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NASCAR Daytona Takeaways: Harrison Burton Earns His Way Into Playoffs

Vaseline August 25, 2024

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — Five thoughts after Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway…

1. Taking stock

Harrison Burton is currently last in the NASCAR Cup Series standings among full-time drivers.

Harrison Burton is also a NASCAR playoff driver this season.

That those two things can coexist is hard for many fans to comprehend. And hey, it’s understandable; how can someone who is 34th in points be among 16 drivers racing for a championship?

Except this: that’s the system, and the rules are the same for everyone. It would be hypocritical to simultaneously enjoy the thrill of a regular 26-race season, with its Any Given Sunday atmosphere, and guard the gate because a winning driver didn’t meet the ideal qualifications.

Burton went into Saturday night’s Daytona race with the same chance as everyone else, and with full knowledge of what a win would mean. It was no secret how important this race was to drivers below the playoff cut line, as it was seen by many as the last chance to make the postseason (next week’s race at Darlington should return the usual suspects to the front).

Does Burton have the stats to justify his playoff presence? Clearly not in the traditional sense. He ranks last among full-time drivers in points, average finish and, until Saturday, top 10s (he had just one all year).

Burton’s season was so disappointing, with equipment that raised much higher expectations for performance, that he was fired from his cycling team in June.

But Burton now has the one stat that matters most in NASCAR today: a tally in the win column. This entire series is now built around winning: winning your way into the playoffs, winning your way to the next playoff round, winning the championship race.

So Burton did it. He beat out future Hall of Famer Kyle Busch to do it. There was nothing random about his victory. Yes, it goes against the grain of what people typically consider good seasons — but like an underdog college basketball team making a magical conference tournament run to secure a bid to March Madness, sports don’t always produce the championship field we expect to see.

2. Fastest car tracker

It’s probably unfair to even include superspeedways in this category, since the dominant car in these events often ends up in a scrapyard. But since we’re almost done with this experiment and have already included other races at Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta, let’s move on.

Michael McDowell took the pole position (his third in a row at a superspeedway) and was in position to win until he was turned by Austin Cindric, causing a terrifying mid-air crash. Joey Logano might also have a claim to this section (he’s led the most laps in both Daytona races this season), but it appeared McDowell had been a touch faster overall.

Either way, the answer is not Burton, who led for just one lap while the three front-runners all crashed out at Dover for the first time since 1981.

Fastest car score: Other cars 16, fastest cars 11.

Fastest cars per driver: Christopher Bell 6, Denny Hamlin 4, Kyle Larson 4, Tyler Reddick 2, William Byron 2, Joey Logano 2, McDowell 2, Martin Truex Jr. 1, Todd Gilliland 1, Ty Gibbs 1, Shane van Gisbergen 1, Unclear 1.

Harrison Burton may not have had the fastest car on Saturday at Daytona, but he held off Kyle Busch to win the playoffs. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

3. Questions and Answers

Each week in this section we ask a question from the past and try to answer one of it.

Q: Has the strategy on superhighways changed for good?

When the Next Gen car debuted in 2022, teams quickly discovered that the path to winning a superspeedway race had changed. The current car can no longer slice through the pack like the old one could, meaning track position now matters more.

And what is the best way to get a good position for the end of the race, apart from hoping that others crash? Since tires are irrelevant, it boils down to spending as little time as possible refueling on the pit lane during the last stop of the race.

That has led to some strange races where the first 80 percent or so of the race requires you to drive around with the throttle only half-pressed, creating a slow-looking pack of cars. Fortunately, the fuel economy in Saturday night’s race didn’t seem to detract from the show as it has at other superspeedway races of late — but that doesn’t mean we won’t see it again at Atlanta or Talladega this fall.

By now the drivers have accepted that superspeedway racing places different demands on their skills than the previous car did.

“This is kind of like a bike race, where everybody saves their legs,” Logano said. “We’re just saving gas and hopefully you have a quicker stop, and you’re pedaling yourself forward and you’re racing the last few to the end of the stage.”

