NASCAR Cup Series Highlights | 2026 North Wilkesboro Speedway

It's a great Sunday evening at north Wilkesboro speedway tonight We've got the first points-paying race at this short track in 30 years, but it's hot. It's humid It's gonna get physical with six races to go to the chase bail I mean just look better than everybody else during that practice that Larson was able to kind of match him last time we raced here for points September 29th 1996 What an awesome scene a sellout crowd They've come from all 50 states and they're ready to watch NASCAR's best do battle at a track that was built in 1947 pace cars in Gibson Bell on the front row It's time to go racing at North Wilkesboro Bell right behind him some distance back to host of our in third reddick is Fourth and Logano now inside the top five as we focus on the 48 of Alex Bowman Bowman is trying to get by this 42 squeezes him on the back straightaway. Let's look at this little replay right here because I'm contact is Bowman probably thought that that was more his you know, the 42s fault John Demechek Feels like he probably kind of came down on him right there. Not very happy about that 42 struggling here dropping back Lose the positions bottom better on the tires. They certainly in the race. Look at the 11 Trying to get around the 43 little contact right there. Look out contact with another Toyota As we get our first caution of the night John Hunter Nema check around in the 42. I wonder how that happened. Whoa. Yeah Let's see exactly what happens top of the screen 38 Zane Smith into the left rear Around you go. Yeah, I wonder if Zane got down into the corner maybe and chased the back of the car up Yeah, correct. Maybe the back end moving around and gets into the side of the 42 spins him out. Let's go back to pit stops here And we'll focus on the 20 of Christopher Bell. Yeah stops are super super fast They've not done pit stops on this pit road with the entire field. Look at how quick fastest is Trying to get out of there You got cars coming in up in their stalls leaving their stalls a five back on pit road Danielle an issue for Kyle Larson that last stop they took to exiting the stall They hit their teammate contact with the 88 with the 48 rather. They said come back in We have a wheel that is broken Cliff Daniels is diagnosing it Now the call initially was to take four guys trouble for Kyle Larson after such a strong start Pretty busy. Okay, let's take a look right here on board with Lugano. Excuse me. Oh, man That's a hard one folks. That was a hard hard hit. Yeah Yes, so the 88 is ill it is Likely there's some damage that was way harder than I expected green again with 32 to go stage one SVG around the top there being able to take over second position. How about it? 97 up the second Michael McDowell right in that mix as well in the 71 Varying strategies changes where you are in the lineup gives you some opportunities Every crew chief on pit road watching how the 11 is going to succeed verse the 97 on two tires Ty gives up the racetrack with three wide down the back straightaway seat belt to the inside Ty gives us rough couple of laps here trying to Trying to stop the bleeding as he's starting to you know Lose a few spots having to fight battle up front for the lead SVG to the inside Denny on the older tires. I mean we know what a An ace this guy is when it comes to road course racing But he has started to show real flashes on the ovals and he's been very consistent when it comes to the short tracks Muscle up from New Zealand 97 inside trying to take the race lead and he's got it. How about that? Impressive First is reward guys. I told you Denny Hamlin told me he is not going to be conservative with that points lead He is going to push it. There is no defense. They decided to stay out even though he has his hands full with that car listen Do you think we need to work on it, I mean my god was dogs with my gut I don't know kind of whatever you whatever you think. I'm sure dogs is keyword for I don't know You might say who let the dogs out because they're coming from behind him hosts of our Lugano got those four tires and they are There yeah Lugano is making quick work but 77 a tough spot aerodynamically right there is gonna allow the 22 to even up on the front straightaway And now for the race lead as we close on some lap traffic 66 is Chad Fincham SPG has to run the bottom here around the lap card of Fincham little contact right there Gives dives to the bottom as well Closes the gap just a little bit 54 has got a lot of speed as well 22 of Joey Lugano is closing in on this lead battle great run off the corner to the inside SPG throws the block But he overruns the corner misses the bottom Gives to the bottom of the racetrack trying to get under SPG here comes Lugano with the momentum Shane van Gisbergen leading laps on a short track for the first time in his career He's two and a half laps away from winning the stage, but he's got plenty of company. It's SPG. It's Ty Gibbs It's Joey Lugano gonna be two remaining stage one I just can't roll the center of the corner well enough to get to the top of that 97 car He'll try it down here again and wanted to oh, this is getting good And hey keep an eye on this there because it could be a preview of what we'll see at the end of the night So reminiscent of what we saw last spring in the all-star race gonna be one to go in the stage It continues to be SPG Gibbs Lugano one two three SPG being very defensive throwing some blocks tie Gibbs to the outside now SPG shuts him down pushes him out Can Gibbs get their side-by-side for the lead in a stage victory here at North Wilkesboro? 