Last Call: Can Chase Briscoe go on a Tony Stewart title run?

Posted on October 8, 2026October 8, 2026 by Staff Report

Don’t look now, but with the conclusion of the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the halfway mark of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase presented by Mobil 1 has been reached. With plenty of action already in the books — and much more in store over the final five races of the season — key questions are emerging as the postseason field jockeys for the coveted Bill France Cup.

If you want to see what insiders think about these questions, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to “Last Call,” a new weekly article series in which a handful of NASCAR.com writers answer a hot topic from the most recent race weekend.

RELATED: Las Vegas results | Cup Series standings

With Chase Briscoe’s thrilling victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing driver remains in the title hunt, but with plenty of work still to do. Then again, fellow Indiana native Tony Stewart had plenty of work to do, too, during the 2011 Chase, with the eventual NASCAR Hall of Famer winning five of 10 postseason contests to capture the championship crown. Whether Briscoe can replicate that same success en route to title glory is this week’s top question.

Can Chase Briscoe go on a Tony Stewart title run?

Pat DeCola: Can he? Sure — but “Tony Stewart run” is probably the right level of bar he’ll need to clear if he wants the title because Briscoe doesn’t have much room left for merely strong races. “Smoke” won five of the 10 Chase races in 2011; Briscoe has only one victory in the past three months, with only five weekends left this season. The Vegas winner is 84 points back at the Chase’s halfway point, so he’s actually lost ground from where he started before Darlington, despite his seemingly scalding stint since. Thus, to make this real, he probably needs to stack another two to three, maybe four wins to be in the same ballpark as Stewart’s epic run, but Charlotte and Homestead are exactly the kind of 1.5-mile tracks where the No. 19 has shown it can do that. He also has wins at two of the three remaining tracks between them, so it’s technically possible. The past few races proved Briscoe’s 2026 ceiling is certainly championship-level; it’s just that he and the No. 19 team will need to literally be flawless from here on out to make it happen.

Dustin Albino: Sitting 84 points behind the lead, Briscoe is likely the cutoff for drivers still in championship contention. The schedule sets up favorably for the No. 19 team: He has won two of the last three races at 1.5-mile tracks and was passed late at Kansas Speedway, narrowly missing a hat trick. To match his childhood hero, Briscoe would need to win four of the next five races, a streak no driver has produced in the Next Gen car. The speed is there, though, and even two wins in the final five would vault him way up the standings. If there’s one thing The Chase has made clear, it’s the value of winning. Briscoe remains championship-eligible, but even a late surge would make a Tony Stewart-esque comeback a long shot.

Zack Albert: To Dustin’s point, replicating the type of postseason pounding that Tony Stewart assembled 15 years ago would’ve required an earlier start. As it stands now, Briscoe and Co. also need two more things — 1) help and potentially 2) gamesmanship. The first part is dependent on Kyle Larson making a dramatic fade after his bulletproof start to The Chase, plus similar drops in performance from the otherwise steady Denny Hamlin, before the No. 19 team can go on a sustained tear. Sealing the deal in Stewart-like fashion, however, would require some old-fashioned head games, the kind that “Smoke” used to rattle Carl Edwards’ composure in their 2011 showdown at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Needling the opposition might be out of character for the amiable Briscoe, but he’s shown off some solid acting skills already this year.

Zach Sturniolo: Time just isn’t on Briscoe’s side to make this run happen. As everyone else has stated, there is absolutely a pathway to Briscoe overcoming the hurdles ahead of him both on the race track and in the standings. But consider the caliber of teams ahead of him currently: two-time and defending champion Kyle Larson; perennial championship contender Denny Hamlin; Christopher Bell, who hasn’t finished lower than fifth in points in five years; and two Team Penske champions in Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney. To rely upon all five of those teams suffering critical and sustained errors across the next five weeks is an extraordinarily tall task. The No. 19 team is unquestionably capable. The level of performance is there. Will the execution be there for the next five weeks? Maybe, but he’ll need a hand from others faltering.

Cameron Richardson: The big phrases in Briscoe pulling off the run are “can he do it?” and “has to do it.” Yes, Stewart started the 2011 Chase ninth, but after winning the first two races, he was already at the top of the standings. Briscoe hasn’t stacked the points early on to make anyone believe that he can rattle off 70-plus-point days for the next five weeks. The story would be different if he hadn’t crashed at Gateway and suffered the mechanical failure that parked the No. 19 Toyota in the garage late in the Bristol Night Race. The Las Vegas victory was simply a matter of staying on his feet in a 10-round fight with the five above him rather than being in a back-and-forth tilt. Briscoe will be in the mix Sunday at Charlotte and the following weekend at Phoenix, but then there is the looming Talladega, where title contenders will have their hopes dashed through no fault of their own, and Martinsville, a track that has not favored the Hoosier in his Cup tenure. Barring some miracles, there’s just no viable trend to say Briscoe is built to stop Penske’s strongholds (Phoenix, Talladega, Martinsville) or be the top dog among his teammates at Charlotte and Homestead.

