Daytona, Fl (August 29th, 2026)

There are nights at Daytona when winning is about having the fastest car. There are nights when it comes down to being in the right draft at the right time. And then there are nights when simply surviving long enough to be in position is half the battle.

For Ryan Preece, the 2026 Coke Zero Sugar 400 was all three.

Preece entered Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series regular-season finale with his season, his postseason hopes and perhaps his entire Daytona narrative hanging in the balance. He left with the biggest victory of his career.

The RFK Racing driver drove the No. 60 Ford through damage, traffic, fuel concerns and two late-race wrecks before finding himself at the front when it mattered most. When the final caution flew on the overtime lap, Preece was leading. NASCAR froze the field, and after 249 Cup Series starts, Preece finally had his first points-paying Cup Series victory.

More importantly, he had earned the 16th and final spot in NASCAR’s new Chase.

It was hardly the kind of race anyone would design on a whiteboard.

It was Daytona.

A night that started with everything to lose

Preece arrived at Daytona 31 points behind Shane van Gisbergen for the final Chase position. Under the new 2026 postseason format, there was no guarantee that a driver who had already won earlier in the season would automatically advance. Every point mattered, and Preece needed a performance capable of overcoming a sizable deficit.

Van Gisbergen had the advantage entering the night. The Trackhouse Racing driver had won twice during the regular season and carried a 31-point cushion over Preece into the final event.

For Preece, there was little reason to think Daytona would make the job any easier.

The 2.5-mile superspeedway has a way of turning championship mathematics into scrap metal. Drivers can run conservatively for 150 laps and still find themselves caught in someone else’s accident with 10 laps remaining. Preece knew that better than most.

His history at Daytona includes one of the most frightening crashes of his career, the violent 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400 wreck that sent his car into a series of barrel rolls through the infield grass. He had also been caught up in trouble in the 2025 Daytona 500.

Saturday night offered an opportunity to change that story.

It didn’t start smoothly.

Preece survives the first hit

Shane van Gisbergen won the opening stage, but the points gained at the front were only part of the story.

As the first stage wound toward its conclusion, Chris Buescher was running near the front when an attempted push from Kyle Larson went wrong entering the tri-oval. Buescher spun, Larson was collected and Preece was caught in the aftermath.

The three cars slid through the grass, leaving Preece with damage to the left-front portion of his Ford.

For a driver already fighting for the final Chase position, it could have been the moment the night unraveled.

Instead, Preece’s team went to work.

The No. 60 returned to the track, and Preece kept fighting.

It would become the defining characteristic of the night.

Preece wasn’t going to have a clean path to victory. He was going to have to manufacture one.

Blaney takes Stage 2 as Preece hangs around

The second stage settled into the kind of tight superspeedway racing Daytona has become known for, with long lines of cars moving from lane to lane and drivers constantly weighing the benefit of track position against the risk of making an aggressive move.

Ryan Blaney came through with the Stage 2 victory after making a last-lap pass on Chase Elliott. Blaney used the draft to close on Elliott down the backstretch before completing the move ahead of Turn 3.

Preece was there again, finishing second in the stage.

That was significant.

The No. 60 Ford wasn’t simply surviving anymore. It was accumulating points.

Zane Smith finished third in the stage, followed by William Byron and Todd Gilliland, while Preece continued to keep himself within striking distance of van Gisbergen in the championship battle.

The regular-season finale was becoming less about who could dominate and more about who could remain standing.

That distinction would become critical.

Daytona becomes a fuel-mileage race

The final stage changed the complexion of the event.

Instead of a straightforward superspeedway sprint, the teams were suddenly staring at a fuel-mileage gamble. Preece’s RFK Racing team made the decision to keep the No. 60 on the track rather than make another stop.

It was a risky call.

With 65 laps remaining, Preece and several other drivers were committed to stretching their fuel. Other teams had already pitted and were working with a different strategy, creating several distinct groups around the track.

Tyler Reddick moved to the lead on Lap 146, but the question hanging over the field wasn’t simply whether he could stay there.

It was whether he could make it to the finish.

Preece’s answer was becoming increasingly clear.

The No. 60 had enough fuel to keep going.

That calculation changed when the cars shuffled forward. Preece and Zane Smith worked together to move past Reddick and Carson Hocevar, putting Preece at the head of the lead group.

Now the fuel strategy had a second problem.

Preece wasn’t saving fuel from the back of the pack anymore.

He was leading it.

That meant pushing air, controlling the lane and potentially using more fuel than the team had originally calculated.

Yet RFK Racing stayed committed.

Hocevar’s crash changes everything

The strategy race ended on Lap 155.

Carson Hocevar was battling toward the front when he moved to the inside entering Turn 3. The move looked aggressive but manageable until the rear of the No. 77 Chevrolet snapped loose.

Hocevar’s Chevrolet shot toward the outside wall and collected Erik Jones, while Ty Gibbs was also caught in the ensuing incident.

