“I’AM LEAVING” NASCAR Legend Kyle Larson has announced that he is leaving the NASCAR due to…..

“I’AM LEAVING” NASCAR Legend Kyle Larson has announced that he is leaving the NASCAR due to…..

The Cup Series schedule includes six different road courses and six “plate-races” — two each at Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta, where the horsepower-sapping rules make it anybody’s ballgame.

Good chunk of the schedule right there, but it still leaves 24 races on a variety of ovals between a half-mile and 2½ miles in length. All without the need for speed governors or right-hand turns.

Over the next six Sundays, we get enough oval variety to give a real clue about 2025’s real contenders.

Phoenix, Las Vegas, Homestead, Martinsville, Darlington, Bristol.

Peruse the south side of the Week 3 points standings and you’ll see some guys who should be ready to move along to the more traditional stock-car offerings.

That list includes Ty Gibbs (35th in points), Daniel Suarez (29th), Brad Keselowski (26th) and Ross Chastain (20th).

Chastain is coming off a downer of a 2024 season. Worse yet, he wrecked out of Daytona and finished 40th to start this year. Then ended up eighth after the dust cleared at Atlanta.

At the Circuit of the Americas, he wasted no time in trying to turn around his fortunes.

Instead, he jammed his No. 1 Chevy deep into the first turn of the first lap — a hairpin, by the way — and turned around the No. 9 Chevy of Chase Elliott, among others.

It led to some enjoyable and enlightening back-and-forth on the radio between Chase and his irritated crew chief, Alan Gustafson.

At first, Chase wondered if he possibly did something wrong. Nope, said Alan, who appeared ready to take the wheel himself.