Watkins Glen winner Chris Buescher and Spire Motorsports showed that those outside the playoffs still have much to race for in these final weeks of the season.
But the focus Saturday night at Bristol (7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network) will be on who is eliminated from title contention. Four drivers will see their playoffs end at the high-banked half-mile track.
Here’s a look where things stand for each other organization heading into Saturday night’s race:
23XI Racing — Good news: Tyler Reddick leads the series in top fives (11) and top 10s (19). … Reddick has 12 top 10s in the last 15 races. Bad news: Reddick has finished 15th or worse in all three Next Gen car starts on the concrete at Bristol. … Bubba Wallace is winless in his last 71 Cup races. … Wallace has one top-10 finish in 10 starts on the concrete at Bristol.
Front Row Motorsports — Good news: Todd Gilliland has finished 17th or better in 14 of the last 19 races. … Michael McDowell’s seventh-place run at Watkins Glen snapped a seven-race streak without a top 10. Bad news: McDowell is winless in his last 40 Cup starts.
Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: Alex Bowman has scored 79 points in the first two races of the playoffs. That’s tied with Austin Cindric for most points by a playoff driver so far. … Kyle Larson is the only driver to finish in the top five in all three concrete races at Bristol in the Next Gen car (since 2022). … Chase Elliott has scored five consecutive top 10s at short tracks, the longest active streak. … The organization has had at least three drivers finish in the top 10 in the last four races at Bristol. Bad news: William Byron has only one stage win this season. … Byron has two top-10 results in the last seven races.
Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: Denny Hamlin has won the past two Bristol races and three of the past seven. It was this race a year ago that Hamlin proclaimed to fans: “I beat your favorite driver … all of them.” … JGR has led 64% of the laps raced at Bristol in the Next Gen era (since 2022). … Ty Gibbs won both stages and led 137 laps at Bristol in March. … Christopher Bell has finished in the top 10 in all three Next Gen races at Bristol on the concrete and has three stage wins during that time. Bad news: Martin Truex Jr. has averaged 15.5 points per race over the past 10 races, the worst 10-race stretch in his Cup career. … Truex has gone 16 consecutive races without a top-five finish. … Hamlin’s average running position the past two races (30.8 at Atlanta and 32.2 at Watkins Glen) are the two worst of his career in which he has completed all the laps in a race.
JTG Daugherty Racing — Good news: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is a two-time Bristol runner-up. Bad news: Stenhouse has failed to finish seven races due to accidents this season, including in five of the last 10 races. … Stenhouse is winless in 63 races since his 2023 Daytona 500 victory.
Kaulig Racing — Good news: Kaulig Racing has had a car finish 11th or better in the past two races. Bad news: AJ Allmendinger has two top 10s in 24 Cup starts on the concrete at Bristol.
Legacy Motor Club — Good news: John Hunter Nemechek finished a career-best sixth at Bristol in March. Bad news: After opening the season with an eighth-place finish in the Daytona 500, Erik Jones has not had a top 10 since.
Richard Childress Racing — Good news: Kyle Busch has eight Cup wins, nine Xfinity victories and five Truck wins at Bristol. Bad news: Busch’s 30th-place finish at Watkins Glen snapped his streak of four consecutive top 10s. … Busch has only one top 10 in the last 12 short track races. … Austin Dillon’s 28th-place finish at Watkins Glen marked the fifth race in a row he’s placed outside the top 15.
Rick Ware Racing — Good news: Justin Haley’s 17th-place finish at Bristol in March was the team’s best result on the concrete there. Bad news: Haley has made 133 Cup starts since his win at Daytona in July 2019.
RFK Racing — Good news: Chris Buescher won at Watkins Glen. … Buescher has finished in the top 10 in four of the last five races. … Brad Keselowski is a three-time winner at Bristol and finished third there in March. … Keselowski has finished in the top 10 in five of the last seven Bristol races on concrete. Bad news: Keselowski is 12 points below the cutline after finishing 26th at Watkins Glen. He was involved in an accident late and also was assessed two pit road penalties during the event.
Spire Motorsports — Good news: The team had all three of its cars finish in the top 10 last weekend at Watkins Glen, marking the first time that has happened for Spire in a Cup race. Carson Hocevar placed a career-best third. Zane Smith placed fifth, his best result on a road course. Corey LaJoie was eighth, his first top 10 on a road course in 29 starts. … LaJoie has top 10s in two of the last three races this year. … Hocevar has finished 11th or better in four of the last six races. Bad news: Smith has been penalize six times for speeding on pit road.
Stewart-Haas Racing — Good news: Chase Briscoe scored 43 points last week at Watkins Glen to move into a transfer spot. No other playoff driver scored more than 33 points in that race. … Briscoe’s eight top 10s this year matches his total from last season. … Josh Berry started a career-best second at Bristol in March and matched it at Nashville in June. … Berry has started in the top 10 in seven of the last 12 races of 2024. … Ryan Preece is coming off a ninth-place finish at Watkins Glen. Bad news: Noah Gragson has failed to finish three of the last four races due to an accident.
Team Penske — Good news: Austin Cindric has scored 79 points in the playoffs, tied with Alex Bowman for most by a playoff driver in the two races. … Joey Logano, whose Atlanta win moved him to the second round, has scored 77 points in the first round. … Cindric is the only playoff driver to finish top 10 in both playoff races. He was 10th in both races. Bad news: Ryan Blaney has been eliminated by an accident in three of the last four races. … Logano, a two-time Bristol winner, has not had a top 10 in the last seven Bristol concrete races. … Cindric hasn’t finished better than 20th in three Cup starts on the Bristol concrete.
Trackhouse Racing — Good news: Ross Chastain’s fourth-place finish at Watkins Glen tied his season best. … Chastain has three top-five finishes in the last six races this season. … Daniel Suarez has finished in the top 10 in the last two short track races. Bad news: Suarez has not placed in the top 10 in the last six races on the concrete at Bristol.
Wood Brothers Racing — Good news: Harrison Burton’s best finish on the concrete at Bristol is 16th. Bad news: Burton has earned the fewest points among playoff drivers at short tracks this season.
