CHAMPIONSHIP ELIGIBLE CREW CHIEFS DISCUSS TITLE CHANCES
The four crew chiefs still bringing a reasonable chance of leading a team to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship met with the media Saturday morning at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in advance of Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). And even though three of them go into the race as “longshots,” the competitive vibe was still strong and unmistakable.
Cliff Daniels, the crew chief for the championship-leading No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by reigning series champ Kyle Larson, conceded the 73-point advantage his team takes into the season’s final two-race swing looks hard to beat. But the team is taking nothing for granted.
“Really, our game plan hasn’t changed a lot the last handful of weeks, even with the ups and downs, and I think that that’s probably true for all of us sitting here,’’ Daniels insisted. “We’ve all seen and we’re all very aware of how quickly the points can swing, so every week you’ve just got to be focused on maximizing your day and whatever that’s going to take.
“This is certainly a race where the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) could go lead all 500 laps and we’ve still got to have a strong day, so our game plan really hasn’t changed much.”
Certainly the points gap plays into the level of comfort, but all four crew chiefs – Daniels, Chris Gayle (No. 11 Toyota of Denny Hamlin), Adam Stevens (No. 20 Toyota of Christopher Bell) and James Small (No. 19 JGR Toyota of Chase Briscoe) – go into Sunday’s race with a fighting chance.
Going into last week’s race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Larson only had a five-point advantage on Bell, but tough luck – some of their own making, some not – have turned the standings into a dramatically different situation. Larson’s Talladega win and disappointing finishes for the other three have vaulted the reigning champ into a 73-point lead over Hamlin, 74-point advantage on Bell and 79 points on Briscoe heading into Martinsville’s 500-lapper and then the season finale at 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway next week.
“This is a 10-race playoff, it’s not a not a nine-race playoff,’’ Stevens reiterated. “So, you got to bring your best every week. It’s going to be tough for anybody to make up 70 or however many points we have to make up, but it’s not mathematically impossible. I think it’s going to take some special circumstances, but we’ve been a victim to special circumstances plenty this year. Stuff like that can happen.’’
Three of the four drivers – Larson, Hamlin and Bell – have previous wins at both Martinsville and Homestead.
KESELOWSKI’S NEXT CHAPTER
Brad Keselowski addressed the media Saturday morning in a lengthy press conference to discuss his future – a key element of which, he revealed, was settled only in the hour leading up to his appearance behind the microphone.
Just before his meeting with the media, the 2012 NACAR Cup Series champion and the championship RFK team came to an agreement to part ways in all meaningful aspects going forward, he revealed. While Keselowski finishes out the season in the No. 6 RFK Ford, he reiterated he has no intention of retiring from the driver’s seat and conceded he doesn’t have anything lined up – yet – for 2027.
But, he said, he is open to both ownership and driving opportunities.
“There are really three pivotal next steps for me that we’re working through very hard,’’ he said. “The first one for me is, now that I’ve been granted the release, I can meaningfully engage in the opportunities that exist. I was more or less taking phone calls and unable to do much with them until granted that release here just recently. Now I can engage them in a meaningful way. I can also go about the process of finding the right media and marketing partners to take on that challenge.”
Keselowski reminded that he brings eligibility for NASCAR’s Clash race and would love to compete in the season-opening Daytona 500, a crown jewel he still has yet to win.
“When I joined RFK Racing, which would have been about five years ago now, I joined with the idea that it would be my forever home,’’ Keselowski said. “That would be where I finished my career, transcend into management and ownership for the rest of my professional career in life. That was really where my heart was and it didn’t play out the way that we hoped it would, but there were a lot of good things that did happen.
“I would say objectively I was able to be a part of taking this team up a level in every measurable way, and I’m proud of the people that I got to work with and that we did that together with. No matter where this goes from here, that doesn’t change.”
LARSON COULD BE FIRST REPEAT CHAMP SINCE JIMMIE JOHNSON
Although Larson is adamant not to “count his championships before they come,” should his No. 5 Hendrick team claim the 2026 title, he would be the first back-to-back champ since a fellow former Hendrick Motorsports driver, Jimmie Johnson, who won a record five consecutive championships between 2006-2010.
With the benefit of a victory last weekend at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Larson – who won the 2021 and 2025 season titles – holds a hefty 73-point advantage atop the standings as he takes the Martinsville green flag Sunday.
“I think it would definitely be an amazing accomplishment, for sure,’’ Larson said, allowing a slight smile. “I think with repeat champions, it was obviously really tough with the previous format, so I think you’ll see more of it now as we get back to The Chase. It’s just easier to put together 10 good races than one.
“But I think if we happen to go back-to-back with it being two different formats, I think that also just shows the resilience of this team. So, yeah, we’ll see. I just want to go race and try and do a good job.”
BELL RE-SETS CHAMPIONSHIP CHASE AFTER TOUGH TALLADEGA
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was a mere five-points behind Larson when he climbed into his No. 20 Toyota last week at Talladega Superspeedway – poised to keep the defending series champ honest and hopeful this may well be the year he hoisted a NASCAR Cup Series trophy.
But a pit road miscue early in the Talladega race put him down a half dozen laps and forced a day of playing catch-up while Larson pulled off an amazing overtime victory passing 11 cars on the final lap for his first ever superspeedway win. Bell finished 35th and now trails Larson by 74 points heading to Sunday’s green flag.
The upside, however, is the way Bell’s team has handled the disappointment and turned it into “no-pressure” motivation for this final two-race run on the season.
“Last week was a trying moment for our team,’’ Bell said Saturday at Martinsville. “I was really happy with how we all came together. It would have been really easy to tear each other down in that moment and none of us did. I was really proud of our group for last week and how we handled it.”
And, he added, “It’s certainly a mentality shift. Where we are at now, we know that the only way forward is to go out here and win two stages and a race and go to Homestead and win two stages and a race. In reality, we have nothing to lose, so now the pressure is off. It’s just a matter of going out there and throwing hail mary’s. We’re to that point now, so that’s what we are going to do
“Just the way we all handled it was remarkable.’’
Bell won the 2022 Fall race here at Martinsville, was a runner-up in the 2025 spring race and has had seventh-place finishes here in the last two races. He’s also a former winner (2023) with four top-11 finishes in six starts at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the series goes to conclude the season next week.
CLEETUS LANDS FULLTIME JOB WITH RCR
Championship NASCAR organization Richard Childress Racing announced this week it will field a car fulltime in the 2027 ARCA Menards Series for popular media personality and aspiring racing competitor, Garrett Mitchell better known as “Cleetus McFarland.”
McFarland will drive the No. 33 RCR Chevrolet – marking the renowned team’s return to ARCA competition and McFarland’s first ever full-time job competing in a major racing series and he called the opportunity “a dream come true.’’
“Cleetus has an undeniable passion for racing and a work ethic that has impressed everyone at our organization,” said President of Richard Childress Racing Mike Verlander. “Cleetus is a perfect fit for RCR. He’s earned this opportunity, and we’re looking forward to seeing what he can accomplish over the course of a full season.”
RCR has a successful history in the series, previously fielding ARCA cars for Kevin Harvick, Mike Skinner and Austin Dillon over the years.
— NASCAR Wire Service —