Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Denny Hamlin made an early statement at World Wide Technology Raceway (known to everyone but the owner of its naming rights as Gateway). Hamlin won the pole for Sunday’s (Sept. 7) Enjoy Illinois 300, his third pole of 2025.
For the first time this season, Hamlin backed his start up with his finish, winning his fifth race of the season and first at Gateway.
Hamlin led four times for a total of 75 laps, but it was a combination of pit strategy and luck that netted Hamlin the win. Hamlin and teammate Chase Briscoe made their last stops from the front of the field at just the right time — that is, if the handful of teams gambling on mileage lost the bet — and cycled to the lead of the teams on their strategy, but not to the race lead as several teams could run longer, with a few possibly having enough to make it to the end.
A late brake failure for Ty Dillon brought out the caution that allowed the leaders to pit for tires and top off with fuel, and Hamlin was able to regain the lost track position. From there, he was able to pull away on the final restart to win by 1.62 seconds over Briscoe. It’s the 59th win of Hamlin’s Cup career. It was also the 200th Cup win for Toyota.
Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano rounded out the top five. Logano extended his streak of top fives at Gateway to four, the only driver to have a top five in every Cup race at the track.
On the other hand…
After a solid regular season that saw him tenth in points, Alex Bowman had a dismal start to the playoffs in last weekend’s Southern 500. After qualifying 25th, Bowman battled all day, but he finally had some decent track position in the final stage thanks to pit strategy.
Unfortunately, on his final stop of the day, Bowman was penalized for speeding on pit road, and the penalty dropped him to the back of the field. He finished 26th, 15th among playoff contenders.
Bad luck has forced Bowman’s back against the will in the playoffs, and he’ll need quite a turnaround at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday to salvage his previously solid season.
What… does this mean for the points standings?
If the first round of the playoffs is designed to weed out the drivers who really shouldn’t be in the title conversation to begin with, then the group below the cut line is probably about who it should be heading into the elimination race at Bristol.
Hamlin and Briscoe have no such worries with wins in the last two races. Kyle Larson can lock in with a stage win at Bristol, and Bubba Wallace only needs a solid day as well. Blaney is currently fifth with a 42-point cushion.
The rest of the top 10 — William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Elliott and Logano — range from 39 to 21 points to the good. They’re not quite shoo-ins, but any of them would have to have a terrible race to fall below the line.
On the bubble, Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric still have double-digit wiggle room, though Cindric’s 11 points are by no means a comfortable margin.
Cindric has the most pressure from Austin Dillon, whose average finish at Bristol is slightly better than Cindric’s. Shane van Gisbergen is 15 below the line, but has just one Bristol start, a 38th-place DNF for a mechanical failure.
Bowman had a better season overall than Cindric, but after terrible luck the last two weeks, will need a win to move on. Josh Berry is also in a must-win situation with little Bristol success in his pocket.
All in all, it’s likely that, barring a major shakeup, the top 12 right now will still be the top 12 a week from now.
Where… did he come from?
In a race where the playoff drivers took the headlines and locked down seven of the top 10 finishing spots, John Hunter Nemechek was the top-finishing non-playoff driver, finishing sixth.
Nemechek finished fourth a week ago at Darlington Raceway, and he is quietly putting together his best season to date, with his eight top 10s doubling his 2024 total.
His Legacy Motor Club team has shown improvement over the second half. Team owner Jimmie Johnson recently moved back to Charlotte after living in England for the last two years, and his presence should provide stability. The team is hoping to add a third full-time car next year.
Nemechek has double-digit wins in both the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series, and there’s no reason to think he can’t win in Cup if he keeps putting together strong, mistake-free runs like he did at Darlington and Gateway.
When… was the moment of truth?
Almost from the drop of the green flag, drivers were in attack mode. It was, for the most part, controlled, but a few feathers got ruffled, highlighted in the second stage when Larson overdrove a corner and got into Blaney, sending him around. The two spoke after the race, where Larson took responsibility.
But it was a classic case of hate the game, not the player, going on. Gateway is a flat track, and the Next Gen’s lack of ability to pass on flat tracks is well documented. On Sunday, clearly faster cars couldn’t pass slower ones for much of the race. If anything, it should be a surprise that more drivers didn’t make desperation moves as the day wore on.
Drivers were frustrated after the race, and, no doubt, fans were as well. With four of the final eight races at flat and/or short tracks, that frustration is bound to only grow. It’s hard to blame the tracks when Bristol and Martinsville Speedway are among them, because those two tracks once produced some of the best racing on the schedule.
