The NASCAR Cup Series completed the first quarter of their season this past Sunday, April 19th. A lot has happened over the first nine races, including a never-before-seen achievement, so let’s do a quick season recap to hit the highlights.

Tyler Reddick keeps winning

Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, had a winless 2025 campaign, and with Reddick’s contract expiring at the end of 2026, expectations for this season were somewhat mixed. There were concerns that 23XI was going to take a step back, especially since adding a third full-time car in 2025 had seemingly stretched their resources.

With nine races complete, Reddick has put those concerns, and the rest of the NASCAR field, in the rearview mirror. The #45 car won the season-opening Daytona 500 with help from his teammate Riley Herbst in the #35, before also winning the next two races at Echopark Speedway and Circuit of the Americas. This made Tyler Reddick the first driver in NASCAR history to win the first three consecutive races of a season and earned him and his team owner Michael Jordan (yes, NBA legend Michael Jordan) attention not just from the NASCAR media but from the wider sports media.

Reddick’s winning streak ultimately would end at the next race in Phoenix, but he would click off another win two weeks later at Darlington, and just this last weekend he picked up his fifth win of the season at Kansas Speedway. He currently leads the points standings by 105 points (more than a full race’s worth) over fellow Toyota driver Denny Hamlin. The questions surrounding Reddick and 23XI Racing are now focused on how many more races they can win in the coming months, and how big of a contract renewal Reddick has earned for himself.

Toyota’s dominance

Tyler Reddick may be stealing most of the wins, but Toyota as a whole has had an excellent start to the 2026 season. Besides Reddick’s five wins, two Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas have also picked up wins. Denny Hamlin, the driver of the #11, defended his race win at Las Vegas, while Ty Gibbs earned his first career win, driving the #54 to victory at Bristol. Hamlin leads the series in laps led (575), while Reddick and Gibbs lead the series in top 10 finishes with seven each.

Toyota teams also are dominating the points standings. Four of the top eight drivers in the standings are in Toyotas (Reddick, Hamlin, Gibbs, and Bubba Wallace, driving the #23 for 23XI Racing). The top 16 in points after 26 races will be eligible for the season championship, and so far, six of the top 16 in points are Toyota drivers, while Ford and Chevrolet each have five. This is despite Toyota only having nine full-time cars, the fewest of any manufacturer (Ford has 10 full-time cars, and Chevrolet has 17).

Ford gains a new top team

Part of Toyota’s dominance can likely be explained by the other manufacturers undergoing significant transitions to start their 2026 campaigns. For the last decade, Ford’s main powerhouse team has been Team Penske, a three-car operation that has won three of the past four NASCAR championships. However, this year Penske’s start to the year has been slower than expected. Ryan Blaney has brought the #12 to victory lane at Phoenix and currently sits third in points, while three-time Cup champion Joey Logano is 14th and Austin Cindric is 17th. Cindric has recovered from a terrible streak of luck, having crashed in the first four races, while Joey Logano has three finishes of 30th or worse, two of which came purely on pace. When they’re fast, the Penske Fords have earned great finishes, but their inconsistency this early on is worrisome.

While Penske has been inconsistent, another Ford team has risen to the occasion. RFK Racing’s three Fords have been the models of consistency, with Brad Keselowski and the #6 sitting 9th in points, Chris Buescher’s #17 car in 11th, and Ryan Preece’s #60 in 13th. Keselowski and Preece both have finished on the lead lap in every race so far, and the team only has two finishes below 20th, one each for Preece and Buescher. None of their cars have shown winning speed so far in a points race (Preece did win the season-opening exhibition Clash), but RFK has proven themselves more than capable of competing on a weekly basis. It remains to be seen whether RFK can one day overtake Penske, but the future of Ford’s NASCAR program looks bright.

Chevy’s early struggles

While Toyota is dominating the season and Ford is gaining a new top-tier team, Chevrolet is having its worst start to the season in decades. The flagship Chevy team, Hendrick Motorsports, only has one win through the first nine races, with Chase Elliott taking the #9 to victory lane at Martinsville. No other Chevy team has looked particularly close to winning, with Spire Motorsports being the only other Chevy team with a car currently in the top 16 in points. Trackhouse Racing, which won six races last season, has been completely off the pace so far, with New Zealand-born Shane van Gisbergen currently their highest-ranked driver at 18th in points. Two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, driving the #8 car for Richard Childress Racing, is currently 27th in points, an all-time career low for him this far into the season.

