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iRacing Studios shares the first look at NASCAR 25 gameplay.
Nearly two years after it was announced, we finally have gameplay video of iRacing’s first attempt at a new stock car racing game, and it looks pretty good. It’s debuting on PS5 and Xbox Series consoles first, on October 14th, before the Steam release for PC on November 11th.
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NASCAR 25’s journey to its October 14, 2025, release has been a rollercoaster. After years of lackluster titles like NASCAR 21: Ignition, which bombed with a 43 Metacritic score, fans were skeptical when iRacing Studios and Monster Games announced a new game on Unreal Engine 5.
Early teasers sparked hope with promises of laser-scanned tracks, 190 licensed drivers, over 400 paint schemes, and all four NASCAR series: Cup, Xfinity, Truck, and ARCA. But disappointment crept in when Dev Diaries showed only cockpit views and menus, leaving out real racing action. The track list, missing key venues like Bowman Gray Stadium and ARCA’s Berlin Raceway, didn’t help, and fans on Reddit and Twitter ripped the lack of transparency, with some swearing off pre-orders.
Then came the latest gameplay demo, and it’s flipped the script. Cup Series driver Anthony Alfredo took the wheel at Homestead-Miami Speedway, giving fans their first true taste of NASCAR 25 in motion. From lap one, it was clear this wasn’t another half-baked effort. The visuals, including sun glare, tire marks, and trackside shadows, screamed Next-Gen polish.
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The engine roar and cockpit shake pulled players right into the driver’s seat. Alfredo’s run showed off a game that feels alive, with cars dancing on the edge of control, a far cry from the stiff, scripted feel of past titles.
What really caught the eye was the handling. The demo showcased tight corner entries and loose exits, mimicking the real-world challenge of wrestling a stock car around Homestead’s 1.5-mile oval. The AI didn’t just follow a single groove; some hugged the bottom, others kissed the wall, creating dynamic racing lines that felt like a Sunday broadcast.
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Alfredo leaned on a fully functional rearview mirror, a fan-favorite feature missing from earlier games, to navigate traffic with precision. The weight transfer under braking and throttle was spot-on, reflecting the nuances drivers like Christopher Bell or Denny Hamlin talk about weekly.
Sound design sealed the deal. Engine growls, tire squeals, and the hum of the pack synced perfectly with the action, making every move immersive. Unlike the choppy frame rates of NASCAR 21: Ignition, this demo ran smoothly, with Unreal Engine 5 flexing its muscle. Even smaller touches, like detailed Xfinity car liveries and laser-scanned track bumps, showed a level of care missing from the franchise for years.
This isn’t just a step forward, it’s a leap. NASCAR games have struggled to capture the sport’s intensity since the EA days of the early 2000s, often criticized for weak physics or buggy launches.
Reddit’s NASCAR community, quick to roast the game’s earlier vague teasers, is now singing a different tune after Alfredo’s Homestead demo.
Fans flip from doubt to hype
One fan nailed the vibe, “When he was practicing, the grandstands were full. Outside of that extreme small detail, I can’t wait to get my hands on this!” The packed stands during practice might not match real-world testing, but the immersive visuals, including sun glare and rubber buildup, had fans forgiving the cosmetic exaggeration. The Unreal Engine 5 polish, from track textures to crowd details, has players itching to jump in, even if the grandstands were a bit too race-day perfect.
Another user cheered a long-awaited feature, “We have a mirror!” Alfredo’s use of a functioning rearview mirror in the cockpit view was a game-changer, fixing a major gripe from NASCAR 21: Ignition’s bare-bones setup. It’s a nod to iRacing’s sim roots, boosting awareness in tight packs and making races feel more authentic. Fans see it as a sign that the developers are listening, aligning the game closer to hardcore sim standards.
The AI impressed too, “Looks like it will be fun. I hope you can adjust the AI a little bit though. Overall, I’m excited!” Alfredo navigated a field where AI cars mixed it up, some running low, others high, mirroring real NASCAR strategy at Homestead. While sliders for AI difficulty weren’t shown, the varied lines suggest a dynamic system, a big step up from the single-groove bots of past titles. Fans are hopeful for tweaks to dial in the challenge.
Simulation nuts got a boost, “I’m pleasantly surprised by this. I want to see the actual difficulty options and how close to ‘sim’ I can make it.” The demo’s tight-in, loose-off handling nailed Homestead’s real-world feel, with Alfredo fighting the car’s balance like Bell or Hamlin would.
While menus for physics tuning weren’t revealed, the sim-like weight transfer and track fidelity have hardcore players optimistic for a game that can flex between arcade and iRacing-level depth.
Xfinity fans chimed in, “Those Xfinity cars look and sound great. Already the most realistic scan/scale of tracks and cars we’ve ever seen.” The demo’s Xfinity cars popped with crisp liveries and roaring audio, backed by laser-scanned tracks that capture every bump. It’s a far cry from NASCAR Heat’s dated models, and fans are stoked for the multi-series depth across Cup, Xfinity, Trucks, and ARCA.
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One user summed it up, “Holy shit it looks fantastic! Love the sun glare down the front straight when he raced at Homestead. How the car handles, being tight in, loose off looks so real! The AI changing their lines as some used the bottom line in the turns, others up next to the fence, awesome realism. One nitpicky thing is that to have realistic crowd numbers.”
The sun glare, realistic handling, and multi-line AI had fans buzzing, with only the overdone crowd size drawing a minor quibble. After months of doubt, Alfredo’s demo has Reddit lit up, proving NASCAR 25 might just deliver the stock car sim fans have been begging for.

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Former motorsport star Danica Patrick has weighed in on Disney’s indefinite removal of talk show host Jimmy Kimmel from ABC airwaves for recent comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
In social media posts on Wednesday, Patrick celebrated Kimmel’s removal.
One of her Instagram stories shared a news report of Kimmel’s removal, with her own caption reading

The Stewart-Pruett household is one of the most closely watched families in motorsports. Tony Stewart, a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, and Leah Pruett, a seasoned NHRA drag racer, welcomed their first child, Dominic, last year. Their son’s birth was so intertwined with racing that Stewart famously left the hospital to compete at Pomona just hours after Dominic arrived. With both parents deeply embedded in racing culture, it was inevitable for racing to be on the cards. That speculation about Dominic’s eventual path has followed them since day one. The real question, however, is how the family plans to handle the inevitable reality.
That curiosity has only grown as Leah Pruett prepares for her NHRA comeback in 2026. Fans and fellow drivers have wondered what the couple’s next big balancing act will look like. With Pruett returning to competition, Stewart managing his racing operations and competing with her, and a son growing up in garages and pit lanes, the answer was never going to be simple. And Kevin Harvick also noted in a recent episode of Happy Hour that racing families rarely escape the cycle of passing the sport down. That is precisely where Stewart and Pruett’s perspective becomes significant, as, unlike other families, they have already made their decision.
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Tony Stewart and family have a new racing playbook
When asked about Dominic’s racing future, Stewart cut directly to the heart of their stance. “We’re not buying anything until he looks us in the eye and says this is what I want to do and I’m all in,” he said during Harvick’s podcast. Rather than mapping out a career before their son’s toddler years, the couple has drawn a line. Dominic must show genuine desire and commitment before any racing investment is made. That decision sets them apart from other racing families. For many others, go-karts, quarter midgets, or junior dragsters often appear as soon as a child can walk. The deliberate wait-and-see approach reflects a conscious parenting philosophy that places choice above legacy.
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Pruett echoed the sentiment but expanded on the value system behind it. “You need to teach them dedication and not giving up… I don’t think we care which aisle, which lane, which racetrack… if he decides to race,” she explained. Her emphasis on persistence shows that the couple views racing as more than a career. It is a test of resilience and personal drive. By refusing to pre-determine racing steps, they are acknowledging both the weight of motorsport tradition and the importance of independence in choosing a life path. What stood out most in the conversation was their awareness that racing pressure will not wait quietly.
Friends, fans, and even social media amplified that pressure from the moment Pruett’s pregnancy became public. Stewart recalled various questions. “Are you buying junior dragsters? Are you buying quarter midgets? What are you buying?” Such immediate assumptions highlight the cultural expectation. Stewart admitted that watching young kids compete at Millbridge Speedway only cemented his sense of what the future may hold. He joked, “I just saw our future… I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about it.”
Yet by openly stating their stance now, the couple has attempted to get ahead of that narrative. They’ve made it clear that Dominic’s involvement in NASCAR will not be written until he writes it himself.
After all, Dominic is not even a year old yet. Pruett is busy with her eyes on a 2026 return, while Stewart juggles ownership and driving duties. Their approach suggests that when the day comes, the decision will not be about meeting the standard of their son’s conviction. But in the meantime, their racing careers have taken a very different route as NHRA beckons.
Tony Stewart and wife gear up for on-track rivalry
NHRA’s landscape is shifting as Tony Stewart secures a seat in the Top Fuel class for 2026. He will be driving for Elite Motorsports, while his wife, Leah Pruett, returns to her role at Tony Stewart Racing. The confirmation comes amid Elkite Motorsports’ acquisition of Josh Hart’s Top Fuel program. They have formed a marketing alliance between Elite and TSR. The setup positions the Stewarts as couple competitors.
Leah Pruett’s return comes after a hiatus to start and focus on her family. She’s a 12-time Top Fuel event winner. Stewart, meanwhile, has filled in for her the past two seasons. He has earned multiple Top Fuel wins himself, including a victory at the 2025 NHRA 4-Wide Nationals. He also earned the 2025 regular-season championship title. But now, the couple will both be active drivers next season, competing directly against each other.
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Tony Stewart’s ride in the Elite Motorsports Top Fuel dragster in 2026 would incorporate his driving role with team‐ownership duties under the Elite-TSR alliance. Elite owner Richard Freeman said, “Having Tony as our driver, adding another Top Fuel entry … we’re creating an opportunity for Tony to keep a Top Fuel seat and a chance to race alongside his wife, Leah.” This marks one of NHRA’s few husband-wife pro class rivalries. A move following in the footsteps of John Smith and Rhonda Hartman-Smith.
Meanwhile, Pruett tested earlier in 2025, confirming her readiness. She expressed gratitude to the team and supporters for allowing the needed hiatus. Stewart has publicly acknowledged that the seat is Pruett’s when she is ready. With the new alliance and Elite’s purchase of Josh Hart’s Top Fuel operation, he now has a second path to stay behind the wheel without displacing her.

NASCAR’s history is full of dominant stretches, but very few drivers have managed to win multiple races season after season without pause. Earlier this week, NASCAR highlighted those rare feats in a table ranking drivers with the longest streaks of consecutive years with multiple victories. At the top of the list was Richard Petty, who strung together 18 straight seasons of at least two wins between 1960 and 1977. The next one behind was Jimmie Johnson. The veteran’s 16-year run from 2002 to 2017 defined NASCAR’s modern era, with some considering his run even better than Petty’s. But the comparison isn’t that simple.
One cannot rule out the fact that not all wins came in the same competitive environment. Petty raced in an age when Cup schedules often featured more than 50 races. This gave elite drivers far more chances to add to their totals. Johnson, by contrast, competed in the 36-race modern schedule. Over here, parity was higher, and nearly every top team had the resources to contend. He also shouldered the pressure of NASCAR’s Chase and Playoff formats. For him, late-season wins often carried championship weight. With this context in mind, fans are starting to make their opinions known about which streak holds greater weight, and some have gone as far as to challenge the accepted order of NASCAR’s all-time streaks.
One post on Twitter summed up this growing debate in blunt terms: “Johnson’s 16 is more impressive than Petty’s 18.” The fan’s comment resonated, sparking replies and retweets. These drew attention back to the differences in eras. Petty had more starts in many of his seasons, such as 1964, when the Cup Series ran 62 races. Meanwhile, Johnson averaged far fewer chances per year yet still managed to put up multi-win campaigns consistently.
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The comparison has since taken on a life of its own. Petty’s supporters argue that maintaining excellence for 18 years remains unmatched. This is particularly during a time of long travel, mechanical risks, and less advanced safety. Johnson’s backers counter that his streak stands taller when factoring in competition depth.
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With NASCAR’s own graphic reigniting the conversation, fans on Twitter have been debating fiercely which driver truly owns the most impressive streak of dominance in Cup Series history.
Fans debate Jimmie Johnson’s winning legacy in NASCAR
Petty’s numbers are untouchable in some categories. Meanwhile, Johnson’s streak and championships stand out among others. That divide has led fans to weigh in with sharp opinions, pulling in other legends like Jeff Gordon. One comment pointed back to Petty’s overall record. “Petty 200 wins are more impressive than Johnson 83 so.” This reaction gave the idea that Petty’s dominance is not only about streaks. It is also about the sheer volume of victories. His 200 career wins are a NASCAR record unlikely to be touched. Meanwhile, Johnson’s 83 ranks him sixth all-time. For many, Petty’s body of work speaks louder than streak-specific statistics.
Another fan shifted the spotlight from Petty and Johnson entirely, reminding readers of Jeff Gordon’s stature. The post read, “Absolutely not haha. Gordon’s 93 (wins) are more impressive than both.” Gordon raced in the same modern era as Johnson, but with four championships and 93 wins. He is second only to Petty in total victories. This perspective highlights how Gordon’s numbers often get overlooked when the conversation narrows to Petty versus Johnson. However, his career overlaps more directly with Johnson’s era of parity.
Not all comments defended drivers on the list. Some targeted Johnson’s legacy through his long-time crew chief, Chad Knaus. As one fan put it, “Johnson’s wins and titles only came about through Chad Knaus being an ingenious cheater. He got exposed badly without Chad.” The claim referred to Knaus’s history of penalties and suspensions for bending NASCAR’s rules. The implication was that Johnson’s success was not entirely his own. This casts doubt on how his streak should be remembered without factoring in Knaus’s influence.
That same line of criticism grew sharper in another reply. The post stated, “Jimmie wasn’t and never will be considered Elite NASCAR driver, much less a champion. He wasn’t good, his crew chief was just a master at cheating.” This comment dismissed Johnson’s place in the sport’s hierarchy altogether. They repeated the idea that Knaus engineered success rather than Johnson himself. While harsh, it showed how deeply the perception of rule-bending has stuck to Johnson’s career.
Some fans defended Petty’s era by focusing not on the numbers but on the lifestyle. One wrote, “Johnson didn’t ride around in an open trailer during the week to tracks around the northeast & other places & raced multiple times during the week until they stopped that schedule in 1972. It was a grind unlike modern drivers went through & a sacrifice unlike today.” This recalled the demanding travel and racing schedule of the 1960s and early 1970s. This was back when drivers like Petty often ran 50 to 60 races a year. The argument was that Petty’s streak came under far tougher personal and logistical circumstances.
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Finally, another comment centered on NASCAR’s changing championship format. The fan wrote, “Just saying, if they stayed with Winston Cup style points and format like Petty had, Jimmie would only have 3 championships and Jeff would have 7… I think Jeff’s is most impressive. After 2007 Nascar turned into low skill slot cars…” This perspective argued that Johnson’s seven titles benefited from the Chase and Playoff systems. These rewarded clutch wins rather than year-long consistency. By contrast, Gordon and Petty built their records under the full-season points.
In the end, the fan reactions debated how a simple statistic can spark far-reaching debate. Some focus on total wins, others on era-specific challenges. Meanwhile, some attack Johnson’s credibility outright. Whether defending Petty’s grind, Gordon’s overlooked numbers, or Johnson’s streak in a competitive era, fans continue to keep NASCAR’s greatest drivers at the center of passionate discussion.

Blake Lothian is living the fast life and living his dream as a 23-year-old NASCAR driver.

“No. I mean, the biggest part I miss is the people. The people are the part I miss. It’s like anything else. Technology comes in and evolves and it changes and it’s just not what it used to be when I ran it,” Tony Stewart said, reminiscing about the Cup scene. After all, NASCAR felt less like a global sports franchise back in the day. Remember Earnhardt’s sardine-under-the-seat prank on Rusty Wallace? That informal environment introduced memorable garage lore that underlined how social the paddock was. No wonder Stewart is filled with nostalgia.
When Tony Stewart reflects on his days in NASCAR, what stands out to him isn’t just the racing, but the shared journey with his crew. Back in 1996, as a rookie preparing for the Indianapolis 500, he didn’t hop on a charter plane or fly in separately from his team the way many drivers do now. Instead, he piled into the team hauler, riding shoulder to shoulder with the same mechanics and engineers who would wrench on his car once they arrived at the track.
Speaking on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast, Tony Stewart didn’t hold back on the changes he has seen over the years: “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it at this time in this point in my life. I love the environment. I love that you know, it’s not March of the Elephants, where all the crew guys come in at a certain time and they have to be out of the garage at a certain time… But what I do enjoy about it, and that I feel like brings us back to very early 2000s or the ’90s was you’ll have teams, and even with our two teams, I mean, the Top Fuel team might get done before the Funny Car team’s done servicing their car.”
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That kind of intimacy was a part of Stewart’s grit that enabled him to win three Cup championships, two with Joe Gibbs Racing and again in 2011 as an owner-driver with Stewart-Haas Racing. And even within his NHRA team, camaraderie has become a cornerstone. Tony Stewart Racing, since entering NHRA nitro competition in 2022, fields entries in both Top Fuel and Funny Car and has begun forming strong internal bonds. The recent alliance with Elite Motorsports also speaks to his belief that success in drag racing comes not only from horsepower and reaction times but also from teams working together, sharing resources, and mutual respect.
Reflecting on the almost mechanical functioning within teams these days, Stewart said, “But they’re all milling around. The whole pit area is milling around, visiting with each other, and drinking beer in the pits together. And it’s like, ‘Wow, this reminds me of when I used to race sprint cars back in the day. And when we started in NASCAR, guys from different teams were milling around. The races I went to last year, the teams don’t mill around with anybody but their own organizations. They don’t go talk to other people in different teams. So, it’s just a different time in the NASCAR sport. But, um, I do enjoy that. I do enjoy the camaraderie with the entire pit area.”
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But with the lost beer-drinking moments with teams, Stewart is looking onward and upward. While Stewart sold off his NASCAR team last season to focus fully on drag racing, he hasn’t abandoned his dirt track roots. In fact, Tony Stewart Racing just completed a full restructuring of its own. On Wednesday, TSR announced a full-time switch to the High Limit Sprint Car Series and a blockbuster signing: current series points leader Rico Abreu is set to join the team for the 2026 season. With that, Tony Stewart isn’t just staying in the game; he is writing the playbook, one bold move at a time.
Tony Stewart is set to race against his wife in the NHRA Top Fuel division
Even as the winds of change blow through his drag racing team, the indomitable Tony Stewart isn’t easing off the throttle any time soon. NASCAR Hall of Famer and motorsports icon confirmed that his high-octane drag race journey will continue in 2026, this time in the adrenaline-pumping NHRA Top Fuel division.
But here is the kicker: Tony Stewart won’t be behind the wheel for his own team, TSR, due to a major shake-up going on. ‘Smoke’ is shifting gears and teams, signing on with Elite Motorsports for the upcoming season, ending a stretch of speculation and uncertainty about his future in the sport.
Stewart, as candid as ever, said, “I am going to be driving too. I said I wouldn’t race against my wife — and, well, I’ve lied to myself, obviously. It’s like saying you wouldn’t race against your own kid. Yeah, I’ve already gone down that road, and it’s never not going to happen. And now, if it happens again, that’ll be twice. But yeah, I have an amazing opportunity with Richard Freeman and the entire crew at Elite Motorsports to get behind the wheel of a Top Fuel car next year.”
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So, what sparked this steam transition? Enter Leah Pruett, Stewart’s wife and a seasoned NHRA veteran, who is gearing up for a dramatic return to racing after stepping away in 2023 to begin building a family with Tony Stewart. When she hit pause, Tony stepped into the driver’s seat in her place, and he didn’t just fill in; he thrived. After earning Rookie of the Year honors, Stewart has roared into 2025 with serious firepower, clinching the NHRA Top Fuel division regular season championship, but even champions have their scars. Stewart’s momentum took a hit the past weekend with a dramatic and widely shared crash during Finals Round Two of the Reading Nationals.
Still, true to form, he remains locked in at second in the points standings, proving he is far from done.

The racing product in Bristol has been a confusing mess since 2022. Firstly, there were the massive aerodynamic changes wrought by the Next-Gen car. However, the puzzling phenomenon in the spring 2024 race, where tires shredded in 30-40 laps, set off a new challenge. NASCAR and Goodyear put their heads together to seek the perfect tire package. And the culmination after 18 months of effort did not particularly thrill NASCAR drivers, including Chase Elliott.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver, along with other veterans, faced harrowing crashes on last Saturday’s Bristol night race. That was partly due to Goodyear’s science experiment succeeding, probably a little too much. So Chase Elliott calls for greater caution while experimenting with tire types.
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Chase Elliott seeks the ‘right balance’
Well, the spring 2024 race left most Cup Series drivers thrilled. The 54 lead changes and immense tire management felt like a good treat. However, the Fall 2025 race in Bristol, despite being similar, had a caveat. During practice for the Bass Pro Shops night race, Goodyear’s new tires barely shredded amidst high temperatures. But with temperatures cooling to 60 degrees during the race, drivers and crew chiefs were completely taken by surprise. Barely 25 laps into the race, Joey Logano’s spotter said, “It’s happening.” The high-flyers of the game surprisingly could not survive the ferocious tire wear. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson both finished outside the top 30.
So did Chase Elliott, who came across an unfortunate wreck on lap 310. And in an interview with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, the Hendrick Motorsports driver agreed with drivers like Denny Hamlin, who criticized Goodyear. “Look, I applaud everybody involved for kind of attacking that science experiment with the tire and trying to make it do something cool and different and replicate a race that no one really understood why it happened,” he said.
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Chase Elliott called on NASCAR to be a little bit more in control of its tire experiments. Despite appreciating the efforts, he asked for a less sloppy approach. “Being in that race up there last spring, I think that there are always ways to tweak and help and make it better. I’m not sure what the right balance is. But it’s always important to try and make the product as best we can. I don’t want it to feel gimmicky.”
With an extra emphasis on the right-side tires, the left sides did not wear out. What is more, Goodyear’s experiment left three Ford drivers, Josh Berry, Austin Cindric, and Chad Finchum, catching fires in their right-side wheels. Chase Elliott continued that he wanted drivers to achieve more without such risks. “I want the drivers to be able to make a big difference when it comes to, if it is going to be a tire conservation race, how you do that, and the skill it takes to achieve that, too. So maybe we can find it with the tire, and also improve in terms of the car with time as well.”
Clearly, Chase Elliott was among the discontented drivers after the Bristol night race. That is more justifiable given the HMS driver’s dire situation at present.
Teetering on the brink of disaster
For most of 2025, fans applauded Chase Elliott for his consistency. The No. 9 Chevrolet driver never finished outside the top 20 – until the Watkins Glen race. There, he faced poor execution of pit strategy. Then, in Richmond, he got swept up in a wreck not of his making. Finally, John Hunter Nemechek and Denny Hamlin’s moves wrecked Elliott in Bristol, and the latter finished in 38th place. These instances left Elliott desperate, as he said recently: “I just feel like, yeah, you’re kind of in a spot where, ‘Man, we really didn’t deserve to be here based on the week before. Let’s go and make the very most of it… I just feel like there’s nothing to lose for us at this point.”
During his miserable stretch, Chase Elliott has dropped from second place in the full-season points to sixth. He has also gone from leading the Cup Series in average finishes, a privilege which Christopher Bell has claimed, to third. Despite advancing in the playoffs, Elliott will start the round of 12 only five points above the round of 8 cutoff. This leaves him at a nasty risk. If Elliott continues his stretch of despair into the following races, he will be eliminated in the round of 12 for the first time since 2016. So, the No. 9 team needs to get back into the speed department on a war footing.
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With playoff challenges looming ahead of him, Chase Elliott has a lot on his plate. So do NASCAR and Goodyear, as Elliott and his compatriots claim. Let’s wait and see what develops in the sport’s tire experiment.

