Posted on by Mike Hembree

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – Sheldon Creed sat comfortably in the shade of his team hauler in the Rockingham Speedway garage, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Justin Allgaier is on a rampage in pursuit of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship.

Allgaier, winner of three races already this season, has a 92-point lead over second-place Jesse Love and a 116-point edge over Creed, who’s in third.

RELATED: Rockingham schedule | At-track photos

It seems early in the season, but the O’Reilly regular-season schedule is already 30% complete, and Allgaier is threatening to hide from the rest of the garage. He’ll be after win No. 4 in Saturday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 250 Presented by Black’s Tire at Rockingham (2:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Creed, though, is taking things in stride. He has a win and four top-five runs and is off to the best start of his career. His average finish – 7.7 through seven races – represents a big leap from last year’s 11.7.

“He (Allgaier) is certainly out there,” Creed said. “I feel like we’re in a good spot, as well. Obviously, if he continues on like he has, it’ll be hard to catch up, and it’ll set them up well when The Chase does start. But I also think how the points are now and how much they matter, if he has three bad days and we can continue running top five and just having good days on those bad days, there is the opportunity to catch them. But we’ll have to see how it plays out.

“I don’t think there’s anything to stress about. Maybe if I was sitting 12th in points or something like that, but being third in driver points I’m happy with where we’re at.”

Allgaier has won two consecutive races and three (Phoenix, Darlington, Martinsville) of the past four. A win Saturday by Allgaier or any of his JR Motorsports teammates would tie JRM with Joe Gibbs Racing for the series’ longest winning streak at six.

Allgaier seems on target to notch more wins and clearly is the favorite to win the regular-season title, which would put him on top of the hill for the start of the O’Reilly Series Chase five months from now.

“There’s certainly an advantage to winning the regular season,” Creed said. “It’s an early advantage going into The Chase, but no matter where you are, you’ve just got to put your best nine races together. We’re going to try to keep doing what we’ve done the last seven weeks and get stage points and build momentum.”

Carson Kvapil, fifth in O’Reilly points, said no one should be surprised at Allgaier’s strong start.

“Justin has been around this deal forever,” Kvapil said. “Back when I was playing with toy cars when I was five years old, he was winning Nationwide races, right?”

Posted on by Staff Report

The Daytona 500 has been named as a nominee for the USA Today’s Readers’ Choice Awards 10 Best for motorsports races in 2026.

Unlike other sports sanctioning bodies, NASCAR runs its biggest event of the year, the Daytona 500, to open the season in grand fashion. From the exhilarating flyover by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds above the sold-out 101,000-plus grandstand seats to the high octane, three-wide pack racing around the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, the “Great American Race” offers all the thrills for attendees.

RELATED: How to vote | Experience the Daytona 500 in 2027

In February, Tyler Reddick took home his first Daytona 500 triumph with 23XI Racing, co-owned by NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, after passing 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott off Turn 4 on the final lap amid chaos as the field wrecked both in front of and behind the No. 45 Toyota.

A total of 20 events from across the world have been nominated, which include the annual Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International and a pair of IMSA events in the Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta and the Rolex 24 at Daytona, which takes place a month before the Daytona 500 at the same historic venue.

You can vote once per day until voting closes on April 27. The winning events will be announced on May 6.

daytona 500 flyover
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
Posted on by Press Release

The ground shakes and the engines roar as history returns to Dominion Raceway. The Flying VA Classic is a high-octane tribute to the legendary Ray “Mr. Modified” Hendrick.

With over 700 career wins and a legacy that defined Southern modified racing, Dominion honors the “Flying 11” by bringing the baddest asphalt machines on the East Coast to the premier 4/10 mile facility that is Dominion Raceway.

  • THE HEADLINER: The SMART Modified Tour Flying VA Classic (99 Laps)
  • THE SHOWCASE: The Carolina Crate Modified Series debut
  • THE QUEST: NASCAR Division I Season Opener for America Racer Late Models
  • THE STARS: Pre-race Meet & Greet with Ryan Newman, Burt Myers, & Luke Baldwin
  • THE FAMILY: Massive Easter Egg Hunt (5 PM) + Easter Bunny on-site!
  • THE DEAL: Adults $25 | KIDS 15 & UNDER FREE (Grandstands) sponsored by McGeorge’s RV a Camping World company!
  • THE PERK: First 50 fans through the gate get a Limited Edition T-Shirt! “Domin10n” Celebrating the next 10 years of racing at Dominion! (Friday and Saturday we have 100 total)

You think it’s just a season opener? Wrong. It’s the birth of the “Domin10n” era. Dominion Raceway is kicking off a new decade of speed with a two-day, high-octane takeover that honors the legendary Ray “Mr. Modified” Hendrick and brings the most elite asphalt machines on the East Coast to the 4/10-mile “Ring of Fire.”

(Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)

The main event: Saturday, April 4

Saturday night is the crown jewel. The Flying VA Classic returns with the Pace-O-Matic SMART Modified Tour headlining a 99-lap war.

NASCAR legend Ryan “Rocketman” Newman is back to defend his turf, but he’s walking into a hornets’ nest. Luke Baldwin is coming off a massive 2025 when he secured back-to-back SMART championships, and veteran Burt Myers is looking to prove why he’s a “Madhouse” icon.

But the SMART mods aren’t the only ones shaking things up. Dominion is also hosting the debut of the Carolina Crate Modified Series, bringing a massive field of hungry drivers from the Carolinas for high-stakes, door-to-door action.

