By David Morgan, Associate Editor
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman came into the night at Daytona International Raceway as the two drivers clinging to the final spots in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs and that would remain the status quo by the time the checkered flag flew on the Coke Zero Sugar 400.
Though it wasn’t exactly a smooth ride for either of them.
Coming into the night, Bowman found himself on the bubble and in danger of being eliminated as the 16th and final driver above the cut-off line not yet locked in to the postseason.
He would need to either hope for a bad night from Reddick to make up the points difference between the two or a repeat winner to secure his place in the Playoffs and join his HMS teammates with a chance to race for the championship.
After Reddick was involved in a crash on Lap 19, it appeared that door was open to close the gap to his closest rival in the points standings, but just nine laps later, everything went awry for the No. 48 team.
Bubba Wallace and Kyle Busch would get sandwiched in between Joey Logano heading into the tri-oval on Lap 28, setting off a chain reaction crash which involved a total of 12 cars, including Bowman, and brought out an eight minute, 30 second red flag.
Bowman brought his car back to the garage to the attention of his crew with the hopes of making repairs and returning to the race, but the damage was too severe to fix and he was knocked out of the race.
There's more trouble!
This time, it's at the front of the pack! pic.twitter.com/1pU8aUCfqv
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 24, 2025
“Being in front of it is really about all I could do, unfortunately. From where we were, there just really wasn’t any way to get around it,” said Bowman after getting checked and released from the Infield Care Center.
“All of the hits just sort of compounded too much to be able to fix it. I hate it for the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team. We’ve done a lot of good things lately.
“Tonight is going to be stressful to watch, but we’ll see what happens. Hope for no new winners, but if somebody wins, they deserve it. It’s unfortunate that we haven’t won yet this year. We’ve been so strong, especially lately. I would say from Michigan on, it’s been something fun to be a part of.
“It was all very out of our control. I hate that we tanked so bad the first run. The bottom lane just fell apart behind us. We had to overcome that, but we had gotten back to the back side of the top-10. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out.”
With Bowman out, Reddick was locked in on points and from there, Bowman could only hope for a repeat winner to keep his spot in the Playoffs safe.
While the lead pack featured a number of drivers in must-win territory that were threatening to spoil the party, Bowman had a few friends up there that could grant his wish with a win, including Joey Logano and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson.
But it was polesitter Ryan Blaney who brought it home, seemingly coming out of nowhere on the final lap as the seas parted and he powered his No. 12 Team Penske Ford to the lead, beating out Daniel Suarez, Justin Haley, and Cole Custer in the process – all of whom needed a win to clinch the final spot in the Playoffs.
Asked after the race by FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass what he owed his new best friend Blaney for the win, Bowman enthusiastically replied, “Seven million beers.”
“Certainly, thankful for him. Ryan’s a good dude and happy to see him win. He’s had a ton of huge hits here. I don’t know what to say other than that. Just thankful that he won.”
Despite finishing the race and punching his ticket to the Playoffs even after getting involved in a crash, Reddick was not in quite a jovial a mood as Bowman was after the race.
“We have no Playoff points so it’s a negative reset,” Reddick said of the challenge ahead for his team in the postseason. “I don’t know. We’ll certainly need to be on top of it every round. We’re capable of it, we just haven’t done it.”
He went on to take responsibility for getting involved in the crash that he did so early in the race that nearly threw things away for the team that won the regular season championship a year ago, but has struggled this season to replicate it.
“It was pretty destroyed. That was all my doing there at the start of the race,” Reddick added. “They bailed me out of it. It just seems like all year long we’ve been having to bail each other out of mistakes and bad choices.”
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