Ryan Blaney hangs on for Coke Zero Sugar 400 overtime victory

Having a superspeedway like Daytona International Speedway as the final race before the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs was always bound to create chaos as drivers sought to secure the final spots. Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 was no different as large wrecks in the final stage impacted numerous playoff hopefuls, though it was an already-locked-in face who celebrated as Ryan Blaney was the leader at the time of a last-lap crash to claim his third win of the season.

Kyle Larson would have started on the pole had he not failed pre-race inspection multiple times. Joey Gase, Kaz Grala, and Corey LaJoie suffered the same fate and also started at the rear, while Front Row Motorsports‘ Michael McDowell and Anthony Alfredo did so for deck lid extensions violations. Alfredo also had to serve a pass-through penalty after his team made illegal body adjustments to his car on the grid.

Stage #1

Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports team-mate William Byron began the race on the front row and led the first six laps before being passed by Kevin Harvick. Byron and Denny Hamlin traded the lead before Chase Elliott took the position shortly before the competition caution on lap 21. During the pause, Quin Houff exited the race with a roof flap issue and was twenty-seven laps down upon returning with the problem solved. McDowell’s day ended when his engine failed under caution, making him the first Daytona 500 winner to finish last in the Daytona summer race since Cale Yarborough—also an engine victim—in 1983.

Elliott continued to lead on the lap 26 restart and only briefly surrendered the position to Joey Logano to remove debris from his grille before retaking it. He would take the stage victory ahead of Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Austin Dillon, LaJoie, Logano, Ryan Preece, and Chris Buescher.

Stage #2

Logano was slapped with an equipment removal penalty between stages and started Stage #2 at the rear. Elliott led two laps followed by LaJoie, Truex, and Christopher Bell.

On lap 77, Aric Almirola and Alex Bowman made contact in turn four and spun to produce a caution. Logano led the field to the lap 82 restart and held his ground as Team Penske ally Blaney, aided by Elliott, caught him on the inside. Blaney was able to lead a lap but could not clear his team-mate. A charge from Dillon with Byron’s help brought him to Logano’s tail on the final lap, though Logano also held him off for the stage win.

Byron, Tyler Reddick, Larson, Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Busch, Bubba Wallace, and Bell rounded out the top ten.

Stage #3

The final stage commenced on lap 106 with Hamlin and Byron on the front row.

The Fords pitted under green on lap 123 and made fuel-only stops, while the Toyotas and Chevrolets stayed out. A contingent of Toyotas led by Busch spearheaded the running order as the race crossed the 20-to-go mark, with the Chevrolet of LaJoie being the lone non-Toyota in the top six at the time. Shortly after said point, three-quarters of Rick Ware Racing with Joey Gase, Garrett Smithley, and Cody Ware wrecked together off turn four when Smithley spun in front of his team-mates. Dillon, who was fighting with Richard Childress Racing partner Reddick for the sixteenth and final playoff spot, suffered a speeding penalty during the ensuing caution.

The race resumed on lap 145 with Penske’s Blaney and Logano on the front row. A lap later, Reddick’s own playoff hopes took a hit when he was involved in a massive wreck: Stenhouse bumped Truex on the backstretch in a stack-up and the latter shot into the outside wall, where he hit Byron before coming down and being impacted by Reddick. Alfredo spun into the grass while Landon Cassill collected Daniel Suárez and Chase Briscoe. The wreck forced a red flag for cleanup, while Reddick’s team sought to address oil concerns under the hood.

After approximately fifteen minutes of waiting, the red flag was lifted.

Logano jumped to the lead ahead of Blaney on the inside before Chris Buescher joined the picture with Elliott pushing him. Also receiving help from Hamlin, Buescher and Elliott pulled to the lead on lap 154 before the former committed to the outside with his fellow Fords. The new leader bounced between both lines before Elliott and Hamlin led a lap, though neither had enough of a run as Buescher reclaimed the top spot. Buescher himself lost the draft in the middle lane as Elliott reassumed first.

