Wood Brothers Racing will unveil its throwback paint scheme for the 2025 Darlington Raceway spring race weekend on Thursday at 11 a.m. ET.
This season marks the 75th anniversary for the iconic Cup Series organization, which won its 101st race in the series last Sunday as Josh Berry took the checkered flag at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for his first career win.
Twenty drivers have won for the iconic team following Berry’s triumph, with David Pearson owning the most with 43 trophies. Cale Yarborough, A.J. Foyt, Dale Jarrett and Ryan Blaney are also among drivers who won with the organization.
Wood Brothers Racing owns eight wins at Darlington and will go for its ninth on Sunday, April 6 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
1. Josh Berry is a Cup Series winner — is he also a title contender?
Team Penske has won three straight Cup Series championships, but its satellite teammate for Wood Brothers Racing, Josh Berry, just locked up his provisional playoff spot before all three of its drivers. Does he have a championship chance?
Wood Brothers Racing, no stranger to lengthy winless droughts in its 75 years of racing at NASCAR’s highest level, has now won two of the past 17 Cup Series races. Each victory put the winning driver — first Harrison Burton, now Josh Berry — squarely in the playoff picture. Each was an uber-popular win in the garage, seeing a well-liked driver land in Victory Lane for the first time in the premier series for arguably NASCAR’s most legendary team.
Each victory felt, however, distinctly different.
Berry’s win Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway marked a significant milestone not just for him, but also for the Wood Bros. The team now has its driver secured in the provisional playoff field just five weeks in and, notably, before its alignment partner in Team Penske — which has dominated the championship scene with three consecutive titles — has landed any of its drivers in it. Defending champ Joey Logano, though running well, hasn’t even secured his first top 10. Once again, for good measure because it’s still settling in: Josh Berry is penciled into the 2025 playoffs.
This isn’t to take anything away from Harrison Burton’s epic win at Daytona International Speedway to claim his first playoff spot last summer, but Berry’s Vegas achievement — fresh off a top-five at Phoenix last week, too — raises an intriguing question: Does he have a legitimate shot at the championship?
From competing in NASCAR’s Weekly Series to winning races in the Xfinity Series, Berry has consistently demonstrated his ability to adapt and succeed at higher levels. A squandered rookie season in the final throes of Stewart-Haas Racing perhaps lowered his stock a bit, but he was quite recently a very sought-after talent, and it’s possible WBR landed a hidden gem set to make an immediate shift to the title picture.
Through just the first five races with Berry as its driver, the Wood Bros. have achieved their most top fives since 2002 and most laps led (74) since 1982. Berry accounts for two of Ford’s five top-five finishes in 2025, including the only win, underscoring his importance to the manufacturer’s efforts as well. The team has now won in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1986-87, and it feels entirely possible Berry will give the team its first season with multiple wins since Neil Bonnett achieved it in 1981. Whereas Burton’s victory was more of a “one-hit wonder” — he’s now racing in the Xfinity Series just a handful of months after being a Cup playoff driver — Berry has fans already lining up to buy his next proverbial album.
Having access to championship-capable resources certainly doesn’t hurt, either. Being as ingrained with Penske as the Wood Brothers are is only going to further help elevate a No. 21 Ford program that has struggled to find its identity over the past few decades to solidify its foundation and build up from there. If Logano (who is just a handful of months older than Berry) and Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric (who are both three-plus years younger) have paths to the title, so now does Berry.
The flip side, of course, is that, again, it’s only been five races. Speed and strong finishes at both Phoenix and Vegas, two incredibly important spring stops, with both being pivotal playoff tracks, portends a positive outlook for the rest of the season, yes. But can he sustain this level of performance to become a genuine championship contender over the coming months?
Good luck finding any reasons why he can’t because the list is lengthy and growing for why he can.
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images
2. Are we entering the Kyle Larson portion of the schedule?
Dirt and NASCAR rival Christopher Bell was the story of the season’s first handful of races, but after looking dominant at Las Vegas, it could be the 2021 Cup Series champ’s time to shine.
Christopher Bell’s three-race winning streak may have ended at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, but it feels like another dominant stretch might just be getting started.
No, not at the hands of Josh Berry (though the way he’s running, who can rule it out?) — but Bell’s friendly rival Kyle Larson, who was dominant at Las Vegas and in position to win before things went haywire toward the end.
The upcoming tracks are extremely favorable to the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, and it would be a legitimate shock not to see Larson grab his first 2025 win by the time we hit Talladega Superspeedway in late April.
No. 5 already showed flashes of brilliance at Vegas, where the 32-year-old became the all-time laps-led leader at the track. Homestead-Miami Speedway, however, presents another opportunity to cash in — and one tailor-made for Larson’s skillset. Known for putting control in drivers’ hands more than most tracks, Homestead rewards those who can run high against the wall and manage tire wear over long runs. Few drivers excel in these conditions like Larson, who has consistently demonstrated his ability to do all of the above in crucial moments.
