The NASCAR Cup Series Chase is just six weeks away, for several drivers, it is crunch time to make up as many points as possible.
As it does every season, it feels like the regular-season has been a blur. Wasn’t the Daytona 500 yesterday, certainly feels like it. Speaking of the Daytona 500, Tyler Reddick earned his first 500 championship, then started off the 2026 season on a heater.
Winning the first three races, Daytona 500, EchoPark Spring, Circuit of the Americas, Reddick shocked many jumping out of the off-season with that much speed. 13 weeks later, Reddick’s 100+ point lead on second-place has evaporated as he now sits in second. His boss, Denny Hamlin, took the top spot from him.
Hamlin’s summer only boosted him to first-place in the Cup Series standings, he has accumulated four wins on the season, 10 top-five finishes, and 12 top-ten finishes. To say the least, Hamlin is currently the favorite to win the 2026 Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway later this year.
For several drivers, the next six weeks of Cup Series racing will become more stressful, as their playoff hopes may not be known until the final lap of the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway.
Austin Cindric, Shane van Gisbergen, Erik Jones, Joey Logano, Ryan Preece, and Brad Keselowski make up the 14th-19th spots in the standings, only 16 drivers make the chase.
van Gisbergen is an interesting conversation, with no more road-courses on the schedule this year, he will have to adapt quickly to a consistent, points-accumulating mode over the next six races, which consist of intermediate and short-tracks. He currently sits in 15th, two spots above the cutline.
Joey Logano has had a disappointing season to say the least. With zero victories through the first 20 weeks, only two top-five finishes, the No. 22 team will need to perform better to find their way into the playoffs. Good news is, he is in 17th-place, one spot below the cutline so the task isn’t too drastic for the Penske team.
RFK Racing has two drivers filling up the 18th and 19th spots in the standings, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Preece. Both teams had a hot start in the early weeks of the season, but since then, have dropped to a situation where they are outside looking in on the playoffs. Chris Buescher holds strong in 7th, giving RFK Racing at least one playoff spot.
NASCAR’s next weekend is at North Wilkesboro Speedway which is a story in its own, there hasn’t been a points-paying Cup Series race at that track since 1996. Tune into TNT Sports this Sunday, July 19th, at 7:00pm to catch the action.