Silly Season is up and running — and a steamy rumor mill right along with it.
No. 51 Rick Ware Racing driver Justin Haley appeared to clear the smoke from his future in NASCAR’s premier series next year and beyond on Tuesday afternoon in a teleconference with reporters after an uptick in performance had some tossing his name into the ring for a potential new ride next year for the second consecutive season.
After a sophomore slump in his second full-time Cup Series campaign last year, the 2019 winner at Daytona was forced to make a change, parting ways with Kaulig Racing and signing with Rick Ware Racing to drive the No. 51 Ford full-time starting at the beginning of 2024.
“Looking back a year ago, Rick Ware and Lisa Ware, they gave me an opportunity when I was high and dry and didn’t have an opportunity left in the Cup Series,” Haley said. “I trusted them, they trusted me, and I kind of gambled my whole career and life, and everything I have done up to that point to trust Rick and his process and see him through.”
That “gamble” has since paid off for the 25-year-old as he’s been turning heads throughout the first half of the regular season, turning in two top 10s the last five races — with another P13 this past Sunday at Iowa Speedway — and consistently putting the No. 51 in a position to perform.
With multiple full-time opportunities looming as one of the most dizzying Silly Seasons in recent memory is expected to heat up over the summer, Haley dispelled any notion of moving on from his new home, prepared to go the distance with RWR for the foreseeable future.
“We’re fully committed,” said the Winamac, Indiana native. “I think we’re running too good right now to, you know, really veer too far off the path of anything. … without Rick, I wouldn’t even be in the Cup Series right now. … Whatever Rick wants my future to be, you know, if (he wants) me to stay for five to 10 years, I’ll stay for five to 10 years, just because he gave me the opportunity when no one else would … I kind of owe everything to him.”
As far as the remainder of 2024, Haley and the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing team show no signs of slowing down as the hunt for a playoff spot with nine regular-season races remaining before the postseason field sets.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done but I’m very proud of what we’ve done so far.”
Bonsignore has been working tirelessly to ensure his first venture into the Xfinity Series goes flawlessly. A part of that process includes conversing with current NASCAR Cup Series competitor Ryan Preece, who also racked in numerous accomplishments in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour such as winning the championship in 2013.
“Ryan Preece and I have been really good friends for a long time now,” Bonsignore said. “I’ve reached out and asked if he had some time he could make available for me to offer any type of insight that I can put in the memory bank and think about for the next couple of days.
“Anybody that is willing to tell me anything, I will listen and remember it when it counts.”
The three-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion is not only set to defend his #NHMS crown in the #MoheganSun100, but also make his @NASCAR_Xfinity Series debut in the #SciAps200.
— New Hampshire Motor Speedway (@NHMS) June 17, 2024
A veteran of the Modified Tour for more than 15 years with three titles to his name, adjusting to full-bodied stock cars has been a learning experience for Bonsignore.
The ARCA Menards Series pre-race practice at Daytona International Speedway served as his first exposure to stock-car racing, which earned him a chance to make his series debut at the same track in February. Driving for Rette Jones Racing, Bonsignore had to settle for 32nd after rupturing an oil line on Lap 42.
New Hampshire will provide a much different atmosphere compared to Daytona. Unlike on the Modified Tour, no draft will be prevalent in Saturday’s Xfinity Series event, which has forced Bonsignore to ascertain how to gain track position by utilizing aerodynamics and horsepower to his advantage.
The two Modified Tour New Hampshire victories Bonsignore has on his resume has provided him some confidence prior to the SciAps 200. Despite this, Bonsignore understands he needs to be patient and not interfere with the ongoing battle to reach the Xfinity Series Playoffs.
“There’s going to be a lot of good cars in this race, Christopher Bell my teammate probably being the toughest,” Bonsignore said. “You have to know you’re the new guy here, so you don’t want to be too aggressive like us Modified guys can be.
“We’re going to be smart about it and attack when we can. We don’t want to make any enemies along the way.”
The SciAps 200 is currently the only Xfinity Series event on Bonsignore’s schedule, but he did not rule out potentially tagging on more races should the appropriate sponsorship materialize.
For now, Bonsignore is focused on being the best version of himself both physically and mentally during the biggest race of his career to date. Those qualities will be more paramount Saturday afternoon as drivers deal with a heat wave that is arriving in the northeast this weekend.
With his family, friends and sponsors in attendance at New Hampshire, Bonsignore is setting high expectations for himself. He would love to triumph in his Xfinity Series debut, but Bonsignore stressed the importance of logging laps and coming away from the afternoon with Gibbs’ car intact.
