Rajah Caruth returns to Spire Motorsports for 2025 Craftsman Truck Series

Posted on December 13, 2024February 6, 2025 by Zack Albert

Rajah Caruth was set to accept his college diploma Friday morning in commencement ceremonies at Winston-Salem State University. Earning his degree coincided with quite the graduation gift.

Spire Motorsports announced Friday that Caruth will return to the team in 2025 for a second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season as driver of the No. 71 Chevrolet. Also re-signed is sponsorship from HendrickCars.com, which was a primary backer for all 23 races this past season.

Spire representatives indicated that the team and crew chief lineup would be announced later. The Craftsman Truck Series kicks off the 2025 season at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, Feb. 14 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Caruth, 22, joined Spire full-time last season and their partnership bore fruit early with a breakthrough victory from the pole position March 1 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He reached the Round of 8 in the Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs and was later voted the circuit’s Most Popular Driver.

“He took the incredibly high expectations we placed on him to start the year and exceeded them in every way,” said Jeff Dickerson, Spire Motorsports co-owner. “I’m impressed with how he’s balanced his commitments to his race team, his craft, the media and his growing fanbase while managing a full workload at Winston-Salem State University. Our organization believes in Raj, and he has consistently shown the leadership, form and work ethic that every team looks for in a driver. Everyone at Spire Motorsports is really happy to run it back with him next season.”

The re-up means continuity for Caruth, who spent one season with team owner Maury Gallagher’s operation in 2023 before starting his full-time Spire tenure. His current role was preceded by part-time duty for Spire, Alpha Prime Racing and Hendrick Motorsports – four Truck Series races in 2022, and 19 Xfinity Series starts from 2022-23.

“It is great to have a home and stability heading into next year,” Caruth said in a team release. “I believe this is the first time in my career I won’t be with a new team or competing in a different series at the start of the season. I really appreciate the opportunity Jeff and T.J. (Puchyr, co-owner) have given me, and I’m excited to continue preparations for 2025. Our organization has really grown over the past year, and we have shown what we are capable of. We have set the bar high for the season, and the expectation is to win more races and compete for a championship.”

Caruth was awarded a Bachelor of Science diploma from WSSU on Friday after he completed his course of study in Motorsports Management. Those duties and his racing schedule required a balancing act, and the team indicated that 108 NASCAR and ARCA starts coincided with his completion of 120 credit hours during his college days.

“I’m glad to be done with school,” Caruth said. “It required a lot of hard work and sacrifice, along with diligent time management between coursework and everything associated with racing, including team meetings, simulator time and travel. I appreciate everything Dr. (Clay) Harshaw, Dr. (Dennis) Felder and all my professors at Winston-Salem State have done to help me finish school while chasing my dream. It is super cool to have the faculty, student body and WSSU National Alumni Association following me in my journey and cheering me on. The crew chiefs I’ve had through the years have been flexible with my schedule so I could finish this chapter, and I’m ready for racing become my lone focus.”

HendrickCars.com was Caruth’s sponsor for his most recent Xfinity Series start in the 2023 finale at Phoenix Raceway. The support of Hendrick Motorsports and team owner Rick Hendrick, Caruth said, was key to forging his path with Spire.

“Rajah is a young man of tremendous character and has proven to be a great representative of HendrickCars.com and our nearly 11,000 teammates across the country,” said Hendrick, a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee in 2017. “In addition to being extremely talented, he has an incredible work ethic. We couldn’t be prouder to make this announcement on the same day Rajah and his family celebrate his college graduation. He has a very bright future in the sport, and we are thrilled to continue supporting his journey in 2025.”

Posted on December 13, 2024 by Zack Albert

When the NASCAR Cup Series makes its return to Bowman Gray Stadium next year for the first time since 1971, the racing on the cozy quarter-mile — in keeping with the track’s decades of tradition — is expected to be tight. From a logistical standpoint, NASCAR officials and teams will get a taste of that theme, too, which will require some creative thinking to make the procedural end of the season-opening Clash all work.

NASCAR officials released race-weekend schedules for the first five months of the 2025 racing calendar Thursday, unveiling a new look for practice and qualifying for all three national series. Included was a first look at the season-opening Clash exhibition Feb. 1-2, with a preliminary glance at the schedule and certain format details.

Included in the scheduling and inner workings for Bowman Gray is a unique take on the inspection process. Because of the close quarters in the garage area, which normally hosts weekly racing series, pre-race inspection for the Cup Series will be held at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where the cars will be checked, sealed and loaded up before their arrival at the Winston-Salem track, one hour away.

