Winston-Salem State University alumni pride was on full display during ESPN’s First Take on Monday, as Stephen A. Smith delivered a heartfelt congratulations to fellow HBCU graduate Rajah Caruth. Caruth made history over the weekend by winning his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race of the 2025 season at Nashville Superspeedway on Friday, May 30—securing a playoff spot in the process.

The segment opened with a throwback recorded message from Caruth thanking Smith for his influence and leadership during a previous HBCU segment.

“Honestly, Stephen A., I wanted to say thank you for everything you’ve done for Winston-Salem State University and our culture,” Caruth said. “You’re a great example of living Black history.”

Smith, who graduated from the HBCU in Dec. 1991, was visibly moved by the gesture, responded with emotion and pride.

“I always get touched by stuff like that, especially for my alma mater, which means the world to me. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for Winston-Salem State,” he said.

Smith praised Caruth’s performance during the final stretch of the race, noting the young driver held off seasoned champions in the final 15 laps.

“He handled his business, held it down, and ended up winning for the first time. I’m very, very proud of this young man and what he’s doing—the way he’s representing the Rams.”

This win marked the second career victory for Caruth in the Craftsman Truck Series. Smith took the moment to highlight Caruth’s impact as an HBCU representative in a traditionally non-diverse sport like NASCAR.

“Anytime I see great things from Winston-Salem State, I’m incredibly happy… There’s a whole bunch of talent at HBCUs throughout this country.”

As Smith wrapped up his remarks, he once again voiced his support for Caruth and reaffirmed his commitment to celebrating HBCU excellence, saying, “Way to go, Rajah. Way to go.”

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LEBANON, Tenn. — Well, thank goodness that’s over.

One of the most tiresome storylines of this season had focused on Ryan Blaney’s lack of a victory, even though he had been outperforming his three teammates, who each had already won a race.

Anyone paying attention to NASCAR every week could tell Blaney has had one of the fastest cars all season, and only a series of unfortunate circumstances or mistakes have kept him from victory lane.

According to Grant Peters of Auto Racing Analytics, who supplied data at The Athletic’s request, Blaney was leading the series in both passing efficiency and defense heading into Nashville. Statistically, Peters said, Blaney completes an average pass on an intermediate track like Nashville in less than three laps of catching a car ahead of him — and he is also able to hold back a car in range for more than 14 laps on average.

Those are elite stats, so it should be no surprise that Blaney is a winner again. The only surprise is that it took him this long to have a race where nothing went wrong.

“Everything went smoothly, went like a normal race should go, and we executed like we should, and the speed in our car was good,” Blaney said. “It feels like those races for our team are hard to come by, just nothing funky happening. It’s nice it finally went that way tonight. The fastest car won the race and nothing wacky happened.”

Blaney isn’t just back in the playoffs, he’s a bona fide championship contender. He represents Team Penske’s best threat to reach the Championship 4 again, which will be held at Phoenix Raceway — the site of three consecutive titles for Penske drivers (including one for Blaney).

Don’t mistake Blaney for being the one-win-a-year guy of old, when he never seemed to reach the potential he showed in his early years. This Blaney is a much more well-rounded, savvy racer who appears to be an annual season-long threat; races like Nashville will continue to happen more often than not.

.@Blaney brings it home in Nashville! pic.twitter.com/lvfDXdpDlM

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 2, 2025

Hocevar rising

Another week, another brilliant flash of speed from Carson Hocevar — and another instance of him making enemies on the track.

Hocevar angered Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with an aggressive move to fill a hole and gain position; Stenhouse didn’t realize the second-year driver was going to jam the car into that spot, came down the track and Hocevar didn’t lift in time before they collided.

“I felt like I was there enough to get a call ‘inside’ (from the spotter) and have him just kind of run the middle,” Hocevar said. “Honestly, he probably could have cleared me. That’s what I expected him to do, and he didn’t. And by the time I checked up, I almost spun, too.”

Reached by text message, Stenhouse said their incident wasn’t the first of the night; in his view, there was a near miss two laps earlier when Hocevar had another huge run without care for whether Stenhouse was there or not. Stenhouse viewed it as Hocevar shooting for a hole and praying it’s going to be there without knowing the consequences.

Said Hocevar: “Yes, but at the same time, I feel like maybe I could have caught a break too, with how big of a run I had. So I think it goes both ways.”

