Natalie Decker is scheduled to return to the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sept. 18, driving the No. 35 Chevrolet. Her own website lists Bristol as her next race.
And look, we're not going to pretend this is the second coming of Dale Earnhardt.
Decker has struggled to find consistent results throughout her NASCAR career. She has 16 career O'Reilly Series starts without a top-10 finish, according to available career records.
But that's exactly why Bristol is going to be interesting.
Because if there is one thing Decker has never lacked, it's willingness to keep coming back for another shot.

#o 'reilly #going

DAYTONA BEACH — As an observer, Austin Cindric enjoyed watching Ryan Preece punch his own ticket into NASCAR's Cup Series playoffs. That doesn't mean it came without a little bit of stress, and a lot of communication, before the two-lap overtime period began.
Cindric had all the information he needed as it pertained to fuel and, more importantly, how it pertained to points. He held on for a sixth-place **** e Zero Sugar 400 finish at Daytona International Speedway, good enough to secure one of the final spots into the 16-driver postseason field.
"I know it might sound weird, but it was kind of fun to watch," Cindric said of Preece's victory. "The guy drove a **** of a race, and wins because of it. That doesn't happen at these (events) super often."
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Cindric is one of six playoff qualifiers without a win from the season's 26 races, along with Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, William Byron and Bubba Wallace. The 27-year-old entered the night with a 44-point gap above the cut line, thanks to five previous top-10s and 113 stage points.

#points

Step 1 — establishing the 40-car field for the ***** e Zero Sugar 400 — is complete.
Forty-one NASCAR Cup Series drivers went through their two-round qualifying session Friday at Daytona International Speedway. The first round filled out the field and designated Gray Gaulding of Garage 66 as the odd man out as the slowest of the open rides. The second took the top 10 and gave them an additional lap, duking it out for pole position.
In the end, Ross Chastain prevailed and will lead everyone to the green flag at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the regular-season finale.
Here's a full look at the results:
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#step #coke #nascar #series

Running from February through November, the NASCAR season can be long, grueling and unforgivable for its drivers, full of twists and turns, ups and downs.
It's been that way for Tyler Reddick this year.
The 30-year-old from Corning, California, started the year on an absolute tear and made history, becoming the first driver to win the first three races of the season. When he took consecutive checkered flags at Daytona, Atlanta and Circuit of the Americas, he did something that not even legends of this sport – such as Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt – had accomplished.
By mid-April, Reddick had won five of the first nine races of the season, and most fans ****** umed he was going to ride that momentum all year and win his first championship in the Cup Series by a wide margin. Heading into June, Reddick still remained first in points with a comfortable lead.
Then the bad days started to pile up. His No. 45 Toyota got caught in a multi-car crash at Michigan and he didn't finish. Two weeks later in the street course race at Naval Base Coronado, Reddick was battling with teammate Corey Heim for the lead with less than three laps to go, then blew his left front tire and settled for a 25th-place finish.

#first #started #three #lead

Jeff Gordon wheeled the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet the entirety of his illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career. Gordon captured four Cup Series championships and 93 career wins, stamping him as one of the best the sport has ever seen.
Today, Gordon is focused on the business side of the sport as he is the current Vice Chairman of HMS. During an appearance on the "Business of Motorsports" podcast, hosted by Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s older sister, Kelley, Gordon revealed a shocking detail about his driver contract.
In a world full of guarantees, Gordon had none in his driver contract with Hendrick Motorsports. If Gordon performed at a high level on the racetrack or had big-time sponsors, it was something he was a participant in.
"I think people would be shocked if they saw what my driver contract looked like. … There were no guarantees. We work in this world of guarantees, got to have this, got to have that — I had no guarantees. If the car did well on-track, if the car did well with sponsorship. … I participated in that," Gordon said.
If there was a guarantee, it is that Gordon was consistently a threat to win on the racetrack.

#series #Career #sport

D
Dale Earnhardt Jr. supports Richard Childress' decision to sign Austin Hill to a full-time NASCAR Cup Series deal in 2027. On Monday, it was announced that Hill will remain in the No. 33 RCR Chevrolet next year.
Following the sudden passing of two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch on May 21, RCR moved from the No. 8 to the No. 33 and put Hill behind the wheel. In the 13 races since, Hill has recorded two top-20 finishes with a best showing of 18th at Pocono.
Hill still competes full-time in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series behind the wheel of the No. 21 RCR Chevrolet. The 32-year-old has won two races in 2026 and sits seventh in the points standings.
On a recent episode of "The Dale Jr. Download," Earnhardt Jr. said there has been "wild" feedback in the wake of RCR's announcement.

#series #dale #earnhardt #full

The ***** e Zero Sugar 400 doesn't have the Super Bowl-sized reputation of its slightly older and bigger brother, the Daytona 500.
But boy, it sure has plenty of history.
From 1959 when Daytona Beach's own Fireball Roberts claimed the first Firecracker 250 all the way to 2025 when Ryan Blaney put on a clinic in the final two laps, a who's who of NASCAR legends has won the World Center of Racing's summertime bash.
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Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch. All of them have sped into Victory Lane — some of them multiple times.

