by Patrick Zier | Oct 10, 2026 |
You sometimes get the impression that Chase Briscoe feels the need to prove he truly belongs at Joe Gibbs Racing. Briscoe, who somewhat surprisingly is starting to emerge as Toyota’s best bet to win a championship, came over to JGR last year after the collapse of Stewart-Haas.
And immediately, he understood he had to change his mindset. As Stewart-Haas crumbled, there were no expectations to win, only worries about where you were going to wind up when the end finally came. Because of that, for a number of years prior to its shutdown S-H had not been competitive. If you were a driver, you got as much out of the car as you could knowing the best you could hope for was a mediocre finish.
Not so at JGR. Everyone there goes into each race confident any of its cars can win every time out. That put pressure on Briscoe to perform at the same level, to prove he belonged. He had to get used to cars capable of doing anything he wanted them to do, of being competitive in any race.
In his first year with JGR and using the Old Guy Sport competition index to measure his performance against both the other three JGR cars and the rest of the field, Briscoe outran every Toyota on the track except his JGR teammate, Denny Hamlin, and Chevy’s Kyle Larson. The OGS competition index is used because it is a better indication of competitiveness than the NASCAR point system, which rewards finishing races, not competing in them.
While he has slipped a bit this year; Hamlin, Larson and JGR teammate Christopher Bell are currently ahead of him in the OGS standings as the season nears its end, he is still running well. And as the other Toyotas have faltered in their chase for the championship, it is Briscoe who has picked up the flag.
Last week’s race at Las Vegas is a perfect example. Hamlin, who has struggled some of late, spun out all by himself coming out of a corner and damaged his front splitter, effectively taking him out of contention. Bell lost his power steering, and couldn’t overcome that. And Ty Gibbs, the fourth JGR entry, was penalized for speeding on pit road.
Briscoe dominated the race and held off the red-hot Larson to get the win. This after a fourth place finish at Kansas, a race he felt he should have won. Again, using the OGS competition index as a guide, Briscoe has scored 94 points in the last two events, far more than any other Toyota (Hamlin is next with 37) and more than anybody but Larson, who continues to play King Kong against the field. Larson had 115 points.
But talking about the win, Briscoe’s insecurity appeared to come through. “I put pressure on myself after last week (Kansas),” he said according to NASCAR.com’s website. “You don’t want your guys to lose confidence in you. I felt like after last week; I drove to the lead and you lose the race with six to go.
“I don’t really feel like I made a mistake per se last week,” he continued. “I mean, I was just really loose, and I could have done a better job of defending Larson, but still, you don’t want it to be two weeks in a row where you lose a race in the last five to 10 laps. I just feel like your confidence from the team guys, in their driver, can go away really quickly.”
This is in sharp contrast to someone like Hamlin, who definitely feels he has a different rapport with his team and considers mistakes, both by the driver and the team, to simply be part of racing. “Just trying to get back the track position we lost and got up in the marbles (little balls of rubber that come off the tires as they wear) and spun out,” Hamlin told NBCsports.com.
“There’s nothing you can do now postrace,” Hamlin added. “Just got to go on to the next race and see if we can find a way to win. Charlotte (on deck Sunday) should be good for us but today certainly didn’t live up to what we expected.”
Like Hamlin, Bell just kind of shrugged off the power steering issue even though it impacted him more because he’s still recovering from a broken wrist suffered at Michigan in June. “My wrist is fine,” he said, again according to NBCsports.com. “My hands are a little bit shaky and tingly but I’m going to be okay.
“Disappointing not to be able to capitalize on a day like today when other guys had issues. It looked like an opportunity to make up some points and it didn’t happen. Just going to go out there and race. We’ve got five more (races) left and I’m going to try and win a couple.”
But Bell didn’t see the need for his crew to explain what went wrong and hasn’t lost any confidence in them because the power steering went out. It’s on to the next race. And as time goes by, Briscoe will settle in at JGR. He’s in a position he’s never been in before, but he can handle it. Gibbs wouldn’t have hired him if he couldn’t.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Charlotte: 1-Kyle Larson, 2-Denny Hamlin, 3-Christopher Bell. Last year’s winner at Charlotte: Not applicable, last year’s race at Charlotte was run on the road course. This year, it is on the oval.
