Bristol didn’t disappoint this weekend, with each of NASCAR’s three National Series having their moment in the spotlight. But, if you missed all that action, here’s a look at what the NASCAR community took away from NASCAR’s first trip to Bristol this year.
The first of two major battles this weekend took place during Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race when Christian Eckes (depending on who you ask) intentionally or unintentionally wrecked Croey Heim while racing for the lead.
Either way this incident shakes out, most, if not everybody, agrees that Eckes was in the wrong here, and hey, that’s pretty clear, but, for the most part, this crash ended another great run for Heim, who, despite his part-time status, remains one of the best storylines of the 2026 Truck Series season.
Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race felt like a blast from 2025, with Connor Zilisch scoring his 12th career (and Rodney Childers’ first) NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win. But, once again, the 19-year-old Pehnom’s Sunday outing was about as forgettable as it gets, with his No. 88 coming home in 33rd, his fourth sub-30 finish of the season.
No one said the transition to the NASCAR Cup Series was going to be easy for Zilisch, but an off year as far as competitiveness goes for Trackhouse definitely isn’t helping his efforts. Most figured he would perform as Ty Gibbs did in 2023; instead, it’s felt more like Riley Herbst in 2025, something no one expected this past offseason.
Speaking of Riley Herbst, his effort this weekend, until the actual start of the Cup Series race, deserves its cudos, as he scored his best career start in the Cup Series, and, at least for a while, looked to have the best 23XI Racing Toyota. That was, of course, until a shared back-and-forth with Kyle Busch, which caught the attention of the NASCAR community for all the wrong reasons.
While Busch spinning or just going back at drivers is nothing uncommon, his spat with Herbst seems to be another low for the future Hall of Famer this season. For the most part, when fans talk about this, they are laughing about the fact that Busch is battling with Riley Herbst, and not the front of the field.
Ryan Blaney’s pit crew is a storyline that, at the start of the season, no one would have seen coming. Whether it’s NASCAR analysts calling out their shortcomings on broadcasts or those shortcomings showing up during races, it has not been a picture-perfect year for what should be one of the sport’s best.
Nonetheless, as the season goes on, the team could perhaps put this stretch behind them. Blaney is still one of the best drivers in the sport right now, and, if the team can start firing on all cylinders, their pursuit of points leader Tyler Reddick could really start to heat up as we approach the summer stretch.
The weekend that so many NASCAR fans dreaded has finally come, as another “son or owner” or “grandson of owner” has found victory lane. But the reaction has not been all that bad, as, since comments made by former JGR competition director Chris Gabehart in a court filing about Gibbs, no one is hotter than the 54 team.
Since that infamous filling where Gabehart called out Gibbs for recising special treatment, the week before the race at Circuit of the Americas, Gibbs has scored the most top-fives, the most top-tens, and the best average finish. To cap it all off, his win this weekend exercises any demons from the night race last season, and makes Gibbs a clear contender for this fall’s Chase race.
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