In the off season, there was a change in the NASCAR rule books pertaining to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series went from being limited to five races per season to eight. This greater openness to Cup Series drivers has shown, as four of the opening 12 races have been won by them (up from two of the opening 12 and tying the season total in 2025). Kyle Larson won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and again at Texas Motor Speedway, Shane van Gisbergen won at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), and Connor Zilisch won at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Despite the increase in Cup drivers, there is a stronger field than ever of full-time drivers. From a freshly 18-year-old rookie in a championship0caliber car to a driver/owner who ran his first full season when that rookie was in diapers, there is a very diverse group of drivers running full-time this season.
My power rankings are based on performance this season thus far from the 28 full-time drivers, with equipment and speed before DNFs being considered. Additionally, I’ve included an outlook to the next two races at Watkins Glen International and Dover Motor Speedway. Now, let’s get to ranking.
28. Ryan Ellis
Someone has to rank last, and this time it’s Ryan Ellis in the No. 02 Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. The driver with the series record for most starts to earn a top-ten finish scored his second career top-ten with a sixth at Daytona International Speedway, but has a best finish of 22nd since. Ellis was the lowest full-time driver in the 2025 standings, and has shown little improvement season-to-season.
27. Kyle Sieg
The younger Sieg, driving the No. 28 for his family owned RSS Racing, has had a rough start to 2026 with only three finishes inside the top 20 in the first 12 races. The 25-year-old has shown flashes of brilliance, such as running near the top-ten in the early stages of Texas, but that still resulted in a 30th-place result. Sieg is one of the weaker road racers in the series and has a best finish of 27th in four Dover starts.
26. Josh Bilicki
Josh Bilicki is known for being a great road course racer, but has not shown it in NOAPS competition recently. In his last seven road courses starts dating back to the start of 2025, he has only one finish higher than 21st. His last two before that were top-tens, including an impressive tenth-place for DGM Racing in the 2024 Watkins Glen race. Typically, the driver of the No. 07 for SS-Green Light Racing would get a bump in position ahead of a road course, but recent results do not justify it.
25. Austin Green
Austin Green probably should be ranked a couple spots lower, especially considering the driver of the No. 87 Peterson Racing Group Chevy spun twice in the first 30 laps at Texas and is sitting 27th in points. However, there are two reasons I have him higher. First, he scored an impressive top-ten at Talladega Superspeedway and was a contender to win at points during the final stage. Second, we are heading to a road course next week in Watkins Glen. In the last two seasons, Green made a name for himself finishing top-ten several times on road courses (eight times in his 12 road course starts) for Jordan Anderson Racing.
24. Lavar Scott
Lavar Scott has had a respectable start to his rookie season in the Alpha Prime Racing No. 45 Chevrolet, with top-20 results in three of the last five races. In a season where the 22-year old is seeing many tracks for the first time, he’s about to visit two venues he’s seen before in the ARCA Menards Series. On top of that he’ll be seeing Dover for the second time in an O’Reilly car.
23. Patrick Staropoli
The second of three rookies, Patrick Staropoli taking over the No. 48 Chevrolet for Big Machine Racing was perhaps the most controversial move of the off-season. A 12-race stretch with six top-20 finishes isn’t bad for an inexperienced 36-year old rookie, but the same team got four top-tens in the first 12 races last year and later went on to win with Nick Sanchez – also a rookie – behind the wheel. Staropoli has never seen Watkins Glen or Dover, but did earn a 20th-place in his first ever road course start at COTA.
22. Harrison Burton
If ‘Most Regressed Driver’ was a superlative given out, Harrison Burton would be a front-runner this season. On paper, a move from AM Racing’s No. 25, which was a back-marker last year and is on indefinite hiatus now, to an established member of the NOAPS’ upper to mid-pack Sam Hunt Racing in their No. 24 Toyota Supra was an upgrade. Instead, Burton went from a 12-race start with a top-5 and six top-10s to one with a best finish of 13th, putting him behind rookie Patrick Staropoli in points. He finished 10th at Watkins Glen and 11th at Dover last season, but finished sixth at Texas that season compared to 22nd this year.
21. Anthony Alfredo
Anthony Alfredo had the Daytona Speedweeks from hell: A disqualification taking him out of the Daytona 500 and a DNQ in the O’Reilly race (He ended up driving the No. 4 for Alpha Prime Racing). Alfredo, a series veteran at this point, has been outrun by his younger Viking Motorsports teammate Parker Retzlaff all season. A 12th-place at Texas breaks a four race stretch with a best finish of 24th (and one where his teammate had three top-tens). Looking forward, the driver of Viking’s No. 96 earned a top-ten at Dover in 2024, but has only one finish above 30th at Watkins Glen – an 18th all the way back in 2022.