Top five at Charlotte last year: Again, not applicable.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport Las Vegas picks: 1-Hamlin, 2-Larson, 3-Bell. Las Vegas winner: Chase Briscoe. OGS season record: 13-13.
OGS competition index top 10 after 26 races: 1-Hamlin 611 points, 2-Larson 526, 3-Bell 467, 4-Briscoe 415, 5-Tyler Reddick 413, 6-Ty Gibbs 354, 7-Ryan Blaney 342, 8-Joey Logano 308, 9-Shane van Gisbergen 226, 10-Chase Elliott 192.
OGS competition index top 10 on intermediate tracks (Tracks most like Charlotte): 1-Hamlin 465 points, 2-Larson 328, 3-Reddick 301, 4-Bell 268, 5-Briscoe 250, 6-Elliott 120, 7-William Byron 119, 8-Blaney 81, 9-Alex Bowman 80, 10-Austin Cindric 79.
by Patrick Zier | Oct 4, 2026 |
It you play with fire often enough, you will get burned. And South Florida, which has been playing with fire ever since the Army game, got burned badly Saturday when it lost to Temple. Once again, the direction this team is headed, at least for the short term, is in question.
Over the past few years, South Florida has been steadily upgrading its entire athletic program, the purpose of which was to eventually attract attention from a Power 4 conference, to prove it was ready to compete at the highest level.
Central to that goal was building a winning football team, establishing itself as a premier Group of 6 competitor able to win on the big stage. Bringing in highly respected Ohio State assistant Brian Hartline was thought to be the final piece of the puzzle, putting someone in charge who could take USF where it wants to go.
That may still happen, but with the loss to Temple, the road forward is suddenly much more difficult. There were early warning signs, but they were mostly ignored as the Bulls raced out to a 4-0 start. Hartline’s transfer portal class was considered by many the best in the Group of 6. The eventual winner of the team’s quarterback competition, Michael Van Buren, had started games in the SEC. Hartline did not discourage talk that this team should contend for an American Conference championship.
Still…While the Bulls were 4-0 before the loss to Temple, nothing except a 59-17 pasting of Delaware State, an outmanned FCS school which is a step below the Group of 6 in the NCAA’s football hierarchy, came easy. They beat FIU by 10 pts, but only led 6-3 going into the fourth quarter. They had their best effort against Army, winning 28-24 after trailing by 10 with just 4:59 to play. They beat Bowling Green 14-6 but had to score twice in the fourth quarter to do it. Then came Temple, and an unexpected 17-13 loss.
If there is one common thread that runs through the last couple games, it is that South Florida has not improved since taking down Army. That win presented USF with an “opportunity,” as they now say, to better itself, to start living up to what it was expected to become.
But it hasn’t, and making things even more difficult, USF is about to face the toughest teams on its schedule starting Thursday, when it travels to UTSA. UTSA had a difficult time with Rice Saturday, but it is 25-1 at home since 2020 and 4-1 this year with only a 30-6 loss to No. 1 Texas marring its record.
Hartline, though, will not panic. His demeanor after the Temple game was exactly the same as his demeanor after beating Army. He takes things as they come. But if he is to make this season the success he wants and thinks it can be, things have to change quickly. Because right now, the Bulls look more like a pretender then a contender.
Best case scenario? Hartline and his staff figure things out and USF wins nine or 10 games. Worst case? Well, if they don’t improve, every team they have left to play is good enough to beat them.
“What needs to happen? I can’t say we have to practice better because we had a pretty good week of practice before we played Temple,” Hartline commented after the game according to USF’s football website. “So, I think we’re doing a poor job of taking practice to game day.
