Motorsports
Carson Hocevar is NASCAR’s disruptive new driver — and one of its biggest fans
LEBANON, Tenn. — The tall guy in the red Dale Earnhardt Jr. T-shirt blends in with other NASCAR fans mingling near pit road at Nashville Superspeedway, soaking in the atmosphere before a Truck Series race on a summer Friday night. Energy drink in hand, he looks out at the grandstands and soon-to-be noisy racetrack and […]

LEBANON, Tenn. — The tall guy in the red Dale Earnhardt Jr. T-shirt blends in with other NASCAR fans mingling near pit road at Nashville Superspeedway, soaking in the atmosphere before a Truck Series race on a summer Friday night.
Energy drink in hand, he looks out at the grandstands and soon-to-be noisy racetrack and smiles.
“I’ve always dreamt of being able to watch every race,” he says. “Now I’m here.”
He senses someone in his peripheral vision and turns to see another NASCAR fan, just like him, seemingly waiting for a word.
“Sorry, how are you?” the tall guy says. “You could have interrupted!”
“Can I get a picture, Carson?” the fan says.
Meet Carson Hocevar, the disruptive 22-year-old who isn’t just one of NASCAR’s fastest-rising young stars — but also one of its biggest fans.
On this night, 48 hours before Hocevar finishes second in the NASCAR Cup Series race at the same track, the Spire Motorsports driver is following his normal routine: Making the trek across the infield grass to ascend into the grandstands to watch the lower-tier Truck and Xfinity races with the fans.
Though NASCAR is more accessible for its diehards than other big-league sports, there’s a barrier between the stands and the garage area — both physically and figuratively. Hocevar regularly breaks the fourth wall, so to speak, by choosing to watch races from a familiar viewpoint that reminds him of growing up. He’s as comfortable sitting among the race fans as he is in the Cup Series garage — if not more so, given how many drivers and teams he’s irked with his aggressive racing style.

From his perch in the bleachers, Carson Hocevar watches last weekend’s Truck Series race at Nashville. “I’ve always dreamt of being able to watch every race,” he says. “Now I’m here.” (Jeff Gluck / The Athletic)
We’ll get to that in a bit, but for now, there’s no sign of any animosity toward Hocevar as he trudges across Nashville’s thick infield grass and climbs the stairs into the grandstands. People already in their seats for the Truck race begin to notice and call out — something he said has become increasingly common of late.
“Hocevarrrrrr!” one older, long-haired man yells, raising his arms in a triumphant welcome.
Some fans leap from their seats and rush toward the aisle to offer a fist bump or handshake. A few ask for selfies. Others just clap and cheer at the site of a recognizable Cup driver among them.
“How cool is that?” a father says to his two young sons as Hocevar passes by.
When Hocevar reaches the concourse, his progress is slowed by people wanting to chat. A jam-up forms as one teen bro-hugs Hocevar like they’re old pals and asks for a signature. Another accuses Hocevar of wrecking his car several times on iRacing, an online simulator game; Hocevar asks the fan his name and acts like it rings a bell.
After the fan is out of earshot, Hocevar is asked if he really recognized the name or was just being polite.
“Oh yeah,” Hocevar says. “And I did wreck him.”

Carson Hocevar greets fans at Texas Motor Speedway in May. “He hasn’t changed at all,” longtime friend Christian Pitman says. “That’s why people like him.” (Austin McAfee / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Hocevar makes his way to Row 29 of Section 131, where a few Nashville-based friends are awaiting him. One of them is Christian Pitman, who used to race with Hocevar while growing up and has remained close through his buddy’s burgeoning NASCAR career.
“He hasn’t changed at all,” Pitman says. “I think that’s why people like him.”
He’s not exactly incognito, and so a steady stream of fans comes over to Hocevar’s row. At first, it’s actually unclear whether these are more of Hocevar’s Nashville friends or simply strangers approaching.
That’s because each time someone arrives in the aisle, Hocevar pops up from his seat like he’s been expecting them.
“Watching from the stands?” one fan says after getting his picture with Hocevar. “Don’t blame ya!”
But seriously, why would he do this? Why would a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver watch races with fans, even if he is one himself?
“Why not?” he counters, puzzled. “I love it.”
That love doesn’t go both ways for Hocevar in the NASCAR world. While he possesses the type of personality many fans claim to want — he alternates between charming, brash, opinionated and startlingly frank — he has also angered many of the drivers he grew up watching (and thus their supporters, too).
Hocevar’s reputation is constantly a trending topic. He has crashed drivers on accident, on purpose and every shade of gray in between — often unapologetically.
Among his critics: former Cup champions Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney, Hocevar’s own mentor Ross Chastain, and now Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who Hocevar sent crashing in Nashville on Sunday night.
While there’s a recurring narrative that accompanies fast young drivers who burst onto the NASCAR scene — it’s happened to the likes of Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Busch, Chastain and many more — it’s also clear Hocevar has lost the benefit of the doubt.
“A lot of people were saying, ‘Well, is it just because he’s a young, aggressive driver?’” Blaney said in March. “He’s being a young, reckless guy in a lot of situations, and there’s a big, big difference.”
But in some ways this is all part of the plan for Hocevar, who carefully studied how drivers raced and reacted to various situations while growing up. He’s seen an inordinate amount of interviews and knows what resonated with him as a fan — and what he disliked. He’s determined to be the kind of driver he would have wanted to root for as a kid.
Not that he’s very far removed from actually being one.

