After a seven-month long regular season, the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs will officially begin this Sunday with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Austin Dillon impressive performance earned him a spot in the playoff in Daytona, for the 2022 regular-season finale.
Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney outduel JGR Truex Jr. by just three points to take the final playoff spot after Dillon claimed the other remaining playoff spot with his victory.
“Nobody has tried to pull any strings” – 23XI Racing dismiss rumors Kurt Busch bowing out of playoffs as ulterior motives
The regular season saw 16 different winners in total, however one of them, 23XI Racing driver Kurt Busch, withdrew from the playoffs due to health concerns.
Defending Cup Series champion Kyle Larson thinks that the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers will have a better chance of winning to the championship than the chevy teams.
Kyle Larson was asked in his most recent Teleconference ahead of the thrilling Darlington race who he see as the favorites to win the championship.
“I definitely think there are favorites, but there is a lot of craziness that has happened all year long. So even though I have favorites; Kyle Larson said. I’m not confident in anything, just because of how wild and inconsistent the season has been for so many people,”.
“Honestly, I would probably look at them as probably being the ones that could go out there and win. I think there are other teams that can do a better job of executing, but the Gibbs guys probably have the fastest and best-handling cars to go out there and really win to advance that way,” Larson explained.
Chase Elliott, a four-time winner the only driver to do so this season won the regular season championship at Watkins Glen International and will start the playoffs as favorite to many.
“I think you can look at us as being one of the favorites. I think you can look at Chase (Elliott), obviously, and in my opinion, Ross Chastain. I would say us three probably, and definitely the Gibbs guys that are in the playoffs. There are a lot of tracks in the playoffs that I think suit their cars and setups very well,” Larson concluded.
The 2022 Cup Series playoff field
| Driver | Playoff points | Wins |
| 1. Chase Elliott* | 2,040 | 4 |
| 2. Joey Logano | 2,025 | 2 |
| 3. Ross Chastain | 2,020 | 2 |
| 4. Kyle Larson | 2,019 | 2 |
| 5. William Byron | 2,014 | 2 |
| 6. Denny Hamlin | 2,013 | 2 |
| 7. Ryan Blaney | 2,013 | 0 |
| 8. Tyler Reddick | 2,012 | 2 |
| 9. Kevin Harvick | 2,012 | 2 |
| 10. Christopher Bell | 2,011 | 1 |
| 11. Kyle Busch | 2,010 | 1 |
| 12. Chase Briscoe | 2,009 | 1 |
| 13. Daniel Suarez | 2,007 | 1 |
| 14. Austin Cindric | 2,006 | 1 |
| 15. Alex Bowman | 2,006 | 1 |
| 16. Austin Dillon | 2,005 | 1 |