54 power move Ty Gibbs takes it in stage one As our stage one winner Ty Gibbs speeding on pit road He'll restart stage two at the tail end of the longest line Officially his teammate Ross Chastain does get the free pass back on the lead lap Gibbs comes from the back here So that means Lugano and SVG on the front row Christopher Bell back to 18th spent 16 seconds on a pit stop Working on the right front corner will give you an update exactly what happened to the 20 car But he's now outside the top 15 Lugano the control car as the leaders come through the Echo Park automotive restart zone Side by side for the lead side by side for third a lot of two by two as you go back through the field And SVG has done a good job just to get back up underneath this 22 car Lugano Almost leading that lap right there possibly leading it side-by-side down into turn one and two Host of our jumps up in front of Hamlin for third 97 not quite clear for the lead He might get it down here in turns three and four Lugano is gonna have to fight hard on corner exit SVG is clear slight bobble off the corner, but he's able to get up in front of Lugano Dives in front of him into the corner Shane van Gisberg and back on point battle for the lead still Pretty hot and heavy right here is a 22 starting to move up even higher on the racetrack and look at the speed He generates down the straightaway 23 above Wallace trying to take a position away from his owner Denny Hamlin, you know Hamlin Falling a bit here a bit But we got to celebrate Wallace who took two tires when they made their pit stop at the end of stage one He was 21st and now finds himself inside the top five. How about Lugano now now instead of the diamond? He's just gonna roll the high exit and try to get to the right rear of the 97 Got a pretty good run right here down the back straightaway Little defensive for SVG. We've seen that before 22 to the outside. Can he stay there in throttle? He can Down the front straightaway 22's got the position To be a pretty easy pass to make for the 22 Lugano off a turn to down the back straightaway That last time around was 48 laps lead for Shane van Gisberg, and that's the most tonight But it's now Joey Lugano in that outside lane that puts the 22 on point starting to see some green flag pit stops We just talked about it. Yeah Bell a little on the early side. We saw some of that break temp He's coming in. Oh the 16 of AJ Armendinger made huge contact broke the right rear suspension I think that was in the entry to turn one. You got up high into the fence Yeah, he was fighting really really hard to keep He was fighting really really hard to stay on the lead lap On the outside of the 22 here. Let's watch him get down into turn. Oh, man, man Wow, and he'd done a really good job To stay right there for several laps. Joey was having a hard time getting by But you're pushing hard. You're pushing harder than your car wants to go asking it to do things. It doesn't want to do This is the problem big stack up looks like cars are maybe trying to come to pit road the 45 of Braddock 48 of Bowman involved Oh, you think about Byron and those cars chase Elliott that were on their road. This is gonna be a huge Problem for their night inside the top 15 12th and 13th We're gonna see the four exiting pit lane up on the racetrack, but everything's going five Oh the 48 trying to get to pit road. Yes, sir 48 is coming from the top lane across traffic gets caught by the 45 Contact right there with the inside wall. But yeah, that was just Reddick has to say about that. Yeah Here you go top of your screen Just a 48 just turns across it's simple as that Yeah, I know the 48 is trying to come but it's your responsibility You just can't exit from the fast lane and he's on the top of the racetrack turning left across the 45 reddick has no idea We haven't Had green flag pit stops at multiples brewing 30 years. So I don't know that these guys Knew exactly what to do. And there's a seven car. Yeah, he was stuck. So he was probably committed Maybe the pit road was closed NASCAR is just gonna have to see what that is That's a his team's telling him to stay out there. Yeah. Oh, here we go. Watch this. Listen We heard earlier about spotter communication there was concern. We don't know if maybe the noise got him Oh, this is gonna be frustrating if you're a reddick fan I just don't think you can come to the top of the racetrack Pit road in turn three you wear and briscoe take the wave around to the lead lap So they're just out side and they're right there in the 14th 15th position and a number of cars Waving to one lap down good break to the seven of Suarez The rule is if you're below the orange box, you are committed to pit road as we spin this for you You're gonna see he's clearly below it But the 48 sliding to his left crashing into the wall NASCAR is ruling that the seven was avoiding the accident the spinning 48 Therefore it wasn't a penalty. We'll see what the garage thinks about it The rule was if you go below the orange box, you have to come to pit road He was but now it's going to give the benefit of the doubt for the coming 48 cars spinning behind him and because they weren't Caught in the cycle of stops. They got track position restarting inside the top ten Legato Hamlin out front Been a busy five or seven minutes here between racing wrecking and scoring Yeah, you got a lot of cars now trying to race on the lead lap I have to build the lap down trying to race for the free pass. Oh, we got a car around Josh Berry gets tagged Christopher Bell. Oh, let up the racetrack into the door of the 21 caution number four Just talking about a car that needed a good run Josh top of the racetrack headed down the back straightaway a little contact here with a five and the twenty Three wide you got Bristol on the outside He bailed down in the middle of the corner just gets loose right there and check Corrects up into the side of the 21 and unfortunately That's a pretty hard hit for Josh in the outside wall the left front turning