Lizzy didn't have to win at Martinsville to move on but she made that happen anyways as she punched her ticket to her 1st Championship Race in her 4th season. Now you could call this the underdog because she entered this race below the cut line but she is clearly the #2 best this season after this victory in just about all categories. She ended this round 9 points over Jim and 16 points over Josh. This was her 5th win of the year tying her with Jim for 2nd most. She moved up to a total of 42 playoff points which is also 2nd best to Brian. The points no longer matter and she is going head to head with a 3 time Champion in her teammate and father in law Brian. Can she continue the trend of the last 3 years where the favorite did not win the Championship? Josh was the favorite in 2024 & 2023 Championship and lost both and Justin was the favorite in 2022 and lost it.
To look at the full season Non Playoff standings at this point Lizzy is 2nd place to Brian, 37 points back. Only Lizzy & Brian hit 20 Top 5's this year. The best 2 in stats of the entire season have made it to the Championship Race.
Full Season Standings After Martinsville (No Playoffs)
Brian
Lizzy -37
Jim -54
Josh -60
Patrick -62
Justin -68
Sean -76
Maigan -79
Tyson -98
Craig-100
We definitely have some battles going on Sunday besides the Championship.
Jim, Josh & Patrick all have a shot at 3rd place overall which pays $40
Justin has a long shot to get as high as 4th over Josh & Patrick but can not get to 3rd
Sean could bypass Justin for 6th but could also fall to 8th if Maigan passes him
Then we have the battle for last place which Craig currently holds but is only 2 points behind Tyson
This is Brian's 3rd Championship Race appearance but his 1st being the favorite since 2017 when he last won the title. In 2020 he was the underdog and lost to Jim. Brian & Lizzy have been the class of the field all year as teammates and they showed that by clinching the team championship weeks ago. Now they will go head to head for the title. Can Brian win his 4th and continue to cement his legacy in the series or will Lizzy score her 1st Championship? This is back to back years of teammates making it to the Championship Race together.
The Rules:
Championship Race-Phoenix
All Championship contenders will pick 8 drivers. Your 5 drivers and hard charger will be used for scoring and your 6th, 7th, & 8th drivers will be used for tiebreaker purposes only
Disqualifications-We will not factor in any post race penalties from the Championship Race. During the rest of the season we follow the exact NASCAR system and apply any position penalties or DQ’s. But for the Championship Race we will ignore these. We don’t want someone winning the title or taking the money home and then taking it away. The way they finish at the finale is the way we will score it.
Tiebreaker For Championship Contenders
Highest 1st Driver, Highest 2nd Driver, Highest 3rd Driver, Highest 4th Driver, Highest 5th Driver, Best Hard Charger, Highest 6th Driver, Highest 7th Driver, Highest 8th Driver, Best Season Finishes, Highest finisher in the last race
Stages and playoff point doesn’t factor here.Highest race finisher will be the Champion
The Championship hopes for Jim & Josh were ended at Martinsville but they both had amazing seasons to be proud of. Jim scored 5 race wins and 9 stage wins to this point and Josh has 4 race wins and 8 stage wins. Sunday at Martinsville Josh scored his 101st Career Stage Win as he continues to write the history books. While it feels like Jim's amazing rookie season was just yesterday, Jim will be entering his 7th season with us in 2026 as he continues to chase his 2nd title. Josh & Jim are 1 & 2 in total wins in the next gen era. The last 2 seasons Jim has finished 9th overall so he will definitely enjoy contending for a possible 3rd place this year but Josh would love to take it and be on the podium overall for the 4th straight year.
Patrick has 1 more week as the defending NPRS Champion as next week he will hand the crown over to someone else. This week at Martinsville he contended for the win but lost when Blaney lost the lead to Byron. It's hard to believe but Patrick only has 1 win this season. He would love to end the year on a high note and score that 2nd win of the year. His last win came 25 races ago.
Maigan is keeping momentum rolling here at the end of the season with consecutive Top 3 finishes. She currently sits 8th in the overall standings but has a shot with a win Sunday at Phoenix to finish as high as 6th this year. After 3rd place in her rookie season this year definitely has been a disappointment but she is already preparing for that 3rd season.
Justin scores his first 4th place finish of the year. The only other position this year that no one has scored is Brian has yet to score a 8th place finish.
MAGA Motorsports won the team battle this week and moved to 2nd overall in the team standings. FJBLGB Racing scored their 30th Race Win with Lizzy winning Martinsville.
With both Championship contenders on the same team they will be the only team with the option to trade/steal people for their team next week. That means everyone else is in danger of being taken off their current team.
This may have been the last Martinsville elimination race with the news of a new season format or new playoff structure next year.
Caruthers VS Caruthers for title-This is the 1st time in history of the playoffs that family has competed against each other in the Championship Race. The only time in the history of NPRS that family finished the year 1,2 was 2012 when Craig beat Justin by over 100 points. This is hard to believe because the 1st 6 years of NPRS were only 4 people with 3 being family.
NEW RECORD-Brian took the next gen record for most days leading points in a season at 235 days. Josh had the previous record of 230 days back in 2023.
For the second week in a row a Freedom Motorsports team member spoiled the playoff party. After her teammate Tyson won last week Maigan scored her 2nd win of the 2025 season at Talladega. The margin of victory was pretty large this week as everything went Maigan's way in the closing lap. After the rough sophomore season Maigan has won 2 races in the last 6 and has to fill good to score some victories before the off season. Maigan is currently 8th place in the overall standings but is only 6 points behind Sean for 7th overall. There may be a good battle coming down the wire for the 7th place season finish. This was Maigan's 2nd win at Dega, which seems to be a great track for her having 2 of her 8 wins here. She has 4 wins on speedways, 3 wins on drafting tracks and 1 win on short tracks. Can Maigan keep the momentum up next week at Martinsville?
NPRS 3rd Round Final 4 "Die Trying"-New Medicine
Brian has been the class of the field in 2025. He has led the points for 228 days and leads in almost every category in stats including wins with 7 this year. If you take a look at the full season standings you will realize the dominance that Brian has had this season. He leads the full season standings by 47 points over 2nd place Lizzy and 51 over Jim in 3rd. Brian came into the playoffs with an easy path to the title race as long as others did not score wins and now his time is here. Now the question is who will he face in the title race? Will we have a rematch between him & Jim, a battle with his teammate Lizzy fighting for her 1st title or a rematch with the GOAT Josh?
This is Brian's 3rd appearance in the Championship race under the playoff format. He beat Josh in 2017 and lost to Jim in 2020. If Brian is to complete this year with a title it will be his 4th Championship in 21 years.
Jim is in the drivers seat for going to the Championship Race against Brian but Lizzy & Josh are not out of the battle yet.
Jim needs to hope for no win from Lizzy or Josh and if that happens he can clinch his spot with a finish of 6th or better.
Lizzy needs to win or gain 5 points on Jim. She is 4 points behind but if they tied, the tiebreaker would go to Jim with more race wins this year.
Josh needs to win. Simple as that.
No matter what happens it's been a great season for these 3. If you look at the full season standings, the Top 4 overall are the remaining 4 in the playoffs so it only makes sense.
Will Lizzy go fight for her 1st title?
Will Jim rematch Brian for his 2nd title?
Will Josh make his 7th Championship Race appaearance for a shot at his 9th title?
When Part Time Garage team members both show up they have a pretty good finish. Imagine that. Sean & Craig the only ones to miss races this season both showed up at Talladega and finished 2nd and 3rd. Craig currently sets last place in the standings but he is only 3 points behind Tyson as they continue to battle to see who will finish last overall in 2025. It definitely hasn't been a great comeback year for Craig but to highlight one thing, he has more Top 3 finishes than Tyson, Maigan, Josh & Patrick. The crushing part of his season has been the 8 last place finishes.
What could have been this season for Sean if he had not missed so many races? Missing 2 races during the regular season kept Sean out of the playoffs but his stats would have had him in the playoffs. He also sits 7th overall in points even with all the missed races this season. Now can he show up in the last 2 races and possibly fight for a position as high as 6th place? Justin is 6 points ahead of him and Maigan is 6 points behind him. This was Sean's 24th visit to Talladega and the track still eludes him.
Teammates Patrick and Justin set to battle it out for 5th overall. Patrick currently holds the spot by 4 on Justin. If they both finish good in the last 2 races and Josh is eliminated from playoffs they could both possibly get to Josh in 4th place as well.
Part Time Garage won the team battle this week while Freedom Motorsports scored their 34th Race Win. Team Standings
Patrick now has 600 Career Races.
Josh finished last place for the 1st time this season at the worst time possible. This moves him into a must win scenario at Martinsville.
Tyson was eliminated from the playoffs last week and he showed up this week and pulled off a victory that he needed 1 week ago. Tyson definitely spoiled the playoff party today as Brian & Jim were right behind him hoping to win and clinch a spot in the title race. Now we know that only 2 people will make it to Phoenix and it's still up in the air who will make it there. This was Tyson's 1st Vegas win and 4th victory of the year. This has definitely been one of Tyson's strongest seasons in terms of wins but he is still fighting for 8th-10th in the standings. His 1st three seasons he finished 8th and last year he finished 10th. Can he get back to 8th overall before everything is over. He is currently 3 points out of 8th.
The bad news is Brian lost thanks to Tyson scoring the win bonus at the very end and did not clinch his spot at Phoenix. The good news is Brian's chances of making it to Phoenix just increased. Brian has a big enough points lead that he can clinch a spot next week as long as Jim, Lizzy or Josh don't win at Dega and we all know Dega could go to anyone. Brian's strong season and playoff points is helping him on his way to a possible Championship. Brian has now led the points for 221 days and the total standings for the entire season he leads by 45 over Lizzy. Brian is definitely the class of the field but he needs at least one more race to go his way to make it to the title race.
Jim finished 3rd in Vegas and although he lost another battle to Brian, the way is far from over. Jim continues to hold the 2nd place spot in the playoff standings and he gained 2 points on his closest competitor in Lizzy. Jim will be 7 points above the cut line heading into Talladega. If you look at the standings for the entire season Jim is 3rd overall and 1 point from taking 2nd place overall from Lizzy. Jim scored his 34th Career stage wins today which ties him with Tyson for 7th all time. Jim won the Talladega fall race last year and that was his 1st win at Dega. Can he back it up and get a win when it matters most next week?
Patrick will make his 600th Career start next week at Talladega
Sean has never won at Talladega before. This will be his 24th attempt next week.
Craig takes the record from Tyson for the largest points deficit under this points system. Tyson held the record at 100 points. Craig is now 101 behind after Las Vegas.
Hit The Pace Car Motorsports won the team battle this weekend and moves up to 2nd place overall in the team standings. Unfortunately this doesn't matter as the team championship is already wrapped up. Team Standings
Lizzy will enter Dega 7 points below the cut line and Josh is 11 below the cut line.
Only 5 of 10 have filled out the entry form for NPRS 2026. 2026 Entry Form
2 weeks ago Lizzy won to clinch her spot in the final 4. This week she wins again to try to catch the top 2 contenders. Her victory today was a 2 point win over Sean. When this current round started she was the #6 seed after starting the playoffs as the #5 seed. Now with 2 victories this round she gained another 10 playoff points and will now be the #3 seed entering the final 4. She is no longer the Cinderella story trying to pull a miracle. She has become a top contender who could shock Brian, Jim or Josh with a victory and clinch her spot in the Championship race but also could now get into the title race by points. The final 4 is set and the journey to the Championship race in Phoenix begins next week in Vegas. Will the odds be in her favor again?
After the reset the playoffs are now:
1st-Brian +20
2nd-Jim +5
3rd-Lizzy -5
4th-Josh -8
NPRS 3rd Round Final 4 "Die Trying"-New Medicine
Sean had been pretty quiet since the playoffs started. Today he almost pulled off a victory but came up a few points short. His losing streak currently stands at 23 races, his last win coming at Bristol in the spring. Sean's current position in the season long standings is currently 7th but if he keeps performing well he could catch Patrick & Justin who are currently 6th and 5th overall. The gap right now is 9 points between them as Patrick & Justin are tied.
Justin came into the Roval in a must win situation after Josh's victory last week. Justin showed up ready to strike and won the 1st and 2nd stage. In the end he lost out by 3 points and something as simple as the hard Charger could have been the difference in losing or winning and moving on to the next round. His shot at the Championship is now over after one of his best seasons ever. Justin's playoffs have been great with 5 Top 3 finishes in the first 6 races but in the situation this year he lacked in the playoff point category and he needed wins in the playoffs. He scored 3 wins during the summer stretch but nothing since the playoffs began and that causes his elimination today.
