CONCORD, N.C. — The format of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs can be described as pressure points.
From the start of the season, there is the pressure to win a race and earn a guaranteed spot in the 10-race series of races in the playoffs that begins with 16 drivers. A driver can’t forget about the points, though, especially those without a victory. If there are less than 16 winners, the remaining positions are based on points.
There is pressure at the end of the 26-race regular season to make the field of 16 drivers that open the playoffs. Three races later, the pressure increases as the bottom four drivers in that group are cut from contention.
That pressure point was at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, one of NASCAR’s most aggressive short tracks. This past Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway was the cutoff race to determine the round of eight as four more drivers were eliminated.
The pressure to get in was on full display as drivers who appeared safely in the next round missed the cutoff.
Daniel Suarez lost his power steering with about 50 laps to go and dropped in the field. Without power steering, the driver from Mexico had to muscle his way around the ROVAL, a difficult task driving a heavy racing machine as a NASCAR Cup Series car.
Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson entered the race seemingly in no danger of not making the cut. But when he brushed one of the concrete barriers on the road course, it damaged the toe-link on his Chevrolet.
His Hendrick Motorsports team repaired the damage and he returned to the track, five laps down.
Suddenly, it became a numbers game for Larson to make it in.
On the final lap, Chase Briscoe responded to the pressure, aided by Stewart Haas Racing teammate Cole Custer. Briscoe needed to make up two positions to advance and when Custer’s car slowed in front of the two drivers ahead of Briscoe, he picked up those positions.
Of course, the driver who responded to the pressure the most was race winner Christopher Bell. He had no chance of making the round of eight based on points, so he had to win the race to advance.
That’s exactly what he did.
By the time it was over, Suarez and Larson were out, and Bell and Briscoe were in.
But there is no way to escape the pressure. In fact, the pressure will increase even more in the next round because the stakes are even higher.
Over the next three races, the four drivers that will fight it out in the one-race championship finale at Phoenix International Raceway on November 6 will be determined.
Three of the four drivers can gain entry by winning one of the next three races beginning this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, or October 23 at Homestead-Miami Speedway or in the October 30 cutoff race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
The final position will be determined by the driver of the eight with the most points that did not win during that round. If a driver wins two races in the next round, then two drivers have to get in on points.
Also, the round of eight has concentrated the talent level from the 16 teams that made the playoffs. It includes two drivers from Hendrick Motorsports, two from Team Penske, two from Joe Gibbs Racing, one from Stewart-Haas Racing and one from Trackhouse Racing.
In order of their point standings, Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports opens the round of eight as the leader followed by Team Penske’s Joey Logano, Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing, Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing, Ryan Blaney of Team Penske, William Byron of Joe Gibbs Racing, Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing and Chase Briscoe of Stewart-Haas Racing.
The pressure for these eight drivers has increased.
“I feel like every race in the playoffs is incredibly difficult,” Blaney said. “You can’t afford any mistakes, but as you get later in the rounds it becomes even more important to not make any mistakes.
“And then especially when you get to the round of eight, you’re racing against the best teams out there. Each round it intensifies, for sure, and it gets harder and harder but that’s what it’s all about and you have to understand that, and you just have to focus on your job.”
That pressure is felt throughout the entire team as many NASCAR races are determined on strategy by the crew chiefs, who have to make the right call at the right time.
“It’s an interesting place to live when you think about it,” Logano said. “Every crew chief right now is wondering, ‘Do we need stage points? Do we go for stage points? If I take stage points, how far back is it gonna cycle me back in the field? Am I gonna restart 20th? Am I gonna restart 30th, 15th? I don’t know.’
“Every crew chief in the playoffs right now is thinking about that, not to mention the guys that aren’t in the playoffs that still have reasons to race for points, so it makes it a really hard call for the crew chiefs here on what defines success for the day.
“I think that’s the first question you have to ask – what defines success? Is that winning the race? Is it getting through to the next round? Is it scoring max points? What does it look like? And that changes throughout the race, I think, sometimes depending on what your competitors are up to.”
This past Saturday before the cutoff to eight, SPEED SPORT asked Larson about how the pressure increases in the round of eight from the previous rounds.
He laughed, in what he thought was a “Mister Obvious” question, but his response perfectly summed up the premise.
“Well, I mean, it should be,” he said. “Every round is more intense than the round before. The Final Four is more intense than the round of eight. As each race goes on in the playoffs, it gets much more intense.
“That’s how it should be.”
A little over 24 hours later, Larson felt the full force of that pressure as one scrape against the wall is all it took to turn thoughts of a second-straight Cup Series championship into, let’s get ‘em next year.