Jun 21, 2025; Lengthy Pond, Pennsylvania, USA; NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Chris Buescher walks on pit highway throughout follow and qualifying for The Nice American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway. Necessary Credit score: Matthew O’Haren-Imagn Photographs NASCAR’s common season has all come right down to this.
Twenty-five races have led to Saturday night time’s common season finale at Daytona Worldwide Speedway, the ultimate probability for drivers to snag a win and earn their method into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Sequence playoffs.
The common season finale has seen its justifiable share of thrilling factors battles for playoff spots over time, however that will not be the case this yr. Alex Bowman at the moment holds the sixteenth and last provisional playoff spot by 60 factors over Chris Buescher, placing each driver under the lower line in a must-win state of affairs.
A brand new winner from under the lower line may knock out both Bowman or Tyler Reddick (+89) ought to Bowman surpass Reddick within the standings at race’s finish.
Here is the place the drivers stack up on the “World Middle of Racing” as they search for a win that might transcend their 2025 marketing campaign.
–Chris Buescher (seventeenth): Of all of the drivers needing a win, Buescher is perhaps in one of the best place. He received at Daytona in August 2023, and the RFK Racing Fords he drives are all the time fast at Daytona and Talladega. The unhealthy information? He doubtless will not get an excessive amount of drafting assist from teammates Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski, each of whom additionally have to win on Saturday to make the playoffs.
–Ryan Preece (18th): Like Buescher, Preece is a succesful superspeedway racer and may have a quick automobile on Saturday night. Sadly, his race automobiles are inclined to emulate the airplanes on the close by Daytona Seashore Worldwide Airport each time he tries to make a late push on the 2.5-mile speedway. Preece has gone airborne twice within the final 4 Daytona races, but when he can hold all 4 wheels on the bottom, he’ll be within the combine for his first profession win.
–Kyle Busch (nineteenth): All the pieces seemed prefer it was coming collectively for Busch at Daytona a yr in the past — till Harrison Burton surged previous the two-time champion on the ultimate lap and stole a win and a playoff berth away from the No. 8 staff. Identical to final yr, Busch is in a must-win state of affairs. However with one other yr added to his winless drought and the prospect of lacking the playoffs for the second yr in a row staring him down, one has to marvel if the longer term Corridor of Famer might be extra aggressive than he was right here a yr in the past. He’ll have a Richard Childress Racing teammate in Richmond winner Austin Dillon to push him within the closing laps.
–Ty Gibbs (twentieth): Other than a fifth-place end at Daytona in August 2024, NASCAR’s most iconic observe hasn’t been very type to Gibbs in his brief Cup Sequence profession. Drafting tracks aren’t essentially his specialty, however he must win to make the playoffs for the second straight yr. Not like the aforementioned RFK trio, all of Gibbs’ Joe Gibbs Racing teammates are already within the playoffs, which ought to repay when he wants a late-race push.
–Driver to look at under the bubble: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (twenty eighth): The season has spiraled since Stenhouse and the No. 47 HYAK Motorsports staff had been battling on the playoff bubble in early June. However Daytona could possibly be the nice equalizer for Stenhouse, who has received at Daytona twice and has received 4 Cup races at drafting tracks. He has shocked the world right here earlier than, and the closing laps of superspeedway races are all the time the place Stenhouse makes his cash.
–Samuel Stubbs, Subject Degree Media
