NASCAR: What if there are more than 16 winners?

Two drivers who had never won before opened up the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season with wins. What happens to the playoff field if there are more than 16 winners?

With 23 races remaining in the 26-race 2021 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, three different drivers have been victorious.

This is nothing new, especially considering the fact that the season opened up with what you might consider two “wild card” races, first with the Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway oval and next with the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 at the same venue’s road course. Michael McDowell won the former and Christopher Bell won the latter.

However, both of the winners had never won in Cup Series competition before. Neither one finished higher than 20th place in the championship standings last year, so the perennial contenders, if you will, haven’t even gotten started yet.

The winner of the third race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, William Byron, entered the 2021 season with just one career win to his name. That was the only win that any of this season’s first three winners had had entering the year.

So could the Cup Series see more than 16 winners in the regular season this year?

Absolutely. Even if it doesn’t actually happen, there are certainly at least 13 other drivers in the Cup Series field who are fully capable of winning at least one of the next 23 races.

The real question, while it may seem six or so months early to ask, is this: how would that affect the playoff field?

A total of 16 drivers qualify for the four-round, 10-race postseason. While the whole “win and in” concept is how the current format has been characterized over the years, that isn’t 100% accurate. There are only two ways to truly secure your playoff berth.

Win the regular season points championship
Win at least two regular season races