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Ryan Preece Wins Coke Zero Sugar 400 At Daytona To Advance To The Chase

by Hunter Thomas August 30, 2026 0 comments

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway in NASCAR Overtime to advance to The Chase. The victory marked his first-career NASCAR Cup Series points victory in 249 starts.

Preece experienced nearly every scenario en route to the first points win of his career. After rolling off the grid in fourth, Preece spun across the start-finish line to end Stage 1, while his primary challenger, Shan van Gisbergen won the stage and earned the valuable 10 points. Preece then battled back to finish second in Stage 2, countering Gisbergen with nine points.

“If I was in a street fight, my knuckles would be pretty tore up right now,” Preece said. “I knew when we drove through the grass, and Shane went and won that stage, he was doing everything it took. It was much like what I told you, it was going to be a heavyweight fight. That was the first round. Lucky for me there was two more. I answered that call. I went and we got second in the next stage with damage. Then we put ourselves in position to win the race, and we did.”

A late-race crash set the field up for NASCAR Overtime, and while Preece had one of the strongest cars of the night, he was low on fuel and didn’t know if his No. 60 Kroger/OKIOS Ford would make it to the end. On the last lap, Preece and Zane Smith headed into Turn 1 leading the field. Smith attempted to block Tyler Reddick on the high side and was too late, igniting a chain reaction coming out of Turn 2. The leaders continued down the backstretch as the field crashed behind, and when the caution came out, Preece was out in front.

“It feels really good to win at Daytona, a place that I’m not being dramatic, but three years ago could have been life-changing,” Preece said. “That’s the risk you take as a race car driver.

“Yeah, I’m proud. I’m proud of the journey that I’ve had because sometimes it’s easy for people to forget the risks, the path that I’ve taken.”

Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez finished runner-up, followed by Reddick. Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished fourth and fifth respectively. Completing the top-10 was Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, Josh Berry and Cole Custer.

There were 41 lead changes among 22 drivers. Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill led a race high of 27 laps.

The caution flew on four occasions for 23 laps.

The first caution came out on Lap 36 as the field was racing to the finish line to end Stage 1. Contact sent Kyle Larson into the wall and Chris Buescher and Preece sliding through the frontstretch grass.

A caution on Lap 156 set the field up for a NASCAR Overtime finish. Carson Hocevar was attempting to challenge for the lead when he lost control, spun and crashed hard in Turn 3. Erik Jones and Ty Gibbs were involved.

The Coke Zero Sugar 400 was the final race of the Regular Season. Denny Hamlin was named the Regular Season Champion.

The Chase field is now set and drivers competing for the 2026 Championship include: Hamlin, Ryan Blaney (-25), Reddick (-35), Gibbs (-40), Chase Briscoe (-45), Christopher Bell (-50), Larson (-55), Chase Elliott (-60), Joey Logano (-65), Buescher (-70), Suarez (-75), Hocevar (-80), William Byron (-85), Bubba Wallace (-90), Austin Cindric (-95) and Preece (-100).

The Chase will kickoff at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, Sept. 6 with the Cook Out Southern 500. Live coverage will broadcast on the USA Network at 5 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Patricia McCormack/TheFourthTurn.com