Final practice: Duel at the Dog 200 at Monadnock Speedway

Posted on July 25, 2026 by Staff Report

Duel at the Dog 200

Monadnock Speedway

Final practice results

Pos	No.	Name	Sponsor	Best Tm	Best Speed	In Lap	Laps	Diff
1	21	Stephen Kopcik	Wanick Construction; Newtown Pools	11.681	77.048	16	26	—
2	3	Tyler Rypkema	Northeast Drilling; SYP	11.703	76.903	6	28	0.022
3	79	Jon McKennedy	Stuarts Auto.; Christophers Towing; Levasseur HVAC; Boyle Electric; Hillsboro Ent.; J Young Landscaping	11.71	76.857	4	30	0.029
4	1	Patrick Emerling	USNE Power	11.77	76.466	5	28	0.089
5	54	Tommy Catalano	FX Caprara; USNE Power	11.782	76.388	20	24	0.101
6	56	Trevor Catalano	USNE Power	11.786	76.362	7	30	0.105
7	50	Ronnie Williams	Empower Financial Advisory	11.787	76.355	26	31	0.106
8	64	Austin Beers	Dell Electric; Lumiere Electrical; G&G Electrical Supply; AP Marquadt & Sons; Andrew James Interiors; Hughes Motors	11.798	76.284	41	42	0.117
9	05	Teddy Hodgdon*	Business Time Motorsports; The Landau Team of Re/Max; Montanari Fuel	11.801	76.265	19	30	0.12
10	60	Matt Hirschman	Bar Harbor Bank & Trust; Pee Dee Motorsports	11.803	76.252	10	37	0.122
11	73	Paulie Hartwig III*	Professional Therapy Associates; Jersey Shore Contracting	11.83	76.078	22	25	0.149
12	58	Eric Goodale	GAF Roofing	11.872	75.809	6	34	0.191
13	12	Craig Lutz	Elite Towing	11.88	75.758	23	26	0.199
14	82	Andrew Molleur	Horton Avenue Materials	11.887	75.713	21	24	0.206
15	17	Anthony Nocella	Keene Towing & Recovery; Bells Septic; Sontag Motorsports; Xtreme Autobody	11.888	75.707	19	30	0.207
16	95	Cory Plummer*	Tuckers Fabrication & Welding; Croteau Machine; Apex Race Cars; Apex Racing	11.961	75.245	6	29	0.28
17	9	Jayden Harman*	Wanick Construction; Harman Funeral Home	11.965	75.219	15	25	0.284
18	8	John-Michael Shenette	USNE Power South; Eighty-Two Services	11.999	75.006	14	22	0.318
19	28	Doug Coby	Nucar	12.009	74.944	39	40	0.328
20	18	Ken Heagy	Merkel Racing Engines	12.098	74.392	8	10	0.417

Posted on July 25, 2026 by Dustin Albino

Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Location: Speedway, Indiana
Track length: 2.5 miles
When: 2 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 160 laps | 400 miles
Stages: 50 | 100 | 160
Sunday’s starting lineup | Pit-stall assignments

No margin for error in pursuit of Indianapolis victory

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Excellence is rewarded at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After 400 grueling miles, the sport’s biggest stars are those who usually end up smooching the grimy, oil-stained bricks after a long day’s work.

Only three of the 39 drivers in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 presented by PPG have experienced that coveted first kiss. Bubba Wallace is the most recent victor, snatching his third career Cup Series victory in the 2025 edition. Nine of the 29 prior winners of the crown jewel event went on to hoist the Bill France Cup at the end of the season, securing the championship. That coveted list includes Jeff Gordon (1998, 2001), Dale Jarrett (1999), Bobby Labonte (2000), Tony Stewart (2005), Jimmie Johnson (2006, 2008, 2009) and Kyle Busch (2015).

MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos

“It’d be interesting to see, like, what other race tracks have similar stats like that,” Denny Hamlin, who has coined being raised in IMS’ Victory Lane as the top of his bucket list of races left to win, said on Friday. “Ultimately, you have to kind of have everything. You have to have the downforce for the corner, so you have to have straightaway speed, so you need your engines, good for the straightaways. You have a great team to call a great race for strategy. You’re going to need to qualify somewhat pretty well.

“There are not really any weaknesses, and there’s probably four to five key components to a race team and their ability to win, and you had to have all five. (If) you come out on the last pit stop, last fuel stop, fifth or sixth, I mean, you’re cooked.”

Ryan Blaney, the 2023 Cup Series champion, is aiming to deliver bossman and track owner Roger Penske his second Brickyard win. He concurs with Hamlin’s thoughts, believing drivers need to be near perfect to have a chance at the end of the race. Qualifying is of the essence, with 15 of the 29 winners coming from a top-five starting position.

“I think everything has to be right here,” Blaney stated. “I think it’s hard to come back after a mistake here, so I think that speaks to a lot of teams who can execute a full day, who can qualify well on Saturday, who can run a good race on the race track and on pit road and on the pit box. Teams that have all of that in line, I think those teams are very deserving of winning championships. That’s just a good functioning group. Here, you can’t afford any mistakes, and the best teams, while they are able to overcome a lot of mistakes, it’s just hard to do here with the way the track is.”

MORE: Goodyear tire notes: Indianapolis

Two-time Cup champ Kyle Larson is among the three drivers in the field to win on the Indianapolis oval, alongside Wallace and Brad Keselowski. While track position is important at Indy, Larson drove through the field at a rapid pace in the closing stages of the 2024 event, moving from 12th to the lead in the final 32 laps en route to victory.

Larson knows that having the ideal team behind him helped score that triumph. If there is one weak link on that singular day, that driver is doomed.

“You know, everybody has to be on the top of their game to have a shot to win,” Larson added. “You have to have a fast car, which is all the things you need every weekend, but you have to have a fast car, good starts and restarts, pit stops, strategy. All of it has to come together here to have a good shot at winning.

“It’s a really fun race because it does take everybody. I always enjoy this one. It’s a crown jewel as well, so it just means a lot. When you win here, it just means more for the whole team.”

Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

In the details …

One year ago, Ty Gibbs left Indianapolis Motor Speedway $1 million richer after winning the inaugural In-Season Challenge. He won’t be so lucky this year, but he can accomplish another rare feat in 2026 by scoring his fifth straight top-10 finish.

Gibbs and Tyler Reddick are the only two drivers to have multiple streaks of four straight top 10s this season, and only Gibbs (seven) and Blaney (eight) have strung together more consecutive top 10s this season. Take a look at the longest top-10 streaks of 2026:

Driver	Streak Length	Start	End
Ryan Blaney	8	Charlotte	Atlanta-2
Ty Gibbs	7	COTA	Kansas
Kyle Larson	4	Michigan	Sonoma
Denny Hamlin	4	Charlotte	Pocono
Tyler Reddick	4	Texas	Nashville
William Byron	4	Phoenix	Martinsville
Tyler Reddick	4	Daytona	Phoenix
Ty Gibbs	4	Sonoma	(active)

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Indianapolis hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: See what crew chiefs have in mind at the Brickyard | Read more
• In-Season Challenge: Bracket, format, schedule and more for Sunday’s final | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks ready for the Brickyard 400 spotlight | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: Breaking down North Wilkesboro and an Indy look-ahead | Listen now
• NASCAR Classics: Dig into the video vault for full-race replays from Indianapolis | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Chase Briscoe heads to home state with momentum | This week’s ranks

Posted on July 25, 2026July 25, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Indianapolis Motor Speedway demands a combination of speed, strategy and precise execution to be successful.

That process begins with the men atop the pit box calling the shots for the 38 competitors in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Indy

Crew chief Cliff Daniels guided the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team and driver Kyle Larson to victory in the 2024 edition of the crown-jewel race, the sport’s return to the oval after a three-year hiatus. With the prestige of winning this race comes an enormous amount of work in advance. That shows up at the track.

