Dell Sports – Nascar News

While he sits fifth in the Cup Series standings, there's been a noticeable lack of race-winning speed from the No. 9 team. With a 36-race winless streak currently on his back, here are the tracks on the schedule in the near future where Elliott could break through and snap the drought.

--Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday

Elliott has turned into one of the best superspeedway racers in the field in recent years, which is reflected by his numbers at Talladega. Elliott is a two-time Talladega winner (spring 2019, fall 2022) and has eight top-10 finishes at the 2.66-mile track in 18 starts. A 14.6 average finish at a track as chaotic as Talladega is quite the accomplishment, and Elliott hasn't crashed out of a race at Talladega since 2020. He has led laps in his last five races there, and a drafting-style race could be what the Hendrick Motorsports driver needs to find his winning mojo again.

--Texas Motor Speedway, May 4

Texas was the site of Elliott's last Cup Series win as well as his first Nationwide (now Xfinity) Series win in 2014. It's also been one of his better tracks throughout his Cup Series career. Over his first seven races at TMS, Elliott finished no worse than 13th. While the 1.5-mile venue hasn't necessarily been kind to Elliott in recent years in terms of results, the Next-Gen car has seen Elliott turn into a consistent front runner again at Texas. He led 44 laps in 2022 before crashing and finishing 32nd, finished 11th in 2023 and won in 2024 after leading 39 laps. Elliott may not be the odds-on favorite to win at Texas, but it would be surprising if he's not at least in contention for a top-five finish.

--Nashville Superspeedway, June 1

In the four Cup Series races held at Nashville, Elliott has two top-five finishes, including a win at the 1.33-mile track in 2022. He finished fourth at Nashville in 2023, and while his other finishes -- 18th in 2024 and 39th in 2021 after a disqualification -- are underwhelming, Elliott has shown lots of promise at a track most of the Cup Series field is still trying to figure out. If he is still winless when NASCAR hits its summer stretch, Nashville could be just the place for the sport's most popular driver to break through as the dog days of summer approach.

--Atlanta Motor Speedway, June 28

As previously mentioned, Elliott has become one of the best superspeedway racers in the field, an invaluable attribute at the reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway. In the six races Elliott has run at the reconfigured 1.5-mile track -- he missed Atlanta's first date in 2023 due to a leg injury -- he hasn't finished worse than 20th. He won at Atlanta in July of 2022, and led 125 laps at the track between the two races held there that year. He only has one top-10 over the last four Atlanta races, but he has been able to bring his car home in one piece, which is the first step to winning a superspeedway race. Add in extra motivation due to Atlanta being Elliott's home track, and you have a storybook win waiting to happen should he still be on the schneid when the Cup Series rolls into the Peach State this summer.

The candidates for the class of 2026 include 10 on the modern era ballot: Busch, LaJoie, Greg Biffle, Neil Bonnett, Tim Brewer, Jeff Burton, Randy Dorton, Harry Gant, Harry Hyde and Jack Sprague.

Busch, 46, won the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2004, the first year the circuit went to a 10-race playoff format when it was called the Chase. The Las Vegas native won 34 times in 776 starts in his 23-year Cup Series career, including the Daytona 500 in 2017. He also captured 28 poles and won multiple races in Xfinity and Truck Series competition.

LaJoie, 63, scored two championships in what is now called the Xfinity Series in 1996 and 1997 and registered 15 wins and nine poles over a 350-start career. LaJoie, the champion of the former Busch North Series in 1985, was also an innovator in the world of motorsports safety through his long-running racing-seat company.

Busch and LaJoie were voted to the greatest drivers list in 2023.

Title-winning crew chief Jake Elder, who was on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2021, makes a return appearance on the pioneer ballot for the five nominees whose careers began 60 years ago or more. Also up for consideration from last year's vote are Ray Hendrick, Banjo Matthews, Larry Phillips and Bob Welborn.

Longtime Charlotte Motor Speedway promoter H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, 86, is nominated for the Landmark Award for outstanding contributions to NASCAR. The other nominees are Alvin Hawkins, Lesa France Kennedy, Dr. Joseph Mattioli and Les Richter.

A voting panel will convene on May 20 in Charlotte, N.C., with fan voting open until May 18 at noon ET. The collective ballot from fans voting online will count as one vote along with the panel's results.

In the ninth race of 2025, Larson started third and dominated the field after swiping the lead from polesitter Alex Bowman on Lap 40.

He beat Denny Hamlin, seeking a third straight win, by 2.25 seconds for his second victory of 2025 and 31st overall.

Larson led 462 laps last September to win the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol.

The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver won for the third time at BMS, all occurring in the past six races, in a race that featured just three cautions and one multi-car incident -- Shane van Gisbergen and Cody Ware tangling within the first 200 laps.

Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney comprised the top five.

Xfinity Series racer Jesse Love made his Cup debut in Richard Childress Racing's No. 33 Chevrolet. The Californian qualified 19th and finished 31st.

Bowman paced the first 39 times around the 0.533-mile speedway, but Larson, who won Saturday's Xfinity race, roared past his teammate and pulled away. Meanwhile, Hamlin moved up to second in a fast Stage 1.

Larson won the 125-lap segment, but it took a hard battle with Ryan Preece's No. 60 -- the final car on the lead lap -- to get to the checkers, leaving just 23 cars on the same lap with Larson. Hamlin, Justin Haley, Bowman and Carson Hocevar completed positions second to fifth, respectively.

van Gisbergen got into Ware for the second caution, but the mishaps continued on pit road. While leaving his pit, John Hunter Nemechek's No. 42 lost a tire, which traveled down and struck Daniel Suarez's No. 99 during service, and Suarez's crew let an old tire roll into the pit in front of them. Both teams received penalties.

Larson had them covered again on Lap 250 as Stage 2 ended, with Bowman, Christopher Bell, Hocevar and Hamlin getting chunks of bonus points.

