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The 3 Biggest Takeaways From The First Half Of The NASCAR Cup Series Season

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
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Kyle Busch

With 18 races in the books and 18 go, the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is exactly halfway through.

So, what better time is there to reflect on what the season’s first half revealed?

With this as a backdrop, here are the three biggest takeaways of 2025 at the season’s midway point.

1. There’s No Clear NASCAR Cup Series Championship Frontrunner

When Christopher Bell ripped off three consecutive wins from Race No. 2 to Race No. 4 of 2025, it looked like the Joe Gibbs Racing driver might be in a class of his own this year.

That hasn’t been the case, though.

In the 14 races since Bell picked up this third win, he’s been shut out of Victory Lane. Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson have both scored three victories apiece.

All told, 12 different drivers have triumphed in the first 18 races. And one of those drivers — Josh Berry of the Wood Brothers — prevailed for the first time in NASCAR’s premier series.

What does all this mean for the NASCAR Cup Series championship? It means that the race for the sport’s most coveted prize couldn’t be any more wide open as the season enters its second half.

2. Former Champs Kyle Busch And Brad Keselowski Are But A Shell Of Their Former Selves

Even though Brad Keselowski is fresh off his best race of 2025 last weekend at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), where he finished second to Chase Elliott, it’s obvious from the season as a whole that the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion is well past his prime. The same is true for two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and longtime Keselowski nemesis Kyle Busch.

Aside from Keselowski’s near-miss on Saturday night, Keselowski and Busch didn’t come particularly close to winning in the season’s first half. And, as a result, both are likely to miss the playoffs.

Especially concerning for Keselowski is that he’s been consistently outperformed by RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher. Busch, meanwhile, is staring down a real possibility of going a second consecutive season without a win — after never going winless over the course of a full season from 2005 to 2023.

With both Busch and Keselowski now in their 40s, Father Time is no longer on their side. And it’s really starting to show.

3. Carson Hocevar vs. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Is The NASCAR Cup Series’ New Rivalry

In case you’ve lived under a rock the past few weeks and missed the proverbial memo: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is really, really ticked off at Carson Hocevar.

And the reason couldn’t be any more more obvious: Hocevar wrecked Stenhouse in two of the previous four NASCAR Cup Series races leading up to last Saturday night in Atlanta.

The first incident took place at Nashville Superspeedway, where youngster Hocevar drilled veteran Stenhouse squarely in the left-rear quarter panel going into a corner, leaving Stenhouse with virtually no chance to hold on (he didn’t).

Then, two weekends later on the road course in Mexico City, Hocevar wiped out Stenhouse again. This time, the contact prompted Stenhouse to offer a few strong words to Hocevar after the race while Hocevar remained inside his car.

While Stenhouse has yet to retaliate, he’s hinted at having plans to do so — quite possibly in the near future.

Stay tuned, folks. Hocevar and Stenhouse are the sport’s two biggest rivals right now. And it seems like their feud is just getting started.

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
Jared Turner is a motorsports writer who has covered NASCAR for 20 years. He has interviewed over 20 NASCAR Hall of Famers and around 100 drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners, both past and present. He has also covered the sport for FOX Sports (where he was a two-time recipient of the FOX “X” Award for “Xtraordinary” job performance), NASCAR.com, Sporting News, NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, the SPEED network, and plenty of other online and print-only publications throughout his career. Notably, Jared has penned dozens of articles for NASCAR souvenir programs, including several featured prominently in Daytona 500 keepsakes. A Virginia Press Association award winner and former member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Jared has racked up accolades both for his writing and his academic work. He studied both Communication and Psychology at Virginia Tech, where he was permanently enshrined in Phi Beta Kappa — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Jared excels at feature writing and opinion writing, much of which stems from his dedication to all levels of racing.
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