The hunt for national points: Truckin Thunder D1 late models

Dominion Raceway’s America Racer Late Models NASCAR Division I stakes have never been higher. These drivers aren’t just racing for a trophy; they are hunting for national points to bring a D1 title to Dominion.

Keep your eyes on Chase Johnson. This kid is on fire; last year alone he racked up 15 wins on his way to a track championship and the NASCAR Southeast Region title. He narrowly missed the national championship, so he’s coming back with a massive chip on his shoulder.

He’ll have his work cut out for him. Charlie Beals is locked in for a full-season run, and in a huge “return to roots” story, JJ Pack, is back. After years of tearing up the old Dominion Speedway, JJ is returning to the new facility to prove he’s still the man to beat in the D1 America Racers.

Youth movement and local heroes

The future of racing is bright at Dominion. The INEX Bandoleros are back both Friday and Saturday nights. These kids are the lifeblood of our youth movement, and seeing them wheel these cars at such a high level is incredible.

Saturday’s full card also includes:

  • Auto Glass Plus Inc. INEX Legends: Part of the massive Showdown Series.
  • Renewal By Andersen UCARS: The grassroots, fender-rubbing action everyone loves.
  • Carlisle III Home Inspection Bandoleros: Round two of the weekend for our youngest stars.
(Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)

Friday night double feature (April 3)

We aren’t waiting for Saturday to get loud. Friday night is a total spectacle starting at 5 p.m. ET.

The Legends Showdown Series, the first half of their double-header weekend. NASCAR Local Oval Racing featuring the Dominion Lightworks, Dominion Stocks and the wild SixEight Training Group 4/6/8 cylinder ANYCARS.

No Prep Street Racing: Dominion is opening up the 1/8 mile straight stretch. Bring your daily driver, your truck or your bike and see what it can do for just $25.

Family, fans and fast food

Saturday is also Dominion’s Easter Family Spectacular. At 5 p.m. ET, the massive Easter Egg Hunt begins. At 6 p.m. ET, the pre-race Pit Party begins. Head to the front stretch for a meet and greet with Newman, Myers, Baldwin and the gang as well as Carolina Crate Mod drivers, NASCAR O’Reilly Local Series and INEX drivers.

Adults are $25, but thanks to McGeorge’s RV, a Camping World company, kids 15 and under are free in the grandstands all year long.

This weekend, the first 50 fans through the gate get a Limited Edition “Domin10n” T-Shirt to celebrate the track’s next 10 years.

CLAIM YOUR TICKETS NOW: DominionRaceway.com

Posted on by Nathan Solomon

If you were familiar with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series early on, you’d now find two significant differences with Tricon Garage’s flagship No. 11 team.

That’s because Kaden Honeycutt is the team’s new driver, taking over for Corey Heim after his historic 12-win campaign led to a 2025 title.

But missing from the garage is Scott Zipadelli, one of the most successful crew chiefs in series history. And that wasn’t by design.

RELATED: Truck Series standings | Rockingham weekend schedule

Five days before the season opener at Daytona, Zipadelli suffered severe injuries to his left leg in a dirt bike crash. He shattered the top of his tibia, breaking it all the way down toward his ankle. He dislocated his knee, creating internal damage, and also cracked multiple bone chips on his femur. The crash sidelined Zipadelli, a 36-time winning crew chief in the Truck Series, for the first three races of the 2026 campaign, which featured a brand-new driver in his championship-winning Toyota.

“Basically, I crashed my dirt bike pretty hard and drove my leg into the ground when it was straight … my leg went in a direction it’s not supposed to,” Zipadelli told NASCAR.com this week. “Overall, I can’t really complain. A little bit frustrated. Wish I was a little bit further along than I am in my recovery. But, I watched these videos of Lindsey Vonn, and I’m like, ‘How is she doing that?’ But my doctor tells me it’s a different injury, [to] just stay the course. But overall, I’m doing OK.

“It’s just really exhausting being on crutches all day, and my body’s trying to heal and I’m trying to work and do too much. By the end of the day, I’m just completely exhausted.”

Obviously, that all threw an unexpected wrench in the team’s plans for a big 2026 season. But while Honeycutt is new to the organization, he certainly isn’t new to the series. The 22-year-old driver from Willow Park, Texas, has over 60 starts in Trucks dating back to 2022, and unexpectedly joined the Toyota family midway through last year. He raced full-time in 2025 with three different teams, making the first 16 starts of the season for Niece Motorsports and a one-off for Young’s Motorsports at Watkins Glen before filling in for the injured Stewart Friesen the rest of the way.

Despite the unusual circumstances, Honeycutt made the most of it. His performance during the Niece races qualified him for the playoffs, eventually making the Championship 4 in the Halmar-Friesen Racing truck and finishing third in driver’s points.

So battling a little on-track adversity isn’t foreign to the longtime late model ace. Tricon tapped David Stewart, a team engineer, to take over official crew chief duties while Zipadelli stayed back in the Charlotte area for recovery. Zipadelli explained that he’d regularly communicate with Honeycutt and the road crew for his input, and occasionally visited the shop and worked out of the team war room during races — as long as he could access his ice machine.

The two-time championship crew chief returned to the track at Darlington two weeks ago with a large brace on his knee and guided Honeycutt to a fourth-place finish, leading 59 laps. All in all, though, Honeycutt believed the No. 11 pushed through the extraordinary conditions seamlessly.

