For many fans, last week’s announcement that NASCAR was returning to a modernized version of The Chase marked a welcome pivot for the sport. The previous elimination-style playoff system provided plenty of thrilling moments, but by the end of last year’s playoffs it seemed the format was due for a tweak after being in place for roughly a decade.
The new Chase system does away with “win-and-you’re-in” and round-by-round eliminations in favor of a single top-16 cutoff with 10 races to go — and a sprint to the finish from there. It’s a streamlined solution that is, as Mark Martin called it last Monday, “the most perfect compromise that you could ever ask for” between the playoffs and a complete reset to a full-season points format. But it will, of course, bring plenty of changes as compared with what we’ve been used to in recent seasons.
For one thing, we would have had a few different champions if this method were in place during the playoff era. If we assume the race results would have played out the same way under the new system — not an ironclad assumption, admittedly, but let’s go with it for the sake of discussion — here’s who would have won the championship each season since 2017:
In five of those nine seasons, the champ would have been identical regardless of format. Ironically, one of those seasons was 2025 — when Kyle Larson would have won the title under both the playoffs and the Chase — despite that season contributing to the momentum for a format change.
But Larson would be a three-time champ instead of winning just twice, Martin Truex Jr. would be a two-time champ instead of just the single title from 2017, and instead of chasing his first career title, William Byron would already have been a champion from his run in 2023. Of course, that means other drivers would have lost ground, but every system change will have winners and losers.
According to Adjusted Points+ index (which awards drivers for finishes relative to a Cup Series average of 100), the old system’s champs were 90% better than average in the typical season since 2017. Looking at our hypothetical list of alternative champs under the new Chase format, those drivers would have been 107% better than average. Similarly, the average Driver Rating (which accounts for in-race form in addition to finishes) for champs would have risen from 99.7 to 103.3 with a move from the playoffs to The Chase.
That may not seem like a massive difference, and we’re definitely talking about degrees of greatness here. (That’s true even more so if you look at the top five under the two systems, where the differences are even smaller.) But it speaks to The Chase’s potential to deliver a fairer championship outcome, if the goal is to have better drivers prove it out on the track.
Further, there should be plenty of chances for drama in the final race of the season, even if it’s not explicitly set to be a do-or-die contest the way the playoffs had engineered it to be. If The Chase were installed last year, for instance, just 12 points would have separated the top four of Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and William Byron heading into the season finale, and Larson would have won by a margin of just four points over Bell.
Granted, that would have been an exceptionally close setup under this new system, which would have seen the No. 2 go into the final race trailing by an average of 32.4 points across the entire 2017-2025 period:
But 32.4 points is not insurmountable by any stretch, particularly with the new enhanced bonuses for winning. And that average includes years like 2017 — when Truex Jr. would have run away with things going into the last race — but also 2022, when Larson would have led by just two points over Logano and three over Bell heading into the finale, and would have been passed in the standings by Logano for the championship. Or 2020, when Elliott would have had to furiously hold off Kevin Harvick with just a one-point cushion going into the final race.
The pre-finale runner-up would have been within 25 points of the leader going into the last race more often than not over the 2017-2025 period, which feels like a fair compromise between resetting things completely, like in the old playoff system — regardless of the previous 35 races — and giving up on the finale having any sense of drama whatsoever.
No format is perfect, and every system has trade-offs baked into it. But this new Chase will lead to deserving champions while still preserving the late-season uncertainty that keeps us all watching. It should also be simpler to follow, by eschewing playoff points and round-to-round eliminations, which is no small improvement.
To go back to the words of Martin, one of the most respected voices in the NASCAR community: “Everyone wins with this format.”
The biggest midget car racing event in the world, the Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink in Tulsa, Oklahoma, always attracts some of NASCAR’s top stars. Which means millions of eyes this week were focused on the 2026 Chili Bowl results.
Among those who competed in the 2026 Chili Bowl was reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, who won the event in 2025. He was joined by three-time Chili Bowl winner Christopher Bell, 2025 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love, Ty Gibbs, Sheldon Creed, Corey Day, J.J. Yeley and Josh Bilicki. The NASCAR Regional level was also represented with competitors like Gavan Boschele, Jake Johnson and Ryan Roulette.
Below is more about each driver and how they fared at the 2026 Chili Bowl.
Kyle Larson at the 2026 Chili Bowl (Photo: Bobby Pastelak/NASCAR)
Chili Bowl results: How NASCAR drivers fared at the 2026 Nationals in Tulsa
Qualifying Night: Victory in Monday’s preliminary feature
Saturday: DNF in A Main
Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson is making his 18th Chili Bowl Nationals attempt this year. A three-time (2020-21, 2025) Chili Bowl Nationals champion, Larson has made the Saturday championship feature 12 times.
He got off to a great start in 2026.
After finishing seventh in Monday night’s Race of Champions (won by Christopher Bell), Larson returned to form with a convincing victory in the Monday preliminary feature. He started fourth in the 30-lap A Main and was leading by the 10th circuit, though he faced constant pressure from Briggs Danner and Cannon McIntosh.
A few mid-race cautions, including one that was the result of contact between Larson and the lapped car of Gaige Weldon, provided Larson with the clean race track he needed to punch his ticket directly into Saturday’s championship feature.
“My car felt good, and I was making decent decisions in traffic,” Larson said. “Then one lapper (Weldon) tried to rip back around me and then lane changed into (Turn) 3 and I tagged him. It kind of calmed the race down.
“It’s good to be back in position for Saturday.”
Saturday, though, turned out to be a bit of a bummer.
Larson started the A-Main championship race from the pole position, but his bid for a third Chili Bowl title ended after just 15 laps — with a flip that took him out of the event.
(Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR)
Christopher Bell
Qualifying Night: Victory in Thursday’s preliminary feature
Saturday: Eighth in A Main
Christopher Bell this year is making his 13th Chili Bowl attempt. The nearby Norman, Oklahoma, native won three consecutive Chili Bowl championships from 2017-19. Last year, he returned to the Chili Bowl after a two-year hiatus, finishing 10th in the Saturday finale.
Bell on Monday night began his 2026 Chili Bowl week with a flag-to-flag victory in the annual running of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Race of Champions, an invite-only event featuring racing champions from across the motorsports world.
The driver of the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series qualified first and started from the pole for the 25-lap feature after drawing a 0 for the invert. He dominated the event despite brief challenges from eventual runner-up Shane Golobic to secure his fourth Race of Champions victory and first as an owner-driver.
“This makes everything a whole lot more stressful,” Bell said after securing his first Midget car win inside the SageNet Center in his own equipment. “I was about ready to puke before the race. I was like, ‘Is it right? Is it wrong? What are we doing?’
“I think it just makes the triumph so much more rewarding.”
On Thursday, he was arguably even more dominant. Bell won both his heat race and his qualifier. He started the evening’s A Main in eighth and was struggling to reach the front before a late caution changed everything. Bell over the final seven laps of the race worked his way to the lead for his ninth preliminary night victory at the Chili Bowl.
On Saturday, he ran top five late in the race and went on to finish eighth in the championship event.
(Photo: Bobby Pastelak/NASCAR)
Jesse Love
Qualifying Night: Sixth-place finish in A Main on Friday
Reigning NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love is making his return to the Chili Bowl after last competing in 2024. He’s driving a car owned by Blake Harris, crew chief for Alex Bowman in the NASCAR Cup Series. Of his three previous Chili Bowl attempts, Love’s best finish came in 2021, when he finished 13th in a B-Main on championship Saturday.
Love competed in Monday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Race of Champions and finished 16th. On his qualifying night Thursday, he finished second in his heat race and fifth in his qualifier to line him up for a B Main.
Love won that B Main to advance to the evening’s feature. On the last lap of the A Main, he flipped crossing the finish line in sixth place. As a result of the incident, Love’s team opted to withdraw from competition on Saturday night.
Ty Gibbs
Qualifying Night: 14th-place finish in A Main on Tuesday
Saturday: DNF in C Main
Ty Gibbs, the 2022 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion, is making his return to the Chili Bowl Nationals after making his debut in the event one season ago. In his first Chili Bowl attempt last year, he finished sixth in an F Main on championship Saturday.
Gibbs began his Chili Bowl week Tuesday with a second-place run in his heat race after starting ninth. He then finished fifth in his qualifier. He finished 14th in the evening’s A Main after starting seventh.
Gibbs attempted to race his way into Saturday’s championship feature from a C Main, but was collected in an incident and failed to advance.
J.J. Yeley
Qualifying Night: 10th-place finish in A Main on Tuesday
Saturday: 16th in B Main
A legend inside the SageNet Center, veteran NASCAR star J.J. Yeley returns to the Chili Bowl Nationals for his 30th attempt to capture the prestigious Golden Driller trophy. In his 29 previous attempts, Yeley has made the championship feature eight times, including a runner-up finish in 2007.
Yeley made history during the 2004 running of the event, advancing a stunning 69 positions from his F Main to finish third in the Chili Bowl championship race.
Yeley on Tuesday night finished fifth in his heat and second in his qualifier, allowing him to start the A Main on the front row. However, he faded to 10th in the feature.
He made an attempt to race his way to the Chili Bowl championship feature on Saturday, finishing fourth in a C Main to advance to a B Main. However, after a spin early in the B Main, Yeley was unable to make up any ground and was eliminated following a 16th-place finish.
Sheldon Creed
Qualifying Night: 24th-place finish in A Main on Tuesday
Saturday: 14th in E Main
Sheldon Creed, who races in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for the Haas Factory Team, is making his Chili Bowl Nationals debut this year. No stranger to dirt racing, he’s been a regular competitor at North Carolina’s Millbridge Speedway for years and previously competed in the Tulsa Shootout, the annual precursor to the Chili Bowl inside the SageNet Center.
Creed on Tuesday finished fourth in his heat and fifth in his qualifier. He won a B Main to advance himself to the evening’s main event, but he didn’t finish the A Main.
Creed attempted to race his way through the alphabet soup on Saturday at the Chili Bowl, but was eliminated from competition in an E Main.
Corey Day
Qualifying Night: Sixth-place finish in A Main on Wednesday
Saturday: 19th in B Main
Corey Day, who was recently confirmed for his first full NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season with Hendrick Motorsports, is back for his fifth attempt at the Chili Bowl Nationals in 2026.
