When Ryan Preece won the season-opening Clash at Bowman Gray earlier this year, he thought it was the greatest moment of his career. Fears that he might leave NASCAR without ever winning at the Cup level were finally put to rest, and he entered the season with a renewed sense of confidence. Before long, it became clear that he was making a genuine push for his first-ever postseason appearance. But after what the RFK Racing driver went through in Daytona on Saturday, that Clash victory now feels like a distant second to the moment he just experienced.

Preece, against all odds, won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 and secured the No. 16 seed heading into the Chase. In doing so, he knocked Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen out of the postseason after SVG’s poor run of form saw him lose ground late in the regular season. Some have argued that SVG deserved the spot more, given that he won two points-paying Cup Series races in 2026 — at Sonoma and Watkins Glen. But veteran journalist Jeff Gluck believes the final order was ultimately deserved.

“Ultimately, the way everything shakes out, you look at the field that you have, and it’s hard to say that the 16 best drivers of the year are not the ones that you have [in the Chase],” Gluck said on a recent episode of The Teardown podcast.

The battle for the final Chase spot was heating up in the days leading up to the Daytona showdown. Preece had made it clear that he had nothing to lose and would go all in for the win. But still, he was 31 points behind van Gisbergen, who also won Stage 1 and got off to a flying start. It was the No. 97 Trackhouse’s fuel mileage issues that forced him — along with a handful of other drivers — to pit toward the end of Stage 3, handing Preece the slice of luck he needed to gain a massive advantage.

In overtime, SVG was 27th while Preece was right up there, making the overtake on Zane Smith, who then crashed and triggered a multi-car wreck. The running order froze, and Preece ended up winning his first-ever official Cup Series race. It was a 48-point swing in favor of the No. 60 team.

One could argue that, had things not unfolded the way they did in Daytona, Shane van Gisbergen would have been the one advancing. Pretty much everything that could go wrong did for the New Zealander. However, Gluck pointed to the fact that Trackhouse had struggled throughout the year, and while there were certainly moments when SVG shone, his overall body of work wasn’t a clear indication that he was the better driver.

“Are you gonna say, well, SVG deserved to be in? He had what, a 57-point lead with four races to go? You could argue, well, I mean, he was great on road courses, and he did enough, and he made enough gains to, I mean, he had the great North Wilkesboro drive and stuff like that. But ultimately, Trackhouse wasn’t good enough this year. SVG had a couple races where, you know, they really cost themselves a lot of points,” Gluck added.

He touched upon SVG’s collapse, yes. But also pointed to a critical reason behind why Preece’s Chase quest was left up to luck in the first place — his penalty for wrecking Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs at the Wurth 400 in Texas back in May.

Preece and Gibbs were tussling throughout the race, and the RFK driver, frustrated with the youngster, said over the radio, “When I get to the 54, I’m done with him.” When the two finally made contact and Gibbs spun out, NASCAR used the radio transcript to hold Preece accountable, citing clear intent, and docked him 25 points while handing him a $50,000 fine.

Gluck feels that, without that incident, things would not have been nearly as close for Preece, who might have made it to the Chase rather comfortably.

SVG didn’t comment about that Texas incident after his exit from the Chase bubble was confirmed on Saturday. He didn’t even blame the events of Daytona. Instead, he humbly admitted that his own mistakes — like what Gluck suggested — were the reason.

Shane van Gisbergen admits to not being good enough and looks to learn from the upcoming 10 races

There’s not much left for Shane van Gisbergen to be excited about over these final 10 races of the 2026 season. However, he admitted that the No. 97 team isn’t under much pressure and will use the remaining races to try new things as they look to improve. As for missing out to Preece, SVG acknowledged that he simply hasn’t been at his best this season.

“I don’t put it down to him [Preece] winning tonight. It’s not a one-night loss. It’s, you know, I haven’t done a good enough job throughout the year. We’ve lost points at various places. We didn’t just lose it tonight,” van Gisbergen said after the Coke Zero Sugar 400.

The last race in which SVG looked like a genuine contender was at North Wilkesboro, where he finished fifth. Since then, he has finished 16th, 30th, 14th, 20th and 28th. Preece, meanwhile, finished 10th, 8th, 28th, 17th and 9th over the same stretch.

The claim that SVG only performs on road and street courses has been somewhat rebuffed this year. He has put together some strong oval results, including a fifth-place finish in Nashville to go along with his North Wilkesboro result. He even won the opening stage at Daytona last Saturday, marking the first time he had won a stage on an oval. But he still has plenty to learn before he can become a genuine year-long threat.