With just three races remaining
before the start of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, it
appears that nobody wants the final spot in the 16-man championship field.
In the last 30 days, title
contenders Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson have struggled mightily, youngster
Daniel Suarez has made inconsistent bids for a Top-16 berth, while veteran Ryan
Newman has done just enough to keep his head above water.
Sunday at Michigan
International Speedway, both Johnson and Bowyer crashed their way to back-of
the-pack finishes, allowing Suarez to erase a major deficit with a fifth-place
finish that left him just six points below the playoff cutoff line.
Johnson’s day was over almost
before it began. He slapped the wall exiting Turn Two on Lap 15, pancaking the
right side of his Hendrick Motorsports Ally Chevrolet. A series of pit stops
immediately left him four laps down, and the seven-time series champion
continued to struggle for the remainder of the afternoon, finishing eight laps
behind in 34th place.
“The right-side tires went into
the PJ1 and as soon as I got my tires in it, I went straight into the wall,”
said a sheepish Johnson afterward. “When you’re aggressive, it doesn’t work.
Then sometimes you’re cautious and it doesn’t work. It was a great car. That
hurt, for sure. We’re just going to have to rally on. We’ll keep digging.
“It’s super disappointing,”
Johnson said. “But I’m (the man) behind the wheel, and I’m the one that got us
in the fence.”
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| Johnson was in trouble early at MIS |
Johnson’s demise left the door
wide open for Bowyer, who came to the Irish Hills 16th in
points after running as high as ninth earlier in the 2019 campaign. His Stewart
Haas Racing team failed to capitalize, however, despite a fifth-place
qualifying effort that raised hopes for a solid finish. Bowyer languished well
outside the Top-10 for most of the day, before tangling with Paul Menard and
walloping the Turn 3 wall on a Lap 137 restart. Severe damage to his One Cure
Ford Mustang forced him to the garage with 61 laps remaining, en route to a
disappointing 37th-place finish.
“Somebody got in the back of
me,” said an incredulous Bowyer. “When I went around, I saw Bowman and thought
it was him. I guess maybe (it was) the 21. As soon as it happened, I was just
along for the ride.
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| Bowyer continues to tumble. |
“We have to get something
figured out with these race tracks,” he added. “We are really fast by
ourselves, practicing and qualifying really well; in the Top-5 almost every
single time. But then we start the race and don't make the grip we need to
compete. We definitely need to figure some things out. You can talk about the
bubble and worry about points, but I am way more worried about getting
established and running up front at these types of race tracks.
“If you make the Playoffs and
can’t compete, then what’s the use? We have some time. We have some good race
tracks for us -- including Bristol -- coming up. We have plenty of racing, but
we have to get some things figured out.”
After the points were tallied
Sunday, Johnson had dropped two spots to 18th in the championship standings, 12
points behind both Bowyer and Ryan Newman. Suarez is now back in the hunt in 17th,
trailing Newman and Bowyer by just four points, eight in front of Johnson.
“It was a decent day for us,”
said Suarez, after a fifth-place showing that included overnight repairs from a
practice crash. “We had ups and downs. There was something wrong, a bad set of
tires or something in that second stage. We couldn’t control it.
“The team was able to overcome
that with good adjustments and they put me back in the game with track
position, and we were able to get a good result from there.”
Johnson, who has qualified for
the playoffs every year since the format was introduced in 2004, said it best
Sunday, noting that “the guys around that cutoff point all seem to be having
bad luck.”
With just three races left
before the playoff tickets are punched, it’s time for someone to step-up and
prove that they belong.
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