NASCAR driver reads to Rymfire Elementary students in Palm Coast
Erik Jones, the driver of the AdventHealth Toyota Camry, and AdventHealth, donated a book vending machine to Rymfire Elementary School in Palm Coast
- Ryan Blaney won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, moving from 13th to first in the last two laps.
- Alex Bowman secured the final playoff wildcard spot despite crashing early in the race.
- Daniel Suárez, Justin Haley, Cole Custer and Erik Jones rounded out the top-five.
DAYTONA BEACH — Erik Jones, and a handful of NASCAR Cup Series underdogs, went down swinging in the final laps of Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400.
Alex Bowman‘s Stage 1 crash left him vulnerable to surrender the final playoff spot if a first-time winner emerged at Daytona International Speedway. No winless driver could catch him on points.
It was all or nothing as Jones led the pack toward a green-flag restart with eight laps to go. He traded the top spot several times with Justin Haley, but eventually slipped out of the draft when bumped from behind by Kyle Larson and placed fifth.
“It is and isn’t disappointing, right? It’s not disappointing because we didn’t win and we didn’t point our way in to this point. And that’s on us,” Jones said. “It is disappointing because we did everything right tonight and put ourselves up front with a chance to win our way in.
“That part makes it way more hard to take than if we had just wrecked on Lap 10.”
Instead, Ryan Blaney roared from 13th place into the lead and fended off fellow playoff hopefuls Daniel Suárez, Haley and Cole Custer at the line. Bowman instead survived as the final wild card recipient, joining Tyler Reddick as the lone non-winners in the field of 16.
Custer held the inside line into Turn 3, where Blaney made his move to the top of the track and in front of the pack. He had never finished higher than 11th in a Cup Series race at the World Center of Racing, including a 21st-place showing in February’s Daytona 500.
Yet, Custer led seven laps — compared to two in his previous 25 starts — and had a look at an unlikely victory and a return to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
“You just hope you’re in the mix at the end of these speedway races,” Custer said. “We did a great job saving our car, and we had a really good handling car. … It’s definitely got me kicking myself with what I could have done different.”
Haley, who won the 2019 summer Cup Series event at Daytona, endured a difficult campaign prior to Saturday with more DNFs (two) than top-10 showings (one). He ended in third, the middle of a three-wide sandwich behind Blaney.
“If you had talked to me at the beginning of the weekend, I’d have said I would have won the Xfinity race. And this one, I probably would have wrecked running 30th with how my season’s going,” Haley said.
A pair of the sport’s biggest personalities join Jones, Suárez and Custer on the wrong side of the bubble. Kyle Busch was swept up in the same wreck as Bowman, continuing his two-year drought. Brad Keselowski sits 22nd in points despite eight top-10s.
Bowman told Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass he owed Blaney “7 million beers” for his come-from-behind triumph, an offer Blaney happily accepted in his post-race press conference.
“Oh. Save him some money. I’ll take 5 million,” Blaney said. “But yeah, someone told me that he got in because I won. Like, if the 41, the 7, the 99 would’ve won, he would’ve have been out. I’ll take that offer. I do need a refill if he’s still here. I can start with one.”
