In preparation for his Cup Series debut Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Jesse Love quadrupled the scheduled 500-lapper on the simulator leading up to the Thunder Valley trek.
The 20-year-old Californian hit the number to challenge his physical and mental capabilities before climbing into the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet for the first time.
“Just ran a lot of laps, trying different things,” Love said in his Saturday morning media availability at Bristol. “One thing I did this week was run one or two 500-lap races by myself on iRacing just to kind of condition myself to the mental drain it’s gonna take to run 500 laps. Obviously, it will be the longest race in my life so this is gonna be different for me in a lot of ways.
“I feel like the fitness side of it is gonna be fine. Obviously, had to step up my game leading up to this race a little bit. But more importantly, I feel like getting the mental side of it squared away.”
Love added that he’s felt he could race “a little bit longer” after every Xfinity Series race this season — a testament to where his physical fitness currently is.
With two-time premier series champ Kyle Busch being a part of the RCR organization, Love has been able to lean on the 20-year Cup veteran and 22-time Bristol national series winner in the build-up for his first Sunday run.
“It’d be dumb of me to not go ask some questions and pick his brain whenever I can,” Love said. “He’s been helpful, for sure, and I always feel like Kyle’s been an open book. I will say Kyle’s probably the toughest competitor in the garage. I do know it’s a little bit different so I’m asking him questions when I’m not racing against him, but I am racing against him, right? Then we ask a lot of people questions. I’m really close with all the Cup drivers on the Front Row [Motorsports] side of things like Todd [Gilliland], Zane [Smith] and Noah [Gragson], and even ask the questions like, ‘what’s your procedure getting in the pit box?’ Again, I just go into neutral when I come to my pit stall because we’re an H-pattern. Never had to deal with a sequential shifter, so that was interesting.”
There’s some sentimental attachment to Bristol for Love as he described the feelings on the windy climb through the Tennessee Valley Divide.
“I was driving up here and kind of got all my emotion out on the way up here,” Love said. “Driving up here is very mountainous and it was like driving to Baylands [northern California], which is where I grew up racing quarter midgets. So that was a pretty cool emotional experience for me. When I was five, six, eight years old, running quarter midgets with my dad driving up this windy path, one-lane road up to the go-kart track, and then now doing the same kind of thing for a Cup race. That was a really cool full-circle moment for me.”
As the weekend rolls along, the emotions and realization of a stock-car racer’s dream will set in for Love the closer Sunday’s green flag approaches. But for now, the young prospect is as stoic and poised as if he’s been a multiyear Cup veteran.
“I feel like once I got all that out, I feel like I have a little more clear head,” Love said. “There’s been so many sacrifices from my friends and my family, and even myself throughout the whole career to have a chance to race on a Sunday and that day’s come. All the emotions are real and they’re valid and still a really cool thing. But because I’m kind of present in the moment and understanding of trying to keep those emotions in check and not get too wrapped up in the moment, I feel like I’m pretty calm going into this weekend. Don’t have a lot of expectations. All expectations I have is that I execute what the car is capable of and what I’m capable of, and I think if we do that, we can have a good show.”
BRISTOL, Tenn. — A frigid, cloud-covered Friday evening shrouded Bristol Motor Speedway as Corey Heim wheeled his No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota around the half-mile bullring.
Despite a cool start to the 250-lap affair, Heim warmed up as the night went along to score a third-place result amid battling for the victory in the closing laps.
Heim led 16 laps in the race, all coming late as a mixture of pit strategies put him toward the front as the laps wound down. However, a pair of cautions in the final 30 laps bunched the field up and the ensuing restarts did not play in Heim’s favor.
“I’m used to having a lot of grip here on restarts, and I’ve always kind of done first-gear restarts here and always gotten out of the box good,” Heim said. “But for whatever reason, I just couldn’t really get the grip down today so tried second gear in the last restart and it was not any better. I don’t know if it was my fault for not prepping the tires correctly or what, but just really struggled to fire off in the box. Once we got going, I thought it was a little too tight there.”
Rolling off fourth after qualifying was canceled due to afternoon rain showers, Heim struggled in the opening laps on the clean concrete surface and dropped out of the top 10, failing to score stage points after 65 laps.
