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Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona Maintains Reputation of Chaos and Destruction

In Saturday's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, 32 of 40 cars were collected in at least one on-track incident.

Joseph Srigley

Josh Berry flips in the No. 4 car during the final laps of the Coke Zero Sugar 400, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, at Daytona International Speedway.
Josh Berry flips in the No. 4 car during the final laps of the Coke Zero Sugar 400, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, at Daytona International Speedway. / Nigel Cook/News-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

As history would suggest, the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway is typically one of the most destructive races of the NASCAR Cup Series season.

The second-to-last event in the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season was no different, with 32 of the 40 starters getting involved in at least one on-track incident during the evening.

Those who didn't? Harrison Burton (P1), Cody Ware (P4), Carson Hocevar (P11), Chase Briscoe (P14), BJ McLeod (P19), Joey Gase (P20), Shane Van Gisbergen (P35), and Daniel Suarez (P40).

TRACKHOUSE TEAMMATES FIND FIREY EXIT

Future teammates Daniel Suarez and Shane Van Gisbergen weren't involved in on-track incidents on Saturday, simply because of early-race exits.

A bizarre incident on pit road ended the night for Suarez after only 37 laps, when Denny Hamlin drove through the pit box of the No. 99 and backfired, igniting some spilled fuel and torching the rear of the Coke Zero Sugar-sponsored entry.

Van Gisbergen's exit from the Coke Zero Sugar 400 also involved some flames, but in a more traditional fashion, as the engine of the Kaulig Racing No. 16 grenaded in a giant cloud of smoke after 80 laps.

FUEL SAVE --> DAMAGE CONTROL

The first incident of the evening occurred in the middle of the race's second stage, on Lap 60, as the lead pack was attempting to save as much fuel as possible.

An awry bump from Corey LaJoie to Noah Gragson sent the No. 10 Ford Mustang sideways, before another bump from the No. 7 sent the Stewart-Haas Racing driver into the outside wall, collecting several others.

The accident collected Ross Chastain, one of the drivers fighting to make the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs based on his points position, among several others, including Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Larson, all of whom were battling for the regular-season championship entering the night.

DAYTONA PROVIDES DOUBLE DOSE OF AIR TIME

After a pair of airborne wrecks at Michigan International Speedway for Kyle Sieg and Corey LaJoie, NASCAR put a fin on the right-side of the rear window, in an attempt to keep the cars on the ground in a high-speed situation.

With less than 10 laps to go, Michael McDowell was holding the lead of the race, when a difficult bump from Austin Cindric turned the No. 34 in front of the field, with further contact lifting the right-side of the Front Row Motorsports entry in the air.

"I'm fine. I don’t know what it looked like. I closed my eyes. Anytime you get turned in front of the field while leading it, you know somebody is gonna hit you," McDowell said. "There’s no way you’re getting out of it. I’m just bummed. We had a really fast Long John Silver Ford Mustang."

Upon returning to the pavement, McDowell would impact the rear window of Alex Bowman's race car, sheering off the C-Post of the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro, before landing on top of the SAFER barrier.

"I haven't watched it in detail to know exactly what happened, so I don't want to throw any opinions out there because lord knows that I've made plenty of mistakes at superspeedways and I want to make sure it wasn't me," McDowell added. "I felt like I got turned to get down into turn one. The wrong angle and the wrong time, but Austin [Cindric] was doing a great job of pushing me. We had a good run and you’re at the end of these races, so I’m not faulting him. We were trying to do what we could.”

Also involved in the accident were Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Justin Haley, Kyle Busch and several others.

That wasn't the only instance of air time in Saturday's event at Daytona, as on the subsequent restart, an accident broke out at the front of the pack with Austin Cindric and Josh Berry.

As Berry was spinning down the backstretch, his No. 4 Ford Mustang Dark Horse got airborne and flipped upside down, before slamming into the inside wall on his lid. The Stewart-Haas Racing vehicle was tossed around after the impact, before landing on its roof.

"It just looked like [Cindric] got pushed into me and, unfortunately, we're seeing a lot of these blowovers lately, but I mentioned on the TV broadcast -- obviously, paving that section helped keep me from really barrell rolling," Berry said. "As bad as it looked, they made a big improvement over what Ryan had last year. I just can’t believe we flipped two of our Stewart-Haas cars in a row like that."

NASCAR will be taking the No. 4 Ford Mustang Dark Horse back to the NASCAR R&D Center this week for further inspection of the car's safety components, and likely a reevaluation of what can be done to keep cars on the ground, as the series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway in two weeks.

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Joseph Srigley

JOSEPH SRIGLEY

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