Who can Jumble up the Playoffs?

The NASCAR Xfinity Series hasn’t been on track since July 20.

Those of us who’ve been going through withdrawals during the Olympic break were treated to a wild appetizer with the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway last weekend.

Austin Dillon won the race in the most controversial fashion.

I won’t spend too much time here breaking it down. My colleagues at Frontstretch have done plenty of that. Dillon’s theatrics came as part of a win-at-all-costs mindset. The Xfinity Series has six races left before its playoffs begin. Could we still see someone come out of nowhere to win a race and steal a playoff spot, with or without the controversy?

Yes. Yes, we could.

The way Dillon ran at Richmond may not have an exact correlation in the Xfinity Series, because while the Cup teams are all using essentially the same cars, the Xfinity teams do not have that level of parity. Still, when we go to superspeedways, road courses or even short tracks, there is precedent and opportunity for someone to strike gold and blow up the playoff bubble picture.

Let’s take a look at the lay of the land first, and then we’ll go race by race and analyze who could pull out an upset win.

Twelve drivers will make the playoffs. The top eight in the playoff standings are virtually locked in by way of winning one or more races. Then it’s AJ Allmendinger in ninth, but holding a very safe buffer of 102 points to the cut line. After Allmendinger it’s Sheldon Creed in 10th with a 69-point buffer.

The three drivers most squarely on the bubble are Parker Kligerman (46 points above), Ryan Sieg (3 points above, and Sammy Smith (3 points below). Brandon Jones still has an outside chance to point his way in, but it would take a heck of a run because he is 69 points below Sieg for that final spot. All drivers below Jones are in absolute must-win territory.

Anthony Alfredo leads that group, followed by Brennan Poole, Parker Retzlaff, Josh Williams, Jeb Burton, Leland Honeyman, Jeremy Clements, Kyle Weatherman, Ryan Ellis and Blaine Perkins.

Matt DiBenedetto is above Perkins in the driver standings, but he missed the first five races of the season and is not eligible for the playoffs because of it. A win for DiBenedetto is a big long shot, but its within the realm of possibility.

Even if he did pull out a win, the likelihood of NASCAR granting a playoff waiver is very…