The Chase Report presented by Mobil 1: Where we stand after Darlington

The opening race in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 featured a new winner for the 2026 season in Christopher Bell after he suffered through a record-tying seven runner-up finishes before finally getting to pop the champagne cork. Drama between Chase driver Carson Hocevar and non-Chase driver Brad Keselowski could also lead to payback later in the postseason. 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. [table id=822 /] 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. 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.