Larson’s dual ‘Double’ attempts display why same-day feat is almost impossible

Posted on May 21, 2026May 21, 2026 by Nate Ryan

Kyle Larson is a people pleaser, which might have been the biggest reason his two attempts at the Double were so frustrating.

“I just completely choked away the day,” Larson said during the “Kyle Larson vs. The Double” documentary that premiered Thursday on Amazon Prime. “I just want it to be perfect for everybody. When I say, ‘Perfect,’ I don’t mean winning, either. I just mean some solid finishes to make everybody at Hendrick happy. I wanted this documentary to go great and have a happy ending. Paint this beautiful picture.”

Of course, that’s not what happened.

Unfortunately, Larson’s two attempts as the fifth driver to race the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day epitomized the motorsports version of Murphy’s Law – and on the biggest stage.

Rain delays, driver errors, engine misfires.

Everything that could go wrong — especially things that were beyond anyone’s control — did go wrong for Larson in both Indianapolis and Charlotte.

The struggles are documented in detail by the documentary, which must have been an occasionally excruciating watch for the two-time Cup champion.

But Larson was also happy to have his disappointments laid bare for everyone to see.

“I don’t mind it being a sad documentary,” he said. “It’s tough. I think it’s good to show it’s tough. It’s not always perfect.”

WATCH NOW | Documentary live on Prime Video

Larson is among a handful of drivers in the world who could win the Indy 500 and Coke 600 on the same day.

It would be natural to think that his largely forgettable Double attempts in both Charlotte and Indianapolis would dissuade others from attempting it.

But Katherine Legge will give it a go this month — marking the first time in 24 years that it’s been tried in consecutive years by different drivers (Tony Stewart’s second and last attempt in 2001 was followed by Robby Gordon in ‘02).

Legge, who was already committed to an Indy 500 attempt before signing up to return to the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports ride at Charlotte Motor Speedway, consulted with Larson before deciding to attempt the Double.

“Kyle’s been wonderful,” Legge said. “Actually, his management, his PR team and everybody have been really great, too. They’ve been helping mine, and so their insight has been invaluable. And I picked his brains. How did you feel it physically? What are the biggest challenges? What should I look out for? What am I going to eat? How am I going to rest? Did you do an IV? All the things.

“He was just super unlucky with the weather. And if I’m lucky, great. If I’m unlucky, then it wasn’t to be. I am not going to worry about it. I’m also not in the position that he’s in – a full-time Cup driver who has points and a championship to think about in his main gig. So I think it’s a slightly different approach as I’m not stressed about Charlotte because I don’t have to worry about the points situation.”

MORE: Why Legge is attempting Double

With her car locked into the Indy 500 (which had no bumping in qualifying this year) and all 39 cars expected to start the race at Charlotte, there is less stress on Legge than the previous Double attempts – all of which lacked the guarantee of making one race or the other.

It could be much harder in future years, but even in the wake of Larson’s trials in 2024-25, there are signs that Legge won’t be the last to attempt the Double.

After openly discussing his desire to run the Indy 500, Carson Hocevar was hanging out in Gasoline Alley last week.

On the IndyCar side, Penske drivers Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin have expressed interest, as has Graham Rahal.

“I welcome anybody to come and give it a shot,” Graham Rahal said. “But it shouldn’t be easy. It genuinely is the old saying, ‘If it’s easy, everybody would do it.’ It shouldn’t be easy. I hope many more give it a shot, for sure.”

The degree of difficulty, as Larson underscored, is part of the attraction.

“I wouldn’t call the whole experience a failure,” Larson said. “I get that question often. Why risk my reputation by doing the Double and ‘failing,’ if you want to call it that. How many race car drivers are there in the world, and how many had the courage to try and do both? I regret making mistakes on the track, but I don’t regret anything. That’s just how races are.”

Ahead of Legge becoming the sixth driver (and the first woman) to attempt the feat, here are some of the reasons why doing the Double is so hard.

WATCH NOW | Documentary live on Prime Video

LOGISTICS

It all starts here with the start times. The Indy 500 and Coke 600 weren’t consistently run on the same day until 1974 – and then they were often run concurrently until Charlotte added lights in 1994.

John Andretti attempted the Double in the first year it was possible, despite the tight window.

It depends on caution flags and delays, but the checkered flag for the Indy 500 falls roughly two hours and 45 minutes before the green for the Coke 600.

That’s better than some years (the Double essentially became impossible from 2005-11 when the Indy 500 started well after 1 p.m.), but the scheduling still requires military-grade precision – as well as fast helicopters and planes.

While Larson had Hendrick Motorsports’ aviation infrastructure at his disposal, Legge’s teams will battle the headwinds of being a smaller operation.

