Teenage NASCAR star and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brent Crews has opened up on his goals for the 2026 season.
It's a big year for the Hickory, North Carolina, native, who signed to race full-time in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series with JGR ahead of this season, piloting the No. 19 Toyota.
So far, the results have been solid, too. Despite missing races at Daytona, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Darlington due to not having reached the age of 18 (his birthday was not until March 30), Crews still has two top-10 finishes under his belt already and only sits four places outside of The Chase spots in the points standings.
Now able to compete every weekend, Crews has a real shot of making up on the ground he lost in those four races and making the post-season later this year.
Brent Crews on NASCAR 2026 goals
However, despite having been a serial winner on the CARS tour and in ARCA, Crews has a mature head on his shoulders for his age, and isn't putting unnecessary pressure on himself.
Instead, he's taking things race by race, and if that takes him into The Chase, great, if not, it's not a problem.
“Yeah, I would be lying to say that we don’t look at the points and averages and all of that stuff," Crews told the media ahead of Saturday's race at Rockingham Speedway, where he finished 26th.
"But I think realistically, we are all just worried about making the most of our day, whether that is maxing out the stage points and trying to do our best on strategy – no matter what that is at the end of the day – we are all just doing our best at it.
"If that puts us in the Chase, or not, then that’s fine. We obviously missed four races.
"I think we are on track to make the Chase with what we earn in points, but we will see. We will just take it as it comes and do our best each week.”
