Micah Roberts' Top-10 Finish Prediction: 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona

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1 #6 Brad Keselowski (12/1) – He leads all active drivers with seven superspeedway wins, six of them at Talladega, but he’s still a player at Daytona with 239 laps led over 28 starts. He’s led the most laps (109) in the last two Daytona 500s and I expect him to find the front again and lead some more. No wins in his two seasons as part owner of RFK Racing but his teammate Chris Buescher has won twice recently. This team is going in the right direction and I see him running a great game plan. Shop around for the best price.

2 #3 Austin Dillon (25/1) – Can you believe there are 28 drivers ahead of Dillon in the standings? It’s been a miserable season. Just one top-five in the first 25 races. Stick a fork in him, he’s done. But is he? He won this race last season to make the playoffs. He won the 2018 Daytona 500. He has the second-best average finish (15.6) at Daytona among all active drivers. He thinks he can win and he’s got a strategy and I bet him because I know he’d wreck his Mama to get the win. For him to win, he’s going to need a few “big ones” to limit the number of contenders against him and chances are great that happens.

3 #9 Chase Elliott (12/1) – He’s much better at Talladega than Daytona where he’s averaged a 22nd-place finish in 15 Cup starts. No wins, two top-fives. But this is for a playoff berth. He has to win to make it and he’s NASCAR’s headliner. He’s the golden boy. He’s why we have all these road courses because he was the best at them. The idea was he would always be in the playoffs because he was sure to win at least one race on the road course. But he hasn’t won on the roads in two years since the NextGen car was introduced. If you believe in conspiracies, you would certainly bet on Elliott.

4 #23 Bubba Wallace (17/1) - He’s got a comfortable 32-point lead but as soon as you try to stay out of trouble, trouble finds you. It’s racing at Daytona. It’s best to stay out of trouble by running up front and I think he can do it for most of the race, and then not let out any daring moves until the laps 10 laps. He can guarantee a playoff spot by just winning the race. He has four top-fives in 12 Daytona starts.

5 #22 Joey Logano (12/1) - He’s one of the better superspeedway drivers and I’ll have a bet on him at a better price than Caesars. He won the 2015 Daytona 500, but it’s what he’s done with the NextGen car recently that has me liking him this week. He was runner-up in February’s Daytona 500 after winning one of the Duels three days earlier. He leads laps almost every time he’s been racing at Daytona.

6 #12 Ryan Blaney (12/1) - He was eighth in February’s Daytona 500 and he was fourth in it in 2022. He won at Daytona in the summer of 2021 and he was runner-up in the 2020 Daytona 500. Like his teammate Logano, he’s always got a car set up to lead laps and put himself into position to win.

7 #34 Michael McDowell (35/1) – He led one lap in the 2021 Daytona 500, the last one, to win his first career Cup race. He won at Indy this season for his second win so he’s not sweating the playoffs. But he was always someone who just hung around until making something happen with five to 10 laps to go. Gotta stay in it to win it and he does it brilliantly.

8 #47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (25/1) - He has no pressure this week because his Daytona 500 wins secured a spot in the playoffs so he can go out and win for his team. He’s been remarkably consistent this season which includes a 12th at Sonoma, a 13th at Watkins Glen, and a seventh at Pocono. All three of his career wins have come on superspeedways. I’ll have a bet on him for sure

9 #11 Denny Hamlin (12/1) - He’s one of the best at manipulating the draft to find speed that his counterparts can’t find. It’s why he’s a three-time Daytona 500 champ and why his 654 laps led at Daytona are the most among active drivers. He has 11 top-fives as well in 35 starts. He’s also running at his best of the season. His crew is on point and I see him winning his first-ever championship.

10 #54 Ty Gibbs (25/1) – He’s got two Daytona Cup starts at Daytona and averaged a 19th-place finish but this one is different. For one, he’s grown up as a driver and is learning new tricks from teammates and other opponents. Secondly, he’s desperate to make the playoffs but he’s in 17th position, one spot out of making the playoffs. One wreck can change the entire landscape of the standings and you can believe the “big one” that happens will take out several of the aggressive desperates.

