NASCAR Insights: Trackhouse duo overcomes lack of speed for Texas top 10s

Posted on May 6, 2025 by Zach Sturniolo

Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez both overcame a lack of speed in their Trackhouse Racing Chevrolets to leave Texas Motor Speedway with top-10 finishes.

According to NASCAR Insights, Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet ranked just 23rd in overall speed in Sunday’s Würth 400 presented by Liqui Moly, and Suárez’s No. 99 28th. But Chastain stormed to a second-place finish despite the relative lack of pace, while Suárez came home 10th.

MORE: Texas results | NASCAR Insights analysis explained

Chastain’s surge was bolstered by his No. 2 ranking in restarts Sunday and bettered with defense, which ranked third overall. That continues a trend of overcoming hindered performance from his No. 1 Chevrolet, which ranks 14th this season in speed. But Chastain isn’t alone. His Trackhouse teammates Suárez and Shane van Gisbergen are facing similar issues, ranking 22nd and 35th in outright speed.

“That’s a working-class day,” Chastain told FOX Sports. “Just no confidence in the car (Saturday), and you all saw that. Just the speed of the Trackhouse cars on Saturdays is just terrible. And we’re just not confident — all three drivers.

“There was one pit stop today that (crew chief) Phil Surgen and the group — it takes a ton of people back at Trackhouse and on the box here and at GM Chevrolet, and they made me a confident driver all of a sudden with one adjustment. And it was small stuff. It doesn’t even make sense. But after that, I was a confident driver. … But yeah, I can’t drive an uncomfortable car, personally. So as soon as they got it comfortable — or at least gave me some confidence — we started going forward.”

At Texas, no one defended positions better than Suárez, a two-time Cup race winner. He maximized the productivity of his pit crew as well, which ranked fourth Sunday with front tire changer Josh Bush, rear changer Seth Gajdorus, tire carrier Charles Plank, jackman Josh Appleby and fueler Milan Rudanovic. However, the No. 99 car ranked 28th in passing and 20th on restarts.

“It was a good day for this No. 99 Kubota Chevrolet team,” Suárez said. “We had decent speed out there. I think that we potentially had a little bit more, but we were struggling a lot on restarts all day long, except for the start of the race for some reason. All in all, it was a decent day, and it’s good to get back-to-back top-10 finishes.”

Posted on May 6, 2025May 6, 2025 by Zack Albert

Homestead-Miami Speedway will return as host of NASCAR’s Championship Weekend next year, but that news comes with a dash of variety. Going forward, the title-race tripleheader will rotate among a handful of tracks, showcasing the big-event feel at new venues and markets.

Think Super Bowl, NBA or MLB All-Star Weekends, or college basketball’s Final Four.

While the parallels to other major league sports are strong, those events are held on courts or playing fields that are relatively uniform. The rotation model for NASCAR’s season finales on a variety of tracks and track types has the potential to transform the competition.

“If you’ve watched a lot of other sports properties that are moving the location around year after year, part of that is to build up pent-up demand,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovation Officer. “But part of it is that variability in a lot of the markets, and then a little bit of it is what we talked about as well is just having a little bit of differentiation as it relates to the competition and racing product as well. Having the playoffs be more unpredictable every year, the championship venue to be at a different location, I think gives you the ability to see different teams and drivers kind of rise to the occasion to be able to be crowned a champion.”

In the last 23 years, only two tracks have played host to NASCAR’s season-ending events — Homestead-Miami since 2002, and then Phoenix Raceway from 2020 to the current season. The rotation structure for future events is subject to discussion by the NASCAR Playoff Committee, an assembly of industry figures tasked with shaping the postseason’s format, which has been largely unchanged since 2014.

Determining which speedways are suitable championship venues comes down to multiple factors, Kennedy said, noting 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami and 1-mile Phoenix have both been capable hosts in past seasons and will remain in the rotation. Specific tracks beyond those two will be announced later, but those under consideration come from a mixture of ownership groups — NASCAR, Speedway Motorsports and independents.