Concern grew in the Hendrick Motorsports camp when Bowman's No. 48 began billowing blue smoke around Lap 300. He retired it on Lap 352 and finished 37th.

Well, not quite all. Bowman also had to turn a blistering lap in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet during Saturday's time trials at the 0.533-mile short track, and he did just that.

Bowman covered the distance in 14.912 seconds (128.675 mph) -- the fastest lap ever run at Bristol in the NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen car. That was good enough to hold off fellow Chevrolet driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (128.563 mph) by 0.013 seconds to secure the top starting spot for the ninth Cup Series race of the season.

It wasn't just the Busch Light Pole Award that had Bowman salivating. Extensive tire wear in the practice session that preceded qualifying compared to last year's spring event in Thunder Valley, where tire fall-off was a crucial aspect of the competition.

"I think we're all much more prepared than we were last spring," said Bowman, who ran his lap under favorable cloud cover -- with the sun coming out shortly after his qualifying attempt and warming the track slightly on an otherwise chilly day.

"I'm excited for a tire management race. It's going to be a lot of fun. We'll see what we've got," he added.

"We started practice with rubber already on the track from the Xfinity cars, peeled it right up and sawed the tires right off. Yeah, confusing why we're doing it again when we didn't do it in the fall.

"It's going to be warmer tomorrow. Maybe that changes it. It's really difficult to say. I think it's going to be like that (the spring race), but we'll find out together, I think."

Kyle Larson (128.511 mph) qualified third, after winning the pole position for Saturday's Xfinity Series race earlier in the day. Denny Hamlin, winner of the last two Cup events, was fourth in the fastest Toyota at 128.460 mph, and Ryan Blaney topped all other Ford drivers with a fifth-place qualifying lap at 128.305 mph.

In seven of the last eight Cup races at Bristol, the winner has come from the top five spots on the starting grid -- two from the pole and two from the second starting position.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell claimed the sixth and seventh starting spots, with AJ Allmendinger, Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley claiming eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively.

Kyle Busch was 15th fastest in qualifying, but he spun off Turn 4 on his second lap and flat-spotted his tires. Joey Logano, who qualified immediately after Busch, broke loose off Turn 2 and smacked the outside wall with the right rear of his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Logano will start 38th on Sunday.

Xfinity Series regular Jesse Love qualified 19th for his Cup Series debut on Sunday in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Hyak Motorsports' Ricky Stenhouse Jr. topped the leaderboard in practice at 128.082 mph ahead of Team Penske drivers Blaney (127.571 mph) and Austin Cindric (127.140 mph).

Larson (126.737 mph) and Chase Elliott (126.520 mph) rounded out the top five for Hendrick Motorsports.

Brad Keselowski (126.495 mph), Hamlin (126.461 mph), Busch (126.337 mph), John Hunter Nemechek (126.187 mph) and Bowman (126.121 mph) completed the top 10.

Christopher Bell's three wins in a row at Atlanta, Circuit of the Americas and Phoenix Raceway may lighten the impact of what Hamlin could accomplish in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, but make no mistake, winning three NASCAR races in a row is no small feat. If Hamlin crosses the line first, it would be his third consecutive win after he collected victories at Martinsville Speedway (March 30) and Darlington Raceway (April 6).

Bristol is the perfect venue for Hamlin to go for his third win in a row. In the four Next-Gen races held at "Thunder Valley," Hamlin hasn't finished worse than ninth. That four-race stretch includes wins in the 2023 Bristol night race and the 2024 Food City 500.

His finishes at Bristol before the current era vary on a wider scale, but there's no denying that Bristol has been Hamlin's playground with the Next-Gen car.

Hamlin has no short list of rivals threatening to end his winning streak at two.

Kyle Larson hasn't finished worse than fifth at Bristol in the Next-Gen era. The winner of the 2024 Bristol night race is seeking history of his own this weekend, as he looks to be the first driver other than Kyle Busch to complete a triple sweep and win all three NASCAR races on a given weekend.

Hamlin won't win a third consecutive race without competition from the last driver to win three in a row. Bell hasn't finished worse than 10th in the four Bristol races with the Next-Gen car, and in eight races this season, he has five top-five finishes. After an uncharacteristically poor two-race stretch at Las Vegas and Homestead (12th, 29th), the No. 20 team bounced back with top-five finishes at Martinsville and Darlington.

Comparing Hamlin's potential streak to Bell's and the drivers that have won three in a row before them provides more context to Hamlin's own run. In 2021, Larson won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, Sonoma and Nashville consecutively. Before Bell, he was the last driver to win three races in a row, and nearly made it four at Pocono before a flat tire on the final lap gave the win to Alex Bowman.

In 2018, Brad Keselowski won the Southern 500 at Darlington, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis and the Cup Series playoff opener at Las Vegas consecutively. Like the drivers that won three in a row after him, Keselowski found his three wins at three very different racetracks.

The bottom line? It's hard to win three NASCAR Cup Series races in a row, especially in a modern era where the variety of the schedule puts different disciplines of racing on tap constantly. Only the best drivers can accomplish such a feat.

Just take a look at those who came before Keselowski, Larson and Bell. Jimmie Johnson won four Chase races in a row in 2007 en route to his second consecutive championship, while Mark Martin won four in a row in the summer of 1993. In 1992, Bill Elliott won four of the first five races of the season before ultimately falling just shy of the 1992 championship.

Hamlin's resume and legacy already rival those whose feat he will try to match inside the "Last Great Colosseum" on Sunday, but winning three races in a row would just be another accolade on a long list of them for a man who is currently the best driver in NASCAR history to never win a Cup Series title.

That's right: The drivers are leaving one tire-munching track for another.

