The first driver named to the team is the “Iron Man” of Canada‘s premier racing league, DJ Kennington, who will pilot the No. 51 Chevrolet. RWR‘s second car will be the No. 15 Chevrolet, and that driver will be announced at a later date.

RELATED: NASCAR Canada Series

Kennington is the only driver to compete in every NASCAR Canada Series race, and he will make his 241st career start Saturday night in the 2026 season finale at Delaware Speedway in Ontario. The St. Thomas, Ontario, native is a two-time NASCAR Canada Series champion (2010 and 2012) and has a total of 25 wins, 126 top-fives and 202 top-10s, along with 17 poles and 3,969 laps led. Kennington has also finished among the top-three in points 13 times, including a record four runner-up results.

“I‘ve been fortunate to have a long career in the NASCAR Canada Series, but I‘ve always been more interested in what‘s next, and this opportunity with Rick Ware Racing is something I‘m really looking forward to,” Kennington said. “Rick has built a race team that competes in a lot of different forms of motorsports, and to be a part of his overall program means a lot to me. To do it with Castrol and Wakefield Canada makes it even more special. They‘ve been with me since I was 16 years old. They‘re family, and now we get to start another chapter together at RWR.”

Wakefield Canada, the manufacturer and distributor of Castrol-branded lubricants in Canada, has been with Kennington for every one of his NASCAR Canada Series milestones and then some. It‘s a partnership that began with a 16-year-old Kennington at the outset of his racing career, and it will continue through the 2029 season at his new RWR home, extending the pairing to an incredible 35 years.

“DJ has been a fantastic ambassador for Castrol and Wakefield Canada for more than three decades. Extending our relationship through 2029 reflects the trust and success we‘ve built together, while the addition of Rick Ware Racing creates new opportunities to elevate all three organizations,” said Rob Fifield, marketing director — automotive, Wakefield Canada. “By combining DJ‘s connection with fans, Rick Ware Racing‘s competitive platform and Castrol‘s heritage in motorsports, everyone wins.”

The 2027 season will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the NASCAR Canada Series, and it will also serve as RWR‘s return to the series. In 2021, RWR competed in the NASCAR Canada Series with a two-car lineup for drivers Andrew Ranger and Alex Guenette. Ranger scored two wins for RWR — Sept. 12 at Flamboro Speedway in Ontario and Sept. 26 at Delaware Speedway — on his way to a second-place finish in the final points standings, just eight points behind series champion LP Dumoulin. Guenette finished seventh in points with seven top-10s.

“We‘ve wanted to get back to the NASCAR Canada Series, but it needed to be the right opportunity, and we feel like we have that with the two-car program we‘re putting together for 2027,” said team owner Rick Ware. “DJ gives us a proven winner who knows this series inside and out, and we‘re proud to represent Castrol and become part of the relationship they‘ve built with DJ over the past three decades. We‘re equally pleased with what we‘re putting together for our second car, and we look forward to sharing more about that program when the time is right.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

The NASCAR Canada Series features a mix of road courses and tight short tracks, and its season runs May through September. Canadians can watch every race on REV TV, TVA Sports, TSN and YouTube. For those outside of Canada, coverage is provided on the NASCAR Canada Series YouTube channel.

Day will also make his NASCAR Cup Series debut next year in a part-time role with the team. Details will be announced at a later date.

RELATED: Gateway schedule | Corey Day driver page

“What Corey has accomplished in such a short time is remarkable,” said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, in a team statement. “He came to us with generational talent but almost no experience racing on pavement. The fact that he‘s already competing for a championship at this level is extraordinary, and he‘s just beginning to scratch the surface. We love Corey‘s character and how he fits our organization, and we‘re proud to have him with us for many years to come.”

Day earned his first national series victory at Talladega Superspeedway in April and followed it up with an impressive win at Dover Motor Speedway a month later. He qualified for the O‘Reilly Series‘ inaugural Chase — earning the No. 7 seed in his quest for the championship.

Day finished runner-up last weekend at Darlington to climb to fifth in The Chase standings with eight races to go in the 2026 season.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

“There‘s no substitute for seat time, which makes Corey‘s progress even more impressive,” said Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. “We see growth every weekend when he gets in the car. He puts in the work and isn‘t afraid to ask questions and apply what he learns. The Cup races next year will give him another opportunity to gain valuable experience and challenge himself at the highest level. It‘s going to be fun to watch.”

“When I joined Hendrick Motorsports, I knew I had a lot to learn. And I still do,” Day said. “But the people here have really embraced me and invested a lot of time in helping me grow, both as a driver and a person. Mr. and Mrs. Hendrick give us all the resources we could possibly need. I‘m so grateful to them, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Andrews and the 500 teammates who put so much into our success. I‘m focused on winning a championship together this year and bringing many more trophies home to Hendrick Motorsports in the future.”

On the surface, it seemed his latest on-track misstep might cause the most significant pause in his young racing career. Instead, after a 44-minute news teleconference on Wednesday afternoon, “The Hurricane” maintained this is business as usual for the 23-year-old driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.

MORE: Cup standings | Gateway schedule

This time, Hocevar drew the ire of RFK Racing co-owner and driver Brad Keselowski when he sent Keselowski spinning at Lap 107 to end Stage 1 at Darlington Raceway in the opening race of The Chase presented by Mobil 1.

Keselowski was clear in his post-race remarks: “His day is coming, and it‘s coming hard. Watch out, Carson.”

And yet Hocevar offered his typical laissez-faire response to both spinning Keselowski and the hinted retribution from the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion.

“He spun. I don‘t know what happened. He spun,” Hocevar told USA Sports. In a separate interview, he added: “I‘ll tighten my belts,” coupled with the tone of a sarcastic eye roll.

On Wednesday, two-and-a-half days removed from the incident, Hocevar was willing to expound on his perspective, but still in a casual fashion.

“[Expletive] happens sometimes when we‘re racing hard, right?” Hocevar said. “Like, I think Brad knew how aggressive he was being, racing super hard, obviously trying to keep us behind him. I was racing really hard, trying to be aggressive and just trying to hurt his momentum a lot. And we just got racing really hard, right? And I feel like you put yourself in that spot that it‘s going to open up after 10 or 15 laps of — not patience running out, because it just sounds like I‘m just trying to turn him after 15 laps and be like, ‘All right, I‘m done with you,‘ right? But it‘s more so when you‘re just racing really, really tight within an inch of each other for 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 laps, it just starts to add to the intensity of it and running really hard, and sometimes you just hit.”

The problem for Hocevar is one that has been shouted from the rooftops of the NASCAR garage since his days of making enemies in the Craftsman Truck Series back in 2023: Hocevar has shown little respect, so he has earned little respect.

According to Racing Insights, there have been 16 Cup race weekends since the start of the 2025 season that Hocevar has landed in run-ins with at least one driver. In a 63-race period, that marks a rate of 25.4% — one in every four starts. Those incidents vary from his former Truck Series rival Corey Heim to past Cup champions like Keselowski, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and the late Kyle Busch.

Hocevar has defended his racing style wholeheartedly, pointing to his childhood memories of the sport as his driving motivator today.

“I just want to be the race-car driver I would‘ve wanted to be a fan of,” Hocevar said in a July 12 appearance on the TNT Sports pre-race show. “So I feel like I owe that to myself and I‘ve got to be true to myself and the 5-year-old kid that fell in love with NASCAR, not everybody else that‘s basically trying to ruin my dreams of being good, right? Like, they all want that for themselves. So at some point, we‘ve all got to be selfish, and I don‘t want to get out-selfished basically.”

Hocevar said Wednesday he stands by that outlook, and that has resonated with the fans watching from afar, interacting with Hocevar and his content on social media while also nabbing his merchandise. Following Darlington, the third-year Cup racer offered a discount on his website to mark all items 23% off in honor of how many positions he gained in Sunday‘s race. After seeing continued chatter about Keselowski‘s comments, Hocevar added an extra 6% off for six hours in honor of Keselowski‘s car number.

According to Sports Business Journal, Hocevar‘s website “approached nearly $200,000 in sales” in a 24-hour span.

“I‘m having the time of my life. I‘m enjoying it,” Hocevar said. “We want to win again, right? But at the same point, realistically, we‘re still really early in this kind of journey here. So we‘re just having fun. We‘re trying to go as fast as possible but entertain ourselves per se, and really just play every facet of the game. I mean, since the early 2000s and ‘90s and everything, you saw every driver on [“Saturday Night Live”] and all these other places and merchandise at every sporting event, even if it wasn‘t NASCAR. You would have NASCAR merchandise everywhere.

“It‘s been a facet of the game for forever. It‘s NASCAR how we‘ve all known it for as long as I‘ve been alive, and people well before I was born, too. We love the fans. We enjoy it. We love the talking points about us and being relevant and us trying to go fast and be in The Chase and being relevant.”

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Therein lies much of the source of his competitors‘ umbrage. Hocevar has just one win on his Cup Series resume — a rousing victory at Talladega Superspeedway that culminated in a spectacular celebration, followed one week later by an appearance at the Met Gala in New York City.

But from current on-track opponents to Hall of Famers watching and analyzing in media roles today, there aren‘t many racers — if any — who are fond of Hocevar‘s approach.

Kevin Harvick, the 2014 Cup Series champion and a Class of 2027 NASCAR Hall of Fame electee, said on his “Kevin Harvick‘s Happy Hour” podcast this week, “he doesn‘t know how to play the game.”

“Right now, he‘s worried about selling T-shirts and all the things that goes with it,” Harvick said. “You have to be respected by the guys you‘re racing against. And right now, there‘s not one guy in the garage that respects what he does behind the wheel.”

Denny Hamlin has yet to have a direct run-in with Hocevar, but has seen enough from afar — and a perceived desire for attention from Hocevar — that he opted not to opine on Sunday‘s incident with Keselowski directly.

“I‘m not going to give him what he wants. I‘m not going to give him the clip that he wants. Period,” Hamlin said on Dirty Mo Media‘s “Actions Detrimental” podcast. “You want me to talk about Spire? I‘ll talk about Spire. There‘s no adults in the room, clearly, in that building. No adults. That‘s my opinion. Because how can you honestly think that that‘s what‘s best for your company if you‘re running a serious organization? I think they‘re unserious.”

2027 Hall of Fame electee Jeff Burton and Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett expressed similar disdain for Hocevar‘s lack of respect on the USA Network post-race show following the Southern 500 at Darlington.

Regardless of the conversations that swirl around him, Hocevar said Wednesday he only puts stock into what team owner Jeff Dickerson says and the people within the walls of Spire Motorsports.

“I think a lot of people misinterpret me having fun or our team having fun and being maybe unserious at times, that we don‘t care,” Hocevar said. “And I think ultimately, we just want to enjoy every aspect of the game, and part of the game is loving up to the fans. I mean, there‘s a reason we do driver intros. It‘s the reason we do all this stuff. It‘s the reason we‘re out there in the merch trailer. It‘s the reason drivers are so available. It‘s a facet of the game, and we enjoy that and we love that. But also, too, we love going as fast as possible and enjoying it. …

“I just care what Jeff, the sponsors and my team says. Whether their opinion changes because of what Brad or Denny or any of these guys think, that‘s all relevant, right? That‘s all included. So then I do care, right? But I think ultimately, racing‘s a family sport and this is a family. I just care what my family thinks ultimately.”

MORE: The people and places that shaped Hocevar

As it stands, Hocevar enters 12th in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings for Sunday‘s second race of The Chase at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hocevar is one of just 16 drivers still eligible to win the 2026 Cup Series championship, currently 89 points behind series leader Hamlin with nine races remaining. He knows he and his team aren‘t the “dominant car” right now, he said. That has led to a “house money” mantra shared among the No. 77 team entering The Chase.

Of course, Hocevar still says winning the championship is the ultimate goal. But the fun of the fandom is what‘s really driving him forward.

“Everybody that I hear (when) they win a championship, they never really tell the story of the race,” Hocevar said. “They always tell the story of what it was like after or before, with all their guys, or with all their people, with all their friends, with all their family. So the fans are just another element to that, in my opinion. I think it has to go together personally.”

The question remains whether the championship is tangible for Hocevar if he continues to frustrate the drivers he is trying to beat.

Both Justin Allgaier and Sheldon Creed, however, will have a chance at redemption when the series returns to the 1.25-mile track for Saturday‘s Nu Way 225 Powered by Bobcat and Sauced by Blues Hog (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: O‘Reilly Series standings | Gateway schedule

In last year‘s race, Creed lost third gear on a Lap 135 restart, stacked up the field in a multicar accident and ultimately finished 30th. Allgaier was nicked with a pit road speeding penalty at the end of the second stage, suffered damage in the Lap 135 crash and finished 28th.

Creed, at least, comes to the banks of the Mississippi River with considerable momentum. In last Saturday‘s O‘Reilly Series Chase presented by Mobil 1 opener at Darlington Raceway, the driver of the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet picked up the second win of his career and trimmed Allgaier‘s lead in the standings to seven points.

Allgaier, on the other hand, started strong and won the first stage, but contact with the outside wall cost him dearly in the late going, dropping him to 17th at the finish with an ill-handling car.

In a field that includes no former Gateway winners, both Creed and Allgaier are hopeful for better results. For Allgaier, from Riverton, Illinois, the race is a home game of sorts.

“It‘s always special to be able to come back and race this close to home — not only for me, but for everyone at (sponsor) Brandt Professional Agriculture as well,” said Allgaier, who won a pole at WWT Raceway in 2010. “They are going to have a strong presence at the track this weekend, and hopefully we can go out there and put on a great show for them.

“(Crew chief) Andrew (Overstreet) and all the guys on this team have been working hard all week long, and we are ready to go.”

Allgaier‘s JR Motorsports teammate Carson Kvapil — third in the Chase standings and 19 points back after running 12th from the pole at Darlington — likewise has work to do at Gateway. Kvapil finished 37th in his only start there last year after an engine failure.

“We‘ve been working hard in the sim this week preparing for St. Louis,” Kvapil said. “I know (crew chief) Rodney (Childers) and this entire No. 1 Wilde Cracker team will unload another rocket ship at the track this weekend.

“We just need to go out and execute like we know we can, and if we do, we will continue to chip away at the points deficit.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

The Chase driver who had the best result in last year‘s race is Brandon Jones, who finished fourth. Jones is eighth in the standings after Darlington, 58 points behind Allgaier.

Richard Childress Racing‘s Jesse Love, the defending series champion, finished fifth last year. Love is sixth in the standings after the Chase opener, trailing Allgaier by 48 points.

One note of caution for Creed. In the 10-year history of postseason racing in the O‘Reilly Series, never has the winner of the postseason opener gone on to win the title.

Two-thirds of the way through Sunday‘s Chase opener at Darlington Raceway, Hamlin was running at the edge of the top 15 when Michael McDowell bumped him into the wall and damaged his toe links, noticeably affecting the No. 11 car‘s performance the rest of the night. It ended up transforming a race where Hamlin led nearly 20% of all laps (and had an average running position of 9.01) and reducing it to an 18th-place finish, worse than 12 of his 15 fellow Chase drivers.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

With just a single Chase result in the books, Hamlin‘s points lead shrunk from 25 over second place (and 50 over sixth place) to just 12 over second-ranked teammate Christopher Bell (and 39 over sixth-ranked teammate Ty Gibbs). It also immediately put a real dent in Denny‘s odds to finally win his first career Cup championship.

But how down should Hamlin be feeling after Darlington? Did the mid-race scuff-up really ruin his title hopes before they barely even began? And is this just par for the course for a driver whose career has been littered with missed opportunities to win the title that every other name around him on the career wins list already has?

Certainly, Hamlin‘s unfortunate incident Sunday was the latest in a long line of moments that make one wonder what it is about the No. 11 and the postseason, whether in The Chase (old or new) or the playoffs. But is the perception of Hamlin‘s proneness to mishaps at this phase of the season fair? In years where he made the playoffs/Chase during his career, Hamlin has an average Driver Rating of 95.8 in the regular season, versus 96.2 in the postseason. That‘s obviously not a huge difference at all.

However, if we adjust for his predicted performance — based on track type, recent history, team performance and affinity for each particular track — that regular-season figure is 0.8 higher than expected, while the postseason number is 1.5 lower than expected, meaning Hamlin does slightly worse relative to expectations in the crucible of the late-season stretch run for the championship.

The same goes for when we dig into specific sub-groups of postseason races. Hamlin‘s performance in postseason openers, like Darlington, falls by 2.4 points of Driver Rating relative to pre-race expectations, and his performances at elimination races under the old playoff system dipped by 0.9 points versus expectations. In other words, there is some truth to the reputation that Hamlin can‘t get out of his own way in important moments along the path to that elusive championship.

That being said, even a Driver Rating that runs 1.5 points below expectations is pretty solid when you‘re as good as Hamlin is at baseline. That 96.2 postseason rating from before still ranks 10th-best among qualified Cup drivers in years they competed for the championship, sandwiched between Martin Truex Jr./Christopher Bell and William Byron/Ryan Blaney. None is near the level of notable clutch maestro Jimmie Johnson at 104.9, of course, but that‘s why J.J. has those seven trophies and Denny has zero (for now).

The good news for Hamlin in that department is that, while the difficult run Sunday absolutely hurt his odds to win the 2026 title, he still can make a strong case as the championship favorite from here.

For one thing, he is still The Chase points leader. While his edge on the rest of the field got sliced roughly in half with just one off-night, Hamlin‘s 12-point margin over No. 2 Bell is actually the third-widest gap between any two spots on The Chase leaderboard — trailing only No. 7 Kyle Larson‘s margin to No. 8 Joey Logano (23 points) and No. 4 Tyler Reddick‘s margin to No. 5 Chase Briscoe (13 points).

The other thing Hamlin has on his side continues to be superior track fit compared with the rest of The Chase field … though that factor is waning some.

As we pointed out last week, the remaining tracks on the 2026 schedule are disproportionately good venues for Denny, matching his strengths — many intermediates and flat tracks — and minimizing his weaknesses — zero road courses and only one superspeedway. That meant he had the best “home-field advantage” of any Chase driver, in terms of how much better he projected to be in the postseason than at a generic, average Cup site from the full-season schedule. And that‘s still true after Sunday:

It is less true now, though: His gap in “home-field” over the rest of The Chase is nowhere near as much of an outlier as it was going in, another illustration of what a missed opportunity his miscue at Darlington represented.

And now comes the opportunity for Denny to rebuild the edge he held just a week ago. Gateway is a very good track for Hamlin — in addition to chief rivals Blaney and Bell — which means the pressure is on to break his trend of undershooting expectations at this exact type of race. At the same time, though, we have to resist the urge to overreact to one mediocre finish that didn‘t even knock Denny out of first place in the standings.

The true test of Hamlin‘s title bona fides was always going to come in a few more weeks, during the Kansas-Las Vegas-Charlotte intermediate block of the schedule. But he does have to avoid more runs like Sunday‘s in order to make those opportunities on the 1.5-mile ovals really count toward his first-ever championship bid.

But at a seasoned 29 years old, Jones has embraced his leadership role among Joe Gibbs Racing‘s NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series lineup. His three teammates include teenagers William Sawalich and upstart Brent Crews, while Taylor Gray is just 21.

RELATED: Brandon Jones driver page

“It‘s interesting because I‘ve really never been in this kind of role before,” Jones told NASCAR.com recently about his positioning at JGR. “When I went to [JR Motorsports], it‘s Justin (Allgaier). Sure, I‘ve got a lot of years, but Justin has 10 more on top of that. Now, it flip-flopped.”

Internally, JGR leadership has noticed Jones being more vocal. Getting the Georgia native to speak his mind took years of becoming comfortable with his status among O‘Reilly competitors. But in his 11th full season — and seventh with JGR — Jones has shifted his mindset.

“I‘ve been the guy to go to for, ‘Are we on the right path? Is this how the cars have felt through the years in transition, what are we missing?”” Jones said. “I‘m trying to be the bridge of the gap and not be the bad guy, but the one that is speaking up a little more when the uncomfortable situations happen when you don‘t want to be the one to the team saying, ‘What are we doing guys? These aren‘t good days.‘ Top fives are OK, but we need to be winning every week. If we‘re not leading laps and [winning], they are not really good days.

“I‘m trying to be that guy who raises the standard a little bit. It‘s been going good, but something that isn‘t in my nature to be that kind of, ‘I‘m the big dog, move out of the way here.‘ It‘s not the way I‘ve expressed it, either.”

Steve deSouza, longtime JGR executive and current EVP, O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series/Development, has noticed Jones‘ approach. During team debriefs, the eight-time winner is more expressive. Jones has been a key contributor in helping Gray and Sawalich, both of whom have won in 2026, including the No. 54 car bettering the No. 20 bunch at Kansas Speedway, one of Jones‘ best circuits on the schedule.

“I think he‘s done a really good job being a spokesman in our driver‘s meetings,” deSouza said. “He is open to a good day and a bad day and knows, ‘I didn‘t do something right‘ or ‘the car wasn‘t right, or I wasn‘t comfortable‘ — whatever the things are that a driver goes through. Now, he is at that age where he has a lot of experience, and he can help some of the other drivers go through some of those things.

“He is very even-keeled, so there‘s not a lot of highs or a lot of lows.”

Getting paired with Sam McAulay as crew chief since Jones‘ return to JGR in 2025 has also been a boon. The No. 20 team does intense analyses following each race. That process has helped the Georgia native get more comfortable being candid.

“I think it‘s been cool to see him become more vocal,” McAulay said. “He has internalized areas where he‘s confident, he‘s going to speak his mind and help the group. He is detailed with what he‘s looking for, which is what we want. We try to make sure everything is exactly to what he‘s looking for and maxed out as far as making our stuff as nice as we can make it and continuously improving everything. I think from last year to this year, he has become more vocal for the group in driver‘s meetings and is always willing to help his teammates.”

Jones‘ rule of thumb has always been simple: He doesn‘t seek out his teammates to offer pointers. Instead, he waits for them to approach him. Once they break the ice, he is more than willing to open his playbook.

In turn, he leans on Crews heavily at road courses, which he was rewarded with a fifth-place effort at Watkins Glen International in May.

“If I see one of them 15th on the board in practice and I‘m P1, I‘m not running down there and being like, ‘I just found it — lift at this mark.‘ Absolutely not,” Jones said. “I need to find a tiny little advantage, if I can find one.”

MORE: O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series standings | O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule

Jones entered The Chase last weekend at Darlington Raceway as the No. 6 seed, best of the two JGR drivers who qualified for the postseason. Following a disappointing 10th-place finish, he dropped to eighth on the grid, 58 points behind Allgaier.

Expectations within the No. 20 team remain high for The Chase. Allgaier even namedropped Jones last month as one of his biggest threats, with the schedule laying out favorably for the No. 20 team.

“The tracks in The Chase are phenomenal for us,” Jones said ahead of the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. “We‘re really close right now to having days where we‘re just knocking out tons of top fives and even possibly closing out a couple wins.”

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

McAulay pointed to Jones‘ ability to accumulate more stage points and his increased consistency as signs of how much stronger he has been this season compared to 2025. In addition to tallying a victory at Chicagoland Speedway in July, Jones has already eclipsed last year‘s top-10 total (14) and owns an average finishing position two spots better than last year (12.2 vs. 14.2).

“This is the best opportunity Brandon has ever had to go deep in the playoffs and win the championship,” McAulay said. “With the tracks that are in it, I think this points format does suit him.”

Christopher Bell won the Cook Out Southern 500 to break through a maddening runner-up streak and reassert himself as a championship heavyweight. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs finished second as he continues to show why he‘s a serious title threat. Daytona 500 winner and 23XI Racing ally Tyler Reddick came home third, washing away a summer of squalor to remind us all who he is. And when the points were sorted afterward, season standout Denny Hamlin still led the standings with Bell second, Reddick fourth, JGR‘s Chase Briscoe fifth and Gibbs sixth.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Five Toyotas. Six spots.

Sitting in the middle of all of them?

Ryan Blaney.

For a driver who wears his “Star Wars” fandom on the sleeve of his fire suit, the role could hardly be more fitting.

Blaney enters Sunday‘s Chase presented by Mobil 1 race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) third in the standings, 16 points behind Hamlin, as the lone non-Toyota inside a top six increasingly populated by the manufacturer. If Toyota is going to spend The Chase fortifying its galactic empire, Blaney has found himself playing the part of rebel pilot trying to find and exploit the foundational weakness that could bring the whole thing down.

For all the fun in the framing, the numbers themselves make Blaney‘s place in this fight look anything but trivial.

Toyota has won 15 of the first 27 races this season, its most victories through this point in its history. At least one Toyota has finished inside the top three in 26 of those 27 races, and Darlington marked the fourth time this year the manufacturer swept the podium. And this isn‘t simply a Joe Gibbs Racing story; JGR has eight victories this season — but 23XI Racing has seven, combining to lead a dominant 3,141 laps.

But Blaney, meanwhile, has quietly built what may be the strongest statistical counterargument. The Team Penske driver has scored 469 points in the 10 oval races using NASCAR‘s 750-horsepower package this season, most in the Cup Series. Hamlin ranks second at 433, followed by Gibbs, Bell and Joey Logano. Four of the remaining nine races use this package — including each of the next two. It‘s completely possible, probable even, that the No. 12 Ford is leading the standings coming out of Bristol, and wouldn‘t that be something? A Toyota has topped the standings since literally mid-February.

Blaney also leads the series with 225 stage points and eight stage wins, with seven of those stage victories coming in the last 11 races. His 829 laps led rank second only to Hamlin‘s 948.

Casting Blaney as the rebel, of course, should not be confused with casting him as an underdog.

He already owns the 2023 Cup championship and is making his 10th postseason appearance. Team Penske hardly needs instructions on how to win the big one, either, having claimed three consecutive drivers‘ titles from 2022-24 with Logano, Blaney and Logano again.

More importantly for what comes next, Blaney has already shown he can punch through Toyota‘s lines on precisely the kind of track we‘ll see this weekend. Racing Insights identifies Phoenix and New Hampshire as comparable tracks to World Wide Technology Raceway.

Blaney has won at both — this season.

The New Hampshire result is particularly telling. Toyota won the first three races there in the Next Gen era and controlled much of the racing from 2022-24 before Blaney himself broke that streak with a victory in 2025, then returned this August and beat the Toyota contingent there. Again.

Toyota‘s strength is hardly theoretical, but neither is Blaney‘s ability to beat it.

That production carried directly into Darlington, where Blaney finished fourth for his third top five in the past five races. He actually gained nine points on Hamlin despite slipping from second to third in the standings, because Bell‘s 73-point night vaulted the race winner past him. More broadly, the championship tightened considerably around them; Hamlin‘s advantage over second place shrank from 25 points after the reset to 12 after Darlington, while the top four are now separated by just 24 markers.

If Toyota intends to turn its season-long superiority into full-coverage control of the Chase, Blaney has so far presented the clearest obstacle to that ambition.

Conveniently, the next stop may fit him better than anybody else, too.

Blaney is the only driver to lead laps in all four Cup races at World Wide Technology Raceway. He has finished sixth or better in three of those four starts, has started inside the top five every time and owns the best average running position among Chase drivers at the track.

And the one exception to all that is more flattering than the box score suggests. Blaney was leading with two laps remaining in 2024 before running out of fuel and tumbling to 24th, opening the door for teammate Austin Cindric to win. While he‘s yet to put the finishing touches on a win there, the path to Victory Lane at Gateway does appear to run, at least somewhat, through him.

That near-miss also fits a larger Penske pattern of strength at Gateway.

Logano won the inaugural Cup race there in 2022. Cindric won two years later. Penske has therefore won half of the four Cup races held at the track, with Blaney coming within a couple of laps of potentially adding another. Logano, meanwhile, has finished inside the top five in all four Gateway races and enters Sunday with the strongest track record of anybody in The Chase field.

So, no: Blaney isn‘t literally the only hope against Toyota. But it feels like a very, very short list behind him.

Hendrick Motorsports‘ Kyle Larson, for instance, looked plenty capable of disrupting the group at Darlington, leading a race-high 99 laps before finishing fifth. He remains seventh in the Chase standings, 49 points behind Hamlin, and could snap off a hot streak in the blink of an eye, 51-race-winless-skid be damned. Logano is lurking, too. The three-time champion sits eighth, has won twice this season and heads to one of his very best tracks as he and his championship-ready No. 22 team are only picking up steam.

So, there are other rebels in the fight.

None, though, occupies quite the position Blaney does right now: third in points, just 16 behind Hamlin, as the only driver who‘s hung with them all season and now headed to a track where his own history — and his organization‘s — already stands out.

That last part matters even more under this version of The Chase.

There is no round to survive Sunday, no cutline and no points reset waiting a few weeks down the road. Every stage point and finishing position payout simply joins the running tally from here and stays there through Homestead. Blaney has made a habit of collecting both, and his series-high stage points total isn‘t simply a measure of how often the No. 12 Ford has run near the front, but tangible championship points that remain on the ledger from here.

Among Chase drivers, only Hamlin has produced more 40-point races this season than Blaney‘s 11. Looking specifically at tracks still remaining on The Chase schedule, Blaney has four such performances at them, tied with Larson and trailing only Hamlin‘s six. Bell and Gibbs each have three.

Still, Toyota‘s numerical advantage remains imposing.

Hamlin has been the most consistently excellent driver in the series. Bell finally converted a season full of near-misses into a Darlington victory. Reddick already owns five wins. Gibbs is enjoying a career year. Briscoe has steadily worked himself back into the championship conversation alongside them and appears just as strong. Even Bubba Wallace is still very much in it and climbing his way forward after a strong opener.

The sheer volume of contenders may be Toyota‘s greatest advantage, and Darlington showed just how crowded that fight is likely to become. Gateway, for what it‘s worth, should tell us plainly whether Blaney can keep breaking up the formation.

So, he isn‘t the only hope.

But right now, he‘s the one flying closest to the Imperial Star Destroyer, and the battle is far from over.

Berry replaces John Hunter Nemechek, six days after the team confirmed it will part ways with Nemechek after the 2026 season.

MORE: Cup Series Chase standings | Cup Series schedule

Berry, 35, will return to the Cup Series for a fourth full-time season after he announced June 10 that Wood Brothers Racing would not retain him at the end of the year. After posting just two top 10s in the first 21 races of 2026, Berry has rattled off six consecutive top-10 finishes, including a banner performance at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Aug. 23 in which he led 73 laps and finished a season-best third.

“Josh is a proven competitor who has earned everything through hard work and getting his hands dirty,” Jimmie Johnson, co-owner of Legacy, said in a team press release. “What stands out about Josh is his ability to manage the big picture behind the wheel — his experience, perspective and wisdom. His career has been built on that foundation, and I know he will have a meaningful impact here. We‘re thrilled to have him at Legacy.”

“Legacy Motor Club is an organization that clearly has a vision for where they want to go, and I want to be part of that,” Berry said in a team release. “I‘ve had a chance to see this team up close, and I know what they‘re capable of. The way Jimmie has built this place — the people, the culture, the direction — it‘s exactly the kind of environment I want to compete in.”

A career short-track ace in the Late Model Stock ranks for JR Motorsports, Berry got his first best shot in the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2021 with JRM, competing in 22 of 33 races that season and earning his first two career victories. Berry returned to the series in 2022 for his first full-time campaign in NASCAR‘s national series and won an additional three races before finishing fourth in the championship standings.

Berry went winless in his 2023 O‘Reilly campaign but impressed in 10 Cup Series starts that season made in relief of Cup regulars, including Hendrick Motorsports‘ Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman, as well as making two starts for Legacy Motor Club in its No. 42 car that season.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Berry graduated to the Cup Series with Stewart-Haas Racing full time in 2024, then joined the iconic Wood Brothers Racing team in 2025, earning his first career Cup win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March 2025.

A Tennessee native, Berry joins two-time Southern 500 winner Erik Jones and current Cup Series sophomore Riley Herbst for 2027, Legacy Motor Club‘s first season as a three-car team full time.

Jones signed a multiyear contract extension with Legacy in 2024 to pilot its No. 43 Toyota and is set to return to the ride for a sixth season next year. Herbst, who currently competes for 23XI Racing‘s No. 35 team, was announced as Legacy‘s third driver on Sept. 3 as he takes over the No. 84 Toyota.

The Academy Award-winning actor and producer will serve as a Grand Marshal alongside Johnny Morris for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday, Sept. 19 at Bristol Motor Speedway, bringing one of Hollywood‘s most recognizable stars to one of NASCAR‘s most iconic nights.

Pitt, whose new Paramount Pictures film Heart of the Beast opens exclusively in theatres Sept. 25, will take part in Bristol‘s famed pre-race ceremonies and help give the command to fire engines before the NASCAR Cup Series roars to life under the lights for the third race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase.

RELATED: Buy tickets for Bristol Night Race

The appearance also brings together a distinctive Missouri connection. Pitt grew up in Springfield, Missouri — the same city where Johnny Morris founded Bass Pro Shops in 1972. From its Springfield roots, Bass Pro Shops has grown into one of America‘s best-known outdoor brands, with a longstanding commitment to supporting America‘s service members and their families.

In Heart of the Beast, Pitt stars as Special Forces officer James Belmont, who survives a harrowing plane crash with his combat dog, Odin, only to find the pair stranded deep in the Alaskan wilderness and forced into a brutal fight for survival. Directed by David Ayer, the intense adventure thriller also stars J.K. Simmons and Anna Lambe, with Pitt also serving as a producer. Heart of the Beast tickets are on sale now; log on to www.heartofthebeastmovie.com for more information.

The film‘s themes of courage, loyalty and survival provide a fitting connection to a Bass Pro Shops Night Race weekend that traditionally uses one of NASCAR‘s biggest stages to honor members of the United States military, veterans, first responders and community heroes.

“It‘s pretty special to welcome our fellow Springfield, Missouri, native to Bristol for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race,” said Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris. “So many people still remember Brad‘s role in A River Runs Through It, a film that helped inspire a deeper appreciation for fly-fishing and the importance of conserving the rivers and wild places that make those experiences possible. This race is one of the most exciting nights in sports, and we‘re proud to have Brad join us as we salute conservation and honor the brave veterans, first responders and the men and women who serve our country and communities.”

On the track, the stakes will be just as intense. The 500-lap Bass Pro Shops Night Race is the third race in NASCAR‘s 10-race Chase for the Cup Series championship. With every position and every point carrying added weight on the road to the title, Bristol‘s tight confines and relentless traffic are poised to turn up the pressure on the sport‘s championship contenders.

Few venues magnify that pressure like Bristol‘s 0.533-mile concrete oval. The steep high banks, close-quarters racing and thunderous roar of NASCAR engines under the lights create one of the most captivating atmospheres in motorsports — a place where momentum can change in an instant and tempers can flare just as quickly.

“There‘s nothing quite like the Bass Pro Shops Night Race under the lights at Bristol, and having Brad Pitt join us makes an already special night even bigger,” said Jerry Caldwell, president and general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway. “We‘re excited to welcome Brad to The Last Great Colosseum where he can experience the unmatched energy of one of NASCAR‘s most-storied crown jewel events.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

The Bass Pro Shops Night Race begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 19. Fans can secure tickets and find complete race-weekend information at BristolMotorSpeedway.com.

Here‘s where we stand in The Chase coming out of the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway and heading to World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway for Sunday‘s Enjoy Illinois 300 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Darlington results | Full Cup Series standings

Chase Changer

The biggest catalyst for Chase-changing this week goes to race winner Bell, whose win ended a 33-race drought and helped him jump four spots in the standings. After starting The Chase 50 points behind Denny Hamlin, Bell is now just 12 points behind his heralded Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.

Bell‘s victory meant all four of the JGR cars have a win this season, and the team did some heavy flexing on the track “Too Tough to Tame.” Besides landing Bell in Victory Lane, JGR also saw Ty Gibbs finish second and Chase Briscoe finish sixth after he led 30 laps and battled for the lead late.

Meanwhile, Hamlin recovered from a run-in with Michael McDowell early in the final stage to finish 18th and limit some of the damage to his championship quest. Hamlin‘s key was scoring 16 stage points that, when added to his finishing position, gave him 35 points for the night, the eighth-best point total among all drivers. Don‘t underestimate the importance of stage points during The Chase. They will be a big story throughout.

A lot can change, but after one race, it appears as though the championship runs through Toyota, with JGR being a big part of that effort. All four JGR cars are legitimate contenders for the crown, with Briscoe gaining eight points and sitting 37 points behind Hamlin, while Gibbs gained one point at Darlington and is now 39 points back.

The Chase Board

Looking at The Chase Board, there are two spots in the standings that I‘m focused on after Darlington. One is the drivers in second through seventh, who all gained ground on Hamlin this week.

Tyler Reddick dropped to fourth in the standings but gained 11 points to Hamlin and now sits only 24 points back after a third-place finish at Darlington, where he led 74 laps. So, despite the summer swoon that saw Reddick give up what seemed to be an insurmountable lead in the standings and appear to be sliding off into oblivion, he‘s right back in it. But for him to push even higher, one of the things that needs to happen is his pit crew must be better than 12th at Darlington and 18th for the season, which is where Racing Insights ranked them this week.

