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NASCAR News Today: Thoughts on Justin Haley rumored to leave Rick Ware Racing just after one year for a better ride either at Spire or even Hendrick Motorsports in a Chevy

by Sports Benches

Image Reference: TaurusEmerald via Wikipedia, CC BY 4.0 International

First of all, having Justin Haley onboard with Rick Ware Racing has made such a huge difference in the No.51 Ford Mustang so far this season. He had two Top 10s RWR couldn’t believe they could do it on top of some normal Top 15-20 finishes, such at Darlington back in May as well as Gateway a month later. But that doesn’t mean the silly season rumor talk is gonna take the focus off him when it comes to his future, even though he came to RWR under a multi-year contract from Kaulig Racing at the end of last season. 

Sure, if RWR wants him to stay then that’s fine as he wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t long-term. However, you got some established Cup teams who are way more ambitious and also has lots more money to bring out the check book for him. 

Now that’s something RWR cannot refuse when Spire Motorsports would like to have him back as a full-time driver in the No.7 Chevy Camaro next year with the opportunity of working with veteran crew chief Rodney Childers. If not Spire, even Hendrick Motorsports would be a good get when they would need a bit of a fresh change and Haley would be the perfect replacement for Alex Bowman in the No.48, with Bowman going to Spire.

No matter what happens, it’s going to be a huge hole to fill for someone whose owners invested a lot into bringing Haley onboard from an established two-car Cup team like Kaulig. But again, things come and go you know as maybe RWR can use the Haley contract windfall to improve their Cup equipment – that’s what matters to continue that progress where Haley has built this & left off at the end of the day. 

You could also think Corey LaJoie would go the other way but then I think he is someone who likes to win races, having made some stunning moments for Spire over these last few years at this team wants to move onto the next level without him. Maybe a top Xfinity or even Trucks team would it, so he can enjoy racing a bit more competitively upfront every week.

The same goes to Ryan Preece who is still on the outlook for a ride next year once Stewart-Haas Racing shuts down after the Phoenix season finale race in early November. He’d be a great get at RFK Racing either as a part-time driver to begin with while racing Xfinity/Trucks again also part-time throughout the season like he did two years ago or even full-time depending on their 3rd charter hunt thanks to Kroger, so he can be kept within the Ford Performance family. He hasn’t been so inconsistent for the most part since last year in the No.41 Ford for Stewart-Haas but then that’s a team’s problem who no longer feel they can compete with other top four-car teams anymore as seen in recent seasons.

With that being said, the No.15 would go to Kaz Grala full-time since he had some good results so far this year on a part-time basis, and Cody Ware coming back to replace Haley in his formerly usual spot in the No.51 prior to his suspension for most of last season before he was reinstated because he’s related to his father Rick. 

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NASCAR Top 3 News this week: Erik Jones stays in the No.43, AJ Allmendinger now back at Cup for Kaulig & a huge shake up within the Ford camp for Gene Haas and RFK Racing

by Sports Benches

We’re currently in the middle of August with three regular season rounds to go at Michigan this weekend before Playoffs time and the silly season rumor talk is also halfway if not 2/3rds there as well to see which drivers will stay or go come 2025.

Erik Jones stays on at Legacy Motor Club

Good to hear that Erik Jones will be back in the famous No.43 for another few years at least until 2026, even though he’s yet to score a Top 10 since this year’s Daytona 500 in 8th. Okay, when LMC switched to Toyota this year, things weren’t that good mightily so far this year but they had some Top 10s though as still too early to judge at this stage. Although you can tell Jimmie Johnson has made another round of wholesale changes recently off the back of the team’s poor performances. 

Forget about trying to win for the next three remaining regular rounds, what LMC needs to do is provide the Jones the best race car possible, so they can catch up to other good Toyota teams soon enough like Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing.

Things take time as we’ve seen with Bubba Wallace when he first drove for 23XI back in 2021 and fast forward to today, he’s doing really well  – despite no recent race win but continues to finish consistently in the Top 10 alongside a great team-mate in none other than the No.45 of Tyler Reddick. With 23XI expected to expand into three cars going into 2025, I’m sure they’ll go even better where one of their race cars could be in the Championship 4 soon enough.

The same could be the same for LMC as long as they’re are on the same page but again still too early to say since they are now a Toyota team rather than a Chevy team, which hasn’t changed a lot when Richard Petty was still running the No.43 show over the last 5-10 years until Jimmie Johnson was onboard since the start of last season.

AJ Allmendinger is back at Cup next year what does it mean for SVG and Zane Smith?

