Coke Zero Sugar 400 Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR celebrated the Independence Day holiday the only way it knew how on Thursday, by taking to the track at Daytona International Speedway for Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice and the fireworks certainly started early. The first of two sessions were entertaining and full of action, with drivers running two and three-wide in an effort to feel out the package that makes its debut at Daytona after receiving rave reviews at Talladega a few months back. Though the typical FloridaRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Following last Sunday’s battle in the Windy City, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads back to where it all began, Daytona International Speedway, for this weekend’s 60th running of the Coke Zero Sugar 400, the third superspeedway race of the season. From 1959 until 1987, the 160 lap, 400 mile shootout at the World Center of Racing, then called the Firecracker 400, was held on July 4th, even if the holiday fell in the middle of the week. Beginning inRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season for the full-time drivers in the series leading into February’s 61st annual running of the Daytona 500. Age: 31 Years in Cup: Six Career Wins: Two Biggest Accomplishment: 2011-12 Xfinity Series champion After scoring two superspeedway victories in 2017, it was a rather polarizing 2018 campaign for Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., who went winless and missed the playoffs. Now going into his seventh season, he’ll be seeking for a turnaround after finishing 18th in points, and continueRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Last Saturday night at Daytona, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. found himself as Public Enemy No. 1 among some in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series garage area after being involved in a series of crashes throughout the duration of the race. A week later, Stenhouse and his run-ins on the 2.5-mile superspeedway were still front and center in the mind of Kyle Busch, who was involved in one of the multi-car crashes that Stenhouse helped trigger. Busch expected a call from Stenhouse, who owned up to hisRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – To say that 2018 has been a struggle for Kasey Kahne and Leavine Family Racing would be an understatement, but on Saturday night at Daytona, the No. 95 team nearly made all of their troubles disappear as they were in the running for their first win all the way down the stretch, eventually ending the race with a fourth-place finish. “It was great,” said Kahne. “We had a strong car. The Thorne Chevrolet was really strong. Figured it out in the secondRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In a wild war of attrition that went to two overtimes, Erik Jones outdueled Martin Truex Jr. on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway to seize the first victory of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career. In a Coke Zero Sugar 400 that went eight laps beyond its scheduled 160, Jones passed the reigning series champion on the backstretch of the final lap and held on to win by .125 seconds. Jones battled back from damage sustained in a multicarRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Attrition. A word that once again defined the annual Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida Saturday. Unless its JTG Daugherty Racing, who were not only among a dozen cars without terminal damage, the two-car operation scored their first-ever double top-five finish with drivers A.J. Allmendinger and Chris Buescher finishing third and fifth respectively. During second overtime, both drivers were in solid position to possibly stop the Toyota duo of Martin Truex, Jr. and Erik Jones, and perhaps bring theRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When it comes to restrictor plate racing, the smaller teams in the NASCAR garage always circle these races as opportunities to capitalize. On Saturday night at Daytona, Matt DiBenedetto and Go Fas Racing placed themselves square in the middle of the action, bringing home a seventh-place finish by the time the checkered flag flew. “The Fords always run really good at the speedways, so that’s why we always seem to find ourselves up front at the end,” said DiBenedetto. “Fords and Roush-YatesRead More

By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer After surviving a race that saw five cars undamaged, Ty Dillon earned his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Top-10 finish. Dillon’s car was not among the undamaged at the end of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway. In two separate overtime attempts, Dillon’s No. 13 GEICO Military Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 avoided trouble. On the first overtime attempt, he pitted coming to the green, fuel pressure issues plaguing his race. That kept him out of the final wreck of the night andRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Several drivers expected an aggressive race at Daytona on Saturday night and while they were right in their assumptions, none of them could have seen what was coming through the first 66 laps of the Coke Zero Sugar 400. In three different cautions, a total of 36 cars were involved in some capacity or another, with the majority of them seeing their night cut short following the series of multi-car crashes. Paul Menard was the first to go for a wild rideRead More