Mike Forde, NASCAR’s managing director of racing communications, said on Wednesday’s “Hauler Talk” podcast they hope to have a decision on Stewart Friesen‘s possible playoff waiver request made by Friday morning. While that request has not yet been made — Friesen could not request a waiver until he officially missed a race — Forde said they expect it to come this week.

From there, NASCAR must decide if they want to grant Friesen a waiver. Friesen is out for the remainder of the Truck Series season with a broken pelvis and a fractured right leg. By missing last Saturday’s race at Watkins Glen International and this Friday’s race at Richmond Raceway, he is ineligible for the Truck playoffs without the waiver.

“We have not received the waiver request yet, but we have spoken with the team. Believe that request will be coming this week,” Forde said. “But then the next step in the process is discussing whether or not we grant it. TBD on that, but we are hoping to have the waiver and decision made by the opening of the truck garage Friday morning.”

How important is a playoff waiver to Stewart Friesen?

Friesen has a financial incentive to make the 10-driver postseason field. As Forde explained on last week’s Hauler Talk, Friesen would be guaranteed to finish 10th and receive the 10th-place point fund money, even without starting a race. Friesen qualified for the playoffs by winning at Michigan International Speedway.

If NASCAR declines Friesen’s waiver request, the next highest-ranked driver in the points standings would fill the playoff spot. Based on Forde’s comments on Wednesday’s show, everyone will be in the know before the start of Friday night’s regular season finale at Richmond Raceway.

“The goal there is to make sure that fans, our broadcast partners at FOX and all the media, everyone knows what’s on the line Friday night, whether if there is going to be one spot available or two,” Forde said. “I think if the waiver isn’t granted, I believe there’s only one spot left on the line. Kaden Honeycutt I believe will only need to start the race Friday night to lock up his spot and that will be nine of the 10.

“And then, it’s really just a battle for that last spot. More to come on that, but I think fans will know the fate and what we’ll look at by Friday morning.”

Plenty of sons, brothers and fathers have raced at Daytona, as well as a handful of daughters and sisters.

But Natalie Decker will alter the dynamics dramatically next week when she becomes just the second mother to turn NASCAR laps at Daytona International Speedway. Decker announced Wednesday she is entered in the Xfinity Series race next Friday (Aug. 22), driving the No. 92 Chevrolet for DGM Racing, which also fields a full-time Xfinity car with driver Josh Bilicki.

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It will be Decker’s first NASCAR start since May of 2024 and obviously the first since giving birth to a son, Levi, this past February. Decker, 28, is married to Derek Lemke, who also raced a few NASCAR events in previous years.

Decker is reported to become just the second mother to race in NASCAR, following Shawna Robinson, whose NASCAR efforts lasted from 1991-2005. She had two children in the mid-’90s.

Since 2016, Decker has raced in NASCAR’s Xfinity (12 starts) and Truck Series (32 starts), as well as 31 starts in the ARCA stock-car series, a NASCAR affiliate.

And she’s no stranger to Daytona, where some of her best NASCAR accomplishments have taken place. She finished fifth in a Chevy truck in that series’ 2020 season opener, and fifth after winning the pole for ARCA’s season opener in 2018. She finished 18th in the 2024 season-opening Xfinity race, her second start on the Daytona tri-oval.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Natalie Decker, new NASCAR mom, to run Daytona Xfinity race next week

After another weekend where Carson Hocevar ruffled some feathers on the racetrack, Dale Earnhardt Jr. senses that driver frustration with the 22-year-old is “building to something.” To this point in the season, Hocevar has upset drivers such as Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brad Keselowski and Zane Smith.

Then in Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen International, he got sent spinning by Spire Motorsports teammate Michael McDowell. Hocevar responded by dooring him after crossing the start-finish line on the final lap. Notably, Hocevar hasn’t yet been involved in a major incident with a driver from Hendrick Motorsports. If that happens, you could see Hocevar’s decision making behind the wheel change, Earnhardt said on the “Dale Jr. Download.”

“We said this months and months ago — everything’s fine until he runs into one of Rick’s cars or something like that and he has to go into the office and talk to Rick Hendrick. It might not be Rick, but it’ll be a person like Rick that when he has to go in and have that conversation, that will have an effect. That might not fix it all, but that will have an effect on the decision making behind the wheel,” Earnhardt said. “I’m entertained by Hocevar until it becomes my problem. I think it’s all fine until he does something that irks Hendrick. Or somebody that’s directly above his chain of command. In the Cup race, him and McDowell racing each other to the finish — that might get some conversations going. You don’t know if they’re gonna pin that on McDowell and let Carson off the hook.

“… If he goes out there and impedes a lap for [Kyle] Larson and the big man gets upset, because the big man has some influence over Spire and has influence over most things Chevrolet. When you start messing with what his program is doing or what he’s trying to accomplish, that’s when the vice gets a little tight and Carson will feel that. Until that happens, until his crew chief or owners outright go ‘Carson, stop it,’ he’s not gonna make the adjustments because he doesn’t have to or need to — doesn’t feel like he needs to, not gonna change or alter his style. … It’s building to something and it’s gonna be worth watching. I’m entertained wondering how this is gonna play out.”

Carson Hocevar is still causing problems

Hendrick has done this before. Before Hocevar, it was Ross Chastain. And in 2023, Chastain often caused chaos on the racetrack. After Chastain wrecked Larson three times in a four-race span due to Chastain’s actions, Hendrick called him out publicly.