In four previous attempts inside the SageNet Center, Day has made the championship feature three times. His best effort came in 2024, when he finished third in the Saturday night main event behind winner Logan Seavey and runner-up Buddy Kofoid.
Day competed in Monday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Race of Champions but did not finish. On his preliminary night, he won his heat race and finished fourth in his qualifier. That set him up for a seventh-place start in the A Main, and he finished sixth.
Day had a good chance to race his way into Saturday’s championship feature after starting ninth in a B Main, but was collected in a crash not of his making and finished 19th to end his Chili Bowl run.
Gavan Boschele
Qualifying Night: Eighth-place finish in A Main on Tuesday
Saturday: 14th in A Main
Gavan Boschele, who is joining Nitro Motorsports this year for most of the ARCA Menards Series schedule, is returning to Tulsa for his fourth Chili Bowl attempt, this time aboard a Midget car owned by two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch. His best effort inside the SageNet Center came in his debut in 2022, when he finished 14th in a B-Main on championship Saturday.
Boschele began his week Tuesday with a victory in his heat race followed by a sixth-place run in his qualifier. His fourth-place run in a B Main barely advanced him to the A Main, and he ran eighth in the feature after starting last.
On Saturday night, Boschele finished seventh in a B Main to narrowly advance to his first Chili Bowl championship feature. Starting 23rd, he raced his way to 14th at the conclusion of the 55-lap finale.
Jake Johnson
Qualifying Night: 10th-place finish in C Main on Thursday
Saturday: Ninth in M Main
A NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour winner during the 2024 season, Jake Johnson is making Chili Bowl debut this week driving for Cory Kruseman, a two-time Chili Bowl champion driver.
Johnson on Thursday gained a spot in his heat race to finish seventh but wasn’t able to make a qualifier. He finished 10th in his C Main.
On Saturday morning Johnson started eighth and finished ninth in an M Main to bring his Chili Bowl debut to a close.
Ryan Roulette
Qualifying Night: Eighth-place finish in C Main on Thursday
Saturday: 10th in L Main
U.S. Air Force pilot Ryan Roulette is going from flying planes to piloting a midget car during the Chili Bowl this week. The ARCA Menards Series competitor is making his Chili Bowl debut aboard a car owned by Brian Buckwalter.
On Thursday, Roulette finished fourth in his heat race and eighth in a C Main. Roulette wrapped up his first Chili Bowl by starting eighth and finishing 10th in an L Main Saturday morning.
TULSA, Okla. — Last summer, Emerson Axsom was scrolling on his phone when he got an Instagram notification.
He’d received a message. The message wasn’t from some random race fan or a friend; it was from someone he knew but had never met.
The message was from four-time Chili Bowl Nationals champion driver and the owner of the Swindell SpeedLab race team, Kevin Swindell.
Axsom had no way to know it at the time, but that one message would lead directly to the biggest moment of his young life, a moment that arrived Saturday night inside Oklahoma’s SageNet Center when he won the 40th running of the Chili Bowl Nationals, the world’s largest Midget car racing event.
“Last year (at the Chili Bowl) I ran Keith Kunz’s personal car. He’s only won it like 35 times,” Axsom joked. “He told me I had a spot on his team (for 2026) if I wanted to be there, but he wasn’t going to be crew chiefing my car. So, I was going to need a new crew chief no matter what.
“Then Kevin messaged me and basically just asked if I had any commitments, and I said I didn’t. I didn’t tell anybody who I was going to be running for. So, I told him no, and he asked me if I was interested.”
Was the 21-year-old Axsom interested? Well, yes, he was.
Swindell is one of the most gifted minds when it comes to racing inside the SageNet Center on the temporary quarter-mile dirt oval built exclusively for the Chili Bowl and its sister event, the Tulsa Shootout.
He won the Chili Bowl four consecutive years as a driver from 2010-13. After a crash in 2015 at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway left him paralyzed from the waist down, Swindell made the switch from driving to team ownership.
In 2023 and 2024, Swindell won the Chili Bowl as a car owner when Logan Seavey scored back-to-back victories.
So when Swindell asked Axsom if he wanted to race one of his cars at the Chili Bowl in 2026, the answer was a resounding yes.
Emerson Axsom during the 40th Chili Bowl Nationals on Saturday night in Tulsa, Okla. (Photo: Nick Oxford/NASCAR)
“He knows his stuff is good enough, and he totally believed in me the whole time,” Axsom said. “It made my job easy to just go out and drive his race car.”
To win the Chili Bowl, Axsom had to outlast nearly 400 competitors during the week-long event. By the time the green flag waved for Saturday’s 55-lap finale, the competition had been whittled down to 24 drivers who would vie for the Golden Driller trophy.
Included among that elite group were men like reigning NASCAR Cup Series and Chili Bowl champion Kyle Larson, three-time Chili Bowl winner Christopher Bell, 2022 Chili Bowl winner Tanner Thorson, World of Outlaws Sprint Car champion Daryn Pittman, multi-time USAC champion Justin Grant and Seavey, among others.
Larson, like he did one year ago when he won the Chili Bowl for the third time, lined up from the pole with Axsom to his outside. Larson led the first three laps, but Axsom boldly took the lead with a clean slide job on the fourth circuit.
