Fantasy Fastlane: Briscoe, Reddick headline Chase opener at Darlington

Posted on September 4, 2026September 5, 2026 by Dustin Albino

And just like that, the 2026 regular season is complete, and The Chase presented by Mobil 1 is back. Toyota is aiming to become the first manufacturer in three decades to win four consecutive races at Darlington Raceway, while the opening two stages have been swept by the same driver in each of the last four races here. Chase Briscoe is looking to join an exclusive list this weekend. There are storylines galore entering the postseason opener, where points reset – as do fantasy picks!

Returning to Fastlane this year is my weekly NASCAR 36 for 36 pick, where you can come play along. It’s a season-long points battle introduced in 2024 where strategy is the primary emphasis. With 36 chartered cars and 36 races on the 2026 schedule, players can choose each car once for the duration of the season.

RELATED: NASCAR Fantasy Live hub | Play 36 for 36

MUST START

Driver: Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Selections remaining: 5
Comment: Briscoe has won the last two Southern 500s with different organizations. Last year’s stomping of 309 laps led was the most in a Darlington race since Dale Earnhardt led 335 circuits in April 1986 (average running position of 1.7). He is aiming to join Jeff Gordon as the only driver to win three consecutive Southern 500s.

Driver: Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
Selections remaining: 5
Comment: Reddick earned his fourth victory through the opening six weeks of the season here in March. That seems like a distant memory, with a tumbling summer stretch. But Reddick is elite at the track “Too Tough to Tame,” with five top-three results in the Next Gen era, most of all drivers.

Driver: Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Selections remaining: 5
Comment: Hamlin admitted recently that he hasn’t felt great at Darlington in recent years. But of every driver to make multiple starts at the “Lady in Black,” Hamlin leads the way with an 8.0 average finish. He is a five-time winner and cracked the top five in half of his starts.

David Jensen | Getty Images

DRIVERS TO AVOID

Driver: Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Selections remaining: 5
Comment: Bell has been sufficient just about everywhere throughout his NASCAR career, but Darlington leaves a lot to be desired. In 14 starts, he has just four top-10 efforts, though two of those were rounding out the podium in the last four tries.

Driver: Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
Selections remaining: 5
Comment: The last eight weeks of the regular season couldn’t have gone much better for the three-time Cup champion. The true test begins now with the return of an intermediate track. Logano has been ice cold at Darlington, going seven straight races without a top five. In that same stretch, he scored just one top 10 and had four finishes of 18th or worse.

James Gilbert | Getty Images

SLEEPERS OF THE WEEK

Driver: Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford
Selections remaining: 5
Comment: RFK needs to capitalize at Darlington after its three cars all had contending pace at the egg-shaped oval earlier in the season. All that’s missing from Buescher’s Darlington résumé is a win, with six top-10s in the last seven races, including four straight.

Driver: Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
Selections remaining: 5
Comment: It’s Jones week! Two of his three Cup wins have come in the grueling South Carolina sun, battling the car for over four hours. He has six top-five and 10 top-10 finishes here, his most at any venue.

Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

FEATURED MATCHUPS

Denny Hamlin vs. Kyle Larson
Pick: Hamlin
Comment: Larson was the driver to beat at Darlington not long ago, leading laps in bunches despite winning just once (2023). Lately, it has been a different story, with four finishes of 19th or worse in the last five visits. Hamlin is Mr. Consistency here, so this is a rather easy choice.

Ryan Blaney vs. Carson Hocevar
Pick: Blaney
Comment: Blaney has been feast or famine at Darlington in recent races, collecting a pair of top fives in the last three races but finished last in both 2024 visits. Hocevar charged to fourth late in the going of the spring race, just behind the No. 12 car. I’ll take Blaney to finish ahead this weekend, too.

Ryan Preece vs. Daniel Suárez
Pick: Preece
Comment: Preece is heating up at the right time, but his Daytona win was his first top five in more than a year. Suárez, meanwhile, had a career resurgence, leading all Chevy drivers with a 14.7 average finish in the regular season. Darlington suits RFK, though Preece is still seeking his first top 10.

Tyler Reddick vs. Chase Briscoe
Pick: Briscoe
Comment: This is a heavyweight battle between the two most recent Darlington winners. Briscoe has aced this race each of the last two seasons, and arguably, no team has been more consistent over the last two months than the No. 19 group. Reddick will be fast, likely rim-riding against the wall. The winner of this battle might need to win the race, but Briscoe gets the nod entering the weekend.

MY LINEUP

Starting five: Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson.
Garage: Erik Jones.

36 FOR 36

Pick: Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Comment: If you have the two-time defending winner of the race in your arsenal, this would be a good week to use him. Briscoe has taken to Darlington well, dating back to his days in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Now, he’s paired with the No. 19 team, which always ran toward the front here with Martin Truex Jr., and it could be another long night for the competition on Sunday.

Posted on September 4, 2026September 5, 2026 by John Crane

The stage is set. The Chase presented by Mobil 1 is upon us. The 12-driver field for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series was cemented after the 2026 regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. Now comes the nine-race gantlet toward title glory, with one driver taking home the championship crown once the dust settles in November at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

So, how does the group shake out heading into postseason play? Let’s cut to The Chase (no pun intended), with NASCAR.com’s John Crane ranking the 12 Chase drivers before the postseason begins at Darlington Raceway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Seed: No. 1

Postseason appearance: 11th

Regular-season stats: 6 wins, 14 top fives, 18 top 10s, 2 poles, 559 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Bristol, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Martinsville, Homestead

Analysis: The runaway leader during the regular season, the 40-year-old Allgaier enters The Chase as the championship favorite. The 2024 O’Reilly champion’s wins, top fives, top 10s, laps led and 9.4 average finish this season lead all full-timers, and when comparing his 2026 to prior O’Reilly campaigns, it isn’t far-fetched to suggest that this is Allgaier’s best. The postseason slate only strengthens Allgaier’s title case as the No. 7 driver possesses at least one O’Reilly victory at every Chase track except for two (Gateway, Talladega).

