Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series “Coke Zero Sugar 400” at Daytona International Speedway began with the pole-sitter Chase Briscoe leading the opening 25 laps with his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola glued to his bumper.
For Briscoe, Saturday night’s pole was his first of 2023 and the second of his career.
With the first stage coming to an end, the Toyota drivers kicked it up a notch. Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin took the lead with MTJ going on to take the green and white checkered flag in Stage 1.
The second stage was met with mayhem with the first big accident of the night.
On the last lap of Stage 2, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates were hoping to win the stage. Christopher Bell was doing his best to push Ty Gibbs to the Stage 2 victory but unfortunately ended up turning the No. 54 Toyota triggering the big one that wiped out numerous favorites for the win, including leader at the time Ryan Blaney.
Blaney was the leader but got tagged by an out-of-control Gibbs sending Blaney’s No. 12 hard into the wall! After catching his breath, Blaney did exit his car under his own power.
Gibbs, Bell, Blaney, Tyler Reddick, AJ Allmendinger, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman, Kevin Harvick, Harrison Burton, Austin Dillon, Riley Herbst, and Austin Cindric were all collected.
Brad Keselowski was able to sneak on by for the Stage 2 win.
As the laps ticked off the board, the pushing and shoving was getting more and more intense. With seven laps remaining, the scariest crash of the race would occur, forcing everyone at Daytona and everyone watching at home to fall silent in disbelief.
While speeding down the backstretch at over 190 mph, Ryan Preece got hooked, sending his No. 41 Ford spinning into the grass. Before you knew it, the car took flight and began to flip and twist violently in the grass and dirt! At some points of the accident, Preece was maybe 15 to 20 feet in the air.
After ten overturns in ten seconds, Preece’s car came to a rest on all four tires. After a couple short minutes, Preece climbed out of the car with some assistance and was standing upright on his own. He was then put on a stretcher and brought to the Infield Care Center before being transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.
After the race, close to midnight Eastern time, Preece posted on his Twitter that he was indeed okay and he was already itching to return to the driver’s seat.
After the cleanup for the massive accident involving Ryan Preece, the field saw the green flag in NASCAR overtime.
On the restart and all through the final two laps, Brad Keselowski never left Chris Buescher’s rear bumper. The ultimate team player and team owner, Keselowski pushed Buescher to the checkered flag for the big team victory at “The World Center of Racing,” Daytona!
For Buescher, this is his third win of 2023 and his third in the last five events.
With Daytona now in the books, the 2023 playoff drivers have been determined. Martin Truex Jr. received the Regular Season champion, giving himself 15 bonus points in the championship fight.
Bubba Wallace will take the 16th and final playoff spot, eliminating big-name drivers such as Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, Erik Jones, Austin Cindric, and Ty Gibbs.
NASCAR Cup Series “Coke Zero Sugar 400” at Daytona Results
- Chris Buescher
- Brad Keselowski – Stage 2 🏁 – LLI Pick 1
- Aric Almirola
- Chase Elliott – LLI Pick 2
- Joey Logano
- Alex Bowman
- Kyle Busch
- William Byron
- Kevin Harvick
- Corey Lajoie
- Ty Dillon
- Bubba Wallace
- Michael Mcdowell
- Austin Hill
- Chandler Smith
- Christopher Bell
- Ross Chastain
- Erik Jones
- JJ Yeley
- Daniel Suarez
- Justin Haley
- Josh Berry
- BJ McLeod
- Martin Truex Jr – Stage 1 🏁
- Tyler Reddick
- Denny Hamlin
- Kyle Larson
- Harrison Burton
- AJ Allmendinger
- Chase Briscoe
- Ryan Preece
- Todd Gilliland
- Austin Dillon
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr
- Ty Gibbs
- Ryan Blaney – LLI Pick 1
- Austin Cindric
- Riley Herbst
- Brennan Poole
Xfinity Series Update
Justin Allgaier and his No. 7 Jr Motorsports team fought adversity Friday night at Daytona to hold off Sheldon Creed at the checkered flag by just 0.005 of a second for the biggest win of his career!
Allgaier started Friday night’s “Wawa 250” from the back and had to serve a pass-through penalty on the first lap of the race for failing post-race inspection.
For Allgaier, its his first win in 26 attempts at Daytona, his second victory of the year, and the 21st of his career.
Again, Sheldon Creed, who won Stage 2, will be a close second, followed by Daniel Hemric, Parker Kligerman, Cole Custer, Parker Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg, Anthony Alfredo, Grey Gaulding and Justin Haley.
Craftsman Truck Series Update
GMS Racing announced earlier this week that the organization will be closing its doors at the end of the season, but the team is not giving up on winning another championship.
GMS driver Grant Enfinger not only won the pole for Sunday’s race at the Milwaukee Mile but he went on to sweep the day, winning all three stages on his way to win number three of the 2023 season.
Carson Hocevar, Christian Eckes, Corey Heim, Matt Crafton, Chase Purdy, Ty Majeski, Derek Kraus, Jake Garcia, and Bailey Currey all get a top-ten finish.
Grant Enfinger, Ty Majeski, Corey Heim, and Christian Eckes can take a deep breath as they are locked into the next round of the Craftsman Truck Series playoffs.
Carson Hocevar +56, Zane Smith +29, Matt Crafton +9, and Nick Sanchez +3 are currently in the next round.
Ben Rhodes -3 and Matt Dibenedetto -20 are the two drivers on the outside looking in.
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