PREVIEW: Records set to fall this weekend in Pocono
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Carson Ware, @carsonreedware
Saturday, June 13, 2026 (Green Flag 4:15 P.M. ET, CW)
O’REILLY Race 17 of 33
MillerTech Batteries 250 Presented by KOA at Pocono
2025 Last-Place Finisher: Justin Bonsignore
ENTRY LIST
There are 38 drivers entered for as many starting spots, so all will qualify.
DRIVER CHANGE: #0-SS-Green Light Racing / Haas Factory Team
For the fourth time this season, Cole Custer will pull double-duty with the O’Reilly Auto Part Series as the Haas Factory Team fields the #0 with sponsorship from Sysco. This will mark Custer’s 180th series start, and comes in a race he’s won twice before in both 2019 and his last time out in 2024. He takes the place of Garrett Smithley, who finished 33rd two weeks ago in Nashville.
DRIVER CHANGE: #1-JR Motorsports
RETURNING / DRIVER SWAP: #9-JR Motorsports
Looking to avoid becoming the first driver in NASCAR history to score four consecutive last-place finishes in Cup points-paying races, Connor Zilisch will also pull double duty for a seventh time in 2026, his first since a 6th-place showing in Charlotte. Zilisch and his Roto-Rooter sponsorship will take the place of 7th-place Nashville finisher Carson Kvapil, who moves to JRM’s returning part-time #9 entry. That team also made its most recent series start at Charlotte, where Ross Chastain took it to the weather-marred victory.
MISSING: #33-Richard Childress Racing
Not among this week’s entrants is Cleetus McFarland, whose RCR entry spun battling for position at the end of a stage and ultimately took home the 35th spot.
DRIVER CHANGE: #35-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen / Mike Harmon Racing
When we last saw Carson Ware in the O’Reilly garage, it was this year’s Daytona opener, where he and sponsor Costa Oil partnered with Barrett-Cope Racing for a 19th-place finish in their #30 Chevrolet. With the Barrett team still absent since Martinsville, Ware returns with the Mike Harmon Racing effort he last joined at Talladega last fall, a team which continues to field the #35 in place of Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen (and has again not fielded the #74). This time around, Costa Oil sponsors Ware to mark the company’s Employee Appreciation Day, and run a black-and-yellow scheme similar to one Steve Park ran for DEI in 1998.
DRIVER CHANGE: #38-RSS Racing
Earlier this year, Patrick Emerling was tabbed to run a part-time third Chevrolet entry for RSS racing on the superspeedways, taking 13th in Daytona and 16th in Talladega. The team has since resurfaced for the last three straight races, where each time they campaigned a Ford which fell out in the first 65 laps – once driven by Logan Bearden and twice by J.J. Yeley. This week, Emerling rejoins the team which is again a Chevrolet and this week carries sponsorship from the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and Teslong. This will be already the fifth series start for Emerling at the Pocono track, where his best performance of 26th came for the Gase team in 2023.
DRIVER CHANGE: #42-Young’s Motorsports
While the first draft of the entry list showed Nick Leitz driving this car this week, it will instead be Nathan Byrd who will make his seventh series start of the season and tenth of his career, taking the place of 26th-place Nashville finisher Logan Bearden. Leitz made his most recent series start with this team in Charlotte, where he took home 26th.
TEAM UPDATE: #51-Jeremy Clements Racing
Jeremy Clements runs a special paint scheme this Saturday as he ties Kenny Wallace’s all-time record for most O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starts, his 547th green flag. The youngest Wallace, who’s still active on the dirt racing circuit in addition to his “Coffee with Kenny” program, set his mark at Iowa on August 1, 2015 at the age of 51.
DRIVER CHANGE: #53-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
Natalie Decker will make her third series start and first since her abrupt exit from the Truck Series at Dover. Following a pair of 33rd-place finishes on the superspeedways in Daytona and Talladega in the Gase #35, she will this time pilot the #53 in place of 37th-place Nashville finisher David Starr.
DRIVER CHANGE: #87-Peterson Racing Group
At the start of the season, the plan had been for Austin Green to run his first full season this year in the Peterson #87. But even with a history of entering a second car in the past, it was announced earlier this month the team has hired Nick Sanchez from the shuttered AM Racing team to drive in at least four upcoming races, starting tomorrow at Pocono, and continuing through Chicagoland, Atlanta, and Indianapolis. This will be Sanchez’ eighth series start of the year, his first since AM withdrew from Rockingham following a crash in Martinsville that left him 33rd. Expect Green to return for the following two west coast road courses in San Diego and Sonoma.
DRIVER CHANGE: #88-JR Motorsports
Tomorrow will mark William Byron’s third series start of the season and first since Kansas, where he took home 6th in this same #88 entry. He takes the place of Kyle Larson, who finished 8th last time out in Nashville.
DRIVER CHANGE: #91-DGM Racing x JIM
Welcome back Dexter Bean, who tomorrow will make his first O’Reilly start since April 6, 2024 at Martinsville, where he finished 20th in another Mario Gosselin-owned car. This time, Bean runs a patriotic paint scheme sponsored by Rich Mar Florist and Badger Environmental as he takes the place of 28th-place Nashville finisher Mason Maggio in the #91.
CUP INVADERS: #0-Cole Custer, #1-Connor Zilisch, #88-William Byron
Sunday, June 14, 2026 (Green Flag 3:21 P.M. ET, PRIME)
CUP Race 16 of 36
Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono
2025 Last-Place Finisher: Riley Herbst
ENTRY LIST
There are 38 drivers entered for 40 spots, marking the 14th short field in 16 races this season and sixth in a row.
MISSING: #44-NY Racing Team
J.J. Yeley did a marvelous job avoiding all the chaos at Michigan to earn a 21st-place finish, his best finish in the series in nearly three years. However, even with the track’s proximity to Manhattan, the NY Racing Team will not be among this week’s entrants.
RETURNING: #62-Beard Motorsports
One team rejoining the series this week is Beard Motorsports, which we last saw washed out of the field in Talladega after rain cancelled qualifying. This week, the Beard team will finally make their first start of the season with a returning Casey Mears and sponsorship from The Gracie Foundation. Mears earned his first of three career Cup poles at Pocono in 2004, and continues his push for 500 series starts – Sunday will be number 496.
RETURNING: #78-Live Fast Motorsports
Daniel Dye makes his second career Cup start and first since a 24th-place debut in Talladega, which kicked off his part-time effort with B.J. McLeod at Live Fast Motorsports. Sunday’s start comes with news that Dye has also landed a part-time O’Reilly effort in the RSS Racing #38. After his suspension, then resignation from a full-time Truck Series ride at Kaulig RAM Racing, Dye will now have part-time rides in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series before the season is half over.
TEAM UPDATE: #88-Trackhouse Racing
Although he’s certainly not hoping for it to happen, a 38th-place finish by Connor Zilisch on Sunday will make him the first driver in Cup Series history to finish last in four consecutive Cup Series races. Zilisch carries sponsorship from Roto-Rooter on both Saturday and Sunday.
Friday, June 19, 2026
TRUCKS Race 13 of 25
Navy 250 at Naval Base Coronado
2025 Last-Place Finisher: Inaugural Event
The Truck Series returns next Friday to kick off the inaugural weekend at Naval Base Coronado.
TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (June 12, 2004): Jeff Fuller picked up the 15th last-place finish of his NASCAR Busch Series career in the Federated Auto Parts 300 at the Nashville Superspeedway when his #88 NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet had a vibration after 6 laps.