Posted on October 8, 2026 by Neil Paine

Just about every season of Denny Hamlin’s 22-year Cup Series career, the question has always been: Is this finally the year when everything comes together, and the 11 car drives its way to the championship?

Every previous season, the answer has always ultimately been, “No.” Some years have looked more promising than others, of course, and some of Denny’s failed brushes with a breakthrough have bordered on the absurdly cruel — see last year’s title race as Exhibit A. But for all the different ways he’s come close, the ending has always managed to leave Hamlin as history’s greatest driver without a championship.

That was supposed to change in 2026. Going into The Chase presented by Mobil 1, everything seemed lined up for Hamlin to cast off the weight of history and claim the same crown that all of his legendary peers on the career wins list already have. Not only was Hamlin enjoying another of his best seasons — in total defiance of Father Time, at age 45 — while he ran down employee/rival Tyler Reddick for the regular-season title (and top seed in The Chase), but the stretch-run schedule was looking absolutely perfect for his strengths: Many more intermediates and short tracks than the typical mix, and fewer road courses and drafting tracks.

Truly, the only thing standing in the way of Denny’s first career title appeared to be his own ability to execute. And that, unfortunately, has been a big part of the problem.

As we now sit halfway through the 10-race Chase, Hamlin’s 25-point lead on the field to begin the championship push was whittled away completely within just three races — through Bristol — and after Sunday’s 16th-place finish at Las Vegas, he is now staring at a 40-point deficit in the standings to a suddenly dominant Kyle Larson.
Certainly, Larson has driven at an impressive rate since The Chase began. His average Driver Rating in the past five races is 117.7 — the ninth-best start by a Chase/playoff driver through five races since 2005 — and his average finish of 2.2 is the best of any such driver in that sample, beating out Joey Logano’s average of 2.8 in the first five races of the 2014 Chase. When the competition is on a heater like that, your margin for error will suddenly get a lot smaller.

But Hamlin has also failed to take advantage of opportunities that were presented to him. At the start of The Chase at Darlington — one of his better career tracks, where he’s won five times and is the only active Cup driver with an average finish in single-digits — Hamlin stumbled to an 18th-place finish at the Southern 500 after taking damage at mid-race. We wrote at the time that this didn’t have to prove fatal to Hamlin’s title hopes if he rebounded to meet expectations over the rest of The Chase, particularly in the critical stretch of three straight 1.5-mile ovals — the likes of which Hamlin had dominated all season.

But Hamlin has continued to undershoot his performance predictions throughout The Chase so far. In four of five outings, he has produced a Driver Rating below what his recent history and similar track-type affinity suggested ahead of the race, while Larson has exceeded his own predictions in four of five races. And the only time Denny didn’t underperform, at Kansas, Larson literally rattled off a perfect 150.0 rating en route to victory, causing Hamlin’s deficit to grow from one point to 26.

Even on Sunday, Larson began the South Point 400 with major struggles, running well outside the top 20 as the end of Stage 1 approached. This would have been a prime opportunity for polesitter Hamlin to capitalize on one of his trademark 1.5-mile tracks and eat into Larson’s edge in the points … except that the 11 car lost the back-end in Turn 3 with nobody else around and just over a lap to go in the stage, damaging his splitter and destroying his favorable track position.

A persistent and adaptable Larson, meanwhile, ended up rallying to vie with eventual winner Chase Briscoe late before finishing second, and Hamlin was never as fast again, finishing 16th. Yet another unsatisfying run caused Hamlin’s championship odds to dwindle even further, to just under 17% in my latest forecast model projection. It’s the fifth consecutive week in which Hamlin’s odds either took a dip or stayed roughly level at best:
All of which brings us to this weekend in Charlotte. It’s the back-leg of those three straight 1.5-mile races, and it represents the second-to-last intermediate on the calendar, ahead of only the season finale at Homestead-Miami on Nov. 8. Not coincidentally, those two tracks also happen to be his highest-rated remaining tracks in the projections, and you can easily make the case that Charlotte is more important to his title chances because it represents such a fork in the road from here, a point at which he still has some chance — however slim at the moment — to win the title.

If Denny wins this week, his title odds would leap by 23.5 percentage points to 40.3% — placing him squarely back in the fight with Larson. But if he finishes outside the top five, Hamlin’s odds would slide further into the abyss. And if Larson wins again? Then the No. 5 team would have an overwhelming 90% chance at locking down the championship. (It could easily happen, too: Larson owns the second-highest projection this week behind Briscoe, and he won here en route to the title in 2021, albeit in the spring.)

That’s just how much of a do-or-die week it is for Hamlin. Yes, four races will remain after Charlotte, including several that do still suit his strengths. But this might be his last chance to keep Larson’s points lead anywhere near manageable territory. Another missed opportunity here, especially if Larson keeps finishing at the front, and what once looked like the year for Denny’s drought to finally end will quickly become just another heartbreaking chapter in his career.

Posted on October 7, 2026October 8, 2026 by Staff Report

Three different paths. One dream.

NASCAR’s “RISING” docuseries returns for a second season, offering an all-access look at three of the sport’s emerging stars as they navigate pivotal moments in their careers on and off the track.

