Erik Jones Continues To Lack Bristol Speed In No. 43 Car

Erik Jones used to be great at Bristol in his early years at Furniture Row Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing, when he earned four top fives and led 260 laps from the pole as a rookie in 2017 before finishing second. However, since moving to the No. 43 car (especially after the team name changed […]

Shane Van Gisbergen Unsurprisingly Struggles In Bristol Qualifying

The Trackhouse Racing cars have had issues with speed on short tracks in recent years, and Saturday's Bristol qualifying session was no exception. Obviously a concrete oval is far out of Supercars veteran Shane van Gisbergen's wheelhouse, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the Kiwi rookie only qualified 36th. What might be more surprising […]

Corey LaJoie Returns To Site Of His Last Spire Motorsports Start Before Being Traded

Corey LaJoie qualified 37th at Bristol and was outqualified by his teammate Cody Ware. This is a mild surprise because for all the criticism he got recently, LaJoie did qualify in the top ten in two of the last three races at Bristol and led 52 laps, but obviously Rick Ware Racing is admittedly going […]

Don't Expect A Repeat For Cody Ware At Bristol

Perhaps surprisingly, Cody Ware has only ever started one race at the paved Bristol oval because carbon monoxide poisoning kept him out of the 2021 Bristol Night Race. Even more surprisingly, Ware got his best career finish on a non-drafting oval of 17th in the 2022 Bristol Night Race and only finished three laps down. […]

Josh Bilicki Making First 2025 Cup Series Start At Bristol

Josh Bilicki makes his first start of the 2025 season for Carl Long's Garage 66 team on Sunday at Bristol from the 39th and last starting position. He drove the No. 66 entry in last year's Bristol Night Race, where he finished 33 laps down in 34th. In four previous starts at Bristol, he has […]

William Byron's Attempt To Lead From Start To Finish Cost Him Darlington Race

In Sunday's Goodyear 400 at Darlington, pole-sitter William Byron started the race with 243 consecutive laps led, the most since Jeff Burton led every lap in the second Loudon race of 2000. However, Byron's attempt to lead every lap arguably ended up costing him the race, as the race had several green-flag pit cycles, meaning […]

Christopher Bell Struggles At Darlington Until Being Bailed Out By Pit Strategy

Christopher Bell finished third at Darlington on Sunday, but that was more because he was lucky than good. Despite the fact that Denny Hamlin won the race and Bell ended up with a third-place finish, all the Joe Gibbs Racing cars seemed to be very slow on long runs as Bell started 17th but shockingly […]

Kyle Larson Bookends Darlington Race With Crashes

Kyle Larson had a race to forget at Darlington on Sunday. His race finished nearly before it started, as an unforced error caused him to crash into the inside retaining wall on Lap 4. Although he spent over half the race in the garage, he did return to the track. Shortly after Ryan Blaney passed […]

Ross Chastain Recovers From Untimely Pit Stop To Finish Seventh

Ross Chastain has a history of qualifying poorly at Darlington and getting good finishes, and that continued again in Sunday's race as he started 25th before eventually finishing seventh. He had just worked his way into the top 10 for the first time in the middle of Stage 2 when he got trapped a lap […]

Joey Logano's Increased Speed But Worse Results Make Darlington Outcome Unclear

Joey Logano finally got his first top-10 finish of the season last week at Martinsville, the latest a defending champion has posted their first top-10 result. He looks to make that two in a row at Darlington, but his 18th-place starting position is actually his second-worst starting position here, behind only his 23rd starting spot […]

Chase Briscoe Likely To Benefit From Toyota Speed At Darlington

Chase Briscoe improbably delivered Stewart-Haas Racing's last win in last year's Southern 500, the last race at Darlington Raceway. Today he starts fourth in the Goodyear 400 with a much faster Joe Gibbs Racing Team and he is coming off from back-to-back top five finishes at the track, even though he had never earned a […]

Ross Chastain Is One Of The Best DFS Options

Ross Chastain has never won at Darlington, but that does not reflect how well he has run, as he has led 134 laps at the track. Oddly, 119 of those laps led came in two races he crashed out of. More typically, Chastain qualifies poorly and gains numerous positions in the field, as he did […]

Carson Hocevar Still A Work In Progress

Although Carson Hocevar failed to replicate his second-place starting position from last year's Southern 500, his 13th-place starting position on Sunday is still pretty solid, and the speed he had last year suggests there is a chance he will have speed on Sunday, even though he fell off quickly and failed to score any stage […]

Chris Buescher Likely Motivated After Last Year's Darlington Near Miss

Although he couldn't have known it at the time, Chris Buescher's and Tyler Reddick's slight contact while battling for the lead in last year's spring Darlington race arguably knocked Buescher out of the playoffs since he was leading with nine laps left when Reddick cut his tire and was relegated to a 30th-place finish. The […]

Ty Gibbs Returns To Site Of Best Career Finish

Ty Gibbs finally stopped the bleeding somewhat in last week's race at Martinsville as he had his best run and finish in an otherwise disastrous season after his crew chief Chris Gayle was replaced by Tyler Allen. Gibbs did earn the only second-place finish of his career in last year's Darlington event, but that came […]

