Posted on by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Even with a new points system, a new postseason format and a new structure for advancing to The Chase in place this season, Ryan Preece gave the NASCAR Cup Series field one last blast of win and you’re in.

Against the pressure-packed odds and with a race car that spent one almost-fateful moment Saturday night sliding through the well-manicured trioval grass, Preece upended the playoff order with a long-awaited first points-paying win in NASCAR’s big leagues. The 35-year-old journeyman overcame a 31-point prerace deficit to snatch the last Chase berth from Shane van Gisbergen, converting a clutch last-lap move at Daytona International Speedway and giving RFK Racing two entrants into the 10-race championship pursuit.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Daytona

Characteristic of Preece’s hardscrabble short-track roots, the No. 60 Ford team persevered in a regular-season finale when max tenacity was a prerequisite. Turns out, that gritty style that’s been sharpened by years of tearing up the Modified Tour’s bullrings seems to apply to Daytona’s high banks just as well.

“If I was in a street fight, my knuckles would be pretty tore up right now,” Preece said, noting how the race nearly turned when his spin coincided with an SVG stage win. “It was much like what I told you, it was going to be a heavyweight fight. That was the first round. Lucky for me there was two more. I answered that call. I went and we got second in the next stage with damage. Then we put ourselves in position to win the race, and we did.

“It just comes down, no different than my career a lot of times where one door shuts and we break down the next door, even if it’s locked. I’m going to kick through it.”

Preece’s history with the 2.5-mile speedway has been a star-crossed one. He finished this year’s Daytona 500 in reverse after a last-lap incident, wound up on his roof in the previous year’s edition of the “Great American Race,” and his violent flip during the 2023 running of the summertime Coke Zero Sugar 400 left him bruised, but with a renewed resolve to come back stronger. “That’s called redemption at this place, man,” his No. 60 team told him on Saturday’s cool-down lap.

When reminded of that crash three years ago, Preece produced a photo on his cellphone of himself with his daughter, Rebecca, the next day after that melee. He said the image was a point of reflection through the week as the circuit returned to the World Center of Speed.

“To me, that showed me how lucky I am, but how bad I want it, how bad my family wants it,” Preece said. “Yeah, I mean, every day I’m very thankful to be racing in the Cup Series. It’s not easy. Some people have an easier path than others. Every day I’d wake up and say, yeah, I wish I had it easy as well, but I am thankful to hell that I’ve had to fight for everything I’ve worked for and everything that I’ve won and everything.”

Preece & Co. stuck to their straightforward prerace game plan — stay on offense — but the road to Daytona salvation nearly took a dire detour at the end of the opening stage. Within sight of the green-checkered flag, Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet nudged Preece’s RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher from the lead on the 35th lap and their contact collected the No. 60 Ford, knocking it from third position into the infield.

Preece righted the car and was scored eighth at the stage end, but the three-car fracas cleared the way for van Gisbergen to secure a stage victory and the 10 points that came with it. After relaying to crew chief Derrick Finley that the damage seemed minimal, Preece offered some assurance: “Well, that wasn’t ideal. … We’ll be all right. Give me the ball there, Derrick, and we’ll get her back.”

Preece was mired back in 38th for the Stage 2 start, but the team’s efforts were redoubled.

“The one thing our 60 team has from top to bottom is a lot of grit,” Finley said. “I mean, we don’t give up. We fight until the bitter end. We don’t care if we’re running 30th, we’re going to run and fight and get a 10th place out of the car. We fight. That’s just the way we are. I played sports my whole life, played football through college. Obviously as soon as I was out of college, I came out here. I’ve competed my whole life. It’s in my nature. The guys around me are the same way, every one of ’em. Ryan is, too, obviously. Ryan has a lot of fight. That’s a good thing.”

That resilience came through in a midrace drive back to the front. After Finley calculated the team’s fuel-management strategy, Preece did the rest with a second-place finish in Stage 2, offsetting the net loss from the opening segment. “All right boys, let’s fight,” Preece said with emphasis on the team’s radio.

MORE: Chase field is set | Updated Cup Series standings

A split in pit strategies jumbled the final stage, but Preece emerged among the front-runners, providing a big bump and boost forward to fellow Ford driver Zane Smith, then sidestepping him to grab the No. 1 spot with 10 laps left in regulation. When Carson Hocevar’s crash moments later knocked him from contention and sent the event to overtime, it was Smith who seemed poised to break through and take the role of Chase spoiler. Van Gisbergen’s late dive to pit road for fuel provided Preece an extra points buffer, and his momentum on the last lap of OT kept the No. 60 clear of the backstretch calamity that erupted behind him.

Preece took no chances when the caution flag came out nearly a half-lap before the checkers, steaming to the start/finish line. He relished every moment that came after, from the jubilant radio exclamations, the smoky burnout and the drive to Victory Lane for the first time at Daytona. Brad Keselowski, co-owner of his RFK Racing team, was there to greet him.

“He’s kept his drive, kept his fire. He’s putting the work in. That persistence I think has come to fruition with just a terrific night for him,” Keselowski said. “It’s such a clutch moment for Ryan, to come in and be however many points behind the playoff, Chase thing here. To just drive a great race, go get him a win, with everything on the line, those are nights that you remember, and those are nights that are really special for him but really special for everyone on this team.”

Preece made use of his phone in two other instances in his post-race press conference. One was to acknowledge the dizzying amount of texts from well-wishers that he’d yet to fully digest, but the other was to herald his arrival to the track’s media center.

Preece walked in with the Coke bottle-shaped winner’s trophy cradled in one hand, and his phone in the other. From the tinny speaker played a slice of AM radio gold, Elton John’s “Rocket Man” — a tune he’s adopted as his walk-out music during driver introductions. Preece admitted his stewardship of the song was a nod to another Ryan — Newman — who also shares Roush team roots. Saturday night, the nickname seemed to fit its current keeper.

“I did say that Derrick and RFK gave me a rocket,” Preece said. “We took it to the moon.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Following Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway, the 16-driver field for The Chase is officially set.

Denny Hamlin will lead the field into the postseason as the No. 1 seed after a dominant summer stretch that included three consecutive victories at Nashville Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway and Pocono Raceway. Hamlin clinched the top seed following the penultimate regular-season race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Ryan Blaney earned the No. 2 seed behind regular-season victories at Phoenix Raceway, EchoPark Speedway and New Hampshire. Blaney finished 33rd at Daytona after being collected in a final-lap wreck.

Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe will start The Chase seeded third through fifth, respectively. Christopher Bell is sixth, followed by Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Chris Buescher to round out the top 10.

Daniel Suárez secured the No. 11 seed after one of the strongest regular seasons of his Cup career, highlighted by a rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 victory. Carson Hocevar will enter The Chase 12th, with William Byron — winless during the regular season — seeded 13th.

Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric claimed the Nos. 14 and 15 seeds, leaving the final spot to be decided Saturday night at Daytona. Ryan Preece delivered in dramatic fashion, winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 to vault past Shane van Gisbergen and secure the 16th and final postseason berth.

The 10-race pursuit of the Cup Series championship begins next Sunday with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Dustin Albino

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Only twice in the opening 25 regular-season races of 2026 did Ryan Preece outscore Shane van Gisbergen by 31 points in a single race. At Daytona International Speedway, he made it a hat trick.

Van Gisbergen entered the Coke Zero Sugar 400 with a 31-point cushion over Preece for the final transfer spot. Despite earning his first stage win on an oval and 10 points in the opening stanza while Preece went sliding through the grass, the battle came down to the wire, with Preece in position to potentially snag the victory as the No. 60 team attempted to stretch its fuel mileage.

When a caution flew on Lap 155 for a three-car pileup, Stephen Doran, crew chief of the No. 97 Chevrolet, called an audible to bring van Gisbergen down pit road to ensure he could make it to the finish on gas. It was an easy decision, though it would set his driver deep in the field.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“We tried to stay on [Preece’s] strategy, and we would have been fine if it ran green — we were going to make it to the end fine,” Doran told NASCAR.com, admitting it was going to take every last drop of fuel to make it to the checkered. “Getting that caution with a long cleanup put us in a bad spot where we just don’t get as good of mileage as the Fords do.

“We were going to be in a spot where, more than likely, we were going to run out than make it, so we chose to pit and be on offense and try to drive back up through there and got taken out on the last lap.”

Van Gisbergen lined up 27th for the restart while Preece was alongside Zane Smith on the front row. On the final lap, six circuits deep into overtime, Preece drove by Smith with a caution flying for multiple lap melees down the backstretch that included van Gisbergen. The Kiwi ended the evening with a 28th-place effort.

