DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Brad Keselowski cracked on social media just days ago that he was aiming to make this a two-sticker week. His first came midweek, declaring “It’s a boy!” as the Keselowskis welcomed their fourth child to the family. The second sticker reads “Winner” and it could come Saturday night if he can claim victory at Daytona International Speedway.
The only issues: Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece, his teammates at RFK Racing, are also chasing the same sticker and the berth in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs that goes with it. So is the rest of the field.
“It has been a good week,” Keselowski said. “I’d like to finish it strong.”
Victory in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock) would be the winning ticket for the regular-season finale, where the 16-driver field in the Cup Series’ postseason will be settled. Two open spots are available, but only one of the RFK Racing drivers can funnel their way onto the grid. Buescher and Preece (in that order) are the top two drivers on the outside of the postseason picture, but neither can advance on the basis of points. Keselowski is slotted 22nd on the playoff pecking order and also resides in must-win territory.
Team co-owner/driver Keselowski is seeking his third consecutive playoff appearance, but his teammates are striving to end postseason droughts. Buescher is aiming to score his second playoff berth in the last three years, which would make up for last season’s miss with the No. 17 Ford group, and Preece is hoping to find postseason pay dirt in what’s been the best campaign of his journeyman career for the new-this-year No. 60 team.
Buescher and Preece appeared together in a joint press conference Friday at Daytona, and though the pressures of the playoff pursuit are present, the two were loose and trading quips about how hard they might race each other to reach their mutual goal. Until that time comes, both made the commitment to help each other get in that position.
“To be honest with you, Chris has always been somebody that I’ve found myself trying to work with, whether I was teammates with him or not, so that makes it that much easier,” Preece said. “Brad has always been, statistically, when you look at these races, even when he gets wrecked or something happens, he’s racing for the win, so the way I look at this race is our jobs are to get up in the first few rows and work with each other to get there, but if Brad and Chris are in the first two rows, it’s my job to find myself there to work with them and put RFK or one of us in position coming to the line winning. Whether that be Chris out front or Brad or myself, you want to be selfish as a driver, but understanding the main goal for the company and the employees and everybody there it’s very important that one of these cars gets into the playoffs because our speed, we’ve shown it throughout this year.”
Buescher said that recent conversations in-house at RFK have touched on the team dynamic to this race and how the final laps might play out. He initially described the rules of engagement among their group as “all bets are off” before softening his tone with a laugh to say, “Thou shalt not wreck their teammate.”
Keselowski says he believes that commandment will hold up.
“Those guys have good heads on their shoulders, and I don’t think they need a lot of coaching, which is one of the things I really appreciate about both of them,” Keselowski said. “High-character guys. I’m not expecting any surprises.”
Track: Daytona International Speedway Location: Daytona Beach, Florida Track length: 2.5 miles When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET Where to tune in: NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App/Peacock Race purse: $9,797,935 Race distance: 160 laps | 400 miles Stages: 35 | 95 | 160 Defending winner:Harrison Burton, August 2024 Starting lineup: Ryan Blaney to start from pole after lightning scraps qualifying
Regular season reaches its high-stakes Florida finale
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The NASCAR Cup Series’ regular-season finale took a gap year from Daytona International Speedway last season, tying up the giant web of playoff possibilities at Darlington Raceway last season. This year, the schedule’s natural order is back in place with a superspeedway setting to decide the postseason grid.
Two spots in the Cup Series Playoffs are up for bids in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock), the last chance to lock into the 16-driver postseason field. The high-stakes race will boil down to the ability — and willingness — for teams and manufacturers to work together in the aerodynamic draft and avoid the perilous pileups that come from racing in tightly knit packs.
The 14 drivers who are locked in have sealed their spots by collecting regular-season victories, the most recent being Austin Dillon after his Richmond breakthrough last week. Two drivers are on the positive side of the provisional postseason bubble, with Tyler Reddick 89 points up and Alex Bowman sitting at plus-60. But the specter of another first-time winner at one of the circuit’s more unpredictable tracks could leave just one of them advancing on points.
Darlington followed that form last season, with Chase Briscoe vaulting from below the bubble and onto the grid, winning in one of Stewart-Haas Racing’s last hurrahs. In five of the last seven summertime Daytona races, a new driver has scratched the win column, jostling the postseason picture.
Those would-be winners, though, have to endure a gauntlet of potential trouble, especially when the close-quarters racing intensifies later in the going. Six of the last eight summer races here have had 12 or more DNFs because of crashes, and in the last four races on this style of track, the lead has changed hands on the final lap.
