Posted on by Dustin Albino

Editor’s Note: Keep tabs on this page for lineup advice following qualifying, including changes you should consider.

Fantasy Update: Multiple drivers had off-track excursions during practice and qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway. Ultimately, road-course stud Ty Gibbs won the Busch Light Pole Award in pursuit of his first victory while turning left and right. But it was Carson Hocevar who impressed again, qualifying runner-up for the second week in a row on a road course. Coming from mid-pack, I’m hesitant to use Connor Zilisch and Chase Elliott in my lineup, so I’m benching both drivers in place of Gibbs and AJ Allmendinger, who continues to hunt a Chase spot. 

Starting five: Shane van Gisbergen, Michael McDowell, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, AJ Allmendinger.
Garage pick: Chris Buescher.

With a historic weekend at Naval Base Coronado in the rearview, the final road-course race of the season has quickly arrived. Despite an early exit in San Diego, Shane van Gisbergen remains the driver to beat whenever the series turns right and left, ranking as the fastest car once again, according to NASCAR Insights. Van Gisbergen believes a handful — perhaps even 10 — drivers have the speed to challenge him for the win this weekend. Let’s take a closer look at the top contenders, along with some first-round matchups in the 2026 In-Season Challenge.

Returning to Fastlane this year is my weekly NASCAR 36 for 36 pick, where you can play along. It’s a season-long points battle introduced in 2024 where strategy is the primary emphasis. With 36 chartered cars and 36 races on the 2026 schedule, players can choose each car once for the duration of the season.

RELATED: NASCAR Fantasy Live hub | Play 36 for 36

MUST START

Driver: Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Selections remaining: 8
Comment: With a DNF at San Diego, SVG’s track record dropped oh so significantly on road courses, now running inside the top five for 79% of laps and the top 10 for 90% of laps on road courses since the start of 2025. Joking aside, he has had the fastest car in nine of his 15 starts on road courses and obliterated the field at Sonoma last year, leading 97 of 110 circuits.

Driver: Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Selections remaining: 6
Comment: While McDowell is still chasing his first checkered flag at Sonoma, he leads the league with a 4.0 average finish in the Next Gen car in Wine Country. He also has the best average finish in the field across the first three road course races in 2026 at 5.67.

Driver: Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports, No. 9 Chevrolet
Selections remaining: 6
Comment: Elliott remains winless at Sonoma through nine attempts, but his three straight top-five and five consecutive top-10 finishes at the Napa Valley track are the longest such streaks in the series. His 10.2 average finish is the best of all active drivers with multiple Sonoma starts.

Chase Elliott looks on before a NASCAR Cup Series race.
David Jensen | Getty Images

DRIVERS TO AVOID

Driver: Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing, No. 23 Toyota
Selections remaining: 7
Comment: As Wallace pondered at San Diego, was that Bubba Hamilton on display last week en route to a runner-up finish? Wallace has improved greatly at road courses, but Sonoma remains a pitfall. He has a best finish of 14th in seven Sonoma trips, with an average finish of 24.0.

Driver: Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Selections remaining: 2
Comment: Hamlin has had respectable showings in the three road-course races in 2026, placing anywhere from 10th to 16th. Sonoma, however, has been his kryptonite in recent years, finishing 20th or worse in all four Next Gen starts, with three of those being 31st on back. The No. 2 seed in the In-Season Challenge could be on upset alert against Ty Dillon once again.

Bubba Wallace waves during NASCAR Cup Series driver intros.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images

SLEEPERS OF THE WEEK

Driver: AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Selections remaining: 10
Comment: With a fifth-place outing at San Diego, Allmendinger is within 21 points of The Chase bubble with nine races remaining in the regular season. Only he and McDowell have snagged top 10s in all three road-course races in 2026. Allmendinger has finished sixth in two of the last three Sonoma races.

Driver: Ryan Preece, RFK Racing, No. 60 Ford
Selections remaining: 10
Comment: Preece tied Allmendinger for the most points earned at San Diego (45), and being the provisional bubble driver, he will be chasing points again at Sonoma. He has a best effort of 12th in five Sonoma races, but an 18.6 average finish ranks as his best among active road courses with multiple starts. Unfortunately for the In-Season Challenge, however, he goes against SVG. Better luck next year!

AJ Allmendinger looks on before a NASCAR Cup Series race.
David Jensen | Getty Images

FEATURED MATCHUPS

Daniel Suárez vs. Todd Gilliland
Pick: Gilliland
Comment: All four matchups are In-Season Challenge battles, and this is a doozy. The 2022 victory from Suárez is his lone top 10 in eight Sonoma starts. Meanwhile, Gilliland is often hanging around at road courses, with five top 10s in 26 starts. This is tough, but let’s take the upset.

Chase Briscoe vs. AJ Allmendinger
Pick: Briscoe
Comment: While drivers rely heavily on the sim, Kaulig Racing doesn’t have that luxury as it is not aligned with a Cup manufacturer in 2026. Allmendinger could drive a wheelbarrow around Sonoma competitively, but Briscoe is no pushover. He finished runner-up to SVG last year.

Bubba Wallace vs. Michael McDowell
Pick: McDowell
Comment: Preece might have the worst opening round matchup, but Wallace is second on that list. McDowell has the clear advantage this weekend, annually hovering inside the top five.

Carson Hocevar vs. Zane Smith
Pick: Smith
Comment: Hocevar was in the mix at San Diego, putting in hours on the simulator for preparation. It was Smith who got the better finish, however, earning a season-best fourth-place effort. Smith grew up karting, racing against some of the best road racers in the world. He is my sneaky pick to get to the Round of 8.

