DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The NASCAR Cup Series standings have been reset. Denny Hamlin, the regular-season champion, had his sizable advantage slashed to 25 points over Ryan Blaney as the series shifts into playoff mode.
The Chase for the championship begins at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina on Sunday, with the top 16 drivers embarking on a 10-race stretch that will determine who hoists the Bill France Cup at Homestead-Miami Speedway in mid-November.
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Chris Buescher waves to fans during driver introductions before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Chase Elliott (9) leads Ryan Preece (60) through the front stretch at the half way point of a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Chase Briscoe walks to the drivers meeting before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Ryan Preece, center, celebrates after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Ryan Blaney displays a lobster, a Victory Lane tradition at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026, at the speedway in Loudon, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
NASCAR tweaked its championship in January, eliminating knockouts after every third postseason race in favor of the original format established in 2004: a 10-race cumulative points battle that should create more possibilities heading into the finale.
Drivers are seeded 1 through 16, and much like other sports, what’s often more telling is who is peaking at the right time. So here’s a look at the drivers — contenders and pretenders — and their chances heading into Darlington:
1 seed. Hamlin: The Joe Gibbs Racing star led a series-high 880 laps and won four times in the No. 11 Toyota, including consecutive events at Nashville Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway and Pocono Raceway during a dominant summer stretch.
He clinched the regular-season title at New Hampshire on Aug. 23. He is now only the betting favorite (plus-100), but he’s also the sentimental favorite after a rollercoaster year in he fell just short of his first Cup title and then dealt with the death of his father, who was killed in a December house fire.
“You’re going to have to find that little bit of extra notch that is required at this point in the year,” said Hamlin, 45, the oldest driver in the series. “With the reset, it’s even more important, but you got to be better.”
2. Blaney: The Team Penske star has at least three wins in four consecutive years for Team Penske. He drove the No. 12 Ford to the title in 2023 and finished as runner-up twice since.
3. Tyler Reddick: The 23XI driver has a series-leading five victories, all in the first two months of the season. He cooled off some in June and July in the No. 45 Toyota but has back-to-back top-10 finishes to regain momentum.
7. Kyle Larson: No one with a 50-race winless streak should be considered a favorite. But Larson is the defending series champ, arguably the best driver in the field and races for the team (Hendrick Motorsports) with more wins and titles than anyone.
9. Joey Logano: The three-time series champ (2018, ’22, ’24) ranked as low as 20th at the end of June, but he won twice (North Wilkesboro and Richmond) since and said, “Don’t let the boys get hot.” He also seems to flourish in even-numbered years.
4. Ty Gibbs: He has two wins and 16 top-10s in his fourth season driving for his grandfather, Hall of Fame football coach Joe Gibbs. Five DNFs could be cause for concern in a playoff that rewards consistency.
5. Chase Briscoe: He finished third last season and ranks fifth this year. One win and driving for Toyota, which has won 12 of 26 races so far, lands him here.
6. Christopher Bell: No one in the Cup Series has endured tougher luck than Bell, who has seven runner-up finishes at JGR. Maybe he’s due?
8. Chase Elliott: Two wins for powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports makes the 2020 champion a threat.
13. William Byron: After advancing to the championship finale three consecutive years (2023-25), Byron surprisingly slipped in 2026. He hasn’t won in nearly a year, but he's capable of getting on a roll.
14. Bubba Wallace: The last of six Toyota drivers to make the 16-man field, Wallace has equipment similar to the guys who occupy five of the top six seeds. Maybe team owner Michael Jordan can help make the magic happen.
10. Chris Buescher: A dead-last finish at Daytona on Saturday was Buescher’s sixth consecutive race outside the top 10.
11. Daniel Suarez: Tying his best finish (second) in 19 starts at Daytona should give him hope. Three career wins in 349 Cup starts make him a long shot.
“I would be lying if I told you that right now we’re championship favorites,” Suarez said. “We’re not, but we are working towards that.”
12. Carson Hocevar: The 23-year-old driver from Michigan is being touted as NASCAR’s newest villain. That usually means he has more enemies than friends on the track. His last four races: 31st, 37th, 19th and 38th.
15. Austin Cindric: He has three straight top-12 finishes, but he would need to do something unexpected to get the No. 2 Team Penske Ford into championship contention.
16. Ryan Preece: The RFK Racing driver notched his first Cup victory in 249 starts when he rode a “rocket ship to the moon” at Daytona and slipped into the playoffs. He’s the ultimate underdog in this 10-race sprint to victory lane in Homestead.