“I told myself that I’m not going to race him like he’s Kyle Larson,” Axsom said. “I feel like a lot of guys, including the national level guys I race against every week, they see Kyle, and they almost back down. If it was anyone else, they’d be raced harder.
“I told myself I’m going to take the race to him, because that’s the only chance I’ve got. If I don’t throw everything I have at Kyle, then he’s going to win this deal and drive away.”
Larson spent the following 12 laps shadowing Axsom, but an incident with a slow car down the backstretch on Lap 16 resulted in Larson flipping his car, eliminating him from the race.
The defending champion was out, but new challengers were lining up to take their own shots at Axsom.
First it was his teammate, Seavey, who hounded Axsom for multiple laps and on multiple occasions looked like he might take the lead. Each time Seavey got close, Axsom somehow clawed back ahead.
Then came a challenge from perennial Chili Bowl contender Grant, who passed Axsom briefly with seven laps left before a caution reset the field to the last completed lap, giving the lead back to Axsom.
Emerson Axsom celebrates after winning the 40th Chili Bowl Nationals. (Photo: Nick Oxford/NASCAR)
“I was super thankful that yellow came out when Justin slid me,” Axsom said. “It was going to end up being a dogfight.”
Disaster nearly struck with two laps left as Axsom missed the corner in Turn 2, opening the door for Seavey to make a move low. Grant also tried to pass them both on the outside, but contact with Seavey caused Grant to flip, and Axsom escaped with the lead.
The last challenger to emerge in Axsom’s mirror was Kevin Thomas Jr., who had stormed his way from 18th at the green flag to third for the final restart with two laps left.
Thomas was able to move past Seavey and got a run on Axsom going down the backstretch, but Axsom covered the bottom through Turns 3-4 and held on to win the 40th Chili Bowl Nationals.
“I never thought at 21 years old I’d be sitting here,” Axsom said. “I’m super thankful that Kevin Swindell messaged me on Instagram and asked me to drive for him, because without him, it would not be possible.
“That’s the best race car I have ever drove. I hope he messages me on Instagram to come back next year.”
The native of Franklin, Indiana could never have known that a simple message would change his life forever.
But it did. And now he’ll forever be known as a Chili Bowl Nationals champion.
“Everything played in my favor tonight. It feels like a dream. It’s crazy,” Axsom said. “This is, for sure, the best day of my life.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The message “#BeLikeBiff” is prominently displayed on the side of the No. 60 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 at Daytona International Speedway for the 2026 IMSA Roar Before the Rolex 24, a tribute to the late NASCAR champion Greg Biffle and intended to celebrate the popular driver’s good work away from the track as much as his plentiful success on it.
Biffle along with his wife Cristina, son Ryder, daughter Emma, as well as longtime friend Craig Wadsworth and father-son Dennis and Jack Dutton, perished in an airplane accident outside Charlotte, North Carolina, on Dec. 18. On Friday, the same day cars first took hot laps on the Daytona International Speedway road course in preparation for IMSA’s Rolex 24 season-opener, a public memorial was held to pay respects to them all in Charlotte.
The KohR team, which will compete in next Friday’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race, felt a special calling to honor those lost. Its Ford Mustang already carried the No. 60 and is sponsored by Roush Industries.
In 2002, Biffle drove a No. 60 Roush Racing Ford to the 2002 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship. But this serendipitous connection between Biffle and the KohR team goes much deeper than Biffle’s celebrated career on track.
“It’s not necessarily a motorsports thing, it’s what Greg meant to people away from the track,” said KohR’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations J.C. Waidler, who had never met Biffle but certainly knows the impact the late driver had outside the sport.
For three decades, Waidler has been volunteering with the Angel Flight Soars organization, which also worked with Biffle in getting needed supplies to Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene in 2024. Biffle’s selfless and enduring work to help the area rebuild from the hurricane’s devastating damage defined him well beyond the celebrity his success garnered in the sport. And this sports car team wanted to honor that.
“A lot of people who don’t even follow NASCAR know Greg and Cristina Biffle for what they did during the hurricane,” Waidler said.
The KohR team’s founder and champion driver, Dean Martin, is a former Ford engineer who worked for Roush and met Biffle early in his career.
“When I first moved to Michigan, I started working at Roush, so all the Roush drivers mean something to me,” Martin said. “And it’s not even so much what Greg did in racing is why we’re doing this. It’s more his humanitarian efforts and mostly what all he did that a lot of people don’t even realize he’s done.”
Martin said he’s been amazed at the support the team has received from both the IMSA paddock and fans, but also from people he never anticipated.
“It just took off — I saw a Ford website in India that posted about it,” Martin said.
And in the spirit of giving back that so embodied Biffle, the team has made a limited number of T-shirts commemorating the car and is selling them with 100% of the proceeds being donated to the Lake Norman Humane, one of Biffle’s favorite charities.
“It’s just about admiration for him and what he’s done outside of racing,” Martin said. “That’s what it’s really about. It’s not so much about the podiums you’ve got or how many wins you’ve got, it’s really about whether you’re a good person or not.”
TULSA, Okla. — In racing, like in most forms of sport, confidence can be a game changer.
