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| Denny Hamlin won at Darlington in May. |
For the next 10 weeks, the 16 drivers eligible to compete for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Championship will be chopped slowly with four drivers being eliminated every three weeks until all we have left is four drivers, or the Championship 4, racing at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 8. The best finish among those final four drivers wins the championship.
After tinkering with the setup over the years, NASCAR has a nice and easy-to-understand format where those who were great in the regular season are rewarded properly in the postseason with a head start.
Kevin Harvick led the regular season with seven wins and won a bunch of stages so he starts out off with a 57-point lead over the No. 16 seed Matt DiBenedetto when the drop the flag for the Cook Out Southern 500 in South Carolina. Denny Hamlin had the second-most wins with six and begins with a 47-point lead.
Just for perspective, William Byron gained 44 points for winning at Daytona Saturday. Those head start points will carry over into each of the next nine weeks, but the Championship 4 at Phoenix will be reset with all having equal points.
While accumulating the most points to advance is the goal, winning races is the name of the game. The eligible drivers who win races in each stage automatically qualify for the next round regardless of where they stand in points. Winning races is the best way to take care of business.
The added bonus of coolness this season is the final race being at the flat 1-mile layout at Phoenix after being at Homestead-Miami Speedway since the postseason began in 2004. Being successful at the 1.5-mile tracks became the main focus for teams because there were more races on them and those who did the best usually won the championship at Homestead.
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