PREVIEW: Superspeedway stars and young road course specialists set to impress on Atlanta and Lime Rock weekend
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
IMAGE: Young’s Motorsports, @youngsmtrsports
Friday, June 27, 2025 (Green Flag 7:40 P.M. ET, CW)
XFINITY Race 17 of 33
Focused Health 250 at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta)
2024 Last-Place Finisher: Dawson Cram
ENTRY LIST
There are 38 drivers entered for as many spots, so all will qualify.
MISSING: #17-Hendrick Motorsports
Chase Elliott is not entered following his pole and 4th-place finish last week in Pocono, a run overshadowed by a post-race penalty regarding the main frame rail conical receiver.
DRIVER CHANGE: #19-Joe Gibbs Racing
Aric Almirola returns for his 125th career XFINITY Series start and seventh of the season, his first since a 6th-place finish in Nashville. Younglife continues as his sponsor. Almirola takes the place of Justin Bonsignore, who has now been classified in last place for his last two series starts following an early blown engine in Pocono.
RETURNING: #24-Sam Hunt Racing
Patrick Staropoli and sponsor SYFOVRE return to action for the first time since Staropoli finished 16th in his series debut earlier this year at Martinsville. This also marks the first start for SHR’s second team since Mexico City, where Chirstopher Bell’s blown engine left him in last place.
RETURNING: #32-Jordan Anderson Racing
Katherine Legge embarks on her 10th career XFINITY start and fifth of the year, her first since a crash left her 34th in Charlotte. She again drives for Jordan Anderson’s part-time #32 effort, this time with Desnuda Tequila as sponsor, her backer in Texas. This will be Legge’s first Atlanta start.
DRIVER CHANGE: #35-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
Joey Gase returns to the driver’s seat this week in place of Carson Ware, who finished 34th in Pocono. The NFPA continues its sponsorship of Gase, who finished a track-best 21st at Atlanta this past spring.
DRIVER CHANGE: #53-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
The second Gase entry goes to Mason Maggio with online security firm Control-Alt-Protect as sponsor of the #53, marking Maggio’s eighth XFINITY start of the year and first since a 28th-place showing in Nashville. He takes the place of Logan Bearden, who finished 27th in Pocono.
MISSING: #74-Mike Harmon Racing
Dawson Cram is not among this week’s entrants after he finished 33rd in the Harmon team’s return to action at Pocono.
DRIVER CHANGE: #91-DGM Racing x JIM
C.J. McLaughlin has made just three other starts this year, including the spring race at this Atlanta track, where his 25th-place finish is his best of the 2025 season so far. He rejoins the Mario Gosselin team this week, taking the place of 23rd-place Pocono finisher Josh Bilicki, who will be in Lime Rock Park for the Truck Series race (see below).
CUP INVADERS: None
Saturday, June 28, 2025 (Green Flag 1:23 P.M. ET, FS1)
TRUCKS Race 15 of 25
LiUNA! 150 at Lime Rock Park
2024 Last-Place Finisher: Inaugural Event
ENTRY LIST
There are 34 drivers entered for 36 spots, so all will qualify. This marks the 14th consecutive short field in this year’s Truck Series season.
DRIVER CHANGE: #1-TRICON Garage
This weekend sees Brent Crews rejoin the TRICON team for the first time since his 22nd-place series debut in North Wilkesboro earlier this year. In addition to his career in ARCA and late models, Crews boasts an impressive road racing career of his own, as the youngest race winner and series champion in the history of Trans Am, where he’s raced at Lime Rock the last three years. Crews takes the place of Brandon Jones, who finished 4th last week in Pocono. Crews will also be entered in this weekend’s ARCA race at Lime Rock in Joe Gibbs Racing’s #18.
DRIVER CHANGE: #2-Reaume Brothers Racing
Also set to do battle is New York native William Lambros, an instructor for the Skip Barber Racing School without countless laps around the Lime Rock circuit. The school will sponsor his ride in the #2 effort at the Reaume team as Lambros takes the place of Cody Dennison, whose crash in Pocono left him 33rd.
