2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400

Race details[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
Race 25 of 36 in the2024 NASCAR Cup Series
Date	August 24, 2024 (2024-08-24)
Location	Daytona International Speedway inDaytona Beach, Florida
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	2.5 miles (4 km)
Distance	164 laps, 410 mi (656 km)
Scheduled distance	160 laps, 400 mi (640 km)
Average speed	135.413 miles per hour (217.926 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports
Time	49.136
Most laps led
Driver	Joey Logano	Team Penske
Laps	34
Winner
No. 21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing
Television in the United States
Network	NBC
Announcers	Leigh Diffey,Jeff Burton andSteve Letarte (booth) Jimmie Johnson andDale Jarrett (NBC Peacock Pitbox)
Nielsen ratings	(4.2 million)
Radio in the United States
Radio	MRN
Booth announcers	Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle andRusty Wallace
Turn announcers	Dave Moody (1 & 2),Mike Bagley (Backstretch) and Chris Wilner (3 & 4)

The2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400 was aNASCAR Cup Seriesrace held on August 24, 2024, atDaytona International Speedway inDaytona Beach, Florida. Contested over 164 laps (extended from 160 laps due to anovertime finish) on the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) superspeedway, it was the 25th race of the2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Harrison Burton, driving forWood Brothers Racing, won the race, getting his first career win in the Cup Series and getting the team's 100th win in the Cup Series.Kyle Busch finished 2nd, andChristopher Bell finished 3rd.Cody Ware andTy Gibbs rounded out the top five, whileBubba Wallace,Parker Retzlaff,Brad Keselowski,Daniel Hemric, andChris Buescher rounded out the top ten.

The race was held atDaytona International Speedway, arace track located inDaytona Beach, Florida,United States. Since its opening in 1959, the track has been the home of theDaytona 500, the most prestigious race inNASCAR. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hostsARCA,AMA Superbike,USCC,SCCA, andMotocross races. It features multiple layouts including the primary 2.5 miles (4.0 km) high speedtri-oval, a 3.56 miles (5.73 km)sports car course, a 2.95 miles (4.75 km) motorcycle course, and a .25 miles (0.40 km) karting and motorcycle flat-track. The track's 180-acre (73 ha) infield includes the 29-acre (12 ha) Lake Lloyd, which has hostedpowerboat racing. The speedway is owned and operated byInternational Speedway Corporation.

The track was built in 1959 by NASCAR founderWilliam "Bill" France, Sr. to host racing held at the formerDaytona 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 was done by Rossetti Architects. The project, named "Daytona Rising", was completed in January 2016, at a cost ofUS $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 included 101,000 permanent seats with the ability to increase permanent seating to 125,000.^[9][10] The project was completed before the start ofSpeedweeks.

Prior to the race, NASCAR imposed a 75-point penalty onDenny Hamlin after Toyota self-reported an infraction from theMay Darlington race. The 11 car, as was required, used the engine from theBristol race winning car at Darlington, but the engine was taken to Toyota's California factory to be rebuilt instead of being taken to NASCAR for inspection. The team lost credit for the win for playoff seeding purposes and was assessed a ten playoff point penalty in addition to the 75 point penalty.^[11]

• (R) denotes rookie driver.
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Michael McDowell scored the pole for the race with a time of 49.136 and a speed of 183.165 mph (294.775 km/h).^[12]

Pole sitter Michael McDowell led the first lap of the race as he and his teammate Todd Gilliland were side by side. The pack behind them form a third row by lap 3. McDowell would get in front of Gilliland by lap 5 for the lead, but was passed by Joey Logano on lap 6. On lap 7, rookie Josh Berry would take the lead. On lap 8, Brad Keselowski would take the lead. Berry would get in front for a brief moment the next lap before Keselowski took it back. On lap 12, Logano would take the lead before Berry would pass him the same lap and take the lead. On lap 13, Daytona 500 winner William Byron would take the lead before Berry took it back the next lap. On lap 15, Logano would take the lead. Josh Berry attempted to take the lead on lap 17 but failed to get in front of Logano. Berry and Gilliland tried on lap 18 but failed to get in front of Logano. On lap 20, Gilliland would take the lead. On lap 22, Logano would take the lead back. Gilliland would take it back on lap 24. On lap 27, Austin Cindric took the lead but got passed by Berry on the same lap and Berry took the lead. On lap 30, Joey Logano took the lead. On laps 31 and 34, Keselowski attempted to take the lead but failed to get in front of Logano. On lap 35, the last lap of stage 1, Keselowski would take the lead but would get immediately passed by Berry, who would win stage 1 for his first career Cup Series stage win.