“I feel like situationally being aware of just how these things play out and where to be and all those things, I feel really comfortable and confident, but it all goes out the window when things get crazy,” said Michael McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 winner but one of 22 drivers who has yet to clinch a playoff slot. “So I think there’s a level of confidence and angst that you bring to places like this because there’s so many variables that are not controllable, but I feel good about it being the cut-off race and giving us a opportunity to go race for it.”
Along with the pressure factor, the concept of teamwork should also spike in Saturday night’s showdown. Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, two of the sport’s most powerful four-car teams, each have three of their drivers with playoff berths secure. Each team’s fourth — Bowman for Hendrick and Ty Gibbs for JGR — should expect to have teammates and automaker allies making every effort to provide a postseason assist.
“Listen, we have high expectations,” said Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon, noting the importance of having Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet complete the organization’s playoff 4-for-4 goal. “We shouldn’t be in this position, right? And I think Alex and Blake (Harris, crew chief) and the whole team know that. They’ve actually had a really good season. There was a kind of a period of time — I don’t know, four races or so — where they kind of got off track a little bit, but they’ve had a very strong, solid, consistent season and (been) in position to win races. So it’s not like they’ve not been good, but they shouldn’t also be in this position because I think they’re capable. So you go into it with, hey, it’s Daytona, and we’re in and we’ve got to go execute. And whatever is meant to happen, happens.”
James Gilbert | Getty Images
From atop the pit box …
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Saturday’s race?
The dividing line that has separated the Cup Series Playoffs contenders from the rest will have some permanence after Saturday night’s 400-miler. Crew chiefs on both sides of that threshold will have varying motivations and focuses beyond the obvious goal of winning.
Tyler Reddick has the most points among drivers who haven’t won, but his hold on a playoff spot has some uncertainty surrounding it. If a new winner emerges and Alex Bowman has a bonanza that erases the 29-point gap between them, Reddick, last year’s Regular Season Champion, could be out.
“It’s all a concern, you know?” said Billy Scott, crew chief of Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota. “We’ve got to this point now that a win certainly would be great to establish some playoff points, get a better spot when it’s re-seeded. But our goal right now is to get in, so we do have to pay attention to that in case there’s a new winner. We’ll … just keep an eye on them all race and evaluate what we’ve got to do at the end of the race there to make sure we’re in a good spot.”
Even for teams and drivers who have already clinched, their aspirations also hold playoff implications for others. Team loyalty runs thick, and it’s especially so at Daytona where a helping hand in the draft can make a difference. So while William Byron aims for a season sweep of Daytona’s events — a feat that hasn’t happened since 2013 — a victory or well-timed push from “The Great American Race” champ or fellow teammates Chase Elliott or Kyle Larson could help Bowman in any event.
Teams will also have a new aerodynamic safety device in place this week. NASCAR competition officials added a flap to the A-post (the pillar that runs between the windshield and door windows) that is designed to deploy in the event of a car turning sideways. That measure, combined with the roof flaps that have been standard equipment for years, is intended to keep cars from getting airborne, increasing the speed needed for liftoff.
Computer modeling and wind-tunnel testing have helped competition officials to determine those safety changes. The true test will come Saturday night with a full field of cars.
“It’s encouraging that they continue to work on it, and they have safety on the forefront of their minds,” Scott said. “So that part’s good. We’ll have to wait and see in reality how well it works out, but in theory, it should help.”
Expect some extra distance. Overtime tends to happen with some frequency in this event, with 12 of the last 17 summertime Daytona races ending past the scheduled lap count. That stretch includes four of the last five 400-mile (and then some) races here, most recently with Harrison Burton’s surprise victory going four extra laps.
There are also signs that starting up front may not be as large of an advantage at Daytona, compared to other tracks. A front-row starter hasn’t won at the 2.5-mile speedway since Dale Earnhardt Jr. prevailed from the pole in July 2015.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. While the Hyak Motorsports driver has crashed out of five of the last seven Daytona races, Stenhouse has also proven capable of winning at the “World Center of Racing.” All four of his Cup Series victories have come in superspeedway events — two at Daytona and two at Talladega.
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• NASCAR at Daytona: Key info, qualifying reports and more from doubleheader weekend | Read more
• 2026 schedule unveiled: Chicagoland, a new All-Star site among changes | Read more • Racing Insights: Bowman tops projected results for Saturday night | Read more
• Field of 16: Last chance to dance in the playoff field | Read more • Turning Point to Daytona: Byron out for more after regular-season title | Read more
• At-track photos: Scenes, sights from the Daytona high banks | View gallery
• Paint Scheme Preview: Bright designs for under the lights | View gallery
• Power Rankings: Austin Dillon back in focus at Daytona | This week’s top 20
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — While Daytona-winning hardware is a trophy-case superstar for any driver, there remains a lot else on the line beyond a victory Saturday.
