Last season, it was a wild scenario for which Ryan Blaney made the drivers playoffs but not the owners. That’s because Kurt Busch, while hopping out of his ride for the postseason, the 23XI Racing team elected to keep the 45 car in the owners race.

Why not? Most people don’t understand this but the owners standings is where the money is made. The drivers get all the attention and glory but the owners points is a truly underrated thing that remarkably slips under the cracks. I have no clue why but ask most owners and they’d tell you while the drivers title is great, an owners championship is even better.

Most years it lines up.

Bonus money is on the line in the owners race which is why it’s legitimately a thing to watch. Last year was brought to the surface because of Busch and the 45 ride.

As a result, it made the playoffs look a bit different between the two standings (owners vs. drivers). Kyle Larson actually raced for an owners title in 2022 at Phoenix. Chase Elliott raced for the drivers title but Larson was in over him in owners points since he won at Homestead.

This year, we’re likely heading to a similar stature.

Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet is 14th in owners points. But, owners is just like drivers in a sense that if the ride wins, it’s playoff bound. So, the same cars are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs that have won in both. The wildcard is different in which Brad Keselowski (+107), Kevin Harvick (+103) and Elliott (+30) are in.

Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota is 30 points out in owners but 32 points up in the drivers standings. Ty Gibbs is 62 points out of the owners race.

Which means Wallace does want to go for the win on Saturday night because it would not only put him in the drivers championship, but the 23 car in the owners too and if you ask Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan, I bet they’d tell you how big of a deal that would be.

So while Wallace has to take it somewhat easy to point his way into the drivers playoffs, it does him no good on both if someone below him in points wins because they’d take a driver and owner spot into the playoffs.

But if he wins, he gets both.