‘Stress, A Lot of Stress,’ Bowman Says as He Clings to Final Playoff Transfer Spot at Daytona

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – To point your way in or not to point your way in, that is the question.

Heading into Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman hold onto the final two Playoff spots on points, sitting 89 and 60 points above the cut-off line respectively.

As it sits, only these two drivers can mathematically punch their ticket to the Playoffs on points, and barring a new winner Reddick and 23XI Racing, along with Bowman and Hendrick Motorsports will round out the 16-driver postseason field.

But then there’s the elephant in the room of this regular season finale being held at Daytona International Speedway, where anything and everything can happen, especially when it comes to a winner take all race like Saturday night.

This time around, the list of the drivers that have to win to make it in are stacked with former Daytona winners and those that are always in the mix on superspeedways, making the gauntlet on Saturday night even more challenging.

Among them being the RFK Racing duo of Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher, along with the third RFK car in Ryan Preece. Not to mention former Daytona 500 winners Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Michael McDowell.

Then there’s the likes of Kyle Busch, Justin Haley, and Erik Jones, all of whom have won on a superspeedway or been extremely competitive on these types of tracks.

Nonetheless, both Reddick and Bowman are treating Saturday night as business as usual, hoping that the consistency that they have shown through the first 25 races of the year will be enough to hang on for a Playoff spot, and also looking for a little bit of luck to keep those below the cut-off line out of Victory Lane.

“Daytona’s always wild. You never know what’s going to happen, but that’s part of the fun,” said Bowman. “For us, it’s about staying out of the mess and being there at the end. This is the final race to get locked into the Playoffs, so every point matters.”

Though that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be a stressful night for them, especially Bowman, who holds the final Playoff transfer spot and could be on the chopping block and knocked out with a new winner.

“Stress, a lot of stress, but just need to do the things that we can control correctly and kind of let the rest take care of itself,” said Bowman.

Bowman added that he and his Hendrick teammates haven’t tried to game plan Saturday night, explaining that they’ll work together through the pit cycles as normal, and let the race play out naturally with hopefully the No. 48 Chevrolet at the top of the board when all is said and done.

“I mean, I don’t think there’s really much we can all do,” Bowman said. “It’s a normal speedway race, so we’ll work together through the pit cycles and stuff. But beyond that, we’re all trying to win the race.”

As for Reddick, he explained that he’ll want to be kept abreast of the gap between himself and Bowman, especially later in the race if Bowman remains within striking distance with the chance of a new winner still out there at the finish.

“I think it’s not a bad thing to know kind of where the stage points are at going into starting stage 3,” Reddick said. “The points gap between me and Bowman, I think that’ll probably be the only real key piece of information to know from there. I mean, I guess the best way to try and defend on points wise is just execute good strategy, be upfront towards the end.

“If the crash happens, there’s not a lot you can do about it. Typically, it happens right at the front where you want to be.”

Bowman will have the advantage when the green flag drops, starting on the outside of the front row after qualifying was cancelled due to inclement weather, while Reddick will roll off from 27^th place.

The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is scheduled for 7:30 pm ET Saturday on NBC.