League News and Notes
COTA Recap: Jeremy Steele & Mike Williams tie for the win in Texas
March 1, 2026
Race Recap:
Tyler Reddick won. Again. First time in NASCAR history a driver has won 3 straight races to start the season. Maybe Chase Elliott should try suing NASCAR. Reddick dominated the race. It was a typical COTA race. Not much passing. The field got strung up after a few laps. The only question was if SVG could get past Reddick after the final restart. He couldn't. SVG's streak of 5 straight road course wins comes to an end.
Race Rating: C-
Race Finish: C
Best Battle: Reddick holding off SVG over the last 15 laps.
Fight Rating: No Fights
Bonehead of the Race: Whatever happened to the 9 car that got them back in 35th after the 1st stage
Best Race of the Year Tracker: Atlanta
Worst Race of the Year Tracker: COTA
League Recap:
Qualifying Results
Pole winner this week was Manish Nagpal. 1st pole of 2026. His 17th career pole, and 1st at COTA
Stage Results
Stage 1: Manish Nagpal
Stage 2: Steel Norman
Race Results
The winners this week were Mike Williams and Jeremy Steele. For Jeremy, this was win number 45, first at COTA. For Mike it was win number 7, also first at COTA.
Segment Results
Justin Braswell holds on to a slim points lead over Manish, Jeremy and Mike.
Standings update
Justin Braswell still out front.
BFNL Chase
TBD
BFNL Survivor
Brooks Deaton & Kyle Zaepfel are the eliminations this week.
Track Type Championships
Mike Williams and Jeremy Steele lead on Road Courses.
The Summer Shootout
Coming this summer.
Looking ahead...
Last race of Segment 1, and it's Phoenix.
Atlanta Recap: Jennifer Braswells wins without a fender
February 22, 2026
Race Recap:
If you didn't see enough cars get wrecked at Daytona, Atlanta came thru with another 30 cars getting torn up. The winning car (Tyler Reddick) didn't even have a right front fender. Not entirely sure how that is even possible on a track that all about aero. Carson Hocevar turned off his brain a couple of times, and still almost won the race.
Race Rating: B
Race Finish: B+
Best Battle: Carson Hocevar vs. Being a Smart Driver
Fight Rating: No Fights
Bonehead of the Race: Larson wrecked himself trying to block SVG
Best Race of the Year Tracker: Atlanta
Worst Race of the Year Tracker: Daytona 500
League Recap:
Qualifying Results
Qualifying was rained out, so the field was set by the "metric". Justin Braswell gets his 1st pole of the season.
Stage Results
Stage 1: Jennifer Braswell
Stage 2: Jennifer Braswell
Race Results
The top 10 from this week looked a lot like the top 10 from last week. Jennifer Braswell picked up the win this week, holding off Manish and Justin. This was Jennifer's 11th career win, and her 1st at Atlanta.
Segment Results
Justin Braswell leads, with Jennifer Braswell now in 2nd.
Standings update
Justin Braswell still out front.
BFNL Chase
TBD
BFNL Survivor
Mason Steele and John Regan are the first eliminations of the year.
Track Type Championships
Justin Braswell leads on the Super Speedways.
The Summer Shootout
Coming this summer,
Looking ahead...
Results will likely be different next week. They head out to COTA for the 1st road course race of the year.
Daytona 500 Recap: Justin Braswell wins his 2nd Daytona 500
February 15, 2026
Race Recap:
NASCAR is back. Tyler Reddick won the Daytona 500 with a last lap pass of Chase Elliott. Elliott was gifted the lead on the last lap after several cars in front of him wrecked out of the lead. Elliott held the lead down the backstretch and into turns 3-4. Reddick got a great run and juked Elliott, taking the lead coming to the line. The guys behind all started wrecking and Elliott got turned hard into the wall. Reddick and 23XI win the Daytona 500 just months after 23XI sued NASCAR and settled out of court.
Race Rating: C
Race Finish: B+
Best Battle: The finish of the race vs. impending weather
Fight Rating: No Fights
Bonehead of the Race: Too many to count
Best Race of the Year Tracker: Daytona 500
Worst Race of the Year Tracker: Daytona 500
League Recap:
Qualifying Results
First pole of 2026 goes to Greg Camden.