“We take a massive footprint with our haulers, with all our technical equipment as well as the NASCAR series support haulers that are required, so certainly we had to look at it a little differently on what we’re going to do for inspections and how we’re going to do it,” said Cup Series director Brad Moran. “Our good friends from Charlotte Motor Speedway worked with us, so we appreciate (track executives) Marcus Smith and Steve Swift putting the facility up for our use. It’s all pre-wired and it’s ready to go, obviously. We go there twice a year, and what we’re going to do is something a little different than what we do on a normal event.”

Moran said a full pre-race inspection will take place inside the Charlotte track’s garage building on Thursday, Jan. 30, and that cars will be impounded and secured with tamper-proof seals before making the trip north. Haulers will park Friday, one day before officials break the seals, allowing teams to unload and set up behind the stadium’s fieldhouse ahead of on-track activity Saturday, Feb. 1.

Moran said post-race inspection after Sunday’s main event will be done with scales and shock equipment, but without the Optical Scanning Station (OSS) used to analyze car chassis and bodies. He also said inspection stations that include OSS would be set up that weekend at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, for the purpose of inspecting backup cars pre-race Sunday in case teams have substantial damage to their primary vehicles in Saturday’s preliminaries.

Officials indicated that a full format for the first running of the Clash at Bowman Gray would be released in the first two weeks of the new year. Thursday’s weekend schedule reveal shows that certain elements from the three editions of the Clash held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will carry over.

Four 25-lap heats starting at 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday will help determine the main event’s starting lineup, and a 75-lap last chance qualifying race is set for 6 p.m. ET Sunday, two hours ahead of the 200-lap feature (8 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM Radio), where only green-flag laps will count and a halfway break will allow for teams to make adjustments.

MORE: All about the Clash | Bowman Gray announces sellout

The schedule will include a 125-lap race called the “Madhouse Classic” for the stadium’s featured Modified Division. That event is scheduled Saturday at 1:45 p.m. ET, ahead of the Cup Series’ return.

Crews work on installing the concrete barriers at Bowman Gray Stadium. (Photo courtesy of Erick Messer/Messer Media

“From a competition standpoint, we’re getting close,” Moran said about making the format final. “We’ve almost got everything buttoned up. We’re waiting on just a couple other items to check a few boxes, but we’re getting real close to having this whole plan put together and ready to go.”

A component from the Los Angeles events that will carry over is the handling of pit stops, with some necessary alterations. In L.A., teams had smaller-scale pit crews available in the paved infield of the quarter-mile track in case their cars had an issue. At Bowman Gray, the infield is grass with no interior walls, so a makeshift pit road will be established behind the fieldhouse, connecting the pit-entry gate at Turn 3 with the pit-exit gate at Turn 4.

Pit stops on that same path are a relative rarity at Bowman Gray during weekly meets given the track’s layout and external pit road through the garage. For the Cup Series exhibition, Moran said he expects a similar scarcity of stops.

“It is limited equipment, and the teams prefer it that way,” Moran says. “There are no real pit stops unless you have a problem, right? I don’t think anyone would go down there and give up all their track position unless they have a problem, so the tire situation would be the same as L.A. So if they had a flat, they’re only allowed to change the one tire for one tire until the break, and that’s when the full tires and adjustments get done during that break. That’ll probably look similar to L.A.”

Construction continued at Bowman Gray this week with the placement of concrete backing walls ahead of SAFER barrier installation. A new MUSCO lighting system is also on the list of renovations for the pioneering stock-car racing venue, which hosted 29 points-paying Cup Series races from 1958-71 and has been in operation for weekly NASCAR events since 1949.

The planning has been underway just off the racing surface, too, as the proposed garage configuration starts to come into focus. Moran said he was familiar with the stadium from his visits for weekly events and races for what’s now the ARCA Menards Series East, but that the competition team has made visits to take measurements and map out where everything might fit. That’s accounting for work areas for teams, fuel provider Sunoco, tire partner Goodyear and FOX Sports’ and NASCAR’s broadcasting group, in addition to the NASCAR official haulers.

“You start adding all that up for this event,” Moran says, “and you start running out of ground really quickly.”

Posted on December 13, 2024December 13, 2024 by Cara Cooper

Kenna Mitchell has been racing for just seven years, and she already has four championships to her name.

The 18-year-old entered the 2024 season at Roseville, California’s All American Speedway having already won a couple titles, one as the junior track champion and the other in the track’s Bandolero division. This summer, she added two more.

Mitchell won the track’s Super Series division by 14 points and the Pro Late Model division by 34 points. She was the only driver at the track to win multiple championships this year.

“It feels really great,” Mitchell said. “My team put in a lot of effort this year, and getting both of those championships meant a lot to us. … My team worked hard all year to get this fast car. It was really cool to be able to race against other people who have track championships there.

“Thank you to my sponsors and my family and my team. They were what made the year and the season happen.”

