Doug Kalitta continues to remind everyone why he’s still one of the most feared drivers in Top Fuel.

On Friday night at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals, Kalitta unleashed a 3.671-second pass at 335.90 mph under the lights at Pacific Raceways, grabbing the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot and the $4,000 Deecell Power Systems “After Dark Low Qualifier” award.

In a poetic twist, the run missed the track record – one Kalitta himself set a year ago – by just one-thousandth of a second.

“The conditions were good, and I was really hopeful that my car would go out there and run a good number,” Kalitta said. “We were making a lot of changes back in the staging lanes because people were smoking the tires. I wasn’t sure if they backed the thing down or what, but when the thing left, I could tell it was really running.”

If the run holds, it would be Kalitta’s sixth No. 1 qualifier of the season. But the real prize is still elusive: his first win of 2025.

“I’m just real fortunate Alan [Johnson] and Mac [Savage] and my whole team because they can throw down with the best of them,” Kalitta added.

Kalitta’s Kalitta Motorsports teammate Shawn Langdon is right behind in second with a 3.689, while Brittany Force wowed with a booming 340.47 mph pass that landed her third with a 3.703.

This story was originally published on July 19, 2025.

By DAN GELSTON

DOVER, Del. — Joey Logano’s first NASCAR Cup Series start — before he would drive for heavyweight owners such as Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske — came in New Hampshire for a short-lived team called Hall of Fame racing.

Set to make his 600th career start, the youngest driver in NASCAR history to reach that milestone, the 35-year-old Logano has constructed a Hall of Fame career.

Take a look at the resume: three career NASCAR championships, a Daytona 500 victory, the youngest driver to win a Cup race, 37 career victories, and seemingly tethered to the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske for as long as he can race.

“At first glance, I said, ‘Well, it’s just starts,‘” Logano said. “But then when you start thinking about it, to be able to be around in a sport as an athlete competing at a top level for 16-plus years, and hitting 600 starts, it’s pretty incredible to have a career that long.”

Logano will be 35 years, 1 month, 26 days old when he hits No. 600 on July 20 at Dover Motor Speedway. He’ll top seven-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty by six months. Consider, only three previous drivers among the 33 others in NASCAR history were in their 30s when they hit 600 starts.

Logano has also topped the massive expectations set for him when he entered the sport as a teenager hyped as NASCAR’s next great driver. He entered NASCAR with the nickname “Sliced Bread,” as in, the best thing since, and navigated a slow start to his career to blossom into one of the best over the last 13 years at Team Penske.

He’s now married with three kids — his Instagram bio notes he’s a “3X NASCAR Champion” and “3X father” — and is considered a team leader at Penske and Ford.

“I grew up in front of everybody. All of us change over the years as you grow up,” Logano said. “Life comes at you and you evolve and keep going with it. Everybody, when you were 18 years old to 35 years old are some of the biggest changes in your life happen in that period of time. Getting married, having kids — that’s the biggest change you can ever have in your life, I think — but I did all of this in front of everybody.”

Logano qualified for his first career Cup start on Sept. 14, 2008, at New Hampshire on car owner points, because rain washed out qualifying. He started 40th and was penalized only 39 laps into the race for taking the jack with him as he exited pit road. He finished three laps down in 32nd place in the No. 96 Toyota for Hall of Fame Racing, essentially on loan from Joe Gibbs Racing to get some experience. The two teams even agreed to move JGR’s Home Depot sponsorship to Hall of Fame’s car for the 18-year-old Logano’s first race.

“I didn’t think it was a big deal making my first start,” Logano said that first day. “I was ready to go as soon as we started.”

He wasn’t necessarily ready for the big time.

Logano was pegged with enormous expectations to replace Hall of Famer and three-time champion Tony Stewart in 2009 for Gibbs.

Just a teenager, the enormity of the ride combined with Gibbs’ impatience made for a brief run at JGR. Logano did win his first race — also at New Hampshire, in 2009 — but won only one more time before Gibbs cut him loose after the 2012 season.

The timing worked out for Logano.