During pit stops, some fuel spilled out of Daniel Suárez's car. Suárez was stuck in his pit box trying not to hit Harrison Burton. Behind Suárez, Denny Hamlin ran over the fuel spill, igniting a blaze that caught the left rear diffuser of Suárez's car on fire as he drove off of pit road. Crews were unable to extinguish the fire when Suárez entered back onto pit road. The fire grew and engulfed the entire rear of Suárez's vehicle. Suárez got out unhurt and was given a chance to continue to race even with the whole rear charred and melted from the fire; Suárez elected to end his race. Logano won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart on lap 42.

Chris Buescher battled for the lead with Logano for a few laps but could not get in front of him. On lap 46, Bubba Wallace took the lead. On lap 48, Buescher took the lead. Chase Briscoe took the lead the next lap but was immediately passed by Wallace. Briscoe got side by side with Wallace the next lap and led the next 2 laps before Wallace took the lead back on lap 52. On lap 60, the first of three big ones would occur down the backstretch, bringing out the second caution of the race and the first for incident. Corey LaJoie pushed Noah Gragson down the backstretch at the wrong angle, turning Gragson into Justin Haley, causing a chain reaction that spun John Hunter Nemechek and Ross Chastain and collected a total of 19 cars. Drivers involved in the wreck included Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Daniel Hemric, Corey LaJoie, Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Noah Gragson, Christopher Bell, John Hunter Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, and Austin Hill. Buescher won the race off of pit road and led the field to the restart on lap 67.

On lap 73, Wallace took the lead. On lap 75, Gilliland took the lead but was passed by Logano. On lap 78, Cindric got hit at the wrong angle by his teammate Ryan Blaney, causing Cindric to get sideways but Cindric saved it from spinning. At the same time, Kyle Larson took the lead. The lead changed hands between Larson and Logano multiple times until Logano was in the lead on lap 81. At the same time, three different drivers ran into issues, which brought out the third caution of the race. Truex Jr. and Jones suffered flat tires, while Shane van Gisbergen's engine expired, releasing a thick plume of smoke and fluid on the track and catching the right side tailpipe of his car on fire. The incident brought van Gisbergen's first Cup Series race at Daytona to an end. The race would restart on lap 89 with 7 laps to go in the stage. On the restart, Larson took the lead. On lap 92, Keselowski took the lead. On the last lap of stage 2 on lap 95, Logano regained the lead and would win the stage.

Michael McDowell won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart with 60 laps to go on lap 101. With 42 to go, Justin Haley took the lead. With 23 to go, Nemechek attempted to take the lead but failed to get in front of Haley. Unfortunately for Nemechek, his chances of winning vanished when he got a big bump from Larson that sent him down into Haley. Nemechek turned across Haley's nose and spun, bringing out the 5th caution of the race. Before the caution flew, Kyle Busch took the lead. Cindric won the race off of pit road and led the field to the restart with 16 laps to go. Keselowski attempted to take the lead but beat Cindric to the restart box; Keselowski was penalized and had to come down pit road. Keselowski and his team protested, claiming Cindric spun his tires and started late, but their appeals were unsuccessful and the penalty was served with 13 to go. At the same time, Michael McDowell was attempting to take the lead but failed to get in front of Cindric. With 10 to go, McDowell would take the lead from Cindric and moved up to the high lane.

With 9 laps to go, McDowell was turned by Cindric in turn 1. McDowell's car spun across the track and was t-boned in the driver's door by Joey Logano. The car lifted off the ground and nearly hit the catchfence in the process, but did not flip. McDowell's spin caused the second big one of the night, bringing out the 6th caution of the race and damaging 15 cars. McDowell's near flip was almost similar toTony Stewart's airborne wreck atTalladega Superspeedway in theFall of 2012. Fortunately, McDowell would get out unhurt. The cars involved were Michael McDowell, Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick, Justin Haley, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chris Buescher, and Austin Hill.

Cindric led the field back to green with 3 laps to go. With 2 to go, Berry attempted to take the lead but was turned by William Byron going down the backstretch, triggering the third and final big one, taking out 8 cars and bringing out the 7th and final caution of the race. Berry's car turned down into Cindric and the two spun to the inside, where Berry's car lifted off the ground and flipped onto its roof. The car continued to slide and hit the inside wall head-on, causing the car to spin violently while still upside down. The red flag was issued for 7 minutes as safety crews were turned the car back upright and allowed Berry to exit uninjured. Berry's wreck was almost identical to his teammate Ryan Preece's wreck inthe prior year's race, but Berry's car avoided a similarly violent barrel roll due to the backstretch infield grass being removed on the backstretch, helping to slow cars and avoid digging into the grass. Berry became the fourth car in the top three Series of NASCAR to be involved in an airborne crash in the last week, joining McDowell and bothKyle Sieg and Corey LaJoie the previous week atMichigan, where both Sieg and LaJoie flipped over.^[13] The cars involved were Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Josh Berry, William Byron, Todd Gilliland, Erik Jones, and Austin Hill. After the 7th caution, six out of the 40 cars had not been involved in any incident during the race.