Tyson was in the same situation as Justin today in a must win situation. Tyson took a risk not having SVG and it really crushed any shot he had at winning. He would struggle to a 9th place finish and see his playoff hopes fade away. Now the question becomes can Tyson win some races in the final 4 events and gain some momentum towards 2026?
We still have 4 races left in the season but FJBLGB Racing has already clinched the team championship for 2025. What an amazing season for Brian & Lizzy who are both in the final 4 in the fight for the title as well. This is their 3rd team Championship in 4 total seasons of us doing this competition. They also have 29 race wins since the beginning of the teams. Keep in mind teams have the opportunity to change at season's end and they could have the shot to make those changes if one or both of them make it to Phoenix. Congrats to FJBLGB Racing on their 3rd Team Championship.
Brian has now led the point standings for 214 days and shows no sign of losing it anytime soon. He starts the next round 20 points above the cut line. If Jim, Josh & Lizzy do not win the 1st 2 races, his chances of making it in to the title race by points will greatly increase. Brian is not a lock for the title race but if it comes down to points he will be chasing a title at Phoenix.
Round 3-How To Advance? Win a race or be in the Top 2. The only way 3 people can make it to the title race is all 3 races are won by final 4 contenders.
Justin takes the lead for most stage wins this season with 11. The record in the next gen era is 14.
We have now had 8 races at the Charlotte Roval with 8 different winners. No one has ever won twice at the Roval. This continues to be anyone's race each year.
Patrick has the most Vegas wins all time with 9. Josh won Vegas earlier this season and Jim won the Vegas playoff race last season. A win for Josh or Jim will clinch them a spot in the title race.
Only 5 of 10 have filled out the entry form for NPRS 2026. 2026 Entry Form
Playoff Standings Entering Roval
We were on our way to a crazy points battle for the last spot in the final 4 and Josh was going to be neck and neck with Justin and not far from Tyson in that points battle. But to avoid that pressure at the Roval, Josh was able to win and dominate Kansas on Sunday to gain his spot in the final 4 and 7 more important playoff points that will help his chance in Round 3. The GOAT now has a 25% chance to win his 9th Championship and everyone better be worried. Josh always shows up in the playoffs. 2 of his 4 wins this year have came after the playoffs started. Josh is like Jimmie Johnson was when it matters most. This was Josh's 3rd straight fall Kansas win so this track is becoming a very special place for him. Gaining 7 playoff points brings his total to 32 playoff points compared to others: Brian (55) Jim (40) Lizzy (30)
If you haven't already, please fill out the entry form for 2026 NPRS. 2026 Entry Form
We knew that Brian would likely clinch his spot in the next round at Kansas and he did that easily with a runner up finish in the 3 way tie for the victory with Josh & Patrick. Brian doesn't gain anything in the playoff situation but he has one more week to try to extend his already large gap on others. Brian made his trip to the final 4 easy based on points but in the next round he may not be able to get through based on points only and the time to rise up and win to get to the Championship will be here.
With a top 3 finish Patrick is currently 5th place in the full season standings. Depending on who falls out of the playoffs Patrick can still manage a really good season finish this year if he continues to perform in the final 5 races. Thanks to Patrick & Josh, MAGA Motorsports won the team battle this week. They are back to 2nd place in the team standings but need to basically win every week and hope FJBLGB Racing finishes bad. It's possible the team championship will be over by next week in Charlotte. Team Standings
Forget the points, the fight for the final spot in the final 4 is all coming down to a must win situation for Tyson & Justin. No one can catch Jim for the final spot based on points which means Tyson or Justin need to win to advance and Jim needs one of them not to win so he can advance. The pressure is on these 3 as they try to claim the 4th and final spot in Round 3.
Lizzy had 2 wins earlier this year but no wins in the last couple of months. Her consistency during the early and mid season had fallen off recently but she scored her 3rd win of the year Sunday at Loudon and clinched her spot into the 3rd round of the playoffs. It was not an easy win as it came down to a 3 way tie between herself, Justin & Josh. This means she will be one of the remaining 4 that can win the title when the 2nd round ends. She also has nothing to worry about in the next 2 weeks except for going for stage and race wins to try to grow her playoff point total. Her total is currently up to 30 pts after her victory. She may have started this round on the outside looking in but now she advances and puts the pressure and stress on others like Justin, Josh & Tyson and maybe even Jim. This was her 1st win at Loudon and her 4th short track win.
Justin has had a great season and looked to be on his way to a win today but late in the race the tiebreaker went away from him and Lizzy captured the flag. This was a tough loss for Justin as it means he now is in great danger of falling out going head to head with Josh & Tyson as things stand right now. This was Justin's 6th runner up finish of the year which is more than anyone has this season. Can Justin answer back next week at Kansas and join his wife in the final 4?
Josh is in the same situation as Justin, losing the race in a 3 way tie. Josh also joins Justin in the danger zone in the playoff cut battle. Josh is currently on the outside looking in but only 4 points behind Justin for the final spot. These next 2 races could be a great points battle or a big fight to see who can score a victory. Jim won Kansas earlier this season but Josh has won the last 2 fall races at Kansas so this could be Josh's best bet before we head to the roval the week after. Josh has 1 win at the roval but no one has ever won the roval twice in the 7 years we have raced there.
FJBLGB Racing wins the team battle again and are well on their way to another team championship. They currently hold a 4 race lead on 2nd place Hit The Pace Car Motorsports. They might clinch the team championship well before the season is over.
Craig misses race in confusion. Craig thought that because he was eliminated from playoffs he couldn't participate anymore.
Brian will likely clinch his spot in the next round next week at Kansas without a horrible finish. That means Brian & Lizzy, teammates at FLGLGB Racing will hold 2 of the 4 final spots.
The last 2 spots will be a battle between Jim, Justin, Josh & Tyson but Jim is way ahead of the other 3.
Playoff Standings Entering Loudon
1st Bristol Win & 1st Short Track Win Of Career
The sophomore slump and over year long losing streak ends at the Bristol night race for Maigan. After her breakout rookie season last year with 6 wins she definitely wasn't expecting to not win a race this year until September but NPRS is more competitive than ever and wins are tough to come by. She came so close, even losing a tie earlier this year but now she scored a huge win at Bristol. This one wasn't even close as she won by 21 points over 2nd place Jim. She isn't in the playoffs but she still has a lot to fight for in the final 7 races of the year as she tries to improve her final standings finish. She is currently 8th but still easily in reach of 3rd overall depending on who falls out of the playoffs.
If we are judging the playoff rounds as battles between Jim & Brian...Jim won the battle of round 1 but Brian is still winning the war. When the 1st round begun Jim was 20 points behind Brian. Now with Jim scoring a race win in the round and Brian only scoring a stage win Jim has closed that gap to 16 points as we reset the standings for Round 2. Brian is still the #1 seed and far ahead of everyone but Jim closed that gap and a few more wins could bring him that much closer later this season. This is Jim's 4th appearance in Round 2 of the playoffs. Jim has made the 3rd round 2 times before and starts this round 14 points above the cut line.
Sean isn't a part of the playoffs but he was definitely in the conversation today battling for the win for most of the day thanks to Briscoe. Sean finished 3rd and as we leave Bristol currently sits 7th in the non playoff standings. Can he continue to move up the standings and try to improve his career average points position? His average is currently 5.36. More importantly can he stay out of last place. He has finished last place in the last 2 years he participated in NPRS.
Defending Champion Patrick & Craig were eliminated from Playoffs after Bristol. Craig lost hope early when one of his drivers was out of the race but Patrick fought hard all day until late when Elliott was eliminated from the race. Patrick was basically a must win after the race started and when he lost Elliott it was all over. How can these 2 put the playoffs behind them and move on in the final 7 races?
Hit The Pace Car Motorsports wins the team battle for the 2nd consecutive week. They are now tied for 2nd in the team standings with MAGA Motorsports. Team Standings
If you haven't already, please fill out the entry form for 2026 NPRS. 2026 Entry Form
How To Move On In Round 2-Win or be in the Top 4 spots. As we begin this round Josh & Lizzy are the two on the outside of the cut line. But the gap is only a single point.
Round 1 saw 2 playoff contenders win races. Will the playoff contenders rise up in Round 2 with victories to advance or will we see a points battle which would favor Brian & Jim as the top contenders?
There are rumors that next year's playoff rounds may be 3 races, 3 races, and then a 4 race battle for the Championship. If this happens we will adjust how we do playoffs in NPRS.
Playoff Standings Entering Bristol
Jim continues to impress in the 2025 season as he continues to hunt down Brian for the Championship battle. They continue to go back and fourth with punches trying to be the #1 contender. Brian still leads the way with 7 wins and a ton of playoff points but Jim just moved on to Round 2 by win and scored his 5th win of the season. He gains 5 more playoff points to start the next round with which means if Brian doesn't win Bristol, Jim is closer to him in Round 2 than he was at the start of Round 1. Are we down to a 2 man battle already with 8 races left?
This was only our 4th race at WWT Raceway and it was Jim's 2nd win here. If you remember last year Jim got hot in the final 10 races and won a lot of races. This could be shaping up to be a great shot at his 2nd Championship.
Brian is in the driver seat and already moved on to Round 2 and may even have enough points to easily get through Round 2 but he isn't letting up at all. Brian has not had a finish outside of the Top 4 in the last 6 races! He is on a run like no other and he scored another stage win which just adds another point to his huge playoff point total. Brian now has 55 playoff points and the closest to him is Jim with 39.
Justin scored a Top 3 finish after not scoring a podium spot the last 3 races. As we leave Gateway, Justin has a 16 point gap on the bubble for the playoff cut line. This has to be a pretty good feeling but it's time to score a race win for Justin if he wants to have a serious chance at contending with Jim & Brian. He hasn't scored any playoff points this week or last and he can't afford to continue to fall behind Jim & Brian when the next rounds begin. It definitely looks like Justin will advance to Round 2 but can he start putting the pressure on the Top 2?
Jim leads his team Hit The Pace Car Motorsports to the team win and the race win. This is the 22nd race win for the team. Team Standings
Maigan's losing streak is now over a full year at 37 races.
If you haven't already, please fill out the entry form for 2026 NPRS. 2026 Entry Form
Tyson used his free pass this weekend making picks after 12am. That means now Craig, Sean & Tyson have used it up this season and are in danger of missing a race for anything past midnight.
The bubble battle. There is a small possibility that Justin & Josh could fall out but likely we are down to 3 people fighting for 1 spot.
Lizzy +5
Patrick -5
Craig -11 (Craig Must Win)
Craig is in a must win scenario. He can't gain 11 points without a victory. The defending Champion Patrick needs to win or gain 6 points on Lizzy. If he gained 5 they would tie and Lizzy would have the tiebreaker with 2 wins vs his 1.
3rd Season Win
Playoff Standings Entering WWT Raceway
Tyson entered the playoffs as the #6 seed, definitely could be considered an underdog but he changed that narrative already with a win to kick off the playoffs. He also earned another stage win moving to 10 stage wins this season and walks out of Darlington with 6 more playoff points to begin the next round. This win was not easy and it came down to a tie with Maigan with the tiebreaker going Tyson's way with a better pick for his 1st driver than hers. This will be the 2nd time Tyson has moved on to Round 2 in his career. Tyson will definitely be one of the favorites going forward. If the next round started today he would go in as the #4 contender.
This is Tyson's 4th Crown Jewel Race Win
In the closing stages of the race it looked like Maigan was finally going to break through. Unfortunately she lost in a tiebreaker to Tyson and had to settle for her 3rd runner up finish of the year. The losing streak is now at 36 races, a full year but if there is any glimpse of hope, Maigan is the defending race winner of WWT Raceway where we are heading next.
The goal in the 1st round of the playoffs for the higher seeds is to just survive. It doesn't take a lot to move on if you have a good cushion but a couple bad races can flip your season upside down. Josh did just what he needed to do by scoring a podium finish. He entered the race 9 points above the cut line and now he leaves Darlington 13 points above the cut line. Now we head to WWT Raceway where a win would be nice but another good finish could help clinch a spot in the 2nd round for the G.O.A.T.
Craig misses his 1st race of the year at the worst time possible as the playoffs kicked off. There is no looking back now but Craig needs a very strong next 2 races to have any chance to advance. The bad news is a win this round will not advance him to the next round because of missing 1 race. He needs to either win both races remaining this round or get in by points.
