Four NASCAR Cup Series drivers who are looking to right the ship in return from Easter break

With the first of two off-weekends in the books for the NASCAR Cup Series, the sport's best head to the 0.533-mile Bristol Motor Speedway for Sunday's Food City 500 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

While some were desperately in need of the Easter break after disappointing starts to the season, a return to the track could not come soon enough for others as they look to re-establish some momentum and put a solid stretch of races together. Here are four drivers who are looking to right ship coming out of the break.

Chase Briscoe, Joe Gibbs Racing, No. 19 Toyota

Briscoe is coming off a Championship 4 appearance in 2025, but has yet to crack the top 15 of the standings through seven races. Briscoe has three finishes outside the top 30, while his only top 10 on a non-drafting track was an eighth at Las Vegas.

Something Briscoe excelled at last season was qualifying. He led the series with seven poles, including three straight over the summer months. This season, he has started 18th or worse in five of the seven races and has constantly been playing from behind at the drop of the green flag. If he can pick up some pace in qualifying and limit his mistakes, there is no reason to believe that Briscoe will not be able to turn things around.

Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing, No. 1 Chevrolet

Since Chastain joined Trackhouse Racing in 2022, he has won all six of his Cup Series races and qualified for the playoffs three times. He currently sits 19th in the standings and only has one top 10 (EchoPark Speedway) through seven races.

He has never had fewer than 12 top-10s in a single season with the organization, but with six finishes of 16th or worse to begin the 2026 campaign, there is some cause for concern with the No. 1 group.

Trackhouse has been lacking some speed as an organization, so perhaps the off-weekend gave it some time to make some improvements. However, unless Chastain can start putting himself toward the front more often, it could be a long season with points at a premium.

Joey Logano, Team Penske, No. 22 Ford

The three-time champion is coming off a third-place finish at Martinsville — his 14th consecutive top 10 there — but that was one of just two top-10s to begin the season.

Even more concerning, when you take out Martinsville and the Daytona 500, Logano has scored 23 points or fewer in the other five races, including a season-low four points at Darlington when the speed was nonexistent in a 33rd-place finish.

Logano is a two-time winner at Bristol, but with only one top 10 in the last eight races, this could be another challenging weekend for the veteran.

Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing, No. 23 Toyota

Aside from teammate Tyler Reddick's historic start to begin the season, no driver was more consistent than Wallace. He led a combined 86 laps in the first two races and had five straight finishes of 11th or better.

The last two weeks, though, have produced back-to-back finishes of 34th or worse, including a 36th-place result at Martinsville following his run-in with Carson Hocevar. If anything, the break could not have come at a better time for Wallace after dropping nine spots in the standings the last two races.