Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images By Adam Carabine The StatChat Power Rankings return in 2026! While finishing position is important, it’s not always indicative of the full picture. StatChat rankings are determined using a large number of statistical inputs. Let's look at the Top 10: Ty Gibbs – This week: 10 – Last week: 10 It was a solid day at the track for Ty Gibbs at Watkins Glen. Unfortunately, no one was a match for SVG and his road course prowess, but Gibbs led a

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images By Adam Carabine Shane Van Gisbergen showed why he is the absolute road course GOAT, and made up a 29-second gap to win for the second year in a row! Let’s have a look at how it all shook down! Lap 1: Shane Van Gisbergen starts on the pole, with Michael McDowell next to him. SVG takes the lead off the start, though McDowell keeps pace pretty well. Lap 9: SVG’s lead over McDowell is now up to 2 seconds, Connor Zilisch is in third,

By Adam Carabine Welcome to the StatChat NASCAR Games! If you’re new here, this year I thought it might be fun to share some of the silly little games I play on my NASCAR Excel Sheet throughout the season as we follow along. BRACKET GAMES These games are similar to NASCAR’s In-Season Tournament, as created by Denny Hamlin, but my version lasts all season long. Drivers are originally seeded by a mixture of performance from last year, with some creative discretion from m

Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images By Adam Carabine The StatChat Power Rankings return in 2026! While finishing position is important, it’s not always indicative of the full picture. StatChat rankings are determined using a large number of statistical inputs. Let's look at the Top 10: Ty Gibbs – This week: 10 – Last week: 6 It was a rough week at the track for Ty Gibbs in Texas. While the driver is still buoyed up into the Top 10 by his first career win a few weeks ago, h

Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images By Adam Carabine It wasn’t exactly the cleanest day at the track on Sunday in Texas, but you won’t hear many complaints from Chase Elliott, as he scooped up his second win of this 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. Let’s have a look at how it all shook down! Lap 1: Last week’s winner, Carson Hocevar, is on the pole. He’s next to his Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez. Lap 10: Hocevar’s lead is already up to 1.6 seconds. Lap 19:

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images By Adam Carabine It was a dominant day on the track for Denny Hamlin, but some major late-race drama (including a crazy final caution) led to Tyler Reddick earning his 5 th win of the season! Let’s have a look at how it all shook down! Lap 1: Pole-sitter Tyler Reddick takes the green flag alongside Denny Hamlin. As they fight back and forth all lap long, it’s a drag race back to the start-finish line. Hamlin edges out in front and t

By Adam Carabine Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend the Cup Series travels to Kansas City, Kansas for the Advent Health 400 at Kansas Speedway. Kansas is a 1.5-mile tri-oval speedway, built in 2001. Jeff Gordon won the first Cup Series race there that same year. Kyle Larson won this race in the spring last year, and Chase Elliott won it in the fall. Tomorrow’s race will be 267 laps long (for a total of 400.5 miles), wit

By Adam Carabine Welcome to the StatChat NASCAR Games! If you’re new here, this year I thought it might be fun to share some of the silly little games I play on my NASCAR Excel Sheet throughout the season as we follow along. BRACKET GAMES These games are similar to NASCAR’s In-Season Tournament, as created by Denny Hamlin, but my version lasts all season long. Drivers are originally seeded by a mixture of performance from last year, with some creative discretion from m

Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images By Adam Carabine The StatChat Power Rankings return in 2026! While finishing position is important, it’s not always indicative of the full picture. StatChat rankings are determined using a large number of statistical inputs. Let's look at the Top 10: Bubba Wallace – This week: 10 – Last week: 9 Despite losing another spot in the Power Rankings, this was a nice bounce-back race for Bubba Wallace after a bad one in Martinsville a few wee

Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images By Adam Carabine We’ve got a new first-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series! After a fairly intense day at Bristol, the young grandson of JGR owner Joe Gibbs, Ty Gibbs came away with his first victory in the Cup Series. He wasn’t dominant, but maximized a late-race strategy call to get the win, stymieing Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson along the way. Let’s have a look at how it all shook down! Lap 1: Pole-sitter Ryan Blaney takes the g

By Adam Carabine Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend the NASCAR Cup Series travels to Bristol, Tennessee for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Bristol is a 0.533-mile short track oval, with a concrete surface and heavy banking in the corners. The track was built in 1961, and has been a staple on the Cup Series calendar ever since. Jack Smith won the first Cup race there that same year. Christopher Bell won the

By Adam Carabine Welcome to the StatChat NASCAR Games! If you’re new here, this year I thought it might be fun to share some of the silly little games I play on my NASCAR Excel Sheet throughout the season as we follow along. BRACKET GAMES These games are similar to NASCAR’s In-Season Tournament, as created by Denny Hamlin, but my version lasts all season long. Drivers are originally seeded by a mixture of performance from last year, with some creative discretion from m

Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images By Adam Carabine The StatChat Power Rankings return in 2026! While finishing position is important, it’s not always indicative of the full picture. StatChat rankings are determined using a large number of statistical inputs. Let's look at the Top 10: Kyle Larson – This week: 10 – Last week: 9 It was neither a dominant nor a terrible performance from Kyle Larson at Martinsville. Larson can be hit or miss, where he’s crashing out early, or

By Adam Carabine Happy weekend everyone, it’s time for another edition of Stats Saturday. This weekend the NASCAR Cup Series travels to Ridgeway, Virginia for the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway Martinsville is a 0.526-mile oval track, nicknamed “The Paperclip,” because of its uniquely tight corners and longer straightaways. It opened in 1947, with Red Byron winning the first NASCAR race there in 1949. Denny Hamlin and William Byron won the races at this track last

By Adam Carabine Welcome to the StatChat NASCAR Games! If you’re new here, this year I thought it might be fun to share some of the silly little games I play on my NASCAR Excel Sheet throughout the season as we follow along. BRACKET GAMES These games are similar to NASCAR’s In-Season Tournament, as created by Denny Hamlin, but my version lasts all season long. Drivers are originally seeded by a mixture of performance from last year, with some creative discretion from m

Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images By Adam Carabine The StatChat Power Rankings return in 2026! While finishing position is important, it’s not always indicative of the full picture. StatChat rankings are determined using a large number of statistical inputs. Let's look at the Top 10: Chris Buescher – This week: 10 – Last week: 13 It was a great day, not just for Chris Buescher, but for the entire RFK Team, as they at one point were running 1-2-3. Buescher had a very