Woody Pitkat, a four-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour winner, will return to the series to compete part-time with Danny Watts Racing in 2025. Driving the No. 82, Pitkat will run select events, including all three races at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, beginning with the Icebreaker on March 30.
Additional Thompson events will take place on Aug. 6 and Oct. 12.
Pitkat is also scheduled to compete in NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races at Monadnock Speedway on May 3 and July 19, along with the Tour event at White Mountain Motorsports Park on June 28. He will also return to Oswego Speedway on August 30 to run the 150-lap event in upstate New York, and plans to compete at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on September 20.
As of now, eight races of the 16-race schedule are planned. Adjustments may be made as the season moves along.
“Working with Danny and the entire team is always a great time,” Pitkat said. “We’ve selected some of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races we feel we have the best chance to run up front and contend for wins. That’s what we are out to do with this team – capture a few trophies and get Danny’s car back in Victory Lane. We’re looking forward to Thompson’s Icebreaker to get the season started”
Four different drivers won the first four races in 2024 — part of a season that had zero back-to-back winners for the first time since 1984, and 18 distinct race winners overall. That latter number was tied (with 2011) for the second-most distinct winners in any season since 2004 — trailing only the first season of the Next Gen car in 2022, when 19 different drivers won races.
Meanwhile, the start of the 2025 season couldn’t be more different. After William Byron won his second straight Daytona 500, Christopher Bell rattled off a historic streak of three consecutive wins at Atlanta, COTA and Phoenix. Although other drivers have been competitive — Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Austin Cindric have combined to lead more total laps (319) than Bell and Byron (214) — there’s no question the most dominant drivers, especially at the most important moments of each race, have been the only drivers to win races this year.
If you look at my rolling driver rankings, the distribution is heavily skewed toward the top duo of No. 1 Bell and No. 2 Byron. Because things have been a bit mixed for other preseason top-10 members (Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Logano, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, etc.) — while Kyle Busch has been the next-best driver by Driver Rating — Bell and Byron have ended up with a huge gap in base predicted performance (independent of track type) versus everyone else.
After four races, the average of Bell’s (109.8) and Byron’s (109.1) rolling ratings is 109.4, 13.8 points clear from that of No. 3 Blaney (95.6). That’s the second-widest gap between Nos. 1-2 and No. 3 in the rankings at this stage of a season since 2006: The only wider gap belonged to 2015, when Kevin Harvick (129.9) and Logano (111.5) were well ahead of No. 3 Brad Keselowski (103.6).
Harvick was coming off a championship the previous season, and while he didn’t ultimately repeat in 2015, he won two of the first four races on the calendar, with Logano and Jimmie Johnson splitting the other two. It was early in a highly dominant 2014-2020 run for Harvick in the No. 4 car after leaving Richard Childress Racing for Stewart-Haas Racing, a seven-year stretch during which he handily led the Cup Series in wins (35), top fives (125), top 10s (180) and average Driver Rating (109.6). Not coincidentally, it was also the peak of the sixth-generation car, which lent itself to many of the most top-heavy season starts in the chart above.
The same could not really be said of the Next Gen car — hence, all of those different winners last year. So it’s surprising to see Bell and Byron pull away from the pack to begin the 2025 season, representing what might be the first true powerhouse rivalry of the Next Gen era.
It’s not necessarily the rivalry at the top we were expecting, either. Larson was the betting favorite for the championship heading into the season, perhaps unsurprisingly, while either Logano or Blaney had won each of the previous three titles. Hamlin had equal or better odds to win the title than Byron as well. Any combination thereof would have seemed as likely or more likely to rise above the rest and start the 2025 season as a two-man show.
But it was Bell and Byron, and there’s a certain logic to it — plus plenty of shared history, too.
The pair got very different starts in racing: Bell on dirt tracks with sprint cars, Byron on computer sims. But by the time they reached NASCAR’s national ranks, their careers became deeply intertwined. They both entered the 2015 Truck Series as highly touted prospects, and both moved up to Xfinity in 2017. They each won titles that year — Byron in Xfinity, Bell in the Trucks — and by 2021, both were race winners at the Cup level. They’d share the Championship 4 stage together in 2023 as well. Each has spent the past three years consistently finishing in the top six in points, establishing themselves as two of the cleanest, most talented drivers in the sport. Now, after years of knocking on the door, they appear to be on a collision course for the 2025 title.
The drivers handled the fallout with the grace we’ve come to expect from them. There’s no question, however, that the lingering competitive fire — and the raw feelings — from that moment still burn.
Although there’s a lot more racing left to do this season, it’s hard to ignore the possibility that we’re watching Bell and Byron establish themselves as the class of the field in 2025. In addition to the statistical driver rankings, Bell is currently the 2025 Cup Series championship favorite according to DraftKings, but it’s actually Byron who leads the points standings despite Bell’s win streak. In other words, this battle is set to go back and forth all year long. And if last year’s playoff drama was any indication, their paths will probably cross again when the stakes are highest.
NASCAR officials updated the Cup Series Rule Book on Wednesday, revising rules around the Open Exemption Provisional (OEP) berth to mandate a 41-car field when it is granted.
Competition officials released a bulletin Wednesday afternoon to Section 5.1.F under the “Entry Guidelines” heading, adding a sentence that states: “The Open Exemption Provisional will be applied only if more than 40 vehicles are qualifying for the Event. In that case, it will be applied regardless of the vehicle’s Qualifying position, and the starting field will be 41.”
If there are 40 or fewer cars on an event’s entry list, officials indicated that OEP rules will not be activated. Under that format, the OEP entry would be eligible for points and prize money — which would not otherwise be awarded to an OEP entry if used in a 41-car field.
Previously, the OEP rule stated that if a driver eligible for the provisional berth qualifies for the race, the field would remain at the typical 40-car maximum. Going forward, starting fields with an OEP in play will be 41 cars, regardless of the provisional entry’s qualifying outcome.
The Open Exemption Provisional was announced before the 2025 season, creating a guaranteed “promoter’s choice” provisional spot in the field for accomplished, world-class drivers, including those with compelling credentials from other forms of motorsports. Trackhouse Racing applied for the OEP for this year’s Daytona 500 within the required 90 days’ notice, and Hélio Castroneves — a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner — drove the team’s No. 91 Chevrolet to a 39th-place finish after starting last in the 41-car field.
Competition officials also added language to the rule, saying, “NASCAR has full discretion to deem certain Events ineligible for the OEP.”
This year’s Daytona 500 had the largest field since 2015, when the starting lineup was capped at 43 cars.
Drivers are stumped right now in their pursuit of ending Christopher Bell’s run. Is there anybody out there who can halt his hot streak at Las Vegas?
When Denny Hamlin exited his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, all he could do was put his hands on his hips and stare off, at a loss for words, into the desert distance.
Short of dumping his teammate and making for an uncomfortable Monday afternoon in Huntersville, Hamlin did everything he could to outmaneuver Christopher Bell in the two-lap sprint to the finish … and yet the Oklahoma native, now in the midst of a dominant three-race win streak, remained insurmountable.
No. 20 is now the fourth driver in history to win three of the first four races of the season, the first to win three in a row since Kyle Larson’s 2021 championship season and the sole proprietor of JGR’s last five Cup Series wins. Considering the team’s 2024 lineup featured two easy first-ballot Hall of Famers before even examining his own resume, what Bell is doing on the race track so far in 2025 is just wild the more one thinks about it.
At this point, it can’t be very fun to race against Bell. This must be what it felt like watching a certain No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet run roughshod over the field in the late 2000s. Coincidentally, Bell has a good chance to become the first driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to win four in a row.