It's a real shame that Rockingham Speedway isn't next week's stop after Bristol because that would be a Mount Rushmore of rubber-chewing and rubber-spewing racing surfaces.

Of Darlington and Rockingham, former driver Ken Schrader was once asked how often a pit crew should change tires at the two gritty tracks. In typical Schrader fashion, he joked that teams should bolt on four new Goodyears after just pushing the car from the garage to pit road.

Those are three demanding, abrasive tracks where tire wear and tire management become major factors in either winning a race or letting a victory slip away like William Byron did last week, though that was largely a pit strategy snafu.

Byron's team frittered around and found out that passing in dirty air is not easy in the Next Gen car, though the No. 12 Ford manned by Ryan Blaney had no problem picking them off and would have likely won if not for Kyle Larson's spin off Turn 2 with four laps left for the final caution flag.

That came off the front nose of Bubba Wallace's No. 23 Toyota, but race data showed Larson checked up way too aggressively off the turn after he saw Wallace's teammate Tyler Reddick make hard impact with the wall.

Still, Larson's overreaction and the No. 11 crew's super-fast pit stop were enough to help Hamlin, the defending spring race winner at Bristol, score back-to-back victories.

This week should be a venture into the wild unknown for everyone because the tire-management race Hamlin won last March was due to Goodyear's tires showing cords after about 45 laps on the high-banked, half-mile bullring. There was dire concern that Goodyear would run out of tires.

NASCAR decided to go with the same tires it had used the previous fall in 2023, but 15-degree cooler temperatures in the mountainous region created a buildup of rubber marbles as the track lost grip.

To no surprise, the three most-seasoned veterans who faced many tire-heat cycles as younger short-trackers -- Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski -- occupied the top three spots and demonstrated their skill in tire maintenance.

It was one of 2024's best races, pitting older drivers using decades of experience against hard-charging hotshots who can blaze a single circuit around any track.

In all, the 500-lapper featured a series-record 54 lead changes on a short track, 3,589 passes under green (8.9 per green-flag lap) and just five drivers on the lead lap, the fewest since June 2004 at Dover.

Sunday's temperatures are supposed to be in the low- to mid-60s.

Larson, the speedway's most recent winner, did everything right last September by leading 462 laps, the most ever by a Hendrick Motorsports driver in a single race.

"To me, it's the closest style to a dirt sprint car race although it's a lot longer still," said Larson. "Just the intensity, the aggression, the fast-paced style of that race, I'm comfortable with."

His team members will hope to hit on the right setup, car balance and pit work again on the No. 5 Chevrolet.

But they will keep a keen eye on tires while they are at it.

In the appeal, NASCAR contends that 23XI and Front Row sought and received injunctions binding them to the 2024 charter agreement despite contending that the charter violates antitrust law.

NASCAR asserted that U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell misapplied antitrust laws and portrayed the release of claims as standard business practice, not anti-competitive conduct. NASCAR argued that businesses, per case law, have a right to choose the terms and conditions of their agreements and that it's the teams' choice to accept or decline those terms.

Per the appeal, NASCAR went on defend exclusivity agreements with racetracks and limited non-compete clauses, emphasizing their importance in cost control and consistency for race operations and media rights.

NASCAR presented 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports as investments by entrepreneurs such as Jordan, contrasting them with antitrust cases involving athletes restricted by monopolistic environments.

In the appeal, NASCAR explained its competitiveness in attracting capital, fans and owners, citing high turnover and the need for continual investment.

Meanwhile, 23XI and Front Row in court filings have maintained that NASCAR's business practices are monopolistic and anticompetitive and deny teams a fair shake.

Following pit service after Kyle Larson wrecked with four laps to go, Hamlin's crew turned in a 9.4-second pit stop to lock in the top spot in the green-white-checker run.

The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota quickly moved away and saw the lead grow as William Byron, Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick ran three-wide for second while Hamlin came to the white flag.

Posting his 56th career win and fifth at Darlington, Hamlin beat Byron by 0.597 seconds while leading just 10 laps.

Byron dominated by leading the first 243 laps but was shuffled back to third with 50 to go after pitting four laps later than Bell and Reddick, who were third and fourth respectively.

Fifth-place finisher Ryan Blaney appeared headed to victory in the final laps until Larson's crash with four to go.

On Lap 4, Larson lost control of his No. 5 Chevrolet off Turn 2 all by himself and smacked the inside wall, getting significant damage on the race's first caution.

Byron's Chevrolet set a hot pace as the field behind him fought the difficult track. With eight laps to go in the segment while Byron was lapping Carson Hocevar's No. 77 Chevrolet off Turn 4, Riley Herbst's No. 35 Toyota turned Hocevar, who had brought out the second caution on Lap 24, to force the third yellow session.

In a two-lap sprint to finish Stage 1, Byron held off Bubba Wallace and Ryan Preece to snare the maximum bonus points, become the first driver since stage-racing's inception to lead every lap in a segment at Darlington.

Byron continued his dominance and was again the best car in Stage 2, as he beat Joey Logano and Hamlin in the 100-circuit segment.

Reddick pitted four laps ahead of Byron with 50 to go to swipe the lead from him on fresher tires, but Blaney erased Reddick's six-second lead with four laps to go before Larson's late mishap.

Byron's lap of 170.904 mph around the iconic 1.366-mile oval set fast lap early in Busch Light Pole Qualifying on Saturday afternoon and set up a front row that will also include Ryan Preece in the No. 60 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford -- Preece's best start since winning his only career pole position at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in Spring, 2023.

It's the 15th pole position of the 27-year old Byron's eight-year career, his second of the season (also Phoenix in March) and second at the notoriously tough Darlington track.

"I felt good about it today, felt like we had a good plan going into practice and that we are always strong here,'' said this year's Daytona 500 winner Byron, who won at Darlington in 2023 and said it may well be his "best track."

