NASCAR’s wild regular season rolls over into playoffs
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Buckle up your five-point harness. Looks like NASCAR’s playoffs will be just as wild and unpredictable as its regular season.
That came into sharp focus at Darlington Raceway where Erik Jones became the first-ever non-playoff racer to take the postseason opener in the Southern 500 on Sunday night — one week after the cutoff for playoff qualifying.
Jones’ crew chief, Dave Elenz, was gratified his team finally broke through at one of the most difficult tracks in NASCAR. “But I think the first thing Erik said to me is, ‘Don’t you wish we won Daytona?’ ” in the regular-season finale, Elenz said.
At the end, Jones outlasted all three of his old Joe Gibbs Racing teammates — Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Denny HamElliott
lin. Truex lost a late lead with power steering problems, Busch’s engine blew up with Jones in second. Hamlin reached Jones’ back bumper on the last lap but couldn’t pass him.
“It was crazy. I’ve never had anything like that happen,” Jones said.
Truex, like Jones, didn’t qualify for the playoff. Busch and Hamlin are vying for the title.
Earlier in the night, playoff favorites Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson of powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports struggled.
Elliott bounced off the wall as he spun by himself in the first 100 laps, damaging his suspension, which his team could not repair. Top-seeded coming in,
was out of the race and fell to ninth in playoff points.
Larson, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion who is seeded fourth this year, had early engine problems and fell four laps off the pace. Larson steadily rebounded to get back on the lead lap and end 12th — not what was expected out of the 2021’s most dominant driver.
“So, pretty bummed about it, but also happy at the same time because I thought we were going to have another DNF,” said Larson, who fell to seventh in the point standings with two more races at Kansas and Bristol before four of the 16 playoff teams are eliminated.
Busch, faced with questions about his racing future much of the summer, looked he’d have a moment of celebration as he led the race with less than 40 laps remaining. Then his failing engine sent him to the garage.