Penske needed a driver and 2012 NASCAR champion Brad Keselowski urged his boss to sign the 23-year-old Logano, convinced a change of scenery could do wonders for his career.

Logano made the most of his Penske lifeline and is now the only active three-time champion in NASCAR and one of only 10 drivers in history to win three or more titles.

He spent the week headed into Dover — where he flipped eight times on the concrete track during a scary 2009 incident in a second-tier race — hobnobbing with the sports world’s brightest stars at the ESPYs and he got to yuk it up with guest host Jelly Roll on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Petty is the only driver to win his 600th career start and he would make 1,184 overall in Cup, one of many NASCAR records he holds. Logano might not catch The King in total starts — but the driver who has never missed a race over his full-time career is in no rush to slow down.

“I would be an idiot to think you can be competing at the top level into your 50s,” Logano said. “What athlete has ever done that? Something changes at some point, but, right now, I still feel as fresh as ever. I feel as sharp as ever. I’m driven as much as ever. I still care. I still get emotional about things, so that shows me I care a lot. With those factors still there when the end is, I don’t know yet. I don’t know.”

Final four set

NASCAR is down to its version of the final four.

The midseason tournament that pays $1 million to the winner pits Ty Dillon vs. John Hunter Nemechek and Tyler Reddick vs. Ty Gibbs in the head-to-head challenge at Dover.

The winners face off next week at Indianapolis. Reddick is the betting favorite to win it all, per BetMGM Sportsbook.

“Did John Hunter change his name yet,” Reddick quipped.

Nemechek has a career-best six top-10s and is 20th in the standings in his second full season at Legacy Motor Club. Nemechek — who drives for Jimmie Johnson, who won a record 11 times at Dover — enjoyed trash-talking Dillon this week from, of all places, the carpool lane.

Their young children go to the same school, and the families have become friendly.

“The running joke between us is that they are boyfriend-girlfriend and they’re going to get married one day, the way that they walk around the racetrack,” Nemechek said.

Hey, maybe a $1 million could help pay for the big day.

NASCAR seeded 32 drivers for the first In-season Challenge, a five-race, bracket-style tournament that mirrors the NCAA basketball tournaments.

“I think it’s really cool from a millennial perspective, from a younger generation, it’s neat to be able to bring something in the sport that hasn’t been done before,” the 28-year-old Nemechek said. “It kind of gives you something to race for even if you’re not racing for the win.”

Legacy has yet to win a race, or even contend in many, since Johnson signed on at the end of 2022 and eventually became majority owner. Nemechek said Johnson has balanced many roles, that includes the occasional race, and was committed to making Legacy a championship team.

“We joke around about his legacy 2.0 being a team owner and hopefully we can go in and win 83 races and seven championships for him,” Nemechek said.

Odds and ends

Denny Hamlin is the betting favorite to win at Dover, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Hamlin has two career wins at Dover, including last season. He’s trying to win the first July race at Dover since the track’s first one in 1969.

AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400

What: NASCAR Cup Series race

When: 2 p.m., July 20

Where: Dover Motor Speedway, Dover, Del.

TV: TNT

Originally Published: July 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM EDT

Practice and Busch Light Pole Qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway was canceled due to inclement weather Saturday afternoon.

Through a metric established by NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott was awarded pole position for Sunday’s race. He’ll start out front in the No. 9 Hendrick Chevrolet alongside Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 Toyota.

NASCAR combines owners’ points, a driver’s finishing position in the preceding race, and his fastest lap time in that race to rank the teams and establish a lineup when qualifying is not possible.

Championship points leader, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron will start fifth Sunday sharing the third row with Trackhouse Racing rookie Shane van Gisbergen, who has won the last two races (road course events at Chicago and Sonoma, Calif.) coming into the Dover 400-lapper.

Defending Dover winner, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin will roll off 13th. Three-time Dover winner, Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch will start 10th.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, a three-time race winner in 2025 who leads NASCAR’s Playoff Standings, will start 25th. The 2019 Dover winner has only a single top-five (fifth place at Michigan) and three top-10s in the eight races since his last victory at Kansas in May.

