NASCAR Friday schedule at Texas Motor Speedway

Texas Motor Speedway will be busy for more than eight consecutive hours with practice, qualifying and racing for the Truck and Xfinity Series.
The Truck series will practice and qualify in the afternoon for a 167-lap race that will begin at 8 p.m. ET (FS1).
NASCAR Xfinity Series Ag-Pro 300 - Qualifying
Connor Zilisch to sit out Texas Xfinity race after Talladega crash; Kyle Larson to drive No. 88 car
Advertisement
Connor Zilisch sustained lower back injuries in the last-lap Talladega crash.
The Xfinity Series will practice and qualify for a 200-lap race Saturday.
The Cup Series garage also will open for five hours Friday for technical inspections ahead of practice and qualifying Saturday.
AUTO: APR 06 NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400
Good news, bad news for NASCAR teams ahead of Texas Cup weekend
Chase Elliott looks to score his first Cup points win since last year's Texas race, while Ryan Blaney seeks to end recent struggles.
Texas Motor Speedway schedule
(All Times Eastern)
Friday, May 2
Garage open
9:30 a.m. - midnight — Truck Series
12 - 7:30 p.m. — Xfinity Series
2 - 7 p.m. — Cup Series
Track activity
2:35 - 3:30 p.m. — Truck practice (No TV)
3:40 - 4:30 p.m. — Truck qualifying (No TV)
5 - 5:55 p.m. — Xfinity practice (CW App)
6:05 - 7 p.m. — Xfinity qualifying (CW App)
8 p.m. — Truck race (167 laps, 250.5 miles, Stage 1 at Lap 40, Stage 2 at Lap 80; FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Weather
Friday: Scattered thunderstorms in the a.m. and cloudy skies later in the day with a high of 72 degrees. Winds from the north-northeast at 10 to 15 mph and a 50% chance of rain. It's expected to be 70 degrees with a 24% chance of rain at the start of the truck race.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

USA Today

31 minutes ago

• USA Today

USC football countdown to kickoff continues—Cyrus Hobbi in focus

The countdown to USC's 2025 football season is officially on! The Trojans kick off their new campaign 69 days from today. You need something to help you while away the days and hours in the spring and summer. This is one way to do so. In this new series, countdown to kickoff, we will be counting down the days by highlighting a notable Trojan who wore each number. The options for No. 69 are rather limited, but today, we take a look at former USC offensive lineman Cyrus Hobbi. Position: Offensive line Years played at USC: 2011-2015 Career highlights: After redshirting in 2011, Hobbi served as a reserve offensive lineman for the Trojans for the next four years. He saw playing time at both offensive guard and center, even making occasional spot starts when called upon. He wore the No. 69 for his first three years on campus, before switching to No. 47 following the 2013 season. After USC: Hobbi did not get the opportunity to play professional football. Instead, however, he has pursued another passion of his: acting. A theater major during his time at USC, Hobbi has earned several acting roles over the past five years, perhaps his most notable of which being Yuri on the popular ABC television show General Hospital.