“I would say it’s four or five things,” Kennedy said. “It’s marketing and promotion, for sure, and it’s location. We want to be in a warm-weather market. Ideally, being in November, that first week of November, it kind of limits you to the amount of races that you can run. … I would say the quality of the facility. In Phoenix, we put over $100 million into the redevelopment of that track, and it was a big catalyst for bringing this championship to the West Coast. We’re going to be putting a good amount of capital into Homestead as well ahead of the race.

“The racing product, I think, is another big part of this. And then overall, it’s just the entire industry’s feedback on this. So we collaborate with our broadcast partners, our teams. We hear from our drivers what they think, a lot of our corporate partners, and then ultimately the fans, and the fans have a large voice in this, and we get their perspective on it every single year.”

Kennedy also said that superspeedways would not be in consideration for the title-race rotation, qualifying his remarks with “never say never” but noting the unpredictable nature of that racing style. He also indicated that road courses “are probably lower on the list as we think about championship venues,” opting in favor of more traditional tracks.

That perspective was met with approval from three-time champion Joey Logano, who won his first Cup Series title at Homestead-Miami, then added two more in Phoenix. Logano said he was in favor of a rotating system and the opportunity to bring the championship to fans in different parts of the country, but agreed that the type of track mattered.

“When you get down to the nitty-gritty of the playoffs, especially if it’s coming down to one race, like it is right now, you don’t want an oddball race, you want it to be the grassroots of what our sport is built off of, which is ovals, right?” Logano said. “Whether it’s a short track or mile-and-a-half, that’s what our roots really are. That is what built our sport. Throwing in a road course or any other oddball type racetrack, superspeedway, it’s too much by chance and it wouldn’t be ideal I don’t believe for our sport.”

Kennedy singled out Homestead-Miami as No. 1 on the fans’ list for next year’s schedule, saying the track checks all the criteria for a championship location. Facility upgrades are scheduled between now and November 2026, providing a runway for improvements to the 1.5-mile oval’s amenities, infrastructure and promotional plans.

Hosting the championship weekend is a responsibility track president Guillermo Santa Cruz, appointed to Homestead’s post last July, said he’s eager to tackle. But he also said he’s hoping to set a benchmark for how it’s done, establishing a high bar for other tracks to emulate in future finales.

“First, it’s an honor to be chosen as the first one to be in that rotation,” Santa Cruz said. “I think that rotation is a really good model for us to move into. It’s good for the fans, it’s good for the drivers, and it’s great for everybody, and it’ll allow us to really set a lot of precedent and then work with NASCAR more broadly to see how the model is going to be executed. You know, what is it that’s going to move from one track to another? What are the things that can only be done in Miami, because Miami is a certain sort of market, and those things will remain here, but what are the things that the sort of traveling circus will take with it when it goes someplace else? So to be able to impact that from the get-go and be in those conversations from the very beginning and be the ones engaging in that respect, it’s wonderful because we’re starting out with a blank sheet of paper.

“The NASCAR team is wonderful, but there’s nothing like having that ability to be the first one up and to have that blank sheet of paper in front of you and say, ‘OK, what are we going to do?’ Then you start. As a creative person, I love that. I love that ability to do that. That’s my favorite thing in the world.”

Posted on May 6, 2025May 6, 2025 by Zack Albert

NASCAR officials announced Tuesday that Homestead-Miami Speedway will return as the host of season finales for all three national series in 2026 as schedule organizers chart a path toward a rotation model for Championship Weekend.

The 1.5-mile South Florida track — which played host to season-ending events for the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series from 2002-2019 — is scheduled to hold its tripleheader weekend on Nov. 6-8 next season. Competition officials indicated the rest of the 2026 NASCAR schedule would be released later this summer.

The announcement means Championship Weekend will shift from Phoenix Raceway, which has been the host of season finales for those three series every year since 2020 and will again host those events Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

“This has been a while coming,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovation Officer. “It’s been since 2019 since we’ve had the championship race at Homestead. We moved it out to Phoenix for the past several years, which has been great for us. It’s been an amazing market. We’ve seen some great racing there, and we’ve crowned some of our biggest champions, but we’re excited to go to Homestead-Miami Speedway. I can tell you from a few people that I’ve talked to so far across the industry, through our partners, they’re over the moon about it. And from our fans, it’s the No. 1 asked-about championship venue as well. So we’re excited to finally get the news out there.”

