After getting pushed to the lead on an overtime restart by car owner and teammate Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona to earn his third win of the 2023 season and his third win over the past month. Keselowski finished second, marking the first 1-2 finish for RFK Racing since Bristol in 2014.
In a dramatic conclusion to the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, Bubba Wallace was able to earn the 16th and final spot in the 2023 Cup Series playoffs by virtue of an 11th-place finish. Wallace made the playoffs by virtue of no new winners from below the cut line, as others who could have threatened his playoff berth -- namely Ty Gibbs -- either fell by the wayside or were eliminated in crashes.
The most spectacular exit from playoff contention by any driver came from Ryan Preece, who went airborne and flipped 10 times down the Daytona backstretch in a terrifying crash with six laps to go.
Coke Zero Sugar 400 unofficial results
- #17 - Chris Buescher
- #6 - Brad Keselowski
- #10 - Aric Almirola
- #9 - Chase Elliott
- #22 - Joey Logano
- #48 - Alex Bowman
- #8 - Kyle Busch
- #24 - William Byron
- #4 - Kevin Harvick
- #7 - Corey LaJoie
Playoff-bound Bubba
Although he held a 32-point advantage over Ty Gibbs for the final playoff spot entering the regular season finale, at no point during Saturday night's race was Bubba Wallace's place in the playoffs assured. Though his No. 23 Toyota was fast in the draft like it usually is, his playoff rival's No. 54 Toyota was just as fast -- not to mention all of the other must-win drivers who led the race and had a shot at the victory, from Almirola to Elliott to Chase Briscoe and others as well.
The turning point in the playoff battle came on the final lap of Stage 2. Challenging Ryan Blaney for the stage win, Gibbs got turned into Blaney's right rear quarter panel following a bump draft from Christopher Bell, triggering a 16-car pileup that eliminated Gibbs from the race. Wallace, who had dropped out of the lead pack, was able to slow to a halt and drive through the melee without issue.
Gibbs being eliminated from the race meant that so long as no other driver from below the cut line won, Wallace would make the playoffs. And once Buescher took the checkered flag, Wallace secured the 16th and final spot in the playoffs to give himself the opportunity to race for a Cup Series championship for the first time in his six-year career.
"That was the most stress, but also the most locked-in that I've ever been," Wallace told NBC Sports. "Knowing that this place is mostly out of your control, I just tried to focus on doing the things that I could do. Missing that wreck was massive -- I appreciate (spotter Freddie Kraft), he's one of the best up on the roof and gets us through a lot, and that's what helps our resume here with the speedway stuff.
"Proud to be locked into the playoffs. This is special for our team. 23XI, third year in getting both cars in the playoffs. We've gone through a lot of trials and tribulations, but just so proud of the effort that we put in."
Wallace putting both 23XI Racing cars in the playoffs was a satisfying conclusion to an emotional day for the team, as former driver and team leader Kurt Busch announced his retirement from NASCAR Cup Series competition earlier Saturday. Among the group that congratulated Wallace on pit road was none other than team co-owner Michael Jordan, who now has a chance to add a Cup Series championship to his many NBA titles as car owner for both Wallace and Tyler Reddick. Wallace was the team's original hire prior to the 2021 season, and he carries the No. 23 that Jordan made famous on the Chicago Bulls.
"I'm happy for him," Jordan said in brief comments made to Dustin Long of NBC Sports. "Absolutely."
Ryan Preece's Wild Ride
During Saturday night's race, NASA launched Falcon 9 and Starlink Group 6-11 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station not far from the Daytona International Speedway. Unlike a space shuttle, a stock car is not meant to be launched into orbit, but Ryan Preece ended up achieving liftoff in a way that stole the spotlight from NASA.
After being shuffled from third to the back of the lead pack in the race for the win, Preece was trying to make his way back up with six laps to go when he was turned sideways following a bump draft from Erik Jones, spinning his car across teammate Chase Briscoe's nose and into the infield on the backstraightaway. Preece's car went airborne, launching the No. 41 Ford into a violent series of flips through the infield grass.
