After every race that NASCAR runs, one competitor retreats to the garage feeling the sting of a runner-up finish — a solid result, sure, but saddled with the painful realization of coming up just one spot short of glory at the end of a hard-fought day.
No one, perhaps, feels that sting more than RFK Racing driver Chris Buescher, whose second-place finish to Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 driver Kyle Larson one year ago at Kansas Speedway slots in as the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history. Buescher crossed the line last spring at the 1.5-mile tri-oval a hair after Larson – 0.001 seconds, to be precise — and did not win the rest of the regular season, failing to make the playoffs after a seventh-place finish in the standings a year prior.
The driver of the No. 17 Ford joined the latest edition of NASCAR Inside the Race hosted by Steve Letarte to break down that close battle to the finish between him and Larson and what he might’ve done differently.
“Obviously, a lot of thought went into that one the week after,” Buescher said. “If we had it to do all over again, we probably would’ve run a little bit higher in (Turns) 1 and 2 and ultimately kept the momentum up there. I think that would’ve been the way to go; we had been really good at running the bottom at Kansas than most, and on that last run to the end, I thought we’d be able to keep the momentum up. Ultimately, it wasn’t the case there.”
Letarte then made the point that there is “no sim for that moment.” Drivers can practice on their respective manufacturer’s simulators in the weeks leading up to a race weekend and dial in the specifics of a race setup, but no amount of simulator time can prepare you for that final run to the finish and what moves to expect from other competitors also doing whatever they can to cross the line first.
“I think we came off of (Turn) 4 there and had his quarter-panel and were going to be able to switch the momentum around,” Buescher said. “When we got door-to-door there, that big hit turned us really sideways. It just killed our momentum there, as much as we thought we were going to be OK. The first (hit) didn’t help, but the second one right here is where it took all of our speed away.
“You know what, it was a good race. It’s a little bit easier to joke about now and certainly wasn’t in the moment, but we basically have a trophy for being the closest loser in NASCAR, so it’s not a good trophy to put up on the shelf.”
Watch the full clip below, and tune in Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FS1 as Buescher looks to get the real trophy — by finishing one spot higher.
Sure, he wants to one day race in the NASCAR Cup Series, but the Xfinity Series driver has another motivational aspect near and dear to his heart: to advocate to combat suicide and offer consolation to friends and families of suicide victims.
At 21, Dye is one of the youngest full-time drivers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but he’s a veteran racer, having started in late models when he was 14 years old.
Around that same time, Daniel and his father, Randy Dye, wanting to use their racing efforts as a platform to also do good and impact people’s lives in a positive fashion, became involved in an advocacy that eventually morphed into the Race to Stop Suicide.
That advocacy is especially important as May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
“Mental health wasn’t talked a lot about in the past, it was just suck it up and there wasn’t a whole lot of good talk about it for a while,” Daniel Dye said. “Now it’s recognized at this level and that it’s a real thing. Mental health is just as important as physical health.”
While Dye talks about suicide to people of all ages, he’s particularly intent on reaching young people who have contemplated suicide, as well as trying to help individuals who’ve lost family members or friends to suicide.
“Nobody really cares much about talking about suicide until it’s too late,” Dye said. “What sparks the conversation is usually only when somebody kills themselves.
“So we’re just trying to get ahead of it, use our platform for good and obviously the NASCAR platform. We try to be as helpful as possible and do as much in our community as we can.
“It’s a good opportunity to be good people, have an open heart, start a conversation and try to spread this like wildfire. We want to get people comfortable to reach out and just be willing to listen to anybody that might need to be listened to.”
Sadly, suicide has hit close to home for Dye. His cousin, Luke Dye, committed suicide in 2022 at the age of 23.
“There was no (warning) sign,” Daniel said. “You hear everybody say that, and it makes it so hard, but you never know. You don’t see it coming and then it’s just like boom. It’s so crazy that it could happen so quick.
“His death was devastating, especially since we had already started Race to Stop Suicide at that point. It was all over our race cars and we were talking about it, all these things, and then one of our own does it. We never saw it coming. It just shows how important it really is because it can be so invisible at times.