With a new tire compound for cars this weekend, drivers were hoping for some laps on track. “Brand new tire or not, practice is always important,” Larson said, acknowledging he is hopeful his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team can return to early-season form this week at the famed, “Monster Mile.”

“I wouldn’t deny that we’re in a slump, results kind of show that,” Larson said. “But I think some of it has been a little bit out of our control and some of it execution with a car that’s been a little bit off on speed. But confidence in our 5 team is strong and hopefully we can turn it around at Dover.

Busch’s three victories at Dover Motor Speedway make him the winningest driver in Sunday’s field. And not only does he have an enviable assortment of trophies, but his 14 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes are also best in the field.

The two-time series champion is ranked 18th in the Playoff standings — only 37 points behind the all-important 16th place position currently held by Bubba Wallace; and only three points behind Ryan Preece, the first driver outside the cutoff line.

“I mean, you’re obviously looking at it (the standings) every week,” said Busch, who has a combined nine additional wins in the NASCAR Xfinity and CRAFTSMAN Truck Series at Dover too. “I think we leave probably the fifth race of the year looking at points, like where we’re at and what are we doing?

“But honestly, points take care of themselves when you run good. Results are what matters.”

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season champion Tyler Reddick has advanced to the In-Season Challenge semifinals this week — and will be racing head-to-head with fellow Toyota driver, Ty Gibbs.

Meanwhile, three-time and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano will be making his 600th series start this weekend at Dover — a significant statistic considering he’s only 35 years old.

The youngest in NASCAR history to achieve that mark, Logano smiles recalling that his second ever NASCAR Cup Series start at Dover — 16 years ago as a 19-year-old and how it ended with a dramatic fashion — his car flipping. But for the popular Team Penske driver, the part of the statistic that “hits home” is that he’s been able to have such a successful career, noting he essentially grew up in front of everyone and all the challenges that entailed.

“At first glance, I said, well, it’s just ‘starts,’” Logano said of reaching the big milestone number this week. “But then when you start thinking about it, to be able to be around in a sport as an athlete competing at a top level for 16-plus years, and hitting 600 starts, it’s pretty incredible to have a career that long. It’s something that I take some pride in. I’m proud of that, to be able to hit this marker.”

–Holly Cain, special to Field Level Media

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Joey Logano’s first NASCAR Cup Series start — before he would drive for heavyweight owners such as Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske — came in New Hampshire for a short-lived team called Hall of Fame racing.

Set to make his 600th career start, the youngest driver in NASCAR history to reach that milestone, the 35-year-old Logano has constructed a Hall of Fame career.

Take a look at the resume: three career NASCAR championships, a Daytona 500 victory, the youngest driver to win a Cup race, 37 career victories, and seemingly tethered to the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske for as long as he can race.

“At first glance, I said, ‘Well, it’s just starts,‘” Logano said. “But then when you start thinking about it, to be able to be around in a sport as an athlete competing at a top level for 16-plus years, and hitting 600 starts, it’s pretty incredible to have a career that long.”

Logano will be 35 years, 1 month, 26 days old when he hits No. 600 on Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway. He’ll top seven-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty by six months. Consider, only three previous drivers among the 33 others in NASCAR history were in their 30s when they hit 600 starts.

Logano has also topped the massive expectations set for him when he entered the sport as a teenager hyped as NASCAR’s next great driver. He entered NASCAR with the nickname “Sliced Bread,” as in, the best thing since, and navigated a slow start to his career to blossom into one of the best over the last 13 years at Team Penske.

He’s now married with three kids — his Instagram bio notes he’s a “3X NASCAR Champion” and “3X father” — and is considered a team leader at Penske and Ford.

“I grew up in front of everybody. All of us change over the years as you grow up,” Logano said. “Life comes at you and you evolve and keep going with it. Everybody, when you were 18 years old to 35 years old are some of the biggest changes in your life happen in that period of time. Getting married, having kids — that’s the biggest change you can ever have in your life, I think — but I did all of this in front of everybody.”

