With all of the discussion, from advocates and dissenters alike, surrounding the NASCAR Cup Series’ postseason format, what better venue to make everyone happy than by starting the Round of 16 on one of the few legendary tracks in the final 10 races?
That would be demanding Darlington Raceway’s 1.366-mile egg-shaped track, the sport’s oldest superspeedway, where Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 in Darlington, S.C., will go down.
Denny Hamlin kicked off the playoffs Saturday morning by grabbing the Busch Light Pole by beating out teammate Chase Briscoe in qualifying.
The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota racer toured the track at 171.381 mph for his second career Darlington pole after capturing his first in 2018. Briscoe’s No. 19 turned a lap of 171.255 at the tough superspeedway.
Playoff qualifiers Josh Berry, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon, Austin Cindric, William Byron and Ryan Blaney took the third through 12th positions.
Joey Logano (14th), Shane van Gisbergen (20th), Chase Elliott (21st) and Alex Bowman (29th) rounded out the title pursuers.
Only the tiny track in Martinsville, Va., has racing roots that run as deep in the colorful lore of stock car battles and feuds as Darlington, so we’ll just put that flat bullring into our coat pocket and wait until it rolls around as the playoffs’ penultimate race on Oct. 26.
By then, everyone in southern Virginia will probably need a coat, but nothing can cover up the fact that this Sunday’s race is a seriously difficult opener that will start the process of leading to one of 16 playoff drivers — 14 with wins, two without — being crowned the 2026 champion.
With its playoff process under more scrutiny and hotly debated among fans on social media, NASCAR lucked out Saturday night in Daytona and avoided a toxic situation when Blaney closed the regular season by punching Bowman’s ticket into the 16-car field with a razor-thin victory over lame-duck wheelman Daniel Suarez.
In all, four winless drivers behind Blaney could have used a Daytona victory to deprive Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet from advancing — Suarez, Justin Haley, Cole Custer and Erik Jones.
Those four drivers have combined for just seven wins, with Suarez and Jones owning five of them, in 941 starts, meaning those drivers’ tenure in the postseason would have likely lasted just three races.
While drivers can unexpectedly get hot like RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher did in the summer of 2023, earning checkers in three of five starts, the likelihood of that among the regular non-winners is slim.
As for this week, only five of the title-seekers have won at “The Track Too Tough to Tame”: Five-time victor Hamlin, plus solo winners Larson, Byron, Logano and defending Southern 500 champ Briscoe.
“It’s a racer’s track, and the history there is so special,” said No. 3 Chevrolet driver Dillon, who narrowly ran second to Kevin Harvick in the 2020 Southern 500. “It’s one of the hardest races to win. … The track gets slick and wears tires quite a bit.”
So with all that talk last week about a first-timer booting Bowman at Daytona, maybe this is the week when a winless driver holds up the trophy for claiming a crown jewel race.
Two-time Southern 500 winner Jones is a strong choice, as are any of the top drivers at RFK, which had an extremely disappointing season but has been stout at the South Carolina track before. Twice victorious in South Carolina, Brad Keselowski won in May 2024 in a race teammate Buescher appeared to be headed toward winning.
In 2022’s opening playoff round, Jones, Wallace and Buescher, all without regular-season wins, took checkers at Darlington, Kansas and Bristol, respectively.
A Sunday repeat would make it all about points for the 16 chasers and not victories, at least for one week.
Which is a big part of that playoff format debate, right?
–Field Level Media