MORE: Honeycutt ‘really upset’ after Darlington near-miss

“My team is so self-sufficient without Scott at the race track; it was actually pretty mind-blowing,” Honeycutt said in a media availability this week. “I think it shows Scott, as the leader of the team, that he has propelled this team to even be more self-sufficient without him there.

“Having him at Darlington was a huge step. I think it definitely made our relationship good. We were able to communicate with each other, and I can hear his voice and know how he talks and how he is on race weekends. I think we had a really good weekend at Darlington. It definitely sucked not having the first three weeks, but not having him wasn’t a huge challenge just because of the race tracks we raced at and the situations we were dealt as a team.”

scott zipadelli after winning the craftsman truck series championship in 2025
Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Zipadelli agreed. With two drafting tracks and a road course to start the 2026 season, he said those were the best three races he could have missed. The team had a 50-minute practice session at Daytona, and just a few laps at St. Petersburg before rain halted on-track activity. As far as communication and setups go, they aren’t lagging behind as much as one might think.

With Zipadelli now on the mend, saying that he hopes to ditch the crutches in three weeks and begin physical therapy, he and Honeycutt can officially hit the ground running with a crew nearly identical to last year’s with Heim.

“Kaden, in his career, hadn’t had all the tools that we have here from Toyota, so a little bit of a learning curve there,” Zipadelli explained. “He’s adapted really well. I thought it showed at Darlington, where we practiced our sim stuff how we’re going to race, and he applied it to what he learned and he applied it at the race track, and it was pretty seamless. So it’s probably what you’d expect having a new driver come into your program, really. I would say, you know, in a year or two, it would be just like Corey, but the first six months are crucial that you learn these tools the proper way and you don’t pick up any bad habits.

“It’s so hard to get to know a new driver and go through rule changes as they have, procedure changes, and then also have a new crew or even a couple of guys. I’ve been fortunate over the past six, seven years that most of my guys have all stayed together, and it’s just business as usual. They all know their roles and they help each other. They double-check, triple-check each other and work really well together, very efficient. So that’s really huge, and I know that was very important to try to keep our group together, and that gives Kaden a lot of confidence as well.”

Confidence, indeed. And Honeycutt understands that he’s under the microscope. Heim won 21 times in three seasons under Zipadelli’s tutelage, and the Texan realizes it’s now or never to start banking victories and show he belongs with the highly touted team.

“I’d like to say there isn’t, but honestly, there kind of is,” Honeycutt said regarding any added pressure. “I just want to get my first [win]. I definitely have more starts and not enough wins as what the stat sheet says, but I feel like once I can get the first one, I can understand where I was missing in the past starts on running up front. I think Darlington was the first legit race that I was able to lead the race and take control, and also be put in the situation to know what could have happened if I lost it. So now that I have that feeling and knowing what I did wrong to lose that race, I feel like I can go every week now and be in the situation and not make that mistake again and start capitalizing and winning them.

“So I think losing that race was definitely not a bad thing at all, I think, as far as a learning perspective from my end to correct it and just move forward from it.”

kaden honeycutt at darlington
David Jensen | Getty Images

With as close as Honeycutt found himself to championship glory a year ago, he and Zipadelli both believe the 11 team is plenty capable of hoisting the trophy come November. They sit second in points entering Rockingham on Friday (4:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), only 33 markers behind series veteran Chandler Smith.

But with still 21 races to go and a new championship format in play, it’s a why-not-us mindset as Honeycutt enjoys the best opportunity of his young NASCAR national series career.

“We have 100% a chance at winning the title at the end of the year, especially from the way the points format is. I think it honestly falls into our favor a little bit easier, just from on a consistent basis on what we can bring to the race track every week, and winning pays a lot,” Honeycutt said. “I feel like we can do that a bunch this year, just need to get the first one and keep on working after that and just keep on rolling through it the rest of the year.”

Posted on by Neil Paine

After a seven-week sprint from the Daytona 500 through the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville, the Cup Series gets to take a one-week breather for Easter before getting back to another 16 uninterrupted weeks of action from Bristol until the summer break in early August.

That gives us a nice early-season checkpoint, then, to stop and assess what we can already take away from the first fifth of the schedule. Some things we thought would happen have, some definitely have not, and there are some we’re still reserving judgment on. Here are nine early takeaways worth paying attention to — with nine charts to match — as we look ahead to the rest of the 2026 campaign:

🏁 Tyler Reddick is a top-tier championship threat again.

When Tyler Reddick was going winless last season, it might have been easy to write off his sole Championship 4 appearance in 2024 as the peak of what he was capable of in 23XI’s No. 45 Toyota. Aside from that year, he’d made the playoffs four times, but bowed out in the Round of 16 three times (2021, 2022, 2025) with a Round of 8 bid in 2023. Instead of settling in at a lower level, though, Reddick has used 2026 as a springboard for one of the greatest starts to a season in NASCAR history — winning four races already and building a massive 82-point lead in the standings.

Perhaps surprisingly, DraftKings’ title odds still favor Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson — the two primary drivers who did battle for last year’s title — at +550 apiece over Reddick at +600. But nobody has been stronger on the track to start the 2026 season, as evidenced by Reddick’s Cup-leading 110.0 Driver Rating (well clear of Hamlin’s second-best 102.0) in addition to his four wins. And his ability to perform at different track types has Reddick set up to be a real problem for the other contenders when The Chase gets underway.
Chart showing the championship odds for the NASCAR Cup Series after the first seven races of the 2026 season.🏁 Denny Hamlin’s still got it at age 45.