“I’m looking to have a smooth day and take it all in,” Bonsignore said. “If we can contend in the top five or top 10, that would be a win, but I wouldn’t have done this if I didn’t think we couldn’t contend for the win. We’re in a Gibbs car, so you have to go there with that mindset, but we need to execute and try to learn each and every lap.”
The SciAps 200 commences at 3:30 p.m. ET and will air on the USA Network. Once the Xfinity Series race concludes, Bonsignore will chase another Modified Tour New Hampshire checkered flag starting at 6:30 p.m. ET on FloRacing.
The race every driver in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour garage anticipates is here.
The Mohegan Sun 100, the seventh race of the 2024 Modified Tour season, takes place Saturday evening at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (10 a.m. ET on FloRacing). The annual visit to the track known as the Magic Mile is considered the Modified Tour’s equivalent to the Cup Series’ Daytona 500; it’s the race every competitor on the Tour wants to win, and the entry list each year backs up that claim.
Modified Tour competitors first visited New Hampshire in 1990, when Mike McLaughlin became the first winner in series history at the 1.058-mile oval. In the years since, the track has played host to some of the most thrilling races in series history. Winners at New Hampshire include stars like Mike Stefanik, Ted Christopher, Tony Hirschman, Reggie Ruggiero, Doug Coby, Bobby Santos III, Steve Park, Ryan Preece, Ryan Newman and, the most recent winner, Justin Bonsignore.
Tickets to the Mohegan Sun 100 are available here. Below is everything you need to know about the seventh race on the 2024 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule.
Cars in action during last year’s Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
What to watch for:
Justin Bonsignore is prepared for perhaps the biggest weekend of his career.
Not only is the three-time Modified Tour champion racing in Saturday’s Mohegan Sun 100, of which he is the defending winner, but he is also making his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut in the Sci Aps 200 driving for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Add to that the fact that Bonsignore is still one win away from tying Ted Christopher for third on the all-time Modified Tour wins list, and Saturday could turn out to be a massive day for the driver from Holtsville, New York.
More than 30 drivers will be trying to deny Bonsignore a return visit to Victory Lane at New Hampshire. Among them is NASCAR Cup Series star Ryan Preece, who is making his second start of the Modified Tour season Saturday in his own No. 40 Modified. Preece has one Modified Tour victory at New Hampshire, which came in 2021.
Bobby Santos III, who is the active wins leader at New Hampshire with seven Modified Tour wins, will chase his eighth victory at the track in the Advantage Motorsports No. 14. However, he’ll be doing it from the rear of the field since he’ll miss practice and qualifying on Friday due to commitments with the USAC Silver Crown Series.
Doug Coby will reunite with Tommy Baldwin Racing to chase another New Hampshire win. They’ll do so while also honoring the late Bugsy Stevens with a special tribute paint scheme. Jon McKennedy will return to the series to make his 100th career start, and Anthony Nocella, the 2022 New Hampshire race winner, will join the fray in the No. 17 for team owner Michele Davini.
Ron Silk, a winner of three Modified Tour races already this year, will chase his fourth New Hampshire win. Chase Dowling, a winner at New Hampshire in 2018, will also be in the field aboard the No. 44 for team owner Lawney Tinio.
One notable driver, Luke Baldwin, will be making his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start. The son of Tommy Baldwin Jr., the younger Baldwin will make his debut in the No. 38 for Sadler-Stanley Racing.
Other notable entries include Austin Beers, Craig Lutz, Patrick Emerling, Eric Goodale, Jake Johnson, Dave Sapienza, Tyler Rypkema, Andy Seuss and Matt Swanson, among others.
The full entry list for Saturday’s Mohegan Sun 100 is available here.
Doug Coby leads last year’s Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Schedule: Friday, June 21: Final practice from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. ET … Qualifying at 5:45 p.m. ET… Saturday, June 22: Mohegan Sun 100 at 10 a.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 Mohegan Sun 100 is limited to 32 starters including Provisional Positions.
Tire allotment: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is twelve (12) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 17, 2024) — Returning for the fifth consecutive year, The NASCAR Foundation and Martin Truex Jr. Foundation (MTJF) announced that the Honor a Cancer Hero online auction presented by AdventHealth is now open and on track to raise more than $500,000 in total for cancer initiatives.
“We are so grateful to the fans, AdventHealth, and The NASCAR Foundation for supporting our cancer hero program,” said NASCAR champion Martin Truex Jr. “I am passionate about honoring these heroes within the cancer community. It’s been inspiring to see the teams, drivers and fans get behind this program to make it a success every year. We’re looking forward to seeing how much money we can raise this year and seeing all the names of the cancer heroes riding above the drivers’ doors!”
