The Big 3 of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. combined to win 17 of the first 23 races this season.
Since then, they have only one victory in the last eight.
Busch has the only playoff win among the Big 3. He led the field to the checkers at Richmond, but that is not representative of his recent results. During Round 2 of the playoffs, he has recorded an average running position of just 11.95. Martin Truex Jr. has been worse in that regard with an average running position of 16.70.
“Those numbers are not as eye-popping as we saw from this trio earlier in the season,” Nate Ryan said on Monday’s edition of NASCAR America. “Especially I look at Kyle Busch. … This is a guy who had one good race – the race he won at Richmond – through the first half of the playoffs.”
Busch and Harvick still have a substantial advantage in playoff points to ease their path to Homestead. Busch has 55 bonus points; Harvick has 53. But Truex was made painfully aware last week that his 38 bonus points are not a sufficient safeguard. He spent much of the 1000Bulbs.com 500 below the cutoff line in terms of points-as-they-ran.
Equally disturbing for the Big 3 may be that parity has reentered the series.
The five playoff races have been won by five different drivers – all of whom are in championship contention. Brad Keselowski won at Las Vegas, Busch has his Richmond win as a highlight, Ryan Blaney won on the Charlotte Roval, Chase Elliott won at Dover and Aric Almirola won last week at Talladega.
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