In the week leading up to the 2025 All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, it was fitting that NASCAR’s star of stars delivered a performance worthy of the title.
Not only did Kyle Larson win his third race of the season at Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 in Kansas City, but he also barely gave the field a chance — starting on pole, sweeping both stages, and leading 221 of a possible 267 laps (82.8 percent). His reward: a 149.7 Driver Rating, just a fraction shy of the perfect 150.0 mark outlined in the official rating formula.
(In football terms, Larson came up just short of a perfect 158.3 passer rating — a feat we see only once or twice per NFL season, if that often.)
For Larson, it was his second near-perfect performance in the span of just four races, joining the 149.6 he posted at Bristol. And that was on the heels of a 149.7 at Bristol last fall and a literal 150.0 at the Charlotte Roval in the 2024 playoffs. At this point, it’s clear: Larson is the one active driver who can roll into any track on any weekend and utterly destroy the field through the sheer force of perfection (or at least near-perfection).
So just how much more likely is Larson to unleash one of these super-dominant performances than a typical driver? Let’s compare the frequency at which Larson has posted a Driver Rating within various ranges over his career to the overall Cup Series average since the stat became available in 2005:
As we can see, Larson posts an above-average Driver Rating far more often than the typical driver. (He’s also much less likely to have a bad day than the average driver.) And while most of his competition hovers near the middle of the distribution — the “Cup average” sweet spot is around a 70.0 rating — Larson’s distribution skews heavily toward the extreme right tail of the chart.
He’s logged a rating of 140 or higher in 5.6 percent of his career races, making him 6.8 times more likely than the average driver to turn in that kind of dominant day. Narrow it further to ratings of 145 or higher, and Larson does that in 2.9 percent of his races — 6.9 times the Cup average.
That’s still not exactly a routine occurrence, as it can sometimes seem when Larson is on one of these red-hot streaks. But it is as close to a common sight as this kind of thing can get — at least among current-era drivers.
If we go back to 2005, the earliest season when we have data on Driver Rating, Larson has the best frequency of 140+ rated races (5.6 percent), and only Jimmie Johnson (at 3.4 percent) was more likely to have a 145+ rating in any given race than Larson at 2.9 percent. Only Kevin Harvick — at 4.7 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively — was all that close to Larson and Johnson in those categories of dominance:
So if Johnson is Larson’s only current-era peer, what about previous eras?
We don’t have Driver Ratings for seasons before 2005, but we do know what goes into the Driver Rating formula. Given that, we can use what data we do have for each pre-2005 race, plus a technique called Logistic Regression, to estimate the odds that a driver posted a rating of 140 or higher in any historical race since the modern era began in 1972. (Specifically, we’ll use data points like whether or not a driver won the race, their share of laps led, their starting grid position and where they finished the race — all of which are strong predictors of Driver Rating for the years where we do have data.)
Suppose we apply this to all Cup Series races from 1972-2004. In that case, we find that only six drivers are estimated to have a higher share of races with a rating of 140+ than Larson’s career 5.6 percent rate: Mark Donohue (16.6 percent), Cale Yarborough (14.5), David Pearson (12.2), Jeff Gordon (7.6), Bobby Allison (7.0) and Dale Earnhardt Sr. (6.4):
Beyond Donohue, the remaining five drivers on the list are a who’s-who of NASCAR royalty — led by Cale Yarborough, with a staggering 14.5 percent estimated frequency of 140+ rated performances. (That’s more than 2.5 times Larson’s rate in modern cars.) Known for his utter dominance during the 1970s, Yarborough even had a couple of wins where he led every lap, so it’s not implausible that he might have rattled off a near-perfect Driver Rating that often as well. It was a different sport back then — one where Yarborough once averaged a record-low finish of 4.5 over a full season, providing another verifiable benchmark of domination from the Hall of Fame legend.
With that in mind, it’s a bit surprising to see Richard Petty fall below Larson on this list. The King’s name is synonymous with dominating the NASCAR record book, but the model estimates a lower share of 140+ rated races than Larson. In part, that’s because he led fewer laps per win on average (43.3 percent) than peers like Yarborough (54.8 percent), and in part it’s because Petty’s unusually long career — which stretched until age 54 in 1992 — likely diluted his peak stats as well.
Anyway, all of this helps add even more context to just how dominant Larson has been, particularly in recent seasons. He may not win the title every year, but when he’s on, nobody buries the field quite like the driver of the No. 5 car. As we saw at Kansas, Larson can make a 267-lap race feel like a breezy Sunday drive. And while a few all-time legends may have reached similar heights more often in their primes, nobody in this current era has a higher ceiling — or hits it more often — than Larson does.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Christopher and Morgan Bell are too young to grasp the reference, but they are reveling in a NASCAR home version of “The Newlywed Game” on their beige sectional couch.
Each armed with a dry-erase whiteboard and marker, the Bells, who have become one of the most high-profile couples in the Cup Series since last year, are trading goofy wisecracks, gentle compliments and playful jabs like everyday husband-wife duos once did on a nationally televised game show.
And their competitive fire is as evident as on Sundays when Christopher Bell is winning races in the No. 20 Toyota with the demonstrative and fervent support of his wife, Morgan, atop the pit box. As their now-famed Poochon, Sadie, dozes between them, the Bells joust over who knows more about the others’ favorite school subjects, coffee orders and social media platforms.