AVAILABILITY

There aren’t many options for teams that have the strong ties needed in both IndyCar and NASCAR to pull this off. Hendrick found a way to partner with Arrow McLaren, but that seems to be the exception in a land of limited opportunities.

Team Penske is the only organization that fields cars in both series from under the same roof (at its sprawling headquarters in Mooresville, North Carolina). Spire Motorsports shares common ownership with Andretti Global, which provides some hope for Hocevar.

But the trick here is that Spire races Chevrolets in NASCAR, and Andretti is a Honda team in IndyCar.

“I wish that we could put the manufacturer classes aside, but we all know the realities of the world,” Rahal said. “We’ve talked about this time and time again. If we want to have more cars at Indy, we’ve got to have more engine manufacturers because we’ve got to have more engines. Until that really changes, it’s going to be a bit of a challenge for anybody to jump in.”

PHYSICALITY

Consider just the sheer act of trying to race for 1,100 miles at race tracks hundreds of miles apart while splitting roughly equal time between cars with radically different aerodynamic platforms, tires and even steering wheels.

It’s a lot.

Stewart jokes that some days he woke up unsure of whether he was in Indiana or North Carolina during his last attempt 25 years ago. He made two attempts at the Double and would have liked another shot to win the Indy 500 but conceded in a 2024 interview that the Double wasn’t practical as an annual exercise.

“It’s like how many times can you try to abuse yourself to do it,” Stewart said. “It’s not an easy day, and we didn’t have cool suits back then.”

Legge will have the benefit of superior driver comfort aids, and she also has the elite experience of completing endurance races in sports cars.

“I’m hoping that physically I’m OK,” she said. “I think the actual driving you kind of do subconsciously.”

The mental approach might be the most daunting part for Legge, who plans to spend this week watching Indy 500s and Coke 600s to prepare.

“It’s really going to take a toll on you doing that gear change from IndyCar to NASCAR and figuring out, you know, what to do under yellow, what’s that team telling you,” she said. “It’s a different sport, basically. So I think it will depend how quickly I can shift my brain over to that, and I’m thinking about the preparation. I’m going to watch in-car cameras. I’m going to look at data. I’m going to see if I can do the switch without it being too much of a brain mess-up.”

Posted on May 20, 2026 by Nate Ryan

NASCAR is changing the Damaged Vehicle Policy rules for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series, allowing teams more leeway starting this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Vehicles in those series that are towed back to the garage will now be allowed to make repairs instead of being retired from the race. The adjustment, which was revealed Wednesday on the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, brings the series in line with the Cup Series, which changed the same rule last year.

“After a couple of incidents and just some continued conversation, it was decided that it was best for them to move toward having a true DVP opportunity,” NASCAR senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis said. “Those drivers will now be towed back, dropped in their garage stall, and they will have the opportunity to make repairs based on what is allowed. They still have a chance to get back out there, especially with points being how they are now. We often will hear teams say every point counts, and this helps with that. There has been continued conversation around this from the start of the season, and it felt like a great time to go ahead and make that change.”

RELATED: Charlotte weekend schedule

NASCAR has also eliminated practice time penalties for Truck teams that fail inspection. At Dover, there were four trucks held for 10 minutes of practice because of inspection failures in multiple races, and a fifth truck was held for 20 minutes.

“What was happening was just an unintended consequence,” Ellis said. ‘The reasoning for those penalties was needed, and some structure and boundaries were put into place in the Truck Series around tech for all good reasons. But what was happening was you would potentially have a rookie driver who was getting practice time cut because of these penalties.”

Teams with inspection failures in three consecutive races will be moved to the rear of the tech line for the next race (as they are in the Cup Series).

“So, there’s still going to be something in place to encourage you to be prepared for tech and do the things that you need to do for that process, but ultimately we’ve decided to go away from the practice penalties and use what we’ve been using in Cup as a guide for the Truck series garage.” …

During the episode, vice president of racing communications Mike Forde said NASCAR was investigating Ryan Preece’s fiery crash on the second lap of the All-Star Race at Dover, which resulted from a hose to the fuel cell being severed.

“It was the beginning of the race, and typically it wouldn’t be as full,” Forde said. “And because of that, much more fuel leaked into or was exposed to that whole rear area and ignited the bumper foam, the wrap (and) a number of flammable things.

“We’re at the very beginning phases of any potential solves here, and they’re talking through if there’s a way to protect that hose a little bit more. I don’t believe we’ve seen something like this before, but there are some learnings out of it.”

Other topics covered by Forde and Ellis during the 54th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:

— The future of the All-Star Race format and Dover Motor Speedway’s place on the 2027 schedule.

— The performance of the resin on the Dover surface and the plan to use it at Charlotte.

— An update on the appeal hearing for Preece’s Texas penalty.

