INDIANAPOLIS—The post-race celebration said it all.

Layne Riggs planted the nose of his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford firmly against the outside of the pit row wall and lit up his tires as members of his team stood on the barrier and pumped their fists repeatedly.

The elation was well-deserved after Riggs scored his first NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series victory at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Friday night’s TSport 200.

With his second victory of the season and a sweep of the first two stages, Riggs cut into the dominating lead of Corey Heim with two races left in the regular season.

Nevertheless, Heim, who ran third in a balky No. 11 Toyota, clinched the regular-season title.

“I’ll tell you, this truck was bad-ass, man,” Riggs said after climbing from the F-150 on pit road. “It was so great. I was just out front saving my tires at the end. Then I was just waiting for a late-race caution (which never came), trying to run the bottom and trying to keep the least amount of distance to keep the distance off my tires.

“It’s so great to get (sponsor) Clew Nicotine Pouches in Victory Lane. That’s only their second race with us, and we’re super excited to have them. That was a pretty cool celebration.”

Riggs led 160 of the 200 laps at the 0.686-mile short track and beat Corey Day to the finish line by 1.864 seconds. The runner-up result was a career-best for Day, who had run fifth at Nashville Superspeedway in his most recent Truck Series outing.

“It was good to back up Nashville,” said Day, 19, who is running part-time schedules with Spire Motorsports in the Truck Series and Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. “I was telling everyone it clicked, and it felt like it clicked, but unless I come here and back it up, it means nothing.

“I’m really glad to finally be delivering results. I’ve been working really, really hard at this to be delivering results, and I really want to be doing the burnout up there.”

Stewart Friesen parlayed an early pit stop in the second stage into an ostensible third-place finish but was disqualified after failing height requirements in post-race inspection. The disqualification ruined an astute strategic call by the No.52 team.

Grant Enfinger ran fourth. Reigning series champion Ty Majeski, currently the last driver above the elimination line for the 10-driver Playoffs, came home fifth after Friesen’s disqualification and extended his advantage over ThorSport racing teammate Jake Garcia (15th Friday) from 38 to 61 points.

Chandler Smith, Daniel Hemric, Tyler Ankrum, Ross Chastain and Rajah Caruth completed the top 10.

Though he scored no Playoff points on Friday, Heim, who set the fastest lap on his second circuit, already has banked 39 this season. With the seven he added in the TSport 200, Riggs now has 16, second most among Truck Series drivers, with the Playoffs set to begin Aug. 30 at Darlington Raceway after the two final regular-season events at Watkins Glen International (Aug. 8) and Richmond Raceway (Aug.15).

Source: Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service

Indianapolis Motor Speedway will feature qualifying sessions for the Cup and Xfinity series Saturday, which will be capped with a 100-lap Xfinity race.

It’s the 10th time that Xfinity has raced on the 2.5-mile oval.

Riley Herbst is the defending race winner but won’t be in this year’s field after moving full time to the Cup Series this season.

A 30-minute Cup practice at 2 p.m. ET was added to the Saturday schedule after a 50-minute session Friday was canceled because of rain.

Indianapolis Brickyard Saturday schedule

(All Times Eastern)

Saturday, July 26

Garage open

• 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. — Xfinity Series
• 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. — Cup Series

Track activity

• 1 – 1:55 p.m. — Xfinity qualifying (CW App)
• 2 – 2:30 p.m. — Cup practice (truTV, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
• 2:35 – 3:30 p.m. — Cup qualifying (truTV, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
• 4:30 p.m. — Xfinity race (100 laps, 250 miles; Stage 1 at Lap 30, Stage 2 at Lap 60; CW, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Weather

Saturday: Scattered afternoon thunderstorms with a high near 90 degrees and winds from the south to southwest at 5 to 10 mph and a 40% chance of rain. It’s expected to be 87 degrees with a 24% chance of rain at the start of the Xfinity race.

The NASCAR Cup Series will move from one oval to another this weekend, as Dover will give way to Indianapolis. While the two tracks aren’t exactly the same, some intense racing will take place in the Brickyard 400, similar to this past weekend’s race in Delaware, where Denny Hamlin was victorious. 

