The first quarter of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season is complete and teams have now faced a variety of tracks already so it's time for a quarterly review of each organization.
The first quarter of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season is complete and teams have now faced a variety of tracks already.
From two drafting tracks to a road course to intermediate ovals to short tracks and a gritty oval testing all facets of man and machine in the sport, there is a pretty good idea of who’s hot and who’s not; who has the momentum and who needs to do some work to contend for the Bill France Cup or even just make the Chase for the Cup.
NASCAR Roundtable's Jonathan Fjeld, Tyler Jones and Brett Alper gave a grade to each organization with a summary for each of them.
23XI Racing: A+
Ironic that a season after Monster Energy leaves him, Tyler Reddick unleashes an absolute beast of a monster on the competition.
Five wins in the first nine races, joining the likes of all-time greats and pulling out to a 105-point lead. It’s the stuff of dreams.
Bubba Wallace isn’t far behind and is quietly having his best season in Cup. Riley Herbst has even turned a corner and has run as high as the top-five at some points in the race. Even Corey Heim looks like he’s a series mainstay in his part-time runs and not just a guy with some one-offs.
Reddick alone carries the team but Wallace is right there and is a step away from getting a piece of his success.
Joe Gibbs Racing: A
Outside of maybe Darlington, JGR hasn’t had a weak race this season.
All four drivers have looked rock solid this year and shown speed when expected to, including Ty Gibbs who finally broke through for his first win and Denny Hamlin who showed he isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
All of their drivers have run well at their mainstay tracks, like at Phoenix where Christopher Bell led the most laps and nearly won or Kansas and Martinsville where Hamlin led the most laps. Chase Briscoe has also shown lately he is ready to come back from a slow start to run for a championship.
Hamlin and Gibbs are clear championship contenders, while Bell and Briscoe have some work to do. If they can keep up throughout the season and Bell and Briscoe’s teams can clean up their mistakes, especially as Hendrick starts to make gains, all four of them will be in the hunt for the Cup this fall.
Penske Racing and Wood Brothers Racing: B overall
Ryan Blaney alone is worth giving an A to but his teammates leave more to be desired.
After a rough start to the season that left him 30th in points, Austin Cindric is up to 17th and knocking on the door of the Chase after some solid finishes, including two top-10s in a row. They look like a very consistent Chase team, which is a good step for Cindric.
Joey Logano, however, has fluctuated from being a contender for wins (Phoenix, Martinsville) to barely clinging to the top-30 (Darlington, Kansas) and even looking like he was going to do both some weeks (Bristol).
Logano won three championships with the old format but it’s highly unlikely he’ll win a fourth if his team keeps up their current performance.
Really, all of Penske may want to reconsider their championship hopes if they can’t get their speedway program together.
Blaney has been fast at tracks like COTA, Phoenix, Darlington and Bristol but his speedway performance is off. With four speedways in the final seven Chase races, he can’t afford finishes of 16th (Las Vegas) and 24th (Kansas) when he’s up against drivers like Reddick and Gibbs who have figured out almost every track type to a much more consistent extent than they have.
And Blaney’s pit crew. Kansas was a hopeful sign but more needs to be seen from them.
Hendrick Motorsports
- Brett Alper: A-
- Jonathan Fjeld: B+
- Tyler Jones: B+
The thing about Toyota’s domination in 2026 is it has made even good teams look like they’re missing the mark.
Case in point, Hendrick Motorsports.
With only one race where none of their cars finished inside the top-10 (EchoPark Atlanta), Hendrick is running much better than most other teams.
But this is Hendrick. The four-car Chevrolet powerhouse every driver dreams of driving for and every team looks to as a target for their own performance. Lately, JGR and 23XI have looked more like that than Hendrick has.
Although, that status has attracted people who are now fueling their success this season. Hendrick isn’t winless because crew chief Alan Gustafson successfully rolled the dice on a risky pit call and Chase Elliott drove flawlessly at Martinsville. Their pit crews are putting their cars in the mix with JGR and 23XI at bread-and-butter Toyota places, like Kansas and Las Vegas.
In many weeks, Kyle Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels are putting the No. 5 car in the mix as one of the best cars (Las Vegas, Kansas, Bristol) and getting finishes better than where they ran (Phoenix and COTA). Not far behind him, Elliott and his team have also improved.
The new Chevrolet body has left them off on their adjustments but their speed and smarts still put them fifth through seventh in the points standings. That should make the competition nervous because it’s likely Hendrick will make gains as the season goes on.
RFK Racing
- BA: B+
- JF, TJ: B
The only team to compete with 23XI, JGR and Hendrick in terms of car speed on speedways, RFK Racing has found something that has confirmed 2023 wasn’t a fluke for them.
In 2023, Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski were among the top teams week-in and week-out, especially as the summer hit and Buescher reeled off three-in-a-row and Keselowski flirted with the top-five in points.
