The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series travels from outside St. Louis to Bristol, Tennessee, to compete at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“The Last Great Colosseum” will be the third site hosting The Chase presented by Mobil 1. The O’Reilly race is also the 27th points-paying contest of the season.
Defending O’Reilly champion Jesse Love finally found Victory Lane this season, doing so at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway over the weekend in the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. In four career Bristol O’Reilly starts, Love has three finishes of 12th or better.
Thirty-nine cars are entered into this weekend’s Chase contest.
The second race of The Chase presented by Mobil 1 produced another first-time winner this season as Kyle Larson broke a 51-race winless drought to score the victory on Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. The chaos behind him, however, left The Chase field shaken.
Here’s where we stand in The Chase coming out of the Enjoy Illinois 300 at Gateway and heading to Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
A trip to Victory Lane for Larson created the most significant leap in The Chase so far, vaulting a stunning five positions to second in the standings, nine points behind series leader Denny Hamlin. Among the drivers he passed were Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs, leaving Larson as the only Chevrolet driver inside The Chase standings’ top eight.
The other big mover on Sunday afternoon was Carson Hocevar, who gained three positions in points after a noisy week surrounding his conflict with Brad Keselowski from one week earlier. Hocevar jumped to ninth in the standings, but he only gained one point on Hamlin, trailing by 89 markers after Darlington and now 88 back after Gateway.
But the melees of the day wreaked the most havoc at Gateway as 14 of the 16 Chase drivers landed in an incident, according to Racing Insights, with Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Austin Cindric leaving with the cleanest performances.
The two drivers who paid the steepest price were Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe and Spire Motorsports’ Daniel Suárez, both of whom fell three spots in the standings. Briscoe dropped to eighth in points, 59 points back of teammate Hamlin. Suárez faces a more dire situation, falling to last in the 16-driver rundown and 119 points out of first place. Suárez also incurred the biggest points loss to the leader this week, losing 25 points to Hamlin from where he entered Gateway to where he left.
The Chase Board
While The Chase Board shuffled mightily this week — only Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace retained their positions before and after Gateway — there is suddenly a clearer division between the top and bottom halves of the points standings.
Briscoe marks the bottom of the best at eighth, still within 59 points of Hamlin but trailing Larson, Bell, Blaney, Reddick, Gibbs and Logano. The other eight drivers, from Hocevar in ninth to Suárez in 16th, all enter Bristol facing a deficit of 88 or more points with eight races remaining. That includes heavy hitters like Wallace, 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott and William Byron.
For Team Penske, Sunday was largely a missed opportunity, especially for Blaney and Logano, both of whom expected to fight for the win at the flat, 1.25-mile oval that best fits their teams’ strengths. Logano won the pole, led a race-high 96 laps and nabbed 19 stage points before finishing third, but even he was left “bitter” following a 54-point day that could have been a 74-point day had he won instead. Blaney’s Lap 155 brake failure negated the No. 12 team’s drive toward the front of the field and dropped him to 35th in the rundown; fourth-place stage points in the opening two segments salvaged what could have been a two-point result into 16 points instead.
Meanwhile, championship pursuits are growing increasingly difficult for the back half of The Chase field. Eight races provide plenty of opportunities to go on a run and tear into the points gaps in front of these drivers, but their mulligans may all be gone already. Elliott and Chris Buescher both suffered brake failures Sunday at Gateway, while Suárez, Preece and Wallace each found trouble multiple times through the caution-filled event. Byron mustered a fourth-place finish — matching his best since Chicagoland Speedway on July 5 — but a Darlington engine failure and zero Gateway stage points still leave him 15th, 114 points behind Hamlin — one spot better than he entered but facing exactly the same deficit leaving St. Louis.