The one saving grace for the field is that Bell has yet to win at Vegas — and JGR as a whole hasn’t won there in the Next Gen era — but, really, that’s just grasping at straws. Bell’s going to be great at Vegas. We know this.
Not to take anything away from what Bell is doing, which is truly remarkable, but he has a gigantic target on his back right now. If you asked his competition, they’d all say something to the effect of “control what you can control … we’re only focused on ourselves, etc. etc.,” but I’m here to tell you it’s all hogwash. Literally every other driver in the field is singularly focused on doing exactly one thing right now — beating Bell.
The odds favor the field in that scenario, and had the first four race wins been split among four different names instead of one guy winning three of them, we would be talking about somebody else as the clear favorite this weekend — Kyle Larson.
The winner of two of the last three Las Vegas races is the unquestioned man to beat in Sin City, and Hendrick Motorsports — winners of five of the last eight there, including all four spring races in that span — is the team to beat. Larson’s 629 laps led there (second-most at any 1.5-mile track for him) are second all-time to Kevin Harvick (679), and there’s a significant chance he takes the top spot this weekend. No. 5 has earned a top five in almost half of his 17 Vegas starts and a 9.4 average finish is his best at any active intermediate track.
Just because a fellow driver is on a hot streak doesn’t just wash away recent history, which almost exclusively favors Larson over Bell here. Surely, they both know this. And surely, it’s eating Larson up watching his biggest rival take command of the series he had in the palm of his hand just a few seasons ago.
In our preseason coverage we highlighted this as the “rivalry to watch” in 2025 and it feels inevitable several more chapters will be written over the coming months. We already saw an entry on the final lap at Atlanta Motor Speedway a few weeks back.
Expect the next one to come this Sunday.
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
2. Four races in — is anybody sweating yet?
How much can actually be taken away from the season’s first four races? For some teams, not a whole lot. For some other strugglers out there … perhaps the heat is rising a bit.
Joey Logano isn’t doing a whole lot to dispel that whole even year/odd year phenomenon.
Fresh off his third title — all of which came in an even-numbered year — there was reason to believe that Logano and crew chief Paul Wolfe, arguably the strongest pairing in the garage, would build off an exceptional playoff run and come out firing on all cylinders to start this season, odd-numbered year be damned.
Instead?
No. 22 is the first defending champion in Cup Series history to fail to earn a top-10 finish in the first four races of the following season. Not exactly how they drew it up, I’m guessing.
But is it that simple? Not quite, as Logano actually is having a decent campaign so far with plenty of speed in his No. 22 machine, sitting ninth in the standings by virtue of collecting the second-most stage points (46) of anybody so far to help buoy his positioning.
This points to how fluky and unpredictable the start to this season has been — one guy is winning most of the races while 29 of the 45 drivers to start a 2025 race have incurred a DNF, the most through four races since 2001. Thirty-three different drivers have a top-15 finish as well — the most through four races since 2001 and only the second time since 1985.
Some drivers we’re not used to seeing near the front are finishing well and the opposite is true, too.
But how many of them have reason to worry?
Logano is likely fine — and can probably toss his hat into the ring with Larson this weekend as one of Bell’s biggest threats — but his former Team Penske teammate and fellow champion Brad Keselowski is 33rd in points — tied for his worst start ever through four races since in a full-time career that started in 2010.
I’m just using him as an example among the many, and it’s possible Keselowski, a 2024 playoff driver, will be fine as well, but the underlying markers aren’t as favorable as they are for Logano. The No. 6 RFK Racing driver also has no top 10s — but he also has just nine stage points, with no laps led and a 28.3 average finish.
Again, four races … and 32 to go.
But some of these early season trends are likely to continue well into the summer months and perhaps beyond.
Just makes you wonder how many of these drivers and teams are confident in their processes and will stay the course hoping for a period of stabilization — or if the sweating is already starting and we could see shakeups sooner than normal as parity throughout the field increases and holes become too deep out of which to dig.