— An insider look at the vote for the 2027 NASCAR Hall of Fame class.

Click on the embed below to listen or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.

Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.

Posted on May 20, 2026May 21, 2026 by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series head home for a tripleheader weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The weekend will culminate with Sunday’s crown jewel Coca-Cola 600 under the lights (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, HBO Max). Below are the qualifying orders for all three series.

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on TV

Cup Series
Single-car qualifying will occur at 2:40 p.m. ET on Saturday, with practice earlier in the day at 1:30 p.m. ET (Prime Video).

Pos	Car No.	Driver	Metric Score	Group
1	67	Corey Heim(i)	39.800	1
2	51	Cody Ware	36.700	1
3	78	Katherine Legge	36.500	1
4	66	Timmy Hill(i)	35.500	1
5	10	Ty Dillon	33.300	1
6	21	Josh Berry	32.000	1
7	22	Joey Logano	32.000	1
8	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	29.800	1
9	24	William Byron	29.100	1
10	35	Riley Herbst	26.900	1
11	48	Alex Bowman	26.500	1
12	4	Noah Gragson	24.700	1
13	1	Ross Chastain	24.600	1
14	6	Brad Keselowski	24.000	1
15	88	Connor Zilisch #	23.900	1
16	23	Bubba Wallace	23.600	1
17	77	Carson Hocevar	21.700	1
18	41	Cole Custer	21.000	1
19	43	Erik Jones	20.800	1
20	34	Todd Gilliland	19.700	1
21	38	Zane Smith	19.500	2
22	5	Kyle Larson	18.500	2
23	20	Christopher Bell	18.300	2
24	9	Chase Elliott	17.700	2
25	42	John Hunter Nemechek	15.400	2
26	7	Daniel Suárez	13.300	2
27	33	Austin Hill	12.800	2
28	60	Ryan Preece	12.500	2
29	11	Denny Hamlin	11.800	2
30	16	AJ Allmendinger	10.900	2
31	3	Austin Dillon	10.800	2
32	2	Austin Cindric	10.800	2
33	17	Chris Buescher	9.900	2
34	12	Ryan Blaney	8.900	2
35	19	Chase Briscoe	7.900	2
36	71	Michael McDowell	7.700	2
37	97	Shane van Gisbergen	5.500	2
38	54	Ty Gibbs	3.900	2
39	45	Tyler Reddick	3.800	2

O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Single-car qualifying will occur at 12:05 p.m. ET on Saturday, with practice earlier in the day at 11 a.m. ET (The CW App).

Pos	Car No.	Driver	Metric Score
1	38	JJ Yeley	36.500
2	45	Lavar Scott #	34.200
3	153	David Starr	33.600
4	27	Jeb Burton	32.200
5	35	Dawson Cram	31.900
6	31	Blaine Perkins	31.000
7	42	Nathan Byrd	30.600
8	99	Parker Retzlaff	30.500
9	92	Leland Honeyman Jr.(i)	30.200
10	0	Cole Custer(i)	29.500
11	55	Joey Gase	28.400
12	02	Ryan Ellis	28.300
13	07	Josh Bilicki	27.600
14	54	Taylor Gray	26.000
15	91	Carson Kvapil	25.200
16	48	Patrick Staropoli #	22.200
17	28	Kyle Sieg	21.200
18	26	Dean Thompson	19.700
19	32	Andrew Patterson	18.700
20	24	Harrison Burton	18.100
21	19	Brent Crews #	17.800
22	2	Jesse Love	17.300
23	87	Austin Green	16.500
24	51	Jeremy Clements	16.500
25	9	Ross Chastain(i)	13.900
26	96	Anthony Alfredo	13.600
27	00	Sheldon Creed	13.500
28	44	Brennan Poole	12.800
29	88	Rajah Caruth	10.400
30	39	Ryan Sieg	10.100
31	8	Sammy Smith	9.000
32	18	William Sawalich	7.000
33	21	Austin Hill	6.500
34	1	Connor Zilisch(i)	6.400
35	20	Brandon Jones	6.300
36	41	Sam Mayer	5.400
37	17	Corey Day	2.500
38	7	Justin Allgaier	1.700

Craftsman Truck Series
Single-car qualifying will occur at 4:35 p.m. ET on Friday, with practice earlier in the day at 3:30 p.m. ET (FS2).