But as part of the typical Carson Hocevar Experience, the Spire Motorsports driver was also blazing fast. He tied his career-best finish with a second-place result and moved five spots to 17th in the standings, now on the cusp of the playoff picture.

And yet he was downtrodden and disappointed to miss out on the win, despite Blaney clearly having more speed.

“My dream and expectation is to be here and win races and be up front,” Hocevar said. “It sucks when you don’t. If I wasn’t disappointed, I don’t deserve this seat. When I was a fan, I’d hate when people were pumped about second or third. I said I’d never be like that, and I feel like I’m not.”

Carson Hocevar tied his best-ever Cup Series finish with a second-place run Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway. (Sean Gardner / Getty Images)

More horsepower

Drivers’ ears perked up when NASCAR competition chief Elton Sawyer publicly broached the topic of increased horsepower last week — the No. 1 request on drivers’ wish lists for the entirety of the Next Gen Era.

“That’s the first time they’ve ever come out and said, ‘I think we can do it,’” Blaney said. “It’s definitely something all the drivers and teams want, and everyone watching wants it. They were only talking about doing it on short tracks and road courses, but if you’re going to do it at certain tracks, why not do it everywhere?”

But the conversation itself has some pitfalls. A horsepower increase will not be a magic cure for everything that ails the Next Gen on short tracks and road courses, which is why Christopher Bell said it was important to frame the horsepower discussion in a certain way for fans to “taper their expectations.”

The amount of horsepower being discussed is not a significant change, Bell said, but “directionally” better.

“Whenever we talk about wanting more horsepower, it stems from a place of wanting to be able to pass better,” Bell said. “Adding horsepower, no matter what the number is, is not going to make us pack race at a short track — but it should make passing easier.”

Josh Berry shared a similar concern: What if NASCAR increased the horsepower slightly and it didn’t materially change the quality of the racing?

“What I would hate to happen is to go up 100 horsepower and it doesn’t really look that different and everyone goes, ‘Oh, that wasn’t it,’” Berry said.

But in drivers’ minds, horsepower is it. At least a big part of solving the equation. So Denny Hamlin said even if the number was smaller than what drivers hoped, he would be happy just to take a minor win.

“Do I wish it was the big number we used to have? Absolutely,” Hamlin said. “But we need to be realistic, and even if it’s 80 to 100 (hp), we need to just take it and shut up and be thankful they’re willing to change.”

Larson’s regrets

Of the many things that Kyle Larson wishes he could do over again for his Double attempt last week, his sarcastic thumbs-up gesture to Scott McLaughlin is near the top of the list.

After a 45-minute rain delay at the Indy 500, the cars finally started rolling under the pace laps when McLaughlin, one of the pre-race favorites, suddenly lost control of his car and crashed while trying to warm up his tires. Larson spotter Tyler Monn radioed that someone up ahead had crashed (“f—ing idiot,” as Monn described it). An already-frustrated Larson, realizing the crash cleanup would only add to the time crunch he was in for the Double, then drove by and flashed a thumbs up in McLaughlin’s direction.

Scott McLaughlin and Kyle Larson are “all good” after Larson’s at the #Indy500.@BobPockrass | #INDYCAR | #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/nkw6RWQ3oU

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 29, 2025

It was not a good look, and McLaughlin later responded on X with a quote-tweet that said: “Guess im out of the best driver in the world talks” with a shrug emoji. Larson texted McLaughlin during the week to apologize.

“As all of us, everybody in life, wishes they could go back and not do something or do something differently,” Larson said Saturday. “That’s one of those moments for me. I feel like I’m usually pretty good about not keying up or not doing gestures and stuff, but yeah, just let my frustration get the best of me there.

“It was a bit embarrassing, and I felt bad. You never want to see anybody crash out of the biggest race in the world before the green and (McLaughlin is) somebody who has always been super respectful to me and really nice to me. I didn’t even realize it was him until I was close to alongside of him. So just wish I could have taken that back.”

In Detroit for last weekend’s IndyCar race, McLaughlin told Fox Sports he knew Larson didn’t mean anything by the gesture.

“He’s really a respectful racer,” McLaughlin said. “And kudos to him for even reaching out. He didn’t need to. He doesn’t care about my IndyCar (race). I understand it. They know it’s logistically tough. … At the same time, Indy is Indy and the 600 is the 600, and if you want to run the risk of doing that, that’s up to you.”

Larson reiterated he is not currently interested in attempting the Double again due to the time crunch between the two races, which doesn’t allow for enough buffer in case of weather or long cautions. He said he would like to do the Indy 500 in the future once he is done with full-time NASCAR driving.

