NASCAR Weekend Preview: EchoPark Speedway & Lime Rock Park

Seven races remain as Reddick, Hamlin duel for the top seed in The Chase

What looked to perhaps be a runaway in the point standings for Daytona 500 winner Tyler Reddick, has now become a compelling competitive duel with none other than one of his 23XI Racing team owners, Joe Gibbs Racing’s veteran Denny Hamlin, who is turning in a title comeback for the ages.

Reddick heads into Sunday night’s Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway (7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as the defending race winner. It’s where Reddick collected his second straight win to start the season – and did so convincingly, claiming pole position and leading the most laps.

The good vibes from that February race for Reddick can’t hurt. After having what looked like an insurmountable lead in the point standings in the Spring, Reddick has lost 173 points to Hamlin in the last seven races and now trails Hamlin by 44 points with seven races remaining in the regular season.

Reddick’s suffered three consecutive finishes of 25th or worse heading to Atlanta, but just as when he was leading the points by three digits, he has been calm in the turn of fortune.

“That’s racing,” said Reddick, driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota. “We had a really good start, and we were reminded about how fast things can change. The nice thing for us is that it seems like the speed is there and the potential is there, we were just finally served a dose of races not going our way.

“Some of it you could argue was inflicted on ourselves. What we need to have with our cars with our team we still do have. We got a couple of not good points days. Funny enough at Pocono we ran well but still lost points. That’s how high of a level we have to execute right now. We have to be scoring lots and lots of points, not just getting the finishes. So, we have to have clean days.”

If the points battle weren’t compelling enough, Atlanta’s 1.54-mile high banks have always been a thrill show – one of three drafting tracks (also Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway) on the schedule, Atlanta has traditionally provided some of the most thrilling action of the season.

Reddick has reason to be optimistic. He scored two of his five season wins on drafting tracks – Daytona and Atlanta – while Hamlin – one of the sport’s best ever on drafting tracks hasn’t scored a top 10 on them yet this season. Reddick’s average finish is 5.33, while Hamlin’s is 19.67.

“The two races we have there, the track is very different between the two and that’s the fun thing about it,” Reddick said. “I do enjoy going back to some of these race tracks twice in the calendar year. It is nice when we do go twice and we have conditions change like they do. We go there in March, February and it’s cool, handling is not as big of an issue, and everyone packs up and races really tight.

“We got back there in the summer races it’s easier to slip up and easier to track. Cars get more spread out because handling is important. So, every time we come back for the second date when it’s warm the racing is just a bit different and that’s one thing I enjoy about that event.”

Beyond the position there has been a lot of recent movement elsewhere in the standings with only seven races left to decide which 16 drivers advance to The Chase.

Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, which had an inspired start to the year, is still looking for its first trophy and now only has one of its three cars safely inside the Chase field – Chris Buescher in seventh place. Ryan Preece dropped out of the 16th position after last week’s 32nd-place run at Chicagoland and owner-driver Brad Keselowski has fallen from ninth to 20th in the standings in the last seven weeks.

Speaking to the strength of competition, Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones, now in 16th place and Keselowski in 20th place are only separated by 19 points heading into Atlanta.

Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano sits in 18th place in the standings, only 16 points behind Jones in that cutoff position. The polesitter in this race last year, Logano the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, has two wins at Atlanta including this race in 2024. He started on the outside of the front row in February and finished 18th.

The Penske team is tops in laps led at the newly configured Atlanta track and leads all other teams with nine wins in 18 stages. Logano is still racing for his first stage win of the season.

The $1 million to-win In-Season Challenge continues to provide upsets and must-see racing as well. This week pits a couple initial longshots – Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman against Front Row Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland and a battle of “Chases” with last week’s Chicago winner, JGR’s Chase Briscoe up against Georgia’s own, defending Atlanta race winner, Hendrick Motorsport’s Chase Elliott.

The other quarterfinal bracket features a teammate duel between JGR’s Hamlin and Christopher Bell. Penske’s Ryan Blaney versus Hendrick’s William Byron make up the final head-to-head battle in what has been a compelling subplot to the summer competition televised on TNT.

NASCAR Cup Series’ Busch Light Pole Qualifying is Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET (truTV, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Logano won pole position for this race last year. Reddick won from pole position at Atlanta this February.

Atlanta presents another opportunity for Austin Hill to make history

Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Focused Health 250 at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway (7 p.m. ET on the CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) completes the day’s unique two-venue race doubleheader after an early afternoon NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race on the Lime Rock Park road course in Connecticut.

And judging by the last two series races on Atlanta’s high-banked 1.5-miler, there is every reason to believe the day may end with an exclamation point. First-time race winners have claimed the last two races there. Nick Sanchez is the defending race winner and this February, Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed earned his first trophy.

The most dominant driver, however, is the home state favorite – five-time winner Austin Hill. A sixth victory this weekend would give the driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet the all-time mark – breaking a tie with NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Kevin Harvick. Hill’s 11 wins and 925 laps led on drafting tracks is tops in each category. For comparative sakes, Jeb Burton is second on the list with two wins (both at Talladega, Ala.)

