NASCAR this week: Few best mid-running teams and more at the 2025 Southern 500

If you’re a Toyota fan, this was the night it was after a few Camrys finished so well including the now 2 x Southern 500 winner Chase Briscoe left, right and centre.

With Chase, he had tremendous race pace both long and short run setups enabling him to take away all three stage wins in the process. He’s glad to be flying the No.19 flag alongside Aussie’s James Small on the pit box for Joe Gibbs Racing – Toyota’s frontline NASCAR race team.

Although Denny Hamlin did start from pole he hasn’t quite translate this into consistent front row track time which was important when gaining possession but nowhere near the Top 5-6 front-runners.

He finished not bad though in 7th and is just behind Chase on top of the 1st Round Playoffs Points with two more to go before we roll off the 2nd set of knockout racing.

Yes, winning regular season races help but needs to make a huge intent every other race now if Denny wants the drivers’ championship real bad at last in the No.11.

Now let’s roll off the best of the mid-running teams from the Labor Day Weekend race at Darlington Raceway.

If Chase’s car isn’t the only one fast enough, look out last year’s Championship 4 Contender Tyler Reddick in the No.45 for 23XI – from a lucky break with his early race issues to a stellar start to his 10-week journey towards Phoenix for 2025.

He had all 2nd placed finishes just behind Briscoe where he was oh so close ahead of the checkered flag but better still, Tyler is more than just talent so he can hopefully deliver a championship this time.

Also unreal to see Legacy MC being home two full-time Camrys in 3rd and 4th with Erik Jones coming out at the right time of yellows to battling up front while JH Nemechek may have struggled to keep track of Briscoe and Reddick earlier on but again, surviving yellows & improving them were the team’s saviour after all.

Other than a Top Toyota race…

Best mid-run Chevy Camaro goes to AJ Allmendinger who closed out the Top 5 spots in 5th for Kaulig Racing.

He took advantage of both the yellow flag beneficiaries from 22nd and was able to maintain his long game momentum in the Top 7-10 all night long since then.

Nice way to bring home a good finish from someone who isn’t racing a Toyota Camry or even a Ford Mustang.

Yes, for the Blue Oval, not the best day and overall weekend like it was in Trucks and Xfinity where a few ran well for the most part but then got real unlucky – at least Chris Buescher was the last one to secure a Top 10 in 10th for RFK Racing.

He may have struggled to get off the mark from 15th in the first half like it was last weekend when he wasn’t able to safeguard his berth inside the Top 16 bubble despite his 7th placed finish at Daytona. 

But again, not only he stayed off the wall he also finished the race strong as always this time as the highest placed Ford driver of this race.

Truck Series: South Carolina Education Lottery 200

We saw an amazing front row battle for the most part between Corey Heim (Stage 1) and Layne Riggs (Stage 2) who each won a stage. This will be one of the key match-ups to watch between now and the Championship 4 Finale at Phoenix as long as Riggs can pick up a win or a good finish in each of the next Playoff rounds.

But unlucky for Riggs that late with 20 to go and even Front Row Motorsports as a whole unfortunately if you include team-mate Chandler Smith with flat tires. 

At the end of the day, it’s Heim time – he was simply blistering fast to hold and pull off into victory lane.

Yes, Daniel Hemric in the No.19 Chevy for McNally-Hilgemann Racing may not have been able to close into Heim as he would’ve like, but he was also solid all afternoon as he wants to be every weekend fighting for race wins in 2nd just like last round (Watkins Glen).

Same goes with Grant Enfinger (3rd) in the other Silverado (No.9 Chevy) for CR7 Motorsports running Top 3 at the same time all afternoon on top of some good pit road stops.

The best-placed Ford of the day other than the unlucky break by both Front Row Motorsports F-150s was Ty Majeski in 4th for ThorSport Racing. 

He fired off well but then lost his way for most of the 1st half, which was crushing blow when it comes to the extra stage points for his Playoffs tally & having that clean air to Ty and his No.98 F-150.

