Chase to Sprint Cup championship begins today

By Dustin LongSep 16, 2016, 11:00 AM EDT

Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images

Sprint Cup cars hit the track today at Chicagoland Speedway, beginning the quest for 16 teams for the series title.

Four drivers will be eliminated after each three-race round, leaving only four drivers to vie for the title in Miami in November.

Here’s a look at those drivers and teams going for the championship.

Kyle Busch

Points: 2012

Wins: 4 (Martinsville I, Texas I, Kansas I, Indianapolis)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 10.0

Recent Chase history: 2015 champion. Eliminated in 2nd round in 2014

Notable: Has led more laps (1,244) than any other driver this season.

Crew chief: Adam Stevens (2nd Chase)

Pit crew: Josh Leslie (front tire changer), Brad Donaghy (front tire carrier), TJ Ford (jackman), Jake Seminara (rear tire changer), Kenny Barber (rear tire carrier), Tom Lampe (gas man).

Brad Keselowski

Points: 2012

Wins: 4 (Las Vegas, Talladega I, Daytona II, Kentucky)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 11.1

Recent Chase history: Missed championship round by 13 points in 2015. Missed championship round by eight points in 2014.

Notable: Has completed 99.32 percent of the 7,375 laps run this season, best among all drivers this season.

Crew chief: Paul Wolfe (5th Chase)

Pit crew: Hunter Masling (front tire changer), Jeremy Ogles (front tire carrier), Braxton Brannon (jackman), Kyle Power (rear tire changer), Tyler Mitchell (rear tire carrier), Nick Hensley (gas man)

Denny Hamlin

Points: 2009

Wins: 3 (Daytona 500, Watkins Glen, Richmond II)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 17.8

Recent Chase history: Eliminated in second round in 2015. Made it to championship round in 2014.

Notable: Has eight consecutive top-10 finishes, the longest streak in his career.

Crew chief: Mike Wheeler (1st Chase)

Pit crew: Dustin Necaise (front tire changer), Brandon Pegram (front tire carrier), Nate Bolling (jackman), Mike Hicks (rear tire changer), Heath Cherry (rear tire carrier), Caleb Hurd (gas man)

Kevin Harvick

Points: 2006

Wins: 2 Phoenix I, Bristol II)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 8.3

Recent Chase history: Reached championship race in 2015, finishing second. Won 2014 series title.

Notable: Has won twice in Chase when he had to do so to advance (Phoenix 2014 to make the final and Dover 2015 to advance to second round).

Crew chief: Rodney Childers (3rd Chase)

Pit crew: Eric Maycroft (front tire changer), Matt Holzbaur (front tire carrier), Stan Doolittle (jackman), Daniel Smith (rear tire changer), Mike Morneau (rear tire carrier), Justin White (gas man)

Carl Edwards

Points: 2006

Wins: 2 (Bristol I, Richmond I)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 15.9

Recent Chase history: Eliminated in the third round in 2015, missing championship round by five points. Eliminated in third round in 2014.

Notable: Last win in the Chase when he was eligible for the title was in 2010.

Crew chief: Dave Rogers (6th Chase)

Pit crew: Clay Robinson (front tire changer), Kevin Harris (front tire carrier), Trey Burklin (jackman), Kip Wolfmeir (rear tire changer), Matt Ver Meer (rear tire carrier), Kenneth Purcell (gas man)

Martin Truex Jr.

Points: 2006

Wins: 2 (Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 11.4

Recent Chase history: Made it to the final round in 2015, finishing fourth.

Notable: Homestead-Miami Speedway is his best track with an average finish of 10.2.

Crew chief: Cole Pearn (2nd Chase)

Pit crew: Chris Taylor (front tire changer), Chris Hall (front tire carrier), Bailey Walker (jackman), Lee Cunningham (rear tire changer), Adam Mosher (rear tire carrier), Brian Dheel (gas man)

Matt Kenseth

Points: 2006

Wins: 2 (Dover I, New Hampshire I)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 8.6

Recent Chase history: Eliminated in second round of 2015 Chase and later suspended two races for wrecking Joey Logano at Martinsville. Eliminated in the third round in 2014.

Notable: Scored 271 points this season at the eight tracks that host Chase races, second only to Kevin Harvick’s total of 272 points.

