Known globally, NASCAR delivers a distinctive sporting spectacle, incorporating high-speed competition, strategic pit stops and mechanical precision with the unanticipated drama of close racing.
So, if you follow the championship from New Zealand, you must consider American race schedules, local broadcast availability and the time difference that can turn a Sunday afternoon event into Monday morning viewing.
Ultimately, your interest in motorsports can extend well beyond the checkered flag, where streaming services, sports journalism and online communities offer diverse means of enjoying your free time.
Today, NASCAR’s growing digital reach reflects this wider appeal, with the series generating 550 million video views during the 2026 regular season, according to a report published in September this year.
Overall, these activities connect you with the wider racing community, giving you opportunities to follow drivers, discuss controversial finishes and discover other forms of digital entertainment between race weekends.
From race coverage to online entertainment
Following NASCAR from New Zealand starts with locating reliable coverage, so checking the official international viewing guide is a useful first step.
Sky Sport NZ is listed as a local broadcaster, but individual events and supplementary coverage can vary across platforms.
Moreover, the 2026 schedule also features races carried by different American broadcasters, making checking local listings beneficial before you plan your viewing time.
Then, once the race finishes, you can explore other digital pastimes according to your interests and budget; some fans follow post-race analysis or gaming content, while others research best online casinos NZ when comparing online entertainment services.
New Zealand’s regulatory position requires attention, as the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 introduces restrictions on online casino advertising and establishes a licensing framework expected to become operational in 2027.
Timing, streaming and the modern race weekend
Typically, time zones influence how you organize your motorsports viewing, particularly when a major American race falls on a New Zealand weekday.
Therefore, checking the event’s start time, confirming local broadcast arrangements and allowing enough time for the full race can help you balance your viewing plans with work, study and other commitments.
Streaming and on-demand coverage offer different ways to follow the action, so you can choose the format that fits your schedule.
Live broadcasts preserve the tension of changing track positions and pit strategy, whereas replays and highlights help you catch up when you cannot watch the entire event.
Meanwhile, race reports and interviews also give you useful context for comprehending how individual decisions influenced the final standings.
The wider digital leisure economy
Motorsports sits within a more sweeping online culture, including social media, video streaming, news consumption and interactive entertainment.
Last year, InternetNZ’s 2025 Aotearoa Internet Insights research found that 47% of surveyed New Zealand internet users spent at least four hours online daily for personal purposes.
In the study, streaming content featured among the leading activities, illustrating how digital services have become part of everyday leisure for many people across the country.
Feasibly, you might watch race highlights, read an analysis of tire strategy and join a discussion about a dramatic finish before moving on to music or a console game; each activity offers a different level of involvement, so your choices can reflect how much time and attention you want to devote to entertainment.
Overall, this flexibility allows you to build a routine around your interests without following a fixed schedule.
Responsible choices in an expanding online market
An expanding plethora of digital services makes it essential to check the details before signing up or spending money.
Overall, you should review subscription costs, privacy policies, payment conditions, and applicable legal requirements, with particular care around online casino services during New Zealand’s regulatory transition.
Today, official government guidance provides the most reliable information on current advertising restrictions and the introduction of licensing requirements.
Generally speaking, setting personal boundaries also helps you keep leisure manageable, so consider establishing spending limits and deciding how much time you want to spend online.
So, if you choose to gamble, remember that outcomes are uncertain and losses can accumulate, making it critical to keep gambling separate from essential expenses.
As a critical caveat, anyone struggling to control their gambling should seek appropriate support instead of chasing losses through further play.
A connected future for New Zealand fans
Undoubtedly, NASCAR demonstrates how a sport rooted in American racing culture can connect with audiences across the world, including fans who follow every race from New Zealand.
Local broadcasting, online reporting and post-race discussion give you several ways to stay connected with the championship, even when the schedule makes live viewing difficult.
Digital leisure then extends that experience into the hours surrounding each event.
You can make the most of these options by checking official race information, choosing suitable viewing services and understanding the rules that apply to other online activities.
As New Zealand’s digital entertainment market develops, reliable information will help you compare services and make informed decisions.
From the opening lap to the final result, you can enjoy the competition and your wider leisure time with a clear sense of your priorities.
ENNIS, Texas (Oct. 18, 2026) – Four-time Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown picked up his second win of the season on Sunday at Texas Motorplex, defeating standout rookie Maddi Gordon in the final round of the Texas NHRA FallNationals.
J.R. Todd (Funny Car), Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won the 18th of 20 races during the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season and the fourth of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
Brown went 3.706-seconds at 335.75 mph in his 12,000-horsepower Matco Tools dragster in the final round, picking up his second victory of the 2026 season when Gordon left early and went red.
It’s also the 83rd career win for Brown, who put together an impressive hit list just to reach the finals. He knocked off Dan Mercier, Leah Pruett and points leader Shawn Langdon to reach the final round, ending Langdon’s perfect run in the Countdown to the Championship and snapping his four-race winning streak.
Langdon still has a healthy lead in the points standings as the runaway favorite for the championship, but it remained a big weekend for Brown, who moved to third in points with his fourth career victory at Texas Motorplex. Late-season wins are always special and that certainly holds true for Brown in Dallas.
“This class is really intense right now, and we know we’ve got our work cut out for us,” Brown said. “The class was dropping bombs out there today, but that Matco Tools horsepower came through, and we went 301 mph to half-track in round two, so we’re definitely getting the combination figured out.
“I like where we are, I like where we’re heading, and we’ve got to keep going. Our main focus is that we go into these races with confidence, and we know that we can compete, and we know we can win. Once this team gets a little motivation and drive and gets some confidence, we’re a tough competitor to compete with.”
Gordon reached her third final round in an impressive rookie season, defeating Shawn Reed, reigning world champion Doug Kalitta and Justin Ashley. Langdon’s points lead now stands at 139 over Kalitta, with Brown 224 back in third.
Funny Car’s J.R. Todd kept his championship hopes alive with a terrific showing at Texas Motorplex, finishing off a productive day by taking down points leader Matt Hagan in the final round thanks to a run of 3.931 at 331.76 in his 12,000-horsepower DHL Toyota GR Supra for Kalitta Motorsports.
Todd jumped all the way to third in points, now trailing Hagan by 119 points with two races left in NHRA’s 75th anniversary season. It’s Todd’s first Funny Car win in Dallas, too, as he became just the fourth driver in NHRA history to win in both Top Fuel and Funny Car at Texas Motorplex (Don Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein and Mike Dunn).
This one came at the perfect time, too, as Todd defeated Spencer Hyde, Alexis DeJoria and Ron Capps to reach the final round. Hagan left first in the championship round, but Todd was a solid .059 on the starting line, quickly tracking down Hagan to earn his 24th career victory.
This was a must-win weekend for Todd, who knows there’s still work to do if there’s any chance of getting past Hagan in the championship hunt. But he was thrilled with how his team performed on Sunday in Dallas.
“This is special in so many ways. It’s tough to get a win, period, especially in the Countdown, and Matt Hagan’s been making it really hard for everybody in the category,” Todd said.
“Those guys are hard to get by, and to do it here, in Dickie [Venables] home state, and running [against his previous team] means a lot to him to beat them in the final. I’m proud of my guys, and now we’ve got to execute in these last two races, but either way we’re going to enjoy this.”
Hagan advanced to the finals for the fifth time in the past six races and the seventh time this season after defeating Hunter Green, Daniel Wilkerson and Jordan Vandergriff, who remained second in points. Vandergriff trails Hagan by 98 points.
Pro Stock’s Dallas Glenn finished off a dominant weekend in style, moving back into the points lead after holding off Matt Hartford in the final round with a stellar run of 6.478 at 212.30 in his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro.
It’s the fifth win of the year for Glenn, who also went back-to-back at Texas Motorplex. This year included a record-breaking performance, as Glenn made the quickest run in Pro Stock history on Saturday with a spectacular run of 6.434 at 213.50. That gave him the No. 1 qualifying spot and he followed that on Sunday with four great runs.
He continued to live in the 6.40s during eliminations, defeating Stephen Bell, Jeg Coughlin Jr. and KB Titan Racing teammate Greg Anderson to reach the final round. Following a .010 reaction time, Glenn continued to pull away for the victory, taking the points lead in the process. His advantage now stands at 14 points over Stanfield, which means things will be tight – and thrilling – the rest of the way.
“Matt Hartford’s an extremely tough competitor, but I knew my car was fantastic,” Glenn said. “I knew that we had a little bit left in it from the semis, and even if I did lose, it’s still going to be a fantastic day with points. It’s basically what I had planned on doing coming into the day, and I’d only going to be six points back. [Points leader Greg Stanfield’s first-round loss] was huge. When he does well and you know that you’re going to have to race him the next round, it adds a different pressure, but when a mistake happens like that, you know you have to capitalize.
“Anytime you win a Countdown race, it definitely sticks with you. To go up there and know that you’re going to have the opportunity in the weather conditions to be able to set a national record, to make a fantastic run in the right conditions and have the fastest car every single run.”
Hartford reached the finals for the seventh time in his standout 2026 campaign, defeating Aaron Stanfield, Chris Vang and T.J. Coughlin. He remains third in points and trails Glenn by 41 points.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Matt Smith kept his championship hopes alive on Sunday, defeating points leader Richard Gadson on a holeshot in the final round, going 6.660 at 203.08 on his Denso Auto Parts Buell to win for the fourth time this season.
Smith was a brilliant .006 on the starting line against the reigning champion, which was enough to hold off Gadson’s quicker 6.654 at 203.79 at the finish line. It is Smith’s 46th career victory and his second at Texas Motorplex, and it’s also one he desperately needed if a seventh world championship is in his future.
He knocked off Malcolm Phillips Jr., Chase Van Sant and Ryan Oeheler to reach the final round and made a big jump in performance in the final round to hold off Gadson and stay in the title conversation. He’s now third in points with two races remaining and trails Gadson by 85 points.
“When you’re running that other camp like that, you’ve got to get up on the wheel and go,” Smith said. “I knew in Q4 I went .008 against Richard [Gadson], so I set my clutch and my switch right back to that, and it went up there and went .006, so I knew where I needed to be. I just didn’t know if I had the bike to beat them. I made one little tune-up change from the semifinals, and she was trucking and went 6.66, so it all paid off.”
Gadson reached the finals for the eighth time in 2026 thanks to round wins against Marc Ingwersen, Angie Smith and Steve Johnson. He leads teammate Gaige Herrera by 58 points heading to Vegas.
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action Oct. 29-Nov. 1 with the MOPAR NHRA Las Vegas Nationals powered by Dodge at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
ENNIS, Texas — Final finish order (1-16) at the 41st annual Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex. The race is the 18th of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.
TOP FUEL:
Antron Brown; 2. Maddi Gordon; 3. Shawn Langdon; 4. Justin Ashley; 5. Leah Pruett; 6. Will Smith; 7. Doug Kalitta; 8. Tony Stewart; 9. Billy Torrence; 10. Shawn Reed; 11. Tony Schumacher; 12. Josh Hart; 13. Dan Mercier; 14. Jake Sanders; 15. Clay Millican; 16. Spencer Massey.
FUNNY CAR:
J.R. Todd; 2. Matt Hagan; 3. Ron Capps; 4. Jordan Vandergriff; 5. Alexis DeJoria; 6. Austin Prock; 7. Jack Beckman; 8. Paul Lee; 9. Cruz Pedregon; 10. Blake Alexander; 11. Spencer Hyde; 12. Dave Richards; 13. Chad Green; 14. Terry Haddock; 15. Hunter Green; 16. Daniel Wilkerson.
PRO STOCK:
Dallas Glenn; 2. Matt Hartford; 3. Greg Anderson; 4. Troy Coughlin Jr.; 5. Jeg Coughlin; 6. Erica Enders; 7. Matt Latino; 8. Chris Vang; 9. Deric Kramer; 10. Cody Anderson; 11. Jerry Tucker; 12. Kenny Delco; 13. Eric Latino; 14. Stephen Bell; 15. Aaron Stanfield; 16. Greg Stanfield.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE:
Matt Smith; 2. Richard Gadson; 3. Ryan Oehler; 4. Steve Johnson; 5. Gaige Herrera; 6. Joey Gladstone; 7. Chase Van Sant; 8. Angie Smith; 9. Clayton Howey; 10. Malcolm Phillips Jr.; 11. John Hall; 12. Hector Arana Jr; 13. Geno Scali; 14. Marc Ingwersen; 15. GT Tonglet; 16. Chris Bostick.
ENNIS, Texas — Sunday’s final results from the 41st annual Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex. The race is the 18th of 20 in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series:
Top Fuel — Antron Brown, 3.706 seconds, 335.75 mph def. Maddi Gordon, Foul – Red Light.
Funny Car — J.R. Todd, Toyota GR Supra, 3.931, 331.76 def. Matt Hagan, Dodge Charger, 4.050, 316.57.
Pro Stock — Dallas Glenn, Chevy Camaro, 6.478, 212.30 def. Matt Hartford, Camaro, 6.496, 212.37.
Pro Stock Motorcycle — Matt Smith, Buell, 6.660, 203.08 def. Richard Gadson, Suzuki, 6.654, 203.79.
Top Alcohol Dragster — Shawn Cowie, 5.207, 279.69 def. Alan Bradshaw, Broke.
Top Alcohol Funny Car — Shane Westerfield, Chevy Camaro, 5.479, 266.73 def. Doug Gordon, Camaro, 5.478, 241.27.
ENNIS, Texas — Final round-by-round results from the 41st annual Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex, the 18th of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series:
TOP FUEL:
ROUND ONE — Will Smith, 3.746, 334.65 def. Josh Hart, 3.778, 338.04; Maddi Gordon, 3.715, 340.08 def. Shawn Reed, 3.743, 331.98; Antron Brown, 3.715, 337.99 def. Dan Mercier, 3.789, 328.44; Doug Kalitta, 3.687, 341.61 def. Tony Schumacher, 3.764, 335.07; Tony Stewart, 3.696, 338.55 def. Spencer Massey, Foul – Red Light; Shawn Langdon, 3.705, 340.37 def. Jake Sanders, 3.808, 324.82; Leah Pruett, 3.684, 338.86 def. Billy Torrence, 3.731, 336.80; Justin Ashley, 3.738, 327.96 def. Clay Millican, 5.406, 122.09;
FINAL — M. Smith, 6.660, 203.08 def. Gadson, 6.654, 203.79.
ENNIS, Texas — Point standings (top 10) following the 41st annual Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex, the 18th of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series –
Top Fuel
Shawn Langdon, 2,546; 2. Doug Kalitta, 2,407; 3. Antron Brown, 2,322; 4. Tony Stewart, 2,294; 5. Leah Pruett, 2,281; 6. Will Smith, 2,261; 7. Maddi Gordon, 2,260; 8. Justin Ashley, 2,227; 9. Billy Torrence, 2,198; 10. Josh Hart, 2,197.
Funny Car
Matt Hagan, 2,503; 2. Jordan Vandergriff, 2,405; 3. J.R. Todd, 2,384; 4. Austin Prock, 2,348; 5. Jack Beckman, 2,343; 6. Ron Capps, 2,315; 7. Alexis DeJoria, 2,276; 8. Daniel Wilkerson, 2,207; 9. Chad Green, 2,155; 10. Spencer Hyde, 2,149.
Toyota claims fourth Cup Series Manufacturers’ Championship
AVONDALE, Ariz. (October 18, 2026) – For the fourth time in its history, Toyota has won the NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturers’ Championship on the strength of 18 wins so far this season. It marks Toyota’s first Cup Series manufacturers’ title and most single season wins since 2019.
“Our team members at TRD, along with our partners at 23XI Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, have delivered at the highest level all season,” said Tyler Gibbs, president, TRD, U.S.A. “This is a very important title for Toyota and TRD because it represents the teamwork, effort and passion of countless people across our organization and throughout our teams. We couldn’t be more pleased to have that work pay off with our fourth manufacturers’ title.”
From Tyler Reddick’s record-breaking start of the season to Corey Heim’s early career breakthrough and Denny Hamlin’s regular season leading efforts, 2026 has been a memorable season that Team Toyota will look back fondly on for years to come.
Hamlin has earned the most points for Toyota this season with another stellar year. The record-breaking Toyota driver earned four wins and the No. 1 seed in the post-season for the first time in his career, while 23XI Racing’s Reddick kicked off the season claiming Toyota’s first Daytona 500 victory since 2020, before tallying five additional wins this year. His teammate and Toyota Development Driver, Heim, continued his superstar trajectory by winning multiple times on a part-time schedule. He claimed his first NASCAR points-paying victory on an active Naval Base at San Diego in June before adding the crown jewel Brickyard 400 win in July. Ty Gibbs also won for the first time, claiming wins at Bristol and Iowa. His teammate, Chase Briscoe, is impressive in his second season at Joe Gibbs Racing with multiple intermediate victories – including consecutive wins in The Chase at Las Vegas and Charlotte – while Christopher Bell continued his up-front consistency, winning a Crown Jewel race at Darlington Raceway and looks likely to score his fifth consecutive top-five finish in the point standings.
