DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Bubba Wallace holds the final playoff going into Saturday night’s regular-season finale, but he’s one of 17 drivers fighting for that position.
Among those who have not secured a playoff spot are former Cup champion Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, rookie Ty Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger and Chase Briscoe, the pole-sitter for the race (7 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock).
Here is what some drivers are saying entering this race:
Bubba Wallace (Starting 4th)
Wallace has never made the playoffs. He leads Gibbs by 32 points and Suarez by 43 points but a new winner who is eligible for the playoffs would knock Wallace out of that spot. Wallace has three career runner-ups at Daytona.
“I would be devastated if we didn’t make the playoffs,” Wallace said. “I hate that we haven’t had a win this year to lock ourselves in yet. I think you have to just be mindful, I have a lot of people telling me you can only control the things that you can control. Our speed has been better than last year. We haven’t had as many breakout races as we had last year.”
On holding the final playoff spot entering Daytona, Wallace said: “It’s a situation I haven’t been a part of. We’ve been well outside the playoff picture. We’ve been a must-win car (in the final regular-season race) ever since the playoffs have started for me in my Cup career. To be in this scenario, kind of going through some new avenues and figuring out how to navigate it all.”
Chase Elliott (Starting 23rd)
The former Cup champion must win to make the playoffs in a season that he has missed six races due to injury and one race due to a suspension.
It has been roller-coaster run for him lately. He finished second at Indianapolis to Michael McDowell and ran out of fuel last weekend at Watkins Glen.
“I’m ready for whatever (Saturday) brings,” Elliott said Friday at Daytona. “ … I was ready to face the challenge of this season when I was sitting around on a couch hurt. I knew that there was going to be a tough road ahead. That didn’t change how I went about my preparation or my thought process going into weekends or how hard I tried. I’m still trying to really hard. It’s not like I’m just ready to brush it under the rug and move on.
“I really think there’s positives to be taken on both ends of the spectrum. If you get in great, you have an opportunity to race for a championship. If you don’t, I think that there are things that can be improved upon, areas that maybe you wouldn’t have pushed in or tried if you were in the show.”
Elliott said his plan for the race is to be on offense. He’s twice finished second at Daytona.
“That would be my gameplay — to try to be that person that can make a lane go forward and be a difference maker because the more people catch on to that, you’re bettering your odds of having a good day,” he said.
Daniel Suarez (starting 22nd)
He could earn a playoff spot via points but it won’t be easy. He likely needs a win to make it. The challenge is that in the Chevrolet camp, there are several drivers, including Elliott and Alex Bowman at Hendrick Motorsports, who are outside a playoff spot. How much help Suarez will get from other Chevy teams could be limited.
“The situation here last year was a completely different because the only Chevy key partner that wasn’t in the playoffs was Austin Dillon,” Suarez said. “We all tried to help each other like we always do but then priority was the 3 car.
“Right now there is four of us. So who are we going to help? It’s a little more tricky. It’s not as easy as last year. Like I mentioned before, anything can happen here in Daytona. We have seen the fastest car win the race and a wrecked car win the race. Anything can happen. The numbers don’t lie. The second Daytona race of the year is always a wreckfest. Hopefully, a little bit of luck is on our side and we can be there at the end.”
Chase Briscoe (starting 1st)
Briscoe has had a miserable year (two top 10s in the last 15 races) and a penalty for a counterfeit part, but if he wins he’ll be in the playoffs. Nine of the top 12 cars in the starting lineup are Fords and Briscoe hopes to use that to his advantage.
“It’s huge,” Briscoe said of the Ford dominance in qualifying, “especially at these races — more than anywhere else — the manufacturers play a huge role. So having as many of those teammates you can have up there even if they’re not in the same organization, they still have the Blue Oval on the hood. That’s huge every time we come here, Talladega and Atlanta.
“It’s huge to have strength in numbers, so we’ve got a lot of them – nine in the top 12, so that will be good to hopefully control the race, control the narrative and hopefully our Ford can find victory lane and keep all the Fords up front.”
AJ Allmendinger (starting 17th)
Allmendinger needs to win to make the playoffs. He’s finished in the top 10 in each of his last five Cup starts at Daytona.
“I hate this racing,” Allmendinger said of speedway racing. “It starts the beginning of the week, I hate this racing. Always have, always will. It’ll never change.
“With this car, it’s even, I think, (it’s) more hyped up because … you don’t ride around at the back for a while, at least the calm before the storm and build up and go for it. You almost got to start from Lap 1 on.
“I’ve always said that as much as I hate this racing, I hate sucking worse. You still got to make the moves to go try to win the race.”
In regards to streak of top 10s at Daytona, Allmendinger said: “I’m OK at it. It hasn’t worked out to actually win one of these things. I’ve given myself a lot of chances. Let’s try it again. Like I said, it’s been close.”
Austin Cindric (starting 16th)
The 2022 Daytona 500 winner needs a win to make the playoffs. He’s never missed the playoffs in a year he’s run the full season in NASCAR, making the Truck playoffs in 2017, the Xfinity playoffs 2018-21 (winning the 2020 title) and making the Cup playoffs last year.
“It’ll be different territory if I’m not in the playoffs,” he said. “There are times in my career where I’ve had to fight to get into the playoffs. That’s the point of the playoff format, so I have been there before and even trying to make it round to round in the playoffs is a similar situation.
“My playoff experience … mentally would help someone in this situation because it is the same, similar win and you’re in. You have to execute on one day even in the Championship 4 situation, so I think just being able to have experience racing under pressure definitely doesn’t hurt and you mix that with speedway racing and it’s gonna be a hell of a weekend.”