Only 36 points separate the 16 drivers as NASCAR’s playoffs begin Sunday at Darlington Raceway in what might be one of the closest fields in the history of this format.
After so many near-misses, is it finally Denny Hamlin’s year?
Confidence is nice but it has yet to pay off for Hamlin, who can’t shake the tag as the greatest NASCAR driver to never win a Cup Series title.
Chris Buescher led RFK Racing’s first 1-2 finish in nine years, winning at Daytona for the third time in the final five regular-season races.
Buescher’s victory boosted Bubba Wallace into the final postseason spot and eliminated fan favorite Chase Elliott, who finished fourth, from the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons.
Practice and qualifying is at 11:30 am Saturday morning and race time is 5 pm on Sunday evening.
Riverton-native Justin Allgaier held off Sheldon Creed by 0.005 seconds in double overtime to prevail in the fourth-closest finish in series history and win for the first time in 26 starts at Daytona.
Allgaier’s second victory of the season and 21st overall moved him to second in the points race, 27 points behind Austin Hill and one ahead of John Hunter Nemechek with three regular-season races remaining.
Hill finished 23rd, Nemechek 28th. Daniel Hemric was third, followed by Parker Kligerman and Cole Custer.
Hill and Trevor Bayne looked to be in control of the race late, but they started a multicar melee when they made contact with Chandler Smith following a restart with two laps to go.
Riley Herbst had a second consecutive bad week and went from three points ahead of Kligerman to 20 points behind in the fight for the last playoff spot. Herbst has lost 54 points in that fight in the last two races.
XFinity practice is 9:30 Saturday morning and race time is 2:30 pm on Saturday.
Grant Enfinger led 95 of 175 laps and passed Carson Hocevar on the 159th lap to win in the Craftsman Truck Series first leg of the postseason from the Milwaukee Mile last Sunday. His third victory of the season advanced him into the next round of the playoffs.
The truck series returns next weekend from Kansas Speedway.
