It’s Still Anyone’s Ballgame At Gateway

MADISON, Ill. — Despite the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth at the performance of Hendrick Motorsports at Darlington Raceway, Kyle Larson actually helped himself in the Playoff-opening Cook Out Southern 500.

Larson finished a lackluster 19th last Sunday, sandwiched between Hendrick teammates Chase Elliott in 17th and William Byron in 21st. But Larson’s ability to collect points in the first two stages, combined with the misfortunes of others, enabled him to gain 12 points versus the current elimination line in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Now 38 points to the good, Larson is third in the standings behind Southern 500 winner Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin entering Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

The 1.25-mile asphalt oval across the Mississippi River from St. Louis hasn’t been a stronghold for Hendrick drivers, but it hasn’t been a disaster for Larson either. In the three events at WWT Raceway, the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet has finished 12th, fourth and 10th and has led laps in the last two races.

Perhaps more important was Larson’s participation in a Goodyear tire test at Gateway in June.

With Brad Keselowski representing Ford and Erik Jones testing for Toyota, Larson is the only Playoff driver to have turned laps at the track this year.

After the test, tire maker Goodyear settled on the same left- and right-side tire combination introduced at Iowa Speedway in early August. This will be the first time the combination has been raced at Gateway, and Larson is optimistic about his chances at the track.

“We had a great test at Gateway earlier this year that led us down a different path with our short-track program,” Larson said. “We feel we have learned some things that have made that program a little bit better since then.

“We should be more competitive and at least start the weekend better than we have. If we can be good at Gateway, that will give us some confidence going to Phoenix.”

Obvious from that statement is that Larson doesn’t expect an early exit from the Playoffs and plans to advance to the Championship 4 Race with a chance to add to the title he won in 2021.

The expectation, however, is that the Hendrick drivers will have to go through Team Penske to reach victory lane at WWT Raceway.

Three-time series champion Joey Logano won the inaugural Cup event at the track in 2022, and teammate Austin Cindric triumphed last year.

“It certainly sounds cool,” said Cindric when reminded of his status as the defending winner. “We’ve got to go out and do it. It’s obviously been a good track for us as a team, and we’ve got to make sure we capitalize.”

This weekend marks Gateway’s first appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, which suits Logano just fine.

“It just seems like for us right now most of the time our cars are pretty fast at the flat one-mile type race tracks, whether that’s Phoenix, Gateway, Loudon…” said Logano, three points below the current elimination line after a 20th-place run at Darlington.

“It seems like we have a pretty good handle on that type of thing and that type of track, so hopefully that’s the case again.”

It would not be wise, however, to overlook Joe Gibbs Racing. Denny Hamlin finished second in each of the last two Gateway races, and Christopher Bell led a race-high 80 laps and swept the first two stages last year before finishing seventh.

Bell, Alex Bowman, Shane van Gisbergen and Josh Berry all finished outside the top 25 in the Playoff opener at Darlington. No driver has ever finished outside the top 25 in two Round of 16 races and advanced to the Round of 12.

The largest deficit ever overcome after one race to make the Round of 12 is 21 points (Clint Bowyer in 2019 and Chase Briscoe last year). Bowman and Berry are 19 points below the elimination line after the Cook Out Southern 500.