Latest news with #Pocono
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Automotive
- Reuters
Stubbs: Best tracks for 5 marquee drivers to claim first wins of '25
June 20 - With 16 races of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season complete going into Sunday's 400-miler at Pocono Raceway, several stars remain winless as the circuit nears the halfway mark. Here are five big-name drivers who have yet to win this season -- and the track where they're most likely to break through. --Chase Elliott Elliott has been consistent this year, as he sits fourth in points and has yet to finish outside the top-20. But that consistency hasn't translated to race-winning speed very often, as Elliott has only led 95 laps. This is a rare situation where numbers do lie -- statistically, the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has looked the part of a championship contender, but he's failing the eye test. Pocono history: 15 starts, one win (2022), four top-fives, 10 top-10s Track where's most likely to break through: Watkins Glen (Aug. 10) Elliott has won twice before at Watkins Glen, and while his last victory at the New York road course came in 2019, it remains one of his best tracks. Eliott has not won on a road course in the Next-Gen car, but he's finished top-five in both road course races this season. --Tyler Reddick Big things were expected of Reddick after a Championship 4 appearance in 2024, but those expectations are yet to be realized. The No. 45 team has shot itself in the foot several times in recent weeks, and while Reddick is all set to coast into the playoffs on points, it's slightly worrying that he's been unable to get back to victory lane in the 23XI Racing Toyota. Pocono history: Seven starts, zero wins, two top-fives, four top-10s Track where he's most likely to break through: Chicago Street Course (July 6) Reddick was the runner-up in Chicago a year ago and has turned into a fantastic road racer in recent years. Chicago is as big of a wild card as any race on the schedule, but that may be exactly what Reddick needs in order to see the checkered flag. --Chase Briscoe Briscoe's first year at Joe Gibbs Racing has seen its share of highs and lows and his playoff positioning is in jeopardy, but a win would solve that problem. A lack of overall pace hasn't been the issue, seeing as Briscoe won three consecutive poles at Charlotte, Nashville and Michigan, but being unable to put an entire race together has cost the No. 19 Toyota team. Pocono history: Five starts, zero wins, zero top-fives, zero top-10s Track where he's most likely to break through: Dover (July 20) Dover hasn't been great for Briscoe, who doesn't have a top-10 at the track in four starts. But the No. 19 team with Martin Truex Jr. knew how to get around the "Monster Mile," as Truex won at the one-mile oval in 2023 and finished third in 2024. If crew chief James Small can use those notes, Briscoe could snag his first win with JGR. --Ryan Preece Preece and the brand new No. 60 team have put together a solid season so far for RFK Racing. He is only 19 points out of the playoffs going into Pocono, and has shown winning speed in several races this season. With a cut line that will be constantly moving over the next 10 weeks, a win is his best bet -- and his only sure one -- to make the playoffs. Pocono history: Eight starts, zero wins, zero top-fives, one top-10 Track where he's most likely to break through: Richmond (Aug. 16) Short tracks are clearly Preece's best track type, and while Richmond doesn't appear to be a great track for him on the stat sheet, it's probably his best shot to win at a non-superspeedway. --Kyle Busch For the second straight year, Busch is in danger of missing the playoffs. With his winless streak officially eclipsing two full seasons, a win for Busch in one of the last 10 races would be one of the biggest of his career. Pocono history: 37 starts, four wins (2017-19, 2021), 11 top-fives, 18 top-10s Track where he's most likely to break through: Daytona (Aug. 23) It's hard to trust that Busch and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevy will have winning pace at any track other than the drafting ovals of Atlanta and Daytona. Daytona in particular seems to be a better track for Busch, who had a runner-up finish at the 2.5-mile tri-oval in August 2024. --Samuel Stubbs, Field Level Media
NBC Sports
10 hours ago
- Automotive
- NBC Sports
How to watch Sunday's Cup race at Pocono: Start time, streaming info and weather
