Following Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway, the 16-driver field for The Chase is officially set.
Denny Hamlin will lead the field into the postseason as the No. 1 seed after a dominant summer stretch that included three consecutive victories at Nashville Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway and Pocono Raceway. Hamlin clinched the top seed following the penultimate regular-season race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photosRyan Blaney earned the No. 2 seed behind regular-season victories at Phoenix Raceway, EchoPark Speedway and New Hampshire. Blaney finished 33rd at Daytona after being collected in a final-lap wreck.
Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe will start The Chase seeded third through fifth, respectively. Christopher Bell is sixth, followed by Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Chris Buescher to round out the top 10.
Daniel Suárez secured the No. 11 seed after one of the strongest regular seasons of his Cup career, highlighted by a rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 victory. Carson Hocevar will enter The Chase 12th, with William Byron -- winless during the regular season -- seeded 13th.
Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric claimed the Nos. 14 and 15 seeds, leaving the final spot to be decided Saturday night at Daytona. Ryan Preece delivered in dramatic fashion, winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 to vault past Shane van Gisbergen and secure the 16th and final postseason berth.
The 10-race pursuit of the Cup Series championship begins next Sunday with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).