(photo credit Leon Hammack)

Not that a rescue mission was top of mind for Ryan Blaney, but his dramatic victory in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway saved Alex Bowman from Playoff oblivion.

Blaney rocketed forward from 12th in the running order with three laps left in the final NASCAR Cup Series regular-season race and crossed the finish line 0.031 seconds ahead of runner-up Daniel Suarez.

Justin Haley was 0.036 seconds behind Blaney in a three-wide photo finish for second place, with Cole Custer, who led the next-to-last lap, 0.049 seconds back in fourth.

A victory by Suarez, Haley or Custer would have eliminated Bowman from the Playoffs. Instead, the driver of the No.48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet earned the 16th and final postseason berth on points.

Blaney’s second win of the season, his second at Daytona and 15th of his career vaulted the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford into second place in the regular-season standings, earning him a bonus of 10 Playoff points.

The victory was the first for a Ford driver since Blaney triumphed at Nashville Superspeedway on June 1.

“What a wild last couple laps, honestly,” Blaney said. “I was with Cole, I kind of asked him on the restart, if you go to the top I’m going with you. We kind of just waited and waited and then the opportunity came, and he made a good move to get to the top, and we were able to really get good shoves.

“A couple good guys behind us, and then it kind of cleared the way for us when the 7 (Haley) and 41 (Custer) got racing, and I was able to clear on the top and just barely hold out for the win.”

In fact, Blaney got the opportunity he needed when Custer moved off the top lane to block Haley’s strong run. At that point, Blaney had enough momentum to carry him to the finish line with roughly a half-car-length to spare.

In a race that featured 44 lead changes among 19 drivers, Blaney and teammate Joey Logano each led 27 laps. Logano spent much of the final stage out front before spinning in front of Erik Jones with 11 laps left.

Jones finished fifth, followed by Stage 1 winner Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry and Chase Elliott. Ross Chastain won the second stage before finishing 15th.

For Bowman, a window of opportunity in the early going opened and shut in short order. On Lap 18, Todd Gilliland lost control from the middle lane and took the Toyota of Tyler Reddick with him.

Reddick nosed into the inside wall but and able to continue after repairs, but the accident gave Bowman hope of overcoming his 29-point deficit to the 23XI driver and locking into the Playoffs.

That hope was short-lived. On Lap 27, Bowman was collected in a 12-car pileup on the frontstretch triggered by chain reaction contact between Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch.

“Everything was happening pretty quick there,” Wallace said. “The hit from the 5 (Larson) shoved me down there, and it was like I got shoved up by the 22 (Logano) and the 12 (Blaney) moved up. He was trying to just move up and take the lane. But, oh well. I hate it. 20th or 22nd to the lead in a short amount of time…

“All in all, we’re locked in (the Playoffs), and we’ll get focused for Darlington.”

The wreck knocked Bowman out of the race and out of contention for a Playoff berth on points, as Reddick clinched with Bowman’s exit. Busch’s last hope for the postseason also ended in the garage, as did that of formidable superspeedway racer Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

“It was all very out of our control,” said Bowman, who had to watch the rest of race from the sidelines and hope no new winner would oust him from the Playoffs. “I hate that we tanked so bad the first run.

“The bottom lane just fell apart behind us. We had to overcome that, but we had gotten back to the back side of the top 10. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out.”

What did work out was Blaney’s victory, which kept Bowman’s championship aspirations alive. He joins Hendrick teammates William Byron (the Regular Season Champion), Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott in the Playoffs.

With the field of 16 drivers set, the 10-race Playoffs will begin on Aug. 31 at Darlington Raceway in the Cook Out Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Check out the results of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!