“Before you even get to (Saturday), you’ve got to have a good week,” Daniels told NASCAR.com. “You’ve got to have a good week of prep. And we did a lot of studying. We had a good week. Worked on a handful of things with Kyle in the sim and came here and made a handful of changes that we were able to feel and able to get a read on. So a lot of that was very encouraging. Now we’ve just got to put the details together and go have a good Saturday, hopefully to lead us into a good Sunday.”

Teams were granted a full 50-minute practice session on Friday with three sets of Goodyear tires to utilize, incentivizing teams to make multiple runs and numerous adjustments to verify any necessary changes. The right-side tire used this week is different from years past, but Daniels noted enough familiarity with this compound’s behavior meant no drastic observations from Friday’s session.

To nail a car setup here means maximizing straightaway speed, downforce and handling before factoring in fuel mileage. Legacy Motor Club’s cars have been notably fast at the iconic Indianapolis track in recent years, and that was bolstered by Friday’s sessions with John Hunter Nemechek posting the second-best lap time and Erik Jones fourth.

“This place is so fast,” said Justin Alexander, crew chief of Jones’ No. 43 Toyota. “You’re really trying to balance grip and downforce and drag, so you’re really kind of looking for that sweet spot on a (lift over drag) number. You’ve got to be trimmed out a little bit, but if you’re trimmed out too much, you won’t have enough grip. So really, it’s about building a car that captures what you’re looking for there and then having a setup to go with it.”

James Gilbert | Getty Images

But with that comes fuel strategy, a constant game throughout the scheduled 160-lap distance that starts as soon as engines are fired. That has materialized in different facets in each of the last two Brickyard 400s, all depending on when cautions fell late in the going.

“It’s absolutely important, to your point, and we’ve been on either side of it the last two years, and both ’24 and ’25 presented very different cases for the way the race played out,” Daniels said. “We spent a lot of time this week actually studying both very uniquely, and not only ourselves, but what factors were influencing the calls of others. How do they strategize their race? And a lot of different ways to get to a very similar point. For guys in the top five, you had some true three-stop cars; you had some true four-stop cars. And then you had some guys that took rights and less fuel at the end. That presents a very interesting array of circumstances to study. So we’ve studied up. We’ll see how the race plays out, and hopefully we’re making the right moves at the right time.”

Jones and the No. 43 team enter squarely at the bubble to make The Chase, sitting 33 points behind Austin Cindric for the final provisional spot in the 16-driver postseason field with five races remaining. That positioning has to be factored into Alexander’s approach.

“There’s always going to be variables, cautions that come out, things that happen in a race,” Alexander said. “For us, we’re really looking to score stage points, so that throws another wrench in there on optimum race strategy.”

Another factor playing into Legacy Motor Club’s hands is Indianapolis’ similar characteristics to Pocono Raceway. Another flat, high-speed, 2.5-mile track, Pocono’s triangle emulates features of Indy’s famed rectangle, a plus after Nemechek finished fourth and Jones sixth in June.

“The tracks race very similar,” Alexander said. “From a strategy perspective, you race them very similar as well. So yeah, we’ll take what we learned at Pocono. Obviously, we ran really well there, and we’ll try to carry it over for (Sunday).”

Another factor for crew chiefs to consider is one of the trickiest pit roads on the NASCAR calendar. At just 24 feet wide, Indy’s pit road lane of travel measures as the narrowest in NASCAR with the narrowest stalls (14 feet, 4 inches), all while featuring the longest pit stalls (46 feet, 6 inches) and the longest pit road at over 2,500 feet.

“Narrow pit road here. That is certainly a big factor where you want to be as far to the Turn 1 side on pit road as you can be,” Daniels said. “That way, if the the accordion happens, you’re just ahead of it.”

Posted on July 25, 2026July 25, 2026 by Dustin Albino

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — With Joey Logano turning back the clock at rustic North Wilkesboro Speedway, the battle for the final handful of NASCAR Cup Series Chase berths became even steeper. As one of the sport’s most accomplished drivers locked up valuable points, the gap between the cutline and those chasing it grew steadily with only five races remaining until the reset.

