By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
The final race of the NASCAR regular season has seven drivers fighting over two spots and it could be one if a wildcard winner like Harrison Burton wins a playoff spot. Think a ringer can’t win Darlington? Ask Erik Jones, who won this race in 2022 but did not make the playoffs because Darlington was the playoff opener instead of the final regular season race.
Joey Logano talks playoffs
ONLY THREE TIMES IN THE PAST 15 YEARS HAS A CHAMPION BEEN THE WINNINGEST DRIVER OF THAT SEASON. THE OTHER 12 CHAMPIONS DID NOT WIN THE MOST RACES. DOES THAT SEEM ODD TO YOU? DO YOU THINK THE SYSTEM COULD BE TWEAKED OR CHANGED A LITTLE BIT TO REWARD WINNING MORE OR IS IT OKAY LIKE IT IS?
“I mean it already is really biased towards winning already. You think about the old, even the Chase back in the day or even before that, it’s about consistency as much as winning. Now, yeah consistency pays and for your reasons you said, but winning in the playoffs is a must. You have to win. So I think it’s already really biased towards winning more than ever. It’s kind of odd that it’s like that with such a long season though. I’d like to see how many championships have been won with the most wins in the 10-week span, right, in the last 10 weeks of the season. Because I would assume that the majority of the champions have the most wins in those last 10 weeks because you got to win one, right, you’re going to have to win Phoenix, right, for the most part, I mean it seems like all but one time, so most likely that. And you’re probably going to have to win another one throughout that to get to the next round maybe if your back is up against the wall. It is pretty biased toward winning in my opinion.”
Obviously a big weekend for your team. Tell us a little bit about how you guys prepared for this weekend, and what your thoughts are heading into tomorrow’s race.
“Just prepared for the Southern 500. I can’t tell you all my secrets. But yeah, it’s been a fairly normal week. We stuck to our same processes that we normally do with the DiL simulator; talking through some options there of different setups and different things we’ve run in the past. We did fit in some extra time. Been doing some work with SVG and just leaning on each other to learn and lay some groundwork for how we each interact and things. We just have such a great tool with GM and their simulators there in Concord that we try to just lean into that thing and use it as a tool. It doesn’t tell us all the answers, but it’ll give us a lot of questions to ponder.
Ross Chastain has one last chance to make playoffs
Q- Obviously a big weekend for your team. Tell us a little bit about how you guys prepared for this weekend, and what your thoughts are heading into tomorrow’s race.
“Just prepared for the Southern 500. I can’t tell you all my secrets. But yeah, it’s been a fairly normal week. We stuck to our same processes that we normally do with the DiL simulator; talking through some options there of different setups and different things we’ve run in the past. We did fit in some extra time. Been doing some work with SVG and just leaning on each other to learn and lay some groundwork for how we each interact and things. We just have such a great tool with GM and their simulators there in Concord that we try to just lean into that thing and use it as a tool. It doesn’t tell us all the answers, but it’ll give us a lot of questions to ponder.
Chris Buescher is NOT focused on what might have been
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
WHEN YOU’RE IN THIS POSITION COMING INTO IT, ARE YOU LOOKING BACK THROUGHOUT THE YEAR ON THE WOULDA, SHOULDA, COULDAS, WHETHER IT WAS LAS VEGAS WITH THE WHEEL, KANSAS, DARLINGTON, ARE YOU FOCUSED FORWARD?
“We’re on this weekend. All that is stuff that hurts and will when you do stop to look back at it, but ultimately it’s not anything that’s changing our situation right now and would really be a distraction at this point. There’s no changing it, right? So definitely things that you look back on, and we’ll clean up as a team. Things I can clean up as a driver and do differently. And then just situations that certainly could have gone better. We’re focused on this weekend now.”
Erik Jones would like to strike lightning
Can you talk about your confidence coming into Darlington and being able to win and advance into the Playoffs this weekend?
“It’s just been a long year. A lot of different reasons, but if you told me I could pick one (race) other than a superspeedway, I’d pick Darlington to try and go win. Definitely some confidence in that. I think any time you come to a place where you’ve had success a couple of times with different groups, you have the notes to dive into and just that confidence of feeling like you know how to get around the place and knowing what you need to do. I’m excited about that. It’s not going to be easy by any stretch. This is a tough race in a lot of ways, but I think we have a good plan of knowing what we need out of our race car, knowing how we need to manage the race, and knowing what we need to do to be in position. So, we need everything to go right, but I think it’s a great shot for us for sure.”
Roy J. Akers is a multi-media reporter and covers several sports for www.skyviewsports.net