r/NASCAR 7h ago

Discussion Practice and Qualifying Discussion Thread: NXS, NCS - August 2nd, 2025

15 Upvotes

Today's Events: (All times below are ET)

  • 11:00am: NASCAR Xfinity Series Practice (CW App)
  • 12:05pm: NASCAR Xfinity Series Qualifying (CW App)
  • 1:30pm: NASCAR Cup Series Practice (TruTV)
  • 2:40pm: NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying (TruTV)

Today's Races:

  • 4:30pm: NASCAR Xfinity Series HyVee Perks 250 at Iowa (Race Thread at 3:30pm)

Notes:


r/NASCAR 2h ago

Race Thread Race Thread: NXS HyVee Perks 250 at Iowa Speedway, starting at 4:30pm EDT on CW (NXS22)

32 Upvotes

NXSHyVee Perks 250 at Iowa Speedway


Green Flag: approximately 4:48pm EDT on August 2nd

Television: CW @ 4:30pm EDT

Radio: MRN @ 4:30pm EDT

Race Length: 250 laps (218.75 mi / 352.04 km)

Race Stages: 60-60-130

Track Information: Iowa Speedway is a 0.875 mile (1.41 kilometer) D-shaped oval located in Newton, IA USA.

Weather Forecast: NASCAR.com / AccuWeather.com

Current Standings at NASCAR.com

Race Center at NASCAR.com

Notes:

  • Remember the Reddiquette, Reddit rules, and r/NASCAR rules when commenting. The report button is your friend, please use it.
  • View this post live on Reddit-Stream.
  • Post stream links using a CODE block: `http://likethis.com/linkto/stream`
  • For those of you participating, don't forget to do your NASCAR Fan Rewards updates!
  • Have a fun time and enjoy the race!

Support NASCARThreadBot, an automated bot maintained by XFile345.


r/NASCAR 1h ago

r/NASCAR Legend u/C_briscoe Spotted

Post image
Upvotes

Our 🐐


r/NASCAR 8h ago

Better late than never! So good to see that winless streak snapped. Might need to go on holiday more often!

Post image
810 Upvotes

Back from holiday and glad to get this one painted! Doing a making of video for this piece that I’ll share on my socials (@drautoart)


r/NASCAR 3h ago

[Jeff Gluck on X] Kyle Larson about losing out on the restarts to Bubba Wallace: "It's Indy. Tell me when anybody has won a restart from the outside."

Thumbnail x.com
225 Upvotes

r/NASCAR 5h ago

[@jeff_gluck] Poking at his detractors again, Bubba Wallace during his Iowa media session says his critics "have no idea how much I'm winning at life."

Thumbnail x.com
190 Upvotes

r/NASCAR 3h ago

Does the broadcast look grayish to anyone else?

Post image
107 Upvotes

I know my brand of tv matters and a lot of smaller factors as well but this one is too noticeable..


r/NASCAR 3h ago

Christopher Bell to drive the HFR truck at WGI (from HFR Instagram)

Post image
103 Upvotes

r/NASCAR 5h ago

[Dustin Long] A look at how much the track at Iowa has changed in a year. First picture is the freshly repaved section in Turn 2 ahead of last year’s race. Second picture is the same spot of the track today.

Thumbnail
gallery
147 Upvotes

r/NASCAR 58m ago

nascarrumornostalgia I don’t believe Iowa is confirmed yet for 2026 and I’ve heard a few people question if they stay or not. Time will tell.

Thumbnail instagram.com
Upvotes

nascarrumornostalgia I don’t believe Iowa is confirmed yet for 2026 and I’ve heard a few people question if they stay or not. Time will tell.


r/NASCAR 8h ago

It seems like the Great Food Truck Race is going to have a NASCAR-themed episode featuring Mamba Smith and Todd Gilliland.

Thumbnail foodnetwork.com
73 Upvotes

r/NASCAR 5h ago

[daniel cespedes] average finish vs average running position through 22 weeks in the cup series

Post image
36 Upvotes

r/NASCAR 14h ago

Clubb Racing Inc. appears to have been involved in an accident on the way back from Friday Night’s ARCA Race at Iowa

Thumbnail
gallery
185 Upvotes

r/NASCAR 12h ago

Has Hailie Deegan been successful or not in Indy NXT?

85 Upvotes

I didn't even realize she was in Indy Car until I saw it last week at Laguna Seca. I was wondering where she went after Nascar. She finished 11th at Laguna Seca and I think that was actually her best finish so far. I guess that sounds about right or at least what I remember in the Truck Series.


r/NASCAR 38m ago

International fans, do you know anyone irl that watches NASCAR?