Logano’s 73-point performance proved monumental. He gained 57 points on the cutline, vaulting to 15th in the Cup Series standings and opening a 49-point cushion over Erik Jones, the first driver on the outside looking in, entering Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Sun., 2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The gap between 16th and 17th in the standings now sits at 33 points, the largest entering any race this season. The previous high was just 15 markers entering Nashville Superspeedway two months ago.

But just making The Chase isn’t what the three-time champion desires.

RELATED: Indianapolis lineup | At-track photos

“It’s not the goal just to make it. The goal is always to win the championship,” Logano said in a media availability at IMS. “We capitalized on a great car last week, which was awesome and proved you can score a ridiculous amount of points if you do this right. We can scratch and claw our way back into the top 10 if we continue to do that a few more times before The Chase starts. If we do that, we have a chance to win the championship.”

The victory dropped Logano’s Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric to the provisional bubble, 33 points above Jones. He gained a single point on the cutline with a 14th-place effort at North Wilkesboro. The homegrown Penske driver shares a similar sentiment to Logano, believing the No. 2 team is capable of a late-season push.

“Other than the deadline coming closer, I feel like I’m in no different position,” Cindric said on Saturday of his points position. “If anything, from a number of points standpoint, I’m better than I’ve typically been most of the year as far as that gap.

“You would think that the heat is one, but like I’ve always said, I want better than 16th. Sixteenth is still pretty far away from where my goals are as far as a shot to run for a good finishing position in the championship.”

The other driver that boosted his Chase hopes at North Wilkesboro was Shane van Gisbergen, who matched his career-best oval finish with a fifth-place result. He now sits 54 points above the cutline, though isn’t comfortable with that cushion given the demanding stretch of races ahead. One factor working in his favor, however, is the schedule’s abundance of short tracks over the final month of the regular season.

“I don’t [feel comfortable] because you saw what Joey did last week and he was more than that gap and now he’s right with us,” van Gisbergen said. “Thirty points sounds great, but it’s not a lot. It can evaporate pretty quickly, but it’s something we’re focused on because that’s our whole year. A lot of pressure these next five races just to execute, make no mistakes and try to get in genuinely.”

Chase aspirations were hurt for Jones, who placed 21st last weekend, tallying 16 points. He lost 41 points to the bubble entering Indianapolis, a venue that he considers a strong suit for Legacy Motor Club. He knows the upstart team is still a work-in-progress at short tracks, though, and needs to make the most out of the Brickyard 400 and Daytona International Speedway, as long as he’s mathematically still eligible.

MORE: Cup Series standings

“Penske has been one of the top groups in the Cup Series for years and champions in the sport, and we’re still getting there,” Jones said. “We know it’s going to be hard and going to be a battle to try to compete with them every week. They are bringing their A-game, I’m sure, to the 2 and the 22 and picking who their bullet is going to be every week.”

Meanwhile, RFK Racing — which had all three of its entries inside The Chase grid through the opening 13 races — has bled an array of points over the last two months. Even with a seventh-place effort at North Wilkesboro — stopping a three-month drought without a top 10 — Brad Keselowski is 19th in points, 58 tallies below the cutline. Damage was done for the No. 6 team when Keselowski had four straight finishes of 34th or worse between Nashville Superspeedway and Naval Base Coronado.

Yet a 34-point outing last weekend gives the 2012 Cup champion confidence with a trio of short tracks on the horizon.

“We’ve got to have more weeks like we had at North Wilkesboro,” Keselowski said. “If we do what we did at North Wilkesboro the next four or five weeks, we will be just fine.”

Preece has spent his entire career working toward a chance to compete for a championship. Now, despite sitting 48 points below the cutline with only a handful of races left, the first-time Chase hopeful refuses to go down without a fight.

