Denny Hamlin Remains a Solid Bet to Advance in Playoffs

Although the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas had a history of dominating at Loudon in recent years, the Toyotas in general were unusually slow in Sunday's race, and Denny Hamlin had a fairly mediocre run by his standards, starting ninth and finishing 12th. He did work his way up to the top six for a while, […]

Brake Brakedown Diminishes Tyler Reddick's Playoff Hopes

Tyler Reddick has struggled with top-line speed in recent months, and Sunday's Loudon race was no exception, as Reddick backslid to ninth at the end of Stage 1 and then began to lose his brakes in Stage 2. Although he finished the race on the lead lap, he gradually faded to 21st, placing him 23 […]

Ross Chastain Loses Ground in Playoff Race Despite Top-10 Finish

Although Ross Chastain started eighth and finished ninth in Sunday's Loudon race, he lost ground in the NASCAR playoff race as Joey Logano dominated the first half of the race from the pole and scored 19 stage points, while Chastain failed to score points in either stage. After finishing 12th in Stage 1, he fell […]

Kyle Larson a Strong DFS Option, Inconsistency Gives Reason to Doubt him

Kyle Larson has a fairly weird profile by his standards at Loudon. Although he finished 3rd and 2nd in his first two starts as a rookie and led 14 laps on his debut here, he's only led eight laps here as he tends to qualify poorly by his standards then quietly work his way to […]

Chase Elliott's Recent Speed Downturn Could Continue at Loudon

Although Chase Elliott stumbled his way into the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, he's going to need to do a lot more than that to make it to the next round. That might be difficult since he's starting 27th (by far the worst of the remaining playaoff drivers) at a track […]

Chase Briscoe Looks Slower at Loudon Than in the Round of 16

Although Chase Briscoe dominated the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, he seems to be finishing better than he runs to an unsustainable degree as his consistent results and sporadic dominance are masking a lot of mediocre stints in the middle of the races before late race charges. He also did that last […]

Tyler Reddick Possibly Distracted by Contract Costs

Tyler Reddick feels like he's been going through the motions lately, as his teammate Bubba Wallace has seemed faster most weeks, and one wonders if he is distracted by 23XI Racing's lawsuit against NASCAR after it was revealed he might leave the team if it does not have a charter for 2026. He qualified fourth […]

Ross Chastain's Qualifying Results Improving as his Race Results Decline

After terrible qualifying for most of the season, Ross Chastain has suddenly had an uptick in oval qualifying speed in the playoffs, which possibly suggests that Trackhouse Racing was ignoring some races once he locked himself in. But it is not inspiring that he finished worse than he started in all three playoff races, which […]

Chris Buescher has Shown Mediocre Pace This Season and at Loudon

After years of mediocrity at Loudon, Chris Buescher finally got his first good finish here last year when he finished fifth, but Buescher has not seemed to have as much speed in his fastest races as he did the last two years or arguably even 2022 as well. Although his 15th-place qualifying run matches his […]

Brad Keselowski's Consistent Loudon Speed Makes Him an Excellent DFS Option

For a long time, Loudon was arguably Brad Keselowski's best track as he had one of his most dominant drives here in 2020, while also winning in 2014 and leading 100 laps in the summer race in 2015. Even with the Next Gen car at RFK Racing, he started decent with 7th and 5th place […]

Strong Qualifying Run May Be a Reason to Stay Away from Carson Hocevar

Carson Hocevar had a modest debut at Loudon last year when he started 20th and finished seventh, but this year he's been significantly faster, albeit more inconsistent and mistake-prone. His sixth-place qualifying run ranked second among Chevy drivers, behind only William Byron, although he was slower than that by most metrics in practice, which suggests […]

Shane Van Gisbergen a Shaky DFS Option

Although NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year Shane van Gisbergen still hasn't had much speed in any oval race this season, he's significantly improved at oval qualifying with his ninth-place start on Sunday, following recent qualifying runs of sixth and 11th at Dover and Indianapolis. However, that's precisely why you shouldn't start him. Although […]

Ty Gibbs Will Probably Be an Afterthought With All Three Teammates Still in the Playoffs

After a dismal start to the 2025 season, Ty Gibbs has steadily improved throughout the season, culminating in arguably the best race of his career at Bristol. But when considering how dominant his teammates have been in either wins or laps led, he still hasn't run great. While he's been consistently fast at Bristol and […]

Kyle Busch Likely to Finish Better and Run Worse at Loudon

Although Kyle Busch has thrice won at Loudon (most recently in 2017), he has crashed out of four of his last five starts here, usually very early in the race, which does not inspire confidence. Now that he has mostly faded to irrelevance and hardly even sniffs the lead anymore, Busch may be a worse […]

Modified Experience Could Help Ryan Preece at Loudon

Because the NASCAR Modified Tour frequently races at Loudon, Ryan Preece has more experience there than a lot of other drivers do, which could help him in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race. Admittedly, as a Modified driver, he won only once in 27 starts, and it was not one of his best tracks, nor has […]

