Spade Racing’s 2020 Nascar Cup Playoffs Preview: A Season Unlike Any Other, A Postseason Like EVERY Other

NOTE: Two pre-race posts today—the final part of my “Nascar for Newbies” series will be up later today!

You’d be hard-pressed to find a Nascar Cup season as bizarre as this one—race postponements and cancellations, no qualifying or practice, even Austin Dillon winning off a plate track.  But with a crazy regular season, there is likely to be a relatively sane post-season—just look at the sixteen playoff drivers and you realize there’s really no outliers.  Here’s where we at Spade Racing thinks we’ll see these sixteen survivors wind up over the next few months:

There's no metaphorical storm
clouds over the Playoffs--just
literal ones with Nascar's
rain luck this season!

FIRST FOUR ELIMINATED—they’re “just glad to be there” and avoid losing their rides

Matt DiBenedetto—well, MOST of them are unlikely to lose their rides.

Cole Custer—a dream rookie season comes to an early end, but he’s done miles better than his predecessor.

Clint Bowyer—a dull 2020 season comes to an early end, but he’s done miles worse than his predecessor.

William Byron—he finally got the monkey off his back, and an early Playoff departure could lead to a breakout 2021.  Or another one-win season where he argues with his crew chief.

NEXT FOUR ELIMINATED—they prove that they belong, but they barely miss the cut

Austin Dillon—still, a pretty good run for RCR, which is depressing to type.

Alex Bowman—quietly becoming a Ward Burton/Jeremy Mayfield type of driver, minus the thick accent and the meth problem.

Kurt Busch—…and thus the speculation on who gets the 42 ride…begins!

Chase Elliott—hmmm, any pattern?  Nah…

PENULTIMATE FOUR ELIMINATED—two exceed expectations, while two fall far short of their goals

Aric Almirola—every year there’s one winless driver who quietly advances, and this year its AA.

Joey Logano—the most-disappointing driver since the return to the track.  Maybe they could change crew chiefs?  Oh, wait…

Martin Truex Jr.—quiet success leads to a loud THUD at being eliminated from the Playoffs.

Kyle Busch—he rebounds from a disastrous regular season (by HIS standards) but still falls just a few points short.

THE RUNNERS-UP—three of the four who go to Phoenix with a shot at the Championship

4th Place: Ryan Blaney—sometimes an under-the-radar championship run leads to glory.  This is not one of those runs.

3rd Place: Denny Hamlin—a disappointing run in the desert has more and more people calling him The New Mark Martin.

2nd Place: Brad Keselowski—pretty good run for a guy on a one-year deal.

THE CHAMPION: Kevin Harvick—hard to pick against him in 2020 at Phoenix, isn’t it?

 

Uncle Max vs. Last Year’s Winners: Darlington

2020’s been a pretty bad year for everyone, from regular folks like you and me to whiny millionaires like Kyle Busch.  But my pick competition this year has been terrible even by 2020 standards.

Last Year’s Winner has more wins than all my wins combined—and could double that number this weekend.  Its funny how everyone said the lack of practice and qualifying would be an “equalizer for lesser-teams, but it seems like those who dominated last year are doing the same in 2020.

Oh well—at least I can be distracted at work where we’re already getting ready for the 2020 holiday season.  And if YOU find yourself in a store that’s set up for Christmas in September, please don’t bother pointing out how early that is.

Saturday Afternoon XFINITY SERIES SportClips 200 (4 wins) Chase Briscoe—keeps it going.

Sunday Afternoon TRUCK SERIES SC Lottery 200 (4 wins) Zane Smith—a Chevy spoils Toyota’s fun.

Sunday Night CUP SERIES Southern 500.  LAST YEAR’S WINNER (7 wins) Erik Jones  FAVORITE: (2 win) Denny Hamlin—another Southern 500 win.  NEXT FAVORITE: (2 wins) Kyle Busch—Rowdy finally finds the “on switch” for his 2020 season.  DARK HORSE: (0 wins) Jimmie Johnson—a week late (reminder that “DARK HORSE” picks during the Playoffs must be non-Playoff drivers).

2020 Donruss Panini Nascar Cards Unboxing PACK 21

Continuing a tradition of limited esteem, Spade Racing bought, unboxed, and unpacked a sealed box of 2020 Donruss (Panini) Nascar trading cards.  Join us as we go through each eight-card pack to find the good, the bad, and the downright weird.

PACK 21—A Brag, The Grag’, and Some Lag

Its Tony Stewart and the kids in this pack—Smoke gets a throwback standard card and a “Dominators” subset.  This makes me wonder who decides who’s going to be in each “Subset”, especially ones with names like “Dominators” and “Race Kings”.  Has anyone ever turned it down for humility’s sake?

FIRST THING’S FIRST: Here we see Noah Gragson with the unfortunately named “Crash Racers” on his firesuit.  We also see the incongruous combo of a state-of-the-art mobile game and Armour, purveyor of fine potted meats.

SECOND LOOK: Such a nice shot of such a beautiful throwback scheme.  Thankfully the “American Ethanol” lettering works well with this look—if it was, say, “Symbicort” it might’ve clashed.

TO THE BACK: Daniel Suarez’s card wisely looks to the past, since at the time this card was printed it wasn’t known where he would race in 2020.  That’s the issue with cards these days—there’s not enough time to have all the info correct, and not enough demand for an “Update” set.

FINAL SCORE: 6 tear-offs out of 10