The Impact Of A Cup Series Championship, Part II

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Previously, we looked at the drivers ranked ninth through 16th in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, to ask the question of, “What would it mean to win a championship?”

Now, we’ll take a look at the top half of the playoff grid, eighth through first, to further answer this question ahead of Sunday night’s playoff-opening Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

8th-Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Four points above the cut line)

The story of Chase Briscoe is a truly inspirational one. Both on-track and off-track, various bouts of adversity and struggle have led to where he is at now in his Cup Series career.

For his first year in JGR equipment, Briscoe has a win, a series-leading six poles, and a very solid starting rank in the playoffs under his belt. His average starting position this year of 10.3 is also best in the league.

If Briscoe can put it all together and win a title, it would be a culmination of a story that almost didn’t happen multiple times over. Remember, this is a driver who began his career sweeping floors at the former Cunningham Motorsports shop just to get an ARCA opportunity – and that eventually led to a championship.

7th-Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy (Seven points above the cut line)

Transitioning from one Chase to another, we look at the son of Bill, the 2020 Cup Series champion. This Chase is quite polarizing, in a way, as the last few years have largely re-shaped his career.

Elliott isn’t the multi-time winner he once was, now a much more consistent point-getter than a flashy driver in victory lane repeatedly through the season. There became a narrative he doesn’t care anymore, which got shut down with his summer win at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta.

Elliott is merely a driver reserved to himself, and he goes out and does his job with little fanfare. That said, a second championship would be big for Elliott’s legacy, and all of Dawsonville would be ecstatic at another si-reen sounding in November.

6th-Shane Van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevy (16 points above the cut line)

If SVG wins the title, this will either be celebrated to high heaven, or NASCAR will change the format because he won on road courses, chaos, and vibes. There is no other way to describe it.

Van Gisbergen is the ultimate wild card, a total unicorn that will either be eliminated early, or go deep and upend the entire system. That said, he is slowly getting better at ovals. By the year-over-year math, he just needs to average a 17th-place finish in the three races of the Round of 16 to advance to the second round, where the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL awaits the road course expert.

If he can avoid chaos at various tracks … who knows. A semifinal – or even Championship 4 appearance – may not be unthinkable.

5th-Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (17 points above the cutline)

When Christopher Bell was brought on to take over the No. 20 from Erik Jones back in 2021, one probably would have thought that, with the eventual exits of Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., that Bell would be the flagship of Joe Gibbs Racing’s next generation.

He has certainly not disappointed, with two Championship 4 appearances in the past three years, and it would have been three straight if not for the wall-riding drama of the final lap at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway last fall.

For Bell to take home a title would fully cement his place in the organization, and potentially be the first of multiple crowns to come.

4th-Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford (20 points above the cutline)

Before Blaney won his first championship two years ago, you would be remiss to wonder how much longer he’d stay in the Penske No. 12 with some frustrating inconsistency hampering him. Going winless in 2022 and barely sneaking into the playoffs did not help either, despite three wins the year prior.

Then, in 2023, it all came together for a championship, and he barely missed out on repeating last year. To go back to Phoenix and win a second title in three years would be massive, not just continuing Penske’s streak of dominance, but completely re-writing Blaney’s own story.

3rd-Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (23 points above the cutline)

Dirk Nowtizki in 2011. Alex Ovechkin in 2018. The St. Louis Blues in 2019 and the Texas Rangers in 2023. What do they all have in common? They are players and franchises who suffered with the “choker” label before finally breaking through to win championships in their respective sports. All were narratives largely washed away with one single title win.

This could be Hamlin’s fate too, and he’s running out of time to get it done. With what is assumed to be his final contract extension inked earlier this year, Hamlin only has a few more cracks at winning a championship as a driver, or else forever be debated with Mark Martin as the best driver to never win one.

It has never been more “now or never” than it currently is for the elder statesman of Joe Gibbs Racing, but four wins on the season and one of the more efficient regular seasons of his career have Hamlin looking like a potential title favorite going into the 10-race playoff stretch.

2nd-William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy (26 points above the cutline)

 

William Byron is a leader of his own generation. The iRacing kid who has grown up to become a top-level driver in the sport has shown that, yes, one can make it in life by playing video games and simulators as a youth.

Now all he needs is a championship to his resume after back-to-back Daytona 500 victories the past two years, and it feels like every year since his rookie season, Byron has been inching toward that very goal.

He was Cup Series rookie of the year in 2018, made his first playoff appearance in 2019, got his first win in 2020, and had his official breakout campaign in 2023 before the regular season title this year.

He’s due for his first title, and getting it now would be a full culmination of everything we’ve seen from his career to this point.

1st-Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy (26 points above the cutline)

To ask what a championship this year would mean for Larson has more to do with his future than anything else. He already has one, among a laundry list of things he’s won over the years across NASCAR and dirt racing. But would a second one make him consider leaving NASCAR to go dirt racing full time?

The rumors have certainly been out there, and NASCAR changing the rules after his first attempt at the Indy-Charlotte double in 2024, as well as the 2026 schedule not being conducive to allow him run the Knoxville Nationals, certainly isn’t the greatest look for an optics standpoint.

Even if he doesn’t leave after this year, a second title could solidify Larson as one of the best to ever do it, not just in NASCAR, but in racing as a whole.

Broadcast coverage of Sunday night’s playoff-opening Cook Out Southern 500 airs at 6 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.