Freedom Motorsports wins the race and the team battle with a 1, 2 finish by Tyson & Maigan. Team Standings
Not only did Tyson advance this week but Brian has officially clinched a spot in Round 2 as well on points thanks to his huge gap.
Jim leaves Darlington 19 above the cut line, Justin is 14 above the cut line and Josh is 13 ahead of the cut line. A winner from below them could shake it all up but without that situation they are all in a pretty good spot.
Bubble Spot-Lizzy has a 6 point gap over Patrick for the final spot to advance. Craig is 3 points behind Patrick and 9 behind Lizzy.
If you haven't already, please fill out the entry form for 2026 NPRS. 2026 Entry Form
Brian had the season in total control and had already clinched the regular season title but he didn't let up any as we approached the season finale and he won once again for his 7th win of the year! This may be one of the most dominant regular season's we have seen in many years and Brian will enter the playoffs with a 20 point lead over Jim in 2nd place. This means Brian has over a full race gap between himself and the next closest. What this means is the 1st and probably even 2nd round should be easy sledding for Brian to advance to the next round. Anything can happen but Brian is definitely a favorite to make the Championship Race At Phoenix at this moment. The question will be can anyone get hot and contend with him as he chases his 4th title?
After missing the playoffs last year, Jim returns to the playoffs as the #2 seed behind his long time rival Brian. Could this two face off in another classic title fight and can Jim get that 2nd Championship? Jim will start the playoffs 16 points above the cut line for the 1st round eliminations which is a pretty good gap but Jim needs to aim for wins and stage wins to try to shrink the gap on Brian before we approach the last couple rounds.
Justin enters the playoffs as the #3 seed which is better than the last 2 years when he started as the #5 & #6 seeds. This is Justin's best playoff outlook since 2022 when he entered as the #2 seed and would eventually become the #1 seed until losing the title to Josh at Phoenix. Justin hasn't won a title since 2009 and he would love to score his 2nd Championship in his 21st season.
You can't have playoffs without Josh and he rolls in this year as the #4 seed. Believe it or not this is the worst seeding for Josh since 2020 where he also entered as the #4 seed. Josh will start Round 1 9 points above the cut line and he will be in a good battle with his 2 teammates as they are all pretty close to each other. A pretty great accomplishment that MAGA Motorsports has 3 of the 8 playoff contenders this year.
Last year Lizzy was the #5 seed and she does the same this season. Lizzy has continued to excel in consistency and finished the regular season 2nd place to Brian but her lack of wins and stage wins definitely hurt her seeding. She needs to make up for the lack of wins this year with wins in the playoffs in order to get through the rounds. She starts out 7 points above the cut line.
After missing the playoffs last season, Tyson has returned for his 2nd playoff appearance. Tyson didn't have a great year and finished the regular season in 9th place but he had 2 wins and earned his way into the playoffs. Now he needs to go out and win races in order to move on as one of the underdogs. Tyson will start Round 1 four points above the cut line.
Craig returned this year after 5 years away from NPRS and he has made his 2nd playoff appearance. Craig will start below the cut line 4 points on the outside. Wins and strong momentum will be needed in order for Craig to move on and chase his 2nd Championship.
The defending Champion survived Daytona after Sean threatened to eliminate him in the final race of the regular season. Patrick begins his title defense as the #8 seed and he starts out 4 points below the cut line. Patrick hasn't had a lot of success this year and only 1 win. Can he turn it around in the final 10 races and go for back to back titles?
Sean had such a good history at the Daytona night race and he entered this week needing a win and some luck and he went down swinging and finished 2nd place which ends his shot at a title in 2025. What can Sean accomplish in the final 10 races to prepare for 2026?
Maigan's losing streak grows to 35 races which means it has almost been 1 year since her last win. This year is definitely a slump for her but she still has 10 races to turn it around and end the losing streak before heading towards a new fresh start in 2026. Maigan finished 3rd in her rookie season so trying to move up in the standings over the next 10 weeks will be important in regards to her average season finish.
Part Time Garage won the team battle at Daytona. FJBLGB Racing continues to hold a huge lead in the team standings. Team Standings
Justin dropped 2 spots at Daytona in the regular season standings which caused him to lose 2 playoff points. Could those points make the difference in the coming weeks?
Patrick moved up from 4th to 3rd in the final race of the regular season which awarded him 8 bonus playoff points.
Brian has now led for 172 days total this season as we head to Darlington to kick off the playoffs. His points lead shrinks from 50 to 20 as the playoffs begin.
How do you move on in Round 1? Win a race or stay in the Top 6 positions.
11th Richmond Win (3rd Straight As The Late Richmond Race)
Josh has been quiet this summer and not a great season but not bad either. He just moved closer to becoming a title contender with his 3rd win of the regular season. This was Josh's 48th Career Short TracK win. With another win he now has 20 playoff points which makes him only the 4th person to have at least 20 along with Brian, Jim & Justin. This win at Richmond was a big victory as Josh won by a whopping 22 points over 2nd place Brian. As the dust settles from Richmond Josh has officially clinched his spot in the playoffs. This will be his 9th playoff appearance in the 9 total years of the playoffs. Josh is the only one to make it every year. Could Josh be chasing a 9th Championship in 2025?
Richmond Saturday night was Brian's 3rd straight Top 2 finish. Last week he clinched the regular season title and now he just continues to increase his record points lead. He now has the record at 38 points. After next week that points lead will be reduced when the playoffs begin. Can Brian score a stage or race win next week at Daytona to pad his lead. Brian will likely be the #1 seed heading into the playoffs. It's hard to tell where everything will shake out but Brian is likely to have at least a 10 point lead when the playoffs begin.
Craig has officially clinched a spot in the playoffs for only the 2nd time in his career (can't miss Daytona). Craig scored his 9th podium finish of the year at Richmond Saturday night. Craig currently has 13 playoff points and is 8th place in the standings so his playoff journey will be that of an underdog but anything can happen. Craig still has some chances of moving up a few spots in the standings next week at Daytona if he has a great race. Craig definitely could have his best season in a while. His last 2 years before he returned he finished 7th overall both years. The question is can he pull the cinderella story and chase his 2nd title?
It all comes down to Daytona. The defending Champion Patrick has been safely in the playoffs but with only 1 win he will still be in danger heading to Daytona and the only one who could kick him out is Sean.
Patrick has 825 points, Sean has 818 points
Sean doesn't have credit for a win and Patrick has 1.
Scenario-Sean must win and gain 7 points on Patrick.
This means if Patrick finishes 3rd or 2nd he would still stay safe even if Sean wins.
Sean is in a true must win situation but he could win and still be on the outside looking in.
Maigan needed to be within 13 points of Patrick to have a shot at Daytona but she leaves Richmond 17 behind so she is mathematically eliminated from making the playoffs. The only situation where she could still make it in would be if someone misses making picks at Daytona and then it would be all over the place as far as her options but that's highly unlikely. Craig & Sean are the only ones who have already used up their free passes this year.
The losing streak for Maigan is now at 34 races and the rest of her year will be all about chasing that victory. Could she do something like Jim did last year and show up in the final 10 races and win 4 of the last 10 and get hot preparing for 2026?
The other bright side to look at for Maigan is the points standings are not very spread out and after playoff eliminations begin she could move up and pass others for a better final standings position. After her 3rd place final finish in her rookie year she would like to improve from 9th or 10th to higher to help her all time average. 2025 truly is a sophomore slump for Maigan but she has 11 races left to turn it around.
Jim leads his team Hit The Pace Car Motorsports to the team battle win at Richmond. His team is 3rd in the team standings. Team Standings
Josh, Craig & Tyson all clinched playoff spots at Richmond. This is the 2nd appearance in the playoffs for both Craig & Tyson.
Maigan scored 13th stage win of career moving her up to 12th on the all time list.
Brian has now led points for 119 days straight and 164 for the year as we arrive to Daytona.
Teammates at MAGA Motorsports are within 3 points of each other for 4th, 5th, 6th in the standings. Lots of movement possible at Daytona and every spot is 1 more bonus playoff point.
Sean has a good past at the 2nd Daytona race. He has 5 career Daytona wins but none of those has been in the Daytona 500. Sean only wins the night race and he needs it more than ever now.
After last week it was beginning to look like Brian was the clear favorite in the championship outlook but after a horrible last place finish last week, Jim answered back as another of the top contenders this year with his 4th victory of the year. Jim had to beat Brian in the end to win the race and he pulled it off by 4 points. This was Jim's 1st road course win of his career. Jim also scored a stage win and that brings his total playoff points up to 27 and he made a huge move in the standings with 2 races left until the regular season ends. Jim moved from 7th to 3rd in the standings with his victory this week! Jim now only has 6 less playoff points than Brian and we could be looking ahead to another classic Championship battle between Jim & Brian in the coming months.
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$15 Added To Season Total Winnings
There are still 2 races to go but Brian's 2nd place finish grew his lead to 31 points which clinches the regular season title for him. This will be Brian's 2nd regular season title, his other came in 2022. Back in 2022 that regular season title did not lead to a Championship but he has a lot more momentum and wins this season than past years. It's hard to believe the comeback this season for Brian after going win less last year. Congrats to Brian on his regular season title as he celebrates in Jamaica as we speak.
Justin continues his podium roll with a 3rd place finish. Justin didn't gain a spot in the standings this week even though he jumped over Sean because Jim jumped over everyone. The points battle for 3rd-6th is currently separated by only 2 points with 2 races left to settle it. This week is Saturday night racing in Richmond and next week is Saturday night at Daytona. Justin falls to 3rd in the playoff picture right now behind Jim & Brian but they are the big 3 heading into Richmond. Justin has 4 career wins at Richmond and another win at Richmond or Daytona could help him keep the pressure on Brian & Jim as the playoffs approach. Check out the playoff picture Playoff Picture With 2 To Go
Because the points are so tight, no one else has clinched a spot in the playoffs yet but after Richmond the picture will be much clearer. Right now no one is safe besides the ones who have clinched (Brian/Jim/Justin/Lizzy)
Hit The Pace Car Motorsports scored their 21st career win and won the team battle. The team standings continues to be led by FJBLGB Racing by a ton. Team Standings
Maigan's losing streak grows to 33 races, still really far from the all time record and her playoff outlook is shrinking. She needs to gain 14 points on Patrick and score a win or win out the last 2 races of the regular season.
Sean's outlook is a little brighter. He needs to score a win and gain 2 points on Patrick or win the last 2 races of the regular season.
6th Season Win (Series High)
This was only our 2nd time at Iowa and after a photo finish, Brian pulled out the win after a tiebreaker with Justin to claim his 1st win at the new track. This means there are now only 3 active tracks that Brian has never won before. Brian already was the points leader and looking very good heading into the playoffs but now he has took total control of NPRS. He once again takes the record for the largest points lead ever under this system as it increases to 25 over Lizzy. His playoff point total right now is up to 33 and he will probably be getting another 15 bonus playoff points when he wins the regular season title in 3 weeks. A comeback is still possible from Lizzy but everyone else is mathematically eliminated from a shot at the regular season title. Can Brian continue to rack up more playoff points in the next 3 races and make his playoff run even easier than it already is?
Justin suffered a tough loss losing to the favorite for the title this year after a tiebreaker but there was some positives this week for Justin who jumped back on his podium streak after falling off last week. Justin now has 7 podium finishes in the last 8 races and he has definitely changed his season outlook. Justin didn't win the race but he scored 2 more stage wins increasing his total to 9 on the year which makes him the new stage win leader for the year over Tyson. Justin now has 66 career stage wins. Justin's movement up the standings also continued this week as he has moved up from 6th to 5th. In the playoff picture Justin has the 2nd most playoff points with 24 and he could challenge Patrick and Sean for 3rd & 4th in the standings before the regular season ends. Justin now heads to Watkins Glen looking to tie Josh for the most road course wins all time. No one has more wins at Watkins Glen than Justin.
Maigan continues to contend for wins but just hasn't broken through yet. Her last 3 finishes have been in the Top 4. The losing streak is now at 32 races and there are 3 races left to try to score a win and fight for a playoff spot. What do her chances look like right now? She needs to score a win currently and gain 8 points on Patrick to eliminate him or score 2 wins to not have to worry about points. Will Watkins Glen be her chance to finally break through?
Jim drops 2 spots in the standings from 5th to 7th after his 2nd last place finish of the year.
