Practice and Busch Light Pole Qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, HBO Max, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway was cancelled due to inclement weather Saturday afternoon.

Through a metric established by NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott was awarded pole position for Sunday’s race. He’ll start out front in the No. 9 Hendrick Chevrolet alongside Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 Toyota.

NASCAR combines owners’ points, a driver’s finishing position in the preceding race, and his fastest lap time in that race to rank the teams and establish a lineup when qualifying is not possible.

Championship points leader, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron will start fifth Sunday sharing the third row with Trackhouse Racing rookie Shane van Gisbergen, who has won the last two races (road course events at Chicago and Sonoma, Calif.) coming into the Dover 400-lapper.

Defending Dover winner, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin will roll off 13th. Three-time Dover winner, Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch will start 10th.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, a three-time race winner in 2025 who leads NASCAR’s Playoff Standings, will start 25th. The 2019 Dover winner has only a single top-five (fifth place at Michigan) and three top-10s in the eight races since his last victory at Kansas in May.

With a new tire compound for cars this weekend, drivers were hoping for some laps on track. “Brand new tire or not, practice is always important,’’ Larson said, acknowledging he is hopeful his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team can return to early-season form this week at the famed, “Monster Mile.”

“I wouldn’t deny that we’re in a slump, results kind of show that,’’ Larson said. “But I think some of it has been a little bit out of our control and some of it execution with a car that’s been a little bit off on speed. But confidence in our 5 team is strong and hopefully we can turn it around at Dover.

Brent Crews’s run in the General Tire 150 at Dover Motor Speedway ended unexpectedly. A rampant fire left him unable to compete just a quarter of the way into the race. The rising Arca Menards star has also competed in NASCAR’s Truck Series. 

On lap 44, who recently drove the new electric car at the Chicago Street Race,caught fire after making contact with the wall around a turn. The front right tire immediately ignited, and the car spun nearly sideways, sliding down the track and trailing thick clouds of black smoke.

Caution flags flew as the orange JBL No. 18 Camry came to a stop with the entire right front engulfed in flames against the wall. Crews missed out on the final 106 laps of the race but still finished ahead of Tony Cosentino, Blaine Donahue, and Matt Kemp.

Several tense seconds passed before Crews was able to exit the car and move to safety, even as other cars continued to race past the scene. Motorsports fans were critical online of how long it took for Crews to escape and for the safety crew to respond.

One fan commented, “The safety crew must have been parked a mile away.” Another added, “That was a big hit for him. I’m glad he got out of the car, but it took a while for the safety team to put the fire out.”

A third person tweeted, “It took them forever to extinguish the fire. They need to have a better plan and execution.” Cameras later showed the charred remains of Crews’s car, with extensive damage to the rear frame and tires.

The commentary team remarked that the damage likely meant the car was a total loss. Crews had finished second in qualifying and was considered a top contender to win heading into Friday’s race.

Through 10 races of the 2025 schedule, Crews has earned one win, which came in the second race of the season at Phoenix. He beat Brenden Queen in a one-lap shootout in Turn 3 at Phoenix Raceway, and noted how special it was to defeat the driver he was familiar with during their CARS Tour time.

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“I raced Brenden [Queen] the whole year last year,” Crews said. “We raced him for CARS Tour wins, and then coming here to the ARCA Menards Series at a track like Phoenix to race for the win was really special. A great job to [Pinnacle Racing Group]. They had a winning car today, so I’m grateful for the caution at the end.”

The General Tire 150 was eventually won by Queen, who earned his fourth season win and claimed three poles. Queen now leads the ARCA Menards Series by 26 points over Lawless Alan, while Crews sits 19th out of 115 drivers who have competed at least once this season.

The next race on the ARCA schedule is the LiUNA! 150 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 25.

DOVER, Del. — Chase Elliott took advantage of heavy rain at Dover Motor Speedway to earn the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.

Elliott and the rest of the field never got to turn a scheduled practice or qualifying lap on Saturday because of rain that pounded the concrete mile track. Dover is scheduled to hold its first July race since the track’s first one in 1969.

Elliott has two wins and 10 top-five finishes in 14 career races at Dover.

Chase Briscoe starts second, followed by Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and William Byron. Shane van Gisbergen, last week’s winner at Sonoma Raceway, Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch complete the top 10.

Logano is set to become the youngest driver in NASCAR history with 600 career starts.

Logano will be 35 years, 1 month, 26 days old when he hits No. 600 on Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway. He will top seven-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty by six months.

The midseason tournament that pays $1 million to the winner pits Ty Dillon vs. John Hunter Nemechek and Reddick vs. Gibbs in the head-to-head challenge at Dover.

The winners face off next week at Indianapolis. Reddick is the betting favorite to win it all, according to Sportsbook.

All four drivers are winless this season.

No one knows how to party like Dale Earnhardt Jr. Another win for his JR Motorsports Xfinity Series team today at Dover has the Busch Lights out. Connor Zilisch wins his second race in a row and his first-ever NASCAR Xfinity race at Dover.

What a win for Connor Zilisch. This race was shortened by rain, and had 66 laps left to go. However, Zilisch had firmly taken control of the race by that point, led 77 laps total, and looked like the best driver on the track.

Four wins this season, Zilisch is showing why he’s at JR Motorsports. Yes, he’s ultimately going to end up at Trackhouse Racing, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. is enjoying his time as the team owner for the young phenom.

After the race was called, Dale Jr. was spotted on The CW broadcast. It was like he spawned on pit road with two Busch Lights in his hands. This screenshot from Steven Taranto of CBS Sports captured the moment.

It was a surprisingly clean NASCAR Xfinity race at Dover Motor Speedway, and it never made it to the scheduled distance. When the rain arrived, Connor Zilisch was out front of the field. With more rain around daylight fading at a track without lights, NASCAR was forced to call it.

Driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Zilisch collected his fifth career Xfinity win and his fourth of the 2025 season. He surpasses Kyle Busch as the youngest driver to reach five career wins, doing it all before his 19th birthday.

Aric Almirola finished second, Brandon Jones third, Justin Allgaier fourth, and Jesse Love fifth. Ryan Sieg, Taylor Gray, Sheldon Creed, William Sawalich, and Christian Eckes filled out the remainder of the top ten

Gray led the race from pole position, winning the opening stage without issue. However, a messy pit stop cost him a lot of his track position with Zilisch emerging as the new race leader. 

Zilisch dominated Stage 2 and while Almirola got close near the very end, he was not able to mount a true challenge.

At the start of the third stage, both Ross Chastain and Nick Sanchez fell out of the race with mechanical issues. Chastain said “the gear broke” when asked by The CW what happened. Chastain ended up finishing last (38th) in his worst NXS result since 2017.

Kyle Sieg stayed out for the final stage, but he was quickly swallowed up by those who chose to pit at the end of the stage.

Zilisch continued to lead as rain approached, forcing a yellow flag with 69 laps to go. NASCAR chose to red flag the event a few laps later, bringing the entire field down pit road.

This is the first NASCAR Xfinity race to be shortened by rain since the Chicago Street Course in 2023.

Photos from Dover – Race