The 2026 rendition of NASCAR’s annual West Coast Swing is officially in the books! And what a start it has been for the Toyotas to start the season!? They won the first three races in a row with Tyler Reddick. That streak was ended last week by Phoenix ace, Ryan Blaney. But they’re back on top again this week, this time with 23XI Racing team co-owner and Joe Gibbs Racing veteran, Denny Hamlin. This launched the No. 11 team up to 4th in the overall points standings while the 45 and 23 lead the way.
But while Toyota has been impressive out of the gate, there are a couple of drivers and teams who came out the gate at a crawl. Some of these drivers have been on this list in previous weeks. Some are newbies. But here are the biggest losers to come out of the 2026 Spring Las Vegas race weekend.
This one hurts. I like Josh Berry. And you know that heading into today’s race, there was a lot to be optimistic about. Just one year ago at this very track, Josh Berry was fighting in contention all race long. Then, late, he took the lead and never looked back. In the 2025 running of this race, he cruised to his first-ever victory in the NASCAR Cup Series and that team’s first victory not on a superspeedway in decades.
Then, qualifying happened, and they were just slow. The No. 21 team rolled off in 31st, and while they did manage to work their way forward a little, poor handling and a changing racetrack forced them back to where they went multiple laps down early. They were never able to recover. Any way you slice it, this will go down as a massive missed opportunity for the Wood Brothers No. 21 team. They should be monumentally disappointed.
That No. 48 Hendrick team has raised a lot of eyebrows in the last year or so. It is undeniable that Alex Bowman is underperforming in Hendrick equipment as he is massively behind his three Chase-contending teammates. Now, he’s in a contract year. And, he’s not even in the car. Bowman was sidelined following a crash at COTA and suffering from heat exhaustion. The diagnosis was revealed to be vertigo.
At Phoenix, Anthony Alfredo took to the wheel of the No. 48 Ally Chevy was even less than irrelevant. This week, they made a change. With Bowman still not clear, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion, Justin Allgaier was tapped to helm Hendrick’s back-marker team. And Allgaier, who is a pretty reliable and solid replacement driver, couldn’t even turn things around. Whatever the problem with the No. 48 Ally team is, I fear that it may reach beyond issues with regular driver, Alex Bowman.
Fingers crossed, Bowman will return to the seat next week at Darlington with hopes to salvage an absolute brutal start to his 2026 campaign.
This might end up being a repeat offender. It has now been 98 races since 2-time Cup Series Champion Kyle Busch visited the NASCAR Cup Series Victory Lane. And the most shocking part of that fact is that you can’t chalk it up to mechanical failures or crashes (that aren’t self-inflicted). The No. 8 RCR Chevy team really is just that slow! Last week a Phoenix, he puttered around in the last position for most of the race. And, it was more of the same today. They qualified badly, and they ran badly. They did somehow manage to crawl into the top 30 for a 28th-place finish. But things aren’t good right now in that No. 8 camp. The team is bickering, Busch is (rightfully) frustrated as he runs in the back of the pack, while Austin Dillon finished 12th. Something’s gotta give!
On Twitter, I made the point that it seems as though Trackhouse racing is no longer the “B” Chevrolet team. Sure, they’re consistently threats on road courses with drivers like Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen. But it seems as though Trackhouse took a considerable step backwards while Spire has emerged as the go-to Chevy team not named Hendrick.
Spire uses Hendrick engines and has a technical alliance with them. Meanwhile, Trackhouse has an alliance with a struggling RCR team. Maybe that has something to do with it? Either way, they’re struggling right now after getting off to a hot start just a couple of years ago. Chastain isn’t contending for wins and, today, SVG made a wild save and Connor Zilisch spun out on his own. Today, Chastain just barely finished inside the top 20 while Zilisch finished 32nd and SVG came home dead last in 36th.
I think it’s safe to say that they lost the plot somewhere…
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