The NASCAR In-Season Challenge seedings will be set Sunday over 160 miles at Pocono Raceway. It's the last Cup Series event before the beginning of an inaugural five-race exhibition for $1 million. Denny Hamlin remains the top seed of the 32-driver field by virtue of his win at Michigan International Speedway. Because Mexico City winner Shane Van Gisbergen failed to qualify for the In-Season Challenge, the next two seeds are Chris Buescher and Christopher Bell. An eligible Pocono winner would clinch the second seed for the In-Season Tournament, which will begin June 28 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Mexico City marked the second of three seeding races for the 2025 In-Season Tournament. Here are the updated seeding positions following Mexico City, with one race remaining: Hamlin, who missed the inaugural race at Mexico City after the birth of his son, will return at Pocono, where he holds the Cup record with seven victories. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who finished runner-up to Ryan Blaney last year, is the only repeat winner in the past eight races at Pocono. Four organizations have combined to win the past 10 Cup races at Pocono: JGR (six wins), Hendrick Motorsports (two), Team Penske and the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing. Dustin Long, Details for Sunday's Cup race at Pocono Raceway (All times Eastern) START: The command to start engines will be given at 2:09 p.m. ... The green flag will wave at 2:20 p.m. PRERACE: The Cup garage will open at 11 a.m. ... Driver introductions are at 1:25 p.m. ... The invocation will be given at 2:01 p.m. ... The anthem will be performed by Generald Wilson, Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Retired, at 2:02 p.m. DISTANCE: The race is 160 laps (400 miles) on the 2.5-mile track. STAGES: Stage 1 ends at Lap 30. Stage 2 ends at Lap 95. ENTRY LIST: Click here for the 36 cars entered at Pocono Raceway. TV/RADIO: Prime will broadcast the race starting at 1 p.m. ... Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will have radio coverage. FORECAST: WeatherUnderground — A mixture of sunshine and clouds with a high of 86 degrees and winds from the west at 10 to 15 mph. It's expected to be 83 degrees with a 5% chance of racing for the start of the Cup Series race. LAST TIME: Ryan Blaney led a race-high 44 laps and won by 1.312 seconds over Denny Hamlin on July 14, 2024.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
NASCAR Friday schedule at Pocono Raceway
The Truck Series will take the spotlight Friday at Pocono Raceway, where the Xfinity garage also will be open. Trucks will be on track for practice at 12:35 p.m., followed by a 1:40 p.m. qualifying session to set the field for an 80-lap race. Advertisement The green flag will fall at 5:22 p.m. for the Truck Series. Corey Heim is the defending race winner. Cup Series team haulers will load in at Pocono at 3 p.m., but the garage won't open until Saturday when practice and qualifying will occur for Sunday's 400-mile race. NASCAR: NASCAR All-Star Race Good news, bad news for NASCAR Cup drivers ahead of Pocono weekend Denny Hamlin returns to the series this weekend after missing last weekend's race in Mexico for the birth of his son. Pocono Raceway Friday schedule (All Times Eastern) Garage open 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m. — Truck Series 11:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. — Xfinity Series Track activity 12:35 - 1:30 p.m. — Truck practice (FS2) 1:40 - 2:30 p.m. — Truck qualifying (FS2) 5 p.m. — Truck race (80 laps, 200 miles; Stage 1 at Lap 20, Stage 2 at Lap 40; FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) Weather Friday: Sunshine and clouds mixed with a high of 76 degrees. Winds from the west to northwest at 10 to 20 mph. It's expected to 74 degrees with a 1% chance of rain at the start of the Truck Series race.
Forbes
a day ago
- Automotive
- Forbes
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Set For Crew Chief Debut With Connor Zilisch
As if Nascar Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn't busy enough, he's giving himself one more crazy assignment. The two-time Nascar Xfinity Series champion will step on top of the pit box for the first time as a crew chief, working with JR Motorsports rookie driver Connor Zilisch during the Pocono Mountains 250 at Pocono Raceway. Earnhardt will replace regular crew chief Mardy Lindley, who was suspended by Nascar for missing a pair of lug nuts following a race at Nashville. Earnhardt, who is currently in an analyst role for Nascar on Prime Video, will be pulling double duty this weekend. He will be in his normal role with Amazon throughout the weekend's Cup Series events. Zilisch took the Nascar world by storm last year, winning in his Xfinity Series debut with JRM at Watkins Glen in dominating fashion. He inked a development deal with Trackhouse Racing, which formed a partnership with JR Motorsports to get him a full-time Xfinity Series ride in 2025. Zilisch won the third race of the year at Circuit of the Americas, and has been in contention to win several additional events. He missed a race at Texas after he injured his back a week prior at Talladega Superspeedway. Even after missing an event, he sits fifth in the Xfinity Series standings. Trackhouse has also begun to field a part-time fourth Cup Series team for Zilisch, with backing from Red Bull. He's already competed in a pair of Cup races at COTA and Charlotte, finishing 23rd in Nascar's longest race, the Coca-Cola 600. Earnhardt has not raced an Xfinity Series car this year, with no races planned for the first time since his 1996 debut. Last year, he finished seventh in his only race at Bristol.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Turning Point: Is Chase Elliott the sleeping giant of 2025?
