NASCAR: The first playoff spot has finally been clinched

By becoming the first driver to win two races in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, William Byron became the first driver to secure his playoff spot.

For the first time in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, a driver has visited victory lane for a second time.

For the second year in a row, the first two-race winner emerged in the eighth race of the race, and for the second year in a row, it happened at Martinsville Speedway.

Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, who won the season’s fifth race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, returned to victory lane again on Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway.

His win around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia prevented the 2022 season from becoming the first season since 2003 to see eight different winners in the first eight races.

It also made him the first driver to officially secure a playoff berth this season.

While the playoff format is widely considered a “win and in” format, that is inherently not the case, given the fact that there are 26 regular season races and just 16 playoff spots.

With seven winners in the first seven races of the Gen 7 car era, the odds of getting more than 16 different regular season race winners were naturally higher than one might have expected entering the year.

The reason why the playoff format isn’t truly a “win and in” format is because of the fact that the 16 playoff spots go to the regular season points champion, whether he has any wins to his name or not, and then the 15 drivers next highest in wins.

In the event of more than 16 winners, the tiebreaker among single-race winner becomes points. It is really no different than points deciding who, among the non-winners, gets the final open spots where there aren’t that many winners.

So with two wins, Byron has become the first driver to clinch a playoff spot, as there can be no more than 13 two-race winners in the regular season.

The only caveat is that Byron must still remain in the top 30 in the point standings in order to retain playoff eligibility. But that really isn’t much of a concern; he currently sits in third place, highest among the race winners, and there are just 32 full-time drivers.

The other six race winners include Trackhouse Racing Team’s Ross Chastain, Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, Team Penske rookie Austin Cindric, and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin.

Only two of those six drivers sit in the top 10 in the point standings; they sit in fifth, a sixth place tie, 11th, a 13th place tie, a 13th place tie, and 21st, respectively.

The ninth race on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Food City Dirt Race, which is set to be broadcast live on Fox from Bristol Motor Speedway beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET on Easter Sunday, April 17. Begin your free trial of FuboTV today!