Finally! NASCAR has listened to a long-standing fan complaint. After years of criticism over limited testing, the sport is bringing back its iconic preseason thunder at Daytona International Speedway ahead of 2027. The move is meant to improve supers… [3648 chars]

Alex Bowman has been sidelined for the last four NASCAR Cup Series races.
After making a premature exit in the Cup race at Circuit of The Americas last month, it was revealed that the driver of the No. 48 had been diagnosed with vertigo. The Arizona … [2724 chars]

Alex Bowman, who has missed the last four NASCAR Cup Series races because of vertigo, will return to the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 car this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Bowman spent Tuesday in a street car turning laps on the Ten Tenths road … [1660 chars]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Alex Bowman has been cleared to return to the NASCAR race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway after missing four races with vertigo.
Hendrick Motorsports announced Thursday that Bowman will drive the No. 48 Chevrolet on Sunday at… [1494 chars]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Alex Bowman has been cleared to return to the NASCAR race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway after missing four races with vertigo.
Hendrick Motorsports announced Thursday that Bowman will drive the No. 48 Chevrolet on Sunday at… [1678 chars]

A federal court has extended a temporary restraining order in the legal case involving Joe Gibbs Racing and former executive Chris Gabehart. The ruling keeps limits in place on Gabehart’s role at Spire Motorsports as the case continues. The dispute c… [3199 chars]

For decades, Ford has been synonymous with stock car racing, but now one of its most loyal voices is raising eyebrows. When a Hall of Famer like Mark Martin speaks candidly about the brand he once represented for a little over two decades, it is boun… [4747 chars]

A complaint about remote racing coverage should have just ended as another passing jab, but it didn’t. Instead, it dragged Kenny Wallace into a late-night spiral where a single tweet by the veteran commentator triggered a chain of replies, insults, a… [4314 chars]

Mark Martin has raised concerns about Cleetus McFarland’s rapid rise as NASCAR officials prepare to rule on his Talladega eligibility. Speaking this week on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Martin discussed the NASCAR approval process and the path driv… [3094 chars]

Kyle Larson’s success in NASCAR has not come solely through luck; it is a result of his dedication to improving as a driver. His Cup Series victory last year was an indication of how special he is, but the driver has developed that ‘X factor’ through… [3060 chars]

NASCAR insiders raise concerns over Cup Series return to Rockingham after sellout weekend. Rockingham Speedway drew sellout crowds again during the April 3-4 weekend as national series racing returned for a second straight year.
The track hosted the … [3666 chars]

For Mark Martin, the 1998 season wasn’t a failure.
It just felt like one.
Because no matter how fast he was, no matter how many races he won, there was no catching Jeff Gordon.
“By the way, we won the Winston in seven races that year and scored enoug… [2856 chars]

Joey Logano is not satisfied with his early position in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series standings after seven races. The Team Penske driver sits 12th with 185 points, trailing leader Tyler Reddick by 168 points.
Reddick has opened the season with four win… [2598 chars]

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to the 0.533-mile Bristol Motor Speedway, which is a high-banked concrete oval, for the eighth of 36 races in the 2026 NASCAR Cup season. The Cup Series will be joined this weekend by the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series … [1977 chars]

Mark Martin did not hold back when comparing NASCAR manufacturers. On the Door Bumper Clear podcast, the Hall of Famer explained how funding and support differ across the sport.
He pointed to Ford Motor Company, Toyota, and Chevrolet, outlining how e… [3656 chars]

Kyle Larson has doubled down on his stance in the ongoing NASCAR vs Formula 1 debate, again stating that he believes he is a better all-around driver than Max Verstappen.
Speaking on the SPEED podcast, Larson revisited comments that first sparked glo… [2878 chars]

While Daniel Suarez might already be laden with responsibilities on the track, he is about to start preparing for a lot more after a major announcement he made with his wife, Julia Piquet, on social media on Easter. Congratulations poured in for the … [2650 chars]

Ryan Blaney is many things. A racecar driver, a Jedi, a husband, a father, a friend, and a son. But one thing the Team Penske driver is not is an electrician. That was something his recent admission cleared up.
Ryan Blaney was left frozen in his own … [3220 chars]

No NASCAR Cup Series driver has been as hot as Ty Gibbs over the last five races.
Since starting the season with finishes of 23rd and 37th at Daytona and Atlanta, Gibbs has five straight finishes of sixth or better, including four top fives. He’s ris… [1650 chars]

The 2022 Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway was 250 laps of pure chaos. Yet it will forever be memorable for the high-intensity drama it had from start to finish. The race was repeatedly interrupted as the dirt surface, seemingly loose and… [2874 chars]

Brad Keselowski has recently decided to increase his efforts to help improve the Ford program in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series. When it comes to fruition is something that we don’t know yet, but one of the contenders for a seat could be Parker Retzlaff…. [2678 chars]

Something about NASCAR feels hopeful this year. Be it the Chase format coming back or the Daytona 500 viewership number being at a three-year high, stock car racing seems to be on the rise towards the mainstream again, a place it hasn’t experienced s… [6363 chars]

The NASCAR season rolls into one of its most anticipated stops as Bristol Motor Speedway hosts the 2026 spring race weekend from April 10 to April 12. Often called the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile,” this 0.533-mile concrete track is characterized by st… [3127 chars]

Ryan Blaney continues to stay near the top of the NASCAR Cup Series standings in 2026, sitting second behind Tyler Reddick. The No. 12 Team Penske driver pointed to his pit crew as a key part of that strong start.
Earlier in the season, the team face… [3086 chars]

For decades, NASCAR Cup Series has treated Easter as sacred, upholding the spirit of the festival. There’s no races, no travel, just time for drivers and teams to be with family. It’s one of the few traditions the sport has held onto without much deb… [3238 chars]

NASCAR will return to Chicagoland Speedway with cars back on track for the first time since 2019. The 1.5-mile oval will host a Goodyear tire test on April 21 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The session will feature Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Larson … [3150 chars]

Winning a race in NASCAR is a great feat and takes a lot of perseverance. Many great drivers take time to seal their first win, and the journey to get to that is sometimes frustrating. But for VKGNs Parker Retzlaff, the Rockingham race was certainly … [2730 chars]

The NASCAR Cup Series is currently on an off weekend for Easter, but the Truck and O’Reilly’s Auto Parts Series is still active. Chandler Smith put on a spirited display in the race at Rockingham as he came from behind the field to bag a 4th-place fi… [2815 chars]

Cleetus McFarland made his NASCAR debut on April 4, 2026, at Rockingham Speedway, driving the No. 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. The event drew attention due to McFarland’s background as a YouTube creator with limited national-series expe… [2975 chars]

Rajah Caruth took responsibility after making contact with Jesse Love during the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on April 4, 2026, at Rockingham Speedway. The incident at NASCAR Rockingham Speedway occurred early in the race. Caruth, driving t… [3058 chars]

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returned to Rockingham Speedway on April 4, 2026, for Race 8 of the season. The North Carolina Education Lottery 250 Presented by Black’s Tire delivered a full night of racing on the 1.017-mile oval.
William Sawa… [3132 chars]

William Sawalich secured his first career victory in a NASCAR national series race on April 4, 2026, at Rockingham Speedway. Driving the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, the 19-year-old became the youngest driver to win at the track.
The NASCAR win al… [2580 chars]

Cleetus McFarland made his NASCAR debut in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Rockingham Speedway, driving for Richard Childress Racing. The event marked his first appearance in professional stock car racing. Ty Dillon, a NASCAR Cup Series driv… [2803 chars]

There are 36 NASCAR races in 2026, starting with the Regular Season races which began in February. They run until the Cup Series Chase in November.
Because there are so many to watch, it can be difficult to keep track of all of them. Here is the full… [5329 chars]

NASCAR has always leaned hard into one identity: stock cars. It’s what separates it from the precision-built machines of Formula 1 or the open-wheel world of IndyCar Series. The idea is simple: race cars that look like what you can buy. But lately, f… [3881 chars]

Back in 2021, Bristol Motor Speedway rolled the dice and hosted the NASCAR Cup Series race on a dirt track for the first time since 1970. For a while, the experiment worked (or at least held attention) through 2023. Then, NASCAR pulled the plug, retu… [5148 chars]

