NASCAR: Kyle Larson hasn’t clinched a playoff spot

While Kyle Larson won the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season’s second race, he technically needs to wait before his playoff spot is secure.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson picked up where he left off last year in Sunday afternoon’s race at Auto Club Speedway, the second race on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

After a wreck took him out of the season-opening Daytona 500, he earned his 11th win in 38 races since joining Rick Hendrick’s team, giving him six wins in the last 10 races going back to last September. No other driver has more than four wins in the last 42 races.

Larson is the second winner in two races this season after Team Penske rookie Austin Cindric won the “Great American Race” two Sundays ago, and for all intents and purposes, he was said to have clinched a second straight playoff berth in his second season behind the wheel of the #5 Chevrolet.

However, Larson technically hasn’t yet solidified a spot in this year’s postseason.

Throughout last year’s regular season, a key topic of discussion pertained to which 16 drivers actually qualify for the playoffs, as the “win and in” format isn’t truly a 100% “win and in format”. Given how many drivers won a race during the regular season last year, a few drivers nearly found this out the hard way.

The 16 playoff spots go to the driver highest in points, whether he has any wins or not, and the next 15 drivers who rank highest in wins.

If there are more than 15 other winners, the tiebreaker among one-race winners to solidify the playoff spots behind any multi-race winners is points. If there are not enough winners to fill these 15 spots, the tiebreaker among the zero-race winners for the final open spots is points.

So with 24 regular season races remaining, there is still a very real chance that there could be more than 16 winners. At this point, we’d be naive to count out this possibility, given just how many drivers could have easily come out on top at Daytona and Fontana. The Next Gen car truly seems to have leveled the playoff field.

With that having been said, there are very few doubts that Larson will officially qualify for this year’s playoffs. But any suggestion that he is already “locked in” isn’t completely accurate, given the nature of the format.

Larson, who won last year’s regular season championship and qualified for the playoffs with five wins, currently sits in an eighth place tie in the point standings. Cindric, meanwhile, leads the standings.

It is worth noting that any driver who wins two races would lock up a playoff spot, however, as the maximum number of two-race winners in the regular season is 13.

But even here, there is a caveat. Technically, a two-race winner would still have to finish in the top 30 in the point standings to be playoff eligible. But with only 32 full-time drivers, it’s hard to imagine a driver in 31st or 32nd place winning twice or more.

And all that confusion is why it’s simply referred to as a “win and in” format, and it’s why Larson is considered “locked in” even though he still technically isn’t.

The third race on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Pennzoil 400, which is set to be broadcast live on Fox from Las Vegas Motor Speedway beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 6. Will a third different winner emerge in this event? If you have not yet started your free trial of FuboTV, now would be a great time to do so!