Upon elimination from the NASCAR Playoffs, most drivers have time to reflect. They think of all the times where they could’ve pushed harder for an extra stage point or maybe given a guy some more space to avoid a wreck. Friday night, Landon Cassill was eliminated from making the Playoffs in what was, arguably, his best opportunity to date. But what went wrong this year?
To start, you have to go back to the end of the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. Landon Cassill was racing for JD Motorsports, a team that is regularly in the middle of the pack. It was a season split across two different cars, the #4 and #6. He earned 0 top fives and 0 top tens. He also suffered a DNQ in the last race at Phoenix Raceway. In racing, momentum is everything, and Landon would have none entering 2022.
Late in the 2021 season, it seemed Kaulig Racing would be shutting down the #10 Chevrolet Camaro due to Nutiren Ag, the primary sponsor, leaving. But in the offseason, Cassill was announced to be bringing sponsor Voyager to the team. Many fans, including myself, felt this was a great chance for Landon to show what he was capable of. He’d be partnered with reigning Xfinity Series champion Daniel Hemric and road course ace AJ Allmendinger.
But early on, it was clear Kaulig Racing was slightly down on performance from the prior year. In fact, up to this point in the 2022 season, Kaulig is winless on the oval tracks. Compare to years prior, they were competing for wins at nearly every superspeedway event and many of the other ovals. What gives?
For one, Richard Childress Racing and Austin Hill showed up and started winning the superspeedways right away. This took away some of the “wild card” races that the Kaulig team had seemingly mastered. Additionally, JR Motorsports took a major step up. With all four of their drivers set to have career-best years, it’s clear Kaulig is no longer leading the Chevy Brigade performance-wise in Xfinity.
Circling back to Landon Cassill, he had been running well enough all season to make it in on points. His season was highlighted by a runner-up finish at the Martinsville race this Spring. But much to my surprise, he only has 3 top fives and 9 top tens. Still, he was consistent enough to be right around the cut-off line all season long. That was until the race at Loudon threw a curveball.
Landon Cassill has crossed the finish line in the third position in the Crayo 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. But during post-race inspection, NASCAR found the #10 Chevrolet’s ride height to be too low and disqualified Cassill. This left him with a 37th-place finish.
Then there comes the apparent theme of Cassill’s career – bad luck. At Bristol Friday night, he had suffered a mechanical issue that forced him behind the wall. His team eventually got him back out to try and salvage as many points as possible in the final race of the Regular Season. But it wouldn’t be enough. Cassill would ultimately finish five points behind Ryan Sieg in the #39 Ford Mustang for RSS Racing.
Ryan Sieg’s stats weren’t much different from Cassill’s, with 1 top five and 10 top tens. But ultimately, Cassill fell just short. I hope Landon Cassill gets a chance to come back in 2023 for Kauloig Racing. So much went against him this year, and were it not for an upset winner in Jeremy Clements at Daytona a few weeks ago, Cassill would be in the Playoffs fighting for a title right now. But now Landon Cassill has seven races to just send it and go for the win, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he got it done before the end of the 2022 season.
