Posted on by Cameron Richardson

MADISON, Ill. — A second consecutive pole award and a career-high 105 laps led Saturday evening at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway were not enough to net Carson Kvapil his third win of the 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season.

After being passed for the lead by Jesse Love with 15 laps to go, the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet faded in traffic and wound up fifth at the checkered flag — a fifth top five in the last six races — while Love took his first victory of the year.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Kvapil had the clear-cut fastest car during the weening daylight hours, but as the night sky took over, the No. 1 didn’t have the same pace.

“I felt like our stuff for the first 30 (laps) was really good and then we were probably just even from there on out for the runs,” Kvapil said after the race. “Stage 2, really good car again. Got passed on a restart and kind of got a taste of dirty air. Honestly, I felt like we were still the best car and just was kind of stuck in the air. I felt like our stuff probably faded just a touch on the long-run stuff compared to those guys. But I mean, either way, we had a really fast car all day, led a lot of laps and qualified on the pole again this week. They did all the right things.”

On the final 24-lap run to the finish, Kvapil got to the lead before Turn 1 on the restart and appeared to set sail.

However, Love and Sheldon Creed were able to keep pace with Kvapil and eventually ran down the No. 1 with Love nudging Kvapil out of the lead in Turns 3 and 4 to get out front.

Kvapil kept bleeding spots and even found himself outside the top five before rallying around a fading Austin Hill in the closing laps to save a top-five result amid a career day,

“I felt like we just got tighter,” Kvapil said. “We loosened it up and got ourselves to the other side, but we were also in traffic so it’s kind of hard to really say. We tightened it back up there for the last set of tires, and honestly, it fired off good. But I felt like we were probably just too tight to hold on for for a whole 50-lap run or whatever the number was there. Probably should have had them keep freeing it up but was a little worried with the previous restart being a little free and just a little late back to wide open.”

Amid a night of on-track tempers and drivers nodding to another chapter in a rivalry in Sunday’s Cup Series race, Love’s race-winning move to contact Kvapil may as well go down as clean as any normal pass in the same circumstance.

Kvapil had no issue with the move and hopes Love will feel the same if he returns the favor later in The Chase.

“It is what it is, right?” Kvapil said. “I’m probably not impressed about it, but I hope when the shoe’s on the other foot that it’s not a big deal. I probably wasn’t the best car there at the end. I was just trying to hold on and trying to get those guys racing. Definitely had more pace than me, but I don’t know. I mean, it’s for the win. I get it, right? Whoever gets clean air and gets out front’s gonna probably win the race. So it’s an important pass to make, but just hope whenever the shoe’s on the other foot, there’s no complaining.”

love kvapil
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Posted on by Staff Report

For the fifth time, the NASCAR Cup Series visits World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). But this isn’t any ordinary trip to the St. Louis area.

Race No. 2 of The Chase presented by Mobil 1 is on tap, and points remain at a premium. Despite a slip-up in the Southern 500, Denny Hamlin retained the points lead by 12 markers and entered Gateway as the defending winner with a pair of runner-ups in the two years prior. But a group of hungry Fords comes ready to play, especially Team Penske — which has won twice in four previous visits. And of course, the Chevrolets hope to finally stop the bleeding after a rocky summer across the board.

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos

WWT Raceway is an anomaly on the schedule, with long straightaways and tight, asymmetrical corners providing a unique challenge around the flat, 1.25-mile oval. With championship pressure continuing to build, the Gateway to the West could very well be the Gateway to the title if challengers leave with a strong run. See the drivers to watch as well as Racing Insights’ full projections for 240 laps in the Midwest.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Watch your back because that monkey finally flew off Bell’s. After a record-tying seven runner-up finishes without a win during the regular season, the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing driver scored a crown-jewel Cook Out Southern 500 victory last weekend at Darlington Raceway and suddenly sits second in points. JGR is clearly the class of the field in 2026 and Bell’s numbers are quite solid at WWT Raceway. Although he’s never finished better than seventh, he’s also never placed worse than 11th. Two years ago, the Oklahoman swept the stages and led a third of the race. With all the momentum, Bell will likely stand strong at Gateway and contend for another dub.

