Daniel Malin

The NFL regular season is in the books, and we turn our attention to the remaining teams as we kick off the Wild Card portion of the NFL playoffs. We’ll have six games across three days, and when you account for the college football playoff semifinals, we’re getting win-or-go-home football for five straight days.

Denny Hamlin earned his 61 st career win this past Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, breaking his tie with Kevin Harvick for career wins. Hamlin had easily the best car and overcame an early speeding penalty to work his way through the field and get to the front. Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell contended early on. Even Chase Elliott made a good run late in the race. But Hamlin secured the win to grab back-to-back wins at Vegas.

Darlington delivered some great racing as it usually does and Tyler Reddick went to victory lane once again for the fourth time this season, and we’re only six races in! It was another very strong week for the Toyota camp and we’re once again waiting for the Chevrolet cars to find their groove.

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.