TALLADEGA, Ala. – Joe Gibbs Racing doubled-down on its 2025 NASCAR Cup Series championship opportunities over the weekend – now filling half the four-driver title field – first with a 60-win veteran still racing for his first series title and now the team’s newest driver addition set to compete for his first career chance at one.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Next Race: Love’s RV Stop 225
The Place: Talladega Superspeedway
Track Length: 2.66 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Friday. October 17
The Time: 4 p.m. ET
The Purse: $782,900
TV: FOX, 4 p.m. ET
Radio: NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 226.1 miles (85 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 20),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 40), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 85)
With the trip to Victory Lane at Texas Motor Speedway, Sam Mayer pocketed the $100,000 bonus and secured his spot in this weekend’s Dash 4 Cash run at Talladega Superspeedway, and will be joined by RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg, JR Motorsport’s Justin Allgaier and Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger to compete in the third installment of Dash 4 Cash.
Of the four drivers vying for the Dash 4 Cash this weekend at Talladega, only one has a previous win at the superspeedway.
Ryan Blaney came into the Talladega race needing to win one of the next two races and he did just that. He did it by staying in the Top 10 most of the race, avoiding a couple of wrecks and battling Kevin Harvick right to the very end.
Well it finally happened – a playoff driver won a playoff race. And Chase Elliott did it in fine form, racing clean and hard right to the checkered flag.
It had a record number of lead changes, in a race where it was very hard to pass. The only real wreck was a multi-car spin that wasn’t all that serious.
After running out of gas near the end of the race, Denny Hamlin finished 18th. In many ways, he is lucky that is as bad as it got after posting a racial slur meme aimed at Kyle Larson. Hamlin is lucky he hasn’t been suspended from NASCAR the way Larson was for his racial slur during a 2020 virtual racing event. Larson also lost his job at Ganassi Racing for that slur.
