HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- Coming into the 2026 Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship, Joe Gibbs Racing appears to be the organization to beat for the championship.

JGR's four cars rank first and fourth through sixth after 26 races. They have also combined for seven wins this season. 

However, they have been proven to be beatable. JGR's last Cup championship was 2019 with Kyle Busch, who also earned the organization's second most recent Cup championship after that, in 2015. 

JGR has a total of five Cup championships (2000, 2002, 2005, 2015, 2019) but none of their current drivers have ever brought one home for them. 

Jonathan Fjeld: “Is this Denny’s year?” people in NASCAR have asked every year since his close 2010 loss -- 2012, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2025 -- where Hamlin has ebbed and flowed into being a legitimate contender for the Cup Series championship. 

Now, 2026 looks like the 64-time Cup Series winner’s best chance at winning a championship.

Hamlin has won at two intermediate tracks and two speedways and led laps at a short track like Martinsville Speedway where he clearly had the best car throughout the day. 

With a 25-point lead over Ryan Blaney and an impressive record this season, it’s really Denny Hamlin’s championship to lose. Even if Blaney reels off of a couple of wins and pulls out to an early advantage, he could still come back and win as many as four of the six races before Homestead-Miami and lock up the title going into the weekend with this new format. 

Tyler Jones: Gibbs has had a career season with two victories after going 131 races before getting his first win.

Short tracks will be his wheelhouse. If Gibbs is going to win the title, he has to perform extremely well at Gateway, Bristol, Phoenix and Martinsville. If he does that and competes for top fives at the intermediate and drafting tracks, Gibbs can find himself in contention.

What Gibbs has to do differently though is be the reason his team wins races. His crew chief Tyler Allen made the right call to put him in position to win at Iowa but in order to win the title, Gibbs has to be the difference-maker going forward. 

JF: Chase Briscoe is one of those drivers who could run up front just anywhere but he hasn’t had Hamlin or even Bell’s race-winning speed.

Briscoe has had just a few chances at winning this season -- Richmond, Sonoma, Charlotte, Nashville Superspeedway and of course Chicagoland -- but has otherwise felt like the perennial fifth-place driver.

Of course, nothing wrong with that. If he can maintain that when others falter, history shows he could find himself closer to championship contention in the final races than people expect.

Briscoe could win a race at some point in the Chase but time will tell if he can break through the Toyota quagmire.

TJ: Bell was widely expected to contend for the championship going into the year and he hasn’t had a bad season by any means. He just lacks the wins to show for it.

Seven second-place finishes! Yes, seven, you read that right. While that many second-place finishes feels like kissing your sister, Bell and his team shouldn’t be discouraged. The No. 20 team knows they have a driver that can win races. They have race-winning speed. They just haven’t been able to seal the deal. 

If Bell is going to win the title, he might have to have a performance similar to Tony Stewart in 2011. Stewart had zero victories entering the postseason and went on to claim the title with five wins in the Chase. Bell is capable, they just have to put it all together.