Bubba Wallace has recently hinted more than once at needing “a generational run” to claw back into the thick of the NASCAR Cup Series postseason. The three Chase presented by Mobil 1 races so far have produced a pair of top-10 finishes for Wallace, resulting in measured, forward movement from his 14th-seeded start to his current perch of 10th in the standings.
Turning the championship hunt on its head will require more than mere consistency, Wallace says, and the timing is ripe for a fall harvest.
This weekend’s trip to Kansas Speedway looms as an opportunity for Wallace and his 23XI Racing group as The Chase enters a pivotal three-race stretch of intermediate-sized tracks. Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) marks the fourth of 10 Chase events, held at the site of one of Wallace’s three career Cup Series wins.
An encore of that 2022 triumph would be timely on many levels, potentially even generational.
“Ithinkforusit’swinning. WinningSundayultimatelyflipsthescriptforallofus,getsusontherighttracktobackupthatquote,” Wallace said in a Wednesday video conference. “Yeah,Imean from14thto10thisarun.It’snotgenerational,butIthinkthere’sobviouslyacouplespotsinfrontofusthatareeasytograb,andyeah,we’vejustgottokeeppressingforward.ButawinatKansas,asolid50-to60-pointdayatKansaswillalso startthattrend.”
In the same breath, Wallace acknowledged the strength of the competition that’s positioned ahead of him. Kyle Larson’s title defense has come to life with a win two weeks ago at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, and a newfound outlook in the points lead following Bristol Motor Speedway. Denny Hamlin still packs a pop, just one point back as a four-time winner this year, and Joey Logano lurks in third place with a groundswell of progress in recent weeks, capped by his win last weekend at Bristol. A half-dozen more heavy hitters stand between Wallace and that top trio.
But Wallace says he’s taken heart in the merits of the new postseason format, offering a reminder that in recent years, Bristol’s night bout coincided with playoff elimination and the oftentimes fierce scramble to keep title hopes alive. The Chase, he says, provides a chance to make hay over a more sustained span, especially with a bigger points premium for winning.
“Itstillshowsthatwehaveachance,” Wallace said. “Youknow,we’renotkickedoutofthestandings.We’re92pointsout,whichisabigstretch,butanythingcanhappen.Yougooffandrattleofftwowinsherewith50-to60-pointdays,andthatgapshrinksquick. SoIhavetheconfidenceinourpeopleandwhatthey’rebringingtotherace track,andultimatelytheendrecipe,themainingredientisme. …I’mexcitedtotakeonthattaskandgototracksthatwewerereally,reallyfastat —Kansas,obviously,beingoneofourfavorites.Yeah,Ifeelalittlebitlessstressknowingthatwestillhaveashotwithsevenraces to go.”
Two drivers ranked ahead of Wallace, you may have heard, have been in the news lately. An on-track squabble last Saturday night between Ryan Blaney (6th in points) and Carson Hocevar (8th) escalated into highly publicized post-race fisticuffs between the two on Bristol’s emotionally charged pit road.
The story of the week hit home for Wallace, whose well-established friendship with Blaney runs deep. Wallace said he was surprised by how the confrontation unfolded as Blaney’s usually mild-mannered nature reached a boil, but he also acknowledged how tensions had built up with Hocevar’s aggressive tendencies,saying, “goodonhimforbeingtheonetoactuallydosomething,tryanddosomethingabout it.”
Wallace had said post-race at Bristol that he hoped to catch up with Blaney over a beer to get his side of the story.
LEBANON, Ore. — Willamette Speedway’s pit area sits behind the backstretch, and Joey Tanner’s team hauler typically is parked behind the exit of Turn 2. The walk from that portion of the pits to the track’s exterior fence requires a climb up a sizable hill (and eye protection from the flying western Oregon soil).
On the night of Sept. 19, when Tanner ran his final NASCAR points-paying race of the 2026 season on the third-mile dirt oval, his wife Ashlie ran up and down that hill at least a dozen times. She ascended to watch Joey’s hot laps, qualifying run, heat races and feature. In between sessions, she helped at the hauler, carrying equipment and assisting in car prep.
She did all of this with her and Joey’s 7-month-old son strapped to her chest.
Joey Tanner calls his wife a “supermom” due in part to how she takes care of their son, their 5-year-old daughter and his 10-year-old stepson all while lending her hand to what’s become one of the best dirt late model programs on the West Coast.
“The amount of support she gives me and the things she does behind the scenes, I couldn’t do this without her,” Tanner said. “She gives up a lot for me to be able to do this. Just to watch her and the things she does just so I can focus on what I’m doing at the track, I’m so grateful for it. Everybody thinks I’ve got it rough. No, she’s the strong one. She’s the one who keeps it going.”
For Tanner, not many things in life take priority over racing. Family is one of them. He gave up the former for the latter a few years back so he could buy a home, get married and have children.
But thanks to a series of breaks, he’s back in the driver’s seat. And on that cool September night, after Tanner won his 12th race in 15 starts at Willamette, his family was the first to greet him with hugs after he clinched the 2026 NASCAR Local Racing Series Powered by O’Reilly Auto Parts Division I national championship.