The cause of Chevy’s troubles is complex, with much of it being due to individual teams performing poorly, Trackhouse and Richard Childress in particular. However, Chevy has debuted a new body design this season, which has made much of their simulator data and performance data irrelevant. The early part of the season may simply become a waiting game while Chevy teams refill their notebooks for the new car body. If Hendrick, Trackhouse, and others continue to struggle into the second half of the season, then there will need to be deeper conversations in the Chevy camp about how to keep up.

Every Olympics has their highlights, golden moments and scandals leaving speechlessness. The 2026 Winter Olympic Games are no different. Based in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, the two-week non-stop competitions brought widespread smiles, tears, gasps and gossip. As they have come to an end, let’s recap.

Medal counts

For a fifth straight Winter Games, Norway topped the medal chart with 41 total medals, of which 18 were gold—the most ever won by a nation at the Winter Games. America came second with twelve gold medals and 31 total medals, a national record.

The U.S. took several high-profile gold medals, especially in figure skating and ice hockey. The U.S. men’s hockey team won a nailbiter against Canada 2-1 in overtime in a shocking upset, as did the U.S. women’s team in what NBC calls a “storybook ending” to skip Hilary Knight’s Olympic career. Elsewhere on the ice, U.S. figure skaters shone, with standout performances by “Quad God” Ilia Malinin and Alysa Liu, who both brought home a gold medal.

(Side note: if you’ve not watched Alysa Liu’s long routine, you are missing out. She is so infectiously happy.)

Other strong performances came from the Netherlands and host nation Italy, both winning ten gold medals.

Public Infidelity 

Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Laegreid shocked viewers when he publicly admitted to cheating on his girlfriend. The affair happened three months into their relationship, and after coming clean shortly before he took the world’s snow-covered stage, he stated that he wanted to set the record straight after he had “nothing to lose.” Not long after his confession, his ex, whose name has been disclosed, reported that Laegreid’s actions are “hard to forgive.” She “did not choose to be in this position and it hurts to have to be in it,” despite it being Laegreid’s “biggest mistake” of his life. 

Condom Shortages 

Safe to say Laegreid will not be in need of the complementary condoms the Olympics graciously hands out. But even if he was, the shortage would postpone him anyway. Entering the 2026 season, Olympic officials had 10,000 condoms distributed for the 2,800 athletes competing; an average of only 3.5 condoms per athlete. Desperation only increased with Valentine’s Day hitting right in between the Winter schedule, where lovebirds, flings and medal highs all clash together. 

This is not out of the ordinary for the Olympics, however. In the 1992 Winter Olympics, 30,000 condoms were dispersed, and 70,000 in 2000, where there had to be an emergency delivery of another 20,000. In 2002, while hot tubs were provided for use, they were quickly retracted after many used them for sexual pleasure; 100,000 were given out that year. 130,000 condoms, with an additional 30,000 packets of lube, were available for athletes in the Summer Olympics of 2004, and in 2012, 150,000 were ordered, or approximately 15 condoms per athlete, leading British tabloids to call it the “Raunchiest Olympics Ever.”

Attempts to cheat

While the International Olympic Committee no longer flogs or fines cheaters, as was commonplace in the ancient Greek Games, athletes have been trying to cheat the system for three thousand years. Several cheating scandals were raised in Milan.

A notable attempt at cheating was discovered when Swedish curlers called out Canadian curlers for “double-touching” one of the 40-lb stones in violation of the rules. Allegedly, the Canadian pushing the stone told the Swede to “f— off.” Later that weekend, one of Canada’s stone tosses was disqualified due to double-touching, which became a sensitive topic after the Canadian team loss.

Ski jumping also brought intrigue after allegations that male ski jumpers were injecting hyaluronic acid into their genitalia to make them larger during the required body scan. (Ski jumpers’ suits are required to be skin-tight, with a small buffer). Studies on the topic suggested that two extra centimeters of fabric could add 5.6 meters (18.4 feet) to a jump, which could be the decider in a close jump. Maybe size does matter after all.

As the Games draw to a close in Milan, all eyes will turn on Los Angeles. It will be the third time the U.S. city has hosted the Summer Games (the others were 1932 and 1984), and the first instance of three-hosts by a non-European city. The 2030 Games will return to Europe in the French Alps.

Super Bowl LX wrapped up the NFL season on Feb. 8, with the Seattle Seahawks facing off against the New England Patriots. Neither team was expected to make any sort of championship run coming into the season, but when the two improbable tales collided, the Seahawks proved unstoppable. Seattle cruised to a 29-13 victory on the back of five field goals (a Super Bowl record) and a crushing defensive effort. Here’s the immediate reactions to all the action, from the Seahawks’ dominant defense to the halftime show fanfare and everything in between.