Seed: No. 2

Postseason appearance: 2nd

Regular-season stats: 2 wins, 9 top fives, 15 top 10s, 0 poles, 181 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Bristol, Charlotte, Phoenix

Analysis: It’s been up, up, up for the 23-year-old Kvapil ever since his first career O’Reilly win in July at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Following it up with career O’Reilly triumph No. 2 at Iowa Speedway two weeks later — not to mention a third-place result in the regular-season finale — illustrates Kvapil’s budding stardom. Such momentum could be dangerous for the rest of the postseason field. Let’s not forget Kvapil raced in the postseason last year. With experience, speed and winning capability, the future No. 8 JR Motorsports driver has what it takes to make a claim for the championship crown.

Seed: No. 5

Postseason appearance: 5th

Regular-season stats: 2 wins, 7 top fives, 11 top 10s, 1 pole, 173 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Las Vegas, Talladega, Martinsville, Homestead

Analysis: A Daytona runner-up has Hill on a momentum swing, with finishes of 11th or better in four of the last five O’Reilly races. Though his top-five, top-10 and lap-led totals are not on pace to shatter any records, Hill brings some of the best oval acumen to the table, and there are plenty of ovals on the postseason slate. With a career-best O’Reilly finish of fourth in the championship table (2024), does the soon-to-be full-time driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series have enough juice to capture a title before the Cup leap? There is a path.

Seed: No. 3

Postseason appearance: 4th

Regular-season stats: 1 win, 9 top fives, 16 top 10s, 1 pole, 182 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Phoenix, Talladega, Martinsville

Analysis: Creed’s 8.2 average start ranks first among full-timers, while his 10.5 average finish ranks second. Not too shabby. Coupled with four consecutive races with at least one lap led, the No. 00 Chevrolet is in good shape entering postseason action. The big question: Can Creed make another winning impact? We all know about his Victory Lane breakthrough in February at EchoPark Speedway, but another triumph or two would go a long way in making a championship case. Opportunities certainly abound, and with Creed on pace to shatter his laps-led total (190 in 2023), that could become reality.

Seed: No. 4

Postseason appearance: 3rd

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 7 top fives, 13 top 10s, 1 pole, 383 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Phoenix, Talladega, Homestead

Analysis: Tough sledding of late — look no further than four consecutive finishes of 16th or worse — has the defending O’Reilly champion on the cusp of dropping out of the top five. The No. 2 remains inside the top five in this installment, though, primarily on track record and the ability to race at the front of the field during postseason action; Love’s 383 laps led rank second among full-time drivers. Benefit of the doubt is applicable in this instance. Whether Love can put together a scorcher will be the difference between defending his title and missing it by a wide margin.

Seed: No. 6

Postseason appearance: 8th

Regular-season stats: 1 win, 6 top fives, 14 top 10s, 1 pole, 131 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Martinsville, Homestead

Analysis: Jones has held steady at P6 in the driver standings for a bit, and that continues heading into The Chase. The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing driver has been consistent in his starting and finishing position, with near-identical marks in average start and average finish (11.2 vs. 12.2). Though Kansas Speedway — where he possesses three wins — is not on the postseason docket, Jones (who will return to Joe Gibbs next season) still has the capability to make postseason noise. After all, Jones finished runner-up in March at Darlington. Can that performance be replicated and then duplicated for other tracks? To be determined.

Seed: No. 7

Postseason appearance: 1st

Regular-season stats: 2 wins, 6 top fives, 15 top 10s, 1 pole, 195 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Las Vegas, Charlotte, Talladega

Analysis: Finishes of 29th or worse in three of the last four races have Day limping into postseason play. Leading laps and contending for race wins give Day a Chase advantage, but just how much of that advantage will propel the No. 17 driver? The good news is that the bulk of Day’s 2026 success has come at tracks on the postseason schedule, with finishes inside the top 10 at Phoenix Raceway (ninth), Las Vegas Motor Speedway (eighth), Bristol Motor Speedway (eighth), Darlington (sixth) and Charlotte (fifth), a runner-up at Martinsville Speedway and a win at Talladega Superspeedway. Being a rookie, postseason racing could be a different beast, and how Day tackles the challenge will be fascinating to watch.

Seed: No. 9

Postseason appearance: 1st

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 4 top fives, 10 top 10s, 0 poles, 8 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Gateway, Talladega

Analysis: The theme of Retzlaff’s 2026 campaign? Consistent and clean. With only two DNFs to his ledger — with the most recent one coming in May at Dover Motor Speedway — it’s no surprise the 23-year-old Retzlaff has compiled a ton of positive track time, with the net result being a top-10 points position and coveted Chase berth. The No. 99 driver has been a boon for Viking Motorsports this season, but with limited laps led, the team will need to reach another gear if it wants to contend for hardware.

Seed: No. 8

Postseason appearance: 4th

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 6 top fives, 10 top 10s, 0 poles, 51 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Darlington, Phoenix, Talladega, Martinsville

Analysis: Smith has run a similar trajectory to Retzlaff in terms of overall consistency, though the former enters The Chase on shakier footing, finishing 36th at Daytona. Smith’s strong start to 2026 — where he finished ninth or better in six of the first seven contests — will need to be replicated in some fashion if Smith wishes to crack into the circuit’s upper echelon over his final nine races as driver of the No. 8. Luckily for Smith, four of the first seven tracks to open the season (Phoenix, Las Vegas, Darlington, Martinsville) are on the postseason calendar. Same goes for Talladega, where Smith compiled his second-best finish of the year (fourth).