“All it takes is one win,” Preece, the 2026 Cook Out Clash winner, said confidently. “I’m not saying that in the win-and-you’re-in sense, but I mean that – what happens if [Logano] wrecks and I have a strong points day? That’s where I actually have enjoyed this points system because we’re all going to go into Daytona, and if you only have a 10-point cushion to the guys you’re around, you are not comfortable. You need to go into Daytona with a 60, 70- point cushion to feel comfortable.

“It’s everybody on our team trying to find some speed because even though there [are] five races, I don’t go down until it’s done. I will keep swinging.”

Of the six drivers relatively close in points, Jones will have the clearest view of the front of the field for Sunday’s green flag in 14th. Preece and Cindric will start 34th and 35th, respectively, with the No. 2 Ford fighting an electrical issue throughout the weekend that they think has been resolved after qualifying.

Posted on July 25, 2026 by Staff Report

Duel at the Dog 200

Monadnock Speedway

Practice results

Pos	No.	Name	Sponsor	Best Tm	Best Speed	In Lap	Laps	Diff
1	79	Jon McKennedy	Stuarts Auto.; Christophers Towing; Levasseur HVAC; Boyle Electric; Hillsboro Ent.; J Young Landscaping	11.786	76.362	31	52	—
2	21	Stephen Kopcik	Wanick Construction; Newtown Pools	11.827	76.097	31	54	0.041
3	73	Paulie Hartwig III*	Professional Therapy Associates; Jersey Shore Contracting	11.849	75.956	40	46	0.063
4	5	Teddy Hodgdon*	Business Time Motorsports; The Landau Team of Re/Max; Montanari Fuel	11.863	75.866	38	45	0.077
5	54	Tommy Catalano	FX Caprara; USNE Power	11.871	75.815	17	52	0.085
6	1	Patrick Emerling	USNE Power	11.875	75.789	33	39	0.089
7	60	Matt Hirschman	Bar Harbor Bank & Trust; Pee Dee Motorsports	11.883	75.738	37	40	0.097
8	12	Craig Lutz	Elite Towing	11.884	75.732	21	33	0.098
9	3	Tyler Rypkema	Northeast Drilling; SYP	11.891	75.687	28	41	0.105
10	64	Austin Beers	Dell Electric; Lumiere Electrical; G&G Electrical Supply; AP Marquadt & Sons; Andrew James Interiors; Hughes Motors	11.898	75.643	50	60	0.112
11	50	Ronnie Williams	Empower Financial Advisory	11.927	75.459	29	42	0.141
12	58	Eric Goodale	GAF Roofing	11.976	75.15	42	45	0.19
13	56	Trevor Catalano	USNE Power	11.984	75.1	23	47	0.198
14	8	John-Michael Shenette	USNE Power South; Eighty-Two Services	11.992	75.05	35	55	0.206
15	17	Anthony Nocella	Keene Towing & Recovery; Bells Septic; Sontag Motorsports; Xtreme Autobody	12.011	74.931	8	26	0.225
16	28	Doug Coby	Nucar	12.018	74.888	15	38	0.232
17	95	Cory Plummer*	Tuckers Fabrication & Welding; Croteau Machine; Apex Race Cars; Apex Racing	12.023	74.857	44	54	0.237
18	82	Andrew Molleur	Horton Avenue Materials	12.043	74.732	25	54	0.257
19	18	Ken Heagy	Merkel Racing Engines	12.069	74.571	18	37	0.283
20	9	Jayden Harman*	Wanick Construction; Harman Funeral Home	12.222	73.638	49	49	0.436
21	31	Mike Christopher Jr.	Elite Towing; Elite Racing; Baker Racing	0	0	0	0	0

Posted on July 25, 2026July 25, 2026 by Staff Report

See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series drivers will pit this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as well as Craftsman Truck Series drivers at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Pennzoil 250 Presented by Take 5 Oil Change at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, The CW, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: How to watch NASCAR on The CW

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday (8 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on July 25, 2026July 26, 2026 by Staff Report

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski told reporters at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday that Ryan Preece will return as driver of the team’s No. 60 Ford in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2027.