“That was the first time that somebody has done it that I’ve been close to. We come across a lot of people in the racing world and have heard a lot of stories about family members and friends of people in racing, fans, who’ve committed suicide. Now our platform has grown more than ever. I’ve been introduced to a lot of people that have a bunch of unique stories.”
According to Dye, NASCAR has been a strong supporter of him and the Race to Stop Suicide initiative.
“NASCAR has embraced it well,” Dye said. “It’s still a hard conversation to have. We’re not vulnerable people, we try and stick our chests out and be as cool as can be, cool, calm and collected, and the whole thing about racing and going as fast as we can.
“But it is being talked about more. I’ve talked to some drivers about situations they’ve been in with family and friends. Every team I’ve ever raced for has been all-in on and really cares about it, which has been super cool. I’ve talked to some officials about it who’ve come to me, as well.”
Daniel Dye dons a “Race to Stop Suicide” scheme in a 2024 Xfinity Series race. (Sean Gardner | Getty Images)
The Race to Stop Suicide initiative has been part of Dye’s racing efforts since his late model days. Every team he’s ever raced for, be it late models, trucks or in the Xfinity Series, has been very supportive of Dye and his father’s advocacy.
Since Dye joined Kaulig Racing, the organization has picked up the mantle from Dye’s previous teams and is a major supporter of Race to Stop Suicide, which is featured prominently on Dye’s No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
“(Conversations with family or friends who’ve lost someone to suicide) always seems to start out with ‘thank you’ and then whatever their situation was, my aunt or my stepdad or my father (committed suicide), things like that,” Dye said. “And then the conversation begins, ‘We had no idea. I wish I would have known and done anything to change it,’ things like that.
“Nobody cares until it’s too late, and then once they do care, then they’re all-in, they do everything they can. I recently met a lady whose nephew had committed suicide two years ago and she was talking about him to me. They had bracelets made about her nephew and who he was and to keep you reminded that there are people out there who care about you and how you feel and want to be there if you need something.
“The people who have been impacted by it do seem to care a whole lot and do what they can to start the conversation with people.”
A native of DeLand, Florida, only about 25 miles from Daytona International Speedway, Dye is in his first full season in the Xfinity Series, currently ranked 13th in the standings after the season’s first 12 races.
While he has yet to earn his first win in the Xfinity Series, it has been a good season for him thus far with five top-10 finishes (including a season-best finish of seventh at both Atlanta and Martinsville). Except for a crash on Lap 5 of the season-opening race at Daytona, Dye has completed all but two laps in the 11 subsequent races. His next race is May 24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Before this season, he drove full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2023 (finished 18th) and 2024 (finished 10th).
In addition to support from NASCAR, Dye is also thankful for the reception he’s received from fans.
“The fans have been a huge part of it,” he said. “They’ll stop me in the garage or on the way to driver intros or autograph sessions, whatever it may be.
“They’ve all taken it well. Nobody has said you’re doing a bad thing. That always makes you feel good. We’ve had some people reach out to us and say, ‘This actually made a difference in my life personally,’ and that makes you feel good.
“You never want anyone to go through something like that, but it does make you feel good that you’ve maybe changed somebody’s life.”
For more information about the Race to Stop Suicide, click here.There is also a YouTube series of videos: click here to watch.
When the NASCAR Cup Series came to Kansas Speedway last spring, it put on a finish that no one would soon forget.
Kyle Busch went for a spin with seven laps to go, negating Chris Buescher’s lead and shaping up for a batch of pit stops before NASCAR overtime. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who ran second at the time of the yellow, won the race off pit road and selected the bottom lane for the restart, lining up next to Buescher. But Hamlin didn’t get a good restart, allowing Kyle Larson to split him on the inside entering Turn 1, leaving Buescher and the Hendrick Motorsports driver to duke it out for the win.
