Hello and welcome back to another volume of The Chasers!
When we dropped by last time, 16 drivers stood before us after 11 high-stakes, high-speed brawls, and we were tasked to judge their fitment for the vaunted Chase, the 10-race postseason run to the title.
We will revisit those we lost at the very end of the article, but with eight more races of evidence on the record, we have some new names in the mix that must be assessed.
Without any further ado, it’s time to find out: Is your favorite driver a faithful…or a Chaser?
1. Denny Hamlin
Jey: Denny Hamlin rebounded from his championship loss last year in ways not even the biggest fans of his could predict, currently sitting first in points with a 44-point advantage over 23XI’s Tyler Reddick and boasting four wins on the year, including three in a row at Nashville, Michigan, and Pocono.
Verdict: Faithful
Hamlin is firmly a Faithful and should mathematically lock himself into the chase well before it begins in seven weeks. Without a doubt, the 11 team remains a favorite to compete for the championship itself as well.
2. Tyler Reddick
Tanner: The first 10 races of Tyler Reddick’s season couldn’t have gone better, finishing no worse than 15th and collecting a staggering five wins in that time. Since then, the 45 team’s results appear to have backslid.
Four finishes in a row of sixth or better kept him above water, but his car owner took advantage of poor results at Michigan, San Diego, Sonoma, and Chicagoland where only one of those finishes were the direct result of Reddick’s mistakes.
Verdict: Faithful
While the regular season title looks to be out of his hands for now, Reddick remains one of the two strongest drivers in the sport, running well in the races he has finished poorly until meteors started striking his car. He’s liable to lock himself in rather soon.
3. Ryan Blaney
Tanner: Since our last installment after Texas, Ryan Blaney has finished no worse than 11th, part of a slightly longer string of solid results for the 2023 championship team.
Outside of Phoenix and Bristol, the 12 team struggles to find race-winning pace, but you wouldn’t know that by their place in the points standings, sitting a stout third with the Toyotas of Hamlin and Reddick in sight.
Verdict: Faithful
Not only is Blaney destined to make the postseason, he might give the top-2 Toyotas a real run for their money down the stretch as Penske flexed muscle at most of the 750 horsepower tracks, which make up three of the final seven races before the Chase.
4. Ty Gibbs
Jey: Ty Gibbs is having the breakout season he has been due to have for what feels like seasons at this point, notching his first victory of his Cup career at Bristol earlier this year.
Gibbs finds himself firmly in fourth place in points and knocking on the door of taking third place from Ryan Blaney.
Verdict: Faithful
Ty Gibbs is firmly a Faithful and should find himself competing for his first Cup Series championship if he can continue to string together the success that he and the 54 team have enjoyed to this point in the season.
5. Chase Elliott
Jey: Chase Elliott finds himself fifth in points with two wins as we leave Chicagoland; that — paired with his two wins — makes him the best and most consistent Chevrolet in the field through this point in the season.
Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson have been getting more than anyone else out of the new Chevrolet body on traditional ovals, and it’s paid dividends on both the trophy and points fronts.
Verdict: Faithful
Elliott is firmly a Faithful, and if he and the 9 crew can continue to figure this iteration of the Chevy body out, they should be a contender to fight for a championship in the Chase here in a couple short months.
6. Kyle Larson
Tanner: The defending champion’s continued his lukewarm title defense after our Texas release by continuing his brief skid through Watkins Glen and into Nashville, save for a good run at Charlotte.
His most recent spill at Chicagoland was his first in a month, coming home in the top-5 in every June race at a variety of facilities. The 5 team appears close to shedding themselves of their dreaded winless drought.
Verdict: Faithful
At this point, Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels find themselves on the cusp of greatness in 2026, but they just haven’t found the raw speed in the new Chevy body kit to close the deal. With two more months of prep, I expect them to make the Chase and a play at the Bill France Cup.
7. Chris Buescher
Jey: Christopher (for this week) Buescher currently sits in seventh place in the points. He has been the second-best Ford entry behind Blaney and far-and-away the best RFK car at more “traditional” points racing.
In what some would say feels like an homage to Matt Kenseth’s 2003 season, Buescher has not been flashy, but he and his team find every way to maximize their results on pretty much every track they’ve visited.
Verdict: Faithful
This makes Buescher a Faithful. If he can stay as consistent as he has been, the 17 team can take advantage others’ mistakes. He has a path to snag a championship and is more than capable of doing so if the opportunities present themselves.
8. Chase Briscoe
Tanner: Before Chicagoland, it looked to be a season full of near-misses and a comedy of errors for the 19 team, in what was being described as a form of sophomore slump.
The Indiana native put those descriptions to sleep by winning the eero 400 in daring fashion, holding off an equally-hungry teammate in Christopher Bell in the process.
Verdict: Faithful
The Bass Pro Shops bunch need to find more good finishes, but their pace has been apparent all year. If they can stop putting themselves in bad positions, we suspect they’ll be fighting for a title much like last season.
9. Carson Hocevar
Jey: Carson Hocevar has arrived, or at least he’s convinced he has. Hocevar earned his first Cup Series victory at Talladega and currently sits ninth in the regular season points.
He and his team have not shown quite the pace they flexed early in the last few weeks, but this hasn’t stopped Hocevar from staying in the headlines every week for one reason or another. Incidents of his own and others that derive from the frustration of his competitors boiling over like with Zane Smith this past weekend at Chicagoland.
Verdict: Faithful
Hocevar is firmly a Faithful but draws a bit of skepticism from myself personally in not so much his innate talent but rather his constant run-ins with anyone and everyone, costing him especially in the Chase where every single race is so important.
