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Hamlin was on the ropes at Kansas after a succession of problems in the pits. Nigel Kinrade\/Motorsport Images<\/p>\nThe NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are going exactly as predicted.<\/p>\n
Who didn\u2019t have two non-championship-eligible drivers winning two of the first four races? Who didn\u2019t see Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team struggling to finish inside the top 10 on what now seems like a weekly basis? And who didn\u2019t see Alex Bowman leading the competition in stage points earned?<\/p>\n
Yes, precisely as predicted.<\/p>\n
Chris Buescher and Ross Chastain have thus far been the spoilers of the postseason. As two drivers who had to fight the hardest to get into the postseason and came up empty, it\u2019s fitting they\u2019ve won races.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s well known by now how close Buescher, who had the fourth-best average finish in the regular season, came to victory lane in the regular-season. He will forever be on the highlight reel at Darlington Raceway and Kansas Speedway.<\/p>\n
Chastain, who made a Championship 4 appearance two years ago and then won the 2023 finale, finally looked like that driver and team Sunday at Kansas Speedway. It was a weekend of normalcy for the No. 1 team in a season of struggles and a summer of bleeding away points.<\/p>\n
The first round, of course, delivered drama with its superspeedway wildcard (Atlanta) and road course unpredictability (Watkins Glen). Bristol then capped things off with scrappy performances by Chase Briscoe and Daniel Suarez to advance, which happened well behind the whopping Kyle Larson was putting on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s lived up to the hype,\u201d Christoper Bell said of the predictions about the first round being a wildcard.<\/p>\n
Bell, however, expected normalcy to return in the second round. In fact, he predicted Kansas Speedway would be a heads-up race, but Sunday threw a few curveballs of its own at the title contenders. And Bell was one of those as he caught the wall a few times while running the high lane.<\/p>\n
Hamlin, who fought for his eighth-place finish, was foiled on pit road. It was the worst day of the season for the No. 11 crew, as Hamlin lost multiple positions on multiple pit stops.<\/p>\n
Hamlin was on the ropes at Kansas after a succession of problems in the pits. Nigel Kinrade\/Motorsport Images<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a crappy day on pit road and we didn\u2019t get the finish that we deserved,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cThis is a great opportunity to lock ourselves in, and instead, we\u2019re scraping and clawing to finish in the top 10.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamlin last went to victory lane in April. He has two top-five finishes in the last 10 races, and has led 22 laps in the last five races.<\/p>\n
But Hamlin is not the only one scratching his head. Tyler Reddick said after Sunday his team \u201chaven\u2019t been that great\u201d for a month straight. Reddick was irrelevant at Kansas Speedway, where he won last year, and is the style of racetrack where he usually can be counted on as a contender.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s the most wildcards we\u2019ve ever had in the playoffs \u2013 ever as far as racetracks that we\u2019re just not certain of,\u201d Joey Logano said ahead of the Round of 12. \u201cWe talk about Kansas, and there are a lot of crazy things that happen at Kansas, too. When you look at those restarts when you\u2019re four and five-wide, you\u2019re going to tell me that\u2019s a calm situation? That\u2019s the most calm race that we have in the next round? Are you kidding me?<\/p>\n
\u201cWatkins Glen was really supposed to be the most predictable race of the three (in the first round). I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve had a playoff schedule that\u2019s looked like this ever before. I absolutely expect more of the same. Like I said, it\u2019s a lot about survival \u2013 survive and move on and get to the Round of 8 and figure it out from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larson cut a tire at Kansas. Chase Elliot had to come from the rear because of an engine issue. Austin Cindric crashed. Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano both dealt with loose wheels.<\/p>\n
Times are stressful for a playoff contender. There is one, however, who seems to be having less hassle than the others.<\/p>\n
Alex Bowman is thriving. Over the last four races, Bowman has earned 53 stage points (earning at least one point in every stage since the playoffs started), which leads all playoff drivers. He\u2019s earned three top-10 finishes and has led 46 laps. Only one driver, Christopher Bell, has a better average finish, 7.5, in the playoffs than Bowman, who sits at 9.5.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been OK, for sure,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a little better pace in the playoffs than where we were prior, and it\u2019s made my job a little easier. So, yeah, we\u2019re not perfect by any means, and we\u2019ve got a lot of things we need to improve on. But we\u2019re kind of headed in the right direction right now and doing the right things.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is still a lot of racing left to go, and perhaps more twists and turns, or better yet, stress, with Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Roval coming up. Regardless, nothing is going as expected in this postseason and it has been as intriguing as it is a bit surprising to see unfold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are going exactly as predicted. Who didn\u2019t have two non-championship-eligible drivers winning two of the first four races? Who didn\u2019t see Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team struggling to finish inside the top 10 on what now seems like a weekly basis? And who didn\u2019t see …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","has-thumb","has-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}