Coming to three laps to go in Stage 1 of the NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenger opener at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, a multicar wreck turned many brackets upside down as favorites Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney were taken out of contention in Saturday night’s 400-miler.
In Turn 4, Bell’s No. 20 Toyota got sideways after contact with Kyle Larson. Then, Bubba Wallace crashed into the spinning Bell.
Blaney got turned hard into the outside wall when Austin Dillon spun and clipped the No. 12 Ford driver’s right rear.
“As usual for this year, got caught up in someone else’s mess,” Blaney said after being clear from the infield care center. “I got to the apron and there was really nowhere else for me to go but the apron. I tried to get there and get clear of it, but they kind of came down and got me in the right-rear and I ended up in the fence. There was no missing that one.”
The multicar wreck caused a shake-up in the In-Season Challenge, with No. 29 seed Ricky Stenhouse Jr. advancing to Round 2 over Bell and No. 26 seed Carson Hocevar ahead of Blaney in their head-to-head matchup.
Chase Elliott went on to win the Cup Series race at EchoPark Speedway.
Can’t wait any longer to go Inside the Race following each NASCAR Cup Series event?
Visit our NASCAR YouTube page Sunday, June 29, at 10 a.m. ET to get a live breakdown and analysis from veteran crew chief and broadcaster Steve Letarte, alongside additional co-hosts and reporters from the track.
Sunday’s show will analyze Saturday night’s race at EchoPark Speedway (formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway). Analyst and championship-winning crew chief Todd Gordon will join Letarte to dissect the winning and losing moves, plus other top story lines. Kyle Petty and Cup Series driver Todd Gilliland will join as well.
Bookmark the stream below or just come back to this page to watch live on Sunday at 10 a.m. ET.
LAKEVILLE, Conn. — The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ first visit to historic Lime Rock Park ended with more drama than the stat sheet might show. Corey Heim led 99 of the 100 laps to win with dominating flair for the fifth time this year, but a final restart upended the outcome for several other podium contenders.
The last green flag of Saturday’s LiUNA! 150 touched off first-turn bedlam at the 1.487-mile road course, with the narrow, right-hand sweeper running out of room in a hurry at the end of the long Sam Posey Straight. The intensity opened doors for Ty Majeski and Gio Ruggiero behind Heim, while a handful of other competitors found dust clouds and hard feelings.
Few took it as hard as Layne Riggs, who pressed hard alongside Heim’s No. 11 Toyota in a last-ditch effort to take command, but wound up washing wide through the corner with tires smoking on his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford.
“I just kind of overcooked the corner,” said Riggs, who ran second for most of the day but dipped to 13th in the final rundown. “I had my braking point for restarts, and I just didn’t really take into factor that we had used tires on as much as I needed to and just overcooked it. So I’m just really disappointed right now. I’m beating myself up and just feel like we deserved at least a second-place finish. The 11 was kind of toying with us all day. They were really, really good, so congrats to them. They deserve that win. But I’m just mad that I wasn’t able to finish second like we deserved to.”
Behind Riggs’ slide-out into the trackside grass was further chaos, set up after Matt Mills’ off-course excursion that brought out the final yellow flag with 11 laps left. IMSA talent Jordan Taylor, making his first NASCAR venture in nearly two years with Spire Motorsports, bulled into Turn 1 with his No. 7 Chevrolet sliding out of control, collecting others as he pinballed in. The miscue cost him a likely top-five result and dropped him to 20th in the 34-truck field.
Heim wasn’t the only one to scoot free. Defending series champ Majeski landed his best finish of the season in second place, and crew chief Joe Shear Jr. shared a laugh with officials post-race at his No. 98 ThorSport Racing team’s good fortune to miss the melee.
“We were probably gonna finish third or fourth if that last caution didn’t come out, and (Riggs) overshot Turn 1 a little bit,” Majeski said. “And yeah, we ended up getting a couple spots out of that last caution, so yeah, they parted, but we had a good run. So, proud of the effort for our 98 Soda Sense Ford F-150 and needed some momentum like this headed into these last few races before the playoffs.”
