Circle Tracks

Once again, a general theme of the Daytona 500 and superspeedway racing with the NextGen car in general right now, is the amount of time drivers spend at half-throttle under green flag conditions. The reason they do this is because it is incredibly difficult to pass with the current generation car on these tracks when everyone is racing at full throttle. The cars are too equal and there is so ...Keep readingView the full article

In sequential order, this is how Tyler Reddick won the Daytona 500. Michael McDowell leads the field back to green. Carson Hocevar takes the lead and holds it at the white. Hocevar gets turned into the wall, contact with Erik Jones and spins across the field, taking Jones and McDowell with him. No caution. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took the lead with Chase Elliott to his outside and Reddick ...Keep readingView the full article

Carson Hocevar is still searching for his first win as a NASCAR Cup Series driver, and he nearly got it in the sport's biggest race. The 23-year-old was the only driver pulling triple duty in all three national divisions during Daytona Speedweek. Things started off well as he earned a runner-up finish in his Duel qualifying race, ensuring he would start the Daytona 500 from the sixth position ...Keep readingView the full article

Entering the 2026 Daytona 500, there were concerns around if the 42-year-old Brad Keselowski could even run the full race. He showed up to the track with a walking cane, following a December fall that left him with a broken femur. But Keselowski quickly returned to form, and was a contender throughout Sunday's 68th running of the Daytona 500 -- his 17th start in 'The Great American ...Keep readingView the full article

23XI Racing now has seven wins at the Cup level, but it will be hard to top this. The team, co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 Denny Hamlin, was founded in 2021. Last year, the team secured its first crown jewel when Bubba Wallace was victorious in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A few months later, Tyler Reddick has won the sport's biggest race ...Keep readingView the full article

Cars were crashing all over the place on the final lap, but NASCAR kept it green as Tyler Reddick used a push from 23XI Racing teammate Riley Herbst to take the lead and win NASCAR's biggest race. This follows a 2025 season where he wentas winless, but he more than made up for it as he hands team owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin's NASCAR's most coveted trophy. Former Daytona 500 winners ...Keep readingView the full article

It's hard to explain what happened on the final lap of the Daytona 500, but it was pure mayhem. Carson Hocevar was leading at the white flag, but he got turned from the lead. The race stayed green, and Chase Elliott surged ahead with a push from Zane Smith. But then came Tyler Reddick with a helpful push from teammate Riley Herbst, passing Elliott at the exit of Turn 4. The field fanned out ...Keep readingView the full article

The 68th running of the Daytona 500 has had several accidents, but none as big as what happened on Lap 124. Justin Allgaier, driving a car owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller, took the race lead out of Turn 4. However, three-time 500 winner Denny Hamlin squeezed to his outside in aggressive move. Allgaier didn't realize Hamlin was there and came up in the middle of the ...Keep readingView the full article

With packed grandstands, a strong crosswind due to weather rolling in, NASCAR made an emotional full-throttle tribute to Dale Earnhardt in the opening laps of the 2026 Daytona 500.  On lap three, after the cars had gotten up to speed, most of the people inside the 2.5 mile superspeedway held three fingers up in reference to Earnhardt’s iconic No. 3. As the field flew past the main ...Keep readingView the full article

Long before Larson vs. Hamlin or Earnhardt vs. Gordon, there was another clash of titans that divided the NASCAR world. And this battle was between the Silver Fox -- David Pearson, and The King -- Richard Petty. These two drivers combine for ten championships and an astonishing 305 NASCAR Cup Series wins. On this day, February 15, 1975, they came together for one of their most memorable ...Keep readingView the full article

Hendrick Motorsports is the winningest team in Daytona 500 history with ten victories. William Byron, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet, won the event in both 2024 and 2025, and both races ended in dramatic crashes amongst the race leaders. Now, he will attempt to win the 500 for a third consecutive year, and it's a feat that has never been done before. In 2024, Byron positioned himself out front ...Keep readingView the full article

Here's all the major storylines you need to keep an eye on during the 68th running of the Daytona 500: Brad Keselowski manages a leg injury Brad Keselowski, RFK Racing Ford Photo by: Patrick McDermott via Getty Images The 42-year-old broke his femur during the off-season, and arrived to Daytona with a walking cane. While there is still pain, he has every intention of ...Keep readingView the full article

