2018 Coke Zero Sugar 400

The 2018 Coke Zero Sugar 400 was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race held on July 7, 2018 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Contested over 168 laps -- extended from 160 laps due to an overtime finish with two attempts for the first time since 2011, on the 2.5 mi superspeedway, it was the 18th race of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Erik Jones scored his first career win in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and for the first time in a decade, Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing had won a July race at Daytona.

Background
The race was 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 costed 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 2016.

First practice
Clint Bowyer was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 44.821 seconds and a speed of 200.799 mph.

Final practice
Final practice session for Thursday was cancelled due to rain.

Qualifying
Chase Elliott scored the pole for the race with a time of 46.381 and a speed of 194.045 mph.

Start
Chase Elliott led the field to the green flag at 7:23 p.m., turned a lap of 194.045 mph to win the pole at Daytona International Speedway and give sagging Chevrolet a much-needed boost. Elliott, who sprained his right ankle earlier this week "horsing around in the pool," had won two poles at the Daytona 500. He starts from the top Saturday night as the Hendrick Motorsports driver goes for his first career win.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who started sixth, was battling with pole-sitter Chase Elliott for the lead on lap 10. The two swapped the lead for a couple laps before Stenhouse found speed in the high line at Daytona and took the lead on lap 13.

Several cars caught in the low groove — including Elliott — were shuffled back in the running order early. A furious push to collect points for the stage resulted in a handful of cars sliding into the low line to challenge for the lead — including Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron in fourth and Elliott in fifth, the first caution of the race flew on lap 42 for the conclusion of the first stage.

Stage 2
The race restarted on lap 47 and contact from Jimmie Johnson in a pack of cars sent Paul Menard sliding off the backstretch and into the air two laps later, As the car slid across the apron and adjacent grassy areas, its left front was damaged, and its hood almost broke loose from the car. The incident caused the second caution of the race.

The race restarted on lap 54 and the third caution of the race flew for a multi-car wreck in turn 3, More than half of the 40-car field was involved in the first big crash of the night. The wreck occurred after contact between Brad Keselowski and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. near the front of the pack. Cars in the following group were swept into the accident.

Brad Keselowski blamed leader William Byron for the crash, pointing out that a Byron blocking move forced the issue.

“Ricky (Stenhouse) was doing the best he could to give me a good push and had a great run to take the lead, and the car in front of me just threw a late, bad block, Keselowski said. “I made the mistake of lifting instead of just driving through him, and that’s my fault. I know better than that."

“I’ve got to wreck more people, and then they’ll stop blocking me late and behind like that. That’s my fault. I’ll take the credit for my team, and we’ll go to Talladega and we’ll wreck everybody that throws a bad block like that.”

The race restarted on lap 63, and the fourth caution of the race flew two laps later for a multi-car wreck in turn 4, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. bumped Kyle Busch and sent Busch's car into the wall. [[William Byron (racing driver)|William Byron, also racing near the front, was involved along with several other drivers.

The race restarted on lap 70, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the second stage over Michael McDowell as the field, decimated by two big wrecks, and the fifth caution of the race flew on lap 82 for the completion of the second stage.

Final stage
The race restarted on lap 87, Jimmie Johnson, seeking to end a 40-race winless streak, was running up front when his crew serviced the car outside its pit box. He was penalized a lap, drawing a complaint from crew chief Chad Knaus.

Kyle Larson lost control of his car on lap 125, apparently because of a tire issue, and his spin collected Ricky Stenhouse Jr., putting the field under caution for the sixth time.

The race restarted on lap 129, Kasey Kahne drove his car out to the front of the field as the race leader. Kahne led for a total of 17 laps on Saturday night before losing the lead as cars weren’t helping to draft and everyone was jockeying for position late in the race.

D.J. Kennington, who ran as high as second after much of the field was pounded in accidents, caused the night’s seventh caution with a spin on lap 134.

The race restarted on lap 138, and it remained green for 13 laps.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the focus of much of the evening’s caution activity, caused the eighth caution on lap when damage on his car caused a tire rub and eventually a tire failure. He spun onto the frontstretch grass. The caution enabled Jimmie Johnson to return to the lead lap.

The race restarted on lap 155 and the ninth caution of the race flew when Aric Almirola lost a wheel and crashed along with Michael McDowell and Jimmie Johnson. The wreck sent the race into overtime.

Attempt #1 & The Big One
The race restarted on lap 162 and just before the leaders took the white flag, another multi-car wreck took out another set of contenders and brought out the tenth caution of the race, The red flag was displayed as nine cars were collected in the wreck, Darrell Wallace Jr. made contact with Clint Bowyer, who spun and collected Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Trevor Bayne and Ross Chastain, After 5 minutes and 1 second, the red flag was lifted and the field continued under caution.

Attempt #2
The race restarted on lap 167 of 160 advertised, for the second attempt at an overtime finish, At the end of a week in which talk of younger drivers needing to show force in NASCAR racing edged into the conversation, one did.

Joe Gibbs Racing's Erik Jones drove through one of the most wreck-filled NASCAR races in recent years Saturday night and led only the final lap in winning at the series most famous track.

Post-race
“What a day,” Jones said. “I didn’t think we were going to have a shot to win this one about halfway. Got ourselves back into contention, and our guys did a great job getting this thing fixed up and getting the buyatoyota.com into victory lane.

Driver comments
“I’ve never been that good on superspeedways and never thought this was our shot to win. But to get here tonight, that’s pretty awesome. It’s our first win and not much has felt better than this one.”

Stage Results
Stage 1 Laps: 40

Stage 2 Laps: 40

Final Stage Results
Stage 3 Laps: 80

Race statistics

 * Lead changes: 16 among different drivers
 * Cautions/Laps: 10 for 46
 * Red flags: 1 for 5 minutes and 1 second
 * Time of race: 3 hours, 13 minutes and 12 seconds
 * Average speed: 130.435 mph

Television
NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, 2000 Coke Zero 400 winner Jeff Burton and two-time Coke Zero 400 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. called in the booth for the race. Mike Tirico and Steve Letarte called from the NBC Peacock Pit Box on pit road. Dave Burns, Parker Kligerman, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast reported from pit lane 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


 * Manufacturers' Championship standings


 * Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.
 * . – Driver has clinched a position in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.