It always felt like only a matter of time before Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe, who recorded three finishes in which he scored only a single point in the first four races of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Seres season, would make his move up the point standings.
The driver of the No. 19 Toyota led the series with seven pole positions in his first year after replacing Martin Truex Jr. a year ago, and he won three races en route to his first career Championship 4 appearance.
But since his cold start to 2026, Briscoe has not finished outside of the top 14, and he's one of only five drivers who can make that claim. As a result, he's up to 17th in the point standings, and he's just one point behind Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen for the 16th and final spot in the provisional playoff field.
Bottom line, it would be a major shocker if Briscoe doesn't end up in this year's playoff field, especially with 18 races still remaining on the regular season calendar.
However, for five other drivers who qualified for the playoffs a year ago, things aren't looking good at all.
Unlike Briscoe, these five drivers should be in panic mode, even though we're still shy of the one-third mark of the 26-race regular season.
Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing
Is Trackhouse Racing really this bad? Ross Chastain doesn't have a single finish inside the top 15 in a non-superspeedway race this season. He is 21st in the point standings, 24 points below the cut line, and the No. 1 team has shown absolutely no reason to be optimistic.
Austin Cindric, Team Penske
Austin Cindric deserves credit for stringing together a handful of solid results following his rough start to the season, but it's hard to imagine that will continue. He has historically been a driver who has won his way into the postseason, and that can't be done this year under the new format. He's 18th in points, just five points out.
Josh Berry, Wood Brothers Racing
Josh Berry being 25th in the point standings, 49 points below the cutoff, is not exactly a surprise; he was one of just two drivers who made it to the playoffs in 2025 but would not have done so had the "win and in" format not been in place. It's hard to imagine he'll climb far enough to advance this year.
Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing
The other one of those two drivers was Austin Dillon, who has qualified for the playoffs five times since 2017, and it would have been six if not for the penalty he was issued after his controversial Richmond Raceway win in 2024. Yet he wouldn't have gotten in on points on any of those occasions. He hasn't made it in on points since 2016, and he's currently 27th, 53 points back.
Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports
The playoff waiver won't make a difference here. Alex Bowman is 153 points below the playoff cut line after missing four races, and he is a distant 36th (last) among full-time drivers in points scored even during the four races he's actually contested. The real question is whether or not he'll be back in the No. 48 Chevrolet next year.
Honorable mention: Connor Zilisch, Trackhouse Racing
Speaking of Trackhouse Racing being bad, we're going to cheat here and include a driver who made it to the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series (formerly Xfinity Series) Championship 4 a year ago. Rookie Connor Zilisch is 33rd in points, and his deficit to the cutoff (93 points) is greater than his point total (84 points). Sorry, but the "best prospect since Jeff Gordon" has no chance of getting in this year.
And for what it's worth, given the trajectory of his race team, he's probably not getting in at any point in the near future unless he switches to Gordon's team, either.
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season is set to continue this Sunday, April 19 with the AdventHealth 400, which is set to be shown live on Fox from Kansas Speedway starting at 2:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action!
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