Posted on by Mike Hembree

HAMPTON, Ga. – It was a night when pretenders became contenders, enough car parts flew through the air to fill a junkyard and several of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series non-winners threatened to eliminate the “non” from their resumes.

In the end – and it seemed the end might not become before Saturday turned to Sunday, series veteran Justin Allgaier slipped through the late-race chaos to win the Focused Health 250 at EchoPark Speedway, shutting out promising runs by Carson Kvapil, Jeremy Clements, Ryan Sieg, Nick Sanchez and a chorus of other drivers who got a passing glimpse of Victory Lane.

Kvapil had the best shot at scoring a career-first victory. He led 29 laps and was a key player in the late-race mix of incredibly tight competition and the string of wrecks that made the closing miles brim with anxiety.

The final restart with two overtime laps to go was disrupted when Sieg, battling at the front for his first win in 421 series starts, ran out of gas as the green flag flew, and his slowing car rattled the packed drafting lines and made the finish a free-for-all between the charging Allgaier, Kvapil and Parker Retzlaff.

Kvapil lost to his JR Motorsports teammate by 0.139 seconds.

RELATED: Unofficial results | At-track photos

“I felt like we were the fastest car,” Kvapil said. “Everyone on this team brought an absolute rocketship. I mean it was unbelievably fast and had good handling, too. We could make moves, and it just did everything right.

“I thought, man, just what could go wrong, right? I feel like we pretty much had it in the bag with all the cars around us. They weren’t at the speed that I thought we were.

“I thought as soon as we got all cleared off Turn 2 and then Turn 4 that we were going to be in good shape, but when the 39 ran out of gas there on the restart, it just really screwed us, honestly kind of took us out of the race.”

The wild nature of the final stage repeatedly put surprise drivers near the front. The longest green-flag run in the third stage was seven laps, and the sometimes ferocious racing at the front was interrupted by seven cautions. The stop-and-go racing cut into the strength of Kvapil’s car, which was strong on long runs.

“I felt like we had the best car tonight,” said Rodney Childers, Kvapil’s crew chief. “Carson did a great job, and we’ve had great cars over the last month. Everybody’s clicking and we’re doing the right things. Hopefully, we can continue that and get Carson into Victory Lane before long.”

The runner-up finish was Kvapil’s fifth and his fifth finish of sixth or better in the past six races.

Team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a quick chat with Kvapil on pit road after the race. Kvapil has rotated in and out of the car No. 1’s driver seat this year but will be in the car the rest of the season.

“Tonight there was not much he could have changed about what happened,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “It was out of his control. His help was dissipating on the restart. I would say to him in these moments you have to look at what you’re in control of and did you do a good job. He did all the things besides winning the race that you need to do.

“We had a great points night. Now he’s in this car from here on out, and he can truly build on that momentum with Rodney.”

Posted on by Staff Report

2026 continues to be Justin Allgaier’s season as the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet driver scored his sixth victory of the campaign in Saturday evening’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at EchoPark Speedway.

Despite suffering damage in a wreck with under five laps to go, the 40-year-old veteran found himself an opportunity during NASCAR Overtime to take the lead on the final lap and score career win No. 34.

With the win, Allgaier secured the top seed for The Chase, which begins in September at Darlington Raceway.

RELATED: Unofficial results | At-track photos

Carson Kvapil, Parker Retzlaff, William Sawalich and Anthony Alfredo completed the top five. Garrett Smithley, Brandon Jones, Kyle Sieg, Rajah Caruth and Jeremy Clements rounded out the top 10.

Trouble ensued with three laps to go as Austin Hill spun after contact from Nick Sanchez in Turns 3 and 4. The No. 21 Richard Childress Racing driver glided up the track after the contact and into Sammy Smith, sparking a seven-car pileup that also involved eventual race winner and points leader Allgaier, as well as Caruth.

The field piled up with 12 to go as 11 cars were involved in a multicar wreck in Turns 1 and 2. Jordan Anderson tried a four-wide move into Turn 1, but with little room going into the narrow corners, the No. 32 Chevrolet made contact with Sheldon Creed and sandwiched Jesse Love and Brent Crews into the wall. Retzlaff, Sawalich and Brandon Jones were also involved in the late-race incident.

