What to watch for in today’s NASCAR Cup race at WWT Raceway

The NASCAR Cup Series competes at World Wide Technology Raceway this afternoon, the 15th of 26 races in the regular season.

Here are three things to watch for in today’s Cup race.

1. Will a winless drought be broken?

Joey Logano won the inaugural Cup race at this track in 2022, and Kyle Busch won there last year. Both enter with long winless droughts.

While Logano won last month’s All-Star Race, he is winless in the last 45 points races. Busch is winless in his last 35 starts.

Logano has never finished worse than third in the two Cup races at this 1.25-mile track. Busch has never finished worse than second in those two races.

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Logano enters the race outside a playoff spot. He’s gone six races without a top-10 finishes. Busch holds one of the final playoff spots with 12 races left in the regular season.

Busch starts 10th. Logano starts 12th.

Others with long winless droughts starting near the front: Austin Cindric, who starts second, is winless in the last 85 races. Bubba Wallace, who starts eighth, is winless in the last 57 races. Ty Gibbs, who starts ninth, seeks his first career Cup victory. This will be his 66th career Cup starts.

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2. Team Penske-Front Row Motorsports alliance

Team Penske has a technical alliance with Front Row Motorsports, which also was elevated to a tier-1 support level with Ford Performance this season.

The top three spots in the starting lineup are cars from this alliance. Michael McDowell starts on the pole for Front Row Motorsports, while Team Penske teammates Austin Cindric (second) and Ryan Blaney (third) are next.

The key is can they stay at the front, control the race and take the victory? All three have yet to win to secure a playoff spot this season.

3. Stewart-Haas Racing moves forward 

Stewart-Haas Racing announced this week that it will cease operations after this season and sell its four Cup charters. All the team’s employees will be looking for work, including drivers Chase Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Josh Berry and Ryan Preece.

How will SHR’s four teams perform moving forward? None of the four teams is in a playoff spot just past the halfway point in the regular season.

Qualifying didn’t go well for any of those teams Saturday. None will start in the top 20. Briscoe qualified 23rd, Gragson 27th, Berry 29th and Preece 32nd.