Reflections at the Quarter Mark of the NASCAR Season

We’re exactly a quarter of the way through the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, and after a welcome Easter Break respite for the drivers, teams and road crews, we’re about to embark on an arduous stretch run of 27 consecutive weekends of action all the way to crowning the champion at Phoenix International Raceway on November 2.

So, in this last off-week of the season, what have we learned so far from what is now a decent enough sample size in the 77th consecutive season of stock car racing? Here are seven observations headed into the treacherous high banks of Talladega Superspeedway this Sunday (April 27) afternoon.

The Usual Suspects Are, Well, the Usual Suspects

Take a gander at the top 10 in overall standings and answer me two questions: Is there an obvious name missing, or anyone you would consider an outlier in the list? I’m going to go ahead and answer my own question with a no for both.

Simply put, all the drivers you would expect to be on the list are on the list. The multi-race winners (Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin) lead the way with top fives (5) and top 10s (6) along with William Byron, the latter having the best average finish (9.1) while Larson has led the most laps (501).

Don’t Sleep on Joey Logano

A look at the stats would suggest it’s not been a great start to the season for Joey Logano. While the Team Penske veteran sits in ninth place in the standings, he has just one solitary top 10 to his name.

But the truth is he hasn’t had the rub of the green. He led 43 laps before being wrecked at Daytona, had a promising day derail with a restart violation at Phoenix and was “Ross Chastained” at Martinsville before rallying to an eighth-place finish. “It seems like it’s been a typical 2025,” Logano said of his day out at the Paperclip. “A pretty solid car, and then something happens.”

Now, some might argue he got enough luck for several seasons on his way to a third title last year, but Logano is a driver who has consistently shown that if he gets into the right position, he can absolutely execute. Don’t be surprised if he wins on Sunday.

Short Tracks Short on Action Again

As has been something of a depressing theme with the Next Gen car, short tracks remain a thorny problem with some of the best tracks in NASCAR history seemingly reduced to hosting races that are, for the most part, pedestrian and often boring.

Looking at Jeff Gluck’s “Was it a good race?” poll for the season so far, the worst result by quite some distance was Bristol Motor Speedway, with only 20.1% of respondents voting yes, while Martinsville (50.9%) edged out a disappointing event at Darlington Raceway (45.9%) for third-worst.

We have enough evidence to suggest this problem is not going away anytime soon, and while there are many who think they have the answer, the truth is the solution probably isn’t either simple or close. I can only hope that the powers that be keep persevering and find answers almost the entire fanbase so deeply craves.

A New Contender Emerges

Step forward, Josh Berry. After a slow start, with 37th, 26th and 25th-place runs, Berry finished a solid fourth at Phoenix International Raceway. On pit road post-race, he told Fronstretch, “I just felt like myself again out there.”

Turns out, that was somewhat prophetic. The following week, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — a track where speed is crucial — Berry led the last 16 laps on his way to his maiden Cup victory in his 53rd race, as well as win number 101 for the storied Wood Brothers team.

Now it’s fair to say he came bumping hard back down to Earth with a 32nd-place finish at Martinsville Speedway after leading 40 laps early in the going, as well as a wreck and lowly 36th-place effort at Darlington Raceway. But there are plenty of reasons for optimism for a driver who Dale Earnhardt Jr. referred to as a “a Cup champion waiting for a Cup owner who wants to be a Cup champion owner.”

SVG Struggling but His Time Should Come

If Shane van Gisbergen was to sum up his start to his full-time career in one word, “disappointing” would probably be fairly close. Outside of leading 23 laps and finishing sixth at the Circuit of the Americas, SVG has finished 33rd, 23rd, 31st, 34th, 32nd, 34th, 20th and 38th, good for an average finish of 27.9.

Only Cole Custer and Cody Ware sit beneath him in the standings of the full-time drivers. The good news for SVG, however, is that he still has four strong opportunities to win a race and make the playoffs. There’s the inaugural race in Mexico City (and remember how well he did the last time the series turned up at a new road course); the Chicago Street course (he’s a former winner); Sonoma Raceway, where he won the Xfinity race last year; and Watkins Glen International, where he finished second his last time out.

So chances aplenty for him to turn his season around. Worth noting, too, that SVG has only 23 races of Cup experience under his belt. However you slice it, that’s a mighty small sample size.

Keselowski Optimistic Despite a Terrible Start

Mired in 31st place with an average finish of 25th, two DNFs, zero laps led and a high-water mark of 11th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the veteran team owner and 2012 NASCAR Cup Series Champion has had what could politely be termed as a disastrous start.

“It’s definitely not my best start,” Brad Keselowski said. “But I got my eternal optimist glasses on and I see the potential. The potential for this team is higher than any team I’ve had in the last four or five years. Just got to recognize it. There’s a lot of talent on it, a lot of fresh faces and the mistakes that come with that, and we have to clean that up and recognize our potential.”

Now on the one hand, this is the sort of approach you would expect Keselowski to take, and he certainly has the career bona fides to back up his positivity. On the other hand, he needs the results to start coming … and fast. And what better place to go than Talladega, where Keselowski has netted six of his 36 career victories, the most by three at any track where he has taken the checkers? As with Logano, don’t be surprised if his season looks a lot different on Sunday evening.

Could It Finally Be the Year for Hamlin?

Speculating who will win the title at this early stage is, admittedly, a fool’s errand, but could this finally be the year for everyone’s favorite pantomime villain, Denny Hamlin?

Second in the standings and with two wins under his belt, it’s not crazy to suggest that Hamlin could have won four or five races already. He missed out by half a car length at Phoenix to teammate Bell, and probably should have won at Daytona were it not for an ill-advised last lap move by Custer. And while he was second to a dominant Larson, at Bristol, he was within spitting distance.

Added to this, in a season of very fine margins, his pit crew looks dialed in. Yes, there’s a long way to go and plenty of twists and turns, but maybe, just maybe, this will finally be the year.