At first, the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season looked destined to be the Tyler Reddick show — after all, Reddick won three straight races to begin the schedule and later tied or challenged records for the most wins in the first six and nine races of a season. Then, as Reddick faltered in June, Denny Hamlin stepped into the breach and threatened to take the regular-season title from his star employee with a hot streak of his own.
Between Reddick and Hamlin, one of those two has led the 2026 point standings each week of the season (Reddick in Rounds 1-17; Hamlin ever since) and they still have the best odds to win either the regular-season or Chase trophies when all is said and done.
But recently, another name has forced himself into what seemed like a closed conversation: Ryan Blaney.
After winning the rain-delayed Quaker State 400 in the wee hours of Monday morning, Blaney has finished no worse than 11th in any of his past 10 starts — while no other driver can say their worst finish is any better than 23rd (Erik Jones) over that same span. Blaney is on such a heater recently that his worst finish is better than every other regular driver’s average finish, with the exception of Hamlin (whose average is 7.9).
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The early narrative of Blaney’s season was that of speed — and an early win at Team Penske’s favorite playground, Phoenix — but also mistakes and missed opportunities for the No. 12 car. He picked up infractions in five of the first 10 races of the season, and had one of the lowest-rated pit crews according to NASCAR Insights’ metrics. Through 10 races, he only ranked No. 7 in average finish despite sitting No. 3 in average Driver Rating. Clearly, Blaney and his Penske team had better finishes that they could wring out of the days they were having.
And over the past two-and-a-half months, that’s exactly what they’ve done. The race craft has been decidedly improved: Despite starting near the back and running 19th on average at Texas, Blaney worked his way toward the front late and grabbed a top 10, and he also squeezed top-11 finishes out of less-than-fully-dominant days at Watkins Glen, Michigan, Pocono and Chicagoland.
But when the 12-car’s peak performance level has been there, Blaney has also taken advantage. He’s posted a Driver Rating of 99.5 or higher five times in the past 10 races — only Reddick, Hamlin and Kyle Larson have more over that span, at six apiece — finishing ninth or better each time. (Contrast that with Larson, who has managed to turn a 112.0 rating into a 23rd-place finish at Nashville and a 97.5 rating into 34th-place run Monday morning.) We’ve always known that when Blaney’s speed and execution align, watch out.
The most impressive run of all for Blaney? It might have come just this past week, south of Atlanta.
While EchoPark Speedway is shorter than your traditional superspeedways, it has behaved like them in terms of drafting and pack-racing since its reconfiguration in 2021-22 — and that means the expectations for mayhem and chaos run high. Forget dominance; survival is the keyword here. So for Blaney to come out and lead 171 of 263 possible laps (65.0%) en route to victory at this type of track is a special accomplishment indeed.
In NASCAR’s modern era (since 1972), that was the 19th-highest share of laps led by a race-winner at a superspeedway — and the most in just over a decade, since Brad Keselowski led 71.4% of laps at Daytona on July 2, 2016:
Along with all of those laps led, Blaney also finished with a 134.5 Driver Rating at EchoPark, his best showing of the 2026 season thus far and the sixth-highest of his career overall. (Four of his top fives came at intermediate ovals, with his career-high of 146.0 coming at Iowa, a short track, in 2024.) Including Monday morning’s win, Blaney’s average Driver Rating over his past five starts is 107.1, including five straight over 90.0 and three in triple-digits.
In recent terms at least, then, Blaney’s form has surpassed that of both Hamlin and Reddick, as he pulls within 65 points of both in the standings. What once looked like a two-man show now has a third headliner.
Even better news for Blaney? We’re coming up on another short track, North Wilkesboro, where he finished top-six in the 2023 and 2024 All-Star races, and where only Hamlin projects to be better based on similar tracks. Then it’s on to the Brickyard, Iowa, Richmond and Loudon, all places where Blaney ranks among the Cup Series’ best drivers in the Next Gen era.
It’s still going to be tough to unseat Hamlin and/or Reddick for the regular-season crown — my simulation model only gives Blaney a 10% shot at it, though that’s higher than anybody outside the Reddick/Hamlin duo has had in a while. More importantly, though, Blaney is very unlikely to rank any worse than third in the Chase standings, placing him within striking distance of what will probably be Hamlin and Reddick at Nos. 1-2 to begin the championship hunt.
And based on how he’s been converting speed into results lately, that may be all the opening Blaney needs to add another Cup championship to his trophy shelf — stealing the ending from a season that had seemed destined to belong to Hamlin and Reddick.