Why Denny Hamlin Believes Ross Chastain Will Make NASCAR Playoffs Despite No Wins in 2024

Only nine more races remain until the gate to the 2024 Cup Series playoff will officially be declared as closed. 10 drivers have already confirmed their spots and the war for the remaining six spots looms large ahead. With drivers fastening their seat belts for the turbulence ahead, Denny Hamlin believes that Ross Chastain will be amongst those who make the final cut though he hasn’t won a race yet.

He predicted on the latest episode of Actions Detrimental and reasoned that the Trackhouse Racing star has been consistently running in and around the top-10 spot, which is a good enough mark to make the playoffs. He said, “He’s running good enough. He’s running in the top 10 or just outside of it most weeks. You do that week after week, that’s going to be enough.”

“You just can’t have runs in the 15 to 20. Too many of those and you’re opening yourself up to a new winner coming in moving that cut line again.” Chastain has secured six top-10s and 14 top-15s so far. He has finished outside the top 20 just twice. These exploits have helped him stay +71 points above the cutoff line at tenth place in the points table.

Trailing him by a single point is Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman follows further behind with a five-point deficit to him. These are gaps that can be closed in the blink of an eye. While Chastain would be better off securing victory at the earliest, maintaining the consistency that he has throughout the year should positively scrape him through the final 16 as well.

Is Ross Chastain starting to feel the nerves not making the playoffs yet?

Despite a largely silent year from the #1 Chevrolet Camaro driver, he got into his usual troublesome self over the past two race weekends. He picked beef with Kyle Busch after a last-lap contact at Sonoma and found more enemies including Josh Berry and Ty Gibbs, at Iowa. Chastain’s racing style has always been aggressive but the recent outburst could well be a sign of his frustration.

Actually Ty Gibbs as well. Indicated that’s why he hit the fence earlier. https://t.co/h00pMtLl71

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) June 17, 2024

Not happy with the way he was racing, Berry said on his radio, “The 1 is just a ding dong” Short-track racing always makes it harder for drivers to pass each other. And with Chastain on the field, it is only tougher to do so. Put that aggression together with the emotion of playoff danger and the #1 Camaro becomes a car to avoid being near during a race.