1. Which of the three manufacturers is having the strongest NASCAR Cup Series season so far?
Christopher Hansen: Chevrolet seems to be just a little bit ahead of Toyota and Ford at the moment, but not by much. Two of Hendrick Motorsports’ drivers, Kyle Larson and William Byron, have been 1-2 in the standings for the last handful of races, plus Ross Chastain scored a huge win in the Coca-Cola 600 just a couple of weekends ago. Ford seems to be trending in the right direction after another slow start to the season, with Ryan Blaney finally breaking through for a win at Nashville Superspeedway. However, looking at the season as a whole, it’s the Chevrolets who still hold the upper hand.
Mike Neff: The season has been surprisingly balanced so far this year. Chevrolet and Toyota have five wins each while Ford has four. Blaney, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and Josh Berry all have wins, demonstrating balance for Ford while Chevy and Toyota have been predominantly three drivers combined. It appears to be a very slight advantage for Chevrolet with drivers from more than one team, but it is miniscule.
Landon Quesinberry: Collectively, it has to be Ford. While Toyota and Chevy dominate the top of the ranks in the standings, Ford constantly has shown more speed than it ever has at the beginning of a season in the Next Gen era. On top of that, it’s not just Team Penske, either. Nearly every other Ford team has shown glimmers of excellence at some point this season. Ford as a whole has shown speed this year, and the wealth is spread among all teams, unlike Chevy and Toyota having Hendrick and Joe Gibbs Racing carrying the respective banners.
Andrew Stoddard: The competition for the manufacturer’s championship has been airtight so far this season. That said, Chevrolet has shown a bit more speed and consistency 14 races into the Cup schedule. While Chevrolet is tied with Toyota for most wins (five), the bowtie brand has shown a little more depth in its driver and team lineup, as illustrated by Chastain’s victory two weeks ago. While Hendrick and Gibbs have been neck-and-neck from the beginning of the season, the lower-tier Chevrolet teams like Kaulig Racing have mostly outperformed lower-tier Toyota and Ford teams.
2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was reluctant to take matters into his own hands with Carson Hocevar after his $75,000 fine last year. How much are behavioral penalties preventing drivers from policing themselves?
Neff: There didn’t seem to be an opportunity at Nashville for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to confront Carson Hocevar. Denny Hamlin mentioned it on his podcast, and there was discussion in the post-race as well. Hocevar is talented for sure, but he is still learning how to handle incidents that occur on the track. There is no question that retribution from Stenhouse is coming; it is just a matter of when. The fines look good, but they aren’t going to make a driver change his mind about getting payback.
Quesinberry: This case doesn’t have much to do with the fine but rather the circumstances. At this point, it’s almost expected that’s how Hocevar is going to race, so you can’t say that you don’t expect something like that to happen when you race around him. Now, when you look at the Stenhouse vs. Kyle Busch altercation, you have to consider the reasoning behind why Stenhouse was upset. Busch has always called out Stenhouse for on-track incidents that were avoidable, but then at the All-Star Race, Busch caused a similar kind of wreck for which he’s always criticized Stenhouse. I’m sure if Hocevar complained about people racing in a similar fashion to the way he races others, Stenhouse would’ve done something regardless of the fine. He just held back due to a lack of motivation to do so. I don’t think the drivers care about the fines. It all depends on the parties involved and their motivation to actually send a message to someone.
Stoddard: A fine as stiff as the one given to Stenhouse after last year’s All-Star Race altercation has to be a deterrent not just for Stenhouse but also the whole Cup garage. Between NASCAR’s penalties and sponsors/PR reps focused on drivers maintaining a good image, it seems that the boys-have-at-it era of the 2010s might be in the rearview mirror. Whether that is a good or bad thing is a debate for another time.
Hansen: Any threat of a penalty prohibits drivers from taking matters into their own hands. Look at last year’s brawl between Busch and Stenhouse after the All-Star Race. Behavioral penalties are playing a major role in how drivers police themselves. Gone are the days of boys, have at it from 2010 when NASCAR seemed to step back and let the drivers handle any on-track issues themselves. Fast forward to 2025 and drivers aren’t able to settle things themselves without NASCAR interfering and issuing a monetary fine, multi-race suspension or any other form of discipline.
