The domination of Tyler Reddick and his No. 45 23XI Racing team continues to be the story of the young 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, and for good reason: he’s just the third driver in the history of NASCAR’s modern era to win four of the first six races of a season, joining Dale Earnhardt’s 1987 and Bill Elliott’s 1992.
But what’s lost in the background is the fact that Toyota is off to a historic start of its own, becoming the first manufacturer to win five of the first six races since Chevrolet in 2007 — Toyota’s first year of Cup competition.
Reddick might be carrying the torch for the manufacturer with four of its five wins, but he’s far from the only contributor. His 23XI teammate Bubba Wallace is third in points and leads all drivers in stage points scored this season. Denny Hamlin is fourth and scored a dominant win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Christopher Bell is eighth with three top fives, and he finished second after leading the most laps at Phoenix Raceway, the one race Toyota didn’t win. Even Ty Gibbs has turned up the heat, with four consecutive top-six finishes dating back to Circuit of the Americas.
The only driver from Joe Gibbs Racing who has lagged is Chase Briscoe down in 22nd, and that’s mostly because of Lady Luck. He’s recorded three finishes of 36th or worse, each in races where he looked to have a top-five car.
Bottom line: Toyota is beating the brakes off of Chevrolet and Ford to start the year. It’s won all but one race, led 651 of the 1,438 laps (45.3%) and scored 13 of 30 possible top-five finishes (43.3%) to start the year.
NASCAR Points Standings After Darlington
What’s unique about the start of this year is that JGR is not responsible for the bulk of Toyota’s success this time around. The manufacturer has won 208 Cup races since joining the series in 2007, and 170 of those were won by JGR. The remaining 38 were won by Furniture Row Racing (16), 23XI (13), Michael Waltrip Racing (seven) and Red Bull Racing (two).
JGR has been responsible for at least two-thirds of Toyota’s wins every season with the exception of 2017, when Martin Truex Jr. and FRR won eight races en route to their first and only championship.
Flash forward nine years, and JGR is only responsible for 20% of Toyota’s wins to start the year. That percentage will certainly go up as the year progresses, but the fact that JGR isn’t monopolizing its wins is a good thing for Toyota. JGR is an elite team, but having just one elite team can only take a manufacturer so far. Having at least two teams is the formula for a manufacturer’s title, and it’s not a coincidence that Toyota didn’t win its first until 2016, the year that FRR began its rise to the top.
So given Toyota’s hot start, how much would it have to accomplish to achieve its best season ever? Quite a lot, as its record for wins in a season is 19, set back in 2019. All 19 were won by JGR, which broke Hendrick Motorsports’ 2007 record of 18 for the winningest season by a team in the modern era.
That year was Toyota’s third and most recent manufacturers’ championship at the Cup level, with its other two coming in 2016 and 2017. Toyota scored 16 wins apiece in those years, so if Toyota wants to win its fourth manufacturers’ championship and its first in seven years, winning 11 of the remaining 30 races might be enough to guide it there.
It also helps that Chevrolet, winner of the last five consecutive manufacturers’ titles, is off to its worst start since 2019, as the Bowties have been shut out of victory lane for the first six races. The more that Toyota can capitalize early on its biggest rival’s slow start, the better.
The Big 6: Questions Answered After Tyler Reddick Does It Again at Darlington
But just because Toyota is dominant now, does that mean it’ll be the dominant manufacturer all year? Also, no one needs to look no further than last year when Toyota won five of the first eight races, only to fizzle out with just nine wins in the final 28 to award another manufacturer’s title to Chevy. What Toyota did last year was due to the fact that 23XI only won one race, which made JGR’s 13 wins — its highest total since its record-setting 2019, mind you — not enough to overcome the difference.
That’s not the case this year, as both JGR and 23XI are firing on all cylinders. And with the first six races in the books, it’ll be interesting to see in the final 30 if Chevrolet can overcome its slow start to make it six titles in a row or if Toyota can continue its hot start and put together a season that becomes its best ever.
Gee! It coincides with 23XI winning the court case against NA$CAR! What a coincidence!