After missing four races early in the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series season since he had not yet turned 18 years old, Brent Crews wasted no time in proving why NASCAR shouldn't even bother with a "waiver" process when full-time drivers miss time due to circumstances outside of their control.
By the season's 13th race, which was only Crews' ninth, he had worked his way into the provisional 12-driver playoff picture in 11th place. His sixth place finish at Watkins Glen International was his fifth straight top six result, a run that included a runner-up finish at Talladega Superspeedway and a third place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway.
But despite recording two more runner-up finishes and another third place result later in the regular season, Crews struggled to separate himself from the cutoff.
Crashes at Charlotte Motor Speedway and EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway), plus an engine issue after starting on pole on Naval Base Coronado, kept him yo-yoing above and below the cut line for the entire rest of the regular season.
Crews entered the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway just one point above the cut line, and an early incident effectively ended his chances of qualiyfing for the postseason.
Joe Gibbs Racing's top driver misses the 2026 playoffs
Make no mistake about it; the driver of the No. 19 Toyota had his chances. But it doesn't change the fact that Joe Gibbs Racing's strongest championship threat didn't even qualify for the playoffs.
Crews finished six points behind JR Motorsports' Rajah Caruth for the 12th and final postseason spot, and teammate William Sawalich, who also failed to qualify for the playoffs a year ago, was five points behind Caruth, despite winning at Rockingham Speedway.
Joe Gibbs Racing's two playoff drivers are series veteran Brandon Jones, who won at Chicagoland Speedway, and Taylor Gray, who won at Kansas Speedway.
Crews averaged significantly more points per race than Gray (30 vs. 25.38) during the regular season, and he posted both more top five finishes (8 vs. 3) and top 10 finishes (12 vs. 9), despite running four fewer races.
Jones averaged slightly more points per race than Crews at 31.42, but with the advantage of having only one DNF. Jones is in his 11th full season in the series and has shown time and time again that his upside is mid-pack playoff qualifier, and that is once again true in 2026. He only recorded six top five finishes and even led fewer laps than Crews (143 to 131), despite winning at Chicagoland.
Had Crews run the full season, let's be totally objective: he would have qualified for the playoffs.
Simply by competing in the four races he missed, he would have been guaranteed to score at least four more points, taking him from six points below the cutoff to two. With two top 35 finishes in any of those four events, he'd have been in, and given his ability to run at the front from the start, it's hard to make a case that he would not have been Joe Gibbs Racing's top contender.
Unfortunately for him, he did have his chances and couldn't get the job done, even as the clear highest-upside driver in the Toyota camp. And unfortunately for Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota, their only hopes of winning the championship now lie with a driver who has seven wins in 11 years, and another who has scored top 10 finishes in barely one-third of the races contested this season.
It may be early September, but it'd be hard to blame Chevrolet if they have already started to celebrate. It might just be a matter of which of their 10 remaining challengers gets to raise the trophy.
Darlington Raceway is set to get the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series playoffs underway this Saturday, September 5, with live coverage of the Fleetio 200 set to be provided by the CW Network starting at 7:30 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss it!
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