SCREENSHOT: TNT Sports
SEASON IN REVIEW
Mooresville, North Carolina driver Connor Zilisch picked up his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 2026, scoring four last-place finishes in thirty-six races during a thirty-six race season.
Zilisch was competing in his first full season on the Cup Series tour. A year earlier in 2025, the 18-year-old road racing prodigy had a season for the ages, scoring ten XFINITY Series wins despite two injuries – each while either contending for a victory or having celebrated one. At Talladega, he injured his lower back following a head-on crash into the inside wall on the final lap. Then at Watkins Glen, he broke his collarbone when he slipped on the side window of his car in victory lane. Both times, his car went on to win the very next race, including the August race in Daytona, where he started a car Parker Kligerman drove to victory lane. In an infuriating turn of events, Zilisch still didn’t win the championship as the Playoff format allowed Jesse Love to claim it in the winner-take-all season finale at Phoenix.
With his quick success in the XFINITY Series matched by an equally impressive debut in the Truck Series, where in 2024 he won the pole and finished 4th in COTA, Zilisch was one of the most hotly anticipated Cup Series rookies in recent years. This was despite an inauspicious start to his Cup efforts in 2025, when he collided with teammate Daniel Suarez and ended up in last place. He’d replace Suarez on the Trackhouse Racing team for 2026, running the #88 in place of Suarez’ #99, alongside teammate Shane Van Gisbergen (#97) and Ross Chastain (#1). WeatherTech, Zilisch’s O’Reilly sponsor, would follow him up the ladder along with team-wide backing from Red Bull, which was returning to the sport for the first time since 2011.
But Zilisch continued to face struggles through the 2026 campaign. His first last-place finish occurred on May 24th in the Coca-Cola 600, where he was swept-up in a two-car accident. On Lap 53, Austin Cindric wrecked his #2 Menards / Duracell Ford, which slid down the banking. A 22nd-place running Zilisch pulled to the apron, but lost control, causing his right-rear of his #88 Red Bull Chevrolet to collide with Cindric’s nose and destroying both cars. This was already the third last-place finish of Zilisch’s Cup career – on top of the wreck with Suarez at COTA, his qualified Cup car at Watkins Glen had been withdrawn following his injury.
This kicked off the first three-race stretch of last-place finishes in the Cup Series since 2020 by Ryan Preece. In a frustrating twist, each were due to crashes in the opening laps. In the next round at Nashville on May 31st, Zilisch was running 24th when his right-front brake rotor exploded on his #88 Red Bull Chevrolet going into Turn 1, putting him into the outside wall. This ended up being the first of a series of brake failures which filled the garage area that night. The three-peat was secured a week later in Michigan, where he debuted a new paint scheme on his #88 WeatherTech Chevrolet. This car climbed from 30th on the grid to 25th, then spun into the Turn 3 wall on Lap 3, damaging the right-rear corner. Zilisch returned to the race, then while racing J.J. Yeley for position lost control again in Turn 1 on Lap 9, sending him into the wall a second time.
Zilisch’s last-place streak ended the next week at Pocono on June 14th, and two weeks later in Sonoma, he finished a season-best 7th in the same WeatherTech scheme from Michigan, a mark he’d later match at Gateway on September 13th. But by then, Zilisch had already scored his fourth last-place run of the season, and once again it was due to terrible luck on the opening lap. At the returning Chicagoland Speedway on July 6th, just the fourth race after the end of his streak, Zilisch was in the wrong place at the wrong time exiting Turn 2. To his outside, John Hunter Nemechek’s #42 Raid / Dollar Tree Toyota crossed the nose of Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.’s #47 Pylon Aviation Chevrolet, causing Ryan Preece’s #60 Mariano’s / Athletic Brewing Ford to slow behind Stenhouse. Erik Jones’ #43 UChicago Medicine / AdventHealth Toyota got into Preece, spinning him into the path of Zilisch. Zilisch turned left, and ended up sending himself hard into the inside wall. Unable to turn, Zilisch was brought behind the wall for repairs, but the crew soon reported they were done for the day.
Zilisch still won Rookie of the Year, but ranked a distant 33rd in the point standings at season’s end. No other driver scored more than two last-place finishes during the 2026 Cup Series season, so Zilisch became the first Rookie of the Year to win the LASTCAR title in the same season since Jeff Gordon in 1993. He secured the title after the race at Talladega with two races still to be run.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
On February 22nd at Atlanta (now the EchoPark Speedway), Josh Berry crashed his #21 Motorcraft / Quick Lane Ford after 81 laps, handing his car number its first last-place run at the track since 1980 in the hands of Neil Bonnett. Berry faced similar struggles to Zilisch during the season, but ended up with a massive turnaround in the season’s closing months, scoring a streak of six consecutive top-ten finishes after he nearly finished last again at North Wilkesboro on July 19th. From that point to the season finale, Berry climbed from 33rd to 21st in points.
Chase Briscoe scored back-to-back last-place finishes early in the 2026 season, each time while battling inside the Top Ten. He first suffered a transaxle failure on his #19 Columbia Bank Toyota while coming off the final corner on the COTA course on March 1st, stopping his race after 62 of 95 laps. The next time out at Phoenix on March 8th, his #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota crashed hard in Turn 3, ending his run at 131 laps. He very nearly ended up with a third in a row at Las Vegas on March 16th, where he made contact with an ill-handling Shane Van Gisbergen, whose #97 SuperFile Chevrolet suffered damage while he nearly wrecked off Turn 4 on the opening lap. Van Gisbergen lost five laps from this incident and ended up finishing in last place since no one fell out.