FJBLGB Racing scores the team win once again and continue to increase their lead. The lead in the team standings is now 10 points. Team Standings
Thanks to her big points gap, Lizzy has officially clinched a spot in the playoffs. This will be her 3rd playoff appearance in 4 years. NPRS Playoff History
The final survey of the year is here. Click here to voice your opinion Survey
2nd Season Win
The comeback season continues to get better for Craig as we creep closer to the playoffs. Craig was definitely in the danger zone only having one victory but he can feel much safer now with his 2nd win of the year Sunday at Indy. It came down to a battle between himself and his teammate Sean in the end. This is Craig's 5th Crown Jewel Race Win. After the dust settles from Indy and the in season tournament points are added in, Craig is 8th place in the standings but 6th place in the playoff grid. The battle in the standings from 3rd-9th is possibly the closest points battle we have ever seen this late in the regular season. There are only 11 points between 3rd and 9th in the standings which means a lot of movement will happen in the next 4 races as everyone fights for extra playoff points based on your regular season standings position. Those with 2 wins are not 100% safe yet but it's a lot better than having only 1 or winless.
Time is running out and Sean's season may turn into a big "what if" from him missing 2 races and losing playoff eligibility. A runner up this week was great but he is going to need at least 1 win to get back into the playoff picture. He was able to score a stage win at Indy and now has 14 playoff points but none of that will matter if he is one of the two on the outside looking in after Daytona in a few weeks. His next shot is Iowa next week as we head there for only the 2nd time ever.
The last 2 weeks Jim had finishes of 9th and 8th but he turned his luck around with a 3rd place finish at Indy. Jim didn't do very well in the in season tournament compared to his competitors and fell a little in the standings this week to 5th. The good news is Jim is locked into the playoffs but can he score a win or 2 in the next 4 races to close in on the gap to Brian in the playoff point totals
If Regular Season Ended Now (Playoff Points Plus Regular Season Bonus Pts)
Brian would have 43 Playoff Points
Jim would have 27 Playoff Points
Justin would have 26 Playoff Points
Lizzy would have 23 Playoff Points
Josh would have 20 Playoff Points
Tyson would have 19 Playoff Points
Craig would have 16 Playoff Points
Patrick would have 15 Playoff Points
Defending Champion Patrick is in danger of missing the playoffs. Right now Sean & Patrick are tied in points but Patrick has the edge with 1 win towards the playoffs. If Sean were to win it would become a battle between points and our 2024 Champion could end up on the outside. Playoff Picture
Sophomore slump or comeback of the year? Maigan's losing streak grows to 31 races as we head to Iowa. She needs a win and some points right now to get into the playoffs. A win would get her close but she also needs to gain 11 points on Patrick. She could still get hot and shock everyone. Don't forget she won 6 races last year and 2 of her 6 wins came on drafting tracks and we all know the regular season ends at Daytona.
Part Time Garage wins the race and the team battle this week with finishes of 1st and 2nd. FJBLGB Racing actually finished last place in the team battle but they continue to hold a 9 point lead in the team standings. Team Standings
Justin's podium streak ends with a 9th place finish.
Tyson has scored back to back last place finishes. Can he turn his momentum around before the playoffs?
Lizzy continues to lead the season on Top 3 finishes with 9 but the lack of wins and stage wins compared to her competitors like Brian, Jim & Justin is having her lacking in the playoff point totals and will be likely starting the playoff run at a disadvantage. She won the inaugural event at Iowa last year.
Brian sets a new record under the current points system by having the largest points lead at 18. The regular season title is not his yet but it's definitely heading that direction. It would be his 2nd regular season title.
New final survey for 2025 coming soon as we prepare for 2026.
5th Season Win (Series Best)
9th Dover Win
Brian is the King Of Dover. Brian already led the way in Dover wins with 8 but now he adds a 9th win to his resume. This is Brian's 5th win of the year and he continues to look like the favorite right now as we inch towards the playoffs. Brian has now led the standings for 92 straight days and 137 total on the year. We have only been under this points system for 2 years but no one has ever had a points lead greater than 13 points. Brian currently leaves Dover with a 12 point gap on Lizzy. It's obvious now that the regular season title is probably going to be settled between the teammates but Brian may have it locked down sooner rather than later. The news keeps getting better for Brian as we head to Indy for the Brickyard 400. He leads the way with Indy wins with 4 crown jewels under his belt. This is the 1st time Brian has hit 5 wins in a year since 2022.
Brian enters Indy with a 12 point lead Standings
Maigan got so close but in the end the hard charger cost her the victory Sunday at Dover. This was her best finish in 10 races though so momentum could be shifting for her. We have 5 races left and it's more important than ever that Maigan scores a victory to make the playoffs in her 2nd season. The current situation is she needs to win and gain 2 points on Craig to be in the playoff picture and that's definitely possible. Can Maigan win her 1st crown jewel race at Indy and start her run towards the playoffs? The losing streak is currently at 30 races.
Maigan still looking to make the playoffs for back to back years Playoff Picture
The Top 2 streak is over but Justin kept it on the podium for the 6th straight week. Amazing that Justin was in last place way behind everyone a couple months ago and now he has climbed to 7th in the standings and 3rd in the playoff grid. Even better news is Justin racked up 2 more stage wins at Dover and gained 2 more playoff points. His playoff point total is now 2nd only behind Brian. Justin lost his chance at scoring more tournament points with Reddick being eliminated but he will end the tournament next week with more points than anyone else. After the points get added in after Indy, Justin could be moving up a few more spots in the standings. On to Indy we go.
Remember The Points Are Not Added In Until The Tournament Ends Next Week
Tournament Totals (Final)
Justin-17
Maigan-12
Patrick-11
Tyson-10
Brian-9
Josh-9
Sean-7
Lizzy-4
Jim-4
Craig-3
In Other News:
FJBLGB Racing wins the team battle again and continue to grow a huge lead in the team standings. They are now 11 points ahead of 2nd place MAGA Motorsports with 15 races left in the year. Team Standings
More than likely if Patrick, Craig, Sean or Maigan fail to win at Indy, Lizzy, Josh & Tyson will clinch a spot in the playoffs.
Besides Maigan, Sean is the only other one looking for a victory to join back in the playoff battle.
21 races into the season, Josh has not scored a last place finish yet.
108th Career Win
3rd Sonoma Win
3rd Season Win
Justin is literally on fire when it comes to the summer stretch of races. This has to be the greatest stretch of races Justin has ever had before. Not only has he won 3 of the last 5 races but the other 2 races have been 2nd place finishes. You have to go back to June 8th to find the last time Justin finished outside of the Top 2 spots. This 3rd win of the year clinches Justin a spot in the playoffs as long as he doesn't miss a race. Justin had not won a race at Sonoma since 2007, 18 years ago. Justin has finally left the last place position in the standings and is moving on up. This is Justin's 11th Road Course Win which is 2nd to Josh who has 12 but if you count street races as road course Justin has matched Josh with 12. Justin is also having the best in season tournament so far and is the only one who could still earn more points with Reddick in the last 2 weeks. Justin has gone from a horrible year to a title contender in the last month. Momentum is real.
🔥Justin has scored 190 points over the last 5 races. The closest to him is Josh with 166
Sean has 2 wins in 2025 but he lost the chance to use those towards playoff eligibility by missing 2 races this year. That means that right now Sean is still on the outside of the playoff picture and time is running out. This was a great run but at this point a win is more important than ever. Sean has a 10 point advantage on Craig right now in the points if he were to score a win which would put Craig on the outside. We have 6 races left until the playoffs begin. Next up is Dover, one of 11 tracks that Sean has never won at before.
Josh joins his teammate Justin on the podium at Sonoma. With his 3rd place finish Josh was able to pass by his other teammate Patrick in the standings but Josh lost a spot in the standings to Sean who he is currently tied with. That tie in the standings is broken by most 3rd place finishes. With 6 races before playoffs Josh is only 5 points out of 3rd place in the standings so a lot of movement is still possible for regular season standings which will equal more or less playoff points. MAGA Motorsports won the team battle this week and have moved up to 2nd place in the season long team championship with 16 races left on the year.
In Other News:
Maigan's losing streak grows to 29 races and time is running out to score a win and make a run for the playoffs in her 2nd season.
Where is the defending Champion Patrick? 4 straight finishes of 7th or worse. Patrick is still in the playoffs but could be in danger if Sean or Maigan start winning.
Playoff Picture With 6 Races Left
Brian, Jim, Justin locked in-All 3 have 20+ playoff points
Lizzy, Tyson, Josh could clinch with 1 more win
1 Win for Sean would move him in
Maigan needs a win and to gain 7 points on Craig right now to move in
Patrick needs 2 wins to clinch but 1 could get him much closer to being safe
In Season Tournament Point Totals After 3 of 5 Races
Justin-17
Maigan-12
Patrick-11
Tyson-10
Josh-9
Brian-9
Sean-7
Lizzy-4
Jim-4
Craig-3
In Season Tournament
Sonoma
Justin & Brian scored 3 points each
20th Career Win
1st Street Course Win
3rd Season Win (2nd Best Series)
Jim was in a slump with 4 finishes of 9th or worse but he answered the call in Chicago for a victory. After that huge losing streak last year and missing the playoffs Jim has turned it around. Last year he came on strong at the end of the season and racked up some wins and then started out strong in 2025. He scored his 1st win of 2025 in Race #11 but since then he now has 3 wins in the last 9 races and has clinched a spot in the playoffs (without missing a race). His winning moment this weekend was his hard charger pick of Denny Hamlin which moved him from 4 behind to 1 point ahead of Justin at the finish line. This win also moves Jim up to 3rd place in the standings and he is currently 17 out of the lead. With only 7 races left until the playoffs it may be hard to catch the Top 2 but if he can catch them he could contend for the regular season title. If the tournament ended now he would have 4 points added to his points total but we have 3 weeks of the bracket left before those points are finalized. Now we head to another road course next week in Sonoma which is 1 of 11 tracks that Jim has never won at. He knocked off Chicago Street, can he knock off Sonoma next week?
Justin was very close to having 4 straight wins but he had to settle for two runner up finishes the last 2 weeks. This week he lost by a single point. Justin definitely had one of the worst starts to a year possible but he is turning up the heat in the summer races and the in season tournament is going very well for him with 3 races left. Justin still sits last place in points but he is now only 1 point behind Tyson and 2 behind Maigan heading to Sonoma. Justin has 2 career wins at Sonoma but the last one came way back in 2007, 18 years ago. There are a lot of playoff bonus points on the line depending on your regular season standings finish position and Justin would like to move up a few spots before we reach the playoffs. If the tournament ended now, Justin would receive 14 points. The best news for him is his Champion pick for the bracket is still alive in Tyler Reddick.
The consistency continues for Lizzy as she continues to hunt down her teammate Brian for the points lead. Not only does she have 5 Straight Top 5's but she has beat Brian in 5 straight races and now the lead is a single point heading to Sonoma. Lizzy has 1 road course win in her career but has to yet to win at Sonoma. The regular season title battle continues to look to be among the teammates at FJBLGB Racing. They also continue to lead the team standings by a pretty large margin.
In Other News:
Hit The Pace Car Motorsports scores 20th win all time and wins the team battle this week thanks to Jim. Could we see Daniel return next year and join Jim on his former team?
Maigan's losing streak grows to 28 races. Maigan has never scored a victory at a road course yet but maybe next week will be her time. Time is running out to make a run for the playoffs and at this moment you need at least 1 win.
Current Playoff Field
Brian, Jim, Lizzy, Josh, Tyson, Justin, Patrick, Craig
Playoff Point Totals For Current Playoff Contenders
Brian-23
Jim-21
Tyson-18
Josh-15
Justin-14
Lizzy-12
Patrick-8
Craig-7
Read more on the in season tournament below....
160th Career Win
19th Drafting Track Victory (Most All-Time)
2nd Season Win
6th Atlanta Win (2nd Best All Time)
Since the reconfiguration of Atlanta we have now had 8 different winners in 8 races. That trend continued thanks to Josh scoring his first Atlanta win since 2019. The new layout started in 2022. Josh has definitely been quiet the last few months and needed a boost to his season and this win does that for him. He now becomes only the 6th person with multiple wins counting towards the playoffs and moves from the 8th place bubble spot in the playoffs to 4th in the standings right now with 8 races left until the playoffs begin. Josh also scored another stage win which brings his playoff point total up to 15. Next week we had to a street race, we have only had 2 street races before and Josh has yet to score a victory there yet. Chicago Street is one of only 5 tracks that Josh has never won at before. Can Josh turn this win into momentum heading towards another playoff run?