Preece left Daytona with 67 points earned to van Gisbergen’s 19, putting him clear of the bubble by 17 markers.

“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, admitting he didn’t have any emotions after climbing out of the car. “I was trying, but yeah, conservative at that point. It is what it is.

“I don’t get emotional about that stuff. Just trust what they say and pit because they told me to.”

Knowing they were likely to come up short on fuel after a long green-flag run, most of van Gisbergen’s Chevrolet counterparts pitted in separate stints. That included his Trackhouse Racing teammates Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch on Lap 121. Three Hendrick Motorsports entries led the field and picked up the pace on Lap 129 before pitting on Lap 142. Trying to keep pace with the Hendrick cars burned more fuel than anticipated, pushing van Gisbergen’s tank to the brink.

Knowing how tight the points battle was with Preece and Austin Cindric, the only decision was to stay out had the race gone green to the end.

“We wanted to stay on the same strategy as the 60 and the 2,” Doran added. “At the time, we were in a good spot on fuel. When that second group went tight, that’s when it put us tight on fuel. We were still going to be fine (in regulation).”

Van Gisbergen doesn’t attribute missing The Chase solely to Daytona. Instead, he views it as the culmination of all 26 races, including eight finishes of 30th or worse.

“I don’t put down [Preece] winning tonight, it’s not a one-night loss,” he stated. “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 is what it is.”

And amid the smiles and celebrations, Preece had plenty of respect for his counterpart on the wrong side of the bubble.

“He’s a hell of a race car driver. He’s a hell of a road course racer, but he’s a hell of a race car driver,” Preece said in his winner’s press conference. “He knew that I had my knee on the throat or my thumb on the pressure point, and he answered that in Stage 1. When he threw that right hook, metaphorically, in a metaphor, I felt like I answered that back in Stage 2.

“I’m proud of the racer I am. I’m proud of competing against him. The bar he sets on road courses, because he’s a true talent that we’re lucky to have here in the United States.”

The New Zealander ended the regular season with a pair of victories and five top-five finishes, including a pair of fifth-place efforts on ovals at Nashville Superspeedway and North Wilkesboro Speedway. His seven top-10s match his total from his rookie campaign.

Progress was made, but there is still plenty to grow as all three Trackhouse drivers missed The Chase.

“I’m proud that I’m closer to my teammates on ovals and managed to have a pretty good year,” van Gisbergen noted. “Obviously, I want to do better as a team. As a team, we’re not quite there, but I think we’ve made good improvement on the ovals compared to my teammates.”

Doran added: “I still say it’s been a solid year. This was one of the main goals was to get into The Chase. We just need to keep getting our cars better. We’ve got 10 races to keep pushing these cars to be better. I think we’ve made some ground over the last couple of months. We just have to keep gaining, especially on intermediates is the biggest deficit right now to the field.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Short on fuel in the late going, but with no dearth of tenacity, Ryan Preece won Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway in overtime to force his way into the NASCAR Cup Series Chase.

“I’m just speechless right now,” said Preece, who claimed the final berth in The Chase by 17 points over Shane van Gisbergen. The three-time Australian Supercars champion had led Preece by 31 points entering the regular-season finale.

“But those guys, that 60 group, we’re fighters,” Preece continued. “When you put our back against the wall, we swing hard … Last year there were a lot of keyboard warriors saying I was nothing. Well, we just kicked their butts tonight.”

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

In winning his first Cup Series points race, Preece recovered from a three-car wreck at the end of the first stage that damaged his left front fender, but after repairs, he was able to power his No. 60 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford back to the front.

Stretching fuel mileage over the final 65-lap stage, Preece surged into the lead past Tyler Reddick and Zane Smith in overtime moments before Smith turned into the outside wall to ignite a series of collisions that forced NASCAR to call the fourth yellow of the evening — with Preece ahead at the moment of caution.

“It’s a testament of how prepared these race cars are, man. I’m a racer,” Preece said. “I know what it takes to build speed. So, to every man and woman at RFK, thank you for giving me a rocket ship so I could go to the moon tonight. This is redemption.”

In a race that went six laps beyond its scheduled distance of 160 laps, Preece led three times for a total of five laps. Eschewing a pit stop in the final stage, he was running second when Carson Hocevar made an aggressive move to the inside entering Turn 3 to cause the Lap 155 wreck that forced overtime.