Keselowski stated that the team exercised the 35-year-old driver’s option after joining the organization on a multiyear contract.

“We had a multiyear contract with Ryan and we picked up his option a few months ago,” Keselowski said. “We’re going to continue to keep him as a part of the family for a while.”

Preece, who joined RFK in 2025 after two years at Stewart-Haas Racing, is in his seventh full Cup Series season. He won 26 races and the 2013 championship in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, which helped launch his national-series career.

The highlight of Preece’s year so far came at the outset, with a rousing victory in the preseason Cook Out Clash exhibition at Bowman Gray Stadium. He ranks 18th in the Cup Series standings this season, with a three-race stretch of DNFs from late May to early June bumping him from the provisional postseason picture.

Preece just missed the Cup Series playoffs in 2025, but assembled his strongest Cup Series campaign to date. The Connecticut native placed 18th in the final Cup standings, with a career-best three top-five finishes.

Posted on July 25, 2026July 25, 2026 by Reid Spencer

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — The magnitude of the Brickyard 400 isn’t lost on defending winner Bubba Wallace.

At the 16th Street entrance to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a giant banner featuring Wallace in his driver’s uniform hangs on the back of the grandstand alongside other former winners of the race, many of them already members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

RELATED: Indianapolis lineup | At-track photos

There’s nostalgia involved with the most important of Wallace’s three NASCAR Cup Series victories. The image of son Becks, not yet one year old, lying on Wallace’s stomach on the asphalt near the iconic Yard of Bricks is indelible.

The one aspect Wallace remembers most about July 27, 2025, however, is distilled into a single word — winning.

“It’s a very boring answer, but winning in the regular season was something I’d never done in my previous two wins,” Wallace said. “That just allows you to unlock a new way of thinking inside the race car. The next four weeks after our Brickyard win, I didn’t really care how we finished, because I knew we were in the playoffs.”

As Wallace prepares to defend his victory, the rules have changed. With the return to The Chase format this year, no longer does a win guarantee a spot in the postseason.

“But, yeah, the biggest memory is just winning,” said Wallace, who held off Kyle Larson in two overtimes to earn the victory by 0.222 seconds.

Chase or not, a return to Victory Lane this year would be just as sweet.

Posted on July 25, 2026July 25, 2026 by Reid Spencer

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Standing on pit wall as Denny Hamlin completed his qualifying lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Carson Hocevar raised his arms in exultation and turned to hug Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez.

Hocevar knew at that moment that Saturday’s time trials at the historic 2.5-mile oval would not be a repeat of Michigan in June, when Hamlin, as the final qualifier, knocked Hocevar off the provisional pole at the 23-year-old’s home track.

In fact, after earning his second Busch Light Pole Award of the season and the third of his career, Hocevar will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO MAX, IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Indy

“I got out of the car, and they were cheering,” Hocevar said of the crowd in the grandstands near the “Yard of Bricks” start/finish line. “I don’t know if they were cheering for me or because I beat Denny (who qualified fifth at 185.835 mph).

“Denny stole one from me at Michigan. That’s my home track, but this is my favorite track. I love Indy.”

With a pole-winning lap at 186.598 mph in the No. 77 Chevrolet, Hocevar edged Suárez (186.382 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.056 seconds. The session was a triumph for Spire Motorsports and owner Jeff Dickerson, an Indianapolis native.

With Michael McDowell qualifying sixth at 185.762 mph, Spire put all three of its cars within the first three rows of the grid.

“It felt really good,” Hocevar said of his blistering lap. “Michael McDowell went out early and gave me the confidence that the car was going to be able to stick with him putting up a good lap.

“I felt really comfortable. I love this place… You race differently if you’re comfortable and confident here. I’ve been confident since the first lap I’ve been here.”

MORE: Friday’s practice recap

Toyota driver Tyler Reddick posted the third fastest lap at 186.077 mph and will start next to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs (185.966 mph). Naval Base Coronado winner Corey Heim (185.456 mph) claimed the seventh starting spot, followed by Alex Bowman (185.368 mph), AJ Allmendinger (185.345 mph) and Kyle Larson (185.315 mph).

