Tag: NASCAR playoffs

Breaking down NASCAR’s championship picture after Chase Elliott’s Martinsville victory

Chase Elliott locked himself into NASCAR’s championship event. Here’s a look at the other title contenders and who was eliminated.

Chase Elliott won his fourth race of the 2020 NASCAR season to clinch his spot in the Championship 4 race next weekend at Phoenix Raceway. With 10 career wins now, the No. 9 Chevrolet driver is in position to win his first Cup Series championship.

At Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, Elliott dominated on the .526-mile short track, leading 236 of 500 total laps.

“Oh my gosh, this is the biggest win ever for us,” Elliott told NBC Sports on the track after the race.

Elliott entered the race ranked sixth in the playoff standings and was basically in a must-win situation, barring some catastrophic disaster from the drivers ahead of him. With the win, he’s also in the final four for the first time in his career.

“I’m just so proud to be able to be backed into a corner like that and have to win tonight,” Elliott continued. “I feel like that’s what we’ve been missing these past four or five years and perform when we don’t have a choice. And, to do that tonight, we couldn’t ask for a better night. This is unreal.

“Thanks to the fans for coming out. They’re here, and I love to see it! I’ve just got to catch my breath. This is just unbelievable. We’re going to Phoenix with a shot to win a championship. Have a beautiful blue NAPA Camaro headed out there with a shot to win a title. What more could you ask for?”

Who are NASCAR’s Championship 4 contenders?

In addition to Elliott, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski will compete for the 2020 championship next Sunday at Phoenix.

Logano won at Kansas Speedway two weeks ago in the first race of the Round of 8, automatically locking himself into the final four. But with Kyle Busch, a non-playoff driver, winning last week at Texas Motor Speedway, the other three drivers needed to win or have enough points to be among the top-4 by the end of the Martinsville race.

But more on them in a second.

Who was eliminated?

Without winning the race, Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch didn’t have enough points in the playoff standings and didn’t make the championship cut. Bowman, Truex and Busch all likely needed to win the race to keep their title hopes alive, but Harvick is the real shocker here.

As the regular-season champion, Harvick entered the playoffs with a massive points lead over most of the playoff drivers.

With his series-leading and career-high nine wins on the season, he clearly had the car to beat all year, and he had what was once a comfortable cushion in the standings. When the postseason started, Harvick was the clear favorite to win his second title.

“These championships aren’t like winning when [Richard] Petty and [Dale] Earnhardt used to win them,” Harvick said afterward. “You have to put them together three weeks at a time, and it comes down to one race, and it came down to one race for us tonight and came up short.”

Despite winning two of three races in the opening Round of 16, Harvick didn’t win a race in the Round of 12 or the first two races in the Round of 8. He entered Sunday’s Martinsville race 42 points above the cutoff line, but a tire issue forced him to pit under green in the first half of the race while he was running 25th. After that, the No. 4 team fell below the cutoff line and couldn’t recover.

By the end of the race, Harvick needed to pass one car to make up for his small points deficit. On the last lap, he tried to move Kyle Busch for that one spot for what he called a “last-ditch effort” but wrecked instead.

“It was just a move I had to try knowing that I needed one point,” Harvick said afterward. “I needed to hit him square in the door, but at that point, I was too late and wound up hitting him in the back. It was just a Hail Mary that didn’t work out.”

Championship 4 drivers’ history at Phoenix

For the last 18 NASCAR seasons, the goal for drivers was to get to Homestead-Miami Speedway. But starting this year, the championship race is at Phoenix Raceway, a 1-mile oval. Here’s a look at how the championship-eligible drivers have previously performed at the desert track.

Joey Logano: The 2019 Cup Series champion has two wins at Phoenix, including earlier this season when he took the checkered flag in the fourth race of the season. The No. 22 Ford driver’s only other victory at the track was in 2016. In 23 starts, Logano has five top-5 finishes and 12 top-10s, but as recent seasons have shown, the championship-winning driver has also been the race winner.

Denny Hamlin: Still looking for his first championship, Hamlin has two career wins at Phoenix, and the most recent one was last fall when the track was the last stop before Homestead. Hamlin won in dominating fashion and led 45.8 percent of the laps. In 30 starts, he has 13 top-5 finishes and 17 top-10s, but in his most recent Phoenix race in March, he finished 20th.

