The big story for Saturday night’s race at Daytona is who out of 17 drivers will get that final coveted Playoff spot in the NASCAR Cup Series. However, other drivers in the field will be searching for racing for other things that may have a major factor in how the Playoff seedings shake out. What are these other battles?

After six months of competition, the NASCAR Cup Series has finally reached the week of the Regular Season finale. The Daytona International Speedway is a place where surprise winners can turn the Playoff grid upside down. Which drivers can pull off the upset at Daytona?

Watkins Glen was not kind to many NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contenders. That leaves many in must-win territory at Daytona this weekend, in what is shaping up to be one of the craziest races of the season. Which of these big-name Playoff contenders are in must-win territory heading into Daytona?

This follows up the Indianapolis Road Course race, which clocked in at 2 hours, 9 minutes, and 59 seconds. Yesterday’s NASCAR Cup Series Race at Watkins Glen set a modern era record. It was the shortest race run to its’ full distance of the modern era at 1 hour, 58 minutes, and 44 seconds. The time of the race was a hot topic of discussion, but, given the fact that this is a recent pattern, should NASCAR look at lengthening road course races a bit more?

Yesterday’s Watkins Glen race was not as well-received by fans as previous Watkins Glen Races. As of me writing this, Jeff Gluck’s “Was it a good race” poll had 62% of fans saying they disliked the race, which is just 1% less than the lowest rated race of the season, Martinsville, which had 63% say they disliked the race. If the race was that bad, then what does NASCAR need to do to fix road course racing, if anything at all.

The Hendrick Motorsports Napa Number 9 team laid an egg at Watkins Glen last weekend. Chase Elliott qualified a disappointing 15th, and crew chief Alan Gustafson was forced to do an outside the box strategy. The strategy seemed to be working until a critical miscalculation was realized too late, and Elliott ran out of fuel on the backstretch.

The day was done from there as Elliott fell off the lead lap, and he would finish 32nd. People heavily criticized Gustafson on social media over it, with many calling for him to be fired from Hendrick Motorsports. Gustafson certainly deserves some criticism for what happened, but does he deserve that level of criticism?