The top 10 featured six Chevrolets and four Toyotas. Ryan Blaney, competing against Todd Gilliland for the $1-million In-Season Challenge prize, drove the fastest Ford (185.197 mph) to a 13th-place starting spot. Gilliland qualified 36th at 182.460 mph.

Blaney will make his 400th career Cup Series start on Sunday.

Defending race winner Bubba Wallace (183.861 mph) earned the 29th grid position.

Suarez was ahead of Hocevar’s pace early in his lap but lost time through the final two corners.

“I felt like I left a little bit out there,” Suárez said. “A little mistake in corner 3, but I’m very proud of my team.”

Posted on July 25, 2026July 25, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

CLERMONT, Ind. — Front Row Motorsports teammates Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith both aspire to climb the ranks into the NASCAR Cup Series.

For now, they’re doing their parts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, combining to win each of the last two races in dominant fashion. But at the sport’s upper echelon, there doesn’t appear to be any room at the inn — at least not as a driver for Front Row’s three-car effort in the Cup Series.

Jerry Freeze, general manager of Front Row Motorsports, is tasked with navigating his drivers’ aspirations through tough business decisions. Zane Smith signed a multiyear contract extension to keep him in the No. 38 Ford through at least 2027. Last week, the team announced Todd Gilliland signed a contract extension to remain in the No. 34 Ford through next season. And in an interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio this week, Freeze said Noah Gragson is nearing a contract extension that keeps him in the team’s No. 4 Ford through 2027 as well; a deal that will close the last open seat at the organization for at least another season.

With two eager drivers winning at the lower levels in Riggs and Smith, Freeze has to balance their success and desires with patience and a business sense.

“Yeah, that’s a big challenge,” Freeze told NASCAR.com Friday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, site of Riggs’ latest romp. “That’s a big challenge because all these guys have ambition to be at the highest level for sure. And we’ve got five guys that are all anywhere from 24 to 28 years old, and so they all believe they can race on Sundays — and I believe they can all race on Sundays. And in this sport, unfortunately, sometimes you’ve got to have the whole package together with sponsorship and all the pieces have to work together to make it happen.

“And so for us, we really believe in Noah, and we just haven’t been able to get the success out of him and that team that I feel like is there. There’s some new stuff coming in the Ford camp next year that I think is going to help improve the overall product. Anyhow, we just wanted to give it another shot with Noah next year, and we’ve got a good group of sponsors around him. Todd’s been with us; it’ll be eight years total with Front Row starting next year, which is pretty long term. We really believe in him, and Zane’s doing a fantastic job.

“We’d love to see Layne get a chance — and he will get a chance. He will get a chance, and we see a bright, bright future with Layne for sure. Chandler’s capable of doing it too. But you’re right. That’s the hardest part.”

Riggs has made his ambitions known, particularly as he hunts for his first Craftsman Truck Series title in his third full-time season with a career-high five wins. But for now, he’s content to keep winning in hopes of eventually earning that trip up the career ladder.

“The desire is always there for any driver, anybody who wants to be racing on Sundays in top-notch equipment,” Riggs said. “My main focus is just to keep doing what I’m doing here. I don’t have any races planned to run any time soon. There’s nothing I can do there besides just work hard behind the scenes to put deals together. But right now, I’m fully focused on winning truck races and supporting Front Row Motorsports in all their endeavors.”

Smith, who spent the 2023 and 2024 campaigns in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, is content wherever he lands so long as he’s behind the wheel.

“I just want the Lord’s will, whatever that means,” Smith said. “If that’s to race trucks for the rest of my life, that’s what I want to do. If the Lord obviously presents me and pushes me into an opportunity that lands in my lap and is just there and it’s pretty evident, then I want to just submit myself and be a vessel. I mean that wholeheartedly, truthfully.”

In the meantime, Riggs leads the Truck Series standings by 100 points with just two races remaining in the regular season, while Smith sits third in the standings with two victories.