NASCAR and Netflix on Monday announced a partnership for a documentary series that will offer an in-depth look at the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs.

The docuseries is scheduled to premiere on Netflix in early 2024, providing behind-the-scenes insights into the battle for the championship in five 45-minute episodes.

NASCAR’s Cup Series has only one regular season race remaining, coming Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. The playoffs, involving the top 16 drivers, feature three-race segments, after each of which the four lowest drivers in the postseason standings will be eliminated from contention, eventually leaving just the top four to battle for the championship at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 5.

The playoffs are scheduled to begin Sept. 3 at Darlington Raceway.

Filming has already begun on the series, which has not yet been named.

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. is among the list of executive producers, joining Ben Kennedy, Tim Clark, Matt Summers and Tally Hair of NASCAR Studios on the productions side. That group will partner with co-producers Connor Schell, Libby Geist and Aaron Cohen of Words + Pictures.

Netflix has delved into sports and NASCAR previously with last year’s Race for the Championship series, which featured an intimate look at drivers’ lives on and off the track during the 2022 season. The streaming service also has had releases featuring the NFL, Formula 1, the PGA Tour and professional tennis.

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• Associated Press

Aug 20, 2023, 06:39 PM ET

William Byron had the field covered at Watkins Glen International, delivering such a dominant performance that no other NASCAR driver even got to his bumper in the final third of the race.

It was unusual for the Cup Series and even more rare for Byron at a road course. The 25-year-old driver won on a serpentine track for the first time in six Cup seasons, this one being his series-leading fifth victory of the season and making him a favorite to win it all.

“We’ve worked years and years for this,” Byron said, crediting veteran open-wheel racer Max Papis with helping him. “It’s a great win. I don’t know what it means and all that. I don’t read into that. But I think it shows that when we’re at our best, we can perform like this.”

Driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports, Byron overtook Michael McDowell in the first quarter of the 90-lap event and pretty much remained in control the rest of the way. He led 66 laps in all, including the final 33.

Pole sitter Denny Hamlin was second, nearly 3 seconds back, in the penultimate race of NASCAR’s regular season. Christopher Bell was third, followed by AJ Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs.

Martin Truex Jr. finished sixth but failed to lock up the regular-season title for Joe Gibbs Racing. He and Hamlin will vie for the regular-season crown next weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

“It’s doable,” said Hamlin, who trails Truex by 39 points. “You’ve got to have things go your way, but yeah. If we can talk NASCAR into those 25 points they took away earlier in the season, we’d really make it interesting.”

Always-unpredictable Daytona will be the last chance for more than two dozen drivers — most notably 2020 series champion and fan favorite Chase Elliott — to make the 16-car playoffs.

Elliott, a two-time winner at the Glen, had hoped to lock up a postseason spot Sunday. But the Hendrick star qualified in the middle of the pack and then ruined his chances when he ran out of fuel with 36 laps to go. He lost a lap and all hope of winning.

Elliott will have to win at Daytona to make the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season. Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez will be equally anxious at Daytona. They are in a tight race along with Gibbs for the 16th and final spot.

“Still stressful as hell, but that takes a little bit of the edge off, for sure,” Wallace said.

Former series champions Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski eased their nerves by locking up playoff spots at the Glen, both securing berths because Byron was a repeat winner.

“It’s great to have that off our shoulders,” Keselowski said. “We’re going to race really hard with nothing to lose [at Daytona]; that makes us really dangerous.”

McDowell’s miscues

McDowell, who notched his second Cup win last week at the Indianapolis Grand Prix, endured several struggles on pit road that cost him a chance at winning back-to-back races. He finished 36th, last.

McDowell, who led 17 laps and won the opening stage, was penalized early in the second for driving through too many stalls while entering his pit. The pass-through penalty dropped him from second to 17th. He had another pit-road penalty in the final stage, that one for crew members going over the safety wall too early.

McDowell ended up back in the pits with 15 laps to go with an engine issue.

“The highs and lows of motorsports,” McDowell said. “I think we had one of the fastest cars here today.”

