Daniel Malin

The last time we saw the Cup Series in action, Chase Elliott went to victory lane at Martinsville Speedway following a great strategy call from crew chief, Alan Gustafson. It marked the first win of the season for Hendrick Motorsports following the introduction of the new Chevrolet body. And now we head to a track where one of their drivers has had no trouble dominating the field in two of the last three races at Bristol.

Ty Gibbs finally broke through and earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series win at Bristol Motor Speedway. It was a long time coming but Joe Gibbs’ grandson took the checkered flag and went to victory lane for the first time in stock car racing’s most prestigious series. The writing had been on the wall as Gibbs has been finishing very well this year and perhaps the win opens the flood gates for more.

Tyler Reddick may have needed overtime, but he went to victory lane for the FIFTH time this season and we’re only nine races in! It’s a phenomenal start and something we haven’t seen in the NextGen era. And wouldn’t you know it? We close out the month of April with a high variance race at Talladega Superspeedway, a track Reddick won at two years ago. Can he go to victory lane for the SIXTH time so early in the year?

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.