Seven-month-old Tyson won’t remember the celebration, but Tanner is sure to “put it in his brain” via photos and stories as his son grows older.
After all, if Tyson grows up at the track, experiences his dad’s career first-hand, becomes a racing-obsessed boy, collects die-cast race cars, learns all the local drivers’ names and pretends to call races for fun, forges lifelong relationships in the pits, sticks with his passion into adulthood and turns his dreams into his reality, he will have done exactly what Joey did.
***
Joey and Ashlie Tanner (Photo: Tadd Haislop/NASCAR)
Pavement tracks aren’t as common as dirt tracks in the Pacific Northwest, but Joey Tanner’s father Jody was an asphalt guy in his heyday. The elder Tanner competed on NASCAR’s Northwest and Southwest Tours. Locally, he raced at the now-defunct Portland Speedway.
Joey made friends at school, especially as a tri-sport athlete. But his core relationships were built at the race track.
“From a baby to about 10 years old, while Portland Speedway was around, I’d go there every Friday night,” he said. “I grew up around (racing) with my dad and my brother; my whole family raced. Going to the tracks on Friday nights and Saturday nights in the western U.S. from Oregon to California, Idaho, Montana, even to Nevada.
“I just fell in love with it when I was a kid, and it kind of went from there. When you’re around it as a kid, it’s in you.”
Jody didn’t have to push Joey to the driver’s seat. As soon as the younger Tanner was old enough, Jody got him in an indoor go kart.
And he was good — good enough to enrage the grown men who were racing against (and losing to) a 10-year-old boy.
Joey Tanner (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
Rules at the time prohibited anybody under the age of 16 to race at most tracks. But Oregon’s Madras Speedway had a juniors division, which gave Tanner a chance to run a street stock at the age of 13. In his second year, he won the class championship and earned an opportunity (with signed consent from his dad) to move up to a late model.
Tanner spent a few years running dirt late models before a brief asphalt detour in 2009 and 2010, when he was old enough to try the discipline his father mastered. Tanner found success on pavement, too. He became the youngest driver to win the Fall Classic at Washington’s Yakima Speedway.
Due in part to the scarcity of pavement tracks in the region, though, Tanner returned to the dirt world in 2011 and has been there ever since.
“I loved racing pavement,” he said. “The amount of attention to detail there is, the heat, the amount of laps you race, I liked that challenge. But obviously I love dirt, too. I love the friendships you build, the communities you race with. A lot more friendly, a lot less professional.
“So the dirt thing really stuck. And there’s nothing like it. Driving a 900-horsepower late model on the verge of hitting the wall every lap. (I actually hit the wall often, but try not to hit it too hard.) Obviously I’ve built a love and passion for it.”
Tanner in his dirt career has driven for multiple car owners, including himself. The opportunity to work with a longtime friend in Darren Coffell arrived when Coffell took a chance on Tanner after an event in Las Vegas. Tanner joined Coffell on the trip as a helping hand, but he ended up in the driver’s seat of the car, finishing in the top 10 and indirectly launching a partnership that’s yielded seemingly endless success.
Tanner went full-time racing in Coffell’s late models three years ago. Every season, he grows more thankful for the team’s camaraderie. The equipment is good, and the communication is great.
Darren Coffell (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
“We live and breathe racing,” Tanner said. “We’re always thinking about ways we can make our cars faster. Things we can do to beat the competition or be different, or challenge ourselves to a new goal. A lot of our success is the thought process behind shock settings, chassis adjustments, just other things to tinker that other people don’t really do. I think we’ve gained a lot more speed just by our knowledge and putting our heads together and coming up with packages that nobody else has. Not even the chassis builder recommends what we run.”
An invaluable piece of their puzzle is Chris FitzJohn, the crew chief who randomly messaged Tanner on Facebook 10 years ago asking for an opportunity to learn about and work on late models as part of a team. Tanner at the time was riding solo and needing the help, so he said yes. He now calls it “the best thing (he) ever did,” adding that FitzJohn is “consistent” and “dependable.”
Tanner’s crew also features Dick Gummus, a longtime friend of Coffell whose age (in his 80s) doesn’t stop him from helping in the shop and taking on tire work in the pits. Alexis Coffell, Darren’s daughter, lends a hand on race day, too.
That’s the extent of the squad that produced the best season in the country in NASCAR’s Division I ranks.
“I’m just so proud of our accomplishments with what we have,” Tanner said. “Obviously we know we have a great program. We know we have the stuff. But on a national level, now everybody knows. We’ve been fast for a couple years, and I’ve been winning races for a long time. Just nobody really knew.
“But doing it with a small team — we don’t think of ourselves as that small, but yeah, it is a small team — it shows what you can do with people who just work hard and put all their effort into it. I’m so happy I was able to do it for the team.”