Rank
Driver
Points Behind
Gain/Loss to Leader
1
Denny Hamlin
--
Lost 3
2
Kyle Larson
-9
Gained 40
3
Christopher Bell
-18
Lost 6
4
Ryan Blaney
-33
Lost 17
5
Tyler Reddick
-42
Lost 18
6
Ty Gibbs
-51
Lost 12
7
Joey Logano
-51
Gained 21
8
Chase Briscoe
-59
Lost 22
9
Carson Hocevar
-88
Gained 1
10
Bubba Wallace
-90
Lost 9
11
Chase Elliott
-93
Lost 21
12
Austin Cindric
-108
Lost 6
13
Chris Buescher
-111
Lost 23
14
Ryan Preece
-113
Lost 9
15
William Byron
-114
Even
16
Daniel Suárez
-119
Lost 25
Source: Racing Insights
Next Up
The Bristol Night Race is back, highlighting one of the NASCAR schedule’s most iconic venues with some of the highest stakes. While “The Last Great Colosseum” won’t feature any sort of cutoff race with playoffs in the past, there will be no shortage of drama on the Tennessee high banks — especially not after 18 caution flags flew last weekend at Gateway.
Ty Gibbs scored his first career Cup win this spring in a photo finish with Ryan Blaney at Bristol with Kyle Larson hot on their tails. All three should factor into the outcome of Saturday night’s showdown, which could significantly alter the postseason picture. And don’t sleep on Christopher Bell, who won last year’s Bristol Night Race after a late-race restart.
Larson is historically great at Bristol, with three wins and nine top fives in his last 12 starts there. But his Hendrick Motorsports teammates in The Chase haven’t found that same success. Elliott has just two top fives at Bristol since the Next Gen car was introduced in 2022; Byron has one. Elliott has finished 15th or worse in each of his last three Bristol starts. Byron has one top 10 in his last four Bristol tries.
Hamlin has had an unsteady start to The Chase, plagued in part by bad pit stops at bad times, but still enters Bristol with the points lead. The No. 11 Toyota driver has two wins and seven top 10s in his last eight Bristol starts.
After nearly a month away from the track, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to action to begin The Chase presented by Mobil 1 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday (8 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The contest is the first of seven postseason Truck races during the 2026 campaign. Layne Riggs is the defending winner.
Riggs enters the postseason stretch as the 2026 points leader. Over the 18-race regular season, the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports driver logged six wins, 10 top fives, 11 top 10s, four poles and 598 laps led.
Thirty-seven race trucks are entered into this weekend’s Chase race.
The NASCAR Cup Series continues on Saturday with a trek to Tennessee for an under-the-lights bout at “The Last Great Colosseum” in Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
This year’s Chase presented by Mobil 1 continues at the iconic venue, with the Bass Pro Shops Night Race the third of 10 postseason battles. The contest is also the 29th points-paying event of the 2026 season. Christopher Bell is the defending winner.
Kyle Larson, who snapped a 51-race winless streak thanks to his World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway victory in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, enters Bristol on a momentum swing, gaining five spots in The Chase table and sitting only nine points behind points leader Denny Hamlin. In seven Bristol concrete races in the Next Gen era, the 2025 Cup Series champion has two wins and six top-five finishes.
Thirty-seven cars are entered into this weekend’s Chase bout.
With only two races left in the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season, the race for the championship heads back to Long Island’s Riverhead Raceway this Saturday night for the running of the Eddie Partridge 206 (8:30 p.m. ET on FloRacing).
Held in honor of late Riverhead Raceway owner Eddie Partridge, Saturday’s event will be the 79th Modified Tour race at the quarter-mile bullring. Austin Beers is the defending winner of Saturday’s event, an achievement he’ll attempt to repeat as he continues his pursuit of championship leader Patrick Emerling as the season inches closer to its conclusion.
Justin Bonsignore, who will make his 250th Modified Tour start Saturday, leads all drivers with 12 victories at Riverhead Raceway. Other notable winners through the years at Riverhead include Mike Ewanitsko, Mike Stefanik, Donny Lia, Ryan Preece, Ted Christopher, Doug Coby and Timmy Solomito, just to name a few.
Tickets to Saturday’s Eddie Partridge 206 will be available trackside. Below is everything you need to know before Saturday’s race.
Justin Bonsignore will make his 250th Modified Tour start during Saturday’s Eddie Partridge 206 at Riverhead Raceway. (Photo: Anna Griffin/NASCAR)
Eddie Partridge 206 at Riverhead Raceway
Riverhead Raceway and Modified racing have gone hand in hand for decades.
Not only is the quarter-mile asphalt oval one of the most traditional venues on the Modified Tour schedule, it is also one of the few tracks left in the United States with Modifieds as their premier weekly racing division.