#zero #bowl

One week out from the **** e Zero Sugar 400, the weather forecast looks ...
... like you would expect from Florida in August.
Yes, there's a chance of rain.
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Daytona International Speedway has seen that before. Since 1999, eight of its 27 summertime NASCAR Cup Series races have encountered delays, abbreviations or postponements related to uncooperative skies.

#earnhardt #daytona #speedway

It appears no one else is saying it. Literally no one.
That tells me there must be a good reason. In such cases, you should probably join the mum chorus and refrain from possibly sounding ignorant.
But that's no fun, is it? So here goes …
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Wouldn't the end of that Iowa race have been much more fun if that car in the way — a car sitting in 27th place, two laps down — had moved up the track to let Christopher Bell get a clear shot at Ty Gibbs over the final two laps?

#here #dale

Ty Gibbs has made The Jump.
The 23-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver entered the NASCAR Cup Series as an uber-hyped prospect in 2023. He barely missed the playoffs that first season, snuck in during his second campaign and fell just short again last year.
He had never won a race.
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But since the start of 2026, Gibbs has fulfilled his promise. He locked down his second victory during the Iowa Corn 350 on Aug. 9 at Iowa Speedway, pacing the pack for 20 laps and holding off his hard-charging teammate, Christopher Bell, in the closing moments.

#iowa #second #dale

Someone is collecting signatures that might kill a racetrack by telling people it will save it. That is not a typo. Paid canvassers in Nashville were caught on hidden camera telling residents that signing their petition would protect the Fairgrounds Speedway from being torn down by corporate developers. The petition actually does the exact opposite. It strips racing's legal protections from the city charter and tries to open the land to housing construction. Dale Earnhardt Jr. sat down with Marcus Smith, Jeff Burton, and Matt Weaver to talk about it.
"My question is, if it's true, which there's video evidence of these folks seeking these signatures, stating false information or just incorrect information, how can that not be taken to de-legitimize the 50,000, 60,000 signatures they need?" said Dale Jr. on Wednesday's episode of The Dale Jr. Download.
"They are using actual government letterhead to give this to the residents. That's the moment it becomes a legal matter."
Residents who figured out they were misled are now trying to pull their names off the petition. But the Metro Clerk's office earlier told them they cannot before suggesting that anyone who would like to remove their name can contact Restore Our Fairgrounds. That said, former council members have already filed formal complaints demanding a full investigation.
The petition campaign has been backed by John Ingram, per reports, owner of Nashville SC.

#down #Legal

Carson Hocevar's unfiltered personality has quickly made him one of NASCAR's rising stars and a fan favorite.
And while his racing tactics may not endear him to other drivers (and those drivers' fans), the 23-year-old's passion for racing is not disputed.
Hocevar is an avid iRacing user who also does his fair share of late-model racing at short tracks around the country when allowed by his busy NASCAR schedule that includes the full-time Cup slate as well as a part-time Truck Series itinerary.
In that context lies Hocevar's thoughts on July 28 on NASCAR's current status as a TV product while watching the 2000 Talladega fall race, notable for being Dale Earnhardt's final Cup Series victory 26 years ago.
"It's insane we as a sport produce the product we give to fans and wonder why fans have lost interest," Hocevar wrote on social media. "This race is beautiful. The sights, the sounds, the cars, the production, the commentators.

#race

Carson Hocevar's unfiltered personality has quickly made him one of NASCAR's rising stars and a fan favorite.
And while his racing tactics may not endear him to other drivers (and those drivers' fans), the 23-year-old's passion for racing is not disputed.
Hocevar is an avid iRacing user who also does his fair share of late-model racing at short tracks around the country when allowed by his busy NASCAR schedule that includes the full-time Cup slate as well as a part-time Truck Series itinerary.
In that context lies Hocevar's thoughts on July 28 on NASCAR's current status as a TV product while watching the 2000 Talladega fall race, notable for being Dale Earnhardt's final Cup Series victory 26 years ago.
"It's insane we as a sport produce the product we give to fans and wonder why fans have lost interest," Hocevar wrote on social media. "This race is beautiful. The sights, the sounds, the cars, the production, the commentators.

#fans #hocevar #time #nascar

Even though Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson look like potential championship contenders, this has not been an overall banner campaign for Hendrick Motorsports.
Larson is amidst a 39-race winless streakWilliam Byron is 12th in the standings and it's a fight to crack the top-10 every weekAlex Bowman suffered a bout of vertigo earlier this year but hasn't been competitive consistently either
So, all told, Hendrick Motorsports is not in a great place this year and their two wins (both by Elliott) has been matched by their satellite partners, Spire Motorsports. Dale Earnhardt Jr. spent a decade driving for Rick Hendrick and detailed exactly what happens during team meetings with the boss has seen enough.
He explained Mr. H's process on this week's episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast.
"I've been with HMS when they sort of get into these ruts, or these little phases," said Earnhardt. "I'm not concerned, because what happens is they'll have a competition meeting, which they'll have one this week. They'll have one every week.