Kenna Mitchell and her team celebrate a win at California’s All American Speedway in June of 2023. (Photo: Don Thompson/All American Speedway)

All American’s season began June 1, which just so happened to be the same day as Mitchell’s high school graduation. She got her diploma early in the day, went to the race track at night and won both races — which, she said “felt pretty great.”

Mitchell carried that momentum through the summer. She felt confident racing the Pro Late Model but thought she’d experience an adjustment period in her first season racing the Super. Not only was she racing the car for the first time, but she was going against some of the best drivers on the west coast.

She practiced by competing in what she called “learning races” with the CARS Tour West.

“I had so much fun in that race and felt like I learned so much about the Supers,” she said. “I started, I think, second in that race, and if I hadn’t had a throttle cable issue, I would have most likely just passed the guy on the inside and kept running. But being able to pass that many cars was so much fun to me. Just learning, being like, ‘Man, this is a lot different than the Pros.'”

By the time she started the season at All American, Mitchell felt like a pro in both series.

“The end of the races were just so close,” she said. “We had to earn finishes. We had one race where we were back and forth for like all 100 laps. … It was really fun.

“Especially with being with the same drivers all year, I’m learning how they drive and then what I’m getting ready for. I know I can bump this guy and he won’t go around, or I know this guy will bump me, and I need to be ready for that. Just as a driver, getting used to the Supers was a lot. It’s like 200 more horsepower than the Pros were. I go from going down the straightaway, hitting the chip at the end, to going down the straightaway and going, ‘Am I able to get full throttle here? I think I am.’”

Mitchell is a second-generation driver. Her dad raced Modifieds, and the family followed him to races up and down the west coast.

When she was 10, Mitchell told her dad she wanted to race, too.

“My dad’s like, ‘Alright, we’ll see what we can do,’” she said. “And then when I turned 11, we got a Mini Cup, and that’s where I started racing was in those. I had a lot of fun. It was like, I want to keep doing this.

“I tried a bunch of other sports, but they never really clicked. But racing was just so much fun. My first year, I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.'”

At such a young age, Mitchell said she liked knowing how to drive a race car before she was allowed to drive on the road. Being able to drive fast added to the excitement.

“I can go out on a race track and go as fast as I want; as fast as the car allows,” she said. “Mini cars aren’t very fast, but to be able to drive a car, it was so much fun for me, especially after watching my dad for so long.

“You don’t see as many people out there in Mini Cups, but for the time I did it, it was such a great time to start because all the tracks we went to had somewhat of a competitive Mini Cup league. Same with Bandoleros when I moved up to those. We had a great championship battle at Roseville.”

Kenna Mitchell pictured during the NASCAR Regional International Series Awards at the Charlotte Convention Center on November 21, 2024. (Photo: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

More than anything, Mitchell fell in love with racing simply because the craft was fun. And it’s still just as fun today as she learns new cars and travels to new tracks.

“I’d say I probably just like the competition, working with your team, getting the car set up,” she said. “Just knowing we don’t know how the weekend’s going to go. Just being able to be out on the race track, doing laps, making adjustments to my car, talking to my team.

“I’m always nervous on the first start. I go, ‘Man, I really hope we get a good start,’ because that kind of, for me, just sets the race. And then once the race is going, I just have so much fun battling.”

Mitchell plans to stay in both series next year and compete for both championships at All American, as well as a California state championship and a CARS Tour West title.

“We’re going to race a lot,” she said “Any race we can get to.”

Posted on December 13, 2024December 13, 2024 by Holly Cain

Editor’s note: This continues the series in which we review each 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs driver in reverse order of championship finish.

Season in review: Daniel Suárez, No. 99, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Crew chief: Matt Swiderski
Final 2024 ranking: 12th
Key stats: One win, four top fives, nine top 10s, 209 laps led

How 2024 ended: Suárez qualified for the playoffs for the second time in the last three seasons and started his championship run strongly with a runner-up showing in the first race at Atlanta and answering it with a 13th-place effort at the Watkins Glen road course – an effort good enough to advance him to the second round. However, unable to score a top-10 in the next three-race round – which included a frustrating 30th-place finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval – Suárez was eliminated from title contention in the Round of 12.

Best race: A victory at the season’s second race in Atlanta — he led the last lap — marked Suárez’s second career NASCAR Cup Series victory and was a strong statement for the team’s new chief pairing of Suarez and Swiderski. But arguably Suárez’s best overall race came much later in the season at Richmond when he led 93 of the 408 laps. Although he finished a solid 10th place, that marked the most laps he’s led in a single race in eight seasons at the NASCAR Cup Series level.

