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NASCAR Cup Series playoff bubble watch: Harrison Burton's big win blows up playoff picture
Harrison Burton's win on Saturday drastically changed the outlook of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff picture. With the regular-season finale at Darlington looming, here's where the bubble stands with 13 drivers locked in.
14. Martin Truex Jr. (+58)
Truex is all but locked heading to Darlington, though a 24th-place effort continues a string of concerning finishes for the No. 19 team. Darlington will be an important race to see how much speed Truex will carry into the postseason. If the No. 19 car struggles to find the front, Truex's final playoff run could be short-lived.
15. Ty Gibbs (+39)
Gibbs' fifth-place finish is exactly what the doctor ordered for the No. 54 team after a rough summer stretch. Gibbs should have a relatively stress-free night at Darlington, but Toyota's recent engine woes may cause the young driver to lose a little sleep. Still, the path is clear for Gibbs to earn a playoff bid for the first time in his career — provided nothing goes terribly wrong at Darlington.
16. Chris Buescher (+21)
Burton's win now moves Buescher to the cut line. A solid 10th-place run gives Buescher a momentum boost heading into Darlington, where he nearly won in May. Out of all the drivers battling for a playoff spot on points, he has the feel the most confident about his race-winning potential.
17. Bubba Wallace (-21)
Wallace has an average finish of 10.1 over the last seven races, including a 26th-place finish at Michigan after he was caught up in a crash. Without the unfortunate result at Michigan, Wallace would have had an average finish of 7.5 over six races — one of the best stretches of his career. Unfortunately, Burton's win puts Wallace's tear in jeopardy of vanity, as both he and Ross Chastain will need stellar points days in order to make the playoffs.
18. Ross Chastain (-27)
Chastain battled back from crash damage to finish a solid 12th at Daytona but now faces a large points deficit at Darlington. He's looked fast at Darlington in the past, and he'll likely need a top-five finish in order to sniff the postseason. Don't rule out some Hail Melon-esque antics from Chastain this week — he's no stranger to desperation moves in big races.
19. Kyle Busch (-106)
Busch is truly in a must-win scenario after Daytona, but his runner-up finish marks two consecutive top-fives for the No. 8 team — a feat they haven't accomplished all season. Busch's close loss will undoubtedly be heartbreaking, but he has to feel much more optimistic about his chances at Darlington now as opposed to two weeks ago.
More must-reads:
- Harrison Burton claims first NASCAR Cup Series win at Daytona
- Harrison Burton proves why he deserves a second chance in Cup Series with Daytona win
- The 'Joe Gibbs Racing winners' quiz
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Connor Zilisch fall: ‘I was six feet away’
Things took a scary turn in the NASCAR Xfinity Series over the weekend when Connor Zilisch took a tumble from his car in victory lane. He slipped and fell hard onto the deck. Paramedics immediately scrambled over and Zilisch was down on the ground for what felt like a frightening amount of time. His team owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., was right beside him. “Standing six feet away,” Earnhardt said on the Dale Jr. Download podcast. “As soon as he was on the ground I got down there with the paramedics and was standing there the whole time. I was with him in the ambulance, going in the infield care center and all that. I wanted to make sure that I kind of knew what we were dealing with and what he might be dealing with. It was a scary thing but I’m glad that he’s OK. I’m glad his head’s good.” Connor Zilisch suffered a broken collarbone as a result of the fall. It’s unclear exactly how that will impact his racing plans going forward, especially with the playoffs fast approaching. Zilisch is also vying for the regular season title, currently leading in points. So there will be pressures to get back in the car, internal if from nowhere else. “I am amazed, honestly, when Connor come out of the hospital into the waiting room after getting released, I could not believe from what we saw in victory lane, that he was in such good shape,” Earnhardt said. “Now, you know, collarbone aside. That’s not a great thing.” Things could have been so much worse for Connor Zilisch. That was a point Earnhardt made. “Listen, I’m just going to say that we, the end result of this, as sucky as it is to have the broken collarbone and, yes, that’s complicating things as he’s closing in on the playoffs, he comes out of that in a really, really good spot,” Earnhardt said. “Man, just what a freak, freak deal.” What’s remarkable is that this kind of accident was viewed as a pretty rare occurrence. It’s not every day you have a driver injured during a victory celebration. But perhaps it can serve as a warning to other drivers in the future. At the very least, it’s something they should consider. “I hate it happened, and it’s embarrassing. I’m sure he’s embarrassed and he shouldn’t be ashamed in any way,” Earnhardt said. “Every time I see a driver stand on the door top in victory lane, there’s a little bit of me that gets just a little anxious. And I’ve never really worried about a guy falling onto his head. I’ve always kind of worried about them kind of losing their balance and blowing their knee out by landing on something wrong and tearing their ACL or something like that. I always kind of wondered about that.” Connor Zilisch’s fall created a much more terrifying potential scenario. He could have been hurt so much worse. That’s clearly what was on Earnhardt’s mind as he discussed the incident on the podcast. Head trauma is no joke, as he well knows. “I would have bet $100 that he was going to spend an overnight in a hospital just for observation, and they said his scan was clear and he was talking fine, acting fine,” Earnhardt said. “They told him, ‘We’re not going to hold you, we have no reason to hold you because you’re fine.’ That amazes me that that can happen after you bounce your head off a concrete floor. “And then there’s my experience where you have a crash in a car where you don’t really, your head doesn’t impact something directly but you have this two-week, four-week process where you know you’re not right and it ain’t all coming back and it ain’t snapping back. In some cases for people it’s six months. Years where they’re dealing with symptoms. These residual, nagging things that won’t allow them to be elite athletes or won’t allow them to get all the way back. That, to me, is the puzzling thing I suppose about concussions, head injury.”
Mock Trade Sends Suns' Dillon Brooks to Lakers for $66 Million Duo
The Phoenix Suns are set to enter next season with an almost completely different roster than what they had last season after making major changes to it this offseason. Of course, the Suns broke apart their star trio of Devin Booker, Keivn Durant and Bradley Beal as they traded Durant to the Houston Rockets and bought out Beal’s contract, allowing him to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers. Now Booker is the only remaining star from their big three and he is set to be the centerpiece of Phoenix’s future after they signed him to a massive contract extension this summer. For the Suns, they have done a solid job of building a younger roster as they landed Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and Mark Williams via trades and also selected Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming and Koby Brea in the 2025 draft. While the Suns have made some major moves this offseason, more could be on the way before the start of next season as multiple players continue to be in trade rumors. Suns predicted to send Dillon Brooks to Lakers With this in mind, SB Nations’ Jacob Rude recently released a mock trade that would see the Suns send Brooks to the Los Angeles Lakers for two players. In the trade, the Suns would send Brooks to the Lakers in exchange for Gabe Vincent and Maxi Kleber. This would be an interesting trade for both teams involved and one that does not make a ton of sense for the Suns to make. Of course, the Suns could look to trade Brooks at some point before next season’s trade deadline as they may try to add more young talent to their roster but to swap him for two veterans who struggled last season does not make a ton of sense for Phoenix. For the Lakers, adding Brooks to their roster would be a massive upgrade after losing Dorian Finney-Smith in free agency as the veteran forward would give them a solid scorer and great defender alongside Luka Doncic and LeBron James. Despite this, the Suns would likely want more in return in a potential trade for Brooks that would likely require Los Angeles to include draft capital and a young player. Because of this, it is highly unlikely that the Suns would consider this offer for Brooks, especially before he even suits up for their franchise.
Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger Thinks It Is Clear Preseason Hero Will Be Playing Elsewhere In 2025
The Pittsburgh Steelers played their first preseason game of 2025 on Saturday, and the organization was able to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars by a score of 31-25. The offense looked surprisingly good in the game, although it was mostly backups playing in the contest outside of the offensive line. The passing game was efficient, and both Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson looked good in the game. Logan Woodside came in at the end, but he didn't attempt a pass. The offensive player of the night was certainly Thompson, who was the fourth quarterback on the depth chart before Will Howard got hurt. Thompson is certainly on the outside looking in when it comes to the final roster, but his impressive performance during the first week of the preseason likely caught the eyes of some other teams around the NFL. Ben Roethlisberger spoke about the game on the most recent episode of Footbahlin With Ben Roethlisberger, and he shared that he thinks the quarterback could end up elsewhere. "I don't think the Steelers are going to keep four quarterbacks," Roethlisberger said. "Let's be honest. I think he is playing himself into like a really legit chance for a backup job somewhere on a team. Which is what you want." Thompson is going to need to continue to stack good performances in the preseason, and if he does, the Steelers may have the chance to trade him before cutting down to the final roster at the end of August. It is known that the top two quarterbacks on the roster are Aaron Rodgers and Rudolph, with Howard being right behind them. Thompson will likely end up elsewhere, it just depends on how that comes about. Other teams across the league probably know that the Steelers do not have the intention to keep Thompson around for the regular season, and that could make navigating a potential trade difficult. However, if there are multiple teams that are going to be interested in Thompson's services, one might be willing to trade a Day 3 draft pick in order to get him. The Steelers would not get much in any deal surrounding Thompson, but an additional sixth or seventh round pick for the 2026 NFL Draft would not hurt. No organization would trade for Thompson based off just one good preseason performance, especially with how the rest of the quarterback's career has gone when he was with the Miami Dolphins. He has struggled when he has been asked to start in games, but maybe he has turned over a new leaf that might make him valuable as the top backup for another organization. Another strong performance or two should definitely put him on the radar of quarterback-needy teams. Steelers' Skylar Thompson Could Have A Few Potential Destinations When looking around the league and trying to figure out what teams might be interested in bringing in Thompson, it is hard to ignore a team like the New Orleans Saints. The entire quarterback room in New Orleans has limited experience with Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener barely ever seeing the field. Rookie Tyler Shough is an interesting prospect, but there is no telling how he will play. The Saints may want to consider Thompson, at the very least to bring in someone who has legitimate playing experience. Another team to consider would be Thompson's former team, the Dolphins. Tua Tagovailoa has struggled with injuries, and neither Zach Wilson or Quinn Ewers looked great in the team's first preseason game. A reunion could be in play as Thompson has a handle on the offensive system and has a decent amount of game experience playing in Miami. Another option is the New York Jets, as Tyrod Taylor is going through an injury and the rest of the room has a lot of question marks.
Pete Carroll and Las Vegas Raiders' eyes were opened up to a move that needed to be made after first preseason game
After an impressive second half against the Seattle Seahawks in their first preseason game, the Las Vegas Raiders noticed a change that needed to be made. We've been saying it for a while now -- maybe two or three weeks, since training camp has started, really. This roster in training camp will not be the same exact roster that started the season in Week 1 against the New England Patriots. There will be changes made throughout the roster between now and then, because the new regime wants to find the best 53 players possible to help their team be the best it can be. 2025 is an important season, one that will see some pretty major improvements compared to the previous iteration of the Raiders. If this team is somehow worse than the last two versions of this team that we have seen, then they may need to just blow the whole thing up, trade and cut everyone, and start over, because there has to be some type of curse somewhere. Luckily, everything is pointing towards this team being a pretty decent team in 2025, if not a good team. So, as we have said -- they're going to make some roster moves. And they've made another one after the first preseason game. Raiders sign WR Marquez Callaway The Las Vegas Raiders had a few good showings from some of their depth wide receivers who are all fighting to make the initial 53-man roster. Alex Bachman, who was Aidan O'Connell's primary target before Bachman left the game with an injury last Thursday, played very well. After him, Shedrick Jackson, better known as Bo Jackson's nephew, as mentioned a million times by the broadcast on Thursday, had an amazing game. But the Raiders still feel like they can get better there in that position room. So, they signed a guy with some experience. On Monday, the Las Vegas Raiders signed WR Marquez Callaway and let go of wide receiver Kawaan Bake. Marquez Callaway is a 27-year-old who entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the New Orleans Saints in 2020, with his best season in 2021, leading the Saints with 698 receiving yards and six touchdowns. The 6'2", 204-pound player has also played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has experience as a punt and kickoff returner, and has appeared in only five games over the past two seasons. The Raiders will likely let Callaway get some run in this next preseason game to see if he would be worth keeping on the roster.
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