The NASCAR Cup Series is on its annual summer break following last weekend\u2019s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, giving teams a chance to regroup before the final four races of the regular season determine the 16-driver playoff field.<\/p>\n
When racing resumes Aug. 9 at Iowa Speedway, every point will carry added importance as drivers make one last push toward the postseason.<\/p>\n
Gilliland captures $1 million prizeTodd Gilliland walked away as one of the biggest winners at Indianapolis, claiming NASCAR\u2019s inaugural In-Season Challenge and its $1 million prize.<\/p>\n
Gilliland defeated Ryan Blaney in the championship round of the bracket-style tournament after a late-race crash shuffled the running order. Blaney had led much of the race before being caught in a nine-car incident that dropped him deep in the field on a late restart, opening the door for Gilliland\u2019s upset victory.<\/p>\n
Driver market begins to take shape<\/p>\n
Off the track, several teams have already begun making plans for future seasons.<\/p>\n
RFK Racing announced it has exercised its contract option on Ryan Preece, keeping the veteran driver with the organization through the 2027 season.<\/p>\n
Alex Bowman also revealed he plans to retire from full-time Cup Series competition following the 2027 campaign, while Legacy Motor Club continued reshaping its ownership group by adding former NBA star Ron Harper and former tennis champion Andy Roddick as investors.<\/p>\n
Hamlin leads championship standingsWith four races remaining before the playoffs, Denny Hamlin sits atop the Cup Series standings with 886 points and four victories.<\/p>\n
Tyler Reddick is second with 802 points and five wins, followed by Ryan Blaney in third with 766 points. Ty Gibbs ranks fourth, while Carson Hocevar, Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe and Kyle Larson round out the top eight entering the final stretch of the regular season.<\/p>\n
Four races remain before playoffsThe Cup Series returns Aug. 9 at Iowa Speedway before heading to Richmond Raceway on Aug. 15 and New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Aug. 23.<\/p>\n
The regular season concludes Aug. 29 under the lights at Daytona International Speedway, where the final playoff positions will be decided before the postseason opens the following week at Darlington Raceway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NASCAR Cup Series is on its annual summer break following last weekend\u2019s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[292499,175061,2571,263231,292501,49,48,26424,175060,2475,168166,634,8354,175056,175062,175058,175057,292500,36547,15224,175063,82,175059,10223,12465],"class_list":["post-839749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-2023-nascar-cup-series","tag-auto-races","tag-auto-racing","tag-auto-racing-series","tag-automotive-events","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-iowa-speedway","tag-motor-racing-competitions","tag-motorsport","tag-motorsport-competitions","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-cup-series","tag-nascar-cup-series-seasons","tag-nascar-races","tag-nascar-seasons","tag-nascar-series","tag-north-american-auto-racing-series","tag-playoffs","tag-ryan-blaney","tag-seasons-in-stock-car-racing","tag-sports","tag-stock-car-races","tag-stock-car-racing","tag-todd-gilliland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}