When Majeski emerged from his truck on pit road post-race, Ruggiero was there to greet him with a fist bump after coming home third in his No. 17 Tricon Garage Toyota. Ruggiero said his choice of the inside lane for the restart ended up being the right call. “Just had to stay out of the mess,” the 20-year-old rookie said, noting how Heim — his Tricon teammate — seemed uncatchable.
“I knew it was going to be bad going into (turn) one, so I just tried to stay out of it,” Ruggiero said. “Came out in third out of (turn) two, and just had a decent truck today. Just didn’t have a lot of track position. It was super hard to pass the whole race, but there at the end, I definitely had enough speed to hang with the 98 (Majeski) and the 11 (Heim), but I don’t think anybody had anything for that 11 all day.”
One of the hardest hit by Taylor’s skid into Turn 1 was Connor Mosack, who lined up third for the final restart and ran most of the day in the top five. A season-best finish seemed likely, right on the heels of a respectable sixth the previous weekend at Pocono, but his No. 81 McAnally Hilgemann Racing Chevy ended with a mangled front end and a 16th-place result.
“It started with the 7 (Taylor) running us over into (turn) one and running us off the track — along with like five other trucks — and that kind of got us back in the pack,” said Mosack, in his first full season of Truck Series competition. “The 1 (Brent Crews) and I had a little bit of contact on one of the early restarts, and I understand him being upset about that, but he just went way overboard with it, ran me off the track in three, came back on and hooked me in four, and then tried to drive me into the tire barriers on exit and I missed it by literally an inch from just going head-on in the wall. So definitely going to remember that one next time we’re racing together.”
While Majeski and Ruggiero were close to each other in Saturday’s results, the two left Lime Rock still on opposite ends of the playoff bubble. Majeski clings to the final spot in the provisional 10-driver postseason field, 38 points above the elimination line with three regular-season races remaining — Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (July 25), Watkins Glen (Aug. 8) and Richmond (Aug. 15).
Majeski is still seeking a playoff-clinching first win of the season, but Heim adding to his victory total actually helped him, preventing another new winner from locking into the grid.
“At this point, if somebody’s gonna win, we want it to be him,” Majeski said. “We don’t want somebody else to win and jump us in the playoffs. So overall, a solid day for us and glad we were able to get a good finish and good points day.”
Ruggiero is 12th on the playoff leaderboard, 65 points behind the elimination line and just behind ThorSport’s Jake Garcia (minus-38). Like Majeski, he’s still aiming for a playoff-sealing win, but left Lime Rock with his best finish since a runner-up effort in the Daytona season opener.
“I don’t know. I mean, just got to keep fighting for these top fives and top threes, and a win will come,” Ruggiero said. “We’ve got IRP and another road course and another short track left for us to get into the playoffs. So just got to pull off a win somehow.”
Corey Heim’s victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ debut at Lime Rock Park wasn’t just a case of domination. It was an eyelash away from perfection.
Heim led 99 of 100 laps at the 1.478-mile road course in bucolic Lakeville, Connecticut, to win the LiUNA! 150 — his fifth victory of the season and the 16th of his career.
The only lap Heim failed to lead came on a restart with five laps left after Matt Mills ran off course and stalled near Turn 1 on Lap 90. Layne Riggs beat Heim to the start/finish line on Lap 96 but drove hard into the first corner and stacked up the field behind him, scrambling positions two through five.
Aside from the one lap he didn’t lead, Heim’s performance was the model of consistent excellence. The driver of the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota posted the fastest lap of the race on his second circuit (54.941 seconds), swept both stages, and posted dramatic margins over his closest pursuers in each of the first two segments.
Heim is the first driver in Truck Series history to win three straight road-course races, having triumphed at Mid-Ohio in 2023 and Circuit of The Americas last year.
“Yeah, that was nothing short of incredible,” Heim acknowledged. “These road courses — I really look forward to them, pre-event and whatnot, and I really prepare for them, so to see all that pay off with (sponsor) Safelite, Tricon, Toyota, it’s super special.
