NASCAR: The other driver who could be screwed by the playoff system
By Asher Fair
Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. are generating a ton of buzz as it pertains to the flaws of the NASCAR playoff system. But who else is getting the short end of the stick?
Kevin Harvick’s win in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway did what most victories have done throughout the 2022 season: shook up the playoff picture.
Harvick is the 2022 season’s 15th different winner, meaning that there is just one spot in the playoff picture which is still occupied by a non-winner.
That non-winner is Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who sits in second place in the point standings yet finds himself at risk of not making the playoffs.
Assuming he doesn’t overcome a 119-point deficit to Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and win the regular season championship, Blaney will miss the playoffs if he doesn’t win one of the regular season’s final three races and is passed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. in points, or if there is another new winner (other than himself).
Truex, who sits just one point out of third place in the standings, is currently out of the playoffs and would find himself battling for 17th instead of a second championship if the postseason began today.
The fact that two of the sport’s top three drivers could miss the postseason has been a popular topic of discussion as of late, and rightfully so.
Harvick’s win took that discussion to a whole new level, even though nobody is arguing that Harvick, who sits in ninth place in the standings, doesn’t deserve his playoff spot.
What’s interesting is the fact that Blaney and Truex aren’t the only two drivers in the top 16 who could miss out on the postseason.
There is a third driver currently in the top 16 who is at risk — and is literally in a must-win scenario — and that is Petty GMS Motorsports’ Erik Jones.
Jones sits in 14th place in the point standings. Not that penalties shouldn’t be taken seriously, but if you don’t factor in the 35-point deduction that was handed to Jones and the #43 team during the race weekend at Pocono Raceway, he would be sitting in 11th, 55 points ahead of the first non-winner outside of the top 16 (Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola).
This is higher than he ever finished with Joe Gibbs Racing, and it is also higher than anything ever produced during the Richard Petty Motorsports “pre-GMS” era.
And it puts him higher than seven of the 15 winners.
Considering the fact that teammate Ty Dillon sits in 30th place (29th without his 35-point penalty), there is a good case to be made for Jones as one of the underrated stars of the season.
He won’t get the media attention that Blaney and Truex do, but he is another driver who could fall victim to the “win and in” nature of the playoffs.
Next. NASCAR playoffs are flawed -- but fair. dark
Of course, it could play to his advantage as well — if he wins. He won the July 2018 race at Daytona International Speedway, the host of the regular season finale in just over two weeks, and if he manages to secure a third career victory at some point during the next three weekends, he will find himself back in the playoffs for the first time since 2019.