Kyle Larson is at the bottom of the list of Nos. 2-7 drivers, but the two-time champion is showing signs of life. Larson led a race-high 99 laps at Darlington and did Kyle Larson-like things in holding on for a fifth-place result after staying out on older tires. Larson gained six points to pull to within 49 points of Hamlin, which means he‘s within striking distance of being a win away from making things interesting. Plus, it‘s good to be a 49er when you‘re a driver who hails from Northern California.

The other area of the standings that interests me is Bubba Wallace being 10th. Besides Bell, Wallace was the other big mover at Darlington, jumping four spots after an eighth-place finish that got the No. 23 team‘s Chase off on the right foot. Bubba is still 81 points behind Hamlin and a tad outside of being a legit threat to the crown, but with Toyota speed underneath him and a good start to The Chase on a tough track, Wallace is lurking just nine points behind a couple of champions in Joey Logano and Chase Elliott.

Source: Racing Insights

Next Up

It‘s the 1.25-mile flat track on the east side of the Mississippi River outside of St. Louis in Madison, Illinois. That would be World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, where the NASCAR Cup Series has raced for the past four seasons. Drivers will tell you that one of the best comparisons for Gateway is Phoenix Raceway, a similarly banked oval that features corners on either end of the track that present different challenges. So if you want to dig deeper into who might do well here, then include those who do well at Phoenix in your equation.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

And if Team Penske rings a bell for you, well, you‘d be correct. Looking just at average finish at Gateway, Logano‘s 3.5 mark is the best among drivers who‘ve raced here all four times. Blaney is fourth at 9.5, and Austin Cindric is sixth at 11.0. The others in the mix include Bell in second at 8.5, Larson in third at 9.5 and Hamlin in fifth at 9.8.
So just for fun, let‘s look at who the top six Chase drivers are in average finish at Phoenix. And they are (drumroll, please): Larson, Hamlin, Blaney, William Byron, Bell and Chase Elliott, with Logano coming in a close seventh. So there‘s your early fantasy advice for the week.

As far as who might struggle? Daniel Suárez has the worst average finish at Gateway among Chase drivers at 22.0, and Wallace isn‘t much better at 21.3. Ryan Preece and Hocevar are at 19.7, and as we mentioned earlier, Hocevar might have a target on his back that could make finishing the race, let alone finishing well, a bit more challenging for him.

RELATED: Cup Series Chase schedule | Cup Series standings

Analysis: Darlington somehow managed to be both a rough night for Hamlin — and a validation of his title case. The No. 11 led 68 laps and looked like one of the cars to beat before a slow pit stop shoved him backward, and contact with Michael McDowell sent him into the wall and left him scrambling simply to salvage 18th. He did enough to keep the championship lead, though Bell has carved the advantage down to 12 points after just one race. Fortunately for Hamlin, the next stop could hardly fit better: He won from the pole last September at World Wide Technology Raceway, leading 75 laps. A Chase that began with a 25-point built-in cushion suddenly has almost none, but the driver still holding the trophy line in the standings is also still better positioned than anybody else.

Analysis: So much for “almost.” After seven runner-up finishes — a NASCAR-record number before a first win in a season — Bell finally broke through … in the Southern 500, no less, and immediately transformed the championship picture. He erased 38 points of his deficit to Hamlin in one night and leaves Darlington just 12 back, with the No. 20 now looking every bit like the title contender its underlying speed suggested all summer. Bell finished seventh last year at Gateway and has yet to finish worse than 11th there in Cup competition. One race into The Chase, the championship that felt tantalizingly close without a victory suddenly feels very real.

Analysis: Blaney‘s ranking drops a spot because Bell demanded one, not because No. 12 did anything wrong. Starting 24th at Darlington, the 2023 champ climbed all the way to fourth and left only 16 points behind Hamlin, continuing to look like perhaps the most dependable championship threat outside the JGR camp. The recent Gateway history helps, too; Blaney finished fourth there last season and was poised to win in 2024 before running out of fuel coming to the white flag. The Chase has barely started, and he‘s already close enough to the top that there is no need to manufacture urgency. Just keep doing his thing, and he‘ll have a shot.

Analysis: The early-season version of Reddick appears to be back in the building. He won Stage 1, led 74 laps and finished third at Darlington, giving him consecutive top-five finishes after managing only two across the previous 13 races. That resurgence has him fourth in The Chase, 24 points behind Hamlin, which is a much healthier championship position than the summer swoon suggested was coming. Gateway is less accommodating on paper — Reddick finished just 16th there last season — but the larger story has moved beyond one track anyway. The No. 45 has rediscovered its ability to spend entire races near the front, and with nine left, that matters much more.

Analysis: Briscoe‘s bid for a third consecutive Southern 500 came up short, but the defending two-time crown-jewel winner hardly surrendered his championship credentials in the process. He led, battled Bell door-to-door late and still finished sixth despite running out of fuel at the end of Stage 2 and having to pit while pit road was closed. That leaves Briscoe fifth in points, 37 behind Hamlin and still firmly attached to the leading championship cluster. He was runner-up at Gateway last year after winning Stage 1, too, so the schedule isn‘t exactly indicating he‘ll cool off as autumn beckons. Darlington didn‘t produce another trophy, but the larger title argument survived just fine. The championship, if you haven‘t realized by now, runs through JGR/Toyota.

Analysis: If there was still any temptation to frame Gibbs as the young interloper hanging around a championship fight, Darlington should continue to end that chatter. He started 28th and finished second in the Southern 500, matching his best Darlington result and moving within 39 points of The Chase lead. Gibbs has now paired his breakthrough Bristol win, Iowa victory and a crown-jewel runner-up (along with double-digit laps led at Charlotte and Indy, too) with the kind of consistency that makes the whole package increasingly hard to dismiss. Gateway offers another interesting piece of his history: He won ARCA races there in 2019 and 2020, then finished 10th in last year‘s Cup event. At some point, “future champion” conversations become “possible champion this year” conversations. We appear to be there.

Analysis: For most of the summer, Larson‘s season required looking past the finishes themselves to see the championship-caliber speed that was clearly underneath. Darlington finally gave us both. The No. 5 charged from 25th, led a race-high 99 laps and held on for fifth after staying out on older tires during the final pit sequence, ending a three-race Darlington stretch without a top five. He remains 49 points behind Hamlin, but The Chase is nine races long, and Larson suddenly looks much more capable of making that number disappear than he did a few weeks ago. He also led 52 laps at Gateway last year before finishing 12th. The 51-race winless streak remains bizarrely intact — but the title prospects look to be increasing considerably.

Analysis: Logano‘s ninth place at Darlington was fine, but “fine” is a little less useful when somebody like Bell is banking 73-point nights, and The Chase leader Hamlin walks out 72 points up the road. A slow stop cost the No. 22 six spots early, yet Logano recovered to another top 10 and remains the guy in this half of the rankings with the most convincing evidence that a middling-looking season can abruptly become a championship workhorse. Gateway certainly helps the argument; he won the inaugural Cup race there in 2022 and finished fifth last season. Plus, it‘s a style of track that has been Penske‘s power point of late. Nine races remain, which is plenty of runway for a three-time champion. It is not, however, an invitation to spend many more weeks merely keeping pace.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Analysis: Wallace deserves more credit for Darlington than his eighth-place finish conveys. Starting 17th, he drove into contention, led 38 laps and scored second- and fifth-place stage finishes, looking for stretches like a legitimate Southern 500 threat. The problem is that he left Darlington still far enough behind that even a strong opener has him 81 points back of Hamlin, so good nights will need to start becoming great ones, and soon. Gateway presents a legitimate opportunity: Wallace led 73 laps and won Stage 2 there last year before finishing eighth, a massive improvement over his prior Cup history at the track. The title still feels like an uphill climb, but one that‘s attainable, and the No. 23 is at least beginning it with its best foot forward.

Analysis: Cindric leaves Darlington in an awkward place: 13th was hardly disastrous, but he is already 102 points behind Hamlin after starting The Chase 95 back. In a straight 10-race championship with no rounds to reset the damage, that makes each merely decent afternoon increasingly expensive. The good news is that Gateway might be the best possible place to make a move. Cindric won there in 2024 — his most recent Cup victory — and the flat, 1.25-mile track has historically been one of his strongest venues, even if last year‘s 19th interrupted that trend. The Chase isn‘t slipping away yet, but this feels like exactly the type of weekend where the No. 2 needs to put some meat on the bone.

Analysis: Elliott and Logano are tied at 72 points behind Hamlin, but their trajectories feel a little different entering Gateway. The No. 9 was never much of a factor at Darlington, finishing 14th after a late pit-road sequence cost additional track position, and Hendrick still has not produced the sustained summer surge that, on paper, seemed inevitable months ago. There is a real chance to change the tone Sunday: Elliott finished third at Gateway last year after starting 19th, easily his best Cup result there. With the gap to the lead already significant and how dominant the Toyotas continue to be, The Chase can‘t become nine separate exercises in minimizing damage. Elliott needs weekends that actually pull him toward the front of this thing. It‘s just concerning that it‘s becoming a question of “if,” not “when.”

Analysis: Daytona may have delivered the miracle, but Darlington supplied something almost as useful: proof Preece could immediately back it up at a driver‘s track. An extra pit stop for a loose wheel dropped him to 28th earlier in the race, and he later went a lap down and still rallied all the way to 10th. That is a legitimately impressive Chase opener even if the reset math means he remains 104 points behind Hamlin. Preece finished 13th at Gateway last year, so another respectable result is realistic. He has already shown he can produce the extraordinary when absolutely necessary, but the championship format will demand much more sustained excellence.

Analysis: Hocevar‘s 11th at Darlington was a quietly decent result wrapped inside another noisy afternoon. Contact with Brad Keselowski spun the No. 6 to end Stage 1, and Hocevar then needed his own right-rear wheel retightened during the ensuing stop, yet the No. 77 still emerged just outside the top 10. That steadies things after the ugly close to his regular season, but he remains 89 points behind Hamlin and can‘t afford many more races where the story is as much about the incidents he‘s involved in as it is his speed. Gateway hasn‘t yet been a breakthrough Cup venue for him — he finished 15th there last year — though he was among the fastest cars in practice that weekend. There is enough raw pace here to make the title chase interesting. There are enough raw feelings throughout the field, too, that could also play a factor.

Analysis: Buescher entered The Chase needing to prove “solid” could turn into something more, and Darlington did not advance the argument in his favor. He hit the wall during a green-flag cycle, bent a toe link and eventually finished 20th, losing 18 points to Hamlin and falling 88 behind the championship lead. Gateway offers at least a decent rebound lane after a ninth-place finish there last season, but Buescher is reaching the part of the standings where he really needs to find a path to his first win since 2024.

Analysis: The Daytona runner-up proved to be a bridge into The Chase, not immediate momentum once it started. Suárez briefly led from the front row at Darlington before tumbling through the field, scoring no stage points and finishing 21st. That leaves him 94 points behind Hamlin, and Gateway offers little recent comfort after an early crash left him 35th there last season. None of this makes a title run impossible with nine races remaining, but there is now precious little evidence pointing toward one. The season has surprised us before. For Suárez, it needs to do so again. Quickly.

Analysis: There is no soft way to frame Byron‘s Chase opener. He was running ninth when the No. 24 spun late at Darlington, then suffered an engine failure under caution and wound up 37th, dropping to last in the championship standings at 114 points behind Hamlin. That said, this is still William Byron, a driver who has reached the Championship 4 three consecutive seasons, and nine races leave plenty of time for the year to take another turn. But unlike the old elimination format, there is no next-round reset waiting to erase a crater this deep. Byron finished 11th at Gateway last year, and this weekend needs to look much more like the beginning of a resurgence than another exercise in explaining what went wrong.

Bell eventually popped the top after Sunday‘s Cook Out Southern 500, joyously releasing both a spray of bubbly and the built-up tension that came with an agonizing streak of seven runner-up finishes before his first win of the NASCAR Cup Series season. “Tickled to death,” he said, with a hint of sweet-tea drawl. But the long-awaited triumph meant much more, helping the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team shake its regular-season doldrums and stamping out a convincing opening salvo — for himself and Toyota — in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 postseason.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Darlington

The path to get there was difficult, especially at one of the circuit‘s most demanding tracks. Explaining the euphoria was far easier.

“It‘s probably that damn winless streak that I was on,” Bell said, beaming. “You know, makes me probably appreciate this more and soak it in more, and you never know when your next one‘s going to come, if this is your last one, and yeah … that was too long.”

Darlington delivered again as a grueling opening scene in the 10-race championship fight. Top-seeded Denny Hamlin‘s advantage in the Cup Series standings was cut in half after a midrace tangle with Michael McDowell that impaired his No. 11 JGR Toyota‘s drive. William Byron, another former Darlington winner, dropped to the floor of The Chase field after an odd spin and mechanical failure that left Hendrick Motorsports‘ competition brass scrambling for answers in the dimly lit garage. And Carson Hocevar, who rallied to a top five at Darlington with some swagger in the spring, added to his list of enemies with an air of indifference, defiance or a blend of both after giving veteran Brad Keselowski the business.

Bell‘s group wasn‘t immune to the challenges of the 500-mile endurance test, either. Bell had just won Stage 2 when a pit stop during the intermission went awry; a bobble on the right-front tire exchange cost the No. 20 team precious time, and Bell rolled out 12th for the start of the final segment.

Resilience and a pep talk from crew chief Adam Stevens kept the group in the game, and Bell‘s charge back toward the front of the field aided the recovery. It was a matter of shaking off the down moments, both in Sunday‘s race and the regular-season rough patches that had preceded it.

“I‘m a firm believer in it‘s not how you start, it‘s how you finish,” Derrell Edwards, the No. 20 team‘s jack man, told NASCAR.com. “If you look at the media and everything everyone was saying, they just weren‘t sure if we could figure it out or get that win. We had seven second-place finishes coming into tonight, but it‘s zero-zero when it comes to The Chase, and that‘s how we approached it. Even us in the pit stops, we knew this was going to be a grind. We knew this was 500 miles of racing, we know it‘s going to be a lot of pit stops tonight. They all weren‘t pretty, but that‘s OK. It‘s not always going to be pretty, you know what I mean? It‘s a grind. At the end of it, it‘s about who walks away with the trophy.”

Bell‘s frustrations of being so close to a breakthrough had been more and more public as the losses mounted, but those setbacks were shared.

“I mean, I‘m sure it‘s been really hard on them,” Bell said of his crew. “A lot of people on this team are doing their job, like they‘re doing their job and they deserve to be in Victory Lane, and it just hasn‘t worked out. And so I just, I love those guys. I mean, they‘re incredible at what they do, and the fact that they had that hiccup at the end of Stage 2, and they had 100 and something laps — whatever it ended up being, two or three more pit stops. They had to shake that and get back to work, and they showed up and did it, and I think that speaks to their experience level.”

The outcome also told volumes about how ship-shape Toyota is at the moment. Five of the top eight finishers at Darlington came from the automaker‘s fleet, including a 1-2-3 sweep at the top of the order. Other manufacturers had glimmers Sunday. Chevrolet‘s Kyle Larson showed signs of inching toward his own streak-snapping day by leading a race-high 99 laps and finishing fifth, and Team Penske‘s Ryan Blaney stayed steady as the top force from Ford, also notching a top five.

MORE: Cup Series standings 

Though Darlington‘s numerous plot twists tightened the Chase standings, five of the top six atop the Cup Series heap come from the Toyota camp. Joe Gibbs Racing co-owner Heather Gibbs was quick to acknowledge that being the favorites also brings a golden opportunity for a title, which would be the organization‘s first since 2019. Anything less, she said, would be a missed chance.

“I think absolutely,” Gibbs said. “I mean, I think we‘ve worked so hard as a team and as an organization to be consistent and have four competitive cars. Obviously points, coming, showing up every week, just as Christopher has, having all those top twos where it‘s criticized, and that makes a championship-caliber team to be consistent. I think absolutely, it would be a disappointment. We need to capitalize on points. Stage points obviously is huge. It showed up tonight.”

Points haven‘t been the issue for the reliably consistent Bell, who reached The Chase‘s mythical top six on that steady road through the regular season. But Bell also acknowledged that scoring wins would be crucial for postseason success, with the points premium giving a preferred route to more substantial gains. Proof of that came at Darlington, where a four-position jump in the standings left him just 12 points behind Hamlin, his teammate.

Overcoming the block on winning, Stevens said, was helped by a focus on wiping the slate clean each week. That‘s harder to do when one of the Chase Media Day questions last week asked Bell to rank his runner-up finishes from least palatable to most. The 31-year-old Oklahoma native smiled through it. Four days later, that regular-season baggage feels like old news.

“You know, you have stretches like that in this sport,” Stevens said. “Maybe this one was a little bit unprecedented, but it happened, and then it didn‘t happen because we weren‘t doing the right things as a team. That‘s what you have to stress to him.”

The slate now seems even more clean for the remaining Chase races after an opportune postseason reset. All four Joe Gibbs Racing teams now have tallies in the win column, and Bell‘s confounding drought is no more.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Victory champagne aside, the No. 20 team‘s potential might be the next thing that‘s fully uncorked.

“We‘re gonna be really scary. Everybody better look out now,” Edwards said. “We got over that hump that we couldn‘t get over throughout the regular season. It‘s gonna be a problem. We‘re right back where we belong. We never stopped believing, though — our road group, mechanics, our pit crew — we never stopped believing. We knew it was gonna just turn over and look at us now. So, crown-jewel race, baby. Let‘s go.”

Hamlin got loose exiting Turn 4 shortly after the final stage began in the first race of The Chase presented by Mobil 1. He was then contacted from behind by Michael McDowell, turning the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota into the wall right-front-first.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Darlington

The field scrambled to avoid Hamlin, who slid to 20th place, the final car on the lead lap, after the contact.

“Yeah, it‘s frustrating for sure,” Hamlin said. “You know, those are the kind of incidents that I‘ve avoided for the most part this year. It was avoidable, but it also was part of everybody fighting for their own finishing position.”

Hamlin entered the race as the No. 1 seed in The Chase, NASCAR‘s 10-race postseason that will crown a champion based on points. As the No. 1 seed, Hamlin carried a 25-point advantage over second-seeded Ryan Blaney before the event began.

Hamlin restarted 16th to begin the final stage after a sluggish pit stop at the conclusion of Stage 2. His No. 11 JGR pit crew struggled to get the right-rear wheel tightened, triggering an extended stop that cost Hamlin 13 positions after finishing the second stage in third place.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Hamlin continued without immediately pitting for repairs but told crew chief Chris Gayle he believed his right-side toe links were broken. Hamlin was lapped by race leader Kyle Larson at Lap 266.

The No. 11 crew worked to make repairs under caution after Zane Smith spun at Lap 283. Crew chief Chris Gayle confirmed the right-front toe link was bent but the right-rear toe link was not. The car may have sustained damage to the lower control arms or upper control arms, Gayle radioed, but the damage was not significant enough for the team to tell or adjust. Hamlin returned to competition one lap down in 30th place.

Hamlin was able to climb back through the field to finish 18th, scoring 35 points in Sunday‘s race — the eighth-most of all competitors. Hamlin walks away with a 12-point advantage over race winner Christopher Bell in the Chase standings heading into the next race on Sept. 13 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

As the Cook Out Southern 500‘s closing laps loomed Sunday night and Daniels‘ driver, Kyle Larson, held both the lead and the baggage associated with a 50-race winless streak, Daniels again had the choice. With 27 laps to go, he decided to leave Larson on the track, knowing several other victory challengers — notably the fast Toyotas of Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs — probably would pit for tires.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Darlington

On a Darlington Raceway surface known for eating tires, Larson held off the charge of ultimate winner Bell for a dozen laps before dropping back to fifth at the finish.

Was the gamble worth it?

“If you look historically, there‘s been that move made several times with only 20 or so laps to go,” Daniels said. “So, with this new package, I had a feeling it would be a little tougher than with the big downforce package where it‘s a little easier to aero-block. With this, you don‘t quite have that element playing that heavily.

“I felt like our best option to try to beat the Toyotas was to go ahead and start ahead of them. And Kyle did a great job. He held them off for 10 or 12 laps. Otherwise, if we pit with them and we line up fourth, you‘re going to have a hard time winning from fourth. It just made sense to be up front. So we gave ourselves a shot to win after we had a big hole to dig out of from early in the day.

“Either you‘re going to fight with them and come out fourth or fifth or stay out and keep the lead,” Daniels said. “To put ourselves on the front row and be in front of the Toyotas, we figure that kind of makes sense.”

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Larson, who led a race-high 99 laps, stayed seventh in the Chase standings and gained six points on leader Denny Hamlin, who had a long night, finishing 18th.

Larson said he agreed with the decision to stay on track and keep the lead.

“I thought more would stay out and give me a better shot,” he said. “Then I saw those guys lined up on the third row. I thought having an extra row or two would help me. I thought just jamming up the field for a couple laps would allow me to kind of take care of my tires for just a bit, knowing that they would catch me. I was surprised to actually hold them off as long as I did. I mean, it was a risk but worth it.”

Larson hasn‘t won since a victory at Kansas Speedway in May last year.

Keselowski, driver and co-owner of the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, was sent spinning off Hocevar‘s bumper at Lap 107 when Hocevar washed up the track and turned Keselowski.

MORE: Race results | At-track photos: Darlington

After finishing 23rd, the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion was still plenty displeased with Hocevar‘s driving. Keselowski assessed, “he ran into me,” and said there is no history between the two of them … with a caveat.

“No, but there will be,” Keselowski told Above The Yellow Line Media. “His day is coming and it‘s coming hard. Watch out, Carson.”

Hocevar, who entered The Chase presented by Mobil 1 as the No. 12 seed, was unfazed when informed of Keselowski‘s apparent anger.

“I‘ll tighten my belts,” said Hocevar, who finished 11th in the opening race of the NASCAR postseason.

Hocevar added the contact was not intentional, but also offered no apologies when discussing the incident with multiple media outlets.

“He spun,” a nonchalant Hocevar told USA Network with a chuckle. “I don‘t know what happened. He spun.”

WATCH: Full Hocevar interview | NASCAR video highlights

Hocevar has built a noisy reputation for unapologetic contact and incidents on the track while not caring for the repercussions. On Sunday, “The Hurricane” stormed through the field from a 34th-place start to nearly nabbing a top-10 finish.

“I do everything for TV and entertainment purposes based off everybody else,” Hocevar added, tongue-in-cheek. “So I don‘t know. Whatever makes us good TV. I just do it for the clicks.”

Asked by Motorsport if Hocevar wants or plans to talk to Keselowski about Sunday‘s contact, Hocevar offered a blunt: “No, not really.”

Ahead of Sunday‘s race, Hocevar noted he would offer a discount on his website based on his positions gained from his poor starting position. That added up to a 23% on his merchandise following the Southern 500 — until he added another 6% off, seemingly in honor of Keselowski‘s No. 6 car.

just added an extra 6% off at https://t.co/HFSMS2hXrh https://t.co/px6VgH79Yy

— Carson Hocevar (@CarsonHocevar) September 7, 2026

Hocevar leaves Darlington 12th in the points standings, 89 points behind series leader Denny Hamlin. His 11th-place finish marked the second-best of the Chevrolets behind fifth-place finisher Kyle Larson.

“I mean we‘re the second-highest Chevy there, so the 5 (Larson) was kind of in a league of their own for our camp,” Hocevar said. “But yeah, overall Toyotas are stupid-fast. They did really good, so I‘m pretty happy, honestly, from starting 34th and just kind of finished up there. It‘s kind of the best of what we could do there.”

The Chase continues at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sept. 13 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Contributing: Zack Albert

Bell‘s 1.038-second win in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota over JGR teammate Ty Gibbs at the historic — and historically tough — 1.366-mile Darlington Raceway in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase opener was a strong statement for Bell‘s championship run.

The victory vaults him from sixth place to second place in the championship standings, now only 12 points behind another JGR teammate, Denny Hamlin, with nine races left to decide who hoists the Bill France Cup.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos: Darlington

“It‘s been too long, oh my gosh, man,” said a grinning Bell, who took the checkered flag and proudly bowed to the packed and rowdy Darlington grandstands in honor of his former teammate, the late Kyle Busch.

“I‘m just so, so, so proud of all these guys; all these guys deserve it more than anyone,” he said of his team. “This has been a long time coming. And Darlington has been one I‘ve always wanted to win since I got into the sport. It‘s the ultimate driver‘s track.”

Not only did Bell end that winless streak, but the showing was a big boost to his spirit, considering this season he‘s had to overcome a broken wrist suffered in June during a crash at Michigan. Bell raced as the injury was healing this summer, and now that perseverance and unwavering belief in himself and his team have put him in position to vie for the 2026 championship.

Sunday‘s win in one of the premier events on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule was not only particularly rewarding in the moment, but a huge motivation going forward. And Bell‘s victory marks the first time since 2019 that the JGR operation has scored wins by all four of its drivers.

“We can win any week; it just hadn‘t happened yet,” Bell said. “When I was sitting in the infield care center at Michigan, I thought my season would be over. But we‘re still in it, baby. We‘re still in it.”

The 31-year-old Oklahoman led 46 laps on the night, but ultimately took the lead for good by getting around reigning series champion Kyle Larson with 12 laps remaining in the 367-lap race. Larson led a race-best 99 laps, but was among four cars that did not pit for fresh tires following an eight-minute red flag stoppage period for rain with 29 laps remaining.

Bell restarted fifth — his crew getting him out first among those that did take fresh tires on the pit sequence — and he wasted no time moving forward. He was on Larson‘s bumper two laps after that green-flag restart and made the winning move low on Larson — in the closing laps, holding off four other championship-eligible drivers, including Gibbs, polesitter 23XI Racing‘s Tyler Reddick, Team Penske‘s Ryan Blaney and Larson, who managed a top-five showing despite being at a tire deficit.

SHOP: Winner gear

Larson, who is riding a 51-race winless streak now, said after the race that he absolutely did not doubt the call to stay on track during that final caution instead of taking fresh tires.

“No, I don‘t,” Larson said of second-guessing his team‘s strategy. “[If we did] we were going to restart behind the 20 [Bell] and the 19 [sixth-place finisher, JGR‘s Chase Briscoe]. I was actually surprised they pitted in front of me and didn‘t stay out with me. There were so many cars on the lead lap, I thought there might be two to four more [cars] that would stay out and that could help me at least get some laps to manage my tires.

“But Bell got to second [place] so fast, I was just straight into playing defense and not able to run the lines I wanted to take care of my tires. Either way, it was going to be hard to hold him off, and I ended up holding him off longer than I thought.

“Really happy with the day. Much better than we‘ve been in Darlington the last couple times.”

Wood Brothers Racing‘s Josh Berry was the only non-Chase driver among the top-10 finishers, his seventh-place effort marking his sixth consecutive top-10 finish — the longest such streak for a Wood Brothers driver since NASCAR Hall of Famer, the late David Pearson in 1976. 23XI Racing‘s Bubba Wallace and Team Penske‘s Joey Logano were eighth and ninth.

Last week‘s Daytona regular season finale winner, RFK Racing‘s Ryan Preece rallied to a 10th-place finish even after a slow pit sequence during the Stage 1 pit break that necessitated an extra pit stop and dropped him to 28th in the running order. He then went a lap down under the second green-flag cycle in Stage 2 and got the lap back as the beneficiary at the Stage 2 break.

The No. 1 seed and a five-time Darlington winner, Denny Hamlin finished 18th, a huge rebound after a series of bad luck events mid-race hijacked the title favorite‘s early trophy chances.

First, he and teammate Bell had slow pit stops during the Stage 2 caution period. And a lap after the restart for the stage break, while running 16th, Hamlin‘s No. 11 Toyota and Michael McDowell‘s No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet made contact. Hamlin‘s car went into the wall, and after multiple pit stops to assess the damage, he returned to the track and went a lap down with 100 laps remaining.

Timely strategy calls and subsequent caution periods helped him get back on the lead lap — important in salvaging that top-20 position that keeps him atop the standings.

“Certainly not the finish we were hoping for, good first couple of stages, just got where our car was best right before the wreck in Stage 3,” Hamlin said. “Certainly big gains all day and was really good in the long run and got it good by the time that last stage came but never got to see it through.

“It‘s the pressure of the sport. Can‘t have big mistakes. We just had a tough pit stop there, and once we got back there you‘re with guys that are a little more aggressive and don‘t really care about the points or anything like that, so you sometimes don‘t get a break, and that‘s the way it goes.

“We‘re still leading [the points], so just gotta go to the next race track and execute at a high level and do our best to execute a much better day next week than what we did this week.”

MORE: Keselowski after Hocevar spins him: ‘Watch out, Carson‘

Other Chase-eligible drivers included Carson Hocevar, who finished 11th, Austin Cindric and Chase Elliott, who finished 13th and 14th. Chris Buescher and Daniel Suárez were 20th and 21st. Hendrick Motorsports‘ William Byron was 37th among the 38-car field, his No. 24 Chevrolet suffering an engine problem 48 laps shy of the checkered flag.

Beyond Hamlin and Bell in the championship standings, Blaney is third now, 16 points off Hamlin. Reddick, who claimed the Stage 1 win, is 24 points back and Briscoe is 37 off his teammate‘s pace.

Round 2 of the 10-race Chase, the Enjoy Illinois 300, is Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hamlin is the defending race winner.

Stage 2 recap

Christopher Bell won Stage 2 of Sunday‘s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. It was his fifth stage victory of 2026.

Kyle Larson finished second, climbing from 16th over the final stint of the frame. Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney completed the top five. Josh Berry, Chase Briscoe, William Byron, Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric completed the top 10 and point earners. Berry is the only driver not competing in The Chase presented by Mobil 1.

MORE: Full Stage 2 results | Watch NASCAR video highlights

Ryan Preece finished 20th, struggling to climb through the field after multiple pit stops set him back after Stage 1. Chris Buescher finished 30th, striking the wall multiple times and reporting a bent toe link.

Reddick surged back to the lead on the Stage 2 restart, setting sail while Hamlin dropped to fourth. The No. 45 23XI Racing driver maintained out front until the pit cycle began at Lap 147.

He came down pit road at Lap 151, one lap after teammate Bubba Wallace. But Wallace‘s stop was two tenths quicker, and that allowed him to leapfrog to the lead for the first time.

Moments before the pit cycle officially began, Brad Keselowski went for his second spin of the evening, but the race stayed green as he came to a stop on the Turn 4 apron.

Thirty-five laps later, the second green-flag pit cycle began. Thanks to an 8.8-second stop, Briscoe jumped Wallace during the cycle, and the two-time defending Southern 500 winner took his first lead of the night.

That didn‘t last. With 15 to go in the stage, Bell, using four-lap fresher tires, passed his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and cruised to the stage victory.

Three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers had pit-road issues just after the conclusion of Stage 2. Briscoe ran out of fuel after the stage-checkered flag, and both Bell and Hamlin had slow pit stops before the start of the final stage. Reddick also had a slow stop on the final green-flag pit cycle in Stage 2 that caused the No. 45 to fall outside the top five. Reddick was scored ninth at the stage break.

Stage 1 recap

Tyler Reddick won Stage 1 of Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Bubba Wallace finished second, followed by Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney. Chase Briscoe, Ryan Preece, Austin Cindric, William Byron and Ty Gibbs completed the top 10 and points earners — all Chase presented by Mobil 1 drivers.

MORE: Full Stage 1 results

Hamlin jumped out to the lead at Lap 3, rocketing up from his fourth-place starting position in mere moments. Daniel Suárez, who started second, led the opening two circuits as polesitter and springtime Darlington winner Reddick settled in second place.

That lead didn‘t last long, as Reddick reeled in his 23XI Racing co-owner and took the lead at Lap 30, successfully executing a slide job move in Turns 3 and 4.

Meanwhile, Suárez plummeted after the early short-run pace, falling to 17th once at Lap 35 yellow was displayed as a competition caution, which allowed for teams to check tire wear after Saturday‘s practice and qualifying sessions were canceled. Suárez finished the stage 26th, worst of postseason drivers.

Reddick and Hamlin stayed status quo off pit road. Moments later on the ensuing restart, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver took point at Lap 45 for the second time on the night.

The first green-flag pit cycle began at Lap 71, when Chase drivers Bell, Blaney, Cindric and Joey Logano came for service. Hamlin and Reddick came two laps later, and again, status quo as Hamlin exited first.

The pit cycle finished at Lap 80 and Hamlin officially cycled back to the lead.

At Lap 94, Reddick snatched back the lead and held it when a Lap 107 caution ended the stage. Carson Hocevar and Brad Keselowski made contact in the midpack, causing the RFK Racing driver and co-owner to spin in Turn 4.

Of note, Wallace climbed seven spots during the final stint of the stage.

Contributing: Staff reports

The path for a new-look Chase — and a title in Homestead — starts now

The blueprint for winning a 10-race Cup Series championship is readily available.

But hardly any of the 16 contenders in the 2026 Chase presented by Mobil 1 for NASCAR‘s premier title have been interested in studying it.

An informal survey at this week‘s Media Day revealed a significant lack of curiosity about how The Chase worked during its first run from 2004-13 before being supplanted by the elimination playoffs.

RELATED: Cup Series standings | Darlington weekend schedule

“I have not looked at it,” Austin Cindric admitted. “Feel free to educate me.”

Well, it was an era of five consecutive championships by Jimmie Johnson, a miracle charge by Tony Stewart in 2011 and an annual coronation at Homestead-Miami Speedway (which returns to the season finale slot this year).

It was also a time before stage points were awarded. Before wins carried a heftier margin over second place. Before the Next Gen radically altered how cars were built and prepared.

“It‘s just so different now,” Chase Briscoe said. “Maybe there‘s something to learn from the consistency standpoint, but it‘s so different.”

Said Cindric: “It‘s a completely different world as far as how the sport is run, how the teams are run and how the cars are built. So I guess those days are gone enough for me not to really factor them into how we prepare.”

Having made The Chase for eight seasons as a crew chief before moving into the role of TV analyst, Steve Letarte says there are few “apples to apples” comparisons to the original Chase — except one.

“It is still a 70-day pressure cooker,” he said. “It is 10 weeks of everything you have. There are no races off, no laps off, no days off. The champion is going to have to go through the same 70-day pressure cooker.”

MORE: At-track photos | NASCAR video highlights

Ryan Blaney is the only championship-eligible driver who said he had reviewed The Chase seasons of 2004-13.

“What I appreciate with the guys in those Chase years who could put together 10 really good weeks was their demeanor,” he said. “Their mindsets were obviously incredibly focused and on the end goal. So I like looking at the guys who won it in that format and just seeing their dedication and their motivation. The mentality to just dig in for 10 weeks. I think you can learn from some of that mentally as opposed to on-track performance that‘s not as relatable because it‘s always changing.”

Among this year‘s field, only two contenders have experience with the resurrected format. Top seed Denny Hamlin made The Chase from 2006-12 (and entered the season finale with a shot to win in 2006 and ‘10). Joey Logano made The Chase in 2013 and has an overriding memory.

“It‘s 10 weeks of hell,” Logano said. “I heard Jimmie Johnson say that one time and it‘s pretty true. It‘s a grueling 10 weeks, but it‘s a pretty cool trophy at the end of it.”

With the 10-race title run set to unfold starting with Sunday‘s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), here are some lingering questions (and past trends) to ponder about how the 2026 Chase will unfold based off the 10 seasons in its original iteration:

Does Chase knowledge equal power?

Though Logano and Hamlin are the only drivers with prior Chase experience, there‘s a deep pool of executive leadership that has a strong track record and a wealth of institutional knowledge about how to game-plan a 10-race championship.

Team Penske president Michael Nelson and competition director Travis Geisler played instrumental roles with the organization during Brad Keselowski‘s 2012 championship.

Chad Knaus, who won six championships in 10 years of the original Chase as Johnson‘s crew chief, is Hendrick Motorsports‘ vice president of competition.

“When I look through the garage and see Chad, who dominated The Chase format, still being at Hendrick Motorsports,” Letarte said. “Maybe there was something in his secret recipe that he could kind of try to divvy out to his teams.”

Hendrick‘s trio of Chase drivers said they‘ve seen no formal direction from Knaus, but there‘s a sense that his experience will be a major asset.

“There‘s some background there for sure,” said William Byron, who scored his first Cup win with Knaus as crew chief six years ago. “I think that‘s probably spread within the organization more so than in just conversations. You hope that there‘s some energy from that. Just being Hendrick Motorsports in general, we‘ve had a good history of being able to execute at the right time.”

Is Hendrick lying in wait?

Indeed, the hallmark of Johnson‘s title runs was his ability to flip the switch for a late-season surge. In the first two years of The Chase, the No. 48 Chevrolet established points leads during the regular season before fading into the fall. Team owner Rick Hendrick has said he encouraged Johnson and Knaus to look at The Chase as a “parallel program” to roll out cars that delivered a stronger finishing kick.

During his run of five consecutive titles, Johnson never led the points after 26 races but won 13 of 50 Chase races.

