NEW YORK —Tuesday evening, The NASCAR Foundation celebrated two decades of giving back to racing communities, hosting The NASCAR Foundation 20th Anniversary Honors Gala at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City.
The Gala was hosted by The Foundation and the France family in collaboration with the evening’s Leadership Sponsors, including Brown & Brown, Kaulig Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and Next League.
The NASCAR Foundation
Various current and former NASCAR drivers, team owners and executives, as well as special guests across the sports and entertainment industry, were in attendance, including Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress and singer, Kristin Chenoweth and Pro Football Hall of Famer and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist Michael Strahan.
During the evening’s celebrations, The NASCAR Foundation honored Chief Executive Officer and Executive Producer of FOX Sports Eric Shanks with the Champion for Children Award as well as the Chairman of the Board of The NASCAR Foundation Mike Helton with the Founders Award.
The evening culminated with the announcement of the 16th annual Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award winner, Lyette Reback, founder and volunteer of Believe With Me. The winner’s nonprofit organization supports families of fallen military service members by providing financial help and emotional support.
“Lyette is the kind of person who doesn’t just talk about making a difference, she gets to work and makes it happen,” said Nichole Krieger, Vice President and Executive Director, The NASCAR Foundation. “As a mother of 16, she has a huge heart, and she has made it her mission to make sure the children of our fallen heroes know they are remembered and cared for. It’s that reason which makes Lyette such a deserving recipient of the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award. We’re thrilled to celebrate her and the incredible work she continues to do.”
The 20th Anniversary celebrations continue Wednesday, Sept. 9, with The Speedy Bear Brigade Powered by Kaulig Giving, where drivers and representatives from both The NASCAR Foundation and Kaulig Racing will deliver NASCAR-themed Speedy Bears to children at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone.
Brandon Jones wouldn’t identify himself as an extrovert. For the bulk of his NASCAR career, he’s kept his thoughts internal, unsure when the right time to speak up was.
But at a seasoned 29 years old, Jones has embraced his leadership role among Joe Gibbs Racing’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series lineup. His three teammates include teenagers William Sawalich and upstart Brent Crews, while Taylor Gray is just 21.
“It’s interesting because I’ve really never been in this kind of role before,” Jones told NASCAR.com recently about his positioning at JGR. “When I went to [JR Motorsports], it’s Justin (Allgaier). Sure, I’ve got a lot of years, but Justin has 10 more on top of that. Now, it flip-flopped.”
Internally, JGR leadership has noticed Jones being more vocal. Getting the Georgia native to speak his mind took years of becoming comfortable with his status among O’Reilly competitors. But in his 11th full season — and seventh with JGR — Jones has shifted his mindset.
“I’ve been the guy to go to for, ‘Are we on the right path? Is this how the cars have felt through the years in transition, what are we missing?'” Jones said. “I’m trying to be the bridge of the gap and not be the bad guy, but the one that is speaking up a little more when the uncomfortable situations happen when you don’t want to be the one to the team saying, ‘What are we doing guys? These aren’t good days.’ Top fives are OK, but we need to be winning every week. If we’re not leading laps and [winning], they are not really good days.
“I’m trying to be that guy who raises the standard a little bit. It’s been going good, but something that isn’t in my nature to be that kind of, ‘I’m the big dog, move out of the way here.’ It’s not the way I’ve expressed it, either.”
Steve deSouza, longtime JGR executive and current EVP, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series/Development, has noticed Jones’ approach. During team debriefs, the eight-time winner is more expressive. Jones has been a key contributor in helping Gray and Sawalich, both of whom have won in 2026, including the No. 54 car bettering the No. 20 bunch at Kansas Speedway, one of Jones’ best circuits on the schedule.
“I think he’s done a really good job being a spokesman in our driver’s meetings,” deSouza said. “He is open to a good day and a bad day and knows, ‘I didn’t do something right’ or ‘the car wasn’t right, or I wasn’t comfortable’ — whatever the things are that a driver goes through. Now, he is at that age where he has a lot of experience, and he can help some of the other drivers go through some of those things.
