@nascarcasm: Completely useless playoff data

Elsewhere on the website, you’ll find multitudes of interesting and helpful statistics regarding the drivers in this year’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. But not here. This is where you’ll find completely useless statistics that serve no purpose whatsoever. Enjoy.

This is the first elimination-style playoffs to feature three pairs of drivers that share a first name. Wow. Had Chris Buescher earned a spot, it would have been four.

Of the nine seasons with the elimination-style format, seven have featured at least three drivers from the state of California. There have been as many as four (2014, with Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and AJ Allmendinger) and no fewer than two (2019, with Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson, and 2020, with Kevin Harvick and Matt DiBenedetto). There are three (Tyler Reddick, Harvick and Larson) in this year's field.

Three of Chase Elliott’s four wins during the regular season were not learned about over the phone.

One-eighth of this year’s NASCAR playoffs field is an aspiring Jedi. Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric are NASCAR’s biggest aficionados of “Star Wars.” Live long and prosper!

Four teams managed to get all of their drivers into this year’s playoff field.

This year’s playoffs features two different height records – the shortest driver to ever compete (Tyler Reddick) and the tallest driver to ever compete (Austin Cindric).

Six … SIX … of the drivers in this year’s NASCAR playoffs at one time drove a truck for Brad Keselowski Racing in the Camping World Truck Series.

Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick are the only drivers who have qualified for the playoffs every year since the inception of the elimination-style format.

That’s how long Chase Briscoe had to wait during the regular season for another Stewart-Haas Racing teammate to join him in the playoffs. Briscoe won the spring race at Phoenix Raceway in March and Harvick didn’t earn his first win of the regular season until early August.

Austin Dillon joined William Byron in the “Fashionably Late” club this season. This club is reserved for drivers who wait until the very last race of the regular season to earn a playoff spot. Both drivers have wins at Daytona during the regular-season finale that clinched spots. Nothing like making ‘em sweat.