NASCAR: 3 drivers who could sneak into the playoffs

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Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Racing Team, NASCAR (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

Drivers who could sneak into the playoffs: No. 3 – Daniel Suarez

Daniel Suarez spent two seasons with Joe Gibbs Racing. He then spent a season with Stewart-Haas Racing. Yet it is his maiden season with the new Justin Marks and Pitbull-owned Trackhouse Racing Team that has been arguably his best.

Suarez and Trackhouse Racing Team have spent much of the 2021 season being compared to Bubba Wallace and his new team, 23XI Racing.

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Wallace and 23XI Racing entered the year expecting to win multiple races, but it has been the Suarez and Trackhouse Racing Team combo that has had the upper hand through 17 races, consistently exceeding expectations.

While Suarez and Wallace sit in 21st and 22nd place in the point standings, Suarez has been able to deliver solid results far more often than Wallace, who is the only full-time, points-eligible driver without a top 10 finish aside from Front Row Motorsports rookie Anthony Alfredo, Rick Ware Racing’s Josh Bilicki and StarCom Racing’s Quin Houff.

Suarez led a bunch of laps in the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway and finished in an impressive fourth place, and he later added a ninth place finish at Dover International Speedway. He now has four top 15 finishes in the last five races, most recently adding a seventh place finish in the inaugural race at Nashville Superspeedway.

He sits 61 points behind Chris Buescher for the final playoff spot. That margin that does seem a bit wide, even with nine races remaining, but another couple of solid finishes with some more stage points (he scored eight at Nashville Superspeedway) could help him chip away at it and set him up to at least make a run.

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Will any of these three drivers qualify for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs? Will any other drivers from below the playoff cut line, particularly 18th place Ricky Stenhouse Jr. or 19th place Matt DiBenedetto, end up in the postseason?

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