Do You Smell What the Chase is Cooking?

The Chase:

It only feels right to start off this blog talking about the Chase. The Chase is the race to the NASCAR Cup Series Championship, where the drivers in the top 16 points totals over 26 races will compete over the next 10 races to get the most points. At the end of the race at Homestead, the driver with the most points will be crowned the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Champion. The drivers in the chase are:

As you all should know by now, I am a new NASCAR fan which means I don't know what it was like during the "Win and You're In" format. What I do know as a sports fan is I like the Chase format. This rewards drivers who are consistent throughout the year which feels like the correct way to find the best driver. If you want more details on the Chase go to this article on NASCAR.com written by Alejandro Alvarez.

Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway

Another Cook Out sponsored race means I will be making "let him cook" comments, and I will not apologize for it. Darlington is a 1.366 mile asphalt oval in Darlington, South Carolina. With the nickname "Too Tough to Tame" I have high expectations of this being a good race. Start time is 5pm CST, which is great because my Badger's kickoff at 6:30 CST, on USA.

Pick6 Picks: Cooking up an 18x

Denny Hamlin - Finishing Position Better than 4.5: Denny is starting the Chase off in 1st with a 25 point advantage. This is Denny's 21st season in the Cup Series and he has never won the Championship. After listening to Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin for the past 3 months I know that Denny wants to win the Championship. In order to do that he needs to keep his spot in 1st which should be an easy task today at Darlington. Denny has races here 28 times, which is the most amount of times out of the active drivers. With 5 wins, 14 top 5's and 20 top 10's here, plus the pressure from the Chase I think Denny will absolutely cover this line.

Let him cook.

Tyler Reddick - Less than 64.5 Fantasy Points: This is 110% an emotional pick, and as an emotional woman who never over reacts I have to add this to the picks. Two weeks ago, Tyler started P1 and I took him to lead more than 52.5 laps. He led ZERO, and I am clearly not over it. Tyler is starting P1 today, and in the race two weeks ago he had 35.8 fantasy points. According to Pick6, his average fantasy points this season is 38.6, which feels extremely low considering he has won 5 races.

He can't cook.

Chase Briscoe - Finishing Position Better than 6.5: My man Chase is in the Chase, starting P7, and has won the last 2 races here. He has raced here 11 times in his Cup Sereis career with an average starting position of 15.1, 2 wins, and 3 top 5's. His wins did come with two different manufacturers, which tells me he knows how to drive here and he knows what a winning car feels like. Chase does have a sick paint scheme today, and NASCARS bomb reporter Jordan Bianchi did tell the world something a lot of us already knew this week.

Let him cook.

Brad Keselowski - Finishing Position Worse than 13.5: This might be a hater pick, but with him not being in the Chase and having an average finish this season of 18.615 I don't see how he covers this line. He does a somewhat decent paint scheme this week.

He can't cook.

Chase Elliot - Finishing Position Worse than 11.5: Chase is in the Chase but has not been great as of late. In the last 6 races he has covered this line 1 which was on July 19 at North Wilkesboro. Chevy's just have not been good and he has a boring paint scheme.

He can't cook.

Christopher Bell - Finishing Position Better than 8.5: C Bell has been known for his second place finishing this season and some people (men) would consider that an embarrassing thing. To those people (men) I say your wife or girlfriend probably hates you and C Bell made it to the Chase, what did you do? He does have a sneaky cool paint scheme this week.

Let him cook.