MY LINEUP

Starting five: Shane van Gisbergen, Michael McDowell, Chase Elliott, Connor Zilisch, Chris Buescher.
Garage pick: Chase Briscoe.

36 FOR 36

Pick: Michael McDowell, Spire Motorsports, No. 71 Chevrolet
Comment: Welp, saving SVG for the street course backfired epically. Hoping this isn’t the same, as McDowell has a proven resume at Sonoma, typically just off the lead. The No. 71 car has been competitive at road courses all season, placing second to van Gisbergen at Watkins Glen.

Posted on by Mike Hembree

ARCHDALE, N.C. — Thirty years have passed since Terry Labonte won the NASCAR Cup Series championship with Hendrick Motorsports, a second title that pushed an already accomplished career to another level.

It seems hard to believe Labonte will turn 70 years old in November, particularly when, despite his gray-white hair, he still looks strong enough to wrestle a fast race car for 500 miles. He isn’t likely to try that again, however. When he competed for the final time in a Cup car in October 2014, he drove away from the competitive side of the sport.

Left behind were two Cup championships (1984 and ’96), 22 Cup victories, election to the NASCAR Hall of Fame and a driving career barely touched by controversy. Labonte was both the “Iceman” (ever calm and cool on track) and the “Ironman” (a then-record 655 straight Cup starts). He didn’t give himself those nicknames. Labonte isn’t that sort.

CLASSICS: Labonte celebrates 1996 title in Atlanta

Many of the photographs of Labonte at speedways show him in the familiar multicolored driver uniform bearing the sponsorship of Kellogg’s, a longtime partner of both Labonte and team owner Rick Hendrick. And it is that connection that remains the strongest from his driving days.

In a large back room of his SSG/Brandintense marketing company in Archdale, dozens of large tiger suits hang from a revolving clothesline, one similar to that at your local dry cleaning establishment. These are not tigers as in Louisiana State or Detroit or any of many other sports teams you might pick. These represent Kellogg’s, as in Tony the Tiger, the longtime cereal mascot known to describe his product as “Grrrreat!” in advertisements.

Labonte controls Tony and has for decades. Thanks to his strong racing connections with the brand, Labonte’s company plays a major role in promotional appearances the tiger makes across the country. A Tony the Tiger suit is shipped to the location where he’ll appear, then returned to Archdale for proper cleaning and repair, if needed.

One of dozens of clients of Labonte’s company, which specializes in marketing and promotion at events (including, but not limited to, motorsports), Kellogg’s might be the most visible, thanks to that familiar tiger.

A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, Labonte has residences in Texas (where he encounters the occasional rattlesnake — no tigers so far — on his ranch) and North Carolina and splits time between the two, piling up commercial airline miles between the states. If you see him in first-class seating, that’s probably why.

He’s often at his Archdale headquarters (near his home in Denton), where a variety of tractor-trailer rigs and vans are in and out daily, but he says that’s mostly because it’s a habit.

“I kind of come up here to hang out,” he said. “I really don’t do much. I’ve got some really good people who work here, and they do it all. Sometimes they call me to get my opinion on something, but otherwise it runs great.”

The business has largely recovered from a big downturn during the COVID pandemic, which cut Labonte’s scheduled events from 1,600 a year to 80. Now the company has as many as 75 events scattered across 32 states on a busy weekend.

What has been a very successful business began with a sponsor who needed a show car. Then a trailer and a truck were added, and things grew quickly. The company, floating along on Labonte’s excellent reputation, attracted clients big and small, from festivals to National Football League games, where a Labonte company bus offered fans a chance to play the Madden NFL video game.

Although Labonte retains an interest in racing and occasionally shows up at speedways and at Hall of Fame events, he has avoided the temptation to return to the driver’s seat, even in lower series.

“A guy called me a few years ago about driving one of our old cars at a vintage race,” he said. “I told him I would think about it and let him know. I did. Called him back and said, ‘I don’t think I want to.’ I knew I was going to go there and just sit around and wonder, ‘What am I even doing here?’ ”

Terry Labonte posts beside the No. 92 Billy Hagan-owned entry from early in his Cup Series career
Terry Labonte in 1978, his first Cup season. (NASCAR Research & Archives Center | Getty Images)

Labonte had reason to ask that same question — “What am I even doing here?” — in September 1978 when he showed up at Darlington Raceway for his first Cup race. Cranky ol’ Darlington, particularly on Southern 500 weekend, isn’t the track most racers choose for their Cup debut, but Labonte didn’t really have a choice. Team owner Billy Hagan was making changes on his team and told Labonte he wanted him to drive the next race.

“I figured we’d start at somewhere like Martinsville or North Wilkesboro,” said Labonte, whose racing background was solidly short track. “Billy said, yeah, we’re going to go there, but we’re going to Darlington first.”

Labonte was up to the challenge. “I had never run anything over 200 laps,” he said. “I thought, ‘God, this is never going to end.’ ”

Only a handful of people around the Cup garage knew Labonte going into the Darlington weekend. By race’s end, he had stirred their interest with a fourth-place run, remarkable for a newcomer.

CLASSICS: 1978 Southern 500

Labonte steadily gained speed and won the Cup title with Hagan in 1984. He would tack on the second title 12 years later at Hendrick Motorsports. His two championship seasons are oddly similar. In 1984, he won two races, had 24 top 10s and failed to finish three races. In 1996, he won two races, had 24 top 10s and again had three DNFs.

Consistency and patience were hallmarks of Labonte’s career. And he was decidedly old school. Labonte’s last Cup win came August 31, 2003 in the Southern 500 at Darlington. He beat a kid named Kevin Harvick by 1.65 seconds. Labonte rolled into Victory Lane, passing up the opportunity to do a burnout.

