Field of 16: Atlanta presents opportunity for major playoff shake-up

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Kobe Lambeth

Following his win at Pocono Raceway, Chase Briscoe became the 11th driver to earn a provisional spot in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

This weekend’s trends favor a 12th driver adding his name to the playoff grid when the Cup Series visits EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) for an intense showdown on the 1.54-mile drafting-style track under the lights Saturday (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Knowing how the unpredictable nature of superspeedway racing can shake things up, the playoff outlook for Chris Buescher (plus-38), Bubba Wallace (plus-29) and Alex Bowman (plus-20) could either swing strongly in their favor or in the wrong direction, especially with the threat of the “Big One” looming.

Let’s take a closer look at the playoff bubble entering Atlanta and see which drivers could face more pressure as we get deeper into the summer stretch if a 12th different winner emerges from the Peach State.

RELATED: Atlanta schedule | Cup Series standings

GREEN FLAG [Drivers in a great spot for Atlanta]

Dawsonville, Georgia native Chase Elliott returns to his home track 160 points above the elimination line and hopes to get his first win of the 2025 Cup Series season in what’s been a remarkably strong and consistent year for the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

After 17 races, Elliott’s streak of finishing every race in the top 20 continues and has resulted in a 97.29% playoff probability. In six starts at Atlanta since the track’s reconfiguration, Elliott has three top 10s, including a victory in the 2022 Atlanta summer race.

With three wins at drafting-style tracks on his resume, look for the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet to continue building a comfortable cushion above the elimination line with another top 20 or end Saturday night in Victory Lane at home.

YELLOW FLAG [Drivers on the fringe for Atlanta]

After issues with brake rotors doomed all three 23XI Racing Toyotas last weekend at Pocono, the organization needs a big bounce-back performance in Georgia. 23XI drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace currently sit 13th and 15th in the playoff standings, respectively.

Reddick’s playoff probability dropped from 98.68% to 95.35% after losing time in the garage at Pocono to work on the brakes, which resulted in a 32nd-place finish at the “Tricky Triangle.” Despite maintaining a high playoff probability entering Atlanta, there is reason to be concerned about the No. 45 team.

Although Reddick maintains a 107-point advantage above the elimination line, things have not gone well lately, as he has finished 13th or worse in eight of the last nine Cup Series races. In seven starts at the reconfigured Atlanta, Reddick only has two top 10s.

His 23XI teammate, Wallace, had his playoff probability plummet from 77.70% to 60.83% following his sixth DNF of the year at Pocono, the most of any driver this season.

In the last seven races, Wallace has finished 33rd or worse four times, so Atlanta comes at the perfect time for a driver looking for a shot in the arm. Wallace is good at drafting-style tracks, so Saturday night could lead to his playoff probability trending in the right direction to end this stretch of bad luck. The driver of the No. 23 Toyota has two top 10s at Atlanta in the last three races.

Both 23XI drivers still have time to turn things around, but a new winner would certainly complicate things.

RACING INSIGHTS: Full race projections for Atlanta

RED FLAG [Drivers I’m concerned about heading to Atlanta]

With nine races to go until the postseason, Bowman is on the bubble, 20 points above the elimination line. In the last two races, Bowman has clicked off a fourth-place finish in Mexico City followed by an 11th-place effort at Pocono.

Those two results were sorely needed by the No. 48 team, which has finished 27th or worse in seven of the last 11 races. The results in the last two races might be a sign of building momentum at the right time to avoid a pressure-packed end to the regular season for the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

Bowman’s playoff probability dropped from 38.97% to 34.49% after Briscoe’s Pocono win. In the last 11 races on drafting-style tracks, the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet has six top-10 finishes. Based on those numbers, his odds of getting a top 10 in Georgia on Saturday night are nearly equivalent to flipping a coin.

For his playoff sake, he needs to stay out of trouble and get a good result. However, a good result may not matter if we get a new winner currently below the elimination line that pushes Bowman below it.

Another driver who could be in trouble is Kyle Busch. Although Richard Childress Racing cars usually perform well on drafting-style tracks, Busch comes to Georgia with a single top 10 in the last nine races.

Busch’s playoff probability is 19.09% entering Atlanta, so this weekend and the regular-season finale at Daytona might be his best opportunities to clinch a postseason berth. Sitting 63 points below the elimination line is not a position for a driver looking to avoid missing the playoffs in back-to-back years.

If there is any hope on the horizon for the No. 8 team, Busch has five consecutive top 10s at Atlanta as the two-time Cup Series champion looks to snap a career-long 74-race winless streak.

Posted on June 26, 2025June 27, 2025 by Neil Paine

The seeding is done, the bracket is set and the drivers are ready. All that’s left now is for the inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge to hit the track, beginning this weekend at EchoPark Speedway (formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway) — introducing a fascinating new dynamic into the summer stretch of the Cup Series schedule.

Seeds were determined based on a three-race qualifying window at Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono; now it’s win-or-go-home all the way to the championship. And while the spotlight naturally shines on top seeds like Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott, surprises will be inevitable in a knockout format like this.

So which underdogs are most poised to bust the bracket? To find out, we ran 2,000 simulations of the full tournament using a version of my track type-adjusted forecasting model. See below for each driver’s odds of advancing through the various rounds — highlighting just how wide-open this first edition of the In-Season Challenge might be.

(For more about how the forecast system works, click here.)

Let’s dig into the six biggest bracket-busters according to the model — drivers ranked among the bottom half of seeds (i.e., Nos. 17-32) who have the highest odds of making the quarterfinal round and shaking up this new NASCAR tradition right away.

