Incredibly, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch might not advance in NASCAR Playoffs

By Nick Tylwalk | Oct 16, 2017

TALLADEGA, AL - OCTOBER 15: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Caramel Toyota, and Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet, are involved in an on-track incident during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 15, 2017 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Getty Images) /

There’s a decent chance the Round of 8 is going to be without either Jimmie Johnson or Kyle Busch — and possible both of them.

If the next round of the NASCAR Playoffs started next week, Kyle Busch, the man who tore through the second half of the 2017 regular season and won two races in the first round, would not be participating. And Jimmie Johnson, he of seven NASCAR Cup Series championships, would just barely squeak in.

That’s what Talladega can do. The Alabama 500 amplified the track’s unpredictable nature to heretofore unseen degrees (at least according to former driver turned announcer Jeff Burton) with a series of wrecks in the race’s final stages, including the so-called “Big One.” As a result, not only did the race to the checkered flag feature a comically small group of only 10 cars, that group didn’t include some of NASCAR’s biggest names.

In fact, of the 12 cars on the lead lap at the end of the race, only eventual winner Brad Keselowski and sixth-place Denny Hamlin were playoff contenders. Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch? They finished 24th and 27th, respectively, finishes neither could really afford since their playoff rivals have been running so close together in most races.

More from NASCAR

If you had asked most fans and NASCAR observers who would be around challenging for the championship at the end of May, Johnson definitely would have been on the short list of names you’d hear. Same goes for Busch if you asked the same question at the end of August.

Now, both men are in precarious situations. Johnson is just two points behind Ryan Blaney in seventh, but also only seven points clear of Busch. Rowdy, in turn, has just a one-point advantage on Matt Kenseth. The problem isn’t really the number of points involved, but rather the number of drivers packed closely together in the standings.

There’s also the fact that if anyone below them in the playoff standings win at Kansas Speedway next weekend, securing an automatic berth in the Round of 8, both Johnson and Busch could be out depending on what happens in front of them. That would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago.

The best way to avoid sweating things out would be for one of them just to go win the race themselves, but the Hollywood Casino 400 is a good but not necessarily fantastic race for Johnson, who’s won it twice but not since 2011. Busch, meanwhile, has never won the fall Kansas race, though he did win its spring counterpart just last year.

Next: How Mountain Dew is celebrating Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s final race

Martin Truex Jr. still figures to be the odds on favorite to win this season’s championship given his speed and consistency all year long. At one point, you could have made an argument that Johnson and Busch would be two of the competitors battling it out with him at Homestead. They still might, given Johnson’s title-winning pedigree and Busch’s knack for coming up big when it counts.

But now they have zero room for error at Kansas, a stunning reversal of fortune that could only have been supplied by Talladega. Whether they falter or end up proving themselves in the clutch, there’s the potential for incredibly high drama next Sunday, and it should be a lot of fun for everyone but the drivers and their teams.