The 2024 Coca-Cola 600 champion from Norman, Oklahoma, erased a 33-race winless drought and commenced the 2026 Chase with his second career crown-jewel victory, the Southern 500, in Darlington, South Carolina.
The 2024 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series champion from Riverton, Illinois, maintains a seven-point lead following the first Chase event despite having a dominant run hindered with a late fade and wall scrape.
The 2020 Truck Series champion from Alpine, California, led the final 53 of 147 laps after he inherited the lead following a pit stop prior to the final stage period and withstood two restarts under the final 50 laps to win the first Chase event of the 2026 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series season.
The 2026 Daytona 500 champion from Corning, California, was awarded the first pole position of the 2026 Chase for the Cup Series based on a qualifying metric formula due to inclement weather and lightning canceling the event's practice and qualifying sessions.
Time is ticking down on major sports shortest off-season. A day short of three months is all that separates the last race at Homestead to the action coming up at Daytona. That is like Major League Baseball wrapping up the World Series in October, only to return in January.
So it begins. Sixteen drivers, each trying to avoid being one of the four eliminated from contention for the championship after each round of three races.
Over the course of the season, Jeff Gordon was the top driver of 2014. However, NASCAR has not determined its champion using the results of the entire campaign for more than a decade. They want excitement, drama, unpredictability. They want what the other big boy sports have, and when they waved the flag to start the season finale, four drivers had an even shot to claim the prize. Unfortunately, 39 we knew who would not, also were out there.
The 2014 NASCAR season is officially over with the notable exception of the Championship Banquet. What kind of year was it? With the multitudes on talk radio praising the new format for determining a champion, what does the rest of NASCAR Nation think? This reporter has a “wait and see” attitude on the format, but that comes later.
As the final four prepare to thunder to their fate at Homestead, not everyone is thrilled with the new format to determine the Cup champion. Again and again I read how appreciative some are for NASCAR allowing them to do other things on a Sunday afternoon than watch a sport they have abandoned.