Chase Elliott: For only nine races at Phoenix, the No. 9 Chevrolet driver has a solid record. No wins, but he has two top-5 finishes and five top-10s, and his best finish was second in 2017. In the spring Phoenix race this year, Elliott finished seventh.

Brad Keselowski: The 2012 Cup Series champion has never won at Phoenix, and his best finish was second in the 2018 playoff race. He has six top-5 finishes and 10 top-10s. But he and the No. 2 Ford team may have an advantage in this race. In September, Keselowski won at Richmond Raceway with the same car he won at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with in August. And he said, “I want this car for Phoenix. It’s two-for-two.”

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NASCAR playoff picture: Chase Elliott wins second elimination race, Kyle Busch is out

Kyle Busch’s NASCAR title defense is officially over.

CONCORD, N.C. — In the second elimination race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, Chase Elliott led the final 18 of 109 total laps of Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval race Sunday for back-to-back victories on the half-road course, half-oval track.

As the 24-year-old driver continues to excel on road courses, the win also automatically advanced him out of the playoffs’ Round of 12 and into the Round of 8.

In addition to Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman and Kurt Busch are all moving to the next round.

And after the next three races, the final Championship 4 will compete for a title at Phoenix Raceway in the season finale on November 8. Notably missing from that list is defending champion Kyle Busch, whose No. 18 Toyota team has struggled all season.

Ahead of the Round of 8, here’s a breakdown of the current NASCAR Cup Series playoff picture after the second elimination race.

How did Kyle Busch end up eliminated?

Busch’s back-to-back title hopes are officially dead, making him the earliest defending champ to be eliminated from the playoffs, as NBC Sports’ broadcast noted.

He faced basically a must-win situation without getting significant help from the rest of the playoff field, but he only led three laps and finished 30th after running out of fuel and having to pit with just two laps left in the race.

One of the biggest stories of the NASCAR season is Busch’s on-track struggles. Through 32 of 36 races, he still doesn’t have a checkered flag, despite racking up 12 top-5 finishes and 17 top-10s. And going into the Round of 12, he didn’t have a much confidence in his team’s ability to keep its title defense alive.

“It’s just been the year,” Busch said after Sunday’s race. “Nothing has played out and been on our side. It’s just been unfortunate circumstances, a lot of bad luck. These guys on this M&M’s team never give up, and they fight all year long and every race and every lap, every pit stop, as we can see. But it’s just, man, one of them off years. It’s a terrible year for me.”

Although Busch finished sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the first race in the Round of 12 — his older brother, Kurt Busch, won and guaranteed his place in the next round — he didn’t finish the second race at Talladega Superspeedway and placed 27th. He entered Sunday’s Roval race in ninth and 21 points below the top-8 cutoff mark, and he finished last among the playoff drivers.

The silver lining for Busch is that he still has four more races to try to get a win and extend his streak of winning at least one race a season to 16 years. That record might not seem like much compared with another championship, but Busch previously explained it’s incredibly important to him.

Busch continued:

“There’s many other drivers that would love to have a year that we’re having, but, man, it’s just frustrating to know how good we are and what we’re capable of and being champions from last year to not come out here and be able to succeed and be able to win.

“Fact of the matter, we win, and we’d be a hell of a lot better off. But I knew this round was going to be trouble with the year we had, and yeah, I was right.”

Which drivers enter the Round of 8 playing catch up?

The next cutoff race will chop the playoff field in half with just four remaining drivers contending for a title. Going into the first Round of 8 race next Sunday at Kansas Speedway, Harvick, Hamlin, Keselowski and Elliott are the top-4 drivers in the playoff standings.

And that means Logano, Truex, Bowman and Busch are currently the first four out.

Harvick and Hamlin have substantial points leads in the standings with a 19-point gap between Hamlin in second and Keselowski in third. But the bottom four drivers are within 16 points of each other, and Logano in fifth trails Elliott by just five points.

Kevin Harvick didn’t need the whole race to clinch his spot in the Round of 8

Harvick has had the best car on the race track for much of the 2020 season and currently has a series-leading nine checkered flags. He won two of the three Round of 16 races, but didn’t find his way to Victory Lane in the Round of 12. Didn’t matter, though.

