Breaking It Down: Reflecting back on playoff opener at Darlington
Graphic courtesy of Dylan Bauerle Racing
Famous for her heartbreaking ways, Darlington Raceway's legendary Lady In Black lived up to her infamous nickname this weekend as plenty of playoff heavyweights fell victim to misfortune in Sunday’s Southern 500.
Whether from mishap or malfunction, the Cup Series playoff opener went south for some of the sport’s biggest names and, in turn, completely shook up the standings.
In just one race, everything changed. For drivers like Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick, the cushion of points earned in the regular season quickly turned into lifelines keeping them afloat.
Other drivers such as Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin came ever-so-close to securing a bye into the next round, only to come up short.
With all the ways that Darlington cast a shadow of disappointment on these playoff contenders, it’s essential to understand what went wrong, as each instance carries implications that could haunt these drivers for the rest of the first round.
* Defending NASCAR Cup champion, Kyle Larson, was the first big name to face adversity. Early engine issues forced Larson to make multiple green flag stops midway through the first stage. His crew resolved the issue quickly, but with green flag conditions going on around them, Larson returned to the track three laps down. To Larson and the No. 5 team's credit, they turned a seemingly catastrophic moment into a respectable day, as they came home in 12th place, higher than nine other playoff drivers.
* Larson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, was not quite as fortunate. With just two laps to go in the first stage, Elliott lost control on corner entry and spun out. As his car slid back up the track, he collected fellow playoff driver Chase Briscoe. As his Chevy limped from the aftermath, driving slanted from its suspension damage, it was clear that Elliott was in big trouble. Even with the extended 10-minute Damaged Vehicle Policy clock for the playoffs, there was no saving Elliott.
He retired from the race and went home with a last-place finish, effectively wiping out the advantage he had earned through his impressive stash of playoff points accumulated during the regular season. Still 14 points above the cut-line, Elliott remains the championship favorite in terms of betting odds. That said, the margin of error is a fraction of what it used to be moving forward. One more slip-up, whether of his own doing, someone else's, or a mechanical issue, could cause the regular season champion to find himself facing playoff elimination far sooner than everyone anticipated.
* As for Briscoe, he managed to finish the race, but his car was never the same. He finished his playoff debut in 27th and heads into Kansas 10 points behind the ever-so-important twelfth place in the standings.
* While Elliott may have been the biggest shock from all the drama, Kyle Busch was easily the biggest heartbreak. After teammate Martin Truex Jr. retired from the lead due to water pump issues, Busch seemed primed to kick off the playoffs with a statement win. As he warmed up for the final restart with just around 25 laps to go, jaws dropped when the in-car camera showed an ugly sight of smoke beginning to emerge from Busch's car.
Within moments, he went from hero to zero, as his chances of winning went up in smoke with his engine, leaving him to finish a gut-wrenching 30th place. What could have been a ticket to the Round of 12 will go down as a major setback for Busch, who needs all the momentum he can get as he approaches his highly-anticipated free agency this offseason.
* Busch was not the only driver to see their playoff hopes take a hit due to mechanical failure. Kevin Harvick had a quality top-10 run going before his car shot up in flames on lap 277. After the race, Harvick shared his animosity for the circumstances surrounding his early retirement on the night.
"I’m sure it’s just crappy parts on the race car like we’ve seen so many times,” Harvick said. “They haven’t fixed anything. It’s kind of like the safety stuff. We just let it keep going and keep going. The car started burning and as it burned, the flames started coming through the dash.”
With the new spec regulations from NASCAR, Harvick’s misfortune can be described as growing pains, to say the least. However, Harvick has every right to be upset considering he had to face this problem in the playoffs. His 33rd-place finish relegated him to last in the playoff standings, 13 points below the cut line.
* Rounding out the day of disappointments was Trackhouse Racing in its playoff debut. Daniel Suarez and the No. 99 team came out of the hauler behind the eight ball as they failed pre-race inspection three times. After serving a pass-through penalty to start the race, Suarez clawed his way back onto the lead lap and then the top-10 shortly after. Despite overcoming all of this, Suarez still could not catch a break as a pit road speeding penalty on lap 281 trapped him a lap down. With not enough time to recover, Suarez came home in 18th place.
* Ross Chastain and the rest of Trackhouse did not fare any better, either. After running in the top five, Chastain was forced to make multiple stops under green. What he initially thought was a loose wheel turned out to be damaged drive pins. To make his night even more frustrating, the damage seemed to have come from debris, leaving him helpless amidst his own demise. He came home in 20th, just 15 points above the cutline.
With 8 of the 16 playoff drivers finishing 15th or worse, Sunday’s playoff opener was far from typical. This is the time of the year where the best talents in the sport are expected to go all out and put on a show.
Unfortunately, the Lady In Black had other plans on Sunday and it left a lot of drivers with a bad taste in their mouth going into this weekend's second race of the playoffs at Kansas Speedway.
As much as drivers may not like it, things are just getting started for the fans. The tighter the playoff picture is, the more exciting it can get, and with so much happening in just one race alone, there’s no telling what’s next.
Love it or hate it, playoff racing is cut-throat, nerve wracking, and at times, heart-breaking. It creates a level of suspense and drama that is only found in sports, and it keeps fans coming back each week to see how the story unravels.
Darlington’s Southern 500 was simply the first chapter of a 10-part series that will ultimately crown the champion at season’s end in Phoenix.
If this past Sunday night was any indication, this is shaping up to be a crazy playoff, one where no one is safe and anyone can emerge victorious.