JDV Productions and Josh Vanada keep upping the ante with the Whelen Midsummer Championship: ‘This is a labor of love’

Posted on July 8, 2026July 9, 2026 by Adam Fenwick

Josh Vanada of JDV Productions has never been afraid to express his love for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.

He’s been a fan of Modified racing since childhood and has spent the last several seasons working to support the series by promoting events and offering bonus programs to competitors.

That love for NASCAR’s oldest division drives him to keep coming back and making his programs bigger and better each season.

Vanada, who has served as the general manager of Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park and the promoter of Monadnock Speedway, has stepped things up a notch yet again this year with the introduction of the Whelen Midsummer Championship.

The three-race miniseries, which began last Wednesday at Seekonk Speedway and includes Friday’s race at Claremont Motorsports Park and the July 25 event at Monadnock, is the latest evolution of what started as the Whelen Granite State Short Track Cup in 2022.

ENTRIES: See who’s racing at Claremont on Friday

Vanada explained the adjustments to the program were the result of several factors, chief among them being changes to the Modified Tour schedule in 2026.

“I think the Tour schedule has a little bit more diversity than it has had in the past couple of years. That was one factor,” Vanada said. “The fact that Seekonk had asked my coaching business to sponsor the Firecracker 150, then we had Claremont and Monadnock all in the same month, it just lended itself to a really cool July program. In the past we’ve kind of just run it over the summer. Now we’re running it essentially over the course of a month.

“Yes, the name has changed slightly, but we felt like the Midsummer Challenge is a little bit of a refresh. It’s the largest program we’ve ever put together.”

The Whelen Midsummer Championship will conclude on July 25 at Monadnock Speedway with the champion earning $5,000. (Photo: Jaiden Tripi/NASCAR)

The Whelen Midsummer Championship boasts a total purse of $25,000. The champion of the miniseries takes $5,000, with $2,500 going to second and $1,000 to third.

That’s not all. There is also the Hard Charger Award, which will pay $500 per event, as well as the Hard Luck Award, worth another $500 per race. There is also the JDV Loyalty Program Tire Bonus, which is valued at $3,500.

“The winner’s money is great, but there is only one of them,” Vanada said. “I think that’s something that I have learned over my career that is valuable. We need to make sure everybody stays in the field, especially the people who are running sixth to 20th.

“Let’s face it, $500 to these teams, it’s really not a lot in the grand scheme of their expense costs. It’s a way that we can say that we appreciate their effort and acknowledge it and give them a little bit to keep them going.”

Last, but certainly not least, if a driver can win all three races as part of the Whelen Midsummer Challenge, he’ll earn a $10,000 bonus. After winning at Seekonk, Matt Hirschman is the only driver who can potentially earn that bonus.

This is the largest bonus program Vanada and JDV Productions have put together for the Modified Tour, and it’s a great source of pride.

“Being able to have something to keep the teams going in the summer stretch when it’s hot, when you’ve got to see yourself to the back end of the championship run that starts in August, it just seems like the timing is really good,” Vanada said. “To give a little bit of an injection of cash in the summer is something that we’re happy to do.

“It just injects some real life. You have a championship coming halfway through the year before you pivot to the last six or seven races of the season and really focus your eye on the season-long championship.”

Matt Hirschman has won two of JDV Productions’ miniseries championships since Josh Vanada began promoting the programs in 2022. (Photo: Jaiden Tripi/NASCAR)

While the Whelen Midsummer Championship is the brainchild of Vanada, the program wouldn’t be what it is today without the support of Whelen Engineering.

The company, in addition to serving as the title sponsor of the Modified Tour since 2005, has been a key part of what is now the Whelen Midsummer Championship since it was initially created in 2022.

Whelen Engineering operates a manufacturing facility just 20 minutes from Claremont Motorsports Park, and Vanada expects to host roughly 200 Whelen employees during Friday’s Clash at Claremont.

“Two of the three tracks are within 40 miles of Whelen,” Vanada said. “They get what we’re trying to do. They’ve invested for so long dating back to the Phil Kurze days when Phil and I used to do business together. They’re just terrific to deal with. They’re a local success story of a company that started out and grew and grew and has now become international.