No. 18 William Byron

Standings rank: 1st
1st-round opponent: No. 15 Ryan Preece
Round of 8 odds: 38.1%
Championship odds: 9.4%

Not only is Byron our biggest bracket-buster, but he’s also the favorite to win the whole tournament. How did that happen? Well, for one thing, he tops the standings for a reason — Byron is arguably the best and most consistent driver in the sport, leading in average Driver Rating by a wide margin over Hamlin (103.8 versus 96.7) this season. But he also benefits from a lucky draw in the seeding. First-round foe Ryan Preece has enjoyed a breakout campaign, but he’s no match for the two-time defending Daytona 500 winner on drafting tracks like Atlanta, while potential second-round Chicago opponent Chase Briscoe is still working on his road-racing bona fides — even though they are improving as of late. It wouldn’t be until a possible quarterfinal showdown with teammate Kyle Larson that Byron would face a fellow championship heavy-hitter, and Larson could get knocked out earlier than that by a tougher path that includes Tyler Reddick and possibly Ryan Blaney. It’s tough to think of the points leader as a “Cinderella”, but things are set up for him to make a deep run from the No. 18 seed.

No. 25 Joey Logano

Standings rank: 10th
1st-round opponent: No. 8 Alex Bowman
Round of 8 odds: 31.4%
Championship odds: 4.5%

Logano benefits right away from the confluence of track types and seeding matchups, with the opening round being hosted at Atlanta and the opposing No. 8 seed being Alex Bowman. Logano, of course, has won twice in the past five races in Atlanta including a clutch victory in last year’s playoffs, and he is generally one of the best drivers in the game when it comes to drafting tracks. Compound that with Bowman’s merely OK record (77.8 Driver Rating in Next Gen era) at those tracks in recent years, including a mediocre run at Atlanta — where he’s finished 26th or worse in four of his past six — and Logano looks like the head-to-head favorite, regardless of seeding. The outlook remains bright for the three-time series champion from there, as neither driver in the No. 9 vs. No. 24 matchup (Bubba Wallace or Daniel Suárez) is a road-course ace to worry about at Chicago. Even No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin, whom Logano would face in the quarterfinal round if everything else goes chalk, isn’t the road racer he used to be. As always when it comes to these playoff-style situations, don’t be shocked if Logano shows up to crash the party.

No. 19 Austin Cindric

Standings rank: 15th
1st-round opponent: No. 14 Zane Smith
Round of 8 odds: 30.9%
Championship odds: 3.1%

Cindric finished 31st at Michigan a few weeks back — but from an In-Season Challenge perspective, he is also one of the biggest winners there. That’s because Zane Smith, who currently ranks 25th in the full-season standings and 24th in average Driver Rating, finished seventh, causing him to land in the 14-seed slot — and a first-round date with Cindric (who’s 15th in the standings and 11th in Driver Rating) — when the seeding shook out. Anything can happen at a superspeedway-like track of course, but like Byron, Cindric is a former Daytona 500 winner and one of the best there is at pack racing. And then, if he manages to advance, Cindric would get a pair of road courses (Chicago Street and Sonoma) to test his other specialty. Few drivers have the combination of drafting and road-racing skills to suit the first three races of the In-Season Challenge quite like Cindric does.

MORE: Information about all 32 In-Season Challenge drivers

No. 23 Tyler Reddick

Standings rank: 7th
1st-round opponent: No. 10 Kyle Larson
Round of 8 odds: 23.8%
Championship odds: 4.1%

The seeding process didn’t exactly bring good news for Reddick: looming right away in the opening round is Kyle Larson, one of the last drivers on the planet anyone would choose to face in a head-to-head race. And indeed, Reddick has the worst odds to escape the Round of 32 (45.4%) of any driver currently among the top 12 of the regular season Cup standings. Then, it’s off to face the winner between No. 7 Ryan Blaney and No. 26 Carson Hocevar — no slouch of a matchup itself. After that, however, he benefits some from the probability that Byron is taken out by a lesser driver before the quarterfinals. Things clear up quite a bit from there as Reddick can get back to his trademark ovals for the semifinal and final races of the challenge. Reddick will be an underdog throughout this process, but he’s also the best driver seeded outside the top 20, making him a dangerous opponent for higher-seeded drivers.

No. 17 Brad Keselowski

Standings rank: 30th
1st-round opponent: No. 16 Kyle Busch
Round of 8 odds: 23.6%
Championship odds: 2.2%

Keselowski picked the right time to score a couple of top 10s during the three seeding races as it landed him with a far higher seed (17th) than would be expected from his No. 30 placement in the full-season standings. In turn, that earned him a first-round matchup with another former Cup champ who’s currently navigating a tough season: Kyle Busch. Neither of the two are what they used to be on drafting tracks, so this is close to a 50-50 matchup in the odds (Busch is a very slight 52% favorite), very winnable for Keselowski. And while top overall seed Denny Hamlin likely awaits in the second round, he’s another old Keselowski rival whose road-racing form isn’t as good as it once was, opening a sliver of hope for an upset that propels the No. 6 Ford further in this bracket than anybody expects.

