NASCAR: Still no Cup Series playoff spots clinched?

Nearly two months into the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, there are still zero playoff tickets that have been punched through seven races.

The NASCAR Cup Series had off last weekend for Easter but is scheduled to get back into action this Saturday, April 10 with a night race at Martinsville Speedway, the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500.

This race is the eighth of 26 races on the 2021 regular season schedule ahead of the four-round, 10-race postseason.

The current playoff format has long been seen as a “win and in” format, but that is not necessarily the case, since there are just 16 spots available and 26 regular season races.

The 2021 season has produced seven different winners in the first seven races, something that hadn’t happened since the 2014 season.

Take a look.

1. Daytona International Speedway oval – Michael McDowell, Front Row Motorsports
2. Daytona International Speedway road course – Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing
3. Homestead-Miami Speedway – William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports
4. Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports
5. Phoenix Raceway – Martin Truex Jr., Joe Gibbs Racing
6. Atlanta Motor Speedway – Ryan Blaney, Team Penske
7. Bristol Motor Speedway – Joey Logano, Team Penske

An eighth different winner in eight races would make the 2021 season the first to see such a trend since 2003, when it took until the 10th race for a repeat winner to emerge.

The all-time record is 10 different winners in 10 races to start a season, a record which was set in the 2000 season.

Regarding the postseason, should more than nine additional winners emerge over the course of the regular season’s final 19 races, there would end up being at least one race winner left on the outside looking in.

So because nobody has won more than one race yet in 2021, there technically haven’t been any playoff berths clinched.

That is because the 16 playoff drivers include the regular season points champion and the 15 drivers with the most race victories.

So the only way to “lock in” to the playoffs by winning is by winning at least twice, since there can be no more than 13 two-race winners. As for the one-race winners, if there are more than 16 of them, the tiebreaker is points.

And it’s very possible that, while this has never happened, it could happen this year.

More from NASCAR Cup Series

• NASCAR Cup Series: New team set to compete in 2024
• NASCAR: Surprising name continuously linked to new seat
• NASCAR driver at risk of missing the Daytona 500?
• NASCAR set for rare appearance last seen 13 years ago
• NASCAR team adds third car, names driver for 2024 Daytona 500

In fact, with the 2021 season being the final season of the current generation car, many believed that if it was ever going to happen, this was going to be the year, and the start to the season certainly justifies that speculation.

The most recent winners at each of the next three tracks on the schedule are drivers who have not yet won this season. Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott won the most recent at Martinsville Speedway, which is scheduled to host a race on Saturday evening.

Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski won the most recent race at Richmond Raceway, which is scheduled to host a race next Sunday, April 18.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin won the most recent race at Talladega Superspeedway, which is scheduled to host a race on Sunday, April 25, although that track tends to be a “wild card” track where a win can truly go to anyone.

Logano won the most recent race at Kansas Speedway, which is scheduled to host a race on Sunday, May 2, and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick won the most recent races at Darlington Raceway and Dover International Speedway, which are scheduled to host races on Sunday, May 9 and Sunday, May 16, respectively.

Elliott, Keselowski, Hamlin and Harvick combined to win 25 of the 36 races on last year’s schedule. Only once did more than two consecutive races go by last year without one of these four drivers winning, and yet all of them are 0 for 7 to start out the 2021 season. Those four alone would take the winner total to 11 on the season, and that could definitely happen in the near future.

Let’s also not forget that after Sunday, May 16, which is still more than a month away, there are still five more road course races as well as a “wild card” race at Daytona International Speedway on the schedule, plus the seven “normal races”.

So there should be plenty of opportunities to get this season’s win total up even higher, and the fact that it is already almost halfway to 16 may be of some concern to some teams and drivers.

Will the first playoff berth officially be clinched in Saturday night’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 with the first repeat winner in 2021? Tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the race from Martinsville Speedway.