With a hat tip to New York Yankees great Yogi Berra, the Round of 8 NASCAR Cup Series playoff is getting late early.
Only three races are left in a 2025 season that has been filled with highs and lows, including a tearful Denny Hamlin after career win No. 60 at Las Vegas last Sunday.
That could be debated as either a high or low depending on one’s view of the Joe Gibbs Racing racer, who is brash, opinionated and generally unapologetic behind the wheel of his No. 11 Camry and as the 23XI Racing co-owner with Michael Jordan.
What is not in question is that time is running out on the seven drivers not named Hamlin who are chasing a championship as the series shifts to Alabama and treacherous Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday’s YellaWood 500.
The standings are pretty telling and not quite as close as expected after the first of three races to determine the Championship 4 in Phoenix.
Kyle Larson rides in second, 35 points to the good. Teammates Christopher Bell (+20) and Chase Briscoe (+15) are also above the cutline, slotting all three JGR cars into title contention for now.
In the red are William Byron (-15), Chase Elliott (-23), Joey Logano (-24) and Ryan Blaney (-31), all of whom at first glance might not want to visit the dangerous Talladega and its highlight-reel pitfalls.
But perhaps they do.
Of all the tracks on the schedule, no two greater wild-cards exist than Talladega and Daytona International Speedway, the Alabama layout’s high-banked, sister-in-speed, geographical neighbor.
The monstrous tracks can produce immense panic and stress while altering outcomes and shuffling standings.
Those bottom four drivers, who are not lurking as close to the surface as they would like, surely would enjoy some standings shuffling.
Blaney and Byron both suffered major damage in wrecks at Las Vegas, while Elliott’s crew committed a pit-service violation with a loose tire.
After squeaking into the Round of 12 finale at the Roval, Logano fought with his No. 22 at the 1.5-mile speedway in Nevada, but his team gambled on two tires and finished sixth on a day when his Ford was likely worthy of a 10th- to 15th-place showing.
Blaney has won three of the past dozen Talladega races — two in the fall — and needs another high run on Sunday after matching his season worst with a 38th-place finish in Las Vegas.
The 2023 champ also has a pair of fall victories at Martinsville, the round’s final race next weekend, so that’s two good chances at two good tracks for the Team Penske racer.
“Yeah, you have to look forward to those two,” he said. “Obviously, we have to look forward to them. Not the spot we want to be in. … Pretty simple (that we) need to go win one of the next two weeks.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the defending race winner, though the Ford of Austin Cindric prevailed this past April.
Chevrolet has earned the checkers in four of the past seven Talladega races, and Byron is a popular pick among the pundits and podcasters.
Talladega’s tri-oval is a driver’s nightmarish blender, a 2.66-mile high-banked mixer jam-packed with seven hopeful drivers who have brought along all their hopes, dreams and accomplishments over 33 races in a grueling schedule — with maybe one more winner climbing out with a title shot.
Time to flip the switch and stand back.
–Field Level Media