Up next

The series goes to Daytona for the regular-season finale Saturday night. Austin Dillon is the defending race winner.

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Sam Mayer spun race leader and archrival Ty Gibbs following a late restart in the Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen International on Saturday and won for the second time in four weeks.

Gibbs, a Cup Series regular and a rising star at Joe Gibbs Racing, dominated the road-course race in upstate New York. He led 70 of 86 laps, but a late caution bunched up the field and gave Mayer a shot.

Mayer took advantage by nudging Gibbs out of the way as they entered the first turn. Mayer said the contact was accidental.

“I wheel-hopped it,” said Mayer, whose first Xfinity victory came last month at Road America. “I feel bad for doing that, obviously. You don’t want to take out a Gibbs car like that or any car like that. But just trying to get another win in the Xfinity Series. I got a lot of catching up to do.

“I was in there. I put my nose in there. That’s part of it. Fenders are fenders. It’s an accident, but I think everyone can agree that it’s OK for a Xfinity Series regular to win this race.”

Sheldon Creed finished second, with Parker Kligerman, Ross Chastain and Connor Mosack rounding out the top five.

John Hunter Nemechek was sixth and took over the points lead from Austin Hill, who spun late and faded to 14th.

Gibbs collected his car after the spin and came home a disappointing 17th.

“When you have to race out of desperation like that and wheel-hop and clean the leader out, I guess you can call it a racing deal. It just really [stinks]. … Definitely [stinks] to get cleaned out there.”

Gibbs brushed off any notion of chatting with Mayer about the ending and then took a clear shot at his rival. The two have had altercations before, and Gibbs even threw punches at Mayer last year at Martinsville.

“I don’t really know how much of a conversation you can have with him in that situation,” Gibbs said. “We grew up racing each other. I think he has more starts than I do, and this is his second win. Congratulations to him on his second win. Definitely wish I could have gotten my 13th there.”

Gibbs had the field covered all afternoon on the 2.45-mile, multi-elevational track. He blew past Hill on one restart and then skated by Mayer and Justin Allgaier on another with four laps to go.

Herbst’s hiccup

Riley Herbst lost ground in the race for the final playoff spot.

Herbst entered Saturday with a 34-point lead over Parker Kligerman, but Herbst broke a track bar mount late in the second stage and ended the race earlier than expected. Herbst finished 35th, allowing Kligerman to close the gap to three points with three regular-season events remaining.

“As far as the points situation, it’s just frustrating,” Herbst said. “I don’t think we should be in this position. Luckily, next week isn’t the cutoff line for the Xfinity Series and we still have some track for us, for Stewart-Haas Racing. It’s just frustrating that things like this, out of our control, keep happening. It’ll turn around one day, and when it does, we’ll be happy.”

Herbst spent much of his day dealing with transmission issues; he had to hold the shifter in fourth gear throughout practice and the race.

Up next

The Xfinity Series goes to Daytona International Speedway on Friday, with three races remaining before the playoffs.

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Denny Hamlin will start from the pole at Watkins Glen International on Sunday, the third time this season the NASCAR driver will lead the Cup Series field to the green flag at a road course.

Hamlin turned the two fastest laps in the final round of qualifying Saturday to edge William Byron for the top spot. Hamlin covered the 14-turn course in 70.392 seconds and reached a top speed of 125.298 mph. Byron was second at 124.961 mph.

“There were a few spots where I feel like I still could have got a little bit more,” said Hamlin, who earned the 40th pole of his Cup career. “But you can’t nitpick when you’re that good.”

Starting near the front is usually advantageous on road courses, where passing can be difficult. Hamlin, though, is 0-for-2 from the prime spot on NASCAR’s serpentine courses this season. He started from the pole in Sonoma and finished 36th, and he started first at Chicago and came home 11th.

Michael McDowell, one of the best drivers on road courses this season, will start third a week after winning for the second time in his career. McDowell dominated the Indianapolis Grand Prix.

Ty Gibbs, likely needing a win to make the playoffs, will start fourth. Two-time defending Watkins Glen winner Kyle Larson will start fifth as he tries to join Mark Martin (1993-95) and Jeff Gordon (1997-99) as the only drivers to win three straight in upstate New York.

AJ Allmendinger, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch and Corey LaJoie round out the top 10.

Chase Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, will start 15th in the penultimate race of NASCAR’s regular season. Elliott has two wins at the Glen. He also has seven career victories on NASCAR’s winding tracks, two more than any other active driver.

Elliott needs a win to make the postseason for the eighth consecutive year. The Hendrick Motorsports star has two races remaining to get it done — in New York or next week at unpredictable Daytona International Speedway.

Thirteen drivers have clinched berths in the 16-driver postseason field, including former series champs Busch, Larson, Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr.

Two more past champions, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski, have solid holds on two of the remaining three playoff spots. Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez are on the bubble and need a victory or help. Wallace leads Suarez by 28 points.

Wallace will start 12th at the Glen, two spots ahead of Suarez.

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WELCOME, N.C. — Austin Hill has signed a multi-year contract extension to drive for Richard Childress Racing’s NASCAR Xfinity Series program.

The team announced the deal Thursday, a day before the series heads to Watkins Glen International Raceway in upstate New York. Hill, 29, leads the Xfinity points standings and has locked up a playoff berth in the second-tier series thanks to four wins.

“I’ve found a home at Richard Childress Racing, and it’s an honor to be able to continue my career racing for one of the most successful organizations in the garage,” Hill said in a statement. “In looking at the next step of my career, I was presented with several opportunities, but it all came down to being surrounded by racers who want to win, believe in me, and will do their best to give me every opportunity to be successful.”

Hill, from Winston, Georgia, joined RCR in 2022. He has six wins, 24 top-five finishes and 38 top-10s in two seasons with crew chief Andy Street and the No. 21 team.

“Austin Hill has set a benchmark for competitiveness within the garage and has proven to be a talented racer who wants to win,” team owner Richard Childress said. “We’re pleased that Austin has found success at RCR and are looking forward to competing for a championship in 2023, 2024, and beyond.”

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR indefinitely suspended part-time drivers Chris Hacker and Jason White on Thursday following their recent arrests for allegedly driving while impaired.

The sanctioning body also indefinitely suspended Joel Courage, who was arrested last week on charges he failed to register as a sex offender in North Carolina. The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office said Courage, 44, was operating E33 Motorsports & Development in Mooresville. The business promotes itself as helping find and develop young drivers for NASCAR and other series.

Courage was convicted in California in 2008 on 14 sex offenses, the sheriff’s office said.

White, 44, was arrested in Huntersville on Aug. 3 and charged with driving while impaired, according to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office. White has made 157 career starts in NASCAR’s Truck Series, 55 in the Xfinity Series and two in the Cup Series.

Hacker, 23, was arrested in Huntersville on Tuesday and charged with driving while impaired. He has competed in 14 Truck races and two Xfinity races.

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• 

  Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior WriterAug 17, 2023, 09:09 AM ET

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  • Senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com
  • 2-time Sports Emmy winner
  • 2010, 2014 NMPA Writer of the Year

We are closing in on the final handful of weeks of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, the stock car series’ 75th anniversary campaign. To celebrate, each week through the end of the season, Ryan McGee is presenting his top five favorite things about the sport.

Top five best-looking cars? Check. Top five toughest drivers? We’ve got it. Top five mustaches? There can be only one, so maybe not.

Without further ado, our 75 favorite things about NASCAR, celebrating 75 years of stock car racing.

Previous installments: Toughest drivers | Greatest races | Best title fights

Top five best-looking cars

As we have dropped the hammer on our series of NASCAR 75 top-five greatest lists, we spent the first four weeks dealing with the racers and races, but what about the machines those racers drove in those races?

Nearly 2-ton machines snarling around ovals, road courses and dirt tracks at speeds exceeding 200 mph. It sounds like there’s no way they couldn’t all look cool while in the midst of doing that, but the reality is that, like people, some race cars just look more awesome than others, no matter whether they are pushing the edge of the envelope at Talladega or just sitting on the race shop floor.