“Like, you know, alignment issues. Like just not being on the ball or not covering guys up. We are dropping a lot of footballs,” Hartline continued. “I feel like the protection was pretty darn good. The O-line stepped up in a good way. I think that, you know, maybe we were getting out of the pocket a little too quick at times. The running game was not as explosive.
“I think the routine plays need to be routine, like when we throw and catch,” Hartline said. “There were missed targeted throws, but when you have those drops, those negative plays, I think we have to do a better job of putting guys in position to execute better.
“Everything’s under review,” Hartline went on. “But again, the guys’ work ethic, the way they practice, has gotten better each week and I have to rely on that. I’m a big believer in that. The issues are there and they’re finally starting to kick us in the butt, no doubt about that,” Hartline added. “We are definitely our own worst enemy on the field. We gotta grow up quick.”
Much of this seems to be a lack of focus, mental errors that can cost you regardless of who you’re playing. But with UTSA next up and a brutal November schedule that includes East Carolina, Memphis, Florida Atlantic and Tulane in succession, the Bulls have to get his cleaned up – now.
This team has a lot of potential, but as the late, great Atlanta Falcon center Jeff Van Note, an 11th round draft pick in 1969 who ended up making six Pro Bowls, once said: “Po-tential. That just means you ain’t done nothin’ yet.”
by Patrick Zier | Oct 2, 2026 |
The Toyotas have hit the wall. Hitting the wall in not a good thing anytime you’re running a race, but it’s especially bad this time of year when you’re chasing a NASCAR championship. Toyota, which once loomed above NASCAR like the Jolly Green Giant, appears to have finally been cut down to size by the competition.
Well, maybe we better rephrase that, because if you’re talking about Chevy and Ford, they’re kind of chasing Toyota with baby steps. But if you’re talking about Kyle Larson, that’s an entirely different matter. Because in the playoffs, Larson has become a one man wrecking crew, stomping on Toyota, Ford and even his Rick Hendrick teammates indiscriminately.
Larson’s sudden dominance hasn’t come out of nowhere. From the beginning of the season, when the Toyotas roared off and left everybody choking on their exhaust, Larson and Ford’s Ryan Blaney were doing what they could to keep pace. For Larson, it was a fourth here, a fifth there, a third on the road course at San Diego. Plus -and this is prophetic – a second in the first race at Kansas.
Still, like all the Chevys, Larson was struggling with the car’s redesigned body. And Ford? Well, Ford was just struggling, period. It was apparent, though, that compared to the other Chevys, Larson was struggling less, was closer to figuring things out and getting competitive.
But when the chase started, everyone expected Toyota’s superiority to continue. There was no light at the end of the tunnel until all of a sudden, here came Larson. He opened with a fifth at Darlington. Next, he won for the first time this season at St. Louis, an intermediate track. Then came a second at Bristol and, last Sunday, another win, this time at Kansas.
Winning at St. Louis and Kansas is particularly significant because the Toyotas had owned the intermediate tracks. Going into the first chase race at Darlington, Toyotas had won nine of the 11 intermediate track races to that point.
So now, with six races left to go in the season, Larson isn’t chasing the Toyotas, the Toyotas are chasing Larson. It’s a complete turnround. And if you look at the Old Guy Sport competition index, which is the best measure for judging competitiveness, Larson is in a class by himself.
In the four chase races, Larson has scored a whopping 203 points. For comparison purposes, that’s more than all four Joe Gibbs racing entries, which include season front-runner Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, put together. Combined, they have 200 points. It’s also more than the four Penske entries (the Wood brothers car, which is essentially built by Penske, is included in this), who have 190 points combined. Larson is also the only driver to have finished in the top five in all four chase races.
And the three other Hendrick cars? Where are they? Well, you really have to search to find them, which proves this is not a Chevy thing and really all about Larson. In the four chase races so far, Alex Bowman has 40 points, William Byron 20 and Chase Elliott comes in with a big fat zero.