The caution came out.

The race was headed for overtime.

Suddenly, the fuel gamble no longer needed to work for another five laps.

Preece had a chance to win the race.

And he had a chance to steal the Chase position that had seemed so difficult to reach only a few hours earlier.

The overtime restart put Zane Smith on the front row alongside Preece. Van Gisbergen, meanwhile, faced a completely different situation.

Because of the caution and the length of the cleanup, his team elected to bring him to pit road for fuel and four fresh tires. It was a logical decision. Van Gisbergen’s alternative was to gamble that the remaining fuel would last.

The problem was track position.

He restarted 27th.

Preece restarted at the front.

The championship battle had flipped in a matter of minutes.

Six laps that changed Preece’s career

The overtime restart was everything Daytona is supposed to be.

Smith led. Preece stayed close.

Behind them, the field formed the familiar two- and three-wide pack, each driver looking for the smallest aerodynamic advantage.

Preece didn’t need to lead every lap.

He needed to be there when the race ended.

Smith took the white flag out front.

Tyler Reddick moved into position behind him and began looking for an opportunity. On the final lap, Reddick moved to the outside, attempting to make the pass for the lead.

The move turned into disaster.

Reddick and Smith made contact on the backstretch, sending the No. 38 Ford into a spin and triggering a massive chain reaction behind them.

Cars scattered across the track.

The field began crashing in multiple places.

And somewhere in the middle of it, Preece was still moving forward.

When NASCAR threw the caution, the No. 60 Ford was ahead.

That was all that mattered.

Preece had won.

He had led only five laps all night, but those five laps were enough.

From 31 points down to the Chase

The victory was worth far more than a trophy.

Preece entered Daytona 31 points behind van Gisbergen.

He left 17 points ahead.

The difference was 48 points in a single night.

Van Gisbergen finished 28th after being caught in the final-lap melee, ending what had been a promising attempt to protect his postseason position. Preece, meanwhile, collected 67 points from the event and secured his place in the Chase.

Austin Cindric finished sixth and claimed the 15th seed, nine points ahead of Preece. That left Preece with the final spot in the 16-driver field.

It was the kind of championship qualification that Daytona specializes in creating.

One driver left celebrating.

Another left wondering what might have happened if the caution had never come out.

Suarez comes within inches

Daniel Suárez came home second, followed by Tyler Reddick, Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Suárez’s runner-up finish was especially painful because he had spent the night in position to capitalize on the chaos. He avoided the final wreck and crossed the line just behind Preece.

It was his second consecutive runner-up finish at Daytona, and it came as part of a season that now sees the Spire Motorsports driver heading into the Chase with legitimate momentum.

Reddick recovered from the final-lap incident to finish third, while McDowell and Stenhouse rounded out the top five.

Austin Cindric was sixth, with Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, Josh Berry and Cole Custer completing the top 10.

Berry’s ninth-place finish was particularly notable. It marked his fifth consecutive top-10 result in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford.

More than just a first win

For Preece, the significance of the victory goes well beyond the statistic beside his name.

This was his first NASCAR Cup Series points-paying win, coming in his 249th career start.

He had already won the non-points Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray earlier in the season, but Daytona was different. This one counted toward the championship. This one put his name in the record book.

And given what Daytona had taken from him in the past, the location made the victory even more meaningful.

The 2023 flip had become part of Preece’s identity at the track. The 2025 Daytona 500 had provided another reminder that superspeedway racing can turn on a single moment.

Now he had a different memory.

He had a Daytona trophy.

“This is redemption,” Preece said afterward.

That may be the simplest way to describe it.

The RFK resurgence continues

Preece’s victory also added another chapter to what has been an increasingly strong season for RFK Racing and Ford.

The organization had already demonstrated speed on the superspeedways, and Preece’s win gave RFK another major victory at a track where drafting, teamwork and execution are often more important than raw single-car pace.

It was also Ford’s fifth Cup Series victory in the last seven races, extending the manufacturer’s recent run of form heading into the postseason.

But nobody inside the No. 60 camp was thinking about manufacturer statistics when the checkered flag came out.

They were thinking about everything the team had survived.

The damage in Stage 1.

The fuel gamble.

The decision not to pit.

The Hocevar crash.

The overtime restart.

The final-lap wreck.

And finally, the yellow flag that froze the field with Preece in front.

Daytona delivers one last surprise

For most of the night, the Coke Zero Sugar 400 was surprisingly restrained by Daytona standards. The race had the normal pack racing and stage battles, but the major turning point didn’t arrive until late.

Then everything happened at once.

Hocevar’s Lap 155 crash created overtime.

The fuel strategy split the field.

Van Gisbergen was forced to pit and dropped deep in the order.

Smith led the restart.

Preece moved forward.

Reddick went high.

Smith and Reddick made contact.

The field crashed.

The caution flew.

And Ryan Preece was standing alone at the front.

That is Daytona.

It is why teams can spend weeks preparing for 400 miles and still have no idea what the final two laps will look like.

For Preece, though, the uncertainty finally worked in his favor.

After years of fighting for opportunities, surviving setbacks and trying to establish himself in NASCAR’s top division, he finally had his moment.

And it came at one of the places that had tested him the hardest.

Ryan Preece arrived at Daytona needing a miracle.

He left as a Cup Series winner and a Chase driver.

Sometimes, the biggest victories are the ones that take the longest to arrive.

Final Results:

1. (4)  Ryan Preece, Ford, 166.
2. (23)  Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 166.
3. (17)  Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 166.
4. (18)  Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 166.
5. (32)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 166.
6. (8)  Austin Cindric, Ford, 166.
7. (29)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 166.
8. (20)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 166.
9. (24)  Josh Berry, Ford, 166.
10. (16)  Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 166.
11. (30)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 166.
12. (5)  Harrison Burton(i), Toyota, 166.
13. (12)  Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 166.
14. (21)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 166.
15. (27)  John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 166.
16. (11)  Corey Heim(i), Toyota, 166.
17. (35)  Christopher Bell, Toyota, 166.
18. (9)  Joey Logano, Ford, 166.
19. (33)  Todd Gilliland, Ford, 166.
20. (26)  Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 166.
21. (31)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 166.
22. (13)  William Byron, Chevrolet, 166.
23. (22)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 166.
24. (1)  Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 166.
25. (7)  Connor Zilisch #, Chevrolet, 166.
26. (37)  Noah Gragson, Ford, 166.
27. (3)  Austin Hill(i), Chevrolet, 166.
28. (6)  Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 166.
29. (39)  Daniel Dye(i), Chevrolet, 166.
30. (36)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 166.
31. (10)  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 166.
32. (34)  Zane Smith, Ford, Accident, 165.
33. (19)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, Accident, 165.
34. (14)  Ty Gibbs, Toyota, Accident, 165.
35. (25)  Cody Ware, Chevrolet, Accident, 165.
36. (40)  Joey Gase(i), Chevrolet, 165.
37. (38)  Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 165.
38. (28)  Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, Accident, 154.
39. (15)  Erik Jones, Toyota, Accident, 154.
40. (2)  Chris Buescher, Ford, 151.

 

Average Speed of Race Winner:  154.69 mph.

Time of Race:  2 Hrs, 40 Mins, 58 Secs. Margin of Victory:  Under Caution Seconds.

Caution Flags:  4 for 23 laps.

Lead Changes:  41 among 22 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   R. Chastain 1;K. Larson 2;R. Chastain 3-4;C. Buescher 5-9;K. Larson 10;A. Hill(i) 11-33;C. Buescher 34;S. Van Gisbergen 35-39;T. Gibbs 40;R. Blaney 41;J. Logano 42-43;S. Van Gisbergen 44;T. Gilliland 45;A. Hill(i) 46-49;C. Briscoe 50-55;R. Chastain 56-63;C. Elliott 64-67;Z. Smith 68-70;C. Elliott 71-81;R. Blaney 82-84;A. Cindric 85-90;C. Elliott 91-94;R. Blaney 95;R. Preece 96;R. Chastain 97;J. Berry 98;R. Stenhouse Jr. 99;T. Gilliland 100-106;C. Briscoe 107-109;B. Keselowski 110-113;C. Briscoe 114;B. Keselowski 115-117;C. Ware 118-119;B. Keselowski 120-122;C. Ware 123-128;W. Byron 129-142;J. Nemechek 143-144;T. Reddick 145-149;R. Preece 150-152;C. Hocevar 153;Z. Smith 154-165;R. Preece 166.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Austin Hill(i) 2 times for 27 laps; Chase Elliott 3 times for 19 laps; Zane Smith 2 times for 15 laps; William Byron 1 time for 14 laps; Ross Chastain 4 times for 12 laps; Chase Briscoe 3 times for 10 laps; Brad Keselowski 3 times for 10 laps; Todd Gilliland 2 times for 8 laps; Cody Ware 2 times for 8 laps; Chris Buescher 2 times for 6 laps; Austin Cindric 1 time for 6 laps; Shane Van Gisbergen 2 times for 6 laps; Ryan Preece 3 times for 5 laps; Ryan Blaney 3 times for 5 laps; Tyler Reddick 1 time for 5 laps; John Hunter Nemechek 1 time for 2 laps; Kyle Larson 2 times for 2 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 2 laps; Josh Berry 1 time for 1 lap; Ty Gibbs 1 time for 1 lap; Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 1 time for 1 lap; Carson Hocevar 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 97,54,22,43,19,5,23,60,42,2

Stage #2 Top Ten: 12,60,38,24,34,5,19,7,9,33

Daytona International Speedway:

 

NASCAR: