2026 Season
Patrick Staropoli's 2026 season has been defined by a four-race crew suspension that split his campaign in half. Through the first five races, Staropoli and crew chief Patrick Donahue were finding their range, finishes of 18th, 13th, 20th, 26th, and 21st for a 19.6 average. Then at Las Vegas, NASCAR cited the No. 48 crew for a Rule 10.5.2.5 violation (ballast and ballast equipment infraction), suspending Donahue, spotter Dillon Bassett, and engineer Morgan Olsen for four races.
The damage was immediate. With substitute crew chief Darrell Philips and a shuffled pit crew, Staropoli averaged 26.5 over the suspension window, 29th at Darlington, 16th at Martinsville, 34th at Rockingham, 27th at Bristol. Seven positions worse per race than his pre-suspension baseline.
Kansas marks the crew's first race back together. Staropoli sits 20th in the standings with 129 points, 101 behind Taylor Gray's 12th-place cut line for The Chase. With 15 races remaining before the playoff cutoff, he needs to gain roughly seven points per race on Gray to make the top 12. The math is steep but not impossible, especially with his full crew restored.
2026 Stats (through 9 races): 20th in points (129 pts) | 0 wins | 0 top 5s | 0 top 10s | 22.7 avg. finish | 0 laps led | 0 DNFs
Career
Staropoli graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University and earned his medical degree from the University of Miami. He is a practicing retinal surgeon at Retina Consultants of Texas, one of the most unusual dual careers in professional motorsport.
His racing career began when he won the PEAK Stock Car Dream Challenge, earning a Late Model ride at Irwindale Speedway. He stepped away from competition for nine years while completing his medical training and building his surgical practice, returning to full-time national racing with Big Machine Racing. Staropoli lost vision in one eye earlier in his career and has turned his medical journey into a platform aligned with ophthalmic health advocacy through his "Driving to Fight Blindness" initiative.