Stage Results
Stage 1: Tim Hodge
Stage 2: Brittany Hooper
Race Results
Your Daytona 500 winner is Justin Braswell. This was Justin's 5th career win at Daytona (most all-time), and his 2nd win in the Great American Race (2002). This was Justin's 38th career win, tying him with Larry Braswell for 3rd all-time. This was Justin 7th Crown Jewel win, tying him with Bob Francis for 3rd.
Segment Results
Justin Braswell leads after 1 race.
Standings update
Justin Braswell takes the points lead for the first time since the 2012 season.
BFNL Chase
TBD
BFNL Survivor
Chris Faulk and Dustin Draughon are the first eliminations of the year.
Track Type Championships
Justin Braswell leads on the Super Speedways.
The Summer Shootout
Coming this summer,
Looking ahead...
Next week they go to Atlanta, for more drafting track racing, and probably a lot more wrecked cars.
Phoenix Recap: Greg Camden wins the race, Chris Faulk wins his 1st Championship
November 2, 2025
Race Recap:
Some guys are just not meant to win a Championship. Junior Johnson. Mark Martin. Carl Edwards. Denny Hamlin.
You have to feel a little bit bad for Hamlin after yet another championship slipped away from him today. Hamlin had by far the best car, and led a ton of laps today. His car was probably super illegal (I'm sure the others are too, but his was almost flagrantly fasters than everyone else). Stop me if you've heard this before....but a late caution turned everything upside down. Hamlin took 4 tires, Larson took 2. A bunch of guys stayed out. Hamlin never even got close to Larson on the Green-White-Checkered. Larson becomes a 2-time champion. Hamlin remains arguably, the best driver to never win a championship. He is a very unlikeable guy. He goes out of his way to be an asshole most of the time. He takes zero accountability when it comes to wrecks. He's a massive hypocrit. He's also a really good race car driver. He should have won a championship. He's a champion caliber driver. For Joey Logano to have 3 Championships, or for Kyle Busch to have one when he missed 11 races, is very silly. It stands to be a very emotional few months for Hamlin. His father is terminally ill. He's locked in a legal battle with NASCAR he is very likely to lose, and stands to lose his charters for 23XI. It remains to be seen what the next chapter will be for him.
Larson was probably the worst of the 4 cars today. Much like his 1st title. It was yet another indictment of the awful Playoff Era for NASCAR. There is a lot of rumbling this will be the final race for this format. And I say good riddance. A full season 36 race format is the only way to crown a legitimate champion. Everything else is performative for the sake of entertainment. We will likely get a modified version of the playoffs, with a 3-3-4 format. It will be better than what we have now, but it will still be fake. But for now, the offseason is here, and I am tired of the discourse.
Race Rating: B
Race Finish: B+
Best Battle: Chase Elliott vs. Pit Road Speed
Fight Rating: No Fights
Bonehead of the Race: Chris Gayle pitted and took 4 tires. Lost the Championship.
Best Race of the Year Tracker: Atlanta 2
League Recap:
Qualifying Results
Final pole of the season goes to Shawn White. Shawn and Brad Calhoun tie for the most poles this year with 3.
Stage Results
Stage 1: Shawn White
Stage 2: Kyle Zaepful
Greg Camden wins the most Stages this season with 6.
Race Results
The final winner of the year was Greg Camden. Greg gets his 3rd win of the season, and clinches the Short Track Championship. The win also moved him up to 10th in points for the year.
Segment Results
Kyle Zaepful wins the final segment of the year, and becomes the only 2-time segment winner this season.
Standings update
Your 2025 BFNL Champion is Chris Faulk. Chris wins for the 1st time, and becomes the 15th different Champion in the league's history. Chris was part of the original league way back in 1999. He fell out for a few years but came back in 2010, and has been in the league ever since. He suffered a crushing defeat in 2011, losing the championship in the final race after dominating most of the season. Congratulations to the champ!
BFNL Chase
Kyle Zaepful wins the Chase, over Brandon Braswell. Tucker Lovelace finishes 3rd, Chris Faulk 4th.
BFNL Survivor
The last man standing was Thomas Tolbert. Congrats!
Track Type Championships
Greg Camden closes out the year with the Short Track Championship.
The Summer Shootout
Shawn White was the SS Winner this year.
Looking ahead...
That's all for this year. Thanks to everyone that played. Next year I will probably cut back the number of players, and say goodbye to some of those folks who weren't picking their teams. Hope everyone had a great time. I know I did! Thanks, and see you at Daytona in 2026!