Someone asked why. “I think they’re stupid,” he said.

Kyle Larson, right, and NASCAR Hall of Famer Terry Labonte pose for photos before the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway in 2024
Terry Labonte in throwback mode with fellow No. 5 driver Kyle Larson at Darlington Raceway in 2024. (James Gilbert | Getty Images)
Posted on by Reid Spencer

In last season’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event at Sonoma Raceway, Connor Zilisch held off pole winner Shane van Gisbergen by a mere 0.438 seconds.

Both drivers are back in JR Motorsports Chevrolets for a rematch in Saturday’s Pit Boss/Food Maxx 250 at the 1.99-mile circuit (5:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I’m really pumped about getting back to Sonoma with JR Motorsports,” Zilisch said. “Shane and I had a great race for the win last year, and fortunately, we came out on top …

“It’s always great to race with (crew chief) Rodney (Childers) and everyone on the No. 1 team. Getting the extra track time on Friday and Saturday is really valuable to prepare for the Cup race.”

Zilisch has struggled in his rookie year in the NASCAR Cup Series this season, but he has won twice while moonlighting in the O’Reilly Series, at Bristol and Watkins Glen. Last week, he was leading the Cup race at Naval Base Coronado when an accident not of his making knocked him out of the inaugural event.

MORE: Weekend schedule | Sonoma paint schemes

Head-to-head on road and street courses in the O’Reilly Series, Zilisch leads van Gisbergen with four wins to the New Zealander’s two, but Sonoma Raceway is one of SVG’s favorite tracks.

“I really like Sonoma,” said van Gisbergen, who won the O’Reilly Series race from the pole in 2024 and did the same in last year’s Cup race. “I’ve had good success there. Last year in the O’Reilly race, we came up a bit short, but it was one of the best races for everyone to watch.

“I really enjoyed being in it and racing Connor. It’s really cool to race in O’Reilly and Cup, and I learn a lot about the track throughout the weekend and what I need from the cars. Looking forward to having a good crack at it this weekend.”

After a breakthrough street course win at Naval Base Coronado last Saturday, Austin Hill will be looking for more at Sonoma. Hill finished fifth after leading 21 laps at Sonoma in 2024.

Looking for a rebound will be Justin Allgaier, who fell out of last Saturday’s race in 32nd place. In a record-setting season for the No. 7 JR Motorsports team, Allgaier has won five times and already has clinched a spot in the postseason Chase.

Allgaier leads second-place Jesse Love by 224 points in the series standings. He has finished seventh, sixth and sixth in his three Sonoma starts.

Posted on by Neil Paine

Grab your pencils, break out the brackets, circle the favorites and start hunting for upsets.

No, March hasn’t returned early. But NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge is back, bringing with it a five-race, $1 million head-to-head knockout tournament in the middle of the NASCAR Cup Series’ summer stretch. And if last year’s inaugural edition of the Challenge was any indication, we could be in for some wild happenings — even if it’s unlikely we’ll see a 32-seed like Ty Dillon go all the way to the final again. (Never say never!)

Here are the initial odds to advance through each round and win the 2026 Challenge, according to my Cup Series forecast model (which uses track type-specific ratings for each driver to simulate the rest of the schedule 10,000 times, tracking who will win The Chase, or — in this case — the In-Season Challenge):

Chart showing the odds of drivers to advance through the 2026 NASCAR In-Season Tournament.

With those numbers in place as a framework, let’s dive into the drivers to watch — from the safest picks at the top of the board to the bracket-busters capable of making some madness out of June and July, too:

The Favorites 

Unsurprisingly, the leading favorites to win the 2026 In-Season Challenge are the same guys who are the favorites to win the 2026 Cup Series title overall: Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick. It’s fascinating that the same dynamic dominating the regular-season stretch-run conversation — whether Reddick can hang on to his commanding early-season lead for the top seed in The Chase — will also run in parallel during the In-Season Challenge. While the two cannot meet until the final (and there’s only a 6-7% chance both would survive that long), the odds are 61% that both will make the Round of 16, 35% that both will make the quarterfinals and 19% that both will make the semifinals.

As always, some of that comes down to who can do well on the other driver’s track-type forte — Hamlin on road courses, Reddick on short tracks — but that factor is mitigated some by bracket paths, as Hamlin gets the much more favorable first-round draw of Ty Dillon (unless we think his head-to-head speedway upset of Denny last year was repeatable) for Sonoma, compared with Reddick getting the theoretically more dangerous opponent of Alex Bowman (even if Bowman’s road-course form this year needs work). As such, it’s kind of a dead-heat as to whether the No. 11 or the No. 45 is more likely to claim the $1 million prize when the confetti clears at the Brickyard.

Of course, there is also another group of drivers lurking just outside the top two, led by Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson. Again, these are also the next-most likely drivers to win The Chase — maybe the only ones who realistically have a shot at unseating Reddick and Hamlin — but they also will have a chance to audition for it early in this stage.

Blaney drew Josh Berry on a Round 1 road-course, making him the single biggest favorite this week, and he will almost certainly get Shane van Gisbergen at Chicagoland, where the No. 12 will be a big favorite. Larson, meanwhile, drew the improving Riley Herbst for Sonoma and probably will get teammate William Byron in a big-name Hendrick Motorsports showdown for a spot in the quarterfinals — a tougher path, but one that would make him a serious title threat if he gets past Blaney (or someone else) in the quarterfinals.

The Dark Horses 

There is a gap to the next group in the odds, though not a massive one. The dark-horse drivers are the ones outside the obvious favorites, whose numbers suggest they may still be capable of a deep run.

