On one hand, Chase Elliott suffered an initial setback at the start of the Round of 12 for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs in needing an engine swap after qualifying but on the other hand, it would have been worse if it happened during the race instead.
The Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 discovered an engine ailment during practice on Saturday at Kansas Speedway and will start at the rear of the field.
“We went through all the things that you can check on pit road,” said Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion. “Obviously, when you have an engine issue like that, it can be difficult to identify what exactly is broke. For me, I came off Turn 2 and basically just felt like it went down a cylinder, audible change, and lost a lot of power, so I knew something was wrong and came in as quick as I could, just to try to keep from messing it up any worse. But such a bummer. What a terrible time to have something go wrong. The Hendrick engine shop has been so good throughout my career. I don’t even think I’ve filled up a hand of engine issues that we’ve had over the course of my entire career, so I hate it, but would much rather have it happen today than tomorrow.”
To his point, it’s a long race and he can recover, especially at Kansas which is a fast wide track that provides multiple lanes for faster cars to pass. The only real hurdle is that the starting spot might deny him points by the end of Stage 1.
On the other end of the spectrum, Christopher Bell already enjoys a decent margin of error to start this round and by scoring the pole will have the opportunity to score even more stage points to pad his cushion in advance of calamitous races at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval.
Of course, winning could make it all a moot point.
“Win this week,” Bell said when asked how he can mitigate the risk of Talladega and the R I mean, yeah, that’s a great question. There really is no hiding, although it does feel like the fall Talladega race has been a lot calmer than the spring race the last couple years. I don’t know. Superspeedway racing, I’ve been very vocal, it’s not my favorite style of racing and that puts a lot of emphasis on this race tomorrow to try to get some stage points. Obviously, winning would be ideal, but certainly going to Talladega with a big cushion is our number one goal.”
Playoff driver starting spots
Christopher Bell (1st)
Tyler Reddick (4th)
Joey Logano (5th)
William Byron (6th)
Ryan Blaney (7th)
Denny Hamlin (8th)
Chase Briscoe (9th)
Daniel Suarez (10th)
Kyle Larson (11th)
Alex Bowman (12th)
Austin Cindric (17th)
Chase Elliott (38th)
Quotables
This was a good start to the weekend for Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.
“It is nice to start in the top five,” Logano said. “I feel like our car was better today than what we have had here the last couple of years. I am proud of the gains we have made to be in the ballpark. We just need to go out there and score stage points and be solid tomorrow, that is what we need to do. I think we are closer than what we have been here in a long time. This has been, maybe, our worst race track. So the fact that we are in the ballpark says a lot.”
Ditto Blaney.
“Overall I think that was a decent day. It was nice to make the second round. Qualifying hasn’t been my strong suit here so it was nice to make it to the second round today and start inside the top 10. I thought our race pace in practice earlier was pretty good, so we will see what we have come race time tomorrow. Overall, I think it is a good start to the weekend.”
Denny Hamlin is also hoping to maximize his points at one of his best tracks.
“Certainly, the Roval will be a challenge, but it’s going to be a challenge for everyone to learn the new track,” Hamlin said. “Yeah, we want to get as much business as we can done over the next two weeks. No doubt about it. You always want to have a bigger buffer going into that final race just simply because of the flip flopping that can go on during stages there.
“Passing at the Roval has been extremely, extremely hard. We’ve seen guys that stay out for stage points, do not make it back up to the front no matter how good either car is. So, I just think, generally speaking you want to have some sort of buffer going into that track so you can play strategy multiple ways.”
Like Hamlin, his employee at 23XI Racing Tyler Reddick also survived a really tough first round, but had an easier go of it because he was the regular season champion and had a much larger points buffer. He still does to start this second round after the reset too.
“It was definitely not a good first round for us,” Reddick said. “Yeah, I think a number of things played into that, but we’ve done a really good job all year long of at our worst being able to still get a top 10 out of it. Some of the handling issues that we had at tracks where normally it’s not an issue for us really set that in stone for the first round. I think we still could’ve scored decent points especially the last two races.
