Author: Cory Mott

OFFICIAL: 2024-2025 Crown Jewel Offseason Schedule

With the playoffs looming on the horizon, Crown Jewel is officializing it’s plans for the 2024-2025 offseason for its main Wednesday night series. The community will be running a series of “Crown Jewel” events featuring multiple eras of NASCAR stock cars, IndyCars, late models. We hope you will join us during the winter as we take a break from the NASCAR Next Gen and take trip through history with some iconic races.

Featuring seven separate rounds of modern and classic crown jewel races, your skill will ultimately be tested across this grueling schedule. A mix of pure speed and precision will surely show who the best overall drivers in the league truly are.

1987 Daytona 500

Date: November 20th, 2024
Track: Daytona International Speedway – 2008 Oval
Race Length: 200 Laps (500 mi.)
Cars: NASCAR Cup 1987
Setup: daytona_oval.sto
Tire Sets: 10 Total
Fuel: 100%
Practice Time: 7:00 PM EST
Qualifying Time: 7:55 PM EST
Race Time: 8:00 PM EST

2024 Snowball Derby

Date: December 4th, 2024
Track: Five Flags Speedway
Race Length: 300 Laps (150 mi.)
Cars: Super Late Model
Setup: Open
Tire Sets: 4 Total
Fuel: 100%
Practice Time: 7:00 PM EST
Qualifying Time: 7:55 PM EST
Race Time: 8:00 PM EST

2005 Indianapolis 500

Date: December 11th, 2024
Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway – 2008 Oval
Race Length: 200 Laps (500 mi.)
Cars: Dallara IR-05
Setup: indianapolis_indyovalpit.sto
Tire Sets: TBD Total
Fuel: 100%
Practice Time: 7:00 PM EST
Qualifying Time: 7:55 PM EST
Race Time: 8:00 PM EST

2003 Southern 500

Date: December 18th, 2024
Track: Darlington Raceway
Race Length: 367 Laps (500 mi.)
Cars: Gen 4 Cup
Setup: darlington.sto
Tire Sets: TBD Total
Fuel: 100%
Practice Time: 7:00 PM EST
Qualifying Time: 7:55 PM EST
Race Time: 8:00 PM EST

2014 Coca-Cola 600

Date: January 8th, 2025
Track: Charlotte Motor Speedway – 2008 Oval
Race Length: 400 Laps (600 mi.)
Cars: 2013 NASCAR Gen 6
Setup: charlotte_oval.sto
Tire Sets: TBD Total
Fuel: 100%
Practice Time: 7:00 PM EST
Qualifying Time: 7:55 PM EST
Race Time: 8:00 PM EST

2011 Brickyard 400

Date: January 15th, 2025
Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway – NASCAR Oval 2008
Race Length: 160 Laps (400 mi.)
Cars: NASCAR Car of Tomorrow
Setup: TBD
Tire Sets: TBD Total
Fuel: 100%
Practice Time: 7:00 PM EST
Qualifying Time: 7:55 PM EST
Race Time: 8:00 PM EST

2019 Bristol Night Race

Date: January 22nd, 2025
Track: Bristol Motor Speedway – Single Pit Lane
Race Length: 500 Laps (~250 mi.)
Cars: NASCAR Modern Gen 6
Setup: bristol.sto
Tire Sets: TBD Total
Fuel: 100%
Practice Time: 7:00 PM EST
Qualifying Time: 7:55 PM EST
Race Time: 8:00 PM EST

NASHVILLE: Porter sweeps, Villano picks up Kern Raceway

Cody Porter picks up two wins this week, one in the Sportsman Truck Series and one in the rain-delayed Circuit Cup Series race in Nashville. Thomas Villano finds his third win of the ARCA season at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway.

Crown Jewel started off the weekend out in Bakersfield, California. A small crowd showed up following the real-life Cup Series Nashville race – seven drivers took to the high banks of Kern County Raceway. Robert Fraley took his first career pole with a qualifying time of 20.286s and lead the field to green. Robert would also bring out the first caution of the race, spinning from the front of the field and collecting Cory Mott. At this point, the race became the Thomas Villano show. Thomas would take the lead and lead 128 laps before claiming his third victory of the season. Villano currently leads the standings by 21 points over Jim Mott heading into Auto Club this upcoming week.