James Gilbert | Getty Images

No. 22 AJ Allmendinger

Standings rank: 17th
1st-round opponent: No. 11 Michael McDowell
Round of 8 odds: 23.4%
Championship odds: 1.5%

Allmendinger would be nowhere near this high in the bracket-buster rankings if the schedule didn’t play to his strengths as much as it does. While he’s never been quite as comfortable zooming around superspeedways as one would think for a former IndyCar guy — his career Driver Rating on the track type is solidly below-average at 60.9 — he could have drawn tougher opponents than Michael McDowell, who has comparatively had a down year both overall and on drafting tracks. So Allmendinger will have a fighting chance to win his opening matchup. And then if he advances, one of the better road-course specialists in Cup will be unleashed on the Chicago Street Course and Sonoma, the latter being a place where he’s finished sixth in each of the previous two seasons. Add in a winnable potential second-round matchup with the overseeded Ty Gibbs (the No. 6 seed in the bracket and 23rd in the standings), and Allmendinger is a surprisingly real threat to enter the quarterfinals — if not further — with his title hopes still intact.

Best of the Rest: Josh Berry (20.9% odds to make Round of 8); Carson Hocevar (19.1%); Todd Gilliland (18.6%); Erik Jones (18.3%)

Posted on June 26, 2025June 26, 2025 by Staff Report

Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano has been nominated for the 2025 ESPYS Best Driver Award, ESPN announced on Thursday.

Logano won four races in 2024 — including three in the playoffs — to earn his third Cup Series title and his second in three seasons. He nearly got eliminated after the Round of 12, but a post-race disqualification to Alex Bowman after the Charlotte Roval gave him a second lease on life toward becoming the 10th driver with three or more championships.

Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen from Formula One and IndyCar’s Alex Palou were also nominated for the award. The winner will be announced during the show at 8 p.m. ET on July 16 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles (televised on ABC). Comedian Shane Gillis will host the show.

Logano looks to become the first NASCAR driver to win the award since Kyle Larson took home the honors in 2022. In total, 19 NASCAR drivers have won the Best Driver Award with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon each winning four times.

Fans can vote for Logano here. Logano’s category is the 17th one so scroll through to get to it and vote.

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Cameron Richardson

Back-to-back first-time winners in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season have certainly thrown the start of the summer stretch for a loop and it’s only going to get wilder as the circuit shifts to Saturday night’s showdown at EchoPark Speedway (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

As the calendar reaches the halfway point of the season, let’s take a look at who the projected favorite for Atlanta is, along with other drivers to keep an eye on, with stats provided by Racing Insights.

No surprise to see a Team Penske driver top the predicted results as Ryan Blaney slots into P1. Blaney has finished inside the top 10 in the last six Atlanta races, which is the longest active streak at the track. He owns an average finish of 6.7 in the seven races at the track since the reconfiguration and has scored the most points of any Cup driver during that span (301).

While Daniel Suárez has been the only true surprise winner at Atlanta in the seven races it has served as a drafting track, the numbers are starting to shift in favor of underdogs entering the weekend.

Going back to the Atlanta race in the spring, Carson Hocevar, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Todd Gilliland and John Hunter Nemechek ranked in the top four for passing, according to NASCAR Insights, and all four drivers finished inside the top 15. Hocevar, Stenhouse and Nemechek have all shown top-10 speed at points throughout the year and Atlanta could provide the opportunity to reward just that — especially for Stenhouse — whose four Cup wins have all come at superspeedways.

Suárez’s Trackhouse Racing teammates are already locked into the playoffs, and there’d be no better time for the No. 99 Chevrolet driver to get all three cars in than under the lights Saturday. Suárez has been one of the best drivers at the track recently with three top-two finishes in the last four Atlanta races, including his thrilling win in the 2024 spring race.

FANTASY: Set your lineup | Make a 36 for 36 pick

OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH

KYLE BUSCH: The two-time Cup Series champion has been hit with bad luck all season long, but Atlanta has been really good for the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing driver. He’s finished top 10 in all five starts in the Peach State since joining RCR and has top 10s in eight of the last 15 superspeedway races.

AUSTIN CINDRIC: He remains winless at Atlanta, but the fourth-year Cup driver is a force to be reckoned with whenever the circuit goes to a superspeedway. He’s the most recent winner at such tracks, taking the checkered flag at Talladega, and the No. 2 Team Penske driver has led double-digit laps in the last four Atlanta races.

AJ ALLMENDINGER: The longtime Cup veteran isn’t really known for his drafting-track prowess, but he’s been one to watch at Atlanta. He has no finish worse than 16th in his three starts on the configuration and finished third in the 2023 summer race.

WILLIAM BYRON: The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver has produced mixed results on the Atlanta superspeedway, but he owns two wins at the track and has 10 top 10s in the last 13 drafting-track events.

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE QUAKER STATE 400

Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula incorporates current track, track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to predict a projected winner and provide full race results. Updated on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.

FINISH	CAR NUMBER	DRIVER
1	12	Ryan Blaney
2	24	William Byron
3	2	Austin Cindric
4	20	Christopher Bell
5	9	Chase Elliott
6	8	Kyle Busch
7	5	Kyle Larson
8	22	Joey Logano
9	11	Denny Hamlin
10	1	Ross Chastain
11	45	Tyler Reddick
12	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
13	23	Bubba Wallace
14	19	Chase Briscoe
15	17	Chris Buescher
16	54	Ty Gibbs
17	48	Alex Bowman
18	77	Carson Hocevar
19	99	Daniel Suárez
20	16	AJ Allmendinger
21	71	Michael McDowell
22	43	Erik Jones
23	60	Ryan Preece
24	34	Todd Gilliland
25	6	Brad Keselowski
26	35	Riley Herbst
27	7	Justin Haley
28	3	Austin Dillon
29	42	John Hunter Nemechek
30	21	Josh Berry
31	4	Noah Gragson
32	38	Zane Smith
33	41	Cole Custer
34	88	Shane van Gisbergen
35	10	Ty Dillon
36	01	Corey LaJoie
37	51	Cody Ware
38	87	Connor Zilisch
39	78	BJ McLeod
40	66	David Starr

Posted on June 26, 2025June 26, 2025 by Adam Fenwick

No matter how one may remember it, there is no romanticizing what happened in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many into their homes and away from the things and people they loved.

That includes the teams and drivers of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour who watched their planned season evaporate as the pandemic took hold of the country.

However, by the time summer rolled around, plans began to materialize for a return to racing. The first event of the 2020 Modified Tour season took place at Jennerstown Speedway on June 21. Due to restrictions in place at the time, there were no fans in attendance.

A few weeks later, the series was back in action with a limited number of fans in the stands. That race took place on July 4, 2020 at the sight of Sunday’s Thunder in the Mountains 200, White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, New Hampshire.

“We were finding out maybe three, four or maybe less weeks in advance where we going to be racing next,” said Justin Bonsignore, who won not only that race at Jennerstown, but the event at White Mountain, as well. “All of a sudden (NASCAR) said, ‘Hey, we’re going to go to White Mountain.’

“Nobody was really familiar with that. We’d never been there. It kind of came out of left field.”

Built by racer-turned-track owner Donnie Avery, White Mountain Motorsports Park opened for business in May of 1993. The track is located, as the name would suggest, in the heart of a mountain range called the White Mountains.

While the high banked quarter-mile bullring has similar characteristics to other venues on the Modified Tour schedule, there is no track quite like it.

“In a way it is kind of similar to Monadnock,” Bonsignore explained. “For a quarter-mile high banked track, at that time it was before Monadnock was paved, so really it was different at the same time.

“There are not really too many high-banked tracks in New England that have grip like White Mountain does even though the pavement was not new. It wasn’t too far out in left field from some places, but there is no direct comparison I’d say to tracks we’d been to at that time.”

Justin Bonsignore (51) leads the pack during the Independence Day 200 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at White Mountain Motorsports Park on July 4, 2020. (Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

While White Mountain Motorsports Park has hosted plenty of Modified events in the years since, at that time, there had been almost no Modified events, NASCAR or otherwise, held at the track.

Which made preparations to go racing at White Mountain, on top of the other challenges faced by teams in 2020, that much more difficult.

“There really was not much video to watch,” Bonsignore said. “Not really any Modifieds had raced up there that we were aware of. (There was) nothing to really study and to learn from. Then you get out there and you’re wondering how the track is going to react at night, how is it going to race, just so many different unknowns.

“At the end of the day, it’s just another race track and we just had to adapt and figure it out with the theme of winging it.”

There were an abundance of logistical challenges, as well.

“It was definitely challenging for everybody,” Bonsignore said. “It was a lot to balance. Trying to find hotels last minute at places that would take our teams and the travel of getting everybody there.

“(We were) just kind of winging it just a few weeks in advance. Usually, we’re planning our travel months in advance. It was just different, but it was still fun to go to the race track and be able to race.”

Bonsignore and his Ken Massa Motorsports team were lucky enough to figure out White Mountain first. After watching Matt Hirschman dominate the first 193 laps, Bonsignore was able to overtake him and led the final 12, which included surviving an overtime restart, to win.

Justin Bonsignore celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Independence Day 200 at White Mountain Motorsports Park on July 4, 2020. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

The win proved vital for Bonsignore, who went on to claim his second Modified Tour championship that year.

Perhaps more important for everyone involved: For a few hours, a limited number of fans were able to forget about what was going on in the world and enjoy a night of racing at their local short track.

“The race before there were zero fans, so it was cool that they were able to do that,” Bonsignore said.

Fast-forward five years, and the Modified Tour is returning to White Mountain Motorsports Park for the first time since the 2020 season.

This time there are no restrictions in place, and Bonsignore is looking forward to experiencing White Mountain properly – with a full grandstand of fans.

“It’ll be great to go there and have a normal day,” Bonsignore said. “Hopefully the crowd packs in. It’s not typical Modified country, it’s more Late Model country. So hopefully we’ll race in front of full crowd and put on a great race because it is a racey race track.

“Hopefully we can have a good, solid day as a series and put on a good event for the fans. Hopefully the fans are able to come out in full force.”

Bonsignore hasn’t been back to White Mountain since 2020, but he’s confident in his team and his own skills as they look to build on a win two weeks ago at Riverhead Raceway as he pursues his fifth series championship since 2018.

“I’m trying to watch some video. They’ve obviously had some open Modified stuff since we’ve been there,” Bonsignore said. “My crew chief Ryan Stone does a great job of keeping up with those things. He helps some people in some of these other divisions with setup ideas and stuff, so he’s been on top of it.

“As far as from a race-car driver (perspective), you just watch film and get an idea. But getting out there in practice, utilizing the full practice as much as you can for learning is the biggest thing. There is nothing that can replace track time.”

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Staff Report

SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — A trio of Martinsville Speedway winners, all of whom are in the top three of the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division point standings at South Boston Speedway, say winning the 19th running of the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 on Saturday night, June 28 at South Boston Speedway will be a special accomplishment.

Peyton Sellers of Danville, Virginia, a two-time winner of the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200, the kickoff race for the Virginia Triple Crown presented by FloRacing, is eyeing a third win in the event. He says winning the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 grows more special each time.

“With the popularity growing like it does every year, it becomes more special and more of an elite race,” Sellers pointed out.

“It is turning into a more elite event, not that it hasn’t been any other time, it’s just gaining a lot of traction between the Triple Crown and the popularity of how many drivers come to it. More people talk about it with the add-on of FloRacing, and all of the different opportunities people have to view it now. It has become something that is special.”

Trevor Ward of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who won at Martinsville Speedway in 2023 and won the Triple Crown that year, is seeking his first win in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 this weekend. He finished third in the event in 2023 and was the runner-up in last season’s race. Like Sellers, Ward says winning the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 will be special.

“To win this race has been on my bucket list a long time,” Ward remarked. “It would be really cool to be able to check one more thing off of my bucket list.”

Landon Pembelton of Amelia, Virginia, a former Martinsville Speedway winner who has a fourth-place finish as his best effort in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200, would like nothing better than to earn his first career victory in the event on Saturday.

Landon Pembelton is one of three Martinsville Speedway winners entered in Saturday night’s 19th running of the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway. (Photo: Joe Chandler/South Boston Speedway)

“It would be a dream come true,” Pembelton said of winning the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200. “I’ve been chasing after it ever since I started racing Late Models. I’ve had good runs in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200. I’ve either finished in the top five or six or either I’m wrecked. Hopefully the luck will swing my way.”

While the $10,000 winner’s prize and a guaranteed starting position in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway in September are on the line in Saturday’s Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200, the trio has to consider what it will take to be in the mix for the Virginia Triple Crown presented by FloRacing and remain in contention for the South Boston Speedway Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division crown.

Ward holds a slim one-point lead over Sellers with Pembelton sitting in third place, just three points behind Ward, entering Saturday’s Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200.

“You have to keep it in mind,” Sellers remarked of the Triple Crown and the South Boston Speedway track points chase. “Being that it’s a points race for the Triple Crown and the track points, you have to give it a lot of thought. You can’t put your car in a bad spot. You’ve got to be there at the end, and usually, if you do, you’ll end up with a decent finish.

“We’ve been very fortunate to compete for the Triple Crowns, track points and things like that,” Sellers continued. “It comes from finishing races and putting yourself in position. There are a lot of young guys out there that can go fast and win races, but to run for points, you have to think about it a little differently.”
Ward points out that while those things have to be kept in mind, the chase for the South Boston Speedway track championship “is a tight battle and this is a long race. There is a long way to go. We’ve got four or five more weeks of this and anything can happen.”

Along with the $10,000 winner’s prize, several other awards will be up for grabs for the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division in the 19th running of the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200. Those awards include a $500 Anderson Outdoor Solutions Pole Award, a $500 Sunoco/Sparks Oil Company Halfway Leader Award, and a $500 Anderson Outdoor Solutions Hard Charger Award to be given to the driver who gains the most positions from their initial feature starting position. In addition, there will be a $250 Gutterworx Stage 1 Leader Award for the leader at the end of Stage 1 and a Southside Disposal $250 Stage 3 Leader Award to go to the leader at the end of Stage 3.

Four races are scheduled as part of Saturday’s 19th running of the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway. In addition to the 200-lap race for the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division, there will be a 40-lap race for Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division, a 25-lap race for the Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division and a 15-lap race for the Dollar General Hornets Division. A patriotic Fourth of July fireworks show will follow the last race of the night.

Advance adult tickets for the June 28 Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 event are priced at $20 each. Tickets at the gate on race day will be $25 each. Seniors ages 65 and older, military, healthcare workers, and students (with ID) can purchase tickets for $20 each at the gate only on the day of the event.
Saturday’s event schedule has registration and pit gates opening at 10 a.m. and frontstretch spectator gates opening at 10 a.m. Rotating practice sessions for the four divisions will run from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Backstretch and Turn 4 tailgate gates open at 3:30 p.m.

Go Halifax Late Model Stock Car group qualifying starts at 4:15 p.m. A driver autograph session is slated from 5:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Pre-race ceremonies will start at 6:30 p.m. and the first race of the night will start at 7 p.m.

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Chris Murdock

With only four races remaining until the start of the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs, the series heads to unfamiliar territory with a new road course on tap this weekend: Lime Rock Park. The visit to the Connecticut facility will be a first for any of NASCAR’s national series, which should bring plenty of excitement as Truck Series regulars tackle the layout.

NASCAR.com’s Chris Murdock ranks the top 10 Truck contenders heading into this weekend’s debut at Lime Rock on Saturday (1 p.m. ET, FOX, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Analysis: Heim is the only driver in 2025 to lead a lap in every race of the Truck Series season. This year is shaping up to be the No. 11 team’s to lose. While Heim remains atop the list for now, consistency issues have hindered his chances of winning over the past few weeks; since finishing first at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, Heim has posted results of second (Nashville), 18th (Michigan), and 23rd (Pocono).

Analysis: Consistently climbing up the ranks and up two positions since we last dove into the rankings before Rockingham Speedway, Smith is the only other series contender with multiple victories in 2025 other than Heim. His most recent win at North Wilkesboro Speedway could bode well with Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and Richmond Raceway on the horizon.

Analysis: Since our last set of rankings before Rockingham, Hemric has only finished outside the top 10 once, crashing at Michigan International Speedway and finishing 27th. His lone win in 2025 came at Martinsville Speedway, and with two short-track races on the docket before the playoffs, Hemric’s chances of finding Victory Lane again are high.

Analysis: The 23-year-old Riggs is the latest driver to secure a spot in the Truck Series Playoffs following his win at Pocono Raceway. With two short-track races remaining to conclude the regular-season fight, Riggs — with two career wins on short tracks — might claim a couple more victories before it’s all over.

