{"id":210134,"date":"2025-09-08T12:03:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210134\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T12:03:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:03:17","slug":"nascar-gateway-winners-losers-alex-bowman-svg-on-brink-of-playoff-elimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210134\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Gateway winners, losers: Alex Bowman, SVG on brink of playoff elimination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denny Hamlin<\/a> was never in danger of missing out in the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> playoffs.<\/p>\n

But Hamlin nevertheless secured his spot in the next round by winning the Enjoy Illinois 300<\/a> on Sept. 7 at World Wide Technology Raceway.<\/p>\n

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Hamlin and runner-up finisher Chase Briscoe have locked down two of the 12 spots in the next round, with several drivers with comfortable cushions heading into next weekend’s race at Bristol.<\/p>\n

But there are three drivers in major playoff trouble<\/a> heading to the 0.5-mile concrete track.<\/p>\n

Here are the winners and losers from the NASCAR Gateway race:<\/p>\n

PLAYOFF PICTURE: <\/strong>NASCAR playoff picture: Cup Series points standings after Gateway<\/a><\/p>\n

NASCAR Gateway winners and losers: Alex Bowman, SVG in playoff perilWinner: Chase Elliott<\/p>\n

Elliott entered the weekend in 11th in points, nine points ahead of 13th, after a so-so result at Darlington.<\/p>\n

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But Elliott increased his cushion ahead of the cutline by 19 points after being contention for most of the day at Gateway en route to finishing third.<\/p>\n

Elliott drove from 19th to 10th in the 45-lap first stage, then was among the top five or six drivers throughout the final 150 laps.<\/p>\n

Now 28 points ahead of 13th, Elliott should feel comfortable going to Bristol where he has seven top-10s in the last 11 races.<\/p>\n

Winner: Joey Logano<\/p>\n

Logano was below the playoff cutline by three points coming into Gateway and needed a good race result on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The defending Cup Series champion got it, picking up eight stage points in Stage 2 before finishing fifth.<\/p>\n

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Logano never got the optimal track position late in the race to make a run at Hamlin or Briscoe, but the No. 22 team achieved the objective in St. Louis.<\/p>\n

Logano is now 21 points ahead of the cutoff line heading to Bristol, a track he has struggled at in the NextGen era. Logano has five consecutive finishes at Bristol outside of the top 20.<\/p>\n

Losers: Alex Bowman and Shane van Gisbergen<\/p>\n

Alex Bowman and Shane van Gisbergen basically had the same kind of race at Gateway that each had at Darlington.<\/p>\n

Bowman had a pit-road issue late to erode any chance at a decent finish following another poor qualifying effort.<\/p>\n

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SVG gave up the final point in Stage 1 to Chase Elliott on the final lap of the stage, then languished outside the top 20 by the second half of the race.<\/p>\n

Bowman just about needs a win at Bristol to advance to the next round, now 35 points behind the playoff cutline. SVG has a 15-point deficit to make up, which is unlikely given his record on ovals in his rookie Cup Series season.<\/p>\n

Loser: Josh Berry<\/p>\n

Berry’s race at Darlington virtually ended by the second turn on Lap 1 when he suffered significant damage after contact with Tyler Reddick.<\/p>\n

At Gateway, Berry’s day lasted 35 laps before spinning after contact with Chase Elliott and making hard contact with the outside wall.<\/p>\n

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After back-to-back finishes in last, Berry’s deficit to the playoff cutline is 45 points. He is in a definite must-win situation at Bristol.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Gateway winners, losers: Alex Bowman, SVG on brink of playoff elimination<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin was never in danger of missing out in the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":210135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[46],"tags":[35119,71435,46824,4422,1418,11130,73950,9650,1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-210134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-alex-bowman","tag-bristol","tag-chase-briscoe","tag-chase-elliott","tag-cup-series","tag-denny-hamlin","tag-gateway","tag-joey-logano","tag-nascar","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115168582470800748","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}