With one race before the Championship 4, where do eight NASCAR playoff drivers stand?
Christopher Bell has won at Homestead-Miami Speedway and will race in the Championship Four for the second straight year.
A week after nearly passing Kyle Larson on the final lap, Bell grabbed the lead late in the final stage and held off Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick and William Byron as he collected his second win of the season.
After a mostly clean first two stages, caution flags littered the final stage on Sunday at Homestead.
Larson, fresh off his win last week and the defending winner at Homestead, dominated early on before his day ended with a crash coming onto Pit Road.
Two other Championship Four favorites had their days end early. Denny Hamlin slammed into the wall, and Martin Truex Jr. had an engine problem as the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates exited with about 30 laps left in the final stage.
One race remains in the Championship Four: Martinsville.
Four more drivers will be eliminated after next weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway, a 0.526-mile asphalt track known as the “Half Mile of Mayhem.” Let’s take a closer look at where the eight playoff drivers stand before the final race of the Round of 8:
Kyle Larson
Larson’s placement in Sunday’s race didn’t matter for his playoff positioning, having clinched a spot in the Championship Four with last week’s win.
After being fast and dominant again early on, a week after sweeping both stages in a dominant victory at Las Vegas, Larson took the lead early and won Stage 1.
He continued running toward the front — and then his day ended somewhat unexpectedly.
Trying to gain ground on leader Blaney while the No. 12 car was slowly driving onto Pit Road, Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy Camaro sped up behind and slammed into the barrels separating Pit Road from the track.
Officials waved the red flag with 51 laps left to clean up the sand in the pit entrance as Larson drove to his pit stall.
Ryan Blaney
Blaney had a tumultuous 24 hours after Las Vegas: His No. 12 car was disqualified after a sixth-place finish before NASCAR reversed its decision on Monday and restored his playoff points.
The Team Penske driver was fast throughout Sunday’s race. Late in Stage 2, Blaney surged past Larson and picked up the stage win, giving him 10 playoff points. That was after he’d collected eight stage points after a third-place finish in Stage 1.
Blaney finished second and is now third in the playoff standings.
Martin Truex Jr.
Truex, the regular season champion and No. 2 seed, struggled early in the playoffs but consistently stayed above the elimination line. He rebounded with his first Top 10 finish since August at Las Vegas last week and won his second pole of the season for Sunday’s race.
He lost the lead early on to Bubba Wallace but ran around the front for most of the race, coming in sixth in both stages, before slipping farther back in the final stage.
During a caution period with 30 laps left in the final stage as Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, slammed into the wall, Truex’s day ended with an engine issue.
William Byron
No matter where the NASCAR Cup Series is this year, the No. 24 Chevy Camaro seems to find itself near the front.
Byron, the Charlotte native who boasts a field-best six wins, only has one finish outside the Top 10 in the eight playoff races (15th at Kansas). He finished in the top five in both stages on Sunday.
He finished Sunday’s race in fourth.
Denny Hamlin
After another day of running toward the front, Hamlin’s day ended early.
The No. 11 Toyota Camry made hard contact with the wall during the final stage with 31 laps left, eliciting the race’s fifth caution as the car was brought to the garage.
“We tried, and it just didn’t work out,” Hamlin told NBC. “Tough break.”
Before the playoffs, Hamlin made it clear that he felt this could be his year to get over the hump in the Championship Four because of how strong his No. 11 team was compared to previous years.
Hamlin won at Bristol and was greeted by thunderous boos during his post-race interview. As his success has continued, Hamlin has spoken at length — especially on his podcast, Actions Detrimental — about how being the “villain” in the playoffs has been fueling his confidence.
He ran for longer periods of times than most drivers on Sunday; In Stages 1 and 2, Hamlin waited more than six laps after the rest of the field pitted and was the last driver to head down Pit Road.
But with his 30th-place finish — his second early exit in the playoffs, after the Charlotte Roval — Hamlin is now below the cut line.
Tyler Reddick
The two-time Xfinity Series champion continues running well as he’s in the Round of 8 for the first time.
The No. 45 Toyota Camry, which boasts four Top 10 finishes in the playoffs, came in seventh in both stages 1 and 2.
Reddick finished the race in third but is fifth in the standings.
Christopher Bell
Nobody has started more races in front than Bell.
Bell leads the Cup Series with six poles, but he hasn’t recorded a win since Bristol dirt in April. After collecting stage points with a ninth-place finish in Stage 1, the driver of the No. 20 Toyota Camry dropped down to 18th in the middle of the race and finished Stage 2 in 22nd.
He was fast out of the restart in the final stage and worked his way back into the Top 10. Then, after the red and yellow flags that caused lengthy delays, Bell got past Byron and Hamlin and moved into the lead.
Chris Buescher
The RFK Racing driver broke out at the end of the regular season, winning three of the last five races.
After an 11th-place finish at Las Vegas and an up-and-down playoffs, Buescher entered Sunday in the worst position among playoff drivers. And that continued.
Buescher came in 28th in Stage 1 and was the only playoff driver to not collect stage points. He is now 63 points below the cut line.
This story was originally published October 22, 2023 at 6:07 PM.