Five NASCAR Cup Drivers in Desperate Need of a Turnaround… and Soon
Following Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway, the NASCAR Cup Series has completed its first four events (and its first non-superspeedway oval event of the season) meaning that it’s finally back to regularly scheduled programming for the series in 2025.
As could be expected by the layout of the schedule this season, there’s already been a significant amount of chaos in 2025, beginning with a pair of wreck-filled superspeedway events at Daytona International Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The first road course event of the season at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) also brought its fair share of drama, and then, the first “normal” event of the season at Phoenix Raceway, the one-mile oval in Arizona, even featured its fair share of chaos.
Heading to the first traditional mile-and-a-half racetrack of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday (March 16), there are several drivers and teams that find themselves deep in the NASCAR Cup Series campaign as the series enters a more stable portion of its 38-week-long schedule.
#41 Cole Custer - Haas Factory Team (Points: P35)
It’s been a pretty difficult return to the NASCAR Cup Series for Cole Custer, who returns to NASCAR’s top echelon with the newly revamped Haas Factory Team in the No. 41 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for the 2025 season.
Thus far in 2025, if it could possibly go wrong for Custer, it pretty much has.
The Ladera Ranch, California native found himself in serious contention to win the season-opening DAYTONA 500, until an erratic move down the backstretch took out himself and several other leaders. William Byron drove through the carnage to take the victory.
Custer ended up finishing 21st in that event, and low and behold, that’s currently the best finish for the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion through the opening four events of the season –- making him one of two full-timer competitors without a top 20.
In-race problems have plagued Custer in a pair of events this season at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway, resulting in a pair of crash-related DNFs and finishes outside the top-30.
Circuit of The Americas (COTA), the sole road course event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule thus far, was the only “clean” event for Custer this year, resulting in a 23rd-place result.
Leaving Phoenix Raceway, Custer sits a dismal 35th in NASCAR Cup Series point standings (52 points below the NASCAR Playoffs cutline), second-to-last of the drivers planning to run full-time on the circuit in 2025, ahead of only Cody Ware.
#54 Ty Gibbs - Joe Gibbs Racing (Points: P34)
At this point last season, the biggest topic of discussion surrounding Ty Gibbs was when the second-year driver was going to finally break through and make it to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Now, with an additional season under his belt competing at NASCAR’s top level, the grandson of NASCAR Cup Series team owner Joe Gibbs has done a complete reverse when it comes to on-track performance, entering a dismal stretch of races where he hasn’t finished top-15 since Talladega last October.
In fact, Gibbs has an average finish of 31.4 over his last nine starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, which is the lowest in the series (by far) and the worst stretch for a driver in the history of Joe Gibbs Racing.
The 22-year-old driver is in desperate need of a turnround as the series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend, sitting a disappointing 34th in NASCAR Cup Series point standings, and more than 40 points below the NASCAR Playoffs cutline.
Other than his 16th-place result in the DAYTONA 500, Gibbs has one other top 25 result on the season – a 25th-place finish this past weekend at Phoenix, which was also served up with a DNF after a late-race crash.
Quite frankly, the performance is quite confusing for a driver that spent the first two seasons of his NASCAR Cup Series career looking like such a rock-solid concept, and should things not get resolved soon, will likely be subject to changes being made by the championship-winning organization.
#6 Brad Keselowski - RFK Racing (Points: P33)
The beginning of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign hasn't been very kind to Brad Keselowski, to the point where the driver of the No. 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse has been virtually unnoticed throughout the opening four weeks of the season.
Aside from a 15th-place finish at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), a season-high for the driver-turned-team owner, Keselowski has yet to record a finish inside the top-25 -- after crashing out of events at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway and being involved in multiple wrecks late in the season-opening DAYTONA 500.
Finishes of 15th, 26th, 33rd, and 39th have left the Rochester Hills, Michigan native sitting a disappointing 32nd-place in NASCAR Cup Series points, which is destined to leave Keselowski in a massive hole as the brunt of the season gets underway.
There likely isn't a ton of concern in the RFK Racing camp just yet, seeing as Chris Buescher, the second entry for the now three-car team, has recorded three top-10 finishes this season and sits 10th in point standings, meaning that the speed is definitely present.
Now it's time for Keselowski to fasten those bootstraps and get to work, starting this weekend at Las Vegas, a racetrack he's been to NASCAR Cup Series Victory Lane at in the past.
#2 Austin Cindric - Austin Cindric (Points: P32)
If we’re being completely honest, Austin Cindric hasn’t had a performance issue in 2025.
The Mooresville, North Carolina native’s temperament has actually been the biggest detriment to the driver of the No. 2 Ford Mustang Dark Horse this season, after an on-track incident with Ty Dillon at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) resulted in a 50-point penalty.
To make matters worse, Cindric didn’t even make a worthy rebound at the Austin, Texas-based road course to combat some of the points lost via the penalty from NASCAR, only mustering a disappointing 25th.
Other than that one dismal afternoon, and a late-race accident taking him out of contention for the victory at Atlanta, the season has been solid for Cindric, taking an eighth-place finish in the season-opening DAYTONA 500 and a top-20 finish at Phoenix.
Now, the Team Penske driver is left with some serious work to do over the regular season, being dropkicked to 34th in NASCAR Cup Series point standings. Without the penalty, Cindric would have been tied for 12th and in a very different position heading to Las Vegas.
Cindric will look to gain the 36-point deficit he has on the cutline with some impressive performances over the next couple of weeks, and hopefully, come time for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, a poor moment of judgement wont cost him a post-season berth.
#99 Daniel Suarez - Trackhouse Racing (Points: P29)
It’s a pretty pivotal time in Daniel Suarez’s NASCAR Cup Series career, right now.
The Monterrey, Mexico native signed a one-year contract extension with Trackhouse Racing ahead of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, leaving him with just one more guaranteed season in the No. 99 Chevrolet. With Trackhouse development driver Connor Zilisch flying up the ranks, it’s important that Suarez proves his worth this season.
After four NASCAR Cup Series events, Suarez sits a disappointing 29th in NASCAR Cup Series point standings, but it’s obviously not for a lack of effort, and it’s definitely not from a lack of performance, either.
The former champion of the NASCAR Xfinity Series had a solid Speedweeks at Daytona, collecting a 13th-place result in the DAYTONA 500, but it’s kind of all gone downhill from there, after a wreck at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
But, in each of the last two weeks, Suarez has spent lots of time running inside the top 10, both at Circuit of The Americas and Phoenix. At COTA, a small mistake spent his No. 99 spinning in Turn 19, which led to him getting clobbered by teammate Connor Zilisch, who was making his NASCAR Cup Series debut.
This past weekend at Phoenix, Suarez was running inside the top 10 when Katherine Legge, also making her NASCAR Cup Series debut, spun while being lapped by Josh Berry, and sliding right into the path of the No. 99.
Two disappointing finishes have cost Suarez at least 30 points in the last two weekends, which has been enough to remove him from the top-15 in points, and deep in the field, into 29th, more than 30 points below the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs cutline.
The good news for Suarez? Speed hasn’t been the problem for the No. 99 Chevrolet team, and should the Trackhouse Racing driver get to finish where he’s running during the race, he should begin making some of that deficit up in the weeks to come.
Recommended Articles:
feed
-a54bf325b08a5e9f769b818f5c4a244c.png "Joseph Srigley")
Joseph Srigley covers NASCAR for TobyChristie.com, Racing America, and OnSI, and is the owner of the #SrigleyStats brand. With a higher education in the subjects of business, mathematics, and data analytics, Joseph is able to fully understand the inner workings of the sport through multiple points of perspective.