Seed: No. 11

Postseason appearance: 2nd

Regular-season stats: 1 win, 3 top fives, 9 top 10s, 1 pole, 189 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Phoenix, Martinsville

Analysis: Going dancing for a second consecutive season gives the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing a sense of unfinished business. Add in the fact that Gray’s first O’Reilly victory came at Martinsville during postseason play last season, and the storyline of what the young Gray can do in his sophomore postseason campaign becomes more tantalizing. With Martinsville the penultimate Chase track this season, it is imperative that Gray leverages consistent, solid finishes in the build-up to that short-track showdown. Can it be done? Sure. But work still needs to happen beforehand.

Seed: No. 10

Postseason appearance: 5th

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 5 top fives, 10 top 10s, 3 poles, 171 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Bristol, Martinsville, Homestead

Analysis: There’s no doubt that Mayer has illustrated qualifying speed; Mayer’s 8.5 average start ranks tied for second among full-time drivers, behind only Creed (8.2). A 17.5 average finish puts a damper on that statistic, and whether Mayer can finish races in The Chase will determine if a legitimate title path can be paved. Like Gray, success needs to come early and often. Why? Homestead-Miami Speedway is arguably Mayer’s best track (one win, three top fives, four top 10s, 68 laps led), and that is the site of this year’s finale. If there is a stretch for Mayer to put complete races together, this is the time.

Seed: No. 12

Postseason appearance: 1st

Regular-season stats: 0 wins, 2 top fives, 8 top 10s, 1 pole, 87 laps led

Best Chase tracks: Charlotte, Phoenix

Analysis: Overcoming a late wreck at Daytona to slide into the 12-driver Chase field highlights Caruth’s ability to perform in the clutch. The clutch gene will need to continue in more ways than one during this year’s postseason, though, not only because he was the last driver in, but also because the 24-year-old driver only has top-10 finishes at two Chase tracks (Charlotte, Phoenix). The mountain will be a tough one to climb, and even if it is successfully completed, help from others in the postseason hunt will be necessary to make a big climb.

Posted on September 3, 2026September 5, 2026 by Nathan Solomon

CONCORD, N.C. — Legacy Motor Club unveiled a key part of its 2027 NASCAR Cup Series driver lineup on Thursday, announcing that Riley Herbst will drive the team’s No. 84 Toyota next season.

Herbst, 27, currently drives 23XI Racing’s No. 35 Toyota and is in his second season in stock-car racing’s pinnacle series. 23XI announced in May that Corey Heim, who’s won two races in a part-time slate, will take over that ride next season.

From Las Vegas, Nevada, Herbst’s roots with owner Jimmie Johnson run deep. Johnson has a relationship with Herbst’s father, Troy, from off-road racing, making the decision easy for both driver and owner.

The No. 84, of course, is an inverse of the number Johnson drove to seven Cup championships.

“It was awesome to team up with a childhood hero,” Herbst said in a press conference at Ten Tenths Motor Club, which sits adjacent to Charlotte Motor Speedway. “My dad always used to tell me that he grew up with Jimmie, knew Jimmie – I didn’t believe him. This is when Jimmie was on a streak of five in a row and dominating.

“I love Jimmie, but this red badge on my arm was probably case No. 1 of why Legacy was the right option. The investment that Tyler [Gibbs, group vice president and president of Toyota Racing Development] and Jack [Irving, TRD general manager] and everybody at Toyota USA puts into NASCAR and motorsports is second to none, and I think Jimmie would back that up. I’m just excited to stay with the Toyota family and continue to grow with that manufacturer and hopefully take Legacy to the next step within the Toyota camp.”

Johnson confirmed in March that the organization would field three full-time Cup entries next season for the first time. Erik Jones currently drives the No. 43 Toyota and will return in 2027, but the announcement comes less than 24 hours after the team confirmed that John Hunter Nemechek will not return to the No. 42 Toyota.

“He’s the perfect fit for us, and he’s the future of Legacy,” Johnson said of Herbst. “Troy, he’s been so kind, offering me a chance to race a [off-road] truck the last couple of years, and it came together in March. As we worked through that incredible opportunity, this started to heat up in this opportunity. There’s a certain discipline that you learn on the dirt and driving those vehicles that I really feel like gives you a huge advantage in a Cup car, and I was able to exploit that. And then you take the work ethic and commitment this young man has, his dedication and focus to being the best driver he can be.

“Riley is an up-and-coming driver in the sport. There’s a lot of legacies that built it, but we’re hopeful we’re just dropping seeds and watering that soil for all these legacies to grow out in front of us.”

Herbst has experienced significant gains during his second full-time Cup bout, earning three top 10s – including a pair of eighth-place finishes – in 25 starts this season. He missed last Saturday’s race at Daytona due to “lingering effects” from a crash the previous weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

As a rookie, Herbst finished no higher than 14th and place 35th in the series ranks. His average finish is tracking over four positions better than 2025.

Before jumping to the Cup Series, Herbst spent five full-time campaigns in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, winning three races. He finished as high as seventh in points two years ago, driving for now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing.

MORE: Legacy Motor Club website

“I just gained so much knowledge throughout 38 races the first year, and then this year, I felt like our pace has been way better,” Herbst explained. “I feel like this year, we’ve turned the page, and we’ve really progressed with pace and speed and finishes. I’m very grateful to have really good teammates in Bubba and Tyler that have taught me how to prepare, and be able to go to what, [64]-time winner in Denny to ask questions.

“But all that has to do with great people, and I mean that wholeheartedly, and to have a really good ownership that I know will be seamlessly for my transition over to Legacy.”

Herbst’s longtime sponsor, Monster Energy, will follow him from 23XI to Legacy, adding a major sports energy drink brand to the exponentially growing organization. The team in August announced 11 additions to its ownership group, including Major League Baseball star Bryce Harper, IndyCar legends Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan and tennis great Andy Roddick.

“We’re building the Legacy of tomorrow, and there’s a lot of ways that you can spin it,” Johnson said. “But for us to have a vision, have a mission, have incredible partners like Toyota, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Carvana, you go through the list. Very thankful for the corporate support, and now to have a brand with Monster inside of our organization is so meaningful.”

