{"id":94756,"date":"2025-08-25T01:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T01:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/94756\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T01:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T01:50:08","slug":"nascar-insider-doubles-down-on-win-and-youre-in-playoff-format-after-epic-daytona-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/94756\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR insider doubles down on ‘win and you’re in’ playoff format after epic Daytona finish"},"content":{"rendered":"

The finish to the regular-season finale at Daytona provided plenty of drama, right up until the final laps. In fact, a four-wide photo finish that resulted in a win for Ryan Blaney<\/a> was just what the doctor ordered, said a pair of NASCAR insiders.<\/p>\n

Blaney\u2019s win allowed Alex Bowman to remain in the playoffs despite crashing out of the race at Daytona early. Had a new winner emerged, Bowman would have been out.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive drivers behind Ryan Blaney all needed to win to make the playoffs,\u201d The Athletic\u2019s Jeff Gluck said on The Teardown<\/a> podcast. \u201cThey were all eliminated by just this much as Ryan Blaney gets it done and puts Alex Bowman into the playoffs when it looked like all hope was lost for Alex Bowman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a thrilling, spectacular final run there and a great regular-season finale. This is sort of everything you\u2019re looking for out of this race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race went relatively caution free down the stretch, too, never a given at a place like Daytona. That\u2019s not to say there wasn\u2019t some aggressive contact, but the big one happened early in the race, not late.<\/p>\n

In the closing laps, several drivers had a chance to secure their first win of the season. Daniel Suarez, Justin Haley, Cole Custer, Erik Jones, Chris Buescher and Ty Gibbs all had a shot. All finished in the top 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive of the top seven finishers in this race had not won a race this year,\u201d The Athletic\u2019s Jordan Bianchi said. \u201cAny of those top five win they move on. This is why I advocate for the \u2018win and you\u2019re in.\u2019 This was exciting, because it was so dramatic in how this unfolds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bianchi explained how the finish at Daytona delivered everything NASCAR had hoped it would. It had drama until the last second.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt various points you had a handful of different drivers who had not won a race and were looking to punch their playoff ticket,\u201d Bianchi said. \u201cIt was wild. It was this wild swing, and all the while you\u2019ve got a driver from a powerhouse organization in Alex Bowman who\u2019s sitting there watching this in the hauler, agonizing over this.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can only imagine the swings Bowman was going through. Joey Logano led with about 40 laps to go, and few are as good at defending leads as Logano. So Bowman must have been feeling quite confident.<\/p>\n

Then Logano slipped up and it turned into a free-for-all at the front. Buescher was pushing, Ryan Preece had a run, then several others were in with a shot on the final lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd at different points he\u2019s like sweating this out going, \u2018Wait, we\u2019re going to be OK, so and so is leading. Oh no, now this guy is leading, we\u2019re in trouble,’\u201d Bianchi said. \u201cAt the end there it\u2019s like, \u2018Kyle Larson is making a big move, go Kyle!\u2019 Then no, it\u2019s Cole Custer. Then you\u2019re rooting for Ryan Blaney \u2014 and by the way Alex Bowman says he owes Ryan Blaney 7 million beers for winning. Seven million beers. I have to go back and listen, but I believe it was 7 million beers. That\u2019s a lot of beers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fans at Daytona probably knocked back more than a few, as well. Job well done, NASCAR.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The finish to the regular-season finale at Daytona provided plenty of drama, right up until the final laps.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-94756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94756","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=94756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}