When it comes to head-to-head matchups in NASCAR Cup Series races, anything is possible, and advancement in NASCAR's In-Season Challenge is based strictly on individual matchup results.
A driver can finish second and be eliminated, while a driver can crash out and advance, simply by crashing out after his opponent.
We saw this a year ago, when Ty Dillon advanced all the way to the championship round with only a single tournament race finish higher than 20th, and Ty Gibbs, who had zero career Cup wins at the time, won the whole tournament with a 21st place finish in the bracket finale.
We have seen this phenomenon hold true yet again this year, in each of the summer's first three tournament races.
On Sunday night (Monday morning, to be exact), it was points leader Denny Hamlin who fell victim.
Denny Hamlin out despite solid Atlanta finish
Eight drivers remained eligible to win this tournament heading into the Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway).
Of those eight drivers, the top four finishers in this 263-lap race around the four-turn, 1.54-mile (2.478-kilometer) Hampton, Georgia oval were Team Penske's Ryan Blaney (winner), Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell (second place), Joe Gibbs Racing's Hamlin (12th), and Hendrick Motorsports' Chase Elliott (13th).
But while Blaney, Bell, and Elliott all advanced, Hamlin did not, since he was matched up against Bell.
Blaney advanced by winning, so it didn't matter where his opponent, Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron finished. For what it's worth, Byron was 16th.
And that still put him ahead of the other driver who advanced.
Front Row Motorsports' Todd Gilliland, who has yet to finish inside the top 15 in any tournament race, punched his ticket to the semifinal round at North Wilkesboro Speedway by once again prevailing in his weekly "battle of mid", placing 19th to beat Hendrick Motorsports' Alex Bowman by three positions.
The other driver eliminated in Atlanta was Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe, who was involved in a late wreck which allowed Elliott to advance relatively comfortably.
The semifinal round is set to feature Blaney vs. Bell and Elliott vs. Gilliland, with the two winners set to square off in the championship round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway the following weekend.
As for Hamlin, he's still the overall points leader, and he did become the first driver to clinch a spot in the 10-race "Chase" postseason. He leads the standings by 24 points over 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick, although the Atlanta race was the first in which Reddick outscored him in more than two months.
The North Wilkesboro Speedway semifinal race is set to mark the track's first points-paying NASCAR Cup Series action since 1996. Live coverage of the Window World 450 is set to be provided by TNT beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 19.