Season 2 follows NASCAR Cup Series drivers Connor Zilisch and Carson Hocevar, along with NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Brenden “Butterbean” Queen. The four-episode season will unfold monthly from August through November.

RISING: Catch up on Season 1

The series brings fans beyond the weekly results and inside the personalities, challenges and ambitions shaping the next generation of NASCAR talent.

New episodes will debut on Xumo Play on the first or second Thursday of each month. Each installment will also be released on NASCAR’s YouTube channel 14 days after its Xumo Play premiere.

“RISING” Season 2 schedule

Episode 1 — Thursday, Aug. 6: Connor Zilisch
Episode 2 — Thursday, Sept. 3: Brenden “Butterbean” Queen
Episode 3 — Thursday, Oct. 8: Carson Hocevar
Episode 4 — Thursday, Nov. 5: All three drivers

Watch “RISING” Season 2 on Xumo Play here.

Check back throughout the season for each new episode and additional coverage of Zilisch, Queen and Hocevar.

Episode 3

Episode 3 of ‘RISING’ follows Carson Hocevar, rising star and controversial figure in the NASCAR Cup Series. In this clip, Hocevar talks about his view on what other people consider are “distractions” to his career. Watch the clip here:

Carson Hocevar receives a special die-cast tribute made for him after his inaugural Cup Series win earlier this season at Talladega Superspeedway. Watch the clip here:

Episode 2

Episode 2 of ‘RISING’ follows Craftsman Truck Series rookie and Kaulig Racing driver Brenden Queen. Get to know this up-and-comer — with a unique personality. Watch the clip here:

Brenden “Butterbean” Queen gets his first dose of racing at his home track, Richmond Raceway; see how he handles the pressure. Watch the clip here:

Episode 1

Before Connor Zilisch’s rise into the NASCAR Cup Series, he grew up racing go-karts — and earned quite the nickname, as detailed by family members. Watch the clip here:

In the midst of a difficult rookie season, Zilisch is just hoping to have clean races. Ride along as he drives the track, breaking down his weekly thought process. Watch the clip here:

Posted on October 7, 2026 by NASCAR Official Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR is making it easier for fans with mobility challenges to experience one of the most unique vantage points in motorsports by opening applications for the unique Mobility Pit Box experience to all mobility-impaired fans through a new application portal.

During Charlotte Motor Speedway’s fall race weekend, NASCAR will spotlight a new pathway for fans to learn more about the NASCAR Mobility Pit Box and directly request access to the experience through NASCAR.com/MobilityPitBox, creating a new opportunity for fans to discover and participate in the program. The NASCAR.com destination provides fans with an access request form that is shared with host-track ticket offices based on event availability.

In addition, NASCAR will expand availability of the Mobility Pit Box schedule to four new race weekends in 2027. The full 2027 Mobility Pit Box schedule will include:

Daytona International Speedway (Feb. 18-21)
Las Vegas Motor Speedway (March 20-21)
Darlington Raceway (April 2-4)
Texas Motor Speedway (April 30-May 2)
Kansas Speedway (May 8-9)
Charlotte Motor Speedway (May 28-30)
Nashville Superspeedway (June 4-6)
Michigan International Speedway (June 19-20)
Chicagoland Speedway (June 26-27)
Sonoma Raceway (July 10-11)
EchoPark Speedway (July 17-18)*
Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 24-25)
Naval Base Coronado (July 31-Aug. 1)
Richmond Raceway (Sept. 10-11)
New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Sept. 25-26)
Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Oct. 9-10)
Charlotte Motor Speedway (Oct. 15-17)
Phoenix Raceway (Oct. 22-24)
Homestead-Miami Speedway (Nov. 12-14)

*Denotes new location for Mobility Pit Box

The Mobility Pit Box launched in February 2024 and was brought to life through Toyota’s commitment to “Mobility for All,” delivering a pit-road experience to hundreds of guests across the country.

The move to make the experience more directly accessible to fans comes after a successful 2025 season, when the Mobility Pit Box hosted 207 guests with mobility challenges and 546 total guests. Ninety-seven percent of surveyed guests rated their experience five stars, while 64% said they were not aware of the Mobility Pit Box until they were invited.

The NASCAR Mobility Pit Box is designed within NASCAR-regulated 15-by-15-by-15-foot pit-box dimensions and sits on pit road just feet from live pit stops. The experience includes modular seating for guests using wheelchairs and ECVs, an adjustable wheelchair ramp with powered lift, race-broadcast viewing monitors and climate assistance. NASCAR and host tracks also coordinate accessible transportation for participating guests.

“At NASCAR, we want every fan to have the opportunity to experience the sport in a meaningful way, and the Mobility Pit Box is a great example of what that commitment looks like in action,” said Eric Nyquist, Chief Impact Officer, NASCAR. “We’ve created an experience that helps remove barriers and brings fans with mobility challenges closer to the racing they love.”

The expanded fan-access approach follows a Las Vegas experience featuring former IndyCar driver, team owner and motorsports accessibility advocate Sam Schmidt. Schmidt’s firsthand experience provides a firsthand look at the Mobility Pit Box.

