DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – As if competing on the furiously fast, high-banks of Daytona International Speedway wasn’t exciting enough. The NASCAR Cup Series will be deciding its final slate of 16 Playoff drivers there in Saturday night’s regular-season finale, the Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, formally secured the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season championship last weekend at Dover International Speedway and 13 of the 16 Playoff positions are essentially locked in. Ten drivers have earned berths because of race victories – Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and rookie Cole Custer.
Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch have earned enough points to secure their Playoff seats as well. That leaves three positions at stake in Saturday night’s race. Clint Bowyer is ranked 14th (+57 above the cutoff) and Matt DiBenedetto is ranked 15th in the points with a nine-point edge over 17th place Jimmie Johnson. Bowyer can clinch one of the three remaining spots in the Playoffs by scoring just three points this weekend.
William Byron, in 16th, holds only a four-point advantage in the final Playoff transfer position over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion who is retiring from full-time competition at the end of the season. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones is 50 points behind Byron. He earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Daytona in the 2018 summer 400-miler.
Beyond these drivers racing for their Playoff lives, Daytona always presents a unique opportunity. Its famous style of high-speed, tightly-packed superspeedway racing could even mean a new winner not currently seen on the Playoff bubble.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who is ranked 23rd, won at Daytona in the summer of 2017. Bubba Wallace is ranked 22nd in the championship standings, but the Richard Petty Motorsports driver finished runner-up in his very first NASCAR Cup Series start at the track, the 2018 Daytona 500.
NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Justin Haley, is the defending winner of the Coke Zero Sugar 400, taking his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in the rain-shortened Daytona race. Denny Hamlin won his third Daytona 500 in February but has never won the summer race.
There is a lot on the line in Saturday night’s race. And a long list of potential winners.
“I don’t’ know if it’s excitement, or anxious or what the emotion is, it’s definitely different going to Daytona with so much on the line,” said DiBenedetto, driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.
DiBenedetto’s single-car Wood Brothers Racing Ford is part of the Team Penske alliance – meaning that he can count on Penske drivers Keselowski, Logano and Blaney as teammates. But even so, DiBenedetto conceded, “you can only plan so much” when competing on the unpredictable Daytona high banks.
“You can try to not put yourself in bad positions. It’s very tough to plan things at Daytona but I know we’ll work together very well.”
“Our attention is really focused on those guys we’re racing for a Playoff spot and also knowing there could be a surprise winner in there too,” DiBenedetto added. “Someone could jump into the Playoffs that’s outside of it now. Daytona as you know, is known for situations like that. There’s going to be a lot of variables.”
Among the threesome most closely contending for the three Playoff positions – DiBenedetto, Byron and Johnson – Johnson is the only former NASCAR Cup Series winner at Daytona. The soon-to-be NASCAR Hall of Famer won the pole position for the Daytona 500 in his very first series race at the track in 2002. He won his first Daytona 500 in 2006 and turned in a rare Daytona sweep in 2013 winning both the Daytona 500 and summer 400-miler.
DiBenedetto has three top-10 finishes in 10 starts, including a career-best Daytona showing (seventh) in the 2018 July race and an eighth place in last year’s 400-miler. The 22-year old Byron won the pole for the 2019 Daytona 500, but his only top-20 finish is a runner-up in the 2019 summer race. He has three DNFs in five Daytona NASCAR Cup Series starts.
Byron does have a win at Daytona – the 2017 July NASCAR Xfinity Series race. And the crew chief of his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is Chad Knaus, the same crew chief who led Johnson to seven series championships and that 2013 Daytona sweep.
“Daytona is an accept-it-as-it-happens kind of place, which makes it a challenge,” Byron said. “You have to go in expecting that things aren’t going to go your way, and hopefully they do.
“It’s one of those things that you have to go in with low expectations, try to race as hard as you can and hopefully you come out on the good side of things. No one knows exactly what to expect but I am excited and hopeful that we’ll have a good run.”
Johnson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels said Thursday that the team’s strategy is obviously to go for every point available – including earning those in the race’s early stages as well as being in position to go for the race win later.
“We’ve got to maximize everything. No excuses, it’s time to execute, put the best car on track and hopefully have a little luck on our side at the speedway race and just go fight it out to the end,” Daniels said.
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
