This coming weekend will be the “cut off” race for the NASCAR Cup Playoffs. For some reason, NASCAR does not see fit to schedule all three national series to end their regular seasons during the same weekend. (And this is not something that can be added to the endless list of things that underwent changes due to COVID-19.)
But no matter. What does matter is while anything can happen during the playoffs, you could safely bet your house or life savings on who two of the four final contenders will be in both the Cup and XFINITY playoffs.
Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin will be the two favourites come the Cup season finale at Phoenix. I will debate who I think should win as we get closer to the end of the 2020 season. As for the XFINITY series, Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric are set to be “The Big Two” this season and should be locks for that series’ Final Four.
That just leaves the Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series where we can expect… well, what can we expect? Thanks to the incredibly stupid (to the point I called it irresponsible) “Bounty” at the beginning of the series where NASCAR basically said “Yeah there’s no one talented enough to beat Kyle Busch so we’ll have to bring in Cup guys,” it took a while for really anyone other than Grant Enfinger to clinch a playoff spot.
As of this writing, four more Truck series drivers (Zane Smith, Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill, and reigning series champion Matt Crafton) have joined Enfinger in notching wins. If we turn our attention to drivers who have not won yet but are still going great guns in terms of points, we must turn our attention to Brett Moffitt, Christian Eckes and Ben Rhodes.
While Crafton and Moffitt both have championships and Enfinger is a veteran of the series, no one really feels like they are going to run away with the championship lead. And the playoffs look to feature several relative newcomers to NASCAR’s national scene.
And it is because of that, NASCAR’s Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series might just produce the most exciting playoffs of 2020. This is nothing against the XFINITY Series – which has two very deserving young drivers who are poised to make the jump to Cup in 2021 – or the Cup Series – which might see Denny Hamlin finally snag a championship a year after “team orders” sent him to a disappointing finish in the season finale.
However, what makes the Truck Series more exciting is that, I defy any race fan to be able to tell me they can predict the Final Four with any degree of certainty.
Let me put it this way: the Cup and XFINITY Series playoffs resemble the average mile-and-a-half. There are two drivers out in front in clean air, driving away from the rest of the field. Meanwhile, the Trucks playoffs right now look to resemble Talladega. Everybody is jammed up so close you could throw the proverbial blanket over them and until you get to Phoenix, you are not sure who will be going to be in those Final Four.
And, it goes without saying, there is a great uncertainty as who is going to walk away the championship. It could be a young driver like Sheldon Creed for whom this would be a huge boost to his career. It could be a veteran like Grant Enfinger for whom this might be his steppingstone to an XFINITY ride. If Matt Crafton followed up last year’s championship with another, one could certainly place him in the conversation (along with Ron Hornaday) as to who the greatest Truck Series driver is.
So many storylines that could lead to the Phoenix finale. And that is what is making this Truck season so exciting, because there is so many unknowns. Having a race where you can tell who is going to win 20-30 laps from the finish is not exciting. What is exciting is having a race where even as they come out of turn four on the final lap, you are still not 100% sure who might win.
This is not to knock the Cup or XFINITY playoffs, as there are plenty of question marks who might join “the Big Two” in the Final Four – and one of the things I love about the current playoff format is it allows for four different possible championship contenders by the final race rather than simply one or two.
However, for a playoff picture that has the most question marks – and therefore the most chances for excitement race in and race out, NASCAR’s Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series might just be the best the sport has to offer in 2020.
johnmilner.ca 