DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Five thoughts after Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway …
1. Taking Stock
Harrison Burton is currently last in the NASCAR Cup Series standings among full-time drivers.
Harrison Burton is also now a NASCAR playoff driver this season.
That those two things can coexist is difficult for many fans to wrap their heads around. And hey, it’s understandable; how can someone ranked 34th in points be among the 16 drivers to race for a championship?
Except here’s the thing: That’s the system, and the rules are the same for everyone. It would be hypocritical to simultaneously enjoy the excitement of a 26-race regular season, with its “Any Given Sunday”-type vibe, while gatekeeping because a winning driver did not meet the ideal qualifications.
Burton went into Saturday night’s Daytona race with the same chance as everyone else, and with full knowledge of what a victory would mean. There was no secret how important this race was for drivers below the playoff cut line, as it was seen as the last chance to make the postseason field for many (next week’s race at Darlington should revert to the usual suspects at the front).
Does Burton have the statistics to justify his presence in the playoffs? Clearly not in the traditional sense. He is last among full-time drivers in points, average finish and, until Saturday, top-10s (he had just one all year).
Burton’s season was so disappointing, in equipment with vastly higher expectations of performance, that he had already been fired from his ride by June.
But Burton now has the one stat that matters most in today’s NASCAR: A tally in the win column. This entire series is now built around victories: Winning your way into the playoffs, winning your way into the next playoff round, winning the championship race.
So Burton got it done. He beat future Hall of Famer Kyle Busch to do so. There wasn’t anything fluky about his victory. Yes, it flies in the face of what people typically judge to be good seasons — but like an underdog college basketball team making a magical conference tournament run to secure a March Madness bid, sports don’t always generate the championship field we expect to see.
2. Fastest Car Tracker
It’s probably unfair to include superspeedways in this category at all, because the dominant car in these events often ends up on a wrecker. But since we’re almost through this experiment and have already included other races at Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta, we’ll keep it rolling.
Michael McDowell won the pole position (his third straight on a superspeedway) and was in position to win until getting turned by Austin Cindric to set off a frightening airborne crash. Joey Logano could also perhaps make a claim for this section (he led the most laps in both Daytona races this season), but it seemed like McDowell might have been a tick faster overall.
Either way, the answer isn’t Burton — who only led one lap while the top three lap leaders all crashed out of the race for the first time since 1981 in Dover.
Fastest Car Score: Other Cars 16, Fastest Cars 11.
Fastest Cars by Driver: Christopher Bell 6, Denny Hamlin 4, Kyle Larson 4, Tyler Reddick 2, William Byron 2, Joey Logano 2, McDowell 2, Martin Truex Jr. 1, Todd Gilliland 1, Ty Gibbs 1, Shane van Gisbergen 1, Unclear 1.
Harrison Burton may not have had the fastest car Saturday at Daytona, but he held off Kyle Busch for a playoff berth-clinching win. (Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
3. Q&A
Each week in this space, we’ll pose one question and attempt to answer one from the past.
Q: Has the strategy at superspeedways changed forever?
When the Next Gen car debuted in 2022, teams quickly discovered the path to winning a superspeedway race had changed. The current car can’t knife through the pack like the old one could, which means track position is now more important.
And the best way to get track position for the end of the race, aside from hoping others crash? Since tires are irrelevant, it comes down to spending the least amount of time taking fuel on pit road during the final stop of the race.
That has created odd races where the first 80 percent or so of the race requires running around with the gas pedal only half-pushed, which means a slow-looking pack of cars moving around. Thankfully, the fuel-savings in Saturday night’s race didn’t seem to detract from the show as it has in other superspeedway races lately — but that doesn’t mean we won’t see this again at Atlanta or Talladega this fall.
At this point, drivers have accepted superspeedway racing is asking something different out of their skill set than the previous car did.
“This is a little bit more like a bicycle race, where everyone is saving their legs,” Logano said. “We’re just saving gas, and you hopefully have a quicker stop, and you cycle yourself forward and you race the last few to the end of the stage.”
