CONCORD, N.C. – Even in its illustrious history at race tracks across the United States, there’s a case to be made for Dover Motor Speedway being the best for Hendrick Motorsports. 

Even among the current crop of drivers, the numbers are eye popping. Chase Elliott has a pair of wins at the Monster Mile with Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman each registering one. Bowman’s, which came in May of 2021, came as part of a 1-2-3-4 sweep, only the fourth such occurrence in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series. 

Elliott has finished in the top five 10 times in his career at the 1-mile, high-banked oval, the most of any race track on his ledger. Larson’s 938 laps led are second among active drivers behind only Kyle Busch. His career average finish of 8.2 at Dover is tops with Elliott right behind in second at 9.5. 

William Byron has three fourth-place finishes in his last five Dover starts. 

All told, Hendrick Motorsports is the all-time leader at Dover in wins (22), top fives (81), top 10s (127) and laps led (7,624). 

Here’s a look at each driver’s history at the track as well as a brush up on Hendrick Motorsports history: 

RELATED: Every Hendrick Motorsports win at Dover Motor Speedway

Shane van Gisbergen is on a hot streak, having won the last three road courses and with the previous two coming on back-to-back weeks from the pole at Chicago and Sonoma, respectively.

He still has a lot to prove on the ovals, though, as the series has ovals the next three weeks at Dover, Indianapolis and Iowa before another road course at Watkins Glen.

The drivers second and third Sunday at Sonoma — Chase Briscoe and Chase Elliott — both moved up in these power rankings heading into Dover:

Dropped out: Chris Buescher (LW: 10)                                                             

On the verge: Buescher, Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Ty Gibbs, Joey Logano, van Gisbergen

10. Alex Bowman (Last Week: 7)

Bowman was going to finish 17th but a tap from Ty Dillon — who was paired against Bowman as part of the in-season tournament quarterfinals — relegated the Hendrick driver to 19th. Either way, it wasn’t the result Bowman wanted as he continues to be on the bubble to make the playoffs.

9. Ryan Preece (Last Week: 6) 

Preece finished a respectable 12th at Sonoma for his sixth consecutive finish of 15th or better and his sixth top-12 finish in his last nine races.

8. Chase Briscoe (Last Week: Not Ranked)

A second-place finish was impressive for Briscoe at Sonoma as he got back on track after two finishes outside the top-20. The finish was Briscoe’s seventh top-5 of the season in his first year at Joe Gibbs Racing.

7. Ryan Blaney (Last Week: 4)

Blaney had a frustrating day at Sonoma, finding himself sent off-course a few times in his battles with other drivers. The Penske driver’s day ended four laps short of the finish in 36th.

6. Tyler Reddick (Last Week: 8)

Reddick placed sixth at Sonoma as he now has finishes of fourth, third and sixth in his last three races. The 23XI Racing driver had just three top-four finishes in the first 17 events of the year.

5. Christopher Bell (Last Week: 9)

Bell’s last good finish was nearly a month ago when he placed second at Mexico City before he drove his way to fifth at Sonoma. The JGR driver needs better finishes to have any momentum going into the playoffs.

4. Kyle Larson (Last Week: 2)

Larson was involved in a couple of incidents, and he limped his wrecked car home in 35th. It’s hard to believe the Hendrick driver’s last top-5 was in early June at Michigan.

3. William Byron (Last Week: 5) 

The series points leader placed eighth at Sonoma as he also earned points in both stages as he tries to hang on for the regular-season title. He’s now up on his Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott by just 14 points.

2. Denny Hamlin (Last Week: 1)

A speeding penalty and a spin didn’t help Hamlin at Sonoma as he left wine country in 20th and nothing to taunt the crowd about. But Dover’s up next and that is a great track for the JGR driver.

