Today, August 18, 2025, was a fairly big news day impacting all three national series, with two major announcements and speculation on how the fallout from Richmond will impact Daytona. Track Talk will take a look at all of this and provide our (or rather my!) analysis.
Austin Dillon wins at Richmond: As a completely-biased RCR fan, I was jazzed about this! At the same time, you could not have scripted a better redemption story. After being ousted from the playoffs due to accusations of rough driving (and I’m guessing more because he roughed up Denny Hamlin than Joey Logano), Austin Dillon came back to the same track and once again won. Only this time, the victory sticks and Austin Dillon will be a part of the 2025 Playoffs. At the same time, he led 107 laps, becoming the first RCR driver to lead that many laps since Dale Earnhardt won the 1998 Daytona 500. Storybook!
Next Saturday night, the 2025 regular season will come to an end for the Cup Series. 14 drivers have won their way into the playoffs. Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman are currently in on points but a new winner could change that.
I, for one, have no issue with a long-shot, dark-horse, under-dog driver going to Daytona and getting the Hail Mary win. In fact, that’s what I like about superspeedway racing. It gives those teams that need a boost that opportunity. Sure, if Justin Haley or Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. or Carson Hocevar win at Daytona, odds aren’t great that they’ll be celebrating a championship at Phoenix, but for those teams, this gives them something to take to a sponsor. “Hey, our driver made the playoffs last year with a ‘walk-off’ win at Daytona!”
At the same time, rather than just going through the motions with eleven races left to go with the playoff picture limited to three or four drivers still in contention. As Mike Joy once said about the Daytona 500, every driver wakes up thinking “I can win this race.” Veterans like Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski can win, as can AJ Almendinger and Ryan Preece. Heck, Harrison Burton, the young driver whose season with the Wood Brothers was so bad they told him he was being let go at the end of the season, goes out and wins Daytona and makes the playoffs.
If a Preece, Allmendinger, Busch, or anyone else below the cutline wins, it means that the cutline divides Reddick and Bowman, currently separated by 29 points. If Preece is leading, all of a sudden, most (if not all) eyes are on where Riddick and Bowman are running and what the point situation is. And I’m not a fan of “The Big One” (even though as a NASCAR fan, I’m told I am) but a big wreck mid-race will change everything. Eliminate some drivers. Provide opportunities for others. And with pack racing so prevalent at Daytona, it’s not like the finish will be all but determined with 20 laps to go. With 14 previous winners in the field, there’s a chance someone like William Byron or Denny Hamlin will win, but there’s also a chance that a new winner will come across the finish line by mere inches to claim their spot in the playoffs.
And yet there are still those who will claim this playoff system needs to be changed.
Matt Crafton to retire: This was not a complete surprise. Crafton, a three-time Truck Series Champion, began his career in the Truck Series in the season finale of the 2000 season. His full-time career started a year later, meaning he has spent a quarter-of-a-century in the Truck Series, including a stint in 2005, driving the #6 Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Incorporated, where his sponsor was no less than GM Goodwrench. However, Crafton will be better remembered for his 23-year partnership with sponsor Menards in the #88 truck for Thorsport.
When he climbs from that #88 truck for the final time in Phoenix, Crafton should take some time to reflect and start writing that Hall of Fame speech because his induction, following Ron Hornaday, Jr. in representing the Truck Series, is inevitable.
I will be sad to see Crafton go. When I first started watching the Truck Series, Crafton was the man, winning back-to-back championships in 2013-2014 (with a third coming in 2019). The series just won’t be the same without him but it’s probably time. 2024 was the first season since 2006 that he didn’t finish in the Top 10 and, after failing to make the playoffs after Richmond, he probably figured it was time.
In a strange move, Ty Majeski, defending series champion, has been announced as the driver of the #88 for 2026. Majeski currently drives the #98 for Thorsport so it’s strange that they didn’t just keep him there and name a new driver for the #88. Could it be that Thorsport is contracting their stable and will “retire” the #98 but wanted to keep the historic #88 on track. Time will tell.
Xfinity Series to rebrand as the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2026: Ironically, I had only just heard, from Bob Pockrass, perhaps, that Xfinity’s run as the title sponsor for NASCAR’s “Junior Series” was going to come to an end. I didn’t expect news of this sort to be put together so quickly, by here we are! I don’t really expect too much to change other than people will stumble over calling it the Xfinity Series for a while, much like we called this the Nationwide Series and, for that matter, continue to refer to it as “the old Busch Series” from time to time. That’s what happens when there’s a title sponsor for eleven years, such as Xfinity was. I guess we won’t hear the drivers talk about how “the car was as fast as Xfinity internet” after this year.
The good news is that NASCAR has found a new sponsor, even as the old one departs. Having an auto parts store as the title sponsor for a NASCAR series makes sense, even if the name is a bit long. I suspect most will end up calling it the O’Reilly Series in casual conversation.
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