Chase: Who’s In Points Trouble Ahead of Phoenix?
What’s Happening? Three races into the season, the new Chase format has already intensified the competition for a foothold in the…
This weekend, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts and Cup Series head to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the first intermediate race of the 2026 season. Here are some of the major storylines you need to keep in mind ahead of this weekend’s action.
Much like the 2025 season, this weekend’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway marks a very important moment in the new year, as NASCAR heads to a traditional 1.5-mile oval for the first time in 2026.
While it’s hard to discount any progress made on the season during the first four races of the year, the unpredictability of each race has only really benefited one driver, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick.
Now that the series sets sail into a much more tame portion of its calendar, with tracks like Las Vegas and Darlington, expect new faces to show themselves as serious title contenders.
What’s Happening? Three races into the season, the new Chase format has already intensified the competition for a foothold in the…
While other drivers sitting towards the top of the standings are going to show their might in the next few weeks, others will try to find their groove after a tough start to the season.
Take the 2025 Championship contender Chase Briscoe, for example. So far, Briscoe, who was likely to flourish under the new Chase format after a consistent and winning 2025 season, currently has a 28.0 average finish, one lead-lap finish, and sits 33rd in points.
With no wins and in stipulation, drivers who started the year with bad luck have to get the wheels in motion, as the race to the chase slowly picks up through the spring and into the summer.
While there are plenty of drivers in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series who, much like their Cup Series counterparts, need to get the wheels turning after the first four races of the season, one storyline facing NASCAR’s next highest season entering this weekend is manufacturer dominance.
Throughout those first four races of the season, Chevrolet has managed to win all four, with three different teams, with Richard Childress Racing, the Haas Factory team, and JR Motorsports carrying the weight.
As the series turns to LVMS this weekend, questions face the Toyota and Ford camps about breaking through with a win.
For one, Ford is at a disadvantage, as just two teams field the Series two full-time Fords.
But Toyota is facing growing pains, as young drivers and winless veterans, like Harrison Burton at Sam Hunt Racing and William Sawalich at Joe Gibbs Racing, try to find victory lane.
While it would be a sweet moment for a driver like Sawalich or his Joe Gibbs Racing rookie teammate Brent Crews to find victory lane this weekend, that will be easier said than done.
Last season, despite JGR ending their efforts with back-to-back intermediate track wins at Kansas Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports alliance took home victories in four of the series’ six races at 1.5-mile tracks.
The question entering this weekend is whether or not JGR’s late-season wins were a shift in dominance or just a flash in the pan.
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