The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season officially came to a close on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, as Ryan Preece delivered a walk-off win to punch his ticket to the Chase and provided an outcome that felt hilariously fitting.
Now the attention turns to the return of the Chase format with a field that includes every full-time winner from the 2026 season, aside from Shane van Gisbergen.
As the focus shifts to Darlington Raceway for Sunday's Cook Out Southern 500, Denny Hamlin leads the group of 16 drivers in contention for the Bill France Cup, although his advantage has dropped from 89 points over Ryan Blaney to just 25 following the points reset.
The "win and in" from the previous playoff format may have been eliminated, but Daytona represented one last chance for drivers to gain some ground in points. One driver who did the complete opposite amid a brutal stretch to conclude the regular season is Carson Hocevar, who suffered his third finish outside the top 30 in the regular season's last four races.
After he finished ninth from the pole in the Brickyard 400, Hocevar was fifth in points and appeared to be a serious title contender following his first career Cup Series win earlier this season at Talladega Superspeedway. After a series of bad finishes and on-track miscues, Hocevar sits 12th in the standings and has 80 points to make up after the reset, leaving him in a much different position than he was in just a few races ago.
For comparison, if Hocevar had remained fifth in the standings and did not endure the stretch of bad finishes to close out the regular season, he would have entered Darlington just 45 points behind Hamlin.
Carson Hocevar has some ground to make up in Chase standings
To say it has been a frustrating four-race stretch to end the regular season would be an understatement for Hocevar. Already battling mechanical issues at Iowa Speedway, Hocevar's No. 77 Chevrolet snapped loose in turn four and spun out before a 31st-place finish ensued.
A 37th-place finish followed at Richmond Raceway after Hocevar mistakenly shifted to third gear instead of fifth, causing his motor to blow in the process. New Hampshire Motor Speedway featured even more issues, as Hocevar spun out during pace laps as the rain began to intensify before being involved in two cautions once the race got underway and salvaging a 19th-place finish.
Then there was Daytona, where Hocevar appeared to have a shot to win after leading at the white flag of the Daytona 500 in February. Instead, his car broke free as he dove to the inside of Preece in turn three and made heavy right-side contact with the outside wall before dropping to 38th in the 40-car field.
Hocevar simply said it caught him off guard when responding to the crash that took him out of the race at Daytona. Regardless, it was another missed opportunity to capitalize on points as other drivers around him in the standings also suffered some misfortune in the chaotic ending that is typically expected at the "World Center of Racing".
Hocevar has not shied away from the spotlight with his on-track aggressiveness and his personality outside the cockpit. In fact, his unapologetic mentality and take no prisoners approach is exactly what the sport needs and why he continues to gain in popularity among the fanbase.
That said, the fact that he sits more than a full race behind Hamlin after the points reset, especially considering where he was in the standings after the Brickyard 400, speaks to how far he has dropped off in the last four weeks. For instance, Joey Logano climbed from 20th to ninth in the standings in a six-week period and received a whopping 253-point boost following Daytona.
There is no denying the speed that Hocevar has flashed throughout the season and no reason to believe that he won't be competitive when the green flag waves at "The Lady in Black" on Sunday. However, while the points reset still gives everyone a fighting chance, compared to where they were beforehand, Hocevar finds himself at a much larger deficit than he would have a few weeks ago and has plenty of work to do to right the ship.
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