When it comes to the title of the NASCAR GOAT, most fans are split between Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Both are 7x Cup champions who defined eras of the sport in their careers. But when it comes to pop culture coverage, it seems one of the two gets less love. The one in the subject is the one regarded as the King of NASCAR, Richard Petty.
Richard Petty not looked at the same way as Earnhardt
Over the course of his Cup career, which saw him start well over 1,000 races, Richard Petty won 200 races. He holds the record for the most wins ever by a Cup driver, and that record appears like it will stand the test of time. Moreover, he has 7 Cup titles, the most consecutive wins in a season (10), the most overall wins in a season (27), the most wins at Daytona (10), and so many more records.
On the other hand, Dale Earnhardt Sr. had almost half as many starts (676) with half as many wins (76), and 1/10th of Petty’s Daytona 500 wins.
Comparing Petty’s career on paper to Earnhardt’s clearly shows that the former #43 driver was a better, more accomplished driver than the former #3 driver. However, the coverage both drivers have gotten on the silver screen and documentaries honoring their legacies tells a different story.
Petty notably starred as himself in the 1972 biographical film, 43: The Petty Story. He also has had cameos in Days of Thunder, the CARS movies, Stroker Ace, Red Line 7000, and Speed Zone.
On the other hand, Dale Earnhardt Sr. has had a biopic made on him called 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story, Dale, and Blink of an Eye. But more recently and more prominently, Earnhardt’s life was subject to a four-part Prime docu-series titled ‘Earnhardt.’
In fact, Richard Petty’s son, Kyle Petty, shared his appreciation for Earnhardt in the opening episode. He claimed that when he was growing up, NASCAR was going through a period of transition.
“At that time in the sport, you had a changing of the guard. You had the old guard: Cale Yarborough, David Pearson, Buddy Baker, Bobby Allison, and Richard Petty. Darrell Waltrip had seen himself as the heir apparent of the old guard. But when he turned around, there was another guy who had slid in behind him to take his crown, and it was Earnhardt,” Petty said.
The Prime title for Earnhardt not only received a lot of critical response and appreciation from the insiders but also a lot of love from the fans.
But when the idea of Richard Petty’s legacy and career was proposed among the fans, the response was less than warm towards it.
Fans not interested in seeing Richard Petty’s legacy as a biopic
Amid the recent reports by Variety of Dennis Quaid starring in a series about a NASCAR family across multiple generations, one fan wondered if a Richard Petty biopic would work. The fan even referenced the kind of biopic it would be, putting it in a similar ballpark as Ford vs. Ferrari, which was essentially a David vs. Goliath story. But the idea of a Ford vs. Ferrari-like biopic on Richard Petty’s life was one that most fans didn’t think should or could happen.
One fan straightforwardly said, “I have very little interest,” while another tried to picture a potential plot as they wrote, “Petty V Pearson could be interesting.”
The rivalry between Petty and David Pearson more or less defined the sport for over two decades as they shared 63 one-two finishes between them. While Petty’s career ended with more wins in total, between the two of them, it was Pearson who had an edge (33-30).
One fan dissected the aspect of the underdog vs. big-dog aspect of a Petty version of Ford vs. Ferrari as they wondered, “What exactly is compelling about the son of the owner of Ferrari taken over driver duties from the owner and just continuing to beat the s**t out of everyone?” To the fan’s point, Richard Petty is the son of Lee Petty, who himself was a very successful name in NASCAR as a driver and owner.
A fan questioned the whole idea of having a Richard Petty biopic to achieve a desired goal. “If the goal is to make a good biopic for race fans, yes. If the goal is to make a biopic that crosses appeal to movie watchers, I’d rather see a Hollywood budgeted Junior Johnson film,” the fan wrote. Johnson, a quirky figure in NASCAR history, was no stranger to drama in his career as a driver and owner. From moonshining to engine scandals to cheating, Johnson’s life had it all.
Having said that, there was one fan who simply wondered if Richard Petty’s life and legacy should be given the same treatment Prime gave to Dale Earnhardt. “The whole biopic genre is getting overkilled. I’d rather see a 4-part documentary on Amazon like they did with Dale Earnhardt,” the fan wrote.
Now, whether Petty gets an Earnhardt-like docu-series would be something only time will tell.

As gas prices rise across the United States and around the world in the wake of the Iran war, NASCAR is feeling the effects.
In order to get from race to race, teams use 18-wheelers to drive to each event. Hauler drivers are the unsung heroes of the sport, putting on hundreds, if not thousands of miles to ensure their teams’ cars are getting to the racetrack.
But as diesel prices increase — they reached $5.50 a gallon on average in the U.S. on Thursday, per AAA, while regular gasoline is at $4.08 a gallon — teams are feeling a strain on their wallets.
Kaulig Racing CEO Chris Rice detailed how rising fuel prices and other economic factors impact his organization in a Thursday interview with SirusXM NASCAR Radio and noted that upcoming race weekend in Rockingham, N.C. — close to NASCAR’s hub in Charlotte — is good from a financial perspective.
Fuel prices affecting NASCAR teams
According to AAA, diesel prices have increased by $1.73 from where they were a year ago at $3.77 a gallon.

LeBron James brought NASCAR into a wider sports conversation during a recent appearance on the YouTube show “Bob Does Sports” on April 2, 2026. The four-time NBA champion spoke about the demands of travel late in his career and pointed directly to Memphis as a stop he does not enjoy.
At 41, James questioned the routine of playing in certain cities and used that moment to suggest a different location for the franchise. His comments quickly spread online, not only because of the relocation idea but also because of his direct reference to NASCAR in Nashville, a sport he rarely mentions in public discussions.
LeBron James Calls Out on Memphis Travel and Suggests Nashville Move
During the interview, LeBron James addressed the physical toll of constant travel in the NBA. He spoke openly about his frustration with certain trips on the schedule.
“At 41 years old, you think I want to do that shit? Being in Memphis on a random ass Thursday?” James said during the show.
He then shifted to a possible alternative and suggested moving the Memphis Grizzlies to Nashville. James pointed to the city’s sports and entertainment options as reasons it could support an NBA team.
“You’ve got Vanderbilt over there, and you’ve got the f—king NASCAR. You’ve got a stadium. Don’t they got a hockey team, too? They’ve got everything,” he said.
James also added that even if Memphis had drafted him first overall in 2003, he might not have reported to the team. “I might have pulled an Eli Manning and not shown up,” he said.
NASCAR Presence in Nashville Draws National Attention
The mention of NASCAR during the interview placed focus on the sport’s role in the region. Nashville Superspeedway has been part of the national racing calendar since its return in 2021.
The venue hosts a full race weekend each year, including events from the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and Craftsman Truck Series. The 1.33-mile concrete track sits in nearby Lebanon and attracts large crowds during race weekends.
Fans attend races and also take part in activities across Nashville during the same period. The combination of racing and the city’s entertainment scene has made the event a regular stop on the NASCAR schedule.
James’ reference to “the f—king NASCAR” placed the sport alongside other major institutions in the city, including Vanderbilt University and the NHL’s Nashville Predators.
Nashville’s Sports Landscape Continues to Grow
Nashville has developed into a multi-sport market over the years. The city is home to the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and the Nashville Predators, while Vanderbilt Commodores compete at the college level.
NASCAR events at Nashville Superspeedway add to that calendar and bring national attention during race weekends. The city also attracts visitors through its music and tourism industry, which supports large-scale sporting events.
James’ comments added to existing discussions about NBA expansion or relocation, though no official move involving the Grizzlies has been announced. His remarks, delivered during a casual interview setting, gained traction across both basketball and racing audiences.
While the future of the Grizzlies remains unchanged, the moment highlighted how Nashville continues to be part of conversations involving major professional sports.

Last year in October, NASCAR 25 hit the shelves, and the reception was largely positive. Yes, the game did come with its set of criticisms as well, but it managed to be a multi-million dollar success, having sold over 100,000 copies. Thanks to this, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has now brought good news for NASCAR and gaming fans.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed one detail about the NASCAR 25 soundtrack
Back in January, he sent out a tweet to fans, recruiting their help. Just like last year’s NASCAR 25 game, he wanted their suggestions for the game’s soundtrack. Fast forward to three months later, and Dale Jr has provided an update about the new game’s soundtrack.
He wrote on X, “The soundtrack for the next console @nascar game is coming together. Got 19 songs currently to get rights to. Feel like we learned a lot from last year to make this group even better. Plus, working on the options to control what you want to hear and what you dont.”
As he mentioned, it’s not easy to find songs to add to a game’s soundtrack. Each song has certain rights, and using them for anything requires permission from the artists and their labels. Those artists and labels likely earn royalties from the songs’ usage in games as well. Judging from the latter half of his comments, Dale Earnhardt Jr is promising that players can customize the soundtracks to their liking.
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This is something that was often seen in games like GTA, Burnout Revenge, Forza Motorsports and more. So this isn’t exactly a novel concept, but it is relatively uncommon in the gaming genre. Dale Jr has insisted that the development team has learned from NASCAR 25, and the subsequent title will be a step up from that.
Dale Jr made a confession about the Hall of Fame
Away from the track, one could say that he was the face of NASCAR and he did his part to give back to it. Dale Jr was hugely popular with the NASCAR fanbase, winning the Most Popular Driver 15 consecutive years. So it was surprising when he confessed on the Dale Jr Download that he was inducted too early into the Hall of Fame.
He said, “I would have preferred to have waited, and the Ray Elders, the Randy Dorton’s — all those guys that were here a long time ago — they should get in. But a guy like me pops up on the damn ballot and goes right to the front of the line. It’s like when you’re checking in to get your flight, you gotta wait your turn.”
Apparently, there is a rule about Hall of Fame eligibility in NASCAR. They are eligible to be in the Hall of Fame, at least two years after retiring from full-time racing and must have enjoyed a career spanning more than 10 years. By the time Dale Earnhardt Jr stepped away, he was a 26-time Cup Series winner and two-time Daytona 500 champion. In addition to that, he clinched back-to-back Busch Series championships, which earned him Cup Series promotion.
However, the central issue of the debate right now is whether the HoF should consider non-Cup drivers or not, the conversation that started on Junior’s podcast itself about Justin Allgaier’s eligibility discussion. Interestingly, Junior himself never won a Cup title, so by that logic, his 2021 nomination also shouldn’t have taken place. But as Junior argued, it’s “NASCAR Hall of Fame,” and not “NASCAR Cup Hall of Fame.”