“They haven’t forgotten where they come from. To be able to have a company that has scaled like that that also has that level of grassroots involvement is great. You can’t ask for better people to deal with.”

Ultimately, the Whelen Midsummer Championship is a passion project for Vanada. It’s his way of giving back to the division he grew to love as a child.

Now, as an adult, he can help it thrive. He plans to do that as long as possible.

“I grew up watching the Modifieds. I think I’ve said consistently I’m a fan first,” Vanada said. “That’s a division I have a lot of passion for. It’s the first division I kind of really fell in love with. It’s historic; it’s NASCAR oldest division.

“This is a labor of love. Just like it’s a labor of love for the racers, it’s a labor of love for me, too.”

Posted on July 8, 2026 by Staff Report

NASCAR Cup Series driver Tyler Reddick has been nominated for the 2026 ESPYS Best Driver Award.

Reddick, who drives for the Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin-owned 23XI Racing, won the season-opening Daytona 500 and followed it by winning the next two races, becoming the first Cup Series driver to start the year with three consecutive victories. His momentum carried over to wins at Darlington Raceway and Kansas Speedway as Reddick matched Dale Earnhardt’s 1987 feat of winning five of the first nine races.

Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris from Formula One and IndyCar’s Alex Palou were also nominated for the award. The winner will be announced during the show at 8 p.m. ET on July 15 at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City (televised on ABC and streaming on the ESPN App). Comedian Marcello Hernández will host the show.

Reddick looks to become the first NASCAR driver to win the award since Kyle Larson took home the honors in 2022. In total, 19 NASCAR drivers have won the Best Driver Award, with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon each winning four times.

Fans can vote for Reddick here. Reddick’s category is the 17th, so scroll through to reach it and cast your vote.

Posted on July 8, 2026July 9, 2026 by Dustin Albino

When Sheldon Creed rolls through the gates of EchoPark Speedway this weekend, he’ll be greeted by memories of his shinning moment. It was there in February that the California native finally broke through, holding off the field in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race to earn his long-awaited first series victory.

After 137 prior attempts, Creed was the beneficiary of a last-lap tangle between Austin Hill and Ross Chastain. The No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet scooted by and held off the roaring field for the elusive win. He put to rest the moniker of being the driver with the most runner-up finishes — 15 to be exact — in series history without hoisting a trophy.

RELATED: Sheldon Creed driver page

“It wasn’t very fun going that long without winning,” Creed told NASCAR.com last week. “It would be one thing if I ran 10th to 15th every week, but I was so close so many times and something would happen or go wrong.”

The narrow defeats began to build frustration. In 2024 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he tied Dale Jarrett and Daniel Hemric for the most second-place efforts before winning (10). He shattered that record, finishing second with three different organizations: Richard Childress Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Haas Factory Team.

Snagging a victory early in 2026 was a morale boost for the entire No. 00 team. Creed had an average first year with Haas in 2025, recording eight top-five and 16 top-10 finishes.

“I think that was massive for confidence for myself and the team, getting these guys back into Victory Lane,” Creed said.

Crew chief Jonathan Toney, the always upbeat leader of the No. 00 bunch, knew a victory was within reach. He was adjusting to Creed’s style last year, spending the prior two years with Cole Custer. Naturally, the two drivers billed from Southern California were more parallel than Toney could have even imagined with their Southern California swagger.

Toney always believed Creed could get the job done.

“I always said, you don’t finish second [15] times and not be capable of winning races,” Toney said. “Things just didn’t fall his way on several occasions that kept him out of Victory Lane. We all knew he was capable of winning.

“Just getting that win for him and the smile on his face and the next couple of weeks was such a blessing to be a part of and see that.”

The triumph came earlier than expected in 2026. Over the offseason, Haas Factory Team put in plenty of labor to switch from Ford to Chevrolet, returning to the Hendrick Motorsports engine pipeline.

Aside from the signature EchoPark win, Creed has pumped out his most consistent season to date. He believes he had more raw speed in 2024, his stopgap season at JGR, but this is the most comparable year he’s had, already matching the top-five finishes he posted in his first season with HFT. That total is tied for second in the series (Brent Crews) behind Justin Allgaier’s 12 top-five results.

