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.
“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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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,justalittlebetterdecision-makingthere,” Caruth said when asked what Earnhardt had said. “Youknow,wewereinagreatspotusthree,andIwantedtoobviouslygoandrace,andracingformyfirstwin,butalsorealizingthesituation. Wewereinagreatspotwithhowfastourcarswere.Justlikeit’sbeenforalotofthisyearforme,justknowingthetimeandplacetodothingsandtheawareness.Solessonslearned,butbummedabouttheend, butgreat,greatlessonslearnedandthingsIcanapply 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.
“Imean,youlineupjusttotherightofthebumperand trytodoallthethingsright,anditreallywasn’tevenahardpush,” said Allgaier, who heads into The Chase as the top seed. “Itwasjust tryingtogetour JRMChevysoutfront and hopefully createagaptofourth, right? WediditatAtlanta.We were able to reallynavigatethat,andIthinkthat’sthehardestpart is obviously, theplayoffsareatstake.Iknowthe88andRajah weredoingagreatjob.Ithinkthat’sthemostfrustratingpartaboutitisyou’retryingtobe as calm andaspatientasyoucanrightthere, andreallyforus,it’sjustgetto the exit of (turn) four, right?Atthatpoint,asacompany,yougetto the exit of four, youkindofhavewhateveryouhave. Ithinkthat’sthehardestpart.
“I felt likeitwastheperfectpush.I was just to the right of center. It wasn’t a hard push. I don’t know. I’llhavetotalktoRajahaboutit.Imean,Ifeelawful, obviously. It doesn’tmatterhowaracecargetstornup,itstillstings. Justthankfully,Ithinkit’sfivepointsin, soImean,thankfullyhe’sin andwe’lltalkabout ittomorrow.”
Caruth’s postseason path was all the more remarkable because he split time between a pair of teams this year. “Ithinkthatthere’ssomethingtosayforthat,” 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
Teddy Hodgdon was long gone, but a spin by Stephen Kopcik brings out the caution flag late at @StaffordSpeedwy!
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.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Joe Gibbs Racing entered Friday night’s Winn-Dixie 250 Powered by Coca-Cola with three drivers tightly sandwiched around The Chase cutline.
After the smoke cleared at Daytona International Speedway, only one of the three — Taylor Gray — survived the battle for the final berths in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series postseason.
After a deft maneuver through a five-car wreck on Lap 44, Gray finished 26th and claimed one of the last two spots in The Chase. Pole winner Rajah Caruth also advanced after erasing a 15-point deficit to the cutoff with a third-place finish in Stage 1, a win in Stage 2 and an overall result of 32nd.
Caruth was running second on Lap 97 when he spun off the bumper of JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier, as Allgaier was attempting to push him. Despite the disappointing finish, Caruth’s 18 stage points propelled him past JGR teammates William Sawalich and Brent Crews by five and six points, respectively.
“I don’t think he did it on purpose,” Caruth said of Allgaier’s push. “In the moment, I’m pretty bummed about the end of the race. I thought we were in a great spot. But we’ll have a new chapter tomorrow and get to work.”
Caruth’s spin and hard contact sent the race to overtime and gave Ryan Sieg a chance to win for the first time in 424 series starts.
A Lap 27 wreck that ended Stage 1 prematurely left three Chase contenders with varying degrees of damage.
Crews, a rookie who came to Daytona one point above the Chase cut line, took his No. 19 Toyota to the garage with heavy damage, his chances of advancing to the postseason dashed. He returned to the track 31 laps down after a radiator change and finished 35th, ending up 44 laps in arrears.
Sam Mayer and Sawalich both recovered from the contact their cars suffered during the wreck, but in Sawalich’s case, the relief was short-lived. On Lap 44, in a multicar wreck triggered by a nudge from Anthony Alfredo’s Chevrolet into the Camaro of Corey Day, Sawalich’s car was eliminated.
So were his championship aspirations.
