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.
