As the regular season winds down for the NASCAR Cup Series, the inherent emphasis on performing well and being consistent is becoming apparent. The sanctioning body recently revealed the upcoming slate of races through August, which will lead the sport’s best into the Playoffs, and it’s safe to say those who make their way into the Round of 16 will have effectively earned it.
Excluding the All-Star Race, nine races are remaining until the postseason and only seven positions up for grabs in the standings. With another pair of doubleheaders scheduled, in addition to a road course event, opportunities will be plentiful for the premier series hopefuls, but this also leaves little margin for error.
Following the lackluster event at Kentucky Speedway, which saw Cole Custer claim his first career Cup Series victory and the ninth Playoff spot, NASCAR will head to Texas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway to wrap up July.
From here is where the schedule will get rigorous for drivers and teams.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway gets things kicked off for the final month of the regular season. Admittedly, the short track that races like an intermediate track has not produced the best product for fans in recent years. The hope with the new cars and rules packages is that this will change — and hopefully (for the rest of the field) the dominant drivers as well. Headlining this one-mile track is Kevin Harvick, who is currently riding a two-race win streak at the ‘Magic Mile.’
In just six days, teams will go from racing on the flat, short track in Loudon, to the high-speed two-mile venue of Michigan International Speedway for the first of two upcoming doubleheaders — the other being at Dover International Speedway. Sandwiched between the pair of twin events, comes the highly anticipated Daytona International Speedway road course. Lastly, the circuit will make its final return to the World Center of Racing in 2020 for the cutoff race on August 29th.
To put in perspective just how challenging the month of August will be — that’s one short track, two doubleheaders, a road course that only six active drivers have competed on and a superspeedway race as the regular-season finale. In addition to the multiple variations in venues, drivers and teams are looking at 942 miles of racing in the first week of the month, and a whopping 1,022 miles in the closing week of the regular season.
When trying to get a gauge on who this schedule should cater to as a whole, near the top of the list has to be Aric Almirola. While the driver of the No. 10 snapped his streak of five consecutive top-fives at Kentucky last weekend, he led a career-high 128 laps and was able to muster up an eighth-place finish. Still scorching hot, the 36-year-old mentioned in a teleconference that he was pleased with the results and even more excited for the upcoming schedule. He felt as if his team was able to produce at tracks where he’s struggled historically and cites the remainder of the regular season to be some of his best tracks.
The next driver who many probably immediately thought of upon seeing the schedule for August was Jimmie Johnson. The seven-time champion finds himself 15th in the standings as a result of horrid luck in his final full-time bid. The results in 2020 won’t show, but that team has been bringing fast cars to the track most weeks.
Johnson has won at every upcoming track, excluding the Daytona road course, but he is one of only six active drivers to compete at the 3.56-mile configuration. The driver of the No. 48 had to be over the moon about seeing the pair of events being run at Dover and Michigan, as they’re two of his best tracks statistically. Those events, in particular, offer the 44-year-old a legitimate shot a catching fire and formulating some much-needed consistency. If all goes right, he could find himself in an incredibly favorable position heading into the Playoffs, but he’ll need to find some momentum.
Someone else who can benefit from the doubleheaders is Erik Jones. The 24-year-old is essentially racing in a contract year and can use a stretch like this to propel himself into the Playoffs. He is currently 18th in the standings, but with top-fives at both Dover and Michigan, in addition to being a Michigan-native who runs well at his home track, these weekends offer him a great chance to make up some point and find his footing.
Keeping it in the Joe Gibbs Racing camp is a driver who’s seen immense success at all of the upcoming tracks and should be a lock to make the Playoffs, Kyle Busch. The driver of the No. 18 has been quite the anomaly this season. The records will show seven top-fives and nine top-10s, but this once-dominant team is winless at the halfway point and has been wildly inconsistent.
Busch sits 11th in the standings, only 89 points ahead of cutoff with nine races remaining until the postseason. While it’s highly unlikely that this team misses the Playoffs, they’re in dire need of consistency to build some momentum. The track where this team has the best shot at finding their first victory of 2020 is the Daytona road course. Busch’s outcry and attribution to his slow start this season have been made loud and clear with the lack of practice. He, too, is one of the few drivers who’ve had the privilege of racing that venue, so this could prove to be advantageous for him.
Among the drivers who need good runs and are sitting on the bubble for the postseason are William Byron and Bubba Wallace.
Byron finds himself 14th in the standings in his third full-time season. The 22-year-old has shown glimmers of speed, but now it’s time to start producing results. Granted, the No. 24 team has been the standard for bad luck all season, but at some point, something has to give. With Jones and Custer finding victory lane in their young careers, and Rookie of the Year contenders Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell already posting top-fives this year, it’s not a great look for the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
Wallace has been making headlines all season in a year where NASCAR has embraced inclusivity and change. Sitting 19th in the standings, the driver of the No. 43 has had an up-and-down season thus far, but he’s progressed drastically from years past. The 26-year-old seems determined as ever to get it done, but he’ll need to step up his game with less than 10 races remaining.
While there is lots of uncertainty about the Playoffs, there are a few things you can count on — this could be a telling sign of NASCAR’s potential future, there will be no shortage of action leading up to September, and you don’t want to be caught on the bubble heading into the cutoff race at Daytona.