As a result, some of the best and brightest Modified competitors have honed their skills at Riverhead Raceway. That includes local star Mark Stewart, who won the most recent Modified Tour race at Riverhead earlier this season.
Stewart will be back in the Modified Tour field for Saturday’s Eddie Partridge 206 as he looks to add a second victory with NASCAR’s oldest division to his résumé. In order to do that, he’ll have to outrun some of the best Modified competitors in the United States.
That includes Bonsignore, the winningest Modified Tour driver in Riverhead Raceway history. Bonsignore, who started his career as a local racer at Riverhead, will make his landmark 250th career start during Saturday’s race aboard the No. 51 for Ken Massa Motorsports.
Fresh off his fourth victory of the 2026 campaign two weeks ago at Oswego Speedway, Patrick Emerling heads to Riverhead with an 18-point advantage on Austin Beers in the Modified Tour standings. Emerling and Beers have both won races at Riverhead in the past, which means the battle for the series championship is far from over.
In addition to Stewart, a few more local competitors will join the field for Saturday’s race. They include Chris Rogers, Chase Grennan, Timmy Solomito, Roger Turbush, Joey Braun and Matt Brode. They’ll battle against Modified Tour regulars like Jon McKennedy, Matt Hirschman, Stephen Kopcik, Mike Christopher Jr., Teddy Hodgdon, Tyler Rypkema, Paulie Hartwig III and Andrew Molleur.
The full entry list for Saturday evening’s Eddie Partridge 206 will be available later this week.
Saturday’s Modified Tour event will be the 79th series event at Riverhead Raceway. (Photo: Anna Griffin/NASCAR)
SCHEDULE: Saturday, Sept. 19: Practice from 3:30 to 4:05 p.m. … Final practice from 4:15 to 4:45 p.m. … American Racer Pole Award qualifying at 6:15 p.m. … Start of the Eddie Partridge 206 (206 Laps / 51.5 Miles) at 8:30 p.m. ET.
QUALIFYING: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for The Eddie Partridge 206 presented by My Guy Auto Supply NAPA / Hoss Communications Inc. is limited to 26 starters including Provisional Positions.
TIRE ALLOTMENT: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is eight (8) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by NASCAR Officials, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. The same four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice tires during the event. The tire change rule is zero (0) tires, any position for the event.
RE-DRAW PROCEDURE: The fastest qualifier will spin the wheel to determine the number of drivers that will re-draw for their starting positions: 4, 6, 8 or 10 positions will re-draw. Once the fastest qualifier spins the wheel, NASCAR will have the various buckets ready to immediately start the re-draw procedure. Driver will re-draw in their qualifying order after qualifying has been completed (1 through 10, or however many are applicable). The pole position and/or any bonus point(s), if applicable, will be awarded to the fastest qualifier and will be the pole of record. If, due to adverse conditions, qualifying is canceled, the field will be set in accordance with the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Rule Book. The re-draw procedure will still take place regardless of how the field is set.
MADISON, Ill. — “Is Kyle Larson back?” “Is he the championship frontrunner?”
Surely, those are the first questions that come to mind when a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion caps a 51-race winless streak with a victory in the early portion of the 2026 Chase presented by Mobil 1.
Larson parked the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet back in Victory Lane Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway for the first time since the 2025 spring race at Kansas Speedway.
But amid the showers of celebration, the California native is dialing down the knob on the “he is so back” conversation.
“Backtowhat? Backto2021?No.Backto2023?No,” Larson said. “Butwe’vebeendefinitelybuildingtogetbackto Victory Lane.Idon’tknowifwe’requiteyettowherewecangodominatelikewehaveinthepast,butadayliketodaydefinitelygivesyouconfidenceleadinginto a track (Bristol)whereweknowwecangodominate.”
While it hasn’t been for a lack of effort, the No. 5 team and Hendrick have been behind the curve as the Toyota tandem of Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing won a combined 24 races during Larson’s drought and have put a stranglehold on NASCAR’s premier series with Denny Hamlin sitting as the current points leader and championship favorite entering The Chase.
Additionally, Chevrolet brought an updated body to the Cup Series at the beginning of the season and that left the Hendrick organization scratching its head on falling even further behind the Toyota camp.
