Five drivers who could crash NASCAR's playoff field — besides Chase Elliott

Ever since NASCAR made the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona the final race for its regular season, the possibility of a driver winning their way into the playoffs has been a very realistic one -- and it's happened in two of the three years.

In 2020 William Byron, who was on the playoff bubble, earned his first career win and punched his ticket. 2021 saw Ryan Blaney, who was already locked in, take the victory, but then 2022 saw Austin Dillon win an attrition-filled bonanza to crash the playoff field. 

Who could do that this year? All the attention is on Chase Elliott, but it wouldn't be any fun to pick him, so here are five others who could play spoiler.

Erik Jones

Jones won the 2018 400-mile race at Daytona, back when it was run on the weekend of the Fourth of July. He's a quietly underrated superspeedway racer and has overachieved this season for a Legacy Motor Club team that currently has lame-duck status with manufacturer Chevrolet.

Alex Bowman

Lost in the drama surrounding his teammate Elliott, Bowman is also in a must-win situation this weekend after missing three races due to a back injury and his team suffering a 60-point penalty earlier in the season. He's proven to have a knack for capitalizing on chaos, and a win on Saturday night would be the timeliest of his career.

Justin Haley

Remember in 2020 when Haley won three of the four superspeedway races in the Xfinity Series? He's had success at Daytona in the Cup, too -- though his 2019 win in the 400 was a case of striking lightning (literally) in a bottle, he was also contending for the win in 2022 before most of the field crashed due to rain that had begun falling.

Aric Almirola

Take a guess at who has the best combined average running position at Daytona and Talladega, NASCAR's two biggest superspeedways, in 2023. Spoiler: It's Aric Almirola, the 2014 winner of the Coke Zero 400. He could very easily win this race again, locking himself into the playoffs in what might be his final season.

Austin Cindric

The biggest threat of all from outside the current playoff field could be Austin Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 winner. Team Penske is always very fast on superspeedways, with Cindric no exception to that, and he nearly swept the Daytona races in 2022 but got moved out of the way by Austin Dillon in the closing laps of the 400.