Well, it was a rainy weekend once again for the NASCAR Cup Series. ‘Rain’ and ‘NASCAR’ have become all too synonymous this season. But they did conclude the race on Monday. Tyler Reddick scored his second win of the season at Michigan as we saw the typical dominance from the Toyotas on the larger ovals. But this weekend NASCAR heads to the World Center of Racing. Daytona International Speedway gets its second appearance on the 2024 schedule. William Byron won the Daytona 500 earlier this year. This is really the last shot for even the smaller teams to make the playoffs. Superspeedway racing breeds chaos. And it tends to level the playing field. Let’s take a look at this week’s NASCAR DFS Coke Zero Sugar 400 preview!
Daytona International Speedway is a 2.5-mile track with over 30 degrees of banking in the turns. Because it’s a superspeedway, I find these races more fun to bet, rather than playing DFS. But we’ll still provide you with the preview below and the picks later in the week. But these races tend to invite chaos. I share this video anytime we preview a superspeedway race. The high speeds in the draft can only lead to big wrecks and the key to success is simply avoiding “the big one.” Position differential becomes essential for these races and don’t be surprised to see cash builds composed of drivers starting outside the top 30.
Coke Zero Sugar 400 Preview: The Top Plays
Ryan Blaney (#12 Ford)
Kicking off the Coke Zero Sugar 400 preview, we’re going with Ryan Blaney. He’s actually wrecked in the last two races at Daytona, but we led off with Blaney in the Daytona 500 preview so I’m not afraid to go back to him. It’s never great to acknowledge a streak of wrecking. But that’s the nature of superspeedways and drafting. Even the best drafters in the field can get caught in a wreck that wasn’t their own doing. Blaney’s one of just a few drivers that can say they led over 100 laps in a Daytona 500 race. Additionally, he won this very race three years ago and went to victory lane at Talladega last fall. The Fords are great in the draft and we should expect him to carry some win juice.
Joey Logano (#22 Ford)
We don’t typically target dominator points when constructing lineups for superspeedways. We hope to just land on them when building out our rosters. Logano won the pole for this year’s Daytona 500, but unfortunately, he was caught in a wreck. However, he did lead 45 laps in this race. And if you dig into his Driver Averages profile, you’ll see he’s led 25+ at this track on multiple occasions. The distribution of dominator points will be difficult to predict this weekend. And as you look at his profile, you’ll see there’s plenty of top five equity. But on the other end of the spectrum, he’s wrecked a few times as well. He drives for Team Penske and the Fords are always very good in the draft. This week should be no different.
Bubba Wallace (#23 Toyota)
Whether you like him or not, Bubba is one of the best drafters in the series. He finished fifth in the Daytona 500 earlier this year and finished second in that race on two other occasions. We tend to think that the knock on the Toyotas is that they don’t have enough cars to work with since they’re in the minority in this field. But that hasn’t stopped Denny Hamlin from winning the Daytona 500 three times. Bubba is very good at navigating his way through traffic and moving up through the field and he’s run up front in six of the last seven points-paying races at Daytona.
Coke Zero Sugar 400 Preview: Wouldn’t Bet Against Them
Chase Elliott (#9 Chevrolet)
It always feels hard to bet against Elliott. For this week’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 preview, it feels especially true. He grabbed a top five in this race last year, and two years ago he led 31 laps but wrecked later on. He’s led laps in each of the last four races at Talladega including collecting a win in the fall of 2022. And, of course, he has a win at the new Atlanta layout. His teammate, William Byron, claimed victory at the Daytona 500 in the spring where Elliott’s top 15 finish doesn’t quite do his performance justice. But it’s a great opportunity for him to collect his second win of the season on Saturday.
Martin Truex Jr. (#19 Toyota)
This one certainly warrants some head-scratching, I get it. MTJ almost seems checked out. He’s finished outside the top 20 in five of his last six races. If the results scare you away from playing him, I wouldn’t blame you. So far this year, Truex has managed to finish top 15 in each of the three drafting races. That may not sound like much, but truthfully the consistency is somewhat impressive. Maintaining position in the draft is no easy task, and only made harder trying not to wreck. Despite his lengthy resume, he’s yet to win on a superspeedway and based on how this year has gone, it’s hard to imagine that trend changing. But I do like the fact he’s looked great in the draft this year. Finishing results will always vary, but he’s putting himself in good position.
Kyle Busch (#8 Chevrolet)
Nowadays, it feels like Kyle Busch’s best chance to win may come at a drafting track. At the 2023 Daytona 500, he actually had the lead with less than five laps to go. Unfortunately, Daniel Suarez brought out a caution and Busch got caught up in the wreck as the race went to overtime. This past year, he started P34 and finished 12th with a dozen laps led. We also saw him finish third at Atlanta in one of the closest finishes in NASCAR history. He did grab a win last year at Talladega. But he also rolls into Daytona with good form. Last week at Michigan, he led 24 laps and finished fourth. Andy Petree, the former competition director at RCR, announced his retirement in July. Since the personnel change, Austin Dillon “won” at Richmond and Kyle Busch looked sporty this past week.
The Values and Sleepers
Austin Cindric (#2 Ford)
We’re going with another Penske driver as we finish up the Coke Zero Sugar 400 preview. Cindric is a former Daytona 500 winner. Prior to this season, that was the only win on his resume until he lucked into a win at Gateway. And while I don’t think he’s the greatest driver, he’s good in this type of race. He finished fourth at Atlanta earlier this year with 32 laps led. It’s also worth mentioning, he finished third in the first race at “new” Atlanta. Cindric has also finished top five in the last two fall races at Talladega. He’s obviously far from a lock and I doubt he’ll be much of a “value” this week. But he drives for Penske and has some sneaky win equity. He’s a high-variance play, for sure.
Austin Hill (#33 Chevrolet)
This isn’t much of a surprise, nor is he a sleeper. Even casual fans know how dominant Austin Hill has been on superspeedways and the drafting tracks. The Xfinity Series has run five races at the new Atlanta configuration. Hill has won three of them. He’s also won each of the last three spring races at Daytona. He doesn’t have a top 10 at Talladega but he’s led double-digit laps there in four straight races. For this race on Sunday, he steps into the third entry for Richard Childress Racing. Hopefully, the momentum Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch have been on carries over for Hill as well.
Parker Retzlaff (#62 Chevrolet)
How about a fresh name for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 preview? If you don’t follow the NASCAR Xfinity Series, you probably don’t know who he is. But Retzlaff drives full-time for Jordan Anderson Racing. And he largely comes from a short, flat track background. But yet, he’s surprisingly great in drafting races. And it helps that Jeb Burton is his teammate, and Burton has won twice at Talladega. In three Xfinity Series races at Daytona, Retzlaff has finished seventh or better in all three. He grabbed a top-five finish at Atlanta this year and he was seventh last year at Talladega. An ignition issue kept him from a good day in this year’s race. But strangely enough, the kid has some appeal and he likely goes way under-owned.