This season, Buescher was right with JGR and Hendrick at Las Vegas and not far off at Kansas where Keselowski picked up a sixth-place finish.
And you can’t forget Darlington where the team ran 1-2-3 and had the field covered at one point.
Seemingly lock in-step with his teammates, Ryan Preece hasn’t been far behind and sits in Chase contention with them.
The battle, like any other season, is to keep up the speed and keep developing as the season goes on. However, if RFK’s season is shaping up to be like their 2023 season, then you can’t help but aim high for this team with where they’re launching from.
Spire Motorsports
- TJ: B+
- BA, JF: B
If there’s any evidence of how much Cup has become a game of money and engineering, look no further than Spire Motorsports.
While Spire has the very-talented Carson Hocevar and two solid Cup drivers in Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell, Cadillac F1’s majority backer is also a significant backer for Spire and a particular shadow hire seems to have gotten their cars dialed in to put two of them in Chase contention and all of them top-20 in points with weeks where they unload faster than Hendrick.
Hocevar’s Cup win is just around the corner if the team can continue their progress. Suarez is likely to keep a ride that many thought was as good as Kyle Busch’s before this season. McDowell has work to do but some road courses lie ahead where he could be good. It’s a good start for a team with a lot going for themselves.
Trackhouse Racing: D
Much like Richard Childress Racing, it’s shocking how Trackhouse Racing has performed, especially with a driver who looked to become the next breakout superstar and possible champion in this decade.
On a positive note, Shane van Gisbergen has shown he has made strides on ovals, like at Phoenix and Martinsville. However, he has also been absolutely off in races like Las Vegas and Kansas where he finished last on pace after contending for top-10s just in the fall.
Like SVG, Ross Chastain has been nowhere to be seen inside the top-15 in races he has won or had a chance at winning not that long ago, like Darlington.
These struggles don’t help rookie Connor Zilisch as he adjusts to the naturally huge step up Cup is for a driver like him.
Kaulig Racing: C-
For a team that is running “zombie Chevrolets,” with no manufacturer support coming after they linked up with Ram Trucks, their drivers have done what they’ve needed to do.
Neither A.J. Allmendinger nor Ty Dillon have gotten in any incidents this season. Allmendinger grabbed a top-10 finish at COTA and an above-average finish at Bristol while Dillon has brought the car home solid in one piece each week.
Their performance indicates the countdown for this team isn’t for the Chase. It’s for when Mopar is ready to pull the trigger and develop a Cup car for Kaulig to spearhead to success.
Front Row Motorsports
- BA, JF: C
- TJ: C-
All three drivers have performed about where many people thought they would and have had glimpses of success. Zane Smith had a strong two-pack of runs at Daytona and Atlanta, Todd Gilliland finished sixth at Bristol and Noah Gragson has shown up around the top-10 at some points in races.
It’s a step back for Front Row from where they have been before, like in the Michael McDowell days. However, they haven’t taken a step backward and are at a good level to move forward.
Legacy Motor Club
- JF: C-
- BA, TJ: D
John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones have each had very quiet seasons that seem to be about par for the course for how they generally perform in a season. Jones has two top-10 finishes this season and is on-pace for about the same average finish as he had last season.
Nemechek is also on-pace for about where he ran at this point last season but without good finishes on drafting tracks to compensate.
Maybe a third team could help? Some teams have argued more data from track time is helpful and Legacy could benefit from it with the right driver and people. It remains to be seen.
Richard Childress Racing: F
Oh no. Oh no no no no no. No, no.
When a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is seemingly checked out almost every week as one of the slowest drivers on the track and sits 27th in points with no signs of improvement, there is trouble.
Kyle Busch has been shockingly bad this season, only qualifying better than 23rd just twice and finishing in the top-20 just three times: Daytona (15th), COTA where he led the most laps the year before (12th) and Phoenix where he had the slowest car but benefited from attrition (17th).
Austin Dillon has been slightly better, showing top-10 speed at Phoenix and finishing 12th and 16th at Las Vegas and Kansas. However, Dillon doesn’t have a top-10 either.
The organization needs a serious overhaul and a change somewhere behind the scenes.
Hyak Motorsports: D
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and his No. 47 team is another case of a Chevrolet team struggling with the new body. They recently snapped a skid of five finishes of 28th or worse in the last six races with finishes of 17th at Bristol and 21st at Kansas. However, Stenhouse failed to finish on the lead lap in both races. He has also fallen 12 spots in points compared to last year.
Luckily, Talladega is coming up and Stenhouse is one of the most recent winners there (fall of 2024).
Haas Factory Team: F
Cole Custer’s average finish (27.7) and points position (34th) is about the same as where it was last season. This team also has just one top-25 finish in seven non-drafting tracks (25th at Kansas).
Rick Ware Racing: F-
Cody Ware has improved his average finish one position to this point this season (30.9 to 29.9) and has one more lead-lap finish this season (three) than last season.