“That was good,” Christopher says despite being trounced by Morgan (who knows much more than her husband about their ideal date nights, dance moves and musical artists). “Hopefully, this is good content.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing star would know, having become an unwitting king of NASCAR content while emerging as a perennial championship contender the past three seasons.
Last year, Christopher and Morgan unexpectedly were thrust into the first season of the Full Speed docuseries.
During Christopher’s three-race winning streak at Atlanta, Circuit of The Americas and Phoenix, the FOX Sports cameras often lingered on Morgan, whose emotional and tense expressions and gestures reflected the dramatics.
Meet the Bells, NASCAR’s new power couple — but a very reluctant one at that.
“I won’t watch this, just so you know,” Christopher explains while being interviewed about being prominently featured in Full Speed. “I did not watch Full Speed 1. I will not watch Full Speed 2.
“I don’t watch my own interviews. I don’t know why. Morgan tries to get me to watch, and I’ll spend time watching with her, but it’s never something that I would pick to watch.”
Morgan got Christopher to submit to viewing some of the first season but concedes he never would binge-watch his Netflix appearances, much less even consume snippets on Instagram.
“That’s something that he doesn’t do,” she said. “Like even if you are scrolling social media and there’s his interview from post-race on your phone, he’s going to either walk out of the room or turn the phone off. He just doesn’t want to watch or hear himself in his own interviews.”
Of course, it isn’t quite so comfortable, either, for Morgan, who now occupies an omnipresent role formerly played by famous NASCAR wives such as Kim Burton and DeLana Harvick.
“Kind of interesting or odd, I guess,” Morgan said about her late-race cameos on national TV. “I don’t know. I guess I hope it never comes across like bad or weird, but there’s been very, very, very few races that I’ve missed, and nine times out of 10, I’m going to sit right there where you always see me from start to finish.
“That’s just … it’s our whole life. So, I don’t know how you couldn’t be completely immersed in what we do.”
The Bells have grown accustomed to making some of their private life public and view the tradeoff as worth it for spreading the gospel of NASCAR and motorsports.
But it’s still awkward.
“It always felt like a better idea until you got in the moment, and then whenever their cameras are on, it’s just hard to open up and to be not guarded,” Christopher, 30, said. “It gets easier with time, but it still is just very uncomfortable and a skillset that you have to acquire for sure to just ignore the cameras. Whenever you’re watching any sort of TV show, you want it to be normal, but it’s just not normal. Everything that you do is somewhat staged. It’s very difficult to feel like just completely yourself whenever the cameras are on.
“But I think it’s important to showcase our sport. And hopefully if Full Speed does anything, it educates the general population a little bit more. It takes education to understand, ‘Hey, these guys aren’t just hitting the cruise button on the highway and making laps.’ There’s more to it.”
Said Morgan, 29: “It’s definitely even harder for him just because he loves to keep to himself and would rather people know nothing about him other than the fact that he races for JGR in the 20 car.”
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Christopher and Morgan first met as teenagers in 2010 at an Ohio dirt track through a mutual friend who raced online with Christopher. Hailing from a Norman, Oklahoma, family with no racing background, Christopher was living mostly in Ohio while trying to break into the sprint car scene.
Meanwhile, Morgan Kemenah’s family was fully immersed in the motorsports culture of middle Ohio. Her father, Brian, and uncle Chad were part of numerous championship teams.
“There was always a race car in our garage,” Morgan said. “So that’s what I did every weekend. I went to the dirt track.”
Bell hardly needed an introduction. “She comes from a very, very heavy motorsports family,” he said. “Her dad is a Hall of Fame sprint car crew chief, and her uncle is a Hall of Fame driver.”
It wasn’t without first-date drama. Christopher crashed the prior night at a track in Greencastle “and was probably slightly concussed” when he met Morgan and her mother, Stacy (who was persuaded by her daughter to drive them to Bloomington).
“He’s like, ‘I have this like horrible headache,’ and my mom was like, ‘Oh, do you want some Advil?’ and he says, ‘Sure,’ ” Morgan recalled with a laugh. “And then he thought my mom was trying to poison him because technically the bottle says take two, but she’s like, ‘Was your headache really bad? Then I would take four.’ ”
Christopher took Stacy’s advice and then the checkered flag several hours later to kick off a whirlwind romance.
Morgan would skip her senior prom for an Eldora Speedway race (which Bell didn’t win). The week after her high school graduation in 2015, she watched Christopher race on Memorial Day in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
The next day, she and Christopher flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, as he began his pavement career in Late Models.
They crashed on an air mattress in the spare bedroom of a friend’s apartment for a couple of weeks. Future JGR teammate Chase Briscoe slept on a couch in an adjoining room.
The move away from dirt in pursuit of NASCAR was jarring for Morgan.
“She used to get so mad at me whenever I first started running asphalt,” Christopher said. “She grew up sprint car racing. She was confused. I was a dirt track racer running USAC midget cars full time, and so I think she expected me to go to sprint cars.”
Said Morgan: “Most dirt racers’ dream is to become a sprint car World of Outlaw(s) racer. He was always like, ‘Yeah, to be a professional race car driver and make a living racing cars, you have to be an Outlaw.’ So that’s what I thought. And honestly even before I met him, sprint cars were the only race cars that existed in my world. It was sprint cars or bust.”
