NASCAR: The playoff team whose driver is already eliminated

There are 16 teams and 16 drivers in contention to win the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series championship, but one team’s driver isn’t eligible.

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs opened up with the Cook Out Southern 500 on Sunday night at Darlington Raceway, and it was Petty GMS Motorsports’ Erik Jones, who is not one of the 16 drivers qualified for the postseason, who scored the upset victory. The win was his first since he won the Southern 500 three seasons ago.

One of the 16 playoff drivers is Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who was the one and only driver to qualify for the postseason on points. He finished the regular season in third place in the standings, netting him one of the 16 playoff spots alongside the 15 playoff eligible race winners.

But because there were 16 different regular season race winners, Blaney’s #12 team didn’t qualify for the owner playoffs.

The other winner was 23XI Racing’s Kurt Busch, who has been sidelined since his qualifying crash at Pocono Raceway left him with concussion-like symptoms back in July. Despite initially being granted a medical waiver for missing the regular season’s final six races, the driver of the #45 Toyota opted to withdraw his waiver request.

Had he not done so, he would have been one of the 16 playoff drivers, not Blaney, since he won at Kansas Speedway back in mid-May, he was locked into the top 30 in the point standings, and there could no longer be more than 16 winners.

However, since the #45 team’s points — and win — are tied to the #45 team, not specifically to the 44-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native, the #45 team is still in the running to win the owner championship.

Ty Gibbs drove the #45 Toyota in each of the regular season’s final six races, but he shifted over to Bubba Wallace’s #23 Toyota for the playoffs. With Wallace being the more experienced driver, 23XI Racing opted to place him behind the wheel of Busch’s #45 Toyota for the playoffs in an attempt to bolster their title chances for that entry.

But while the #45 team can still win the title, Wallace himself has already been eliminated, having finished the regular season in 20th place in the point standings without winning a race.

This effectively means that there are 17 drivers, not just 16, competing for something to start the playoffs, though only 16 can compete for the actual 2022 driver championship with Wallace ineligible.

However, on the owner side, with the #12 team not in the playoffs, there are just 16 teams still eligible for that prize.

There will still be four teams and four drivers eliminated after the round of 16, four of each eliminated after the round of 12, and four of each eliminated after the round of 8.

It’s entirely possible that the Championship 4 could consist of a team whose driver is no longer in the running to win the championship and a driver whose team is no longer in the running to win the owner title, either if the #45 team makes it in the owner championship, Blaney makes it in as one of the four drivers competing for the title, or both.