The NASCAR standings and Cup points have been updated after the drivers competed in the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. Ryan Blaney won the race that kicked off the month of June.

There are now just 12 races remaining in the regular season, which means drivers who are below the playoff cut line need to win soon. Here’s a look at the NASCAR standings and Cup points after the Nashville race.

Updated NASCAR playoff standings after Nashville

Balney becomes the ninth driver to qualify for the playoffs. This means that more than half of the playoff field is set with 12 races remaining in the regular season.

Kyle Larson still leads the playoff field with William Byron right behind him. Chase Elliott remains the top driver that has yet to win a race this year.

Updated Cup points after Nashville

Byron remains on top and is the only driver to have over 500 points. Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell are two of three drivers (with Byron being the other) who have at least 450 points.

With Bubba Wallace earning a P6 finish at Nashville, he moves up to 10th place. He’s one point ahead of Chase Briscoe and 34 points behind Chastain.

The Super DIRTcar Series has a double-header planned this week, racing the Anthracite Assault on June 3 at Big Diamond Speedway and then racing the Snyder County Showdown June 4 at Selinsgrove Speedway.

Tuesday’s race at Big Diamond will offer $7,500-to-win after 75-laps of work.

Wednesday is the SDS series debut at Selinsgrove; the event is a Billy Whittaker Cars 200 qualifier, with the 75-lap feature paying $10,000 to win.

There are some milestones on the table for the two Super DIRTcar Series stars.

Matt Sheppard is one win away from No. 100; he logged win No. 99 in the Natural 77 at Thunder Mountain Speedway last week. He would be the second driver to reach the 100-win plateau. Brett Hearn is the only other driver north of 100 — with 141 wins — having delivered his final SDS win at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in November 2021.

Sheppard is in rare company, having won at both tracks in the past. Sheppard has four Big Diamond wins, taking the Anthracite Assault in 2019 and 2022. He also won at Selinsgrove, taking a Race of Champions Modified Tour victory back in 2010.

Stewart Friesen is chasing SDS career win No. 50. Thus far, Friesen has 49 wins, with his most recent being posted at the Heroes Remembered 100 at Weedsport Speedway during Memorial Day Weekend. He is sixth overall in the career win list, sandwiched between Alan Johnson (57 wins) and Bob McCreadie (39 wins). Only five others have cleared 50 career wins, including Hearn, Sheppard, Danny Johnson (89), Billy Decker (70) and Alan Johnson.

Friesen has won twice at Big Diamond, including the Anthracite Assault last year, passing Anthony Perrego for the win.

Having just recently inked a deal to follow the series full time, points leader Alex Yankowski is no stranger to Big Diamond. Yankowski leads Mat Williamson by 3 markers, having one win this year. Alex Payne rides third, 10 points behind. Yankowski won the Coalcracker and Money in the Mountains races at Big Diamond in 2021, and has Big Diamond victories in 2020, as well.

Payne was banged up in a hard crash at Land of Legends Raceway, in the same area Gil Tegg Jr. crashed a few weeks back. Erick Rudolph is fourth, 24 points behind, and Justin Haers rides fifth, 26-points behind.

Rudolph has a win at Big Diamond, taking a win in 2015 while adding four top fives and seven top 10s. He has also tried his hand at Selinsgrove once, racing to 12th in 2021 during a Short Track Super Series event.

Matt Williamson has never won at either track in his storied career; he ranked fourth at Selinsgrove in 2021 and compiled three top fives — including a fourth in last year’s Anthracite Assault — and four top 10s in five Big Diamond starts.

For a full schedule, visit www.SuperDIRTcarSeries.com.

TOURING SERIES

Nick Sheridan won his first Empire Super Sprints event, winning at Ohsweken Speedway May 30. Sheridan won from the pole, leading Jordan Poirier at the line with Dylan Swiernik, Dylan Westbrook and Darren Dryden filling the top five.

Poirier did one better Saturday at Brighton Speedway, topping Logan Crisafulli and Alex Therrien in the second feature of the weekend.

The series will next race at Freedom Motorsports Park, visiting Delevan, NY on June 7. The feature pays $4,000-to-win. Visit EmpireSuperSprints.com for more.

AREA RESULTS SATURDAY

Matt Sheppard won his 94th career Modified feature at Land of Legends Raceway Saturday night. Sheppard topped Mat Williamson and Dalton Slack for the win; Justin Haers and Erick Rudolph were next.

The win ties Sheppard for third all-time with Steve Paine, who last won at Canandaigua in September 2018. Now, ahead of Sheppard is only Bob McCreadie (99 wins) and all-time win leader Alan Johnson. Johnson has 129 victories at the Ontario County oval; Johnson’s first win was in May 1976 while his last was posted in August 2024.

Fulton Speedway, Thunder Mountain Speedway and Oswego Speedway rained out.

Oswego will move its opening to June 14 with Supermodifieds, Small Block Supers and Super Stocks. The oval is not open on June 7, remaining dark in support of the ISMA/MSS Supermodified race at the Lancaster Motorplex.

FRIDAY

Amy Holland logged a popular win Friday night at Brewerton Speedway. It was her third modified win overall, with prior wins coming on Championship Night in August 2024 and July 2023 — her first.

Holland was stalking leader Todd Root and Max Hill, moving to second on lap 25. Root had passed Hill for the top spot on lap 21. Holland worked traffic well while chasing the leader, and made a bid for the lead exiting the second corner. The car stuck, and she moved to the point, and didn’t look back. Root, Max Hill, Tim Sears Jr., Chad Phelps finished second through fifth.

Jason Parkhurst won the DIRTcar Sportsman 25-lap feature over Cody Manitta and Tyler Corcoran; Nick Ventura and Hunter Hollenbeck were fourth and fifth. Joe Isabell won the Mod Lite feature over Doug Williams; after 20 laps of work Joseph Garafolo was third ahead of Jacob Dupra and PO Trudeau. Chris Bonoffski won the 15-lap four-cylinder super stock feature and John Pietrowicz took the 15-lap Hobby Stock main from the pole.

At Can-Am Speedway, the Summer Starter event went Lance Willix’ way. Willix started seventh in the 25-lap main and charged to the win over Billy Dunn and Tyler Meeks. Derek Webb and Remington Ham filled the top five. Mike Fowler won the DIRTcar Sportsman feature, topping Frank Sibley and Ryan Shanahan after 20 laps of work. Tyler Stevenson and Josh Reome earned top fives. Jon Liberty won the 20-lap 602 Sprint Car feature. Michael Greenfield (Thundercars) and Eymarah Bowman (Limited Sportsman) earned class wins.

Michael Maresca won his first Outlaw Speedway feature of the year Friday night. Jeff Daugherty was chasing at the end of the 30-lap feature; Tommy Collins, Danny Johnson and Steve Paine filled the top five. Chris Fisher earned his first win of the year, taking the 25-lap Sportsman feature over Karl Comfort and AJ Lloyd. Donnie Lawson and Brent Ayers earned top fives. Glenn Whritenour tallied his third win in the Street Stocks, taking the 20-lap victory over Jimmy Grant and Gene Sharpsteen. Willy Easling and Tony Harris earned fourth and fifth. Marc Minutolo won the 20-lap Hobby Stock feature, topping Daniel Kerrick, Jesse Ballance, Jared Hill and Nate Peckham. Jayson Smart posted his second win of the year in the 20-lap Four-Cylinder main; Michael Dickerson, Scott Lehman, Mike Stone and Zach Daugherty logged top fives. Kolston DeCamp won his second youth four-cylinder feature.

Matt Sheppard started his weekend in style, taking a feature win at Utica-Rome Speedway. The feature was briefly delayed by a rain shower, but the track was preserved and racing resumed. When the green flag was unfurled, Sheppard and Rocky Warner were battling at the head of the pack. Sheppard used a slower car to his advantage, roaring clear of Warner and checking out. A final green-white-checker finish added some drama to the end, but Sheppard stood tall with a gap over Warner. Matt Janczuk slipped past Danny Varin for third; Anthony Perrego was fifth.

Chris Marquart’s “Motorsports” appears each Tuesday during racing season. Contact Chris at 315-729-3999 or smashedempirefilms@gmail.com.

This year’s Silly Season in NASCAR is shaping up to be a bit more tame than year’s past. Still, there’s a couple of key dominoes waiting to fall, and it all begins with Trackhouse Racing.

Their dilemma? What does the future hold for wunderkind Connor Zilisch. Examining where everything stands at the moment, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic broke down whether we could see the 18-year old in the Cup Series as soon as 2026.

“The Justin Marks-owned team has four drivers under contract and only three spots on its Cup roster — one of which is taken, with Ross Chastain still under contract for multiple years and delivering exceptional performance,” Bianchi prefaced. “Jockeying for the other rides are Daniel Suárez, Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch. The former two are currently teammates with Chastain in the Cup Series, while the latter is a promising rookie in NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series.

“Both van Gisbergen and Zilisch have terms remaining on their respective contracts, with Suárez’s contract up at the end of the season. And, it may come down to just this factor — letting pending free agent Suárez, who sits 30th in points, walk to promote Zilisch.”

While that seems like the likeliest scenario, there’s a caveat — Suárez is well-liked within Trackhouse, and he also has been with the team since the start. The Monterrey, Mexico native brings sponsorship, and he’s certainly more proven than van Gisbergen and even Zilisch. Still, their potential might be too much to pass on.

“We’ll see what his future holds, but right now we have a mechanism in the company to put that extra car out,” Marks said, regarding Zilisch running some Cup races in 2025. “We just want him to get that experience. No expectations for results or anything like that.

“We have the opportunity to give him the learning experience, and we’ll continue to do that. The Cup Series is a different sport than the Xfinity Series. It is just so, so difficult. The only way to learn is to go out there and do it.”