“Wedidn’tquiteknowourdeficittothefield,” No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels said. “Soearlyintheyear,weweretaking, Iwouldjustsay,toomanyrisksandtoomanydifferentapproachesthatweren’tnecessarilywhatweshouldhavedoneatthetime.IthinkoflikePhoenix, wegotonadifferentpageatPhoenixearlyintheyearthanwhatweneededtobe.Darlingtonearlyintheyear — wedidnotdoagoodjobofjustthesetupthatweputinthecarandkindofhowweapproachedthatone. We have learned through those mistakes that we can’t just go overreach on everything every week. Like everything can’t be in question every week. There’s some things that have to be your solid foundation point.”
Daniels admits the winless drought has made his team be more measured in how it approaches race weekends.
“You’ve got to be more calculated of the things that you’re going to build in that are different, and you’ve got to be equally as calculated of the things that you’re going to build in that aren’t different,” Daniels said. “That’s been a 5 team thing, but it’s also kind of been a Hendrick thing here recently.
“We’ve really had to push ourselves and learn to find that balance of ‘OK, we need to bring a few new things to the race track this weekend. We’re still getting beat. We’re still getting outpaced.’ So we still have to put in the work to find those things.”
Coming into 2026, Larson had won no less than three races in a season going back to his first championship in 2021 when he took a whopping 10 checkered flags en route to his crowning moment in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports.
But after the Kansas win in 2025, mistakes and unforced errors began plaguing the No. 5 team and Larson.
Most notably, Larson had a double-DNF day in his final attempt at the Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 Memorial Day weekend combination that seemed to catalyze the drought. But Hall of Famer and Hendrick vice chairman Jeff Gordon admits Hendrick hasn’t brought the best equipment for Larson to succeed in his slump.
“I’veseenthisinmyowncareerandothers overtheyearswhere thingsaren’tgoingyourway, youmakesomemistakesorsomethingshappentogetyouinavulnerableposition,” Gordon said. “That’s one thing and that can get you down, but the thing that gets you down the most, especially when you’ve had success, is not having fast race cars, not having cars capable of of running up front. And I think if anything, it’s probably challenged those guys the most. We’ve had a lot of conversations this year about how we’ve been approaching some of the races, knowing we’re behind. We’re always trying to catch up, get our cars better, and working through that with all of our teammates at Chevy and Chevy themselves internally. Effort was being put in and we just weren’t seeing the results and just kind of took some time this season.
“Kyle’s just one of those guys when if the speed’s there, I see his confidence pop right back up right away.”
While 16 months and 51 races without a victory appear long for the standard Larson has set at the Cup level since joining Hendrick, Larson said he doesn’t see it that way and never lost any confidence in his team.
“I always had the trust in our team and the trust in Cliff Daniels. It’s not like we’ve gotten worse as a team,” Larson said. “The trust was always there. I wouldn’t say there was really anything to learn, and that’s why I think the drought didn’t feel so long — and maybe the championship helped with that. Every week I hear you guys tell the new number, and it’s like, ‘It doesn’t seem that large.’ ”
Rolling off a top five and a win to begin The Chase, Larson has quickly ascended from the No. 7 seed to second in points and trails Hamlin by just nine points for the championship lead.
Larson has been a thorn in Hamlin’s side over recent years when it comes to championship battles, including last year when the No. 5 took the trophy in overtime at Phoenix after a two-tire vs. four-tire strategy call vaulted Larson over the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at the finish.
Whether there is an advantage to chasing the leader early in The Chase or not, Larson has noted the struggles of both Hamlin and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase No. 1 seed Justin Allgaier early in the postseason.
“I think it’s tough to know what’s going on in his and his team’s kind of heads in this moment,” Larson said of Hamlin. “I would say leading into The Chase, like Denny and Justin Allgaier were the two heavy favorites, and they’ve not opened The Chase up as strong as they have been the last few months. I don’t know if it’s because they were just racing free in the regular season, and now you’re trying to protect. We’re just trying to do the best job we can and try to score as many points as we can. I would love to be nine points ahead than nine points behind right now. But it’s been a good start to our Chase.”
There’s no telling if Larson will win again this season or prevent another lengthy drought that extends past a calendar year. But the 34-year-old wheelman is never backing down from adversity and will embrace whatever challenges present themselves to him moving forward.