Crew chief: Jason Ratcliff (4th Chase)

Pit crew: David Mayo (front tire changer), Joe Crossen (front tire carrier), David O’Dell (jackman), Adam Hartman (rear tire changer), Blake Haugland (rear tire carrier), John Eicher (gas man)

Jimmie Johnson

Points: 2006

Wins: 2 (Atlanta, Auto Club Speedway)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 12.9

Recent Chase history: Eliminated in the first round of 2015 Chase. Eliminated in the second round of the 2014 Chase.

Notable: Has won 22.0 percent of the Chase races when he was eligible for the championship. His last such Chase win, though, came in 2013. He had a win each in the 2014 and ’15 playoffs after he had been eliminated from title contention.

Crew chief: Chad Knaus (13th Chase)

Pit crew: Kevin Novak (front tire changer), R.J. Barnette (front tire carrier), Kyle Tudor (jackman), Calvin Teague (rear tire changer), Ryan Patton (rear tire carrier), Brandon Harder (gas man)

JOEY LOGANO

Points: 2003

Wins: 1 (Michigan I)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 16.1

Recent Chase history: Eliminated in third round in 2015 Chase, unable to recover after being wrecked by Matt Kenseth at Martinsville. Made the championship round in 2014.

Notable: Has top-10 finishes in 12 of the last 14 races.

Crew chief: Todd Gordon (4th Chase)

Pit crew: Thomas Hatcher (front tire changer), Dylan Dowell (front tire carrier), Ray Gallahan (jackman), Zach Price (rear tire changer), Josh Chaney (rear tire carrier), Kellen Mills (gas man)

Kyle Larson

Points: 2003

Wins: 1 (Michigan II)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 15.6

Recent Chase history: First Chase appearance

Notable: In five of the last seven races, he’s finished better than his average running position throughout the event, showing an ability to gain positions late in a race.

Crew chief: Chad Johnston (2nd Chase)

Pit crew: Steven Price (front tire changer), Aaron Schields (front tire carrier), Graham Molatch (jackman), Steven Tautges (rear tire changer), Art Simmons (rear tire carrier), Ed Watkins (gas man)

Tony Stewart

Points: 2003

Wins: 1 (Sonoma)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 15.6

Recent Chase history: First time competing in elimination-style Chase.

Notable: Ranks second on all-time Chase wins list with 11.

Crew chief: Mike Bugarewicz (1st Chase)

Pit crew: Ira Jo Hussey (front tire changer), Brett Morrell (front tire carrier), Getty Cavitt (jackman), Chris McMullen (rear tire changer), Josh Sobecki (rear tire carrier), James Keener (gas man)

Kurt Busch

Points: 2003

Wins: 1 (Pocono I)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 9.0

Recent Chase history: Eliminated in the third round of 2015 Chase. Eliminated in the first round of the 2014 Chase.

Notable: Has the best average finish at the 1.5-mile tracks this season — 5.8 with three top-five finishes. Half of the 10 Chase races are at 1.5-mile tracks.

Crew chief: Tony Gibson (4th Chase)

Pit crew: Shane Pipala (front tire changer), Jon Bernal (front tire carrier), Sean Cotten (jackman), Coleman Dollarhide (rear tire changer), Dwayne Moore (rear tire carrier), Rick Pigeon (gas man)

Chris Buescher

Points: 2003

Wins: 1 (Pocono II)

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 29.5

Recent Chase history: First Chase appearance

Notable: First Chase appearance for Front Row Motorsports.

Crew chief: Bob Osborne (7th Chase)

Pit crew: Justin Rolfe (front tire changer), Kevin Richardson (front tire carrier), Richie Williams (jackman), Raphael Diaz (rear tire changer), Justin Kirby (rear tire carrier), Brett Reckert (gas man)

Chase Elliott

Points: 2000

Wins: 0

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 11.5

Recent Chase history: First Chase appearance

Notable: Crew chief Alan Gustafson has gone to the Chase with four different drivers. He had five Chase appearances with Jeff Gordon, two with Kyle Busch, one with Mark Martin and now one with Chase Elliott.

Crew chief: Alan Gustafson (9th Chase)

Pit crew: Nick O’Dell (front tire changer), Dion Williams (front tire carrier), John Gianninoto (jackman), Chad Avrit (rear tire changer), Jared Erspamer (rear tire carrier), Travis Gordon (gas man)

Austin Dillon

Points: 2000

Wins: 0

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 12.4

Recent Chase history: First Chase appearance

Notable: This is crew chief Slugger Labbe’s second Chase appearance. His first was in 2005 with Jeremy Mayfield.