“They were able to harness this mentality of we‘re the best group here, and we‘re going to go show everybody,” Blaney said. “We‘re not going to make mistakes. We‘re going to dominate pretty much everybody. I just think it was a culmination of just a really talented team and people, and they were able to do all the things right. I bet Chad had some secret parts sitting on the shelf, but at the end of the day, they still had to perform and execute, and they were able to rise to the occasion.”

With only two wins this season, Hendrick will need a similar performance to claim a 16th Cup championship. Defending champion Kyle Larson, who is mired in a 50-race winless streak, said the team has belief that a Johnson-type run could develop despite different circumstances.

“I think you had more tools in your toolbox back then, too, where I think now all the teams are handcuffed in a way compared to that era of racing,” he said. “But when you‘re racing for Hendrick Motorsports, you know at any point, we can turn it around. You just never know when that day might come. It could come next week. It could come tomorrow. You just have to be ready for it.”

Chase Elliott, who has both of Hendrick‘s victories, said that “no one knows what our team‘s doing or what goes on behind the scenes. Obviously, the year hasn‘t gone like we want it to go from a company standpoint, but no one‘s discouraged by that. From a mentality standpoint, from a prep standpoint, just all the little things that are in our control, we‘re going to make sure that we‘re putting our best foot forward. We just really don‘t have a lot to lose right now with the way we‘ve been running over the last few months.”

Will Darlington set a tone?

When Chicagoland Speedway started The Chase from 2011-13, it was the first of five 1.5-mile tracks. The top of the speed chart for the opening practice session invariably was packed with contenders heavily focused on the dominant track in the title run.

This year‘s Southern 500 opener at Darlington Raceway might be more of an outlier than New Hampshire Motor Speedway‘s 1-mile oval was from 2004-10. The next two races of the 2026 Chase at World Wide Technology Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway also could have less bearing as title barometers

But the ensuing three-race stretch at Kansas Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway will be a critical test of three 1.5-mile tracks that will also offer a preview of the championship finale at Homestead.

“I don‘t think you can take a whole lot from Darlington,” Briscoe said of a 1.366-mile track that will feature a lower downforce, higher horsepower package. “The points are obviously going to carry over, but if somebody has a bad run at Darlington, obviously it sets them back points-wise, but I don‘t think that‘s going to dictate how they run the rest of The Chase. I don‘t think there‘s a whole lot you can take away from really the first three weeks. After that, I think you‘re going to really have an idea of who‘s going to be there.”

A mulligan or more?

Unlike the threat of first-round elimination in the playoffs, Chase champions have gotten away with weak starts.

The best example was the first title for Johnson, who finished 39th at New Hampshire and didn‘t earn his first top 10 until the fifth race of the 2006 Chase. He won the title with an average finish of 10.8 — the only Chase champion with an average worse than 9.0.

The conventional wisdom was that you could have one poor result in The Chase, but it also depends on how the competition fares. Blaney believes this year‘s champ will need to average a finish between sixth and seventh (the 10 Chase champions from 2004-13 had a cumulative average finish just under 7.0).

“I think it is really important to get off to a good start, if you can, but for sure, it‘s not the end of the world if you don‘t,” Elliott said. “But the more bad weeks you have, you‘re going to have to be pretty darn good to make up for it. If you have a slip-up (at Darlington), you better have the ability to win and do it often to climb out of a bad race or two.”

Three champions opened the original Chase with a victory — Kurt Busch (who won the inaugural Chase race at New Hampshire in 2004), Tony Stewart (2011) and Brad Keselowski (2012).

Talladega terror?

Christopher Bell is mindful that the first seven races will likely determine if he races for the title.

“I‘ve been kind of making a small joke that if I am going to be the champion, then I better have a points gap on the field going into Talladega,” Bell said. “The first seven are all really good tracks for me. So, I think my best hope is that I have a points gap going into the final three.”

Talladega was the most feared track in the original Chase, and it never fell so late in the schedule — the eighth of the final 10 races in 2026. From 2004-13, it fell between the third and sixth races eight times and was the seventh race twice.

With only Martinsville and Homestead remaining after 500 miles on the 2.66-mile oval this season, it looms as the most decisive track in The Chase for both destroying or salvaging title bids.

“I look at Talladega as a momentum ender, but also as a great opportunity to capitalize on others‘ mistakes and pitfalls,” said Bubba Wallace, who earned his first Cup victory there in 2021.

Briscoe said Talladega will be the race “where everything‘s going to change. There‘s just so many points that can be lost there. You really don‘t have a mulligan in The Chase, but if you‘re going to use one, it‘s going to have to be at Talladega, and that‘s just where it makes it the other nine weeks so hard because if you have a bad race at one of those other nine, you have to go to Talladega and have a good solid day, and that‘s where the points are really going to get flipped upside down.”

Top Six or bust?

According to Racing Insights, The Chase champion was projected to come from the top six in regular-season points in 85 percent of 25,000 computer simulations. The modeling is based on historical performances (which mostly would have come under the previous playoff system of 2014-25).

Can a driver outside the top six pull an upset? There‘s some hope to be found in two examples of massive points swings this season. Tyler Reddick lost a 129-point lead in six races, and Ryan Preece made up a 50-point deficit in two races to make The Chase.

Bell, who enters The Chase in sixth place, declared on Media Day that the champion will come from the top six, but opinions were split elsewhere.

“Anything is possible, but when you look at who has had the speed, a lot of the cars and teams that have had the speed at the tracks that make up the majority of The Chase are kind of in that top six,” Reddick said. “It does get harder the further back you are. You are starting in a hole.”

Cindric, who will start in 15th, said as long as it‘s mathematically possible for any of the other 16 drivers to win the championship, “that‘s all I need to know. You‘re telling me there‘s a chance. That‘s really all you can look at.”

Preece, ranked last but brimming with confidence after his victory at Daytona clinched a Chase spot, isn‘t a believer in the top-six theory.

“Not at all because I think those guys are going to race the hell out of each other and if they have a couple of bad races, there‘s no win and you‘re into the next round,” Preece said. “It‘s going to be tough to make up those points.

“Just because you‘re 16th in points doesn‘t mean you didn‘t execute a great season. We didn‘t luck into that win (at Daytona). We ran up front. We executed. We did everything we needed to do as a Cup-winning caliber team. If we show that for the next 10 weeks, we can do it. It‘s not easy, but we can do it.”

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Darlington hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: Crew chiefs get set for “Too Tough to Tame” test | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: This week‘s Chase-opening designs for Darlington | View gallery
• Neil Paine: Can Denny Hamlin be a force in new Chase format? | Read more
• NASCAR Classics: Browse the video archives for full-race replays from Darlington | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Hamlin heads the top 16 as postseason begins | This week‘s ranks

Denny Hamlin enters The Chase with the No. 1 seed, and he certainly knows a thing or two about getting around the track “Too Tough to Tame.” He‘s a five-time winner at the South Carolina venue, and another crown-jewel victory would kick off his elusive first championship pursuit on a high note.

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos | NASCAR video highlights

Experience tends to pay dividends at Darlington, and The Chase field has plenty of that. But drivers still feeling the sting of missing the postseason have plenty to prove, as they look to pull off a holiday-weekend upset. Take a look at Racing Insights‘ full field projections for the Southern 500, as well as three drivers to keep an eye on as day turns to night in Darlington County.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

CHASE BRISCOE: The two-time defending winner of this race tops the list for obvious reasons. Briscoe can join Jeff Gordon as the only drivers to win three consecutive Southern 500s should he park in Victory Lane Sunday evening. He led 309 laps last year — 84 percent of the race — starting a torrid playoff run that resulted in a Championship 4 appearance. Although he only finished 12th in the spring, the Mitchell, Indiana native seems to come to life when pressure ramps up. Briscoe enters The Chase as the No. 5 seed, riding six finishes of sixth or better in his last nine — including a Chicagoland Speedway triumph.

CHRIS BUESCHER: It might be fair to chalk up Buescher under the sleeping giant category. The Prosper, Texas, driver is going on two years since his last victory, but it hasn‘t been for a lack of consistency. And Darlington is quietly one of his best circuits. He‘s finished inside the top 10 in six of the last seven South Carolina races, including the last four — which ties the longest active streak. His results of late haven‘t been sexy, but ten top 10s on the campaign — along with a late-season surge from RFK Racing teammate Ryan Preece — prove the organization has speed entering the postseason. At one point, the three RFK cars ran 1-2-3 in the springtime event.

ERIK JONES: Here‘s the likely Chase spoiler. Bar none, Darlington is Jones‘ best track. He‘s a two-time Southern 500 winner, which accounts for two of his three Cup Series victories. Jones‘ six top fives at the “Lady in Black” are his most at any venue, which includes a third-place effort in last year‘s race. After a dismal four-race stretch that took the Michigander out of Chase contention, Jones is looking to get back on track and start building momentum into next season as Legacy Motor Club expands to a three-car fit.

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR COOK OUT SOUTHERN 500 (Sun., 5 p.m. ET, USA)

Allgaier started on the front row and won the first stage, but his car handled poorly over the final third of the race, and he fell through the field on a steady backpedal, finishing 17th on a night when Sheldon Creed easily won the race. Creed scored for the second time in his career and the first at Darlington.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Darlington

Perhaps more importantly, the victory, coupled with Allgaier‘s stumble, moved Creed, second in The Chase standings, to within seven points of Allgaier‘s series lead. Creed started the night 35 points behind Allgaier.

Similarly, other Chase drivers picked up ground on Allgaier. Carson Kvapil, in third in the standings, finished 12th but gained six points on Allgaier. Fourth-place Austin Hill gained nine points, and Corey Day, who finished second after an eventful night on the track, also gained nine. Sammy Smith had a strong second half, finished fourth and gained five points on the series leader.

It was Smith‘s best finish since the Talladega race in April.

“We gained five on the leaders, gained a (point) position and just kind of slowly chipped away at it,” Smith said. “That‘s kind of what it‘s going to take. Hopefully, we can go get another good run. It‘s a little bit of a reset now.”

Hill raced around Allgaier part of the night and said it was obvious the point leader was fighting his car over the closing miles.

“He just looked like he was extremely loose at the end of the race,” Hill said. “He was really good, obviously, in Stage 1 and then I noticed in Stage 2 that he started losing the handle of the car and was sliding around on the rear tires. I‘m guessing they weren‘t able to get it tight enough for him at the end of the race.”

Hill ran a steady race and avoided some of the adventurous driving exhibited by other drivers. The finish was his fourth top five at Darlington.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

“I felt like some guys were making a lot of moves on the restarts,” he said. “I would say some guys were making some really big moves that were kind of low-quality moves. There was one or two that I tried to make and then thought better of it. But I think that‘s just what The Chase brings. If you can gain one position, you‘re going to do it. And I think that‘s what‘s awesome about racing in The Chase.”

Day rallied from a controversial mid-race encounter with William Sawalich to finish second. His car had right-front damage from that meeting. The finish was Day‘s best since his win at Dover in May.

Asked what happened with Sawalich, Day said, “I don‘t really know. It‘s been an ongoing thing all year long of him racing me a little harder than I feel like he should.”

Day and Sawalich had a short conversation on pit road after the race.

“I was able to make a lot of speed,” Day said. “I was able to do a couple things that some guys weren‘t and go lower in Turn 1 and 2 early in runs and build a gap.”

Creed took the lead after his crew delivered a fast pit stop putting his No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet in front of the field for a restart with 49 laps remaining. The 2020 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champ took it from there and held the lead all the way to the checkered flag, crossing the finish line 2.961-seconds ahead of Hendrick Motorsports rookie Corey Day, who also turned in an impressive effort in the Chase opener.

Over his career, Creed has been especially good at the at the famed 1.366-mile Darlington oval known as the track “Too Tough to Tame.” His work Saturday was his seventh top-10 finish in nine Darlington starts. He was runner-up here in 2022 and earned two truck race wins here in 2021.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Darlington

“I‘ve wanted this O‘Reilly win here and to finally get that is incredible,‘‘ Creed, 29, said, acknowledging his team tried a different strategy early in the race that got him close enough to the front to benefit from the clutch pit stop.

“It ended up working out well and was able to get second and the pit crew did a great job getting us out in the lead. Was able to control it from there. Was just praying for no cautions. Very thankful.”

Four of the 12 Chase-eligible drivers finished among the top-five. Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Brent Crews was third — although not eligible for the driver‘s title, the finish was crucial as Crews‘ No. 19 JGR Toyota is running for the owner‘s championship.

Chase drivers JR Motorsports‘ drivers Sammy Smith and Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Hill were fourth and fifth in their Chevrolets.

Entering as the No. 1 seed in The Chase, JR Motorsports‘ Justin Allgaier led a race-best 60 of the 147 laps and ran among the top-five all night. But his No. 7 Chevrolet hit the wall with 23 laps remaining while he was trying to rally from fourth place. He had to nurse the car home in the closing laps and ultimately finished 17th — snapping a 10-race streak of top-10 finishes at the track.

More importantly, the frustrating finish at a track where he‘s won four times, cut his lead atop the championship standings from 35 points going into the race to only seven points ahead of Creed with eight races remaining to crown the champ.

Allgaier, a series-best six-race winner this season, held a massive 229-point advantage in the standings before the points were reset for this nine-race Chase run to the championship.

“Our Chevrolet was really good tonight and I felt like when we were out front there we were able to save the tires, really cruise and our pace was really good,‘‘ said the 2024 series champion Allgaier, who won Stage 1.

“And then somewhere in the middle of that second stage I started to feel like we weren‘t as good as we needed to be and the last part of the race there, we just didn‘t have the car that we needed at the end. And obviously, I was just trying to hang on and do everything I could.”

Viking Motorsports‘ driver Anthony Alfredo finished sixth followed by Chase drivers JGR‘s Taylor Gray and Creed‘s teammate Sam Mayer. South Carolina native Jeremy Clements, who is not championship-eligible, finished ninth for his fourth top-10 showing of the year.

Chase driver Brandon Jones rounded out the top 10. Other title-eligible drivers Parker Retzlaff and Rajah Caruth were 21st and 26th, respectively.

It was a particularly eventful night for Caruth, who is competing for his first series championship. He rallied from being two laps down early in the race and was running well inside the top 10 with 45 laps remaining. But the same fuel pickup issue that set him back early in the race reappeared with seven laps remaining and forced him to pit the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in those closing laps.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

“We were respectable in the first stage before we had a fuel pickup issue,‘‘ Caruth said, noting he wasn‘t positive what the issue was yet.

“I am so proud of all our effort,‘‘ he continued. “We could have easily thrown ourselves out of it with an issue or put ourselves in a bad spot working through traffic. But we got all the way up to sixth place and was in good position for a good result.

“But that happens. It‘s sports. … we‘ll be good for next week.‘‘

JR Motorsports‘ Kvapil is now third in points, 19 points off Allgaier. Hill is fourth, 36 points back and Day is now 5th, 46 points off the pace.

“Still a long way to go but need to keep finishing toward the front and scoring every point we can,‘‘ Creed said.

The NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action for race two of the Chase next Saturday in the Nu Way 225 at World Wide Technology Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage. Sheldon Creed’s win was confirmed. The Nos. 00, 19 and 21 each had one lug nut not safe and secure. The No. 2 had an at-track inspection penalty. All four teams will lose pit-stall selection for next Saturday’s Chase race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

The Chase presented by Mobil 1 opens with Sunday‘s Cook Out Southern 500 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the first of 10 postseason races that will determine the Cup Series champion. Tyler Reddick starts from the pole position — his same perch on the grid from the circuit‘s springtime visit to the 1.366-mile oval — but how he got there this time was far different.

RELATED: Sunday‘s starting lineup | At-track photos: Darlington

A series of nearby lightning strikes amid a threatening forecast washed away Saturday afternoon‘s practice and qualifying, forcing competition officials to set the lineup according to the NASCAR Rule Book. The inclement-weather lineup was established by the performance metric, a formula that weighs 70% of the previous race‘s finish and 30% of the current position in the team owner points.

Because of the topsy-turvy nature of last weekend‘s regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway, half of the 16 drivers in The Chase field will be starting Sunday‘s 500-miler from outside the top 15.

“It stinks just because our metric was bad from last week,” Luke Lambert, crew chief for Carson Hocevar‘s No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, told NASCAR.com. Hocevar crashed last week at Daytona and starts 34th in the 38-car field Sunday. “We‘ve got a really good package here. We feel like we were really good in the spring, so excited about the race. Just hate the metric got messed up from last week.”

Team Penske‘s No. 12 Ford team was caught by the same snare, with a last-lap tangle for driver Ryan Blaney dropping him to 33rd in the Daytona rundown. He‘ll set sail from 24th, but the group‘s placement was compounded by issues in Saturday‘s opening technical inspection, where the No. 12 failed twice, leading to a crew ejection and loss of pit-stall selection.

That pit-road portion of the penalty could have ramifications in one of the schedule‘s longest races, where over-the-wall performance will be at a premium.

“It‘s definitely not great, but there are plenty of openings here,” Hassler told NASCAR.com, noting how the handful of breaks in the pit wall provide easier ingress and egress. “Fortunately, you get a fair number of cars a lap down, so early in the race, I think it‘ll definitely be something that we‘ll have to kind of deal with. But hopefully, as the night goes on, it‘ll work out to be OK.”

The same softer-compound Goodyear tire that teams raced with in the springtime returns for Sunday‘s Southern 500, but the allotment has grown. Teams will have 12 new sets of tires to deploy on the abrasive 1.366-mile track, but how crew chiefs opt to use them in each stage — which divide almost neatly into thirds of 115, 115 and 137 laps — remains a question.

“The stages are longer, so you‘re probably going to see different strategies,” said Justin Alexander, crew chief for Legacy Motor Club‘s No. 43 Toyota and two-time Southern 500 winner Erik Jones. “The biggest thing is how many times we‘ll pit in each stage, whether guys will pit once, twice, or even three times, so that‘ll depend on fall-off, and that‘ll depend on obviously how hot it is and the weather and things of that nature. So from a fall-off perspective, I think you‘ll see it‘ll be very similar to the spring race, and from a racing perspective, same thing. But our strategies change up a little bit, just due to the nature of the length of the race.”

MORE: Weekend schedule | Cup Series standings | NASCAR video highlights

Alexander‘s remarks came in Darlington‘s Saturday morning hours, just before weather wiped out practice and qualifying. That schedule adjustment will force teams to be even more reliant on their notes from the 400-miler here in March, where the tire setup debuted alongside the low-downforce, higher-horsepower package that was instituted this year.

The lack of preliminary on-track time — save for the no-qualifying lineup quirks — wasn‘t viewed as a complete negative, however, with Reddick calling it the “best-case scenario for us. Yeah, it‘s pretty sick.” Hassler shared at least some measure of his opinion.

“I kind of like the opportunity to go and start the race without practice,” Hassler said. “I think you know that definitely pays dividends to the teams that sort of do their homework and then can start the race without that. So I like that opportunity. I just wish we were going to start a little bit further forward.”

So, how does the group shake out heading into postseason play? Let‘s cut to The Chase (no pun intended), with NASCAR.com‘s John Crane ranking the 12 Chase drivers before the postseason begins at Darlington Raceway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series standings | O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule

Seed: No. 1

Postseason appearance: 11th

Regular-season stats: 6 wins, 14 top fives, 18 top 10s, 2 poles, 559 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Bristol, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Martinsville, Homestead

Analysis: The runaway leader during the regular season, the 40-year-old Allgaier enters The Chase as the championship favorite. The 2024 O‘Reilly champion‘s wins, top fives, top 10s, laps led and 9.4 average finish this season lead all full-timers, and when comparing his 2026 to prior O‘Reilly campaigns, it isn‘t far-fetched to suggest that this is Allgaier‘s best. The postseason slate only strengthens Allgaier‘s title case as the No. 7 driver possesses at least one O‘Reilly victory at every playoff track except for two (Gateway, Talladega).

Seed: No. 2

Postseason appearance: 2nd

Regular-season stats: 2 wins, 9 top fives, 15 top 10s, 0 poles, 181 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Bristol, Charlotte, Phoenix

Analysis: It‘s been up, up, up for the 23-year-old Kvapil ever since his first career O‘Reilly win in July at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Following it up with career O‘Reilly triumph No. 2 at Iowa Speedway two weeks later — not to mention a third-place result in the regular-season finale — illustrates Kvapil‘s budding stardom. Such momentum could be dangerous for the rest of the postseason field. Let‘s not forget Kvapil raced in the postseason last year. With experience, speed and winning capability, the future No. 8 JR Motorsports driver has what it takes to make a claim for the championship crown.

Seed: No. 5

Postseason appearance: 5th

Regular-season stats: 2 wins, 7 top fives, 11 top 10s, 1 pole, 173 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Las Vegas, Talladega, Martinsville, Homestead

Analysis: A Daytona runner-up has Hill on a momentum swing, with finishes of 11th or better in four of the last five O‘Reilly races. Though his top-five, top-10 and lap-led totals are not on pace to shatter any records, Hill brings some of the best oval acumen to the table, and there are plenty of ovals on the postseason slate. With a career-best O‘Reilly finish of fourth in the championship table (2024), does the soon-to-be full-time driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series have enough juice to capture a title before the Cup leap? There is a path.

Seed: No. 3

Postseason appearance: 4th

Regular-season stats: 1 win, 9 top fives, 16 top 10s, 1 pole, 182 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Phoenix, Talladega, Martinsville

Analysis: Creed‘s 8.2 average start ranks first among full-timers, while his 10.5 average finish ranks second. Not too shabby. Coupled with four consecutive races with at least one lap led, the No. 00 Chevrolet is in good shape entering postseason action. The big question: Can Creed make another winning impact? We all know about his Victory Lane breakthrough in February at EchoPark Speedway, but another triumph or two would go a long way in making a championship case. Opportunities certainly abound, and with Creed on pace to shatter his laps-led total (190 in 2023), that could become reality.

Seed: No. 4

Postseason appearance: 3rd

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 7 top fives, 13 top 10s, 1 pole, 383 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Phoenix, Talladega, Homestead

Analysis: Tough sledding of late — look no further than four consecutive finishes of 16th or worse — has the defending O‘Reilly champion on the cusp of dropping out of the top five. The No. 2 remains inside the top five in this installment, though, primarily on track record and the ability to race at the front of the field during postseason action; Love‘s 383 laps led rank second among full-time drivers. Benefit of the doubt is applicable in this instance. Whether Love can put together a scorcher will be the difference between defending his title and missing it by a wide margin.

Seed: No. 6

Postseason appearance: 8th

Regular-season stats: 1 win, 6 top fives, 14 top 10s, 1 pole, 131 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Martinsville, Homestead

Analysis: Jones has held steady at P6 in the driver standings for a bit, and that continues heading into The Chase. The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing driver has been consistent in his starting and finishing position, with near-identical marks in average start and average finish (11.2 vs. 12.2). Though Kansas Speedway — where he possesses three wins — is not on the postseason docket, Jones (who will return to Joe Gibbs next season) still has the capability to make postseason noise. After all, Jones finished runner-up in March at Darlington. Can that performance be replicated and then duplicated for other tracks? To be determined.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Seed: No. 7

Postseason appearance: 1st

Regular-season stats: 2 wins, 6 top fives, 15 top 10s, 1 pole, 195 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Las Vegas, Charlotte, Talladega

Analysis: Finishes of 29th or worse in three of the last four races have Day limping into postseason play. Leading laps and contending for race wins give Day a Chase advantage, but just how much of that advantage will propel the No. 17 driver? The good news is that the bulk of Day‘s 2026 success has come at tracks on the postseason schedule, with finishes inside the top 10 at Phoenix Raceway (ninth), Las Vegas Motor Speedway (eighth), Bristol Motor Speedway (eighth), Darlington (sixth) and Charlotte (fifth), a runner-up at Martinsville Speedway and a win at Talladega Superspeedway. Being a rookie, postseason racing could be a different beast, and how Day tackles the challenge will be fascinating to watch.

Seed: No. 9

Postseason appearance: 1st

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 4 top fives, 10 top 10s, 0 poles, 8 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Gateway, Talladega

Analysis: The theme of Retzlaff‘s 2026 campaign? Consistent and clean. With only two DNFs to his ledger — with the most recent one coming in May at Dover Motor Speedway — it‘s no surprise the 23-year-old Retzlaff has compiled a ton of positive track time, with the net result being a top-10 points position and coveted Chase berth. The No. 99 driver has been a boon for Viking Motorsports this season, but with limited laps led, the team will need to reach another gear if it wants to contend for hardware.

Seed: No. 8

Postseason appearance: 4th

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 6 top fives, 10 top 10s, 0 poles, 51 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Phoenix, Talladega, Martinsville

Analysis: Smith has run a similar trajectory to Retzlaff in terms of overall consistency, though the former enters The Chase on shakier footing, finishing 36th at Daytona. Smith‘s strong start to 2026 — where he finished ninth or better in six of the first seven contests — will need to be replicated in some fashion if Smith wishes to crack into the circuit‘s upper echelon over his final nine races as driver of the No. 8. Luckily for Smith, four of the first seven tracks to open the season (Phoenix, Las Vegas, Darlington, Martinsville) are on the postseason calendar. Same goes for Talladega, where Smith compiled his second-best finish of the year (fourth).

Seed: No. 11

Postseason appearance: 2nd

Regular-season stats: 1 win, 3 top fives, 9 top 10s, 1 pole, 189 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Phoenix, Martinsville

Analysis: Going dancing for a second consecutive season gives the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing a sense of unfinished business. Add in the fact that Gray‘s first O‘Reilly victory came at Martinsville during postseason play last season, and the storyline of what the young Gray can do in his sophomore postseason campaign becomes more tantalizing. With Martinsville the penultimate Chase track this season, it is imperative that Gray leverages consistent, solid finishes in the build-up to that short-track showdown. Can it be done? Sure. But work still needs to happen beforehand.

Seed: No. 10

Postseason appearance: 5th

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 5 top fives, 10 top 10s, 3 poles, 171 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Bristol, Martinsville, Homestead

Analysis: There‘s no doubt that Mayer has illustrated qualifying speed; Mayer‘s 8.5 average start ranks tied for second among full-time drivers, behind only Creed (8.2). A 17.5 average finish puts a damper on that statistic, and whether Mayer can finish races in The Chase will determine if a legitimate title path can be paved. Like Gray, success needs to come early and often. Why? Homestead-Miami Speedway is arguably Mayer‘s best track (one win, three top fives, four top 10s, 68 laps led), and that is the site of this year‘s finale. If there is a stretch for Mayer to put complete races together, this is the time.

Seed: No. 12

Postseason appearance: 1st

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 2 top fives, 8 top 10s, 1 pole, 87 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Charlotte, Phoenix

Analysis: Overcoming a late wreck at Daytona to slide into the 12-driver Chase field highlights Caruth‘s ability to perform in the clutch. The clutch gene will need to continue in more ways than one during this year‘s postseason, though, not only because he was the last driver in, but also because the 24-year-old driver only has top-10 finishes at two Chase tracks (Charlotte, Phoenix). The mountain will be a tough one to climb, and even if it is successfully completed, help from others in the postseason hunt will be necessary to make a big climb.

But with the return of The Chase presented by Mobil 1, where eliminations, rounds and a winner-take-all finale are a thing of the past, this year will require teaching new dogs some old tricks.

No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin and fellow Chase competitor Joey Logano are the only drivers with experience in the first iteration of The Chase from 2004-2013, and neither was successful in hoisting the trophy after 36 races in that postseason format.

RELATED: Darlington weekend schedule | How The Chase works

The points payout and seeding have changed for the return of The Chase, but there are still ties that bind the old and new Chase eras that will need to be tracked during Sunday‘s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

WIN OR FINISH TOP FIVE IN THE OPENING RACE OF THE CHASE

At a 20-point differential, the points payout has never been wider between going to Victory Lane and being runner-up in The Chase. In the first run of the postseason format, three champions won the opening event in The Chase: Kurt Busch (2004), Tony Stewart (2011), Brad Keselowski (2012).

Both Busch and Stewart started their respective title campaigns in those seasons outside the top five in points. Busch started the inaugural Chase in seventh, while a winless regular season for Stewart in 2011 placed him ninth on the Chase grid.

Two-time defending Southern 500 winner Chase Briscoe and 2023 Southern 500 champion Kyle Larson should both have their ears perked up as Briscoe seeks to become the first driver since Jeff Gordon in the late 1990s to win three consecutive Southern 500s, and Larson has yet to pick up a 2026 victory amid a current 50-race winless streak.

If a win isn‘t in the cards, maximizing points will also do the trick, as the champions in The Chase format finished fifth or better in seven of the 10 previous Chase years. The non-winners of the opening Chase race that went on to be champions were Stewart (2005) and Jimmie Johnson (2008, 2009, 2013). The caveat is that Stewart and Johnson started The Chase in the top three, which leaves just Hamlin, Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick who trend toward winning the title with a great points day at the “Lady in Black.”

DARLINGTON MULLIGAN? BETTER PULL OFF FEATS OF A SEVEN-TIME CHAMP

In the old Chase era, the average combined finish of all the champions was 6.98 across 10 seasons.

Being a champion in this format requires near-perfection and rarely allows any slip-ups during the 10-week streak. However, Johnson, a seven-time Cup Series champion, had slip-ups during his legendary five-year title run.

Starting The Chase as the No. 2 seed in 2006, Johnson crashed at New Hampshire in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and finished 39th to start the postseason. He dropped to ninth after Loudon, but went on to finish second or better in five of the last six Chase races to surge from eighth to first in four races to hoist his first Cup championship.

In 2010, Johnson was also involved in an incident in the New Hampshire Chase opener and had to limp around the 1-mile oval to a 25th-place result. Dropping from second to sixth, Johnson went on a scorcher of a run for the final nine races, winning at Dover and finishing no worse than ninth to outduel Hamlin for the series crown at the Homestead-Miami Speedway finale.

But could anyone in 2026 truly start off with a mulligan and still go on to win the championship?

The answer may only be Hamlin by default of his 25-point advantage to start The Chase.

And looking at consecutive top-10 streaks from this year, it‘s the cream of the crop from the regular season that truly can still have hopes if Darlington turns into a bust for them.

MORE: Can Hamlin finally finish the job? | Ranking all 16 Cup Chase drivers

Blaney had the longest top-10 streak of the year at eight races between the Coca-Cola 600 and his EchoPark Speedway win in July. Gibbs put together seven consecutive top-10 runs at the start of the season, from Circuit of The Americas to Kansas Speedway. Then, it‘s Hamlin who had five straight recently from North Wilkesboro to New Hampshire.

Every other Chase driver had four or fewer consecutive top-10 finishes this year, with Daniel Suárez being the only title-eligible driver not to score consecutive top 10s during the regular season.

Since becoming a postseason curtain-jerker in 2020, Darlington has stifled those competing for the championship. Chase drivers have DNF‘d a combined 10 times in the five Southern 500s that started the former playoff format and on 37 combined occasions, title-eligible drivers finished outside the top 15.

Darlington has proven to be a tough host to start one‘s dreams of winning NASCAR‘s top prize, and there‘s an equal chance that Sunday will either show the Chase standings as we expected or will completely rewrite what to expect for the remainder of the Chase‘s return.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

The lightning rod of the NASCAR Cup Series enters as the No. 12 seed in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 ahead of Sunday‘s opener at Darlington Raceway for the Cook Out Southern 500 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Chase standings | Darlington schedule

Hocevar made The Chase without a worry, but a dismal stretch of results has his No. 77 Spire Motorsports team fighting a far more uphill battle than it seemed they would face one month ago. Following the July 26 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Hocevar ranked fifth in points, the sport‘s top Chevrolet driver. His results in the next four races, however, sent him tumbling down the standings to 12th: one top-20 finish, three finishes of 31st or worse and two DNFs.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 23-year-old driver is walking into The Chase as light as possible with no change in team morale despite a disappointing August.

“I don‘t think anything‘s changed,” Hocevar said Wednesday during Chase Media Day. “Like after Daytona, we gained 300 points on the leader, so it‘s a pretty good points day.”

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Indeed, the points reset to begin The Chase turned a 354-point gap to No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin into just an 80-point deficit. Had Hocevar managed to hold onto the No. 5 seed, he would have started The Chase just 45 points behind Hamlin. But there‘s not an ounce of concern on the face of the go-with-flow-natured Hocevar.

Some of that is built into the nature of the No. 77 team at Spire Motorsports. Crew chief Luke Lambert and competition director Matt McCall were both on the pit box for Ryan Newman and the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing team in 2014, when Newman and Co. stormed through the inaugural season of elimination-style playoffs to land an upset runner-up finish in the championship race behind Kevin Harvick. Lambert was Newman‘s crew chief and McCall served as the race engineer.

“I‘d say our team morale-ish or motto is more so we‘re playing with house money,” Hocevar said. “Luke and Matt McCall were on that 31 team in 2014, and that‘s how they approached it and they finished second. So yeah, I mean for me, I‘m not even gonna look at the points. I don‘t plan on looking at it until the end, and they‘ll let me know when I walk up at the banquet where I finished. …

“I think they‘ve embraced that kind of mantra or whatever the word is, and they‘ve enjoyed it and embraced it. It‘s been I think fun for all of us.”

Blocking out the noise. pic.twitter.com/Ty5SIW40p2

— Spire Motorsports (@SpireMotorsport) September 3, 2026

It‘s been a year full of noise surrounding Hocevar. On the rise on and off the track, the hotshot youngster nabbed his first career NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega Superspeedway in April, creating a celebration that became an instant classic as he rode the window of his race car after the checkered flag and performed a burnout against the fence while hanging out of his race car. One week later, the Portage, Michigan, native appeared at the Met Gala in New York City, transcending the NASCAR space and landing himself among the pop-culture world.

MORE: See Hocevar‘s look at the Met Gala | People, places that shaped Hocevar

And even in the wake of a crummy month on the race track, Hocevar‘s name has still remained a topic of conversation.

“It‘s kind of funny. I‘m not even trying to,” Hocevar said. “You know, whether we run good or bad, it seems like there‘s some sort of talking point at some point. But I enjoy it. I think it‘s funny a lot of times, and yeah, I mean hopefully it‘s entertaining for fans and TV and everybody. Much rather them talk about something than nothing, I guess.”

As a kid who grew up obsessed with NASCAR, Hocevar still thinks “it‘s crazy that anybody would buy any merch” of his, he said. Even though he‘s a Cup driver 38 weekends a year, he has managed to maintain that fandom for the sport. And after a career year during the 26-race regular season that featured a career-high five top fives and tying a career-best nine top 10s so far, Hocevar is simply trying to enjoy the moment.

“It‘s been fun for for all of us,” Hocevar said. “Literally since the (Daytona) Duel, we‘ve never been below the Chase cutoff. So it‘s been easy per se on the cutline. Like we‘ve never once thought we‘re out of it or even really felt like we were close to getting knocked out. So it‘s just been fun and enjoyable, and we‘re just like, we‘ll see if we‘re higher or lower and see where it goes and just go racing and see what happens. So it‘s been fun and enjoyable and we just keep working to see if we can get our cars faster.”

Foster spent 15 years as a sports journalist, with a newspaper career that included stops at The Salisbury Post and The Greensboro Record, followed by seven years as sports editor of the Spartanburg Herald. It was there that Foster covered some of NASCAR‘s early years, including the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959.

After a brief stint in public relations with Chrysler‘s Dodge Division, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. hired Foster in 1967 as press director and assistant to the president. When France wanted the inaugural race at Talladega Superspeedway broadcast on radio in 1969, he turned to Foster to help make it happen. That effort ultimately helped spark the creation of the Motor Racing Network, with Foster playing a key role in assembling the team, which included legendary broadcaster and Squier-Hall Award namesake Ken Squier, that launched the network during Daytona Speedweeks in 1970.

“Jim Foster helped set a standard for NASCAR media coverage during the sport‘s formative years, bringing its stories and personalities to life for a growing audience of readers and, later, listeners,” said Steve O‘Donnell, NASCAR CEO. “From his years covering NASCAR for several newspapers in the Carolinas to helping establish the Motor Racing Network, Jim understood the power of connecting fans directly to the sport through vibrant storytelling. His vision and passion left a lasting impact on both the media landscape and NASCAR, and we‘re proud to recognize him with the Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence.”

The Squier-Hall Award is voted upon by a panel of NASCAR and NASCAR Hall of Fame executives, active and retired media members, and former NASCAR competitors and industry leaders. Foster will be honored during NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony festivities on January 22, 2027, and featured in an exhibit in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Tickets to the Induction Weekend events are available at NASCARHall.com.

The Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence was named after legendary NASCAR media figures Ken Squier and Barney Hall, the first two recipients of the award.

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The other seven nominees for the award were:

Russ Catlin, one of the best-known early racing writers and historians; editor of Speed Age Magazine.

George Cunningham, long-time beat writer for The Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Constitution and NASCAR Scene; is the namesake for the annual NMPA award for Excellence in Writing.

Bob Montgomery, co-founder and announcer for the Universal Racing Network.

Bob Moore, spent more than 20 years as a NASCAR beat writer including stints with the Daytona Beach News-Journal and The Charlotte Observer.

