Blaney Steals Daytona Victory With 13th-To-First Charge

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With an improbable charge from 13th over the final five miles of the Coke Zero Sugar 400, Ryan Blaney stole the win in the NASCAR Cup Series’ regular-season finale Saturday night at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

Blaney, who didn’t appear to even be in the conversation with two laps left, had a fellow Ford drafting partner in Cole Custer behind him when he mounted his last-gasp run toward the front.

Together, the pair stormed up the third lane on the far outside of the 2.5-mile World Center of Racing, with Blaney getting to second at the white flag as Custer led and waged war with fellow must-win driver Justin Haley.

Custer and Haley were side by side into turn one on the final lap, with Haley getting a massive shove from Chris Buescher to clear to the lead entering the backstretch for the final time.

The Spire Motorsports driver and 2019 event winner sliced up to the top to try and block Custer, who turned dead left with a run to try and get back to the inside headed for turn three.

Haley pushed Custer below the double-yellow line, but Custer kept charging and shuffled Haley to the middle as Daniel Suarez laid on Blaney’s bumper in the far outside lane.

That push from Suarez shot Blaney to a chance, even as Custer poked a nose out in front coming off turn four with the checkered flag in sight.

As everyone behind began to bully their ways forward, Blaney got just enough help from behind to sneak ahead coming to the start-finish line, topping a four-wide battle to the checkered flag by .031 seconds over Daniel Suarez for his second summertime victory at the World Center of Racing.

It marked the 15th career Cup Series victory for Blaney, who previously won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in 2021, and snapped a two-and-a-half month, 11-race drought for Ford at the Cup level.

Prior to Saturday night, Blaney was the last winner for the Blue Oval Brigade back on June 1 at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway. He replicated that feat in a frenetic finish under the Daytona floodlights.

“What a wild last couple laps, honestly,” said Blaney, who led a race-high 27 laps after starting from the pole. “I was with Cole, and I kind of [told] him on the final 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 shoves.

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

What originally appeared like it would be a long run to the finish turned on its head with 12 laps left, when then-leader Joey Logano broke loose off turn four and spun down across Buescher’s front bumper, moments after the defending Cup champion made a defensive move to cover off an advancing Erik Jones.

Not only did it take Logano out of contention for the victory, it bunched the field up for a frantic eight-lap dash to the finish that ended up featuring five different leaders and six lead changes – and that was only those recorded at the start-finish line.

Jones was in contention in the famed No. 43 – carrying an STP homage to seven-time Daytona 500 champion Richard Petty – until lap 155, when he was forced out of line down the backstretch and nearly crashed his car before gathering it up and falling to the back of the lead draft.

Ryan Preece jumped into contention for a brief period, leading through the three-to-go mark, but once Haley got back to the front it became the wild free-for-all that ensued down the home stretch.

Suarez got to the line second in the extreme outside lane, with Haley third and Custer fourth, all of whom came up just short of a potentially season-saving checkered flag.

The top four were covered by a scant .049 seconds, marking the closest known four-car finish in NASCAR Cup Series history.

Despite falling as far as 24th with four laps left, Jones found his way back to fifth place, followed by Kyle Larson in sixth and Buescher in seventh – the first man below the playoff cut line in the end.

Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry, and Chase Elliott closed out the top 10.

The only major incident of the night came near the end of stage one, when Bubba Wallace spun in front of most of the field after a three-wide scramble gone wrong with Logano and Kyle Busch.

It led to a 12-car accident that eliminated the likes of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Noah Gragson, Austin Cindric, and Alex Bowman – who spent the night on the playoff bubble wondering if he’d advance to the postseason or be bumped by a new winner at the end.

Blaney’s stunning rally ultimately saved Bowman’s season, as the Hendrick Motorsports driver and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick claimed the final two playoff berths on points.

Reddick officially locked in after Bowman fell out of the race from damage sustained in the lap-28 ‘Big One’.

That duo will do battle with regular-season champion William Byron, Blaney, Larson, Elliott, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Wallace, Logano, Ross Chastain, Cindric, Berry, Shane van Gisbergen, and Austin Dillon for the Bill France Cup over the 10-race postseason stretch.

Larson enters the playoffs as the top-seeded driver, tied with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Byron with 2,032 but getting the nod with three wins to Byron’s two.

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs begin Sunday night, Sept. 1 with the 76th Cook Out Southern 500 at historic Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. Briscoe is the defending event winner.