MADISON, Ill. – NASCAR officials brought all of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers to the pit road of World Wide Technology Raceway after Sunday’s (Sept. 7) 240-lap feature.
Among them were four drivers who were in danger of facing elimination from this year’s postseason.
And judging by their faces, you could tell which ones.
“Our whole organization missed it unfortunately,” Austin Dillon told Frontstretch. “It’s just not the time to miss it, but, yeah, I mean we fought hard.
“We’re going to prepare the same we do every week and hopefully do a better job of hitting our balance. We executed as best we could with the car we had today.”
At the end of the day, Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen, Alex Bowman and Josh Berry all currently sit below the playoff cutline as the series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Round of 16’s final race.
“I don’t know if we’re just expecting too much out of ourselves for the level I’m at,” van Gisbergen told Frontstretch. “We can go and get them in 15th and 20th, but it’s not enough in the playoffs when you need stage points and top 10s, so, yeah, it is what it is.”
For the second consecutive week, Berry’s problems began as soon as stage one.
On lap 37, Berry was running inside of the top 15 when Chase Elliott, a fellow driver in the playoffs, went to the inside of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford and slipped into him, sending the Cup Series sophomore of Berry into the outside wall.
“I mean, it’s obviously a little chaos there after the restart,” Berry said outside of the care center. “I was behind the 38 and Joey [Logano] and, I had to give a little space, and Chase was able to get in there.
“It looked like he got loose and slid up into us, so, I mean it’s obviously unfortunate, but … things just happen.”
He is credited with a 36th-place finish and 45 points below the cutline.
“Two rough weekends in a row,” Berry continued. “It’s been rough couple weeks for sure, but I know these guys are working really hard and we just got to do the best we can next week.”
For Bowman, the day was much tamer, yet just as disappointing.
A lack of speed for most of the day saw the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet mired in the middle of the pack. The result was a failure to acquire any stage points at the end of the first two segments.
However, there was a brief ray of light at the end of the Gateway tunnel for the Arizona native. In the final stage, Bowman shared a similar pit strategy to that of Brad Keselowski, who had six-lap older tires than those of the strategies of the race leaders.
However, Bowman pitted while Keselowski opted to stay out longer at the hope of catching a caution. The No. 48’s visit to pit lane ended with a speeding penalty, and the Chevrolet had to visit pit road one more time under green flag.
It was a disastrous mistake that took away any hope of the HMS entry winning Sunday. He finished 26th and is now 35 points below the cutline.
“I didn’t go over my lights,” Bowman told Frontstretch. “Super frustrated on that. … It’s frustrating to have that stuff happen, but I don’t want to call anybody out. We can’t have those mistakes this time of the year, and honestly, just haven’t been executing very well.”
Right ahead of him, however, was the Trackhouse Racing driver of van Gisbergen in 25th. While finishing in the mid-20s on an oval is nothing out of the ordinary for the Kiwi, the No. 88 did try its own hand at an attempt of pit strategy near the end.
In the race’s final caution flag period, van Gisbergen came to pit road and took two new tires instead of the more popular four in lieu of gaining track position.
Like Bowman, however, the former Supercars champion was hit with a speeding penalty. Van Gisbergen had no choice but to restart at the tail end of the field, and with his lack of oval speed, he stayed there.
“We just had to try something,” van Gisbergen said. “Taking two tires. We struggled with track position all day and every time I sort of single filed out, I could hold my pace pretty good, so we just had to try something, and I think Stephen [Doran] made a great call, but then I made an error and spun as well and made it hard on ourselves.”
His situation is not as dire as Bowman or Berry’s as he sits 15 points behind the cutline. However, Bristol is not one of the New Zealander’s best circuits, and he will likely need some great luck to berth into the Round of 12.
Then, there’s Dillon.
Out of the four, Dillon may have started the 300-mile race off the worst. In the first stage, the No. 3 fell all the way back to as low as 27th position with an ill-handling racecar and an unhappy driver.
However, through methodical strategy, he was slowly climbing his way back into the top 15.
That’s where he ran into his own brother Ty Dillon.
“I just got loose,” Austin Dillon said to Frontstretch. “It’s tough, man. I felt terrible about it, but we had the 8, the 3 and the 10 running dead last back there racing each other, and we’re all undrivable, so I just hate that he was the one that I did it to.
After apologizing, the Richard Childress Racing driver stayed mired in the pack when a caution flag waved on lap 136 for an incident between Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney near the end of the second stage.
The No. 3, instead of joining the rest of the field, stayed out for track position and stage points. It paid off. With only one lap of green-flag racing in the stage, Dillon held onto sixth and earned five stage points. Out of the four drivers below the cutline, he’s the only one that was able to do so all day.
He pitted again and continued to struggle. As a result, he finished 18th and sits 11 points below the cutline heading into Bristol.
“Getting stage points was huge,” Austin Dillon continued. “We just didn’t have enough at the end really to hold where we were at. 18th was the best we had been all day.”
While Austin Dillon and van Gisbergen are not in dire straits yet, Berry and Bowman are nearly in must-win situations as they approach the Bristol night race.
The annual short track classic is sometimes one of the most chaotic races on the schedule, and with a new tire being introduced for the race, there are many unknowns for the playoff bubble drivers.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT