Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Track: Texas Motor Speedway
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Track length: 1.5 miles
When: 3:30 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: FS1, HBO Max, FOX One, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 267 laps | 400.5 miles
Stages: 80 | 165 | 267
Sunday’s starting lineup | Cup Series pit stall assignments

Texas-sized task ahead for Cup drivers in Fort Worth

The NASCAR Cup Series field has tackled two 1.5-mile ovals in 2026 already — but none of Sunday’s 38 entrants have faced something like Texas Motor Speedway yet this year.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway are D-shaped ovals, symmetrical at either end of the course, making them the only true intermediate tracks on the schedule thus far. But Texas is anything but symmetrical, with a wide, flat corner through Turns 1 and 2 and a tighter, quicker, higher-banked groove through Turns 3 and 4, all rounded out by a double-dogleg on the front straightaway.

“This place is hard because it’s so narrow, so if you lose track position, you’re kind of jacked,” Ty Gibbs said Saturday afternoon. “So it’s kind of like a Darlington in a way, but just got to keep working forward, keep making everything the best you can be and winning spots on pit road and just maximizing everything you can do. That’s what wins races here, I feel like.”

MORE: Weekend schedule, TV info | At-track photos

Gibbs and his Toyota housemates at Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing have been the class of the field thus far on the intermediate tracks, with Denny Hamlin victorious at Las Vegas and Tyler Reddick a winner at Kansas. But there to challenge were the Chevrolets from Hendrick Motorsports.

Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, nearly won at Kansas before settling for second in overtime behind Reddick. He expects the speed they’ve shown to be back in play Sunday in the Lone Star State.

“I think you always see the same teams good on intermediates every time,” said Larson, the defending Cup Series champion. “So I think we were good at Vegas, better at Kansas and we’ll hopefully be even better here at Texas as we’ve learned more about our cars. So I’m excited about this weekend.”

The layout of Texas necessitates more compromise, both from drivers behind the wheel and crew chiefs setting up their vehicles. RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 Ford, enters with high confidence in his team’s ability to fight for a strong finish Sunday, even if they’re a tick behind the Toyotas and Chevrolets.

“You have a little bit of give and take here compared to some other mile-and-a-halfs,” Buescher said. “But all the principles are still there. The fundamentals are the same. It’s just how do you balance it out to not give up potential but still be able to (handle) — with the speed and the bumps of (Turns) 3 and 4 and as slow and as much off-throttle time as you have in 1 and 2. I guess it feels strange to me to be this far in the season and say we only have two real mile-and-a-halfs under our belt, but both of them were solidly top-10, almost top-five races for us. So with that, we know we’ve had some work to do to get to that next group of cars that have been so strong this year and everybody’s been diving off into that. It will certainly apply. It’s just got some little unique twists here.”

RELATED: Buescher hopes to end jinx at his home track

Those quirks have played a hand in creating chaos at Texas. There have been 10 cautions or more in seven of the last eight Cup races at Texas, with crashes leading to 10 DNFs in the 2025 edition of the race.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of cautions and a lot of penalties here,” Gibbs said. “So if you can stay out of those and be smart and not get penalized, not get trapped a lap down, you can make it happen, and you can get rewarded on that, which is cool.”

In the details …

The finishing orders of the first two intermediate races of the season were strikingly similar. A whopping nine drivers earned top 10s at both Las Vegas and Kansas — the only exception being Kansas winner Tyler Reddick … perhaps ironic for the guy who’s won five of 10 races this season.

Here are the nine drivers who enter Texas with a perfect top-10 record at 1.5-mile tracks in 2026, hoping to be 3-for-3 after Sunday:

DriverLas VegasKansas
Denny Hamlin1st4th
Chase Elliott2nd8th
William Byron3rd7th
Ty Gibbs5th9th
Chris Buescher6th10th
Kyle Larson7th2nd
Chase Briscoe8th3rd
Bubba Wallace9th5th
Brad Keselowski10th6th

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Texas hub: Key information, pit-stall assignments, results | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Paint schemes worth a look in Fort Worth | View gallery
• Hauler Talk: Officials consider changes for superspeedway package | Listen now
• How the “Hurricane” began: Meet the people, places that made Hocevar who he is | More
• Power Rankings: Cup Series’ top 20 drivers after Talladega | This week’s ranks
• NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Texas | Watch now

Contributing: Dustin Albino

Posted on by Reid Spencer

FORT WORTH, Texas — During the final caution of Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 340 at Texas Motor Speedway, crew chief Andrew Overstreet radioed an encouraging message to pole winner Justin Allgaier.

“Nothing stops a hungry gator,” said Overstreet, referencing Allgaier’s “Little Gator” nickname. “Not even the so-called ‘Greatest of All-Time.’”

But Kyle Larson, the “G.O.A.T.” that Overstreet referenced, proved too much for Allgaier during a 17-lap green-flag run to the finish. Though Allgaier caught Larson in the closing circuits, he couldn’t find a way past his JR Motorsports teammate, who won his second NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts event in four starts this season.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Texas

“I really didn’t think I had a chance there with Justin behind me,” said Larson, who beat Allgaier to the finish line by 0.293 seconds. “He was really good, catching me there on that long run after the (earlier) green-flag stop (on Lap 145 of 200).

“I was just hoping in clean air I could kind of get away, like I did the run before to start stage 3, but he was (able to get) behind me, and he could run a lot of different lanes back there, too. I was trying to do what I could to take his air away while also maintaining a good corner for myself, but he was always closing on me.

“Thanks to him for racing me clean … that was a great little run to the end there.”

The victory was Larson’s second straight at Texas and third overall and the 19th in the series of his career.

Though Allgaier matched his best finish at Texas and increased his series lead to 121 points over second-place Sheldon Creed, the disappointment was etched in the face of the runner-up.

“Without contact, I don’t know if there was any way to get around him, and I tried everything I could possibly try and just unfortunately came up short,” said Allgaier, a three-time winner this season. “JR Motorsports 1-2, obviously that’s a big deal…

“I don’t know. I’m going to go back and watch this one a bunch and try to figure out what I could have done better.”

Larson was first off pit road under caution for Rajah Caruth’s crash off Turn 2 on Lap 179. Allgaier was third behind Brandon Jones and lined up behind Larson in the bottom lane for the Lap 184 restart.

Allgaier quickly cleared Jones and took off in pursuit of Larson, using the top lane to gain time on his teammate. Though Allgaier got to Larson’s bumper in the closing laps, he was stymied in his efforts to pass for the win.

Sam Mayer finished third, one spot ahead of rookie Brent Crews, who collected a $100,000 bonus as the highest-finishing eligible Dash 4 Cash driver. It was the first such payout for Crews in the final Dash 4 Cash event of the season.

Parker Retzlaff came home fifth, followed by Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill, Jones, Jesse Love and Jeremy Clements.

MORE: O’Reilly Series standings | Weekend schedule: Texas

The race was punctuated by seven cautions (for 36 laps), the first of which was a bifurcated five-car wreck on the opening lap.

Hendrick Motorsports driver Corey Day entered the race fourth in the series standings and exited the event after a hard crash into the Turn 2 wall on Lap 1.

Day started the race sixth in the outside lane and lost control near the exit of one of NASCAR’s most treacherous corners.

“Starting outside, you’ve got to run up there through the first corner,” Day said. “I don’t know. I didn’t feel like I was faster through the corner than the guys in front of me, but I was all good, and all of a sudden I’m sideways, and there’s no saving it coming off of (Turn) 2 like that.

“I hate it for my 17 guys. We had such a good car yesterday, and for me to go ruin it like that on the first lap of the race, I feel terrible.”

Larson led a race-high 93 laps, followed by Allgaier (54), who won the first 45-lap stage wire-to-wire. Connor Zilisch won Stage 2 before fading to 21st in the final segment after an unscheduled stop for a flat tire.

Larson, Crews and Zilisch provided a breathtaking moment on Lap 105, running three-wide through Turn 4 and bouncing off each other before Larson took the lead. Larson was amazed all three cars escaped without harm.

“I thought for sure it was going to be big,” said Larson, who will race as defending NASCAR Cup Series champion in Sunday’s Würth 400 Presented by Liqui Moly (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The next race for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is scheduled next Saturday, May 9 at the Watkins Glen International road course (4 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Post-race technical inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage at Texas without major issue, confirming Larson as the race winner. Two cars — the No. 9 JRM Chevrolet of Carson Kvapil and the No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota for Dean Thompson — were each found with one unsecured lug nut in a post-race check. Competition officials indicated that those two teams will forfeit pit-stall selection next weekend at Watkins Glen.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Staff Report

See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series drivers will pit this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

NASCAR Cup Series

nascar cup series pit stalls for texas

NASCAR Cup Series Würth 400 presented by Liqui Moly at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, FOX One, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Texas weekend schedule | How to watch NASCAR on FOX

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

o'reilly auto parts series pit stalls for texas 2026

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Andy’s Frozen Custard 340 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: How to watch O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races on The CW

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Graphic of Truck Series pit stalls at Texas Motor Speedway. NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday (8 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: How to watch NASCAR on FOX

Posted on by Staff Report

Texas Motor Speedway has had its fair share of ever-changing variables over the years, and with nine winners in the last nine races there, more unpredictability could be in store for the NASCAR Cup Series when drivers tackle the 1.5-mile track on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Hendrick Motorsports drivers have won three of the last five Texas races — Kyle Larson in 2021, William Byron in 2023 and Chase Elliott in 2024 — but Team Penske enters Sunday as the team with the defending winner, with Joey Logano taking the 2025 honors.

RELATED: Starting lineup | Saturday recap

Will a powerhouse organization find Victory Lane at the facility once again, or will a wild card emerge to tame the Lone Star State? View the full projected results, courtesy of Racing Insights, for the 267-lap contest.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

JOEY LOGANO: The defending Texas winner gets a nod here for obvious reasons. But it’s worth noting that the No. 22 Team Penske Ford driver has had an up-and-down stretch as of late. Logano’s last five races have included two top 10s and three finishes of 30th or worse. That said, Texas has been kind to the three-time Cup Series champion at times, with Logano tallying two wins, 13 top fives and 16 top 10s in 30 Texas starts.

CARSON HOCEVAR: Coming off his first career Cup Series triumph at Talladega Superspeedway, the 23-year-old now heads to a track where he started on the pole last season — and he did it again Saturday. While the No. 77 Spire Motorsports driver has a best finish of 24th here, momentum is at an all-time high, even banking a win in Friday night’s Truck Series race. Hocevar collected a top-15 finish at Kansas last month, another 1.5-mile facility that could signal better things to come at these venues for the blossoming star.

TY GIBBS: Though a 34th-place result at Talladega snapped a seven-race top-10 streak, Gibbs’ 2026 has been a breakout, with the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing driver earning his first career Cup win at Bristol Motor Speedway in April. In four Texas Cup starts, Gibbs’ best finish is 13th (2024). That said, two of his six top 10s on 1.5-mile tracks have come this season. Similar to Hocevar, momentum could be the young star’s biggest ally.

MORE: At-track photos 

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR WÜRTH 400 PRESENTED BY LIQUI MOLY (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1)

FINISHCAR NUMBERDRIVER
15Kyle Larson
245Tyler Reddick
311Denny Hamlin
49Chase Elliott
524William Byron
620Christopher Bell
717Chris Buescher
819Chase Briscoe
977Carson Hocevar
1054Ty Gibbs
1112Ryan Blaney
126Brad Keselowski
1322Joey Logano
147Daniel Suárez
152Austin Cindric
1660Ryan Preece
1723Bubba Wallace
181Ross Chastain
198Kyle Busch
2043Erik Jones
2148Alex Bowman
2271Michael McDowell
2347Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2435Riley Herbst
253Austin Dillon
2616AJ Allmendinger
2738Zane Smith
284Noah Gragson
2921Josh Berry
3097Shane van Gisbergen
3167Corey Heim
3242John Hunter Nemechek
3334Todd Gilliland
3410Ty Dillon
3541Cole Custer
3688Connor Zilisch
3751Cody Ware
3866Chad Finchum
Posted on by Staff Report

MONTEREY, Calif. – Alex Zanardi competed in only one IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, but the charismatic Italian left an impression on nearly everyone in the IMSA paddock.

Zanardi, who died at the age of 59 Friday, May 1, earned his respect and reputation by winning 15 races and two CART-sanctioned IndyCar championships in a three-year period from 1996-98. He dominated the ’97 and ’98 seasons in swashbuckling style and created the memorable tradition of celebrating race wins by spinning smoky donuts in the iconic Target-sponsored Reynard/Hondas fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing.

Zanardi lost his legs in a CART race at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in 2001 just four days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Twenty months later in May 2003, he made an emotional return to the Lausitzring and drove 13 laps at speed in a Reynard Indy car fitted with hand controls to “finish the race.” The experience inspired Zanardi to return to auto racing full-time, where driving for BMW, he scored four sports car wins in the World Touring Car Championship between 2005-09.