“It didn’t seem to be a whole lot different than your average Bristol race,” Heim said of the track conditions. “But to start the race, I certainly felt like we were chattering tires and really fighting the temperatures for grip to begin the race. But after about 15 laps, it seemed to kind of whittle itself down.”
Heim earned a fourth-place finish in Stage 2 to collect seven points, and by taking advantage of track position, he battled Rajah Caruth, Kyle Larson and Stage 2 winner Bayley Currey for the win before Chandler Smith rallied through the field after pitting before the start of the final stage to take his first checkered flag of 2025.
With two wins already in the back pocket for the No. 11 team, Heim will go for win No. 3 on the year in the Craftsman Truck Series’ return to Rockingham Speedway next Friday for the first time since 2013 (5 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“Can’t complain with a top three. Couple stage points along the way,” Heim said. “Obviously had some issues in Stage 1 so got a little behind there. But I guess not a bad day. I thought we were pretty tight throughout the race, just getting behind there early. It’s cool to see this place move around. If you asked me before the race, I would have said that it would have been buried on the bottom with no other option the whole time. But seemed like we could make some other grooves work, which was good.”
BRISTOL, Tenn. — After charging into the lead in Friday night’s Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Chandler Smith’s work was far from over.
The driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford then had to hold off NASCAR Cup Series moonlighter Kyle Larson over a seven-lap dash to the finish to claim his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the season, his second at the 0.533-mile short track and the sixth of his career.
Smith also won the $50,000 Triple Truck Challenge bonus that goes to the highest-finishing Craftsman Truck Series regular.
Smith’s victory by 0.934 seconds over Larson ended the latter’s quest for a weekend sweep of NASCAR’s three national series races. Even though Larson had 27-lap fresher tires than the race winner for a restart on Lap 244 of 250, he could do no better than second.
“I’m more excited for the team than I am for myself,” said Smith, whose tenure in the No. 38 F-150 came in an 11th-hour deal at season’s end. “This group came together—we hired my crew chief (Jon Leonard) two weeks before Daytona … My life’s been really, really crazy recently, and there were a lot of unknowns about my future going into the season, and we kind of had our backs against the wall putting this group together like I said. But holy (crap), I wouldn’t want any different of a group than I had behind me.”
Smith grabbed the lead from eventual third-place finisher Corey Heim just before a caution flag flew on Lap 237 for Andres Perez’s spin on the backstretch. That gave Smith control of the race for the final restart, and he promptly asserted himself from the top lane.
After overcoming a tight handling condition in the second stage and a pit road speeding penalty at the stage break, Larson took the green flag behind Smith on Lap 243 and quickly passed Heim for second, but the driver of the No. 07 Spire Motorsports couldn’t catch Smith, despite trying different lines around the concrete oval.
“We fell back on that long run in the second stage — got super tight,” said Larson, who pitted on Lap 162 for fresh rubber after putting 27 laps on the tires he got on Lap 135 during the stage break. “Then I sped on pit road, but on that next stop, I think that probably helped us…
“We had a little bit of an advantage to get toward the front. I thought it would be more of an advantage than it was. But still, I think it was a benefit to our race… Still, to get to second is good.”
The second-place finish was not good enough to keep Larson’s hope of the weekend sweep alive, however, he’ll have two more chances at victory this weekend with Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race and Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.
Tyler Ankrum ran fourth, followed by Ben Rhodes. Bayley Currey picked up the first stage win of his career in Stage 2 before falling out with transmission trouble 13 laps from the finish.
Smith led twice for a race-high 127 laps, followed by Rajah Caruth, who was out front for 85 circuits on a contrary tire strategy.
Reigning series champion Ty Majeski was eliminated in a Lap 53 crash involving Frankie Muniz, Stewart Friesen and Brandon Jones.
Heim leads Smith by 18 points in the series standings, with Majeski 57 points back in third.
The Craftsman Truck Series returns next week (Fri., 5 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with its first visit to Rockingham Speedway in 12 years.
Contributing: Staff reports Note: Post-race inspection in the Craftsman Truck Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Smith as the race winner.
With NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series practice and qualifying canceled Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Weather Guard Truck Race (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the starting lineup will be set per the NASCAR Rule Book.
SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — Nathan Crews and Cameron Goble are in vastly different positions heading into the $3,000-to-win second annual Kenny Meadows Memorial Limited Sportsman Feature that highlights the Danville Toyota Race Day event on Saturday afternoon, April 12 at South Boston Speedway.
Crews enters the race as the defending champion. He survived the chaos of three incidents during the last eight laps of last year’s race and earned the $3,000 prize for winning the 50-lap race.
“That was probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest win of my racing career,” Crews pointed out. “It was a tough race. It seemed like it went on forever. I’m really looking forward to racing in it again this year. Hopefully we will have a strong enough car that we can have a shot at winning it again.”
This season’s second annual Kenny Meadows Memorial Limited Sportsman Feature, at 75-laps, makes the season-opening event for South Boston Speedway’s Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division the longest and richest race of the season.
Crews, a veteran racer that has compiled seven wins, a pole, 11 Top-5 finishes and 18 Top-10 finishes in 21 starts in the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division spanning the past two seasons can be considered to be among the favorites to win Saturday’s race.
Nathan Crews (Photo: Joe Chandler/South Boston Speedway)
Goble, from Ringgold, Virginia, is on the other side of the spectrum.
The young racer was one of the top performers in South Boston Speedway’s Dollar General Hornets Division over the past two-plus seasons. His cumulative record shows eight wins, 12 poles, 12 Top-5 finishes and 16 Top-10 finishes in a total of 20 starts. He also led the most laps in the division each of the past two years.
This season Goble is moving up to the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division and enters the 75-lap Second Annual Kenny Meadows Memorial Limited Sportsman Feature with no races under his belt in the division.
“It scares me that it’s the first one,” Goble remarked of his debut race in the division being the biggest race of the season for the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division.
“We’re going to power through it. The first goal is don’t tear up the car. We’re just going to go out and do the best we can.”
Crews has two goals – the first being to win the Saturday, April 12 Second Annual Kenny Meadows Memorial Limited Sportsman Feature. His other goal is to win the 2025 Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division championship.
“If can only win one race, that (the Second Annual Kenny Meadows Memorial Limited Sportsman Feature) would be the one I would want to win,” Crews pointed out. “If I could win it again, it would feel like I’m on top of the world. It would mean just about everything to me.”
At the same time, Crews understands the importance of both entering the season’s opening race for the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division competitors.
“You want to win and do well,” Crews said, “but at the same time, if I’m not capable of winning the race I’m still going to try to put myself in the best position I can to finish the best I can and stay out of trouble because this kind of puts you on the platform for the rest of the year.”
Cameron Goble (Photo: Joe Chandler/South Boston Speedway)
Goble is on a more modest side of things in 2025.
“It’s a whole new field of drivers,” Goble said of racing in the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division. “It’s new people. I’ve never taken laps with them, so we have to take it one step at a time. If we can finish top five in points, I’d be thrilled. I don’t think I’ve ever finished top five in points. Even with a Top-10 in points, I’d be happy. Anything except for hitting the wall, I’m good with.”
A 100-lap race for the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division will be co-feature race of Saturday’s five-race card. Two-time NASCAR national champion and seven-time South Boston Speedway champion Peyton Sellers of Danville, Virginia and Trevor Ward of Winston-Salem, North Carolina split wins in the track’s season-opening twinbill on March 22. Mike Looney of Catawba, Virginia won the pole for the event.
Ward leads the division point standings entering Saturday’s 100-lap race with Looney standing three points behind in second place and Landon Pembelton of Amelia, Virginia sitting in third place, five points down. Craig Moore of Rougemont, North Carolina (seven points down) and Sellers (eight points down) round out the top five in the standings.
Also on Saturday, fans will see twin 15-lap races for the Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division and a 20-lap race for the Dollar General Hornets Division.
Advance adult tickets for the Danville Toyota Race Day event are priced at $12. Tickets at the gate on race day will be $15 each. Suite tickets are available for $40 each. Seniors ages 65 and older, military, healthcare workers and students (with ID) can purchase tickets for $12 each at the gate only on the day of the event.
Saturday’s race day schedule has registration and pit gates opening at 8:30 a.m. Frontstretch spectator gates will open at 10:30 a.m., and practice starts at 10:30 a.m.
Group qualifying begins at 1 p.m. and the first race of the day will get the green flag at 2 p.m.