“We worked really hard after Chicagoland to make up our points deficit,” said Sawalich, who finished 37th. “We worked really hard in the simulator and everywhere we could. We just got taken out. It really sucks.”
Mayer had enough of a buffer entering the race to claim the 10th position in The Chase. After riding in the back for the third stage, Gray finished 11th in the regular season, three points ahead of Caruth in 12th.
“We’ve had a lot of speed this year, and it’s shame on me being in this position going to Daytona,” Gray said. “I feel like there’s a lot of great race tracks for us here in the postseason that we can excel at.”
Crews, who turned 18 on March 30, missed four of the first six races because of age limitations but fell only six points short of advancing.
“It was definitely frustrating, but ultimately, I put ourselves in that position when I coughed up 20 points at Iowa,” said Crews, who finished 16th in the previous O’Reilly Series race. “It goes back to all the ‘ifs’ and ‘whats’ and ‘buts,’ but I know it happened for a reason…
“I’m grateful for the opportunity. JGR has done such a good job with these race cars, and we’ll just go out there and finish out the year strong.”
Following Friday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Daytona International Speedway, the 12-driver Chase postseason field is set.
Justin Allgaier earned the No. 1 seed, dominating his way through the regular season with an already career-high six victories in the JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet. He locked up the top spot after an EchoPark Speedway triumph in July.
Carson Kvapil earned the second seed, earning wins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway earlier this summer to shore up the No. 2 spot. He finished third Friday at Daytona.
Sheldon Creed, Jesse Love and Austin Hill earned seeds No. 3 through No. 5, respectively. Brandon Jones has the No. 6 seed, followed by Corey Day and Sammy Smith, rounding out the eight drivers who were already locked into The Chase before Daytona.
Viking Motorsports driver Parker Retzlaff needed just 10 points to solidify a Chase spot, and did so with flying colors, finishing 14th and clinching in Stage 1 after an early crash to postseason contenders. Sam Mayer survived the aforementioned crash to earn the No. 10 seed, finishing 25th.
Taylor Gray and Rajah Caruth earned the last two seeds. Gray finished 26th, benefiting from crashes for Joe Gibbs Racing teammates William Sawalich and Brent Crews, the first two drivers below the cutline. Caruth earned 18 stage points and was running third with three laps to go, but spun after a push from Justin Allgaier and backed into the outside wall.
Sawalich and Crews both entered Friday one point above the cutline.
The nine-race Chase commences Sept. 5 at Darlington Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After 424 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starts – earning five runner-up finishes – Georgia owner-driver Ryan Sieg hoisted his first career trophy Friday night at Daytona International Speedway in a dramatic overtime victory in the Winn-Dixie 250 Powered by Coca-Cola.
A favorite in the garage and the grandstands, the 39-year-old from Tucker, Georgia, benefited from a late-race pit stop to get inside the top-five and was running fourth when a caution flew with a single lap of regulation remaining.
Restarting the two-lap overtime period from the outside lane on the second row, Sieg was able to get around front-row starting JR Motorsports teammates Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier immediately and then drove away. His No. 38 RSS Racing Chevrolet ultimately took the checkered flag by 0.149 seconds over Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill.
In the closing yards to the finish line, Sieg conceded he just kept thinking, “don’t mess up.”
He did not.
“This is incredible, unbelievable, especially doing it here at Daytona,” said a grinning Sieg as he received a hug from his brother Kyle and a kiss from his girlfriend. “I’ve been coming here since I was a baby; we’ve come here every summer race.
“To do it right now and the way we did it, that’s amazing, and to get the pole last [race], just want to thank everybody that helped us out to get here. My mom and dad, my girlfriend, all the support from the whole team, everybody.
“This has been a long time coming. Last race got the pole and [now] we came back to Daytona where I really wanted to win and we freaking did it.”
For so much of the race, it looked like Kvapil may earn his third consecutive win – that late caution cut short his bid to become the first driver in series history to claim his first three career wins consecutively. His 50 laps out front in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet were most on the night.
