NASCAR still searching for a second Cup Series playoff berth

Following the 12th race of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season at Darlington Raceway, 15 of the 16 playoff spots technically remain open.

We are now just one race shy of the halfway mark of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series regular season following Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, the 12th race of the year.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. found victory lane for the third time this year, leading 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 behind the wheel of his #19 Toyota in a dominant effort.

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Through 12 races, Truex is the only driver to win more than one race. Entering Sunday’s race, the series had seen 10 different winners through 11 races, with Truex being the only winner of multiple races.

Truex secured his first win of the season at Phoenix Raceway in March, and he secured his second win of the season at Martinsville Speedway last month.

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So through 12 races, Truex is still technically the only driver locked into this year’s playoffs. A total of 16 drivers qualify for the playoffs, and there have never been more regular season winners than playoff berths. As a result, the playoff format has often been deemed a “win and in” format.

In reality, the 16 playoff berths are technically awarded to the regular season points champion and the 15 drivers who win the most races in the regular season. If there are more winners than remaining open playoff spots, the tiebreaker among one-race winners is points. If there are still spots left over after all one-race winners are considered, the point standings decide who gets those spots, as we have seen in each year since the current format was introduced back in 2014.

Because there are still 14 races remaining on this year’s regular season schedule, including five road course races and a superspeedway race, we could still eclipse the 16-winner mark, having already seen 10 winners.

Plus, regular season points leader Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing hasn’t even won this season, yet he would get into the playoffs anyway if he is able to win the regular season points title. His lead over Truex is still a whopping 75 points (529 to 454), despite the fact that Truex has now won three of the last eight races.

Nine of the 10 winners so far this season have only won one race, so if more than 16 regular season winners emerge, any one of those nine drivers could technically be left on the outside looking in depending on points, as could any of the additional winners.

Once Truex won two races, he was locked in, since no more than 13 drivers can win two races in the regular season. Now with him having three wins and still nobody else having more than one, he is still the only driver who can officially make that claim.

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Will we finally see a second driver win a second race in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season in Sunday’s race at Dover International Speedway to officially secure the second playoff berth of the year? This race, the Drydene 400, is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET. It is the 13th race of the season.

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