Sean Gardner | Getty Images

Consistency has been one of Creed’s biggest strengths in 2026. With 13 races remaining, he’s on pace to eclipse his previous best average finish — lowering it from 11.7 in 2024 to 10.3 — while avoiding the incidents that plagued him in past seasons, with just one DNF in 20 races.

“This year, we’ve been clicking it off,” Creed said. “Even when we’re not a winning race car, we can go and finish fourth or fifth. I feel like our window is a little bit bigger this year on speed. Last year, we had to hit it perfectly to be fast.”

The No. 00 team is still working to unlock more raw speed, but Creed has remained competitive, ranking 10th among series regulars in laps led (93). He also sits seventh in stage points at 118 — less than half of Allgaier’s 250.

“I think that’s just maturity on [Creed’s] part and learning race craft,” Toney said of the uptick in finishes, noting the core group of the No. 00 team has been together since 2023. “He has been with some great organizations that he was able to learn from, so we were benefiting from that and the experience.”

With four races remaining in the regular season, Creed sits one point behind Corey Day for third in the driver standings. He is within 30 points of reigning series champion Jesse Love for second but is also only 43 points above Carson Kvapil in seventh.

It’s paramount for the No. 00 team to conclude the regular season strong to be closer to the front of The Chase field come September. Regardless, Creed believes he can be a player for the 2026 championship. He isn’t counting out Austin Hill or fellow Haas driver Sam Mayer as title threats.

MORE: O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule

“I think a lot because we can run consistently,” Creed said. “I think it’s going to be between six of us. You could probably throw a couple more in if they get consistent. It’s hard to count anybody out, but just looking at the season, I would say it’s those four to six.”

First on the docket is a return to the Peach State on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Creed hopes to pick up right where he left off in February.

“It will be like every other week,” Creed said. “We’re going to go with the same goal of trying to win. I know we’re not going to go back the same. Our car was good, but I thought it could have been a little better.”

Posted on July 7, 2026July 8, 2026 by Nate Ryan

NASCAR reviewed data from every lap that Austin Hill and Shane van Gisbergen were on track before deciding neither driver would be penalized for their Chicagoland Speedway incident.

During the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde said officials would still meet with van Gisbergen and Hill this weekend at EchoPark Speedway.

On the 48th lap of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Joliet, Illinois, Hill’s No. 33 Chevrolet crashed in Turn 4 after being hit from behind by van Gisbergen’s No. 97 while battling for 28th.

“We want to have a discussion and make sure that it doesn’t boil over into a significant problem at Atlanta or beyond,” Forde said, adding there was no penalty to Hill for hitting van Gisbergen’s car under caution. “So we plan to have that conversation on Saturday.”

Forde said NASCAR competition strategist Scott Miller began studying throttle, steering and braking data at the Remote Race Control center immediately after the incident and then reviewed the entire race Monday.

“We looked to see if there were any anomalies throughout the race and something that spurred this that maybe was payback from earlier,” Forde said. “We went through all the radio transmissions to see if there was anything that rose to kind of a smoking gun. Camera angles and all available resources, as we always say. And nothing in our eyes proved definitively this was 100% intentional and penalty-worthy.”

NASCAR has previously penalized drivers who admitted to intentionally causing a crash, but van Gisbergen radioed his team that it was an accident.

Forde said NASCAR doesn’t necessarily need an admission of guilt to penalize a driver, but that made the difference in past penalties to Ryan Preece and Denny Hamlin.

“There’s enough reasonable doubt to where it didn’t rise to the penalty for us here,” Forde said. “If you remove that reasonable doubt, then you’re going to get a penalty. If you say you’re going to do it and then do it, that is going to rise to the level of a penalty.”

NASCAR will also meet with Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar on Saturday after their incident at Chicagoland.

“The same review went into it, and nothing rose to the level of there being no doubt it was intentional, so we are opting to not penalize there,” Forde said. “But we’ll be having a conversation in the hauler between those two drivers, too. So it’ll be a busy hauler.”