Toyota supports 23XI Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB in the NASCAR Cup Series. Since joining the series in 2007, Toyota has won 221 races and captured 189 poles in 716 races. In addition to this year’s title, Toyota also claimed the manufacturers championships in 2016 (16 wins), 2017 (16 wins) and 2019 (19 wins).
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
Format: 312 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/125 laps/127 laps)
Race Winner: Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
RWR Finish:
● Cody Ware (Started 37th, Finished 35th / Accident, completed 220 of 312 laps)
RWR Points:
● Cody Ware (35th with 237 points)
Race Notes:
● Tyler Reddick won the Freeway Insurance 500k to score his 14th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his series-leading sixth of the season and his first at Phoenix. His margin over second-place Ryan Blaney was .801 of a second.
● There were six caution periods for a total of 43 laps.
● Twenty-seven of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Kyle Larson remains the championship leader after Phoenix but has just a five-point advantage over second-place Christopher Bell.
Sound Bites:
“I think we cut a right front (tire) down after contact with the 48 (Alex Bowman) on the straightaway. It finally let go and we ended up the in wall. Frustrating day.” – Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Rocket Doctor Chevrolet
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the YellaWood 500 on Sunday, Oct. 25, at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The eighth race in the 10-race Chase starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
AVONDALE, ARIZONA - OCTOBER 18: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway on October 18, 2026 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images).
Tyler Reddick stormed back atop the competition and utilized a late two-tire pit service to motor his way to a resurgent victory in the Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, October 18.
The 2026 Daytona 500 champion from Corning, California, led the final 18 of 312-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in sixth place and notched a combined six stage points by finishing in the top-10 mark through the event’s first two stage periods. After navigating his way up as high as the runner-up spot behind teammate Bubba Wallace in the closing laps, a late-race caution caused by points leader Kyle Larson wrecking out of competition generated opportunities for Reddick and the field, including for numerous Chase contenders chasing down Larson’s points lead.
During the late-race caution from Larson’s incident, Reddick pitted for two fresh tires and exited pit road ahead of Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace. Despite restarting in fifth place while Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott and Ty Gibbs attempted to utilize a 19-lap dash to the finish to contend for the victory on worn tires, Reddick quickly dispatched the latter two, including Blaney, in a single lap before he overtook Briscoe for the lead another lap later. From there, Reddick fended off Blaney to notch his first Cup victory in six months and remain within striking distance of contending for his first series’ championship.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Ryan Blaney secured his fifth pole position of the 2026 season with a pole-winning lap at 137.143 mph in 26.250 seconds. Teammate Joey Logano started alongside Blaney on the front row with the second-fastest qualifying lap at 136.976 mph in 26.282 seconds.
Prior to the event, Ty Gibbs dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entry.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg and the first two turns as pole-sitter Ryan Blaney muscled his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry ahead. With Blaney out in front through the backstretch and the final set of turns, he led the first lap over teammate Joey Logano as the field continued to fan out and jostle for early spots.
Just past the first five laps, Blaney’s early lead stood at six-tenths of a second over Logano while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell followed suit, respectively. Hamlin would lose two spots over Bell and Josh Berry on the track as Tyler Reddick, Connor Zilisch, Ross Chastain and Michael McDowell pursued in the top 10, respectively. While William Byron was trying to navigate his way back into the top-10 mark from 11th place, teammate Kyle Larson and Ty Gibbs were mired in 17th and 31st, respectively, while Blaney led by nine-tenths of a second at the Lap 10 mark.
Though the Lap 25 mark, Blaney extended his early lead by more than one-and-a-half seconds over Logano while third-place Bell trailed by more than two seconds. By then, seven Chase contenders that included Blaney, Logano, Bell, Briscoe, Hamlin, Reddick and Austin Cindric were racing in the top-10 mark at Phoenix while the remaining Chasers that include William Byron, Daniel Suarez, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Carson Hocevar, Ty Gibbs and Ryan Preece were scored in 11th, 13th, 14th, 16th, 18th, 20th, 24th, 26th and 29th, respectively.
The Lap 30 mark featured Blaney leading by two seconds over Logano while Bell, who trailed the lead by two-and-a-half seconds, started to reel in on Logano for the runner-up spot as the former trailed by half a second. As Bell continued to intimidate Logano, Berry battled and overtook Briscoe for fourth place, teammates Briscoe and Hamlin settled in fifth and sixth, respectively, and Cindric moved up to eighth place. Meanwhile, Larson was mired in 17th place in between Wallace and Michael McDowell as Blaney maintained his lead by less than two seconds over Logano on Lap 35.
At the Lap 40 mark, Blaney had his advantage slightly decrease to one-and-a-half seconds over Logano while third-place Bell pursued by just under three seconds. Behind, fourth-place Berry trailed by four seconds as he remained in front of Briscoe and Hamlin while Byron climbed up to ninth place behind Reddick and Cindric. Blaney remained in the lead over the next three laps when the event’s first caution flew due to a two-car accident that involved Michael McDowell and Riley Herbst, where the latter ran into the left-rear area of the latter and sent both up towards the outside wall through Turns 3 and 4.
During the event’s first caution period, the field led by Blaney pitted for a first time. Following the pit stops and with numerous competitors pitting for only two fresh tires, Hamlin, who pitted for two tires, exited pit road first ahead of Byron, Elliott, Logano, Larson, Briscoe and Bell while Blaney exited pit road eighth ahead of Berry and Reddick.
The event’s next restart with 10 laps remaining in the first stage period featured the field fanning out through the fronstretch’s dogleg as Byron tried to battle Hamlin for the lead. Amid the side-by-side battle, Byron, who raced on the outside lane, led the next lap while Hamlin fought back and cleared Byron’s entry for the next lap. Seconds later, Logano, who pitted for four fresh tires, muscled his No. 22 Hunt Brother’s Pizza Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry into the runner-up spot before he overtook Hamlin and led the following lap. With Logano leading Hamlin, Byron, Bell, Blaney, Elliott and Briscoe, Larson, who pitted for two tires, plummeted to 15th place and he continued to lose spots as the laps in the first stage period dwindled.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Logano captured his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Hamlin, Bell, Blaney, Briscoe, Byron, Elliott, Ross Chastain, Reddick and Berry were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, eight Chasers (Logano, Hamlin, Bell, Blaney, Briscoe, Byron, Elliott and Reddick) accumulated stage points by finishing in the top-10 mark in the first stage period while the remaining Chasers that include Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace, Cindric, Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher, Larson, Carson Hocevar and Preece were mired in 11th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 22nd, 24th and 25th, respectively.
Under the event’s first stage break period, the field led by Logano returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops and with numerous two-tire pit services ensuing, Logano exited pit road first ahead of Bell, Briscoe, Brad Keselowski and Connor Zilisch while Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, Blaney and Chastain followed suit, respectively. By then, Hamlin was mired in 13th place behind Byron and Elliott while Larson was in 20th place behind Gibbs. Meanwhile, Zane Smith was penalized for dragging his fuel can out of his pit box.
The second stage period started on Lap 68 as Logano and Bell occupied the front row. At the start, the latter two dueled for the lead through the frontstretch’s dogleg until Bell, who restarted on the outside lane, motored his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE entry ahead of Logano through the first two turns and entering the backstretch to assume the lead. Bell led the next lap over Logano, Briscoe, Keselowski, Blaney, Zilisch and a stacked field. As Bell led by eight-tenths of a second over Logano by Lap 75, Hamlin, who made contact with Shane van Gisbergen earlier, was mired in 18th place and trailed Larson by two spots while Blaney carved his way up to fourth place.
By Lap 85, Bell stabilized his lead by more than one-and-a-half seconds over Logano and Blaney while fourth-place/teammate Briscoe trailed by three seconds. Meanwhile, non-Chase contenders Keselowski, Berry, Chastain and Zilisch were racing from fifth through eighth, respectively, as Wallace and Reddick were scored in the top 10 ahead of Todd Gilliland, Elliott, Byron, Austin Dillon and Cindric. As Blaney overtook Logano for the runner-up spot, Hamlin was mired in 16th place while Larson dropped to 20th place while Bell continued to lead by more than a second over Blaney on Lap 90.