Newsweek

2 hours ago

• Newsweek

Drivers Deliver Verdict On New NASCAR In-Season Challenge with $1M Prize

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. NASCAR drivers have shared their excitement at the new in-season tournament set to begin from the next race, especially considering the impressive $1 million prize money. The upcoming five races in the Cup Series will be treated as a tournament, and the seedings have been set after the race at Pocono. With a 32-driver field, each one will be slotted according to their best finish in Michigan, Mexico, and Pocono. NASCAR drivers compete in five head-to-head races starting from the next round. Each winner will advance to the following round, with the field narrowing until the tournament winner is declared. After the race in Atlanta, the field will narrow down to 16 drivers, then to 8 following the race in Chicago. A general view of racing during the NASCAR Cup Series The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 22, 2025 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. A general view of racing during the NASCAR Cup Series The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 22, 2025 in Long Pond, the race at Sonoma, only 4 drivers will remain, and after the round at Dover, two drivers will battle at Indianapolis for the grand prize. These races will be separate from the regular Cup Series races. Joey Logano loved the idea of a mid-season tournament, given the extra bit of excitement it would bring to a regular NASCAR season. He said: "Yeah, I love it. I think it's great. I think it's placed perfectly where it is in the season. This is kind of that moment where the newness has worn off, right? Like we're into the rhythm. We're racing every week." He added: "It's not like really the main story quite yet. So this really spices up the mid part of the season. We have a long season, so just kind of changing it up and adding something to it is great, and the in-season tournament, it's cool." Chase Elliott said the idea was a great way to spice things up and welcomed the initiative to make the sport more exciting. He said: "The season is so long, and anyway, you can spice up the year and have something else going on within our season is ultimately good not only for the fans but also for us. "I think it's exciting for us to have something else going on in any given weekend. It's the first time we've done it, and I'm curious to see how it plays out. I think it's a good addition, and I'm glad to see us try new things." Ryan Blaney admitted that the tournament was a unique concept to have mid-season. He said ahead of the race in Michigan: "I think it's a unique thing to have in the middle of the year. It's definitely going to be something on people's minds starting this week. "Qualifiers are this week and it goes for three weeks, and then we get going. So, I think it's in the back of people's minds. I wasn't sitting around this week like, 'Alright, in-season tournament time.' You just try to run the best you can, and then I think when you get into that five-week stretch of the tournament, you're going to be aware of who you're racing — like, who am I up against this week? "You're definitely going to be aware of that because there is a lot of money and pride if you win the thing. So, it's like a five-week all-star race, kind of. You're always going to be thinking about that. "You can go the easy route and say, 'Well, if I just win all five races, I'm going to beat everybody and win the deal.' And I guess that's a mindset you can have, for sure."