Las Vegas was one of four occasions where the entire field finished under power, leading to dramatic last-place battles. At Kansas on April 19th, Cody Ware spun his #51 True Brand Chevrolet off Turn 4 after he blew a right-rear tire coming to the white flag, forcing an overtime restart which led to Tyler Reddick taking the win from Denny Hamlin. Reddick himself was the last-place finisher at Sonoma on June 28th, a race where he lost power steering on his #45 Pala Casino Toyota in Stage 1, coming home four laps down with no one in the garage. There was a Las Vegas sweep in the fall race on October 4th, where Zilisch finished a straightaway ahead of last-place finishing Zane Smith, whose #38 Losi RC Cars Ford suffered damage in a mid-race spin, then ended up five laps down along with the #88.
Very nearly joining this list was a controversial incident at Watkins Glen on May 10th, where Joey Logano cut down a tire on his #22 Shell / Pennzoil Ford in Turn 1, then spent several laps in the garage to repair a handling issue. Logano returned to the track and finished what appeared to be another full-field finish with his #22 in last, now 15 laps down. But both broadcast cameras and NASCAR officials ignored another late-race crash involving Cody Ware, whose #51 Jacob Construction Chevrolet spun and crashed into the Turn 10 wall hard enough to bend the barrier. The caution didn’t fall, even when Ware limped his way back to pit road, then returned to the track off the pace before he wound up the day’s only DNF in next-to-last.
One of the most frustrating last-place runs had to be that of Chris Buescher, who at Daytona on August 29th was battling for the Stage 1 victory when his #17 Fifth Third Bank Ford was sent spinning into the wall, then the infield grass. Buescher returned to the track 15 laps later and didn’t lose another lap for the rest of the night, though his damaged car ran by itself the rest of the night. Unable to climb out of last place despite late-race multi-car incidents, Buescher ultimately grinded out 151 of the night’s 166 laps in an overtime finish. Josh Bilicki endured a frustrating night of his own at Bristol on September 19th, where his #66 Flair Spirits Ford completed 338 laps – third-most of the track’s Cup Series last-place finishers – before falling out with suspension issues.
There were also some interesting last-place calls from NASCAR officials. On July 12th in Atlanta, B.J. McLeod’s #78 Pigeon Forge Racing Coaster Chevrolet pulled behind the wall after 105 laps. Rather than specifying his particular issue, McLeod was declared out for “mechanical” issues. It was the first time that specific reason was used for a Cup Series last-place finisher since October 14, 1951, when Bill Stickler was declared out at Oakland Stadium in a 1948 Hudson. The next week in North Wilkesboro, the track’s first Cup Series points-paying race since 1996, A.J. Allmendinger’s #16 Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet was declared out due to a crash, having bounced off the wall in Turns 1 and 2 while trying to stay on the lead lap. The official results ended up declaring him out with “suspension” issues, perhaps referencing the toe link issue that resulted from the wreck, which didn’t draw the caution.
A savage crash suffered by Christopher Bell at Michigan on June 7th left him with a fractured wrist with much of the season still to be run. This included the inaugural Cup race at Naval Base Coronado on June 21st, which would take place on a demanding 3.4-mile street course around an active U.S. Navy base in San Diego. Bell started that race in his #20 Craftsman “Racing For a Miracle” Toyota, then at the first opportunity handed the wheel to relief driver and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver Brent Crews. A few laps later, Crews was stopped on track from a reported transmission issue, done for the afternoon. This credited Bell with Crews’ last-place finish.
The season finale at Homestead saw J.J. Yeley pick up his 400th career Cup Series start at the same time Casey Mears earned his 500th. While Yeley didn’t finish last in a single Cup race in 2026, Mears did at Talladega on October 25th – also listed as a “mechanical” issue, which arose during a multi-car accident on the other side of the track. The issue, which befell his #62 The Gracie Foundation Chevrolet, marked Mears’ first Cup last-place run since the 2019 Daytona 500. Finishing last in the Homestead finale on November 8th was Corey Heim, who earlier that year scored a pair of stunning wins at Naval Base Coronado on June 21st and at Indianapolis on July 26th. After scoring the first-ever Cup wins for the #67, run mostly by 1966 LASTCAR Cup Champion Buddy Arrington, Heim scored the first last-place finish for the number since Dale Jarrett’s crash in the May 29, 1988 running of the Coca-Cola 600. The electrical issue which stopped Heim after 57 laps made him the only first-time Cup Series last-place finisher in 2026 – the fewest since 1997, when the season finale also saw a first-time last-place finisher in Buckshot Jones at Atlanta.
For all the dramatic moments, and NASCAR’s return to “The Chase” points format during a change in leadership following the settlement of the Charter lawsuit, the 2026 Cup Series season was one overshadowed by tragedy. The year began under the cloud of the losses in December 2025 of longtime O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver Michael Annett, a private plane crash that took the lives of Cup Series veteran Greg Biffle and his family, then Denny Hamlin’s ailing father Dennis, who died in a house fire. The sport was further blindsided on May 21, 2026 by the sudden death of Kyle Busch, the result of sepsis. While still struggling to score his first Cup win in 2023, Busch didn’t finish last in any races in 2026, and scored both the Daytona 500 pole and the last two of his 69 career Truck Series wins.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Connor Zilisch (4)
2nd) Christopher Bell, Josh Bilicki, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, B.J. McLeod, Tyler Reddick, Zane Smith (2)
3rd) A.J. Allmendinger, Josh Berry, Alex Bowman, Chris Buescher, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, Chad Finchum, Noah Gragson, Corey Heim, Carson Hocevar, Timmy Hill, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Casey Mears, Shane Van Gisbergen, Cody Ware (1)