3 Straight Wins was almost a reality for Justin Saturday night but it really came down to Elliott Vs Keselowski because if it had been Keselowski Justin would have won with his win bonus but it ended up being Elliott which in turn gave the win bonus to Josh. Justin definitely keeps his momentum rolling and has closed in on Tyson in the points standings. Justin has been last in points for over 10 weeks now and he may have a chance to move out of last place next week at Chicago Street. Justin is the defending race winner. Justin is 6th in the current playoff grid but still far from safe with 8 races left. There will be more below about the in season tournament but Justin has the best outlook for his tournament moving forward than anyone else.
Mrs. Consistency continues to make her mark and chase down her teammate Brian for the regular season title battle. Brian will hold on for another week but thanks to her 3rd place finish she is now only 3 points behind Brian heading to Chicago. Right now the battle for the regular season title looks like a 2 person matchup as they have left the competition in the dust. The 3rd place person right now is 17 points behind so if they continue good runs the teammates will be battling it out for the regular season title and the very important 15 bonus playoff points. Lizzy has never won a regular season title but she may be ready to change that this season.
In Other News:
Maigan's losing streak grows to 27 races but she had the best 1st round in the tournament scoring 10 points for getting 10 of 16 matchups correct. The total points for the entire tournament will be added in when the tournament ends but right now she has the highest total.
What happened to Jim? After back to back wins before the all star break and 4 straight podiums he has been on a huge slump. His last 4 races have been three 9ths and one 10th place finish. Jim is still safely in the playoffs but he has lost all momentum and Josh is 1 point away from dropping him another spot in the points.
Not only did MAGA Motorsports win the race but they also won the team battle with Josh & Justin's 1, 2 finish. FJBLGB Racing continues to lead the season long standings with 18 races left in the season.
Read more on the in season tournament below....
107th Career Win
9th Pocono Win (2nd Best All Time)
Justin definitely had one of his worst seasons going 2 weeks ago but now his entire season is flipped around. He broke the winless streak at Mexico and now comes right back the next week with a victory at Pocono which is one of Justin's best tracks. Last week Justin entered the playoff scenario and now he can feel much safer as he becomes one of only 5 people to have multiple wins that count towards the playoffs. Justin has the 2nd most drafting track wins next to Josh so he will be looking forward to Atlanta and going for 3 in a row.
Craig has been pretty quiet in recent months after a win earlier this year but he scored a nice 2nd place finish in Pocono. Craig moves up in the standings to 6th place over Josh. This is good news but another win may still be necessary in order to clinch a spot in the playoffs. A win by Sean would put Craig as well as others like Josh in danger of falling out of the playoffs right now with 9 to go. We are now heading to a Saturday night drafting track at Atlanta.
This year is the year of stage wins for Tyson. He now has 7 stage wins to go with his 2 race wins making him a solid contender for the title with 9 races left until the playoffs kickoff. Tyson currently has the 2nd most playoff points behind the series leader Brian who has 4 victories. Tyson may be having his best year yet and could be chasing that 1st title before we know it.
In Other News:
With Justin's 2nd win, Josh is now on the playoff bubble in danger of falling out if Sean were to score a victory. Josh has a 4 point gap on Maigan if she was to score a win soon.
Maigan's losing streak grows to 26 races. The sophomore slump continues but the good news is Maigan won the Summer Atlanta race last year.
Lizzy cuts into Brian's points lead again. The gap is now 4 points. Can she take the lead from her teammate next weekend.
Freedom Motorsports scored the team battle win this weekend. FJBLGB Racing continues to lead the season long team standings.
It's time for the in season tournament. Tournament picks are due Friday night at midnight only with nomal predictions. This will take a little time so don't wait until the last minute or even the last day. More info below.
In Season Tournament
Picks for the in season tournament are due Friday at midnight.
Fill out your bracket and send your 31 picks for each spot on the bracket.
A total of 64 points is up for grabs if you were to score a perfect bracket.
If your bracket picks are late, you will lose 5 points from the tournament picks total you score.
After the 1st race of the tournament begins you will not be able to make picks and lose your shot at an extra 60 points.
You will have 31 picks across the bracket
Round 1 Matchups-16 Winners-1 point each correct=1 X16=16
Round 2 Matchups-8 Winners-2 points each correct=2X8=16
Round 3 Matchups-4 Winners-3 points each correct=3X4=12
Round 4 Matchups-2 Winners-5 points each correct=2X5=10
Championship-1 Winner-10 points if correct=10
If you head to the prediction spreadsheet and move to the tab after Pocono you will see a bracket with the drivers in their seedings. Each blank spot has a number that corresponds with it. Send your picks #1-#31 or if its easier fill out a bracket and send a photo of your choices.
Total Of 64 points up for grabs!!! This could be huge as we head towards the playoffs
106th Career Win
40th Win For MAGA Motorsports
Justin has always had a good record on road courses and this was a new one to everyone and Justin took advantage and finally scored his 1st win since last Summer at the Chicago street race. The 31 race win-less streak is over and just like that Justin's season has turned around. He is now currently in the playoffs but likely will need to win again to stay in as we have plenty of racing left. His points situation isn't great so a win by Sean or Maigan could easily put him back below the cut line. Justin joined MAGA Motorsports this season and this is his 1st win as a member of the team but the 40th overall for this team, the team with the most wins in NPRS team history. This win today in Mexico was Justin's 10th road course win. He is 2nd all time in road course wins behind Josh who has 12. Can Justin carry this momentum into the coming weeks and the in season tournament that is only 11 days away?
Momentum is real and Patrick has turned things around the last few weeks with back to back runner up finishes, this time behind his teammate Justin. Now all 3 team members of MAGA Motorsports have won a race and the defending Champion Patrick is in the best position right now being 3rd in points, 11 behind the leader as we head to Pocono. Thanks to Justin's win and Patrick's runner up MAGA Motorsports easily won the team battle this week. Their other teammate Josh also scored a Top 5.
The good news is Sean scored his 2nd podium in 3 weeks and gained 4 points on the leader Brian in the standings. The bad news is thanks to Justin's victory he is now on the outside of the playoff cut line. His 2 wins do not count towards the playoffs because of his 2 missed races and now it is starting to make a difference. Luckily for Sean he is doing very well in the points and another win could help him jump right back in. Pocono is another track that Sean has never won before. He is 0 for 20. Time to change history?
In Other News:
Justin holds the last playoff spot by a race victory over Sean. Justin needs 26 points to catch the next person ahead of him.
Lizzy chops Brian's points lead down to 6 heading to Pocono.
Josh has the most Pocono wins all time with 12 and is due for a win, his last coming back in March.
Maigan is now the only one win-less this season. Definitely having a sophomore slump so far but plenty of racing to go. Currently a 25 race win less streak
Lizzy, Brian, Tyson & Jim have all scored within 3 points of each other in the last 5 races combined. Lizzy & Brian have racked up 168 points while Tyson & Jim have scored 165 each. These 4 are the hottest right now. On the other end, Maigan & Craig have scored the least amount of points over the last 5 races with 151 each.
8th Career Win (Ties Daniel For 11th All Time)
Lizzy won the 3rd race of the season and has been consistent since then but now she is back in victory lane and becomes the 5th person to score multiple wins this season. 4 of her 8 career wins have come on speedway tracks of bigger than 1 mile. She entered this race 3rd in points, 16 out of the lead and now as we leave Michigan she is back to the runner up spot behind her teammate Brian. The gap is now 9 between them heading to Mexico for a road course race. Can Lizzy get back to the points lead for the 2nd time this year?
Thanks to her win and Brian's 4th place finish, FJGLGB Racing won the team battle at Michigan and retook the lead in the team standings. This was the 24th race win for FJBLGB Racing.
Patrick scored his best finish since his win at Talladega 5 weeks ago. After a rough few weeks he definitely stopped the bad momentum with a good runner up finish. He entered Michigan 5th in the points, 18 out of the lead. After his 2nd place finish he is now up to 4th and 16 out of the lead. Patrick should be in good shape for the playoffs but he really needs to get back to victory lane to get close to the top contenders in playoff points. Right now Patrick only has 7 playoff points compared to the Top 3 contenders have 16 or more. Can Patrick win next week at the inaugural race in Mexico?
Tyson scored his 30th career stage win which puts him 1 behind Jim in the All Time Stage Win List. Over the last 5 races Tyson has scored the 3rd most points of anyone in the series. After a very rough start to the year Tyson is really turning it around. He left Justin in the battle for last place and now he is in contention to move out of 9th in the standings. He is only 3 points behind Maigan and 7 behind Craig. Things are looking up for Tyson and with his 2 wins he's pretty safe bet to be a playoff contender this season.
In Other News
Maigan scored her 3rd stage win of the year but still searching for the 1st win. We are 11 races away from the playoffs and a win win probably be required to make the playoff field.
Justin scores first Top 5 in 9 weeks but still winless in 2025 and the streak grows to 31 races.
16 days away from Tournament picks being due.
Playoff Bubble-Sean currently holds the last playoff spot by 17 points over Maigan. If playoffs started today her and Justin would be on the outside.
116th Career Win
4th Season Win
The year just keeps getting better for Brian as he records his 4th win of the season (series high). This is Brian's 1st time visiting victory lane in Nashville and one of only 5 tracks he had never won at. The list shrinks to 4 tracks and all 4 of those tracks are coming up in the coming months including our 1st trip to Mexico in 2 weeks. Since March 23rd, Brian has not finished worse than 6th and that is why he continues to hold the points lead. When we arrive in Michigan he will be at 88 days leading points this year and 43 days straight.
After missing picks last week Sean had a great rebound with his first runner up finish of the year. With this great finish at Nashville, Sean moves up from 5th to 4th in the standings as he passes the defending Champion Patrick. Next week we head to Michigan, a track Sean has won at 1 time back in 2018.
Turning in picks on time is half the battle for Sean.
This weekend he had a dream that he forgot again but he didn't. LOL
Jim has a lot of momentum going right now and although he lost some ground to the leader Brian this week he is still on fire with 4 straight finishes in the Top 3. Jim will lose ground to Brian but he increased the gap back to 3rd place in the standings. Jim now holds the runner up spot in the standings by 7 over Lizzy. Are we starting to see who the top contenders for the regular season Championship might be? Another classic battle between Brian & Jim? Next week the battle continues to Michigan.
In Other News:
Congrats to Maigan on completing her 50th career race.
Justin's horrible season continues and losing streak increases to 30 races.
Jim leads his team Hit The Pace Car Motorsports to a 4th straight team battle win and his team is now tied for the lead in the team standings.
Top 4 Current Playoff Point Totals
-Brian 23, Jim 16, Tyson 15, Sean 13
-Out of these 4 Sean is the only one who isn't really a safe bet for making the playoffs
We are 25 days away from turning in picks for the in season tournament.
14th Career Win
The Coca Cola 600 is the longest race of the year and part of it is just surviving and Tyson did just that. While Jim secured wins in all 3 stages, Tyson hung in there and showed up at the end to win the race by 4 points. This is Tyson's 2nd win of the year and should get close to giving him a spot in the playoffs that start in 13 weeks. Tyson isn't great in the overall points battle but wins can get you into the playoffs and with 5 stage wins as well he has a nice 15 playoff point total so far. At this moment only Brian & Jim have more playoff points. The Summer stretch has begun and it's time to get serious if you are going to be a contender for the title in the fall. We all know making the playoffs is not enough to make it all the way, you need to have a lot of playoff points to contend for the Championship. Could Tyson be chasing his 1st Championship in 2025?
500 miles of the 600 was everything Jim. He dominated the majority of the race and racked up 3 stage wins which brings his season total to 6 stage wins which is the series high. Jim would eventually end up runner up to Tyson in the end after a tie with Craig. Jim still has to be happy with another great finish and his hot streak continues. Back to back wins and then followed up with a runner up is not bad at all. 3 in a row didn't happen but Jim has moved up to runner up in the standings and is ready to challenge his old rival Brian next week at Nashville. Jim is only 3 points behind Brian after 13 races. Jim helped his single man team secure the team battle win for the 3rd week in a row. His team is now only 1 point out of the lead in the team standings. Things are looking up for this team that lost a lot of people over the last year. Could Jim be able to expand this team at the end of the 2025 season?
Craig didn't secure a win on his birthday but he scored his 6th Top 3 of the season after losing a tiebreaker for 2nd place to Jim. Craig is quietly having a great comeback season and slowly working his way up the standings. While he stays in 6th place overall he is only 15 points out of the lead now and only 3 points behind his teammate Sean for 5th. The only person who also has 6 Top 3 finishes this year is Lizzy.
