Posted on by John Crane

NASCAR.com’s John Crane ranks the top 20 NASCAR Cup Series drivers after Ryan Blaney’s win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and before Saturday’s 2026 regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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.

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.

Posted on by Staff Report

GAF 150

Stafford Speedway

  • Entry list
Car No. Driver Team Crew Chief Chassis Mfg. Sponsor
1 Patrick Emerling USNE Motorsports Dale Hedquist LFR USNE Power
3 Tyler Rypkema BRE Racing Greg Fournier Boehler Racing Northeast Drilling; SYP
05 Teddy Hodgdon IV Teddy Hodgdon Racing Ted Hodgdon FURY Race Cars Business Time Motorsports; Omaha Beef; The Landau Team of Re/Max
8 John-Michael Shenette Eighty-Two Autosport George Bessette Jr. LFR USNE Power, Eighty-Two Services
15 Joey Cipriano III Fueled Up Motorsports Tyler Hines FURY Race Cars Dependable Energy; The Bass Plating Company; Creative Racing
18 Ken Heagy Heagy Motorsports Greg Gorman FURY Race Cars Merkel Racing Engines
20 Max Zachem Morgan Zachem Racing Ken Zachem Troyer Lu-Macs Package Store; USNE Power; Dunleavy’s
21 Stephen Kopcik Wanick Motorsports Nick Kopcik Troyer Wanick Construction; Newtown Pools
28 Doug Coby Jett Motorsports John Mckenna LFR Nucar
31 Michael Christopher Jr Elite Motorsports Eugene Orlando LFR Elite Towing
36 David Sapienza Sapienza Racing Greg Kleila FURY Race Cars Sapienza Enterprises
44 Chase Dowling Tinio Racing Danny Gamache LFR SS Paving / Harshaw Paving
50 Ronnie Williams Ronnie Williams Adam Skowyra FURY Race Cars Empower Financial Advisory
51 Justin Bonsignore Kenneth Massa Motorsports Ryan Stone FURY Race Cars Phoenix Communications, Inc.
54 Tommy Catalano Catalano Motorsports Rick Kluth Troyer FX Caprara; USNE Power
56 Trevor Catalano Catalano Motorsports David Catalano Troyer USNE Power
58 Eric Goodale Goodie Motorsports Rob Hyer FURY Race Cars GAF Roofing; Riverhead Building Supply
60 Matt Hirschman Pee Dee Motorsports Mike Stein Troyer Bar Harbor Bank & Trust; Pee Dee Motorsports
64 Austin Beers KLM Motorsports Ron Yuhas Troyer G&G Electrical Supply, Lumiere Electrical, Dell Electric, Andrew James Interiors, AP Marquadt & Sons, Hughes Motors.
73 Paulie Hartwig III Hartwig Racing Bobby Geiger Jr FURY Race Cars Professional Therapy LLC; Jersey Shore Contracting
79 Jonathan McKennedy Jonathan McKennedy Racing Patrick Walsh FURY Race Cars Stuarts Automotive, Christophers Towing, Boyle Electric, Hillsboro Ent., Levasseur HVAC, J Young Landscaping
82 Andrew Molleur DWR Racing Michael Molleur LFR Danny’s Cesspool Service, Village Springs Water
89 Matt Swanson Matt Swanson John Swanson FURY Race Cars Ceravolos Auto; Swanson GMC
95 Matt Kimball Apex Racing Cory Plummer Apex Race Cars Tuckers Fabrication & Welding; Croteau Machine; Apex Race Cars; Apex Racing
106 Cory Dimatteo TJS Holdings LLC John Lowinski Troyer Manafort Brothers; Sargis Associates Inc.; TWM Development

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Note: 23XI Racing announced Saturday that Harrison Burton will drive the No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota in place of Riley Herbst, who woke up with “lingering effects” from a crash last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. 

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Sunshine State for Saturday’s regular-season finale: the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The race will be the 26th points-paying event of the 2026 Cup Series season. Ryan Blaney is the defending winner at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

With only one race remaining until The Chase, all eyes will be on the cutline battle as Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen currently holds the 16th and final provisional postseason spot, maintaining a 31-point advantage over RFK Racing driver Ryan Preece.

Five drivers in non-chartered cars are entered for the 400-mile Daytona summer race — Joey Gase (No. 44 NY Racing Team), Casey Mears (No. 62 Beard Motorsports), Gray Gaulding (No. 66 Garage 66), Corey Heim (No. 67 23XI Racing) and Daniel Dye (No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports). One driver will fail to qualify for the event.

41 cars are entered into this weekend’s contest.

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on NBC, USA Network

View the full entry list here:

Posted on by Staff Report

After two weeks off, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action for the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Friday’s Winn-Dixie 250 Powered by Coca-Cola will be the 24th points-paying race of the 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season. Connor Zilisch is the defending winner, who had assistance from Parker Kligerman.

ENTRY LISTS: Cup Series | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

The battle to make the 12-driver Chase will feature three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers. William Sawalich and Brent Crews both sit a single point above the cutline, with their teammate Taylor Gray the first driver out. JR Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth is 15 points away from a Chase berth.

39 cars are entered into this weekend’s event.

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on the CW

View the full entry list here:

Posted on by Adam Fenwick

For the first time since 2021, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is returning to historic Stafford Speedway this Friday night for the running of the GAF 150 (8:45 p.m. ET on FloRacing and the NASCAR Channel).

