Ryan Blaney enters Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the Daytona International Speedway as the defending winner of the Coke Zero Sugar 400. The driver of the No. 12 started on the pole, led 27 laps and executed a last-lap pass to win last year’s 160-lap race.
This Saturday at Daytona, Blaney enters with momentum after securing the checkered flag last Sunday at New Hampshire. It was Blaney’s third win of the 2026 season and his second straight at New Hampshire.
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The 2023 Cup Series champion is gunning for his fourth win of the 2026 campaign, his 21st career win overall and his third career win at the Daytona International Speedway. It would also be the third straight Cup win for Team Penske following Joey Logano’s victory at Richmond two races ago.
If Blaney is triumphant at Daytona, it will mark the second time the 32-year-old has won back-to-back Cup Series races in his career. Blaney earned back-to-back Cup victories at Michigan and Daytona, respectively, in 2021.
Ryan Blaney secured thrilling Daytona win last year
Blaney was the first across the finish line in last year’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, but he was not leading at the white flag. Aiming to pull off an upset victory and make the playoffs, Cole Custer led the lead pack of Cup Series cars to the white flag.
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As the field charged down the 3,000-foot-long Daytona backstretch, known as the “superstretch,” the Team Penske star made his move past Custer and fended off Daniel Suarez, Justin Haley, and Custer to take the checkered flag in a four-wide photo finish. It was Blaney’s third of four wins in the 2025 Cup Series season.
Suarez took runner-up, followed by Haley in third, Custer in fourth, and Erik Jones rounded out the top five.
Kyle Larson was the victor of stage one, while Ross Chastain took stage two. Blaney and Team Penske teammate Joey Logano tied for the most laps led in the race, pacing the field for 27 circuits apiece.
The race saw eight cautions for 39 laps with the average green flag run reaching just over 13 laps. One notable incident from the race was a multi-car crash on lap 28 that collected 12 cars, including Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, and Carson Hocevar.
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Will Ryan Blaney recreate Daytona magic on Saturday?
Blaney is undoubtedly one of the best drafting-track racers in the Cup Series. The North Carolina native has six wins on drafting tracks, with three coming at Talladega, two at Daytona, and one at EchoPark Speedway.
Blaney’s EchoPark Speedway triumph came earlier this year, where he put on a clinic by leading a whopping 171 of 263 laps en route to victory.
Blaney will aim to build on the momentum from his New Hampshire. While Denny Hamlin clinched the top seed for The Chase, Blaney holds a 44-point advantage over Ty Gibbs for the second position in the standings.
