What Makes 2025 So Important for Richard Childress Racing?

DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA - AUGUST 23: Austin Dillon, driver of the #3 BREZTRI Chevrolet, and RCR team owner and NASCAR Hall of Famer, Richard Childress wait on the grid on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on August 23, 2024 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)

What Happening?

After a tough 2024 season, Richard Childress Racing will take a stab at 2025 with the same four drivers they did this season. Hoping for an improvement on a down year, 2025 could paint the picture of RCR’s future.

The Cup Side of Things

Following a season in which he won four races, Kyle Busch entered 2025 with high hopes and another shot at Daytona. While one of those hopes flamed out early on, the other looked good heading into the summer.

However, the summer turned into a series of disappointments, and Busch came up short of a playoff appearance twice at Daytona and Darlington. This not only ended a lengthy playoff streak but a 19-season winning streak.

While this was going on, his teammate and grandson of Richard Childress, Austin Dillon, put up his worst career season, capitalized by a controversial win at Richmond. However, the nature of this win, with AD wrecking two drivers in the final turn of the last lap, resulted in a revocation of playoff contention and bad press for AD and RCR.

All of these things combined for a tough year for the historic organization. The larger fanbase views Dillon as disappointing, and Rowdy’s passionate fans are calling for him to leave the team by all means necessary. However, both Rowdy and AD will give it a shot with the team in 2025, just like the team’s two Xfinity drivers, who had a much better season than their Cup Counterparts.

RCR at It’s Current Best: The Xfinity Series

RCR and Austin Hill gave it another shake in the Xfinity Series in 2024, with Hill winning the season opener at Daytona for a third consecutive season. He followed this up with three more wins and a career-best fourth-place points finish.

Hill also started several part-time races for RCR in the Cup Series. However, these did not go his way, with a best finish of 25th at Daytona. Hill and new teammate Jesse Love will be back with RCR next season.

For Love, his rookie year went beyond most’s expectations, with Love winning at Talladega, something Sheldon Creed failed to do in the No. 2 car. Love also made a solid attempt at the championship, finishing eighth and beating out four-race winner Shane Van Gisbergen to take home Rookie of the Year Honors.

For RCR, their Xfinity Series program continues to be a shining light. However, no driver has been called up to Cup since Tyler Reddick did so in 2021, leaving questions as to what RCR could do if things at that level do not improve.

What’s the Best and Worst Case Scenario for RCR Next Season?

The team has once again shuffled ahead of the 2025 season. Andy Petree is out as Vice President of Competition, and Keith Rodden, Austin Dillon’s former Crew Chief, will take his place. Justin Alexander, a former Crew Chief with Dillon, took over that role from Rodden early in 2024. Now, former Chase Briscoe Crew Chief Richard Boswell will call the shots for the No. 3 in 2025.

While Boswell is well respected in the garage area, Dillon’s inconsistency could be part of his struggles to stay on track. This year may go two ways for RCR. First, they could find their speed from 2023 again, or, like Kaulig and Trackhouse, they could find themselves rebuilding for 2026.

If so, that raises many questions as to what a shake-up at RCR could look like. Would Busch leave? Could Dillon step down or go part-time? These hypotheticals are made even more interesting by the prospect of young talent like Jesse Love. Even if things work, should RCR take the drastic step, such as expansion or reshuffling, to get Love into a car?

The simple answer is we dont know. All that is known is that success will be very important next year for RCR and its drivers.

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DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA - APRIL 06: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on April 06, 2025 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Lionel Racing Reveals First Wave of 2026 NASCAR Authentics Diecast

What’s Happening?

Lionel Racing finally confirmed the first wave of 2026 NASCAR Authentics 1:64 scale diecast for Monday morning, with the line of retail-exclusive diecast featuring a new look for the new year.

  • This line will include six throwback paint schemes from NASCAR’s 2025 throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway. Though they did not release one in 2025, this move restarts an annual tradition of Lionel releasing at least one wave of cars carrying the colors of that prior season’s throwback designs.
  • Included in this wave of cars are Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, William Byron, and Sammy Smith. Alongside these paint schemes’ debuts in the Authentics line is a new design for the packaging of the 2026 line of NASCAR Authentics.
  • Last season was somewhat turbulent for Lionel as, alongside issues with tariffs, the brand only released three waves of NASCAR Autentics, one wave of NASCAR Autentics Winners Circle diecast, and two waves of Haulers.
  • Lionel announcing the first wave of 2026 early on in the new year is perhaps a sign that 2026 could return this line to its regular release schedule. The post from Lionel Racing also confirmed that the brand will announce another wave by the end of the week, further hinting at a recommitment to the Authentics line.

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SPARTA, KY - JUNE 26: Chase Pistone, driver of the #9 NTS Motorsports Chevrolet, talks with his crew during practice for the NASCAR Camping World Series UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway on June 26, 2014 in Sparta, Kentucky. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

Chase Pistone, NASCAR Trucks and Nationwide Series Driver, Passes Away

What’s Happening?

Chase Pistone, a former competitor on the short track racing circuit in addition to NASCAR’s National Series, has passed away. Pistone, now a successful Legends Car owner, was 42.

  • Chase’s brothers Nick and Tom Pistone confirmed the North Carolina natives’ passing to LegendsNation.com. The cause of Pistone’s passing is unknown. The family asked that media share the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline number, which is 988.
  • Pistone, the grandson of NASCAR legend “Tiger” Tom Pistone, made his way to NASCAR after competing on short tracks in Legends cars and Late Models. He would make his jump to NASCAR via the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2005, racing for Green Light Racing at Martinsville Speedway.
  • Pistone would continue his NASCAR pursuits in 2006, racing in ARCA and the NASCAR Busch Series. Unfortunately, these two starts, at Martinsville with the Busch Series and Iowa with ARCA, would be his last for nearly a decade.
  • Pistone returned to NASCAR in 2014, racing in a combined eight NASCAR Camping World Truck and Nationwide Series races. During this season, his final in NASCAR, the then 30-year-old scored his best National Series finish, ninth place in the Truck Series annual trip to Gateway.

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8 Takeaways From NASCAR At COTA

Three races in, the 2026 season is finally starting to show its hand. COTA shifted narratives, exposed weaknesses, and raised new questions about contenders, pretenders, and everything in between.

  • Has Shane van Gisbergen officially been proven mortal after getting outraced late at Circuit of the Americas?
  • Is 19-year-old Connor Zilisch already ahead of schedule after slicing through the field multiple times?
  • With three straight wins, is Tyler Reddick basically a lock for the postseason this early?
  • And how concerned should the 48 team be after a rough weekend for Alex Bowman?

From substitute drivers being forced into action to points gaps growing faster than expected, COTA delivered more than just a road course chess match. There were momentum swings, reputation hits, and at least one young driver stacking up enemies before stacking up results.

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