Elliott and Matt DiBenedetto, also vying for the last playoff seed, gunned for the lead with five to go as Logano suffered a flat tyre and hit the wall. Two laps later, Elliott attempted to block DiBenedetto and Hamlin’s advance in turn four, causing them to collide and triggering a massive wreck as Preece and Custer also spun, collecting Bell, Busch, Chastain, Custer, Keselowski, Preece, Stenhouse, and Kaz Grala. Overtime was initiated in response.

Buescher and Blaney, respectively pushed by playoff hopefuls Dillon and LaJoie, comprised the front row to begin overtime. Blaney pulled ahead on the inside exiting turn two as Harvick moved upp to second with Suárez on his tail at the white flag.

Suárez tried a move on Harvick entering turn three and was clipepd by Kurt Busch, triggering a chain reaction as Harvick went around. Bowman, Chastain, Dillon, LaJoie, Larson, and Erik Jones were also involved as the caution waved, ending the race under yellow and granting Blaney his second consecutive win and third of the year.

“That was a lot of fun,” said Blaney in his post-race interview. “Gosh, we just barely missed that wreck. Got to line up on the front row, got a good push by the #7 (LaJoie). You never know how the end of these things is going to play out. Down the back, you don’t know what lane is getting a bigger run. I guess someone got tangled up over there, Hopefully everyone is okay.

“[…] The biggest thing is just getting the push, right, just trying to get a good push. Corey LaJoie gave me a good push two weeks in a row, gotten really good pushes on restarts, able to win the race, so thanks for that. It really all started with the #7 giving me a good push, then trying to hold off the #7 and Kevin and a couple other cars, #17 (Buescher).”

Despite his tumultuous day, Reddick finished seventh to claim the sixteenth and final playoff spot.

Wallace fell short of making the postseason but still placed third for his and 23XI Racing‘s best finish together. Justin Haley, the 2019 Daytona summer winner and victor of the Xfinity Series race earlier in the day, was sixth for his second Cup top ten. B.J. McLeod escaped the chaos to score his and Live Fast Motorsports‘ first career top ten.

UPDATE (29 August): Buescher has been disqualified after failing post-race inspection for an illegal trackbar mounting assembly. As Buescher is relegated to last, Wallace moves up to second to tie his career best (2018 Daytona 500) and complete a 1–2 finish with his close friend. Josh Bilicki scores his first career top ten. Buescher is the second Cup disqualification of 2021 after Elliott suffered the fate at Nashville in June.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	6	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	165	Running
2	20	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	165	Running
3	23	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	165	Running
4	24	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	165	Running
5	17	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	165	Running
6	28	77	Justin Haley*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
7	15	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
8	5	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
9	30	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	165	Running
10	36	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	165	Running
11	21	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	165	Running
12	8	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi racing	Chevrolet	165	Running
13	3	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	165	Running
14	19	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	165	Running
15	11	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	165	Running
16	33	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Accident
17	27	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	164	Accident
18	29	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi racing	Chevrolet	164	Accident
19	26	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	164	Accident
20	1	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Accident
21	16	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	164	Accident
22	12	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
23	22	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	164	Running
24	25	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	164	Running
25	9	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	164	Running
26	32	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	163	Running
27	40	66	David Starr*	MBM Motorsports	Ford	163	Running
28	31	51	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	163	Running
29	7	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	163	Running
30	34	53	Garrett Smithley*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	163	Running
31	37	15	Joey Gase*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	162	Running
32	14	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	157	Accident
33	10	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	156	Accident
34	4	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	156	Accident
35	38	16	Kaz Grala*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	156	Accident
36	39	96	Landon Cassill*	Gaunt Brothers Racing	Toyota	146	Accident
37	2	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	146	Accident
38	35	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	136	Running
39	18	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	23	Engine
40	13	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	164	Running (DSQ)