Daniel Malin

What a race we were given at Talladega last week! It was an odd week for yours truly. DFS was very successful for both the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Cup Series. That’s a rare accomplishment with superspeedways but we also saw Carson Hocevar get his first career win in the NASCAR Cup Series and he backed it up with a win in the Truck Series Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway!

Chase Elliott secured his second win of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season after a late caution almost cost him the victory. But Elliott remains the lone Hendrick Motorsports driver with a victory so far this season, but Alex Bowman had a very strong effort finishing third after he missed a stretch of races earlier in the year. Kyle Larson remains winless as we’re nearing the mark of a full calendar year since his last win.

It’s been an incredibly heavy week for the NASCAR community with the sudden passing of Kyle Busch on Thursday. This is always one of the greatest weekends of the year for motorsports and with this tragic news it certainly feels different from previous Coca-Cola 600’s. There have been some fantastic tributes so far this weekend on social media, through the CW and Amazon Prime, and live at the track. Even our own Andrew Cooper penned a great tribute, which you can read right here. The scenes this weekend have been surreal as you realize the impact Kyle Busch had on the racing community.

After an emotional weekend at Charlotte for the Coca-Coca 600, the NASCAR Cup Series season pushes forward. The racing was a struggle across all three series last week due to weather, but the tributes for Kyle Busch were outstanding and Amazon’s coverage was top notch, which was to be expected.

Nashville Superspeedway needed to run very late last weekend and we had fireworks as the field took the green flag. Denny Hamlin jumped the initial start and immediately had to drop to the tail of the field. And yet, he somehow worked his way back up to the front and won the race for another weekend dominated by the Toyota camp.

The year of Denny Hamlin kept on rolling last week as it was the second straight week he had to start a race at the rear, in some form or fashion, after winning the pole. And yet, despite the setback, Hamlin drove through the field at Michigan to get his second straight win, and third of the season (fourth if you count the All-Star Race).

Wash, rinse, repat. It was another Denny Hamlin victory last weekend as he got his third straight win and fourth of the season, thus closing the gap on Tyler Reddick as the field makes its push for the playoffs over the remaining summer weekends.

It is always exciting to see a NASCAR driver score their first career NASCAR Cup Series win. So far in 2026 we saw Carson Hocevar win at Talladega, Ty Gibbs win at Bristol, and last week Corey Heim at +9000 pre-race got his first Cup Series win at Naval Base Coronado. Heim will continue to appear in a part-time role the rest of the year before becoming a full-time driver for 23XI Racing in 2027.

Shane Van Gisbergen bounced back after wrecking at Naval Base Coronado two weeks ago and he got back to victory lane last week at Sonoma Raceway for his second win this season (both on a road course). He’s still in a decent spot to make the chase but the challenge for SVG will lie in the fact there are no more road courses on the schedule this season.

At long last, Chase Briscoe secured his first win of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season after he showed up with a fast hot rod at Chicagoland and he drove it right on to victory lane. Briscoe is certainly validating Joe Gibbs Racing’s decision to sign him and put him into the 19-car as he now has four wins in two seasons with JGR. This was right around the time he started heating up a year ago so perhaps last week’s win gives him the momentum to collect a few more wins this year.