There were 66 drivers in Monday Night’s 2ND Opinion Auto Center Qualifying for the 2025 Chili Bowl Nationals. Drivers advanced through eight heat races, two C Mains and two B Mains to the 24-car feature.
Kyle Larson only led two laps — the last two. He passed Shane Golobic in a green/white/checker finish with a 0.278-second margin of victory. Both Larson and Golobic transferred to Saturday’s A Main.
Tuesday Night’s Warren CAT Qualifying Night featured another late pass for the win as Landon Brooks of Rio Oso, Calif., took it away from polesitter Brendan Crouch of Lubbock, Texas. Penngrove, Calif.’s Michael “Buddy” Kofoid just missed a transfer spot in third.
In Wednesday Night’s York Plumbing Qualifying Night, Emerson Axsom of Franklin, Ind., and Locust Grove, Okla.’s Daison Pursley punched their tickets to Saturday’s A Main by finishing 1-2. Axsom passed polesitter Purely early on and held the lead for the rest of the race.
Saturday’s Mains will air on FloRacing starting at noon (subscription required).
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The IMSA Weathertech Roar Before the 24 is also on tap Saturday and Sunday. Race 1 of the VP Sportscar Racing Challenge airs on Peacock on Saturday at 10:55 a.m., with Race 1 at 10:15 Sunday. Peacock will also broadcast qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona on Jan,23 at 11:05 a.m.
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NASCAR has made some significant rule changes for 2025. I’ll list them briefly here, and you can check out the NASCAR Rule Book for all the details.
• The Open Entrant provisional will allow a “world class driver who enters a NASCAR Cup Series race” to start in 41st if the field is otherwise at the 40-car capacity and the driver does not qualify on time. This allows Helio Castroneves a spot in the Daytona 500, but a unique rule for Daytona is that he has to run a Duel race first. If a driver takes the provisional, no points or prize money are awarded to the driver or car.
• Damaged Vehicle Policy has been changed to allow cars with flat tires or those towed to the garage with damage to return to the race after repairs instead of being eliminated from competition. The pit road repair clock will remain at seven minutes, after which repairs may continue in the garage.
• New Waiver Policy (AKA the Kyle Larson Rule) changes the waiver provisions for a driver who misses a race for reasons other than medical absence, birth of a child, or age restriction. This year Larson would forfeit any regular-season playoff points to get the waiver should the Indy 500 run over again. The rule also applies to a driver missing a race for a behavioral issue, such as failing a drug test or intentionally wrecking another competitor.
• Race Manipulation states that in addition to team/driver penalties, manufacturers will face the loss of manufacturer points and reduction in wind tunnel testing if NASCAR determines they participated in manipulating a race outcome.
• Other changes address deferring technical infraction suspensions until the next race, reducing time to file an appeal from three days to two, and penalizing teams rather than just crew chiefs for technical infractions.