***
From left: Alexis Coffell, Chris FitzJohn, Joey Tanner, Darren Coffell and Ashlie Tanner (Photo: Yem Sanlaeid/NASCAR)
Willamette Speedway promotors Sandy and Cory Penfold announced in March a new NASCAR sanction for the 2026 season, citing the benefits for drivers and the potential path to a national spotlight.
Tanner was completely on board with his home track’s move thanks to his first-hand experience.
When Jody Tanner won that Portland Speedway track championship in 2000, he was invited to attend NASCAR’s awards banquet in Orlando. Joey tagged along, and he vividly remembers watching Gary Webb, a dirt-track racer from Iowa, get recognized for winning that season’s national title.
No dirt-track racer had won NASCAR’s national championship since Webb’s triumph … until Joey Tanner did what he did in 2026.
Willamette Speedway promotor Cory Penfold brought the track a NASCAR sanction for the first time in 2026, paving the way for Joey Tanner’s national title. (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
Willamette’s NASCAR sanction created a new goal for a team that was already accustomed to winning 10-plus races a season. That success is why Tanner felt cautiously optimistic.
“We knew after last year’s performance, 13 wins in 15 starts, we could have a shot at doing something great,” he said. “Whether it was winning the region, the state or even national. We knew it was going to be tough, and we knew we weren’t going to get that many races. So our throw-outs were going to have to be pretty good just to be able to be in the hunt. So we were excited about it, and we knew from the beginning that we had a shot to do something good, and we ran with it.”
Tanner in the spring began the season on a tear, winning Willamette’s first six late model features before a relatively stunning second-place run right before the calendar flipped to June. He ended up winning 12 of 15 races with all three “losses” being second-place results.
Still, the points race was close. Tanner entered the final NASCAR weekend just a few points up on Connor Hall, the two-time Division I national champ who races asphalt late models primarily in Virginia and North Carolina. Hall won his finale at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway and put the pressure on Tanner to do the same later that night on the West Coast.
No problem. Despite unpredictable track conditions and some tire trouble after qualifying, Tanner in his final feature smoked the field to clinch not just the national title, but the West Regional championship, too.
“We were definitely focused on winning this,” Tanner said. “When we really started to notice us creeping up in the points for national and the gap was getting bigger for regional, we really dug in. Darren stepped it up. We had more tires than I had ever seen. The equipment was always beautiful. He showed up ready to go. I mean he brought both cars two weeks in a row; we were ready to go in case one car had a problem. We were fully invested.
“We actually missed a race (at Willamette) for a race at another track because it was a higher paying race. And we actually missed out on a max points night possibly. I’m glad it didn’t bite us in the butt.”
***
(Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
When he’s not wrenching on or wheeling championship-caliber late models, Tanner works full-time as a sales professional for Maletis Beverage in Portland. He and Ashlie live East of the city in the suburb of Troutdale.
The drive from their home to Willamette on the weekends is about two hours, but they’re able to bunk with Ashlie’s family, local to Lebanon, to avoid late-night returns.
That’s how the Tanners are able to keep the family together at the race track … even if his daughter spends half the time wandering around the pits hanging out with other crews.
“It’s very special for me to have the family here,” Tanner said. “The older I get, the more I look on it, and family’s so huge to me. I gave up racing five or years six years ago for my family. I was content with what I had done in my racing career, and I was happy to leave it. Maybe not forever, but for a while. And obviously I’ve been fortunate enough to get back into it and keep going doing what I love. But having my kids around, it’s so rewarding to me, because I did it when I was a kid, and it was so cool for me to grow up around it, and I’m so grateful my kids and my family were all here to see it.”
Joey Tanner (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
“It,” in this case, was his clinching the national championship. Jody was there to see “it,” too, which is a huge deal given the impact he’s had on Joey’s life.
Jody brought Joey to the banquet after he won the Portland Speedway title in 2000. In November, Joey will bring Jody to the NASCAR Regional and International Awards banquet in Charlotte.
“I mean, how ironic, right,” Joey Tanner said. “It’s so rewarding for me as a son having him here. And having him going to the banquet with us will be so cool because I did go to it with him. He’s only been to one national banquet because he’s only won one championship. And that was the one that I went to was the last dirt champion.”
Ashlie will attend, too, possibly with their baby still strapped to her chest as the family continues to celebrate their accomplishment.
This triumph is as momentous for Tanner, Coffell and the rest of the team members as it is for the state of Oregon, the Pacific Northwest and a dirt-racing community that hadn’t seen a NASCAR national champ in a quarter century. That wasn’t lost on Tanner when he first celebrated in the Willamette pits on Sept. 19, and the reminders will keep coming as he continues his career. His home track will certainly make sure everyone recalls one of its drivers taking NASCAR’s national title in the venue’s first season with the sanction.
Tyson will remember, too, even if he was too young to process the moment in real time. He’ll see photos of his grandfather taking his dad to Orlando and images of his dad taking his grandfather to Charlotte.
Perhaps one day Tyson will take Joey to a NASCAR banquet, too.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Joey Tanner has won the 2026 NASCAR Local Racing Series Powered by O’Reilly Auto Parts national championship, completing a landmark season for the Portland, Oregon driver and the No. 46 dirt Super Late Model team owned by Darren Coffell.