As many try to predict who will kiss the bricks on Sunday, the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour crew is locking in their predictions. First off, Kevin Harvick is riding with a fellow former Cup Series champion to win in Indiana. 

“I’m going to go with Chase Elliott,” Harvick proclaimed. “I think Dover was good weekend. This is a big team track. The Hendrick versus Gibbs things showed up last week, and I don’t think it’s going anywhere here.”

At Dover, Elliott seemed primed to return to Victory Lane. A late strategy call to pit instead of staying out changed everything, and the Hendrick Motorsports star never made it back to the front, having to settle for a P6 finish.

Moving ahead of this weekend, Elliott has been good, but not great at the Brickyard. He finished P10 last season, and his best showing in seven tries is P9. Harvick is hoping he can rise above and get the job done this time around.

Elsewhere, Harvick’s co-host in Kaitlyn Vincie is riding with Elliott’s teammate: “I’m taking Kyle Larson,” she stated. “I have renewed confidence after what I saw this past weekend. He won this race a year ago. I’m team No. 5.”

Larson made an effort to get to P1 in the final laps at Dover, but he couldn’t get past the Joe Gibbs Racing tandem of Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. Still, a P4 finish isn’t anything to scoff at, and the Hendrick star will take it after struggling a bit over the past few weeks.

Indianapolis has been a mixed bag for Larson, especially considered his time at the track in IndyCar. He won last season’s race though, as Vincie mentioned, so another trip to Indiana that ends in kissing the bricks would be something to behold for the former champion.

Finally, Mamba Smith watched as Briscoe finished as the runner-up at Dover. As he returns home to Indiana, he’s thinking the No. 19 Toyota team can get their second win of 2025, and continue their little hit streak. 

“I’m going with Chase Briscoe. They’re on a roll,” Smith added. “This is a home race for him. I think it’s a big week for Chase Briscoe.”

All told, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe are all solid picks for Indianapolis. Whether or not one of them will kiss the bricks this weekend remains to be seen, but the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour crew will be watching all the drama that comes to fruition during the Brickyard 400 on Sunday, for sure.

In modern NASCAR, it has become increasingly rare for Cup teams to get full practice sessions as part of three-day race weekends. The Brickyard 400 is one of those rare occasions, but thunderstorms forced NASCAR to cancel on-track activity for the Cup Series on Friday.

However, in an attempt to get the teams some practice time, series officials have introduced a new session to be run on Saturday. The 39 Cup teams will get the chance to practice in a 25-minute combined session, instead of the 50-minute practice that was planned for Friday.

This session will follow Xfinity Series qualifying and immediately precede Cup qualifying.

Unfortunately, the weather outlook is not much better for Saturday afternoon. Temperatures at Indianapolis are in the late 80s and early 90s this weekend and there is a chance of more afternoon thunderstorms. 

If weather forces the cancellation of this new practice session and qualifying on Saturday, it will be the second consecutive week where weather has denied teams any on-track activity before the race. In the event of a Saturday rainout, Denny Hamlin will start from pole position. Hamlin also announced on Friday that he has signed a new multi-year deal that will keep him at Joe Gibbs Racing for the next few years.

NASCAR has also been forced to cancel Truck qualifying at Indianapolis Raceway Park, a short track just a few miles away from the big track. Corey Heim will start from pole position. 

Chase Elliott may be leading the NASCAR Cup Series standings  but not everyone is impressed.

NASCAR analyst and former driver Kyle Petty has publicly questioned Elliott’s rise to the top. He called it “mediocre consistency” not standout performance.

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Elliott  who has 12 top 10s in 21 races this season  quietly moved to the top of the standings after last Sunday’s race at Dover. He spun twice while leading but still finished 6th.

The Hendricks Motorsports driver has been top 20 in every race this season  and that’s  kept him in the conversation even without frequent trips to victory lane. But  for Kyle Petty that’s  not enough.

Speaking on PRN’s Fast Talk  Petty said “He’s been incredibly consistent. Mostly mediocre consistent, which has led him to lead the championship. He’s just there, he’s vanilla…  He’s not done anything special to lead the points.”

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Petty Want More Than Consistency

Kyle Petty went on to compare Chase Elliott to more aggressive drivers. “When you look at Denny with four wins, when you look at at Shane with three wins, when you look at these other guys who have led races and gone out in a blaze of glory and all this stuff. Chase is just that guy. It’s the tortoise and the hare. It’s the tortoise and the hare.”

He later said “Top  20 is not a stat, dude…  Top 10, top 5, wins. That’s what we go after.”

Petty said Chase Elliott’s consistency has been enough to keep him near the front but it’s not the same as drivers who dominate races.

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Even Kyle Larson said he was surprised to see Elliott second  in the standings after his Atlanta win earlier this month. Elliott has since passed teammate William Byron  who led the series most of the year  and now leads by 16 points.

Next up for Chase Elliott is the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway  a track where he’s  never had a top 5. While Larson won there in 2024  Elliott has yet to make an impact at the crown jewel event.

With the regular season winding down  the race may be the opportunity for the points leader to silence his critics with a big result.

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Kyle Larson is introduced before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Sonoma Raceway, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

INDIANAPOLIS — Kyle Larson raced to his third NASCAR Cup victory of the season at Kansas in mid-May then turned his attention to his second and perhaps final attempt at racing’s double — completing all 1,100 miles of the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.

Instead, he was hit with a double whammy.

A crash on Lap 92 knocked him out of the 500, relegating him to 24th, and two crashes — the second on Lap 245 — knocked him out in Charlotte, where he finished 37th.

Not much has gone right for Lason since then.

He posted just one top five finish over the next eight races before finishing fourth at Dover last weekend. Now, the defending Brickyard 400 champion is back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway trying to recharge his season.

“It’s great to be back here in Indy and back at the track, hopefully I’ll do a much better job than I did in May,” he said Friday. “It’s a privilege to get to run here and I would love nothing more than a good run and hopefully kind of put the bow on the double stuff.”

Only three drivers in race history own back-to-back Brickyard wins — Jimmie Johnson in 2008-09, Kyle Busch in 2015-16 and Kevin Harvick in 2019-20. Larson’s won last year on Indy’s historic 2.5-mile oval instead of the road course used the previous three years.

Most if not all drivers including Larson prefer running the oval.

“There’s so many people from all over the world here whether it be May or our events or, really for that matter, any events,” Justin Allgaier said. “… It’s just there’s nothing quite like it;”

Larson understands having driven an IndyCar on the oval each of the last two Mays and now back in a Cup car, his fourth start in 14 months at the Brickyard.

The difference this year: Larson wants to change directions after some sub-par results.

But they haven’t dashed his championship hopes.

The 2021 Cup champ is tied for second in wins this season, already has accrued 23 playoff points and trails only Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott, the 2020 Cup champ, and William Byron in points. Neither Elliott or Byron has won the 400, though.

Neither has Denny Hamlin, who sits just behind Larson in points despite winning a series-best four times including last weekend at Dover. He also signed a two-year contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing on Friday.

If he can add a win Sunday to the three he’s had in the Daytona 500 and Southern 500 and the one Coca-Cola 600 title, Hamlin would join the short list of drivers who have won all four Cup crown jewel races in their career.

“It certainly would mean a lot to me,” said Hamlin, who has started 16 Brickyards. “We’ve come close. We were actually as close on the road course as we were on ovals although I don’t know — you could argue whether that (road race) was actually a crown jewel or not. So, yeah, highly motivated.”

But things already are off script for Larson, Hamlin and everyone else in Indy.

Friday’s scheduled practice was rained out, making the second week in a row practice was washed out. Qualifying is scheduled for Saturday when temperatures are forecast to be in the mid to upper 80s with rain in the forecast most of the afternoon. The forecast for Sunday looks almost identical to Saturday.

That’s not what Larson wanted to hear even though race organizers rescheduled a short practice for Saturday afternoon.

“Hopefully, our car is good again,” he said before the scheduled practice. “I believe it should be fast, if not better than it was last year. So, you know, hopefully we’ll have a good practice, good qualifying (Saturday) and execute a good race on Sunday.”

Larson’s goal is simple — qualify up front, stay up front and stay out of the trouble he’s found far too routinely lately.

“When (Christopher Bell) spun (at Dover), I thought I was going to get collected and be like ‘Uh, oh, just continuing our bad luck here,” he said. “So, hopefully, this is the beginning of us to kind turn things around. We’ll see.”