It may have been a long time coming, but clearly, Larson is back, even if Chevy isn’t. “It just seems like we were building and ready to kind of capitalize if we got a moment like this where our car and everything kind of came together.” Larson commented after the win at Kansas according to NASCAR’s website. “So just proud of everybody for working so hard for so long now, and then proud of just the execution that they’ve put in here these first four chase) races. We just got to try and keep it up,” Larson added.
Because the NASCAR point system rewards finishing more than racing and because it is designed to keep as many cars as possible in contention for as long as possible, Hamlin is still very much alive in the title chase, only 26 points behind Larson. That deficit could be wiped out in Sunday’s race at Las Vegas, another intermediate track. By the way, Hamlin still leads the OGS competition index with 604 points to Larson’s 486.
Larson knows it isn’t over. “There’s still six races left, and I only have, I think, a 26 point lead on Denny (in the NASCAR standings),” he said. “That could be swallowed up in a hurry. I gained 70 – I scored 76 points today (Sunday). So Denny could go have a max points day next week and I could blow an engine…and I’m down 70-some points right there.”
Still, considering where he was, the fact that Larson is now the man is surprising if not shocking. “Nobody wants to go through the struggle, but the struggle can be so constructive, if you let it be, if you lean in the right way,” Cliff Daniels, Larson’s crew chief, commented, also on NASCAR’s website.
“We have a great company with a lot of great people on the shop floor that are in the teams, engine shop, car shop, leadership,” Daniels said. “Everybody kind of had to check up. ‘Okay, we’re not where we need to be, so let’s not play the blame game. Let’s look within. How do we elevate our process? Our setups?’ Just digging into all the things you have to do,” Daniels said.
And guess what. There is light at the end of the tunnel after all.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Las Vegas Sunday: 1-Denny Hamlin, 2-Kyle Larson, 3-Christopher Bell. Last year’s winner at Las Vegas (second race): Hamlin. Top five in second race last year: 1-Hamlin, 2-Larson, 3-Bell, 4-Chase Briscoe, 5-Tyler Reddick.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport Kansas picks: 1-Hamlin, 2-Reddick, 3-Bell. Kansas winner: Larson. OGS season record: 13-12.
OGS competition index top 10 after 25 races: 1-Hamlin 604 points, 2-Larson 486, 3-Bell 465, 4-Reddick 383, 5-Ty Gibbs 354, 6-Briscoe 340, 7-Ryan Blaney 330, 8-Joey Logano 308, 9-Shane van Gisbergen 226, 10-Chase Elliott 192.
OGS competition index top 10 on intermediate tracks (tracks most like Las Vegas): 1-Hamlin 458 points, 2-Larson 288, 3-Reddick 271, 4-Bell 266, 5-Briscoe 175, 6-Elliott 120, 7-William Byron 119, 8-Alex Bowman 80, 9-Corey Heim 78, 10-Logano 73.
by Patrick Zier | Sep 30, 2026 |
Florida has always had great expectations. It hasn’t always met them, but it has always had them. For the most part, the Gators have been mired in mediocrity, a so-so SEC team that pulled off an upset now and then but usually ended the season with a ho-hum .500 record or thereabouts.
For a while, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The Ray Graves era produced a 70-34-1 record including a 9-1-1 mark that was highlighted by an Orange Bowl win over SEC champion Tennessee, and of even more importance, introduced Florida fans to a brash young quarterback named Steve Spurrier, who left an indelible mark on the Gators as a player and, years later, would come back as a coach to take Florida to places it had never been before.
Spurrier is the longest tenured coach in Florida history, leading the team from 1990-2001, coaching 150 games and winning six SEC championships and one national title. That proved the Gators, with the right leadership and structure, could climb the highest mountains and maintain a pattern of excellence. Florida stumbled a bit right after Spurrier left, but quickly got back on track when it hired a relative unknown, Urban Meyer, to run the program. Over a five-year period, Meyer won a pair of SEC titles and two national championships, continuing to build on what Spurrier had started.
And then it all came tumbling down. Florida crashed back into mediocrity, and the Spurrier-Meyer years became just a memory. This was extremely frustrating for Florida Fans, who had seen the light and then watched as the program fell apart, with one coach after another trying to pick up the pieces and put them back together but unable to get the Gators out of the swamp.
