Zac Brown Band to headline 2025 NASCAR Chicago Street Race as part of new Busch Light Summer Music Series

Posted on March 3, 2025March 3, 2025 by Official NASCAR Release

CHICAGO (March 3, 2025) — Today, NASCAR announced that multi-platinum, multi-Grammy Award-winning Southern rock band Zac Brown Band will headline the NASCAR Chicago Street Race in 2025. The band, led by frontman Zac Brown, will perform at the new Busch Light Summer Series Stage — directly adjacent to the iconic Chicago Street Race Start/Finish line — following the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, July 5.

“We’re thrilled to announce that Zac Brown Band will be performing at this summer’s NASCAR Chicago Street Race,” said Zac Brown. “It’s going to be an unreal weekend of racing and non-stop entertainment, so buckle up. You won’t want to miss NASCAR’s biggest party of the summer. Can’t wait to see you all in July!”

The Chicago Street Race concert will be one of five full-length concerts at NASCAR races, as 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, additional electrifying pre-race performances will take place at Texas Motor Speedway (May 2-4), Michigan International Speedway (June 7-8), Iowa Speedway (Aug. 2-3), and Busch Light’s hometown of St. Louis at World Wide Technology Raceway (Sept. 6-7).

“At Busch Light, our Midwest fans are at the heart of everything we do, so bringing one of the biggest bands in country to a race in the iconic Midwest city of Chicago was a no-brainer,” said Kyrstyn 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.”

New for 2025, NASCAR will also offer an exclusive VIP Concert Viewing add-on, allowing a limited number of fans up-front access to the Saturday concert showcase. In addition, NASCAR will also offer a new V.V.I.P. Experience in 2025, with multiple options including pit and garage passes, track laps, and the opportunity for a photo with the winner of the Grant Park 165 in Mobil1 Victory Lane.

Fans with tickets to the Fountain Club will be treated to the most direct line of sight for the concert, with reserved stadium seating and all-inclusive hospitality as a part of the premium club experience. All tickets to the NASCAR Chicago Street Race include access to the concerts, and fans with Sunday-only tickets will also be able to access the Saturday Zac Brown Band headlining concert. To purchase tickets or VIP add-ons, visit NASCARChicago.com/ticket-options/.

“Zac’s music is the soundtrack to summer, so we can’t think of a better band to headline on Independence Day Weekend,” said Julie Giese, President, NASCAR Chicago Street Race. “Between the incredible skyline and the pristine shores of Lake Michigan, Zac Brown Band will make for one of the most iconic concert experiences of the summer, without a doubt.”

Throughout their career spanning more than a decade, Zac Brown Band has had six consecutive albums reach the top 10 of the Billboard 200 and five consecutive albums debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart. To date, the group has won three GRAMMY ® Awards, including Best New Artist in 2010, sold more than 30.5 million singles, 9.3 million albums, amassed over 11.2 billion catalog streams, achieved 16 No. 1 radio singles and are the second act to top both the Country and Active Rock formats. Zac Brown Band has headlined nine North American Tours and currently holds the record for most consecutive sold-out shows at the iconic Fenway Park. Symbolic of their massive success at the ballpark, in July 2022, Zac Brown Band was inducted into the Fenway Music Hall of Fame, joining music icons Paul McCartney and Billy Joel. Since their debut, Zac Brown Band has developed a reputation with critics and fans alike as one of the most dynamic live performers, marked by strong musicianship that defies genre boundaries.

The Chicago Street Race — which was named “Sports Event of the Year” by Sports Business Journal — previously announced new ticket options, along with reduced prices throughout the footprint, and a shorter overall build schedule. Guests will also enjoy significantly lower price points on “Grounds Pass” tickets and reserved seating (which will now include a new single-day option as well). Single-day Grounds Pass tickets start at $99 (33% less than last year), and Frontstretch Premier Grandstands Reserved seats will be offered at nearly a 50% reduction from 2024 prices.

Fans can subscribe to receive Chicago Street Race emails for ticketing alerts. For a complete listing of ticketing options or to purchase tickets, fans can visit NASCARChicago.com or call 888-629-7223. Follow @NASCARChicago on Twitter and Facebook and download the NASCAR Tracks App for the latest real-time updates on all aspects of the event.or call 888-629-7223. Follow @NASCARChicago on Instagram, X and Facebook and download the NASCAR Tracks App for the latest real-time updates on all aspects of the event.