Through the Lap 100 mark, Bell maintained his lead by more than a second over Blaney while Logano, Briscoe, Berry, Keselowski, Chastain, Zilisch, Wallace and Gilliland trailed in the top-10 mark, respectively. Behind, Hamlin moved up to 14th place, though he had Elliott, Cindric and Reddick racing in front of him, and Byron dropped to 17th place while Larson, who lost another two spots, was mired in 22nd place. Over the next 10 laps, Larson became the lowest-running Chase contender on the track as he dropped to 25th place. By then, Hamlin was scored in 13th place and Briscoe lost a spot to fifth place while Bell led by more than one-and-a-half seconds over Logano.
Then nearing the Lap 120 mark, a cycle of green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Reddick pitted. By then, Bell retained the lead by half a second over Logano while Berry, Briscoe, Blaney, Chastain, Wallace, Keselowski, Zilisch and Cindric were scored in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, Halmin retained 13th place and Larson was mired in 24th place while Byron was in 19th place. Byron and Suarez would pit a lap later (Lap 121) under green before the leader Bell pitted on Lap 123. Hamlin, Elliott, Cindric, Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Noah Gragson, Wallace, Zilisch, Keselowski pitted under green prior to the Lap 125 mark before Blaney, Chastain and Gilliland pitted at the Lap 125 mark. Logano would then pit from the lead by Lap 126 before Bell cycled back as the leader two laps later as Berry pitted. Amid the pit stops, Keselowski spun while trying to enter pit road towards the Lap 125 mark, but the event remained under green flag conditions, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ty Dillon were penalized for speeding on pit road.
Towards the Lap 135 mark, Bell was leading by more than five seconds over Logano while third-place Berry trailed by eight seconds. Behind, Briscoe occupied fourth place in front of Blaney, Wallace, Reddick, Elliott and Daniel Suarez while Hamlin was in 13th place. Meanwhile, Larson was the fourth competitor scored a lap down in 27th. Bell had his advantage shrink down to four seconds over Logano just past the Lap 140 mark before the advantage slightly shrunk down to just above three seconds on Lap 145 and stabilized to the latter mark another five laps later.
At the halfway mark on Lap 156, Bell maintained the lead by more than two seconds over Berry, the latter of whom overtook Logano for the runner-up spot two laps earlier, as Logano, Briscoe, Blaney, Wallace, Reddick, Elliott, Gilliland and Cindric occupied the remaining top-10 spots over Chastain, Hamlin, Zilisch, Suarez and Austin Dillon, respectively, while Larson was the sixth competitor scored a lap down in 28th place. Meanwhile, Byron, Gibbs, Preece and Buescher were in the top-20 mark while Hocevar was the first competitor scored a lap down in 22nd place.
Seconds later, the caution flew due to Austin Dillon wrecking his No. 3 Dow Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry up towards the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4 after he blew a right-rear tire. During this latest caution period, the field led by Bell pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Logano just managed to edge both Bell and Briscoe off of pit road first while Cindric, Berry, Blaney, Wallace, Elliott, Reddick and Chastain followed suit, respectively.
For the next restart on Lap 163, Logano fended off Bell, Briscoe and the field for a full circuit as Logano led the next lap. Amid the on-track battles, Logano retained the lead just past the Lap 165 mark while Briscoe outdueled teammate Bell for the runner-up spot. Behind, Berry, Blaney, Wallace, Reddick, Gilliland, Elliott and Hamlin were racing in the top-10 mark while Larson, who used the wave around to cycle back on the lead lap, was mired in 27th place. Logano continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second on Lap 170 over Briscoe and Hamlin outdueled Elliott for ninth place while Logano stretched his advantage up by more than a second at the Laps 175 and 180 marks.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 185, Logano cruised to his second consecutive Cup stage victory of this event and his sixth of the 2026 season. Briscoe settled in second ahead of Bell, Berry, Wallace, Blaney, Reddick, Hamlin, Gilliland and Elliott, respectively. With eight of 16 Chasers (Logano, Briscoe, Bell, Wallace, Blaney, Reddick, Hamlin and Elliott) scored in the top-10 mark and racking up the event’s second round of stage points, the remaining Chasers that include Hocevar, Gibbs, Buescher, Byron, Suarez, Cindric, Preece and Larson were mired in 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 21st and 27th, respectively. Despite being mired within the top-30 mark, Larson and teammate Alex Bowman just managed to remain on the lead lap at the second stage’s conclusion.
During the event’s second stage break period, the lead lap field led by Logano pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Logano exited pit road first ahead of Briscoe, Wallace, Berry and Hamlin while Gilliland, Elliott, Reddick, Bell and Chastain followed suit, respectively. Meanwhile, Blaney plummeted to 15th place following a slow pit service on the left side of his entry.
With 119 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Logano and Briscoe occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg and for a full circuit as Logano fended off Briscoe to lead the next lap. As Logano maintained the lead over Briscoe and Wallace over the next three laps, Hamlin navigated his way up to fourth place while Bell was battling Berry for fifth place. Meanwhile, Blaney was mired in 12th place and Larson was down in 25th place as Logano led by nine-tenths of a second in front of five Toyotas with 110 laps remaining.
Down to the final 100 laps, Logano, who reported a small vibration in his entry, was leading by half a second over Wallace while third-place Briscoe trailed by nearly two seconds. Behind, Hamlin, Bell and Reddick occupied fourth through sixth on the track while Gilliland, Berry, Blaney and Elliott were racing in the top 10. Meanwhile, Larson was mired in 26th place as Suarez, Hocevar, Gibbs, Cindric, Buescher, Byron and Preece were in 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 24th, respectively.
Then with 90 laps remaining, the caution flew due to Cody Ware wrecking entering the first turn due to a flat right-rear tire. Two laps prior, Hamlin endured a late issue when he blew a right-rear tire and limped his No. 11 Progressive Toyota Camry XSE entry on to pit road to have the flat tire serviced. Amid losing a lap to the field, Hamlin was penalized for speeding while entering pit road with the flat tire and nearly slipping up the track in the process. At the time of caution, Logano fended off Wallace by within half a second to retain the lead. During this caution period, the field led by Logano pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Wallace exited pit road first ahead of Briscoe, Bell and Reddick while Logano dropped to fifth place amid a slow pit service. Berry, Blaney, Elliott, Suarez and Gilliland followed suit, respectively.
The next restart with 82 laps remaining featured Wallace fending off Briscoe, Bell, Reddick and the field for a full cycle as Wallace led the next lap. With Wallace retaining the lead with 80 laps remaining and the following five laps, Briscoe retained the runner-up spot by nine-tenths of a second while Reddick, Bell, Logano, Blaney, Hocevar, Elliott, Berry and Gibbs trailed in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, Larson was racing in 22nd place and Hamlin was ranked the first competitor a lap down in 31st place as Wallace extended his late lead up by a second with 70 laps remaining.
As the event reached its final 60-lap mark, Wallace retained the lead by more than one-and-a-half seconds over Briscoe while Reddick, Wallace’s teammate, trailed by nearly three seconds in third place. Behind, top-five Chasers Bell and Blaney trailed by four seconds while Logano was mired five seconds behind in sixth place. Amid the battles at the front, Larson retained 22nd place while Hamlin continued to race as the first competitor a lap down in 30th place. Within the Chase field, Gibbs, Cindric, Buescher, Byron, Preece and Suarez were scored in 11th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th and 24th, respectively, as Wallace continued to lead by more than a second with 50 laps remaining.
Within the final 50-lap mark, a late cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Larson pitted from 21st place. Noah Gragson pitted a few laps later before Logano pitted with 46 laps remaining. By then, Connor Zilisch and Erik Jones pitted with Logano before Blaney, Chastain, and Keselowski pitted another lap later. Reddick, Buescher, Preece, Austin Hill and AJ Allmendinger pitted seconds later before the leader Wallace pitted with 43 laps remaining. Hocevar, Zane Smith, Cindric, van Gisbergen and Hamlin pitted before Todd Gilliland, Corey Heim, Byron and Elliott pitted with nearly 40 laps remaining.
For the final 40-lap mark, Briscoe, Bell and Berry all pitted under green from the front of the field. With nearly the entire field having pitted, Ty Gibbs and Suarez, both of whom have not yet pitted, occupied the top-two spots before Gibbs pitted with 37 laps remaining. With Suarez quickly being overtaken on the track and Gibbs pitting, Wallace cycled back as the leader while teammate Reddick occupied the runner-up spot. Behind, Logano, Blaney, Suarez, Hocevar and Briscoe occupied the top-seven spots and Bell was mired in 12th place behind Elliott. Meanwhile, Larson was up to 15th place and Hamlin was mired a lap down in 31st place while Wallace led by more than a second with 35 laps remaining.