The leaders here are Chase Elliott, Mr. Consistency, and Ty Gibbs, the defending champ. Both are capable of winning it all, though the bracket has the potential to hand them eerily similar obstacles early in the run: In each case, Gibbs and Elliott ought to handle their first-round opponents (Austin Dillon and Noah Gragson, respectively), but the other part of their “pod” offers a dangerous, underseeded driver (Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace) who must get past a road-course veteran (AJ Allmendinger and Michael McDowell) at Sonoma to advance. Whichever one doesn’t have to face Briscoe or Bubba at Chicagoland might be the winner here.

Our next tier of sleepers includes Briscoe, Byron, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Wallace and Carson Hocevar, all of whom are packed between 3-5% odds heading into the tournament. Among those, Byron and Buescher are much safer bets to make the Round of 16 — facing John Hunter Nemechek and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., respectively — while the rest face tougher first-round draws, but all would be dangerous if they advance. And in fact, Bell and Buescher are on a second-round collision course if things go chalk, with the winner having legitimate potential to knock out Hamlin early.

The Tough Draws

With the seeding fixed to reflect the actual standings — one of my top suggestions coming out of last year’s tournament — immediate draws begging for an upset are tougher to find. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. No. 15 seed Erik Jones got stuck with three-time Cup champ Joey Logano in Round 1, making Jones an underdog in the model, even though Joey is having arguably the worst season of his career. Jones has been doing very well recently, but at a road course — not his specialty — that may not be enough to dispatch Logano.

Similarly, Wallace, Hocevar and Bell drew rough first-round matchups — McDowell on a road course, Zane Smith and Ross Chastain, respectively — making each a coin flip at best to advance out of the gates. Smith’s recent uptick in performance mirrors Hocevar’s, and the No. 38 has been substantially better on road/street tracks this year than the No. 77. And while Bell has more contender cachet, he’s also dealing with an injury, while Chastain has been better on road courses this year (79.3 Driver Rating versus 62.7 for Bell).

The Spoilers 

The flip-side of a tough draw is a lower-seeded driver with a shot at knocking off the favorite, so we can immediately mark down Logano, McDowell, Smith and Chastain as leading candidates to end promising Challenge runs before they even get a chance to begin.

But they’re not the only ones with a shot at shaking things up for the favorites. Allmendinger is always a threat on road courses, so he could take out Briscoe at Sonoma. Likewise, No. 17 seed Brad Keselowski (facing No. 16 Austin Cindric), No. 19 Ryan Preece (No. 14 van Gisbergen) and No. 25 Todd Gilliland (No. 8 Daniel Suárez) all have at least some chance of beating their higher-ranked first-round foes, with Herbst (facing Larson) not too far behind.

(If last week proved anything, it’s that even SVG can be beaten in a single road-course race, as he got caught up in chaos in front of him in San Diego and saw his day end early.)

And stop us if you’ve heard this one before — but Logano, as the 18-seed, has the best chance to spoil the whole championship for the top seeds, with the highest odds to advance past the Round of 8 and win the title of anybody seeded outside the top half of the bracket. (Followed by, of course, fellow chaos agent Chastain.)

The Cinderellas

If you’re looking for this year’s Ty Dillon, though — say, a driver seeded 24th or worse with some kind of chance to crash the final four party — you have a few options.

No. 27 Riley Herbst and No. 28 Austin Dillon (speaking of NASCAR’s all-time chaos agents) each have a 3% chance to make the last quartet of drivers standing, despite some staunch competition looming early in the bracket. No. 32 Alex Bowman is hardly this field’s “Mr. Irrelevant,” either, as he has a 5% shot at the semifinals despite facing No. 1 seed Reddick in Round 1. (Both have won on road courses, for what it’s worth.)

And maybe the best Cinderella pick of all is No. 24 Zane Smith, who has a whopping 8% chance to make the semifinals despite his low seed. Smith is bolstered by a number of factors, including his edge on road courses over first-round foe Hocevar, a fairly soft second-round path (against the Suárez/Gilliland winner), catching Reddick — if chalk holds — at a drafting track (EchoPark) in the Round of 16, and the possibility of facing only one true short-track ace (Gibbs) at North Wilkesboro Speedway, if things come down to that.

A lot of moving pieces need to fall into place for all of that to happen, but Smith’s path to a deep In-Season Challenge run is surprisingly plausible when laid out that way. Or who knows? Maybe the tournament will just belong to Ty Dillon again — this time armed with an even better seed (31 versus 32) than he had a year ago.

Posted on by Nathan Solomon

Year 2 of the In-Season Challenge kicks off Sunday when the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series head to the winding hills of Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Commencing this year’s five-week, head-to-head bracket battle at a road course is a change from last year, when the inaugural In-Season Challenge kicked off at the EchoPark Speedway drafting track. A superspeedway-like race as the opener busted some early brackets with eight Round 1 upsets, but ultimately, Ty Gibbs emerged after a month of high-stakes battles to take the 2025 crown.

A road course for this year’s Round 1 race will certainly bring some different names into the fold, but will likely end up more predictable than EchoPark. Here’s what to keep an eye on for this weekend in Wine Country.

