In the blink of an eye, playoff spots vanished at Watkins Glen. That’s exactly what happened when Joey Logano won his second race of the season. In addition, Kevin Harvick’s strong finish (combined with Jamie McMurray’s subpar one) guaranteed that the regular season points leader will have at least one win. Those two events all led to this: Aside from Kyle Busch, all drivers with at least one win have locked up a spot in the Chase, assuming they start the remaining races in the regular season. In all, 10 spots are spoken for. Six are still up for grabs (and if Kyle Busch stays in the top 30, five). And with 11 different winners, and only four regular season races remaining, it also means that at least one winless driver will earn a Chase spot. But it won’t happen this weekend. The only driver who can clinch a Chase spot on Sunday at Michigan will be the winner of the race, as long as he or she has also clinched a top 30 spot (a clinching driver needs to have a win and a 145-point lead over 31st in order to lock up a spot).(NASCAR)(8-14-2015)
