NASCAR SERIES

NASCAR garage excited for wild fan welcome during historic Mexico City weekend

MEXICO CITY – Great food, a warm welcome and a lot of curious diehard racing fans greeted NASCAR teams and personnel arriving in Mexico City this week for Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 NASCAR Cup Series race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (3 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez, a Mexican native, gave media members a list of his go-to restaurants. And race team members were commonplace strolling around the Angel of Independence monument on a downtown circle checking out local restaurants.

The NASCAR drivers all seemed eager about the sport’s first international points-paying race in half a century.

“So my favorite thing about Mexico -- it's been 20 years since I've raced here, but it's the fans,’’ said Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell, who competed at the Mexico City venue four previous times while sports car racing. “I just know how Sunday is going to be. It's incredible energy and incredible atmosphere.

“It feels like a festival and a concert and a race all happening at one time. Like I said, it was 20 years ago when I was here. But at the time, Luis Diaz and Mario Dominguez were racing, and those guys were heroes. Like every time they went into a corner, you heard the crowd cheer. And wherever they walked, the crowd went nuts.

“And I'm just like, I can't imagine what it's going to be like for Daniel (Suarez) on Sunday ... I really can't. It's going to be wild. But just the energy that the fans have here is electric.”

Friday marked opening practice for the NASCAR Cup Series – a 50-minute and 25-minute session – the first led none too surprisingly by McDowell and the second with Front Row Motorsports’ David Gilliand on top of the chart.

Gilliland’s speed of 93.18 mph in the No. 34 FRM Ford was fastest on the day, followed by Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain (93.041 mph) in the No. 1 Chevrolet. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs was third fastest in both practices with a quick lap of 92.864 in the second session. Tyler Reddick turned the most laps (35) in the combined practices.

The series will hold Busch Light Pole Qualifying Saturday at 2:05 p.m. ET (Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

*THE COUNTRYMAN

The at-track big screen candid photos included shots of Mexican native Daniel Suarez in the grandstands posing with fans. He could barely walk in the paddock without being stopped for an autograph and the fans watching Friday’s practice sessions were loudly cheering their hometown hero at every turn.

Suarez, who has tirelessly and enthusiastically done so much advance work to promote the Mexico City NASCAR race, said Friday he is humbled and amazed by the reception.

“The entire weekend has exceeded every single expectation I have had,’’ said Suarez, driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. “For that, I want to say thank you. ... Finally I am able to drive a car and not just talk about it and hopefully, I will have fun and continue to enjoy this moment. We are making history right now, not just NASCAR, not just me but the entire country of Mexico.

“This is something very special and shows that when these two countries work together, the sky’s the limit.’’

*TRUEX TIME TO SHINE

Joe Gibbs Racing announced this week that Ryan Truex will drive the No. 11 JGR Toyota at Mexico City for Denny Hamlin, who remained at home in Charlotte, N.C. after the birth of his son. Truex was smiles and optimism as he spoke with reporters Friday in advance of the opening practice session – well-aware what a big opportunity this race presented.

The timing actually works out well, he conceded, considering the majority of the NASCAR Cup Series drivers have never raced at the 2.42-mile Mexico City road course. So the more typical disadvantages he would face in a one-race opportunity are mitigated for his first start in the series in 11 years.

Truex’s last NASCAR Cup Series race was in 2014 when he drove for BK Racing. In all he made 26 series starts in the 2013-14 seasons but none for a team legitimately competing for race victories at the time.

Since joining the JGR operation, however, Truex – the younger brother of NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. - has proven himself competitive even in a part-time schedule - earning three NASCAR Xfinity Series trophies in the last two seasons. And as one of the team’s primary drivers on the simulator, Truex joked that he probably has run more miles on the Mexico City course than anyone else on the JGR team.

“It’s been a crazy few weeks – especially since Charlotte, I’ve been on standby,’’ Truex said. “I’m glad it is at a track where I can practice and have time and know what to do to. I found out on Wednesday night, so it has been kind of chaotic getting here and putting all of that together, but I’m just grateful for the experience and grateful to be here.

