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

In the first part of this series examining which tracks offer winless drivers the best chances at making the playoffs, I covered Kevin Harvick, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suárez, Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher. Here, I tackle six more winless drivers.

I use average finishing position as the primary metric given that running near the front is a prerequisite to winning. But I also consider previous wins, top-five and top-10 finishes.

In the tables that follow, a number without a decimal point indicates a single race result rather than an average.

Currently 15th in points, Bubba Wallace has best finishes this year of fourth at Charlotte, Kansas and Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the last 10 races of the regular season don’t contain a non-superspeedway 1.5-mile track.

Road courses are Wallace’s worst track type. He has an average finish position at road courses of 25.1 from 2018 to the present. However, the 23XI Racing driver has had success at the Indy road course. Although there have only been two races at the track, Wallace’s  average is ninth and he finished fifth last year.

Wallace shines on superspeedways. He has a 16.5 average finish for all superspeedways, a win at Talladega and four top-five finishes at Daytona in 12 races there. Superspeedway averages tend to be lower than other types of tracks because of the disproportionate number of multi-car wrecks. Atlanta and Daytona are both possibilities.

Because I’m loathe to rely on any wild-card tracks, though, I also want to note that, although Wallace has an 18.5 average finish at Michigan, he finished second there last year. Given the uncertainty of the Indy road course, Michigan might be a better chance for a win. A third-place finish in New Hampshire last year makes that