At this point, Austin Hill believes he has a mystique of winning NASCAR O’Reilly Series races at Daytona that is more effective than the resume that generated the aura in the first place. Of his 15 wins at the second-highest level of the discipline, 11 of them have come across Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta. And every time NOAPS comes to Daytona, the narrative is that everyone needs to gang ...Keep readingView the full article

Austin Hill now has 15 wins in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, which includes an astonishing eleven on drafting tracks, with four of those coming at Daytona. He dominated the 2026 season-opener, delivering Richard Childress Racing the checkered flag once again. "I love these guys, man," said Hill in Victory Lane. "Everybody that's been at Chevrolet, everybody at RCR, ECR, everyone that ...Keep readingView the full article

It is impossible to understate the impact Dale Earnhardt had on NASCAR, and the void left when he died on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.  At the time, he was holding back several cars while the two he owned -- the No. 15 of Michael Waltrip and the No. 8 of his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., drove off to a Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) 1-2 finish. But mere seconds from finishing third right ...Keep readingView the full article

The third and final practice for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 was very calm, and there were no issues. Of the 41 starters, only 18 actually chose to go out on track. There was some drafting, and the biggest pack formed early with RFK Racing and Team Penske Fords, but also a handful of Chevrolets that joined them. Jimmie Johnson was the only Toyota driver to even go out on track, and ...Keep readingView the full article

After historic snow postponed the Clash at Bowman Gray several days into the week, NASCAR has enjoyed optimal weather for Speedweek at Daytona. However, there is a real threat of thunderstorms on Sunday, and it's all about when -- not if -- the bad weather will arrive. In a proactive move, NASCAR has moved up the start of the 68th running of the Daytona 500 a full hour to 1:30pm EST. The NASCAR ...Keep readingView the full article

Jimmie Johnson will end his NASCAR Cup Series career a year from now with 702 starts in the 69th Daytona 500. Sure, his full-time career with Hendrick Motorsports ended after the 2020 season and then came a chapter that included IMSA and IndyCar with Chip Ganassi Racing but the seven-time Cup champion returned home as a team owner with Legacy Motor Club in 2023. Since then, Johnson has made ...Keep readingView the full article

Faith is a fundamental component to who Chandler Smith is as a man, father, husband and racer, so it comes to no surprise that he leaned on his convictions in articulating the range of emotions from missing the Daytona 500 to winning in the Truck Series 24 hours later. “Truthfully, I pray a certain prayer before every race, and most of my prayers are very consistent in the certain sense of ...Keep readingView the full article

Chandler Smith was running sixth entering Turn 3, but he ended the night holding the checkered flag. He didn’t benefit from a wreck, but instead made a dramatic four-wide pass for the lead as the field drag-raced to the finish line. He beat runner-up Gio Ruggiero to the line by 0.044s, and just 0.069s separated the entire top five in the end. John-Hunter Nemechek had the lead exiting the ...Keep readingView the full article

Tony Stewart hasn't competed in NASCAR since 2018, and he hasn't raced in the NASCAR Truck Series in almost twenty years, so there was a lot of hype around him on Friday night as he returned to drive a Ram Truck. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of Smoke, as he ran towards the back of the pack through the first two stages while the Kaulig Racing team worked on the handling of his ...Keep readingView the full article

After making a handful of starts in the ARCA Menard's Series race last year, Cleetus McFarland (real name Garrett Mitchell) made the jump up into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the 2026 season-opener. Making his Truck Series debut with Niece Motorsports, Mitchell was running inside the top ten early in the event, but he never got the opportunity to do much as his race came to an abrupt ...Keep readingView the full article

The second practice session for the Daytona 500 is complete, and there were no issues during the hour-long session. Manufacturers stayed with their own, running carefully coordinated groups to minimize risk. Chevrolet had the biggest group, so it's no surprise that bowties dominated the top ten on the speed. Austin Dillon led the way in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet (195.63mph) ...Keep readingView the full article

At least for the time being, NASCAR’s identity is internal combustion engines that making loud noises and relate to a majority of the American consumer. While the Sanctioning Body continues development on a prototype race car that can adapt to any alternative fuel or power source, all four manufacturers that compete across the three national tours are content with the internal combustion ...Keep readingView the full article

Where else are you going to see an early 2000s sitcom star, an extreme sports athlete often compared to Evel Knievel, a NASCAR Hall of Famer who has been away for almost a decade, and a popular YouTuber who hates sleeves battle each other at speeds approaching 200mph? Only this Friday the 13th on FOX Sports 1, when the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) season officially gets ...Keep readingView the full article