With all the dialogue, from advocates and dissenters alike, surrounding the NASCAR Cup Sequence’ postseason format, what higher venue to make everybody completely happy than by beginning the Spherical of 16 on one of many few legendary tracks within the remaining 10 races?
That may be demanding Darlington Raceway’s 1.366-mile egg-shaped observe, the game’s oldest superspeedway, the place Sunday night time’s Prepare dinner Out Southern 500 in Darlington, S.C., will go down.
Solely the tiny observe in Martinsville, Va., has racing roots that run as deep within the colourful lore of inventory automobile battles and feuds as Darlington, so we’ll simply put that flat bullring into our coat pocket and wait till it rolls round because the playoffs’ penultimate race on Oct. 26.
By then, everybody in southern Virginia will most likely want a coat, however nothing can cowl up the truth that this Sunday’s race is a critically tough opener that can begin the method of resulting in certainly one of 16 playoff drivers — 14 with wins, two with out — being topped the 2026 champion.
With its playoff course of underneath extra scrutiny and hotly debated amongst followers on social media, NASCAR lucked out Saturday night time in Daytona and prevented a poisonous scenario when Ryan Blaney closed the common season by punching Alex Bowman’s ticket into the 16-car area with a razor-thin victory over lame duck wheelman Daniel Suarez.
In all, 4 winless drivers behind Blaney may have used a Daytona victory to deprive Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet from advancing — Suarez, Justin Haley, Cole Custer and Erik Jones.
These 4 drivers have mixed for simply seven wins, with Suarez and Jones proudly owning 5 of them, in 941 begins, which means these drivers’ tenure within the postseason would have doubtless lasted simply three races.
Whereas drivers can unexpectedly get scorching like RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher did in the summertime of 2023, incomes checkers in three of 5 begins, the probability of that among the many common non-winners is slim.
As for this week, solely 5 of the title-seekers have received at “The Observe Too Robust to Tame”: 5-time victor Denny Hamlin, plus solo winners Kyle Larson, William Byron, Joey Logano and defending Southern 500 champ Chase Briscoe.
“It is a racer’s observe, and the historical past there may be so particular,” stated No. 3 Chevrolet driver Austin Dillon, who narrowly ran second to Kevin Harvick within the 2020 Southern 500. “It is one of many hardest races to win. … The observe will get slick and wears tires fairly a bit.”
So with all that speak final week a couple of first-timer booting Bowman at Daytona, possibly that is the week when a winless driver holds up the trophy for claiming a crown jewel race.
Two-time Southern 500 winner Jones is a powerful selection, as are any of the highest drivers at RFK, which had a particularly disappointing season however has been stout on the South Carolina observe earlier than. Twice victorious in South Carolina, Brad Keselowski received in Might 2024 in a race teammate Buescher gave the impression to be headed towards profitable.
In 2022’s opening playoff spherical, Jones, Bubba Wallace and Buescher, all with out regular-season wins, took checkers at Darlington, Kansas and Bristol, respectively.
A Sunday repeat would make all of it about factors for the 16 chasers and never victories, a minimum of for one week.
Which is an enormous a part of that playoff format debate, proper?
–Area Degree Media
