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This year’s Playoff cutline was full of notable names and shockingly winless drivers. Out of the 16 drivers that made the playoffs last season, six did not make the 2024 Playoffs. So, what happened to those five drivers that kept them out of the 2024 Playoffs?
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. shocked the world last season, winning the 2023 Daytona 500.
This season, however, has not been the year that Stenhouse had hoped for. Four races into the season, Stenhouse fell below the top 20 in points and never emerged past that point again.
Specifically, the last ten races leading up to the cutoff race at Darlington were not kind to Stenhouse. In that stretch, Stenhouse had only five lead lap finishes with four accidents. All the worse, this stretch began with three top-tens in the first five races.
Many expected Stenhouse’s Playoff bid to come from a Superspeedway or drafting track. While Stenhouse is a drafting expert, his luck was not what it was last year, with just two top-tens out of the four races this season.
Not all things are bad for Stenhouse, as he signed an extension with JTG Daughtery Racing earlier this season. .
Michael McDowell and team Front Row Motorsports entered this year with high hopes. After a stellar 2022 and a late-season win in 2023, McDowell and FRM planned to compete all season long.
Early on, the FRM cars ran great. Now Tier-One members of Ford, the team had some of the best cars in qualifying. These qualifying runs included McDowell’s four pole awards. Prior to 2024, McDowell had never had a pole in a Cup Series race.
Unfortunately, his speed did not follow the team into race day. McDowell’s 13.9 average starting spot was 12th best in the Cup Series this season. However, his 21.1 average finish is 23rd best.
McDowell has compensated for his lack of speed on ovals in the past with his winning abilities on road courses and superspeedways. However, superspeedways were not kind to him this year, and his solid runs at road courses weren’t enough to make up for other struggles.
2025 looks like a fresh start for the former Daytona 500 winner. McDowell and Crew Chief Travis Peterson are both headed to Spire Motorsports.
Bubba’s 2024 came down to the final race of the year, and while he matched his 2023 stats 2/3 of the way through 2024, the veteran driver came up short in making the cutline.
Wallace’s lack of a playoff spot is due to the lack of a win, as well as upset winners like Harrison Burton, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, and Daniel Suarez. All of which Wallace had statistically better seasons than.
In fact, Wallace looks like a new driver coming off his underdog 2023 playoff run, that is a new driver that couldn’t find a win. Not that he didn’t have a chance at a win this season, leading multiple laps at Indianapolis and this week at Darlington.
Despite coming up short and a penalty for bumping Alex Bowman on the cool-down lap at Chicago, this year is not one for Wallace to put behind him. The driver and team have made great strides all year long, and 2025 looks like it will be big for the Alabama native.
Ross Chastain and Trackhouse Racing had their worst statistical season since teaming up in 2022.
Prior to this season, if I told you that Daniel Suarez would be in the 2024 Playoffs and Chastain wouldn’t, would that have shocked you? Suarez’s win at Atlanta was great, but Trackhouse struggled outside this race.
Much like last year, the team started slow, consistent but slow. Chastain made no real fireworks, which, in the Playoff format, does not do much for a driver.
At Kansas and Nashville, Chastain looked like he had a winning car. However, he needed a win; sadly, his run fell off in Kansas, and he wrecked in Nashville. Even some solid runs late in the season were not enough for Ross to get over the cutline.
The last breath of Chastain this season was a risky move at Darlington, staying out on older tires before dropping like a rock on the restart. While the season was not bad, Chastain simply could not win.
Trackhouse and Chastain need to put 2024 behind them as the team is expanding next season. A win late this year could help them do so.
Year two for Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing was a drastic change from their three-win 2023 campaign.
Busch found himself a few feet short of winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona to Harrison Burton. Even worse, he was centimeters away from locking himself into the playoffs at Atlanta earlier this season in that dramatic three-wide finish.
The two-time champion had early qualifying struggles that he made up for with good runs. However, when he had flat-out good runs, something got in the way of a good finish.
The No. 8 had a tough second half of the season. From race 12 at Kansas to race 23 at Richmond, Busch fell from 12th to 18th in points. All this drama came to a head at Darlington this Sunday when Busch couldn’t pass Chase Briscoe, once again, finishing just short.
Despite his close finishes, Busch raced clean in 2024, and while some fans are happy about that, his cleanliness may have kept him out of the playoffs.
Chris Buescher had a three-win 2023 season. His 2024 campaign was not the same.
It’s not that Buescher didn’t have a great regular season. Like Bubba Wallace, he ran well and would have been a Playoff driver if certain drivers hadn’t won. But when Buescher looked like he would win, it didn’t happen.
First, there was Kansas. Buescher found himself going head-to-head with Kyle Larson late in the race. Beating and banging to the line, it looked like Buescher was the winner. But Larson, by the closest margin in NASCAR history, took one from the RFK driver.
One week later, at Darlington, Buescher found himself the benefactor of a fierce battle between Brad Keselowski and Tyler Reddick. However, Reddick and Buescher ended up in the same spot, battling for the lead and wrecking, with Brad passing the two for the win.
2024 was a tough year for Buescher, and a solid 2025 can turn this chapter of his career into a year of growth.
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