Al Pearce, covered NASCAR for more than 50 years including 56 consecutive Daytona 500s, with a long tenure at AutoWeek.

Dr. Jerry Punch, veteran ESPN broadcaster whose NASCAR career spanned decades from pit road to the broadcast booth.

Hank Schoolfield, a jack of all trades bringing NASCAR racing to rans across the Southeast through newspapers, magazines and radio.

Herbst, 27, currently drives 23XI Racing‘s No. 35 Toyota and is in his second season in stock-car racing‘s pinnacle series. 23XI announced in May that Corey Heim, who‘s won two races in a part-time slate, will take over that ride next season.

From Las Vegas, Nevada, Herbst‘s roots with owner Jimmie Johnson run deep. Johnson has a relationship with Herbst‘s father, Troy, from off-road racing, making the decision easy for both driver and owner.

The No. 84, of course, is an inverse of the number Johnson drove to seven Cup championships.

RELATED: Cup Series standings | Darlington weekend schedule

“It was awesome to team up with a childhood hero,” Herbst said in a press conference at Ten Tenths Motor Club, which sits adjacent to Charlotte Motor Speedway. “My dad always used to tell me that he grew up with Jimmie, knew Jimmie — I didn‘t believe him. This is when Jimmie was on a streak of five in a row and dominating.

“I love Jimmie, but this red badge on my arm was probably case No. 1 of why Legacy was the right option. The investment that Tyler [Gibbs, group vice president and president of Toyota Racing Development] and Jack [Irving, TRD general manager] and everybody at Toyota USA puts into NASCAR and motorsports is second to none, and I think Jimmie would back that up. I‘m just excited to stay with the Toyota family and continue to grow with that manufacturer and hopefully take Legacy to the next step within the Toyota camp.”

Johnson confirmed in March that the organization would field three full-time Cup entries next season for the first time. Erik Jones currently drives the No. 43 Toyota and will return in 2027, but the announcement comes less than 24 hours after the team confirmed that John Hunter Nemechek will not return to the No. 42 Toyota.

“He‘s the perfect fit for us, and he‘s the future of Legacy,” Johnson said of Herbst. “Troy, he‘s been so kind, offering me a chance to race a [off-road] truck the last couple of years, and it came together in March. As we worked through that incredible opportunity, this started to heat up in this opportunity. There‘s a certain discipline that you learn on the dirt and driving those vehicles that I really feel like gives you a huge advantage in a Cup car, and I was able to exploit that. And then you take the work ethic and commitment this young man has, his dedication and focus to being the best driver he can be.

“Riley is an up-and-coming driver in the sport. There‘s a lot of legacies that built it, but we‘re hopeful we‘re just dropping seeds and watering that soil for all these legacies to grow out in front of us.”

Herbst has experienced significant gains during his second full-time Cup bout, earning three top 10s — including a pair of eighth-place finishes — in 25 starts this season. He missed last Saturday‘s race at Daytona due to “lingering effects” from a crash the previous weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

As a rookie, Herbst finished no higher than 14th and place 35th in the series ranks. His average finish is tracking over four positions better than 2025.

Before jumping to the Cup Series, Herbst spent five full-time campaigns in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, winning three races. He finished as high as seventh in points two years ago, driving for now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing.

MORE: Legacy Motor Club website

“I just gained so much knowledge throughout 38 races the first year, and then this year, I felt like our pace has been way better,” Herbst explained. “I feel like this year, we‘ve turned the page, and we‘ve really progressed with pace and speed and finishes. I‘m very grateful to have really good teammates in Bubba and Tyler that have taught me how to prepare, and be able to go to what, [64]-time winner in Denny to ask questions.

“But all that has to do with great people, and I mean that wholeheartedly, and to have a really good ownership that I know will be seamlessly for my transition over to Legacy.”

Herbst‘s longtime sponsor, Monster Energy, will follow him from 23XI to Legacy, adding a major sports energy drink brand to the exponentially growing organization. The team in August announced 11 additions to its ownership group, including Major League Baseball star Bryce Harper, IndyCar legends Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan and tennis great Andy Roddick.

“We‘re building the Legacy of tomorrow, and there‘s a lot of ways that you can spin it,” Johnson said. “But for us to have a vision, have a mission, have incredible partners like Toyota, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Carvana, you go through the list. Very thankful for the corporate support, and now to have a brand with Monster inside of our organization is so meaningful.”

Information regarding Herbst‘s crew chief was not released. Davin Restivo currently calls the shots for Herbst at 23XI and has been paired with the driver since mid-2023 in the O‘Reilly Series.

Additionally, Johnson did not share information regarding Nemechek‘s replacement in the No. 42 entry. Nemechek has scored a pair of top 10s this season, trending toward a step down in that category and average finish from 2025. The team‘s flagship driver, Jones, has five top 10s — including a runner-up at Michigan International Speedway in June — and sat above the provisional Chase presented by Mobil 1 cutline after 20 races.

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But regardless of who fills that now-vacant seat, Johnson believes that adding Herbst and a third car to the organization will prove beneficial as he enters his third season as majority owner.

“It increases our on-track knowledge by 33 percent, and it sounds silly, but as a young team, the strategy with our cars and our correlation loop, it‘s just difficult, and that car can provide a lot of flexibility for us,” he said. “Now that we can‘t test and instrument cars, the driver is the computer and is the most important piece of that validation loop. So to have another driver, another team, another everything that comes with that scaling is really important.

“To really have a chance to create a culture within our walls and build the organization that we want, we‘re in that building process, and I truly feel like we have the foundation built. And now, we‘re going to be able to really flex muscle, perform on track and hit all of our objectives, which, in the long run, our goal is in five years to be an elite team.”

His strongest challengers in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, however, may come from within. Allgaier‘s JR Motorsports teammates are lining up to be his closest competition in the nine races ahead.

“I would be hard-pressed to say that they‘re not,” Allgaier said during Wednesday‘s Chase Media Day.

The rest of his answer included nuance about other organizations‘ abilities, plus the potential extra effort required of JRM to field a multipronged Chase offensive. But the thrust of his insight was based on his faith in the team‘s direction, one that‘s so far led to 15 wins in 24 races this year and a 1-2-3 finish in the team owners‘ points at regular season‘s end.

RELATED: Darlington weekend schedule | O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series standings

JR Motorsports carries the front-runner banner into Saturday‘s Fleetio 200 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the opening race in the circuit‘s Chase. Allgaier‘s odds for a strong start are greater thanks to the venue — historic Darlington Raceway, where the 2024 series champ is a four-time winner, including a victory there back in March.

That performance marked a milestone: his 30th win in the series and a figure that only grew through the summer months. But Allgaier says he isn‘t necessarily counting his No. 7 Chevrolet team‘s output as a guarantee of Chase success. The Illinois native pointed to his fandom of Major League Baseball‘s St. Louis Cardinals, noting how their regular-season results historically haven‘t necessarily meant postseason advancement.

“I don‘t want to do that,” said Allgaier, whose lead in the standings now sits at 25 points after re-seeding. “But on the other side of it, I think people race differently in the regular season than they do in The Chase. I think you‘re going to have people that you expect to run at a high level that don‘t, and you‘re going to have people that you didn‘t expect to have a good Chase, and they‘re going to, right? You never really know what that looks like until you‘re kind of in it, and I just feel like for us, if we don‘t change paths and we do the same thing we‘ve been doing, yeah, we‘ve got a great shot at it still. But you know, I think it‘s really easy to feel like you get behind sometimes, right? We need to not do that. We‘ve seen it time and time again. We‘re gonna just run the way we‘ve been running, do the things we‘ve been doing.”

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That not-broken-don‘t-fix approach also applies to fellow JRM driver Carson Kvapil, who finished second in the regular-season points but enters The Chase with one of the circuit‘s hottest hands. After a succession of near-misses and flirtations with tasting his first O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series victory, the 23-year-old driver broke through in a big way at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, added another in quick order at Iowa Speedway and nearly made it a fast three in a row before getting the short end of an overtime restart last week at Daytona.

Kvapil likened snapping his winless drought to removing a dark cloud from overhead. Now the next-generation driver has some clarity, both in his No. 1 Chevy team‘s abilities and who he‘ll likely have to outrun for a shot at the title — Allgaier, plus fellow JRM teammates Sammy Smith and Rajah Caruth.

“It‘s going to be really cool to see how it all plays out,” Kvapil said. “Obviously, with us being in the same building, it‘s gonna get weird at times probably, but that‘s just part of it, just part of racing. But no, I feel like our team is really strong, and we‘ve hit our stride these last couple weeks, and this is the normal now, I guess you could say. It‘s not like we‘ve had these last good couple of weeks, and we‘re pumped up and excited and praying that it‘s gonna stay that way. We know this is what we‘re capable of, and all the finishes are starting to come together for us.”

The rest of the 12-driver field comes from a variety of teams — Haas Factory Team‘s Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer, Richard Childress Racing‘s Jesse Love and Austin Hill, Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Brandon Jones and Taylor Gray, plus Hendrick Motorsports‘ Corey Day and Viking Motorsports‘ Parker Retzlaff. Their assignment comes with a sense of awareness, both of what JR Motorsports has been able to accomplish and the mistake-free racing that will be required to oust them.

“Nine races isn‘t a lot, especially with this points format,” said the 21-year-old Gray, who enters The Chase as the 11th seed. “Justin Allgaier, we‘ve seen he‘s excelled at it this year, right? He‘s done this longer than I‘ve been alive, and he‘s excelled at being consistent, right, and he absolutely stomped us all in the dirt in the regular season, so I think that shows how consistent you do have to be. And you know, obviously on top of that, they‘ve had a lot of speed. So for us, it‘s all about consistency, right? No DNFs, running up front and winning races.”

MORE: Chase format 101 | Photos: Chase Media Day

Producing that sort of measured reliability should be key, both for JR Motorsports drivers and their rivals. Caruth enters as the last of the 12 seeds, but will have a consistent ride for The Chase, driving the No. 88 JRM Chevrolet the rest of the way after splitting the regular season between that team and Jordan Anderson Racing‘s No. 32.

It‘s Caruth‘s first Chase appearance in his first full-time O‘Reilly Series campaign, but he has postseason experience with the elimination-era playoff structure from his last two seasons in the Craftsman Truck Series. He says he expects the rigors of The Chase to be a different sort of pressure.

“Compared to the format in previous years, sure, winning‘s great, but the valleys are way more hurtful than they were in previous years,” Caruth said. “So it‘s going to be important where if you‘re having a seventh-place day to not make it a 12th- or 15th- or 20th-place day, and then also not throw away a second or third trying to get a win and then ending up outside of the top 10. It‘s going to be even more important for that in The Chase. Yeah, I really feel good about our chances. Not only will our cars be fast, but I‘m confident in myself and the lessons I learned earlier this year, and ready to put it all to the test.”

This time around, 16 drivers have made The Chase, including Ryan Preece, who brought back echoes of the win-and-in era with his victory at Daytona, and they‘ll be off and rolling toward the championship starting on Sunday at Darlington. Just as we‘ve done in the past, we used projected Driver Ratings (blending overall and track-type-specific performance) to simulate The Chase 10,000 times, tracking how far each contender tends to get, and how often they‘re able to win the championship.

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And one thing is clear right from the start: Denny Hamlin is a strong favorite to finally win his first career title.

A year after suffering one of the most heartbreaking losses in sports history, losing what would have been his first career Cup Series championship on a late Phoenix caution and restart, Hamlin is back for another try — and he‘s in a great position to put his claim as Best Driver to Never Win a Title in the dustbin forever. According to the forecast simulations, Denny has around a 50-50 chance to capture his first championship, well clear of anyone else in the field:

If that sounds high — the prediction markets are around 40% for him, by comparison  — consider that Denny not only was the best driver of the 2026 regular season — the only Cup regular to break triple-digits (100.6) in average Driver Rating — but he also is by far The Chase driver most suited to the 10 tracks left on the schedule. Here‘s a breakdown of which track types/categories make up The Chase races, relative to the overall mix of tracks on the 2026 schedule:

We can see that intermediates (like Darlington, Kansas, Las Vegas, Charlotte and Homestead) are heavily over-represented in The Chase, with flat short tracks (Gateway, Phoenix, Martinsville) and steep tracks (Bristol) also showing up more often than usual. For his part, Hamlin happens to be the best intermediate driver in the series by far, and second only to Blaney at short/flat and steep tracks. Meanwhile, road/street courses and drafting tracks — where Denny is notably less dominant — are disproportionately absent from The Chase. (And in fairness, so are big flat tracks like Indianapolis and Pocono, where Denny does dominate.)

How much does that help Hamlin? His average projected Driver Rating across the 10 Chase tracks is 104.0, versus 98.4 across all the sites on the 2026 Cup schedule. While most title-eligible drivers are more suited to The Chase tracks than the average track at this point — again, tracks that are high-variance (superspeedways) or cut against typical oval-racing skills (road courses) have been downplayed relative to bread-and-butter ovals — Hamlin‘s advantage is more than double that of the next-highest Chase drivers, Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace:

But even if things are lined up for Denny‘s date with destiny, he still has to go out and execute it. The key track to watch for Hamlin will be Las Vegas in the fifth Chase race on Oct. 4. Unsurprisingly, Denny is projected as a heavy favorite to win on maybe the most quintessential of all intermediate 1.5-mile tracks, which sets up opportunity — in the simulations, he wins the title 74% of the time when he takes the checkered flag in the Nevada desert — but also pressure if he doesn‘t perform at a track where he‘s supposed to dominate.

In fact, each of Las Vegas, Homestead, Phoenix and Charlotte are potential playgrounds for the No. 11, but also see Hamlin‘s title odds drop by at least 20% if he finishes outside the top 20. Even Darlington this weekend could eat into his title chances nearly as much with a bad finish right away.

And if Hamlin doesn‘t go on to take the title, who might claim it instead?

The obvious pick is Blaney, who has been driving at a higher level than Hamlin recently.  The problem for the No. 12 team, though, is they start at multiple disadvantages: Not only does Hamlin have the built-in 25-point standings lead over Blaney from the opening green flag, but the mix of Chase tracks also does not favor Blaney nearly as well as it does Hamlin.

As mentioned before, Blaney is great on short flat tracks and steep tracks, so he is the model‘s top favorite to win at Gateway, Bristol, Phoenix and Martinsville. He‘s also the highest-rated superspeedway driver, so he‘s favored to win at Talladega, too. The problem, though, is those tracks only make up half of The Chase schedule; the rest are intermediates, where Blaney was outpaced by a handful of drivers this season, none more so than Hamlin. And any potential advantage for the No. 12 car at road courses — where Blaney was massively better than Hamlin this season (106.0 rating versus 69.3) — is nullified by there being none of those in the ‘26 Chase.

Even so, Blaney should put forward a strong showing in the next 10 races. There‘s a reason why either Hamlin or Blaney win the championship a huge share of the time, beyond simply the big cushion they start with in the pre-Chase standings. But if the two favorites falter, things truly become wide-open. Here are the model odds in just the subset of simulations where neither Hamlin nor Blaney end up winning the ‘26 crown:

Given the way they‘ve been driving recently, both Bell and Chase Briscoe have a real shot at playing spoiler despite neither being seeded within the top four. (Similar to his JGR teammate Hamlin, Bell in particular also benefits from the set of tracks making up The Chase; Briscoe, less so, despite driving the same equipment). Briscoe has won two of the past four races held at Darlington, so he‘ll be especially under pressure to live up to that pedigree from the start of the postseason, just to keep up with the points Hamlin is expected to produce once The Chase schedule hits its Kansas-Vegas-Charlotte corridor midway through.

The same can be said for Tyler Reddick, whose recent drop in form has been well-documented — and who no longer has any margin for error while trying to rediscover his early-season speed. (Even en route to a third-place run at Daytona, Reddick posted only a 79.2 Driver Rating after running 75% of the race outside the top 15.) Reddick needs a strong run Sunday at Darlington, where he won in March, to get his title bid back on track; even a run outside the top 10 causes his odds in the forecast model to drop, all else being equal. Still, he and Ty Gibbs are within enough striking distance in the points to stand a solid chance of stealing the title if Hamlin and Blaney both come up short.

Not coincidentally, the drivers highlighted above round out seed Nos. 1-6 in the pre-Chase standings, forming the conventional-wisdom boundary separating those who might realistically win from everyone else. But the model doesn‘t think that‘s a completely hard-and-fast rule: It gives about a 5% chance to drivers outside the top six — led by Kyle Larson, who has much higher odds than anyone else in that group, due in part to his own high proficiency on intermediate tracks. (Only Hamlin, Reddick and Bell had a better average rating on ovals this season.) While Larson has struggled to turn his pace into finishing results this season — 2026 is tracking to be his first full, winless season since 2018 — his championship odds climb to 5.5% in universes where he wins at least one race, and 14.8% in ones where he wins twice.

As for the rest, most of the remaining Chase drivers did win the title at least once in our 10,000 simulations, even if some of the scenarios it took to make it happen required a pretty wild sequence of results. (Yes, we are saying there‘s a chance, Austin Cindric.)

But that‘s also what makes this new version of The Chase so interesting. Without round-by-round eliminations or a winner-take-all finale, like the old playoff system had, we won‘t necessarily be able to predict ahead of time the big moments that decide the championship — until, perhaps, they are right on top of us. Mostly, though, the title race hinges on whether the favorites maximize the tracks where they should have the biggest edge — and whether anyone else can make them pay when they don‘t.

For Hamlin, that means cashing in on the intermediate-heavy section of the schedule that seems almost perfect for his strengths. For Blaney, it means piling up points at his own set of preferred places, like Gateway, Bristol, Talladega, Phoenix and Martinsville. And for everybody chasing them, the path to the championship probably starts with taking advantage anytime and anyplace the 11 and 12 cars leave points on the table.

The Chase may be back to looking more like a 10-race closing marathon than the old series of elimination rounds used to. But with every point carrying forward all the way to the season finale, the pressure to bring your best every week is probably greater than ever.

Nemechek currently drives the No. 42 Toyota for the organization and is in his fourth full-time Cup Series season. The 29-year-old ranked 27th in points after the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway.

MORE: Cup Series Chase standings | Cup schedule

Nemechek has endured an uneven tenure at Legacy M.C. since taking over its No. 42 car ahead of the 2024 season. The second-generation racer posted four top 10s in 2024 and a career-best two top fives and eight top 10s in 2025 en route to a personal-best 20.3 average finish that season.

That same success didn‘t translate to the 2026 campaign as Nemechek has posted just one top five and two top 10s this season, the highlight being a fourth-place finish in June at Pocono Raceway to couple with a 10th-place finish in May at Watkins Glen International.

pic.twitter.com/50PXWdCMZY

— LEGACY MOTOR CLUB (@LEGACYMotorClub) September 2, 2026

Nemechek made his national-series debut in 2013 at age 16 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving for his father and former racer Joe Nemechek. Nemechek earned his first win in 2015 at Chicagoland Speedway and continued winning in subsequent seasons before advancing to the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series full time in 2019.

Nemechek graduated to the Cup Series in 2020 for his rookie year with Front Row Motorsports and notched three top 10s, but he ultimately decided to venture back to the Truck Series full time in 2021, joining Kyle Busch Motorsports to rebuild his career on stronger, winning grounds.

That process largely worked, as he won five Truck Series races in 2021 and finished third in the championship standings before winning another two races in 2022 and finishing fifth in the title hunt. Nemechek then joined Joe Gibbs Racing‘s O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series program full time in 2023, winning a career-high seven races and finishing fourth in the final tally.

pic.twitter.com/oBsgXPPc3w

— John Hunter Nemechek (@JHNemechek) September 2, 2026

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In all, Nemechek is an 11-time winner in the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and a 13-time winner in Trucks.

Legacy Motor Club did not immediately announce who will replace Nemechek in the No. 42 car for the 2027 Cup Series season. Two-time Southern 500 winner Erik Jones signed a multiyear contract extension with Legacy in 2024 to pilot its No. 43 Toyota and is set to return to the ride for a sixth season next year.

Blaney inherits the crew that previously serviced Austin Cindric‘s No. 2 Ford through the regular season. Per NASCAR Insights, Cindric‘s crew ranked 10th-best through 26 races while Blaney‘s crew ranked 32nd. As Team Penske confirmed Tuesday, those teams will swap cars ahead of Sunday‘s opening race of The Chase presented by Mobil 1.

MORE: Penske swaps pit crews before Chase | Chase standings

The move immediately addresses the biggest flaw on Blaney‘s record this season. NASCAR Insights rates Blaney as the sport‘s No. 1 passer with the No. 2 ranked speed, sixth-best defense and 10th-best restarts. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion, Blaney enters The Chase as the No. 2 seed, 25 points behind top-seeded Denny Hamlin.

“I firstly want to thank the guys who were with me all year,” Blaney told reporters during Wednesday‘s Chase Media Day rounds. “They were with us through thick and thin. We had great times together, was able to win a few races. I appreciate the work that they did to get us where we‘re at. And then this decision, Team Penske just looked at it and they figured that this was, how can we change things up to where we think it will benefit the whole company? And this is what they decided. So, thankful for what my guys did.

“Looking forward to working with the new team. Feel like they‘ve been really solid on pit road all year, and a lot of those guys I‘ve worked with in the past. A couple of them are new guys to me, but looking forward to it. I think it really speaks highly of Team Penske‘s depth of they can shift guys around and have them to be able to get plugged into other teams pretty seamlessly. So, looking forward to seeing how that goes.”

Cindric enters the postseason as the No. 15 seed in the 16-driver field and expressed that he was informed of the change by leadership earlier this week. While losing a crew that ranked inside the top 10 in the sport, the 2022 Daytona 500 champion said he fully understands the move and welcomes the new over-the-wall group to the No. 2 crew.

“Just giving the team the best chance to win the championship,” Cindric said. “I think that‘s fully understandable, and it‘s a pretty understandable motivation given the time of year. So yeah, I talked with leadership, and I‘ve talked with Roger and understand why that was changed. And like I said, for us, it‘s business as usual, past having personnel changes and being able to welcome our new group in and be able to give them the best chance to succeed, but also for them to give us the best chance to succeed. I think those groups, those different divisions … on a race team, they feed off of each other, and I think it‘s important to start that culture in the right way.”

A three-time winner in the Cup Series, Cindric takes pride in the relationships that he builds within his race team. That, he noted, was the most difficult part of accepting the team‘s decision to swap crews after the regular season‘s 26-race slate.

“I think anyone that knows me, (knows) racing‘s all I do. It‘s all I care about, all I put my time and effort into,” Cindric said. “So naturally, I‘m pretty close with the guys that I work with. I‘d say probably the main level of frustration is I don‘t get to see through the season with the guys that I feel like are responsible for me getting there. But at the same point in time, like, it‘s not completely unprecedented to make changes to give the team the best chance. And that‘s what the team thinks, and that‘s the way they decided.

“As far as the guys that are coming on board the 2 car for the rest of the year, yeah, I mean there‘s several veteran guys, guys that I‘ve won races with in (the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series), and I know most of these guys. I mean, I work out in the same gym and hang out, and so I‘m not unfamiliar with anyone that‘s joining the team and looking forward to seeing what we can do for the next 10 weeks.”

Blaney, a 20-time Cup winner, has won three races this season despite a total of 129 net positions lost on pit road this season. Joining his crew are three very familiar faces: fueler Andrew Lackey, who worked with Blaney from his time in the Craftsman Truck Series through 2019; tire carrier Jesse Mills, who previously worked on the No. 12 car during the 2010s; and jackman Jourdan Osinskie, who was Blaney‘s jackman during the 2023 championship-winning campaign. Front changer Justin Armwood and rear changer Geoffrey Wall will work with Blaney for the first time throughout The Chase.

“A few of them, I have a decent amount of experience with throughout my years, and then a couple of them it‘s nice to get to learn new guys, right?” Blaney said. “Just hear their personalities, where they came from, know how you got here, stuff like that, the great job that they do. So it‘s a nice group.”

Blaney said he did not specifically request a change despite the stats against his favor, noting the decision came from above him.

“I‘m not the decision-maker when it comes to pit-road guys,” he added. “Really, the only thing I can do is be in those meetings with the people who have those powers: team leaders, crew chiefs, things like that. We all talk, you know, hey, where can we improve? But at the end of the day, it‘s not my call to say, ‘hey, I want to change this guy or these groups of guys out.‘ That‘s out of my area of expertise. There‘s pit coaches and everyone who knows those guys better, work with those guys every single day. They‘re the ones making the calls. All I can do is give my opinions on a couple things when they are asked of me.”

The focus now sharpens on chasing a championship, a goal that hasn‘t wavered throughout the 2026 season. Entering The Chase as the second seed, Blaney was confident regardless of any pit-crew changes.

“I felt very strongly about going into The Chase even before this because I think our team has done a good job of figuring out speed in the race car, figuring out how to get better on pit road, overcoming some times where we have adversity,” Blaney said. “I felt great about it before everything, even Sunday, and I still feel really good about it as well.”

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Cindric divides a Cup team into three groups: road crew, car performance and over-the-wall crew. He believes each department feeds off the others‘ energy and that the culture is embedded into his No. 2 team. So when it comes to welcoming jackman Graham Stoddard, fueler Chris Conklin, front changer Keiston France, rear changer Justin Fox and tire carrier Trevor Aspey, he knows it all comes back to the processes they feel will lead them to excel.

“All those things factor into the people that you have on your team and how you want to go about leading them,” Cindric said. “And I think when it comes to personnel changes, I mean, I think that‘s a lot more in (crew chief) Brian (Wilson)‘s wheelhouse from that standpoint. But if I can be there and help drive that or direct that — even something as simple as having to start a new group chat and sending a few memes to break the ice — I think leadership in my role can be defined in so many different ways. So I go about it the way I want to, and I feel like I try and be as available as possible.”

When Jimmie Johnson‘s transportation came into Reddick‘s possession, so did the good-luck charm. Or so the theory goes.

“I think his bus broke down, and they must have taken a horseshoe out,” Wallace said Wednesday, with a hint of deadpan smirk. “That‘s what it is, so he‘s back to reality.”

Luck or the lack of it might be a simple way to describe how this strange season has gone for Reddick, who enters The Chase presented by Mobil 1 after riding the wild undulations of the Cup Series regular season. He‘s ranked third of the 16 seeds entering Sunday‘s Cook Out Southern 500 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), one of five Toyota drivers among the top six in the re-racked points for the 10-race postseason.

RELATED: Darlington weekend schedule | Re-seeded Cup Series standings

Reddick was once the presumptive No. 1 seed, thanks to his history-making bolt out of 2026‘s starting gates. The 30-year-old California native captured his biggest triumph in the season-opening Daytona 500, then rattled off two more wins in a row as part of a seismic streak of five victories through the first nine races. Reddick led the standings for the first 17 races of the season, padding his advantage to 129 points by mid-spring.

That seemingly insurmountable edge fizzled as the calendar turned toward summer. A series of on-track incidents and other breakages set the No. 45 team back, and Denny Hamlin — a fellow Toyota driver and his team co-owner at 23XI — roared past him at Sonoma Raceway in June. The last 12 races have included five results of 30th or worse, and Reddick ended up 133 points behind Hamlin as the regular season closed.

It‘s a stretch, he says, that‘s made his No. 45 group more battle-tested for the 10 races ahead.

“Yeah, almost like a coin. There was two sides to it, really,” Reddick said during Wednesday‘s Chase Media Day, once pressed to describe the season thus far. “We‘d be on or we‘d be off, and not necessarily from a base standpoint of just executing and having the clean days versus having catastrophic days. So yeah, I mean, I‘d say if it was all sunshine and roses all year long, you feel good about what you do, but it is important to have a degree of toughness, a degree of understanding how to deal with losses, how to deal with failures, how to deal with whatever it is, and we‘ve been on both sides of it this year. We kind of know what it‘s like.”

So does Hamlin, who assembled his own three-race win streak with the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team — a surge that roughly coincided with Reddick‘s downturn.

“Yeah, it‘s NASCAR racing at its finest,” said Hamlin, a 21-year Cup Series veteran who knows the sport‘s cyclical nature better than most. “It‘s the ups and downs and the peaks and the valleys that you have, and so I do think that they feel this is a great reset for them. Again, they were bleeding points heavily over the last couple of months, and so if you‘re them, you‘re like, ‘man, we‘re right back in this thing. We‘re less than 50 behind.‘ So I think that they feel like the schedule is going to be very good for them. They‘re going to probably Tyler‘s best race track here in Darlington to kick off The Chase, so I think that their confidence is bounced back due to nothing more than the schedule.”

Reddick has found favor with Darlington Raceway in the past, and he cashed in for his first victory at the historic track‘s Goodyear 400 back in March. There, he faced some of the adversity he mentioned, with his No. 45 crew overcoming electrical gremlins by changing out a battery mid-race, rallying from the back of the pack to convert a satisfying win from the pole position.

MORE: Chase format 101 | Photos: Chase Media Day

Some of the Chase optimism is shared by his manufacturer mates, especially after Toyota drivers won 14 of 26 regular-season races and placed six drivers in the postseason field (Chevrolet and Ford have five each). That group includes four-time winner Hamlin, a two-time winner in Ty Gibbs, Chicagoland champ Chase Briscoe and both Christopher Bell and Wallace — both of whom are aiming for their first victory of the season.

Wallace has had a closer view than most of Reddick‘s fluctuations as his teammate, one who is striving for the shared goal of consistency in the 10-race span that will decide the championship.

“But no, it‘s just that‘s the way the sport goes, right?” Wallace said. “It‘s ups and downs, and how you manage it through it all, which is something I‘m still working on. This is my ninth year in Cup, and you still learn something each and every weekend, each and every day of how to be better.”

Reddick says there‘s no need for any grand reset and that flipping a so-called switch for the 10 races ahead isn‘t a focal point. The majority of the tracks in the postseason rotation line up well, he says, with question marks arising at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (Sept. 13) and Martinsville Speedway (Nov. 1), where he says there‘s room for improvement.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Horseshoe or not, Reddick says he‘s ready to move forward.

“All things seem to be going in the right direction at the right time,” Reddick said. “Yeah, obviously, it‘d have been great to hang on to the points lead. It‘d have been great to not fight the things that we did, but as much as the bad finishes were hard on our standings and the points, we learned a lot from it, and with this Chase, the gap is gone and we‘re re-seeded, and we‘re going to go now.”

Blaney and the No. 12 team enter the NASCAR Cup Series Chase as the No. 2 seed, 25 points behind series leader Denny Hamlin. However, his pit crew through Daytona ranked just 32nd of 35 full-time teams, according to NASCAR Insights.

MORE: Chase standings | Darlington schedule

Cindric and the No. 2 team qualified for The Chase and enter as the No. 15 seed of 16, sitting 95 markers back of Hamlin ahead of Sunday‘s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Cindric‘s crew was the 10th-best crew in the series following Saturday‘s regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway.

That 10th-best crew now moves over to pit Blaney‘s No. 12 Ford beginning at Darlington, featuring jackman Jourdan Osinskie, fueler Andrew Lackey, front tire changer Justin Armwood, rear changer Geoffrey Wall and tire carrier Jesse Mills.

Cindric will inherit jackman Graham Stoddard, fueler Chris Conklin, front changer Keiston France, rear changer Justin Fox and tire carrier Trevor Apsey to start the postseason.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

This change marks the second major change to Blaney‘s No. 12 crew this season. Team Penske made additional changes to the crew in April, adding Stoddard to the roster ahead of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway. According to NASCAR Insights, the No. 12 crew has cost Blaney a series-worst 129 positions on the race track. The next-closest deficit is the No. 77 Spire Motorsports pit crew of Carson Hocevar, which has cost Hocevar 70 positions. Hocevar enters The Chase as the No. 12 seed.

RELATED: Cup Series Chase schedule | Cup Series standings

Seed: No. 1

Postseason appearance: 20th

Regular-season stats: 4 wins, 14 top fives, 17 top 10s, 4 poles, 880 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Bristol, Martinsville, Kansas, Homestead

Analysis: The Chase resets the field, but it does not erase the fact that Hamlin and the No. 11 team spent the regular season looking more complete than anybody else. He starts with the maximum 2,100 points and a 25-point head start on Blaney, while ranking first in season-long speed, third in defense and fifth on pit road. Daytona was largely immaterial for Chase purposes — P11 after already clinching the top seed at Loudon — and now the schedule immediately tilts toward one of his strongest venues, with five career Cup wins at Darlington. There is no shortage of interesting championship storylines among the field, but Hamlin‘s is the biggest: the long-elusive title, the top seed and a Chase schedule loaded with several of his best tracks. If there was ever a “now or never” feel to one of his championship runs — and there certainly have been — this might be the biggest one yet.

Seed: No. 2

Postseason appearance: 10th

Regular-season stats: 3 wins, 6 top fives, 17 top 10s, 4 poles, 828 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Bristol, Talladega, Martinsville, Phoenix

Analysis: Blaney enters The Chase with the second seed, the second-best season-long speed rating and probably the strongest combination of current form and organizational momentum outside Hamlin. Daytona ended in a wreck and 33rd-place run, but only after the No. 12 won Stage 2; the reset still leaves Blaney second, 10 points clear of Reddick. Darlington has historically been more nuisance than playground for Blaney, but third there this spring is a compelling recent data point on top of his strong summer. The glaring weakness remains the No. 12 pit crew, ranked 32nd for the season. If Penske cleans that up, Blaney has very few championship-profile holes to poke.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Seed: No. 3

Postseason appearance: 6th

Regular-season stats: 5 wins, 11 top fives, 16 top 10s, 5 poles, 449 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Kansas, Homestead, Talladega, Las Vegas

Analysis: If Reddick needed a reset in every sense of the word, he got one. The five-win juggernaut No. 45 team from spring spent much of the summer fighting itself, but finishes of 11th, eighth and third in the final three regular-season races suggest the freefall may finally be leveling out and perhaps Reddick can sleep soundly for now. Daytona in particular looked much more like the old No. 45, which led late and was still attacking for the win on the final lap. Better still, The Chase opens where Reddick delivered perhaps his most impressive performance all year, winning at Darlington in March. He starts just 35 points behind Hamlin and still ranks third in both speed and passing — the early-season monster may have picked an awfully convenient time to wake back up.

Seed: No. 5

Postseason appearance: 4th

Regular-season stats: 1 win, 10 top fives, 13 top 10s, 359 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Phoenix, Bristol, Las Vegas

Analysis: There might not be a driver in the field happier to see the Southern 500 sitting at the front door of The Chase. Briscoe enters just 45 points behind his JGR teammate Hamlin after a summer in which the No. 19 evolved from fringe contender when it started into one of the most consistently dangerous cars in the garage at the turn of autumn. His season profile backs up the eye test: first in defense, first on restarts and fourth in pit-crew performance. Then there is Darlington itself. Briscoe has won the last two Southern 500s, doing it with two different organizations. Forget dark horse. That label no longer fits, especially where Briscoe was title-eligible down to the wire last year, too.

Seed: No. 6

Postseason appearance: 6th

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 11 top fives, 13 top 10s, 1 pole, 559 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Bristol, Kansas, Phoenix, Martinsville, Homestead

Analysis: Bell enters The Chase in one of the strangest positions imaginable: fifth in these rankings, sixth in the reset and still winless despite spending chunks of the year looking as fast as anybody. Seven runner-up finishes will do that to a season, yet the championship case remains obvious — Bell ranks fourth in speed, fifth on restarts and carries the seventh-ranked pit crew into the postseason. Darlington is less straightforward after a 19th there this spring, though Bell has plenty of strength scattered throughout the remaining nine tracks. The guy spent months knocking on the door to get here, but The Chase is where “almost” stops carrying much, if any, value.

Seed: No. 4

Postseason appearance: 2nd

Regular-season stats: 2 wins, 10 top fives, 16 top 10s, 1 pole, 280 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Bristol, Darlington, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Kansas

Analysis: Gibbs took a nasty Daytona hit at exactly the wrong moment, collecting damage in Hocevar‘s Lap 155 crash and even more in the final-lap melee to finish 34th, but the reset does him a considerable favor. He starts fourth in the standings, only 40 points behind Hamlin and five behind Reddick, after a regular season that produced two wins and one of the most balanced underlying statistical profiles in the field. Darlington is quietly encouraging, too: Gibbs finished sixth there in March, and Bristol already delivered his breakthrough Cup victory this season, so he could get off to a quick start. There is still somewhat of an “upstart” quality to the championship conversation around him, but the statistics stopped indicating him as one a while ago.

Seed: No. 9

Postseason appearance: 13th

Regular-season stats: 2 wins, 5 top fives, 9 top 10s, 1 pole, 536 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Las Vegas, Phoenix, Talladega, Bristol, Martinsville

Analysis: Here we go again. Logano spent much of the regular season looking like an afterthought, then won twice in a four-race stretch and suddenly arrives at The Chase with the same annoying-for-everyone-else profile that has preceded three championships. The reset leaves him 65 points behind Hamlin, a real hole but hardly insurmountable over 10 races. His season-long metrics remain surprisingly pedestrian — 12th in speed, 16th in passing, 14th in defense — which is why this ranking stops at seventh rather than following the championship hardware all the way toward the top. Nobody should be shocked if he disappears for a week. Nobody should be shocked if he is still standing at Homestead, either.