Crew chief: Slugger Labbe (2nd Chase)

Pit crew: Jason Pulver (front tire changer), Josh Shipplett (front tire carrier), Adam Lewis (jackman), Brian Bottlemy (rear tire changer), Brad Robison (rear tire carrier), Tyler Rader (gas man)

Jamie McMurray

Points: 2000

Wins: 0

Avg. finish at Chase tracks this year: 16.0

Recent Chase history: Eliminated in the first round of the 2015 Chase on a tiebreaker.

Notable: Has three wins during the Chase (none when he was eligible for the championship) and those wins came at tracks in the second round, Charlotte and Talladega.

Crew chief: Matt McCall (2nd Chase)

Pit crew: Danny Kincaid (front tire changer), Ben Fetzer (front tire carrier), Shane Wilson (jackman), Mike Roberts (rear tire changer), PJ Briody (rear tire carrier), Mike Metcalf (gas man)

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NASCAR Friday schedule at WWT Raceway, Portland

By Dustin LongJun 2, 2023, 7:00 AM EDT

Craftsman Truck Series teams will be on track Friday at World Wide Technology Raceway to prepare for Saturday’s race. Cup teams will go through inspection before getting on track Saturday.

Xfinity Series teams will go through inspection Friday in preparation for their race Saturday at Portland International Raceway.

Here is Friday’s schedule:

World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (Cup and Trucks)

Weather

Friday: Partly cloudy with a high in the low 90s.

Friday, June 2

(All times Eastern)

Garage open

1 – 8 p.m. — Craftsman Truck Series
4 – 9 p.m. — Cup Series

Track activity

6 – 6:30 p.m. — Truck practice (FS1)
6:30 – 7:30 p.m. — Truck qualifying (FS1)

Portland International Raceway (Xfinity Series)

Weekend weather

Friday: Mostly sunny with a high of 77 degrees.

Friday, June 2

(All times Eastern)

Garage open

6-11 p.m. — Xfinity Series (no track activity on Friday)

Friday 5: NASCAR’s $1 million question is can the culture change?

By Dustin LongJun 2, 2023, 6:00 AM EDT

NASCAR Cup teams have paid nearly $1 million in fines this season, more than triple what they paid last season for inspection-related infractions.

The money — $975,000 after just 14 of 36 points races — goes to the NASCAR Foundation. While the fines help a good cause, it is a troubling number, a point that a senior NASCAR official made clear this week.

Stewart-Haas Racing was the latest Cup team to be penalized. NASCAR issued a $250,000 fine, among other penalties, for a counterfeit part found on Chase Briscoe’s car following Monday’s Coca-Cola 600. The team cited a “quality control lapse” for a part that “never should’ve been on a car going to the racetrack.”

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, said this week that if violations continue, the sanctioning body will respond. NASCAR discovered the infraction with Briscoe’s car at the R&D Center. Series officials also discovered a violation with Austin Dillon’s car at the R&D Center after the Martinsville race in April.

“If we need to bring more cars (to the R&D Center), we’ll do that,” he said. “Our part of this as the sanctioning body is to keep a level playing field for all the competitors, and that’s what they expect us to do and that’s what we’ll continue to do. … Whatever we need to do, we will do that.”

Sawyer also noted that the “culture” of race teams needs to change with the Next Gen car.

“From a business model and to be equitable and sustainable going forward, this was the car that we needed,” Sawyer said. “To go with that, we needed a deterrent model that would support that.

“We’ve been very clear. We’ve been very consistent with this … and we will continue to do that. The culture that was in our garage and in the race team shops on the Gen-6 car was more of a manufacturing facility. The Next Gen car, that’s not the business model.

“The race teams, they’re doing a better job. We still have a lot of work to do, but they have to change that culture within the walls of the race shop.”

While NASCAR has made it clear that single-source vendor parts are not to be modified, teams will look for ways to find an advantage. With the competition tight — there have been 22 different winners in the first 50 races of the Next Gen car era — any advantage could be significant.

Twelve races remain, including Sunday’s race at World Wide Technology Raceway, before the playoffs begin. The pressure is building on teams.

“Some race teams, at this stage in the game, their performance is not where they would like for it to be and they’re going to be working hard,” Sawyer said. “If they feel like they need to step out of bounds and do things and just take the risk, then they may do that. That’s not uncommon. We’ve seen that over the years.

“The one thing that we have to keep in mind is we’ve raced the Next Gen car for a full season. We’re in year two, just say 18 months into it. So last year, they were just getting the parts and pieces, getting ready, getting cars prepared and getting to the racetrack.