Although 14 drivers have already secured their playoff positions and Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron wrapped up the Regular Season Championship a week ago at Richmond Raceway, there are still five drivers separated by only 23 points ranked second through sixth in the standings — which is important for the playoff bonus points awarded by ranking.
Byron’s Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott is second in the standings, with only a five-point advantage on third place, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin. Hendrick’s Kyle Larson is fourth, 12 markers behind his teammate Elliott heading into Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock).
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney is 15 points off Elliott and Hamlin’s JGR teammate, Christopher Bell, is 23 points back.
“The only other main priority is Ryan’s (Blaney) got a great chance to get to second in points, which is obviously a ton of playoff points, whereas Joey [Logano] and I don’t really have that opportunity,” the 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric said of Team Penske’s overall game plan.
“I’m not saying the priority will be Ryan, but if we can get Ryan points — points don’t really matter for me regular season-wise, so I think that’s really the only thing that falls in the category of what else is out there. If we can get one of us a win, even having another Ford in the Playoffs is a big deal, so we’ll do our best to try and contribute to that cause.”
Bell conceded his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team is also very conscious of the points situation and potential of moving up in the standings to collect more bonus points. Of the five drivers vying to move up in points position — only the three-time Daytona 500 champion Hamlin and 2021 summer winner Blaney have previous Cup Series victories at the “World Center of Racing.”
“It definitely is [on my mind] and we need to finish up as high as we can in the points, but you just never know how these races are going to play out,” said Bell, a three-time race winner this year.
“We could go tomorrow and score a bunch of points, and the rest of the guys could score a bunch of points, and then it doesn’t matter. So, we’ll roll the dice and see where we end up.”
Rudy Fugle, crew chief for the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, was one of two crew members ejected from the NASCAR Cup Series race weekend at Daytona International Speedway after Friday’s pre-race technical inspection.
After the No. 24 car passed inspection on its second attempt through all stations, NASCAR officials said the team was observed making an unapproved adjustment to the splitter at the front of the race car. The struts were reinstalled, NASCAR said, and the car was sent back through the Underbody Scanning Station (USS), where the vehicle failed measurements as a result of the adjustments.
As a result, Fugle was ejected from the event and the No. 24 team will lose its pit-stall selection for Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock). The team announced that engineer Brandon McSwain will serve as interim crew chief for the remainder of the weekend. Additionally, driver William Byron, who clinched the Regular Season Championship last week at Richmond Raceway, will start from the rear. Byron must also serve a stop-and-go penalty on pit road after taking the green flag. Byron was due to start the event eighth after lightning forced the cancellation of Friday’s qualifying session.
The No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet piloted by team owner BJ McLeod was also penalized after failing pre-race inspection twice. Car chief Lee Leslie was ejected from the event and the team also lost its pit-stall selection.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Rain and lightning proved to be a good omen for Alex Bowman, the driver on the bubble for the final NASCAR Cup Series playoff berth.
With the qualifying session for Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock) canceled because of inclement weather, Bowman will start on the outside of the front row next to Ryan Blaney in the race that will determine the final two positions in the postseason.
When time trials are canceled, grid positions are determined by NASCAR’s metric formula, comprised of owner points position, finishing position from the previous race and fastest lap rank from the previous race.
Bowman is 60 points above the current elimination line entering the last regular-season race. If one of the 15 drivers above him in the playoff standings happens to win on Saturday, Bowman will clinch a berth on points.
The danger lies in the possibility of a driver below the line winning the pivotal race. If that happens, either Bowman or Tyler Reddick will be eliminated. Reddick, who starts 27th, enters the Coke Zero Sugar 400 with a 29-point edge over Bowman.
The driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet views the second starting spot as extremely helpful.
“A good pit stall selection is good,” Bowman said, highlighting an important perk of a top starting position. “Speedway racing has become entirely more difficult to pass at, I feel like. So starting up front is definitely a good thing.”
It also gives Bowman options in trying to overtake Reddick on points.
“I think with the points deal with the 45 (Reddick), we need to get stage points,” Bowman said. “Stage 1 will determine how we race Stage 2 and kind of go from there. I need to do all we can to catch and beat the 45 on points. It’s a really tall order, but it is doable.
