DOVER, Del. — After Jimmie Johnson’s exit from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs last week at the Charlotte road course, a championship opportunity for Hendrick Motorsports now rests on the youth.
Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott go into Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) below the cutline to begin the Round of 12.
Elliott sits ninth in the playoff standings, five points below the cutline with eight playoff points to his credit, while Bowman is 12th, 13 points behind with no playoff points in play.
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That means kicking off the second round strong at Dover is essential for both drivers, especially with unpredictable Talladega looming next weekend.
“I think we need to be pretty on point at all three of these races,” Bowman told NASCAR.com prior to Saturday’s final practice. “I don’t think in our points situation we can afford a bad one, so we gotta have three good, solid days. We definitely need a solid day here [at Dover]. I feel like we can win any week we go to the race track, but we need to have a really solid three weeks.”
If Bowman can escape Dover with a good finish, Talladega has the potential to be very good for him, as his superspeedway prowess earned him the Daytona 500 pole, an eighth-place finish at Talladega in May and a top 10 in Daytona’s July race.
Of course, the 2.66-mile track is always a wild card, which makes Bowman more inclined to look at Kansas for his best shot at victory in this three-race playoffs round.
“I’ve won a couple races there in the past in different series,” Bowman said. “That’s a place I really enjoy running. Our (Hendrick) 1.5-mile program has gotten a lot better over the course of the year. I think we can go there and run really well.”
As far as the No. 9 team is concerned, Dover has been money for Elliott. His 5.0 average finish is the best in the field. Crew chief Alan Gustafson said that’s not by happenstance.
“One of his real strong suits is long runs and consistency — his ability to do the same thing and get the same thing out of the car lap after lap,” Gustafson said. “This place [Dover] certainly plays into that where you typically get some really long runs. … I think that plays into his strengths.”
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Along with Elliott’s past Dover success, he also laid down the fifth-best time in Saturday’s final practice. But even if Elliott has a minor slip-up this weekend, Gustafson is confident in the No. 9 team’s abilities at Talladega.
“We have great superspeedway cars,” Gustafson said. “We have a great superspeedway program. We’ll have extremely fast cars there. Chase does a fantastic job there and I feel like we have as good a shot as anybody.”
Despite all the hype and pressure the playoffs bring, Gustafson is making sure the No. 9 team isn’t sweating it to start in the second round. He’s made an effort to bring more of a simplified mindset to the table for Elliott and the gang.
“To me, typically in my experience, if you’re consumed by the pressure, you’re probably focusing on negative energy,” Gustafson said. “You’re thinking about what can happen or the negative things that can happen. You’re basically focusing on losing. That’s not a good thing, in my opinion. You need to focus on succeeding and focus on all the good things.”