Confidence could be the difference between settling for second or risking it all to make the race-winning pass in Turn 3 on the final lap.
In the case of Jesse Love, confidence is the one thing he isn’t lacking after he captured the 2025 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship in November at Phoenix Raceway aboard Richard Childress Racing’s No. 2 Chevrolet.
Love, who recently turned 21, is riding that wave of confidence this week into the SageNet Center for the 40th running of the Chili Bowl Nationals.
“I definitely understand how to deal with the pressure and the mindset that you need to have to be successful in a race car. That helps me when I go dirt racing,” said Love, who hits the track Friday evening for his Chili Bowl Nationals qualifying night. “At the same time, it is crazy. I remember walking in the building a couple years ago, especially my first time here when I wasn’t racing, you think it’s bigger than life.
“It’s like the mecca, and it really is. But it’s true that it is all based off your perspective. As you start to gain your own confidence and get your own swagger, which I have been lucky enough to do over the last 12 months, you feel less intimated by the (SageNet Center) and people you’re racing.
“But you still have to respect it; otherwise you’re going to end up in the dumpster.”
Love is no stranger to the Chili Bowl having previously competed in the mecca of Midget car racing three times between 2021-24. He sat out the 2025 edition of the event but still attended the race as a fan.
He said it was that experience, when he watched his friend Daison Pursley nearly win the Chili Bowl, that drove him to seek an opportunity to return to the event as a driver in 2026.
Jesse Love during Chili Bowl practice last Sunday inside the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Okla. (Photo: Bobby Pastelak/NASCAR)
“Coming here last year and hanging out with two of my best friends, Daison Pursley and Chad Boat, I had a lot of fun watching them and supporting them,” Love said. “It was tough not being in the driver’s seat. I wanted to make that a reality, and we were able to do that this year.
“It’s tough to put a deal together when you’re not a full-time guy, but obviously being known in the pavement world helps a little bit and being a champion helps a little bit.”
To make his 2026 Chili Bowl opportunity a reality, Love got a bit of help from NASCAR Cup Series driver Alex Bowman. The pilot of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, who competes at the Chili Bowl as a car owner each January, connected him with Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Blake Harris.
Together, Harris and Love worked out a deal that brought Love back to the SageNet Center for his fourth Chili Bowl Nationals attempt.
“I work out with Alex Bowman sometimes, and we’re part of the same driver development program with Josh Wise,” Love explained. “We always talk about the Chili Bowl and dirt racing in general because there really isn’t anybody else to talk to about it.
“Basically, this is an Alex Bowman car that Blake Harris bought. Because I have that connection with Alex, Alex was able to throw my name in the hat with Blake, who gave me a call a couple of months ago and asked if I wanted to do something.”
Love’s return to the Chili Bowl also marks a return to dirt racing for the driver from Menlo Park, California who spent many of his formative years racing Micros and Midgets across the United States.
He competed in three Micro events last year at North Carolina’s Millbridge Speedway, but the Chili Bowl is a different animal. Love has done his best to prepare, but he won’t know just how competitive he is until he hits the track Friday night.
Jesse Love is driving a Midget owned by Blake Harris, crew chief for Alex Bowman in the NASCAR Cup Series, this year at the Chili Bowl. (Photo: Bobby Pastelak/NASCAR)
“I haven’t been in the car in two years, and I really haven’t raced dirt in two years,” Love said. “I feel like I’m as confident or maybe as understanding and feeling like I’m going to run good just because I can manage the stress a little bit better and I can think about things a little bit smarter and be a little more intentional about what I’m doing on the race track.
“Part of it is like riding a bike. Part of it is rebuilding your perspective about dirt racing. Watching video and staying up to date with what is going on. I’ve had to watch more intently this week and walk the track afterwards. Again, it’s about rebuilding my understanding of dirt racing again.”
The car Love will drive is the same car that Kevin Thomas Jr. raced last year at the Chili Bowl for Bowman. Thomas piloted the car to a B Main finish in the 2025 Chili Bowl Nationals finale, so the car has plenty of potential.
The question: Can Love get all the potential out of the car and race his way into his first Chili Bowl Nationals championship feature?
There’s only one way to find out.
“I feel really comfortable inside the car. It suits my driving style. Hopefully all that stuff translates to a good result tonight,” Love said. “It doesn’t always mean it’s going to happen, but I definitely think we’re set up pretty good to run respectable.
“For me, my mind knows what to do probably better than ever, but my hands and my feet need to catch up a little bit to what my brain is telling them to do.”
NASCAR announced a bevy of rulebook updates across its top three national series Friday, including a revamp of the eligibility for the Xfinity Fastest Lap of the race in the Cup Series.
After multiple instances last year in which damaged cars returned to set the fastest lap of the race (and earn a bonus point), drivers now will be disallowed from a reward for being fastest once their car has been repaired in the garage.
NASCAR and teams had been debating the merits of the rule since Kyle Larson set the fastest lap despite finishing 42 laps down at Mexico City. The 2025 series champion also set the fastest lap at Watkins Glen International after finishing 15 laps down, and Josh Berry earned the fastest lap of the Southern 500 despite crashing on the first lap at Darlington Raceway.