If Trackhouse decides to keep Zilisch in Xfinity, they can effectively postpone any major decision for another year: “This pathway would enable Suárez to retain his ride while also providing Marks with a larger sample size to assess whether van Gisbergen can adapt to ovals,” Bianchi wrote. “Then, next year, Trackhouse could decide on whether to retain Suárez or van Gisbergen.”

All told, Justin Marks told The Athletic that no decisions have been made about Trackhouse’s 2026 roster, “and the team hasn’t even started contemplating it.” With an influx of road courses on the horizon, Shane van Gisbergen will have a chance to make his case. Daniel Suárez too. But Connor Zilisch is certainly lurking at the moment.

Ryan Blaney dominated the second half of the NASCAR Nashville race and earned his first win of the 2025 season.

The checkered flag is out for the NASCAR Nashville race.

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Andretti Global showed their street course dominance during INDYCAR’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on the 1.645-mile, 9-turn temporary street course. Colton Herta captured the pole, while teammate Kyle Kirkwood won the race by a 3.6-second margin over second-place Santino Ferrucci; Herta finished third.

“We had awesome strategy and pit stops,” exclaimed Kirkwood, who is the only driver besides Alex Palou to win a race this season (also won Long Beach Grand Prix). “We had to work for this one. My hats off to Andretti. The car just came alive on restarts. My front wing was damaged but it wasn’t causing an issue (from contact in trying to pass Kyffin Simpson for second place on Lap 77).

“I was never more disappointed by qualifying third,” continued Kirkwood. “I was on a lap that was about four-tenths quicker than what ended up being the pole, but I hit the wall.

“We’ve always had good race cars here, and Honda continues to give us the power we need, especially at tracks like this where getting off the corner matters. The car was phenomenal. There were some challenges out there. We had to pass our way back through a handful of times. Had to make some low percentage moves but any move on a street course is low percentage. It was definitely not a walk in the park.”

Drivers could have used a two-pit stop strategy for the 100-lap race but were required to run at least two laps on a new set of the softer, alternate green tires, which degraded much sooner than the primary tires. Twelve drivers started on those alternate tires, planning to pit early, expecting a caution, to switch to primaries (black tires). Most pitted by Lap 13, requiring a three-stop strategy, only to have the first caution come out on Lap 14. Those on primaries pitted around Lap 32 to 36.

There were five caution periods for 19 laps total. The biggest accident occurred when Louis Foster had a right-front suspension failure under braking at the fastest section of the track, 180 mph on the long Jefferson Ave. straight, and ran into the back of Felix Rosenqvist entering Turn 3. Both escaped injury but the incident brought out the red flag so that the walls and tire barriers could be restored.

“The stand was amazing,” said Ferrucci of his strategists and engineers, who had him pit under caution on Lap 15. “Perfect strategy. Obviously got lucky with that yellow (on Lap 67, when he stayed out and moved from 16th to 3rd as most of the field pitted). I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see a red flag. I was really struggling. I couldn’t get the tires to come back to life. Kyle was so fast today. Congratulations to him and his team on this win.”

Kirkwood’s teammate also joined him on the podium in the Motor City.

“I’m happy to finally get a good result this season,” said Herta. “It’s a weight off my shoulders but I’m disappointed not getting a win, having started on the pole. This is such a crazy race, I’m glad to just survive it.”

Canadian Devlin DeFrancesco started and finished 23rd on the rough and narrow course due to a long pit stop for a rear wheel hub issue. He struggled in qualifying in the colder conditions on Saturday, when it took many laps to get heat in the tires.

“It was a very interesting day,” stated DeFrancesco, who’s from Toronto. “We had a right-rear wheel issue and, overall, it was a difficult day. It’s just a big bummer. I didn’t transfer in qualifying (from the first group). We clearly were not very good, not able to be as good on power down and getting off the corners as Graham (Rahal, teammate who qualified 5th).”

Although similar in track length to the Long Beach Grand Prix, which has less than ten manhole covers, Detroit has 264, all of which had to be sealed down. There were the usual elbows out, with 181 passes for position on the very low grip and extremely bumpy surface, making for one of the most exciting races of the season.

David Malukas, driving for AJ Foyt Racing, ran into the back of Alex Palou (in seventh-place) on the Lap 72 restart, entering Turn 1, which took the 109th Indianapolis 500 winner out of contention. Palou finished 25th, earning only five points.

“I was hit from behind and there was not much I could do differently,” explained Palou. “I didn’t have the best car this weekend (qualified 5th). We didn’t have much pace at the beginning (on Friday). But the team made an amazing recovery. I was looking for a podium here.”

Kirkwood is the only driver to challenge Palou, now earning two victories to the Spaniard’s five wins so far in the 17-race NTT INDYCAR season. Palou has 311 points, Pato O’Ward 221, Kirkwood 209, Christian Lundgaard 205, and Will Power 175. Honda (630 points) has now won all seven events to date, leading Chevy (509 points) in the Manufacturer’s title race.

Next up is the World Wide Technology Raceway oval on June 15th, a Sunday evening, in St. Louis, MO.