1. Can the No. 20 Team Find its Early-Season Self?
Way back at the start of the season, Christopher Bell looked like he was about to go on a generational tear with three wins in a row within the NASCAR Cup Series season’s first five races.
But to quote the line sung by the Drive-By Truckers, “life ain’t nothing but a blending of all the ups and downs.”
That’s very true for Bell, who, since that early-season torrid pace, has not won a race. It’s likely grated on him more as of late, with the past two weeks seeing Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe opening the playoffs with wins.
As for Bell? He shook out with a seventh-place showing this past Sunday (Sept. 7) at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, relegated to an onlooker as another JGR car claimed the win. To say that he was livid at the thought of having a race-winning car but not being able to show it was an understatement.
This No. 20 team can win multiple races. You don’t wake up on the odd side of the bed one weekend and do that for three straight weekends. This team can run near the front, and Bell’s frustration speaks to that.
The postseason is all about having your best performance in a small window and finding that on-switch. If Bell’s team finds it, this team can be in the running for a title, and that appears to be the sentiment.
The key, of course, is to find that button and punch it.
2. Grassgate Should Be a NothingGate
There was a bit of outcry on social media following Sunday’s race when Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen, two drivers working to advance to the Round of 12, drove through the grass following the final lap, with Alex Bowman among those noticing the odd tactic.
What exactly were those two cars up to? You can forget the teams telling you, that’s for sure. If this is an effort to manipulate something on the car, then NASCAR has to act, even if it’s asking teams not to deliberately drive through the grass after an event.
But it should stop there. There is absolutely no reason to turn this into another policing opportunity and slap teams with a fine or penalty. The sport already has enough unwanted non-racing headlines. Why add to it?
Throughout NASCAR’s history, there are tales of cars “accidentally” breaking parts or blowing engines. Did fans suspect foul play? Yes. But can anything be done about it? Absolutely not. Of the things to lose sleep over, this is not it.
3. John Hunter Nemechek Proving that He Belongs
It’s one thing to get a chance to race in NASCAR’s top division. Staying there is the bigger challenge. Sit for a minute, and you won’t have a hard time coming up with a list of drivers who had a chance to race with NASCAR’s best, only to see things not last — either by their own doing or no fault of their own. You have to, one way or another, generate staying power.
John Hunter Nemechek is doing just that.
When he came to Legacy Motor Club before last season to take on a ride in the Cup Series, it was an organization seeking to find its footing. But if recent results indicate anything, that ground is leveling up.
After nearly getting into the postseason with a win, Nemechek has harnessed that momentum, the biggest identifier being finishes of fourth and sixth the past two races at Darlington Raceway and Gateway. His eight top 10s are double his previous career high — another metric that shows that, while it has taken time, LMC may be hitting on something that not only makes them a factor to play spoiler in the next eight races, but also a group that should have expectations for the postseason in 2026.
4. Blame the Format, Not Joey Logano, for Aero Blocking
Aero blocking, the method of making it harder for the car behind you to get a better run by disrupting the air by moving around. Bash the practice all you want and call it manipulating and not real racing, but if the goal is to finish as high as possible by keeping cars behind you in this championship format, then how different is this from only winning races on fuel mileage?
Joey Logano and spotter Coleman Pressley are great at it; it helped Logano win one of his earlier Cup titles. Having a problem with aero blocking is about as useful as being angry at Logano for the way that he won a championship last year. It’s the system that the sport races under, and the goal is to do what you have to do to win, no matter what, within that sandbox.
And as long as NASCAR is unwilling to build a new sandbox, teams and drivers will try to find creative ways to try and win.
5. Sunday’s Big Postseason Winner? Hendrick Motorsports
Yes, JGR won on Sunday at Gateway. But the organization that walked away feeling the best? That would be Hendrick Motorsports.
The playoff opener at Darlington was a disaster for HMS. No driver from the organization finished better than 17th, and two others, William Byron and Alex Bowman, did not finish better than 21st.
If you are looking for ways not to start the postseason well, this was it. That’s why WWTR was every bit of a shot in the arm for an organization that should expect one, if not more, of its drivers to factor into the late rounds of the postseason.
Chase Elliott ran within striking distance of the leaders near the end, finishing third, but the HMS team had a showing beyond that. Byron was 11th with Kyle Larson leading the third-most laps, overcoming contact with Ryan Blaney to finish 12th.
Hendrick could ill afford a second dud of a race if it had goals of sending multiple cars to the Round of 12. On Sunday, it showed that one bad early-playoff race does not and cannot define a postseason.
Brad joined Frontstretch.com in 2020 and contributes to the site's 5 Points To Ponder column and other roles as needed. A graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has covered sports in some capacity for more than 20 years with coverage including local high school sports, college athletics and minor league hockey. Brad has received multiple awards for his work from the Georgia Press Association.