Cup playoffs frustrating Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney

LAS VEGAS — These fickle playoffs have proved perplexing and frustrating for Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney. 

For the third consecutive time, Elliott entered a round as the points leader only to struggle and give away part of his advantage. That his 21st-place finish Sunday at Las Vegas is his best result in the opening race of a round in this year’s playoffs is telling. 

Had Elliott not won the regular season title (collecting 15 playoff points) and five races this season, he likely would be below the cutline with two races left in the Round of 8. The series races Sunday at Homestead (2:30 p.m. ET on NBC).

His performance in the regular season has him 17 points above the cutline in a playoffs that has seen him finish 20th or worse four times and place in the top 10 only twice. 

While he won Talladega and finished second at Bristol earlier in the playoffs, Elliott crashed at Darlington and crashed at Texas after tire issues. He saw his chances of winning at the Charlotte Roval end when a sign fell on the track to create a caution. On the restart, he was spun and finished 20th. 

Elliott was not competitive Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He scored no stage points and ran the final 185 laps outside the top 10. 

“Long day,” he said. “I did a terrible job, and I couldn’t give (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) and everybody a good direction as to how to fix it. Just got worse and made it worse and I didn’t get any better. Frustrating day.”

While Elliott has those points from the regular season to fall back on, Blaney doesn’t. Blaney still seeks his first points win in a season that has had a record-tying 19 different winners. 

Blaney was running second Sunday when he lost control of his car and hit the wall with less than 40