Larson’s 626 laps led at Homestead are also more than any other driver, and it’s a track he’ll almost definitely add more wins than the one he collected there in 2022. If you were to ask any driver in the garage who the guy to beat there is, a nary few would say anybody other than the California native.
Homestead isn’t just a one-off opportunity for him, though; it continues a stretch where we should get used to seeing a lot of blue and white paint zooming by at the front of the field. Martinsville Speedway follows Homestead on the schedule, and it’s a track that has blossomed beautifully for him since joining Hendrick Motorsports. The winner of this race in 2023, Larson has led 30 or more laps in five of the last seven races there for a whopping 332 laps total in that span.
From there comes Darlington Raceway, which often rewards aggressive yet precise driving — a hallmark of Larson’s style, of course — and a track where he won in 2023, had three straight runner-ups from 2019-21 and led 263 of 367 laps last fall. Hard to think he won’t be the favorite heading into this one, too.
And if that’s not enough, this stretch ends with what Larson himself deems to be his “favorite” stop on the schedule: Bristol Motor Speedway. How good is Larson at the Tennessee track? Tremendously. He’s won two of the past five races there — all of which were top fives — and his 462 laps led in last fall’s victory were, to put it into context, more than recently retired future Hall of Famer Martin Truex Jr. had there in his career … across35 races.
Never one to put the cart before the horse, Larson demurred a bit when asked about this favorable stretch on Wednesday during a teleconference with reporters.
“I mean, you get excited about it, but I don’t know. I just feel like with experience, you don’t go into races with too much confidence, I feel like. You just try to go there and prepare well and try to execute good on the weekends,” said the 29-time Cup winner. “So yeah, they’re good tracks for us with good history, results and stuff, but you can’t let past results just let you be so content that you don’t work still. A lot of discipline goes into our weeks and studying, and it’s no different for any of the good tracks we have coming up, or even the tracks that we feel like we struggle at beyond those.”
Still, the timing couldn’t be better for Larson. Bell’s historic three-race streak hit a crescendo, Berry’s victory felt like a wake-up call to the rest of the series and other top contenders like Logano are still searching for consistency. Larson has an opportunity to seize control of the narrative heading into summer and could start to really separate himself from the field over the next month as he begins to set his eyes on the Regular Season Championship.
None of this will come as a surprise to the rest of the garage — it’s no secret that he’s an all-world talent capable of ripping off a winning streak at almost any time. But he’ll be looking to capitalize in the immediate future in this “Kyle Larson Portion” of the schedule (it’s worth noting that he has an average finish of 17.7 or worse at three of the four points-paying tracks following Bristol), and it remains to be seen if anybody will be able to hold him winless over the next four weeks.
Josh Berry talks about the importance of earning his first Cup Series victory and letting the moment soak in after Las Vegas on NASCAR Daily.
4. Longtime tracks with no first-time winners
Josh Berry’s victory at Las Vegas was the track’s first first-time Cup Series winner in track history — in its 35th race, which was second most among active tracks. Another 1.5-mile speedway takes top honors, but Homestead isn’t too far behind. (Credit: Racing Insights)
Track
Races
Kansas
38
Homestead-Miami
26
Charlotte Roval
7
Nashville
4
Gateway
3
Iowa
1
5. Catch the pack — news and notes from around the garage
June 6, 2020 is a day Josh Berry does not like to think about too often.
Many eyes in the motorsports industry were centered on North Carolina’s Ace Speedway that evening as the CARS Tour returned to action following a three-month break stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. A stout, 28-car field meant Berry, already a series champion, had to be efficient to find Victory Lane.
What transpired was not Berry’s proudest moment. He intentionally wrecked leader Bobby McCarty in retribution for an incident between the two earlier in the evening. Berry’s actions resulted in a disqualification and garnered him a one-race suspension from the CARS Tour.
A momentary lapse in judgement set off a chain of events that led to his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon driving the iconic No. 21 for the Wood Brothers.
“It was a really cool moment,” Berry said of his breakthrough. “You think back to being a kid and watching those guys become your heroes as they race. Finally getting an opportunity in the Cup Series was really special, let alone becoming a winner. It’s a totally different level, but it’s been a lot of fun, and I’m really excited.”
Prior to 2020, Berry was content being a full-time Late Model Stock Car driver for JR Motorsports. The combination gradually became a dominant force in the discipline during the 2010s, with Berry’s accomplishments including victories in crown jewel events like the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway.
