
The four-car team could use a dose of positivity after a dismal-by-its-standards showing in last week’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Elliott was the team’s highest finisher in 17th place ahead of Larson (19th), Byron (21st) and Bowman (31st, two laps down). A breakout performance at Gateway in St. Louis could serve to turn around a bad postseason start and pivot Hendrick Motorsports toward a championship run.
