By: Zach Arnold

Even though anyone can win their way into the next round, certain drivers have better odds than others. Keeping our eyes on which playoff drivers are consistently running in the top positions, there are some outliners after the first four races.

2021 Cup Series Champion,Kyle Larson is one of the drivers who has shown great speed in each of the playoff races. He opened up the round of 16 with three straight top-five finishes. One of those was a win at Darlington, the first race in the playoffs. A fourth-place finish the next week at Kansas showed the entire Cup Series field the No. 5 team was not messing around, followed by backing that up with a runner-up at Bristol.

To open out the round of 12, Larson appeared to have a win headed his way, and a ticket into the next round. However, a late race battle with Bubba Wallace caused him to spin out. He finished 31st after leading over 80 laps. If the Hendrick Motorsports driver can avoid the wrecks at Talladega, and have a strong run at the Charlotte Roval, the No. 5 team should have no issues with finding themselves in the Round of 8, especially with the way they have been running.

As many would expect, the next driver on this list is Denny Hamlin. How could he be left out? He captured a win in the elimination race at Bristol last weekend after a strong first two races of the playoffs. 

The week after, he rebounded well and finished second at Kansas. Throughout the playoffs, the No. 11 seems to always be running up front in contention for a top-five result. To begin the Round of 8, he finished in fifth at Texas. Is it finally Hamlin’s year?

Martin Truex Jr. could not be left off this list. Unlike Larson and Hamlin, the driver of the No. 19 has not had an easy path through the first four races of the 2023 playoffs. The regular season champion almost gave it all away in the first round of the playoffs. His best finish in the Round of 16 was 18th; Kansas and Bristol resulted in 36th and 19th. 

Truex Jr. only managed to make the next round of the playoffs thanks to his success in the regular season. All the playoff points he had helped him out as he advanced to the round of 12, only a few points over the cutline. Since the points reset every round, Truex would jump back up to second in the standings to begin the round of 12.

Unfortunately, the No. 19 team had problems at Texas, finishing 17th. If this team can get back to the point where they were in the regular season, they should have no problem finding themselves competing for a championship in November.

The second race of the Round of 12 is next Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. Catch the race on NBC Sports at 2:00 p.m.