For simply the third time this yr, a NASCAR Cup Collection race will characteristic a full discipline of vehicles. The Daytona 500 and the spring Talladega race are the one different races this yr that featured DNQ(s).
Daytona Worldwide Speedway will host the common season finale, with the 2026 Chase grid set on Saturday evening.
Together with the anticipated 36 chartered entries, there are 5 open groups exhibiting up as properly. The slowest amongst them will probably be despatched house after Friday qualifying.
Here is a take a look at the 5 drivers and groups:
No. 44 NY Racing Group Chevrolet
Photograph by: Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos
Driver: The 33-year-old Gase has 94 earlier Cup begins since 2014, and is trying to make his second begin of the 2026 season. His finest exhibiting on the Cup stage got here at Talladega, incomes a career-best end of seventeenth in 2020. His career-best Cup end at Daytona is twentieth.
Group: NY Racing Group didn’t qualify for the 2026 Daytona 500 with JJ Yeley, however made the present at Talladega within the spring with Gase after qualifying was rained out. Ought to they make this weekend’s race, it will likely be their fifth look of the yr.
Casey Mears, No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet
Photograph by: David Allio/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos
Driver: Mears is by far essentially the most skilled driver among the many open entries. The 48-year-old has 497 profession begins with one Cup win (2007 Coke 600). That is all a part of his mission to succeed in 500 profession begins. Mears completed second within the 2006 Daytona 500, and positioned as excessive as fourth in the summertime Daytona race in 2014.
Group: The group has an alliance with RCR and has entered dozens of Cup races previously decade, primarily specializing in superspeedways. They’ve positioned as excessive as fifth at Daytona and sixth at Talladega, however didn’t qualify for each races that featured go-or-go-homers this yr. They’ve managed to begin two different races this yr, each with Mears.
Storage 66 Ford
Photograph by: Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos
Driver: Gaulding, 28, is trying to make his first Cup begin in simply over three years. He has 60 profession begins on the prime stage of the game, inserting as excessive as ninth at Talladega in 2019. At Daytona, his finest Cup exhibiting is twentieth within the 2018 Daytona 500. This yr, he has only one begin in any of the three nationwide divisions, ending twenty eighth in a NASCAR O’Reilly race at Bristol.
Group: The Carl Lengthy-owned group is the one open entry representing Ford, and they’re trying to make their twelfth begin of the yr. Gaulding would be the group’s fifth totally different driver this season as properly. They raced their means into the 2026 Daytona 500 with Mears, ending thirty second.
Corey Heim — No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota
Corey Heim, 23XI Racing
Photograph by: Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos
Driver: Heim, 24, has had fairly the yr as a part-time driver, breaking data and gorgeous the storage as he claimed his first-career win on the San Diego Avenue Course. However he wasn’t accomplished, additionally successful the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway just a few weeks later. If he makes the race, this will probably be Heim’s ninth begin of the 2026 season.
Group: 23XI is the strongest of all of the open groups on this checklist, and in contrast to the opposite 4 single-car operations, this automotive is a part of a mega group that options three full-time and chartered entries. The No. 67 entry hasn’t didn’t qualify because the 2025 Chicago Avenue Course race.
Daniel Dye, Stay Quick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photograph by: David Allio/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos
Driver: Dye, 22, signed a four-race cope with the Stay Quick Motorsports group earlier within the yr. He started the yr as a full-time NASCAR Truck Collection driver for Kaulig and Ram, however they parted methods after his suspension for distasteful feedback he made on a livestream. He has since accomplished sensitivity coaching and returned to competitors elsewhere. Dye continues to be pretty new to the Cup Collection, making his debut at Talladega within the spring. If he makes the present, Daytona will probably be simply his fourth profession begin — all this yr.
Group: The BJ McLeod-owned group has made eight begins this season, with McLeod himself driving the automotive together with Dye and Katherine Legge. As soon as a full-time entry earlier than promoting its constitution for round $40 million, the group now seems in a handful of races yearly, and it has simply two prime ten finishes — each at Daytona (ninth in 2021 summer season race and seventh in 2022 summer season race).
2026 Coke Zero Sugar 400 — NASCAR Cup Daytona entry checklist
Open entries italicized
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