Christopher Bell joins Corey LaJoie’s “Stacking Pennies” podcast to discuss the No. 20’s rise in success following the team’s thrilling victory at Phoenix Raceway and why they are thinking long-term despite the early-season success.
4. West Coast is the best coast for these drivers
NASCAR’s West Coast swing wraps up this weekend with a 1.5-mile barn burner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Races on the opposite side of the country from NASCAR’s North Carolina hub have tended to favor drivers with West Coast ties. (Credit: Racing Insights)
Driver
West Coast wins
Career Cup wins
Jimmie Johnson
15
83
Kevin Harvick
13
60
Kyle Busch
11
63
Jeff Gordon
11
93
Matt Kenseth
8
39
Martin Truex Jr.
8
34
Kyle Larson
8
29
Joey Logano
8
36
5. Catch the pack — news and notes from around the garage
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Calling all country music lovers: NASCAR, Speedway Motorsports and Anheuser-Busch announced today that two of the biggest artists of the genre — Grammy-nominated top-selling singer-songwriter Ernest and award-winning vocal powerhouse Nate Smith — will headline the first two Busch Light Summer Music Series events of the year at Texas Motor Speedway and Michigan International Speedway, respectively. The announcement comes on the heels of the news that multi-platinum southern rock group Zac Brown Band will perform as part of festivities at the Chicago Street Race on Saturday, July 5, the third event of the five-concert Summer Music Series.
“As part of our renewed partnership with Busch Light, they’re putting a premium on finding fresh new ways to drive deeper fan engagement and enhance the entertainment and experience at the track, and the Summer Music Series does just that,” said Michelle Byron, NASCAR executive vice president and chief partnership and licensing officer. “It will be NASCAR, Busch Light and some of the biggest names in country music throughout the weekend in Texas, Michigan and Chicago. I can’t think of a better combination for the best fans in all of sports.”
To kick off the Busch Light Summer Music Series, top-selling Nashville artist Ernest, “a writer of hit songs and an emerging star in his own right” (The New York Times), has earned 13 No. 1 hits as a songwriter and several No. 1 hits on country radio. Ernest will be performing hits from his critically acclaimed albums “Flower Shops (The Album)” and “Nashville, Tennessee,” which feature collaborations with Morgan Wallen, Lainey Wilson, Lukas Nelson, Jelly Roll, Hardy and much more leading up to the green flag of the Sunday, May 4 Würth 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Ernest also recently co-penned the Hot 100 record-breaking single, “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen that earned him a 2025 Grammy nomination.
Country vocal powerhouse Nate Smith will perform his biggest hits for fans before the NASCAR Cup Series Firekeepers Casino 400 on Sunday, June 8, at Michigan International Speedway, including multi-week no. 1 records “Whiskey on You,” “World on Fire” and “Bulletproof.” Smith has accumulated over two billion career streams, garnered multiple gold and platinum records, sold-out shows across the U.S. and received numerous nominations for best new artist from the CMA Awards, ACM Awards, CMT Awards, and iHeart Radio Awards. Most recently, Smith received the award for ACM New Male Artist of the Year, Billboard’s Rookie of the Year and Amazon’s Breakthrough Country Artist for 2024. Smith’s sophomore album, California Gold, debuted top 15 on Billboard’s Country Albums Chart. His current release, “Nobody Likes Your Girlfriend,” featuring Hardy, is out now.
“Busch Light knows our Texas and Michigan fans also share a deep passion for racing, so bringing unforgettable experiences to these iconic tracks is a no-brainer,” said Krystyn Stowe, Head of Marketing, Busch Family & Natural Family at Anheuser-Busch. “With NASCAR, we’re shifting fan engagement into high gear, uniting two of race fans’ greatest passions: country music and cold, smooth Busch Light.”
The performances at Texas Motor Speedway, Michigan International Speedway and the Chicago Street Race will be the first three of five full-length concerts at NASCAR races throughout the country, as a part of the first-ever Busch Light Summer Music Series — an exciting new fan experience born from the renewal of the long-time partnership with the “Official Beer Sponsor of NASCAR.” Since the 1990s, the Anheuser-Busch family of brands has created countless opportunities for 21+ NASCAR fans to get closer to the sport they love. This summer, the final two electrifying pre-race performances will take place at Iowa Speedway (Aug. 3) and Busch Light’s hometown of St. Louis at World Wide Technology Raceway (Sept. 7). Artists and details on these concerts will be announced at a later date.
The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season continues with the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, airing live on FS1 at 3:30 p.m. ET.
The future of option tires in the NASCAR Cup Series was discussed on the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast.
Sunday at Phoenix Raceway marked the third time (and the first this season) that Goodyear gave teams a choice between two tire compounds — primary and option — during a race.
NASCAR managing director of racing communications Mike Forde said there are no future option tire races scheduled, but discussions for using two compounds again could be “on the table” in future council meetings with team owners, drivers and manufacturers.
“I think the opinions are split both within the walls of NASCAR and in the industry,” Forde said on the podcast. “Some people say this is pretty fun (and) pretty cool and adds a little bit of a story line. I thought FOX did a solid job reporting throughout the race which cars had those tires on, and it adds an extra dimension to the race.
“For those who don’t really want to do it moving forward, I think they feel like it might be a little bit gimmicky. But the reason we do it is to add a real-world data point, and we feel that the race conditions are so important to get that data.”
Regardless of whether the option tire is used again this season, it won’t return for the Nov. 2 championship race at Phoenix Raceway. A compound similar to the softer option that was used at Phoenix could be used in the season finale and other races this year.
Goodyear held a 12-hour tire test Monday at Phoenix with drivers Austin Dillon, Josh Berry and Tyler Reddick. NASCAR senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis said 12 tire combinations were tested on both short and long runs, and that three combinations had emerged as promising.
In the podcast, Forde also addressed recent steering issues for teams in the Cup Series. Reddick lost power steering Sunday at Phoenix, and multiple Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing cars had problems at Daytona International Speedway.
That has raised questions about whether it’s a supply concern for the Next Gen car, which largely is assembled through parts built by single-source vendors.
“Part of the steering and the rack assembly, there are parts that are team sourced,” Forde said. “So when you hear about the Next Gen car, often you hear it’s a single-sourced car. There are still some parts — seats, rearview mirrors and parts of the steering assembly — that are team sourced. The problems that were seen in Daytona and in Phoenix were both from team-sourced parts. So the power steering line was the problem with (Reddick’s car). That’s not a single-source part. The hose failed, and there was a leak at the connector there that caused the power steering to go in and out. Same thing with the RFK (cars) at Daytona; they had power steering pumps that was an internal Roush issue. So we don’t believe that there is an epidemic per se. It is something that as soon as it happens, we do talk to the teams, find out what the problem is, address it. If there are areas to improve, we absolutely will.”
Forde also said NASCAR formed a committee focused solely on steering after the 2022 playoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The committee still meets regularly but had no session planned after the issues at Daytona and Phoenix.
“We did get a group together involving members of NASCAR, representatives from all three OEMs, several team reps, and folks throughout the industry from the teams that had significant power steering and hydraulic experience and significant vehicle assembly experience,” Forde said. “We really got together (weekly after the Bristol 2022 race) to really beat up ‘OK, what do we want to see here, what do we need to do to fix it?’ We did a bunch of research on the seals and allowed some changes in that area and developed a new piston that addressed durability. There were a number of different changes that happened here.”
The guest on this week’s “Hauler Talk” is Xfinity Series technical director Jason Burdett.
Other topics covered during the fifth episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— The restart violation committed by Joey Logano at Phoenix Raceway and why the decision was black and white rather than a “ticky-tack” judgment call.
