RELATED: Field set for playoffs | Playoffs standings | Driver previews
JOLIET, Ill. — And then there were 12.
Saturday’s TheHouse.com 300 at Chicagoland Speedway set the stage for the 2017 XFINITY Series NASCAR Playoffs, solidifying the 12 drivers who will run for the series championship.
Leading that pack is JR Motorsports’ William Byron, who — despite a broken transmission that left him with a 33rd-place finish on Saturday — is seeded first with three wins in the regular season. All four JR Motorsports cars will compete for the title, with Elliott Sadler winning the regular season title and Justin Allgaier nabbing his second victory of the season at Chicago. Michael Annett squeezed into the playoffs on points as the final driver in the field.
The strength of the team as a whole bodes well for the six-race stretch leading up to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“Our team has got a good amount of speed right now, so that’s encouraging,” Byron told NASCAR.com after the race. “Definitely in the races I think we keep getting better and get our cars faster. So, we’ll see what we can do with that. I think it’s going to be good for us toward the end of this year.”
“… Just have to make no mistakes the whole (Playoffs) and put ourselves in a good position.”
Richard Childress Racing will also have a substantial showing in the ’17 NASCAR Playoffs, with two of its full-time cars — Daniel Hemric and Brendan Gaughan — in championship contention. Saturday’s event was especially important for Gaughan, who hadn’t reached Victory Lane to lock in a spot and was seeded a precarious 12th entering the final race of the regular season. After battling back from an equalized right-rear tire midway through the race, a 13th-place finish earned Gaughan a coveted playoff spot — and a hug from team owner Richard Childress on pit road after the race.
RELATED: Gaughan thrilled to be playoff-bound
“You keep digging and you don’t stop,” an always-enthusiastic Gaughan said. “That’s what (crew chief) Shane Wilson’s always been about and me and all my boys. I’m so proud of them for not stopping … nobody getting down, chasing down the problem, getting it fixed, getting the tire off, then just getting back in the race car and saying ‘OK we’re good now.’
“(I’m) excited now — now we can go back in race mode,” he continued later. “You saw what we can do at the end of the race when they finally take the handcuffs off. This SouthPoint Chevy’s fast — the handcuffs are back off now. We get to go play.”
While the Chevys of JR Motorsports and RCR will likely be strong and expected contenders, rookie Cole Custer could shake up the party; the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing driver battled hard with Monster Energy Series Playoffs driver Kyle Larson throughout Saturday’s 300-miler, putting together a seventh-place result even after contact with Ryan Blaney in the waning laps.
“That was probably the most fun I have ever had in a stock car, doing those crossover passes,” Custer said of his run with Larson. “I have respect for him racing me clean there. That was a lot of fun.”
“… I was happy with that today. That is the best speed we have had all year in the Haas Automation Mustang. It was really good. The four of us up front kind of gave it to the 7 car but that is how it is sometimes. I was happy with our run.
“I think we showed a lot of speed today.”
Ryan Reed, Jeremy Clements, Brennan Poole, Matt Tifft and Blake Koch also advanced to the 2017 XFINITY Series Playoffs. Dakota Armstrong missed the mark by 25 points.
MORE: Custer ready to run with the big boys