Homestead-Miami is celebrating its 30th season this year. The venue first hosted the NASCAR championship in 2002, when Tony Stewart became Cup Series champ for the first time. Stewart won all three of his Cup crowns there, including his historic 2011 title march that he capped in a tiebreaker with fellow Hall of Famer Carl Edwards. Homestead was also the site for all of Jimmie Johnson’s record-tying seven Cup Series championships, as well as the first premier-series titles for Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and others.

The intermediate-sized track has also long been lauded as a true test of driver skill, with a well-worn surface and progressive banking that produces multiple racing grooves. That sense of history and the quality of the competition — borne out by recent thrilling finishes there and multiple performance metrics to support it — helped to inform the scheduling decision.

“I think it’s really a racer’s race track,” said Kennedy, who made five national-series starts there in his driving days. “… I think the beauty of it is its age now. The asphalt continues to wear every single year it bakes in the sun. There’s a ton of sand, and it’s really turned it into this multi-groove race track. You see drivers will start in the bottom, they migrate to the middle, some of them will go to the top, so I think it’s going to put on some really exciting finishes for our championship and I think it’s going to be fun to see the drivers’ reaction from it, too.”

The reaction has been a welcoming one from Homestead-Miami track president Guillermo Santa Cruz, who was named to that role last July. It’s been a whirlwind 10 months for the newly appointed executive, who grew up in South Florida. Since taking the job, he’s hosted a pair of NASCAR race weekends and now has a championship event in next year’s on-deck circle.

He might be relatively new to the trackside experience, but Santa Cruz has relished the intense competition his facility has hosted in recent years.

“The kind of racing that this track puts on, we talk about it all the time,” Santa Cruz said. “Here in Homestead, the track is the star, and that’s something that we lean into in our messaging, but also it comes from the drivers. They’re the ones who tell us that, and they’re the ones who really go on about how much they enjoy the racing here. In my 10 months here, as I’ve traveled around the country, I’ve met drivers, people in the industry, crew chiefs, spotters, things like that, and I hear it regularly — love Homestead, love the track, and it’s because of the kind of racing that we put on, and that makes a big difference.

“You know, certainly there are many factors in determining where the championship goes — location, weather, all that goes into that. But certainly, the kind of racing that we put on, the kind of racing that takes place here is unique, and it’s top-level.”

Phoenix will continue to host two Cup Series events next year, and the autumn race scheduled for the 1-mile Arizona oval will remain in the 2026 NASCAR Playoffs with a prominent spot in the Round of 8. Exact dates will come later, but officials also confirmed Phoenix will remain in the rotation of tracks under consideration for future championship weekends.

The Phoenix-area track underwent a $178 million renovation project ahead of the 2018 season, with expanded grandstands, a new layout and enhanced fan amenities. But the raceway has also been a marketing machine when it comes to promotion — first with track president Julie Giese and then her successor, Latasha Causey — and creating the big-event feel befitting a major league championship weekend.

That’s why, Kennedy said, Phoenix’s place in the title-race rotation is secured.

“Every time I’ve gone to Phoenix over the past few years that we’ve had our championship race there, Julie and then Latasha have built such strong relationships with the city and a lot of local community leaders to have this race transcend the Phoenix market in a different way,” Kennedy said. “If you go into that market, whether it’s the local activations, the promotion that you see in and around the Phoenix area and out toward the track, it’s really unparalleled to what we’ve seen in the past. So it’s been great, and for that, we wanted to continue to have them in the playoffs, later on in the playoffs and in that Round of 8.”

There hasn’t been a price tag announced, but Homestead-Miami is due for improvements before its return to the championship rotation, all with the goal of creating a big-ticket atmosphere. Kennedy said he anticipated work to start this fall and into next year, but that “the great part about it is, the bones of Homestead are really strong.”