Seed: No. 7

Postseason appearance: 10th

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 9 top fives, 13 top 10s, 659 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Las Vegas, Kansas, Darlington, Bristol, Homestead

Analysis: The reset might be exactly what Larson needs because judging the No. 5 strictly by regular-season results became a maddening exercise months ago. The speed never disappeared — Larson still ranks fifth there, while being second in defense and second on restarts, paired with the No. 1 pit crew in the series — but too many Sundays ended nowhere near where the car showed it belonged. Darlington captures the contradiction perfectly: Larson owns a Southern 500 win there, yet his recent results have been wildly uneven. He starts 55 points behind Hamlin as part of a Hendrick group that, remarkably, doesn‘t feel like the championship favorite it usually does. That said, Larson is still the Hendrick driver most capable of changing that perception in a hurry, and perhaps as soon as Sunday.

Seed: No. 8

Postseason appearance: 10th

Regular-season stats: 2 wins, 6 top fives, 9 top 10s, 317 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Talladega, Martinsville, Phoenix, Kansas

Analysis: Elliott enters The Chase in a much healthier place than he appeared headed a month ago, but he remains one of the harder champions to peg. The two wins remain banked, and Hendrick showed signs of life again late in the regular season, yet Elliott‘s underlying numbers — 11th in speed, 11th in defense and 14th on restarts — are not exactly the profile of a driver poised to steamroll 10 races. He starts 60 points behind Hamlin, and Darlington was similarly middling in March. Hendrick going an entire Chase without seriously threatening for the title would qualify as a major development, as unlikely as it seemed in February, but Elliott has 10 races to make sure that conversation never gets there.

Seed: No. 15

Postseason appearance: 4th

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 2 top fives, 6 top 10s, 51 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Gateway, Talladega, Darlington

Analysis: This is where the board starts getting interesting. Cindric is only the 15th seed, a whopping 95 points behind Hamlin, but he enters The Chase on easily the strongest footing of the lower-seeded group. Third at Richmond Raceway, 12th at Loudon and sixth at Daytona, while Penske is picking up steam, make for a sturdy closing stretch, and the No. 2 also ranks fifth in defense for the season. More important for Sunday: Cindric finished fifth at Darlington in March, his best Cup result there, while World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway is already a Cup victory site. He has a mountain to climb in points, but there are considerably shakier profiles starting ahead of him. A sleeper fits.

Seed: No. 14

Postseason appearance: 3rd

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 4 top fives, 11 top 10s, 214 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Kansas, Talladega, Las Vegas, Homestead

Analysis: Wallace made it through a full regular season without needing a last-gasp miracle, but now comes the harder assignment: proving he can stay relevant for 10 straight weeks. He starts 14th, 90 points behind Hamlin, though his broader performance profile is much stronger than that seed suggests — seventh in passing, ninth in speed and eighth in restarts, defense and pit crew. Darlington was a disaster this spring, but there are friendlier venues ahead, particularly Kansas Speedway and Talladega, where Wallace has already won in Cup. The No. 23 has enough speed to make noise in this Chase. The larger question is whether it can stop turning good cars into avoidable, self-induced problems.

Seed: No. 11

Postseason appearance: 3rd

Regular-season stats: 1 win, 3 top fives, 7 top 10s, 40 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Las Vegas, Kansas, Gateway, Charlotte

Analysis: Suárez could hardly have drawn up a better bridge into The Chase after a quiet summer than his Daytona runner-up. Starting 23rd, he avoided the late carnage and finished second for the second consecutive year in the summer Daytona race; a nice jolt for a team whose underlying season metrics remain much less flattering than its standings position. He starts 75 points behind Hamlin and ranks only 18th in speed, 20th in passing and 21st in defense. Darlington offers a reason to believe the result column can keep outrunning the spreadsheets after Suárez finished seventh there in March. This may not look like a championship profile on paper, but The Chase has 10 races to make paper irrelevant, and being the defending Coca-Cola 600 winner is notable given Charlotte is returning to its oval format for the fall race.

Seed: No. 10

Postseason appearance: 3rd

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 2 top fives, 10 top 10s, 81 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Bristol, Darlington, Kansas

Analysis: Buescher enters The Chase with one of the better Darlington profiles in the lower half of the field — but one of the murkier overall championship cases. Daytona was a wash after Larson‘s push sent the No. 17 spinning from the lead at the Stage 1 finish, eventually leaving Buescher 40th. The reset places him 70 points behind Hamlin, while the broader season says “solid” much more loudly than “champion” — 10th in speed, 19th in passing, but backed by the third-ranked pit crew. Darlington is where the argument gets better, as Buescher finished ninth there this spring, and Bristol remains the site of one of his signature Cup victories. If he is going to announce himself as more than Chase afterthought, Sunday is an excellent place to do it, and RFK Racing is already riding a high.

Seed: No. 13

Postseason appearance: 8th

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 4 top fives, 11 top 10s, 176 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Martinsville, Las Vegas, Darlington, Phoenix, Homestead

Analysis: Byron has spent three straight years reaching the Championship 4, yet begins this revamped Chase as one of its strangest wild cards. He starts 13th and 85 points behind Hamlin after a winless, uneven regular season, but still owns the second-ranked pit crew and eighth-best speed profile. Darlington should be an obvious get-right venue: Byron won there in 2023 and finished eighth this March, with several more historically strong tracks waiting for him later in The Chase to help prod him along. Still, the broader Hendrick question hangs over him as much as anyone. Three straight championship-round appearances built a reputation that this year‘s results have not yet matched, but indicate what he‘s capable of.

Seed: No. 12

Postseason appearance: 1st

Regular-season stats: 1 win, 5 top fives, 9 top 10s, 2 poles, 157 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Talladega, Darlington, Bristol, Gateway

Analysis: Hocevar‘s regular season contained enough brilliance to make The Chase comfortably — and enough late carnage to make you wonder what might be left of the momentum. Daytona followed a P31 at Iowa Speedway and 37th-place showing at Richmond with another ugly box score — 38th after losing control while battling Preece for second and collecting Jones before the race went to overtime. That leaves him 80 points behind Hamlin after the reset, paired with the 27th-ranked pit crew and only the 14th-best season-long speed. And yet Darlington offers a very real counterpoint: Hocevar finished fourth there in March after starting 16th. The talent is not the question; it‘s whether the unevenness can stop wobbling long enough for Hocevar to weaponize it in this 10-race run.

Seed: No. 16

Postseason appearance: 1st

Regular-season stats: 1 win, 1 top five, 7 top 10s, 55 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Bristol, Martinsville, Kansas, Darlington

Analysis: Nobody arrives at Darlington feeling better about how Saturday night ended, and nobody arrives with a steeper championship hill. Preece entered Daytona 31 points behind Shane van Gisbergen for the final Chase spot, meaning even a runner-up finish would not have gotten the job done. He had to win — and, after getting collected in the Stage 1-ending crash and surviving a chaotic final lap, did exactly that for his first career Cup victory. The reward is the No. 16 seed and a reset, exactly 100 points behind Hamlin. While Darlington produced a respectable 13th-place finish in March, his season-long speed ranks only 15th, so there is no pretending this suddenly looks like an obvious title run. But Preece already faced one must-win scenario this year and answered it about as emphatically as possible. At this point, it‘s anybody‘s ballgame.

NASCAR has announced a return to The Chase championship format for all three national series beginning in 2026, with a modified structure from the previous iteration designed to reward performance throughout the season and provide a larger sample size to determine the championship.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Below is a breakdown of how the new format works.

HOW MANY DRIVERS MAKE THE POSTSEASON?

The number of postseason drivers remains the same from the previous elimination-style format, but the manner in which drivers qualify changes (more on that below). For the NASCAR Cup Series, 16 drivers advance to The Chase. The number of drivers for the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series is 12 and for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 10.

HOW DO DRIVERS QUALIFY FOR THE CHASE?

The top 16 drivers following the regular-season finale for the NASCAR Cup Series advance to the postseason. It‘s the top 12 drivers for the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and top 10 for the Craftsman Truck Series.

CAN DRIVERS QUALIFY FOR THE CHASE VIA ‘WIN AND IN‘?

No, “win and in” is no longer a means to advance to the postseason. It is strictly based on points standings for each national series.

HOW MANY POSTSEASON RACES ARE THERE?

Like the previous elimination-style format, there are 10 Chase races for the Cup Series following a 26-race regular season. There are nine Chase races for the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and seven for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

ARE THERE ANY CHANGES TO THE POINTS STRUCTURE?

Yes. Wins are now worth 55 points, which is a notable increase from the previous structure of 40 points for a win. The remaining positions pay the same points (35 for second, 34 for third, 33 for fourth, etc.) and stage points are also the same (10 points for first, nine points for second, eight points for third, etc.). The goal is to reward drivers who go for wins, not just strong points days, and ensure aggressive racing and strong team performance remain central to each weekend.

ONCE THE CHASE BEGINS, ARE THERE ANY ELIMINATIONS?

No, The Chase does not have eliminations.

ARE POINTS RESEEDED FOR THE CHASE?

Yes, points are re-seeded just once for The Chase — following the end of the regular season and based on where drivers finish in the standings for the regular season.

Here is what reseeded points look like for the NASCAR Cup Series. (The NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series seedings will be the same, except cut off at 12 and 10, respectively.)

1st: 2,100

2nd: 2,075

3rd: 2,065

4th: 2,060

5th: 2,055

6th: 2,050

7th: 2,045

8th: 2,040

9th: 2,035

10th: 2,030

11th: 2,025

12th: 2,020

13th: 2,015

14th: 2,010

15th: 2,005

16th: 2,000

SO THE REGULAR SEASON CHAMPION HAS AN ADVANTAGE?

Yes. As recognition for sustained excellence, the top driver at the end of the regular season will earn a 25-point cushion over the second seed. The entirety of the regular season is valued with the descending points structure.

HOW IS THE CHAMPION DETERMINED?

Whichever driver in The Chase has the most points following the season finale is the champion.

HOW WAS THE CHASE FORMAT DECIDED?

The changes come after an extensive review that included collaboration between owners, drivers, OEMs, tracks, broadcast partners and — most importantly — the fans. The enhanced format follows an exhaustive Playoff Committee and fan-feedback review that put forward three key recommendations:

• A larger sample size for a championship
• Bolster the importance of each race
• Rewarding consistency while maintaining the importance of winning

It‘s hard to fathom these stars out of title contention. Yet, all three wound up on the outside looking in of The Chase following the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway, headlining a group of key drivers who won‘t battle for the Bill France Cup over the next 10 weeks.

Three NASCAR Cup Series Chase spots remained up for grabs heading into Saturday‘s Coke Zero Sugar 400. Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric punched their tickets with relative ease, and Ryan Preece scored a dramatic victory — the first points-paying win of his career — to solidify the final Chase spot.

RELATED: Daytona results | Cup Series standings

But on the other side of the coin, several drivers left Daytona scratching their heads about what went wrong over the first 26 races of the season, and why they fell short of the postseason. Some of these prominent drivers had teammates qualify for The Chase, perhaps worsening the sting of elimination.

Here are five notable drivers who missed The Chase — analyzing what they could‘ve done differently and what their immediate futures look like.

SHANE VAN GISBERGEN (out by 17 points)

Season performance and key results: In his second Cup Series season, SVG made significant strides on ovals — particularly at short and drafting tracks. He finished sixth in both EchoPark Speedway races, while earning top fives at Nashville Superspeedway and North Wilkesboro Speedway. Of course, the former Australian Supercars ace thrived on road courses — winning Watkins Glen International and Sonoma Raceway — but those alone wouldn‘t be enough to earn a postseason spot.

Why he fell short: Recognizing SVG‘s road-racing dominance, it‘s hard not to view Naval Base Coronado — where he crashed with Austin Hill and teammate Connor Zilisch racing for the lead in Stage 2 — as his greatest missed opportunity. But in total, the Kiwi finished 30th or worse eight times this season, three of which he scored a single point. Van Gisbergen failed to record a top 10 in each of the final five regular-season races, and a P20 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway set him back 19 points — even though he remained 31 markers above the cutline heading to Florida.

What needs to change: Results on larger ovals. This might be the low-hanging fruit. While van Gisbergen has improved at bigger tracks, it wasn‘t enough as a Cup Series sophomore. But with a limited oval background before coming to the United States, a learning curve was certainly expected. He‘s generally qualifying better, and when he starts up front, he‘s likely to earn strong results. Missing The Chase is certainly a disappointment after placing 16th or better in points following 20 of the first 25 races, but it isn‘t earth-shattering — although expectations continue to grow going into 2027.

Quotable: “I haven‘t done a good enough job throughout the year; we‘ve lost points at various places. We didn‘t just lose it tonight. It is what it is … Obviously, I want to do better as a team. As a team, we‘re not quite there, but I think we‘ve made good improvement on the ovals compared to my teammates.” — van Gisbergen on Saturday at Daytona.

BRAD KESELOWSKI (out by 79 points)

Season performance and key results: Nursing a broken right femur suffered in the offseason, Keselowski jumped out to arguably his strongest start since joining the RFK Racing team and ownership group. His second-place effort in March at Darlington Raceway launched him to eighth in points, the highest he‘d climb the rest of the season. Keselowski‘s three best finishes came in the opening nine races.

Why he fell short: The 42-year-old driver hit a late-spring swoon that swung well into the summer. A crash in April at Talladega Superspeedway started a stretch of five finishes outside the top 30 in seven races, including three DNFs and a measly seven-point effort at Watkins Glen on pure pace. Though he turned up the wick late with top-seven results at North Wilkesboro and Indianapolis, it proved too little, too late as sub-20th-place efforts at Iowa Speedway and Richmond Raceway all but sealed his postseason fate.

What needs to change: Sustained consistency. These types of stretches aren‘t uncommon for Keselowski since pivoting to RFK in 2022. Last season, he spent 14 of the first 16 weeks outside the top 30 in points. In 2024, he finished 22nd or worse in five of 10 playoff races. Qualifying for The Chase rewards consistency — which Keselowski failed to accomplish. He‘s the only RFK driver to miss The Chase — which is certainly a spot of concern.

Quotable: “It‘s an interesting inversion that we had from the start of the year where I felt like the 6 was the best of the three teams at the start of the year. I think it was up to [eighth] in points. Knocking on the door with a win at Darlington. Then just completely fell flat through the months of May, June and July. Pushed itself to where it‘s now, I think 18th or 19th in points, which is very frustrating. We‘re not where we want to be. We can‘t hide from that.” — Keselowski on Saturday at Daytona.

ROSS CHASTAIN (out by 104 points)

Season performance and key results: From nearly the get-go, Chastain began treading water in 2026, starting with a wheel that fell off his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet at Circuit of The Americas, resulting in a 35th-place finish in March. He earned just two top-10 finishes in the first 15 races — both coming at drafting tracks. His statistics are tracking toward career worsts since joining the organization in 2022.

Why he fell short: Chastain found some of his best results during the summer months, earning back-to-back top 10s at Pocono Raceway and Naval Base Coronado in June, followed by a key seventh-place effort at Iowa and a P12 a week later at Richmond. Those results gave him a fighting chance entering New Hampshire, but an early engine issue officially eliminated him from The Chase. Ultimately, a four-race stretch from Texas Motor Speedway to Nashville where he finished no better than 26th sealed his fate. That included Watkins Glen, where he qualified fourth but quickly plummeted out of contention.

What needs to change: Speed. Chastain has shown in years past that he‘s plenty capable behind the wheel of a Cup Series car, and this Chase exclusion should be a one-time occurrence. His talent — as evidenced by taking Trackhouse Racing to the Championship 4 during the organization‘s sophomore campaign — does not evaporate in one subpar season. If the organization can make strides down the stretch, that would be a crucial first step toward returning the Alva, Florida, native to the postseason.

Quotable: “Points are the points, and that comes with going fast and finishing up front in stages and races. We just haven‘t done it. That‘s why it feels insurmountable … You can go grab 76 points in a single race if you are the best. Definitely, it feels insurmountable because of the speed, is what I meant.” — Chastain at Iowa in August.

MICHAEL MCDOWELL (out by 105 points)

Season performance and key results: McDowell scored a bulk of his points this season at road courses. He finished top 10 in all four events turning left and right, including a key runner-up to SVG in May at Watkins Glen. Other than a ninth-place finish at hometown Phoenix Raceway and a top five at Daytona on Saturday, his oval results left plenty to be desired.

Why he fell short: Beginning in the spring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, McDowell had a 12-race stretch where he finished inside the top 10 just once. That included finishes outside the top 30 at Kansas Speedway and Talladega in consecutive weeks, scoring a combined eight points. Top 10s at Naval Base Coronado and Sonoma got him headed back in the right direction, but McDowell never strung together consistent results the rest of the way to seriously contend for a Chase spot.

What needs to change: Narrowing the gap. McDowell hasn‘t always been in situations over his career where he‘s driving premier equipment, but Spire as a whole is rapidly improving. He‘s the bar at road courses for the organization, but otherwise, his results tend to fall far behind Daniel Suárez and Carson Hocevar, both of whom made The Chase and won races in 2026. So the goal is simple moving forward: run closer to his teammates — although that‘s much easier said than done — as McDowell searches for his first postseason spot since 2023.

Quotable: “I feel like everything‘s there for us to do our jobs. We just have to go do it. Is there extra pressure? Yeah, there‘s always extra pressure, but I feel like that comes from myself, too, right? Like nobody likes to suck. Nobody likes to run bad, and when you do it a few weeks consecutively, it hurts, and you‘re ready to make it better.” — McDowell before Watkins Glen in May.

ERIK JONES (out by 124 points)

Season performance and key results: Sitting 25th in points through the first 10 races, Jones and his No. 43 Legacy Motor Club team caught fire, stringing together a strong stretch of races from May to early July. He went the next 10 races with just one finish worse than 20th, including a runner-up at his hometown Michigan International Speedway and another top five at EchoPark. The rest of the season, however, lacked needle-moving finishes.

Why he fell short: Jones finished EchoPark above the provisional cutline by eight points over Joey Logano, but his fortunes began to turn a week later at North Wilkesboro. Logano won, rocketing up the standings while Jones finished 21st, three laps down and losing 41 points to the cut. At Iowa in early August, Jones was an innocent bystander when Tyler Reddick washed up the track on Lap 4 and crashed, ending his race prematurely after qualifying 10th. That DNF set Jones back to 20th in points.

What needs to change: Better Saturdays. Jones qualified inside the top 10 just four times this season, and two of those resulted in top-10 race finishes. He has the second-fewest stage points among the top 23 drivers in points — and it often takes him time to drive up front when he‘s fast. As evidenced by a slew of new investors and a third full-time car for the organization next season, Legacy Motor Club is growing and seemingly headed in the right direction. But it could take some time for the results to bear fruit.

Quotable: “It‘s gonna be a long shot from here. I mean, we‘re gonna be deep after today … we needed three really good weeks — and it had to start today.” — Jones after crashing at Iowa.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Against the pressure-packed odds and with a race car that spent one almost-fateful moment Saturday night sliding through the well-manicured trioval grass, Preece upended the playoff order with a long-awaited first points-paying win in NASCAR‘s big leagues. The 35-year-old journeyman overcame a 31-point prerace deficit to snatch the last Chase berth from Shane van Gisbergen, converting a clutch last-lap move at Daytona International Speedway and giving RFK Racing two entrants into the 10-race championship pursuit.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Daytona

Characteristic of Preece‘s hardscrabble short-track roots, the No. 60 Ford team persevered in a regular-season finale when max tenacity was a prerequisite. Turns out, that gritty style that‘s been sharpened by years of tearing up the Modified Tour‘s bullrings seems to apply to Daytona‘s high banks just as well.

“If I was in a street fight, my knuckles would be pretty tore up right now,” Preece said, noting how the race nearly turned when his spin coincided with an SVG stage win. “It was much like what I told you, it was going to be a heavyweight fight. That was the first round. Lucky for me there was two more. I answered that call. I went and we got second in the next stage with damage. Then we put ourselves in position to win the race, and we did.

“It just comes down, no different than my career a lot of times where one door shuts and we break down the next door, even if it‘s locked. I‘m going to kick through it.”

Preece‘s history with the 2.5-mile speedway has been a star-crossed one. He finished this year‘s Daytona 500 in reverse after a last-lap incident, wound up on his roof in the previous year‘s edition of the “Great American Race,” and his violent flip during the 2023 running of the summertime Coke Zero Sugar 400 left him bruised, but with a renewed resolve to come back stronger. “That‘s called redemption at this place, man,” his No. 60 team told him on Saturday‘s cool-down lap.

When reminded of that crash three years ago, Preece produced a photo on his cellphone of himself with his daughter, Rebecca, the next day after that melee. He said the image was a point of reflection through the week as the circuit returned to the World Center of Speed.

“To me, that showed me how lucky I am, but how bad I want it, how bad my family wants it,” Preece said. “Yeah, I mean, every day I‘m very thankful to be racing in the Cup Series. It‘s not easy. Some people have an easier path than others. Every day I‘d wake up and say, yeah, I wish I had it easy as well, but I am thankful to hell that I‘ve had to fight for everything I‘ve worked for and everything that I‘ve won and everything.”

Preece & Co. stuck to their straightforward prerace game plan — stay on offense — but the road to Daytona salvation nearly took a dire detour at the end of the opening stage. Within sight of the green-checkered flag, Kyle Larson‘s No. 5 Chevrolet nudged Preece‘s RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher from the lead on the 35th lap and their contact collected the No. 60 Ford, knocking it from third position into the infield.

Preece righted the car and was scored eighth at the stage end, but the three-car fracas cleared the way for van Gisbergen to secure a stage victory and the 10 points that came with it. After relaying to crew chief Derrick Finley that the damage seemed minimal, Preece offered some assurance: “Well, that wasn‘t ideal. … We‘ll be all right. Give me the ball there, Derrick, and we‘ll get her back.”

Preece was mired back in 38th for the Stage 2 start, but the team‘s efforts were redoubled.

“The one thing our 60 team has from top to bottom is a lot of grit,” Finley said. “I mean, we don‘t give up. We fight until the bitter end. We don‘t care if we‘re running 30th, we‘re going to run and fight and get a 10th place out of the car. We fight. That‘s just the way we are. I played sports my whole life, played football through college. Obviously as soon as I was out of college, I came out here. I‘ve competed my whole life. It‘s in my nature. The guys around me are the same way, every one of ‘em. Ryan is, too, obviously. Ryan has a lot of fight. That‘s a good thing.”

That resilience came through in a midrace drive back to the front. After Finley calculated the team‘s fuel-management strategy, Preece did the rest with a second-place finish in Stage 2, offsetting the net loss from the opening segment. “All right boys, let‘s fight,” Preece said with emphasis on the team‘s radio.

MORE: Chase field is set | Updated Cup Series standings

A split in pit strategies jumbled the final stage, but Preece emerged among the front-runners, providing a big bump and boost forward to fellow Ford driver Zane Smith, then sidestepping him to grab the No. 1 spot with 10 laps left in regulation. When Carson Hocevar‘s crash moments later knocked him from contention and sent the event to overtime, it was Smith who seemed poised to break through and take the role of Chase spoiler. Van Gisbergen‘s late dive to pit road for fuel provided Preece an extra points buffer, and his momentum on the last lap of OT kept the No. 60 clear of the backstretch calamity that erupted behind him.

Preece took no chances when the caution flag came out nearly a half-lap before the checkers, steaming to the start/finish line. He relished every moment that came after, from the jubilant radio exclamations, the smoky burnout and the drive to Victory Lane for the first time at Daytona. Brad Keselowski, co-owner of his RFK Racing team, was there to greet him.

“He‘s kept his drive, kept his fire. He‘s putting the work in. That persistence I think has come to fruition with just a terrific night for him,” Keselowski said. “It‘s such a clutch moment for Ryan, to come in and be however many points behind the playoff, Chase thing here. To just drive a great race, go get him a win, with everything on the line, those are nights that you remember, and those are nights that are really special for him but really special for everyone on this team.”

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Preece made use of his phone in two other instances in his post-race press conference. One was to acknowledge the dizzying amount of texts from well-wishers that he‘d yet to fully digest, but the other was to herald his arrival to the track‘s media center.

Preece walked in with the Coke bottle-shaped winner‘s trophy cradled in one hand, and his phone in the other. From the tinny speaker played a slice of AM radio gold, Elton John‘s “Rocket Man” — a tune he‘s adopted as his walk-out music during driver introductions. Preece admitted his stewardship of the song was a nod to another Ryan — Newman — who also shares Roush team roots. Saturday night, the nickname seemed to fit its current keeper.

“I did say that Derrick and RFK gave me a rocket,” Preece said. “We took it to the moon.”

Denny Hamlin will lead the field into the postseason as the No. 1 seed after a dominant summer stretch that included three consecutive victories at Nashville Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway and Pocono Raceway. Hamlin clinched the top seed following the penultimate regular-season race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Ryan Blaney earned the No. 2 seed behind regular-season victories at Phoenix Raceway, EchoPark Speedway and New Hampshire. Blaney finished 33rd at Daytona after being collected in a final-lap wreck.

Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe will start The Chase seeded third through fifth, respectively. Christopher Bell is sixth, followed by Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Chris Buescher to round out the top 10.

Daniel Suárez secured the No. 11 seed after one of the strongest regular seasons of his Cup career, highlighted by a rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 victory. Carson Hocevar will enter The Chase 12th, with William Byron — winless during the regular season — seeded 13th.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric claimed the Nos. 14 and 15 seeds, leaving the final spot to be decided Saturday night at Daytona. Ryan Preece delivered in dramatic fashion, winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 to vault past Shane van Gisbergen and secure the 16th and final postseason berth.

The 10-race pursuit of the Cup Series championship begins next Sunday with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Van Gisbergen entered the Coke Zero Sugar 400 with a 31-point cushion over Preece for the final transfer spot. Despite earning his first stage win on an oval and 10 points in the opening stanza while Preece went sliding through the grass, the battle came down to the wire, with Preece in position to potentially snag the victory as the No. 60 team attempted to stretch its fuel mileage.

When a caution flew on Lap 155 for a three-car pileup, Stephen Doran, crew chief of the No. 97 Chevrolet, called an audible to bring van Gisbergen down pit road to ensure he could make it to the finish gas. It was an easy decision, though it would set his driver deep in the field.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“We tried to stay on [Preece‘s] strategy, and we would have been fine if it ran green — we were going to make it to the end fine,” Doran told NASCAR.com, admitting it was going to take every last drop of fuel to make it to the checkered. “Getting that caution with a long cleanup put us in a bad spot where we just don‘t get as good of mileage as the Fords do.

“We were going to be in a spot where, more than likely, we were going to run out than make it, so we chose to pit and be on offense and try to drive back up through there and got taken out on the last lap.”

Van Gisbergen lined up 27th for the restart while Preece was alongside Zane Smith on the front row. On the final lap, six circuits deep into overtime, Preece drove by Smith with a caution flying for multiple lap melees down the backstretch that included van Gisbergen. The Kiwi ended the evening with a 28th-place effort.

Preece left Daytona with 67 points earned to van Gisbergen‘s 19, putting him clear of the bubble by 17 markers.

“They obviously have more information on how much fuel we had left, and maybe I didn‘t do a good enough job early,” van Gisbergen said, admitting he didn‘t have any emotions after climbing out of the car. “I was trying, but yeah, conservative at that point. It is what it is.

“I don‘t get emotional about that stuff. Just trust what they say and pit because they told me to.”

Knowing they were likely to come up short on fuel after a long green-flag run, most of van Gisbergen‘s Chevrolet counterparts pitted in separate stints. That included his Trackhouse Racing teammates Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch on Lap 121. Three Hendrick Motorsports entries led the field and picked up the pace on Lap 129 before pitting on Lap 142. Trying to keep pace with the Hendrick cars burned more fuel than anticipated, pushing van Gisbergen‘s tank to the brink.

Knowing how tight the points battle was with Preece and Austin Cindric, the only decision was to stay out had the race gone green to the end.

“We wanted to stay on the same strategy as the 60 and the 2,” Doran added. “At the time, we were in a good spot on fuel. When that second group went tight, that‘s when it put us tight on fuel. We were still going to be fine (in regulation).”

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Van Gisbergen doesn‘t attribute missing The Chase solely to Daytona. Instead, he views it as the culmination of all 26 races, including eight finishes of 30th or worse.

“I don‘t put down [Preece] winning tonight, it‘s not a one-night loss,” he stated. “I haven‘t done a good enough job throughout the year; we‘ve lost points at various places. We didn‘t just lose it tonight. It is what it is.”

And amid the smiles and celebrations, Preece had plenty of respect for his counterpart on the wrong side of the bubble.

“He‘s a hell of a race car driver. He‘s a hell of a road course racer, but he‘s a hell of a race car driver,” Preece said in his winner‘s press conference. “He knew that I had my knee on the throat or my thumb on the pressure point, and he answered that in Stage 1. When he threw that right hook, metaphorically, in a metaphor, I felt like I answered that back in Stage 2.

“I‘m proud of the racer I am. I‘m proud of competing against him. The bar he sets on road courses, because he‘s a true talent that we‘re lucky to have here in the United States.”

The New Zealander ended the regular season with a pair of victories and five top-five finishes, including a pair of fifth-place efforts on ovals at Nashville Superspeedway and North Wilkesboro Speedway. His seven top-10s match his total from his rookie campaign.

Progress was made, but there is still plenty to grow as all three Trackhouse drivers missed The Chase.

“I‘m proud that I‘m closer to my teammates on ovals and managed to have a pretty good year,” van Gisbergen noted. “Obviously, I want to do better as a team. As a team, we‘re not quite there, but I think we‘ve made good improvement on the ovals compared to my teammates.”

Doran added: “I still say it‘s been a solid year. This was one of the main goals was to get into The Chase. We just need to keep getting our cars better. We‘ve got 10 races to keep pushing these cars to be better. I think we‘ve made some ground over the last couple of months. We just have to keep gaining, especially on intermediates is the biggest deficit right now to the field.”

Herbst qualified fifth on Friday for Saturday‘s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. Harrison Burton replaced Herbst in the No. 35 Toyota for Saturday‘s 160-lap race, finishing 12th.

MORE: Race results | Cup Series standings

“After a strong effort in qualifying yesterday, Riley Herbst woke up with lingering effects from last weekend‘s incident and, along with the team, decided it was in his best interest to step out of the car for tonight‘s race at Daytona International Speedway,” 23XI Racing said in a statement shared to its social channels. “He will be replaced in the No. 35 Toyota for tonight‘s NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway by Harrison Burton.”

Herbst was collected in a crash at Lap 225 of last weekend‘s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, his car backing into the Turn 3 SAFER barrier before being struck again in the front of the vehicle.

Burton made his first Cup Series start since 2024, a season which marked his third and most recent full-time campaign at NASCAR‘s top level. The son of NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Burton, Harrison Burton earned his first career Cup win in 2024 driving the famed No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford in the Daytona summer race, earning the storied team its 100th Cup victory.

Burton currently competes full-time in the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, driving the No. 24 Toyota for Sam Hunt Racing. Through 24 races this year, Burton ranks 19th in points with three top-10 finishes, including a season-best eighth-place result in Friday‘s Winn-Dixie 250 Presented by Coca-Cola at Daytona.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Burton has four career wins in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, all stemming from his time with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2020. A native of Huntersville, North Carolina, Burton also won the ARCA Menards Series East championship in 2017 with a five-win campaign.

Herbst is in his second full-time season of Cup Series racing, joining 23XI Racing ahead of the 2025 campaign. The 2026 season has marked notable improvements for the three-time O‘Reilly Series winner, notching three top-10s this year and improving his average finish from 26.4 in 2025 to 22.2 in 2026.

23XI Racing announced on May 30 that Corey Heim will replace Herbst in the No. 35 car for the 2027 season. Herbst has not yet announced his future racing plans.

“I‘m just speechless right now,” said Preece, who claimed the final berth the Chase by 17 points over Shane van Gisbergen. The three-time Australian Supercars champion had led Preece by 31 points entering the regular-season finale.

“But those guys, that 60 group, we‘re fighters,” Preece continued. “When you put our back against the wall, we swing hard… Last year there were a lot of keyboard warriors saying I was nothing. Well, we just kicked their butts tonight.”

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

In winning his first Cup Series points race, Preece recovered from a three-car wreck at the end of the first stage that damaged his left front fender, but after repairs, he was able to power his No. 60 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford back to the front.

Stretching fuel mileage over the final 65-lap stage, Preece surged into the lead past Tyler Reddick and Zane Smith in overtime moments before Smith turned into the outside wall to ignite a series of collisions that forced NASCAR to call the fourth yellow of the evening — with Preece ahead at the moment of caution.

“It‘s a testament of how prepared these race cars are, man. I‘m a racer,” Preece said. “I know what it takes to build speed. So, to every man and woman at RFK, thank you for giving me a rocket ship so I could go to the moon tonight. This is redemption.”

In a race that went six laps beyond its scheduled distance of 160 laps, Preece led three times for a total of five laps. Eschewing a pit stop in the final stage, he was running second when Carson Hocevar made an aggressive move to the inside entering Turn 3 to cause the Lap 155 wreck that forced overtime.

Hocevar steered his Spire Motorsports Chevrolet toward the bottom lane, but the rear of the car snapped loose, propelling the No. 77 Camaro into the outside wall. Erik Jones‘ Toyota plowed violently into Hocevar‘s car along the outside wall, as Ty Gibbs‘ Camry spun down the track.

“Yeah, I was always super tight behind people, it seemed,” said Hocevar, who picked up his first career win at Talladega in April. “And so, I just changed from top to bottom there, and that was the first time I really got a ton of air on my nose into three and I just lost it. It just kept going. I had the wheel straight, man.

“It just kept going with all the air and something down on the nose. I‘m shocked that it did that. It caught me off guard, for sure. It was nice to ride around all day like we‘d kind of planned, and then we gave ourselves a shot to win it at the end. We were up front, had track position and led laps, and that‘s all I can really ask for from a team standpoint. Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job here tonight.”

MORE: Shop winner gear  Watch NASCAR video highlights

Hocevar‘s accident set up the overtime restart with Smith in the lead. After pushing Smith on the white-flag lap, Reddick made a move to the outside, but he and Smith tangled on the final circuit to start the race-ending melee on the backstretch.

Daniel Suárez avoided the chaos and finished second, followed by Reddick, Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Austin Cindric came home sixth and clinched the 15th seed in The Chase by nine points over Preece, who will start the postseason as the 16th seed.

“We were so close, two years in a row with a second-place finish,” Suárez said of his run in the No. 7 Spire Chevrolet. “Super happy and proud to make it to The Chase with this team. This team deserves it.

“I feel like in the past, I‘ve had runs in the postseason where I didn‘t think we were strong enough to really contend. But this team deserves to be in The Chase. We are a Chase team. There are so many people and partners that have helped us get here and put this kind of performance together.”

Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, Josh Berry and Cole Custer completed the top 10. Berry posted his fifth straight top-10 result in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.

Bubba Wallace finished 20th after clinching the 14th seed in The Chase with a seventh-place result in the first stage.

Van Gisbergen worked his way into a strong position with a win in Stage 1, as Preece, RFK teammate Chris Buescher and Kyle Larson spun into the infield grass approaching the finish line to end the stage.

Late in the race, however, van Gisbergen came to pit road for fuel on Lap 157 and opted for four new tires. That put him 27th for the overtime restart, and from that position he was unable to avoid the multicar wreck on the final lap. The New Zealander finished 28th and out of The Chase.

Denny Hamlin had clinched top seeding in The Chase, along with a 25-point advantage, last Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He‘ll start The Chase with 2,100 points. Despite wrecking on the final lap and finishing 33rd, Ryan Blaney picked up the Stage 2 win and held the second seed to start the Chase with 2,075 points.

The remaining seeds in order are: Reddick, Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Buescher, Suárez, Hocevar, William Byron, Wallace, Cindric and Preece.

The Chase begins on Sunday, Sept. 6 with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Stage 2 recap

Ryan Blaney surged to the victory in Stage 2 of Saturday‘s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Blaney made a last-lap pass on Chase Elliott to secure the stage win, drafting to the No. 9 Chevrolet‘s bumper down the backstretch and completing the pass before Turn 3.

MORE: Full Stage 2 results

Ryan Preece was second at the stage end ahead of Zane Smith, William Byron and Todd Gilliland.

Kyle Larson was sixth ahead of Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suárez, Elliott, who fell to ninth, and Austin Hill.

Stage 1 recap

Shane van Gisbergen won the opening stage of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night.

Van Gisbergen advanced to the lead after the previous leader, Chris Buescher, crashed entering the tri-oval after an errant push from Kyle Larson. Ryan Preece, who entered the race chasing SVG for the provisional 16th and final position in The Chase, was also collected in the crash. Buescher, Larson and Preece all collided and spun through the grass but were able to continue.

MORE: Full Stage 1 results

Ty Gibbs ended the opening stage second ahead of Joey Logano, Erik Jones and Chase Briscoe. Larson, Bubba Wallace, Preece, John Hunter Nemechek and Austin Cindric completed the top 10.