Clash at Claremont

Claremont Motorsports Park

Entry list

Car No.	Driver	Team	Crew Chief	Chassis Mfg.	Sponsor
1	Patrick Emerling	USNE Motorsports	Dale Hedquist	LFR	USNE Power
3	Tyler Rypkema	BRE Racing	Greg Fournier	Boehler Racing	Northeast Drilling; SYP
05	Teddy Hodgdon IV	Teddy Hodgdon Racing	Ted Hodgdon	FURY Race Cars	Business Time Motorsports; The Landau Team of Re/Max; Montanari Fuel
8	John-Michael Shenette	Eighty-Two Autosport	Scott Morin	LFR	USNE Power Charlotte
9	Jayden Harman	Wanick Motorsports	Mark Harman	Troyer	Wanick Construction; Harman Funeral Home
15	Joey Cipriano III	Fueled Up Motorsports	Ryan Plourde	FURY Race Cars	Dependable Energy; The Bass Plating Company; Creative Racing
18	Ken Heagy	Heagy Motorsports	Greg Gorman	FURY Race Cars	Merkel Racing Engines
20	Max Zachem	Morgan Zachem Racing	Ken Zachem	Troyer	USNE Power; Lu-Macs Package Store
21	Stephen Kopcik	Wanick Motorsports	Nick Kopcik	Troyer	Wanick Construction; Newtown Pools
31	Michael Christopher Jr	Elite Motorsports	Eugene Orlando	LFR	Elite Towing; Elite Racing; Baker Racing
54	Tommy Catalano	Catalano Motorsports	Rick Kluth	Troyer	FX Caprara; USNE Power
56	Trevor Catalano	Catalano Motorsports	David Catalano	Troyer	USNE Power
58	Eric Goodale	Goodie Motorsports	Rob Hyer	FURY Race Cars	GAF Roofing
60	Matt Hirschman	Pee Dee Motorsports	Mike Stein	Troyer	Bar Harbor Bank & Trust; Pee Dee Motorsports
64	Austin Beers	KLM Motorsports	Ron Yuhas	Troyer	Lumiere Electrical, Dell Electric, G&G Electrical Supply, Andrew James Interiors, AP Marquadt & Sons, Hughes Motors.
73	Paulie Hartwig III	Hartwig Racing	Bobby Geiger Jr	Troyer	Professional Therapy Associates; Jersey Shore Contracting
79	Jonathan McKennedy	Jonathan McKennedy Racing	Patrick Walsh	FURY Race Cars	Stuarts Automotive, Christophers Towing, Hillsboro Enterprises, Leone Corp., Levasseur HVAC
82	Andrew Molleur	DWR Racing	Michael Molleur	LFR	Horton Avenue Materials
95	Cory Plummer	Apex Racing	Jonah Gosnell	Apex Race Cars	Tuckers Fabrication & Welding; Croteau Machine; Apex Racecars; Apex Racing

Posted on July 7, 2026July 7, 2026 by Cara Cooper

After winning 13 races at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and getting to Victory Lane 20 times in 22 races this year, confidence is sky high for California’s Jeffrey Peterson.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Peterson said of his season. “Every time I win one, I just kind of laugh just in disbelief that we can keep doing it.”

Peterson won the first 13 races in the Late Model division at the Bullring and was one race away from a perfect season. He was taken out in a crash in the final race, but he had such a big lead in the points, it didn’t matter. He won the track championship in the Limited Pro Late Model division by 58 points for his second title at the NASCAR Local Racing Series Powered by O’Reilly Auto Parts track.

Peterson said he and the team “far exceeded expectations” for the season. In six years racing full-time at Vegas, he’s always been fast, and even won six out of 14 races in his prior championship season in 2023. But he said, “this year, to rattle off the streak that we had was just nothing short of incredible.”

He credited his team with giving him the best car week after week.

“It’s the car that we’ve got,” Peterson said. “I think just no matter who’s driven it, that thing’s been up front. Lenny White works his butt off on the thing and it honestly makes me look a lot better than I really am.”

One thing Peterson said the team did that set them apart from others was putting a focus on long-run speed. When the track held practice on Fridays, he’d do 30-lap runs to make sure the car was consistent enough to last the entire race. Despite only setting fast time in qualifying twice this season, he was able to make his way through traffic in the features because his car was always so consistently fast.

“I can run almost a repetitive lap for the entire main event, which really helped us out,” he said. “That also helped us stay out of trouble, allowed us to kind of separate ourselves from the pack so when there’s a lot of tight racing going on and stuff and those guys would all fall off, I would stay the consistent speed and be able to kind of create a little gap and make our chances of surviving the night that much better.”

Peterson races for a team owned by Clay Wooster, the same owner Peterson’s dad drove for in the 1980s. After Peterson spent his childhood watching his dad race, Wooster put him in a race car for the first time when Peterson was 18.

He’s been with Wooster ever since.

“I grew up around Clay,” Peterson said. “Clay’s like a second father to me. It’s really cool we can go out and do this together, and the amount of success that we’ve had is something that I’ll cherish forever.

“It’s really cool to be able to do that, and Clay, he lives for racing. If they ran seven nights a week out here, he’d probably be at the race track seven nights a week.”

Jeffrey Peterson shares Victory Lane at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with his wife Kayli. (Photo: Las Vegas Motor Speedway)

Peterson isn’t the only one in his house who is racing as often as possible. His wife Kayli races in the Modified division at the Bullring; she finished fourth in the points this season.

Kayli has been racing at Vegas for more than 20 years. The two met through racing, and Peterson said he gets just as much joy out of seeing her be successful.

“It’s definitely really cool,” he said. “I’ve been really fortunate to be with her when she became the first female to win a Super Late Model race out there, first female to win a Modified race. I feel like I get more excited and happier for her when she wins than I do when I win. Every time that I’ve been there for one of her wins I’ve actually cried, and I don’t cry a whole lot.”

Having Kayli to talk to about racing helps him on the track, too.

“It’s really cool her being involved in the racing. It really helps make it nice,” Peterson added. “She understands everything that I go through as well as I understand the things that she goes through, so it makes it easy in that aspect. We’ve got that kind of common hobby that we can bond over.”

Even though the race season is over at the Bullring, Peterson isn’t done. He and the team pay close attention to the NASCAR Local Racing Series regional, national and state points. He currently leads the Nevada state championship standings by 36 points, is second in the West Region standings and ranks 12th in the Division I national standings.

He’ll continue racing this summer at All American Speedway in Bakersfield, California to try to gain points, but he said it can be hard late in the year to find races where he can add to his championship total.

“We definitely pay attention to the regional stuff. National, not so much just because we don’t get the car count that the East Coast does,” Peterson said. “So, it’s really difficult to compete with the East Coast guys on that aspect. But the West Region and stuff, we really do pay close attention to that. We’ve won it twice now, so we’re hoping to hoping to be able to do it a third time this year. But car count kind of struggled throughout the middle of the season up at the Bullring in Vegas, so that really didn’t help us much. We just we need more cars.”

No matter who he’s racing against, Peterson is showing up to the track every week with sky-high confidence. He has 20 wins this season that helped him get there.

“We just focus on doing what we can do to control our outcome and wherever the chips may stack after that is it,” he said. “Just trying to be consistent all year and show up with the best car that we can.

“We go to the race track knowing that we’re the team to beat, and we’ve just got to keep on our A-game, keep doing what we’re doing, and try and minimize any sort of bad nights or off nights that we have. It all comes down to controlling what you can control yourself.”

Posted on July 7, 2026 by Pat DeCola

NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola ranks the top 20 Cup Series drivers competing for the 2026 championship after Chase Briscoe’s win at Chicagoland Speedway and before Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Analysis: Hamlin didn’t return to Victory Lane at Chicagoland, but he still posted a viable bounce-back after Sonoma. He started from the pole, led 30 laps, ranked No. 1 in speed per NASCAR Insights, finished third and extended his now-growing regular-season points lead to 44 over Tyler Reddick. That is a pretty reasonable consolation prize on a night when he finished third among his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, which generally has not been the case this year. EchoPark Speedway keeps the argument interesting, too. Hamlin owns a win, six top fives, 11 top 10s and 462 laps led there, though the modern version of the track has a different kind of chaos attached to it, as we know. The crown still fits No. 11, but the 23XI/JGR family fight is not exactly quieting down.

