Hendrick Motorsports technical director Tom Gray revealed the advantages artificial intelligence could afford NASCAR teams amid the 2025 Cup Series season.

There are many different ways to approach NASCAR, a sport whose accessibility has been questioned in recent times. While LeBron James is helping a high schooler fulfill his dream, AI is helping teams adjust and adapt.

Coming out of the thrilling NASCAR Mexico City race, which was won by Shane Van Gisbergen, Hendrick Motorsports – who put Chase Elliott on double duty again recently – have outlined how AI is important to the team’s operations. It may explain why William Byron and Kyle Larson have four wins between them to sit first and second in the standings.

AI is playing an increasingly crucial role in how race teams operate throughout NASCAR. Teams are using AI to make more efficient decisions, unlock new strategic insights, and reshape race preparation.

Teams that don’t use AI risk being left behind as the spot evolves and adapts in line with modernity. Hendrick Motorsports is at the cutting edge of the AI revolution, with the technology assisting everything from strategy calls to post-race feedback.

“Information is speed in this game nowadays,” said Gray. “He who can distill the information quicker and get to the decision quicker, ultimately, is going to have the race win.”

AI can now detect tone and navigate complex decisions effectively. For example, driver and crew radio calls can be fed into an AI model that identifies which calls worked and which didn’t and also deciphers the urgency of each call in real time.

Hendrick Motorsports, the winningest team in Cup Series history, is now leveraging its four decades of data. The team can now go back and test old strategies, setups and decisions to ultimately see how past insight might lead to future success.

“We’ve had a long history in the sport,” Gray added. “Not only can we look forward, but we can also look backward, back-test all the information we have, and see how that predicts the future.”

DON’T MISS…

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season continues with The Great American Getaway at Pocono Raceway on Sun., June 22.

Anyone who has driven a 1979 to 2004 Ford Mustang knows its biggest weakness often isn’t the engine — it’s the flexible platform. That shaky, loose feeling when you push it hard comes from the chassis itself twisting under load. The team at Maximum Motorsports argues that before you touch any other part of the suspension, you need to fix this core problem with a good set of subframe connectors.These Mustangs have separate front and rear subframes, with only the floorpan connecting them. This setup allows the whole car to act like an uncontrolled fifth spring, which hurts handling and ride quality. Subframe connectors are strong steel tubes that are welded to the underside of the car, directly connecting the front and rear subframes.

This makes the entire chassis much more solid and lets the shocks and springs do their jobs properly. A stiffer chassis means the car responds better when you turn the wheel and launch harder at the drag strip because engine power goes to the tires instead of being wasted twisting the car’s body. It even makes the car more comfortable by bracing the front seats and stopping them from rocking on the flexible floor.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. confirmed Friday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that Tab Boyd, his spotter since the start of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, was fired by HYAK Motorsports. Clayton Hughes, who won a Cup Championship in 2017 while spotting for Martin Truex Jr., will serve as spotter for Stenhouse and the No. 47 team starting this Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

“You know, obviously, that’s an unfortunate deal,” Stenhouse said. “The team let Tab Boyd go this week, and we got Clayton Hughes to come fill in. I’ve never worked with Clayton. You know, obviously, I think the concern for me is trying to get on the same page as quick as we can knowing that, like you said, the schedule coming up, going to Atlanta next week could be a very important race for our race team and trying to get us into the playoffs and put us in the right position.”

Stenhouse did not reveal the official reason as to why Boyd was let go from his position. However, Boyd found himself in controversy earlier this week. Boyd did not enjoy his time in Mexico City this past weekend and shared his negative experience on social media.

“I’m ready to go home, screw this place, people can talk it up all they want… can’t even walk out the front door of the hotel without getting hustled and money snatched….in less than 5 minutes,” Boyd tweeted June 14. “Good area my ass….”

Boyd has since deleted his X account. So, a new spotter for Stenhouse and the No. 47 team.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s eventful week continues

Changing spotters is never easy, especially at this point in the season. There are only 10 regular season races remaining on the schedule, and Stenhouse is on the outside looking in of the playoff picture. Just a few weeks ago, Stenhouse sat above the cutline.

But that was before Carson Hocevar dumped him at Nashville Superspeedway. It happened again in Mexico City while Hocevar was a lap down. Stenhouse has finished 20th or worse in his last three starts and is now 21st in the points standings.

Stenhouse told Hocevar at Mexico City, “I’m going to beat your ass when we get back to the States.” Both are back in the States. They’ll be in the same place this weekend at Pocono. We’ll see if Stenhouse follows through on his threat.

In the northeast, summertime is a time for busy cityfolk — whether in New York City or Philadelphia — to load up their cars and hit the road for a weekend escape. Some like to go to the beach, whether it’s out on Long Island or along the Jersey Shore. Others prefer the mountains, specifically the Pocono Mountains and the one of a kind racetrack contained therein.

The NASCAR Cup Series makes its annual summertime trip to Pocono Raceway, a track notorious for being the only triangle-shaped raceway of its kind. With three different corners featuring three completely different shapes and degrees of banking — conjoined by especially long and fast straightaways — figuring out how to go fast around Pocono has long been a confounding task for drivers and crews alike. It’s what’s earned Pocono its nickname as “The Tricky Triangle,” and it’s what makes joining the list of drivers to have won at this track such a notable accomplishment.

Where to watch the NASCAR Cup Series at Pocono

When: Sunday, June 20, 2 p.m. ET
Where: Pocono Raceway — Long Pong, Pa.
Stream: Amazon Prime

Storyline to watch

Something that bears monitoring this weekend at Pocono is Carson Hocevar, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and exactly what happens when the two meet again either on the racetrack or on pit road. If that sounds incredibly familiar, that’s because it is.

Following their run-in at Nashville, Hocevar and Stenhouse had seemingly found mutual understanding and buried the hatchet by the time the field took the green flag in Michigan. That all changed in Mexico City, however, when Hocevar ran into Stenhouse and spun him out again, which led to Stenhouse angrily coming over to Hocevar’s car in post-race. “I will beat your ass,” Stenhouse told Hocevar while leaning into his car in post-race. “I will when we get back to the States!”

Speaking to SiriusXM on Friday, Stenhouse said that while he’s calmed down since then, he remains frustrated over the situation — particularly given that Hocevar was a lap down when the contact occurred and is also a habitual offender.

“It doesn’t change the fact that you get spun out for no reason,” Stenhouse said. “Felt like it cost us at least seven spots. Yeah, we didn’t wreck like we did at Nashville, but we had put ourselves in a spot — We got spun a couple times throughout that race and just kept trying to fight back and get our track position. It felt like on that long run there at the end that there were still three or four spots right there in front of us that we could get, and then we ended up giving up another four or five spots.

“Just frustrating. Obviously when you’ve got somebody a lap down that had ran into you a couple weeks before that … A couple weeks after Nashville, he said ‘Hey, I’m gonna run you a lot different.’ Which, hey, at Mexico City he waved me by. So I was like, ‘Alright, things are looking up.’ And then obviously he missed his marks and came from kind of pretty far back and ran into us. Again, I know he wasn’t racing us, but it’s just really frustrating for my team and our partners and obviously myself to get spun at a stage like that where there was nothing to be raced for.”

Hocevar, last year’s Rookie of the Year, continues to serve as NASCAR’s main agitator. And he’s also been in the news for the fact that his wallet is now considerably lighter: Spire Motorsports announced this week it had issued an internal $50,000 fine to Hocevar while also mandating he take sensitivity training after he referred to Mexico City as a “shithole” on a Twitch stream prior to the trip down there. Hocevar later apologized for his remarks, which were especially ill-advised given his sponsor Totalplay is based in Mexico City.

