NASCAR: The big winner at Darlington wasn’t Martin Truex Jr.

Martin Truex Jr. secured his third win of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season at Darlington Raceway, but he wasn’t the big winner of the Goodyear 400.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. dominated Sunday’s Goodyear 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway to become the first driver to find victory lane three times in the 2021 season.

The driver of the #19 Toyota led 248 of the 293 laps of this race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped oval in Darlington, South Carolina, including the final 105, en route to a 2.571-second victory over Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who made a late charge but came up shy.

But despite his dominance as well as the fact that he is still the only driver with multiple victories and now has not two but three this year, Truex wasn’t the big winner of Sunday’s event.

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Sure, the five playoff points he secured by winning, plus the two he secured by winning the race’s first two stages, could prove huge down the stretch as the later rounds of the playoffs progress. As things stand right now, he has a series-high 18 playoff points locked up and would start the playoffs with a series-high 28 due to his second place position in points.

And the fact that he now has three times as many victories as any other driver through 12 races this season is also naturally huge, especially considering the fact that all three of his wins have come on tracks that are on the playoff schedule.

But the big winner of Sunday’s race was really Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell.

Everybody already knows that Truex is going to be in the playoffs. In fact, he is technically the only driver who entered Sunday’s race having secured a berth, since the 16 playoff berths go to the regular season points champion and the next 15 drivers who have the most victories.

So if more than 16 different race winners emerge in the 26-race regular season, not all winners would get into the playoffs. The tiebreaker among the one-race winners would be points.

It has never happened under the current format, which was introduced ahead of the 2014 season, but with 10 different winners already this year and 14 races remaining on the regular season schedule, including five road course races and one superspeedway race, it remains a very real possibility for 2021.

By having two wins entering Sunday’s race, Truex was the only driver guaranteed to finish the regular season in the top 15 in wins, since a maximum of 13 drivers can win twice in the regular season.

There were nine drivers tied for second place in wins with one each, and there are still nine drivers tied for second in wins with one each, so Truex is still the only driver guaranteed to finish the regular season in the top 15 in wins without being subjected to a points tiebreaker.

Truex winning Sunday’s race meant that one more race has come and gone without a new winner emerging, and it marked just the second time this season that this has happened.

If there is one driver who doesn’t want to see more than 16 regular season race winners, that driver is McDowell.

Why is that?

Among the 10 winners so far this season, McDowell is the only driver who doesn’t drive for a powerhouse organization (Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske)

He ranks lowest among the winners in the point standings with just one top 10 finish in the last nine races following his hot start to the season, which included his first career Cup Series victory in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and two other finishes inside the top eight.

So if we do see more than 16 regular season winners, McDowell would be in the worst position among the current winners, and he could easily be in the worst position among all of the winners by the time the end of the regular season rolls around, unless we get another upset winner or two (or more) who rank lower than he does in the point standings.

If McDowell isn’t winning, there is nobody he wants to see in victory lane more than one of the other nine drivers who have been victorious so far this season, or perhaps Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who appears poised to get into the playoffs anyway since his lead in the regular season standings is so huge.

Truex winning fits that bill perfectly.

Will an 11th different winner of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season emerge in the season’s 13th race, the Drydene 400 at Dover International Speedway, much to the chagrin of McDowell? This race is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET.