Sunday's 38-car Cup Series grid at Watkins Glen featured 16 playoff drivers. That's nearly half the field at a track that typically caters to NASCAR's elite. Instead? This road course became a bigger championship wild card than Talladega Superspeedway.

Road-course specialists have been a part of NASCAR for decades. They’re drivers who rarely, if ever, race on ovals and who step in for road races. They sometimes take over for a driver who struggled on road courses, sometimes in an additional car run by a team hoping to score some extra prize money.