Other season highlights: Securing his second career Cup win in only the second race of the season allowed Suárez and his Trackhouse Racing No. 99 Chevrolet the chance to immediately begin thinking big picture. Suárez and his new crew chief Swiderski tried some new things with the car — some successful and some not, Suárez said. But ultimately his highlights this season came on the bigger ovals. All four of his top-five finishes came at 1.5-mile tracks (Atlanta, Texas and Las Vegas). In addition to his early-season win, Suárez reeled off three consecutive top-10 finishes in the summer –at Indianapolis, Richmond and Michigan — his most productive stretch of the season.

Stat to know: Suárez’s 93 laps led at Richmond in August was a career-high single-race mark and he led more than 200 laps combined on the year for the second time in his career. Suárez nearly swept the two Atlanta races — winning in the spring and finishing runner-up in the fall playoff race. He was running at the checkered flag for a career-best 34 of the 36 races.

Quotable: “I think if you look at the big picture, our 99 team got better from last year. …We had a couple months in the middle of the year where we were trying new stuff and were very, very bad and eventually we had to reset and try again, and I feel that hurt the numbers of the 99 team. We were okay, a top-15 team most of the year, but we have a lot of work to do as an organization.” — Daniel Suárez on his 2024 season

MORE: Daniel Suárez wins thriller in photo finish at Atlanta | Suárez on winning Atlanta classic

Looking ahead: Earning his second career victory in only his second race with a new crew chief this season was certainly encouraging for Suarez, but the former NASCAR Xfinity Series champion was not wholly satisfied. Both Trackhouse Racing teams — Suárez and teammate Ross Chastain — won races this year, but only Suarez qualified for the playoffs and next year, the organization is adding a third car for New Zealand standout Shane van Gisbergen. Suarez’s laps led (209) was four times that of 2023 and his four top-fives efforts were second only to his output in 2022. But the 99 team will need to improve on its playoff stretch of tracks after earning only three top-10 finishes in the 10-race championship run this season. A historical first points-paying visit to Suarez’s home country, Mexico, represents a huge opportunity for this fan-favorite driver, who is optimistic that a second year with his crew chief and a highly motivated team would produce back-to-back playoff opportunities for the first time in his career.

Posted on December 12, 2024December 18, 2024 by Jerry Bonkowski

Editor’s note: This continues the series in which we review each 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs driver in reverse order of championship finish.

Season in review: Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford
Crew chief: Matt McCall
Final 2024 ranking: 13th
Key stats: One win, nine top fives, 14 top 10s, 318 laps led

How 2024 ended: Keselowski’s season ended after being eliminated following the Bristol Night Race (the Round of 16 elimination race). Keselowski struggled with finishes of 19th in the playoff opener in Atlanta, and then back-to-back 26th-place finishes at Watkins Glen and Bristol, ending his advancement hopes. Even though he was eliminated, Keselowski did have two notable finishes after that: runner-up in the fall Talladega race and ninth in the penultimate race of the season at Martinsville. After Phoenix, he ended the season 13th, a drop of five positions from his eighth-place showing in the 2023 season.

Best race: Keselowski’s best race was the spring event at Darlington, where he started from the outside pole and finished with his first win since the spring 2021 race at Talladega. It was Keselowski’s second career victory at the “Track Too Tough To Tame,” leading 37 laps, including the final nine laps before taking the checkered flag.

Other season highlights: Keselowski finished 1-2-3 in the three-race stretch from Darlington (win) to Charlotte (second) to Gateway (third). Another highlight was the fall playoff race at Martinsville, where he led a race- and season-high 170 laps before finishing ninth.

Stats to know: If it seemed like Keselowski was playing from behind early in the season, you’d be right. He began the season with back-to-back crashes and identical 33rd-place finishes in the season-opening Daytona 500 and the following week at Atlanta, dropping him to 33rd in the standings. He didn’t climb back into the top 10 in the rankings until the Coca-Cola 600, when he finished runner-up, moving him up to ninth in the standings.

Quotable: “The 6 team had a strong middle part of the season and faded come playoff time. I learned a lot this year and we will come back smarter and recharged. I’m not looking back wondering what would’ve been if I stayed at Team Penske. Success as a driver-owner, even if less as of today, means so much more to me.” – Brad Keselowski

MORE: Keselowski takes ‘natural next step’ in RFK expansion

Looking ahead: After serving as crew chief for Keselowski’s first three seasons with RFK Racing, Matt McCall is out for 2025. The new guy on the pit box, Jeremy Bullins, is a familiar face, having served as crew chief for Keselowski’s final two seasons with Team Penske (2020 and 2021). Now that he’s 40, is retirement starting to creep into Keselowski’s mind? Not a chance, he says: “Anyone who thinks I’m ready to retire can kiss my tail. I have a lot of fight left in me and already can’t wait for 2025.”

