@nascarcasm: Ten stunning playoff eliminations

Let's look back at 10 instances in which the elimination-style playoff format delivered some stunning knockout blows.

RELATED: Vote for top Elimination Era moment

10. AUSTIN HILL AND SHELDON CREED, FINAL ROUND, MARTINSVILLE, 2023: OK, so this one happened in the Xfinity Series, but no list of stunning eliminations is complete without it. Creed had already announced he was not returning to the team in 2024, but both he and teammate Austin Hill were in the playoff hunt, hoping for a spot at Phoenix. Neither did. Contact between the two sent Hill spinning and Creed just short of a win. After the race, Creed was berated by Hill as well as team owner Richard Childress for his tactics. Creed felt he raced fairly. MAN, it was intense -- intra-team vitriol. Like "Succession" with loud cars.

9. MARTIN TRUEX JR., THIRD ROUND, 2023: In the 2023 regular season, Martin Truex Jr. resembled the Martin Truex Jr. of old -- the one that ran consistently at the front, won races and won championships. But during the 2023 playoffs, Martin Truex Jr. resembled the Martin Truex Jr. of older -- the one that was the poster child for misfortune. He won three races and the regular-season championship during the regular season, but once the playoffs began, the dark cloud appeared above the No. 19, and thus began the downpour of bad luck. He finished no better than 17th in the first two rounds, and despite earning a spot in the Round of 8, the No. 19 team couldn't muster a win to continue on to Phoenix.

8. JOEY LOGANO, FIRST ROUND, 2023: The elimination format giveth, and the elimination format taketh away, and man did it taketh from Joey Logano in 2023. The 2022 champion's hope of a repeat the following year came to an abrupt end halfway through the final race of the first round at Bristol Motor Speedway. He was collected in a multi-car wreck, and like that, his title defense was taketh away.

7. DENNY HAMLIN, THIRD ROUND, 2022: Before this momentous day, there were certain things we did not ever consider could be done with a race car. But on the final lap, with Denny Hamlin seemingly on his way to the Championship 4, Ross Chastain had other plans. Plans that involved the wall at Martinsville Speedway, the ritualistic sacrifice of the right side of his car, and good old-fashioned "sending it." Thus, the "Hail Melon" was born -- a courageous move that placed Ross into the Championship 4 and eliminated Denny. Physics, man.

6. TYLER REDDICK, KYLE BUSCH, AUSTIN DILLON AND KEVIN HARVICK, FIRST ROUND, 2022: Wait -- why is there a picture of Chris Buescher here? Why are the eliminations of those four drivers stunning? Here’s why -- the first round of the 2022 playoffs delivered a complete anomaly. None of the first-round races were won by playoff drivers. None. Darlington? Erik Jones. Kansas? Bubba Wallace. Bristol? Chris Buescher. Every driver to advance pointed their way in.

5. KEVIN HARVICK, THIRD ROUND, 2020: Had you told us during the 2020 season that Kevin Harvick would not earn a spot in the Championship 4 ... OK, well maybe we may believed you considering how bizarre 2020 was. But Harvick was the gold standard in 2020 -- nine wins and entered Martinsville with a 42-point cushion. Then the race started and the challenges presented themselves -- ill-handling car, tire failure. Needing one final spot, Harvick attempted an ill-fated last ditch dive on the last lap that wound up very much not working and collecting himself and Kyle Busch -- the car ahead of him. No Championship 4 for No. 4.

4. MARTIN TRUEX JR., KEVIN HARVICK AND KYLE BUSCH, 2018: Rather than going into detail about what made Joey Logano's championship in 2018 so surprising, I'll just say, hey, remember "The Big Three" from that year?

3. CARL EDWARDS AND JOEY LOGANO, CHAMPIONSHIP RACE, 2016: It looked like Cousin Carl would be doing a championship backflip at Homestead in 2016. That was until an ill-timed caution erased his lead. On the ensuing restart, Carl started on the front row -- fellow Championship 4 driver Joey Logano a row behind. Joey went low. Carl tried to block. The result? The image above you. Jimmie Johnson went on to win his seventh championship, and this would be Carl Edwards final race in the Cup Series.

2. JIMMIE JOHNSON, FIRST ROUND, 2015: 2015 felt like another season where Jimmie was well on his way to earning championship No. 79, or how ever many he had at that point. He had four wins in the regular season and entered the playoffs tied with Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch for first place. It was then the bottom fell out and the unpredictable nature of the format became apparent. He kicked off the opening round with an 11th-place finish at Chicagoland and a sixth-place result at Loudon. But at Dover -- a place he’s known to dominate -- his car broke a driveline that led to a 41st-place finish and a completely unexpected first-round elimination. Sorry, bettors.

1. JEFF GORDON, THIRD ROUND, 2014: In Year 1 of the playoffs, we got a pretty solid demonstration of how far drivers would go to earn a spot in the championship race. It was 2014 at Phoenix Raceway -- then the final race of the final round. Jeff Gordon was in the final transfer spot on the final lap -- that was until Ryan Newman used up Kyle Larson in Turn 4, forcefully earning the one spot that would knock Jeff Gordon out of the championship race and put Newman into it. It was a little bit like the "Hail Melon," if Kyle Larson was the wall.