Playoff bubble drivers prepared to fight for postseason fate

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – On the outside looking in, Daniel Suárez is prepared to fight for his spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Holding onto the final provisional postseason position, Bubba Wallace is hopeful to fend off the challenges being thrown his way. It culminates with Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), the penultimate race of the Cup Series regular season. MORE: Cup standings | Watkins Glen schedule Suárez enters 17th in the standings, just outside the 16-driver grid and 28 points back of Wallace. The Trackhouse Racing driver made the playoffs for the first time last year thanks to a win at Sonoma Raceway, another road course. He’s never qualified for the postseason on points, but that doesn’t mean he’s backing down from the challenge. “The way I personally perform, I love being in these kinds of scenarios,” Suárez said Saturday. “I feel like as a race-car driver and as an athlete, you really live for moments like this. You don’t get to experience moments like this all the time. And when you do experience these moments, I feel like that’s really when you get to show what you’re built of.” Suárez’s third-place finish last week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course was “the worst third-place I’ve ever had … by a lot,” he said. After winning the pole for the event, Suárez led six laps and was hot on leader Michael McDowell’s tail for much of the event along with that of Chase Elliott. But a slow stop that saw the air hose get caught beneath his left-front tire under green-flag conditions dropped the No. 99 car over 10 seconds behind McDowell. Watkins Glen offers a chance for the team to rebound from a costly miscue with just two chances left to make the playoffs. “We had long meetings, long conversations, this week about Indianapolis,” Suárez said. “I think that even though it’s not great that it happened, I feel like we learned a lot from that mistake because there are a lot of people that could have done something different, something better to avoid that problem, including myself. So I feel like as a team, we grew a lot in the last few days and I’m excited for this weekend’s challenge.” Wallace is on the other side of the picture – the good side, for now. The problem for Wallace, driver of the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing, is that there is a hungry pack of drivers behind him. And if another new winner emerges from behind him in points – a la Suárez, Ty Gibbs, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman or AJ Allmendinger – Wallace would suddenly be on the outside looking in. “Go Michael McDowell. Go Tyler Reddick,” Wallace said with a laugh. “Go everybody else that’s in front of us.” Wallace historically struggles on road courses, backed by the stats which note one top-five finish and two top 10s on the tracks with right turns. In one sense, he’s encouraged entering Sunday’s race, knowing at least his effort has made up for his lack of results. In another, he’s discouraged his efforts haven’t been rewarded. “I’m coming in here with a positive outlook,” Wallace said. “I'm excited to get on track and see. It's just when you get in the race, I don't know what happens. You know, I just sit there and ride. Wherever I start’s wherever I finish. Like the race craft (is a problem). “So I got a lot of people in my corner trying to help out, which is good and getting us better. And so we're not just staying stagnant. We're attempting and putting all the efforts forward to get better results here.” Two other drivers eager for no new winners? Former champions Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski. The two are comfortably above the provisional elimination line – by 145 points and 143 points, respectively – but if new victors below them break through at both Watkins Glen and Daytona, only one of the two will advance. “I think we knew looking back four or five weeks ago that you couldn't count on points getting you in,” Keselowski said. “So I wouldn't say there's any big surprise for us. Actually, I was working the other way, where I was getting more surprised that there was an opportunity to make it in on points than vice versa. So you know, I think it's up to us to go execute and have that opportunity.” Gibbs is just behind Suárez in the point standings, but his 21-point deficit to Suárez means the rookie is 49 markers out of a postseason position. In the playoff hunt as a first-year full-timer, Gibbs is relishing the opportunity but reflective upon what’s kept him out of Victory Lane thus far. “I think just a lack of execution on my part,” Gibbs said. “I think we've had great, great cars, great pit stops. I think it just comes down to me being somewhat of a rookie and having to be better in a lot of different situations.” RELATED: Catch up on the playoff bubble Then of course is Chase Elliott, whose track record at Watkins Glen is exceptional but sits in a must-win position entering Sunday’s race. But the 2020 champion said Saturday he made too many mistakes in qualifying en route to a 15th-place starting position. The five-time defending recipient of the Most Popular Driver Award has never missed the playoffs. Through the frustration was a glimmer of optimism, thanks to the speed of Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, who starts second behind Denny Hamlin on Sunday. “William had a lot of pace there, so that’s good,” Elliott said. “Hopefully I can figure out how to drive the vehicle faster.” MORE: How Elliott blocks out noise, leans on team The Glen marks, in many drivers’ minds, the last chance to control their postseason fates. The unpredictable nature of superspeedways such as Daytona next weekend provides far more uncertainty than clarity. “Daytona, to show up there in a must-win situation is like going to Vegas and having to hit the nearest slot machine for the jackpot,” Elliott said. “That’s just silly. So to me, this is the opportunity that we have the most control over and didn’t have a very good start to the weekend. Puts you in a tough spot, but look: It’s nobody’s fault but mine that we’re in the spot we’re in.”