Ever since this year’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville, it seems as if NASCAR is evolving into a more intense, close-combat sport. With the re-entry of Ram Trucks into the Craftsman Truck Series for the first time since 2012, partnering with Kaulig Racing, up to five full-time trucks will hit the tarmac in 2026. The fifth seat was filled through the Race for the Seat competition, a UFC-style elimination event. This marks a shift from traditional NASCAR driver pipelines.
And who better to comment on this shift than Dana White, the creator of the most popular modern televised combat sport event, the UFC?
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Dana White comments on NASCAR’s evolving approach to talent discovery
Dana White, the UFC president and the mastermind behind The Ultimate Fighter, is also an executive producer on Race for the Seat. He shared his opinion on the SpeedOnFox show with Kevin Harvick, drawing on the program’s origins.
“Well, that style of competition, you know, I did it with The Ultimate Fighter. We did it with Jujitsu. We did it with PowerSlap. And I did a surfing show.” Adding to the capacity of such competitive programs, White added, “The kid that won the surfing show actually won like the World Cup of surfing that year. That style of competition, the best always rise to the top.”
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He stresses the need for such UFC-styled NASCAR driver pipelines, stating, “That style of competition, the best always rise to the top. It’s very fascinating. And the idea is to create a pressure-filled environment where only the best can succeed.”
This new talent scouting program, whether it succeeds in the long term or not, is still unknown. Yet it has already primed its first outcome.
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Upon completion of the series, in which fifteen aspiring drivers competed to finish various track challenges held around the Virginia International Raceway and South Boston Speedway, Timothy “Mini” Tyrrell emerged victorious, earning him a full-time ride in the No. 14 Ram truck. He has now earned himself a seat to race alongside legends Brenden “Butterbean” Queen, Daniel Dye, and Justin Haley, filling the other three cars.
The “mystery” of the fourth seat
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You must have noted that adding together Timothy “Mini” Tyrrell, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen, Daniel Dye, and Justin Haley still leaves one seat vacant. Well, that seat too is filled by a limited program.
As part of Ram Trucks’ return, the new program has been designed as a rotating driver initiative for the No. 25 Ram 1500 truck, rather than what would be a traditional driver contract. Under this program, at every NASCAR Truck Series event, the car would be piloted by a different driver, with the announcement on who’s going to be the lucky driver made on Monday before the weekend’s competition.
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The driver selected for the seat again has no criterion to be selected, increasing fan engagement for the event. Because the very unpredictability of who the driver could be, either a legendary veteran, a cross-discipline racer, or even a rising star, is almost guaranteed to drive up engagement.
The very first driver to adopt this “fourth” crown this year was Tony Stewart at Daytona on the 13th of February. With subsequent races rotating between legends like Ty Dillon at Atlanta, Colin Braun in the street-course debut at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, and Corey LaJoie at Darlington and Rockingham. The inclusion of someone like Braun in a Truck Series event truly showcases that the program’s intent to reach new audiences through engagement beyond traditional stock-car specialists is already working.
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Even though these Free Agent drivers are not eligible for the Truck Series championship, they, alongside their fifth driver, this time Timothy Tyrrell, have increased the ability of novices to enter the championship, providing a stage for those who would otherwise be ignored. And after all, it may lead to the outcome that Dana White suggested: “The best will always rise to the top.”