Buescher led the white flag lap and held it through Turn 2, but Larson ran a higher groove that corner and had a run down the backstretch. Larson entered Turn 3 with clear momentum and Buescher slid up the track, evening the two out by the exit of Turn 4 and allowing Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. to enter the picture.
Darting toward the flag stand, Larson and Buescher slammed doors twice and crossed the start/finish line nearly even.
FOX Sports initially called Buescher the winner, leaving his RFK Racing team to celebrate. NASCAR officials immediately reviewed the footage, and before Buescher could start his burnout, Larson was declared the winner by 0.001 seconds — the closest finish in Cup Series history.
The shot that NASCAR officials used to declare Kyle Larson the winner at Kansas in 2024.
Besides it becoming one of the most iconic finishes of all time, Larson’s defeat of Buescher also created massive ramifications for the rest of the 2024 season. Buescher failed to make the playoffs, meaning had the roles been reversed at Kansas, he would’ve qualified for the 16-driver fight for the championship and later advanced to the Round of 12 as he won at Watkins Glen International in September.
As the Cup Series returns to Kansas this weekend a year later, relive the historic finish from every angle.
The first quarter of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season was an incredible one for Joe Gibbs Racing. After new arrival Chase Briscoe scored a fourth-place finish in the opener at Daytona International Speedway, Christopher Bell drove the No. 20 car to Victory Lane in each of the next three races. A few weeks later, Briscoe and Denny Hamlin both finished inside the top five at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and then Hamlin won back-to-back races at Martinsville Speedway and Darlington Raceway. Finally, JGR wrapped up the initial stretch of the calendar with all four drivers in the top eight at Bristol Motor Speedway: Hamlin second, Ty Gibbs third, Briscoe fourth and Bell eighth.
But as soon as the 2025 schedule turned from the first quarter to the second, the JGR drivers haven’t been as hot — at least, unless we mean literally, in the case of Hamlin’s No. 11 car bursting into flames last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. That led to a last-place finish for Hamlin, to go with Gibbs and Briscoe finishing outside the top 20, and it was on the heels of a Talladega race where none of the JGR cars finished any better than Briscoe at 15th. All of a sudden, the de facto co-best team of the first quarter — neck and neck with Hendrick Motorsports in my Adjusted Points+ index ratings (which rate every driver per race relative to a Cup average of 100) — has fallen among the worst of the three- or four-car teams to begin the second quarter:
The highs and lows of the 2025 season are unlike what we saw out of Gibbs a year ago, when each of their drivers finished at least 12 percent better than average (112 Pts+ or higher) per race in each of the first two quarters of the 2024 schedule, and the team as a whole was at least 50 percent above average in Quarters 1-2 of the year. In fact, in its entire 34-season history — stretching back to 1992 as a single-entry team with Dale Jarrett driving the Interstate Batteries No. 18 car — JGR has had only seven quarters with a below-average Pts+ index, and only one (Q1 of 2005) since 1995 as Tony Stewart’s elite start to that year was unable to cover for a mediocre early run by Bobby Labonte in the 18 and the many struggles of Jason Leffler, Terry Labonte and J.J. Yeley in the 11.
The good news for team Gibbs is the second quarter of 2025 (and beyond) is probably not going to end their streak of above-average performances by the time we reach midseason. This weekend at Kansas, a number of JGR drivers are projected among the highest Driver Ratings in the field, including Hamlin (third-best) and Bell (fifth-best), while Gibbs (13th-best) is predicted to be better than average. Briscoe (28th-best) may drag the average down as he carries a highly mediocre record at the track in his career — in eight starts, Briscoe has zero top 10s and an average finish of 21.5 — but the JGR group ought to be comfortably above average (81.4 projected Driver Rating) overall.
And it’s worth pointing out that, despite the rough stretch of finishes, the top-to-bottom quality of JGR’s drivers has been trending higher recently than earlier in the season. Here’s a race-by-race plot of each Gibbs driver’s rolling predicted Driver Rating at a “neutral” track, which tries to account for differences in driver talent at various track types (ovals, road courses, superspeedways, short tracks, etc.) to create an unbiased measure of overall skill:
Bell’s predicted performance has corrected some from the incredible highs he had during that early win streak, and Hamlin’s crash-and-burn at Texas hurt his rating some as well. However, Briscoe has been generally improving his expected performance as he’s logged more and more laps in the No. 19 car, to the point he now has the 15th-best average Driver Rating (76.6) of any Cup regular this season, which is on pace to surpass his previous career high of 71.5.
