This week, our crack NASCAR analysts are asked if the recent changes made to post-race inspection are a good or bad thing and discuss whether Cole Custer can make his way into the Truck Series Chase with a win this weekend.
“Smoke” enters the Chase with a clear mind and nothing to lose, his final season ultimately being a success as long as he finishes it. The last time Stewart made the Chase with nothing to lose was 2011 when he said outright “We don’t deserve to be in the Chase.” Exactly three months after saying that, it was the Monday after winning his third Sprint Cup championship.
As we head to Chicagoland, you have to wonder if there are paybacks in the future. Will Newman wreck Stewart? Will Cole Custer get revenge on John Hunter Nemechek for the injustice he was victim to at Canadian Motorsports Park?
McMurray hasn’t had a lot of raw firepower- just one top five and nine top 10s are the worst in the Chase save for Chris Buescher. What he has had, however, has been consistency. Only five times has McMurray finished outside of the top 20, he has 19 lead lap finishes out of 26 starts, and his lone DNF was in a multi-car wreck at Daytona.
After qualifying 7th and not showing much speed in the weekend’s lone practice session, Kyle Busch was unstoppable after taking the lead during the first caution and won the 36th annual Virginia529 College Savings 250 at Richmond International Raceway.
Chris Buescher, the first full-time Sprint Cup driver for Texas since Bobby Labonte stopped racing full time in 2013, enters Richmond on the Chase bubble, with an 11 point cushion. Buescher’s surprise win at a rain-shortened Pocono event last month was the first win for a Texan since Bobby’s last win, the 2003 season finale at Homestead-Miami.
Denny Hamlin captured the pole for the 2016 Federated Auto Parts 400 after turning a lap of 122.344 mph. Hamlin, who was born in nearby Chesterfield, Virginia, took risks by going out first in the final two rounds and ended up beating the more conservative teams that waited until the last few minutes.
It's time to cycle through the transmission for another edition of Four Gears. This week, our resident NASCAR journalists were asked if other drivers should be as up front as Kevin Harvick was about his pit crew to affect change. They also considered whether John Hunter Nemechek deserves all the flak he's gotten for his last lap move at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and if he could've handled his last turn differently.
Austin Hill led 13 of 60 laps and motored past Taylor Gray on the final lap to notch his second O'Reilly victory of the 2026 season and his first on a street course venue.
Series leader and four-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Palou earned his fifth consecutive NTT P1 Award this season, grabbing the top starting spot Saturday for the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America
Shane van Gisbergen will lead the field to the start of the NASCAR Cup Series’ inaugural running of the Anduril 250 at San Diego’s Naval Base Coronado from pole position
The 18-year-old Crews from Hickory, North Carolina, became the 218th competitor overall to achieve a pole position in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series division.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang Dark Horse – DID YOU SURPRISE YOURSELF WITH THAT LAP? “Yeah, a little bit. I’ve said it before, I feel like I’m an average road racer."
Lochie Hughes earned his first INDY NXT by Firestone victory of 2026 and reinserted himself into the championship hunt by winning the first race of the Grand Prix at Road America
