The Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway is in the books, and as Ryan Blaney crossed the finish line in a four-wide charge to the line, the official 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field was set.
With Blaney, who had already previously won a race this season, taking the checkered flag, it officially secured a Playoff berth for Alex Bowman, who exited the race following a Lap 28 crash. While Bowman was able to feel a sense of relief at the conclusion of last Saturday night’s race, four drivers had the Hendrick Motorsports driver likely biting his fingernails until the bitter end.
And while Bowman will now be one of the 16 drivers that we will incessantly follow through the duration of the Playoffs, as the focus will now shift solely on the NASCAR Cup Series championship, there are four drivers who left nothing on the track on Saturday night and nearly punched their own tickets into the Playoffs.
Daniel Suarez, who will depart Trackhouse Racing at season’s end and faces an uncertain future, ended up being the closest to pulling off the walk-off win at Daytona as he crossed the finish line 0.031 seconds behind Blaney in the four-wide march to the finish.
Like Blaney, Suarez had to come from deep in the field in the closing laps to score his finish. With two laps to go, Suarez found himself in the 19th position. He worked his way into the outside line, which surged, and in the end, the ride in the outside line nearly resulted in a third career win for the Mexico native.
Despite the narrow loss, Suarez wasn’t willing to make excuses for coming up just short in a style of race that is essentially like racing’s version of roulette.
“I don’t know about the last few laps, but maybe 40 laps before the end, I felt like we didn’t set ourselves up like we wanted to be, but that’s not an excuse, [Blaney] was back there with us and he was able to make it work,” Suarez said when asked what he could have done differently in the closing laps to win the race.
Suarez continued by sounding optimistic about his upcoming final 10 races as a driver for Trackhouse Racing.
“Proud of the effort. That was the fastest superspeedway car we’ve had in a few years,” commented Suarez. “Our Playoff run ends here, but I’m positive we’re going to be in Victory Lane here very soon.”
Slotting in right behind Suarez in the finishing order was Justin Haley, the driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Haley, 34, nearly pulled an Uno Reverse card on what has been a frustrating season, but he came up just short as he crossed the finish line 0.036 seconds behind Blaney, the race’s winner. In the closing laps of Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, Haley was a fixture near the front of the field, and had it not been for a block-filled battle with Cole Custer on the final lap of the race, Haley may have had enough momentum to score the overall race win.
A third-place result is the best finish of the season for Haley and the No. 7 team, but it was a bittersweet night as they were so close to much bigger things.
“It hurts, especially with the year that the No. 7 has had; we’ve obviously had a rough season,” Haley said after the race. “You’re counting them down and just trying to play everything out, but super proud of everybody at Spire Motorsports. The Gainbridge Chevrolet was obviously fast… it stings, but obviously still a good night.”
Another near-Cinderella Story in Saturday night’s race was Cole Custer, who rode the front bumper of Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse from mid-pack to the race lead coming to the white flag.
However, in an effort to remain up front, Custer made a move to block Haley, which disconnected him from Blaney and ultimately cost him the win. Still, the driver of the No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford Mustang Dark Horse came home fourth in what was an impressive showing.
“You’re definitely going to kick yourself and relive it, see what you could have done differently. I tried to stay with the No. 12 [Ryan Blaney] because I knew he was going to have the momentum coming to the line from the top,” said Custer. “So, I wanted to stay with him, but the No. 7 was able to get around him and get clear, so I had to get around him and get disconnected from [Blaney].”
While it has been a rough season for Custer and the newly formed Haas Factory Team, the team has started showing signs of improvement in recent months.
Custer snatched a solid eighth-place result at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course in Mexico City.
The 27-year-old racer also notched top-20 results at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta (19th) and the Brickyard 400 (20th).
Erik Jones, the driver of the No. 43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota Camry, was also in position to score a season-changing win on Saturday night as he was at the front of the pack in the STP day-glo orange and Petty Blue. However, right as it looked like Jones was in the perfect position to score yet another Daytona win for the iconic No. 43 car, he started receiving massive shoves from behind from Kyle Larson, the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
While Larson wanted to win the race himself, the driver was also looking to prevent a new race winner, which would allow Alex Bowman, his teammate, to stay inside the Playoff cutline.
A massive shove down the backstretch with five laps to go sent Jones sliding sideways and up the track. Seemingly, Jones’ bid for the win was dashed. But as drivers continued to jockey for position up front, Jones was able to claw his way back in contention to finish fifth.
Did he ever imagine working back to fifth when he was sent out of the groove with five laps to go?
“No, not that far up,” Jones said when asked if he thought he would be able to recover. “I’ve been in that situation a couple times in this car, it just seems like you’re stuck. I think it was everything went right, we kind of got that third lane going enough where we got that middle lane nervous and they started shoving and kind of got themselves checked up, to where they were bouncing off each other, and we were able to just use that momentum to plug along.”
Jones and the No. 43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team had a hot streak, which lasted from early May to late June, but had significantly cooled over the last two months. The run at Daytona International Speedway, while it failed to secure the driver and team a postseason berth, could be the catalyst that sparks them to finish the 2025 season strong, which would allow them to carry momentum into the 2026 campaign.
Four drivers were in the mix for a season-changing win at Daytona International Speedway, but ultimately, they all came up just short of advancing to the Playoffs by way of an opportune win. Now, they’ll all look to do as much damage from outside of the Playoff field over the final 10 races of the season.