When asked about his 2024 race season, Tyler Leary had a quick response: “It was fantastic.”
The Hatfield, Massachusetts native won track championships in the Modified divisions at both Monadnock Speedway and Hudson Speedway in New Hampshire. The two titles brought him to five for his career; it was his first championship at Monadnock and second straight at Hudson.
“That was a feat that we were looking to tackle in my career since we started open wheel racing three or four years ago, so that was pretty cool to be able to do that,” he said.
Last year marked Leary’s most successful season since he started racing more than a decade ago. Part of the reason: He partnered with a friend who became his crew chief to drive their car at Claremont at Hudson.
“He’s been around racing a long time, and he just helped build a ton of consistency in our program, which is definitely something we’ve struggled with in past years, just putting a whole season together,” Leary said. “I feel like as I age in modified racing that I’m starting to be able to feel what the car is doing, give better feedback as a driver.
“I’m getting more comfortable behind the wheel. I mean, I’ve been racing a long time, and I’m still pretty young, but I feel like I’m kind of mastering the craft of open wheel racing.”
The championships weren’t won easy. Leary throughout the year built a large points lead at Monadnock. Three weeks before championship night, he was up by 56 points, but he suffered a right front flat tire in back-to-back weeks halfway through the feature races, leading to two DNFs.
Going into championship night, his lead had dwindled to just four points.
“Because of how the handicap system works, we started up front championship night and never looked back,” he said. “So that was good. At least we were able to capitalize on that, but we did have some poor fortune in the last few weeks that definitely made it interesting. Very stressful.
“I’ve kept my cool behind the wheel the last few years, but it reminded me of my old self, that’s for sure.”
In the previous two seasons, Leary finished second and third in the New Hampshire state standings. The prior disappointment made the first state title that much sweeter.
“It’s cool. It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s something that me and my whole team, that was kind of our goal at the beginning of the year. Obviously, we want to win as many races as we can, and you always watch the points, but I think our team’s main goal when we set out this season was, let’s chase the championship, so we ran as many races as we possibly could.
“We had some decent car counts this year, which really helped, obviously, with regional and national stuff, as well. The races that we needed to do well, and when car counts were their highest, we did, so that was a plus. It feels amazing.”
This season, Leary has a new suit to wear, as well as two championship helmets. Hudson will not run Modifieds for the track’s Division I series, so he’ll shift his focus to just Monadnock and Claremont, the latter at which he’s never won a title.
After a year like 2024, he knows it will be hard to top a career season, but Leary’s hopeful to continue improving as a driver and finding new goals as they come.
“I’m happy with where I’m at,” he said. “As a team, we’re super strong, and I’ve learned a ton over the past few years. Hopefully we can continue that this year.
“Just continue to build on our consistency. We didn’t really have much go bad that was technically our fault last year, but you’ve got to minimize your mistakes make sure there’s no failures on the cars and that kind of thing. So as long as we can stay consistent and win races, I think we’re going to have another fantastic year… Just always looking forward to the future.”
The 2025 NASCAR season begins at Claremont on April 25, and Monadnock will open the next day. Hudson begins racing on May 4.
Anyone who prizes numbers and statistics has to be impressed with Justin Allgaier’s collective NASCAR Xfinity Series performances at Bristol Motor Speedway, a record he’ll try to enhance in Saturday’s SciAps 300 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
With two victories at the high-banked 0.533-mile short track, Allgaier is the only driver in Saturday’s field who has won more than once in Thunder Valley. Kyle Larson, trying for a weekend triple, is the only other former Bristol winner on the entry list.
Allgaier has led 60 laps or more in the last eight Bristol races. He has led the most laps in five of the last six and has won eight of the last 16 stages at the track.
The No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet driver already has two victories to his credit this season and tops the NASCAR Xfinity Series standings by a whopping 71 points over Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer.
It’s no wonder that Allgaier approaches Saturday’s race with supreme confidence.
“Bristol has always been one of my favorite tracks on the schedule,” said Allgaier, the only driver to finish on the lead lap in every race so far this season. “There’s just something about this place that has suited my driving style.
“It’s definitely a special feeling whenever we get to race here, and I can’t wait to get to the track this weekend and see what we can do with our Jarrett Chevrolet. We’ve had extremely strong cars here in the past, and I know that will be the case again come Saturday.”
The SciAps 300 is the season’s third Xfinity Dash 4 Cash race. Four eligible drivers — Allgaier, Austin Hill, Sheldon Creed and Brennan Poole — will compete for the $100,000 bonus that goes to the driver who finishes highest among the four.
Jesse Love, currently fifth in the Xfinity Series standings, will make his Cup Series debut on Sunday in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
Katherine Legge and e.l.f. Cosmetics are teaming up to make several starts in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series this year as Legge expands her involvement in stock car racing.
Legge will make her first of seven Xfinity Series starts on April 19 at Rockingham Speedway (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), with her second Xfinity race scheduled for Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24.
Her return to the Cup Series is slated for June 15 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, where the circuit will host its first-ever international points-paying event since 1958.
Leggge became the eighth woman in the modern era to compete in NASCAR and the first since Danica Patrick in 2018 to race in the Cup Series, with her debut earlier this season at Phoenix Raceway.
“I’ve never felt more empowered than I do with e.l.f. by my side,” Legge said in a press release. “e.l.f. truly walks the walk when it comes to putting its community — and especially women in sports — in the, pun-intended, driver’s seat. I’m thrilled to work towards achieving my racing goals with my e.l.f. team alongside Team Chevy.
“I want to be respected as one of the best drivers in motorsport, and there is no better place to hone my skillset against the best of the best in front of the largest motorsport audience in the U.S. With the pivot to go all in on NASCAR, we are diversifying my own racing legacy as well as the paddock for future generations.”
e.l.f. first partnered with Legge for the 2023 Indy 500 and have supported her across different motorsports disciplines.
“As they say in NASCAR, we have found our groove,” said Kory Marchisotto, chief marketing officer, e.l.f. Beauty. “Fueling Katherine’s dream to be one of the best motorsports drivers of all time is our mission. Inspiring young athletes to fast track their own ambitions is our passion. Female NASCAR fans are more likely to watch sports on TV, listen on the radio and attend a live event than female fans of other sports. That’s our signal to lean the e.l.f. in with zero distance between us and the community.”
See below for Legge’s full 2025 NASCAR schedule.
April 19: Rockingham Speedway, NASCAR Xfinity Series with Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport, sponsored by e.l.f. Cosmetics
April 26: Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR Xfinity Series with Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport, sponsored by e.l.f. Cosmetics
May 3: Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR Xfinity Series with Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport, sponsored by Droplight, Sherfick Companies, and Desnuda Tequila
May 24: Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR Xfinity Series with Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport, sponsored by e.l.f. Cosmetics
May 31: Nashville Superspeedway, NASCAR Xfinity Series with Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport, sponsored by e.l.f. Cosmetics
June 15: Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, NASCAR Cup Series with Live Fast Motorsports, sponsored by e.l.f. Cosmetics
June 27: Atlanta Motor Speedway, NASCAR Xfinity Series with Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport, sponsored by Droplight, Sherfick Companies, and Desnuda Tequila
July 6: Chicago Street Race, NASCAR Cup Series with Live Fast Motorsports
July 13: Sonoma Raceway, NASCAR Cup Series with Live Fast Motorsports, sponsored by e.l.f. Cosmetics
July 26: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NASCAR Xfinity Series with Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport, sponsored by Droplight, Sherfick Companies, and Desnuda Tequila
August 10: Watkins Glen International, NASCAR Cup Series with Live Fast Motorsports, sponsored by Droplight, Sherfick Companies, and Desnuda Tequila
August 17: Richmond Raceway, NASCAR Cup Series with Live Fast Motorsports
Four weeks removed from Christopher Bell winning his third consecutive race, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin has a chance to accomplish the same feat at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).
Hamlin already has etched his name as a legend within the sport with 56 career Cup wins and sole possession of 11th place on the all-time wins list. On Sunday, he will make his 400th consecutive Cup Series start. He will do so at a track where he enters as the defending race winner. In 35 career starts at the “Last Great Colosseum,” Hamlin has established himself as one of the best gladiators to conquer the high banks, with five consecutive top-10 finishes at Bristol, including two wins in the last three races there.
