For the second time in as many years, Ross Chastain played spoiler in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with a victory even when he was no longer championship eligible.
It speaks to the resolve and will of the entire Trackhouse Racing No. 1 that missing the playoffs this season and being winless with seven races left to go, were not reasons to try less or provide less effort.
The same applied to Kyle Busch, riding a 50-race winless streak, who raced him for the win for much of the afternoon until crashing from the lead with 20 to go trying to lap Chase Briscoe. These are all examples of how, even with a playoff format, even those no longer racing for the championship still have something to battle for.
As for the championship itself, there was certainly consequences for everyone in the Round of 12, with none of them winning their way in and now having to avoid impending disaster across Talladega and the Charlotte Roval.
Winner: Ross Chastain
He literally won the race. It’s been a tough season for all of Trackhouse Racing as Chastain and teammate Daniel Suarez just didn’t have the speed they expected in the first half. Suarez made the playoffs by virtue of his victory at Atlanta but it hasn’t been until the past month that the No. 1 car was truly a frontrunner again. They hit on it at Kansas and denied William Byron an automatic advancement into the Round of 8.
Loser: Austin Cindric
The day started off well enough for the Team Penske No. 2 as Cindric scored four stage points at the first interlude but then came a crash on Lap 144 where he drifted up into Kyle Busch and it sent him into the wall and four laps down. The result drops him nearly into must-win territory over the next two weeks at Talladega and the Roval.
“It was a really frustrating result. I thought the team did a really great job with adjustments overnight and we had a really fast car today and just took ourselves out of it on pit road. Obviously we had some contact on the back straightaway and I took us out of the race, really. That is unacceptable for the position we are in and especially with the speed we have had in the car. I am pretty bummed about all that. I think the next two weeks are weeks we can go have great races but we definitely won’t be able to get this one back. It makes our goals a little more clear going into Talladega and the Roval.”
Winner: Ryan Blaney
The defending champion nearly got forced into a really bad day when he had to pit early for a loose wheel, well before his pit window opened up. But instead, Ryan Blaney caught some well timed cautions and a good car took him back inside the top-5 to finish the race and he’s second in points and just needs to survive the next two races to walk into the next round.
“Well, we caught a break with (Busch) spinning because we were short on gas. We had a really fast car. The Wurth Ford Mustang was really good, especially on the long run. I could really get rolling and I could run the bottom in three and four, which not a lot of guys could do. That was a big advantage. At the end, I don’t know if I had enough laps, but also the bottom got worse. It cooled off a bit and there was more grip up top and it wasn’t as beneficial. It was a good recovery and we have a few things to work on but I am proud of the fast car. I appreciate the 12 guys for sticking with it all day. That is probably the best we have run here in a long time, especially with this NextGen car. I am proud of that and it gives us hope going on. I appreciate the effort all day.”
Loser: Kyle Busch
Sure, Kyle Busch wanted to make the playoffs and avoid missing it for only the second time in his career. Sure, he wants to run well in general. But above all else, it’s important to him that he continues to build on a NASCAR Cup Series record 19 consecutive seasons with at least one victory. This looked like a car capable of doing it as he was outdueling Chastain and crashed while trying to lap a ill-handling Chase Briscoe car.
The winless streak is now 51 and it’s becoming more likely his record streak, his legacy, will end at 19 too.
“I don’t know.. I am sure he was racing to stay on the lead lap with whoever was in front of him there. Granted they have a race to run, but back in the old days when you were under 30 to go or whatever it was, lap traffic would kind of lay over and give you a lane and let the leaders race. I just wasn’t getting that, so I tried to force my hand into getting that and get to his outside, and for whatever reason, it just gave all the air in all the wrong places and I spun out.”
Loser: Chase Briscoe
Chase Briscoe, Richard Boswell and the Stewart-Haas No. 14 continue overcome insurmountable odds to make the playoffs and then make the second round and they are going to have to do it again to make the third round. Their car was just dreadful all weekend, as Briscoe either battled a car that was too slow and tight or too free, culminating with putting Busch in the position to where he crashed, but also duplicating that scenario with Carson Hocevar the very next run, all the way to finishing 25th.
This was a bad day and now they have to dig out of a hole again.
“I haven’t seen it still but these cars are so sensitive when you are off to the right,” Briscoe said. “I couldn’t really run on the wall so I was trying to give him a car width and a couple inches and saw him get loose as soon as he got to my right rear. It didn’t feel like I was trying to do anything. I literally left him the top lane. These cars as soon as you get off to the right, especially here when you are running the wall, they just get really loose. I hate it for him. He has been so close all year long and I am a Kyle Busch fan and wanted to see him win to keep the streak alive. I hate that we are a part of the conversation.
“That was a really bad day for us. It was not what we needed, and certainly not what we wanted. We will go to work. We are 25 out but we can still do it, it just wasn’t the day we wanted, for sure.”
Winner: Alex Bowman
Related or not, Alex Bowman has found another figurative gear since it’s become part of the garage narrative that he may be at risk of someday getting replaced by Justin Haley. He finished sixth, has scored stage points every time they are available this season, had a potentially race winning car and just continues to put together one of the best playoff runs imaginable.
“Yeah, we have been okay, for sure,” Bowman said. “We have had a little better pace in the playoffs than where we were prior, and it’s made my job a little easier. So, yeah, we are not perfect by any means, and we have got a lot of things we need to improve on. But we are kind of headed in the right direction right now and doing the right things.”
Winners: Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott
Both top contenders days could have gone poorly. Elliott started at the rear due to an engine change but ultimately finished ninth.
“We just had an uphill battle all day,” Elliott said. “I really thought out No. 9 UniFirst Chevy was pretty good. We were able to move forward a long ways it seemed like. Since we had a bad pit pick, ultimately it just puts you in a bad position to lose spots on pit road. It just seemed like we would get a bunch of spots on the track, and then lose a bunch of spots on pit road. We tried to claw our way back up into the top-10, so it was nice to at least get that far.”
Hamlin suffered a slow pit stop and thought his engine stumbled but scored stage points in the first stage and finished eighth.
“It was just a crappy day on pit road, and we didn’t get the finish that we deserved,” Hamlin said. “This is a great opportunity to lock ourselves in and instead we’re scraping and clawing to finish in the top 10.”
Both kept their heads above the figurative playoff water.
Loser: Tyler Reddick
The regular season champions just haven’t had speed and performance for a month now and it’s starting to sink their momentum as Reddick falls below the cutline after a 25th place finish one race into the round.
“I guess for me it comes to just performance,” Reddick said. “For a month straight, we haven’t been that great, but we have two weeks to figure it out.”
He won Talladega in the spring if that is any consolation.