Logano qualified for his first career Cup start on Sept. 14, 2008, at New Hampshire on car owner points, because rain washed out qualifying. He started 40th and was penalized only 39 laps into the race for taking the jack with him as he exited pit road. He finished three laps down in 32nd place in the No. 96 Toyota for Hall of Fame Racing, essentially on loan from Joe Gibbs Racing to get some experience. The two teams even agreed to move JGR’s Home Depot sponsorship to Hall of Fame’s car for the 18-year-old Logano’s first race.

“I didn’t think it was a big deal making my first start,” Logano said that first day. “I was ready to go as soon as we started.”

He wasn’t necessarily ready for the big time.

Logano was pegged with enormous expectations to replace Hall of Famer and three-time champion Tony Stewart in 2009 for Gibbs.

Just a teenager, the enormity of the ride combined with Gibbs’ impatience made for a brief run at JGR. Logano did win his first race — also at New Hampshire, in 2009 — but won only one more time before Gibbs cut him loose after the 2012 season.

The timing worked out for Logano.

Penske needed a driver and 2012 NASCAR champion Brad Keselowski urged his boss to sign the 23-year-old Logano, convinced a change of scenery could do wonders for his career.

Logano made the most of his Penske lifeline and is now the only active three-time champion in NASCAR and one of only 10 drivers in history to win three or more titles.

He spent the week headed into Dover — where he flipped eight times on the concrete track during a scary 2009 incident in a second-tier race — hobnobbing with the sports world’s brightest stars at the ESPYs and he got to yuk it up with guest host Jelly Roll on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Petty is the only driver to win his 600th career start and he would make 1,184 overall in Cup, one of many NASCAR records he holds. Logano might not catch The King in total starts — but the driver who has never missed a race over his full-time career is in no rush to slow down.

“I would be an idiot to think you can be competing at the top level into your 50s,” Logano said. “What athlete has ever done that? Something changes at some point, but, right now, I still feel as fresh as ever. I feel as sharp as ever. I’m driven as much as ever. I still care. I still get emotional about things, so that shows me I care a lot. With those factors still there when the end is, I don’t know yet. I don’t know.”

The Tys have it as final four is set for the In-season Challenge

NASCAR is down to its version of the final four.

The midseason tournament that pays $1 million to the winner pits Ty Dillon vs. John Hunter Nemechek and Tyler Reddick vs. Ty Gibbs in the head-to-head challenge at Dover.

The winners face off next week at Indianapolis. Reddick is the betting favorite to win it all, per BetMGM Sportsbook.

“Did John Hunter change his name yet,” Reddick quipped.

Nemechek has a career-best six top-10s and is 20th in the standings in his second full season at Legacy Motor Club. Nemechek — who drives for Jimmie Johnson, who won a record 11 times at Dover — enjoyed trash-talking Dillon this week from, of all places, the carpool lane.

Their young children go to the same school, and the families have become friendly.

“The running joke between us is that they are boyfriend-girlfriend and they’re going to get married one day, the way that they walk around the racetrack,” Nemechek said.

Hey, maybe a $1 million could help pay for the big day.

NASCAR seeded 32 drivers for the first In-season Challenge, a five-race, bracket-style tournament that mirrors the NCAA basketball tournaments.

“I think it’s really cool from a millennial perspective, from a younger generation, it’s neat to be able to bring something in the sport that hasn’t been done before,” the 28-year-old Nemechek said. “It kind of gives you something to race for even if you’re not racing for the win.”

Legacy has yet to win a race, or even contend in many, since Johnson signed on at the end of 2022 and eventually became majority owner. Nemechek said Johnson has balanced many roles, that includes the occasional race, and was committed to making Legacy a championship team.

“We joke around about his legacy 2.0 being a team owner and hopefully we can go in and win 83 races and seven championships for him,” Nemechek said.

Odds and ends

Denny Hamlin is the betting favorite to win at Dover, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Hamlin has two career wins at Dover, including last season. He’s trying to win the first July race at Dover since the track’s first one in 1969.

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Copyright
© 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

Lest anyone doubt the all-around natural racing talent of 18-year-old Connor Zilisch, the rookie claimed a series best fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series victory on the season in Saturday’s rain-shortened BetRivers 200 at the one-mile Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway.