“Obviously, the truck was so good today. I can’t complain one bit about that. A flawless day and we will take that and move forward and try and collect some wins that we should have had this year.”
Reigning series champion Ty Majeski was the beneficiary of Riggs’ aggressive charge into Turn 1 on the final restart. Majeski inherited the runner-up position and crossed the finish line 1.381 seconds behind Heim.
“Honestly, we struggled with the truck a little bit to fire off,” Majeski said. “We kept getting it better progressively each and every run. So, got it close at the end, had a shot at Corey and probably got a little over-zealous in Turn 4, hit the curb and kind of ruined my shot to make him a least a little nervous and try to force him into a mistake.
“From there, he just got too much breathing room and was kind of able to do his thing. Overall, really good day. This is the point when I want to turn our season around — going to IRP (Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park), Watkins Glen and Richmond next. Three really good tracks for us, so I’m excited for this playoff stretch.”
Rookie Giovanni Ruggiero ran third, followed by Ben Rhodes and Australian Cam Waters as ThorSport Racing put three drivers in the top five (Majeski, Rhodes and Waters).
Riggs fell to 12th during the Turn 1 melee and finished 13th. Road-course ace Jordan Taylor, who finished third in the first two stages, dropped to 20th at the finish.
Heim started from the pole and led all 35 laps in Stage 1, building an advantage of 7.065 seconds over second-place Riggs at the first green/checkered flag. Third-place Taylor, a star in the sportscar ranks, was 14.051 seconds in arrears at the first stage break.
After Lap 37, the race trucks came to pit road for a controlled stop under red-flag conditions. The restart on Lap 40 brought no changes at the front of the field. Heim cleared Riggs through the first two corners and quickly expanded his advantage over the second-place truck.
The second stage mirrored the first. Heim beat Riggs to the finish line by 7.281 seconds, with Taylor in third trailing by 14.286 seconds. The two stage wins were the 13th and 14th for Heim this season.
Note: Inspection in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series garage was clear, confirming Heim as the winner. No trucks were headed back to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further inspection.
NASCAR returns to Atlanta for the Quaker State 400 (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), racing at the newly renamed EchoPark Speedway for the second time in 2025.
EchoPark is a 1.5-mile drafting track, and at drafting tracks, unpredictability is the name of the game. There have been seven races at EchoPark under its current configuration, and by using pre-race data available to us, even the best statistical models have only been able to squeeze out, on average, around 13% of the variance in finishing position, leaving a full 87% unexplained from data like track history, drafting track history and current performance overall.
When that’s the case, it’s best to size down and sprinkle a few long shots and hope they hit.
That’s exactly what I’m doing today. I’ll throw a few bucks on some long shot manufacturer bets, and hope one hits.
I’ll be fully relying on my model to show us where certain drivers have a better chance of finishing higher in the order than their betting odds imply, thanks to the random nature of these races.
EchoPark Speedway: Quaker State 400 Best Bets
By manufacturer, here are the odds I have for each driver finishing as the tops in their camp, compared to their betting odds.
Chevrolet
I’m fine betting both of the drivers I list below and agree with my model.
Alex Bowman
My odds: 10% (+900 fair value)
DraftKings: +1500
Austin Dillon
My odds: 4.7% (+2020 fair value)
DraftKings: +3000
Ford
I’m fine betting on both of the blue ovals my model finds as value, and definitely agree with it.
Just be aware that it’s going to be awfully hard to beat the Team Penske trio of Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric.
That said, three of seven Atlanta races had finishing results resembling pure chaos, three had about 25% predictability, and one was in between.
For one of these to hit, you’re hoping for a bit more chaos, but they can still hit even with a bit more of an orderly finish.
Ryan Preece
My odds: 10.0% (+900 fair value)
DraftKings: +1400
Noah Gragson
My odds: 6.5% (+1440 fair value)
DraftKings: +2200
Toyota
There are only nine Toyotas in the field, and my model doesn’t value Denny Hamlin much here, and on drafting tracks in general, where he’s struggled to replicate his form from previous generations of cars. Hamlin has no finish better than fourth, just two top fives, and five top 10 in 21 drafting track starts.
