After Sunday’s race at Richmond, we’re a quarter way through with NASCAR’s regular season races for the 2021 season.
There’s been eight winners in nine races – and four of the top five have yet to get a W under their belts.
The parity in winners has come at a copious pace. That’s not just because of FOX’s ‘Best Season Ever’ campaign, either, but it’s come to fruition about as well as anyone could have hoped.
What it’s created is a playoff grid that is on pace to be a bit short on wildcard spots. Wins might be at even more of a premium than they already are in the current system. That can mean a lot of things, but I want to dive into why the parity is there first.
The biggest reason we’ve seen it lies in the schedule.
NASCAR has so far been to a superspeedway, a road course, three intermediates, three short tracks, and the Bristol Dirt track.
The character of the group of the first nine races on the slate is – in my opinion – what NASCAR should shoot for every year.
Now, I’m not saying slap four dirt tracks on the schedule, but going to Bristol and one of the crown jewel tracks would intrigue me just as much. That’s an argument for a different day, though.
Out of the eight winners that NASCAR has seen so far this year, really only one has been a monumental upset. It’s early to bring up the playoff grid, but Michael McDowell still sits 17th.
It’s a product of going to different types of tracks and establishing unique races that draw eyes. It’s worked out great. I think the start of this season is a prime example of reasons NASCAR should continue dipping its feet into different ventures.
That’s not to say NASCAR hasn’t seen unexpected performances from different teams.
Four of the top five finishers in the points standings a season ago have yet to win a race this year, including defending champion Chase Elliott.
He’s actually the only Hendrick Motorsports driver not to get a victory this year.
The other three drivers at the team have already combined for more victories than the three cars did in all of 2020. That’s already going to add an extra winner in the playoff.
Stuff like that and guys like Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell getting wins early in the year help make the 16-driver playoff grid look small.
Now, the same surprise that we saw with Hendrick’s success has been seen in Stewart-Haas Racing’s struggles.
The four-car team currently has drivers sitting in 25th, 27th, and 28th in the standings. Kevin Harvick is their only driver in the top 20 and he’s not even in the top 10 if the playoffs were to have started today.
It’s been an uncharacteristically bad year for the team owned by a three-time NASCAR champion. That’s cause for concern for anyone who doesn’t have a win. It’s possible that any of those three drivers find a way to get to victory lane this year.
There’s no reason that top drivers should be frantically worrying right now. A strong season will still get them into the playoffs.
All of that could change this weekend at Talladega, and if that’s the case there is a real chance that we see some scrambling late in the regular season.
I’ve been saying that 16 different winners is possible, but for that to happen, the upsets need to keep coming at tracks like this.
The race is scheduled to kick off at 1:00 p.m. CT on Sunday on FOX. Your guess is as good as mine as to who will win. But if its anyone that’s currently outside the top 16, we’ll be in for one hell of a summer.
| 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid | ||||||
| After 9 of 26 Regular Season Races – Next Race Sunday @ Talladega | ||||||
| Position | Driver | Wins | Points | Cutoff | PP | |
| 1 | Martin Truex Jr. | 2 | x | x | 11 | |
| 2 | Joey Logano | 1 | 352 | x | 7 | |
| 3 | William Byron | 1 | 310 | x | 6 | |
| 4 | Ryan Blaney | 1 | 304 | x | 8 | |
| 5 | Kyle Larson | 1 | 299 | x | 8 | |
| 6 | Christopher Bell | 1 | 257 | x | 5 | |
| 7 | Alex Bowman | 1 | 236 | x | 5 | |
| 8 | Michael McDowell | 1 | 199 | x | 5 | |
| 9 | Denny Hamlin | 434 | +230 | 1 | ||
| 10 | Chase Elliott | 285 | +81 | 1 | ||
| 11 | Kevin Harvick | 273 | +69 | 0 | ||
| 12 | Brad Keselowski | 269 | +65 | 1 | ||
| 13 | Kyle Busch | 245 | +41 | 0 | ||
| 14 | Austin Dillon | 239 | +35 | 0 | ||
| 15 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 222 | +18 | 0 | ||
| 16 | Kurt Busch | 214 | +10 | 0 | ||
| Playoff Cutoff | ||||||
| 17 | Chris Buescher | 204 | -10 | 1 | ||
| 18 | Matt DiBenedetto | 175 | -39 | 0 | ||
| 19 | Ryan Newman | 174 | -40 | 0 | ||
| 20 | Bubba Wallace | 168 | -46 | 0 | ||
| 21 | Ryan Preece | 163 | -51 | 0 | ||
| 22 | Tyler Reddick | 161 | -53 | 0 | ||
| 23 | Daniel Suarez | 160 | -54 | 0 | ||
| 24 | Ross Chastain | 152 | -62 | 0 | ||
| 25 | Cole Custer | 151 | -63 | 0 | ||
| 26 | Erik Jones | 147 | -67 | 0 | ||
| 27 | Aric Almirola | 137 | -77 | 0 | ||
| 28 | Chase Briscoe ® | 129 | -85 | 0 | ||
| 29 | Corey LaJoie | 76 | -138 | 0 | ||
| 30 | Anthony Alfredo ® | 75 | -139 | 0 | ||
