You want to know how unusual this year is? I can’t ever remember coming to the end of June and not feeling like there was a favorite (or two) to win the Cup championship.
This year? I don’t have a cle who is going to be left standing after Phoenix. Heck, I’m not even sure I can narrow down the four who will be competing for the title.
I mean, look at it. Sixteen races into the year, only four drivers have won multiple races, and none of them have won more than two. Of those four, have any of them shown the consistency to be considered a title contender? Maybe Ross Chastain? Maybe?
Chase Elliott is your points leader; and he only have 3 top-5s. Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson have 6 top-5s each, but Larson also has 4 DNFs. That’s a quarter of his races!
This year is so strange that four of the winners are below 16th in the standings. That means the cut line for making the playoffs on points is 11th.
Does a driver or two emerge over the next 10 races to be the odds-on favorite going into the playoffs? Very possibly. But, I think it’s still just as good a bet that this uncertainty for the rest of the final four will continue right until the checkered flag flies at Martinsville.