All Bubba Wallace has to do to make the NASCAR Cup Series Chase is to start Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona and not finish last. 

And a last-place (40th) finish wouldn’t be the end of the world for Wallace and the No. 23 23XI Racing group, as Wallace enters the race 14th in the standings and 75 points above the Chase cut line. Not only would Wallace have to finish last for him missing the Chase to even be possible, but Ryan Preece would have to score the maximum 76 points by winning the race, sweeping the stages and having the race’s fastest lap. 

Barring that miraculous combination of events, Wallace will race for a championship for the third time in four years.

Charles Denike likes where Bubba Wallace is

“We feel good about our position right now,” Wallace’s crew chief, Charles Denike, said Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “Certainly in a better position than we were a week ago going into Loudon. We went and executed well at Loudon, did what we needed to do to put ourselves into a better position going into Daytona.”

Wallace finished runner-up to Ryan Blaney at New Hampshire on Aug. 23. 

“We know that we can go contend to win at Daytona,” Denike said. “We know that we’re really strong there and look forward to doing that and getting into the Chase officially and moving forward.”

Denike said that the No. 23 group “consistently putting weekends together” will be paramount as the postseason begins and Wallace chases a championship. 

While Wallace should have a stress-free Saturday evening and will be free to try and go win for the first time in 2026, the same can’t be said for Austin Cindric or Shane van Gisbergen. Cindric, 15th in the standings, is only 44 points up on Preece, leaving the door open for the Team Penske driver to fall out of the Chase if disaster strikes, as it often does at Daytona.

Van Gisbergen, 16th in the standings, is squarely on the bubble. He’s only 31 points ahead of Preece, the latter of whom is looking to make the Cup Series postseason for the first time in his career. 

The only other driver in the Chase hunt at Daytona is Preece’s RFK Racing teammate, Brad Keselowski, who is 18th in the standings and 66 points behind van Gisbergen. He would need a win and a disastrous evening from SVG to even have a chance to make the 16-driver Chase field. 

Thirteen drivers, including RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, have already locked up Chase spots. Denny Hamlin has sewn up the No. 1 Chase seed and the regular season championship and will have a 25-point lead over second-place when the Chase opens at Darlington on Sept. 6.