The regular season all comes down to this! The Greatest Drivers in the World, the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series, headed back to the World Center of Racing, where it all began, for the conclusion of the 2025 Regular Season with the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. There were a lot of things to keep an eye on here tonight. For starters, William Byron, the regular season champion, has been pretty good here in the past. He won the last two Daytona 500s and even scored his first career win in this race in 2020. Was he able to get it done? That was certainly the ideal scenario for his teammate, Alex Bowman, as he tries to get into the postseason.
Speaking of the Playoffs, fourteen drivers came into this race locked in. This left two spots up for grabs. Reddick was fairly safe, so long as he was able to stay in front of the No. 48 of Alex Bowman on points. Meanwhile, other than Bowman, everyone else had to win to get in. If they do, Bowman could be the guy on the outside looking in.
With all of that in mind, who was able to get the job done in Daytona Beach? Did we get a new or repeat winner? Let’s break it down. Here’s everything that happened in the 2025 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona.
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Denny Hamlin’s string of poor finishes continued tonight as he was involved in the earlier incident involving Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch. In that incident, he received significant damage and his car never drove to his liking. What did him in, however, was an incident that caused him to blow a right front tire. This shredded the right front of his King’s Hawaiian Rolls No. 11 Toyota. As a result, Denny Hamlin expired from the race as something in the front end of the car broke. He was unable to steer. Check it out.
As the laps ticked off and we got to 30 laps to go, Joey Logano led with a number of already eligible Playoff drivers all around him. However, also running in the top-5 and 10 were divers who knew that the only way to keep their season alive was to nab a win here tonight. Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece, Erik Jones, Cole Custer, Justin Haley, and Ty Gibbs all found themselves in position to capitalize. Things just needed to fall their way.
At 20 laps to go, Logano still led. However, there was a lot of action around him, mostly by the likes of Erik Jones, Chris Buescher, and Ty Gibbs. Jones overtook Logano for the race lead the next lap and set his sights on the checkered flag. But it wasn’t over yet. Logano battled back on the inside with Buescher behind him. The two leaders remained locked on each other as the entire field was running two-by-two. While all of this was going on, we had a couple of single-car issues. First, B. J. McLeod in his Live Fast Chevy, had a tire go down. Then, Kaulig driver A. J. Allmendinger had an engine let go. No caution was thrown for either one of these minor incidents. The race for the lead remained heated.
With 13 laps to go, Joey Logano spun off the nose of Erik Jones. At first, it looked like he was able to save it. However, he got stuck in the grass, triggering a caution. Now, Erik Jones led with Justin Haley in second. A number of drivers came down pit road in order to make it to the end of the race in the probable event of an overtime finish.
The race restarted with 8 laps to go. Erik Jones led the outside lane with Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott pushing from behind. Meanwhile, the winless drivers of Justin Haley, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, Ty Gibbs, and Michael McDowell led the inside. On the backstretch after taking six laps to go, Erik Jones was shoved out of line by the Hendrick duo of Larson and Elliott. Jones fell through the field like a stone in water. Meanwhile, Ryan Preece took advantage of the stalled outside lane and jumped up to lead the line.
Coming to two laps to go, Kyle Larson jumped to Ryan Preece’s outside. This shuffled him out of the lead and Larson took control of the middle lane. However, a third lane up against the wall led by Cole Custer and Ryan Blaney took shape. Coming to the white flag, Custer took the lead. But Haley battled back on the inside. With Custer jumping down to the bottom, this opened the door for Ryan Blaney to take the race lead. In a four-wide finish, Blaney went on to score his second win of the season. A repeat winner meant that Alex Bowman was officially locked into the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs.
The first stage was a wild ride. We got our first caution of the race early on with a single-car incident involving Casey Mears in his Cup Series return. The damage was minimal and he was able to continue. The first big wreck with Playoff implications came when Todd Gilliland and Tyler Reddick got together. Reddick, not being clear, came up on the No. 34 of Gilliland. This sent the No. 45 around and sliding down toward the inside retaining wall. He made gentle contact with the inside wall and was able to continue. However, it was unclear whether or not the damage was severe enough to hinder his performance.
While not ideal for Reddick, the next incident of the day locked the No. 45 into the postseason. This incident was triggered, ironically, by his 23XI teammate, Bubba Wallace. Wallace, not clear, came down on Joey Logano, sending him around toward the infield. This triggered a massive stack-up which involved Playoff contenders Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch. The incident ended Bowman’s night, locking Reddick into the Playoffs. Now. the No. 48 crew just had to hope that a new winner wasn’t crowned.
With a sizeable bulk of the field in the garage, the final three laps of the stage went off without much of an issue. Kyle Larson led the outside lane with Ryan Blaney leading the bottom. As they took the green and white checkered flag to conclude the stage, Larson edged out Blaney for the stage win.
The second stage was a lot tamer compared to the first. We had only a couple of minor incidents, one involving Carson Hocevar when his engine expired during a cycle of green flag pit stops. With this issue, he was eliminated from Playoff contention. We saw a number of different leaders in this stage, from SVG to William Byron, to even Cody Ware, who led for the majority of the stage. In the closing laps of the stage, after a restart, the front of the pack was thinned out. With the outside lane prevailing, Joey Logano and Ross Chastain led as they took one lap to go in the stage. On the backstretch, the No. 1 of Ross Chastain got a big run with Christopher Bell pushing from behind. This was significant enough to propel Chastain to the lead.
The No. 1 of Ross Chastain scored the stage win with Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, William Byron, and John Hunter Nemechek behind him.
At the conclusion of this stage, Alex Bowman was in position to transfer into the Playoffs, so long as a new winner is not crowned.
The following race results were how the field crossed the line in the 2025 stop at Richmond Raceway. The list will be updated following post-race inspection when the results become official.
Last week at Richmond, William Byron locked up the regular season championship. This awards him 15 bonus points and allows him to enter the postseason at the number 2 seed.
As the regular season draws to a close, let’s take a look at the Playoff Picture heading into Darlington next week. First up is the Round of 16. These crop of drivers are currently above the cutline in this opening round.
These next handful of drivers are entering the Playoffs below the cutline for the next round.
Left out of the Playoff Picture are the following drivers. Buescher and Preece both needed to win in order to make the postseason. While they were in contention late in the race, they were unable to get the job done. Also left out, for the second year in a row, is Kyle Busch. Ty Gibbs also failed to advance.
That does it for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series regular season! What did you think of this race? Did your favorite driver make the cut or were they left on the outside looking in? Let us know what you think! Join the discussion on Discord or X, and remember to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more updates.
Next week, the NASCAR Cup and Truck Series head to Darlington to kick off their Playoffs. Meanwhile, the NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to Portland as their regular season draws to a close. Be sure to tune back in here at DailyDownforce.com for our coverage of those races!
