Welcome to Stock Car Focus!

This little website will be where I put my stock car blog posts at, the ones not on Frontstretch.com. This also keeps Grand Prix Focus clean and pure instead of 80% of the posts being about fenders going around in circles.

I’ve decided as my first post on Stock Car Focus to be a prediction of the final point standings for the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season.

2025 was the first season in which there were 36 drivers starting every race, with the lone exception being a relief cameo for Denny Hamlin by Ryan Truex at Mexico City. The text messages released as a result of the lawsuit show that NASCAR brass were not happy at teams like Live Fast Motorsport swapping in-and-out drivers, and have gotten their way in stopping that practice.

2026 looks to be much the same. Because of this, it makes it easy to rank all 36 as a sort of preview of the season.

With each driver, I’ll include a short snippet on them. Not a long one, because otherwise we’ll be here all day, but there’s at least something for all 36 in here.

So with that in mind, let’s get started.

36. Cody Ware

I mean, what do you want me to write here?

35. Ty Dillon

Very bearish on Kaulig Racing this year due to it clearly being a lame duck season with Richard Childress Racing and Chevrolet. Dillon falls further down the field as a result.

34. Riley Herbst

Herbst should improve this season just naturally as he isn’t a rookie anymore, but it’s not enough to get him ahead of more than just Dillon.

33. Noah Gragson

Really a shame the Stewart Haas Racing No. 4 ends up here.

32. Austin Dillon

Falls behind a little bit with a lot of new people coming into RCR, along with less data coming in due to Kaulig severing their ties.

31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

I’m expecting Haas Factory Team to make a small jump as a result of re-entering a close alliance with Hendrick Motorsports. As a result, Stenhouse and Hyak Motorsports falls down the pecking order a bit.

30. A.J. Allmendinger

Allmendinger has become a bizarre version of himself that is great on short tracks but now clearly below the Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen tier on road courses. Like with his teammate, expect a falloff with the lame duck status.

29. Daniel Suarez

Underachieving driver joining an underachieving race team. Make me eat my words.

28. Zane Smith

Better than Gragson but a smidge behind his other teammate.

27. Todd Gilliland

Really incredible how David Gilliland’s son is basically the same exact dude. I just wish he drove the No. 38 again, then there’s really not much difference.

26. Kyle Busch

A big drop off for Busch, it just screams like he’s out of RCR as soon as he is legally able to. Decent chance this turns into his final season.

25. Michael McDowell

Two less road course races are only going to hurt him instead of help him. I also just do not buy Spire Motorsports in general, they keep hiring new people and letting them go the next year when they haven’t produced. The only person they’ve shown patiance with is Carson Hocevar. Just let things breathe a little bit more.

24. Cole Custer

Expecting a big step-up in performance with the new Hendrick alliance, but not a dramatic step up. I can see him in a Ryan Preece role this season where he’s like 10th in points after five races, but then falls off as the regular season goes on.

23. Connor Zilisch

Zilisch is the most hyped rookie since Lennie Pond. Don’t expect too much in year one. He’s getting in a car that Suarez finished 29th in points with, you’re just not likely to see that big of a turnaround in one year. Austin Cindric and Ty Gibbs jumped into much faster cars and struggled in spite of similar hype.

22. Josh Berry

This is a crucial year for him. With Tim Cindric returning to Team Penske, that opens the door for them to retain Austin Cindric. That means Berry might be on the chopping block if Penske wants to sign a new prospect and put them in the No. 21 Ford for a year like they did with Blaney.

21. Carson Hocevar

People think he’s going to make a huge jump. Why would he? His big problem is that he can’t consistently finish races. That’s going to hurt him badly with the Chase format. It wouldn’t surprise me if he wins a race but I wouldn’t put money on him cracking the top 20 in points at the end of the year.

20. John Hunter Nemechek

Legacy Motor Club should make a marginal jump into Chase contention this season after yet another year under their belts with this new regime. Nemechek lost the teammate battle by exactly one point in 2025, so I’ll use that as the tiebreaker this season.

19. Erik Jones

Maybe the most underrated driver in NASCAR. Sure would be nice if they’d just give him a fast car again!

18. Austin Cindric

This is the most unsure person on this list for me. Cindric could turn up a gear and break into the top 5 in points, or he could be 10 spots below this and in serious danger of being an honest Cup bust. Up to him.

17. Ty Gibbs

Just missing out on the playoffs/Chase again. He’s not going to improve from here because, well., why would he? If he doesn’t want to grow and improve as a driver, he won’t.

16. Shane van Gisbergen

Should be better on the ovals to make up for a third of the road courses leaving the schedule. He’ll make the Chase but won’t do much in it. It doesn’t help that Trackhouse Racing hasn’t been consistently fast on ovals for a while now.

15. Brad Keselowski

Roush Fenway Racing should benefit from the Chase return. Don’t expect them to party like it’s 2005 though, where they won half the races on the schedule.

14. Alex Bowman

It’s usually not a great sign when the team is swapping everybody around on a car except for the driver.

13. Ryan Preece

The Clash winner, Preece should be better in year two at RFK. An underlying storyline with him is that eventually, Legacy will expand and take this charter away from RFK. So RFK will have to make a big decision on what to do here, or spend over $50 million to buy a new charter specifically for this team.

12. Ross Chastain

Remember when Chad Chastain was a thing for a few weeks there in 2023?

11. Joey Logano

It was a bad idea to try to write one of these for every driver.

10. Chris Buescher

The second most underrated driver in NASCAR. Clearly the franchise player for RFK.

9. Bubba Wallace

23XI Racing should improve this season now that a lot of the pressures from the lawsuit are gone. Wallace stepped up in a big way late in the season and should keep the momentum up this year.

8. William Byron

The Chase format returning should benefit his teammates more than him, with the exception of Bowman. Needs to perform under pressure.

7. Ryan Blaney

Blaney may fall off a bit just because Penske is going to likely reprioritize things a bit after years of focusing on speed at Phoenix Raceway.

6. Chase Elliott

Would have stood to gain more with a full season championship, but should still be a little better with this format.

5. Chase Briscoe

He took the exact opposite path of his hero Tony Stewart in leaving Stewart Haas Racing for Joe Gibbs Racing, but it seems to be paying off. A very big boon for JGR to have picked him up last offseason.

4. Denny Hamlin

I feel awful for him. He’s going to dust himself off and try to go at it one more day, but I don’t see him winning it all.

3. Tyler Reddick

Big, big step up. Between the lawsuit and his family health issues, it was really impressive he didn’t fall off more last season. 2026 will be the return of Reddick.

2. Kyle Larson

Comes up just short in yet another duel with what is becoming his greatest rival on pavement and on dirt.

1. Christopher Bell

It’s finally time to ring the Bell. The third most underrated driver in NASCAR. He holds the best average finish among all Cup drivers since the start of 2023. With an actual championship format, it will be his year this year.