As hard as it sounds to believe, the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is already one-sixth of the way complete. The circuit has already visited two superspeedways, a road course, and three unique intermediate ovals.
Now, the top stock car racers in America are set to head to Martinsville Speedway this weekend for their first short track action of the year.
Unfortunately for a number of big names, they'll be going into the Cook Out 400 looking to climb out of an early hole after less-than-ideal starts.
Most notable is Ty Gibbs, who sits a dismal 34th in points after six races and has been the subject of much hysteria, but that horse isn't worth beating to death any further. With that in mind, let's instead focus on four other drivers who could use a fresh set of tires.
Four drivers who need to turn their 2025 season around
Brad Keselowski
Keselowski has to be thanking his lucky stars for Gibbs and his No. 54 team, because without their struggles, he would be easily the biggest disappointment of 2025 thus far. The 2012 Cup Series champion is 30th in points with a best finish of 11th, and his performance can't even be chalked up to bad luck. In six races, he's yet to record an average running position of better than 20th.
On the wrong side of 40, it's fair to wonder how much Keselowski still has left in the tank. The next few weeks will be quite telling for him, as last time the Cup Series was at Martinsville, he led 170 laps. After that, NASCAR is set to head to Darlington Raceway, the site of his most recent win last spring.
Ryan Blaney
Contrary to Keselowski, Blaney's placement on this list is not because he's lacked speed in 2025. Last Sunday at Homestead, he led the most laps and appeared poised to contend for the win before his engine blew, dropping him to a 36th place DNF, his career-worst third DNF in a row. Two of those were due to mechanical failures, while sandwiched in between was a crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after an issue on pit road had put him in harm's way.
After falling to 10th in points, what Blaney really needs is a break at the luck bank. The good news for him is he's now headed to a track where he has won two of the three most recent races. If any driver is poised for a "get right" race in Martinsville, it's the 2023 Cup Series champion.
Chase Elliott
Sure, Elliott is sixth in points. But the problem with that is his three Hendrick Motorsports teammates – William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Alex Bowman – are sitting 1-2-3. The 2020 Cup Series champ has lacked dominant upside for what is now the third year in a row, and with only one win in his past 76 starts, discussion is starting to heat up regarding potential personnel changes to the No. 9 team to reignite NASCAR's most popular driver.
Jeff Gordon on Chase Elliott (1 win in the last 76 races): “You’re measuring yourself against the best out there. A lot of times that’s your own stable. If you’re not achieving what you want, then you’ve got to work, and you know that you’re not meeting expectations.” #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/PUTVCChfrh
— Jeff Gordon Online (@JGinfo) March 25, 2025
A great way to silence that talk would be for the second generation star to make a statement at Martinsville, a track where he's certainly capable of doing so. Last year, he led a combined 193 laps in two races there, and he won on "The Paperclip" in the fall of 2020 en route to his memorable title. For the health of the sport, it's past time for that version of Elliott to return.
Carson Hocevar
Similarly to Blaney, the 2024 Cup Series Rookie of the Year just needs a weekend to go by without any issues beyond his control. In six races in 2025, he's had mechanical failures at Daytona International Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, was taken out in a wreck at Phoenix Raceway, and received damage in a pit road incident at Las Vegas. In the two races he didn't have anything go wrong, he finished second and 13th.
Hocevar has the talent of a playoff-level driver in the Cup Series, and he can probably even still turn himself around this year to make a push. But after what's been a rough go results-wise the past few weeks to drop him to 27th in points, he'll need to stay calm, cool, and collected on the track while hoping for some positive regression in the luck column.
The Cook Out 400 is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 from Martinsville Speedway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 30. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss it!