The NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, results and more.
Odds and projections say these winless drivers have the best shot at winning — if they make it through the wreckage.
For NASCAR drivers seeking a checkered flag, there are a lot more reliable places to go looking than Talladega. As we found in our research last year, fellow superspeedway Daytona was the only regular Cup Series track where the pre-race favorite tended to finish lower on average — and only Daytona and New Hampshire produced winners with a lower average placement in the pre-race driver rankings.
Simply put, Talladega is no place to be counting on predictable outcomes.
But still, you gotta get out there anyway and ride the draft at 190 mph, hoping for the best and trying to avoid the worst. And that’s especially the case if a driver hasn’t won yet this season. Although it feels like the 2025 schedule just started, the regular season will be halfway over in just a few races’ time. So the clock is ticking to get that first win and punch a ticket to the playoffs.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at which winless drivers are in the best position to leave that club on Sunday … provided they survive the chaos that is sure to come. First, here’s a plot of the leading favorites at Talladega, based on a combination of their win probabilities — implied from DraftKings’ odds (as of Tuesday) — and their projected Driver Ratings, according to my predictive rankings (based on recent performance at ‘Dega and similar tracks):
So, which winless drivers have the best shot at getting that breakthrough win this weekend? Based on pre-race betting odds and track-specific performance, here are the top names to watch with a realistic shot to leave Alabama with their first trophy of 2025:
1. Ryan Blaney
Odds to win: +1000 (implied chance: 6.2%) Projected Driver Rating: 91.4 Talladega career stats: 21 starts, 3 wins, 6 top fives, 15.9 avg. finish
After a bit of a rough March — with an average finish of 25.8 in five races — April has been kinder to Blaney as the No. 12 Team Penske car has finished fifth in consecutive races. Perhaps just as importantly, Blaney has finished three consecutive races without incident after posting a DNF in three of his first six races this season. Now he goes to a track where he’s had plenty of success; he’s one of just three active three-time winners at Talladega and is usually a good bet to contend here, whether it’s the spring race or in the fall. Blaney is due for a W anyway; his 97.5 average Driver Rating this season ranks second in Cup behind only William Byron, and he and Tyler Reddick are the only members in the top six by that metric to have not won yet.
2. (tie) Joey Logano
Odds to win: +1100 (implied chance: 5.7%) Projected Driver Rating: 86.1 Talladega career stats: 32 starts, 3 wins, 9 top fives, 18.9 avg. finish
Another member of the three-time winner’s club at Talladega, Logano is nonetheless looking for better consistency — both here and overall in 2025. The defending Cup champion has just a single top-10 finish (at Martinsville) and is coming off a 24th-place finish with a 54.0 Driver Rating at Bristol two weeks ago. Despite his history of wins at Talladega, he’s finished better than 19th here just once in his past nine races. Still, he drove better in a few of those races than his finishes gave him credit for, and he has long been very strong at superspeedways overall. Logano ranks No. 7 in average Driver Rating this season (86.0), just outside that group we mentioned above that either has won or really should have won, so far.
2. (tie) Kyle Busch
Odds to win: +1100 (implied chance: 5.7%) Projected Driver Rating: 85.8 Talladega career stats: 39 starts, 2 wins, 8 top fives, 20.2 avg. finish
Busch has been all over the place to start 2025, following an early stretch of three straight top 10s with back-to-back finishes outside the top 20, then sandwiching a couple of mid-teens finishes around a top 10 at Darlington. Though he has driven well enough to win a few times, Busch is currently riding a 66-race winless streak — uncharacteristic for a guy who set a Cup Series record for consecutive seasons with at least one win (19). But the second-most recent win of his career did come at Talladega in the 2023 spring race. (Granted, that was the only time he finished better than 19th here in the past five races.) And even when things go sideways for him in the end at ‘Dega, Busch is usually coming off a solid performance on the day, so there’s no reason to think that won’t be the case again this weekend.
4. Austin Cindric
Odds to win: +1600 (implied chance: 4.0%) Projected Driver Rating: 93.0 Talladega career stats: 6 starts, 0 wins, 1 top five, 19.3 avg. finish
Cindric isn’t quite as high in the betting odds as some of the other drivers on this list, but he has the highest projected Driver Rating (93.0) of anyone in the field on Sunday. Why’s that? Cindric just always seems to be a factor at the superspeedways. In addition to posting a rating of 91.6 or higher in each of his past three outings at Talladega, he also had back-to-back ratings of 94.8 or higher at Daytona, and his rating has been in triple-digits in three of his past four races at Atlanta. Overall, there may not be a better driver in Cup at tracks where the draft plays a major factor, and that makes Cindric a good pick to be in the mix late for what would be his first career win in the state of Alabama.
