by Patrick Zier | Jun 8, 2025 |
Justin Marks, owner of Trackhouse Racing, was commenting on his team’s status after his driver, Ross Chastain, had just won Charlotte’s Coca-Cola 600. Chastain’s win was a breakthrough of sorts, one for the little guys.
In NASCAR, the little guys are all the teams that compete against the sport’s big three, Rick Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske, who dominate stock car racing.
There have been 14 races so far this year and the big three had won 12 straight until Chastain stopped the streak at Charlotte. The big three quickly re-established themselves though, Penske’s Ryan Blaney winning at Nashville last week.
And it’s expected one of their drivers will win again Sunday at Michigan and the next week in Mexico City and the next week after that, because going in, one of the big three is always expected to win.
The NextGen car, introduced in 2022, was supposed to change that and for a while it looked like it might. In the past, what mainly separated the big three from everybody else was the level of sponsorship and factory support they got and the ability to basically build their own cars.
The other teams, lacking the financial resources and personnel of the big three, didn’t have the technical expertise to craft aerodynamic bodies and downforce where fractions of inches could mean the difference between being competitive and staying stuck in the back of the pack.
But with the NextGen car, everybody got the same parts and pieces and NASCAR mandated that they could not be altered in any way. So, when the car was introduced and was basically new to everybody, the smaller teams had a shot. In 2022, the little guys won 14 of the 36 races. And they won 14 more in 2023.
But even then, things were changing as the big three started to regain the advantage. Since the NextGen cars couldn’t be altered, research and development, looking for some way to get an edge, became extremely important.
And when you have hundreds of employees and state-of-the art technology, your chances of finding something are much better than someone who doesn’t have access to that kind of equipment or the time or personnel to work with it.
And slowly, the big three are starting to flex their muscles again, Last year, the little guys won 10 of 36 races, a dip from the two years before. And as we start closing in on the mid-point of the season in 2025, Chastain’s win stands alone. It seems the big guys are back.
“We don’t have the speed we’ve had the last couple years,” Marks said according to nascar.com. “The sport kind of ebbs and flows and teams have periods of a lot of winning and then get passed by and kind of have to regroup or re-engineer the team to get back. That’s kind of where we are right now,” Marks added.
Trackhouse is a relative newcomer to the NASCAR scene but it’s made a pretty big splash. In fact, you can make a strong case that the two best little guys in NASCAR are two of its newest teams, Trackhouse and 23XI.
Despite the fact that it is virtually an independent, it gets no help from Chevy and is not aligned with any of the big three although it does get engines from the ECR (Earnhardt Childress Racing) and Hendrick, Trackhouse has been competitive.
That’s not the norm though. The best little guy teams usually have some kind of factory backing and/or alliances with one of the big three. Like 23XI, for example. It has a technical alliance with Gibbs and is supported by Toyota.
There are 15 teams that compete regularly in the NASCAR Cup series, the three big guys and 12 little guys, but of those 12, very few are competitive, maybe five or six at most, and of that group Trackhouse and 23XI clearly stand out.
Since the NextGen car was introduced in 2022, the little guys have won 39 races. Trackhouse has won nine of those and 23XI seven. Combined, that’s 41 percent of the total.
Richard Childress Racing has won eight, but it has been in steady decline, gotten worse every year since the NextGen car was introduced, and of the six little guy teams ranked by the Old Guy Sport competition index, it sits last this year with a pathetic 29 points, and 28 of those came in the first race of the season.
Chastain has opened the door for more little guy victories in 2025, but they’re getting harder to come by as the big three try to slam it shut. We’ll just have to wait and see if one of them can win again. Frankly, the odds are against it but especially in racing, never say never.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Michigan: 1-William Byron, 2-Denny Hamlin, 3-Kyle Larson. Last year’s winner at Michigan: Tyler Reddick. Top five at Michigan last year: 1-Reddick, 2-Byron, 3-Ty Gibbs, 4-Kyle Busch, 5-Ron Keselowski.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport picks: 1-Larson, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-Byron. Nashville winner: Ryan Blaney. OGS record: 5-6.