NASCAR news of the week

• The Athletic reports that NASCAR is near a deal to run a street course race in San Diego next year, a move that would mark the sport’s return to the Southern California market. A finalized deal would fill a vacuum in the Cup schedule that had been left by the closure and stalled redevelopment of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, as well as The Clash at the Los Angeles Coliseum that was held from 2022 to 2024 before being dropped from the schedule this year in favor of Bowman Gray Stadium.

  In addition to a proposed street race in San Diego, NASCAR’s Steve O’Donnell also told the Pocono Record that the sport is considering Franklin Field in Philadelphia as another potential site for a future race.

• Rick Ware Racing has filed a countersuit against Legacy Motor Club over a failed charter sale, claiming that Legacy M.C. falsely claimed it had purchased a charter from Rick Ware for the 2026 season. The team claims that when Legacy Motor Club approached them about purchasing a charter, it had been expressed that any charter sale could only be for the 2027 season, and there was then some confusion over whether the sale concerned Charter No. 36 or Charter No. 27, both owned by Ware. While early drafts of the alleged contract included a notice that Ware intended to race Charter No. 27 in 2026, Legacy then claimed it had purchased Charter No. 27 for next year via their agreement.

  The sale of the charter had been placed at $45 million, the highest yet for a NASCAR charter. Meanwhile, Rick Ware Racing has said it has tried to return a non-refundable deposit of $750,000 to Legacy Motor Club, but that the team has refused to accept.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. will make his debut as a NASCAR crew chief this weekend, as JR Motorsports announced that Earnhardt will fill in as crew chief for Connor Zilisch during Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Pocono. Earnhardt will take the place of Mardy Lindley, who is serving a one-race suspension stemming from improperly secured lug nuts found in post-race inspection at Nashville.
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr. confirmed Friday morning that he has gotten a new spotter, as Clayton Hughes has taken the place of Tab Boyd as spotter at Hyak Motorsports. While a reason for the change was not immediately made known, Boyd had made disparaging remarks about his experience in Mexico City a week ago, saying “screw this place” and claiming he had gotten “hustled and money snatched” shortly after leaving his hotel in a since-deleted post on his X account.

Pick to win

Denny Hamlin (+450) — Welcome back, Denny Hamlin! Hamlin will return to the seat of the No. 11 Toyota after taking paternity leave a week ago, and it just so happens he’s back in action at the track where he’s the single most successful driver of all-time.

From the time he swept the season as a rookie in 2006, Denny Hamlin has become the master of Pocono Raceway, with seven wins — the most in track history — to go with 16 top fives, 23 top 10s and four poles. In recent years, Hamlin earned his 50th career win at Pocono in 2023 and ran second in this race a year ago — and that doesn’t even include 2022, when he won before getting disqualified for failing post-race inspection.

NASCAR enthusiasts will have the chance to meet star racers ahead of July’s the street race in Chicago.

WeatherTech, an auto, home and pet product company based in the Chicago area, will host a meet and greet with drivers Connor Zilisch and Shane Van Gisbergen on July 3 at its Bolingbrook factory store. No sign up is necessary, but the company advises attendees to arrive early.

At the event, fans can meet the drivers, collect autographs and win prizes, according to a WeatherTech news release.

Zilisch is one of NASCAR’s youngest drivers at 18 years old. In 2024, he made his Xfinity Series debut by winning the Watkins Glen International. In March, he scored a second Xfinity victory at Circuit of The Americas. According to WeatherTech, Zilisch is seen as a future Cup Series star.

Van Gisbergen, from New Zealand, won the inaugural Chicago Street Course Race in 2023, becoming the first driver in over 60 years to win his Cup Series debut. More recently, Van Gisbergen won the NASCAR Cup Series Viva Mexico 250 on June 15.

The event is free and open to the public, but space and giveaways are limited, according to WeatherTech.  

The third NASCAR Chicago Street Race will return to the streets around Grant Park the weekend following the Fourth of July. The Cup Series race will take place July 6, and the Xfinity Series race will take place July 5.