“Really just want to enjoy it. I don’t really have any set goals or expectations – I just want to enjoy the weekend. I’m driving a Cup car for Joe Gibbs at an international race – this is not something I ever dreamed of doing, just want to take it all in and have a good time.”

*SVG A FAVORITE

Trackhouse Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen, in his first fulltime season in the NASCAR Cup Series ranks, was quite optimistic about his chances this weekend at the series’ first ever race in Mexico City. After all, the 36-year old New Zealander and former Australian Super Cars champion won the inaugural Chicago Street Race in 2023.

The driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Chevrolet wouldn’t necessarily come out and declare himself the odds-on favorite for this weekend, but Van Gisbergen did smile when asked about his chances.

“I don't know, that’s your guys’ jobs, but I do know that we will be competitive if we get everything right,’’ Van Gisbergen said. “It's so hard to know what the car's going to be like – it’s a different track, how it's going to be affected by the altitude and the surface. … It's going to be interesting to feel what our cars are like in these conditions. But yeah, we should be up front. These are the types of tracks I'm good at, so we'll see.”

Ironically, the Mexico City road course race comes right after Van Gisbergen has shown considerable progress on ovals – certainly a different style of racing compared to the road courses where he established his career. He’s finished top-20 in three of the last four races, including a 14th at the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“You just feel the confidence in the team and even the pit crew guys,’’ he said of the progress. “Everyone's just uplifted the last few weeks. Not that everyone was down, but it was a bit of a grind. The last few weeks, things have started to come a lot easier.

“Our pit stop averages are much quicker. Just all the simple things were getting a lot better and better. My restarts are finally in the positive, with it being well negative for the first half of the year. Every single area, we seem to be getting a lot better in, so it's been fun.”

*4-TIME CHAMP GORDON WEIGHS IN ON HORSEPOWER INCREASE

Four-time NASCAR Cup Series champ and current Hendrick Motorsports executive Jeff Gordon was recently asked on a Barstool Sports podcast about changes the sanctioning body is considering for the cars and he was ready with a well-considered answer.

He doesn’t think the answer is as simple as increasing horsepower and bolting on softer tires, however.

“Adding horsepower I think, at certain tracks like the mile tracks and half-mile tracks, I like - I think we’re too glued to the race track right now,’’ said Gordon, whose team drivers William Byron and Kyle Larson are ranked first and second in the championship standings. “So, adding power, I like. Adding as much power as I think maybe it takes would do two things: number one, cost, I hate bringing up cost but we’re talking about components that won’t last. Not just in the engine. So that’s one.

“And then the other is,’’ he continued. “it might make the cars harder to drive and the drivers like it more but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a better race. Then on the Goodyear side of things they’re trying really, really hard. I’ve learned a softer tire doesn’t necessarily mean more fall-off and that’s what we want.

“We don’t need a softer tire, we need a tire that has grip and then falls off where the driver and team have to manage the tire wear.’’

MEXICO CITY – Amid much anticipation from fans and NASCAR teams alike, the NASCAR Cup Series has arrived in Mexico City for the series’ first points-paying international race in seven decades, Sunday’s aptly-named Viva Mexico 250 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (3 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The industry has long been preparing for this inaugural visit to the renowned 2.42-mile, 15-turn road course in the middle of bustling Mexico City. And perhaps no one is more eager for NASCAR’s Mexican arrival than Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez, who has made multiple visits to his home country in support of the event, excited to show the world-class facility NASCAR’s brand of Cup racing.

"I'm super excited, regardless of what happens on Sunday," said the Monterrey, Mexico-native Suarez, who has competed – and won three times – on the track’s oval-configuration while racing in the NASCAR Mexico Series, which will also be competing this weekend.

“I'm super excited for the event. I'm super excited to live in the moment because the first time is going to only happen once. I'm really trying to be as present as possible; enjoy the moment and try to execute the best possible weekend that we can. We know that we are capable of winning the race, but that's not the goal. The goal is the execution of the entire weekend, and hopefully the win is the result of the execution part.”

Suarez, who scored his first NASCAR Cup Series win on a road course at Sonoma, Calif. in 2022, has been a vital supporter of this initiative. For months, the popular driver has starred in the NASCAR commercials promoting the Mexican race – the script depicting him trying to teach fellow racers how to speak in Spanish.

