The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season has been an unexpected whirlwind for Ty Dillon in the No. 10 Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing, with the inaugural In-Season Challenge, considered the brainchild of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, allowing him his moment in the limelight 11 years after making his debut with his grandfather’s team, Richard Childress Racing.

33-year-old Dillon’s Cup Series journey has been a rocky one, spending two seasons on the books at RCR, where he failed to earn a full-time spot, before being dropped and forced to find his own way. 

For Dillon, failing to make it at RCR after racing with them in both the Xfinity and Truck Series was heartbreaking. He revealed: “I had success at RCR in the Truck Series and Xfinity Series and thought my path was just going to keep going that way, and hopefully race for RCR. That was my dream as a kid.” It comes after a NASCAR legend reveals he will be arrested if he visits his own father’s grave. 

Dillon continued on the Door Bumper Clear podcast: “I think a lot of people think that I chose to go my own way. But honestly, there just wasn’t a door there open. I think they had [Ryan] Newman at the time. I think Caterpillar wasn’t interested in having me as their driver, and having two brothers at RCR just wasn’t something that they wanted. 

“I don’t know all the politics behind it, but the door wasn’t there. And I wanted to continue my career. And Germain Racing gave me an opportunity with a four-year contract at that point. It’s just hard to turn down to be a Cup racer.”

Dillon said that he made the move to Germain, believing his success in the Xfinity Series would carry over and continue, but this wasn’t the case. After four seasons and just five top 10 finishes, sponsorship issues led Germain to cease operations after 2020, leaving Dillon without a team once again. 

This uncertainty led Dillon to question his racing future and consider hanging up his race suit for good in favor of a job working with his father-in-law building retaining walls. However, his wife Haley and her father convinced him not to give in, calling everyone he could think of in the Cup Series to work his way back into the mix.

Stints with Gaunt Brothers Racing, 23XI Racing, Petty GMS Motorsports, Spire Motorsports, Kaulig, Team AmeriVet, and even a one-off return to RCR followed before landing a full-time drive with Kaulig in 2025.

Despite these challenges, Dillon said that in hindsight, he wouldn’t change a thing, believing his experiences have helped him grow “as a person, as a man, as a husband, as a father, and just give me so much perspective for this time in my life to grind. 

“And I’m proud of who I am as far as somebody that like never giving up and never quitting has become so true to me. And I hope that that portrays not only to young kids or people trying to grow in the sport, but I can be a help to my kids, too, in their life, whether it’s racing or not, like just believing and continuing to push forward in what you want to do.”

Having narrowly beaten Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek in the fourth round of the Challenge at Dover, Dillon now heads to Indianapolis, where he’ll take on JGR’s Ty Gibbs for a shot at the $1 million prize fund.

By JENNA FRYER

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR will hold a street race on Naval Base Coronado in Southern California next June as a replacement for its downtown Chicago event that ran the last three years.

The move to the San Diego area does not eliminate a return to Chicago, where NASCAR will still maintain an office and effort an eventual return, perhaps as early as 2027.

But the shift next year will allow NASCAR to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy by hosting all three of its national series over a three-day weekend on June 19-21.

“As part of our nation’s 250th anniversary, we are honored for NASCAR to join the celebration as we host our first street race at a military base, Naval Base Coronado,” Ben Kennedy, executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovations officer, said July 23. “NASCAR San Diego Weekend will honor the Navy’s history and the men and women who serve as we take the best motorsports in the world to the streets of Naval Base Coronado.”

It will be NASCAR’s second street race in the sport’s history, following the three-year run in Chicago, and first on an active military base. The course layout is not complete but is expected to be around 3 miles.

NASCAR has seen Auto Club Speedway close after the 2023 race. It built a temporary short track inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 2002 through 2024 but moved that event to North Carolina.

Kennedy, who has been bullish on new endeavors for his family business, was the brains of the races at the Coliseum, Chicago, this year’s visit to Mexico City and now next year in San Diego, a venture the Navy is excited about.

“NASCAR embodies the very best of the American spirit through speed, precision and an unyielding pursuit of excellence,” Navy Secretary John C. Phelan said. “Hosting a race aboard Naval Air Station North Island, the birthplace of naval aviation, it’s not just a historic first, it’s a powerful tribute to the values we share: grit, teamwork and love of country.

“From the flight deck to the finish line, this collaboration reflects the operational intensity and unity of purpose that define both the United States Navy and NASCAR.”

The base is known as the “West Coast Quarterdeck” and is a consortium of nine Navy installations that stretch from San Clemente Island 50 miles off the coast of Long Beach to the Mountain Warfare Training Facility 50 miles east of San Diego.