Elliott said it’s been known in the garage for a few years, but only recently has it become more apparent to the public.

“It’s certainly not a secret, and everyone is trying to find that edge,” he said. “It’s hard to put a value on being fast on that last stop that can make or break your whole day.”

Do drivers like it? They would prefer to race flat out, as many did in Stage 1 (a short enough segment that fuel economy wasn’t necessary); but at the same time, they understand the reasons.

“It’s not fun to be out here at half speed, but you adapt quickly,” Bubba Wallace said. “If it puts you in a position to win, you do it.”

A: Can Bubba Wallace make the playoffs?

That was the question in this room after the penultimate regular-season race of 2023 (Watkins Glen), and it was a topic at the time because Wallace had never been a playoff driver before. Of course, Wallace ultimately made it as the last driver standing — 47 points ahead of Daniel Suárez after a repeat winner in the regular-season finale.

Wallace found himself in a similar situation to last year for weeks: winless, but with momentum in his attempts to score points and move into the field. He seemed to perform well just as some of his strongest tracks (Richmond, Michigan and Daytona) approached.

But that opportunity didn’t work out as planned for either Wallace or Ross Chastain (who was one point ahead of Wallace for the playoff cutoff spot Saturday night). Burton’s win moved the cut-line to Chris Buescher, so instead of a six-point battle heading into Darlington, Wallace (-21) and Chastain (-27) both have a tough challenge to make the playoffs next week.

Is that possible? Absolutely. Buescher or his team could make a mistake, and that gap could close quickly. Plus, Wallace and/or Chastain could run past Buescher if the No. 17 team was slightly off the top three in the final Darlington race.

But it would still be better to have a 20-point lead than a deficit, and bridging that gap on NASCAR’s toughest track seems like a tall order.

Bubba Wallace still has a long way to go to reach the play-offs. He is 21 points behind the cut-off line with only next week’s race at Darlington remaining. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

4. NASquirks

Most NASCAR Cup Series drivers are active on social media. They at least browse, but also post regularly. However, there have been a few notable defectors in recent years.

Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. have long since given up. Corey LaJoie deleted all social apps from his phone last year, and Wallace admitted this weekend that he’s no longer on X, Instagram or anything else.

Can you blame them?

“Totally done,” said Wallace, who said he stopped looking at social media after the Pocono race last month. “It was so nice. Just getting caught up in other people’s lives and starting to compare yourself. Aside from the toxic comments, social media is just a lot sometimes.”

Many of the Cup drivers have someone dedicated to creating their social media content, ranging from photography to video editing to canned posts (sometimes in the driver’s voice). So Wallace’s accounts stay active even when he’s not scrolling through timelines.

“I miss the photography side of it, posting all that stuff,” said Wallace, who has a separate account for his photography hobby. “But it’s just so much better for the mentality. So YouTube is my best friend.”

5. Five at No. 5

Our mini power rankings after race #27/38 (including exhibitions):

1. Tyler Reddick (last time: 1): Reddick holds a 17-point lead heading into Darlington, putting him in a strong position to pull off what appeared to be quite the surprise before the season began: a 23XI Racing car winning the regular season title from Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.

2. Kyle Larson (last time: 2): Larson appeared to be having one of his best superspeedway runs despite the damage he sustained early on, but he still ended up in both of the evening’s Big Ones.

3. Ryan Blaney (last time: 4): Blaney has now crashed three times in a row at Daytona, which belies just how fast his car normally is at such tracks.

4. Christopher Bell (last time: not ranked): Bell has scored the third-most points in the last 10 races, moving him from 17th to 6th in the standings since late April.

5. Denny Hamlin (last time: 3): Losing 10 playoff points and dropping to eighth place in the regular season after his unfortunate engine penalty is a major blow to momentum. Can it be regained for the playoffs?

Dropped: Elliot.