Each NASCAR Team's Weakest Link

The 2026 NASCAR season is approaching ever close. We’re less than a month away from the 68th running of the Daytona 500. Some teams had a remarkable 2025. Others…not so much. Regardless of the result, each team has an achilles's heel that they need to get over.

Rick Ware Racing:

This one’s pretty easy. Cody Ware has been around Cup for 9 years now, amassing over 140 starts. He has 2 top 10s. Ever. Some chalked it up to the car being slow, but after Justin Haley showed what a RWR car has the potential to do, with a few top 10s in 2024, it became clear that the primary issue with the 51 was Cody. On top of this, Ware had his worst average finish of his 3 full time seasons this past year, and his worst average finish period since 2018.

Haas Factory Team:

Haas is switching to Chevrolet in 2026, and that car looks fast. They’re also garnering a Hendrick Motorsports alliance, which is certainly going to help out a young Cole Custer. Cole is an Xfinity champion, the car is going to be better and faster this next year, thanks in both to the new Chevy body and the Hendrick alliance, this team is on the up and up. Hard to pinpoint a weakness that hasn’t been resolves…you could say the spotter, since he forgot which car he was spotting in last year’s 500. All jokes aside, I think the biggest issue right now is the lack of a second car. Cole has no one to look towards for leadership in the building; however, he does have a Hendrick shop not too far away.

Hyak Motorsports:

Heading into Nashville last year, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. had himself a year going. Just 13 races in, he had 4 top 15s and was sitting an impressive 13th in points. Since then, he’s only managed 2 top 15s, and ended the season 30th in points. Whatever mojo they had at the beginning of last year is gone, and this team is floundering. In the back half of the season, Stenhouse had only 1 top 15 and 14 finishes outside the top 20. It’s hard to say what the weakest point of this team is, because so much seems to be going wrong, but I’ll say it’s time for a change in scenery. Mike Kelly has been atop the box for Stenhouse since 2023, a year he had 2 top 5s, 9 top 10s, a Daytona 500 crown and a playoff berth. In 2024, he had one more top 5, but 3 less top 10s, and he missed the playoffs. They did still muster a win at Talladega late, though. In 2025, however, their top 5s were down to a lone 5th at Atlanta in the spring, and the only 2 other top 10s to show were a pair of 6ths at Texas and Atlanta in the summer.

Front Row Motorsports:

After a strong 2024, 2025 was somewhat disappointing for Front Row. I’m not sure if Todd Gilliland’s sudden falloff or Noah Gragson’s disappearance was more shocking. The weakest issue with this team is Gilliland, but not in the way you’d think. Michael McDowell left at the end of 2024, and the apparent team leader became Gilliland. Both Zane Smith and Gragson were in their first season with the team, and Gilliland, at only 24, the youngest of the 3 teammates, was forced into the elder statesmen role. The lack of an experienced leader seemed to be the biggest issue. Hopefully another year under each of the driver’s belts mitigates that issue, but I don’t see it being fully fixed for a few more seasons.

Kaulig Racing:

Kaulig Racing’s future looks bright, as they appear to be the leading candidate for a Dodge alliance here soon. The problem with that? They still have to drive Chevrolets in Cup for at least one more year, likely 2. Expect zero factory support from Chevy for the rest of time for Kaulig. All eyes are on their truck team right now, and the Cup team merely seems like an afterthought, both to Chevy and Kaulig. Until Dodge gets a Cup car approved and the badge on the nose of a Kaulig car, don’t expect anything out of this team.

Legacy Motor Club:

Legacy’s an interesting case. Both John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones both had solid years, with Jones improving 4 positions in the standings and John Hunter improving an impressive 9. Both also improved on top 5s, top 10s, and laps led. Where this team is struggling is the short track game, however. Of the 8 short track races (Phoenix x2, Martinsville x2, Bristol x2, Iowa, Richmond), John Hunter could only muster a best of 14th at Phoenix in the spring, and only 3 top 15s. For Jones, he managed 0 top 15s, and had to settle for a best of 16th twice, at both Iowa and the fall Phoenix race.

