One of the last wildcard races for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular season is upon us. Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET/NBC/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) should produce a ton of fireworks on and off the track.

See, we’ve only had six different winners this season in NASCAR’s premiere division. That leaves 10 wildcard positions available. Mix that with this race literally being wide open, you get drivers making more daring moves than before.

So, what are the top storylines for this weekend at the Daytona International Speedway? Here’s five.

New Package

Out with the old, in with the new. The race in Daytona this weekend will look a lot different on Saturday night compared to the last Cup Series race we saw back in February. See, the Daytona 500 was run with the old restrictor plate package. This weekend, we will see the debut of the tapered spacer to Daytona. The horsepower will be higher this week but with a larger spoiler too. So, for the first time since 1986, the cars will not have a restrictor plate on them at Daytona.

Actually, the race at Talladega back in April also ran with this package and we saw a wild race that day. Will Saturday night look a lot like the Talladega event earlier this spring?

Also add to the fact that this is a night race with more grip than what Talladega had in April under sunny skies, and you may see an even wilder show on Saturday night.

It couldn’t get much worse than the single file racing that we saw dominate the headline in February. The reason though that February raced like it did was because of the package and development to these cars.

The common theme was that these cars don’t side draft on the left side very well anymore and that the best way to get a side draft is to do so on the right side of the cars. Well, how can you side draft someone when they’re running the high line?

The low line struggles to make any headway when all the cars have all the energy from the draft up high. Plus, cars are getting a side draft off the outside SAFER barrier and getting a run through the corners and off of it.

The ‘500 had more double file racing than the Clash and the Duels, but it was nothing like what we saw in Talladega.

So, lets see how this goes on Saturday.

Last July Race In Daytona

Saturday night will be an end of an era at Daytona. This will be the last race on the Fourth of July weekend in Daytona Beach before moving back on the schedule for next year.

See, this race has been a mainstay on the NASCAR schedule since DIS was constructed. The original plan was to host a 300 mile USAC race on July 4, 1959. Unfortunately, after a couple of fatalities in testing, NASCAR decided to cancel the USAC visit and move the race to a second NASCAR date instead as the annual July trip was born.

The race would start at 11 a.m. ET to get the event in before the daily threat of thunderstorms arrived. The 250 mile race was set.

In a few short years, the race kept growing in popularity, so a move from 250 miles to the current 400 mile system was adopted.

From 1959 to 1987, the race was always scheduled for July 4, regardless of the day of the week. Beginning in 1988, the race was moved to the first Saturday of July (that nearest to July 4). Going forward, the race would only be held on July 4 in years in which it fell on Saturday

In 1998, lights were installed and the race moved from late morning to primetime.

Other than that, the race remained on the NASCAR schedule on this weekend for decades. Until 2020.

The race moves to August for the regular season finale as the regular season on the NASCAR schedule starts and ends on the high banks of Daytona.

5 Straight Years, 5 Straight Different Organizations To Win

When Aric Almirola won the rain delayed race in 2014, he started a new trend for the annual July race. Almirola, won in the famed No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports entry that year. Ever since, we’ve seen a different organization win in each year.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Hendrick Motorsports) won the next year followed by Brad Keselowski (Team Penske), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Roush/Fenway Racing) and Erik Jones (Joe Gibbs Racing) after.

So, who’s next?

If we get a sixth straight different organization to win, look for Stewart-Haas Racing, Wood Brothers, Leavine Family Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Germain Racing, JTG Daugherty Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Premium Motorsports, Spire Motorsports or StarCom Racing to reach victory lane.

LFR would be a good choice as Matt DiBenedetto led the most laps in February’s Daytona 500. Paul Menard would too with the Wood Brothers as he had a fast hot rod in February. SHR would be an obvious choice since they’re typically strong on superspeedway races plus being a Ford team, the blue ovals have won three of the last five Coke Zero Sugar 400’s. But, SHR has only scored five total Daytona wins with Tony Stewart taking the checkered flag first in three of them including both in the summer classic.

1st Win Club

The Coke Zero Sugar 400 has produced a number of drivers’ first career NASCAR Grand National/Cup Series victories. Drivers include A. J. Foyt, Sam McQuagg, Greg Sacks, Jimmy Spencer, John Andretti, Greg Biffle, David Ragan, Aric Almirola, and Erik Jones respectively.

For McQuagg, Sacks, and Jones, the victory in the annual July trip was the only victory in their respective Cup Series careers.