Again, Hamlin — not Reddick — sits atop the odds chart above, indicating that the road to the Cup Series title will probably go through him once again, one way or another, even though he’s still personally seeking career championship No. 1. Hamlin currently sits third in the points standings behind Reddick and Ryan Blaney, and he’s second (ahead of Blaney) in average Driver Rating with his best mark since posting a 109.4 in 2021.
Chart showing the percentage of wins, top fives and top 10s that drivers get at certain agesIt might sound strange to be the least bit surprised that Hamlin remains in the championship mix, as he drove the No. 11 car to Victory Lane a series-high six times last season and has won multiple races in each of the previous seven seasons. But our previous research shows that even great drivers are almost entirely finished as winning drivers by this age, so there is always the risk that a 45-year-old driver falls off with little warning. So far, though, Hamlin is even better than he was last season — one of the best of his career — by just about any measure you might care to consult.

🏁 Ryan Blaney has the fastest car on the track most weeks.

Watch any Cup race, and chances are the No. 12 Ford of Ryan Blaney will be near the front at the end, either leading or at least threatening to pass the leader during the closing laps. That’s no coincidence — Blaney usually has the fastest car on the track and is able to pass his way into at least striking distance more often than not. According to NASCAR Insights’ statistics, Blaney has the best Speed Rating and Passing Rating of any Cup Series driver in 2026 thus far, and he is also well above the field average on restarts and at defending against passes. When it comes to those four categories, he has much better ratings than the other members of the standings top five:
Chart showing how Ryan Blaney's key stats match up to the other top five drivers during the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.The glaring downside for Blaney, of which much has been made early in the season, is his success (or lack thereof) along pit road, where the No. 12 ranks among the lowest-rated teams in the series. But it’s worth noting Blaney’s team was closer to average last season, so there may be a lot of potential to clean up the problems and give the No. 12 more of a chance to harness its speed later in the season.

🏁 The increased horsepower package is having some effect already.

In addition to the new Chase standings format — more on that later! — the other main structural change for this 2026 Cup season was the adoption of a new horsepower package for road courses and short tracks (technically anything shorter than our standard mile-and-a-halfers), in addition to some aero adjustments. The change was designed to encourage more tire fall-off and help make passing easier with the Next Gen car — and the results thus far are intriguing at the very least.
Chart showing the average lead changes and green-flag passes in 2026 compared to 2022-25 with the new horsepower package for short tracks and tracks under 1.5 miles in length.While there were slightly fewer lead changes and green-flag passes per driver on the road course (COTA) and the true short track (Martinsville), there was significantly more passing at Darlington and especially Phoenix this season than in years past. We will surely get more data as the season progresses and more tracks get added to this sample, but some kind of effect already seems apparent for the mile-and-longer tracks that the new setup applied to.

🏁 Hendrick seems to be ironing things out.

One of the big questions in the early phase of the 2026 Cup season has been a version of “What’s going on at Hendrick?” Between the engineering challenges of adapting to Chevrolet’s new Camaro ZL1 chassis and the natural disruption of having one of their star drivers, Alex Bowman, miss four of the first seven races with vertigo symptoms, it has not been an easy start to the year for NASCAR’s all-time most successful organization. However, their collective performance has generally been ticking up throughout the season, capped off by Chase Elliott’s win at Martinsville:
Chart showing the progress of Hendrick Motorsports cars in 2026.There’s no doubt Hendrick still has plenty of room to improve over the rest of the schedule, too, considering Larson has recorded just a single top five so far — and Byron has yet to win a race despite posting Driver Ratings of 95 or above in each of the past six races. One of those two will get a breakthrough soon.

🏁 SVG is still improving; Zilisch has hit the learning curve.

Two of the more interesting drivers we’ve had our eye on from the very beginning of the season are Trackhouse Racing teammates Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch. Both are known road-racing savants, and each had their moments of speed at Circuit of The Americas last month — despite neither winning. But the real questions were around their performances at non-road courses. And it’s fair to say SVG has delivered a much more well-rounded performance than Zilisch in the early going.
Chart showing Shane van Gisbergen's performance versus Connor Zilisch on the different track types during the 2026 season.Looking at both Adjusted Points+ index (which rates a driver’s finishing quality relative to a Cup average of 100) and Driver Rating, it’s clear SVG has made great progress since last season — improving to become an above-average driver at both drafting and short tracks in 2026, albeit in small sample sizes for each type. Even at regular ovals, where he still sits below the overall Cup average, van Gisbergen is much closer to average than his numbers (45 Pts+; 47.8 rating) were a year ago. Zilisch, by contrast, has definitely experienced more of a rookie learning curve than perhaps we might have expected from his stats in the Xfinity Series last season, though he gets some grace at age 19. He might now look even more to his older teammate for tips about how to improve quickly on non-road course tracks as the season progresses.

🏁 Toyota is having arguably its best season ever.

While Reddick has deservedly grabbed many of the early headlines for his own individual dominance, he has been only part of the overall Toyota machine that is off to a very fast start in 2026. Between all of their partner teams — Joe Gibbs Racing, 23XI Racing and Legacy Motor Club — Toyota cars have more wins (5), podiums (9), top fives (15) and top 10s (27) than any other manufacturer this season.
Chart showing Toyota's progress in 2026Furthermore, if we compare across seasons by adjusting for the share of all races run by Toyotas each year, they are outwinning their share of the field by 46.7 percentage points this year, their best such differential since joining NASCAR as an OEM in 2007. While they have had a few other seasons with better differentials above their share of car entries in top fives (2018) and top 10s (2024), taken on balance, this is one of — if not the — best showings for the Japanese manufacturer in its history with the sport.