MADISON, Ill. — The stars of the NASCAR Cup Series put Charles Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest to the test at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. Few drivers proved more equipped to survive the battle than the battle-tested Joey Logano.
Logano had the cleanest view at the start of a track-record 18-caution race. He led wire-to-wire in the opening stage, securing his third stage victory of the season. The No. 22 team banked nine additional points with a runner-up finish in Stage 2.
“We did a good job with a pole, first and second in the stages, in position to win,” Logano said. “Drove to the lead multiple times to take the lead when you thought it was a pass for the win a couple of times.”
On Lap 200, three-time championship-winning crew chief Paul Wolfe opted to be the first car to take two fresh Goodyear tires. Kyle Larson, one of Logano’s closest competitors, had four fresh tires to work with. The No. 5 Chevrolet charged through the field on the ensuing restarts, taking the lead on Lap 227 after getting a shove from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman.
Larson held off Logano for the final three restarts, including a pair in overtime, with Bowman passing the No. 22 Team Penske Ford on the penultimate restart. Logano led a race-high 96 laps and took the checkered flag in third position, his fifth straight top-five finish in as many starts in St. Louis.
“I’m just bitter at the moment that we didn’t win,” Logano said. “We did most things right; team did everything right, and I’m not even 100% sure how I could have played that restart any better. (Larson) just did a good job, and they beat us.”
Logano wasn’t aware until after the race that he had been at a tire disadvantage to the No. 5 car. Wolfe believes Larson’s lack of track position made the decision to take four tires an easy one for the Cliff Daniels-led team.
“(Larson) didn’t have track position, so it was an easy call for him to do four,” Wolfe explained. “I don’t know that’s it because it depends on how the restarts go. If we clear him, then those four tires aren’t getting by us. It came down to the restart.
“If you watch the race, I felt like right sides were worth something most of the day. But just track position as well.”
Logano tallied 54 points with his third-place finish, 19 fewer than Larson’s 73. Larson’s Hendrick teammate William Byron, who overcame a final-stage incident to finish fourth, tallied 33 points, tied with series leader Denny Hamlin.
The No. 22 team had its sights on scoring 60 points for the race before the green flag. Logano is tied for sixth on The Chase grid, 51 points back.
“[We] would have been really close if we would have won it,” Logano said. “We will just keep our foot on the gas. It’s still a good day, good weekend: pole, laps led and did a lot of good things. Just didn’t do the most important part.”
Said Wolfe: “I thought we needed to score 60 points, and we came up a little short of that. I felt like we did everything right; we had a good car – just a lot of cautions today, a lot of restarts. That restart didn’t go like we thought it would, and it was just hard. Then, we had no one up there helping us. You had all the Chevys up there at the end, and we didn’t have a chance.”
A multicar crash on Lap 223 took out several drivers contending inside The Chase presented by Mobil 1 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
Bubba Wallace contacted Josh Berry exiting Turn 2, sending Berry high into Bell and ultimately triggering the incident. The cars driven by Bell, Wallace and Berry became sandwiched together, spinning Wallace back into traffic with Bell suffering a flat left-rear tire and spinning farther down the backstretch. Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota climbed the left-rear wheel of Berry’s Ford and briefly got airborne before landing back down and continuing forward. Bell, Wallace and Reddick are all competing in The Chase.
The crash occurred shortly after a restart after an apparent brake failure for Chase Elliott wiped him and Chase Briscoe both out of the Enjoy Illinois 300, taking out an additional two Chase contenders.
Elliott was running seventh on Lap 214 when his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet puffed black smoke on entry to Turn 1. He spun sideways and across the nose of Briscoe’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, slamming both cars into the SAFER barrier in Turn 1. Sunday’s race marked the second of 10 races toward the championship. Elliott entered the race tied for eighth in the points standings as Briscoe was fifth. Briscoe was just 37 points behind series leader Denny Hamlin, with Elliott 72 points back.
Elliott’s brake failure marked the fourth of the 300-mile event, with fellow Chase racer Ryan Blaney suffering a brake failure of his own on Lap 155 of a scheduled 240.
Elliott was credited with a 31st-place finish, with Briscoe 32nd.
