Circle Tracks

Chase Elliott was first voted NASCAR Cup's Most Popular Driver in 2018, and he has held that title ever since. He now won the National Motorsports Press Association award for the eighth consecutive year. His father Bill won the award 16 times between 1984 and 2002.  This is also the 35th consecutive year a member of the Earnhardt or Elliott family has won the fan-chosen award. Prior to the ...Keep readingView the full article

The most unfortunate part of how everything went down on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race is that the bitter defeat of Denny Hamlin superseded any kind of celebration for Kyle Larson. Hamlin led 208 laps of a race that was scheduled for go 312 but was extended to 318 due to overtime as a result of William Byron crashing after suffering a tire failure. Larson ...Keep readingView the full article

Denny Hamlin has two years left on a NASCAR Cup Series contract extension he signed with Joe Gibbs Racing over the summer but the 'deep cut' of how he was denied his first championship on Sunday makes it hard for him to envision coming back. This isn't to say that he is mulling early retirement, but he can't bring himself to think about next season after dominating the championship race ...Keep readingView the full article

After a tearful loss in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship race, plans to place Connor Zilisch in the upcoming World Endurance Championship (WEC) rookie test at Bahrain International Circuit have been tabled. By finishing second in the championship in the one-race finale, Zilisch does not possess the ACCUS (Automobile Competition Committee for the United States) license points needed to ...Keep readingView the full article

Looking at the NASCAR Cup Series grid, there are eleven multi-car teams with sizes ranging from two to four cars. But which driver from each can claim to be the best? Motorsport.com considered race wins, average finish, head-to-head weekly battles, and the final championship result of each of the team's full-time drivers in deciding who was the 'No. 1 driver' within each organization. Part-time ...Keep readingView the full article

There will be a change atop the pit box for the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Team Chevrolet next season. Brandon McSwain, who has worked as an engineer for the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team for the past six years, will replace Phil Surgen. Chastain has worked with Surgen since the 2021 season when he still drove for Chip Ganassi Racing, and has won all six of his Cup races with the same crew ...Keep readingView the full article

Kyle Larson is a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Denny Hamlin is left to face the toughest loss of his entire career, and tire issues wreak havoc on championship Sunday. Phoenix certainly delivered a show, and yet, there was simply sadness and disbelief from many fans after the checkered flag. The 2025 season is officially over, inspection is clear, and now we are left to pick apart 319 ...Keep readingView the full article

The emotions and tensions after the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race could be cut with a figurative knife.   The four championship finalists, their respective fanbases, and everyone in the industry had been taken on a whirlwind journey on Sunday afternoon. There were various points throughout the race where everyone thought their chances of winning were ruined. Chase Briscoe had a flat ...Keep readingView the full article

Goodyear brought a softer compound to Phoenix for the NASCAR Cup title-decider, and tire issues began during Friday's practice session. However, no one was sounding the alarm to tire supplier Goodyear. Several crew chiefs admitted to pushing the limit with lower air pressures in order to gain a speed advantage, and there was a similar sentiment after Sunday's wild finale at Phoenix. Goodyear ...Keep readingView the full article

Last weekend, Ryan Blaney was in position to win his way into the the Championship 4, but he had to settle for second and playoff elimination after getting muscled out of the way by William Byron. One week later, he went out and won the season finale at Phoenix with a last-lap pass on Brad Keselowski. You might think being so close to a title will haunt the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske ...Keep readingView the full article

On Sunday, all eyes were on Denny Hamlin. After 20 years of trying, he entered the 2025 title-decider as the favorite for many. He recently secured his 60th career win, and he earned pole position for this race. He was also racing for his father, who is terminally ill and could not attend the race. And in the background of the battle on track, Hamlin's 23XI Racing team is in the middle of a ...Keep readingView the full article

As Kyle Larson claimed an unexpected title without leading a single lap, Denny Hamlin was forced to settle for second in the championship standings. Ryan Blaney claimed the checkered flag with a pass on Brad Keselowski in the final corner, while newly crowned two-time Cup Series champion Larson finished third. This year, 60 different drivers started NASCAR Cup races, but only 44 were ...Keep readingView the full article

With just a few laps to go in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series title race, Denny Hamlin appeared set to win it all, with William Byron ending the season as the championship runner-up. But before Hamlin could reach the white flag, the caution flew for yet another tire failure. This time, it was Byron, who slammed the wall in Turns 3 and 4. His title hopes were over, and Hamlin was put in an impossible ...Keep readingView the full article

