66 Minutes Encapsulates The Chaos Of The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs

 66 minutes is all it took for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs to change entirely. 

Martin Truex and Denny Hamlin? Mechanical Failures. 

Ryan Blaney? 15 point swing in his favor with a P2 finish.

Christopher Bell? Locked into the Championship 4. 

66 minutes is all it took. 

Blaney and Bell battled for the win late, after Kyle Larson, the dominant car of the day, decided to create a manmade beach on the front straightaway, crashing into the sand barrels coming onto pit road. 

From there, it was anybody’s race, and Christopher Bell, who at one point ran 18th with a car that was extremely loose, was in the catbird’s seat, watching as the laps ticked down. 

He did enough to hold off Ryan Blaney and lock himself into the Championship 4 for the 2nd year in a row. 

It’s the 4th clutch win in the last 2 years for Bell, who is proving to be the present and future for Joe Gibbs Racing, who desperately needs a long term plan with the eventual retirement of the aforementioned Truex & Hamlin. 

Speaking of those two, Sunday could not have gone worse for half of the JGR contingent. Truex struggled, par for the course in the Playoffs, but still had a chance to salvage some points before his engine let loose and ended his hopes of being on the plus side of the cutline heading to Martinsville.

Meanwhile Hamlin, who was at the forefront of some controversy with Ryan Blaney, had a tie rod break while running in the top 5, putting him behind the 8 ball headed to the Paperclip. Fellow playoff drivers Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher maintained their positions, with Reddick still being within striking distance and Buescher practically needing a win to have a chance to win the title. William Byron remains 30 points above the cutline after a 4th place run Sunday. 

Sometimes, one race is all that's needed to change the course of a season. On Sunday, it was 66 minutes.