Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Would Daytona International Speedway produce 2025’s 15th different winner? That was the question on everyone’s mind as the Cup Series rolled into town on Saturday (Aug. 23) for its final regular-season race, the Coke Zero Sugar 400.
Thanks to a couple of early incidents that involved both bubble drivers Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman, the scenario became simple: Reddick would make the show on points no matter who won, but Bowman was left to watch and wait. A new winner would end his title hopes, while a repeat winner would lock him in.
As Justin Haley duked it out with Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher as the laps wound down, Bowman’s shot looked bleak. But the field shuffled on the last couple of laps, with Preece falling back and Haley trying to defend. Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney, who had led three times for 26 laps earlier, was sitting just outside the top 10 with four laps to go.
But while all eyes were on Haley and Preece up front, Blaney made his move, picking off a dozen cars and putting himself in position to pounce.
On the final lap, Blaney made his move, beating Daniel Suarez, Haley and Cole Custer to the line by .031 seconds, roughly half of a car length. Bowman’s sigh of relief was nearly audible.
It’s Blaney’s 15th career win and second at Daytona. He led four times for 27 total laps and slots into the playoff standings in fourth place with 26 total playoff points, including the five he earned on Saturday.
Bowman let Blaney know afterwards just how grateful he was.
On the other hand…
Bowman wasn’t the only driver to head home early. He’s also not the only driver to finish 34 spots below where he started. Austin Cindric was also collected in the lap 27 melee, and after starting fifth, he had only a 39th-place finish to show for it.
Cindric had the luxury of already being assured of a playoff spot, but the finish still leaves the No. 2 team without the forward momentum they were no doubt hoping to kick off the playoffs with.
What… does this mean for the points standings?
With the points reset coming after the race and the regular season title already decided, the only excitement on the points front came from closer to the playoff cut line. In the end, Blaney’s win meant that nobody new entered the playoff picture.
Kyle Larson and regular-season champ William Byron start out in a tie for the top spot with Denny Hamlin three points back in third and Blaney and Christopher Bell completing the top five.
Shane van Gisbergen sits sixth, Chase Elliott seventh, Chase Briscoe eighth, Bubba Wallace ninth and Cindric rounding out the top 10 in 10th. Ross Chastain and Joey Logano are also in the top 12.
Starting the first round below the cut line are Josh Berry, Reddick, Bowman and Austin Dillon. All four are within five points of 12th heading into the opening round of Darlington Raceway, World Wide Technology Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway.
Where… did he come from?
Three of the night’s top-five finishers started from well outside the top half of the field, but nobody gained as many spots on the night as Haley, who started 37th and drove all the way to the front, leading two laps late in the game before just getting edged by Blaney and Suarez.
Haley, whose only Cup Series win came at Daytona in 2019, has been rumored to have an uncertain future with Spire Motorsports. He’s a solid superspeedway racer with four Xfinity Series wins split between Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway.
When… was the moment of truth?
NASCAR might be breathing a sigh of relief after Blaney’s win. The playoff format has come under fire recently, and news that NBC nixed any possible revamp of the championship didn’t sit well with fans (or some of the teams). Blaney winning on Saturday may have been the best outcome on that front for NASCAR, because it put Bowman into the postseason, meaning that a top-10 driver didn’t miss the show.
As it is, three playoff drivers were outside the top 20 prior to the playoff reset: Berry (21st), van Gisbergen (25th) and Dillon (26th).
The rest of the top five consisted of Suarez (27th in points), Haley (30th), Custer (33rd) and Erik Jones (22nd). One of them in the title hunt in the place of ninth-place Bowman would further the argument that the system isn’t rewarding the best drivers all year, but rather the best on one weekend.
It becomes a bit of a conundrum for fans, who generally want to see underdogs succeed and as many different winners as possible, but also wanting the most deserving drivers to be in title contention.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
There’s a handful of things to keep an eye on this week. The playoffs kick off with one of NASCAR’s crown jewel races, the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Among playoff hopefuls, Hamlin is a safe bet, with five wins at Darlington, the only playoff contender with multiple wins against the Lady in Black and a stellar 7.9 average finish in 26 starts.
As for drivers most likely to play the spoiler and take one away from the playoff drivers, Jones has always been strong at Darlington and is coming off a summer of solid improvement. Brad Keselowski is also a two-time Darlington winner, and Kyle Busch has a win as well.
Keep one eye on this week’s penalty report. Byron was penalized on Sunday because his team altered his car after inspection (causing it to fail a subsequent re-inspection). Crew chief Rudy Fugle spent the weekend at home and Byron had to serve a stop-and-go penalty when the race went green after starting from the back. That cost him a lap, but he got it back almost immediately thanks to a lap 12 caution. That could be all, but NASCAR could also decide the violation is enough to consider further action.
While it wasn’t exactly a big surprise, the announcement that Connor Zilisch will take over the No. 99 for Trackhouse Racing is the first major driver announcement for the Cup Series this year. That leaves Suarez looking for a ride in what’s been a fairly quiet Silly Season so far.
However, it could get complicated as teams vie for any available charters. Legacy Motor Club has a lawsuit against Rick Ware Racing alleging that they were promised the sale of one of RWR’s charters that was subsequently offered to someone else.
NASCAR is looking for permission to disperse the six charters revoked from 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports before the offseason court date, so the possibility for new players in the game is real, with many eyes on JR Motorsports for a possible Cup Series expansion. Whether losing charters sparks major changes at 23XI or FRM remains to be seen, but there could be some new players making Silly Season sillier than ever.
How… did this race stack up?
It was one of the better Daytona races in recent years, unless you’re a fan of the crashes. There was only one big multi-car crash, with the five other for-cause cautions coming for single-car incidents and one two-car incidents.
With almost a quarter of the race under yellow, there were still too many cautions, but the lack of cars involved was a pleasant change from many recent events.
What really seemed different, though, was the drivers who weren’t content with riding around for most of the race before going for it at the end. The race didn’t have as much of the parade feel that superspeedway races tend to have, with drivers biding their time and trying to avoid trouble for most of the race.
That’s a necessary strategy with the current speedway package, which keeps the field bunched into one angry swarm of racecars for most of the day. Choosing to ride and make it to the end instead of risking a pileup due to the car’s instability in the air might not be what fans like to see, but it has become common due to the nature of speedway racing.
That made this week’s race stand out as one of the better Daytona races in recent memory. Drivers were willing to make moves for most of the night, and many seemed less interested in helping teammates or manufacturer partners than in getting the best finish they could.
More racing and fewer big crashes? Some would argue that the lack of Big Ones made it less exciting, but Saturday saw a good race.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.