Although he occasionally ventured into the NASCAR Xfinity Series with JRM during that timeframe, a lack of funding kept Berry primarily confined to the Late Model Stock ranks. This only served to bolster his efficiency on short tracks, which made Berry a clear favorite to both fans and competitors in every race he entered.
McCarty was one of the few who could match Berry’s raw speed on a regular basis. The two came to blows on several occasions during an intense 2019 CARS Tour season that saw McCarty best Berry by one point in the final standings, resulting in plenty of tension heading into the offseason.
It took just two races and a prolonged break in 2020 for the rivalry between Berry and McCarty to reach a fever pitch. While battling for the lead at Ace with 45 laps remaining, contact with McCarty sent Berry into the outside retaining wall, resulting in significant damage that ended any chance of Berry bringing home a victory.
Frustrated with how McCarty raced him, Berry piloted his wounded car around Ace during the closing stages while patiently waiting for his long-time rival to catch him. That moment occurred inside of five laps to go, when Berry pulled in behind McCarty and proceeded to spin him on the frontstretch.
The corresponding actions from the CARS Tour were swift. Berry would not receive any points from Ace due to wrecking McCarty and was required to sit out the following event at Hickory Motor Speedway, leaving him with near-insurmountable deficit to overcome for a second series title.
Instead of lingering on the setback from Ace, Berry and JR Motorsports pivoted to a different pursuit, the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship.
What followed was an infallible performance from Berry, who amassed more than 20 victories across several different tracks in the southeast to secure the national title over Peyton Sellers.
Although he moved up to the national ranks after his NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series title, Josh Berry maintains an active presence in Late Model Stocks with occasional starts. (Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR)
A national championship was never Berry’s top priority during his first decade of Late Model Stock competition. Being able to contest the Weekly Series crown was a refreshing experience for a driver who was dually motivated to shake off the frustrations from Ace and assert control over his competition.
“We had raced a handful of times at Hickory prior to [Ace] just trying to race,” Berry said. “For the Late Model program to survive, we needed to be racing. We had accumulated some national points already, but it was a unique circumstance for us to accomplish something we never really knew if we’d have the opportunity to do again.
“We decided to go for it, and ultimately, it worked out.”
With a national championship being one of the last major achievements Berry checked off his impressive Late Model Stock resume, JR Motorsports elected to give him another opportunity at the Xfinity Series in 2021, when he would drive the team’s No. 8 in limited starts before eventually going full time.
During his time in Late Model Stocks, Josh Berry was one of the most dominant competitors in the discipline while driving for JR Motorsports. (Photo: Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)
The consistency that followed Berry in Late Model Stocks carried on to the national stage.
In three years with JR Motorsports’ Xfinity Series program, Berry tallied five victories and advanced to the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway in 2022. He also branched into the Cup Series as a substitute driver for teams like Hendrick Motorsports, Legacy Motor Club and Spire Motorsports.
With Berry’s reliability becoming more renowned to NASCAR team owners outside of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Stewart-Haas Racing signed him to a full-time deal in 2024 as Kevin Harvick’s replacement. One year later, Berry finds himself as a Cup Series winner with one of the sport’s most esteemed organizations in the Wood Brothers.
Berry’s triumph Sunday put him amongst an elite list of drivers who have won for the Wood Brothers such as David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, A.J. Foyt and others. Knowing the history of the organization and its stellar list of former drivers, Berry felt he could flourish with the Wood Brothers from their opening race together.
“When I met with [the Wood Brothers] for the first time, it seemed like the right opportunity for me,” Berry said. “Obviously, their affiliation with Team Penske makes it an exciting opportunity, but being a part of the Wood Brothers, who I am as a racer and my years at the grassroots level makes it seem like I’m the right fit for their car and what they represent.”
With his Las Vegas Motor Speedway victory, Josh Berry joins a prestigious group of drivers who have won with the Wood Brothers. (Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR)
Now that he has a spot in the Playoffs, Berry can focus on building cohesion with crew chief Miles Stanley and the rest of the Wood Brothers team over the rest of the regular season so everyone can be prepared to chase a title in the fall.
The idea of even chasing a Cup Series championship was far-fetched to Berry at the start of the decade. Had he not retaliated against McCarty at Ace several years ago, there’s a decent chance Berry would still be occupied building up short-track accomplishments today.
For all the initial negatives that came from that night, Berry considers himself grateful for the journey on which he has embarked. He always knew he was capable of being a Cup Series driver, but the support he received after what transpired at Ace refined that confidence and enabled him to reach one milestone after another.
“Those were interesting times, for sure,” Berry said. “A lot of my buddies still pester me about that and how it all transpired. Things happen for a reason, and looking back on that, I don’t know if I ever thought [wrecking McCarty would] lead to anything more than a suspension. It’s hard for me to say I’d do that again because it probably wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done.