This continued for 15 years after Meyer left until Scott Stricklin, Florida’s athletic director, turned to a successful Group of 6 coach, Tulane’s Jon Sumrall, after another Group of 6 coach, Billy Napier, became Florida’s latest failure, posting a 4-8 record in 2025.
Sumrall did not come on board without some controversy. Florida had reportedly made a big push to get Lane Kiffin, who bolted playoff bound Ole Miss and eventually wound up at LSU, and Sumrall stepped into the breach. But he immediately made an impression, brought new enthusiasm and energy to the program and didn’t really come off as a second choice.
And Sumrall took over a team that had a ton of talent, brought in some more and while people were talking about Georgia and Alabama and Texas A&M and Ole Miss and LSU and others in the SEC, everybody knew Florida had something going on if it could get its act together. And it did.
Speaking before the season started, Stricklin made the following observation as reported by the Gators’ football website. “He’s (Sumrall) obviously got great energy and kind of a can-do-it confidence that rubs off on people,” Stricklin said. “So, that’s No. 1. And I think he hired a really good staff, probably as good of a staff as we’ve had since, maybe since I’ve been here at UF. From a football standpoint, that’s critically important,” Stricklin commented.
Then all that was left was to wait, wait for the games to start and see whether or not Sumrall truly was the guy. Throwaway wins over Florida Atlantic and Campbell proved nothing, but then came Auburn, another team desperate to regain lost prestige, and Sumrall’s Gators established themselves with a 44-39 road win that, if nothing else, showed they had potential.
And last Saturday, it all came together. Ole Miss, fresh from getting revenge on Kiffin by whipping LSU and ranked No. 4 in the country, invaded Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and when the final seconds ticked away, Florida had a lopsided 52-28 victory.
Not that the Gators had gone unnoticed before beating Ole Miss. National observers were aware of the team’s talent and potential, and it was ranked 21st in the country after whipping Auburn. After beating Ole Miss, it is now eighth and there is talk that Florida may be a legitimate national title contender.
“A journey of a 1,000 miles starts with a single step, this was step one. The goal this week was to be 1-0 and now we go back to the drawing board,” Sumrall said after the Ole Miss win according to Florida’s football website. “I thought our guys came into the game with the right approach, the right mindset, but there’s a lot of things we’ve got to get a lot better at. We have high goals here,” Sumrall added.
“I’m excited about the direction we’re headed but we have not arrived yet,” he continued. “We have so much room to grow and get better and we have to do that. It’s got very little to do with me. I’m just the guy who tells everybody what direction to go and tries to make the standards really high.
“I’ve told them (the players) a million times good teams can be coached, great teams have to be led by the players. I feel like our player leadership is growing,” Sumrall went on. “I’m just proud they’re playing with confidence, edge, swagger and a little bit of demeanor about them to where we’re not going to bow down to anybody. I just want us to be good all the time.”
In just a few months, Sumrall has managed to flip Florida. Florida has changed from a team that should be good but wasn’t to one that is good and getting better. The Gators are no longer dormant. This is Spurrier’s Florida again with a slightly different vibe.
Florida is on its way to being relevant again. “We’re gonna get there,” Sumrall declared. “It’s coming. I promise you, I didn’t come here for us to be average.”
by Patrick Zier | Sep 21, 2026 |
Carson Hocevar is the man. The new image of NASCAR. Style over substance, if you will. And Hocevar is all about style. It’s his thing, and he never misses an opportunity to put himself front and center. Hocevar has only been on the Cup scene for going on three years, and hasn’t accomplished much on the track yet.
Off it, well, that’s another matter. He first attracted attention when he did burnout at Talladega after winning his first Cup race there. Winning a race at Talladega – or any superspeedway for that matter – is really no big deal. First, you have to avoid the “big wreck.” Then, you have to be fortunate enough to be in the right lane at the right time on the last lap.
