By: Ashley McCubbin

While everyone is excited for the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season to begin, it’s a sharp reminder that the battle to be one of the championship contenders begins right with Daytona International Speedway. After all, a win and you’re in the show.

But is it possible to predict who the final four and the champion will be? Alas, here are the way to early predictions for the NASCAR playoffs.

Round 12: Justin Allgaier, A.J. Allmendinger, Sheldon Creed, Cole Custer, Riley Herbst, Austin Hill, Brandon Jones, Jesse Love, Sam Mayer, Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith, Josh Williams

Round of 8: Justin Allgaier, A.J. Allmendinger, Sheldon Creed, Cole Custer, Austin Hill, Sam Mayer, Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith

Round of 4: Justin Allgaier, A.J. Allmendinger, Cole Custer, Sam Mayer

Champion: A.J. Allmendinger

A.J. Allmendinger is returning to the second-tier level with a simple goal, chasing a championship. It was something he tried to do before, placing fourth and fifth in the standings in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Oh, and there was also five wins in each of those campaigns. Now coming back with more experience under his plate after some solid NASCAR Cup Series runs, this is the time he makes it all come together.

The other three predicted to join him in the Championship 4 were easily placed there, based on this past season alone. They joined John Hunter Nemechek in the fight for the title at Phoenix Raceway after putting together solid campaigns throughout the duration of 2023.

Justin Allgaier has put himself in this position before, placing inside the top-five in the final standings in seven of the past eight seasons. He did so last year alongside four trips to victory lane with an average finish of 10.6.

Sam Mayer showed experience matters, putting together a solid second half of the season, beginning with the first of four wins at Road America. Returning to these tracks in knowing what to expect should give him what he was missing to be a constant threat all season in 2023.

Cole Custer won the 2023 championship with three wins, 14 top-five’s and 21 top-10’s. Is there really anything else that needs to be said?

When you look at the Round of 8, it also comes back down to previous experience by both driver and the team they have found themselves with. A lot of them are new combinations, like Sammy Smith & JR Motorsports or Sheldon Creed & Joe Gibbs Racing, but they should result in at least one trip to victory lane in 2024. However, being new to each other may be what holds them back from beating the aforementioned foursome. Furthermore, we have seen Sheldon Creed’s temper sometimes get in the way of focusing on the task at hand. Could that become an issue this year?

Compiling the Round of 12 was probably the easiest, as it was just looking through and seeing which drivers are running the full schedule and the teams they are doing so with. There has been a defined order of team ranking in the Xfinity Series, with certain organizations siting a step above others due to a relationship with a NASCAR Cup Series team. All drivers that have that connection are accounted for in those 16 names listed.

However, all it takes is someone to sneak in for a win on a superspeedway or road course and it changes the whole game. We’ve seen it before – Jeremy Clements did it a couple seasons ago, with Jeb Burton and Jordan Anderson Racing accomplishing the feat at Talladega Superspeedway. That’s why they say you must play the game as nothing is ever set in stone.

Let us know if we have the breakdown correct, or where you feel the prediction has gone off track.