“It happened, we moved on from it, and it’s going to be a part of my history from now on.”
Everything that occurred at Ace in June of 2020 is in the past for Berry. His focus is on the future, where he intends to help the Wood Brothers re-establish themselves as one of the most consistent organizations in the Cup Series.
NASCAR will review its penalty for a team getting service outside its pit stall but has no intention to outlaw allowing a rival team to help tighten a wheel.
During Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell left his service with a loose left front wheel and was directed to stop in another team’s stall. He went to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe’s No. 19 pit crew, which tightened the wheel before Bell’s No. 20 Toyota went back on track.
NASCAR managing director of racing communications Mike Forde said in the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast that the unusual maneuver would remain allowed because of its safety implications.
“In our view, a tire coming off the car is a very dangerous situation,” Forde said. “That’s something we take very seriously. I think that’s where the allowance, the acceptance of what the 20 team did, and really the applauding of what the 20 team did, comes in because if what they did was avoid that dangerous situation, we’re OK with it to a certain point.”
Bell’s team was penalized for pitting outside the box and sent to the back for a restart. The punishment for pitting outside the box was reduced before the 2024 season from a one-lap penalty, and Forde said NASCAR could adjust the penalty again if concerns were raised about teams abusing the practice of stopping in another stall.
“The concern is the unintended consequences,” Forde said. “I don’t think it’s as much a loose tire and tightening that up. We’re always going to be OK with that. … More so it comes down to the 20 leaves the box, the wheels are all fine, but the gas man didn’t pack it full of fuel. Is (the 20) going to be allowed to stop in the 19 pit box and top off?
“That is a little bit different in our opinion. That’s the discussion we’re having now. Do we need to look a little bit deeper to say, ‘OK, this is not really in the spirit of the rule.’ Safety is one thing, a competitive advantage is another. So that’s really the conversation we’ll continue to have, but going into Homestead, no changes to the rule. But somewhere in the future, potentially.”
After a rash of loose wheels several years ago, NASCAR ratcheted up the penalties for tires coming off a car outside its pit box. But Las Vegas was believed to mark the first time a driver stopped in a rival’s stall for service.
Forde was unaware of any team preemptively checking with NASCAR about the legality of having another pit crew perform service.
Continuing a trend during the 2025 Cup season, there were four loose wheels during the Vegas race. Forde said NASCAR officials had discussions with the teams of Briscoe, Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch that had loose wheels this season to ensure there were no issues with pit guns or the wheels. In the case of Larson’s loose wheel at Circuit of The Americas, a wheel weight caused the problem while other instances appeared to be the lug was improperly tightened.
The guest on this week’s “Hauler Talk” is NASCAR Cup Series director of technical inspection Brian Goble.
Other topics covered during the sixth episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— How officials discovered unapproved adjustments to the No. 88 truck during a rain delay at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the new “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
NASCAR officials issued pit-crew suspensions Wednesday to two Cup Series teams for detached wheels during last Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota crew each had wheels that became unfastened during Sunday’s Pennzoil 400. The safety violations — under Sections 8.8.10.4.A & C in the NASCAR Rule Book — resulted in two-race suspensions for two over-the-wall crew members from each team, starting with this weekend’s event at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and continuing through the March 30 race at Martinsville Speedway.
Crew members sidelined for the next two Cup Series races are:
No. 8: Dylan Moser (jack) and Shiloh Windsor (rear-tire changer)
No. 19: Caleb Dirks (jack) and Daniel Smith (rear-tire changer)
Competition officials also issued a handful of fines to four Xfinity Series teams and one in the Craftsman Truck Series for unsecured lug nuts that were discovered in post-race checks at Las Vegas.
Four Xfinity teams were fined $5,000 each for having one unfastened lug after Saturday’s The Liuna event:
No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota
No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet
One Craftsman Truck Series team was fined $2,500 for the same infraction after Friday’s Ecosave 200:
No. 07 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
NASCAR officials also issued suspensions to two crew members for violations of the sport’s Substance Abuse Policy. Suspended indefinitely were Josiah Wright, recently listed on NASCAR team rosters as rear tire-changer for RFK Racing’s No. 6 Ford team in the Cup Series, and Corbin Sklener, listed on season-opening rosters as a tire carrier for GK Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series and jackman for Mike Harmon Racing in the Xfinity Series. Coleman Dollarhide subbed in for the RFK No. 6 team at rear changer, starting last weekend at Las Vegas.
When Big Machine Racing knew Parker Kligerman wasn’t returning for the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, team owner Scott Borchetta and crew chief Patrick Donahue created a list of drivers they were interested in pursuing. Near the top of that list was Nick Sanchez.
Big Machine spoke to other drivers about the vacancy, but Sanchez was always on the list from his first six-race stint with the team during the 2022 campaign.