The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action in two weeks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 25 (4 p.m. ET, The CW, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

This story will be updated. 

Posted on by Staff Report

For the first time this season, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to a track for the second time, as stock-car racing’s best converge at EchoPark Speedway on Sunday (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

With the unpredictable nature of the Atlanta-area drafting track, these 260 laps could ultimately make or break drivers’ Chase hopes as just seven regular-season races remain. Look no further than Team Penske as Austin Cindric enters EchoPark 15th in points on the right side of the bubble, while three-time series champion Joey Logano is 18th and has plenty of work to do. But anytime the Cup Series heads to the draft, Penske and Ford are always a factor.

RELATED: Starting lineup | Saturday recap

But other drivers continue to fly under the radar. Erik Jones quietly sits 16th in the standings, with AJ Allmendinger in 19th and Michael McDowell in 21st. This could be a prime opportunity for these drivers to bank a boatload of points and better their postseason outlooks. Read on to see other drivers worth watching, as well as Racing Insights’ full race projections for Sunday’s expected Cup Series thriller.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

RYAN BLANEY: Don’t count out Ryan Blaney just yet for the season points lead quest. Though the wins aren’t piling up, the 32-year-old Penske ace is on arguably one of his best stretches to date, finishing inside the top 10 in his last seven races — a career best. His 14 top 10s are better than teammates Cindric and Logano combined (nine). Best yet, this shapes up as likely his best part of the schedule, with drafting tracks and short tracks comprising six of the next seven races. If there’s an opportunity for Blaney to make a run, it starts Sunday — and while he’s 113 markers behind Denny Hamlin for the series lead, Hamlin erased a larger gap on Tyler Reddick earlier this year. It’s possible.

TYLER REDDICK: Speaking of Reddick, the No. 45 23XI Racing driver is in desperate need of something to go right. He’s finished 25th or worse in four of the last five, plagued by mechanical failures, a crash at Michigan International Speedway (not of his doing) and a flat tire in the final moments at Naval Base Coronado. Over the last four weeks, Reddick has averaged 12.8 points — 27th in the series — after scoring 44.6 over the first 15. Fortunately for him, he’s the most recent winner at EchoPark, leading 53 laps for a thrilling springtime victory. Reddick has three career Cup wins on drafting tracks and is arguably the best among Toyotas.

CHASE ELLOTT: Dawsonville’s finest returns to Georgia as the defending summer race winner, and his stats here back it up. Elliott’s 9.38 average finish in nine races since the reconfiguration is best among all Cup drivers in the Peach State, and he’s placed 11th or better in six of the last seven drafting-track events. In total, the 2020 Cup Series champion has four wins in this discipline, including two at EchoPark. Somehow, Elliott’s pair of wins in 2026 are the only dubs for Hendrick Motorsports this season, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he tacked on another come Sunday night.

MORE: EchoPark photos | What to Watch: EchoPark

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR QUAKER STATE 400 AVAILABLE AT WALMART (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports)

FINISHCAR NUMBERDRIVER
19Chase Elliott
245Tyler Reddick
312Ryan Blaney
477Carson Hocevar
57Daniel Suárez
65Kyle Larson
717Chris Buescher
823Bubba Wallace
911Denny Hamlin
101Ross Chastain
1148Alex Bowman
1220Christopher Bell
1322Joey Logano
1447Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
1554Ty Gibbs
1619Chase Briscoe
1743Erik Jones
182Austin Cindric
1924William Byron
2060Ryan Preece
2171Michael McDowell
2297Shane van Gisbergen
2338Zane Smith
246Brad Keselowski
2516AJ Allmendinger
2642John Hunter Nemechek
273Austin Dillon
2810Ty Dillon
2934Todd Gilliland
3035Riley Herbst
3133Austin Hill
3288Connor Zilisch
3341Cole Custer
344Noah Gragson
3521Josh Berry
3651Cody Ware
3778BJ McLeod
3866Chad Finchum
Posted on by Mike Hembree

Track: EchoPark Speedway
Location: Hampton, Georgia
Track length: 1.54 miles
When: 7 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 260 laps | 400.4 miles
Segments: 60 | 160 | 260
Sunday’s starting lineup | Pit-stall assignments

How wild could Sunday’s show get?

