The penultimate race of the 2024 Cup Series regular season will go down at the Daytona International Speedway this Saturday. Four more spots remain open to set the 16-driver playoff field and three drivers are right on the bubble to make it into the cut. With the unpredictable nature of the speedway and the tight corner that they are in, should these drivers be racing for the win or stage points?
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Joe Gibbs Racing superstar Denny Hamlin believes that every player on the field ought to be focused on getting their car up front whether it is at the end of a stage or the entire race. He said on Actions Detrimental, “I think everyone’s going to race to be at the front at the end of stages, at the end of the race. You just can’t lay back on superspeedways like you used to be able to.”
The reason for that is passing has become more difficult on high-speed tracks. Hamlin continued to note that the drivers will probably be grouped by their manufacturers and will work together to win stages or the race. This is particularly interesting since the three drivers bordering the cutoff line – Bubba Wallace, Chris Buescher, and Ross Chastain – drive for different manufacturers.
In the scenario that every driver comes up with a good car on race day, the result will be determined by who managed to avoid getting wrecked. The track is known to produce surprise winners so this will be quite the challenge. Hamlin expects the race for the playoff spots to go on till the last lap at Darlington but the upcoming event will be an equally important stop as well.
Which driver on the bubble has the best chance to win at Daytona?
RFK Racing driver Buescher is the defending winner of the Coke Zero Sugar 400. His No. 17 Ford Mustang has carried good speed throughout the season and narrowly missed out on multiple wins. He is 16 points above the cutline with Ross Chasting, driving the No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro, below him. Chastain sits a single point above the line after a disappointing 25th-place finish in Michigan.
His track record in the World Center of Racing doesn’t spell a lot of promise. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace is currently a single point below the cutline. His No. 23 Camry XSE was stellar in Michigan until it got caught in a wreck induced by Kyle Larson. Wallace is a brilliant superspeedway racer and has a host of top-10 results in Daytona. In all possibility, the race might come down to a battle between him and Buescher.