He may not be racing Sundays right now since he is currently racing Xfinity full-time on Saturdays, but AJ has now changed his mind yet again and he will be back in the No.16 Kaulig Racing Chevy Cup machine after all next year. Maybe that’s something to do with Kaulig not being good without him at the top flight and AJ is the man to steer that ship once again until he retires once more before they can find a decent long-term replacement once AJ retires by then. Looks like Kaulig isn’t going away from this anytime soon following talks of them selling charters or even merge with Trackhouse to leave the sport.

So neither New Zealand’s Shane Van Gisbergen nor Zane Smith will be filling in the other full-time Kaulig Cup cars alongside AJ, with Daniel Hemric staying on in the sister No.31 team since he has his own sponsorship to help keep the team’s operations afloat.

As it stands as to who will be driving the 3rd Trackhouse car for next year, I would’ve personally like to see Zane Smith get the nod over SVG. But with Trackhouse admiring SVG so much since he’s a proven race winner mainly on road courses this season in Xfinity including his debut Cup win at Chicago last year, he would like to be there sooner rather than later & that is certainly bound to happen rather than SVG having to wait another year outside the top level. He’s won so many Supercars races and championships before including the Bathurst 1000 and there’s no way SVG wants to be left out of the cold by Trackhouse.

It’s a shame that Smith is going to be left out; not even a rare P2 finish from Nashville Superspeedway back in late June isn’t even enough to make Trackhouse and also Spire change his mind. Maybe he needs to step down to Xfinity and swap places with SVG & if Smith does well there to bring home a championship like he did at Trucks level two years ago with Front Row Motorsports, then Trackhouse would be more than certain not to get rid of him.

Haas Factory Team set to complete their Xfinity Series line this weekend for 2025 with Kroger set to join RFK Racing

Haas Factory Team is set to complete their 2025 Xfinity Series line-up this weekend at Michigan with two rides up for grabs. We don’t know who could that be with Cole Custer already confirmed for a return to Cup within the same newly-created organization. One would definitely say Hallie Deegan despite her recent dismissal from Ford-affiliated AM Racing team over her poor performances as she’s still tied under the Ford Development team, while another could either be Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton or Sheldon Creed.

Gotta say Burton or Creed will get the 2nd ride since they both had some success at this level and can also cover some of their own money as well. Yes, Preece would right be in there as don’t think Gene Haas fancies him well unlike Tony Stewart who brough him there & his performances there didn’t exactly work out well for the most part but then it’s more of an team issue than himself with Stewart-Haas Racing is set to shut down at season’s end.

If Preece was to find a new home post-SHR, he could turn up at RFK after all thanks to Kroger – who is expected to now join them over Joe Gibbs – with one of JTG Daughterty Racing’s co-owners Tad Geschickter also set to leave at season’s end. Considering the big financial boost RFK is gonna get from Kroger, this could allow RFK to expand into three Cup cars by purchasing another charter and then they will look to have Preece onboard.

The question is where they are going to get the third charter from with that Kroger money? Maybe JTG Daugherty Racing is gonna be shut down since Spire Motorsports seems to be Hendrick’s main affiliate partner for Chevy & Trackhouse builds their own cars. What about Kaulig? Could they go back to one Cup car? Maybe as don’t think they will talk away anytime soon with two cars but then they might be interested in buying half of Richard Childress Racing’s assets with the boss getting old at age 78, which would mean they would get three Cup cars with a fourth would likely be be sold to another team.

And while we would like to see Haas and RFK team up together to make it three cars without RFK having to buy a charter but then Haas would like to be on their own, so therefore not an option when Gene Haas wanted to keep just the one Cup charter for himself so he can keep on promoting his own Haas Automation engineering business. Watch this space for RFK looking to expand into three full-time Cup cars by knocking into Kaulig or JTG’s door for a charter using Kroger’s sponsorship money.

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NASCAR News Today: Thoughts on Austin Dillon stripped of his Playoffs eligibility despite keeping his controversial win from the Cook Out 400 weekend in Richmond 

by Sports Benches

So there we have it, after a long few days out from that Richmond race finish controversy, Austin Dillon of the No.3 Chevy Camaro for Richard Childress Racing – who intentionally wrecked both Team Penske Ford’s Joey Logano and then Joey Gibbs Racing Toyota’s Denny Hamlin following the final two turns for the race win – can keep his win but his Playoffs berth though will not count as a result of this investigation by NASCAR. 

RCR on the other hand is still furious about this decision with the plans of an appeal over the next coming days – good luck with that! But what RCR and No.3 of AD needs to do now is not make up any more shortcuts in order to cleanly win races next time with only three regular rounds to go. Should he win either one of the last three regular races, he will enter the post-season Playoffs with zero Playoff points meaning he will have to also win another Round of 16 races to keep his hopes alive.