Santa Cruz says a new coat of paint is among the priorities for the track, which hosted its first NASCAR events in 1995, but further upgrades are planned for hospitality suites and other fan conveniences.

“So it’s a fair-sized list of things that we need to do,” Santa Cruz said. “Luckily, we have time to address many of them, and we’re excited to do that, and we look forward to working with our design and development team to address these things. But I’m sure that by the time that green flag drops in November 2026, this jewel is going to be sparkling.”

Santa Cruz said city and community leaders in the Homestead and greater Miami area have been willing partners in building momentum for the return of NASCAR’s season finales. He experienced that spirit of collaboration first-hand this spring, when wildfires in the vicinity posed a threat to the track’s weekend schedule. Santa Cruz said first responders took control of the situation, providing assurances the event would take place as planned.

“That’s one example, a very concrete example, of how we’ve communicated and worked together,” Santa Cruz said, “and there’s lots of things that we’re doing and that we’re going to do to make sure that Homestead shines when the championship comes.”

Though it’s a reunion of sorts for a track rich in NASCAR championship nostalgia, for Santa Cruz, Tuesday’s news also represents a glimpse into the future.

“So knowing what came here before, knowing the history, knowing the significance of holding a championship, yes, it’s a homecoming and it’s a return, but at the same time it’s a springboard. It’s the start of something new, of the championship rotation, of approaching the championship with a fresh set of eyes,” Santa Cruz said. “The last time it was here in 2019 was a long time ago. When you think of all that’s transpired since then, COVID and all that happened after, and Miami has changed a lot. So, yes, it’s a homecoming, but at the same time, it’s been some time, so it’s exciting, right? There’s new things we’ll be doing, and there’s new ways of looking at putting on a championship race.”

Posted on May 5, 2025 by Nate Ryan

Leave it to Joey Logano, NASCAR’s always merciless opportunist, to flip the narrative of both his 2025 season and a treacherous Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

As contenders’ cars careened over bumps and into barriers all around him, the Team Penske star patiently waited out the mayhem until his moment arrived.

RELATED: Race results | Cup standings

And he then schooled two drivers to lead seven of the final eight laps — the only time Logano was at the front during 271 laps — and finish first a week after placing last because of a disqualification that he treated as inspiring instead of soul-crushing.

“It’s just how we do stuff,” said Logano, who told wife Brittany “Watch, we’ll go win this one” after the DQ.

Now the three-time Cup Series champion is locked into defending his title in the 2025 playoffs, and he must be considered an overnight candidate to join the way-too-early list of championship favorites.

That might seem a whiplash assessment of a driver with no top fives in 10 prior races before notching his 37th career victory.

But this is the No. 22 Ford, and the most redoubtable team in NASCAR proved yet again that being in a weak position often brings out its strongest traits.

“Any time you kick us down, I feel like we come back 10 times harder, whatever that is in us,” Logano said. “Definitely had a fast car today, and it’s nice to change the story line.”

Coming out of Talladega Superspeedway, the story of Logano’s season was largely a disappointing tale.

As if it weren’t enough to set a record for longest stretch (six races) for opening a title defense without a top 10, his first top-five finish was nullified in postrace inspection by an improperly secured spoiler. A third of the way through the season, it would be easy to conclude the “Odd Off Year” jinx had kicked in again for Logano, whose six championship round appearances all came in even-numbered years.

“The sport changes so quickly,” he said. “It’s crazy how you can just ride these roller coasters.”

No one navigates the undulations of a 36-race season better than the No. 22, which responded Sunday while others faltered. Logano’s victory was possible only because the other two Cup champions during the past four years blew it on restarts.

In the final two-lap shootout, Penske teammate Ryan Blaney was unable to outrace Logano with his No. 12 Ford from the outside lane. This was after Blaney inexplicably picked the inside behind leader Kyle Larson for a Lap 245 restart. The outside of the front row was ceded to Michael McDowell, who left Larson and Blaney in the dust.

Given two more shots at McDowell on restarts at Lap 253 and 258, Blaney couldn’t seize the lead from the No. 71 Chevrolet. The 2023 Cup champion was his own harshest critic.

