Denny Hamlin joked on his Actions Detrimental podcast on Monday that Joe Gibbs Racing now owns Chevrolet's top position in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings, amid the ongoing legal saga surrounding ex-JGR employee and Hamlin crew chief Chris Gabehart and his well-publicized departure for Spire Motorsports.
Indeed, Spire Motorsports is now Chevrolet's top team in the owner and driver standings, with Carson Hocevar's ninth place finish in Sunday's Brickyard 400 moving him ahead of Hendrick Motorsports' Chase Elliott, who finished 37th after contact with the wall, for fifth.
Hocevar entered the race seventh, trailing Elliott for the top spot among Chevrolet drivers by 36 points. Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson was sixth, 18 points behind Elliott, but was the first driver out of Sunday's race, thanks to a flat tire that resulted in a crash.
Carson Hocevar nears first career NASCAR Cup playoff spot
In addition to being the top Chevrolet driver, Hocevar is the top driver in the standings who has yet to clinch a playoff spot. He is 159 points above the playoff cut line, although he's 112 points behind Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs for fourth in the standings. Gibbs clinched his first playoff spot since 2024 on Sunday.
The other three drivers who have clinched so far include Hamlin, 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick, and Team Penske's Ryan Blaney, giving Toyota three spots and Ford one.
Hocevar finished 21st in the standings as a rookie in 2024 and 23rd a year ago, so he is well on his way to his best career finish; a playoff spot would lock him into the top 16.
He earned his first career victory earlier this year at Talladega Superspeedway and has posted four other top five finishes and five additional top 10 results. He is notably without a DNF, despite his consistently aggressive driving style.
The NASCAR Cup Series is set to have off this weekend, but action is scheduled to resume on Sunday, August 9 with the Iowa Corn 350, which is set to be shown live on USA Network from Iowa Speedway starting at 3:30 p.m. ET to kick off NBC's season-ending portion of this year's broadcast schedule. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss any of the action throughout the rest of 2026!