10. Christopher Bell
Tanner: The 20 team have had the most inconsistent season of this entire group. A string of pedestrian and awful finishes often gets balanced out by almost exclusively top-5s.
Since his wrist injury at Michigan, we expected him to plummet down the points standings, but Bell rose to the challenge. After starting and sitting at San Diego, he has a pair of top-5s at Sonoma and Chicagoland, two very demanding tracks.
Verdict: Faithful
Whether he has one hand or two on the wheel, Bell manages to impress as one of the great talents of the sport, and the speed of his cars is starting to finally match his luck this year, earning him a nod to be a Faithful.
11. Daniel Suárez
Tanner: After 11 weeks, Jey and I said we leaned Faithful with the former O’Reilly Series champ, and he made that prediction look great, winning the World 600 and padding his gap to the cutline.
Outside of Sonoma, the 7 team hasn’t finished outside the top-20 since back-to-back poor showings at COTA and Phoenix, and they’re silently executing solid points days, with just five races on their ledger where they earned less than 20 points.
Verdict: Faithful
We’re taking the lean out of our vocabulary when it comes to the Spire 7. The team shows grit throughout the day to pull out solid top-15s, and while their 750 races haven’t produced the best results, we don’t suspect that they’ll lose 100 points with Atlanta still on the schedule.
12. William Byron
Jey: William Byron and Rudy Fugle seem to have righted the ship this past week at Chicagoland where the 24 group posted their most complete race of the season, running top-5 all night and sweeping the stages. Byron currently sits 12th in the standings, 92 points above the cutline despite taking on water over the last two months.
Verdict: Faithful
Byron sits as a Faithful as long as the team performs as they should perform, They make enough pace to make the cut, and if they can return to their 2025 form, the legendary 24 car could go on a run come the Chase. That said, it will be a very tall mountain to climb regardless of capabilities.
13. Bubba Wallace
Tanner: After the first five races, it appeared that the 23XI Racing team was taking over the sport as Wallace was in lock-step with Reddick at the top of the standings despite being winless.
Since then, 2026 has been a bit of a mixed bag with qualifying and practice incidents getting in the way of the 23 team’s consistency. That said, great runs at San Diego, Chicago, and Michigan have helped to stop the bleeding.
Verdict: Faithful
The remaining tracks on the regular season slate lend well to Wallace’s skill set. By all appearances, that first win of the season might be just around the corner, but there’s no doubt that the 23 team are Faithful.
14. Shane van Gisbergen
Jey: Shane Van Gisbergen has not had an ideal summer stretch so far. He notched his second win of the season at Sonoma by holding off a hard-charging Chase Briscoe; however, the grander story is all the points and the potential win he lost out on in Coronado after Austin Hill made a rookie mistake.
The incident forced him into a mere 30-point advantage over the cutline, placing him in 14th place which is often viewed as the “drop zone”.
Verdict: Chaser
As such, van Gisbergen is a Chaser. Not through any fault of his own, he’s truly doing remarkable work behind the wheel and is the clear best of the Trackhouse efforts — not just at road courses but some of the traditional ovals as well. I just do not believe that the team behind him is capable of giving him the car he needs over the next seven weeks to keep his position and get into the Chase.
15. Erik Jones
Jey: Erik Jones and the Legacy Motor Club group as a whole find themselves flashing a good bit of pace on traditional ovals. Jones parlays that speed into results, resting in the final spot in the Chase after Chicagoland. He only sits four points above Ryan Preece, who is the first driver out, but that whole group should be proud of their efforts as they continue to improve as an organization.
Verdict: Chaser
I still believe Jones and this group to be a Chaser. Not through any fault of their own other than a lack of experience as a collective and the pace that those behind them should have over them over these next seven weeks.
This is one I would love to be wrong about because I truly believe Jones to be capable, but measured up against the likes of Ryan Preece, Joey Logano, and Brad Keselowski, it really feels like this group is still just a year away on speed as a whole.
16. Austin Cindric
Jey: Austin Cindric recovered from an absolutely atrocious string of luck at the start of the year and now finds himself inside the Chase by 27 points. He currently sits 15th in the regular season standings, quite the climb from the sub-25th position he found himself early in the year.
Verdict: Faithful
While Cindric doesn’t possess the results of those around him, I believe that he is a Faithful. Six of the next seven tracks we visit stand out as great tracks for Team Penske, and I expect the 2 crew’s momentum to continue. As long as Cindric and his Ford Mustang Dark Horse team can execute as they should over the next seven weeks, they should easily make the Chase.
As For Those Outside The Chase…
There are four drivers currently outside of the 16-driver Chase field through 19 races that we believe have the capabilities to still make the postseason despite a less-than-ideal start.
Those four drivers are: Brad Keselowski, Zane Smith, Joey Logano, AJ Allmendinger
Concerning the previous members of this section, Ross Chastain struggles to find pace and consistency while teammate Shane van Gisbergen lobbed himself into the heart of the Chase with wins at Watkins Glen and Sonoma.
The three-time champion plays jump rope with the cutline every week while the fierce Ford of Zane Smith seems intent on ruining his opponents’ races more often than simply beating them on the track.
Meanwhile, the RFK teammates of Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski were banished to a life of Chasing in the last eight races. Preece’s 25-point penalty at Texas and multiple accidents out of his control dumped the 60 from contention while Keselowski’s qualifying pace isn’t translating to Sunday performance.
Prior to Daytona, we will revisit this article one last time before we determine which driver will win it all when the series heads to Miami this November.
Stay Tuned.
(Top Photo Credit: Kam Duncan/@kbdc.bsky.social on Bluesky)
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