My two great sporting loves are NASCAR and football — or soccer, as Americans reading this column will call it. You would be wrong, but that’s a whole other column.
Growing up in England, football is ingrained, it’s everywhere, it’s in my blood. But having covered NASCAR for the best part of the last two decades, NASCAR is very much in my heart and soul too.
So headed into the Sonoma Raceway weekend, I was curious as to whether or not drivers were watching the 2026 FIFA World Cup. I knew that three drivers had attended the United States vs. Turkey game on the Thursday prior, so I was keen to hear their specific takes, but I wondered if others had been watching.
Some of the drivers were really into the World Cup. Take Ty Dillon, for example, who had clearly been devoting some time to keeping a close eye on the beautiful game.
“Yeah, I’ve been following it pretty adamantly,” he told Frontstretch. “I’ve been pretty excited that it’s come to America. I actually invested in a bunch of sports cards four years ago before the last World Cup, thinking that America was gonna have the performance that they’ve had this year, but it’s been really fun to follow them and then just follow all the games.
“It’s so cool that they’re on that kind of decent hours throughout the day in America, and so I’ve almost watched every single game, but not start to finish. I’ll click it on for a little bit, kind of check the scores and see who’s playing, and obviously I’ve watched all the teams with the superstars. But definitely been watching all the USA games and cheering hard, and hopefully we can make a run.”
Daniel Suarez was, perhaps unsurprisingly, another driver who was riveted by the World Cup.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “I’ve been watching games every single day, at least one or two games, so I have enjoyed my time watching a lot of soccer.”
And one who definitely caught me by surprise was Chase Elliott. I was sure he would have told me he wasn’t watching at all, but the opposite was true. It also led to quite a funny exchange between the two of us:
Me: Chase, have you been watching the World Cup at all?
Chase: “Yes, I have.”
Me (surprised): “You have?”
Chase: “Yeah, you look surprised.” [Chase’s face breaks into a big smile]
Me: I was wondering if you’d been watching.
“I’ve been watching a lot of different teams, sports on during the week, you know, it’s something to watch at night and [there have] been some good games,” Elliott further explained. “I watched Egypt and Iran play last night and I watched until I fell asleep. I didn’t make it to the end, but I’ve watched some of that game.
“So yeah, obviously I’ve kept up with the U.S. and, yeah, France looks really good. Argentina looked really good. I don’t know anything about soccer, but I’ve learned a lot in the last couple of weeks.”
Ryan Preece decided to use my question as a moment to take a friendly dig at his opponent in the In-Season Challenge, Shane van Gisbergen: “I did notice New Zealand got beat last night by Belgium [5-1], maybe we beat New Zealand on Sunday.”
Carson Hocevar was another who had been watching. “I’ve been rooting on the United States, obviously,” he said. “Yeah, it’s probably the most I’ve ever really paid attention to it, obviously with it being in the U.S. it’s been very cool to see. I’m really hopeful that the USA can kind of pull off the upset or go really far and make it entertaining for all of us, really.”
Hocevar also expressed interest in going to see a game live if the schedule lined up.
“I mean, it would be very cool, but our schedule is kind of difficult, but it would be fun to go,” he said. “I haven’t really looked. You know, if the U.S. goes far, depending on where they’re at, I’d love to see what days that lines up.”
Others were much less interested. Ty Gibbs for one. “No, no soccer for me,” he said. “Not at all. I obviously root for the U.S. team, but I don’t watch any soccer.”
Jesse Love hadn’t been watching either but did note there was some family interest and that the fandom had kept him up at night.
“No, I have no interest in soccer,” Love said. “I have a lot of respect for the sport, and I love athletes, and [Lionel] Messi is somebody that I have not studied but read a lot about and listened a lot about. I guess he’s with Argentina, right? … On TikTok, I see the different teams and stuff.
“I don’t know how Argentina loses, but I heard again that the USA is in a good spot. I saw they lost yesterday, but they’re still in, but my mom’s whole side of the family is from Mexico. So you know I’m obviously rooting for America, but half of the house is also rooting for Mexico.”
Riley Herbst was one of the three drivers (along with Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski) who attended the U.S. match in person, and he clearly really enjoyed his experience.
“Yeah, I’m a fan of FIFA,” he said. “I asked the media department at 23XI [Racing] if we could go. I think it’s a bucket list opportunity to go to a FIFA World Cup game, and it was cool just to see the atmosphere and people from all around the world in San Francisco to see a soccer match, I guess they call it.
“So, yeah, hopefully the USA makes it a little bit better than the first game in the knockout and hopefully we can get a good day and we can go see them.”
I also asked Herbst how he felt the atmosphere compared to a big NASCAR race.
“I don’t think there’s anything that competes with the Daytona 500 pre-race, just the electricity in the air, but yeah, it was cool,” he said. “I’ve never been to a Champions [League] match or a Premier League match or anything like that, so I was definitely a first-timer, but I would like to go again. I would like to go see my team, USA, and kind of see how they do. It’s awesome.”
Keselowski said enjoyed his live World Cup experience as well. “Yeah, it’s nice to just kind of branch out of my own world and see what the rest of the sporting world has going on,” he said. “Certainly a very international event as NASCAR continues to look at international races. … It’s good to see international sports, and we’re fortunate that they came to us — a little easier on the travel schedule.”
Hamlin clearly relished the atmosphere in person. “It was my first experience going to a game,” he said. “I mean, obviously, I’m a bandwagon (fan). I watch playoff hockey, I don’t watch regular season. I watch playoff baseball, I don’t watch regular season, I’m that type of sports fan. But it was grossly underrated, the atmosphere you get at a World Cup game on TV vs being there in person. It was absolutely amazing to experience it. It’s something I would love to do again.
“I don’t know how the schedules line up for the next few weeks or so. Certainly I will try to go to another one, regardless of who is playing. I hear that going to the USA games are awesome, but going to some where the fans are really, really passionate could make it an even better experience. So I’m looking forward to going to another one.”
I’ll leave the last word to three-time champion, Joey Logano, however, when I asked if he had been watching.
“No, not even one thing. I’ve got five kids. Yeah, we watch Paw Patrol.”
Danny Peters has written for Frontstretch since 2006. An English transplant living in San Francisco, by way of New York City, he’s had an award-winning marketing career with some of the biggest companies sponsoring sports. Working with racers all over the country, his freelance writing has even reached outside the world of racing to include movie screenplays.
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