Cole Custer won a race and what it means to the Playoff Grid

So Cole Custer went out and got himself a win.

The rookie racer who sat 25th in the series points standings going into Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, found a way to steal a victory with a pass as the white flag was flying.

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Cole Custer's winning pass while taking the white flag:

🎥 @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/Fdv8l844l4

— Connor Ferguson (@cfchangs9) July 12, 2020

Now don’t get me wrong, Custer earned that victory, but if you would have tweeted me saying you had Custer winning at Kentucky, I would have laughed it off.

Nevertheless, here we are, with nine races remaining before the Playoffs are scheduled to start – and Custer’s win is a huge deal.

If you’re not a driver that’s already in a playoff spot, Custer winning at a 1.5-mile track is detrimental to your playoff hopes.

The win moves the number of wildcard spots available from eight to seven and the names that are currently qualified without a win are nothing to scoff at.

Aric Almirola used five straight top 5’s to hold the top spot in the wildcard slate in front of Kurt Busch.

While they trend up, Kyle Busch is all the way down to 12th – something that not many saw coming after he won the championship in 2019. It’s obvious that the lack of practice is something that is hurting that team this season.

Skip down a few lines and the last driver in the playoffs as of now is a reformed, Jimmie Johnson-led 48 group that has been running at the front more weeks than not. That’s something that didn’t seem possible during his 2019 season.

Him and every driver above are capable names and talents in the Cup Series and have proven that to an extent this year.

Now that could change, absolutely, in the last nine races, however there’s still a lot of room for that wildcard window to get smaller and smaller.

In those last nine races, there are two question marks where we could see virtually any driver steal a playoff spot at Daytona as well as the Daytona Road Course.

Those would be races where teams should expect a potential surprise winner, but not Kentucky. That’s what makes Custer’s win so impactful.

Throw in that another pair of those final nine races being at Dover, and it’s reasonable to think that the No. 48 will find its way to the playoffs either way.

So for guys like Bubba Wallace, it makes it harder to advance and get into that group when the spots keep moving down and the point intervals continue to grow.

At least for the Bubba fans out there – Daytona is the track where he earned his best finish of his career.

Whatever lies ahead for the playoff standings has as many question marks as I can remember seeing at this point in a year, and I think it will continue to fluctuate, considering the lack of practice, week by week.

Even Texas’ date on Sunday might be moved due to the surge in COVID cases for that state.

We’ll keep you updated on that situation, but for now it’s All-Star Week and the top drivers in the series will take to Bristol for the first non-Charlotte All-Star Race this century.

2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid
After 17 of 26 Regular Season Races – Next Race All-Star Wednesday
Position	Driver		Wins	Points	Cutoff	Playoff Points
1	Denny Hamlin		4	x	x	23
2	Kevin Harvick		4	x	x	22
3	Joey Logano		2	x	x	14
4	Brad Keselowski		2	x	x	14
5	Chase Elliott		1	x	x	10
6	Alex Bowman		1	x	x	9
7	Martin Truex Jr.		1	x	x	7
8	Ryan Blaney		1	x	x	6
9	Cole Custer ®		1	x	x	5
10	Aric Almirola		0	504	+116	2
11	Kurt Busch		0	492	+104	1
12	Kyle Busch		0	477	+89	0
13	Matt DiBenedetto		0	456	+68	0
14	Clint Bowyer		0	435	+47	2
15	William Byron		0	418	+30	2
16	Jimmie Johnson		0	412	+24	1
Playoff Cutoff
17	Austin Dillon		0	388	-24	0
18	Tyler Reddick ®		0	371	-41	1
19	Erik Jones		0	370	-42	0
20	Bubba Wallace		0	328	-84	0
21	Chris Buescher		0	321	-91	0
22	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		0	320	-92	1
23	Christopher Bell ®		0	309	-103	0
24	Michael McDowell		0	298	-114	0
25	John H. Nemechek ®		0	292	-120	0