NASCAR named Amy Lupo, who has been with the series since 2021 and helped launch the Coliseum, as president of the race. She spent more than 20 years at ESPN expanding the X Games when she lived in San Diego early in her career. She still lives in Southern California.

Originally Published: July 23, 2025 at 4:39 PM EDT

The Associated Press
The guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale leaves Naval Base Coronado in 2016 in Coronado, Calif.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR will hold a street race on Naval Base Coronado in Southern California next June as a replacement for its downtown Chicago event that ran the last three years.

The move to the San Diego area does not eliminate a return to Chicago, where NASCAR will still maintain an office and effort an eventual return, perhaps as early as 2027.

But the shift next year will allow NASCAR to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy by hosting all three of its national series over a three-day weekend on June 19-21.

“As part of our nation’s 250th anniversary, we are honored for NASCAR to join the celebration as we host our first street race at a military base, Naval Base Coronado,” Ben Kennedy, executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovations officer, said Wednesday. “NASCAR San Diego Weekend will honor the Navy’s history and the men and women who serve as we take the best motorsports in the world to the streets of Naval Base Coronado.”

It will be NASCAR’s second street race in the sport’s history, following the three-year run in Chicago, and first on an active military base. The course layout is not complete but is expected to be around 3 miles.

NASCAR has seen Auto Club Speedway close after the 2023 race. It built a temporary short track inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 2002 through 2024 but moved that event to North Carolina.

Kennedy, who has been bullish on new endeavors for his family business, was the brains of the races at the Coliseum, Chicago, this year’s visit to Mexico City and now next year in San Diego, a venture the Navy is excited about.

“NASCAR embodies the very best of the American spirit through speed, precision and an unyielding pursuit of excellence,” Navy Secretary John C. Phelan said. “Hosting a race aboard Naval Air Station North Island, the birthplace of naval aviation, it’s not just a historic first, it’s a powerful tribute to the values we share: grit, teamwork and love of country.

“From the flight deck to the finish line, this collaboration reflects the operational intensity and unity of purpose that define both the United States Navy and NASCAR.”

The base is known as the “West Coast Quarterdeck” and is a consortium of nine Navy installations that stretch from San Clemente Island 50 miles off the coast of Long Beach to the Mountain Warfare Training Facility 50 miles east of San Diego.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR will hold a street race on Naval Base Coronado in Southern California next June as a replacement for the Cup Series event held in downtown Chicago for three years.

The move to the San Diego area does not eliminate a return for the top-tier Cup Series to Chicago, where NASCAR will still maintain an office and effort an eventual return, perhaps as early as 2027. Shane Van Gisbergen won the inaugural Chicago street race in 2023 as well as the third edition earlier this month — both times in a Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet — while Alex Bowman won the 2024 event.

The shift next year will allow NASCAR to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Navy by hosting all three of its national series over a three-day weekend on June 19-21. The Cup Series will take the track for the main event after races for the third-tier Truck Series and the second-tier Xfinity Series.

“As part of our nation’s 250th anniversary, we are honored for NASCAR to join the celebration as we host our first street race at a military base, Naval Base Coronado,” Ben Kennedy, executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovations officer for NASCAR, said Wednesday via a news release. “NASCAR San Diego Weekend will honor the Navy’s history and the men and women who serve as we take the best motorsports in the world to the streets of Naval Base Coronado.”

It will be the second exclusively street venue in NASCAR history — Chicago was the first — and first on an active military base. The course layout is not set, but it is expected to be close to three miles.

While NASCAR maintains a presence in the Golden State at Sonoma Raceway — this year’s Cup Series race there was held July 13 — that track is in Northern California. The circuit hasn’t visited SoCal for a regular-season race since the closure of Auto Club Speedway after the 2023 race at the track in Fontana, and while the preseason Clash exhibition was held on a temporary short track inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 2022 through 2024, that event was held this year at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Kennedy, who has been bullish on new endeavors for his family business, was the brains of the races at the Coliseum, in Chicago and at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City earlier this summer, and he also gets the credit for next year’s street showcase in San Diego, a venture the Navy is excited about.

“NASCAR embodies the very best of the American spirit through speed, precision and an unyielding pursuit of excellence,” Navy Secretary John C. Phelan said in a release. “Hosting a race aboard Naval Air Station North Island, the birthplace of naval aviation, it’s not just a historic first, it’s a powerful tribute to the values we share: grit, teamwork and love of country.