Harvick entered the Roval race 68 points above the top-8 cutoff mark — the highest driver in the playoff standings without a win. And after the 25-lap first stage of Sunday’s race, the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford driver clinched his spot in the next round.

If he and his team perform in the Round of 8 the way they have throughout the season, they should have little trouble being among the final Championship 4 drivers. And if Harvick advances to the title race, he’ll certainly be the favorite as the winningest driver at Phoenix Raceway with nine victories.

Round of 8 opens at Kansas with the next elimination race at Martinsville

Still in search of his first Cup Series championship, Hamlin should be feeling pretty good about advancing to the final Championship 4 race.

After winning last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, Hamlin automatically locked himself into the Round of 8, and one of Hamlin’s seven checkered flags so far this season was at Kansas Speedway in July. He has three career wins at Kansas, including the 2019 playoff race at the 1.5-mile track. In 24 career starts, he also has eight top-5 finishes and nine top-10s.

Denny Hamlin after winning at Kansas Speedway in July. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Hamlin was asked Sunday prior to the start of the Roval race about his success at Kansas with back-to-back wins in the last two races there and said: “Well, I have a good setup. That’s all that I can equate it to.”

“I’m confident,” Hamlin continued. “I feel like we’ve got a good grasp on Kansas. … I’m as optimistic as anyone going into that race track.”

The second race in the Round of 8 is at Texas Motor Speedway, where Hamlin has three wins, and the round closes at Martinsville Speedway, where his five checkered flags make him the second winningest active driver at the Virginia short track.

Whether Hamlin gets a win in the next round or earns enough points to stay near the top of the playoff standings, it seems likely he’ll make it to the Championship 4 and contend for his first championship.

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Chase Elliott is now NASCAR’s youngest and oldest winner on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval

Sure, it’s a technicality, but it’s still funny.

CONCORD, N.C. — Chase Elliott won Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the second playoff elimination race for his third victory of the season. The checkered flag automatically advanced the No. 9 Chevrolet driver out of the playoffs’ Round of 12 and into the Round of 8 after four drivers’ playoff chase ended. But it also gave him a fun and peculiar stat.

With two wins on Charlotte’s half-road course, half-oval, or Roval, track, Elliott is now the youngest and the oldest Roval race winner, as CBS Sports’ Matt Mayer noted.

If that doesn’t make much sense because Elliott is only 24 years old, let’s back up and explain.

Sunday’s race was only the third NASCAR Cup Series event on Charlotte’s Roval. It made its debut in the 2018 playoffs, and Ryan Blaney won that race. At the time, Blaney was 24 years and nine months old.

Elliott won the 2019 Roval playoff race at 23 years old, making him the youngest Roval race winner. But by winning again Sunday, he’s now the oldest Roval race winner as well at 24 and about 10 months old.

Sure, it’s a technicality on a relatively new track, but it’s funny nonetheless.

“It’s always special to win here at Charlotte with the shop being right across the street,” Elliott said after taking the checkered flag. “I appreciate all the effort there. The best way to get into the next round is to win, and so, hopefully, we can do something with it.”

Elliott is now one of eight drivers still competing for a championship.

The opening race in the Round of 8 is Sunday at Kansas Speedway, followed by races at Texas Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway, after which the playoff field will shrink to the final Championship 4 drivers for the season closer at Phoenix Raceway.

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NASCAR playoffs: Breaking down which drivers are safe or in trouble before second elimination race

A breakdown of who’s safe and who’s in trouble ahead of NASCAR’s “Roval” race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

It’s time for another elimination race in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs when the number of remaining championship contenders shrinks from 12 drivers to eight.

And just in case there wasn’t enough pressure, NASCAR is racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s unpredictable half-oval, half-road course this weekend to determine who advances.

The 10-race playoffs began with 16 drivers, and after three races in the Round of 16, four were eliminated. Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte is the third race in the Round of 12, following races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

Winning is the most simple way to advance, but also, obviously, the most difficult. The remaining drivers will advance based on points earned in the playoff standings.

So ahead of the Round of 12 elimination race at Charlotte, here’s a look at the playoff picture.

Who’s won a playoff race and advanced to the Round of 8?

Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch won at Talladega and Las Vegas, respectively, so they automatically advance to the Round of 8.

Busch — for the first time in his two-decade NASCAR career — won at his “home” Las Vegas track in September in the Round of 12’s opening race. It was his first checkered flag of the 2020 season and 32nd career win, and it guaranteed him a spot in the next round.

At Talladega, a track famous for its chaos, Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team employed a conservative strategy, and it helped him survive a ridiculous, crash-filled day for his second career win at the 2.66-mile track. Hamlin now has seven checkered flags this season and is at the top of the playoff standings.

Have any other drivers locked themselves into the Round of 8 on points?

Not at this point. Following Hamlin and Busch in the playoff standings, Kevin Harvick is next with a comfortable lead on the rest of the field. And although he hasn’t clinched yet, he should have no problem advancing to the next round, even with a poor finish.

Who’s in trouble on the outside looking in?

The big one here is Kyle Busch, NASCAR’s defending champion who’s sitting on the wrong side of the cutoff bubble. To be fair, after the Round of 16 ended, Busch was asked about his feelings on the tracks included in the Round of 12, and said:

“We’ll be eliminated next round, so don’t care.”

Busch is 21 points below the cutoff mark, as is Austin Dillon. Other drivers in trouble include Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola, who are at the bottom of the playoff standings. In positions No. 9 through 12, they likely need to win at the Roval or to finish significantly higher than their fellow playoff drivers to advance to the next round.

There have only been two Cup Series races at the Roval, and Ryan Blaney won the first in 2018 and Chase Elliott won the second in 2019. Bowyer has the best finishes among the bottom-4 drivers, coming in third and fourth, respectively. Almirola was 19th and 14th in his two starts, while Dillon didn’t finish his first and was 23rd last season.

But if Sunday goes like Busch’s previous two Roval races, he’ll be knocked out of the playoffs. He crashed out of the 2018 race and had a suspension issue that kept him from finishing last year.

Who should be feeling good going into the Roval race?

Well, no one really when NASCAR’s only had two races there before. But beyond Harvick, Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski are both in solid positions and more than 20 points above the cutoff line. Now, that could easily change during the race, but it would probably take a disaster for these two not to advance.

That seems unlikely for at least Elliott. Before winning the 2019 Roval race, Elliott finished sixth in the track’s Cup Series debut. And although Keselowski crashed out of the 2018 Roval race, he finished fifth last year.

What about the middle of the playoff pack?

Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman and Joey Logano are fifth, sixth and seventh in the playoff standings, respectively. Truex, who’s had two strong Roval races, has a slight cushion in the standings over Bowman and Logano, but it’s not enough to be in the same category as Keselowski and Elliott.

But expect Truex to contend for a win in this race with his road course skills. In addition to finishing seventh in 2019 and almost won in 2018, Truex has three wins at Sonoma Raceway and one win, plus a bunch of top-5s, at Watkins Glen International — two road courses on NASCAR’s schedule. He was also third on Daytona International Speedway’s road course race in August.

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NASCAR playoffs: Who’s in trouble ahead of second elimination race

Defending NASCAR champ Kyle Busch is one of four drivers in trouble going into Sunday’s playoff elimination race. Michelle Martinelli breaks down the playoff picture

Defending NASCAR champ Kyle Busch is one of four drivers in trouble going into Sunday’s playoff elimination race. Michelle Martinelli breaks down the playoff picture

Kyle Busch slams Joey Logano, other lapped drivers for being in the way at Bristol

Kyle Busch got stuck in traffic during Bristol’s night race and had some choice words about it.

Welcome to FTW’s NASCAR Feud of the Week, where we provide a detailed breakdown of the latest absurd, funny and sometimes legitimate controversies and issues within the racing world.

Kyle Busch got stuck in traffic Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway and wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, especially as he’s still looking for his first win of the season.

After starting from the back of the field in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race because his car failed inspection twice, Busch quickly made his way toward the front at his best track. By Lap 84 of 500 total at the .533-mile Tennessee short track, he was running in the top 10, and early in the second stage, he took the lead for the first time.

Busch ended up leading 159 laps Saturday night and still advanced out of the Round of 16 into the Round of 12 of the playoffs. But he couldn’t hold off eventual winner Kevin Harvick, who won his ninth race of the season and led 226 laps.

