1. Which race team is best positioned to win the NASCAR Cup Series title: Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing or Team Penske?
Luken Glover: Even with recent history, take being the favorite with a grain of salt, as anything can happen in the playoffs. And as dominant as Joe Gibbs Racing has looked at times this postseason, teams are going to have to earn it from Team Penske. The organization’s mantra is ‘Penske Perfect’ for a reason, as it knows how to master these playoffs. Toyota will be the favorite for the win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but even there, Penske has proven to be a force in the past. If there’s any team that can be a favorite in a wild card such as Talladega Superspeedway, it’s Penske. That leaves the final two races: Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix Raceway, two short, flat tracks that have become Penske’s bread and butter. Ryan Blaney has arguably been the fastest driver this season as a whole, and the final two races are notorious for long green flag runs, something at which the No. 12 team excels. And as long as Joey Logano is alive in the playoffs, he is dangerous. Should one of the two or both get to Phoenix, they will be the favorite.
Christopher Hansen: Through five playoff races, I’d give the advantage to Joe Gibbs Racing. The organization won the first three races to start the playoffs and would’ve won Kansas had it not been for Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 having a power steering issue in the late stages of the race. Hamlin in particular has been a force to be reckoned with in the postseason, with only one finish outside the top 20 since the playoffs began. While Team Penske stepped up at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the lone track similar to Phoenix, and Hendrick Motorsports breaking through at Kansas Speedway, the title is still up for grabs between these three teams. However, JGR seems to be in the driver’s seat as long as one of its three drivers make it to Phoenix.
Andrew Stoddard: Ranking these three in order, Team Penske is the favorite until proven otherwise. Between Logano in 2022 and 2024 and Blaney in 2023, the organization has yet to lose a Cup Series championship in the Next Gen car era. They have figured something out about this playoff system and car, particularly at Phoenix, that the other teams have not. With that said, Joe Gibbs Racing has closed the gap, as indicated by its sweep of the Round of 16. Hendrick Motorsports is last of the Big 3 teams right now in my mind, but not by much. Chase Elliott has already booked his Round of 8 ticket, Kyle Larson is starting to look like his old self, and while William Byron underwhelmed at Kansas, he is still well above the cut line to make the Round of 8. It will be interesting to see these three teams battle it out for the championship down the stretch.
2. Is Kansas Speedway the most entertaining track on the NASCAR schedule right now? If not, then which track or tracks rank above it?
Hansen: I think the case can be made that Kansas is the most entertaining track on the NASCAR schedule because it’s where the closest finish in NASCAR history occurred last spring between Larson and Chris Buescher. The progressive banking allows drivers to run virtually anywhere on track from right on the bottom to all the way against the wall. Plus, late race restarts at Kansas are so unpredictable with three- and four-wide racing, which leads to white knuckle racing traditionally seen at drafting style tracks.
Stoddard: It depends. In terms of entertainment and spectacle, I would still put Daytona International Speedway and Talladega at the top, with Kansas somewhere in the top five behind them. If we’re going off purely the quality of the racing, Kansas is the top dog at the moment. With that said, as cars and rules packages change and evolve, we have seen the product at some racetracks ebb and flow. The intermediate speedways mesh well with the Next Gen car, but that could change a few years down the road.
Glover: Organically speaking, it is at the top. EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta has become one of the hottest tickets, but it’s also superspeedway-style racing that is a product of changes made to the track, whereas Kansas has suited the Next Gen better than other venues. Drivers can either rip the fence or remain bottom-feeders, yet make great speed on either line. Wide racing grooves and fascinating restarts add extra elements of intrigue, and drivers have to work hard to pass while still having multiple options to make a pass. Over 90% of respondents voted it as a good race in Jeff Gluck’s Good Race Poll, the fourth Kansas race to earn 90% or more, all coming in the Next Gen era. Homestead-Miami Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway are tracks that I would throw in there currently, and those just emphasize the fact that, despite its fundamental problems, the Next Gen car has revitalized intermediate racing.