"At first, I thought man, I don't know if this is going to work out, like, I don't think this is going to be funny," Suarez said smiling. “And honestly, it turned out amazing. I give a lot of credit to NASCAR for trying all these different things. I think people are liking it. Drivers are embracing it. And, obviously, I'm having fun with it. I'm the one teaching the language, so for the first time, I feel like I’m in my zone, so that’s good.”

Suarez is certainly among the group of drivers hoping a new venue may produce different results on the season. The driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet is ranked 28th in the championship with 11 regular season races remaining to set the 16-driver Playoff field.

Others traditionally considered road course aces similarly see this as a big opportunity to punch a Playoff ticket. Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman, Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger, Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell and Suarez’ Trackhouse teammate Shane Van Gisbergen are all some of the most talented road racers in the sport and all are still looking to earn a victory this season. Many still well below the 16th place Playoff cutoff line.

Interestingly, six of the 14 regular season races in the Next Gen Era have been won by drivers ranked 16th or worse in the standings at the time of their victory.

“Everyone expects us to perform on road courses," said the New Zealand-native Van Gisbergen, who made the ultimate NASCAR debut winning at the Chicago street race two years ago in his very first start.

“Not that we have been hanging out for it (road courses), but the ovals have been a big learning process the last couple of months. It will be nice for sure to have a bit of a break and races on the types of courses I'm used to which means turning right."

Hendrick Motorsports has won at eight different road courses – the most in NASCAR history. And four of the remaining 11 races will be on road courses.

Hendrick’s William Byron continues to lead the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings – up by 41 points on his teammate Kyle Larson heading to south of the border – and both are also considered favorites this weekend. Hendrick drivers – Byron (two), Larson (two) and Bowman (one) - have won five of the last eight road course races. If Elliott wins this weekend he would tie NASCAR Hall of Famer for second most road course wins all-time (eight).

Last week’s race winner, Denny Hamlin claimed his first career Xfinity Series win at the Mexico road course in 2006. He, Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch (who won the 2008 Xfinity Series race) and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Brad Keselowski are the only drivers to have raced at the circuit – competing in the Xfinity Series there.

RFK’s Chris Buescher, who finished runner-up to Hamlin last week at Michigan, boasts the best road course average finish (8.7) in the Next Gen cars.

Busch Light Pole Qualifying is set for Saturday at noon ET (Amazon Prime, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The NASCAR Xfinity Series marks its return to Mexico with Saturday afternoon’s The Chilango 150 (4:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The series has held four previous races at the famed Autodrome Hermanos Rodriquez – the last in 2008 won by Kyle Busch.

This is the second of seven road course races on the schedule. Series rookie, JR Motorsports’ Connor Zilisch won at Circuit of The Americas from pole position.

Reigning series champion, JR Motorsports Justin Allgaier earned his third win of the season in the series’ most recent race, two weeks ago at Nashville. It marks the fifth time in the last eight years, the veteran has scored at least three victories in a season. He holds a 92-point advantage in the championship standings over fellow three-race winner, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill.

The Illinois native has answered his first career title run with another top-shelf season in the No. 7 JRM Chevrolet. He leads all drivers in laps led (638) and top-10 finishes (10). He’s only eight top-10 finishes from 300 in his career – a feat never before accomplished in the series.

With 12 regular season races remaining and six Playoff spots still to be claimed, Mexico City certainly presents all the makings of an ultra-competitive weekend.

Sam Mayer and Ty Gibbs have the most road course wins (four) in this weekend’s field. Interestingly, nine of the series’ last 11 road course races have been won by just three drivers (Mayer, Shane Van Gisbergen and Zilisch). And Mayer, who is ranked third in the standings, is still looking for his first win of the year.

Gibbs (No. 19 Toyota) is among three NASCAR Cup Series regulars – also Suarez (No. 9 Chevy) and Christopher Bell (No. 24 Toyota) – racing Saturday. NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rookie, Andres Perez De Lara will be making his Xfinity Series debut.

Kennametal Pole Qualifying is slated for 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday (CW App) and historically has proven very significant on road courses with the polesitter winning 10 of the last 18 road course races.