HAMPTON, Ga. — With seven races remaining until the NASCAR Cup Series’ 16-driver Chase lineup is decided, Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway looms as the first of two “wild card” events in the regular-season homestretch.

EchoPark, known for high speeds, huge drafting packs and teams using different chassis setups and tire strategies, could result in major changes in the points standings, a reputation it shares with Daytona International Speedway, which will host the final race of the regular season Aug. 29.

Prime evidence can be found with a look at the results from last year’s EchoPark summer race.

MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos

Eleven of the 40 cars in the field parked with damage from accidents. Among them were Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain. Twenty-two cars were damaged in a massive wreck on Lap 69, only 12 laps after a seven-car incident.

Race winner Chase Elliott led the final lap after not leading any of the previous 34 laps. He passed Brad Keselowski to win by .168 of a second, ending a 44-race winless string.

The mushy middle of the Chase standings – the area above and below the 16-driver cutline – offers the chance for significant position changes entering Sunday’s race. Shane van Gisbergen (plus-30), Austin Cindric (plus-27) and Erik Jones (plus-4) float above the line. Hovering below are Ryan Preece (minus-4), Logano (minus-16), AJ Allmendinger (minus-16) and Keselowski (minus-19).

The In-Season Challenge reaches its midpoint (the third of five races) Sunday with intriguing matchups. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell will race for a spot in the semifinals, and there’s also a Chase versus Chase matchup, with Elliott, winner of this race last year, against Briscoe, last week’s Chicagoland winner.

MORE: Goodyear tire notes: EchoPark

The race also will provide the latest backdrop for two ongoing — and somewhat heated — rivalries: Shane van Gisbergen versus Austin Hill, and Zane Smith versus Carson Hocevar. NASCAR officials met with the four drivers at the track Saturday to discuss past issues and to emphasize that cooler heads should prevail going forward.

Atop the point standings, Hamlin will look to pad his 44-point lead over Tyler Reddick, whose sagging season includes three finishes of 35th or worse in the past five races.

NASCAR Cup Series races at EchoPark Speedway.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images

In the details …

Late-race heroics have defined the Cup Series at drafting tracks as of late, and EchoPark is certainly no exception. Overall, 14 of the last 17 drafting-track races have featured lead changes in the final two laps, but narrowing the scope, seven of the last eight Atlanta-area races have featured the same.

Including Daniel Suárez’s three-wide 2024 frenzy with Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch — which produced the fourth-closest margin of victory in series history — look back at how the final laps played out in the last eight Peach State thrillers.

DATEWINNERTOOK LED FROMLAPS TO GO
7/10/2022Chase ElliottCorey LaJoie2
3/19/2023Joey LoganoBrad Keselowski1
7/9/2023William ByronAJ Allmendinger19
2/25/2024Daniel SuárezRyan Blaney1
9/8/2024Joey LoganoDaniel Suárez2
2/23/2025Christopher BellKyle Larson1
6/28/2025Chase ElliottBrad Keselowski1
2/22/2026Tyler ReddickBubba Wallace2

Contributing: Nathan Solomon

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• EchoPark, Lime Rock hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: See what crew chiefs have in mind for Sunday night | Read more
• In-Season Challenge: Bracket, format, schedule and more for Round 3 | Read more
• Analysis: Penske in unfamiliar Chase bubble territory | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks for Sunday’s 400-miler under the lights | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: NASCAR to meet with Hill, SVG after Chicagoland | Listen now
• NASCAR Classics: Reminisce with full-race replays from EchoPark | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Will Reddick punch back in the Peach State? | This week’s ranks

Posted on by Dustin Albino

HAMPTON, Ga. – Shane van Gisbergen got his first trip to NASCAR’s principal office on Saturday at EchoPark Speedway, as officials summoned both him and Austin Hill to the NASCAR hauler for a 17-minute meeting following their on-track incident last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.

“I don’t really want to do it again,” van Gisbergen quipped about his maiden visit to the NASCAR hauler.