Nathan Solomon | NASCAR Digital Media

Information regarding Herbst’s crew chief was not released. Davin Restivo currently calls the shots for Herbst at 23XI and has been paired with the driver since mid-2023 in the O’Reilly Series.

Additionally, Johnson did not share information regarding Nemechek’s replacement in the No. 42 entry. Nemechek has scored a pair of top 10s this season, trending toward a step down in that category and average finish from 2025. The team’s flagship driver, Jones, has five top 10s – including a runner-up at Michigan International Speedway in June – and sat above the provisional Chase presented by Mobil 1 cutline after 20 races.

But regardless of who fills that now-vacant seat, Johnson believes that adding Herbst and a third car to the organization will prove beneficial as he enters his third season as majority owner.

“It increases our on-track knowledge by 33 percent, and it sounds silly, but as a young team, the strategy with our cars and our correlation loop, it’s just difficult, and that car can provide a lot of flexibility for us,” he said. “Now that we can’t test and instrument cars, the driver is the computer and is the most important piece of that validation loop. So to have another driver, another team, another everything that comes with that scaling is really important.

“To really have a chance to create a culture within our walls and build the organization that we want, we’re in that building process, and I truly feel like we have the foundation built. And now, we’re going to be able to really flex muscle, perform on track and hit all of our objectives, which, in the long run, our goal is in five years to be an elite team.”

Posted on September 3, 2026September 3, 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, beginning with a Zilisch-focused premiere, live now.

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 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 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 September 3, 2026 by Zack Albert

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Justin Allgaier has already established himself as a favorite for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship, based not just on his edge in experience but on a brilliant regular-season run. His six wins — and counting — plus remarkable consistency left him 229 points clear of the field after last Friday’s regular-season closer at Daytona International Speedway.

His strongest challengers in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, however, may come from within. Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammates are lining up to be his closest competition in the nine races ahead.

“I would be hard-pressed to say that they’re not,” Allgaier said during Wednesday’s Chase Media Day.

The rest of his answer included nuance about other organizations’ abilities, plus the potential extra effort required of JRM to field a multipronged Chase offensive. But the thrust of his insight was based on his faith in the team’s direction, one that’s so far led to 15 wins in 24 races this year and a 1-2-3 finish in the team owners’ points at regular season’s end.

JR Motorsports carries the front-runner banner into Saturday’s Fleetio 200 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the opening race in the circuit’s Chase. Allgaier’s odds for a strong start are greater thanks to the venue — historic Darlington Raceway, where the 2024 series champ is a four-time winner, including a victory there back in March.

That performance marked a milestone: his 30th win in the series and a figure that only grew through the summer months. But Allgaier says he isn’t necessarily counting his No. 7 Chevrolet team’s output as a guarantee of Chase success. The Illinois native pointed to his fandom of Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals, noting how their regular-season results historically haven’t necessarily meant postseason advancement.

“I don’t want to do that,” said Allgaier, whose lead in the standings now sits at 25 points after re-seeding. “But on the other side of it, I think people race differently in the regular season than they do in The Chase. I think you’re going to have people that you expect to run at a high level that don’t, and you’re going to have people that you didn’t expect to have a good Chase, and they’re going to, right? You never really know what that looks like until you’re kind of in it, and I just feel like for us, if we don’t change paths and we do the same thing we’ve been doing, yeah, we’ve got a great shot at it still. But you know, I think it’s really easy to feel like you get behind sometimes, right? We need to not do that. We’ve seen it time and time again. We’re gonna just run the way we’ve been running, do the things we’ve been doing.”

That not-broken-don’t-fix approach also applies to fellow JRM driver Carson Kvapil, who finished second in the regular-season points but enters The Chase with one of the circuit’s hottest hands. After a succession of near-misses and flirtations with tasting his first O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory, the 23-year-old driver broke through in a big way at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, added another in quick order at Iowa Speedway and nearly made it a fast three in a row before getting the short end of an overtime restart last week at Daytona.

Kvapil likened snapping his winless drought to removing a dark cloud from overhead. Now the next-generation driver has some clarity, both in his No. 1 Chevy team’s abilities and who he’ll likely have to outrun for a shot at the title — Allgaier, plus fellow JRM teammates Sammy Smith and Rajah Caruth.

“It’s going to be really cool to see how it all plays out,” Kvapil said. “Obviously, with us being in the same building, it’s gonna get weird at times probably, but that’s just part of it, just part of racing. But no, I feel like our team is really strong, and we’ve hit our stride these last couple weeks, and this is the normal now, I guess you could say. It’s not like we’ve had these last good couple of weeks, and we’re pumped up and excited and praying that it’s gonna stay that way. We know this is what we’re capable of, and all the finishes are starting to come together for us.”

The rest of the 12-driver field comes from a variety of teams — Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer, Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love and Austin Hill, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones and Taylor Gray, plus Hendrick Motorsports’ Corey Day and Viking Motorsports’ Parker Retzlaff. Their assignment comes with a sense of awareness, both of what JR Motorsports has been able to accomplish and the mistake-free racing that will be required to oust them.

“Nine races isn’t a lot, especially with this points format,” said the 21-year-old Gray, who enters The Chase as the 11th seed. “Justin Allgaier, we’ve seen he’s excelled at it this year, right? He’s done this longer than I’ve been alive, and he’s excelled at being consistent, right, and he absolutely stomped us all in the dirt in the regular season, so I think that shows how consistent you do have to be. And you know, obviously on top of that, they’ve had a lot of speed. So for us, it’s all about consistency, right? No DNFs, running up front and winning races.”

MORE: Chase format 101 | Photos: Chase Media Day

Producing that sort of measured reliability should be key, both for JR Motorsports drivers and their rivals. Caruth enters as the last of the 12 seeds, but will have a consistent ride for The Chase, driving the No. 88 JRM Chevrolet the rest of the way after splitting the regular season between that team and Jordan Anderson Racing’s No. 32.

