Corey Heim Wins 2026 NASCAR 'Open' Championship | Full Points Standings, Season Breakdown
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season is over, Kyle Larson is a three-time champion as the series returned to Homestead-Miami Speedway. There were many individual highs of the 2026 season for teams, drivers and new career stat lines.
Using inspiration gained from Brock Beard’s famous Last Car rankings on LastCar.Info I wanted to establish my own style of ranking – this specific ranking showcases the best (and worst) ‘Open’ Non-Chartered teams and drivers and how their season went.
Overall, the ranking system I made and used is very simple: How season points would be calculated for the Non-Chartered teams of the NASCAR Cup Series.
—- The points system uses the exact points system of the Cup Series for stage points and overall race points, along with awarding the driver with the fastest lap of the race with one (1) point. Points, drivers and team entries are not counted for exhibition races such as the Clash, Daytona Duels and All-Star Race.
It is not common whatsoever in the chartered era of NASCAR for drivers of 'Open' teams to declare points, due to them being part-time and not racing for a championship in that particular series.
The only ‘Open’ drivers that did declare for Cup Series points in 2026 were Casey Mears, Kevin Magnussen, Jimmie Johnson, Katherine Legge and BJ McLeod, who all finished 36-40th, respectively.
The 40th-place ranking of McLeod has him posted as the last-place driver in terms of the overall Cup Series on the points-declared basis for 2026, but gearing him up with all the ‘Open’ drivers has a much different ranking.
For 2026 there were a total of 16 ‘Open’ drivers across 9 ‘Open’ teams. *Team AmeriVet and Burt Myers are NOT included in this ranking as the team and driver raced in the non-points paying exhibition race being the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. Anthony Alfredo is not included in this ranking as well due to his No.62 Beard Motorsports entry being DQ’d before the Daytona 500. Justin Allgaier is only included for the start he made for JR Motorsports.
The RCR No.33 is ranked on this list up until it became a chartered entry prior to Charlotte following the passing of Kyle Bush. Both Jesse Love and Austin Hill made starts in the No.33 as an ‘Open’ car.
‘Open’ Non-Chartered drivers, teams, and car numbers:
Car #(s) | Driver Name | Team | Notes |
Austin Hill | RCR | ||
Jesse Love | RCR | ||
Justin Allgaier | JR Motorsports | ||
Joey Gase | NY Racing | ||
JJ Yeley | NY Racing | ||
Burt Myers | Team AmeriVet | N/A | |
Casey Mears | Beard Motorsports, Garage 66 | Multiple Teams | |
Chad Finchum | Garage 66 | ||
Timmy Hill | Garage 66 | ||
Gray Gaulding | Garage 66 | ||
Josh Bilicki | Garage 66 | ||
Corey Heim | 23XI | ||
BJ McLeod | LiveFast, NY Racing | Multiple teams | |
Daniel Dye | LiveFast | ||
Katherine Legge | LiveFast | ||
Jimmie Johnson | LMC | ||
Kevin Magnussen | Project 91 |
The season began with the Bowman Gray Clash, which would be postponed multiple days due to snow – yes, snow. The Clash would be the only race this season postponed due to weather. Although it was an unofficial race (in terms of non-points paying), the Clash did see two ‘Open’ Non-Chartered teams and cars enter: The New York Sports Show Garage 66 entry of Chad Finchum and the Team AmeriVet No.50 entry of Burt Myers. Garage 66 would be a man-stay per usual throughout the 2026 season, as Team AmeriVet did not race in after the Clash.
Overall, out of the points-paying 36 races throughout the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, 7 races would see no ‘Open’ entries (both Las Vegas races, Sonoma, Iowa, New Hampshire, WWTR, Kansas).
KEY RACES:
Race 1: Daytona – Corey Heim accounted for 15 points in the Daytona 500, with 6 coming via stages. Overall, there were 5 ‘Open’ drivers in the 500 (Heim, Johnson, Mears, Allgaier and McLeod). Casey Mears shocked the NASCAR world when he made a dashing last-lap pass to make the 500 with Garage 66, which would lead to him making the only start for Mears with the team this season. Heim and 23XI would come out of Daytona leading all ‘Open’ drivers and teams with the 15 points.