Then with 30 laps remaining and Wallace retaining the lead, the caution flew when Larson blew a right-front tire and went dead straight into the outside wall through the first two turns. Larson’s incident was enough for the reigning two-time Cup Series champion to nurse his damaged No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry behind the wall and knock him out from further competition amid an event where he struggled to keep pace with his competition.
“Anything in the top 20 would’ve been great,” Larson said in the infield care center on USA Sports. “Bummer, but we just weren’t good. It happens. [I’ll] Just try to go [to Talladega] and forget about today. Get back after it and do a good job, which we’ve done well at the superspeedways, so hopefully, we can just execute, score some points and keep ourselves in the hunt.”
At the time of caution, Hamlin was mired the fourth competitor a lap down in 29th place, with Erik Jones receiving the free pass in 26th place. During this caution period, a majority of the front-runners led by Wallace returned to pit road while Briscoe, Elliott and Ty Gibbs remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Reddick exited pit road first ahead of Logano, Blaney, Bell, Gilliland and Wallace, respectively, with Wallace pitting for four fresh tires while the competitors ahead, including teammate Reddick, pitted for two. Soon after, Wallace was penalized for speeding on pit road.
As the event restarted with 19 laps remaining, Briscoe motored ahead of the field as Gibbs and Elliott made slight side-by-side contact through the frontstretch’s dogleg. This allowed Blaney to go beneath Gibbs in a three-wide attempt through the first two turns before Reddick, who pitted for two fresh tires, executed a bold four-wide overtake on Blaney, Gibbs and Elliott through the first two turns to motor his way into the runner-up spot. With the field behind fanned out, Briscoe led the next lap over a hard-charging Reddick. Then amid Reddick’s charge, the latter went beneath Briscoe entering Turns 3 and 4 before Reddick assumed command when the field cycled back to the frontstretch with 17 laps remaining.
As Reddick led by nine-tenths of a second with 14 laps remaining, Blaney steered his way into the runner-up spot while Briscoe, Elliott, Heim, Bell and Logano were racing in the top-seven mark, respectively. With the event reaching its final 10-lap mark, Reddick extended his late lead by more than a second over Blaney while Elliott, Bell and Briscoe followed suit ahead of Heim, Logano, Suarez, Gibbs and Keselowski. Meanwhile, Wallace was mired in 19th place and Hamlin was mired a lap down in 28th place. As Briscoe drifted back to eighth place, Reddick stabilized his lead by more than a second over Blaney.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Reddick remained in the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Blaney. Amid Blaney’s late-race charge, he ran out of time as Reddick smoothly cycled his No. 45 Rockstar Energy Toyota Camry XSE entry around Phoenix Raceway for a final time and returned to the frontstretch to claim the checkered flag and the victory by eight-tenths of a second over Blaney.
With the victory, Reddick notched his 14th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series division, his sixth of the 2026 season, his first at Phoenix Raceway and his first victory since he won at Kansas Speedway in mid-April. Reddick’s Phoenix victory was the eighth of the 2026 Cup seaosn for 23XI Racing and the 18th for Toyota, with Toyota clinching its fourth manufacturer’s title in NASCAR’s premier series.
Prior to Phoenix, Reddick trailed the points lead by 114 points while strapped in seventh place in the Chase standings. With the Phoenix victory and the late misfortunes of points leader Kyle Larson, Reddick is only 56 points behind the points lead and remains in contention of his first championship with three events remaining on this year’s schedule.
AVONDALE, ARIZONA – OCTOBER 18: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK Toyota, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway on October 18, 2026 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
“[The wait]’s way too long,” Reddick said on the frontstretch on USA Sports. “Man, the way that we worked there, just thinking of Phoenix, we wanted to be a lot better than when we came back here. I think we checked that box. For us, this group never lost the motivation, never lost the drive to keep searching and keep trying to find ways to make ourself better and just be an all-around better team. [Today] didn’t really start right, but just something about today, I had a really good feeling. Practice was amazing. We’re back to Victory Lane. First victory for Rockstar Energy, too. Cheers!”
“Good [pit] strategy,” Reddick added. “I think [crew chief] Billy [Scott] had a really good idea of what we needed to do there, going off what our balance was. Just got really fortunate. I didn’t have a good launch, but there was a hole and I was able to get through it. I thought [Briscoe] was gonna be able to cover the move into [Turn] 3, but I got him loose and we were able to check out.”
Blaney, who led 51 laps from pole position, settled in the runner-up spot on his two fresh tires while Elliott, who remained on the track on worn tires like Briscoe and Ty Gibbs, settled in third place. Bell, who led a race-high 85 laps and pitted for two fresh tires prior to the final restart, navigated his way up to a fourth-place result while Corey Heim notched his third top-five result by finishing in fifth place.
Despite falling short of the victory, both Blaney and Bell trail points leader Kyle Larson by 40 and five points, respectively, as both labeled themselves within the championship hunt approaching the final three-scheduled events of this season.
“Proud of the effort, everyone sticking with it all day,” Blaney said. “Just kind of fighting it out and giving us a shot to win at the end. Just didn’t quite have enough to chase down [Reddick]. Overall, really proud of the effort. Gained a lot of points today, so it’s hard to be upset about that. Try to go the next three weeks and do the same.”
“It’s going to be a battle, that’s for sure,” Bell said. “We’re right there in it. Just really proud of our team. They’ve been doing a really good job of bringing fast race cars, executing races. We’ve been able to qualify well, run upfront in the stages. I felt like our performance tapered off a little bit as the day went on, but we had the right strategy to put tires on there at the end and had good restarts to get some track position. We’re in the hunt. That’s all you can ask for.”
Joey Logano, who led 84 laps, settled in sixth place ahead of Daniel Suarez while Chase Briscoe settled in eighth place following his late gamble to remain on the track on worn tires compared to a majority of the field for the 19-lap dash to the finish. Amid the result and falling short of winning three events in a row, Briscoe is only 24 points behind points leader Kyle Larson as he too looks ahead to the final three-scheduled events, including next weekend’s Chase event at Talladega Superspeedway, to continue to reel in Larson for the points lead.
“[The strategy] just didn’t work out,” Briscoe said. “[Elliott] was on the same strategy as us and ran third. You can’t really blame it on that, but overall, we’re in serious contention at least for the championship with [Larson]’s issues. [I] Wish we would have obviously been in Victory Lane with our Columbia Bank Toyota. [I] Felt like we were better than eighth-place car, but that was just what the result was. It’s crazy to be 24 points out now. Three weeks ago, we were 123 out. It’s anybody’s race right now. Talladega is definitely going to be the deciding factor and hopefully, we can go there and survive the chaos.”
Ross Chastain and Ty Gibbs completed the top 10 on the track at Phoenix. With eight of 16 Chasers (Reddick, Blaney, Elliott, Bell, Logano, Suarez, Briscoe and Gibbs) finishing in the top 10, the remaining Chasers that include Carson Hocevar, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Preece, Austin Cindric, William Byron, Chris Buescher, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson finished 12th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 21st, 22nd, 28th and 34th, respectively.
For Hamlin, his 28th-place result at Phoenix keeps him within 31 points shy of the points lead approaching the final three events of the 2026 season, though the Virginia veteran was left disappointed on not capitalizing amid Kyle Larson’s late misfortunes.
“The beginning [of the event] was not great once we got back in traffic,” Hamlin said. “I thought the second half of the race, we were really strong and gonna contend for the win. [I was] Just right there with [Briscoe] when the tire blew for third. Definitely not ideal, but what can you do? I feel like [I] just need when we got a good car like we were the second half of the race to finish well and we just haven’t finished.”
The seventh Cup Series’ Chase event of the 2026 season at Phoenix saw 21 lead changes among 10 leaders, and six cautions over 43 laps. In addition, 27 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results:
Tyler Reddick, 18 laps led
Ryan Blaney, 51 laps led
Chase Elliott
Christopher Bell, 85 laps led
Corey Heim
Joey Logano, 84 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
Daniel Suarez
Chase Briscoe, 13 laps led
Ross Chastain
Ty Gibbs, two laps led
Josh Berry, one lap led
Carson Hocevar
Noah Gragson
Todd Gilliland
Zane Smith
Brad Keselowski
Bubba Wallace, 52 laps led
Ryan Preece
Austin Cindric
Connor Zilisch
William Byron, two laps led
Chris Buescher
AJ Allmendinger
Austin Hill
Erik Jones
Shane van Gisbergen
Cole Custer
Denny Hamlin, one lap down, four laps led
Alex Bowman, one lap down
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down
Ty Dillon, two laps down
Riley Herbst, four laps down
John Hunter Nemechek, five laps down
Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident
Cody Ware – OUT, Accident
Michael McDowell, 111 laps down
Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Chase Drivers
After the seventh Chase event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Kyle Larson maintains the lead the standings by only five points over Christopher Bell, with Chase Briscoe trailing by 24 points, Denny Hamlin by 31, Ryan Blaney by 40, Joey Logano by 44 and Tyler Reddick by 56. The rest of the 16-car Chase field is displayed below.
