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With over 40 drivers competing for the Cup Series title, NASCAR is known for producing interesting results every year. This likely puts immense pressure on every racer to perform at their best each race weekend.
This year, several top NASCAR drivers have fallen short of producing strong results despite their overall experience in the sport. While they are no pushovers, the rise in competition along with bad strategy calls and misjudgment on the race track have adversely affected their regular season results.
Here's our pick of the top 3 underperforming drivers from the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series.
3. Martin Truex Jr. (7th place in the drivers' championship)
2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. has been unable to challenge his top rivals like Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, and Chase Elliott this season. Despite a decent start to the year, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has not been able to deliver consistent results.
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Standing in 7th place in the drivers' charts, Truex Jr. has yet to win a race this season, and has just four top 5s and nine top 10 finishes. Although he is currently in the top 16 drivers for the 2024 playoffs (108 points over the cutoff), bad results in the final four races of the regular season could still put Truex Jr. out of contention.
2. Joey Logano (15th place in NASCAR Cup Series drivers' standings)
Despite securing three pole positions so far this season, Joey Logano has only been able to clinch one race win (Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway). The two-time Cup Series champion has not been able to maximize his results this year, finishing 15 races outside of the top 10, with 3 DNFs.
Standing in 15th position in the drivers' charts, the Team Penske racer has managed one race win, along with four Top 5s and seven Top 10 finishes so far. However, despite what the results showcase, Logano has secured his place in the Playoffs for this year.
1. Kyle Busch (18th position in the drivers' standings)
Two-time NASCAR Cup Series and one-time Xfinity Series champion Kyle Busch has been one of the most controversy-riddled drivers this season. Busch has been involved in several on-track and off-track incidents with other drivers.
His clash with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. after the All-Star race was one of the most unsportsmanlike incidents the sport has seen in several years.
As of now, the Richard Childress Racing driver has not been able to win a race and has managed to secure just two Top 5s and six Top 10 finishes. Busch has DNFed 5 times this year. The #8 driver is currently 112 points adrift of the Playoffs cut-off, behind Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace.
