Good news, bad news for NASCAR Cup teams ahead of Gateway weekend

NASCAR heads to World Wide Technology Raceway, located outside St. Louis, this weekend.

Joey Logano won the inaugural Cup race there in 2022. Kyle Busch won last year’s race.

Both drivers still seek their first points win of the season.

Here’s a look at where things stand for each Cup organization heading into the 15th race of the season:

23XI Racing — Good news: Tyler Reddick finished fourth in the Coca-Cola 600 after starting at the rear and doing a pass through penalty at the start of the race due to an infraction earlier in the weekend. He has eight top-10 finishes this season. … Bubba Wallace moved into a playoff spot after the Coca-Cola 600. Bad news: Wallace has only one top 10 in the last five races.

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Chase Briscoe falls out a playoff spot after the 14th of 26 points races in the regular season.

Front Row Motorsports — Good news: Michael McDowell has eight top-10 starts this season, including four in the last five races. Bad News: Todd Gilliland has started 28th or worse six times.

Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: Alex Bowman has scored a career-best five consecutive top-10 finishes. … Bowman and William Byron both have nine top-10 finishes to lead the series. … Chase Elliott’s average finish this season is 9.64, best in the series. … Kyle Larson has a series-high seven stage wins. Bad news: Larson lost 36 points by not starting the Coca-Cola 600, falling from first to third in the season standings.

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Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: Coca-Cola 600 winner Christopher Bell is one of four drivers with multiple wins this season. His other victory this year came at Phoenix. The other three drivers with multiple wins this year are Denny Hamlin, William Byron and Kyle Larson. … Hamlin has had four consecutive top-five finishes. … JGR has led 38.4% of the laps run this season, more than any other organization this season. … Martin Truex Jr. will make his 663rd consecutive start this weekend, tying him with Jimmie Johnson for sixth on the all-time list. Jeff Gordon holds the record with 797 consecutive Cup starts. Bad news: Hamlin’s streak of leading at least a lap in a race ended at 17 in a row after he failed to lead in last weekend’s rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600.

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JTG Daugherty Racing — Good news: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has qualified 23rd or better in each of the last four races. Bad news: Stenhouse has finished 32nd in both starts at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Kaulig Racing — Good news: Daniel Hemric and Derek Kraus each will be making their first Cup start at World Wide Technology Racing this weekend. Bad news: Hemric and Kraus each will be making their first Cup start at World Wide Technology Racing this weekend.

Legacy Motor Club — Good news: Erik Jones has five top-20 finishes in his last six starts. He’s placed 19th in three of those races. Bad news: John Hunter Nemechek has placed 30th or worse in five of the last seven races.

Richard Childress Racing — Good news: Kyle Busch has never finished worse than second in two races at World Wide Technology Raceway. He won last year’s race. Bad news: That was Busch’s last Cup victory. He’s winless in his last 35 starts. His longest winless drought in Cup (since scoring his first series victory) is 36 races. That drought ended in July 2017 at Pocono. … In the five races since finishing eighth at Texas (his lone top 10 of the season), Austin Dillon’s average finish is 27.4

Rick Ware Racing — Good news: Justin Haley has four consecutive finishes of 23rd or better, including a ninth-place result (Darlington) and an 18th (Kansas) in that stretch. Bad news: The best a Rick Ware Racing car has started at World Wide Technology Raceway is 31st.

RFK Racing — Good news: Brad Keselowski has four top-two finishes in the last six points races. … Chris Buescher also has a runner-up finish during that stretch, giving the organization five top-two results in the last six races. Bad news: RFK Racing has yet to score a top 10 in two previous Cup races at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Spire Motorsports — Good news: Zane Smith made his Cup debut at World Wide Technology Raceway in 2022, filling in for Chris Buescher. Smith finished 17th. Bad news: The team’s No. 7 car has finished last in both previous Cup races at World Wide Technology Raceway. Corey LaJoie was last in 2022 after his engine blew. Carson Hocevar drove for LaJoie last year. LaJoie was in Chase Elliott’s car while Elliott served a one-race suspicion. Hocevar finished last after a parts failure sent him into the wall.

Stewart-Haas Racing — Good news: Josh Berry has back-to-back top-10 finishes. … Berry’s pit crew had a 9.142-second pit stop in the Coca-Cola 600, the second fastest four-tire pit stop this season, according to Racing Insights. … Bad news: Co-owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas announced Tuesday that Stewart-Haas Racing will cease operations after this season.

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Team Penske — Good news: Joey Logano has never finished worse than third at World Wide Technology Raceway, winning the inaugural event there in 2022 and placing third last year. Bad news: The organization has not had a top-10 finish in the last three races. … Reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney has finished 39th (Coke 600) and 36th (Darlington) in the last two races, scoring a total of nine points in those races.

Trackhouse Racing — Good news: Ross Chastain’s eighth-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 was his first top 10 in eight races. Bad news: Daniel Suarez has placed 24th or worse in each of the last three points races.

Wood Brothers Racing — Good news: Harrison Burton’s average starting spot in two races at World Wide Technology Raceway is 11.5. Bad news: Burton’s average finish in those two races is 24.0.