A few days after their first date in Bloomington, Christopher got the call that he’d be making his Kyle Busch Motorsports debut by practicing an asphalt Late Model. He texted Morgan, who responded, “Why?”
“I was like, ‘What are we doing?’ ” she recalled.
Chris Trotman | Getty Images
Morgan was a faithful supporter a year later as Christopher made his Truck Series debut — which also marked her regular appearances on the pit box. She was there when Bell won on Eldora’s iconic dirt in his third start driving a KBM truck.
Her presence was met with initial skepticism. Toyota Racing Development executive Jack Irving, who helped manage the manufacturer’s TD2 driver development program and was a mentor to Christopher, had questions about the long-term prospects of a 20-year-old rising star and his 18-year-old traveling companion.
“Jack was just like, ‘Man, are you sure you want your girlfriend going with you to these races?’ and then after a little bit, he realized that she’s serious,” Christopher said. “She’s likely going to be my wife. I mean, it was because we were young. Jack was like, ‘You can’t just bring a random girl.’ But no, she wasn’t a random girl.”
She estimates having been on the pit box for all but a handful of Christopher’s 329 national series starts in NASCAR, watching virtually all in their entirety. Because of extreme heat at Texas Motor Speedway a few years ago, she retired to their infield motorhome for fear they’d both be too ill otherwise. “If he ends up in a wreck after the race just being so hot and sick, I’m not going to be any good if I’m laying on the floor next to him exhausted from the heat,” Morgan said.
Noting that Morgan is “far more emotional than I am,” Christopher said there’s a yin and yang to their race track relationship. Morgan helps Christopher when he’s “disgusted” with a ninth place at Texas, and Christopher helps Morgan get over the close losses that leave her on the verge of being inconsolable.
“There wasn’t a moment where I realized how into it she was,” he said. “I think it’s just we literally built this life together. So like everything, we just took it as it came, and the deeper that we got into it, it just became both of us together.
“And literally since my dirt full-time days to my late model days to my truck days to Xfinity days and Cup days, she has lived it and gone through the trials and tribulations together.”
Considering herself a No. 20 Camry team member, Morgan enjoys coordinating race day outfits around the car’s sponsors. She recently bought a pair of gold trousers at Target because “they’re DeWalt yellow,” which is harder to find than red (Rheem and Reser’s) and green (Interstate Batteries). When Christopher was sponsored by JBL, she intentionally shopped for orange.
“I’m not as crazy about it anymore, but our colors now are a little more conducive to being easier to match,” she said.
Her pre-race ritual is to wish every team member well on her way from the car to the pit box because “they can have as big of an effect on our day as anything. They can win our race, and they can lose it.”
A bundle of nervous energy, she often lightly taps the shoulders of William Hartman, a No. 20 engineer, during the race.
“What’s William thinking here? ‘Get this psycho lady off the pit box,’ ” Christopher said with a laugh while watching a recent video of his wife’s excitable in-race behavior.
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Morgan goes from giggling to lightly sobbing after watching the same video, explaining that “this is what the Netflix people always get out of me.”
During Full Speed, Morgan gets emotional in multiple on-camera sitdowns and concedes the interviewers were “really good at always asking the questions that would get me hard, hard in my feels. I would normally end up in tears, and I’ve heard they have shown that quite a few times in the show. That’s just what it is. They filmed with us during the most stressful part of the year.”
There’s a long history of NASCAR drivers’ wives being emotionally invested while watching from the pit box. Morgan is a little leery, though, about being compared with Kim Burton, who has been one of NASCAR’s most famous cheerleaders for three decades (initially for husband Jeff and more recently for son Harrison).
“That’s what I get scared of because sometimes I feel like people like make fun of Kim,” Morgan said. “And I will say there are times where I’m like, ‘Take a deep breath, Kim!’ but I guess there’s times she’s probably just as passionate.”
During Bell’s victory at Circuit of The Americas, FOX showed Morgan Bell and Samantha Busch in succession as they rooted on their husbands battling for the lead.
“People were like, ‘Oh yeah, the TV broadcast was basically pinning you and Samantha on each other,” Morgan said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s great!’ It looks like Sam and I are going at it or something. I honestly didn’t even realize that they were doing that.”
During a Full Speed interview, Morgan notes “the playoffs create great things for the people who aren’t living in them,” and some of the series’ most compelling moments are at the expense of the Bells’ frayed nerves.
After the controversial finish at Martinsville, Morgan is shown angrily screaming, “Are we in or we out?” The series also revisits the 2023 championship finale as Christopher and Morgan share a tearful embrace after his exit at Phoenix. (“Hopefully this isn’t my last shot,” Christopher says softly.)
“The ups and downs of it are massive, for sure,” he said. “And we got to experience both of those.”
But there also are the everyday life moments for the Bells, who were engaged in 2018, married in February 2020 (a week before Christopher’s Daytona 500 debut) and moved into their house on Lake Norman in January 2022.
The neighbors are enthusiastic supporters of the show, which details their fandom (a No. 20 flag hangs from a nearby house on the block), their dog-sitting of Sadie and their passion for landscaping.
“That is really nice that they showcase our neighbors do care a lot about us,” Morgan said. “I feel like Christopher’s most talked about moment from last season was him loving grass, which right now looks pretty good. He’s been texting our neighbors the past couple days that, ‘All of our grass looks real green, guys!’ ”
Christopher smiles when reminded that Full Speed documented his fascination with an immaculate lawn on the corner of their street.
“He’s the most meticulous guy in the world,” Christopher said of the house’s owner. “He’s the benchmark. But my grass will never get there until I actually dedicate time to doing it myself, which I’m not going to do in the near future, So I got what I got.”
Also heavily featured in their personal lives is Sadie, the 7-year-old Bichon Frise-Poodle mix that they got as a puppy. A 7-pound runt of the litter, Sadie became a star after a viral meme of her sitting in Christopher’s lap.
“He’d always sit in that chair pre-race, and Sadie would always hop in his lap,” said Morgan, who originally posted the photo to social media. “So every time she did it, I took a picture because I thought it was cute.”
Sadie has a new playmate, another Poochon (but twice the size) they got March 31. Though she was sent to a two-week board and train (to cure some “not good puppy behaviors”), Bailey could become the family’s biggest star yet. (“She’s more outgoing than Sadie,” Christopher said.)
And that would be just fine with the Bells, who ultimately hope that Full Speed presents them (along with other drivers and their families) as “normal people. Like point blank, the end,” Morgan said. “They’re all normal people. They’re just like everybody who’s watching it.
“Their job might be one of the cooler jobs that a lot of people don’t have. But outside of that, they are just normal people.”
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.
Tim Connolly never wanted to own race cars. He just wanted to drive them.
However, you don’t always get what you want. And in racing, sometimes if you want to compete, you need to own the race car.
“My happy place is with the wheel in my hand as all drivers are,” said Connolly, who was recently named as one of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s 40 Greatest Drivers. “I never wanted to be a car owner. It was a necessity to drive a race car. That’s why most of the guys do it.”
Connolly’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour career, which started in 1988, saw him win nine times and secure a runner-up championship result in 1997 while driving Bob Garbarino’s legendary Mystic Missile Modified.
He stepped away from the series in 2002 but returned in 2023, now as the owner and driver of the Mystic Missile after receiving Garbarino’s blessing.
Since then, he’s competed in 23 Modified Tour events as the driver of the No. 4 Mystic Missile. However, Connolly has been absent from the series so far in 2025 while he recovers from his third spinal surgery.
“The reality is you start to realize you don’t bounce (back) like you used to and you break a little easier and your recovery time takes a little bit longer,” Connolly said. “My back is doing great, and I feel great. Just trying to be a little bit smart and a little bit patient.”
That’s where 2008 Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman comes in.
Tim Connolly pilots the No. 4 Mystic Missile Modified during practice at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Oct. 20, 2024. (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
Newman, himself a four-time Tour winner, is always looking for opportunities to race Modifieds. Last year he reached out to Connolly to enquire about driving the Mystic Missile, but the two couldn’t come to terms, and Newman instead drove for John-Michael Shenette in a few events.
“With all due respect, he’s no spring chicken anymore. I don’t mean that in a bad way, just at some point he’s going to have to step out of the seat,” Newman said. “Not knowing where his mind was at on all that stuff, I wanted to be respectful of it but also put my name in the hat if we could ever put something together.”
With Connolly sidelined due to his surgery and Newman looking for a car to drive in Sunday’s FaithFest Evangelistic Ministries 150 at North Wilkesboro Speedway (2 p.m. ET on FloRacing and The NASCAR Channel), everything came together.
“Basically, we worked on the Wilkesboro race, and we had enough time,” said Newman, who secured several sponsors, including IGA, First Sanitation, The Ragg Co., Fairvalue, Findley Properties and Mathis Equipment to make the opportunity possible. “He brought the race car down to the FURY shop and gave us an opportunity to work on it and get it all ready to go with Ryan Stone. I look forward to the opportunity.”
As the pair discussed the idea of Newman driving for Connolly at North Wilkesboro, it became obvious to Connolly that Newman understood his position as a driver who never really wanted to be a car owner.
That made it a bit easier for Connolly to step aside and trust Newman to take the wheel of the Mystic Missile this Sunday afternoon.
“When Ryan and I finally got down to the meat and potatoes here a few weeks ago, I believe it was a Monday morning, and we’re on the phone,” Connolly explained. “I said, ‘You know Ryan to me it’s kind of funny. I was a college quarterback, the baseball pitcher, the business owner and race car driver.’ I said, ‘I never,’ and when I got to I never he interrupted me. He said, ‘I know, you never wanted to be a car owner. I get it.’
“I said, ‘You know Ryan, if I was ever to put a guy in the car, you would be it. Well, except maybe Kyle Larson if he wanted to.’ And he chuckled.”
To Newman’s credit, he understood Connolly was going to have a hard time watching someone else drive his race car. That’s why he broached the subject carefully, a strategy that ultimately led to the opportunity Sunday at North Wilkesboro.
“It’s kind of a delicate subject to talk to a guy about wanting his seat because he’s a driver-owner, but I’ve been in that situation before,” Newman said. “My first pavement sprint car ride was with a guy named Ron Koehler at Winchester in 1999, and he was at a point where Winchester was a little too fast for him.