By scoring four points in the opening stage, Wallace officially clinched his spot in The Chase. Saturday‘s race serves as the final race of the regular season before The Chase begins. Brad Keselowski is now officially eliminated from postseason contention.

NOTE: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming Preece as the race winner.

Contributing: Staff report

Justin Allgaier earned the No. 1 seed, dominating his way through the regular season with an already career-high six victories in the JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet. He locked up the top spot after an EchoPark Speedway triumph in July.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Carson Kvapil earned the second seed, earning wins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway earlier this summer to shore up the No. 2 spot. He finished third Friday at Daytona.

Sheldon Creed, Jesse Love and Austin Hill earned seeds No. 3 through No. 5, respectively. Brandon Jones has the No. 6 seed, followed by Corey Day and Sammy Smith, rounding out the eight drivers who were already locked into The Chase before Daytona.

Viking Motorsports driver Parker Retzlaff needed just 10 points to solidify a Chase spot, and did so with flying colors, finishing 14th and clinching in Stage 1 after an early crash to postseason contenders. Sam Mayer survived the aforementioned crash to earn the No. 10 seed, finishing 25th.

Taylor Gray and Rajah Caruth earned the last two seeds. Gray finished 26th, benefiting from crashes for Joe Gibbs Racing teammates William Sawalich and Brent Crews, the first two drivers below the cutline. Caruth earned 18 stage points and was running third with three laps to go, but spun after a push from Justin Allgaier and backed into the outside wall.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Sawalich and Crews both entered Friday one point above the cutline.

The nine-race Chase commences Sept. 5 at Darlington Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

A favorite in the garage and the grandstands, the 39-year-old from Tucker, Georgia, benefited from a late-race pit stop to get inside the top-five and was running fourth when a caution flew with a single lap of regulation remaining.

Restarting the two-lap overtime period from the outside lane on the second row, Sieg was able to get around front-row starting JR Motorsports teammates Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier immediately and then drove away. His No. 38 RSS Racing Chevrolet ultimately took the checkered flag by 0.149 seconds over Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Hill.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

In the closing yards to the finish line, Sieg conceded he just kept thinking, “don‘t mess up.”

He did not.

“This is incredible, unbelievable, especially doing it here at Daytona,” said a grinning Sieg as he received a hug from his brother Kyle and a kiss from his girlfriend. “I‘ve been coming here since I was a baby; we‘ve come here every summer race.

“To do it right now and the way we did it, that‘s amazing, and to get the pole last [race], just want to thank everybody that helped us out to get here. My mom and dad, my girlfriend, all the support from the whole team, everybody.

“This has been a long time coming. Last race got the pole and [now] we came back to Daytona where I really wanted to win and we freaking did it.”

For so much of the race, it looked like Kvapil may earn his third consecutive win — that late caution cut short his bid to become the first driver in series history to claim his first three career wins consecutively. His 50 laps out front in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet were most on the night.

Viking Motorsports driver Anthony Alfredo and newly re-signed Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones rounded out the top five. Allgaier rallied to a sixth-place finish in the typically frenzied final laps.

The extra time — a two-lap overtime period — was necessary after Allgaier and another of his JR Motorsports teammates touched with three laps remaining — the contact from behind sending pole-winner Rajah Caruth‘s No. 88 Chevrolet spinning.

Fortunately for Caruth, the bad luck didn‘t end up ruining such a successful night when he put himself inside the 12-driver Chase field that will now go on to challenge for the 2026 title.

Caruth finished 32nd, but the greater misfortune of two other competitors put the 24-year-old into the Chase in his first full-time season in the series. Similarly, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Taylor Gray moved from outside Chase contention to the 12th and final eligible position, his 26th-place finish at Daytona good enough to move him forward after two of his teammates suffered a heartbreaking night.

The Chase standings took a dramatic turn mid-race with a pair of accidents — both near the front of the field — ending JGR teammates Brent Crews‘ and William Sawalich‘s hopes of contending for a title. Both had been running top-10 when separate incidents derailed their quests.

Crews‘ No. 19 JGR Toyota suffered a lot of damage, collected in an accident in Turn 3 on Lap 27 and had to go to the garage for lengthy repairs. Only 19 laps later, Sawalich was an innocent victim in another multicar incident, the damage to his No. 18 JGR Toyota proving too much to return to the race.

Crews did come back on track and finished 44 laps in arrears.

“We did all we could but just got taken out, and it sucks,” said a disappointed Sawalich, who won at Rockingham Speedway this year and had made up 45 points on the Chase bubble in just the last few races.

After the points reset for this Chase run, the season‘s most dominant driver, six-race winner Allgaier will take a 25-point lead into the nine-race trophy run that begins next week. His teammate Kvapil is seeded second, followed by Haas Factory Team‘s Sheldon Creed, defending series champion and Richard Childress Racing‘s Jesse Love, his teammate Hill, Jones, Hendrick Motorsports‘ rookie Corey Day and JR Motorsports‘ Sammy Smith.

Viking Motorsports‘ Parker Retzlaff will make his Chase debut, with Haas driver Sam Mayer, Gray and Caruth rounding out the Chase field.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

The O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action next week at Darlington Raceway — the nine-race Chase to decide the 2026 series champion, beginning with the Fleetio 200 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). NASCAR Cup Series regular Christopher Bell won the last fall race at Darlington in 2024. Allgaier won at the track this March.

Note: Post-race inspection was completed in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series garage, confirming Sieg as the Daytona winner. The Nos. 1 and 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolets each had one lug nut not safe and secure. There were otherwise no issues. 

Storylines, rules uncertainty abound at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR‘s regular-season finale weekend hits a little differently this year. There‘s been no change to the venue; the venerable Daytona International Speedway still looms as a befitting showcase for the event, a hulking behemoth on the Florida coast. How the 16-driver postseason field will gain clarity and closure, however, is a drastic change.

All will be decided in Saturday night‘s showdown when the Coke Zero Sugar 400 wraps up the regular season, locking in the championship-eligible contenders for The Chase. Daytona stands again on the eve of the 10-race postseason stretch, but the method for obtaining a ticket to entry has been far different this year, with cumulative regular-season points as the path — rather than a victory guaranteeing an automatic playoff berth.

Ryan Blaney won last season‘s edition at Daytona in a dynamic finish, holding off three fellow front-runners — Daniel Suárez, Justin Haley and Cole Custer — by less than a car-length. A fender more would have tilted the postseason field, swinging the “win and you‘re in” door wide open for a trio who were otherwise ineligible. This year, Blaney said there‘s been no shortage of compelling stories and subplots to track in a season when Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin have at times both held seemingly insurmountable points leads, plus all the leapfrogging in the standings behind them.

“I myself have looked at the points way more than I used to because it really matters and you‘re curious as to where you‘re going to be seeded, but then also there‘s really good storylines,” said Ryan Blaney, who enters Saturday‘s race solidly second to Hamlin in the Cup Series standings. “For a while, it was can anyone catch Reddick? Denny Hamlin caught Reddick, and Reddick started to cool off after the hot start that he had, so that‘s kind of fluctuated. The second-place battle between me, him, and Ty (Gibbs) was really, really good for a while, and then you have kind of this sixth-to-11th tight battle going on, and then the cutline battle is always something to be talked about. So I think there‘s been plenty of storylines with it, and I‘m excited to see how The Chase plays out, how everyone‘s going to approach it. There‘s going to be plenty of storylines there, too.”

MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Daytona

Three Chase berths remain open for the taking Saturday night, with a baker‘s dozen already clinched and in. 23XI Racing‘s Bubba Wallace sits in the best position to cinch an unclaimed spot, 75 points clear of the elimination line and needing just two points to advance. Meanwhile, Team Penske‘s Austin Cindric is also in a slight comfort zone at plus-44 above the cutoff.

The true bubble pits two drivers with far different backgrounds at opposite ends of that cutline. Shane van Gisbergen, a New Zealander who stood out on the road-race circuits of the Australian Supercars tour before his stateside arrival, is 31 points up on Ryan Preece, the hard-driving NASCAR Modified hotshot from Connecticut. Preece starts fourth with SVG sixth, and though it‘s not exclusively a head-to-head face-off, both are no-nonsense champions from their motorsports disciplines with their postseason hopes resting on how Saturday‘s wild-card event plays out.

How exactly it unfolds is anyone‘s guess. The field will get its first taste of a new superspeedway rules package in Saturday‘s 400 miler, without the benefit of practice or testing to sort it out. Competition officials mandated a shorter rear spoiler (7 inches down to 4) plus a reduction in engine output (510 horsepower to 465) with the intent of promoting passing and curbing fuel-saving strategies. The setting for its debut will be the pivotal regular-season finale, where there‘s already enough uncertainty to go around.

“Man, we‘re going to have 40 cars deep into this thing and have no idea how it‘s going to drive and how the draft is gonna work,” Logano said. “Nothing‘s scienced out. It‘s kind of fun. It‘s just kind of old school. Like, go figure it out. I like it. I think it‘s cool.”

Feeling a draft

Though the rules configuration will be shaken up for the season‘s second trip to Daytona, the mix of aerodynamic acumen and good fortune on drafting-style tracks still applies. Saturday‘s 400-miler will be the fifth of six races this year at ovals where drafting is imperative, with the Daytona 500, a trip to 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway and two visits to EchoPark Speedway outside of Atlanta already in the books.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

That quartet of races so far may offer a hint for who might be best suited to repeat their feats at the 2.5-mile venue. Here are the top average finishes on drafting tracks in the Cup Series this season, with the best performances highlighted:

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Daytona hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Saturday Setup: Crew chiefs brace for new rules configuration at DIS | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: High art on the high banks; this week‘s designs | View gallery
• Neil Paine: Summer‘s relative calm coming to an end at Daytona | Read more
• NASCAR Classics: Dig into the video vault for full-race replays from Daytona | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Bubba Wallace moves up the list, sets sights on Chase | This week‘s ranks

One hundred and ninety-five days after commencing the 2026 campaign with the Daytona 500, the Cup Series returns to the Floridian high banks, with drivers hungry to make one last push toward the postseason.

But this regular-season finale looks different than others. For starters, series officials are implementing a new package headlined by a shorter spoiler and reduced horsepower, all intended to increase passing opportunities amid the draft and reduce fuel savings. The points implications, while still crucial for teams at both ends of the spectrum, aren‘t as conspicuous with the reintroduction of The Chase format — which eliminates the last-ditch win-and-you’re-in scenario offered by the previous playoff format.

RELATED: Daytona weekend schedule | Cup Series standings

That said, this is still superspeedway racing. Unpredictability clashes with skill and controlled chaos. The aura and spectacle remain unparalleled as drivers search for career-altering victories amid the humid ocean breeze. And when Cup Series stars hit the track Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), it‘ll remain anyone‘s game.

New postseason format, same Daytona.

It doesn‘t matter what the stakes are — expect a late caution. Just one of the last 18 Daytona races has ended with a green-flag stretch longer than eight laps. In nine of the last 11 races here, the eventual winner led 10 or fewer laps, with three leading only the final lap. Each of the last four races at the track has resulted in a last-lap pass, including Tyler Reddick‘s thrilling victory in the “Great American Race” in February. Narrowing it down to the summer race alone, no stage winner has ever gone on to win the 160-lap event. Twelve of the last 18 summer Daytona races required overtime, including four of the last six.

The last time the Coke Zero Sugar 400 went into overtime? 2024, when Harrison Burton became the fourth driver since 2018 to score his first career Cup win in that race, earning the 100th victory for famed Wood Brothers Racing in the No. 21 Ford. The triumph secured Burton a postseason spot just weeks after learning he wouldn‘t return to the organization in 2025.

And coincidentally, the current Wood Brothers driver faces similar circumstances. Josh Berry revealed in June that he won‘t return to the team next season, with his NASCAR future uncertain. He enters Daytona on a career-best four-race top-10 streak, maintaining an average finish of 5.5 in that stretch and improving his points position from 33rd to 29th. Last weekend at New Hampshire, Berry arguably had the best car, leading a career-high 73 laps before finishing on the Loudon podium for the second consecutive year.

Unlike Burton, Berry is a previous Cup Series winner with a Las Vegas triumph in his pocket last year. The industry notion is that winning takes care of problems, so with career pressure ratcheting up, an opportunity for a life-changing win still exists — even without a postseason pathway.

New format, same Daytona.

But yes, even without win-and-you‘re-in stakes to stir the playoff pot, a few final Chase spots remain up for grabs. Five drivers remain mathematically eligible for three remaining postseason positions: Bubba Wallace (plus-75), Austin Cindric (plus-44), Shane van Gisbergen (plus-31), Ryan Preece (minus-31) and Brad Keselowski (minus-66).

Notably, Preece is among nine full-time drivers without a win at NASCAR‘s highest level. Daytona will mark his 249th start in the Cup Series, spread across five different organizations, and his 34 drafting-track starts without a win are the sixth most among entered drivers. Preece finished ninth last weekend at Loudon, shaving 19 points off his deficit to SVG. To make The Chase, his simplest path is outscoring van Gisbergen by 32 markers, something he‘s done twice this season: Las Vegas (32) and Naval Base Coronado (44). He‘s earned the 10th-most stage points on drafting tracks this year, a number that plays into the No. 60 RFK Racing driver‘s favor.

Of course, winning would be most beneficial. He proved his prowess with an exhibition triumph at Bowman Gray Stadium in the spring, and with victories paying an additional 15 points compared to the playoff format, a Daytona dub would heighten the tension for SVG while allowing Preece to finally break through at the sport‘s grandest arena.

New format, same Daytona.

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

Further up the standings, several key micro-battles exist, which will determine final Chase seeding. It‘s pretty straightforward: the higher a driver finishes in the regular season, the greater the advantage they will receive over the field for the 10-race postseason run. Denny Hamlin clinched the No. 1 seed with a seventh-place Loudon effort, guaranteeing he‘ll start The Chase with 2,100 points — 25 more than the No. 2 seed.

But the other 15 seeds aren‘t set in stone, even with 13 drivers already locked into The Chase. The potential points swings are endless, and really quite remarkable. Fifth to eighth in the standings are separated by just 31 points, while ninth to 14th are 52 points apart.

Kyle Larson, currently seventh in the series ranks after crucial consecutive top-six efforts at Richmond and Loudon, could surge as high as fifth but also drop as low as 12th after Daytona. That‘s a 35-point difference in seeding — 2,055 points to 2,020 points. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, 12th in points, could improve to seventh or could fall as low as 16th. That‘s a 45-point difference in seeding — 2,045 points to 2,000. Cindric, who‘s fighting for his Chase life, could start the postseason as high as 12th or could plummet as low as 20th — far out of the championship equation.

These battles carried less weight during the playoff era, when accumulating playoff points was paramount. The Chase opens a Pandora‘s box of key Daytona battles — primarily among drivers with true championship aspirations, not just last-ditch winners. And the aggression level will remain unrivaled as drivers jockey for crucial postseason positioning.

New format, same Daytona.

Just think about all the stakes … and, oh, yeah … they‘ll unfold with a never-before-run superspeedway package and precisely zero minutes of practice. Talk about another wrinkle to an already wild-card event. Handling will be at a premium as cars hit the high-speed draft for the first time in race conditions. Drivers won‘t know how their cars balance until actually making moves when it counts, forcing trust in their machines and their talent.

That new package could create even more parity than past Daytona races. The 2.5-mile oval has delivered more first-time winners than any track (24), nearly doubling the total at Talladega Superspeedway, a comparable track. Daytona also leads the way in overtime finishes with 25.

And all of that‘s to say 400 miles under the Daytona Beach lights could ultimately become a microcosm of the 2026 season so far. Twenty different drivers have won stages. The season‘s 587 lead changes are the fifth-most all time through 25 races. Three 23-year-olds won their first races: Ty Gibbs (Bristol), Carson Hocevar (Talladega) and Corey Heim (Naval Base Coronado), matching the number of first-time winners from the previous three years combined. The winning pass came in the final eight laps in eight of the last 17 races.

Surely, the implications are different this Saturday when the Cup Series returns to the “World Center of Racing,” but the pressure remains just as high.

New format, same Daytona.

On Sunday at New Hampshire, Ryan Blaney drove a masterclass in overcoming a mid-race problem on pit road (what else is new?) to hold off rivals on varying tire strategies. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler made the inspired call for two tires when the No. 12 came to pit road with around 75 laps to go. But Blaney had the chance to flex his car‘s long-run quality because the final run went, well, long. The last 63 laps of the race were run under green-flag conditions, and Blaney led every single one of them.

As it turns out, that‘s been the new abnormal this Cup Series summer. But be warned: It‘s also about to change, with Chase spots — and everything else — on the line in the regular-season finale Saturday at Daytona (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Those 63 closing green-flag laps at Loudon represented 20.9% of the 301-lap race, and somehow that was actually a short closing stint by recent standards. The week before at Richmond, the final 108 laps — or 27.0% of the race — were conducted under green, with winner Joey Logano leading the last 25 laps. A week before that, at Iowa, the final 132 laps (37.7%) ran under green as well, with winner Ty Gibbs leading the last 20.

All told, only one of the past 11 races — EchoPark in Round 20 — had a final green-flag stint shorter than 16% of the total race distance, and the average final-stint share under green in that span was 26.5% of the full race:

Needless to say, that‘s not what we typically see over such an extended period. In fact, during the Next Gen era (since 2022), this is the highest average share for closing green-flag stint lengths in any 11-race period, beating out late March to mid-June of last year (22.7%):

WATCH: NASCAR video highlights

As you might expect, this trend has favored the best drivers — or at least the most dominant teams of the day.

Thus far in the Next Gen era, when a race has finished under yellow and/or the final green-flag stint has accounted for less than 2% of its total length (a sample that includes many overtime finishes), the eventual winner has led the most laps just 21.2% of the time and averaged a laps-led share of just 15.4%. But when the final green-flag stint has accounted for more than 2% of the race‘s total length, the winner has led the most laps 48.9% of the time, and the winner‘s average share of total laps led has jumped to 32.2%.

That‘s been good news for teams and drivers with great equipment, speed and strategy — and it has fundamentally reshaped The Chase standings compared with where things stood before the summer calm. However, the Daytona storm is here to shatter that sense of stability. If we look at all Next Gen-era Cup races at Daytona, the average final-stint share is just 2.4% of the race, including two that finished under yellow and only two that went longer than 2% of the total race laps under green at the end — the 2022 Coke Zero Sugar 400 (10%; won by Austin Dillon) and the 2025 Coke Zero Sugar 400 (5%; won by Blaney):
And what a time for things to get scrambled, because a lot will be at stake Saturday. (It‘s almost like the schedule-makers knew what they were doing!)

For one thing, five drivers remain eligible for three unclaimed spots in The Chase. The central cutline battle, though, is between Shane van Gisbergen and Ryan Preece. SVG has a 31-point cushion in the standings, so he is a strong favorite to grab the last spot — particularly considering he has a much higher average Driver Rating on drafting tracks this season (80.9) than Preece does (66.3). But given Daytona‘s potential for chaos, even a 31-point lead is not completely safe.

Beyond that, the fight will be all about seeding. Denny Hamlin already clinched the most important seed, No. 1 overall, before even rolling out on the track this weekend, which is a relief for the No. 11 team considering his surprisingly poor form at the “World Center of Racing” in the Next Gen era: In nine starts there since 2022, Hamlin has finished 24th or worse in seven of them.

Below Denny, though, the closest gaps in the standings belong to No. 7 Kyle Larson over No. 8 Chase Elliott (one point), No. 10 Chris Buescher over No. 11 Carson Hocevar (four points), No. 9 Joey Logano over Buescher (six points) and No. 12 William Byron over No. 13 Daniel Suárez (six points). Given what we know about how final regular-season seedings lead to eventual Chase rankings, the most important of those battles in terms of the championship might be over Larson‘s current spot in the pecking order.

Otherwise, the closest fights among the top six drivers in the current standings are No. 5 Christopher Bell‘s 11-point edge over No. 6 Chase Briscoe, and No. 3 Ty Gibbs‘ 20-point gap to No. 4 Tyler Reddick. Those battles may prove every bit as important as the fight to be in the top seven — likely the very edge of where the eventual champion might emerge from — or the SVG-Preece scrap to make The Chase at all.

But that‘s the catch with taking all these carefully accumulated advantages to Daytona for the regular-season finale: They can disappear in an instant.

For most of the summer, NASCAR has rewarded the drivers who were fastest and smartest over long, uninterrupted closing runs under green-flag conditions. But now, with The Chase field and its final seeding order ready to be set at last, the end of the regular season may come down to something we‘ve barely seen in the past three months or so — one late restart and a couple of laps of pure chaos, with everything on the line.

A steady, track-by-track flow of announcements this month helped connect the dots for a host of returning favorites, strategic date shifts and a new-look Chase postseason slate. The full schedule arrives just days before this year‘s regular-season finales for both the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series this weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

“I would say, you know, first and foremost, certainly a lot of work as we announce a schedule each year that goes in collaboration with the entire industry, whether it‘s broadcast partners, race teams, drivers, gathering a lot of information from our fans and helping us develop the schedule,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR Chief Operating Officer. “And it‘s an iterative process, because as we‘ve shared in the past, we‘ve made decisions that haven‘t always panned out. We‘ve also made other decisions that have been huge successes for the schedule, and this is the next step and the next iteration of it. So, a handful of big changes, but certainly proud of the work that‘s gone into the schedule.”

RELATED: 2027 NASCAR schedule blog

Seven tracks heralded their return to the schedule Wednesday: Charlotte Motor Speedway (May 28-30 for Coca-Cola 600 weekend, plus Oct. 15-17 in The Chase), Nashville Superspeedway (June 4-6), Michigan International Speedway (June 19-20), Lime Rock Park (July 10), Sonoma Raceway (July 10-11), Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (July 23) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 24-25). Additionally, Watkins Glen International firmed up its dates — Sept. 17-19 — after previously announcing a return to The Chase rotation.

The schedule was the result of wide collaboration and team effort, but Kennedy noted the leadership of Julie Giese throughout the last year in her role as NASCAR Vice President, Market Development & Strategic Scheduling. Giese‘s experience as a track president who helped revitalize Phoenix Raceway and brought the Chicago Street Race to life during its three-year run helped sharpen her guidance when it came to shaping an interlocking schedule with nearly 100 races across three national series.

“I think it‘s honestly been a really fun experience for me, and I mean, I‘ve been with this company for 26 years and I‘ve learned so much about our sport and our industry in the last year, honestly, than I have in my other roles,” Giese said. “It‘s been really good to see a different part of our sport and how the schedule comes together, and to Ben‘s point, all the stakeholders that come together to be part of this, whether it‘s our race teams to the different tracks, to our independent track partners, the broadcast partners, but there‘s so many different stakeholders and it‘s been really fun to learn how the schedule impacts them and how it drives their decisions.”

The most recent significant piece to the 2027 puzzle came Tuesday with the announcement that NASCAR will return to San Diego for an encore at Naval Base Coronado. The first edition this past June marked the first time the circuit had competed on an active military base, and the temporary 3.4-mile street course provided striking views along the San Diego Bay, including a drive past the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier at trackside.

This year‘s announcement includes the news of an agreement with the potential to rotate the event to other military installations in 2028 and beyond, but first comes an opportunity to enhance the showcase race in Year 2.

“This year was the first of its kind,” Kennedy said. “We‘ve never had a race on a military installation before, so a lot of learnings, but also a huge success in the summer months for us to be able to go to a military base on the 250th anniversary of the country and the Navy and put on what we thought were three really compelling races across the race weekend and have a lot of active military members join us on Friday as well for Military Day.”

MORE: Full look at 2027 NASCAR schedule

Another return to the 2027 schedule is the next phase of a revival from earlier this season, when Chicagoland Speedway returned to the racing calendar after a seven-year break. The 1.5-mile track‘s rebirth reaffirmed the sport‘s place in the Midwest, traveling an hour south of the Windy City after three years of the Chicago Street Race.

“I think when you look at Chicagoland this year after not racing there since 2019, the weekend itself, I think it‘s all safe to say it exceeded its expectations,” Giese said. “I mean, a sellout crowd, the racing was absolutely phenomenal, and just a lot of enthusiasm and energy for that event, and I think the thing that we learned was the fact that when you look at who was attending the Chicago Street Race the past three years versus who attended Chicagoland Speedway, it was quite a different crowd, and so if anything, it showed us that this market can accommodate two different races if needed. So I think as we were looking at the schedule, knowing the success that Chicagoland Speedway had, making sure that that was going to be on the schedule moving forward.”

Giese said Chicagoland‘s placement back on the 2027 schedule doesn‘t necessarily spell the end of the Chicago street-circuit race. The downtown event experienced a wide range of developments — a festival atmosphere, a new group of attendees and weather challenges — during its three-year run, and she said that talks continue about potentially renewing it in the future.

“We‘re going to continue the conversations, and will say we really just ran out of time to be able to get something done, knowing we needed to get our schedule out,” said Giese, who maintains a Chicago office. “We have great relationships with the city of Chicago, whether it‘s the mayor‘s office, city council, as well as all the different stakeholders and organizations that I think would like to see NASCAR back in downtown, but there‘s obviously a lot of things that have to come together for that to occur. So we‘ll continue the conversation, see where that leads us in the future.”

Homestead-Miami Speedway — another intermediate-sized track — will cap the 2027 season, a schedule slot that it will also occupy this year for the first time since 2019. The South Florida venue is in the midst of a revitalization project, one that Kennedy says he‘s received regular updates about the progress, including demolition, fresh paint and a reimagined entrance.

“It‘s just going to feel like a new facility,” Kennedy said, “and we agreed as we were looking at a lot of line items, it‘s not the most fun thing to do, but anytime you repaint a new house or a new building, or as we‘ve seen some other race tracks, it feels like a newer facility. So it‘ll be a fresh coat of paint on it, and renovations are currently underway. The focus on the main entryway to Homestead-Miami Speedway, if any fans have attended there before, you know how confusing it is to find the main entrance to the track and how it‘s buried a bit. Frankly, the midway and activation areas were a bit daunting to also navigate as well, so we‘re going to blow all of that out. We‘re going to have a much larger midway space as fans walk in, a main entry gate.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

“If people have been to other entry gates like at Daytona or Phoenix, we‘ll have a similar vibe and atmosphere to that, and then also working on improving a lot of our suites and hospitality areas, which are quite dated as well, so excited about the project. It‘s been a pretty large one, investing roughly $20 million that will go into it, and everything — knock on wood — is on track to have it unveiled before championship weekend.”

While Homestead-Miami will end the season, another longtime Florida venue will kick it off. The preseason Wheatley Vodka Clash goes back to its roots at Daytona International Speedway in 2027  for a Saturday night exhibition Feb. 13.

The Clash has rotated in recent years since it was last held at Daytona — on the 2.5-mile oval in 2020 and then on the oval/road-course configuration in 2021. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum served as Clash host from 2022-24 before the event shifted to Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for the last two editions.

Those experiences, Giese said, helped spark the conversation about what The Clash could look like in the future, but also re-established a traditional kickoff to Speedweeks and the lead-up to the annual Daytona 500.

“I think we‘ve heard that from fans as well, where let‘s bring it back to Daytona, and that‘s something that we really want to make sure we‘re continuing to be responsive to,” Giese said. “Being able to take it back to Daytona and build out that Speedweeks schedule, kind of creates some of that. It‘s also always an opportunity, too, with The Clash where you can again you can think a bit outside the box. That‘s what we did at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, and then throw it back with Bowman Gray, and now essentially throwing it back again to Daytona International Speedway, where it‘s been for many, many years should be a really great way to kick off Speedweeks.”

Shifting The Clash also means a move away from Bowman Gray, the historic quarter-mile track that hosts the longest-running weekly racing promotion under NASCAR sanction. Kennedy, who won there during his racing days in what is now called the ARCA Menards Series East, called the stadium special to the sport and his family for “a long list of reasons” and stressed the importance of keeping it on the national series schedule.

Enter the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, which will make its Bowman Gray debut next August, coinciding with the end of the racing season for the four divisions that regularly compete at the track known as “The Madhouse.”

“Having the opportunities to be stewards of Bowman Gray and take it to the next generation, we were able to do that through The Clash for the past couple of years,” Kennedy said. “Fans got to see some improvements that we made, and we were all very clear as we approached the Bowman Gray project, there‘s so much history and tradition and elements that just make Bowman Gray unique and special that we want to keep intact. I think we‘ve been able to do that while also making changes and improvements to it. So whether it‘s a new lighting system we put in place, the SAFER walls and catchfence, repaving the track, things like that have certainly continued to enhance a race experience. So we‘re excited to go back with the Craftsman Truck Series and bring another national-series event there in the future.”

The addition of Bowman Gray makes the Truck Series slate one of NASCAR‘s most varied. The tour will return to the streets of St. Petersburg for its second edition on March 6, and Lime Rock Park will mark its third appearance on the schedule with a July 10 show, all before a regular-season finale on Sept. 5, when Canadian Tire Motorsport Park returns for the first time since 2019.

Giese said the return of the history-steeped road course outside of Toronto was a popular request, based on input throughout the industry. She said she recently attended an IMSA weekend in front of a packed house at CTMP, and she emphasized the need for an international NASCAR national-tour event after a year without.

“That‘s certainly a priority for us across any of our national series,” Giese said. “We‘ve had a really good, long-standing relationship with the team at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. They have some new ownership as well that has been very eager to continue conversations, and so it‘s a conversation we‘ve been having over the last year that really allowed us to solidify an opportunity.

“Looking ahead to 2027, I‘ll say I‘m really excited about where it falls on the schedule. Obviously, that Labor Day weekend is historically its traditional weekend when we raced there previously, but it‘s also the last race before the start of The Chase for the Truck Series, so we know the exciting races that CTMP has put on in the past. There‘s been some drama, there‘s been some excitement, so I think putting it there in the schedule really just puts a light on that even more.”

Smith will drive the No. 21 Chevrolet for RCR on a multiyear agreement beginning next season, replacing Austin Hill as he departs for the team‘s No.33 NASCAR Cup Series program full time. Brown will step into the No. 2 Chevrolet on a multiyear agreement in place of Jesse Love, who will also join the Cup ranks in 2027 with Wood Brothers Racing. The No. 21 will get backing from 1-800-PACK-RAT as anchor primary sponsor on a multiyear deal while the No. 2 will continue a longstanding partnership with Whelen. 

Smith returns to the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series to join RCR after spending the 2025 and ‘26 seasons in the Craftsman Truck Series. The Georgia native completed two full seasons in the O‘Reilly Series in 2023 and 2024 with Kaulig Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing, respectively, collecting three wins — two at Richmond Raceway and one at Phoenix Raceway. Smith finished fifth in the 2024 season standings before departing for the Truck Series.

MORE: O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standings

In two campaigns with Front Row Motorsports‘ No. 38 truck team, Smith has amassed four victories, two of which have come this season. The 24-year-old currently sits third in the points standings as the tailgaters enter The Chase. Smith holds nine total Truck Series wins dating back to his first full campaign in 2021. He earned a career-high three victories in 2022 before finishing third in the final standings that year.

“I‘m really thankful for this opportunity and for the people who have believed in me and helped me get to this point,” Smith said in a team release. “First and foremost, I want to give all the glory to God. He‘s opened a lot of doors for me throughout my career, and I know none of this happens without Him. I‘m also thankful for my family and everybody who has stood behind me through the ups and downs. To get this opportunity with Richard Childress Racing means a lot to me.”

Brown joined RCR‘s driver development program in November 2025 as a 17-year-old. In eight starts in the ARCA Menards Series national division this season, Brown has posted remarkable numbers, leading every lap of his debut to win at Phoenix in March with just one finish worse than third and no start worse than fifth. Brown has also won three pole positions, including his debut and earlier in the summer at Lime Rock Park and Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Brown tested an O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series car for the first time in July at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The North Carolina native made his series debut on Aug. 8 at Iowa Speedway driving the No. 32 Chevrolet for Jordan Anderson Racing, earning a 15th-place finish.

“I‘m incredibly grateful to everyone at Richard Childress Racing and Whelen for believing in me,” Brown said in a team release. “This is something I‘ve dreamed about for as long as I can remember, and I know how rare and special it is to be in this position. What an absolute honor to drive for Richard Childress, and to be able to represent Whelen, an American-made brand that has invested so much into motorsports over the years.”

Both of RCR‘s current O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series drivers have locked into the 2026 Chase. Love and the No. 2 team sit fourth in the standings with one race remaining in the regular season, 299 points behind series leader Justin Allgaier as Love attempts to defend his 2025 title. Hill and the No. 21 team are seventh in points with two wins this season. Hill has split time between the O‘Reilly and Cup series this season, slotting into the renumbered No. 33 Chevrolet in Cup after the tragic death of Kyle Busch in May.

Betty Jane France not only helped foster the sport of NASCAR alongside her husband Bill France Jr. in its vital early years, but she found a way to cultivate the heart of the sport — its people — well into perpetuity.

Mention her name in racing circles and the response is immediate: A huge grin and a tale of France‘s generosity followed by a story of gratitude for her work and mission.

RELATED: 2026 Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award finalists

“I give my sister-in-law, Betty Jane, the credit for really helping spearhead that direction,‘‘ NASCAR Chairman Jim France said. “As a family, we have been contributing and still do individually. But she had the vision to try and bring something together for our entire sport that could contribute to the needs of many.”

As founders and leaders of one of America‘s great sports leagues, it‘s easy to first consider the France family in terms of their work on the race track. But Betty Jane France, who died in 2016 at age 78, created a masterful and loving vestige in the communities — both big cities and small towns — surrounding the tracks; and, by extension, the areas nearby.

She essentially tipped the first block, and her work has resonated ever since.

The Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award — which honors volunteers and charities for their work — has been a bright star in the sport and beyond for the last 15 years. Its recipients are honored yearly at the championship celebration and provided additional funding to both continue the work and raise the profile.

The four 2026 finalists for the Betty Jane Humanitarian Award were announced just this month and include a longtime leader of a New York food pantry, a volunteer of a Richmond, Virginia, Ronald McDonald House, the founder of a Florida organization that supports families of fallen service members and the founder of a two-decades old foundation committed to providing free medical care for pediatric cancer patients in memory of his young son.

These people and their life‘s missions are indicative of what France‘s work means and show an unmistakable common theme in her legacy — making a difference in the lives of kids and families.

“My mom felt like every child deserved a chance,‘‘ France‘s daughter and NASCAR‘s Executive Vice Chair Lesa France Kennedy said. “They deserve a healthy life. They deserve to be heard and to be seen. And she saw that opportunity. It was extremely important to her.”

The NASCAR Foundation, which Betty Jane France established, just celebrated 20 years of work in the community, having raised millions of dollars and provided a very direct and lasting impact on kids and their families.

“I think my mother will always be remembered for her heart,‘‘ France Kennedy said. “I think The NASCAR Foundation was the start of that and the start of the example that she showed to everyone.

“I also think that it shows everyone that they have an opportunity. They can find their passion, just as my mom did with The NASCAR Foundation, and they can live that and make a difference.”

Seeing the joy on the kids‘ faces or the tears in the eyes of people called to and able to make that difference in their communities is impactful.

Those were the reactions just this summer as NASCAR rolled into San Diego for its first-ever street race on the famed Naval Base Coronado, allowing a whole “new” group of people to see France‘s legacy of care in action.

A joyfully chaotic scene featuring more than 100 children of United States servicemen and women who participated in The NASCAR Foundation‘s Speediatrics Fun Day Festival, a weeklong curriculum culminating with a NASCAR-themed obstacle course on race weekend, and were then surprised with brand new bicycles and helmets. Brightly colored balloons framed a huge sign that hung high across the crowded San Diego race midway, proclaiming, “This isn‘t just a race, it‘s a mission.‘‘

And indeed it has been.

“It‘s the synergy that Betty Jane kind of led the charge on and asked others [to do the same] for the Foundation,‘‘ said NASCAR Vice Chairman and Senior Advisor Mike Helton, who stopped by the San Diego event, soaking in the smiles.

“The bigger and broader part, in addition to millions of dollars of help with children that need help, whether it‘s medically or, quality of life, is that it was also a statement made that NASCAR, everywhere we go — and our footprint is across America — everywhere we go, we‘re still a local community-driven event.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

“Everybody‘s got their own interests, but you‘ve seen this whole sport industry come to this cause,‘‘ he added. “I‘d like to think that The NASCAR Foundation was the seed of that saying, ‘you can organize this and do bigger and better.‘ And we‘ve seen the industry do that over the last 20 years.”

It‘s a passion of giving that has permeated the sport. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell has unfailingly found his experiences reaching out on behalf of The NASCAR Foundation to be powerful and lasting. Like so many of NASCAR‘s stars, Bell views any opportunity to do something on behalf of the foundation as a privilege.

“It‘s heartwarming and humbling experience anytime you visit a children‘s hospital,‘‘ Bell said. “And being able to bring a little joy to a child‘s day means the world to me. The NASCAR Foundation does an amazing job spreading the love of racing across the country and giving us the opportunity to spend time with these kids and their families.

