DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Brad Keselowski needs “a miracle” at Daytona International Speedway to make the Cup Series playoffs.
A more likely scenario: his teammate at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, Ryan Preece, eking into the postseason with a strong showing at NASCAR’s home track Saturday night.
“My car needs like a miracle,” said Keselowski, the 2012 series champion.
Added Preece: “I just think about trying to win stages and win the race. … There’s
a lot of unknowns right now and trying to be as prepared as possible.”
Keselowski and Preece are among five drivers vying for the final three spots in the 10-race Chase for the championship in the summer race at Daytona. Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric and Shane van Gisbergen also are looking to lock down postseason berths in the 400-mile race.
Those five will share the spotlight under the lights at the high-banked track. It’s the result of NASCAR changing its playoff format, which no longer guarantees a postseason berth to drivers who win a race during the regular season.
Keselowski is approaching the regular-season finale at Daytona more as a mindful team owner than a desperate participant. Fellow RFK driver Chris Buescher is already locked into the playoffs, and getting Preece in there would help the team’s financial bottom line.
“We’re paying a lot of attention to that,” Keselowski said.
Wallace and Cindric are close to being locks to make the 10-driver Chase for the championship, essentially leaving van Gisbergen and Preece to battle for the 16th and final spot in the playoff field. Van Gisbergen leads Preece by 31 points — a relatively small cushion that could be quickly trimmed in the opening stages.
“A lot going on. Not really sure how it’s going to play out,” van Gisbergen said. “I think 30 points is a lot — until it’s not, until he has two good stages and then we’re under a lot of pressure. … I think we plan to be pretty conservative and see how his race is going and react to that.”
All the drivers will need to react to horsepower and aerodynamic changes that NASCAR made in hopes of improving racing at the superspeedway.
The sanctioning body mandated engine changes that will reduce horsepower from 510 to 465. It also shaved 3 inches off rear spoilers, providing less downforce and assumedly less handling.
“The pack will have a vibe to it that will play off how comfortable everyone feels in the car around other cars,” points leader Denny Hamlin said. “The intensity of the actual race is going to be dependent of that comfort level.”
Hamlin said earlier in the week it could lead to “absolute chaos,” partly because drivers weren’t allowed any track time to test the new setup.
“It would have been nice,” driver Daniel Suárez said. “Sometimes a little bit is better than nothing. There’s going to be a lot of people making adjustments in stage one.”
And all eyes will be on van Gisbergen and Preece.
“It’s a pretty cool feeling to have the pressure on us,” van Gisbergen said.
Suárez, who is already locked into the playoffs with Spire Motorsports, is ready to leave Daytona on a moment’s notice. Suárez’s wife, Julia, is 38 weeks pregnant and could give birth before, during or right after the race.
Suárez recently completed a hospital tour so he knows where to go and what to do if he needs to fly home in a hurry.
“Hopefully it’s a Monday to Friday baby,” he said, adding that the team has yet to pick a standby driver.
“We’re looking for someone,” he said. “He has to speak Spanish, though.”
William Byron and Ryan Blaney are the co-favorites at plus-850. Joey Logano (plus-1100) is the third choice, followed by Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott at plus-1200.
Blaney won last year's race, and Reddick won the Daytona 500 in February.
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