The NASCAR season is coming to an end, and after an electric race at Richmond, Daytona surely won’t disappoint. The final race of the regular season will take place under the lights on Saturday, August 23rd. Will there be a surprise new winner who will lock themselves into the NASCAR playoffs with a win at the world center of racing?
Last season, Harrison Burton shocked the racing world with a walk-off win at Daytona. He will not be driving in the field of 40 on Saturday and is now a full-time Xfinity Series driver, with Josh Berry replacing him in the 21.
Previous winners for the Daytona night race include William Byron, Justin Haley, and Erick Jones. To say the least, nobody knows who’s going to win this unpredictable superspeedway race. Some drivers are better at drafting tracks than others, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, for example, who is also a former winner of this race. Drafting skill and momentum are the only ways to try to predict a winner here.
Austin Dillon is the latest NASCAR winner, coming off a stunning victory at Richmond. He has typically run well at Daytona, so he could be in consideration for this race. Chase Briscoe has been running better than any driver as of late, and if not for an unfortunate incident last week, he may have gotten another top five.
Drivers without a win who have had success lately include Alex Bowman and Brad Keselowski. Bowman is technically good on points if there is not a new winner, but Keselowski would need to win to get into the NASCAR playoffs.
Bowman and Keselowski should both have good runs and find themselves competing at the end if they can avoid wrecks. Daytona is all about unpredictability, which is why neither of them is the official prediction to win.
Look for Carson Hocevar to get his first career victory on Saturday. His aggressive racing style will do him wonders if he can avoid causing any incidents to put his chances in jeopardy. Keselowski, Bowman, Stenhouse, Briscoe, and Austin Cindric round out the top five.
Hocevar winning would be a great ending to his strange 2025 regular season. He has been viewed as a wrecking machine that can’t stay out of other drivers’ way. That style of racing may lead him right to a victory at Daytona if his car can stay in good shape.
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