Hill’s RCR teammate, Jesse Love is the only driver with top-10 finishes at all the drafting tracks in 2026. The driver of the No. 2 RCR Chevrolet is ranked second to the season’s most dominating racer, JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier. Yet Love is still racing for his first win of the season – the only driver ranked among the top-six in the standings without a victory.

The 21-year-old – who recently announced he’ll move into the NASCAR Cup Series’ No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford fulltime next year – has had three runner-up finishes (at Phoenix, Watkins Glen and Charlotte) and led the most laps at Nashville last month, only to finish 16th after a mechanical issue. He’s on a streak of three straight top-10 finishes coming to Atlanta and finished fifth after leading 31 laps at Atlanta in February.

Allgaier’s absolute domination continues to be the storyline for the series. His five wins lead all drivers, but the 2024 series champ has endured a couple recent “off days” by his standards with sub-25th place showings in two (at the San Diego and Sonoma road courses) of the last three races.

His laps led (457), top-five (12) and top-10 (15) finishes have all contributed mightily to that unprecedented 195-point lead he holds over Love and the field. That gap is bigger than the points-difference from Love to 12th place, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brent Crews.

Hill, Love and Allgaier all expect to be challenged again by the defending race winner Creed, who is looking to gain points after a steady, but otherwise non-noteworthy couple months. He hasn’t led a lap since Talladega in April but has three top-10 finishes in the last four races.

Only four races remain to set the 12-driver field for The Chase. And although Allgaier has secured the top seed, there is still a lot of movement possible on the other end of eligibility. Crews holds a 44-point lead over his JGR teammate William Sawalich for that 12th and final Chase position. Rajah Caruth is 48-points off Crews’ pace.

Kennametal Pole Qualifying is 11 a.m. ET on Saturday (The CW App). Carson Kvapil started from pole position last year and finished runner-up to Sanchez.

Layne Riggs rolls into Lime Rock riding championship momentum

The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series heads to its final road course competition of the season in Saturday’s Liuna 150 at Connecticut’s historic Lime Rock Park (1 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – the 1.478-mile, seven-turn course one of the most famous circuits in American racing.

Fittingly enough, championship leader Layne Riggs is coming off his fourth win of the season at the San Diego street course – a career single-season high mark – as the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford hopes to continue proving himself one of the best road course racers in the series.

He’s won on two – St. Petersburg and San Diego – of the three road courses and joins a short and impressive list of previous series drivers to win multiple times in a single season on a road course – NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr., Joe Ruttman and reigning Truck Series champ – and defending Lime Rock race winner Corey Heim.

The second-generation NASCAR star – son of former NASCAR Cup Series driver Scott Riggs – took the championship lead from Kaden Honeycutt three races ago and has extended it to 65 points – the largest advantage for anyone in the championship this season. His Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith – like Riggs and Honeycutt a talented road course racer – is third in the title chase, 128 points off the lead. Those are the only three drivers to lead the championship this season. Riggs is currently on a series-best five-race streak of top-10 finishes – including three wins (Charlotte, Nashville and San Diego) in that stretch.

ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski was the top-finisher among this year’s championship contenders, finishing runner-up to Heim in 2025. His teammate Ben Rhodes was fourth. Chandler Smith was sixth, Honeycutt 12th and Riggs 13th.

There is an impressive list of road course “ringers” this week including former series regular – and race winner – Colin Braun in the No. 25 RAM truck, IndyCar star Louis Foster and IMSA star Graham Doyle.

Of note: McAnally-Hilgemann driver Daniel Hemric is the only driver to finish top-10 in all three road course races this season. … Five of the last seven road course races ended in overtime. … The driver who has led the most laps has won nine of the last 11 road course races. …and five drivers have earned their first career series win on a road course – the last to do so was Honeycutt at Watkins Glen, N.Y. in May.

Practice (9:30 a.m. ET on FS1) followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying (11 a.m. ET on FS1) is set for Saturday.

NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart
The Place: EchoPark Speedway
Track Length: 1.54 Mile Asphalt Paved Oval
The Date: Sunday, July 12
The Time: 7 p.m. ET
The Purse: $11,233,037
TV: TNT, 6 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 400.4 miles (260 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 60),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 160), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 260)

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Next Race: Focused Health 250
The Place: EchoPark Speedway
Track Length: 1.54 Mile Asphalt Paved Oval
The Date: Saturday, July 11
The Time: 7 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,661,806
TV: CW, 6:30 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 251.02 miles (163 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 45),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 163)

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Next Race: Liuna 150 at Lime Rock Park
The Place: Lime Rock Park
Track Length: 1.478 Mile Asphalt Paved Road Course
The Date: Saturday, July 11
The Time: 1 p.m. ET
The Purse: $789,700
TV: FS1, 1 p.m. ET
Radio: NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 147.8 miles (100 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 30),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 60), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 100)

ARCA Menards Series
Next Race: Lime Rock Park ARCA 100
The Place: Lime Rock Park
Track Length: 1.478 Mile Asphalt Paved Road Course
The Date: Friday, July 10
The Time: 4 p.m. ET
TV: FS2, 4 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 100.5 miles (68 Laps)