The NASCAR Cup Series concludes the regular season at historic Darlington Raceway with the Southern 500.
The playoff field will be set at Darlington. Three of the 16 spots remain. But for most of the field, the focus will be on winning one of the sport’s grandest races.
Here’s a look at where things stand for each Cup organization heading into the Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network).
23XI Racing — Good news: Tyler Reddick is on the verge of winning the regular season title. … Reddick leads the series in top-five finishes (11) and top 10s (17). … Bubba Wallace has finished in the top 10 in the last four Darlington races, his longest streak of top 10s at a Cup track. Bad news: Wallace is 21 points below the playoff cutline entering Darlington.
Front Row Motorsports — Good news: Front Row Motorsports swept the front row last weekend at Daytona. Michael McDowell won the pole. Todd Gilliland started second. … McDowell placed 10th at Darlington in May. He has three top 10s in his last five Darlington starts. Bad news: Gilliland has been eliminated by an accident in two of the last five races.
Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: Kyle Larson moved up to second in the season standings. He’s 17 points out of the lead. … Larson won last year’s Southern 500. … Chase Elliott is 18 points from the lead in the season standings. … Larson has scored a series-best 28 playoff points. … Larson also has scored a series-best 235 stage points. … William Byron has four consecutive top 10s at Darlington. … Alex Bowman has 12 top-10 finishes this season, more than he had last year. Bad news: Elliott failed to finish last week’s Daytona race, ending his career-long streak of 37 consecutive races running at the finish.
Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: Ty Gibbs has had back-to-back top-five finishes. … Martin Truex Jr. is 58 points above the cutline, making him a virtual lock to make the playoffs. The most points a driver can make on another in a race is 59 points. … Denny Hamlin has led in the last nine races at Darlington. ... Christopher Bell ranks second in playoff points scored with 25. That includes a series-best 10 stage wins. Bad news: Immediately after Michigan, Hamlin was third in the points. But after last week’s penalty and placing 38th at Daytona, he has fallen to eighth in the season standings. … Joe Gibbs Racing is winless at Darlington in the Next Gen car. The organization won five of the eight races there before the Next Gen car.
JTG Daugherty Racing — Good news: Ricky Stenhouse has finished in the top 15 in five of the last nine races. Bad news: Stenhouse has placed 30th or worse in four of the last nine races.
Kaulig Racing — Good news: Daniel Hemric has completed more laps than any other driver this season. He has run 6,567 of 6,602 laps (99.5%). … Hemric’s best finish this season is ninth. He’s finished there four times this year, including last week at Daytona. … Shane van Gisbergen is in the No. 16 this weekend. Bad news: van Gisbergen has finished 28th or worse in four of his five starts this season, including a 35th-place result last week at Daytona after his engine failed.
Legacy Motor Club — Good news: Erik Jones has won the Southern 500 twice, taking the checkered flag in 2019 and ‘22. … John Hunter Nemechek’s 15th-place finish at Daytona was his best result in the last seven races. Bad news: It has been 30 races since Jones led a lap in a Cup race. … Nemechek has started 30th or worse in eight of the last 11 races.
Richard Childress Racing — Good news: Austin Dillon is the last driver to race their way into the playoffs in the final race of the regular season. He made it by winning the 2022 regular season finale at Daytona. Bad news: Kyle Busch is 0.054 seconds from being a two-time winner this season. He finished third at Atlanta by .007 seconds to winner Daniel Suarez. Busch was runner-up by .047 seconds to Harrison Burton last weekend at Daytona.
Rick Ware Racing — Good news: Cody Ware’s fourth-place finish at Daytona matched the best Cup result in the organization’s history. … The team has had at least one car finish in the top 20 in five of the last seven races. Justin Haley has three top 10s in his last five starts at Darlington, including a ninth-place finish in May. … Kaz Grala is in the No. 15 this weekend. Bad news: Grala has finished outside the top 20 in his last five starts.
RFK Racing — Good news: Brad Keselowski won at Darlington in May in the most recent Cup race there. … Keselowski has scored four top 10s in a row at Darlington. … Chris Buescher, who holds the final playoff spot, finished third in last year’s Southern 500. Bad news: Buescher is winless in his last 35 Cup starts.
Spire Motorsports — Good news: Carson Hocevar’s 11th-place result at Daytona marked his fourth consecutive finish of 12th or better, his longest streak of the season. … Zane Smith has recorded back-to-back top-15 finishes for the first time this season. Bad news: Corey LaJoie has finished 32nd fourth different times this season. He’s also placed 34th in two of the last three races.
Stewart-Haas Racing — Good news: Josh Berry placed third and Chase Briscoe was fifth at Darlington in May. … Noah Gragson has five top-20 finishes in the last seven races. Bad news: Ryan Preece has finished 25th or worse in five of the last six races.
Team Penske — Good news: Ryan Blaney has finished in the top 10 in six of the last 10 races. Bad news: Joey Logano has finished 30th or worse in three of the last four races. He’s been eliminated by an accident each time. … Austin Cindric has not finished better than 16th in five Cup starts at Darlington. … Blaney has an average finish of 18.5 at Darlington.
Trackhouse Racing — Good news: Daniel Suarez celebrated the news this week that the NASCAR Cup Series will race at a road course in Mexico City next year, calling the move a dream come true. … Bad news: Ross Chastain is 27 points out of a playoff spot heading into the regular season finale. … Suarez has one top 10 in 13 career Darlington Cup starts.
Wood Brothers Racing — Good news: Harrison Burton delivered the team’s 100th Cup win with his last-lap victory at Daytona, which provided one of the standout moments of the season. … That victory also put Burton and the team in the playoffs. Bad news: Burton still has scored the fewest points of the 34 full-time drivers even after his Daytona win.
