How Las Vegas shook up the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs

There were a few surprises after a wild ending to Sunday night’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the first race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs' Round of 12. These eight drivers changed the complexion of the postseason heading into the wild-card race at Talladega Superspeedway. See how they shook things up, starting with ...

Kurt Busch

Position on cutline: WIN

Points earned: 40 (5 playoff points)

Las Vegas finish: The elder Busch brother earned his first career victory at his hometown track in 22 attempts, holding off Matt DiBenedetto for the 32nd victory of his career. After coming into Vegas last among the playoff drivers, a win propelled him to the top of the good side.

Quotable: “This is 20 years of agony and defeat and now today with triumph, I don't know if I have any more gas left or if I just filled my tank up to go win every race that I'm going to go race next.”

Denny Hamlin

Position on cutline: +58 in third

Points earned: 53 (1 playoff point)

Las Vegas finish: Hamlin finished third after leading a race-high 121 of the 267 laps, winning Stage 1 and finishing runner-up in Stage 2 to Chase Elliott. But after taking fresher tires during a caution period in the closing laps, the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver was only able to make it back up to a podium result.

Quotable: “I certainly had a great day. It’s something I’m happy about, it’s about how we ran and how fast we were. We restarted 13th there with just a few laps and then the top got shuffled and we were able to make some ground on the bottom. If either one of the cautions don’t happen, we’re still in great shape, but it took them like seven laps to get a piece of debris off and then we had debris right in the fuel window. Just really unfortunate circumstances for our FedEx team that’s keeping us out of Victory Lane.”

Chase Elliott

Position on cutline: +10 in seventh

Points earned: 32 (1 playoff point)

Las Vegas finish: Elliott got shuffled back in the closing laps, finishing 22nd after winning the second stage. The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports driver lost some ground in the playoff standings, going from fifth with a 16-point cushion down to seventh with a 10-point advantage on the cutline.

Alex Bowman

Position on cutline: +9 in eighth

Points earned: 43

Las Vegas finish: Fifth … Bowman led only five laps en route to a top five, but the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was around the front of the field throughout the night. He slipped back a spot in the playoff standings, but still has a slight cushion on ninth-place driver Kyle Busch heading into Talladega.

Quotable: "I knew that the 1 (Kurt Busch) was the leader, so I knew that it wasn't good. So, it's about like getting punched in the gut by a really big dude. It's not a really great feeling. At that point all you can do is scrap as hard as you can and get all the spots you can."

Kyle Busch

Position on cutline: -9 in ninth

Points earned: 39

Las Vegas finish: A sixth-place result gained Busch one spot in the playoff standings and a nine-point deficit from the cutline isn’t a tall task to overcome. A string of four straight finishes of seventh or better has kept the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s hopes to defend his 2019 title alive.

Quotable: “We weren’t great early on and didn’t quite have the long-run speed. We worked on it and I thought we were making some gains on it and then we got that damage and got way back in traffic. Then there towards the end, was just able to get lucky on a couple of the last restarts in order to pick off a few spots with the M&M’s Camry and get ourselves in a better position for the finish. It was a pretty dismal day, I guess. I looked like it was going to be about 12th or 14th if we didn’t have some good moves on that last restart there to get us a sixth-place finish."

Clint Bowyer

Position on cutline: -20 in 10th

Points earned: 28

Las Vegas finish: A 12th-place finish wasn’t quite enough to make up any ground on the cutline, especially since Kurt Busch won the race to leapfrog the playoff field. Bowyer will need strong results at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval, and maybe a little misfortune from others, to make it on the plus side of the standings.

Quotable: "I was more worried about this race than I am the next two. We didn't get out of here as good as I wanted to. Obviously, the 1 car (Kurt Busch) was not a car that we needed to win a race. It’s been a hell of a battle back there with cars that are kind of in the same wheelhouse as far as points-wise. Him winning changes that landscape quite a bit, but we’re only 20 points out. It wasn’t near as bad as it could have been. The car was nuclear meltdown and I was lucky to finish, so 20 points is pretty easy to overcome at a track like Talladega, that’s for sure."

Aric Almirola

Position on cutline: -27 in 11th

Points earned: 20

Las Vegas finish: 17th … Not the finish Almirola was hoping for, but not surprising after failing to crack the top 10 in either of the stages. The No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford lacked speed, but Talladega could provide a turnaround as a track where Almirola earned a victory in the fall of 2018 to advance into the Round of 8.

Quotable: “I thought we would come here and run good. The guys have been working really hard on the cars back at the shop and we just missed it tonight. We were off in speed, off in handling, we were not very good at all on pit road. We didn’t do a lot of things right, myself included, so it was just a bad night. Nothing went the way it was supposed to go. We’ve got to be better than that. You can’t transfer through these rounds running that poorly, so we’ll go to Talladega and see if we can’t pull one out of our hat.”

Austin Dillon

Position on cutline: -32 in 12th

Points earned: 15

Las Vegas finish: Dillon was the lowest-placing playoff driver with a 32nd-place result after pitting with roughly 50 laps remaining to fix an overheating issue and a broken belt after earning points in both stages. Dillon came into the night on the right side of the cutoff, but left with much work to do if he wants to make it into the next round.

Quotable: “We were issued a safety violation on pit road with less than 80 laps to go and had to restart at the tail end of the field. We shook it off because we knew that we work well under pressure. We made our way up to 20th and were in pretty good shape, actually, because we were three cars behind the No. 1 (Kurt Busch) and we were probably going to run long. But then I suddenly lost all steering and the water pressure gauge pegged at 400 degrees. We made quick repairs but lost nine laps on pit road and that pretty much did us in. I’m proud of this team for continuing to fight. We’ve got two races left in the Round of 12 and we’re not giving up. It’s on to Talladega Superspeedway where anything can happen.”