🏁 Kyle Busch and RCR are definitely not having their best season ever.

Two-time champion Kyle Busch cannot seem to find a way to get anything close to even an average level of performance out of his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevy to start the year. Including another miserable day at Martinsville — in which he posted a 41.0 Driver Rating, both his worst mark of the season and his worst-ever showing at the track in his career — Busch has just two above-average Driver Rating runs in seven starts, and he ranks 24th among regular drivers with a 57.9 average rating on the season.
Chart showing Kyle Busch's decline in Adjusted Points+ and Driver Rating.It’s the latest in a fairly long-running trend that has seen Busch’s performance metrics (relative to Cup average) drop off almost continuously since the late 2010s. Since Busch is such a great driver, he had more room to fall from his peak while still driving at an above-average level, but he’s been running out of space to stay above average over the past two seasons. Since RCR as a whole is also having maybe its worst season ever — with zero top 10s and a collective average finish of 23.2 — it’s tough to tell how much Busch would have staved off the decline with a better team.

🏁 The Chase is already on everyone’s minds.

More than just the horsepower change, the biggest change of all in NASCAR for 2026  — The Chase, which did away with the old round-based playoffs and its win-and-in clinching system to instead emphasize points racing among the best drivers in the world at season’s end. And we’re already seeing its effects show up in the way drivers approach each race. At each ranking position in average finish (among regular drivers through seven races in the schedule), the 2026 occupant of that slot has a lower average finish than his 2025 counterpart — sometimes significantly so, as in the case of ‘26 leader Tyler Reddick (5.7) versus ‘25 leader Kyle Larson (10.4):
Chart showing how average finishes are consistently lower in 2026 than in 2025That is obviously driven on some level by Reddick’s incredible number of wins to start the year, but the pattern persists at literally all of the top ranking slots for average finish. This year, top drivers are prizing consistency far more than in the past — something they even admitted to going into Martinsville.

“I think everybody knows the importance of maximizing your day now, where in the previous format you didn’t have to maximize your day,” Christopher Bell said. “It was a win-or-bust mentality, whereas now I think the racing is a little more compelling and aggressive. Everyone knows that every position matters more now than it did in years past.”

“I notice guys are just a little more protective of their finish,” Byron added.

Posted on by Press Release

SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — “C-Weed” may not be a familiar nickname around fans that follow racing at South Boston Speedway. If young Conner Weddell continues to log performances like he did in South Boston Speedway’s March 21 Late Model Stock Car season-opener the familiarity of his nickname will certainly grow.

Weddell finished a close second after a tough battle with former NASCAR and South Boston Speedway champion Lee Pulliam in the 100-lap race that opened the season for South Boston Speedway’s Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division. If not for a late-race caution, Weddell could possibly have earned a victory in his South Boston Speedway debut.

“To run up front and lead laps and finish second to one of the best, it’s insane,” Weddell remarked. “It just makes us hungry to be one spot better. There is nobody better to run second to. I’m just super grateful for the opportunity to race at South Boston Speedway and be so competitive.”

The 16-year-old racer’s unusual nickname is a spinoff from his real name.

“I got my nickname pretty much from my last name,” the teenager explained. “My dad used to race in the arena racing series, and because of our last name, Weddell, people used to always call him “Weed.” When I was born, they called me something else for awhile, and eventually moved on to “C-Weed.”

Racing has been a core part of Weddell’s life from the start.

“I have been around racing ever since I was born because my father was around it,” Weddell noted. “I just fell in love with it when I was little and it’s really all I ever talked about since I could talk. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

The talented teenage racer began his racing journey in much the same fashion as most other young racers.

“I started racing a quarter midget,” Weddell said. “The car I started racing in was Tyler Hughes’ car, who is my crew chief now. I started in one of his cars when I was four-and-a-half. The first laps I ran in it was around a high school parking lot. I went through the rookie school at our local track and started from there.”

Conner Weddell
Conner Weddell (8, right) leads former NASCAR national champion Lee Pulliam (1, left) through the first turn during the season-opening 100-lap race for the Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division on March 21 at South Boston Speedway. (Photo: Victor Newman/South Boston Speedway)

Success has come to Weddell in his climb up the racing ladder. Last season he finished fifth in the final point standings in the American Racer Late Model Division standings at Dominion Raceway with three wins, 13 Top-5 finishes and 16 Top-10 finishes in 20 feature races. The stats were good enough to put him 13th in the NASCAR Division I national standings.

Weddell moved up this season to the Late Model Stock Car ranks and is competing for the championship in South Boston Speedway’s Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division.

The Centerville, Maryland resident said the competition at South Boston Speedway is what drew him to focus his attention at the .4-mile oval this season.

“If you want to be one of the best you have to race against the best every week,” Weddell pointed out. “This is like racing a Martinsville heat race every week. The heat race I ran in at Martinsville had Peyton Sellers, Landon Pembelton, Trevor Ward, about everyone that has won a clock and is super-talented. I think the competition at South Boston Speedway this season is harder than running the CARS Tour.”

Next up for Weddell and his fellow Late Model Stock Car Division competitors are twin 75-lap races that will headline the Danville Toyota Race Day event on Saturday afternoon, April 4 at South Boston Speedway.

Weddell will face a new challenge in the April 4 twinbill.

“I raced twins at Dominion Raceway, and we used to run twin 50s, so this will be the longest twin races I’ve ever run,” he pointed out.

