What Happened?
Ross Chastain played playoff spoiler and returned to victory lane, holding off William Byron at the finish of Sunday’s (Sept. 29) race at Kansas Speedway. Chastain took the lead from Martin Truex Jr. on the final restart while Byron moved to second, and the No. 1 held onto the lead to get his first victory of the year and fifth career Cup Series win.
Truex crossed the stripe third, still seeking a win in his final season. Ryan Blaney and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top five.
What Really Happened?
If any single phrase could define the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, it would be, “we don’t know what we think we know.”
Over the course of previous playoffs, the best teams and drivers identified as the championship favorites typically make the Round of 8 with ease, and often compete in the Championship 4. Last season, Truex ran poorly but survived two rounds while Byron made the final four. In 2022, Chase Elliott stayed consistent and competed for the title in Phoenix.
In the past two years, however, the eventual champion didn’t pick up steam until the middle of the playoffs. Joey Logano had a lowkey season and four rough playoff races before winning at Las Vegas in 2022 and then the championship. The same can be said for Blaney before he won Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway on the way to claiming the title in 2023.
To this point, the biggest championship threat has not shown himself. None of the playoff drivers have consistently shown dominance at any point in recent weeks.
Kyle Larson has help from a strong regular season, but the top overall seed has had issues in three of the four playoff races, and Talladega looms as a strong threat to the No. 5 team. Many considered regular-season champion Tyler Reddick a favorite after his red-hot summer streak, but he has since faded.
Blame it on bad luck, or blame it on his dog, but popular championship pick Denny Hamlin also cannot seem to find the dominant speed he had earlier in the year. Many of the drivers who looked good early in the season — Christopher Bell, Byron, Elliott — are having mixed results, but none seem consistently strong enough to consider themselves a championship favorite.
The only guy who has consistently seemed to improve his points position each week is Alex Bowman, but he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire yet.
With Talladega and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL ahead and no drivers…
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