Ryan Sieg Down But Not Out

After two finishes of 32nd or worse and collecting seven points over the past two races, Ryan Sieg transitions into the second half of the regular season back on his heels.

Two wrecks where he was an innocent bystander have dropped Sieg three positions in the past two weeks, dealing a significant blow to his attempt to make the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.

At Texas Motor Speedway, Joe Graf Jr. bobbled into teammate David Starr, who struck Sieg’s left rear and sent him around and into the wall. Then this past weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sieg was pinched between Austin Dillon and Stefan Parsons when Dillon slowed for a flat tire. Both cars were left junked, and depending on who you ask, his drop in position within the championship was even more detrimental.

In the first 11 races of the season, Sieg finished worse than 11th only once. That was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, when he crashed attempting to repay Ty Gibbs early in the race. He sat ninth in points.

Not only have the crashes played a heavy role in his slip in the points, but the competition has stepped up their game as well. Austin Hill, Daniel Hemric and Landon Cassill have all surpassed Sieg in the standings. Hill has finished ninth, fifth and 14th in the past three races, capturing 91 total points. Hemric has scored 92 points in the same period with 10th, 11th and sixth finishes. Cassill suffered a mechanical issue at Charlotte, relegating him to a 29th-place finish but posted 10th at Texas and a sixth at Darlington Raceway, accumulating 69 points.

After Darlington, Sieg had just a 31-point advantage over 12th-place Hemric and a 53-point cushion over 13th-place Anthony Alfredo. Now he’s 41 points from eighth place but has a 48-point gap between him and Alfredo in 13th.

There is, however, primarily good news for Sieg: He has repeatedly demonstrated he has the speed capable of running inside the top 12. The only finishes he has outside are ones he has failed to finish. The bad…