“The one time I didn’t pick the outside, (McDowell) gets the lead, and then I couldn’t get it back,” Blaney said. “Just a driver making dumb decisions and not doing his job, so appreciate the 12 was a fast car. Just can’t do nothing right currently, so hopefully it will work itself out.”

Larson could relate. The 2021 Cup champion admittedly was snookered by McDowell in losing the lead and two more spots to settle for fourth.

“You don’t want to give up the lead on a mile and a half,” Larson said. “It’s hard to get it back. Michael just did a good job timing it. I left early the restart before and was going to leave early again then. He just anticipated and left probably right with me or just barely before, and he had (Tyler) Reddick pushing him. So, yeah, wish I could go back and do that all over again. Yeah, just bummer, but try to learn from it.”

Not every driver behind Logano squandered chances to win.

Ross Chastain and Trackhouse Racing showed the type of mettle that’s largely been absent from the No. 1 Chevrolet since making the championship round in 2022. After qualifying 31st (his eighth consecutive start outside the top 15), Chastain rediscovered his tenacity with a midrace change.

“Just no confidence in the car yesterday,” he said. “Just the speed of the Trackhouse cars on Saturdays (in qualifying) is just terrible.

“We’re just not confident, all three drivers. So there was one pit stop today that (crew chief) Phil Surgen and the group … made me a confident driver all of a sudden with one adjustment. It was small stuff. It doesn’t even make sense, but after that I was a confident driver.”

So was McDowell after a shrewd two-tire call by crew chief Travis Peterson. McDowell was cruising toward his first checkered flag in nearly two years and a win that would have ranked among the biggest surprises of 2025.

But Logano methodically wore down McDowell by finding speed in the upper lane (where others wrecked earlier) to pressure the Spire Motorsports driver into eventually crashing.

It was a quintessential march by Logano, who always seems to soar when the chips are down. On the “Inside the Race” podcast, Todd Gordon recalled he “begged for late-race cautions” when he was the No. 22 crew chief from 2013-19 because Logano has uncanny vision on restarts to anticipate others’ moves.

“He sees it in color that no one else does,” Gordon said. “That’s part of what made Joey a three-time champion. He understands what people will do and how to put them in bad positions. His mental ability is top three in the garage.”

Texas triggered major echoes of last year’s championship run (which is chronicled in the “Full Speed” docuseries that will be released Wednesday on Netflix).

The No. 22 was eliminated from the 2024 playoffs at the Roval and then reinserted three hours later after Alex Bowman’s No. 48 was disqualified. A week later, Logano opened the Round of 8 by winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to be the first locked into a Phoenix championship race that he would win.

The vibe was similar the past week.

“I just know how this sport works,” Logano said. “That’s why you got to just brush some stuff off. Last week, did it suck? Yeah. It’s a long week, but you know that next Sunday presents the opportunity for redemption. We did that today.”

They do it all the time.

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 new “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast

Posted on May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by Staff Report

After the NASCAR Cup Series experienced its closest-ever finish in series history at the track last year, the field once again returns to Kansas Speedway this Sunday for the AdventHealth 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

KANSAS ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | Craftsman Truck Series

Corey Heim makes his 2025 Cup Series debut, piloting the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota crew-chiefed by Bootie Barker. Jesse Love will additionally race this weekend in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet after the organization announced the 20-year-old will make two additional Cup Series starts for the team, with the other coming at Richmond Raceway Aug. 16.

See the full entry list for the 267-lap battle this weekend:

Posted on May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by Staff Report

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is back in action for a Saturday showdown in the heartland with the Heart of Health Care 200 at Kansas Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

KANSAS ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | Craftsman Truck Series

Not only is Xfinity Series regular Brandon Jones making a start this weekend with Tricon Garage, but Cup drivers William Byron and Carson Hocevar will also be in the field Saturday night under the Spire Motorsports banner.

See the full entry list for the race in the Sunflower State:

Posted on May 5, 2025May 12, 2025 by Staff Report

The 2025 NASCAR All-Star Race returns to North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 18 (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), and the chance remains open for fans to vote their favorite driver into the exciting event.

