DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) NASCAR returns to Daytona International Speedway to finalize its 16-car playoff lineup, with two spots up for grabs and a win-and-youre-in opportunity for any driver yet to visit victory lane this season.
Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman hold the final two tenuous positions in the Cup Series points standings heading into Saturday nights race, but neither is locked into the championship chase. Reddick is last years regular-season champion and even made it to the title-deciding finale, and Bowman drives for mighty Hendrick Motorsports, a team expected to have all four drivers in the playoffs every year.
Reddick has a 29-point advantage over Bowman and was runner-up to William Byron this years regular-season champion in the Daytona 500. But theres no guarantee he will join 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace in the playoff field: a first-time winner Saturday would claim one of the open spots, and if Bowman outpoints Reddick at Daytona, Bowman would get the second shot.
Reddick has an average finish of 23rd at Daytona, which ranks as his worst among active tracks, and he was a season-low 34th at Richmond last week.
Bowman, meanwhile, is the only Hendrick driver without a win this season and holds a 60-point lead over Ryan Preece of RFK Motorsports for the final spot in the playoff field. Bowman statistically holds an advantage he has four top 10s in his last five starts at Daytona and his average finish of 8.6 in the last 10 races is best among full-time drivers while Preece has finished 31st or worse in four of the last five races at Daytona.
Its no consolation to Bowman, who had to defend himself from constant chatter during 2024 that he wasnt worthy of his seat at Hendrick.
I am incredibly stressed out. Anyone who knows me knows I stress myself out over every situation. Thats just me. I cant avoid it, Bowman said. I think for me, walking out of there Saturday night, as long as we maximized what we could, did the things that we can control correctly and didnt mess it up on our side, whatever the result is, Im sure well have a shot at it.
Bowman has only missed the playoffs once (2023) in eight seasons with Hendrick.
Other contenders
Front Row Motorsports does not have a driver qualified for the playoffs but has won the pole for six of the last nine races on drafting tracks, which consists of Daytona and Talladega.
For Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a win would get him into the playoffs and all four of his Cup Series career victories have come on drafting tracks. He won the 2023 Daytona 500 but has not finished higher than 18th in four Daytona races since.
Richard Childress Racing received a boost last week when Austin Dillon won at Richmond to earn a playoff spot , but Kyle Busch is still on the outside. Busch was runner-up at Daytona last August, but he doesnt return to the track with any momentum: Busch has not led a lap in the last 13 races, the longest streak in his career.
Chris Buescher of RFK Racing could be a spoiler Saturday with four top 10s, including a win, in his last five starts at Daytona. But hes also battling his boss, team co-owner Brad Keselowski, who must win to make the playoffs.
Keselowski has seven wins on drafting tracks, none, though, since 2021 at Talladega. And hes logged an average finish of 23.8 at Daytona since his 2016 victory on the superspeedway.
Win and in
Only two times in this playoff format has a driver won the final regular-season race to come from below the cutline to claim the final spot in the playoffs. Dillon did it at Daytona in 2022 and Chase Briscoe did it last year at Darlington.
Erik Jones thinks it can be done again.
Jones, at 23rd in the standings, has to win to make the playoffs for Legacy Motor Club. He won at Daytona in 2018 when he drove for Joe Gibbs Racing and likes that the finale is back at Daytona, host from 2020 to 2023, before Darlington got it last year.
I think there are some places we could have gone to this weekend that wed say, Well, this is probably it for us; well just try to do the best we can and finish as high in points as we can, Jones said. But I think theres honestly a lot of optimism for (Daytona). Our year could change very quickly. Theres no reason why we couldnt win here. Thats the way I like to look at it. We definitely feel like (Saturday) could be a big night.
Odds and ends
Team Penske teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano are the plus-1000 betting favorites, per BetMGM. ... Team Penske since 2023 has led 1,123 of 3,392 laps raced on drafting tracks (33%), more than three times the laps led by any other team. ... Team Penske is the only team with three different drivers Blaney, Logano and Austin Cindric to win a drafting track race in the Next Gen era. ... Cindrics win at Talladega ensured Team Penske has won at least once on a drafting track in 12 straight seasons (2014 through 2025).
