William Byron, Martin Truex Jr. lead the 16 drivers who will be competing for the NASCAR Cup Championship.
Chris Buescher’s surprising victory in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in Daytona Beach on Saturday night moved Bubba Wallace in the upcoming 16-driver, 10-race Cup Series championship Playoff. That four-round elimination series begins next weekend at Darlington Raceway and ends with the 2023 championship race on No. 5 near Phoenix.
Thirteen regular-season winners and two winless drivers based on points were locked in when the 160-lap, 400-miler began. Buescher was among the 13 winners, so he didn’t need to win again to qualify. But Wallace was 16th in points, the highest-rated winless driver on the grid. He needed to win his way into the Playoffs or hope one of the 15 already in the field won again, thus elevating him via points.
Buescher’s victory came over Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing teammate Brad Keselowski, Stewart-Haas driver Aric Almirola, Hendrick Motorsports star Chase Elliott, and Team Penske driver Joey Logano. Much of the pre-race attention was on Elliott , 12th-finishing Wallace of 23XI Racing, rookie Ty Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing, and Alex Bowman of Hendrick.
Wallace ran well at times before sliding back in the final laps. Likewise, Elliott ran among the top-five much of the night, but was no match for the three Fords that finished ahead of him. Gibbs ran near the front until crashing near the end of the second stage, and Bowman was a solid top-10 runner, but that was never going to be enough.
Stewart-Haas driver Ryan Preece was involved in the night’s most disturbing crash . He was near the front when he slid across two lanes of traffic and flipped and tumbled and rolled countless times along the backstretch. . He climbed from the car and was taken to the track’s infield care center, then transported to nearby Halifax Medical Center for observation.
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