Austin Cindric A Bit Of A Wildcard At Darlington

Austin Cindric and his Team Penske car qualified sixth for the Cook Out Southern 500. With most mindful that overtime is pretty rare for this event (last time in 2014). Cindric and his Ford will be looking at that long run near the end. After some good practice where his car maintained top ten speed […]

Kyle Busch Starts Playoff Chase Fifth At Darlington

Kyle Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing car turned in a nice qualifying performance on Saturday. As a result, his No. 18 starts fifth for the Cook Out Southern 500. Busch led 19 laps of the Spring race before an accident ended his race. He had been in the top-five after Stage 1. Before two […]

Tyler Reddick Looks To Get Off To Good Playoff Start

Tyler Reddick and his Richard Childress Racing car has strategic points of strength in every segment of this year's playoff chase. Darlington may not be the best of tracks but Reddick did his Chevy into the fourth spot starting Sunday's Cook Out Southern 500. The No. 8 car has just two top-tens in his last […]

William Byron Starts In Third On Sunday At Darlington

William Byron leads Hendrick Motorsports Racing into Sunday's race at Darlington Raceway. Byron will start third after finishing a mere 0.058 seconds off the pole. The really odd thing here is that Hendrick has not won a race here in three years. Team Penske has one win and Stewart-Haas has the other two. That does […]

Christopher Bell Leads Toyota Into Cook Out Southern 500

Christopher Bell lead the Toyota cars in qualifying by making the final round with a time just 0.009 seconds off the pole set from Joey Logano. Now, the question is can the No. 20 car from Joe Gibbs run well at Darlington? Joe Gibbs Racing cars have won a series-leading four times since 2019 on […]

Joey Logano Snags Pole For Cook Out Southern 500

Joey Logano and his Team Penske car snagged the pole position for Sunday evening's race at Darlington. Logano won the Spring race in may while leading 107 laps. Could this be a bit of deja-vu? Anything is possible and the Ford was quite fast in qualifying and in practice laps. The only concern may be […]

Ryan Blaney Looks For Win One At Daytona

Ryan Blaney still has not won a race this season. It seems hard to believe but the Team Penske driver has done everything but win. That being said, the No. 12 Ford starts 16th which is not an issue. Blaney does have three top-fives, four top-tens, and a win in his last seven Daytona appearances. […]

Austin Cindric In New Territory On Saturday Night

Austin Cindric has experienced the highest of highs at Daytona as he won the Daytona 500 this year. He runs very well on the 2.5-mile track. In 2021, he was running close to the front before an accident ruined his day. Cindric still finished 15th after starting 39th. However, the Team Penske driver has never […]

Martin Truex Jr. On Points Watch For Daytona

Martin Truex Jr. (starts 13th) got a bit of a boost when Kurt Busch was announced that he would be out of the playoffs. However, that race is far from over as Daytona beckons for the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing driver. If there are no new winners, Truex Jr. clinches a playoff spot. If […]

Ross Chastain Begins 12th At Daytona On Saturday

Ross Chastain did not have to qualify at Daytona this weekend and that probably helps. The TrackHouse Racing driver has had some issues lately. The No. 1 driver's last top ten was an eighth at New Hampshire. Since then, it has been a mix of DNF's, car issues, and worse. He does tend to like […]

Erik Jones Could Struggle At Daytona

Erik Jones probably did not want to see Daytona on the schedule now. He finished 29th at the Daytona 500 to start the season and often has run into some bad luck with car issues and wrecks on the 2.5-mile track. The Petty GMS Motorsports driver is right on the bad side of the bubble […]

Alex Bowman Rounds Out Top Ten For Daytona

Alex Bowman does have two top tens in his last seven races at Daytona. However, more often than not, it has been a bit of a struggle. The Hendrick Motorsports Racing driver has had some issues lately. The No. 48 car has not cracked the top five since way back at Dover. His last top […]

Michael McDowell Starts Ninth At Daytona

Michael McDowell's greatest moment of triumph was on this very track. He won the 2021 Daytona 500 by leading the lap that mattered. However, the Front Row Motorsports driver does tend to perform well on the 2.5-mile course. He did finish seventh in this year's Daytona 500. That goes along with top-tens at Darlington and […]

Chris Buescher Has One Last Shot At Daytona

Chris, or Christopher, Buescher has one last shot at Daytona to make the playoffs. This goes for several drivers obviously. However, Buescher will begin eighth on Saturday night with a bit of success historically on courses like this superspeedway. The RFK Racing driver is in better form too with three top-tens in his last four […]

Kevin Harvick In Seventh Heaven As Playoff Chase Beckons

Kevin Harvick and his Stewart-Haas Racing Ford went from missing the playoffs to two wins in the span of a couple weeks. The No. 4 car will be inside Row 4 for the Coke Sugar Zero 400 (seventh). Harvick managed to stay around the top-ten recently at Atlanta which could help some at Daytona. Though […]

