There were two de facto winners of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway.
There was the actual winner, Ryan Blaney, who surged from 13th to 1st over the final two laps to win for the second time this season but also Alex Bowman who claimed the final NASCAR Cup Series Playoff spot as a result.
You see, a new winner from below the cutline would have bumped winless Bowman instead but the repeat winner locked him into the Round of 16.
It was more dramatic than that, however, as Bowman was crashed out of the race on Lap 29 and was forced await his playoff fate from the infield the rest of the way. And the finish featured a four-wide across-the-line victory with Blaney beating out several winless drivers that would have eliminated Bowman.
Daniel Suarez
Justin Haley
Cole Custer
Erik Jones
Chris Buescher
In addition, Ryan Preece also led laps later and threatened to dramatically eliminated Bowman from the Round of 16. This was all after Bowman was teased with the possibility of moving past Tyler Reddick in the standings and leaving the latter susceptible to elimination.
From NASCAR’s Wire Report:
Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota was involved in a two-car incident on Lap 17 but recovered and finished 21st. Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet was collected in the night’s largest accident – a 12-car chain reaction melee on Lap 29 that brought out a nearly seven-minute red flag just six laps before the Stage 1 break. He finished 36th in the 40-car field.
Reddick recovered from his early scare to ultimately earn his fifth consecutive Playoff berth, but even after the race, he was obviously frustrated with his postseason coming down to the wire, even blaming himself for the early problems.
“Story of our year, just messy, not executed well, just filled with mistakes," Reddick said. “We got very fortunate the 48 [Bowman] had problems. We’ll try to clean it up and head to Darlington (S.C.)
“We have no Playoff points, so it’s a negative re-set. I don’t know. We certainly are going to have to be on top of it every round. We’re capable of it, we just haven’t done it."
Buescher had to settle for second after challenging all night for the win.
“Our car was so good and it was great to be up there, but you want to win," an obviously disappointed Buescher said on pit road. “The handling of our Ford Mustang was so good, the speed was so good, just really proud of this team and what they brought.
“Overcame a little issue there early. … just boxed in and frustrated because yet another night we felt like we had a chance to win on one of these speedways and couldn’t pull it off. If we had our cars lined up nose-to-tail we could have shown something. Had a shot."
Preece and Jones both felt like Hendrick driver Kyle Larson sabotaged their efforts to win by hanging them out to dry. And to be fair, Larson was not going to push either of them to the lead because that would have risked eliminating Bowman.
“Man, I felt like we were going to win that race,” Preece said. “You want to talk about having the best scenario play out for how we wanted it to, I was just leaving (Haley) there. (Buescher) was doing a great job just letting him stay there and there is nothing you can do.
“The problem is you know (Chase Elliott and Larson) were worried about their teammate that would have been bumped out, so it was a tough situation. I thought we were going to win that one because we did everything right today and it just didn’t work out.”
Jones didn’t know what to make of Larson’s efforts, which to him, felt like borderline wrecking him.
“I mean, I was aware of the situation but that is definitely putting a lot of faith in my hands,” Jones added. “I’m not just going to wad up the whole field too. I mean, he had me pretty spun around on the straightaway so either he thinks I’m really good or he is just trying to shove me and help me out.
“I don’t know. I need to ask him.”
Regardless, Blaney’s drive to win the race locked Bowman into the Field of 16. Bowman pledged to buy Blaney ‘seven million beers.’
Blaney cut him a discount.
“Oh, I'll take 5 million,” Blaney said while sipping a beer during his post-race press conference. “I'll save him some money. Someone told me that he got in because I won, right? Like if the 41, the 7, 99 would have won, he would have been out? I'll take that offer.
“I do need a refill if he's still here. I can start with one.”
The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begins with the prestigious Southern 500 next Sunday at Darlington Raceway.
Results
| Fin | No | Driver | Laps | Diff |
| 1 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | 160 | --- |
| 2 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | 160 | 0.031 |
| 3 | 7 | Justin Haley | 160 | 0.036 |
| 4 | 41 | Cole Custer | 160 | 0.049 |
| 5 | 43 | Erik Jones | 160 | 0.091 |
| 6 | 17 | Chris Buescher | 160 | 0.106 |
| 7 | 5 | Kyle Larson | 160 | 0.107 |
| 8 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | 160 | 0.160 |
| 9 | 21 | Josh Berry | 160 | 0.178 |
| 10 | 9 | Chase Elliott | 160 | 0.201 |
| 11 | 34 | * Todd Gilliland | 160 | 0.238 |
| 12 | 71 | Michael McDowell | 160 | 0.256 |
| 13 | 20 | Christopher Bell | 160 | 0.286 |
| 14 | 60 | Ryan Preece | 160 | 0.305 |
| 15 | 1 | Ross Chastain | 160 | 0.333 |
| 16 | 88 | Shane Van Gisbergen # | 160 | 0.366 |
| 17 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | 160 | 0.420 |
| 18 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | 160 | 0.448 |
| 19 | 24 | William Byron | 160 | 0.450 |
| 20 | 51 | Cody Ware | 160 | 0.524 |
| 21 | 45 | * Tyler Reddick | 160 | 0.551 |
| 22 | 10 | Ty Dillon | 160 | 0.636 |
| 23 | 19 | Chase Briscoe | 160 | 0.894 |
| 24 | 3 | Austin Dillon | 160 | 2.114 |
| 25 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | 160 | 22.990 |
| 26 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | 159 | 1 lap |
| 27 | 22 | Joey Logano | 159 | 1 lap |
| 28 | 44 | * Joey Gase(i) | 157 | 3 laps |
| 29 | 66 | * Casey Mears | 156 | 4 laps |
| 30 | 33 | * Austin Hill(i) | 155 | 5 laps |
| 31 | 38 | * Zane Smith | 154 | 6 laps |
| 32 | 78 | * BJ McLeod(i) | 137 | BTW |
| 33 | 8 | Kyle Busch | 95 | 65 laps |
| 34 | 77 | Carson Hocevar | 81 | OUT |
| 35 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 28 | OUT |
| 36 | 48 | Alex Bowman | 27 | OUT |
| 37 | 23 | * Bubba Wallace | 27 | OUT |
| 38 | 4 | * Noah Gragson | 27 | OUT |
| 39 | 2 | Austin Cindric | 27 | OUT |
| 40 | 35 | * Riley Herbst # | 27 | OUT |
Playoff Grid
Kyle Larson +26
William Byron +26
Denny Hamlin +23
Ryan Blaney +20
Christopher Bell +17
Shane Van Gisbergen +16
Chase Elliott +7
Chase Briscoe +4
Bubba Wallace +2
Austin Cindric +2
Joey Logano +1
---
Josh Berry -1
Tyler Reddick -1
Austin Dillon -2
Alex Bowman -5