Posted on by Adam Fenwick

One of the most important race weeks of the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season is here, as the series returns to New Hampshire Motor Speedway this week for Saturday’s running of the Mohegan Sun 100 (4:30 p.m. ET on FloRacing).

Saturday’s race marks the 78th Modified Tour event held at the 1.058-mile asphalt oval since 1990, when Mike McLaughlin held off Mike Stefanik to secure the 14th of his 16 series victories. That event started a tradition for the Modified Tour; New Hampshire quickly became one of the most popular stops on the schedule each season.

Stefanik leads all Modified Tour competitors with eight victories at the track known as “The Magic Mile,” with other stars like Tony Hirschman, Reggie Ruggiero, Bobby Santos III, Ted Christopher, John Blewett III, Doug Coby, Steve Park, Todd Szegedy and Justin Bonsignore among the 25 drivers to earn trips to Victory Lane at the track.

Tickets to Saturday’s Mohegan Sun 100 are available here. Below is everything you need to know about the 12th race of the 2026 Modified Tour season.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is known to put on exciting races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway that also include incredible finishes. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

The race every NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driver has circled on his calendar is finally here.

Saturday’s Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (4:30 p.m. ET on FloRacing) is arguably the biggest race of the season for Modified Tour teams and drivers. A win at New Hampshire can make or break a season and, in the case of some, change the course of their careers.

One season ago it was Tyler Rypkema who emerged as the victor in a thrilling finish that saw him crash across the finish line after contact with Justin Bonsignore as the two raced to the checkered flag. That finish wasn’t an anomaly; Modified Tour events at New Hampshire have traditionally provided thrilling finishes.

A large field of Modifieds is scheduled to take the green flag Saturday. Leading that charge is NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Preece, who is scheduled to make his second start of the season with NASCAR’s oldest division. Preece is a New Hampshire Modified Tour winner (2021) and should be considered among the contenders Saturday.

Another NASCAR star on the entry list for Saturday is 18-time Cup Series race winner Ryan Newman, who has two Modified Tour victories at New Hampshire. He’ll pilot the No. 0 owned by Glenn Styers in his third Modified Tour start of the season.

Three-time Loudon winner Justin Bonsignore returns to Modified Tour competition Saturday. He’ll pilot his familiar No. 51 Ken Massa Motorsports entry, which will carry new colors thanks to sponsorship from Dollar Tree. Luke Baldwin also returns to Modified Tour competition this weekend aboard the No. 7 owned by his father, Tommy Baldwin Jr.

Championship leader Patrick Emerling will chase his first points victory at New Hampshire on Saturday. (He won a 35-lap, non-point event at New Hampshire in 2019.) Defending series champion Austin Beers is looking for not only his first New Hampshire triumph, but also his first victory of the season.

Other notable entries for Saturday’s event include Matt Hirschman, Andy Seuss, Eric Goodale, Mike Christopher Jr., Jon McKennedy, Craig Lutz, Paulie Hartwig III, Anthony Nocella, Stephen Kopcik, Chase Dowling and Ronnie Williams, among others.

The full entry list for Saturday’s Mohegan Sun 100 is available here.

Tyler Rypkema
Tyler Rypkema (3) won the 2025 running of the Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in a thrilling finish with Justin Bonsignore. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

RACING REFERENCE:

Race Mohegan Sun 100
Date Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026
Track New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Layout 1.058-mile oval
Location Loudon, New Hampshire
Start time 4:30 p.m. ET
Laps 100
Posted Awards $161,131
Tickets Here
How to Watch FloRacing

SCHEDULE: Friday, Aug. 21: Practice from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. … Final practice from 12:40 to 1:10 p.m. … American Racer Pole Award qualifying at 2:45 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 22: Start of the Mohegan Sun 100 (100 Laps / 105.8 Miles) at 4:30 p.m. ET.

QUALIFYING: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the 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 NASCAR Officials, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. The same four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. A maximum of four (4) tires of the allotment may be used as change tires. The tire change rule is two (2) tires per stop. This includes “swapping” tires front to back.

Posted on by George Winkler

With two regular-season races remaining in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, it’s time for a check-in to see how the race for The Chase is progressing.

Reminder: The top 16 drivers in points make The Chase. There is no more win-and-in. The regular-season points leader starts The Chase with 2,100 points and second place starts with 2,075. Third place starts with 2,065 points, then drivers are separated by five-point increments through 16th place.

RELATED: Cup Series standings | New Hampshire weekend schedule

The Race for No. 1

RankDriverPointsPoints to leader
1Denny Hamlin969--
2Ryan Blaney854-115
3Ty Gibbs842-127

Denny Hamlin continues to put a stranglehold on the top spot in the standings, and it’s desperate times for everyone else. Hamlin finished fourth on Saturday night at Richmond, scoring 46 points, and he emerged from there with a 115-point lead over Ryan Blaney. Even though Blaney is the defending winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the site of Sunday’s race, Hamlin’s history at the “Magic Mile” is nothing short of excellent, with three wins and 19 top 10s in 32 races there. In other words, don’t expect Denny to back down.