“If it doesn’t look like we’re going to do that, then I’m going to switch to just track position at the end and go try to win the race. We’re going to do everything we can to win the race regardless, but if we’ve got to burn some fuel to try to win stages, I think we’re definitely looking at points, too.”
RFK Racing drivers Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece, closest to Bowman in the standings, will start 24th and 31st, respectively. Buescher, Preece and those below them in the standings have only one path to the playoffs — they must win the race.
Daytona 500 winner William Byron, who clinched the Regular Season Championship last Saturday at Richmond Raceway, starts eighth in his attempt to become the sixth driver to sweep both points races at the 2.5-mile superspeedway in the same season.
A victory by the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet would assure Bowman, his teammate, a playoff berth.
Behind Blaney and Bowman, the rest of the top 10 is Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Byron, Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski.
Daytona was moved from its traditional July 4 holiday weekend to near the end of the regular season in 2020. In two of the five races since then, it’s delivered what would constitute a stunner in shaking up the playoff field.
In 2022, it was Austin Dillon leading 10 of the final 23 laps to vault into a playoff spot over Martin Truex Jr., who entered the race 230 points ahead of Dillon. In 2024, Harrison Burton, who already had earned a season-ending pink slip for being ranked 34th in the points, emerged from oblivion to lead the final lap and beat Kyle Busch.
Last year was a one-off as the penultimate race of the regular season. The 2.5-mile track has reclaimed its rightful place this year as the finale.
The summer race at Daytona has a knack for producing new winners. In five of the past seven years, the winning driver earned his first victory of the season — and four of those were first-time career winners: Erik Jones (2018), Justin Haley (’19), William Byron (‘ 20) and Burton.
With four of the past six drafting races having produced winners from below the cutline, the trend points toward another upstart winner Saturday night.
Two spots are available, and the scenarios are fairly simple. At least one playoff berth should go to either Tyler Reddick or Alex Bowman, and a win by either would also lock in the other driver.
For the other 20 playoff-eligible drivers, it’s win or bust.
Here are five long shots (based on the points standings) who might have a better chance than expected at realizing a Daytona dream of making the playoffs:
John Hunter Nemechek (26th): The best average finisher (9.8) at Daytona among active drivers is coming off a career-best fifth in the Daytona 500. Nemechek has finished on the lead lap in all five of his Cup starts on the 2.5-mile oval, and Legacy Motor Club Toyotas have been on the upswing the past few months.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (28th): Honestly, the only reason a win by the No. 47 Chevrolet driver would be classified as an upset is because he’s having such an abysmal season. Stenhouse isn’t quite the Shane van Gisbergen of superspeedways, but the two-time Daytona winner always seems at the front of any drafting track.
Daniel Suárez (29th): If you’re seeking this year’s parallel to Harrison Burton story line, this is it. The No. 99 Chevy driver is in his final season at Trackhouse Racing, but is showing some fight on his way out with consecutive seventh-place finishes. The 2024 EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta) winner has also been a perennial contender at drafting tracks.
Justin Haley (30th): The mostly forgotten man at Spire Motorsports also seems to be on the hot seat. He’s won here in Cup on a fortuitous pit call and some well-timed lightning strikes, but his consecutive summertime wins at Daytona in the Xfinity Series (2020-21) indicate he’s no slouch in the draft.
Todd Gilliland (31st): Gilliland struggles mightily to reach the finish line at Daytona, but Gilliland had led in two of the past three races in Front Row Motorsports Fords that always run well at drafting tracks. Good lineage: His dad pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Xfinity Series history at Kentucky Speedway in 2006.
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When the checkered flag waves Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, 16 drivers will lock in to compete for the 2025 Cup Series championship while the other 20 will be left pondering the what-ifs and what-could-have-beens after 26 weeks of points racing.
Playoff Probabilities provided by Racing Insights (entering Daytona)
Like MLB’s wild-card round and the NBA’s Play-In Tournament, Daytona serves as the appetizer to display the assertiveness and heart-pounding moments that will come in the following 10-week postseason.
Twenty-two drivers still have a shot to secure one of the remaining two spots in the playoffs. Let’s take a look at who could shine and who will falter under the bright lights of Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock).
Going to go outside of the box from the jump here and label Ricky Stenhouse Jr. [0.59% playoff probability] here. The No. 47 Hyak Motorsports driver is arguably the best of the underdog bunch when it comes to superspeedways. All four of Stenhouse’s Cup wins have come at superspeedways, with two at Talladega and two at Daytona.
Stenhouse has also been consistent in recent outings at drafting tracks with finishes of sixth or better in the last nine such events, including a sixth-place result at the most recent drafting track in Atlanta back in June.