AJ Allmendinger Has a Bad Loudon Record but Was Fast in Practice

Although A.J. Allmendinger has had a rather underrated season, he's not a particularly good DFS option at Loudon since he is starting 12th (better than he usually does here) and has never finished better than 10th, nor has he ever led a lap, which means he is almost guaranteed to lose positions and score negative […]

Michael McDowell Earns Best Qualifying Run at Loudon, but Not a Strong DFS Option

In his first Loudon start for Spire Motorsports, Michael McDowell has his best starting position of 11th. However, that makes him not very valuable for DFS play in Sunday's race because he has never finished better than 13th here and has only led a single lap in his career, which means he is almost guaranteed […]

Austin Dillon Unlikely to Recapture Richmond Speed at Loudon

Although Austin Dillon inexplicably backed up last year's Richmond win with the best drive of his career, that speed has not carried over to other tracks as he was eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with his four lap down finish at Bristol last week. It seems possibly even less likely that Dillon will […]

Despite Trackhouse Racing's Qualifying Speed, Daniel Suarez Way Off the Pace

Daniel Suárez qualified 32nd for Sunday's race at Loudon, marking his worst qualifying position at the track. Although Suárez did finish in the top ten in both of his Loudon starts as a rookie, he has never led here, and his only other top ten came in 2022, a year when he was much more […]

Ty Gibbs Has Arguably his Best Career Drive, but Only Finishes 10th

For most of Saturday night's race at Bristol, Ty Gibbs looked like he was going to interrupt the playoff drivers' party and win his first race in the NASCAR Cup Series. In a race that was somewhat similar to the wacky tire-preservation race in the spring of 2024, where Gibbs led 137 laps, he improved […]

Despite Crashing Out at Bristol, Chase Elliott Advances to Round of 12

Even though Chase Elliott crashed and finished 38th and scored only one point since he didn't score any stage points either, he still advanced to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR playoffs because he had enough of a gap over the drivers below the cutl ine, and even if his teammate Alex Bowman had […]

Austin Dillon Misses Round of 12 After Extremely Mediocre Bristol Run

As expected, Austin Dillon wasn't even particularly close to being in contention to advancing to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR playoffs. For all the speed he has recently shown at Richmond, he's never been particularly strong at Bristol and last night was no exception as he started 23rd and finished 28th four laps […]

Shane van Gisbergen Fails to Advance to Round of 12

It was really unlikely for Shane van Gisbergen to advance to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR playoffs on Saturday night since there were no road courses in that round, and two of the tracks in this round (Darlington and Bristol) tend to benefit the drivers with a great deal of stock-car experience as […]

Josh Berry Finishes Last in All Three Round of 16 Races to Fail to Advance

Josh Berry was pretty outmatched in the NASCAR playoffs. Although nobody really expected him to advance to the Round of 12 since he's had a pretty mediocre season even despite his win at Las Vegas, Berry became the first playoff driver to finish last in each race of a playoff round with his 39th place […]

Chase Elliott Probably Won't Factor in for Bristol Win

Although some people will tell you Chase Elliott is having a great season because he is currently leading the traditional full-season Winston Cup points standings and people erroneously think that was a good points system, he has had an overrated season and hasn't been running nearly as well as that would imply. He ranks ninth, […]

Bubba Wallace Not as Strong at Bristol as Other Short Tracks

Although Bubba Wallace hasn't clinched a spot in the Round of 12, since he is 50 points ahead of Austin Dillon for the final playoff spot, he pretty much doesn't have to worry even if he fails to finish. Wallace is on a run of arguably the greatest consistency of his career as he has […]

Alex Bowman Needs to Win to Make Round of 12

Although Alex Bowman had never been much of a threat at Bristol before, he did have arguably his best races at the track in his last three starts as he drove from 29th to fourth in the 2024 spring race and led 32 and 39 laps from the pole in the last two races before […]

Ross Chastain has Never Led at Bristol but Has Been Pretty Consistent

Ross Chastain sits only 19 points ahead of Austin Dillon for the final transfer spot in the Round of 12, which means he's in some danger of failing to advance in the playoffs, particularly if he has an early DNF, but otherwise it's a little hard to imagine any of the drivers behind him overtaking […]

Austin Dillon's Richmond Speed Unlikely to Carry Over to Bristol

Austin Dillon has not been particularly good at Bristol as he has never led a lap here and has only posted four top-10 finishes, but one of those came in this year's spring race when he finished 10th and he certainly surprised many people by successfully defending his Richmond win with an even more dominant […]

Josh Berry Might Run Well at Bristol, but Almost Certainly Won't Win to Advance

Despite his early win this season at Las Vegas, in retrospect, Josh Berry's season hasn't been very good, and he will almost certainly be eliminated from the playoffs on Saturday since he sits 45 points below his de facto teammate, Austin Cindric, who holds the transfer spot for the Round of 12. Since only 60 […]