The online auction allows NASCAR fans to display their personal cancer hero’s name on the signature panel of their favorite driver’s race vehicle during the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series races in September at Kansas Speedway.
“This program not only celebrates courageous individuals battling cancer but also supports vital cancer care and resources, including the development of the new Sherry Strong Integrative Wellness Clinic at AdventHealth Daytona Beach,” said Audrey Gregory, Ph.D., R.N., executive vice president and CEO for the AdventHealth East Florida Division. “Our commitment to health and wellness extends beyond our hospitals and into the communities we serve, including at the racetrack. It is our fourth year as the presenting sponsor and it is an honor to be a part of this meaningful program, empowering fans to celebrate their heroes and support the fight against cancer.”
Proceeds from the online auction will benefit MTJF and The NASCAR Foundation, two organizations recognized as champions for the health and well-being of others. Since 2020, the auction has raised over $400,000.
“This online auction has become such a special moment in our calendar each year,” said Nichole Krieger, vice president & executive director of The NASCAR Foundation. “To honor these cancer heroes and learn how NASCAR has touched their lives and those who love them is truly both emotional and also inspiring.”
The Honor a Cancer Hero auction is one of many initiatives supported through The NASCAR Foundation’s online auction program, which features race-used memorabilia and at-track experiences available for fans to bid on online.
NEWTON, Iowa – Ryan Blaney remembered how family reunions used to play out, with long car rides during offseason holidays to a frigid Iowa, where his grandparents lived and his mother, Lisa, grew up. This weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series debut at Iowa Speedway prompted another gathering, this time against the backdrop of the sweltering last few days of spring but with all the same feeling of being close to home.
That’s how a crowd of 85 family members and friends wound up as a familiar cheering section perched atop Turn 4 for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350, all wearing matching gray shirts reading “Ryan Blaney Iowa Crew.” The homecoming had a touching end, with a dominating first victory of the season by the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford.
“Move to different states, you don’t go to family events like you did as a kid every year,” Blaney said. “Nice to see them come together and we could celebrate something.”
That something was a heartland romp, one where Blaney led 201 of the 350 laps and officially solidified his spot in the Cup Series Playoffs. The night marked an opportune clinch scenario after a series of close brushes with the win column and the next clear step in Blaney’s title defense.
The triumph brought back a flood of memories — some fond, some ominous — and it also coincided with Father’s Day, with his dad, Dave, embracing his son at the flagstand alongside his wife in the family celebration.
“I don’t care what day it is, it’s pretty rewarding,” the elder Blaney said with a laugh. “Glad he got that done for this year, so he could get that first one in and getting in the (playoffs) and all that. They’ve been deserving here for a few races, so glad to see it happen.”
The cluster of gray-shirt faithful found their way to the outskirts of Victory Lane, shimmying through a gap in the fence and ending up on the painted logos in the trioval grass. Blaney said a similar contingent of related rooters gave him a home-court advantage in his previous Iowa triumphs — 12 years ago in the Craftsman Truck Series and some nine years earlier in Xfinity Series competition.
That 2012 victory holds a special place for the Blaneys, with Iowa marking the site of his first NASCAR national-series win and a slice of racing history. Blaney became the youngest driver to win a Truck Series event (a record later broken by 17-year-old Erik Jones and then 16-year-old Cole Custer in successive seasons), and the night elevated him from a promising prospect to a can’t-miss prodigy.
“We were blown away,” Dave Blaney says. “I think it was his third truck race, maybe, and he did a really good job and won it — didn’t luck into it, by any means. And yeah, it confirmed what we thought he could do, and he’s just taken advantage of opportunities his whole time coming up, and that’s what’s got him where he’s at.”
Ryan Blaney celebrates at Iowa Speedway in 2012. Sean Gardner | Getty Images
The not-so-fond flashbacks stemmed from Blaney’s near-misses earlier this season. In the second race of the year, Blaney was just 0.003 seconds and mere inches short in Daniel Suárez’s nail-biting victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Just two weeks ago, Blaney was poised to celebrate a virtually guaranteed win at Gateway, where the gas tank on his No. 12 Mustang sputtered dry with one lap left.
The sense of foreboding seemed to linger as the laps clicked off Sunday, even as Blaney held the lead over eventual runner-up William Byron and even as crew chief Jonathan Hassler offered his late-race assurance that his fuel level was more than adequate.
“Yes, yes. Déjà vu, for sure,” Blaney said with a grin. “Yeah, I mean, that did kind of go through my head, right? Normally, in my mind, it’s get to the white (flag). Now it’s like, I don’t care about getting to the white, let’s just get to the checkered — kind of normal thoughts. The pain of two weeks ago, it always pops up in your head. I try to forget about it and just focus on the gap we had, try to keep it, all that. But, yeah, I had some thoughts of that. Luckily, tonight, it went smoothly.”