Carson Hocevar celebrates a Truck Series win at Kansas in May. Now full-time in the Cup Series, he tied a career-best with a second-place finish last weekend in Nashville. (Chris Graythen / Getty Images)
With NASCAR racing at his home track of Michigan International Speedway this weekend, Hocevar briefly returned to his childhood home in Portage — a small city one hour south of Grand Rapids where, until recently, he was more well known for appearing in an oft-played commercial for his dad’s business (Scott’s Sports Cards, Coins and Jewelry) as a 9-year-old.
“Scott’s has a nice selection of Citizen Watches, all priced 50 percent off for the holidays!” a cheerful Hocevar tells the camera as “Jingle Bells” plays. “Happy Holidays!”
As recently as a few years ago, people would stop him in the grocery store not to chat about his up-and-coming NASCAR career — but to remark how much he’d grown up since seeing him in the ad. People in the Portage community were used to seeing Hocevar ride his bike all over town when he wasn’t off racing.
And when Hocevar returns to his family home, his bedroom has been largely untouched. The shelves still have autographed die-cast cars from the likes of Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch — who has called Hocevar “a f— d— bag” and vowed to “wreck his ass” — and a signed Matt Kenseth photo.
“The only thing that’s different is I don’t have the Dale Jr. comforter on my bed anymore,” he says.
He’s retained an extensive collection of die-cast cars (it numbers in the hundreds and he’ll never get rid of it, he says), which includes the custom-made versions he decorated himself. Hocevar and his friends made stop-motion animation videos with the die-cast cars because “we were too old to play with them but too young to just let them sit there.”
One of those friends, Pitman, sits in the Nashville stands with his longtime buddy and pulls up an old Instagram page from an iRacing team Hocevar created as a kid. Hocevar has since lost the login for the chr_racing page, so it lives on as a time capsule from an 11-year-old’s summer hobby (“Instagram used to let you sign up with an unverified email address, and I have no idea what it was,” he says).
But it doesn’t bother him; Hocevar embraces his NASCAR fandom rather than running from it. In fact, he happily recounts one of his favorite memories as a 9-year-old: Having his name on the winning car in one of NASCAR YouTuber Eric Estepp’s stop-motion races.
“Winner: CarsonH814,” the video announced.
“I was so excited, I went to school the next day and told everyone I won,” Hocevar says.
Growing up in the meme-ified world of Gen Z has created a unique bridge from Hocevar to NASCAR’s younger audience, a demographic with which the sanctioning body has struggled to connect.
Hocevar not only streams his iRacing on Twitch, but he also did so in the middle of this year’s Daytona 500 when there was a rain delay (Spire has a sim rig setup in its hauler for Hocevar to use).
Earlier this spring, he bought a 1997 pickup truck off Facebook Marketplace just because it was decorated like Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s No. 3 GM Goodwrench ride — and now uses it as his daily driver.
He has his TV set to autoplay YouTube videos continuously and allows the algorithm to pick old NASCAR content for him. To demonstrate, he pulls out his phone: It’s showing the 2009 Pepsi 500 at California Speedway, which has just begun playing after an old postrace show from an October event at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
But Hocevar’s Very Online persona has also lent itself to another unique skill: Translating the digital world into real-life applications. NASCAR teams use high-tech driver-in-the-loop simulators to gather engineering feedback and influence vehicle setups; Hocevar performed so well in that area that it essentially earned him a chance with Spire.
“We popped him in the sim, and our sim game improved like 1,000 percent,” Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson says, standing on pit road before the Nashville race. “We were like, ‘This is probably the direction NASCAR is going.’ All he does is watch racing, go to races, go on iRacing, go in the sim. What I liked about him is he’s just so fast, and this is all he’s thinking about, always.”
While Dickerson says he wishes Hocevar would have used a bit better judgment in some of the situations that have resulted in controversy, their daily texts typically don’t include any scolding. Dickerson doesn’t want to do anything to slow Hocevar down or “cage him,” he says; after all, Hocevar is on the cusp of winning races for a team that has never had a driver finish in the top 20 of the season point standings.
“I am not going to be like, ‘Hey, you’d better mind your P’s and Q’s,’” Dickerson says. “My thing is just: If you accidentally get run into, don’t act like a jackass. As a team owner, I just want him to show up to meetings on time, participate in competition meetings like the student of the game that he is, and to race his teammates with respect.”

