For much of the 2026 season, the fight has not just been between drivers chasing the championship. It has also exposed a growing gap between NASCAR’s manufacturers. The old “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” philosophy still makes manufacturer performance matter, and right now Toyota appears to have the upper hand.

With the Chase set to begin this Sunday, September 6th at Darlington, former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Steve Letarte believes Chevrolet’s contenders have plenty to prove if they want to close that gap.

“Someone’s going to have to prove to me on track that Toyota still doesn’t have the advantage. That’s where I stand currently. Like I would be shocked if the top four isn’t some mixture of Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, and Christopher Bell,” Letarte said on the Dale Jr. Download podcast.

Looking at the 2026 season, it’s difficult to argue with him. Toyota has controlled much of the Cup Series campaign, with five of the six leading drivers in the standings coming from the manufacturer. Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs have combined for 12 wins. Ryan Blaney, driving the No. 12 Ford for Team Penske, is the only non-Toyota driver in the top six.

The manufacturer standings tell an even clearer story. Toyota leads with 1,176 points, well ahead of Chevrolet’s 995 and Ford’s 965. A major reason has been the level of cooperation within Toyota’s camp. Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing have effectively operated as two top-tier organizations rather than following a traditional primary and secondary team structure.

That creates an important advantage because teams can share technical information and strategic ideas. Data from one organization can help another find improvements faster. The same goes for decisions in the boardroom and wider competition strategy. Chevrolet, meanwhile, has spent much of the season trying to understand its new body design. The change has created a steep learning curve, especially with the cars’ low-downforce characteristics.

The cars have often been twitchy and hard to control on larger tracks and mile-and-a-halves. Drivers and analysts have repeatedly pointed to the difficulty of finding a consistent feel. Chevrolet’s last win in 2026 came way back in June, when Shane van Gisbergen won at Sonoma.

That problem has hit Chevrolet’s biggest organizations particularly hard. Hendrick Motorsports has shown flashes of speed, but it has not consistently produced the kind of performance expected from one of the sport’s most legendary organizations. Hendrick had their last win in the 2026 season in May at Texas, when Chase Elliott won the Wurth 400.

Limited wind tunnel time has also made the development process more difficult. Hendrick, Trackhouse Racing and Richard Childress Racing have had less opportunity to diagnose the balance problems and find solutions quickly.

Chevrolet drivers have won only six races this season (the same total as Ford). That leaves the manufacturer with plenty of ground to make up against Toyota. Ford, however, has shown that Toyota is not untouchable. The Blue Oval has won five of the last seven regular-season races, creating some momentum heading toward the Chase.

Ryan Blaney, who has won two of those recent races, believes Ford has improved its overall speed and performance on intermediate tracks. He has credited better communication and hard work across Team Penske and the wider Ford camp for the turnaround.

“I think we’re in a good spot,” Blaney said per The Tennessean. “Maybe we weren’t where we wanted to be early in the year, but we put a lot of work in, whether it was in our camp or just the Ford camp in general, on ‘How can we be better, and what areas can we be better in, and what do we need to work on to achieve that goal?'”

That could offer Chevrolet a blueprint. If Chevrolet wants to challenge Toyota and Ford during the Chase, it cannot simply hope its cars suddenly become faster. There are five Chevrolet drivers in the 2026 Chase — HMS’ Elliott, Kyle Larson and William Byron, along with Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez.

They need to close the gap quickly and consistently. Because as Letarte sees it, anything less could make the next 10 weeks a very long stretch for the Bowtie.