Hassler had his own uncomfortable flashbacks. As this year’s winless drought stretched toward summertime, the No. 12 crew chief felt shades of 2022, his first full year atop a Cup Series pit box. Blaney went without a win in that campaign, and his march toward a playoff berth went down to the wire in a nerve-rattling contest with Martin Truex Jr.
The thoughts of reliving that suspenseful stretch were daunting.
“Yeah, it’s definitely not what we wanted,” Hassler said. “Obviously you want to win every week, but we just continue to focus, regardless of what happens, try to learn from it, be better the next week. I think with that mentality, we continue to put ourselves in position.”
One vested observer who wasn’t particularly worried was the elder Blaney, who says he’s noticed an unflappable nature about his son in the time since he clinched his first Cup Series championship last November.
“He’s fine. After last year, his whole demeanor has changed, and he’s more patient and calm,” Dave Blaney said. “Yeah, he’s not going to let it get him. Even the Gateway thing you know, I think they took out of it that they had a car to win, so that was that was a good thing, which they haven’t had a lot this year. But it looks like things are turning around a little bit. So nah, he’s good, the team’s good. They’ll just get rolling here.”
The younger Blaney added an uncharacteristic flourish to his celebration, smoking up the Iowa frontstretch with a powerful burnout. He also broke with his usual post-race routine last fall, egged on by a raucous crowd at Talladega, where he explained the backstory to his burnout aversion — a lesson inspired by a talking-to from NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Inman earlier in his career.
Sunday night, after making a clean career sweep of all three NASCAR national series at Iowa in front of a partisan crowd, Blaney couldn’t resist.
“Home track. I got to. Means a lot,” Blaney said. “I mean, it’s cool to win in Truck here, Xfinity, now Cup. Gosh, I’m worn out. Driving hard. I figured I deserved a burnout. Hopefully, Dale Inman isn’t too mad at me.”
No one in Blaney’s community of gray-shirt-wearing supporters seemed to mind, savoring a reunion that’s sure to make the family’s all-time photo album.
“We’ve got a lot of people here tonight cheering us on,” Blaney said. “They willed us to that one.”
NEWTON, Iowa — Josh Berry tried his damndest not to let his mind wonder about what could happen Sunday night at Iowa Speedway. But the more he led, the less he could help himself.
The Stewart-Haas Racing rookie led 32 laps in the No. 4 Ford and started to think about how sweet a win in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa would be … and with plenty of undertones for his future. He left instead with a seventh-place finish, an impressive day for the first-year full-timer but just enough to leave him disappointed.
“I hate we missed out on an opportunity there maybe to win,” Berry told NASCAR.com. “I try not to let myself think about that, being a rookie and everything, adapting to this new car. But that was real. And that says a lot in itself, right?”
It sure does.
Berry and the rest of this SHR cohort were informed on May 28 that the organization will be shuttering its operations upon the conclusion of the season. That leaves all four of its drivers and a significant number of employees searching for opportunities for 2025 and beyond. A run like Berry’s on Sunday night is the kind that could keep the driver’s phone ringing for future Cup opportunities.
“We’re all auditioning for our jobs and working our guts out trying to stay racing at this level,” Berry said. “My team’s pedigree speaks for itself, but for me as a driver, I really don’t know what else I can do to prove that I deserve to be in the Cup Series in a competitive race car other than just win a race, and that was looking like it might be possible (Sunday night). So we’re gonna keep digging. I feel like we have a lot of good tracks coming up, and I think that we can do good things.”
His No. 4 team is led by crew chief Rodney Childers, who guided Berry’s predecessor, Kevin Harvick, to the 2014 Cup Series championship, in addition to 37 of Harvick’s 60 career Cup wins. The gravity of their current situation is not lost on Childers, who was pleased with the program’s performance all weekend after a third-place qualifying effort to couple with their top-10 finish — a stark contrast after consecutive DNFs at World Wide Technology Raceway and Sonoma Raceway.
“It’s interesting looking for a job all week and still coming and running like this,” Childers said. “That’s just icing on the cake, honestly. Everybody has stayed focused and keeps racing their hearts out, and everybody that we race against knows what the 4 car is capable of and the people that I have. Josh is just driving his butt off, and if he didn’t show that he doesn’t deserve (to be) in this series tonight, then something’s wrong.”
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Digital Media
Berry’s Tennesseean shine in Iowa wasn’t just a flash in the pan, either. The 33-year-old has led laps in six races this year and now has three top 10s in his last five races. At the 0.875-mile Iowa track, Berry posted the fourth-best average running position (5.75) behind only top-three finishers Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Chase Elliott.