At the approximate midway point of the Fan Vote, the top 10 vote-getters in alphabetical order as of May 5 are as follows: AJ Allmendinger, Ty Dillon, Ty Gibbs, Shane van Gisbergen, Noah Gragson, Carson Hocevar, Erik Jones, Michael McDowell, Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace.

The voting period closes at 11:59 p.m. ET on May 17, a day before the 2025 NASCAR All-Star Open (May 18, 5:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The fan vote winner will be revealed after the All-Star Open and before engines fire for the main event.

Fans can vote up to five times per day, per unique email address. NASCAR Fan Rewards members will receive a one-time 25-point bonus for their first vote.

Notable past winners of the fan vote include Ken Schrader, who was first to receive the honor in 2004. Additional winners include Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2011), Danica Patrick (2013, ’15) and Clint Bowyer (2020). Noah Gragson has won the award each of the last two seasons (2023, ’24). Kasey Kahne (2008) currently stands as the sole fan vote winner to win the All-Star Race.

Posted on May 5, 2025 by Staff Report

FaithFest Evangelistic Ministries 150

North Wilkesboro Speedway

$136,805 posted awards

RACING PURSE BREAKDOWN

*1st place monies includes the $3,500 Special Award Whelen Engineering “Winner of the Race” award paid to winning driver.

Total: $103,202

1st-$14,467
2nd-$5,484
3rd-$4,113
4th-$3,164
5th-$3,129
6th-$3,094
7th-$3,059
8th-$3,024
9th-$2,989
10th-$2,954
11th-$2,919
12th-$2,884
13th-$2,849
14th-$2,814
15th-$2,779
16th-$2,745
17th-$2,710
18th-$2,675
19th-$2,640
20th-$2,605
21st-$2,570
22nd-$2,535
23rd-$2,500
24th-$2,500
25th-$2,500
26th-$2,500
27th-$2,500
28th-$2,500
29th-$2,500
30th-$2,500
31st-$2,500
32nd-$2,500

($10,000 of the above purse is contributed by FloRacing.com)

QUALIFYING AND SPECIAL AWARDS

$1,150 Hoosier Tire “Pole Award” per event award to the eligible driver with the fastest qualifying time eligible to participate under the Manufacturers’ Prize Money Conditions.
$1,000 Hoosier Tire “Hard Charger” per event award to the highest finishing eligible driver who advances the most positions from the start of the race to the end of the race. In the case of a tie, the highest finishing driver will receive the award.
$550 Sunoco Spec Fuel per race award divided: 1st-$300 5th-$150 10th-$100
$400 Phil Kurze “Halfway Leader” Award presented by Josten’s per event award to the race leader at the halfway point of the event, regardless if the race is running under green or yellow.
One set of Hoosier Racing Tires – Product Award valued at $1,000 to be awarded as follows: At the conclusion of the event, the race winner will draw a pill to randomly select which finishing position of 10th through 25th will win this award.
One set of Hoosier Racing Tires – Product Award valued at $1,000 to be awarded to the highest finishing new team participating in the race. New team is defined as a new Car Owner to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour or a Car Owner who has not participated during the past three (3) seasons of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. If there are no new teams that qualify for this award, a second pill will be drawn, by the race winner, and the tires will be awarded to a team that finishes between 10th and 25th positions.

Posted on May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by Zack Albert

A week earlier as the NASCAR Cup Series’ world turns, the forecast was for Talladega Superspeedway’s calamitous tendencies to shake up the state of affairs.

Turns out, the NASCAR-sphere just needed to wait a week.

After a relatively tame event — by Talladega standards — a week ago, Texas Motor Speedway did its best impression of a chaos creator in Sunday’s Würth 400 presented by Liqui Moly. Joey Logano was one of a handful of drivers to come away relatively unscathed, hoisting his first trophy of the season and becoming the seventh winner in 11 races this year.

Logano said he’d told his wife, Brittany, “Watch, we’ll go win this one,” after the way his recent run of luck had gone, topped by last weekend’s disqualification for a Talladega technical infraction. How about a prediction on Sunday’s rash of wrecks? “I didn’t tell her that part,” Logano said.