RELATED: EchoPark lineup | At-track photos

The duo has clashed three times in the last four races, beginning at Pocono Raceway. The following week at Naval Base Coronado, the No. 33 Chevrolet clipped the inside wall and ricocheted into the Trackhouse Racing duo of Connor Zilisch and van Gisbergen, ending both of their races. The two competitors stayed clear of each other at Sonoma Raceway, where van Gisbergen scored his second checkered flag of the season, holding off a mad fury from Chase Briscoe in the waning laps.

It took only 48 laps for van Gisbergen and Hill to clash at Chicagoland, however. The No. 97 Chevrolet got into the rear of Hill’s No 33 car racing through Turns 3 and 4, ending the Richard Childress Racing driver’s evening.

“I was racing hard and the outcome wasn’t what I wanted,” van Gisbergen said of the contact six days later. “I intended to run in there hard and get inside him and it didn’t work out. I definitely didn’t want to wreck a race car and didn’t want it to escalate – I don’t know if it’s a rivalry, but whatever it’s been between us the last three years.

“We never seem to race well together. I don’t want to escalate it, and I’m the one with a lot to lose. It was a weird dynamic in the meeting and a weird way with how it ended.”

Van Gisbergen felt like he was more remorseful of the two drivers in the closed-door meeting. But sitting 14th on The Chase grid, 30 points above the cutline, the New Zealander knows he has more to lose than Hill, who is chasing a championship in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.

“That’s what has always been cool about the sport, you can sort it out yourselves and then it gets to that point,” van Gisbergen stated. “To me, it’s at that point, but to him it’s not. He’s that kind of personality that feels like he’s got to get the last laugh and the last one to strike – and he threatened that, I guess. It is what it is. I will try to race clean and do my own thing, but I guess he’s on his own agenda.”

MORE: Cup Series standings | How SVG/Hill feud got here

Hill doesn’t have an answer for why the duo has tangled a handful of times since the beginning of the 2024 season. In van Gisbergen’s fifth race as a full-time NASCAR competitor at Circuit of The Americas, Hill shoved SVG wide on an overtime restart, moving to the race lead. Van Gisbergen laid the bumper back on the final lap, though Kyle Larson passed both cars to sneak by for the win. The pairing made contact later that season at Sonoma, with SVG pushing Hill off into the dirt. On the cool-down lap, van Gisbergen did an exuberant smoke show around the No. 21 car.

Asked jokingly if Hill was “grunting” during the meeting – a reference to van Gisbergen’s response following last week’s incident in Chicagoland – Hill said the two simply had a conversation.

“NASCAR let us know what we need to do going forward,” he stated. “We’re going to go race and I’m looking forward to it.”

While their driving styles differ in many ways, van Gisbergen believes he and Hill share a similar mentality.

“I’m probably a bit more reserved than him, but I’m aggressive on track, I guess, you are always going to clash with people like that,” van Gisbergen said. “I don’t know, I’m not going to back down or be threatened by someone, but I don’t want to fight anyone, either.”

Respect needs to be earned among the pair of Chevy drivers. They are restarting at Ground Zero this weekend, with van Gisbergen’s focus centered on remaining inside The Chase.

“I’ve got to race with respect and start building that up and try cutting him breaks,” van Gisbergen noted. “If it doesn’t come my way, I don’t know how to fix him. I’m going to try to carry on and race clean, but obviously there is risk these next seven races. I’ve got to get into the top 16, right, and he’s probably going to try to threaten that. That kind of sucks, but it is what it is.”

Van Gisbergen, who placed sixth in the spring at EchoPark, will take the green flag in 12th position for Sunday’s Quaker State 400 (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hill, a drafting merchant in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, will line up 30th.

Posted on by Zack Albert

LAKEVILLE, Conn. — Like a microcosm of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, Kaden Honeycutt and Layne Riggs raced along parallel paths in Saturday’s show at Lime Rock Park. On the plus side, both spent time leading laps, both secured stage wins and both eventually clinched spots in the Chase postseason.

On the negative side is where their parallel paths became all crossed up.

Riggs and Honeycutt kept their 1-2 hold on the Truck Series standings, but their two trucks came together in the wake of a calamitous final-stage restart in Saturday’s LiUNA 150. Honeycutt emerged with the better end of the damage after their off-course excursion in the sweeping first turn, rallying his No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota for a third-place finish. Riggs’ No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford was more severely bashed, and the series points leader limped to a 23rd-place result, the top driver one lap down.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Both expressed frustration after the contact that thwarted their days on Lap 75 of 100, but neither blamed the other. Honeycutt walked over to Riggs’ No. 34 team hauler after a cooling-off period for both, and the two drivers shook hands after a brief discussion that never became heated. The only time it became animated was when the two made racing gestures, motioning about how they had turned the wheel after contact and the trajectory of other cars on the final restart.

“It is what it is,” Honeycutt told NASCAR.com as he helped his crew push his No. 11 Toyota back to the garage. “I know Layne wouldn’t do something like that on purpose, so I’m sure he got hit from the back and it jumbled all of us up there in the front and unfortunately got us wrecked and him wrecked and a bunch of others. So that was definitely unfortunate. But had a great truck, man. Mobil 1, thanks for the support coming aboard this weekend, Safelite, Toyota Racing, Tricon Garage. My whole pit crew is our shop crew, and it was a tough day for them today. I appreciate them sticking with me, and man, it’s battered up and bruised, but it’s good top five. We’ll take it.”

Riggs didn’t have a much clearer view of what had transpired, with his No. 34 part of the aftermath behind a coming-together of Gio Ruggiero and Cole Butcher that sent race leader Stewart Friesen spinning. By the time the chain reaction fully played out, Honeycutt had cut to the inside where Riggs’ truck — under intense pressure and pushing from the rest of the pack — was there to meet him.

“I didn’t see a whole lot,” Riggs told NASCAR.com. “I was in line on the bottom behind the 11. Me and him were going to both drive to the front, and next thing I know, I was jacked up, wrecking him, wrecking the guy in front of him. I need to look at the replay, but I have no clue who ran into me from behind, or even if it wasn’t from two or three rows back, I have no clue. We got back there, then we were just trying to salvage at that point. I thought I had an alternator issue. We were mid-battery change and didn’t get it changed and went a lap down. That’s very unfortunate, and I feel like it could have been avoided. So just kind of frustrating when you’re helpless in the seat.”

Riggs said he felt his conversation with Honeycutt was a productive one.

“I think me and him both feel the same, that we both got run over,” Riggs said. “He knew right away. I was like, ‘Hey, it wasn’t me.’ He said, ‘I know it wasn’t you. I know it was behind you, and you got ran over.’ Just to try to get an understanding of why we can’t get through Turn 1 when we feel like we put ourselves in good spots, trying to be safe and get our way back to the front, we both just get wrecked. So I need to see a replay, see what happened, see who either made a mistake or who was too aggressive when it didn’t need to happen.”

Honeycutt and Riggs were the only leaders through the first two stages, but the strategy tilted after a Lap 51 wreck on the frontstretch prompted a caution period just before the Stage 2 end. A handful of teams — including eventual runner-up Landen Lewis, who was involved in the stack-up — took the opportunity to flip the stage when the front-runners pitted at the intermission.

MORE: Craftsman Truck Series standings

That shift put Honeycutt 10th and Riggs 11th after their stops for service before the start of the final stage, and eventually in the heart of the mishap that curbed their dominance. Honeycutt’s comeback was the more effective of the two, and the 54 points he earned Saturday were second only to the 65-point payday for race winner Grant Enfinger.

“We’ve got to focus forward when things happen and they don’t go our way, and whatever we can do to bounce back and get points out of that, for sure,” Honeycutt said. “So we’ll take it. Unfortunately, it’s not a win, but we’ll go on and finish and go to North Wilkesboro next.”

Saturday was the last of the four road-course races on this year’s Craftsman Truck Series schedule. Riggs had won two of the previous three (St. Petersburg, San Diego), bookending the other — a breakthrough triumph for Honeycutt at Watkins Glen.

Riggs still holds a convincing advantage in the Truck Series standings, but that margin shrank Saturday from a 65-point cushion to 44. He spoke pre-race Friday about a renewed emphasis on minimizing both miscues and bad breaks. Saturday brought some of those bad breaks, snapping Riggs’ five-race streak of top fives, but the 24-year-old driver was eager for a return to North Wilkesboro Speedway next Saturday (12:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) for a potential rebound.

“We’ve still got a pretty good lead right now,” Riggs said. “It’s just frustrating when you definitely are bleeding points when you don’t feel like you have to, or we could have salvaged a top-five day. So that’s very disappointing, but yeah, North Wilkesboro has been a good track to us. We finished third there in ‘24 and finished second there in ‘25, so one spot better, right?”

Posted on by Mike Hembree

HAMPTON, Ga. – Despite their meeting Saturday with NASCAR officials, there appeared little chance that the roiling controversy between drivers Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar is any closer to a resolution.

In fact, quite the opposite.

RELATED: EchoPark lineup | At-track photos

“I just don’t like him,” Smith told reporters after his Saturday qualifying run. It is far from the first time Smith has indicated the two won’t be going bowling together or sharing a bag of peanuts.

Asked about the result of the session with NASCAR officials, Smith said, “I think we both understand where we’re at with everything, but it doesn’t change how much he dislikes me and how much I dislike him.”

Hocevar, interviewed earlier in the day, said he is surprised that the controversy with Smith continues and that he was summoned to meet with officials.

“I’ve never been called to the hauler after getting wrecked,” he said. “It’s funny. It seemed like a racing deal.”

Hocevar was referring to contact between Smith’s car and his during last week’s race at Chicagoland Speedway, the latest incident in a continuing saga featuring the two.

There were no penalties issued by NASCAR during or after the race, but the two were called to meet with series officials at EchoPark, as were Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill, who have their own ongoing set of issues.

Asked if he could race Smith going forward without incident, Hocevar said, “I already did. I’m looking forward to it. I told the guys in the NASCAR hauler, if you expect it to continue, I don’t know if I would have picked this week. We’re going to Atlanta. If we were going to Martinsville or something, yeah, it makes sense. I don’t know if you could wreck anybody intentionally here at Atlanta. It will be hard to do.”

Hocevar said controversy fuels racing. “That’s what drives the sport – passion and clashing,” he said. “It’s good.”

Smith was asked if he could race Hocevar without any trouble resulting. “No,” he said bluntly.

MORE: Smith calls out Hocevar on ‘Racin’ With The Boys’

Asked if he has issues with Hocevar, who has built a reputation as an aggressive driver, because of his racing style or his attitude, Smith said, “It’s both.”

The issues between the drivers have spilled over into social media and have sparked a back-and-forth in website stories and radio/television reports.

“I have no problem with anyone else, and I’m not going to go create the trouble,” Smith said. “I believe in racing people like they race me. But if he brings that to me, we’ll go from there.”

Sunday’s Cup Series race at EchoPark is slated for 7 p.m. ET (TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hocevar qualified 14th while Smith will roll off 34th.

Posted on by Holly Cain

HAMPTON, Ga. – Ryan Blaney claimed his second pole position of the season Saturday evening at Atlanta’s fast, high-banked EchoPark Speedway – leading a Team Penske Ford front-row sweep for Sunday night’s Quaker State 400 (7 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford turned in a lap of 179.912 mph around the 1.54-mile track, besting his teammate Joey Logano’s No. 22 Ford by a slight .016-second in Busch Light Pole Qualifying.

It’s the 32-year-old Blaney’s 14th career pole and marks the first front-row Penske sweep this year. All three Penske machines advanced to Saturday’s 10-car second round after dominating the top of the speed charts in round one. Austin Cindric will roll off eighth in the No. 2 Penske Ford.

The typically low-key Blaney was thrilled with the result, crediting his team for the hard work. However, the 2023 series champion was quick to remind that at a high-speed, drafting track such as EchoPark, he was confident that starting up front doesn’t automatically translate into a trip to Victory Lane.

Toyota, which is enjoying a dominant season in wins, failed to place a single car into the final round of qualifying.

NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Denny Hamlin will roll off 28th in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who trails Hamlin by 44 points in the standings, will start 31st in the No. 45 Toyota. A five-time race winner this year, Reddick won at Atlanta this February.

