The NASCAR Cup Series playoff field is set, and 16 drivers will be competing for racing immortality at the conclusion of the Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, November 2.
Yesterday, we discussed five drivers who you should probably steer clear of in any betting games, in addition to the other six, a group which includes Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Josh Berry, Shane van Gisbergen, and Austin Dillon, who are heavy underdogs.
That leaves five hopefuls who have everything they need to be crowned the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series champion. Here’s why each of them can win it all.
William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports
It’s simple: Byron’s team has been the best team all year. He has unloaded with contending speed nearly every week, regardless of track type, and his pit crew and crew chief Rudy Fugle seldom ever put him in difficult positions.
No one in NASCAR has it made better than the driver of the No. 24 car, and he’s good enough to capitalize on it. It’s a near guarantee that he finds his way to Phoenix for his third straight Championship 4, and he’ll have as good of a shot as anyone to win his first title.
Ryan Blaney, Team Penske
Byron may have the best team, but the No. 12 team has the best driver this season. That would be Blaney, who if not for a comically unlucky stretch of finishes earlier in the season, all due to unavoidable circumstances, would be running away with the points lead right now.
Oh, by the way, Team Penske is three-for-three winning championships in the Next Gen era, and the second-generation star has won at Martinsville Speedway to advance to the title round in back-to-back years. If he makes it to Phoenix, he should be the presumptive favorite.
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing
It’s a broken record at this point: It’s Denny Hamlin’s year! (Just ask him). But, because nothing makes sense in this world, this might actually be his year, for real this time.
Nobody has stood out as head-and-shoulders above the field, and working in his favor is the fact that this year’s playoff schedule lines up in such a way that no round includes both a road course and a superspeedway, two track types that have been glaring weaknesses for him since the introduction of the Next Gen car.
No one expected the 20-year veteran to still be a title contender after losing crew chief Chris Gabehart, but at this point it must be reckoned with that he’s going to keep being a thorn in everyone else’s favorite driver’s side until he finally wins one.
Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing
Remember when Bell won three straight races back in February and March and everyone thought he was going to dominate the living daylights out of 2025? Well, it didn’t quite turn out that way, with no victories since then, but his most recent one was at *checks notes* Phoenix, the host of the Championship 4.
That’s enough reason to pencil in the Oklahoma native as a serious threat, provided he rekindles enough of his springtime magic to be one of the last four standing.
Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports
NASCAR’s brightest star may be the hardest one to dissect in 2025. On his best day, he’s still better than anyone else in the field is on theirs. The only problem is he hasn’t had one of those days in months, ever since his ill-fated Memorial Day double attempt resulted in a pair of wrecks.
We’ve seen seasons like Larson’s before that have gotten turned around when it mattered most, most notably from his Hendrick Motorsports predecessor Jimmie Johnson. For that reason, he still can’t be counted out, even during a season that’s seen a noticeable downturn in performance from his previous two.
USA Network is set to provide live coverage of the playoff opener from Darlington Raceway this Sunday, August 31 starting at 6:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don’t miss the Cook Out Southern 500!
Alex Bowman may not have stockpiled wins like his teammates Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, or William Byron, but he has shown quite a consistency in both speed and progression across various types of tracks. His quantum leap into Hendrick Motorsports traces directly back to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who first spotted his potential.
In 2016, when Junior’s injuries sidelined him for an extended stretch, he pushed Bowman’s name forward to drive his No. 88 HMS machine. Bowman subsequently filled in for Jeff Gordon to secure his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports seat. During a recent conversation with HOT ROD Pod, Bowman credited Dale Jr. for opening doors at Hendrick Motorsports, while acknowledging his good fortune.
His Cup Series tenure dates back to 2014, though his first campaign saw him piloting a No. 23 Toyota for BK Racing, a smaller outfit. The following season brought a shift to Tommy Baldwin Racing. Neither stint produced meaningful results, leaving Bowman searching for traction.
Reflecting on that watershed moment, Bowman recounted the sequence of events. “I qualified next to Dale at like Richmond, I think, and we were riding around the truck pre-race together, talking about I was trying to get in some good Xfinity cars at the end of that year and have some good races cuz running for small teams was definitely rough.”