“From the flight deck to the finish line, this collaboration reflects the operational intensity and unity of purpose that define both the United States Navy and NASCAR.”

The base is known as the “West Coast Quarterdeck” and is a consortium of nine Navy installations that stretch from San Clemente Island 50 miles off the coast of Long Beach to the Mountain Warfare Training Facility 50 miles east of San Diego.

NASCAR named Amy Lupo, who has been with the stock-car sanctioning body since 2021 and helped launch the Coliseum’s hosting of the Clash, as president of the race. She spent more than 20 years at ESPN, a tenure that included helping the X Games when she lived in San Diego early in her career. She still lives in Southern California.

Pacer will set the pace

INDIANAPOLIS — Brickyard 400 fans are about to get their own version of a “Pacers and Racers” weekend.

Organizers of the Cup Series race said Tuesday that three-time NBA All-Star selection Pascal Siakam, a forward for the Indiana Pacers, has been selected to drive the pace car for Sunday’s Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The announcement came two months after the Pacers played the New York Knicks in an Eastern Conference title series matchup on the same day as the Indianapolis 500. The events at IMS and Gainbridge Fieldhouse took place just a short drive apart.

It was just the fourth time a Pacers and racers doubleheader had taken place in Indy.

Now, though, Siakam will get a chance to experience the other part, this time leading the Cup Series cars to the green flag in a 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS. The race will take place on the historic 2.5-mile oval for the second straight year after it had been run on the track’s road course from 2021-24 as the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard while part of a busy weekend that included the open-wheel IndyCar Series also racing there. The Cup Series first raced on the oval at IMS from 1994 to 2020 before NASCAR decided to change things up.

“Basketball and motorsports — Pacers and racers — go hand in hand in Indianapolis,” Doug Boles, the president of IndyCar and the speedway, said in a release. “Following the Pacers’ electrifying postseason run, it’s only fitting to have Pascal join us to pace the field as NASCAR’s biggest stars compete to win the In-Season Challenge and add their name to the history books with a win at the Brickyard.”

Siakam, who grew up in Cameroon, didn’t start playing basketball until he was 17 years old. A two-time All-NBA selection, he helped the Toronto Raptors win the league championship in 2019 and helped the Pacers reach this year’s NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who won the title after Indiana took the best-of-seven series the distance.

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Ryan Blaney chimed in on the championship format debate Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Blaney pushed back on the narrative that drivers who have won a championship in the 16-driver playoff era were less deserving than those who won under the full season points format.

“What kind of bugs me a little bit is the people that are so diehard on, like, ‘If you won a championship in this format that we have now, oh, it’s a Mickey Mouse championship and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t count,’” Blaney said. ‘It’s like, man, everyone has the same opportunity as the guy who won it. This isn’t the full season points. Like everyone always talks about like, ‘Oh, this guy, he would have won the full season points.’ Like, well, that’s great. But we haven’t used that format in 20 years.

“… I look at our championship as like, we had a good year, and we even had a better playoffs than everybody else. And we rose to the occasion when we needed to, and we dug in, and we were the best car during the playoffs and had some big wins and I was able to get the championship.”

Ryan Blaney joins in on NASCAR championship format debate

The current playoff format has come under fire following Joey Logano’s victory in the NASCAR Cup Series championship race at Phoenix this past season, in which the Team Penske driver captured his third title. Logano had an average finish of 17.1, the worst for a driver in a championship-winning season.

But in the playoff format, adopted in 2004 and tweaked along the way, winning is everything. NASCAR switched to an elimination style format in 2014, where 16 drivers make up the field. Winning at least one regular season race grants entry into the postseason.

Blaney won the championship in 2023. While far from the dominant car during the regular season, Blaney locked in during the playoffs. He won two of the 10 races, and finished second twice, including in the season finale at Phoenix.

Ryan Blaney reveals what he would change about NASCAR championship format

“I mean, everyone can have their opinion,” Blaney said. “It gets under my skin a little bit when they’re like, ‘You guys didn’t deserve that championship.’ It’s like, what are you talking about, man? Like we went through the grinder, everyone digs in. And we were resilient when it mattered.”

While Blaney will defend his championship against anyone, he is open to change when it comes to the playoff format. He said he doesn’t love the winner-takes-all nature of the final playoff race. Instead, Blaney would like to see a little more consistency rewarded.

“Do I have my ideal like championship format? Yeah,” Blaney said. “Like my opinion on it, I was a huge fan of the initial Chase. Last 10 weeks of the year, you kind of have somewhat of a reset in points and then you go 10 races and whoever had the best 10 races was going to win the championship.”