RELATED: Fill out your bracket now! | In-Season Challenge hub

ROUND 1 MATCHUPS:

  • (No. 1) Tyler Reddick vs. (No. 32) Alex Bowman
  • (No. 2) Denny Hamlin vs. (No. 31) Ty Dillon
  • (No. 3) Ryan Blaney vs. (No. 30) Josh Berry
  • (No. 4) Chase Elliott vs. (No. 29) Noah Gragson
  • (No. 5) Ty Gibbs vs. (No. 28) Austin Dillon
  • (No. 6) Kyle Larson vs. (No. 27) Riley Herbst
  • (No. 7) Chris Buescher vs. (No. 26) John Hunter Nemechek
  • (No. 8) Daniel Suárez vs. (No. 25) Todd Gilliland
  • (No. 9) Carson Hocevar vs. (No. 24) Zane Smith
  • (No. 10) Christopher Bell vs. (No. 23) Ross Chastain
  • (No. 11) William Byron vs. (No. 22) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  • (No. 12) Chase Briscoe vs. (No. 21) AJ Allmendinger
  • (No. 13) Bubba Wallace vs. (No. 20) Michael McDowell
  • (No. 14) Shane van Gisbergen vs. (No. 19) Ryan Preece
  • (No. 15) Erik Jones vs. (No. 18) Joey Logano
  • (No. 16) Austin Cindric vs. (No. 17) Brad Keselowski

TRACK BREAKDOWN

Shane van Gisbergen (who we’ll get to later) is an obvious favorite anytime the Cup Series goes road course racing, but several other drivers have stout Sonoma records. No. 9 seed Chase Elliott has never won in Northern California, but has seven top 10s in nine starts at the 1.99-mile road course. No. 7 seed Chris Buescher has top fives in three of the last four races at the 10-turn circuit, and both Elliott and Buescher have favorable matchups.

No. 6 seed Kyle Larson is the only active driver with multiple Sonoma wins, with his most recent coming in 2024. He uncharacteristically finished 35th there last year, but showed his best road course pace in quite some time last weekend in San Diego. His matchup with Riley Herbst is also favorable, but the No. 35 23XI Racing team has made big gains over the last several months. No. 8 seed Daniel Suárez is also a Sonoma winner and has beaten Todd Gilliland, his Round 1 opponent, in three of the last four trips there.

No. 20 seed Michael McDowell owns the best average finish in the Next Gen car at Sonoma among drivers with multiple starts at 4.0. He’ll face Bubba Wallace, who finished second last weekend at Naval Base Coronado in his best career road course race. On paper, McDowell is a favorite as his 5.67 average finish in three road course events this year is tops in Cup, but Wallace surely won’t go down easily.

MATCHUP OF THE WEEK: (No. 9) Carson Hocevar vs. (No. 24) Zane Smith

Two of NASCAR’s brightest young stars are pitted against each other in Round 1. Both Hocevar and Smith are enjoying career years in their third full-time Cup bouts, and both led laps and contended last weekend at Naval Base Coronado. Hocevar sits ninth in points and has speed seemingly everywhere, and Smith has especially broken out over the last two months with three top 10s in the last five races. Smith crashed inside the top 10 at both Michigan and Pocono, but this stretch proves that his Front Row Motorsports speed can contend with the highly touted Spire Motorsports.

Oh yeah, they have history, too. Last summer at Iowa Speedway, Hocevar crashed into Smith, prompting Ryan Bergenty, Smith’s crew chief, to confront Hocevar post-race. In an interview with NASCAR.com a week later, Smith said, “I personally can’t go have a conversation with him without getting a $75,000 fine … he’s just a dumb [expletive].”

So two drivers that most definitely don’t like each other racing straight up over 110 laps? That could create fireworks. Neither driver has finished better than 16th at Sonoma, but with both on upward trajectories, it’s certainly possible that both of these budding stars could find themselves in contention for the win.

a split image graphic of carson hocevar and zane smith
Getty Images

KEY MATCHUP: (No. 14) Shane van Gisbergen vs. (No. 19) Ryan Preece

After how Naval Base Coronado played out, this matchup got a lot more interesting. At the end of the day, van Gisbergen still has seven road course victories in 15 starts, including six of the last eight. But San Diego — and even Circuit of The Americas for that matter — showed that the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing driver isn’t invincible.

Alternatively, Preece ran arguably his best race of the season in Coronado, finishing 11th and earning 19 of 20 possible stage points. He’s finished no worse than 18th in three road course races in 2026 and finally has some momentum on his side after a miserable four-week stretch between Charlotte and Pocono. Preece is generally known for finishing consistently and maximizing his car, so if SVG has another misstep, the RFK Racing driver can pounce and bust brackets. (And yes, Preece is having plenty of fun about this matchup on X.)

KEY MATCHUP: (No. 16) Austin Cindric vs. (No. 17) Brad Keselowski

The most recent drivers of Team Penske’s famed No. 2 car will face off in a matchup that could go either way. Neither driver has fared particularly well at Sonoma, with Cindric earning one top five in four starts and Keselowski just one top five in 15 starts. Cindric, however, has a road course racing background and won on lefts and rights five times in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. He also has a top 10 this season at Watkins Glen International.

But widening the scope, Cindric and Keselowski sit squarely around the Chase cutoff line. Cindric is 15th in points and has been above the provisional cut for seven of the last eight races, while the RFK Racing driver/owner has plummeted from ninth to 19th since Watkins Glen. Postseason pressure is ramping up, and both of these drivers need strong weekends — which could potentially start a deep In-Season Challenge run for one of them.

UPSET WATCH: (No. 10) Christopher Bell

The Norman, Oklahoma, native is a three-time road-course winner, but Bell’s injury status jeopardizes his chances of advancing out of Round 1. After suffering a fractured left wrist in a crash at Michigan International Speedway, Bell received clearance to race at Pocono Raceway, but exited his Toyota early last weekend at Naval Base Coronado. Eighteen-year-old Brent Crews took over at the first caution before a mechanical failure ended the team’s day early in San Diego.