"Tried to find a decent balance there, worked on it and got better and finished practice pretty strong so I felt like I had some confidence going into practice. Was just nervous going early. Having an earlier draw was not ideal, but it seemed like the track temp was going up so it wasn't the worst thing. ... Proud of our team, we had a really good week of prep.''

Although Chevy and Ford split the front row. Toyotas filled out the rest of the top-five on the grid. Last week's Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin -- Darlington's winningest active driver (four wins) -- was third fastest in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. His teammate, Daytona 500 polesitter Chase Briscoe, was fourth quickest in the No. 19 JGR Toyota followed by 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace, who will roll off fifth in the No. 23 Toyota that Hamlin co-owns.

Austin Cindric will start sixth in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, followed by 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick (Toyota), Richard Childress Racing's Kyle Busch (Chevrolet), Penske's Ryan Blaney (Ford) and Spire Motorsports' Michael McDowell (Chevrolet).

Although the Hendrick team is ranked first, second (Kyle Larson), third (Chase Elliott) and fifth (Alex Bowman) in the championship points, his teammates did not fare as well in Saturday's time trials. Elliott will start 19th. Larson, who won at Darlington in 2023 will start 19th and Bowman will roll off 33rd.

"It may be tricky strategy-wise and you can get stuck back there, so (qualifying) matters maybe just a tick more than other places," Byron said, noting of his teammates, "These cars are really finicky so hitting the balance and just hitting the lap the way you want it to be can be really difficult. So I'm not surprised because there's a lot of parity in the Next Gen era and especially in qualifying so you can be just that little bit off.

"I feel like our team has really good notes from qualifying though and that will really help.''

Defending race winner Brad Keselowski, co-owner and driver of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing's No. 6 Ford will start 20th.

NASCAR HOLDS COMPETITION MEETING WITH XFINITY SERIES DRIVERS

*NASCAR officials met with the entire field of Xfinity Series drivers early Friday morning before any track activity at Darlington Raceway - a meeting triggered by an especially aggressive showing for the series at the Martinsville (Va.) Speedway short track a week ago - a race so chaotic that Chase Elliott - a former Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series champ - called it "embarrassing" for the sport.

Although aggressive moves characterized much of the second half of the race, a big wreck on the final lap started up front with then leaders -- Joe Gibbs Racing's Taylor Gray and JR Motorsports' Sammy Smith -- precipitated some angry confrontations post-race. Gray (off track) and Smith (on track) were both penalized for their actions.

Veteran Austin Hill was the big beneficiary of the on-track situation between the two, driving through the melee up front to claim his second win of the year - credited with only leading that last lap. Hill shared that the meeting went well and that he expects his fellow drivers to be more mindful of the way they race going forward, calling NASCAR very "firm" in its morning message.

"I think it's going to calm down a lot more than you think today," Hill said of Saturday afternoon's Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington. "We'll have to wait and see but I think we're all going to still be aggressive and trying to win the race but it's going to be a very respectful race."

The series' next trip to Martinsville in late October determines which four Playoff drivers advance to the Championship 4 with a shot to win the 2025 title.

"NASCAR made it very clear they don't want to be in the ball-and-strike business, they don't want to be making all these calls so they said for us to help them with that,'' Hill said. "They (NASCAR) also said if they have to step in and start making calls and black-flagging people and parking people and all those things, they'll do it. I agree with where NASCAR stands with that but I also think we in the Xfinity Series need to do a better job going forward and not putting it in NASCAR's hands.''

KESELOWSKI OPTIMISTIC DESPITE CHALLENGING EARLY SEASON

*The last Spring weekend Brad Keselowski spent in Darlington, S.C., he left South Carolina with a big trophy. It was the first victory the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion had earned as co-team owner at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. As importantly it marked a highlight in a challenging new role as owner and driver.

Darlington, in particular, has been a recent highlight reel for Keselowski whose average finish (6.4) in the last five races in best in the field. He has plenty of reason to be optimistic about this Spring run of races -- at Darlington, Bristol, Tenn., and Talladega, Ala. -- venues where he is a multi-time winner.

He comes to South Carolina without a single lap led and is still looking to claim his first top-10 finish of the eight-race season. His best showing in the No. 6 RFK Ford is 11th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He's finished 26th in the two races (at Homestead,Fla. and Martinsville, Va.) leading into Darlington.

"I feel like we're doing all the right things and get to where we need to be, we just haven't gotten the results,'' said Keselowski, who qualified 20th for Sunday's race, "We haven't qualified as well as we liked to have.

"In the race we haven't been able to put together for a number of reasons some of it in our control, a lot of it not in our control, so it's been frustrating. But kind of have the feeling we're getting the bad luck out of the way early in the season, that's kind of the overwhelming sentiment and if we stay the course, it will come back to us.''

VETERANS HAVE THE DARLINGTON EDGE

*Darlington Raceway is known as the track "Too Tough to Tame" -- and perhaps too that end, its long and distinguished list of winners includes a noticeable group of veterans. Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin leads all active drivers with four victories, another four runner-up finishes and also bests the grid in top-fives (13), top-10s (18) and overall average finish (8.2).

NASCAR Hall of Famers such as Jimmie Johnson (three wins), Bill Elliott (five wins) Jeff Gordon (seven wins) and the late Dale Earnhardt (nine wins) were all so good at the 1.366-mile oblong oval.

"This sport is so week-to-week it's hard to say (the track favors veterans) but you can't argue with results,'' said Hamlin, who has led laps in the last 10 consecutive Darlington races -- and has led more than 100 laps five different times in his career.

"It lends itself to the best drivers and the best teams. I think it's a great combination of, you've got to have everything. ... the driver has to just be really good at his craft and know when to push and when not to.