Chase Briscoe is 35/1 to win 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400

 

CHASE BRISCOE Daytona Advance No. 14 Magical Vacation Planner Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

●  Event:  Coke Zero Sugar 400 (Round 26 of 36) ●  Time/Date:  7 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 26 ●  Location:  Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway ●  Layout:  2.5-mile oval ●  Laps/Miles:  160 laps / 400 miles ●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 40 laps / Stage 2: 40 laps / Final Stage: 80 laps ●  TV/Radio:  NBC / MRN Radio / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Magical Vacation Planner Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing, heads to Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway for one last shot at making the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The regular-season finale marks Briscoe’s sixth Cup Series start at Daytona. His best finish of third on the 2.5-mile oval came in the 2022 Daytona 500, the first race for the NextGen racecar.   ● The Coke Zero Sugar 400 will be the third superspeedway race of the year. The most recent was four months ago at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, where Briscoe drove to a fourth-place finish. It was his third consecutive top-five finish during a streak that included a fifth-place finish in the dirt race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and a fourth-place result at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.   ● Briscoe owns five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Daytona with two top-fives earned and a best result of third in the August 2020 race.    ● He also made one Daytona start each in the NASCAR Truck Series and the ARCA Menards Series. Briscoe finished third in the 2017 Truck Series race and fourth in the 2016 ARCA race.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Magical Vacation Planner Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Last year, you were headed to the August Daytona race already locked into the playoffs. Talk about the difference in preparation for a Daytona race that is your last shot at making this year’s 16-driver playoff lineup. “It’s a big difference. You go in knowing that you want to do anything you can to put yourself in position to win and take your team into the playoffs, but there are going to be a lot of other guys with the same plan. You want to win every race, but maybe if we had already done that, we’d go into this one a little more focused on winning a stage, picking up playoff points, or something like that. Daytona is already a tough race to prepare for. Anything can happen and it makes it tough to stick to a specific strategy. We’ve done well there, so I know we are capable, it’s just going to come down to a lot of good luck and no mistakes on our part to even have a shot at being in position at the end. From there, anything can happen.”   This year’s first Daytona race didn’t end well after you were caught up in an accident with less than 20 laps to go, but you recovered well to finish fourth in the next superspeedway race at Talladega. Does that Talladega finish boost confidence that you can get yourself into that position at the end? “Yeah, I think so. We were executing really well at Daytona before that wreck took us out, and then we went to Talladega and were able to stick it out until the end and come out with a good finish. So, that’s why I say I know we are capable. Unfortunately, a lot of what happens will probably be out of our control, but I think we’ll show up with a fast car and we know the Fords usually do really well on the superspeedways.”

Christopher Bell is 25/1 to win 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400

Christopher Bell / No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota Camry TRD Preview

Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway

 

No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota Camry TRD News and Notes:

• BELL AT DAYTONA:  Christopher Bell will make his seventh NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) start at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) this weekend. Bell’s best finish of third came earlier this season at the Daytona 500.
• BELL NXS AT DAYTONA: Bell has five NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) starts at DIS, earning two top-five and four top-10 finishes.
• REGULAR SEASON STATS: Bell heads into the final race before the NCS Playoffs with one win, two poles, 259 laps led, six top-five and 13 top-10 finishes. Bell currently ranks fourth in the NCS standings.
• WATKINS GLEN RECAP: Bell qualified seventh at Watkins Glen International and over long green flag runs steadily made gains around the 2.45-mile road course, ultimately crossing the finish line third in his No. 20 Toyota Camry TRD.   
• JGR AT DAYTONA: Joe Gibbs Racing owns eight NCS victories at DIS. In 167 combined starts, the organization has tallied 37 top-five finishes, 52 top-10s and 2,098 laps led.
• RACE INFO: The Coke Zero Sugar 400 at DIS begins at 7:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 26, 2023. The race will be broadcast live on NBC, Sirius XM 90, and MRN Radio.

 

From the Cockpit:

Christopher Bell: “I’m thankful to be locked into the playoffs already and not having to worry about the outcome of Daytona. This is our last opportunity to get some more bonus points before the playoffs start, so hopefully we can make the most of it.”

