Daytona cutoff race is “a different brand of desperation”

2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric has plenty of experience winning at superspeedways, but he can relax a little bit this weekend. He won at Talladega earlier this year, locking him into the playoffs alongside Team Penske Ford teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney. Even the Wood Brothers, who have a close technical alliance with Penske, are locked in via Josh Berry’s victory at Las Vegas.

However, there are 20 drivers who have no choice but to win this race. While there is no NASCAR race bigger than the Daytona 500, its sister 400-miler tends to be even wilder.

“I think when you compare and contrast the two, one, I think it’s probably a different brand of desperation that is throughout the field,” explained Cindric. “I think for the 500, there’s probably a higher respect for what the win means, where here it’s all-out, whatever it takes for a good half of the field. To your point about what makes the two races different, we did have a pretty hot 500 this year, so I would say there’s probably gonna be more similarities to the 500 than maybe in years past when it was 60 or 50 degrees later in the evening. 

“I definitely expect handling to matter. I expect lane choice to be pretty fluid and that makes decision-making pretty difficult for guys in the pack to figure out where they want to be. Usually, general confusion causes wrecks or contact or whatever else. I think it usually takes a while throughout this race for everybody to kind of get their bearings on where their car is, where they need to make it better, but also strategically where to place themselves.”

Maximizing playoff points

Austin Cindric, Team Penske Ford

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

Cindric may be safe, but he still has plenty to race for beyond a checkered flag — especially for Team Penske. Blaney is in a close battle for second in the regular season standings, but he enters Daytona in fifth. He is just 15 points behind the runner-up spot, and gaining that ground would gain him a few more bonus points for the playoffs. 

Penske also has to keep an eye out for fellow Ford drivers attempting to win their way into the postseason. Among those facing a must-win is the entirety of RFK Racing and Front Row Motorsports — both three-car teams with no one inside the playoffs right now. 

Last year’s race featured two different wrecks that collected over a dozen cars each, Josh Berry flipped from the lead, and Harrison Burton shocked the world when he came from outside the top-30 in points to win the race and make the playoffs. It’s a race where anything can, and will happen.