A dramatic NASCAR Cup finale at Phoenix Raceway ended in a wild overtime restart. Denny Hamlin had dominated the event, but he was deep in the pack after a four-tire call on the final pit stop.  Title rival Kyle Larson opted for two, and the track position difference was enough for the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, who captured his second his second NASCAR Cup title ...Keep readingView the full article

Connor Zilisch is the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year, but he missed out on the biggest prize. The 19-year-old led all drivers in wins (10), top fives (20), top tens (23), and average finish (8.0), but he will end the year as the championship runner-up. At the Phoenix finale, he lost the race lead with 24 laps to go to his best friend and title rival Jesse Love. After the race, he ...Keep readingView the full article

Later today, four drivers will battle it out for 312 laps around Phoenix Raceway for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series championship. Pole-sitter Denny Hamlin chases an elusive crown after two decades while Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe attempts to win it in his first Championship 4 appearance. Hendrick Motorsports seeks to add to their incredible legacy with a 15th title with former champion ...Keep readingView the full article

Alpa Prime Racing runs three entries in the NASCAR Xfinity Series -- the No. 4, No. 44, and No. 45. Tommy Joe Martins is a co-owner of the team, and he was celebrating like they had just won the race as their cars crossed the finish line. Why? Well, that's because the No. 44 car driven by Brennan Poole finished high enough to snag a spot inside the top 20 in the owner's championship (by a ...Keep readingView the full article

The emotion afterwards was palpable. On pit road, immediately after the race, newly crowned NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Jesse Love was in tears at earning a major career accomplishment. On the other end of the spectrum, Connor Zilisch was in tears because he was denied a championship that surely would have been his under any other format. "I feel like emotion is part of the sport," ...Keep readingView the full article

In an unexpected triumph, Jesse Love bested Connor Zilisch to win the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.  Love passed Zilisch for the lead with 24 laps to go, and never looked back. This is Love's third career win, and his first ever on a non-superspeedway track. In the closing laps, Aric Almirola passed Zilisch for second, securing the owner's championship for Joe Gibbs Racing and the ...Keep readingView the full article

Denny Hamlin was the straw that stirs the drink in the final Final Four press conference prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. First, Hamlin was much looser than he was on Friday following a mechanical scare, aided by the fact that he scored pole position on Saturday afternoon. During the NextGen era, the finalist that qualified the best of the four ...Keep readingView the full article

Denny Hamlin 's 20-year quest to become a NASCAR Cup Series champion just got one step closer after securing pole position for the title-decider in Phoenix on Saturday. Hamlin flew to pole position with a confident-looking 28.914s lap, collecting his 48th career pole and his fifth of the 2025 season. "We're trying," smiled Hamlin after securing the top spot on the grid. "We're doing ...Keep readingView the full article

Joe Gibbs Racing locked out the front row for the season finale with Brandon Jones earning pole position over teammate Taylor Gray. Jones' fast lap of 27.490s was more than a full tenth faster than his teammate Gray, who earned his first career win one week ago at Martinsville. Sheldon Creed qualified third, but the top-qualifying Championship 4 driver was Connor Zilisch in fourth. Zilisch ...Keep readingView the full article

Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) was established as All-Star Racing in 1984, while Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) joined NASCAR for the first time in 1992. Since then, HMS has won 320 races and JGR has won 227, making them the two of the three winningest teams in Cup Series history.  They've also combined to win 19 of the last 30 Cup titles, with Hendrick collecting 14 championships and Gibbs five ...Keep readingView the full article

Corey Heim obliterated the competition in 2025. He won 4x as many races as his closest competition, scored nearly twice as many top fives, led 3x as many laps led, and ended the year with an average finish more than four places better than any other full-time driver. To cap it all off, Heim drove from tenth to first in two overtime restarts (with four fresh tires), making up most of the ground ...Keep readingView the full article

After years of Cup drivers ransacking the lower divisions for race wins and championships, NASCAR introduced a policy limiting Cup drivers to a maximum of five races in Xfinity and five in Trucks, while also forbidding drivers from racing for multiple championships. On Saturday, NASCAR revealed that they will actually double the number of races from five to ten for the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto ...Keep readingView the full article