Track: Daytona International Speedway
Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
Track length: 2.5 miles
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App/Peacock
Race purse: $9,797,935
Race distance: 160 laps | 400 miles
Stages: 35 | 95 | 160
Defending winner: Harrison Burton, August 2024
Starting lineup: Ryan Blaney to start from pole after lightning scraps qualifying
RELATED: How to watch on NBC
Regular season reaches its high-stakes Florida finale
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The NASCAR Cup Series’ regular-season finale took a gap year from Daytona International Speedway last season, tying up the giant web of playoff possibilities at Darlington Raceway last season. This year, the schedule’s natural order is back in place with a superspeedway setting to decide the postseason grid.
Two spots in the Cup Series Playoffs are up for bids in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock), the last chance to lock into the 16-driver postseason field. The high-stakes race will boil down to the ability — and willingness — for teams and manufacturers to work together in the aerodynamic draft and avoid the perilous pileups that come from racing in tightly knit packs.
MORE: Cup standings entering Daytona | Watch NASCAR video highlights
The 14 drivers who are locked in have sealed their spots by collecting regular-season victories, the most recent being Austin Dillon after his Richmond breakthrough last week. Two drivers are on the positive side of the provisional postseason bubble, with Tyler Reddick 89 points up and Alex Bowman sitting at plus-60. But the specter of another first-time winner at one of the circuit’s more unpredictable tracks could leave just one of them advancing on points.
Darlington followed that form last season, with Chase Briscoe vaulting from below the bubble and onto the grid, winning in one of Stewart-Haas Racing’s last hurrahs. In five of the last seven summertime Daytona races, a new driver has scratched the win column, jostling the postseason picture.
Those would-be winners, though, have to endure a gauntlet of potential trouble, especially when the close-quarters racing intensifies later in the going. Six of the last eight summer races here have had 12 or more DNFs because of crashes, and in the last four races on this style of track, the lead has changed hands on the final lap.
“I feel like situationally being aware of just how these things play out and where to be and all those things, I feel really comfortable and confident, but it all goes out the window when things get crazy,” said Michael McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 winner but one of 22 drivers who has yet to clinch a playoff slot. “So I think there’s a level of confidence and angst that you bring to places like this because there’s so many variables that are not controllable, but I feel good about it being the cut-off race and giving us a opportunity to go race for it.”
Along with the pressure factor, the concept of teamwork should also spike in Saturday night’s showdown. Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, two of the sport’s most powerful four-car teams, each have three of their drivers with playoff berths secure. Each team’s fourth — Bowman for Hendrick and Ty Gibbs for JGR — should expect to have teammates and automaker allies making every effort to provide a postseason assist.
“Listen, we have high expectations,” said Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon, noting the importance of having Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet complete the organization’s playoff 4-for-4 goal. “We shouldn’t be in this position, right? And I think Alex and Blake (Harris, crew chief) and the whole team know that. They’ve actually had a really good season. There was a kind of a period of time — I don’t know, four races or so — where they kind of got off track a little bit, but they’ve had a very strong, solid, consistent season and (been) in position to win races. So it’s not like they’ve not been good, but they shouldn’t also be in this position because I think they’re capable. So you go into it with, hey, it’s Daytona, and we’re in and we’ve got to go execute. And whatever is meant to happen, happens.”
From atop the pit box …
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Saturday’s race?
The dividing line that has separated the Cup Series Playoffs contenders from the rest will have some permanence after Saturday night’s 400-miler. Crew chiefs on both sides of that threshold will have varying motivations and focuses beyond the obvious goal of winning.
Tyler Reddick has the most points among drivers who haven’t won, but his hold on a playoff spot has some uncertainty surrounding it. If a new winner emerges and Alex Bowman has a bonanza that erases the 29-point gap between them, Reddick, last year’s Regular Season Champion, could be out.
“It’s all a concern, you know?” said Billy Scott, crew chief of Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota. “We’ve got to this point now that a win certainly would be great to establish some playoff points, get a better spot when it’s re-seeded. But our goal right now is to get in, so we do have to pay attention to that in case there’s a new winner. We’ll … just keep an eye on them all race and evaluate what we’ve got to do at the end of the race there to make sure we’re in a good spot.”
RELATED: Daytona weekend schedule | Full 2025 schedule
Even for teams and drivers who have already clinched, their aspirations also hold playoff implications for others. Team loyalty runs thick, and it’s especially so at Daytona where a helping hand in the draft can make a difference. So while William Byron aims for a season sweep of Daytona’s events — a feat that hasn’t happened since 2013 — a victory or well-timed push from “The Great American Race” champ or fellow teammates Chase Elliott or Kyle Larson could help Bowman in any event.
Teams will also have a new aerodynamic safety device in place this week. NASCAR competition officials added a flap to the A-post (the pillar that runs between the windshield and door windows) that is designed to deploy in the event of a car turning sideways. That measure, combined with the roof flaps that have been standard equipment for years, is intended to keep cars from getting airborne, increasing the speed needed for liftoff.
Computer modeling and wind-tunnel testing have helped competition officials to determine those safety changes. The true test will come Saturday night with a full field of cars.
“It’s encouraging that they continue to work on it, and they have safety on the forefront of their minds,” Scott said. “So that part’s good. We’ll have to wait and see in reality how well it works out, but in theory, it should help.”
RELATED: See where drivers will pit for Saturday’s race
History tells us …
Expect some extra distance. Overtime tends to happen with some frequency in this event, with 12 of the last 17 summertime Daytona races ending past the scheduled lap count. That stretch includes four of the last five 400-mile (and then some) races here, most recently with Harrison Burton’s surprise victory going four extra laps.
There are also signs that starting up front may not be as large of an advantage at Daytona, compared to other tracks. A front-row starter hasn’t won at the 2.5-mile speedway since Dale Earnhardt Jr. prevailed from the pole in July 2015.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. While the Hyak Motorsports driver has crashed out of five of the last seven Daytona races, Stenhouse has also proven capable of winning at the “World Center of Racing.” All four of his Cup Series victories have come in superspeedway events — two at Daytona and two at Talladega.
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Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• NASCAR at Daytona: Key info, qualifying reports and more from doubleheader weekend | Read more
• 2026 schedule unveiled: Chicagoland, a new All-Star site among changes | Read more
• Racing Insights: Bowman tops projected results for Saturday night | Read more
• Field of 16: Last chance to dance in the playoff field | Read more
• Turning Point to Daytona: Byron out for more after regular-season title | Read more
• At-track photos: Scenes, sights from the Daytona high banks | View gallery
• Paint Scheme Preview: Bright designs for under the lights | View gallery
• Power Rankings: Austin Dillon back in focus at Daytona | This week’s top 20