Monday night saw the Sportsman Truck Series returning to action for the Split #2 finale at Nashville Super Speedway. Zack Saunders took the pole with a qualifying time of 30.079s and lead the field to green for 150 laps around the 1.33-mile oval. Saunders would only lead 17 laps however, along with his teammate Mike Burnett – who would go on to win both stages in the race. In the closing laps however, Cody Porter would make his move to the front of the field and lead the field to the checkered flag for his first career win within the Crown Jewel Community.

READ MORE: USHERING IN A NEW ERA: HOW THE MCRL BECAME CROWN JEWEL

As this was the Split #2 finale, three more drivers locked themselves into the Sportsman Truck Series playoffs – John Connor, Cory Mott, and Henry Kallhoff. These three drivers will join Mike Burnett, Zack Saunders, and Nishil Condoor in the playoffs later this season. Split #3 will provide the last 6 playoff spots – three coming from the Split #3 standings, and three coming from the full-season wild card standings. For the current playoff situation, make sure to visit the Sportsman Truck Series Playoff page for a full breakdown.

Disaster struck on Wednesday night. At approximately 7:30 PM EST, iRacing experienced an outage that created a ripple effect, tanking server performance. Circuit Cup Series officials decided to delay the race – a “weather delay” was put on the stream, and server performance was monitored. One final attempt to create the league session occurred at 10:00 PM EST, and it was successful – the race was on.

I set up for the long run – I worked with Oskar Jensen to get the setup dialed in for the long run. Firing off, we were not good – really had to drive our balls off. But towards the end we were mowing them down left and right!

Cody Porter, #04 Money Shift Racing Ford Mustang Darkhorse

After a two-hour and eighteen-minute delay, Thomas Wolfe led the field to green after qualifying with a time of 30.379s. Two quick cautions struck as cars tangled in the middle and back of the field. A 30-lap run ensued where Thomas Wolfe would find himself out front when a caution struck at lap 41 – ending the stage. Stage two saw much of the same dominance from Wolfe, where he would lead every single lap in the stage and win. Backroad Bandit teammate Kristopher Burnham would put up a fight in stage three, leading 51 laps before falling back to Wolfe. However, from the middle of the pack came a surging Cody Porter, taking the lead with just nine laps left in the race. Cody Porter would go on to win the race and sweep the week at Nashville Super Speedway.

REPORT: Circuit Motorsports Club to exit Crown Jewel following 2024 season

Following a newsletter released by Jacob Wiecenski, Circuit Motorsports Club will not be the title sponsor for the Crown Jewel Cup Series in the 2025 Season.

This comes as no surprise, as rumors have been circulating regarding an increase in price for Cup Series naming rights following recent townhall meetings within the community. All signs point to the increase in price for the naming rights being tied directly to a potential new broadcasting deal for the Crown Jewel Cup Series.

Jacob Wiecenski goes on to state that not only have they not been able to come to terms for the 2025 Cup Series naming rights, but they also are struggling to come to terms with Ford Performance that have led to a falling out with the manufacturer. This leads many to believe that they will soon join the Toyota “wave” that seems to be brewing for the 2025 season. Toyota Racing Development has already secured two teams under contract for the upcoming season – Top Tier and WRL Racing. Could Circuit find themselves in the Toyota camp? If so, what does the alliance situation look like within TRD? The recent newsletter has done nothing but create more questions than answers.

READ MORE: Ushering in a new era: How the MCRL became Crown Jewel

All of this speculation has some to believing that Circuit may shut down or rebrand altogether. While this currently only effects part-time drivers Jacob Wiecenski and Archie Williams, this does show that original sponsors and supporters of the Crown Jewel Community may be falling through during this transitionary period.

Decisions will need to be made in the Circuit camp, but per the report – we can all but expect a brand-new title sponsor heading into the 2025 Crown Jewel Cup Series. Who that will be is still unknown at this time.

This is a developing story, and updates will be provided throughout the summer months and heading into the postseason.