Beyond the Flag

Corey Day has won back-to-back races in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, and he's won them in style. A week after outlasting Carson Kvapil in a thrilling late-race duel at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he made a three-wide pass for the win at Charlotte Motor Speedway and held off Jesse Love. Day isn't going full-time Cup Series racing next year, but he's set to run select events in a fourth Spire Motorsports car and could move up as soon as 2028.

While all of the attention at the end of Sunday's Bank of America 400 was on the thrilling photo finish between Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell, two other drivers decided to create their own headlines a lap after the checkered flag. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell, who'd had a spirited battle for about 20th place, got into a shoving contest down the backstretch that ended with the latter intentionally right-rear hooking the former going into turn three.

Kyle Larson's recent hot streak, which has vaulted him to the points lead as the new favorite to win the NASCAR Cup Series championship, has certainly not gone unnoticed. After a regular season in which he finished seventh in the standings, 303 points behind regular season champion Denny Hamlin, and without a victory, he opened up the postseason with two wins in four races.

Kyle Larson's point about stage racing is one that NASCAR should consider, at least when it comes to the playoffs, moving forward.

After finishing a pedestrian seventh in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season point standings without a win, extending what became the longest win drought in Cup Series history for any reigning champion, Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson picked the perfect time to go on a hot streak. He finished 303 points behind regular season champion Denny Hamlin in the regular season standings.

As Week 5 of the NFL season nears its conclusion, there are 10 quarterbacks (among qualified passers) who have completed at least two-thirds of their pass attempts. It means that NASCAR has a better chance of canceling a Cup Series qualifying session these days than the majority of quarterbacks have of completing a pass. Through the first six weeks of the postseason, four qualifying sessions have been canceled due to rain.

If there were ever a moment that completely encapsulates Denny Hamlin's NASCAR Cup Series postseason career, it was when he was sent to the rear of the field at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Sunday's Bank of America 400 because one of his crew members fell over the wall. For whatever reason, no matter how good they are in the regular season, the No. 11 team simply can't seem to get out of their own way when it matters most. It's literally always something.

After finishing in the top five in each of the first five races of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series postseason, Kyle Larson was due for a less-than-stellar result. He got exactly that on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway: sixth. And he still managed to extend his points lead. Kyle Larson wins even when he loses Larson entered the afternoon with a 40-point lead over Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin in the point standings.

The past six years, Phoenix Raceway has eliminated three of the four Championship 4 drivers and seen a NASCAR Cup Series champion crowned. While Phoenix is no longer the host of the championship finale under the new Chase postseason format, it will still likely be the site of multiple eliminations this Sunday, even with no more knockout-style setup in place. There are four races remaining on the 10-race 2026 Chase schedule, meaning that there are 304 points still up for grabs for each driver.

How would the point standings look if there were no post-regular season points reset? ByAsher Fair|Oct 12, 2026, 7:00 AM EDT Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports, Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing, NASCAR Cup Series | Getty Images Sunday's Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the first NASCAR Cup Series playoff race on the track's oval layout since 2017 after the track's Roval layout hosted one each season from 2018 to 2025, was the sixth of 10 races on this year' Chase postseason schedule.