— Daniel Suárez’s criticism of the NASCAR driver approval process after the Trackhouse Racing driver crashed into Katherine Legge, who was making her Cup debut at Phoenix.
— The appeal process that resulted in a Daytona penalty to Chase Briscoe and Joe Gibbs Racing being overturned. Forde explains why NASCAR has no subsequent plans to alter its rulebook (after modifying language and procedures following other appeals).
Click on the embed above to listen or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the new “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
NASCAR officials issued fines to two teams in the Xfinity Series on Wednesday, docking a pair of Joe Gibbs Racing groups for lug-nut infractions last weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
In a post-race inspection, competition officials found one unsecured lug nut each on the JGR No. 20 Toyota driven by Brandon Jones to a third-place finish and on the JGR No. 18 Toyota wheeled by rookie William Sawalich to 13th in Saturday’s GOVX 200.
The series, co-owned by 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson and accomplished sprint car competitor Brad Sweet, is set to embark on its fourth year of operation. More than 60 events encompass the 2025 High Limit Racing schedule, which features stops at renowned dirt track facilities across 20 states.
Larson headlines a talented group of sprint car drivers set to descend upon Las Vegas for the track’s inaugural High Limit Racing event.
Since establishing High Limit Racing alongside Sweet, Larson has amassed seven victories in the series and a championship, which he secured in 2023.
(Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Joining Larson on the High Limit Racing roster for Las Vegas is his long-time rival in fellow Cup Series driver Christopher Bell. Currently riding a three-race win streak in NASCAR’s premier division, Bell will look to sustain the momentum in his High Limit Racing debut before pursing his fourth consecutive Cup Series victory on Sunday at Las Vegas’ intermediate track.
Ty Gibbs is also set to compete with High Limit Racing across both races at Las Vegas. Gibbs will be driving for CB Industries; the High Limit Racing opener is part of his expanded dirt racing schedule in 2025, which included his first Chili Bowl in January.
There will be plenty of other notable names standing in the way of Larson, Bell and Gibbs across the two-day affair. Sweet seeks to defend his High Limit Racing crown from 2024 against a stacked group of full-time drivers such as Tyler Courtney, Rico Abreu, 2022 Chili Bowl winner Tanner Thorson and former Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne.
Among those attempting the High Limit Racing opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend include series co-founder and 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson (Photo: Yem Sanlaeid/NASCAR Regional)
A full slate of activities for drivers and fans at Las Vegas commences Wednesday evening with the world premiere of DIRT Season 2 at the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa. The documentary highlights the first full season for High Limit Racing and will feature in-depth content surrounding Larson, Sweet, Abreu, Corey Day and others.
Those not attending Las Vegas who wish to see the premier of DIRT Season 2 can do so live on FloRacing at 6 p.m. ET before the feature lands on YouTube at the same time the following the day. The remaining four episodes will follow a near-identical release schedule every week.
Larson, Sweet, Bell and the rest of the High Limit Racing field will give fans plenty to anticipate and discuss as they kick off another season at Las Vegas this weekend. The winner in Thursday’s opener receives a $10,000 paycheck, and the driver who emerges victorious on Saturday earns $25,000.
The quest to conquer Las Vegas and start 2025 on a positive note for the High Limit Racing championship contenders begins when FloRacing goes live at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday evening. FloRacing’s coverage of Saturday’s festivities at Las Vegas begins at 8:45 p.m. ET.
Daniel Hemric began a new chapter in his NASCAR career for the 2025 season, with a fresh canvas laid before him.
Returning to the Craftsman Truck Series for his first full-time campaign there since 2016, the veteran is now the pilot of the No. 19 Chevrolet for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing — a ride he intends to firmly establish as his own.
With any change to a new team comes the preseason pleasantries of learning a new shop, personnel and crew chief who will be atop the pit box calling the shots.