“I’ve been in that position to try and delicately and politely ask, ‘Hey, if you’re thinking about it, I might be your guy.’”
This will be Connolly’s first time operating as strictly a car owner during a Modified Tour event. Luckily, he knows someone he can lean on for advice and guidance in such a situation.
Garbarino, a three-time Modified Tour champion car owner and one of Connolly’s closest friends, will be making the trip from his home in the Northeast to join Connolly and Newman at North Wilkesboro.
Tim Connolly walks to his car prior to the Toyota Mod Classic 150 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at New York’s Oswego Speedway on Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo: Bryan Bennett/NASCAR)
For Connolly, the opportunity to share the weekend with Garbarino is one on which he would never pass.
“I called Mr. Garbarino before I got too committed with Ryan, just out of respect,” Connolly said. “I called him back last week and I said, ‘You know, this is really your legacy.’ I joked at first. I said, ‘This is my first venture being a car owner outside of the seat, and I really need some mentoring in car ownership. Could you please come down?’
“He chuckled a little bit. I said, ‘This is really your legacy. You need to be there more than I do.’”
For Newman, the goal is to go to North Wilkesboro, race up front and prove himself worthy to carry on the legacy of all the drivers who have come before him in the Mystic Missile.
After all, Mr. Garbarino will be watching.
“When I first started racing Modifieds, I raced against the Mystic Missile,” Newman said. “I knew the quality of the equipment that they had, and I was happy when I beat it, and I’ve been beaten by it, as well.
“When Tim Connolly carried on that legacy and tradition, I took note of it, but at that point I was still racing against it. I think it’s awesome for me, being where I am at my career, and you can tag that however you want to.
“A place like North Wilkesboro, Tim Connolly, the Mystic Missile and the history of Modified racing, it’s at least two or three chapters of a book somewhere.”
NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran joined the “Hauler Talk” podcast to explain why Chris Buescher’s team was given an L1 penalty after finishing eighth at Kansas Speedway.
The rule violations were found when Buescher’s No. 17 Ford was inspected at the NASCAR R&D Center this week. Moran said the maximum 2 inches of reinforcement behind the front bumper foam had been exceeded.
“Unfortunately, the No. 17 did not meet the rule and had a larger area than what is permitted to be bonded into the nose piece,” Moran said. “They can work in that area, but they went too far would be the simplest terms of putting it.”
The Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing team was penalized 60 driver and owner points, five driver and owner playoff points and fined $75,000. Crew chief Scott Graves also will be suspended from the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600.
NASCAR has meted out harsher L2 penalties for modified parts, and Moran explained why this penalty fell into the L1 category.
“As the car was being developed, we recognized we were doing damage to the nose of the car and didn’t want to be using up good parts (on repairs),” Moran said. “We put out communications that were very clear and specific that teams could strengthen behind the foam, which is where there was cracking and damage during the races.
“It was an area around the foam that you’re allowed 2 inches, and it was beyond that, which is a rule violation. They were allowed to modify that area but not to the extent they did, and that’s why it turned it into an L1.” …
The latest episode of “Hauler Talk” also recapped last weekend at Kansas, where numerous Cup teams had tire trouble in practice and the race. NASCAR managing director of racing communications Mike Forde explained how Goodyear conducts “pressure sweeps” to set minimum tire regulations by using predictive computer modeling to determine durability for certain camber and PSI (pounds per square inch) settings. At Kansas, the minimum PSI for the left rear tire was 22 pounds, but Forde said Goodyear confirmed several teams were running well below that.
Forde said NASCAR doesn’t enforce or officiate Goodyear’s minimum tire pressures because “we get that teams are pushing the envelope. It adds strategy and makes it lot more interesting. … We trust the teams to police themselves. They don’t want to get the drivers hurt. There’s been an incredible emphasis on safety over the last two decades, and teams are part of that. They’re not going to put drivers in an unsafe position just for the sake of speed and winning.” …
During the podcast, NASCAR senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis provided a peek into a drivers-only meeting held last Saturday at Kansas. Among the topics were the logistics for the Mexico City race next month and a new aerodynamic device for superspeedway racing.
Other topics covered during the 14th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— Why Layne Riggs was disqualified for an improperly secured bed cover after finishing second in the Truck race at Kansas.
— How NASCAR determined Dawson Sutton intentionally caused a yellow to earn a two-lap penalty.
— A review of the qualifying and race formats for the 2025 All-Star Race.
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 new “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
NASCAR assessed an L1-level penalty to the No. 17 RFK Racing team on Thursday following last weekend’s Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.
During inspection this week at the R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, series officials discovered that the No. 17 Ford was in violation of Sections 14.1.C (overall assembled vehicle rules) and 14.5.4.G (front bumper cover) of the NASCAR Rule Book. The team went over the maximum reinforcement allowed for its front bumper covers.
As a result, the team and driver Chris Buescher were each assessed with the loss of 60 championship points and five playoff points, and the team was fined $75,000. Additionally, crew chief Scott Graves has been suspended for the next two races through Charlotte.