Analysis: Perhaps the biggest surprise so far in 2025 is defending series champion Ty Majeski going winless through the opening 14 races. Let’s not forget it was around this time last year that the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford driver stepped up his game, winning back-to-back races at Indianapolis Raceway Park and Richmond to finish the regular season strong.

Analysis: Notching his first Truck Series victory since 2022, Friesen pulled off a surprising win at Michigan to kick off June. Following that up with another top 10 this past weekend at Pocono, momentum is on the No. 52’s side entering Lime Rock. Only time will tell if the team can translate this momentum into a deep postseason run.

Analysis: A new face appears in this edition of Power Rankings, bringing a fresh face to the playoff picture. Ankrum’s triumph at Rockingham marked his first victory since the 2019 season (Kentucky). After three straight finishes outside the top 15, the No. 18 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver aims to turn his luck around in this final stretch of the regular season.

Analysis: Since our last Truck check-in, Caruth secured his spot in the postseason conversation with a win at Nashville Superspeedway after a tough start to the 2025 campaign. Still, Caruth has only one top-five finish in the last six races … that being his Nashville victory. The No. 71 Spire Motorsports pilot has some ground to cover to establish himself as a title contender.

Analysis: Still holding onto one of the coveted playoff spots in the final four races, Enfinger has only one finish outside the top 10 in the last six races. Unfortunately, that was this past weekend at Pocono, where the driver of the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet finished 17th. Still, the future looks promising for the driver with back-to-back Championship 4 appearances.

Analysis: It seems like only a matter of time before Honeycutt, the other new addition to this week’s Power Rankings, reaches Victory Lane with his No. 45 Niece Motorsports team. With a third-place finish at Pocono and two races on short tracks (where Honeycutt has found success in late models), a win could very well happen before the end of the regular season.

Posted on June 26, 2025June 29, 2025 by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series are in action this weekend at EchoPark Speedway (formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway), while the Craftsman Truck Series heads to Lime Rock Park for the first time. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.

RELATED: Full weekend schedule

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on TNT Sports. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Nine sets for the race (eight race sets plus one set transferred from qualifying).

Entry list
Qualifying Order
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR Xfinity Series

Race day: Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Four sets for the event.

Entry list
Qualifying Order
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Race day: Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Five sets for the event

Note: There will be no live pit stops.

Entry list
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Press Release

Dominion Raceway is rewriting the story of the future of grassroots racing. For 2025, the track made a bold move when it designated its America Racer Late Models as the recipient of NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division I points.

A decision that’s shaking up the national championship race is also shining a spotlight on a new generation of talent.

At the center of this shift is 17-year-old Chase Johnson, a third-generation racer from Midlothian, Virginia. With eight wins this season, including a hot streak of five consecutive victories, Johnson leads the nation in Division I points and the battle for Rookie of the Year.

(Photo: Dominion Raceway / Facebook)

Johnson’s journey began at age 8 behind the wheel of a go-kart, where he stunned everyone by winning his first race. It was a sign of things to come.

Growing up, he idolized NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon but drew his deepest inspiration from his father Eddie Johnson. As the grandson of Cal Johnson, another racing pioneer, Chase Johnson represents the third generation of the legacy that carries forward the grit of Ricky Johnson Racing’s No. 57 America Racer Late Model, powered by sponsors like Medek Corp, LA Landscaping, and LA Engineering Race Engines.

His car “Digger,” a 2001 Townsend chassis, has been around longer than the driver himself.

By day, Johnson works for Avis Electric Company. But on race nights, he’s a force of nature, showing consistent ability to work his way through the pack with a smooth technical approach. Many fans have praised Johnson’s driving style while others have also criticized it, noting the driver isn’t afraid of making contact in tight battles. Last weekend, Johnson apologized in Victory Lane to his good friend and fellow racer Dan Rogers (currently 8th in D1 points) for an on-track, three-wide battle for the win between him, Aaron Donnelly and Rogers that ultimately resulted in Rogers spinning.

Everyone agrees the racing at Dominion through the entire field has been exciting to watch.

(Photo: Dominion Raceway)

Dominion Raceway’s decision to elevate the America Racer Late Models to DI status is more than a rule change; it’s a stride toward strengthening local weekly racing. Designed in 2017 to combat the skyrocketing costs of traditional late-model racing, the America Racer class, with its max 405-horsepower 604 crate motors, Holley 500 carburetors and affordable 8-inch American Racer tires, puts the driver’s skill at the forefront.

Last year, Johnson dominated the division, clinching both the Dominion track championship and the NAAPWS Division III Southeast Region title.

“We had five cars every week that could win,” he said, “It is awesome to be in Division I this year. I think it’s going to bring in more competition, which I am super excited for the challenge that will bring.”

For Johnson, every race is personal. It’s not just about the checkered flag; it’s about honoring the family legacy that flows through his veins.

“I grew up watching my dad race, and he’s always been my biggest hero,” Johnson said.

The No. 57 car, adorned with the Carolina Blue and Chevy Orange colors, is more than a machine; it’s a symbol of a family’s love for racing, passed down through generations. As Johnson rips around Dominion’s 4/10-mile oval, he carries the hope of every young racer dreaming of making it big.

Dominion’s gamble to spotlight the America Racer Late Models echoes a historic moment from 1978, when Old Dominion Speedway’s Dickie Gore introduced cost-saving rules that birthed the Late Model Stock Car class.

That innovation transformed NASCAR’s grassroots scene, and now Dominion is betting on history repeating itself.

