While Kyle Larson was running away with the Bass Pro Shops Bristol Night Race Saturday night, fascinating battles were taking place further back in the pack.
Bristol served as the first elimination race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, where 12 drivers would advance to the second round and four would be eliminated from championship contention. While no driver could touch Larson, who led an incredible 462 of 500 laps en route to his fifth win of the season and the 28th of his career, there was drama brewing all over the Tennessee short track as the 16 playoff drivers fought for positions on the track and points in the standings.
The cutline was where the real action centered, with teams calculating points as the race was being run to keep their drivers in 12th place or better in the playoff standings. The biggest example: A driver running in second in the middle of Stage 3 had to worry about a driver racing in 30th and multiple laps down.
That was the case for Martin Truex Jr., the 2017 Cup Series champion, who has announced that this will be his final season of full-time racing.
Truex came into Bristol ranked 15th in the playoff standings, but he qualified fourth on Saturday and was racing in the Top 5 most of the night. He was doing exactly what he needed to squeak into the Round of 12. At the other end of the spectrum was Daniel Suarez, who ranked fifth in the standings after two playoff races but had an extremely slow car all weekend.
And then everything turned on a penalty on Lap 332 of 500. Truex came down pit road second and kept his position after getting fuel and changing tires – until NASCAR informed the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team that Truex was being penalized for speeding, sending him to the back of the field for the restart. Where moments before a runner-up finish and advancement in the playoffs seemed well within his grasp, Truex now had to figure out a way to drive through the field and, at the same time, worry about a driver racing laps behind him. In the end, Truex could never regain that ground. He finished 24th at Bristol and was one of four drivers to be eliminated from the playoffs along with teammate Ty Gibbs, 2012 series champion Brad Keselowski, and Harrison Burton.
“It’s really tough – when it’s .09 miles per hour that kind of screws your whole chance at a good season up. It’s on me, obviously, it’s my mistake,” a clearly disappointed Truex said after the race.
“They said we were going to have to run second or third there to have a chance, and I don’t know if we could have done it, but it would have been nice to see. We had a really strong car tonight, and we got a lot of stage points, we did what we needed there, just hate that I screwed it up.
“But from here we’ll just go on to race hard and hopefully get back to victory lane before it’s all said and done.”
Suarez was never in contention to win or even race in the top 10. He qualified 35th of 38 drivers and never could recover. Larson put him a lap down and then another and then another, and it seemed the Trackhouse Racing driver’s chance to reach the Round of 12 was rapidly disintegrating. But Suarez had one thing going for him that Truex didn’t – strong performances in the first two playoff races, including a runner-up finish in the opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which allowed him to build up a lot of points – he had 44 more than Truex – heading into this elimination race. And Suarez needed every one after finishing 31st Saturday night.
‘It was a struggle,” Suarez admitted after the race. “Since yesterday, when we unloaded the car for first practice, we just didn’t have the speed. If you don’t have the speed out of the trailer, it’s very, very difficult to bring it back to speed.
‘Luckily, we had a great Atlanta, a decent Watkins Glen after a broken wheel, and we were able to build a cushion. And we definitely used every single point out of that cushion.’
But Truex wasn’t the only driver Suarez needed to worry about while he was driving around in the back of the pack. There was also Gibbs, who entered the night 12th in the playoff standings, to contend with. Interestingly, a pit-road speeding penalty possibly doomed Gibbs’ night as well, though his penalty occurred much earlier in the race. And while the 21-year-old grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs was able to recover and race his way back into the top 10 in the third stage, he could never move beyond eighth. He eventually finished 15th in the race and behind Suarez in the standings.
In the end, Bristol provided a huge celebration for Larson and Hendrick Motorsports, a huge sigh of relief for Suarez and Trackhouse Racing and mixed emotions at Joe Gibbs Racing, with two drivers eliminated but two others – Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin – advancing to the Round of 12.
The Cup Series playoffs now shift to Kansas Speedway, the first of three races in the second round, before the mayhem of Talladega Superspeedway and another elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the Roval – a part road course, part oval circuit. The playoff drama will surely continue, but it will do so without Truex, and the possibility of a glorious end to a Hall of Fame career.
NASCAR playoff standings entering second round
Rank, driver, team, points, deficit to leader. Through three races; points reset after first round.
Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports … 3,047
Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing … 3,032 … -15
Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing … 3,028 … -19
William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports … 3,022 … -25
Ryan Blaney, Team Penske … 3,019 … -28
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing … 3,015 … -32
Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports … 3,014 … -33
Joey Logano, Team Penske … 3,012 … -35
Austin Cindric, Team Penske … 3,008 … -39
Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Racing … 3,006 … -41
Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports … 3,005 … -42
Chase Briscoe, Stewart-Haas Racing … 3,005 … -42
