Haley wins the rain shortened Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona

Justin Haley inherited the lead under caution when Kurt Busch made his final pit stop after NASCAR initially declared they would go back to green the next lap.  NASCAR then red flagged the race with 33 laps to go due to more lightning strikes within an eight-mile radius of the Daytona International Speedway and then later declared official due to rain.

Haley was declared the winner of the rain delayed and rain shortened Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona.  The 20-year-old Indiana native driving for first-year team Spire Motorsports in the No. 77 Fraternal Order of Eagles Camaro ZL1 led only one lap and captured his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win in only three starts. Haley becomes the fourth driver in the modern-era to win within their first three starts in the cup series.

“It’s absolutely a blessing. Its pretty incredible that I have so many great people around me that have given me this opportunity to come here to this level and stage that we are performing on. Obviously Todd and my family have done a great job, but the Fraternal Order of Eagles has given me this opportunity with Spire Motorsports and its truly a blessing. I never even saw myself running a Cup race until I got a call a few months ago to do Talladega. It’s just unreal and I don’t know how to put it. I don’t know how to feel.” Haley said.

William Byron finished second, Jimmie Johnson third, Ty Dillon fourth and Ryan Newman finished fifth.

“It took us a little while to get to the front from the back and finish second. So that was good.” Byron said. “I would have liked to go back racing and win it the way I wanted to, but our team did a great job this week managing all the chaos and finishing second with a back-up car is pretty good.”

Joey Logano won stage one and Austin Dillon won stage two.

Kevin Harvick got a run in the tri-oval on Brad Keselowski with 18 laps to go in Stage 2. Harvick turned Keselowski into the outside wall, eliminating Keselowski and Daniel Suarez from the race.

“I know we got to three-wide at the top of three and it looks like Kevin gave me a real straight push. I don’t know. It just took off on me.” Keselowski said.

The bad weather headed in during the third and final stage of the race and the intensity also picked up.

While running in the outside line, Clint Bowyer pulled down to pass Austin Dillon for the race lead. Dillon followed and Bowyer got into the back of him causing him to spin, collecting the front runners on lap 118.

“I guess he didn’t want me to pass him. I don’t know. I got under him and he blocked, and we got together, I got off of him, moved down and got off of him and here he comes back down even more and just finally wrecked us all. That’s just part of racing like this.” Bowyer said.

“Originally, off of turn four, I thought me and the 9 would be able to get by the 11. But the 9 wasn’t clear. I really thought it was urgent with the lighting and the rain coming. So I jumped up there and had a good push from the 14 and my plan as soon as I cleared the 11 was to cut left and get down again to get with my Chevy teammates. It’s really unfortunate because I had a really fast American Ethanol Chevy.” Dillon said.

The series heads to Kentucky Speedway next Saturday July 13th for the Quaker State 400 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

Monster Energy Cup Series Race Number 18
Race Results for the 61st Annual Coke Zero Sugar 400 – Sunday, July 7, 2019
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL – 2.5 – Mile Paved
Total Race Length – 160 Laps – 400. Miles