2026 Coke Zero Sugar 400 (Daytona) Race Recap

By Adam Carabine

It was a wild night in Florida, as Ryan Preece pulled off a hail mary – winning his way into the NASCAR Chase.  Austin Cindric also clinched his spot in the postseason, while Shane Van Gisbergen was the unlucky driver who fell out at the last minute. 

Let’s have a look at how it all shook down, lap-by-lap!

Lap 1:  Ross Chastain won the pole, and took the green flag with Chris Buescher beside him on the front row.

Lap 10:  Austin Hill, driving the 33 car, gets the lead.

Lap 30:  The stage is fairly uneventful so far.  Austin Hill still leads.  The outside line seems to be better organized, and have better runs.  Cole Custer and Daniel Dye (driving the 78) have fallen off the back and lost the draft.

Lap 34:  Chris Buescher gets a solid run and takes the lead!

Lap 35:  On the final lap of Stage One, a bad push from Kyle Larson (who later told his team, “My bad,”) gets Buescher sideways, and brings out the caution.  Shane Van Gisbergen wins the stage, with 54, 22, 43, 19, 5, 23, 60, 42, 33 rounding out the Top 10 and earning stage points.

Lap 40:  Pits open, Ty Gibbs wins the race off pit road. 

Lap 43:  A bunch of cars go back to pit road and top up on fuel, as the next stage is right around the fuel window.

Lap 44:  Green flag for Stage Two.  Joey Logano and Shane Van Gisbergen on the front row.

Lap 45:  SVG takes the lead.

Lap 46:  Todd Gilliland takes the lead for a bit, but then Austin Hill gets it from the bottom line. 

Lap 50:  New leader, Chase Briscoe.

Lap 57:  Things are getting a little bit dicey, as we now have three-wide for multiple rows up at the front.

Lap 60:  Chase Elliott and Cody Ware (!) are now up at the front!

Lap 72:  Ryan Preece has now maneuvered his way up to the lead.

Lap 73:  Not so fast, says Elliott, and he takes back the lead.

Lap 80:  15 to go in Stage Two, things are getting more amped up.  Elliott still leads for now.

Lap 81:  The inside line suddenly sees all three Penske teammates working together, pushing hard.  Ryan Blaney easily takes the lead.

Lap 85:  Now Austin Cindric takes a turn at the front of the pack.

Lap 91:  Ryan Preece and Chase Elliott are back up front now, battling for the lead.  Elliott gets it for now.

Lap 93:  2 to go – max intensity now.  Cindric gets stranded, Briscoe takes the lead of the lower line.  Elliott is still in front on the top line, but now there’s worries that he doesn’t have enough fuel?

Lap 95:  End of Stage Two.  Blaney gets a run, with Ryan Preece right behind him.  Blaney wins Stage Two!  Followed by 60, 38, 24, 34, 5, 19, 7, 9, 33.

Lap 99:  Some drama on pit road between John Hunter Nemechek and Daniel Suarez, and they have some contact.  Neither seem too worse for wear.

Lap 102:  Some drivers stayed out at the stage end, and are now at the lead.  Green flag for the final stage – Todd Gilliland and Chase Briscoe on the front row.

Lap 103:  Gilliland takes the lead on the outside.  The inside line is once again not as well-organized.

Lap 107:  Chase Briscoe to the lead.  Now both lanes are working well. 

Lap 121:  Seven cars make a trip to pit road.  This was a bit of a surprise, as most were going to try and make it to the end without stopping.  As a result, the pace was a little slower up front.  These cars all pit, and tried to get back together to work and push the pace, forcing the other cars to pit.

Lap 129:  The non-pitters have had to pick up their pace, which could ruin their fuel mileage.  The ones that did pit had a bit of trouble linking after pit stops, but are now working together and gaining on the big pack.

Lap 143:  Now a group of leaders pit for fuel – clearly they weren’t going to make it after upping their pace.  The second half of this pack were able to save more fuel riding in the back, so they’re right on the line.  Can they hold it?

Lap 146:  Tyler Reddick to the lead.  Not sure if he has enough fuel to make it to the end, but at this point they’re going to try.  On track there are three distinct groups.  The current leaders who haven’t pit, the group of 7 (now down to 5) who pit earlier, and then the previous leaders who were forced to pit – all in that order.

Lap 150:  Some drama up front, Ryan Preece and Zane Smith work together and get the lead from Reddick and Hocevar.

Lap 151:  Preece was just told by his team that he has enough fuel to the end, but does that change now that he’s at the front of the pack?

Lap 155:  CAUTION – Carson Hocevar loses it on his own, spins and starts back up the track, collecting a poor and unsuspecting Erik Jones in the process.  They’re both done for the day, and we’re going to OVERTIME.

Lap 158:  Preece is leading, and not planning on pitting here, despite the fact that he’s cutting it close on fuel.  SVG, who is battling against Preece at this point for the final spot in The Chase, decides to come down to top up on fuel, in a last ditch hope that Preece runs out of fuel.

Lap 164:  OT begins! It’s Preece and Smith on the front row.

Lap 166:  Major wrecks all through the field, multiple big ones at different points.  CAUTION comes out – but who was in the lead at the time?  They’d already taken the white flag, so this was going to end the race, but for a moment no one knows who it was!

As it turned out, Preece was the leader at the time of the caution, and he wins, solidifying his spot in The Chase! 

This is Ryan Preece’s first ever career Cup Series win, in his 249^th start.  SVG finished 28^th when all was said and done, and lost out on the final slot in The Chase by 19 points. 

The Chase is officially set, and the Top 16 drivers’ points have been reset. 

Next weekend is the first race of The Chase – the Southern 500 in Darlington!