NASCAR: 5 drivers who can still impact the playoffs

Drivers who can impact the playoffs: No. 2 – Austin Dillon

The first driver who currently sits on the outside of the playoffs looking in is Austin Dillon. Dillon has qualified for the Cup Series playoffs in four of the last five seasons, including last year, when he nearly won the round of 16 races at Darlington Raceway and Richmond Raceway.

This year, Dillon doesn’t have a win, and while he’s just five points below the cut line, his only guaranteed route into the postseason is by winning one of the next four races.

In past years, Dillon hasn’t been a major threat to win races at road courses or at Michigan International Speedway, but the driver of Richard Childress Racing’s famed #3 Chevrolet has been competitive on the superspeedways, especially Daytona International Speedway.

Dillon won the Daytona 500 in 2018 and won one of this year’s Bluegreen Vacations Duels before finishing in third place in the “Great American Race”.

If Dillon can capture a win, whether it be in the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway or at one of the other three tracks left on the regular season schedule, he would bump his teammate, Tyler Reddick, out of the playoffs and put Kevin Harvick on the bubble as the next driver in danger of being bumped out of the playoff picture. If not, he’s still just five points out.