In less than two weeks, the NASCAR Cup Series will race for points in an international land for the first time in nearly 67 years. The name of the track won't end in Speedway, Raceway, Motor Speedway, International Speedway or be called Circuit of fill-in-the-blank. The metropolitan Mexico City road course is an autodrome -- autódromo in the local language -- and it forever pays tribute to two national motorsports heroes.

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez takes its name from the two racing brothers -- Ricardo and Pedro Rodríguez -- who rapidly rose to speed-soaked stardom in a host of motorsports disciplines, including a brief involvement with NASCAR. Mexican pride soared with each accomplishment in their brief careers, which were tragically cut short in a pair of fatal crashes nearly nine years apart.

The national pride was a shared sensation. When the brothers -- Pedro, 21, and Ricardo then just 19 -- paired up in the 1,000 Kilometers of Paris in 1961 to clinch one of their first major grand-touring victories, a trio of festive mariachi muchachos serenaded their steel-gray Ferrari at the finish, strumming guitars in their sombreros as they straddled the straw-bale trackside barrier.

Years later, Pedro Rodríguez became the first Mexican driver to win a Formula One race, realizing one of his lifelong dreams in the 1967 South African Grand Prix. The triumph was a singular feat for decades until countryman Sergio Pérez's F1 breakthrough in 2020. "I felt an immense satisfaction for Mexico," Pedro Rodríguez, the elder of the two brothers, said post-race. "On the victory lap, tears started to flow from my eyes."

What happened next amid the fanfare nearly prompted Rodríguez to choke on his victory champagne. After the young driver rose to the top step of the podium, the band assembled trackside realized it did not know the Mexican national anthem. Instead, the musicians improvised by playing a tune called Jarabe Tapatío, or as it's known in English, the "Mexican Hat Dance." According to legend, Rodríguez always traveled with a recording of Himno Nacional Mexicano from that point forward.

Both brothers were prodigies, following the love of their father, Pedro Sr., into motorcycle racing. Don Pedro's success in the railroad industry and his later expansion into manufacturing and the hotel business afforded the family access to rare and sinewy sports cars, which became the children's gateway into four-wheeled motorsports. He carried his young sons on the handlebars of his bikes before they were able to ride on their own.

The two became motorcycle champions in their mid-teens, setting youth records as they explored other racing disciplines. Ricardo was just 18 when he teamed with Andre Pilette to finish second in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1960. The following year, Pedro joined him for the French endurance classic. The brothers led the race until an ignition short cost them precious time; after repairs, they rallied to second place before the Ferrari 250 they co-piloted expired with just two hours to go.

Undaunted, Ricardo established another benchmark later in 1961, becoming the youngest front-row starter in Formula One history. The 19-year-old started second for Ferrari in that year's Italian Grand Prix before a fuel-system failure sidelined him.

Wherever their travels took them, questions rarely focused on how they would perform, but whether they'd meet the minimum age requirements set by the racing commissions in each country or state. It's the hurdle they faced with their introduction to the NASCAR world in the spring of 1959 -- 19-year-old Pedro was allowed to compete against stock-car racing's older guard at Trenton (N.J.) Speedway; Ricardo -- then 17 -- was forced to manage the team from the pits.

Race promoter Sam Nunis took the youngsters on a sweeping publicity tour before the event, visiting television and radio stations and a host of newspapers' sports departments. Shortly after their entry was filed, the Paterson (N.J.) News reached out to veteran Lee Petty -- on his way that year to his third premier series title -- for comment. "I'm happy to hear the boys will race at Trenton in that 150-miler," the 45-year-old Petty said. "The more competition, the better. I don't reckon they'll beat me."

They nearly did, with the NASCAR Hall of Famer coming in fourth behind first-time winner Tom Pistone. Pedro Rodríguez's name was listed two spots behind Petty in sixth on the Trenton results sheet, ahead of such luminaries as Junior Johnson and Lee's son, Richard.

Their experience in NASCAR was limited, with the elder Rodríguez brother making just five more Cup Series starts, including a 13th-place outcome in the 1971 Daytona 500. Pedro's most distinguished effort, however, came in NASCAR's longest race in a deal that NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. helped facilitate.