#larson #earnhardt #happens

OSKALOOSA — Wyatt Miller has seen the footage of all those classic races.
The 14-year-old offers no excuses.
"He did what he had to do to win," Miller said with that familiar smile. "That's just who he was."
Now that's classic Earnhardt.
Miller, who is just starting out his racing career, is just starting out the most recent chapter of his family's historic racing story. The grandson of the legendary 'Intimidator,' Dale Earnhardt, arrived in southern Iowa for the first time racing in the annual Sprint Invaders race in Oskaloosa competing against some of the best sprint car drivers in the world.

#classic #starting #wyatt

There's a lot to talk about after last weekend's NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta.
The three-hour rain delay and 2 a.m. checkered flag. The three-man overtime battle for the lead, which resulted in Ryan Blaney's win by 0.068 seconds. Bubba Wallace's controversial penalty.
But how about the In-Season Challenge?
It acted as a secondary storyline Sunday, but the bracket has slimmed down to just four contestants following the third of five rounds. A champion will be crowned over the next two weeks at North Wilkesboro and Indianapolis.
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What would happen if you gathered some of the world's best racing drivers from a variety of disciplines, put them in identically prepared cars, and let them do battle on a variety of iconic North American racetracks? Well, you don't need to imagine what it'd be like because it happened.
It was called the International Race of Champions, better known as IROC. Enjoyed by both fans and competitors alike, the IROC series ran from the early 1970s until the mid-2000s, gathering some of motorsport's greatest drivers, including names such as Andretti, Earnhardt, Foyt, and Unser. Beyond its on-track excitement, the IROC series also helped spawn one of the most iconic American sports cars of the 1980s.
The original IROC series ran through 2006, when a lack of sponsorship interest led to its demise. But today it continues to be a fondly remembered part of American motorsport history, now with reunions — and perhaps an even larger series revival in the works. Let's take a quick Look at the legacy of this beloved racing series.
Read more: 12 Of The Most Powerful Hemi Engines Ever Built
IROC was founded by Roger Penske, Les Richter, and Mike Phelps in 1973 as a way to create an all-star championship for the motorsports world. It would draw top drivers from NASCAR, Indy, and Formula 1 and have them compete against each other in identical cars. Over the years, IROC would run on both oval tracks and road courses, including Daytona, Talladega, and Watkins Glen.

Ryan Blaney relayed what most people were thinking.
"Past my bedtime," he said during his post-race interview, with the clock just 10 minutes away from 2 a.m. in Hampton, Georgia.
But he made the long day worth it.
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The Team Penske driver dominated the Quaker State 400 and shook off a three-hour weather delay in the process. He claimed the first two stages, led a race-high 171 laps and **** ed the checkered flag in overtime at EchoPark Speedway.

You can picture Kyle Busch giving a nod of approval. Or his patented smirk of approval, more likely.
The man given the unfortunate task of taking over Kyle's old Childress Racing Chevrolet — Austin Hill — is right in the middle of NASCAR's current mini-storm. Like Kyle, he's no stranger to such things, though his previous dust-ups have been of the off-Broadway variety, down in the Trucks or O'Reilly Series.
"It's unfortunate to wreck race cars like we've done and end up destroyed like we were, but that's the hand we were dealt," Hill said by phone this week, and no, it's not the first time the 32-year-old Georgian has said such a thing.
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But this time, it's happening on the main stage — NASCAR's Cup Series — with all of the additional camera angles to go with the team/driver radio chatter.

During a recent episode of "The Dale Jr. Download," NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. expressed his appreciation for having Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce at the Anduril 250 in San Diego weeks ago.
"The one thing I'll tell you. Mahomes and all those guys came to that race on their own accord." Earnhardt Jr. said. "Usually, every celebrity you see has been brought to the race through a partnership, a request through a sponsor of theirs, or even the outright series is paying for them to be there."
"They reached out to NASCAR, and they reached out to Amazon and said, 'How do we get to this race? We want to come; we're going to be in the area, and we want to see it.' I thought that was pretty neat." Earnhardt Jr. said. "That felt very Formula One-like, right? You see celebrities at Formula One races, and that's what San Diego felt like a little bit."
The appearance of Mahomes and Kelce at the race was well received by racing and football fans, boosting the event's mainstream visibility.
This article originally appeared on Chiefs Wire: NASCAR legend praises Chiefs players' presence at the Anduril 250

NEWTON, N.C. (AP) — Ned Jarrett, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and longtime broadcaster, died Thursday of natural causes in his home, his family announced. He was 93.
Jarrett was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011 after 50 career wins on the sport's top circuit, including championships in 1961 and 1965. He was part of the second five-member NASCAR Hall of Fame class.
Jarrett, known as “Gentleman Ned” for his demeanor, may have been better known by younger NASCAR fans for his broadcasting career. One of his signature moments in the booth came in the 1993 Daytona 500 when he didn't try to restrain from rooting as his son, Dale Jarrett, held off Dale Earnhardt for the win.
Dale Jarrett won the Cup Series in 1999. The Jarretts became the second father-son combination to win Cup Series championships, following Lee and Richard Petty. Bill Elliott and his son, Chase, later completed the father-son achievement.
NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell said Ned Jarrett was a racing legend.