Circle Tracks

The 68th running of the Daytona 500 has 45 entries, but the NASCAR Cup Series drivers aren't the only ones on track this week. Daytona will also feature the season-opener for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS), the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts (formerly Xfinity) Series (NOAPS), and the ARCA Menard's Series. The Daytona 500 entry list features eight former winners of the Daytona 500 and ...Keep readingView the full article

2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion and RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski will be back behind the wheel of the No. 6 Ford Mustang for the 2026 Daytona 500. The 41-year-old suffered a broken femur while on a Ski trip with his family, about a week before Christmas. He missed out on the Cook Out Clash exhibition race at Bowman Gray Stadium, where Corey LaJoie drove the No. 6 in his ...Keep readingView the full article

In 2026, Ross Chastain will have a new crew chief atop the pit box for the No. 1 Chevrolet. This comes after five seasons with Phil Surgen, who led Chastain to each of his six wins as a NASCAR Cup Series driver. The duo nearly won the 2022 Cup Series championship together, ending that season as the first runner-up in points. Their final race win together was the 2025 Coca-Cola 600, prevailing ...Keep readingView the full article

Ultimately, Kevin Harvick believes the Cookout Clash on Wednesday was a messy affair not because of the winter weather or the tires used because of them but rather how drivers inevitably respond to being pushed around. The comments were made on Thursday during the latest episode of his Happy Hour YouTube show in response to a question from co-host Kaitlyn Vincie about the well-documented ...Keep readingView the full article

Both AM Racing and Nick Sanchez are in a place they didn't expect to be entering 2026. After a solid first year with Big Machine Racing, winning a NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Atlanta, Sanchez was suddenly let go in the middle of the off-season in a decision that left him and many watching surprised. "Unfortunate timing and circumstances, but it's strictly business," said Sanchez ...Keep readingView the full article

NASCAR Hall of Famer and two-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently spoke with Hard Rock Bet  (for whom he is a brand ambassador) about various topics, ranging from the upcoming season, regrets from his career, and even about a possible cameo in the 2028 Fast and Furious movie.  The son of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr., he was also asked about his Formula 1 fandom and modern ...Keep readingView the full article

When the Daytona 500 begins next Sunday, the entire field will immediately go into fuel conservation mode and it frustrates a portion of the fan base every year. The reason drivers spend large portions of the race at half throttle or less in the Great American Race is that using less fuel will allow them to need less when they come down pit road. Because the competition package with this car ...Keep readingView the full article

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season-opener at Daytona International Speedway will feature several interesting names, including Cleetus McFarland (real name Garrett Mitchell), and Travis Pastrana. As previously announced, they will be teammates at Niece Motorsports with Mitchell driving the No. 4 Chevrolet Silverado and Pastana behind the wheel of the No. 42. While Mitchell is making his ...Keep readingView the full article

After eight episodes of the Ram: Race for The Seat, reality show competition, Kaulig Racing has finalized the driver of its fifth truck for the 2026 Craftsman Truck Series season. Mini Tyrrell, 21, bested 14 other drivers to win the competition and secure a full-time deal in the Truck Series. The competition featured various races at road courses and ovals, featuring late model stock cars ...Keep readingView the full article

The NASCAR Cup Series Rule Book received a slew of preseason updates in advance of the final weekend before regular season racing begins next week at Daytona International Speedway. One marginally altered the qualifying procedures for the Daytona 500 and the other banned the practice of drivers placing their hands against their window nets during qualifying in the pursuit of less drag. The ...Keep readingView the full article

Many were left shocked by the fact that Corey Heim was without a full-time ride entering the 2026 season. The defending NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion broke various records in his 2025 title run, and is considered the sport's top prospect alongside Connor Zilisch. However, that doesn't mean Heim won't be racing this year. In a Friday announcement, we learned that Heim will be piloting ...Keep readingView the full article

NASCAR’s senior competition leadership says there were ‘multiple layers’ to the decision to let teams refuel without penalty on Wednesday in the middle of a sleet-affected and caution-riddled Cookout Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. The decision drew the ire of several crew chiefs, those who filled their tank before the start of the race or those who took fuel at the expense of their track ...Keep readingView the full article

Denny Hamlin returned from a tumultuous off-season by scoring an eventful top-5 in the Cookout Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium on Wednesday night. Like much of the field, it wasn’t pretty, and Hamlin survived the chaos better than his peers more than anything else, but it was a top-5. He did it in his first race this season in which he will have to start nursing a re-injured surgically repaired ...Keep readingView the full article