KYLE LARSON: Chevrolet’s pace continues to lack, but Larson goes against that grain. At the last three traditional ovals, the defending Cup champ has finished no worse than sixth, including a P5 effort and 99 laps led at Darlington. In four Gateway races, he’s placed no worse than 12th and is tied for the third-best average finish (9.5) among Chase drivers. His top five at New Hampshire last month is promising as Loudon is arguably the most comparable track.

TEAM PENSKE: All three Penske drivers are killer at Gateway — and there’s no sugarcoating it. Joey Logano won the inaugural race in 2022 and has yet to finish outside the top five at the track. He’s won two of the last seven races in 2026, too — including a 323-lap-led effort at North Wilkesboro Speedway in July. Austin Cindric won here in 2024 and has an average finish of 11th. Finally, Ryan Blaney has finished sixth or better in three of four Gateway Cup races with an average running position of eighth or better in all four. He also has victories at Phoenix Raceway and New Hampshire this season — both similar tracks. Look for Penske to bring its A-game to St. Louis.

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR ENJOY ILLINOIS 300 (Sun., 3 p.m. ET, USA)

POSITIONNUMBERDRIVER
122Joey Logano
212Ryan Blaney
320Christopher Bell
411Denny Hamlin
55Kyle Larson
619Chase Briscoe
754Ty Gibbs
82Austin Cindric
923Bubba Wallace
109Chase Elliott
1124William Byron
1277Carson Hocevar
1345Tyler Reddick
1460Ryan Preece
151Ross Chastain
1617Chris Buescher
176Brad Keselowski
1821Josh Berry
197Daniel Suárez
2071Michael McDowell
2148Alex Bowman
223Austin Dillon
2316AJ Allmendinger
2497Shane van Gisbergen
2534Todd Gilliland
2638Zane Smith
2743Erik Jones
2842John Hunter Nemechek
2947Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
3041Cole Custer
314Noah Gragson
3210Ty Dillon
3388Connor Zilisch
3435Riley Herbst
3533Austin Hill
3651Cody Ware
Posted on by Staff Report

William Sawalich and Corey Day collided for the second consecutive week in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and this time, it was Day who wound up on the worst end of it.

One week after getting together at Darlington Raceway, Day washed up into Sawalich’s left-side door in Turn 1 on Lap 134 of Saturday’s event at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, after being pushed from behind by Justin Allgaier.

MORE: Race results | At-track photos

Still frustrated by last week’s run-in that put Sawalich out of the race, Sawalich expressed his displeasure with Day down the backstretch at Gateway by swinging left into Day’s right-side door, sending the No. 17 Chevrolet for a slide and a hard hit into the inside SAFER barrier at the 1.25-mile track. Allgaier, the series points leader, also incurred right-front damage in the incident. Day, who entered Saturday fifth in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, was credited with a 33rd-place finish.

“I got down in there beside him, and I went to go to the bottom, but the 7 (Allgaier) had me pushed up into him,” Day said after he was evaluated and released from the infield care center. “I couldn’t really do anything. Like I had nowhere to go. I don’t really want to talk about it much. It took care of itself.”

Day fell three spots in The Chase standings to eighth place exiting Gateway, 69 points behind series leader Sheldon Creed with seven races remaining in the O’Reilly Series season.

“It’s tough. Really tough,” Day said. “It’s going to take us winning maybe three times now to have a shot at this in the next seven races. So just really unfortunate that it ended the way that it did. We had a top-five car, like I said, and had another really good points day going.”

The crash comes after an incident at Darlington where, on Lap 68, Day contacted Sawalich’s back bumper down the backstretch, got Sawalich’s No. 18 Toyota squirrelly and led Sawalich back into the wall before spinning again off Day’s front bumper. Sawalich finished 30th in the Sept. 5 race, unable to continue due to the damage and leading to a post-race discussion. Sawalich barely missed The Chase in the regular-season finale.

Sawalich opted not to opine much on their latest incident after the race. When pressed for comment by The CW, Sawalich simply said: “I’m just worried about next week at Bristol (Motor Speedway) and what I have to do for my team.”

WATCH: Day: ‘It’s like talking to a wall’ | Sawalich on incident

No. 18 crew chief Jeff Meendering and Justin Allgaier speak after a NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Gateway.
Dustin Albino | For NASCAR Digital Media

As a result of the damage, Allgaier was later forced to pit and ultimately left with a 13th-place finish. The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet fell to second in points, trailing new points leader Creed by three markers. This marks the first time since the Feb. 28 race at Circuit of The Americas that Allgaier has not led the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings in 2026. After the race, Allgaier sought out Jeff Meendering, crew chief of Sawalich’s No. 18 Toyota, for a discussion sat on pit wall.

As a champion and veteran of the sport, Allgaier was later asked if Day and Sawalich needed to talk out their current feud.

“I don’t know the right answer,” Allgaier said. “I feel like that one’s probably a long way from being solved — not from my end. I’m just saying those two together. And they’re both young guys. They’re both going to be around the sport for a long time and they both want to get to the top level. Obviously, I don’t know what started last week, so it’s hard to know what they’ve already had conversation of and whatnot. That’s why I went to Meendering, right? It’s one thing for those two to have a problem on the race track, but when it starts affecting other people that are in The Chase, I think that’s where it’s really difficult. […]

“Those are things that I think that this sport — while we love the gloves-off side of our sport and we love that everybody has aggression, I don’t know. If it’s just two of you and you want to wreck each other, go for it. But there’s a lot more people on the race track. We’ll just have to manage it.”

Sawalich and Day have been involved in multiple incidents this year, including the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway and at Circuit of The Americas in February.

The series heads next to Bristol, where The Chase continues on Friday, Sept. 18 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Contributing: Dustin Albino and Cameron Richardson

Posted on by Staff Report

A chain-reaction crash entering pit road at Lap 50 necessitated a red-flag condition in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

As lead-lap cars worked their way to pit road at the Stage 1 break, William Sawalich appeared to check up just past the first few pit stalls at pit entry. Behind him, calamity ensued as others couldn’t brake hard enough in time. Rajah Caruth, a contender in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, was turned perpendicularly after being rear-ended, resulting in a blocked pit entry and many severely damaged race cars.

MORE: Race results | At-track photos

Chase driver Brandon Jones, Nick Sanchez, Harrison Burton and Jeremy Clements all suffered heavy damage in the melee.

All crewmen on pit road avoided injury in the stack-up despite an incredibly close call for the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing crew pitting Brent Crews’ Toyota in pit stall No. 40. Caruth’s left-rear quarter panel clipped the incoming right-rear tire of Crews’ car as Sanchez’s No. 87 careened toward the car’s right rear. Rear changer Bryan Backus and jackman Matt Wilps were contacted by the crashing No. 87 Chevrolet, but both completed service without injury and opted against a visit to the infield care center once the smoke cleared.

Joe Gibbs Racing later confirmed all crew members were unharmed in the incident via a post on X.

WATCH: Crewmen narrowly avoid pit-road melee

Upon his evaluation and release from the infield care center, Sanchez said he’s never experienced anything like what developed out of his windshield Saturday night.

“I’ve had pit road incidents, spins, and all that,” he said, “but I’ve never had like a dead stop at pit road like that where you couldn’t go through.”

Others involved in the crash included Dean Thompson, Jeb Burton, Ryan Sieg, Patrick Staropoli and Anthony Alfredo.

“It’s like a wreck on (Interstate) 77, I guess,” Harrison Burton said after he was evaluated and released from the infield care center, comparing it to Charlotte, North Carolina, area traffic. “I couldn’t tell what caused it, and all I saw was I guess it was the 51 (Clements) in front of me. Just, I was right on his bumper running my (RPM) lights, and he just ran into the guy in front of him and ran into the guy in front of him, and I got the worst of it.”

The cars that managed to complete service without issue were stopped on the backstretch as safety crews cleared the damaged vehicles and fluid before the rest of the field pitted and rejoined. Sanchez and Burton were officially ruled out of the race and did not continue. Sanchez was credited with a 34th-place finish and Burton 35th.

Contributing: Cameron Richardson

Jeremy Clements drives after damage in a pit-road crash during an O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Gateway.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Posted on by Cameron Richardson

Track: World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway
Location: Madison, Illinois
Track length: 1.25 miles
When: 3 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 240 laps | 300 miles
Stages: 45 | 140 | 240
Sunday’s starting lineup | Pit stall assignments

Can Team Penske be perfect at upcoming favorable tracks?

MADISON, Ill. — Toyota was at its usual best last Sunday at Darlington Raceway and struck first in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 as Christopher Bell took the checkered flag in the marathon Southern 500.

While Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney was passed by Bell for second in points, the No. 12 Ford driver cut into points leader Denny Hamlin’s championship lead by nine points with a gritty top-five run at the South Carolina oval. Now, Penske will have the edge as The Chase descends upon World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway Sunday with Bristol Motor Speedway on deck.

Blaney assessed the next two weeks as a huge part of staying in the hunt for the title.

MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: WWTR

“It’s no secret that the Toyotas have been really good on the mile-and-a-halves,” Blaney said. “They’ve been good everywhere, but mile-and-a-halves, they’ve kind of had a leg up on us a little bit. That’s places that we really worked hard to try to get better at. Those guys are probably going to have big days at Kansas and Vegas and Charlotte. Those three in a row are going to be a huge testament of ‘are we in this championship or not.’

“I agree that this weekend and Bristol are very important for us to stay in the hunt and have really good days to be in touch with those guys when we run into those three (tracks). I always have confidence when we go back to places that we’ve struggled, that we’re going to be better because that’s just how you have to think. But you can’t deny their speed they’ve had there and how we’ve been a little bit off. We’ve closed the gap a little bit, but they’ve still got some pace on us at those places, so yes, very important next two weeks.

Gateway weekend has started well for Team Penske as Joey Logano will lead the field to green for Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300.

Sitting tied for eighth in points, the three-time Cup champion laid out what the path looks like for the No. 22 team if it wants to be in the mix for a fourth series title.

“You got to average 40-plus points,” Logano said. “I think it’s somewhere in that range is where I believe it’s going to be. Could be way different. We don’t really know, right? But I think that’s where you’re going to have to be by the end of 10 weeks is average 40 throughout the races. So that’s 70 one week and 20 next week. However you get there, doesn’t matter. I think that’s at least a realistic goal for us. If we can accomplish that, I’m gonna be pretty proud of our team. Hopefully, that ends up with a trophy.” 

RELATED: Saturday recap

cup series gateway
Chris Graythen | Getty Images

The faster, the better

Tracks that utilize the 750 horsepower package make up half of the events in the 2026 Chase, and Sunday’s Cup Series race at Gateway marks the midpoint of three in a row with that setup to begin the championship run.

Take a look at the 10 drivers who have capitalized the most this season with the package — ranked by most points scored:

RANKDRIVERPOINTSWINS
1Ryan Blaney4692
2Denny Hamlin4331
3Ty Gibbs4092
4Christopher Bell3841
5Joey Logano3672
6Chase Briscoe3320
7Tyler Reddick3181
8Kyle Larson3160
T-9Chase Elliott2661
T-9Austin Cindric2660

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Gateway hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: Crew chiefs say keeping brake temps in check is key to success | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: The best designs in “The Prairie State” | View gallery
• Neil Paine: Hamlin stumbled at Darlington — but don’t write him off yet | Read more
• NASCAR Classics: Dig into the video vault for full-race replays from WWTR | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Larson eyes title after Darlington resurgence | This week’s ranks

Posted on by Dustin Albino

MADISON, Ill. – Since World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway joined the Cup Series schedule in 2022, brake failures have become an all-too-familiar sight. Now, teams face another challenge at the 1.25-mile, egg-shaped oval on Sunday, where managing brake temperatures could be critical to surviving the Enjoy Illinois 300 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The long straightaways and tight corners lead to drivers slamming the brakes entering Turns 1 and 3. Maximum brake heat could reach upwards of 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit entering the two vastly different sides of the race track. Down the straightaways, those same brake components cool significantly to a couple hundred degrees. There is a balancing act, however, as overcooling the brakes can lead to brake shake. The constant shift in temperature can lead to big failures.

“This is the hardest kind of educated guessing we’ve done on brakes this year,” James Small, crew chief for Chase Briscoe told NASCAR.com on Saturday in the St. Louis suburb.

MORE Sunday’s starting lineup | Cup Series Chase standings

The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team experienced brake issues of its own during practice and qualifying last month at Iowa Speedway. Small stated that woe is akin to recent happenings in Australian V8 Supercars. After the issues in the “Hawkeye State,” he knew that package wouldn’t be returning to the track at Gateway, where Briscoe finished second last year.

