NASCAR: One driver has already advanced, despite not winning

A runner-up finish at Kansas Speedway and a third place finish at Talladega Superspeedway have shown to be just as good as a win for Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron in the round of 12 of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Byron, a three-time winner this year, has locked himself into the round of 8 for the second consecutive season, as he cannot mathematically fall out of the top eight in the playoff standings in the round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval this coming Sunday afternoon.

The driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet, who has not won since April, is aiming for his second consecutive Championship 4 appearance after getting there last year with a career-high six victories.

William Byron locks up first round of 8 spot

Byron leads the standings with 3,122 points, and he is 74 points ahead of the driver just below the round of 8 cut line, Team Penske’s Joey Logano, in ninth place. However, the main gap to consider, the gap which has locked Byron into the semifinal round, is his gap to the eighth place driver.

Byron sits 61 points ahead of teammate Chase Elliott in eighth place. This means that, if a winner should emerge from below the round of 8 cut line in this coming Sunday afternoon’s Bank of America Roval 400, his gap to the cut line is really 61 points, not 74 points.

But even at 61 points ahead, Byron is safe. No driver can score more than 60 points in Sunday’s 109-lap race around the 17-turn, 2.28-mile (3.669-kilometer) Concord, North Carolina track, and without winning, no driver can score more than 55, ensuring that Byron has no way of falling outside of the top eight.

Nobody else has locked up a spot in the round of 8, as the winners at Kansas and Talladega both failed to qualify for the playoffs. Trackhouse Racing Team’s Ross Chastain won at Kansas, and JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won at Talladega

Byron is poised to enter the round of 8 with 23 playoff points, good for fourth among all drivers, though he can still add to that total before the round of 12 ends, with seven playoff points up for grabs at Charlotte.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who sits in third place in the standings and 52 points above the cut line, leads all drivers with 47 playoff points, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, who sits in second and 57 points above the cut line, with 32. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who sits in seventh and just 14 points above the cut line, has 28.