Ryan Preece Qualifies Fourth Due to Ford Dominance, but Don't Expect Him to Finish There

Even though Ryan Preece is surprisingly running as well as his lead RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher this year and qualified fourth for today's race at Talladega, it's very risky to start him since he is almost certain to lose positions since he averages fewer than one top five of a year. Admittedly, his first […]

Justin Haley Qualifies 37th in First Race After Rodney Childers's Departure

In one of the year's biggest surprises to date, champion crew chief Rodney Childers announced last Wednesday that he had resigned as Justin Haley's crew chief. Perhaps this served as a distraction since Haley ended up qualifying 37th, slowest of all the full-time chartered teams. However, the crew chief doesn't really matter in forecasting races […]

Post-Daytona 500 Penalty Results in Much Worse Talladega Qualifying for Chase Briscoe

In one of the more amusing anecdotes from qualifying, Chase Briscoe qualified 17th (slowest of the four Joe Gibbs Racing cars) after being penalized for a spoiler modification at the Daytona 500, where he had shocked everyone by winning the pole. Even though the penalty was rescinded, his inexplicable pole interrupting the perennial Ford qualifying […]

Alex Bowman Starting Too Well for Place Differential Points, but Not Well Enough for Leader Points

Alex Bowman qualified 18th at Talladega yesterday, which is consistent with his relatively bland performance there as this marks his seventh consecutive starting position outside the top ten after six consecutive top ten starts before that. While qualifying certainly doesn't matter there and he has had laps in every other race at Talladega, he isn't […]

Chris Buescher Qualifies Sixth Thanks to Ford Dominance, but Probably Won't Lead Enough to Be Valuable in DFS

While Chris Buescher has seemed to maintain his consistency of recent seasons, he and RFK Racing in general have seemed to lose a lot of speed as he has not led a lap in the first nine races of 2025. Even though he qualified sixth at Talladega, a track which is traditionally conducive to a […]

Despite Current Momentum, Ty Gibbs Qualified Too Well for DFS Consideration

Ty Gibbs has slightly recovered from a disastrous start to the season with three consecutive good runs elevating him from 34th to 20th in the points standings. He qualified 10th ahead of all other Toyota drivers for today's Talladega race. However, that is not a good thing for DFS lineups because he qualified too well […]

Carson Hocevar's Poor Qualifying and Second at Atlanta Make Him a Viable DFS Option

Although Carson Hocevar only qualified 28th at Talladega yesterday and was genuinely rather slow in most of last year's drafting track races, he earned his best career finish (a second) in the previous drafting race at Atlanta despite starting 26th, which means he seems to be driving less conservatively now and is more willing to […]

Too Few Crashes at Talladega Recently for JJ Yeley to Hold DFS Value

J.J. Yeley starts 39th and last at Talladega for the NY Racing Team. If there is any track type where he might have value for DFS purposes, it is the drafting track as the only chance he might have a decent finish for that team is if he doesn't crash and many of the drivers […]

Denny Hamlin Cuts Into William Byron's Points Lead

When Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin started on the second row in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol, most people expected one or the other to dominate and overtake front-row starters Alex Bowman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. It turned out to be Larson, who led over 400 laps for the second consecutive Bristol race, but […]

William Byron Makes Best Of His Mediocre Qualifying Run With Sixth-Place Finish

Despite blowing his qualifying lap after expecting to win the pole, William Byron recovered from 26th to finish sixth at Bristol, which would've been called a good points day in the Latford points system era. It doesn't matter as much in today's playoff points system where wins and stage wins are vastly more important, but […]

Despite Engine Failure, Alex Bowman's Improved Speed Looks Promising

In a virtual repeat of last year's Bristol Night Race, Alex Bowman won the pole for Sunday's race at Bristol before Kyle Larson passed him early in Stage 1 and led the rest of the race, with the exception of pit-stop exchanges. The difference is Bowman had an engine failure in Sunday's race. However, Bowman's […]

A.J. Allmendinger Enters Playoff Picture With Surprise Bristol Top-10 Finish

Although A.J. Allmendinger famously won an Xfinity race at Bristol in 2021 while crashing across the finish line with Austin Cindric, his Cup Series performances there had never been too strong until Sunday. Allmendinger quietly earned a ninth-place finish at a track where he had only ever earned two top-10s in his previous 25 starts. […]

Crew Chief Change Suggests Ty Gibbs Won't Lead Enough To Be A Strong DFS Option

Ty Gibbs has arguably been 2025's biggest disappointment because normally young drivers on top teams are supposed to rapidly progress while Gibbs has been significantly slower in 2025 since losing his old crew chief Chris Gayle to Denny Hamlin's No. 11. However, Gibbs is starting to turn it around as his Martinsville run was solid […]

Joey Logano's Recent Bristol Runs Have Surprisingly Been Lackluster

Joey Logano has had a pretty baffling season as he ranks third in laps led this year and ninth in points despite only posting a single top-10 finish. He's had numerous unforced errors that usually resulted in finishes just outside the top 10, and he made another one on Saturday in Bristol qualifying, where he […]

Poor 2025 Performance Will Probably Override Brad Keselowski's Recent Bristol Record

Unlike his contemporary Kyle Busch whose speed at Bristol markedly declined after he switched from Joe Gibbs Racing to Richard Childress Racing, Brad Keselowski has retained a lot of his speed there even after switching from Team Penske to RFK Racing. The three-time Bristol winner led 109 laps in the 2022 Bristol Night Race, the […]

Chase Briscoe Qualifies Worse Than Usual At Bristol Despite Faster Car

Although Chase Briscoe qualified 14th at Bristol, which doesn't sound terrible when you compare it to how the 23XI Racing Toyotas qualified, he was by far the slowest of the four Joe Gibbs Racing cars as his three teammates all qualified in the top seven. Briscoe is an agent of chaos who seems almost impossible […]

Kyle Busch Unlikely To Contend At Bristol After Qualifying Spin

Despite spinning out on his second qualifying lap on Saturday, Kyle Busch qualified 15th at Bristol. He is one of the track's all-time greats with eight wins and 2,598 laps led, but he has fallen on hard times since his arrival at Richard Childress Racing. Although Busch still frequently has speed on superspeedways and road […]

Despite Uptick In Speed, Austin Cindric Likely Won't Run Better At Bristol

Despite only ranking 21st in points, Austin Cindric has looked consistently faster in 2025 than any previous season, so it's certainly plausible that he could get an unexpectedly strong result. However, the former road-course specialist has now steadily turned into a superspeedway specialist, and short tracks are not typically his specialty. He also qualified 21st […]

Michael McDowell Should Sustain Bristol Qualifying Performance Better Than Expected

Short tracks have typically been Michael McDowell's Achilles heel throughout his career but he does seem to have figured something out at Bristol recently with the Next Gen chassis. Although he has still never led a lap here, he started 4th and finished 6th in the 2023 Bristol Night Race and ran in the top […]

Justin Haley Will Likely Slide Back From 10th-Place Starting Position

Justin Haley qualified 10th at Bristol alongside his teammate Carson Hocevar, marking his best starting position ever at the track. This shouldn't come as a huge surprise as his Spire Motorsports cars are probably the fastest he has ever had here and Hocevar and Haley's predecessor Corey LaJoie both qualified in the top ten at […]

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 […]