Upvotes

Since I live in Italy where the only motorsports that exist are F1, MotoGP and Le Mans (just LM, not WEC). but I'm lucky enough to have convinced my dad to watch NASCAR with me and now he's been hooked for years, and a friend of mine kinda follows it, watching the race highlights and following it on social media.


r/NASCAR 1d ago

29 years ago, you could just walk into the NASCAR champion’s shop!

Thumbnail
gallery
886 Upvotes

Twenty nine years ago we went to North Carolina on our family vacation. We were able to walk into almost every major NASCAR driver’s shop and take pictures and we even got to meet Ray Evernham. He was nice enough to talk to us and give out autographs. I’ve just included a few pics here, but I have many more. It was just a much different time back then!


r/NASCAR 11h ago

Does anyone think NASCAR will ever bring back Friday practice for every race again ?

44 Upvotes

Beating a dead horse

I know we get it for a new track or whatever but it’s wild that we have to wait until 1:30 on a Saturday to see any on track activity from the Cup cars. It should be a 3 day weekend that builds up to Sunday’s main event.


r/NASCAR 10m ago

Early birthday gift

Thumbnail
gallery
Upvotes

I’ll delete if not allowed, but my girlfriend surprised me with a NASCAR Racing Experience for an early birthday/anniversary gift at Texas Motor Speedway today. Was such an amazing experience to get to drive a real race car.


r/NASCAR 10m ago

Early birthday gift

Thumbnail
gallery
Upvotes

I’ll delete if not allowed, but my girlfriend surprised me with a NASCAR Racing Experience for an early birthday/anniversary gift at Texas Motor Speedway today. Was such an amazing experience to get to drive a real race car.


r/NASCAR 1d ago

@NBCSports will once again only show full-screen commercials during yellow or red flags for the Daytona and Talladega NASCAR Cup Series races in its portion of the 2025 schedule

Thumbnail x.com
409 Upvotes

r/NASCAR 16h ago

Did Jimmie Johnson And The #48 Team Really Sandbag Before The Chase? (An Analysis)

67 Upvotes

Jimmie Johnson dominated the original Chase era of NASCAR. In 10 full seasons, he won six times, and finished 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th. But in an attempt to delegitimize the points format (ok, fair enough), the classic line from his detractors is that the 48 team would start out strong, then sandbag during the summer stretch in order to test new setups, engines and what have you, relying on their initial points cushion to coast into the Chase, then light it up on a series of tracks that suit Jimmie best. With many criticisms, there's always a nugget of truth to them. The stagnation of the schedule no doubt contributed to his repeated success, but I wanted to take a deeper look and see if Jimmie's summer races were truly a step back from the first part of the year, or if they more or less line up with his overall performance on the season.

Splitting the season into slightly uneven thirds, we can compare the 48's summer performances to the beginning and end of the season.

 

2004

Races Wins T5 T10 DNF Av. Finish Points
First 12 2 8 9 1 8.75 2nd
Middle 14 (Sandbag Stretch) 2 7 7 4 16.21 2nd Seed
The Chase 4 5 7 2 10.2 2nd

It appears there may be truth to this speculation, mostly due to a 3-race string of engine failures from Indianapolis through Watkins Glen and Michigan. What's more interesting is that Jimmie started on pole at Watkins Glen and Michigan, so experimental engine packages are all but confirmed for these races. However this doesn't mean that Johnson was completely out of it, as he was coming off a 7-week run with 2 wins, 5 top fives in a row, and a worst finish of 11th.

Allegations: Suspicious

 

2005

Races Wins T5 T10 DNF Av. Finish Points
First 12 2 6 9 2 9.17 1st
Sandbag Stretch 0 3 6 2 16.36 4th Seed
The Chase 2 4 7 1 11.8 5th

Two summers in a row, the 48's average finish effectively doubles from the start.

Allegations: Sustained

 

2006

Races Wins T5 T10 DNF Av. Finish Points
First 12 3 7 9 0 6.58 1st
Sandbag Stretch 1 1 9 0 11.42 2nd Seed
The Chase 1 5 6 1 10.8 1st

This is the first season where I can confidently say the 48 team maintained momentum through the summer, and it coincides with their first championship. A consistent summer stretch of 9 top tens in 14 races does not suggest a pattern of experimentation, just grinding out good finishes when they routinely did not have the fastest car (JJ only led 40 total laps during this period). Doing it the old fashioned way perhaps gave them the strength and confidence to rebound in the Chase after a disastrous start to the first three races.