The wreck would set up NASCAR overtime, with Kyle Busch as the leader. Busch was looking for his first win of the season and to extend his winning streak to 20 consecutive seasons, dating back to 2005, his rookie year. On the restart, Busch would get to the lead with help from his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell. On the last lap, Busch raced out to a large gap to the second place cars of Christopher Bell and Harrison Burton, but the pack slowly caught up. Busch held onto the lead down the backstretch until Harrison Burton shot out to the lead into turn 3 after a big push from Parker Retzlaff. Burton held off a hard-charging Busch to win by just .047 seconds, achieving his first career victory in his 98th Cup Series start. The win was special for the entire Burton family, as Harrison's mother, Kim, was in his pit box, while his father, Jeff, was calling the race in thebooth. Burton's win also marked the 100th victory for the Wood Brothers team in the Cup Series; it was the team's first since Ryan Blaney's win atPocono in 2017. The win locked Burton into the NASCAR playoffs. Burton was the 14th different winner of 2024 and was 34th in points coming into the race, last among the full–time drivers.^[14]

Christopher Bell, Cody Ware, and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top 5 while Bubba Wallace, Parker Retzlaff, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Hemric, and Chris Buescher rounded out the top 10. This would be Cody Ware's best career Cup Series finish, his first career top 5 finish of his Cup Series career, and his second top 10 in his Cup Series career after he finished 6th in the same racetwo years prior. This was Parker Retzlaff's second career Cup Series start and his first career top 10, almost tying a feat accomplished byTrevor Bayne, who won in hissecond career Cup Series start; Retzlaff was in second on the final lap before falling back to 7th with no drafting help.

Stage OneLaps: 35

Stage TwoLaps: 60

Stage ThreeLaps: 65

• Lead changes: 40 among 16 different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 7 for 34
• Red flags: 1 for 6 minutes and 52 seconds
• Time of race: 3 hours, 1 minute, and 40 seconds
• Average speed: 135.413 miles per hour (217.926 km/h)
• Margin of victory: 0.047 seconds

NBC Sports covered the race on the television side.Leigh Diffey, 2000 race winnerJeff Burton, andSteve Letarte called the race from the broadcast booth. This was Diffey's first race as the main lap-by-lap commentator, as NBC announced prior to the event that he would be replacingRick Allen for the rest of the season.^[15] Seven-timeNASCAR Cup Series championJimmie Johnson and1999NASCAR Cup Series championDale Jarrett called from the NBC Peacock Pit Box on pit road.Dave Burns, Kim Coon,Parker Kligerman, and Marty Snider handled the pit road duties from pit lane. Seconds after Burton's son, Harrison, won the race, Diffey made the call, "Jeff, your little boy has done it!" for which he received praise online.^[16]

MRN had the radio call for the race, which was also simulcast onSirius XMNASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle, and 1989 NASCAR Cup Series ChampionRusty Wallace called the action for MRN when the field raced thru the front straightaway. Lead Turn Announcer for MRNDave Moody called the action for MRN from atop theSunoco tower outside the exit of turn 2 when the field raced thru turns 1 & 2.Mike Bagley worked the Daytona Backstretch for MRN from a spotter's stand in the inside of the track. Chris Wilner worked the action for MRN when the field raced thru turns 3 & 4. Pit road was operated by lead pit reporter Steve Post, PRN Radio's Alan Cavanna, Brad Gillie & MRN's Jacklyn Drake.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Tyler Reddick 823 1 2 Kyle Larson 806 (–17) 1 3 Chase Elliott 805 (–18) 4 Ryan Blaney 755 (–68) 5 William Byron 743 (–70) 1 6 Christopher Bell 737 (–86) 2 7 Brad Keselowski 719 (–104) 2 8 Denny Hamlin 712 (–111) 1 9 Martin Truex Jr. 695 (–128) 10 Ty Gibbs 676 (–147) 1 11 Chris Buescher 658 (–165) 1 12 Alex Bowman 648 (–175) 1 13 Bubba Wallace 637 (–186) 1 14 Ross Chastain 631 (–192) 15 Joey Logano 586 (–237) 1 16 Kyle Busch 552 (–271) Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 909 2 Toyota 895 (–14) 3 Ford 868 (–41) Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings. . – Driver has clinched a position in theNASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

• NASCAR races at Daytona International Speedway
• 2024 NASCAR Cup Series
• 2024 in sports in Florida
• August 2024 sports events in the United States

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