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One lap at Talladega could play a role in who advances in the Cup playoffs this weekend at the Charlotte Roval.
A crash five laps from the scheduled end of this past weekend’s Talladega race significantly altered the playoff fortunes for nearly half of the 11 playoff drivers racing for the final seven spots in the next round. Only William Bryon has advanced to the Round of 8.
Denny Hamlin was the biggest winner this past weekend among the playoff drivers. Austin Cindric was the biggest loser. But there also were swings for Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick.
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The JTG Daugherty driver’s margin of victory was 0.006 seconds over Brad Keselowski and William Byron.
Hamlin’s car suffered front end damage earlier in the race and he lost the pack in the late stages. Just before the crash, Hamlin was 32nd — running 24 seconds behind the leaders. He was 17 points below the cutline at that moment.
“I was screwed,” Hamlin said after the race.
He went on to say: “It was looking grim and then all of a sudden, I had some good luck.”
Since Hamlin was so far behind the lead pack, he easily avoided the carnage, moving past those involved in the incident. He finished 10th. Instead of being below the cutline, Hamlin is fourth in the standings, 30 points above the cutline.
Hamlin’s good luck was triggered by Cindric’s bad luck. Cindric was leading — and in a spot to transfer to the next round if he could have won — when he was turned. That triggered a 23-car crash that also adversely impacted Elliott and Logano.
Cindric was eliminated in the crash and finished 32nd. Instead of potentially winning Talladega and moving on in the playoffs, he is 29 points below the cutline going into Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Roval (2 p.m. ET on NBC).
“It puts us in a must-win situation for the Charlotte road course,” said Cindric, who never finished worse than sixth in four Xfinity races there but placed 21st in his only Cup start there last season.
Elliott was running fourth at the time of the crash this past weekend. He was 18 points above the cutline.
“I’m not sure how I got clipped,” Elliott said after the race. “I thought I had it missed and just somebody barely clipped me.”
That was Cindric’s car after it spun and bounced off the cars of Logano and Harrison Burton, sending it into the left rear of Elliott’s car.
Elliott’s car slid into the inside barrier. The car could not make it to the pits on its own and was towed there — a controversial decision by NASCAR to tow him and two others to pit road despite those cars being damaged in the incident and unable to leave the crash site under their own power.
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NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer said: “We wanted to err on the side of the competitor.”
Elliott finished 29th. He holds the final transfer spot heading into the Roval. He is 13 points above the cutline. Elliott is a two-time winner at the Charlotte Roval.
Logano was running fifth at the time of the accident. That would have put him sixth in the standings, eight points above the cutline. Logano’s car could not continue. He placed 33rd. That dropped Logano to ninth in the points — the first car outside of a transfer spot. He is 13 points below the cutline.
Although Reddick was involved in the accident, he came out ahead, in a way. Reddick was running 14th at the time of the crash and was listed as ninth in the standings, five points out of the final transfer spot.
He finished 20th but actually moved up to seventh in the standings, 14 points above the cutline with the woes to Cindric and Logano.
“It was a really solid points day, considering all of the carnage,” Reddick said. “Yeah, to gain points on the cut (line), considering the damage and the 20th-place finish, I’ll take that every single time.”
