It looked like Kevin Harvick had it made.
He took the lead in Thursday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway with just 20 laps to go, and he had the keys to the castle that lead to victory lane.
It would have been the classic Harvick-esque closing run to the win at a 1.5-mile track.
His biggest competitor this season – Denny Hamlin – said ‘not so fast.’
Despite Harvick’s experience and success with taking the lead late in a race at that style of track, Hamlin made up the ground, parking his No. 11 FedEx car in victory lane for a series-leading fifth time this season.
It cements him at the top of NASCAR’s Playoff Grid, with considerable distance between him and the fifth-place driver in the standings.
It basically would mean that Hamlin would start the playoffs with an 18-point lead over the championship cutoff* each round. That’s huge in a year where the gap is less than in years’ past.
On the opposite side of the situation is Jimmie Johnson.
The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion fell out of the playoff picture, now sitting in 19th – 18 points out of the cutoff spot.
It would be considered an easy fix for the 48 team, like it was for Austin Dillon and Cole Custer the past two weeks – just win a race.
That’s a big ask considering Johnson hasn’t earned a victory since 2017 – I even had to double check that.
The saving grace for Johnson comes with a pair of question marks remaining on the seven-race regular season schedule at Daytona as well as a pair of chances at Dover – where Johnson has a stunning 11 wins.
Jimmie will win the Daytona RC
— landon cassill (@landoncassill) July 24, 2020
Of course, Thursday night meant more for others as well. Kyle Busch earned his first stage win of the entire 2020 Cup Series season, and secured a good enough finish to maintain his playoff spot.
There is no reason for concern for Busch if he can’t get a win before the end of the first 26 events, however if his team doesn’t figure out these adjustment strategies, it could be a long, long postseason.
William Byron had a fast enough car to get the job done, and even passed Brad Keselowski for the lead with old tires on his car.
He was banking for a caution, and got one with 30 laps to go, but couldn’t make things work a few laps after the late race restart. Crew Chief Chad Knaus wasn’t happy with how his driver allowed teammate Alex Bowman to pass him rather than being aggressive and protecting the spot with more of a vengeance.
Now, with seven races to go, NASCAR will take a bit of a break before returning to the track on August 2 at New Hampshire for the next Cup Series race.
With six wildcard spots remaining, it will give us another update to the picture ahead of back-to-back, critical doubleheader weekends. August is going to be fun.
| 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid | ||||||
| After 19 of 26 Regular Season Races – Next Race Aug. 2 @ New Hampshire | ||||||
| Position | Driver | Wins | Points | Cutoff | Playoff Points | |
| 1 | Denny Hamlin | 5 | x | x | 28 | |
| 2 | Kevin Harvick | 4 | x | x | 22 | |
| 3 | Brad Keselowski | 2 | x | x | 15 | |
| 4 | Joey Logano | 2 | x | x | 14 | |
| 5 | Chase Elliott | 1 | x | x | 10 | |
| 6 | Alex Bowman | 1 | x | x | 9 | |
| 7 | Ryan Blaney | 1 | x | x | 8 | |
| 8 | Martin Truex Jr. | 1 | x | x | 7 | |
| 9 | Cole Custer ® | 1 | x | x | 5 | |
| 10 | Austin Dillon | 1 | x | x | 5 | |
| 11 | Aric Almirola | 0 | 576 | +134 | 1 | |
| 12 | Kyle Busch | 0 | 562 | +120 | 1 | |
| 13 | Kurt Busch | 0 | 561 | +119 | 2 | |
| 14 | Clint Bowyer | 0 | 484 | +42 | 0 | |
| 15 | Matt DiBenedetto | 0 | 477 | +35 | 1 | |
| 16 | William Byron | 0 | 452 | +10 | 0 | |
| Playoff Cutoff | ||||||
| 17 | Tyler Reddick ® | 0 | 442 | -10 | 0 | |
| 18 | Erik Jones | 0 | 440 | -12 | 0 | |
| 19 | Jimmie Johnson | 0 | 434 | -18 | 0 | |
| 20 | Bubba Wallace | 0 | 352 | -100 | 0 | |
