NCS: Regular season championship shifts to Daytona International Speedway - Speedway Digest

In a rain-delayed race at Michigan, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick emerged victorious, securing his second win of the season and the seventh of his career. This win, his first at the 2-mile track, also propelled him to the top of the NASCAR Cup Series point standings for the first time in his career. With just two races remaining in the regular season, Reddick now holds a 10-point lead over Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin trailing by 28 points in third place.

The previous points leader, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, slipped to fourth in the standings, 32 points behind Reddick, after a mishap at Michigan resulted in a 34th-place finish. Reddick aims to maintain his lead through the final two races and clinch the Regular Season Championship, potentially becoming the sixth different driver to achieve this milestone.

Reddick’s performance at Daytona has been mixed, with an average finish of 24.6 in 10 starts. His best result at the track was a second-place finish in this race in 2022. Meanwhile, his closest competitor, Chase Elliott, has an average finish of 20.5 at Daytona, with his best being a runner-up finish in the 2021 Daytona 500. Notably, neither driver has secured a win at Daytona in the Cup Series.

The focus now shifts to Daytona International Speedway, which will host the NASCAR Cup Series’ penultimate race of the regular season, the Coke Zero Sugar 400, on Saturday, August 24, at 7:30 p.m. ET. The race will be broadcast on NBC, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90). Daytona’s recent history of producing different winners adds to the excitement, with seven different drivers winning the last seven Cup Series races at the track since 2021.

The 154 NASCAR Cup Series races at Daytona have produced 65 different pole winners and 70 different race winners. While winners have come from various starting positions, the pole position has been particularly successful, producing 26 winners (16.8%). The youngest driver to win from the pole in a summer race at Daytona was NASCAR Hall of Famer Fireball Roberts, who achieved this at 30 years, 5 months, and 3 days old on July 4, 1959. The most recent driver to win from the pole was Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the 2015 July race, although qualifying was canceled for that event

Upcoming Qualifying
This weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series activities at Daytona will kick off with Busch Light Pole Qualifying on Friday, August 23, at 5:05 p.m. ET, broadcast on the USA Network, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. With the unpredictability of Daytona, the race promises to be a thrilling spectacle as drivers vie for crucial points and a spot in the playoffs.