The team released a statement on Friday stating that it was continuing to evaluate a potential appeal to the penalties assessed to the No. 17 Ford but decided that Graves would begin serving his suspension effective immediately. The team named Doug Randolph as the acting crew chief, beginning with All-Star Weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Buescher drove the No. 17 Ford to an eighth-place finish in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400, which was won by Kyle Larson. Before the penalty, Buescher was 12th in the point standings, but he dropped to 24th afterward.
Thursday’s penalty announcement also impacted the current Cup Series Playoffs standings, moving Buescher out of the provisional 16-driver field and jostling other drivers around the elimination line. Before the 60-point deduction, Buescher was 33 points above the line — he now drops to minus-27. Ryan Preece moves from minus-7 to +14 as the provisional 16th driver in the field, which nudges Kyle Busch to the last driver out at minus-7.
The Cup Series is at North Wilkesboro Speedway this weekend for Sunday’s All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1) before returning to points-paying action in the Coca-Cola 600 on May 25 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Day 2 running laps in preparation for the May 25 Indianapolis 500 was both encouraging and functional for NASCAR star Kyle Larson. The 2021 Cup Series champ ran 103 laps Wednesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and turned in a fast lap of 223.985 mph, double the number of laps and ultimately a faster speed than Tuesday’s opening practice.
Even with three brief stoppages for rain in the six hours of on-track time available, Larson’s No. 17 Arrow McLaren Racing Chevrolet turned in a full day of work at the historic speedway, setting his fastest speed of the day in the closing 10 minutes of practice.
Much of the 32-year-old Californian’s time on track came with a fellow NASCAR champion watching. Three-time and reigning Cup Series champ Joey Logano was a trackside guest of Team Penske, the two-time defending Indy 500 winning team that also fields cars for Logano, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric in NASCAR’s premier series.
“It’s fun to watch Larson as one of us,’’ Logano said with a grin, “He’s a freak, able to just do whatever he wants and to jump in and be good at it.’’
Five drivers have attempted the Memorial Day weekend “Double” — the late John Andretti, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon, Kurt Busch and Larson. Only Stewart, however, has completed all 1,100 miles.
Larson, who planned to compete in both races last year, didn’t get a chance to run laps in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for the NASCAR part of the doubleheader. After an 18th-place finish in the Indy 500, he was late arriving at Charlotte Motor Speedway because of a rain-delayed race start in Indy. When he did arrive at the Charlotte track, the weather had already halted action, and ultimately, NASCAR called the race early.
Asked if he ever had a desire to try the double, Logano was quick to decline.
“I’m so center-focused on winning and not really focused on having fun, it’s just about winning, so for me, it’s best just to stay in my lane, my NASCAR lane and keep doing that as best as we can,’’ Logano said. “But it is fun talking to Kyle [Larson] about some of the things that are different. And surprisingly hearing him say how similar our Cup cars are [to Indy cars] now. “It’s probably closer than it’s ever been with the Next Gen car now that we’re creating a lot of downforce underneath the car, the smaller sidewall tires and the cars are a lot more edgier than they used to be.’’
Reigning NTT IndyCar Series champion, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, posted the top speed of the day — and the week so far — with a lap of 227.546 mph around the massive 2.5-mile historic oval. The speed was so good that Palou was nearly two mph quicker than the field of 34 cars vying for a spot in the 33-car starting lineup.
The 2018 Indy 500 winner, Penske Racing’s Will Power, was second fastest at 225.584 mph. Power’s No. 12 Chevrolet was quickest on Tuesday’s opening day of practice. His Penske teammate, two-time defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden, was third on the speed chart with Ganassi’s Scott Dixon and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Connor Daly rounding out the top five.
Larson said he was satisfied with his Wednesday effort and that he definitely feels more comfortable already with the benefit of having an Indy 500 under his belt.
“The pit stop stuff, I know what to expect a little bit better there and what it takes to turn into the stall and get stopped at your sign,’’ Larson said, adding, “I should get up to speed a little quicker on that [now] and then I think race procedure still I will revisit later in the week. I made some mistakes on the starts last year, missed some shifts and stuff so hopefully I will clean that up a little bit this year and make things easier on myself.
“As far as confidence and whatnot with the car, I’m more confident after yesterday than I was with the open test (earlier this month). I feel like my balance is better this time around, just have gotta get it better in traffic.”
Practice resumes Thursday with the six-hour session starting at noon ET (FS2). Television coverage moves to FS1 at 4 p.m. ET. Fast Friday to prepare for pole qualifying follows with another six-hour session from noon to 6 p.m. ET. Two days of qualifying to set the 33-car field are Saturday and Sunday. Larson started fifth last year.
Here’s what’s happening in NASCAR with Kansas Speedway in the rearview and the 2025 NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway (Sun., 8 p.m. ET, FS1) up next.
1. Data deep dive — hidden trends from the first 12 races of 2025
In NASCAR, the numbers go deeper than just wins and laps led. NASCAR Insights has been keeping track of passer, defense, speed, restart and pit crew deep analytics this year. The season averages are producing some interesting insights.
So many things have happened since William Byron opened the season with a second straight Daytona 500 victory.
Christopher Bell won three straight races. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin nearly matched it shortly thereafter. Josh Berry won a race before any of his Team Penske cohorts and has the No. 21 car looking like a factor. Kyle Larson is just on another planet right now, and looks like he’s about to enter a whole other universe, too.
It’s been an impactful open to 2025, with major narratives front and center. But what does the story within the story tell?
