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 gas. It was an easy decision, though it would set his driver deep in the field.
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“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).”
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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.”