The regular season is complete and 16 drivers are ready to pursue the Cup Series championship. However, there is no time to rest considering the dangers that loom in the opening round of the playoffs.
The playoffs begin at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a drafting-style track. The opening round continues with a road course race at Watkins Glen International and then it ends with a return to Bristol Motor Speedway. Four drivers will see their championship dreams end after this opening round.
"Yeah, this is what NASCAR wants," Denny Hamlin said on the Sept. 2 episode of his "Actions Detrimental" podcast. "Certainly, I think that you could have some championship -- legit Final Four contenders -- go out in the first round.
"I think that's what they want when they put Atlanta in the playoffs and added another road course."
A drafting-style track, a road course, and a short track. On paper, this is a mix of potential wild card events and that is before you factor in the tires the teams will use.
Goodyear Director of Racing Greg Stucker appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio ahead of Darlington and promised that the new tire for Watkins Glen International will be "extremely aggressive." He said that three drivers taking part in a two-day test session saw around four seconds of falloff over a 25-lap run.
Watkins Glen -- and other road courses -- are not known for having excessive tire wear. Teams can continue to stretch a run while pursuing stage points and the race win.
Having tires that aggressively wear will force teams to change how they approach the three stages. Drivers will have to balance pushing hard for track position and conserving tires in case the race has a limited number of cautions.
The spring race at Bristol also had an extreme amount of tire falloff, which caught teams and Goodyear alike by surprise. The track would not take rubber, which contributed to tires cording at a faster rate. This aggressive falloff forced teams to adapt on the fly and try to conserve their tires so they wouldn't unexpectedly blow a tire and hit the wall.
Goodyear held another test at Bristol in June and saw a similar amount of falloff. Drivers could run around 25-30 laps early in the day before needing new tires. This number increased to around 40 laps in the afternoon after crews applied a coat of PJ1 traction compound.
The unknowns surrounding the Bristol tire falloff remain entering the Round of 16. This presents potential dangers for drivers who enter the elimination race below the cutline. If they push too hard for points, they could blow a tire and watch their championship dreams fade away.
"Atlanta can be (a wild card). We've seen some pretty chaotic finishes there," Reddick said before last weekend's regular-season finale. "Just stack-ups can happen at a bad time and take out a lot of cars.
"Watkins Glen, I feel like is a bit more straightforward. It seems like the tire we're going to go with is going to be much different than we're used to. So, I mean, it's very possible with that, it takes a little bit different formula than what you've seen in the past to win there. So that has the potential.
"I think with a place like Bristol, if it remains like it did in the spring, then yeah, it could just be totally wide open there as well. It has all the potential to be a real disaster if you're not careful."