Blaney, meanwhile, did enough to leapfrog Ty Gibbs in the standings and into second place thanks to a 41-point effort at Richmond that included a Stage 1 win. But after he won his fourth Busch Light Pole Award of the season on Friday and led 88 laps Saturday, some may have expected a better finish than 13th. Still, overall it was a good night for Blaney, who looks solidly positioned for The Chase.

Ty Gibbs’ short-track magic came to an abrupt halt with a 15th-place finish at Richmond and only 22 points on the night after an early pit-road penalty. He’ll look to rebound at New Hampshire, where his best finish is only 16th in three career appearances. He’ll need to buck that trend in order to make up any ground this week.

The Mythical Top Six

RankDriverPointsPoints to leader
4Tyler Reddick831-138
5Chase Briscoe715-254
6Chase Elliott695-274
7Christopher Bell695-274
8Kyle Larson660-309

After a stretch of four finishes of 30th or worse in six races, Tyler Reddick stopped the bleeding with an 11th-place run in which he led laps and tallied 28 points. But he still lost 18 points to Hamlin and desperately needs some momentum heading into The Chase to get back into championship form. Reddick has had a couple of sixth-place finishes in his last three runs at New Hampshire, so there’s hope he can continue on an upward swing.

Not many drivers are hotter than Chase Briscoe right now as the only thing he didn’t do at Richmond was close out the victory. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led the most laps on Saturday night (171 of 400) en route to a second-place finish and has six top-six finishes in his last seven outings. He has three top-10 finishes in five New Hampshire races, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him continue to stay as hot as a boiling lobster this week.

Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell are in a dead heat for the last spot in the mythical top six. Elliott righted the No. 9 Chevrolet’s ship with a fifth-place run at Richmond, marking his first top-10 finish since May 31 at Nashville and leading a brigade as all four Hendrick drivers finished in the top 10. However, Elliott will have his work cut out staying in front of Bell in the standings, because Bell has two wins and four top-10 finishes in six races at Loudon.

Kyle Larson got a much-needed sixth-place finish at Richmond and moved up two spots in the standings. He’s never won at New Hampshire, but he has an average finish of 10.9 there with nine top-10 finishes in 15 races. Plus, he has to be absolutely stoked after winning the Knoxville Nationals on Saturday during a wild doubleheader night of racing for him.

The Middle Ground

RankDriverPointsPoints to cutline
9Joey Logano659+142
10Chris Buescher653+136
11Carson Hocevar645+128
12William Byron630+113
13Daniel Suárez618+101
14Bubba Wallace587+70

Joey Logano has gone from 20th in the standings to ninth in a matter of six races and is proof that a driver can make up a lot of ground in this points system if they go on a hot streak. Logano is coming off his second win in four races and is set up well for his home track in New Hampshire, where he has two wins and 10 top fives in 27 races. Logano is only one point behind Larson in eighth place, so his upward mobility might continue this week.

Carson Hocevar is doing the opposite of Logano and has dropped from fifth in the standings after Indianapolis to 11th after Richmond, where he had a last-place finish due to an engine issue. That came on top of a 31st-place finish at Iowa, so Hocevar needs some momentum before The Chase starts. But on the bright side, he’s still only 15 points behind Larson in eighth place, so a lot could change in two weeks.

William Byron has stacked back-to-back top-10 finishes for the first time since a string of four in a row early in the season that spanned from Phoenix Raceway to Martinsville Speedway. His ninth-place finish at Richmond came after another ninth-place run at Iowa. Still, he dropped one spot in the standings as Logano whizzed by him after his victory on Saturday night. Byron has only one top-five finish in eight races at New Hampshire, but he’s had success at Daytona, where he could build some late momentum heading into The Chase.

The Cutline Battle

RankDriverPointsPoints to Cutline
15Austin Cindric574+57
16Shane van Gisbergen567+50
17Ryan Preece517-50
18Ross Chastain504-63
19Brad Keselowski489-78
20Erik Jones486-81

Austin Cindric picked a great time to have his best race of the season as he finished third and scored 48 points. That allowed him to move up to 15th place in the standings, and he gained 28 points against the cutline. He’s also just 13 points behind Bubba Wallace for 14th place. However, Cindric isn’t completely out of the woods yet, as he has never finished better than 13th at New Hampshire.

Shane van Gisbergen had a solid 14th-place finish at Richmond, but Cindric’s big night put SVG in the precarious 16th and final position for The Chase. The good news is he opened up a 50-point gap over Ryan Preece in a race where Preece was expected to gain ground. SVG has only raced once at New Hampshire and he finished 32nd.

Looking down the list of drivers beneath the cutline, Brad Keselowski has the best history at New Hampshire with two wins and 16 top-10 finishes in 25 races, but his last two outings at the “Magic Mile” have netted no finish better than 23rd place. Keselowski finished 26th last week at Richmond despite having a strong history there, too.

Posted on by Holly Cain

RICHMOND, Va. — While so much of the early-season NASCAR Cup Series championship storylines centered on 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, as the regular season winds down, subplots and new characters have arrived, changing the competitive outlook.