Posted on March 3, 2025March 3, 2025 by Zack Albert

Live Fast Motorsports announced Monday that Katherine Legge will make her NASCAR Cup Series debut this weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

Legge will drive the No. 78 Chevrolet for the BJ and Jessica McLeod-owned team in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the 1-mile track. Sponsorship will be provided by investment strategy firm Droplight.

Legge will be the first woman to enter a Cup Series event since Danica Patrick made her final start in the 2018 Daytona 500.

Legge has made five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts, the most recent in 2023 at Road America. The 44-year-old veteran also competed in this season’s opening race for the ARCA Menards Series at Daytona International Speedway, where an early crash brought a premature end to her day.

Sunday’s effort at Phoenix marks an expansion of Live Fast’s 2025 schedule. The team had previously announced a partial Cup Series slate consisting of seven races — all six events on drafting-style tracks, plus the Coca-Cola 600 in May. McLeod failed to qualify for this year’s Daytona 500, then placed 22nd at Atlanta Motor Speedway the following weekend.

Legge competed in a partial schedule of IndyCar and IMSA events last season. She also branched into dirt-track racing this year with an entry in the Chili Bowl Nationals.

Posted on March 2, 2025March 3, 2025 by Alex Cadavid

AUSTIN, Texas — Christopher Bell may not have a “message to send” to anyone in the NASCAR Cup Series garage after achieving back-to-back wins in the first three races of the season, but he’s certainly carrying a new mentality to make 2025 his year.

After two Championship 4 bids ended in heartbreak for the Norman, Oklahoma native in 2022 and 2023 — and a sour taste in his mouth after missing out last year — Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team have no plans to leave their title bid up to chance this season.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: COTA

Now sitting fourth in driver standings with 10 valuable playoff points already in hand and 33 more races on the docket before the Cup Series rolls into Phoenix on Nov. 2 to crown a champion, the sky is the absolute limit for Bell and Co. to assert their dominance over the next eight months and continue to stack wins more often than they ever had.

It also doesn’t hurt that Bell has hit a stroke of good fortune at two tracks where anyone could’ve snatched a playoff bid. Plus, he feels that he’s already collecting wins that he could’ve had in 2024, especially at Circuit of The Americas — where he hounded Byron for the win but left with a runner-up result. This year, the roles were reversed.

“The last two weeks at Atlanta and here, I kind of won without the fastest car, so it’s really nice to get those back that I lost last year,” Bell said after the race. “I’m excited about what’s to come. We have high expectations and high hopes and goals for this year. Frankly, the last couple of years being at Joe Gibbs Racing in this No. 20 car, I haven’t been living up to the standards that I hold for myself. Our goal going into 2025 is to do that, or my goal is to do that for myself. I know, Adam Stevens, he feels the same way. He feels that we’re capable of a lot of great things. We haven’t done that yet in the Cup Series season. Maybe 2025 will be the year.”

The last three seasons for Bell resulted in successful multi-win campaigns, but with Phoenix, Las Vegas and Homestead lined up as the next three events — Bell earning wins on two of those tracks and incredible performances on the other — it certainly feels like Bell could burst for a dominant four-to-six win-type season we’ve seen from the likes of Kyle Larson and William Byron at the Hendrick Motorsports operation in recent years.

Plus, Bell has shown tremendous speed and a clutch gene at critical playoff tracks, which are vital if the No. 20 team wants to hoist the Bill France Cup in November.

“It’s amazing to be sitting here with more importantly than two wins, 10 playoff bonus points. We’re in a pretty good spot right now, and hopefully, we can go into race tracks that are really good for us,” Bell said. “With Phoenix being the championship event and Vegas being in the Round of 8, they’re two race tracks where you have to be good at if you are going to compete for a championship. Everyone knows that.

“Everyone is going to be bringing their best stuff trying to see where they stack up and taking notes, taking notes for how it goes and how to be better in the fall.”