That opens up value on four drivers by my model.
Tyler Reddick
My odds: 17.6%% (+470 fair value)
DraftKings: +600
Chase Briscoe
My odds: 11.5% (+775 fair value)
DraftKings: +850
Erik Jones
My odds: 9.4% (+960 fair value)
DraftKings: +1600
Riley Herbst
My odds: 5.4% (+1765 fair value)
DraftKings: +2000
Summary
Be sure to size your bet right so if one of the drivers in each camp hits, you’ll profit. This is most important with the Toyota camp, where the model is on four drivers.
If you are a $10 per unit bettor, you could divide your $10 unit as $4 on Reddick, $3 on Briscoe, $1.65 on Jones, and $1.35 on Herbst to get a profit between $18 to $18.5 dollars no matter which of these four is the top Toyota driver.
And if you shop around, you may be able to find even better prices.
HAMPTON, Ga. — There’s nothing like underdogs during a tournament. Whether it’s March Madness or the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a knockout-style format always offers fans some sleepers to support, and the debut of NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge this weekend at EchoPark Speedway is no different.
Two such underdogs entering the 32-driver tournament are Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell and Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger.
The pair of drivers will face off in the first round in Atlanta Saturday night (7 ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as the 11th and 22nd seeds, respectively. While both have shown their strengths on drafting-style tracks, the next two weekends will be their bread and butter with the Chicago Street Course and Sonoma Raceway on the horizon.
Only one of them will remain in the In-Season Challenge after Atlanta, and whoever is the winner will have a golden chance for a “Cinderella” run in the tournament.
“Honestly, I wish I wasn’t matched up against him here because this is a good track for him,” McDowell said. “Obviously, it’s a good track for us too, but I think that his strengths and his tracks line up on my strengths and my tracks too so either way, one of us will make a lot of noise.”
McDowell, a two-time Cup winner with both coming at a superspeedway (Daytona, 2021) and a road course (Indianapolis, 2023), earned the higher seed after a top-five run in Mexico City. The 40-year-old mainstay scored a pair of top fives last year at Sonoma and Chicago, which will make him a serious threat to advance all the way to the semifinals that will take place at Dover Motor Speedway next month.
On the other end, Allmendinger doesn’t love his Chicago numbers — finishes of 17th and 38th in his two starts on the street course through Grant Park — but his three Cup wins have all come on road courses (Watkins Glen, Indianapolis, Charlotte Roval) and the No. 16 Chevrolet is always in the mix when the circuit shifts to left and right-turn venues.
Allmendinger says he won’t be thinking about McDowell until the checkered flag, with the style of racing Atlanta offers, as they’ll see each other plenty during the 400-miler.
“I think people are probably begging that I beat McDowell in it right now,” Allmendinger jokingly said about his Chicago stats. “It’s fun. It’s gonna be interesting. This race is unique, right? Because you can’t look at that during the race, because we’re gonna pass each other 100 times during the race if nothing happens. So it’s not like you kind of base it off of like, ‘oh, he’s struggling’ or I’m struggling on speed. But, yeah, I think if you ask us both and we’re standing next to each other, we know that whoever takes the other person out of the first round, it helps themselves a lot for the next couple.”
Allmendinger also noted that there’s a lot of great road-course drivers in the Cup Series so there’s no guarantee either he or McDowell will make a deep run, but Allmendinger is enjoying the talk and all the buildup for the In-Season Challenge while also focusing on the task at hand at winning his way into the Cup Playoffs Saturday evening.
“It’s a fun little tournament that NASCAR’s put on and I think the drivers are gonna enjoy,” Allmendinger said. “It’s just this race, you can’t think about it because it’s a superspeedway race, so you’re gonna have a lot that happens throughout this race.”
HAMPTON, Ga. – Nick Sanchez charged to the front after a restart with seven laps left in Friday night’s Focused Health 250 and held off fellow Sunoco rookie Carson Kvapil to secure his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory.