In Other News:
Justin's losing streak grows to 29 races and he is now 54 points out of the lead. At what point does Justin say screw points and go for wins only because pretty soon that may be his only way into the playoffs.
MAGA Motorsports Struggles-One of the best teams in NPRS continues to struggle recently. They finished 7th, 8th, 9th at Charlotte and really no one on this team has had anything great going recently. Patrick is the only one in the hunt for the points lead.
Jim now has 31 career stage wins and is 8th place all time. 7th place Daniel and 6th place Sean each have 33 so Jim is only a few stage wins away from moving farther up the record books.
Tyson secured the 30th Win All Time for Freedom Motorsports. It may be a new team to him but this team has had some great years with Justin Caruthers, Sean Sloat as former team members along with Maigan Sanders who is currently his teammate.
Sean misses the deadline again and loses another win in terms of playoff eligibility. That means Sean is now hanging on to the last playoff spot now by points only and could be on the verge of falling out any day now. After a win in the All Star Race last week this is a rough swing for Sean. If his late picks would have been used he would have finished 8th place instead of the 10th he was awarded.
The 2013 Champion showed up for the All Star Race last year and won and then made his return to full time competition this year in NPRS and he defended his All Star crown Sunday after winning a tie over runner up Patrick. Sean becomes only the 6th person to ever win multiple All-Star races and the first to win back to back since Scott did it in 2014-2015. Now we get back to regular points racing and Sean will look to close back in on the points lead at the longest race of the year.
All Star Recap
Thanks to Daniel & Sam for joining us as past Champions. The top 3 spots were decided by only a single point as Jim finished 3rd 1 point behind the Top 2. Hopefully everyone liked the salary cap style picks. It definitely added a new twist that made picks more difficult.
19th Career Win
3rd Kansas Win
When it comes to Kansas this might be Jim's best track. He has now won the Spring Kansas Race for the 3rd time in 4 years. He is 1 win away from tying a number of people for 2nd most Kansas wins. Back to back wins can really turn your season around and in the last 2 weeks Jim has gone from decent to a contender for the series lead. Today was the 1st time in 2025 that someone has swept both stages and the race and it's actually only the 2nd time it's happened since 2023. The last time it happened was also Jim. With these 2 great weeks, Jim has moved up to 3rd in the points and he is only 5 points out of the lead. There are no points on the line this coming week but when we get to Charlotte Jim has a shot at taking the points lead for the 1st time since February.
Today at Kansas was Tyson's 1st runner up finish of the year and his 2nd podium of the year. The season still isn't great for Tyson but he's heading in the right direction. Tyson gained 3 points on the points leader and has left Justin in the dust for the last place points in the standings. Can Tyson keep this momentum up and challenge Maigan in the coming weeks for 8th? For now we head to a fun All-Star event with no points on the line but the Coke 600 is just 2 weeks away. Tyson won the Coke 600 in 2021.
After finishing 8th place the last 2 weeks, Lizzy rebounded on Mother's Day and moved back into the runner up spot in the points standings. She is only 4 points behind Brian when we get to the 600 in 2 weeks. Will the teammates be battling it out again like earlier this season? Lizzy has never won at Charlotte before but first she is chasing her 1st All-Star Win at North Wilkesboro. Lizzy now leads the series with the most Top 3 finishes this year with 6.
In Other News:
Jim's 19th Career Win is also the 19th Win For Hit The Pace Car Motorsports and his team won the team battle at Kansas. Jim's former teammate and past NPRS Champion Daniel will be back in action for the All-Star Race this weekend.
Sam Johnson, the 2015 NPRS Champion will make an appearance as well at the All-Star Race.
Scott Lambeth, another former NPRS Champion is invited but unlikely to participate.
The Top 5 in points are only separated by 7 points after 12 races. The regular season Championship is still wide open and no one seems to be in control this year yet.
Justin's losing streak grows to 28 races.
Sean Sloat is the defending All-Star Race Winner. Can he go back to back in North Wilkesboro?
Salary Cap All Star Race Picks Due Saturday At Midnight. More Details Below...
1st Texas Win
18th Career Win
Jim was hot at the end of 2024 and he kicked off 2025 with a Clash Win but he had yet to visit victory lane. He was in a tight battle for the final playoff spot but now he earns his 1st victory of the year and becomes the 8th different winner this season. This means that the only ways to make the playoffs now is with a win or regular season title. There are no more spots available by points. Now the question becomes how many wins will you need to be safe? Jim entered Texas 6th in points and left here in the Top 5, 13 points out of the lead. This is Jim's 3rd podium finish of the year with his other 2 being runner ups. Can Jim continue to move forward and close in on the Top 4. His next target will be Lizzy in 4th.
Jim also secured the 1st win of the year for Hit The Pace Car Motorsports and won the team battle. This is also the team's 18th Win All Time.
Josh won earlier this year at Vegas and had not visited the podium since then but now we return to a mile and half and he comes close to victory once again finishing 2nd. After a 4th place last week Josh is definitely heading in the right direction. Josh passed Maigan this week in the standings and is 19 points out of the lead heading to Kansas, another mile and half track. Josh has the most wins at Kansas with 7 and he won the fall race there in both 2024 & 2023. Can he score his 1st Spring Kansas win since 2014?
The points had tightened up after Dega last week and anyone could have walked away with the points lead this week but Brian held on and actually grew his lead from 1 to 3 points and the new runner up is Sean. Brian has now led the points for a total of 60 days this year. The competition is at an all time high and no one seems to be the favorite right now. No one has led the points for more than 22 days at a time so far this year. Brian will be on 15 days straight in the lead when we arrive at Kansas. After Kansas we have the All Star break so whoever leads the points into that gets to hold it for at least 2 weeks.
In Other News:
Justin's losing streak grows to 27 races
FJBLGB Racing regained the lead in the team standings after a rough week for Part Time Garage.
Craig & Lizzy lead the way in consistency this year with the most Top 3's and Top 5's but Craig suffered his 2nd last place finish this week and Lizzy finished 8th.
Couple heartbreak weeks for Maigan finishing 2nd last week and being in control at lap 205 with a win in sight only to fall to 5th after a couple late race accidents.
Lizzy scored her 1st stage win of the year at Texas and Patrick scored his 2nd.
We have a new format for All Star Race this year and it's only 2 weeks away. Read more below...
101st Career Win
When we started NPRS on May 1st, 2005, Patrick won the 1st ever race at Dega. He would go on to win that event and the fall Dega race for a total of 4 wins in the 1st 7 years but then he would go winless at Dega for 14 years until today. His last win at the superspeedway was in 2011. This is his 5th Dega win and 1st win of 2025 to increase his chances at making the playoffs this year to defend his title. Patrick's win was not enough to give him the points lead but he is only 1 point behind the leader Brian now heading to Texas. Can Patrick get back to the top spot next week at Texas on his way to defending his Championship?
Neither Patrick or Maigan had won a race so far this year and it came down to them in the end. Maigan came up 11 points short and 10 of those points was the win bonus Patrick got with Cindric. On the bright side this is Maigan's best finish of her sophomore season and she has moved from 8th to 7th in the points standings. She is tied with Jim who is in 6th so she could move up more next week.
Maigan Scored Her 10th Stage Win At Dega
Craig has finished on the podium for half the races so far this year. After being gone for many years he seems to be back to where he was when he first started in NPRS. The consistency is key and he has a lot of momentum going right now. He was originally looking at a 4th place finish until the Logano & Preece DQ's. Craig is now only 8 points out of the points lead heading to Texas next weekend.
In Other News:
Sean missed making picks which has a lot of impacts to the standings based on rules we implemented at the beginning of 2024. Read more below...
We have the top 4 in points separated by 2 points now. It was going to be a single point but the DQ's changed that. Who will lead the battle out of Texas? Brian, Lizzy, Patrick or Sean?
Josh has the most wins at Texas all time with 11 but Justin has been hot recently winning 3 of the last 5 races at Texas and desperately needs a win.
Final playoff spot right now is a tie between Jim & Maigan. Jim currently holds the tiebreaker with two 2nd place finishes to Maigan's 1.
We now have 7 different winners through 10 races which means there is only 1 spot left based on points before a win will be the only way into the playoffs besides the regular season Champion.
Freedom Motorsports with Maigan's runner up finish won the team battle while Part Time Garage took over the team standings lead.
For the 1st time we are having to refer to a rule we started in 2024. Sean used his free pass earlier this year which allows you to pick late 1 time each season with no consequence. This weekend he failed to turn in picks and had to finish last place in the race as a penalty.
Sean will have to wait til his 24th Dega race to try and get that 1st win there.
Also per rule book every time you miss a race during the season you will lose one win playoff eligibility for the playoffs. That does not mean Sean loses a win or loses playoff points but when it comes down to deciding who makes the playoffs he loses 1 win in that regard. So now when comparing him in the playoff standings he is classified with 1 win vs 2 that he actually has.
If this happens in the playoffs you cannot move on in a round where you missed a race.
47th Career Win (10 Behind Scott For 5th All Time)
3rd Bristol Win
Sean has now won 2 of the 1st 9 races of 2025 and his chances at making the playoffs just greatly increased. Sean had two pretty bad finishes the last 2 weeks but this win turns it all around and he retakes over the points lead as we head to the Easter break. Right now we have a crazy tight battle between the Top 3 and they have seperated themselves from the pack. Sean leads Lizzy by 1 point and Brian by 2 heading towards Talladega and our NPRS anniversary.
Sean has never won at Dega before. He is 0 for 22 attempts. Will #23 be the one?
Lizzy keeps the consistency going with another Top 3 and her 4th straight Top 5 finish. She has 1 win on the year but has yet to score a stage win but her consistency is keeping her towards the top of the points. Can she gain the 1 point needed in 2 weeks at Dega to pass Sean for the points lead? She has never won at Dega before.
Craig is right behind Lizzy with the consistency this year. He has not finished worse than 6th since the 3rd race of the season and it's paying off. He is now ready to challenge Patrick for 4th in the points as they are only 1 point apart heading to Dega. Craig has 4 career wins at Dega.
In Other News:
Part Time Garage won the team battle and the race with finishes of 1st and 3rd. They are now only 1 point behind FJBLGB Racing for the points lead.
Brian had yet to score a stage win in 2025 but he won both of them at Bristol so now has 2 stage wins to go with his 3 race wins which brings his current playoff point total to 17.
Justin moves out of last in points but still sets last place in the playoff standings after 9 races.
13th Career Win
2nd Darlington Win
The 2025 season has been off to a rough start for Tyson but a win can cure all and he pulled it out Sunday in Darlington in the closing stage in a battle with Patrick and a charging Jim in the closing laps. This was Tyson's 13th career win and now he is not just known for his stage wins in 2025. Thanks to his race victory and 5 stage wins this year he currently has a spot in the playoffs and currently at the 2nd most playoff points behind only Brian. Tyson is now out of last place for the 1st time in weeks and now the question is can he turn this win into momentum as we head through this spring stretch? In the standings he is 8 points behind Maigan for 8th. Next week is Bristol, a track Tyson has never won at before.
Jim pulled off his 2nd runner up finish of the year but still searching for his 1st win of 2025. With his runner up finish, Jim passed Josh in the standings for 6th. Remember Jim ended 2024 on a hot streak and he also kicked off 2025 with a Clash Win but he still needs at least 1 win to enter the playoff picture. Realistically we can assume you will need at least 1 win to make the playoffs as we only have 2 spots left without a win after only 8 races. In his single man team of Hit The Pace Car Motorsports, Jim won the team battle this week but continues to set 4th place in the team standings. Bristol is one of 13 active tracks that Jim has never won at. He will look to change that next week.
Patrick continues to finish well week in and week out but has still not found victory lane yet in 2025. Just like Jim Patrick is one of the better competitors this year that have yet to win. In the standings Patrick is 4th and only 9 points out of the lead. Patrick has 4 career wins at Bristol with his last coming in 2022. As of now just like Jim, Patrick would make the playoffs but spots are running out for non winners after Tyson became the 6th winner of the year.
In Other News:
Justin swings for the fences once again and strikes out. Justin choked like Duke did on Saturday night. The losing streak grows to 24 races but more importantly Justin is now last place in the standings and just can't get any momentum going. Justin has 6 career wins at Bristol and desperately needs one now.
Jim, Tyson and Lizzy have never won before at Bristol.
We are about 80 days away from the 1st ever NASCAR in season tournament picks. This could be a game changer as we head towards the playoffs this summer.
