NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DARLINGTON, S.C. – Déjà vu will be just fine for Joey Logano.  The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford won the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series spring event at Darlington Raceway from the pole.  After edging Christopher Bell for the top starting position in Saturday’s time trials, Logano will have a chance to repeat the feat in Sunday’s Playoff opener, the Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).  In the final round of qualifying, Logano negotiatedRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a wild weekend in Daytona to wrap up the regular season and set the 16-driver field for the Playoffs, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to one of the crown jewels on the circuit, Darlington Raceway, for Sunday’s running of the Cook Out Southern 500. A staple of the Cup Series since 1950, there are many elements to Darlington that make it a special track. From the egg-shape of the track that features one end narrower than the other as a result of building the trackRead More

By Holly Cain and Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A quarter of this year’s NASCAR Cup Series 16-driver Playoff field will be competing for the season prize for the first time—Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric, Phoenix winner Chase Briscoe, two-race winner Ross Chastain and Sonoma victor Daniel Suarez. No first-time Playoff driver has ever advanced to the final round of the Playoffs (with the obvious exception of the inaugural year of the elimination format in 2014) but many say it would be no surprise to find oneRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The last man standing. Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex, Jr. came into Sunday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona holding on to the final two NASCAR Cup Series Playoff spots, just hoping to survive the day and keep ahold of those positions in the points. However, a clean day is the exact opposite of what they got, with both drivers sustaining damage at various points of the race that threw the battle for the postseason into complete disarray. It took just 32Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona will solidify the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field with varying strategies for those drivers that have yet to lock themselves in. Currently, Ryan Blaney holds the 15th place position in points and has a 25-point advantage over Martin Truex, Jr. in 16th. For these two, the strategy will be two-fold on Saturday as they will be giving their best effort to win the race, but also will be trying to accumulate as manyRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The NASCAR Cup Series regular season comes to an end right where it all began back in February as Daytona International Speedway is set to host Saturday night’s running of the Coke Zero Sugar 400. While there is the battle for the race trophy, a much bigger prize is on the line for those that have yet to lock themselves into the Playoffs. Just two spots remain up for grabs after Kurt Busch dropped out of the running on Thursday. Of theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Since Kurt Busch has been on the sidelines recovering from concussion-like symptoms, he has had a medical waiver from NASCAR to remain eligible for the Playoffs should he be back behind the wheel when the postseason starts. However, as the weeks have gone on since his saga started after a crash during qualifying at Pocono, Busch’s status for the 16-driver chase for a championship has been up in the air. On Thursday, ahead of the regular season finale at Daytona, 23XI Racing provided some clarity onRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – As Chase Elliott was driving his way toward winning the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship last season, Hendrick Motorsports’ newest hire was keeping a keen eye on the proceedings back at the shop in North Carolina. That driver was Kyle Larson. Signed by Hendrick after losing his ride with Chip Ganassi Racing just four races into 2020 due to the use of a racial slur on iRacing, Larson’s path to redemption also became a path toward becoming a Cup Series champion. After watchingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz. – Long runs were Denny Hamlin’s superpower on Sunday afternoon in Phoenix, but instead he just got kryptonite. Coming into the weekend as fired up as ever to finally win a NASCAR Cup Series championship of his own, Hamlin knew that if he was going to make that happen, he needed a long run for his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to come to life and propel him to the front of the field. Just as Hamlin started closing ground on the leaders and lookedRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor AVONDALE, Ariz — 35 races down, one to go. Sunday afternoon, the NASCAR Cup Series will hit the track at Phoenix Raceway for the 2021 season finale, bringing this season to a close and crowning a champion. After being held at Homestead-Miami Speedway from 2002 to 2019, the championship race moved to the Arizona desert starting last season, giving the four drivers competing for the title a whole new challenge in their pursuit of the Bill France Cup. Heading into this year’s championship race, it willRead More