Pos	Truck No.	Driver	Metric Score
1	90	Justin Carroll	40.700
2	56	Timmy Hill	39.500
3	71	Shane van Gisbergen(i)	39.200
4	4	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.(i)	38.300
5	93	Caleb Costner	35.600
6	22	Josh Reaume	34.000
7	2	Luke Baldwin	32.300
8	13	Cole Butcher #	31.500
9	14	Mini Tyrrell #	27.000
10	25	Travis Pastrana	26.600
11	19	Daniel Hemric	26.400
12	44	Andres Perez De Lara	26.200
13	33	Frankie Muniz	25.800
14	76	Spencer Boyd	24.700
15	77	Connor Zilisch(i)	24.700
16	26	Dawson Sutton	23.600
17	42	Conner Jones	22.500
18	18	Tyler Ankrum	22.300
19	81	Kris Wright	20.600
20	15	Tanner Gray	18.100
21	9	Grant Enfinger	17.700
22	99	Ben Rhodes	16.600
23	17	Giovanni Ruggiero	16.100
24	12	Brendan Queen #	14.800
25	45	Ross Chastain(i)	14.400
26	5	William Sawalich(i)	13.700
27	16	Justin Haley	13.000
28	52	Stewart Friesen	12.200
29	10	Corey LaJoie	10.700
30	98	Jake Garcia	10.500
31	38	Chandler Smith	9.600
32	91	Christian Eckes	7.600
33	62	Leland Honeyman Jr.	7.100
34	1	Brandon Jones(i)	5.700
35	88	Ty Majeski	3.800
36	11	Kaden Honeycutt	3.400
37	34	Layne Riggs	3.000
38	7	Corey Day	1.000

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

Posted on May 20, 2026May 21, 2026 by Staff Report

Kyle Larson has never been shy about chasing the biggest possible challenges in racing, and this month, the Hendrick Motorsports star takes fans behind the scenes of his latest attempts at motorsports glory.

The new Prime Video documentary “Kyle Larson vs. The Double” gives fans an up-close-and-personal look at the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion’s bids to complete both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, in a grueling 1,100-mile test attempted by only a handful of drivers in racing history.

The documentary premieres May 21 and follows Larson through the pressure, preparation, logistics and mindset behind the attempted feats, blending historical context with intimate access as one of NASCAR’s biggest stars pushes toward racing immortality.

How to watch

Kyle Larson vs. The Double | Watch now!

Streaming platform: Prime Video
Premiere date: May 21

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Larson’s dual ‘Double’ attempts display why same-day feat is almost impossible

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Posted on May 20, 2026 by Zack Albert

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick were in two very different places when they received the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s call.

Harvick landed on the Hall’s ballot this year as a near-certain lock for induction, and 46 of the 50 voters agreed on their ballots. Harvick said later, however, that he felt it would be presumptuous to be inside the shrine’s Great Hall to watch Tuesday’s announcement in person. The anticipation, though, kept him close by. He waited in a pickup truck in a nearby parking lot when the notification came in.

Burton was out on the golf course on a steamy Tuesday afternoon, participating with a group of friends as part of an annual engagement of roughly six tournaments. “This is the third one, and I play the worst golf of my life when I play in these tournaments for some reason,” he said. “So I was doing it again.” He’d taken previous Voting Day disappointments to heart, but said in time that he’d learned to let it go. This year’s call gave him cause to leave the links behind, saving him from more shanks and yips.

From divergent locations, Burton and Harvick came together to embrace under the same roof Tuesday to celebrate their enshrinement alongside stock-car racing’s greats. The two former teammates were chosen from the Modern Era Ballot and will be honored in January alongside Pioneer Ballot selection Larry Phillips and Landmark Award recipient Lesa France Kennedy during the Hall’s Class of 2027 ceremonies.

Though their stat lines vary, Burton and Harvick carved out long careers at the sport’s highest level by climbing the local and regional ladders — Harvick in his native California and around the Southwest, Burton from his home state of Virginia and throughout the Southeast. Their paths met again in the same building in 2004, this time at Richard Childress Racing, establishing a long-running connection as teammates for nearly 10 seasons.

Their overlapping tenures were marked by prosperous years and some lean ones, but their contrasting styles gave RCR a measure of balance on their driver roster, with Burton’s steady approach acting as a counterweight to Harvick’s fire.

“I went to RCR at a point where they were struggling a little bit, and we got our hands dirty and all of us went to work,” Burton said, “and it took us a few years, but there for a while we put a lot of cars in the postseason for a lot of years in a row, and those were really, really fun years. Kevin pushed me hard, and I want to think that I pushed him. But what’s fun about Kevin is our personalities are so different that when the doors are shut, there’s a lot of stuff that happens, and when the doors are shut and you’re trying to fix problems, and Kevin, he just is willing to put everything in a blender and put it on high, and whatever flies out flies out. I mean, he gets super-aggressive, and so I’m more diplomatic than that. I mean, we had some really interesting meetings coming in completely different ways, and there were times I wasn’t being forceful enough, so Kevin would, and there were times that Kevin would be forceful enough where I’d have to go clean it up. It really was a fun time.”

