The talk of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season has been the strength of Toyota, thanks to an underperforming Ford body and a new Chevrolet body that has simply taken a lot longer than expected for teams, including usual powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports, to adjust to.
Lately, it's been the strength of Joe Gibbs Racing that's been specifically on full display. The Toyota powerhouse now occupies four of the top six positions in the point standings after placing all four cars inside the top six in Sunday's Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway, despite the fact that only one qualified inside the top 20.
It was yet another reminder of just how dangerous this team is at all kinds of ovals, which is particularly important since this year's postseason is the first since 2017 without any road courses on the schedule.
Additionally, the playoffs are set to utilize an iteration of the old "Chase" format from 2004 to 2013, rather than the "win and in" system that had been used for the past 12 years, placing more value on consistency and sustained hot streaks, rather than simply winning a single race at the right time and advancing despite a 28th place finish and a DNF in the round's other races.
To say that JGR has checked all of the boxes this year would be a major understatement, and you could really argue that their performance has actually exceeded some of their results. It's almost shocking that they've "only" won seven out of 23 races so far this year.
But one JGR driver in particular is flying under the radar, and sleeping on him as the playoffs approach would not be a wise choice.
Denny Hamlin has garnered plenty of attention for his rise to the top of the championship standings, thanks in large part to his three-race win streak in May and June; the regular season title is clearly now his to lose, thanks to his 103-point lead with three races remaining.
Ty Gibbs is heating up as well, having just jumped up to second with his second win of what has been a career year. And Christopher Bell continues to make headlines for his runner-up finishes, painting the picture that he could be on the verge of a breakthrough like we saw from him in early 2025 when he won three races in a row himself.
What about Chase Briscoe?
In three of the season's first four races, Briscoe scored only a single point, putting him in a deep hole straight from the get-go. He flirted with the playoff cut line a few times in mid-spring after a string of solid results, but it took until late May's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for him to move above it and stay above it.
And while it hasn't particularly been flashy, he hasn't looked back, now sitting all the way up in fifth in the point standings.
If you want consistency, Briscoe has been as consistent as they come as of late, with his win at Chicagoland Speedway in early July serving as one of his five top six finishes in the six most recent races.
He's also a driver who has historically proven to be at his best when it matters most. He won early in the 2022 season with Stewart-Haas Racing to punch his playoff ticket. Despite a 15-race streak of finishes outside of the top 12 later that year, he heated up with four straight top 10 results in the playoffs to work his way into the round of 8, where he had a legitimate shot to advance to the Championship 4 with his performance at Martinsville Speedway.
In 2024, he won his way into the playoffs from well below the cut line in the regular season finale at Darlington Raceway, giving Stewart-Haas Racing their last ever postseason spot just months before they shut down.
And in 2025, after much was made about the fact that he was searching and searching for his first win with his new team before he broke through at Pocono Raceway in the middle of the year, he immediately won the playoff opener at Darlington, giving him two Southern 500 victories in a row, before going on to qualify for the Championship 4 in his first season behind the wheel of the No. 19 Toyota.
He has never been flashy; he's never won more than a single race in the regular season. But he's heating up just as much as anybody else in the JGR stable, and seeing as how it's starting to look like this year's championship battle might well be a battle between those four drivers, he simply cannot be overlooked.
He's never been considered one of NASCAR's elite or NASCAR's most likely championship contenders. But he knows how to get the job done. And given Bell's propensity to finish second this year, Hamlin's historic numbers without a championship, and Gibbs' relative lack of postseason experience, perhaps the most serious threat from the JGR camp is the one who isn't being talked about enough.
Richmond Raceway is scheduled to host the Cook Out 400 this Saturday, August 15, with live coverage set to be provided by USA Network beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss it!
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