“Now they’ve had them for a year. They’ve had them for an offseason. It’s given their engineers and the people back in the shop a lot more time to think, ‘Maybe we could do this, maybe we could do that.’

“By bringing these cars back (to the R&D Center) and taking them down to basically the nuts and bolts and a thorough inspection — and we will continue to do that — I believe we will get our message across. We’ll have to continue to do this for some period in time, but I have great faith that we will get there.”

A similar message was delivered by Sawyer to drivers this week when NASCAR suspended Chase Elliott one race for wrecking Denny Hamlin in retaliation for being forced into the wall.

Sawyer told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that “in the heat of the battle things happen, but (drivers) have to learn to react in a different way.”

Sawyer also noted that the message on how to race wasn’t just for those in Cup.

“We have to get that across not only to our veterans, guys that are superstars like Denny, like Bubba (Wallace) and like Chase and all our of national series Cup drivers, but also our young drivers that are coming up through the ranks that are racing in the Northeast in modifieds and in short tracks across the country,” he said. “That’s just not an acceptable behavior in how you would race your other competitors.

“There are a lot of things you can do to show your displeasure. That’s just not going to be one of them that we’re going to tolerate.”

2. Special ride

Corey LaJoie gets to drive a Hendrick Motorsports car this weekend due to Chase Elliott’s one-race suspension.

“It’s a far cry difference from when I started my Cup career six years ago,” LaJoie said on his “Stacking Pennies” podcast this week. “There was a Twitter page “Did Corey crash?” … Going from that guy just trying to swim and stay above water and trying to learn the ropes to filling in for a champion like Chase Elliott for Hendrick Motorsports, it feels surreal.”

It was a little more than three years ago that LaJoie gave car owner Rick Hendrick a handwritten note to be considered to replace Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 car after the 2020 season.

“This was the first time I’ve gotten a letter from the heart,” Hendrick told NBC Sports in February 2020 of LaJoie’s letter. “I’ve gotten letters and phones calls, usually from agents. It was really a heartfelt letter and it was really personal.

“I was impressed with him before and am more impressed after.”

LaJoie admitted on his podcast this week that he wouldn’t have been ready to drive the No. 48 car then.

“I wouldn’t have been ready, whether it be in my maturation, my game, my knowledge of the race cars,” he said. “The person that I was wasn’t ready for the opportunity like that.”

Now he gets the chance. He enters this weekend 19th in the season standings, 38 points behind Alex Bowman for what would be the final playoff spot at this time.

“It’s an opportunity to hopefully show myself, as well as other people, what I’ve been thinking (of) my potential as a race car driver,” LaJoie said on his podcast. “But I also think you have to just settle in and be appreciative of the opportunity.”

3. Special phone call

With Corey LaJoie moving into Chase Elliott’s car for Sunday’s Cup race, LaJoie’s car needed a driver. Craftsman Truck Series driver Carson Hocevar will make his Cup debut in LaJoie’s No. 7 car for Spire Motorsports.

Once details were finalized this week, the 20-year-old Hocevar called his dad.

“I don’t know if he really believed it,” Hocevar said.

He told his dad: “Hey, this is actually happening.”

His father owns a coin and jewelry shop and is looking to close the store Sunday and have someone watch his two puppies so he can attend the race.

For Hocevar, it’s quite a turnaround for a driver who has been at the center of controversy at times.

Ryan Preece was critical of Hocevar’s racing late in the Charlotte Truck event in May 2022. Preece said to FS1: “All you kids watching right now wanting to get to this level, don’t do that. Race with respect. Don’t wreck the guy on the outside of you trying to win your first race. It doesn’t get you anywhere.”

NASCAR penalized Hocevar two laps for hooking Taylor Gray in the right rear during the Truck race at Martinsville in April.

Hocevar acknowledged he has had to change how he drives.

“Last year was really, really tough for me and that’s no excuse,” Hocevar said this week. “I just was mentally wrong on a lot of things, had the wrong mindset. I wanted to win so badly that I thought I could outwork stuff and it kind of turned some people away. … I wasn’t enjoying the time there. I was letting the results dictate that.

“I was taking results too personal. If we were going to be running seventh, I took it as I was a seventh-place driver and I wasn’t good enough. So I started making desperate moves. I did desperate things at times, even last year, that I’ve been able to calm down and look myself in the mirror and had a lot of heart-to-heart conversations.”

He called the Martinsville race “a turning point” for him and knew he needed to change how he drove. He enters this weekend’s Truck race with three consecutive top-five finishes.