So will a similar driver swap procedure be in order at Sonoma? Regardless, Bell’s facing Ross Chastain in the opener, who’s stout on the road in his own right. The Trackhouse Racing driver’s first Cup win came at Circuit of The Americas in 2022, and he is riding the most momentum he’s had all season with consecutive top-10 finishes. Chastain owns an average finish of 11.5 in the Next Gen car, fourth best among active drivers at the track. With so many unknowns for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team this weekend, it’s hard to bank on Bell advancing.

Posted on by Staff Report

Firecracker 150 presented by the Bethesda Leadership Group

Seekonk Speedway

  • Entry list
Car No. Driver Team Crew Chief Chassis Mfg. Sponsor
1 Patrick Emerling USNE Motorsports Dale Hedquist LFR USNE Power
3 Tyler Rypkema BRE Racing Greg Fournier Boehler Racing Northeast Drilling; SYP; J&R Precast
05 Teddy Hodgdon IV Teddy Hodgdon Racing Ted Hodgdon FURY Race Cars Business Time Motorsports; The Landau Team of Re/Max; Montanari Fuel
8 John-Michael Shenette Eighty-Two Autosport Scott Morin LFR USNE Power Charlotte, Eighty-Two Services
18 Ken Heagy Heagy Motorsports Greg Gorman FURY Race Cars Merkel Racing Engines
21 Stephen Kopcik Wanick Motorsports Nick Kopcik Troyer Wanick Construction; Newtown Pools
28 Doug Coby Jett Motorsports John Mckenna LFR Nucar
31 Michael Christopher Jr Elite Motorsports Eugene Orlando LFR Elite Towing; Elite Racing; Baker Racing
36 David Sapienza Sapienza Racing Greg Kleila Troyer USNE Power; Sapienza Enterprises
44 Chase Dowling Tinio Racing Danny Gamache LFR S&S Paving / Harshaw Paving
54 Tommy Catalano Catalano Motorsports Rick Kluth Troyer FX Caprara; USNE Power
56 Trevor Catalano Catalano Motorsports David Catalano Troyer USNE Power
58 Eric Goodale Goodie Motorsports Rob Hyer FURY Race Cars GAF Roofing Riverhead Building Supply
60 Matt Hirschman Pee Dee Motorsports Mike Stein Troyer Bar Harbor Bank & Trust; Pee Dee Motorsports
64 Austin Beers KLM Motorsports Ron Yuhas Troyer Lumiere Electrical, Dell Electric, G&G Electrical Supply, Andrew James Interiors, AP Marquadt & Sons, Hughes Motors
73 Paulie Hartwig III Hartwig Racing Bobby Geiger Jr FURY Race Cars Professional Therapy Associates; Jersey Shore Contracting
79 Jonathan McKennedy Jonathan McKennedy Racing Patrick Walsh FURY Race Cars Stuarts Automotive, Christophers Towing, John Young Landscaping, Levasseur HVAC, Hillsboro Enterprises
82 Andrew Molleur DWR Racing Michael Molleur LFR Horton Avenue Materials
89 Matt Swanson Matt Swanson John Swanson FURY Race Cars Ceravolos Auto; Swanson GMC

 

Posted on by Nate Ryan

The unusual decision to permit Corey Day’s team to work under the red flag and receive four laps back came after a “lengthy” discussion among NASCAR officials.

“It was, ‘Hey, what do we do here? Does it feel right that we give Corey Day his four laps back?’ ” NASCAR Vice President of Racing Communications Mike Forde said on the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast. “And it wasn’t unanimous. There was some, ‘Well, what have we done before?’ We try to be consistent.”

RELATED: Naval Base Coronado weekend results

Day’s No. 17 Chevrolet was damaged by a loose sewer cover on the first lap of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series street race at Naval Base Coronado.

There have been other instances in which cars were damaged by debris (such as Jeff Gordon’s Chevy being hit by a loose chunk of concrete while leading at Martinsville Speedway in 2004) in which no dispensation was granted.

“In this case, we felt the big thing was this was a temporary course, and it wasn’t built for racing,” Forde said. “And so, some of those other ‘racing deals,’ it didn’t exactly match what happened here. This came up on a city street, and (Day) didn’t really do anything wrong.

“It was just horrible, horrible luck. If we can sort of fix that and give him his luck back, we felt that it was the right thing to do.”

NASCAR will have further discussions about how to handle similar situations in the future, possibly tweaking the process in which Day got his laps back. The No. 17 circled the track four times under caution to ensure its fuel consumption was relatively equal. To avoid burning laps under yellow, Forde said NASCAR might consider keeping the field stationary while a driver circled the track.

MORE: “Inside the Race” explains short-track bumper change

But NASCAR will keep a high standard for suspending the rules as it did in Day’s situation.

“Instead of a cover going through the radiator, what if it’s a piece of ballast from another car,” Forde said. “That’s bad luck, too, but I think we probably will look at that as a little more of a legitimate racing deal that you’ve seen before hundreds of times throughout all levels of racing, and it’s a bummer for that competitor, but it’s kind of part of the game.

“A cover coming off on a street race on a naval base is not typically part of the game, so that’s why we made the decision we did.”

After the cover came loose, NASCAR rewelded a cover in Turn 6 during the red flag and added a fifth weld to other covers around the course before Sunday’s Cup race. A second welding truck was added Sunday because it took longer than expected to repair the cover.

NASCAR cited its EIRI clause — “Except in rare instances” — to suspend its rules for working under the red flag and to give Day his laps back.