“I knew that we were better (from 2022), and I knew Nick had two years of racing experience, even if it is a truck,” Donahue said. “Everything has multiplied, and he has a better understanding of what he wants. He was always on the list, and we needed to pull the trigger on it.”
Sanchez, who grew up karting and was introduced to NASCAR through Rev Racing and the Drive for Diversity Program, scored two victories in the Craftsman Truck Series in his sophomore season last year. This is the first time in seven years that the Miami native has branched away from Rev Racing.
The two sides remained in touch throughout Sanchez’s Truck Series tenure. During the second half of 2024, Sanchez stuck around after his truck races to get a feel for what being a full-time Xfinity driver would be like in 2025.
With two additional years of experience, he was ready for the jump and felt like he needed to compete more to become a more well-rounded driver.
“In 2023, I made a lot of mistakes as a rookie in the trucks and could have won a lot of races, but I didn’t,” Sanchez said. “In 2024, I won two races but still feel like I could have won more. If I didn’t win, I finished in the top five.
“When I looked at the truck schedule versus the Xfinity schedule, what I felt like I needed most to get ready for Sundays if the opportunity arises, I need seat time. I needed laps at all these tracks that I really don’t have laps at. That was my main reason for the jump because I could have stayed in trucks again with Spire, but I needed a bigger schedule.”
The often-confident Donahue wasn’t concerned about Sanchez’s adjustment period to Xfinity. He saw Sanchez become consistent over the last two seasons and believed the transition to a new full-time driver would be relatively easy for Big Machine Racing in 2025.
“I did not believe that we would change anything from the way we’ve been in the past,” Donahue said. “Maybe that’s arrogant of me, but I was confident enough in the 48 car and my guys that I knew we could change drivers and pick up where we left off.
“I didn’t think we would miss a beat. I just didn’t. I had such confidence in our race cars, in our people, in our processes. I know what to do. I know how to put this together. I knew that we were going to pick right up and go race. I still feel that way. We’ve done that the first few races, and I know we will continue to do that. I came home from Phoenix last fall and felt like we were going to change seats and go race in 2025, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Through the first five races, Sanchez has an average finish of 18.8, the same average finish he had in eight Xfinity starts in 2022. The No. 48 Chevrolet was involved in a wreck at Daytona International Speedway while running toward the front of the field. The following weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he scored his first top-five finish, rebounding from damage early in the race. The last two weekends have been clean, including a 10th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway. Sanchez currently sits 16th in the championship standings.
While Sanchez is getting used to steeper competition at the Xfinity level, he feels like he already belongs in the series.
“I guess I’m a rookie, but I don’t feel like a rookie,” Sanchez said. “I don’t feel like a rookie in the sense of the past two years I’ve had in trucks. It’s just another race car. There are little nuances about it, but it’s still the same race tracks, and the same rules apply. I’m not taking that big learning curve like I did in 2023.”
Sanchez won’t sugarcoat his goals for 2025, either. Big Machine hasn’t won a race in nearly three years, when Tyler Reddick earned the team’s only victory at Texas Motor Speedway in May 2022. But an affiliation with Richard Childress Racing, which won the opening two races of the season, is crucial to Sanchez’s learning curve.
To be considered a rewarding season, Sanchez believes he needs to win.
“The only successful year is wins,” Sanchez said. “A lot of people probably say that’s outlandish, but that’s why I’m here. That’s why Scott brought me on as a race car driver. He hasn’t gotten wins the last two years and he wants wins. I want to win.
“A lot of people are wrapping their heads around this race team. We’re not an underdog team, we’re not underfunded, under-budgeted. We have every single resource at our fingertips, and if we don’t have it, we go get it.”
Sanchez returns to his hometrack in Miami this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he fell in love with racing. In his lone Xfinity start at the 1.5-mile venue, he placed 25th (2022).
CONCORD, N.C. — Goodyear officials were in NASCAR’s Charlotte-area backyard for tire testing Tuesday, giving Cup Series and Xfinity Series teams a go at gathering tire data and dialing in their set-ups for intermediate-sized tracks. While a recent push toward softer tire compounds with more short-term grip and advanced wear and fall-off has been a trend on smaller ovals, Tuesday’s track time at Charlotte Motor Speedway was more about finding a happy medium.
Tuesday marked the second Goodyear tire test for the Cup Series in just more than a week, with three teams participating in a one-day test on March 10 at Phoenix Raceway. That session was intended to find a softer-tire foundation for similar tracks of 1 mile or shorter in length; Goodyear officials indicated that Tuesday’s test at the 1.5-mile Charlotte track was designed to determine a baseline for other intermediate-sized ovals on the Cup Series calendar.