And maybe the most impressive thing that runs counter to JGR’s recent downturn in raw finishes is the ongoing improvement of Ty Gibbs in the No. 54 car. Gibbs had shown overall improvement last season, though he faded badly down the stretch. Then he began 2025 with a run of one top 20 (a 16th-place finish at Daytona) in his first six races. But ever since scoring a 13th-place finish at Martinsville, Gibbs has two top 10s, no finishes outside the top 25, an average finish of 13.0 and an 89.1 Driver Rating.
Obscured by the ups and downs of Bell and Hamlin, the improvements of Briscoe and Gibbs have caused JGR’s average predicted rating in the chart above to converge at a solid level of expected performance. There’s no doubt the Nos. 11 and 20 cars will be threats to win again, adding to their five combined wins in the early going — but it’s the steady ascent of the Nos. 19 and 54 that could ultimately raise the team’s floor and help reestablish it as the week-to-week juggernaut we saw earlier in the year after a rare hiccup in recent weeks.
1. Hendrick remains dominant, but surprises remain in store
The 2025 season has been filled with showings of strength — often usurped by shocking surprises. Don’t expect that to change on Sunday at Kansas.
Team Penske has won the past two races and Joe Gibbs Racing nearly had a pair of drivers each win three straight before we even hit May, but through the opening stretch of the 2025 season, Hendrick Motorsports has established itself, once again, as top dog in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The Chevrolet-backed team’s performance has been nothing short of historic, with a blend of raw speed and consistency that has set a new standard for excellence for an organization that somehow continues to raise the bar annually. Yet, as dominant as Hendrick has been, the season has delivered its share of late-race drama and hints that the championship battle is quite far from over.
Hendrick’s numbers are truly staggering, though.
The team has led 1,135 laps so far, more than 400 laps ahead of its nearest rival and the team’s highest total through 11 races since 2010. It has racked up a team-record 27 top-10 finishes to this point, and it’s fair to wonder if 100 is on the table. At least one Hendrick car has also finished in the top five in every race this year, a feat unmatched by any other team, and a current overall streak of 19 consecutive races with a top-five finisher is the third-longest in team history.
The driver stats are equally impressive: Kyle Larson tops the Cup Series with 596 laps led (and, for good measure, a series-best 440 in the Xfinity Series), while William Byron’s average finish of 8.91 is the best by a Hendrick driver at this stage since Jimmie Johnson in 2013. In fact, the top three drivers by average finish all hail from Hendrick, with Chase Elliott right off their pace (11.4).
Despite this dominance, however, unpredictability remains a hallmark of the season. We just saw what looked to be a Larson close-out win at Texas land in the hands of Penske’s Joey Logano, and in five of the 11 races, the final lead change came within the last two laps, underscoring how quickly fortunes can shift. While Hendrick’s consistency has set it apart, other teams and drivers constantly lurk, ready to capitalize on any slip.
Penske and Gibbs have each shown flashes of brilliance and it’s likely we see a mix of at least all three teams battling for the title down the line at Phoenix. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, a Championship 4 driver last year, continues to impress, while Bubba Wallace’s late-season surge in 2024 and a new crew chief have him shaping up to be a title contender this year — and both will be in heavy focus at Kansas this weekend.
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain is picking up a head of steam and RFK Racing is slowly putting the pieces together to compete for wins, too. Even Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch, as frustrating for him as his season has been at times this year, has the pedigree and hunger to challenge for his first Cup trophy in ages if his team can deliver weekly speed.
As the season continues to unfold, Hendrick is likely to remain the benchmark, but the late-race drama and the resilience of its rivals — of which there are many — ensure that surprises are never far away.