After rolling over 10 times in total, Preece was able to climb out of his car before lying down on a stretcher, and he was then taken to the infield care center. Preece was later transported to a local hospital, with his representatives saying that he was awake and alert but "shaken" and undergoing standard tests.
The Playoffs Begin
With the regular season now over, the 16 drivers who will compete for the 2023 Cup Series championship have now been settled. Martin Truex Jr. clinched the regular season championship and an additional 15 playoff points at Daytona, tying him for the top seed in the playoffs with William Byron (+29).
Denny Hamlin (+18), Chris Buescher (+14), Kyle Busch (+12), Kyle Larson (+10), Christopher Bell (+7), Ross Chastain (+4), Brad Keselowski (+3), Tyler Reddick (+2), Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney (+1) will all enter the playoff opener above the cut line, while Michael McDowell (-1), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-3), Kevin Harvick (-4) and Bubba Wallace (-8) are below the cut line.
Not included in that group is Chase Elliott, whose bid to erase the frustrations of a 2023 season in which he's missed seven races came up just short in fourth place. After missing six races due to an injury suffered in a snowboarding accident and one race due to suspension, the 2020 Cup Series champion misses the playoffs just one year after winning the regular season championship and making it to the Championship 4 in Phoenix.
"It's a bummer for sure. Hate the season's worked out like it has," Elliott told NBC Sports. "But the good news is the car got in the Owner's Points (championship), so that's a big deal. And credit to (crew chief Alan Gustafson) and everybody for continuing to work and scratch and claw while I was out to keep our team alive and to give ourselves a chance. So that's a big deal -- Probably much bigger than a lot of people realize to our team.
"So I'm looking forward to these next 10 (races) and trying to make a little noise on that side of things, and to just try to get ready and prepared for next year."
While Elliott has been eliminated from the driver's championship, the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 team remains in the owner's championship, in which points are scored based on car instead of driver. The No. 9 team will be eligible for the owner's championship thanks to the efforts of Elliott as well as relief drivers Josh Berry, Jordan Taylor and Corey LaJoie.
Race Results Rundown
- The first to fall short of a walkoff win to make the playoffs was Aric Almirola, who spent much of the night as the wingman to teammate Chase Briscoe before earning his best finish of the season in third. That marks Almirola's first top five of the entire 2023 season, and his first top five since June 2022 at Gateway.
- Kevin Harvick almost pulled off a storybook ending to his career at Daytona, leading 14 laps in total and leading on the final restart before falling back to ninth at the finish. After just missing out on his first win of 2023, Harvick will have 10 more opportunities to earn a potential final win in the playoffs.
- Corey LaJoie earned his second top-10 finish of the season in 10th, and this time he almost brought Spire Motorsports teammate Ty Dillon along with him. Dillon earned a season-best 11th-place finish, which also marks his best run overall since he finished 10th at Bristol Dirt in 2022.
- One night after both were taken out of a chance to win the Xfinity Series race following a crash on a late-race restart, Austin Hill and Chandler Smith returned to Daytona for the latest starts of their respective part-time Cup schedules. The two would mix it up in the lead pack and cross the line together in 14th and 15th, both of which marking new career-best finishes.
- Drafting tracks have been very kind this year to J.J. Yeley: With a 19th-place finish, Yeley has now finished inside the top 20 in the last three drafting races he's run, which include an 11th-place run at Talladega and a seventh-place finish at Atlanta in July.
- While his race came to an end in the Ryan Preece wreck, Chase Briscoe took full advantage of a fast car and gave himself a shot to make the playoffs. After starting on the pole, Briscoe led the most laps at 67, the second-most he's led all season. Briscoe's season-high came at Martinsville, where he paced the field for 109 circuits.
Next Race
The NASCAR playoffs begin with stock car racing's oldest 500-mile race and one of the most prestigious events on the calendar, the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway next Sunday at 6 p.m. ET on NBC.
