The Round of 8 — this is the time when pressure can reach its pinnacle for the remaining playoff drivers. Some rise to the occasion while others falter due to a variety of issues.
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Sunday's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was a fitting example. Three drivers delivered in pressure-cooker situations while the other five dealt with numerous issues on the track and on pit road.
The driver who dealt with issues
The biggest issue of the day collected three of the playoff drivers — Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, and Ryan Blaney. They were all involved in a multi-car incident that began when Reddick tried to pass Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. on the outside.
Reddick hit the outside wall after contact from Elliott. This kicked off a chain reaction. Both playoff drivers went spinning through the infield grass and Reddick's car even flipped once before landing on all four tires. He was unable to continue in the race and finished 35th.
Elliott's team made repairs after a trip to the garage but he ultimately failed to finish due to continued mechanical issues. He left the track in 33rd place.
Photo credit: NASCAR
Ryan Blaney, who started last in a backup car, hit the outside wall trying to avoid this incident, which significantly damaged the No. 12 Ford. His team made repairs to the toe link, but he spent the rest of the race several laps behind the leaders before finishing 32nd.
"It was just a rough weekend overall," Blaney said after the race. "I don't know what to do about it, to be honest with you, running over something and having a hole in it in practice. And then just getting clipped by (Brad Keselowski) there.
"I thought I could get around him and didn't know if he'd come up the racetrack and then by the time he was kind of on the track it was too late. I got clipped and bent everything all to hell, so it was just a rough weekend. We still have two more weeks, so we're definitely not out of it."
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While Blaney, Reddick, and Elliott all dealt with damage sustained in crashes, two other drivers just experienced problems on pit road.
Denny Hamlin's team was just off all day. The No. 11 didn't have the pace of other Joe Gibbs Racing cars and there were multiple bad pit stops.
The first occurred during green flag pit stops in stage 1. He fell to 10th with a slow stop. Hamlin regained track position later in the stage with a two-tire stop, but he missed out on stage points due to a bad restart.
The veteran driver's issues continued with him stopping short in his pit stall on one stop and then having to back up after another stop to tighten a loose wheel. Hamlin ultimately ended the day with an eighth-place finish, but he dropped to 27 points below the cutline.
Kyle Larson remains above the cutline with a 35-point cushion, but this is simply due to the bonus points he accrued over the season and in the first two playoff rounds. His day at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was anything but smooth.
Larson scored one point in the opening stage but then he had to make an extra stop during the break to repair damage from a piece of aluminum going through the nose of the No. 5 Chevrolet.
Larson was able to continue in the race, but he had a bigger issue during stage 2. His green flag stop was slow due to an issue with the right rear tire. The jackman dropped the car before the tire changer tightened the nut all of the way.
This issue threw off the choreography to the point that the crew didn't change the left rear tire. This forced Larson to make a second pit stop under green flag conditions, which dropped him multiple laps behind the leaders.
Larson got back on the lead lap and finished the race in 11th place, but he only scored 27 points.
"It was a messy, messy day," Larson said. "None of the first races in the rounds have been clean, at all, for us. But this was a long, hard-fought 11th-place finish.
"We just had a lot of unfortunate things happen with the debris that got stuck on our nose. We were able to overcome that and I thought we were going to be fine. We had a strong finish in the second stage, and then we had the issues on the pit stop and just had to fight from there."
The drivers who avoided issues
Joey Logano delivered in the biggest way. He gambled on fuel strategy and took the lead with six laps remaining in the race. He saved enough to win his way into the Championship 4. This took place one week after an Alex Bowman disqualification put him back into the playoffs.
Christopher Bell finished second after scoring 19 stage points. He fell short of victory lane once again, but he moved to 42 points above the cutline.
William Byron didn't have the handling he needed early in the playoff race, but the No. 24 team continued to work on the car. A two-tire gamble in the opening stage helped him lock up seven stage points and then he added eight more in stage 2.
Byron was never in contention for the win, but he still secured another top-five finish. This moved him to 27 points above the cutline heading to Homestead-Miami Speedway, a track where he has a Cup Series win.
"I think that we improved a lot as the race went on," Byron said after the race. "Really, really proud of my guys, the adjustments, just keeping up with the car and the racetrack.
"It was pretty dire there in the beginning of the race, then we had that two-tire call, got a bunch of stage 1 points. We really managed our race well, had really a good shot at winning in the last stage. The 20 was really good.
"Yeah, came down to fuel mileage there. Just a bummer. We were scoring a lot of points, in the hunt for the win, then didn't get a chance to fight for it there at the end."