“He is very even-keeled, so there’s not a lot of highs or a lot of lows.”
Getting paired with Sam McAulay as crew chief since Jones’ return to JGR in 2025 has also been a boon. The No. 20 team does intense analyses following each race. That process has helped the Georgia native get more comfortable being candid.
“I think it’s been cool to see him become more vocal,” McAulay said. “He has internalized areas where he’s confident, he’s going to speak his mind and help the group. He is detailed with what he’s looking for, which is what we want. We try to make sure everything is exactly to what he’s looking for and maxed out as far as making our stuff as nice as we can make it and continuously improving everything. I think from last year to this year, he has become more vocal for the group in driver’s meetings and is always willing to help his teammates.”
David Jensen | Getty Images
Jones’ rule of thumb has always been simple: He doesn’t seek out his teammates to offer pointers. Instead, he waits for them to approach him. Once they break the ice, he is more than willing to open his playbook.
In turn, he leans on Crews heavily at road courses, which he was rewarded with a fifth-place effort at Watkins Glen International in May.
“If I see one of them 15th on the board in practice and I’m P1, I’m not running down there and being like, ‘I just found it — lift at this mark.’ Absolutely not,” Jones said. “I need to find a tiny little advantage, if I can find one.”
Jones entered The Chase last weekend at Darlington Raceway as the No. 6 seed, best of the two JGR drivers who qualified for the postseason. Following a disappointing 10th-place finish, he dropped to eighth on the grid, 58 points behind Allgaier.
Expectations within the No. 20 team remain high for The Chase. Allgaier even namedropped Jones last month as one of his biggest threats, with the schedule laying out favorably for the No. 20 team.
“The tracks in The Chase are phenomenal for us,” Jones said ahead of the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. “We’re really close right now to having days where we’re just knocking out tons of top fives and even possibly closing out a couple wins.”
McAulay pointed to Jones’ ability to accumulate more stage points and his increased consistency as signs of how much stronger he has been this season compared to 2025. In addition to tallying a victory at Chicagoland Speedway in July, Jones has already eclipsed last year’s top-10 total (14) and owns an average finishing position two spots better than last year (12.2 vs. 14.2).
“This is the best opportunity Brandon has ever had to go deep in the playoffs and win the championship,” McAulay said. “With the tracks that are in it, I think this points format does suit him.”
Toyota left Darlington Raceway on Sunday night looking less like a manufacturer in good form and more like one tightening its grip on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Christopher Bell won the Cook Out Southern 500 to break through a maddening runner-up streak and reassert himself as a championship heavyweight. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs finished second as he continues to show why he’s a serious title threat. Daytona 500 winner and 23XI Racing ally Tyler Reddick came home third, washing away a summer of squalor to remind us all who he is. And when the points were sorted afterward, season standout Denny Hamlin still led the standings with Bell second, Reddick fourth, JGR’s Chase Briscoe fifth and Gibbs sixth.
Five Toyotas. Six spots.
Sitting in the middle of all of them?
Ryan Blaney.
For a driver who wears his “Star Wars” fandom on the sleeve of his fire suit, the role could hardly be more fitting.
Blaney enters Sunday’s Chase presented by Mobil 1 race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) third in the standings, 16 points behind Hamlin, as the lone non-Toyota inside a top six increasingly populated by the manufacturer. If Toyota is going to spend The Chase fortifying its galactic empire, Blaney has found himself playing the part of rebel pilot trying to find and exploit the foundational weakness that could bring the whole thing down.
For all the fun in the framing, the numbers themselves make Blaney’s place in this fight look anything but trivial.
Toyota has won 15 of the first 27 races this season, its most victories through this point in its history. At least one Toyota has finished inside the top three in 26 of those 27 races, and Darlington marked the fourth time this year the manufacturer swept the podium. And this isn’t simply a Joe Gibbs Racing story; JGR has eight victories this season — but 23XI Racing has seven, combining to lead a dominant 3,141 laps.
But Blaney, meanwhile, has quietly built what may be the strongest statistical counterargument. The Team Penske driver has scored 469 points in the 10 oval races using NASCAR’s 750-horsepower package this season, most in the Cup Series. Hamlin ranks second at 433, followed by Gibbs, Bell and Joey Logano. Four of the remaining nine races use this package — including each of the next two. It’s completely possible, probable even, that the No. 12 Ford is leading the standings coming out of Bristol, and wouldn’t that be something? A Toyota has topped the standings since literally mid-February.
Blaney also leads the series with 225 stage points and eight stage wins, with seven of those stage victories coming in the last 11 races. His 829 laps led rank second only to Hamlin’s 948.
Casting Blaney as the rebel, of course, should not be confused with casting him as an underdog.
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
He already owns the 2023 Cup championship and is making his 10th postseason appearance. Team Penske hardly needs instructions on how to win the big one, either, having claimed three consecutive drivers’ titles from 2022-24 with Logano, Blaney and Logano again.
More importantly for what comes next, Blaney has already shown he can punch through Toyota’s lines on precisely the kind of track we’ll see this weekend. Racing Insights identifies Phoenix and New Hampshire as comparable tracks to World Wide Technology Raceway.
Blaney has won at both — this season.
The New Hampshire result is particularly telling. Toyota won the first three races there in the Next Gen era and controlled much of the racing from 2022-24 before Blaney himself broke that streak with a victory in 2025, then returned this August and beat the Toyota contingent there. Again.
Toyota’s strength is hardly theoretical, but neither is Blaney’s ability to beat it.
That production carried directly into Darlington, where Blaney finished fourth for his third top five in the past five races. He actually gained nine points on Hamlin despite slipping from second to third in the standings, because Bell’s 73-point night vaulted the race winner past him. More broadly, the championship tightened considerably around them; Hamlin’s advantage over second place shrank from 25 points after the reset to 12 after Darlington, while the top four are now separated by just 24 markers.
If Toyota intends to turn its season-long superiority into full-coverage control of the Chase, Blaney has so far presented the clearest obstacle to that ambition.
Conveniently, the next stop may fit him better than anybody else, too.
Blaney is the only driver to lead laps in all four Cup races at World Wide Technology Raceway. He has finished sixth or better in three of those four starts, has started inside the top five every time and owns the best average running position among Chase drivers at the track.
And the one exception to all that is more flattering than the box score suggests. Blaney was leading with two laps remaining in 2024 before running out of fuel and tumbling to 24th, opening the door for teammate Austin Cindric to win. While he’s yet to put the finishing touches on a win there, the path to Victory Lane at Gateway does appear to run, at least somewhat, through him.
That near-miss also fits a larger Penske pattern of strength at Gateway.
Logano won the inaugural Cup race there in 2022. Cindric won two years later. Penske has therefore won half of the four Cup races held at the track, with Blaney coming within a couple of laps of potentially adding another. Logano, meanwhile, has finished inside the top five in all four Gateway races and enters Sunday with the strongest track record of anybody in The Chase field.
So, no: Blaney isn’t literally the only hope against Toyota. But it feels like a very, very short list behind him.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, for instance, looked plenty capable of disrupting the group at Darlington, leading a race-high 99 laps before finishing fifth. He remains seventh in the Chase standings, 49 points behind Hamlin, and could snap off a hot streak in the blink of an eye, 51-race-winless-skid be damned. Logano is lurking, too. The three-time champion sits eighth, has won twice this season and heads to one of his very best tracks as he and his championship-ready No. 22 team are only picking up steam.
So, there are other rebels in the fight.
None, though, occupies quite the position Blaney does right now: third in points, just 16 behind Hamlin, as the only driver who’s hung with them all season and now headed to a track where his own history — and his organization’s — already stands out.
That last part matters even more under this version of The Chase.
There is no round to survive Sunday, no cutline and no points reset waiting a few weeks down the road. Every stage point and finishing position payout simply joins the running tally from here and stays there through Homestead. Blaney has made a habit of collecting both, and his series-high stage points total isn’t simply a measure of how often the No. 12 Ford has run near the front, but tangible championship points that remain on the ledger from here.
Among Chase drivers, only Hamlin has produced more 40-point races this season than Blaney’s 11. Looking specifically at tracks still remaining on The Chase schedule, Blaney has four such performances at them, tied with Larson and trailing only Hamlin’s six. Bell and Gibbs each have three.
Hamlin has been the most consistently excellent driver in the series. Bell finally converted a season full of near-misses into a Darlington victory. Reddick already owns five wins. Gibbs is enjoying a career year. Briscoe has steadily worked himself back into the championship conversation alongside them and appears just as strong. Even Bubba Wallace is still very much in it and climbing his way forward after a strong opener.
The sheer volume of contenders may be Toyota’s greatest advantage, and Darlington showed just how crowded that fight is likely to become. Gateway, for what it’s worth, should tell us plainly whether Blaney can keep breaking up the formation.
So, he isn’t the only hope.
But right now, he’s the one flying closest to the Imperial Star Destroyer, and the battle is far from over.
NASCAR is monitoring the tension between Carson Hocevar and Brad Keselowski after their incident in the Cook Out Southern 500 but has no formal plans to broker peace between the drivers.
After being spun on the 107th lap, Keselowski told Above The Yellow Line Media that Hocevar’s “day is coming, and it’s coming hard. Watch out, Carson.”
Asked by USA Sports what happened to Keselowski, Hocevar said, “He spun,” later joking that “I do everything for TV and entertainment purposes based off everybody else. So I don’t know. Whatever makes us good TV. I just do it for the clicks.”
NASCAR senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis said the feud came up briefly during the competition department’s weekly debrief Tuesday.
“It was discussed just a little,” Ellis said during the latest episode of the Hauler Talk podcast. “It was something that everyone was kind of briefed on. There’s no scheduled meeting between the two or anything like that heading into this weekend.”
NASCAR has met with feuding drivers to defuse animosity, including Austin Hill and Shane van Gisbergen, earlier this season. That isn’t the case yet for Hocevar and Keselowski.
“There’s a chance that (Cup Series director) Brad Moran may speak with Brad Keselowski just to follow up on his comments and check in,” Ellis said. “But no formal meeting in the hauler or anything like that. Hopefully those two will work it out, and we’ll move on.”
Other topics covered by vice president of racing communications Mike Forde and Ellis during the 68th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— The decision to start the Cook Out Southern 500 early.
— The brief red flag toward the end of the race.
— Dealing with cars that don’t refire after a stoppage.
— Whether NASCAR might tweak its procedure for setting the lineup after a qualifying rainout.
— The concussion protocol followed by Riley Herbst after New Hampshire.
— How NASCAR’s new “Swear Jar” works during The Chase presented by Mobil 1.
Click on the embed below to listen or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He has also covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase continues this weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Saturday’s Nu Way 225 Powered by Bobcat and Sauced by Blues Hog will be the 26th points-paying race of the 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season.
Sheldon Creed, who won the opening Chase contest at Darlington Raceway, will pilot the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet. Creed finished 30th in his lone O’Reilly start at the track, which came last season.
Thirty-six cars are entered into this weekend’s Chase race.
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase continues Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The Enjoy Illinois 300 will be the 28th points-paying event of the 2026 Cup Series season. Denny Hamlin is the defending winner at the 1.25-mile Madison, Illinois, track.
Christopher Bell, who captured his first win of 2026 last weekend at Darlington Raceway, will aim to continue his momentum to begin The Chase. In four career Gateway starts in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Bell has compiled three top-10 finishes.
Thirty-six cars are entered into this weekend’s Chase race.
Berry, 35, will return to the Cup Series for a fourth full-time season after he announced June 10 that Wood Brothers Racing would not retain him at the end of the year. After posting just two top 10s in the first 21 races of 2026, Berry has rattled off six consecutive top-10 finishes, including a banner performance at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Aug. 23 in which he led 73 laps and finished a season-best third.
“Josh is a proven competitor who has earned everything through hard work and getting his hands dirty,” Jimmie Johnson, co-owner of Legacy, said in a team press release. “What stands out about Josh is his ability to manage the big picture behind the wheel — his experience, perspective and wisdom. His career has been built on that foundation, and I know he will have a meaningful impact here. We’re thrilled to have him at Legacy.”
“Legacy Motor Club is an organization that clearly has a vision for where they want to go, and I want to be part of that,” Berry said in a team release. “I’ve had a chance to see this team up close, and I know what they’re capable of. The way Jimmie has built this place — the people, the culture, the direction — it’s exactly the kind of environment I want to compete in.”
A career short-track ace in the Late Model Stock ranks for JR Motorsports, Berry got his first best shot in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2021 with JRM, competing in 22 of 33 races that season and earning his first two career victories. Berry returned to the series in 2022 for his first full-time campaign in NASCAR’s national series and won an additional three races before finishing fourth in the championship standings.
Berry went winless in his 2023 O’Reilly campaign but impressed in 10 Cup Series starts that season made in relief of Cup regulars, including Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman, as well as making two starts for Legacy Motor Club in its No. 42 car that season.
Berry graduated to the Cup Series with Stewart-Haas Racing full time in 2024, then joined the iconic Wood Brothers Racing team in 2025, earning his first career Cup win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March 2025.
A Tennessee native, Berry joins two-time Southern 500 winner Erik Jones and current Cup Series sophomore Riley Herbst for 2027, Legacy Motor Club’s first season as a three-car team full time.
Jones signed a multiyear contract extension with Legacy in 2024 to pilot its No. 43 Toyota and is set to return to the ride for a sixth season next year. Herbst, who currently competes for 23XI Racing’s No. 35 team, was announced as Legacy’s third driver on Sept. 3 as he takes over the No. 84 Toyota.
Goodyear will provide a familiar tire setup for NASCAR Cup Series teams in this weekend’s Chase race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will use the same tire configuration used in last season’s event, won by current points leader Denny Hamlin. The 240-lap, 300-mile event on the 1.25-mile oval will mark the first time this setup has been used this season, though the right-side tire was also in action last month at Iowa Speedway.
“WWTR is a very unique track, which adds additional heat and stress on the tires,” said Rick Heinrich, Goodyear NASCAR product manager. “The Goodyear Racing Eagles we have chosen for the NASCAR Cup Series this weekend were raced here last season, so combined with data from Iowa in August, teams should have plenty of information to help with their setups.”
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will take part in Saturday’s Nu Way 225 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), riding on the same combination that raced at Phoenix Raceway in March. That setup used the right-side tires from Gateway’s event last season.
This weekend will mark the second race in The Chase postseason for both series.
The tire allotments for each team competing this weekend:
Cup Series: 12 total sets — 9 new for the race, 2 for practice, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race. O’Reilly Auto Parts Series: 5 total sets — 3 new for the race, 1 for practice, 1 for qualifying, which transfers to the race.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Brad Pitt is headed to The Last Great Colosseum.
The Academy Award-winning actor and producer will serve as a Grand Marshal alongside Johnny Morris for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday, Sept. 19 at Bristol Motor Speedway, bringing one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars to one of NASCAR’s most iconic nights.
Pitt, whose new Paramount Pictures film Heart of the Beast opens exclusively in theatres Sept. 25, will take part in Bristol’s famed pre-race ceremonies and help give the command to fire engines before the NASCAR Cup Series roars to life under the lights for the third race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase.
The appearance also brings together a distinctive Missouri connection. Pitt grew up in Springfield, Missouri — the same city where Johnny Morris founded Bass Pro Shops in 1972. From its Springfield roots, Bass Pro Shops has grown into one of America’s best-known outdoor brands, with a longstanding commitment to supporting America’s service members and their families.
In Heart of the Beast, Pitt stars as Special Forces officer James Belmont, who survives a harrowing plane crash with his combat dog, Odin, only to find the pair stranded deep in the Alaskan wilderness and forced into a brutal fight for survival. Directed by David Ayer, the intense adventure thriller also stars J.K. Simmons and Anna Lambe, with Pitt also serving as a producer. Heart of the Beast tickets are on sale now; log on to www.heartofthebeastmovie.com for more information.
The film’s themes of courage, loyalty and survival provide a fitting connection to a Bass Pro Shops Night Race weekend that traditionally uses one of NASCAR’s biggest stages to honor members of the United States military, veterans, first responders and community heroes.
“It’s pretty special to welcome our fellow Springfield, Missouri, native to Bristol for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race,” said Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris. “So many people still remember Brad’s role in A River Runs Through It, a film that helped inspire a deeper appreciation for fly-fishing and the importance of conserving the rivers and wild places that make those experiences possible. This race is one of the most exciting nights in sports, and we’re proud to have Brad join us as we salute conservation and honor the brave veterans, first responders and the men and women who serve our country and communities.”
On the track, the stakes will be just as intense. The 500-lap Bass Pro Shops Night Race is the third race in NASCAR’s 10-race Chase for the Cup Series championship. With every position and every point carrying added weight on the road to the title, Bristol’s tight confines and relentless traffic are poised to turn up the pressure on the sport’s championship contenders.
Few venues magnify that pressure like Bristol’s 0.533-mile concrete oval. The steep high banks, close-quarters racing and thunderous roar of NASCAR engines under the lights create one of the most captivating atmospheres in motorsports — a place where momentum can change in an instant and tempers can flare just as quickly.
“There’s nothing quite like the Bass Pro Shops Night Race under the lights at Bristol, and having Brad Pitt join us makes an already special night even bigger,” said Jerry Caldwell, president and general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway. “We’re excited to welcome Brad to The Last Great Colosseum where he can experience the unmatched energy of one of NASCAR’s most-storied crown jewel events.”
The Bass Pro Shops Night Race begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 19. Fans can secure tickets and find complete race-weekend information at BristolMotorSpeedway.com.
Here’s where we stand in The Chase coming out of the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway and heading to World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway for Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The biggest catalyst for Chase-changing this week goes to race winner Bell, whose win ended a 33-race drought and helped him jump four spots in the standings. After starting The Chase 50 points behind Denny Hamlin, Bell is now just 12 points behind his heralded Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.
Bell’s victory meant all four of the JGR cars have a win this season, and the team did some heavy flexing on the track “Too Tough to Tame.” Besides landing Bell in Victory Lane, JGR also saw Ty Gibbs finish second and Chase Briscoe finish sixth after he led 30 laps and battled for the lead late.
Meanwhile, Hamlin recovered from a run-in with Michael McDowell early in the final stage to finish 18th and limit some of the damage to his championship quest. Hamlin’s key was scoring 16 stage points that, when added to his finishing position, gave him 35 points for the night, the eighth-best point total among all drivers. Don’t underestimate the importance of stage points during The Chase. They will be a big story throughout.
A lot can change, but after one race, it appears as though the championship runs through Toyota, with JGR being a big part of that effort. All four JGR cars are legitimate contenders for the crown, with Briscoe gaining eight points and sitting 37 points behind Hamlin, while Gibbs gained one point at Darlington and is now 39 points back.