The extra time — a two-lap overtime period — was necessary after Allgaier and another of his JR Motorsports teammates touched with three laps remaining — the contact from behind sending pole-winner Rajah Caruth’s No. 88 Chevrolet spinning.
Fortunately for Caruth, the bad luck didn’t end up ruining such a successful night when he put himself inside the 12-driver Chase field that will now go on to challenge for the 2026 title.
Caruth finished 32nd, but the greater misfortune of two other competitors put the 24-year-old into the Chase in his first full-time season in the series. Similarly, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Taylor Gray moved from outside Chase contention to the 12th and final eligible position, his 26th-place finish at Daytona good enough to move him forward after two of his teammates suffered a heartbreaking night.
The Chase standings took a dramatic turn mid-race with a pair of accidents — both near the front of the field — ending JGR teammates Brent Crews’ and William Sawalich’s hopes of contending for a title. Both had been running top-10 when separate incidents derailed their quests.
Crews’ No. 19 JGR Toyota suffered a lot of damage, collected in an accident in Turn 3 on Lap 27 and had to go to the garage for lengthy repairs. Only 19 laps later, Sawalich was an innocent victim in another multicar incident, the damage to his No. 18 JGR Toyota proving too much to return to the race.
Crews did come back on track and finished 44 laps in arrears.
Zack Albert | NASCAR Digital Media
“We did all we could but just got taken out, and it sucks,” said a disappointed Sawalich, who won at Rockingham Speedway this year and had made up 45 points on the Chase bubble in just the last few races.
After the points reset for this Chase run, the season’s most dominant driver, six-race winner Allgaier will take a 25-point lead into the nine-race trophy run that begins next week. His teammate Kvapil is seeded second, followed by Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed, defending series champion and Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love, his teammate Hill, Jones, Hendrick Motorsports’ rookie Corey Day and JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith.
Viking Motorsports’ Parker Retzlaff will make his Chase debut, with Haas driver Sam Mayer, Gray and Caruth rounding out the Chase field.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action next week at Darlington Raceway – the nine-race Chase to decide the 2026 series champion, beginning with the Fleetio 200 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). NASCAR Cup Series regular Christopher Bell won the last fall race at Darlington in 2024. Allgaier won at the track this March.
Note: Post-race inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage, confirming Sieg as the Daytona winner. The Nos. 1 and 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolets each had one lug nut not safe and secure. There were otherwise no issues.
Track: Daytona International Speedway Location: Daytona Beach, Florida Track length: 2.5 miles When: 7:30 p.m. ET Where to tune in: NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $11,233,037 Race distance: 160 laps | 400 miles Stages: 35 | 95 | 160 Saturday’s starting lineup| Pit stall assignments
Storylines, rules uncertainty abound at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR’s regular-season finale weekend hits a little differently this year. There’s been no change to the venue; the venerable Daytona International Speedway still looms as a befitting showcase for the event, a hulking behemoth on the Florida coast. How the 16-driver postseason field will gain clarity and closure, however, is a drastic change.
All will be decided in Saturday night’s showdown when the Coke Zero Sugar 400 wraps up the regular season, locking in the championship-eligible contenders for The Chase. Daytona stands again on the eve of the 10-race postseason stretch, but the method for obtaining a ticket to entry has been far different this year, with cumulative regular-season points as the path — rather than a victory guaranteeing an automatic playoff berth.
Ryan Blaney won last season’s edition at Daytona in a dynamic finish, holding off three fellow front-runners — Daniel Suárez, Justin Haley and Cole Custer — by less than a car-length. A fender more would have tilted the postseason field, swinging the “win and you’re in” door wide open for a trio who were otherwise ineligible. This year, Blaney said there’s been no shortage of compelling stories and subplots to track in a season when Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin have at times both held seemingly insurmountable points leads, plus all the leapfrogging in the standings behind them.
“ImyselfhavelookedatthepointswaymorethanIusedtobecauseitreallymattersandyou’recurious as towhereyou’regoingtobe seeded, butthenalsothere’sreallygoodstorylines,” said Ryan Blaney, who enters Saturday’s race solidly second to Hamlin in the Cup Series standings. “Forawhile, itwascananyonecatchReddick?DennyHamlincaughtReddick,andReddickstartedtocooloffafterthehotstartthathehad, sothat’skindoffluctuated. Thesecond-placebattlebetweenme,him,andTy (Gibbs)wasreally,reallygoodforawhile,andthenyouhavekindofthissixth-to-11thtightbattlegoingon,andthenthecutlinebattleisalwayssomethingtobetalkedabout.SoIthinkthere’sbeenplentyofstorylineswithit,andI’mexcitedtoseehow TheChaseplaysout, how everyone’sgoingtoapproachit. There’sgoingtobeplentyofstorylinesthere,too.”
Three Chase berths remain open for the taking Saturday night, with a baker’s dozen already clinched and in. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace sits in the best position to cinch an unclaimed spot, 75 points clear of the elimination line and needing just two points to advance. Meanwhile, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric is also in a slight comfort zone at plus-44 above the cutoff.
The true bubble pits two drivers with far different backgrounds at opposite ends of that cutline. Shane van Gisbergen, a New Zealander who stood out on the road-race circuits of the Australian Supercars tour before his stateside arrival, is 31 points up on Ryan Preece, the hard-driving NASCAR Modified hotshot from Connecticut. Preece starts fourth with SVG sixth, and though it’s not exclusively a head-to-head face-off, both are no-nonsense champions from their motorsports disciplines with their postseason hopes resting on how Saturday’s wild-card event plays out.
How exactly it unfolds is anyone’s guess. The field will get its first taste of a new superspeedway rules package in Saturday’s 400 miler, without the benefit of practice or testing to sort it out. Competition officials mandated a shorter rear spoiler (7 inches down to 4) plus a reduction in engine output (510 horsepower to 465) with the intent of promoting passing and curbing fuel-saving strategies. The setting for its debut will be the pivotal regular-season finale, where there’s already enough uncertainty to go around.
Though the rules configuration will be shaken up for the season’s second trip to Daytona, the mix of aerodynamic acumen and good fortune on drafting-style tracks still applies. Saturday’s 400-miler will be the fifth of six races this year at ovals where drafting is imperative, with the Daytona 500, a trip to 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway and two visits to EchoPark Speedway outside of Atlanta already in the books.
That quartet of races so far may offer a hint for who might be best suited to repeat their feats at the 2.5-mile venue. Here are the top average finishes on drafting tracks in the Cup Series this season, with the best performances highlighted:
Driver
Average finish
Best finish
Tyler Reddick
6.0
1st (Daytona 500, EchoPark-1)
Carson Hocevar
6.5
1st (Talladega)
Chase Elliott
8.0
4th (Daytona 500, Talladega)
Chris Buescher
8.5
2nd (Talladega)
Ross Chastain
10.3
3rd (EchoPark-1)
Zane Smith
12.0
5th (Talladega)
Daniel Suárez
12.8
5th (EchoPark-1)
Noah Gragson
15.3
9th (Talladega)
Shane van Gisbergen
15.5
6th (EchoPark-1 and EchoPark-2)
Ty Dillon
15.8
13th (Talladega)
Speed reads
Race-day essentials:
• Daytona hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more • Saturday Setup: Crew chiefs brace for new rules configuration at DIS | Read more • Paint Scheme Preview: High art on the high banks; this week’s designs | View gallery • Neil Paine: Summer’s relative calm coming to an end at Daytona | Read more • NASCAR Classics: Dig into the video vault for full-race replays from Daytona | Watch now
• Power Rankings: Bubba Wallace moves up the list, sets sights on Chase | This week’s ranks