Let’s dig into the season-long advanced statistical averages, courtesy of NASCAR Insights, to see if we can uncover any trends lying under the surface that could become apparent in the next third of the season and beyond.
— Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, mired in one of his most frustrating seasons to date, is 20th or worse in every statistical average so far … except he’s seventh in Defense Rating, which “evaluates a driver’s ability to hold their position when under pressure, assessing their effectiveness in fending off faster cars.” Despite his frustrations and lack of speed, Keselowski is able to hang in there with the best of them; we’ve seen him find his way to the front this year, even despite all that. It’s likely his team finds speed gains at some point this season and that, combined with his cool-headedness, could perhaps lead to a win.
— Cole Custer’s No. 41 Haas Factory Team pit crew ranks 13th, while Custer is outside the top 30 in everything else. That’s still a solid backbone, and the team — which is probably still adjusting from a massive transition — should only find ways to go faster from here as Custer continues to reacclimate to the Cup Series. Not saying a Custer playoff appearance is in the crystal ball, but I’d be surprised to see this team not find some better results over the summer and build some momentum for 2026.
— Noah Gragson is 11th in restarts and 17th in defense to rank in the top half of the field there, and he’s doing it with the 28th-best speed and 29th-best passer rating. It stands to reason that if the No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford gains in the speed area, Gragson could be fighting for consistent top 15s at the very least and perhaps a win, given his restart ability in particular.
— On the flip side, Las Vegas winner Josh Berry is getting eaten up on restarts (25th) despite being in the top 15 in passing, speed and defense. This is not necessarily unexpected from a sophomore in the Cup Series, and, if it’s something he’s presumably able to improve upon, he could round into a deep-in-the-playoffs kind of driver.
— Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford has been a bullet in 2025 — as evidenced by his first-place rating in both passing and speed — but he ranks outside the top 10 in defense … which doesn’t seem ideal when a driver has the clear fastest car. On a perhaps related note, Blaney is the only winless driver among the four associated with Team Penske. (For now.)
— Spire Motorsports has taken an obvious leap forward in 2025, seemingly in the mix with at least one of its drivers on a weekly basis. So, it’s quite surprising that Carson Hocevar’s P14 rating in passing is the highest that any Spire driver is ranked in any category. Either their early 2025 returns are a fluke or this trio is about to break out in a big way, should any speed gains be found.
— Ryan Preece has also taken a significant leap this year in his first season with RFK Racing, and he appears to be the real deal. Preece and the No. 60 team were on it at Kansas, but he’s also ranked fifth in passing for year. For context — teammates Keselowski and Chris Buescher, both of whom expected to make the playoffs when cars rolled into Daytona, rank 25th and 22nd, respectively.
— Similarly to Custer’s No. 41 group, JGR’s Ty Gibbs (2nd) and Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suárez (7th) are bolstered by strong pit crews, but are struggling across the board otherwise, averaging 21.75 and 21.25 in the other categories, respectively. Gibbs is still a developing Cup driver and Trackhouse has undergone some internal transitions. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that either picks things up the rest of the way and strikes while the iron is hot for a win after being put in a favorable position by their pit crews.
— And finally … why the heck hasn’t Chase Elliott won since April 2024, when his teammates seem to be able to pour it on at will lately? Restarts, restarts, restarts. Elliott’s peripherals on all the other categories are mostly in line with them, but his restart ability in 2025 thus far (16th) pales in comparison to William Byron (1st) and Kyle Larson (2nd). Elliott is a well-established NASCAR superstar — a Cup champion, after all — and has an average ranking of 5.0 between passing, speed and defense. At some point he’s going to just flat-out dominate and win a race, restarts be damned.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
2. Will an All-Star Race victory spark someone’s championship run?
The winner of the All-Star Race went on to win the Cup Series championship in three of the last five years and 13 times total. With several drivers in need of a spark, could Sunday be an *ahem* turning point in someone’s season?
The All-Star Race, with no points up for grabs and a $1 million check waiting in Victory Lane for the winner, is supposed to be a pressure-free cash scramble, but is there perhaps a little more riding on it?
The exhibition event has turned into a true showing of strength for the stars of the sport, with each of the last nine races won by Cup Series champions. The race and the Bill France Cup feel intimately tied together, with three of the past five champions also having won the race earlier in the season.
With only seven drivers having won so far this year and several playoff-hopeful drivers staring down the notion of being in “must-win” territory (and some already there), will we see a driver celebrate in North Wilkesboro and perhaps set their season on a new trajectory?
Nobody needs it more than Keselowski, and an All-Star victory would cross off one of his few remaining boxes in a Hall-of-Fame-worthy career. RFK’s co-owner/driver has finished second three times in the race, tied with Sterling Marlin and Ken Schrader for most runner-up trophies without a win. We’ve seen him run up front lately (before things seem to always crumble for one reason or another), but it’s quite possible the 2012 champ puts it all together this weekend. And lest we forget — Carl Edwards nearly won a title for Roush the year of his only All-Star win in 2011.
It’s not just Keselowski, though. There are plenty of drivers still looking for a win that expected to have one by now, and an All-Star Race triumph could absolutely be a launching pad for whoever wins it. Sixteen times in the history of the race it was the winner’s first victory of the season, and only three times did those winners not go on to win an actual points race in the remainder of the year.
