The regular season in the NASCAR Cup Series is a crucial stretch that determines who the best 16 drivers in a particular year’s field are. It is these 16 who are given the qualification to compete for the championship over ten playoff races. And it is a great honor to be crowned as the best of these prolific drivers. But how much does it matter at the end of the year?
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Only four drivers since 2004 have won both the regular season championship and the Cup Series title in the same year. The first to do so was Tony Stewart in 2005. The 3X champion was a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing at the time. More than 10 years and a key playoff format change later, Martin Truex Jr. managed to do the task in 2017 for Furniture Row Racing.
Kyle Busch followed in 2019 and Kyle Larson did it in 2021. What the sporadicness of this feat proves is that being the regular season champion means little to nothing if a driver can’t keep his momentum running in the playoffs. Jimmie Johnson, a seven-time Cup Series champion, not winning the regular season a single time is also an interesting observation.
Here are the past Regular Season Champions
At Darlington, Tyler Reddick is looking to become the 11th different driver to win a Regular Season Championship and make 23XI just the 7th different team to do so in the process. pic.twitter.com/9ftmv2auOK
— Trey Ryan (@TreyRyan99) August 30, 2024
The last two seasons serve as a stark example of this. Chase Elliott topped the regular season in 2022 but lost out to Joey Logano in the postseason. Truex Jr. wreaked havoc over the first 26 races of 2023 and stumbled hard in the playoffs.
Yet another Team Penske star, Ryan Blaney, capitalized on this and pushed himself into red-hot form over the final ten races. He ended up winning the title despite an average regular season. This brings the ball to Tyler Reddick being crowned as the latest regular season champion after the race at Darlington.
Can Reddick hold his own or will Team Penske cause an upset again?
The first race of the playoffs in Atlanta last Sunday ended up amplifying this exact expectation. Joey Logano stood in the victory lane as Reddick surrendered to a sixth-place finish. Furthermore, Blaney finished third and sits second on the grid with a 45-point advantage. The next event will unfold at Watkins Glen International this weekend.
Logano goes to the Glen on top of 10 consecutive top-10 finishes at the track. He is also the only current Ford driver to have a victory on the road course. The series of unknowns that the coming race will hold can render it difficult for both Reddick and Team Penske to navigate the circuit.
The battle ought to be a fairly even one between the Blue Oval Brigade and the Japanese carmaker. It could all come down to which team drafts the better tire management strategy with Goodyear testing out a new tire compound. This race will unquestionably be a crucial step in shaping the rest of the races that lead up to Phoenix.
