The NASCAR Cup Series Chase comes into focus after chaotic Gateway

Ultimately, the beauty of the new Chase for the Championship format is that is that with enough wins and stage points, no deficit is ultimately insurmountable and no points lead is safe.

However.

On Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway, several mulligans were utilized and there very well could have been numerous eliminations even if that is not a thing the Cup Series literally does anymore.

This race was hard on the playoff mid-pack and it was best summed up in a tweet afterwards by Chase Briscoe.

Briscoe and Chase Elliott were sixth and seventh when they crashed with 71 laps to go. Elliott had suffered one of many brake failures on Sunday and spun into Briscoe when they let go.

They were fifth and eighth in the championship standings before the race started and Briscoe specifically went from 37 back to eighth and 59 points back. It’s going to take winning in bulk for Briscoe to get back into this thing.

“We kind of used nine lives today and kept trying to find our way back up there and at the end wasn’t in the place where we needed to be,” Briscoe. “Will go to the deer stand tomorrow and reset.”

It could have been worse though.

Denny Hamlin, the top seed, has had two pretty mid results to open the Chase for the Championship and he has just a nine point lead over the victorious Kyle Larson with eight races left to go.

Updated standings

Denny Hamlin
Kyle Larson -9
Christopher Bell -18
Ryan Blaney -33
Tyler Reddick -42
Ty Gibbs -51
Joey Logano -51
Chase Briscoe -59
Carson Hocevar -88
Bubba Wallace -90
Chase Elliott -93
Chris Buescher -111
Ryan Preece -113
William Byron -114
Daniel Suarez -119

Hamlin scored 16 stage points last week to offset a 13th place finish in the Southern 500 but only scored five stage points to go along with a ninth place result. He also had a slow pit stop and struggled to get speed out of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11.

“I think we are so fortunate,” Hamlin said. “We were strong last week, and this week we were not strong, and still, we maintained the lead. With all of the tracks coming up, we have a good notebook on. Here was the first one where we were coming back with a new package. We haven’t been good all year with this package at this track for the first time. I feel like we’ve been given a second chance. We just have to go and be better now.”

It’s easier to say that because his closest pursuer, Ryan Blaney, also suffered a brake failure and finished 36th with 12 stage points earned earlier in the race.

“Just got to keep going,” Blaney said. “Go to the next week and try to have a good day. It’s a shame. I thought we did a good job today. The car was good and had good stage points and was looking forward to the end of the race. We will just go race next week.”

It was a missed opportunity for Christopher Bell, who seemed to have a race winning car before getting caught up in a crash racing with Bubba Wallace and Josh Berry just outside the top-5.

“I haven’t seen it, so I don’t exactly know, but I ended up in a three-wide battle with Josh beside me and he was just laying on me, and then he missed the turn,” Bell said. “I don’t know. Just a missed opportunity. I’m really bummed that it looked like it was going to be a really good points day for us, and I thought I was in position to win, and if I wasn’t going to win get a top-five and ended up with a 19th place finish, which in the grand scheme of things – we are still in the hunt, which is awesome, but just a missed opportunity.”

Watch: Logano after falling short of win: ‘I had no homies with me’

Then there’s Joey Logano, who remarkably was 20th in the standing just over two months ago, before rallying to make it to the eighth overall seed and could have closed to within 30 points of Hamlin with a win.

Ultimately, he finished third and led the most laps to score the second most stage points (54) overall but that leaves him still 51 points behind Hamlin.

“Well, we got closer to where we need to be,” Logano said. “But when you have an opportunity like that, you have the car like that, you need to win, and we just didn’t make it happen.”

All told, given that Hamlin struggled so mightily, he is more than pleased to take a points lead into Bristol Motor Speedway.

“It’s a blessing,” Hamlin said. “Last week, we had good performance, and this week were not very good. We had a bad pit stop and we still came out of it with the points lead because the competition helped.”