“We don’t do it often and don’t like doing it often,” Forde said. “It’s for very unique circumstances. Things arise where you have to say, ‘You know what? This doesn’t feel right. Logic needs to prevail here. Even though the rules say one thing, in this case, we need to kind of tweak our rules.’ ”

Other topics covered by Forde and senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis during the 59th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:

— A safety adjustment for Cup cars on short tracks that will remove bumper foam to add crushability to the front ends on impact;

— How NASCAR aided the Naval Criminal Investigative Service after a fan entered the race track Saturday;

— Whether cautions could be shortened if NASCAR returns to the San Diego street course;

— The wall repairs that necessitated red flags in NASCAR’s three races last weekend.

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 Co. 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.

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR and the Rolling Stones, in partnership with Goodyear, today announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration celebrating two cultural icons built on performance and life on the road.

Launching ahead of the July 10 release of “Foreign Tongues,” the Rolling Stones’ highly anticipated new studio album, the collaboration brings together the worlds of racing and rock ‘n’ roll through officially licensed merchandise, special-edition collector vinyl, original content and a one-of-a-kind fan experience in Chicago.

At the center of the campaign is an immersive NASCAR show car transformed into a Rolling Stones listening lounge, giving fans an opportunity to experience music from “Foreign Tongues” inside a custom-designed vehicle that blends racing culture with the band’s legendary aesthetic. The activation will travel to key Chicago locations leading into NASCAR’s Chicagoland Speedway race weekend.

MORE: Pre-order, get merch!

“For generations, NASCAR and the Rolling Stones have captivated fans through unforgettable live experiences and a shared spirit of performance,” said Megan Malayter, NASCAR Vice President of Licensing and Consumer Products. “While one takes place on the race track and the other on the stage, both are fueled by passion, energy and life on the road. This collaboration brings those worlds together in a unique way, giving fans exclusive content, limited-edition collectible vinyls and immersive experiences that celebrate the connection between racing and rock ‘n’ roll.”

The collaboration includes:

  • NASCAR x the Rolling Stones merchandise collection featuring co-branded apparel, headlined by the signature NASCAR racing jacket.
  • Two limited-edition NASCAR-themed collector vinyl editions of “Foreign Tongues.”
  • A custom NASCAR listening lounge show car appearing throughout Chicago, leading into the NASCAR Chicagoland race weekend (July 4-5).
  • Original content highlighting the parallels between professional drivers and touring musicians.

The campaign launches with a hero film featuring NASCAR drivers Jesse Love, Connor Zilisch and Carson Hocevar alongside creator and driver Cleetus McFarland. Set to music from “Foreign Tongues,” the film reimagines the drivers as a touring rock band, drawing connections between life on tour and life on the NASCAR schedule. Blending racing imagery with rock ‘n’ roll storytelling, the film serves as the creative centerpiece of a campaign designed to bring fans inside the worlds of both NASCAR and The Rolling Stones.

Fans in Chicago will have the opportunity to experience the NASCAR x The Rolling Stones Racing Record Player, a listening experience that is fueled by rock ‘n’ roll, at select locations ahead of race weekend, including Navy Pier, Plaza of the Americas and the Chicagoland Speedway Fan Zone.

“Foreign Tongues” arrives July 10, via Capitol Records and follows the band’s Grammy Award-winning album “Hackney Diamonds.”

For more information and to shop the NASCAR x The Rolling Stones collection, visit NASCARShop.com or https://rollingstones.lnk.to/Nascar, or find it trackside during NASCAR’s Chicagoland race weekend.

Tune in Sunday as the NASCAR Cup Series shifts to TNT Sports platforms for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 live from Sonoma Raceway at 3:30 p.m. ET. The race also marks the first race of the 2026 In-Season Challenge, where Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin are the top two seeds, respectively. In addition to TNT Sports, the race will also air live on HBO Max, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series hang west for another week as they head to the winding hills of Sonoma Raceway. For both series, it’s the final road-course race of the 2026 season. See how qualifying groups will be divided this weekend in Wine Country.

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on TV

Cup Series
Group qualifying will occur at 3:10 p.m. ET on Saturday with practice earlier in the day at 2 p.m. ET (truTV).

POSITIONNUMBERDRIVERMETRICGROUP
188Connor Zilisch #36.41
24Noah Gragson33.81
333Austin Hill(i)33.61
441Cole Custer31.91
597Shane van Gisbergen31.71
610Ty Dillon30.91
747Ricky Stenhouse Jr.30.91
820Christopher Bell30.91
921Josh Berry29.91
106Brad Keselowski29.51
1148Alex Bowman27.21
1251Cody Ware26.91
1324William Bryon26.31
143Austin Dillon25.51
1534Todd Gilliland22.21
162Austin Cindric20.21
1742John Hunter Nemechek19.31
1843Erik Jones18.51
1922Joey Logano18.02
2045Tyler Reddick17.82
2177Carson Hocevar16.02
2219Chase Briscoe14.92
2371Michael McDowell13.32
2435Riley Herbst12.82
2554Ty Gibbs12.02
2660Ryan Preece11.92
271Ross Chastain11.52
287Daniel Suárez11.52
2911Denny Hamlin10.42
309Chase Elliott10.22
3138Zane Smith9.72
3216AJ Allmendinger9.52
3312Ryan Blaney7.22
3417Chris Buescher6.32
3523Bubba Wallace4.72
365Kyle Larson3.32

O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Group qualifying will occur at 5:05 p.m. ET on Friday with practice earlier in the day at 4 p.m. ET (The CW App).

