NASCAR.com’s Zach Sturniolo ranks the top 20 Cup Series drivers competing for the 2026 championship after Tyler Reddick’s win at Darlington Raceway and before Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Denny Hamlin enters as the defending winner.
Analysis: It should come as little surprise that regular ranker Pat DeCola hit the nail on the head last week when he said “more wins will come” for Reddick. That Reddick proved him right in the same week is just a sign of how great things are going for the No. 45 team. This is an unbelievable start for Reddick — even after early-race voltage issues and late-race contact — but he will face his biggest test yet at Martinsville, where he has just two top 10s in 12 starts with an average finish of 19.4.
Analysis: Tough sledding on pit road hasn’t stopped Blaney yet. Despite another rough afternoon of work for the No. 12 Team Penske group, Blaney rallied for the second time in three weeks for a top-five finish. No, the payoff wasn’t quite as sweet as his Phoenix win on March 8. But a third-place effort before heading to Martinsville is bad news for the field. The 0.526-mile oval is easily his best track on the circuit, where he’s collected two wins, 11 top fives and 13 top 10s to post a personal-best 8.2 average finish.
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Analysis: Hamlin wasn’t his usual dominant self at Darlington, with Sunday marking his first start without laps led at the “Lady in Black” since May 2020, a span of 13 races. Expect Hamlin to bounce back into race-winning form Sunday at Martinsville, where he won last spring for the sixth time in his storied career — with a top-10 rate of 65.7% (27 in 40 starts).
Analysis: A solid-if-not-impressive showing for Larson fell flat in the closing laps, when the two-time and defending champion slid into the Turn 1 wall and broke a right-rear toe link, plummeting him to a 32nd-place finish, two laps down. Larson began his career as hit-or-miss at Martinsville, but his performance has stabilized incredibly well since joining Hendrick Motorsports. In the seven races since the fall of 2022, Larson hasn’t finished worse than sixth, netting one win and six top fives in those events.
Analysis: Elliott started the weekend strong with a third-place qualifying effort on Saturday, but that speed never quite translated on Sunday, ultimately landing 15th. The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team has proven it can contend already this season, with Elliott nearly winning the Daytona 500 and finishing second to Hamlin at Las Vegas two weeks ago. It’s a wonder Elliott hasn’t won more — or more recently than 2020 — at Martinsville. The 2020 champ has finished fourth or better in each of the past four races at the paperclip-shaped track, with 40 laps led or more in four of the past five.
Analysis: Darlington was a quiet weekend for the No. 24 team, which rattled off an eighth-place finish while picking up five stage points in the process. Byron is finding his footing after a fairly slow start, entering Martinsville with three straight top 10s and a top five heading to one of his favorite tracks. The 28-year-old dominated last fall’s race at Martinsville, leading 304 laps and muscling past Ryan Blaney for his third Martinsville win in his last eight starts there.
Analysis: Wallace looked ready to keep pace with his 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick at Darlington until misfortune landed in his lap. After qualifying second and finishing fourth in Stage 1, Wallace had a slow pit stop during the stage break and restarted 16th. That poor track position put him in harm’s way when Erik Jones and Denny Hamlin collided in front of him at Lap 111. The damage to Wallace’s car took him out of contention and dropped him to a 34th-place finish, five laps down. The good news: Wallace is a typical contender at Martinsville, finishing 11th or better in five of the last seven races there.
Analysis: For the second time in three years, Buescher seemed destined to win the spring race at Darlington. For the second time in three years, Darlington was “Too Tough to Tame” for Buescher after late contact with Tyler Reddick. Buescher gambled to hit pit road right after teammate Brad Keselowski passed him for the lead — but Reddick was right behind him, and Buescher’s abrupt attempt to slow down brought the two together again. Still, Buescher salvaged a ninth-place finish, a decent result before heading to Martinsville, where he has just two top 10s in 21 starts and none in his last four.
Analysis: Gibbs’ hot start continued at Darlington, where his sixth-place finish marked the best for all of Joe Gibbs Racing. Will that translate to his first top-10 finish at Martinsville in his eighth start? It wouldn’t be crazy considering he finished 13th and 12th in last year’s two trips to the Virginia track. Gibbs is also looking for his first laps led on the half-mile.
Analysis: Bell had a forgettable 19th-place showing at Darlington, ending a three-race stretch of consecutive top fives. But the 31-year-old can quickly shift his focus to Martinsville, where he’s finished inside the top 10 in three of the last five races, including both events in 2025. And don’t forget — when everyone was talking about Ross Chastain’s “Hail Melon” move, it was Bell who won that Martinsville race in October 2022.
