Winners and losers from Cup regular season finale at Daytona

Austin Dillon won his way into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and Ryan Blaney narrowly claimed the last playoff berth in Sunday’s regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway.

But removed from the playoff drama, multiple smaller teams scored a result they can be proud of.

Here’s our list of winners and losers from Daytona, as the race for the championship looms…

Austin Dillon – In 2015, he survived getting launched into the catch fence. And in 2018, he won the Daytona 500 after making contact with Aric Almirola on the last lap. Now, Austin Dillon has another memorable Daytona moment by coming through in a must-win situation. Actually, make that two memorable Daytona moments, counting his escape from the rain-assisted melee at Lap 138 that preceded the red flag.

Ryan Blaney – Perseverance paid off for Blaney and the No. 12 Team Penske crew, who soldiered through an early wreck to finish 15th (six laps down) and snag the final playoff spot by three points over Martin Truex Jr. Blaney enters the playoffs as the lone winless driver among the 16 title contenders.

Landon Cassill – In his eighth Cup start of the season, Cassill took the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish. It ties his best career Cup finish; Cassill finished fourth at Talladega Superspeedway back in 2014. Those are his only top-10 finishes in 334 career Cup starts.

Noah Gragson – Gragson – like Cassill, a full-time driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series – finished fifth Sunday in the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet for his best career Cup finish.

Cody Ware – Ware’s sixth place finish in the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford is his best career Cup finish.

B.J. McLeod – A native of Wauchula, Florida (a little over two hours southwest