Chase Standings:
Kyle Larson
Christopher Bell -5
Chase Briscoe -24
Denny Hamlin -31
Ryan Blaney -40
Joey Logano -44
Tyler Reddick -56
Austin Cindric -130
Ty Gibbs -132
Chase Elliott -149
Carson Hocevar -158
Bubba Wallace -162
Daniel Suarez -188
William Byron -190
Chris Buescher -204
Ryan Preece -211
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series’ Chase schedule is the Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, October 25, and air at 2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
AVONDALE, ARIZONA - OCTOBER 18: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK Toyota, celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway on October 18, 2026 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service
AVONDALE, Ariz. — After a phenomenal start to the 2026 season, followed by an agonizing dry spell, Tyler Reddick returned to Victory Lane on Sunday—and simultaneously did NASCAR Cup Series leader Kyle Larson a significant favor.
Snookering the top contenders in the Chase presented by Mobil 1 after a restart on Lap 294, Reddick surged past Chase Briscoe into the lead a lap later and pulled away to beat runner-up Ryan Blaney by 0.801 seconds in the Freeway Insurance 500, as Briscoe faded to eighth on older tires.
Reddick’s sixth win of the season and first at Phoenix Raceway, combined with Larson’s catastrophic 34th-place result, brought seven drivers into the mix for the series championship with three races left.
The driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota won five of the first nine races this season, including the first three, but since then had endured a winless streak of 23 races.
“That’s way too long,” a relieved Reddick said after performing a massive celebratory burnout in front of the main grandstand. “Man, the way we worked there, I mean, thinking of Phoenix, we wanted to be a lot better when we came back here (after the March race). I think we checked that box.
“For us, this group never lost motivation, never lost the drive to keep searching and keep trying to find ways to make ourselves better, just be an all-around better team… Just something about today, I had a really good feeling. Practice was amazing. Yeah, we’re back to Victory Lane.”
Before Sunday’s race at the one-mile speedway, Larson led second-place Denny Hamlin by 49 points with four races left in the postseason. After Reddick won for the 14th time in his career, there are now six drivers within 56 points of the Chase leader.
Fourth-place finisher Christopher Bell climbed one spot in the standings and trails Larson by five points, having trimmed 46 points from his previous deficit to the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
“We’re right there in it,” said Bell, who led a race-high 85 laps and finished third in each of the first two stages. “Really proud of our team. They’ve been doing a really good job of bringing fast race cars, executing races. We’ve been able to qualify well and run up front in stages.
“I felt like our performance probably tapered off a little bit as the day went on. We had the strategy to put tires there at the end, had good restarts to get some track position. We’re in the hunt.”
Briscoe is 24 points back in third place, followed by Hamlin, who fell from second to fourth but gained 18 points to 31 back, despite a blown tire that relegated him to 28th at the finish.
“The beginning was not great, and once we got back in traffic, I thought the second half of the race we were really strong,” said Hamlin, who was trapped a lap down after pitting with a shredded tire on Lap 221 and incurring a speeding penalty.
“Could contend for the win. Just right there with the 19 (Briscoe) when the tire blew (while battling) for third.”
Blaney, the pole winner, is 40 points in arrears, followed by Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, who swept the first two stages of Sunday’s race and is 44 points behind Larson after a sixth-place run.
“It was good and bad, I guess,” said Logano, who led 84 laps but lost track position on pit road. “The good part is that we were fast and led a bunch of laps and won two stages.
“The bad part is we gave away a win. That part hurts a little bit, but I guess we made up close to 50 points to the leader, so you can’t be too mad about it. I wish we had it back.”
After qualifying 22nd Larson struggled from the outset in a car that lacked speed. Despite a two-tire call that vaulted him temporarily to fifth, Larson remained 22nd at the end of Stage 1. From that point, his race went from bad to worse.
On Lap 283 Larson blew a tire in Turn 1, slammed the outside wall and retired from the event, scoring just three points for his efforts, compared with Reddick, who notched 61.
“We never found the improvements we needed, so that was a bummer,” Larson said. “I didn’t expect to be good, but I didn’t expect to be that bad either. It wasn’t a lot of fun today, but we were just trying to salvage what we could of the day.
“We’ll go to Talladega and try to forget about today and get back after it. We’ve done well at the superspeedways, so hopefully we can execute, get some points and keep ourselves in the hunt.”
The only saving grace for Larson was that Reddick’s win kept him in the series lead. Either Bell, Briscoe or Hamlin could have taken the top spot in the Chase with a victory.
Larson’s teammate, Chase Elliott finished third but remains 149 points out of the Chase lead. Reddick’s teammate, Bubba Wallace, led 52 laps and had control of the race in the final stage before a pit road speeding penalty under caution for Larson’s accident knocked him back to 17th at the finish.
Corey Heim came home fifth, followed by Logano, Daniel Suarez, Briscoe, Ross Chastain and Ty Gibbs.
All told, there were six cautions for 43 laps and 21 lead changes among 10 drivers. Reddick led the only the final 18 laps after a lane opened up for him soon after the final restart.
“Yeah, just got really fortunate,” Reddick said. “I didn’t have a good launch. There was a hole. I was able to get through it. I thought the 19 (Briscoe) was going to be able to cover the move into (Turn) 3.
“I got him loose. We checked out.”
The NASCAR Cup Chase continues next Sunday with the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Christopher Bell (C) 2 times for 85 laps; Joey Logano (C) 5 times for 84 laps; Bubba Wallace (C) 2 times for 52 laps; Ryan Blaney (C) 6 times for 51 laps; Tyler Reddick (C) 1 time for 18 laps; Chase Briscoe (C) 2 times for 13 laps; Denny Hamlin (C) 1 time for 4 laps; Ty Gibbs (C) 1 time for 2 laps; William Byron (C) 1 time for 2 laps; Josh Berry 1 time for 1 lap.
TYLER REDDICK LEADS TOYOTA WITH SIXTH VICTORY OF THE YEAR AT PHOENIX Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick Gain Ground in Championship Battle
AVONDALE, Ariz. (October 18, 2026) – Tyler Reddick used a key two-tire stop by crew chief Billy Scott late in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway and held off several other front-runners to earn his series-leading sixth win of the season.
The victory was Toyota’s 18th of the season so far, second only to the 19 wins it recorded in 2019.
Toyota placed three drivers in the top five, led by Reddick, with Christopher Bell finishing fourth and Toyota development driver Corey Heim fifth. Chase Briscoe (eighth) and Ty Gibbs (10th) gave Toyota five cars in the top 10 on Sunday afternoon in the desert.
Toyota teams also gained ground in the championship battle. Seven drivers, including four in Toyota Camry XSEs, are now within 56 points of the leader with three races remaining. Bell sits second, five points out of first, followed by Briscoe in third (24 points back) and Denny Hamlin in fourth (31 points back). Reddick cut his deficit to 56 points and is seventh.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) Phoenix Raceway Race 33 of 36 – 312 miles, 312 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, TYLER REDDICK 2nd, Ryan Blaney* 3rd, Chase Elliott* 4th, CHRISTOPHER BELL 5th, COREY HEIM 8th, CHASE BRISCOE 10th, TY GIBBS 17th, BUBBA WALLACE 25th, ERIK JONES 28th, DENNY HAMLIN 32nd, RILEY HERBST 33rd, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK *non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK Toyota Camry XSE, 23 XI Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
Was your sixth win of the year worth the wait?
“That’s way too long. Man, the way we worked there, I mean, thinking of Phoenix, we wanted to be a lot better when we came back here. I think we checked that box. For us, this group never lost motivation, never lost the drive to keep searching and keep trying to find ways to make ourselves better, just be an all-around better team. I don’t know, something about today. It didn’t really start right. Just something about today, I had a really good feeling. Practice was amazing. Yeah, we’re back to Victory Lane. First victory for Rockstar Energy, too.”
