LEBANON, Tenn. — Fresh off his second points-paying NASCAR Cup Series victory of the year after a remarkable bounce from pole position to last in the field back to victory lane at Nashville Superspeedway Sunday night, Denny Hamlin smiled and conceded. … he’s still probably not close enough to make a run at championship points leader Tyler Reddick for the regular season title.
In some ways it’s a glass half full scenario for the veteran, who has earned top-five finishes in half the 14 races this year – nine top-10 showings and claimed the All-Star victory.
For all his fine effort and dedication – i.e., his amazing run Sunday – Hamlin still trails Reddick by 97 points at the midpoint of the regular season. And that’s progress considering the five-race winner, Reddick, has held a three-digit advantage on the field for much of the season.
The upside for Hamlin? He is also co-owner of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota that Reddick has earned so much success in this season. Asked if he realistically thought he could catch Reddick in what’s looking like a two-man chase for the top spot at the end of the regular season, Hamlin did not hesitate.
“Not really,” said the 45-year-old Hamlin, who with 62 wins is the winningest fulltime driver in the series. “We’d have to win three or four more races. He’s going to have to have some DNFs and stuff. So not really. My goal is to try to stay P2, and that will be close enough with 10 [races] to go.”
Examining the points standings at this crucial season midpoint – the time most drivers defer to as being a true championship barometer – the points are quite close beyond the Reddick-Hamlin duel.
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney – the 2024 series champion – is third, but a substantial 174 points off Reddick’s blazing path. Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion, sits only 23 points behind Blaney, and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs is 34 points off Blaney in fifth place – the highest the 23-year-old Gibbs has ever been ranked this far into the season.
Only the top 16 drivers qualify for The Chase in the championship format introduced for 2026. Drivers tend to defer to the regular season “halfway point” – last week’s Charlotte 600-miler – as the true mark of where a team falls competitively so positions in the standings are being watched more closely.
Beyond those top five drivers, the current title-chasing group heading into next Sunday’s Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan Speedway includes: two-time and reigning series champ, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, Sunday night’s race runner-up, JGR’s Christopher Bell, former regular season champ, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher, Spire Motorsports race winners Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez, last year’s regular season champ, Hendrick’s William Byron and a new member of the title-chase club, Trackhouse Racing’s second-year Cup Series driver Shane Van Gisbergen.
Roush Fenway Keselowski owner-driver Brad Keselowski, JGR’s Chase Briscoe, Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace and Penske’s Austin Cindric currently make up the top-16 in the standings. Cindric holds a precarious two-point edge over RFK’s Ryan Preece for that final Chase position heading into the grueling summer schedule.
Of note among this list is the New Zealander and former Australian Super Car Series champ Van Gisbergen, a world-renowned road course racer who has been showing his oval improvement and progress with every passing week. His fifth-place showing at Nashville was his best on an oval as was his 12 laps led total. And he wasn’t just good at the end, he was strong all night long consistently holding position among the top-10.
“Starting up front obviously helps, but it was cool to lead some laps and battle at the front,” a smiling Van Gisbergen said Sunday post-race. “Our Chevy was running really well all night. I really enjoyed myself tonight.
“I learned a lot. I learned to be comfortable moving around in (turns) one and two, which I’ve never been able to do before. We just got the balance better on the two-tire strategy. When we were on a four-tire strategy, we were lacking that. The two-tire stop at the end, we were able to get the balance back again. It was a lot of fun. It definitely feels like we’re making headway.”
The mix of former champions and new faces set the tone in an increasingly tight title mix that doesn’t yet include three-time champ Joey Logano, who now sits nine points behind his Team Penske teammate Cindric, or perennial title favorite Ross Chastain, who is ranked 26th in the standings.
It certainly ups the championship ante heading into this summer stretch of races – starting with the Michigan two-miler on Sunday (Hamlin is the defending race winner) and highlighted by traditional venues at Pocono, Atlanta, the Sonoma, Calif. road course, the July 4 weekend return of Chicagoland Speedway and of course the much-anticipated inaugural San Diego street course event on Naval Base Coronado.
“Certainly, proud of our whole team for just keeping our heads down and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for continuing to just chip away at it, man,” Elliott said. “It’s a long year.”
