Well folks, here we are. After a seven-month road trip from Daytona Beach, Fla., to Darlington, S.C. — by way of Sonoma, Calif., Loudon, N.H. and 18 other scenic stops — this weekend we’ll whittle the field down from 34 to 16 at the start of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. But first, I’d be remiss if we didn’t take a moment to reflect on what is, in my mind, the most memorable regular season in NASCAR’s playoff era. I’ll be honest: I don’t think the playoffs are going to top it.
These 26 racing weeks saw former series champions Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski snap years-long winless streaks. Those 26 racing weeks saw Alex Bowman’s emotional drought-breaking win on the Chicago street course, battling treacherous conditions, Tyler Reddick and … Joey Hand.
Kyle Larson made a Faustian bargain to start a rain-delayed Indianapolis 500 at the expense of making the flight down to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600 — a race, it turns out, that had he started, would have sealed him the regular-season title come September. He did, however, claim victory in the closest-ever finish in the top division of stock car racing, pipping Chris Buescher to the line at Kansas Speedway by a single thousandth of a second.
Months later, that devastatingly close loss came back to bite Buescher, as he’d be backed into a down-to-the-wire three-way dogfight for the final playoff spot among three drivers who put up Round of 12 runs last season: himself, Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace — all three of whom had their hearts broken by a come-from-nowhere Chase Briscoe in the Southern 500. Briscoe snapped a winless streak that stretched to 2022 to claim his second career victory, and vault from an anonymous mid-20s points position into the postseason.
If I had a nickel for every time that happened in 2024, I’d have three nickels. That isn’t a lot, but … strange that it happened three times. Daniel Suarez won Atlanta Motor Speedway by a nose, (in much the same way a fictional racer once won by a tongue) and Austin Cindric found himself in the catbird seat when his teammate Ryan Blaney faltered on the last lap at World Wide Technology Raceway.
The year that saw the 30th-place cutoff rule for playoff eligibility rescinded saw not one but two drivers outside the top 30 in points win on hot August nights. Harrison Burton, with a little help from Parker Retzlaff, scored an unlikely first career victory (the 100th for…
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