Elliott said it’s been known in the garage for a couple years now, but it’s only recently become more obvious to the public.
“Certainly it’s no secret, and everybody’s trying to find that advantage,” he said. “It’s hard to put a value on being quick on that last stop that can make or break your whole day.”
Do drivers love it? They would prefer to race all-out, like many did during Stage 1 (a short enough segment that fuel savings weren’t needed); but at the same time, they understand the reasons.
“It’s not fun riding around half-speed here, but you adapt quickly,” Bubba Wallace said. “If that’s going to put you in a spot to win, then you do it.”
A: Can Bubba Wallace make the playoffs?
That was the question in this space after the penultimate regular-season race of 2023 (Watkins Glen), and it was a topic at the time because Wallace had never been a playoff driver before. Of course, Wallace did end up making it into the field as the final driver — by 47 points over Daniel Suárez after there was a repeat winner in the regular-season finale.
For weeks, Wallace has found himself in a similar situation to last year: Winless, but with momentum in trying to points-race his way into the field. He seemed to be running well just as some of his strongest tracks (Richmond, Michigan and Daytona) approached.
But that opportunity hasn’t worked out as planned for both Wallace and Ross Chastain (who entered Saturday night one point above Wallace for the playoff cutoff spot). Burton’s victory moved the cut line up to Chris Buescher, so instead of a six-point battle heading into Darlington, Wallace (-21) and Chastain (-27) both have significant challenges to make the playoffs next week.
Is it possible? Sure. Buescher or his team could make a mistake, and that gap could close quickly. Additionally, Wallace and/or Chastain could out-run Buescher if the No. 17 team was slightly off compared to its top-three speed in the last Darlington race.
But it would sure be preferable to have a 20-something point lead rather than a deficit, and overcoming it at NASCAR’s toughest track seems like a tall order.
Bubba Wallace has a tough hill to climb to reach the playoffs, 21 points off the cutoff line with only next week’s race in Darlington remaining. (Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
4. NASquirks
The majority of NASCAR Cup Series drivers are active on social media — at the very least lurking, if not frequently posting themselves — but there have been some notable defections in recent years.
Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. have long bailed on all of it. Corey LaJoie deleted all the social apps from his phone last year, and Wallace acknowledged this weekend he’s no longer on X, Instagram or anything else.
Can you blame any of them?
“Done completely,” said Wallace, who said he quit looking at social media after the Pocono race last month. “It’s been so nice. Just being caught up in other people’s lives and start comparing (yourself). Aside from the toxic comments, social media is just a lot at times.”
Many of the Cup drivers have someone dedicated to creating their social media content, ranging from photography to video editing to standard posts (sometimes in the driver’s voice). So Wallace’s accounts will remain active, even if he’s not scrolling through any timelines.
“I do miss the photography side of it, posting all that stuff,” said Wallace, who has a separate account for his photography hobby. “But it’s just way better for the mentals. So YouTube is my best friend.”
5. Five at No. 5
Our mini power rankings after Race No. 27/38 (including exhibitions):
1. Tyler Reddick (last time: 1): Reddick has a 17-point lead heading into Darlington, putting him in strong position to pull off what would have seemed like a considerable upset before the season began: A 23XI Racing car winning the regular-season title over Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.
2. Kyle Larson (last time: 2): Larson looked to have one of his better superspeedway runs despite early damage, but he still ended up in both Big Ones of the night.
3. Ryan Blaney (last time: 4): Blaney has now crashed out of three straight Daytona races, which disguises how fast his car has typically been at tracks like these.
4. Christopher Bell (last time: not ranked): Bell has scored the third-most points over the last 10 races, part of an ascent that has moved him from 17th to sixth in the point standings since the end of April.
5. Denny Hamlin (last time: 3): The loss of 10 playoff points and plummeting to eighth in the regular season after his unlucky engine penalty is a significant blow to momentum. Can it be regained before the playoffs?
Dropped out: Elliott.
GO DEEPER
Denny Hamlin, rivals react to heavy NASCAR engine penalty
(Top photo of Harrison Burton celebrating Saturday’s win: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