It’s Caruth’s first Chase appearance in his first full-time O’Reilly Series campaign, but he has postseason experience with the elimination-era playoff structure from his last two seasons in the Craftsman Truck Series. He says he expects the rigors of The Chase to be a different sort of pressure.

“Compared to the format in previous years, sure, winning’s great, but the valleys are way more hurtful than they were in previous years,” Caruth said. “So it’s going to be important where if you’re having a seventh-place day to not make it a 12th- or 15th- or 20th-place day, and then also not throw away a second or third trying to get a win and then ending up outside of the top 10. It’s going to be even more important for that in The Chase. Yeah, I really feel good about our chances. Not only will our cars be fast, but I’m confident in myself and the lessons I learned earlier this year, and ready to put it all to the test.”

Posted on September 3, 2026 by Neil Paine

The Chase presented by Mobil 1 is on — and it’s going to be a fascinating twist on the old days of the pre-playoff system. The last time we saw a postseason format quite like this, with the final 10 races serving as a mini-season of sorts, it was 2013 and Jeff Gordon had just been added as a 13th Chase driver because of “Spingate.”

This time around, 16 drivers have made The Chase, including Ryan Preece, who brought back echoes of the win-and-in era with his victory at Daytona, and they’ll be off and rolling toward the championship starting on Sunday at Darlington. Just as we’ve done in the past, we used projected Driver Ratings (blending overall and track-type-specific performance) to simulate The Chase 10,000 times, tracking how far each contender tends to get, and how often they’re able to win the championship.

And one thing is clear right from the start: Denny Hamlin is a strong favorite to finally win his first career title.

A year after suffering one of the most heartbreaking losses in sports history, losing what would have been his first career Cup Series championship on a late Phoenix caution and restart, Hamlin is back for another try — and he’s in a great position to put his claim as Best Driver to Never Win a Title in the dustbin forever. According to the forecast simulations, Denny has around a 50-50 chance to capture his first championship, well clear of anyone else in the field:

If that sounds high — the prediction markets are around 40% for him, by comparison — consider that Denny not only was the best driver of the 2026 regular season — the only Cup regular to break triple-digits (100.6) in average Driver Rating — but he also is by far The Chase driver most suited to the 10 tracks left on the schedule. Here’s a breakdown of which track types/categories make up The Chase races, relative to the overall mix of tracks on the 2026 schedule:

We can see that intermediates (like Darlington, Kansas, Las Vegas, Charlotte and Homestead) are heavily over-represented in The Chase, with flat short tracks (Gateway, Phoenix, Martinsville) and steep tracks (Bristol) also showing up more often than usual. For his part, Hamlin happens to be the best intermediate driver in the series by far, and second only to Blaney at short/flat and steep tracks. Meanwhile, road/street courses and drafting tracks — where Denny is notably less dominant — are disproportionately absent from The Chase. (And in fairness, so are big flat tracks like Indianapolis and Pocono, where Denny does dominate.)

How much does that help Hamlin? His average projected Driver Rating across the 10 Chase tracks is 104.0, versus 98.4 across all the sites on the 2026 Cup schedule. While most title-eligible drivers are more suited to The Chase tracks than the average track at this point — again, tracks that are high-variance (superspeedways) or cut against typical oval-racing skills (road courses) have been downplayed relative to bread-and-butter ovals — Hamlin’s advantage is more than double that of the next-highest Chase drivers, Christopher Bell and Bubba Wallace:

But even if things are lined up for Denny’s date with destiny, he still has to go out and execute it. The key track to watch for Hamlin will be Las Vegas in the fifth Chase race on Oct. 4. Unsurprisingly, Denny is projected as a heavy favorite to win on maybe the most quintessential of all intermediate 1.5-mile tracks, which sets up opportunity — in the simulations, he wins the title 74% of the time when he takes the checkered flag in the Nevada desert — but also pressure if he doesn’t perform at a track where he’s supposed to dominate.

In fact, each of Las Vegas, Homestead, Phoenix and Charlotte are potential playgrounds for the No. 11, but also see Hamlin’s title odds drop by at least 20% if he finishes outside the top 20. Even Darlington this weekend could eat into his title chances nearly as much with a bad finish right away.

And if Hamlin doesn’t go on to take the title, who might claim it instead?

The obvious pick is Blaney, who has been driving at a higher level than Hamlin recently. The problem for the No. 12 team, though, is they start at multiple disadvantages: Not only does Hamlin have the built-in 25-point standings lead over Blaney from the opening green flag, but the mix of Chase tracks also does not favor Blaney nearly as well as it does Hamlin.

As mentioned before, Blaney is great on short flat tracks and steep tracks, so he is the model’s top favorite to win at Gateway, Bristol, Phoenix and Martinsville. He’s also the highest-rated superspeedway driver, so he’s favored to win at Talladega, too. The problem, though, is those tracks only make up half of The Chase schedule; the rest are intermediates, where Blaney was outpaced by a handful of drivers this season, none more so than Hamlin. And any potential advantage for the No. 12 car at road courses — where Blaney was massively better than Hamlin this season (106.0 rating versus 69.3) — is nullified by there being none of those in the ’26 Chase.

Even so, Blaney should put forward a strong showing in the next 10 races. There’s a reason why either Hamlin or Blaney win the championship a huge share of the time, beyond simply the big cushion they start with in the pre-Chase standings. But if the two favorites falter, things truly become wide-open. Here are the model odds in just the subset of simulations where neither Hamlin nor Blaney end up winning the ’26 crown:

Given the way they’ve been driving recently, both Bell and Chase Briscoe have a real shot at playing spoiler despite neither being seeded within the top four. (Similar to his JGR teammate Hamlin, Bell in particular also benefits from the set of tracks making up The Chase; Briscoe, less so, despite driving the same equipment). Briscoe has won two of the past four races held at Darlington, so he’ll be especially under pressure to live up to that pedigree from the start of the postseason, just to keep up with the points Hamlin is expected to produce once The Chase schedule hits its Kansas-Vegas-Charlotte corridor midway through.