The teenager says he likes the idea of twin-race events.

“I like the aspect of running a race and then getting to come back, work with your team, tell them what the car did, the way the balance of the car shifted, get a moment to reset and go at it again and get another shot at it.”

In addition to the twin 75-lap races for the Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division the Saturday afternoon April 4 Danville Toyota Race Day event will include a 50-lap race for the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division, a 25-lap race for the Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division and a 20-lap race for the Dollar General Hornets Division.

As this is an Easter Weekend event South Boston Speedway will hold an Easter Egg Hunt and a visit by the Easter Bunny at the kids’ playground at 12:45 p.m. God’s Pit Crew will be part of Saturday’s activities and will have a tent and table at the playground. Volunteers from God’s Pit Crew will have Kids Play Pails that kids can color and decorate. Those pails will go to kids in areas that God’s Pit Crew helps.

Practice will start at 10:25 a.m. and frontstretch spectator gates will open at 10:30 a.m. Qualifying starts at 1 p.m., pre-race ceremonies will start at 1:45 p.m. and the first race of the day will get the green flag at 2 p.m.

Adult advance tickets are priced at $12 each. Adult admission at the gate on race day is $15. Suite passes are $40 each. Seniors ages 65 and older, veterans and miliary personnel, first responders, healthcare workers and students with ID may purchase tickets for $12 each at the gate on race day. Kids ages 12 and under are admitted free.

The latest news and updates about the Danville Toyota Race Day event and South Boston Speedway may be found online on South Boston Speedway’s website, www.southbostonspeedway.com, the track’s social media channels. or by calling the speedway office at 434-572-4947 or toll free at 1-877-440-1540 during regular business hours.

Posted on by Staff Report

See where your favorite NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers will pit this weekend at Rockingham Speedway.

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
A layout of pit road for the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series at Rockingham Speedway.NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series North Carolina Education Lottery 250 Presented by Black’s Tire at Rockingham Speedway on Saturday (2:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Rockingham weekend schedule | How to watch O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races on The CW

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Black’s Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway on Friday (4:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: How to watch NASCAR on FS1

Posted on by Staff Report

O’Reilly Auto Parts Series 
Single-car qualifying will take place at 2:35 p.m. ET on Friday, with practice earlier in the day at 1:30 p.m. ET (The CW App).

POSITIONNUMBERDRIVERMETRIC
133Cleetus McFarland58.7
235TBA41.6
374Dawson Cram40.7
45JJ Yeley37.4
502Ryan Ellis35.7
692Josh Williams33.8
751Jeremy Clements33.7
828Kyle Sieg33.1
907Josh Bilicki32.6
1087Austin Green28.7
1124Harrison Burton27.2
1255Blake Lothian27.0
1327Jeb Burton26.7
140Garrett Smithley26.1
1532Andrew Patterson25.9
1645Lavar Scott25.0
1742Nathan Byrd24.6
181Carson Kvapil22.0
1941Sam Mayer19.7
2018William Sawalich18.8
2131Blaine Perkins18.5
2288Rajah Caruth18.4
2348Patrick Staropoli17.5
2496Anthony Alfredo16.5
2520Brandon Jones15.6
2644Brennan Poole15.2
2791Alex Labbe13.1
2854Taylor Gray13.0
2926Dean Thompson11.8
3039Ryan Sieg11.4
3199Parker Retzlaff11.0
3219Brent Crews9.7
332Jesse Love9.0
3421Austin Hill5.7
3500Sheldon Creed4.0
368Sammy Smith3.9
3717Corey day3.5
387Justin Allgaier1.0

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on TV

Craftsman Truck Series
Single-car qualifying will take place at 12:05 p.m. ET on Friday, with practice earlier in the day at 11 a.m. ET (FS2).

POSITIONNUMBERDRIVERMETRIC
169Jonathan Shafer40.4
24Connor Hall39.2
322Clayton Green33.8
414Mini Tyrell #32.5
581Kris Wright31.5
676Spencer Boyd30.9
793Caleb Costner30.0
890Justin Carroll29.6
92Luke Baldwin29.3
1099Ben Rhodes28.2
1113Cole Butcher #27.4
1244Andrés Pérez26.6
1388Ty Majeski24.1
1452Stewart Friesen23.5
1526Dawson Sutton22.9
1698Jake Garcia22.7
1718Tyler Ankrum22.5
1825Ty Dillon(i)22.2
1933Frankie Muniz20.7
2056Timmy Hill20.0
2112Brenden Queen #19.4
2277Carson Hocevar(i)19.0
2342Parker Eatmon16.3
2415Tanner Gray16.0
2516Justin Haley15.3
2619Daniel Hemric12.6
2710Corey LaJoie12.2
2838Chandler Smith12.2
299Grant Enfinger12.1
301Corey Heim10.3
3134Layne Riggs10.2
3262Michael Christopher Jr.8.1
3317Gio Ruggiero7.7
3491Christian Eckes4.8
357Sammy Smith(i)4.4
3611Kaden Honeycutt4.3
3745Landen Lewis2.0
385Adam Andretti1.9

* Required to qualify on time
# denotes series rookie
(i) denotes ineligible for driver points

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Members of Team Penske left Martinsville Speedway smiling Sunday after a strong showing from their entire stable.

The hope inside the team is for this to become the norm, because it’s certainly the expectation.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Martinsville results

Joey Logano led the day with a third-place finish in Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville, with teammates Ryan Blaney sixth and Austin Cindric eighth, followed closely by their affiliate teammate Josh Berry in 10th, repping Wood Brothers Racing.

