by Patrick Zier | Oct 25, 2026 |
While attention centers on the championship chase in Sunday’s Yellawood 500 at Talledega, and which members of NASCAR’s “Big Three,” Hendrick, Gibbs and Penske, will survive and remain viable title contenders in the remaining two races, there is another “Big Three” that are working their way up and should have a major impact on the sport in future years.
They are Carson Hocevar, 23; Connor Zilsch, 21; and Corey Heim, 24. Capsulizing their performances this season, Hocevar gets the headlines, Zilsch gets the ride, and Heim gets it done.
After limited success in trucks, Hocevar was signed by Spire Motorsports, a second tier Chevy team, in 2024. And he did nothing to distinguish himself until this year, when he won the Talladega spring race and gained national attention for his burnout.
He continued to gain fan support with his aggressive tactics on the track, frequently knocking competitors out of the way to improve his position at times when it really didn’t matter in terms of the outcome of the race, then belligerently defending his moves when other drivers called him out afterwards.
His fan base loved it, making a false comparison to Dale Earnhardt, and he rapidly became one of the most popular drivers in the sport despite his inability to run up front after Talladega. Unlike Hocevar, Earnhardt competed consistently for wins and when he knocked somebody out of the way, there was usually a reason for it.,
Zilsch’s situation is more complicated. He had an impressive season with JR Motorsports in 2025, wining 10 races in the Xfinity Series including 18 top fives in a row, a series record, which earned him a promotion to Trackhouse Racing, another tier two Chevy team.
But probably in part because Trackhouse’s cars are absolutely awful, Zilsch has done absolutely nothing this year, scoring just five points on the Old Guy Sport competition index. Only Shane van Gisbergen, perhaps the best road racer in NASCAR history, has been able to win at Trackhouse. Yet despite that, Rick Hendrick recently signed Zilsch to replace Alex Bowman in 2028.
Then there’s Heim. He was the 2025 truck champion, winning 12 races, and is driving parttime for Toyota’s 23XI team, where he will be fulltime next year, replacing Riley Herbst. Driving just 13 races, Heim won twice in his first 12 starts, taking the road race at San Diego and then the Indy Brickyard 400, one of NASCAR’s most prestigious events. The last time that happened in NASCAR was 1965, when some guy named A.J. Foyt pulled it off.
And if you compare the records of the three, Heim stands out although it should he noted he is the only one of the three in a winning car and in NASCAR now, if you don’t have a car that can win you won’t win. The car has become more important than the driver. In 12 races so far, Heim has two wins, three top fives and four top 10s. In 33 races, Hocevar has done well with one win, six top fives and 11 top 10s while Zilsch has no wins, no top fives and one top 10, also in 33 races.
After his Brickyard win, Heim was quoted on NASCAR’s website as saying success in trucks doesn’t guarantee success in Cup. “The competition in this series is kind of like no other,” Heim said. “But the fact that we’ve kind of had everything line up really well as far as the speed in these Toyotas and 23XI specifically has been surreal.
“To be part of this program when they’ve hit their peak, and hopefully we can keep it there for as long as I’m with them, they’ve definitely been riding high this year. I feel fortunate to be able to be a part of that.”
Steve Lauletta, president of 23XI, said that the team and Heim’s success are proof that “the processes we put in place are working. It shows that the people at 23XI are really special. They continue to surprise me and amaze me with what we’ve been able to accomplish in a short period of time.”
Heim feels one of the reasons he’s had so much success so early in his career is because unlike a lot of young drivers, he didn’t jump right from a feeder series to a fulltime Cup ride. “I think a little bit of it is just running the part-time schedule, being able to sort of have gaps between each race,” Heim said.
“I feel it’s pretty rare that someone gets to run a bridge year and then go full time to Cup. A lot of guys go straight from O’Reilly or trucks to Cup without a lot of experience,” Heim said.
Of course Heim’s rapid rise is leading to high expectations for next year. “I think the outside expectations will probably be higher than they would be if I didn’t win,” Heim said. “I don’t know. I feel like I’m pretty good at just focusing on myself and the task at hand, not getting caught up in what other people say or think, just making sure I do my job and execute as I should.
“I try my best to not let the outside noise or expectations affect what I do on the racetrack,” Heim commented. “I’m going to try and keep doing that as I progress through my rookie season.”
NASCAR NOTES
No race this week. Old Guy Sport does not count superspeedway races in its standings because too much luck is involved in running well. You have to avoid the “big wreck,” which can happen anytime and which you can’t prepare for in advance because you don’t know when it will happen, and you have to be in the right lane at the right time coming out of the fourth turn on the last lap and that is totally dependent on what the cars around you decide to do.