“He had some openings at JRM the end of that year that I was able to get into. Kind of took off from there.” The stars aligned when Junior’s injury created an unexpected vacancy. “So obviously, crazy set of circumstances, with him getting hurt. I was driving the Sim for Hendrick at the time. Dale was a big supporter of mine and called me and kind of forced Hendrick to use me…”
“I feel like, because we all found out so late. But super fortunate to get to fill in for him and then share the car with some guy named Jeff Gordon for the rest of the year, which was wild to me. And somehow I’m still here.”
Bowman’s most recent Cup win came at the Chicago Street race in 2024, marking one and a half seasons since he last tasted victory. But across nine campaigns with HMS, he has missed the playoffs just once, in 2023, when a back injury sustained during a sprint car accident forced him to sit out three races.
Last season presented challenges as well. Though winless, the 32-year-old recovered a 13th-place finish in the final standings. His best performance last season came in Mexico, where he competed despite nursing injuries from a crash at Michigan International Speedway the previous weekend.
Racing at less than full strength in NASCAR’s inaugural Cup Series event in Mexico City, Bowman clawed from P29 on the grid to P4 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, claiming his third top-five result of the year.
Gordon and the entire HMS operation maintain faith in Bowman’s abilities and ceiling. But only the upcoming season will bring answers to their confidence as Bowman adapts to the new Chevrolet body and higher horsepower.
The Chili Bowl Midget Nationals ended for one expected contender before it could even begin.
Buddy Kofoid has made the Championship Saturday main event five times in six attempts with Keith Kunz Motorsports but an illness is going to keep him away from the Tulsa Expo Center this week.
After winning 18 times in a 410 Sprint Car across numerous tours in 2025, and becoming the richest (in terms of winnings) driver in the discipline, Kofoid looked poised to challenge for a Golden Driller this week.
Instead, the No. 71W will not idle this week as Kunz told Motorsport.com at the Expo that there are ‘no plans’ to fill the seat despite making some calls when it became apparent that Kofoid couldn’t make it.
Kofoid has won prelims in 2022 and 2024. He finished second in the main event in 2024. He finished sixth in the main event last year. He is one of the most prolific drivers in the building.
Ultimately, it’s one less major contender for those hoping to lock in on Friday night.
Pretty standard day, but …
For everyone else, it was a largely procedural practice day, even if the track was not reflective of what it will be the rest of the week.
It was especially slick and tricky, as best articulated by USAC National Midget champion, and perennial contender Cannon McIntosh.
“You know, this track is very unique,” McIntosh said. “It’s small. We got the berm, which is, you don’t run a berm very often throughout the year, so just trying to time that right, you know.
“You can’t just go in there and just plow into it and that is a lot of people’s mistake is just going in there and hammering it. Everything has to be calculated and just trying to figure out the way the track is changing.
“You know, today was kind of strange in that the curb was kind of like a small ledge and then you could get above it as well. Just very, very different.”
In addition to the near moment above, it didn’t look procedural for Corey Day and Willie Kahne, who spent a good amount of time debriefing after the second session trying to make their car better than it was in 2025 after locking into the feature in 2024.
“You know, we wish we really knew,” Day said of the struggles last year. “We really don’t know. I think the track had a lot of grip in it last year compared to the year prior. Like, the curb was really thick and gripping. It would suck you in.
“Whereas, the year before it was kind of powdery and it would crumble and wasn’t completely that way. So, I think it’s like in the middle of both of those this year in practice day, but it could be way different come the prelim nights and all that. So we just are kind of trying to be ready for everything.”
Photo by: Bruce Nuttleman
Meanwhile, Nathan Crane rolled over and Ryan Bernal became the first flip of the week during the morning session.
Of Swindell Speedlab
Last year, in the pursuit of three consecutive Chili Bowl victories, Logan Seavey said he was ‘being annoying’ because every session included complaints about his throttle response. They won their prelim and finished seventh in the feature through it all.
At least on Sunday during practice, Seavey said they almost got it back, but wants a little more power put back into it.
Trial and error.
“I was pretty happy with it,” Seavey said. “We’ve changed a lot with our engines. We changed a lot last year because all I did was complain about how they throttled. The way they drive did not fit the way I wanted to drive the car. We changed a lot this year to try to help me out a little bit.
“We’re really close to where we need to be, I think. I’ve been really happy in both sessions.”
Swindell, the four-time race-winning driver said it’s a work in progress.
“We tried to do stuff to work on that more and what we did is better but they also kind of don’t run as clean as they should,” Swindell said. “It’s like, we calmed them down correctly, but it’s like we’re just not balancing something to offset the changes to get ‘em exactly right.”
Swindell has four cars this year with defending Wednesday winner Emerson Axsom, Jett Barnes and Kyle Cummins joining Seavey.
“So, we kind of swung at Emerson’s there at the end to go back to normal and it ran and then we kind of did half and half on Jett’s there (on) that last run to sort of see and I think it was okay,” he added. “So it’s like basically sitting around here trying to figure out if I’m gonna go all the way back to normal, go somewhere in between. Like Logan was happy, it just has like a little sputter crackle to it that’s not as clean as we would like it to be.
“But Logan almost asked for more motor basically today so I think we did the right thing. It’s just trying to find the kind of the happy medium to make sure it kind of takes off and does some things.”
Overall, this is where having four cars has helped the entire team.
“Today was is hectic, because we ran all four, and tomorrow we’re running three (with Race of Champions) but then it’s just one a night,” Swindell said. “So the prelim nights are not a big deal, and I can just babysit each one individually from there on out.
“Saturday, if you’re in good shape, you just throw them out there from how they were in their prelim. It’s just getting through these first two days of working on multiple cars each day.”
And, Swindell says he’s having fun, and that he really feels like a legitimate crew chief with this much volume.
“I needed my wife to go buy me an actual notebook,” he said with a laugh. “I had just been writing on cardboard and sheets of paper every time I needed to keep note of something today.”
Seavey says he likes having teammates too and it makes his car better.
“I feel like our car looks slightly different than everyone elses,” Seavey said. “So its weird to see it from the stand and watch our cars go around and the things I feel from inside the car.”
Meanwhile, quotes from Fred Vasseur suggest Ferrari are in no rush to take drastic measures in testing.
The 57-year-old points to the budget gap as a factor to consider when charting this year’s upgrade plan:
“If a team starts introducing four or five updates in the first races,” he told Gazzetta.
“Or if, for example, they have to send a new floor to a distant race like Japan or China – they’re burning through half their development budget at the start of the year.
“It will therefore be important to carefully evaluate step by step what to do, based on where we are.
“Whoever is ahead of everyone in Melbourne, at the first race, won’t necessarily have the winning car of the year.”
Fred Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, Ferrari Media Gallery.
Avoiding mistakes of the past
Ferrari know better than most teams about how deceptive the first races of the year can be. At the beginning of the 2022 regulations, for example, the Maranello team was flying high.
Two wins and one second place for Leclerc in the opening three rounds, alongside DNFs for Verstappen in Australia in Bahrain, painted a very positive picture for the season ahead.
Within a few months, however, Red Bull not only out-developed their Italian rivals, but also eliminated all reliability issues – whereas Ferrari suffered a series of devastating retirements in Spain and Baku.
Moreover, the last set of regulations showed the price of investing in the pursuit of a flawed concept.
Mercedes in 2022, Aston Martin in 2023 and even Red Bull in 2024 were headline examples of wasting resources on upgrades that were taking the car in the wrong direction.
Ferrari themselves faced this issue during the European leg of the 2024 season, with updates at the Spanish GP derailing the team’s progress that season.
Eager to avoid this fate over the next twelve months, Fred Vasseur has reason to exercise a measured approach. The question is whether the work fundamentals being developed at the factory in Maranello are strong enough to build upon.
AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) – Those in Augusta this weekend was revving up their engines with all things motor sports related and beyond.
The 37th annual Northeast Motorsports Expo wrapped up Sunday at the Augusta Civic Center.
The event brings together many motor sport organizations as well as vendors from all over New England under a single roof. An award show also took place yesterday afternoon.
Motor vehicles highlighted this year included everything from short track and drag racing, go karts, dirt bikes and much more.
Organizer Stephen Perry says it’s also a great opportunity for fans to meet drivers before the start of this year’s motor sports season.
