MADISON, Ill. — For the first time, World Wide Technology will host a Cup playoff race and it comes in the middle of the opening round.
Much will be at stake in today’s race (pre-race coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network).
Here is what to watch for today:
1. The race to be above the cutline
Joey Logano is the first driver below the cutline, three points behind Shane van Gisbergen.
Logano seems poised to move up with how strong Team Penske has been at this track. Logano won the track’s inaugural Cup race in 2022 and teammate Austin Cindric won last year’s race after Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney ran out of fuel coming to take the white flag.
This is van Gisbergen’s first time at this track and he’ll face a difficult challenge to not fall below the cutline.
If others have problems, they could fall below the cutline. Chase Elliott is only nine points above the cutline. He’s never finished better than 13th in two starts at this track. Elliott will start 19th — behind all but one of the playoff drivers. Christopher Bell is 11 points above the cutline. Cindric is 12 points above the cutline.
2. Track position key
That’s a common refrain in the series but can be especially true at World Wide Technology Raceway.
“The passing is the most difficult part at this track,” said pole-sitter Denny Hamlin on his biggest challenge at this track. “The straightaways are long, the corners are pretty narrow, so the passing aspect, the clean air – which is like any other bigger race track with this car in general.”
Denny Hamlin will be joined on the front row by Kyle Larson in Sunday’s Cup playoff race at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Asked what he viewed as his biggest challenge in this race, defending winner Austin Cindric said: “The caution that I don’t know is gonna happen in the middle of stage two or stage three. That’s not necessarily in my control, but the strategy for this race is going to be probably as challenging as a road course in the playoffs because of how important track position is going to be.”
3. A narrow pit road
Pit lane is 22 feet wide, making it the narrowest in the Cup Series (Indianapolis’ pit road is 24 feet wide).
That can mean plenty of challenges for drivers, especially as they exit their pit stalls.
“The opportunities for failure are high, there’s a lot of them,” Ross Chastain said about pit road.
Austin Cindric seeks to repeat his 2024 win at the 1.25-mile track.
Last week, Carson Hocevar and Christopher Bell made contact on pit road. The incident damaged Bell’s car. He finished 29th.
“My role in that doesn’t really change much,” Bell said. “I’ll start by saying that (crew chief) Adam (Stevens) has a protocol for knowing if you’re in a contact-prone position with the guys pitted around you. He had a great process. … He has never had an issue like that on pit road.
“The situation had never come up of a car that we were pitted around was pitting on the lead lap but yet behind the lap down cars, so not caught up to the field and it bit us. (Stevens) has certainly refined his strategy and his protocol for coming into pit stops and I don’t expect that to happen again.”
