The NASCAR Cup Series has crossed the halfway mark of the regular season. Fifteen races are in the books, and while Tyler Reddick continues to sit atop the standings, several names who featured in last year’s playoffs find themselves looking up at the new Chase cutline.
With only 11 races remaining before the postseason field is locked in, the margin for error is shrinking by the week. Here are three prominent drivers who remain on the outside looking in with the Chase drawing ever so close.
Few drivers have mastered NASCAR’s elimination format quite like Joey Logano. The Team Penske driver won all three of his Cup Series championships under the playoff system.
For years, that formula has worked in Penske’s favor. The organization has often weathered uneven regular seasons before finding momentum in the final 10 races of the playoffs. Logano himself has become synonymous with late-season surges.
At this stage last year, the No. 22 Ford driver had already made it to the playoffs following his win at Texas. This season, however, the road has been far less straightforward, with the new Chase system no longer supplying an automatic bid to race winners.
Despite bagging two top-five finishes and five top-10 results, Logano enters the second half of the regular season sitting 17th in the standings, one spot below the Chase cutline. His average finish stands at 19.8, while his 329 points leave him 340 behind series leader Tyler Reddick.
When Ross Chastain debuted at Trackhouse Racing in 2022, he burst onto the scene with a storm. Two wins, a berth in the Championship Four, and a runner-up finish in the final standings announced both Chastain and Trackhouse as major players in the Cup Series.
The years that followed, however, have slowed that incredible start.
Chastain finished ninth in the standings in 2023 before slipping to 19th in 2024, missing the playoffs altogether. Last season offered a measure of redemption. He delivered Trackhouse Racing its first Coca-Cola 600 win at Charlotte Motor Speedway, secured a playoff berth, and wrapped up the year in 10th place.
By this point in the calendar a year ago, he was already positioned inside the postseason picture with or without his automatic bid. But now, the situation is far different.
Trackhouse Racing has struggled to find speed across its stable of drivers. The team has shown flashes of what they can do behind the wheel, but translating that into results has been another matter entirely.
As a result, Chastain currently sits 24th in the standings with 260 points and an average finish of 21.93. Through 15 starts, he has managed only one top-five finish and two top-10 results.
No driver on this list has faced a more complicated path than Alex Bowman. The Hendrick Motorsports driver entered the season hoping to build on the consistency that carried him into last year’s playoffs into an easier bid under the new system.
Instead, the year has been a pile of setbacks from the very beginning.
Through his first three starts, Bowman failed to finish higher than 23rd. Then came an even larger obstacle at Circuit of the Americas.
During the race weekend at COTA, Bowman began experiencing symptoms of vertigo and was forced to step away from competition. The diagnosis sidelined him for four races, delivering a major blow to his position in the standings before the season had even settled.
Although NASCAR granted Bowman a medical waiver, the lost races have created a mountain of ground to make up. Since returning to the cockpit, he has shown signs of life, recording two top-five finishes in subsequent starts. Yet the hole dug during the opening months remains difficult to escape.
Bowman currently sits 32nd in the standings with 178 points and an average finish of 23.1.
Last year, despite failing to reach Victory Lane, Bowman used consistency to earn a playoff berth and finished 13th in the final standings.
This season, between the sluggish start and the vertigo diagnosis, Bowman now faces one of the toughest recovery missions in the garage. With only 11 races left before the playoff field is finalized, he must overcome an insurmountable gap of 16 positions in the standings if he hopes to fight his way back into contention.
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