Richmond 2 Winners & Losers

By: Tom Luttermoser           Image: Chase Elliott Twitter

​Winners

Kevin Harvick - Kevin Harvick in three weeks went from a top-15 performer with sparse chance at making the playoffs to 7th seed in the Playoffs with 2 wins back to back. Personally I wouldn't say he is a championship favorite, but the 4 team is gaining serious momentum at the absolute right time. 

Chandler Smith - Talking about championship favorites, Smith has now won twice in 3 races and at 2 completely different types of tracks. On top of the wins and Stage wins, with the birth of Chandler Smith Jr, he's also a new dad. With all of these highs, if you don't count Chandler Smith Sr as a championship favorite... Go watch golf.

Chase Elliott - Coming off a 5th place finish at Richmond, Chase Elliott holds a 115 point lead over Ryan Blaney. This all but guarantees his Regular season championship. That means the only driver with more than 2 wins so far this season will go into the Playoffs with yet another 15 Playoff Points. As the standings sit 2 races before the playoffs, Elliott would hold a 34 point advantage over second seed Ross Chastain going into the first race of the Playoffs.

Image via: Ally Racing Twitter

Losers 

Kurt Busch - 100% not of his doing, Kurt Busch has now missed 3 races due to concussion like symptoms. Kurt would have entered the Playoffs in a pretty decent standing before Pocono had 2 stage wins and shown pretty decent speed fully capable of snagging more of those Playoff points, if not another win on top of that. He will likely enter the Playoffs in a must win scenario. 

Denny Hamlin - Despite a 3rd place effort at Michigan and 4th at Richmond, Denny and the 11 team have continued their season long tradition of mistakes and penalties on Pit Road. The 11 team has shown 2 types of consistency in the last few weeks, Speed and Penalties. If not for the penalties, I think that the 11 sits in first on top of the Playoff standings with 5 wins on the season and Elliott 3. But penalties and mistakes have cost that team a race victory in the case of the DQ at Pocono and the absolute fastest car at Michigan and even potentially Richmond to be content with Top-5s. 

Alex Bowman - Bowman had a pretty damn good start to the season, scoring Stage Points, an early win, a Stage win and a slew of Top-15/ Top-10 finishes all the way up to Sonoma. Then something changed in the team 5 finishes 20th or worse in the last 8 races and not many Stage points to his credit, Bowman has slowly run down the Playoff standings and is now tied for last "locked" position with his Vegas win. If we get 2 more winners, at his pace, Bowman could potentially kiss his Playoff berth goodbye and be the first in NASCAR history to do so.