NASCAR listened to the fans and the veterans of the sport and brought back the Chase to replace the controversial playoff format. A 10-race Chase, without any reset or elimination, would crown the 2026 champion.
The NASCAR Cup Series Chase moves into its third race Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, and the championship picture is already beginning to get interesting.
Kyle Larson finally ended his 51-race winless streak at Gateway, surviving a late restart battle with Joey Logano and Alex Bowman to return to Victory Lane.
Driver feuds are practically NASCAR’s bread and butter. Officials disapprove of it because of the intentional wrecks, and that sets a bad precedent. On the other side of the scale, NASCAR loves promoting such feuds.
The second race of the Chase at Gateway was entertaining for the fans. But some of the Chase drivers found themselves in trouble after the mechanical failures.
Denny Hamlin had a clear advantage when the Chase began at Darlington. A buffer of 25 points, along with tracks on the schedule where he has run well historically.
In what was a disastrous race for a large portion of the NASCAR Cup Series Chase field, Kyle Larson was able to finally snap a longstanding losing streak of 51 races in the Enjoy Illinois 300 at Gateway.
The return of NASCAR's Chase has already seen some major shakeups in the points standings through the first two races of the postseason.
Here are three big questions ahead of the third race of the NASCAR Cup Series Chase.
The defending champion in any sport will always be under a microscope. Such has been the case for Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team this season.
Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson finally claimed his first win of 2026 in the Enjoy Illinois 300, the 28th race of the season and the second race of the Chase, Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway near St.
Post-race inspection in the NASCAR Cup Series garage following Sunday's Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway is complete, and there were no issues.
Kyle Larson raced away from Alex Bowman and Joey Logano in the second NASCAR overtime of the second Cup Series playoff race, breaking a 51-race winless streak by taking the caution-filled Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill., on Sunday.
The longest winless drought of Kyle Larson's Hendrick Motorsports tenure finally came to an end on Sunday.
Here are four takeaways from the second race of the Chase.
Kyle Larson made a joke at Chase Media Day on September 2. He said winning the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship without a single race win would be “sick.” It made Kenny Wallace go home and Google something.
Kyle Larson will be rolling out a throwback paint job to honor the late Kyle Busch for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Oct. 4.
The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion finished a solid fifth on Sunday evening and is seventh in the Chase standings.
After finishing runner-up for a record-tying seven times without a win this season, Bell finally prevailed.
Larson is winless through the first 26 races of 2026.
One of the biggest storylines during the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season has been the ongoing winless drought of defending champion Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team.
After turning what had the potential to be a disastrous evening at Richmond Raceway into a sixth-place finish and moving up to eighth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings, Kyle Larson jogged from his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in an effort to get to an airplane and get to Knoxville, Iowa.
To put things in perspective, defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson is in the midst of his worst season since 2015.
It appears NASCAR fans weren't the only ones unhappy with its caution procedures that led to the sanctioning body announcing a change Thursday to limit time spent under caution.
After starting the summer with four consecutive top-five finishes, Larson will have four straight finishes of 15th or worse.
As talented of a driver as Larson is, he makes occasional self-inflicted mistakes that severely hinder him.
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