The Bristol night race was mind-boggling on a lot of fronts. Firstly, Goodyear’s tire experiment paid off handsomely after 18 months of effort, although Denny Hamlin termed it ‘extreme’. With 36 lead changes and ferocious tire wear, drivers were left scrambling for strategy. Their race night became a bit more complicated with the sheer number of caution flags involved. Its 137 caution laps were a record in NASCAR’s modern era – but that does not faze Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The 26-time Cup Series race winner retired in 2017, but he fondly remembers his racing career. Contrary to his charming and well-loved behavior on podcasts, Dale Jr. used to have a rowdy reputation as a young race car driver. But he changed, and one of the reasons lay in getting schooled by a NASCAR official.
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Dale Jr. learned the importance of caution first-hand
“There was so, so many yellow flags. It’s hard to get in a rhythm, and then it just kept mixing up the tire strategy, and then you would run out of tires.” Denny Hamlin went into a fiery rant about the jaw-dropping 14 caution flags during the Bristol race. However, this is hardly the first time a driver has lost his temper about NASCAR’s caution laps. Dale Jr. recalled a 2002 race in Bristol, where he was equally frustrated. “I’m mad as hell…and I get on the radio. I go, I don’t know what the heck is going on here with these yellow flags.” he said. “We’ve got like 15 to go, 14 to go, 12 to go…I’m like, let’s go. I want the opportunity to get back into the top 10 and at least salvage something. And I’m just animated as heck on the radio.”
But soon after unleashing his rage, Dale Jr. got a call to NASCAR’s trailer post-race. Tony Eury Sr., Dale Jr.’s crew chief, was also called. Despite Tony’s reputation for unrestrained anger, he could not talk back to then-NASCAR president Mike Helton’s logic. Dale Jr. recalled, “As soon as (Helton) walks through the door, me and Tony Sr. start talking. Hey man, we gotta clean our case. And he said, ‘Y’all ain’t here to talk. Y’all here to listen…There were parts and pieces of brake rotor littered all around the top groove of that race track, and we were trying to clean off that racetrack. We’re not riding under caution for no reason. There’s a purpose and a reason to be under yellow.’”
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That marked the turning point in Dale Jr.‘s opinion about caution laps. He continued about Mike Helton’s words, “He made it pretty clear that we needed to be particular about what we said on our radio. That was a moment…ever since then, even though cautions may get drawn out…TV’s gonna run off to commercial, the second stage is already 8 laps over before you get back to green flag. I don’t love all of that…but I’m sure there’s a reason.”
While Dale Jr. sanctioned the surprising number of caution flags, he also has a finger on the pulse of NASCAR’s playoffs. He can see the future darkening and brightening for select drivers.
A deepening polarity between drivers
As the 2025 Cup Series playoffs proceed, so does the gap between the drivers. Four of the contenders could not advance into the Round of 12 – Josh Berry, Austin Dillon, SVG, and Alex Bowman. Among the remaining 12 playoff contenders, Dale Jr. found it hard to judge. “They’re all so good. This is really hard. No scientific data here. No evidence or a real hard study to back up this prediction,” he said. But eventually, he assigned bad luck to four drivers who may not make it to the Round of 8. Dale Jr. said, “But my four that are going to struggle to make it into the next round are Chase Elliott, [Austin] Cindric, [Ross] Chastain, [Tyler] Reddick.”
While keeping the top picks like Denny Hamlin or Christopher Bell, Dale Jr. shared thoughts on the unlikely strong contenders. One of them is Bubba Wallace, who won the Brickyard 400 race this year. Dale Jr. said he has “turned it up another notch this year.” He continued about Wallace, “He’s sort of switched into another gear that I’ve never seen him really have before. Just in his pace and speed, his confidence, and that he deserves to be up there, can do it, should be able to do it.”
Then, the 2024 Cup champion, Joey Logano, also elicited attention. The Team Penske driver’s season has been subpar at best, with only one win in Texas, along with 9 top tens and 5 top fives. But Dale Jr. thinks he will get through, referring to Logano’s clutch wins for the past three years. “I think he’ll do just enough to advance.”
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Clearly, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is looking forward to an exciting round of 16 in the playoffs. He is not afraid of another caution-riddled race like Bristol – let’s wait and see what the future races hold.

Remember when Kyle Busch warned of a cultural problem, pointing to the sport’s fading narratives and personalities that failed to capture new fans’ imagination? Even back then, NASCAR’s star power crisis was evident, and it’s only grown since. The numbers tell the story, too. In 2025, the Cup Series race averaged just 2.71 million viewers, down 11 to 14% from the previous year. Now, bring in the raging playoffs debate into the picture, and the fan dissatisfaction is further amplified. As a NASCAR legend and Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman, Jeff Gordon has done his best to increase the visibility of NASCAR. But even he is skeptical…
From the get-go, Gordon hit the ground running. One of his biggest achievements this year was securing a multi-year partnership with Phorm Energy, a new venture by Anheuser-Busch. Under Gordon’s guidance, the company became the primary sponsor for William Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet for select races and an associate sponsor for multiple Hendrick teams throughout the 2025 to 2027 seasons, and this definitely helps with increasing the visibility of the sport. What is more, Gordon urges drivers to push past their driving duties and contribute to the sport as a whole with innovations and ideas to really put NASCAR on the map.
Speaking to Racing America, Gordon didn’t hold back: “So when I’m talking to our drivers, let’s say, it’s guys, you know, be you. Find the things that you’re comfortable with, but don’t be afraid to step slightly outside the box, too. I think we do need superstars right now more than ever in the sport, and that’s not just going and winning races and leading laps.”
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Unlike Formula 1, where drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are global household names, many of NASCAR’s top drivers struggle to make an impression outside the US, even in major cities like London or New York. Bubba Wallace has called attention to this gap. Speaking to The Athletic earlier this month, he said, ” We are very inside of our own four walls, and that’s it. I’m not sure on that, because you can take (Formula 1 drivers) Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen and drop them anywhere in the world, and people go crazy, right? You drop myself, Chase Elliott, or Ryan Blaney in London, and no one knows who we are. You drop us in New York City and maybe we get one or two people, right?”
And Wallace is correct in pointing that out. But Jeff Gordon is trying to do his part in making NASCAR more famous. The Phorm deal also includes prominent branding on fire suits, helmets, fueler uniforms, and around the cars’ fuel ports, as well as integration at the team’s upcoming 35,000 square-foot athletic center, showcasing Jeff Gordon’s knack for blending performance, marketing, and innovation to elevate the entire organization. And Gordon has advice for young budding drivers, passing the baton of spearheading NASCAR forward.
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Jeff Gordon added, “Not everybody’s going to have the same mindset or, you know, approach that I did. The main thing I did was when an opportunity came along, was trying to measure, you know, the risk versus reward, and take the amount of time that you have and try to make the best choices and decisions with that. But when the right opportunity comes along, you got to be willing to take that risk and go for it.”
Moreover, Gordon has left his mark on the track itself. At the inaugural Viva Mexico 215 in Mexico City, he stood center stage as the official commander, firing up the engine and signaling NASCAR’s global ambition. His presence wasn’t just ceremonial; it was a statement: Hendrick Motorsports is racing into new markets, new partnerships, and new heights with Gordon leading the charge. But amid the Hendrick Motorsports playoff struggles, Gordon really has someone bigger to look up to and give credit to for keeping the team together.
Jeff Gordon tips his cap to Rick Hendrick’s steady hand at the helm
There is no doubt that Hendrick Motorsports is one of the most successful teams in the Cup Series. All thanks to Mr. H and his drive to not only put his team on the podium but also take care of it, and now, Jeff Gordon could not hold back praise on the boss, and he wishes to be just as great a leader as Rick Hendrick.
In an interview with Racing America, he said, “Oh my goodness. I mean, I wish that I could emulate his leadership style and the demeanor that he has. Of course, the experience that he has in dealing with, I feel like, every scenario that I’ve ever put in front of him or been a part of with him …He can read a room like nobody else, he can read people like nobody else, and I think it just comes from his background and his experiences in the car business as well as in motorsports and this business…I learn so much from him on a daily basis. …He’s really taught me patience, how to trust and believe in your people, how to read people, and how to use your instincts.”
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And this leadership is also showing results. As of May 2021, Hendrick Motorsports has cemented its place in history by becoming the winningest team in NASCAR Cup Series history, surpassing a record that has stood for over six decades under the legendary Petty Enterprises. At the sport’s highest level, the team dominates the record books, holding every major statistical milestone from championship and points-paying victories to pole positions and laps led. And it’s all due to Rick Hendrick’s leadership.
Now with three of their drivers advancing to the Round of 12, the team is ready to fire on all cylinders to try to make it to the Championship 4. Do you think they can do it?

The 2024 USA TODAY 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was a wild one, testing drivers and fans alike. A two-hour rain delay forced NASCAR to make a rare call, resuming the race on wet-weather tires, only the second time a points-paying Cup race finished that way. The slick, damp track turned the “Magic Mile” into a high-stakes chess game, but Christopher Bell played it like a grandmaster.
Leading 149 of 305 laps, he held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe and Josh Berry in overtime for a commanding win. Bell’s ability to tame the rain-soaked 1.058-mile oval cemented his status as a Loudon ace, blending precision with guts to add another trophy to his growing collection.
Now, as the 2025 playoffs hit the Round of 12 opener with the Mobil 1 301, Bell’s back at New Hampshire with a target on his back. Fresh off his Bristol win, where he charged from fifth to first in the final four laps, he’s the odds-on favorite to repeat at Loudon. Can he pull off another “Magic Mile” masterpiece, or will playoff pressure and a stacked field shake things up?
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NASCAR at Loudon schedule
The Mobil 1 301 weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is set to kick off the Round of 12 with a full slate of action. Friday starts with Modified practice at 12:30 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying at 2:45 p.m. ET. The Craftsman Truck Series gets rolling with a 50-minute practice and qualifying session at 4:05 p.m. on FS2, with sunny 70s and no rain in sight.
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Saturday brings the Modifieds’ Mohegan Sun 100 at 9:15 a.m. ET on FloRacing, the Truck Series’ EJP 175 at noon on FS1 (split into 55-55-65 lap stages), and Cup Series practice at 3 p.m. ET and qualifying at 4:10 p.m. ET on TruTV. Expect cooler 60s, dipping to the 50s for the Modified race, with clear skies.
Sunday’s main event, the Mobil 1 301, starts with a pre-race show at 1:30 p.m. on USA, followed by the race at 2 p.m. (70-115-116 lap stages), broadcast on USA, PRN, and SiriusXM. The forecast holds steady in the 70s with zero chance of rain, setting the stage for a clean, high-speed showdown.
Christopher Bell leads the odds for Loudon
Bell’s not just riding momentum into New Hampshire; he’s the betting favorite to dominate. Per Caesar’s Sportsbook on September 15, Bell tops the odds at +260, a nod to his 2024 Loudon win and a stellar 12.2 average finish at the track. His Bristol charge, outrunning Keselowski’s bump and run, and JGR’s Round of 16 sweep with Hamlin and Briscoe only boost his case.
Denny Hamlin follows at +500, with his three Loudon wins and 9.9 average finish. Ryan Blaney’s at +550, fresh off a Bristol podium, while teammate Chase Briscoe sits at +700 after a strong 2024 Loudon run. Kyle Larson (+850) and Joey Logano (+1200), a two-time Loudon winner, round out the top tier, with William Byron (+1500) and Tyler Reddick (+1800) in the mix. Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, and Bubba Wallace are longer shots at +2200, despite JGR’s strength, while Austin Cindric and Keselowski lag at +2800.
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The odds reflect Bell’s edge at a track where he’s proven he can win under pressure, like last year’s rain-soaked thriller. With a 60-minute practice Saturday at 3 p.m. and qualifying at 4:10 p.m., Bell’s team, led by Adam Stevens, has time to dial in the No. 20 for the 301-lap grind.
The clear weather forecast, unlike 2024’s rain chaos, means strategy will hinge on the new high-fall-off tire tested by Bell, Logano, and Ross Chastain in July. Bell’s confidence, shared on Dale Jr.’s podcast, “It’s all in our hands,” and his 149 laps led in 2024 make him the man to beat. But with Hamlin, Blaney, and Logano hungry, and only eight spots open for the Round of 8, the “Magic Mile” could spark some playoff fireworks.

