By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla – It was exactly the sort of dramatic ending race fans have come to expect at in the summer night-time NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway
For both 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman, the Coke Zero Sugar 400 was perhaps a little too dramatic
Ryan Blaney answered his Nashville Superspeedway victory in June with a last lap pass for the win – .031-second over Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez – ensuring both Reddick and Bowman advanced to the 16-driver 2025 Playoffs based on points earned. A first-time winner at Daytona would have eliminated Bowman, from Playoff competition.
And it was close. The second through fifth-place finishers Saturday night – Suarez, Justin Haley, Cole Custer and Erik Jones – were all racing for their maiden victory of the season. Four drivers – Ryan Preece, Haley, Custer and Jones each led a lap with five laps remaining before the 2023 series champion Blaney – who started from pole position – zoomed through the field and for the first time since Lap 34 took the lead on the final lap to clinch the victory.
Both Reddick and Bowman had eventful evenings on the famous Daytona high-banks and neither driver was particularly happy with how their teams closed out the regular season even though they earned Playoff berths.
Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota was involved in a two-car incident on Lap 17 but recovered and finished 21st. Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet was collected in the night’s largest accident – a 12-car chain reaction melee on Lap 29 that brought out a nearly seven-minute red flag just six laps before the Stage 1 break. He finished 36th in the 40-car field.
Reddick recovered from his early scare to ultimately earn his fifth consecutive Playoff berth, but even after the race, he was obviously frustrated with his postseason coming down to the wire, even blaming himself for the early problems.
“Story of our year, just messy, not executed well, just filled with mistakes,” Reddick said. “We got very fortunate the 48 [Bowman] had problems. We’ll try to clean it up and head to Darlington (S.C.)
“We have no Playoff points, so it’s a negative re-set. I don’t know. We certainly are going to have to be on top of it every round. We’re capable of it, we just haven’t done it.”
The closing laps were certainly nerve-wracking for Reddick and Bowman with potential first-time winners leading the race. Bowman, who had already crashed out of the race on Lap 27, was forced to become a spectator. However, he was philosophical and upbeat after climbing out of his damaged race car despite being relegated to watch his championship eligibility be decided by drivers whose only Playoff hopes depended on pulling off a clutch maiden win.
“What can you do, it’s a stressful time to be a part of, but I don’t think this really defines us in racing,” Bowman said after climbing out of his car. “This is pretty much outside our control. We’ve done a lot of good things lately, we had a good summer. It’s the first time in eight years we’ve had a good summer. Just got to keep digging.”
“I guess I don’t know what to think until the race is over. But I don’t get super high or super low either, I’m somewhere in the middle. Just hard to say until the night’s over. Frustrated we didn’t stay up front and keep our track position. Frustrated we crashed. But appreciative of my race team for working hard. I’m more let down for them. But there’s still a chance we could make it.
“We can. We just have to wait and see what happens. It’s outside our control just like crashing was honestly pretty outside our control. Welcome to speedway racing. I wish we weren’t in this position but we are and it’s all we can do.”
Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher ultimately finished one position shy of the Playoffs. He finished seventh Saturday night after also being up front and dicing it up in the closing laps.
“Our car was so good and it was great to be up there, but you want to win,” an obviously disappointed Buescher said on pit road. “The handling of our Ford Mustang was so good, the speed was so good, just really proud of this team and what they brought.
“Overcame a little issue there early. … just boxed in and frustrated because yet another night we felt like we had a chance to win on one of these speedways and couldn’t pull it off. If we had our cars lined up nose-to-tail we could have shown something. Had a shot.”
The NASCAR Cup Series moves to the historic Darlington (S.C.) Raceway for next week’s Southern 500. Hendrick Motorsports Kyle Larson is the championship leader by tiebreaker over his teammate, the Regular Season Champ William Byron. They hold a six-point edge over Blaney as the points are re-seeded for the upcoming 10-race Playoff run.
