2022 Coke Zero Sugar 400

The 2022 Coke Zero Sugar 400 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on August 28, 2022, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Contested over 160 laps on the superspeedway, it was the 26th race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, and the final race of the regular season before the playoffs. The race was postponed from Saturday, August 27 to Sunday, August 28, due to rain.

Report

Background

The race was held at Daytona International Speedway, a race track located in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, the track is the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosts races of ARCA, AMA Superbike, USCC, SCCA, and Motocross. It features multiple layouts including the primary high speed tri-oval, a sports car course, a motorcycle course, and a karting and motorcycle flat-track. The track's infield includes the Lake Lloyd, which has hosted powerboat racing. The speedway is owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation.

The track was built in 1959 by NASCAR founder William "Bill" France, Sr. to host racing held at the former Daytona Beach Road Course. His banked design permitted higher speeds and gave fans a better view of the cars. Lights were installed around the track in 1998 and today, it is the third-largest single lit outdoor sports facility. The speedway has been renovated three times, with the infield renovated in 2004 and the track repaved twice — in 1978 and in 2010.
On January 22, 2013, the track unveiled artist depictions of a renovated speedway. On July 5 of that year, ground was broken for a project that would remove the backstretch seating and completely redevelop the frontstretch seating. The renovation to the speedway is being worked on by Rossetti Architects. The project, named "Daytona Rising", was completed in January 2016, and it cost US $400 million, placing emphasis on improving fan experience with five expanded and redesigned fan entrances (called "injectors") as well as wider and more comfortable seating with more restrooms and concession stands. After the renovations, the track's grandstands include 101,000 permanent seats with the ability to increase permanent seating to 125,000. The project was completed before the start of Speedweeks.

Entry list

* (R) denotes rookie driver.
* (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Qualifying

Qualifying was cancelled because of inclement weather. Kyle Larson was awarded the pole for the race as a result of the pandemic formula with a score of 1.350.

Starting Lineup

a: Byron and Haley were tied in qualifying metric score, which determines qualifying order in reverse, and is used in case qualifying cannot be conducted. More owner points is the tiebreaker.

Race

Stage Results

Stage One
''Laps:'' 35

Stage Two
''Laps:'' 60

Final Stage Results

Stage Three
''Laps:'' 65

Race statistics

* Lead changes: 39 among 19 different drivers
* Cautions/Laps: 7 for 30 laps
* Red flags: 1 for 3 hours, 19 minutes, and 57 seconds
* Time of race: 2 hours, 52 minutes and 44 seconds
* Average speed:

Media

Television

NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, 2000 Coke Zero 400 winner Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and two-time Coke Zero 400 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. called the race from the broadcast booth. Dave Burns, Parker Kligerman and Marty Snider handled the pit road duties from pit lane. Rutledge Wood served as a “CityView” reporter and share stories from the track.

Radio

MRN had the radio call for the race, which was also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings after Playoffs reset

;Owners Championship standings after Playoffs reset
''NOTE: Following Kurt Busch's withdrawal announced August 25, the ''drivers'' and ''owners'' championships are different in 2022. It was further announced on August 31, 2022 that the 23 and 45 teams will swap drivers.''

;Manufacturers' Championship standings

*Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coke Zero Sugar 400
2022 Coke Zero Sugar 400
2022 NASCAR Cup Series
2022 in sports in Florida
August 2022 sports events in the United States