1. Tyler Reddick’s Crazy Big Points Lead Is Just About Gone
It wasn’t too long ago that we were all marveling at the season Tyler Reddick was having. It was the kind of awe that winning five of the first nine races buys you, along with a healthy lead in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings.
Now? Not so much. Reddick’s lead at the top is down to just 19 points, and that’s despite the fact he’s still been running pretty darn good. Except for a 36th-place result at Michigan International Speedway, Reddick has come home 14th or better in every race since his Kansas Speedway victory, including five finishes of sixth or better.
It isn’t Reddick’s fault that over that same stretch, Denny Hamlin ended up fourth or better six times and has now won the last three consecutive Cup races. No one could have seen it coming, as Hamlin has never pulled off that trick in his illustrious career.
Oh yeah, and his third-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 may also have ended up a victory if the race hadn’t been called short due to rain. Add in his All-Star Race triumph and Hamlin could be headed to San Diego riding a five-race win streak.
Reddick had an insane start, but Hamlin has managed to one-up him just a few months later. It’s wild to consider that both of these heaters have taken place in just the first half of the same NASCAR season, but here we are.
2. Earlier Starts, We Forgot How Much We Missed You
One of the nicest things about Hamlin’s Pocono Raceway win was how early in the day it came on Sunday (June 14). That’s meant literally, since the official race broadcast began at 1 p.m. ET.
It wasn’t originally scheduled that way. The Cup Series race was supposed to start two hours later but was moved forward due to concerns about the potential for bad weather in the afternoon and early evening.
That decision was likely made much easier by the fact that the race was broadcast by Amazon Prime Video. Unlike a network or cable channel, a streamer has no concerns about needing to pre-empt or move around other programming, and can simply air the race whenever it takes place.
In this case, it was the right-after-church-or-lunch slot so familiar to NASCAR fans of a certain age, and it felt so good to watch a Cup event in its entirety and still have time left in your Sunday.
There’s almost no way we’re going back to 1 p.m. starts for all races in the Eastern time zone (and none for the rest of this year are scheduled for that time), so maybe we can enlist Mother Nature to threaten a few more race weekends with Sunday afternoon precipitation and see if she can coerce some to end up there.
3. Even a Lesser Toyota Team Ate at Pocono
While we could spend more time and digital page space on why the Chevrolet (sort of) and Ford (big time) Cup teams are lagging this season, let’s turn it around and instead give shout-outs to Toyota drivers outside Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing who are finding their groove.
The best example at Pocono was John Hunter Nemechek, who picked up his first top five of 2026 and led a race-high 42 laps. That’s something he generally does not do, but it would be interesting indeed to see the Legacy Motor Club driver do it more regularly.
His teammate Erik Jones followed up a runner-up result at Michigan with a solid sixth in Pennsylvania, his first consecutive top 10s of this season. Jones has now ended up 19th or better in six straight races, and as a result has made his way back into the top 16 in points, albeit barely.
When it was just Jones showing speed, maybe it wouldn’t be all that worthy of conversation. Both Legacy drivers running toward the front at the same time is more of a trend, one that’s definitely worth filing away for the second half of the campaign.
4. Kyle Larson’s Inspection Failure Is His Whole Season (So Far) in a Nutshell
If any driver is the anti-Reddick or anti-Hamlin this year, it’s Kyle Larson. Not in terms of overall performance, mind you, as he’s sixth in points with a solid number of top 10s (nine) and top fives (six).
No, the discrepancy shows how even when Reddick and Hamlin don’t have their best cars, they still are managing to find ways to win. It’s been just the opposite for Larson, who proved it again at Pocono.
Larson’s No. 5 Chevy failed inspection twice before the most recent race, costing him pit stall selection and booting his car chief for the weekend. It wasn’t a disaster by any means, as Larson led 24 laps and finished fifth.
You can’t help but wonder if he would have challenged for the win if those small mishaps hadn’t taken place. Larson is still fast in practice and qualifying and still leads laps most weeks. It’s just that something always goes sideways, whether it’s mechanical issues, over-aggression at the wrong time or plain bad racing luck. Now we can add minor penalties to the list as well.
It stinks to be off the pace, as any driver would agree. It might be more frustrating to know you can win and continually have things not fall into place to do so.
5. Can the Naval Base Coronado Race Bring Some of the Same Spectacle as the UFC White House Event?
Setting aside political debate and a long discussion that could be had about the intermingling of sports and government, the UFC’s fight card on the White House lawn was an almost surreal spectacle. In terms of imagery alone, the sport of mixed martial arts has never seen anything quite like that and likely never will again (UFC head Dana White has already said as much).
Don’t expect the races at Naval Base Coronado to be quite as high on the visual shock and awe scale, but they might leave lasting images in the mind in some of the same ways.
The pics that have already circulated of the temporary street circuit coming together have been amazing. For goodness sake, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the Prime Video crew will be coming to us live from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.
Maybe the racing will stink, or the logistics will prove too harrowing to ever attempt again. But it’s going to be a talking point outside the typical NASCAR bubble, the same way the White House card was for the UFC, and that alone is going to make it an experiment that NASCAR is unlikely to regret.
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