1st to last in points right now is only 33 points so anything can happen and no one is out of the picture with 18 races until the playoffs are set.
115th Career Win
After back to back wins to start the season Brian is back in victory lane again at Martinsville. This one came after a tiebreaker with his teammate Lizzy as they picked the same exact drivers and order so the tiebreaker fell to the person with the most 1st places so far this year. Brian was winless in 2024 but he's making up for it this year. This was his 115th Career Win and 5th win at Martinsville. After losing his points lead for 1 week to Sean he has retaken it once again. This is Brian's 3rd time leading the points so far this year. The points lead has already changed hands 7 times this year. Last season it only happened 14 times in the entire season. Brian now leads Sean by 3 points and Lizzy is 4 back in 3rd. We are now heading to Darlington for throwback weekend. Brian has 6 career Darlington wins.
Lizzy just recorded her 5th Top 5 finish at Martinsville. She now leads the series in that category as her consistency continues. Under the old tiebreaker rules from a couple years ago Lizzy would have won this week but the rules changed a couple years ago and that handed it to Brian.
The old tiebreaker-Person higher in points after all other ties could not be broken
The new tiebreaker-Person with the best season finishes, 1st's, 2nd's, 3rd's ect.
Should we review this for possible changes in 2025? This doesn't happen often where 2 people pick the same drivers in the same order.
Despite finishing 2nd, Lizzy is still doing great and only 4 points out of the lead behind her teammate. They had a 1,2 finish and secured the team battle win for FJBLGB Racing and took over the lead in the team standings.
Craig's last 4 finishes have been 3rd, 2nd, 4th and 1st. This week he didn't wait until 11:59 to get his picks in and he continued his strong start to his 2025 season. Craig also scored another stage win, his 10th all time and passed Maigan in the all time list. Craig didn't move up in the standings but he gained some ground on Patrick for 4th place and will look to challenge him this week at Darlington. Darlington is 1 of 10 active tracks that Craig has never won a race at, can he break through for his 2nd win of the year?
In Other News:
Justin swung for the fences with different picks at Martinsville hoping for more chaos and it backfired as he scored a last place finish. The losing streak grows to 23 races.
Tyson continues to dominate stages with his 5th stage win of the year which equals 5 playoff points, the same amount given for a race win. This was Tyson's 29th career stage win. He is now only 3 stage wins behind Sean and 4 behind Daniel on the all-time list. Despite his huge success in stages, Tyson needs to put the race finish together. He has yet to score a Top 3 finish so far this year.
Wasn't a lot of movement in the standings this week but Sean & Lizzy dropped 1 each while Brian moved up 2 spots. Josh was also able to pass Jim for 6th in the standings.
Current Playoff Bubble-Maigan holds the last playoff spot by 7 points over Justin, her former teammate.
Craig, Lizzy & Jim have never won at Darlington before.
Sean Wins Homestead For 1st Victory Since Return
46th Career Win (Breaks Tie With Craig for 6th All Time)
2nd Homestead Win
Sean broke through for the victory at Homestead for his 1st victory since returning after missing the 2024 season. He has now moved into sole position as 6th place on the all time wins list. He is now 11 wins away from tying Scott for 5th place all-time. With this victory Sean has an amazing start to the year. He has 3 Top 3's and 4 Top 5's in 6 races and his worst finish so far this year is 6th. With those impressive stats, Sean is now our new points leader as Brian suffered another rough race. Can Sean continue to hold his lead after the short track racing in Martinsville?
Craig Scores 3rd Straight Top 5
Another member of Part Time Garage is having very solid runs right now as Craig has now scored his 3rd straight Top 5 finish. Craig stated he almost forgot about predictions and quickly picked the Top 5 drivers in qualifying but it worked out pretty well for him this week. Craig was the biggest mover in the standings this week moving up from 8th to 5th as we head to Martinsville. In Craig's 9 year history in NPRS he has never won at Martinsville before. Can he knock that off his list next week?
Winless At Martinsville
Craig-18 attempts
Tyson-8 attempts
Maigan 2 attempts
Patrick Ties Season Best Finish With 2nd Top 3 Of Year
Patrick hasn't done anything spectacular this year but he is hanging around near the top and slowly working his way up. He scored his second 3rd place finish of the year which is his best this year. He moved up from 6th to 4th in the standings and is only 11 points behind our leader Sean. Patrick leads the way among people who have not won a race this year so far with 211 points, 11 points above the cut line for the playoffs. Patrick has 5 wins at Martinsville with his last coming in 2023.
In Other News:
Part Time Garage wins the team battle with a 1,2 finish and moves into the lead in the team standings by 1 point over MAGA Motorsports and FJBLGB Racing. Part Time Garage team members have now won 2 of the 6 races of the new season. FJBLGB Racing has won 3 and MAGA Motorsports has 1 win.
Tyson is the stage king so far this year with 4 stage wins already and a very important 4 playoff points. Tyson now has 28 career stage wins, 8th place all time and is only 4 behind Sean and 5 behind Daniel.
Reminder for Jim-Season Due increases by $5 on April 1st.
Finally some people were able to score the win bonus. After no one picking the winner right since Daytona, 4 people were able to score the win bonus thanks to Kyle Larson. This was also the difference in the winner as if Sean did not score the win bonus, Craig would have won his 2nd race of the year.
Justin's losing streak increases to 22 races.
Current Playoff Bubble-Maigan in by 4 points over Justin for the final spot right now. Tyson also on the outside in 10th.
Josh Revives Early Season With Victory In Vegas
159th Career Win
6th Vegas Win
After a runner up finish in the Daytona 500, Josh had been on a slump for a few weeks with finishes all 8th or worse. Now he revives his season with a Vegas victory over his new teammate Justin. With this victory he moves from 9th to 7th in the standings and moves into the playoff picture as the 4th different winner this season. This could be the start of a run for Josh as we hit more normal tracks than the 1st few races of the year were kinda wildcards. Can Josh continue his march up the standings at Homestead next week where he has more wins than anyone with 6 wins. He has also won 2 of the last 4 races there.
Back To Back Runner Ups For Justin
Justin bridesmaid once again this time to Josh at Vegas. The consecutive 2nd place finishes is good but it still has Justin sitting outside the playoff picture after 5 races. The way things are going you probably will need a win to make the playoffs as we already have 4 different winners and only 8 playoff spots. Justin has 2 wins at Homestead but his last one came 13 years ago. Justin is 19 points out of the points lead heading to Homestead. The good news for everyone was the points leader finished last place for the 2nd races in a row and the points are tightening up among everyone.
Another Top 3 For Sean, Quietly Top 3 In Points As Well
Sean is quietly performing well in his return season. He has 3 Top 5's and 2 Top 3 finishes in the 1st 5 races and has now moved up to 3rd in the standings after his 3rd place run at Vegas. Sean is still searching for that win but he leads the non winners in the points. Sean has 1 past win at Homestead back in 2018. Can Sean continue his consistency as we head into the spring months?
In Other News:
MAGA Motorsports scored the team battle win after Josh & Justin finished 1, 2. FJBLGB Racing continues to lead the way but it's only by a single point. We have a 3 way tie for 2nd in the team standings amoung MAGA, Part Time Garage & Hit The Pace Car Motorsports.
Brian has recaptured the points lead from his teammate Lizzy as they both suffered last place finishes in the last 2 weeks. They still continue to lead 1, 2 in the points as we head to Homestead. Can Lizzy gain 4 points and take it back?
Craig scored his 1st stage win of the year and his 9th all-time. Most of Craig's early career in NPRS was when we didn't have stages so he lacks stage wins compared to many.
Justin is currently on the longest losing streak at 21 races. After back to back 2nd place finishes, maybe a win is coming.
6 Years Later, Craig Is Back In Victory Lane
45th Career Win (Ties Sean For 6th All Time)
Sean has 400 races while Craig has only 328
Craig left NPRS in 2019, a year in which he had 2 season wins. Now in his return season he is back in victory lane just 4 races into the new year. He won by 3 points over Justin to secure his 4th Phoenix Win. Entering this week Craig was 8th in points 29 points out of the lead but with the win he moved up to 7th and is now only 17 out of the lead. 1 win doesn't guarantee your spot in the playoffs but it definitely puts Craig on the right track in his return season. Next week we head to Las Vegas where Craig has 1 past win back in 2018.
Runner Up Is Best Finish By Far For Justin in 2025
Justin's 2025 season has been off to a very slow start. He entered Phoenix last place in points and his best finish of the year was 5th. At Phoenix he was in contention for a win but missed out slightly. However this feels like a win to start turning his season around. He leaves Phoenix with his 1st podium of the year and he moves up to 8th in the standings, 23 out of the lead. Justin has 3 past wins at our track next week in Vegas.
Lizzy Takes Over Points Lead After 3 Podiums in 4 Races
The consistency continues for Lizzy and she is on track for a great year 4 races into the season. In the 1st 4 races of the year she has finishes of 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 7th. The dominance of Brian & Lizzy winning every race ended but Lizzy still finished great in a week where her teammate Brian suffered a last place finish. With that said Lizzy was able to erase Brian's 6 point lead and take over the points lead as we head to Vegas. Last year Lizzy led points for almost 2 weeks after a Clash victory but has never led the points during the regular season. She will enter Vegas with a single point lead over her teammate Brian where she has 1 win back in 2022.
In Other News
Part Time Garage wins the team battle this week and the standings closed up tight after FJBLGB Racing finished last in the team battle. All teams are within 4 points of the lead now but FJBLGB Racing continues to lead the way.
With Brian's last place finish the standings tightened up all throughout. The Top 5 in points now are all within 10 points of the leader.
Maigan had a solid week and was the biggest mover in the standings this week moving from 5th to 3rd.
It's very early but the final playoff spot right now is broken by a tiebreaker with Justin holding the last spot and Josh on the outside looking in.
Congrats to Sean on his 400th Career Race.
Patrick & Justin both scored their 1st stage wins of the year this week.
Patrick owns Las Vegas with 9 career wins at the track
Lizzy Wins COTA, 1st Win Since Indy In July
7th Career Win
The win came down to a tie once again like last week at Atlanta. Lizzy lost the tiebreaker last week to end up runner up but this week she was on the winning side of the tiebreaker and sealed the win over Jim in 2nd. This was Lizzy's 1st win since July of last year and her 7th All-time. With this win she breaks the tie with Kaylin and moves to within 1 win of passing Daniel on the wins list. FJBLGB Racing has won all 3 races this year now with Brian scoring the 1st 2 wins and Lizzy this week. They are off to a hot start and currently 1-2 in the standings. Lizzy trails Brian in the standings by only 6 points as we head to Phoenix for the first west coast race of the year. We have now had 5 different winners in the 1st 5 races at COTA. In Lizzy's short NPRS career she has lacked wins that has kept her from contending for titles and this is a great start to her 2025 campaign.
Jim Scores 1st Podium of 2025
Jim came up short in the tiebreaker and finished 2nd at COTA after having a rough race at Atlanta. At Atlanta he fell from 3rd to 6th in the standings but thanks to his runner up finish this weekend he climbed right back to 3rd in the standings. Jim is 12 points behind Brian and currently in a tie with Patrick for 3rd/4th spot. Thanks to Jim's runner up finish, his team Hit The Pace Car Motorsports won the team battle this week and he has moved his team to 2nd in the team standings. Jim is definitely going to be a favorite at Phoenix next week as he has 3 career wins there. He won a Phoenix race in 2020, 2022 and the most recent race in the season finale last year. Can Jim go from losing a tie for the win to winning like Lizzy did this week?
Patrick Gets 2nd Top 5 In 3 Races
Patrick has been quiet but solid so far in 2025. He has 2 Top 5's in the 1st 3 races and currently sits 4th in the standings as we head to the west coast. Patrick has more wins at Phoenix than anyone with 7 but his last win at the track came in 2019. We have a crazy points battle right now from 3rd to 6th with Jim & Patrick tied for 3rd and 4th and Maigan and Sean are tied for 5th and 6th only 1 point back.
In Other News:
It's early but Craig currently holds the final playoff spot by 1 point over Tyson & Justin who are currently tied for last place 30 points back from the leader.
Josh has been very quiet so far this year after his runner up at Daytona scoring finishes of 8th & 9th the last 2 weeks. The good news is he has racked up 2 stage wins already this year. Will Josh turn it around on the west coast?