Seattle’s impressive season

Few picked the Seattle Seahawks to make the Super Bowl at the start of the season, but their win caps off an incredibly impressive year. Their 14-3 regular season record was tied for the best record in the NFL with the Patriots and the Denver Broncos (with?), including an 8-1 away record that was the strongest in the NFC. Their offense finished top 3 in total scoring, helped along by a top-tier special teams unit. The Seattle defense (more on them shortly) was likewise spectacular, leading the league in points allowed per game and ranking top ten in yards allowed against both rushing and passing attacks.

Individual Seahawks also had spectacular seasons. On offense, Sam Darnold threw for over 4,000 passing yards and had the fifth most passing yards of any quarterback in the league, while wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba led the league with 1,793 receiving yards and finished tied for sixth overall with ten receiving touchdowns. Linebacker Ernest Jones IV led a team-effort defense, bringing 120 tackles and five interceptions (good for second-most of any player this season). Capping the season off with a Super Bowl win cements an already-excellent season into the history books.

Defense wins championships, again

Most football fans enjoy watching high-flying offensive action, but solid defense is typically what wins championships, and the 2026 Super Bowl was defined by defense. The first half ended 9-0 for Seattle, with the Patriots only gaining 52 total yards of offense across five drives and the Seahawks managing just three field goals despite making it into the red zone twice. The game opened up in the second half, but the three biggest plays of the half were made by Seattle’s defense, forcing a strip-sack fumble near the end of the 3^rd quarter and snagging a pair of brutal interceptions, including a pick-six, in the 4^th to put the game away.

Even with a mediocre offensive performance, the Seahawks’ defense was more than enough to seal the victory, and this is far from the first time that a locked-down defense has pushed a team to a Super Bowl win. The Patriots defense was also clearly their strongest unit and kept them competitive even late into the game. It’s hard to know how much of the Patriots’ offensive struggles were down to the Seahawks’ defense and how much was due to their own errors, but Sam Darnold was certainly right to thank the defense during his post-game interview.

The NFC West: Best Division in Football?

The Seahawks’ win capped off not only a remarkable season for the team, but one for their entire division. Three of the four teams in the NFC West made the playoffs, with the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers both getting wild-card berths with 12-5 records. Of the 13 combined regular season losses those three teams endured, six of them were to each other. Once in the playoffs, the only times the NFC West lost were to other teams from the division, with the Seahawks beating both the 49ers and Rams in succession.

Proclaiming any of the NFL’s eight divisions to be the best division in football would be controversial, and with roster turnover between seasons, it’s hard to predict if this year’s results will hold for 2026. The NFC West also has a nagging weak spot, with the 3-14 Arizona Cardinals arguably dragging the whole division down with them. Despite that, when both teams in the NFC championship and three of the four teams in that conference’s divisional round are all from the NFC West, and when ESPN’s two favorites for next year’s championship are both NFC West teams, it becomes hard to deny that the NFL has a standout division.

The Patriots Are Legit

They may have looked the obviously inferior team during the big game, but don’t let the lopsided scoreboard fool you: the New England Patriots are a legitimate contender for postseason glory. Drake Maye’s struggles in the big game were exacerbated by an injury-riddled offensive line with multiple rookies having to start, and once the line is healthy and gains more experience, the Patriots should be prepared to handle high-pressure defenses.

The most impressive takeaway from the Patriots’ effort was their resolve. Despite being down 19-0 in the 4^th quarter and having shown no signs of life for the first three quarters of the game, the Patriots pushed in a late touchdown to avoid the shutout, and after Seattle scored on a devastating pick-six to take a 29-7 lead with less than 5 minutes remaining, the Pats rallied to score yet another touchdown to push the final score to 29-13. For a young team that was not expected to be in the big game, that level of resolve is a great sign for the future, and the Patriots should be right back in the conversation next year. 

Beyond the Game

The Super Bowl is more than a football game. It’s arguably the single biggest event in the United States on a yearly basis, with world-famous music artists performing at the halftime show and major corporate sponsors pouring in up to ten million dollars for a single 30 second advertisement slot. The advertising, music, and general pageantry around the Super Bowl gives a quick snapshot of the state of the U.S., and the 2026 game had plenty to discuss. The action off the field brought plenty of good (including a spectacular halftime show by Bad Bunny, a fun pre-game performance by Green Day, and the reveal of Cadillac’s new Formula 1 car) and a good deal of bad (far too many AI-generated ads). The current political state of the US was not directly referred to, even by the politics-happy Green Day. However, the closing shot of the halftime show, with a parade of flags from Latin America marching down the field in front of a screen saying “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” definitely struck a political chord and even incited a social media rant from President Trump.

