By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
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 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 cut 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 staring 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.”
Roush Fenway Keselowski 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, of a Playoff berth.
Behind Blaney and Bowman, the rest of the top 10 includes (in order) Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Byron, Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski.