“It is scary; it is a lot of risk,” track owner Steve Britt admitted. “But this venue is unique, and it has wide-open thinking. You have to have courage; you have to believe.”

Johnson embodies that courage. At 17, he’s not just racing against the best competitors in the nation but also against the weight of expectation, proving a kid can
lead the nation in NASCAR’s premier short-track division with a modest team and a humble approach.

This weekend, Johnson will climb back into the No. 57 for another set of twin 50-lap races at Dominion Raceway, where the stands will buzz with anticipation. Fans know
they’re witnessing something special, a teenager rewriting the script of stock-car racing.

The America Racer Late Models are more than an experiment; they’re the future. As Chase battles for the national championship top spot, not far behind in 6th is fellow Rookie of the Year contender Conner Weddell and longtime driver Mike Ganoe in 12th.

For Chase Johnson, this isn’t just a season; it’s a statement. A third generation racer, leading the nation at 17, is more than a story of wins. It’s a story of hope, resilience and the unbreakable spirit of NASCAR’s grassroots soul.

Get your tickets to the action on June 28th to watch Twin Truckin Thunder America Racer Late Models, VA Modified, Twin Kelly Heating & Cooling UCAR, Mini Stock and Twin Dominion Stocks. Parents, bring your kids’ Radio Flyer Juicebox racer or bike (no modifications) and cheer them on before the NASCAR racing begins Saturday. Participants will be grouped by age. We will drop the green Flag for kids at 6:30 p.m. on the frontstretch before we go Advance Auto Parts weekly racing at 7 p.m. Kids 15 and under get free grandstand admission with a paid adult thanks to Gateway Home Improvements.

Posted on June 25, 2025June 25, 2025 by Pat DeCola

Here’s what’s happening in NASCAR with The Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA.COM at Pocono Raceway in the rearview and the Quaker State 400 available at Walmart at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) up next.

MORE: Atlanta entry list | In-Season Challenge hub

1. Will RFK Racing be the breakout team of the In-Season Challenge?

After a rousing romp in the Poconos, RFK Racing looks primed to capitalize on a daunting — but lucrative — summer stretch to cement its playoff hopes. Could it come alive in this year’s In-Season Challenge for $1 million, too?

RFK Racing isn’t showing up to the start of this weekend’s inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge as a favorite, but it might leave as its defining story.

Over the past month, RFK has quietly assembled one of the sharpest streaks in the Cup Series. Fresh off all three drivers netting top 10s at Michigan International Speedway and Pocono, the Ford-backed organization appears primed for a breakout, and it could happen on the grand stage in the 2025 challenge debut.

The team is already trending in the direction of a steamy summer. Brad Keselowski has three top 10s in the last five points races after looking lost for the first quarter of the season. Chris Buescher has three straight, two of which were top fives. Ryan Preece is delivering career-best consistency in his first full season with a fresh No. 60 team. Together, they’ve created a front-to-back operation that now seems capable of contending in any race format, on any track type, and cohesively working together as well as, or better than, any in the sport.

That kind of form matters now more than ever.

The In-Season Challenge, debuting Saturday at Atlanta, features five high-pressure, high-variance venues in a single-elimination format where one mistake can end a run. RFK’s recent ability to race clean and finish contests with all three cars intact may be its biggest advantage, and to a degree, the only team in the garage that can boast that at the moment.

Atlanta, a pack-style drafting track since its 2022 repave, plays into Ford’s strengths. The manufacturer has earned the pole at every drafting-style race since the reconfiguration, and Keselowski remains one of the sport’s premier superspeedway racers. The two-time “old track” winner nearly added a third in 2023 at Atlanta on the new layout and consistently positions himself at the front in the closing laps of these races. Buescher is no stranger to victory in this style of racing, and Preece has kept his car in contention late during similar events. Atlanta is a race RFK could legitimately win outright; any of the three.

Chicago follows, and while the street course remains unpredictable, RFK’s sample size there is among the strongest. Preece’s No. 60 was driven to a fourth-place finish with a Stage 2 win by road-course ace Joey Hand last year, and Preece himself landed a top 15 there in the inaugural event for Stewart-Haas Racing, while Buescher was a top-10 finisher in that one. This time, all three RFK entries bring improved road-course packages into a weekend where they should be competitive, and with all three still potentially in the bracket.

Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

Sonoma Raceway might be RFK’s biggest opportunity of the five. Buescher is an absolute top-10 machine on road courses, going from “underrated” a handful of years ago to “what the heck happened?” if he’s not battling for the win on any track that turns right. Keselowski has never been an A-grade road racer but is remarkably consistent as a front-half-of-the-field guy at the winding California track. Preece has quietly snuck into Buescher’s old role as a guy who you don’t immediately think of when it comes to road courses, yet he’s consistently been running in the top 15 of those races and turned in a quality P9 last year at Watkins Glen International as SHR was sunsetting.

By the time the ISC gets to Dover Motor Speedway, if RFK still has all three of its cars in … well, hey, there’s your breakout story right there. That could be asking a bit much, but if Keselowski or Buescher (or both) are still alive at that point, it bodes well for one of them advancing to the finale. Both have positive histories at Dover, and neither cracks under pressure, which can certainly happen for some at the high-banked, extremely fast Monster Mile.

Of course, if any of them make the finale, then any of them will be impossible to ignore; each with their own unique story line of what a victory would mean and with a potential playoff spot still on the line. Keselowski has long been a Brickyard favorite and led 34 of the final 41 laps last year before Kyle Larson emerged with the win.