Stevens, Bell’s crew chief since the start of 2021, also thinks that this could be the season the No. 20 team can achieve something special. He expects his crew to prepare the car as being the one to beat every week going forward after back-to-back triumphs.

“There’s no reason we can’t go win the next two weeks,” Stevens affirmed. “Today has no bearing on next week whatsoever, and everybody is going to bring their best stuff and do their best job, but I really have so much faith in this team and Joe Gibbs Racing as a whole, and especially my driver, that I know we’ll be a factor.”

Luckily for Bell and Stevens, they enter Phoenix (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) next week as the defending winners, making a legitimate case for an early season trifecta of victories. And after a season that left the No. 20 team feeling like more was desired, there’s certainly a message from top to bottom to not let 2025 slip and to stay ahead of the competition.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule

“We have everything we need to win every single weekend. That’s certainly at Phoenix and certainly at Vegas,” Stevens added. “We have proven that this weekend. So there’s no reason why we can’t go and compete, and we did leave a lot on the table as a 20 team for sure and as an organization last year. We don’t have any plans of repeating that, and I think that we’ve made a lot of good decisions on our team and Joe Gibbs Racing as a whole to make sure we don’t.”

It’s certainly a marathon season, and with three wild-card tracks now in the blinders, the cream will rise to the top over the next few months. But with Bell already pocketing two wins and some of his best tracks still ahead of him, it already feels like the rest of the garage is chasing the proven Cup Series star.

Posted on March 2, 2025March 3, 2025 by Dustin Albino

AUSTIN, Texas — Chase Elliott’s race was almost over before it began during Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas. He eventually scored a fourth-place finish, but only after a sizable rally back into contention.

At the drop of the rag, Ross Chastain barreled his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet into Turn 1 after starting ninth. He shaded over as far as one could get on the racing surface, giving himself little chance to hit the corner’s apex.

Chastain missed the corner entirely and clipped third-place starter Elliott in the process, spinning the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy into the middle of the track. Denny Hamlin, Connor Zilisch and Todd Gilliland were all victims of the early dive bomb gone awry.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: COTA

Elliott’s car sustained a broken toe link, and he bled back into the pack at the rear of the field. Trying to salvage the day, crew chief Alan Gustafson flipped the opening stage, taking the green-and-white checkered flag in fifth and earning the No. 9 team six points. Repairs came during the Stage 1 break.

More drivers chased points in Stage 2, preventing Elliott from banking additional stage points. But his race was just starting.

The second half of the event was when Elliott excelled, making quick work of the competition. When the final caution flew for a spin involving Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon with 17 laps remaining, Gustafson called the No. 9 car to pit road. Restarting outside the top 20, Elliott used fresh tires to his advantage.

“Alan made a great call to put tires on and try to get on offense,” Elliott said. “That was really our only chance to make anything out of it. It worked out.”

Elliott rapidly cracked the top 10. Chastain pulled over to let Elliott by for a position with less than 10 laps remaining, as the No. 1 team considered that Elliott might retaliate from the opening-lap contact.

MORE: Cup Series standings

The No. 9 car continued the hunt and drove to fourth position, 5.2 seconds off race winner Christopher Bell.

“I wish we could put together a clean day,” Elliott stated. “It sucks to fall behind that early. We had a great NAPA Chevy (Saturday) and I would have liked to have seen how we stacked up with these guys today. Bummed that we got behind, had damage, got to fix it and it never drove like it did yesterday. Would have loved a shot at it without trying to piece it back together.

“Great recovery, for sure. I just hate we had to recover.”

Elliott had yet to watch a replay of the encounter with Chastain. Both Chastain and Gustafson declined to comment on the incident.

Tied with Tyler Reddick for scoring the fifth-most points at COTA, Elliott gained five spots in the regular-season standings, slotting in fifth.