Has NASCAR finally found the answer to bringing back the good old days? And if the answer is getting names like Cleetus McFarland and Squirrel McNutt inside the racecars, is it worth the backlash from big names inside the sport? Irrespective of the answer, the numbers don’t lie, and the numbers favor the two YouTubers.
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Cleetus McFarland and sidekick key to NASCAR restoring its glory?
The ARCA East race at Hickory pulled the largest ever number in its history with a total of 175,000 viewers. While nothing remarkable happened in or before the race, the participation of one driver was something notable, which journalist Jeff Gluck also highlighted.
“NASCAR says this was the biggest ARCA East/K&N East audience in the last decade and traffic to the NASCAR Channel was double its usual daily average. You’d certainly have to think this was a lot due to Cleetus sidekick Squirrel McNutt (George Siciliano) making his debut,” Gluck wrote.
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McNutt is a regular character in McFarland’s YouTube videos. In fact, Cleetus McFarland is all set to make his much-anticipated O’Reilly debut this weekend at Rockingham. And many believe that McFarland could be the one who ushers in a new era of fans to bring back the old era.
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Ever since the era of Dale Earnhardt passed, NASCAR has been trying to tap into the cultural zeitgeist. Back in the 1990s, the sport was huge because of the huge personalities like Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon. Over time, the personalities lessened and so did their weight and pull. But in the last decade, the weight and the pull were nowhere close to what they once were. Since then, the sport has been trying to get back to its glory days of high ratings and high viewership.
NASCAR has tried everything, from a new car to a varied schedule, to inventive forms of marketing to going back to historic tracks, to testing grounds on new tracks. However, the key seems to be getting names like Cleetus McFarland, who is watched and loved by millions, and bringing his viewership to NASCAR.
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One of the big names who believes in that theory is none other than Dale Earnhardt Jr. The Hall of Famer claimed on his podcast that he wants McFarland racing in NASCAR and bringing his followers to the sport. It’s worth mentioning that McFarland currently has over 4 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. NASCAR has less than 2 million. He has over 900,000 followers on Instagram. Chase Elliott, NASCAR’s most popular driver, has less than 500,000.
But while many are excited about the idea of getting McFarland in NASCAR, there are many who are cautious as well. Kyle Busch was very vocal about his lack of experience as a racecar driver in a stock car with regard to NASCAR giving him the approval to race in the O’Reilly Series. The approval system was something Brad Keselowski also called out.
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Freddie Kraft was particular in his criticism of McFarland as a racecar driver, circling his Truck appearance at Daytona, and the early crash, which could’ve wiped out the whole field.
But despite all the criticism, Cleetus McFarland is unfazed.
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McFarland isn’t going anywhere for the next 2 years from NASCAR
Cleetus McFarland recently addressed the backlash he has gotten since the announcement of his RCR deal. McFarland would run three races for the organization in the O’Reilly Series, the first of which would be at Rockingham.
He claimed that being a YouTuber has prepared him enough to deal with criticism. McFarland stated that anyone who would’ve gotten a chance to drive for RCR would’ve taken it, especially when NASCAR is letting him do it.
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“I’m here, and no one can save me but myself at this point. Once I get on that track on Saturday, it’s up to me. So, they can complain as much as they’d like, but it’s happening, and it’s for two years. So they better buckle up.”
With that said, it’ll be interesting to see how McFarland fares in his O’Reilly debut and whether he brings in the same level of viewership increase as his sidekick did in the ARCA race.

The recent conflict in the Middle East has claimed a new victim: NASCAR. Since the onset of the war, fuel prices have increased in international markets. With the season having just started, rising fuel costs are forcing teams to adapt or risk being squeezed out due to financial constraints. Kaulig Racing’s new CEO has highlighted this pressing issue, aiming to draw nationwide attention to the critical challenges facing the sport.
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CEO’s Twitter statement: A call for nationwide attention
Kaulig Racing’s new CEO, Chris Rice, took to Twitter to highlight the issues that newer NASCAR teams are facing due to rising fuel costs.
He pointed out, “Fuel prices are killing us. The rise in diesel costs is forcing us to rethink every aspect of our strategy, from how we travel to how we race. This is all costing us a bit more than anticipated.”
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The situation in the Middle East has certainly impacted fuel prices, but other operations in racing have also taken a hit.
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“Ty Norris, our COO, always tells me that he’s never seen anyone keep track of every spoon and fork we buy, but I have to. Every dollar matters right now, especially when we’re dealing with higher costs in almost every department,” said Rice.
Combined with the racing costs, this conflict in the Middle East is now threatening to tear up America’s local circuits. Commenting on the same, Rice added, “We’ve already torn up more fenders than we anticipated this season, and now fuel is a major concern. The financial strain is real, and it’s hitting teams hard.”
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Teams have now been left with no option but to improvise with adjustments being made across the board.
“Back in January, we spent a lot of money on fuel running parts here and there, doing this and that. Now we have a group text called the ‘traveling group text’ where we plan our trips accordingly,” Rice said. “We talk to our truck drivers to figure out how to optimize our routes. For example, do we really need to fill up all the way if we’re only heading to Rockingham? We look for places where fuel might be cheaper, trying to save every dollar we can.”
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Despite Donald Trump, President of the USA, confirming that the war is set to see an end soon, nothing can be guaranteed due to the political landscape of the world right now. Novice teams such as Kaulig Racing will find it hard unless swift adjustments are made. However, this does raise a question on there being need for a potential shift in strategy.
NASCAR has publicly committed to achieving net-zero operational emissions by 2035 as a part of its NASCAR IMPACT environmental strategy. Quickly adapting to renewable resources would not only allow NASCAR to abide by the 2035 deadline but it would also help reduce dependency on non-renewable fuels.
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Finally, NASCAR partnerships with ABB and major automakers such as Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota could also be taken into account, where a 2024 agreement stipulates that all stakeholders would debut an electric race car prototype to test future racing platforms.
This is a great move, as combining it with NASCAR’s push to shift to 100 percent renewable energy sourcing would reduce the dependency on fuel.
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These changes, even though seemingly long-term, can quickly be adapted to limit the fallout of the fuel crisis. If all stakeholders, including politicians, could agree, NASCAR’s 2026 season would have a way to survive this situation.