“I witnessed a timing stand for 25 years as a team owner, even I was impressed. I was excited, I was happy to put the earpiece on and I was sad to leave… it’s unbelievable,” Schmidt said. “I love the attention to detail. It’s over the top, so for anyone who has never experienced a race before, they’d be able to say, ‘Wow… this is accessibility.’ ”

Fans interested in experiencing the NASCAR Mobility Pit Box can learn more and submit a request at NASCAR.com/MobilityPitBox.

Posted on October 7, 2026October 10, 2026 by Staff Report

The Chase presented by Mobil 1 rolls into the Queen City! The NASCAR Cup Series, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series head to Charlotte Motor Speedway for a trio of key postseason races as championship pressure continues to build. It’s the first time since 2017 that the fall festivities at Charlotte are on the 1.5-mile oval. Thirty-nine cars are entered in the Cup Series, 38 in the O’Reilly Series and 36 in the Truck Series, meaning that no entries will fail to qualify. See the qualifying orders for the North Carolina tilts.

MORE: Weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on TV

Cup Series
Single-car qualifying will occur at 12:05 p.m. ET on Saturday (truTV). CANCELED

POSITION	NUMBER	DRIVER	METRIC
1	44	* BJ McLeod	41.000
2	66	* Gray Gaulding(i)	40.100
3	67	* Corey Heim(i)	39.500
4	88	Connor Zilisch #	35.000
5	51	Cody Ware	34.900
6	38	Zane Smith	33.600
7	10	Ty Dillon	31.900
8	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	31.400
9	34	Todd Gilliland	30.300
10	41	Cole Custer	28.800
11	42	John Hunter Nemechek	28.400
12	1	Ross Chastain	26.700
13	21	Josh Berry	26.000
14	33	Austin Hill(i)	24.700
15	43	Erik Jones	23.800
16	4	Noah Gragson	23.600
17	6	Brad Keselowski	22.200
18	35	Riley Herbst	21.300
19	3	Austin Dillon	20.800
20	71	Michael McDowell	20.700
21	16	AJ Allmendinger	17.100
22	48	Alex Bowman	14.600
23	97	Shane van Gisbergen	11.400
24	60	Ryan Preece (C)	23.800
25	20	Christopher Bell (C)	17.000
26	7	Daniel Suárez (C)	14.300
27	54	Ty Gibbs (C)	14.300
28	17	Chris Buescher (C)	13.900
29	11	Denny Hamlin (C)	11.800
30	77	Carson Hocevar (C)	11.700
31	9	Chase Elliott (C)	8.800
32	23	Bubba Wallace (C)	8.600
33	22	Joey Logano (C)	8.200
34	24	William Byron (C)	7.800
35	2	Austin Cindric (C)	5.500
36	12	Ryan Blaney (C)	5.000
37	45	Tyler Reddick (C)	4.200
38	19	Chase Briscoe (C)	2.500
39	5	Kyle Larson (C)	1.700

O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
~~Single-car qualifying will occur at~~ ~~8:30 a.m. ET on Saturday (ESPN Unlimited).~~ CANCELED

POSITION	NUMBER	DRIVER	METRIC
1	38	JJ Yeley	39.800
2	47	Dawson Cram	35.900
3	9	Jake Finch	33.200
4	53	TBA	32.900
5	91	Myatt Snider	31.200
6	02	Ryan Ellis	30.500
7	07	Josh Bilicki	30.000
8	55	Joey Gase	29.700
9	31	Blaine Perkins	29.500
10	92	Mason Maggio	28.900
11	45	Lavar Scott	28.100
12	42	Matt DiBenedetto	25.700
13	48	Patrick Staropoli	25.200
14	0	Garrett Smithley	25.000
15	28	Kyle Sieg	22.700
16	27	Jeb Burton	21.900
17	32	Carson Brown	21.400
18	87	Austin Green	19.500
19	44	Brennan Poole	17.300
20	26	Dean Thompson	16.900
21	24	Harrison Burton	16.400
22	39	Ryan Sieg	13.200
23	96	Anthony Alfredo	12.100
24	51	Jeremy Clements	11.200
25	18	William Sawalich	9.800
26	20	Brandon Jones (C)	28.800
27	7	Justin Allgaier (C)	25.000
28	99	Parker Retzlaff (C)	16.600
29	8	Sammy Smith (C)	13.200
30	88	Rajah Caruth (C)	10.100
31	00	Sheldon Creed (C)	9.400
32	21	Austin Hill (C)	9.300
33	54	Taylor Gray (C)	7.400
34	41	Sam Mayer (C)	6.000
35	19	Brent Crews # (C)	4.900
36	2	Jesse Love (C)	3.000
37	17	Corey Day (C)	2.200
38	1	Carson Kvapil (C)	2.000

Craftsman Truck Series
Single-truck qualifying will occur at 2:05 p.m. ET on Friday (FS2).