Harvick took the lead from Busch for the final time with 32 laps remaining, and, after finishing second, Busch blamed his inability to pass Harvick and regain the lead on the lapped cars creating traffic. And when only six cars finished on the lead lap, that’s a lot of lapped traffic Busch and the others had to deal with.

The defending NASCAR champion is still winless in 2020 and was frustrated after being the runner-up. He said Bristol “felt like this was one of our greater shots to win.”

But on the track immediately after the race, Busch also expressed his frustration for lapped cars, singling out Joey Logano, who finished 11th and two laps down:

“Lapped cars were definitely a problem. It’s part of racing. You have to try to get around them where you can and there was just no room for me to do what I needed to do with a couple of those opportunities to get past them. …

“Gotta go where they ain’t, and man, where they are, you want to be. We got the lead from [Harvick] there on the last run, and just got stuck with [Logano], as usual, him being a [expletive]-head. Then the last lap, I don’t even know who the hell the black car was that just stopped on the backstretch. That’s it, we lost.”

Later during his post-race Zoom press conference, Busch continued to air his grievances with lapped drivers, particularly Logano, Joey Gase and Garrett Smithley. Gase finished 31st and 37 laps down, while Smithley finished 32nd and 64 laps down.

About Logano, Busch added: “He’s nobody’s friend for a reason, so there you have it.”

When asked about the possibility of dumping Harvick during the final laps, Busch said, “It actually never crossed my mind.” But then he added how he hoped the closing laps would play out and continued complaining about traffic:

“If that lap car wasn’t there, I would have blown it in on the outside or the inside, and maybe we would have banged each other’s doors or whatever and had a greater finish to the checkered. But some of them dip-[expletive] kids don’t know what the hell they’re doing or where they’re at and can’t stay out of the way. Nothing like a Gase and a Smithley.”

Busch is one of 12 drivers to advance to the next round in the playoffs, and he’s currently 10th in the standings. The first of three races in the Round of 12 is at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on September 27.

When asked how he feels about starting the next round at his “home” track, Busch didn’t share a lot of optimism: “We’ll be eliminated next round, so don’t care.”

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Breaking down NASCAR’s playoff picture after Kevin Harvick won the first elimination race

After Kevin Harvick dominated the first round of NASCAR’s playoffs, here’s a look at who advanced and who was eliminated.

Kevin Harvick won his ninth race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway, taking the checkered flag in two of the first three playoff races. All season, Harvick has had the car to beat, and his nine wins are the most he’s had in a single season in his 20-year career.

But the night race at the .533-mile Tennessee short track was also the first elimination event in the 10-race playoffs.

The playoff field started with 16 drivers, but only 12 advanced to the next round and remain eligible for the championship still: Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch.

After the next three races in the Round of 12, the playoff field will shrink down to eight drivers and then eventually to the final Championship 4, who will compete for a title at Phoenix Raceway in November.

Here’s a breakdown of the current NASCAR Cup Series playoff picture after the first elimination race.

Which drivers enter the Round of 12 playing catch up?

Yes, the Round of 16 just ended, but it’s impossible to not look ahead at the next elimination event in a few weeks. And four drivers start the next round below the upcoming cutoff mark: Almirola, Kyle Busch, Bowyer and Kurt Busch.

Disappointed in his inability to catch and pass Harvick for the late lead at Bristol, Kyle Busch offered a series of short and curt answers during his post-race Zoom press conference. He said he doesn’t feel like his team has the speed to keep up with Harvick and Hamlin.

And when asked how he feels about starting the Round of 12 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his “home” track, Busch responded without much optimism at this point:

“We’ll be eliminated next round, so don’t care.”

William Byron eliminated before Bristol’s halfway point

William Byron entered the playoffs with a bit of momentum on his side after earning his first Cup Series victory in the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. But after coming in 21st at Richmond Raceway last weekend, he was just below the top-12 cutoff line.

Bryon started Saturday night’s Bristol race 15th, and he was eliminated from the playoffs during the second stage because of damage to his No. 24 Chevrolet. Running 10th at the time, he rear-ended Christopher Bell in the No. 95 Toyota, and Byron and his spotter, Tab Boyd, put the blame on Joey Gase in the No. 51 Ford.