Diplomacy became one of Burton’s trademarks, during his driving days and in his more recent years as a trusted broadcaster. In both of those career phases, Burton often served as an intermediary who advocated for drivers and bridged the communications with NASCAR officials.

Rusty Jarrett | Getty Images

It’s a leadership role that Harvick has also emulated in his transition to the broadcast booth and as a mover in the industry, staying involved at all levels of the sport — from grassroots to the majors. Burton was key in setting that example.

“Well, you don’t get the nickname ‘The Mayor’ for no reason,” Harvick said. “Jeff has been an ambassador of the sport, been a part of the sport, his family’s been a part of the sport, and he’s been a good friend of mine for a long, long time and helped through those middle years at RCR to keep it all together, and we learned a lot about each other. It’s kind of going back to the respect part, right? You have a reputation, and you hope that your reputation is respected from your credentials and the results that you have, not only in the race car but out of the race car, and Jeff’s 100% that guy. In and out of the race car, he had the respect of the whole sport.”

For both former RCR stablemates, the Hall’s recognition was humbling. Though both enjoyed sustaining careers of 20-plus years in NASCAR’s top division, the sport’s whirlwind pace doesn’t always allow much time for reflection. Harvick found a dose of that in his final Cup Series season in 2023, when his then-team owner Tony Stewart mandated it.

“I mean, even though you’re expecting the call, it’s still somewhat weird to get the call, because you just … when this all started, I was just a kid out in the middle of a field racing go-karts, right?” Harvick said. “And then you go through the years of just ‘what’s next week, what’s next week, what can we do? OK, where can we go? How do we make our cars faster?’ It’s always been look forward, look forward, grind, grind, grind, grind, and you never really stop and think to look around, and so I was fortunate to do that. Tony made me do that my last year. I didn’t want to do it, and he had to sit me down and say, ‘You’re going to do this because I’m telling you it’s the right thing to do to enjoy it every single week.’ This feels very similar to me. I don’t really know what it’ll feel like when we get to January, but to be amongst the best that have ever done it in our sport, it’s pretty, pretty rewarding.”

The two will share those rewards next offseason.

“I have so much respect for this sport, and I have a passion for it, the same as I did 20 years ago, 30 years ago. I feel the same way,” Burton said. “My role is different, but the fact that I have a role, for me, is really special, because I want to be part of this community. I love this community, it’s full of great people. This sport is … it’s hard, it’s grueling, it’s difficult, it’s challenging, which is what makes it great, and when you can, those few moments when you can have success, it’s nothing like it because you know how hard it is. To me, what makes it so special is being part of something that so many people that I look up to and have respect for were part of before me, because without all them, there is no opportunity for me or Kevin or the next class. The generations before us made this happen.”

Posted on May 20, 2026May 20, 2026 by Official NASCAR Release

NASHVILLE — NASCAR & Bussin’ With The Boys today announced the launch of a new weekly show — “Racin’ With The Boys.” Unveiled by Taylor Lewan and Will Compton on Wednesday, “Racin’ With The Boys” will give fans a new taste of the stories that make NASCAR the sport it is, based on the highly acclaimed NFL show from the same team. Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions developed the show and will lead production of the series.

A new episode of Racin’ With The Boys will drop weekly on Thursdays throughout the summer, beginning on May 28. Episodes will live on the Bussin’ With The Boys YouTube Channel, within a dedicated “Racin’ With The Boys” playlist, enabling fans to quickly and easily find the NASCAR content they want. The 14-episode series will bring fans closer to the biggest NASCAR personalities, fans, and stars, and feature plenty of celebrity and racing cameos.

MORE: NASCAR Podcasts

“Now that the NFL Draft has passed, we have a lot of time until next football season, so we were in search of a new sport to follow,” said Taylor Lewan. “We’ve decided to make NASCAR our summer vacation hobby, and learn everything we can in the shortest amount of time possible.”

“Whatever The Boys do … we’re all in,” said Will Compton. “Racin’ With The Boys is no different. So, we’re going to be fully immersed, and get as involved as possible with all parts of the NASCAR world. We’re excited to partner with NASCAR to bring our ideas to the sport in our own way.”

Each episode will feature updates after key races, interviews with famous drivers and celebrity fans from the racing world to talk all things NASCAR. The first episode of “Racin’ With The Boys” will feature Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace. Lewan and Compton will also attend the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, May 31, shooting content and meeting fans, drivers, and NASCAR personalities to get the full NASCAR experience.

“We’re not trying to make NASCAR fit into someone else’s box — we’re letting Taylor and Will explore it their way,” said Tim Clark, Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer at NASCAR. “That’s where the fun is, and honestly, that’s how you reach people who might not have given the sport a shot before.”