Previously, the No. 19 Chevrolet was piloted by Christian Eckes with crew chief Charles Denike. But with one of the more extensive Silly Seasons in the NASCAR garage in recent memory, Eckes left for the Xfinity Series and Kaulig Racing, and Denike was called up to the Cup Series, leading the charge for Bubba Wallace at 23XI Racing.
With these new changes in the race shop, Hemric had the opportunity to mold and shape the new guard in a way that made the team feel it was his to establish — a task that the 34-year-old approached head-on.
“Through all of our hiring process, we tried to push it like, ‘Hey, like, this is not the 19 group of past,’ right?” Hemric told NASCAR.com. “With the opportunity of hiring people comes an opportunity to create our own culture and our own identity during our time together here as a 19 group and with that, you know, comes a lot of freedom and stuff that you want to explore and do new things together and experience new things together.”
As Hemric navigates his own adjustments to a new team and schedule, the 2021 Xfinity Series champion finds himself accompanied by three young, ambitious drivers eager to gain insight and knowledge that comes from a career at NASCAR’s highest levels.
Tyler Ankrum, who drives the No. 18 Chevrolet, is entering his sixth full-time season in the Truck Series and his second season with MHR, while Jack Wood will continue his part-time role in the No. 91 truck from last year. Joining the MHR lineup in 2025 was Connor Mosack, in the No. 81 Chevrolet. Mosack brings part-time experience in both the Truck and the Xfinity Series.
“Connor and I have trained together through the Chevrolet training program with Josh Wise and Scott Speed,” Hemric said. “We’ve been together in it for a couple of years now. So there is already a relationship built there. But it’s been fun to get to know Jack. I’ve been really impressed with Jack Wood at the test at Rockingham, and kind of the way he’s applied himself has been fun to watch, and same with Tyler. Tyler is now kind of the veteran of the Truck Series now, as many years as he’s ran in it, but he asked a lot of really detailed questions.”
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
Hemric quickly acknowledged that, although he is happy to share the knowledge he gained from racing in the Cup Series and his six years in the Xfinity Series, the Truck Series environment has changed significantly since he last competed full-time nearly a decade ago.
“I’ve had some of them, like, you know, talk about my prior experiences at different levels and kind of what that looks like,” Hemric said. “And things to be aware of, and things that you think are a big deal that kind of find out down the road weren’t such a big deal. So been fun having this conversation with these guys. And I’m sure we have plenty more of them here in the weeks ahead. But definitely, yeah, for me, just coming into a race team back kind of reacclimating to the Truck Series, I’ve asked almost as many questions as they have, right? I mean, they’ve been doing this for at least, you know, specifically, Tyler and Jack, they ran a lot of Truck races over the last couple of years. And Connor, not quite as much, but he has made some starts last year and the year before. So, yeah, it’s been fun to all of us, kind of grow and learn.”
As the Truck Series moves past the two drafting-style race tracks and into the meat of the 2025 Craftsman Truck Series schedule, the Kannapolis, North Carolina native is mostly excited to approach perhaps the most diverse event schedule since the series’ inception some 30 years ago in 1995, with a “healthy” mix of racing in all disciplines.
Such a hefty dose of that mix will begin at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday in the Ecosave 200 (9 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I think the diversity within the Truck Series now is getting closer to what we see in the other two forms of NASCAR, which I think is healthy,” Hemric said. “As well as doing it with some standalone events like your Lime Rock, I believe, truly, that that’s a really good thing, not only being that part of the country, but just for our sport and our series to go and have its own weekend, its own identity up there. And that’s really, really cool.
“I’ve been obviously a part of that with the standalone stuff on the Xfinity Series side in years past, and I don’t know. When you had those couple events a year like that, it kind of makes you feel, at least from experiencing all three levels, it makes you feel like you’re in the Cup Series in the sense of the big show there that weekend. And anytime that’s the case, there’s more eyes and and more people tuned in, and it’s just a little different vibe, which is good.”
The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Brandon Jones learned that during a two-year stint with JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where seemingly nothing could turn in his favor.