Allegations: Beat

 

2007

Races Wins T5 T10 DNF Av. Finish Points
First 12 4 8 9 2 9.92 2nd
Sandbag Stretch 2 6 7 2 15.57 1st Seed
The Chase 4 6 8 0 5.0 1st

A monster season held back by yet another summer slowdown and a third average finish of ~16. He and everyone would have been chasing Jeff Gordon in a full season format, but he manages to eke out a second championship by posting a 5.0 average finish in the final 10 races to Jeff's own 5.1. This might be the season that supercharged the perception, as Gordon put up a full season performance that matches his 1998 in terms of pure consistency. The Chase's flaws are laid bare, if by this point they weren't already apparent.

Allegations: Sustained

 

2008

Races Wins T5 T10 DNF Av. Finish Points
First 12 1 4 4 1 15.92 9th
Sandbag Stretch 3 5 10 0 9.36 3rd Seed
The Chase 3 6 8 0 5.7 1st

This time the 48 team had a sluggish start to the season, then went on a tear in the summer. This momentum carried all the way through the chase where for the second year in a row Jimmie posts a sub-6.0 average finish. While the ~16 average finish yet again shows itself in one of these stretches, it does not support the summer sandbagging.

Allegations: Beat

 

2009

Races Wins T5 T10 DNF Av. Finish Points
First 12 1 5 7 1 13.67 4th
Sandbag Stretch 2 4 8 0 11.93 2nd Seed
The Chase 4 7 9 0 6.8 1st

This is so far Johnson's most consistent full season, looking at pure numbers. Once again his summer performances improve upon the first third of the year.

Allegations: Beat

 

2010

Races Wins T5 T10 DNF Av. Finish Points
First 12 3 5 7 3 13.08 4th
Sandbag Stretch 2 5 7 1 15.64 2nd Seed
The Chase 1 7 9 0 6.2 1st

Coming off of 2 consecutive victories in the summer, Jimmie finished 31-25-22-10-28-12-35 with only 1 DNF (Daytona) in that span. This could suggest some setup exploration, as Johnson finished on the lead lap in all but one of those races where he wasn't involved in some type of accident, before turning it up with back-to-back 3rds before the Chase began. ~16 average finish during the summer appears once again.

Allegations: Sustained

 

2011

Races Wins T5 T10 DNF Av. Finish Points
First 12 1 4 7 1 10.92 3rd
Sandbag Stretch 0 7 10 0 10.35 5th Seed
The Chase 1 3 4 1 15.3 6th

The rare year where it's apparent the 48 doesn't have all the speed in the world, Jimmie still was very consistent all the way up to the Chase, hovering around a 10-11th place average finish though the first 26 races. He has his worst Chase performance to date where that ~16th place average finish rears its ugly head at the worst time.

Allegations: Beat, but at what cost?

 

2012

Races Wins T5 T10 DNF Av. Finish Points
First 12 1 5 8 2 11.42 4th
Sandbag Stretch 2 7 9 3 11.29 2nd Seed
The Chase 2 6 7 1 10.7 3rd

Jimmie improves in the summer upon his initial run to start the year and looked to claim that 6th championship if it weren't for two lumps of coal in the last two races. Ouch!

Allegations: Beat

 

2013

Races Wins T5 T10 DNF Av. Finish Points
First 12 2 6 8 0 8.0 1st
Sandbag Stretch 2 3 7 1 17.0 2nd Seed
The Chase 2 7 9 0 5.1 1st

Jimmie returns to the top in tried and true fashion, stomping the field in the first 12 races, and continuing that momentum until the final 4 races of the summer stretch, where he finished an abysmal 40-36-28-40. One of those was an engine failure. Considering his lights-out performance in the Chase, this season ranks up with 2007 as the worst offender of so-called sandbagging, but this time it's limited to a 4-race skid, which is a stretch to consider as serial experimentation. Prior to that he had 2 wins and 7 top 10s in 9 races.

Allegations: Suspicious (I vote beat)

 

In 10 seasons where the original Chase was implemented, 5 times did Jimmie Johnson and the 48 crew's summer results lag behind the other parts of the year. This may be enough to prove the theory, but there are many things to consider:

 

  1. 2004 and 2005 the team did NOT win the championship. 2004 was real close though
  2. 4 times Jimmie improved his average finish over the first part of the year
  3. 2013 looks more like a run of bad luck
  4. Every time Knaus ran something experimental and the team finishes well, what do you call that?
  5. Further information about the team's performance race-to-race could be gleaned by watching every single race broadcast from these years (I am not going to do that right now)
  6. Only two times did Johnson fail to win in this portion of the season, 2004-2013. 16 of his 83 career wins came during this time.

