With Kevin Harvick’s seventh victory of the year on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series still has just eight drivers on its win list with three races left before the post-season begins, five fewer winners than there were at this point of the 2017 campaign. Other race winners in 2018 are Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Junior, Austin Dillon, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Erik Jones. There’ll be at least five winless drivers qualifying for the playoffs who’ll get in on points. Heading into next weekend’s race in Bristol, Tennessee, the potential playoff grid today looks very much like the one that’ll actually be in place when the post-season opens next month in Las Vegas.
In addition to the race winners, those who seem safe in terms of where they are in the regularseason standings are Alex Bowman, Jimmie Johnson, Aric Almirola, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch. Bowman holds the final provisional spot and enjoys a sixty-two-point advantage over Ricky Stenhouse Junior entering Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops N-R-A Night Race. Paul Menard, Daniel Suarez and Ryan Newman are all within twenty-five points of Stenhouse but will most likely need to win one of the next three races to qualify for the postseason.
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