MORE: Full IMSA coverage

He then took on the new challenge of hand cycling and won his division in the 2011 New York Marathon before earning four gold and two silver medals in the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games. His final car race came at IMSA’s 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona, where he shared a BMW M8 GTE with Jesse Krohn, John Edwards and Chaz Mostert at the Daytona International Speedway.

Alex’s resilience was put to the ultimate test when he suffered a devastating hand bike crash in Italy in June 2020 that put him in an induced coma and led to his withdrawal from public life. He passed away peacefully at home the evening of May 1, in the company of his wife Daniella and son Niccolo.

Zanardi’s legend was sparked by “The Pass” at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 8, 1996, when he made an audacious last-lap move on Bryan Herta in the famous Corkscrew. He overcooked the entry, slid through the dirt, yet somehow maintained control and emerged ahead for the win.

Former driver Alex Zanardi poses with team owner Chip Ganassi during a presentation of Zanardi's 1998 championship-winning Target Honda Reynard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Herta and Zanardi’s Ganassi Racing teammate, Jimmy Vasser, are both at Laguna Seca this weekend, as the owner of teams that compete in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and the WeatherTech Championship.

Herta, who fields four Hyundai Elantra N TCR cars, including the pole-sitting entry for the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120, wrote on social media: “Respect and love Alex. For millions you were an inspiration and a doer of the impossible. My last and best memory is of us at Daytona Rolex, I appreciate your kindness for Colton (Herta) and everything you accomplished. Godspeed!”

Herta’s son Colton was a teammate to Zanardi with BMW M Team RLL in the 2019 Rolex 24; Colton was part of the winning GT Le Mans class entry with current BMW WeatherTech Championship drivers Connor De Phillippi, Philipp Eng and veteran Augusto Farfus.

Vasser, meanwhile, was a key part of Ganassi’s first era of open-wheel brilliance with Zanardi and is celebrating 30 years since his own Long Beach race win and the 1996 championship, achieved here in Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway. The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 won the most recent WeatherTech Championship Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) race at Long Beach.

“In 1998, we went 1-2 in the championship, and that for me, is the greatest year in my racing career as a driver, for sure,” Vasser said. “And Alex and I, over the course of the three years that we raced together, developed one of the best friendships of a lifetime. We had the most fun. It was competitive, but truly, I was happy for him when he did well and won, and I felt the same from him to me when I did well. He was truly happy for me.

“He was one of one.”

IMSA President John Doonan also paid tribute to Zanardi.

“He will forever be known for his accomplishments, not just on the race track, but as a one-of-a-kind and genuine personality,” Doonan stated. “From unforgettable moments on race tracks all over the world – including his last-lap pass for victory in The Corkscrew right here at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, where we are racing this weekend – to his remarkable achievements as a Paralympic gold-medal winner and IRONMAN record holder, Alex was an inspiration and exemplified the epitome of perseverance to anyone who had the good fortune to encounter him or learn his story.

“Having him join us for the 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona as a competitor remains a cherished memory for our IMSA community and everybody who attended or viewed that event,” Doonan added. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, his teammates, and his many friends all over the world.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Perhaps the most telling statistic relative to the difficulty of Texas Motor Speedway is the active streak of top-10 finishes at the 1.5-mile track.

Daniel Suárez leads the category with three straight top 10s. Austin Dillon has two. No other NASCAR Cup Series driver has more than one.

RELATED: Texas starting lineup | At-track photos

“That’s not very long,” Suarez said with a laugh. “We’ll take the small victories, right? It’s just very tricky. It doesn’t take a lot for you to crash or get out of the groove. I love it, though. I think it’s a great race track.

“I would say that five, eight years ago, more drivers used to hate this track, but right now, the race track is getting to a point where it’s not a brand new race track anymore. It’s tough. There are some bumps. It’s getting some wear. So, it’s a lot of fun.”

The consensus among Cup drivers is that passing is difficult at Texas because of the narrow nature of the racing line. Suarez doesn’t see it that way.

“I think it’s already to the point where we have two-and-a-half lanes in (Turns) 1 and 2 and maybe two or two-and-a-quarter lanes in 3 and 4,” Suarez said. “I think it’s getting wider every single year, so that’s positive.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

To say Texan Chris Buescher has been snakebit in his home state is putting it mildly.

In 16 starts at Texas Motor Speedway, Buescher has never scored a top 10. He has led just two of the 5,006 laps he has run at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway. His average finish is 21.9.