“It’s honestly quite daunting,” added Small, whose driver enters fifth in points with nine races remaining. “Having 50 minutes of practice here and coming here with a new package, more power, weight less drag, less downforce. The brake energy has gone up considerably, and they’re already a finicky thing on this car, and you get on the wrong side of it, and you can have issues. So yeah, definitely a major concern, and it was a tough decision on what was the right thing to bring here to meet all objectives and hopefully not have an issue in the race.”

Road-course ace AJ Allmendinger has also had success wheeling a Cup car around Gateway. In three attempts, he has a pair of top-15 finishes, including a 10th-place effort in the inaugural 2022 event. Trent Owens, leader of the No. 16 team for Kaulig Racing, believes that success boils down to the three-time Cup winner excelling at venues with high brake pressures.

“I think a lot of it is on the driver more so than the team itself,” Owens said of Allmendinger’s success in the blistering Midwest heat. “Hopefully, we got a good setup for him to run this weekend too, and keep that consistency up.”

The last time the Cup Series visited the heartland region of the United States, Allmendinger earned an eighth-place result at Iowa, a venue comparable to Gateway. At Nashville Superspeedway in late May, the No. 16 bunch won the opening stage in a photo finish over Kyle Larson and was in line to score major stage points in Stage 2 until the waning laps when a front brake rotor exploded and dropped him to 35th in the finishing order.

Owens learned a lesson that evening that could help for Gateway, despite believing the two circuits are vastly different.

“Ultimately I did not have enough cooling on the brakes at Nashville when we had our trouble. I was just greedy with everything,” Owens said. “I didn’t think the brake-pad combination we were running was going to run that hot, and I think it was just ultimately my fault.

“If you say I did learn one lesson from Nashville, like for here, the cooling has been moved inward, which would provide more cooling than by having them outward like I did in Nashville. Then obviously I got more opening on the right front.”

Teams have the option to run the “heavy duty (HD) option” of brakes at Gateway. Normally, that package has been implemented at other high-braking race tracks, including all the road courses and Martinsville Speedway.

Another concern for teams is balancing both ends of the race track with how different the layouts are. Goodyear has also settled on using the intermediate left-side construction for the tire setup, which is “not your friend” at a flat track, according to Small.

All the Gateway nuances, including the differing in-race strategies putting an importance on gaining track position, makes for a challenging battle atop the pit box.

“From an engineering, crew chief’s perspective, [Gateway] does offer a lot of options to try and work the setup,” Small concluded.

Briscoe will take the green flag in fifth position. Allmendinger will roll off the starting grid in 17th.

Posted on by Staff Report

See the full lineup for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It’s the second of 10 races in The Chase presented by Mobil 1. Team Penske’s Joey Logano is on the pole.

POSITIONNUMBERDRIVERTIME (SECONDS)
122Joey Logano (C)32.817
25Kyle Larson (C)33.093
312Ryan Blaney (C)33.113
420Christopher Bell (C)33.145
519Chase Briscoe (C)33.199
677Carson Hocevar (C)33.236
723Bubba Wallace (C)33.246
89Chase Elliott (C)33.259
954Ty Gibbs (C)33.261
1011Denny Hamlin (C)33.312
1148Alex Bowman33.407
1238Zane Smith33.420
132Austin Cindric (C)33.441
1460Ryan Preece (C)33.487
157Daniel Suárez (C)33.492
1621Josh Berry33.503
1716AJ Allmendinger33.547
1845Tyler Reddick (C)33.557
1988Connor Zilisch #33.572
201Ross Chastain33.583
2117Chris Buescher (C)33.607
223Austin Dillon33.624
236Brad Keselowski33.689
2424William Byron (C)33.700
2543Erik Jones33.713
2641Cole Custer33.725
2733Austin Hill (i)33.768
2842John Hunter Nemechek33.810
2971Michael McDowell33.878
3051Cody Ware33.926
314Noah Gragson33.934
3210Ty Dillon33.943
3335Riley Herbst34.062
3434Todd Gilliland34.065
3597Shane van Gisbergen34.186
3647Ricky Stenhouse Jr.34.215

(C) denotes Chase driver
(i) denotes ineligible for driver points
# denotes series rookie

Posted on by Staff Report

MADISON, Ill. — With a spectacular lap late in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session, Joey Logano won the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway by a wide margin.

The only competitor in the 36-driver field to crack the 33-second barrier, Logano covered the 1.25-mile distance in 32.817 seconds (137.124 mph) to claim the top starting spot for the second race in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 (3 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Starting lineup | Chase standings

The Busch Light Pole Award was the second of the season for Logano, who won the inaugural Cup Series race at WWTR in 2022. In winning his first pole at the track and the 35th of his career, Logano beat second-place qualifier Kyle Larson (135.980 mph) by 0.276 seconds.

“Honestly, I feel like I’ve had good cars here for qualifying — I just have always screwed up Turn 1,” said Logano, who is eighth in the Chase standings, 72 points out of the lead. “It’s nice to have a good clean lap.

“It’s in your head, right? Before you go out because you’ve had four qualifying sessions before where you’ve always screwed up Turn 1. I’ve overdriven it. I’ve underdriven it because of that.

“I hit it right this time, so that part was good. I was able to get through it pretty well and have a pretty solid (Turns) 3 and 4, and the car did what it needed to do. The car has got some raw speed in it, which is very encouraging for (Sunday).”

Logano is the only driver in the field who has finished in the top five in each of the four previous races at Gateway.

Chase drivers claimed the top 10 positions during time trials, with Logano’s Team Penske teammate, Ryan Blaney, qualifying third at 135.898 mph and last Sunday’s Darlington winner, Christopher Bell, earning the fourth spot on the grid at 135.767 mph.

Chase Briscoe was fifth fastest, followed by Carson Hocevar, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and series leader Denny Hamlin, who improved significantly from 30th on the speed chart during practice earlier in the day.

The remaining six Chase drivers qualified as follows: Austin Cindric 13th, Ryan Preece 14th, Daniel Suárez 15th, Tyler Reddick 18th, Chris Buescher 21st and William Byron 24th. Buescher’s No. 17 RFK Racing Ford failed inspection twice, resulting in the ejection of car chief Joshua Sisco and the loss of pit-stall selection for Sunday’s race. Byron enters Sunday’s race last in the 16-driver Chase standings, 114 points back of Hamlin.

Practice recap

Ryan Blaney set the fastest single lap in NASCAR Cup Series practice on Saturday afternoon, leading a Team Penske-affiliated trio atop the leaderboard with a best lap at 135.665 mph.

MORE: Practice results | At-track photos

Joey Logano was second (135.514 mph), ahead of Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry (135.501 mph), Connor Zilisch (135.371 mph) and Tyler Reddick (135.298 mph).

Blaney was also quickest in 10-lap averages, ahead of Logano, Carson Hocevar, Christopher Bell and Austin Cindric. Bell, last week’s winner at Darlington Raceway, posted the fastest 15-lap, 20-lap and 30-lap averages in Saturday’s 50-minute session.

Defending Gateway winner and current points leader Denny Hamlin posted just the 30th-best lap, with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe 29th. Hamlin showed more promise, however, in the 20-lap average with the fifth-best mark.

Contributing: Staff report

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

MADISON, Ill. — No dust has been settled. No air has been cleared between drivers Carson Hocevar and Brad Keselowski after contact in last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Chase opener (presented by Mobil 1) at Darlington Raceway.

While nothing can be said verbatim about intentional contact, Hocevar and Keselowski are prepared for the next chapter in a developing saga of tension amid the return of the 10-race sprint to the 2026 championship.

Facing the media first Saturday afternoon at World Wide Technology Raceway, the No. 6 RFK Racing driver and team co-owner addressed the biggest elephant in the room after last week’s run-in with Hocevar.

RELATED: WWTR schedule | At-track photos

“Each race weekend presents its own challenges and coming to Gateway, obviously my car is not in the playoffs or Chase, but we still have a lot to race for and commitments and things that we have to do, and a lot of people that work really hard on the car,” Keselowski said. “I have to balance that with the different things that happened last weekend and that’s always the challenge. My challenge this weekend is to balance that of going out, maximizing the performance I can this weekend while also not letting a fire spread for all intents and purposes of being taken advantage of. How to walk that line is is difficult. It’s kind of one of those things you just you live and you figure it out in the moment, and it’ll play out how ever it plays out.” 

Racing in the midpack late in Stage 1 at Darlington, Hocevar attempted to get around Keselowski for a handful of laps in Turns 3 and 4. It culminated in Hocevar using up the width of the corner and hitting the No. 6 Ford in the left rear, causing Keselowski to get loose. The No. 77 then hit Keselowski again to send him for a full spin.