Sanchez, who rallied from a spin through the frontstretch grass at EchoPark Speedway on Lap 68, lost the top spot to Jesse Love on the final restart on Lap 157 of 163, but regained it on the following circuit.
Sanchez spent the next five laps doing everything in his power to keep Kvapil behind him. The win earned the 24-year-old from Miami, Fla., a berth in the Xfinity Series Playoffs.
“It’s a weight lifted off my shoulders, that’s for sure,” Sanchez said after climbing from his car on the front stretch. “Now we can go chase checkered flags.”
Kvapil was lined up in front of third-place finisher Sam Mayer, fourth-place Connor Zilisch and fifth-place Taylor Gray as he chased Sanchez over the closing laps, trying to find a way around the race winner.
“To be that close really does sting,” said Kvapil, who started from the rear of the field after unapproved adjustments to his No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. “I couldn’t really generate a run there. I didn’t feel like we had enough cars nose-to-tail and organized.
“We were all kind of just too far away from each other. I tried backing up on the last lap… I probably could have made a move earlier. I just felt like, if we got side-by-side, we’d get swallowed up by somebody.”
For his part, Sanchez was fortunate his No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet sustained minimal damage on the slide through the grass, which caused the fourth of nine cautions.
“I’m still a little embarrassed about that,” Sanchez said. “It was certainly a rookie mistake, but we rebounded.”
It was after midnight when Sanchez took the checkered flag, thanks to some threatening weather near the 1.54-mile track. Lightning forced NASCAR to halt the race after 36 laps.
After a delay of one hour, 18 minutes, 55 seconds, the race resumed. Sheldon Creed, who led the first 37 laps from the pole, tried to flip the stage by pitting under caution after the resumption, but the strategy backfired.
Creed was one of 10 drivers involved in a massive wreck on the backstretch moments after a restart on Lap 41. Contact from Sanchez turned Jesse Love across traffic near the front of the field.
Love’s Chevrolet collided with Ryan Sieg’s Ford, turning it into the outside wall. A broken axle eliminated Sieg’s No. 39 RSS Racing Ford. Other victims included series leader Justin Allgaier, who exited the race in 31st place, Sammy Smith, Katherine Legge, Patrick Staropoli, Jeb Burton and Christian Eckes.
Creed, credited with 32nd place, suffered his fifth DNF (did not finish) in the last nine races and sixth of the season.
“It was probably the best car I’ve had all year,” Creed said ruefully after leaving the infield care center. “Just really fast, could control lanes and felt really good up front. So we were just trying to keep ourselves up front by short-pitting there, and it didn’t work out.”
The Xfinity Series returns next weekend for a trip to the Chicago Street Course (Sat., 4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Xfinity Series garage, confirming Sanchez as the winner.
Three dozen Late Model Stocks, along with South Boston’s Limited Sportsman, Pure Stock and Hornets drivers, turned copious laps around the half-mile facility during a prolonged session that lasted from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET.
Tate Fogleman posted the quickest lap in the first Late Model Stock session of the day, and the fastest time in the late afternoon practice belonged to Landon Pembelton.
Below are the key storylines from the first day of on-track action in the 2025 Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 (Saturday, 4 p.m. ET on FloRacing).
(Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
Landon Pembelton seeks another crown jewel
In the waning minutes of Friday’s Late Model Stock practice session for the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200, Landon Pembelton posted the quickest lap with a time of 15.101 seconds.
The 2021 winner of the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, Pembelton entered South Boston’s crown jewel with a three-point deficit in the Late Model Stock track standings. Since Saturday is a points race, Pembelton understands the significance of finishing strong, but his focus is centered on adding another Late Model Stock crown jewel to his list of achievements.
“I’m very happy with [the car],” Pembelton said. “We still got a little work to do. We didn’t make many laps today, and we were selective when we went out to make sure we were good with everything. We’ve been good since we unloaded yesterday, and I feel like I have a car that can be in contention at the end of the race.
“We just got to get the balance out for qualifying, but in race time, I think we’ll be pretty good.”
(Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
Peyton Sellers starts Virginia Triple Crown defense on a high note
Sellers was among the quickest of the drivers that elected to participate in the late afternoon portion of the practice sessions. South Boston managed to throw a few surprises Sellers’ way throughout practice, but the seasoned Late Model Stock veteran feels confident about his No. 26 Clarence’s Steakhouse Toyota ahead of Saturday’s 200-lap feature.
“It [was] kind of an odd day,” Sellers said. “The track was taking a lot of rubber. We’re used to running 14-15 cars at South Boston this year, so all of sudden having 40 cars [on the track means] a lot of rubber is getting put down. We’re adapting to the track being vey slick with how hot the track has been all week. Here we are just trying to figure it out.”
(Photo: Emily Morgan/NASCAR)
Tate Fogleman optimistic after strong first day
Although he is not among the drivers who have raced regularly at South Boston Speedway this year, Tate Fogleman made an early statement Friday as a potential dark horse contender.
Fogleman, who won a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway in 2021, posted the quickest lap in the first session by .001 over Ronnie Bassett Jr. South Boston has long been a special track for Fogleman and his father Jay, so he is determined to keep refining his car so that it can be ready to contend for the victory Saturday.
“We practiced earlier this week, and we kind of got a good baseline,” Fogleman said. “This is a brand new chassis, and [South Boston] was the first place we took it. We’ve had speed all year, so I don’t think we’ll have to worry about speed. We were fast, but we still need a few things for us to have a shot at the win.”
(Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
Connor Hall ready to defend last year’s South Boston triumph
Now back at South Boston with a new team in JR Motorsports, Hall is hoping for a more uneventful outing in his pursuit for a second consecutive Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200. Should Hall triumph Saturday evening, he would deliver JR Motorsports the team’s first Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 victory.
“I’d say we’re pretty good,” Hall said. “We worked on [old tires] just about all day to try and get where we need to be. I love winning with these guys and for these guys, so I’m going to do my best representing JR Motorsports, Bass Pro Shops and Johnny Morris the best I can.”
(Photo: Emily Morgan/NASCAR)
Trevor Ward seeking first Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 victory
A Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 victory appeared to be within reach for Trevor Ward at South Boston Speedway last year until Connor Hall passed him with fewer than 20 laps remaining.
Ward has spent all year familiarizing himself with South Boston, as he currently holds a one-point advantage in the track’s Late Model Stock standings over Peyton Sellers and Landon Pembelton. Already a ValleyStar Credit Union 300 and Virginia Triple Crown champion, Ward is eager to continue a stellar 2025 by avenging his close loss to Hall in the 2024 Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200.
“It’s going to be a long race for sure,” Ward said. “It’s definitely going to be a hot one. This is not just a big race for us, but it’s a points night, as well. Last year we didn’t race a lot going into [the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200], but we’ve been able to stay on top of what the race track is doing. We’ll need to get through the first 100 [laps] so we can be in contention for the last 100.”
(Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
Jonathan Shafer looks for strong Virginia Triple Crown start with Hettinger Racing
Friday’s Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 practice session yielded promising results for Jonathan Shafer, who is set to contest the entire Virginia Triple Crown with Hettinger Racing.
Boasting Late Model Stock and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts on his young resume, Shafer is setting high expectations for himself ahead of his Virginia Triple Crown pursuit. Shafer feels comfortable at all three facilities on the schedule, but he emphasized how important consistency will be Saturday toward obtaining a strong start in the Virginia Triple Crown.
“I think we have a really good shot with Hettinger Racing,” Shafer said. “They’re a great group of people with good equipment. I’ve had experience at all three of these tracks and good runs at all three of these tracks. With all of that put together, we should be able to come out with some wins and hopefully a championship.”
HAMPTON, Ga. — Before last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Pocono Raceway, Chase Briscoe was part of a group of drivers keeping a close eye on potential seeding for the In-Season Challenge, which starts Saturday night with the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at EchoPark Speedway, formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The standings before the Pocono race would have paired Briscoe against fellow Toyota driver Tyler Reddick, a matchup the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver said he would prefer to avoid.