The Chase Board
Looking at The Chase Board, there are two spots in the standings that I’m focused on after Darlington. One is the drivers in second through seventh, who all gained ground on Hamlin this week.
Tyler Reddick dropped to fourth in the standings but gained 11 points to Hamlin and now sits only 24 points back after a third-place finish at Darlington, where he led 74 laps. So, despite the summer swoon that saw Reddick give up what seemed to be an insurmountable lead in the standings and appear to be sliding off into oblivion, he’s right back in it. But for him to push even higher, one of the things that needs to happen is his pit crew must be better than 12th at Darlington and 18th for the season, which is where Racing Insights ranked them this week.
Kyle Larson is at the bottom of the list of Nos. 2-7 drivers, but the two-time champion is showing signs of life. Larson led a race-high 99 laps at Darlington and did Kyle Larson-like things in holding on for a fifth-place result after staying out on older tires. Larson gained six points to pull to within 49 points of Hamlin, which means he’s within striking distance of being a win away from making things interesting. Plus, it’s good to be a 49er when you’re a driver who hails from Northern California.
The other area of the standings that interests me is Bubba Wallace being 10th. Besides Bell, Wallace was the other big mover at Darlington, jumping four spots after an eighth-place finish that got the No. 23 team’s Chase off on the right foot. Bubba is still 81 points behind Hamlin and a tad outside of being a legit threat to the crown, but with Toyota speed underneath him and a good start to The Chase on a tough track, Wallace is lurking just nine points behind a couple of champions in Joey Logano and Chase Elliott.
Rank
Driver
Points Behind
Gain/Loss to Leader
1
Denny Hamlin
--
Lost 13
2
Christopher Bell
-12
Gained 38
3
Ryan Blaney
-16
Gained 9
4
Tyler Reddick
-24
Gained 11
5
Chase Briscoe
-37
Gained 8
6
Ty Gibbs
-39
Gained 1
7
Kyle Larson
-49
Gained 6
8
Joey Logano
-72
Lost 7
9
Chase Elliott
-72
Lost 12
10
Bubba Wallace
-81
Gained 9
11
Chris Buescher
-88
Lost 18
12
Carson Hocevar
-89
Lost 9
13
Daniel Suárez
-94
Lost 19
14
Austin Cindric
-102
Lost 7
15
Ryan Preece
-104
Lost 4
16
William Byron
-114
Lost 29
Source: Racing Insights
Next Up
It’s the 1.25-mile flat track on the east side of the Mississippi River outside of St. Louis in Madison, Illinois. That would be World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, where the NASCAR Cup Series has raced for the past four seasons. Drivers will tell you that one of the best comparisons for Gateway is Phoenix Raceway, a similarly banked oval that features corners on either end of the track that present different challenges. So if you want to dig deeper into who might do well here, then include those who do well at Phoenix in your equation.
And if Team Penske rings a bell for you, well, you’d be correct. Looking just at average finish at Gateway, Logano’s 3.5 mark is the best among drivers who’ve raced here all four times. Blaney is fourth at 9.5, and Austin Cindric is sixth at 11.0. The others in the mix include Bell in second at 8.5, Larson in third at 9.5 and Hamlin in fifth at 9.8.
So just for fun, let’s look at who the top six Chase drivers are in average finish at Phoenix. And they are (drumroll, please): Larson, Hamlin, Blaney, William Byron, Bell and Chase Elliott, with Logano coming in a close seventh. So there’s your early fantasy advice for the week.
As far as who might struggle? Daniel Suárez has the worst average finish at Gateway among Chase drivers at 22.0, and Wallace isn’t much better at 21.3. Ryan Preece and Hocevar are at 19.7, and as we mentioned earlier, Hocevar might have a target on his back that could make finishing the race, let alone finishing well, a bit more challenging for him.
