Only three races remain in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season and the scramble to grab a Playoff berth is red hot.
Ten drivers are locked into the post season by virtue of winning at least one race so far in the 23 run in the regular season; Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and Cole Custer.
Six drivers make up the balance of the field based on the point standings with Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Matt DiBenedetto and William Byron in those spots heading into this weekend’s Dover International Speedway doubleheader. The regular season ends the following week on the Daytona International Speedway oval track and when the checkered flag flies that night the Playoff grid will be locked.
It means a group of drivers currently on the outside looking in have three more chances to move up the standings or win a race to have their chance at competing for the 2020 championship starts alive.
Jimmie Johnson is the first man below the cutline trailing Byron by 25 points for the final spot. The seven-time champion will walk away from the sport as a full-time driver at the end of the season so any hopes of trying to add an eighth title to his resume begins with what Johnson can do in the next three races.
“Obviously we look forward to Dover,” said Johnson, who is the all-time win leader at the “Monster Mile” with 11 victories in 36 career starts. “We just need to run well and be in position to capitalize when we can.”
Behind Johnson sits Erik Jones, who is 35 points out of the final Playoff spot. Jones, who will vacate the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota at season’s end to be replaced by Christopher Bell, is not just racing for a Playoff position but also for his NASCAR Cup Series future.
“Everything will work out on the business side of things I’m confident about that happening,” Jones said. “But we still have a lot of racing to go this season with obviously a good team and great support. There are some good tracks coming up on the schedule for us that I feel good about.”
Rookie Tyler Reddick is 57 behind the cutline coming into Dover. The Richard Childress Racing driver has had a stellar freshman campaign but has been frank about his desire to make the Playoffs in his first full Cup Series campaign.
“We still want to make the Playoffs,” Reddick explained. “We still want to run really good this year. We want to beat Cole (Custer) and Christopher (Bell) in the Rookie of the Year battle along with John Hunter (Nemechek) and the other drivers that are competing.”
Bell, Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, Michael McDowell and Ryan Newman are next in line all needing to figure out a way to get to Victory Lane in order to transfer to the post-season.
