{"id":54035,"date":"2025-08-22T18:35:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T23:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=54035"},"modified":"2025-08-24T11:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T16:44:11","slug":"nascar-friday-daytona-notebook-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/22\/nascar-friday-daytona-notebook-4\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday Daytona Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

RFK Racing looks to help each other make the Playoffs<\/b><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 For so many race teams heading into Saturday night\u2019s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) a trophy hoist in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale will be the ultimate in clutch efforts \u2013 the kind of championship chance that can revitalize and redirect the season.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Brad Keselowski. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Fourteen of the 16 eligible 2025 Playoff positions have been determined based on race wins, leaving two more spots to be solidified in what is a typically action-packed event on the Daytona 2.5-mile high banks on the last night of the regular season.<\/p>\n

At the drop of the green flag, 23XI Racing\u2019s Tyler Reddick and Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Alex Bowman hold the two transferable points positions in the standings. But a new winner on the season would mean only one driver advances based on points. Reddick starts the race 29 points up on Bowman, who is 60-points up on the remaining drivers in the field without a win.<\/p>\n

All three Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teams are among those needing a Daytona trophy for a shot at the title run.<\/p>\n

The 2012 series champion Brad Keselowski won this summer race in 2017 and teammate Chris Buescher won it in 2023. However, none of the team\u2019s three drivers, owner-driver Keselowski (No. 6 RFK Ford), Buescher (No. 17 RFK Ford) nor Ryan Preece (No. 60 RFK Ford) have celebrated any victory this year.<\/p>\n

In fact, it\u2019s been nearly three months since any Ford team won a race (Team Penske\u2019s Ryan Blaney at Nashville on June 1) and it all creates a rather dramatic Daytona dynamic for the highly-motivated RFK trio, which fully expects their teamwork to be especially key this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re around each other it\u2019s not a competitive nature of \u2018Hey, I need to beat my teammate,\u2019” Preece said. \u201cIt is \u2018hey, what I can do to help him\u2019 just as I assume it is when he\u2019s around me I notice that same reciprocation that whenever I need help, he helps me or if I catch him at a mile-and-a-half [track] he doesn\u2019t make it very difficult for me to get by.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll help me as I feel like he does for Brad and I do for Brad and he does for us. It\u2019s a relationship and a great team atmosphere to make sure at the end of the day we\u2019re all getting the best results for our team. If we\u2019re racing for one-two-three then we\u2019ve got to race but if one of us is extremely fast in that moment I think we are all good with our race craft and our race knowledge and not going to hurt each other. We\u2019re all trying to rise each other up.\u201d<\/p>\n

*BOWMAN ON THE BUBBLE<\/b><\/p>\n

Of course, Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman would prefer not to have his championship potential rely so heavily on one race, the Daytona season finale. But the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet seems at peace with his situation heading into Saturday night \u2013 confident in his team, his car and himself. He\u2019ll start on the outside of the front row.<\/p>\n

He smiled when asked about his week and pre-race mindset. He was busy with team commitments and joked that may have been a good thing to keep him mind off the big task ahead Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeadspace wise, there\u2019s a lot that you can\u2019t control at Daytona,” concedes Bowman, who has seven previous top-10s at Daytona with a best finish of runner-up in the 2024 Daytona 500.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think for me, walking out of there Saturday night, as long as we maximized what we could and did the things that we can control correctly and didn\u2019t mess it up on our side, whatever the result is, I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll have a shot at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019re plenty capable of winning a speedway race, we\u2019re plenty capable of out-running the 45 (Reddick). If we do our job correctly, the result at that point is what it is. We\u2019re going to do everything we can on our side to win that race. \u2026 we\u2019ve done so much good this season I don\u2019t want to leave there and be like this year is a total failure. If someone gets a better push and wins it on the last lap. .. we\u2019ve still done a lot of really good things.<\/p>\n

*MUCH TO RACE FOR<\/b><\/p>\n

While Daytona-winning hardware is a trophy-case superstar for any driver, there remains a lot else on the line beyond a victory Saturday.<\/p>\n

Although 14 drivers have already secured their Playoff positions and Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 William Byron wrapped up the Regular Season Championship a week ago at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, there are still five drivers separated by only 23 points ranked second through sixth in the standings \u2013 important for the Playoff bonus points awarded by ranking.<\/p>\n

Byron\u2019s Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott is second in the standings, with only a five-point advantage on third place, Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Denny Hamlin. Hendrick\u2019s Kyle Larson is fourth, 12 points behind his teammate Elliott.<\/p>\n

Team Penske\u2019s Ryan Blaney is 15 points off Elliott and Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Christopher Bell is 23 points back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only other main priority is Ryan\u2019s (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\u2019t\u2019 really have that opportunity,” the 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric said of Team Penske\u2019s overall gameplan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying the priority will be Ryan, but if we can get Ryan points – points don\u2019t really matter for me regular season-wise, so I think that\u2019s really the only thing that fall 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\u2019ll do our best to try and contribute to that cause.”<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 only the three-time Daytona 500 champion Hamlin and 2021 summer winner Blaney have previous Daytona victories at NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could go tomorrow and score a bunch of points and the rest of guys could score a bunch of points and it doesn\u2019t matter. So, we\u2019ll roll the dice and see where we end up.”<\/p>\n

*LAST CHANCE MINDSET<\/b><\/p>\n

Without exception each driver in the NASCAR Cup Series insists that his chances of victory depend a lot not just on the equipment or team but on his own mindset.<\/p>\n

As the regular season finale and one last shot to be among the group of 16 Championship-eligible Saturday night\u2019s 400-miler presents a huge challenge. A victory is the only thing that absolutely assures one of those drivers without a win already that chance to advance to the Playoffs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine that the intensity of the high-speed pack racing, at Daytona could be any more intense, but most drivers say they fully expect it will with so much on the line. For so many a victory is the only option.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it makes it very clear of what you have to do and how you’re going to do it, right?” said McDowell, driver of the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and the 2021 Daytona 500. \u201cThere are times where you go — oh that’s a low percentage move. Well, it doesn’t matter\u2026 low percentage is all you got right now, right? And so I think it changes that mindset of the risk versus reward.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think I’ve said it and been talking about it for a while now and it’s kind of played its way out \u2013 we treat, I treat, my crew chief treats every race like it’s \u2018do or die\u2019 and you have to win because pointing your way in is so tough, as we see.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at guys like Chris Buescher, again, who’s had a great season; scored a lot of points and potentially won’t make it unless he wins. So, we treated Richmond like that. We treated Watkins Glen like that. We treated all of them like that. So, you give up a lot of points in the process of doing it like that, but that’s the mindset that you have to have to potentially get a win and change your season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think last week was awesome evidence of that, right? Like you could have a tough season, a rough season, but you’re only one week away from that changing. We’re out of weeks now as we head into Daytona. This is the last week that that can change. But I do feel like that mindset for a lot of the teams is what you have to have for the Playoffs, even the best teams.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service RFK Racing looks to help each other make the Playoffs DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 For so many race teams heading into Saturday night\u2019s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) a trophy hoist in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":53790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[287,16],"class_list":["post-54035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2228388705-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-e3x","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54035"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54054,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54035\/revisions\/54054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}