At 50 years old, Jimmie Johnson stands as one of the most decorated drivers in NASCAR history. With seven Cup Series championships and 83 career victories, he shares elite company with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt at the top of the sport’s record books. His unmatched streak of five consecutive titles from 2006 through 2010 cemented his place as a once-in-a-generation talent. It went on to influence not just fans but also a wave of younger drivers who would eventually share the track with him. Now, on his milestone birthday on September 17, those same competitors reflect on what it meant to race alongside him.
Among them is 2023 Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney, who grew up during Johnson’s dominant run. As luck would have it, he then found himself lining up against him just a few years later. Blaney, now one of Team Penske’s top stars, remembers vividly being part of the field in 2016 when Johnson clinched his historic seventh championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway. For Blaney, watching Johnson redefine excellence during his formative years created a standard to aspire toward, and racing against him brought a new level of perspective. It is that intersection of childhood admiration and professional respect that frames his latest tribute to the veteran.
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Blaney’s tribute to the ‘urban legend’ Jimmie Johnson
Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Blaney offered a rare glimpse into how deeply Johnson’s career shaped his own path. “He is not only, in my book, one of the best race car drivers that ever did it, he’s also one of the best human beings that has ever walked the earth,” Blaney said, recalling how Johnson’s genuine personality made him more than just a rival on the racetrack. Blaney emphasized Johnson’s humor and authenticity, qualities that made time spent around him as memorable as racing alongside him.
Blaney then shifted to the experience of competing directly against Johnson between 2015 and 2020. “Racing around him was just, I don’t know, one of the most special things I got to experience,” he said. Those years overlapped with Johnson’s final full-time campaigns, including the 2016 title run, giving Blaney a front-row view of history. He described it as “like racing around an urban legend,” a phrase that captures how Johnson’s reputation loomed even among competitors at the sport’s highest level. For Blaney, the presence of a driver he once idolized made each race feel like a brush with greatness.
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The influence extended well beyond the racetrack. Reflecting on his childhood, Blaney explained, “The years when he won five in a row were during my early years, I was about 11 years old, and seeing him dominate for five years was spectacular and amazing.” That dominance set an example for how a driver could balance success with respect. This was something Blaney sought to emulate. “Honestly, I tried to mold much of my on-track and off-track persona around Jimmie,” he admitted. It was not only Johnson’s results that left a mark. Rather, it was “how he carried himself outside the car,” which Blaney characterized as “unbelievable.”
As Johnson enters his sixth decade, the question becomes how his legacy will continue to resonate in NASCAR’s evolving landscape. Right now, his current role at Legacy Motor Club is limited to part-time competition and ownership responsibilities.
For a generation that grew up watching Johnson dominate, his 50th birthday is not just a milestone. It is a reminder that his influence endures, shaping how today’s champions define success. Johnson himself admitted to this in an interview where he spoke about life after turning 50.
Jimmie Johnson reflects on slowing down and family
For two decades, the career of Jimmy Johnson was defined by relentless speed and an unshakable focus on the next checkered flag. The NASCAR legend carried this dominance well into his forties. Now, at 50, Johnson admits the pace of life feels different. The milestone has forced him to pause, step back from the blur of racing. Johnson is now motivated to take stock of what matters most. That change, he says, is reshaping how he views both time and maturity.
The shift comes as Johnson balances his ongoing role as a team owner with the realities of family life. He no longer measures success in laps led or championships but in navigating new experiences outside the cockpit. Johnson has entered a new stage of challenges. These range from sitting in business meetings and learning the ropes of ownership to watching his daughters grow into young adults.
In a recent interview with Jeff Gluck, he admitted the transition feels like a crash course compared to the laser focus of his racing prime. “It’s wild. Slowing down in some respects has helped me grasp the number,” Johnson told Gluck while reflecting on turning 50. “I don’t feel 50 mentally, and part of that is I still have so much to learn.” He explained that stepping away from the full-time grind has given him perspective on areas outside of racing.
Johnson even admitted with humor that he still struggles with “half the acronyms” in corporate meetings. The shift from the track to the boardroom has underscored his belief that athletes, while highly specialized, often arrive later in life to the broader lessons of the “real world.”
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Family milestones have brought those lessons even closer to home. Johnson spoke about dropping off his oldest daughter, Evie, at boarding school this year. He called this experience “an emotional roller coaster” and a reminder of how quickly time moves.
With Lydia, his youngest, now 12, he acknowledged the deeper relationships that come with parenting older children. “The time just flies by. It’s the most precious commodity we all have,” he said. For a driver who once measured life in tenths of a second, Jimmie Johnson’s reflections show a man embracing the richness of slowing down.

In NASCAR, winning often comes down to quick decisions that get a driver to the checkered flag, where all attention and praise go to the person behind the wheel. Yet, lurking in the pits is the crew chief, often matching or even outpacing the driver’s grasp of the track, car dynamics, and split-second scenarios. When a race slips away due to a controversial pit stop call, that unsung strategist can swiftly become the scapegoat in the eyes of fans and even the cockpit. With over 1,000 career NASCAR starts, 21 Cup wins, and 27 Xfinity Series wins under his belt, Jeff Burton knows this tension all too well.
Take the 2010 Darlington race, with a car capable of beating Denny Hamlin, where a miscommunication led Burton to run over his air hose during a late pit stop, drawing a penalty that dropped him from contention. “Mistakes like tonight’s don’t win championships,” he said after the race. This kind of heartbreak underscores how one call can flip fortunes. As a Hall of Fame nominee and analyst, Burton’s insights cut through the chaos. But what happens when those calls turn nightmarish for the crew chief?
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Pit call nightmares: When strategy backfires
On the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Jeff Burton opened up about the gut-wrenching moments when a crew chief’s pit decision goes south, turning them into “instant villains” amid the roar of engines and fan scrutiny. As host Freddie Kraft posed a scenario of leading a race only to pit while rivals stay out, Burton reflected, “Yeah, it is a bad situation. I mean, I’ve been on both sides of it.” This admission highlights the no-win bind crew chiefs face, especially when weather or strategy shifts expose their gambles.
Burton elaborated on the pressure, noting how in the Xfinity Series, differing team budgets complicate predictions: “You cannot understand what their strategy is because they’re living in a different world than you’re living in. In Cup, you know, everybody’s there too. I don’t want to say everybody’s here to win the race on a particular weekend, but their mentality is different.” He pointed out that lower-funded teams might aim for a top-10 as a victory, making it tougher to anticipate moves.
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This echoes broader NASCAR realities, where pit calls like tire choices or fuel strategies can decide races. Data shows effective pit stops shave seconds, but errors amplify losses, as seen in historical blunders like miscommunications leading to penalties. Drawing from his own experiences, Burton shared a specific memory tied to Tommy Baldwin‘s mention of the Southern 500, where a pit call amid impending rain proved disastrous: “Yeah, you stay out, and everybody pits, or you pit… all you can do is make your best guess.”
He emphasized empathy for crew chiefs, saying, “I feel bad for crew chiefs in that situation because, especially in the Xfinity series… all the crew chief can do is make the best of you, and he can make you just have to live with it.” Such calls, insights on crew chief roles, involve analyzing data from atop the pit box, but one wrong read, like ignoring radar for rain, can villainize them instantly, as fans overlook the collaborative chaos.
These insights reveal the nightmare of pit road roulette, where a single decision amid variables like engagement minimums or media filters can shatter a strong run. Burton’s take substantiates how crew chiefs, vital for choreography, bear undue blame when strategies falter, turning shadows into spotlights of criticism, as seen in the Martin Truex Jr. and James Small case at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Beyond pit woes, Burton’s voice extends to NASCAR’s bigger picture, where format debates stir similar passions. His recent comments on playoff structures cut through misconceptions, offering clarity on who really calls the shots.
Jeff Burton sets the record straight on playoffs
Jeff Burton didn’t hold back when addressing claims that TV networks dictate NASCAR‘s playoff format, insisting during a broadcast that decisions instead stem from collaborative efforts. “Hold on a second. I hear that all the time, and I want to be clear about something, and I’m in these meetings. TV doesn’t make these decisions. NASCAR makes these decisions,” he stated, drawing from his direct involvement. This pushes back on narratives that overlook input from drivers, owners, and tracks.
He further clarified the process: “When this format that we are currently racing under was created, I was in every damn meeting. TV didn’t make this decision.” Burton’s firsthand account underscores NASCAR’s lead role, even as partners like NBC contribute ideas without overriding authority. This comes amid ongoing tweaks to ensure fairness, especially after rounds where four drivers get cut based on performance metrics.
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“They had a seat at the table, as did drivers, as did car owners, as did NASCAR, as did the tracks. And TV didn’t say, ‘Here’s your format; this is what we are doing.’ That’s not how that happened.” Burton emphasized inclusivity.
Such transparency addresses fan frustrations over elimination rounds, where points and wins determine advancement, per NASCAR’s official structures verified on nascar.com. This blunt debunking highlights how multi-stakeholder talks, not external mandates, shape the playoffs, ensuring the sport’s integrity amid debates on its evolution.

NASCAR 25 is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious stock car games in recent memory. It’s being built on Unreal Engine 5 by iRacing Studios (via Monster Games), and promises laser-scanned tracks for better accuracy, content spanning all four of NASCAR’s national series (Cup, Xfinity, Truck, and ARCA), nearly 190 licensed drivers, and over 400 paint schemes. The release date for consoles (PS5 & Xbox Series X/S) has been set as October 14, 2025, with the PC version coming later. But the recent hype trailer and track-list reveals have stirred up concern among fans.
While 30 unique tracks across the series are confirmed, several ARCA-exclusive tracks from the 2025 season are missing, including Berlin Raceway, Elko Speedway, Salem Speedway, Toledo, and others. Also, two Cup tracks, Bowman Gray Stadium and Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, don’t appear in the list.
The Dev Diary videos have given only short glimpses of gameplay, mostly cockpit views, menu/UI screens, and track art, leading many to say we haven’t yet seen enough of what the actual racing feels like.
Being a huge upgrade from the outdated NASCAR Heat tech, the game promised laser-scanned tracks for pinpoint accuracy, authentic rosters across the Cup, Xfinity, Trucks, and ARCA series, and a deep career mode packed with “turning points” that let players make game-changing decisions on and off the track.
Despite the fascinating early impressions, NASCAR 25 may fall out of favor due to the latest fact that was unveiled. iRacing released the track list for the game for all four series: Cup, Xfinity, Trucks, and ARCA. There are 30 unique tracks, 91 total when counting duplicates, in the game, with many being available for multiple series.
Each track will be available to race in Career Mode, Quick Race, Online, and Championship Mode. There is a lack of clarity about whether different series can race on different tracks. But a NASCAR fan on Reddit noticed the glaring absence of a few tracks. They are Bowman Gray Stadium, Mexico City, Portland, and a few ARCA Menards Series tracks. Fans on Reddit were quick to share their reservations.
Fans are not happy
One user hit the nail on the head, “Seems like the original announcement was a bit of an oversell. I’m not saying a few missing tracks is a deal breaker, but I am questioning what we’re actually going to be getting vs what was first promised. Time will tell.”
The official list clocks in at 30 unique tracks, 91 total with duplicates, but skips key spots like Bowman Gray Stadium, Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (Mexico City), Portland, and ARCA gems such as Berlin Raceway, Elko Speedway, Salem Speedway, and Toledo. These omissions sting because the 2025 real-life schedule included them with early hype.
Another fan called out the marketing, “Game was announced on October 5th, 2023, pretty much 2 years ago. We are a month away from release and have not seen any meaty gameplay videos. Not sure what kind of marketing strategy that is, but it’s not overly enthralling.” The October 5, 2023, reveal kicked off a long wait, but with consoles dropping on October 14, 2025, and PC later, fans have only gotten short cockpit clips, menus, and track art in the fifth Dev Diary.
The cautionary advice flowed, “I fear people will buy it upon releasing, like they do every big game, and the company will look at those initial profits as a major success. You’re not going to go crazy if you wait a couple days to buy the game, wait for initial reviews, and potentially save yourself $60-$70.”
Pre-orders mask issues, as seen with Ignition’s 43 Metacritic score from bugs and cut content, leading to refunds and patches. With no cross-play at launch and features like the driver market missing year one, the $70 price feels risky. Fans are smart to hold off, especially after the track omissions hint at a rushed or limited launch.
One user questioned the trailers, “The fact they’re spending all this time showing screenshots instead of actual gameplay is a bit sus to me.” Screenshots of tracks like Bristol and Darlington, menu previews, and wireframes dominate, but in-race motion is scarce, only a shaky 14-second clip in August’s diary.
The hype fatigue hit hard, “I tried to remain optimistic for a while but I’m seeing a lot of red flags. They were hesitant to share much about the game for a long time, now we’re knocking on the door of the release date and they are still trickling out the least amount of content they possibly can. Do they know their game is bad and they are afraid to show too much? Because if it was good wouldn’t they want to scream it from the mountain tops?”
The two-year wait since 2023 has been light on substance, with Motorsport Games’ $36 million 2022 losses and 2023 layoffs adding doubt. Without extended gameplay, fans feel strung along, echoing Ignition’s pre-release avoidance that led to a buggy disaster.
The harshest take, “I’ve said from day 1 it’s going to be a disappointment. Graphics looks like shit, limited game play with the only ‘reviews’ being folks that dropped quotes that were clearly not made by them talking about how great it is. It’ll be another flop like they all have been since the early 2000s EA days.”
Screenshots show oversaturated textures and dated lighting in Unreal Engine 5, with early “reviews” from influencers like Noah Gragson feeling scripted. The EA 2000s era, criticized for stagnation and glitches in titles like NASCAR 07, set a bar later games couldn’t clear, and fans fear NASCAR 25 is next.

While Chase Elliott says “we really deserved to be knocked out” of the playoffs after his crash last weekend at Bristol, the former champion notes that this second chance gives he and his team the opportunity to excel, beginning with Sunday’s race at New Hampshire (2 p.m. ET on USA Network).
Elliott made his comments Wednesday on “Sirius Speedway” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Elliott faced the threat of elimination after he crashed in last weekend’s race at Bristol when he tried to move from the top lane to the bottom.
“I just felt the urgency to get to the bottom and try to do what I could to save some tire,” Elliott said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “ … It was a high risk, but I felt like it was a risk that I needed to try to take at that point in time in my head. Unfortunately, didn’t work out.”
Elliott came down the track in front of John Hunter Nemechek and the contact with Nemechek’s car sent Elliott into the wall and out of the race. Elliott finished 38th — his sixth finish outside the top 10 in the last eight races.
Elliott was not going to lose enough points to be passed by teammate Alex Bowman, the first driver below the cutline, but Bowman ran toward the front and a win would have given him a spot in the next round and possibly eliminate Elliott.
“At that time, I thought our night, I thought our season was over, to be honest,” Elliott said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I didn’t have a good grasp on where some of the other competitors below the cutline were running.
“Had a brief conversation with (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) right when I got out of the car. I was like, ‘Man is that going to knock us out?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I think so.’ At that point, obviously, we’re just bummed.
“It took some time to kind of realize the situation and what it was going to take to knock us out. I got to watch it on TV with everybody else. It wasn’t the most pleasant hour and a half or so of my life watching, but it worked out, fortunately. Got really lucky with that, no question.”
Elliott advanced to the first round despite the result at Bristol and a 17th-place finish at Darlington. He was third at Gateway, providing the cushion he needed to advance to the next round.
New Hampshire has not been the best track for Elliott and Hendrick Motorsports. The organization last won at New Hampshire in July 2012. Elliott has only three top-10 finishes in 11 Cup start at the 1-mile track in the Northeast.
“I just feel like, yeah, you’re kind of in a spot where, ‘Man, we really didn’t deserve to be here based on the week before, let’s go and make the very most of it,’” he said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“I just feel like there’s nothing to lose for us at this point. We’ve got to make something happen, get some life and get our heads down and just grind it out these next three weeks.
“It’s kind of been one of those years in general, just trying, some of those days taking what was there. I was really encouraged by our Gateway, to be frank, and I thought there was a lot of really good stuff that went on there throughout the course of the event.

Hendrick Motorsports has not had the playoff start that they hoped for this year. Darlington was a disaster for the team, with none of them finishing above Chase Elliott’s 17th. And though Gateway was some relief, where once again Elliott finished highest in the team, coming 2nd, the Bristol race turned into one that he would love to forget.
Chase Elliott couldn’t finish the race as he got caught up in a chain reaction on Lap 311 involving John Hunter Nemechek’s Toyota. Luckily, he still qualifies for the next round, sitting at 7th thanks to his accumulated playoff points. But recent insight from experts tell us how Elliott might have sabotaged his own run at Bristol, making his upcoming playoff chances look very fragile and uncertain.
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What went wrong with Chase Elliott’s Bristol run?
John Hunter Nemechek wasn’t the only one involved. Denny Hamlin was behind him, and it the three cars stacked up one behind the other when the No. 9 spun. Hamlin’s car which nudged the No. 42 from behind, denied his involvement in Elliott’s hit on the outside wall which came after contact from No. 42 from behind. However, according to NBC’s Alex Weaver and Steve Letarte, Chase Elliott’s advancement into the Round of 12 came with more luck than dominance.
Ex HMS crew chief and broadcaster Steve Letarte broke down the incident on the Inside the Race podcast, “Yeah I think it’s just a misjudgement by the #9 of Chase Elliott. He’s on the outside, trying to get back to the bottom, he fills a hole that is there but closing. I don’t think John Hunter Nemechek can react enough. The reason I say that is because the #11 absolutely hits the back of John Hunter. Which tells me, if John Hunter overdrove the corner, he would drive off the nose of the #11. I feel like the fact that the #11 and the #42 are close enough to hit each other, they’re both entering at the right speed. The #9 knows what happens when you get stuck on the outside, he tries to fill a hole, he gots run into from behind. A little bit of his own doing.”
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According to him, the #9 driver reaped what he sowed, and even he admitted that it may have been his fault. “I thought I was doing the smart thing just trying to get back to the bottom…I thought I was clear…and then got a huge shot from behind. I’m not sure if John Hunter pushed in there or, you know, wasn’t expecting me to come back to the bottom…” said Elliott. “I think Chase even goes, ‘Maybe I stacked them up too much,’” Letarte added.
Letarte feels that by trying to force his way into a closing gap, Elliott left little room for Nemechek to react, which triggered the contact that followed. Hamlin’s involvement further explains that the cars behind were running at the right speed, meaning the chain reaction wasn’t caused by overdriving but by Elliott’s miscalculation.
This further made Letarte give a strong playoff statement for the No. 9. “He was the driver I was concerned about, whether he would be good enough. He’s just been consistent, but not crazy fast. He’s the type of driver who’s going to have to be a little fast, just faster in the next three races to continue.” Letarte’s concern reflects a broader truth about Elliott’s season. Consistency has kept the No. 9 in the hunt, but it hasn’t been paired with the kind of raw pace needed to dominate races.
Letarte then compared Elliott’s situation within the team and commented on the team’s current state in general. “The only thing I would say is, I don’t know if it is a benefit but the other Hendrick cars have backed up to the #9. I always had the #5 and #24 much faster than the #9. Now I think they’re all behind the Toyotas at the moment. So I guess glass half full, the #9 is the same speed as his teammates. Glass half empty is, teammates aren’t as fast as they need to be.”
His words reflect how, compared to the past, other HMS drivers like Larson and Byron have fallen back in speed coming in par with Elliott. However, though this makes things look better for Elliott, this isn’t good news for the team in general, as it highlights their underperformance.
Road ahead for the No. 9
Bristol proved a nightmare for the HMS driver, despite advancing to the Round of 12. With fewer than 200 laps remaining, Chase Elliott was caught up in a collision involving John Hunter Nemechek and Denny Hamlin, abruptly ending his race. While he safely advanced on points, the incident cost him valuable playoff points that could prove crucial down the stretch.
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But Elliott’s qualifying woes also loom large. NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck highlighted that he started outside the Top 15 in each of the three Playoff races, forcing him to fight through traffic and burn extra tires just to regain position. Currently sitting seventh in the standings, a win may be the only way for him to secure a stronger playoff foothold.
However, there is cause for optimism at the upcoming New Hampshire race. In 11 starts at “The Magic Mile,” Elliott has an average finish of 14.7, including a second-place run in July 2022, three top tens, and two top fives. On top of that, his qualifying has traditionally been strong at Loudon, giving him a solid platform to rebound.