Pedro Rodríguez arrived fresh from London on the Tuesday before the Charlotte event, telling reporters he had "heard a lot about the World 600 and had wanted to drive in it since it started." Holman-Moody hastily prepped a No. 51 Ford that Rodríguez drove to an impressive fifth-place run behind race-winning teammate Fred Lorenzen.

The result made an impression on the good-ol'-boy crowd, which had poked good fun at the perception of Rodríguez's nobility-class racing background. Rodríguez, however, poked right back.

"If you people don't quit calling me a sporty car driver," he joked, "I'm going to start calling you stocky car drivers."

The Rodríguez brothers' story, however, was interrupted by dual tragedies that left the nation mourning. Ricardo's signing as a Ferrari factory driver for the Grand Prix circuit had raised the younger brother's profile for the 1962 season. But the siblings were still regarded as a daredevil collective for their aggressive but fleet-footed style.

"If he lives, I'll be surprised," one fellow F1 driver confided with anonymity to The New York Times in May of that year, singling out Ricardo's approach in an era when racing's inherent danger was magnified. That eerie premonition came true just months later.

Ferrari opted out of that year's Mexican Grand Prix, which did not count toward the Formula One standings back then. Ricardo instead piloted a Lotus, which faltered in a high-speed section during practice runs, flipped over a barrier and burst into a fireball. He was just 20 years old.

Their father ran to the crash scene and fainted, declaring later: "Racing is over for all the family. This is the end." Ricardo had contemplated making the Mexico City event his final race, ending his motorsports career to start a family with his new bride and take a role in his father's industrial empire. Pedro considered the same path in the wake of his brother's death, but the lure of racing remained strong and his absence from the circuit was brief.

"The loss of my brother hurt me a great deal when it happened, but racing is my profession and I decided to continue," Pedro said years later, before his World 600 debut. "I try not to think about his death before races and when I'm driving now."

His career blossomed in the years that followed. Besides his two Formula One victories, Pedro Rodríguez won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Ford GT40 in 1968, adding a 24 Hours of Daytona triumph for Porsche to his portfolio three years later. Pedro was once considered to be the less polished of the two brothers, mainly for his knack at flinging his cars through tight corners. But he became known as "Ojos de Gato" -- "cat's eyes" -- for his extraordinary speed and composure while racing in rainy and nighttime conditions.

Pedro said a Grand Prix driver "probably feels about the same thing before a race that a matador does before he goes into the ring. It's fear that can make you crash. Before a race, I always think of something else. I never think about what could happen."

Just months after his Daytona Rolex win, Rodríguez had entered a lower-level sports-car race in Nuremberg, Germany, in part because he regarded the technical Norisring course's configuration as one of his favorites. "Some drivers like the shorter tracks they can become familiar with," he told The Associated Press. "I prefer the many curves. It's a challenge and I think it helps me."

But the course also challenged the limits of the Ferrari he was driving. In the 12th lap, his right-front tire detached from the rim, sending the car skidding into a barrier and a fiery end. Pedro Rodríguez was just 31.

Don Pedro spoke to the nation at his son's funeral: "You shared the triumphs of my son with me and now we are sharing the tragedy together."

Their legacy lives on five decades later, both in Mexico's history and in the Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City circuit that now honors their names. The NASCAR Mexico Series races that will be preliminaries to the Cup and Xfinity Series next week will be named the Pedro Rodriguez 100 and Ricardo Rodriguez 120 in tribute.

In their brief racing careers, the Rodríguez brothers created a lasting international legacy that reached beyond Mexico's borders. When NASCAR arrives next week for its first Cup Series race in the country, a new group of international visitors will experience that spirit.

"Motor racing is something that comes out of you," Pedro Rodríguez once said. "You have something -- something in the blood -- and it comes out. Nobody can teach you how to drive. You learn it."

Rightly so, Sunday’s race winner Denny Hamlin celebrated his dramatic victory in Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway with a huge burnout and even a wink-wink tease to those in the massive crowd who booed the Toyota driver’s clutch win in Detroit.