5. Chase Elliott
Odds to win: +1600 (implied chance: 4.0%) Projected Driver Rating: 83.9 Talladega career stats: 18 starts, 2 wins, 5 top fives, 14.6 avg. finish
Elliott is a fascinating candidate for this list as he is a multi-time winner at Talladega and has been Mr. Consistency overall in 2025. His average finish of 11.6 ranks fourth-best among regular drivers this season, trailing only William Byron (9.1), Denny Hamlin (9.7) and Christopher Bell (9.8). And yet, he has won in just one of his last 79 starts, and his performance at Talladega — or superspeedways in general — has been on the decline over the past few seasons. Since the start of 2023, Elliott has an average Driver Rating of 83.1 (merely decent, not great) at ‘Dega and 80.8 at all “restrictor plate” tracks, after sitting at 94.7 in the preceding four seasons. Then again, it’s also worth noting that Elliott’s 29th-place finish here last fall snapped a streak of five straight finishes of 15th or better at Talladega, including a win late in 2022. So it’s anybody’s guess whether that two-time winning form will show up on Sunday or not.
6. Brad Keselowski
Odds to win: +1200 (implied chance: 5.3%) Projected Driver Rating: 76.1 Talladega career stats: 32 starts, 6 wins, 12 top fives, 15.0 avg. finish
Speaking of fascinating wild-card drivers to watch, there’s the case of Brad K. On the positive side, he is by far the winningest active driver at Talladega in his career, with double the victories of the next-highest-ranked rivals. On the negative side, Keselowski is still searching for better results in what has been the worst season of his career so far by a variety of different metrics. Let’s put it this way: things have gotten so dire that a 16th-place finish at Bristol two weeks ago was considered a massive improvement after three straight races outside the top 25. For this reason, it’s tough to know exactly what to expect from the No. 6 car in this weekend’s race. The Cup Series has only run two other drafting-style races so far this year — Keselowski posted a below-average Driver Rating in both — but he has consistently been one of the better plate-track performers in a much larger sample size over the previous five years. He deserves a look among the favorites here.
7. (tie) Tyler Reddick
Odds to win: +1600 (implied chance: 4.0%) Projected Driver Rating: 76.5 Talladega career stats: 10 starts, 1 win, 1 top five, 19.3 avg. finish
Like Blaney, Reddick’s overall performance this season — he ranks fourth among regular drivers with an average Driver Rating of 96.2, including four races of 98.8 or higher — is screaming out for a win sooner or later. Will Talladega be the place, though? Well, he has won here before, taking the checkered flag almost exactly a year ago, and he escaped the late carnage to finish second at Daytona in February. However, Reddick is not known as a superspeedway specialist by any means; his career average Driver Rating at Talladega is a subpar 68.6, and his number across all tracks of the type is only barely average (71.3). Reddick’s win here last season was the only time in the past seven races he finished better than 16th at Talladega, a stretch that included four finishes of 20th or worse and a couple of 39th-place runs.
7. (tie) Bubba Wallace
Odds to win: +2000 (implied chance: 3.3%) Projected Driver Rating: 80.5
Talladega career stats: 14 starts, 1 win, 1 top five, 20.4 avg. finish
As the site of half of Bubba’s career victories, it makes sense that Talladega would stand out as a track with the potential to earn him another this weekend — and end an 88-race winless drought. Wallace is another one who always seems to be squarely in the mix at superspeedways. Since 2020, his average Driver Rating on those tracks (79.6) ranks ninth among regular drivers, trailing only the usual suspects you’d expect (mostly the guys on this list already, plus some ‘25 winners in William Byron and Denny Hamlin). Anybody with that knack for being in the right place at the right time can win at a track like Talladega, though last fall’s top-10 showing snapped a stretch of three straight finishes of 23rd or worse for Wallace here.
1. Are we already looking at the 2025 Championship 4?
The Cup Series has seen a “Big 4” win eight of the season’s nine races. Is it too early to pencil them in as this year’s Championship 4?