“I like pressure, man,” Preece said. “I don’t know if you guys have picked up on that yet, but I enjoy it. I’m 100% serious when I say I’m numb to it. I’m a fighter.”
See AP’s full auto racing coverage here
Chris Buescher waves to fans during driver introductions before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Chase Elliott (9) leads Ryan Preece (60) through the front stretch at the half way point of a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Chase Briscoe walks to the drivers meeting before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Ryan Preece, center, celebrates after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Ryan Blaney displays a lobster, a Victory Lane tradition at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026, at the speedway in Loudon, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Venezuelans are expressing outrage and the oil industry is waiting for details on President Donald Trump’s announcement that Venezuela ’s acting president has agreed to give an unnamed U.S. company control of vast amounts of the South American country’s untapped oil reserves, at cost. Trump called it “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!” but critics say U.S. consumers won’t benefit for many years.
Global crude prices are rising again after renewed warfare between the United States and Iran, the first significant military action in a month. The global energy supply shock has for the first time kept average prices Americans pay at the pump above $4 throughout August, according to the AAA.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told The Associated Press ahead of the Group of 20 finance ministers meeting he’s hosting in Asheville, N.C., on Monday and Tuesday that the Trump administration is prepared to exact “financial violence if we have to” as it pressures allies to join in “economic D-Day” sanctions on Iran.
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The White House said that Trump on Tuesday will meet with a mix of large and small refinery companies to discuss ways to increase America’s capacity to refine oil into gasoline.
The meeting occurs as the Iran war has driven prices at the pump to a national average of $4.08, a 28% increase over the past year, according to AAA.
The White House has said that increasing the number of refineries and expanding the capacity at existing facilities would eventually reduce prices for consumers. The administration also sees the need for more refineries to process oil from Venezuela.
Also attending the meeting will be Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Jarrod Agen, the director of the White House National Energy Dominance Council.
The highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military says there are no plans to send troops to polling places during November’s midterm congressional elections, addressing concerns among Democrats that the Trump administration could use the military to interfere with the vote.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the statement in a letter to Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who recently asked Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to confirm they won’t send troops to the polls.
“The Joint Force has no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections,” Caine wrote. “Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material.”
Brian and Linda Brennan were waiting to see the vice president in the suburban Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights on Monday.
Brian Brennan, 77, said he doesn’t know if he’s optimistic about Republicans’ chances in the midterms because of the Iran war and concerns about the economy, but said he hopes conservative voters will turn out. He views issues with affordability as short-term pain for long-term gain.
“You’ve got to suffer a little bit for the end result,” Linda Brennan, 76, said.
She noted gas was up to $5 a gallon in 2022 during former President Joe Biden’s time in office.
The couple said they expect Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to fight for the Republican nomination for president in 2028 and would be happy with either.
“We’re Catholics. We’re conservatives,” Linda Brennan said. “We’re just for faith and family. Not real complicated.”
The vice president spoke to reporters before he flew to Michigan on Monday about the AI video that Trump posted on social media over the weekend that featured a stylized imaginary attack on Iran’s Kharg Island, which is key to its oil exports and Trump has repeatedly threatened.
Vance then said the president “would be the first to say he doesn’t make announcements about military actions on social media, but I think that he’s sending a message to the Iranians.”
Despite the vice president’s puzzling comment, Trump makes virtually all of his announcements on military action and most other matters on his social media account.
Vice President JD Vance tried to clarify Trump’s critique on social media that data center opponents would leave their communities “backwards and poor.”
The vice president told reporters that Trump was stressing the importance of data centers for artificial intelligence and that “ 99% of the backlash to data centers has come in areas where building a data center means higher utility and higher electricity (prices) for the people on the ground.”
Vance said companies building data centers should build power plants to generate their own electricity in accordance with the administration’s policies.
“If you build a data center, you should be putting power back into the grid, not taking it out, and if that is happening, I don’t think the data centers are that controversial,” Vance said.
The vice president’s speech Monday is an opportunity for him to assuage concerns among conservative Jewish activists about his views toward Israel and his association with controversial figures like Tucker Carlson. It’s closed to the news media and comes at an extraordinarily sensitive time for Jewish Americans and the U.S. relationship with Israel.
Concerns about antisemitism have surged across the political spectrum ahead of the midterm elections. Republicans are eager to portray Democrats as hostile toward Jews and Israel, but they’re also dealing with their own internal schisms, with younger Republicans more likely to say the U.S. is too supportive of Israel.
Vance suggested last month that some Israeli officials have sought to manipulate U.S. public opinion in order to prolong the war with Iran. “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” Vance said in June.
