Dr. Diandra: Five winless drivers’ best chances to make the playoffs

Editor’s Note: Part 1 of 2. The second part will run Sunday

During this rare off-week, winless drivers are mentally reviewing the remaining 10 regular-season races to identify which tracks offer them the best chances to make the playoffs. I’ve crunched the numbers.

No one wants to rely on the wild-card races — two superspeedways and the Chicago street course. Two other courses, Nashville Superspeedway and the Indianapolis road course, have only been on the Cup Series schedule for two years.

Given those limits, I examined the careers of drivers and more recent numbers to identify the tracks at which each winless driver has the best chance to clinch a playoff berth.

In each table below, numbers without decimal points represent single races rather than averages.

Kevin Harvick has options.

The first is Nashville, where he has an average finish of 7.5 thanks to fifth- and 10th-place finishes. Harvick’s career average finish of 11.9 at tracks between 1 and 1.49 miles boosts his chances at Nashville.

An even better bet, however, is Richmond. Harvick broke his winless streak there last year with his fourth career win at the 0.75-mile track. He has a 9.54 career average finishing position at Richmond, with 30 top-10 finishes in 44 starts. Harvick’s average finish in the Next Gen car at Richmond is 2.7 and he finished fifth in the spring race.

After winning Richmond last year, Harvick won the next week at Michigan, where he has an 11.0 career average finish and six wins. A repeat win there is also a possibility.

Harvick’s chances of winning in the next 10 races are boosted by his 9.0 average finishing position in the last five races — the best among winless drivers.

Last year’s second-place finisher Ross Chastain isn’t running