Carson Hocevar talks with Fox Sports during last month’s All-Star weekend. Fan-friendly, outspoken, and often controversial on the track, he’s emerged as a must-watch driver. (James Gilbert / Getty Images)
Hocevar has repeatedly claimed in interviews that he doesn’t study data and drives off instinct, using his creativity to find lines others do not. And while the latter part of that statement may be true, Dickerson says the first part is total bunk and is tired of getting asked about it.
“He’s lying to you!” Dickerson says. “He is always studying! I live it every day. He’s constantly sending me things he’s looking at. He’s just at an age where it’s cool to say, ‘See? I don’t study! I just feel the air! I’m the next reincarnation of Dale Sr., don’t you guys get it?’ No, jacka—. It’s not instinct. He’s not God’s gift to race car driving. He works at this as much as anybody.”
To prove his point, Dickerson calls Hocevar over from a conversation with more fans.
“You keep telling people you don’t study s— or look at s—!” Dickerson says.
“What? I just say I don’t look at SMT data,” Hocevar says with the tone of a scolded teenager, referring to the sport’s real-time telemetry data.
“You look at everything, shut up,” Dickerson says.
“I know,” Hocevar replies with a shrug.
But even if Hocevar works harder than he’s willing to let on, he’s still somewhat of a racing savant. Back up in the stands, as the NASCAR Trucks circle around the track, he immediately diagnoses the things drivers should be doing differently and yells his feedback to no one in particular, drowned by the roar of the engines.
He wears no headset or ear plugs and rests his worn black Nikes — the only pair of casual shoes he owns — on the bleacher seat in front of him while holding a phone with Cup Series trophy wallpaper (“Motivation, man” he explains.) When drivers from Spire and Niece Motorsports (which gave Hocevar his break in the Truck Series) run afoul of his expectations, Hocevar unlocks the phone and furiously types feedback texts to friends on both teams in hopes of reaching the drivers.
“Message delivered,” one responds.
Other times, Hocevar simply leaps from his seat and makes exaggerated gestures at the drivers like any number of other fans in the stands — sometimes exasperated when they don’t listen to him, sometimes celebratory when they make a good move. And he has reason to celebrate at the end of the night because Spire teammate Rajah Caruth ends up in victory lane — as does Hocevar, being interviewed on TV in his red Dale Jr. shirt after congratulating Caruth.
Two nights later, other fans have taken his place in Row 29 of Section 131 and get to witness the full Hocevar experience: Being lightning quick en route to a second-place finish, but making more on-track enemies in the process.
Controversy aside, it’s a good night. For a kid who was once thrilled just to watch NASCAR Cup Series races, actually winning one no longer feels like such a distant dream.
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Sean Gardner, James Gilbert/Getty Images)
Motorsports
Weather cancels qualifying at Dover Motor Speedway – Speedway Digest
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 […]

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.
Motorsports
NASCAR race at Dover stopped as car bursts into flames in terrifying f – Motorsport – Sports
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 […]

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.
DON’T MISS
“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.
Motorsports
Connor Zilisch wins the Monster Mile
Credit: Sean Gardner / Getty Images Connor Zilisch wins at Dover after the second half of Stage 3 was rained out. Post-race, Zilisch said that his team didn’t consider his Pocono win a real oval victory because, technically, Pocono is a triangle. In response, Zilisch fired back: “They’ve got nothing against me,” pointing to his […]