But until NASCAR makes a meaningful change, drivers will have to resort to making moves they wouldn’t make if they had another option.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
Teams roll through the mountains to Bristol for the annual night race. This year, it’s also a playoff elimination race, which ramps up the tension.
Who to watch? Larson holds the trophy from the last two races at Bristol with Hamlin having the two before that, so they’ll likely be mixing it up. Hamlin has the luxury of not having to worry about points on his side.
For Berry and Bowman, it’s a must-win race, but neither has had much success at the half-mile concrete track. Bowman has a handful of top 10s, including two in his last three races at Bristol but has never won. Berry doesn’t have a top 10 in three Cup starts with a top finish of 12th (twice). He has one top 10 in three Xfinity Series starts.
Drivers outside the playoffs will also be gunning for a Bristol sword. Kyle Busch leads all active drivers with eight Bristol wins, and Chris Buescher is the most recent winner there among the non-playoff drivers. Ty Gibbs is a good dark horse choice with two top fives and three top 10s in five starts.
How… did this race stack up?
If NASCAR is looking for “game seven moments” in the playoffs, then adding Gateway to the schedule probably wasn’t a strong move.
The race saw nine leaders, but that includes green-flag pit cycles. Fourteen drivers scored top 10s in the two opening stages but overall, it was too predictable to be particularly compelling. Most of the top 10 were playoff drivers, and only three drivers failed to finish, all due to single-car crashes.
Mechanically, the cars are so durable that teams having to worry about lasting the race is largely a thing of the past. Once upon a time, mechanical attrition kept fans with one eye on pit road in case someone made an unscheduled stop and one ear open for the telltale sound of a dropped cylinder. To win a race, let alone a title, drivers had to take care of their equipment. DNFs made a big difference in a driver’s season.
Sunday’s race lacked any kind of real tension. Tires mattered, but not to the degree that teams had to worry about failures or having to change their pit strategy. Strategy might have played a role had the late caution for Ty Dillon’s brake failure not happened, but really, there wasn’t much to make fans switch over from the NFL’s openers and stay.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
“If NASCAR is looking for “game seven moments” in the playoffs, then adding Gateway to the schedule probably wasn’t a strong move.”
NA$CAR has been trying for “game seven moments” since Emperor Brian and his toadies decided that was what he wanted at the end of each event. It is clearly evident how successful all their efforts have proven to be! Not to mention the efforts to simplify the hard to understand Latford POINTS system. And their cheaper to maintain “race” car they have designed.
Probably in the minority here, but I thought it was a decent race. Cars which were legitimately fast could pass average cars. Strategy was relevant, which is generally sorely lacking in the era of stage racing. Seems Goodyear pulled another rabbit out of their hat, with tire wear mattering, but not causing failures.
Still, what seemed to be the best cars other than Hamlin (Larson, Byron, Wallace) likely would have been at the front but for the caution coming at a perfect time for those on the alternate strategy.
Easy passing is generally boring. Just look at what multiple grooves have done to Bristol. Tapered spacer racing is nearly random in its results, which can be exciting, but doesn’t necessarily reward excellence. This race was neither random nor easy on the drivers.
I do miss the days of teams having to ride the ragged edge between durability and performance with the engine. Also miss the days when drivers had to think twice about making contact, for fear of damage slowing their car or ending their day.
Your last paragraph contradicts your prior comment about it being a decent race.
It does not in any way, shape, or form do this. A race can be good without durability being in the equation, even though I prefer this be the case.
If Nascar wanted game 7 moments, most of them know how to get them, but those aren’t the ones calling the shots. This car sucks and they know it. Did you see the numbers on the last TV contract, did you see the percentage it increased !! That is ALL those running Nascar today care about. You can’t out argue me on that.
My question is why increasing revenue being the primary focus of a business surprises you. We can argue about what we do or do not like about the product.
We cannot argue about this being the very reason businesses exist…to make money.
What if your “product” isn’t any good and all you want to do is sell it at least once to as many people as you can?
NASCAR is not a non-profit for the entertainment of watchers. Their focus is to make as much money as possible, period.
Again, we can debate whether we like the product. We can debate whether the current path is good for the sport. We all have our opinions here.
We cannot debate the job of those who work for NASCAR is to make money, no other reason, which is the topic of discussion, from Echo’s comment above.
Its never surprised me, maybe you weren’t asking me.
NASCAR knows how to make money. If they wanted to build a great car, racing would improve. If the racing improved, attendance at tracks would improve. If attendance at tracks improved, there’d be more revenue for NASCAR.
NASCAR has learned how to make money without the revenue they once generated from their fans packing the grandstands. Even with their lackluster racing product, NASCAR is still making money.
If that’s truly the case, why change anything?
Exactly