Toyota has dominated Cup Series so far

Toyota's success in the NASCAR Cup Series has been a continuing story so far in 2026. Tyler Reddick became the first driver in the 75-year history of the Cup Series to win the first three races of the season. He won five of the season's first 10 races to build a big lead in the series standings. The driver of the No. 45 Toyota cooled off over the last couple of months. Meanwhile, his 23XI team car's co-owner Denny Hamlin, has heated up in the No. 11 Toyota. Hamlin, who literally came within three laps of winning his first series championship last season, has four wins, 12 top-five finishes and a series-best 877 laps led. He currently holds an 84-point lead over Reddick heading into Sunday's race at Iowa Speedway. Corey Heim shows the further domination of Toyota. Running a part-time schedule in the Cup Series, the driver of the No. 67 car won earlier this season at the San Diego Naval Base and the most recent race, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. Ty Gibbs won the Food City 500 at Bristol, and Chase Briscoe won at Pocono. Bubba Wallace has stayed locked in the playoff picture. The biggest surprise in the Toyota camp is that Christopher Bell has struggled at times and yet to win a race. TEAM PENSKE SURGE Ford was lagging far behind for most of the first part of the season. The exception was Ryan Blaney, who was on the cusp of catching Reddick for second. Blaney has two wins this season, but struggles in the last two races have dropped the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford to 120 points behind Hamlin. Blaney leads the series with 15 top-10 finishes in the first 22 races. It includes coming just a half-car length short of beating Gibbs at Bristol. Three-time series champion Joey Logano struggled the first 20 races with seven finishes of 30th or worse. The No. 22 Ford has gotten it turned around the last three races with a ninth at Atlanta, a dominating win at North Wilkesboro and a third at Indianapolis. Austin Cindric, the other Penske driver, is currently the last driver on the playoff bubble, ahead of fellow Ford competitor Ryan Preece from RFK Racing. Chris Buescher has been the best of the RFK trio, currently ninth in the points standings. CHEVY SURPRISES Who would have guessed that Carson Hocevar would be the highest ranking Chevrolet driver in points after 22 races? Both Hocevar, who ranks fifth in the points in the No. 77 Chevrolet, and his Spire Motorsports teammate, Daniel Suarez, would qualify for the playoffs if the regular season ended today. Hocevar scored a first career victory at Talladega, and Suarez won a crown jewel race with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Chase Elliott has two wins so far, but none of his other Hendrick Motorsports teammates have reached victory lane. Kyle Larson, who won the 2025 championship, hasn't won over a year with a streak at 45 races. William Byron, a two-time Daytona 500 champion, hasn't even been a contender so far. It's no surprise that Shane Van Gisbergen has continued to thrive on the road courses with two wins. Other Trackhouse drivers have struggled with Ross Chastain currently 21st in points. Connor Zilisch has suffered through a miserable rookie year. He ranks 34th in points, only ahead of Cody Ware among the full-time drivers. He has just one top-10 finish, and to further show how badly it has gone, Hamlin has scored over four times as many points as Zilisch. BIGGEST STORY OF YEAR The unexpected death of two-time series champion Kyle Busch at 41 years old after battling pneumonia is easily the biggest story of the year. Busch won a record 234 NASCAR national series races over his career. It included the Truck Series race at Dover just days before his death. He left a huge legacy at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he won a record 23 times including nine times in the Cup Series.