While Daytona-winning hardware is a trophy-case superstar for any driver, there remains a lot else on the line beyond a victory Saturday.
Although 14 drivers have already secured their Playoff positions and Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron wrapped up the Regular Season Championship a week ago at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, there are still five drivers separated by only 23 points ranked second through sixth in the standings – important for the Playoff bonus points awarded by ranking.
Byron’s Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott is second in the standings, with only a five-point advantage on third place, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin. Hendrick’s Kyle Larson is fourth, 12 points behind his teammate Elliott.
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney is 15 points off Elliott and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell is 23 points back.
“The only other main priority is Ryan’s (Blaney) got a great chance to get to second in points, which is obviously a ton of playoff points, whereas Joey [Logano] and I don’t’ really have that opportunity,” the 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric said of Team Penske’s overall gameplan.
“I’m not saying the priority will be Ryan, but if we can get Ryan points – points don’t really matter for me regular season-wise, so I think that’s really the only thing that fall in the category of what else is out there. If we can get one of us a win, even having another Ford in the Playoffs is a big deal, so we’ll do our best to try and contribute to that cause.”
Bell conceded his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team is also very conscious of the points-situation and potential of moving up in the standings to collect more bonus points. Of the five drivers vying to move up in points position – only the three-time Daytona 500 champion Hamlin and 2021 summer winner Blaney have previous Daytona victories at NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona.
“It definitely is [on my mind] and we need to finish up as high as we can in the points, but you just never know how these races are going to play out,” said Bell, a three-time race winner.
“We could go tomorrow and score a bunch of points and the rest of guys could score a bunch of points and it doesn’t matter. So, we’ll roll the dice and see where we end up.”