Daytona NASCAR race: Ryan Blaney talks Coke Zero Sugar 400 win
Ryan Blaney won the 2025 Coke Zero Sugar 400 in dramatic fashion Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. Here are his initial thoughts.
- Ryan Blaney won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, dramatically moving from 13th to 1st in the final two laps.
- Blaney’s strategic move to follow Cole Custer’s high line allowed them to pass multiple cars, setting up Blaney’s winning move.
- The close finish secured Alex Bowman’s playoff spot, as a win by another driver would have knocked him out.
DAYTONA BEACH – Going from 13th to first over the final two laps to defeat a pack of drivers in total desperation mode had to require something special, right, Ryan Blaney? Something unique. Something wild. Something wacky.
Right!?
“It was just situational stuff,” Blaney said.
Situational stuff?
Situational stuff at Daytona International Speedway is cruising along and emerging unscathed from The Big One by acting like a motorized squirrel to swerve around the trouble, playing the fuel strategy/track position game to a T or connecting your car to the leader’s back bumper until making a final-moment overtake.
No, what Blaney did Saturday night in his No. 12 car to win the Coke Zero Sugar 400 was terrific stuff, sensational stuff and skilled stuff, defeating Daniel Suarez by 0.031 seconds, Justin Haley by 0.036, Cole Custer by 0.049 and Eric Jones by 0.091, all of whom needed a win to clinch a playoff spot.
It was a thrilling three hours capped by a Blaney’s final charge.
Twenty-five cars finished on the lead lap. Five cars led in the last seven laps. And it was a clean and safe race with only three caution flags for crashes or spins and no cars that went airborne.
And it was a finish that can only happen at Daytona and Talladega and maybe Atlanta. Thirteenth at short tracks Bristol and Martinsville or road courses Austin and Sonoma with two laps left means you hope to finish 10th. Just to get to the finish and secure a solid scoring day.
“Everything just kind of clicked,” Blaney said. “It’s all kind of a blur.”
How Blaney followed Custer
The blur lasted less than two minutes.
During the final caution from Laps 150-152 of the 160-lap event, Blaney told his spotter to tell Custer’s spotter if he wanted to try the high line with his No. 41 car, he would follow. Hey, it was time to try something to at least give himself a puncher’s chance at a top five, much less the win.
Problem was, Custer stayed put for several laps, but so did Blaney because he didn’t want to be the first car to go high in case nobody followed and he was shuffled back.
Custer did move up the track with two laps remaining and Blaney kept his vow to be his “wing man.”
One by one, Custer and Blaney began to pick cars off. Ryan Preece. Ross Chastain. William Byron. Ty Gibbs. Christopher Bell. Chase Elliott. Michael McDowell. Kyle Larson. Suarez. Jones. Haley. Buescher.
All passed by Custer-Blaney.
All passed by Custer-Blaney in one lap.
That’s Daytona, folks.
Their work wasn’t done, though. One lap remained. Running on the inside of three-wide racing, Haley got a great run off the second turn and closed the gap on Custer. Haley darted up the track to block Custer’s run and then down the track to block Custer’s counter move.
Suddenly, Blaney had a clear way to the lead.
“We had to have some circumstances fall our way and some seas to be parted,” said Michael Nelson, the president of NASCAR operations for Team Penske, which fields the Blaney car.
Blaney dropped down a lane to get in front of Haley and hit the tri-oval door-to-door with Custer. He moved back up to block Suarez’s path. He moved back to the middle to check Haley. And he found a way to win.
Blaney ended up doing a burnout (rare for him, who prefers a more understated celebration), illustrating his excitement in actually finishing a super-speedway race instead of crashing.
“I was fired up,” he said. “The last two laps we had were pretty awesome.”
Bowman also big winner
Blaney’s win allowed Alex Bowman to win, too. Bowman was involved in an eventual first 27 laps that we thought was just the start of a long night of yellow flags, red flags, hard feelings and tow-truck appearances.
The basics: Fourteen of the 16 playoff spots were wrapped up entering the race. Tyler Reddick was No. 15 and Bowman No. 16 but without a win. If one of the 22 drivers without a victory this year won at Daytona, possibly Reddick and likely Bowman would be out.
Reddick hit the inside wall on Lap 18, creating an opening for Bowman. But Bowman’s night ended nine laps later with The Big One, a 12-car mash-up that clinched Reddick’s spot and ended the playoff hopes for, among others, Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
“The intensity picked up super early,” said Austin Cindric, whose No. 2 car crashed into Bubba Wallace’s No. 23.
Bowman had to sweat out the final 153 laps. Blaney winning allowed Bowman to sigh.
The night-long drama, which had nothing to do with crashes, is why the current NASCAR format is so entertaining.
Winners should be rewarded. Needing to win creates healthy desperation and competition. What a moment it would have been to see Haley pull his No. 7 across the line first or Suarez with his No. 99 knowing he doesn’t have a seat for 2026. Or Jones in his familiar No. 43 orange-and-blue Richard Petty paint scheme.
Now Blaney is on to the playoffs with momentum and trailing only Larson, Byron and Denny Hamlin. Blaney has Penske teammates Cindric and Joey Logano also in the mix. Four Hendrick drivers (Larson, Byron, Elliott and Bowman) advanced. First up is Darlington on Sunday night.
If the final two laps of the regular-season finale is any indication, we’re in for a fun final 10 races.
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