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Zack Albert

NASCAR officials released the weekend schedule Thursday for the annual Speedweek festivities at Daytona International Speedway, revealing details on four season-opening races and an expanded practice schedule for the Daytona 500 main event Sunday, Feb. 16.

The schedule arrived in conjunction with NASCAR officials announcing adjustments to the practice and qualifying procedures for its three national series, in addition to the release of race-weekend schedules for the first portion of the 2025 calendar. The schedule for Daytona’s season-opening event, however, has typically had its own distinct traits, and this year’s version keeps up that tradition.

NASCAR officials announced that a 50-minute pre-qualifying practice for the Cup Series has been added to the schedule for Wed., Feb. 12 — officially opening on-track activity for the week at 10 a.m. ET. Daytona 500 Media Day will follow from noon to 7 p.m. ET, with Busch Light Pole Qualifying for the “Great American Race” set for 8:15 p.m. ET that evening.

Cup Series director Brad Moran said Wednesday that competition officials opted to add the 50-minute session to allow teams to have extra preparation before qualifying and to provide rookies and new team/driver combinations with more time for at-track orientation.

“With the Daytona 500 being the biggest race of the NASCAR season and our first race, we felt that the extra practice would be good,” Moran said. “We have new drivers coming up that are going to be running Cup full-time as well as some drivers who might just show up to run the Daytona 500. It’s a good opportunity to get out on the track, get some track time, shake the cars down prior to qualifying that night, a little more content for the fans and just to get us set up for a great week of racing with everything going on. It’s just going to set the tone for the entire week.”

MORE: Buy tickets | Daytona 500 logo unveiled

The 67th Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will mark the culmination of a week full of season-opening events, with the lid lifted on the 2025 slate for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on Friday, Feb. 14, plus the ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday, Feb. 15. The complete TV broadcast schedule for the week’s on-track activity at the 2.5-mile speedway will be announced later.

2025 DAYTONA SPEEDWEEK SCHEDULE

(All times Eastern)

Wednesday, Feb. 12

10:05-10:55 a.m. – Cup Series opening practice

Noon-7 p.m. – Daytona 500 Media Day

8:15 p.m. – Cup Series pole qualifying

Thursday, Feb. 13

4:05-4:55 p.m. – ARCA Menards Series practice

5:05-5:55 p.m. – Craftsman Truck Series practice

7 p.m. – Cup Series: Duel 1 qualifying race (60 laps, 150 miles)

8:45 p.m. (approx.) – Cup Series: Duel 2 qualifying race (60 laps, 150 miles)

Friday, Feb. 14

1:30-2:15 p.m. – ARCA Menards Series qualifying

3 p.m. – Craftsman Truck Series qualifying

4:35-5:25 p.m. – Xfinity Series practice

5:35-6:25 p.m. – Cup Series second practice

7:30 p.m. – Craftsman Truck Series race: Fresh From Florida 250 (100 laps, 250 miles; FS1)

Saturday, Feb. 15

10 a.m. – Xfinity Series qualifying

Noon – ARCA Menards Series race (80 laps, 200 miles)

3:05-3:55 p.m. – Cup Series final practice

5 p.m. – Xfinity Series race: United Rentals 300 (120 laps, 300 miles; The CW)

Sunday, Feb. 16

2:30 p.m. – Cup Series race: 67th Daytona 500 (200 laps, 500 miles; FOX)

Posted on December 12, 2024December 12, 2024 by Zack Albert

NASCAR officials released updated practice and qualifying procedures for the 2025 season on Thursday, expanding practice time and moving to simplify starting lineup rules across its three national series.

The move closely coincides with Thursday morning’s release of race weekend schedules for the first portion of the 2025 NASCAR calendar. Those schedules include the events and timing for the weeklong run-up to the season-opening Daytona 500 (Sunday, Feb. 16, 2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), which will include a just-announced 50-minute practice session on Wednesday, Feb. 12.

MORE: Full 2025 schedule | Key players in 2024-25 Silly Season

The most significant changes for practice and qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series include:

Group practice goes from 20 to 25 minutes.
Single-round qualifying at every track except for superspeedways, which will still implement a final round of time trials for the fastest 10 cars.
Starting position based solely on qualifying results, rather than row-by-row designations according to qualifying group.

Qualifying will be single-lap time trials at most tracks. At short tracks, the best of two laps will be the qualifying speed of record, and road courses will have group qualifying with multiple cars on the track for 20-minute sessions.

NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying sessions will be shown on Prime Video in the season’s first half, and by TNT Sports on Max and TruTV in the second half — with an exception that FOX Sports will have broadcast rights for practice and qualifying for The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, the Daytona 500 and the NASCAR All-Star Race.

All Xfinity Series practice and qualifying will be broadcast on The CW, and FOX Sports will broadcast all Truck Series sessions.