Posted on March 2, 2025March 3, 2025 by John Crane

The third NASCAR Cup Series race of the season brought just as much excitement as the first two, with Christopher Bell going back-to-back following a down-to-the-wire road-course finish at Circuit of The Americas.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Several drivers delivered solid performances on the new-look road course, while others found themselves in a deficit following the conclusion of the Austin, Texas, contest. Here are three drivers on the upswing — and three more on the opposite end of the spectrum — heading to Phoenix Raceway next Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

THREE UP ⬆️

1. Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford

Started: 17th

Finished: 8th

What happened: Non-eventful Stages 1 and 2 for the 26-year-old Nevada native — which saw finishes of 33rd and 31st, respectively — were effectively erased during a busy final stage, where the No. 4 driver worked his way into the top five before settling for his first top-10 finish of the season. Such late-race speed will play, and it did as such for Gragson in what amounts to a nice building block to work upon during the early juncture of the season.

What’s next: Phoenix Raceway is next on the docket for Gragson, where the Las Vegas, Nevada, native has three career Cup Series starts, with his previous two resulting in 12th-place finishes. Gragson has yet to lead a lap at the 1-mile Arizona facility.

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

2. Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford

Started: 24th

Finished: 7th

What happened: Buescher continued to put on a road-course clinic within the Ford camp, and the Prosper, Texas, native didn’t disappoint at Austin. Despite finishing outside the top 15 in Stages 1 and 2 (with 18th-place results in both), the 32-year-old driver strategically worked his way inside the top 10 during the race’s final stage, resulting in another top 10 on a left-and-right track. Buescher’s 15th road-course top 10 in 18 Next Gen road-course contests leads all drivers.

What’s next: In 18 career Cup starts at Phoenix, Buescher possesses only four top 10s and 20 laps led. However, there are positives: Buescher has three consecutive finishes inside the top 10 in the desert dating back to November 2023, and 18 of his 20 laps led have come during that span as well (November 2023).

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

3. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Started: 21st

Finished: 9th

What happened: It was a grind-it-out performance from Bowman, with the No. 48 Chevrolet spinning from 30th in Turn 12 on Lap 56. Additionally, Bowman was also penalized on two separate occasions for shortcutting turns on the 2.4-mile layout (Laps 51, 72). Instead, Bowman and the No. 48 camp capitalized on a handful of late-race cautions to finish the day with a top 10.

What’s next: It’s been a difficult showing for Bowman at Phoenix, with the 31-year-old tallying only two top-10 finishes in 19 career Cup Series races at his hometown short track. His lone two finishes inside the top 10 came in 2016 and 2023, so the No. 48 team will have its work cut out next weekend. Then again, after COTA’s performance, perhaps momentum once again shifts in the No. 48’s favor.

James Gilbert | Getty Images

THREE DOWN ⬇️

1. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Started: 7th

Finished: 32nd

What happened: Issue after issue plagued Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team Sunday. A penalty for shortcutting Turn 3 while running 8th on Lap 33 was just the start, with the No. 5 machine later losing its right-front wheel, forcing Larson to pit road and resulting in a two-lap penalty. A Turn 20 spin on Lap 85 only added to the litany of issues Larson and the No. 5 team dealt with during the 95-lap affair.

What’s next: Larson next treks out west to Phoenix, where the desert has netted an oasis of positive finishes for the 32-year-old over the years. In 21 career Cup starts at Phoenix, Larson possesses one win, nine top fives, 13 top 10s and 395 laps led, with only two finishes outside the top 10 in the last 12 Cup races there.

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

2. Daniel Suárez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Started: 5th

Finished: 36th

What happened: Suárez has put together solid performances on road courses in the past — his first career Cup victory came in 2022 at Sonoma Raceway. COTA in 2025, however, did not yield a similar result as Suárez was involved in a Lap 50 incident, with a Turn 19 spin and contact with Trackhouse Racing teammate Connor Zilisch eventually ending the No. 99’s day.

What’s next: Phoenix is next for Suárez and the No. 99 team, where the Mexico native has four career top-10 finishes among 16 Cup Series starts. Suárez finished 11th (fall, 2023), 13th (spring, 2024) and 10th (fall, 2024) in the last three Phoenix Cup contests.

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

3. AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet

Started: 12th

Finished: 30th

What happened: At first glance, it looked like Allmendinger was in contention for a possible race victory following 10th- and sixth-place finishes in Stages 1 and 2, respectively. However, after pitting from second on Lap 71, Allmendinger’s No. 16 Chevrolet couldn’t make up the difference, resulting in a top-30 result — a far cry from what looked like a machine with plenty of capability of finding Victory Lane.