20. Blaine Perkins
Viking Motorsports has been better than Jordan Anderson Racing this season, but I give Blaine Perkins a higher ranking than Alfredo for one reason. He’s quietly good at road courses, with two top-ten finishes in 2025. Still, neither were at Watkins Glen. Perkins doesn’t set the world on fire, but has finished in the top-25 in nine of the opening 12 races and only has one DNF at EchoPark Speedway. That’s all a team like the Jordan Anderson Racing No. 31 can ask for.
19. Jeremy Clements
I referred to Alfredo as a ‘series veteran’, but nobody active today has as many NOAPS starts as Clements. The driver/owner, racing his own No. 51, has shown improvement with his new Hendrick Motorsports engine. He is coming off four consecutive top-15s for the first time since 2023 and scored back-to-back top-tens for the first time since 2022, but is heading to two of his weaker tracks.
18. Jeb Burton
Jeremy Clements is in a Jordan Anderson Racing sandwich with Jeb Burton taking 18th. The driver of the No. 27 has done exactly what the team leader of a mid-pack team should do: anything outside of a top-ten at a superspeedway. The series veteran has never finished outside the top-20 at Dover and is a respectable road racer. He has little momentum coming off a 25th at Talladega Superspeedway and a 26th at Texas, but came off a three race top-20 streak before that and is heading to two solid tracks.
17. Dean Thompson
If someone said in February that there would be a 48 point gap between the Sam Hunt Racing teammates, nobody would have assumed that Dean Thompson in the No. 26 would have the advantage. Despite this, he has been solid through the opening 12 races. Thompson went six for seven in finishing in the top-20 on road courses last season (but finished 26th at COTA), and earned a 16th-place finish in his only Dover start last season.
16. Brennan Poole
Brennan Poole has spent three years over-achieving in Alpha Prime Racing’s No. 44. He has only finished outside the top-20 in one race all season, and earned his only top-10 so far at COTA. In a season where he made his 200th NOAPS start, Poole continues to stack top-20s and beat teams he has no business beating. He remains within one race of the Chase cutline.
15. Rajah Caruth
Rajah Caruth is splitting time between the No. 88 for JR Motorsports and the No. 32 for Jordan Anderson Racing. Caruth will drive the No. 88 the next three races, but the lack of a consistent ride has reflected on his performance. A red hot start with three top-tens in four races including an impressive 8th-place at Phoenix in the No. 32, has given way to only three top-20s since. Caruth finished 31st at COTA and has no finish above 22nd in three Dover starts, but made those three Dover starts in mid-pack equipment.
14. Ryan Sieg
The elder Sieg finds himself ranked 14th. Sieg, as he always seems to be at this point in the season, is right around the Chase cut line. In the last six non-drafting ovals, the driver of the No. 39 for RSS Racing has earned three top-10s and no finish below 14th, and earned a 16th-place at COTA. If he continues to run like this, Sieg will go into Daytona with a chance at ending a three year post-season drought.
13. William Sawalich
William Sawalich came back from a brutal rookie season to win his first NOAPS race at Rockingham Speedway in the No. 18 for Joe Gibbs Racing. He has been better than last year but has had three difficult races in a row, particularly at Talladega Superspeedway. The one silver lining to that difficult rookie season was road courses, where Sawalich scored two of his three top-fives and five of his nine top-tens that season. A sixth of those nine top-ten finishes came at Dover. Sawalich is still looking for his second top-five of the season, and these next two weeks provide golden opportunities for him to get it.
12. Sam Mayer
Sam Mayer stopped the bleeding at Texas, earning a much needed third-place finish and returning to the right side of the Chase cut line. Mayer has had the speed all year, but has struggled with executing races as this is only his second top-five all year. The driver of Haas Factory Team’s No. 41 is a strong road racer, with half of his eight wins coming on this track type including one at Watkins Glen. Beyond that, he has a worst finish of 12th in four Dover starts. These two weeks are crucial to increasing his lead on the cut line and cementing his spot as a Chase driver.
11. Taylor Gray
Taylor Gray is coming off back-to-back weeks finishing 29th and 33rd, but won the week before that at Kansas Speedway. Gray has had some having miserable days, including a 37th place finish at Las Vegas. Last season Gray started on the pole at Dover and finished seventh, and has shown flashes of being a solid young road course racer. These next two races should look more like the three consecutive top-tens that preceeded this two race stretch.
10. Parker Retzlaff
Parker Retzlaff is proving this season what many in the industry have known for years: that he is a very talented driver. A DNF at Kansas is his only oval finish worse than 14th and is his only finish outside the top-10 in the last five races in the No. 99 for Viking Motorsports. Retzlaff has had it difficult on the road courses, with a 30th place at COTA and a best finish of 16th in 2025, but has never finished worse than 20th at Dover in four starts there in lower-tier equipment.
9. Carson Kvapil
Like Caruth, Carson Kvapil is running a majority schedule in a JRM car and making up the rest elsewhere. The 22-year-old is the anchor driver of their No. 1, making starts in their No. 9, and is the road course driver for DGM’s No. 91 with help from JRM. Kvapil’s season is highlighted by a near-win at Phoenix and a flip at Kansas. The Mooresville, North Carolina native returns to DGM for Watkins Glen, where he finished a disappointing 19th place. Still, the last time he arrived at Dover without a full-time car, he fought Ryan Truex until the end in a battle for either driver’s first career win.
8. Austin Hill
Austin Hill started this season the same way he has in all but one of his five fulltime NOAPS seasons: with a win at Daytona. Since then the driver of Richard Childress Racing’s No. 21 has had a slower than usual start to a season. That Daytona win is one of only two top-fives he has so far. The other top-five was a runner-up at a road course, a track type where Hill has consistently excelled, but Dover is not among his best tracks with only one top-ten in four NOAPS starts.
7. Sammy Smith
Sammy Smith has had his most consistent start to a season yet, with five top-fives and seven top-tens in the opening 12 races. Watkins Glen has been a mixed bag for the driver of the No. 8 for JR Motorsports, with two top-fives and two finishes below 17th, but road courses overall have been strong. Like with Hill, Dover is a weaker track of Smith’s with only one top-ten in three starts.
6. Brandon Jones
Brandon Jones has only finished outside the top-20 in one race this season at Daytona. Jones isn’t the flashiest or quickest driver, but the 11-year series veteran consistently shows up in the No. 20 for Joe Gibbs Racing. He’s riding three straight eighth-place finishes and has been historically solid at Dover with JGR, but struggles for top-tens at road courses.
5. Jesse Love
Based purely on the eyeball test and feels, this has been a disappointing season for the driver of the No. 2 for Richard Childress Racing. While it is the deepest into a season Love has ever gone without a win and he may not have raw speed every week, Love has quietly been executing with only has one finish below 12th all season. Love carries himself like a veteran on and off the track, and the No.2 team can be expected to get the most out of theie car and finish above their pace no matter what kind of track they run on.
4. Corey Day
Corey Day made some enemies and gained plenty of doubters during the first three races of the season, but has impressed and reversed course since. Hendrick Motorsports revitalized their fulltime NOAPS team, and in return the driver of their No. 17 has given them an eight race top-ten streak, a dominant day from the pole at Rockingham, and a win at Talladega. Day has never raced at Watkins Glen or Dover, but that hasn’t seemed to matter for him at other tracks this season. He and his team can seemingly win any week.
3. Brent Crews
A driver with even less experience than Day is Brent Crews, the third and final 2026 rookie driving the No. 19 for Joe Gibbs Racing. Despite missing four races due to age restrictions, Crews has as many top-fives as all three of his teammates combined and is quickly approaching the Chase cutline. Crews finished top-five in both his first ever intermediate and superspeedway races, and is a potential favorite to win Watkins Glen. Crews may well win multiple races this year and will be a title threat by October.
2. Sheldon Creed
At EchoPark Speedway Sheldon Creed finally won his first race after a series-re ord 15 runner-ups. With that in mind, the irony of his placement here is not lost on me. Creed has had by far his best start to a season yet, with only two finishes worse than seventh place. One of those was at COTA, but the driver of Haas Factory Team’s No. 00 is a great road course racer who’s particularly good at Watkins Glen; two of Creed’s 15 runner-ups came there. Creed will try to do what Cole Custer did in 2023 by winning a title in the Haas-owned No. 00.
1. Justin Allgaier
There was only one driver who could be ranked first. Allgaier has three wins, only three finishes outside the top-five, and a two race lead in the regular season standings over Sheldon Creed. Allgaier and the No. 7 JR Motorsports team have been the standard of this series for a decade, and this season is shaping up to be their best yet. Crews, Day, and Creed are the best bets to beat him, but stopping Allgaier from his second NOAPS title looks like an impossible task right now.
Written by: Kevin Modeszto