NASCAR is feeling significant momentum right now, fueled by some of the best on-track competition in the sport, new audiences discovering race weekends, and creator-driven content helping bring fans closer to the action. Through “Racin’ With The Boys,” fans will get an inside look at the people, stories, and personalities that fuel NASCAR every week — from drivers and team owners to the fans and culture that make race weekends unlike anything else in sports.

Posted on May 20, 2026 by John Crane

Halfway home. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is midway through the 2026 regular season following a concrete showdown at Dover Motor Speedway. Plenty of parity surrounds the full-time Truck Series field from top to bottom, with only 80 points separating the fourth- to 10th-place pilots in the standings. And given that 10 drivers make up The Chase, well, every point matters.

With the seven-race postseason inching closer, NASCAR.com’s John Crane ranks the top 10 Craftsman Truck Series drivers at the halfway mark of the regular season.

Analysis: No. 11 is No. 1. Save for a 31st-place DNF at Bristol Motor Speedway, the 22-year-old has been on an absolute heater, especially of late; Honeycutt has finished inside the top five in six of the last seven races and has led at least one lap in six straight contests. He’s averaging 43 points over those six races. Oh, and he beat Connor Zilisch at Watkins Glen International for the first Truck victory of his career. The rest of the field might be in trouble.

Analysis: A 36th-place finish due to a disqualification at Rockingham Speedway stung, but aside from that blemish, it has been a blossoming season for the No. 38 pilot. Every other result has been 17th or better, and he’s averaged 38 points in those races. Smith has not led a lap since St. Petersburg, though, and his 15 laps led rank eighth among all full-time drivers. Consider it the next item on the bulletin to tackle.

Analysis: Though Riggs still has the point accumulation to soften the demotion from No. 1 to No. 3 in this installment, the 23-year-old has yet to put together a dominant performance that netted the North Carolina native a 70-point victory at St. Petersburg in February. In the six races since, Riggs has only led six laps and collected three top-10 finishes, though all three of those top 10s were sixth-place results or better, with the most recent coming at Dover (third). In other words, I wouldn’t worry.

Analysis: Starting second and finishing second at Dover will certainly play in the points department, with Majeski’s 52-tally day the best of his season. Now, it’s about consistency for the 2024 Truck Series champion, who has alternated single-digit and double-digit race finishes since the start of the campaign. Just a touch more refinement is needed, and who knows, perhaps a Victory Lane appearance could be in the works, too; all six of his Truck wins are at tracks that are still on the schedule this season.

Analysis: A theme has resonated with Ruggiero and the No. 17 camp through the opening nine races of the season. That theme? The team certainly starts races well; Ruggiero has started 10th or better in all nine contests. Now, it’s about parlaying that strong start into consistently (and equally) steady finishes. In four starts this season, the 19-year-old started sixth or better but finished 14th or worse. There is still homework in need of completing.

Analysis: Glimpses of vintage Eckes have started to show, most of all at Bristol Motor Speedway in March, leading 132 laps and finishing fifth. It wasn’t all good news, though; Eckes tagged Corey Heim during the contest, leading to a multi-truck crash that, while no penalties were levied, resulted in NASCAR officials “having a chat” with the 25-year-old. Two top 10s since still have Eckes on a decent momentum swing. Will the nine-time Truck winner find a 10th this season?

Analysis: There have been some down stretches for the 21-year-old Garcia, finishing 23rd or worse in three races this season, most recently at Texas Motor Speedway (29th) … after starting the race in second. That said, Garcia has still averaged 33 points per race in four of the last five contests. Not too shabby. If Garcia can consistently levy his excellent qualifying (his 8.1 average start ranks third among all full-timers) with elite finishes, he could soar up this ranking.

Analysis: There have been glimpses of a potential breakout. Rhodes started 2026 with three straight finishes of 12th or better before following it up with a P36 at Darlington Raceway and P18 at Rockingham. The same theme has carried over into the next four races, with two consecutive top-11 finishes (Bristol, 11th; Texas, fifth), followed by a stretch of 32nd and 19th at Watkins Glen and Dover, respectively. Will Rhodes go on an extended run of productive finishes? This is the big-hitting question.

Analysis: The defending ARCA Menards Series champion — nicknamed “Butterbean” due to his resemblance as a baby to boxer Eric “Butterbean” Esch — makes his debut in this ranking series, and for good reason. Queen has finished 13th or better in four straight races, compiling an 11.25 average finish. Talk about a stark difference compared to the three races prior; Queen possessed a 21.75 finish from St. Petersburg to Rockingham, brought down by three results of 20th or worse. The Truck Series rookie is learning the full-time ropes.

Analysis: Despite the 42-year-old Canadian not following up his top five at Rockingham with a top 10 in any of his next four starts, Friesen has kept it level, with all four starts resulting in finishes inside the top 20. That is all you can ask for, and when coupled with zero DNFs so far this year, that is a decent recipe to follow. The throttle cannot be eased, though; Tyler Ankrum, Daniel Hemric and others could pounce if there is the slightest error.