Sean has 2 stage wins to kick off his comeback season. The bad news is he used up his free pass this past weekend at COTA and now has a long season ahead of needing to turn in picks on time. Sean will be making his 400th start this weekend at Phoenix.
Brian Wins Atlanta For Back To Back Victories To Start 2025
114th Career Win
7th Atlanta Win (Most All Time)
Well Brian is making up for his winless season in 2024. He has now started off 2025 with back to back wins. It didn't come easy at Atlanta as we had a 3 way tie for the win that Brian would win the tiebreaker over Lizzy & Sean. This is Brian's 7th Atlanta win but first time winning at the new configuration. The closest to him with wins at Atlanta is Josh with 5 wins. This 2nd win of the year all but guarantees Brian will be a part of the playoffs later this season. He currently holds a 10 point lead in the standings over Maigan. The largest lead anyone has ever had under this points system is 13. Brian is off to a record start, could this be the redemption year for the 3 time Champion? The last 2 years he has finished 7th or worse in the standings and he's looking to get back to his winning ways.
Runner Up For Lizzy After 3 Way Tie For Win
Oh so close for Lizzy who lost the tiebreaker and ended up P2 at Atlanta. The good news is she is off to a decent start this year, currently 4th place in the standings after 2 races. She moved up this week from 7th to 4th and will continue to look to move up next week at COTA. Thanks to her and Brian's 1, 2 finish, FJBLGB Racing won the team battle and they have taken over the team standings lead after 2 races.
Sean Gets 1st Podium In Return Season
Sean is quietly starting off his return season in a strong way. He scored his 1st podium this week after the 3 way tie for the victory and after his 6th place in the Daytona 500 he is currently 3rd in the standings. He is currently 4 points behind 2nd place Maigan and 14 behind our points leader Brian. Part Time Garage with Sean and his teammate Craig finished 2nd in the team battle this week and are currently tied for 3rd in the team standings. Sean will look to continue his consistency next week at the 1st road course race of the season.
In Other News:
Jim was the biggest loser this week falling from 3rd to 6th in the standings.
Justin & Tyson are both over 30 points behind now and need a good race to stop the bleeding.
Past winners of COTA are Kaylin, Brian, Patrick & Josh. Everyone else will be looking for their 1st win at the Texas road course.
This year the layout has changed to the short course for the 1st time which should make picking drivers even harder than before with no history on this layout.
Brian Wins Daytona 500 and Breaks 36 Race Winless Streak
113th Career Win
3rd Daytona 500 Win (1st Since 2015)
He went all of 2024 without a victory but he starts off 2025 with a bang. Brian survived the chaos Sunday and pulled off a 4 point victory over Josh for the Daytona 500 victory. This is Brian's 15th crown jewel race which ties him with Josh for the most all time. He entered the race 5th place in points but now as we head to Atlanta he is our new points leader by 2 points over Maigan. It's only one race but it's much easier to stay on top than try to play catch up this early in the season. Now we are heading to another drafting style track where he will look to avoid chaos once again. Brian has more wins at Atlanta than anyone else with 6 in his career.
Josh Scores Runner Up To Start The 2025 Campaign
Josh came up 1 spot shy of his 6th Daytona 500 victory but walks away with a great points day to start off a new season. He came into the race 8th place in the standings and has now moved his way up to 6th place as we head to Atlanta. Josh was able to score a stage win for a very important playoff point that could mean a lot later this season. Josh has 5 career wins at Atlanta but has yet to win on the new configuration but he will look to change that next week.
Maigan Starts Year With A Podium
2024 was no fluke, Maigan means business and shes already off to a great sophomore season. She led the points heading into Daytona and although she lost it to Brian she is only 2 points behind and will look to retake it next week. Maigan & her new teammate Tyson scored the team win for Freedom Motorsports in the Daytona 500 to kick off the team Championship. Maigan has her eyes set on Atlanta as she was the last one to win there in the fall last year.
In Other News:
Justin & Tyson have some work to do as they are both over 20 points behind already.
Sean was able to score his 31st stage win in his return race. He also took over 5th place all-time in career races with 397 from Scott.
1st-7th is only separated by 11 points right now so anything can change quickly next week.
Patrick Wins Duel 1
The defending Champ makes it back to victory lane already with a victory in Duel #1. This is the 1st time he has ever won the 1st Duel before. He had a pretty dominating lineup with 6 points back to 2nd place Maigan. As we head into the Daytona 500 Sunday, Patrick is runner up in the points standings in a tie with Jim as they both try to catch our points leader Maigan.
Brian Back In Victory Lane Finally But The Streak Continues
It has to feel good for Brian to get a victory in anyway but because this is not a regular season race it doesn't break his losing streak. He won Duel #2 after winning a tiebreaker against Patrick who was very close to sweeping the Duels. As we head to Sunday, Brian is 5th place 4 points out of the lead.
Maigan is our new points leader heading into the great american race.
Justin & Tyson have a big hole to dig out already at 15 and 17 points behind.
Jim Kicks Off 2025 With Clash Victory
Jim was the hottest at the end of the 2024 season and he carried the momentum into 2025 with his 2nd Clash Victory. He won 4 of the last 6 races at the end of 2024 and now he claims the points lead with the 1st event of 2025. He will lead the points by 1 over Lizzy and 2 over Maigan as we head towards Daytona. Jim had 1 risky pick with Blaney who had to come from the LCQ and start in the back but it paid off as Blaney drove all the way to 2nd place. The next predictions due will be due Wednesday February 12th at midnight for the Duel Races. That means Jim will hold the points lead for at least 11 days.
CLASH AT BOWMAN GRAY
2025 Season about to kick off
Picks for the 1st event of 2025 are up
The Clash is on February 2nd and picks are due February 1st at midnight
You pick 5 drivers this year. Only drivers who finish the main event in the Top 10 will score points
Season Ending Payouts With Daniel's $15 Donation This Year
1st-$290
2nd-$80
3rd-$40
"Part Time Garage" Debuts As New Team For 2025
Former Champions Sean Sloat & Craig Williamson join together in their return seasons to form a new team called Part Time Garage. Can the former Champions work together to win the team Championship in 2025? Craig is back for the 1st time since 2019 before teams existed in NPRS and Sean was formerly on Freedom Motorsports
MAGA Motorsports Welcomes Justin in '25
MAGA Motorsports is the overall must successful team so far in NPRS history with 37 race wins, 2 Championships and 1 team Championship and this year they welcome Justin who was traded from Freedom Motorsports with Tyson. Patrick & Josh both went to the Championship race against each other last season.
Hit The Pace Car Motorsports Is Jim's Team Now
In 2022 Hit The Pace Car Motorsports debuted as a single car team with Daniel. 2023 they grew with Kaylin and in 2024 they added Jim. In the off season they lost Daniel & Kaylin so now the team is back to a single car team with Jim. Can Jim keep the team alive or even grow it at the end of 2025?
Defending Team Champions FJBLGB Racing Races Into 2025
FJBLGB Racing won their 2nd team Championship in 2024. The team remains the same as last year with Brian & Lizzy. Their consistency led them to their 2nd team Championship in 2024.
Freedom Motorsports Welcomes Tyson
Freedom Motorsports gained Tyson through a trade at the end of last year and he will work alongside the star rookie from last year Maigan as they try to continue the legacy this team has built so far
2025 Preview
Patrick Pauley (1 Time Champ)
16 years in the making, Patrick finally won his 1st NPRS Championship in 2024. Now that the monkey is off his back what else can he aim to conquer as he will try to defend his Championship in 2025. He is a 2 time Daytona 500 winner but his last win in the great american race came back in 2018. Patrick hit 100 wins last year as well and continues his march up the all-time list. Justin is 3rd all time at 105. Can Patrick catch him in wins? Patrick is 3rd place all time in stage wins, can he chase down 2nd place Brian? We have a lot of new excitement this year with the CLASH at Bowman Gray and racing in Mexico this summer. Patrick is ready to defend his title and later this season will surpass 600 career races.
Josh Moore (8 Time Champ)
Josh was the runner up in 2024 and he has been in the title race 3 straight years now so he's already an odds on favorite in 2025. Josh hasn't had a bad year in a decade. 6th place was his worst season finish ever back in 2013. He finished 2nd to his teammate Patrick last year and will be looking to get his team back into the hunt again this year with his new teammate Justin coming over from Freedom Motorsports. As we enter the 2025 season Josh has 158 career wins, and 93 career stage wins. Wouldn't be a stretch to say he may hit 100 stage wins this season. The sky is the limit for the GOAT as we begin our 21st season.
Maigan Sanders
The talk of 2024 was the rookie Maigan. It wasn't the Championship winning performance that Jim once had but it was definitely one of the best rookie seasons in the history of NPRS. She won 6 races and went head to head with the GOAT most of the regular season. She even won the regular season title and although she ended up 3rd overall she made a huge statement and will be a force in her sophomore season. Maigan will likely be able to bypass Kaylin & Daniel in the all time wins list this season and has a shot at moving into the Top 10 on the all time wins list if she puts up another 6 win season. She is now teammates with Tyson Shoemaker at Freedom Motorsports in the 2025 season.
Lizzy Caruthers
Lizzy is entering her 4th season in NPRS and she currently has the 3rd best season average all time behind Josh & Maigan. She has yet to finish a season outside of the Top 4 since joining in 2022. The only thing she has been lacking is the consistent wins. She has 6 career wins over the 3 years and if she can change that she will be contending for that 1st title. Her team FJBLGB Racing is coming off of their 2nd team Championship and will be looking for #3 in 2025.
Justin Caruthers (1 Time Champ)
Justin now has the longest drought without winning a title after Patrick clinched his. Justin has 1 title but it came 15 years ago in 2009. The last 2 years Justin has finished 6th place overall and just hasn't been able to keep his momentum going throughout the entire season. He seems to have some good spots here and there but can't stay consistent. He has 105 career wins, trailing Brian for 2nd on the all time wins list by 7 but has Patrick closing in behind him. Can Justin turn his luck around and chase that 2nd title in 2025 now that he joins his new team at MAGA Motorsports?
Brian Caruthers (3 Time Champ)
Brian is coming off his worst season in his 20 year career in NPRS. He finished 8th place and went winless in 2024. It's only up from here is the good news. No one is ready for a clean slate more than Brian in 2025. It's very important he breaks the losing streak early so he can focus on the rest of the season. He is currently at a 36 race winless streak. His last Daytona 500 win came back in 2015 so that would be a good place to start.
Jim Shoemaker (1 Time Champ)
By looking at the numbers Jim had a very rough year that was plagued by the longest losing streak in the history of NPRS but after he broke that streak he caught fire. Jim has to be the one with the most momentum heading into 2025. He won 4 of the last 6 races, that 66% of the last 6 races, including the 2 most recent races! If Jim had got hot a little earlier it could have resulted in a Championship. Jim's 1 title came back in 2020 in his rookie season and he enters 2025 as a single person team at Hit The Pace Car Motorsports after we lost Daniel & Kaylin this season. Jim has 17 career wins and 25 stage wins as we head into his 6th season. Jim is becoming a veteran and will surpass 200 career races in 2025.
Tyson Shoemaker
Tyson finished at the bottom of the standings last year and also tied the longest losing streak in the history of NPRS like his father Jim. The good news is he broke the streak and got the win and actually had a nice stretch of races in the playoffs. Tyson has 12 career wins and 24 career stage wins as he starts his 5th season of NPRS. It's a new year and Tyson is on a new team at Freedom Motorsports as we begin the 2025 season.
Sean Sloat (1 Time Champ)
He's back...again. After being with us from 2012-2018 he took a break in 2019 to return from 2020-2023 and then took another year off last year in 2024. Now in 2025 the 2013 Champion is back. His 2 most recent seasons ended in a 10th place effort but back in 2021 he finished runner up in the title race. This is Sean's 12th season with us and he has 45 career wins. He is 12 wins behind Scott for 5th on the all time wins list. Sean will bypass Scott in career races as soon as the Daytona 500 is over. Can Sean get back to winning ways and chase his 2nd title. Last year he won the all-star race as a past Champion entry. Sean's team is TBA at this time.
Craig Williamson (1 Time Champ)
After 5 years away, the 2012 NPRS Champion is back. Lizzy, Jim, Tyson & Maigan have never got to compete with Craig but he was in NPRS from 2011-2019. He finished Top 3 overall 3 times and won the 1 title in 2012. Things have definitely changed since he left in 2019 post covid but he has quite a history with 44 wins in 324 races. He will be competing with Sean this year for the all time wins list as they are only 1 win apart and both returning. Craig's team is TBA at this time.