“This car fits me well on the short tracks especially,” said Berry, who won the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship in 2020 and has a storied career racing late model stocks. “It kind of reminds me of a late model or something, how it drives. And really, from the first time I took it to one of these places, it really started to click for me. So I think that we’re doing a lot of good things, right, and we just gotta keep plugging away at it.
“The reality of our situation is it’s only gonna get harder and harder the farther we get into the season. But we’re gonna keep trying to hold everything together the best we can, and runs like tonight make that a lot easier.”
Berry, of course, isn’t the only member of his No. 4 team looking for work. Childers’ most recent departure from a team came between the 2013 and ’14 seasons, leaving Michael Waltrip Racing on his own volition to join Harvick, which proved to be an incredibly fruitful decision. This job hunt is less uncertain and not of his choice, but the need to focus on the on-track portion of his current day job has remained unfazed.
“I think what makes it easier is just the group that we have,” Childers said. “Man, it just runs like a factory. It runs like a clock. Nobody misses a beat. You’re not worried about what if somebody’s getting their job done or not. My engineers are doing a great job. Cheddar (Smith, car chief) and all the road guys haven’t missed a beat. Honestly, it’s been pretty easy. You know, the racing part of it hasn’t changed. Everybody has the same mindset. We’ve been really open and honest. We have lots of meetings and talk about lots of different things, and we’re just gonna continue to race our guts out and show that we can do this.”
In the meantime, performances such as the one this group put together Sunday at Iowa will continue to serve as both resume builders and confidence boosters.
“Days like today make it realize for everybody that it’s possible that we can win a race,” Berry said. “And being a rookie in this series, I mean, that’s pretty special.”
Whenever a team must replace a driver with 34 career wins and a Cup Series championship on his resume, it’s a big decision to make.
That’s exactly the situation Joe Gibbs Racing is facing after last week’s news that Martin Truex Jr. is retiring from full-time racing after the 2024 season. Truex has been a staple of the team since the dissolution of Furniture Row Racing following the 2018 season, winning 15 races and scoring 106 top-10 finishes over that span. Before that, Truex had already established himself as a champion by outdueling future teammate Kyle Busch with the title on the line at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2017.
Anybody tabbed to follow one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history in the seat of the No. 19 will face big expectations. But Gibbs has had to replace legends before, from when Bobby Labonte succeeded Dale Jarrett as the driver of the No. 18 in 1995 to Gibbs handing the keys of Tony Stewart’s No. 20 ride to young Joey Logano in 2009, or even when Kyle Busch left the No. 18 after the 2022 season.
So let’s rank the top candidates to replace Truex, by both their current series and their performance so far this season. We’ll be measuring the latter according to my Adjusted Points+ Index metric — which gives points to drivers for their finishes in each race and then compares their per-race performance to the average driver in their series (scaling everything such that average is 100, while a rating of 120 is 20% better than average, etc).
Cup Series
James Gilbert | Getty Images
1. Noah Gragson Age: 25 Career Cup starts: 56 Current team: Stewart-Haas Racing Adjusted Pts+ Index: 99.1 Index relative to teammates: +19.9
Despite difficult circumstances, with the news of SHR shutting down operations after the season, Gragson has bounced back from 2023 with Legacy Motor Club to be one of the Cup Series’ most improved drivers this year. He has five top 10s in 17 starts, scoring one of SHR’s lone podium finishes of the season with a third-place run at Talladega in April. Gragson is also just 25, and a vastly more professional showing this season (both on and off the track) has helped him reclaim the potential that made him one of the sport’s most promising up-and-coming drivers when he narrowly lost the 2019 Xfinity Series championship. (The winner there, Ty Gibbs, would be a new teammate/rival at JGR if Gragson is Truex’s successor.) Finally, Gragson has past experience with Toyota in the Gibbs pipeline, having driven three Xfinity Series races for them in 2018.
2. Chase Briscoe Age: 29 Career Cup starts: 125 Current team: Stewart-Haas Racing Adjusted Pts+ Index: 95.6 Index relative to teammates: +15.3
Speaking of bounce-back seasons, Briscoe has also been much better in 2024. He was one of the Cup Series’ more disappointing drivers last year — with an average finish outside the top 20 — while failing to build on a 2022 campaign that saw him record his first career Cup victory at Phoenix Raceway (to go with nine other top-10 finishes). But Briscoe has matched Gragson with five top 10s already by midseason, and the pair have practically identical performance stats on the season. The big question on Briscoe might be that he isn’t a Toyota guy; he’s a Ford lifer, having run every race of his NASCAR national series career in a Blue Oval.