Calling the playoff-eliminating incident “ridiculous,” Byron explained his perspective on the situation after being cleared by the in-field care center:

“The No. 51 just checked up in the middle of the straightaway and had nowhere to go. And the No. 95 slammed on the brakes to try to not hit him, and I slammed into him because I was on his bumper. So just a terrible situation, but not really sure why that happened or what really transpired for him to stop like that.”

In addition to Byron, Ryan Blaney, Matt DiBenedetto and Cole Custer were eliminated from the playoffs.

Round of 12 opens at Las Vegas and closes at the Roval

This round is not going to be easy with the three upcoming tracks. With only 12 playoff drivers remaining, the next round starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the South Point 400 on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. ET.

But then the playoffs will head to the Talladega Superspeedway before taking on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s half-oval, half-road course track — or Roval — in the second elimination race. Though very different tracks, both are unpredictable and could create chaos, as well as some real problems for playoff drivers.

(Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports)

And with the Roval serving as a cutoff race, there’s even more pressure on drivers to have strong performances in the first two races this round.

“It’s not a fun place to be,” Logano said Thursday about the possibility of being on the cutoff bubble at the Roval. The No. 22 Team Penske Ford driver clinched his spot in the Round of 12 in the middle of the Bristol race.

“It’s a stressful place. … You’re gonna have to win at some point, and the pressure is gonna be on one way or another. So you want to try to make the next two races be able to score as many points as possible to position yourself in a good spot, but at some point the pressure is gonna be there. Yeah, I don’t want to have my back against the wall at the Roval. But if it does, it does, and we’ll handle it then.”

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Why Kyle Busch’s best shot to win a 2020 NASCAR race is at Bristol on Saturday

“Damn, that’s my track,” Kyle Busch said about Bristol.

Bristol Motor Speedway is Kyle Busch’s best track, and he knows it. And that’s why, statistically, Saturday night’s playoff race is the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver’s best chance to win a race this season.

The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion not only has eight Cup Series wins at the Tennessee short track, but that number also makes him Bristol’s winningest active driver. (Darrell Waltrip is No. 1 all time with 12.)

“It’s just a personal vendetta,” Busch said earlier this month about racing at Bristol in a playoff elimination event. “You go to Bristol, and you’re like, ‘Damn, that’s my track. I’m going to go there, and I’m going to win that thing.'”

Saturday’s Bristol race is the first elimination event in the 10-race playoffs, and a win would guarantee Busch advances to the Round of 12 while probably boosting team morale, as well. Ninth in the playoff standings, he’s not at a high risk for falling below the top-12 cutoff, but a poor performance could quickly change that.

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But a win for Busch and the No. 18 team would also help the 35-year-old driver keep a career-long win streak alive, which he said is even more important to him than winning a third championship.

For the last 15 full-time seasons, Busch has won at least one race and has 56 Cup Series wins. Now in his 16th year, he’s 0-for-28 so far with just eight races remaining.

Kyle Busch after winning the spring 2018 Bristol race. Winners get a gladiator sword from the track nicknamed “The Last Great Colosseum.” (Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

And his winless run this year is quite a surprise, considering the reigning champion won 18 total races across the previous three seasons, culminating in his second career championship.

“The fact of trying to be able to come out of this year with a victory is certainly high on the list,” Busch said before the playoffs began. “That might be number one on the list actually — even more so than winning the championship just with the way this year has gone.”

In addition to Bristol being Busch’s best track in the Cup Series, it’s also his best track across all three national NASCAR series with 22 total checkered flags. His next highest win total at a single track across all three series is 18 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

At the .533-mile Bristol track, Busch has eight wins in Cup, nine in the second-tier Xfinity Series and five in the third-tier Truck Series. In 2017, he swept all three series races one weekend.

In Bristol’s first 2020 Cup race in May, Busch finished fourth. And, while it was in an exhibition race without the typical format, he also finished second to Chase Elliott in the All-Star Race, which the track hosted in July.

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Racking up playoff points with a win or strong finish at Bristol is also key to Busch’s longer-term playoff hopes, as he isn’t as likely to succeed over the following three races. The Round of 12 races are at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway’s half-oval, half-road course track.