On the opposite end of the spectrum you may even find it likely that Larson, in what is setting up to be a torrid month of May, comes to North Wilkesboro and stomps his way to a record-tying fourth win. His trajectory, in that case, isn’t altered — it’s solidified.
Larson has all but turned this race into a personal side hustle, with all three of his wins coming in the last six years, tying Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip and trailing only Jimmie Johnson’s four.
That’s a combined 18 Cup Series championships right there, and if Larson adds another All-Star win on Sunday?
NASCAR Inside the Race discusses Kyle Larson’s recent Cup Series dominance and compare him to seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.
4. Logano an all-time A-Lister among All-Stars
The three-time and current defending champion Joey Logano somehow manages to elevate his game even further at the annual NASCAR All-Star Race and his consistency is unparalleled. (Credit: Racing Insights)
Driver
Top-10 streak
All-Star Race wins
Joey Logano*
10
2
Matt Kenseth
9
1
Kyle Busch
7
1
Dale Earnhardt
7
3
* active streak
5. Catch the pack — news and notes from around the garage
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, N.C. – Less than two weeks before taking to the high banks of Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600, 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion and Coca-Cola Racing Family driver Chase Elliott took to the high seas Tuesday during the final stop of the 2025 Mission 600 campaign.
Mission 600, which serves as a prelude to the spectacular pre-race salute to the U.S. Armed Forces ahead of the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend, pairs NASCAR drivers with regional military branches to experience a day in the life of the brave men and women who defend our country.
During his visit, Elliott toured the U.S. Coast Guard Station Wrightsville Beach, part of U.S. Coast Guard Sector North Carolina, whose primary missions range from Search and Rescue, Marine Safety and Ports and Waterways Coastal Security to Marine Environmental Protection, Aids to Navigation, Maritime Law Enforcement and Recreational Boating Safety. The Hendrick Motorsports driver participated in a mock search-and-rescue mission, de-watered a simulated vessel in distress and took the helm of a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium (RB-M).
“I think in anything that you do, really, the people, is what makes it special,” Elliott said after the visit. “This unit here was it was no different. The crew was just extremely professional. Any time you have an opportunity to hang around individuals like that and see what they do on a daily basis, it makes my job a lot of fun. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.”
Elliott’s visit came ahead of National Boater Safety Week, May 17-23. In addition to serving as an opportunity to educate Elliott and the public about the importance of boater safety — emphasizing wearing life jackets and boater awareness on the water — the event provided a great morale boost for the unit.
“We run duty crews here, 24/7,” said Chief Petty Officer Parker Hofmann. “We just kind of ran him through all the missions and everything that we respond to on a day-to-day basis here. Kind of how our life is, what we do for fun, what we do for training, what we do to prepare us for the missions.
“We have some big NASCAR fans here, and they were excited to be able to meet him, interact with him. It really boosted the morale and I think going forward, he definitely earned some fans here today.”
For Elliott, the feeling was mutual, and it drives home what it means to race in the Coca-Cola 600 — one of NASCAR’s crown jewel events, on Memorial Day Weekend.
“I have always felt like NASCAR – and Charlotte Motor Speedway in particular – has always done a really good job of showcasing and showing that appreciation that we, as the industry, have for our servicemen and women around the world,” Elliott said. “I think it’s really special to be a part of a sport that has that type of showcasing, on a yearly basis. And it seems like it just gets bigger and better every year. It really makes me proud to be a part of it.”
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Madhouse is getting ready to host a night of chaos and calamity for The Great Clips Crash Fest.
A skid race, chain race, and demolition derby will throw some non-traditional wrinkles into the action this Saturday, May 14.
Fans will get to see the always-wild chain race for the first time this season. Plus, it’s a case of Mario Kart-style drifting come to life as drivers attempt to complete five laps in the skid race. A demolition derby will cap the night as competitors try to survive the carnage to be the last driver standing.
Meanwhile, the Brad’s Golf Cars Modified Series returns to the Twin 25 “Madhouse Scramble” format. Burt Myers is now two wins away from the magical “century mark” after he won the Kevin Powell Motorsports 100, but the field continues to chase Mike Speeney, who opened his lead in the series standings to eight points over Brandon Ward.
The Law Offices of John Barrow Sportsman, QRC HVAC & Refrigeration Street Stock, and Q104.1 Stadium Stock Series drivers will also be in action.
Gates open at 6 p.m. Saturday night with racing action to start at 8 p.m. Fans can get tickets online right now at www.bowmangrayracing.com. Tickets are $12 for adults and $2 for kids ages 6 to 11.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to North Wilkesboro Speedway for All-Star Weekend, with $1 million on the line in Sunday’s All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).
Qualifying will look a little different this weekend as each Cup Series team entered will set a three-lap qualifying effort, with a mandatory pit stop on the second lap acting as the Pit Crew Challenge. The total elapsed time will set the lineups for the All-Star Open and two All-Star heat races.
Qualifying is set to begin Friday at 6 p.m. ET for Open cars and at 7 p.m. ET for All-Star cars, both on FS1.
The qualifying order below is determined via the driver’s points position in the regular season standings. Justin Allgaier will be in place of Kyle Larson for qualifying.