Another victory at Bristol would not only give Joe Gibbs Racing its sixth win in nine races, but it would also make Hamlin the organization’s all-time wins leader, surpassing Kyle Busch. Additionally, it would mark the 30th occurrence in the modern era of a driver winning three consecutive races, with 12 of those instances resulting in a series title that season — and it’s no secret how much the Bill France Cup has eluded Hamlin throughout his illustrious career.
But to get there, Hamlin may need to go through Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson. Read on for the projection.
OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH
KYLE LARSON: Racing Insights forecasts another close battle between Hamlin and Larson. The No. 5 driver comes in as the most recent Bristol winner; he has 1,351 laps led, five stage wins and seven top fives at Bristol in his career. His car looked to be the fastest during Saturday’s practice.
CHRISTOPHER BELL: JGR as a whole has been superb at Bristol, leading 957 of 2,000 laps at the short track since 2022. Bell is one of four drivers to finish every Bristol race in the Next Gen car in the top 10, with three of those four races resulting in finishes of fifth or better.
TY GIBBS: Gibbs netted his first top 10 since Kansas last fall at Darlington last week. While it’s been a slow start to the season, a top-15 finish the week prior at Martinsville signals a turnaround for the No. 54 team. A strong qualifying effort (sixth) jumped Gibbs into the top 10 of the projections.
CARSON HOCEVAR: Hocevar was one of the biggest movers in the projection after practice and qualifying. He jumped six spots to a projected finish of 16th.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE FOOD CITY 500
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results. Updated on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.
In honor of hockey’s goal-scoring record being broken, we look at the racing records that may — or may not — be unbreakable.
It’s been a good time to chase major sports records recently. In just the past few years, Tom Brady broke the NFL’s all-time record for passing yards, LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the highest-scoring player in NBA history and Novak Djokovic set a new mark for men’s tennis grand slams. Caitlin Clark became the all-time leading scorer — among women or men — in NCAA Division I basketball last February. And just this past Sunday, Alexander Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career record for goals, a mark that many had considered for the longest time to be unbreakable.
With all of that in mind, we thought it would be fun to look at NASCAR Cup Series records that may also get the same treatment sooner or later — and which ones are so impressive that they probably have no prayer of being broken in the future. In each category, we’ll look at both the all-time and modern (since 1972) marks, and sort them from most to least unbreakable. To help guide us on career records, we’ll also rely on a simplified version of what Bill James called the “Favorite Toy” career projection system, estimating how many years an active driver has left in his or her career*, and projecting where he or she would end up if they continued over their previous career pace.
Let’s get started with …
Career wins
All-time record: Richard Petty, 200 Modern record: Jeff Gordon, 93 Active leader: Kyle Busch, 63
It’s safe to say that nobody has a prayer of touching King Richard’s 200 career wins in the Cup Series, seeing as how it’s nearly double that of anyone else (David Pearson is No. 2 at 105) and nobody in the modern era is any higher than Jeff Gordon at 93. Even Gordon’s mark will be tough to top: If 40-year-old Kyle Busch has an estimated six more seasons left, he would only get to 81 at his career pace of wins per year — and that may be overstating his case, as Rowdy hasn’t won since 2023. Among younger drivers, 32-year-old Kyle Larson has the best shot, but with 30 career wins and around 11 seasons remaining, he’d need to average 5.8 wins per year to pass Gordon, a tall task that would require him to essentially replicate last season’s 6-win effort every year for over a decade.
Breakability: Impossible (for all-time record) to Low (for modern record)
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Most wins in a season
All-time record: Richard Petty, 27 (1967) Modern record: Richard Petty (1975) and Jeff Gordon (1998), tied at 13 Active best: Kyle Larson (2021), 10
Along the same lines, Petty’s single-season record of 27 wins is essentially impossible to break in today’s version of the sport — it would require a driver to win 75% of all races on the schedule, when the best drivers have only recorded top 10s (much less wins) at that frequency in a season just nine times this century. The modern-era co-record of 13 is theoretically more doable, and Larson had a double-digit win tally just a few years ago. But in the Next Gen era, nobody has more than six victories in a season (accomplished by William Byron in 2023 and Kyle Larson in 2024). Unless the cream is starting to rise higher in this, the fourth year of Next Gen, it’s hard to imagine someone will get to double digits again anytime soon, much less 13 wins in a season.