OGS competition index top 10 after Nashville: 1-Larson 291 points, 2-Hamlin 263, 3-Bell 228, 4-Byron 214, 5-Blaney 179, 6-Ross Chastain 102, 7-Chase Briscoe 99, 8-Joey Logano 90, 9-Josh Berry 83, 10-Bubba Wallace 73.
OGS competition index on intermediate tracks (tracks similar to Michigan): 1-Larson 176, 2-Blaney 164, 3-Byron 163, 4-Hamlin 108, 5-Chastain 102, 6-Briscoe 79, 7-Logano 78, 8-Bell 71, 9-Berry 59, 10=Alex Bowman 58.
by Patrick Zier | Jun 5, 2025 |
Locklan Hewlett is, right now, the No.3 quarterback on South Florida’s football team, so if everything goes according to plan, meaning if Byrum Brown stays healthy, you probably won’t hear from him this year. But that doesn’t mean you won’t hear from him.
Hewlett, a 6-foot-1, 190-pounder out of St. Augustine high, has already gotten the attention of the USF coaching staff even though he is just a freshman and hasn’t played a down in competition.
But he did play in USF’s spring game, sharing time with Bryce Archie, Brown’s back-up, and completing 13-of-14 passes for 110 yards and three touchdowns as Brown, still in somewhat of a healing mode after suffering a lower leg injury last year, was held out just to be on the safe side.
The spring game was just a sample of the kind of talent Hewlett displayed in high school, where he was a three-year starter and threw for 7,917 yards over the course of his career, including his senior season when he was 198-of-298, 66 percent, for 2,910 yards with 31 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Rated as the No.52 quarterback in the country in On3’s industry rankings, Hewlett was sought by several schools including Miami, Pitt and Texas A-M before signing with Wake Forest.
But then, he decommitted from Wake Forest and switched to USF. According to On3, Hewlett said he decided on Wake Forest early in his recruitment and didn’t give himself enough time to think things through and that USF was a better fit.
“They play with tempo and play fast and that’s my style,” Hewlett told On3. “The future is really bright here,” he continued. “People are still sitting (on USF) but they’ll be awake soon,” Hewlett added.
Going into the season, USF is in an interesting position. The Bulls open against Boise State, which made the College Football Playoffs last year and is generally considered the standard by which other Group of 5 teams are judged.
Win that game and suddenly, USF has a chance to break out of the pack, move away from mediocrity to big boy status. Anything would be possible, even being the Group of 5 representative in the CFP. While that would still be a longshot, it would be possible.
Much of that, particularly on offense, would depend on Brown, and what happens to Brown will go a long way toward determining what happens to Hewlett. If Brown avoids injury, USF has a chance to make a serious run and Hewlett remains in the background, at least for this year.
But Hewlett has already shown enough so that if he continues to develop, he could pass Archie, a steady workman-like player who has experience but lacks Hewlett’s upside, as the team’s No.2 quarterback.
Right now, the plan would be to get Hewlett into four games, which would allow him to preserve his redshirt season and leave him with four years of eligibility.
But if Brown were to go down again USF might see Hewlett as giving it the best chance to win, particularly if it were in contention for a major bowl or post season play.
“Just in terms of attention to detail and the growth he has made as a young quarterback, for a young guy that just got here, man, he continues to be really, really special in a lot of ways,” USF Coach Alex Golesh said after the spring game.
“He’s a little baller and he’s fun to coach and we’ll see how his progression goes,” Golesh continued. “But I think he’s got a really bright future here.” The question is whether the future is now.
Even Archie, who played solidly as Brown’s replacement last year and, in some ways, saved USF’s season, has picked up positive vibes from Hewlett.
“He did nothing but come here and work,” Archie commented. “He didn’t really care about anything else. He was in the facility as much as I was. I’d get back from baseball practice (In addition to football, Archie is a pitcher on the USF baseball team) and he’d just be coming back from meetings with one of the coaches and I think that just showed on the field.
“Really, he came to the first practice; you know a lot of guys just expect a young quarterback to come in and just kind of look mediocre,” Archie said. “He didn’t.
“He came in and executed and I think it wowed a lot of people, even the coaches. He just put his head down and worked and it shows every day on the field.”