Only two races remain to set the 16-driver field for the 10-race Chase to award the 2026 trophy. Up next is the New Hampshire Motor Speedway mile hosting Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Richmond

Certainly, Saturday night under the Richmond Raceway bright lights and in front of the sold-out grandstands, a three-time series champion reminded again that he is among those ready to prove this title is still very much up for grabs.

Joey Logano’s win was a strong statement on several levels — and his resiliency this season is indicative of the strength of this championship field and a lesson in never counting out anyone — especially one of the most successful drivers from one of the most heralded organizations in Team Penske.

After suffering through the worst early season tenure in his sure-bet NASCAR Hall of Fame career, Logano has two wins and made up nine positions in the championship standings in just the last six race weekends. His win at Richmond moves him into ninth place in the standings and he’s only a single point behind reigning series champ Kyle Larson in eighth place; only 36 points off sixth place Chase Elliott.

The way his No. 22 Team Penske Ford team has been performing this summer, it’s hard to believe Logano was ranked a season-low 20th place in the standings in the first week of July. And now he stands a reasonable opportunity to high-gear it into title contention.

“We’ve been able to ride some momentum here right now,” Logano said Saturday night after celebrating in Richmond’s Victory Lane. “It’s been a nice turnaround. We’ve been able to switch our goals from making The Chase to winning the championship. It’s quite the turnaround in a month and a half’s time or so.”

And Logano’s certainly not the only driver who has repositioned himself as a threat for the title.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe, who kept Logano honest all night and led a race high 171 of the 400 laps to finish runner-up — earned his first career top 10 on a short track. As importantly, it gives Briscoe — who is ranked fifth in the standings — plenty of confidence heading into The Chase.

His JGR teammate Christopher Bell has also been on a summer surge. A week ago at Iowa, he claimed his seventh runner-up finish, and Saturday night, he led laps and finished seventh at Richmond for his sixth top-10 finish in the last seven races. He’s seventh in the rankings.

Hendrick Motorsports had a similarly encouraging day for its title contenders with Larson getting back in the championship groove after an uncharacteristically “off” summer run. His sixth-place showing at Richmond was his first top 10 since Sonoma at the end of June.

Larson’s teammates, Chase Elliott (fifth place) and William Byron (ninth) also had strong Richmond showings. It was Elliott’s first top 10 in the last 11 races and only Byron’s second top 10 in the last five races. They ranked sixth and 12th, respectively in the championship.

“Obviously it’s not a win, but for how things have been going the last few months, it feels nice to just have a really solid night and hopefully we can get things rolling in the right direction,” the 2020 series champion Elliott said. “There’s been a lot of hard work put in across the board; everyone on this No. 9 Chevrolet team and Hendrick Motorsports. I appreciate that effort. Everyone shows up with it each week, even after a bad day, so hopefully we can get things rolling here.”

Of course, not to be overlooked — or underestimated — were Hamlin and Reddick who reminded Saturday at Richmond that they are up for the challenges coming their way. Hamlin, who holds a 115-point edge over Penske’s Ryan Blaney atop the championship, finished fourth at his home track — his fifth top-five finish in the last six races.

And for Reddick, who won five of the season’s opening nine races, including the Daytona 500, an 11th-place finish and laps led at Richmond marked a timely resurgence after an excruciating summer run that’s included five finishes of 25th or worse in the last eight races. He’s still ranked fourth with two races to go before the points are reset for the 2026 Chase run.

Opening practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is set for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET, followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 11:35 a.m. ET (both on truTV, PRN Radio and SiriusXM). Logano is the defending pole-winner and Blaney the defending race winner.

Posted on by Zack Albert

RICHMOND, Va. — Austin Cindric called his Saturday showing at Richmond Raceway “a very important day for us to have a good day,” a nod to the well-timed nature of his season-best result. His postseason plight, plus a string of unwanted finishes, had created the critical need — one Cindric filled with head-turning effect.  

A strong third-place run in Saturday night’s Cook Out 400 gave Cindric and his No. 2 Team Penske group a boost in the NASCAR Cup Series standings, plus some extra buffer in his quest for a spot in the 16-driver Chase field. The outcome marked his first top-five finish since Darlington in March and snapped an 11-race skid without a top 10.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Richmond

That stretch included a 29th-place outing at Iowa Speedway, where his cushion and comfort relative to the postseason elimination line was narrowed. Cindric had entered Richmond as the final provisional driver into the Chase field — 16th with just a 29-point advantage. That cushion grew to 57 by night’s end with just two regular-season races remaining — New Hampshire next week and Daytona on Aug. 29.

Saturday’s reversal at Richmond was welcome, but with a hint that Cindric was left wanting.

“That’s what’s expected. I mean, this time of year, you’ve got to go, and honestly, the last month we haven’t done a whole lot of going,” Cindric said. “So I’m happy, but yeah, I still want more. I thought I had a car that could win tonight, and things that we could have done that were maybe a bit better, but overall, just proud of everybody on the 2 car team.”

Cindric had said entering Richmond that ticking each box on the team’s checklist and maximizing every factor in the races ahead would be pivotal. Saturday was the fulfillment of that vision.

Cindric’s No. 2 Ford powered through the field in the 70-lap opening stage, rising from the 23rd starting spot to a fourth-place result and a points payoff at the green-checkered flag. A Stage 2 pit stop represented one of the night’s few blips, when Cindric had to dodge the exiting No. 7 Chevrolet of Daniel Suárez as he entered his stall. He quickly made up the two positions lost, notching another fourth-place stage finish.

On a night when Joey Logano marched to his second victory of the year, Cindric maintained a steady presence among the top five, rounding out just behind his Team Penske teammate and runner-up Chase Briscoe at the checkered flag. No. 2 crew chief Brian Wilson lauded Cindric’s poise, but also took special note of the beneficial timing of the points boost.

“Yeah, it’s huge,” Wilson told NASCAR.com. “You know, you try to not focus on it. You try to just run your own race, but you’re always aware of what’s going on. So, throughout the race, you see where the other guys are at the cutline, and it’s good to put some points on the board, maybe a little bit of stress off. You’ve still got to go to Loudon. We’ve still got to have a great week there. So, I don’t know that you’re ever going to be relaxed going into Daytona, but you’ve got to stack as many points as you can these two weeks.”

Only Logano and Briscoe amassed more points than Cindric on a night when he desperately needed them. The conventional wisdom might also follow that Cindric would enjoy some increased confidence for the two regular-season races that lie next. Not so much, he said.

“Doesn’t change it in the slightest,” Cindric said. “I haven’t stopped believing in myself and this team. It’s a hard sport, a tough series, and I want this to be more often.”

Posted on by Nathan Solomon

When Kyle Larson won his preliminary feature and secured pole position for Saturday night’s 65th Knoxville Nationals, he resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn’t be able to race in the main event. The highly prestigious 410 sprint-car race in Iowa competed directly against the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, over 1,100 miles apart, and Larson needed to prioritize duties behind the wheel of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Yet somehow, hours after earning a desperately needed sixth-place finish in the Cup Series, the 34-year-old climbed from Silva Motorsports’ No. 57 car with his fourth Knoxville crown-jewel victory in six years.

The only scenario where Larson could have made it to Knoxville in time for the A-Main required rain at the 0.5-mile dirt oval — a former two-time stop on the Craftsman Truck Series schedule — just down the road from Iowa Raceway. And unlike his two Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 Double attempts, Mother Nature played her cards right.

RELATED: Richmond race results | At-track photos

“It’s extremely surreal,” Larson told worldofoutlaws.com. “Just to talk about the day and the range of emotions. Even going back to the last couple days, I had no emotion. I knew I wouldn’t be able to race, but there was still that glimmer of hope with the rain in the forecast.”

For many reasons, Larson still wanted to enter the World of Outlaws event, knowing the unlikelihood that he’d compete in the 50-lap, $200,000 win event. He remained in Iowa after last Sunday’s Cup event and banked $13,000 in a Capitani Classic win at Knoxville that night, then secured another $21,000 with a victory Monday night at Southern Iowa Speedway. His Thursday prelim victory at Knoxville paid another $12,000, and by having a Silva team member start-and-park for the Saturday main, Larson would have earned another $15,000 — all key funding for the part-time sprint-car effort.

As Saturday progressed, the forecast worsened in Knoxville, but Larson settled in and focused on 400 laps at Richmond. He qualified 30th Friday afternoon and began his uphill battle at the 0.75-mile short track, falling a lap behind early. After finishing 25th in Stage 1, Larson improved to 13th at the end of Stage 2, earning the free pass to return to the lead lap.

Meanwhile, the Iowa skies opened up, pushing back the start of the Nationals and putting the evening of racing in flux. During a midway caution at Richmond, crew chief Cliff Daniels radioed to his driver that he could be traveling to Iowa after all.

“He had done a really good job of this week kind of resigning himself to the fact that he wasn’t going to be able to start the A-Main, and not going to tell you exactly what I told him, but using appropriate language, I was like, ‘man, like, we can have stuff ready for you. We can go get this,’ ” Daniels told reporters after the race. “Jeff Andrews (Hendrick Motorsports President) was very instrumental in helping us get a plan laid out. Colby (Gorniewicz, Larson’s public relations representative), standing right here beside me, had a lot of communication with people back in Knoxville, and I said, hey, look, why don’t we just have a plane ready, have stuff ready to go, and if it works out, then great. Like, I’d much rather have a plan in place that we can say no to, or if they get the feature in, so be it, than to have nothing prepared.

“(Larson) kept telling me no; he kept telling Jeff Andrews no, but we were persistent because we knew that if we get him there, he can probably do something special.”

And coincidentally, once Larson knew a trip to Knoxville was plausible, his Richmond race turned for the better. He rocketed into the top 10 late and came home sixth, scoring his best result since Sonoma after a stretch of four finishes outside the top 30 in five races dropped him five spots to 10th in points.

Kyle Larson's No. 57 car out front
Tyler Carr | World of Outlaws

“We were struggling (at Richmond) but making improvements, and then all of a sudden Cliff came on the radio and said there was a rain delay (in Knoxville), and they hadn’t started hot laps yet,” Larson said. “Then I got a kick-start of emotion there.”

As soon as he took the checkered flag at Richmond, Daniels let Larson know: game on. He parked on pit road and ran for a vehicle that took him to Richmond International Airport, where a chartered plane waited for a flight to Pella, Iowa.

At one point, over 16,000 people were tracking the Knoxville-bound aircraft. Fans provided real-time updates on X, and a DirtVision camera crew shot his exodus onto the tarmac in Iowa. A police escort waited to take him to the track.

Larson arrived on the Knoxville Raceway grounds before even the B-Main began. He missed hot laps, but the 16-time overall Knoxville winner knows a thing or two about how to get around there.

And the way he performed in the wee hours of Sunday morning, you’d never know his Knoxville trip was ever in jeopardy. He led all 50 laps, winning the “Grandaddy of ’em all” over Sheldon Haudenschild for the fourth time since 2021.

“It’s just wild how I’m here tonight,” Larson said. “Huge thank you to everyone at Hendrick Motorsports, HendrickCars.com, everybody at HMS for supporting dirt racers, myself and (O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver) Corey Day here tonight. I really couldn’t do any of this without them. I wouldn’t have any Knoxville Nationals championships without Hendrick Motorsports.

“A fourth Knoxville Nationals in a fashion like this is unbelievable … it feels like a little bit of a dream right now.”

Additionally, former Hendrick ace Kasey Kahne finished third, marking the 46-year-old’s best career Knoxville Nationals result.

Contributing: Zack Albert

Posted on by Zack Albert

RICHMOND, Va. — Chase Briscoe had seemingly done everything right Saturday night at Richmond Raceway, leading laps by the dozens and keeping the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field at bay at a track that had been one of his tallest hurdles. The few little things that went wrong unraveled in a handful of pivotal green-flag stints.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Richmond

His undoing provided an opportunity that Joey Logano pounced on in the late going of Saturday’s Cook Out 400, leaving Briscoe to settle for second place for the third time this season. Briscoe’s Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota led a race-best 171 laps, but he pointed to a late rush by Logano that lifted the three-time champion to his second short-track victory in the last four races and left him disappointed.

“Just have to be perfect for 400 laps,” Briscoe said post-race, “and Joey’s car was odd. It was kind of like mine in a sense, where he had two runs that he was just phenomenal, and then the rest he was just the same as all of us. It was odd from that standpoint, how guys would just be really good one run and then kind of be back to how they were the rest. But yeah, still a solid night. Just rough to be that fast and not get it done.”

Briscoe seemed poised to collect another win late in the regular season, building on the momentum of his victory at Chicagoland Speedway last month. Saturday night’s showing was even more convincing, as Briscoe started second and took firm control as the sun began to set.

Strategies swirled in the final stage, but Briscoe and Logano were roughly adhering to the same game plan. The upper hand, however, went to Logano at a crucial moment.

“Yeah, I thought my car was really, really good and just that second-to-last or before that final pit stop, I just started losing brakes and got really, really loose, and I gave up a three-second lead,” Briscoe said. “If I could have had any buffer at all, I felt like I would have probably won the race just because I definitely was better than him that final run. But just yeah, gave up way too much time that one run, and that was ultimately the difference maker.”

The result still produced marked improvement for Briscoe at Richmond, a venue he’s called “a huge struggle.” Nine previous starts here — eight with Stewart-Haas Racing and one in his debut season last year at JGR — had failed to yield a top-10 finish.

His No. 19 team has had a star-crossed relationship with the 0.75-mile track, especially during Martin Truex Jr.’s tenure with the team. Truex won here three times in the No. 19 Toyota, but his record — and the team’s — also includes a significant share of near-misses, with strong performances that didn’t convert into Victory Lane visits. Saturday night felt like more of the latter.

“I love this place, but lost far many more races here than you know we’ve won, and we’ve won quite a lot,” No. 19 crew chief James Small told NASCAR.com. “So yeah, it’s disappointing. So second, in the scheme of things is a great result, but right now it’s really disappointing because we had the better car and we didn’t win.”

Those results predated Briscoe’s time with the team, but the sentiment was shared.

“I’ve watched Martin obviously lead a ton of laps here, and there’s been times where it’s kind of fell apart at the very end. A little bit of that, I guess,” Briscoe said. “I mean, we didn’t fall apart. We just, honestly, just had one run where we gave up three seconds, and that was the difference maker. So yeah, I think James even said on the radio, if you would have told me going into this week I could run second and top three in both stages, I would have gladly taken it. So, still a lot to be proud of, just … winning is great. To have one be that close and not get it, it’s frustrating.”

Logano was Briscoe’s strongest competition late, but the 31-year-old driver noted that Team Penske’s challenge was organization-wide. Ryan Blaney flexed his strength early from the pole position before fading to 13th place at the end, and teammate Austin Cindric produced a season-best result in third.

Briscoe ultimately tipped his cap to Logano, who has made a habit of second-half surges in seasons past.

