DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR’s new Sprint Cup Chase format turns race wins into playoff berths, shifting the weekly conversation from points to wins.
Officials were fed up with drivers claiming they had a “good points day” after finishing second or third, as if it was easier to accept losing.
And to NASCAR’s credit, this concept hasn’t been discussed much all year. But the points race has quietly come back into fashion, and competition for Chase invitations intensified after Aric Almirola unexpectedly took a place by winning Sunday at Daytona International Speedway in a shortened race of 160 laps planned at 112 due to rain.
The Chase will consist of 16 drivers: everyone in the top 30 in points who has won a race, plus the highest-ranked non-winners. The only other requirement is that drivers must have made a qualifying attempt for each race.
With 11 different winners this season, there are only five places available for those hoping to land on the points.
If they don’t win one of the eight races before the Chase field will be set after the Sept. 6 race at Richmond International Raceway.
“Obviously the fewer spots there are, the more intensity goes up for guys in that (points chasing) position,” said Brian Vickers, who finished second at Daytona.
Vickers, 16th in the standings, is 10 points behind Austin Dillon, 13th, for last place because three drivers below Dillon have wins: Almirola, Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch.
Dillon’s position, however, is unstable. Another win from someone below Dillon in the standings would move him out of the 16-driver mix as there are four winless drivers ranked ahead of him in points.
For example: If winless Kasey Kahne or Tony Stewart earn a win, the new threshold would be Clint Bowyer – currently 25 points ahead of Vickers.
“There are fewer positions now,” Dillon said. “I just have to stay consistent.”
But earlier in the season, consistency seemed to be a secondary concern for many teams. While there were seven different winners in the first seven races, no one was talking about maintaining a strong finish. But over the next couple of months, it could become a hot topic.
A win is the best way to enter the Chase, although it is probably not the only way since there have never been 16 different winners before the creation of the Chase since its inception in 2004. After winning, Almirola said his team talked about points every time. last week and lamenting some of the races that didn’t go as planned.
“We worry that if we hadn’t wrecked here and this hadn’t happened, we would probably be 11th or 12th in points,” said Almirola, 21st in the standings. . “Well, you can’t go back and fix that – but this (win) fixes everything.”
Most winless drivers don’t experience this feeling of relief, but not everyone should worry.
Matt Kenseth has yet to win a race, but he is fifth in the standings and currently has a 46-point lead over the closest driver without a win, Ryan Newman (eighth). So even if four new winners appeared over the next nine weeks, Kenseth would likely still be there.
Newman is also relatively safe, and Paul Menard (10th) is also in good shape as long as there are only two new winners. Almirola became the first new name on the path to victory in the last six races.
After that, the picture becomes murkier. Bowyer and Dillon currently occupy the bottom two points spots, but there is no guarantee those positions will exist a month from now.
And the drivers chasing them – Greg Biffle, Vickers, Kyle Larson and Kahne are the closest – must consider that their margin for error in the points standings is razor-thin.
“Every week you go into every race trying to win and knowing what the stakes are if you do and what the stakes are if you don’t,” Vickers said. “The closer you get to the Chase, the more this intensity will increase.”
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