“It was something that we talked a lot about last year, and it didn’t feel exactly right or fair that teams working on the car in the garage for a while specifically just to lay down that fastest lap,” managing director of communications Mike Forde said during the second season debut of the “Hauler Talk” podcast. “It didn’t feel super in the spirit of competition, so we decided to change it.”
Forde said a driver still would be credited with a fastest lap if recorded before entering the garage during a race. “If Larson ripped off a fastest lap and wrecks, he gets to keep that fast-lap point. He just can’t get it after working on his car in the garage after an incident.”
A driver also can remain eligible if the car is fixed in the pit stall, but teams are limited to seven minutes of repairs before being forced to the Cup garage.
Some of the other significant updates for the 2026 season that were unveiled Friday:
— A new penalty structure for loose or missing lug nuts in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series.
If 19 of 20 lug nuts are safe and secure, teams will lose pit selection for the next race. If 18 lug nuts are secure, it’s a fine ($5,000 in O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, $2,500 in the Truck Series) and a one-race crew member suspension. If there are four missing lug nuts, it’s a race disqualification in both series. In the past, the fines started at one missing lug nut ($5,000 for NOAPS), and crew chiefs also would be suspended for multiple missing lug nuts. Teams successfully lobbied NASCAR that the punishments were too harsh.
“It’s a lot to help the teams and make it a little bit more consistent between the trucks and O’Reilly and Cup,” said Forde, noting there was no fine for an improperly secured lug nut in Cup. “We want to standardize the rulebooks as often as we can.”
James Gilbert | Getty Images
— NASCAR will hold a potential four additional spots for OEM provisionals in this season’s first three Craftsman Truck Series races as Ram makes its return to NASCAR. If any of the manufacturer’s entries fails to make the 36-truck field on qualifying speed at Daytona, EchoPark Speedway or the street race at St. Petersburg, Florida, the vehicle would be added to the rear of the starting lineup, leading to a maximum 40-truck field if necessary.
Forde said the rule was aimed at helping Ram teams “get their sea legs under them” in light of the most recent manufacturer addition to the Cup Series. Toyota drivers missed several dozen races in the 2007 debut season.
“You have Chevy, Toyota, and Ford who have years and years of experience and data and notebooks filled with how to go fast, and Ram right now doesn’t have any, and so we want to help them get their feet wet,” Forde said.
The rule will be slightly different than the Open Exemption Provisional introduced last year that allows a spot for a renowned driver (four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves used it to make the 2025 Daytona 500; seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson has the status this year). While those drivers receive neither points or prize money, the Ram entries would be credited with points for their finishes.
“That’s so they have a little bit of a cushion and safety net later on this season and really have a good start to their 2026 and return to NASCAR,” Forde said. “Part two is to attract future OEMs so that OEMs can come into the series and know they’re going to have a barrier to entry that isn’t as high and difficult to overcome. They’ll know that they come into the series worried about their engineering, drivers, teams and pit crews and not worry about making the race. So those are kind of the two reasons that we’re doing this.”
— NASCAR also lowered the minimum age for competing on 1.25-mile and shorter tracks in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series to 17 years old, which is between the 16-year-old minimum for trucks and 18 for Cup.
“We look at the truck and the O’Reilly Auto Parts series as ladders to get to the Cup series, so it felt from a consistency’s sake kind of like a literal ladder,” Forde said. “Plus, we did get some team feedback that there were a couple of young drivers that had the talent to be in the O’Reilly Auto Parts but just couldn’t because of the age restriction. So some teams came to us and asked if this would be something that we’d look at, and it made sense to go 16, 17, 18. So it felt like the right time to do it.”
Other topics covered during the 40th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— The recent test of the new 750-horsepower package at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
— The return of the 10-race Chase championship format that was announced this week.
Click on the embed above 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.
A remembrance of the life of NASCAR legend Greg Biffle, his wife, children and three family friends came with heartfelt stories, some laughs and a share of tears, but also with a challenge to those in attendance.
In the weeks since the plane crash that claimed those seven lives, “Be Like Biff” has been a rallying slogan, one that’s meant to empower others to make a difference. Friday, in a public gathering and celebration of life, that mantra rang ever more true.
“We’ve all been saying ‘Be Like Biff’ since we lost our hero,” said close friend Garrett Mitchell, who developed a tight-knit connection with the former driver in recent years as his alt-persona Cleetus McFarland. “What does that mean? That means to take opportunities when you see them, whether you’re taking the opportunity to pass somebody on the track, or getting off your couch and chasing a dream you’ve only been talking about for the last five years. It means showing up for your friends and family. It means using your heart to make the world a better place. It means being generous whenever you can and helping other humans when they’re down. That is what it means to be like Biff, so spread the word.”
The NASCAR community came together Friday to recognize and honor the special impacts of the Biffle family — Greg, his wife Cristina and children Emma and Ryder — and good friends Craig Wadsworth and Jack and Dennis Dutton. All seven perished in the Dec. 18 crash of Biffle’s private jet at the Statesville (N.C.) Regional Airport, and all seven were celebrated in a heart-warming video montage that closed the 90-minute ceremony. The snapshot of those lives included glimpses of family outings, fishing trips and the type of high-adrenaline adventure that Biffle embraced, including victorious moments from his stellar NASCAR career.