Kyle Larson, early in the year, said, “Obviously you’d like to win the most races and win the championship and all that.” However, those hopes are falling short. The 33-year-old admitted during a media day that while his team has a lot of strength and speed to compete, the summer stretch has tested them, and the shorter, flat tracks like Gateway and New Hampshire aren’t exactly in his comfort zone, even if the package has improved. However, a bigger issue looms, and the broader NASCAR community has dropped the hammer on Larson’s championship hopes.
Kyle Larson’s dream season hit a wall, literally and figuratively, after his daring Double attempt at the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600. Once riding high with three wins and championship momentum, Larson’s campaign unraveled when he crashed out of both marquee events on the same day; the fallout was brutal. In the eight races that followed, the No. 5 car managed just one top five and a pair of top tens. Fatigue, loss of rhythm, and reliability woes are all part of the conversation as fans and analysts wondered if the Indy-Charlotte gamble had torpedoed his Cup title push. And the playoffs aren’t making it easy for the wheelman.
When the playoffs rolled around, the Hendrick Motorsports ace did enough to survive the Round of 16. At Darlington, he grounded out and finished, which kept him third in the standings, starting fifth but taking one on the chin with a 19th-place finish. However, at Gateway, Kyle Larson showed flashes of speed, nearly winning the pole before settling in behind Denny Hamlin. The strategy, however, shuffled him back into 12th place. But Bristol was a survival test — no-win, no fireworks, just enough points to squeak through to the Round of 12. The No. 5 driver avoided disaster and finished 32nd, after a strong fifth-place showing in the qualifying session.
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And as the Chevrolet struggled, Joe Gibbs Racing smelled blood. They didn’t just win races; they swept the table. Chase Briscoe claimed Darlington, Denny Hamlin owned Gateway, and Christopher Bell sealed the deal at Bristol. Three playoff races, 3 JGR trophies, and a clear statement: Toyota had the edge, while Chevy and Hendrick Motorsports were on the back foot. Suddenly, Larson’s playoff run isn’t about dominance; it’s about survival in a championship chase where his rivals are firing on all cylinders.
As Hendrick Motorsports scrambles to survive, a driver must be sharp every way: short tracks, flat ovals, and high-banked speedways. Every team has its trends and blind spots, and for Hendrick Motorsports, the spotlight has fallen squarely on flat, mile or shorter tracks where they have worked to close the gap. That’s exactly the type of venue they will face at New Hampshire this coming weekend. For Larson, Byron, and Elliott, the Round of 12 and beyond is dotted with similar challenges, from Martinsville to Phoenix.
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While explaining how Larson outsmarted his rivals on a tricky track like Bristol, he admitted, “I think we’ve gotten our package better on that style of track, for sure. I wouldn’t say that we’re as dominant or as good as we want to be, but I do believe that we’re better than we were. Hopefully, keep fine-tuning it and we’ll get even better.” And here’s the proof: Byron’s win at Iowa, Bowman nearly stealing one at Richmond, and Larson charging from 30th to 6th in that same race.
It’s clear HMS is grinding forward, but whether that’s enough against powerhouse rivals like JGR is the looming question. And the NASCAR community has penned its verdict.
NASCAR fans sound off on Kyle Larson’s 2025 title hunt
People in the NASCAR world haven’t been shy about expressing what they see when it comes to Hendrick Motorsports’ slide, especially Kyle Larson’s recent troubles, as a fan wrote, “All of Hendrick hasn’t been doing too well for the last few months. I think Chevy in general has fallen behind Toyota.” HMS, once synonymous with raw speed, seems to be lagging, and supporters are pointing fingers not just internally but across the manufacturer divide.
A third view puts it simply, saying, “Drivers go through slumps. It happens. Larson’s not immune to it. HMS has also been noticeably slower, granted larson’s slump started before it. For a few weeks the 9 (Chase Elliott) and 48 (Alex Bowman) looked faster than the 5(Kyle Larson) and 24 (William Byron) then all 4 started to look like crap.” Chase Elliott may not be qualifying well, but his race results have propelled him into the Round of 12.
At Darlington Raceway, he started 21st but could only manage a 17th-place finish. The Gateway race tested him even more; qualifying a low 19th, Elliott carved his way up to a hard-earned third, snatching vital points along the way. Bristol, however, proved to be a cruel finale. After starting 16th, Elliott’s run was shot by the crash, resulting in a dramatic DNF. Still, thanks to his previous heroics and a little luck from competitors’ misfortunes, Elliott managed to squeeze into the Round of 12. But his calm demeanor is what his fans are counting on.
Alex Bowman’s Round of 16 run was an uphill battle. At Darlington, he rolled off 29th and never recovered, finishing 31st. Gateway offered little relief, as he started 25th and ended the night 26th, leaving him buried in points heading into the cutoff race. Bristol finally showed signs of life, with Bowman rallying into an impressive eighth-place finish from 15th, though his early struggles proved too costly and he was ultimately eliminated from the playoffs despite the late push.
The comparison to his teammates is especially potent; when your rivals in the same garage are flat-out outrunning you, the focus shifts from external competition to internal adjustments, and none of them look spectacular right now, according to this comment. However, many fans blame the double-duty effort that derailed Kyle Larson.
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Another voice adds, “Hendrick hasn’t been great since the spring, bit are still good. Larson definitely took the Indy 500 deal really hard and it clearly got to his head. And Toyota is lights out right now.” That comment strikes at Larson’s mental state and suggests the burden of expectations may have gotten heavier after the ambitious double-duty effort. And comments like “I truly think got his bells rung at IMS and it’s been swept under the rug. The fall off since the 500 has been kind of crazy for him to have this significant of a slump,” really emphasize the diabolical effect of the double duty.
It also reinforces the idea that while HMS is capable, it has been visibly less aggressive and less consistent, especially against Toyota’s surging form. And now with New Hampshire around the corner, all eyes will be on Rick Hendrick’s team to see if they can make it to the Championship 4.

“We’re going to ask them to manage it. We’re delivering on exactly what we were asked to do.” Justin Fantozzi, global race tire operations manager for Goodyear, grew defensive when asked about last Saturday’s Bristol race. After introducing a new right-side tire combination that would peel off in 100 laps, Goodyear caught drivers by surprise with a fierce tire management race. Although it was the result of 18 months of effort, Denny Hamlin believes there is more scope.
The Bass Pro Shops night race witnessed 38 lead changes and frantic strategy shuffles. Drivers could not make their tires last more than 50 laps, with a few incurring disastrous wrecks. The extreme tire wear elicited controversy from the garage, but Denny Hamlin has a solution for Goodyear.
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Denny Hamlin seeks a balance in the car
The names in focus at Goodyear’s second Bristol phenomenon faded outside the top 30. Kyle Larson, the winner of the last two races at Thunder Valley, washed up in 32nd place. Fans did not expect the same fate for Denny Hamlin, who won in Spring 2024 during another tire management race in Bristol. He had overcome 54 lead changes that time to stamp a thrilling victory. This time, however, Hamlin ran into trouble on lap 385 after colliding with AJ Allmendinger and having his right-front tire roll away. NASCAR slapped him with a two-lap penalty, Hamlin finished in 31st place, and lost two of his crew members for the next two races.
While reconciling with his unlikely heartbreak in Bristol, he also offered Goodyear a method to solve its own dilemma. One reason why drivers like Hamlin or Larson could not cope was an extra emphasis on the right sides. So Denny Hamlin instructed Goodyear in a recent ‘Actions Detrimental’ episode, “My advice would be to put more grip in the left-side tires, take loads off the right, to give the rights a little bit of a break.” This falls in sync with the words of Chris Gabehart, who won the Spring 2024 race with Hamlin. The JGR competition director also called for more balance: “The left sides aren’t wearing enough. They really, really, really have to go to work on the left sides of this track and get a right side that will live.”
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Besides the top championship contenders crashing out, others also had a hard time. Josh Berry’s hopes for a strong finish vanished when a fire, likely sparked by burning tire rubber, engulfed his car in the first stage. “It’s a little aggressive,” Denny Hamlin said. He emphasized more control: “You want a tire to be able to go if you want it to go. I could never make it go. I knew if I went hard for two laps, I was toast for the rest of the run…If you look at the lap times, we all went at the very beginning of the race. Some of the fastest laps were like 15.5s. And if you look at every run after that, everyone just started slowing down more and more and more to just try to conserve life. Even cars that were trying to push it couldn’t go anymore.”
Denny Hamlin observed what he could about Goodyear’s experiment from the driver’s cockpit. However, NASCAR’s tire partner is already rolling out the next phase of its plans.
Another experiment is on the way
After Bristol, NASCAR drivers will gear up for New Hampshire. Back in July, three drivers already undertook a Goodyear tire test at the ‘Magic Mile’. Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, and Joey Logano got a taste of the upcoming race. Yet Goodyear still has a surprise in store for the entire Cup Series field. It recently solidified its tire compound that it will bring to the 1.058-mile track. According to a press release, it will be the same compound as was used at Richmond Raceway. The left side tires for Sunday’s race will be Goodyear tire code D-5254, and the right side tires will be tire code D-5256.
A month ago, Austin Dillon won the thrilling Cook Out 400 race at Richmond. The race at the 0.750-mile track featured 24 lead changes among 11 drivers. This matched the most different leaders in a race at Richmond since April 2023. The same tire compound was utilized earlier this year in the Clash at Bowman Gray, the Spring race at Martinsville, and the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro. Fans widely accepted the Clash race as the best iteration of the event in years, while the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro was also an improved show from a season ago.
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With the past performance of Goodyear’s tires on flatter, shorter tracks, a good prediction is in place for New Hampshire. Let’s wait and see if Denny Hamlin and his colleagues will be able to overcome this challenge.

On Sunday, the New Hampshire Motor Speedway will play host to a NASCAR Cup Series playoff race for the first time since 2017.
The ‘Magic Mile’ is the setting for the opening race of the Round of 12, a pivotal race in the 2025 postseason.
The one-mile venue has always been unique, but there are more question marks surrounding this year’s race at NHMS than there have been in a long time.
When New Hampshire used to host postseason races, the track had two dates on the NASCAR calendar, ensuring playoff teams had notes from earlier in the season to refer back to. That’s not the case this year.
It will also be difficult for teams to look back at their 2024 New Hampshire notes, given that the final 86 laps were run under never-before-seen wet-weather conditions that featured rain tires.
All of those factors make for what should be a thrilling NASCAR Cup Series playoff race on Sunday.
Even for the drivers who aren’t in the playoff field, New Hampshire is still a wild card. That’s the case for Front Row Motorsports driver Zane Smith, who will go into the weekend at New Hampshire on the heels of a third-place finish in the Bristol Night Race.

It is quite normal for a driver to snap, especially after losing 11 positions in the first 14 laps of the race. And Joey Logano lived his misfortune at the Bristol Night Race. He expressed his frustration with the car’s handling issues, stating it was “absolutely awful” and that it was “sideways into the corners” during the early laps. Then came the early tire wear that left him a lap down by lap 32 in the 500-lap race. The No. 22 Ford Mustang managed to rally back, securing a fifth-place finish and advancing to the Round of 12 in the playoffs. That’s some impressive racing, to say the least, and Jeff Burton agrees!
The 35-year-old rolled into the Bristol Motor Speedway hoping to show off his Team Penske chops, but the weekend quickly reminded everyone why short tracks can chew up even the most seasoned champions. Practice sessions were a struggle for the No. 22 Ford as Logano wrestled with a car that just wouldn’t settle. When qualifying rolled around, Logano clocked a 15.298-second lap, which only earned him 22nd on the grid. Well, that’s not exactly the launchpad for a highlight reel weekend. However, Logano’s surge and speed on a race day is what caught the eye of many.
Speaking on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Burton couldn’t hold back his praise: “I feel like I’m going to—I’m going to tell you somebody, and this is going to sound silly because he’s a multi-time champion, but if you would have told me Joey Logano was going to finish fifth this weekend, I’d have said there’s no way in hell. They were horrible in practice. They’ve been horrible there. They haven’t run good there at all. I mean, it was shaping up to be a really crappy night, and somehow or another Joey Logano did Joey Logano things. I had no idea he could finish fifth.”
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Joey Logano had a turbulent day at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he dropped to 33rd place by lap 14, indicating a rough start. As the race progressed, Logano started to recover through pit strategy and green flag runs. On lap 202, he made a pit stop, and under a caution on lap 243, he waved around to get back on the lead lap. By lap 259, he came in for another pit stop along with other lead lap competitors like Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, and Chase Elliott, suggesting he remained in the middle of the pack.
Then he briefly held the lead at lap 450, pitting from that position and handing the top spot to Brad Keselowski. With 61 laps remaining, Logano was running second behind Zane Smith, showing that he had climbed back into the top three. He also pitted under caution on lap 393 alongside other drivers, further managing his race strategy.
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In all, the No. 22 driver’s Round of 16 was a rollercoaster. At Darlington Raceway, he started in 14th but struggled to make ground, ultimately finishing 20th. At the World Wide Technology Raceway, he found some mojo, starting 13th and climbing to a solid fifth-place finish. Then there was Bristol. Even with that late urge, Logano’s earlier stumbles left him precariously perched 10th in the playoff standings, just two points below the cut-off line heading into the Round of 12 this weekend.
And now, with Denny Hamlin making bold claims about Joey Logano’s playoff fate, another driver has expressed their opinion on the playoff system altogether, and he believes that Logano deserves every championship within the current playoff system.
Hendrick Motorsports driver defends Joey Logano amid playoff chatter
Team Penske’s Joey Logano is a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, yet he often doesn’t receive the recognition one might expect for such an achievement. All of Logano’s titles have come under the current NASCAR playoff system, and his success is frequently cited in discussions questioning whether the format truly identifies the best drivers. Critics argue that this system can produce champions who might not have dominated over the full season, using Logano’s victories as a prime example. His season average finish of 17.1 is the worst of any Cup champ in 76 years of NACAR racing.
And some even go as far as to suggest that the championship earned under the structure carries an asterisk or is somehow illegitimate. However, Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman feels that the line of thinking is unfair. Speaking on Speedfreaks, Bowman explains that he personally prefers a traditional 36 race points format; it’s unjust to devalue a driver’s championship simply because it came under the current playoff system.
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He said, “I’ve seen people that try to say that like Joey’s taking advantage of it, right? Because he struggled through the year last year, got one win, and then kicked all our as*es in the playoffs. That doesn’t make him an illegitimate champion. He has the system that we all have to work with, and he worked with it better than the rest of us. I don’t think that makes it illegitimate.”
Ultimately, Bowman’s perspective highlights a clear point that winning a championship under the current playoff system is no easy feat. It demands skill, strategy, and the ability to perform when it matters most. Criticizing a driver for succeeding within the rules ignores the challenges and competitive excellence that define a champion like Joey Logano. But it is yet to be seen whether the 2024 champion can defend his title this year.

Two members of Denny Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew have been suspended after a wheel became detached from the No.11 Toyota during last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol.
Hamlin’s right-front wheel became detached on lap 384 of 500, sending his car into AJ Allmendinger’s No.16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet and triggering a caution. Since the incident caused a yellow, Hamlin was issued a two-lap penalty on the spot, and the series has now confirmed that he will also be without Austin Maloney (front tire changer) and Joel Bouagnon (jack) for the next upcoming races at New Hampshire and Kansas Speedway.
Meanwhile., the No.47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet and No.71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet were both given the all-clear on Tuesday after being taken to NASCAR’s Research and Development Center in Concord, NC for additional inspection after the Bristol race.

NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin called out the Next Gen car for the fire incidents that occurred during the race at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend. Among many, he addressed Austin Cindric’s case, which was likely the most severe.
The race at Bristol saw huge tire wear, putting many drivers at risk in the post-season. Unfortunately for Cindric, his car caught fire on Lap 454. His team worked hard to put the fire out as he waited on pit road, but Hamlin was more concerned about his team not breaking the window. He said on his Actions Detrimental podcast:

NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin has opened up about his race at Bristol Motor Speedway, highlighting the chaos that unfolded last weekend, and calling for a big change at the venue.
The 44-year-old driver secured a P31 finish in the race. However, he is on top of the playoff standings and has advanced to the Round of 8, indicating that he still has a chance of securing a Cup Series championship.
For Hamlin, though, the main issue at Bristol was the lack of scoreboards that were taken off, which made it difficult for him to keep track of his position amid the numerous pit stops, caution flags, and high rate of tire degradation. He said on his Actions Detrimental podcast:

Last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway had more drama than anyone expected. During the race, Team No. 11 lost a wheel on the track. It might sound like a small mistake, but in NASCAR, it’s a very big deal. And now, NASCAR has decided to punish the team.
The official report says “NASCAR Hands Down Penalty to Team No. 11 After Bristol Mishap”.
At the Bristol Motor Speedway, a wheel detached from a car belonging to Team No. 11. This happened when the race was in progress. In the race, a wheel may go off, and it can cause huge crashes. The loose wheel may hit another vehicle or may end up harming a driver, crew member or a fan.
Because of how dangerous that is, NASCAR has strict rules about wheels and other car parts staying in place during the race. The rule they broke is called Section 10.4.C, which talks about the “loss or improper separation of components” during competition.
When the race was over, NASCAR reviewed the video and data on the car and concluded that Team No. 11 had violated the rule.
This category of issue is referred to as L3-level infraction, which is one of the most severe types of punishments in the NASCAR rulebook. This level was reintroduced by NASCAR in 2022, with the introduction of the new Next Gen car, in an attempt to ensure that no team takes safety less seriously than ever.
The Penalty and Who It Hits
The punishment is tough. NASCAR says Team No. 11 will lose 10 championship points and 10 playoff points. Points are how teams and drivers move forward in the season. When you lose points, it becomes much harder to stay in the playoff chase.
Austin Maloney and Joel Bouagnon are suspended from the next two NASCAR Cup Series Championship points events. NASCAR demonstrates that losing a wheel is not the only unfortunate event, but it should be prevented at all costs to ensure the safety of everyone.
Denny Hamlin Explains Tire Failure After the Incident
Shortly after the race, Denny Hamlin summed it up with a shrug.
“It is what it is,” he said. “We were the only car on pit road at the time, and unfortunately, the tire fell off.”
Hamlin explained that he’d brushed the wall the lap before, which could’ve damaged the car.
“There was clearly an issue with the car,” he added. “I can’t tell if the suspension was broken, but something was off.”
He went on to describe the moment things went sideways:
“I knew something felt off, the right front started shredding coming off the corner, kind of the same feeling we had back in the spring. We tightened it up too much overnight, and once it went, it just blew the right-front right off the car. We’d hit the wall the lap before, so maybe something broke in the suspension.”
Why This Matters for the NASCAR Playoffs
The timing of this penalty could not be worse for Team No. 11. The playoffs are coming fast, and every point counts. In NASCAR’s playoff system, the field gets smaller after each round. Only the top drivers move on, and sometimes the difference is just one or two points.
By losing 10 points at this point, Team No. 11 can lose the top group. Even if they do better the next time, they will have to make up. The other teams have an eye on it, since the same thing may happen to them in case they fail to watch out.
This indicates that safety is the order of the day in NASCAR. Small mistakes can cost a lot.

NASCAR and IndyCar will be racing at Phoenix Raceway on the same weekend as part of an iconic collaboration between the two forms of motorsports. This unique form of partnership arrives for the first time after 2023, when NASCAR raced on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road-course layout.
The partnership was revealed after IndyCar released its 2026 schedule. Set to take place from March 6-8 in Phoenix, the open-wheel series will hit the track on Saturday, the same day as NASCAR’s Xfinity Series race (to be called the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2026). On Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series and ARCA Menards Series will keep the track busy.
Notably, the Phoenix race marks IndyCar’s first event at the venue since 2018. Speaking on the coming together of two popular forms of motorsports, Phoenix Raceway President Latasha Causey said in a statement:

NASCAR suspended two members of Denny Hamlin’s pit crew two races each for a wheel coming off Hamlin’s car last weekend at Bristol.
NASCAR’s rules state that a driver is penalized two laps for a wheel coming off the car on the track and two pit crew members are suspended two races.
Missing the next two races — New Hampshire and Kansas — for Hamlin’s team will be front tire changer Austin Maloney and jackman Joel-Alexandre Bouagnon.
Joe Gibbs Racing has not announced replacements for both crew members for Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (pre-race coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on USA Network).
Hamlin is the points leader entering the second round of the playoffs. He is 26 points above the cutline.

In spring 2024, NASCAR drivers were caught off guard. As soon as the Food City 500 race was flagged off, Cup drivers found their tires wearing off in less than 50 laps. The scrambling strategy and thrilling lead changes (54) that followed excited fans to the core. And Goodyear embarked on an experiment that went on for over two years. After two failed attempts at the same track, it finally struck gold in last Saturday’s night race.
The Bass Pro Shops Night Race featured 36 lead changes, the third-most in Bristol’s history. Christopher Bell navigated the flutter of challenges to prevail in the end, with his rivals racking their brains over the entire 500-lap event. Despite the thrill, Dale Jr. pointed out a few changes from when he raced.
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Dale Jr. traces a gloomy trajectory
Goodyear introduced a new right-side tire designed to wear in 100 laps. But the tires did not peel off during Friday’s practice session, as teams were able to run well over 50 laps without much wear. The temperature was 83 degrees ambient and 100 degrees on the surface. Therefore, everybody expected another snoozefest just like the previous two races. On Saturday night, the green flag waved with an ambient temperature of 71 degrees and a track temperature of 89 degrees. And around lap 25, No. 22 Ford spotter Coleman Pressley told Joey Logano, ‘It’s happening.’ And just like that, a reiteration of the 2024 spring event was underway. But what concerned Dale Jr. was the massive disparity with the older Bristol races. “The direction that Goodyear’s going, maybe it’s a bit extreme,” he said.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won a Cup race and an Xfinity race in Bristol, both in 2004. Firstly, he pointed out the difference in the temperature factor between his time and the present day. Dale Jr. said, “For all of my life, I always associated tire wear with heat…and if you would have a cool temperature, you would have less falloff, less wear. Cool temperatures weren’t conducive to good racing or wear. But now, it’s the opposite…It’s my opinion that the way they make the tire – the chemicals or the lack of chemicals…part of the process and infused into the rubber, had changed the tire and how the tire reacts to different surfaces and temperatures. So we’re starting to see this across the board in short-track racing as well.”
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Another factor that concerned Dale Jr. was the fabric of the tires. The veteran said that the rubber debris that NASCAR had to sweep out during a Stage 1 caution also differed from his times. He said, “Whether it was the Hoosier tires…or Goodyear’s radials, they used to have oils and chemicals and stuff, when it would wear, the balls of the entire debris would go off the racetrack…you could smear it in your hand.
Now, when the tire does wear, it’s a fine powder. It is completely foreign to what we’ve known for years.” He continued, “So now we’re kind of relearning what instigates the tire to wear and what conditions we need.”
What is more, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is hardly alone in expressing concerns. The Goodyear tire conversation threw a pall of speculation over the Cup Series garage.
Scratching their heads over the challenge
The first time Goodyear’s miracle came, it dazzled everybody. From race winner Denny Hamlin to even the top 20 finishers, Cup drivers marveled at the high-wear spectacle in spring 2024. However, the Fall race of 2025 left people wondering whether the tire fall-off was a bit extreme. Hamlin, who suffered a runaway wheel and finished 31st this time, reflected on the uncertainty of it. “I like this type of racing (but) I’d like to plan for it. But you don’t get as much chaos if you planned for it. But certainly, a version of this. I’d like to know that we can run 60 to 70, because then we know we could run hard, and I was just not in a position where I could run hard tonight.”
Goodyear experimented with the right-side tires for the night race. That led to Chris Gabehart criticizing the lack of focus on the left-side tires, which were not in step. The Joe Gibbs Racing competition director said, “The left sides aren’t wearing enough. They really, really, really have to go to work on the left sides of this track and get a right side that will live. I know they will work on it.”
Drew Blickensderfer, crew chief for Noah Gragson at Front Row Motorsports, had the most unusual take. He focused on UV light being a factor in Goodyear’s tire wear. He said, “I think we found out for a lot of years that it is just as much about UV light than it is surface temperature, and who knows why we didn’t have this last fall. But yeah, I think it was surprising to everyone by Lap 35 when we saw it happening again.”
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While drivers, crew chiefs, and former drivers rack their brains over this issue, who knows what steps Goodyear is taking next? Dale Jr. sees a gap from past times, so let’s see how the tire company treads towards the future.