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The online prediction market platform Kalshi said Monday that it has permanently banned former U.S. Rep. George Santos after concluding the former Republican congressman likely engaged in insider trading when he bet against his attendance at the State of the Union address.
The convicted ex-congressman had repeatedly discussed his intention to attend the State of the Union, which came just four months after he was granted clemency by President Donald Trump in a fraud case that led to his expulsion from the U.S. House. On the eve of Trump’s speech, Kalshi put the odds of Santos attending at close to 75%.
Then, minutes into the speech, Santos posted on X that he had been waylaid at the airport. Immediately, several social media users accused him of running another scheme.
The president posted on social media that U.S. communities that don’t have data centers will “end up being backwards and poor.”
“If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame,” Trump told the public. “China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement.”
There has been a backlash across the country to the construction of data centers needed to further develop artificial intelligence. The public has expressed concerns about their use of electricity and water, and their secretive development by tech companies. Many Americans are also worried that AI could increase economic disparities and cause widespread job losses.
Data center advocates stress that the local taxes these facilities pay can help fund public schools, reducing the financial burden on homeowners.
As Scott Bessent hosts meetings of the Group of 20 finance ministers in Asheville, North Carolina, on Monday and Tuesday, he aims to focus on relatively uncontroversial issues, from economic growth to addressing mounting debt, along with pressuring allies to join in “economic D-Day” sanctions on Iran.
Bessent told The Associated Press on Sunday that the Trump administration is prepared to exact “financial violence if we have to.”
The U.S. has disrupted the international order by imposing aggressive tariffs on Canada and other major allies and launching a costly, unpopular war. Now hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have renewed, dampening hopes for a resolution.
Daniel Fried, a former assistant secretary of state for European affairs in the George W. Bush administration, said the U.S. may “find it difficult to rally its usual friends and allies” under the circumstances.
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Trump allies called it a win. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said it was a historic deal that helps both countries.
“If it were up to DC Democrats, Maduro would still be in power, Venezuelan oil would be going to China at half price, and the people of Venezuela would be getting robbed by a corrupt regime,” Moreno wrote on social media.
Democrats condemned it, saying Maduro’s capture was always about Trump getting Venezuela’s oil. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., branded it “corruption at epic scale.”
“Will prices come down for Americans? Who knows but likely not as much as Trump has forced them up thru his idiotic Iran War,” Kaine said on social media.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Trump “put our service members at risk to get Venezuelan oil for his billionaire buddies.”
Amos Hochstein, who was a senior energy adviser under President Joe Biden, said the deal is uncharted legal and diplomatic territory that carries tremendous risk for any companies thinking about getting involved. Democrats could challenge the deal if they regain power in Washington, as could future administrations in Venezuela.
“There will be a lot of challenges to what was just announced,” Hochstein said. “I can only say, if it were me, I’d be nervous. And if I’m back in my old job in the next administration, then they should be nervous.”
Many important details remain unclear, including the identity of the private operator that apparently now has rights to the untapped oil fields for 100 years, becoming the world’s second-largest corporate holder of proven reserves after Saudi Aramco, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Persuading big American oil companies to return to the region could prove a challenge given the political uncertainty and damaged infrastructure. Chevron, the only U.S. oil company actively producing in Venezuela, declined to comment.
By Collin Binkley and Juan Pablo Arraez
“Venezuelans will not respect this illegitimate deal and no major US oil company will take it seriously because they know it will not last,” Ricardo Hausmann, now a Harvard University professor, said on social media. He said Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president, “has no legitimacy or constitutional power to commit Venezuela to any such deal.”
“One thing must be absolutely clear: Venezuela retains ownership and sovereignty over its resources,” Rodríguez said in her national address. She said the goal is to reach other agreements with transnational private companies such as Chevron, Repsol and Shell.
She added: “We want to be an energy powerhouse, a major oil producer, a significant gas exporter, and a major national petrochemical developer.”
It goes against what they’ve been told for decades: Venezuelan resources are for Venezuela, and no leader would cede control of those resources to the U.S. government.
At a market in eastern Caracas, Douglas Borjas said he’s upset that Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodriguez apparently agreed to 55% U.S. control of oil fields that could produce 65 billion barrels.
“I think they’re doing it to cling to power,” Borjas said. “The Venezuelan people deserve better. Venezuela has resources that can be exploited, but for the benefit of the people, not for the benefit of the corrupt elite.”
Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 3.4% to $91.10 per barrel on Monday. U.S. benchmark crude oil was trading 3.6% higher at $86.40 per barrel.
