NASCAR: Chase Elliott ends bizarre streak at Talladega

In the fifth race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at Talladega, Chase Elliott became the first driver to advance to the next round with a win.

Prior to last year when Bubba Wallace won a rain-shortened race at Talladega Superspeedway, no NASCAR Cup Series race had been won by a non-playoff driver since Denny Hamlin won the 2013 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

And in the first eight years of the knockout playoff format from 2014 to 2021, there were only seven playoff race winners who had made it into the playoffs but had already been eliminated when they actually won.

In fact, in 2016, 2018, and 2019, there weren’t any.

But in the debut year of the Gen 7 car, it took until the fifth playoff race for an actual championship eligible driver to find victory lane.

The 2022 playoffs opened up with non-playoff winners sweeping the three-race round of 16. Petty GMS Motorsports’ Erik Jones, who ironically finished the regular season in 16th place in the point standings but missed the playoffs because of how many winners there were, won at Darlington Raceway.

Then 23XI Racing’s Wallace, who finished the regular season in 20th place in the point standings, won at Kansas Speedway. RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher finished off the round of 16 with a win at Bristol Motor Speedway after finishing the regular season in 21st in the standings.

Those three winners became the 17th, 18th, and 19th different winners in 2022, matching an all-time record — and with seven races remaining on the schedule.

While the 2022 season is still sitting at 19 winners, the fourth playoff race was also won by a driver who could not advance. Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who was one of the four drivers eliminated in the round of 16, won the round of 12 opener at Texas Motor Speedway.

Talladega Superspeedway finally produced the first championship eligible playoff race winner of 2022.

Sunday’s 188-lap YellaWood 500 at the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval saw 17 of 37 drivers in the field lead laps and exchange the lead a season-high 57 times. The relatively clean Talladega race was won by Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott.

He held off Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney by 0.046 seconds to take the checkered flag. Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell was the highest finishing non-playoff driver in third place.

Elliott leads the Cup Series with five wins this year and has led the point standings (ignoring playoff resets) since March (27 straight races). Thanks to his regular season championship, his five wins, and his six stage wins, he also owns a series-high 46 playoff points, which he gets to carry with him to start the round of 8.

Elliott is the only driver locked into the round of 8 with one race remaining in the round of 12. That race is scheduled to take place this coming Sunday afternoon at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.

Here is how the playoff picture looks heading into that event.

Rank – Driver – Points (Behind)
1 – Chase Elliott – 1 WIN (3,103 points)
2 – Ryan Blaney – 3,101 (+32)
3 – Ross Chastain – 3,097 (+28)
4 – Denny Hamlin – 3,090 (+21)
5 – Joey Logano – 3,087 (+18)
6 – Kyle Larson – 3,087 (+18)
7 – Daniel Suarez – 3,081 (+12)
8 – Chase Briscoe – 3,069 (+0)
———ROUND OF 8 CUT LINE———
9 – Austin Cindric – 3,069 (-0)
10 – William Byron – 3,058* (-11)
11 – Christopher Bell – 3,036 (-33)
12 – Alex Bowman – 3,015 (-54)

*Currently appealing 25-point penalty

Tune in to NBC at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, October 9 for the live broadcast of the Bank of America Roval 400 from the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. If you have not yet begun a free trial of FuboTV, do so today!