Logan Riely | Getty Images
2. Kansas Speedway: Where dominance disappears and chaos comes standard
The midwestern track has become a staple of excitement in the Next Gen era and it could perfectly encapsulate the overall themes of 2025 so far this weekend.
It’s probably fitting that there’s a casino on site at Kansas Speedway, a 1.5-mile trioval in the heartland of America that has suddenly emerged over the past handful of years as NASCAR’s premier wild-card track.
It’ll be in every bit of coverage this weekend so you aren’t going to need me to remind you, but look no further than last year’s running of this event in which we saw the literal closest finish ever.
But it wasn’t just that race — every trip to Kansas in recent memory feels like it has come down, agonizingly, to the wire, gluing us to our seats as cars cross the finish line glued to each other.
And the story feels fresh every time.
Command of the track is fleeting and chaos is apparently now just part of Kansas’ DNA in the Next Gen era — in the last six races, a different driver has taken the checkered flag every time, and only Kyle Larson has managed to win more than once in the last nine events. ( … and nearly didn’t, much to the chagrin of Chris Buescher.)
Even starting up front offers little shelter for drivers looking to establish anything resembling a solid grip on the track. Christopher Bell has scored three consecutive poles … which have led to exactly zero wins. Even the driver who wound up leading the most laps hasn’t sealed the deal in any of the last five Kansas races; the longest such streak in the track’s history.
Three of the last four races have featured a pass for the win in the final two laps, with two decided on the final circuit. Larson, of course, edged Buescher by just 0.001 seconds last spring, but that was after a whopping 37 lead changes; the most ever for a 400-mile event on a 1.5-mile track. Dizzying.
The unpredictability stretches beyond individual drivers, too. Ford, coming off wins the past two weekends, has just one victory in the last 11 Kansas races. Meanwhile, Toyota’s 23XI Racing has collected three of its eight career Cup Series victories here — all since 2021 — but is winless in 2025. Even Hendrick Motorsports, the all-time leader in Kansas wins, top fives, and top 10s, hasn’t been able to lock the place down like at other tracks. Chase Elliott holds the best average finish in the series there at 10.1, Alex Bowman has rattled off five straight top 10s, and William Byron finished runner-up last fall, but none have truly owned it.
Larson’s gotten the closest to being dominant there, but was a handful of inches away from only having a single win and also finished 26th with no laps led in last fall’s crucial playoff race. It was a rare miss; he’s landed in the top 10 in every 1.5-mile race so far this year, for context.
Dominance just doesn’t last at Kansas. It flickers, falters and disappears under pressure.
So, who gets to hold the hot potato next?
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
3. McDowell on Texas tumble: ‘You feel like such a schmuck’
The No. 71 Spire Motorsports driver joined Corey LaJoie’s “Stacking Pennies” podcast and broke down his late-race crash while battling for the win at Texas Motor Speedway.
4. Tracks on current schedule without a first-time winner
Josh Berry’s win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March was the track’s first first-time winner in its 35th race … but Kansas takes the cake. (Credit: Racing Insights)
Track
Races
Kansas
38
Miami
27
ROVAL
7
Nashville
4
Gateway
3
Iowa
1
5. Catch the pack — news and notes from around the garage
When Homestead-Miami Speedway plays host to the 2026 NASCAR Championship Weekend, it’ll have been more than 19 months since the Cup Series last raced on the 1.5-mile oval.
Because of that long layoff, it’s virtually assured there will be cars on track at Homestead well ahead of next year’s season finale.
During the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, managing director of racing communications Mike Forde said NASCAR and Goodyear officials already have discussed the likelihood of a tire test before the return of the championship race to the South Florida track for the first time since 2019.
Phoenix Raceway has been the championship site since 2020 and has two annual races, giving teams an in-season race preview of the title finale. But Homestead-Miami Speedway has one annual race, so the March 23 race earlier this season could have marked the last opportunity for teams to gather real-world data at the track until returning next November.
