{"id":153638,"date":"2025-08-17T17:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T17:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/153638\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T17:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T17:27:08","slug":"nascar-cup-series-has-just-two-playoff-openings-heading-to-daytona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/153638\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Cup Series has Just Two Playoff Openings Heading to Daytona"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Reddick-Richmond-e1755448717269.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Tyler Reddick saw his Playoff Points Cushion Shrink after Richmond<\/p>\n<p>When the checkered flag flew after Saturday night\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nascar\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/sports\/other\/a-year-after-controversial-richmond-victory-austin-dillon-wins-with-no-drama\/ar-AA1KGgLb?ocid=BingNewsSerp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Chevrolet team of Richard Childress Racing took the win.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As a result, he became the 14th driver to make the Playoffs via a victory leaving only two of the 16 Playoff positions undecided. That will be taken care of this Saturday at the always unpredictable track of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Daytona International Speedway<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at the standings heading into the regular season finale, Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman are 15th and 16th, respectively\u2026for now.<\/p>\n<p>Reddick\u2019s Night Literally Wrecked at Richmond<\/p>\n<p>Heading into Richmond, Reddick was +117 points to the good. However, it was a rough outing after getting spun while running up front resulting in a 34th-place finish and now +89 markers to the good.<\/p>\n<p>After Reddick led 41 laps and won Stage 1, the No. 54 of Ty Gibbs came up the track after contact with the No. 99 of Daniel Suarez just as Reddick was trying to get past both of them during Stage 2.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDaniel just got impatient and knocked the 54 out of the way and that\u2019s what took us out,\u201d Reddick shared post race <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KellyCrandall\/status\/1956942445150609723\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\" data-t=\"{\" n=\"\">via Kelly Crandall of\u00a0RACER.com<\/a>. \u201cUnfortunately, I had a feeling that was going to happen, and I was just hoping more respect was going to be given.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe went in there and he moved the 54. I don\u2019t know if he meant for it to wreck me, but nonetheless, I feel like time and time again Daniel has done that type of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/sports\/motorsports\/daniel-suarez-defends-himself-over-intentional-wreck-claim-over-tyler-reddick-incident-at-richmond\/ar-AA1KFDDW?ocid=msedgntp&amp;pc=LCTS&amp;cvid=4211e5c4117a4013bc5e898802965874&amp;ei=8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Suarez did speak out about the wreck and gave his view.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bowman Knows What\u2019s Needed<\/p>\n<p>Bowman, on the other hand, had a commendable night finishing second. Towards the end, he used <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nascar\/nascar-richmond-tire-problems\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tire management<\/a> and a fast car to make his way past the No. 12 of Ryan Blaney, who led laps and had a spirited side-by-side battle with Dillon in the closing laps.<\/p>\n<p>With the runner-up finish, Bowman and the No. 48 Chevrolet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hendrickmotorsports.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Hendrick Motorsports<\/a> team knows what needs to be done at Daytona being +60 points above the cut line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, certainly really stressful on a lot of fronts,\u201d he said post-race. \u201cI mean, I think with the way that race normally goes, it\u2019s about a must-win at that point because I think you\u2019re most likely going to have a new winner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just need to go execute and try to win the race. That\u2019s all we can really do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If a non-race winner were to bust into the Playoffs with a victory, Bowman would be on the outside looking in for the remaining 10 races of the year. That\u2019s why a solid run like Richmond helps with so much on the line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a really good No. 48 Ally Chevrolet in the last run, just broke the tires off too much in lap traffic,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get any breaks and that made me kind of work the rears (tires) harder than I needed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just needed to be a little better through there to get to him (Austin Dillon, race winner). I certainly think we had the better car, but unfortunately, we didn\u2019t get there. Blake (Harris, crew chief) and all the guys did a great job. Just came up a little bit short.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coming a little bit short at Daytona won\u2019t make the cut.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/timpackman\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Tim Packman<\/strong><\/a> Tim Packman is a journalist for Heavy.com covering NASCAR. He grew up around the short tracks of Western New York watching his dad, stepdad and step brother race. His uncle was the head starter at many area tracks and member of the FOAR Score Hall of Fame. &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nTim&#8217;s passion for racing took him to the announcer&#8217;s tower and writing program stores for multiple tracks in the area. In 2000, he moved to Mooresville, NC to become an award-winning journalist for NASCAR.com. He took a job with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. as the team&#8217;s Communications Director and was part of two Daytona 500 wins and two NASCAR Championships.&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nThe announcing experience led to becoming a Pit Reporter and News Director for MRN Radio. A return to the team side at Richard Childress Racing as the Director of Corporate Communications took place, which also included another Championship.&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nFrom 2015 to 2018, Tim returned to where his career began in 1994 &#8211; Lancaster National Speedway &amp; Dragway &#8211; as the Track President. He earned Short Track Promoter of the Year awards in 2016 and 2017.&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nUpon returning to NC, he joined The Garage Shop as Communications Director and host of it&#8217;s Podcast and MAV-TV docuseries &#8220;Legacy of Speed&#8221; talking about Land Speed Racing at Bonneville, and other places.&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nTim has hosted two other Podcasts, namely &#8220;Pub Table Racers,&#8221; and wrote three books. One was with NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison titled, &#8220;Bobby Allison, a Racer&#8217;s Racer&#8221; and two Children&#8217;s books, &#8220;Funny Dan the Race Car Man&#8221; and &#8220;Petey the Pace Car.&#8221;&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\nHe also served in the US Navy. <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/timpackman\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Tim Packman<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Tyler Reddick saw his Playoff Points Cushion Shrink after Richmond When the checkered flag flew after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":153639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-153638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115045285429389372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}