Could NASCAR’s two brightest young stars team up?
If my name were Rick Hendrick, I would officially be salivating thinking about the 2028 driver lineup. Earlier in the year, Hendrick announced that it had signed Connor Zilisch to a contract to pilot the iconic No. 48 after Alex Bowman retires at the end of the 2027 season.
Today, Hendrick also announced that it signed Kyle Larson‘s protege, Corey Day, to an extension that will place him in several Cup starts in 2027. Day, who is well respected in the sprint car world like Larson, is still in his rookie season in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
It isn’t outside the realm of possibility, either. For instance, Corey Heim, another young, budding star, is set to drive full-time in the Cup series next season after his part-time efforts this year earned him a seat and, more than likely, some much-needed sponsorship aid.
If Day goes out next year and performs even moderately well, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him take over a Cup ride with Hendrick in 2028. That would place him and Zilisch in the same garage and form one of the most highly anticipated pairings in recent NASCAR history.
There might not be a more marketable pair in the sport right now, and if NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell’s comments yesterday on CNBC (more on that in a moment) hold any foreshadowing, the business that could drum up would be hard to ignore. The question then becomes, though, who loses their seat?
Is Steve O’Donnell right to want more races out west?
One of the most annoying narratives I see on the frozen hellscape that is NASCAR Twitter/X is that fans don’t want to see more races across the country, particularly out west. It may be the most boneheaded take on the planet to look at NASCAR and say, “No, we should definitely keep this right here and not try to grow its footprint elsewhere.”
In a recent interview with USA Sports president Matt Hong that aired on CNBC, O’Donnell was asked how NASCAR can maintain its current momentum after its positive spike during the 2026 regular season. His response? That it’s all about partnerships and growing the sport’s footprint.
What piqued my interest most, though, was the specific areas O’Donnell listed, including the Pacific Northwest and Denver. We’ve discussed another locale for a street race ad nauseam, and Denver might actually be a solid option. It’s a market with a very large population and is a top-20 media market nationwide. That kind of pull is something that nearly every sports executive would like a slice of.
But the PNW is a different ballgame altogether. There are plenty of race tracks there, but none that can truly host a Cup weekend unless some serious money went into Portland. That would either mean yet another street race or a new track altogether. I don’t see the latter happening just yet, as the sport hasn’t grown back to that level of popularity. However, if NASCAR is looking for its next two street race destinations, Denver and Seattle seem like solid options.
Is Jeff Dickerson firing back at Denny Hamlin a fair play?
Unless you’ve been under a rock this week, Denny Hamlin hopped on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast this week and started blastin’. Amid the back-and-forth between Brad Keselowski and Carson Hocevar, Hamlin said he didn’t want to give Hocevar the PR clip he wants. Instead, he took shots at his team, Spire Motorsports.
Dickerson, while keeping it fairly low-key, took some shots of his own back at Hamlin, saying that they were “serious enough to sue” in reference to the ongoing lawsuit between Joe Gibbs Racing and Spire over former JGR competition director Chris Gabehart allegedly stealing team documents regarding car setups and information.
And he has a point. He also references the reason that Gabehart was looking to get out of JGR in the first place, citing that he doesn’t plan on allowing the same thing to happen at Spire.
Whether you agree with Spire’s driver selections or how it conducts itself in the NASCAR space, you still can’t act as though this isn’t a large company that holds influence in many a sport, especially in racing. They’re no stranger to the motorsport business, and aren’t the new guys on the block, either.
These are two guys who know the sport and its business models inside and out. Hamlin knows exactly why Spire lets Hocevar be himself to the extent he does, and it plays out every day in the sport’s media landscape. For instance, can you name one other driver with only one win in the year that gets the same attention? Probably not.
The changing of the guard is rarely ever a harmonious experience when it comes to star power, and that’s exactly what’s taking place.
Should NASCAR pursue Apple’s new CEO for partnerships?
You might look at that question and say, “Yeah, duh. It’s Apple.” And that’s completely true. But it has a few more layers when you pull back the curtain: John Ternus, the company’s new CEO, is a huge racing fan. He’s also worked with NASCAR’s subsidiary, IMSA, before, when he brought back a classic Porsche livery with the old Apple logo.
Sorry to disappoint Alpha Fox here, but I doubt Apple will return to its old logo at the corporate level. But how cool would a scheme like that be on a Cup car? Additionally, if O’Donnell and company want to keep bringing in new partnerships, looping in one of the largest tech companies on the planet seems like a solid step.
If you’re looking for a title sponsor to host a street race in a tech-ish city, there may not be a better partner out there, or even for the COTA race in Austin, which is an incredibly tech-forward place, too.
With a truly bottomless pocketbook, there are certain sponsorships that could quite literally change a sport, and if NASCAR could land a large-scale deal with a company like Apple, it could be a landmark moment for its new leadership team and an instant accelerant toward capitalizing on the gains it’s made thus far in 2026.
Tanner Marlar is a staff writer for Sports Illustrated’s OnSI Network, a contributor for multiple automotive news outlets, an award-winning sports columnist and talk show host, and a PhD. student at a premier college of media and mass communication. Tanner began working with Frontstretch in 2022, covering the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.
A name and email address are required to post a comment. The email address is not publicly visible or shared. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated according to our comment policy.
Comments are listed in order from oldest to newest. Leave a comment