How did you get from fifth to first on the last restart?
“Good strategy. I think Billy had a really good idea what we needed to do there, going off what our balance was. Yeah, just got really fortunate. I didn’t have a good launch. There was a hole. I was able to get through it. I thought the 19 was going to be able to cover the move into three. I got him loose. We checked out.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
You had the second-most stage points earned today. Five points within the lead. Striking distance. Knowing that, how much does it energize the rest of the Chase for you?
It’s going to be a battle, that’s for sure. We’re right there in it. Really proud of our team. They’ve been doing a really good job of bringing fast race cars, executing races. We’ve been able to qualify well and run up front in stages. I felt like our performance probably tapered off a little bit as the day went on. We had the strategy to put tires there at the end, had good restarts to get some track position. We’re in the hunt.”
COREY HEIM, No. 67 Mobil 1/O’Reilly Auto Parts Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
How would you describe your day?
“Definitely overall a good day. I grinded for sure. It was tough in Stage 1, I was pretty much trapped back there in dirty air so really couldn’t go anywhere, but knew we had speed. Every time we had clean air a pit cycle happened and I got a little bit of space just to see what I could do, we had a lot of speed compared to the leaders. I’m just really proud of these 23XI guys, Mobil 1, this Camry was really good all day. Two tire call there at the end to put us in position to do some damage and I think I was a couple of mistakes away from ending up third there. I felt like my car had a lot of potential. I’m happy with fifth, we qualified almost last, so I will take it.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Progressive Insurance Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
It all went way south with the tire going down. Did you have any warning?
“No, just a corner before I felt the car bottom out. I knew at that point definitely had a tire. At that point trying to hang on and somehow try to get to pit road. Obviously had no idea where I was on speed with the right rear tire on it.”
Throughout the day, how much fight was there in the 11 car?
“The beginning was not great, and once we got back in traffic, I thought the second half of the race we were really strong. Could contend for the win. Just right there with the 19 when the tire blew for third. Definitely not ideal. But, yeah, what can you do?”
The 5 (Kyle Larson) had a rough day. 31 points behind the lead going to the head-scratcher Talladega. How do you feel?
“I mean, I feel like just need, when we got a good car, like the second half of the race today, to finish well. We just haven’t finished.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
Speedmaster McPhillips Racing Top Alcohol Dragster NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series NHRA JEGS Allstars Oct. 16-18 | Ennis, Texas
Event Recap
Melanie Johnson, driver of the Speedmaster McPhillips Racing Top Alcohol Dragster:
Earned No. 1 qualifying position in Q1 on Friday (5.236 ET at 275.97 mph)
Secured No. 2 qualifying position based off of Friday’s Q1 run. In Q2 on Friday, Johnson ran a 5.274 ET at 277.42 mph.
Advanced to the JEGS Allstars Finals on Saturday:
Round 1: 5.230 ET at 278.14 mph, defeated Joey Severance (no time)
Semifinals: 5.174 ET at 277.35 mph, defeated Jamie Noonan (5.225 ET at 278.74 mph)
Finals: 5.218 ET at 278.90 mph, defeated Jackie Fricke (5.211 ET at 270.09 mph)
Notes of Interest
The NHRA JEGS Allstars marked Johnson’s first appearance in the event. She earned the victory with a holeshot over Jackie Fricke.
Johnson represented the Central Region in the Top Alcohol Dragster division. With her win, the Central Region got the team win for the JEGS Allstars Top Alcohol classes.
Johnson’s late uncle, Blaine Johnson, won the JEGS Allstars event 33 years ago.
2026 marked the first JEGS Allstar event win for McPhillips Racing.
Johnson represented Speedmaster on her Top Alcohol Dragster. Founded in 1979, Speedmaster designs, engineers, and manufactures performance and aftermarket parts across three continents. From individual components to complete assembled systems and built-to-order vehicles.
The NHRA JEGS Allstars program allows the best racers in ten categories from each of NHRA’s three geographic regions (East, Central and West) to compete for individual honors and share of the $124,000 purse. Racers accumulate points for the event at NHRA Lucas Oil divisional races prior to the competition.
Melanie Johnson, Driver of the Speedmaster McPhillips Racing Top Alcohol Dragster “It’s unbelievable to be here. The JEGS Allstars program is awesome to be a part of. Texas Motorplex is an incredible place to race and I’m out here with a ton of great racers. It feels like such a huge accomplishment to come out with my team and do so well. We pretty much dominated last weekend in the regional race and lost in a close final. We lost another close race in first round this weekend, so to come out and win this race, it means everything. I was struggling with my lights all weekend, but I told myself this final was our round. We came back after first round and got our stuff together. I’m so proud of my guys. They’ve had this hot rod running quick all weekend. This win goes to them. Thank you to McPhillips Racing, Speedmaster, and AJPE (Alan Johnson Performance Engineering) for powering this car. We got a new bullet put in last week and it’s hauling.”
Rich McPhillips Sr., Team Owner “I’m proud of Melanie and everyone at McPhillips Racing for their effort in the JEGS Allstars event. We’ve been on the back side of some good drag races, so it was nice to get this win and Melanie did a great job on the tree. Thank you to Speedmaster, NGK Spark Plugs, Lucas Oil, ARP, Boninfante Friction, VP Racing Fuels, Goodyear, Alan Johnson Performance Engineering, the Kessler family, and all of our partners for their continued support. We’re looking forward to heading west for the final three events of the season.”
Next Up Johnson will be back behind the wheel of the Speedmaster McPhillips Racing Top Alcohol Dragster in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals October 30-November 1 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ford Racing Notes and Quotes NASCAR Cup Series Freeway Insurance 500 — Phoenix Raceway Sunday, October 18, 2026
Ford Finishing Results:
2nd – Ryan Blaney 6th – Joey Logano 11th – Josh Berry 13th – Noah Gragson 14th – Todd Gilliland 15th – Zane Smith 16th – Brad Keselowski 18th – Ryan Preece 19th – Austin Cindric 22nd – Chris Buescher
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “At the very end I started closing in. I wish I would have found the top of three and four a little earlier. That seemed to be working pretty good, but he just got away a little bit there. It took me a second to get to second, but then we kind of stabilized for a long time and at the very end I started to make a little ground, but it was just a little bit too late. Overall, I’m proud of the effort and it was a really good day of them sticking with it and getting better through the day. I thought the first run of the race we were good and then kind of lost a little bit there in stage two, but we progressively got better in stage three. That’s something to be proud of there.” HOW CHALLENGING WAS THIS RACE? “There were a lot of different strategies. My guys did a good job of staying on top of it and just trying to work it out and figure a way to get better. It was definitely a tough race, but that’s why we do it.” WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED? “Seven more laps maybe (laughing). It just took me a while to kind of get to him where he started fading and I was able to creep in, but we just didn’t quite have enough to get to him. Overall, I’m proud of the effort all day of getting better from the middle part of the race I thought we got a lot better from where we were in the middle.” WERE YOU AWARE LARSON DROPPED OUT AND SAW AN OPPORTUNITY TO CASH IN AND WIN? “I didn’t know he dropped out. I knew they had a rough day. I didn’t know they were 30-something, but I was just trying hard to win the race. No matter where they’re at, that’s really important, but I didn’t know until I got out about how his day was like.” OUTLOOK FOR TALLADEGA? “We’ll just keep chipping away at it. We did a good job today of getting some good points and finishing well and being in contention to win the race. We’ll just try to do the same thing next week of trying to run well through the stages and find ourselves in a spot to capitalize at the end. It’s better than where we came in, so we just have to keep chipping away at it.” DO YOU FEEL 40 POINTS IS DIGESTABLE TO BE IN STRIKING DISTANCE? “It feels a lot better than 80. That’s definitely doable, for sure, and we just have to keep doing what we’re doing. I feel like when we finish these races we’ve run really well. Outside of St. Louis and Bristol, we’ve put together a really good Chase with really fast cars running up towards the front. It makes me feel better leaving here only 78 back or way over, so we’ve just got to keep working.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Hunt Brothers Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was good and bad, I guess. The good part is that we were fast and led a bunch of laps and won two stages. The bad part is we gave away a win. That part hurts a little bit, but I guess we made up close to 50 points to the leader, so you can’t be too mad about it. I wish we had it back.” YOU HAD SOME ISSUES IN STAGE 3, BUT STILL MANAGED A GOOD FINISH. “You’ve got to execute everything. We’re okay. I mean, the pit crew had a smoking day going, but just that one hiccup and that’s all it takes these days. You have to be absolutely perfect. That’s all.” WITH THREE TO GO NOW, YOU TOOK A BIG CHUNK OUT, SO HOW DO YOU FEEL? “We’re more optimistic than we were coming in, so I kind of thought if we can be 60 out, we’ll probably be in decent shape and I think we’re 40-something out, so, overall, it was a solid day.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I had a great car the first couple of stages. It was really, really good, but then we just seemed to lose a little bit when the sun came out and it just didn’t quite turn as well. We lost a little speed and then the last couple of restarts I got beat around a little bit. We definitely should have been top five or top 10 for sure, but, all in all, it was a pretty good day.” SO MANY TIRE ISSUES AND STRATEGY CALLS. “We got a little bit off strategy there and it was gonna work out by the end, but we got shipped up the racetrack on that last restart. I’m just really proud of the car we had at the start of the race. I felt like we had the best car and just hate that it got away from us.”
