​DAYTONA BEACH — Shane van Gisbergen was 31 points clear of Ryan Preece before the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Aug. 29. Essentially, the New Zealander would hang on to his 16th and final position in the Chase if Preece, No. 17 entering Saturday night, finished anywhere other than Victory Lane.After a wreck-filled final lap in overtime, which saw then-leader Zane Smith crash after making contact with Tyler Reddick, Preece sat just ahead of runner-up Daniel Suarez when a caution flag emerged to vault himself into the postseason.SVG fell short by 17 points after finishing 27th.“(Preece) winning tonight, it’s not a one-night loss,” van Gisbergen said after the race. “I haven’t done a good enough job throughout the year. We’ve lost points at various places. We didn’t just lose it tonight.”It looked good for van Gisbergen early. He won Stage 1 thanks to a crash in front of him that involved Preece, earning 10 points to his Cup Series total and widening the gap in the standings. But Preece practically negated that with a Stage 2 runner-up finish, netting van Gisbergen one point.SVG was No. 15 in the ever-changing live Chase rankings with 10 laps to go, just a single point ahead of a tie at No. 16 between Austin Cindric, who entered the night in the 15 spot, and Preece.Van Gisbergen pitted during a caution after Carson Hocevar and Erik Jones’ cars were literally stuck together against the wall, which caused a lengthy pause as both van Gisbergen’s and Preece’s fuel tanks neared empty.SVG was 12th at that point, but he entered pit row and elected for gas and a full tire change. With a victory needed to clinch a playoff spot, Preece elected to stay on the track and began overtime as the leader.”I saw that (he pitted). I said, ‘If I go and I win, I’m pretty confident that we’re going to make it in’ because that 20 points is a big deal,” Preece said during his victory press conference. “As a racecar driver, Shane did everything right tonight. He’s a hell of a racecar driver.”The extended caution slowly dwindled Preece’s fuel supply, and it was a question whether he would make it to the finish line.But it was ultimately the decision that worked in Preece’s favor as he beat Suarez to the checkered flag. Van Gisbergen would’ve had to finish 10th to make the Chase with Preece’s victory.“They obviously have more information on how much fuel we had left, and maybe I didn’t do a good enough job early,” van Gisbergen said. “I was trying, but I guess we were conservative at that point. It is what it is.”But van Gisbergen still could’ve qualified for the postseason over Cindric as well. And he came close.Hocevar caused the wreck between him and Jones — and Ty Gibbs indirectly — after his car got loose on a move to the bottom of the track into Turn 3. Hocevar’s car came back up and into the wall, barely missing Cindric’s rear fender on the way there.“There are guys that lift for wrecks, and there’s guys that don’t lif