Zilisch led 77 of the race’s 134 laps in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet before NASCAR was forced to call the scheduled 200-lap race early because of rain. A pair of Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas, driven by former NASCAR Cup Series veteran Aric Almirola and Xfinity regular Brandon Jones rounded out the top three.

Although he qualified third – three rookies topped the starting grid – Zilisch ran first or second for most of the race, ultimately taking the lead for good on the restart following the Stage 2 break.

“We’ve been showing it lately,’’ a smiling Zilisch said when he was informed on pit road the race was official and he was the winner. “First of all I hate that we couldn’t finish the race the right way. Aric [Almirola] was really fast and was going to give me a run for my money. Props to him for making me work for it.

“Still really proud of this Junior Motorsports team. … We capitalized on all fronts, had good pit stops both stages and put ourselves in a position to be in the right spot when the rain fell. Very thankful.”

Zilisch’s win total is best in the series. And the North Carolina teenager has been so good this summer that that he’s now on an eight-race top-five streak that includes three wins and three runner-up finishes for an average finish of 2.25. He’s led laps in 15 of the 20 races.

Even before making his fulltime NASCAR debut this season, Zilisch was a multi-race winner in the sports car ranks with huge victories in the biggest races on the schedule – last year’s Daytona 24 hour and Sebring 12 hour endurance classics.

Not too surprisingly, he immediately proved himself a road-course ace when given the NASCAR Xfinity Series opportunity, even winning from pole position in his first series start at historic Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International last summer.

He answered that resoundingly this year as a full-time competitor, hoisting trophies at Circuit of the Americas and Sonoma, Calif. road courses, but also proving his oval-metal winning at the 2.5-mile Pocono (Pa.) Raceway last month and now adding the one-miler to an increasingly broad resume.

Zilisch’s effort at Dover’s Monster Mile moves him into second place in the championship standings – 56 points behind points leader – and his JR Motorsports teammate, and the reigning series champ – Justin Allgaier, who finished fourth Saturday.

Zilisch’s best friend, Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love was fifth at Dover, followed by Ryan Sieg, polesitter Taylor Gray, Sheldon Creed and rookies William Sawalich and Christian Eckes rounding out the top 10.

“It’s been awesome and I feel like even when we miss a little bit we’re still a top-five car and being able to go the race track and know that in the back of your head has definitely been comforting and confidence inspiring every weekend,’’ Zilisch said. “Gotta keep knocking the door down with wins.”

Jeb Burton, who finished 20th, now holds a seven-point advantage on his cousin Harrison Burton for the 12th and final Playoff-eligible position in points.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to action next Saturday at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. NASCAR Cup Series regular Riley Herbst is the defending race winner.

Three-time and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano will be making his 600th series start this weekend at Dover – a significant statistic considering he’s only 35-years-old.

The youngest in NASCAR history to achieve that mark, Logano smiles recalling that his second ever NASCAR Cup Series start at Dover – 16 years ago as a 19-year-old and how it ended with a dramatic fashion – his car flipping. But for the popular Team Penske driver, the part of the statistic that “hits home” is that he’s been able to have such a successful career, noting he essentially grew up in front of everyone and all the challenges that entailed.

The three championship trophies in NASCAR’s premier series would indicate it’s all worked out well for the Connecticut-native, who in 2009 became the youngest NASCAR Cup Series race winner driver in history, hoisting the lobster at just 19-years-old.

“At first glance, I said, well, it’s just ‘starts,’ “Logano said of reaching the big milestone number this week. “But then when you start thinking about it, to be able to be around in a sport as an athlete competing at a top level for 16-plus years, and hitting 600 starts, it’s pretty incredible to have a career that long. It’s something that I take some pride in. I’m proud of that, to be able to hit this marker.

“It’s a lot of starts. I remember my 300th start and I think it was Kenseth at the time, maybe it was Truex as well, that weren’t too far from 600 and I thought, ‘Geez, that’s double the amount of races as me. That’s crazy.’ But here I am, so it went by pretty quick. It’s been a heck of a ride. This sport has been awesome to me and my family and I’m proud to be a part of it.”