DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- After 26 races, the NASCAR Cup Series playoff field is official. Sixteen drivers will move forward and compete for the Bill France Cup championship trophy, starting next weekend at Darlington Raceway.
The 16-driver field includes Kyle Larson, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Shane van Gisbergen, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, Josh Berry, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, and Austin Dillon.
MORE: Daytona Cup Series results
The playoff field consists of four Hendrick Motorsports cars, three Joe Gibbs Racing cars, three Team Penske cars, two 23XI Racing cars, two Trackhouse Racing cars, one Richard Childress Racing car, and the Wood Brothers Racing car.
"I've been looking forward to the Playoffs for a long time and just ready to put the pressure on and go to the Southern 500," Christopher Bell said after closing out the regular season with a quiet 13th-place finish. "It's one of my favorite races of the year and I'm excited."
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Fourteen drivers entered Saturday night's race locked into the playoffs. Bowman and Reddick were the only two drivers in a tenuous position. If someone below the cutline won at NASCAR's biggest wild card track, one of them would fail to advance to the playoffs.
Both drivers experienced major adversity early. Reddick spun in the opening stage in an incident involving Todd Gilliland. The replay made it appear that Gilliland caused the wreck, but a downtrodden Reddick took blame after the race.
"I just screwed up, honestly," Reddick said. "Trying to get to the middle lane, and just the hole wasn't there. Yeah, just made a mistake."
Bowman, for comparison, had nowhere to go when the Big One struck at the track. He hit multiple other cars after being spun, as well as the outside wall. This caused race-ending damage to the No. 48 and put Bowman in a position where he could only watch and wait.
"It was all very out of our control," Bowman said before the race ended. "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."
Fortunately for Bowman, he avoided more calamity as he waited for the end of the race. Blaney raced from 13th to first in the final two laps of the race, and he won for the second time this season. Blaney was the only driver in the top five with a win. Every other driver in the photo finish would have eliminated Bowman.
Now that these drivers have set the playoff field, they will embark on a 10-week journey. They will begin their quest for the championship trophy at Darlington Raceway next weekend before heading to World Wide Technology Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway to close out the Round of 16.
The Round of 12 consists of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, and the Charlotte Roval. The Round of 8 features Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, and Martinsville Speedway.
The final round of the playoffs features one track -- Phoenix Raceway. This is where four remaining drivers will battle in a winner-takes-all championship race.