DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Five thoughts after Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway…
1. Inventory
Harrison Burton is currently in last place in the NASCAR Cup Series standings among full-time drivers.
Harrison Burton is also a NASCAR playoff driver this season.
That these two things can coexist is hard for many fans to comprehend. And hey, it’s understandable; how can someone who is 34th in the points standings be among the 16 drivers competing for the championship?
But that’s the point: that’s the system, and the rules are the same for everyone. It would be hypocritical to simultaneously enjoy the excitement of a 26-race regular season and its “any Sunday” atmosphere, while also maintaining control because a winning driver didn’t meet the ideal requirements.
Burton went into Saturday night’s race at Daytona with the same odds as everyone else, knowing exactly what a win would mean. It was no secret how important this race was for drivers below the playoff cutoff, as it was the last chance for many to make the postseason field (next week’s race at Darlington should see the usual suspects back at the top).
Does Burton have the stats to justify his participation in the playoffs? Clearly not in the traditional sense. He is dead last among full-time drivers in points, average finish and, until Saturday, top 10 finishes (he had only one all year).
Burton’s season, although his team’s performance raised far higher expectations, was so disappointing that he was fired from his job as driver in June.
But Burton now has the one statistic that matters most in NASCAR today: a win. This whole series is now built on wins: fighting his way into the playoffs, fighting his way into the next round of the playoffs, winning the championship race.
So Burton did it. He beat future Hall of Famer Kyle Busch to do it. His win was no fluke. Yes, it flies in the face of what people typically think of as good seasons — but like a college basketball team that makes a magical run through a conference tournament as an underdog to earn a spot in March Madness, the sport doesn’t always produce the championship field we expect.
2. Fastest Car Tracker
It’s probably unfair to even include superspeedways in this category, since the dominant car at these events often ends up on a tow truck. But since we’re almost done with this experiment and have already included other races at Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta, let’s move on.
Michael McDowell took the pole (his third in a row on a superspeedway) and was in position to win until he was redirected by Austin Cindric, triggering a scary air crash. Joey Logano might also be able to lay claim to that section (he led the most laps in both Daytona races this season), but it seemed like McDowell was a touch quicker overall.
Be that as it may, the answer is not Burton, who led just one lap while the three leading riders of the lap all crashed and retired from the race for the first time since Dover in 1981.
Score for the fastest car: Other cars 16, fastest cars 11.
Fastest cars by driver: Christopher Bell 6, Denny Hamlin 4, Kyle Larson 4, Tyler Reddick 2, William Byron 2, Joey Logano 2, McDowell 2, Martin Truex Jr. 1, Todd Gilliland 1, Ty Gibbs 1, Shane van Gisbergen 1, Unclear 1.
Harrison Burton may not have had the fastest car at Daytona on Saturday, but he beat Kyle Busch to secure a playoff spot. (Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
3. Questions and answers
Each week we will ask a question here and try to answer one from the past.
Q: Has the strategy at superspeedways changed forever?
When the next-gen car arrived in 2022, teams quickly realized that the path to winning a superspeedway race had changed. The current car can no longer slice through the field like the old one, meaning track position is now more important.
And what’s the best way to secure a good position for the end of the race, apart from hoping for other drivers to crash? Since tires aren’t an issue, the key is to spend as little time as possible refueling in the pit lane at the last stop of the race.
That’s led to some odd racing where you have to drive around with the throttle half-depressed for the first 80 percent or so, meaning a slow-looking group of cars moving. Thankfully, the fuel savings in Saturday night’s race didn’t seem to put a damper on the show, as they have at other superspeedway races recently — but that doesn’t mean we won’t see that again in Atlanta or Talladega this fall.
At this point, drivers have accepted that superspeedway racing places different demands on their skills than the previous car.
“It’s a little bit more like a bike race where everyone is saving their legs,” Logano said. “We’re just saving gas, and hopefully you can stop quicker and you keep going and race the last few miles to the end of the stage.”
Elliott said it had been known in the garage for a few years, but had only recently become more apparent to the public.
“It’s certainly no secret, and everyone is trying to get an advantage,” he said. “It’s hard to put a price on the value of a quick last stop, because it can make or break your whole day.”
Do the drivers love it? They would prefer to go full throttle, as many did during the first stage (a segment so short that no fuel savings were necessary); but at the same time they understand the reasons.
“It’s not fun driving around here at half speed, but you adapt quickly,” said Bubba Wallace. “If it puts you in a position to win, you do it.”
Q: Can Bubba Wallace make the playoffs?
That was the question in this room after the penultimate race of the 2023 regular season (Watkins Glen), and it was a topic at the time because Wallace had never been a playoff driver before. Of course, Wallace ended up being the last driver to make the field – 47 points ahead of Daniel Suárez after a repeat winner in the regular season finale.
For weeks, Wallace has found himself in a similar situation to last year: winless but with momentum as he tries to work his way into the field through points racing. He seemed to be doing well as some of his strongest tracks (Richmond, Michigan and Daytona) approached.
But that opportunity has not come as planned for Wallace and Ross Chastain (who entered the race for the playoff cutoff spot one point ahead of Wallace on Saturday night). Burton’s win has moved the cut line to Chris Buescher, so instead of a six-point battle in Darlington, Wallace (-21) and Chastain (-27) both have big challenges to make the playoffs next week.
Is that possible? Sure. Buescher or his team could make a mistake and the gap could close quickly. Also, Wallace and/or Chastain could pass Buescher if the No. 17 team is a little off from its top-three pace at the last race at Darlington.
But a lead of more than 20 points would certainly be better than a deficit, and making up that on NASCAR’s toughest track doesn’t seem like an easy task.
Bubba Wallace has a tough road ahead of him to make the playoffs. He is 21 points off the cutoff line and only next week’s race at Darlington is left. (Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
4. NASquirks
The majority of NASCAR Cup Series drivers are active on social media—at least following it, if not posting regularly themselves—but there have been some notable departures in recent years.
Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. gave up on all that a long time ago. Corey LaJoie deleted all social apps from his phone last year, and Wallace admitted this weekend that he’s no longer on X, Instagram, or anything else.
Can you blame any of them?
“Completely exhausted,” said Wallace, who stopped browsing social media after the Pocono race last month. “It was so nice. Just being immersed in other people’s lives and comparing yourself to them. Aside from the toxic comments, sometimes social media is just too much.”
Many of the Cup drivers have someone dedicated solely to creating their social media content, from photography to video editing to standard posts (sometimes in the driver’s voice), so Wallace’s accounts remain active even when he’s not scrolling through timelines.
“I miss the photographic aspect of posting all that,” said Wallace, who has a separate account for his photography hobby. “But it’s just so much better for the psyche. So YouTube is my best friend.”
5. Five in 5th place
Our Mini Power Rankings after Race No. 27/38 (including exhibition races):
1. Tyler Reddick (last time: 1): Reddick heads to Darlington with a 17-point lead and has a good chance of pulling off what would have been a significant surprise before the season began: a 23XI Racing car taking the regular season title ahead of Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.
2. Kyle Larson (last time: 2): Despite early damage, Larson appeared to have one of his better runs in superspeedway, but still ended up with the two big ones of the evening.
3. Ryan Blaney (last time: 4): Blaney has now crashed out of three consecutive Daytona races, but that doesn’t disguise how fast his car usually was on tracks like these.
4. Christopher Bell (last time: not ranked): Bell has scored the third most points in the last ten races, improving from 17th to 6th place in the points table since the end of April.
5. Denny Hamlin (last time: 3): Losing 10 playoff points and falling to 8th place in the regular season after his unfortunate engine penalty is a significant blow to momentum. Can it be regained before the playoffs?
Eliminated: Elliot.
GO DEEPER
Denny Hamlin and his competitors react to the heavy NASCAR engine penalty
(Top photo of Harrison Burton celebrating Saturday’s win: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