Tanner is the first dirt-track driver to win the NASCAR local racing national championship since Gary Webb accomplished the feat in 2000. The achievement carries special meaning for Tanner, who attended the NASCAR awards banquet with his father that year after the elder Tanner won the Portland Speedway track championship. Tanner remembers seeing Webb at the banquet; 26 years later, he joins him among NASCAR’s national champions.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the team I race for and the people who support us,” Tanner said. “This is a big win for the state of Oregon, for the West Coast, for our team and my family, my crew – everyone involved.”
Tanner earned 12 wins in 15 starts at Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Oregon, and secured the national championship by two points. The title is the culmination of a focused season-long effort by Tanner, Coffell, crew chief Chris FitzJohn and the entire No. 46 team. Once the group recognized it was gaining ground in the national standings and building its advantage in the regional standings, it committed fully to the title pursuit.
“We were definitely focused on winning this championship,” Tanner said. “When we really started to notice us creeping up in the points nationally and the gap was getting bigger for the regional title, we really dug in. Darren stepped it up. We had more tires than I had ever seen. The equipment was always beautiful. He showed up ready to go.”
“Joey Tanner’s championship represents everything that makes NASCAR local racing special – talented competitors, dedicated teams and families, and communities that support their hometown racers week after week,” said Joey Dennewitz, NASCAR vice president of Industry Development. “Joey and the No. 46 team turned hard work, preparation and belief in one another into a historic season for Oregon and West Coast racing. We are proud to recognize him as the first dirt-track driver since Gary Webb in 2000 to win the national championship.”
“Congratulations to Joey Tanner on an outstanding season and on earning the 2026 NASCAR Local Racing Series Powered by O’Reilly Auto Parts National Championship,” said Diane Heatherly, sponsorship marketing manager for O’Reilly Auto Parts. “Joey’s 12 wins in 15 starts reflect the preparation, commitment and competitive spirit that define local racing. We are proud to celebrate Joey, the No. 46 team and the passionate fans whose support makes grassroots racing so special.”
(Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
Tanner was born and raised in Portland and still lives outside the city, where he works as a sales professional for Maletis Beverage. His racing career began in indoor go-karts at age 10. He later advanced through street stocks and late models before beginning his dirt-racing career in 2005.
The move to dirt became a defining turn in Tanner’s career. The speed, precision and risk required to handle a powerful late model on dirt quickly developed into a lasting passion.
“I love the dirt. There’s nothing like it,” Tanner said. “Driving a 900-horsepower late model on the verge of hitting the wall every lap – there’s just nothing like it. I’ve built a love and passion for it, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Tanner said the title validates what the close-knit No. 46 team believed it could accomplish, while bringing national recognition to a program built through years of work and steady success.
“I’m just so proud of our accomplishments with what we have,” Tanner said. “We know as a team we have a great program, but now everybody knows on a national level. We’ve been fast for a couple years, and I’ve been winning races for a long time. Doing it with a small team shows what you can accomplish with people who work hard and put all their effort into it.”
From left: Alexis Coffell, Chris FitzJohn, Joey Tanner, Darren Coffell and Ashlie Tanner (Photo: Yem Sanlaeid/NASCAR)
The championship is also a family achievement for Tanner, who is married and has two children and a stepson. It extends a racing tradition passed down by his father and creates another milestone for a family with deep roots in Oregon short-track racing.
The championship picture also showcased the breadth of NASCAR local racing. The top five in the national standings represents five distinct car, surface and regional combinations: Tanner in a dirt Super Late Model from the Northwest; Connor Hall in a pavement Late Model Stock from the Southeast; Mike Lichtfeld in a pavement Late Model from the Midwest; Burt Myers in a pavement Modified from the Southeast; and Mitch Keeter in a dirt Modified from the Midwest. Defending national champion Jacob Goede finished sixth in points this season.
“Whether it was winning the region, the state or even the national championship, we knew it was going to be tough,” Tanner said. “We knew we weren’t going to get that many races, so our throw-outs were going to have to be pretty good just to be in the hunt. We knew from the beginning that we had a shot to do something special, and we ran with it.”
The NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series continue their respective Chases presented by Mobil 1 this weekend at Kansas Speedway. Both fields feature 36 entries for the weekend. See the qualifying orders for Kansas below.
Kansas Speedway has spent the last few years turning the white flag into a warning.
Kyle Larson took it this spring with the lead … and Tyler Reddick held the checkered flag moments later.
Last fall, Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace were battling for the victory on the final lap when contact opened the door for Chase Elliott to sweep past both of them. And in May 2024, Larson edged Chris Buescher by 0.001 seconds — the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history.
There’s a reason Racing Insights has started referring to the recent trend as “Krazy Kansas” — because it’s been (contribution to the NASCAR Swear Jar)-ing nuts.
The winning pass has come in the final two laps in five of the last seven Kansas races, including four last-lap passes. Four of the last six have gone to NASCAR Overtime, too. Meanwhile, the driver who led the most laps has won just once in the last eight trips to the 1.5-mile track. Sometimes, it’s better to be positioned than dominant.
That unpredictability arrives Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at an especially interesting moment in The Chase presented by Mobil 1.
Three races into the 10-race championship run, the field has already started to stretch out a bit. Larson left Saturday night’s Bristol Motor Speedway barn burner with a one-point advantage over Hamlin for his first points lead of the season, while race winner Joey Logano sits just 16 points back and Christopher Bell 17 behind. From there, the gaps grow quickly.
Ty Gibbs (-42) and Ryan Blaney (-52) remain within striking distance, but Reddick is seventh at 61 points back and very much trending the wrong way. Carson Hocevar (-85) follows, with Chase Briscoe (-87), Wallace (-92), Austin Cindric (-116), Elliott (-117), Byron (-121), Ryan Preece (-124), Buescher (-124) and Daniel Suárez (-134) rounding out the Chase field. Every driver from eighth through 16th is already more than a full race’s worth of points behind Larson.
The problem for the leaders?
Kansas might be exactly where several of those trailing contenders are best positioned to turn things around.
Start with Reddick, whose deficit grew by 19 points at Bristol. Nobody in this group has to imagine what a Kansas surge might look like — he provided the most recent example.
Reddick won here in April after Larson led at the white flag, making the winning pass between Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap. It was Reddick’s second Kansas victory in six races and remains (somewhat shockingly) the most recent of his five wins this season.
Toyota stablemate Briscoe has an equally compelling reason to welcome Kansas after Bristol dropped him from 59 points back to 87.
Since joining Joe Gibbs Racing, Briscoe has finished fourth or better in all three of his Kansas starts, including a third-place result this spring after taking four tires before overtime and charging through the field. He also won the most recent 1.5-mile race at Chicagoland and has finished fourth or better in seven of his 12 starts on traditional 1.5-mile tracks with JGR. They’re quickly becoming his bread and butter, with some Victory Lane BBQ potentially on the menu Sunday.
Wallace, meanwhile, already owns a Kansas win from 2022 and has four top-five finishes in his last eight races here. He has also finished in the top 10 in four of the last five races on 1.5-mile tracks. And 23XI Racing as an organization has turned Kansas into one of its signature venues, winning four of the last nine races at the venerable Midwestern track with three different drivers and leading in eight of those nine events.
Then there is Elliott, whose current form makes his Kansas history stand out even more — and underscores why it’s imperative for the No. 9 to convert if he’s going to save his season.
Elliott has just one top-five finish and two top 10s over his last 18 races, but Kansas has consistently been one of his best tracks. He won this race last September, owns two victories here overall and has finished in the top 10 in six of his last seven Kansas starts. His 9.81 career average finish there is also the best among drivers with at least six starts. This is about as tailor-made a bounce-back opportunity as he could hope for right now.
But his teammate Byron might be even more intriguing.
His 121-point deficit makes him look increasingly removed from the championship picture, but his results on traditional 1.5-mile tracks say something very different. Byron and Hamlin are the only drivers to finish in the top 10 in all five such races this season. Byron has gone third, seventh, eighth, ninth and fourth, producing a 6.2 average finish that trails only Hamlin’s 2.6.
This is the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, after all — if there’s a track where it can start dragging itself back into the championship picture, Kansas fits the profile.
David Jensen | Getty Images
Even Buescher, 124 points behind, has firsthand knowledge of how close Kansas can come to changing everything for a driver. His runner-up finish to Larson here in May 2024 will certainly be mentioned and you’ll likely see the replay (at least once) this weekend.
For all its recent chaos, however, Kansas has not become random.
No driver has earned a first career Cup victory at Kansas in any of its 41 races, the most races among active tracks that have never produced a first-time winner. Plus, the last 30 Kansas winners all entered with at least 100 previous Cup starts. That distinction matters.
The recent Kansas formula has not necessarily been about an unlikely driver stumbling into Victory Lane. Instead, it’s been about proven contenders staying close enough to capitalize when the race changes in the closing laps. Veteran savvy, if you will.
Reddick did it in April. Elliott did it last fall. Larson did it by literal inches in 2024.
And in this version of The Chase, the payoff for doing so can be enormous. Bell, Larson and Logano each scored 73 points in winning the first three Chase races, tied for the second-most points scored in any Cup race this season. Winning in the postseason has clearly been the difference-maker, even though the win-and-advance playoff days are long gone.
For Reddick, Briscoe, Wallace, Elliott, Byron and the rest of the Chase’s back half, merely running well will very likely not result in a title. The gaps have grown too large, too quickly.
Thankfully for them, Kansas has shown a repeated willingness to offer something more dramatic and open a window of opportunity for whoever is positioned to take it. The next three races, all 1.5-mile venues, may ultimately bring clarity to the championship picture.
But “Krazy Kansas” gets the next chance to make a mess of it.