Success is the standard for the team owned and operated by Roger Penske. His NASCAR program has consistently found that success on short ovals since the sport shifted to its Next Gen car, and that shone again at the 0.526-mile Martinsville track before the Cup Series takes its first off week of the season.

“It was a good, solid day,” Travis Geisler, Team Penske’s competition director, told NASCAR.com Sunday. “It was really nice to have everybody in the top 10. It’s always good to go into an off week with just a stable, good, solid week.”

Ryan Blaney has already delivered the team one victory this season at Phoenix Raceway, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing for Team Penske to begin 2026. According to NASCAR Insights, Blaney’s No. 12 pit crew ranks 35th of 36 title-eligible teams while averaging the worst average four-tire stop in Cup this season. He has overcome those stats, finishing outside the top 10 just twice in seven races. The same can’t always be said for his teammates.

Austin Cindric and the No. 2 team began the season with four straight finishes of 26th or worse before a 19th at Las Vegas and finishes of fifth at Darlington Raceway and eighth at Martinsville. Berry’s No. 21 team, which operates out of Team Penske’s shop, has followed a similar trajectory as Cindric with two top 10s in his seven starts – ninth in the Daytona 500 and 10th at Martinsville.

And while Logano led a strong showing at Martinsville, that performance came off the heels of a Darlington Raceway effort that left his No. 22 team 33rd, three laps down.

“I think there’s a few areas that obviously we’re not where we want to be yet, a couple things we need to improve and focus on,” Geisler said. “Is it just the result, or is it actually the process that’s not getting you the result? You know, sometimes in racing, you can’t always measure the end result because there’s a lot of things going into that. But you kind of look at those – the style of track where we struggle a little bit. Vegas was certainly a place where we weren’t as strong as we wanted to be. So you look at that with Kansas coming up and a couple of those races and you focus on your weaknesses, really.

“I think our strengths, we just kind of keep plugging along with those. But we’ll try to look at the areas you need to shore up because you’ve got to be good across every discipline now, right? You can’t have a weak spot, and we’ve got a few to work on.”

Team Penske teammates Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney race at Martinsville.
Ethan Smith | For NASCAR Digital Media

For all that adversity, there is resilience in the rebound. During the Martinsville race, all three Penske cars were nose-to-tail running inside the top five. But each team was looking for that finish, too.

Let’s start with Cindric, whose last win came 11 months ago at Talladega Superspeedway. In the two weeks since leaving Las Vegas Motor Speedway 30th in the points standings, he and the No. 2 have vaulted up the charts into 18th place, 18 points behind the 16th and final spot in The Chase.

“I think we certainly had a huge hole to dig out of with the 2 car where we were in points, and the progress he’s made over the last couple of weeks here and getting top 10s and really running well is great to see,” Geisler said.

Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 champion, is now in his fifth year of full-time Cup racing. He owns wins in three of the past four seasons and has netted stage points in all but one race this year for the seventh-most stage points in Cup. But with three-time Cup champion Logano and 2023 title winner Blaney sharing the building, there’s no mistaking the expectation.

RELATED: See top highlights from Martinsville

“There’s certainly a lot of pressure on that group to perform,” Geisler said. “You’re measuring yourself against four championships. And that’s what it is. That’s the bar. And I think that, really, when you look at his whole season, he’s been in the top 10 every week. He got wrecked running ninth at (Circuit of The Americas). He was easily a top-10 car at Phoenix and got wrecked. He ran within a spot of the 12 car at Vegas and got caught on pit road after a pit stop. And then it was finally like, OK, let’s just finish where we belong and we’re going to be fine. And that was really the last couple of weeks.

“I think if you look at his stage points for the season compared to anybody else, pretty darn competitive. … That’s what you need out of a group that needs to go perform. And I think for Austin, he’s just got himself in a spot now where he’s confident in his process, he’s confident in his abilities. Now he just has to go execute each week, which is a lot different than kind of scrambling trying to figure out how to be competitive.”

Cindric has long been a part of the Penske fold, his father a longtime executive within the company before a brief departure last year. He found joy in his No. 2 team’s execution at Martinsville, but only briefly.

“It’s what I expect out of myself and my race team,” Cindric said, “and it’s nice to sometimes meet expectations.”

Logano’s Darlington disappointment was dreadful. While his in-house teammates earned top fives, he struggled to stay within four laps of the race leaders’ pace.

“First off, you’re kind of like, what’s going on? Where are we off?” Logano said, recalling his in-race emotions. “And you’re trying to fix it, and then you swing the bat a couple times and you make minor progress, if any, then you start to get pissed off. That’s the normal reaction. And then by the end, you’re a little depressed, and then you’re a little embarrassed at the end of all that, even. So you get all the negative emotions. It’s just part of competing, right? And it’s hard. If you want the glory of winning, sometimes you’ve got to go through the agony of defeat.”

Joey Logano races at Martinsville.
Ethan Smith | For NASCAR Digital Media

That agony was glorified during team debriefs on Monday and Tuesday as Logano, No. 22 crew chief Paul Wolfe and the team dissected their missteps. But after numerous wins and multiple championships together, rarely is there a doubt that the No. 22 team will figure out its shortcomings.

