Had Austin Dillon’s victory at Richmond Raceway a few weekends ago ended up counting toward his NASCAR Cup Series playoff eligibility, as it initially did, 15 of the 16 playoff spots would have been occupied by race winners.
Though the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet did keep the victory itself, NASCAR determined that, because of how he earned it, wrecking both Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin in the final turn on the final lap, he would need another non-encumbered win to qualify for the four-round, 10-race postseason.
He did not earn that second victory in any of th regular season’s final three races, so he was left on the outside looking in. As a result, although there were 15 different regular season race winners, only 14 locked themselves into the playoffs.
That left two playoff spots for drivers to lock in on points, not just one. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs took the first of those two spots with 702 points, and teammate Martin Truex Jr. took the second with 696.
Had it not been for NASCAR’s decision and Richard Childress Racing’s subsequent failed appeal attempts, the 2017 series champion would not be in the playoffs in his final season as a full-time driver, despite having led the point standings earlier in the year.
Truex, who officially finished the regular season in 10th place in the point standings, held on for the 16th and final playoff spot by six points over RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, despite crashing out of Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway just two laps into the race.
Truex entered the race sitting 58 points above the cut line, and the only possible way for him to miss the postseason was if a new winner emerged. A new winner did indeed emerge, with Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe holding off Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch, but Truex’s competition for the final spot could not do enough to take advantage of his early wreck.
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