The first elimination race of this year’s NASCAR Cup Series playoffs has a pair of former series champions and a three-time Daytona 500 winner in danger of being bumped from title contention Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The trio also happen to be among stock-car racing’s biggest stars in a 16-driver playoff field that was already missing two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch and popular drivers Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace after all three failed to qualify for the 10-race postseason.
Now the parity shown in the regular season, when 14 drivers won at least one points race during the seven-month grind, seems to have carried over with the playoff field about to be cut to 12 after the third and final race of the first round. Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and Harrison Burton are all below the cutline headed into Saturday’s race at Bristol.
So what’s the plan at the Tennessee short track?
For Hamlin, a four-time winner at the venue, the goal will be very simple once he gets behind the wheel of his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota.