The NASCAR Cup Series regular season comes down to one race. The Coke Zero Sugar 400 rolls off Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, a 160-lap, 400-mile superspeedway slugfest that will set the 16-driver field for the return of the Chase. It is the 26th race of the 2026 season, and for the handful of drivers still fighting for the final playoff spots, Saturday night is everything.
Coke Zero Sugar 400 Details: Date, Time and How to Watch at Daytona
Saturday's race is the regular-season finale at the World Center of Racing. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET on NBC, with the green flag scheduled for 7:47 p.m. ET. Fans can stream the race live on Peacock or through NBC's online platforms, and the radio call airs on the Motor Racing Network, simulcast on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Daytona International Speedway is a 2.5-mile, high-banked tri-oval that has hosted NASCAR since 1959. Under the lights, the cars run in huge drafting packs, and one mistake can collect half the field. That combination makes Daytona the most unpredictable stop on the schedule and a fitting place to decide who races for a title.
Qualifying runs Friday at 5 p.m. ET on truTV and Max. Forty-one cars are entered for 40 spots, with the five open entries — Joey Gase, Casey Mears, Gray Gaulding, Corey Heim and Daniel Dye — racing for the final four positions. Austin Hill continues to wheel the No. 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing while filling in for Kyle Busch.
Chase on the Line: Daytona Decides the Final Three Playoff Spots
NASCAR returned this season to the Chase format used from 2004-13. The top 16 drivers in points after Daytona make the 10-race Chase, which awards incremental points gaps based on seeding. No eliminations, no reset — the points leader after Phoenix in November takes the championship.
Thirteen drivers have already clinched, headlined by Denny Hamlin, who locked up the No. 1 seed with 1,001 points. Ryan Blaney (924), Ty Gibbs (880), Tyler Reddick (860) and Christopher Bell (738) round out the top five. The real drama sits at the cutline, where five drivers are fighting for the final three spots.
Bubba Wallace needs just two points to clinch automatically. Austin Cindric needs 33, and Shane van Gisbergen needs 46. Ryan Preece is the most desperate of the group — a 25-point penalty dropped him 31 points behind the final berth, leaving him needing a massive day or a win. Brad Keselowski, 104 points out, is effectively win-and-in. On a superspeedway where chaos is the norm, one big wreck can rewrite the entire Chase picture.
Coke Zero Sugar 400 Odds: Byron and Blaney Share the Top of the Board
DraftKings Sportsbook has William Byron and Ryan Blaney as +850 co-favorites for Saturday night. Joey Logano sits next at +1100, with Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott all at +1200. Kyle Larson and Austin Cindric check in at +1600, followed by Chase Briscoe, Carson Hocevar and Bubba Wallace at +2000.
Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski are +2200, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon are priced at +2800. Josh Berry and Corey Heim sit at +3000, and Ryan Preece, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suárez and Alex Bowman are all +3500. Todd Gilliland and Erik Jones are +4500, with the rest of the field stretching out to +20000.
Those numbers reflect how wide open Daytona is. Twelve of the 41 drivers entered have won at the track, and recent summer-race winners include Harrison Burton, Austin Dillon and Stenhouse. A 50-to-1 shot winning here is never a surprise.
Who's Fast at Daytona: Contenders, Sleepers and Our Coke Zero Sugar 400 Prediction
Blaney is the defending winner of this race, and he arrives with three victories in 2026, including a win at New Hampshire two weeks ago. Team Penske has been the class of the summer, and the organization's superspeedway program is elite — Logano has led more laps at Daytona than anyone since 2023, and Cindric won the 2022 Daytona 500. All three Penske Fords are legitimate threats.
Byron is a three-time Daytona winner whose first career victory came in the 2020 summer race. He has 11 top-10s this season but is still hunting his first win of 2026, and the No. 24 has been fast on the plate tracks. Buescher has six top-10s in his last seven Daytona starts, including a win in the 2023 summer race. Wallace, a three-time runner-up at Daytona, led a race-high 40 laps in February's Daytona 500 and needs only a clean night to lock in.
If you want sleepers, start with Stenhouse at +2800 — he finished second in this year's Daytona 500 and has two wins at the track. Erik Jones (+4500) won here in 2018 and ran fifth in last summer's race, and Alex Bowman has four top-10s in his last seven Daytona starts.
Prediction: Ryan Blaney wins his second straight Coke Zero Sugar 400. He is the best superspeedway racer in the field right now, his Penske Ford is fast, and he thrives in the big one — expect the No. 12 to be near the front when the final crash decides the finish. For value, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at +2800 is worth a sprinkle.
Jack Reynolds
Jack Reynolds writes about sports from a steady, fan-first perspective, focusing on storylines, trends, and angles that matter before the action starts.