Hocevar steered his Spire Motorsports Chevrolet toward the bottom lane, but the rear of the car snapped loose, propelling the No. 77 Camaro into the outside wall. Erik Jones’ Toyota plowed violently into Hocevar’s car along the outside wall, as Ty Gibbs’ Camry spun down the track.

“Yeah, I was always super tight behind people, it seemed,” said Hocevar, who picked up his first career win at Talladega in April. “And so, I just changed from top to bottom there, and that was the first time I really got a ton of air on my nose into three and I just lost it. It just kept going. I had the wheel straight, man.

“It just kept going with all the air and something down on the nose. I’m shocked that it did that. It caught me off guard, for sure. It was nice to ride around all day like we’d kind of planned, and then we gave ourselves a shot to win it at the end. We were up front, had track position and led laps, and that’s all I can really ask for from a team standpoint. Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job here tonight.”

SHOP: Winner gear

Hocevar’s accident set up the overtime restart with Smith in the lead. After pushing Smith on the white-flag lap, Reddick made a move to the outside, but he and Smith tangled on the final circuit to start the race-ending melee on the backstretch.

Daniel Suárez avoided the chaos and finished second, followed by Reddick, Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Austin Cindric came home sixth and clinched the 15th seed in The Chase by nine points over Preece, who will start the postseason as the 16th seed.

“We were so close, two years in a row with a second-place finish,” Suárez said of his run in the No. 7 Spire Chevrolet. “Super happy and proud to make it to The Chase with this team. This team deserves it.

“I feel like in the past, I’ve had runs in the postseason where I didn’t think we were strong enough to really contend. But this team deserves to be in The Chase. We are a Chase team. There are so many people and partners that have helped us get here and put this kind of performance together.”

Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, Josh Berry and Cole Custer completed the top 10. Berry posted his fifth straight top-10 result in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.

Bubba Wallace finished 20th after clinching the 14th seed in The Chase with a seventh-place result in the first stage.

Van Gisbergen worked his way into a strong position with a win in Stage 1, as Preece, RFK teammate Chris Buescher and Kyle Larson spun into the infield grass approaching the finish line to end the stage.

Late in the race, however, van Gisbergen came to pit road for fuel on Lap 157 and opted for four new tires. That put him 27th for the overtime restart, and from that position he was unable to avoid the multicar wreck on the final lap. The New Zealander finished 28th and out of The Chase.

Denny Hamlin had clinched top seeding in The Chase, along with a 25-point advantage, last Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He’ll start The Chase with 2,100 points. Despite wrecking on the final lap and finishing 33rd, Ryan Blaney picked up the Stage 2 win and held the second seed to start The Chase with 2,075 points.

The remaining seeds in order are: Reddick, Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Buescher, Suárez, Hocevar, William Byron, Wallace, Cindric and Preece.

The Chase begins on Sunday, Sept. 6 with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Stage 2 recap

Ryan Blaney surged to the victory in Stage 2 of Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Blaney made a last-lap pass on Chase Elliott to secure the stage win, drafting to the No. 9 Chevrolet’s bumper down the backstretch and completing the pass before Turn 3.

MORE: Full Stage 2 results

Ryan Preece was second at the stage end ahead of Zane Smith, William Byron and Todd Gilliland.

Kyle Larson was sixth ahead of Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suárez, Elliott, who fell to ninth, and Austin Hill.

Stage 1 recap

Shane van Gisbergen won the opening stage of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night.

Van Gisbergen advanced to the lead after the previous leader, Chris Buescher, crashed entering the tri-oval after an errant push from Kyle Larson. Ryan Preece, who entered the race chasing SVG for the provisional 16th and final position in The Chase, was also collected in the crash. Buescher, Larson and Preece all collided and spun through the grass but were able to continue.

MORE: Full Stage 1 results

Ty Gibbs ended the opening stage second ahead of Joey Logano, Erik Jones and Chase Briscoe. Larson, Bubba Wallace, Preece, John Hunter Nemechek and Austin Cindric completed the top 10.

By scoring four points in the opening stage, Wallace officially clinched his spot in The Chase. Saturday’s race serves as the final race of the regular season before The Chase begins. Brad Keselowski is now officially eliminated from postseason contention.

NOTE: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming Preece as the race winner.