Spire Motorsports:

Spire had some flashes of brilliance last year, both from Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell. The 7 car looks to be cursed right now, however. Corey Lajoie went from zero DNFs in 2023 to two flipped racecars in 2024, and Justin Haley went from a bad RWR ride to a halfway decent Spire, yet looked far worse than he did at RWR. Hopefully Daniel Suarez steers the ship in the right direction, but this is a lateral-at-best move for Suarez, and his hopes don’t look too high. 2025 saw Suarez beat out by both McDowell and Hocevar by both 7 and 6 spots respectively in points. I’ll give the 7 car some grace, however, as that’s only limited to 1 car. An issue widespread across this team is reliability. Hocevar alone had several top 10 runs go belly up at the end due to engine or tire failures, the biggest no doubt being his grenaded engine while running top 3 at the Coca Cola 600.

Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing:

I don’t think many expected a winless season out of RFK, yet here we are. Chris Buescher’s triumph over Shane van Gisbergen at Watkins Glen in 2024 still remains the organization’s last win, and that’s exactly their problem. Roush may have some of the most consistent drivers on the grid, but when the chips are down and it’s time to go out and perform, they can’t seem to put it together. 14 top 5s (15 if you count Ryan Preece’s Talladega disqualification, a P38 on the scoreboard after crossing the line 2nd) and not one win to show for it. Counting Preece’s DQ, 5 runner up finishes cursed this team. Brad Keselowski had 3 of them, 2 of which were the result of last lap passes. Buescher had the other one. What looked to be the best car at Michigan was only good enough for 2nd, as a mistake late under Zane Smith looked to cost Buescher around 2 seconds on track. He ended up losing to Denny Hamlin by only a second. RFK seems to have shaken out the woes of running a 3 car team, as 2 of Keselowski’s 3 second place finishes came in the playoffs. Preece also finished strong, going 5 for 5 on top 15s at the very end of the year, 4 of which were 9th or better.

Wood Brothers Racing:

The Wood Brothers seem to have found their driver in Josh Berry. He had 2 top 5s in his first 5 races for the team, with start #5 in particular being his first career win. The only problem is, after this, it took Berry another 25 races to get his 3rd top 5, collecting his final top 5 thus far at Loudon in race #30. Only 3 top 5s and 8 top 10s are a worrying sight. Berry’s biggest issue, however? Right turns. In his 11 Cup Series road course starts, Berry has an average finish of 24.9. Berry is more likely to finish worse than 30th than he is to finish inside the top 25, with 5 finishes of 32nd or worse and only 4 top 25s. Thankfully for him, we’re taking one less trip to a road course this year in favor of a mile and a half with an old, worn out surface, very similar to a certain Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Richard Childress Racing:

RCR is struggling, to say the least. Kyle Busch has been a shell of his former self the last two and a half years, and Austin Dillon is lost when not in the state of Virginia. I’d say the biggest thing holding this team back is the fact that wins no longer guarantee a driver into the standings, and they’re going to have to run top 16 all year long. In all seriousness, there’s a big leadership issue at RCR. Richard Childress many times last year expressed his frustration after races, claiming that what they’re bringing to the track is “not good enough”, and it’s hard to disagree. RCR may have solved this issue, however. Personnel changes over the offseason have occurred.. Only time will tell if these are fixes, or if there’s an even bigger issue further up the ladder.

Trackhouse Racing:

Trackhouse is such an amazing conglomeration of a team. They have the most polarizing driver, most diverse driver, and most sought out rookie, all bundled under one roof. Ross Chastain is good for one to two wins a year, Shane van Gisbergen is unstoppable at road courses, and Connor Zilisch looks like a future hall of famer with only a quarter dozen Cup starts under his belt. This team’s biggest issue? There’s only 5 road courses on the entire schedule. As mentioned, Shane can’t stop winning when right turns are involved, and the only guy who looked to challenge him at all last year was his rookie teammate, in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Shane beat Connor at Chicago, but Zilisch bested him at both Sonoma and Watkins Glen (with some help from the chrome horn). Lost in all this, it can’t be forgotten that Chastian’s first career triumph was on the hills of COTA.

23XI:

23XI had two drivers make the playoffs this past year and combine for 4 wins the last 2 seasons. It’s hard to point out a weak link…and then you remember they have a 3rd driver. Riley Herbst had a best finish of 14th, 8 top 20s (Wallace and Reddick both had 14 top 10s, for reference), and a 35th place points finish in 2025. Lagging behind is not a strong enough word to describe how off Herbst is most weeks, he is substantially behind his teammates every single week. I mentioned he had a best finish of 14th. In Corey Heim’s 4 starts with 23XI in 2025, he bested that…twice. With a 13th at Kansas and a 6th at Bristol, Heim looks to be exactly the solution 23XI needs. I don’t see a world where it’s not Heim Time in the 35 next year.

Team Penske:

2025 was the first time in the Next Gen car that a Penske driver has not won the championship. Ryan Blaney was one William Byron Martinsville bump and run away from a Pensek 4-peat (pending Phoenix having the same result). Team Penske, no doubt, has to be the most disappointed by the implementation of the Chase. Nobody has been better at Phoenix than them with this racecar. 3 of the 8 wins are shared between Blaney and Joey Logano, and the duo have also captured a combined 10 top 5s in 16 combined races, 7 of which belong to Blaney alone. Missing in all this, however, is Austin Cindric. Much like Josh Berry, 2025 seemed to be his breakout year. However, after 3 top 10s in the first 10 races, including a win at Talladega, CIndric would only manage 2 more the rest of the season. Aside from Cindric’s sophomore slump in 2023, this was his worst season on record, being down in top 5s, top 10s, and overall points rank from his 2022 and 2024 seasons. Not to mention, the major elephant in the room, Tim Cindric is no longer team president, and Austin’s job security seems gone. Another bad year could do it for Cindric’s time in the 2.

Joe Gibbs Racing:

I’m getting Hendrick 2007 vibes from this team, except the odd man out wasn’t a generational prodigy who could just up and leave…it’s the grandson with his name plastered all over the building. When you’ve got a superstar in Denny Hamlin who can win anywhere that doesn’t have a right turn, Christopher Bell who gets hot just when you need him, and Chase Briscoe who looked like a breakout star in just his first year with the team, it’s hard to look elsewhere than the guy driving the 54. I’m not going to single anyone out, it’s the entire #54 team. Ty Gibbs is entering year 4, and, while he sniffed the front a few times, his top 5s, top 10s, laps led, average finish, and overall points position all dropped. In fact, other than his laps led, with just under 200 more, this year was very comparable to his rookie season. The kid who was once described as “a winner in whatever he touches” needs to start winning. Tyler Allen also needs to figure it out. A rookie crew chief paired with a winless driver in year 3 did not work well, and Chris Gabehart had to hop onto the box halfway through the year and hold Allen’s hand until the Playoffs began That’s not a good sign for Allen, and it also can’t happen again, even if the team wanted it to. Gabehart has packed his bags elsewhere. I don’t see Gibbs ever getting booted, so Allen better bring his A-game this year.

Hendrick Motorsports:

It’s hard to find a weak spot at the top of the throne: Kyle Larson’s the reigning champion, William Byron was on pace for his best points result ever before he blew a tire with only 5 laps to go in the season, Chase Elliott caught fire and looked like a title contender for the first time since 2022, and Alex Bowman, well…he’s definitely one of the better 4th Hendrick drivers historically. However, with all the winning Hendrick did, it wasn’t much compared to their previous success. They only combined for 8 wins, their lowest since 2020, which saw them reach victory lane only 7 times. 2021-24 saw Hendrick have bare-minimum double digit wins every year. This year saw Byron take a 22 race break after winning the Daytona 500 before he found victory lane again, Larson being winless since before his infamous Memorial Day Double, Elliott only averaging 1 win a year over the past 3 seasons, and Bowman not finding victory lane once. Perhaps a new car is what HMS needs, and that’s exactly what they're getting. The car looks fast, but whether it performs is yet to be seen.

All 15 teams have things to improve upon before this 2026 season kicks off. The first practice and qualifying sessions are just 2 weeks away, followed up by the Cook Out Clash the very next day. Another 2 weeks later and the 68th Daytona 500 is here. All these aforementioned issues, road blocks, and red flags had better been addressed by now. It’s time for the 2026 season. No more dwelling on 2025 for these teams; the only way from here on out is forward.