But as significant as Hamlin’s third win of the season was – the 57th of his NASCAR Hall of Fame bound career – the driver that finished runner-up to him had some legitimate reason to feel good too. In fact, Chris Buescher’s entire Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing team took Sunday’s checkered flag with some legitimate good vibes.

Buescher’s runner-up finish in the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford was his best showing of the season. And for the first time this year, all three of the RFK Ford Mustangs finished in the top-10 in a race.

It was exactly the kind of summer-swing boost the team needed as it heads to toward the final 11 regular season races to set the 16-driver Playoff grid.

“That was such a fast Kroger/Heinz Ford Mustang, I really appreciate everybody on this team working so hard to put us in this situation and to have a chance to win," said Buescher, the 2023 Michigan race winner.

“I’m disappointed I didn’t get it done. It’s on me. I had a couple different decisions I would love to go back and make and ultimately should have had us ahead of the 11. We were faster on the day and I didn’t do a good enough job. We’ll certainly take the good with it. We certainly need a little bit of good luck or fortune on our side.

“It hurts right now, but certainly there’s a ton of positive out of today," he continued. “Our car was so fast here from the time we unloaded off the truck yesterday. I’m certainly proud of that and excited for what we have to come, but there’s a little bit of a sting right now to be that close and miss out.”

Although Buescher’s took a self-critical assessment of his day in the immediate moments after climbing out of his car on pit road Sunday, looking at the big picture, Michigan represented a significant step forward for the team.

His teammate Ryan Preece finished ninth, the third top-10 in the last four races and sixth of the season. Owner-driver Brad Keselowski finished just behind in 10th-place for his second top-10 of the year – both coming in just the last three weeks, however.

“We had a really good car," Keselowski said. “I felt like we had a top two or three car and just didn’t get to see it through. I’m really disappointed.

“We kind of crushed ourselves on pit road with the speeding penalty and then having to go around the 45 and the 71. Every time we pitted we would lose a lot of spots. It wasn’t the pit crew’s fault, we just needed a better pit stall. I’m not really sure on the speeding penalty. I felt I was way slow, so getting called fast didn’t really add up, but we had the speed to do a lot more than we did today and I’m disappointed to not get that. Still, we’re reasonably happy with a top 10.”

The difference Sunday is that the drivers were disappointed because they were justifiably competitive. And that’s a step forward for a team that carries perpetual and legitimate high expectations.

Buescher is currently 14th in the Playoff standings 20 points to the good on the 16-driver Playoff grid. Preece is tied for 16th with Kyle Busch, but holds that final position “to the good” based on a higher race finish this season. Keselowski, whose had a rough start to the year, is ranked 32nd and will likely need a victory in these next 11 races to ensure his chance for a title run.

The series now moves to Mexico City for the inaugural race, the Viva Mexico 250 (3 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the world-renowned Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez road course. And there is reason for RFK to be optimistic.

Not only is this a first-time event for the entire field – an equalizer in itself - but Buescher, Preece and Keselowski are proficient road course racers. Buescher is the defending Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International race winner and has six top-five finishes on road or street courses. Preece has a pair of top-10s on road courses and Keselowski has seven top-10s over the course of his championship career.

“We’re in this stretch of races where we’ve won at a few of these things," Buescher said. “We’ve run really strong at a lot of others. We’re gonna get in the summer where it’s gonna get hot and we’re gonna start catching a few drivers off guard here or there.

“Ultimately, there’s a lot of good racetracks coming up for some good racing for us, selfishly at RFK and probably some good ones for some other teams as well. We’ll see where it all plays out, but I guess, for us, I don’t think we have any racetracks on the schedule that we don’t feel good about. One, it’s fun to have that mindset and not have to head into a race weekend just hoping to get through it, and that comes from fast race cars.”

With Ryan Blaney’s victory last week at Nashville, Team Penske became the first team to land all drivers – including their partner team Wood Brothers Racing – into the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

But it’s Hendrick Motorsports that remains atop the championship standings heading into Sunday’s Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway (2 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – and one of the former series champs in the four-driver Hendrick lineup is hoping to finally secure his place in the upcoming Playoffs with a win.