In the fall of 2022, Jones announced he would join JRM, ending a five-year run with Joe Gibbs Racing. The breakup ended ugly when Ty Gibbs, who had enough points to transfer to the Championship 4 the following week, dumped teammate Jones from the lead in overtime at Martinsville Speedway. If Jones won, he would have qualified for the Championship 4 alongside Gibbs.
Jones thought he would have more fun by switching teams. But across the 2023 and 2024 seasons, he tallied four top fives and 18 top-10 finishes. In his final season with JGR, he had six top fives and 19 top 10s in each of the two seasons prior. From 2019-22, Jones found Victory Lane five times.
“I thought going over there to JR Motorsports that we were going to win races,” Jones told NASCAR.com. “I believed in the company, and I felt like they believed in myself and that we were going to have a couple of good years, and we could never put it together.
“As I look back on it, we had good runs. Look at how many poles I got out of that car. A lot of places we’d run from top five to second and had good chances to possibly win if people had mistakes. It’s easy to look at all the downfalls and be like, ‘We didn’t have a good year.’ But if you go back and remember, we had some good runs and some good races.”
The frustration was evident. Jones failed to make the playoffs both seasons, ranking 14th in the championship standings each year. JRM swapped Jones’ crew chiefs and spotters multiple times, trying to get the wheels spinning. Nothing worked.
Throughout the week, Jones visited a sports psychologist to work on his mentality behind the wheel. He also returned to using Blake Koch as a driver coach as the bulk of his Xfinity Series success has come with Koch’s guidance.
“I learned a lot about myself,” Jones added. “I had to become more of a leader and had to take charge of certain situations. That to me is not very natural. I’m a peacekeeper: I want everyone to be happy and firing on all eight cylinders together. Sometimes, you have to be that guy to step up and get all of that stuff in line, too. It still doesn’t come naturally, but I had to figure out how to do that at times.”
Originally, Jones returned to the Chevrolet pipeline after competing with Richard Childress Racing, believing that trajectory could lead him to the Cup Series, something he still hopes to pursue in the future. But with Toyota bringing on a third 23XI Racing entry and Legacy Motor Club swapping manufacturers in 2024, Jones sees a potential opportunity within the Toyota camp.
Regardless, he knows he needs to win, which is something he’s done just once in the last 146 races.
“I think I lost sight of what was really important, and that’s you just need wins, and that’s what progresses you to the next step,” Jones added. “I’m betting on myself. I believe in this company to produce the best, most consistent product. There were times last year when I felt [JRM] were better than these cars. But on a consistent basis, I feel like JGR has really good stuff. We felt like this organization was going to be the most consistent to try and achieve the goals that we want.”
Despite how the conclusion of 2022 played out, Jones didn’t believe he burned any bridges at JGR. He and Gibbs speak regularly, and they have put the past behind them.
“I’ve learned to forgive and forget, and we’re going to go on with our ways,” Jones said. “Ty is a really good racer. To just say he did me dirty, I’m never going to talk to him — there’s a lot to learn from Ty on road racing and certain things. I want to keep that relationship as best as I can.”
Jones is paired with second-year crew chief Sam McAulay, who guided Sheldon Creed to a series-high 23 top 10s last year. Jones believes his No. 20 group is the next bunch being developed to transition to the Cup Series.
Last weekend at Phoenix Raceway, Jones was a constant threat toward the front of the field, which preceded three finishes outside the top 10 — two finishes of 30th or worse. He ended the race in third and was in the frame of the photo finish between Aric Almirola and Alex Bowman. By scoring 44 points at Phoenix last weekend, Jones leaped nine spots in the regular season standings to 20th.
“If you contend for the win every week, chances are you’re going to get a couple,” Jones said. “It’s positioning yourself to be in the top two or three every single week. That’s what I was doing when I was on a high of winning some of these races before.”
Jones and the No. 20 team will next compete at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