The fan sentiment against Steve O’Donnell and Steve Phelps reached a breaking point after the antitrust case earlier this year. Various texts were unearthed, Phelps resigned, and the distance between NASCAR leadership and its fans was greater than ever. However, Mike Helton wants to bridge that gap.
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Mike Helton candidly assesses the current NASCAR leadership
One of the most beloved and legendary figures in the history of NASCAR leadership, Helton recently appeared on Kevin Harvick’s podcast. The current Vice Chairman of NASCAR spoke about a variety of subjects, one of which was his views on the current leadership of the sport.
It’s worth mentioning that after Phelps’ resignation, Steve O’Donnell took over the position to become the President of NASCAR. Other notable executives include Ben Kennedy, the Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer, and Elton Sawyer, Senior Vice President of Competition. Despite all the recent controversy surrounding the leadership of NASCAR, Mike Helton believes that the reign of the sport is in great hands with this group.
“I would tell you that that in my 40-year career with the France family, 80-year history of this sport, I think personally the leadership for the next 15-20 years with through Steve O’Donnell, Ben Kennedy, the support that they have from other really qualified individuals, all of them working side by side with each other to do the right thing for the right reasons. I think today’s leadership in NASCAR is as good as it’s ever been,” Helton claimed.
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He mentioned that he is ‘the luckiest fan’ in all of NASCAR because of the nature of his work. Helton extended the same for O’Donnell, Kennedy, and others, despite the difficulties.
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“That’s priceless for a company that has all the different stakeholders and personalities and characters that it needs to be the government of, and it’s not easy,” Helton claimed.
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With the new changes being introduced, the NASCAR leadership group aims at focusing their attention on the essentials and giving the fans the best viewing experience.
Steve O’Donnell wants to focus on the essentials from now on
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In the past few years, NASCAR remained bullish on the controversial playoff format despite fans’ and insiders’ criticism of it. But for this season, they changed the format to the Chase format.
This one instance encapsulates what Steve O’Donnell envisions would be the approach and case for the future of the sport. He claimed in an interview with SBJ that in the past few years, NASCAR tried to follow suit with other sports and betrayed hardcore fans in pursuit of a new fan group.
But now, NASCAR would make decisions in favor of retaining the old fans now that they’ve put everything behind them, including the COVID hit, the antitrust lawsuit, and the outcry from fans. “Now what you’re seeing us do is … yes, we can introduce the sport to new fans, but here’s how we got here. We had a difficult 18 months. We came out of that in a good place … the opportunity now is we’re going into this season really with no contractual obligations out in front of us, no lawsuits, no COVID. We can just talk about how cool NASCAR racing is,” O’Donnell said.
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It’s worth mentioning that O’Donnell has previously spoken about the importance and intentions of a ‘reset’ for the sport.
With that said, it’ll be interesting to see how NASCAR fares in the coming years under the current set of leadership. Do you think it could thrive with O’Donnell at the helm?
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Let us know in the comments below.

