Bob Pockrass

Special for USA TODAY

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hasn’t qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs in the last two years, and he has made it to the NASCAR version of the postseason only once in his seven years of full-time racing.

His Roush Fenway Racing teammate Ryan Newman, a veteran of 18 seasons, is 1-for-1 while driving for the same organization.

Stenhouse now looks for a new job.

Newman’s making the 2019 playoffs didn’t solely determine Stenhouse receiving the pink slip from Roush Fenway Racing, which announced last week it wouldn’t pick up the option to Stenhouse’s contract that he thought would take him through 2021. But, as in most sports, when an athlete or coach doesn’t make the playoffs, they appear more expendable.

NASCAR begins the second round of its 2019 playoffs this weekend at Dover International Speedway (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN). All but two of the drivers who made the playoffs have contracts set to return to their same team next season.

Clint Bowyer still has no deal for 2020, but he has advanced to the second round of the playoffs. He has already filmed a Mobil 1 commercial to air in 2020, which leaves his Stewart-Haas Racing team in a predicament if it doesn’t re-sign him as it likely would have to pay to shoot a new commercial.

Kurt Busch, who brought the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1 car its first victory since 2013 when he won at Kentucky earlier this year, doesn’t have a deal done yet for 2020 but team owner Chip Ganassi has said he expects Busch will return.

Look at the standings of those drivers outside the playoffs, and it’s a different story when it comes to stability.

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Jimmie Johnson, who sits 18th in the standings, is the only driver between 17th and 22nd locked into a deal with the same team next season. Daniel Suarez (17th) is still in negotiations to try to return at SHR, while Paul Menard (19th) will retire from full-time racing and Chris Buescher (20th) will replace Stenhouse. Matt DiBenedetto (21st) will be replaced by Christopher Bell in the No. 95 of Leavine Family Racing but landed the ride vacated by Menard, and then there’s currently 2020 jobless driver Stenhouse in 22nd.

“It hadn’t been working over the last couple years. … What sucks for myself is I feel like we’ve had plenty of speed to get the job done,” said Stenhouse, who admitted that the Roush Fenway decision blindsided him. “It’s just a lot of things came down to us not getting those results.

“Ultimately, that’s what we’re here for is results and they weren’t coming.”

Stenhouse had earned two wins at Roush Fenway in 249 starts — his two wins for Roush Fenway in 2017 remain the only wins for the organization since the start of 2015. He has failed to finish 21 races in the last five years, and his average finish this season (20.8) ranks as his worst in the last four years and that likely wouldn’t make the playoffs on points.

“Looking at my career, I try and win races, and I drive the car as hard as I can,” Stenhouse said. “That bites you sometimes and maybe now as an athlete you look back on those situations and look what you could do different.”

Newman has been running at the finish of every race this year. Stenhouse’s 2020 replacement, Buescher, has been running at the finish of every race except two, both at the crash-filled Daytona and Talladega tracks. That type of consistency earns points, increasing the potential to make the playoffs.

“Ryan has done really well this year in terms of keeping his car together and Chris has got a history doing the same thing, so we’re going to work on our cars to make them faster and to not be repairing them when they’re damaged,” team owner Jack Roush said.

Buescher, who won the 2015 Xfinity Series title for Roush Fenway Racing, will leave JTG Daugherty Racing, whose only playoff appearance came in 2014 with AJ Allmendinger and has had only two top-20 finishes in the standings since 2010.

While improving with JTG Daugherty Racing, Buescher apparently sees more upside at Roush Fenway, where his former Xfinity Series crew chief Scott Graves serves as crew chief for Newman.

“We plan to go out and follow suit of what you’ve been able to see Ryan and Scott do,” Buescher said. “Scott and I have a history together and some great stories to tell, and that championship in ’15 is a big thing as well.”

Buescher should study history. He saw firsthand what happened to Stenhouse.

“Our expectation is that we have two cars in the playoffs and that next year at this time we’re focused on both of them making the next round,” Roush Fenway Racing President Steve Newmark said.

Bob Pockrass is a FOX Sports NASCAR reporter. Follow him @bobpockrass.