3. Josh Berry Age: 33 Career Cup starts: 29 Current team: Stewart-Haas Racing Adjusted Pts+ Index: 81.1 Index relative to teammates: -4.1
Naturally, all of the SHR drivers are going to figure heavily into this year’s Silly Season, with the team disbanding and its charters being scattered to the four winds. Berry is part of that mix, though his performance hasn’t been on the same level as teammates Gragson and Briscoe so far. While he secured the other SHR podium of the year when he finished third at Darlington Raceway, he has mostly been uncompetitive — on Sunday at Iowa Speedway, his seventh-place finish was one of just three top 10s in 17 starts — and he’s tied with Michael McDowell for the lowest rate of finishing races (76.5%) among any Cup regular. One of the pros of adding Berry is that he would likely take crew chief Rodney Childers with him, bringing one of the best in the business to the JGR garage. However, Berry didn’t even produce an average Pts+ index — he was at 98.7 — while filling in with Chase Elliott’s Hendrick equipment (and another champion crew chief, Alan Gustafson) last season, so he may not fit in with the expectations for a Gibbs team that has had exactly two below-average Pts+ seasons from its regular drivers since dropping J.J. Yeley in 2007: Daniel Suárez in 2018 and 20-year-old Ty Gibbs in 2023.
4. Erik Jones Age: 28 Career Cup starts: 270 Current team: Legacy Motor Club Adjusted Pts+ Index: 62.7 Index relative to teammates: +14.1
Jones has long been a tough driver to assess. He was at Gibbs for parts of four seasons from 2015-20, and while he outdrove the Cup Series average during those years — with a 139 Pts+ index — he could never outdrive his talented teammates. More recently, he’s been in the opposite situation: Jones has easily beaten his teammates at Legacy Motor Club, but it hasn’t been worth much in terms of absolute success. (He has just eight top 10s in 51 starts over the past two seasons.) Would he be a better bet than the other names on this list if he returned to JGR? On the one hand, it’s hard to see a Gibbs reunion in the cards for Jones after he said JGR “blindsided” him when they moved on in 2020. But Jones knows the Gibbs program and has been in Toyotas nearly his entire career. Given that we’ve seen him be solid — if not great — with JGR before, Jones may have the highest floor of any driver they might pick to replace Truex.
5. Ryan Preece Age: 33 Career Cup starts: 168 Current team: Stewart-Haas Racing Adjusted Pts+ Index: 60.9 Index relative to teammates: -31.1
Preece is the last of the SHR drivers on our list, and it’s difficult to imagine Gibbs would tap a guy who has struggled to keep up with Gragson, Briscoe and Berry this season in comparable equipment. Preece’s 2024 stats (an average finish of 21.6 and a 61 Pts+ index) are almost exactly in line with his career averages (23.2 and 59, respectively) across multiple different teams, so this isn’t a down season — a mid-pack performance is just what you can expect from Preece, something that doesn’t fit in with what JGR’s profile as a perennial contender.
6. John Hunter Nemechek Age: 27 Career Cup starts: 58 Current team: Legacy Motor Club Adjusted Pts+ Index: 56.8 Index relative to teammates: +4.9
Nemechek technically ranks lowest among our regular Cup Series candidates in Pts+ index, but he would potentially be a more attractive choice than Preece or even some of the others on the list. Nemechek is relatively young; he’s just a year removed from a fourth-place finish in the Xfinity standings (done while driving for Gibbs); he’s been outdriving his teammates at Legacy Motor Club this year, and he has more than a decade of NASCAR national series experience in Toyotas. In some ways, that history makes him a natural choice to at least get a look for the Truex seat, even though he’s been a near-total non-factor (two top 10s in 17 races) in Cup this season.
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images
The Wild Card: Kyle Busch Age: 39 Career Cup starts: 695 Current team: Richard Childress Racing Adjusted Pts+ Index: 100.3 Index relative to teammates: +53.7
This would be the biggest bombshell of the 2024-25 Silly Season, if it happens. And according to Pts+ index, Busch is currently having the best Cup Series season of anybody on our list of candidates — driving circles around RCR teammate Austin Dillon — despite this otherwise being the worst full season of Busch’s storied career. But a Gibbs reunion seems unlikely for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Busch is still under contract with Childress next season. Busch can still drive, and Gibbs would upgrade his chances to compete for a championship again, but there may be too many obstacles in the way of making this work.