The review of the Carson Hocevar-Ryan Blaney altercation at Bristol Motor Speedway has concluded with no penalties, but NASCAR still has unfinished business.
NASCAR Cup Series officials will meet with Ty Gibbs after the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing driver hurled a water bottle that struck a media member in the fracas Saturday night.
“I know it was kind of a heat-of-the-moment thing, and he probably thought it was just kind of a funny thing to add to the moment,” NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde said Tuesday during the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast. “He probably had some frustrations with (Hocevar) as well. But obviously that could be dangerous if that hit someone in the wrong place. If the cap portion of that water bottle hit someone in the eye, that could be a dangerous situation. So we plan to have a conversation this weekend in Kansas with Ty Gibbs, but no penalty.”
“Several of our folks did listen to it or at least see some of the clips, and there were comments in the debrief meetings that they thought Ryan handled it really well and spoke very eloquently and professionally,” Forde said. “We feel he gets it, so talking with him further about what happened, we don’t think it’s totally necessary.”
NASCAR announced Monday that there would be no penalties for Blaney or Hocevar, but that the actions of crew members still were being evaluated.
Forde said the review resulted in no punishments Tuesday.
“We looked at it as they were trying to break it up vs. trying to get involved,” Forde said. “A lot of these crew members are DI athletes. They’re just coming off a football field as recently as last year, and we do not want them to be involved in any crew member to driver contact in any way. If they’re trying to break it up in a good way, we’ll take that into account. But if they’re laying their hands in a violent manner, that’s when we’re going to step in.”
Other topics covered by Forde and senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis during the 70th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— How NASCAR officials and security handled the fight and its aftermath at Bristol.
— Why penalties for fighting can vary on a case-to-case basis.
— A preview of Kansas Speedway.
— The tiebreakers that will be used in the Chase presented by Mobil 1.
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 has also covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
Suárez, who drives the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, had been on baby watch in recent weeks while competing in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1. Piquet’s original due date was Sept. 17, and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series regular Justin Allgaier was on standby for the No. 7 team last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Suárez finished 14th in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race.
Suárez ranks 16th in the Cup Series standings. He earned his first victory of the season in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24, 49 days after the couple announced they were expecting their first child.
Goodyear will bring the same intermediate oval tire setup used at Kansas in the spring for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1 race at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The tire combination has been used several times since the spring Kansas race, most recently in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway to start The Chase. The left-side tire has also been used three other times this season, most recently at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July.
“We introduced new right-side Goodyear Racing Eagles at this race last fall, which helped give teams different strategy options,” said Rick Heinrich, Goodyear NASCAR product manager. “This weekend will be the third time Cup Series teams have run this setup at Kansas, and the eighth time they have done so this season, so they come to Kansas with valuable data to help with their setups.”
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams will use the same left- and right-side tires from earlier events this season at Texas Motor Speedway and Michigan International Speedway. The Truck Series will race at Kansas on Saturday (1 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the second race of its Chase.
Tire allotment for each team competing this weekend:
Cup Series: 11 total sets — 8 new for the race, 1 for qualifying that transfers to the race, and 2 for practice. Craftsman Truck Series: 5 total sets — 3 new for the race, 1 for qualifying that transfers to the race, and 1 for practice.
NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola ranks the 16 Cup Series drivers in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 after Joey Logano’s win at Bristol Motor Speedway and before Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Analysis: The swagger stuck around. Larson followed a fifth-place showing at Darlington Raceway and a World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway win with a Bristol runner-up, becoming the only driver with top-five finishes in all three Chase races and taking the championship lead from Hamlin by a single point. He was right in the middle of the frantic closing battle, too, lurking behind Gibbs and Hocevar before Logano shot underneath the mess and Larson ultimately grabbed second. Kansas is hardly where you’d expect this run to stop: Larson led 78 laps and finished second there in April while becoming the track’s all-time Cup laps-led leader. The No. 5 spent much of the summer looking dangerous without getting paid off for it. Now everybody else is chasing him, and the bill’s due.
Analysis: Logano spent much of the evening at Bristol looking like he might finish third or fourth and wound up stealing the whole thing … because of course he did. Gibbs and Hocevar were beating on each other for the lead, Larson was right there with them and Logano simply drove underneath the scrum on Lap 494 before disappearing with his third win of the season. “Merry Christmas to me,” as he put it afterward. Add a Stage 1 win, 93 laps led and a 73-point night, and the three-time champion is suddenly third in The Chase, only 16 points behind Larson. Kansas has been considerably less cooperative for him lately — 30th this spring and 21st last fall — but conventional logic has a funny way of becoming less useful when speaking about Mr. Logano and what he’s capable of.
Analysis: One point. That’s the entirety of Hamlin’s fall from the top of the standings after three Chase races that have felt strangely quiet by the standard he set all summer, so the panic can quiet down a bit. Bristol included a third-place Stage 1 finish but little else of note on the way to eighth, and Larson finally slipped past him. But Kansas arrives at a particularly useful time: Hamlin led a race-high 131 laps there in April before a late caution and overtime scramble cost him the win … after leading 159 last fall before Chase Elliott stole it in the final corner. The No. 11 still hasn’t produced its signature Chase afternoon just yet. Recent Kansas history — not to mention its entire 2026 campaign — suggests that could change quickly.
