Alex Bowman and William Byron at Bristol
Alex Bowman and William Byron both start Saturday night’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway below the cutline, and reigning series champion Chase Elliott isn’t breathing any easier than his Hendrick teammates.
Elliott is only 19 points to the good, which means a poor finish could make for a fast ending to his attempt at repeating as Cup champion. Four drivers will be cut from the 16-driver field after the race, and only Hendrick driver and regular-season champion Kyle Larson, as well as Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. on consecutive playoff-opening JGR wins, have secured spots in the second round.
“I think we’re fine,” Elliott said. “We’ll be OK. I feel like we can run anywhere from 10th and 15th and win the race. We just have to take what we get at the beginning of these races and see where we end up at the end of them — and then, in turn, that will dictate where we start for the next one.
“That’s a good point to have right now when you can be fairly open-minded about it all. We just have to do what we’ve been doing and see how many spots we gain throughout these races with cars capable of winning.”
Elliott media session
It didn’t seem like it at the time, but Elliott was in a very jovial mood Thursday during his media session. It could be because he has history on his side. Only twice in NASCAR’s modern era (1972-present) has the championship leader entering the next race after an off week failed to win the race and/or advance into the second round when at least one of his teammates won (and when Tony Stewart did it in 2011, he had already secured advancing with two wins at that point).
Of course, five times in that timeframe there wasn’t even any Championship 4 contender who advanced when their teammates didn’t win. But over the last three seasons, there have only been two championship leaders — Carl Edwards in 2016 at Kansas and Jimmie Johnson last year at Phoenix — entering the next race after an off week who failed to win or advance, so Elliott will take his chances with history being on his side.
Elliott qualifying
The one thing Elliott needs is a strong qualifying effort Saturday afternoon because he’s 10th in average starting position among the 16 playoff contenders, compared to Larson (eighth) and Truex (11th). And Larson is a statistical anomaly as far as this round goes: He has earned the second-highest driver rating in 5 of 7 races this season but hasn’t finished that high.
Bristol Motor Speedway may not be as straightforward as some tracks, but it can still provide advantages. “I think you have to have a car that’s going to run well in the race, whether it’s loose or tight getting into the corner, over a 14-second lap you’ve got to be pretty close with your setup. And if you can do that, I think this place will play right into your hands. The key is having the speed and being upfront. You definitely don’t want to be behind someone because you never know what they are going to do on pit road at Bristol. If their car drives well enough off of (turn) four, they can get back by before (turn) one sometimes.”
One positive for all Hendrick drivers Saturday night: They’ve always fared well at Bristol. “I think we’re OK,” Hendrick general manager Doug Duchardt said. “The history here is pretty good and the cars have been upfront. I don’t know if we can say we’re confident, but we feel like we should be competitive and we expect to see our guys running upfront. It seems like things have worked out where every time a teammate of Martin or Kyle has won, they haven’t been in the Chase — so hopefully that will hold true this weekend.”