The Cup Series and Xfinity Series are fresh off their most recent events on a similar 1.5-mile track type, racing last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Based on what Daytona 500 champ William Byron sees in Goodyear’s offerings for intermediate circuits, wholesale changes are unnecessary.
“I feel like the tire on the intermediate actually falls off pretty good,” said Hendrick Motorsports’ Byron, who joined Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe among Cup Series drivers testing Tuesday. “Sure, it could fall off more, but we’re kind of at the limit of blowing tires or cording tires, and I think, honestly, the tires at Vegas were going down to the cords if your balance was off, and some guys blew tires as we ran laps. So I feel like the intermediate racing has been really good, and honestly, I don’t think we need to touch it. Honestly, I think it’s really just a weather thing trying to get hotter races where it’s slicker, but you know, there’s plenty of cautions on intermediates right now, and it seems like there’s plenty of racing going on, so I think the tire’s in a good spot.”
Blaney echoed Byron’s sentiment, saying he hopes for more scenarios where throttle lift is necessary for navigating intermediate-track turns. The move toward softer tires is a delicate balance to strike, especially at ovals where drivers carry such high speeds through the corners.
“It puts Goodyear in a tough spot, and I try to put myself in Goodyear’s shoes, and I don’t want their job because they have a really tough job of manufacturing these tires that we all are saying that we want,” Blaney said after Tuesday’s session drew to a close. “I don’t know how to make these things. Like, it’s easy to say, yeah, go softer, go softer, go softer. Well, you go softer, and now you have a risk of people failing tires, and you wreck. So it’s like, what is that fine line of a tire that does wear but doesn’t blow out … and you don’t really get a lot of shots at it, right? You have some tires here, and then you show up at the race weekend with them. So it’s a tough job, but really, I just look for off-throttle time. How do you get the tire to be slick enough where you have to bail out of the gas and have to creep back to it?
“I think that’s just what we need on the mile-and-a-halfs, and they’re getting there. I mean, they’ve made huge improvements the last few years, and I applaud them for that, so hopefully, we can continue to keep going with them.”
With no drastic changes coming from Goodyear’s side, some of Tuesday’s on-track time allowed teams to focus on their own intermediate-track programs ahead of Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Byron welcomed the chance for his No. 24 team to make incremental gains, and Blaney said he appreciated being able to turn extra laps and build data with a “control” tire — a treasured rarity these days with test sessions at a scarce premium.
For Briscoe, the session provided another day for extra orientation with his new Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 team and crew chief James Small.
“Yeah, it’s a tire test, but I’m almost just more trying to get more and more acclimated with the JGR cars and just how different they drive,” said Briscoe, who joined Coach Joe Gibbs’ organization in the offseason after four years with Stewart-Haas Racing. “You know, I’ve had to change my driving style a ton over the course of the last two or three weeks, just trying to better suit how their cars are set up. So, for me, that was a big focus today. It was nice coming off of another mile-and-a-half just two days ago.”
The same three Cup Series teams are scheduled for another full day of Goodyear tire testing Wednesday, with the Charlotte track open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. For the three Xfinity Series teams — Haas Factory Team with driver Sheldon Creed, JGR (Aric Almirola) and Richard Childress Racing (Austin Hill) — Tuesday marked their lone day of testing.
Tuesday’s session was not divided up by series, which meant that Cup and Xfinity cars shared an open track simultaneously. That created interesting occurrences, with Briscoe’s No. 19 Cup Series Toyota Camry making the rounds at the same time as another No. 19 — Almirola’s Xfinity Toyota Supra. It also highlighted the differences between the two vehicles on the same-style speedway.
“The Cup cars just have so much more grip than the Xfinity cars do,” said Hill, who ranks fourth in Xfinity Series points. “We have low downforce, low sideforce, so we can run some decent lap times for the first five laps, and then we fall off really hard, and it looked like the Cup cars didn’t really fall off much. So yeah, there were a few times they got to me, they blew my doors off, and when they got by me, and I got behind them, it was the weirdest thing because their cars, just the way the diffuser works and everything, the buffer that they have, that those cars have, it was causing my car to do some weird stuff, like even down the straightaway. It was kind of buffering the car around, so that was kind of interesting — something that I’ve never felt before with having a Cup car out there versus an Xfinity car. But all in all, I mean, the biggest thing, those Cup cars just have so much more grip in the corner, and we’re about the same speed down the straightaway. They just can get through the corner way faster than us.”
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (March 18, 2025) — Joe Gibbs Racing announced Tuesday that the organization has signed an agreement with Progressive Insurance to sponsor Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE in 18 NASCAR Cup Series races this season, beginning with Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Progressive’s name and branding will be prominently displayed on Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota and race suit, and his crew will also be sporting Progressive-branded gear.