Breakability: Very Low
Career poles
All-time record: Richard Petty, 123 Modern record: Jeff Gordon, 89 Active leader: Denny Hamlin, 43
While not quite as unreachable as Petty’s 200 wins, the King’s 123 career poles probably isn’t being challenged anytime soon, either. And at least part of that is due to greater parity in car performance during the Next Gen era. While we saw double-digit pole seasons every few years during the 1970s through the mid-1980s, and it happened again three times during the 2000s — plus, Kyle Larson had a 12-pole season in 2021, the Gen 6 car’s swan song — we’ve never seen a Next Gen season with more front-of-the-field starts than Christopher Bell’s seven-pole season in 2023. That helps explain why Larson, who leads the active career projection at 69.8 poles, doesn’t figure to even come close to either Petty or Gordon.
Breakability: Very Low
Career championships
All-time record: Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, tied at 7
Nobody has ever won more than seven Cup Series championships — and it took a trio of all-time greats to even reach that mark, in the form of The King, The Intimidator and ol’ Seven-Time himself. Since Johnson earned his seventh crown in 2016, Busch added a second title in 2019 — but none since — and Joey Logano won three, making him probably the only active driver with a realistic shot at joining the club here. At 35 years old, Logano projects to have around nine more seasons left, meaning he’d need to average one title every 2.3 seasons from here on out just to tie the record. That’s an incredibly high bar, especially with how wide-open the playoff format tends to be. But if anyone has the combination of skill, team support and favorable track selection late in the playoffs to make a run at it, it’s Logano. Even in the best-case scenario, though, it would require extending one of the best late-career surges in NASCAR history.
Breakability: Low
Consecutive years with at least 1 win
All-time record: Kyle Busch, 19 (2005-2023)
This one is interesting because it was broken recently, when Busch passed Petty’s record of 18 straight seasons with a victory (set from 1960-1977). Rowdy is a special talent, and he proved it by extending this streak across three different teams (!), when he moved from Hendrick to Gibbs and then to Childress, with an uninterrupted string of winning seasons at each stop. The consistency needed to maintain a streak that long is rare, though it’s worth noting that Logano (13 straight) and Brad Keselowski (11) have active streaks going as we speak. The way Brad K. has started the 2025 season, his run doesn’t figure to continue without a big turnaround this year; however, Logano has driven well enough (90.0 average Driver Rating) to be a winner, and no one would be surprised if he extends the streak to 14. Adding five more years after that will be difficult, but Logano is at least capable of it.
Breakability: Low to Moderate (but active)
Oldest race winner
All-time record: Harry Gant (1992), 52 years, 7 months and 6 days
“Handsome Harry” cemented his place in NASCAR history when he won the 1992 Champion Spark Plug 400 at Michigan at the ripe old age of 52, breaking Bobby Allison’s record for oldest race winner (set at age 50 in the 1988 Daytona 500). For Gant, it was his second win of the ‘92 season, a remarkable accomplishment for his age, and he would remain a regular Cup driver for each of the next two seasons as well. No 50-year-old has won a Cup race since Mark Martin in 2009 at Loudon (at 50 years, 8 months and 11 days), so this one would seem unlikely to fall anytime soon. However, the success of 44-year-old Hamlin in 2025 is emblematic of just how much veteran talent is in the sport right now; combine it with improved fitness for older athletes in general, and it’s not completely outside the realm of possibility for someone to give Gant a chase.
Breakability: Low to Moderate
Win a race while leading every lap
Modern record: Cale Yarborough (1973 Southeastern 500 and 1978 Music City USA 420) and Jeff Burton (2000 Dura Lube 300 Sponsored by Kmart), tied at 100% laps led
In the modern era (since 1972), this feat has only happened three times: twice by Cale Yarborough in the 1970s and then by The Mayor, Jeff Burton, more than two decades later … but also more than two decades ago. The fact that it’s been 25 years and counting since we’ve seen someone win wire-to-wire might seem to indicate that this record would be difficult to match — but we think this one might be closer to falling than it appears. As recently as late last season, we saw Larson lead 92.4% of laps (462 of 500) at Bristol, with most of the missing laps led coming at the beginning of the race because teammate Alex Bowman was on pole. And then, just this past weekend at Darlington, William Byron led each of the first 243 laps before coming out behind in the shuffle on pit strategy and never getting the lead back. If a driver has the perfect combination of starting on pole with a dominant car and good luck on strategy, this club could potentially get a new member.
