From a NASCAR Fan’s View
Atlanta is the place where the 2024 NASCAR Cup playoffs start. After the way this season has been going so far, it is hard to imagine what the playoffs will be like. Thirty-eight drivers take to the track this afternoon, sixteen of them qualified for the Playoffs. From this fan’s view, it should be another race that goes right down to the wire. If you remember the last time the Cup teams visited this track earlier this season, there were only seven thousandths of a second separating the first three finishers.
Of course you remember that record setting finish. That was where Daniel Suarez qualified for the 2024 Playoffs. Since that race, Daniel hasn’t really shown much in the way of finishes and he and his teammate, Ross Chastain, have struggled a bit all season long. Ross and fellow competitor, Bubba Wallace, both just missed qualifying for the playoffs on points, mostly because of Chase Briscoe’s unexpected win last weekend at Darlington. That was the final nail in both of their playoff hopes after Harrison Burton unexpectedly won the weekend before.
I only bring all of that up because it has been a very interestingly strange season and it makes this fan wonder how the playoffs will go.
During the first half of the regular season, four drivers started off dominating the season by taking a lot of the wins. Their names are William Byron, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin. Sure, there were a few others with wins but those four looked to be the ones predicted to be in the final four at the end of the season Championship.
All four are in the playoffs but their seeming early dominance may not have a lot to do with the final race for the Championship. William Byron has been struggling most of the summer part of the season. Some of his struggles have been from bad racing luck and some from poor performance but he and his crew chief readily admit they have been struggling in the last part of the regular season.
Christopher Bell also ran into a dry spell in the summer months and only recently has shown some of his early strength. He has shown a bit more of that early strength in recent races. Denny Hamlin was very consistent with wins and finishes for most of the first half of the season but has recently been struggling.
And that brings us to Kyle Larson. He has shown a lot of strength but has either finished really well or not so well depending on which week we look at. In my opinion, he would have probably been the Regular Season Champ had it not been for not being able to make laps and take points when he missed being able to join the 600 at Charlotte after trying to do the double at Indy and Charlotte.
Once again, I take this short trip through memory lane to make the point that the playoffs will probably be much different than people thought earlier in the season. Things have changed since the season began and all of the teams seem to have caught up to each other and it is back to the possibility of anyone taking a win at any track in the playoffs.
Adding to the drama for the start of the playoffs at Atlanta, there are seven Fords starting in the top ten and only three Chevys. Looking at that fact alone suggests the Fords might have the advantage going into today’s race. The Chevys also have shown up with some speed but, honestly, the Fords look a bit better. Well, at least from this fan’s view.
In what some say has been in usual fashion this season, the Toyotas look to be struggling for speed, at least as far as qualifying went. Surprisingly, Denny Hamlin qualified dead last for today’s race. For reasons unknown for certain, his Toyota had no speed and it could have been because his engine was laying down and he just might have to have an engine change by today’s race. Haven’t heard of that decision at the time of this writing but it won’t make any difference in where he starts since he already qualified dead last.
This one is a hard race to predict, at least from this fan’s view. The way things have been going, there could be another first-time winner for the 2024 season or it could be one of the Playoff contenders. There is no advantage for a non-playoff driver winning as far as the Championship goes, just putting themselves in the win column. The advantage for a playoff driver taking the win is automatically moving on to the next round and less pressure for a couple of weeks.
Like I said. This one is hard to predict and, the way the season has been going, anything could happen before this one is over and just about anyone could end up in Victory Lane. Which one of the thirty-eight starters is the question…
Hey, this is Russ and that’s my view… See ya next time…
All views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer
© September 8, 2024 – all rights reserved
Rusty Norman, Nascarfansview.com and Justafansview.com
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