Gibbs drivers Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell will start 23rd and 32nd. And Reddick’s 23XI teammates Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst are 22nd and 29th on the grid.

RELATED: EchoPark lineup | At-track photos

“I feel like we’ve seen that,’’ Blaney said of the Toyotas qualifying effort. “They don’t really qualify great at these speedways, just the build of their race car. So usually that means they can probably be aggressive in the draft and get in the middle and get to the top and things like that. I’m sure we’re going to see them up there.

“If you look at the spring race here and Toyotas were really, really good when it came race time. Hopefully, our balance in the race is good enough to be able to either maintain the lead or, if we get shuffled back, be able to go forward. You really don’t know that until the race starts.’’

The Chevrolets of Kyle Larson (No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports) and Austin Dillon (No. 3 Richard Childress Racing ) make up row two.

Daniel Suárez will start fifth with the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets of Alex Bowman and defending race winner Chase Elliott, Cindric, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and Brad Keselowski, owner-driver of the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, rounding out the top 10.

The front row start is especially significant for the three-time series champion Logano, who is enduring one of the most challenging seasons of his Hall of Fame-bound career. He’s still not in the top 16 field that will ultimately settle the title in the 10-race Chase. Logano’s ranked 18th, 16 points behind 16th-place Erik Jones.

“The good news is the Hunt Brothers Pizza Mustang is fast and that speed you see in qualifying will usually show up in the race,’’ said Logano, a two-time EchoPark winner. “I’m proud to see the speed that’s there and the handling seemed fine in qualifying.

“I feel like our team can handle these speedways really well and you can remember what happened here last fall [he wrecked after leading laps and winning the pole position], so there’s no guarantee you see the end of it.

“But,’’ he added with a smile, “The speed’s there, and that’s half the battle, so we know we have that.’’

Posted on by Zack Albert

LAKEVILLE, Conn. — Driver Thomas Annunziata was transported to an area medical facility for further evaluation after a fire broke out on his Tricon Garage No. 1 Toyota during Saturday’s Craftsman Truck Series race at Lime Rock Park, NASCAR officials announced. The team announced later Saturday night that he was cleared and released.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Annunziata was running second in Saturday’s LiUNA 150 when flames flew from under the hood of his No. 1 Toyota during a Lap 79 caution period. He stopped his truck in the grass near the pit entrance, and he exited under his own power before the AMR Safety Team arrived to assist him.

NASCAR competition officials confirmed the 21-year-old remained awake and alert.

Tricon No. 1 crew chief Jerame Donley said post-race that the team would conduct a thorough investigation into what sparked the issue, saying that an initial inspection in the garage failed to show a definitive root cause.

“We honestly don’t know,” Donley told NASCAR.com. “It’s kind of chicken or the egg. There’s a lot of stuff that’s melted under there, a lot of stuff got hot. We’ll get back to the shop and try to dissect it and figure out what happened. Obviously, there’s been some alternator issues throughout the field. We had one at San Diego. I think the 34 (Front Row Motorsports team) had a couple issues today. The 9 (of race winner Grant Enfinger) had an issue. Just seems like maybe there’s some issues going on that we don’t know about yet, and we’ve got to get back to the shop and dissect it. So unfortunately, don’t have the short, quick answer right now.”

Annunziata was making just the second start of his Craftsman Truck Series career, and both efforts have come at the 1.478-mile circuit. He was a winner in Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race at Lime Rock for the second consecutive year.

Annunziata had been a solid top-five runner throughout the 100-lap race’s first half, but his No. 1 truck caught some damage in a Lap 51 restart melee. After a shift in strategy, Annunziata regained his lost ground and challenged late-race leader Gio Ruggiero for the top spot before he was sidelined.

Annunziata ranks second in the ARCA Menards Series standings, and though his experience in NASCAR’s national tours is limited — 18 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starts, plus the pair of Truck Series efforts here — Annunziata was making the most of his opportunity, Donley said.

“It looked like we were probably going to be in a pretty good spot racing Gio, and I felt like we had a better truck than Gio if we could just be patient and execute and not drive over our heads,” Donley said. “I thought we had a really good shot at it. Our road-course program has been really good this year. Unfortunately, we’ve got three 29th-place finishes and nothing really to show for it. But Thomas did a really good job, and I thought he did a really good job yesterday and had a lot of momentum coming into today. He’s got a lot of laps around this place. He’s probably the most comfortable here, and I thought we were going to be in a good spot, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t meant to be today.”