However, he’s so blessed to have used the long green flag time to work his way back into the Top 10 places throughout Stage 3, which will be good for Majeski to keep in check with the 1st Round Playoffs race.

There will be a week-long off next weekend before the Trucks race again under the lights on a rare Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. 

Weekend started early then back home in Sydney with a 10am Friday morning start.

Best non-Playoffs runner goes to Tanner Gray in the other Tricon Tundra finishing 6th behind part-time team-mate & Legacy MC executive staff member Trevor Bayne.

Gaining track position under green & going for front row would be anyone’s favourite highlight for a start where Tanner ran as far as he can. 

But Gray running Top 7-10 all day without any significant issues was not a bad day for Tanner to walk away after all with the thumbs up for the No.15 crew.

He finished 7th in Stage 1, 8th in Stage 2 and 6th in Stage 3 off the back of the one and only late yellow launched by Andres Perez De Lara and Kaden Honeycutt.

Xfinity Series at Portland International Raceway: Pacific Automation 147

This is the driver we always talk about every week throughout the Xfinity Series Season so far with Connor Zilisch at it yet again with the win at another road course in Portland for JR Motorsports. 

He’s swept all three stages while he led the most laps except the late restart or two. Although he was lucky to escape off a corner cut penalty but Connor is still an incredibly fast and talented driver that NASCAR cannot wait to see in the years to come.

Congratulations once again to Connor Zilisch & the No.88 JR Motorsports team.

William Sawalich so close but had a Top 5 afternoon in the No.18 Supra for Gibbs with 5th in Stage 1 followed by 4th in Stage 2 and made a couple of late moves with thanks to these late yellows.

Lots to be proud of from this 18-year-old having already won one at this track earlier on the weekend in the ARCA Menards West Series, he’s wanting to go one better with his potential first NASCAR National career win at Xfinity Series level sooner than later.

The best Ford placing meanwhile goes to Harrison Burton in 12th when a few other Blue Oval Mustangs were also unlucky like we saw with the Darlington Trucks race – such as the two Haas Factory Racing cars in Sam Mayer and later Sheldon Creed. 

Even though most of the Top 10s were filled by Chevy Camaros, he’s just happy to make the most out of his long runs, especially in the final stage where the snowball effect after others bowed out came his way. Now he just needs to either win and he’s in or finish at least Top 5 and not have someone else below the bubble win in his place next Saturday arvo at Gateway which is the regular run finale.

And while two Supercars drivers were also unlucky at Portland, still cool to see driver/analyst Jack Perkins and reigning champ Will Brown race NASCARs again for Gibbs and Kaulig Racing respectively.

Perkins was running really well following a good start with two improved stages from 9th to 7th but then he had a late race issue and that was it. 

Nonetheless, he’s happy to have gained those extra experience that Jack Perkins needs to do on his NASCAR journey from an unexpected debut at Chicago during the July 4 weekend and the odd Trans-Am race at this same track. Sure he’s enjoyed every minute as look out for him during the Bathurst 1000 and the other remaining free-to-air Supercars races on Seven.

Didn’t hear much from Brown also unfortunately once again on his third NASCAR appearance along with his Xfinity Series debut as he just couldn’t make the most out of himself from 27th to 35th with more than a few laps down. 

We know he’s always committed to Supercars and his family business during the week, not NASCAR – same with Brodie Kostecki despite his cameo two years ago and then he had some burnout. Yes, Kostecki is now racing Fords at Dick Johnson Racing and has the Bathurst 1000 to defend next month; but looks like he won’t be back in the US anytime soon.

If Will comes back here for 1-2 occasions next year, he would be racing Fords since Will’s current Supercars team at Triple Eight will go from Camaro to a Mustang. 

Don’t know which team he would be racing for by then but maybe one of the part-time Front Row or Rick Ware Racing in Cup and Ryan Sieg’s RSS Racing team in Xfinity/O’Reilly Auto Parts comp.