The same can be said for Tyler Reddick, whose recent drop in form has been well-documented — and who no longer has any margin for error while trying to rediscover his early-season speed. (Even en route to a third-place run at Daytona, Reddick posted only a 79.2 Driver Rating after running 75% of the race outside the top 15.) Reddick needs a strong run Sunday at Darlington, where he won in March, to get his title bid back on track; even a run outside the top 10 causes his odds in the forecast model to drop, all else being equal. Still, he and Ty Gibbs are within enough striking distance in the points to stand a solid chance of stealing the title if Hamlin and Blaney both come up short.

Not coincidentally, the drivers highlighted above round out seed Nos. 1-6 in the pre-Chase standings, forming the conventional-wisdom boundary separating those who might realistically win from everyone else. But the model doesn’t think that’s a completely hard-and-fast rule: It gives about a 5% chance to drivers outside the top six — led by Kyle Larson, who has much higher odds than anyone else in that group, due in part to his own high proficiency on intermediate tracks. (Only Hamlin, Reddick and Bell had a better average rating on ovals this season.) While Larson has struggled to turn his pace into finishing results this season — 2026 is tracking to be his first full, winless season since 2018 — his championship odds climb to 5.5% in universes where he wins at least one race, and 14.8% in ones where he wins twice.

As for the rest, most of the remaining Chase drivers did win the title at least once in our 10,000 simulations, even if some of the scenarios it took to make it happen required a pretty wild sequence of results. (Yes, we are saying there’s a chance, Austin Cindric.)

But that’s also what makes this new version of The Chase so interesting. Without round-by-round eliminations or a winner-take-all finale, like the old playoff system had, we won’t necessarily be able to predict ahead of time the big moments that decide the championship — until, perhaps, they are right on top of us. Mostly, though, the title race hinges on whether the favorites maximize the tracks where they should have the biggest edge — and whether anyone else can make them pay when they don’t.

For Hamlin, that means cashing in on the intermediate-heavy section of the schedule that seems almost perfect for his strengths. For Blaney, it means piling up points at his own set of preferred places, like Gateway, Bristol, Talladega, Phoenix and Martinsville. And for everybody chasing them, the path to the championship probably starts with taking advantage anytime and anyplace the 11 and 12 cars leave points on the table.

The Chase may be back to looking more like a 10-race closing marathon than the old series of elimination rounds used to. But with every point carrying forward all the way to the season finale, the pressure to bring your best every week is probably greater than ever.

Posted on September 2, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ryan Blaney will have a new pit crew on his No. 12 Team Penske Ford to begin NASCAR’s postseason.

Blaney inherits the crew that previously serviced Austin Cindric’s No. 2 Ford through the regular season. Per NASCAR Insights, Cindric’s crew ranked 10th-best through 26 races while Blaney’s crew ranked 32nd. As Team Penske confirmed Tuesday, those teams will swap cars ahead of Sunday’s opening race of The Chase presented by Mobil 1.

MORE: Penske swaps pit crews before Chase | Chase standings

The move immediately addresses the biggest flaw on Blaney’s record this season. NASCAR Insights rates Blaney as the sport’s No. 1 passer with the No. 2 ranked speed, sixth-best defense and 10th-best restarts. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion, Blaney enters The Chase as the No. 2 seed, 25 points behind top-seeded Denny Hamlin.

“I firstly want to thank the guys who were with me all year,” Blaney told reporters during Wednesday’s Chase Media Day rounds. “They were with us through thick and thin. We had great times together, was able to win a few races. I appreciate the work that they did to get us where we’re at. And then this decision, Team Penske just looked at it and they figured that this was, how can we change things up to where we think it will benefit the whole company? And this is what they decided. So, thankful for what my guys did.

“Looking forward to working with the new team. Feel like they’ve been really solid on pit road all year, and a lot of those guys I’ve worked with in the past. A couple of them are new guys to me, but looking forward to it. I think it really speaks highly of Team Penske’s depth of they can shift guys around and have them to be able to get plugged into other teams pretty seamlessly. So, looking forward to seeing how that goes.”

Cindric enters the postseason as the No. 15 seed in the 16-driver field and expressed that he was informed of the change by leadership earlier this week. While losing a crew that ranked inside the top 10 in the sport, the 2022 Daytona 500 champion said he fully understands the move and welcomes the new over-the-wall group to the No. 2 crew.

“Just giving the team the best chance to win the championship,” Cindric said. “I think that’s fully understandable, and it’s a pretty understandable motivation given the time of year. So yeah, I talked with leadership, and I’ve talked with Roger and understand why that was changed. And like I said, for us, it‘s business as usual, past having personnel changes and being able to welcome our new group in and be able to give them the best chance to succeed, but also for them to give us the best chance to succeed. I think those groups, those different divisions … on a race team, they feed off of each other, and I think it’s important to start that culture in the right way.”

A three-time winner in the Cup Series, Cindric takes pride in the relationships that he builds within his race team. That, he noted, was the most difficult part of accepting the team’s decision to swap crews after the regular season’s 26-race slate.

“I think anyone that knows me, (knows) racing’s all I do. It’s all I care about, all I put my time and effort into,” Cindric said. “So naturally, I’m pretty close with the guys that I work with. I’d say probably the main level of frustration is I don’t get to see through the season with the guys that I feel like are responsible for me getting there. But at the same point in time, like, it’s not completely unprecedented to make changes to give the team the best chance. And that’s what the team thinks, and that’s the way they decided.

“As far as the guys that are coming on board the 2 car for the rest of the year, yeah, I mean there’s several veteran guys, guys that I’ve won races with in (the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series), and I know most of these guys. I mean, I work out in the same gym and hang out, and so I’m not unfamiliar with anyone that’s joining the team and looking forward to seeing what we can do for the next 10 weeks.”