NASCAR Cup Series Phoenix Raceway Freeway Insurance 500 Team Chevy Post-Race Report October 18, 2026
Elliott Leads Chevrolet with Third-Place Finish; Larson Maintains Points Lead at Phoenix Raceway
A late-race gamble by crew chief, Alan Gustafson, gave Chase Elliott prime track position for the final restart that ultimately led to a strong third-place finish in the Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway. The result marked the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team’s seventh top-five finish of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season and his sixth top-five finish at the desert oval.
It was a turbulent day for the reigning champions Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team, but leaning on the points cushion he carried to the west coast, Larson managed to maintain his points lead with the team heading to Talladega Superspeedway with a five-point lead.
RACE RECAP:
Stage One:
William Byron led Chevrolet’s Chase contenders in yesterday’s qualifying session at Phoenix Raceway, earning a top-10 starting position to kick off the seventh race of the NASCAR Cup Series’ title run. Taking the green flag for the opening stage, Byron hovered around ninth for what built into a 43-lap stretch en route to the first caution of the day. With a mix of pit strategy already seen down pit road, the Rudy Fugle-led team were among the group that called for a two-tire stop, ultimately gifting his driver a spot on the front row for the restart and a 10-lap run to the stage end. Byron put up a valiant fight during a three-wide battle for the lead within the first couple of laps after the restart, a stint that saw him lead his first lap of the day. Despite losing the battle to those on four fresh Goodyear tires, Byron was able to muscle his way into a solid sixth-place points-earning effort to conclude Stage One.
Stage Two:
A mix bag of strategies once again saw Byron lineup 11th, the third car on a four-tire strategy, for the start of Stage Two. On an alternate two-tire strategy, the Randall Burnett-led No. 88 team made the jump up into the top-five to lead the Bowtie brigade to the restart and the next 125-lap run. Zilisch’s teammate, Ross Chastain, had a set of four fresh Goodyear tires on his Chevrolet for the start of the stage, ultimately enabling him to drive up into the seventh position during the beginning laps of the stage. While on a tire deficit from his teammate, the rookie held his ground through much of the green flag run, staying within the top-nine to give Trackhouse Racing a solid showing en route to the first green flag pit cycle of the afternoon. The cycle kicked off on Lap 122, right at the halfway mark of the stage, with crew chief Brandon McSwain calling his driver to pit road six laps into the cycle from the sixth running position. A quick green flag pit cycle saw Chastain, along with his Team Chevy teammate, Chase Elliott, reenter and settle into the top-10 as the green flag laps continued to count down in the stage. Taking his turn in the top position for the Chevrolet camp, Elliott sat in the ninth position when a caution flew with 29 laps to go in the stage for Austin Dillon, who’s early top-15 campaign came to an early end when a flat tire led his No. 3 Chevrolet into the wall. With a four-tire and fuel call by crew chief Alan Gustafson under the caution, an one-position gain in the race off pit road put Elliott in the fourth row for a 22-lap run to the end of the stage. Overall happy with the gains in the balance of his No. 9 Chevrolet, Elliott remained as the manufacturer’s leading driver when he took the second green-white checkered flag in the 10th position.
Final Stage:
With a stellar three-position gain in the race off pit road during the stage break, Elliott found the fourth row once again to lead Chevrolet to the green flag for the final stage of the race. While a long green flag run took over much of the final stage, Elliott remained a steady fixture within the top-10. Sitting in the ninth position, a caution flew for his teammate, Kyle Larson, whose already turbulent day came to an end when he suffered a flat tire with 29 laps to go in the race. Gustafson was one of just three crew chiefs that made the gamble to stay out during the caution. The call moved Elliott back up into a spot on the front row to lead the field to the restart for the final 19 laps around the desert oval. While on a tire deficit, Elliott showed the strength of his Chevrolet as he managed to hold onto the third position to go on and lead the manufacturer to the checkered flag and claim his seventh top-five finish of the season.
Team Chevy Unofficial Top-10 Results
Pos. Driver
3rd – Chase Elliott 7th – Daniel Suarez 9th – Ross Chastain
Chevrolet’s season statistics with 33 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase will continue at Talladega Superspeedway with the YellaWood 500 on Sunday, October 25, at 2 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Post-Race Driver Quotes:
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 9th
“We put together a solid weekend at Phoenix in the Busch Light Chevrolet. We stayed towards the front in track position all day and made small adjustments. We went through the range of weather from starting overcast and cooler to the sun coming out and it really heating up. It feels good to leave Phoenix with a ninth-place finish and have a good day overall.”
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Sidelined by damage sustained from a tire issue during Stage Two.
Finished: 37th
“Unfortunate ending for the No. 3 Dow Arm & Hammer Chevrolet at Phoenix Raceway. We had a strong Chevrolet and I’m really proud of the work the No. 3 team put into giving us a good car this weekend. We were going forward, passing cars and having fun. We cut a right-rear tire in Stage Two and ended up in the wall. I wish I would have recognized that a tire was going down sooner, but I just thought it was rubber build up or something, and at that point, there was nothing we could do. We had too much damage to come back from. We’ll make notes and regroup before going to Talladega next weekend.”
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Sidelined by damage sustained from a tire issue in the final stage.
Finished: 34th
“This No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet wasn’t going to quit today. We never found the improvements we needed, so that was a bummer. I didn’t expect to be good, but I didn’t expect to be that bad either. It wasn’t a lot of fun today, but we were just trying to salvage what we could of the day. We’ll go to Talladega (Superspeedway) and try to forget about today and get back after it. We’ve done well at the superspeedway’s, so hopefully we can execute, get some points and keep ourselves in the hunt.”
Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 7th
“We had a little bit of everything today, good and bad pit stops, and some challenges we had to overcome. We fought all day, and this No. 7 Freeway Insurance team never gave up. The guys kept working, and we were able to fight our way back and get another top 10 this season. I’m proud of this team and the effort everyone put in.”
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 3rd
How did you hang on there at the end?
“Honestly, I was really surprised. I thought more people would stay out. I’m curious to see if those guys had scuffs, or if they had already burnt their scuffs earlier and had stickers on. In our situation, the call was going to be two tires and they were going to be two scuffs. That didn’t really do a whole lot for me in my head at that point in time. I thought that maybe if we could get a couple rows of a buffer, we’d be okay. But I’m really proud of this No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet team for putting together a solid day. It’s been a while since we’ve had one, so that was nice. We made some legitimate improvements, I thought, which was encouraging. The No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) got me there through (turns) one and two on the restart, but to settle in and be able to hold the rest of those guys off, I thought it was solid. I’m looking forward to finishing these next three races off strong and be more prepared and ready for next year.”
Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 24th
“Our FICO Chevrolet was decent in the first two stages and we were consistently a top-20, 21st-place car. Our car fired off free on entry and exit, tight rolling in the center. We were burning the right rear tire off it but once we made an adjustment, the car reacted positively. Right after our green flag stop, I found something with a line that definitely worked better. I just needed to be tightened up in Turns 1 and 2. Unfortunately the next adjustment didn’t fix the problem and netted out negative for our balance. We flipped back and forth from loose to tight in the final stage. Glad we finished inside the top-25 when it’s all said and done, and we can learn a few things from today to help in the future.”
“It was a decent day at Phoenix Raceway for this No. 88 Jockey 150th Anniversary Chevrolet team. I thought we fired off the race really well. We did a good job in qualifying to get the car where we needed it to be, but it just didn’t quite keep up with the track as the race went on. It started to slip a little bit there near the end. We still recovered for a top-20 and a decent finish to look forward to Talladega (Superspeedway).”
About General Motors
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