Contributing: Staff report

Posted on by Staff Report

The NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series head to the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway this weekend for a pair of regular-season finales. The Cup Series will set its 16-driver field for The Chase in Saturday night’s race, while the O’Reilly Series will determine the 12 drivers advancing to its postseason Friday night. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from qualifying orders, pit stalls, results and more.

RELATED: Full weekend schedule | TV listings | Goodyear tire setup

NASCAR Cup Series

Race day: Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Seven total sets — six new sets for the race and one for qualifying that transfers to the race.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

Race day: Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.

Tires: Four total sets — three new sets for the race and one for qualifying that transfers to the race.

Entry List
Qualifying Order
Qualifying Results
Pit Stalls
Stage 1 Results
Stage 2 Results
Race Results

Posted on by Staff Report

23XI Racing announced Saturday afternoon that Riley Herbst would not compete in Saturday night’s race at Daytona International Speedway.

Herbst qualified fifth on Friday for Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. Harrison Burton replaced Herbst in the No. 35 Toyota for Saturday’s 160-lap race, finishing 12th.

MORE: Race results | Cup Series standings

“After a strong effort in qualifying yesterday, Riley Herbst woke up with lingering effects from last weekend’s incident and, along with the team, decided it was in his best interest to step out of the car for tonight’s race at Daytona International Speedway,” 23XI Racing said in a statement shared to its social channels. “He will be replaced in the No. 35 Toyota for tonight’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway by Harrison Burton.”

Herbst was collected in a crash at Lap 225 of last weekend’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, his car backing into the Turn 3 SAFER barrier before being struck again in the front of the vehicle.

Burton made his first Cup Series start since 2024, a season which marked his third and most recent full-time campaign at NASCAR’s top level. The son of NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Burton, Harrison Burton earned his first career Cup win in 2024 driving the famed No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford in the Daytona summer race, earning the storied team its 100th Cup victory.

Burton currently competes full-time in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, driving the No. 24 Toyota for Sam Hunt Racing. Through 24 races this year, Burton ranks 19th in points with three top-10 finishes, including a season-best eighth-place result in Friday’s Winn-Dixie 250 Presented by Coca-Cola at Daytona.

Burton has four career wins in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, all stemming from his time with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2020. A native of Huntersville, North Carolina, Burton also won the ARCA Menards Series East championship in 2017 with a five-win campaign.

Herbst is in his second full-time season of Cup Series racing, joining 23XI Racing ahead of the 2025 campaign. The 2026 season has marked notable improvements for the three-time O’Reilly Series winner, notching three top-10s this year and improving his average finish from 26.4 in 2025 to 22.2 in 2026.

23XI Racing announced on May 30 that Corey Heim will replace Herbst in the No. 35 car for the 2027 season. Herbst has not yet announced his future racing plans.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — You can never count out an established race team. The same goes for William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports bunch, with the NASCAR Cup Series group looking to leave a mark in the upcoming Chase.

In the three seasons preceding 2026, Byron was the only driver to qualify for the Championship 4 every year. But the Rudy Fugle-led crew has yet to find its footing this season.

RELATED: Daytona summer hub | Where Byron is projected to finish in regular-season finale

“It’s been tough,” Byron said Friday at Daytona International Speedway, recalling his 2026 regular season. “I feel like my career and this 24 team has always been on an upward trajectory. We made three Championship 4s in a row; we’ve always gotten better through the years. This year hasn’t been a reality check, but it’s been a lot tougher. It’s been a grind. A lot of times, we haven’t had the pace to compete. Sometimes, we’ve had pretty good weekends, but we’re not where we want to be or need to be.”

The powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports has won just two of the opening 25 races in 2026, both by Chase Elliott. NASCAR’s version of the New York Yankees hasn’t seen Victory Lane since early May at Texas Motor Speedway, spanning the last 14 races.

Byron, who has collected 14 trophies since the introduction of the Next Gen car in 2022 — including a series-high six victories in 2023 — has just one win in the calendar year, coming at Martinsville Speedway last October. The No. 24 team has four top-five and 11 top-10 finishes, which are both the fewest Byron has recorded in a season since 2022. His 15.9 average finish is on pace to be his worst since 2020, when he averaged a 16.2 result.

