2020 Coke Zero Sugar 400

The 2020 Coke Zero Sugar 400 was an NASCAR Cup Series race held on August 29, 2020 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Contested over 164 laps -- extended from 160 laps due to an overtime finish, on the 2.5 mi superspeedway, it was the 26th race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, and the final race of the regular season before the playoffs.

Background
The race will be held at Daytona International Speedway, a race track located in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, the track is the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosts races of ARCA, AMA Superbike, USCC, SCCA, and Motocross. It features multiple layouts including the primary 2.5 mi high speed tri-oval, a 3.56 mi sports car course, a 2.95 mi motorcycle course, and a .25 mi karting and motorcycle flat-track. The track's 180 acre infield includes the 29 acre Lake Lloyd, which has hosted powerboat racing. The speedway is owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation.

The track was built in 1959 by NASCAR founder William "Bill" France, Sr. to host racing held at the former Daytona 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 is being worked on by Rossetti Architects. The project, named "Daytona Rising", was completed in January 2016, and it cost US $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 include 101,000 permanent seats with the ability to increase permanent seating to 125,000. The project was completed before the start of Speedweeks.

Entry list

 * (R) denotes rookie driver.
 * (i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.

Qualifying
Kevin Harvick was awarded the pole for the race as determined by competition-based formula.

Stage 1
Harvick, Truex, and Byron swapped the lead at the start of the race. Most of the field ran two-wide for the first 15 laps. Occasionally a group would move to the middle and make it three-wide, everyone managed to survive the opening laps.

Kevin Harvick caught some paper debris on his front air vent and began to overheat the engine. He dropped to the rear of the field and found Ryan Newman, another Ford Mustang driver, to pull up close to Newman’s bumper and change the airflow over his grille to remove the paper.

William Byron stretched the top line out to a sizeable lead and everyone fell into a single file line awaiting the competition caution after lap 20.

On the restart, Byron and teammate Alex Bowman came to the green on the front row. Bowman dropped in behind Byron and pushed the #24 car to the lead. As they drove around the high side of the track, Erik Jones led the inside line. His teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin lined up behind Jones and pushed him to the lead.

Byron drove back to the front five laps later, two laps after that Joey Logano got a push to the lead and the field again began to string out single file. With 10 laps to go in Stage 1, the battle for positions and Stage points began back in the Top 15.

With five laps to go, Tyler Reddick was moving towards the front leading a pack on the inside. With two laps to go the scramble for points got intense, Logano held on for the Stage win, Jones finished second and Reddick grabbed the 3rd position.

Stage 2
Christopher Bell and Jones led the field back to the green flag. Bell is the driver who will be taking over Jones’ ride at JGR. With a push from Jimmie Johnson, Jones moved to the lead. The field quickly lined up, content to turn laps during the early portion of Stage 2. The Fords are content to stay in line at half throttle to conserve fuel and make sure their end of Stage strategy works.

Some of the non-Ford drivers pitted between 16 and 18 laps into the Stage, assuring them that they will make it to the end of Lap 100. Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. stayed out and inherited the lead.

Kyle Busch allowed Daniel Suarez, Ty Dillon, Bubba Wallace to pass so he could drop in behind and attempt to save gas as well. It will be interesting to see how the fuel strategy plays out.

The leading trio pitted with 12 laps to go in the Stage, giving the lead back to Kyle Busch. With 10 laps to go, the Fords got organized and Joey Logano led them to the front. The pack formed up with 5 laps to go and the fight for Stage points was on.

Logano, again, pulled off the Stage win. Jimmie Johnson got another 6 points, DiBenedetto got 4 points and Byron did not finish the Stage in the Top 10. If the end of the stage was the end of the race, Johnson and DiBenedetto would be in and Byron would be out.

The Final Stage
Logano and Truex lead the field back to the restart with Bowyer and Johnson on the row behind them. Logano and Truex swapped the lead at the head of a two-wide and sometimes three-wide pack. The Big One can’t be far away, it’s amazing there has not been an accident-related caution to this point in the race.

