By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Unpredictable Daytona raises level of intensity in penultimate regular season race

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The intensity level is unmistakable as the NASCAR Cup Series nears its regular season conclusion with two races remaining to set the 16-driver 2024 Playoff field and the always exciting superspeedway edition of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on tap Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

(Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Storylines abound as the series prepares for Saturday’s big event around the 2.5-mile Daytona high banks from a tight four-driver contest to decide the Regular Season Championship to an incredible points battle to decide the final Playoff-eligible points positions. And if there’s ever a venue ripe for a new winner. … Daytona could once again be the place to really shake up the Playoff lineup.

Last week’s Michigan race winner, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick moved into the driver standings lead for the first time in his career and holds a 10-point edge on 2020 series champion, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott heading into Saturday night’s race. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin – a three-time Daytona 500 winner – is third, 28 points back. Hendrick’s Kyle Larson, who has led the standings 14 times this season, is now fourth, 32 points behind Reddick after a 34th-place finish last week.

Among those four, Hamlin is the only one to have won a NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona. Reddick, Elliott and Larson have all won NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the speedway.

The last two summer Daytona race winners – Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher (2023) and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon (2022) – are both still looking to solidify a championship chance. Buescher is currently ranked 15th among the 16-driver in the Playoffs with a slim 16-point advantage on the cutoff line as of now.

Dillon won the Richmond, Va. race two weeks ago but an appellate panel ruled Wednesday to uphold NASCAR’s decision that although he can keep the win, it did not automatically make him Playoff eligible because of the rough last lap driving he used. He’s ranked 29th in the regular season standings and the team said it would take this week’s decision to a final appeal.

“NASCAR represents elite motorsports and, as such, its drivers are expected to demonstrate exemplary conduct if its series’ championships are to be validated. In this case, the ‘line’ was crossed,” the Appeals Panel said in its decision.

Dillon could still race his way into Playoff contention and is always considered a threat at Daytona having already earned a Daytona 500 win (2018) and a 400-mile win at the famed track.

Buescher, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace are racing hard at the Playoff cutoff line – their positions in the standings changing weekly. Going into Daytona, Chastain holds the final Playoff position by a mere 1-point over Wallace. The pair have had vastly different success rates at the track – Chastain has never finished among the top-five in 12 Daytona starts and Wallace has a pair of runner-up finishes – one each in the Daytona 500 and Coke Zero Sugar 400.

For Chastain, a native of Alva, Florida, Daytona is one of his “home races,” and the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series championship runner-up says he tries to maintain a calm, cool philosophy on racing there. Even when the stakes are high – as they are now.

“[It’s] a lot like the (Daytona) 500, where I’ve learned to just enjoy it for what it is,” said Chastain, driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. “There’s just no way around it. … You just have to know that if you finish bad, you get less points, and if you finish good in the stages and the race, then you get more points. It’s just simple math.”

There have been seven different race winners in the last seven Daytona races – three of those by drivers (Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Dillon) not currently among the Playoff 16. Five of the last seven Daytona summer races have been won by drivers that needed the clutch showing to qualify for the Playoffs.

Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch, a two-time series champion, is ranked 18th in the Playoff standings (93 points behind Chastain) but is coming off back-to-back top-five finishes heading to Daytona and won this summer race in 2008.

Busch Light Pole Qualifying is scheduled for Friday at 5:05 p.m. ET (USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe won the pole position last year.

Lots can happen with five to go until NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs

With five races remaining to set the 12-driver NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff field, Friday night’s Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) could produce a surprise winner and new Playoff entrant on the historic high-banks.

There are only three former Xfinity Series race winners in this weekend’s field led by three-time Daytona race winner, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, Jeremy Clements Racing owner-driver Jeremy Clements and last week’s Michigan race winner, JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier – who is the defending winner of this Daytona summer 250-miler.

While those closer to the top of the standings have either solidified their positions with victories or good points days, drivers near the cutoff line arrive in Daytona racing for their Playoff lives.

Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman is ranked 11th with a 36-point margin to the Playoff good, but 12th place JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith holds only a single point lead on RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg for that last Playoff position.

Eight drivers have already earned Playoff bids with victories, led by popular New Zealand driver Shane van Gisbergen, who has three race wins in his first fulltime NASCAR season. Allgaier, Hill, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith and Allgaier’s teammate at JR Motorsports, Sam Mayer all have won twice.

Defending series champion Cole Custer, his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Riley Herbst and RCR’s Jesse Love all have earned Playoff berths with a win. Veteran Kaulig Racing driver A.J. Allmendinger currently holds a 102-point advantage on the cutoff line while JGR’s Sheldon Creed is a healthy 70-points up.  Kligerman and Sammy Smith round out the current dozen safe in the Playoff standings.

Hill, who won the first two races of the season, is competing for a rare Daytona double. A win Friday would give him the track season sweep meaning he would join NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the only two competitors to sweep a season’s two NASCAR Xfinity Series events at the Daytona track. Hill’s three consecutive wins in the February Daytona season-opener gives him the most Daytona trophies among the fulltime Xfinity Series drivers.

Creed, who just set a record for most runner-up finishes (11) in the series before a win, has finished runner-up in the last two Daytona races.

Asked what it would take to finally hoist that first trophy this weekend, Creed said, “A good push and even better luck. It’s been feast or famine at Daytona for me so far and that’s helped me realize the importance of making it to the end. If things go our way, I feel good about our ability to put ourselves in contention. From there we just have to hope that the cards fall in a way that give me a chance to execute in the final laps. If that happens, I like our chances.”

Allmendinger’s average finish of 10.7 in seven starts is the second best average finish to three-time Daytona race starter, Jordan Anderson Racing’s Parker Retzlaff (4.7) among active drivers.

There is no practice this week. Qualifying is Friday at 3 p.m. ET (USA Network).

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoffs get underway at historic Milwaukee Mile

After a thrilling regular season finale two weeks ago, the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series begins its 2024 Playoff run this Sunday in the LiUNA! 175 at the historic Milwaukee Mile Speedway (4 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

It’s the first time the seven-race run featuring the top-10 ranked drivers on the season begins the high-stakes elimination format on the famed Wisconsin one-miler. And Wisconsin’s own, ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski would love nothing more than to start his Playoffs by answering his win at the track last year. He just won the regular season finale at Richmond, Va. two weeks ago and certainly brings the momentum up North.

The opening round of the Playoffs features races at the mile-long Milwaukee track, the half-mile Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway. The two lowest ranked drivers among the 10 will be eliminated following the Kansas race.

Eight drivers will compete in the next three-race elimination round – at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway – and the top-four competitors emerging from that round will race for the big trophy during the sport’s Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

Qualifying for this year’s Playoffs are the season’s five-race winner TRICON Garage driver Corey Heim, who starts the championship run with a 10-point advantage on the regular season champion, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes, a three-time winner. Majeski, who is coming off back-to-back wins joins race winners Rev Racing’s Nick Sanchez and Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth next in the standings.

CR7 Motorsports’ veteran Grant Enfinger, Eckes’ McAnally-Hilgemann Racing teammate Tyler Ankrum, TRICON Garage’s Taylor Gray, defending series champ, ThorSport Racing’s Ben Rhodes and McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s 20-year-old Daniel Dye, round out the Playoff field based on points earned.

Practice for the Playoff opener is set for 4 p.m. ET on Saturday followed by Cometic Gasket Pole Qualifying at 4:30 p.m. ET.