Analysis: Reddick’s Chicagoland was a rare total miss in a season with very few of them. The No. 45 finished 36th after a fluid issue, scored just two points and watched his boss stretch the standings gap from one tally to 44 in a single night. That doesn’t undo five wins, 12 top 10s and the best overall speed profile in the series, but it does make the regular-season title fight feel a lot less theoretical as it quickly appears to be getting away from him. EchoPark is the right place for a counterpunch, however, because Reddick won there earlier this season after starting first and owns a win, three top fives and five top 10s in 12 starts at the track. If he wants the top spot back, this is a pretty direct runway.

Analysis: Blaney keeps living in that sturdy third lane, and Chicagoland did nothing to knock him out of it — up or down. He finished seventh, led eight laps, scored Stage 2 points and now has a series-best 14 top 10s through 19 races. The No. 12 still doesn’t feel as electric as Hamlin or Reddick, but the week-to-week floor is about as stable as anything in the garage. EchoPark has been kind to him historically, too, with a win, seven top fives, 10 top 10s and an 11.5 average finish in 16 starts. At some point, all this reliability needs to turn into another trophy, but this track gives him a decent shot at making that happen.

Analysis: Gibbs climbs yet again, and it’s not just because others keep slipping around him. Chicagoland was another mature points night for the No. 54, with an eighth-place run, Stage 1 and Stage 2 points and a leg up to fourth in the standings. He didn’t have the winning speed of his teammates Briscoe or Bell late, but he did exactly what strong Chase-caliber seasons require: stayed in the mix, scored points and left cleaner than several contenders. EchoPark is a little more complicated, with Gibbs owning just two top 10s and a 21.9 average finish in seven Cup starts there, but the 2026 version of Gibbs has repeatedly outgrown the old resume and previous limiting factors. This would be a useful place to do it again.

Analysis: Elliott moves back into the top five without a headline-grabbing Chicagoland, which feels about right for the way his season has been shaping up lately. He finished 11th, scored Stage 2 points and remained fifth in the standings, one point ahead of teammate Kyle Larson, even as the No. 9 still hasn’t quite rediscovered the sharpest version of itself from early in the year. EchoPark — Elliott’s home track — is a natural place for the tone to change. The Georgia native has two Cup wins there, including last year’s summer race, with three top fives, nine top 10s and a strong 11.3 average finish in 15 starts. If this season is going to heat back up before The Chase, this feels like a logical spark point.

Analysis: Larson drops two spots because Chicagoland became the latest “how did that turn into that?” race for the No. 5. He started second, led 23 laps, finished second in Stage 1 and looked fully capable of winning before spinning off Turn 4, getting stuck in the infield grass and limping home 34th, two laps down. The speed is still ridiculous — 633 laps led without a win is almost comical at this point — but the finishes keep refusing to match. EchoPark is another tricky proposition. Sort of like his 2026 season in general, Larson has led 500 laps there but still has no Cup wins and a 19.6 average finish in 17 starts. The countdown may still be on, but the clock’s tick must be getting pretty annoying for him.

Analysis: Briscoe’s Chicagoland win felt less like a surprise and more like a confirmation of what we’ve been seeing the past several weeks. The No. 19 started seventh, led 51 laps, ranked third in speed and second on restarts and held off Christopher Bell by 0.276 seconds after Bell came charging through lapped traffic in the closing laps. Add in the Sonoma runner-up one week earlier, and this is no longer just a nice run. EchoPark is not exactly a slam dunk, with just one top 10 and a 22.0 average finish in 11 starts, but Briscoe now has seven top fives, nine top 10s and a win on the season. The track history matters, but his — and Toyota’s — current form might matter more.

Analysis: Bell keeps climbing after his early- to mid-season lull, and Chicagoland made it feel deserved. He finished second, pushed his teammate to the final lap, scored Stage 2 points and has now stacked back-to-back top fives after a miserable stretch of engine trouble, wrist drama and fuel heartbreak. The No. 20 also sits fifth in season-long speed rating, so the rebound is not built on smoke — and EchoPark only strengthens the case that he’s on an upward trajectory. Bell won there last year for the first time in Cup and owns three top fives and four top 10s in 12 starts while also having O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series wins at the track. His apparent bad-luck tax may not be gone forever, but Bell looks a whole lot closer to normal again.

