Two races into the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, several drivers who made it to the playoffs a year ago find themselves in unfamiliar situations in the point standings.
Sure, it's early; there are still 24 races remaining on the regular season schedule. Additionally, only three of those 24 races are superspeedway races, after the season got underway with back-to-back drafting races at Daytona International Speedway and EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway).
But with points and points alone set to determine this year's 16-driver playoff field following a long-awaited sweeping overhaul of the postseason format this past offseason, every point counts, and for that reason, it could already be time to panic for several drivers who made it to the postseason a year ago.
Here are five of those drivers.
Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing
Austin Dillon hasn't qualified for the playoffs on points since 2016, even though he found victory lane in 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024, and 2025.
Dillon was always considered one of the drivers who would be screwed over most by NASCAR's new playoff format, specifically the elimination of the "win and in" nature of it. He would not have even come close to making the playoffs a year ago had he not won the race at Richmond Raceway, and the same was true in 2022 when he won at Daytona. His 2024 Richmond win was encumbered anyway.
Dillon finds himself in a 33rd place tie after two races, and he's just three points ahead of being the last place driver.
Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports
If Alex Bowman wasn't already on the hot seat, he is now. Bowman was the final driver to qualify for the playoffs on points a year ago, and he finds himself 32nd through two races this year, 27 points below the cutoff.
Bowman has won just one race since March 2022, and that came in the Chicago Street Race in July 2024, a race that is no longer on the schedule. All three of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates won multiple races in 2025 alone.
Things could spiral quickly for Bowman and the No. 48 team if they don't right the ship. Not only might a single win not be enough to get into this year's playoffs; it very well might not be enough to net him a new contract.
Josh Berry, Wood Brothers Racing
Josh Berry, like Austin Dillon, won a regular season race a year ago, but he would not have come particularly come close to qualifying for the playoffs without that victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Likewise, he wouldn't have come close to the playoffs in 2025 had the 2026 points-based format been in place a year ago.
Berry was the only driver not involved in some sort of incident at Daytona, but his good fortune ran out early at Atlanta when he was taken out in a wreck involving Riley Herbst.
He finds himself in a 25th place tie in the point standings, and although his 10-point deficit to the cutoff isn't necessarily alarming quite yet, he needs to avoid letting that grow any larger.
Austin Cindric, Team Penske
The other driver tied for 25th in points is Austin Cindric, and this one feels a bit more alarming.
Not only have there been questions about his future with Team Penske, but the fact that he's this far down the order following two superspeedway races, which have produced some of his best results over the years, means that he has a steep hill to climb moving forward.
Cindric has won a race in three of his first four full seasons in the Cup Series with Team Penske, but those achievements don't come close to measuring up to the accolades of his teammates, who have combined to win three of those four championships and have both recorded multiple multi-win seasons during that stretch.
Connor Zilisch, Trackhouse Racing
We're going to cheat a bit here, since Connor Zilisch was a part of the NASCAR Xfinity Series (now O'Reilly Auto Parts Series) playoffs, not the Cup Series playoffs, in 2025, but the point still stands.
Ever since Zilisch was officially called up to the Cup Series full-time with Trackhouse Racing, I've wondered what the media's reaction might be to the "best prospect since Jeff Gordon" getting off to a slow start. Now we're getting to see it.
Sure, we're talking about two superspeedway races. There are plenty of other top-tier drivers well below the playoff cut line after being involved in incidents. But Zilisch is 36th in points, last among full-time drivers, and he's already 31 points below the playoff cut line.
Breaking news: the NASCAR Cup Series isn't easy.
There are no two ways around that fact, and Zilisch is getting a taste of that early. How he performs at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), where he is expected to be a contender given his road course racing prowess, could go a long way toward determining whether or not he was deserving of being labeled one of the preseason championship favorites, even as a rookie.
Will any of these drivers turn things around this coming weekend at Circuit of the Americas in the first of four non-oval races on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season schedule? The DuraMAX Grand Prix is set to be shown live on Fox from COTA starting at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 1. Catch all of the action with a free trial of FuboTV!