Gotta say it’s being well said at last as this should’ve been taken action immediately after the race unlike post-race inspections with race cars. You can defend AD and RCR all you like when the No.3 crew would like him to spin and win that race and he did that to make this happen but then this shouldn’t be acceptable in the world of Motorsport at all including NASCAR, so again AD needs to now learn that lesson & not upset everyone in anyway like he did to both drivers at the overtime white flag.

Another party that is worth consider appealing is Joey Logano who verbally unleashed into AD post-race for intentionally spinning him out into the wall that ultimately cost Joey his race win where he finished down in 19th rather than a front row finish as hoped for the Blue Oval. He received a fine of $50,000 USD by NASCAR for his mis-conduct and it’s not fair on him to walk away empty handed that isn’t his own fault other than being so frustrated to see someone who wrecked him celebrate in victory lane at the same time. Maybe NASCAR should take away the penalty fee off Joey and not let RCR give a free pass appeal anymore after all this chaos that took them so long. 

Enough said and we move onto the next Cup race this weekend for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway & this 3rd last regular season race is expected to be Rick Allen’s last as NBC’s NASCAR lead commentator, with Aussie Leigh Diffey to take over from next weekend’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 night race at Daytona International Speedway.

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NASCAR Race News from the weekend: Austin Dillon spins his way with the Cook Out 400 race win at Richmond Raceway in the No.3 Chevy for Richard Childress Racing

by Sports Benches

It may have been a dominant Toyota front row fest for the most part other than the Daniel Suarez Stage 2 win in the Trackhouse Chevy but look who’s back in victory lane? It’s Austin Dillon in the No.3 Chevy Camaro with the win for Richard Childress Racing following his race-winning bump past Turn 4 on both Team Penske’s Joey Logano & Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin towards the checkered flag on overtime when Ryan Preece spun out that led to a caution with two to go.

Now for some NASCAR fans, particularly for those who go for Logano & even Hamlin, this last lap restart on the run home was both good and bad. Well, the sport could’ve looked at this one a lot deeper other than post-race inspections but that’s stock car racing unfortunately unlike most other racing series we see on-track. First of all, good to see AD back in victory lane for the first time since the summer 2022 Daytona race with the same previous crew chief of Justin Alexander, who has been in and out of the No.3 pit box as time goes by until sometime earlier this year. Yet, he’s back for the third time now of asking to help turn his form around once again and yes it did work outwell with another lucky charm for him and Justin together like it was a few times before as AD wouldn’t be there to celebrate today or these past victories if it wasn’t for his best crew chief.

Gotta say that 2nd half performance after the first two stages within the Top 6-7 worked well in AD’s favour off the back of these important pit road adjustments beforehand that helped him make a brilliant charge on the front row. He rolled off the line from 6th aftern an excellent run in qualifying, having never looked out of place with a fast race car on his hands while he remained patient while others drop out all along to get what what he wants. RCR hasn’t been bad when it comes to submitting at least one of their cars over the last few years at Playoffs time & if Kyle Busch can at least win the last few regular season races for the other No.8 car, then no doubt they would be a decent threat up front to the other 3/4 car big teams.

Looking at the Toyotas, you gotta feel for them when these cars fired off really well with some promising signs across the first two stages. Then they had some of the problems happening when it comes to the long last stage with Martin Truex Jr. forced to pull due to mechanical issues while some lacked inconsistency on the long runs like Christopher Bell other than a good Denny day except his last lap overtime drama where he finished 2nd. Seeing four Toyota cars in the Top 6 ain’t bad though with Denny’s co-owned 23XI Racing team also having a great field day in 3rd & 4th thanks to the No.45 of Tyler Reddick & No.23 of Bubba Wallace as Toyota needs to continue making that firepower right going into the next Cup round at Michigan.

Meanwhile, the Ford cars also didn’t have a great day either when Joey Logano was unluckily spun out whilst trying to win with fellow Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney being the best driver there just outside the Top 10 in 11th & the rest of these drivers languishing towards the back end of the finish line. And last but not least, shoutout to Carson Hocevar, who finished 8th in the No.77 Chevy for Spire Motorsports. Now he might not have cracked these Top 5 finishes just yet since he went straight from Trucks but a few Top 10 finishes though ain’t bad and he’s even leading the Rookie standings by a small margin.

Three more regular rounds to go with Michigan, Daytona and Darlington to come as good to see NASCAR back following a long two-week Olympics break and we’re almost there to make up the last 16 drivers that will be competing in the 10 week Playoffs campaign for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship trophy starting early next month at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

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NASCAR News Today: Thoughts on Spire Motorsports decided to move on from Corey LaJoie next season in the No.7 Chevy team

by Sports Benches

Earlier today, Spire Motorsports have decided to go its separate ways from Corey LaJoie ahead of the 2025 season.

There will be completely new face in the No.7 Chevy Camaro with Rodney Childers coming over from Stewart-Haas Racing (soon to be shut down & replaced by just Haas as a single car team) as crew chief while Ryan Sparks will be promoted within Spire as competition director.

It’s been a kind of surprise considering LaJoie has helped Spire so much with some occasional success up front since he and Ryan first jumped over from the then GO FAS Racing organization at the start of 2021. I’m sure the job isn’t done just yet with a few more regular season rounds to go after the two-week Olympics break resuming in mid-August but then that’s it once the actual Cup season ends in early November. 

So yes, it’s not going to be the same with LaJoie in the No.7 next year but do understand where Spire wants to go competitively off the back of their recent big investments, and they’d like to have all three Cup teams racing at least Top 10-15 including 1-2 race wins every weekend.

We hope that LaJoie will get another good Cup ride somewhere like Kaulig Racing where they too have struggled with a full-time driver at times in the No.16 Chevy since AJ Allmendinger returned to racing Xfinity this year, and he’d be the perfect fit to get themselves back on track. 

Again, they’re another serious organization, who made a name for themselves at Xfinity level, before Kaulig later expanded into Cup level full-time two years ago thanks to the current Next Gen chassis.

Who’s going to be replacing LaJoie? Easy to say Zane Smith but then he’s largely inconsistent so far this season by surprise other than the rare 2nd placed finish last month at Nashville. Looks like they will use their financial muscle to poach Justin Haley away from Rick Ware Racing, even though he’s committed to them right now.

It would be a huge loss from RWR to lose Haley only after one season but if that happens should Spire pay them money Rick & Lisa can’t refuse, then they can always rely on the experienced Ryan Preece who is also on the lookout for another ride with Stewart-Haas also set to shutdown at season’s end. 

Now his time there also may be inconsistent since SHR is no longer on the same level as Team Penske, but he is someone who always had success in the lower tier series – even if it’s through part-time rides like Xfinity, Trucks and even modified cars as well.

For now, we wish Corey all the best in his next move and whoever takes him onboard will give his 100% best that would hopefully prove doubters wrong.

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Cole Custer’s big Saturday: A return to Cup in 2025 with a reformed Haas Ford-powered team & finishing 2nd to team-mate Riley Herbst in Xfinity at the Indianapolis Oval

by Sports Benches

Today was a huge day for reigning Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer not just off-track but on-track as well having announced his return to full-time Cup racing next year with the newly-created single car Haas Factory team while he scored pole position for the Pennzoil 250 in the meantime earlier in the day, although he was a bit unfortunate towards the end when it comes to the race thanks to a last-lap winning move by Stewart-Haas Ford team-mate Riley Herbst in the No.98 for the win.

It’s been a while to see the Brickyard go left once again after a few years of using the infield road course layout with Cole having an excellent Top 5 run all along, even though a few yellows might held him back a bit at times in the early portions but not so much thanks to these pit road adjustments including that last stage restart where he re-worked his way back up front.

A win though would’ve been perfect to sum up how far he’s come since stepping back into the Xfinity Series arena again last year in order to try and be up front every race weekend off the back of his 2025 plans to begin the weekend. He endured a tough first few years as a first-time Cup driver also within Stewart-Haas organisation – despite winning the Rookie of the Year award including his one & only Playoffs run so far thanks to his win at Kentucky during July back in 2020 – before regular inconsistent results over the next two years saw Ryan Preece took over the No.41 Cup seat at the end of the 2022 season.

Now he’s set to reprise the No.41 once again at Cup level for a scaled down Haas organisation from 2025 via his dad’s connections in running the day-to-day NASCAR business & will no doubt get significant backing from Haas’s engineering division. Not only that, Haas will keep on using Ford engines but this time they will form a technical alliance partnership with RFK Racing other than continuing to build their own cars just for its own two Xfinity Series teams. We’ll see how this goes where there would be potential for RFK & Haas to team up together in order to go three Cup cars if Cole goes well again.

In the meantime, he has unfinished business ahead in the hope of winning more including the upcoming Playoffs so he can look forward upon his return to Cup in 2025 with potentially another Xfinity Series championship on his belt.

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NASCAR News Today: Top 3 this week with plans of hosting an International Cup race, What it means for Australia? and 2 x current Cup racers set for extra racing gigs overseas

by Sports Benches

While the on-air talent and silly season rumour talk is ongoing, there has been some progress as of late when it comes to NASCAR’s International ambitions. Off the back of several International drivers coming here over the last 1-2 years mainly on road courses, they would like to hold an International Cup series race as early as next year. We’ll find out where that might be? And what does it mean for Australia.

