Will there be 16 different winners in the Cup Series this year?
The illustrious 16-winner mark in the NASCAR Cup Series has been one of concern as of late for some drivers who only have one win on the season and are not in a good points position. It doesn’t take a mathematician to note that if the 16-winner mark is reached, everyone who does currently have a win will be seeded in the playoffs on points, leaving no chance for any driver to points race for a championship.
This shouldn’t scare everyone on the circuit with just one win, though. For instance, Chase Elliott picked up his first in quite some time at EchoPark Speedway last weekend, but he now sits second in points.
Atlanta served as an opportunity for the likes of Brad Keselowski, who came mighty close to taking home a win himself, and several others who are in the hunt for that first win of the season. However, that opportunity was squandered, and instead, it inched the Cup Series even closer to a mark that NASCAR itself may not necessarily want to reach: 16 different winners.
Why, you might ask, would that be a worst case scenario?
Well, if the adage is win and you’re in, it doesn’t do well for public perceptions if some winners aren’t, in fact, in when it comes to the postseason.
But is this a real possibility? Absolutely. Just look at the schedule ahead. The Chicago street course and Sonoma Raceway back to back, then to Dover Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Those races themselves could all have five different winners, as they’re not exactly tracks where predictions tend to fare well.
Sixteen winners is more than possible ā in fact, I’d say at this point that it’s likely we have more.
Where will Daniel Suarez land after parting ways with Trackhouse Racing?
In case you missed it, two-time Cup winner Daniel Suarez and Trackhouse “mutually agreed to part ways” at the end of this season, marking one of the first big announcements of what has been an otherwise calm Silly Season up to this point.
This move has been questioned throughout the midweek slate, but it’s fairly obvious what’s about to happen. NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie Connor Zilisch will likely take over the Trackhouse ride and bring sponsorship along with road course pedigree to the seat, while Suarez takes Zilisch’s seat in the Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports.
Zilisch might still need a bit of polishing when it comes to his oval-racing craft, but he’s certainly better than most of his competition in that regard, and he’ll be one of the series’ favorites at each road course on the schedule in 2026. It’s a no-brainer to elevate him to the position.
But why will Suarez head to Xfinity? There isn’t a lot of seat-hopping opportunity at the moment elsewhere. The best seat that might be open is Ty Dillon‘s, but even he brings quite a chunk of change in sponsorship revenue. Suarez’s best deal is to go down to Xfinity, win his fair share of races and wait until a clearer path emerges for him in the Cup Series. Go where you can win and the results will come.
JRM would more than likely welcome the move, too. It’s already a team that’s seen success with a veteran driver in Justin Allgaier, and that same playbook can only help Suarez.
Is Lime Rock Park worth a 2026 return?
Now that the dust has settled and emotions have dwindled a bit, this is the perfect time to take a look at just what made last weekend’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Lime Rock a bit of a snooze fest.
The problems were three-fold, the first of which was the broadcast itself. Fans that attended in person packed the track out, as the officials from Lime Rock posted record attendance numbers. Therefore, being there must have been far more exciting than watching FOX’s coverage of the event itself.
The second was that Corey Heim is simply too good of a driver in too fast of a truck to make any road course race interesting from a leader standpoint. He’s won three straight road courses in the series and hasn’t appeared to break a sweat in doing so. Nothing makes for a boring race to watch quite like a bad broadcast covering a race for second place.
The final point is that NASCAR took the wrong car to Lime Rock, full stop. Frontstretch talked shortly after the race concluded about the fact that Lime Rock is meant to be a very fast track, with sweeping corners and long straights. To make a long story short, that kind of track is not conducive to a quality race in the two lower series.
However, the Cup Series is a different story. If the Truck race was the litmus test, then soon, NASCAR should go for the full dip and send the Cup Series to Lime Rock. Those cars are more suited to the track’s setup, and the drivers are more suited to being able to put on a good show for those in attendance in person and at home.
If the track will pack itself for the Trucks and the ARCA Menards Series, imagine what a Cup weekend would look like.
How far could Nick Sanchez go in the Xfinity playoffs?
To keep it short, Nick Sanchez very well could go further than most might think.
Those who have kept tabs on the Xfinity Series the last few years know that the Big Machine Racing No. 48 is not a slouchy piece of equipment. Think back to the amount of sheer heartbreak that Parker Kligerman endured behind the wheel of that car, especially late in last year’s Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL race when Sam Mayer passed him in overtime.
Additionally, that move at the end of the Atlanta race where, after receiving a push-and-a-half from Aric Almirola, Sanchez threaded the needle to the front to stay there was a real piece of racecraft.
Yes, Sanchez’s lows this season have been quite, well, low. However, if you look at the highs, he’s been hunting the front more times than not. He finished fifth at the first Atlanta race of the season and third at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Now with the win at Atlanta, he has one of the more impressive resumĆ©s out of this rookie class.
There will most definitely have to be some lucky breaks, but that’s the case for any driver in Sanchez’s situation. I’m not saying I expect to see him in the Championship 4, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. With the tracks that come up later in the playoffs, expect Sanchez and BMR to fight for every inch of paved real estate, because they’ve got real speed at most venues.
Tanner Marlar is a staff writer for Sports Illustratedās OnSI Network, a contributor for TopSpeed.com, an AP Wire reporter, an award-winning sports columnist and talk show host and master's student at Mississippi State University. Soon, Tanner will be pursuing a PhD. in Mass Media Studies. Tanner began working with Frontstretch as an Xfinity Series columnist in 2022.