Before last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Pocono Raceway, Chase Briscoe was part of a small minority of drivers keeping a close eye on potential seeding for the In-Season Challenge, which starts Saturday night with the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway (7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The standings before the Pocono race would have paired Briscoe against fellow Toyota driver Tyler Reddick, a matchup the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota said he would prefer to avoid.

“Right now, I’d go against Tyler if it started this weekend,” Briscoe said at the time. “I’m hoping that changes, because Tyler… I think he’s seeded like 22nd right now, and he’s one of the top five guys in the sport.

“So, it would be a tough Round 1, but honestly, the seeding is tough because at Atlanta anybody could be hard to beat. I feel like at Atlanta you don’t want to go against somebody in your manufacturer (group), because you’re all normally on the same strategy.”

Briscoe, of course, claimed his first victory of the season later that afternoon and dramatically altered his position in the In-Season Challenge bracket. With the win, he earned the second seed behind Michigan winner Denny Hamlin and will face Front Row Motorsports’ Noah Gragson in the first round of the inaugural tournament.

Interestingly, Gragson is the favorite driver of Briscoe’s 3-year-old son Brooks.

He’s also one of Briscoe’s closest friends and may prove as formidable an opponent as Reddick would have been.

“Honestly, I feel like here at a superspeedway, we’ve seen how good the Fords are, and going against a Ford here is certainly a hard challenge,” Briscoe said. “This is one of those race tracks that, no matter what team you are with, you kind of have a shot to go and win.

“It’s no secret, right? Noah is not at one of the powerhouse teams, but when he comes here, he can be right here in the mix. Front Row (Motorsports) cars qualified on the front row here last year, so it will be a challenge.” 

The zMAX CARS Tour heads to Caraway Speedway for round nine of the 2025 season, a mid-week showdown with both the Late Model Stock Cars and Pro Late Models in action. Twenty-three cars make up the LMSC entry list, so all cars will qualify.

In 2024, Caraway put on arguably the race of the year, featuring a four-car battle to the finish that saw Brent Crews pick up the win over William Byron and Connor Hall.

After taking a race off at Dominion, Andrew Grady is back with the CARS Tour driving for TG Motorsports in the No. 1.

Dylan Ward will make his first CARS Tour start of the season, driving his own Dylan Ward Racing No. 7.

Modified racer Brandon Ward will make his first CARS Tour appearance of 2025, driving for KP Speed Motorsports in the No. 12.

Orange County winner Jared Fryar is back with the CARS Tour, driving the Jimmy Mooring owned No. 14.

Grant Davidson makes his first CARS start of the year, driving the No. 15 for Team 151 Inc.

Short Track Weekly: Why This Year’s SoBo 200 Is More Important Than Ever

2025 Firecracker 265 Entry List

Late Model Stock

No. 00: Chase Burrow (Chase Burrow Motorsports)

No. 03: Lanie Buice (Lee Pulliam Performance)

No. 04: Ronnie Bassett Jr. (Bassett Racing)

No. 1: Andrew Grady (TG Motorsports)

No. 2P: Brandon Pierce (Carroll Speedshop)

No. 2: Ryan Wilson (Ryan Wilson Motorsports)

No. 4B: Kade Brown (R&S Race Cars)

No. 4: Donovan Strauss (Hettinger Racing)

No. 7: Tristan McKee (Matt Piercy Racing)

No. 7W: Dylan Ward (Dylan Ward Racing)

No. 12: Brandon Ward (KP Speed Motorsports)

No. 14: Jared Fryar (JM Racing)

No. 15: Grant Davidson (Team 151 Inc.)

No. 16: Chad McCumbee (McCumbee Elliott Racing)

No. 17: Kaden Honeycutt (Tom Usry Racing)

No. 22: Carson Loftin (Nelson Motorsports)

No. 29: Landen Lewis (KHI Racing)

No. 44: Conner Jones (Mike Darne Racing)

No. 57: Landon Huffman (Carroll Speedshop)

No. 71: Parker Eatmon (Hettinger Racing)

No. 81: Mini Tyrrell (Timmy Tyrrell Racing)

No. 88: Connor Hall (JR Motorsports)

No. 88B: Doug Barnes Jr. (Lee Pulliam Performance)

Pro Late Model

No. 4: Trey Burke (Hettinger Racing)

No. 6: Ben Maier (Setzer Racing)

No. 6L: Brandon Lopez (Bryson Lopez Racing)

No. 7: Tristan McKee (LowCountry Motorsports)

No. 15: Rodney Dowless (Walker Motorsports)

No. 25: Isaac Kitzmiller (Rackley WAR)

No. 44: Conner Jones (Conner Jones Racing)

No. 47: Tyler Reif (Bryson Lopez Racing)

No. 51: Cody Ware (Rick Ware Racing)

No. 54: Seth Christensen (JC Motorsports)

No. 61: Mason Walters (Setzer Racing)

No. 62: Keelan Harvick (Rackley WAR)

No. 77: Darren Krantz Jr. (Chad Bryant Racing)

No. 97: Dylan Garner (Dylan Garner Racing)

No. 97K: Jason Kitzmiller (Rackley WAR)

You can watch the zMAX CARS Tour at Caraway on Wednesday, July 2, live on FloRacing. Racing starts at 7:00 p.m. ET, with LMSC action scheduled for approximately 9:00 p.m. ET.

Chase began working with Frontstretch in the spring of 2023 as a news writer, while also helping fill in for other columns as needed. Chase is now the main writer and reporter for Frontstretch.com’s CARS Tour coverage, a role which began late in 2023.  Aside from racing, some of Chase’s other hobbies include time in the outdoors hunting and fishing, and keeping up with all things Philadelphia sports related.

These days, there is no shortage of talented artists dreaming up cars that don’t exist, but should, and sharing them online. That’s to say nothing of the folks who will punch fake vehicle names into AI image generators for predictably horrible results. But these renders of a Subaru WRX rally car in street clothes hit differently, because they came from Subaru Motorsports itself.

Earlier in the week, Subaru’s U.S. rally team, which is operated by the fine folks at Vermont SportsCar, shared images of its WRX ARA25 rally car in stark white and blue with no liveries and gold rims and the caption “What if the Subaru WRX ARA25 was sold as road car?” The resulting comments were predictable, from some people offering to donate their kidneys for the cause, to others predictably begging for a new STI. But this thought exercise is so much more extreme than just about any Impreza or WRX the company’s ever sold, including the vaunted 22B.

The era of homologation specials—race cars that had to be sold as road cars, to be eligible for competition—has long since passed. Three or four decades ago, we might’ve gotten something like these images. The 22B STI, though it shared many visual similarities to Subaru’s WRC car of the late ’90s, was really a Type R chassis with flared fenders and many mechanical changes. Subaru built it because it chose to, to celebrate its rallying success—not because it had to.

Similarly, anything like this pie-in-the-sky ARA25 road car would have to come about because Subaru wanted to build it. Like everyone else, we wish it did. The VB WRX’s design has warmed up on me since its initial unveiling, but I still don’t love it. There’s just too much cladding, and the rear end design is very narrow and cinched in an unflattering way. But flare those fenders, tuck in the body just behind the front wheels, bolt on a big-ass wing, and swap all that black plastic out for genuine carbon fiber and, suddenly, you’ve systematically dismantled every possible criticism I though I had with the current-gen sport sedan. Race cars just have a knack for doing that.

As much as I avoid getting caught up in daydreaming like this, it’s a different story when it’s the OEM itself (or, its racing team) inviting us to do it. The STI may have gone on a hiatus, but it’s clear that there is still an appetite for a true giant-killing WRX to battle the likes of the Civic Type R, GR Corolla, and Golf R. Commercially, Subaru is killing it these days thanks to its SUVs, and the optimist in me is hopeful that increases the chances the automaker simply decides to blow a whole lot of money on a flagship performance car again. That’s the glass-half-full take, anyway; the pessimist in me is wondering why the Subaru rally team chose violence with such a cruel tease.

Got a tip? Email us at tips@thedrive.com

Despite Mother Nature and some big wrecks playing a factor, the Xfinity Series race at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. The Focused Health 250 had plenty of highlight-worthy moments, including a first-time winner.

Rookie Nick Sanchez Scores First Xfinity Series Win

Nick Sanchez has had plenty of moments in his first season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, from leading laps to scoring Top 10 finishes. He even scored a career-best finish of third at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. That career best was topped on Friday night.  The 24-year-old rose to the challenge in a race that saw plenty of the favorites and best drivers on drafting tracks, including Austin Hill, who was knocked out of contention early. Heck, even Sanchez had a moment early in the race as he spun out, but kept his No. 48 Chevy from hitting anything.

Nick held off challenges from the likes of Connor Zilisch, Carson Kvapil, and Jesse Love to score his first Xfinity Series win, and just the second ever win for his team, Big Machine Racing.

