KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Joe Gibbs strolled by his Toyota affiliate Martin Truex Jr. on pit road after the race, giving him a fist bump — complete with grandiose Super Bowl ring — saying, “You had me sweatin’!”
“Me too,” grinned a relieved Truex Jr., who narrowly advanced to the Round of 8 following a gritty fifth-place finish Sunday at Kansas Speedway.
Welcome to the NASCAR Playoffs.
To think Truex Jr. — the defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion and member of the dominant “Big 3” all season — would even be in danger of elimination before we hit November is difficult to fathom. It speaks volumes about how fickle and unforgiving this playoff format, which debuted in 2014, can be.
And just how fascinating.
RELATED: Who’s in, Who’s out Round of 8 | Playoff standings
Coming into Sunday, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman were provisionally out of the Round of 8. Tracking the cut line throughout the race, we saw so many different scenarios playing out — Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch out … Clint Bowyer tip-toeing along the line … Blaney and Keselowski, essentially in must-win territory, spending a combined 35 laps at the front of the field.
In the end, the four cut remained the same going out as coming in, but, boy, was that fun to follow.
Fun for us, that is. Stressful for the guys behind the wheel and on the pit boxes.
“There’s a lot of pressure (in this format),” said Truex Jr., who now sits third in the playoff standings entering Sunday’s Round of 8 opener at Martinsville Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN). “There’s a lot that can happen, but at the end of the day, you can’t let the pressure get to you. You just have to go out and try to focus on your job and doing it the best you can.
“I wasn’t really (sweating), but I’m sure the guys on the box were. They’re sitting there looking at the numbers and looking at the times and they see what’s going on, but I don’t. I’m focused on what I’m doing inside the car and just trying to get everything I can every single lap. … As a team, we’ve been here before, so you can’t let the pressure dictate how you race and impact the decisions you make. You’ve got to be yourself and we’ve done that.”
RELATED: Blaney so close to advancing
And just take a look at the eight drivers that remain — with the exception of Chase Elliott, who’s as even-keeled and cool-under-pressure as the vets — every one of them has been racing at NASCAR’s top level for at least a decade. Experience matters. Nerve matters.
But so do playoff points.
“For the teams that start the playoffs with not many playoff points, you’re already at a pretty big deficit to those guys. You know you have to be perfect,” said Larson, who came up short despite finishing third. “Stage points are so important. That’s just kind of where us as a team, weren’t able to get really any stage points. We didn’t have any stage points until today. Only one stage out of the six stages.
“Can’t really expect to make it to the next round without being up front all race long. So that’s kind of where our round went wrong.”
And it can be as simple as that. Whatever it is — dropping the ball as pressure mounts, not accruing playoff points throughout the season or even one tiny slip-up on pit road, a brush with the wall late in the race — a driver’s shot at the title can vanish in the blink of an eye.
Both driver and team have to be perfect to win the Monster Energy Series title these days.
“(This playoff format) is tough,” Busch told NASCAR.com on pit road following the race. “You know, you race all year. Consistency is the way that I was raised, but you’ve got to race hard and get wins, get stage wins, get stage points. We had one pit stop today with an uncontrolled tire, and you hope your season isn’t on the line with one pit penalty. That’s the hard part about this setup.”
When all was said and done Sunday, the eight teams still in contention are arguably the eight that should be there, having combined to win 26 of the 32 races this season. The cream rises, etc.
It only gets harder from here, though, and Clint Bowyer put it best.
“Now there’s eight good teams left. I mean, there’s 16 good teams,” the Stewart-Haas Racing driver said after his 13th-place run was enough to advance.
“But these are eight damn-good teams.”
And we’re about to see them battle in four more damn-good races.
Be the first to comment