RELATED: Race results | Logano lands Texas win

Plenty of other contenders had their chance to lasso the Lone Star State oval’s prize. Of the 13 drivers who led laps in Sunday’s race, eight were involved in crashes, collisions or spins. Two others found trouble with pit-road penalties. The list of would-be front-runners was a long one.

In the end, Logano’s sailing was relatively smooth while many others found the going treacherous in the Texas chop. Post-race, the defending Cup Series champ couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.

“I think there’s a few reasons, and I don’t drive their race cars, right?” Logano said. “A lot of it could be setup choice. There’s definitely guys that I think have the ability to drive their car a little bit more on edge, and they’re willing to take that risk a little bit more at times. That’s either going to be good for you or bite you. That bump down in (Turns) 3 and 4, it’s brutal. Everybody is down on their rear limiters as much as they can be. If you are a little free and it hits the limiter, it’s gone. There’s no opportunity to save it.

“You’ve got to think of risk versus reward throughout the race. Not just on pit strategy, but when you are trying to pass somebody, how hard is it worth pushing it here to make a pass, and what is the ultimate goal? There’s times you’ve got to push your limitations, and there’s others you’ve got to stay within reason. Everybody does something different, but to answer your question, I can’t say why. I have some thoughts, but a lot goes into it. It’s not just the driver. It’s the setup as well.”

Be it setup, a mid-corner bump or difficulty maintaining the groove in the sweeping turns, Texas foiled both heavyweights and the lightly regarded. Points leader William Byron was predicted to win Sunday’s race in metrics and data analysis by Racing Insights, but a collision with Cole Custer on Texas’ tight pit road dinged his No. 24 Chevrolet. He fought on, but his streak of consecutive top-10 finishes ended at three.

MORE: Cup Series standings | At-track photos: Texas

Josh Berry intended to keep the hot hand on 1.5-mile tracks, leading 41 of the 271 laps. That’s where Berry was until his No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford found the bump in Turns 3 and 4 and crashed midway through Stage 2, leaving him to finish 32nd. Austin Cindric, last week’s winner at Talladega, led 60 laps early and won Stage 1 in a bid to go back-to-back in Victory Lane. A multicar jam-up with 24 laps left spoiled those hopes. And Michael McDowell, eager to add a Texas Motor Speedway memory other than his dramatic qualifying crash from 2008, gave it his all with superb late-race restarts, a two-tire stop that vaulted him up the leaderboard and hunger for his first Cup win in nearly two years. His bold move to try to stave off Logano didn’t stick, and neither did his No. 71 Chevrolet in a crack-up that prompted the last of 12 cautions, sending the race to overtime.

In the end, Logano vaulted into the ranks of the Cup Series Playoffs ticket-punchers, and the rest of the provisional postseason picture went wild with movement. Of the 26 drivers ranked fifth to 30th on that chart, all but four had at least one spot gained or lost. Part of that is the Texas turn of events, but it also speaks to how tightly woven the standings are, 11 races into the season.

Another 1.5-mile track looms on the Cup Series’ calendar in Kansas Speedway, host of another 400-miler this Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). That’s another week to wait and see if the Texas turmoil deferred from Talladega carries over.

Hannah Gentlesk | NASCAR Digital Media

Posted on May 4, 2025May 5, 2025 by Zach Sturniolo

A frantic run to the finish at Texas Motor Speedway left early contenders behind the wall and other drivers ready to pounce as Joey Logano scored the overtime victory Sunday afternoon.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Some competitors took advantage of the on-track adversity to exit with strong finishes, while multiple incidents collected some of the day’s front-runners and have them looking forward to next week’s race at Kansas Speedway (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

THREE UP ⬆️

1. Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota

Started: 14th

Finished: 5th

What happened: Jones celebrated his 300th career Cup start with an impressive rally in the No. 43 Toyota, charging back from a Lap 83 speeding penalty to score his first top-10 finish of 2025. The fifth-place result marks Jones’ first top five since Talladega Superspeedway last fall. He and teammate John Hunter Nemechek scored double top 10s for Legacy, with Nemechek eighth, adding to a positive day for the Toyota twosome.

