When Team Penske's Joey Logano appeared to be in control of Saturday night's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, ahead of a pack of drivers facing must-win situations to get into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, you could not possibly find a bigger Logano fan than Hendrick Motorsports' Alex Bowman.
After Bowman was taken out in an early multi-car wreck, thus locking 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick into the playoffs on points, the playoff battle was simple. If a winner emerged from below the cut line, Bowman was out. If not, Bowman was in.
Bowman cheering on Logano (whether he admits it or not) marked an odd turn of events, considering the fact that Bowman advanced to last year's round of 8 before being disqualified from the round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. That opened up the door for Logano, who had been eliminated, to advance.
Logano ended up advancing to the Championship 4, continuing an 11-year trend of getting there in every single even-numbered year (but never in an odd-numbered year), and he won his third championship, making him the first-ever champion to win the title after having technically been eliminated.
But Logano spun out, and all of a sudden, it was going to take a miracle to keep Bowman in the playoffs, given the fact that winless drivers now dominated the top 10 in the running order.
Enter Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney.
We can't confirm, but it would not surprise me if Saturday's post-race Blaney merchandise sales spike included at least one order from Bowman.
And I will leave you with this tonight ... Ryan Blaney's response when he heard that Alex Bowman said he owed Blaney "7 million beers" and then his thoughts on the drivers who needed to win, how they raced clean. @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/Soyv10lCxj
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) August 24, 2025
Blaney rallied from 13th with two laps remaining to win, and he held off five drivers in must-win situations to do it: Trackhouse Racing's Daniel Suarez, Spire Motorsports' Justin Haley, Haas Factory Team's Cole Custer, Legacy Motor Club's Erik Jones, and RFK Racing's Chris Buescher, though Buescher was officially dropped from sixth to seventh in timing and scoring.
The spread between the top four, who were literally four-wide at the checkered flag, was 0.049 seconds, the closest in NASCAR history.
Of course, Bowman won't be a Penske fan for long, especially after what happened in last year's playoffs. Bowman is aiming to officially get back to the round of 8 for the first time since 2020, and he is aiming to get to his first Championship 4. But above all, he is one of two drivers who enter the playoffs seeking their first win of 2025. Bowman is winless since last year's Chicago street race.
All in all, a whopping nine drivers from below the cut line led Saturday night's 160-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval at some point, ironically led by Rick Ware Racing's Cody Ware (23 laps led), who sits in a distant last place (36th) in the point standings among full-time drivers. Ware more than tripled his career laps led total (over 10 seasons) in the matter of an hour.
Thanks to Blaney, none of those nine drivers were able to deny Bowman the 16th and final playoff spot for 2025.
The playoffs are scheduled to get underway this Sunday, August 31 with the Cook Out Southern 500, which is set to be shown live on USA Network from Daytona International Speedway beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!