Erik Jones, Zane Smith, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. slowly moving up NASCAR standings

The fray of the NASCAR Cup Series mid-pack is always intense, but three drivers in the bottom half of the Cup Series standings have been punching above their weight as of late. 

Zane Smith (20th), Erik Jones (21st) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (23rd) have all had spurts of solid results over the past month which has boosted all three drivers into the mix for a Chase berth with 12 races remaining in the regular season. Through the first 14 races of 2026, Smith, Jones and Stenhouse Jr. are 34, 36 and 43 points out of the Chase, respectively. 

Smith has had the best overall season of the trio so far, finishing top 10 in the first two races of the season and not being lower than 23rd in the standings all season. However, consecutive strong runs at Charlotte (ninth) and Nashville (11th) have gotten him back into the Chase conversation. 

While strategy played a big role in Smith's finishes at Charlotte and Nashville, the third-year driver from Huntington Beach, Calif., has also held his own at the front of the field when crew chief Ryan Bergenty's call have put him at the front. He's easily been the best Front Row Motorsports driver so far in 2026. 

Erik Jones bouncing back

Jones has been as low as 35th in the points so far this year and was only 25th after Talladega on April 26. But the No. 43 team has responded nicely over the month of May, with Jones finishing top-19 in the last four races. Three of those have been top-13 results, including an 11th-place run at Nashville on Sunday that saw Jones run inside the top 10 late. He also finished third in the All-Star Race at Dover in what was his strongest run of the season. 

"We're kind of putting it all together," said Justin Alexander, Jones' crew chief, on Tuesday, per SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "Erik's been doing a great job on his end of things."

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s resurgence

Stenhouse and the No. 47 team regressed in both 2024 and 2025 after a strong 2023 season that included a Daytona 500 win. 2026 appeared to be a similar campaign over the first seven races, as Stenhouse fell to 31st in points and had only one top-20 finish. 

But the HYAK Motorsports group has rebounded as of late. Stenhouse has only one finish worse than 21st in his last seven races, along with five top-20s and two top 10s. A savvy pit call from crew chief Mike Kelley late in Sunday's race at Nashville catapulted Stenhouse to a fourth-place finish, his best since a runner-up in the season-opening Daytona 500.