Without question, Brown is USF’s big gun. He has the ability to be one of the best quarterbacks in the country and that ability is going to get him noticed by Power 4 teams. If he has a big year, he could hit the transfer portal and if he leaves, then the quarterback spot is open and Hewlett just might fill it.
And while he may not be the next Byrum Brown, maybe he won’t have to be. Maybe being Locklan Hewlett will be good enough.
by Patrick Zier | May 31, 2025 |
Richard Childress Racing (RCR) is on the ropes. Down for the count. Struggling to get back up. The once formidable organization is a shell of its former self, when it regularly competed for championships in the fearsome black No.3 driven by Dale Earnhardt.
The car is gone now and so is it’s driver and so, it seems, is whatever it was that enabled this team to stay on top for so long. For one thing, RCR clearly has struggled to adapt to the modernized NextGen version racer, which came on line in 2022.
Sure, RCR has won a few races since then and made the playoffs, but that’s more a function of the NASCAR point system, which rewards finishing over competing and lets you in the playoffs with a single win no matter how far down the standings you are.
This year though, RCR has been exposed. in 2023, RCR signed Kyle Busch to team with Austin Dillon as the organization’s lead driver. Busch’s talent has never been in doubt.
With Joe Gibbs Racing, a NASCAR powerhouse, he won at least one race every year from 2005 through 2022. And he made a seemingly seamless transition to RCR in 2023, winning three times for what had become a second-tier team.
With some changes in the shop and some shifting roles in upper management, it was thought that Busch might lead RCR out of the doldrums. And then in 2024, it all fell apart again. For the first time in his career, Busch didn’t win a single race.
Dillon did, shoving both Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin out of the way on the last lap to triumph at Richmond, but his moves were so egregious NASCAR banned him from the playoffs.
And RCR’s problems have continued this year. Heading into Sunday’s Craker Barrel 400 at Nashville, Busch has gone 70 straight races without a win and Dillon hasn’t won either. The team has only one top five, that by Busch in the season’s first race in Austin, Tx.
But again, because NASCAR rewards finishing races more than competing in them, Busch, 19th in the standings, still has a shot at the playoffs with 266 points. That’s just 14 behind Ryan Preece who is 16th, the cutoff right now.
Busch, though will likely have to win to get in, and that may be a real chore as RCR keeps blundering through race after race with messed up pit stops, messed up strategy and engine and car pieces that just don’t hold up.
“I feel like a broken record saying another difficult night for our No. 8 Chevrolet team,” Busch told NBC after a 15th place finish at Charlotte. “The weekend started with a steering issue.
“We got the pump changed and were able to make a qualifying lap but had to change the rack (the component that connects the steering wheel to the steering gear allowing for precise steering movements) and go to the rear for the start of the race,” Busch said.
“We were tight (the front of the car not wanting to turn) in dirty air (air swirling off the cars in front of him),” Busch continued. “Crew chief Randall Burnett made some changes and got it running better when I heard a loud pop. Something broke and we’re still no sure what it was.
“From that point on we were just out of it,” Busch said. “We tried making a strategy call late in the race, but we had an issue on pit road so we weren’t really able to capitalize on that,” he added.
Busch has just signed a contract extension that keeps him with RCR in 2026 and at 40, he’s near the end of this career. Whether or not RCR can put him in a competitive car for the duration is open to question, but in reality, given his age and the fact that there don’t seem to be any better openings, he’s stuck.
And while RCR seems to be in almost constant disarray, one thing is certain. RCR is not what they were. Even Dale Earnhardt would have trouble winning in these cars.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Nashville: 1-Kyle Larson, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-William Byron. Last year’s winner at Nashville: Joey Logano. Top five at Nashville last year: 1-Logano, 2-Zane Smith, 3-Tyler Reddick, 4-Ryan Preece, 5-Chris Buescher.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport picks: 1-Ryan Blaney, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-Kyle Larson. Charlotte winner: Ross Chastain. OGS season record: 5-5.
Top 10 in OGS competition index after 10 races: 1-Larson 291 points, 2-Bell 228, 3-Denny Hamlin 223, 4-William Byron 204, 5-Blaney 107, 6-Chastain 102, 7-Chase Briscoe 90, 8-Josh Berry 83, 9-Bubba Wallace 73, 10-Logano 73.
