Dale Earnhardt Jr. predicts next four NASCAR playoff drivers eliminated in Round of 12

This weekend, the NASCAR Playoffs kick off the Round of 12 in Loudon, New Hampshire. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is making his elimination picks. Four more drivers will be left out in a few weeks after the Roval. It will be here before we know it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn’t in the booth right now, but he’s still in the NASCAR conversation. His Dale Jr. Download podcast was back this week with more predictions about the playoff battle.

12 drivers remain. TJ Majors and Dale Jr. feel like they have the next four eliminations picked out. But they both feel very confident about the top drivers in the field.

“So, let’s look at the tracks first. We’ve got Loudon, Kansas, and what’s the third one? … and the Roval,” Majors said. “The top four, the top five are safe. … I think so. I mean, without a mechanical issue or something.”

Dale Jr. more or less agreed with the sentiment that the top drivers will be fine. Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, William Byron, Christopher Bell and Ryan Baleny all have between a 26 to 19 point gap on the cutline going into the first race of the round at Loudon.

“I think TJ’s right. I’m just going to go ahead and transfer the top five in,” Earnhardt explained. “I think Briscoe’s going to be safe because of Loudon and the Roval. He’s won at the Roval [in the Xfinity Series].”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives elimination picks

After a bit of discussion about the race tracks in the Round of 12, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave his four elimination picks. He’s got two very talented drivers out after this round.

“This is so tough. They’re all so good,” Dale Jr. said. “This is really hard. No scientific data here. No evidence or real hard study to back up this prediction. But my four that are going to struggle to make it into the next round are Chase Elliott, [Austin] Cindric, [Ross] Chastain, [Tyler] Reddick. I think that Logano, who tested at Loudon … I feel like Loudon and Kansas are two good tracks for Joey. So, I think he’ll do just enough to advance.”

Logano is starting to look like a good pick to advance. None of the other drivers want to see him in the Round of 8 at Las Vegas with a chance to win at Phoenix.

“Two years in a row, maybe you can go back further and determine if it’s more,” Earnhardt said of Logano. “But two years in a row, he’s had a very subpar regular season, but then when we get into the playoffs and you look at the tracks and you go, ‘Yeah, could see him doing pretty good there.’ … Look, I mean, if they have an issue, they have an issue.

“But I’m saying, if everything goes well and he tested there, and Jeff Burton said he had some pretty good speed at that particular test at Loudon. … And then Kansas is a pretty reasonable track for him. So, I think he gets through. The margin of error here on this is, I wouldn’t be surprised if I only got one of these right.”

Is Dale Earnhardt Jr. right? Will we see Elliott, Cindric, Chastain, and Reddick eliminated? And it is starting to look like a Logano run is imminent.