“We were just missing things a little bit – made mistakes in qualifying on my behalf that put us back there and then were in that box where we have to get a little desperate or aggressive, if you will, to try and get some points out of it. Yeah, we’re able to look at the results and understand why we were there. We’re not scratching our heads as to why we ran that bad. We know what caused it. Yeah, it is what it is. It stinks, but you get to reset and start over for this round where we were at the beginning.”
Starting lineup
| 1 | 20 | Christopher Bell (P) | Joe Gibbs Racing Rheem Toyota |
| 2 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Joe Gibbs Racing Monster Energy Toyota |
| 3 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Richard Childress Racing BetMGM Chevrolet |
| 4 | 45 | Tyler Reddick (P) | 23XI Racing DraftKings Toyota |
| 5 | 22 | Joey Logano (P) | Team Penske Shell-Pennzoil Ford |
| 6 | 24 | William Byron (P) | Hendrick Motorsports Valvoline Chevrolet |
| 7 | 12 | Ryan Blaney (P) | Team Penske Wurth Ford |
| 8 | 11 | Denny Hamlin (P) | Joe Gibbs Racing FedEx Toyota |
| 9 | 14 | Chase Briscoe (P) | Stewart-Haas Racing Mahindra Tractors Ford |
| 10 | 99 | Daniel Suarez (P) | Trackhouse Racing Worldwide Express Chevrolet |
| 11 | 5 | Kyle Larson (P) | Hendrick Motorsports HendrickCars.com Chevrolet |
| 12 | 48 | Alex Bowman (P) | Hendrick Motorsports Ally Chevrolet |
| 13 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 23XI Racing Columbia Sportswear Company Toyota |
| 14 | 77 | Carson Hocevar # | Spire Motorsports Premier Security Chevrolet |
| 15 | 71 | Zane Smith # | Spire Motorsports Focused Health Chevrolet |
| 16 | 43 | Erik Jones | LEGACY MOTOR CLUB AdventHealth Toyota |
| 17 | 2 | Austin Cindric (P) | Team Penske Menards / Moen Ford |
| 18 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | JTG Daugherty Racing Dillon’s / NOS Energy Drink Chevrolet |
| 19 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Joe Gibbs Racing Bass Pro Shops Toyota |
| 20 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse Racing Kubota Tractor Chevrolet |
| 21 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Front Row Motorsports Horizon Hobby Ford |
| 22 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet |
| 23 | 7 | Justin Haley | Spire Motorsports Gainbridge Chevrolet |
| 24 | 10 | Noah Gragson | Stewart-Haas Racing Bed, Bath, & Beyond Ford |
| 25 | 17 | Chris Buescher | RFK Racing Fastenal Ford |
| 26 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing Solomon Plumbing Ford |
| 27 | 51 | Corey LaJoie | Rick Ware Racing Children’s Mercy Hospital Ford |
| 28 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Wood Brothers Racing Menards / Dutch Boy Ford |
| 29 | 4 | Josh Berry # | Stewart-Haas Racing Bed Bath & Beyond Ford |
| 30 | 31 | Daniel Hemric | Kaulig Racing South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet |
| 31 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota |
| 32 | 16 | Ty Dillon(i) | Kaulig Racing FitRX Chevrolet |
| 33 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports Rasmussen Air & Gas Energy Ford |
| 34 | 15 | Kaz Grala # | Rick Ware Racing Remixers.com / Xemex Ford |
| 35 | 84 | Jimmie Johnson | LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Dollar Tree / Family Dollar Toyota |
| 36 | 44 | JJ Yeley(i) | NY Racing Team Chevrolet |
| 37 | 41 | Ryan Preece | Stewart-Haas Racing HaasTooling.com Ford |
| 38 | 9 | Chase Elliott (P) | Hendrick Motorsports UniFirst Chevrolet |