Analysis: Buescher falls two spots because Chicagoland was one of the few recent races where the No. 17 just didn’t quite cash in on its typical consistency. He started third, scored Stage 1 points and showed early pace, but finished 19th, a lap down, on a night when several drivers around him made bigger statements. The season is still in good shape — seventh in points, 134 above the cutline, still no panic button — but the argument for keeping him near the front needed a little more than that. EchoPark is not the easiest reset, either. Buescher has five top 10s in 16 starts there, but no top fives and a 20.0 average finish. The floor remains trustworthy. The ceiling needs to reappear quickly if he wants to get back into the top tier and have a realistic shot at this year’s title.

Analysis: Hocevar’s Chicagoland was a step backward from the cleaner runs he’d been putting together of late. He got tangled with rival Zane Smith while racing near 17th, finished 22nd and has lost just a bit of the shine that had built from his midseason surge. The bigger picture is still strong, though, still ninth in points, 117 above the cutline and already a Cup winner. EchoPark offers a fascinating reset. Hocevar has been excellent there in a small sample, with two top fives, three top 10s and a 10.2 average finish in five starts, on top of winning at Talladega earlier this year. The opportunity is there.

Analysis: Byron finally looked like Byron again for most of Chicagoland, even if the win got away. He led a race-high 94 laps, swept both stages, ranked second in speed, first on restarts and first on pit crew performance for the race, then settled for fourth in the running order after Briscoe and Bell took over late. That is still a major performance correction for a team that badly needed one. Plus, EchoPark gives the No. 24 an even louder rebound case. Byron owns two Cup wins there, including on the modern configuration, with 181 laps led in 14 starts. If Chicagoland was the reminder, EchoPark could be the part where the No. 24 starts becoming a problem again.

Analysis: Suárez stayed parked at No. 12 because Chicagoland was neither great nor damaging enough to force a bigger conversation. He finished 14th after starting 26th, gained a little in the overall points column and remains 100 points above the cutline, which is still a useful place to be with seven regular-season races left. EchoPark is where the story gets more interesting, however. Suárez won there in 2024 and owns five top fives, seven top 10s and a 16.4 average finish in 15 starts. The consistency has been a little bumpy lately, but if there is a place for No. 7 to look spicy again, this qualifies.

Analysis: Wallace’s sixth-place finish at Chicagoland was probably better than it will get credit for, especially among a slew of Toyotas in the top 10. But the No. 23 led 35 laps, ranked first in both passing and defense and spent long chunks of the race as a legitimate front-end player before the final cycle shuffled the win out of reach. That is a good sign after the Sonoma dent. EchoPark is not a bad follow-up, either, even if the raw stats are more solid than spectacular: one top five, three top 10s, 65 laps led and an 18.7 average finish in 14 starts. Wallace remains 77 points above the cutline, and the speed is showing up often enough that the next step is turning these strong runs into something with teeth.

Analysis: SVG’s road-course annihilation vacation is over, and Chicagoland made that pretty clear. He started 30th, had contact with Austin Hill that triggered an early caution and finished 25th, one lap down, as the schedule snapped back to the kind of track that is still shaping his full-season ceiling. That does not erase the two wins or the road-course brilliance, but it does explain why he slips three spots and may not be done dropping. EchoPark is at least not empty for him. He has one top 10 in four starts there, but the average finish is still 21.3 and the sample remains thin. The mission now is less about fireworks and more about keeping The Chase cushion from shrinking before the next chance to strike, which is not obvious.

Analysis: Cindric moves up a spot because Chicagoland was quietly one of the more useful bubble nights on the board. He led 18 laps, finished fourth in Stage 1, ninth in Stage 2 and came home 13th, stretching his cushion to 27 points above the cutline. The No. 2 still doesn’t feel especially explosive, but Sunday was a reminder that Cindric can still manufacture real points when the race gives him an opening. EchoPark has been reasonably workable, too, with two top fives, three top 10s and 226 laps led in 10 starts. That is enough of a resume to matter when the bubble is this tight, and having a Daytona 500 win up his sleeve doesn’t hurt, either.

