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Good news, bad news for NASCAR Cup drivers ahead of Daytona regular season finale

Good news, bad news for NASCAR Cup drivers ahead of Daytona regular season finale

NBC Sportsa day ago
Drivers have one last chance to make the playoffs with Saturday's regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway.
Two spots remain in the 16-driver playoff field. Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman hold those spots, but a new winner could knock one of them out of title contention.
NBC and Peacock will have the coverage beginning at 7 p.m. ET Saturday.
With help from Racing Insights, here is a look at the good news and bad news for Cup drivers and teams heading into Daytona.
Dustin Long,
23XI Racing — Good news: Bubba Wallace has three runner-up finishes at Daytona. … Tyler Reddick remains in a playoff spot, holding a 29-point advantage on Alex Bowman. … Reddick was the runner-up in this year's Daytona 500. … Both of rookie Riley Herbst's top-10 finishes in Cup have come at drafting tracks. Bad news: If there is a new winner and Bowman outscores Reddick by 29 points at Daytona, Reddick would fail to make the playoffs a year after reaching the title race. … Reddick placed a season-worst 34th last weekend at Richmond. … Reddick has an average finish of 23.0 at Daytona, his worst among active tracks. … Wallace's 28th-place finish at Richmond last weekend snapped a streak of four consecutive top-10 finishes.
Front Row Motorsports — Good news: The organization has won the pole for six of the last nine races on drafting tracks. … Daytona is one of two tracks (Talladega is the other) where Noah Gragson has multiple top-10 finishes. … Zane Smith's 11th-place finish last weekend at Richmond was his best finish since Atlanta in late June. Bad news: Gragson has not had a top-20 finish in the last 12 races. … Todd Gilliland has failed to finish five of his seven Daytona Cup starts.
Haas Factory Team — Good news: Cole Custer has a best finish of 11th in seven Daytona starts. … Custer has two top 20s in four drafting track starts this season. Bad News: Custer has one top-20 finish in the last seven races.
Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: William Byron, who has won the past two Daytona 500s, claimed the regular season championship at Richmond. … Byron has a series-best 241 stage points this season. … Byron has led a series-high 910 laps this season. … Alex Bowman, who holds the final playoff spot, has four top 10s in his last five starts at Daytona. … Bowman's average finish of 8.6 in the last 10 races is best among full-time drivers. … Kyle Larson has finished sixth or better in three of the last six races. … Organization has won seven races on drafting tracks, most in the Next Gen era. Bad news: Chase Elliott has gone four consecutive races without a top-10 finish, his longest streak of the season. … Elliott's average finish of 21.0 at Daytona is his worst among all tracks. … Larson has never finished in the top five at Daytona in Cup. … Larson is winless in 51 Cup starts at a drafting track.
Hyak Motorsports — Good news: All four Cup wins for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who must win at Daytona to make the playoffs, have come on a drafting track. Bad news: Stenhouse has not finished better than 18th in the four Daytona races since his 2023 Daytona 500 victory. … Stenhouse has nine finishes of 23rd or worse in the last 10 races. … Stenhouse has placed 31st or worse in three of the last four races at Daytona.
Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: Christopher Bell has finished third in three of his last five Daytona starts. … Chase Briscoe has finished runner-up in three of the last six races this season. Bad news: Denny Hamlin has not finished better than 13th in his last eight Daytona starts. … While Hamlin has five wins at drafting tracks, including three Daytona 500s, he's not won on a drafting track since October 2020 at Talladega. … Ty Gibbs has had four consecutive finishes of 18th or worse this season.
Kaulig Racing — Good news: Six of Ty Dillon's eight career top 10s in Cup have come at drafting tracks. … AJ Allmendinger has six top 10s in his last eight Daytona starts. Bad news: Allmendinger has one top-10 finish in the last 12 races.
Legacy Motor Club — Good news: John Hunter Nemechek's best finish this season is fifth in the Daytona 500. … Nemechek has never finished worse than 15th in five Daytona Cup starts. … Erik Jones has seven top-15 finishes in the last 15 races. … Jones has two top-five finishes in the last five drafting track races. Bad news: Nemechek finished a season-worst 36th last weekend at Richmond. … Jones has one top 10 in his last 12 Daytona Cup starts. … Jones has led one lap this season.
