With only one race left in the regular season at Daytona, the cards for the Chase for the Championship have been reshuffled. Currently, the standings are as follows:
Austin Cindric occupies the first position with +44 points, followed by Shane Van Gisbergen with +31. In contrast, Ryan Preece finds himself in a complicated situation with -31 points, while Brad Keselowski is at -66.
For Keselowski, his only chance to secure the final spot relies on a spectacular turnaround during the race, which must include a victory at Daytona and the withdrawal of the competitors ahead of him.
In contrast, Preece has managed to present himself as a candidate for a better position after finishing the previous race in ninth place, with 10 stage points, while Van Gisbergen ended in twentieth place with only two stage points.
The driver and his crew chief, Derrick Finley, have been able to position themselves to launch an attack on the higher spots thanks to a strategic pit stop that involved changing only two tires. Despite this, they lost momentum throughout the race, ultimately falling back in the standings.
Preece commented: ‘We did a good job. Most of the race went in our favor. We had a very competitive car and, before the last yellow flag, it seemed we could overtake (Bubba Wallace). We just passed (Josh Berry), but the last set of tires failed, which hurt us. On the restarts, we did things right.’
Despite his performance, Preece pointed out that it would have been even better if he had won, as that would have narrowed the gap with Van Gisbergen. ‘What I know is that we need to drive our best next week,’ he added.
Preece currently finds himself in a difficult situation after receiving a 25-point penalty for an incident with Ty Gibbs at Texas Motor Speedway. Nevertheless, his team’s standings were not affected, as he only needs to gain eight points on Van Gisbergen to enter the team version of the Chase for the Championship.
Van Gisbergen, for his part, acknowledged Preece and Finley’s good work, expressing the desire to have more margin before the race at Daytona, which is completely unknown. The race will feature a new superspeedway package that will not be tested during the weekend prior to the competition.
This final race of the regular season will determine who advances in the fight for the Chase for the Championship, both in the driver standings and in the owner standings.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