Top 10 on intermediate tracks (similar to Nashville) in OGS competition index: 1-Larson 176, 2-Byron 153, 3-Chastain 102, 4-Blaney 92, 5-Bell 71, 6-Briscoe 70, 7-Hamlin 68, 8-Berry 59, 9-Logano 58, Alex Bowman 58.
INDY 500
OGS Indy 500 picks: 1-Alex Polou, 2-Scott Dixon, 3-Pato O’Ward. Indy 500 winner: Polou.
by Patrick Zier | May 21, 2025 |
It was close to midnight, and Charlotte Motor Speedway was nearly deserted.
It’s light towers, serving as sentinels in the dark, still lit up the racing surface, but the grandstands had emptied and there was no sound, the roar of the race cars in the 1999 Coca-Cola 600 having long since reverberated into the night.
In the infield, the last spectators, headlights flashing as they left, were winding their way toward the tunnel which would take them out of the track and home.
Back in the garage, which was almost empty, down the aisle that led past all the tools and parts and pieces needed to put the finishing touches on a competitive stock car, Tony Stewart sat in the front of his hauler and rested on a couch. He was exhausted.
He had just run the Memorial Day double, the Indy 500, where he finished 9th, and then the Coca-Cola 600, where he was fourth. He had not completed every lap of both races, falling four short at Indy, but his performance was the best anyone had ever done to that point.
And he had put on a show at Charlotte, gutting out all 400 laps although it had been an ordeal that left Stewart completely drained. After climbing from his car, Stewart sank to his knees. He talked to no one. The only place he went afterwards was the infield care center. There, he took some ice packs and was given fluids to drink. He did not want an IV…
Running 1,100 miles on the same day requires planning. Once the checkered flag flew at Indy, Stewart was rushed to an airport where a private jet was waiting to take him to Concord, N.C., a Charlotte suburb and a 55 minute flight.
There, he boarded a helicopter for a quick trip to CMS, descending from the sky in front of a cheering throng and immediately changing into his driver’s uniform and getting ready to race – again.
For a very tired Stewart, the Coca-Cola 600 had been a test of will. He spun on the second lap, apparently for no reason. He managed to pull himself together, but as the miles went by, he started to lose focus.
It became harder and harder to run the correct line through the corners, harder and harder to keep the car from wobbling in the straights, harder and harder to pass although Stewart had really done an amazing job of that.
Forced to start dead last, 43rd, because he missed the mandatory drivers meeting, Stewart began a steady march forward. And with 90 laps to go, he was leading the race. But he couldn’t keep the lead. He was too tired, two worn out.
Now, in his hauler, everything was quiet. Only Stewart’s voice broke the silence. He had, he said, almost nothing to eat all day, and that, he thought, might have contributed to his problems. He had, he said, two mini-bagels before Indy and two power bars on the plane.
“They tried to give me another power bar during the (Charlotte) race, but did you ever try to open one of those things wearing driving gloves?” Stewart asked. “I got most of it all over me.”
In the pits, Stewart’s crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, spent almost as much time working on Stewart as he did the car. “Whenever we came in, they threw ice packs in the car and gave me a bottle to drink,” Stewart continued, still slumped on his couch.
“I kept drinking and drinking and drinking, but the bottle would get hot and I don’t think it helped much. Toward the end, I got light-headed and I was nauseous twice.
“I never use the head rest in cars, and I used the head rest the last 60, 70 laps,” Stewart went on. “I felt like I was 90 percent and leaving 10 percent on the table.”
There was a pause in the conversation as Stewart collected his thoughts. And then came the question that had to be asked.
Stewart, who had grown up in open wheel cars, was running his first season in NASCAR, teamed with Bobby Labonte at Joe Gibbs Racing, a relatively new organization that was quickly establishing itself as one of the sport’s best. Had running the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 cost him the race?
“It might have,” Stewart admitted. “Running both races wasn’t fair to these guys (his crew). They work seven days a week on my car and they deserve more. Next year, I won’t run Indy. I’m going to concentrate on the 600.
“I’m here for the long haul and much as I’d love to go back, I’m going to stick it out with these guys. These guys have been great to me. They’re my family now.”