Cup Series director Brad Moran said that settling on the new procedures was the result of collaboration across the NASCAR industry, including involvement with new broadcast partners who will begin their first season of a seven-year media rights deal in 2025. The slight bump in pre-race track time, Moran says, is a small step toward where at-track schedules were previously — before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted industry-wide streamlining for race weekends.

“I think it’s going to be welcomed by the industry,” Moran said. “We’ve gotten a lot of feedback throughout the year, and we made a couple of adjustments through the year, and we really wanted to take a whole fresh look at it. A lot of this came into play back in COVID, when we tightened things up, so we’re kind of going back a little to what we used to do again. We’re going to have a little more practice, which is obviously better for the fans and the partners.”

A detailed look at practice and qualifying procedures for each series, listed by track type:

Standard practice and qualifying

25-minute practice each for Group 1 and Group 2
- Groups will be determined by metrics (70% based on previous race finish by owner; 30% based on owner points position. The best scoring cars in metrics will be placed in Group 2)
Qualifying: One lap, one round
Tracks: Las Vegas, Phoenix (spring), Miami, Darlington, Texas, Kansas, Charlotte oval, Nashville, Michigan, Pocono, WWT Raceway, New Hampshire

Short track practice and qualifying

25-minute practice each for Group 1 and Group 2
Qualifying: Two laps, one round
Tracks: Martinsville, Bristol, Dover, Iowa, Richmond, North Wilkesboro (Trucks), Lucas Oil IRP (Trucks)

Superspeedway qualifying

No practice, except for a 50-minute pre-qualifying session at Daytona 500
Qualifying: One lap, two rounds
Fastest 10 cars in opening round advance to final round
Starting positions 1-10 will be based on finish in final round; remainder of field will start based on qualifying results in first round
Tracks: Atlanta, Talladega, Daytona (summer)

Road course practice and qualifying

25-minute practice each for Group 1 and Group 2
20-minute qualifying each for Group 1 and Group 2, multiple cars on track
One round of qualifying
Tracks: Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, Charlotte Roval, Portland (Xfinity), COTA (Xfinity, Trucks; Cup Series will have expanded practice procedures)

Expanded practice weekends

Weekends scheduled to have separate practice and qualifying sessions:

Cup: The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, Daytona 500, COTA*, All-Star Race, Mexico City, Indianapolis, Phoenix championship

Xfinity: Daytona, Rockingham, Mexico City, Indianapolis, WWTR, Phoenix championship

Trucks: Daytona, Rockingham, Michigan, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, New Hampshire, Charlotte Roval, Phoenix championship

Note: The NASCAR Cup Series weekend at Circuit of The Americas will feature expanded road course qualifying, with cars assigned to two groups. Two 20-minute practices will be held for each group (40 minutes total per car), with those sessions leading into qualifying.

Posted on December 11, 2024December 11, 2024 by Staff Report

A three-member appeals panel on Wednesday upheld a penalty that NASCAR officials issued to Craftsman Truck Series champion Ty Majeski for missing a media event before the series’ season-ending race.

The National Motorsports Appeals Panel determined that the $12,500 fine issued to Majeski on Nov. 5 would stand, saying: “Driver failed to meet contractual agreement with NASCAR. One of the most, if not most, important media obligations of the entire season.”

Majeski was fined for missing Playoffs Media Day on Nov. 5 for championship-eligible drivers in North Carolina, held three days before the series’ deciding race at Phoenix Raceway. The violation fell under the NASCAR Rule Book’s Section 4.4.A, which deals with NASCAR Member Conduct, specifically “failure to complete media obligations” in Majeski’s case.

Majeski indicated during a media availability on the eve of the championship race at Phoenix that he planned to appeal, saying that he had the support of his ThorSport Racing team. The 30-year-old driver explained that he skipped the Tuesday media session to cast his ballot on Election Day in his home state of Wisconsin.

A NASCAR spokesperson said last month that officials were not aware of the reason for Majeski’s absence until after the fine was issued, saying that they would have worked with the driver on the timing of the media obligations had they been made aware of his intentions.

Neither Majeski nor ThorSport immediately indicated whether they would pursue a final appeal. The three-member appeals panel was represented Wednesday by Hunter Nickell, Cathy Rice and Lake Speed.

Posted on December 11, 2024December 11, 2024 by Zach Sturniolo

Chase Briscoe is officially entering a new era.

Goodbye, Stewart-Haas Racing. Hello, Joe Gibbs Racing.

In a Nov. 22 media availability, hours before the 2024 NASCAR Awards banquet, Briscoe said he hasn’t had many ties to SHR at all since the NASCAR Cup Series’ season finale Nov. 10 at Phoenix Raceway — so few, in fact, that he cleaned out his locker on the No. 14 SHR hauler after the Phoenix finale and transferred his belongings to the No. 19 JGR hauler just so he could get his items back.