As Biffle’s status in big-league stock-car racing took flight, some of the places he won multiple times — Michigan, Homestead-Miami, Darlington, Dover — required a heavy but precise right foot, one that accelerated him to limits where few drivers dared to tread. Later in life, he became a legend in other places — the remote areas among the rustic ridges and valleys of the western North Carolina high country, where serving others and providing life-saving relief in the wake of Hurricane Helene in 2024 became a personal mission.
Biffle was celebrated for both Friday at Charlotte’s Bojangles’ Coliseum, where family, friends and fans paid their respects. Jeff Burton, the NBC Sports analyst who was a teammate to Biffle for years with team owner Jack Roush, made special mention of those dual roles in his remarks, noting the level of balance that he showed at various stages of his NASCAR career.
“Greg was a unique guy. He was kind of one-of-a-kind. He had the rare ability to sit in a race car and be a complete badass,” Burton said. “He was really fast and he would do whatever it took to win at any point, but also when he got out of the car, he found a way to help others, to be there when others needed help, to make sure everybody around him was having a good time and enjoying themselves. A split personality, it’s really hard to accomplish. Many race car drivers aren’t so cool out of the car because they’re tuned in to being a race car driver. Some aren’t as tough as they need to be in the car because they’re tuned in to being nice all the time. It’s hard to do both. Greg found a way to do it.
“Someone I appreciate a great deal once told me the greatest respect someone can get is the respect from their peers. Greg had that respect because he earned it. He positively influenced an entire industry. He was loved by his family and his friends, he left a mark, and he’ll be greatly missed.”
Family members were among the well-wishers on hand at the Charlotte arena, some making the trip from far-flung areas to pay tribute. Jackie McCarter, a first cousin, made the pilgrimage from Lexington, Kentucky, walking past the show cars out front with another relative from even farther away, Trish Mack from Wasilla, Alaska, who had a family photo draped from a lanyard around her neck.
“It’s a blessing. It shows what a great man he was, a leader, a good father, a good cousin,” said McCarter, whose mother’s maiden name was Biffle. “I remember watching him in the dirt tracks, and then he moved to the Truck Series, and then he moved to the cars. I lived in Texas before Kentucky, and we had tickets. He was driving trucks, and they didn’t allow children under 14 in the pits, but he picked up my son and said, ‘Come on, you’re going with me,’ and got him in the truck and took pictures. Just such a blessing, such a great guy, the whole family. It’s just such a tragedy.”
The impression that Biffle left on a generation of fans was also a close-to-home sentiment. Bob Grauna, a 65-year-old retiree who recently moved to the Charlotte area from New York, walked up wearing an RFK Racing hat and a heavy coat that celebrated Dale Earnhardt’s NASCAR Hall of Fame induction.
Grauna said he’d attended fan appreciation days for the Roush team years ago, recalling the long lines around the building to get an autograph or a quick conversation with Biffle. He said he once had a chance meeting with Biffle while filling up at a gas station, where he said the stock-car star happily took time to pose for photos. That interaction stuck with Grauna, who recalled Biffle’s selfless nature when his humanitarian works came into greater view.
“He was like a guy next door,” Grauna said. “You’d see him and he would just stop and talk to you. He would never blow you off. He’d stop and sign for everybody. If there were 20 people online, he’d sign for everybody. That’s just the kind of guy he was. I was lucky enough to have him years ago sign a die-cast car for me, and he stopped and talked, he didn’t rush the line, he just talked to everybody. That’s the kind of guy he was.”
The new Ford Mustang Dark Horse SC will debut in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2027, Ford Racing announced in a Thursday livestream.
The new design is based off the sports car Ford unveiled during its annual season launch with 2023 Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney behind the wheel, with the street car flexing a 5.2-liter V8 engine. The NASCAR edition will compete for the first time officially in the 2027 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.
Ford introduced the Dark Horse Mustang in 2024, collecting the 2024 Cup championship with Joey Logano and 19 total wins in the two seasons since. The introduction of the Dark Horse SC — for “supercharger” — highlights the manufacturer’s next step in stock-car racing’s top level.
“This was really a dream project for the team,” Arie Groeneveld, Ford Racing’s chief project engineer, said during the event. “A chance to make a world-class performance icon true to its American muscle car roots using everything we’ve learned on the track.
“That 5.2-liter V8 uses a supercharger to generate massive airflow, bringing incredible power to a street Mustang. … It really is the most powerful Dark Horse we’ve ever released.”
Hosted by Hollywood star Dax Sheppard, the event in Detroit, Michigan, featured racing icons from across multiple genres of racing, including retired Formula 1 racer Daniel Ricciardo, sports car ace Mike Rockenfeller and NASCAR stars Blaney, Logano, Chris Buescher and Zane Smith.
As the first to wheel out the Dark Horse SC, Blaney was enthusiastic for what lies ahead for Ford in the NASCAR world.
“It’s great that I got to drive it for the first time,” Blaney said. “The supercharged feeling is unbelievable. The carbon brakes are really amazing when you get on the track. You just want to punch it hard, brake late.”
