{"id":93027,"date":"2025-08-24T07:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T07:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93027\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T07:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T07:09:10","slug":"inside-the-chaos-that-decided-nascars-final-playoff-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93027\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the chaos that decided NASCAR’s final playoff spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Bowman<\/a> owes Ryan Blaney<\/a> seven million beers. He offered.<\/p>\n

Blaney won the race — but had five winless drivers all behind him crossing the line — and any of them winning their way into the playoffs would have eliminated the previously crashed-out Bowman.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

– Daniel Suarez<\/a>
– Justin Haley<\/a>
– Cole Custer<\/a>
– Erik Jones<\/a>
– Chris Buescher<\/a><\/p>\n

Watch: Four-wide finish! Ryan Blaney wins regular-season finale at Daytona<\/p>\n

Oh, to be in the shoes of Bowman, watching from elsewhere in the infield as his playoff hopes hung in the balance against the unlikeliest of odds. The list above doesn\u2019t even include race winning contenders Ryan Preece<\/a>, John Hunter Nemechek<\/a> and Cody Ware<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yes, that Cody Ware, who led 23 laps!<\/p>\n

In baseball, win probability charts are graphs that show the likelihood of a team winning over the course of a game, and if such a thing existed in NASCAR, Bowman\u2019s playoff odds would have fluctuated in dizzying fashion.<\/a><\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

So yeah, Blaney finding a way to drive from 13th to the win over the final two laps against all that desperation is a cause for seven million beers, one at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I’ll take 5 million,\u201d Blaney said while sipping a beer during his post-race press conference. \u201cI’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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do need a refill if he’s still here. I can start with one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, each of those eliminated had different reasons to drink after the race, commiserating over all the what could have been — their own playoff odds graphics being tossed around like a ship at sea.<\/p>\n

Preece said with assurance \u2018I felt like we were going to win that race,\u2019 shortly after climbing out the car.<\/a> His RFK Racing team have one of the best superspeedway packages and was in the mix until Kyle Larson<\/a> shucked him out of the groove inside of five laps to go.<\/p>\n

Hendrick’s mission to ensure a repeat winnerThe field races to two laps to go\"The<\/p>\n

The field races to two laps to go<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, I felt like we were going to win that race,\u201d Preece said.\u00a0\u201cYou want to talk about having the best scenario play out for how we wanted it to, I was just leaving (Haley) there.\u00a0(Buescher) was doing a great job just letting him stay there and there is nothing you can do.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is you know (Chase Elliott<\/a> and Larson) were worried about their teammate that would have been bumped out, so it was a tough situation.\u00a0I thought we were going to win that one because we did everything right today and it just didn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was a key storyline late in the race, by the way.<\/p>\n

Larson had also similarly placed Erik Jones into a bad spot the lap before and it was simply clear that the Hendrick Motorsports<\/a> drivers were not going to push any must-win driver into the lead.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

If they won, it served their goal of locking Bowman into the championship, but Larson was absolutely not going to push Preece or Jones into the lead.<\/p>\n

Period.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got me out of shape pretty good the lap before and then just really out shape, all but wrecked,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI mean, wrecked to the left and kind of gathered it up and then he shoved me again and hooked me to the right, and saved that again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never raced with Kyle a lot on the speedways but I was working really well with everybody else before that, and they had no problems knowing how to push, so I think Kyle knows how to push and you know it seemed a little aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Erik Jones, Legacy Motor Club Toyota\"Erik<\/p>\n

Erik Jones, Legacy Motor Club Toyota<\/p>\n

When told that Larson set Preece up in a bad spot too, Jones still didn\u2019t like the level of aggression.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I was aware of the situation but that is definitely putting a lot of faith in my hands,\u201d Jones added. \u201cI\u2019m 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\u2019m really good or he is just trying to shove me and help me out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I need to ask him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Almost a fairytale ending for Custer and HaleyNASCAR Cup photo finish with Ryan Blaney winning\"NASCAR<\/p>\n

NASCAR Cup photo finish with Ryan Blaney winning<\/p>\n

Less aggravated and more happy to be here with a chance to win was Custer and Haley. They are both in the 30s in the championship standings and just seemed to be pleased to be in the picture at the finish line.<\/p>\n

Custer was downright exuberant upon climbing out of the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, at the end of the day, we had a shot to win and that’s all you can really ask for at these plate races, you know,\u201d Custer said. \u201cYou\u2019re always going to look back and wish you did something different but at the end of the day all you can do it hope to be up there and have a shot at it and make the moves that you\u2019re dealt with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t to say Custer and Haley both didn\u2019t immediately start picking apart their race because they did but at least they had something to second guess.<\/p>\n

The likes of Kyle Busch<\/a>, Ricky Stenhouse Jr<\/a>., Noah Gragson<\/a> and Carson Hocevar<\/a> all fell out early due to crashes or mechanical failures.<\/p>\n

And despite the first stage crash that eliminated Busch, Stenhouse and Gragson, and the desperation that should have caused so much more chaos, everyone who needed to win drove relatively cautious.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Blaney had a good view of everyone racing with that respect on his way through the top-10 in the final laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest one I saw tonight was probably Justin Haley on Cole, but that’s — I thought that was fine,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cIt is what it is. It didn’t cause a wreck. They got through it. It cleared the way for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I thought they raced really smart and well and didn’t throw their cars in any foolish situations. I thought everyone did a great job of having a great race but also keeping it clean as well.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cI think props to everybody where you didn’t have a guy that needed to win that was just the absolute hammer out there. They were really, really respectful of everybody else, and it was a good race.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s even better when you\u2019re the winner and someone owes you seven million beers.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ryan Blaney wins Daytona finale in epic four-wide photo finish <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The official 2025 NASCAR Cup playoff grid after points reset <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Daniel Suarez agonizes over Daytona loss, promises a win \u201csoon\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ryan Preece explains his “shitty situation” while leading late at Daytona <\/a><\/p>\n

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Bowman owes Ryan Blaney seven million beers. He offered. Blaney won the race — but had five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[3931,49,48,54582,16601,54583,8661,4386,634,54584,15224,9537,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-93027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-alex-bowman","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-erik-jones","12":"tag-john-hunter-nemechek","13":"tag-justin-haley","14":"tag-kyle-busch","15":"tag-kyle-larson","16":"tag-nascar","17":"tag-playoff-odds","18":"tag-ryan-blaney","19":"tag-ryan-preece","20":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}