“They spent a good solid day or two going through everything they could to try to understand where that weekend didn’t go the way we needed to,” Geisler said. “But man, I’d say really by midday Tuesday, they were 100% just focused forward the way they always do. And that’s the nice part about a group that’s won a lot together. There’s a lot of confidence in everybody. And it’s just, hey, let’s look at all the details, make sure we didn’t miss anything, but we’re not gonna change how we’re approaching the race weekend. Pit crew has been really solid on that group, and they just plugged along, did their thing (Sunday). And it was great to get them back up there and send them off into Easter with a little bit of a breath of fresh air.”

Logano agreed. Seeking his first win since Texas last May – one week after Cindric’s Talladega triumph – Logano saw Martinsville as a step closer toward normality after a derailed day at Darlington.

MORE: Logano continues Martinsville top 10 streak

“It was nice to stop the bleeding. Everything feels normal again,” Logano said. “Last weekend, you start wondering if the earth is round or not. You’re kind of confused on everything. But it was nice to have a normal weekend and be solid off the truck, and solid on pit road, which they have been; that’s no surprise. But just a solid race, which, running top five the whole race, proud of that. Proud of the effort.”

For Blaney, Martinsville was the continuation of his recent stature as Penske’s most consistent contender. His No. 12 Ford was fighting Denny Hamlin for third when late contact stuffed him into the wall instead, but he still hung on to finish sixth.

“I thought all of our cars were really, really good,” Blaney told NASCAR.com. “I thought myself, Joey, Austin and Josh had a really strong showing. I think all of us finished in the top 10. For my side, I thought we got our car a little better each run. At the start of the race, I thought I was about an eighth-place car, and then sixth, fourth, top-two car before the last yellow. So yeah, really, really proud of the effort. Bringing us some good speed and hopefully build off of it for the future.”

Posted on by Adam Fenwick

REGGIO EMILIA, Italy — After a decade of competition in the NASCAR Euro Series and becoming the first female driver to compete in NASCAR Brasil, Italian driver Arianna Casoli is set to take the next step in her career.

Casoil has announced a program in the United States with the NASCAR Late Model platform andMKM Racing Development.

She is paving the way for European female drivers in U.S. NASCAR competition as the first female NASCAR Euro Series driver to compete in the United States, marking a significant milestone in her career and in the international NASCAR series. Following the recorded female drivers to race in a U.S. NASCAR sanctioned series, she will became the first Italian in nearly 50 years, following in the trailblazing path of the legendary Lella Lombardi in 1977.

Arianna, also known as “Lady NASCAR”, adds another milestone in an already record-filled career: first woman to compete in NASCAR Brasil, five Lady Trophy titles and one Legend Trophy (for drivers over 40) secured in NASCAR Euro Series achieving more than 50 class victories.

She will focus on gaining experience on American short tracks with MKM Racing Development, working closely with the team to adapt her driving style to NASCAR Late Model stock car racing. The first step includes three races at the iconic Hickory Motor Speedway, known as the “Birthplace of NASCAR Stars.”

With more than 100 race starts in the NASCAR Euro Series, Casoli has built her experience through consistency, determination, and a long-term commitment to the discipline. Her move to the U.S. marks a natural evolution of her career. With this new venture, she aims to break new barriers while building on a journey shaped over years of NASCAR competition.

“The United States is the cradle of NASCAR,” said Casoli. “After ten years in Europe, I knew it was time for a big change. At my age, this step isn’t guaranteed. I feel blessed to approach it with the same enthusiasm I had in my 20s. This move aligns perfectly with the path I’ve been building over the years. Oval racing in the U.S. is demanding, but I’ve always loved it. In Europe, ovals are no longer on the schedule, but I enjoyed Raceway Venray (half-mile oval) and Tours (short track). Even my debut in NASCAR Brasil was on an Oval. I’m motivated to learn, adapt, and push my limits, making the most of every opportunity on track, and showing once again that women in motorsport can pursue their dreams at any age.”

For European drivers that are traditionally accustomed to road courses, transitioning to American short tracks presents both a technical and mental challenge: mastering oval racing lines, throttle control through corners, tire management, and constant close-quarters racing all require rapid adaptation. For Casoli, known for her technical approach and resilience, this represents a decisive step into the core of American stock car racing.

Late Model Stock Cars represent one of the most competitive and formative categories within NASCAR. With more than 400 horsepower, lightweight construction, and no electronic aids, they demand precision and constant close-quarters racing on short ovals such as Hickory (0.363 miles), where traffic, continuous lapping and high intensity leave little margin for error.

“We are proud to welcome Arianna to MKM” said Michael Klein, team owner of MKM Racing Development “With her experience in the NASCAR Euro Series competition, she adds strong racing knowledge to our program. At MKM, we’ve built an extremely experienced crew with a background at the top level of NASCAR, including being part of a championship-winning team in 2017. We field multiple cars every week in late model races across the Southeast, competing in one of the most demanding environments in the country. We’re excited to combine our expertise and guide her through this transition into American NASCAR with a strong development path.”

Female participation in top-level NASCAR remains limited, especially for drivers pursuing continuous careers and women over 40. In this context, Casoli’s journey is even more significant: entering the U.S. NASCAR Late Model Series, she joins only a handful of women continuing to break barriers and redefine the role of women in motorsport.

“This new adventure is driven by personal motivation but also by the desire to reconnect with that unique feeling of adrenaline and satisfaction that I had lost last season,” said Casoli. “I’m not focused solely on results; I’m chasing the positive vibes that setbacks had dampened. I want to show that it’s never too late to pursue a dream, and perhaps inspire the next generation, often hesitant to embrace change, especially women. American short tracks are demanding and require respect. Being a rookie makes it a true challenge, and that’s exactly what makes it thrilling.”