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If there was one major takeaway from the opening race of the Round of 12 at New Hampshire, it's that the way teams perform in the most critical portion of the season goes a long way toward whether they can win a Cup Series championship. 

In a dominant performance highlighted by Ryan Blaney's win, Team Penske reminded everyone yet again that the path to a Cup championship runs through them as they seek their fourth straight. And that reminder came through an on-track display of cohesion that was decidedly the opposite of what was displayed by another one of NASCAR's top programs in Joe Gibbs Racing.

With Blaney and Team Penske already having moved onto the Round of 8, it's up to the other playoff teams to respond in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, the middle race in the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. While Ross Chastain and Trackhouse Racing enter this race as its defending winner, it is Hendrick Motorsports and Kyle Larson who present the rest of the field with its target to beat after a dominant performance in the spring where the No. 5 Chevrolet led 221 of 267 laps.

NASCAR playoffs 2025 race schedule, results: Complete list of Cup Series race dates, winners, tracks
Steven Taranto
NASCAR playoffs 2025 race schedule, results: Complete list of Cup Series race dates, winners, tracks

Where to watch the NASCAR playoffs at Kansas

Date: Sun., Sept. 28 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
Location: Kansas Speedway -- Kansas City, Kan.
TV: USA | Stream: Fubo (Try for free)

Storyline to watch

After a Round of 16 sweep led to talk of Joe Gibbs Racing potentially dominating the playoffs, the narrative surrounding the organization has now swung swiftly in the other direction thanks to on-track drama from a week ago in New Hampshire. After a sequence where Ty Gibbs -- who took umbrage with the way teammate Christopher Bell had raced him -- made life extremely difficult for both Bell and Denny Hamlin racing for a spot outside the top 10, Hamlin finally spun Gibbs out and put him in the wall, leading to public tensions over the manner in which Gibbs had raced his playoff contender teammates as well as his alleged influence as the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs.

With neither Hamlin or Gibbs saying anything of substance at the racetrack, things instead played out over their own respective media platforms: In an Instagram story, Gibbs posted a clip from Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast with a pointing emoji in apparent agreement with Harvick's assertion that Hamlin spun Gibbs out on purpose. Hamlin, meanwhile, articulated his issues on "Actions Detrimental," saying that he did not believe JGR was on the same page as far as etiquette racing teammates at this time of the year.

"What I've heard (from Joe Gibbs) is that 'If you're a non-playoff car, any break that you can cut your teammates, please do,'" Hamlin said. "... It's possible Ty feels like he doesn't owe us anything. And that's just a different mindset and it's okay to have, but you would think that one day the roles would be reversed and certainly he probably would be upset if we did not let him go and he was fighting to move on to the next round."

Hamlin cited how at this point in the playoffs, drivers who are out of the playoffs will generally yield spots to teammates or other drivers with team affiliations who are still in the playoffs and racing for the championship. With that considered, Hamlin has called on JGR team leadership to set an exact standard of how their four cars should race each other in the interest of trying to make sure that at least one of them can ultimately win the Cup title.

"If you want us all to just race each other cutthroat no matter what your position and stature in the standings is, we can definitely do that," Hamlin said. "I expect myself and the 19 and the 20 to race really, really hard because we're all battling each other to get above or maintain our status above the cut line. If I get eliminated or the 19 gets eliminated or the 20 gets eliminated and then we've established this 'no rules, you guys just do whatever you want to do,' none of us are gonna win.

"... It's too difficult to win naturally, much less if we're going to have the 'well, everyone just races for themselves and it doesn't matter whether you're racing for a championship or not.' Which, from my standpoint, I would think that Ty would want one of us to win a championship. It's his name on the building."

While Ty Gibbs has had flashes of greatness since moving to the Cup Series, winning Rookie of the Year honors in 2023 and making the playoffs in 2024, maturity has been an issue for Gibbs that has persisted throughout his five year career at NASCAR's national levels. Exactly how Gibbs responds to what occurred at New Hampshire, and how it influences the way he races Hamlin, Bell, and Chase Briscoe, could go a long way toward determining whether a Joe Gibbs Racing driver wins this year's Cup championship or not.

NASCAR news of the week

  • Following the latest meeting of NASCAR's Playoff Committee, two distinct possibilities now exist for a framework of what the sport's championship system may look like in 2026. While a revised playoff format remains probable, The Athletic has reported that NASCAR is now seriously weighing the possibility of eliminating the playoffs altogether and returning to a full season points format similar to the old Winston Cup system that was used from 1975 until 2003. A final decision is expected to come from the sport's executive level.

    "Surely there's a format out there that can give a little bit to everyone. And I think it's possible," Denny Hamlin said on this week's "Actions Detrimental." "From what I've seen proposed, we're on the right track. And it's certainly gonna be better than what we have." 
  • JR Motorsports has announced that former Cup champion crew chief Rodney Childers will join the team in 2026 as crew chief of the No. 1 Chevrolet in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts (currently Xfinity) Series, which will be split by drivers Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch. Childers' move to JR Motorsports will mark his return to a crew chief role after a short tenure at Spire Motorsports, which he left after just nine races working with the No. 7 team and driver Justin Haley.
  • Kaulig Racing has announced the promotion of Chris Rice from team president to CEO, rewarding Rice for his integral role in building the team since its inception in 2016. Rice will oversee all of Kaulig's competition and business operations, and his promotion comes ahead of Kaulig's expansion into the Craftsman Truck Series as the flagship team for Ram's re-entry into NASCAR.
  • Former Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. said Thursday on his Instagram account that some trophies from his career, which had been put up for sale online, had been sold without his consent. In a statement, Race Day Authentics shared that they had purchased Truex's memorabilia from an individual that had worked with the 2017 Cup champion for over 10 years under the assumption that the trophies had been gifted to them as part of a Truex housecleaning. 

    Race Day Authentics says that they were "lied to by the person we bought them from" and that they are now in contact with Truex and plan to return the trophies and other items to their rightful owner.
  • This week has seen two departures at NASCAR. On Friday, Fox Sports reported that race director Jusan Hamilton is no longer employed by NASCAR, with little specifics given other than that his departure was not performance-related. In addition, Sports Business Journal reports that senior NASCAR Holdings executive Chip Wile will leave his role at the end of 2025, with his duties overseeing the sport's racetracks set to be assumed by Ben Kennedy.

Pick to win

Brad Keselowski (+2800) -- Back in May, the only driver who seemed to be any match for Kyle Larson's dominance was Brad Keselowski, who was running down the No. 5 for the lead before a blown tire while running second put Keselowski in the wall and out of the race. While it ended in a DNF, that run helped spark Keselowski's turnaround in the second half of the regular season, which has seen him put himself in position to win races as recently as two weeks ago in the Bristol Night Race. RFK Racing has come close to winning over and over again in 2025 to the point that they feel due to get over the hump, and it could be the team co-owner himself who gets the program to Victory Lane.