What’s next: Allmendinger holds only two top-10 finishes at Phoenix among 23 Cup starts at the track, with both coming in 2011. Allmendinger will perhaps lean on his Xfinity Series track record at the course for a dose of positive momentum; in eight career Xfinity Series starts at Phoenix, Allmendinger has four career top 10s, including a ninth-place result in the 2024 season finale.

James Gilbert | Getty Images

Posted on March 2, 2025March 2, 2025 by Staff Report

Team owner/driver Brad Keselowski was treated and released at the infield care center after his cooling system failed during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas.

Keselowski finished 15th in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. After exiting his RFK Racing No. 6 Ford, the 41-year-old driver was carried from pit road on a stretcher.

NASCAR officials confirmed that Keselowski was treated and later released from the track’s infield care center. Team officials said on social media that Keselowski’s cool suit had failed, but that his condition had improved after he received intravenous fluids post-race.

After his cool suit failed during today’s race, @keselowski went to the infield care center to get some IV fluids. Can confirm he is feeling much better now. 👍🏻

— RFK Racing (@RFKracing) March 3, 2025

Keselowski sits in 26th place in the Cup Series standings. His COTA result was his best of the season after finishes of 26th (Daytona) and 39th (Atlanta) to start the 2025 campaign.

Posted on March 2, 2025March 2, 2025 by Dustin Albino

AUSTIN, Texas. — Kyle Busch was in position to snap the longest winless drought of his 21-year Cup Series career. The two-time Cup Series champion was doing everything he could to hold off a hard-charging Christopher Bell during Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas.

It wasn’t enough.

Busch led six times for a race-high 42 laps, but Bell was breathing down his neck in the waning laps. Randall Burnett, crew chief of the No. 8 Chevrolet, called Busch to pit road for the final time on Lap 69. Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief Adam Stevens played the long game with Christopher Bell, leaving the No. 20 Toyota on the track for two additional circuits.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

Upon exiting the pits, Busch gapped Bell by over six seconds, gaining some four seconds of coveted track time with the fresher rubber. The No. 20 car was steadily making progress on the No. 8 car, with Daytona 500 champion William Byron in between the two drivers. The game-changing moment of the race came on Lap 78, when Denny Hamlin locked up his tires and plowed into Austin Dillon. The No. 3 car was stuck in the gravel pit, bringing out a caution flag.

“We were in a tough spot being the leader because the [No.] 20 can gauge off, ‘OK, he’s going to pit, I can go a couple extra laps, put better tires on. Yeah, I’m giving up some time, but I’m going to be running faster,’” Burnett told NASCAR.com “When the caution comes out, it gives him a free pass to erase a four- or five-second gap for no penalty on his tires.

“Maybe I should have stayed out longer, but if I stayed out longer, I come out behind [Byron] and then I burn my stuff up to pass him. It’s one of those deals where you’re kind of a sitting duck. Definitely didn’t need that caution. That hurt our chances.”

Without the caution, Burnett believes Bell would have run down Busch. In a hypothetical situation, that would have slowed the pace of the No. 20 car when Bell caught Busch, rather than having fresher tires immediately.

Busch was wheeling his No. 8 machine for all it was worth. He used a defensive line to slow Bell’s closing rate. Bell had a strong run off Turn 20 with less than 10 laps remaining and aborted on the corner exit coming off Turn 1. Otherwise, he would have taken out Busch.

“I’m sure everyone saw it, getting into [Turn] 1, I’m like, ‘Alright, I got him now, I got him,’” Bell said. “I drove in there and locked the rears up, and I’m sliding. I had to go right to try and miss him. Thankfully, I did miss him.”

Calm, cool and collected, Bell used the fresher tires to his advantage, passing Busch for the lead with six laps remaining. Bell held Byron and a closing Tyler Reddick for his second straight win.

Contact with Bell hindered Busch’s performance. He sank to fifth when the checkered flag waved, as Chase Elliott also got around him on the final lap.

“[Bell] was faster than me and was able to do a good job of biding his time and waiting for me to make a couple of mistakes in a row,” Busch said. “Once I made two mistakes in a row, then it was over.

