NASCAR: How 3 race winners could miss the playoffs
By Asher Fair
There is a slim chance that there will be more than 16 winners in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series regular season. But up to three winners could miss out on the postseason.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick became the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season’s 15th different winner, and he did it in just the 23rd race on the schedule this past Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.
With three races left on the regular season schedule, there is a decent chance that there could be more than 16 winners before the playoffs begin, especially considering the fact that those races are set to be contested at Richmond Raceway, Watkins Glen International, and Daytona International Speedway.
In that case, not all winners would qualify.
It’s a point that has brought up quite often throughout much of the regular season, considering the fact that the possibility of such a scenario seems to grow every week.
Should there be more than 16 winners, the playoff spots would go to the regular season champion and the 15 drivers who rank highest in wins, meaning that all multi-race winners are locked in. The tiebreaker to determine which single-race winners are in and which aren’t becomes points.
Six drivers have won multiple races this year, while nine have won one. If the regular season’s final three races produce three new winners, which is certainly possible considering the drivers who have had success at those venues and the drivers who are still searching for a win, that would create a scenario with 18 winners.
The two lowest single-race winners in the point standings would then be eliminated from championship contention even before the start of the playoffs.
And there could actually be a third.
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney sits in second place in the point standings, but he hasn’t yet won. While a 119-point gap to Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, who leads the series with four wins, could be a challenge to make up in just three races, it is still mathematically possible that Blaney locks into the playoffs as the regular season champion, even without a win.
With 10 points on offer in each of a race’s first two stages and 35 points on offer for a second place finish overall, there are still 165 points on the table for any non-winner throughout the rest of the regular season.
If Blaney wins the regular season championship without a race win, then only 15 of the 18 winners would qualify for the playoffs.
Many argue that the current “win and in” playoff format isn’t fair in that it doesn’t reward consistency. While this scenario would still likely leave several consistent drivers out of the playoffs, the whole “win and in” concept would officially be debunked if three winners fail to qualify for the playoffs.