What’s next: Sunday also marked Jones’ first top five on an intermediate track since Kansas Speedway in 2023. Up next on the Cup schedule? Kansas Speedway, giving Jones an opportunity to build momentum.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

2. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Started: 19th

Finished: 7th

What happened: A steady day in Texas earned Dillon his best finish of the 2025 campaign. Dillon, a 2020 winner at the Fort Worth race track, now has a three-race streak of top-10 finishes to his credit after 10th-place runs at both Bristol Motor Speedway and Talladega before Texas. The famed No. 3 Chevrolet capitalized on late-race attrition and restarts, moving forward late while defending other hard-chargers on the way to finishing seventh.

What’s next: Dillon has been a consistent top-15 driver at Kansas in recent outings, evidenced by six straight finishes between 10th and 14th from 2020 through 2023. Most recently, Dillon finished 12th at the 1.5-mile track last fall.

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

3. Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Started: 23rd

Finished: 12th

What happened: Despite late contact, Dillon walked away from Texas with his best Cup finish since August of 2023. The No. 10 Chevrolet collected minor nose damage in a four-car pileup at Lap 247, but Dillon maneuvered through the carnage to score his third top-15 finish of 2025. The positive result comes despite averaging a 28th-best average running position of 23.7, according to NASCAR Loop Data.

What’s next: Kansas has not been incredibly kind to Dillon, the younger of the two brothers, but he has two top-15 finishes in 14 starts there. His most recent result at Kansas was 21st during last fall’s playoff race.

Logan Riely | Getty Images

THREE DOWN ⬇️

1. Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Started: 1st

Finished: 24th

What happened: Hocevar scored his first career Cup Series pole on Saturday, but Sunday was a different story. Despite leading 22 laps, Hocevar found himself mired in traffic in the final stage after an untimely caution shortly after making a green-flag pit stop. While in traffic, Hocevar washed up exiting Turn 2 at Lap 237, pinching Ryan Preece into the outside wall and crashing both of them down the backstretch. Texas marks another “down” in an up-and-down season for the sophomore racer: In 11 races, he has five top-20 finishes and six of 24th or worse.

What’s next: In three Kansas starts, Hocevar has struggled to net positive results, posting finishes of 20th, 24th and 32nd in his trio of efforts. Additionally, though he has run better than he has finished at 1.5-mile tracks in 2025, the stat sheet says Hocevar has finished 24th or worse in four intermediate races this season (Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami, Darlington, Texas).

Kenneth Richmond | Getty Images

2. Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford

Started: 7th

Finished: 32nd

What happened: Berry had a great day in progress until things went south at Lap 125. The Las Vegas winner was leading the race when he moved too high in Turns 3 and 4 and his car bottomed out, quickly spinning through the exit of Turn 4 and backing into the SAFER barrier. Berry is still looking for his first top-five finish since his March victory and leaves Texas with his fourth finish of 26th or worse in the last five races.

What’s next: Like Hocevar, Berry has a limited sample size of three starts at Kansas but placed 15th in last spring’s thriller. His other two starts produced finishes of 25th (May 2023) and 38th (September 2024).

Hannah Gentlesk | NASCAR Digital Media

3. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Started: 11th

Finished: 35th

What happened: Bowman was collected in a multicar pileup at Lap 172, ending his day early at Texas. The No. 48 car was running inside the top 15 when Bubba Wallace contacted the outside wall in a hornet’s nest of a restart to begin the final stage. Although Bowman avoided the start of the incident, AJ Allmendinger spun after contact and landed right in front of Bowman’s path. After spinning, Bowman was then struck by Chad Finchum, creating too much damage for Bowman to continue. What started as a promising season for Bowman has run into trouble in recent weeks as Texas also marks Bowman’s fourth finish of 27th or worse in the past five races.

What’s next: Bowman has been a contender at Kansas in years past and enters with five consecutive top 10s there. With 10 top 10s in 18 starts — including a runner-up effort back in 2019 — Bowman could easily get back on track statistically next week.

Chris Graythen | Getty Images