Xfinity and Trucks
1. Chandler Smith Age: 21 Career Cup starts: 3 Current team: Joe Gibbs Racing (Xfinity Series) Xfinity Series adjusted Pts+ Index: 202.0 Index relative to teammates: +48.8
Smith — who ranks second in the Xfinity Series standings — might have the inside track for Truex’s seat if JGR bypasses the Cup drivers and dips into the lower-tier series. He’s just 21 years old, which puts him in the same young hotshot mold as Ty Gibbs when he ascended to a Cup ride, and he has spent most of his career in Toyotas, including driving for Gibbs this season. There’s precedent for Gibbs plucking a promising driver from the Xfinity Series and handing them a competitive ride — see Ty Gibbs, Tony Stewart, Daniel Suárez and Jason Leffler — though some of those stints were vastly more successful than others.
2. Austin Hill Age: 30 Career Cup starts: 8 Current team: Richard Childress Racing (Xfinity Series) Xfinity Series adjusted Pts+ Index: 201.8 Index relative to teammates: +54.8
Currently third in the Xfinity standings, Hill finished fifth last year and has become one of the most reliable contenders in the Xfinity Series. He also has Cup experience with Penske, Beard Motorsports and RCR over the past three seasons, finishing a career-best 14th last August in the Daytona night race. While he and Smith have almost identical performance metrics this year, Hill is the older, more experienced driver (with nearly twice as many career Xfinity starts under his belt).
3. Corey Heim Age: 21 Career Cup starts: 2 Current team: Tricon Garage (Truck Series) Truck Series adjusted Pts+ Index: 246.5 Index relative to teammates: +137.9
After ranking fourth in the 2023 Truck Series — a finish marred by a payback incident with Carson Hocevar in the championship race — Heim has unfinished business in 2024, and he’s been flat-out dominating this year. (While he still trails Christian Eckes in the standings, he has twice as many wins and a far superior Pts+ index.) Heim is Toyota’s top prospect as well, which will automatically land you in a prominent place on JGR’s radar. But the only precedent for a driver primarily in the Truck Series making the leap to a full-time Cup ride at Gibbs the following season might be Denny Hamlin, who ran more truck races than Xfinity ones in 2004, then made his Cup debut to replace Leffler in 2005. (And even there, Hamlin was running a full-time Xfinity schedule at the time, while Heim has started only seven of 15 possible Xfinity races this year.) The rest was history for Denny, and Heim might have that level of potential, but he probably needs more experience at a higher level before making the full-time leap to the Cup Series.
Three-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Justin Bonsignore will join Joe Gibbs Racing to make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on June 22.
The opportunity is a direct result of the unexpected experience the 36-year-old from Holtsville, New York gained in Florida earlier this year.
“It all stems back to the opportunity we had with the ARCA race at Daytona and the Road to Daytona program,” said Bonsignore, who will pilot the No. 19 Toyota GR Supra at the Magic Mile, where he has a pair of Modified Tour wins. “That kind of sparked some interest. I really enjoyed the experience I had at Daytona and everything that went into that.
“I had some opportunities come up with partners after that race, and we started making some phone calls and really just thought the next best step for me and what my goals are as I get older was to try and make an Xfinity race.”
Bonsignore’s Modified Tour resume speaks for itself. In addition to being a three-time champion, he ranks fourth on the all-time win list with 41 victories. He also ranks fourth on the all-time pole list with 31.
Among those 41 victories are two triumphs at New Hampshire, the obvious location for him to make his Xfinity Series debut.
Justin Bonsignore celebrates after winning the Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 15, 2023. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
“Steve deSouza at Joe Gibbs was really helpful in this whole process and was pushing for us to try and run New Hampshire if we can, just because of my experience there,” Bonsignore said. “He thought it would be a great fit and a cool storyline for me running both races (Xfinity and Modified Tour) that day.”
This is not the first time Joe Gibbs Racing has welcomed a Modified Tour champion to compete in an Xfinity Series race at New Hampshire. In 2017, Ryan Preece joined the team at the one-mile oval and finished second.
Bonsignore said that if he was going to compete in the Xfinity Series, he was only going to do it with a competitive team. JGR, which has more than 200 victories in the series and five already this year, stood out as his best option.
“Joe Gibbs Racing is definitely a top-notch team and one of the best in the series,” Bonsignore said. “They’re going to give us everything we need to go out and try to win the race.”
Make no mistake: Bonsignore doesn’t plan nor expects to make the full-time jump to the Xfinity Series. He’s a self-described Modified Tour lifer who plans to spend the rest of his career racing with the series.
For him, this opportunity is more about crossing an item off his personal bucket list while also reminding the NASCAR world of the talent possessed by drivers on the Modified Tour.
“I’ve always wanted to do it; I’ve just never really had the opportunities or the partners to help us out,” he said. “Things have come together this year and are working out well. I hope I can run well and make the community proud and shed some more light that there are some very, very good race-car drivers in this part of the country.”
