DARLINGTON, S.C. \u2014 The field is set, the regular season is complete and NASCAR\u2019s 2026 Chase begins Sunday at Darlington Raceway with no shortage of compelling storylines.<\/p>\n
Leading the way is Denny Hamlin, who secured the No. 1 seed after one of the strongest regular seasons of his career. The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran enters the postseason with four wins, 14 top-five finishes, 17 top 10s and a series-leading 880 laps led. Despite being the oldest driver in the playoff field, Hamlin carries momentum into Darlington after overcoming a significant points deficit to Tyler Reddick and building a 25-point advantage over second-seeded Ryan Blaney.<\/p>\n
While experience sits atop the standings, youth is making its presence felt. Twenty-three-year-olds Carson Hocevar and Ty Gibbs are the youngest drivers in the Chase field. Together, they form the second-youngest playoff duo in the modern postseason era, trailing only Kyle Busch and Hamlin in 2006.<\/p>\n
Defending Cup Series champion Kyle Larson enters the playoffs facing a different challenge. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has not visited Victory Lane since Kansas in spring 2025, a 50-race drought that marks the longest winless streak of his tenure with the organization. Despite that, Larson remains the highest-seeded Chevrolet driver and owns a strong track record at many of the remaining playoff venues.<\/p>\n
One of the season\u2019s biggest success stories belongs to Daniel Su\u00e1rez, who has revitalized his career in his first year with Spire Motorsports. Su\u00e1rez delivered an emotional Coca-Cola 600 victory and improved 16 positions in the standings compared to 2025, the largest gain among playoff drivers.<\/p>\n
Tyler Reddick enters the Chase as one of the sport\u2019s biggest question marks. After opening the season with three consecutive victories, including the Daytona 500, Reddick built a 129-point cushion atop the standings before watching it disappear during a six-race stretch in the summer. Since the modern playoff format began in 2004, only Jimmie Johnson in 2010 overcame a similar collapse and still won the championship.<\/p>\n
Three-time champion Joey Logano is another driver carrying momentum into the postseason. After going winless through the first 18 races and falling as low as 20th in points, Logano sparked a turnaround with victories at North Wilkesboro and Richmond to reestablish himself as a championship threat.<\/p>\n
Toyota enters the playoffs with six championship contenders, more than any other manufacturer. However, none of those drivers, including Reddick, Bubba Wallace and the Joe Gibbs Racing quartet, have previously won a Cup Series title.<\/p>\n
The final playoff spot belongs to Ryan Preece, who delivered one of the season\u2019s most dramatic moments by winning the regular-season finale at Daytona. The victory, his first points-paying Cup Series win, vaulted Preece from outside the playoff picture into the 16-driver field and turned the No. 60 team into this year\u2019s ultimate underdog story.<\/p>\n
The Chase opens this weekend with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, where one of NASCAR\u2019s toughest tracks will immediately test every driver\u2019s championship hopes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DARLINGTON, S.C. \u2014 The field is set, the regular season is complete and NASCAR\u2019s 2026 Chase begins Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-880785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}