Chase Elliott, the 2020 NASAR Cup Series champion, had a tremendously good start to his career on the two-mile Michigan high-banks scoring runner-up finishes in the first three races he ran there (2016-18). And surprisingly considering that start, the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has never won at the track. He finds himself, however, primed for a trophy-hoist this weekend.

Elliott is the highest ranked driver without a victory this season – fifth in the championship standings with top-10 finishes in half the races (seven). At Michigan International Speedway, he earned an amazing 10 top-10 finishes in his first 11 starts. But he hasn’t had any in the three races afterward – his worst showing 36th in 2023 was a result of being collected in a crash only 34 laps into the race.

Mention Michigan to Elliott and his face lights up. It’s absolutely a track where he feels legitimately optimistic to score that first victory of 2025. He is the only driver to finish among the top-20 in all 14 races this season and has the third best average finish (11.5) in the series.

“It's always good to go to Michigan and have a good run," Elliott said. “It's certainly changed a lot over the years, just with how the cars have changed. But the race track itself is the most consistent place I've ever seen for a racetrack that has those hard winters.”

Elliott’s teammate, the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, William Byron remains atop the championship standings, extending his lead over teammate Kyle Larson to 48 points. Hendrick Motorsports is the only team to have at least one of their four cars finish in the top-five in all 14 races this year.

Larson is tied with Team Penske’s Joey Logano for most wins (three) at Michigan among active drivers, but his last was in 2017.

The last four Michigan races have been won by different drivers – three of them in Fords (Chris Buescher, Kevin Harvick and Blaney). The exception is defending race winner, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick in a Toyota. He too is looking for his first victory of the year, after claiming the 2024 regular season title.

To that point, the intensity is certainly picking up now that the regular season is more than half-way over. Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch – the 2011 Michigan winner – sits on the Playoff cutoff line in 16th place with five drivers within 13 points of him heading into the weekend.

Interesting to note, no Michigan native has ever won at his “home track.” RFK Racing owner/driver Brad Keselowski has three runner-up finishes. Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones, who earned his second top-10 of the season last week, has claimed top-10 finishes at Michigan in two of the last three races.

Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar is coming off his second runner-up finish this year – tying a career best. He led three laps and finished 10th in his Michigan NASCAR Cup Series debut last year.

The top-32 drivers in the standings have qualified for the inaugural “In-Season Challenge” program and the next three races – at Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono – will seed the brackets. The first of five races for the In-Season Challenge is June 28 at Atlanta’s newly renamed, EchoPark Speedway.

Practice followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying gets underway at 9:30 a.m. ET on Saturday (Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series wraps up a busy six consecutive weeks of competition on Saturday afternoon at Michigan International Speedway with the DQS Solutions & Staffing 200 Powered by Precision Vehicle Logistics (Noon ET on FOX, NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

This marks the first time since 2020 that the series has raced at the two-mile track nestled just outside Detroit. Zane Smith – now a NASCAR Cup Series regular - claimed his first ever win in the Truck Series the last time the trucks raced at Michigan. No current fulltime drivers have won there but plenty have competed there. ThorSport Racing is the only team with a previous win.

The track has historically been ultra-competitive, with 15 winners in the last 16 races. And qualifying has shown to be important with the race winner starting 10th or better in the last 11 Michigan races.

The season’s four-time race winner, TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim leads the championship standings – extending his advantage to 122 points over McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Daniel Hemric. Front Row Motorsports’ Chandler Smith and Hemric’s teammate Tyler Ankrum round out the top four in the driver standings.

The last four races coming into Michigan have been won by four different drivers – NASCAR Cup Series regular Carson Hocevar, Smith, Heim and Rajah Caruth, last week.

Five of the 10 Playoff positions have been claimed by virtue of a victory with six races remaining to set the final Playoff field. Reigning series champ Ty Majeski is still racing for his first win of the season and sits in that 10th and final transfer position - 48 points up on rookie Giovanni Ruggiero.

Practice and Kennametal Pole Qualifying for the race will be Saturday morning beginning at 8 a.m. ET on FS1.