“I was making it incredibly difficult on him and certainly there were some times where he could have done it again, but he did a better job of that. At that point, he had better tires; I don’t know that he had a better race car. Just was a tick faster than I was.”

Without the victory, Busch’s winless streak is now at 60 races, dating back to June 2023 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. Burnett boils this loss down to circumstances, and the duo is pleased with rebounding from a poor start to the weekend on Saturday.

“Good piece. I was really scared when we unloaded; we were not where we wanted to be,” Busch said. “The guys made really good adjustments to the race car, got it a lot better and put it where we needed it to be to go out there and have a contending car for the race today.”

With a seventh-place finish last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, it’s the first time Busch has pieced together consecutive top 10s since last September, when he had four in a row between Michigan International Speedway and Atlanta.

Posted on March 2, 2025March 3, 2025 by Reid Spencer

AUSTIN, Texas — Christopher Bell was prophetic.

After winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Feb. 23, Bell said 2.4-mile, 17-turn Circuit of The Americas was a track he had circled for another potential victory.

Sure enough, after passing Kyle Busch for the lead and staving off defending race winner William Byron over the last five laps at COTA, Bell was a back-to-back winner in the NASCAR Cup Series for the first time in his career, having claimed victory in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.

Bell beat Byron to the finish line by 0.433 seconds, as the reigning Daytona 500 winner raced Bell cleanly over the closing laps. Polesitter Tyler Reddick was third, followed by Chase Elliott, who made a miraculous recovery from a Lap 1 spin in Turn 1 that resulted in a broken toe link.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: COTA

Busch fell to fifth on the final lap after side-to-side contact with Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota during the battle for the lead, which took all the juice out of Busch’s No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

The victory was Bell’s first at the Texas road course and the 11th of his career.

“Whenever Kyle was leading, I was just trying to be so cautious,” said Bell, who spun Busch’s car in Turn 1 in the 2024 race. “Obviously, we know what happened last year. I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted to pass him clean. He was just doing such a good job at running his race, and he could get off the corners just good enough that I couldn’t get inside of him.

“But there I started peeking a nose, and he bobbled and allowed me to get out front. Whenever I did, I’m, like, ‘OK, just don’t beat yourself.’ Those were about the five or six sloppiest laps I’ve ever run.

“Just super proud for everyone on this DeWalt No. 20 team. We didn’t count (on) last week. Last week was a speedway. We didn’t have that one circled. We definitely had this one circled. I’m ready to keep adding to it.”

SHOP: Race winner gear

Having pitted two laps earlier than Bell during the final cycle of green-flag stops, Busch, who led a race-high 42 laps, held a 2.6-second margin over Byron and a 4.0-second advantage over Bell on Lap 78 when Denny Hamlin locked his brakes into Turn 6A and knocked Austin Dillon’s Chevrolet into a gravel trap to cause the fourth and final caution.

Busch took command on the restart on Lap 83, but Bell had superior tires and an arguably superior car. With a run off Turn 20 on Lap 90, Bell had the lead before the cars reached the start/finish line. At the top of the hill in Turn 1 on Lap 91, Byron followed into second place, and Reddick soon had third.

“Yeah, it was really close,” Byron said of his attempt to challenge Bell in the late going. “I felt like the battle between (Bell) and Kyle was just kind of sitting there waiting for one of them to bobble or slide their tires. Bell got by him. I felt like once he got clear, his car was super loose, and it kind of gave me a couple of shots at him, and I just couldn’t ever get beside him.

“We’ve always raced really well together, so I didn’t want to, like, move him blatantly and all that kind of stuff. Just sliding around a ton at the end. … So just sucks to be so damn close, right? You can be on the bumper of the guy coming to the line, and that sucks. A lot of races ahead, and hopefully we can just keep bringing the speed.”

Busch rued both the inopportune caution and the effect of the tire disparity after the final restart.

“I wish we could have had a little bit more there at the end,” Busch said. “I feel like maybe the two-lap fresher tires the 20 had was the difference. … But I also hated to see that yellow that came out. I felt like we had a little bit of a gap there that I was protecting my tires, and I could run the lines I wanted to run. I didn’t have to run defensive lines and use up my stuff even more so (which I did) when the 20 was right on me.

