One Chase will chase a championship in two weeks while the other Chase is down to his last chip this coming week at Martinsville.
A clear dividing line has been drawn between the top four and the next four, Talladega once again shook things up, the final stage will be set in a fitting manner — at one of stock-car racing’s historic half-mile artifacts — so what’s left to discuss at this point?
Well, we could dump on Martin Truex.
Huh? You’re dragging a highly respected and recently retired racer into our weekly gathering just to throw stones? How dare you?
Good point, that wouldn’t be proper. However, it’s worth pointing out the difference that can be made by the cockpit and its current occupant.
The occupant of the No. 19 Toyota last year — the aforementioned Mr. Truex — spent much of the 2024 season with one foot out the door.
After a downturn in the second half of 2023, he was winless throughout 2024, and after some quality points-gathering through the first third of the season, he slid dramatically the rest of the way as the retirement rumors eventually became fact.
There’s rarely any outward appearance of a lack of desire, and probably not even any internal beliefs that a driver’s give-a-damn has taken a downturn. But boy oh boy, those cars sure seem capable of feeling it.
It all ended last fall with a quick bounce from the playoffs, cruise-control to the final checkers in Phoenix, then a handing of the keys to Chase Briscoe, which is where we’ll begin our climb through the gear box …
First Gear: Joe Gibbs’ No. 19 team a NASCAR contender again
The No. 19 team — a perennial championship threat and part of the Joe Gibbs racing family — managed just five top-fives during its winless 2024 and just 11 top-10s. This year, with hungry young hands on the wheel, there’s been three wins, 15 top-fives and 19 top-10s.
With two races remaining and a potential championship.
That championship opportunity was clinched Sunday when Briscoe won at Talladega in his 10th career Cup start there. Truex, strangely for a past champ and future Hall of Famer, was 0-for-40 at Talladega (and Daytona, by the way).
Carl Edwards got the No. 19 off to a running start in 2015 but retired after the next year. Daniel Suarez served as caretaker for two seasons before Truex took over in 2019 and won seven races while falling one spot short of the championship.
Truex reestablished the No. 19 team but eventually focused on the exit ramp, and Briscoe has shown us what happens when a quality racer is plucked from a tough situation and given a new lease on his blossoming career.
Second Gear: Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe await two more
Well, the situation is about as clear as it could be.
Two racers — Denny Hamlin and Briscoe — have each won Round of 8 races and earned a championship attempt at Phoenix.
Two others — Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson — sit within a point of each other in the third and fourth spots, laps ahead of the four current outsiders: William Byron (36 points behind Larson), Joey Logano (-38), Ryan Blaney (-47), and Chase Elliott (-62 after crashing into a last-place finish Sunday).
So there will realistically be just one points battle to watch at Martinsville, and even that one might not matter. If one of the bottom four is threatening to win, Bell and Larson will then be locked into a two-man race to see who gets the final Phoenix spot on points.
In the Next Gen era, which began in 2022, three of the current outsiders (Blaney, Logano and Elliott) are among the top four in best average finishes at Martinsville. Blaney and Byron each have two wins there over the past four seasons.
Third Gear: NASCAR can be dangerous, remember?
We’ve become so accustomed to the Big One at Talladega (and Daytona) that we sometimes fail to appreciate the fact there are humans inside those tossing and turning hunks of steel frames.
All three days of racing this past weekend brought a reminder that, yep, it’s still dangerous out there.
Friday, Norm Benning was damn near seared when his truck caught fire after a blown engine — “I couldn’t breathe at all,” he said. Benning is 73 and seems to be following in the tire tracks of Herschel McGriff, James Hylton and Morgan Shepherd, racing at an age when most men are only driving to the nearest pharmacy or pickleball court.
But he’s gonna keep strapping in, he said over the weekend — “why quit now?” he asked. Well, I don’t know, but since the dawn of time, flames have been a universal symbol of sorts.
The next day, William Sawalich joined an Xfinity-sanctioned Big One. He was banged up enough for a trip to the hospital. He was released overnight and went home, where he reported being “a little sore.” No kidding.
And Sunday, it was AJ Allmendinger’s turn to battle the SAFER Barrier and come away much better than he might’ve in earlier times. Still, he had the wind knocked out of him and had to ignore that to escape his smoking cockpit and collapse on the asphalt, where he waited a little too long, it seemed, for safety personnel to arrive.
He, too, was sore but said, “At the end of the day I get to kiss Tara and Aero.”
That’s right, his son is named Aero. His first name is Aero and his initials, like his dad’s, are AJ. You think he’s destined to race?
Fourth Gear: Kyle Busch, Butterbean Queen set for 2026
Let’s review a pair of personnel moves from the past week — both of which, we hope, turn out well.
Kyle Busch is getting a new crew chief, Jim Pohlman, who’s nearing the end of three productive years with Xfinity driver Justin Allgaier and JR Motorsports. Might help, might not. At this stage, though, it sure can’t hurt.
Also, the Butterbean is getting a truck ride. Brenden “Butterbean” Queen was announced as the first of five racers who will pilot Dodge Rams in that manufacturer’s return to the Truck Series next year.
The ’Bean is both an old-school throwback and a product of modern branding. He quickly worked his way through the short-track route before winning this year’s ARCA championship at age 27 — all after working a real job (longshoreman!).
But he’s also parlayed the longtime nickname, a throwback mullet hairstyle, and penchant for post-victory Waffle House visits into quite a social media following. Marketing remains a big deal, maybe bigger than ever, and he’s a refreshing natural.
— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