Iowa Speedway’s Cup Series debut did not disappoint as there were comers and goers throughout the race and changes on track that kept drivers on their toes throughout all 350 laps.
Ryan Blaney led a career-high 201 laps around the 0.875-mile oval to score his first victory of 2024 and 11th career win at NASCAR’s top level.
Before the circuit heads to the Granite State for an affair at New Hampshire Motor Speedway next Sunday (2:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), here’s a look at the drivers who trended up and slid down through Iowa.
THREE UP ⬆️
1. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Started: 35th
Finished: 5th
What happened: With the help of aggressive pit strategy calls throughout the second half of Sunday’s Iowa race, Stenhouse was able to move to the front of the field, and despite only taking two tires on the final stop, the three-time Xfinity Iowa victor was able to hold his track position to come out with his second top-five finish of 2024. It’s his first non-superspeedway top-five result since finishing fourth in the now-defunct Bristol Dirt Race in 2023.
What’s next: Stenhouse heads to New Hampshire next Sunday, where a top 20 is the trend for the No. 47 team as Stenhouse hasn’t finished worst than 22nd in the last four races in the Granite State.
2. Josh Berry, No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
Started: 3rd
Finished: 7th
What happened: At one point in the final stage, it looked like Berry was in prime position to break through for his first career win in his rookie campaign, but on the final restart, Berry was held back by the No. 47 and couldn’t find any long-run speed to challenge the likes of Blaney, William Byron and Chase Elliott. However, Berry led a career-high 32 laps en route to a seventh-place run to give him three consecutive top 10s when he’s taken the checkered flag (DNFs at Gateway, Sonoma).
What’s next: The tracks on the shorter end have been a playground for Berry, and New Hampshire plays right into the roots theme that the 33-year-old rookie carries with pride. While the results at the track don’t pan out too much on the Xfinity level, the No. 4 SHR Ford should have another shot at a strong points day next weekend.
3. Daniel Suárez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images
Started: 13th
Finished: 9th
What happened: A grind of a race for Suárez ended up with a gutsy top-10 result and a much-needed one for the No. 99 Trackhouse team. It’s the first top 10 for the group since finishing fifth at Texas Motor Speedway in April, and they’ll need to keep finding finishes like this to begin their postseason prep, thanks to their Atlanta win.
What’s next: There’s more optimism for the No. 99 team heading to New Hampshire as Suárez scored a ninth-place finish at the track in 2022.
THREE DOWN ⬇️
1. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Digital Media
Started: 1st
Finished: 34th
What happened: It’s tough to throw Larson’s performance as a downer for him, given that he showed to have the fastest car in the field 200 laps in. He won Stage 2 and led 80 laps, but fortunes went the wrong way for the No. 5 team as contact with Suárez early in the final stage resulted in Larson spinning and wrecking into Denny Hamlin on Lap 221.
The No. 5 crew worked diligently to keep the Chevy on track with a trip to the garage for repairs. Larson did return to the track but finished 36 laps down in 34th.
What’s next: With Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott taking the series points lead by eight points over Larson, Larson will need a big points day at New Hampshire, given Elliott’s continued top-20 streak in 2024. And a top-five, top-10 run is doable for the No. 5 team as Larson finished third in the Granite State in 2023.
2. Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Busch was in line for a much-needed top-10 run Sunday, but after hitting the wall during the final stage, the No. 8 driver deemed the car “undriveable” and took it to the garage, where the two-time Cup champ’s day ended early for the second time in three weekends.
What’s next: Now 31 points below the provisional playoff elimination line, Busch needs a lifeline at New Hampshire to stay within striking distance of the top 16, but the last four outings in the Northeast have not gone according to plan for Busch, with three DNFs in that span.
3. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Started: 12th
Finished: 24th
What happened: Hamlin’s day started miserably at Iowa. During the first stage, the No. 11 Toyota parachuted outside the top 30 and even fell a lap down naturally. Describing the first 70 laps as feeling “like the tires are on backwards,” Hamlin did recover to find himself in the top 10 and even collected five points in Stage 2.
But Hamlin would soon be collected in the Larson incident, having nowhere to go down the frontstretch as the No. 5 careened right in front of Hamlin. The No. 11 stayed out on track and finished two laps down in 24th.
What’s next: After five consecutive top-five results, Hamlin has now finished outside the top 20 in the last two races due to a mechanical failure and wreck, respectively. However, New Hampshire is one of Hamlin’s best venues, with an average finish of 9.4 in 30 starts at the 1.058-mile facility, and the No. 11 team should get back on track next Sunday.