“I thought I was in a Penske sandwich there for a lot of the race,” Briscoe said. “I think it was that start of Stage 2, it was literally all four of them, and I was the only one in the top five outside of them. So yeah, I knew that the Penske cars were going to be really, really good all night long, and yeah, it showed. I mean, they were good early in the race, good at the end of the race, and yeah, just typical late-summer Joey Logano just coming up out of nowhere on you. So yeah, just go on to the next one and see what we can do.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

RICHMOND, Va. – Joey Logano issued a not-too-subtle reminder Saturday night that he is a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and absolutely ready to position himself for yet another title run.

Logano claimed his second win of the 2026 season – in fact, his second victory in the last four races – driving his No. 22 Team Penske Ford to a dramatic 0.392-second win in the Cook Out 400 under the lights in front of an enthusiastic sellout crowd at Richmond Raceway.

The veteran led 95 of the 400 laps and has improved from 20th place to ninth place in the championship standings in just the last six races after the slowest season start in his 39-time race-winning championship career.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Richmond

“Don’t let the boys get hot, we’re pretty strong right now,” the 36-year-old Logano said, grinning. “It’s awesome to see the speed in the 22 again. Gosh, it was a great car and we’ve had a great car here in the last five races but weren’t able to capitalize on the win. So close, but sweet redemption today.’’

Logano had to work at it, leading six different times on the night, ultimately taking the point for good during pit stop exchanges with only 25 laps remaining. And even then, he had to hold off what looked like the night’s strongest car, the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driven by Chase Briscoe, whose runner-up showing marked not only his first at the famed 0.75-mile Richmond track, but his first career top 10 in the River City. He led a race-best 171 laps but said an issue with the brakes late in the race may have ultimately hampered his ability to get back by Logano.

“As I lost that [brakes] I just kind of lost my advantage and then I just became not mediocre but not quite as strong as I needed to be to maintain there,’’ said Briscoe, who clinched a position into the 16-driver championship field with his effort Saturday. “Definitely frustrating from that standpoint but still a huge improvement from what I’ve been here, so go on to the next one.”

Logano’s Penske teammate Austin Cindric finished third in the No. 2 Ford, his work having major championship implications. He was strong all evening and that third-place effort moved him up from 16th to 15th in the standings, with the top-16 drivers advancing to settle the 2026 title when the 10-race Chase begins in three weeks at Darlington Raceway.

SHOP: Winner gear

Championship points leader and the Virginia hometown favorite Denny Hamlin was fourth Saturday in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He now holds a 115-point advantage atop the standings over Richmond polesitter Ryan Blaney, whose No. 12 Team Penske Ford led 88 laps and won Stage 1, but finished 13th.

Chase Elliott finished fifth in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, notably his first top-10 showing in the last nine races. A two-time winner this season, he formally clinched his Chase position and sits sixth in the standings with two races remaining to set that 16-driver Chase field.

Following the Richmond race, seven drivers have now earned their title shot – Hamlin, Blaney, JGR’s Ty Gibbs, who finished 15th Saturday after an early pit-road penalty, as well as five-race winner, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who finished 11th Saturday night after a disappointing 36th-place showing last week in Iowa.

Briscoe, Elliott and JGR’s Christopher Bell also formally claimed a championship chance, now holding positions fifth through seventh in the standings.

Two-time and reigning series champion Kyle Larson finished sixth Saturday in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, a position ahead of Bell in the No. 20 JGR Toyota. Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry was eighth, followed by Hendrick teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman.

Only two races – at New Hampshire and Daytona International Speedway – now remain to set that 16-driver Chase field. Larson, Logano, RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar, Byron, Spire’s Daniel Suárez and Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace hold positions eight through 14th now in the standings.

The season’s two-race winner, Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen, claims that pivotal 16th place in the standings. He finished 14th at Richmond and takes a 50-point edge on RFK’s Ryan Preece to next week’s stop in New Hampshire. Ross Chastain is 63 points off his teammate van Gisbergen’s pace.

The run for the title continues as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for next Sunday’s Dollar Tree 301 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Blaney is the defending race winner.

Stage 2 recap

After Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney took Stage 1, Joey Logano paced the final half of a long Stage 2 at Richmond Raceway to take the green-checkered flag.

Blaney and Logano have combined to lead over 140 of the 230 laps so far in the Cook Out 400.

The lone caution in the stage came out for Zane Smith, who spun out on his own in Turns 1 and 2 before hitting the outside wall at Lap 125. The yellow came out during the green-flag cycle that put the likes of Bubba Wallace and Ty Gibbs on their back foot, and the two Toyota drivers fell off the lead lap at the race break.

Austin Cindric and Daniel Suárez also had an extremely close call on pit road at Lap 180 as the No. 2 Ford came to his stall as the No. 7 exited, but they avoided hitting each other and went about their respective races.

MORE: Full Stage 2 results

Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Blaney, Josh Berry, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and William Byron scored points in Stage 2.

Only 12 cars were scored on the lead lap at the Lap 230 caution.

Stage 1 recap

Polesitter Ryan Blaney commanded Stage 1 of Saturday evening’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway.

The No. 12 Team Penske Ford driver led 60 of the 70-lap opening frame at the Virginia short track to nab a series-high sixth stage win of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Josh Berry, Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott and William Byron also tallied points in Stage 1. Cindric, who started 23rd, gained a boatload of spots on the opening pit cycle to drive into the top five.

MORE: Full Stage 1 results

Ty Gibbs, who won last Sunday at Iowa Speedway, incurred a speeding penalty during the green-flag pit cycle and finished outside the top 20. Austin Hill also had a pit-road penalty for an uncontrolled tire.

Note: Inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage with no issues, confirming Logano as the Richmond winner. The Nos. 2, 9, 20 and 97 cars will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for engine dynamometer testing. Additionally, the Nos. 9 and 20 cars will also undergo a teardown inspection. 

Contributing: Staff report

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series head to the 0.75-mile Richmond Raceway this weekend for two nights of thrilling short-track racing in Richmond, Virginia. The Cup Series enters the final three-race stretch before The Chase, while the Truck Series returns to action after a three-week hiatus. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from qualifying orders, practice speeds, pit stalls and more.

RELATED: Full weekend schedule | TV listings | Goodyear tire setup

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on USA Network. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Eleven total sets — nine new sets for the race, one for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and one for practice. Four wet-weather sets will also be available as needed.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Race day: Saturday at noon ET on FS2. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Six total sets — four new sets for the race, one for qualifying, which transfers to the race, and one for practice. Three wet-weather sets will also be available as needed.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Practice Results
Practice Lap Averages
Practice Lap Times
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

Posted on by Zack Albert

RICHMOND, Va. — The complexion of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series postseason picture shifted significantly amid a relatively smooth race, won in dominant style by Kaden Honeycutt. On the Chase bubble, the waters were anything but calm.

Grant Enfinger and Tyler Ankrum were among the postseason hopefuls who navigated the chop with a degree of dexterity in a Saturday matinee at Richmond Raceway, with the Black’s Tire 250 presented by BTS Rewards pushed back from its original Friday night date by storms. Enfinger and his CR7 Motorsports team padded their margin over the Chase cutline, sealing a near-virtual clinch into the 10-driver field with a deft bit of pit-stop strategy and a fifth-place finish. Ankrum and his McAnally-Hilgemann Racing group overcame an early pit-road penalty and wound up 11th, foiled slightly by an ill-timed caution flag in the final stage. His result, though, was enough to provisionally push him into the final Chase spot with one regular-season race remaining.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Richmond

Both drivers managed to avoid the pitfall that sank Stewart Friesen, whose tire trouble sent his No. 52 Toyota hard into the Turn 1 wall in the 216th of 250 laps, saddling him with a last-place finish and dropping him from eight points above the elimination line to 20 points below. They’ll settle the final battle for championship eligibility in next Saturday’s regular-season finale at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Even with a 20-point cushion in his bid to make the postseason for a third straight year, Ankrum wasn’t breathing any easier after Richmond.

“No, there is no relief until you’re done,” Ankrum said, laughing at the notion of bubble safety. “These guys are fierce competitors. I’ve been racing with them for a long time, and especially a guy like Friesen. I know that he wants to prove something. So until the checkered flag falls at New Hampshire, that’s when I’ll go have a cocktail and relax.”

Enfinger appeared to have the strongest bid to play Saturday spoiler, especially on a day when Honeycutt led 225 of 250 laps. The 41-year-old veteran finished third in both stages, stockpiling mid-race points, but crew chief Derek White opted for an alternate strategy in the last stage, running long before bringing the No. 9 Chevrolet in for a final pit stop and holding an extra set of tires as a trump card that other teams lacked.

Enfinger was leading when Friesen crashed, initiating the final pit-stop cycle under yellow. The run-long strategy trapped all but seven other trucks a lap down, and different timing could have stymied more.

“We have all the facts and all the data, and it was a gamble either way, so I just felt like we had to do what we had to do to put ourselves in a position to win,” White told NASCAR.com. “We had 15 laps, if a caution comes out, we trap them a lap down and then we’re sitting really pretty. If we get a caution with 10 to go, we’ve got a set of tires laying, and they don’t. We’re sitting really pretty there, too. So really, just had to try and do something different. We had a good, solid points day through both stages, which was what we needed. So that gave us the opportunity to try something different at that end.”

Enfinger had moved into Chase position four races ago, with a road-course victory at Lime Rock Park. He entered Richmond with a 26-point edge over the cutline, and post-race, he applauded White’s call to mix things up.

“I feel like the odds worked in our favor,” Enfinger said. “I just think that was kind of against the grain, and that took a lot of guts to do. … We’ve played it safe on all the stuff we can to make it through some of these races, so now we’ll start amping it up again for the Chase.”

Added White: “I think if I had to sit back and Monday morning quarterback and do it all over, I’d do the same thing again. So just super blessed and super fortunate for that.”

Ankrum’s day hit an early hitch when his crew bounded over the wall too soon on a pit stop during the Stage 1 intermission. The penalty knocked him back to 18th place, ground that he eventually regained with a charge back up to the fringes of the top five.

MORE: Craftsman Truck Series standings

Ankrum pitted just six laps before Friesen’s misfortune jumbled the strategy hopper, catching him one lap down in 15th. Post-race, he lamented the tough bounce over his No. 18 Chevrolet’s team radio.

“I felt like our second stage was our strongest, but man, I’ve come here so many times to Richmond, and just that green-flag cycle’s gotten me,” Ankrum said, “and we felt we felt like we were going to be smart this year and wait for the caution to fall because we know it was going to come. It’s come for the past three or four years, and it just came later than we expected. So one of these days, we’ll catch a break.

“Today is a huge improvement on the year in terms of our performance. Honestly, I felt like that was probably the best Richmond truck I’ve had in a long time, but yeah, just you need a little bit of luck to go your way, need to make a little bit of your own luck to go along with it, and you’ll keep on having days like we had today.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

RICHMOND, Va. — It’s been the ultimate celebratory week for Tricon Garage driver Kaden Honeycutt, who absolutely dominated the weather-delayed Black’s Tire 250 presented by BTS Rewards NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Richmond Raceway Saturday afternoon – the strong winning effort coming only days after the 23-year-old Texan announced he and his wife, Jessica, were expecting their first child.

Honeycutt led 225 of the 250 laps at the 0.75-mile track—the most laps he’s ever led in a single race — surpassing his 59 laps out front at Darlington Raceway earlier this year and more laps led than in all his 75 previous series races combined. And for the first time in his career, he swept both stage wins as well.

Ultimately, Honeycutt’s No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota crossed the line a healthy 1.313 seconds ahead of his teammate, reigning series champion Corey Heim in the team’s No. 5 Toyota Tundra. After a series of late-race pit stops, Honeycutt reclaimed the lead with 29 laps remaining and never looked back. 

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Richmond

His strong day broke a long-tenured Richmond race pattern where the driver who leads the most laps does not typically win the race. Honeycutt was strong early and often … at one point holding the lead position for a 195-lap stretch.

This marks his second career win and second of the season and trims Saturday’s 15th-place finisher, Front Row Motorsports driver Layne Riggs’ championship lead to 61 points heading into the regular-season finale next week at New Hampshire.

The victory is also significant for Honeycutt’s veteran crew chief Scott Zippadelli, who now claims 38 career series victories, second all-time to Eric Phillips 44-trophy haul.

“Man, we never give up,’’ Honeycutt said. “We’ve had a rough last couple weeks and just wondered what the heck was going on. We’re not a seventh-place, 10th-place team and it’s all thanks to [crew chief] Scott Zippadelli and everyone on this 11 team.

“We just stay on it. We don’t give up and I just can’t thank everyone enough. What a dominant day. I’ve never been able to do something like that before, so really good confidence for me, and hopefully we can go to Loudon and do the same thing next week. Just really cool.’’

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes was third in the No. 91 Chevrolet with first-time series pole-winner, New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, finishing fourth in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in what will be a Saturday doubleheader as he competes Saturday night at Richmond in the NASCAR Cup Series race. Grant Enfinger, who led 22 laps on the day in the No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet, rounded out the top five.

As so often happens, the Richmond race proved to have a significant impact on the championship standings. 

Tyler Ankrum — who came into the race ranked 11th, one position outside the Chase 10-driver championship-eligible field — was dealt a penalty for his No. 18 McAnnally-Hilgemann team having too many men over the pit wall on the opening pit stop of the race. After collecting stage points with an eighth-place finish in the first stage, he started the next stage as the last truck on the lead lap.

Ankrum overcame the situation a mere 20 laps into the run, however, quickly repassing his primary foe, Stewart Friesen (who came into the race 10th in points), before moving to an 11th-place finish in Stage 2 and, ultimately, the race.

Friesen brought out the third and final caution flag, crashing by himself with 33 laps remaining and triggering an impactful twist in the standings. Ankrum’s steady work and Friesen’s misfortune (he finished last in the 37-car field) moved Ankrum into that all-important 10th position in the standings. 

He’s now 20 points up on Friesen and 21 points over Saturday’s sixth-place finisher, ThorSport Racing’s Jake Garcia, as the series heads into the regular-season finale next week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. 

Those three drivers contending for that final Chase transfer position have only four previous starts among them at New Hampshire. Friesen has competed in two races there; his best work was a fifth-place finish back in 2017. He was injured and did not race last fall. Ankrum and Garcia did race, finishing 11th and 16th respectively, in their only series starts at the New England oval.

ThorSport’s Ty Majeski also survived a hectic afternoon, the former Richmond winner officially locking into The Chase even after going down two laps with tire trouble early in the day. He finished 19th a lap down, but his perseverance on a challenging day was enough to secure his position in The Chase.

Garcia and Front Row Motorsports’ Chandler Smith were sixth and seventh, with Spire Motorsports’ 16-year-old Tristan McKee earning an impressive eighth-place finish in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut. Tricon’s Gio Ruggiero and McAnally-Hilgemann’s Daniel Hemric rounded out the top 10 Saturday. Virginian Elliott Sadler, in the free agent Kaulig Racing Ram, finished 32nd.

The regular-season finale is set for next Saturday with the Team EJP 175 (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The 2025 series champion Heim won last year’s race from pole position.

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Craftsman Truck Series garage, confirming Kaden Honeycutt as the winner.