NASCAR: 5 drivers who could fall out of the playoffs

NASCAR drivers who could fall out of the playoffs: No. 5 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the only driver on this list who has already won a race, and he won NASCAR’s biggest race to open up the 2023 Cup Series season: the Daytona 500.

However, just because he is a race winner doesn’t mean he is locked into the playoffs. We almost saw last season that the playoff format is not truly a “win and in” format, as there can be more than 16 different winners throughout the 26-race regular season.

There were exactly 16 winners during the regular season last year, and there ended up being 19 total winners by the end of the season. It was evident fairly early on that the Gen 7 car leveled the playing field and gave more drivers and more teams the opportunity to win races.

In year number two of the Gen 7 car, there could very well be more than 16 different winners before the playoffs start, in which case the lowest placed single-race winner would find himself on the outside looking in.

Given his history, Stenhouse has to be considered a candidate to be the lowest placed single-race winner in the standings. He hasn’t finished higher than 22nd place in points since joining JTG Daugherty Racing in 2020, and it’s not like his Daytona 500 win is his first decent result since joining the team. He recorded at least one top three finish in 2020, 2021, and 2022 as well.

We could end up in a situation where Stenhouse needs to hope that a new winner does not emerge in the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway. Or, he could simply win again at some point to secure his spot, as all multi-race winners are locked into the playoffs.