It seems the playoff picture changes every lap, Jimmie Johnson gets pushed out of line and drops back in the pack. At the same time, he drops out of the Top 16 in points.

Green flag pit stops began with 34 laps to go. The Fords choose to stay out and the first 13 positions are held by Mustangs. The Blue Oval drivers pitted with 28 laps to go, when they merged back into the pack Logano was 9th. Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin ran 1-2 at the front.

As the pack organized it was back to two-wide racing. With 17 laps to go, James Davison hit the wall and brought out the first accident caution of the evening. William Byron gave up the 3rd position to pit for four tires and fuel. Johnson and a number of the cars at the back of the pack pitted as well.

In addition to Kyle Busch and Jones, the cars of Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Truex, Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael McDowell, and Ryan Preece are collected in the incident. Somehow, DiBenedetto, Johnson, and Byron drive their way through the mess unscathed. Unlike IndyCar officials at the end of the Indianapolis 500, NASCAR officials displayed the red flag with 8 laps to go. The track crews clean up the mess and the fans will see an exciting sprint to the checkered flag.

Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick are on the front row heading to the restart with 5 laps to go. Chris Buescher and Logano are right behind. But really, it’s anyone’s race. Logano pushes Hamlin to the lead and then Logano drops low through the tri-oval to take over the top spot.

Into Turn 1, Bubba Wallace gets a huge run on the outside and get’s even with Logano. Hamlin bumps the rear of Logano, Joey gets loose and bangs into Wallace who scrapes the outside wall. As Logano and Wallace separate, William Byron drives between them to make it four-wide. Logano spins and the Big One #2 is on.

Matt Kenseth, Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, John Hunter Nemechek, and Jimmie Johnson were also involved. Johnson’s car suffered major damage, but his crew was able to get him back on the track after cutting away some of the damaged sheet metal.

The Finish
The red flag was displayed again, as the race was extended into overtime. Hamlin and Byron were followed by Bowyer and DiBenedetto on the restart. It looked like Hamlin would continue his dominance at Daytona, but Byron would not be denied. Winning the first Cup race of his career he locks down his spot in the playoffs with a win. DiBenedetto takes the final spot with his 12th place finish as Jimmie Johnson is shut out of the postseason finishing 17th.

Playoff Point Standings
The point standings reflect how each driver sits going into Race 1 of the NASCAR Playoffs. The difference between DiBenedetto and Johnson for the final spot was just 6 points. Was it a false positive Covid-19 test that caused Johnson to miss the Brickyard 400? Missing that race could easily be blamed for Johnson not making the playoffs.

Eight Ford Mustang drivers are a part of the 16 driver playoff field. All four drivers from Stewart-Haas, all three from Team Penske and 1 from the Woods Brothers (who have a technical relationship with Team Penske). Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin have a virtual pass into the 2nd round with 57 and 47 playoff points earned respectively.

The Playoffs open next Sunday night with the traditional throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway, continue with two Saturday night races, the first at Richmond, and then the first elimination occurs after racing at Bristol concludes Round 1.

Stage Results
Stage One Laps: 50

Stage Two Laps: 50

Final Stage Results
Stage Three Laps: 60

Race statistics

 * Lead changes: 35 among 16 different drivers
 * Cautions/Laps: 6 for 21
 * Red flags: 2 for 15 minutes and 47 seconds
 * Time of race: 2 hours, 39 minutes and 59 seconds
 * Average speed: 153.766 mph

Television
NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, 2000 Coke Zero 400 winner Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and two-time Coke Zero 400 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. covered the race from the booth at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Dave Burns, Parker Kligerman and Marty Snider handled the pit road duties on site, and Rutledge Wood handled the features from his home during the race.

Radio
MRN had the radio call for the race, which was also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings after Playoffs reset


 * Manufacturers' Championship standings


 * Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.