The first race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs was at Darlington Raceway, which is located in South Carolina. This track is 1.3 miles around and has two nicknames, which are “The Lady in Black” and Too Tough to Tame. Kevin Harvick won to open the playoffs. He has been on fire over the last couple months of the season, no better time to get hot then right before the playoffs. Anyway, Harvick took the lead on lap 355 after Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. made contact with the wall while racing for the lead. Right place at the right time, if you are Kevin Harvick. He had to hold off a hard-charging Austin Dillon to win the playoff opener. What was so cool about this win was that there were fans in the grandstands. Most races during the restart fans haven’t been allowed to attend the race, but the first thing Harvick said when he got out of his car was ‘Welcome back, fans.’ That should tell you how much fans mean to the sport of NASCAR, plus it is nice to have people cheering for you after you just won one of the most prestigious races in NASCAR, the Southern 500, is what Darlington’s race is called.
The second race of the playoffs was at Richmond Raceway, which is located right outside of Richmond and is a three-quarter mile track. Brad Keselowksi made a bold/confident statement early in the week. He said that he expected to dominate and win at Richmond. Keselowski did exactly what he sought to do, which was dominate. Brad led a race-high 192 laps out of 400, which is rare at Richmond. Keselowski won by over 2.5 seconds over second place finisher Martin Truex Jr. to guarantee him a spot in the Round of 12. Brad was most certainly the class of the field on this particular night because he led more than four times as many laps as any other driver. To the other drivers credit Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, and Martin Truext Jr. did their best to keep Brad honest and on his heels throughout the race. With only one more race in the Round of 16, who is going to have their championship dreams destroyed.
BRISTOL BABY! There is nothing quite like a night race at Bristol Motor Speedway, known for being The Last Great Colosseum. Bristol is a half-mile track that is perfect for a cutoff race in the playoffs. The postseason field was trimmed down from sixteen to twelve drivers. The four drivers who no longer have a chance to win a championship are William Byron, Cole Custer, Matt DiBenedetto, and Ryan Blaney. To put things in perspective, Ford had eight drivers make the playoffs, which is half the field, three of them were eliminated in the first round. NASCAR’s competition in these playoffs, especially with this format, gets taken to a whole new level. The drivers who advanced to the Round of 12 are Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, and Kurt Busch.
Kevin Harvick, who had already punched his ticket to the Round of 12, held off a desperate and hard-charging Kyle Busch for the win tonight at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kyle Busch is one of the best drivers at Bristol. He has eight victories at this particular race track, and to hold him off is impressive. Harvick picked up his ninth victory of the season and his fifth in the last nine races. He and his team are hitting their groove at the perfect time. Kyle Busch remains winless in 2020, which doesn’t happen. He finished .310 seconds behind Harvick, which is very frustrating. On the plus side, if you are Busch is that you advanced to the Round of 12, so his quest to repeat as champion is still possible. Kyle Busch won the championship last year. Back to Bristol and Kevin Harvick, the race track sold tickets to about 35,000 fans. These fans were socially distanced throughout the grandstand, but their voices made a significant din, and Harvick welcomed that. He said thank you to the fans after taking the checkered flag. Harvick was very excited when the race started because one, it’s Bristol and two seeing fans live was unbelievable. During his post-race interview Kevin said, “To beat Kyle Busch at Bristol, I kind of got myself in a little bit of a ringer there.”
In the final run of the race, Busch passed Harvick for the lead in traffic on lap 459. Ten laps later, on lap 469, Harvick returned the favor when Busch was slowed up by Joey Logano. From this point forward, Harvick led the rest of the way, even though Busch tried every racing line available to try to catch Harvick. Kyle said in his post-race interview that he just did not have enough at the end to catch Harvick. He also said that lap cars were definitely a problem and that there was no room for him to do what he needed to do in order to get around Kevin. Kyle came up short, what more can he say. If you are Kyle Busch, you have seven more races to win, which is very doable, especially with some of the tracks that are left in the playoffs. The Round of 12 is going to be even more intense than the Round of 16, and I for one am so ready to see what the next three races have in store for NASCAR and sports fans. Who is going to step up? and Who is going to crack?
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