NASCAR has fashioned its entire modern identity on figurative Game Seven Moments and such an idiom delivered on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway.
The entire week-long narrative surrounded the will he or won’t he fortune of Chase Elliott culminated with a green-white-checkered finish in which both Driver No. 9 and teammate Alex Bowman had a shot to win but just couldn’t overcome a wall of Fords.
The Hendrick duo were not alone in their opportunities to leave Daytona with what amounted to a walk-off home run as virtually every major player who needed to win the regular season finale to make the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs made their presence felt in some shape or form.
Chase Briscoe led multiple times from the pole
AJ Allmendinger forged an early third lane to take the lead
Ty Gibbs drove to the front
Ryan Preece and Aric Almirola hung with Briscoe
Alex Bowman was there at the end
It was everything NASCAR advertised in terms of the dramatics associated with moving the former Firecracker 400 from July to the end of the regular season three years ago. In the end, Brad Keselowski pushed teammate Chris Buescher to his third win on the season, a result that locked Bubba Wallace into the Round of 16 after two and a half hours of nerves and tension.
Because through it all, a new winner from outside the provisional playoff grid would have advanced that driver into the tournament, but at the expense of Wallace who was simultaneously working to make sure he outscored Ty Gibbs and Daniel Suarez in championship points.
There was a lot going on and Daytona is the only place that could deliver on this sort of dynamic.
At the same time, it has to be conceded too that running the regular season finale at Daytona comes with added danger, hard racing between Erik Jones, Briscoe and Preece ultimately sending the latter into one of the most terrifying superspeedway barrel rolls imaginable.
Preece was transported to a nearby medical facility for additional observation shortly after climbing out of the car.
Tremendous respect needs to be offered to those who laid everything on the figurative line Saturday night. It was tremendous theater and great NASCAR television. What everyone was willing to risk in the name of a chance to race for a championship is a validation for the investment from both fans and competitors alike.
So too did the reactions from Wallace upon climbing out of the car, tears swelling in his eyes before being greeted by team owner Michael Jordan, a guy who knows a thing or two himself about Game Seven Moments.
It was about Elliott, who was disappointed by the result in his own way, vowing to learn from the experience over the next 10 weeks not racing for a championship so he can come back better prepared to earn the next one.
Even Gibbs, who has experienced so much both personally and professionally over the past calendar year, wearing the disappointment of the crash that eliminated him on his face — responding with frustration over media questions about the outcome.
“It sucks, are you trying to rub it in?”
It does suck for Gibbs, or Elliott, Bowman, Briscoe, Preece and their contemporaries on the outside of the Round of 16 looking in once the playoffs begin next weekend with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.
And if you found the drama of Saturday particularly compelling, imagine three more of these cutoff moments, condensed over the span of three weeks each. It’s a Division Series Game Seven, followed by the League Championship Game Seven and a World Series Game Seven, guaranteed.
William Byron
Martin Truex Jr.
Denny Hamlin
Chris Buescher
Kyle Busch
Christopher Bell
Ross Chastain
Brad Keselowski
Tyler Reddick
Joey Logano
Ryan Blaney
Michael McDowell
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Kevin Harvick
Bubba Wallace
These are the contenders and each of their next 10 weeks will be filled with this sort of anxiety and tension as every week that passes becomes something akin to a must-win scenario as faced by the likes of Elliott, Bowman, Preece and Briscoe on Saturday night.
There are some who resent the current championship format, its randomness and lack of purity as something to hold in lesser regard than those that came before it, and there are certainly fair versions of that critique.
But simultaneously, moments like Saturday night at Daytona and the next 10 weeks are quintessential NASCAR and everything the sport represents these days.
Are you not entertained?
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.