“I‘ve been lucky to be a small part of what they‘re doing.‘‘

It‘s one thing to have grand ideas and sincere purpose, but it‘s another to put them into action. And it is yet another to have that work prosper exponentially.

One of France‘s dear friends, NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Rusty Wallace, was an immediate and ardent supporter of The NASCAR Foundation. The 1989 NASCAR Cup Series champion still smiles when he recalls France asking him to be an active voice as the organization first began. And the famously candid driver still smiles about it.

“She laughed and said, ‘Well, you‘re non-controversial now, since you‘re not a driver,‘ ‘‘ Wallace shared with a grin. “But, you know, I really saw her passion and I really got passionate about helping raise money for children and doing these causes. And it just got bigger and bigger for me. I really enjoy it. I feel doing it is really meaningful and appreciated by people

“That‘s how I‘m so involved in it. And I don‘t see myself backing off.”

Adds Jim France: “It‘s a community effort by everybody within the sport. And it makes you proud of our folks and people that participates.”

It‘s indicative of how Betty Jane wrapped personality, heart and commitment into a legacy that so lovingly reverberates still today.

“Betty Jane was charming, beautiful, intelligent and she played her role in NASCAR to perfection,‘‘ NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip said of France when she passed away in 2016. “She was the right person to do all she had to do. Just a great lady.”

And she lived the lessons in generosity her actions perpetually taught others.

“My mom was the one that spearheaded that for our family,‘‘ France Kennedy said. “She set the example. She was the role model, and we‘re all hopeful that we can continue it with the vision that she started.”

Helton has no doubt that is the case.

“She would be very happy, very proud, and maybe a little bit surprised,‘‘ Helton said of how France‘s work continues to thrive and make a difference in the world all these years later. “We sit around sometimes and talk about different business elements in the sport. What would Bill [France] Sr. think about this moment that we were participating in, or what would Bill Jr. think?

“And you know, on the foundation side, when we‘ve just come off an event having 300 bicycles delivered or shoes for kids who don‘t have shoes.

“Nichole [Krieger] will say to me often, ‘I wonder what Betty Jane would think,‘ ‘‘ he said of the longtime NASCAR Foundation executive director. “And I tell her, ‘Betty Jane would be proud.‘ She would be very pleased with that seed that she planted to grow into such a beautiful forest.”

Her perpetual light is still shining brightly upon it all.

The West Coast trip — slated for Aug. 1 on TNT Sports and the cornerstone event of NASCAR San Diego Weekend presented by Anduril — marks the second consecutive season the NASCAR Cup Series will race on the active military base, and the fifth time a street course is on the schedule in the modern era. The NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series will also join, with the preliminary event planned for July 31 on The CW and the ESPN App.

RELATED: Register now for presale ticket opportunities

NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Ben Kennedy welcomed the unique event‘s return next season, saying that the reception from Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth before this year‘s race prompted talks with Kennedy, Julie Giese — NASCAR Vice President of Market Development & Strategic Scheduling — and their team about future activations on other military sites.

“He obviously loved the event, enjoyed the event and that helped spur conversations around what the future relationship might look like with them,” Kennedy said. “So we agreed in 2028 we‘re going to go to another military installation as a part of a long-term plan as we think about rotating these not just to other parts of the military, but to other branches within the Department of War, and it‘s been a really good collaborative conversation. Still remains to be seen where and what and when those other locations might look like, but the team and Julie have already been digging into a number of different markets that we feel like are priority markets for us to be in that we frankly don‘t have a large presence in today, along with just iconic installations that everyone knows of. So, a lot of work to go on that front.”

Naval Base Coronado‘s August date marks a shift from Father‘s Day weekend, when the races were hosted on the 2026 calendar. The Cup Series main event will be featured as the championship round of the 2027 NASCAR In-Season Challenge, the third edition of the five-race, 32-driver midseason tournament.

RELATED: See 2027 schedule updates | All confirmed dates so far

In conjunction with the U.S. Navy, NASCAR officials constructed the 16-turn, 3.4-mile Qualcomm Circuit, which Kennedy said would return largely unchanged for the 2027 running. That course layout weaved around the active Naval Base Coronado, featuring stunning views of downtown San Diego and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier. Dubbed “Race the Base,” all three national series contested events in 2026 — a celebration for America 250, the country‘s semiquincentennial anniversary.

Corey Heim broke out with his first career Cup Series victory in just 13 starts, just weeks before following up with a crown-jewel Brickyard 400 triumph. Austin Hill won the O‘Reilly Series race — which marked Richard Childress Racing‘s first since the death of Kyle Busch in May. Layne Riggs secured the victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, prevailing in overtime.

The Truck Series won‘t return to San Diego in 2027 but will instead visit Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in September.

After a long tenure at Auto Club Speedway outside of Los Angeles, the trips to Naval Base Coronado and San Diego continue a key chapter in NASCAR‘s, the military‘s and the region‘s history.

MORE: Recap Heim‘s San Diego triumph

Kennedy deemed the inaugural race “a tremendously successful event” in a post-race press conference back in June at San Diego, saying “we would love to return” for a second edition. “Sports bring people together,” he said. “It brings all walks of life together. It was really neat to see a lot of folks from the military, from the Navy, be a part of this weekend. It‘s a great unifier for us. It feels authentically NASCAR.”

Kennedy said this week that the Coronado race‘s leaders and organizers spent a day and a half at an offsite retreat in Charlotte, discussing what worked and what needed improvement for a potential return. An analysis of industry feedback, data and “a lot of learnings” will help to shape the next San Diego event, as it has with other recent trips to one-of-a-kind venues at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a first trip to Mexico City and the evolution of the Chicago Street Race.

“Fans will expect some changes to the experience,” Kennedy said. “The course, for the most part, is going to stay intact, so we don‘t expect any big changes related to that, but really focused on ingress, egress, concession stands, the viewpoints and perspectives for a lot of our fans that are sitting in the stands and continuing to improve that experience, and then as we talk about potentially going to other installations or other temporary courses in the future, we‘ll at least have a good blueprint that we can then take and apply to other locations.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

One element that will return in 2027 is a Navy Community Night on July 30. Base access will be exclusive to U.S. Navy personnel and Coronado community members that day, which will feature O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series practice and qualifying on track.

More details about the 2027 Naval Base Coronado race weekend will be revealed at a later date.

Contributing: Zack Albert

Sometimes they didn‘t.

The 23XI Racing driver could shut them off without realizing it, but would eventually emerge from a deep slumber in what he now describes as “a trance.” On race weekends, if the schedule allowed, he might sleep in until 9 or 10 a.m. and still have to drag himself into the day. His wife, Alexa, had long told him “for years, quite possibly decades” how badly he snored, and there were nights when she would jolt him awake with a shake after something considerably more unsettling.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

He had stopped breathing entirely.

Reddick would snap up, confused, beckoned by Alexa — “Are you OK?”

“I mean, I thought I was,” Reddick told NASCAR.com on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

That answer makes more sense when Reddick explains how thoroughly he had normalized the problem. He‘s 30 years old, already a Daytona 500 champion, prolific winner and one of the most adeptly gifted drivers in NASCAR, but poor sleep had been part of his life for so long that it barely registered as something to fix anymore.

“I think I‘ve dealt with this probably most of my life,” Reddick said. “You think, ‘Oh, it‘s just how I sleep.‘ Whether it‘s how bad you sleep or the amount of times you wake up, how you feel when you wake up after sleeping — all these things, I thought, ‘Well, it‘s just me. It‘s the way I live my life.‘

“So I think for the longest time I chalked it up to that.”

What finally broke through was the same instinct that has carried Reddick to NASCAR‘s highest level: the suspicion that somewhere, somehow, there was still more performance to uncover in himself.

At the end of last season, Reddick began taking inventory. Fitness, preparation, recovery — all the usual levers available to an elite athlete were essentially accounted for already. Then he landed on a more basic question.

“What stones have I not unturned?”

Sleep topped the list.

Initially, when seeking answers, Reddick expected little more than confirmation that he had been right all along. Do the sleep study, check the box, establish that nothing significant was wrong and move along. But once he began paying closer attention and putting all the contextual pieces together while waiting for the appointment, years of evidence clicked into place as he realized what was actually happening.

The snoring. The exhaustion. The alarms. The fact that more time in bed rarely produced the recovery he expected.

By the time the study confirmed sleep apnea, Reddick‘s reaction was not one of alarm — it was relief.

“As crazy as it sounds, I was like, ‘Yes, thank goodness,‘ ” he said. “Because if it wasn‘t this, I don‘t know why I‘m the way I am.”

Reddick began continuous positive airway pressure treatment in March, using a CPAP device to help keep his airway open while he sleeps. The first night was enough to recalibrate his understanding of what “rested” is actually supposed to feel like.

“Literally the first night I used it, it was a huge difference,” Reddick said. “It blew my mind. I could not believe that what I thought was normal was beyond not normal.”

The most meaningful changes since then have been almost stubbornly ordinary.

Reddick says he wakes with more energy and no longer needs “mountains of caffeine” simply to get himself moving. A smaller CPAP device travels with him, taking away the anxiety that came with sleeping somewhere unfamiliar and wondering whether he would wake up when he needed to. Some mornings now, he beats the alarm altogether.

And then there is home life.

“It was really, really incredible how much it helped my day-to-day stuff as well. I‘m a dad, and now I‘m able to wake up in the morning and be sharp and tackle whatever happens.”

Before treatment, a relatively open race morning could mean sleeping as late as possible while his wife took the children somewhere. Now, when the schedule allows, Reddick gets up and goes with them. After the kids are asleep at night, he can finish the work that tends to pile up at the end of the day without assuming the next morning will be a trade-off he‘ll have to deal with.

His wife sleeps better, too. The snoring that kept her awake has subsided, along with the frightening interruptions — and the frantic commotion that followed.

“For me, it was such a 180 from what I‘ve been dealing with, and it was like, holy cow, yeah, obviously, I think I had it in mind for trying to be, how can I just continue to find things that make me better as a driver?” 

It‘s worked so well for him, in fact, that his experience has now led to a commercial chapter as well.

23XI Racing announced Tuesday a new partnership with ResMed, the company whose CPAP equipment Reddick had already begun using on his own in March. ResMed branding will be featured on track with Reddick‘s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota at Bristol, Talladega and Homestead this season. According to the team, 23XI was separately in conversations with ResMed before learning that Reddick was, coincidentally, already using the company‘s devices. His personal experience ultimately provided a natural connection between the two, and a partnership seamlessly followed. 

Cup teams spend entire seasons chasing hundredths of a second through simulation, setup, aerodynamics and pit-road execution. When they‘re not behind the wheel, drivers conduct their own version of the same search through training, nutrition, hydration, reaction time and recovery. Reddick went looking for another place to get better, and found one in the portion of his day when he had assumed for years there was nothing to optimize, humbly coming to terms with his apparent fate of needing to sleepwalk through life.

But not so.

Even before his sleep study, he began experimenting and tinkering with his sleep hygiene and habits on his own. As part of that, Reddick changed the way he positioned himself in bed, trying to sleep more upright in hopes of keeping his airway open while he waited to see a doctor months after booking the appointment.

“It sucked,” he said. “I‘m not gonna lie, it wasn‘t very comfortable.”

But he thought he was indeed sleeping tangibly better, ever so slightly, but another clue that this particular stone, once flipped over, may uncover an edge both in racing and in life.

What treatment has now offered him is not something super flashy but, heading into The Chase with something to prove, potentially quite useful: the capacity to meet his demands.

“Typically, this time of the year, it just kind of feels a bit run down,” Reddick said. “It‘s like, holy cow, we‘re getting ready to go start the real true grind with all the stakes in play.

“I think just mentally, I‘m naturally in a better place than I normally would be, year in, year out.”

That is where Reddick is comfortable drawing the connection between his sleep and his Sunday duties. Not just horsepower, lap times, or RPMs, but also the REM cycles and circadian rhythm that allow him to complete the work required every day of the week.

“If there are late nights of prep and trying to get caught up, or doing the extra, putting in the extra hours, whatever it might be, I‘m not as worried about being tired the next day,” he said. “When you do have those late nights and everyone‘s grinding, working hard, I‘m walking into work or the track on those tougher days or stretches with a better mindset.

“It just has a huge positive influence on my energy, all the things, and then that, in turn, is positive on those around us.”

All of this makes the timing difficult to ignore.

Reddick returns to Daytona this week for the regular-season finale, six months removed from leaving the same track with the Harley J. Earl Trophy and forever marked as a Daytona 500 champion, sparking what became the hottest start to a season of his Cup career and arguably anyone else‘s. Back then, the No. 45 team looked almost untouchable. Now, with his Chase berth secure but the weekly consistency harder to locate over the summer, Reddick heads toward the championship portion of the season, trying to recover the form that made him the standard.

The vibe has shifted; the ceiling has not.

Five wins in astoundingly short order already proved how good Reddick and the No. 45 can be. The task has become, however, to rebuild enough of that foundation underneath to revert their gaze back up at the next level.

There is no magic answer in a sleep study for that.

Reddick‘s race car still has to be right, his team still has to execute, and the driver still has to deliver. But the longest, highest-pressure part of the season is arriving, and he believes he is entering it with one less source of wear and tear accumulating in the background.

Consistency matters with the treatment, too. Reddick travels with his device and can monitor usage and mask seal through an app from ResMed. If he accidentally falls asleep putting one of his children to bed or dozes off on the couch without it, the difference is apparent the next morning, and the data reflects it … pretty accurately.

“You don‘t feel amazing,” he said.

The larger change is that an imperfect night no longer starts the same familiar slide toward feeling completely depleted. That can‘t be stressed enough, as Reddick embarks shortly on his best shot at a title yet.

“The more consistent you stay with it, it is ultimately way better,” Reddick said.

That same word — consistency — now hangs over the racing side of his year, with 11 races to go, 10 of which will decide a champion. The Chase will determine whether that historic opening stretch, where Reddick was an overwhelming early championship favorite, was merely the spectacular first act of a nice season or proof of a level of dominance the No. 45 can summon again when it matters most.

Either way, the driver entering that grind now understands something crucial about himself that he spent years brushing off, mistaking as normal.

For most of his life, Tyler Reddick needed five or six alarms just to start the day.

And now, when the first one goes off, he‘ll be ready for it.

RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Cup Series standings

Analysis: From the jump, it looked like it was going to be one of those days, with Hamlin getting caught in a slippery Lap 1 mess with Tyler Reddick. But Hamlin weathered the storm, and as Mother Nature‘s conditions improved, so did Hamlin. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was rewarded with a seventh-place result and the No. 1 seed in The Chase. Daytona International Speedway hasn‘t been kind to Hamlin since the Next Gen era began in 2022, but at this juncture, it doesn‘t necessarily matter. Now, it‘s about prepping for the 10-race postseason afterward.

Analysis: Resolve could best describe the No. 12‘s Loudon day. After outlasting the early weather lulls and triumphing in Stage 2, pit-road trouble following the second segment looked to be a dagger. Earlier in the season, it was. Now, though? Hardly, with Blaney rebounding to capture his second lobster in as many seasons. A 32-point gain to the cutline was, naturally, the biggest improvement among all drivers, and with a race win and four top 10s in nine Daytona starts in a Next Gen machine, more momentum could certainly be up for grabs.

Analysis: He hasn‘t won (yet?), but Bell has been on the uptick for a fair bit now, with a New England P4 acting as the No. 20 driver‘s seventh top-seven result in the last eight races. Overcoming a pit-road miscue following Stage 1‘s conclusion further illustrates Bell‘s scorcher of late. Bell, who enters the top five in the Cup standings for the first time this season, will next contest Daytona; in 13 career Cup starts, he has three top-10 results. The good news? All three have come since the Next Gen car‘s introduction in 2023.

Analysis: A P6 at Loudon was Gibbs‘ first top 10 at the track in four Cup attempts, continuing a 10-race streak with finishes of 10th or better dating back to Pocono Raceway in June. The question for the No. 54: Can the team A) hold off the Toyotas behind him in the standings and B) make a play against Denny Hamlin and Blaney at the top? Daytona will be the last chance to sharpen the playoff blade before Chase action begins, with Gibbs possessing two top 10s at the Florida track, including an eighth-place result in last summer‘s bout.

Analysis: Waiting for the next shoe to drop has been a theme of Reddick‘s summer. That theme looked like it would continue at Loudon, where, despite starting on the pole, the No. 45 spun from the lead on the opening lap. Rolling up the proverbial sleeves after a P31 result in Stage 1, Reddick gradually worked his way to contention, finishing Stage 2 in 11th and concluding Sunday‘s contest in eighth, only his third top 10 in the last nine races. Can Reddick keep momentum going at Daytona, the site of his first win of 2026? We‘ll see.

Analysis: Chalk Loudon as a forgetful day for the No. 19, with Briscoe‘s 26th-place finish snapping a four-race streak of sixth-place results or better. As such, it‘s no surprise that Briscoe‘s 26-point drop to the cutline was tied for the biggest dip of the day (Chase Elliott). Despite already having clinched a Chase berth, that stings. Next is Daytona, where Briscoe hasn‘t had much success in the results column, only totaling three top 10s in 11 starts. That said, he has led laps in six of the last seven Daytona races, so maybe this can shift for the better.

Analysis: Larson was one of six drivers to clinch a Chase berth Sunday, capturing his fifth stage win and tallying his first top five since Sonoma Raceway in June. Leading double-digit laps (18) for the first time since Chicagoland Speedway in July and totaling 48 points — his most since Charlotte Motor Speedway in May — perhaps suggest the defending champion is close to a breakthrough on the victory front, but then again, this tune has been sung before. Is this the time? To be determined. Larson has six top 10s and zero top fives in 24 Daytona Cup starts.

Analysis: Given the wave Logano is riding — seven consecutive finishes of 14th or better — it only makes sense that the No. 22 Team Penske Ford also clinched a Chase berth at Loudon following a P14 finish. Logano continues to hold serve at ninth in the Cup Series standings, but there remains a chance that the three-time Cup Series champion could scoot higher. In 35 Daytona Cup contests, Logano has one victory, nine top fives and 12 top 10s. In nine Daytona races in the Next Gen era, Logano ranks second in points (288). The wave of momentum could continue.

Analysis: For the first time since 2023, Buescher will go postseason racing, clinching a bid after finishing 18th at New Hampshire. It was a quiet day for the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford otherwise, save for getting clogged in Reddick‘s Lap 1 slide and finishing seventh in Stage 2. It could crank up quickly at the “World Center of Racing,” where, in nine Next Gen races, Buescher leads full-timers in average finish (11.1) and points (292). Much like Bell and Larson, we have been waiting for that checkered flag to wave for the No. 17. This could be the place.

Analysis: Speaking of quiet, look no further than Elliott at New Hampshire, finishing 23rd in both stages and ending the day one lap down in 25th. The 2020 Cup champion has not rattled off back-to-back top fives since Talladega Superspeedway and Texas Motor Speedway — the site of his second win of 2026 — in April and May, respectively. When will the next hot stretch come for the No. 9? Will it come? Daytona offers a mixed bag, with seven career DNFs, but his 176 laps led in 21 races does rank fifth among active drivers.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Analysis: A Loudon runner-up — matching his best finish of 2026 (San Diego), not to mention his best Loudon finish in nine attempts — could be the shot in the arm Wallace needs as the No. 23 camp heads into the regular-season finale without a locked-in Chase berth. Now 75 points above the cutline, the drafting afficionado heads into the regular-season finale facing one of his top tracks; Wallace ranks second among full-timers in average finish (14.7), fourth in points (259) and sixth in laps led (97) at Daytona in the Next Gen era. This is Wallace‘s bread and butter.

Analysis: It could‘ve been worse at Loudon, I suppose. Sure, Hocevar had a little Slip ‘N Slide action during pace laps. Yes, the No. 77 Spire Motorsports machine spun again on Lap 84, this time after contact with Connor Zilisch. And while we‘re here, Hocevar spun out a third time on Lap 203. But the 23-year-old still salvaged a top-20 finish and clinched a Chase spot. Still, some sign of upward momentum would be preferable with the postseason looming. That momentum swing might be on hold for another week, with Hocevar possessing three DNFs in five Daytona Cup starts.

Analysis: A 12th-place result at New Hampshire was acceptable for Cindric and the No. 2 camp, but the team did lose 13 points to the cutline. With seven of the last eight races resulting in finishes of 14th or better, Cindric has positioned himself inside the 16-driver cut, though a 44-point cushion is not a concrete buffer. Though Daytona was kind to Cindric to start his Cup career — a 2022 Daytona 500 win and third-place finish in that year‘s summer race qualify — it has been bumpier since, with five finishes of 20th or worse. Don‘t breathe too easy.

Analysis: Byron started Sunday‘s New Hampshire race well, leading laps on the wets to begin action and eventually finishing Stage 1 in fourth. It was downhill from there, though, with pit-road chaos following the opening segment, coupled with a detached left-rear wheel on Lap 233, relegating the No. 24 to a 30th-place finish. Though Byron clinched a Chase berth, potential crew suspensions over the detachment could be a blow, especially for a pit crew that ranks second among all teams, according to Racing Insights. Daytona has been hit-or-miss for Byron; he has three wins and eight DNFs there.

Analysis: One of the biggest story lines of the season has been van Gisbergen‘s improvement on non-road-course tracks. That continued Sunday at Loudon, with the No. 97 pilot leading 30 laps in the early going, showing the Kiwi‘s adaptability to the wet-weather sets. Nevertheless, SVG lost 19 points to the cutline and heads to Daytona clinging to a 31-point lead. Three out of SVG‘s four Cup starts there have resulted in finishes of 30th or worse. Can SVG cash in on that oval progression en route to a Chase berth? It‘s possible. Either way, it‘ll be close.

Analysis: Suárez rounded out the six drivers who clinched a Chase berth following New Hampshire action. A 20-point day for the Spire Motorsports pilot — thanks to a 17th-place finish — isn‘t the end of the world, but it‘s worth noting that Suárez has not accumulated a 30-point race performance since Pocono and has only tallied two top-10 results since his Charlotte victory. That big-time performance has simply eluded the No. 7 team for a bit now. Eleven DNFs in 18 Daytona Cup starts isn‘t ideal, though he did finish runner-up in last year‘s Daytona summer contest.

Analysis: Preece needed that performance. A 38-point day at Loudon thanks to a ninth-place finish at his home track keeps the No. 60 in the postseason hunt, with 19 markers gained to the cutline. Can his fortunes turn for the better at Daytona? They will have to if he wishes to make The Chase. In 13 Cup starts at the 2.5-mile Florida superspeedway, Preece has just three top 10s, with all three coming pre-Next Gen era (2019, 2021). He‘s going to give it the college try, though. In his words: “I‘m gonna race the hell out of it.”

Analysis: Similarly to his teammate in Preece, Keselowski‘s 11th-place, 31-point day at New Hampshire has the RFK Racing co-owner/driver with a mathematical chance to sneak into the 16-driver Chase. With 12 points gained to the cutline, the 2012 Cup champion is still 66 points out of a spot, so help will likely be needed to prevail. That said, Keselowski has been dynamite at Daytona in the Next Gen era; his 126 laps led are tied for second-most (Cindric), and his 250 points rank fifth. Experience could be key, and Keselowski has plenty of it, especially at this venue.

Analysis: A last-place finish at Loudon officially eliminated Chastain and the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team from Chase contention, a far cry from where Chastain and Co. had their sights set after a 10th-place finish in the standings in 2025. What‘s next? That‘s a good question. What can be said, though, is that there has been a drop-off, and a return to the drawing board will be necessary over the course of the remainder of the campaign should 2027 wish to be a rebound campaign. The capability is there. Can it be reacquired?

Analysis: Though he has long been eliminated from Chase contention, flowers are needed for Berry here given his run of late. His third-place finish at Loudon — his best result so far in 2026 — was his first finish of third or higher since his runner-up at, ironically, the same track a year prior. With four consecutive finishes of eighth or better since Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July, continuing momentum at Daytona and beyond will be key as the driver searches for a new race team come 2027.

The question is will it be enough to advance to The Chase for the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career.

MORE: New Hampshire results | Cup standings

Preece drove the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford to a ninth-place finish Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, earning 38 points to mark his second-most points gained in 2026, buoyed by 10 stage points gained in the opening stanzas of the race.

But for much of Sunday‘s Dollar Tree 301, Preece looked even better than that, running at the edge of the top five through the Dollar Tree 301 as evidenced by his 6.16 average running position — his best of the season. Instead, the Connecticut native left his home track 17th in the season points standings, 31 points behind Shane van Gisbergen for the final spot in the 16-driver Chase field entering Saturday‘s regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“It was almost going to be a home run before that caution (at Lap 225) came out and that last set of tires went on,” Preece said.

Preece was hounding Wallace for the lead after Preece pounced past Josh Berry for second. But in that same lap, Riley Herbst crashed in Turn 3 with Connor Zilisch, leading the field to pit road for the final time in Sunday‘s race. While five teams took two tires, Preece and the No. 60 group took four and restarted seventh. But even with fresher rubber, Preece couldn‘t charge through the field quite as well as he could previously.

“For whatever reason, that was just our loosest (handling) set of the day, and as you saw, it hurt us in the final 10 laps,” Preece said. “But to look at the positives, I mean, look at where we were as an organization on short tracks outside of Martinsville. We have not been that great, and today I felt like Brad (Keselowski) was really good on the long run. I felt like Chris (Buescher) was pretty good, and I felt like we were good on the short run. And and that one run when we were coming at Josh and Bubba, we were really good.

“So yeah, from a points perspective, I mean, drivers‘ (points), we have a chance — a Hail Mary chance. But the owners‘ (points), we have a real chance. So we‘re gonna race the [expletive] out of them.”

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Indeed, there is a slight but significant difference for Preece in the drivers‘ standings as opposed to the No. 60 in the owners‘ standings. Preece was penalized 25 driver points and fined $50,000 following the May 3 race at Texas Motor Speedway in which he voiced displeasure with Ty Gibbs on his radio before resulting contact from Preece crashed Gibbs out of the race. So while Preece is 31 points out from advancing to The Chase, his No. 60 RFK team is only six points behind van Gisbergen‘s No. 97 Trackhouse Racing team in the owners‘ standings. Teams are ultimately paid by where they rank in owners‘ points at the conclusion of the season.

The other wrinkle, of course, are the plentiful unknowns heading to Daytona, where a new aerodynamic package will debut without a practice session to find any bearings. Unsurprisingly, that challenge doesn‘t faze Preece.

“I‘m gonna race the hell out of it,” Preece said. “I mean, [SVG]‘s the one that‘s in right now and I‘m not. Usually, when things are different and not predictable, I excel. And so does Shane. But it‘s gonna be a heavyweight match.”

Besides the cutline, though, there are multiple “micro” battles throughout the standings where point swings for starting The Chase could be directly impacted by the Daytona outcome. For example, 31 points separate Christopher Bell in fifth place from Chase Elliott in eighth place, with the top driver in that cluster starting The Chase with a 15-point advantage over the bottom driver. So these battles within the standings will also be worth watching at Daytona, and we‘ll try to outline those as well.

Reminder: The top 16 drivers in points make The Chase. There is no more win-and-in. The regular-season points leader starts The Chase with 2,100 points and second place starts with 2,075. Third place starts with 2,065 points, then drivers are separated by five-point increments through 16th place.

RELATED: Cup Series standings | Daytona weekend schedule

The Race for No. 1

The race for the No. 1 seed is over. Denny Hamlin clinched the top spot with a seventh-place finish at New Hampshire. The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran will now enter The Chase with a 25-point advantage over the second-place driver. This will be the biggest gap between any of The Chase drivers entering the Sept. 6 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. We‘re all familiar with Hamlin‘s championship heartbreaks, including the most recent one last year at Phoenix, but he is now in prime position to finally make good on a trophy run.

While 25 points don‘t seem like a lot to overcome in a world where wins are worth 55 points, Hamlin has shown amazing consistency throughout the season that is going to be tough to beat. Hamlin‘s seventh-place finish at Loudon was his sixth result of seventh or better in the past seven races. A few races before that, he rolled off a string of three straight victories at Nashville, Michigan and Pocono. With favorable tracks lined up at Darlington, Gateway, Bristol, Kansas, Las Vegas, Charlotte and Phoenix to start The Chase, Hamlin will be tough to catch.

The Mythical Top Six

Following Hamlin in the standings are Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe, making up the “Mythical Top Six,” the group where Racing Insights predicts the most likely champion will come. The battle is tight with only 31 points separating Bell in fifth place from Elliott in eighth place. Kyle Larson and Elliott are separated by one point in seventh and eight place, respectively. Places could change hands during the race at Daytona, and that could make a big impact on who has the advantage heading into The Chase.

Blaney, who won at New Hampshire, is safely in the top six. So to are Gibbs, who finished sixth, and Reddick, who netted an eighth-place showing at Loudon. But Reddick‘s performance was a microcosm of his summer slump: He qualified on the pole despite not having good long-run speed in practice, spun out on the opening lap of the race and had to spend the rest of the time making up for that early mistake. He‘s clearly searching for whatever magic he had early in the season when he won five of the first nine races.

Below the top six, Larson and Elliott are lurking. Larson lies 19 points below Briscoe for the sixth spot while Elliott is 20 points back. Both are former Cup champions, so they are formidable forms showing up in the rearview mirrors of those above them in the standings. Larson has posted a pair of top-six finishes and seems to be getting his act together at the right time, but he‘ll be hard-pressed to make up more ground at Daytona because of his historic struggles on superspeedways. Elliott is known for his consistency, but lately he hasn‘t produced the finishes to make a charge up the standings. Besides a top-five finish at Richmond two weeks ago, Elliott‘s last top-10 finish before that was back in late June at Nashville.

The Middle Ground

The summer of Penske continues with Blaney‘s win, marking four wins for the team in the past six races. However, Joey Logano‘s torrid run slowed down a bit with a 14th-place finish at Loudon. Logano qualified 20th and was involved in an early spin that set him back. He rallied for a respectable finish but is 45 points behind making the top six, meaning it‘s unlikely that he will be in the pantheon of favorable championship contenders to start The Chase.

What‘s more is Logano has to worry about the drivers right behind him in the standings. Chris Buescher is only six points behind Logano in 10th and Carson Hocevar is only 10 points back in 11th. As it is, Logano would start The Chase 65 points behind Hamlin, but a drop to 11th in the standings would make it a 75-point deficit.

Looking ahead to Daytona, Logano and Team Penske are generally thought of as strong superspeedway racers, but Logano has four finishes of 27th or worse in his past five races there. Meanwhile, Buescher has been good at Daytona with four consecutive top-10 finishes and a win there in the late summer of 2023. And while Hocevar‘s career Daytona performances have been uneven at best, he still has the superspeedway win from earlier in the season at Talladega that could bode well for his confidence.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

The Cutline Battle

Bubba Wallace only needs two points to clinch a spot in The Chase, so provided he doesn‘t crash out of the race early, he should be safely in. But there‘s also plenty of room for Wallace in 14th place in the standings to move up because he only trails 12h-place William Byron by 14 points. And it‘s also not crazy to think Wallace could move up even higher than 12th given a Daytona history that includes three runner-up finishes.

In the same vein, it‘s very unlikely that Brad Keselowski, who sits 66 points back of the cutline, will make The Chase. He would essentially need a 70-point race and some help to make it in. Keselowski finished fifth in the Daytona 500 this year and scored 39 points. His second-place finish in 2023 during the Daytona summer race netted him 45 points when he won Stage 2. Look for Keselowski to be eliminated from The Chase, possibly by the end of Stage 1.

So that makes Shane van Gisbergen and Ryan Preece essentially the two drivers to watch here as 31 points separate them on the cutline. Austin Cindric looks relatively safe with a 44-point cushion and has a Daytona 500 trophy to his credit. SVG and Preece, meanwhile, are locked in a battle on a superspeedway, which is a bit odd considering one is a road-course ace and the other‘s strong point is the shorter tracks like the one we were just on at New Hampshire.

What will go down here? Well, it‘s really anyone‘s guess, which is why it‘s exciting. Van Gisbergen has four starts at Daytona in Cup and his best finish of the bunch was 16th while the other three were all finishes of 30th or worse. Preece has a more extensive history with 13 Daytona starts and three top-10 finishes to his credit. But he hasn‘t had a top-10 finish there since 2021.

Hill has driven the No. 33 car since Memorial Day Weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, stepping in after the death of Kyle Busch on May 21. The team switched from No. 8 to No. 33 to preserve the Busch legacy.

MORE:  Cup Series standings

“I‘m extremely thankful to Richard and everyone at RCR for believing in me and giving me this opportunity,” Hill said in a press release. “Every race car driver dreams of competing full time in the NASCAR Cup Series, and to have that opportunity with RCR is something I don‘t take for granted. I‘ve learned so much this year about what it takes to compete at this level, and I‘m excited to take everything I‘ve learned during my time at RCR and apply it to this next chapter. I want to do everything I can to help this organization continue moving forward. I‘m excited for what‘s ahead and ready to get to work.”

Hill is a 16-time winner in the NASCAR O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series, where he has competed on a full-time basis since 2022 in RCR‘s No. 21 car, winning two or more races in each year of competition. He will continue driving in both Cup and O‘Reilly to close the 2026 campaign, but Hill will depart the O‘Reilly Series in 2027 for his first full-time endeavor in the Cup Series.

In 30 Cup starts, Hill has a best finish of ninth at the Chicago Street Course in 2025. The 32-year-old Georgia native made 15 Cup starts before the 2026 season and made two starts in a part-time effort this year at Phoenix Raceway and Martinsville Speedway. The 13 races run since Busch‘s passing are the most consecutive Cup races Hill has run. In that span, Hill has two top-20 finishes, marked by a season-best 18th at Pocono Raceway on June 14.

MORE: Key players in 2026-2027 Silly Season

“Austin Hill is a talented race car driver, and his continued growth, work ethic and success across multiple levels of NASCAR competition have positioned him for his next step with RCR,” said Richard Childress, Chairman and CEO of Richard Childress Racing, in a press release. “He‘s put a tremendous amount of effort into his career, especially this year with everything he‘s taken on. We‘ve watched Austin grow as a driver and as a person, and we‘re proud to have him continue that growth with RCR in the NASCAR Cup Series.”

While ineligible for Cup Series points this year, Hill sits seventh in the O‘Reilly standings with just one race remaining before The Chase begins. Hill has clinched a spot in the 12-driver postseason field and will be eligible to compete for the series championship this year. In four prior tries, Hill‘s best season-ending rank is fourth, qualifying for the Championship 4 in 2024.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

In addition to his O‘Reilly success, Hill is also an eight-time winner in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, where he raced full time from 2018 through 2021, posting his winningest campaign in 2019 with four victories and three pole positions for Hattori Racing Enterprises. Hill made his most recent Truck Series start at Pocono in 2023.

Sunday sure had the feel of it, though.

The drama dropped before the green flag even did — but not until after some heavy raindrops that briefly delayed the start and necessitated cars starting the race with wet-weather tires — with Carson Hocevar spinning out during the opening pace laps as drivers tested the racing surface. The intensity only ramped up from there.

And with Daytona International Speedway‘s regular-season finale now the only race separating the Cup Series from a finalized 16-driver Chase field, every position throughout the Dollar Tree 301 seemed to carry a little extra weight around the “Magic Mile.”

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“Yeah, it was definitely aggressive for sure,” race winner Ryan Blaney said in his post-race press conference.

Aggressive barely covers it. The sense of urgency was palpable, even as drivers currently well-locked in — like Blaney himself — fought tooth and nail for every inch on every restart, leading to bump-and-runs for the lead, crunch-inducing hits, wild pit-road chaos, you name it. Even pole winner Tyler Reddick spun out almost immediately.

That was the thing about this weekend at Loudon, though. It was not a Chase race. The postseason field is not quite set, and much of the field was still technically eligible for championship contention.

Keyword: was.

Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Carson Hocevar, William Byron and Daniel Suárez are newly clinched as of Sunday evening. Denny Hamlin officially locked up the No. 1 seed.

Not everyone enjoyed the same positive outcomes.

“It‘s just an unfortunate end to our run towards the Chase,” said Ross Chastain, who saw his potential run to a championship officially end in Stage 1, mathematically eliminated after a drivetrain issue knocked him out of the race and saddled him with a last-place finish. “The speed has gotten better, so we‘ll hopefully keep moving forward on that. That‘s the important part. With the things in our control, we were able to make them better through the summer. I‘ve learned that‘s really tough to do in the NASCAR Cup Series. We did get better, but we‘ve got a ways to go.”

For those who finished the race, Sunday was the last real opportunity for the drivers hovering around the cutline to independently shape their situation before a healthy serving of unpredictable superspeedway action takes the math equation somewhere considerably less controllable.

Daytona is next, and it comes with even more unknowns than usual this year.

At Loudon, a team can still qualify well, manage its tires, execute on pit road, score stage points and spend 301 laps methodically constructing the afternoon it needs. We saw Bubba Wallace do this, rebounding from a poor qualifying effort to still walk away P2 on Sunday and leave with a healthy 75-point buffer over the cutline.