4. Moving forward

In a way, Zane Smith can relate to what Carson Hocevar will experience this weekend. Smith, competing in the Truck Series, made his Cup debut last year at World Wide Technology Raceway. Smith filled in for RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, who missed the race because of COVID-19 symptoms. Smith finished 17th.

“That one that I got for RFK Racing was a huge opportunity,” Smith said of helping him get some Cup rides this season. “I was super thankful for that. I think that run we had got my stock up and then, honestly, getting the Truck championship helped that rise as well.

“I think just time in the Cup car is so important, and I think once that new Cup car came out, people realized that you don’t have to do the route of Truck, Xfinity, Cup. The Cup car is so far apart from anything, though it does kind of race like a truck, so I don’t think you need to go that round of Truck, Xfinity, Cup. I think a lot of people would agree with me on that.

“I’m happy for these Cup starts that I’m getting. I’m happy for that one that I got last year at a place like Gateway. I think every time that you’re in one you learn a lot.”

Smith has made five Cup starts this season, finishing a career-best 10th in last week’s Coca-Cola 600 for Front Row Motorsports. The former Truck champion has two Truck series wins this year and is third in the season standings.

5. Notable numbers

A look at some of notable numbers heading into this weekend’s Cup race at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois:

5 — Most points wins in the Next Gen car (William Byron, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott)

7 — Different winners in the last seven points races: Christopher Bell (Bristol Dirt), Kyle Larson (Martinsville), Kyle Busch (Talladega), Martin Truex Jr. (Dover), Denny Hamlin (Kansas), William Byron (Darlington), Ryan Blaney (Coca-Cola 600).

17 — Points between first (Ross Chastain) and sixth (Christopher Bell) in the Cup standings

88 — Degrees at Kansas, the hottest temperature for a Cup race this season (the forecast for Sunday’s race calls for a high in the low 90s)

100 — Consecutive start for Austin Dillon this weekend

500 — Cup start for Brad Keselowski this weekend

687 — Laps led by William Byron, most by any Cup driver this season

805 — Cup start for Kevin Harvick this weekend, tying him with Jeff Gordon for ninth on the all-time list.

Dr. Diandra: How level is the playing field after 50 Next Gen races?

By Diandra Leslie-PeleckyJun 1, 2023, 12:00 PM EDT

Last weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 marks 50 Next Gen races. The 2022 season produced 19 different winners, including a few first-career wins. Let’s see what the data say about how level the playing field is now.

I’m comparing the first 50 Next Gen races (the 2022 season plus the first 14 races of 2023) to the 2020 season and the first 14 races of 2021. I selected those two sets of races to produce roughly the same types of tracks. I focus on top-10 finishes as a metric for performance. Below, I show the top-10 finishes for the 13 drivers who ran for the same team over the periods in question.

Because some drivers missed races, I compare top-10 rates: the number of top-10 finishes divided by the number of races run. The graph below shows changes in top-10 rates for the drivers who fared the worst with the Next Gen car.

Six drivers had double-digit losses in their top-10 rates. Kevin Harvick had the largest drop, with 74% top-10 finishes in the Gen-6 sample but only 46% top-10 finishes in the first 50 Next Gen races.

Kyle Larson didn’t qualify for the graph because he ran only four races in 2020. I thought it notable, however, that despite moving from the now-defunct Chip Ganassi NASCAR team to Hendrick Motorsports, Larson’s top-10 rate fell from 66.7% to 48.0%.

The next graph shows the corresponding data for drivers who improved their finishes in the Next Gen car. This graph again includes only drivers who stayed with the same team.

Alex Bowman had a marginal gain, but he missed six races this year. Therefore, his percent change value is less robust than other drivers’ numbers.

Expanding the field

I added drivers who changed teams to the dataset and highlighted them in gray.

A couple notes on the new additions:

Brad Keselowski had the largest loss in top-10 rate of any driver, but that may be more attributable to his move from Team Penske to RFK Motorsports rather than to the Next Gen car.
Christopher Bell moved from Leavine Family Racing to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2021. His improvement is likely overestimated due to equipment quality differences.
Erik Jones stayed even, but that’s after moving from JGR (13 top-10 finishes in 2020) to Richard Petty Motorsports (six top 10s in 2021.) I view that change as a net positive.

At the end of last season, I presented the tentative hypothesis that older drivers had a harder time adapting to the Next Gen car. Less practice time mitigated their experience dialing in a car so that it was to their liking given specific track conditions.

But something else leaps out from this analysis.

Is the playing field tilting again?