Ask any diehard NASCAR fan what they remember about the 2018 Cup Series season and you’re bound to get a whole lot of answers mentioning “The Big 3 and Me” — referring to Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr., who dominated all year, before Joey Logano bested them in the finale to win the damn war and take home his first career title.
The fearsome foursome combined to win 23 races that year, including 12 of the first 14. That is … pretty ridiculous.
Of course, this was pre-Next Gen, when the degree of parity throughout the field was a bit less evident, so surely a repeat of that dominance by a select handful of drivers is a thing of the past, right?
Wrong. So very, very wrong.
We’re seeing a similar trend play out in 2025, with this year’s version featuring Christopher Bell, William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson thus far only allowing one other driver (Josh Berry at Las Vegas) to claim victory. The season’s five winners through nine races is the fewest the sport has seen since just four did it in 1992 (Davey Allison, Bill Elliott, Alan Kulwicki, Mark Martin).
It’s never a foregone conclusion who’ll be racing for the Bill France Cup until the checkered flag falls in October at Martinsville (and sometimes even a little bit later than that), but we sort of knew what the Championship 4 was shaping up to be in 2018 before we even hit the All-Star Race. It’s hard not to feel the same way with what we’ve already experienced in 2025 — right now, you’d absolutely pencil in these four drivers to compete for the title come November.
Byron leads the series in points, thanks in part to a season-opening win in the Daytona 500 — a rare, successful defense of a “Great American Race” crown — and a series-best average finish of 9.1. That alone is championship material, but Byron’s superspeedway prowess takes it to another level and merits mentioning with Talladega on deck. In the Next Gen era, Byron has four drafting-track wins and more points on those tracks than anyone else since the start of last year. Byron has evolved into a true superstar, executing like a veteran title contender — smart, steady and opportunistic.
Bell is also no stranger to the Championship 4, but he’s taken a major leap in 2025 and has clearly “arrived.” His three consecutive wins — including Joe Gibbs Racing’s first superspeedway victory in the Next Gen era — propelled him to early championship-favorite status, and he briefly appeared to be in a class of his own. He might still be.
At 42, Hamlin continues to rebuke Father Time as the only driver to finish on the lead lap in all nine races — winning two of them. He’s fresh off a Darlington win earlier this month and riding a three-race streak of top-two finishes — the first time he’s done that since 2020. He’s been in the mix at nearly every kind of track, collecting valuable playoff points and avoiding the sort of mistakes he’s often been knocked for in the past. If he and the revamped No. 11 team continue to keep it clean, his experience could make him stand out above the other three come crunch time.
And of course there is our most recent victor in Larson — he’s as fast as heck, and arguably a more complete driver than ever before, phantom spins be damned. The 2021 champ has led 503 laps already, far more than anyone else, and has won twice. The big shift? His performance on drafting tracks. For years, superspeedways were Larson’s Achilles’ heel, but he’s had top fives in two of the last three and nearly stole Atlanta from Bell in a photo finish. That’s a game-changer, and Talladega looming in the Round of 8 doesn’t feel as big of a threat to his championship chances as it once did.
The bigger picture is this: these four drivers aren’t just the best in 2025 — they’re becoming the only reliable picks in a season full of unpredictability and head-scratching slow starters (reigning champ Logano included). They’re consistent where others aren’t. Fast where others fade. And they’re smart enough to survive chaotic races while still collecting playoff points in bulk, which could provide just the cushion necessary to propel them to Phoenix several months from now.
Unless something dramatic changes, the road to the Bill France Cup runs directly through these four garages. Whether it’s Byron’s balance, Bell’s breakout, Larson’s all-around power, or Hamlin’s hunger — this might be the Championship 4 in waiting.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
2. Will regular-season winners hit double digits?
Will the aforementioned “Big 4” leave any elbow room for others to dine on the spoils of victory, or are we going to see several drivers rely on points to get into the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs?
You see four drivers win eight of the first nine races and, well, it stands to reason that they’re probably going to win a whole bunch of the rest of the races, too.
With 17 contests remaining before the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs lock in its 16-driver field, how many new winners are we actually going to see?
Given what we’ve witnessed so far, with three of them already hitting for multiple wins and Byron, the lone driver among them with just one, running arguably the best of the bunch, it feels like a safe assumption that at least two more victories are coming for each of them by the time we return to Darlington.
That’s eight wins right there, leaving just nine more for potential new winners. If that were to happen, that would bring us to 14 total victors and likely two drivers relying on points for their playoff berths. For context, the 2018 season mentioned above didn’t experience its ninth driver (Kurt Busch) celebrating a win until Race 24, with the 10th and final regular-season victor (Brad Keselowski) claiming the last two.