Here's what's happening in NASCAR with the Viva Mexico 250 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in the rearview and The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by at Pocono Raceway up next. RELATED: How to watch Sunday's race on Prime Video | See Pocono entry list 1. Is Chase Elliott the sleeping giant of 2025? Mired in a glaring winless stretch, Chase Elliott is still quietly riding a wave of steady momentum under the surface. With unmatched consistency and a playoff spot all but secured, No. 9 heads to Pocono needing just one spark to light the wick. If it comes, a beast may awaken. Advertisement Chase Elliott hasn't won a race in more than a year, and he hasn't come particularly close to doing it in 2025. The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion just isn't finding the front of the field, leading in just a handful of races this year for a total of 95 laps and leaving the headline-grabbing trips to Victory Lane to names like Christopher Bell, William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson. But make no mistake: He's lurking. Quietly. Relentlessly. And if he turns up the wick before the playoffs hit, the rest of the field might not know what hit them. Elliott is doing something almost no one else in the Cup Series can claim: finishing races no matter what, no matter how. He's the only driver to place inside the top 20 in all 16 events this season, a feat of consistency he also managed last year and then some. He's completed all but one lap. He hasn't had a single meltdown, misstep, or mechanical disaster take him out of contention. His average finish — 11.19 — is third best in the series and on pace to be a career high. Advertisement Elliott and his longtime crew chief Alan Gustafson are just so in sync at this point that catastrophic days simply don't exist for the No. 9 team anymore. But here's where it gets complicated: The wins, along with the misses, have vanished. He's riding a 43-race winless streak dating back to April 2024, and we're not seeing him routinely battling for wins and settling for top fives like earlier in his career; he has just four such finishes this year, with Mexico (third) being his first in two months. For all the precision and polish, Elliott's recent results lack that killer edge we saw in the last generation of cars. He's remarkably and consistently good in the Next Gen — but he hasn't been great. Still, he's essentially a playoff lock. Sitting 146 points above the elimination line, his spot is nearly untouchable, though anything can happen over 10 races. But making the playoffs isn't enough — not for a 2020 champion; not for a guy who made his home in the Championship 4 for three straight years, not that long ago. Elliott's bar is higher, and the closer we get to the postseason, the more it feels like he's building toward something. And now? Pocono. A place where Elliott quietly actually does dominate in the Next Gen car — top 10 in every race since the debut, and more points earned there in it than anyone. Advertisement Even if it doesn't happen Sunday, Elliott has three road courses and his home track, EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), left before the playoffs. If he capitalizes on even one, the narrative around the No. 9 flips from 'steady but non-threatening' to 'surging and dangerous.' Just like nobody wanted to see Joey Logano sneak back into the Round of 8 last year after a penalty to the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet slotted him in, none of Elliott's peers want to see him and the No. 9 group clicking off wins again, because everybody knows they're capable of doing so in bunches. Everything points to it happening, however. The Dawsonville, Georgia native has been progressively climbing the mountain while others flame out or feast on spurts of short-term momentum from wins before fading. He doesn't beat himself on the race track, and it feels like he's one moment away from reminding everyone of the dominance that takes place when this team is at full strength. Advertisement If the switch flips soon, it won't be subtle. It'll be a wake-up call (siren?) for the whole garage — loud, sudden … and felt all the way to Phoenix. jeff gordon talks with chase elliott at pocono 2. Will anyone escape playoff no-man's land at Pocono? The playoff bubble is bursting with pressure, and Pocono might be the release point. For winless drivers like Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher and Bubba Wallace, this weekend isn't about survival or points racing — it's about breaking through before the window slams shut. In a NASCAR season that has felt, at times, a bit top-heavy with the superstars of the sport commanding dominion over Victory Lane, the real playoff chaos — as we saw in Mexico City — is going to come from the crowded