“He doesn’t have to be that aggressive,” Hendrick said of Chastain. “I guess at this point in the race maybe you’re super aggressive. But you just don’t run people up in the fence. He’s going to make a lot of enemies. It’s hard to win a championship when you’ve got a lot of paybacks out there.”

From time to time, Chastain still causes problems, but it’s less frequent than what we saw in 2022 and 2023. Many point to Hendrick’s public criticism as the turning point. Perhaps it could be the same for Hocevar, though he already seems to be looking to make amends with some.

Late in the race at Watkins Glen, Hocevar pulled to the side on the exit of Turn 5 and allowed Smith to go by him for 17th. Hocevar approached Smith’s car on pit road after the race. He leaned into his car and said, “Hey, I know that doesn’t make up for it, but you can expect that in the next couple weeks, OK?”

Hocevar is trying to pay back favors on the racetrack. We’ll see if this works for him throughout the rest of the season.

NASCAR will not make any changes with driver celebrations after Connor Zilisch’s fall last weekend in victory lane at Watkins Glen.

Zilisch, the Xfinity Series points leader, suffered a broken collarbone when he fell from his car in victory lane. He was standing on the door when he slipped.

“I remember, I got up on the car and I put my leg on the window net on the door and as soon as they started spraying water, it just kind of started to slide and I lost my footing,” Zilisch told NBC Sports last weekend at Watkins Glen. “I remember my legs split the door, I had one outside the door, one in the door and that’s when I started to tumble.”

Zilisch had surgery Tuesday to insert a plate and screws. No timetable has been announced for his return. The Xfinity Series is off until Aug. 22 at Daytona International Speedway.

Connor Zilisch was injured in a fall from his car in victory lane after winning last weekend’s Xfinity race at Watkins Glen.

Shane van Gisbergen, a teammate to Zilisch, stood on the roof of his car on the track after winning last weekend’s Cup race at Watkins Glen but did not do so in victory lane.

“I always have bad dreams of slipping over and doing at that in front of everyone,” van Gisbergen said. “But I just got out like I normally did, but I definitely didn’t get on the roof in victory lane.”

Denny Hamlin, on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast this week admitted that his victory lane celebrations could be impacted by Zilisch’s fall.

“I’m going to think about it from now on,” Hamlin said. “Maybe I should just, when I pop out, just sit my butt right on the top, just sit there.”

“It’s going to have to be a group decision,” Justin Marks said of when Connor Zilisch will be back in a car.

After winning at Las Vegas in March, Josh Berry stopped his car at the start/finish line and climbed on to the roof of his car. When he went to victory lane, Berry stood on the door of his car.

But that could change. Berry said he thinks every driver will look at how they celebrate a win after Zilisch’s fall.

“That was just so frightening to see,” Berry said Wednesday. “You take for granted how things can go. I think we’ll think about it more when you see something like that. I think you’re going to think about whether the … window net ends up on the door.

It’s the only NASCAR race weekend of the season for the 0.75-mile oval.

“Sometimes, it’s hard to, I mean we’ve been strapped in a car for three hours, four hours, you get out, it’s no different than being on a plane or something and standing up for the first time. You’re legs are a little shaky. Sometimes, I think, we take for granted some of that stuff. I think we’ll all look at it a little differently. Obviously, you don’t want to ruin the celebration element of it, but you’ve got to watch something like that and learn from it.

“That was a scary deal. I’m glad that he’s relatively OK. Obviously, he’s banged up a little bit, but I’m glad it was not worse than it was and hope to never see that again because it was hard to watch.”

Denny Hamlin seeks to score his sixth Cup win at Richmond this weekend, but teammate Chase Briscoe will among the challengers.

After winning Talladega earlier this season, Austin Cindric climbed to the roof of his car on the track and slammed the roof three times.

“I think about what happened to Connor often,” said the 6-foot-3 Cindric, who is among the taller Cup drivers. “The saying goes, big tree, fall hard.’ That’s a long way for a big tall guy to fall from.”

But Cindric said his victory celebrations are not likely to change much.

“It’s probably not going to stop me from being overly excited when I get out of the race car,” Cindric said Wednesday. “If you’re going up on top, I guess the morale of the story is you might as well stand on the roof.”

Natalie Decker will join the short list of female drivers to compete in NASCAR after becoming a mother, giving birth to her first child on February 5th of this year.

She will drive the No. 92 DGM Racing Chevrolet with sponsorship from Wawa. Josh Bilicki will drive the No. 91 as her teammate for the superspeedway race next weekend. The track is the site of Decker’s best showing in the Xfinity and Truck Series, as well as ARCA.

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Decker has 12 previous starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, most recently competing at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, 2024 (also with DGM). Her best result came in the 2024 season-opener at Daytona, finishing 18th and leading seven laps.

Natalie Decker

Decker’s career also includes 32 starts in the Truck Series, finishing as high as fifth in the 2020 season-opener at Daytona. That result was the best ever for a woman competing in the NASCAR Truck Series.

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In 31 starts in ARCA, Decker has two top fives and nine top tens, including a pole position at Daytona in 2018. That year, she placed seventh in the standings.

Read Also:

Two to go: Breaking down the battle to make the NASCAR Cup playoffs

Shane van Gisbergen: “I’ve changed my life to come and do this”

Connor Zilisch undergoes surgery on collarbone after Victory Lane fall

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