Author Archives: PressBox

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been working with the filmmakers behind the upcoming “Days of Thunder” sequel and says he wants the project to stay closely tied to the 1990 NASCAR film. He has met several times with the writer to answer NASCAR questions, including visits at a replica western town on his property, and told the writer, “Anything you need, call me.” Earnhardt said he is excited to help shape the movie, but expects some parts of the original may not return. He said fans will still look for Easter eggs and familiar references, and he wants the old barn near Mooresville, North Carolina, where parts of the first film were shot, to appear in the sequel even though it has deteriorated over time.

The sequel, announced by Tom Cruise, is due in theaters in June 2028 and is scheduled to begin filming early next year. Cruise will again play Cole Trickle, and Anne Hathaway is set to co-star as a team owner and engineer. Earnhardt said he has met Cruise three times over the years, including for about 20 minutes at Daytona International Speedway last weekend when Cruise attended after the sequel was announced and spoke to the garage before the race.

Interest in the project also reached NASCAR drivers at Media Day, where several said they would welcome cameos or other involvement after meeting Cruise at Daytona. Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe and Kyle Larson said they would like to appear in the film, with Logano saying a cameo would earn him major “dad points” with his five children. Briscoe said he would be excited to be included, and Larson said he is not an actor. Briscoe said Cruise spent about 20 to 25 minutes with drivers and owners talking about the film’s direction and how NASCAR has changed since the original, which featured Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace, Neil Bonnett and Harry Gant and included a production role for Hendrick Motorsports.

Kyle Larson entered the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs facing a 50-race winless drought, a seventh-place seed and a 55-point deficit to top seed Denny Hamlin after the regular season. The Hendrick Motorsports driver, who has not won since May 11, 2025, said he still sees a path to another championship if his team is ultra-consistent over the final 10 races, though he acknowledged he is less confident than in past seasons.

Larson pointed to last year’s title run as proof the format still leaves room for a championship without a late-season victory. The current playoff system places more weight on consistency across all 10 Chase races, which makes his title defense more difficult than it was in 2025, when he entered as the No. 1 seed with three wins, 15 top-five finishes and 22 top-10s. This season, he finished the regular campaign with no wins, nine top-fives, 13 top-10s, 659 laps led and a 17.23 average finish.

The playoffs open Sunday with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, where Larson has one win and seven top-five finishes in 17 starts. He also welcomed the move of the championship race from Phoenix Raceway to Homestead-Miami Speedway, saying Phoenix was one of his worst tracks even though he won both of his Cup titles there. Larson also noted that he is the defending winner at Homestead-Miami.

Trackhouse Racing teammates Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch were scheduled to run Red Bull-backed cars in the zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Tour race at Florence Motor Speedway, with van Gisbergen set for his debut in Hettinger Racing’s No. 51 Chevrolet and Zilisch entered in JR Motorsports’ No. 8. The 125-lap race drew 30 entries and came the same weekend NASCAR opened The Chase at nearby Darlington Raceway.

Van Gisbergen said he first became interested in Late Model racing after watching a CARS Tour event at Florence two years earlier and thought it would be cool to try it himself. The Florence start was set to be his first race after missing the 16-driver Cup Series playoff field at Daytona, where he finished 28th in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 and ended up 17 points below the cutline as Ryan Preece took the final playoff spot.

Zilisch returned to the CARS Tour after 14 previous starts across 2023 and 2024. He had won at Hickory in 2024 and in the South Carolina 250 in a Limited car at Florence in 2023, and said he expected the event to be competitive rather than an easy win. Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on his podcast that both Trackhouse drivers would have their hands full in a large field, and he also was entered to make his CARS Tour Pro Late Model debut that weekend.

NASCAR’s 2026 playoffs begin this weekend at Darlington Raceway, with the Cook Out Southern 500 set for 5 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 6, as the opener of the 10-race Cup Series Chase. The race will cover 501.32 miles over 367 laps at the 1.366-mile South Carolina track, which has long been described as one of NASCAR’s toughest. Coverage is set for USA Network and HBO Max, with radio on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Saturday’s schedule at Darlington includes O’Reilly Auto Parts Series practice and qualifying, followed by Cup Series practice and qualifying. The Fleetio 200 opens the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday and will air on The CW and ESPN Unlimited. In Cup qualifying, Chad Finchum led the way with a metric score of 40.100, followed by Cody Ware at 35.600 and Erik Jones at 33.600. Dawson Cram topped the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series qualifying order with a 40.400 metric score, with Jake Finch second at 33.200 and Daniel Dye third at 32.300.

Darlington has hosted 130 NASCAR Cup Series races from 1950 through 2025. Aric Almirola still holds the qualifying record at 184.145 mph, set in 2014, and Matt Kenseth owns the 500-mile race record at 141.383 mph, set in 2013. Among active drivers, Denny Hamlin leads the track in starts, average starting position and wins, with 28 starts, an average start of 8.464 and five victories. Tyler Reddick, Hamlin, Joey Logano and William Byron are tied for the active pole lead at Darlington with two each, and pole winners have gone on to win 22 of the 130 Cup races there.