For those who need nothing short of a win to advance in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, they are going to have to go through Shane Van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger.
Both Kaulig Racing drivers, who are currently full-time in the Xfinity Series, will start first and third respectively. Van Gisbergen is on the pole and Allmendinger is the defending winner.
“Yeah, just make sure we race clean,” Van Gisbergen said. “I have to respect that there’s a lot of playoff guys around me and I have to race respectfully. But yeah, we’re here to win the race. I have a teammate up there with me, too, so obviously the team has done a great job. But yeah, hopefully we have a good day.”
And make no mistake, there are at least three drivers that have no other shot but to win this race, based on what has happened at Kansas and Talladega the past two weeks.
Chase Briscoe is going to have to win from the 25th starting spot, but it’s kind of a relief to him that points won’t matter to him.
“I think for us it’s honestly better that we’re kind of in the position that we are being 32 out or whatever it is versus 15 just because if you’re 15 to even 20, that is doable. Where we’re 30, at least for us, we’re just looking at it as a must win. You could maybe point your way in, but a lot of things would have to go your way. I think it honestly opens up a lot for us from a strategy standpoint of just going in with the approach of flipping the track position and everything else. So yeah, to be below the cut line is obviously unfortunate, but honestly, I would much rather it be 30-something points than 15 just because I think it makes it a little clearer of what you need to do from a strategy standpoint. And out of all the tracks in this round, this is the one where I feel the most confident to come and battle for the win, so hopefully we can do that.”
Austin Cindric will start fifth and also must win
“I think that gives us the option to do everything we need to do tomorrow,” Cindric said. “We are in a position that we have to go win, and starting in the top five and being able to have some track position here to start is super important. I am proud of my team bringing a fast Menards/Sylvania Ford Mustang and we will go try to have our best day of the year tomorrow.”
Joey Logano has a pathway on points.
“We need as many points as we can (get),” Logano said. “We’re definitely not out of it. Qualifying (will) help that for sure and probably help give us an idea of how we’re going to call the race, so we’ll know more after today. Yeah, I mean, 13 points is definitely doable. We can do that. We’ve got to race some of the best cars to do that, so it’s not going to be simple or easy, but it’s definitely doable.”
Chase Elliott currently holds that last spot, but an upset winner like Suarez, Cindric or Briscoe would bump the driver fourth in points.
“I think a lot of it is dependent upon not just qualifying but just how much pace we have or don’t have,” Elliott said. “That’s going to dictate pretty much how you call the race right there. So I think it’s really hard for me to sit here and tell you exactly what we’re going to do, and I have no idea how competitive we are going to be or not. You know, when we strike out on a weekend where you have intentions of being fast, if that’s the case, you’d like to get some stage points somewhere.
“I think in a perfect world, you try to get some stage points in the first stage. If you have a shot to win, you probably flip the second one and hope you’re in a position to take advantage of it. Anything short of being super fast, I think you have to take advantage of the stage points and just do your best on the finish.”
How he qualified was seventh.
Tyler Reddick is just one point above him, but qualified second, but also isn’t as confident that his race pace will match his qualifying speed.
“We have some work to do there,” Reddick said. “Our goal was to be the highest qualifying playoff car and we did that. I wanted to get the pole here for pride but really, I feel like we did today what we needed to do.”
Defending champion Ryan Blaney is sixth and 25 points to the good. It’s a safe margin but not one that can withstand a disaster early issue.
“We’ve talked about all different scenarios, Jonathan (Hassler, crew chief) and I,” Blaney said Saturday. “And you kind of see who you’re racing around, where you qualify, what points are up for grabs in the first and second stage. Just kind of realizing where you’re at, you know? So, all scenarios. And you kind of keep your mind open, you see how the race starts and kind of how it’s unfolding. But I think it’d be hard to throw away stage points unless you get in a funky scenario of, I’m not going to get any, or maybe I’m only going to get one in this stage, maybe we flip it then. So you just kind of have to have all plans and be ready to audible if you need to.”
It’s a similar dynamic for Denny Hamlin at +30.
“If I don’t have a horrible day, yes,” Hamlin said of his confidence. “But I’ve had horrible days here. I feel better about it than I did with five to go at Talladega, certainly. I think that I just have to do my part in all of this. That starts today and goes on to tomorrow and I just need to do my job to best of my ability, and if so, then we will be fine. If not, we will see how it all stacks up, but 30 points – if you would have asked me before Talladega, would you be alright with 30 points to the good going to the ROVAL, I would have said yes.”
Meanwhile, the only two drivers that are safe and locked in are William Byron and Christopher Bell.
“Yeah, it’s great.. it’s awesome,” Byron said. “It changes the whole mood and vibe for the weekend, for sure. I mean, I haven’t really thought a lot about it, in terms of just trying to do the normal preparation and be ready for the race and try to go win. But yeah, there aren’t consequences for us, so that’s a great feeling and I feel like it’s one that we can take advantage of. We don’t have to worry about going out here in practice; try to ease into it. We can just try to send it and see what happens.”
Starting lineup
- Shane Van Gisbergen
- Tyler Reddick (P)
- AJ Allmendinger
- Joey Logano (P)
- Austin Cindric (P)
- Kyle Larson (P)
- Chase Elliott (P)
- Brad Keselowski
- Bubba Wallace
- William Byron (P)
- Kyle Busch
- Christopher Bell (P)
- Daniel Suarez (P)
- Ryan Blaney (P)
- Todd Gilliland
- Ross Chastain
- Alex Bowman
- Denny Hamlin (P)
- Ty Gibbs
- Carson Hocevar
- Michael McDowell
- Austin Dillon
- Zane Smith
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Chase Briscoe (P)
- Harrison Burton
- Daniel Hemric
- Corey LaJoie
- Chris Buescher
- Martin Truex, Jr.
- Kaz Grala
- Noah Gragson
- Justin Haley
- Ryan Preece
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Josh Berry
- Erik Jones
- Josh Bilicki