So, what NASCAR models stand out above the rest in stock car racing’s grand 75-year-old showroom? Grab a can of Simoniz and a chamois cloth and read ahead as we present our top five best-looking NASCAR race cars.

Honorable mention: 1955-56 Chrysler 300C

Anyone who gets frustrated now when Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing gets on a hot streak and seemingly wins all the races and titles would have totally hated these cars back in the day, and really hated the team that fielded them.

Team owner Elmer Carl “EC” Kiekhaefer ran a fleet of long, sleek Chrysler 300Cs for two seasons, and they won 49 races (plus three more via other cars) and both Grand National titles. Tim Flock, Buck Baker and their teammates drove machines up and down Daytona Beach with giant three-digit car numbers and a script “Full Jeweled” painted above that number.

Remembering Carl Kiekhaefer

6/4/1906 – 10/5/1983 #RIP

Carl Kiekhaefer was a NASCAR Grand National team owner for 2 years & he won 2 championships in dominant fashion. In 1955 Tim Flock won 18 races & in 1956 Buck Baker won 14 races. Kiekhaefer’s cars won 52 races in 2 seasons. pic.twitter.com/WDYigLN4lI

— NASCAR Legends (@LegendsNascar) June 4, 2022

The 300C was so dominant and looked so cool that every race led to protests from defeated rivals, although none ever turned up any cheating. It made Kiekhaefer so angry that he quit racing and went back to selling his Mercury boat motors in Wisconsin, taking his awesome 300Cs with him.

5. 1951-54 Hudson Hornet

The 300C’s predecessor was a car that was so sleek in its design that it looked like it was racing even when it was sitting still. Heck, even the car numbers were painted with cartoon vapor trails as if they were in constant motion.

The Hudson Hornet won 79 races in all, piloted by everyone from Daytona Beach legend Marshall Teague and two-time champ Herb Thomas to Flock’s 1952 ride that famously had a shotgun spot for his pet monkey, Jocko Flocko. This car was so cool that Paul Newman voiced it in “Cars” for a character featuring Thomas’ “Fabulous Hudson Hornet” paint scheme.

4. 1995-99 Chevrolet Monte Carlo

After years of success with its squared-off 1980s Monte Carlo models and the equally boxy Lumina made famous by “Days of Thunder,” Chevy showed up at Daytona in 1995 with a brand-new Monte Carlo that was shaped like it was designed by a wind tunnel itself.

It immediately started crushing the field, thanks to the arrival of some kid named Jeff Gordon. It’s also the machine that finally delivered a Daytona 500 win for Dale Earnhardt.

Unfortunately, it also delivered the super-whiny “Their spoiler is higher than ours!” aerodynamic age of Cup Series racing that was the late 1990s and early 2000s, but hey, it still looked cool.

3. 1987 Ford Thunderbird

The impetus for Chevy’s move to a sleeker machine in the 1990s was because even when it was winning races and Cups with the likes of Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip, their rivals’ rides always seemed to look sleeker thanks to the perpetually futuristic design of the Ford Thunderbird.

Peak T-Bird was reached in 1987. That was the year when Bill Elliott’s No. 9 red-and-white Coors Ford set the record for fastest lap recorded in a stock car, 212.809 mph at Talladega, and Davey Allison embarked on a rookie campaign in a black-and-white ride with the gold No. 28 on the door.

Random #NASCAR75 thought. How ridiculously cool does Davey Allison’s ’87 rookie season Thunderbird look? pic.twitter.com/uaUciZdcNo

— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) August 15, 2023

2. 1969-70 Dodge Charger Daytona/Plymouth Superbird

Actually, just go on and throw the 1969 Ford Torino Talladega/Mercury Cyclone Spoiler in here too, because it also looked awesome and, if not for it, we wouldn’t have gotten the other two.

