Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway featured two Trackhouse Racing cars in the top 10, yet the team continues to seek consistency and confidence before the green flag drops.
The speed just hasn't been there when Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, and Shane van Gisbergen have taken part in practice and qualifying sessions.
"Just no confidence in the car yesterday," Chastain said after scoring a season-best runner-up finish. "Y'all saw that. Just the speed of the Trackhouse cars on Saturdays is just terrible. We're just not confident, all three drivers."
Once the races begin, the teams can start to make progress. The No. 1 team, No. 88 team, and No. 99 team make mid-race adjustments to try to make the cars handle better and contend for better finishes.
Sometimes, the adjustments work. Other times, the three drivers still struggle with speed and handling.
This race at Texas was an example of the adjustments working as Chastain finished second, Suarez finished 10th, and van Gisbergen finished 22nd in what was his first Cup start at the 1.5-mile track.
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"A decent finish today for my SafetyCulture team," van Gisbergen said after the race. "Just wasn't comfortable with the car there at the start and struggled to find speed.
"Thanks to my 88 crew for never giving up and continuing to work to make my Chevrolet better and better. We will learn from this and continue to make improvements."
The struggles on Saturday become evident when looking at the three drivers and their starting positions in each race.
Van Gisbergen qualified sixth at Circuit of the Americas but 26th or worse in the other 10 races. However, he is a rookie in the series with no Cup experience at the majority of tracks on the schedule.
Chastain lined up ninth for the Daytona 500 and at COTA. He qualified 17th or worse in the other nine races. This includes four races where he lined up 31st or worse.
Suarez's best qualifying effort was fifth at COTA. He has lined up 23rd or worse in the other 10 races. He started 30th or worse in three of these events.
Making improvements on Saturday is crucial for Trackhouse Racing if it hopes to return to its championship-contending ways. Building confidence in the driver lineup will help its members make bolder moves on restarts and throughout runs.
Chastain showed this late in Sunday's race as he went from seventh to third in one run with fewer than 25 laps remaining. He then aggressively passed Ryan Blaney on the inside in overtime to take over second place.
The Gen 7 car is also harder to pass than previous Cup cars, especially on short tracks. If the three drivers can qualify better on Saturdays, they can have confidence that they will better maintain track position on Sundays.