POSITION	NUMBER	DRIVER	METRIC
1	56	Timmy Hill	39.500
2	81	Kris Wright	33.900
3	33	Josh Reaume	32.100
4	4	Matt Mills(i)	31.700
5	2	Luke Baldwin	28.800
6	22	Clayton Green	26.600
7	26	Dawson Sutton	26.000
8	62	Leland Honeyman Jr.	24.300
9	76	Spencer Boyd	23.600
10	44	Andrés Pérez	23.400
11	42	Conner Jones	22.600
12	20	Daniel Dye	21.600
13	14	Mini Tyrrell #	21.000
14	52	Stewart Friesen	19.800
15	25	Regan Smith	18.700
16	13	Cole Butcher #	16.500
17	12	Brenden Queen	16.100
18	10	Corey LaJoie	13.900
19	16	Justin Haley	13.400
20	15	Tanner Gray	11.600
21	98	Jake Garcia	10.800
22	5	Bayley Currey	6.300
23	45	Landen Lewis (C)	26.800
24	9	Grant Enfinger (C)	26.500
25	88	Ty Majeski (C)	23.000
26	18	Tyler Ankrum (C)	22.900
27	77	Rajah Caruth(i) (C)	21.400
28	7	Connor Mosack (C)	14.300
29	34	Layne Riggs (C)	13.900
30	17	Gio Ruggiero (C)	10.300
31	99	Ben Rhodes (C)	7.400
32	1	Brent Crews(i) (C)	7.000
33	19	Daniel Hemric (C)	6.400
34	38	Chandler Smith (C)	5.100
35	91	Christian Eckes (C)	2.900
36	11	Kaden Honeycutt (C)	1.000

* Required to qualify on time
# denotes series rookie
(i) denotes ineligible for driver points
(C) denotes Chase driver or participant

Posted on October 7, 2026October 7, 2026 by Nathan Solomon

Denny Hamlin spoke on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast about the sequence of events that took his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota out of contention — and buried him further in The Chase presented by Mobil 1.

Hamlin finished 16th in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 after a spin mired him in traffic with damage. But also a pit-road misplay — in which Hamlin came for service rather than staying out and trapping Kyle Larson a lap down — allowed the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver to extend his series lead by fighting back to second place, earning a record fifth-straight top-five finish to open the postseason.

“Had I known that Larson was a lap down and he would have got his lap back by me pitting, I would have never turned down pit road. I don’t care what the crew chief says. I would have never turned down pit road,” Hamlin said on his podcast, posted Tuesday night. “I think if you had time to think about it and all the things, I think there’s no question that we do something different next time around.

“We took our eye off the ball for just a brief period of time, and then I took my eye off the ball at the end of that stage.”

Hamlin fired to the lead on Lap 1 after winning Saturday’s Busch Light Pole Award, pacing the first 34 laps before stopping for four tires and fuel under green. Kyle Larson, who entered Las Vegas with a 26-point advantage over Hamlin atop the standings, started sixth but plummeted eight spots during the opening stint of the 267-lapper, necessitating a lengthy green-flag stop for major adjustments. Larson spent 26 seconds in his pit stall while the Cliff Daniels-led team worked on the right-front, and once the pit cycle was complete, the defending series champion fell a lap down.

The first caution flew when Zane Smith spun in Turn 4. Hamlin, who had returned to the lead, elected to pit again for right sides only. That decision let Larson take the wave around and return to the lead lap, and he capitalized.

MORE: Hamlin talks Las Vegas

Because Hamlin was the only lead-lap car ahead of Larson, staying out would have prevented the one-lap-down cars from taking the wave-around. Instead, Larson returned to the lead lap and capitalized with 36 points on the afternoon.

But at that moment in time, Hamlin said he was unaware of Larson’s early handling issues and did not know he was a lap down. He did not place blame on his team, either.

“You got to give my team a break, too, and I got to give my team a break because they are focused on helping me get the fastest car that I can get on that day,” Hamlin said. “They’re focused on ‘what is his feedback, what are the tools we got in the toolbox to make his car as good as we can,’ and that’s what they’re focused on. They’re calling my race, they’re not sitting on the couch listening to the announcers breaking down the 5 car’s race. In the bubble of the race track, it’s really hard to put all that in perspective.”

Dustin Albino | For NASCAR Digital Media

Hamlin restarted ninth after the caution and drove back to third while eventual winner Chase Briscoe controlled the race. He was admittedly pressing, trying to capitalize on crucial stage points. With three laps left in the frame, Hamlin’s Toyota snapped around in Turns 3 and 4 despite battling a tight condition, coming to rest near the entrance of pit road. Initially, Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gayle believed the car was undamaged. But on the next restart, Hamlin felt something was significantly wrong with his No. 11 machine on the next restart, and discovered damage to both ends after the race – likely suffered when he slid over the apron.

“At the time, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the car,” Hamlin said. “I heard it that something underneath scraped the bottom as I’m spinning coming down the track, but I realized very quickly once we got back, I knew that it wasn’t just traffic. We had a major problem with the car … It just took all the potential out of the race car out and just never could get it remotely competitive after that.

“I’m not throwing water on anyone, but there was no one that was going to run with me … I know what my car needs to feel like to win. It was definitely a race-winning car.”

Hamlin crawled back to 11th before the final-stage re-fire, saying he felt the car still had decent long-run pace but struggled in dirty air on restarts. But just before taking the green, his car cut out with a brief fuel-pickup issue, dropping him back outside the top 20. He was not sure why that happened, but the issue did not persist the rest of the race.