After Richard Petty won 27(!) races in 1967 driving a Plymouth Belvedere (a car that should probably also be on this list), Ford built an extended, slope-nosed beast with a Blue Crescent 429 engine in it and stomped the field. Dodge responded in late 1969 with its own Boss 429-powered Daytona, which took the Torino’s knife-edged style and added a 2-foot-high fiberglass wing on the back.

For real.

Petty, who had switched to Ford in 1969, came back to Chrysler and ran the now-world-famous Petty Blue No. 43 Plymouth Superbird. All season, those wings ran around speedways looking like a Star Wars prequel.

Also, can we take a moment and acknowledge an entry that includes the terms “Torino,” “Cyclone,” “Charger,” “Superbird,” “Belvedere,” “Blue Crescent” and “Boss”? Weren’t the names of everything just more awesome back then?

1. 1972 Dodge Charger

Could this list have been five Petty-driven machines and been done at that? Totally. From the NASCAR Convertibles Division (yes, that was a real thing) to Belvederes to Pontiacs, “His Royal Fastness” piloted some of the most beautiful rides ever witnessed on a racetrack (and also some of the ugliest, more on that coming in our next list).

The best-looking race car that has ever taken a green or checkered flag, though, is Petty’s 1972 Dodge Charger. That’s the one with the giant signature Charger grill, the raised rear end, “The Racer’s Edge” printed on the front spoiler, the slanted roof number and the thick-striped melding of STP DayGlo red with Petty Blue.

That color compromise dang near killed the deal that became the model for all future sponsorship contracts. For more on how that went down, read this story from 2010.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Michael McDowell knelt down at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s yard of bricks and delivered the sweetest kisses of his racing career Sunday.

The 38-year-old Arizona driver became a Brickyard champ — and a member of an elite club.

McDowell inherited the lead on Lap 53 and never trailed again as he drove the most dominant race of his career, beating Chase Elliott to the yard of bricks by 0.937 seconds for his second NASCAR crown jewel victory while securing a playoff spot. Pole-winner Daniel Suarez was third.

“We did it, we won Indy,” he shouted into the radio. “So thankful.”

McDowell’s only other win was the 2021 Daytona 500.

“That’s a big deal,” he said when asked about his second playoff appearance in three years. “When we won the Daytona 500, that was one of the coolest moments we ever had. We cherry-pick the races, my family comes to the ones we think we can win, and we thought we could win this one.”

As a result, McDowell’s wife and children also celebrated the Brickyard 200 title by kissing the bricks after his 453rd career Cup start. They weren’t at Daytona for his first win.

While his first win came by navigating traffic following a crash at Daytona, there was no doubt Sunday. McDowell won the first stage, finished behind only Denny Hamlin in Stage 2 and closed it out by leading a career-high 54 laps to give Front Row Motorsports its fourth Cup win.

McDowell’s victory put him on the short list of Cup drivers to reach Victory Lane at Daytona and Indy, a list that includes names such as the late Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Jarrett, who introduced the kissing tradition.

And on the annual crossover weekend with the IndyCar Series, McDowell also fittingly joined two of IndyCar’s greatest drivers on the list: Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt, the only winners of the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500.

The significance struck McDowell almost immediately as he finished the 82-lap race on Indy’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.

“We had the fastest car,” he said. “I don’t know if it was dominant, but it felt dominant.”

Elliott, the 2020 series champion, spent the final 20 laps trying to chase McDowell. He trimmed the deficit from nearly three seconds to less than one but couldn’t close enough to mount a charge.

So he settled for a runner-up finish that gave him some extra points but not the playoff-clinching win. He’ll have two more chances as the regular season winds to a close.

“I just lost too much ground in that mid-cycle,” Elliott said.

Suarez also spent most of the afternoon up front in a race that had only one yellow flag and 77 laps of green flag racing. He finished 5.75 seconds behind McDowell, the byproduct of a hose getting caught underneath the car’s left front tire during a pit stop.

Defending champion Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman, who also is fighting to make the playoffs, finished fourth and fifth.

