2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400

The 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on August 26, 2023, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Contested over 163 laps -- extended from 160 laps due to an overtime finish, on the superspeedway, it was the 26th race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, and the final race of the regular season before the playoffs.

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 the driver ineligible for series driver points.

Qualifying

Chase Briscoe scored the pole for the race with a time 49.499 of and a speed of .

Qualifying results

Race

RFK Racing finished 1-2 during the race, with the No. 17 winning, but the team's triumph was overshadowed by two massive wrecks.

Right before the end of Stage 2, Christopher Bell turned his teammate Ty Gibbs into the rear of Ryan Blaney which sent Blaney head on into the outside wall at nearly full speed, triggering a massive pileup that collected the latter two drivers, as well as several others including Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Brennan Poole, A. J. Allmendinger, Harrison Burton, Riley Herbst, Tyler Reddick, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Later on, during lap 155, Ryan Preece's No. 41 Ford was spun around after getting rear ended by Erik Jones on the backstretch where Preece's car turned left into his teammate Chase Briscoe and the two went spinning in the infield grass. Preece's car caught air and subsequently went barrel rolling 10 times in the infield grass before coming to a rest on all four tires. Preece walked out a few minutes later under his own power and was placed on a stretcher and taken into an ambulance. After the race was over, Preece was transported to a nearby hospital for further evaluation, from which he was released the next morning. This was the third time a Next Gen car flipped over and the second at Daytona, after Harrison Burton's flip in the 2022 Daytona 500. Preece would race in the next race at Darlington. He revealed in his interviews the following race at Darlington that he had two black and bloodshot eyes as a result from the wreck. The car was taken back to the NASCAR Research and Development center to be studied. Safety concerns emerged on social media following the race as film of the crash showed that the roof hatch, designed to allow the driver to escape from the car through a method other than via the driver's side window, was detached from the car early in the crash, exposing the cockpit during the remainder of the crash.

Race results

Stage results

Stage One
''Laps:'' 35

Stage Two
''Laps:'' 60

Final Stage results

Stage Three
''Laps:'' 65

Race statistics

* Lead changes: 22 among 17 different drivers
* Cautions/Laps: 3 for 18 laps
* Red flags: 1 for 9 minutes, 28 seconds
* Time of race: 2 hours, 34 minutes, and 22 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.

Radio

MRN had the radio call for the race, which was also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle, and 1989 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Rusty Wallace called the action for MRN when the field races thru the front straightaway. Dave Moody called the action for MRN from atop the Sunoco tower outside the exit of turn 2 when the field races thru turns 1 & 2. Mike Bagley worked the Daytona Backstretch for MRN from a spotter's stand in the inside of the track. Jason Toy worked the action for MRN when the field races thru turns 3 & 4. Pit road was operated by lead pit reporter Steve Post, Kim Coon, Alex Weaver, and Brienne Pedigo.

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings after Playoffs reset

;Manufacturers' Championship standings

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coke Zero Sugar 400
2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400
2023 NASCAR Cup Series
Coke Zero Sugar 400
August 2023 sports events in the United States