Hamlin finished 16th, earning just 22 points and marking his fourth finish of eight or worse in five Chase races. He lost 14 points to Larson as his deficit grew to minus 40, failing to capitalize at the track he had won the previous two Cup races. Vegas marked his first finish outside the top five on a 1.5-mile track since Charlotte Motor Speedway last May.

As the back half of The Chase arrives, the scene shifts to Charlotte this Sunday (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — a track that could make or break Hamlin’s hopes of finally lifting the Bill France Cup.

Posted on October 7, 2026October 7, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

Kasey Kahne will join Spire Motorsports to compete full time in the 2027 NASCAR FedEx Freight Truck Series, driving the team’s No. 77 Chevrolet Silverado RST, the team announced Wednesday.

Kahne, an 18-time NASCAR Cup Series winner, will return to full-time NASCAR competition for the first time since 2018, when health issues forced him to step away.

Now 46, Kahne was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023 for his success across the sport’s three national series, including crown-jewel victories in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (2006, 2008, 2012) and the 2017 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The idea to return to full-time NASCAR competition came from Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson when he and Kahne met earlier this year at the Knoxville Nationals in Iowa.

“I was pretty surprised when it happened,” Kahne said Wednesday in a Zoom teleconference. “We’d actually just finished an owner’s meeting for the High Limit Series, and me and Jeff were talking, and he brought that up. He had told me a story that him and Carson (Hocevar) were there the week before at 360 Nationals watching the racing and trying to figure out who they were going to put in one of the trucks for a full-time season, and then have the other truck. Yeah, he just asked me and, like I said, pretty surprised.

“Once I thought about it for a little while, this is like a really good opportunity for someone who hasn’t been in the sport for a period of time. To get in with a really solid truck organization, Spire Motorsports, who’s strong in all motorsports, yeah I just thought it was really cool and (I’m) excited.”

In 2025, Kahne returned to NASCAR competition for the first time in seven years, driving the No. 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing at Rockingham Speedway in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Kahne was running fifth when he was collected in a crash early in the contest but rallied for a 14th-place finish.

In addition to his Cup Series success and eight wins in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Kahne is a five-time Truck Series winner despite making just six starts in the series. His lone non-win came in 2010 at Pocono Raceway, where he finished second.

Since departing NASCAR full time in 2018 after competing in 25 of 36 Cup races, the Enumclaw, Washington, native has returned to his dirt-racing roots in sprint cars, including a full-season campaign in the Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing series last year. A six-time World of Outlaws champion as a team owner, Kahne earned his first career World of Outlaws sprint car win in May 2026 at Williams Grove Speedway.

MORE: Spire Motorsports team site

Ahead of his return to NASCAR in 2025, Kahne said his health was “in a good place because I don’t do this all the time. I don’t do the long races, the heat.” While Truck Series races are longer than sprint car races, they are notably shorter than their O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Cup Series counterparts.

“The big thing is the short races,” Kahne said of returning to Truck Series competition. “I could always make it in the Cup car. Halfway point (of the season) is when it started really kicking in as the season went, and there’s no breaks. By July, August, it just keeps adding up. The final one at Darlington, I mean, was just too much built up, could not recover, and that’s where my body was. Just knowing that these races are shorter, a lot of night races, weekends off in between on some of them, just a completely different schedule than what we had going on back then. So, yeah, I think that’ll fit me really well.”

Following his O’Reilly appearance at Rockingham, Kahne was asked if he would consider more NASCAR racing moving forward: “I don’t know about more in the future, but I’m really glad I did this.”

Kahne’s full-time return will begin Feb. 19 in the 2027 season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

Contributing: Staff Report

Posted on October 7, 2026 by Adam Fenwick

Patrick Emerling has spent 16 years chasing a dream.

On Sunday at Connecticut’s Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, that dream will come true.

The driver of the No. 1 USNEPower Motorsports Modified will clinch his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship when the green flag waves to start the World Series 150 (4:30 p.m. ET on NASCAR Channel and FloRacing). That doesn’t mean the 33-year-old from Orchard Park, New York is resting on his laurels.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

ENTRY LIST: See who’s racing Sunday at Thompson

“Our mind is in a place where we’re just going to do what we normally do every race,” Emerling said. “We’re going to go out and try to win the thing. We’re going to try to do the same thing that we did at Riverhead and Oswego.

“That’s our goal, to cap off the season on a really high note at Thompson.”

Emerling, who has been a regular face at NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events since he made his series debut in 2011 at the age of 18, has put together a career-defining season as he stands on the verge of his first championship.

He enters the Thompson finale with a career-best five victories. He’s led a career-high 659 laps this year and leads all drivers in top fives and top 10s this season.

Patrick Emerling (right) has leaned on crew chief Dale Hedquist (left) as they’ve chased the Modified Tour championship this season. (Photo: Kostas Lymperopoulos/NASCAR)

The success Emerling has enjoyed this year is a testament to the work the USNEPower Motorsports team, which is led by crew chief Dale Hedquist, has put in this season.

