Texas-sized task ahead for Cup drivers in Fort Worth
The NASCAR Cup Series field has tackled two 1.5-mile ovals in 2026 already -- but none of Sunday's 38 entrants have faced something like Texas Motor Speedway yet this year. Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway are D-shaped ovals, symmetrical at either end of the course, making them the only true intermediate tracks on the schedule thus far. But Texas is anything but symmetrical, with a wide, flat corner through Turns 1 and 2 and a tighter, quicker, higher-banked groove through Turns 3 and 4, all rounded out by a double-dogleg on the front straightaway. "This place is hard because it's so narrow, so if you lose track position, you're kind of jacked," Ty Gibbs said Saturday afternoon. "So it's kind of like a Darlington in a way, but just got to keep working forward, keep making everything the best you can be and winning spots on pit road and just maximizing everything you can do. That's what wins races here, I feel like." MORE: Weekend schedule, TV info | At-track photos Gibbs and his Toyota housemates at Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing have been the class of the field thus far on the intermediate tracks, with Denny Hamlin victorious at Las Vegas and Tyler Reddick a winner at Kansas. But there to challenge were the Chevrolets from Hendrick Motorsports. Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, nearly won at Kansas before settling for second in overtime behind Reddick. He expects the speed they've shown to be back in play Sunday in the Lone Star State. "I think you always see the same teams good on intermediates every time," said Larson, the defending Cup Series champion. "So I think we were good at Vegas, better at Kansas and we'll hopefully be even better here at Texas as we've learned more about our cars. So I'm excited about this weekend." The layout of Texas necessitates more compromise, both from drivers behind the wheel and crew chiefs setting up their vehicles. RFK Racing's Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 Ford, enters with high confidence in his team's ability to fight for a strong finish Sunday, even if they're a tick behind the Toyotas and Chevrolets. "You have a little bit of give and take here compared to some other mile-and-a-halfs," Buescher said. "But all the principles are still there. The fundamentals are the same. It's just how do you balance it out to not give up potential but still be able to (handle) -- with the speed and the bumps of (Turns) 3 and 4 and as slow and as much off-throttle time as you have in 1 and 2. I guess it feels strange to me to be this far in the season and say we only have two real mile-and-a-halfs under our belt, but both of them were solidly top-10, almost top-five races for us. So with that, we know we've had some work to do to get to that next group of cars that have been so strong this year and everybody's been diving off into that. It will certainly apply. It's just got some little unique twists here." RELATED: Buescher hopes to end jinx at his home track Those quirks have played a hand in creating chaos at Texas. There have been 10 cautions or more in seven of the last eight Cup races at Texas, with crashes leading to 10 DNFs in the 2025 edition of the race. "Obviously, there's a lot of cautions and a lot of penalties here," Gibbs said. "So if you can stay out of those and be smart and not get penalized, not get trapped a lap down, you can make it happen, and you can get rewarded on that, which is cool."In the details ...
The finishing orders of the first two intermediate races of the season were strikingly similar. A whopping nine drivers earned top 10s at both Las Vegas and Kansas -- the only exception being Kansas winner Tyler Reddick ... perhaps ironic for the guy who's won five of 10 races this season.
Here are the nine drivers who enter Texas with a perfect top-10 record at 1.5-mile tracks in 2026, hoping to be 3-for-3 after Sunday: