Ryan Preece Wins Daytona and Steals the Last Chase Spot
Monday Race Recap from Happy Hour Racing. Every Monday we break down the Cup Series race that just ran, from the finish to the strategy to the fallout.
The Short Version
Ryan Preece won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night. It was his first Cup Series win in 249 starts, and he got it on the last lap of overtime by 0.024 seconds over Daniel Suarez. Preece came into the regular season finale 31 points below the Chase cut line. He left with the trophy and the sixteenth and final spot, which knocked Shane van Gisbergen out of the championship run.
How Preece Won the Coke Zero Sugar 400
The night did not start clean for the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford. On lap 35, at the end of Stage 1, a wreck up front collected Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher and Preece. Preece dropped to 39th. That is normally where a Daytona night ends for a driver who needs points.
Instead he rebuilt the whole race. He worked back to second in Stage 2 behind Ryan Blaney. He was running second again with five laps left in regulation when a crash brought out the last caution and sent the race to overtime.
On the restart Zane Smith led and Preece sat on his bumper. Coming to the line, Smith got turned after contact with Tyler Reddick and spun from the lead. Preece drove past and beat Suarez to the stripe by 0.024 seconds while a 14-car crash unfolded behind them.
Preece was blunt about it on NBC afterward. "I'm just speechless right now. But those guys, that 60 group, we're fighters. When you put our back against the wall, we swing hard." He also thanked his shop. "So, to every man and woman at RFK, thank you for giving me a rocket ship so I could go to the moon tonight. This is redemption."
Ryan had a new type of rocket tonight. RYAN PREECE WINS IT AT DAYTONA
— RFK Racing (@RFKracing) August 30, 2026
Key Moments and Turning Points
Three moments decided this one. The lap 35 wreck put Preece in a hole and took Buescher out of contention for the night. Buescher never recovered and was done after 151 laps in 40th.
The second was Stage 2. Blaney passed Chase Elliott on the last lap of the stage to win it, but Preece grabbed second and the stage points that came with it. Those points mattered more than the stage win did.
The third was that late caution, when Carson Hocevar slid into the wall and Erik Jones had nowhere to go. Both were checked and released from the infield care center. That yellow reset the field and set up the overtime restart that Preece needed.
Pit Strategy and the Call That Cost Shane van Gisbergen
Superspeedway strategy is mostly about two things. Where you are in the pit cycle when the caution comes out, and whether you can stretch fuel to the end. Both bit the No. 97 Trackhouse Chevrolet.
Van Gisbergen ran inside the top 12 most of the second half and only needed to stay there. On the last caution his team pitted out of the lead pack for four tires and fuel because they were worried about running dry. That dropped him deep in the field. When Preece won, van Gisbergen suddenly needed to finish eleventh or better, and he was nowhere near it. He spun trying to miss the last-lap wreck and came home 28th.
The other side of that coin was Austin Cindric. The No. 2 Ford stayed out with track position, finished sixth, and locked in his own Chase spot with those points.
Van Gisbergen took it the way you would expect. "It's pretty fresh now. Congrats to the 60. But one night doesn't sum up our year."
A determined effort that falls just short. @shanevg97 is eliminated from Chase contention at @DAYTONA.
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 30, 2026
Stats and Fun Facts from Daytona
A few numbers worth sitting with. There were 41 lead changes among 22 different drivers, and Preece led only five laps all night. The one that counted was the last one. Austin Hill led the most with 27. Noah Gragson turned the fastest lap of the race at 45.353 seconds, which is 198.443 mph. The race went 166 laps instead of the scheduled 160 because of overtime.
This was also the fifth straight Cup race at Daytona decided by a last-lap pass. The place keeps doing this.
Who Is Hot and Who Is Not
Hot: Preece, obviously, and the whole RFK operation gets two cars into the Chase. Daniel Suarez has quietly been strong for Spire and came within a car length of a win. Michael McDowell was fourth and is still one of the best superspeedway drivers in the garage. Denny Hamlin goes in as the top seed after a summer that included three straight wins.
Not: van Gisbergen missed the Chase after leading the cut line coming in. Buescher, Larson and Blaney all got caught up in trouble and finished 40th, 31st and 33rd. Chase Elliott and William Byron were 23rd and 22nd. That is a rough night for Hendrick heading into a championship run.
What It Means for the Chase
The 16-driver field is set and the format is different this year. There are no elimination rounds. It is points only across the final 10 races, starting Sunday with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington. Hamlin leads the field in as the number one seed. Preece goes in as the sixteenth seed, which is exactly the kind of spot nobody wants to race against at a place like Darlington. You can see the full field, the remaining races and the current points on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule and standings page.
The Bottom Line
Preece got wrecked, ran 39th, and still beat the whole field to the line. That is the entire story of his career in one night. He is 35, he has 249 starts, and he finally has a trophy.
Your take: Was the Trackhouse call to pit for fuel on that last caution the right one, or did they cost Shane van Gisbergen the Chase? Tell us in the comments.
Shop the Story
We do not have Ryan Preece gear on the shelf yet. Here is the rest of the Daytona top five and the drivers who shaped the night.
- Daniel Suarez #7 2026 Coca-Cola 600 win shirt, for the guy who came up 0.024 short.
- Tyler Reddick trucker hat, third at Daytona and locked into the Chase.
- Michael McDowell #71 2026 shirt, fourth and still deadly on the big tracks.
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hat, fifth and always a factor at Daytona.
- Brad Keselowski #6 2026 shirt, RFK teammate who ran 14th.
- Josh Berry first Cup win shirt, because we know what a first one feels like.
- 2026 Daytona trophy hat, for the track itself.
Want the win shirt the week it happens? That is what the win shirt subscription fan club is for. Or see everything new in the store at the latest arrivals.