NASCAR put on a thrilling race last Saturday. Featuring 36 lead changes and tires that ferociously peeled off, the Bass Pro Shops Night race was a treat for fans. From race winner Christopher Bell to 39th-place finisher Josh Berry, the challenges were multifold. Dealing with new strategies, scrambling for grip, and avoiding clashes made the race a spectacle to watch. Yet while 80.6% of fans voted positively for the race, the same stat was not visible on TV.
As part of NASCAR’s NBC Sports stretch, USA Network covered the Bristol race. The media partner features a star-studded crew, ranging from Leigh Diffey with his charismatic voice to Jeff Burton with his meticulous insights. Despite their presence, the Bristol affair did not register a lot of views, although it beat another sport.
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A tale of falling numbers for NASCAR
Just over a week ago, fans expressed their discontent at Gateway. It marked week one of the National Football League, with CBS’s 23.9 million viewers breaking a 27-year record and FOX Sports’ 17.9 million breaking a 10-year streak. Not only did NASCAR fold to the NFL’s TV viewership, but it also hit a personal low with USA Network. It got 1.525 million viewers, down from 1.8 million last year. But wait, that was hardly the end of the story for the media partner, as similar numbers persisted in Bristol.
Journalist Adam Stern posted the TV stats for Saturday night’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. He wrote on X, “@USANetwork got a 0.79 rating and 1.536 million viewers for Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol, down from a 0.98 rating + 1.868 million for the same event last year.” As the Bristol race was going on, multiple college football games were happening on different cable and broadcast channels. While USA Network’s drab streak continued, it managed to outpace football. Stern added, “That’s still enough to make NASCAR the No. 2 sport of the weekend on cable after football.”
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While the goal scored over the NFL matters, Bristol’s race viewership wildly differed from its previous iterations. During the 2025 Food City 500 race, 2.054 million viewers tuned in on FS1 to witness Kyle Larson win. In the meantime, Rory McIlroy’s first Augusta Green Jacket victory registered 12.99 million viewers. What is more, the spring 2025 race in Bristol marked a fall in viewership from the previous Bristol spring race on over-the-air FOX, which had 3.809M viewers. Last week’s race comes nowhere close to that, despite witnessing similar tire wear and lead changes.
Besides registering a lower fallout in TV numbers, Bristol also had dire consequences for one driver.
From crown to ashes
When Goodyear succeeded in Bristol the last time, Denny Hamlin was the name of the game. During the 2024 spring race at the 0.533-mile short track, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver won. He navigated a wild tire management race featuring 54 lead changes and came out victorious in the end. But when Goodyear succeeded again, Hamlin was in a different position. In last weekend’s race, the No. 11 Toyota suffered a massive setback 385 laps into the event. This led to dire consequences for Hamlin’s playoff hopes and also his championship ambitions.
Denny Hamlin’s car shot up the track, collecting pole-sitter AJ Allmendinger and causing significant damage to both cars. What is more, a replay revealed that the right-front wheel disconnected from Hamlin’s car, rolling down the track. This led to a caution, and Hamlin suffered a two-lap penalty, which ultimately wrought his 31st-place finish. That was not the end of it, as NASCAR suspended the No. 11 crew’s front tire changer, Austin Maloney, and jackman, Joel Bouagnon, for the next two races. They will sit out the events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway.
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Clearly, last weekend’s Bristol race had a greater negative impact than was visible. Let’s see if USA Network can pick up its ratings in the next race.

Say what you mean about the tire experiment at Bristol, but it definitely delivered quite an exciting race. Leading into the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, Goodyear brought in a new, soft right-side tire to cater to temperatures that cooled down significantly from afternoon highs into the 70s. To top that, quicker wear was prioritized, making tire management by drivers and crews a key variable. All of that set the stage for Christopher Bell’s dramatic win. However, now reflecting on the race, he dropped the hammer on his verdict of the tire situation.
Most teams walked into the race expecting business as usual. Practice had gone off without a hitch, tire wear looked minimal, and the assumption was that the race would be smooth sailing. Those expectations blew up almost immediately. Within the first 30 laps, tire degradation became the storyline, flipping strategies on their head and forcing crews to scramble as conditions shifted lap by lap. And reflecting on a redemptive weekend at Bristol, Christopher Bell couldn’t help but point out the tire struggles.
Speaking to Racing America, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver went off on the tire gamble: “Bristol has become one of the most unpredictable races and tracks on the schedule between the 2024 race where we had the first tire fiasco and then we go back into the fall or it’s completely normal when we’re expecting to have the tire problem and then we go in 2025 practice, there’s a bunch of tire wear, everyone’s expecting that and then the race turns out normal.”
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“And then fast forward to last week, practice was completely normal, and then the race was weird again, so. It’s become too unpredictable, and you have no idea what you’re preparing for. And I think that, that, you know, provides a lot of entertainment for the bands and definitely keeps the competitors on your toe.”
During the spring Bristol race last year, tire wear unexpectedly soared, turning what many assumed would be a standard short track slog into one of the most chaotic showdowns of the season. The track’s surface, usually sticky from accumulated rubber, resisted taking grip, and tires began to degrade much faster than anticipated. Teams found themselves losing performance, upping lap times, sliding through corners, and having to pit earlier than hoped. The race exploded with 54 lead changes reported, and what should’ve been a predictable race became a wild, tire-management showdown. And this year? The story was completely different.
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Once the race kicked off Saturday night, things changed fast. Cooler track and ambient temperatures made the softer right-side rubber degrade much more quickly than expected. The cause of that rapid tire wear was that teams found themselves making unscheduled stops under the green, trying to avoid being completely hobbled by worn tires.
The tire issues also led NASCAR to release an extra set of right-side tires mid-race to prevent more widespread problems. Even Ryan Blaney couldn’t help but go off on the tires. He said, “It was another one of those things where we thought we knew what the tire was gonna do and it did something completely different.” Drivers reported that they were sliding more, having to back off earlier than planned, trying to save their tire life, and in many cases being very aware of when their right-side tires were starting to go, the track service lost grip, and marbles built up outside the groove quicker than ideal.
When the dust settled, it all came down to a four-lap shootout. Christopher Bell, restarting second on the inside lane, seized the moment. Hugging the lower groove through Turn 2, he powered past Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar. Then he edged out Brad Keselowski by 0.343 seconds to snap his 24-race winless streak, a decisive move that sealed his path to victory. But with great momentum on his side, Bell isn’t getting too comfortable about his stance during the finale at Phoenix.
Christopher Bell sounds off about his chances at the season finale
Amid Dale Jr.’s initially pining for the tire experiment at Bristol and fans hating it, Bell has now moved forward. With an honest admission, the No. 20 driver has sounded off on his championship hopes. With six races left before the Cup Series showdown in Phoenix, Christopher Bell isn’t letting anyone at Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing, or their affiliates get too comfortable. Despite their recent streak, Christopher made it clear that the road to the desert won’t be a cakewalk. The Cup racing thrives on chaos, and he warns Phoenix will be more of a slugfest than a Sunday cruise for any team.
Bell said with conviction, “The bad news is we’re not running (the championship and season-ending race at) Phoenix next week, and there’s still a long way to go to get there. I can promise you, whenever we get to Phoenix, it’s not going to be a runaway. No matter who’s in that Final Four, it’s always a dogfight. It’s always a good race.”
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His words carried weight, reminding fans and crew that dominance doesn’t guarantee destiny. Yes, Toyota and JGR may be firing on all cylinders with Chase Briscoe winning at Darlington and Denny Hamlin winning at Gateway, but Bell urged everyone to pump the brakes on overconfidence.

Bristol Motor Speedway never disappoints, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. can vouch for that. One of the most unforgettable, historic moments in its storied history came in 2004 when Junior won the Busch race and followed it up the very next evening by winning the Cup Series race. Junior, drenched in sweat under the lights, burst out of the No. 8 Chevrolet and let out, “It’s Bristol, baby!” That was in 2004, but in 2025, we saw how Christopher Bell delivered an absolute banger in the 500 laps, and Junior could not help but double down on the track’s legacy.
Last weekend’s Bristol race was nothing short of pure excitement across all NASCAR series. From the ARCA and Truck Series kicking off Thursday, to intense practices and qualifying sessions, to Xfinity’s Food City 300, and then the high-stakes Bass Pro Shops Night Race, every hour felt packed. The new softer right-side tires introduced for the Cup race added to the tension; drivers were sliding, managing wear, and choosing lines, while strategies came into sharper focus than usual. In the final laps of the Night Race, Christopher Bell charged from 5th to 1st with only four laps to go, holding off Brad Keselowski by 0.343 seconds; every second counted, and every move had weight. And Junior was all here for it.
Speaking on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Dale Junior didn’t hold back his praise: “What Bristol provided this weekend, it is the blueprint, in my opinion, of the weekend that a NASCAR fan wants. All the other tracks, like that’s the standard. That should be the bare minimum of what you would expect if you’re gonna go physically be there. And so a lot of times we go to these races, qualifying is an afterthought. It’s on an app. I would love to get some practice back.”
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And Junior was right in pointing this out. Speed was only part of the equation; certainty was in short supply. Everyone knew that practice didn’t tell the whole story. Heat, track temperature, tire fall-off, and how traffic or caution might come into play were unknown. Drivers went into qualifying aware that what worked in practice might not translate into the race. In practice, drivers like Justin Haley, Ryan Blaney, and Carson Hocevar posted top numbers, stringing together fast laps as they balanced speed and durability.
Blaney ended up logging the most laps, 84, in this session, clearly trying to simulate race trim and learn how the track evolves as rubber is laid down. Drivers pushed immediately, trying to fill out the brand-new soft right-side tire that Goodyear introduced for this race because it was untested in warmer race conditions on this track; there was tension in the air.
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Dale Junior added, “It conflicts with the idea of trying to save the team’s money. But man, the storylines that it creates and the opportunity for the fans to hear cars go into the garage, see teams working, and it makes it feel like there’s something going on, and I need to be here and I’m gonna bring my fifth wheel and hang out with my family, you know? It just felt like at Bristol this weekend, there was always something going on. There was some racing, noise, practice, action-packed, busy place.”
And Junior is right in calling it action-packed. The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol was marked by dramatic incidents and significantly impacted the playoff landscape. Early in the race, Josh Berry’s No. 21 Ford erupted in flames on lap 74, forcing him to exit the vehicle. A smoke filled the cockpit; his crew chief’s urgent calls for caution highlighted the severity of the situation, which ultimately led to Berry’s elimination from the playoff. Later on lap 385, Denny Hamlin’s right front wheel detached, sending his car into the outside wall and collecting AJ Allmendinger. The incident caused caution and resulted in a two-lap penalty for Hamlin’s team.
Further, the repercussions followed with NASCAR suspending two of Hamlin’s crew members for violating the rule against the loss or improper separation of a component during competition. Additionally, Austin Cindric’s car caught fire on lap 455, leading to a prolonged pitstop as his team struggled to extinguish the flames. Hamlin had expressed concerns over the situation, noting significant smoke inside Cindric’s car and suggesting that the window should’ve been popped open to aid in his escape. The Bristol Night Race saw too much.
And as the weekend went by and Christopher Bell broke his 24-race winless streak, Dale Junior couldn’t be happier about the Night Race at Bristol. But as Bristol remains Junior’s favorite, another memory still haunts him.
Dale Jr. recalls a devastating race at Thunder Valley, amidst praising it
Bristol Motor Speedway has always been a track of highs and lows for Dale Earnhardt Jr., both as a wide-eyed fan and as a competitor behind the wheel. Amid loving the new experiment of right-side tires in Bristol, Dale Jr. has nothing but praise to shower on his beloved track. In 35 career NASCAR Cup Series starts on the half-mile, high-banked oval, Junior managed just one win, but he also racked up eight top-five finishes and 16 top-tens along the way. Despite its challenges, Bristol has long held a special place in his heart. Yet, the memory Junior treasures most doesn’t come from his own time in the driver’s seat, but it belongs to his late father, Dale Earnhardt.
In the latest episode of the DJD, he revisited a story that has stuck with him since childhood. It was 1984, and Junior was only 10 at the time, and ‘The Intimidator’ was leading the race. He said, “Spins down the front straightaway, and all four tires are flat, and he’s kind of stuck, right? Trying to get going, and he gets lapped, and ended up losing the race. Terry Labonte won, and he (Dale Earnhardt) is in a battle for the championship with Terry, neck and neck for the most part up until that point in the season. And I remember, even at 10 years old, being aware enough that Dad spinning out of the lead and having four flat tires and losing a lap, all that was bad.”
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Junior understood the weight of the moment, and Terry Labonte, after all, had one of the most consistent cars in the Series that year. He recalled, “And I’m like, ‘We can’t have races like this.’ I cried. I was sitting up on top of a comfort coach van, dead center of the infield. I remember looking across toward the flag stand and being able to barely kind of see Dad’s car between Dad and his pit crew and other vans and other obstacles and buildings and so forth. And just there he goes sliding backwards, and I’m like crap. I remember crying because it was heartbreaking. It was devastating, man. And that was why racing was amazing.”