Caruth also rising

After Rajah Caruth won his second career Truck Series race on Friday night, we asked him about the pressure of being chased down by a future “Sunday guy” in the form of Corey Heim.

The question was barely finished before Caruth interjected: “I’d like to think I’m a future Sunday guy.”

Caruth has never doubted he will be. He speaks about his future success in “when” terms instead of “if.” His confidence in his abilities is high and seemingly unwavering. But to be a future Sunday guy, Caruth is going to need to win a lot more races. He just went well over a year between victories (Las Vegas in March 2024) and was outside of the Truck Series playoff standings before clinching a berth with his Friday win.

In Caruth’s mind, though, he continues to drill down on the process and thus doesn’t let the results frazzle him or force him into mistakes, as is sometimes the case for young drivers eager to prove themselves.

“I just kept my faith up through the ups and downs of the season,” he said. “Really poured into the people around me and just focused on the things that are in my control.”

Caruth said he does everything with “intention” — whether it’s a sim session, practice session, workout, pit practice or even taking personal time for himself. That way, he said, “it doesn’t feel like the end of the world when you have that pressure and that opportunity there in front of you.”

There’s still plenty of time to climb the ladder for a driver who turns 23 next week. His unique path has taken him from racing online while growing up in Washington D.C. to contending in real-life NASCAR races.

But if he’s going to truly make it, moments like Friday have to be more than an annual tradition.

(Top photo of Ryan Blaney celebrating Sunday’s win: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)

BROOKLYN, MICH. — NASCAR heads to Michigan International Speedway for an early-June stop with the Cup Series and Craftsman Truck Series.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is returning to the two-mile, D-shaped oval for the first time since 2020. Meanwhile, the NASCAR Cup Series is headed there for the 108th race in series history, dating back to the first race in 1969. Cale Yarborough won the very first race, held June 15, 1969.

This is the first time NASCAR has raced at Michigan in June since 2019 – the last year the track had two race weekends.

NASCAR Cup Series’ Firekeepers Casino 400

• Sunday, June 8
  • 2 p.m. (All times Eastern)
    • Practice and qualifying: Saturday at 9:30 a.m.
• 200 laps
  • Stages end on laps 45, 120, 200
• Prime Video, Motor Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Last year’s winner: Tyler Reddick

Coming into this weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series is on a streak of two consecutive races at Michigan International Speedway with 26 or more lead changes. This hasn’t happened since 1981 when the August race had 65 lead changes after the June race had 47.

Both the 2023 race and the 2024 race featured 26 lead changes each. The last time a Michigan Cup race had 26 or more lead changes before 2023 was August 2012.

The NextGen car has made the racing even more fierce at Michigan in recent years, upping the parity among winners.

The first three races with the car have seen three different winners – Reddick, Chris Buescher (2023) and Kevin Harvick (2022) – compared to three different winners in the last six Gen 6 races.

Odds coming soon.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ DQS Solutions & Staffing 250

• Saturday, June 7
  • 12 p.m. (All times Eastern)
• 125 laps
  • Stages end on laps 30, 60, 125
• FOX, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Last winner: Zane Smith (2020)

The return of NASCAR Trucks at Michigan International Speedway has been highly-anticipated for five years since the track didn’t return to the schedule for 2021. Because it’s been so long, the trucks will get a 50-minute practice Friday at 1 p.m. ET before they qualify Saturday morning at 8 a.m. ET.

When the trucks last raced at Michigan, in 2020, current NASCAR Cup Series driver Zane Smith made a last-lap pass on Christian Eckes to take home the win.

In the last six Truck races at Michigan, five of them featured 15 or more lead changes. In fact, three of the last five Truck races at Michigan featured a last-lap pass. With 25 more laps, it’s anticipated this year’s race will go well beyond 15 lead changes.

Among the current full-time drivers in the series, these drivers have experience at Michigan:

• Ben Rhodes
  • Two top-10 finishes in five starts
• Chandler Smith
  • Crash DNF (38th) in 2020 after leading four laps and winning the pole
• Daniel Hemric
  • Finished seventh in 2015, third in 2016
• Grant Enfinger
  • Four top-10s in five starts
• Matt Crafton
  • Three top-5 finishes and nine top-10s in 19 starts
    • Best finish: Second (2014)
    • Best start: Pole (2011, ’15, ’17)
• Spencer Boyd
  • Finished 22nd in 2019, 27th in 2020
• Stewart Friesen
  • Two top-10s in four starts
• Tanner Gray
• Ty Majeski
• Tyler Ankrum
  • One top-5 finish in two starts

Odds coming soon.