Race 4: Phoenix – Austin Hill scored 16 points in his season debut with a 21st place finish, following up a p27 effort made by Jesse Love a week prior at COTA.
Race 10: Talladega – Daniel Dye made his Cup Series debut with Live Fast and scored a 24th place finish. Chad Finchum led 8 laps with his Garage 66 entry, marking the first Finchum has ever led in the Cup Series (unfortunately points for leading a lap hasn’t counted in a decade). Talladega would also be the final race for the No.33 before it became chartered, Jesse Love drove it to another 27th place finish for 10 points.
Race 15: Michigan – JJ Yeley brought the only ‘Open’ car, his #44 NY Racing Chevrolet to a 21st place finish, marking the best finish to date for NY Racing.
Overall, throughout the first 16 races of the season it would be Corey Heim dominating in his 23XI Toyota. A true battle of David vs Goliath when it came to all the Non-chartered teams chasing 23XI – the only difference is that Goliath hadn’t even broken a sweat.
Points After 16 races (Drivers):
Driver | Points |
Corey Heim | 75 |
Chad Finchum | 23 |
JJ Yeley | 22 |
Daniel Dye | 21 |
Austin Hill | |
Jesse Love | 20 |
Jimmie Johnson | 8 |
Katherine Legge | 8 |
Joey Gase | 7 |
Casey Mears | 6 |
BJ McLeod | 3 |
Josh Bilicki | 3 |
Timmy Hill | 2 |
Justin Allgaier | 1 |
Points after 16 races (Team / Car #)
Race 17: San Diego – Corey Heim already had a very commanding lead over Chad Finchum and JJ Yeley entering Naval Base Coronado, and coming out it would be substantially larger. The America 250 special at a literal active Navy base came with three ‘Open’ cars, driven by Heim, Jimmie Johnson and Formula One great Kevin Magnussen. This was the closest to being Johnson’s home track and he nearly had luck earlier, almost winning the Truck Series race. K-Mag would make his Cup Series debut under the Project 91 banner, and would tussle with Noah Gragson – although finishing 27th, K-Mag would set the fastest lap of the race and gain a valuable extra point for the owners standings of this ranking. Corey Heim would win his first-career race in thrilling fashion (although he did not score stage points), adding 55 points to an already giant lead.
Race 22: Indianapolis – Corey Heim scored 15 stage points and another win. Despite being on a part-time schedule, Heim has dominated the races he has appeared in up to this point (Priv. finished 9th at Chicagoland several races prior). Heim scored a monstrous 70 points in total, as Casey Mears scored 2 under the Beard Motorsports No.62 and Daniel Dye scored 1.
Race 26: Daytona – The final race before The Chase would see four ‘Open’ cars enter. No stage points were earned and it would be once again Corey Heim as the top finisher of ‘Open’ entries. Heim finished 16th, translating to 21 points – meanwhile Daniel Dye notched 8 points, with both Joey Gase and Casey Mears getting a single point.
Points After 26 races (Drivers):
Driver | Points |
Corey Heim | 249 |
Daniel Dye | 30 |
Chad Finchum | 29 |
JJ Yeley | 24 |
Austin Hill | 20 |
Jesse Love | 20 |
Jimmie Johnson | 17 |
Kevin Magnussen | 11 |
Joey Gase | 10 |
Casey Mears | 10 |
Katherine Legge | 8 |
Josh Bilicki | 5 |
BJ McLeod | 4 |
Timmy Hill | 2 |
BJ McLeod | 3 |
Justin Allgaier | 1 |
Points after 16 races (Team / Car #)
Going into the final 10 races of the season sat Corey Heim with a 219-point lead overall over Daniel Dye, and 23XI having a near 200-point lead over LiveFast and Garage 66. Technically with 10 races left there were 750 points up for grab counting stages and race finishing position – tracking the averages throughout the first 26 races and mathematically Corey Heim sealed the ‘Open’ car championship win by this point of the season.
Through 26 races, if Heim wasn’t to start again in the final 10, his 9-points-per-race average in 26 races completed on the Cup Series calendar (overall, Heim had only raced in 8 races up to this point) would need to have Daniel Dye average 22-points-per-race if he competed in the final 10 races of the season, translating to a top-15 finish each race.