“I’m just really proud of the whole group and the whole group effort,” Emerling said. “USNEPower, Dale Hedquist and the whole crew. These races are a full group effort. Just really proud of the group and everyone involved to be able to make this happen. It’s really, really exciting.”

Thompson is a track where Emerling has enjoyed success, including Modified Tour victories in each of the last two seasons.

His 2025 victory was particularly impressive, because he was forced to start the race from the rear due to an unapproved adjustment. He still found his way through the field to earn a trip to Victory Lane.

Another Thompson victory Sunday to close his championship campaign would be the perfect cherry on top for what has been a dream season in NASCAR’s oldest division.

With that in mind, Emerling said his team has put extra emphasis on preparing for Sunday’s finale.

Patrick Emerling has won a career-best five Modified Tour races this season. (Photo: Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)

“We’re racers; we just want to go do our thing,” Emerling said. “Dale, the whole group, we really loaded all of our guns up for this race. It’s just a race we really want. We ran good at Thompson, we did have a couple wins, and we finished third there in the summer race.

“We just want to improve on that and keep the momentum going in the last race of the year.”

For Emerling and company, the goal ahead of the World Series 150 is simple: Win the race, win the championship and celebrate accordingly.

Based on what Emerling and the No. 1 team have accomplished already this season, it would be hard to bet against them Sunday evening.

“That would be absolutely incredible (to win at Thompson),” Emerling said. “At that point that would be a six-win season. That would be just awesome. That’s what we’re going to try to do. Just approach it like we’ve approached every race all year and just have fun.

“The whole team really enjoys what they’re doing, and I enjoy it. Everyone involved in the USNEPower No. 1 car enjoys what they’re doing and has a lot of fun doing it. Keep it fun, do our thing and compete for a win.”

Posted on October 7, 2026 by Pat DeCola

Five races ago, Kyle Larson was 55 points behind Denny Hamlin. Five races later, he leads him by 40.

That’s a 95-point reversal, built piece by piece over five races.

If one number captures the first half of The 2026 Chase presented by Mobil 1 as the heralded postseason format makes its refreshed return this season, it might be that.

The defending champion Larson entered as a wayward No. 7 seed and has since flipped the entire season on its head, finishing fifth, first, second, first and second so far. He’s turned what appeared to be a significant early deficit both in points and aura into the largest championship lead of The Chase — and growing.

Larson’s run has been nothing short of dominant. It has also been informative.

Five races are enough to reveal trends, separate hot streaks from noise and expose which teams have elevated their game when the points matter most. They are also enough to remind us just how much can still change with five races left.

Let’s dig in, with stats courtesy of Racing Insights.

Larson didn’t just get hot — he changed the entire 2026 narrative

The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver’s 2.2 average finish through Darlington Raceway, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the best through the first five races of The Chase since the format debuted in 2004, and his 273 points over that stretch are the most anyone has scored in a five-race span this year.

The contrast with his regular season is even more striking.

Larson averaged just 27.85 points per race before The Chase, with questions swirling about whether the team had it this year or was perhaps experiencing a championship hangover. He’s since put those questions very much to rest, averaging 54.6 through the first half here — nearly double the production rate.

Racing Insights’ championship model has followed suit. Larson entered The Chase with an 11.9% title probability, behind Hamlin at 40.5% and even Ty Gibbs at 12.0%. After Las Vegas, Larson is up to 46.3%, while Hamlin sits at 32.5% and Christopher Bell is next at 8.6%. Nobody else is above 3.4%.

That is about as close to seizing control in five races as one can get.

It is not the same thing, however, as finishing the job.

MORE: Analysis: Larson’s resilience puts No. 5 team in championship control

Chaos hasn’t produced parity, but the opposite

The first half of The Chase has been volatile almost everywhere except Larson’s results column. Ten of the 16 Chase drivers had a documented issue at Darlington right from the jump. Fourteen did in a memorably messy afternoon at St. Louis. Eight encountered trouble at Bristol, six at Kansas and nine at Las Vegas.

That is 47 of 80 possible Chase-driver race appearances — nearly 59% — involving an incident, mechanical problem, pit-road mistake or other significant adversity. And somehow, while all that has been happening, the championship has become more top-heavy.

At the reset, five drivers were more than a maximum race’s worth of points behind the leader. That figure grew to seven after Darlington, eight after St. Louis, nine after Bristol, 12 after Kansas, and stayed at 12 after Las Vegas. The No. 1 seed Hamlin is already 40 points back. Bell is 55 behind, Joey Logano 71. From Ryan Blaney in fifth on down, every driver trails Larson by more than the maximum 76 points available in a single race.

So the lesson isn’t that the contenders are avoiding trouble — nobody is. The separation has come from what happens after the trouble arrives.

Larson fell a lap down at Las Vegas after an extended green-flag stop for major adjustments and still finished second. Tyler Reddick changed a battery and finished third. Bubba Wallace overcame a pit-road penalty and finished eighth. It’s just that Larson and Co. are really the only ones who have rebounded from everything thrown at them … so far.

