What's at Stake as NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Reaches Round of 8

Deep in his heart—and he’ll probably admit it—Kyle Busch is delighted that Texas Motor Speedway is up next as NASCAR opens Round 3 of its four-round Championship Playoff Series. Using almost any metric, Texas is his kind of place, especially when the stakes are so high.

The 2015 and 2019 NASCAR champion has the best record at TMS among the eight drivers still racing for this year’s Cup Series title. In Busch’s 30 career starts at the 1.5-mile track in Fort Worth he has four victories (more than any Playoff driver), 14 top-5 finishes (also more than anyone), and 17 top-10 finishes … yeah, more than anyone in the playoffs.

Two of the eight championship contenders advanced into Round 3 by winning a race in Round 2: seven-time winner Kyle Larson last weekend at Charlotte and two-time winner Denny Hamlin two weeks before at Las Vegas. Based on points, the other six hopefuls are four-time winner Martin Truex Jr., two-time winners Busch, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott, and one-time winners Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski.

Hamlin, Busch, and Truex Jr. drive Toyotas for Joe Gibbs Racing. Elliott and Larsons are in Chevrolets for Rick Hendrick, and Keselowski, Blaney, and Logano are in Fords for Roger Penske. Five of the eight are former champions: Busch, Truex Jr., Keselowski and Logano, with Elliott the defending champion. It’s been 11 years (2009-2010) since Jimmie Johnson was the last back-to-back champion.

NASCAR Cup Playoff Standings

1. Kyle Larson, Chevrolet 4,065 points

2. Denny Hamlin, Toyota 4,030

3. Martin Truex Jr., Toyota 4,029

4. Ryan Blaney, Ford 4,024

5. Kyle Busch, Toyota 4,023

6. Chase Elliott, Chevrolet 4,022

7. Joey Logano, Ford 4,013

8. Brad Keselowski, Ford 4,009

As for the 1.5-mile quad-oval in the Fort Worth/Denton suburbs: it seems an ideal place for Busch to break from what must seem to him like a slump. He’s won just twice this year, three times all told in the 68 races since the pandemic changed everything early last season. A fully involved, hands-on driver, Busch has struggled since NASCAR eliminated race-weekend practice and qualifying. Nobody is looking forward to 2022 more than Busch, who craves a return to practice and qualifying like things used to be.

But he’s balanced this year’s disappointment with a respectable 13 top-5 finishes and 19 top-10s. On the other hand, he’s been maddeningly inconsistent during the Playoffs. He crashed to a 35th at Darlington on Labor Day weekend, rebounded with ninth at Richmond, and struggled to 21st the next weekend at Bristol. The up-and-down trend continued with a third at Las Vegas and 27th at Talladega before a solid fourth on the Charlotte Roval last weekend.