Within the midst of a season of dominance by Tyler Reddick, the NASCAR Cup Sequence has seen two first-time race winners, and , over the past three races.
Might we be seeing a turning of the guard within the sequence, the place Reddick is the brand new dominant power, and drivers who weren’t beforehand anticipated to succeed in victory lane on a week-in and week-out foundation are out of the blue contenders?
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The jury remains to be out on that one, because it’s absolutely anticipated that guys like William Byron, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and Chase Briscoe will get up from their winless begins to the season, however you may’t assist however surprise who may break by means of for his or her first NASCAR Cup Sequence points-paying win subsequent.
Listed here are three drivers that I really feel like are trending towards a possible go to to victory lane within the NASCAR Cup Sequence sooner, slightly than later.
Zane Smith
Mar 14, 2026; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Entrance Row Motorsports driver Zane Smith (38) throughout qualifying at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Photos
Do not look now, however Zane Smith broke into the top-20 of the NASCAR Cup Sequence level standings this previous weekend with a fifth-place end within the Jack Hyperlink’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
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Whereas most individuals do not regard the driving force of the No. 38 Entrance Row Motorsports Ford Mustang as a driver who will attain victory lane quickly, I really feel like he is hovered somewhat nearer to the solar than most understand.
Smith’s general efficiency over the previous three seasons has steadily elevated, regardless of driving for 2 totally different organizations — Trackhouse Racing in 2024 and Entrance Row in 2025 and 2026. Smith has clawed his method from being a Thirtieth-place driver within the standings in his rookie season, to a top-20 contender 10 races into his third marketing campaign.
Moreover, Smith has proven the power to complete races close to the entrance. The motive force has 13 top-10 finishes over his final 82 begins, and 4 of these he was in a position to convert into top-five outcomes. An attention-grabbing be aware about Smith’s 4 top-five finishes within the NASCAR Cup Sequence is that they’ve come at 4 completely totally different types of observe.
Smith’s profession finest end got here at Nashville Superspeedway a 1.333-mile intermediate oval, whereas he additionally completed third at Bristol Motor Speedway, a high-banked brief observe, in 2025, and he has fifth-place finishes at Watkins Glen Worldwide, a highway course, and Talladega Superspeedway, a drafting observe.
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I really like that degree of variety in his outcomes, and I really feel like a driver as well-rounded as Smith can discover victory lane if the planets align one in every of these Sundays.
Connor Zilisch
Mar 14, 2026; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Trackhouse Racing driver Connor Zilisch (88) throughout qualifying at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Photos
Based mostly on how the opening 10 races of Connor Zilisch’s NASCAR Cup Sequence rookie marketing campaign have gone, I am certain most can be snickering about this choice. However I really feel I will not look foolish in the long run.
The 19-year-old remains to be adjusting to the Subsequent Gen automobile, which is a completely totally different animal than the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Elements Sequence automobile that he dominated in a season in the past, and he is going by means of the training curve with a group, Trackhouse Racing, that has admitted they’re in a rebuilding yr from a contest standpoint.
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As Zilisch beneficial properties extra expertise on this automobile, and Trackhouse Racing begins to fill the gaps on their areas of want within the race store, count on the driving force of the No. 88 Chevrolet to get nearer and nearer to the entrance at brief tracks, and intermediates.
However even in his current state, Zilisch is a risk to attain his first win within the NASCAR Cup Sequence because the circuit heads to a heaping serving to of highway course occasions within the Summer season. Zilisch, who was spun out twice at Circuit of the Americas earlier within the season, .
He’ll have some alternative to flash his brillance on highway programs earlier than the season is over, and he could get a win within the course of.
Ryan Preece
Mar 22, 2026; Darlington, South Carolina, USA; Roush Fenway Keselowski Ryan Preece (60) comes out for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. | Scott Kinser-Imagn Photos
Whereas Smith and Zilisch are on this checklist, I feel it could be loopy to count on any at the moment winless driver to succeed in victory lane earlier than Ryan Preece does.
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Since transferring to RFK Racing a season in the past, Preece has grow to be a way more constant driver than we ever noticed him as at JTG Daugherty Racing (now Hyak Motorsports) or Stewart-Haas Racing. He has quick vehicles, and RFK Racing appears to be trending in a optimistic path.
10 races into the season, all three RFK Racing drivers — Preece, Chris Buescher, and Brad Keselowski — discover themselves effectively above the Chase for the Championship cutline.
If I needed to choose a observe for Preece to breakthrough at, brief tracks could be the apparent, however the driver confirmed final season, that he’s able to contending at intermediate ovals and he additionally completed fourth within the Brickyard 400 after main 12 laps in that occasion.
The motive force of the No. 60 Ford Mustang Darkish Horse will not be a one-trick pony.
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at Bowman Grey Stadium, NASCAR’s annual preseason exhibition occasion, earlier this season, however I do not assume it’s going to be lengthy earlier than we’re calling the Connecticut native, who minimize his racing enamel in modifieds within the Northeast, a Cup Sequence race winner.
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Sequence heads to Texas Motor Speedway for the Wurth 400. Through the years, the 1.5-mile observe in Fort Price, Texas, has served because the host venue to a few first-time race winners within the NASCAR Cup Sequence.
Jeff Burton (1997) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2000) every pulled off their first Cup Sequence wins on the observe. Can Preece, Zilisch, or Smith be part of them on that checklist this weekend? We’ll discover out on Sunday, Could 3.
This text was initially revealed on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as .
