5 playoff drivers who may not return in 2024

Given Kevin Harvick’s retirement at the end of last year, a different playoff field was guaranteed for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season than for the 2023 season.

With eight races of the 26-race regular season schedule still remaining, it looks like the starting lineup of the 16 playoff drivers could indeed look quite different.

Several drivers who did not make the playoffs last year have already won this year, including Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports, Daniel Suarez of Trackhouse Racing Team and Austin Cindric of Team Penske, and several others are holding good positions in the points standings.

Here are five 2023 playoff drivers who are at risk of not being back in 2024.

Unless he pulls off another surprise win like he did last year at the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. simply won’t make the playoffs in 2024.

His only two playoff appearances in the previous 11 Cup Series seasons came after he found his way to victory, and he would not have scored points in either year (2017 or 2023).

Stenhouse is 24th in the points standings, 132 points below the cut line. He has finished in the top seven four times this year, including two top five finishes, but he has yet to prove himself as a real contender, having led just five laps in the first half of the year. He led at least 35 laps every year from 2017 to 2023.