When the championship standings rerack after an expected chaotic Daytona event, Byron could rank anywhere on The Chase grid from seventh — currently 64 points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson — to 16th, currently sitting 58 points ahead of Shane van Gisbergen. But the three-time Daytona winner, who has won two of the last three Daytona 500s, believes there is still ample time to turn his 2026 season around.

“We’re a championship-capable team,” Byron said. “This year has been tough on us. We haven’t had a lot of consistency. I have no doubt that our group can put it together for the 10 weeks that we need to. I’m looking at it from a glass-half-full, and I feel like anybody is in the ballgame with the spread from first to 16th. It’s going to be about putting together 10 good weeks. I have a lot of faith in our group that we can do that. We just have to buckle down.

“We’ve already started working on Darlington [Raceway]; we started on that a couple of weeks ago. It’s a good track for us. We’re just waiting to see a breakthrough this year. Maybe it’s coming soon.”

MORE: Cup Series schedule | Cup Series standings

The No. 24 team’s newest hurdle is replacing pit-crew members Orane Ossowski (rear-tire changer) and Allen Holman (jackman) for the next two weeks at Daytona and The Chase opener at Darlington Raceway. On Lap 233 of last weekend’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the left-rear wheel detached from the No. 24 car, sending Byron into the Turn 3 wall. That violated Sections 8.8.10.4.A&D in the NASCAR Rule Book. Hendrick Motorsports opted to pull jackman Dax Hollifield and rear-tire changer Rod Cox from the No. 48 pit crew of Alex Bowman for Daytona.

Posted on by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Rajah Caruth had everything seemingly working in his favor during Friday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Daytona International Speedway, like being in a hurry and encountering nothing but green lights. He was in go mode … until he wasn’t.

A late-race crash spoiled Caruth’s best chance at victory in Friday’s Winn-Dixie 250 Powered by Coca-Cola, but the incident didn’t prevent him from securing the final spot in The Chase during his first full O’Reilly Series season. Caruth entered the regular-season finale 15 points below the cutline, but near-maximum stage points and misfortune for the other Chase hopefuls helped him advance by a scant five points.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Daytona

His post-race emotions were divided, with elation at clinching a championship berth tempered by the wreck with less than three laps remaining that severely damaged his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Caruth was running between two JRM teammates, with Carson Kvapil’s No. 1 ahead of him and points leader Justin Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet behind him. A push from Allgaier near the end of the backstretch sent Caruth sliding out of control, across the apron and into the outside retaining wall.

Caruth limped home 32nd in the 38-car field, two laps down, after his mishap sent the event to overtime. Post-race, he watched replays of the incident before team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. pulled him aside. Allgaier soon joined the discussion about the ins and outs of superspeedway racing, and the three talked it all through.

“Yeah, just a little better decision-making there,” Caruth said when asked what Earnhardt had said. “You know, we were in a great spot us three, and I wanted to obviously go and race, and racing for my first win, but also realizing the situation. We were in a great spot with how fast our cars were. Just like it’s been for a lot of this year for me, just knowing the time and place to do things and the awareness. So lessons learned, but bummed about the end, but great, great lessons learned and things I can apply to Talladega.”

Caruth’s chances had brightened before the scheduled 250-miler reached halfway. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brent Crews and William Sawalich both sustained heavy damage in early crashes, derailing their Chase hopes. Caruth, meanwhile, showed strength after winning the pole in afternoon qualifying and stockpiled 18 precious points with finishes of third and first at the stage breaks.

He needed nearly every bit of that cushion, which grew to 35 points as he moved into contention late. A wayward push as Caruth stepped out of line with two and a half laps remaining reduced his margin to just five points, leaving Allgaier deflated by the outcome.

“I mean, you line up just to the right of the bumper and try to do all the things right, and it really wasn’t even a hard push,” said Allgaier, who heads into The Chase as the top seed. “It was just trying to get our JRM Chevys out front and hopefully create a gap to fourth, right? We did it at Atlanta. We were able to really navigate that, and I think that’s the hardest part is obviously, the playoffs are at stake. I know the 88 and Rajah were doing a great job. I think that’s the most frustrating part about it is you’re trying to be as calm and as patient as you can right there, and really for us, it’s just get to the exit of (turn) four, right? At that point, as a company, you get to the exit of four, you kind of have whatever you have. I think that’s the hardest part.

“I felt like it was the perfect push. I was just to the right of center. It wasn’t a hard push. I don’t know. I’ll have to talk to Rajah about it. I mean, I feel awful, obviously. It doesn’t matter how a race car gets torn up, it still stings. Just thankfully, I think it’s five points in, so I mean, thankfully he’s in and we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

Caruth’s postseason path was all the more remarkable because he split time between a pair of teams this year. “I think that there’s something to say for that,” said Caruth, who drove in 14 regular-season races for JR Motorsports and the remaining 10 as part of a rotating cast in the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet. 

The 24-year-old is slated to drive the No. 88 JRM entry for the duration of The Chase, where he’ll be seeded 12th in the 12-driver field for the nine-race homestretch.

“I think I’m very disappointed right now with the end of the race and things I needed to do better,” Caruth said, “but the big picture is that we’re racing for a championship, so can’t ask for more.”

Posted on by Staff Report

One more race, one final opportunity. The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular-season finale is here, with the “World Center of Racing” at Daytona International Speedway acting as the ultimate battleground for those vying for Chase glory (Sat. 7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Anything goes at drafting-style tracks, and the 2.5-mile racing cathedral is certainly no exception to the rule. Such circumstances make the postseason picture all the more tantalizing. Thirteen of 16 berths are already accounted for, but with three still to be clinched, the stakes are still sky-high for those fighting around the bubble.

RELATED: Starting lineup | What to Watch

The stage is set, with the additional layer of a new rules package further magnifying the excitement level tenfold. So, how does Racing Insights project the full finishing order for the 160-lap contest? Let’s give it a look.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

AUSTIN CINDRIC: Currently perched 44 points above the cutline, the No. 2 Team Penske Ford enters Daytona needing 33 markers to clinch a Chase position. Getting to that point total is easier said than done, though the 27-year-old Cindric does have winning experience at this track, thanks to his 2022 Daytona 500 victory. Cindric’s 32 stage points on drafting tracks in 2026 — which ranks fourth among drivers — additionally helps his cause. Battling at the front of the field early and often should propel Cindric to a postseason position.

SHANE VAN GISBERGEN: Currently holding the 16th and final postseason spot, the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing pilot needs 45 points to clinch a spot in The Chase. Van Gisbergen’s 15.5 average finish on drafting tracks in 2026 ranks ninth among all full-timers, further emphasizing the Kiwi’s improvement on non-road-course facilities this season. There is no letting up, though; with 19 points lost to the cut following New Hampshire Motor Speedway, van Gisbergen will need to give everything he has to cement that Chase position into concrete reality.

RFK RACING: Lumping in the entire three-driver stable holds plenty of merit when looking at the overall picture. Buescher has already clinched a Chase berth but is still looking for his first win this season. Daytona could be that opportunity to eliminate the goose egg as the No. 17 driver ranks second in most top-10 finishes on drafting tracks since 2025 (six) and fourth in 2026 average finish on drafting tracks (8.5). Winning the 2023 Daytona summer race also helps Buescher’s cause. Preece and Keselowski, meanwhile, rank 17th and 18th, respectively, in the cutline battle. Preece enters Saturday with a dose of momentum thanks to a sixth-place finish at New Hampshire, while Keselowski has Daytona experience on his side, with 34 career starts, one career win (2016) and a fifth-place finish in the 2026 Daytona 500 earlier this year. Both drivers can only clinch with help, so each pilot will likely have to put together their best performance of the season if they wish to contend for the championship crown.

MORE: At-track photos

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR COKE ZERO SUGAR 400 (Sat., 7:30 p.m. ET, NBC)

POSITIONNUMBERDRIVER
117Chris Buescher
212Ryan Blaney
324William Byron
419Chase Briscoe
55Kyle Larson
645Tyler Reddick
754Ty Gibbs
822Joey Logano
923Bubba Wallace
1020Christopher Bell
119Chase Elliott
121Ross Chastain
132Austin Cindric
147Daniel Suárez
1511Denny Hamlin
1643Erik Jones
1777Carson Hocevar
1860Ryan Preece
1967Corey Heim
2048Alex Bowman
2197Shane van Gisbergen
2242John Hunter Nemechek
2371Michael McDowell
246Brad Keselowski
2547Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2638Zane Smith
273Austin Dillon
2821Josh Berry
2941Cole Custer
3010Ty Dillon
3135Harrison Burton
3216AJ Allmendinger
3334Todd Gilliland
3433Austin Hill
354Noah Gragson
3688Connor Zilisch
3751Cody Ware
3878Daniel Dye
3962Casey Mears
4044Joey Gase
Posted on by Brandon White

STAFFORD SPRINGS, Conn. – The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s return to Stafford Speedway on Friday evening was a day Teddy Hodgdon was eagerly looking forward to.