Richard Childress Racing — Good news: Austin Dillon snapped a 37-race winless streak with his Richmond victory. … Kyle Busch finished runner-up at Daytona last August. …. Busch has eight top 10s in 16 races on drafting tracks since joining Richard Childress Racing. … Austin Hill is back in the No. 33 car this weekend, making his third Cup start of the season. … Hill has three Xfinity wins in eight starts at Daytona. … Hill owns the Xfinity record for most drafting track wins with nine. Bad news: Dillon has not finished better than 22nd in the five races since his August 2022 win at Daytona. … Busch has led 62 of the 6,351 laps run in Cup this season. … Busch has not led a lap in the last 13 races, the longest streak in his career.
Rick Ware Racing — Good news: Cody Ware finished a career-high fourth at Daytona last August. … Both of Ware's Cup top 10s came at Daytona. … Ware's average finish of 19.3 at Daytona is his best among all tracks. … Ware has three top-15 finishes in the last seven races at drafting tracks. Bad news: Ware is 36th in the playoff standings, 517 points below the cutline.
RFK Racing — Good news: Chris Buescher has four top 10s, including a win, in his last five starts at Daytona. … Buescher is the only driver in the series to place in the top 10 in the last two Daytona races. … Brad Keselowski, who must win at Daytona to make the playoffs, has seven wins on drafting tracks. Bad news: Keselowski's last win on a drafting track was April 2021 at Talladega. … Keselowski has an average finish of 23.8 at Daytona since his July 2016 victory there. … Buescher has finished 14th or worse in five of the last seven races this season. … RFK Racing will be shut out of the playoffs unless one of its three drivers win Daytona. … Ryan Preece has finished 31st or worse in four of the last five Daytona races. … Preece has one top 10 in his last 17 starts on drafting tracks.
Spire Motorsports — Good news: Justin Haley's lone Cup win came at Daytona. … Haley also has two Daytona Xfinity wins. … Michael McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 winner, has eight top 10s at that track, his most at any track. … All three of Carson Hocevar's top 10s at drafting tracks came in the last three races, including a runner-up finish at Atlanta in February. Bad news: Haley finished a season-worst 37th last weekend at Richmond. … McDowell has four finishes of 28th or worse in his last six starts at Daytona.
Team Penske — Good news: Ryan Blaney has scored five consecutive top-10 finishes. … Blaney ranks second in the series in stage points with 217. … Blaney has scored points in seven consecutive stages. … Austin Cindric's fifth-place finish at Richmond marked his best finish since winning Talladega in late April. … Cindric has three top 10s, including a win, in his last six starts at drafting tracks. … Joey Logano has led in each of the last 13 Cup races at Daytona, which ranks as the third longest streak at Daytona (Richard Petty led 19 races in a row there and Sterling Marlin led 14 races in a row there). … Since 2023, Team Penske has led 33% of the laps run at drafting tracks. Bad news: Joey Logano has finished 30th or worse in the last three Daytona races.
Trackhouse Racing — Good news: Daniel Suarez has finished seventh in each of the last two races. … Shane van Gisbergen's 14th-place finish last weekend at Richmond tied for his best oval finish of the season. Bad news: Ross Chastain has not finished better than ninth in his last eight Daytona starts. … Chastain has not started better than 19th in the last seven oval races. … Chastain's average starting spot this season is 22.0. … van Gisbergen has not finished better than 33rd in two starts at Daytona. … Suarez has failed to finish 11 of 16 Daytona Cup races.
Wood Brothers Racing — Good news: Josh Berry's eighth-place finish at Richmond marked his second top 10 since his victory at Las Vegas in March. … The organization is the defending winner of the August Daytona race, scoring the victory last year with Harrison Burton. Bad news: Berry has failed to lead a lap in the last 14 races. … Berry has never finished better than 22nd in four Cup starts at Daytona. … Berry has failed to finish six of the last 10 races on drafting tracks, most among all drivers during that time.
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