Credit: Sean Gardner / Getty Images
Connor Zilisch wins at Dover after the second half of Stage 3 was rained out.
Post-race, Zilisch said that his team didn’t consider his Pocono win a real oval victory because, technically, Pocono is a triangle. In response, Zilisch fired back: “They’ve got nothing against me,” pointing to his dominant win on Dover’s traditional oval layout.
The top three were all rookies with Taylor Gray on the pole, Nick Sanchez alongside him and Zilisch behind Gray.
Gray had the better spot and easily cleared for the lead while Zilisch and Brandon Jones stayed side by side through the opening laps. Zilisch cleared for third on Lap 3.
Jesse Love also had a good start, passing Jeb Burton for eighth on Lap 5.
On Lap 9, Justin Allgaier jumped up to 25th from starting in the back after a small crash in qualifying.
On Lap 16, Jones caught up to Zilisch and began challenging him for third again. Aric Almirola also joined the battle on Lap 18. Jones passed Zilisch on Lap 27 and Almirola passed Zilisch on Lap 28.
Jones immediately passed Sanchez on Lap 29 after narrowly missing contact between the two. Sanchez continued falling back out of the top 5.
Almirola took second from Jones with 10 Laps to go in the stage.
On Lap 40, Allgaier broke into the top 10, and by Lap 42, he was already up to eighth.
Gray wins the stage after leading every lap of Stage 1.
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No. 54 – Taylor Gray (Joe Gibbs Racing)
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No. 19 – Aric Almirola (Joe Gibbs Racing)
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No. 20 – Brandon Jones (Joe Gibbs Racing)
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No. 88 – Connor Zilisch (JR Motorsports)
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No. 9 – Ross Chastain (JR Motorsports)
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No. 48 – Nick Sanchez (Big Machine Racing)
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No. 7 – Justin Allgaier (JR Motorsports)
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No. 18 – William Sawalich (Joe Gibbs Racing)
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No. 2 – Jesse Love (Richard Childress Racing)
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No. 00 – Sheldon Creed (Haas Factory Team)
After a cycle of pitstops, Jones and Zilisch come off pit road first. Gray had a problem during the stop and was not in the top 10 off pit road.
Jones and Zilisch led the way on Lap 55. Allgaier gave a push to Jones, but Zilisch had the better start and cleared for the lead.
Jake Finch was penalized for speeding in the pit lane and had to drop to the rear.
Almirola easily swept around the inside of Jones on Lap 68.
By Lap 70, Zilisch had built a gap between him and Almirola to over a second.
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No. 88 – Connor Zilisch (JR Motorsports)
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No. 19 – Aric Almirola (Joe Gibbs Racing)
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No. 20 – Brandon Jones (Joe Gibbs Racing)
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No. 7 – Justin Allgaier (JR Motorsports)
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No. 39 – Ryan Sieg (RSS Racing)
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No. 9 – Ross Chastain (JR Motorsports)
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No. 2 – Jesse Love (Richard Childress Racing)
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No. 18 – William Sawalich (Joe Gibbs Racing)
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No. 00 – Sheldon Creed (Haas Factory Team)
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No. 21 – Austin Hill (Richard Childress Racing)
Another cycle of pit stops had Zilisch and Jones off pit road first once again. Almirola fell three places.
Quite a few drivers were penalized for issues on pit lane. Sammy Smith for speeding, Parker Retzlaff for an uncontrolled tyre, and Jeremy Clements for equipment interference. Ross Chastain also had to go back on pit lane with a lugnut issue on Lap 97 to retire.
Kyle Sieg stayed out and was on the inside for the restart alongside Zilisch with 100 laps to go. The drivers that pitted immediately surged passed K. Sieg. Zilisch and Jones to the front again.
Sanchez pits on Lap 107 with a power steering issue and retires.
Almirola passed Jones again on Lap 130 just before the caution came out for the rain on Lap 132.
The caution was upgraded to a red flag on Lap 134.
After 45 minutes, the race was called, and Connor Zilisch is the winner. His fourth of the season, second in a row and second on an oval.
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No. 88 – Connor Zilisch (JR Motorsports)
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No. 19 – Aric Almirola (Joe Gibbs Racing)
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No. 20 – Brandon Jones (Joe Gibbs Racing) [FL]
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No. 7 – Justin Allgaier (JR Motorsports)
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No. 2 – Jesse Love (Richard Childress Racing)
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No. 39 – Ryan Sieg (RSS Racing)
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No. 54 – Taylor Gray (Joe Gibbs Racing)
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No. 00 – Sheldon Creed (Haas Factory Team)
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No. 18 – William Sawalich (Joe Gibbs Racing)
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No. 16 – Christian Eckes (Kaulig Racing)
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No. 25 – Harrison Burton (AM Racing)
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No. 41 – Sam Mayer (Haas Factory Team)
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No. 21 – Austin Hill (Richard Childress Racing)
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No. 99 – Matt DiBenedetto (Viking Motorsports)
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No. 1 – Carson Kvapil (JR Motorsports)
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No. 26 – Dean Thompson (Sam Hunt Racing)
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No. 17 – Jake Finch (Hendricks Motorsports)
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No. 24 – Ryan Truex (Sam Hunt Racing)
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No. 4 – Parker Retzlaff (Alpha Prime Racing)
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No. 27 – Jeb Burton (Jordan Anderson Racing)
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No. 10 – Daniel Dye (Kaulig Racing)
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No. 32 – Rajah Caruth (Jordan Anderson Racing)
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No. 42 – Anthony Alfredo (Young’s Motorsports)
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No. 8 – Sammy Smith (JR Motorsports)
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No. 44 – Brennen Poole (Alpha Prime Racing)
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No. 51 – Jeremy Clements (Jeremy Clements Racing)
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No. 11 – Josh Williams (Kaulig Racing)
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No. 45 – Lavar Scott (Alpha Prime Racing)
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No. 70 – Leland Honeyman (Cope Family Racing) +1 lap
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No. 71 – Ryan Ellis (DGM Racing + JIM) +3 laps
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No. 5 – Kaz Grala (Our Motorsports) +3 laps
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No. 31 – Blaine Perkins (Jordan Anderson Racing) +3 laps
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No. 07 – Nick Leitz (SS-Green Light Racing) +3 laps
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No. 91 – Josh Bilicki (DGM Racing x JIM) +3 laps
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No. 14 – Garrett Smithley (SS-Green Light Racing) +3 laps
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No. 28 – Kyle Sieg (RSS Racing) +3 laps
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No. 48 – Nick Sanchez (Big Machine Racing) [DNF]
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No. 9 – Ross Chastain (JR Motorsports) [DNF]
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No. 53 – David Starr (Joey Gase Motorsports) [DNS]
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No. 35 – Glen Reen (Joey Gase Motorsports) [DNS]
Next week, NASCAR Xfinity heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 26, at 15:30 EST (20:30 BST). Be there, or be square.
Motorsports
Chase Elliott wins NASCAR pole as rain washes out qualifying
Jul 19, 2025, 03:23 PM ET 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 […]