A case can be made that these four drivers are off to an even more dominant start than the Class of ’18 was, too. Harvick led the bunch with seven wins at that point, with Busch tallying six, Truex four and Logano just one. That’s 18 total, and the current quick quartet, thus far, is on pace for about 23.
We’ve typically seen regular-season winners total in the 13-to-14 range in this playoff format, rising to a high of 16 in 2022, so we’d be bucking the trend in a big way. So, will we get to 10? It’s possible — but the path is narrower than usual.
Consider the usual suspects still searching for a win: Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, even Kyle Busch. All playoff staples.
Elliott has five top 10s but hasn’t looked as dominant as his Hendrick teammates. Blaney has led races but hasn’t been able to finish the job for a multitude of reasons, though often not of his own doing. Reddick came close at Daytona and remains a driver to watch, particularly at road courses. Logano, the defending champion, has led 260 laps yet has zero top-fives to show for it. These are all superstars, but they are displaying nowhere near the consistency of the 2025 elite. Still, it’s likely that at least three or four of those five drivers will win a race. Getting closer.
Then there are the long shots, who certainly come into play this weekend down in Alabama. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — last fall’s Talladega winner — is always dangerous on drafting tracks. Ross Chastain has found rhythm again with three straight top 10s. Bubba Wallace is having his best start to a year ever and Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece and AJ Allmendinger all continue to quietly run well.
But every week, the “Big 4” keep asserting control. Their consistency is suffocating.
What might change the math is schedule diversity in the coming months, which could produce surprises. If not, we might cruise into the playoffs with a throwback stat line — a year where eight or nine winners through the first 26 races is all we get.
And what happens if that’s the case? It doesn’t break the playoff format a bit; it instead reemphasizes the importance of consistency. It could also create the most dramatic last few weeks of the regular season to date, where point accumulation among bubble drivers suddenly matters more than striving for an opportunistic win.
Will we hit double digits? The answer might depend less on who’s ready to break through — and more on whether the “Big 4” ever cool off.
And believe it or not, they might just be warming up.
Change is in the air in the Non-cents Garage. Get front-tire changer Skip Flores’ thoughts as he heads to the No. 38 of Zane Smith after two years — and a championship — with Ryan Blaney.
4. Right back at it — drivers to win after a bye week
Some drivers were ready for a break, while some others likely wanted to keep their hot streaks rolling. Either way, here’s who has historically won after a week off for the Cup Series among active drivers. (Credit: Racing Insights)
Driver
Wins
Kyle Busch
7
Denny Hamlin
2
Brad Keselowski
2
Chase Elliott
2
Joey Logano
1
Austin Dillon
1
Kyle Larson
1
Erik Jones
1
Ross Chastain
1
5. Catch the pack — news and notes from around the garage
On Wednesday, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel upheld the disqualification penalty issued to the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing team after Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Rockingham Speedway.
Driver Jesse Love was first to the checkered flag in the North Carolina Education Lottery 250, but during post-race inspection, his No. 2 Chevrolet was found in violation of Section 14.14.2.I-5.h in the NASCAR Rule Book, which states: “Spacers/pinion angle shims must have single planar mating surfaces. All mating surfaces between the truck trailing arm and the U-bolt saddle must be in complete contact with each other.”
The three-person panel’s ruling upholds the penalty, which relegated Love to a 37th-place finish and a singular point earned for the event instead of the 45 points he would have otherwise received. Their decision also confirms Sammy Smith and the No. 8 JR Motorsports team as the race winner after their Chevrolet cleared post-race inspection without issue.
In denying RCR’s appeal, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel stated: “The panel finds that it is more likely than not that there was a violation of 14.14.2 Rear Suspension, I-5.H. The panel was unable to determine whether the violation was intentional or unintentional. The panel finds that the mating surfaces between the truck trailing arm and the U-bolt saddle were not in contact with each other.”
The ruling of the panel is final with no further appeals available because the hearing was an expedited appeal of a disqualification.
The three-member panel was comprised of Bill Mullis, Hunter Nickell and Steve York.
Spire Motorsports made a crew chief change for its No. 7 Chevrolet team, announcing Wednesday that veteran Rodney Childers and the team agreed to mutually part ways during the off-week break.