Admittedly, Ryan Blaney considered his victory at Nashville Superspeedway Sunday night almost as much a sigh of relief as it was a rush of celebration. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion has led races and been ranked among the top-10 in the championship points standings all season only to have strange circumstances and just plain bad luck derail his chance at a trophy hoist.

He's had five DNFs through the opening 14 races – including three consecutively in March. It’s double the number of any other competitor in the top-15 in the points standings. No one has more in the series.

At Homestead-Miami Speedway, Blaney led 124 of the first 207 laps – more than half the race – when his No. 12 Team Penske Ford suffered an engine problem and he had to retire. At Talladega, Ala. and Charlotte he was collected in a crash not of his own doing.

Yet, he’s had top-five finishes – TOP-FIVE FINISHES – in all but two of the nine other races that he was able to finish. Sunday night at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway he was finally given the karmic-green flag to make good on the good effort he gave.

And it all bodes well for Blaney and Team Penske as the NASCAR Cup Series moves to Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s Firekeeper’s Casino 400 (2 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“It means a lot because it’s just been pretty rocky this year and had a lot of misfortune and a lot of down times, just crappy things happening to us, and it's like, man, what do we got to do to just finish these races or close one out and just kind of things go our way," Blaney said Sunday night.

"So, I think that was more -- it's kind of like, I don't want to say relief, but just like, okay, finally nothing crazy happened and we were able to just run our own race and bring the speed and execute and do our job very, very well.

“It was nice to finally get in Victory Lane tonight after a rocky start to the year.”

Blaney’s work was obviously a personal triumph – marking his eighth season with at least one win in NASCAR’s big leagues – but it also boldly reminded the field that the reigning NASCAR Cup Series championship Penske organization is on top of things. Again.

The storied team has won the last three NASCAR Cup Series titles with Logano in 2022, Blaney in 2023 and Logano scoring his third in 2024.

And now with the regular season just halfway complete, all three Penske drivers, Blaney, Logano (Texas) and Austin Cindric (Talladega, Ala.) already have victories and therefore Playoff berths - as does Penske’s affiliated team, Wood Brothers Racing with driver Josh Berry (Las Vegas). No other multi-car team has qualified its entire lineup yet.

“I've been really proud of Team Penske and the Wood Brothers speed this year so far through the first dozen races," Blaney said. “For the last couple years, we've struggled a little bit kind of getting going before the summer months, and I think we've figured it out come the fall and things like that or late summer.

“But I thought we just fired off this year with tons of speed, and was really proud of their efforts over the winter for that and carrying over what we accomplished at the end of last year and bringing it bigger and better at the start of this year.

"So, it's great to have everybody with a win and everybody locked in there, and hopefully we can just continue to rack it up. It's nice that we have all the speed and all the teams are working very well together right now. Between myself and the 22, 2, 21, we're all really in sync right now, and that's tough to get when all four teams are really communicating great and we're all playing off each other. That's a really great thing that we have going on at our race shop.”

The encouraging news for Blaney is that the next races on tap have been good venues for the 31-year old. This week the series moves to the Michigan two-miler, where Blaney won in 2021. The following week the sport holds its first international points-paying event on the famed Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez road course in Mexico City, Mexico. And Blaney has positive history at road course debuts, winning the first race at the Charlotte ROVAL in 2018.

The sport returns to the U.S. the following week for its annual stop at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, where Blaney earned his career first victory in 2017.

"Michigan is kind of a unique place, but I feel really good about how our kind of mile-and-a-half program has been this year," Blaney said. “It's bigger than a mile-and-a-half, but a lot of the same tendencies as some of the mile-and-a-halves that we go to. So, I'm curious to see where we're going to be at next weekend. The run that we had at Pocono last year was definitely good, getting to Victory Lane there. So, you just hope to keep building off those things. It definitely makes me look forward to next week.

“I always try to look forward to the next week, no matter if we win the race or run 35th," Blaney continued. “I always try to close the book Monday morning and move on to next week and look forward to having a shot at winning, running well.

“I think it bodes well. Like I said earlier, I think our speed is really good, and that is kind of across short tracks and speedways and mile-and-a-halfs and two miles. So hopefully we can have a good run -- big weekend next weekend for Ford and RP [team owner Roger Penske] being in their backyard.”