Midseason Progress Reports

After 16 races, the NASCAR Cup Series has reached its midseason break.

While most drivers are either racing on dirt or chilling out at a beach, the time has come to look at each team and grade their performance through almost half a season.

We’re gonna look at collective organizations, ordering them based on points standings.

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Hendrick Motorsports

Grade: A-

This season has been business as usual for Hendrick Motorsports. The team surprised nobody by taking all four of their drivers to victory lane so far. Chase Elliott has led the points standings since Atlanta, while Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman run 7-8-9 respectively. Interestingly enough, despite being lowest in points, Bowman’s 12.1 average finish is the best on the team, which says a lot about how balanced competition has been this year. Despite the strong start, many are expecting a little bit more from them, especially out of Larson. At this point last year, he was second in the points with three wins, a mark he’s not even close to reaching at this point. However, with 20+ laps led in six of the last eight races, he might just be turning a corner.

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Trackhouse Racing

Grade: A+++

When I make my preseason predictions, I have about eight or nine that I feel good about and then scramble to fill out the rest. Picking both Trackhouse cars to finish top-20 in points was not a confident pick. In retrospect, it may be the safest prediction I’ve ever made. Justin Marks’ team is easily the best story in NASCAR this year and may honestly be one of the best in all of sports. Ross Chastain is having a dream season, with two wins and 426 laps led. Another great story is teammate Daniel Suarez, who has fought his whole career, getting written off at JGR and SHR, finally breaking through to win Sonoma in start no. 195. This team has been dominant on road courses while being very formidable everywhere else. The best part is that this team is still very young. Trackhouse is going to be a top team for a while to come.

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Joe Gibbs Racing

Grade: B-

Let’s just say it’s been a strange year for Joe Gibbs Racing. Kyle Busch is still leading the charge, sitting third despite a trying start to the season. While he’s turned it up in the past month, he got flat out beaten on the final restart at both Charlotte and WWT Raceway. When’s the last time that happened? Martin Truex Jr. sits sixth in points despite feeling like a nonfactor for most of the year. The big question we’re about to get an answer to is whether or not Truex hangs it up after this year. While some may try to deny this possibility, Truex hasn’t exactly sounded confident he’d be back. One driver that seems on the verge of breaking through is Christopher Bell, whose overcome an abysmal start to run tenth in points. As far as Denny Hamlin goes, he’s very lucky to have those two wins. Aside from Richmond and Charlotte, 2022 has been an unmitigated disaster for Hamlin. In spite of sitting behind Michael McDowell in points, he’s a lock for the playoffs and will, somehow, have a fairly easy time escaping round one.

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Team Penske

Grade: B+

It’s funny to think that there were concerns about Team Penske for a bit. Austin Cindric was this team’s lone question mark coming into the season, then he won the Daytona 500. Even if he’s fallen off since then, he’s playing with house money the rest of the season and could very possibly score another win at a road course. Ryan Blaney may be the most frustrated driver in the Cup series. He’s had a couple issues with Cindric, even saying he was going to kill his teammate after the Daytona 500, and hasn’t won outside the atrocious All-Star race. Even then, he’s fourth in points with strong cars every week, he’ll be fine. Joey Logano’s recent stretch has been feast-or-famine. In the last seven races, Logano has five finishes outside the top-15. The two exceptions happened to be wins, including a controversial finish at Darlington where he put Byron in the wall and an impressive victory at WWT Raceway where he outdueled his best friend in the no. 18 car. If he finds the consistency he had earlier in the season, he’s going to race for a championship at Phoenix.

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Stewart-Haas Racing

Grade: C

The 2022 season hasn’t been quite as bad as 2021 for Stewart-Haas. That doesn’t make it good by any means. Chase Briscoe has been a nice surprise this season, scoring a win at Phoenix and nearly grabbing a couple more before critical mistakes at both Bristol Dirt and Charlotte. The team currently has the last driver in the Playoffs and the first one out- Aric Almirola and Kevin Harvick respectively. While Almirola has been fairly consistent in his final year, he doesn’t seem like he’s about to break out and score a win. Harvick is a guy I always think can contend for wins purely based on his resume, but he just seems to be missing something. Four top-fives isn’t bad but just 13 laps led is terrible. We may be seeing the sad end to an era. The other SHR is Cole Custer, who is showing his 2021 season was no fluke. Unfortunately this means he’s got five DNFs and sits no. 27 in points. His father is president of the team, but I don’t know how much longer he has to prove something.

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Richard Childress Racing

Grade: C+

Richard Childress Racing the personification of good, but not good enough. Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon sit 14-15 in points and have seven top-fives between them. There should be no shame in that, except for the fact that both drivers are over 40 points out of the final playoff spot. Reddick is objectively one of the most talented drivers in the Cup series. But he’s been so inconsistent that he needs to finally break through and win or else he won’t make the Playoffs. If that happens, the calls for him to move teams will become very loud. A. Dillon has shown that he can win in the right situation as well, can one or both of them find a way?