"It's going to be mentally taxing knowing you've got to hit your marks just perfectly,'' he continued. "And just the mental side of it, with 35 other guys that aren't there to let you win. It's really hard to navigate that. .. it just takes its toll, it has for me on my body and mind every time I race here. As far as the veteran side of it, I think certainly it seems that those that have lots of experience on this track and more than likely the guys have been successful because they know that feel they need to be fast here and continue to replicate it."

AN EVERYDAY EARNHARDT THROWBACK

*There is no question that NASCAR Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar is a huge fan of late seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt. The driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet recently purchased online a Chevrolet pick-up truck with a paint scheme identical to one of Earnhardt's iconic No. 3 Goodwrench Chevrolets. He says it's his "daily drive" and actually drove the truck from his Charlotte-area home to Darlington for the race this weekend.

"Basically I wanted something old-school car-wise,'' said Hocevar, who posted a photo of the truck parked at Darlington on his social media. "I just thought it would be fun and interesting to have. So I got it.''

ZILISCH TO MAKE 2ND CUP START

*On Thursday, Trackhouse Racing announced that 18-year-old driver Connor Zilisch will make his second NASCAR Cup Series start for the team in the sport's longest race, the May 25 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The North Carolinian Zilisch is in his first full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series season driving the No. 88 Chevrolet as a development driver for JR Motorsports and has already won an Xfinity race this year -- from the pole position -- claiming the trophy at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) road course in March. He's currently sixth in the Xfinity Series championship standings.

"It's awesome to have the opportunity to race in one of NASCAR's coolest events," said Zilisch, who has shown great talent competing in endurance races - winning in his class in both the Rolex 24 at Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring IMSA races last year.

"The Charlotte 600 is one of the most prestigious races in NASCAR. It's going to be a physical and mental challenge because that race is so tough."

After displaying some old-school dominance around tiny, tight Martinsville Speedway to win the Cook Out 400, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver could not help but be his outspoken, abrasive self on the frontstretch.

He climbed out of his No. 11 Toyota to cheers, shockingly, as fans likely realized he had won for the first time in a bit -- a 31-race drought that went back 11 months to Dover, to be exact. Then he found a way to transform those cheers back to the customary boos.

Brandishing a giant Carolina Blue-colored flag that read "11 Against the World," Hamlin was all fluttery after the win, inciting a few catcalls after the cheering.

That's the Denny we know and either love or hate -- there is little middle ground there -- but flag-waving and trash-talking aside, his performance Sunday prompted a question:

Is the 44-year-old Hamlin back during the latter portion of a Hall of Fame career?

In 2024, he won three times in the first 12 races that ran through the end of April, but he was a non-factor the rest of the way and again failed to win his first Cup title.

He's a threat to win this week's Goodyear 400 at the legendary Darlington, where Hamlin is known for finding a unique entry into Turn 1 and using it to his advantage. He owns four career wins at the "Too Tough to Tame" track, which has been Darlington's reputation all the way back to its first race in 1950.

Starting with the number eight -- Hamlin's win total in 2010 during his best season -- the Chesterfield, Va., native has 55 career wins. That's his new career total after last week's victories that was one of the most thorough wins in recent memory -- he led 274 of the final 275 laps and won by a dominant 4.6 seconds -- at a place where he has a great reputation but spent a decade of dormancy.

Hamlin was a popular Martinsville pick, and somehow that just felt right. After all, it's Hamlin on a short track in the Commonwealth, right?

However, part of the reality was that Hamlin had been good at the half-mile track -- winning three straight in 2009 and 2010 -- but also had not found the checkers there since late March 2015, a 19-race rudderless run around the flat track.

Commentator Kevin Harvick said he believes in Hamlin, who now works with crew chief Chris Gayle instead of Chris Gabehart.

"That's old-school Denny Hamlin," Harvick said on "Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour" podcast. "For Denny, this is an important moment ... Bringing Chris Gayle in, he knew this was going to be a disruption to the rest of his life. He put the time in to get through the offseason and here we are six weeks into the season and he's in Victory Lane.

"That says a lot about who he is as a driver and a leader."

At Darlington this weekend, Hamlin will race the red-themed Sport Clips paint scheme to honor recent NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Carl Edwards. While the colors may take us to a different era, the real throwback might be that we could be at the start of Hamlin taking it back to 2010.

At 44 years old, Hamlin is around the age where drivers tend to slow down. The trips to victory lane become few and far between, and top-10 runs become the new standard for success.

For Hamlin, however, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Hamlin brought a 31-race winless streak into Martinsville and left with a grandfather clock after leading 274 of 400 laps. It was a performance that showed Hamlin still has plenty of gas in the tank, and one that should inspire confidence in Hamlin as the season rolls on.

According to those around him, Hamlin has had to ramp up his training and preparation as the years have stacked up.

"He's probably in the simulator more than anyone," car owner Joe Gibbs said of Hamlin. "I think it says a lot about him. He works his rear end off."

"I'm surprised at how hard he does work," crew chief Chris Gayle said. "Like (Gibbs) is talking about, we (Gayle and Hamlin) were texting last night; he was watching 2022 SMT data from here. He's had to ramp up the amount of work he's done where he may have gotten by earlier (in his career) without doing that. I think he still has a drive and determination to win."

That drive comes from a part of Hamlin that is still goal-oriented. On Sunday, Hamlin tied 1989 Cup Series champion Rusty Wallace for 11th on the all-time wins list with 55 Cup Series victories.

"There are still goals left for him at this age," Gayle said. "I think it's no secret he wants to get 60 wins. It's one thing to talk about it, but I'm starting to see the amount of effort he puts in. He's with us in the simulator six or seven days a week. He does it to help the team. I think that speaks to where his head is at this age."

As Hamlin climbed atop his Toyota to celebrate the win, his crew members handed him a flag that was given to the No. 11 team by a group of Hamlin's fans. Amidst a light-blue background were the words, "11 AGAINST THE WORLD."

