STEWART-HAAS RACING
Coke Zero Sugar 400
Date: Aug. 24, 2024
Event: Coke Zero Sugar 400 (Round 25 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (2.5-mile oval)
Format: 160 laps, broken into three stages (35 laps/60 laps/65 laps)
Note: Race extended four laps past its scheduled 160-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Race Winner: Harrison Burton of Wood Brothers Racing (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: Josh Berry of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
SHR Finish:
● Chase Briscoe (Started 6th, Finished 14th / Running, completed 164 of 164 laps)
● Josh Berry (Started 5th, Finished 26th / Accident, 158 of 164 laps)
● Noah Gragson (Started 15th, Finished 37th / Accident, completed 59 of 164 laps)
● Ryan Preece (Started 4th, Finished 39th / Accident, completed 59 of 164 laps)
SHR Points:
● Chase Briscoe (18th with 514 points, 309 out of first)
● Josh Berry (23rd with 448 points, 375 out of first)
● Noah Gragson (24th with 426 points, 397 out of first)
● Ryan Preece (27th with 368 points, 455 out of first)
SHR Notes:
● Briscoe earned his 11th top-15 of the season and his third top-15 in eight career NASCAR Cup Series start at Daytona.
● Briscoe led once for two laps to increase his laps-led total at Daytona to 74.
● Berry won Stage 1 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff point.
● Berry led five times for nine laps to increase his laps-led total at Daytona to 10.
Race Notes:
● Harrison Burton won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 to score his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory. His margin of victory over second-place Kyle Busch was .047 of a second.
● This was Ford’s 734th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory and its sixth of the season.
● This was Ford’s 42nd NASCAR Cup Series victory at Daytona. Ford won its first race at Daytona on Feb. 24, 1963 with Tiny Lund.
● There were seven caution periods for a total of 34 laps.
● Only 20 of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Tyler Reddick remains the championship leader after Daytona with a 17-point advantage over second-place Kyle Larson.
Sound Bites:
“I’m good. It probably wasn’t as bad as it looked. But, man, I was bummed because we had a hell of a night going. Just such a great job by Rodney (Childers, crew chief) and this whole 4 team. This car was so strong, and we were in position. Man, I’m really proud of the job I did tonight, the job the whole team did because we were in contention and that could’ve been our day. But it didn’t work out. I just want to thank everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing and Ford and NASCAR for building safe racecars, eero for coming on board tonight. It’s disappointing, but whether we would’ve won or flipped, we’re going to go to work Monday and try to win next week.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 eero Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“I’m good. We kind of struggled at the beginning of the race with the front balance and then we made adjustments out of the first pit stop and felt like we had it decent. We had the bottom lane rolling and were up to maybe the top-10 or the top-15 on the bottom line. I got up to the middle and I was behind the 1. He looked real darty, real squirrely, so I was trying to bail out of there and get out. I haven’t seen what happened yet, but I was trying to get out of that line. I don’t know if I got run over or what the case was. If it was my fault, I want to apologize to the other guys, but I don’t really know yet. It’s just a bummer. I was trying to get away from the 1 in the middle line. I was pushing him and I pushed him a couple times and he just couldn’t take a push. He was super squirrely and I didn’t feel comfortable pushing him just because he was out of shape by himself. I was trying to get out of that middle line. I don’t know if the 7 got into me or what. I’m just disappointed.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“I don’t know what happened. We were all kind of riding. We were all saving fuel, so I’m kind of shocked it happened, but I checked up. I got hit from behind and, I don’t know, the car didn’t even look that damaged. It was just we couldn’t change the toe link. We ran out of time and that was it, so kind of a tough deal. There was a wreck right there, but honestly, we were all getting really aggressive. I thought it was going to happen in the first five or six laps, so I was planning on racing really hard and being aggressive, but then it crossed my mind that this stage is not worth not potentially trying to win and change your whole season. They didn’t wreck, and then when you wouldn’t have thought they would wreck with fuel saving, we all did. I don’t know. It’s a tough deal.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 TRUEWERK Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Cook Out Southern 500 on Sunday, Sept. 1 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. The race begins at 6 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