Of course Stewart did go back, in 2001. And this time, he was ready. Gibbs, his team owner, made sure of that. He told Stewart if he was going to do the double again, he was going to do it right.
Gibbs got him a personal trainer, Stewart learned from his mistakes and this time, he finished sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte. And he ran every lap.
That’s the standard if you want to give it a go, and it’s a pretty high hurdle to get over.
NASCAR’s Kyle Larson, generally regarded as the most talented driver in American motorsports, gave it a shot last year but couldn’t pull it off, in part because of bad weather at Charlotte.
His effort paled in comparison to Stewart’s, though. At Indy, Larson ran all 200 laps and finished 18th, but that was well behind Stewart’s sixth place finish in 2001. Larson then flew back to Charlotte where the race was in a rain delay.
Justin Allgeier had started his car and was still in it when the rain came. Had the race continued, Larson was scheduled to get in after the end of the third stage, which means he would only have run 100 of the 400 laps.
Anyway, he’ll do it again this year and hope for better results. Larson has an emotionless, almost robotic approach to racing, never over reacting to anything, good or bad, and maybe that’s what it takes.
But, for whatever it’s worth, here’s a tip. When you start your day, try eating something besides mini-bagels and power bars.
NASCAR NOTES – Three most likely winners at Charlotte: 1-Ryan Blaney, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-Kyle Larson. Last year’s winner at Charlotte: Bell. Top five at Charlotte last year: 1-Bell, 2-Brad Keselowski, 3-William Byron, 4-Tyler Reddick, 5-Denny Hamlin.
Old Guy Sport’s pick last week: No pick, All-Star race.
OGS competition index top 10: 1-Larson 287 points, 2-Bell 227, 3-Hamlin 218, 4-Byron 139, 5-Blaney 107, 6-Josh Berry 83, 7-Bubba Wallace 73, 8-Joey Logano 70, 9-Reddick 67, 10-Alex Bowman 62.
OGS competition index top 10 on intermediate tracks: 1-Larson 172, 2-Blaney 92, 3-Byron 88, 4-Bell 70, 5-Hamlin 63, 6-Berry 59, 7-Logano 58, Bowman 58; 9-Ross Chastain 51, 10-Daniel Suarez 41, Wallace 41.
INDY NOTES – Three most likely winners at Indy: 1-Alex Palou, 2-Scott Dixon, 3-Pato O’Ward. Last year’s winner at Indy: Josef Newgarden. Top five at Indy last year: 1-Newgarden, 2-O’Ward, 3-Dixon, 4-Alexander Rossi, 5-Palou.
IRL point standings going into Indy: 1-Palou, 248 points, 2-Kyle Kirkwood 151, 3-Christian Lundgaard 150, 4-O’Ward 148, 5-Scott McLaughlin 137, 6-Dixon 134, 7-Will Power 128, 8-Felix Rosenqvist 125, 9-Colton Herta 104, 10-Rinus Veekay 100.
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by Patrick Zier | May 15, 2025 |
It was just after the race at Kansas, and Chad Knaus, Hendrick Motorsports vice president of competition, was talking about Kyle Larson. Heck, everybody was talking about Kyle Larson.
Larson had just finished crushing the competition, winning the race and leading 221 of the 267 laps. He is the dominant driver in NASCAR and Knaus, who is best known as the crew chief who guided Jimmie Johnson to seven NASCAR championships including five in a row, implied that led by Larson, Hendrick is now the sport’s dominant team.
“I think if you take a look at it, we’re maturing as a group,” Knaus said at a post-race press conference as reported on NASCAR’s website. “Obviously, the crew chiefs (Hendrick has four cars) are now in their third complete year of working together and our drivers are maturing and working together.
“The communication at Hendrick Motorsports has always been high, but I don’t think it’s ever been as high as it is now,” Knaus continued. “It’s something great to be part of.
“We’ve got Tom Gray, who is our technical director and he’s doing a really good job in his role and obviously, our leadership is just awesome with Mr. H (Rick Hendrick) and Jeff Gordon and Jeff Andrews,” Knaus said.
It’s easy to push Hendrick to the front. It’s been an elite team for years and few would argue that it isn’t the best team now. But is it?