The 400 has also marked the first of multiple points-paying victories at Daytona for a total of seven drivers, including Jeff Gordon (1995), Dale Earnhardt (after 24 previous attempts from 1978–1990), Dale Earnhardt, Jr.(2001), and Jamie McMurray (2007). David Pearson won the 400 four times prior to finally winning the Daytona 500 in 1976.

In 2000, it was Jeff Burton’s first restrictor plate win. In addition, Tony Stewart won the 400 four times, but never won the Daytona 500 (his best finish being second in 2004).

OT Finish?

With how this type of racing goes, it should come to no surprise that we will likely see a NASCAR overtime on Saturday night. Five of the last six Coke Zero Sugar 400’s have seen one as the only one that wasn’t was the rain shortened race in 2014. In fact, seven of the last nine years have seen overtime finishes in the July night race at Daytona.

Can Chevrolet Get Another Win?

The Chevy camp is off to another slow start to the season. Chevy drivers have combined for just two wins all year. One of those victories came via Chase Elliott’s trip to victory lane at Talladega at the end of April. With Daytona being a similar package this weekend to that of Talladega, will the bowties have a chance to shine again on Saturday night?

The problem is, since Chevy replaced the SS with the Camaro at the start of last season, they’ve only reached victory lane just six times in 52 tries.

But, in Talladega, they took five of the top six finishing positions and six of the top eight including a 1-2-3 finish. They also led 74 of the 188 laps that afternoon too.

Then, they dominated last week in Chicagoland en route to a 1-2 finish and having three cars in the top four overall.

So, will the Chevy drivers work together and get their second straight win of the year?

Manufacturer Teamwork

Speaking of drivers working together, will Daytona be another superspeedway race to where it’s Toyota vs. Chevrolet vs. Ford? See, the Fords worked together to perfection in the Fall race at Talladega last year. Stewart-Haas Racing executed the draft as perfectly as one could.

That made others take notice.

During Speedweeks, everyone knew that Fords had strength in numbers. If they all teamed up again, which they tried to do so, they’d be tough to stop. In order to slow them down, Chevy and Toyota had to work together and try to separate the Ford’s up front. If you let them all take the high line and line up in a draft together, it would be game over.

So, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing set up an alliance. Yes, two rival manufacturers in Chevy and Toyota worked together to break up the Ford party. It worked too.

JGR finished 1-2-3 in the Daytona 500.

But, Chevy was somewhat mad at that too though. They prefer their teams to work together and not to help the Toyota’s. So much so, a prerace meeting before the Talladega race in the spring between all Chevy teams and drivers took place.

It paid off.

Hendrick Motorsports finished 1-2 at Talladega in April.

Toyota’s don’t have the numbers to hang. They will have six cars max in the field but five of which with a chance to win. If Chevy and Ford don’t work with them, then it’s an up hill battle for them to win.

Manufacturers and how they work together will be key to watch this weekend.

Playoff Bubble

Now that we’re nearing the midway mark of the 2019 season, the playoff race is heating up. We’ve still only had just seven drivers reach victory lane this year, meaning there’s 9 wildcard spots available at the moment. With only one superspeedway race left in the regular season and it being run this weekend, it’s likely we’re going to have a race among several drivers for some wide open playoff spots.

Currently, there are several drivers near the bubble.

Right now, William Byron is +39 in 12th. Kyle Larson is +35 behind him in 13th. Jimmie Johnson (+20), Daniel Suarez (+18) and Clint Bowyer (+15) are on the good side of the bubble. But, you have Erik Jones (-15), Ryan Newman (-20) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-58) right there too. Jones and Stenhouse have won the ‘400 in each of the last two years. If someone 17th or worse in the standings wins, then the cutoff moves up a spot.

Suarez and Bowyer are separated by just three points. Johnson is only five points above them.

With such a slim margin, stage points are crucial now. That means strategy is going to be key as some drivers, like these ones in particular, may need to forego race wins and positioning for them and just get as many points as they can get.

Just look at how Sonoma went two weekends ago. William Byron went for stage points, not the win, and it worked. He may have only finished 19th but he scored the fifth most points for the race (36). That propelled him up in the playoff standings.

Kyle Larson only finished 10th himself in Sonoma but he too went for stage points instead of the race win. He scored the third most points (39) of the day.

With Daytona being another track where you can pit before the pits close at the end of the stages and not lose as lap as well, do you pit to position yourself for the end or do you go for stage points?

That will once again be a key thing to watch on Saturday night? The playoff bubble drivers needs the points but they also need to win, especially when drivers like Ty Dillon, David Ragan, Michael McDowell, Matt DiBenedetto and Bubba Wallace could each win this weekend.