OGS competition index after 28 races: 1-Denny Hamlin 621 points, 2-Christopher Bell 558, 3-Kyle Larson 541, 4-Chase Briscoe 477, 5-Tyler Reddick 466, 6-Ryan Blaney 419, 7-Ty Gibbs 354, 8-Joey Logano 319, 9-Shane van Gisbergen 226, 1-Chase Elliott 222.
by Patrick Zier | Oct 18, 2026 |
Ryan Blaney is the guy. A lot of people think Joey Logano is Ford’s ace, but Ryan Blaney is the guy. If anybody’s going to steal this Cup championship from red-hot Kyle Larson or one of Toyota’s big three, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe, then Blaney has the best chance. And if Blaney is going to make a move, now is the time.
While Larson has taken charge since the chase races began with Darlington’s Southern 500, even he remains cautious because he knows while he has a solid lead, it is not insurmountable although neither Blaney nor Logano is regarded as one of his major threats.
But the final four races of the season, which will determine the outcome, play to Ford’s – and Blaney’s strengths. Two of them, today’s race at Phoenix and another at Martinsville, are on short tracks. And while we haven’t had a short track race since Iowa on Aug. 9th, Blaney and Logano have dominated on the smaller tracks.
Using the Old Guy Sport competition index to measure performance. Blaney has scored 254 points and Logano 235 on the short tracks. Next best among the chase drivers is Christopher Bell with 159. Throw is Talladega, which is totally unpredictable, and if Blaney in particular continues his short track run and gets a break at Talladega, Ford could be ready to rumble at Homestead, the series finale.
Right now, Blaney is fifth in the chase standings, 85 points behind Larson, with Logano sixth, 92 points back. But as Larson himself has pointed out, one or two good runs can change things in a hurry. One problem that hangs over the Fords is the fact that they have the fast Toyotas, Hamlin, Bell and Briscoe, ahead of them as well as Larson.
Still, if past performance is any kind of indicator, Blaney might be the guy to watch. Looking at results in the last four short track races and using the OGS competition index as a guide, Blaney is the only driver to score points in all four of them.
At Iowa, Blaney finished third and led the most laps under green. At Richmond, he led the third most laps under green in a race won by Logano. At New Hampshire, Blaney won the race and again led the most laps under green. And at Bristol he also led the most laps under green. So, Blaney has dominated three out of the last four short track races and scored two top five finishes.
And he got a boost from his third place finish at Charlotte. Blaney and Ford have struggled on the intermediate tracks, and the final chase race will be at Homestead. In the first 12 intermediate races of the season, Blaney scored 69 points on the OGS competition index. He has 42 in the last three.
“Overall, really proud of our day after my mistake, like I said, and really proud of the last three weeks. The places we’ve really needed to get better at, the mile-and-a-halves, we’ve been able to do that,” Blaney told NASCAR’s website. “Three solid finishes. Sticking in there. Just got to keep going to work.
“Myself and this whole group, we go into every weekend thinking we can win,” Blaney said. “And this group has been awesome to work with. I love my guys. Phoenix (a short track) has been good to us in the past. I don’t know what’s going to happen at Talladega, no one does. But then we’ve got Martinsville (another short track) and then Miami (Homestead, another intermediate.)
“The best thing we can do is one race at a time, just try to go do our job the best that we can, and hopefully if we do that we can find victory lane a couple more times,” Blaney commented. Although he has gotten more credit recently, he won the NASCAR championship in 2023, Blaney is still NASCAR’s most unappreciated driver. He does more with less than any driver on an elite team.
Maybe, if he wins another championship, people will finally figure that out.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Phoenix: 1-Ryan Blaney, 2-Joey Logano, 3-Christopher Bell. Last year’s winner at Phoenix: Blaney. Top five at Phoenix last year: 1-Blaney, 2-Brad Keselowski, 3-Kyle Larson, 4-Logano, 5-Kyle Busch.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport Charlotte picks: 1-Larson, 2-Denny Hamlin, 3-Bell. Charlotte winner: Chase Briscoe. OGS season record: 13-14.
OGS competition index after 27 races: 1-Hamlin 621 points, 2-Larson 541, 3-Bell 524, 4-Briscoe 476, 5-Tyler Reddick 413, 6-Blaney 372, 7-Ty Gibbs 354, 8-Logano 308, 9-Shane van Gisbergen 226, 10-Chase Elliott 192.