WITHDREW: #6-Norm Benning Racing
Norm Benning had been entered in Saturday’s race, but has since withdrawn his #6 entry, which was parked at Pocono for failing to meet minimum speed in the early laps.
DRIVER CHANGE: #7-Spire Motorsports
Two years after he made his first NASCAR starts in both the Cup Series – as Chase Elliott’s relief driver in COTA – then a pair of XFINITY races at Portland and the Charlotte “Roval,” championship sports car driver Jordan Taylor will make his Truck Series debut in the stout Spire Motorsports #7, taking the place of 13th-place Pocono finisher Carson Hocevar.
DRIVER CHANGE: #22-Reaume Brothers Racing
While the preliminary entry list showed “TBA” in the driver’s column, Alex Labbe will likewise make his first Truck Series start on Saturday, having competed on the road courses in a significant portion of his 159 career XFINITY Series starts. Labbe joins both William Lambros and full-timer Frankie Muniz at the Reaume team as Labbe takes to the #22 driven to a 30th-place finish last week by Clayton Green. As of this writing, the team has no primary sponsorship.
MISSING: #28-FDNY Racing
Although team owner Jim Rosenblum is native to the northeast, the FDNY Racing team will not make the trip to Lime Rock Park with Bryan Dauzat, who was parked at Pocono for not maintaining minimum speed after early repairs.
RETURNING: #32-NDS Motorsports
Welcome back to the NDS Motorsports team, which we haven’t seen attempt a race in the Truck Series since August 30, 2015, when Robert Mitten’s trip into the tire barriers at Mosport prevented him from starting the team’s #53 RAM. Now the team fields an entry for Dale Quarterley in the #32 for what will be the veteran driver’s fourth series start and first since COTA last year, when he came home 26th for Young’s Motorsports. Quarterley will also run this weekend’s ARCA race in his #4.
DRIVER CHANGE: #44-Niece Motorsports
This Saturday marks just the 12th series start for Josh Bilicki and his first since the return to the Milwaukee Mile two years ago, where early mechanical issues put him into the wall, leaving him in last place. This time, Bilicki takes the wheel of Al Niece’s #44 entry, taking the place of 31st-place Pocono finisher Conner Jones.
RETURNING: #56-Hill Motorsports
Timmy Hill will not be running this weekend’s ARCA event, but has brought back his #56 entry to the Truck Series garage for the first time since his 19th-place showing in Charlotte, site of his 500th NASCAR start. This weekend’s race will mark Hill’s 115th in the Truck Series.
RETURNING: #62-Halmar Friesen Racing
After a successful test at the Carolina Motorsports Park earlier this year, Georgia native Wesley Slimp, a three-time race winner from the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Series, will make his NASCAR debut in a second Friesen entry, the #62, with sponsorship from HNTB. This marks the first entry for the HFR team’s second truck since the 2023 running of the Bristol Dirt Race, where Jessica Friesen failed to qualify.
DRIVER CHANGE: #66-ThorSport Racing
Welcome back to Cam Waters, who returns to the Truck Series for the first time since he made his first two series starts last year, taking 30th at Martinsville and 19th at Kansas, before making his Cup debut at Sears Point, where he finished 35th. As in his previous Truck Series starts, Waters drives ThorSport’s #66, this time in place of 12th-place Pocono finisher Luke Baldwin.
MISSING: #69-Motorsports Business Management
Tyler Tomassi is not among this week’s entrants after he signaled a return to the series for team owner Carl Long, yielding a 24th-place finish in Pocono.
MISSING: #74-Mike Harmon Racing
Dawson Cram is likewise not entered after he steered the former G2G Racing Toyota to a 32nd-place finish, falling out with clutch issues.