“Coming into that second round, we struggle at Vegas,” Busch said. “Talladega is an unknown. We struggle at Roval, so that is definitely a round that we look towards as being a possible hiccup.”

But regardless of Busch’s status in the playoffs, there are additional races beyond the Round of 12 where he could win and keep his career-long streak going, particularly at Texas Motor Speedway or at the season finale at Phoenix Raceway — two tracks where he has three Cup wins each.

But looking at the eight tracks left on NASCAR’s 2020 schedule, Bristol is, undeniably, his best shot.

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NASCAR playoffs: Breaking down which drivers are safe or in trouble before first elimination race

The NASCAR playoff field is about to shrink after the first elimination race Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are about to lose a quarter of the championship-eligible drivers after Saturday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. It’s the first cutoff event in the 10-race, 16-driver postseason, and when someone takes the checkered flag, only 12 will still be racing for a title.

Under NASCAR’s current system, the most efficient way to advance into the next round is to win a race. But that’s obviously easier said than done.

A reminder: The NASCAR playoffs are divided into four rounds. The first three rounds consist of the races, and the final race in each round is a cutoff one. The playoff field shrinks from top-16 drivers in the standings to the top-12 to the top-8, and then the final Championship 4 will race for the title in November at Phoenix Raceway.

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So going into the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol on Saturday, here’s a breakdown of the playoff standings, from who’s automatically advancing to the drivers who are in trouble.

Who’s won a playoff race and advanced to the Round of 12?

Surprise surprise: Kevin Harvick won the Southern 500, the first playoff race, at Darlington Raceway, but it wasn’t in the dominating fashion typical of the No. 4 Ford team this year. Doesn’t matter because a win automatically advances the team — even if it surely would have transferred to the next round on points.

Brad Keselowski won the second playoff race at Richmond Raceway in the ridiculously fast car that also won at New Hampshire with earlier this season and that he hopes to take to the championship race at Phoenix.

Have any other drivers locked themselves into the Round of 12 on points?

Yes, in addition to Harvick and Keselowski, Denny Hamlin also guaranteed a spot in the next round based on points. Hamlin finished 13th at Darlington and 12th at Richmond, and he’s currently third in the playoff standings.

Who should be feeling good going into the Bristol race?

Obviously, the three drivers already advancing to the next round, and they get a little head start looking ahead to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in two weekends.

Beyond them, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr. and Austin Dillon fill out the next three positions in the playoff standings, and if they all have at least decent finishes at Bristol, they should be OK. Dillon has been a surprise through the first two playoff races, finishing second at Darlington and fourth at Richmond. That’s only the second time this season he’s posted back-to-back top-10 finishes and the first time he’s had consecutive top-5 finishes this year.

But in this group, it seems like Truex is due for a win next (although probably not at Bristol). Forget that Truex only has one win in 2020 and that was back at Martinsville Speedway in June. In the last 10 races, the No. 19 Toyota driver posted five straight third-place finishes and was the runner-up three times, including Saturday at Richmond.

Though still winless in 2020, Kyle Busch should also be feeling pretty good heading into Bristol. He’s ninth in the standings — still much lower than where we’re used to seeing him — and has a small cushion between him and the drivers lower in the standings. Plus, Bristol is one of his best tracks. Busch is the winningest active driver at Bristol with eight checkered flags through 16 full-time seasons.

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Who’s in trouble on the outside looking in?

Going into Bristol, William Byron, Cole Custer, Matt DiBenedetto and Ryan Blaney are below the first-round cutoff in positions 13 through 16. And they all likely need a win Saturday to transfer to the next round.

Blaney opened the playoffs at a disadvantage after he and his team were penalized for an improperly mounted ballast before Darlington. The team was docked 10 points ahead of the Southern 500, and it has struggled to recover after finishing 24th at Darlington and 19th at Richmond.

Byron entered the playoffs on a high note and ninth in the standings after winning the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway for his first career victory. But he was 21st at Richmond, the lowest finish among playoff drivers, and is in trouble now.

What about the middle of the playoff pack?

Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman are seventh and eighth in the playoff standings, respectively, and barring disastrous performances at Bristol, both should transfer into the Round of 12. But should that happen, they’ll have to win or improve their finishes to get away from the eventual Round of 8 bubble.

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