The Nashville Stampede have never finished a regular season higher than sixth place, but have already secured a first-place foothold this year as they head into a homestand at Bridgestone Arena.

Amid a franchise record seven-game win streak, the Stampede have a chance to reach new heights in front of what should be one of the best crowds of the PBR Team season.

The Stampede have a history of unexpected success. In 2022, they became the inaugural Team Series Champions despite finishing the regular season in dead last at 7-20.

This offseason, the Stampede made one blockbuster acquisition by signing Daylon Swearingen after he couldn’t come to a deal with the Carolina Cowboys. He broke his back at the PBR World Finals shortly thereafter and was ruled out for the PBR Teams season.

Outside of losing the newly acquired Swearingen for the season, they also lost quality producers Austin Richardson and Kaiden Loud. They had just two riders finish the 2025 season in the Top 15 of the MVP Standings, and one of those riders, Cody Jesus, has been on the IR since the season began. So has No. 2 overall draft pick and 2023 PRCA World Champion Ky Hamilton, who will debut in front of the home crowd on Friday night.

Regardless, Nashville has gotten out to a historic 7-1 start. They’ve ridden 22-of-40 so far this season, including 10-of-15 this past weekend in Florida. No other team has more than 19.

Those 22 rides are split among just five riders, with a league-best four sitting in the Top 15 of the MVP standings, and three in the Top 10.

Franchise stalwart Alan de Souza is one of those riders. He was Nashville’s best rider last season, riding 19-of-31 and to finish sixth in the MVP race on a team that went 15-20. He’s carried some of that momentum to this season, riding 4-of-8 for 354.7 points.

De Souza, however, is not one of the three Stampede riders in the Top 10. He sits in 14th place.

It is perhaps a bit surprising just how good that trio of Daniel Feitosa, Riquemi Silva, and Rogério Venâncio has been this season when you consider they combined for just 18 qualified rides in 2025. They’ve almost exceeded that already, and are doing so at a breakneck pace. Feitosa, Silva, and Venâncio are a combined 16-for-22 on the year.

Feitosa finished 2025 riding 6-of-12, but this year has already ridden 5-of-6. At 83.33%, Feitosa has the best riding percentage in the league among those with at least five outs. He’s coming off a perfect 3-for-3 weekend in Florida where he racked up 261.25 total points, including a team-best 89.95 on Slick Rick, which was the first time that bull had been ridden in 30 outs.

Riquelmi Silva joined the Stampede this offseason after a season with the Ridge Riders where he finished 33rd in the MVP Standings, riding 9-of-15 bulls. So far this season, he’s covered 5-of-8 for 443.25 points.

Silva has been Nashville’s closer this season and has thrived in the role. He’s lucky to have incredible teammates, as most of his rides came after Nashville had clinched the win. But in the situations when Silva has been Nashville’s last hope, he has delivered, like when he covered Smooth Violation for 88.05 in a re-ride to clinch a win over the Wildcatters and spoil former-Stampede rider Kaiden Loud’s 91.2 in his first game against his old team.

Finally, there’s Venâncio, who has been the most productive rider for Nashville, but perhaps the most unexpected one. There former PBR Brazil Champion had yet to make his mark in the States, until now.

He finished 70th in the MVP race last year as a member of the Stampede, riding three bulls in his 12 outs. He’s made a complete turnaround and has opened up the 2026 season in second place in the MVP standings with 531.25 points, just 1.35 points behind two-time MVP and PBR legend Jose Vitor Leme.

Venâncio has doubled his previous season ride total, riding 6-of-8 so far this year. And like Feitosa, he is also coming off of a perfect 3-for-3 weekend in Florida where he scored 266.75 points, 12.50 points more than he scored all of last season.

The Stampede core four have combined for 20 of the team’s 22 rides. They’ve been so consistent that just two other riders have ridden for Nashville this season.

Gustavo Luiz da Silva is responsible for the team’s other two qualified rides, and they’ve been big scores worth a combined 181.5 points.

He was 91.85 on Lights Out to win Wildcatter Days’ Night 3 MVP. It’s the best score of any Nashville rider this season.

That group of five bull riders has been far and away the most consistent starting lineup in the PBR this season.

They’ve covered 55 percent of their bulls when no other team is above 50 percent and are riding for big scores, too, riding for an average of 88.46 points per ride, which is third best in the league.

All of that has led them to not just winning, but dominating. They have won four games by at least two scores this Eason and are averaging a league-best 243.28 points per game. Each of the last two events, they have finished with a four-ride blowout on Sunday, good enough for the top two team scores in the PBR this season.

Their lone loss was their first game of the season and it came by just 1.4 points to the Carolina Cowboys.

“The guys are that good and they work hard during the week in preparation for each event,” head coach Justin McBride said after his team made it seven in a row. “We don’t really worry about the outcomes, we’re just trying to focus on riding bulls. And if we can stay in that kind of a bubble and that kind of mindset, these guys can do some great things.”

Whether the Stampede can stay in their bubbles or not, the team will only get stronger and deeper as the season progresses with the eventual return of Jesus in addition to Hamilton.

Both will be welcomed assets to an already impressive roster that hasn’t even needed supplementary help yet.

Top to bottom, this roster has reinvented itself, despite not changing much from the previous season. In three weekends, Nashville hasn’t just set the tone; they’ve become the gold standard.

The organization has always had Championship DNA flowing through its veins, but for the first time, the team is a threat from the get-go.

No team has more momentum than the Stampede, and now they’ll hope to carry that into their homestand when they welcome the rest of the league to Music City next weekend.