If hosting NASCAR races off shore isn’t enough, we got two Cup racers looking to get some extra race time elsewhere that will appeal to local race track promoters and race fans. There’s one who is set for a one-off outing in an International NASCAR-sanctioned series coming up soon while another is set for a return to Australia to race some sprint cars like most other US racers when their respective seasons usually finishes in November.

Time will tell but for now, great to see the sport taking some right steps in order to promote to stock car racing worldwide rivalling Formula 1, MotoGP & IndyCar .

NASCAR’s International Cup Series plans update this week beginning with Mexico and Canada

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule hasn’t been fully released yet other than a couple of important races and some of the in-tournament summer events that will be on both Amazon Prime & TNT – such as February’s season-opening Daytona 500, May’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the Championship 4 Finale in Phoenix in early November.

While there’s still ongoing talk as to which of the current races will stay or go, there’s no surprise that NASCAR wants to host at least one if not two Cup races outside the USA. However, those two overseas races they’re looking at will likely be just within the North American border for a start.

We’ve heard so far that Mexico City in Mexico and Montreal in Canada are the key destinations, although Montreal would more likely be a realistic target for 2026. 

NASCAR has been there and done that before in the mid 2000s-early 2010s with the second-tier series with Mexico City between 2005-2008 followed by Montreal between 2007-2012 where both of these venues are usually home to their respective Formula 1 Grand Prix races like the Mexico City & Canadian Grand Prix.

I, for one, would like to see this happen with the sport doing an excellent job on being serious about their International footprint. It’s been going on over the last few years alongside a couple of International drivers coming in to race for a couple of occasions, especially on road courses where these drivers have been usually specialists there for so long.

What’s not going away though is taking some Cup events off on Sundays to accommodate their International ambitions, even if it’s going to be held in Mexico City and/or Montreal. 

It’s the best part business and fan-centric wise of finishing the race weekend as always with most of their viewers coming from across the county in the US while some do come from Canada as well as Europe. So they’re happy where they’re are when their main focus these days is the West Coast market & race day starts tend to fall in the early afternoon rather than putting it at midday like it used to be or else fans who live in the West Coast will miss out the start first thing at 9am PST.

What does it mean for NASCAR in Australia? 

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While we continue to see more and more of our Supercars drivers trying their hand in NASCAR since last year with New Zealander Shane Van Gisbergen now racing the Xfinity Series for Kaulig Racing full-time, it looks like we won’t see a big NASCAR race weekend here anytime soon since they want to keep most of the focus locally and domestically across the USA.

Sure, never say never but it’s gonna be a long shot for management to consider in the rear view mirror. Yes, we also had an IndyCar race in the Gold Coast, QLD a long time ago until 2008. But don’t think IndyCar would also want to sacrifice its domestic audience either when racing only within the North and South America other than Toronto, Canada is the series’s only realistic International hotspots right now. 

We can always dream and even having an NASCAR-sanctioned Australian series would help just like they do to Mexico, Canada, Brazil and Europe. But we’ve always got Supercars and even SpeedSeries, so no room at all unfortunately in the meantime for NASCAR to sort out contracts with race tracks as well as suppling their fleet of stock cars to a customers wanting to take part here – which does cost the time of travel & $$$.

If NASCAR isn’t enough to keep you updated here when we all got work on a Monday morning unless you’re a big SVG fan of course in Xfinity level, there’s always highlights and replays to look back in the evening or in a few days whenever you can. Plus, Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson is coming to Perth at the end of this year to race in sprint cars – a discipline he knows all too well growing up while still racing some mid-week for fun.

Daniel Suarez to compete in a one-off race in Brazil for NASCAR’s sanctioned domestic series there

And lastly, another NASCAR Cup Series driver is going to get another race elsewhere – this time during the two-week break while the Olympics is on – in none other than current Trackhouse driver Daniel Suarez. He will arrive in Brazil next week to get married first with fiancé Julia Piquet, who is the sister of former NASCAR & Formula 1 driver (also Formula E champion) Nelson Piquet Jr. & daughter of 3 x Formula 1 champion Nelson Piquet. 

Then he’ll stay in Brazil a bit longer to compete on a one-off outing at Interlagos in São Paulo in NASCAR’s sanctioned Brazilian series on August 2-4 before they will return home together in Charlotte after this in time for the 2nd half season, with a Playoffs berth already sealed due to his win in Atlanta earlier this year (February).

Congratulations to Daniel on getting to marry the love of his life Julia while he’s able to score some extra race seat time at his future wife’s home soil in Brazil like he did during the Busch Clash weekend back in February at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the Mexico Series – a series he regularly competed a long time ago before he went on to make a name for himself in America in which he’s just been an naturalised citizen there last month. No doubt this will hopefully put him on the map when it comes to the upcoming Playoffs in the same way that helped him win his next Cup a couple of weeks later. He ended up 10th in drivers’ points two years ago off the back of his first ever Cup win at Sonoma back in June and what he needs to now is to close in on team-mate Ross Chastain to provide better competition for Trackhouse before looking at the top teams.