That does not mean that will continue to be the case (now, having said that, the No. 5 team does appear to be as locked in as ever at the moment, so good luck).

But clearly, in a cumulative Chase, damage limitation is becoming a championship skill in its own right.

Some drivers have become different versions of themselves

Larson’s jump is the loudest, but it is hardly the only one.

Logano has gone from 27.27 points per race during the regular season to 42.4 in The Chase. Bell has climbed from 29.15 to 42.6. Austin Cindric has improved from 24.27 to 37.0, while Wallace and Chase Briscoe have increased their scoring rates, too.

Driver	Regular season	The Chase	Difference
Kyle Larson	27.85	54.6	+26.75
Joey Logano	27.27	42.4	+15.13
Christopher Bell	29.15	42.6	+13.45
Austin Cindric	24.27	37.0	+12.73
Bubba Wallace	25.04	34.2	+9.16
Chase Briscoe	29.27	35.8	+6.53
William Byron	25.62	28.6	+2.98
Carson Hocevar	25.88	28.0	+2.12
Ryan Preece	24.88	23.6	-1.28
Ryan Blaney	36.08	32.6	-3.48
Denny Hamlin	39.50	35.6	-3.90
Ty Gibbs	34.31	29.6	-4.71
Chase Elliott	27.81	23.0	-4.81
Tyler Reddick	34.38	29.4	-4.98
Daniel Suárez	26.00	19.6	-6.40
Chris Buescher	26.04	18.4	-7.64

Cindric might be the most surprising name in that group, and his 8.0 average finish through five Chase races trails only Larson. His runner-up finish at Kansas, followed by a fourth at Las Vegas, marked the first consecutive top-five finishes of his Cup career.

Bell has taken a much stranger route to strong production. He has already absorbed finishes of 19th and 23rd — and still ranks second only to Larson in total Chase points.

Hamlin offers the inverse, remaining second in the championship while actually scoring 3.9 fewer points per race than he did during the regular season.

Then there’s William Byron, whose Chase began with a 37th-place finish at Darlington, to which he answered with four consecutive top 10s, yet remains 12th and 160 points back despite being the only driver to finish inside the top 10 in all seven 1.5-mile races this season.

That may be the cruelest lesson of the first five races: one disastrous afternoon can be remarkably difficult to erase.

Now the schedule changes the exam

The first five races have told us plenty, and the next five are almost purpose-built to challenge our assumptions.

Charlotte Motor Speedway, Phoenix Raceway, Talladega Superspeedway, Martinsville Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway make up the closing stretch, offering nothing but classic NASCAR racing left: a 1.5-mile oval, a 1-mile flat track, a superspeedway, a half-mile paperclip and another 1.5-mile oval to (most likely) settle the championship.

And while Larson owned the first half of this thing, the remaining-track history tilts toward several of the drivers chasing him.

Hamlin has 14 career wins across the five remaining tracks, including nine at the final two. Logano has 10 combined victories at those venues, Blaney eight and Chase Elliott, who still feels a little too quiet, six. Larson, Bell and Byron each have five.

MORE: Cup Series schedule

Sunday’s race at Charlotte (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) immediately raises some unknowns. The oval returns to The Chase for the first time since 2017, and 10 different drivers have won the last 10 Cup races there. Sunday will also mark the first scheduled 400-mile Cup race at Charlotte since 1965.

Then comes the mercurial Talladega, followed immediately by Martinsville, where Hamlin’s six victories are the most any Chase driver owns at any remaining track.

And if the championship is still up for grabs when everyone arrives at Homestead, it will end back on a 1.5-mile track, where Hamlin again owns a field-best 4.57 average finish at those venues this season and Larson, Byron, Briscoe and others have built compelling statistical cases of their own.

Five races ago, Larson was chasing Hamlin; now everybody’s looking up at Larson. A month and change was enough to turn a 55-point deficit and a whole lot of preconceived notions into a 40-point lead and a whole lot of uncertainty.

Five more are enough to turn all of the above on its head, too.

Posted on October 6, 2026 by Nate Ryan

NASCAR warned teams about spraying pit stalls at Las Vegas Motor Speedway because a traction substance resulted in a discoloration of the concrete.

During the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, Mike Forde, vice president of racing communications, said teams are allowed to use clear substances to help improve traction in the pits for cars and pit crews. But at Las Vegas, a white substance appeared in some stalls and could have impacted officiating to determine whether a car is positioned correctly in its box.

“If it’s a white substance that extends past the lines or especially that outward line, that is going to affect our equipment,” Forde said. “So you don’t want to interfere with the technology that we use to call penalties.”

Amanda Ellis, senior director of racing communications, noted that NASCAR Cup Series teams have been requesting approval to clean off compounds in their pit stalls before races dating to last year because of discoloration.

There’s a lengthy history of substances being used in the pits by teams, including pouring carbonated beverages in pit stalls for better traction.

Forde said NASCAR was exploring if the nearly 100-degree temperature in Las Vegas affected the substances in the pit stalls this weekend.

MORE: Charlotte schedule

“We don’t have a list of chemicals or products that you’re allowed to use, but this one was something that has been used before, and why it turned the color it did is still being looked at,” Forde said.