• Friday at 5 p.m. (All times Eastern)
• 100 laps
• Practice and qualifying: Friday at 2 p.m.
• Last year’s winner: Connor Zilisch

Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.

A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.

Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick’s final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers’ stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.

Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com

Ford Unofficial Finishing Results:

1st – Ryan Blaney

4th – Joey Logano

13th  – Zane Smith

14th – Chris Buescher

18th –Austin Cindric

19th – Cole Custer

22nd – Todd Gilliland

23rd –Brad Keselowski

28th – Ryan Preece

30th – Josh Berry

33rd– Cody Ware

35th – Chad Finchum

38th – Noah Gragson

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I never gave up hope, that’s for sure. We’ve had great speed all year, just hasn’t been the best year for us as far as good fortune. The 12 boys are awesome; they stick with it no matter how it goes, and it was great to finish one out tonight.”

Q. How much did the game change for you on the 12 team when Hassler made the call for the two-tire stop at the end of Stage 1 and you got all that track position?

“Yeah, I thought it was a good call. We drove up to seventh there in the first stage, and I thought two tires were great. I thought my car was really good, and that really set us up for the rest of the race, so great job by him, as always, all the 12 boys, appreciate what they do pit crew was great. Appreciate Menard’s, Cardell, Ford, Ford Motor Company, Roush Yates Engines, Discount Tire, Wabash, Worth, Snap-on, DEX Imaging, Body Armour, Advance Auto Parts, everything what they do. It’s nice that it’s finally happening, so I’m ready to go celebrate.”

Q. You don’t normally do burnouts after a win, but Corey LaJoie loves to grade burnouts. So I’m sure he’s very happy you gave him one?

“I didn’t think it was very good, but did the crowd like the burnout or not? They liked it so that’s all that matters.”

NOAH GRAGSON, No. 4 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I gave him a whole two lanes off the bottom and he just trekked me. It annihilated us. It was so early in the race and that was a hard hit. It is just sort of the story of our year so far. We’ve been running good, running better, then we get taken out by things not of our doing. We just have to go faster to get away from it all. We have been building good cars. We ran good at Charlotte. I feel like we have good speed at some of these tracks. I am really proud of everyone at Front Row Motorsports. It just sucks to be annihilated like that.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Kroger/OIKOS Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Incredibly aero sensitive race. We just didn’t get the details right. We had decent speed but we didn’t perform at the level we are capable of. On to Michigan. We should be really good there. I am excited for it. It has been a really good one for us. We had a good tire test there. We will see what the new tire does but the speed was there.”

JOSH BERRY, No. 21  Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I thought our car was pretty solid. We had worked our way into the top-ten at the end of the second stage. Unfortunately, had a penalty on pit road and got mired in the back and just couldn’t get back up there. All in all, I was pretty happy with our Ford Mustang and we will get them next week.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We just took too long to get going. That pretty much was our day. Proud of Team Penske and proud of Ford. The car wasn’t fast in the first 30 laps.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Our guys did a great job tonight and have been working their tails off to get better and better. We ran a good number of laps inside the top 15 and brought home a solid top-20 finish, but this race showed we can go out there and compete.”

CODY WARE, No. 51 Arby’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Just a really frustrating night. I felt like we had a decent Arby’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse tonight, but the night kind of fell apart after we had an issue with a wheel at the start of the final stage. It’s a tough, tough way to have a swing like that in what would have been a decent day for the team. So we’re just going to reset, re-rack it for Michigan and just keep building on the progress we’re making as a race team.”

Ford Performance PR

Surprise, surprise! Corey LaJoie is going to make nine NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts for the remainder of the 2025 season. He is joining up with his old Cup Series organization, Spire Motorsports. First up, this weekend at Michigan International Speedway.

Corey LaJoie will pilot the No. 07 Chevy Silverado for Spire. He has races lined up for Michigan, Richmond, Darlington, Bristol, New Hampshire, Charlotte, Talladega, Martinsville, and Phoenix.

This will put LaJoie in the majority of the final 13 races of the season. He will be in the final two races of the year at Martinsville and Phoenix. Given his comments at the beginning of the year about racing in Truck or Xfinity, this is a good thing to see. I’m sure working for Prime Video has only made him want to race even more.