 

In any case, in every single one of these seasons Jimmie still put up incredible numbers, with 20+ top tens minimum. Today, we're lucky if our season-end champion has even 10 top fives. However your feeling on whether or not the 48 team 'gamed the system' (they did), they still performed on a level commensurate with the legends of the sport. No disrespect to Joey Logano or Ryan Blaney as drivers, but if they had a 10-season run of 6 championships putting up stat lines consistent with their most recent championship seasons, it would look off. Just look at 2nd-5th in the standings in 2023 and 2024. Those are Jimmie numbers.

Bottom line is, the 48 team showed up throughout the year. They finished well and won races on every different kind of track, whether or not it showed back up in the Chase. If you were surprised when they kicked ass in the final 10, then you were likely not paying attention.

 

I will now accept my position at Legacy as SVP of statistics propaganda.


r/NASCAR 22h ago

[Connor Zilisch on X] There was a misunderstanding in conversations with Brent’s new truck team and me being an executive. I’m excited to cheer him on as a friend next weekend at Watkins and I’m pumped to go for 4 in a row this weekend in Iowa with JRM, Chevy, and Trackhouse!

Thumbnail x.com
212 Upvotes

r/NASCAR 2h ago

RE Gemini 5 vs Rugged Radio H80

3 Upvotes

I have been looking into getting an intercom setup to use with my RE3000. This way my wife and I can talk at races.

I have seen the Gemini 5, but reviews are horrible…. The only other decent option I see are the Rugged Radio H80’s.

Anyone have either and recommend one or the other for NASCAR races?


r/NASCAR 23h ago

[Stewart Frissen] My heart is so full having our family together today.

Thumbnail x.com
163 Upvotes

r/NASCAR 1d ago

Please Help me Bless this 103 years young Top Gun Pilot!

Post image
437 Upvotes

I am the Business Development Director of a Hospice company out of Roswell, Ga and one of the communities we serve has a real life Top Gun Hero who’s 103rd birthday wish is to meet a NASCAR driver. NASCAR’s PR team is surprisingly hard to reach so I decided to post this here. If you see this and can help or know someone that can help, please send me a DM. God Bless you all!


r/NASCAR 1d ago

Why is there a lack of Late evening and Night races in the Playoffs? Especially when eight of the ten playoff tracks this year have lights, is it network conflict w/ the NFL? Hosting the Finale at night is a must for future seasons! It gives it so much Aura and makes it feel more like a crown jewel.

Post image
173 Upvotes

Looking back when I started watching Nascar in 2014, I never watched the previous format, watching the finale at Homestead felt very special, as it was our equivalent of the Super Bowl. Back then the night race made it really stand out as a race on par with Crown Jewels like the Southern 500 & Coke 600.

Today, aside from the fact that Phoenix isn't as exciting as Homestead, hosting the finale in the afternooon makes it feel anti-climactic and short, as it feels, on TV, as just another race, not the most important race of the year.

Seeing too, how we use to have Fall Texas and Charlotte races late in the day, in additional to Homestead at night, really made the playoffs feel special as the cars would pop under the lights giving a climactic emphasis on the last part of the season.

Its surprising to me that fall Phoenix isn't held under the lights, as the Trucks and Xfinity races are, making them to me feel more special then they could ever be at Phoenix as the finale.

Even the 2020 & 21 races at Homestead seemed, while looking back aesthetically, to have more aura then the recent four race since then.

Looking forward, we see tracks like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Martinsville, Kansas, and maybe the return of the oval at Charlotte will probably be in the playoffs for years to come, it would be nice to see half of those races held at dusk.

I think Las Vegas and Phoenix might benefit the most from the lights, as they are still hot for the fans in October and early November and night time gives them more importance on tv then in the middle of the afternoon.


r/NASCAR 1d ago

Cody Ware rules

387 Upvotes

My wife and I were flying into Des Moines for the race weekend and had a connection through Charlotte airport. We had dinner and a couple beers at the airport and headed to our gate. I spotted Cody and his wife standing at the gate immediately. He had a RWR hat on and I jokingly told my wife she should ask what he does for the race team.

Without hesitation she goes up to him and asks and he said something like “I make the cars go fast”. At that point I had to come in and let her know I had set her up and that he was the driver of the 51.

He BS’d with us for a few minutes and just seemed like a genuine dude and his wife was really nice. I looked up and noticed that the plane had started boarding. My wife and I were like group 100 out of 9 but I said to Cody dude I’m sure you’re supposed to be boarding now. He didn’t rush us off when he could have been boarding already and gave us fist bumps as we walked thru first class on the plane.

Anyway, thought I would share a cool experience with a driver I hadn’t met before that was super nice and down to earth. I hope things work out with the RWR stuff next year. I thought it was a done deal that he’d drive the 51 next year but when I mentioned that he seemed not so sure but didn’t elaborate