Friday 5: Cup teams scramble for playoff points halfway through regular season

With 11 different winners in the first 13 races, this Cup season is starting to look unlike most years. 

Already this season, three drivers have collected their first career Cup victory — Austin Cindric (Daytona 500), Chase Briscoe (Phoenix) and Ross Chastain (Circuit of the Americas).

Even with all the different winners, three former champions — Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski — remain winless this season. 

But there’s something else to be mindful of as the series reaches the halfway point of the regular season: The playoffs this year could be tighter.

William Byron has a series-high 13 playoff points. That’s the lowest total for the series leader at the halfway mark of the Cup regular season since playoff points were added to the NASCAR scoring system in 2017.

In another sign of the parity this season, nine drivers are within seven playoff points of Byron. There has never been more than three drivers within seven playoff points of the leader at this point in the season since 2017.

With five playoff points for a win and one playoff point for each stage win, seven playoff points is the maximum for a race — except the Coca-Cola 600, which has an extra stage, giving it a maximum of eight playoff points. 

What this all means is that the second half of the season could see more intense racing for stage wins and race wins.

Playoff points have proved key in previous seasons.

Truex was the final driver to advance from the second round last year. He finished 25 points ahead of Harvick for the last transfer spot to the third round. The difference was playoff points. Truex had 27 more playoff points (29-2) than Harvick.

Truex also was the last of the four drivers to advance to the title race a year ago, beating