Analysis: Bell needed a race where nothing weird happened, and amid all the Bristol insanity, fourth place almost qualified as anonymous, which he was probably just fine with. He quietly climbed from 12th, avoided the late mess and left only 17 points behind Larson, while NASCAR Insights graded the No. 20 first in pit-crew performance. Kansas has supplied plenty of speed, too, even when the finishes haven’t always reflected it — Bell led 47 laps this spring before overtime contact with Reddick helped send him to 20th, and he led 43 more there in last fall’s third-place run. Three races into The Chase, Bell remains close enough to the front that one clean Sunday could flip the whole board again, and it very likely will.
Analysis: There is no writing around the fight here — nor should there be as it stemmed from an incident with major Chase implications. Blaney dominated huge stretches of Bristol, leading a race-high 202 laps and winning Stage 2, then recovered from a commitment-line penalty to drive all the way back to second. One lap after clearing Carson Hocevar, Blaney moved down to defend the bottom, Hocevar stayed in it, and the No. 12 went hard into the outside wall. Blaney finished 33rd, then marched to Hocevar’s pit stall afterward, where the two traded punches before officials and crew members separated them. The box score shows consecutive finishes of 35th and 33rd for Blaney, but the races themselves say the No. 12 remains one of the fastest cars in The Chase and a true title contender. Kansas, where Blaney was 24th in April, now becomes the place to turn all that speed — and frustration — back into points.
Analysis: For much of Saturday night, Gibbs looked capable of sweeping Bristol in 2026. He led 120 laps, somehow survived getting sandwiched three-wide between Alex Bowman and Cole Custer, then spent the closing run trading the lead with Hocevar while Larson and Logano stalked both of them. The final restart finally got away from him, and Logano slipped through while Gibbs faded to fifth. Still, the No. 54 scored points in both stages and leaves Bristol fifth in The Chase, 42 points behind Larson. Ninth at Kansas in April gives him another solid baseline, and the performance has been strong enough lately that there isn’t much need to dress it up. He’s here.
Analysis: There truly is no dull version of the Carson Hocevar experience. He led 39 laps, went door-to-door with Gibbs for the win, finished third for his best Bristol result — and still became the central character of the night after contact sent Blaney into the wall with 42 laps remaining. Then came pit road. Blaney confronted him, Hocevar landed the first punch, Blaney answered and officials eventually pulled the two apart while the crowd roared, with Hocevar later calling it an “old-school Bristol show.” He has now opened his first Chase 11th-eighth-third and climbed to eighth in points, 85 back. Kansas was 13th this spring after a broken pit gun derailed a top-10 run, so he’s not going anywhere. The controversy keeps following him. So does the speed.
Analysis: Bristol went sideways almost immediately for Reddick, and it’s beginning to feel like it’s really slipping away from him here. He started 20th, lost 13 spots before the competition caution and was already a lap down before Stage 1 ended, eventually dropping multiple laps off the pace and finishing 18th. That pushed him 61 points behind Larson and made three Chase races look nothing like the first half of his season. Fortunately, Kansas remembers that version of Reddick just fine. He won there in April despite brushing the wall, dealing with a fuel-system stumble and banging doors with Bell in overtime before running down Larson in the final corners. The No. 45 has looked strangely ordinary lately, but this is probably the last track where anyone should assume that continues.
Analysis: The results sheet has been awfully rude to Briscoe lately. Gateway ended when Chase Elliott’s brake failure collected him while he was running sixth; Bristol ended after he had climbed into seventh late, only for a broken toe link to send the No. 19 to the garage with six laps remaining. That is how a championship-caliber team winds up 87 points back without actually looking like the ninth-best car in The Chase. Kansas should offer a cleaner read. Briscoe finished third there in April, and last fall he started from the pole, led 19 laps and finished fourth. At some point, though, the finishes — his fault or not — need to catch up with the cars. There are worse places than Kansas for the bill to finally come due.
Analysis: Wallace’s Bristol night wasn’t completely uneventful — he got sideways during late contact involving Elliott and Briscoe — but compared with the first two Chase races, seventh probably felt downright peaceful. He remains 92 points behind Larson, though Kansas is exactly the kind of place where the No. 23 can make that number more interesting. Wallace finished fifth there in April and was leading late last fall before a pair of overtime restarts ultimately ended with Hamlin forcing the issue in Turn 3 and Elliott stealing the win. Wallace knows firsthand how to close it out at this track. Sunday would be a useful time to finish the job once more.
Analysis: Byron somehow turned another potential mess into another top 10 as the No. 24 team stays alive. Running ninth with fewer than 60 laps left, contact with Josh Berry sent the No. 24 spinning into the inside wall, yet Byron recovered to finish exactly where he had been running: ninth. That backs up fourth at Gateway and gives him consecutive top 10s after his Chase opened with a last-place disaster at Darlington. Kansas offers another reasonable step after seventh there in April. The comeback remains a long one at 121 points behind his teammate Larson, but at least Byron has stopped digging the hole.