But this run is about more than points or prize money. If RFK “breaks out” during the In-Season Challenge, it signals something potentially larger: a long-awaited return to elite-tier relevance for a NASCAR mainstay. A tournament win or deep bracket run for any of the three would put RFK firmly back in the 2025 championship conversation. It would further validate the team’s strategic growth over the offseason to a three-car expansion while maintaining the technical cohesion between drivers, crews and engineers, along with the internal culture that Keselowski has worked tirelessly to foster in his early days as co-owner. It would show the rest of the garage that RFK is no longer just rebuilding; it’s rejoined the party.

The ISC wasn’t built for the best team on paper — it was built for the best team for the next five races.

And RFK might just be that team right now. And beyond.

brad keselowski looks on, smiling — *Chris Graythen | Getty Images*

2. With Briscoe in the books, is Ty Gibbs’ first win imminent, too?

After watching teammate Chase Briscoe bring home his first victory for Joe Gibbs Racing Sunday at Pocono, and with a strong schedule ahead for him, is the sophomore’s maiden voyage to Victory Lane around the corner as well?

Joe Gibbs Racing is firing on all fronts.

Chase Briscoe’s win at Pocono added fresh momentum after some was lost south of the border. Christopher Bell already has three victories and feels like a slam-dunk Championship 4 contender. Denny Hamlin is Denny Hamlin and remains a weekly contender. And for Ty Gibbs, now the only driver in the JGR stable still chasing his first win for the team owned by his Super Bowl-winning grandfather, the path forward has never been clearer — or more urgent.

The spotlight now dramatically shifts to No. 54, now 104 races into his Cup career, as Gibbs remains the only winless driver on a four-car team that doesn’t historically tolerate droughts, emphasized emphatically by Briscoe in his post-race press conference.

“Bell has won three races, Denny has won three. Me and Ty hadn’t won yet,” said Briscoe, after capturing a relief-inducing Pocono victory. “Last couple weeks especially, I’ve just been like this huge weight on my shoulders, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. My wife is like, ‘What is going on with you?’ I’m like, ‘I have to win. I don’t think you realize how bad it is if we don’t win a race and lock into the playoffs.’

“I feel like I honestly weigh a hundred pounds less already. Literally, when I was doing my contract with JGR, I remember them showing me the stat thing about how out of 40 attempts for the playoffs, they have made it 38 times. The expectation is if you don’t make the playoffs, you’re not going to be in this car anymore.”

Briscoe’s arrival — and near-instant payoff — has reset the baseline. Gibbs, in contrast, enters Atlanta sitting 23rd in points, without a win, a playoff spot or a signature Cup performance to date.

But numbers rarely tell the full story, especially when it comes to growth.

Gibbs’ sophomore season hasn’t felt stagnant — it’s just been a bit of a slow burn. After a 23.9 average finish through the season’s first seven races, Gibbs has four finishes of 11th or better since, recently adding on a P3 at Michigan. He’s also qualified inside the top 10 in eight of the last nine races, and eventually starting races at the front of the field turns into finishing them there, too.

The timing of Briscoe’s win resonates so strongly for the pair. It punctuated something each of them has been hovering around for several weeks: readiness. And it landed at the start of a stretch of tracks where Gibbs can follow suit.

At Atlanta, Gibbs is already a winner in the Xfinity Series on this layout and has scored a pair of top 10s in Cup. That drafting-style chaos often rewards drivers with patience and positional discipline — two qualities Gibbs has shown more of in Year 2. The Chicago Street Race, where he finished third last year in one of the most chaotic events of the season, fits the same pattern. (Notably: he’s 2-for-2 in top 10s at Chicago.)

And at strong JGR tracks ahead like Dover, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Richmond Raceway, Gibbs should settle into a rhythm to close out the summer that offers him plenty of opportunities to be competitive.

That matters. Not just because JGR expects wins, but because the window for being “almost there” in elite equipment doesn’t stay open for long, family or not.

Still just 22, Gibbs has maintained his composure as a Cup driver under unique circumstances and handled the lofty expectations with more grace than many would in his position. But the premier stock-car series has a way of boiling things down and shaking out pretenders. And as the field tightens heading toward the playoffs, there’s less room for “potential” and more of a demand for immediate presence.

That’s what Briscoe’s win captured. It didn’t redefine JGR’s expectations — Briscoe, taking over for a surefire Hall of Famer in Martin Truex Jr, was expected to win — it reaffirmed them, shifting the urgency even further and more squarely onto Gibbs, the driver who’s grown up inside this organization, yet now must find a way to break through on his own terms to make his mark on it.

The next nine races offer plenty of opportunities — some chaotic, some tactical, some pure pace. He doesn’t need to win all of them. He just needs one of them to click, and the ingredients are there: qualifying speed, improved execution, team chemistry, and an increasing ability to stay in the fight when the race turns long and strange, of which there are likely to be many over the next two-plus months. The positioning is there; now comes the part that separates promise from arrival.

Briscoe seized his moment. Gibbs might be closer to his than he’s ever been.

James Gilbert | Getty Images

3. Get to know the In-Season Challenge

NASCAR’s top stars take you through the ins-and-outs of the In-Season Challenge; see how it works before the five-race tournament gets underway.

4. Has Kyle Larson turned his luck around at Atlanta?

After initially appearing early in his career to be a track he would master, EchoPark Speedway has given Kyle Larson fits since its reconfiguration. A near-win in the spring inspired hope, however — has he gotten his Georgia gremlins out of his system? (Credit: Racing Insights)