The NASCAR point system, which is used to determine the sport’s champion, says it is. All four Hendrick drivers, Larson (1st), William Byron (2nd), Chase Elliott (4th) and Alex Bowman (8th) are in the top 10.
But the NASCAR point system has never been about determining who’s the best, it’s all about keeping as many drivers in the championship chase for as long as possible.
Points are awarded based on where you finish, not how you compete. Although there are some add-ons, you get 40 points for a win, 35 for second and one point less for each position after that. So, if you rack up a bunch of top 10s, which the Hendrick cars have done, you’re going to be in good shape.
Combined, the four Hendrick cars have 29 top 10s in the first 12 races. Joe Gibbs Racing’s four cars have 21, and Penske’s four (including the Wood brothers entry, which has a close alignment with Penske) have 15.
None of this, though, really tells you much about who is competitive and who isn’t. In NASCAR, you can finish 10th, never lead a lap and collect 27 points and someone else can lead 100 laps, get wrecked, finish 35th and get only two.
The Old Guy Sport competition index uses a totally different system to determine who’s competitive and who’s not. It produces very different results than NASCAR because it relies mainly on top five finishes and leading laps under green.
Take Elliott for example. While he’s fourth in NASCAR’s standings with 378 points, 91 behind leader Larson’s 469, he has only 50 points in the OGS competition index, putting him 237 behind Larson, who also leads OGS with 287.
The OGS competition index also shows Larson is not as dominant as it may seem and Hendrick is not in a class by itself as a team. Again, using the OGS model instead of NASCAR, until he won Kansas, Larson was second in the OGS competition index behind Denny Hamlin. And Byron and Christopher Bell are competitive with him as well.
This is not to say Larson isn’t the best driver in the sport, he probably is, but racing is a fickle mistress and there are things out of your control which affect the outcome.
For example, Larson has never won a championship in the Next Gen car, which came on line in 2022. In part, this is because NASCAR’s playoff system, patterned after those in team sports, doesn’t work in racing because it is unforgiving.
A quarterback can throw two interceptions in the first quarter of the Super Bowl to put his team behind, then come back in the fourth with a touchdown pass to win the game.
Not in racing. You can have the best car in the race but if somebody knocks you into the wall, you’re done.
The OGS competition index does not use a playoff system and counts all its races equally, and using that format, Larson has been the champion the last two years in a row. The NASCAR champion last year was Joey Logano, who ranked 15th in points going into the playoff.
And while Knaus and others praise Hendrick’s team effort, it is really Larson who is keeping them on top this year. Hendrick’s success is not a team effort. It is a Larson effort, although you would never know it using NASCAR’s system.
Using NASCAR, the four Hendrick drivers, Larson, Byron, Elliott and Bowman, have scored 1,606 points, of which Larson has 469. Joe Gibbs Racing, with Hamlin, Bell, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs, has 1,325 led by Bell’s 384.
But the OGS competition index presents a very different picture. To begin with, JGR is actually very competitive with Hendrick, totaling 535 points to Hendrick’s 538. And of Hendrick’s 538, Larson has a whopping 287. Bell leads Gibbs with 227 and Hamlin has 218.
So, Hendrick really isn’t some 500-pound gorilla smashing everything in sight. Gibbs, particularly with Hamlin and Bell, will hit you pretty hard, too. Larson may get the headlines, but he doesn’t always get the win. And neither does Hendrick.
NASCAR NOTES: All-Star race this week. Does not count in OGS competition index standings.
Last week’s OGS Kansas picks: 1-Kyle Larson, 2-William Byron, 3-Ryan Blaney. Kansas winner: Larson. OGS season record: 5-4.
OGS competition index top 10: 1-Larson 287 points, 2-Christopher Bell 227, 3-Denny Hamlin 218, 4-Byron 139, 5-Blaney 107, 6-Josh Berry 83, 7-Bubba Wallace 73, 8-Joey Logano 70, 9-Tyler Reddick 67, 10-Alex Bowman 62.
OGS competition index top 10 on intermediate tracks: 1-Larson 172 points, 2-Blaney 92, 3-Byron 88, 4-Bell 70, 5-Hamlin 63, 6-Berry 59, 7-Logano 58, Bowman 58, 9-Ross Chastain 51, 10-Wallace 41, Daniel Suarez 41.