Shane van Gisbergen finished 10th in his second career start, failing to become the first Cup driver to win his first two career starts. Van Gisbergen won in his NASCAR debut in the inaugural Chicago race last month but had a more challenging weekend running his first oval in Friday’s truck race and contending with a field of drivers who have years of data regarding Indy’s course.

“Oh, it’s aggressive,” the New Zealander said. “It was fine. I really enjoyed it. You make a move on someone and that gives you the room and then they expect it back, so really cool.”

McDowell felt the same way for a very different reason.

“After winning the Daytona 500, there aren’t many things that can top that, but this was a close second,” he said. “To have it all come together, it’s super special.”

The series makes its annual stop at Watkins Glen next Sunday, the second-to-last regular-season race.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Ty Gibbs finally figured out how to defeat A.J. Allmendinger in Indianapolis. He made it to the front during the third stage of Saturday’s Xfinity Series race — then pulled away from the recent king of road courses.

But it wasn’t easy … and it wasn’t dry.

The race was red-flagged, in fact, for nearly 45 minutes because of lightning, which was followed by heavy rain that saturated the track. When racing resumed a rainbow appeared near the third turn of Indy’s 2.5-mile oval and the cars were running on rain tires, which came off quickly as the track dried.

Gibbs, 20, drove into Victory Lane for the first time this season by outlasting Sam Mayer to the finish line by more than seven seconds and relegating Allmendinger, the defending race champ and pole winner, to third. Gibbs now has 13 career Xfinity wins.

“Definitely about time, really cool to get one here at the Brickyard,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said. “Awesome car, great car. The team did such a great job, this is just so special.”

Recently, Allmendinger has been virtually untouchable on Indy’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile course and has finished in the top three for three consecutive Xfinity races at Indy. Last year’s win also came from the pole.

This time, as Allmendinger raced again as his wife, Tara, was expecting the couple’s first child. He opted to race anyway — and made it pay off yet again by winning the first two stages before fading late and finishing more than 10 seconds off the pace.

He’ll face an even more daunting challenge Sunday, when he starts from the No. 26 spot.

On Saturday, Allmendinger took control of the race, leading for 21 laps and seemingly making all the right moves as Brad Perez‘s stopped car brought out another yellow flag in the second stage.

But once Gibbs moved past Allmendinger in Stage 3, it was all over as the sun set over the speedway’s front straightaway — just about an hour’s drive away from the New Castle, Indiana, track where Gibbs used to drive go-karts.

“We’ve got the Brickyard, let’s go,” Gibbs shouted before explaining what he learned from Saturday’s race. “Just go win.”

Gibbs is starting 10th on Sunday. Xfinity Series points leader John Hunter Nemechek finished 13th with four races remaining before the 12-driver playoffs begin.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Daniel Suarez posted the fastest lap time in Brickyard 200 qualifying Saturday, claiming his first pole since July 2019.

The Mexican driver completed Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course in 1 minute, 27.968 seconds. Tyler Reddick qualified second after posting a fast lap of 1:28.113 while Chase Elliott, the 2020 series champ, will start third.

It was a solid start for all three, each of whom started the weekend below the NASCAR playoff cutline.

Shane van Gisbergen, Suarez’s teammate with Trackhouse Racing, will start eighth Sunday after going 1:28.544. The New Zealander won his only other Cup race, on the streets of Chicago last month. He became the first driver to win in his series debut since three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford in 1963 and will try to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win his first two career starts.

William Byron owns a series high four wins this season but will start from the back of the field after being barred from Saturday’s qualifying after failing three pre-qualifying inspections Friday. Byron begins the weekend second in the standings but also will be assessed a drive-thru penalty under the green flag as a result of the failed inspections.

“It’s unfortunate and we just have to try to be as efficient as we can to start the race to try to work our way through that — not making any mistakes on the drive-thru, make sure we don’t speed on pit road or anything like that,” Byron said. “Then I think the strategy and pace of our car has been good, so we just have to work the strategy.”

Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi, the 2021 Le Mans winner, did not advance to the final round after hitting the wall in the waning seconds of the first round of qualifications.

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