 

Bell’s Career NASCAR Cup Series Stats at Daytona International Speedway:

Starts	Wins	Top 5	Top 10	Poles	Laps Led	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
7	0	1	1	0	62	11.6	22.1

 

Bell’s 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Season Stats:

Starts	Wins	Top 5	Top 10	Poles	Laps Led	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
25	1	6	13	2	259	10.7	13.5

 

Bell’s Career NASCAR Cup Series Season Stats:

Starts	Wins	Top 5	Top 10	Poles	Laps Led	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
133	5	27	56	6	950	14.4	16.0

 

 

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Ty Gibbs is 25/1 to win at Daytona

Ty Gibbs / No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD Preview

Coke Zero 400

 

No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD News and Notes

• FIRST SEASON: Ty Gibbs is competing in his first full NASCAR Cup Series season driving the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD.
• 2023: Gibbs is 17^th in the NASCAR point standings and has scored two top-five finishes (fifth at both Pocono and Watkins Glen) and seven top-10 finishes at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, Richmond (Va.) Raceway, Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, the Chicago Street Circuit, Pocono Raceway and Watkins Glen. He is 32 points out of the NASCAR playoffs cut line with one race remaining until the playoffs.
• Gibbs has finished in the top-15 in 13 of the 25 Cup Series events.
• DAYTONA: Gibbs has only two Cup Series start at Daytona with a best finish of 13^th in the 2022 Coke Zero 400. Gibbs has started two Xfinity races with a best finish of seventh in the fall of 2022. He finished fourth in the ARCA Series in 2021.
• NEW RECORD: Gibbs is the youngest driver ever to reach 12 victories in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at age 20 years, 10 months, one week and one day old. The previous record was held by Joey Logano.
• 2021: Gibbs completed in only 18 Xfinity races in 2021, but won four races and finished 13^th in the Xfinity Series final driver point standings. That earned him the Xfinity Rookie of the Year award.
• WHAT A DEBUT: In Gibbs’ Xfinity Series debut in February 2021 at the Daytona Road Course, he led 14 of the 56 laps en route to his first career Xfinity Series win. Gibbs became the youngest driver to win a Xfinity road course race at 18 years, 4 months, 16 days. The Charlotte, N.C., native also became the second-youngest winner in Xfinity Series history after Joey Logano who won in June 2008 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta when he was 18 years and 21 days old.
• IN GOOD COMPANY: Gibbs is the sixth driver to win in his Xfinity Series debut, joining Dale Earnhardt, Joe Ruttman, Ricky Rudd, Terry Labonte and Kurt Busch. Those five drivers had already driven in the NASCAR Cup Series before racing in the Xfinity Series.
• ARCA CHAMPIONS: Gibbs became the 2021 ARCA Menard Series Champions on the strength of 10 wins, plus one win each in ARCA West and ARCA East.
• ATOP THE PIT BOX: Veteran crew chief Chris Gayle will oversee the No. 54 team’s efforts in the 2023 season. Gale, who is from Little Rock, Arkansas, has led his drivers to two NASCAR Cup Series victories and 37 Xfinity Series wins. He was also the crew chief of the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship with Gibbs. The list of drivers Gayle has visited victory lane with includes Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Sam Hornish Jr., Erik Jones, Elliott Sadler, Christopher Bell and John Hunter Nemechek.
• JGR AT DAYTONA: Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has 167 total starts at Daytona in Cup competition with eight wins, 37 top-five and 52 top-10 finishes and the team has led 2,098 laps.
• RACE INFO: The NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona is scheduled for 7 pm EDT on Saturday, August 26 and will be broadcast on NBC, SiriusXM Channel 90 and MRN.

 

Ty Gibbs, Driver of the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD

“We ran well at Watkins Glen, but it’s almost a must win at Daytona. We just have to be there at the end to have a shot at it. We’re 32 points out, but we’ll do our best. I know Chris Gayle and the Monster Energy crew will bring me a great Toyota Camry TRD.”

 

 

Gibbs 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Stats

Starts	Wins	Top 5	Top 10	Poles	Laps Led	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
25	0	2	7	0	9	14.7	17.4

 

 

Gibbs 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Stats

Starts	Wins	Top 5	Top 10	Poles	Laps Led	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
15	0	0	1	0	2	17.0	22.9