That has created its own form of economic pressures globally, including in the U.S.
The national average for gasoline in August has been above $4 per gallon every day in August for the first time ever, according to the AAA. It has been the most expensive August at the pump on record, outpacing even the enormous supply chain crunch during the COVID-19 pandemic in August 2022.
U.S. markets are sliding after American forces struck Iranian rocket launchers in the Strait of Hormuz, the first military action in a month.
The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both declined 0.2% on Monday. Nasdaq futures slipped 0.1%.
Meanwhile oil prices surged more than 3% after the U.S. strike on Sunday broke a lull in fighting in a war that has lasted more than six months. The Trump administration has announced a new economic campaign against Iran, but there is a significant risk of escalation in fighting.
“The Middle East had finally gone quiet enough for oil traders to start sanding some of the war premium out of crude,” wrote Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management. “Then Sunday arrived, with a reminder that quiet in the Strait of Hormuz is not the same as peace.”
The United Arab Emirates’ air force intercepted an Iranian drone over its territorial waters Monday, the Defense Ministry said, an attack that comes after the United States and Iran exchanged fire on the weekend, the first significant military action in a month.
During the lull in fighting, the U.S. has been ratcheting up economic pressure on Iran with the hope of forcing concessions out of Tehran, including reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz to shipping.
After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Iran established a chokehold on the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passed in peacetime, slowing ship traffic to a trickle.
As the fighting resumed, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed above $90, up about 25% from the start of the war, presenting a growing problem for Trump ahead of the midterm elections.
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Trump has frequently suggested he wants to seek a third term, posting about mounting another campaign, donning 2028 caps and discussing ways to make it happen — even as he’s acknowledged the Constitution prohibits it.
But lately, Trump has begun showing signs that even he doesn’t really believe another run will happen.
During recent speeches, the Republican president has begun describing life after the White House when his term ends in January 2029, predicting he’ll be at home and agonizing as his successor claims credit for his accomplishments.
“Your next president is going to say, ‘What a great job I did,’” Trump told an event on Long Island, New York, this month. “He’ll be sitting around, watching television. A real stiff. Unless you vote Republican, of course.”
A sitting president talking about becoming a former one is always politically fraught. But with midterm elections now just nine weeks away, Trump is approaching the point of his presidency where there will be more and more reminders that his power will soon wane.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford answered Trump’s “Lake America” decree Saturday with a billboard-sized message on the Canadian shoreline — “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” — as Canadian leaders met the move with ridicule rather than outrage.
The display followed Trump’s executive order directing U.S. federal agencies to call Lake Ontario “Lake America.” After months of tariffs, threats to make Canada the 51st U.S. state and personal attacks on its leaders, the reaction in Canada has mixed defiance with mockery.
Ford said Trump was trying to rename the lake because Ontario and Canada were “standing up for ourselves” and argued the name would outlast the president.
“Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said in a video posted on social media.
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Besides a social media post from Trump, the White House has said little about what he is calling “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY” in Venezuela.
Trump said the agreement announced Friday night would give the United States a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, a step toward his goal of extracting energy from the country after American forces captured then-President Nicolás Maduro in a middle-of-the-night raid in January and brought him to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, described the deal as a step toward economic recovery that will modernize the country’s oil industry.
Earlier on Saturday, she said the oil reserves would “cease to be an inert, cold statistic and will instead become concrete solutions. Housing is one of them.”
But the answers to many questions, including how soon the reserves could be drilled and who will pay to make it happen, were not immediately clear. No text of any agreement has been released.
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President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration has entered a sweeping agreement with Venezuela that, if realized, could give the U.S. access to vast amounts of the South American country’s untapped oil reserves, at cost.
Trump, in a social media post announcing the agreement, said it was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez.
Rodríguez’s government in a statement said the deal involves the development of 17 fields with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels. It said the agreement could draw $100 billion in investment into Venezuela’s oil industry and yield over $209 billion in taxes for Caracas.
Rodríguez in a posting on Telegram predicted the deal “will have a significant impact on our nation’s revival.”
The agreement allows for the United States to partner with an unnamed private operator in Venezuela to create a new private company to take hold of the reserves, according to a U.S. official familiar with the contours of the deal.
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In the photo of a computer screen, a Google map showing Lake Ontario renamed as Lake America is seen Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
Venezuelans protest against President Donald Trump's deal giving the United States a stake in Venezuela’s oil reserves in Caracas, Saturday, Aug 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)
President Donald Trump walks to board his presidential limousine after arriving on Marine One from the Ellipse near the White House, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington, on return from Houston. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