because it spins around and kind of momentum's in great Break break for Ty Gibbs who will get the free pass raced his tail off to get into that position and Was there when the caution came out and for Barry? You know just on the wrong end of it because they had made the pit stop when they're running inside the top 15 You lose a lap you're back there running in the middle of the mess That's been the season for that 21 front row for the restart Lugano Hamlin Lugano the control car Row to Shane bank is Bergen Ryan Blaney. Here we go again Shane bank is Bergen work in the outside lane Racing there with Hamlin and 97 has got good short run speed There's a little bit of a tired deficit to the 22 earlier in the race Joe did he right to the back bumper beating on the back bumper the 97 is gonna let the 77 the host of our go around another car with some good short run speed here Steve he does he has good fire off speed here comes the 12 of Blaney his kind of a Ascension to the front continues started all the way in the back after being the pole sitter from the metric here. He is inside the top five Second place battle still raging on one things. I see about Denny Hamlin though is we talked about it earlier He doesn't really push the car hard at the start of the run Allows a couple cars to go by he doesn't really run the car too hard He doesn't accelerate too hard off the corner And as we get into the run, we hear a lot of drivers talking about the rear grip going away. It's heat related It's not really where it's heat. And so if you abuse the tire it quits It doesn't want to have you here to the track as well So Denny's really really smart about just driving the car smoothly straight Keeping the tips down in the tire keeping the car working and here he is working himself around the 97 car comfortably Handling looking outside of SVG here. This is the race for third and as he completes the pass I take us back Before we went green tonight. So what are you guys watching in this race a little follow-up to those stories here? Yeah, the fatigue I think it's real We're hearing some drivers that are really struggling with the temperature Bubba Wallace to the outside of the 97 car down in turn three and four bubbles showing some good speed here late in This stage a couple of laps to go and he's going to be able to take the spot away Lap traffic just ahead could play a role Had that penalty on the final lap last week at Atlanta, so they didn't have a great starting position But Bubba has been able to drive through the field final lap of the stage We pick up Logano down the back straightaway and the gaggle in front of him Byron's another one of those cars. It's already one lap down him and chase Elliott a second lap is just such a tall task They're up look figure it out and stay just in front of Logano first stage victory of 2026 for Joey Logano front row Logano Hamlin final stage underway at North Wilkesboro Danny to the inside here. Let's see if he could try to fight this 22. Nobody's really been able to do much with Logano Joey gets him a little bit tight right there down in the turn three and four Trying to stay on that left for a quarter panel. Oh, you just like I don't like it. I want to be down here now Hamlet says I'll go outside Dog fight for third briscoe Bubba going at it And then he's running pretty hard here trying to see what his car is capable of I think he's just concerned the 22 controlled that last run and drove away from the field Yeah, Danny's probably trying to figure something out. Maybe he could push him early give him to burn his stuff up All right, they're a lap apart on the right hand Danny Hamlin leaving under speed the left hand 22 of Joey Logano slowly has to continue his way down pit road Danny Hamlin now into three and four Joey Logano still about a third of pit road to go We will see who is most successful Hamlet will hammer down into turn one. He will see Joey Logano on the left side of the screen It's gonna be a pretty close blend, but I think Joey Logano might keep it or will it be momentum for Hamlin? Car is there with Chastain Logano gets back on the gas pulls up in front of the 11 now Hamlin though has a half a lap going He'll try to run the 22 down as pit stops continue Marty Blaney on pit road much better pace for Ryan Blaney on this run In fact for the first time tonight For Ryan Blaney hitting here. We'll see where he cycles out running the top five pretty much that entire run Yeah, he was fifth So we'll see if he can jump either Briscoe or Wallace who were third and fourth prior Oh, and we got a penalty on Ryan Blaney speeding on the pit lane out front of Denny Hamlin gonna be 25 laps to go Next time around good a little battle right here developing for fourth place As Ty Gibbs has closed the gap to the 97 of SVG down the back straightaway SVG trying to hang on to this position having an incredible night here. I The truck race yesterday He said nothing really translates obviously But the one thing he did say when he made that run up inside the top five late He felt like he did learn something and when things weren't going their way in practice yesterday He applied it and felt like it paid some dividends We've seen it here tonight with all the stage points and a really good opportunity to finish up front as Gibbs gets by for fourth Little hip check and SVG is gonna try to drive it down in there and give it back Couldn't get to him two laps to go that time by Now 45 starts. It's the last time you hope Joey has his family here. It's a growing family to celebrate this with One lap to go presented by credit one bank Lugano through turns one and two Down the back straightaway for the final time Legends built this place And a three-time champion is going to win here tonight Joey Lugano first career victory Of the season comes at North Wilkesboro