“Right now, I’d go against Tyler if it started this weekend,” Briscoe said at the time. “I’m hoping that changes, because Tyler … I think he’s seeded like 22nd right now, and he’s one of the top five guys in the sport.
“So, it would be a tough Round 1, but honestly, the seeding is tough because at Atlanta, anybody could be hard to beat. I feel like at Atlanta, you don’t want to go against somebody in your manufacturer (group), because you’re all normally on the same strategy.”
Briscoe, of course, claimed his first victory of the season later that afternoon and dramatically altered his position in the In-Season Challenge bracket. With the win, he earned the second seed behind Michigan winner Denny Hamlin and will face Front Row Motorsports’ Noah Gragson in the first round of the inaugural challenge.
Interestingly, Gragson is the favorite driver of Brooks, Briscoe’s 3-year-old son.
“Honestly, I feel like here at a superspeedway, we’ve seen how good the Fords are, and going against a Ford here is certainly a hard challenge,” Briscoe said. “This is one of those race tracks that, no matter what team you are with, you kind of have a shot to go and win.
“It’s no secret, right? Noah is not at one of the powerhouse teams, but when he comes here, he can be right here in the mix. Front Row (Motorsports) cars qualified on the front row here last year, so it will be a challenge.”
HAMPTON, Ga. — A week later, it’s safe to say Bubba Wallace did not have a great weekend at Pocono Raceway.
After a promising practice run in Pennsylvania, the No. 23 23XI Racing driver had a wrench thrown into his pre-race prep after his hot rod did not fire to make a qualifying run. Wallace started toward the rear of the field and had 400 miles to work with to make his way back to the front.
Those hopes all came crashing down after Wallace suffered a brake failure going into Turn 2, ending his day prematurely. While the 31-year-old veteran was upbeat after climbing out of his car, Wallace admitted Friday at EchoPark Speedway that it almost evoked an old mentality.
“That was the most frustrated I’ve been in a long time,” Wallace said. “That was like a gut punch … really hard to swallow. Yeah, it’s qualifying … whatever. But it took me back to like a-few-years-ago Bubba, where it’s like, yeah, here we go. You ride on the momentum high and you get excited and have some optimism, and then you’re just smacked in the face with some B-S.
“I woke up Sunday. It was a new day and was excited to move forward in the race. Take our time. Didn’t move as forward as fast as we liked, but knew it was going to be a grind and then the brakes explode. Long story short — super frustrating.”
All three 23XI cars suffered similar fates at Pocono, with Riley Herbst having the first of the brake failures before Wallace’s. Tyler Reddick brought his No. 45 Toyota to the garage as a precaution to avoid a possible failure.
23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin discussed earlier in the week about Wallace’s mentality and the positive strides he’s made to not get too down on himself.
Hamlin also noted that Wallace hasn’t let the organization off the hook in these situations.
“It’s not like he’s giving 23XI a free pass, right? I think that it’s just so much easier if you have issues and you want to kick and scream, like do it to us,” Hamlin said. When you do it outwardly and into the public and the media, then it just creates a lot of other distractions that you have to deal with, and he’s made it easier.”
Wallace has failed to finish in six of the 17 races already in the 2025 season, but currently holds a 29-point cushion over the playoff cutline.
It’s a testament to the 110 stage points the No. 23 has tallied so far and finishing no worse than 12th in the three prior races to Pocono.
“I think it just shows how really strong they are and what they’re capable of doing,” Hamlin said. “I truthfully think the biggest change has just come from him within more so than anything I’ve done with him or the team has done with him. We look at the biggest change obviously coming in his personal life mid last year and whatnot and I think that that’s changed [him] the most.”
A new week and new opportunity arises for Wallace and the No. 23 crew as the series hits the midpoint of the calendar in Atlanta Saturday night (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Wallace ultimately qualified 24th for the Quaker State 400 and is looking forward to the task at hand to get back in the right direction.
“We’re back at the track, so I got to keep saying it: ‘fresh set of downs’, Wallace said. “It’ll be fun. We’ll get out of this little slump that we’re in.”
