41 NASCAR Cup cars on Daytona entry list with five open teams

For just the third time this year, a NASCAR Cup Series race will feature a full field of cars. The Daytona 500 and the spring Talladega race are the only other races this year with go-or-go-homer(s).

Daytona International Speedway will host the regular season finale, with the 2026 Chase grid set on Saturday night.

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Along with the expected 36 chartered entries, there are five open teams showing up as well. The slowest among them will be sent home after Friday qualifying.

Here’s a look at the five drivers and teams:

No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet

Driver: The 33-year-old Gase has 94 previous Cup starts since 2014, and is attempting to make his second start of the 2026 season. His best showing at the Cup level came at Talladega, earning a career-best finish of 17th in 2020. His career-best Cup finish at Daytona is 20th.

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Team: NY Racing Team failed to qualify for the 2026 Daytona 500 with JJ Yeley, but made the show at Talladega in the spring with Gase after qualifying was rained out. Should they make this weekend’s race, it will be their fifth appearance of the year.

Casey Mears, No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet

Driver: Mears is by far the most experienced driver among the open entries. The 48-year-old has 497 career starts with one Cup win (2007 Coke 600). This is all part of his mission to reach 500 career starts. Mears finished second in the 2006 Daytona 500, and placed as high as fourth in the summer Daytona race in 2014. 

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Team: The team has an alliance with RCR and has entered dozens of Cup races in the past decade, primarily focusing on superspeedways. They’ve placed as high as fifth at Daytona and sixth at Talladega, but failed to qualify for both races that featured go-or-go-homers this year. They have managed to start two other races this year, both with Mears.

Garage 66 Ford

Driver: Gaulding, 28, is attempting to make his first Cup start in just over three years. He has 60 career starts at the top level of the sport, placing as high as ninth at Talladega in 2019. At Daytona, his best Cup showing is 20th in the 2018 Daytona 500. This year, he has just one start in any of the three national divisions, finishing 28th in a NASCAR O’Reilly race at Bristol.

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Team: The Carl Long-owned team is the only open entry representing Ford, and they are attempting to make their 12th start of the year. Gaulding will be the team’s fifth different driver this season as well. They raced their way into the 2026 Daytona 500 with Mears, finishing 32nd.

Corey Heim — No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota

Corey Heim, 23XI Racing

Driver: Heim, 24, has had quite the year as a part-time driver, breaking records and stunning the garage as he claimed his first-career win at the San Diego Street Course. But he wasn’t done, also winning the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a few weeks later. If he makes the race, this will be Heim’s ninth start of the 2026 season.

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Team: 23XI is the strongest of all the open teams on this list, and unlike the other four single-car operations, this car is part of a mega organization that features three full-time and chartered entries. The No. 67 entry hasn’t failed to qualify since the 2025 Chicago Street Course race.

Daniel Dye, Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet

Driver: Dye, 22, signed a four-race deal with the Live Fast Motorsports team earlier in the year. He began the year as a full-time NASCAR Truck Series driver for Kaulig and Ram, but they parted ways after his suspension for distasteful comments he made on a livestream. He has since completed sensitivity training and returned to competition elsewhere. Dye is still fairly new to the Cup Series, making his debut at Talladega in the spring. If he makes the show, Daytona will be just his fourth career start — all this year.

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Team: The BJ McLeod-owned team has made eight starts this season, with McLeod himself driving the car along with Dye and Katherine Legge. Once a full-time entry before selling its charter for around $40 million, the team now appears in a handful of races every year, and it has just two top ten finishes — both at Daytona (ninth in 2021 summer race and seventh in 2022 summer race).

2026 Coke Zero Sugar 400 — NASCAR Cup Daytona entry list

Open entries italicized 

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