POSITIONNUMBERDRIVERMETRICGROUP
171Leland Honeyman Jr.(i)58.71
228Kyle Sieg35.21
342Will Rodgers33.91
49Shane van Gisbergen(i)33.51
502Ryan Ellis30.91
696Anthony Alfredo30.51
718William Sawalich29.41
845Lavar Scott #29.31
992Josh Williams27.81
1041Sam Mayer27.71
110Alex Labbe26.41
1253TBA26.31
1335Dawson Cram26.11
1491Carson Kvapil25.91
1526Dean Thompson25.31
1619Brent Crews #24.41
1755Brad Perez23.81
187Justin Allgaier22.71
1944Brennan Poole22.21
2048Patrick Staropoli #22.12
2107Josh Bilicki19.92
2227Jeb Burton18.52
2351Jeremy Clements16.82
2431Blaine Perkins16.02
2588Rajah Caruth16.02
2632Ross Chastain(i)14.92
2724Harrison Burton13.52
2887Austin Green13.42
2939Ryan Sieg12.22
3020Brandon Jones10.82
3117Corey Day8.52
3299Parker Retzlaff8.22
338Sammy Smith6.52
342Jesse Love5.42
3554Taylor Gray5.02
3600Sheldon Creed3.92
371Connor Zilisch(i)3.72
3821Austin Hill2.82

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

Posted on by Pat DeCola

There wasn’t much else for Shane van Gisbergen to say after being taken out of Sunday’s Anduril 250 at Naval Base Coronado early — he knew the impact immediately.

“A real shame. Red Bull Chevy was unreal and fast once the track kind of rubbered up,” the No. 97 Trackhouse Chevrolet driver said, per the manufacturer. “Just a real shame.”

That was the sting of a high-profile weekend ending in the wrong place at the wrong time on a Stage 2 restart wreck. The No. 97 had speed, with van Gisbergen starting from the pole, leading early at Qualcomm Circuit and remaining among the obvious contenders on a track type where he has quickly become the Cup Series’ clearest measuring stick.

MORE: San Diego results | San Diego photos

Then disaster struck, as a Lap 32 restart stack-up sent van Gisbergen into a multicar crash that ended what had looked like one of his best chances to score big points and instead left him with a season-worst 38th-place finish. The result was damaging on its own. The timing made it worse.

For a driver whose cleanest path into the Chase runs directly through road and street courses, San Diego was supposed to be a slam-dunk points haul. Instead, SVG left with a single point, his third consecutive finish of 30th or worse and a very different postseason picture than the one he carried into the weekend. Per Racing Insights, van Gisbergen was projected to score 45 points at San Diego — but after scoring just one, his probability to make the Chase dropped from 67% to 20%.

Now comes Sonoma, where the vibes have historically been laid-back, but this weekend will be anything but.

Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Wine Country is not quite a mathematical must-win for van Gisbergen, who enters the weekend 17th in the Chase standings and just five points behind Ryan Preece for the final provisional position. But it is something close to a must-convert moment after an extremely costly San Diego setback. Sonoma is the final road-course race on the 2026 Cup Series schedule, giving SVG one last chance this season to use his clearest advantage before the series shifts back to ovals and drafting tracks for the rest of the regular season and beyond.

That makes the situation more urgent for him, specifically, than the cutline alone suggests.

Van Gisbergen dropped three positions in the standings after San Diego and lost 15 points to the cutline. He had held a provisional Chase position after each of the previous five races before Sunday’s DNF and has fallen from 12th to 17th over the last three races. His recent slide is even sharper when measured against the bubble, as the New Zealander was 44 points above the cutline after Nashville on the final day of May. Barely three weeks later, he is now five points below it.

In the 2026 Chase format, a win is worth 55 points, but victory no longer provides an automatic postseason berth. That distinction matters here, particularly since he’s already visited Victory Lane this season. A Sonoma win would not simply erase the standings math by itself like his playoff appearance last year, but it would certainly deliver the jolt San Diego did not. A massive points day, a likely move back above the cutline and a badly needed correction after one of his best opportunities slipped away would offer the necessary pivot. If that doesn’t happen, the pressure could build quickly.

That said, few drivers have built a stronger case to deliver that kind of rebound on cue.

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA - JULY 13: Shane Van Gisbergen, driver of the #88 Red Bull Chevrolet, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on July 13, 2025 in Sonoma, California.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Van Gisbergen has seven road-course wins in just 15 Cup Series starts, including six victories in the last eight such races. Since the start of 2025, he has run inside the top five for 79% of laps and inside the top 10 for 90% of laps on road courses. In the Next Gen era, he leads all drivers in road-course wins, laps led and average finish.

The resume is already historic and still rapidly building. With a win Sunday, van Gisbergen would become the first driver to have each of his first eight Cup Series victories come on road courses — and he enters as the defending winner.

RELATED: SVG through the years | Sonoma weekend schedule

In his only Sonoma Cup start to date last year, van Gisbergen started from the pole, led 97 of 110 laps and cruised to Victory Lane. He ran every lap inside the top 10 and became the first pole winner to win at the track since 2004.

Everything on paper says this weekend will once again be his to lose — it’s just that San Diego showed the other side of that equation and how quickly that possibility can turn. The No. 97 had the pace, but the race became messy around him. He can’t control what he can’t control, but that doesn’t make Sonoma any less of a crucial pivot point.

The Chase bubble remains tight enough that van Gisbergen does not need a miracle just yet. Just 18 points separate positions 14 through 19, and SVG is only five points out with nine regular-season races remaining over two-plus months. But one clean, heavy-scoring afternoon could change the tone immediately and reenergize a team that appeared set for back-to-back postseason appearances but suddenly finds itself under immense pressure.

The opposite could ruin a summer.