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Blaney, a 20-time Cup winner, has won three races this season despite a total of 129 net positions lost on pit road this season. Joining his crew are three very familiar faces: fueler Andrew Lackey, who worked with Blaney from his time in the Craftsman Truck Series through 2019; tire carrier Jesse Mills, who previously worked on the No. 12 car during the 2010s; and jackman Jourdan Osinskie, who was Blaney’s jackman during the 2023 championship-winning campaign. Front changer Justin Armwood and rear changer Geoffrey Wall will work with Blaney for the first time throughout The Chase.

“A few of them, I have a decent amount of experience with throughout my years, and then a couple of them it’s nice to get to learn new guys, right?” Blaney said. “Just hear their personalities, where they came from, know how you got here, stuff like that, the great job that they do. So it’s a nice group.”

Blaney said he did not specifically request a change despite the stats against his favor, noting the decision came from above him.

“I’m not the decision-maker when it comes to pit-road guys,” he added. “Really, the only thing I can do is be in those meetings with the people who have those powers: team leaders, crew chiefs, things like that. We all talk, you know, hey, where can we improve? But at the end of the day, it’s not my call to say, ‘hey, I want to change this guy or these groups of guys out.’ That’s out of my area of expertise. There’s pit coaches and everyone who knows those guys better, work with those guys every single day. They’re the ones making the calls. All I can do is give my opinions on a couple things when they are asked of me.”

The focus now sharpens on chasing a championship, a goal that hasn’t wavered throughout the 2026 season. Entering The Chase as the second seed, Blaney was confident regardless of any pit-crew changes.

“I felt very strongly about going into The Chase even before this because I think our team has done a good job of figuring out speed in the race car, figuring out how to get better on pit road, overcoming some times where we have adversity,” Blaney said. “I felt great about it before everything, even Sunday, and I still feel really good about it as well.”

Cindric divides a Cup team into three groups: road crew, car performance and over-the-wall crew. He believes each department feeds off the others’ energy and that the culture is embedded into his No. 2 team. So when it comes to welcoming jackman Graham Stoddard, fueler Chris Conklin, front changer Keiston France, rear changer Justin Fox and tire carrier Trevor Aspey, he knows it all comes back to the processes they feel will lead them to excel.

“All those things factor into the people that you have on your team and how you want to go about leading them,” Cindric said. “And I think when it comes to personnel changes, I mean, I think that’s a lot more in (crew chief) Brian (Wilson)’s wheelhouse from that standpoint. But if I can be there and help drive that or direct that — even something as simple as having to start a new group chat and sending a few memes to break the ice — I think leadership in my role can be defined in so many different ways. So I go about it the way I want to, and I feel like I try and be as available as possible.”

Posted on September 2, 2026September 2, 2026 by Zach Sturniolo

John Hunter Nemechek will not return to Legacy Motor Club for the 2027 NASCAR Cup Series season, the team announced Wednesday.

Nemechek currently drives the No. 42 Toyota for the organization and is in his fourth full-time Cup Series season. The 29-year-old ranked 27th in points after the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway.

MORE: Cup Series Chase standings | Cup schedule

Nemechek has endured an uneven tenure at Legacy M.C. since taking over its No. 42 car ahead of the 2024 season. The second-generation racer posted four top 10s in 2024 and a career-best two top fives and eight top 10s in 2025 en route to a personal-best 20.3 average finish that season.

That same success didn’t translate to the 2026 campaign as Nemechek has posted just one top five and two top 10s this season, the highlight being a fourth-place finish in June at Pocono Raceway to couple with a 10th-place finish in May at Watkins Glen International.

pic.twitter.com/50PXWdCMZY

— LEGACY MOTOR CLUB (@LEGACYMotorClub) September 2, 2026

Nemechek made his national-series debut in 2013 at age 16 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving for his father and former racer Joe Nemechek. Nemechek earned his first win in 2015 at Chicagoland Speedway and continued winning in subsequent seasons before advancing to the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series full time in 2019.

Nemechek graduated to the Cup Series in 2020 for his rookie year with Front Row Motorsports and notched three top 10s, but he ultimately decided to venture back to the Truck Series full time in 2021, joining Kyle Busch Motorsports to rebuild his career on stronger, winning grounds.

That process largely worked, as he won five Truck Series races in 2021 and finished third in the championship standings before winning another two races in 2022 and finishing fifth in the title hunt. Nemechek then joined Joe Gibbs Racing’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series program full time in 2023, winning a career-high seven races and finishing fourth in the final tally.

pic.twitter.com/oBsgXPPc3w

— John Hunter Nemechek (@JHNemechek) September 2, 2026

In all, Nemechek is an 11-time winner in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and a 13-time winner in Trucks.

Legacy Motor Club did not immediately announce who will replace Nemechek in the No. 42 car for the 2027 Cup Series season. Two-time Southern 500 winner Erik Jones signed a multiyear contract extension with Legacy in 2024 to pilot its No. 43 Toyota and is set to return to the ride for a sixth season next year.

Posted on September 2, 2026 by Zack Albert

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bubba Wallace has a theory that would explain how the early season good fortune of his 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick turned suddenly sour this summer. It involves a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, his mythical golden horseshoe and a transfer of motorcoach ownership.

When Jimmie Johnson’s transportation came into Reddick’s possession, so did the good-luck charm. Or so the theory goes.

“I think his bus broke down, and they must have taken a horseshoe out,” Wallace said Wednesday, with a hint of deadpan smirk. “That’s what it is, so he’s back to reality.”

Luck or the lack of it might be a simple way to describe how this strange season has gone for Reddick, who enters The Chase presented by Mobil 1 after riding the wild undulations of the Cup Series regular season. He’s ranked third of the 16 seeds entering Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), one of five Toyota drivers among the top six in the re-racked points for the 10-race postseason.