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.
Motorsports
Dale Earnhardt Jr. strolls to Victory Lane after Connor Zilisch win at Dover
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 […]

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.
I mean, this is a hilarious image. Dale Jr. is more or less a beer Santa, spawning wherever celebrations are to hand out cold ones to those around. While the cans look like Busch Light, I’d be shocked if he wasn’t drinking some kind of Budweiser. After all, he’s still pretty tight with the beer brand.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. scores another win in 2025
JR Motorsports has won 11 of the first 20 races of the season. That is four wins for Connor Zilisch, three for Justin Allgaier, and one for Sammy Smith. Carson Kvapil is still searching for that first win in his rookie season. Then there are wins from Daniel Suárez, Shane van Gisbergen, and Kyle Larson as well.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has an embarrassment of riches at his Xfinity Series organization. All four of his drivers are top-10 in points. Zilisch, Kvapil, and Smith are likely going to all end up in the Cup Series at some point or another. Allgaier is one of the best Xfinity drivers ever and the defending champion.
Right now, JRM can do no wrong. I fully expect Allgaier or Zilisch to win next week at Indy. Maybe Kvapil finds his speed at Indy and finds his first-career win. It is hard to tell. There is so much talent in the Xfinity Series right now. Top to bottom, fantastic drivers.
Things are going well for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Will one of his drivers claim the Xfinity Series championship for the second year in a row?
Motorsports
Connor Zilisch wins rain-shortened NASCAR Xfinity race at Dover
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 […]

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
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