DRIVER CHANGE: #02-Young’s Motorsports
Still another impressive newcomer to the NASCAR field is 16-year-old Ben Maier, who has already made a name for himself in the Stadium Super Trucks with Robby Gordon, Trans Am, the CARS Tour, and Travis Pastrana's NitroCross. Maier, whose entry showed “TBA” in the driver’s column when the list was first published, takes the place of 21st-place Pocono finisher Nathan Byrd. Executive Chevrolet is the listed sponsor.
DRIVER CHANGE: #07-Spire Motorsports
Thomas Annunziata, the same driver sharing the Cope Family Racing’s XFINITY ride with Leland Honeyman, Jr., who races the car in Atlanta, is the latest in a series of surprising drivers to take the wheel of Spire’s “all-star” #07 entry. Annunziata takes the place of 15th-place Pocono finisher Patrick Emerling, and will also run for Nitro Motorsports in the ARCA race.
CUP INVADERS: None
Saturday, June 28, 2025 (Green Flag 7:19 P.M. ET, TNT)
CUP Race 18 of 36
Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta)
2024 Last-Place Finisher: Chase Briscoe
ENTRY LIST
There are 41 drivers entered for 40 spots, meaning one will fail to qualify. This marks only the third full field in 18 Cup races this season, and the first since the Daytona 500 to send at least one team home.
DRIVER CHANGE: #44-NY Racing Team
Although the entry list on NASCAR.com showed the NY Racing Team on the list while the one soon published did not, the team will make the trip with J.J. Yeley returning to the driver’s seat in place of 34th-place Pocono finisher Brennan Poole. Yeley was running on the lead lap here in the spring when he was collected in a brutal wreck on the frontstretch. It was in this race two years ago that Yeley earned his most recent top-ten finish, coming home 7th.
RETURNING: #66-Garage 66
Welcome back David Starr, who makes just his 19th series start in a career dating back to his first series attempt in 2003. He rejoins Carl Long’s team for the first time since his most recent start at Martinsville in the spring of last year, where he finished in last place due to a worsening power steering issue. This time, he carries primary sponsorship from WNB Factory and associate backing from several others, including Carter’s Royal Dispos-all, who viewers of “Rise of the Field Fillers” would recall as a sponsor in Cup back in 2004 – first for Morgan Shepherd, then for John Carter’s own #37 team. Starr has not started a Cup race at Atlanta since September 6, 2011, when he finished 29th for the now-shuttered Leavine Family Racing team on the track’s old configuration.
RETURNING: #78-Live Fast Motorsports
B.J. McLeod will again be sponsored by the now-opened Pigeon Forge Racing Coaster on his #78 Chevrolet, the first start for his team since Katherine Legge’s effort at Mexico City yielded a 32nd-place finish. McLeod finished 22nd here in the spring, when he also led a lap, and ran 33rd after overheating issues in his most recent start as a driver back at Talladega. McLeod hopes to avoid trouble on Atlanta’s treacherous backstretch which left him in last place in back-to-back races from 2022 to 2023.
RETURNING: #87-Trackhouse Racing
Thanks to a newly extended part-time schedule in 2025, Connor Zilisch will also attempt this weekend’s race, fresh off his impressive XFINITY Series victory in Pocono. Zilisch will again run the Red Bull colors on Trackhouse’s #87, his 3rd series start and first since a 23rd-place showing in last month’s Coca-Cola 600.
RETURNING: #01-Rick Ware Racing
Corey LaJoie goes from Prime’s post-race stage back to the driver’s seat as he this time runs a white variant of his “Stacking Pennies” scheme for Rick Ware Racing, a team that is reportedly undergoing a possible change in ownership. LaJoie’s Schluter Systems Ford will take to the track for the first time since Bristol, where he finished six laps down in 34th.
TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (June 27, 1992): Elton Sawyer finished last for the fourth time in his Busch Series career in the Fay’s 150 at Watkins Glen International when his #91 Owen Racing Buick fell out with handling woes without completing any of the 62 laps. This was the first of four times the last-place finisher of a current day XFINITY Series race at Watkins Glen saw the last-place finisher fail to complete a single lap.
