DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Sunday night's race at Darlington Raceway marks the first opportunity for playoff drivers to potentially win their way into the Round of 12, but for the rest of the field, it's time to shift focus.
"I think we have goals that we want to accomplish and don't get me wrong, going into the season, we all said it wouldn't be successful if we didn't make the playoffs," Ryan Preece said Saturday at Darlington.
"We had to win. But this is the situation we're in, and we still have 10 races moving forward to do that."
Preece is in the midst of a career-best season, but he can't particularly celebrate. After all, he fell short of his goals for the season due to near-misses and issues alike.
For example, Preece had to fight back after a disqualification at Talladega due to an issue with his spoiler. This erased what had been a points-heavy performance ending with a runner-up finish.
Preece is not the only driver continuing to pursue a win while simultaneously shifting his focus to next season. He joins many others looking to take advantage of their remaining time behind the wheel.
These final 10 races are when many drivers and teams will start looking at where they fell short earlier in the season. This way, they can try to avoid those same pitfalls in 2026.
"I think our biggest thing early in the season has just been execution," Michael McDowell told AltDriver on Saturday. "We just haven't executed well. So we want to finish these last 10 strong and just put together solid runs and build momentum and try to clean up some of the rough edges that we've had at the start.
"Yeah, but I mean, all in all, you still approach every weekend the same as an opportunity to try to go win. And if you can't win, you just need to build solid results and keep building up."
Photo credit: Nigel Kinrade Photography
McDowell is one of the many drivers who started the season with the belief they would win and lock up a spot in the playoffs. At times, he appeared to be in position to accomplish this. However, mechanical failures and crashes disrupted some strong runs.
Chris Buescher is another driver who missed the playoffs, albeit under different circumstances. The RFK Racing driver spent the season above the cutline, and he entered Daytona International Speedway 10th in points.
Yet for the second consecutive season, the number of race winners knocked Buescher out of the playoffs and dropped him to 17th in points.
Now, all he can do is just try to take the speed he showed early in the season and use it to play spoiler while also gathering data for next season.
"For us, it's just take it and go to the racetrack with everything we got," Buescher said. "Take chances, be aggressive on them, and see if we can't pull a few upsets through the next handful of races.
"And it sets us up for next year, right, too. A little bit of discovery at some of these different racetracks that we come back to early."
McDowell and Buescher are not happy about missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season, but they also have a sense of optimism about the future as they adjust their focus.
Carson Hocevar, however, shows more frustration about his second full Cup Series season and the missed opportunities. He knows that the No. 77 team had race-winning speed at times; they just couldn't overcome their other issues.
The Michigan native failed to complete seven races, four due to mechanical failures. The most recent issue, in particular, took place in the regular-season finale at Daytona. Hocevar only reached halfway before realizing that he would not make the playoffs.
"Ultimately, for how good we were at a lot of these tracks coming up, I'd like to run really well again to just end the year feeling a little better about it and then be ready for the spring when you're trying to race for top ten in points and not wherever the hell we are," Hocevar said.