1. Chase Elliott (Last Week: 3) 

Elliott had fresh tires at the end, but one little hiccup cost him any shot of possibly challenging van Gisbergen for the win. But it was still quite the run for Elliott, who has four top-5s in his last five starts.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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Carson Ware is going to look very different in just a few months. The 25-year-old NASCAR driver officially began the process of removing his face tattoos after Jelly Roll failed to step up as a sponsor.

The country music singer might’ve allowed him to keep things as they are but it was never a legitimate idea.

Ware made his NASCAR debut in 2020. He drives multiple cars on the Xfinity Series as a member of Mike Harmon Racing, SS-Green Light Racing and Joey Gase Motorsports.

Carson Ware looks different.

Although Ware has been on the Triple-A equivalent of NASCAR competition for the last five years, he was suspended from the sport in 2021 and it took him three full years to return. So this current season is technically year three.

The suspension did not help to advance Ware’s career. His unique appearance did not help with optics. Whether right or wrong, it did not help to improve his public image.

NASCAR raced in Sonoma this past weekend where Shane Van Gisbergen took the Cup regulars to school, and IndyCar held a double header on the Iowa Short Oval where hardly anyone showed up to watch.

IndyCar 

Fox TV earned 576,000 TV viewers for Saturday’s IndyCar race at Iowa, down 48.6% from 1.121 million on NBC in 2023.

Fox TV earned 719,000 TV Viewers for Sunday’s IndyCar race at Iowa, down 16.6% from 862,000 in 2024 on NBC, and down 31.8% from 1,055 million TV Viewers in 2023 on NBC.

NASCAR

Stay tuned………

Shane van Gisbergen has a winning problem. Or – maybe because he’s 36 years old – the problem isn’t van Gisbergen himself, but the fact that it’s easy to forget that he is a NASCAR Cup Series rookie.

Regardless, the narrative around van Gisbergen has shifted after three wins in five races. He’s gone from being the coolest, shiny new thing, having left Australia for NASCAR stock car racing in the United States, to being criticized for only succeeding on one type of racetrack, and with that, not worthy of being in the postseason.

It’s possible that two things can be true at once.

Van Gisbergen is very good at road and street courses. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that he is exceptional at that style of racing, and his three victories have been impressive. It’s not only that van Gisbergen and the No. 88 team won, but also in how they have done so – with competitive race cars and a driver who does not make many mistakes, and is far quicker than the competition.

Justin Marks hired van Gisbergen for this very reason. There are six road and street courses on the schedule, and putting a driver behind the wheel who can win on those tracks is good business. It means the team is looking at one, if not multiple, NASCAR Cup Series wins, and that means a spot in the postseason. All of that equals return on investment and a charter that is worth good money at the end of the season.

So van Gisbergen is doing what he should be doing. He is winning where he should be winning while going through the paces of learning on the racetracks that are not in his wheelhouse. As pointed out last week after his victory in Chicago, van Gisbergen started the year with an average finish of 30.4 on the oval tracks, but in recent weeks it has improved to 22nd.

The rookie is doing rookie things. It’s no different than his counterpart in the Xfinity Series, Connor Zilisch. The expectation for Zilisch was that he would be a contender on the road and street courses, but the bigger story would be his progression on the ovals from the start of the year to the end.

The Mexico City win vaulted the 88 team from oblivion into the playoffs. But accusations that van Gisbergen has ‘taken’ someone’s playoffs spot overlook the fact that every other driver has had the same opportunity to earn their way in. Sean Gardner/Getty Images

However, van Gisbergen isn’t getting the same grace as a typical rookie for some reason. Due to how far down in the standings his Trackhouse Racing team was before his first victory in Mexico City, what should have been a celebration of the accomplishment of a team and driver who managed to do something the garage says it hard (i.e. win a NASCAR race), the conversation immediately shifted to the spot he took in the postseason.

Van Gisbergen has not taken another driver’s spot. He earned his spot. Any other driver that one might try to argue is missing out because of van Gisbergen failed in their own opportunity to do so. The rules are the same for everyone: win and get in. Van Gisbergen has won three times, which is now tied for the most in the Cup Series this season.

