July 11, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Oh how close Corey LaJoie came to shaking up the Playoff standings

With seven races left to determine the 2022 Cup Playoff grid, imagine how the field would have been turned upside down had Corey LaJoie won at Atlanta Motor Speedway?

Sure, LaJoie and the No. 7 Spire Motorsports team are currently 31st in the Cup point standings—44 points outside of 30th. But the points for the win combined with seven races/opportunities to vault into the top 30 would have certainly put the pressure on the winless drivers currently in the top 16 in the point standings.

While Ryan Blaney is likely safe—he’s second in points but 14th on the Playoff grid—Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell and Kevin Harvick certainly would be feeling the pressure between now and the cut-off race at Daytona International Speedway on August 27.

Blaney and Truex only have five Playoff points. Bell and Harvick have zero. No, Blaney hasn’t won in 2022, but the team has been consistent. He finished fourth in both stages on Sunday before finishing fifth—his seventh top-five result of the season. Only Ross Chastain, who scored his 10th top-five finish with his controversial second-place run at Atlanta, and Kyle Larson (eight top-fives) have more.

From Blaney’s driver’s seat on Sunday, he observed race winner Chase Elliott blowing the doors off of the competition. Blaney told the No. 12 Team Penske crew he had nothing for the No. 9 Chevy. Still, he remained in the hunt throughout the race.

“We just lacked a little speed,” Blaney said. “We were decent, but we kind of lost track position there when some guys only did fuel and it was hard to get back up…You just can’t go anywhere.  It gets two-wide and you’re just stuck and you can’t really go anywhere unless you were the 9 and you were the fastest car out there by a mile. It was pretty easy for him to go wherever he wanted.”

Truex started ninth and led laps early but didn’t gain stage points before he was collected in the wreck spawned by Chastain on Lap 91. The No. 19 recovered but gained no points in the second stage either. Still, Truex fought and returned to the point on Lap 242 after Bell spun on the front stretch but LaJoie took the lead following another Chastain-triggered caution Lap 246. Truex finished 11th. He’s currently 71 points behind Blaney and trails point leader Elliott by 118.

Of the top 10 drivers in the Cup standings, Truex’s two top-fives are the fewest. Only William Byron’s five top 10s are less than Truex’s seven top 10s. Despite Truex’s determination, the finishes simply aren't there.

Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team experienced multiple issues on Sunday at Atlanta. Prior to the spin, Bell lost a wheel on pit road after the pit crew failed to secure it on the No. 20 Toyota. The incident came a week after Toyota elected to change pit crews. He finished 19th and remains on the bubble.

Harvick is on the outside looking in. He finished 12th on Sunday, ending a three-race streak of top-10 finishes. The No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team just hasn't been competitive this season. It’s not just a lack of speed hurting Harvick’s efforts, the issues are across the board. He currently is 19 points outside of the top 16. If Bell’s problems continues, so could his position and Harvick’s.

Still, LaJoie led a career-best 19 laps and was two circuits away from victory in the Quaker State 400 on Sunday. His milestone—and potential career-high finish ended after a block from Elliott and a miscue when LaJoie slammed the wall and collected three cars on the final lap.

But, oh, what might have been.

“I was going for it, I just came up a little short,” LaJoie told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio after being scored the last car on the lead lap. “I’m sure I’ll replay it 100 times in my head to see if I’d have done something different but I took my run when I had it. I couldn't have covered the run that (Elliott) and the 43 (Erik Jones) had up front. It just comes from being there. It comes from experience.”