Reddick was once the presumptive No. 1 seed, thanks to his history-making bolt out of 2026’s starting gates. The 30-year-old California native captured his biggest triumph in the season-opening Daytona 500, then rattled off two more wins in a row as part of a seismic streak of five victories through the first nine races. Reddick led the standings for the first 17 races of the season, padding his advantage to 129 points by mid-spring.

That seemingly insurmountable edge fizzled as the calendar turned toward summer. A series of on-track incidents and other breakages set the No. 45 team back, and Denny Hamlin — a fellow Toyota driver and his team co-owner at 23XI — roared past him at Sonoma Raceway in June. The last 12 races have included five results of 30th or worse, and Reddick ended up 133 points behind Hamlin as the regular season closed.

It’s a stretch, he says, that’s made his No. 45 group more battle-tested for the 10 races ahead.

“Yeah, almost like a coin. There was two sides to it, really,” Reddick said during Wednesday’s Chase Media Day, once pressed to describe the season thus far. “We’d be on or we’d be off, and not necessarily from a base standpoint of just executing and having the clean days versus having catastrophic days. So yeah, I mean, I’d say if it was all sunshine and roses all year long, you feel good about what you do, but it is important to have a degree of toughness, a degree of understanding how to deal with losses, how to deal with failures, how to deal with whatever it is, and we’ve been on both sides of it this year. We kind of know what it’s like.”

So does Hamlin, who assembled his own three-race win streak with the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team — a surge that roughly coincided with Reddick’s downturn.

“Yeah, it’s NASCAR racing at its finest,” said Hamlin, a 21-year Cup Series veteran who knows the sport’s cyclical nature better than most. “It’s the ups and downs and the peaks and the valleys that you have, and so I do think that they feel this is a great reset for them. Again, they were bleeding points heavily over the last couple of months, and so if you’re them, you’re like, ‘man, we’re right back in this thing. We’re less than 50 behind.’ So I think that they feel like the schedule is going to be very good for them. They’re going to probably Tyler’s best race track here in Darlington to kick off The Chase, so I think that their confidence is bounced back due to nothing more than the schedule.”

Reddick has found favor with Darlington Raceway in the past, and he cashed in for his first victory at the historic track’s Goodyear 400 back in March. There, he faced some of the adversity he mentioned, with his No. 45 crew overcoming electrical gremlins by changing out a battery mid-race, rallying from the back of the pack to convert a satisfying win from the pole position.

MORE: Chase format 101 | Photos: Chase Media Day

Some of the Chase optimism is shared by his manufacturer mates, especially after Toyota drivers won 14 of 26 regular-season races and placed six drivers in the postseason field (Chevrolet and Ford have five each). That group includes four-time winner Hamlin, a two-time winner in Ty Gibbs, Chicagoland champ Chase Briscoe and both Christopher Bell and Wallace — both of whom are aiming for their first victory of the season.

Wallace has had a closer view than most of Reddick’s fluctuations as his teammate, one who is striving for the shared goal of consistency in the 10-race span that will decide the championship.

“But no, it’s just that’s the way the sport goes, right?” Wallace said. “It’s ups and downs, and how you manage it through it all, which is something I’m still working on. This is my ninth year in Cup, and you still learn something each and every weekend, each and every day of how to be better.”

Reddick says there’s no need for any grand reset and that flipping a so-called switch for the 10 races ahead isn’t a focal point. The majority of the tracks in the postseason rotation line up well, he says, with question marks arising at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (Sept. 13) and Martinsville Speedway (Nov. 1), where he says there’s room for improvement.

Horseshoe or not, Reddick says he’s ready to move forward.

“All things seem to be going in the right direction at the right time,” Reddick said. “Yeah, obviously, it’d have been great to hang on to the points lead. It’d have been great to not fight the things that we did, but as much as the bad finishes were hard on our standings and the points, we learned a lot from it, and with this Chase, the gap is gone and we’re re-seeded, and we’re going to go now.”

Posted on September 2, 2026 by Reid Spencer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In his two NASCAR Cup Series championship seasons, Kyle Larson has led a charmed life.

In 2021, he was running fourth in the Championship 4 finale at Phoenix when a late caution gave him a chance to win the race off pit road from stall No. 1. Larson parlayed that opportunity into his first title.

Last year, Denny Hamlin had the field covered at Phoenix and was leading comfortably with just over three laps left when William Byron’s blown tire sent the race to overtime. After pit stops, Larson finished third to Hamlin’s sixth to steal a second championship.

Accordingly, you can’t blame Larson for seeing a pathway to another title, even though the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet hasn’t won a Cup race since May 11, 2025 at Kansas Speedway — a drought that reached 50 races last Saturday at Daytona.

“I’m not as confident as I’ve been, for sure, in other years,” Larson said during NASCAR Cup Chase Media Day at the Charlotte Convention Center. “But I wasn’t, honestly, sitting here that confident last year, and we were able to win the championship.

“So, I know there’s a path to do it. We did it last year without winning a race in the final 10. And, yeah, we weren’t even really all that consistent, from what I remember. I think if you can be ultra-consistent in these final 10, there’s no doubt that I could see ourselves winning the championship.

“I could also see ourselves winning four or five races in (The Chase presented by Mobil 1). Things have to go perfect, but we do have a lot of good tracks for us in these final 10. We need to execute at a high level, and I think our team is definitely capable of that, so just try and do our best.”

The opening Chase race is Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson posted one victory in 2023’s edition of the crown-jewel event and tallied seven top fives in 17 starts at the “Lady in Black.”

One schedule move Larson was happy to see was the shift of the final race from Phoenix to Homestead-Miami Speedway, one of his best tracks as he will enter as the defending winner.

“Phoenix, we suck,” said Larson, even though he won his two championships there. “I’m glad that’s not the final race anymore. We are horrible there, so that’s maybe our worst track on the schedule.”