The NASCAR Cup Series concluded the regular season on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero Sugar 400. Ryan Blaney started the race on the pole, with Alex Bowman starting second.
In the first stage, there were three cautions. The big one happened on lap 28 when Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, and Kyle Busch made contact while battling for third place, causing a multi-car crash that also involved Austin Cindric, Noah Gragson, Denny Hamlin, Austin Hill, Riley Herbst, Zane Smith, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Alex Bowman. Kyle Larson won the first stage.
In the second stage, there was one caution as Carson Hocevar suffered an engine failure on lap 81. He had smoke coming out of his car at Turn 4 and came to a complete stop on the backstretch. Ross Chastain held off Christopher Bell to win the second stage.
In the final stage, Denny Hamlin brought the caution out on lap 109 with a flat right front tire, and Joey Logano spun on the frontstretch with 11 laps to go. Justin Haley and Erik Jones were in the front row, battling for the lead. Jones got pushed out of line by Kyle Larson and fell back.
With two laps to go, Ryan Preece battled Justin Haley for the lead until he was stuck in the middle as the other drivers went around him. On the final lap, Cole Custer and Justin Haley were battling for the lead. Exiting off of Turn 4, Ryan Blaney made a charge to the front and won the race by 0.031 seconds over Daniel Suarez. Justin Haley, Cole Custer, and Erik Jones rounded out the top five. Blaney led 27 laps, and it was his second win of the season.
Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry, and Chase Elliott rounded out the top ten. There were eight cautions for 39 laps, and 44 lead changes among 19 drivers.
The Cup Series begins the playoffs next week at Darlington Raceway on Sunday at 6 pm on USA Network.