The college football season concluded on Jan. 19, as the Indiana Hoosiers under second-year head coach Curt Cignetti won a 27-21 national championship game against Mario Cristobal’s Miami Hurricanes. The tightly-contested game, and the post-game confrontations, marked the end of a highly anticipated, and highly unusual, college football season. In a season of storylines, here’s what the National Championship has left us wondering about.

The rise of Indiana

Indiana University (IU)’s football program has been a perennial bottom-tier team for nearly its entire existence. Before 2024, they only had three winning seasons in the entire 21^st century (one of those being the Covid-shortened 2020 season), did not have a bowl win since 1991 and had more all-time losses than any other team in college football.

That all changed in 2024, when they hired Curt Cignetti, the coach at the surging James Madison University and a former assistant to coaching legend Nick Saban. In his first season at IU in 2024, he led the team to an 11-2 record and a playoff appearance, only losing to the eventual champions and runners-up in Ohio State and Notre Dame, respectively. In year two, Cignetti and Indiana went from contending to dominating, racking up a 16-0 season with wins over defending champions Ohio State, Oregon (twice), Alabama, and Miami. Starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza became the first-ever Heisman Trophy winner in the school’s history, and they won as many postseason games this season (3) as the team had won in their entire history before this year.

Beyond just making school history, the 2025 Hoosiers were an all-time great team. They had the second-highest point differential of any team in CFB since 1956, and they finished in the top 5 in both total offense and total defense, one of only three championship-winning teams in the 21^st century to do so, alongside Georgia in 2022 and Clemson in 2018. Their 16-0 season makes them one of only two teams in history with this record, with the other being the 1894 Yale Bulldogs.  Whatever the future holds for Indiana, their turnaround in the last two seasons has been remarkable.

The Return of The U

Miami may not have won the title, but they proved that The U is truly back in the national conversation for the first time in over two decades. Miami last won a national championship in 2001, and while they’ve remained competitive in most years, no Miami team has managed to fully recapture the dominance (and the revilement) that Miami held for several decades around the end of the 20^th century.

A 13-3 record and wins over Ohio State, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and historic rival Notre Dame inspire confidence that one of the best college football programs in history might be on the upswing once again. Despite some miscues and a pair of tough losses against SMU and Louisville (losses which cost them a shot at the ACC title game), Miami battled through their season, snuck into the playoffs as the last at-large team, and stormed their way through a string of upsets into the national championship. With many of their key players, including standout freshman receiver Malachi Toney, returning for next season, the Hurricanes are a team to watch in 2026.

The Decline of the SEC

2026’s national championship game marks the third year in a row that no team from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) has made it to the title game. Ole Miss was the only SEC team to make the final 4, while the SEC’s blue bloods in Alabama and Georgia both fell in the quarterfinals. The absence of SEC teams from the finals is historically notable; before 2024’s championship matchup between Michigan and Washington, at least one SEC school had participated in the previous eight title games, winning six of those eight. Across the 21^st century so far, the SEC has 14 national championships, with Alabama alone contributing six of those titles and nine total appearances in the championship game.

Time will tell if the SEC has lost its advantage or if this is a mere statistical anomaly. More pressing might be whether the AP poll, the playoff committee, and journalists will adjust their models to account for the SEC’s decline. Thus far, all signs indicate that the CFB world will continue to overhype the SEC no matter what the on-field results look like.

NIL and Increasing Parity

The addition of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) payments to the college sports world has massively changed the world of college football. While there have been negative consequences, most notably the massive rise in student transfers in search of higher pay deals, it has permitted historically bad teams to financially recruit higher-quality players by promising them higher NIL deals and greater playing time.

Part of Indiana’s success is likely a direct result of NIL, as the Hoosiers have a large and active alumni and donor network that has helped fund their program into the new era. Meanwhile, teams like Alabama that relied on deep benches and players being willing to stick it out to learn from their coaches have lost much of their power. Talented players deeper on depth charts are now having to consider whether it’s smart to move to a smaller team, become a starter, and get a big NIL payout. With Indiana, a team built out of misfits, transfers, and depth-chart players, taking home the title, expect more players to go hunting for their next big opportunity.