Daytona International Speedway president Frank Kelleher has revealed that the NASCAR Cup regular season finale has attracted the largest crowd in seven years for the summer race in Florida.
Heading into the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, William Byron has already clinched the regular season championship title, but the playoff picture is yet to be finalised. 14 drivers have secured their spots in the playoffs with at least one race win, but Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman sit 15th and 16th in the playoff standings on points.
The regular season finale often brings a chaotic race with multiple drivers speaking out on ‘desperation mentality’ leading up to the event. This, combined with the excitement of finalising the playoff picture, has led to an impressive crowd arriving at the circuit.
Chris Buescher, RFK Racing Ford; Brad Keselowski, RFK Racing Ford
Photo by: Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Byron claimed that this sort of approach can lead to early wrecks as drivers and teams work together to fight for the playoff positions.
“I think the best decisions come from having the right thought process to get yourself to the end of the race and see the chequered flag,” Byron explained to the media on Friday.
“I think a lot of times, you see desperate moves with 10-15 laps to go and it’s just like – man, just get to the end of the race first.
“But I think there’s definitely a lot of that throughout the field. For us, we can go out there and race freely and not really have to worry too much about the outcome. And I think in some ways, the guys that can do that are going to be able to have a freer mindset out there. But yeah, there’s definitely a lot of desperation throughout the field that I think causes probably some early wrecks that probably don’t need to happen.”
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