Carson Hocevar isn't going anywhere, signing a long-term contract extension with Spire Motorsports that extends all the way into the 2030s.  The 23-year-old went full-time in the Cup Series in 2024 with Spire, and has helped elevate the team as one that can compete for race wins. While he is has yet to reach Victory Lane at the Cup level, Hocevar has three top fives and 15 top tens in 81 ...Keep readingView the full article

NASCAR is back, and the season got its unofficial start with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. The event was delayed several days due to historic snowfall, and ended up racing through rain and sleet as Mother Nature continued to throw curveballs at NASCAR. But in the end, we saw something that's only ever happened twice before -- a driver won the Clash before actually winning a ...Keep readingView the full article

YouTuber Cleetus McFarland, aka Garett Mitchell, is showing just how serious he is about the dream to compete in NASCAR’s Daytona 500 one day. Carrying on despite the tragic death of his mentor and NASCAR legend Greg Biffle, Mitchell now plans to run double duty at Daytona. Along with running the ARCA Menard’s Series season-opener at Daytona, he also plans to make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck ...Keep readingView the full article

Just over a year ago, Brandon Wilkinson was still spotting Super Late Models full-time across the Southeast. Now, and while it doesn’t officially count, he is a first-time Cup Series spotter alongside his driver Ryan Preece and crew chief Derrick Finley after dominating the second half of the Cookout Clash on Wednesday night. It doesn’t count because the Cookout Clash is a preseason ...Keep readingView the full article

For the first time ever, the NASCAR Cup Series got to experience a full episode of The Ryan Preece Show because Wednesday night in the Cookout Clash was exactly that. It was also the unedited, unfiltered ‘fuck yeah’ version of the show, too. This was Preece Lightning, the 2013 Whelen Modified Tour champion, and a racer who was the man to beat every time he unloaded across the eastern ...Keep readingView the full article

It was just a non-points exhibition race but the Cup Series garage did not feel like the Cookout Clash was the finest hour from race control to those on the ground directly communicating with teams. Walking through the garage, there were several crew chiefs and veteran crew members who felt like the Sanctioning Body needed to do some work over the next week to mend some fences between ...Keep readingView the full article

Shane van Gisbergen spent the first half of the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray in the back half of the field. During that first time, he got into it with Austin Cindric and former Trackhouse teammate Daniel Suarez. At one point, he spun Cindric out in frustration and radioed, "People just kept running into me and I got sick of it."  In regards to Suarez, he added: "It's the third time the ...Keep readingView the full article

An emotional Ryan Preece couldn't stop himself from tearing up and dropping a celebratory F-Bomb as he claimed victory in the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. The Madhouse lived up to its name, as the race -- which was already postponed several days due to snow -- featured a record 17 cautions, and ended on wet-weather tires after sleet hit the track mid-race at around lap 100. Preece ...Keep readingView the full article

In a field of 18 desperate drivers, only the top two finishers + the points provisional (Alex Bowman) were going to transfer from the last-chance-qualifier (LCQ) into the main event. Bowman was happy to take the points provisional on offer to him (as the highest driver from the 2025 championship not yet locked in) instead of racing for it and risking his car, so the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports ...Keep readingView the full article

After shaking down their cars in practice and cleaning up some ‘weepers’ of water caused by melting snow, qualifying got underway for the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray. In this format, the 20 fastest drivers advance directly into the main event, while positions 21-38 will transfer to the last-chance qualifier. Only the top two finishers from the LCQ will get to take part in the pre-season ...Keep readingView the full article

For the next week and a half, Corey Lajoie is what he has been for much of this decade, a NASCAR Cup Series driver. With Brad Keselowski suffering from a broken right femur suffered in a fall on ice during a family skiing trip on December 18, Lajoie got the call to race in the Cookout Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in the famed RFK Racing No. 6. This is in addition to his previously scheduled ...Keep readingView the full article

Denny Hamlin is not 100 percent right now after an emotional rollercoaster of a winter and he may not get there until after the end of the 2026 season concludes. That is because, in addition to the death of his father in a house fire that also hospitalized his mother, Hamlin also re-tore the right shoulder he got surgically repaired after the 2023 season. This happened during a fall while going ...Keep readingView the full article