Blaney then turned it over to Mark Rushbrook, Ford Racing’s global director, who announced the arrival of the Dark Horse SC in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“In 2027, we will take the Dark Horse SC and debut it at America’s race track with America’s race team, the Daytona 500,” Rushbrook said.
Three teams field Fords in NASCAR, each with three cars under its banner: Team Penske with Blaney, Logano and Austin Cindric; RFK Racing with Buescher, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Preece; and Front Row Motorsports with Smith, Todd Gilliland and Noah Gragson.
The first taste of NASCAR racing in 2026 comes in the exhibition Cook Out Clash on Sunday, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The season will officially begin with the 68th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX, HBO Max, MRN and SiriusXM.
Team outlook: Entering Year 2 under the Hyak Motorsports banner (formerly known as JTG Daugherty Racing), the No. 47 team will work on improving its Cup Series program after finishing 30th in the final standings last year with veteran Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The organization’s only top five of the 2025 season was a fifth-place finish in the second race of the year in the EchoPark Speedway spring race. Hyak traditionally brings fast cars to drafting-style tracks, so look for the No. 47 Chevrolet to be in the mix at EchoPark, Daytona and Talladega. The team’s most recent Cup win was the 2024 Talladega fall race.
Experience: 13 full-time seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series; 472 starts 2025 stats: 30th in final Cup Series standings; 0 wins, 1 top five, 3 top 10s, 0 poles, 8 laps led
Driver Outlook: Stenhouse’s sixth season with Hyak proved to be his most challenging year yet behind the wheel of the No. 47 Chevrolet. Last season, the 38-year-old from Olive Branch, Mississippi, had five fewer top fives and top 10s compared to 2024. After missing the playoffs for the last two years, Stenhouse will be hungry to return to Victory Lane following a winless 2025 campaign, in a year he made headlines for an ongoing feud with Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar. Looking ahead to the 2026 season, Stenhouse could put that on-track feud in the rearview mirror and get things trending in the right direction to kick off the new year with his second Harley J. Earl Trophy. The Hyak driver won the 2023 Daytona 500, and given how strong he typically runs on drafting-style tracks, he might be able to capitalize on some early-season momentum with Daytona and EchoPark as the first two races of 2026.
TULSA, Okla. — Christopher Bell’s first week as a car owner at the Chili Bowl Nationals is off to a fantastic start.
After winning the O’Reilly Auto Parts Race of Champions from the pole Monday night inside the SageNet Center, Bell stormed from eighth to win Thursday’s preliminary night feature to lock himself into Saturday’s championship race.
“This place is magic,” said Bell, who matched fellow NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson with his ninth preliminary night victory at the Chili Bowl. “It’s never over until it’s over, and that’s the way it is here.”
The three-time Chili Bowl winner went undefeated Thursday night, winning his heat race, his qualifier and the 30-lap preliminary feature. He won his heat race from the pole and his qualifier from second, but his road to victory in the feature was much more difficult.
Lining up eighth, Bell spent most of the race playing catchup as C.J. Leary, Ryan Bernal and Spencer Bayston battled for the lead ahead of him.
Christopher Bell on Thursday night. (Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR)
Bell was struggling to make any gains on the leaders and was running a distant fifth when the first caution of the race waved with seven laps left. Were it not for that caution, Bell said he likely had no shot at catching the leaders.
“I didn’t think I was going to get there,” Bell admitted. “When the yellow came out, I don’t know how far away those guys were, but I just didn’t really have the pace. Everyone was really committed to the top, and I really wasn’t able to keep up.”
When the race resumed, Bell sliced his way to third before another caution slowed the field with five laps left. Finally within striking distance of race leader Bernal and runner-up Leary, Bell knew he had a shot to win the race, and he wasn’t going to waste it.
Bell first moved by Leary, who was driving for NASCAR Cup Series driver Alex Bowman in Tulsa, before turning his attention to Bernal. With three laps, left Bell made his move, diving to the inside of Bernal in Turn 1 to take the race lead.
The native of nearby Norman, Oklahoma led the rest of the way to punch his ticket to his 11th Chili Bowl Nationals championship feature. Leary finished second to give Bowman two cars locked into Saturday’s finale.
Christopher Bell in Victory Lane Thursday night at the Chili Bowl. (Photo: Susan Wong/NASCAR)
“When the yellow came out, I was like, ‘OK, i’m just going to have to do something different here,'” Bell explained. “I could make a couple good corners on the bottom whenever I hit it, so I just said I’m going see what happens. The curb got so treacherous that nobody could get off of (Turn) 4 really well on the top, and there was enough juice on the bottom where I could get by and make a lot of speed down the frontstretch.”
Despite finding the checkered flag every time he has been on the race track this week, Bell doesn’t think his car is good enough to win his fourth Golden Driller trophy at the Chili Bowl.
At least not yet.
“The car is insanely fast. Like it is just really, really fast. Every time I hit the track it’s got great pace. I just am struggling with being consistent enough,” Bell said. “I don’t think it’s good enough to win on Saturday. I’ve just got to make the car a little more drivable.
“It clearly has the speed. If I can get to driving it a little more consistent, we’ll be right there.”
The 40th running of the Chili Bowl Nationals presented by NOS Energy Drink continues Friday night. Action begins at 5 p.m. ET with complete coverage available live on FloRacing.
