Wow. That’s simply all you can say. After the dust settled in a wild finish to Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, Ryan Preece emerged victorious for the first time in his 249-race career.
The driver of the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse had to rally after a crash on the final lap of the opening Stage of the race, and then had to manage a dwindling fuel load as the race was sent into overtime thanks to a crash involving Carson Hocevar and Erik Jones with four laps to go.
“It’s just a testament to how prepared these race cars are, man,” Preece said about his ability to come back from the crash at the end of Stage 1. “I’m a racer. I know what it takes to build speed. So, to every man and woman at RFK Racing, thank you for giving me a rocket ship so I could go to the moon tonight.”
On the final restart, Preece lined up alongside Zane Smith for the lead. After taking the white flag, Preece edged his way to the lead when all hell broke loose behind him. Smith, and several others cars went crashing, which forced NASCAR to throw the caution flag. This froze the field, and with Preece in the lead at the time of the caution, he was the race winner.
With the win, Preece also advanced into the NASCAR Cup Series Chase for the Championship, as he bumped Shane van Gisbergen from the field of contestants by a margin of 16 points.
Fittingly, the win comes at a track that has snakebitten Preece throughout his career, as he has gone for two terrifying flips at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
“This is redemption,” Preece exclaimed.
Van Gisbergen, who looked safe before the final caution came out, chose to pit for fuel to make sure he didn’t run out of gas on the final couple of laps of the race. This put him back in the hornet’s nest when the big crash on the final lap erupted, and he couldn’t avoid it.
“Congrats to [Preece], but yeah, what a night,” van Gisbergen said after the disappointing result. “Doesn’t sum up our year, I guess. We haven’t been good enough. It’s been cool to be close, but a shame we’re not in it.”
Daniel Suarez came home with a runner-up finish, driving the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, and he was followed to the finish line by his teammate Michael McDowell.
Tyler Reddick ended his regular-season with a fourth-place result, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came away with a fifth-place result.
Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, Cole Custer, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-10 finishers in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona.
The 16 drivers who will fight for the NASCAR Cup Series championship this season are Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Carson Hocevar, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, and Ryan Preece.
The NASCAR Cup Series Chase for the Championship kicks off with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, September 6. That race will be televised on USA Network with coverage set to kick off at 5:00 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of that event.