Breakability: Surprisingly moderate
Career top 10s
All-time record: Richard Petty, 712 Modern record: Jeff Gordon, 477 Active leader: Kyle Busch, 386
Like many of the other all-time records on this list, Petty set the overall bar so high as to be almost impossible for a present-day driver to reach. However, Gordon’s modern record of 477 top-10 finishes is a lot more doable for a handful of active drivers. Busch, for instance, is already within 91 of that mark; if he drives another six seasons, he’d need to average 15.2 top 10s a year, a level he’s matched in nine of the previous 10 years. (Granted, 2024 was an exception.) And if Rowdy can’t do it, three other drivers project to finish their careers within striking distance of Gordon: Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott, each of whom is on track to break 400 career top 10s and could get a shot at the modern record with a little good fortune.
Breakability: Moderate (for modern record)
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Career race starts
All-time record: Richard Petty, 1,184 Modern record: Ricky Rudd, 906 Active leader: Kyle Busch, 722
While Petty will (once again) be tough to catch here, Ricky Rudd’s modern record of 906 races is a lot more feasible to reach. At the current 36-race Cup Series schedule length, Busch would need to run just 5.1 more full seasons, which would leave him at age 45 when he was nearing the record — a year older than Denny Hamlin is now, as the oldest regular driver in the Cup Series, but younger than Kevin Harvick was just a few years ago. So Rowdy could break this one if he just keeps driving … and so could the 35-year-old Logano. Because he started out so young, Joey is already at 587 career starts, meaning he would need 8.9 more full seasons to catch Rudd, something he could do before he even hits his mid-40s. As a driver who is still very much in his championship prime, don’t count out Logano for this record.
Breakability: Moderate to High (for modern record)
Career road-course wins
All-time record: Jeff Gordon, 9 Active leader: Chase Elliott, 7
Of all the records that might be broken soon, the career mark for road-course victories has to be near the top of the list. For one thing, Elliott is only a pair of wins away from tying Gordon’s all-time mark of nine — a much closer gap between the all-time and active leaders than other categories. And while Elliott hasn’t been as dominant a road-racer in the Next Gen era (he hasn’t won at a road course since the 2021 Road America race), he still has an average Driver Rating of 99.0 at road courses in the Next Gen, so he remains a threat here. That’s also true of Larson, Bell and Tyler Reddick, each of whom finishes their careers ahead of Gordon according to our simple projection. And that’s not even considering the fact that Shane Van Gisbergen (who already has one win and five top 10s in seven road/street starts) is an automatic favorite for every track of that type on the schedule, nor the sky-high potential of young road-racing phenom Connor Zilisch. Add in the increased number of road courses on the schedule, and this one feels destined to fall sooner rather than later.
Breakability: High
Career wins across all national series
All-time record: Kyle Busch, 232
OK, so this one is a little bit of a fake-out. But it’s the rare example of a total wins record that has actually fallen in recent memory: Kyle Busch grabbed overall career win No. 201 in March 2019 at the Martinsville Trucks race, passing Petty for the most career wins across all NASCAR national series. Yes, it’s a little bit of a silly record, accomplished as much through cleaning up in the Xfinity and Truck Series as at the Cup level — while all 200 wins by Petty were in Cup, nearly three-quarters of Busch’s wins were in series other than Cup:
Wins are wins, though. And while Busch has proven the breakability of this mark for active drivers by doing it himself, it’s unlikely that anyone else will ever make a run at his mark. In recent years, NASCAR has cut down on so-called “Buschwhacking” by Cup drivers in lower series — which is a good thing for developmental drivers hoping to move up the stock-car ladder, but bad for veterans hoping to accrue extra laps behind the wheel, and a few extra wins in the process.
Breakability: Already broken! But probably won’t be ever again.
* For those interested, the formula for remaining career seasons that seems to work best for NASCAR Cup Series drivers is calculated by: (29.5 – 0.6*(age)), with the stipulation that a regular driver can never have fewer than 1.5 remaining seasons, regardless of their age.