It was what Hocevar did after leading the last lap that made him an instant fan favorite. He sent up plums of smoke while riding around half out the window on the burnout, and the crowd went wild. From that point on, Hocevar has had the bit in his teeth and he’s not about to spit it out. He does his thing when ever and where ever he can.
He has a reckless style on the track, smashing into the competition and knocking them out of the way in an effort to get where he wants to go. This hasn’t left him with many friends in the garage, but who needs friends when a little beatin’ and bangin’ pumps up the fans?
Some say he reminds them of the late great Dale Earnhardt. And while that’s a ridiculous comparison based on how much Earnhardt accomplished early in his career and how little Hocevar has done, it fits nicely with the image he is cultivating so he’ll take it.
Just 24, Hocevar is brash and unapologetic for what he says and does and thrives on controversy, all of which came to a head last Saturday night at Bristol. Racing Ryan Blaney for second place late in the race, Hocevar got up a head of steam and started to pass Blaney in the high lane.
Blaney immediately moved up to block the run, Hocevar didn’t lift, clipped Blaney’s rear bumper and sent him spinning into the wall. Furious; Blaney had led 202 laps, or about 40 percent of race, before being knocked out, Blaney confronted Hocevar in the garage and a fight broke out with the Bristol fans roaring their approval, since Hocevar seemed to get the better of it.
They even booed winner Joey Logano, who moved past Ty Gibbs to steal the win as Hocevar and Gibbs did some beating and banging on the closing laps, keeping either one from taking the top spot. “I wasn’t trying to wreck him Blaney),” Hocevar said on pit road according to NASCAR’s website. “It just looked like to me I got a run and kind of went left, and he spun; I spun him,” Hocevar said.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of talking,” Hocevar continued, referring now to the post race fight. “He (Blaney) just said one thing and then went after me, and I wasn’t going to take it. I mean that was fun with the 54 (Gibbs). I got ran into a lot. I mean that was for second place (the incident with Blaney) and he wants to come fight.”
“I don’t know what I did wrong there,” Hocevar continued. “I got a run to cross him over. It looked like he spun himself and then he wants to instigate a fight. I was going to finish that and, you know, it seemed like the crowd was pretty pumped up so I was going to play the audience for a second,” he said after acknowledging the fans.”
For his part, Blaney has said nothing, not after the fight or in the days following. But NASCAR, which usually frowns on such antics, has actually come out and encouraged it, this despite the fact that something like this can cause serious injury. Blaney, who fell backward in all the confusion after being hit by Hocevar, could easily have hit his head on the concrete floor and that could have been disastrous.
Speaking on the Racin’ With The Boys podcast, Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s CEO, said the following: “Where we’re at is if the drivers want to handle their business, great…We need rivalries, we need villians, right?” O’Donnell commented.
Welcome to the new NASCAR, where it’s no longer about the race. It’s all about the show.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Kansas Sunday: 1-Denny Hamlin, 2-Tyler Reddick, 3-Christopher Bell. Last year’s winner at Kansas: Chase Elliott. Top five at Kansas last year: 1-Elliott, 2-Hamlin, 3-Bell, 4-Chase Briscoe, 5-Bubba Wallace.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport Bristol picks: 1-Ryan Blaney, 2-Joey Logano, 3-Ty Gibbs. Last week’s Bristol winner: Logano. OGS season record after 24 races: 13-11.
OGS competition index top 10 after 24 races: 1-Hamlin 574 points, 2-BelL 465, 3-Kyle Larson 411, 4-Reddick 383, 5-Gibbs 354, 6-Blaney 319, 7-Briscoe 316, 8-Logano 308, 9-Shane van Gisbergen 226, 10-Elliott 192.
OGS competition index top 10 on intermediate tracks (tracks most like Kansas): 1-Hamlin 428 points, 2-Reddick 271, 3-Bell 266, 4-Larson 213, 5-Briscoe 151, 6-Elliott 120, 7-William Byron 119, 8-Alex Bowman 80, 9-Corey Heim 78, 10-Logano 73.