So, who is he keeping out? If the argument is that the playoff grid cutline moved and now drivers like Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, and Ryan Preece have taken hits because van Gisbergen won, the harsh truth is that those drivers know they should be winning, too. There are only 16 spots. It’s been that way since 2014, and saying a driver who has three wins is less than drivers who have not and are sitting around 16, 17, and 18th in points is laughable.

But again, two things can be true at once. 

There is room to give van Gisbergen and his team their flowers while not liking the championship system. It’s a cliché, and it’s a funny expression, but it isn’t any less true to hear: don’t hate the player, hate the game. It’s no different from the fact that it wasn’t the fault of Harrison Burton and Wood Brothers Racing to play by the same rules in 2024 by winning their way into the postseason. 

Winning should be celebrated on a weekly basis. All wins are hard to come by. Van Gisbergen is putting on a clinic, and that should be acknowledged. The displeasure over the system is a separate conversation from that around a driver.

So it’s time for a reset and the realization that van Gisbergen is a rookie, but he’s someone special, and NASCAR is getting to capitalize on that instead of another series. He has a long way still to go, there is no arguing that, but as a rookie, he has three wins and is looking at far better a season than some of his competition who have been here far longer and should be outperforming him and others.

NASCAR has issued a scathing response after 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports (FRM) filed for a restraining order and a preliminary injunction that would see them retain their chartered status for the remainder of 2025.

The team co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, along with their fellow Cup Series outfit FRM, sued NASCAR last October alleging anticompetitive and monopolistic practices after refusing to sign up to the series’ new charter agreement.

Crucially, however, the teams were granted an injunction ahead of the 2025 campaign that would allow them to compete as chartered teams.

NASCAR appealed that decision, and last month, a three-judge appeals panel sided with the series, overturning the injunction. This left 23XI and FRM facing the prospect of losing their charters, and the tens of millions of dollars that come with them.

As a result, the teams sought a full rehearing on the matter, but their appeal was denied last week, meaning that both teams could be stripped of their charters ahead of this weekend’s action at Dover Motor Speedway.

However, in an effort to prevent this, another filing has now been made by 23XI and FRM, seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction that would prevent their charters from being stripped for the rest of the season.

READ MORE: Kyle Busch gets NASCAR playoff boost as Hendrick Motorsports star suffers demotion setback

NASCAR issue scathing 23XI and FRM statement

Now, in response to the teams’ latest court filing, NASCAR has released a somewhat scathing statement on the matter, labeling the lawsuit as ‘damaging’ and ‘distracting’.

“It is unfortunate that instead of respecting the clear rulings of the Fourth Circuit, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are now burdening the District Court with a third motion for another unnecessary and inappropriate preliminary injunction,” NASCAR said in a statement.

“As both the Fourth Circuit and the District Court suggested, NASCAR has made multiple requests to 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to present a proposal to resolve this litigation. We have yet to receive a proposal from 23XI or Front Row, as they have instead preferred to continue their damaging and distracting lawsuit.

“We will defend NASCAR’s integrity from this baseless lawsuit forced upon the sport that threatens to divide the stakeholders committed to serving race fans everywhere.

“We remain focused on collaborating with the 13 race teams that signed the 2025 charter agreements and share our mutual goal of delivering the best racing in the world each week, including this weekend in Dover.”

If 23XI and FRM’s latest filing is denied, the teams could be racing as open entries as soon as this weekend’s race at Dover Motor Speedway, meaning they would no longer be guaranteed entry to all races, nor a portion of the event prize fund.

NASCAR has been given until 5 pm ET on Wednesday to legally respond to 23XI and FRM’s latest court filing.

The wider lawsuit case is set to be heard in court on December 1, 2025.

READ MORE: Denny Hamlin hit with NASCAR penalty as four Cup Series drivers guilty of same offence

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