Joey Logano is a master of this playoff format<\/a> and could make it four straight for Team Penske in the Next Gen car. If Logano wins, it would be his second straight, third in four years and fourth overall to match the other \u201cfour-time\u201d \u2014 Jeff Gordon. Then there\u2019s Denny Hamlin, who quietly has enough speed to finally win his first career championship at nearly age 45, all while in an antitrust lawsuit battle with NASCAR. William Byron or Christopher Bell could emerge with their first and break through as champions. Kyle Larson or Ryan Blaney could become multi-time champs. What about Chase Briscoe in his first year at Joe Gibbs Racing, driving Martin Truex Jr.\u2019s old car? There\u2019s a lot unknown in this wide-open year with no truly dominant driver, and that part is exciting.<\/p>\nJordan: Most years there are one or two drivers who\u2019ve separated themselves from the pack, making them the clear-cut \u201cfavorites\u201d heading into the playoffs. This year, however, that isn\u2019t the case as there are a handful of six-to-eight drivers who you can realistically expect to make a title run. This level of parity makes the playoffs feel wide open, adding even more unpredictability to a playoff format already designed to induce unpredictability. How these next 10 weeks unfold should add a level of drama and excitement that at times has been absent this season.<\/p>\n
Give us a preview of the most notable quirks of the postseason schedule and tracks. Who does it advantage or disadvantage?<\/p>\n
Jeff: Because WWT Raceway near St. Louis and New Hampshire are now in the playoffs, that adds two shorter, flatter tracks to the schedule. And guess whose strength that is? Yup, Penske. That\u2019s how Penske has won three titles with this car, since Phoenix \u2014 a cousin of Gateway and New Hampshire \u2014 is the final race. At the same time, I personally believe it hurts the Hendrick Motorsports cars (their drivers don\u2019t necessarily agree). Hendrick put a huge emphasis on getting better at Phoenix over the offseason, but when they showed up there this spring, there wasn\u2019t enough progress considering Hendrick is NASCAR\u2019s powerhouse team. We\u2019ll find out soon enough whether they\u2019ve made gains, as Byron noted on Media Day that the presence of Gateway and New Hampshire could serve as a virtual test session for Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Jordan: The scales certainly seem to be tipping further in the advantage of Team Penske, but in no way does this mean the championship \u2014 which would be its fourth consecutive \u2014 is theirs to lose. For the past few seasons, Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Bell has run better at Phoenix than just about anyone and had he been in the championship race last year, it would\u2019ve likely been him winning over any of Penske\u2019s title-eligible drivers. So while Logano, Blaney and the rest of Penske should feel confident, having to face down Bell at Phoenix is not something that they\u2019re going to want to do because Bell is ever capable of beating them both.<\/p>\n
Who are you picking for Championship 4\u00a0 \u2014 and champion \u2014 and why? The odds are tight!<\/p>\n
Jeff: My Championship 4 is two JGR drivers (Briscoe and Hamlin) and two Penske drivers (Logano and Blaney). For me, it comes down to that lineup of the tracks I mentioned earlier. Shorter, flatter tracks are the strength of Penske with some great competition from the Gibbs cars. Given this is the last year of the Phoenix championship race before it moves to Homestead next season, I\u2019m picking Penske to win a fourth straight title with Logano. The team just feels inevitable at times in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Jordan: Bell, Briscoe, Blaney and Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Larson are my championship picks. The first three are obvious because of how they\u2019ve run this season combined with how well the playoff schedule sets up for them. But let\u2019s also not overlook Larson, who had a \u201cdown\u201d regular season by the lofty expectations placed on his team but still ranked near the very top in several key statistical categories. This is still Larson, the 2021 Cup champion, who is ever capable of winning on any given track any given week. Him going on a torrid playoff run that sees him scoring multiple victories and rolling to a second title is very much in play. He\u2019s my pick to win the championship.<\/p>\n
Now let\u2019s narrow it down to this race: Who is your favorite to win at Darlington?<\/p>\n
Jeff: There were points in the spring Darlington race where it looked like Byron was going to lead every lap of the race, but he was thwarted by the green-flag pit stop strategy and settled for second. But after leading 243 laps there, you would think he\u2019ll absolutely be a contender there again and it would be puzzling if he wasn\u2019t. That said, will he win? With long runs, this race often comes down to strategy plays \u2014 which is exactly how Byron lost in the spring. I\u2019m very curious to see what Briscoe (+1200) can do after winning this race last year; now he has a faster car and has been one of the best drivers in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n
Jordan: Larson\u2019s championship push begins by him winning the Southern 500 for a second time. This track fits his skill set well, has long been one of his best and his team almost always brings fast cars here. There is no reason to think this weekend will be any different.<\/p>\n
Who is a long shot who could surprise?<\/p>\n
Jeff: Never overlook Erik Jones at Darlington. He is a two-time Southern 500 winner and, although he hasn\u2019t led a lap there since 2022, he seems to have a knack for getting around the place if his car is fast enough. I\u2019m not saying he\u2019ll win it, but you could at least look at him for a top-10 finish (he has +210 odds for a top-10).<\/p>\n
Jordan: Rare is it that Kyle Busch can be classified as a \u201clong shot,\u201d but considering he hasn\u2019t had a victory in two-plus years and failed to qualify for the playoffs for a second consecutive season, the first time he\u2019s ever done that, let\u2019s go ahead and place him in this category. But also don\u2019t forget that he nearly won this race last year and in the spring he finished 10th. If his team can give him the car, Busch has the ability to snap his career-long 83-race winless drought Sunday night.<\/p>\n
How to watch NASCAR this weekend
\nRace: Cook Out Southern 500
\nTrack: Darlington Raceway \u2014 Darlington, S.C.
\nTime: Sunday, August 31, 6 p.m. ET
\nChannel: USA and HBO Max<\/p>\n
(Photo of Kyle Larson: Chris Graythen \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, we\u2019ve been querying, speculating, prognosticating for an entire season, but this Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series finally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82,6452],"class_list":["post-107626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-sports","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}