Tyler Reddick Looks To Bounce Back At Daytona

Tyler Reddick has been great on road courses lately but the Richard Childress Racing driver has been less so elsewhere. He has the two wins at Indianapolis and Road America plus a seventh at Watkins Glen. However, a spattering of outside top-20 results on courses with only right turns is a little concerning. Other than […]

Christopher Bell Begins Fifth At Daytona Saturday

Christopher Bell has been one of the most consistent drivers from Joe Gibbs Racing all season. On Saturday night, he starts the Coke Zero Sugar 400 from the fifth position. Bell and his No. 20 car have just one win on the season but 14 top-ten results along with seven top-fives. Bell has five top-12 […]

Daniel Suarez Gets Boosted To Fourth For Daytona

Daniel Suarez, and not Ross Chastain, will be the highest placed TrackHouse Racing driver to start the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Saturday night. Suarez and his No. 99 car will start fourth based on a NASCAR formula that emphasized recent results. Qualifying just was never in the cards after waves of thunderstorms on Friday. […]

Joey Logano Begins Daytona Third On Saturday

Saturday nights are meant for racing and Joey Logano knows this well. The Team Penske driver hopes to snag win number three on the season at Daytona. He begins third and unlike previous years with "restrictor plate" racing, the Next-Gen car is a bit different. Keep the car on the track is more of a […]

Chase Elliott Starts Outside Row One Saturday

Chase Elliott gets a nice boost starting second for Saturday's Coke Zero Sugar 400 from Daytona. The Hendrick Motorsports Racing driver got nudged off line narrowly by Kyle Larson just missing out on a win at Watkins Glen. The good news is that he still finished fourth. Elliott has produced points consistently all year with […]

Kyle Larson Wins Pole For Daytona Without Driving

Kyle Larson wins the pole for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Saturday night without practice or qualifying. Thunderstorms washed out the ability to do much of anything on Friday. Based on a formula that placed emphasis on last week's race results, Hendrick Motorsports benefitted quite well. The 1st, 2nd, and 10th place cars are […]

Kyle Busch Qualifies 10th At Watkins Glen

Kyle Busch had the only Toyota to qualify for the last round of qualifying. He ended up tenth suffering from engine issues which seemed to be a theme. Toyota had just two cars in the top-20 (Ty Gibbs - 16th). The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has had a "hard as hell" year and the lack […]

Daniel Suarez Begins Ninth At Watkins Glen

Daniel Suarez got to the final round of qualifying and looked like his TrackHouse Racing car could wind up in the top five. That did not materialize as Suarez fell more than a second off the pace of Kyle Larson. Suarez's No. 99 car started slow and never truly recovered bleeding time on every turn. […]

Austin Cindric Fades A Bit Late In Qualifying Saturday

Austin Cindric faded a little later in his qualifying lap on Saturday as he lost even more time compared to Chris Buescher. The Team Penske driver and his No. 2 car dropped six to seven tenths of a second over the final four turns. It felt like he was a little late particularly in turns […]

Chris Buescher Starts Seventh At Watkins Glen

For now, we will still call him Chris Buescher (sorry Dale Jr.). That being said, the Ford driver begins seventh but did drop about a half second on the second half of his qualifying lap Saturday. That was a bit disappointing because it looked like he might end up on Row 1 at first. Buescher […]

AJ Allmendinger Can Be A Ringer At Watkins Glen

One of the real wild cards for the race at Watkins Glen may just be AJ Allmendinger. The No. 16 Chevy driver from Kaulig Racing starts sixth and again the racers from the top six positions often have the best chance to win over the past decade or so at The Glen. That said, Allmendinger […]

Tyler Reddick Right Where He Wants To Be

Tyler Reddick has won two road courses this year. He finished tenth in his only appearance at Watkins Glen last year. With a faster race car on courses with left and right turns, Reddick has been even more formidable. He won at Indianapolis while leading 38 laps. Reddick is capable of holding most anyone off […]

William Byron Steams Into Fourth In Qualifying

Putting aside what happened later on Saturday, William Byron's No. 24 looked great in qualifying for Watkins Glen. He will start fourth for the Go Bowling at The Glen and could be a major factor in a race in what feels like months. The Hendrick Motorsports Racing driver does have four top-12 results in his […]

Michael McDowell Blazing His Own Trail In Qualifying

Michael McDowell with the Next-Gen car on road courses has been surprisingly good. Lately, he has run well at quite a few tracks. McDowell and his Front Row Motorsports car surprised the field and pundits by qualifying third for the Go Bowling at The Glen. McDowell was a bit slow in the practice session some […]

Kyle Larson Nearly Takes Pole At Watkins Glen

Kyle Larson's car looked as fast as it has in months on Saturday as he qualified second for the Go Bowling at The Glen. His 70.516 second lap probably would have been good enough for the pole if not for Elliott. It was quite the day for Hendrick Motorsports as the top three cars would […]