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Petty GMS Motorsports

Grade: C+

Erik Jones has been another pleasant surprise this season. He had one of the best runs of his career at Auto Club before ending up third and was leading coming to the tri-oval on the last lap at Talladega. It’s a tall task but winning in the no. 43 would be huge for his career as well as being a feel-good win for all of NASCAR. Not much was expected from Ty Dillon in GMS’ first season going Cup racing. Sitting p26 in points isn’t good but T. Dillon has had a decent amount of safe top-20s for the team to work off of. Does he get another shot in 2023, or does Petty GMS call up a rookie? Guys like Noah Gragson can’t stay in Xfinity forever.

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23XI Racing

Grade: C-

23XI has been a tale of two teams in 2022. Kurt Busch started out fairly inconsistent with a few top-fives sprinkled in. Things changed at Kansas, where Ku. Busch took the Jordan Brand to victory lane in 23XI’s best performance in team history. I won’t go as far as to call him a championship contender. But if he gets another win before the Playoffs, he will definitely be a guy to keep an eye on. Bubba Wallace came within a half car-length of winning the Daytona 500. He also scored a disappointing top-10 at Kansas, where he had a real chance of fighting for a win before a pit road penalty. Outside of those two races, 2022 has been pretty bad. Two mechanical failures at road courses, confusion with the DVP at Charlotte and general lack of speed has really done this team in. I didn’t expect Wallace to be a playoff contender, but no. 25 in points is not acceptable.

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Front Row Motorsports

Grade: B-

Michael McDowell doesn’t have the win that got him in the Playoffs last year, but he’s arguably run better than he did in 2021. He’s already got six top-10s on the year and his last two races were two of the best in his career. After leading 34 laps at WWT Raceway, he qualified and ran top-five almost all day at Sonoma. He’s not making the Playoffs, but it’s a very solid season for McDowell. I didn’t like moving Todd Gilliland directly from Trucks to the Cup series, but he’s performed fine. Sure he’s no. 29 in points, but he’s shown some flashes of potential with some top-20s. He isn’t doing any worse than Anthony Alfredo or John Hunter Nemechek did the past two years. That’s a win.

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RFK Racing

Grade: F

To think I had both these cars in the Playoffs before the season is embarrassing. RFK Racing had their best week of the season at Sonoma and it still wasn’t enough to salvage a passing grade. Chris Buescher hasn’t done great, sitting at no. 21 before missing WWT Raceway with Covid-19 then almost winning Sonoma. Getting the job done there would’v been huge, but the real issue with this team has come from Brad Keselowski. Say what you want about the 100-point penalty he got at Atlanta. He would be sitting around no. 22 in points without it. Keselowski has run poorly enough to absolutely put him in must-win territory. The sad thing is that he hasn’t come close to a win all year, leading a mere six laps since Daytona. I was very high on this team coming in and they’ve been the biggest disappointment in NASCAR so far.

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Kaulig Racing

Grade: C-

Kaulig’s season has probably been what they expected. Justin Haley has had some bright spots, including running third at Darlington. Two mechanical failures in a row at Kansas and Charlotte have set him back, but there’s reason to be encouraged so far. The no. 16 car has been a bit strange. Daniel Hemric gave the team some nice runs early on, including ninth at Auto Club. Aj Allmendinger got wrecked from the lead at COTA and spun at Sonoma while running tenth with two to go. There’s some context behind the poor finishes, but the fact that the car is outside the top-30 in owner points is not ideal. It will be very interesting to see what becomes of that car next year. The likely pick would be Noah Gragson, who has two top-20s in five starts with the team.

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Wood Brothers Racing

Grade: D-

Harrison Burton avoids an F solely because he’s a rookie. This has been a bad season, no way around it. His biggest bright spot was running up front early in the Daytona 500 before ending up on his roof. Some top-20s are nice but this was a team that contended for wins the past two seasons. I think he’s a better long term fit than Matt DiBenedetto but it’s hard to ignore the -6.9 difference in average-finish at this point.

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Spire Motorsports

Grade: D-

I really like Corey LaJoie and keep waiting for him to emerge. However, outside of Atlanta, it’s still not there. The top-15s don’t outweigh the multiple last-place finishes on the season. The no. 77 hasn’t been much better getting shutout of the top-10. They’re still a young team but they need to start taking steps.

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Rick Ware Racing and Live Fast Motorsports

Grade: N/A

Not much to say about these teams. They aren’t competitive and best days are typically when we don’t hear about them causing cautions. Shoutout to Joey Hand for the top-20 at Sonoma.