There weren’t too many notables in the final 10 races, as 3-out-of-10 had no ‘Open’ cars. Heim scored 18 points at Darlington to continue his lead. Josh Bilicki got the drive for Garage 66 at Bristol after many though Chad Finchum would – Bilicki would score a single point.
Race 32: Charlotte – Gray Gaulding would return to the Cup Series after being M.I.A for three years. Gaulding originally attempted the Daytona summer race, but DNQ’d for Garage 66, leading him to this later opportunity at Charlotte. Gaulding scored a lone point, being the lowest ‘Open’ car amongst three. BJ McLeod was in NY Racing’s No.44, despite racing for the New York team, the car was prepared by his LiveFast team and his crew came from LiveFast as well (although this was a NY Racing entry). McLeod finished 33rd for 4 points – which would change the team / car # season points outcome down the road. Corey Heim notched 4 stage points en route to 30 total on the night.
Race 34: Talladega – Plate tracks always make for some fun racing as three-out-of-four ‘Open’ teams notched double-digit points based on race finish. Joey Gase carried the most in his NY Racing Chevrolet with 16. Gray Gaulding would bring his Ford home with 14 points, recovering from a mid-race incident. Daniel Dye scored 12 for LiveFast, and Casey Mears once again scored a lone point.
Race 36: Homestead-Miami – All four ‘Open’ cars scored a lone point. Yeley, Finchum, Mears and Heim finished 36th-40th, with Chase Briscoe breaking them up with a 39th place finish. Clinching the Open Championship weeks prior, Corey Heim finished dead last after losing power early on. According to LastCar.Info, this is the first last-place finish for the No.67 since 1988.
The 2026 season was one that could only be described as “dominant” for what the 23XI ‘Open’ #67 did with Corey Heim behind the wheel. In 13 races, Heim notched 330 points, which would have put him in a comfortable 35th over Cody Ware (who raced in all 36), and only 66 behind Ty Dillon (who also raced in all 36 points-paying races) if Heim had declared for Cup Series points.
With Heim’s ‘Open’ car championship win, it gives 23XI the team (owners) championship as well. Heim finished 288 points ahead of runner-up Daniel Dye, with 23XI finishing 269 points ahead of Garage 66.
FINAL POINTS AFTER 36 RACES (Drivers):
RANK | DRIVER | POINTS | STARTS |
1 | Corey Heim | 330 | 13 |
2 | Daniel Dye | 42 | 5 |
3 | Chad Finchum | 31 | 8 |
4 | Joey Gase | 26 | 3 |
5 | JJ Yeley | 25 | 4 |
T-6 | Jesse Love | 20 | 2 |
T-6 | Austin Hill | 20 | 2 |
7 | Jimmie Johnson | 17 | 2 |
8 | Gray Gaulding | 15 | 2 |
9 | Casey Mears | 12 | 6 |
10 | Kevin Magnussen | 11 | 1 |
T-11 | Katherine Legge | 8 | 2 |
T-11 | BJ McLeod | 8 | 4 |
12 | Josh Bilicki | 7 | 4 |
13 | Timmy Hill | 2 | 2 |
14 | Justin Allgaier | 1 | 1 |
15 | Burt Myers | N/A | N/A |
FINAL POINTS AFTER 36 RACES (Team / Car #)
The races started are very telling amongst teams. Garage 66 started 4 more races than 23XI, but carried 3 points-per-start from their combined drivers in comparison to Corey Heim’s 25 points-per-start. It goes to show the difference between equipment in the NextGen era of NASCAR Cup Series racing.
As mentioned earlier, BJ McLeod’s start for NY Racing at Charlotte made a direct effect on the team standings. McLeod scoring 4 points for NY Racing put the team in 3rd place, leaving McLeod’s own LiveFast Motorsports just a point off from a podium, with 54 points.
Casey Mears got his 500th start at Homestead, capping off what was a very rough season the racing veteran had after the Daytona Duel.
It makes me wonder where Team AmeriVet would have placed if they had raced a points-paying race this season. Showing little speed in the Clash, I still expected to see them attempt either Bristol or Martinsville at some point this year, which would have given them a competitive chance for 8th place possibly.
Heim will not be defending his championship come 2027, as he will be in a chartered car. With that, the No.84 LMC will also be chartered in 2027.
This is the conclusion of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series ‘Open’ Championship. Corey Heim is your 2026 champion, and 23XI is your team champion.
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