Only one of them can win, but all three RFK Racing Fords should be on your radar Saturday evening. Ford engines have the knack for starting up front at superspeedways, and if Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Preece can all stay together and toward the front, it bodes well for one of them becoming the 15th winner of 2025. Keselowski [2016] and Buescher [2023] are both past winners of the Daytona night race, while Preece has three top 10s in 11 Daytona starts.
YELLOW FLAG [Who’s on the fringe for Daytona]
It may be a bold take, however, I think Alex Bowman [89.68% playoff probability] can point his way into the playoffs and overtake Tyler Reddick. Daytona races have usually been contested between the Fords and Chevrolets, just based on sheer volume, and the Hendrick cars always come into play late in the race. If Bowman can grab a chunk of stage points and take a top 10, the opening is there to make up the 29 points on the No. 45 23XI Racing driver. That’s easier said than done, but the numbers are good for Bowman with finishes of sixth or better in four of the last five Daytona races and seven top 10s across the last 12 drafting-track races.
RED FLAG [Who I’m concerned about heading to Daytona]
Superspeedways are a game of numbers, and Toyota just doesn’t have enough horses in the Cup field to be dependable in this type of racing. You have to go back to 2020 for the last win by Toyota at Daytona, which was Denny Hamlin’s third victory in the Daytona 500.
This leads me to Reddick and the 89-point cushion he holds over the playoff cutline. Arguably, the biggest surprise of 2025 is Reddick not going to Victory Lane, and that may bite him fully when the checkered flag waves. It’s really a 29-point gap because the 2024 Regular Season Champion needs to beat Bowman on Saturday to guarantee his playoff hopes. The benefit that Reddick has over Bowman is that the No. 45 can play defensively and stick to the No. 48 for the race. If he does that, the points will equal out and easily see Reddick advance to the postseason.
However, Daytona is Reddick’s worst track on the Cup circuit, so a 400-mile cakewalk is not likely. Reddick has nine finishes of 25th or worse in 12 Daytona starts, bringing his average finish to 23rd at the Florida superspeedway. The bright spot for Reddick, though, is that he was slicing and dicing for the lead at Atlanta in June, finishing fourth, and is on a stretch of four top-six finishes in the last eight drafting-track events, including a Talladega win in the spring of 2024.
Three more NASCAR Xfinity Series races remain to settle which 12 drivers will advance to this year’s playoffs, and Friday night’s Wawa 250 powered by Coca-Cola (730 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) has traditionally proven to be anyone’s game.
To that point, current championship leader and season’s winningest driver (six victories), Connor Zilisch, is expected to qualify and start the race. How many laps he does afterward depends on his recovery after breaking his collarbone in a frightening fall off his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet while celebrating his victory in the series’ last race two weeks ago at Watkins Glen International.
Zilisch, his JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier and Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer are separated by only 24 points in the competition for the regular-season title. Zilisch is ahead of Allgaier by only seven points.
Part-time Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ryan Truex is the defending Daytona race winner; however, he is not entered this weekend. A strong group of notable championship contenders joins him in celebrating most recently at the big track — from Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love, who won here in February, to his teammate Austin Hill, who had won the three previous season-openers and is the series’ all-time drafting track leader (nine wins). Reigning series champ Allgaier won the fall Daytona race in 2023.
Considering the circumstances — and the track history in general — a new winner at Daytona would not surprise. Last year’s Daytona NASCAR Cup Series summer race winner, Harrison Burton, is eyeing a return to Victory Lane. That victory proved as much to himself as others that he can win when much is on the line.
Going into the weekend, eight drivers have secured playoff positions via a win. JR Motorsports’ Carson Kvapil (+112), Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed (+77), Joe Gibbs Racing’s Taylor Gray (+76) and AM Racing’s Burton (+30) claim the points positions beyond the winner’s list. Creed, Kvapil and Gray finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in February at Daytona.
Just below the cutoff line is Harrison Burton’s cousin Jeb Burton, who has a pair of wins on the sport’s other big track, Talladega Superspeedway. Owner-driver Ryan Sieg is only 38 points out of a transfer position and raced to a fifth-place finish in this race last year.
Of note, Chevrolet has won 14 of the last 16 races at Daytona and already this year has won 20 of the 23 races on the schedule — a record for the series.
Former Daytona Cup Series race winners Justin Haley (No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet) and Aric Almirola (No. 19 JGR Toyota) will also be competing on Friday night.
There is no practice this weekend. Kennametal Pole Qualifying takes place at 3 p.m. ET on Friday (The CW App). Current NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoff driver Chandler Smith won the pole position for this race last year and finished second.