“At a race track it’s hard to get up close to talk to these drivers, because their doing their job that day. But here you can talk to them and ask them questions about their cars or a particular race that they’ve won. It’s a more laid-back atmosphere than at a racetrack,” says Perry.
In total, around 2,700 individuals from across New England were in attendance over the weekend.
Chris Knight has served as a senior staff writer and news editor for CATCHFENCE.com since 2001.
In his 20-plus years with CATCHFENCE.com, he has covered NASCAR’s top three national series, often breaking news and providing exclusive at-track content, including in-depth race weekend coverage.
He also offers insider coverage of the entire Motorsports platform, including the ARCA Menards Series.
In 2022, Knight became co-owner of CATCHFENCE.com.
In addition to his active duties at CATCHFENCE.com and other Motorsports-related endeavors, he is also a frequent contributor to SiriusXM Satellite Radio NASCAR Channel 90.
You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @Knighter01 or on Instagram, Snapchat, or Threads at @TheKnighter01.
Daytona International Speedway announced today that three-time GRAMMY-award winning country music superstar Miranda Lambert is set to perform the DAYTONA 500 pre-race concert. The most-awarded artist in Academy of Country Music history is set to kickstart the festivities prior to the 68th running of The Great American Race.
“To have this level of talent with an artist such as Miranda Lambert performing our pre-race concert adds an incredible amount of energy for the 68th running of the DAYTONA 500,” said Frank Kelleher, Daytona International Speedway President. “Her powerhouse vocals and passion for music are the perfect mix to represent the prestige of this event. Get ready for the thunder of country music before we wave the green flag and engines roar to kick off the 2026 season!”
Lambert’s generational career in the country music scene has spanned over 20 years, with her first chart-topping studio album Kerosene released in 2005. She has since released nine additional solo albums, plus collaborative projects as part of the Pistol Annies as well as GRAMMY-nominated album The Marfa Tapes together with Jon Randall and Jack Ingram.
A multi-dimensional superstar, she’s earned seven No. 1 solo albums, 10 No. 1 hit radio singles, more than 80 prestigious awards and countless RIAA certifications; conquered Las Vegas with her twice-extended Velvet Rodeo residency; and blurred genres with Leon Bridges, the B-52s, Loretta Lynn, Enrique Iglesias, Sheryl Crow, Elle King; and was named to the TIME100 list honoring the world’s 100 most influential people.
Lambert’s most recent album, the current GRAMMY-nominee Postcards from Texas, continued her unbroken streak of 10 consecutive Top 10s on the Top Country Albums chart. Lambert also recently collaborated with Chris Stapleton on “A Song to Sing,” as well as Reba McEntire and Lainey Wilson on “Trailblazer,” both of which are also nominated at the upcoming 68th Annual GRAMMY Awards.
In addition to performing at Daytona International Speedway, Lambert has various tour appearances scheduled across the country through summer 2026. In addition to her own storied music career, she has taken those standards to become a label co-founder, teaming with longtime collaborator Jon Randall to launch their own imprint, Big Loud Texas, in partnership with Big Loud Records. Lambert is also a New York Times best-selling author and was the first female restaurateur on Lower Broadway with her Tex-Mex cantina Casa Rosa, while also expanding her creative reach with her Wanda June Home collection and Idyllwind western wear brand. Her passion for rescue animals inspired the creation of her MuttNation Foundation, which has raised over $11 million since inception to promote adoption, support shelters across the country, advance spay & neuter and assist with the transport of animals during times of natural disaster.
The action begins on Wednesday, Feb. 11, with DAYTONA 500 Qualifying Presented by Busch Light, setting the field for the Duel At DAYTONA, which occurs the following night on Thursday, Feb. 12, where drivers will battle it out for a spot in the coveted Great American Race.
The season-opening races for all three NASCAR national series as well as the ARCA Menards Series kick off on Friday, Feb. 13, starting with the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Fresh From Florida 250. Saturday, Feb. 14, will feature an action-packed double-header with the ARCA Menards Series race followed by the Xfinity Series United Rentals 300.
Then Sunday, Feb. 15, the USAF Thunderbirds will perform their flyover, preparing both fans and drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series for an intense battle in the DAYTONA 500.
For more information regarding the DAYTONA 500 and Speedweeks Presented by AdventHealth, please visit www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com.