If you know anything about Hamlin, however, the flag was more than a funny slogan. It encapsulates an athlete that has embraced his role as one of NASCAR's most controversial drivers, and done so while still being near the top of his game.

"Why not?" Hamlin said when asked why he held up the flag in front of the Martinsville crowd. "That's me. Go shoot hoops with me, go play pickleball with me, go play golf with me -- if I can't (trash)-talk, it takes my superpower away. It really does. I'm not nearly as good."

Hamlin's methods of motivation and celebration have earned him plenty of detractors over the years, but it's that same mentality that has carried the future Hall of Famer to victory lane 55 times. After winning the 2023 Bristol night race, Hamlin quipped to the crowd that he had "just beat their favorite driver" -- a quote that earned a sequel after Hamlin won the Clash at the LA Coliseum in February 2024.

The fiery, competitive side of Hamlin could be credited with keeping the 20-year veteran of NASCAR's top echelon motivated as he approaches the twilight of his career. And while his victory at Martinsville was important in the moment, it also paints a picture of a No. 11 team poised for another deep playoff run.

While Hamlin hasn't made the Championship 4 since 2021, he hasn't missed the Round of 8 since 2018. He may not be in his prime anymore, but he is a perennial threat to make the penultimate round of the playoffs at the least -- and with NASCAR's current playoff format, anything is possible if you can make that far.

In the short-term, upcoming races at Darlington (April 6) and Bristol (April 13) play right into Hamlin's strengths. Hamlin is the defending winner of the Bristol spring race, and has led 256 laps over six Next-Gen races at Darlington. There's no reason to think his performance at Martinsville was a fluky one-off, especially considering how many tracks there are on the schedule where he could be considered the odds-on favorite to win.

Hamlin may not be at his statistical or physical peak anymore, but he's doing what many drivers before him failed to do as they aged -- consistently win races and be in championship contention, all while becoming more motivated with every passing year.

Restarting fourth with 55 laps to go following the race's final caution period, Bowman worked his way by Larson and Denny Hamlin and eventually put his No. 48 Chevrolet around Bubba Wallace's No. 23 Toyota with 33 laps left around the 1.5-mile speedway.

But with Larson charging hard in his No. 5 Chevrolet, Bowman banged the wall hard on the frontstretch, allowing Larson to slip past and move away for a win by 1.205 seconds for his 30th career victory and Chevrolet's third in five Homestead races.

Larson became the third-winningest driver in the Hendrick organization's history, trailing Jeff Gordon (93 wins) and Jimmie Johnson (83).

Wallace, Chase Briscoe and Hamlin rounded out the top five.

In the 27th Cup race in the South Florida track's history, Bowman led 36 other cars to the green flag, but he eventually watched Ryan Blaney, Josh Berry and Larson take the point through a caution-free start to the 267-lap race, the series' sixth of the season.

However, with 10 laps to go in Stage 1 and Blaney's No. 12 Ford out front, three-time 2025 winner Christopher Bell spun by himself while tight against the Turn 4 wall.

Blaney held the lead on the ensuring restart and won his second stage this season. Bowman, Briscoe, Larson and Austin Cindric grabbed the top-five bonus points in the 80-lap segment.

Hamlin pitted his No. 11 Toyota on Lap 126 but regained the lead with four laps to go and was victorious in Stage 2 by nipping Larson, who was on the same strategy with fresher tires. Blaney, William Byron and Wallace followed.

Running third with 60 circuits left, Blaney had his engine expire in a plume of smoke off Turn 4. The 2023 Cup champion led 124 laps.

With only four cars remaining in the session, Bowman's No. 48 Chevrolet set fast lap of 168.845 mph around the 1.5-mile track, knocking Front Frow Motorsports' Noah Gragson from the lead position that he had held for the majority of the qualifying session.

Last week's Las Vegas race winner, Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry took the track immediately after and nearly equaled Bowman's lap -- instead his No. 21 Ford coming a mere .073-second off the pole-winning pace but earning a front row position alongside the Hendrick driver.

This is Bowman's sixth career pole position and first at Homestead, a place the 32-year-old Arizona-native doesn't necessarily consider one of his historically better tracks. He has only a pair of top-10 finishes, but his best outcome -- seventh place -- came in the series most recent Homestead visit last October.

"There were some cars not so great on the short run and really fast on the long run and we were kind of the opposite of that practice, we were really faster in the short run and not great on the long run stuff so I knew qualifying was going to be really important because of that and that we had some work to do for tomorrow," Bowman said, "But for me, I had a pretty clear cut plan for qualifying and I thought I was able to execute that pretty well and my race car gave me what I needed to do that."

Gragson will start third, followed by Daytona 500 polesitter, Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 Toyota and current NASCAR Cup Series championship leader William Byron in the No. 24 Hendrick Chevrolet.

"We're still really fast, but I've never gotten a pole in the Cup Series, but our Beef A Roo Mustang is pretty quick on the short run," said Gragson, driver of the No. 4 FRM Ford. "We just need to get a little better for the long run and we're up in the hunt, so that's good."

Intermittent clouds cooled the 74-degree afternoon and as Bowman alluded to, several of the fastest cars in practice did not necessarily fare as well in actual qualifying.

23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace set top pace in Group B practice, for example, but was only ninth quickest in qualifying. Fellow Toyota driver, Legacy Motor Club's Erik Jones was second -- just behind Wallace -- in that practice session but ended up only 28th quickest on the starting grid.

Conversely, Kaulig Racing's A.J. Allmendinger, who was 25th fastest in that Group 2 practice session will start the race from 10th position. Berry, still basking in his first career win last week at Las Vegas, was 31st in practice but will start from the front row.

