Drivers face playoff elimination
NASCAR’s Bowyer seeks home win at Kansas
Clint Bowyer can’t wait to race at home.
Kansas Speedway is about 100 miles away from his Emporia, Kansas, hometown, and every time the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to the 1.5mile track, Bowyer is more excited to get behind the wheel than usual. So even though his championship hopes are on the line in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC), he loves a highstakes race at his home track.
“This is what gets your blood flowing,” Bowyer told USA TODAY. “This is what gets you excited. This is what we live for as race car drivers: to be able to compete for that championship and be a part of that elite group, and right now, we are.”
Plus, he got lucky in that Sunday’s Chiefs game is hours after the race. But before he can watch his NFL team play in person for a change — “I’ve got a ticket; my butt will be there” — he needs to find a way to slide into the next round of the series playoffs.
For the second elimination event in the 10-race postseason, Sunday’s results will shrink the championship contenders from 12 to eight drivers, after starting in September with 16.
Bowyer enters the weekend sixth in points after he and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates had dominant performances Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. SHR’s Aric Almirola passed teammate Kurt Busch on the last lap to earn his first win of the season and clinch his spot in the Round of 8. Bowyer finished second.
Currently 21 points ahead of the cutoff mark, Bowyer is hardly safe. If he doesn’t win, he’ll likely need a top-10 finish to advance. And with a “more the merrier” attitude about his family attending the race, he can already hear what his dad will say about his playoff predicament.
“My dad hates me for that, because he’s like, ‘Damn it, boy, don’t you ever do anything the easy way?’ ” Bowyer joked. “‘You always like to be nerve-racking, not be able to sleep, going into these races scared (expletive)-less and not knowing if we’re going to make it or not.’ ”
He’s not the only one on the edge. Reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. is seventh in the standings and 18 points inside the cutoff. Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch are all ranked ahead of Bowyer and Truex, while Chase Elliott’s win at Dover International Speedway makes him the only other driver aside from Almirola locked into the next round, even as he sits eighth in the standings.
“I think that’s a good place for us even if we had to win,” Truex said after finishing 23rd at Talladega. He has won two of the last four Kansas races, sweeping both in 2017, while Harvick won the other two.
“I am not saying we’re going to go there and win,” Truex continued. “But anytime we can go to any of those tracks, I feel like we have a shot.”
Entering the race below the cutoff line, Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney are ninth and 10th, respectively, while Kyle Larson is 11th and Alex Bowman is 12th.
Aside from a win, which would guarantee advancement, Keselowski and Blaney could move on with strong finishes that are significantly higher than the other drivers currently ahead of the cutoff. Larson and Bowman are in a bleaker situation.
After his 11th-place finish at Talladega, Larson was 26 points below the cutoff. But NASCAR handed the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing team a 10-point penalty for violating the damaged vehicle policy during the race. He’s now 36 points outside of the top eight, while Bowman is 68 points behind, and both need a win to advance.
“We have a lot of work to do to keep our championship hopes alive, but Kansas has been a good track for us in the past,” Blaney, who has four top-10 finishes in seven starts at Kansas, said after Talladega.