Three other Chase drivers were collected in an incident after a restart on Lap 228. Contact between rookie Connor Zilisch and Chase racers Ty Gibbs and Carson Hocevar created the 16th caution of the day. Zilisch tipped Gibbs into Hocevar, and Gibbs spun down the back straightaway, clipping AJ Allmendinger in the process. Allmendinger spun back up the track toward the outside wall, directly in front of Kaulig Racing teammate Ty Dillon and another Chase driver Daniel Suárez.
Suárez was unable to continue and was dealt a 29th-place finish. He also suffered damage in an incident during Stage 1.
Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford and another Chase racer, suffered a brake failure on Lap 238, bringing his day to a premature end while sending the race into NASCAR Overtime. Buescher was scored 27th.
MADISON, Ill. — Brake rotors were top of mind for every crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series garage entering World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. It turned out to be one of the primary talking points leaving the 1.25-mile oval, too.
No blow was bigger than Ryan Blaney’s brake rotor disintegrating at Lap 155 of Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300, the second race of The Chase presented by Mobil 1.
“Didn’t feel great about them the run before and finally expired,” Blaney told reporters at the infield care center.
Blaney, the 2023 Cup Series champion, was in position to capitalize at the flatter track, tallying 14 points through the opening two stages while Team Penske teammate Joey Logano led a race-high 95 laps. The No. 12 Ford was running sixth and closing in on Denny Hamlin for fifth when, crossing the start/finish line, its right-front brake rotor exploded through the hood. Blaney then bounced off the outside wall entering Turn 1.
Blaney limped the No. 12 machine around to his garage stall for the Jonathan Hassler-led bunch to assess the damage. He was credited with a 35th-place finish, earning 16 points.
“Gateway has always been a place that’s tough on brakes,” crew chief Hassler told NASCAR.com from the No. 12 team’s stall. “We’ve been on the good side of it before, but we knew there was a little more demand with this (higher-horsepower) package. We certainly were trying to be conservative, but still didn’t give it enough cooling, I don’t think.”
The incident was Blaney’s second DNF in the last three races, dating back to the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. He entered the race among the pre-race favorites for the victory, having finishes of sixth or better in three of the previous four visits to Gateway, and his 24th-place finish in 2024 was a result of running out of fuel coming to the white flag as the leader.
Blaney thought he would contend once again, showing that usual long-run pace that could hunt down his toughest competitors.
“I felt like we were in contention,” Blaney said of the No. 12 before the issue. “I never really got the lead, and I never really got to get a head-to-head [comparison] with me, the 5 [Kyle Larson] and Joey, which I thought us three were really good. I definitely thought it was a contending car, and I would have liked to have seen how the race played out.”
With 13 other Chase competitors experiencing their own gremlins according to Racing Insights, including points leader Denny Hamlin, the damage was limited for Blaney. He lost 17 points to Hamlin and now trails the points leader by 33 markers with eight races remaining in the 2026 campaign.
“Just got to keep going,” Blaney said. “Go to the next week and try to have a good day. It’s a shame. I thought we did a good job today. The car was good and had good stage points and was looking forward to the end of the race. We will just go race next week.”
Said Hassler: “Fortunately, we were in a decent spot with the points coming in. We’ve got a lot of good tracks coming up, so we will move on and do the best we can every week.”
Next up is Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Blaney led 190 laps in April and finished runner-up by 0.055 seconds to Ty Gibbs, who held off the No. 12 car to score his first Cup victory.
Seven racers in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 collided in the Lap 141 restart that began the final stage at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Bubba Wallace forced his way to the bottom of what became a four-wide wad through Turns 1 and 2 during the Enjoy Illinois 300, with fellow Chase contenders Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece to his right and Josh Berry atop the four-wide situation.
Room ran out as Wallace and Briscoe came together, sending both Toyotas for a spin. William Byron also contacted Wallace in the melee, incurring significant damage to his No. 24 Chevrolet. Byron entered the event last in the 16-driver Chase standings following an engine failure last weekend at Darlington Raceway.
Briscoe also contacted Preece while sliding sideways off Turn 2. Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin made contact as Hamlin swerved to avoid the calamity. Chase Elliott nearly missed the accident but got slight rear damage from Byron and Wallace.
All drivers were able to continue despite the crash, which necessitated the ninth of 18 cautions Sunday. Byron bounced back for a fourth-place finish, best of those involved.
Riverhead Raceway and Modified racing have gone hand in hand for decades.
