DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Ryan Blaney spoiled the occasion for drivers below the NASCAR Playoffs bubble by winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night. Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman crashed but kept the final two spots in the NASCAR Playoffs.

Daytona played host to the final race of the Regular Season and throughout the night, there were numerous drivers who were in position to pull off a Hail Mary victory; however, Blaney made sure that didn’t happen. On the final lap, Cole Custer led the field into Turn 1, but as the field entered the backstretch, Chris Buescher pushed Justin Haley to the lead. Custer and Blaney then split Haley going into Turn 3, and coming to the checkered flag, Blaney prevailed to win his second race at the World Center of Racing.

“What a wild last couple laps, honestly,” Blaney said. “I was with Cole (Custer), I kind of asked him on the restart, if you go to the top I’m going with you. We kind of just waited and waited and then the opportunity came and he made a good move to get to the top, and we were able to really get good shows.

“A couple good guys behind us and then it kind of cleared the way for us when the 7 (Haley) and 41 (Custer) got racing and I was able to clear on the top and just barely hold out for the win.”

Finishing behind Blaney was Daniel Suarez, Haley, Custer, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry and Chase Elliott.

With Blaney winning, Alex Bowman, who crashed out in Stage 1, secured a spot in the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs. Early in the race, Tyler Reddick crashed, opening the door for Bowman to be in prime position to easily advance; however, on Lap 28, Bubba Wallace spun in front of the field on the frontstretch and Bowman was one of 12 drivers caught up in the accident. With no way to earn any more points, Bowman had to wait and see if someone below the cutline won their way into the NASCAR Playoffs.

“It’s unfortunate that we haven’t won yet this year,” Bowman said. “We’ve been so strong, especially lately. I would say from Michigan on, it’s been something fun to be a part of.

 “It was all very out of our control. I hate that we tanked so bad the first run. The bottom lane just fell apart behind us. We had to overcome that, but we had gotten back to the back side of the top-10”

Bowman joins Reddick in the NASCAR Playoffs. Despite crashing early, a 21^st-place finish allowed the 23XI Racing No. 45 McDonald’s Toyota to continue their Championship hunt.

“It was pretty destroyed,” Reddick said. “That was all my doing there at the start of the race. They bailed me out of it. It just seems like all year long we’ve been having to bail each other out of mistakes and bad choices.”

Larson won Stage 1, and Ross Chastain won Stage 2.

There were 44 lead changes among 19 drivers. Blaney led a race high of 27 laps, all except the final lap, came in Stage 1.

The caution came out eight times for 39 laps.

William Byron won the Regular Season championship, but now the series enters the NASCAR Playoffs. Larson and Byron will lead the way 26 points above the Round of 12 cutline. Denny Hamlin enters the Playoffs third, 23 points to the good, followed by Blaney (+20), Christopher Bell (+17), Shane van Gisbergen (+16), Elliott (+7), Chase Briscoe (+4), Wallace (+2), Austin Cindric (+2), Ross Chastain (+1), Joey Logano (+1), Berry (-1), Reddick (-1), Austin Dillon (-2) and Bowman (-5).

The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will kick off at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, Aug. 31. Live coverage of the Cook Out Southern 500 will broadcast on USA at 6 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Mitchell White/TheFourthTurn.com