Michael McDowell is not Harvick-level old, but he will turn 39 this year. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is 35. Both have improved with the Next Gen Car. Chase Elliott (27 years old) and William Byron (25) aren’t old, either, but their top-10 rates have gone down.

Drivers running for the best-funded teams earned fewer top-10 finishes while drivers from less-funded teams (mostly) gained those finishes.

Trackhouse Racing and 23XI — two of the newest teams — account for much of the gains in top-10 finishes. Ross Chastain isn’t listed in the table because he didn’t have full-time Cup Series rides in 2020 or 2021. His 9.1% top-10 rate in that period is with lower-level equipment. He earned 27 top-10 finishes in the first 50 races (54%) with the Next Gen car.

This analysis suggests that age isn’t the only relevant variable. One interpretation of the data thus far is that the Next Gen (and its associated rules changes) eliminated the advantage well-funded teams built up over years of racing the Gen-5 and Gen-6 cars.

The question now is whether that leveling effect is wearing off. Even though parts are the same, more money means being able to hire the best people and buying more expensive computers for engineering simulations.

Compare the first 14 races of 2022 to the first 14 of 2023.

Last year at this time, 23XI and Trackhouse Racing had each won two races. This year, they combine for one win.
It took Byron eight races to win his second race of the year in 2022. This year, he won the third and fourth races of the year. Plus, he’s already won his third race this year.
Aside from Stenhouse’s Daytona 500 win, this year’s surprise winners — Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney — are both from major teams.

We’re only 14 races into the 2023 season. There’s not enough data to determine the relative importance of age versus building a notebook for predicting success in the Next Gen car.

But this is perhaps the most important question. The Next Gen car leveled the playing field last year.

Will it stay level?

NASCAR weekend schedule at World Wide Technology Raceway, Portland

By Dustin LongJun 1, 2023, 7:00 AM EDT

NASCAR’s top three series are racing this weekend in two different locations. Cup and Craftsman Truck teams will compete at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, and the Xfinity Series will compete at Portland International Raceway.

World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (Cup and Trucks)

Weekend weather

Friday: Partly cloudy with a high of 87 degrees during Truck qualifying.

Saturday: Sunny. Temperatures will be around 80 degrees for the start of Cup practice and climb to 88 degrees by the end of Cup qualifying. Forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 93 degrees around the start of the Truck race.

Sunday: Mostly sunny with a high of 92 degrees and no chance of rain at the start of the Cup race.

Friday, June 2

(All times Eastern)

Garage open

1 – 8 p.m. — Craftsman Truck Series
4 – 9 p.m. — Cup Series

Track activity

6 – 6:30 p.m. — Truck practice (FS1)
6:30 – 7:30 p.m. — Truck qualifying (FS1)

Saturday, June 3

Garage open

8 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. — Cup Series
12:30 p.m. — Truck Series

Track activity

10 – 10:45 a.m. — Cup practice (FS1, Motor Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
10:45 a.m. – 12 p.m. — Cup qualifying (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
1:30 p.m. — Truck race (160 laps, 200 miles; FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Sunday, June 4

Garage open

12:30 p.m. — Cup Series

Track activity

3:30 p.m. — Cup race (240 laps, 300 miles; FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Portland International Raceway (Xfinity Series)

Weekend weather

Friday: Mostly sunny with a high of 77 degrees.

Saturday: Mostly sunny with a high of 73 degrees and no chance of rain around the start of the Xfinity race.

Friday, June 2

(All times Eastern)

Garage open

6-11 p.m. — Xfinity Series

Saturday, June 3

Garage open

10 a.m. — Xfinity Series

Track activity

11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. — Xfinity practice (No TV)
12 – 1 p.m. — Xfinity qualifying (FS1)
4:30 p.m. — Xfinity race (75 laps, 147.75 miles; FS1, Motor Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (Cup and Trucks)

Weather

Friday, June 2

(All times Eastern)

Portland International Raceway (Xfinity Series)

Weekend weather

Friday, June 2

(All times Eastern)

Read more about NASCAR

2. Special ride

3. Special phone call

4. Moving forward

5. Notable numbers

Read more about NASCAR

Expanding the field

Is the playing field tilting again?

Read more about NASCAR

World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (Cup and Trucks)

Weekend weather

Friday, June 2

(All times Eastern)

Saturday, June 3

Sunday, June 4

Portland International Raceway (Xfinity Series)

Weekend weather

Friday, June 2

(All times Eastern)

Saturday, June 3

Read more about NASCAR