Posted on May 20, 2026 by Dustin Albino

Since moving to full-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series racing in 2022, Austin Hill has defined consistency. It catapulted him to the 2023 Regular Season Championship as a sophomore.

That consistency, however, is missing through the first 14 races of the 2026 season, despite winning the season opener at Daytona International Speedway for the fourth time in five years. Last weekend at Dover Motor Speedway, the No. 21 team banked its first top-five finish since Circuit of The Americas, snapping a 10-race drought, the longest of Hill’s O’Reilly career.

“It’s been one of those roller coaster starts to the season,” Hill told NASCAR.com. “We haven’t performed like we should. The entire 21 team knows it. We’ve shown signs of good runs.

“I think there’s light at the end of the tunnel. We are still a contender; we’re still a top-five team each and every time we go on the race track. It’s just putting these races together, minimizing our mistakes on the track and minimizing things that have happened with the race that the outside world doesn’t see, but we see it. If we can clean all that stuff up, I think you will see us back inside the top five in points, and you will see us back up front, contending to win races.”

With the fifth-place effort at the “Monster Mile,” Hill sits 50 points below Brandon Jones for that benchmark. He trails Sammy Smith by only three points for sixth in the championship standings.

Hill sees promise within the No. 21 team as it attempts to climb back to the top. He placed sixth at Martinsville Speedway, a track he normally wrestles with. On the flip side, Bristol Motor Speedway continues to be a hindrance for Richard Childress Racing. Intermediate venues, where Hill typically excels, have been spotty.

“Our expectations for the 21 is to be winning races,” Danny Lawrence, RCR’s vice president, alliance operations director, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, told NASCAR.com. “Nobody is happy when you don’t win. Our biggest focus right now is execution across the board. The speed has been there from time to time. We just need to execute better.”

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Despite the abnormal start for Hill, his average finishing position is only 0.3 positions worse than a rough-and-tumble 2025 season. But the highs were higher in previous seasons, reaching double-digit top fives in all four years and never having fewer than 18 top-10 finishes. He is on pace to have career lows in both categories.

That is aggravating for a driver who has made a living being steady.

“It’s been very frustrating and mentally taxing on me as a driver,” Hill said. “Just because I had these big talks about liking that we were going this route with The Chase format, and that consistency was going to be huge, and that would work well for our 21 team. To start the season off earlier in the year, I’m like, this is the 21 team, this is what we do, we run inside the top five every week. Then, it slowly digressed.

“I think it’s starting to come back around for us. I still do think the way the format is, it’s going to benefit our team and how we perform every week. You’re going to have these slumps, and we’re going through a little bit of a slump. I’d rather have it early in the season like we’re having it now than later in the year when The Chase comes.”

The O’Reilly dip extends throughout the RCR camp, which includes defending champion Jesse Love and the No. 2 team, with only a pair of top fives in the last 10 events. This is in addition to the challenges within the RCR walls on the Cup side. Of late, however, the Cup program at RCR has found an uptick in speed, with both full-time drivers finishing inside the top 10 at Watkins Glen International.

Team spirit has been put through the wringer in the opening three months of the NASCAR season, but Lawrence is optimistic the legacy team can turn it around.

“We’re not in panic mode,” Lawrence said. “I think you’re going to see the progression. Top fives are great, but it’s not what we want. We want to be winning. Our plan is for Austin Hill and Jesse to win nine races each. We’re going to keep working on it and pushing hard.”

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

To have a legitimate shot at the 2026 title, Hill believes he needs to rank inside the top five in points. That would put him within striking distance of Justin Allgaier, who is currently on a runaway with the Regular Season Championship, two-and-a-half races ahead of second-place Sheldon Creed. The next O’Reilly race is slated for Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“To be comfortable, a bare minimum fifth,” Hill said. “I would still be disappointed in that, but bare minimum, we need to be fifth for when we get done with the regular season and go into The Chase. Perfect case would be somewhere in the top three. I still think that’s obtainable and reachable.

“There are a decent amount of races coming up that we have left to do, and if we can do what we think we can do and start being consistent each week, and some other guys start having some issues, it could bring us right back into it.”

Posted on May 19, 2026May 19, 2026 by Staff Report

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The NASCAR Hall of Fame announced its three newest members Tuesday, with Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Larry Phillips elected to the Class of 2027.

The three honorees were selected by the Hall of Fame Voting Panel, which met Tuesday afternoon at the Charlotte Convention Center. The voting results were presented by NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell in the Hall of Fame’s Great Hall, where Lesa France Kennedy was also announced as the recipient of the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.