Analysis: Cindric’s Chase remains almost aggressively uneventful, albeit consistent: 13th, 10th, 11th. Even Bristol’s complication was fairly mundane — after running eighth, he had to make an extra stop because the team wasn’t confident the car had gotten enough fuel. He still recovered to 11th, preserving a streak of useful afternoons that simply haven’t moved the championship needle very far. Kansas was much the same this spring, when Cindric climbed from 34th to 12th. The No. 2 keeps avoiding disaster, yes, but at 116 points back, Cindric and Co. could use something considerably more memorable.
Analysis: There isn’t much worth dressing up about Bristol for Elliott. He spent much of the night buried off the lead lap, then spun by himself off Turn 4 with 23 laps remaining before coming home 23rd. That dropped him 117 points behind Larson and extended a Chase opening that has offered almost no sustained momentum. Kansas, however, immediately changes the mood. Elliott won there last fall after restarting eighth in overtime and charging through the chaos to edge Hamlin by 0.069 seconds; he returned this spring and finished eighth. Larson has Hendrick atop the championship, and Byron has started climbing again. Elliott has already shown Kansas can change his season in a hurry, and he might be next.
Analysis: Preece keeps finding ways to hang around. He spent much of Bristol outside the top 10 and needed Elliott’s late spin to grab the free pass, then took advantage and drove home 10th for his second top 10 in three Chase races. That’s great and all, but he remains near the bottom of The Chase standings as the powerhouse-backed drivers around him begin to solidify. Kansas produced an 11th in April, another result that fits the recent theme: solid, useful and in no way enough by itself for somebody 124 points behind Larson. Preece already produced the result nobody saw coming once this season at Daytona. The funny thing is, another one wouldn’t feel nearly as shocking anymore.
Analysis: Buescher finally completed a Chase race without the ending being swallowed by damaged parts or mechanical failure. There was still some Bristol friction — slight contact with Allmendinger leaving his pit stall — but otherwise the No. 17 stayed out of the highlight reel and finished 13th. After Darlington damage and the Gateway brake failure, that qualified as progress. Kansas produced a 10th this spring, including one lap led. Buescher has spent most of 2026 looking capable of something bigger than respectable, but with seven races remaining, the waiting room is getting crowded.
Analysis: Suárez spent much of Bristol in survival mode, and the magic may be running dry. He started 28th, fell multiple laps down and was 18th at halfway before steadily clawing back to 14th — his best finish of The Chase, modest as that distinction may be. The deficit still grew to 134 points, and Kansas wasn’t much more encouraging in April, when Suárez finished 19th after leading a lap. This season has already produced a couple of enormous Suárez plot twists, and at this stage of The Chase, another one probably needs to start before we get to the final act.
Sam Mayer will reunite with JR Motorsports for the 2027 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season to drive the team’s No. 1 Chevrolet, the team announced Tuesday.
Mayer spent the first three-and-a-half seasons of his O’Reilly career with JRM before departing for Haas Factory Team, for which he’s driven in the 2025 and 2026 seasons. Mayer currently drives the No. 41 Chevrolet for HFT and sits fifth in The Chase standings after Friday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Starkey will serve as Mayer’s primary sponsor for the 2027 season, according to the team’s press release.
A Wisconsin native, Mayer earned seven of his eight career O’Reilly Series victories driving the No. 1 JRM Chevrolet, winning four races in 2023 and three in 2024. Mayer finished a career-best third in the championship standings in 2023. Mayer also competed for JRM’s Late Model program in 2018 and 2019 in a successful tenure as a teenager.
“I am really happy to be back with JR Motorsports and back behind the wheel of the No. 1 Chevrolet,” Mayer said in a team release. “I’m really grateful to continue my career with the organization that gave me my start and thankful to Starkey for being an incredible partner and for their continued support in my racing career. There is still some racing left to do this year and I am focused on that, but I can’t wait to get the 2027 season underway at Daytona with JRM.”
The reunion pairs Mayer once again with the series’ powerhouse organization as JRM continues to excel, winning 15 of 27 races so far this season with four drivers competing in the 12-driver Chase this season.
“I think he’s a different dude than when he left,” team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. told NASCAR.com. “And I think he also appreciates us a little more. … I don’t want that to sound the wrong way, but I think he realizes he was in a really good spot with us. And we’ve really worked hard to try to figure out how to put around him what he needed to win and be successful mentally, really. So I think he’s excited, and we worked with him all the way through the Late Models and all that so it’s very familiar. He’ll be a nice addition to what we’ve got going on.”
With one win last year, Mayer matched his career-high mark of 13 top fives in 2025 in his first campaign with HFT while posting career-best average starts (8.1) and average finishes (11.5). In 2026, Mayer has collected six top fives and 13 top 10s and sits 78 points behind HFT teammate and points leader Sheldon Creed.
