With just six races remaining in
the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular season, there is as much attention
being paid to the bottom of the championship ladder as the top.
Just 101 points separate 13th
place from 21st in the regular-season standings, with no fewer than
nine drivers fighting over the final four spots on the playoff grid. Kyle
Larson is now ranked 13th, 31 points above the cutoff line. Hot off
a third-place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Sunday, Erik Jones climbed
to 14th in the standings, 28 points to the good. Ryan Newman helped his cause
with a seventh-place finish at the Magic Mile, jumping to 15th in
the standings, 21 points above the Danger Zone. Clint Bowyer (20th
in New Hampshire) is now on the hot seat as the final playoff qualifier, 17
points ahead of multi-time series champion Jimmie Johnson.
Johnson finished 30th
Sunday -- 13 laps down -- continuing an up-and-down season that has seen him dancing
on the edge of the playoff blade, virtually every week.
With just two laps remaining in the second stage of Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, Johnson was poised to claim a handful of
much-needed bonus points. He was sixth on a Lap 149 restart, but ran into the
back of another car as the green flag waved, creating debris that damaged the
pulleys on the front of his Ally Chevrolet’s engine. Those damaged pulleys
quickly spit the power steering and water pump belts, plummeting him through
the field and forcing him to pit road for lengthy repairs.
“It was certainly a letdown, to say the least,” said Johnson
after the race. “We had some issues with the power steering and the water pump
pulleys. I thought it might have been from some contact on the restart. I got into the back of the car in front of
me.
“They told me that wasn’t the case, so I assume some debris got
in the pulley system and took out my power steering and the water pump as well.
It’s just unlucky on that front. (It was) certainly the wrong time of year to
have bad luck.”
Less than a month ago, after
posting back-to-back Top-5 finishes at Chicagoland and Daytona, the Hendrick
Motorsports driver looked ready to return to his customary championship form. Consecutive
30th-place results at Kentucky and New Hampshire have dropped him from 15th
to 17th in the championship chase, however, and his involvement in
the 2019 postseason is once again in doubt, to say the least.
He is currently tied with Stewart Haas Racing youngster Daniel Suarez for 17th in the regular-season
standings, trailed by Paul Menard, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Chris Buescher; all
of whom are still mathematically eligible (though highly unlikely) to make the
playoffs on points.
“We’ve been trying all year,” said
Johnson, the only driver to qualify for the postseason every year since NASCAR invoked
its playoff-style format in 2004. “It’s not like we can magically flip a switch
and all of a sudden have more. We’ve been able to run in the Top-5 and we need
to get back to doing that. That’s really what it boils down to.”
“(This is) certainly the wrong
time of the year to have some bad luck,” he added. “The guys I’m worried about
in the points didn’t have the best day either, so maybe I got a pass on this
one. I’m just disappointed to say the least.”
While Joey Logano and Kyle
Busch continue their mano-a-mano battle for the 2019 regular season title, the
next six weeks will almost certainly focus an increased amount of attention on
the final few seats at the playoff dance.
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