At Daytona, a driver can do nearly all of that correctly — flawlessly, even — and still find himself behind the wall because somebody several rows ahead made the wrong decision at the wrong time.

Plenty of skill involved in both. Considerably more control in one, and Sunday represented the last ounce of it.

“It was a tough day for what we needed,” said Shane van Gisbergen, currently straddling the cutline and leading 30 laps early on the wets before fading to 20th. “Being that fast on wet-weather tires and falling that fast shows that we were missing something to have grip on the slick tires. Hopefully there are some learnings on that because Connor [Zilisch, teammate] and I just went backwards as fast as we could when the track dried. It‘s just a disappointing way to end the day. We would love to have more of a cushion heading into Daytona, but the No. 60 [of Ryan Preece] did a great job today. I don‘t think the No. 2 [of Austin Cindric] gained much on us, but we would love to have more heading into a big unknown race next weekend.”

New Hampshire did not dramatically reshuffle The Chase standings, but it sure brought them into further focus. Even those already well out of the danger zone were aware of the implications around them.

“You could tell the strategies, like the 60 pulling things like that,” Hamlin said on pit road. “You know, I thought it was a good strategy call for them. But yeah, you could see that everyone was in need of points, just chasing points.”

Larson saw it, too.

“The 60 had a good day, or at least I think he did,” he told NASCAR.com. “And I know he‘s fighting for everything he can get to get that final spot. So yeah, he was doing a really good job with it.”

And all of it unfolded at a track that will carry Chase pressure of its own when NASCAR returns in 2027, which felt considerably less theoretical and off in the distance by the time the checkered flag fell Sunday evening.

“Yeah, you know, this place has kind of been in The Chase. It‘s been out of The Chase. It‘s kind of, you know, jumped in and out,” said Blaney. “And I‘ve always thought this place is incredibly deserving of a Chase race, just because it puts on a really good show. The fans up here are incredibly passionate about racing … like, it‘s just a good atmosphere here. It‘s important, I think, to have a [Chase] race here in kind of the Northeast for sure. So it‘s nice. I was sad that it was out of the Chase this year. I‘m excited it‘s back in, and just even you know whether we run really good or bad here, I think this place really deserves a Chase race because the fans are incredibly passionate, and they love motorsports.”

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

New Hampshire has long rewarded complete afternoons, and Sunday was no exception. Entering the weekend, five of the previous six winners had started inside the top five. The Stage 1 winner had gone on to win three consecutive races. Only one of the previous 14 events required overtime.

This, plus all of the wild aspects of how Sunday went, is the information teams will bring back next year.

Not because Sunday perfectly replicated the circumstances of a Chase race — again, it was not. But the tension this weekend largely belonged to drivers trying to qualify for the 16-driver field, and it was palpable. When New Hampshire joins the 10-race Chase in 2027, the stakes will be different: every one of those contenders will already be in, and every point gained or surrendered here will contribute directly toward deciding a champion.

Sunday offered a glimpse of what happens when New Hampshire‘s typical demands — precision, patience, track position and execution — collide with stakes larger than an ordinary points day.

This year, that pressure came from trying just to reach The Chase. Next year, it will come from trying to win it all.

For now, the Cup Series leaves New Hampshire with one regular-season race remaining and the 16-driver field still unfinished.

New Hampshire gave the bubble one final afternoon to shape the equation.

Daytona gets to pop it.

The Truck Series‘ inaugural event at the quarter-mile oval in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 20, 2027, aligning with the track‘s traditional finale weekend for weekly racing. The announcement arrived Saturday evening during opening ceremonies for Bowman Gray‘s season-ending meet, with Rajah Caruth driving a No. 7 Chevrolet truck onto the track.

RELATED: 2027 NASCAR schedule tracker | Latest 2027 news, updates

The event will mark the first points-paying NASCAR national series race at the stadium in 56 years.

“Bringing the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series to Bowman Gray Stadium for the first time is an incredibly exciting moment for this historic facility and for our fans,” said Clay Campbell, president of Martinsville Speedway and vice president of NASCAR Mid-Atlantic. “Bowman Gray has always been about putting on unforgettable racing in front of some of the most passionate fans in the sport. We know the Trucks will put on an incredible show when they take on The Madhouse.”

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Bowman Gray Stadium hosted the NASCAR Cup Series for its annual Clash exhibition the last two years, marking the first time stock-car racing‘s premier circuit had raced there since 1971. The Clash will return to its time-honored home next season, with a Feb. 13 date at Daytona International Speedway.

The format and procedures for next year‘s Truck Series race at Bowman Gray will be announced at a later date. The main-event field for both Clash events at the stadium was 23 cars, and the quarter-mile track will not be able to accommodate the maximum field of 36 trucks in the feature. The largest field for the ARCA Menards Series East during its five-year run at the track from 2011-15 was 27 cars.

MORE: Bowman Gray Stadium official site

Bowman Gray stands as the longest-running weekly track under NASCAR sanction, dating back to its first season of stock-car racing operations in 1949. Bowman Gray played host to the first Kyle Busch Invitational for Legends and Bandoleros cars on Friday night, and its four regular divisions will crown their champions in Saturday‘s season finale.

The rest of the 2027 NASCAR schedule, plus broadcast information and start times, will be announced later.

The No. 1 Trackhouse Racing driver exited the Dollar Tree 301 just 41 laps in after a mechanical failure caused smoke to spew out of the right-front wheelhouse of his Chevrolet. Chastain entered Sunday‘s contest 63 markers below the 16-driver cutline.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Chastain had previously qualified for three of the last four Cup Series postseasons when NASCAR had the win-and-in playoff format. Chastain was runner-up to the championship in 2022.

Both Chastain and teammate Connor Zilisch will miss The Chase, but fellow Trackhouse driver Shane van Gisbergen remains in play for a berth in the 16-driver battle for the 2026 title as the No. 97 Chevy driver sits 29 points above the cutline with the regular-season finale on deck Saturday at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

All drivers below Chastain in points are also out of contention to make The Chase, and the final three spots in the postseason will be up for grabs between five drivers: Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, van Gisbergen, Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski.

Blaney‘s No. 12 Team Penske Ford overcame a slow mid-race pit stop that frustrated the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion but ultimately helped motivate the team in the closing laps to a 0.586-second victory over 23XI Racing‘s Bubba Wallace in Sunday‘s Dollar Tree 301 at the New England one-miler. He led a race-best 115 of the 301 laps.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: NHMS

It‘s Blaney‘s third win of the season — 20th of his career — and comes two weeks before the sport starts its 10-race Chase to decide the 2026 champion.

“It was a good call after our issue on pit road,” Blaney said of his team‘s decision to change only two tires on the final pit stop instead of four. “We did two at the end to try to hopefully get the lead and we did. It was a long run to the end, the longest run we had. Just tried to manage my stuff. I knew those four-tire guys would probably pressure me eventually and Bubba came on pretty hard. Was just trying to manage lapped traffic, while also trying to manage the tires and just try not to make a mistake.

“What a cool race, fun day, started in the rain and ended up being a beautiful day.”

Wallace, who looks to be a lock on The Chase ranked 14th in the standings, was racing for his first win of the season. And he sure made his best friend Blaney work for it in the closing laps — ultimately locking his brakes while closing in on Blaney with five laps remaining.

“Picked up a big vibration on the left-front and that was it,” Wallace said of the outcome.

“We fought and had a nice day,” he added, “I knew I had to fight all day and this 23XI team pushes me to be my best.”

As with the tight racing in the closing laps, it was an especially busy day on track with varying tire strategies and plenty of restarts necessitated with the high number of caution flags flying on the afternoon.

Blaney‘s winning effort extended his hold on second place in the championship standings. He‘s now 77 points behind the leader, Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Denny Hamlin, who finished seventh, overcoming a pit-stop miscue himself. With his work Sunday, Hamlin officially claimed top seed in the Chase.

SHOP: Race winner gear

He‘s one of seven drivers who had already earned Chase positions. Six more drivers formally qualified Sunday including reigning series champion, Hendrick Motorsports‘ Kyle Larson, who finished fifth, Team Penske‘s Joey Logano, who rallied to a 14th-place finish after being collected in an early race accident and RFK Racing‘s Chris Buescher, who finished 18th.

Spire Motorsports‘ Carson Hocevar, who brought out a pair of caution flags, also solidified his first-ever Chase appearance, finishing 19th. Hendrick‘s William Byron, who finished 30th, and Spire‘s Daniel Suárez, who finished 17th, also formally claimed their Chase positions.

The final three positions are yet to be finalized, although Wallace holds a 75-point edge atop the cutoff line in 14th.

On that other end of the postseason eligibility, RFK Racing‘s Ryan Preece delivered big-time, with his ninth place in the race cutting his deficit to making that prized 16-driver field by nearly half. He now trails Sunday‘s 20th-place finisher, Trackhouse Racing‘s Shane Van Gisbergen, by 31 points heading to Daytona International Speedway for next Saturday‘s regular-season finale.

And Blaney‘s Penske teammate Austin Cindric finished 12th Sunday and is now only 13 points up on SVG in the 15th position.

It was a productive day for several drivers hoping to improve their positions in the standings in the closing weeks of the regular season. And for Wood Brothers Racing‘s Josh Berry, it was a productive day showing off his talent for future employment.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Berry finished third in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford — his third consecutive top-five showing at New Hampshire and the fourth straight top-10 result this season, a string of success the legendary Wood Brothers team has not seen since 1994 with driver Morgan Shepherd. Berry‘s work is indicative of his effort since the team announced that the talented Tennessee driver will not be back next season.

“That was a lot of fun,” Berry said, adding, “Just gave up too much track position early. Fought hard to get back through there. That was everything I had, everything I could do today. It was pretty good and a that was a lot of fun.

“Just a great job by these guys. This car was really solid. Just managed the rain and the drying track and all the different conditions we had so to stay up front like we did was a good day.”

Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Christopher Bell finished fourth — his third top-five finish in the last four races. Larson finished fifth followed by JGR drivers Ty Gibbs and Hamlin in sixth and seventh, respectively. The race polesitter, 23XI Racing‘s Tyler Reddick, recovered from an opening-lap spin in wet conditions to finish eighth. Preece was ninth and Front Row Motorsports‘ Noah Gragson was 10th — his second top 10 of the season and first since April.

It all sets up the NASCAR Cup Series‘ regular-season finale, the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Saturday night under the lights at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Blaney is the defending race winner.

Note: Post-inspection in the Cup Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Blaney as the race winner.

Stage 2: Blaney takes stage after Hocevar and Zilisch set off a multicar incident

Ryan Blaney marched to the Stage 2 win, flexing strength as Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series race inched past the halfway mark.

Blaney led 38 of the first 185 laps in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, clinching his series-best seventh stage victory of the 2026 campaign.

MORE: Stage 2 results | Watch Blaney clinch Stage 2 win

Josh Berry was second in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford at the green-checkered flag. Bubba Wallace placed third, Ryan Preece was fourth and Stage 1 winner Kyle Larson rounded out the top five at the end of the second stage.

The race had started with the 36-car field on wet-weather Goodyear tires after showers soaked the 1.058-mile oval in the morning and early afternoon. The track dried out through the first stage, with racing slicks replacing the treaded tires at Lap 40, and normal green-flag conditions prevailed through Stage 2.

The most significant yellow flag slowed the pace early in the stage, when Carson Hocevar‘s collision with Connor Zilisch sent Hocevar‘s No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet spinning on the frontstretch on Lap 84. Joey Logano and Austin Dillon also spun in the wake of the incident, but all four cars continued.

Later in the stage, Hocevar raced Zilisch hard, banging fenders with the rookie‘s No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevy before rooting him out of the groove in Turn 1. Zilisch finished Stage 2 in 21st place, with Hocevar 31st.

Two contenders found trouble in the round of pit stops just after the conclusion of Stage 1. Christopher Bell left pit road early after service, before front-tire changer Blake Houston was able to clear the nose of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota. Houston tumbled to the track, and Bell stopped after running over the air hose. He made an additional stop to tighten the right-side tires.

William Byron was penalized in the same pit cycle after he exited pit road with a chassis-adjustment wrench still attached to his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Stage 1: Larson leaps as Cup Series field manages soggy New Hampshire

Kyle Larson sealed a Stage 1 victory, weathering challenging conditions as Sunday‘s NASCAR Cup Series race got underway in damp conditions at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Larson led 14 of the 70 laps in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, notching his fifth stage win of the 2026 season.

MORE: Stage 1 results | Watch Larson clinch Stage 1 win

Christopher Bell finished second at the Stage 1 break in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Carson Hocevar was third, with William Byron fourth and Josh Berry completing the top five.

The field rolled off pit lane for a scheduled start at approximately 2:15 p.m. ET, with each of the 36 cars equipped with Goodyear wet-weather tires. Rain, however, intensified during those pace laps, and Hocevar‘s No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet spun out of Turn 4, prompting competition officials to halt the field on pit road to resume track-drying efforts.

Polesitter Tyler Reddick led the field to green, but his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota spun from Turn 4 on the first lap, sparking the first yellow flag and blocking the path of series points leader Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher. John Hunter Nemechek also continued after a solo spin and wall scrape on Lap 22 with his No. 40 Legacy Motor Club Toyota.

Ross Chastain was the race‘s first retiree, taking his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to the garage with drivetrain issues. Chastain will finish last after completing just 41 laps, squashing his faint postseason hopes.

Race officials announced Friday that the start time would be moved one hour earlier, facing the potential threat of inclement weather in the forecast. Persistent rain in the late morning and early afternoon pushed the actual green flag back closer to its originally scheduled time.

The 16-driver Chase postseason field will be locked in after Saturday‘s Coke Zero Sugar 400, the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Contributing: Staff reports

But a brake lock-up with five laps to go neutered Wallace‘s chances of completing the pass on his longtime friend, handing him a bittersweet second-place finish in the Dollar Tree 301.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: NHMS

“The guy I studied the most coming into this week was the 12 car,” Wallace said. “Still came up a little bit short. We do a really good job behind the scenes of giving us all the tools and all the data that we need to put our cars in Victory Lane, and the flat tracks, we‘ve got to work really hard to get there.”

Wallace matched his best result this season — a second-place day in the inaugural San Diego event at Naval Base Coronado in June. The disappointment in not breaking through for his first win was palpable, but there was also a sense of achievement for the speed Wallace‘s 23XI Racing team incorporated into his No. 23 Toyota — even if the pathway to speed travels through a suboptimal feel behind the wheel.

“Really bad handling race car — it‘s fast, though, so that‘s the frustrating part is you‘ve got to throw everything away that you know what feels good and just deal with it,” Wallace said. “So that‘s what we‘re able to do. Appreciate Cincoro, Toyota. It was a good day here in Loudon. Just hate to come home second.”

The defining moment came with five laps to go, following a long run in which Wallace used his four fresh Goodyear tires to track down Blaney, whose team had changed just right-side rubber on his last stop.

RELATED: Watch NASCAR video highlights

As the duo of Blaney and Wallace picked through lapped traffic, Wallace dove to the left of Cole Custer‘s No. 41 Chevrolet on entry to Turn 3. In that moment, Wallace locked up his left-front tire and picked up a significant vibration that thwarted his chances of winning. Still, all Wallace could think about was how strong Blaney‘s Penske Ford was.

“Yeah, lapped traffic was tough,” Wallace said. “Just tried too hard there around the 41 and locked up and picked up a big vibration. Didn‘t want to end our day, so just kind of limped it around and made the most of it. But we‘ve really got to work hard to figure out where the Penske cars are so good.”

No matter how quick Blaney‘s car was, Blaney himself still felt the pressure from Wallace in the late stages around the 1.058-mile oval.

“I was aware of it, for sure,” Blaney said of the dwindling margin to Wallace. “Timmy [Fedewa, spotter] was giving me gaps, and I tried to fill the gap early in the run, knowing we were going to go a long way on tires — and I had two, so just trying to manage them after I got out to you know a second or two lead. And then when I saw Bubba got to second on four, I knew he was quick, and so I just tried to manage that for a little bit, and he started kind of creeping in like a tenth (of a second) here, and I tried to pick it up a little bit, so that‘s eating a little bit more tire away, trying to just maintain like that second-and-a-half gap. …

“I was just trying to maintain and not make a mistake. And if Bubba got there, he got there, and we‘ll race it out. But I just didn‘t want to make a mistake, slipping into the corner or something or overdriving it. But yeah, it was a heck of a battle.”

MORE: Cup Series standings

The relationship between Wallace and Blaney spans decades, but only once before had they finished 1-2 together in a NASCAR Cup Series race (Daytona-2, 2021). Their bond extends to the race track in terms of respect, but don‘t mistake that for any easier contests.

“Bubba and I have been racing with each other since we were 10 years old,” Blaney said. “I mean, we‘ve been racing together forever and been fortunate to grow up together, remain really good friends over the years and have families together and things like that. There‘s only a handful of guys that are at that respect level for me out on the race track, whether I grew up with them or just have that. And Bubba is one of those guys I have a ton of respect for what he can do behind the wheel and just the person that he is and the friend that he is.

“So it‘s fun racing with your buddies. But at the end of the day, we are incredibly fierce competitors. We are going to race the hell out of each other — but you know that you can trust that person. Like we‘re going to race really hard, but we‘re going to race clean. So it‘s always fun to race with your friends, especially for the lead and things like that.”

Wallace was close to surpassing his friend for the race win Sunday, but after his second runner-up result of 2026 and The Chase looming, his goal is closing the gap to Team Penske.

“It looks like we were close, but we want to show up and be as dominant as they are,” Wallace said. “We‘re nowhere near that, so we‘ve got a lot of work to do. But it was a great day. Great day, and they poured a lot of heart and effort into making this package better and what I needed to go fast. It ain‘t what I needed, but it went fast, so I‘ll deal with it.”

The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver took the points lead from 23XI Racing‘s Tyler Reddick after Sonoma Raceway in June and hasn‘t looked back — topping the series table for the next seven weeks through the summer to secure his position entering The Chase.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

For earning the No. 1 seed, Hamlin will enter The Chase with a 25-point buffer to second place when the green flag waves for the opening postseason event at Darlington Raceway on Sept. 6 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

After a seventh-place result at New Hampshire, Hamlin improved his 2026 average finish to 8.1, which is on pace to be a career-best in his 21st full-time season. Hamlin has completed every lap of every race except for just two circuits in the season-opening Daytona 500.

MORE: Cup Series standings | Watch NASCAR video highlights

“I feel good about where our team‘s at,” Hamlin said after Loudon. “Everyone‘s kind of clicking well and don‘t have a whole lot of weaknesses. We‘re not as strong as the Penske cars on these types of race tracks. But you know, Martinsville, we are good. Phoenix, we‘ve been good. It‘s just over the last few, this just has not been a strong three or four weeks. And when I say not strong, it‘s you know top fives and top sevens. It‘s something we can work with and the mile-and-a-halfs is certainly something that has been our strength for a couple years now. So looking forward to getting The Chase started and see where it goes.”

Loudon offers one last clean shot at control before Daytona chaos

LOUDON, N.H. — For the slew of drivers still sweating their way toward The Chase‘s impending and imminent return, New Hampshire Motor Speedway represents something increasingly scarce on the calendar.

Control.

A mere two NASCAR Cup Series races remain before the 16-driver Chase field is finalized, and each could hardly offer a different way of getting there. Daytona International Speedway lies in wait next weekend with the regular-season cutoff looming and all the drafting volatility, multicar pileups and split-second, coin-flip (and often costly) decisions that tend to come with it.

But first comes Loudon.

Sunday‘s Dollar Tree 301 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) offers 301 laps around the “Magic Mile,” and for anyone still hovering around the elimination line, perhaps one final chance to dictate their own terms before Daytona starts making some of those decisions for them.

That should up the urgency considerably.

MORE: Weekend schedule | At-track photos

Shane van Gisbergen currently occupies the 16th and final Chase position, 50 points above Ryan Preece. Behind Preece sit Ross Chastain (minus-63), Brad Keselowski (minus-78), Erik Jones (minus-81) and Michael McDowell (minus-104), leaving a group of drivers with little room for a quiet afternoon on Sunday.

The math isn‘t technically in full-on desperation mode for everyone listed there, but the calendar sure is.

“I felt like we took a step in the right direction after Iowa for Richmond, and then I feel like we‘re going to take another step when we come here today,” Preece said Saturday morning at New Hampshire before qualifying 18th. “So there‘s a lot of things I‘m looking forward to, and you know, today I was just in the trailer, and Derek (Finley, crew chief) said, ‘Like, we need a home run right now.‘ So that‘s the plan.”

Batter up.

The flat 1.058-mile oval is hardly predictable, but its recent races have generally rewarded drivers who establish themselves early and stay there. Five of the last six New Hampshire winners started inside the top five, and the Stage 1 winner has gone on to win each of the last three races. Only one of the last 14 events has required overtime, so late-race chaos doesn‘t tend to snatch trophies (or even just a clean top-five, which would still go a long way right now) away from a worthy winner.

In other words, there is typically more opportunity here to build an afternoon than simply survive one.

Come Daytona, however, all bets are off, so take your swing now, drivers.

That distinction should matter to drivers such as Preece, Chastain, Keselowski and Jones, each of whom left Richmond farther from the elimination line than when the weekend began, despite entering it with a degree of optimism. No driver below the Chase cut gained ground on the cutoff there, while the gap between van Gisbergen and Preece only grew.

We‘re well past the point where merely limiting the damage is enough, though, and Sunday‘s race also carries another wrinkle this weekend that could matter well beyond Sunday evening. When the Cup Series returns to Loudon in 2027, Loudon returns to The Chase.

That gives teams an unusual opportunity this weekend: race for everything immediately in front of them now … while also collecting notebook data that could become substantially more valuable a year from now.

Before we look ahead to next year, however, for a handful of teams, there is already plenty worth remembering from last year. Team Penske, for one, essentially owned the place. Joey Logano started from the pole and led 147 laps, while Ryan Blaney led another 116, won Stage 1 and ultimately took the checkered flag, with Logano finishing fourth.

That performance looks considerably more relevant now than it might have a month ago, as everything appears to be clicking into place for Penske at the exact right moment.

Blaney has displayed elite pace all year — third in season-long speed, according to NASCAR Insights — but Penske has now won three of the last four Cup races all of a sudden after visiting Victory Lane just once through the season‘s first 19 events, and its three drivers combined to lead 807 laps over the last five races after totaling 480 in the first 19. Logano arrives at his home track fresh off a Richmond victory, his second win in four races, while Blaney sits second in points and returns as the defending New Hampshire winner.

Even Austin Cindric, whose Loudon history is considerably quieter, enters with some momentum after a season-best third-place finish at Richmond moved him to 15th in The Chase standings, 57 points above the elimination line. The Nos. 2 and 22 each turned in top-five times in practice, with Blaney‘s No. 12 topping the board in 30-lap averages.

The timing could hardly be better for Penske to arrive at one of its best recent tracks.

“I think Team Penske‘s done a good job all year of just kind of staying in the game, and on my group side I feel like we‘ve gotten better at some places where we‘ve really needed to improve and close the gap a little bit to the Toyotas that were really strong,” Blaney said Saturday morning at NHMS. “So yeah, I think we‘re in a good spot at Team Penske and kind of hitting some really good momentum right before we get going in The Chase, so hopefully we can continue that.”

MORE: Goodyear tire notes: Loudon

But Joe Gibbs Racing has plenty of reasons to like the place, too.

Christopher Bell has won two of the last four New Hampshire races and has finished sixth or better in four of his six Cup starts here. Yet he lands in Loudon looking for lobster with one of the stranger stat lines of the season: 10 top fives, seven runner-up finishes and still no victory in 2026.

The “Magic Mile” would be a fitting place to finally change his bridesmaid status.

“We know that this is a huge opportunity for us, and then Daytona, you know, is going to be a completely unknown,” Bell said Saturday morning at New Hampshire. “So yeah, I think this one is kind of in our hands, to where we can control our own destiny, and then Daytona, we‘re just going to go out there and basically go to Vegas and gamble and see what happens.”

Then there‘s teammate Denny Hamlin, who enters as both the series points leader and perhaps the most consistently dangerous driver on traditional ovals anywhere in the garage. (More on that in the chart below because it‘s wild.) His three New Hampshire victories are the most among active drivers, and his 9.94 average finish here ranks second all time among drivers with multiple starts.

For much of the field, Sunday is about firming up Chase positioning. For Hamlin, it is increasingly about sustaining a season that has given everyone else very little breathing room after Reddick‘s proverbial foot slipped off the gas in the second half of the regular season.

The list of legitimate New Hampshire threats runs even deeper.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

Josh Berry, while eliminated from Chase contention, has finished in the top three in both of his Cup starts here, including runner-up to his alliance compatriot in Blaney last season, giving him an absurd 2.5 average finish at the track. He also enters with three consecutive top 10s, the best three-race stretch of his Cup career. For a driver also looking to showcase himself for 2027 and beyond, this could be dangerous, and he could play spoiler.

Kyle Larson has never won at Loudon, but owns three runner-up finishes, six top fives and nine top 10s in 15 starts. Chase Briscoe has finished in the top 10 in each of the last three New Hampshire races and comes in with six top-six finishes across the last seven events overall as he remains on the search for win No. 1 of 2026.

And Hendrick Motorsports arrives having finally put all four cars in the top 10 at Richmond, its first such performance since April 2025, providing one more subplot for a team still trying to determine whether its late-summer pulse is becoming something more substantial.

There is plenty at stake everywhere you look.

For The Chase bubble, New Hampshire is the last clean opportunity to move the line before Daytona scrambles the board. For Penske, it is a chance to carry a suddenly torrid stretch back to the site of last year‘s domination. For Hamlin, Bell and a deep group of proven Loudon performers, it is another opportunity at a track that has historically rewarded championship-caliber drivers — 13 of the last 17 New Hampshire winners eventually or previously won a Cup title.

And for every organization thinking beyond Sunday, this weekend doubles as an early look at the track that will play a crucial role in NASCAR‘s postseason a little over a year from now.

The Chase is not locked in after Loudon. But with Daytona waiting on the other side, Sunday might be the last true chance for a driver to control his own championship destiny.

Better not whiff.

In the details …

Denny Hamlin has been nearly impossible to knock out of contention on NASCAR‘s non-drafting ovals this season. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver has finished inside the top five in an astounding 11 consecutive races on the track type — a run that includes three straight wins at Nashville Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway and Pocono Raceway — and now heads to New Hampshire as the points leader at a place where his three victories are the most among active drivers.

With the help of Racing Insights, take a look at Hamlin‘s 11-race top-five streak on non-drafting ovals, the longest such run since Kevin Harvick posted 12 straight in 2020:

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Loudon hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: See what crew chiefs have in mind in the Granite State | Read more
• Analysis: Why Loudon is the perfect pre-Chase heat check for Hendrick | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks ready to tackle the “Magic Mile” | View gallery
• Neil Paine: Did Joey Logano just go from Chase bubble to title contender (again)? | Read more
• NASCAR Classics: Dig into the video vault for full-race replays from New Hampshire | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Preece turns to Loudon home turf with Chase hopes on the line | This week‘s ranks

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular season came to a close in Saturday‘s Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, locking in the 10-driver field that will race for the championship beginning at Bristol Motor Speedway next month.

For Grant Enfinger, Daniel Hemric, Ben Rhodes and Tyler Ankrum, the “Magic Mile” provided the final points necessary to move on. For Stewart Friesen, Jake Garcia and the rest of the field that‘ll now have to wait until 2027 for another shot at title glory, it marked a bitter end to the championship road.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

And waiting for all of them at the top of the bracket is the driver who spent most of the regular season setting the pace, and a torrid one at that.

Layne Riggs officially secured the No. 1 seed for the 2026 Chase on Saturday, entering with a 61-point advantage over Kaden Honeycutt and needing just 15 points to guarantee the top position. Riggs earned that nod in short order, clinching after Stage 2 and rounding out the day with a victory for good measure to complete a regular season that established the Front Row Motorsports driver as the benchmark of the Truck Series field.

“I wouldn‘t say there‘s pressure to perform. I like it,” Riggs said in his winner‘s press conference. “We obviously have a points lead still. It‘s crazy. We won the race today, and we lost a lot of points after the reset. So, good day for us, but not good for the reset. We‘re still 25 up right now, so that‘s good going in there. I feel like all year long we‘ve been a really strong truck. Obviously, the statistics are there for us and the team. I like the feeling of being the best. It makes everybody else know that you‘re the guy to beat. Really look at you hard, try to study you, and it‘s a great feeling. It‘s the position every race car driver wants to be in.”

The designation is more than ceremonial.

Riggs, as he alluded to, enters the seven-race Chase with a 25-point advantage over second-place Honeycutt and a 70-point buffer between him and Ankrum, the reward for a regular season in which the No. 34 Ford asserted itself as the division‘s most reliable weekly threat. Five victories through the opening 17 races were already the most in the series entering Loudon. A sixth added oomph for emphasis.

Riggs also carried the points lead for much of the summer, with Honeycutt emerging as the most persistent, yet still distant, challenger.

The gap, however, had once been considerably larger.

Honeycutt arrived at Richmond last weekend 100 points behind Riggs before authoring a perfect 76-point afternoon, winning the race after leading 225 of 250 laps. A pair of slow pit stops contributed to a 15th-place finish for Riggs, allowing Honeycutt to trim 39 points from the deficit and keep the No. 1 seed mathematically alive entering the finale.

New Hampshire finally slammed that door.

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

The more volatile drama of the day played out farther down the standings. Only six drivers entered Saturday already assured of a Chase berth, leaving four postseason positions unresolved and 10 drivers mathematically alive.

Enfinger arrived in the strongest shape among those yet to clinch, 65 points above the elimination line, followed by two-time series champion Ben Rhodes at plus-53 and Hemric at plus-35. Ankrum held the 10th and final provisional spot by 20 points over Stewart Friesen, while one point behind Friesen sat Garcia.

From there, the climb became considerably steeper, with Butterbean Queen 47 points beneath the cut, Andrés Pérez 49 back, Tanner Gray minus-59 and Justin Haley 70 points out.

Then the green flag fell, and all those numbers became temporary. Enfinger clinched after Stage 1, while Haley was eliminated; Gray was cut after Stage 2.

It went all the way down to the wire — through a pair of overtimes — with the battle between Ankrum and Friesen not concluding until the checkered flag fell.

Ankrum needed all 175 scheduled laps (plus 14 more) to get the job done. Many of those laps came with malfunctioning brakes.

“I‘m not happy, 100%. I mean, I‘m freaking mad,” Ankrum joked — mostly — on pit road after the race. “You know, there‘s just so many times in my career, I just wish it was a boring day. And honestly, I felt like it was just gonna be a boring day. I think we got to 13th or 14th there at the end of the first stage, but Friesen was within sight. We had that restart in the second stage, and I just went off into Turn 3, and there was no pedal, which is scary here because I don‘t want to be the guy to go into the Turn 3 wall and not be able to slow the truck down, but luckily my spotter Eddie D‘Hondt gave amazing advice. We worked through the issue. We turned off the left rear brake and we just ran all the rounds to the rear, ran on all the rounds to the front, and that solved half of my problem. Still didn‘t have any rear brakes, but yes, I‘m like, I‘m not happy. I‘m happy we made it, but I‘m not happy with them. Like, I just wish we would fricking just have a normal day.”

That left Friesen on the wrong side by seven, with Garcia joining him outside the championship field, another four points down from there.

“Yeah, it was what it was,” Friesen said on pit road after the race. “We just didn‘t bring enough speed all year, you know? We battled today. … It‘s a bummer. We‘re definitely a top-10 team. We just had some misfortune. It is what it is. We go back to work and keep building this team up and getting better and better. I promise you that.”

The result carried particular weight after the bubble underwent a dramatic reshuffling just seven days earlier.

Friesen had occupied the final Chase position entering Richmond before a tire issue sent his No. 52 truck hard into the Turn 1 wall and dropped him to last place. Ankrum capitalized with an 11th-place finish, gaining 28 points on Friesen and taking a 20-point advantage into New Hampshire. Garcia complicated the picture further by finishing sixth, drawing to within 21 points of Ankrum and just one behind Friesen entering the finale.

At Loudon, that late-season swing ultimately proved decisive.

With the field finally settled, the emphasis shifts immediately from qualifying for the Chase to surviving it. Bristol opens the seven-race championship run, beginning a postseason in which the regular season has already supplied a clear favorite.

The No. 34 team did more than just accumulate enough points to land atop the grid. Its six wins, sustained points lead and ability to remain the standard even as Honeycutt mounted a late charge — including on Saturday, as he impressively rebounded from a flat tire to finish third — established the type of season that makes anything short of a deep Chase run feel incomplete.

Honeycutt, however, hardly enters quietly.

His Richmond domination provided a forceful reminder that the championship gap is significantly smaller than the regular-season standings once suggested, now even thinner after the points reset, while the previously clinched Chandler Smith, Christian Eckes, Gio Ruggiero and Ty Majeski arrive with varying degrees of race-winning and postseason experience.

Now they know who will join them.

Ten drivers. Seven races. Saturday at New Hampshire was about earning an invitation to that fight.

Beginning at Bristol, simply being on the list will no longer be enough.

As NASCAR readies for a return to The Chase early next month at Darlington Raceway, the NBA Hall of Famer‘s 23XI Racing finds itself on a bit of uneven ground in the Granite State ahead of Sunday‘s Dollar Tree 301 (2 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

So the G.O.A.T. decided to drop by Airspeed recently to check in with the team and also offer some (perhaps somewhat direct) words of encouragement.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Full Sunday Cup lineup | Weekend photos

“I think it‘s a little bit of both (just dropping by the shop, but also picking up the team),” team co-owner Denny Hamlin said Saturday morning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “I think that he always makes surprise pop-ins to the team and we know ahead of time, but I think this was a good time. Just, you know, they were in a little bit of a rut and kind of lost some momentum.”

… But was the message more of a pat on the back or a kick in the rear?

“I think it was a little bit of both, truthfully,” Hamlin said. “And, again, he‘s always a big self-reflection guy. You know, what can you do better? Stop worrying about everybody else.”

The pep talks appear to be paying dividends for one team already well-clinched into The Chase field, while the other one in postseason contention is still grasping at straws with the minimal but all-too-real risk of potentially missing it.

Bubba Wallace looked fast in practice, turning in the third-fastest overall speed among a three-team Toyota contingent atop the leaderboard, sporting long-run speed as well, before chunking it in qualifying to set up a P23 spot on the grid for Sunday‘s starting spot.

Compounding the frustration?

His teammate will start from the pole — after landing 31st on the charts in practice.

MORE: Reddick rebounds from rocky practice to clinch Loudon Cup pole

“Just gets old starting from behind. (We‘re) way better than 14th (in the standings), that‘s for sure. It‘s just unfortunate we‘re having to think about (points),” said Wallace, who was top three in points from EchoPark to Darlington earlier this season, before cooling off through the late spring and summer. “Start losing focus on what you need to do, and things happen. So yeah, we just have to have a good day tomorrow. We should be fine.”

Even before Sunday, Wallace has started outside the top 20 in six of the past nine races. Only three of those races, understandably, resulted in top 10s, but there‘s perhaps some reason for optimism, as he was able to claw through the field a bit at a somewhat comparable Iowa a few weeks ago, going from 26th to finish 12th, leading 35 laps in the process.

Loudon is also notoriously hard to pass at, but will he be able to replicate that forward momentum?

MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights

“Potentially. I don‘t know, man. We revamped our weekend plans since Iowa to do mock Q and practice, and felt like we learned a little bit, but it still didn‘t translate to much speed. So we just … this place (has) got our number right now, and I‘m looking forward to the test tomorrow. Not throwing in the gloves, just frustrating. … I may sound worse than what we are, but it just feels like we haven‘t made any progress, which is unfortunate because (Loudon) was the one that we worked so hard on. We threw all of our resources and efforts into this one, and the weekend‘s just getting started, so before y‘all create headlines where Bubba‘s giving up and all this (expletive), that‘s not the case. I can unmute and be frustrated at how we‘re qualifying. So yeah, it‘s just one of these things that we haven‘t figured out yet.”

And that was part of the message from MJ.

They know they can do it. All the pieces are there. It just needs to click.

“We‘re all capable of putting together solid weekends, going out and winning, and it just starts with self-belief and trusting each other and surrounding the people that you have and loving on each other and pushing each other to be better. So it was good. No finger pointing. He was just excited to be back at his race shop and see all these people, and it was good. It was fun.”

And as frustrated as Wallace was with his qualifying effort, Reddick was equally mystified that he‘d even been able to win the pole, given how off the No. 45 car was in practice. The funny thing, though?

He couldn‘t wait to debrief with his teammates and figure out what they were doing better than him.

“Yeah, that‘s what having teammates is all about: working together, helping each other out,” said Reddick after securing his fifth pole of the season. “It‘s probably gonna sound crazy, but the guy starting first is gonna be really leaning on these teammates to figure out what to do. We got plenty of things to discuss and figure out. You know, yeah, it‘s a confidence boost, right? It‘s like, OK, well, we know we can at least get it right.”