After the race, an irate Keselowski fired a warning shot at Hocevar saying: “His day is coming and it’s coming hard. Watch out, Carson.”

With no verbal jabs back at Keselowski, Hocevar is embracing the entertainment side of having drama on-track with his fellow competitors.

Hocevar alluded to his local short-track days in Kalamazoo, Michigan, when promoters would hype up their events with specific driver beefs and also talked about the reach and virality the sport gets when fiery moments are posted.

“I happen to scroll on TikTok or whatever, and I’m pretty much my whole ‘for you’ page. It’s just me on my own page,” Hocevar said. “There’s one that got a million something views, right? That has to be somewhat good for the sport. I happen to look at the comments just to see like who’s reacting to it, like if they’re NASCAR fans or normal NASCAR fans, and if you kind of scroll the comments for like two seconds, you can tell that it’s not normal NASCAR fans that were getting in on their algorithm. I have to imagine that’s good.”

Leading into Gateway, Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson stated on Dirty Mo Media’s “Gluckcast” that he isn’t interested in a “car-crashing contest” with RFK, but if it manifests, it could spread to the RFK Chase cars (Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece).

Keselowski’s response? “Bring it. I’ll fight back with anybody in the garage.”

If tensions do boil over between RFK and Spire, it does open a Pandora’s Box that could affect Chase drivers, cause collateral damage and ruin title hopes.

However, defending champion Kyle Larson may be bringing some popcorn along for his ride Sunday if he sees Keselowski and Hocevar in front of him.

“If Brad’s around him, I would keep my eyes peeled a little bit more,” Larson said. “But more just like when you’re behind it, you’re like hoping something cool happens and you don’t get caught up in it. It’d be funny.”

In past cases, Cup veterans used to meet with younger drivers who were habitually causing issues to nip future occurrences in the bud. But in a new era where virality and Internet fame are sought after, Keselowski says those opportunities aren’t there anymore and there’s no point to having a conversation with Hocevar.

For 300 miles Sunday afternoon, all eyes will be focused on how Chapter 2 is written between the two drivers.

“We’re in a different day and age, which is greater than our sport,” Keselowski said. “It transcends our society as a whole where that level of social interaction is not valued the same way it was valued 10. 20, 30 years ago, and at some point, everybody just has to touch the hot stove and learn.” 

Posted on by Reid Spencer

MADISON, Ill.— Hendrick Motorsports doesn’t have a driver development program per se.

As team president Jeff Andrews put it, Hendrick is committed to the “Corey Day Development Program,” as evidenced by the long-term contract awarded to the driver earlier this week.

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“I think, for us, guys like this don’t come along very often, so when a talent like Corey Day presents itself …,” Andrews said. “We knew the (learning) curve was going to be steep, but we’ve been really proud of his progress and the things he’s accomplished on track and who he’s become off-track and part of our team and our culture.

“It’s a lot of things that led to the decision of going forward with the long-term development of Corey Day.”

The 20-year-old driver certainly has exceeded expectations in his first full season in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. He picked up his first victory at Talladega in April and followed that with a second win at Dover in May.

“I think back to when I signed my first deal two years ago, and I was just hopeful that there would be another one, much less another long-term one,” Day said Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway. “Really cool.

“I’m really excited for what’s to come for me in my career. I also talked about the fact that I never really thought I would be much more than just a sprint car guy, which I was fine with that, but it’s really cool to see where my career is at now.”

The driver from Clovis, California, grew up racing on dirt, but he has handled the transition to pavement adroitly. There hasn’t been one “light bulb” moment, rather a steady progression.

“I didn’t expect that one day I would show up at the track and get the pole and win the race,” Day said. “I knew that it was going to be tough and that I was going to learn things at different paces.”

Day’s new contract includes a plan to run a handful of NASCAR Cup Series races next season in addition to competing for the O’Reilly Series championship. Because of limitations under the current charter agreement, Hendrick is unable to run a fifth car, even on a limited basis.

Consequently, Day will drive a Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in his Cup Series events, Andrews said.

Beyond 2027, Day’s future with the organization lacks specifics, but the new contract speaks to Hendrick’s belief in the young driver, especially after the signing of Connor Zilisch to succeed Alex Bowman in a Cup car, starting in 2028.