Week #2 in the Race To The Chase. NASCAR’s gearing up for night racin’ at Daytona International Speedway.

Just 71 points separates 8th from 14th in the point standings with 7 drivers trying to get locked into the top 12 to compete for Chase To The Championship. Every point will be crucial over the next 9 races. Throw the restrictor plate track of Daytona into the mix.

Photo Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Current Point Standings:

8 – Kyle Busch
9 – Greg Biffle
10 – Matt Kenseth
11 – Mark Martin
12 – Juan Pablo Montoya
13 – Kasey Kahne
14 – David Reutimann

Kyle Busch is currently 8th in the standings – 71 points ahead of 14th place, David Reutimann. Busch is the defending race winner. He has posted 4 top-5 finishes in his past 6 races @ Daytona.

David Reutimann finished 12th in this year’s Daytona 500 – his best finish in 5 starts @ Daytona.

Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon are the only repeat winners in the past 10 races @ Daytona. Stewart & Gordon sit 1-2 in the standings, respectively. Stewart has won twice @ DIS with 6 top-5 and 11 top-10 finishes. His average finishing position is 17.2

TV Coverage of the Coke Zero 500 starts at 6:30 Saturday night featuring Wide Open Coverage.

On a side note, Double-File Restarts (Shoot-Out Style) rule will go into effect for Friday night’s Nationwide Series race @ Daytona. The race will be shown on ESPN beginning at 7:30 on Friday night.

Making the news this week, a federal judge granted him a temporary injunction to allow him to race this weekend. However, he missed the deadline to enter his car into Saturday night’s race.   He had an afternoon deadline Thursday to bring the #41 Toyota to the track, and it passed with no sign of Mayfield or his race team.