Defending race winner Tyler Reddick was 20th in qualifying. Kyle Larson, who is attempting to win in all three national series races this weekend will roll off 14th in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

And the season's winningest driver, Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell was 16th in qualifying. A three-time winner already, he is trying to become only the third driver in NASCAR history -- joining Hall of Famers Bill Elliott (1992) and Dale Earnhardt (1987) as the only competitors in the modern era to win four of the opening six races.

NOTEBOOK ITEMS:

*BERRY INSISTS SUCCESS NOT A FLUKE

*First-time NASCAR Cup Series winner Josh Berry and the Wood Brothers Racing team come into Homestead race week still enjoying the legendary team's 101st victory at Las Vegas last Sunday -- a huge career achievement for Berry, personally, and only the second win for the team in the last nine years.

Only five races into his tenure, Berry has already delivered an early-season Playoff berth for the team and by the looks of the strong showing may well win again in the months before the championship march starts. He was adamant that the Vegas win wasn't a "fluke' and is one of only four drivers with multiple top-five finishes on the year.

"Without a doubt I feel like I had things to prove," said the 34-year-old Berry, who is beginning only his second fulltime season in the Cup ranks. "Obviously, coming off of last year and everything we went through, I think people were still looking at all four of us that were part of that program with a lot of question marks, so, to me, I wanted to go out and prove myself all over again in the Cup Series.

"I felt like this was probably the opportunity for me. I think if I fail at this one, I don't think there's probably another one lined up for me, so most definitely there was pressure to go out and perform. During the offseason we just really buckled down and obviously getting to know and working with my new crew chief, Miles.

"We put in a lot of work over the offseason to be prepared when the season started and I feel like that obviously paid off. Honestly, our results and performance has exceeded our expectations, so I'm super happy with that and winning a race in the Cup Series is a big deal."

Berry's second place qualifying lap marks the fourth time in the past five races he's secured a top-10 start.

*LARSON'S TRIPLE QUEST

No driver is busier than Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson this weekend and the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion is already batting a thousand in his quest to win trophies in all three national series races at Homestead.

He earned his first trophy with a dramatic comeback victory in Friday's NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race making the pass for the lead with only two laps remaining. It adds to an already-impressive resume here for Larson, who is a former winner in both Saturday's Xfinity Series 300-miler (2015) and Sunday's NACAR Cup Series race (2022) at the South Florida 1.5-miler.

He comes into Sunday's race ranked sixth in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, with three top-10s and a pair of third place finishes through the opening five races.

"I felt like the Truck race was probably going to be the toughest to win, I don't have much experience in them and the runs are typically shorter," Larson said. "I feel better about Xfinity and Cup but the competition keeps getting tough and tougher as you get on with the weekend, but we'll see. Off to a good start."

*HOMESTEAD A FINALE FAVORITE

NASCAR just raced at the Homestead-Miami Speedway 1.5-miler during the October 2024 Playoff run and this weekend marks the first time it has been a Spring event since 2021.

Ask the drivers where they'd like to see the former, longtime season finale venue on the schedule and the consensus is, they'd love to see it return as the championship race one day.

"I certainly would like to see it play a bigger factor in our championship, whether it's in the Playoffs or part of the championship race round or whatever it might be," said the Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, whose three wins are most among active drivers. "I'd just like to see it a part of that because we just talked about how the driver makes a bigger difference at the is race track than the car."

Team Penske's Ryan Blaney took it a step further.

"All the above, really," Blaney responded with a grin when asked if he preferred the spring or fall Homestead placement on the calendar.

"I'll be honest, it doesn't matter to me when we come here, spring all, in the playoffs, championship race, as long as we're coming here. I think if you asked, some guys would love to come here twice, once in the spring and once in the fall, where that race in the fall lays, I don't care. Do I think the championship race should rotate between a few tracks? Yeah. And this should be one of them. This place puts on a great show no matter what."

*THE WINNING Bs

The five NASCAR Cup Series races have all been won by drivers whose last names begin with the letter "B." Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron won the Daytona 500. Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell won the next three races -- at Atlanta, Circuit of The Americas and Phoenix -- and Berry picked up his first career win at Las Vegas last weekend.

Saturday's Homestead pole winner? Alex Bowman.

Several drivers conceded that B letter trend could likely continue this weekend at Homestead with 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champ Ryan Blaney considered a favorite. He started the season with a pair of top-10 finishes and won the pole position at Atlanta but has back-to-back showings of 28th and 35th in the two races heading to South Florida -- suffering an engine failure at Phoenix and crashing last weekend at Las Vegas.

"I thought our car was really good last week until I wrecked all of us on the back stretch so just hope to keep that same pace but I feel good with where our program is at right now," said Blaney, who has finished runner-up in the last two Homestead races.

"Just a matter of trying to get some stuff to go our way."

*SEASON OF LEARNING

One of the more heralded rookies this season is former Australian SuperCars champion Shane Van Gisbergen, who turned heads and earned high praise for his historic victory at the Chicago Street Course two years ago in his first ever NASCAR Cup Series start.

With a strong background in road and street courses before coming to America as a fulltime NASCAR Competitor, the 34-year-old New Zealand-native said it has been a legitimate learning curve in the NASCAR Cup Series on the ovals.

His lone top-10 result of the year in the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet came at the Circuit of The Americas road course. He says it has been an education on the assortment of long and short ovals in this first full NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Twice -- in the last two races at Phoenix and Las Vegas -- he's been collected in crashes not of his own doing.

"I feel like we've showed a lot of promise but we have nothing to show for it, really," Van Gisbergen said. "COTA was a good day, but on the ovals we've really struggled and we've had a lot of accidents and they haven't really been our fault.

"It's really tough results-wise but I see a lot of potential and speed. Just got to put it together and get to the end of the races and things will start clicking for us, I think."

"It has been hard because I'm not really known for crashing too much and not finishing, so it's been a bit of a pain really," Van Gisbergen added. "Just have to stay out of trouble and get through it. The first stage we're always going good and improving and thinking the rest of the race is going to be good then something seems to happen, so hopefully we stop that this weekend."

Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing

Aside from a fourth-place finish in the Daytona 500, Briscoe's maiden voyage with Joe Gibbs Racing has not started off on the right foot. Briscoe sits 20th in points five races into the season, and is yet to put forth an eye-catching performance this year. A good run at Homestead would go a long way toward the No. 19 team getting back on track and performing to the expectations that were set for them before the season began.

Erik Jones, No. 43 Toyota, Legacy Motor Club

While Jones' teammate John Hunter Nemechek consistently competes in the top 20 and sits 15th in points, Jones is 25th and hasn't finished better than 18th over the last four races. Jones has long been touted as one of the most underrated drivers in the Cup Series, but his start to the 2025 season hasn't exactly been indicative of that. Jones didn't have the same expectations of several other drivers on this list, but his slow start has been disappointing nonetheless. A top-15 performance on Sunday seems necessary for the No. 43 team to get back on track, especially if Nemechek once again runs well.

Riley Herbst, No. 35 Toyota, 23XI Racing

This isn't a knock on Herbst, who is still learning and adjusting in his first year at the Cup level. However, Herbst sits 27th in points after five races -- a far, far cry from teammates Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, who sit third and 11th, respectively. It's far too early to hit the panic button on a Cup Series rookie, but a good run in South Florida would do wonders for a young driver looking for momentum early in the season.

Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Ford, RFK Racing

Keselowski's 2025 season has been defined by bad luck. Decent finishes of 15th at COTA and 11th at Las Vegas were negated by finishes of 26th at Daytona, 39th at Atlanta and 33rd at Phoenix. The 2012 champion sits 30th in points after five races, and needs to start stringing together good finishes in order to claw his way towards the playoff cut line. Keselowski is still capable of winning races, but showing pace at Miami almost seems like a necessity if the No. 6 team wants to get the ball rolling.

Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing

Five races into 2024, Gibbs was third in points and had scored four top-10 finishes. His widely publicized slump to end his sophomore season has carried over to the start of 2025. Five races into his third Cup Series season, Gibbs sits 34th in points with an average finish of 25.8. He's above only two other full-time drivers -- Cole Custer and Cody Ware -- in the standings. When he hasn't been involved in an incident this year, there's been little speed under the hood of the No. 54. Gibbs' third Cup Series campaign risks outing him as a prospect who is slowly flaming out. One race may not be enough to completely turn the narrative surrounding Gibbs' slow start, but a top-10 effort underneath the Florida sun could turn the tide for a young driver who needs to reaffirm that he's a threat on a weekly basis.

First-year Wood Brothers Racing driver Josh Berry powered the iconic No. 21 Ford around Las Vegas Motor Speedway to break Bell's three-race stranglehold on the sport and give an enormous boost to NASCAR's oldest organization.

Berry now will head south to the Homestead-Miami Speedway for Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 in the season's sixth race.

Opening as a rectangular-shaped speedway and later transformed to an oval, Homestead's 1.5-mile layout has had a nomadic journey on NASCAR's schedule, occupying the championship weekend as the last race for 18 straight seasons from 2002-19.

Starting the season in Florida with the Daytona 500 and coming back to close it in November in South Florida, where warmer temperatures are more likely, worked for nearly two decades, but Phoenix now hosts the capper.

Tyler Reddick is the defending winner at NASCAR's southernmost regular venue, while Bell, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Denny Hamlin have found the checkered flag in the past five visits. Homestead has produced nine different winners in the past nine races.

If you grabbed a bingo card last February and had Wood Brothers Racing victorious in a race in 2024 with lame duck driver Harrison Burton and also this season with Berry in the seat -- sending the organization to the playoffs in consecutive campaigns -- well by all means blot that unexpected square.

New fans of the sport may not realize the impact of the Wood Brothers, a front-running, 20th-century powerhouse and owner of 101 career NASCAR wins.

Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske and RFK Racing all have lengthy resumes, but none of them go back 75 years and match the Stuart, Va.-based organization's duration.

In addition to developing the modern pit stop, which it used to service Jim Clark in his 1965 Indianapolis 500 triumph, Wood Brothers Racing suited up two future champions -- Dale Jarrett and Ryan Blaney -- in their first Cup wins in 1991 and 2017, respectively, and is currently in alliance with Team Penske, Ford's signature stable.

Yet Berry's current situation is different than Burton's last year.

The son of former driver Jeff Burton, Harrison was on his way out the door and a complete longshot winner at Daytona last summer. It was no shock when Burton made a quick exit in the postseason.

But Berry, 34, has emerged as a weekly contender: He has led 74 laps, scored consecutive top-five finishes including his maiden victory last Sunday and sits 13th in points.

"It just felt like the right fit for me," Berry said. "But our performance at the start of the season has 100 percent exceeded my expectations. ... If you're in a good situation and surrounded by good people and have fast race cars, (you) can do amazing things."

Beating Bell and the rest of the field in the desert was a serious lesson presented by Berry, who attended high school with music superstar Taylor Swift in Hendersonville, Tenn., a part of Nashville's metropolitan region.

The surnames of Berry and Bell are so close alphabetically that they might have sat next to one another in a mythical homeroom had they been classmates. The reality is that with their wins in four of the first five races, they are taking the rest of NASCAR to school.

The two-race suspensions were issued to members of Busch's No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team and Briscoe's No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team after wheels became unfastened during the Pennzoil 400.

The suspensions will cover Sunday's race at Miami and the March 30 race at Martinsville for No. 8 crew members Dylan Moser (jack) and Shiloh Windsor (rear-tire changer) and No. 19 crew members Caleb Dirks (jack) and Daniel Smith (rear-tire changer).

Briscoe finished 17th in the race won by Josh Berry in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford. Busch's day ended after 35 laps.