Spoiler alert! Predicting the entire 2021 NASCAR Cup season

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The NFL's Super Bowl is in the rear-view, but NASCAR's is right up the road. 

The shortest offseason in American sports came to an end Tuesday with the 43rd Busch Clash at Daytona exhibition race, which kicked off two weeks of racing at Daytona International Speedway.

Following Wednesday's Daytona 500 pole qualifying and the Thursday's Bluegreen Vacations Duels — which determined the starting lineup for the Daytona 500 — the action now moves to the actual races, beginning with NASCAR's most famous event — the Daytona 500.

Sunday, NASCAR Cup Series drivers will hit the 2.5-mile superspeedway for the "Great American Race" (2:30 p.m. ET, Fox) and then one week later on Feb. 21, those same drivers will take on the Daytona road course for the season's second race.

So, with the season set to come to life this week, let's offer up some spoiler alerts. 

It's prediction time!

NASCAR regular-season Cup champion

Let's start off with the regular season. 

Last year, Kevin Harvick rolled to a regular-season championship, winning seven races and clinching those 15 extra playoff points a week before the regular season even ended. 

This year, don't be surprised if Chase Elliott has that breakthrough regular season. 

Thanks to NASCAR's revamped schedule, six of the races during the regular season will be on a road course. Elliott has already established himself as the best road racer in the series right now, so don't be surprised if he wins at least three of those. 

Add in a few other wins — Martinsville, Bristol and Talladega come to mind — and your 2020 defending champ could be your 2021 regular-season champ.

Setting the NASCAR Cup playoff field

Now, to the playoffs. 

Of the 16 drivers who qualify, let's get the easy ones out of the way: Elliott, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney will all make the playoffs. There, I said it!

Now, for the other eight. Let's go with ...

Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson and William Byron from Hendrick Motorsports. Kurt Busch from Chip Ganassi Racing and Aric Almirola from Stewart-Haas Racing. Matt DiBenedetto in that pretty No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford. Austin Dillon represents Richard Childress Racing. And, for the one newcomer to the 2021 playoff field, let's go with Bubba Wallace and the 23XI team — his new team's co-owner knows a thing or two about playoffs.

The playoff surprises 

The playoffs begin in Darlington and end in Phoenix, just like last year. 

Up until now, we've been pretty boring with these picks. So, let's go nuts (kinda). 

The drivers who advance to the third round include: Elliott, Larson, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Truex Jr., Blaney, DiBenedetto, and Bubba.

That's right. No Logano or Keselowski, and no Hamlin. Something tells me Blaney is in for a big year, and don't sleep on DiBenedetto. This is his final year in the No. 21 car, so he'll be racing for his future. 

Daytona 500 is the only mountain left for Kyle Busch to climb

SportsPulse: When it comes to Kyle Busch's resume, there's not much left to prove. But the NASCAR superstar still has not won a Daytona 500 and he explains what it would mean to him to capture that missing accolade.

SportsPulse, Paste BN

The 2021 NASCAR Cup champion will be ...

Time to bring this season home!

The Championship Four this season will include: Elliott, Harvick, Blaney and Kyle Busch. So you get the defending champion, two previous champions, and a championship rookie in Blaney. I'll take those storylines for a final race. 

In the end, though, it's the old guy who prevails. Much like Tom Brady did on Sunday, Kevin Harvick proves he's not done yet, and wins his second NASCAR Cup championship. 

Alright, enough of the hypotheticals. Let's drop that green flag for real. Welcome to the 2021 season!