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NASCAR News Today: Thoughts on rumours of ESPN’s Marty Smith in the booth + Dale Jr. & Steve Letarte reunion at Amazon/TNT & Adam Alexander to The CW for Xfinity Series

by Sports Benches

While NASCAR is back racing around left at the Brickyard once again following a few years on the infield with a two-week break around the corner when the Summer Olympics will begin next Friday in Paris, France, there has been plenty of chatter lately about the on-air broadcast talent when the next TV rights deal will begin from next year until at least 2031 – especially when you got so many networks covering the races to tune in throughout the year across all three national series levels.

Whether if it’s on free-to-air or cable or through a mix of both platforms, streaming is set to play a huge role going forward where you would need to tune in from your devices including a Smart TV box for those still wishing to watch through a big TV screen. Not only that, you will also finally be able to see some of the broadcast coverage without ads for the first time but if you wish to subscribe by paying a monthly fee to watch selected Cup races as you would normally do for cable.

Here’s the broadcast partners who will be part of the 2025-2031 TV rights contract in case you missed it as it was originally announced in November last year:

  • Fox Sports: five free-to-air and nine cable Cup Series races (FS1) during the first-half season, the Daytona 500 and All-Star Race Practice & Qualifying weekend and a full season of Truck Series racing.
  • NBC Sports: four free-to-air and ten cable Cup Series races (USA Network) during the second-half season including the Playoffs and Peacock streaming access to simulcast the network’s last 14 Cup races of the year.
  • The CW, the whole lot of Xfinity Series with all 33 events live and free every race weekend across Practice, Qualifying and Race Day.
  • Amazon Prime: First-half season Practice and Qualifying Cup events except the Daytona 500 and All-Star Race weekend with the first five summer/mid-year Cup races.
  • TNT Sports: Second-half Practice and Qualifying Cup events on TruTV & Max alongside the second five summer/mid-year Cup races with TNT & Max. Note: A sports add-on is required to stream the races on top of any basic Max streaming service plans.

So far Dale Earnhardt Jr. is already onboard with both Amazon Prime and TNT to be part of their respective commentary booths as an analyst across all ten mid-year Cup races (five for Amazon Prime and five for TNT/Max) off the back of his exit from NBC whose contact was expired and was not retained for renewal at the end of last season.

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Meanwhile, Australia’s own and one NBC Sports’s valuable announcing stalwarts Leigh Diffey, who just called his final IndyCar race the other day at Iowa for NBC whose IndyCar commitments will also be ending soon come mid-September with Fox Sports set to pick it up from next year, is expected to replace Rick Allen as the network’s lead NASCAR Cup Series announcer once he wraps up calling Track and Field at the Summer Olympics in Paris in a few weeks time. It remains to be seen where Rick will end up long-term (could see him come back to FOX’s Truck coverage) as he will continue to call the Xfinity Series races in the meantime including the upcoming Playoffs this year via The CW (with short-term production help from NBC).

Now here’s some more names in the mix with the likes of Dale Jr’s former crew chief and recent broadcast colleague who is still at NBC Steve Letarte, FOX Sports’s former Race Hub host and Xfinity Series announcer Adam Alexander and ESPN’s veteran NASCAR and sports reporter Marty Smith. Letarte could reunite with Dale Jr. once more this time across Amazon Prime and TNT while Alexander is considered the favourite to commentate the CW’s Xfinity Series races full-time and veteran versatile ESPN reporter Marty Smith might try his hand at hosting/commentating for the first time at Amazon Prime/TNT.

Marty Smith

It’s a bit of surprise Marty has been mentioned to possibly host and commentate the Cup races for Amazon/TNT who is so good with his brilliant sports reporting work on ESPN, having been covering several sports on top of NASCAR since ESPN/ABC left the sport a decade ago. Now surely ESPN won’t let him go, but they could give him an opportunity to continue his usual craft of NASCAR elsewhere by expanding his skill-set in both hosting and commentating – which is something he has never done before. But surely, he’ll be keen to steer the ship for a couple of hours during the summer as Amazon/TNT sees him as the perfect candidate to guide race fans into a new era of NASCAR with more viewers beginning to tune in from their devices.

Yes, I know lots of race fans will begging Allen Bestwick to come back who used to call lots of races for MRN, TNT, NBC and later ESPN/ABC for over many years and decades. However, times have changed since then for a decade now after ESPN left the sport and I don’t think any network out there covering NASCAR would hire him anytime soon. Looks like Marty calling the races is something new should he accept the offer, which is similar to what we currently see with former ESPN colleague Jamie Little over at FOX who now calls the races sometimes in Trucks and ARCA on top of her usual Cup pit reporting gig.