underbelly of the standings. Advertisement With 10 races left before the field gets sliced to 16, the bubble isn't just bubbling — it's boiling. Three somewhat surprising names (Sunday's Mexico winner Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Cindric and Josh Berry) have already locked in with thrilling wins. The window to claim one's spot is shrinking, the pressure is rising and the next big shakeup may come from a winless driver, one of whom many expected to be locked up by now — or at least be in the running to defend his Regular Season Championship. The no-man's land of the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs picture is elbow-to-elbow, and the trick to getting out of the muck and the mire might come this weekend at Pocono. Start with Tyler Reddick, who has been much maligned for erratic finishes … but is also having the quietest elite season no one seems to be noticing. On the surface, his five top 10s in 16 races are not flashy, but he's second only to championship favorite William Byron in average running position, arguably a much better indicator than average race finish. He's clearly overdue, and he's a potential sniper for the Pocono win with four straight top 10s and two runner-ups in the last three. His average finish there since 2022? Best in the field, at a pristine 3.3. If the march to re-enter the RSC conversation is going to happen, it will start at Pocono. Advertisement Chris Buescher is in a similar boat, expected in pre-season chatter to be a more viable title contender this year than he's looked so far, but the gears are turning there. He'll certainly be in the mix at the remaining road courses as well, but in terms of this weekend, the former 'Tricky Triangle' winner is the only driver to finish top 10 at Pocono in each of the last two years, and he's still out-pacing his typical stats this season, with his eight 2025 top 10s being the most he's had through 16 races to date. He's clinging to the final playoff spot by just 19 points, but there's obviously something special about Pocono for him. It could all come together here. Reddick's teammate Bubba Wallace has looked like the better of the two at times this year, but — as he's shown over the years — brings a boom-or-bust profile. He's currently booming, however, following up three straight finishes of 33rd or worse with three straight of 12th or better and could stretch that into Pocono, where his three top 10s have all come in the past four races. If things go sideways late — and they often do — Wallace's top-ranked pit crew per NASCAR Insights could be the difference-maker. We just saw Alex Bowman, a former Pocono winner, snap a miserable run of bad luck at Mexico City in quite impressive fashion, and he has four top 10s in his last six Pocono starts. He's above the elimination line, but in absolutely no way is his position safe yet. Especially if someone like Erik Jones, with the speed Toyota is likely to have, sneaks up and shocks everybody. Outside the top 20 in points but still within striking distance of the postseason — again, no-man's land stretches far and wide — Jones has eight top 10s and five top fives in 13 starts at Pocono. And lately, he's trending up, with four top 15s in the last six races. If someone shocks the playoff picture this week, Jones has the resume to do it, but don't be surprised if any of these guys whittle out their playoff spot in Pennsylvania, because they're at a premium. cars race on track in mexico city 3. Why Stenhouse 'had every right' to be mad at Hocevar Steve Letarte and the crew discuss Carson Hocevar's incident with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and why the No. 77 sophomore driver still has much to learn at the Cup Series level. 4. Joe Gibbs Racing the clear team to beat at Pocono No organization has a better handle on the 'Tricky Triangle' than JGR's fleet of Toyotas, and they could be in position to strike once again Sunday. The championship organization leads in all the categories below since the start of 2017. (Credit: Racing Insights) Starts 52 Poles 5 Wins 7 Runner-ups 5 Top fives 23 Top 10s 35 Laps led 864 5. Catch the pack — news and notes from around the garage Paint Scheme Preview: 2025 Pocono Raceway weekend Advertisement Mexico City triumph turns SVG's season around, shakes up playoff order Power Rankings: Blaney aiming to double-up at the 'Tricky Triangle' NASCAR Insights: Ty Gibbs' stats shine in Mexico City rundown Inside the Race: Letarte on Gibbs: 'Liked almost what I didn't hear' Inside the Race: Analyzing Shane van Gisbergen's 'book' on road courses In-Season Challenge: Seeding update after Mexico City Inside the Race: Why Stenhouse 'had every right' to be mad at Hocevar Stenhouse confronts Hocevar on pit road after Mexico City race @nascarcasm: Fake texts to Mexico City winner SVG