“Honestly, I already kind of turned the chapters because we were locked out of the building and everything. We couldn’t even go back,” Briscoe said. “So I mean, truthfully, I’ve already cleaned my closet out. I kept some stuff, but, yeah, I mean, there’s really no SHR in existence anymore, right? It’s already the Haas Factory Team on the building and the employees and everything else.”

MORE: Briscoe’s 2024 in review | 2025 schedule

The postseason awards celebration marked Briscoe’s final official appearance as driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford after four Cup seasons. Now, he pivots to the No. 19 Toyota to replace the retiring past Cup champion Martin Truex Jr., joining JGR and teammates Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell in what he described as the most pressure-packed ride of his career.

“I love the pressure side, but I do think this is probably the most pressure I’ve ever been (under) in my life, as far as professionally,” Briscoe said. “It’s weird because there’s been other times where my career was literally gonna be over, right? But I feel like this is one of those opportunities where if you don’t perform, like, there’s no excuses. Like, you have to perform at JGR. So from that standpoint, it is different because everywhere else, there’s really not been that expectation.

“SHR, where we were as a company was totally different. We weren’t expected, really, to go win. And if you win, then awesome, right? That’s great. But you weren’t expected to go win week in, week out, where at JGR, you are expected to be up front every single weekend. So from that standpoint, it is going to be totally different than anything I’ve really had in my career. So yeah, I’ll just have to figure it out.”

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

That challenge is one Briscoe welcomes as he enters a new chapter both as a racer and a father. He and wife Marissa welcomed twins Cooper and Collins on Oct. 8, now parents of three in addition to 3-year-old Brooks. And while adapting to life as a father of three has been its own journey, focus on the racing side of life has been a smoother endeavor.

Briscoe and crew chief James Small worked on building rapport with one another as the season was winding to a close, trying to get a head start on what their future could look like.

“Even the last, I would say, two or three weeks of the season,” Briscoe said, “(Small) made it a point always on Monday just to call me and kind of talk through my weekend and see what I fought and what struggles, just see if it lined up with anything they had. So yeah, I feel like we get along really well. Obviously, we haven’t been in that competition (situation) yet. We’ve just been away from the race track. But so far, everything’s been really good.”

MORE: Briscoe’s rise to JGR: ‘There was a miracle’

Small has spent the past five seasons as Truex’s crew chief, working with him in some capacity since 2018 when both were at Furniture Row Racing. So Briscoe’s arrival marks a new era for Small too, who welcomes an eager, soon-to-be 30-year-old to the fold in place of the outgoing 44-year-old Truex.

“For us, it’s building a new story,” Small said after Phoenix. “You know, Martin was already established. Chase has only won a couple of races. It’s like Martin when he went to Furniture Row. He’s still very young, he’s extremely fast, and I know he’s very hungry to perform and show everybody what he’s capable of. So the whole team is just really, really excited to get going and try and get back here next year in the final four of the (playoffs).”

An added benefit for the No. 19 team is Briscoe’s proximity to the Huntersville, North Carolina, race shop. Truex often spent his weekdays outside the Carolinas, mainly in Florida and New Jersey, which prevented many visits to the shop.

“It’s just going to be really great to actually have somebody, for one, that lives in North Carolina,” Small told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, “and two, comes into the shop multiple times a week so we can actually build the team around him and have him in the process of developing the setup each week and helping us be better as well. We’re all really excited to have him on board and I think it’s gonna be a big gain for the 19 team.”

Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

Briscoe said he doesn’t quite know what his JGR schedule will be yet, but he’s looking forward to being in the shop as much as Small is looking forward to having him.

“Even James was telling me, I don’t think they’ve done sim for like three years, just because Martin’s never been there,” Briscoe said. “So from that standpoint, I know he’s excited just to be able to do sim because it feels like it’s going to make them better.”

A native of Mitchell, Indiana, Briscoe said those relationships with those on his team are imperative as they build communication and understand what each other needs and expects. That process began Nov. 14, Briscoe said, when he went to JGR to work ahead on his seat for the 2025 campaign, spending at least four hours at the shop. The facility was largely empty since the season had just ended, but Briscoe still left with a different impression.

“Being able to see a little bit on the inside, it’s definitely been intense,” he said. “Like it’s been very eye-opening, I would say, just being there a couple days, just how different it is. But, at the same time, all I’ve known is one place for the last seven years. So I think anything is going to be different. But it’s been really good so far.”

By the awards banquet, Briscoe already had his key access and began the process of acquiring his new work laptop. The biggest challenge, however, has been navigating the shop itself.