Adam Alexander and FOX Sports going their separate ways?

We thought Adam Alexander would initially be the favourite to call the IndyCar races for FOX when the network picked up the rights last month off NBC including the Indianapolis 500 but considering FOX will see their NASCAR content levels slashed going into next year, it’s no surprise considering he’s also the favourite to call the Xfinity Series once again but via The CW who will be carrying the exclusive rights there at the same time from next year. His hometown may be from Indiana but has been covering all of NASCAR everyday in Charlotte over the last decade and his close connection with the sport and the Xfinity Series in particular could continue to see him turning up for many Saturdays and some Fridays throughout the year.

Also, keep an eye out for veteran racer and current FOX NASCAR analyst Jamie McMurray. He too might be on the lookout elsewhere since Race Hub has just been axed last month and any future FOX NASCAR races (at least the Cup events) would likely be presented 100% on-site rather than splitting the studio and on-track broadcast presentations. That doesn’t mean their famous “Hollywood Hotel” on-site studio is coming back when it was retired back in 2018 with just a couple of on-air talent continuing to be around pit road during the pre and post races. McMurray is someone who always love hanging out in the FOX Charlotte studios also everyday alongside Adam Alexander and Larry McReynolds & although he has been on-site several times before, but not so much since he wants to be closer to home with family. If Amazon/TNT wants to implement some studio coverage and it does come from Charlotte, then no surprise he will want to be part of it with less travel 100%.

If someone is going to call the Indianapolis 500 race for FOX at least the next couple of years, they might give Mike Joy (the lead NASCAR and Daytona 500 announcer) his wish to see all things Indy. Yes, he might be somewhere in his 70s and isn’t done commentating just yet but he used to call open-wheel racing a long time ago – such as the old IndyCar series in CART as well as Formula 1. Him calling the other 500 mile race in Indy towards the end of May would be the perfect next step to complete his impressive commentary CV while Kevin Lee can fill in for the other races since he’s been with IndyCar for so long.

Dale Jr and Steve Letarte reunion Part 3?

And lastly, it would be great to see Dale Jr. and Steve work together as broadcast colleagues once again this time for Amazon Prime and TNT. They’ve forged a successful partnership initially on the race track with Hendrick Motorsports for many years before Steve retired from the pit box a decade ago before they saw each other again on TV with NBC a few years later from when Dale Jr retired at the end of 2017 until his dismissal at the end of 2023. Now it’s no surprise if Steve leaves NBC soon enough to be with him again so they can both make great insightful commentary and content together that the race fans like to receive every week where Dale Jr. has his own Dirty Mo Media business while Steve got his own podcast via Dale Jr when it comes to the day-to-day operations outside weekends. Gotta say this is an offer Letarte cannot refuse as this is a partnership that wouldn’t have gone anywhere had Dale Jr. & Steve not have worked together the first time when they were at Hendrick.

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MotorsportNASCAR

Thoughts on Leigh Diffey expecting to call his last IndyCar race at the Iowa Speedway doubleheader this weekend before the Olympics and most likely NASCAR later on

by Sports Benches

This weekend’s IndyCar Series race doubleheader at Iowa Speedway will be Leigh Diffey’s last race on the call after just over a decade, even though there’s six events left on the calendar this season before NBC Sports will bow out on a high with Fox Sports set to take it from here going into 2025 and beyond where they will show all races live including the annual Indianapolis 500 race on free-to-air. We all know he will be calling Track and Field during the 2nd week of the Summer Olympics over in Paris, France in early August for the network, which is a position that is so legendary since he first called the races at a Olympic event four years ago in Tokyo, Japan on top of various top-level races like the World Champs in the past.

Lots more to come when he will be back calling the Olympics Track and Field once again for the 2028 edition in Los Angeles followed by his hometown reunion for the Brisbane edition come 2032 – the time when NBC’s current Olympic contract will be expiring by then unless they renew for a lot more down the track from the last time the network signed their big Olympics renewal with the IOC that dates back to May 7th, 2014. There’s even more exciting news for Leigh post-IndyCar – even though it still hasn’t been made official but close to 100% likely – is that he will be well and truly expected to replace Rick Allen as NBC’s lead NASCAR Cup Series announcer once the Olympics is done alongside Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton. This won’t affect his other commitments such as Supercross and the early season IMSA races when NBC is not doing NASCAR, although he might miss the a rare Cup race or two for the World Championships in Track & Field if required during the odd years.

