DARLINGTON, S.c. — After an exhilarating end to the regular season at Daytona International Speedway, the 16-driver field is set for The Chase in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Among many, the following are key storylines heading into the postseason:
• Denny Hamlin enters the 2026 postseason as the No. 1 seed, securing the top spot one race prior to the regular season finale in New Hampshire. His 21st full-time season is highlighted with four wins, 14 top fives, 17 top 10s, and a series-best 880 laps led through the first 26 races, including a three-race winning streak at Nashville, Michigan, and Pocono that helped him overcome a sizable points deficit to Tyler Reddick.
Still eyeing a championship as the oldest driver in the field, Hamlin will look to sustain the consistency he’s had in the No. 11 all season and build off a 25-point cushion over second seeded Ryan Blaney.
• Each taking the series by storm in 2026 at just 23 years old, the two youngest drivers in The Chase are Carson Hocevar and Ty Gibbs. With their average age of 23.77 at the time of the Sunday’s race at Darlington, the two young stars are the second-youngest duo in a Chase-formatted postseason since Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin in 2006 (23.61).
• Last year’s champion Kyle Larson goes into the Chase still winless since his spring Kansas win in 2025. This active span of 50 races is the longest winless streak of his career since joining Hendrick Motorsports. Larson still enters as the highest seeded Chevrolet driver in seventh and holds the third-best average finish across the 10 remaining tracks on the schedule (13.56).
• After an underwhelming end to his tenure at Trackhouse Racing in 2025, Daniel Suárez has had a career-best season in his first outing with Spire Motorsports marked by an emotional win in this year’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. After 26 races each year, the driver of the No. 7 has improved upon his points standing by 16 spots from 2025 to 2026 (27th and 11th, respectively), more than any other Chase eligible driver.
• After a historic start to the 2026 season with three consecutive wins including the Daytona 500, Tyler Reddick saw a 129-point lead over then-second place in the standings Denny Hamlin disappear over a span of six races from Watkins Glen to Sonoma.
Since the modern Chase era began in 2004, a championship leader has lost a 100-plus-point advantage over a six-race stretch during the regular season five times: Jeff Gordon in 2009 and Jimmie Johnson in 2004, twice in 2005 and again in 2010. Only once did one of those drivers recover to win the championship that same year: Johnson in 2010. If Reddick can rebound and capture the 2026 title, he would become just the second driver in the modern Chase era to overcome such a collapse and go on to win it all.
• Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano endured the worst start to a season of his career to begin 2026, going winless through the first 18 races and falling as low as 20th in the standings before a summer resurgence completely changed his championship outlook.
Logano flipped the script with two wins in a four-race span, dominating the inaugural points-paying Cup race at North Wilkesboro before winning again at Richmond. The turnaround vaulted him to ninth in the standings in just six races and gave him two victories entering the Chase.
• Toyota has been the dominant manufacturer through this season, but its six-driver Chase-eligible stable across all of Joe Gibbs Racing plus Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace from 23XI Racing include no former champions. That makes Toyota’s title pursuit unique as its current group of contenders seeks to add a first championship to the OEM’s recent run of success.
Adding to the significance, Toyota outnumbers Chevrolet in championship contenders, as Chevy boasts just five drivers in the Chase for the first time in NASCAR postseason history in the Cup Series.
• Delivering one of the most remarkable postseason berths in recent history, Ryan Preece secured the 16th and final spot in the Chase after winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Preece entered the race 31 points behind Shane van Gisbergen, but a walk-off victory in his 249th career Cup Series start erased the deficit and earned the 35-year-old his first points-paying Cup win. The No. 60 team will look to make history, as no driver has ever won the championship from a starting seed worse than ninth to begin the postseason.
• Each of these drivers will begin their quest for a championship at one of NASCAR’s most historic venues, as The Chase ensues at Darlington Raceway in the Cook Out Southern 500.