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AP auto racing:
美联社佛罗里达州戴托纳海滩电 —— NASCAR（纳斯卡）重返戴托纳国际赛道，将最终确定16个车手的季后赛阵容。目前尚有两个席位虚位以待，本赛季尚未尝胜绩的车手若能在本站夺冠，将直接锁定晋级资格。
泰勒·雷迪克与亚历克斯·鲍曼在周六夜赛前的杯赛积分榜上暂居最后两个岌岌可危的席位，但两人均未锁定季后赛资格。雷迪克是去年常规赛冠军，甚至曾晋级冠军决战；而鲍曼效力的亨德里克赛车运动车队实力强劲，该车队每年都期望四名车手全员晋级季后赛。
雷迪克目前领先鲍曼29个积分，并在戴通纳500大赛中仅次于本赛季常规赛冠军威廉·拜伦获得亚军。但他仍无法确保能与23XI Racing车队的队友布巴·华莱士一同晋级季后赛——若周六出现首位分站赛冠军，将占据一个晋级席位；而倘若鲍曼在戴通纳站积分反超雷迪克，则将获得第二个晋级机会。
雷迪克在代托纳的平均完赛成绩为第23名，这是他在现役赛道中的最差表现；而上周在里士满，他仅获赛季最低的第34名。
与此同时，鲍曼（Bowman）是本赛季亨德里克车队唯一尚未夺冠的车手，目前他以60分的优势领先RFK Motorsports车队的瑞安·普里斯（Ryan Preece），占据季后赛席位的最后一个名额。从数据上看，鲍曼占据明显优势——他在戴托纳最近五站比赛中四次跻身前十，过去十场比赛平均成绩8.6名，在全职车手中位列榜首；而普里斯在戴托纳最近五站中有四场排名第31位或更差。
这对鲍曼（Bowman）来说并非安慰，他在2024年不得不不断为自己辩护，以应对那些认为他不配在亨德里克车队（Hendrick）占据一席之地的闲言碎语。
鲍曼表示：'我现在压力非常大。认识我的人都知道，我会为各种情况感到焦虑。这就是我的性格，无法避免。'他接着说：'对我而言，只要周六晚上离开时，我们能竭尽所能、正确处理好可控事项、避免自身失误，无论最终结果如何，我相信我们仍有机会。'
鲍曼（Bowman）效力于亨德里克车队（Hendrick）的八个赛季中，仅有一次（2023年）未能进入季后赛。
其他竞争者
前排赛车运动队虽无车手晋级季后赛，但在过去九场于戴通纳和塔拉迪加等竞速赛道上举行的比赛中，六次夺得杆位。
对小里基·斯滕豪斯而言，一场胜利将助他跻身季后赛，而他在杯赛职业生涯中的四场胜利均来自竞速赛道。他虽在2023年戴通纳500大赛中夺冠，但此后四次参加戴通纳赛事均未能取得高于第18名的成绩。
理查德·柴尔德里斯车队上周士气大振——奥斯汀·狄龙在里士满站夺冠锁定季后赛席位，但凯尔·布施仍未能晋级。布施去年八月在代托纳站获得亚军，但此次重返赛道却毫无势头可言：过去13场比赛中他甚至未能领跑任何一圈，创下其职业生涯最差纪录。
RFK车队的克里斯·布舍（Chris Buescher）可能成为本周六比赛的搅局者——他在戴托纳最近五场比赛中四次跻身前十，并斩获一次冠军。但与此同时，他还要与自己的老板、车队联合所有者布拉德·凯瑟洛夫斯基（Brad Keselowski）展开较量，后者必须赢得比赛才能晋级季后赛。
凯瑟劳斯基于跟车赛道曾七次夺冠，但自2021年在塔拉迪加站后便再无胜绩。自2016年在超级高速赛道戴托纳站夺冠以来，他在该站的平均完赛名次仅为23.8位。
赢即晋级
在这种季后赛赛制下，仅有两次出现车手通过赢得常规赛收官战，从淘汰线以下逆袭夺得季后赛最后一个席位的情况。狄龙（Dillon）曾在2022年戴托纳站达成这一壮举，而蔡斯·布里斯科（Chase Briscoe）去年则在达灵顿站复制了这一奇迹。
埃里克·琼斯认为此事可以重演。
目前排名第23位的琼斯必须赢得比赛，才能为Legacy Motor Club队争取季后赛资格。2018年效力于乔·吉布斯车队时，他曾在代托纳赛道夺冠。如今收官战重返代托纳（该赛道曾在2020至2023年承办该赛事，去年则由达灵顿接棒），这令他倍感欣喜。
琼斯表示："本周末我们本可以选择去一些地方，然后说‘好吧，这可能就是我们的极限了；我们只能尽力而为，争取拿到尽可能高的积分。’" "但说实话，我认为（代托纳）让我们充满乐观。我们的赛季可能很快迎来转机。没有理由不能在这里取胜。这就是我的看法。我们坚信（周六）可能会是一个重要的夜晚。"
零碎杂物
根据BetMGM数据，潘世奇车队（Team Penske）的队友瑞安·布兰尼（Ryan Blaney）和乔伊·洛加诺（Joey Logano）以+1000的赔率成为博彩热门。……自2023年以来，潘世奇车队在超车赛道上共领跑3392圈中的1123圈（占比33%），领跑圈数是其他任何车队的三倍以上。……潘世奇是新一代赛车（Next Gen）时代唯一拥有三位不同冠军车手的车队——布兰尼、洛加诺和奥斯汀·辛德里克（Austin Cindric）均曾在超车赛道夺冠。……辛德里克在塔拉迪加赛道的胜利，确保了潘世奇车队连续12个赛季（2014至2025年）在超车赛道上至少获得一次冠军。
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