3. Is Sunday’s top-10 finish at Kansas a turning point for Shane van Gisbergen at ovals, or is more evidence needed?
Stoddard: Shane van Gisbergen is starting to figure out ovals, and that should be a scary thought for the rest of the Cup Series field. While Kansas was his first oval top 10, it was not a complete anomaly. While he ultimately wound up 32nd at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he qualified 10th and ran inside the top 10 for a decent chunk of the race. Van Gisbergen also possesses two other top 15s on ovals in 2025, a pair of 14th-place finishes at the Coca-Cola 600 and Richmond Raceway. At his current rate of improvement on ovals, SVG will almost certainly go deeper in the Cup Series playoffs in 2026 (if they keep the same playoff format, that is).
Glover: Van Gisbergen is certainly at a turning point in his oval performance, and the same can be said for the perspective on his oval progress. He’s right in the middle of “I need to see more” and “he’s figuring them out.” Though the finishes don’t necessarily reflect it, SVG has improved on the oval layouts, evidenced by a 14th at Richmond Raceway, his top 10 this past week at Kansas, and the fact that he drove into the top five on speed at New Hampshire Motor Speedway before getting caught up in a wreck. The No. 88 team is starting to put full weekends together stemming from practice to the race, so while one result still leaves me wanting to see this progress continued, SVG is continuing to chip away at the disadvantage he faced.
Hansen: While one race is a small sample size, van Gisbergen is well positioned to have more top-10 finishes on ovals than he was when the season first started. Of the remaining oval tracks left on the schedule, van Gisbergen has been to all of them earlier this season, which should bode well for him to potentially earn a few more top 10s on ovals before 2025 ends.
4. Which of the drivers below the Xfinity Series playoff cut line is most likely to win at the ROVAL?
Glover: Austin Hill has been a threat in multiple road course races this season, but keep an eye on Nick Sanchez this weekend. Outside of a couple of subpar results due to incidents and other factors, Sanchez has three top fives in six road course races this season, including a third-place run in the most recent road event at Portland International Raceway. This No. 48 team from Big Machine Racing also should have celebrated a win at the ROVAL a year ago before controversy struck, so don’t sleep on Sanchez just yet.
Hansen: Hill seems best positioned to win his way into the Round of 8 at the Charlotte ROVAL, coming off of finishes of fourth and ninth in his last two starts at the track. With all of his playoff points taken away in light of his one-race suspension from wrecking Aric Almirola at Indianapolis a few months ago, Hill hasn’t had a memorable playoffs with a subpar 19th-place run at Bristol before finishing third at Kansas last weekend. Losing his playoff points has hurt Hill in the opening round, and he will need a spectacular run this weekend to keep his championship hopes alive in 2025.
Stoddard: Hill has the best playoff pedigree of the quartet of drivers below the cut line, coming off of a Championship 4 appearance in the Xfinity Series last year. But when it comes to a road course like the Charlotte ROVAL, give me Sanchez. Three of Sanchez’s six top fives this season have come on road courses: the Chicago street course, Sonoma Raceway and Portland. This does not take into account other road courses like Watkins Glen International and Mexico City where Sanchez qualified and ran well, but he did not get the finish he deserved due to wrecks or mechanical failures. Even if he does not win, Sanchez will do enough this weekend to propel Big Machine Racing to its first Round of 8 appearance.
Entering his fifth year with Frontstretch, Luken Glover is the author of The Underdog House, shedding light on the motivation and performance of NASCAR's dark horse teams as they strive to fight to the top. Additionally, Glover reports for the site at various events, and he contributes in the video editing department.
A 2023 graduate of the University of the Cumberlands, Glover is a middle school math and PE teacher, as well as a basketball coach. He is passionate about serving in his church, playing/coaching a wide variety of sports, and researching motorsports history.
Andrew Stoddard joined Frontstretch in May of 2022 as an iRacing contributor. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond, and VCU. He works as an athletic communications specialist at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.