“I had to have James just show me how to get back to the marketing side the other day because I was so lost,” Briscoe said.

But it will be the expectations, paired with the intricate details, that will be most impactful to Briscoe’s adjustment to life competing under the Joe Gibbs Racing banner.

“It’s gonna be interesting just trying to understand the differences of how just intense JGR is, right?” he said. “At SHR, if we ran eighth, that was a good weekend. Where at JGR, the expectation is way different. It’s like, well, if we ran eighth, why did we run eighth? It’s just a totally different vibe and atmosphere. So from that standpoint, there’s going to be a lot, I think, for me to learn at the beginning of the season and just understanding, honestly, even just the things that go into what makes them as successful as they are. Even when I was at the shop last week, I mean, they were literally trying to find ounces they can shave off my helmet. That’s stuff that I never even thought about at SHR, right?

“So yeah, it’s gonna be different. But I’m excited that me and James are finally gonna be able to start working together. That’s been the hard thing the past couple months. Like, we’ve talked about a lot of things, but we haven’t been able to put any of those into action, where when we do the sim stuff, we’re literally going four days in a row, I think nine to five. And those are gonna be four days where we’re gonna really get to learn each other a lot and understand the lingo.

“And my style of driving might be completely opposite of Martin’s. We feel like (after) talking that they’re pretty similar — like the things Martin looks for are a lot of the same things I look for. But how we get there can be totally different. So there’s gonna be a learning curve for both of us. But I think once we get to that sim work for four days, it’s gonna give us a way better understanding of where we’re gonna be at and what we need to work on.”

Posted on December 11, 2024December 18, 2024 by Holly Cain

Editor’s note: This continues the series in which we review each 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs driver in reverse order of championship finish.

Season in review: Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
Crew chief: Richard Boswell
Final 2024 ranking: 14th
Key stats: One win, three top fives, nine top 10s, four pole positions, 43 laps led

How 2024 ended: After scoring a “walk-off”-style victory in the regular-season finale at Darlington Raceway to earn a NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs position, Briscoe and team rallied after a disappointing opening race of the postseason at Atlanta, where a crash left him 38th in the order. The No. 14 group answered that result with a pair of top 10s (at Watkins Glen International and Bristol Motor Speedway) to propel Briscoe into the Round of 12. It was there that three finishes outside the top 20 — 24th at Kansas, 30th at Talladega and 36th at the Charlotte Roval — halted his postseason run.

Best race: Statistically — and emotionally — Briscoe’s 29 laps led in his Southern 500 win at Darlington Raceway stood out as his best outing. The 29-year-old had to work hard for that sentimentally important and crucial victory – ultimately the last for the championship-winning, four-car team known as Stewart-Haas Racing. Briscoe held off an equally motivated Kyle Busch for that Darlington win – by a mere 0.361 seconds – in a thrilling final stretch that featured intense competition among Briscoe, Busch and Ross Chastain – all winless at the time fighting for a playoff berth.

Other season highlights: Briscoe started the season with a solid 10th-place showing in the Daytona 500 – only his second top-10 result in the sport’s biggest race –and he added top 10s at Phoenix (ninth), Martinsville (10th) and Texas (sixth) – giving him top-10 showings in four of the opening nine races. He scored a fifth-place finish at Darlington in the spring, giving him top fives in both races at the notoriously tough Darlington track, and he finished runner-up at New Hampshire – his last top-10 finish until his win in the regular-season finale. Although he’d have preferred advancing farther in the playoffs, Briscoe provided SHR team owner and fellow Hoosier Tony Stewart a reason to be proud of the famed No. 14 in the final year of the three-time Cup champion’s team ownership in the sport.

Stat to know: Briscoe’s nine top-10 finishes were second only to a career-best mark of 10 he had in 2022. His average starting position (15.7) and finishing position (18.8) were also second to his marks from 2022.

Quotable: “SHR meant everything for me. For one, it was an opportunity to go and really fulfill a dream. How many guys in the Cup Series can say they got to drive the car they physically cheered for as a kid? … That was literally the car I cheered for. So, for me, it fulfilled a dream for me and the family aspect; it was an incredible place the last seven years to call home.” — Chase Briscoe on his four-season run in the No. 14, and his seven-year tenure with SHR

MORE: Heartfelt Darlington win for Briscoe | ‘Super cool’ opportunity at JGR

Looking ahead: Briscoe moves into the highly coveted No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota seat for next year, following former series champion Martin Truex Jr., who retired from full-time competition at the end of the season. To be selected for the high-profile seat is a major nod of confidence, and Briscoe has proven to be both grateful for the chance and highly motivated to prove what he can do with another championship team. Expectations are high, and Briscoe — who has two career wins and two playoff appearances in four NASCAR Cup Series seasons — has embraced that.