RELATED: Texas weekend schedule | At-track photos

Nevertheless, Buescher frequently has shown speed at Texas, and he’s looking for a breakthrough in Sunday’s Wurth 400 Presented by Liqui Moly (3:30 p.m. ET FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“We’ve had more tire failures here than any other race track,” Buescher said. “Early on, we came here and had speed, but we were still understanding the new (Gen 7) car, the sensitivities to having tire blowouts.

“We’ve had days here when we’ve been pretty good, and it’s started drizzling — the great fog from five or six years ago, right? Unfortunately, I was the one who found the moisture that ended the race for three days before we got back going …

“You go through the years here, and I feel like we’ve had very few days here where we haven’t been competitive, but, man, the stats don’t show that. I hope we fix that this go-round — I think we can.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

FORT WORTH, Texas — In a manner of speaking, Carson Hocevar called his shot at Texas Motor Speedway — and wound up on the pole for Sunday’s Würth 400 Presented by Liqui Moly (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Sunday’s starting lineup | At-track photos: Texas

Before Saturday’s time trials at the 1.5-mile track, Hocevar said he hoped to capitalize on his last-in-the-order qualifying position — a benefit of his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway last Sunday.

“Hopefully we can roll out last and take advantage of it,” Hocevar said. “Start up front, which is super-important here. Pit stops are going to be important. Get a good pit selection and really keep the momentum rolling.”

It took a monumental lap for Hocevar to achieve that objective. Streaking around the speedway in 25.222 seconds (191.240 mph), he edged Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suárez (191.320 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.003 seconds.

The Busch Light Pole Award was the second of Hocevar’s career, with the first coming at Texas a year ago.

“Maybe going to (sponsor) Chili’s last night, it weighed the car down just a little bit more, and I had a little more left-side weight,” joked Hocevar, who also won Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at TMS. “I don’t know where those three thousandths (of a second) are, but I’m glad I had ‘em in the bank.

“My lap felt pretty good. It wasn’t quite key it up on the radio and (say)… ‘If they beat that, they can have it,’ and they don’t get beat. It wasn’t quite doing that, but I was coming off Turn 4, and I was like, ‘If this isn’t fast, I’m going to be disappointed.’ It felt good.”

RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher qualified third at 190.981 mph in the only Ford that cracked the top 10. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe tied for fourth at 190.786 mph, with Hamlin getting the nod for the higher starting spot on an owner points tiebreaker.

Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, series leader Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman and Ty Gibbs completed the top 10 on the grid. Defending Cup champion Kyle Larson will start 11th. Busch, in his first race with new crew chief Andy Street, notched his best qualifying effort since winning the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500.

Byron lands fastest lap in Texas practice

William Byron topped the charts in Cup Series practice at Texas Motor Speedway, guiding the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a 189.294-mph lap.

Byron was also fastest in the consecutive 10-lap average category. Michael McDowell was second-fastest in the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevy at 188.508 mph. Rookie Corey Heim posted the third-fastest lap, with John Hunter Nemechek and Bubba Wallace completing the top five.

MORE: Practice results | Weekend schedule: Texas

Wallace’s time came before his No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota crashed during the waning moments of the first of two groups. He was unable to post a qualifying lap and will start at the rear of the 38-car field in Sunday’s 400-miler.

“It was on edge, just like Texas is,” Wallace said of the accident. “Just trying to find the right balance for us and our team. So it was going to be a good debrief to figure out if we can get some more speed, but just have to rely on our teammates and go get it (Sunday). This is a very unforgiving place. So like I said, it (the No. 23 Camry) was around before I even knew it.”

Austin Dillon also didn’t make a qualifying attempt after his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet slowed with engine trouble, completing just three laps.

The second group was also interrupted when Daniel Suárez’s No. 7 Chevrolet stalled with a flat tire. Suárez backed up to pit road to the attention of his Spire Motorsports crew, and ended practice with the 10th-fastest time.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Dustin Albino

FORT WORTH, Texas – When thinking about which drivers could be next in line to snag a Bill France Cup on their resumes, you don’t need to go far down the list to point out Christopher Bell and William Byron. But this year – the return of The Chase – could tell a different story.

The pair of perennial championship threats, who both made multiple Championship 4 appearances in the last four seasons, are off to sluggish starts in 2026. Between the one-third mark of the 2023 season through the duration of 2025, Byron spent 97 consecutive weeks inside the top 10 in points, including 47 weeks leading the series. He never dropped below third last year. Meanwhile, Bell, the always consistent Joe Gibbs Racing driver, has cracked the top five in the championship standings in each of the last four years.

Through 10 races in 2026, Bell has slipped to ninth in the regular-season championship standings. Meanwhile, Byron, who had a dreadful April, with a pair of finishes of 30th or worse, has plummeted to 11th. After the conclusion of five races, the No. 24 team has been outside the top 10 in points.

RELATED: Texas weekend schedule | At-track photos

“We just got to get going,” Byron said on Saturday morning at Texas Motor Speedway. “We’ve got to get to a normal style race track and reset from some of the weeks that we’ve had.”

Upon a 35th-place early exit at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend, Byron checked the point standings and had an honest conversation with himself. But between a putrid performance with a steering problem at Bristol Motor Speedway and being in the eye of the storm last weekend at the 2.66-mile oval, he tallied a mere nine points total in two of the last three events.

“It was a bit of a shock coming out of Talladega seeing how far we had fallen in the points,” Byron stated. “Two out of three weeks, not a lot of points. Just have to reset.

“When you look at The Chase format, it sets up well if you can be in the top 10, really. Look at how many points you can gain or lose in 10 weeks. It’s about trying to get to that part of the season, but you’ve got to get there by being competitive. Just being able to have weeks where we can be a contending car and that’s going to give us confidence that we can gain points.”

The performance of the No. 20 team has been strong in 2026, leading 303 laps, third-best in Cup. The finishes tell a different story, however, with a 40% top-10 percentage.

The last two weekends, specifically, have been gut-wrenching. He was well positioned for a top-five finish in overtime at Kansas before contact with eventual race winner Tyler Reddick on the penultimate lap cut a tire, dropping him to 20th in the finishing order. He followed that up at Talladega by contending for a top 10 and was in the middle of a multi-car incident yards away from the finish, crediting him with a 17th-place finish.

MORE: Cup Series standings

“It’s so painful,” Bell said of his late-race madness the last two weeks. “I don’t know that I’ve had a stretch like that where – they always say, ‘Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,’ but jeez.

“I feel optimistic that it’s going to turn around at some point.”

Like Byron, Bell has noticed himself glancing at the points more frequently in 2026. And even though he’s ninth in the standings, the No. 20 team ranks less than a full race – 54 points – behind third-place Ryan Blaney. Any shot at catching Tyler Reddick, who has a 110-point buffer over second place alone, he believes, is out of the question.

“It’s a bummer where we’re at,” Bell noted. “On the positive side, we’ve gotten terrible finishes and are within striking distance – not of the Regular Season Championship – but hopefully of the big picture, full-season championship, we are still in position.”

Posted on by Dustin Albino

FORT WORTH, Texas – Midway through Group 1 practice for Sunday’s Würth 400 presented by Liqui Moly at Texas Motor Speedway, Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota snapped around through Turns 1 and 2 quicker than he realized. The result is 23XI Racing unloading the backup car for race day.

“It just came around out of nowhere and surprised me,” Wallace told reporters after the incident. “I knew I was loose in the moment, went to correct it and it was too late. Hate it. Thought we had some decent speed. Just a long Saturday that’s going to make for a good Sunday.”

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Texas

Wallace ranked fifth in single-lap speed before the crash. The No. 23 car dipped to 18th on 10- and 15-lap averages.

Among the hurdles to overcome on Sunday will be poor pit-stall selection and the need to find track position at a venue where it’s paramount. There is optimism, however, as six of the top 10 in last year’s Texas race’s finishing order started 24th or worse, including all three podium finishers.

“Looking at the positives of the day, erase the negatives and go drive hard tomorrow,” Wallace said of his outlook come the green flag. “Just need to execute all day tomorrow. We’re starting at the back, no good pit stall. The odds are against us, so we will see how mentally tough we are.”

The unique characteristics of Texas make it unforgiving. With how treacherous the 1.5-mile oval can be, Wallace knows he will need to pick his way through the field carefully to avoid another disappointing finish.

“You just have to be smart about it,” he added. “Coming here a handful of times, you know where to be, putting yourself in the right spot to capitalize on and we’ll be OK.”

Entering Texas, Wallace has three finishes of 34th or worse in the last five races, including a pair of DNFs. He vowed not to make the same mistake twice this weekend.

Wallace concluded, “I haven’t crashed in practice in quite some time. The positive of that is, I pushed the limits, found the limit and it won’t happen again.”