The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 24, for the penultimate race of the regular season, the Coke Zero Sugar 400. The battle for the playoffs could bring another shake-up on the high banks of Daytona.

Date: Saturday, August 24
Rail: Daytona International Speedway (Daytona Beach, Florida)
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
TV: NBC

Weekend plan

Regular season championship and playoff battles intensify ahead of Daytona

Tyler Reddick’s victory in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway has catapulted him to the top of the regular season points standings. He now leads Chase Elliott by 10 points with two races to go in the playoffs. Reddick has had an incredible run over the last 11 races that has taken him from sixth to first in the points standings.

Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher finished in the top six at Michigan to give them a shot at the NASCAR playoffs, putting them one point ahead of Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace, who are now one point behind them while Chastain is on the good side of the cutoff line.

Both Chastain and Wallace were involved in incidents at Michigan that dropped them to 25th and 26th in the event’s final results. Buescher was also involved in the Lap 116 crash that ruined Wallace’s day, but recovered to finish sixth.

The events in Michigan have created tight battles at both the top and bottom of the playoff standings, with only Saturday’s race at Daytona and the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway remaining in the regular season.

Daytona could produce surprise winner and upheaval in the playoffs

All of these playoff talks could be dramatically changed by Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400. The unpredictability of superspeedway racing could produce a new season winner and open up a playoff spot.

In 2022, Austin Dillon won this race and made it to the NASCAR playoffs. This year, the Coke Zero Sugar 400 was the last race of the regular season, so Dillon’s win was a walk-off victory.

William Byron accomplished the same feat at the 2020 Coke Zero Sugar 400, securing his playoff spot with a win in the regular season finale at Daytona. That win was also Byron’s first in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Hold on to the end (and then some)

More than a third of the NASCAR Cup Series events this season went into overtime, which had a significant impact on the outcome of those races.

If history is any indicator, that trend will likely continue Saturday night. Since 2008, the summer race at Daytona has been extended beyond its scheduled 400-mile distance 11 times. Two other races in the event were shortened due to weather, leaving only three races during that time period exactly 400 miles long.

Premiere of the “NASCAR Nonstop” broadcast in Daytona

NBC Sports announced this week that the Coke Zero Sugar 400 will be the first of three broadcasts this season with “NASCAR Nonstop” coverage. This means that there will be no full-screen advertising during the green flag race during the broadcast, only split-screen advertising under the green flag.

At Daytona, at Atlanta Motor Speedway on September 8th and at Talladega Superspeedway on October 6th, fans won’t miss any of the nonstop action on NASCAR’s superspeedways.