What If NASCAR Had the Playoffs In 2013?

in the last episode of this series we found that Clint Boyer would outlast the weird and chaotic 2012 playoffs to win his first NASCAR championship now today in the 10th episode of 13-part series we take a look at the 2013 season would have played out under the playoff format remember that this is just a hypothetical scenario I know they would have raced differently this is just for fun so let's see who would make up the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series playoff grid starting off the first be locked in would be Jimmie Johnson with wins at the Daytona 500 Martinsville Pocono and Daytona again Carl Edwards is in with wins at Phoenix in Richmond Matt Kenseth in his first year with jgr would punch his ticket in with wins at Las Vegas Darlington Kentucky and Bristol Kenseth had originally won at Kansas but due to a penalty the win would be given to Kasey Kahne who was in with his victories at Bristol this Kansas race and Pocono Kyle Busch was back with wins at Auto Club Texas and Watkins Glen as well as Atlanta Kevin Harvick would make it after winning Richmond in the coke 600 the biggest upset of the season would be David Reagan's win at Talladega meaning that he would return to the playoffs Greg biffle's Michigan win got him in the show while Martin Truex Jr streaked snapping win at Sonoma aided his playoff return Ryan Newman also made it with his win at Indianapolis and Joey Logano would be the final driver to make it off of wins at Michigan Tony Stewart would have made it in but after his injury ending his season I'm gonna bet that NASCAR would open up a spot in his place and Brian Vickers would not be eligible with his New Hampshire win due to being an Xfinity regular who ran part time and Cup so with 11 winners this meant that five drivers made it in off points these being Dale Earnhardt jr. Clint Bowyer Kurt Busch Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon remember Gordon being the final driver to make it in do to Stewart's injury just keep that in the back of your mind now the grid would be set like this as the round of 16 began the first round would go to Chicago and New Hampshire and Dover at Chicagoland rain would be a factor and due to the colder temperatures of the night engine issues would soon become playoff and championship issues but Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt jr. would be behind the eight ball tour blowing engine to Chicago meanwhile Matt Kenseth would lock up his spot to the next round winning the race as the field moved on to New Hampshire the grid would look like this and at New Hampshire Matt Kenseth would once again win adding more playoff points to his total at the same time Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson ran well enough to lock themselves into the next round on point alone meanwhile Kasey Cain's poor showing aided into the growing number of drivers tiptoeing their way around the cut line David Ragan would basically be eliminated after the second stage at Dover while Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards both had poor showings that left them out both Dale jr. and Joey Logano showed up competitively but it was the 88 team who would outlast the 22 living to fight another day after falling just short and a duel for the win would teammate Jimmie Johnson at Dover so heading into the round of 12 the grid would look like this the round of 12 would take place at Kansas Charlotte and Talladega Ryan Newman would have the first major falter finishing 35th after a wreck at Kansas at the end of the day the gap would turn out to be too much to overcome in the round meanwhile Kevin Harvick locked up a spot in the route of 8 with the wind heading to Charlotte favorite Brad Keselowski was stuck below the cut line he would end up being the only driver under this line to improve his championship standing at Charlotte as he would win and join happy Harvick in the round of 8 the wind would shift the cut line framing heading into Talladega as now 31 points would separate ninth place Clint Bowyer from eighth place Dale Earnhardt jr. now I'd like to say that Talladega would shuffled a grid that it would be crazy nothing like it but nothing ever made realized boy or Biffle and Newman were complete non factors as the majority of the race was controlled by Jimmie Johnson Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt jr. the eighth place driver the race would be won by a non playoff guy and Jamie McMurray as well meaning no miracle win would take place so the grid reset again with eight drivers this time the round of 8 would take place at Martinsville Texas and Phoenix Jeff Gordon the guy who barely made it in as a 16th seed would be the first to lock in his championship trip to Miami with his first win of the season at Martinsville behind him in the points the grid remained a bit spread out due to the large difference in playoff points earned so heading to Texas there was potential and this potential was seeming to be unlocked Kevin Harvick's eighth place run was enough to give him a one-point advantage over Kyle Busch for the fourth and final spot but not too far back because of a second-place finish in many stage points Dale jr. was propelled to only three points behind Harvick Brad Keselowski was not much further back in seventh only 14 points behind Harvick the only sure way to get to Miami as a contender was to do what Jimmie Johnson did it Texas win so heading to Phoenix there would be two spots up for grabs between six drivers Kyle Busch is good but not great run would keep him out while Kasey Kahne and Brad Keselowski would remain up front and Kahne would finish up front it was not enough to get to the other contenders in points three drivers really would be fighting for these two spots Matt Kenseth Kevin Harvick and Dale are in her Junior really Kenseth was safe even with a dismal 23rd place run and even though Dale Earnhardt jr. ran up front all day and finished fourth it would be all for nothing as Kevin Harvick would knock off a clutch victory at Phoenix so the championship at Homestead would be settled between Jimmie Johnson Matt Kenseth Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon the opening 160 laps would see Matt Kenseth dominate with the two Hendrick teammates in hot pursuit because of caution strategy crazy late race restarts the field would be jumbled around a bit in it the only one to nearly fully recover of the Final Four was Matt Kenseth he would end the season in a tight battle for second on track with his former 2000 ricky opponent Dale Earnhardt jr. and with the other three running ninth tenth and eleventh it would be enough Matt Kenseth would be the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series playoff champion it would be his second playoff title and third overall the 2013 playoffs was an odd one to say the least once again every driver that made it in had made it in before Jeff Gordon the guy who barely made it in due to Stewart's misfortunes would be in the final four if he isn't in and Stewart was able to be in that battle for second at the end of the race between Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt jr. would have had a whole lot more importance because it would have been not only for second on track but for the championship instead Earnhardt finished fifth scoring the most points of a non final for driver and the most for that spot since Kurt Busch did in 2004 13 drivers in the playoffs want to race throughout the season with Dale Earnhardt jr. Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch being the only three to go winless the final four when 17 of the 36 races Gordon once Harvick four times and Johnson and Kenseth both won six three of these drivers kept a streak alive of being in every single playoffs Matt Kenseth Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon were the ones to do so Jimmie Johnson was the only one so far that's qualified for every final four in the last ten seasons Tony Stewart's nine-year streak ended with his broken leg Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle were the only two real-life top ten points drivers that didn't finish in the top ten in the playoffs they were replaced by eighth place Brad Keselowski who didn't even make the chase in 2013 and 10th place Martin Truex Jr who because of many odd circumstances also didn't make the chase into 13 as for the bottom of the grid David Reagan would post the worst playoff performance ever scoring 2,000 87 points 38 points lower than the previous worst ever of 2000 125 points by Ryan Newman in 2006 and he was 113 points below the highest 16th place finishing driver ever and David Reutimann's 2,200 points in 2010 so with all of this being presented and laid out I want to pass this to you what did you think of the 2013 NASCAR playoffs leave a comment down below leave a like - and subscribe for more great NASCAR content if you can and until next time have a good one [Music]

Channel: The Iceberg

Views: 29,283

Keywords: NASCAR, Playoffs, NASCAR Playoffs, The Iceberg, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr, Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, David Ragan, Chicagoland, New Hampshire, Dover, Kansas, Charlotte, Talladega, Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix, Homestead, Sport, Sports, Motorsport, Motorsports, Racing, Auto Racing, NASCAR Racing, Crash, Wreck, Spin, Entertainment

Id: Y2GIitaaMlw

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 23 2019