Buckle up, we’re set for some fireworks down in Daytona Beach on Saturday night. I mean, Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN) normally always has fireworks on and off the track as for 61 years, this race was held on either July 4 or near that date.

But, for the first time in the history of the race, its been moved. Now, the ‘400 will serve as the NASCAR Cup Series’ regular season finale. Talk about a spark.

With Daytona being what drivers say a high speed game of roulette or craps, it’s basically like winning the lottery to go to victory lane on the 2.5-mile high banked oval. So, that opens this up for what could be a wild winner to shake up the playoff standings even more.

I mean we have Austin Dillon and Cole Custer to have stolen spots into the playoffs via their wins at Texas and Kentucky respectively. Why not add a third?

Just look at the last three winners of this race – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2017), Erik Jones (2018) and Justin Haley (2019).

While the anticipation is high to get an upset winner on Saturday night and to add a new member to the playoff list that begins next weekend at the Darlington Raceway, I may throw some ice on this parade and say that I can also see one of the already existing playoff drivers in the field to take the checkered flag first instead.

Ryan Blaney was second in February’s Daytona 500 and has three straight top two finishes on superspeedway’s. He won at Tallladega this past June too.

Joey Logano won his Duel in February and has 19 top 10 finishes (5 wins, 4 runner-ups) since the Fall race at Talladega in 2015. Kevin Harvick has seven wins, all since the break, has 11 top five finishes in his last 12 starts on the season and was fifth back in February.

Denny Hamlin has won three of the last five Daytona 500’s including two straight. He’s scored three top two finishes in his last four starts on the season and 11 on the year overall.

I can see Blaney, Logano, Harvick or Hamlin winning on Saturday night too.