The team revealed on Thursday that Ryan Sparks will be Justin Haley’s new crew chief, adding to his regular role as competition director. The move comes as the NASCAR Cup Series is set to resume this weekend with Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM) at Talladega Superspeedway.
Childers joined the Spire organization in the offseason after 11 years at Stewart-Haas Racing, which folded at the end of the 2024 season. Spire signed him last July with a multiyear deal, and he began this year working with Haley.
He offered a statement of his own later that afternoon.
“I know this is a shock. But also know that not everything works out perfect all the time. That’s how life works,” Childers said in a note posted to social media. “This was just one of those things that just wasn’t working for either of us. I appreciate my time at Spire, working with JH and the entire 7 team. We did a lot of good that is yet to be seen, and I wish them the best in the future. Also want to say thank you to everyone at Chevrolet, Mr. (Rick Hendrick) and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports for my time working with them again. It was a pleasure. Thank you to (NASCAR), the officials, and most importantly the fans for your support. For me, I’m going to take a little time. Focus on the important things like my family and friends. And honestly just see what the racing world holds for me next. I know the man above will lead me in a direction that is best for me.”
Haley ranks 23rd in the Cup Series standings. His lone top-10 finish through nine races this season was 10th last month at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Childers has 40 Cup Series wins, with all but three of those coming while paired with Kevin Harvick, who retired from competition after the 2023 season. Harvick and Childers combined to capture the 2014 Cup Series championship in their first year together at Stewart-Haas.
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to racing action this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, with qualifying set for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET on Prime Video.
Superspeedway qualifying procedures are in effect, with only one round of qualifying and one lap each and will be the only time cars will hit the track before Saturday’s race (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Forty-one drivers are vying for 38 spots, meaning three cars will fail to qualify for the 113-lap event.
The qualifying order below is determined via metric that combines the previous race finish by owner (70%) and current owner points position (30%).
# denotes series rookie
(i) denotes ineligible for driver points
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Brandon Ward proved one turn can change everything at Bowman Gray Stadium after he pulled a classic, last-lap bump-and-run on Burt Myers to win the season-opening Hayes Jewelers 200 on Saturday, April 19.
It was Ward’s first Hayes Jewelers 200 win, and 13th at the track. Myers led 198 of the race’s 204 laps, while Ward led just five laps. Both drivers chalked up the contact to typical short track action.
On Saturday, April 26, the Brad’s Golf Car’s Modified Series is back in action with the Twin 25s, along with the always-exciting Chain Race, to bring the house down.
Fans can buy tickets online and find parking information at www.bowmangrayracing.com. Adult tickets are $12 and kids ages 6-11 get in for $2.
Young’s Motorsports’ Anthony Alfredo has been around the block a few times. Throughout his seven-year NASCAR career, he’s never been with the same team for consecutive seasons.
The closest was last year, when he returned to Our Motorsports for a second time after a one-year stopgap with BJ McLeod Motorsports in 2023. Alfredo put in some of his best work with the team in 2024, earning seven top-10 finishes and finishing 15th in the championship standings. The highlight was winning the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus at Dover Motor Speedway.
“I’ve driven a lot of different equipment, worked with a lot of people and that’s made me more well-rounded as far as my ability to adapt to different equipment, but also the communication, chemistry and building relationships with a lot of people,” Alfredo said of his ability to click with different teams. “I think something unique about it is I got to drive some competitive equipment early in my career, part time. Not many people have been on both sides of the fence.”
For the 2025 Xfinity Series season, Tyler Young, owner of Young’s Motorsports, was looking for an experienced driver to help develop his program. After running older chassis from the now-defunct Brandonbilt Motorsports last year with rookie driver Leland Honeyman Jr., the No. 42 team bought out the remaining Cup Series inventory from Chip Ganassi Racing and committed to leasing ECR engines for the full season.
Alfredo was a natural fit.
“It’s funny when someone like that calls you and says they want a guy with experience because I’m still only 26 years old,” Alfredo said. “Because I’ve driven for all these different teams and been in all these different environments, I’ve learned a lot for being a young driver. I think there’s a value there, and I appreciate him acknowledging that and giving me the opportunity.”
What swayed Alfredo to Young’s was the grit of the team that has fielded Craftsman Truck Series entries for more than a decade. He knew success might not be immediate, but playing the long game was important.