3. Who has had the more impressive season: Justin Allgaier or Corey Heim?
Quesinberry: Undoubtedly, Corey Heim. There is an alternate timeline where he has won every NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race this season. That in itself speaks volumes. The guy has led eight times the amount of laps this season as the next closest driver. Even in races where he has had things get in his way like Kansas Speedway and Martinsville Speedway, he’s made ungodly runs to get back to the top five at the end. If he gets a late-race yellow in those races, he probably wins those, too. No discredit to Justin Allgaier — he’s having a career NASCAR Xfinity Series year — but Heim looks at times like he’s on a different planet than the rest of the Truck field.
Stoddard: Both have established themselves as the drivers to beat in their respective series, but I’m giving the slight edge to Heim. He has four wins to Allgaier’s three, and while Heim began winning immediately with the Truck season opener at Daytona International Speedway, Allgaier took until the fifth race of the Xfinity season to snag his first checkered flag. Furthermore, Heim has led an otherworldly 810 laps through 12 races, 622 laps more than Chandler Smith. That margin nearly tops the 638 circuits Allgaier has led through 14 Xfinity races. Both have impressed, but Heim has turned the Truck Series into his personal playground in 2025.
Hansen: It’s eerie to see just how similar a season both Allgaier in the Xfinity Series and Heim in the Truck Series are having in 2025. Stat-wise, both are about as equally matched as they could be in wins (Allgaier with three, Heim with four) top 10s (both with 10) and playoff points (Allgaier 21, Heim 29). The one notable difference is that Heim has run two less races than Allgaier. I barely give the edge to Heim, as he is in the midst of one of the historic seasons of Truck history. He has the regular season title all but locked up with a 122-point advantage on second-place Daniel Hemric. As long as the No. 11 team can finish races off at the end without circumstances keeping it from victory lane, it is the team to beat for the Truck title.
Neff: It is close between the two, for sure. Heim has run two fewer races in Trucks than Allgaier has in Xfinity. They both have 10 top 10s, Allgaier has two more top fives, but Heim has one more win. Heim has led more laps, completed a higher percentage of laps and has a four-position better average finish. He’s led every race and honestly been in contention for the win in all of them. Heim has to have a slight edge on the better season.
4. How will Rajah Caruth fare in the Truck playoffs?
Stoddard: With Spire Motorsports equipment under the hood, a pit crew from Hendrick Motorsports and two full seasons of Truck experience under his belt, Rajah Caruth should be a key player in the playoffs. At minimum, Caruth will advance to the Round of 8, but he has the upside to be in the fray at Phoenix Raceway as part of the Championship 4.
Hansen: In his first playoff appearance in the Truck Series in 2024, Caruth saw his chance at the title slip away after being eliminated from the playoffs in the Round of 8 at Martinsville Speedway last fall. This year, the team has had to overcome a rough start as Caruth opened the season with back-to-back finishes of 20th or worse (30th, 29th). He has notably turned the corner and picked up his second career win in impressive fashion at Nashville last weekend, holding off Heim and Layne Riggs, arguably two of the best drivers in the Truck Series. Caruth will have another deep playoff run in 2025 and will contend for a spot in the Championship 4 but will ultimately come up just one spot short, finishing fifth in the final standings.
Neff: Caruth is in equipment that can carry him far in the playoffs. He has shown that he can occasionally win races. Unfortunately, he has only scored top 10s in just over half of the races the last two years. More importantly, Caruth has only had top fives in less than a quarter of them. Going far in the playoffs takes consistency and good finishes. While the potential is there to go far, Caruth probably won’t make it past the final eight.
Quesinberry: He’ll make the Championship 4. This has more to do with the competition in the Truck Series — mainly some of the other title favorites, more specifically both Front Row Motorsports drivers. While Riggs and Smith both look like they can compete with Heim later this season, I’m not convinced they’ll even be in the fight at Phoenix. Last year, Smith looked like an early title favorite in the Xfinity Series, and he didn’t even make it to the big dance. While Riggs is definitely a threat this year, his all-out antics going for the win at Kansas Speedway and North Wilkesboro Speedway are telling me that he isn’t quite there yet mentally to survive through the playoffs to get to Phoenix. Caruth can slide past both of them in the playoffs to get himself into the championship fight.
Andrew Stoddard joined Frontstretch in May of 2022 as an iRacing contributor. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond, and VCU. He works as an athletic communications specialist at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.
What is it that Mike Neff doesn’t do? Mike announces several shows each year for the Good Guys Rod and Custom Association. He also pops up everywhere from PRN Pit Reporters and the Press Box with Alan Smothers to SIRIUS XM Radio. He has announced at tracks all over the Southeast, starting at Millbridge Speedway. He's also announced at East Lincoln Speedway, Concord Speedway, Tri-County Speedway, Caraway Speedway, and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