A good portion of Hodgdon’s childhood was spent at Stafford watching the track legends do battle around the storied facility. Hodgdon would eventually get a chance to write his own history at Stafford, racking up numerous accomplishments that included an SK Light Modified track championship in 2019.

RELARED: Complete results from the GAF 150

Hodgdon had to wait seven years after his 2019 championship for a chance to chase a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory at his home track. When that time came Friday evening, Hodgdon did not let it go to waste. He charged from 23rd on the starting grid to win his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event.

An emotional Hodgdon was in disbelief as he climbed out of his No. 05 in Victory Lane, elated that his small, family-owned team bested the giants of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at the track that defined him.

“This has been so many years in the making,” Hodgdon said. “I knew qualifying in the back was going to be an uphill battle, but as soon as we got through the first turn, I knew we had a piece tonight. My mentality at the beginning was to pick guys off and try to get the best track position we could for the pit stop.

“We made some changes with the tires and this thing was lights out after that. I fought the hardest 16 laps I could during the last run. I can’t believe that just happened.”

Entering Stafford, Hodgdon had seven top 10s through the first 12 races of the season. Given his previous experience at Stafford, Hodgdon knew there was an opportunity for the GAF 150 to be his best NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race yet.

Hodgdon set the quickest time in the first practice of the day but could not back that speed up in qualifying. Disappointed but not deterred, Hodgdon went to work when the green flag waved, surviving a first corner crash that collected numerous contenders before patiently working his way to the front.

With 25 laps remaining, Hodgdon was pulling away with a comfortable lead. Then the caution waved with less than 20 laps left after Stephen Kopcik spun off the front bumper of Matt Hirschman, who would line up second for the ensuing restart.

The restart was a near-disaster for Hodgdon, who spun the tires and lost the lead to Hirschman, though he quickly regrouped and gave chase.

Hirschman was unable to withstand Hodgdon’s pressure and conceded the top spot only a few laps later. While Hirschman would have loved to win at Stafford for the first time with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, he commended Hodgdon’s drive and felt he was deserving of the victory.

As for the contact with Kopcik that triggered the final yellow, Hirschman said it was unintentional despite their past encounters throughout the season.

“I sent it in the corner and didn’t have enough grip in the right front there to hold it,” Hirschman said. “Slid up and got into [Kopcik] a little bit. I’ve gone around twice this year off his front bumper. I wasn’t intending for that to happen, but I’ll at least own it. He didn’t do that at Riverhead and it cost us about the same amount of spots.

“If I really wanted to return any kind of payback, I would have just done it.”

Being able to beat so many other talented competitors for win number one in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour was a surreal moment for Hodgdon. Many of the drivers in Friday’s field were racing at Stafford when Hodgdon’s own career there was beginning during the late 2000s.

Hodgdon never imagined that two decades of hard work and sacrifice would lead to a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory at Stafford. There were even times when running an event in the series at Stafford seemed far-fetched to him.

Patience paid off for Hodgdon in the most rewarding way possible. He’ll now be forever recognized as one of the select few to win a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at Stafford, which he achieved by besting a legend like Hirschman.

“Everyone knows Matt [Hirshcman] is one of the greatest Modified drivers of all time,” Hodgdon said. “I tried to race him with as much respect as I could, but I knew that me and this orange No. 05 was a hard combo to beat. I’m so speechless right now. This is truly a dream come true.

“I don’t think you could have wrote a script better.”

Chase Dowling came home third, with Justin Bonsignore placing fourth after being involved in the crash on Lap 1. Patrick Emerling finished fifth to regain sole possession of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship lead.

Jon McKennedy, Kopcik, Mike Christopher Jr., Eric Goodale and Paulie Hartwig III were sixth through 10th, respectively.

Only three events remain on the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule. Next up is the Toyota Mod Classic 150 at New York’s Oswego Speedway, which takes place next Saturday at 8 p.m. ET and will air live on FloRacing.