We don’t know when he will be begin calling the NASCAR races again but most likely when the Playoffs start around September with Leigh getting the promotion. Meanwhile, Rick Allen – who is currently calling the Cup races at the moment – will only keep his Xfinity Series gig for The CW – whether if it’s just the short term under NBC’s production just for the Playoffs or on a permanent basis ahead of its first full-time season next year with all races also free-to-air.

Seems like having a three-man booth suits the network’s style more off the back of good banter and chemistry that Leigh forged with James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell in IndyCar rather than the four-man group they’ve done with NASCAR for several years until the end of last season. Then at a time when they’ve renewed their commitment to air NASCAR for another few years not long later but only at Cup level; like the Premier League, NBC would want to go differently without Dale Jr. & now Rick.

For now, things won’t be the same without Leigh calling the open-wheel races at all once he wraps up NBC’s IndyCar coverage at Iowa with Kevin Lee expected to take the baton until the finale at Nashville Superspeedway. He’s been great presenting/calling these races firstly with Formula 1 of course before he got the chance to call the Formula 1 & IndyCar races for NBC at the same time back in 2013 while being the first overseas announcer to call the Indianapolis 500 when NBC had full rights to IndyCar for another few years from 2019 until the end of this year. We’re glad that he’s had one hell of a ride to see it for himself and the wider motorsports community as we can’t wait to hear what Leigh soon enough after the Olympics.

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Other Sports

Thoughts on Josh Berry moving to Wood Brothers Racing next season & what does it mean for Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece ahead of team’s last race in early November

by Sports Benches

One of Dale Jr’s mentees Josh Berry is now set to replace Harrison Burton in the No.21 Ford Mustang for Wood Brothers Racing from next season off the back of Stewart-Haas Racing’s shutdown. He will still carry the No.4 Ford in the meantime as planned up until SHR’s final ever race come early November at Phoenix Raceway in Arizona as his rookie Cup season isn’t bad so far in 19th and also leading the rookie-of-the-year standings too with some great Top 5 and 10 finishes including 2 x 3rd at Darlington (May) and New Hampshire (two weeks ago) going into the Chicago Street Course (Round 20 of 36) this weekend.

He is someone who has an excellent race pedigree as Dale Jr. discovered in his eyes when he gave him a chance at JR Motorsports back in 2022-23 at Xfinity Series level before Josh accepted the offer to replace the now-retired Kevin Harvick at SHR this year and then the organization suddenly ran its course with the announcement of SHR shutting down at season’s end a few months later. I’m glad though that Wood Brothers also needed a new direction and they somehow found a great driver who can hopefully get back to their best with Berry behind the wheel after Harrison Burton just couldn’t show the consistency they were after over the last few years despite bringing his own sponsorship via Dex Imaging. WBR still has yet to taste their 100th Cup win in their decades-long existence after Ryan Blaney last won there for the team’s 99th win at Pocono in back mid-2017 before he went on to do even better at Team Penske but time will tell with Berry in the No.21 Mustang being supported by Ford the whole way through alongside the manufacturer’s subsidiary sponsorship of Motorcraft & Quick Lane Auto Repairs.

So far the No.14 of Chase Briscoe has already been signed up to replace the retiring Martin Truex Jr. last week at Joe Gibbs Racing that will also begin at the start of next season in the No.19 Toyota Camry while Ryan Preece and Noah Gragson are still on the lookout for other rides.Now Gragson wouldn’t be short of suitors since his performances have been solid since his return from suspension in the No.10 where he will likely end up at Front Row Motorsports unlike the No.41’s Preece who would most likely drop down to Xfinity and/or Trucks level instead of trying to just stay there with Kaulig or Rick Ware Racing.

Plus, If you’re wondering what’s going to happen with SHR’s 4th and final charter? Well, It’s not going anywhere after all with Gene Haas keeping one for just himself under the newly created Haas Factory Racing organization by operating one Cup car and two Xfinity Series teams. Tony Stewart won’t have any involvement at all as he will be focusing on his drag racing team as well as his young family with his wife and veteran drag racer Leah Pruett expecting their first child together (a baby boy) this November. Who will be part of Team Haas? It will be easy to say Cole Custer whose dad is part of Haas’s management team while they will keep on running Fords, although it remains to be seen which alliance Haas will link up with at a later date.

I think though in my opinion that Brad Keselowski via his co-owned RFK Racing team (No.6 car) would love to team up with Haas together by turning from two cars into three under RFK-Haas Racing without him having to buy another charter that is worth $40 million nowadays. But again you never know and it would allow Ford to have a proper young driver pathway like Toyota is doing with Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing where Keselowski would love to have one of his drivers succeed at Xfinity level before being given the chance to race for him at the top level someday once his driving days are eventually over.

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