“As far as an organizational test where you have the entire Cup garage come, I’d be a little surprised if we did that,” Forde said. “Those organizational tests are so rare these days. But it is a very long layoff. You can almost guarantee an extended practice of at least 50 minutes Friday and maybe going super old school with 50 minutes Saturday morning into qualifying.”
Forde and co-host Amanda Ellis also revealed during the podcast that NASCAR will meet with Cup drivers Saturday at Kansas Speedway to discuss a variety of current issues while soliciting feedback. Among the items on the agenda: the inaugural Cup race in Mexico City next month; superspeedway rules package tweaks to rein in liftoff speeds; and future horsepower levels.
Other topics covered during the 13th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
How NASCAR is using new technology to review restarts (such as the late restart at Texas Motor Speedway in which Michael McDowell took the lead from Kyle Larson)
Clarifying why Chris Buescher was denied the free pass on a yellow flag at Texas
What the future holds for Texas Motor Speedway’s bumps and how NASCAR views the track’s surface after a treacherous race
Forde and Ellis are also joined by NASCAR senior vice president of content John Dahl for a discussion of NASCAR: Full Speed. The second season of the docuseries was released Wednesday on Netflix.
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.
The qualifying order below is determined via metric that combines the previous race finish by owner (70%) and current owner points position (30%). Qualifying will be one lap and just one round.
The Truck Series will take to the track for the Heart of Health Care 200 on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET (FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The NASCAR Cup Series makes its spring trip to Kansas Speedway this weekend, with qualifying set for Saturday at 5:40 p.m. ET on Prime Video. Qualifying will be one lap and one round.
“You guys are the first people I tell that I do this.”
William Byron allowed himself to share some vulnerability in the new season of Netflix’s “NASCAR: Full Speed,” which premiered on the streaming platform May 7.
The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet reveals in Episode 3 of the five-part docuseries that he regularly meets with a sports therapist, largely to find better balance between his high-intensity career behind the wheel and his day-to-day life outside the car.
“What made me want to do it is just I felt like I was a very quiet communicator and I didn’t say a lot,” Byron said. “And I felt like that was getting in the way of our success or potential success as a team. But then it transitioned to learning more about myself as a person, and so then I feel it took off.”
The 27-year-old native of Charlotte, North Carolina, admits: “I’m not a very open person, so I don’t let a lot of people in.”
With that came harboring the pressure of driving one of NASCAR’s most famous numbers for its powerhouse team. Jeff Gordon propelled Hendrick’s No. 24 into the mainstream world over the course of his legendary career, collecting four NASCAR Cup Series championships and 93 wins. Byron took claim of the number for the same team in 2018. And with Gordon now serving as the team’s vice chairman, there are immense expectations placed on Byron as he continues to find his own success.
But Byron has done just that: In February, he became the first back-to-back winner of the Daytona 500 since Denny Hamlin did so in 2019-20, adding to his current tally of 14 career Cup wins. He has advanced to the title-deciding Championship 4 round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs in each of the past two years and stands as the series’ points leader through 11 races in 2025.
“I feel like I’ve grown a lot off the track, and I feel like finding a balance in life in general helped me on the track because I was more driven,” Byron said.
That growth has fostered better mindsets for Byron as he has more readily equipped himself for high-pressure situations.
“How can I understand myself as a person?” Byron said. “I feel like that was something that I put off for a long time because I was just so focused on racing.”
Sharing such a personal journey is not second nature for Byron — whether with cameras or during his personal appointments.
“At first, it was really hard to tell her everything,” Byron said. “And sometimes, I feel like I don’t say as much as I should. And I’m like, dang it. I should have said this, right? Should have gone into more detail. But I just try to give her everything that’s on my mind.”
Minnesota isn’t exactly known as a hotbed for racing. No driver born in the North Star State has won a NASCAR national touring race.
William Sawalich is hoping to change that soon.
Sawalich, currently the wheelman of Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota in the Xfinity Series, is 18 years old. He grew up an avid Chase Elliott fan and still roots for him from afar.