Lee Pulliam made good on his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Series debut last Saturday at Martinsville.
Piloting the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, the 37-year-old paced the field for 40 laps and crossed the finish line fifth at the conclusion of the 250-lap race.
Although there was controversy with Pulliam missing a shift on a late restart that triggered a multi-car crash, it was an impressive first start for the North Carolina native.
On Wednesday of this week, Pulliam appeared as a guest on “The Dale Jr. Download” to reflect on the race. As he discussed with his one-off team owner, the race meant a lot to not just him, but his family.
Lee Pulliam on his daughter: ‘She’s my biggest supporter’
Lap after lap, Earnhardt Jr. watched Pulliam pour his heart into his O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut.
Yet, the moment that stuck with the JR Motorsports owner was before the race.
As discussed on the podcast, the 51-year-old recalls Pulliam sharing a moment with his young daughter on pit road, where the two shared an emotional embrace.
Earnhardt Jr. told Pulliam he knew why he was emotional, but what stood out to the car owner was that his driver’s daughter understood how much the race meant.
“It was really profound for me to see your daughter recognize in that moment how important this was for you. … That’s got to feel so good as a dad. Forget the race, forget how important this is in your life to be able to experience this one thing. You’ve got to feel so good as a dad to have a daughter that recognizes how important that was for you and how happy she was to see you get to do it,” Earnhardt Jr. said.
Holding back tears, Pulliam discussed how his daughter was old enough to understand how much the race meant to him.
“She saw that fire in me. She’s been my biggest supporter. … When we had that post-race meeting Monday morning, let me tell you how aware she is. When I left, she’s like, ‘Daddy, you’re not going to get in trouble are you?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, baby.’ I said, ‘I think they were really impressed with my racing.’”
Pulliam went on to say he would probably be “critiqued” on his restarts, but ensured his daughter it was OK. When Pulliam embraced his daughter during the pre-race, he told his daughter it is why you never give up on your dreams.
Pulliam’s O’Reilly Series future unclear
Saturday’s NFPA 250 at Martinsville was a one-off appearance for Pulliam with JR Motorsports.
As of now, there are no concrete plans for Pulliam to return to the O’Reilly Series in 2026 and beyond.
Pulliam is best known for being a four-time NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Division I national champion. He has two victories in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour, a series co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It was a quality day for JR Motorsports overall at Martinsville. While Pulliam posted a fifth-place finish, it was Justin Allgaier nabbing the checkered flag. It was Allgaier’s third win of the 2026 season.

A lot changed in NASCAR on February 18, 2001, the day Dale Earnhardt lost his life in the final lap of the Daytona 500. The legendary driver made contact with Sterling Marlin, resulting in a head-on slam into the outside retaining wall at speeds of over 170 mph. Years later, changes continue to be implemented to ensure such an incident is never repeated. The same official who announced the death of Dale Earnhardt, Mike Helton, now Vice Chairman of NASCAR, has since reflected on how dramatically driver safety has evolved.
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Mike Helton’s Interview: The Moment NASCAR Could No Longer Look Away
In the interview on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, now airing on YouTube, Helton framed the moment it all went down at Daytona as one of sudden realisation. Instead, he felt that it was a crisis that gradually built up.
He recalls, “2001, we were kind of trying to figure things out because we’d gone through a tough stretch in 2000 with Adam and Kenny and Tony Roper and similar fatal injuries.”
In his attempts to understand the problem, he continued, “We were trying to figure out why our drivers were having those particular injuries when they hit… through Adam’s and Kenny’s in New Hampshire and Tony’s in Texas, we were turning up the wick where safety has always been important. I think what we were at that point, looking at, is saying, it needs to be a leg of our table and not just an effort. It needs to be a priority.”
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However, the incident at Daytona, he describes, is one that sent the ball rolling, forcing safety inclusion throughout the circuit. “What I think when we lost Dale, after that day, everybody wanted to say, tell us what to do to help… from the IndyCar side, from the NASCAR side, from the suppliers, the OEMs, everybody wanted to help.”
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The racing incident in Florida, combined with a coordinated effort, led to NASCAR being what it is today. Helton simplified this, stating, “We had bought a building in Kannapolis for our first R&D centre, but quickly realised it wasn’t big enough as support grew. Over the next few years, with drivers, teams, NASCAR, and outside experts involved, the geometry of the cars changed drastically, and the geometry of the racetracks changed as well. All of it came from everyone working together to advance safety in motorsports.”
This combined effort of the entire ecosystem, as rightly pointed out by Helton, is showing its effects. Even though many may ignore it, that quantitative data doesn’t lie.
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An engineering masterclass: from fatal patterns to engineered safety systems
After the rise in fatal injuries and the unfortunate death of Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR needed to find a solution to protect drivers. The solution came from an R&D centre in Concord that was opened in 2003. This became the hub for crash analysis. However, a lot of other factors, including Black box data, impact forces, speed, and angles, were all analysed at the centre.
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As the work at the centre increased, the creation of SAFER barriers (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction), initially at Indianapolis in 2002, then nationwide within NASCAR, was introduced. Even car design and geometry were fit such that crumple zones were enhanced, and chassis flex technology was developed that minimised risk for our drivers.
This, combined with NASCAR-mandated head and neck restraints systems in 2001, eliminated any differential motion between the driver’s head and torso during impact. Seat design was also refit to include full seats with containment for the head, and Snell standards were enforced for full face protection.
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