Through the opening 10 races, Alfredo has had a mixed bag of results. He has a trio of DNFs, getting caught up in crashes in the first two races of the season while experiencing engine woes at Martinsville Speedway. The No. 42 team is trending in the right direction with four top-20 finishes, plus consecutive 15th-place outings, in the last six races.
“It’s a game changer,” Andrew Abbott, crew chief of the No. 42 Chevrolet, said about bringing in an experienced driver. “I worked with Jeremy Clements, who is the same way. They can get a lot more out of a car because they’ve done it for so long.
“We’ve had a lot of speed. We just haven’t had great luck.”
To be so close to triumph in the past and knowing the investment the No. 42 team made over the offseason, Alfredo won’t sugarcoat his goals. He intends to win a race and make the postseason for the first time.
“I talk a lot, but I’m keeping that answer short,” Alfredo said. “I’ve done this enough times of starting over with new teams that it used to be overwhelming. Now, I’ve learned what I need to do as a team player to make that transition more seamless for myself and everyone else. I have a lot more experience now, and I’ve proven to myself that I can run up front, lead laps, especially in superspeedway races. I have as good of a shot as anyone else.”
Alfredo’s rebuilding with a new team each season has been a daunting task. But he also knows that if he excels, it can lead to greater opportunities.
“More than anybody, I want to build a home somewhere; that’s what I talk to every team about,” Alfredo said. “Unfortunately, I think one of the challenges of running so well with a smaller team is a lot of people come knocking on the door with a little more than you’ve got in your pocket.
“I’ve raced against Austin Hill in the Xfinity Series, and he’s been in the [No.] 21 car for the last four years, and I’ve been in four different cars. You think about the challenge to keep up with someone like that who is with a top-tier organization. But to go run the way that I do in all of these different environments, I think I’ve proved that no matter whose car I’m in, I’m going to be a threat. That’s given me confidence.”
Of the 60 laps Alfredo has led at the Xfinity level, 75% have come on superspeedways. His next chance comes this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. He will be pulling double duty, also driving the No. 62 car for Beard Motorsports in the Cup Series race. He had a splendid sixth-place finish in the spring Cup race last year at Talladega.
“I’ve also got these Cup races scheduled, and I feel like I’ve got as good of a shot as anybody in these because of the effort Beard Motorsports has put forward,” Alfredo said. “Winning a Cup race, let alone an Xfinity race, could both be career-defining for me.”
The quality of racing at Bristol Motor Speedway and in the Cup Series recently on short tracks was a topic on the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast.
After leading 462 of 500 laps in a victory last September, Kyle Larson led 411 laps in his April 13 victory at Bristol. NASCAR managing director of communications Mike Forde said chief racing development officer John Probst had commissioned the engineers in the competition department to evaluate possible short-track tweaks after Larson’s most recent victory.
“Nothing concrete or specific to talk about just yet, but (Probst) said look at every lever that you could possibly pull and pull them,” Forde said. “To be clear, ‘NASCAR is aware and is working on it’ is really the message to be delivered out of that one race, which was not a great watch. … When you have (the winner) lead 411 laps, that is something to talk about.”
Forde said NASCAR has no aerodynamic or tire tests planned yet for short tracks. Two years ago in a Richmond Raceway test, NASCAR experimented with removing the diffuser on the Next Gen car.
“They didn’t really change much from an aerodynamic perspective, but also it was a test,” Forde said. “So who knows how hard those (test drivers) were going. They don’t want to wreck their test car. There’s nothing on the line. But we test for a reason to get those data points, and the data points for removing the diffuser really weren’t that super promising. So there’s work being done, and hopefully there will be more to come.”
The lack of tire wear emerged as a concern at Bristol. NASCAR and Goodyear officials meet every Tuesday morning, and Forde said “nothing specific came out of that meeting” after Bristol. Goodyear held a short-track tire test at Bristol last year after the March 17, 2024 race produced heavy falloff that necessitated a much shorter pit window.
“We made some tweaks and then had a Kyle Larson-dominant race in the fall,” Forde said. “Goodyear is kind of figuring out their plans for what we need to do.”
Other topics covered during the 11th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— The disqualification of Jesse Love’s Xfinity Series victory at Rockingham Speedway and why NASCAR decided six years ago to change a longstanding policy and begin stripping victories with inspections immediately after the race.
— Explaining the disqualification for Justin Bonsignore for missing four lug nuts after crashing during the Xfinity race.
— The unveiling of a new format for the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway that will feature the debut of “promoter’s cautions.”
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.