“You’re almost a little disconnected from [racing] because you’re not in the South, and there is one pavement oval in Minnesota — Elko,” Sawalich said of starting his racing journey in Minnesota. “That’s where I grew up racing. If you wanted to go to a different track, you had to go to Wisconsin. Minnesota is a little bit of a dry spot for racing, in general, but you can still be the fan you wanted to be in North Carolina.”
It was less than a decade ago that Sawalich began racing competitively. His parents, Brandon Sawalich, president of Starkey Hearing Technologies, and Stacy Sawalich, purchased a quarter midget for him. He quickly transitioned to Legends cars, where his passion for racing grew exponentially. He moved to North Carolina in 2021 to run late models before transitioning to NASCAR.
Once Sawalich moved south, he was paired with 20-time NASCAR national touring series winner Dennis Setzer and his Setzer Racing and Development program. The youngster credits the Setzers with a big part of his development.
“[The Setzers] started me off in late models, and late models were an important part of my career,” Sawalich said. “I can’t thank them enough for basically teaching me how to race.”
The feelings are mutual from the Setzers; Sawalich was the program’s inaugural driver.
“From his first time in the car, he showed incredible speed at just 14 years old,” Brandon Setzer, crew chief and driver coach at Setzer Racing and Development, said. “Speed came naturally for him, and he was always open to advice on how to be better. He worked very hard at his race craft to perfect making passes and racing side by side. Our entire team loved working with him as a driver and friend. We’re all so proud of how far he has gone so far, and we know this is just the beginning for him.”
Entering the Toyota pipeline with JGR, Sawalich dominated his stint in the ARCA Menards Series. To date, he’s won nearly 43% of his ARCA starts, spanning all three divisions, clinching consecutive ARCA East championships in 2023 and 2024. Immediate success led to starts in the Craftsman Truck Series upon turning 16 years old, where he scored a top 10 in his series debut at Martinsville Speedway in 2023.
“I thought it was pretty important just to get the ball rolling as soon as possible, so you’re not waiting too long and wondering what a truck feels like and what an Xfinity car feels like,” Sawalich added. “Getting in those as soon as possible helped the learning curve.”
Since moving to the national touring scene, however, success has been limited. Soon after turning 18, Sawalich jumped in an Xfinity car for the final three races of the 2024 season, winning the pole in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway. Those three races were vital, as he signed a full-time deal with JGR for 2025.
Management at JGR knew Sawalich had raw pace. They also knew he needed to continue learning. Through 12 starts in 2025, he has a pair of top-10 finishes and sits 25th in the regular-season standings. The No. 18 team, led by veteran crew chief Jeff Meendering, had a recent seven-race stretch of finishing outside the top 20, with four of those being 34th or worse. He tallied 54 points total across those seven aces.
“I think when we saw some things on the ARCA side early on, he was fast,” Steve deSouza, executive vice president of Xfinity Series and development for JGR, told NASCAR.com in March. “He has a work ethic that’s good for his age, wise beyond his years maturity-wise and he has the desire.
“He wants to do well. He doesn’t just want to be known as a driver, he wants to get in there and perform. He’s disappointed when that doesn’t happen, and you like to see that type of streak in a driver. They want to win, and when they don’t win, they get frustrated. It’s a tough time when you go through that, but everybody goes through those periods. I think once he comes out the other side of that, he’s going to continue to grow and get better.”
Admittedly, Sawalich is unaware as to why he jumped into the deep end of the Xfinity Series immediately. But he hoped to stay within the JGR family, and an opportunity arose.
Along with chasing an Xfinity playoff berth, Sawalich is getting additional seat time by making select starts in ARCA and the Craftsman Truck Series. The No. 18 Toyota has shown glimpses of speed through the first three months, but multiple mistakes have cost him considerably.
“I definitely want to get a win,” Sawalich said. “I know this team is capable of a win. That’s my only expectation. Right now, we’re trying to get as many points as possible and try to set ourselves up for success.”
Sawalich hopes the results improve as his rookie campaign rolls on, knowing that he’s ascended from Legends cars to the Xfinity Series in five years.