Harvick and Burton were chosen from a list of 10 candidates on the Modern Era Ballot, and Phillips was voted in from the five nominees on the Pioneer Ballot. Harvick received 92% of the Modern Era ballot votes and Burton received 32%. Neil Bonnett finished third, followed by Randy Dorton and Greg Biffle. Larry Phillips received 38% of the Pioneer ballot votes.

Harvick’s election to the Class of 2027 came in his first year of eligibility. The 50-year-old California native retired from a full-time driving career after the 2023 season, finishing with 60 Cup Series victories — 11th on the all-time list — and championships in Cup (2014) and what’s now known as the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (2001, 2006).

Among Harvick’s accomplishments were several prestigious triumphs — the Daytona 500 (2007), Southern 500 (2014, 2020), Coca-Cola 600 (2011, 2013) and Brickyard 400 (2003, 2019, 2020). He has remained active in the sport as an analyst for FOX Sports’ NASCAR coverage since 2024.

MORE: Kevin Harvick through the years

Like Harvick, Burton was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023, and he earned election in his sixth year on the ballot with a resume that included 21 Cup Series victories and 27 O’Reilly Series wins. In the years since his driving days ended, the 58-year-old Virginian has been a trusted voice as a broadcaster with NBC Sports and an advisor for the sport’s drivers’ council.

Crew chief James Ince once estimated Phillips — another of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers — won 1,000 times; maybe 2,000. What is a hardened fact is that Phillips was the first of two drivers to win five NASCAR Weekly Series national championships. During an 11-year span — from his first title in 1989 through 1996 — the Springfield, Missouri, competitor won 220 of 289 NASCAR-sanctioned starts, including 13 track championships in three states.

France Kennedy is Executive Vice Chair of NASCAR and one of the most influential women in sports. Over a 30-plus-year career with International Speedway Corporation, Kennedy rose through a series of executive leadership roles, including secretary, treasurer, executive vice president and CEO. She led the revitalization of Phoenix Raceway, oversaw the Daytona Rising redevelopment of Daytona International Speedway and helped establish NASCAR’s footprint in the Midwest through the development of Kansas Speedway. Kennedy has been recognized by Forbes, Adweek, Sports Business Journal and the National Women’s History Museum, and is a member of the Cynopsis Sports Hall of Fame.

In all, 50 votes were cast by this year’s members of the Hall of Fame Voting Panel. A final ballot was cast from the cumulative results of fan voting, which ran from April 14 to May 17. Results for the Fan Vote were Harry Hyde (Pioneer Era), Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick (Modern Era).

The Class of 2027 Induction Ceremony is set for Friday, Jan. 22, 2027, at the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center.

Posted on May 19, 2026 by Zack Albert

Editor’s Note: NASCAR.com’s Zack Albert was among the voting members casting ballots to elect the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Class of 2027. This year marked his eighth time participating in Voting Day. Here, he explains the three choices on his ballot, a handful of honorable mentions and his pick for the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.

Class of 2027 selections

Kevin Harvick — A recent run of ballots has had at least one Hall of Fame shoo-in, and this year’s layup is Harvick. His more-than-worthy statistics — 60 Cup Series wins and three national-series championships — tell a large part of the story, but his intangibles round out his compelling case. Harvick’s authoritative voice as a broadcaster, his means of giving back to the sport and his role in keeping Richard Childress Racing and the sport’s fan base going after the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001 mean everything.

Randy Dorton — The rest of the selections get no easier down the Modern Era Ballot, but here’s a vote of recognition to one of the sport’s best from behind the scenes in what’s arguably an underrepresented part of the Hall’s induction list. Dorton’s name didn’t make headlines, but his fingerprints were on the powerplants that guided national-series stars to nine championships, leaving a legacy at Hendrick Motorsports’ engine shop that now exceeds 500 wins.

Banjo Matthews — In a still-difficult field of five on the Pioneer Ballot, Matthews gets my checkmark for a third consecutive year. As heralded as his driving was in stock-car racing’s earliest years, Matthews’ proficiency and omnipresence as a master car-builder were unrivaled for a generation.

Honorable mentions: Jeff Burton’s long-running dedication to the sport has always paired well with his statistical excellence, and he was nearly included when it came time to make the call. … Greg Biffle’s racing credentials and philanthropic impact later in his life are well worth a Hall of Fame nod. … The welcome addition of Herb Nab to the Pioneer Ballot this year feels overdue, and the championship-winning crew chief will merit strong consideration in future ballots.

Landmark Award

Lesa France Kennedy — This list of five usually makes for tough decisions, but the lifelong contributions from a key power broker in NASCAR’s first family carried this year’s vote. The expansion into new markets and the modernization of several historic tracks are just some of the accomplishments that continue to move the sport forward.