Nick Sanchez gets his first career #XfinitySeries win! pic.twitter.com/0R15dhgUwx

— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) June 28, 2025

Massive Wreck Takes Out Top Xfinity Stars

After an hour-plus-long weather delay, the race was able to resume, with just under 40 laps complete. The moment the racing got going again, things changed for some of the top stars of the series. A massive crash on the backstretch saw plenty of drivers who have already won this season taken out. The melee saw defending series champion Justin Allgaier caught up in the crash. As was Sammy Smith, polesitter Sheldon Creed, and multi-time Atlanta winner Austin Hill.

Despite Hill being caught up in the incident, he ended up back in the race, but multiple laps down. That wreck was certainly one way to clear out Hill, who has been the driver to beat in the draft.

Spin and Rally

Even when you think you’re out of the running at a drafting track in NASCAR, you’re not. That’s exactly what this race played out to be, with so many cars out of the race. Nick Sanchez certainly had to rally from his spin on lap 68. The spin occurred on the frontstretch grass, which could have easily destroyed the front of his car. By chance, it didn’t, and he eventually climbed his way back into the picture. As did Jesse Love, who was involved in the lap 40 pileup. Love, despite a heavily damaged nose on his car, was able to put his No. 2 Chevy in the front. Aric Almirola was also a factor in the closing laps of the race, but Love and Sanchez didn’t care about the former Cup driver.

Love and Sanchez put on a show during the final restart, which came on lap 157. Despite Love having plenty of pushers behind him, he had nothing to say to stop Sanchez’s No. 48 from holding off all challengers. That included a late run from both Zilisch and Kvapil. It was certainly an exciting duel for the race win, especially with so many drivers in the picture that hadn’t won before. So for Sanchez to rally from his spin and win, that was simply some great driving by the rookie.

A Very Notable Pit Road Incident

Following the race, Hill appeared to share words with Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Dye. Hill was multiple laps down and not in contention for the win, but still found himself racing near the front. In Dye’s case, he was in the battle for a very strong finish. The pair appeared to share words about something that happened during the race or the closing laps.

The pair were caught on video by Frontstretch.com discussing something, and it appears Hill threatened Dye about flipping him off.

.@_AustinHill and @danieldye43 had a tense discussion after the race that ended with Hill telling Dye “flip me off again motherfucker”#NASCAR
Presenting Partner: @MyPlaceHotels pic.twitter.com/WiaDRBQnhT

— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) June 28, 2025

Whatever that was about was certainly eye-catching. Sure seems like Hill needs to chill, given he seems to only go after the younger guys, when he’s done some questionable things in racing himself.

Read Next: NASCAR Cup Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway Preview

Main Photo: Sean Gardner, Getty Images

Recording Date: 6/27/2025

Ford drivers managed to qualify first through eighth as Team Penske’s Joey Logano claimed pole position for the NASCAR Cup race at Atlanta, narrowly beating Josh Berry in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford. Along with the technically-aligned No. 21 machine, cars prepared by Penske ended up locking out the first two rows on the grid.

“Well you know we all have the same thing and obviously, Team Penske does a great job at building the same cars it seems like — all of us in the top four there,” said Logano, who has two wins at the Georgia track. “Proud of everyone at the shop. Proud of Roush-Yates engines. This is always a test of how much speed you can put in them. They’re fast for qualifying but let’s see what we got in the race.”

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Logano and Berry will be followed by Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, and Ryan Preece in the top five. Brad Keselowski, Cole Custer, Zane Smith, Alex Bowman and Chase Briscoe filled out the remainder of the top ten. Showcasing just how dominant they were, Bowman in ninth was the top-qualifying non-Ford driver.

While it was blue skies at the track, lightning within eight miles of the 1.5-mile speedway forced NASCAR to put things on hold early in the qualifying. At the time, 14 cars had qualified, but in the name of safety, NASCAR waited 30 minutes before resuming the session.

At the time of the lightning hold, Custer had the fast time in the No. 41 Haas Factory Ford. It was a solid lap, but not good enough as his fellow Ford drivers began to knock him down the order.

There were no incidents, but Michael McDowell did touch the outside wall as he began his flying lap. Chase Elliott also had a sketchy moment in Turns 3/4, getting loose.

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Several big names find themselves buried deep in the field as the entirety of Trackhouse Racing qualified outside the top 30. Denny Hamlin, who would have started on pole (per the metric) if the lightning had persisted, ended up 33rd in the final order. Christopher Bell and Carson Hocevar, who finished 1-2 in the last Cup race at Atlanta, qualified 28th and 30th, respectively.

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