Hendrick Motorsports' Alex Bowman found himself in 36th and last place in the NASCAR Cup Series standings after the 2026 season's third race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), and that was even before he missed any races due to his vertigo diagnosis, which came after he removed himself from the COTA race due to illness while running 36th.
Bowman has not competed in the Cup Series since that race, so he is technically still last in the standings, but after missing three races and being set to miss at least the next two, there are really only 35 full-time drivers at this point.
After the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Cup Series found itself with a bit of a surprise driver in 35th place in the standings, and that was Trackhouse Racing rookie Connor Zilisch.
Zilisch is considered one of the greatest prospects in NASCAR history, with some going as far as comparing the 19-year-old to Jeff Gordon, yet his introduction to the Cup Series has been nothing shy of a baptism by fire.
Connor Zilisch jumps out of last place in NASCAR standings
Yet despite not running particularly well, except at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) road course, where he had a legitimate chance to win had he not gotten spun out and sent to the back twice, it could be argued that he had not yet truly gotten the chance to shine, having been involved in some sort of accident in each of the season's first four oval races.
Zilisch by no means lit the world on fire at Darlington Raceway this past Sunday, but an 18th place finish was a nice breath of fresh air and a much-needed decent result after his horrendous start to the season.
It was also his second-best oval finish in seven career starts, trailing only his 11th place effort at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) from June 2025.
Perhaps most importantly, even though the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet is looking like a longshot to qualify for the playoffs at this point, the Darlington race elevated him out of last place in the standings.
Zilisch, who is 70 points below the playoff cut line, now finds himself in 33rd place in the standings, rather than 35th. He is eight points ahead of Haas Factory Team's Cole Custer in 34th and 16 points ahead of Rick Ware Racing's Cody Ware, who is NASCAR's new last place driver in 35th. Custer finished 28th on Sunday, while Ware finished 36th.
Unlike Bowman and Zilisch, Ware being in last is no huge surprise.
The driver of the No. 51 Chevrolet finished a distant 36th and last among full-time drivers a year ago with just two top 20 finishes, and he posted nothing higher than 13th. Through six races this year, his top finish is 17th in the Daytona 500, and his average finish is 28.2, which is the worst in the series aside from Bowman's 33.0 over his abbreviated three-race stretch.
Ware's average finish of 30.4 in 2025 was worst in the series by four full positions; 23XI Racing's Riley Herbst, who was 35th in points, was next worst at 26.4. Herbst is currently 27th in the 2026 standings, 35 points ahead of Ware, with an average finish of 23.3.
Will Ware get himself out of last at Martinsville Speedway? The Cook Out 400 is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 starting at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 29. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!
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