“Progressive is a premier national brand and a leader in the insurance industry. We are thrilled to have them partner with Denny (Hamlin) and our No. 11 team,” said Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing. “We all know that NASCAR fans love being active and on the move, whether it is in their cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats or recreational vehicles, and we look forward to raising awareness on how Progressive can protect them and their families.”
Beyond this weekend’s race at Homestead-Miami, Progressive is scheduled to be the primary sponsor of Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota for races at Martinsville Speedway (March 30), Bristol Motor Speedway (April 13), Talladega Superspeedway (April 27), Texas Motor Speedway (May 4), Kansas Speedway (May 11), the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway (May 18), Nashville Superspeedway (June 1), Pocono Raceway (June 22), the Chicago Street Race (July 6), Dover Motor Speedway (July 20), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 27), Watkins Glen International (Aug. 10), Richmond Raceway (Aug. 16), World Wide Technology Raceway (Sept. 7), New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Sept. 21), the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (Oct. 5) and Phoenix Raceway (Nov. 2). In addition, Progressive will also be featured as a full-season associate partner with Hamlin and the No. 11 team.
“When the opportunity arose for us to be a part of the Joe Gibbs Racing family and support renowned NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin, we were all in,” said Sean Freeman, Progressive’s Business Leader of Direct Media. “We love JGR’s pursuit of excellence and Hamlin’s proven success on the track. Together, our marketing and their driving styles align well and can’t wait to see the No. 11 in action.”
Hamlin is competing in his 20th full-time season in the Cup Series. He is tied for 12th on the all-time wins list with 54 victories, including three wins last year. His Cup Series career has included monumental wins like his trio of Daytona 500 victories (2016, 2019, 2020), three Southern 500 wins (2010, 2017, 2021), and a Coca-Cola 600 triumph in 2022. Hamlin currently sits 12th in the Cup Series standings with a best finish of second at Phoenix.
“This is a huge deal for our No. 11 team and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing,” said Hamlin. “We’re really looking forward to having Progressive on board and being able to deliver for them on and off the race track. For me, it’s exciting to team up with a brand like Progressive that is so innovative with their marketing and the different ways you see them activate. I can’t wait to get going with them starting this weekend.”
From female series executives and team owners to race engineers and drivers, auto racing has become one of the more diverse sports on the planet, providing a rare opportunity for men and women to compete head-to-head at a major league level.
While it has taken time to consistently provide that diversity, there is both obvious and subtle progress in the sport. As the world celebrates Women’s History Month, it’s a fitting time to examine how the NASCAR grid has evolved both stateside and internationally.
One of the most promising young drivers in the United States is 20-year-old Isabella Robusto, an established member of the next generation of racing stars — regardless of gender. She quickly proved herself as a top talent, earning three top-10 finishes in her first four ARCA national series starts last year.
This season, in addition to moving up to full-time competition in the ARCA Menards Series for the Venturini Racing Team, the South Carolinian — who graduated from high school a year early — is currently studying aeronautical engineering at Arizona State University.
It’s clear in talking to her that racing against men is essentially a non-issue. And that’s exactly the kind of progress that she stands to benefit from.
“I feel like the drivers I’ve grown up racing do [show respect], but we’ve been racing against each other for 10 years now, and we understand we’re all good enough to be running up front, so let’s not just knock each other out of the way all the time,” said Robusto, who acknowledged she has faced some hurdles along the way but has largely found competitors to be accepting and fair.
“You have a handful of people you didn’t grow up with, that grew up in a different way, with a different racing route, and you have to race them on national TV where everything is on camera, and it can be a different perspective. I think it really depends on how much respect you have for them. If they’ve seen what you’ve been able to accomplish, it’s better. If not, it’s hard sometimes.”
She concedes there have been times she was perhaps unfairly challenged or raced differently because she is female but says it is much different now than when she was starting out a decade ago.
“I feel like, overall, some boys will race you harder. I had that, especially when I was growing up. But I’ve turned it into a positive, where I practice my race craft even more. I feel like it helps me in a way. Now, if you get the two or three guys that want to race you harder than the rest [of the field], you can kind of fall back on the race craft you’ve learned throughout the years.”
Adam Glanzman | ARCA
That’s a familiar theme. And having to prove themselves as they move up the ranks seems to have made some female drivers even better by increasing their learning curve exponentially.
Robusto’s rise through the ranks based on talent rather than spectacle is especially encouraging for veteran racers in some of NASCAR’s premier international series. They appreciate the growth and respect younger drivers are receiving today.
At 34 years old, NASCAR Canada Series driver Shantel Kalika has seen the progress firsthand. The Saskatoon driver is one of the more popular competitors in the series, where she owned her car and raced full-time from 2018 to 2022. She now makes selected starts.