Analysis: Jones moves up one spot, though Chicagoland was more of a salvage than a surge. He finished 15th after brushing the wall and fading on a restart, which was enough to keep him barely above the red line but not enough to make the bubble feel comfortable. The Legacy Motor Club push is still alive, just a little less solid than it was after Michigan and Pocono. EchoPark offers a decent place to keep it upright, as Jones has two top fives, four top 10s and a 17.1 average finish in 15 starts there. With only four points separating him from the cutline, upright is not a boring word. It’s the whole job right now.

Analysis: Preece gives back two spots after Chicagoland undid much of the progress he made on the road-course swing. He got swept up in the opening-lap stack-up and later received the free pass twice, but still finished 32nd and fell four points below the cutline. That is a brutal reset for a driver who had just started to make his Chase picture feel a little less fragile. EchoPark does not offer much comfort, either. Preece has one top 10 and a 21.7 average finish in 11 starts there. The No. 60 has been better than the math suggests at times, but the math is getting a little less favorable.

Analysis: Logano climbs two spots, which says as much about the bottom of the list as it does about a 12th-place finish, but there were still positives at Chicagoland. He started 31st, finished 12th, led a lap through the pit cycle and had the second-best pit crew performance of the race, matching a season-long pit crew profile that remains one of the best in the garage. The standings position still stinks considering who’s driving the car — the three-time champ is 16 points below the cutline — but EchoPark gives him a real lifeline. Logano owns two wins, four top fives, eight top 10s, three poles and 554 laps led there. If this season is going to stop feeling like a survival fight, this would be a very convenient place to start acting like the championship-caliber No. 22 Team Penske team that it is.

Analysis: Allmendinger holds 19th after finishing 17th at Chicagoland; basically the definition of staying alive without changing anything about the conversation. He remains tied with Logano in points, 16 below the cutline, and the schedule has moved away from the tracks where he had his cleanest shot to flip everything. But he’s a reasonable superspeedway racer, and EchoPark has not been terrible for him. Allmendinger owns one top five, four top 10s and a 16.7 average finish in 18 starts there, which is respectable enough to keep him in the discussion and afloat in The Chase mix. The problem is that “respectable” may not be enough for much longer, and points need to be accumulated consistently from here on out.

Analysis: Keselowski drops to the final spot, and the urgency is now impossible to ignore. Chicagoland should have been a place where the No. 6 could build off his strong track history, but instead, the 2012 champ finished 21st, lost more ground and slipped to 19 points below the cutline. EchoPark offers another veteran-friendly lifeline, and his history there is strong: two wins, six top fives, 12 top 10s, 259 laps led and a 15.7 average finish in 23 starts. That’s the good news. The bad news is that good track histories only matter if they start producing current points, and it feels like he can’t count on a clean weekend ahead. The Chase picture has not moved on without him yet, but it is absolutely checking its watch for when No. 6 might strike. And that’s a bigger “if” than “when.”

Posted on July 6, 2026July 6, 2026 by Staff Report

Following a return to the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway for the first time since 2019, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to another 1.5-mile track this Sunday, but an entirely different beast in the high-banked, drafting-style EchoPark Speedway (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

This will be the 20th points-paying race of the 2026 Cup Series season and the second trip to Georgia this year for the highly anticipated summer race in the Peach State.

ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series | Craftsman Truck Series

In Round 3 of the In-Season Challenge, (No. 25 seed) Todd Gilliland will go head-to-head with (No. 32 seed) Alex Bowman. Chicagoland winner (No. 12 seed) Chase Briscoe will battle Georgia native (No. 4 seed) Chase Elliott.

On the other side of the bracket, (No. 2 seed) Denny Hamlin is set to face off with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate (No. 10 seed) Christopher Bell. The final matchup will be a showdown between (No. 3 seed) Ryan Blaney and (No. 11 seed) William Byron.

Thirty-eight cars are entered into this weekend’s event.

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on TNT Sports

View the full entry list here:

Other topics covered by Forde and senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis during the 61st episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:

Clash at Claremont

Claremont Motorsports Park