Analysis: Keselowski looked like the Brad of old Sunday at Darlington, leading a race-high 142 laps, sweeping the stages, and ultimately finishing second to Reddick in the Goodyear 400. Fittingly, that marked his most laps led in a single race since he led 170 at Martinsville back in the fall of 2024. Keselowski hasn’t had the same Martinsville magic in recent years as he once did — in 14 starts there between 2015 and 2021, Keselowski earned two wins, 11 top fives and 12 top 10s — but perhaps Sunday’s run at Darlington rekindled some of the spark needed to right the ship.
Analysis: Briscoe was running fifth when he collided with Riley Herbst in Turns 3 and 4 with two laps to go, dropping him to a 12th-place finish instead. The result still netted him his second-best points day of the season with 32 points earned, but the No. 19 team needs as many points as it can muster with two one-point days in six races. Martinsville may provide an opportunity for more: Briscoe has six top 10s in his last eight Martinsville starts, including two top fives.
Analysis: Preece has embodied consistency over the last three weeks with finishes of 13th (Phoenix), 11th (Las Vegas) and 13th again at Darlington. Now, the driver of the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford returns to a track where he knows he can make a splash. Martinsville is one of Preece’s best tracks on the circuit, netting three top 10s and 135 laps led, both marking or tying his most at any venue on the schedule. Preece took a Cup car to Victory Lane for the first time back in February at the exhibition Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, another short track. Is the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville going to be the site of his first points-paying Cup win?
Analysis: If you would have told me Shane van Gisbergen would be Trackhouse Racing’s top finisher at Darlington, of all places — especially over Ross Chastain — I simply would not have believed you. And yet, SVG is more than finding his groove on ovals, mustering a 14th-place finish Sunday afternoon to rebound from Lap 1 trouble that sent him reeling at Las Vegas. This sudden oval prowess could prove itself again at Martinsville, where he has two top-15 finishes in three starts.
Analysis: Sunday could not have gone worse for Logano and the No. 22 team, which struggled toward a 33rd-place finish, three laps down, scoring a measly four points while both his Team Penske teammates, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric, netted top fives. The good news (and boy, could he use some after Darlington) is that Martinsville is typically a great track for Logano. While the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion hasn’t won there since 2018, he has an active top-10 streak of 13 straight races there, including two runner-up finishes in that stretch.
Analysis: A great call by crew chief Luke Lambert and a better drive by Hocevar netted the No. 77 team a top-five finish in its throwback scheme to Dale Earnhardt, earning Chevrolet its best result of the day at Darlington after pitting for tires later than everyone else. The question is whether performances like that should be the expected norm — he finished fourth at EchoPark Speedway, too — or if we should anticipate more mid-pack finishes following a stretch of finishes of 31st, 20th and 22nd in the three races between EchoPark and Darlington. It may be more of the latter at Martinsville, where Hocevar has yet to finish better than 17th in five starts.
Analysis: One way to fight back after an intense conversation with your competitors is to simply outrun them, exactly like Suárez did Sunday at Darlington with a seventh-place finish. With a 16.3 average finish through six races, Suárez is off to his best start since 2023, when he averaged a 14.1 finish across that span. Martinsville has never been a strong suit of his, however, with just two top 10s in 18 starts — most recently in 2019.
Analysis: This has been far from the start Chastain was expecting. His third-place finish at EchoPark Speedway marks his only top 15 so far this year, with middling results of 17th at Vegas and 16th at Darlington as his next-best showings. Certainly, the tide must turn eventually for Chastain, a proven winner in the Cup Series. Perhaps that will happen at Martinsville, where he’s finished eighth or better in the last three races.
Analysis: Jones put together one heck of a rally Sunday, bouncing back from an early spin to put his No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota into the top 10 and into the rankings for the first time this season. That’s Jones’ second top 10 in three weeks, enveloping a 20th-place finish at Las Vegas in between. Martinsville has the potential to be a step back for Jones, who has one top 10 there in 18 starts (back in 2021, mind you). But Legacy has slowly been improving. Maybe that plays into his favor this time around.
Analysis: The start of this season has been a rough go for Cindric, who had just one top 20 after five races. He came alive in a big way at Darlington, though, earning a fifth-place finish on a hard-fought day to collect 38 points, his most in one race since scoring 41 at Richmond Raceway in August 2025. He’s been hot and cold at Martinsville, with one top five, two top 10s and four finishes of 23rd or worse in eight starts. Will momentum from Darlington translate to Martinsville? Cindric sure hopes so.