“I think that’s always the topic of conversation to some degree, but I think the world has evolved in the sense of being more accepting of that. I feel like it still exists, just not as much of a stigma around it in the sense that we recognize you’re different than everybody else,” Kalika said of typically being one of the only women on the grid as she worked her way up.
“For me, it’s always been important to show up and be seen as just another competitor. I think, at the same time, there’s a piece that comes into play when you’re a female in a male-dominated sport. You do have to consistently prove yourself in that environment.
“I think it means breaking some of those stereotypes and challenging some perceptions. I think sometimes you’re fighting for the same level of respect, and that comes from earning it. I think that was always something I was just raised with.”
Kalika credits her father with bringing her up through the ranks with the kind of tough love and hard lessons that she believes ultimately helped her competitively.
“The first year I started racing, my dad actually made me start at the back of the pack at my local race track,” Kalika recalled. “I had to start at the back every race for the whole season, and I absolutely despised it at the time.
“I was thinking, ‘Why do I need to do this?’ Looking at it now, I am ever thankful that my dad had that outlook. For me to be able to go out there and gain respect and race door-to-door, to start at the back and work my way up, the car control of racing side by side with other people — it taught me so much more, and I think that’s what helped me have such a good career now.”
Italian Arianna Casoli, 50, is competing in the NASCAR Euro Series this season, announcing just last week that she will again drive for Speedhouse Racing in the Open division. The series not only has substantial female participation but also offers a special “Lady Trophy” — a year-end honor recognizing the top female driver in the class — a title Casoli has won five times.
Casoli, who works professionally as an architect, is popular in the paddock with young girls who see her as a role model — whether inspiring them to drive race cars or build buildings. She hopes to encourage them to pursue their dreams.
“This young generation, the ladies that want to approach the sport, must know what is happening,” Casoli said. “Motorsports is the only sport where there are no adjustments for women. Mentally, in a certain way, we are also different, and this is really powerful to make them understand they can do it.”
Speak to Casoli for even a few minutes, and you walk away inspired — exactly the effect she is proud to pass along.
“I want to improve and learn things, and there is a lot I can do,” Casoli said. “In Europe, it is not so common to have people on track talking with a driver, but I had that chance with Euro NASCAR. Many said, ‘I want to do what you are doing.’ Some moms came up and told me, ‘You are giving an example to my daughter and my son that it is possible to do it.’
“I never imagined it could be possible to do so many things just doing what I love. I think it is a matter of passion. It is not easy. The challenges you face are so hard sometimes — on track and maybe more so outside the race track — but I love what I do.”
Being able to do what you love is perhaps the truest sign of achievement and progress — even if you have to be part of a societal shift to do that. And, in racing, it extends even beyond the driver’s seat, which is encouraging for the future.
“I’m seeing so many more young [female] racers competing in a variety of types [of cars] to get the variety of experiences that will pay dividends as they progress up the ladder,” said Lyn St. James, a co-founder of Women in Motorsports North America (WIMNA) and one of the most successful racers of any gender.
“We need all forms of motorsports to help tell the stories of the successful women racers because it will put them on the radar to help capture the wave of support for women in sports. … It’s an opportunity to create more exposure and support for all of motorsports. It’s happening with the women engineers in motorsports crossing over to STEM and technology. These are opportunities for the sport to grow.”
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. — HARMAN International announced today that it has become a NASCAR Technology Partner aimed at delivering premium audio experiences for racing fans through future race track audio upgrades. This partnership enables NASCAR to design and implement high-quality integrated audio systems using HARMAN Professional Solutions brands, including JBL Professional loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers, BSS digital signal processing and more.
HARMAN Professional is a global leader in developing advanced audio systems for large-scale venues, with solutions deployed in stadiums, arenas, music festivals, theme parks, and performing arts centers worldwide. Through this technology partnership, HARMAN’s expertise and product offerings will help elevate sound quality for race fans across NASCAR’s race track properties as upgrades are required at any one of the 14 NASCAR-owned venues. In addition to the primary exterior race track areas, NASCAR venues feature numerous interior spaces where intelligibility and high-quality audio is essential for announcements, broadcast coverage, and music.
“JBL and NASCAR are two iconic brands that were founded just two years apart in the 1940s, and will now work together to enhance one of the most thrilling and widely attended sports in the world,” said Brian Divine, President of HARMAN Professional Solutions. “On any given day, thousands of fans around the world experience audio through a JBL system, and we are excited to collaborate with NASCAR through this technology partnership to bring them even closer to the action through superior sound.”
Founded in 1948, NASCAR is the premier sanctioning body of stock car racing in North America and operates 14 race track properties, including Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway, Phoenix Raceway and others.
Further details on the partnership and specific audio integrations will be announced as the 2025 season progresses.