Located in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, Stafford Speedway has hosted more than 100 Modified Tour events since the series’ inception in 1985. NASCAR Hall of Famer Richie Evans triumphed in the first two Modified Tour events at the track, and another Hall of Famer, Mike Stefanik, leads all drivers with 20 series victories at the legendary facility.

Other notable drivers to earn wins at Stafford through the years include Ted Christopher, Doug Coby, Ryan Preece, Reggie Ruggiero, Tony Hirschman, Bobby Santos III, Jeff Fuller, Rick Fuller, Donny Lia, Jerry Marquis, Todd Szegedy, Eric Goodale, Justin Bonsignore and Patrick Emerling, among others.

Tickets to Friday’s GAF 150 are available here. Below is everything you need to know about the 13th race of the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.

Stafford Speedway
Stafford Speedway is welcoming back the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour for the first time since 2021 this Friday night. (Photo: Adam Richins/NASCAR)

GAF 150 at Stafford Speedway

The event that every NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour team has been looking forward to is finally here.

For the first time since 2021, NASCAR’s oldest division returns to one of New England’s most historic race tracks this Friday for the running of the GAF 150. As if that weren’t big enough, the battle for the Modified Tour championship couldn’t get any tighter.

Following Saturday’s Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, defending series champion Austin Beers holds a one-point advantage on Patrick Emerling with just four races left in the season. Emerling is a winner at Stafford (2021), something he’ll attempt to replicate Friday to regain the championship lead.

Two other Stafford victors, Justin Bonsignore and Doug Coby, will also be in the field Friday night. Bonsignore won the most recent Modified Tour at Stafford that closed out the 2021 season, while Coby is a 12-time Stafford winner with the Modified Tour. Both drivers should be contenders when the green flag waves Friday night.

Jon McKennedy, fresh off his third victory of the season Saturday at New Hampshire, is just 25 points behind Beers in the championship hunt. A win Friday night at Stafford would further bolster his championship odds as the season nears its end.

Mike Christopher Jr., a regular competitor in Stafford’s weekly programs, will be back in the Elite Racing No. 31 after competing in his family-owned No. 13 last weekend at New Hampshire. Matt Swanson will rejoin the fray aboard his family-owned No. 89, and Chase Dowling will again pilot the No. 44 for the Tinio family.

Other notable entries for Friday’s event include Matt Hirschman, Stephen Kopcik, Tommy Catalano, Tyler Rypkema, Eric Goodale, Ronnie Williams, Trevor Catalano, Paulie Hartwig III and Teddy Hodgdon, among others.

The full entry list for Friday’s GAF 150 will be available later this week.

Stafford Speedway
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour first visited Stafford Speedway in 1985. (Photo: Ryan McBride/NASCAR)

RACING REFERENCE:

Race GAF 150
Date Friday, Aug. 28, 2026
Track Stafford Speedway
Layout Half-mile asphalt oval
Location Stafford Springs, Connecticut
Start time 8:45 p.m. ET
Laps 150
Posted Awards $117,881
Tickets Here
How to Watch FloRacing / The NASCAR Channel

SCHEDULE: Friday, Aug. 28: Practice from 3 to 3:40 p.m. ET … Final practice from 3:40 to 4:10 p.m. ET … American Racer Pole Award qualifying at 5:45 p.m. ET … Start of the GAF 150 (150 Laps / 75 Miles) at 8:45 p.m. ET.

QUALIFYING: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the GAF 150 is limited to 30 starters including Provisional Positions.

TIRE ALLOTMENT: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is eleven (11) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by NASCAR Officials, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. The same four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. A maximum of three (3) tires of the allotment may be used as change tires.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

LOUDON, N.H. — Ryan Preece turned in one of his best performances of the year exactly when he needed it.

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.”

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.”

Posted on by George Winkler

It all comes down to this, one regular-season race Saturday night at Daytona to determine the final Chase field. Five drivers are battling for three spots with the rest either locked into The Chase or eliminated from contention. We’ll dive into the details in “The Cutline” section below, but here’s what you need to know: The five drivers (in order of the standings) are Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Shane van Gisbergen, Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski with 31 points separating SVG and Preece at the cutline.

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

RankDriverPointsPoints to leader
1Denny Hamlin1001--
2Ryan Blaney924-77
3Ty Gibbs880-121

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

RankDriverPointsPoints to leader
4Tyler Reddick860-141
5Christopher Bell738-263
6Chase Briscoe727-274
7Kyle Larson708-293
8Chase Elliott707-294

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

RankDriverPointsPoints to cutline
9Joey Logano682+127
10Chris Buescher676+121
11Carson Hocevar672+117
12William Byron644+89
13Daniel Suárez638+83

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.

The Cutline Battle

RankDriverPointsPoints to Cutline
14Bubba Wallace630+75
15Austin Cindric599+44
16Shane van Gisbergen586+31
17Ryan Preece555-31
18Brad Keselowski520-66

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 12th-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.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Austin Hill will drive the No. 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series for the full 2027 season, the team announced Monday.

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.

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.

Posted on by Pat DeCola

LOUDON, N.H. — The NASCAR Chase doesn’t return to New Hampshire Motor Speedway until next season, another 13-odd months away.

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.”

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.

new hampshire motor speedway quiet track
Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Digital Media
Posted on by Staff Report

Denny Hamlin will pace the 16-driver field for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase as he clinched the No. 1 seed after Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

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

“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.”