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Holly Cain

Veteran Grant Enfinger took the lead on a late-race restart and held off a hard-charging Landen Lewis to return to NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Victory Lane for the first time in more than a season — earning his first career road-course win Saturday afternoon in the LiUNA 150 at Connecticut’s historic Lime Rock Park.

Enfinger, who lined up alongside Gio Ruggiero for a restart with three laps remaining, got the jump at the green flag and then held off Lewis — who was racing for his first career series win. It was a fittingly exhilarating way to close out the race, which included an 18-minute red flag and thrilling door-to-door competition particularly in the closing laps.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: EchoPark, Lime Rock

Enfinger’s No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet crossed the line 0.483 seconds ahead of Lewis’ Niece Motorsports entry.

“I feel like we had some things play into our hands,’’ Enfinger said, noting of the day’s strongest cars, “I don’t think we had anything for the 11 [Kaden Honeycutt] or the 34 [Layne Riggs] straight up.”

Of the final restart, Enfinger said he was happy to get the edge out front on then-leader Ruggiero at the drop of the green. He had considered taking the preferable position outside but opted to start alongside Ruggiero on the front row and race for the lead that way. The victory marked his 13th career win.

“I wanted to beat him straight up on the outside,’’ Enfinger added. “A lot went into that decision, but I didn’t want to go in there and purposefully take him out of the way for the win. I feel like we beat him on the launch. And I think we had a better car.

“Just an amazing job with this Chevrolet. … I think this is only my second top 10 at a road course. We have had road-course trucks this year, but I think today we were a solid top-five truck and the seas parted and the good Lord blessed us today and we were able to come home for a win.’’

Championship contender Honeycutt claimed third place after a remarkable drive back through the field. The Tricon Garage Toyota driver had dropped to 24th position with 28 laps to go after being involved in a multitruck accident late in the race.

Popular driver and television analyst Parker Kligerman — a part-owner of Lime Rock — finished fourth in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. Christian Eckes was fifth in the No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevrolet.

Honeycutt’s finish to the day came after he won Stage 2 and kept polesitter and the series championship points leader Riggs honest for the majority of the race. Riggs led the first 34 laps, with one or the other leading through the opening 62 laps of the 100-lap event. Riggs won Stage 1 and Honeycutt won Stage 2.

And then the chaos set in. Four caution flags — and the red flag — came out in the closing 40 laps.

Varying pit strategies shook up the front of the field, relegating Riggs and Honeycutt to play catch-up following the Stage 2 break at Lap 60. The two who have dominated the championship standings for the last two months collided while trying to race through the field.

The damage to Riggs’ No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford proved to be too much for him to contend for the win. His 48 laps out front were the most on the afternoon, but he ended up 23rd, the first driver a lap down.

He retained the championship lead, however, and is now 44 points up on Honeycutt with four races remaining to settle the Regular-Season Championship. Both officially clinched spots in The Chase on Saturday.

Enfinger’s victory was crucial in that it moved him inside the championship top 10 that will ultimately advance to The Chase. He’s now ninth in points, 25 points up on 10th-place Tyler Ankrum. Stewart Friesen and Jake Garcia are tied, 17 points behind Ankrum.

MORE: Truck Series standings

Daniel Hemric, Andrés Pérez, Tanner Gray, Friesen and Colin Braun – an IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship full-timer – rounded out the top 10 Saturday.

Thomas Annunziata, who ran up front all day after winning the ARCA Menards Series race at Lime Rock on Friday, ended up sidelined in the most dramatic incident of the day. He pulled off track with his No. 1 truck in flames while running second with 22 laps to go.

Annunziata climbed out of his No. 1 Toyota quickly and bent over to catch his breath next to a track wall. He was transported to a local medical facility for further evaluation. He finished 29th.

The Craftsman Truck Series returns to competition next week with Saturday’s FaithFest 250 (12:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway. Front Row’s Chandler Smith is the defending race winner.

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