Michael McDowell Probably Won't Overcome Darlington Mediocrity

Michael McDowell outqualified both of his Spire Motorsports teammates on Saturday and starts 10th for Sunday's race at Darlington. His record is very close to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s in that his only two top-10 finishes came in the two attrition-heavy races in 2022, where his average running positions of 18th and 11th were substantially worse […]

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Likely Needs Attrition To Earn A Good Darlington Result

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s career pretty much lives and dies on his performances on drafting tracks now, as he is never anything more than anonymous anywhere else these days. Don't expect that to change at Darlington, where he only earned a single top-10 finish in the 2022 spring race and has never led a lap. Even […]

Noah Gragson Looks To See if Xfinity Series Success At Darlington Can Carry Over

Noah Gragson has been one of the most invisible drivers in the Cup Series, and the fact that he qualified 26th for Sunday's Darlington race while his Front Row Motorsports teammates Todd Gilliland and Zane Smith start 12th and 16th, respectively, is consistent with that. Gragson did slice through the field in last year's race, […]

A.J. Allmendinger Has Never Earned A Top-10 Finish At Darlington

A.J. Allmendinger alternating between full-time and part-time status in the NASCAR Cup Series hasn't seemed to have done anything to slow him down, as he now sits six points below the playoff cut line for a not-great Kaulig Racing team after two top-10 finishes in the last three races. But Darlington is one of his […]

For Riley Herbst, Rookie Inexperience Likely To Overcome Toyota Speed Advantage

As usual, Riley Herbst was outqualified by his 23XI veteran teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick on Saturday at Darlington, with Herbst only qualifying 32nd to Wallace's fifth and Reddick's seventh. He was a slow learner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, so it is no surprise that this trend is repeating itself in the Cup […]

Cody Ware Seems Worse Than Before His Suspension

Ever since Cody Ware's return to full-time competition this season, he has seemingly been even slower than he was before his suspension in 2023 as he has a lower average start, lower average finish, and is thereby lower in points than he was at any time during his last full-time season in 2022. Since Rick […]

J.J. Yeley Qualifies Last For Third Time In 2025

J.J. Yeley qualified 38th and last at Darlington, marking the third time he has posted the slowest qualifying speed this season with the only exception being the Daytona 500, where he outqualified Cody Ware but failed to qualify because his NY Racing Team is a non-chartered team. Although Yeley gained two positions in both his […]

Denny Hamlin Silences Doubters After Crew-Chief Change

Denny Hamlin won Sunday's Cook Out 400 to take his first win at Martinsville Speedway since 2015. His 274 laps led marked the third-most he has ever led at Martinsville, and the most he has led in a win. The race removed all doubts about his ability to win without crew chief Chris Gabehart, as […]

Ty Gibbs Earns Best 2025 Finish At Martinsville Despite Failing Cool Suit

Ty Gibbs had his most competitive run of the season on Sunday at Martinsville when he both started and finished 13th despite the discomfort of a malfunctioning cool suit. Surprisingly, this was Gibbs' best result since he also finished 13th 12 races ago at Talladega, and it was one of his grittiest performances nonetheless. Gibbs […]

Ross Chastain Has A Great Day At Martinsville

Ross Chastain had an uncharacteristically quiet run at Martinsville, finishing sixth at a track that is normally not one of his best. Although the Hail Melon from 2022 will always define his Martinsville career, this was probably his best run here as he matched his best average running position from that race but had a […]

Chase Briscoe Has Solid Run At Martinsville

Chase Briscoe had a fairly generic run at Martinsville even though the Joe Gibbs Racing cars and the Toyotas in general seemed to have the most speed. He started 11th but didn't really settle into the top ten until Stage 2, a stage where he spent much of the time in the top five and […]

Erik Jones Disqualified At Martinsville For Weight Violation

Erik Jones has never been very successful at Martinsville, and Sunday might have been one of the lowest moments of his career. Not only did he start 31st and finish 24th in a race where his former crew chief Chris Gayle won his first race for Denny Hamlin -- a driver he was ordered not […]

Denny Hamlin's New Crew Chief Has Terrible Martinsville Record

Denny Hamlin is one of the greats at Martinsville with five career wins and 2,448 laps led, but his last win here came a decade ago in this race. Nonetheless, even though he hasn't won since, he's been no slouch with ten top fives and 1,136 laps led since his last win. It's a rare […]

Martinsville Is Austin Cindric's Best Short Track

Austin Cindric qualified 20th for Sunday's Martinsville race. Although he seems to be starting to become something of a weekly threat, Martinsville will probably be an exception to that. He did actually finish fourth in last fall's race, but unlike his No. 2 car predecessors Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch, and Brad Keselowski, short tracks have […]

Kyle Busch's Short-Track Performance At Richard Childress Racing Is Pretty Dire

It took Kyle Busch seemingly forever to finally win his two Martinsville races in 2016 and 2017, but although he managed a remarkable eight straight top-five finishes (including those wins), he hasn't been so hot lately, especially with the Next Gen chassis. In the last 12 races, Busch has only led five laps at Martinsville, […]