Forbes

4 hours ago

• Forbes

Amazon Prime Ends Its NASCAR Experiment With Plenty To Brag About

CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA - MAY 25: A detail view of a "NASCAR Prime" helmet on the on the Amazon ... More Prime Video set prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 25, 2025 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) Not long ago, if you'd told someone from the older generation that one day NASCAR races would be watched on the internet—without a single cable or satellite dish in sight—they'd have laughed, then asked what channel the internet was on. We're talking about a generation that grew up fiddling with rabbit ears on top of a black-and-white television just to catch a fuzzy glimpse of the Daytona 500—and still expects the morning newspaper to land with a satisfying thump on the driveway at sunrise. And yet, here we are. The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway marked the start of something new: the first time a full NASCAR Cup Series race was streamed exclusively. No traditional broadcast. No cable. Just you, your internet connection, and a new era. Some skeptics braced for buffering, crashes, or missing the green flag while the app updated. But what actually happened was something else entirely: it worked. It turned out to be one of the most innovative, polished, and downright thrilling broadcasts NASCAR fans have seen in years. This wasn't a cautious toe-dip into the digital future. This was a cannonball off the high board—and in the end, Amazon and NASCAR stuck the landing. BROOKLYN, MICHIGAN - JUNE 08: (L-R) The NASCAR on Prime Video broadcast team Danielle Trotta, Carl ... More Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Corey LaJoie talk on set prior to the NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 08, 2025 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Photo by) From the on-screen Burn Bar that showed fuel consumption in real time to pre-race packages that felt like NFL Films had invaded the infield, Amazon Prime's production team didn't just bring NASCAR into the streaming era—they took it to school. The camera work was sharp. The graphics were clean without being intrusive. The audio mix made it feel like you were in the pits with a headset on. And the pre- and post-race segments? Let's just say, if you're one of the traditional networks, you should be looking over your shoulder. A new bar has been set. So what gave Amazon—and NASCAR—the confidence to believe streaming would finally land with this audience? "To me, it's less about streaming than people might think," said Alex Strand, Senior Coordinating Producer at Prime Video, who was at the center of it all. "In the end, our goal is fan first. Whether that's Thursday Night Football, National Women's Soccer League, or NASCAR, we're really fan first.' Strand and his team didn't recycle an old playbook. They came at this with a blank slate—though not without lessons learned from Prime's Thursday Night Football broadcasts. Finding their identity was key. 'One big thing has been our postgame show. For TNF, Nightcap gave us a platform to go deep and be the first voice people hear," Strand said. "For NASCAR… you could really talk for three hours. You've got 36 teams and 36 storylines. It's one of the unique challenges—but the approach still fits." That approach resulted in pre- and post-race coverage that felt less like a broadcast and more like an immersive experience. Fans got emotion, analysis, and context without being rushed off the air. Part of that came from the chemistry between Corey LaJoie and Carl Edwards—the fan-favorite driver who returned to the sport and slipped into his new role with the same ease, and talent, he once showed climbing into a race car. Add in visual tools like the now-famous Burn Bar—which showed live fuel consumption data in a simple, intuitive graphic—and suddenly you're not just watching a race, you're understanding it in real time. LEBANON, TENNESSEE - JUNE 01: A general view of the NASCAR on Prime Video broadcast set after the ... More NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on June 01, 2025 in Lebanon, Tennessee. (Photo by) "We have the general belief at Amazon that fans can tolerate more data," Strand said. "Take things that are really advanced and present them in really simple ways. It's the same with our 'defensive alerts' in football—a little red circle might mean something different to a casual fan than it does to a strategist, but it works either way." The Burn Bar was developed in-house, using the same real-time NASCAR telemetry available to other networks. But the model powering it? Proprietary Amazon tech, with a little help from Amazon Web Services. So what was the mood the night before this high-speed baptism—Amazon's first green flag at Charlotte, no cable safety net, millions watching, and just enough time to wonder if they'd accidentally left the lens cap on while hoping the Burn Bar wouldn't spontaneously combust? "Excitement," Strand said. "Everybody in the crew was pumped…We'd been talking about this for 18 months. We knew the responsibility, and there was a lot of thought that went into how we got on air for the first time. But in Charlotte? The prevailing feeling was excitement." That excitement was contagious. Viewers and even industry insiders praised the coverage. And while traditional Nielsen ratings aren't the currency of streaming, Amazon saw exactly what NASCAR hoped for: a younger demographic tuning in. "Our belief is that by creating a great show, telling the story of a race or an NFL game... if we do that right, fans will come," Strand said. "We saw it in the UK with the Premier League. We've seen it with the NFL. Have fun while you're doing it, and the viewership will come. 'Certainly, a younger demographic is an exciting thing—but it's not our only goal. Our goal is to serve the entire fan base." The numbers, while not record-breaking, were right where Prime expected them to be for a first-year foray into a new platform—solid enough to build on, especially with younger audiences. "It's been really cool and encouraging to see these numbers come in in year one," Strand said. "It's something we're really happy about." DAYTONA BEACH - FEBRUARY 18: A cameraman holding a CBS camera at the Daytona 500 racing event, on ... More February 18, 1979, at Daytona Beach, FL. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) And for those fans who still miss the newspaper and swear their DVR is smarter than they are, Prime made the transition surprisingly seamless. Free trial offers, user-friendly interfaces, and a commitment to continuous improvement have made streaming feel less like a chore and more like an upgrade. "Our goal is always to make sports streaming as accessible as possible," Strand said. "At Amazon, we have a saying: it's always Day One. That means we keep looking for ways to do it better." As the five-race run concluded at Pocono, the energy didn't wane. "You spend a whole season on a tour, it becomes work. But with this five-race stretch? It's been pure joy," Strand said. "Everyone shows up smiling. Carl Edwards and Corey LaJoie are genuinely excited to be watching races together.' Amazon isn't talking specifics about its future NASCAR involvement beyond the current deal just yet, but Strand confirmed that the debrief and development process will begin immediately. "Every week we've made changes and improved," he said. "That process begins right away for whatever comes next. We'll continue to watch the rest of the season just like we always have, and keep thinking about how we can make our coverage as good as it can be." So now what? The grand streaming experiment is over—for this season. NASCAR heads into the heat of summer and the heart of the championship push. Amazon hands off the baton, but it's clear that fans—and other broadcasters—have taken notice. Strand knows exactly what he wants fans to do: "Keep coming. We want people to be consuming the Cup Series year-round… If we've gained any new viewers, we hope they stick around. The more people around, the better it is for the sport.' And if that means Grandpa learns how to use a Fire Stick? Even better.