OGS competition index on short tracks (tracks most like Phoenix): 1-Blaney 254 points, 2-Logano 235, 3-Gibbs 188, 4-Bell 159, 5-Hamlin 146, 6-Larson 140, 7-Briscoe 101, 8-Elliott 72, 9-Josh Berry 61, 9-Bubba Wallace 49, 10-Carson Hocevar 33.
by Patrick Zier | Oct 16, 2026 |
South Florida’s Brian Hartline is walking a tightrope and the question is whether or not he can get to the other side. Halfway through the season, two straight conference losses have effectively eliminated the Bulls from any shot at an American Conference championship and dampened the enthusiasm Hartline did nothing to discourage when he was hired to replace Alex Golesh.
“There’s been some success here over the last couple years, but nowhere near where it should be,” Hartline told On3’s Pete Nakos prior to the season. “The expectation should be to win – the floor here should be a constant chase for the American Conference championship.” It was a clear shot at Golesh, who earlier had said there was no way USF could ever win a national title.
So if there were high expectations for this program, Hartline put them out there. And there was no reason not to believe. Hartline, who had been the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, was considered an outstanding hire. He brought in what was generally considered the top transfer class in the Group of 6. His quarterback, Michael Van Buren, had been a starter in the SEC and ranked among the best signal callers in the portal.
With a new stadium set to open in 2027, new facilities springing up left and right and Hartline expected to take the football program to new heights, the USF community was almost giddy. Change was in the wind and USF would – finally – take its rightful place in the world of college athletics.
Lost in all of this was the fact that this was not a rebuild. Golesh had already brought the Bulls back to respectability. In the three years prior to Golesh’s arrival, USF compiled records of 1-8 in 2020, 2-10 in 2021 and 1-11 in 2022. In 2023 and ’24 they were 7-6 and they were 9-4 in 2025. They made bowl games all three years.
It was the largest turnaround in USF history and Golesh’s winning percentage, 59 percent, was the second best ever at the school, topped only by USF’s first coach, Jim Leavitt, who won 63 percent of his games over a 10-year span. Golesh’s offenses were particularly effective. In 2025, USF ranked third in the country in total offense, averaging 488.7 yards per game, and fifth in scoring with a 40.8 points per game average.
Hartline installed a more traditional system that slowed the offensive pace and has struggled to maintain consistency, so USF is starting over again. Currently, USF is 88th in the country in scoring at 26.2 points per game and 111th in total offense, averaging 334.8 yards per game.
And Hartline has backed away from his earlier comments about competing for a conference championship every year and is now urging patience. His main concern is developing a new culture and process, which, he says, will eventually make the Bulls competitive.
“We’ve got to understand that you win with fundamentals, not play calls, and so we’ve got to make sure we’re spending enough time on that as a team,” Hartline said after the UTSA loss according to USF’s football website. “In the end, we are building. As much as I hate saying that. We are getting better, it’s just not good enough,” Hartline declared.
“And so as a group, we have to make sure we are continuing to put in the work to give ourselves a chance. I’m looking forward to the day when the coin turns,” Hartline continued. “I don’t think it’s necessarily guys can or can’t do things, but, you know, we have routine plays we have to make. We have to hit them.
“The pass game’s got to continue to improve, be more consistent instead of so flashy. But we’ll keep putting the work in. Again, the work’s been put in throughout the week, ” Hartline emphasized. “That’s the biggest thing I’m most pleased with. I just wish the guys could reap the benefits of what that feels like consistently on game day.
“That being said, the season’s halfway over and I’m looking forward to what we can do the second half. It’s pretty black and white,” Hartline said. “Ultimately we still have goals we’re chasing and if we have a bunch of guys that are willing to cash in after six games, then we have the wrong guys.
“We need to keep putting in the work. We know the work doesn’t guarantee us anything, but that increases the odds of reaching our goal. Without it, we have no shot,” Hartline declared. “These guys have a lot of goals, both personally and as a team, and it all starts with how we practice on Sunday and how we practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. You rarely get better on game day, you get better throughout the week.
“So we have to get better,” Hartline stressed. “And we don’t have time to worry about past results. They stink, don’t get me wrong, but the focus is on getting better.” And the Bulls do indeed have to get better. The meat of their schedule is still ahead, starting with a much improved UAB team after Kent State.
Although it’s not likely, if the Bulls don’t solidify their offense and stop the defensive lapses in critical situations, they might lose every game after Kent State. Wins over Kent State and UAB would give them confidence, because they need proof of concept. It’s all well and good to talk about improvement, but if you don’t see it on the scoreboard, you begin to wonder if what you’re doing will really work. And if that happens, Hartline could slip off that tightrope before he gets to the other side.
