{"id":872336,"date":"2026-08-29T06:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T06:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872336\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T06:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T06:06:13","slug":"nascar-daytona-points-scenarios-for-shane-van-gisbergen-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872336\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Daytona: Points scenarios for Shane van Gisbergen Chase"},"content":{"rendered":"

THIS weekend, the regular season for the NASCAR Cup Series wraps up at Daytona International Speedway, with what is shaping up to be a make-or-break outing for Shane van Gisbergen.<\/p>\n

Following the first 25 points-paying races of the season, 13 of the 16 postseason positions are accounted for, with the return of the Chase format for 2026 seeing the previous \u2018win and you\u2019re in\u2019 format benched.<\/p>\n

Coming into the weekend, there are five drivers with a mathematical chance of claiming three places that remain unaccounted for.<\/p>\n

One of those should be a gimme: Bubba Wallace only needs two points to lock himself in, and for starting, he is awarded one.<\/p>\n

Next is Team Penske driver Austin Cindric<\/a>, who sits 44 points above the cut line, which is a handy position to be in, given that each stage at Daytona will be worth 10 points for the winner, with 10th place awarded a single point; 55 will go to the ultimate race winner, 35 for second, down to one point for 36th, with a bonus point on the line for the fastest lap of the race.<\/p>\n

Essentially, 76 points is a perfect race, but last week, only the top five finishers secured more than 38 points, so Cindric is well placed, barring disaster.<\/p>\n

After a tough run last time out at New Hampshire, 16th-place van Gisbergen saw a 50-point advantage eroded down to 31 by Ryan Preece, who finished ninth and scored two sets of stage points.<\/p>\n

While the odds of an SVG playoff berth are still strong, anything can happen at Daytona.<\/p>\n

Adding a curveball to the mix, the whole field will run a new aero setup, which will roll out onto the track without practice \u2013 following single-car qualifying, it will first see service in a pack during the race.<\/p>\n

The Red Bull #97 this morning qualified sixth, with Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain on pole.<\/p>\n

At Daytona, van Gisbergen has shown promise in recent times \u2013 he led the corresponding race last year, and also this year\u2019s Daytona 500, after claiming sixth in the opening Duel this year.<\/p>\n

The flipside is that his best Cup Series finish at the fabled venue is 16th, with his other three races finishing 30th or worse, including one non-finish due to engine issues.<\/p>\n

Strategy, namely whether to attack or defend, will be critical this weekend.<\/p>\n

On the flipside, Preece has not finished better than 14th at the track in his last seven starts, with seven of his 13 races at the Superspeedway resulting in crash damage-induced non-finishes.<\/p>\n

The literal flipside for Preece came at this event three years ago, when he rolled repeatedly down the track\u2019s back stretch.<\/p>\n

The last chance is Brad Keselowski, but at 66 points off van Gisbergen, it will require a near-perfect race and for the Kiwi to strike trouble.<\/p>\n

After Daytona, the field resets with bonus points issued by the points standings, with the driver with the most points at the end of the 10-week-long Chase crowned the series champion.<\/p>\n

The race is set to start at 9:47am AEST on Sunday, although thunderstorms are possible in the area.<\/p>\n

The Undercut \u2013 Ford\u2019s best Bathurst chance?<\/p>\n

THE Undercut returns, breaking down the latest news in the world of Supercars racing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THIS weekend, the regular season for the NASCAR Cup Series wraps up at Daytona International Speedway, with what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-872336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}