Is this the weakest NASCAR Cup Series playoff field ever?

Has the much-maligned NASCAR Cup Series playoff format produced the weakest 16-driver playoff field the sport has ever seen?

Following a chaotic weekend at Daytona International Speedway to wrap up the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, the 16-driver postseason field is set.

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon scored an upset victory in a rain-delayed Coke Zero Sugar 400 after surviving the carnage of a wreck that took out the top 15 drivers before a rain delay of three hours and 19 minutes, locking himself into the playoffs.

Although the race did get going again, Dillon was the only one of the 13 “win and in” drivers who still had a chance to win his way into the playoffs, and he held on for the victory, the fourth of his career and his second at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval.

His win left Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr., who finished the regular season in fourth place in the point standings, out of the playoffs.

Because of how many winners there had been throughout the regular season, the playoff format was a hot topic for most of the year. The “win and in” nature of it was widely criticized, since that could technically produce a playoff driver from 30th place in the point standings while the second place driver ends up missing out.

While it wasn’t that extreme, Dillon, who sits 233 points and 15 positions behind Truex in 19th place in the standings, winning produced the scenario that many feared might happen, setting a new record for highest finishing non-playoff driver.

Whether or not the playoff format is flawed is up for debate, but it is fair in that everyone knows the rules ahead of time and that it might very well take a win to qualify.

In fact, had 23XI Racing’s Kurt Busch not withdrawn his medical waiver, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney would also be out, despite finishing the regular season in third place.

Can you imagine not just one but two of the top four drivers missing out?

With all of that in mind, has the format produced the weakest field of the playoff era?

Seven drivers, had they not won, would not have qualified for the playoffs, since there would still have been 14 other playoff eligible winners and at least two non-winners ahead of them in points.

Those drivers are Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch, Trackhouse Racing Team’s Daniel Suarez, Team Penske rookie Austin Cindric, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe, and Dillon. Briscoe and Dillon didn’t even finish the regular season in the top 16.

Then you have the seven two-race winners. Three of them finished in 10th place or lower in the regular season standings, and two of them, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, finished with just seven and five top 10 finishes, respectively.

Among playoff drivers, they rank ahead of only Briscoe with four. Even four non-playoff drivers scored more than seven top 10 finishes.

Byron finished the regular season on a streak of 10 finishes of 11th place or lower. Briscoe finished the regular season on a streak of 12 finishes of 13th or lower.

Meanwhile, you have Truex, who has finished in the top two in the standings in four of the last five seasons, missing out, despite a fourth place finish — and just two finishes outside of the top eight in the last seven races.

The one thing that must be said about Truex is that he did not finish a single regular season race inside the top three. Of the other 15 full-time drivers who failed to qualify for the playoffs, eight had at least one finish inside the top three, with three posting multiple.

So it wasn’t just the fact that he didn’t win that ultimately did him in. There were other opportunities for him to make up the four points he ultimately needed to pass Blaney, and he didn’t do it. Again, everybody plays by the same rules here.

But what can’t be ignored is the fact that he finished the season as Joe Gibbs Racing’s top driver, and yet he failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Joe Gibbs Racing are a four-car powerhouse team in the NASCAR Cup Series, and their top driver is battling for 17th place as opposed to a second championship.

Sure, Truex’s final regular season point total benefited from the fact that he won a series-high seven stages, and maybe this seems a bit old-school, but suffice it so say that where a driver is running — and the points he gains for doing so — during the middle of the race probably shouldn’t determine whether or not someone competes for a championship.

But even if you take away everybody’s stage points, Truex would actually finish in third place, not fourth, in the overall point standings.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, who secured the regular season championship with one race to spare, would lead with 710, ahead of Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, a two-race winner, with 625 and Truex with 623.

Truex also finished the regular season tied for seventh with 12 top 10 finishes, and his average finish of 13.2 trailed only Elliott’s. Elliott, who won a series-high four races and recorded series-highs in top five finishes (10) and top 10 finishes (17), posted an average finish of 10.5.

At the end of the day, the NASCAR Cup Series is left with a championship contender not even in the playoffs, while several drivers who have next to no chance of making much noise — aside from the fact that there are several other drivers in similar spots over whom they might be able to advance a round or two — over the next two-plus months remain championship eligible.

The Cook Out Southern 500 is scheduled to get the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs underway on Sunday, September 4. USA Network is set to broadcast the race live from Darlington Raceway beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV today!