“I’ll give Christopher credit, though, where credit’s due. He ran me really hard, and I was a complete butthead. But he did a great job working me over and just doing it the right way and being able to get by.”

Elliott fell to the back of the field when contact from Ross Chastain’s Chevrolet sent him spinning in the first corner of the first lap. When the majority of the field came to pit road before the end of the first stage, Elliott stayed on track to collect fifth-place stage points.

Pitting during the stage break to repair the toe link broken in the accident, Elliott restarted 36th and worked his way forward. Crew chief Alan Gustafson’s call for fresh tires during the final caution allowed Elliott to charge to fourth place.

“Yeah, it was just a crazy day, really,” Elliott said. “I got run over, I felt like, there in the first corner. I’m curious to see it. I still haven’t seen it to know whether or not I did something wrong. I’m happy to own it, if I did. I just felt like it was the first corner of the first lap, and it’s just a bummer to get behind, and then we had damage.

“Alan and the guys did a great job fixing it and getting it that close. We got behind on a restart there and just had to play major catch-up there. Alan made a great call there at the end to put tires on it. We were rolling up through there really good at the end.

“Obviously, when you have a good car like that, I would have liked to have been in the fight with those guys, but it was a great recovery from where we were at during the end of the second stage.”

Shane van Gisbergen, Chris Buescher, Noah Gragson, Alex Bowman and Todd Gilliland completed the top 10.

ZILISCH: No. 87 driver, Suárez sidelined at COTA

The Cup debut of 18-year-old road course phenom Connor Zilisch came to an early end in a violent collision with Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suárez on Lap 50.

Charging through Turn 19, Suárez’s Chevrolet bounced off the curbing and spun wildly as cars behind him scattered to avoid calamity. As Zilisch steered to the right, Suarez’s car spun into his path, and Zilisch plowed into his teammate and careened into the outside SAFER barrier.

Both cars were too badly damaged to continue. The wreck ended a valiant rally by Zilisch, who was collateral damage when Chastain dive-bombed into Turn 1 and turned Elliott on the first lap.

Zilisch pitted with a flat tire and fell back to 33rd, but by the end of the second stage, he had worked his way back to 14th, his original starting position. On the restart lap after the second stage break, however, Zilisch’s race ended against the fence.

“All I saw was a cloud of smoke, and by the time I saw him (Suárez), it was way too late to do anything,” said Zilisch, who won Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at COTA. “I saw him spinning off to the left, and I thought he was going to keep going in that direction or stay there.

“I guess he flipped back right, and he started coming towards me. Really unfortunate way to end my Cup Series debut. We were one of the top five fastest cars in the second stage there. I went from outside the top 30 to 14th, and I felt really good about our Chevy. We made a lot of gains from practice and qualifying. It’s just an unfortunate way to end it.”

MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule

The Cup Series’ next race is the Shriners Children’s 500, scheduled for next Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Phoenix Raceway.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Bell as the race winner. Competition officials indicated that two cars would return to the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina for further inspection this week — the No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on March 2, 2025March 3, 2025 by Staff Report

Rookie Connor Zilisch found midrace trouble in his NASCAR Cup Series debut Sunday, crashing after a collision with Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suárez at Circuit of The Americas.

Zilisch started 14th in the 37-car field in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix and rallied after sustaining damage in a Turn 1, Lap 1 fray after the green flag. The 18-year-old driver, however, could not avoid Suarez’s spinning No. 99 Chevrolet on the 50th of 95 scheduled laps, and his No. 87 Trackhouse Chevrolet veered into a tire barrier in Turn 19.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

Both cars were sidelined, with Suárez scored 36th — one spot ahead of Zilisch, who wound up with a last-place result. Both drivers were evaluated and released after mandatory trips to the infield care center.

“Yeah, all I saw was a cloud of smoke, and by the time I saw him, it was way too late to do anything,” Zilisch said. “I saw him spinning off to the left, and I thought he was going to keep going in that direction or stay there. And I guess he flipped back right and started coming towards me. So, yeah, really unfortunate way to end, you know, my Cup Series debut. We were one of the top five fastest cars in the second stage there, I went from outside the top 30 to 14th, and felt really good about our car. We made a lot of gains from practice and qualifying and just unfortunate way to end it.”

Suárez has failed to finish in two consecutive Cup Series races. He ended up 33rd after a crash the previous weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and he said a misstep in one of the 2.3-mile track’s final turns caused the melee.

“I just hit the curb, hit the ground and then it spun me out,” Suárez said. “When you have low air pressure, that’s very easy to do because the car is lower to the ground. I wish I could say it was a big mistake, but it wasn’t. It was just maybe a tire width too far to the left, and I hit the curb and I spun out.”

Zilisch was the victor in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at COTA, notching his second win in that tour. His much-anticipated Cup Series debut was announced back in January, the next step of his rapid progression that includes a full Xfinity campaign this year with JR Motorsports.

Zilisch said the biggest thing he learned was getting a feel for competing against more experienced competition.

“Just how to race against veterans,” Zilisch said. “You know, these guys all are very calculated and smart with the things they’re doing. And I had a lot of fun getting to kind of experience that and learn from a lot of those guys. So definitely a lot to take away from it. But frustrated that it ended this early. I felt really good. I was one of the fastest cars. I felt like I never saw a person that I didn’t think I was better than. So it was really frustrating to end that, and I was still learning, even throughout the race, and really wish I could have gotten to the end of the race to see what we had for those guys.”

Posted on March 2, 2025March 2, 2025 by Nick Giffen

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to its first road course of the 2025 season as drivers will contest 95 laps on the revamped Circuit of The Americas (COTA) layout for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Practice and qualifying on Saturday should give us a fair bit of information to work with, especially in regard to tire falloff and car adjustments. That’s because there were two mini-sessions for each of the two groups, giving teams time to receive feedback and make changes to the car if necessary.

With that, we can see which drivers improved from their first to the second set of tires relative to the field, which is where I’m looking at with my biggest edge.

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NASCAR at COTA Predictions, Picks

*Odds as of Saturday evening

Justin Haley

FanDuel released top-10 lines on Saturday night, and Justin Haley’s +2700 odds immediately jumped out to me.

Haley is a very capable road-course racer who has three top-10 finishes on road courses in his Cup career. While he didn’t have any last year, he was driving for Rick Ware Racing for all the road courses except the Charlotte Roval, and his move back to Spire Motorsports should provide him with a step-up in equipment.

That equipment is capable of some fast speeds at COTA, especially as teammate Carson Hocevar is set to start fourth after a fantastic qualifying effort.

Haley’s qualifying run didn’t go as well, with him firing off 29th, but that’s not the end of the world. COTA is a track that can produce chaos and might do so with more frequency given the shorter layout.

Haley also showed plenty of improvement in practice. Using my FLAGS metric, Haley jumped from 31st in FLAGS in the first session to 21st in the second session. If that’s how he truly runs, that’s a car capable of a midpack run that could find his way inside the top 10 if things get hectic at the end, as they have in the past on the full track layout.

It’s not a bet that’s likely to win — I have Haley’s top-10 odds at just 8.5% — but that’s far above the 3.6% implied odds we’re getting at 27-1.

The Bet: Justin Haley Top-10 Finish (+2700, FanDuel) | Bet to: +1600

Chase Briscoe

Tyler Reddick put Toyota on the pole with a blistering qualifying lap, while his 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace starts alongside him in second. Reddick should rightly be among the race favorites, as well as the favorite to finish as the top Toyota.

However, things can happen at COTA and should Reddick get caught up in a mess or have a mechanical issue or penalty, there’s a whole host of Toyotas that could step in as top Toyota.

My model has Chase Briscoe right among that group of Toyotas that are in a cluster behind Reddick, along with Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs and less so Denny Hamlin and Wallace.

Bell is listed at +400, while Gibbs is listed at +1000, and while Bell and Gibbs should have shorter odds than Briscoe, it should be much closer, especially considering Briscoe was just a fraction of a percentage point behind Bell in pace according to practice FLAGS and ranked one spot ahead of Gibbs.

This is Briscoe’s best road course, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see him finish as the top Toyota even if Reddick didn’t have any major issues given the randomness this track can produce.

The Bet: Chase Briscoe Top Toyota (+1600, ESPN BET) | Bet to: +1000