The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season is set to come to an end this Saturday night under the lights at Daytona International Speedway with the Coke Zero Sugar 400.
There are three spots still up for grabs in the upcoming 10-race, 16-driver postseason, and two drivers have the ability to jump up from below the provisional cut line and take them away from those who currently possess them.
The entry list for this 160-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval features 41 cars, making it just the third non-Daytona 500 race since November 2018 to feature an entry list with more than 40 cars.
6 changes confirmed for Daytona since New Hampshire
This past weekend's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway featured only the 36 full-time chartered entries, so five of this week's changes have to do with the additions of the five non-chartered (open) cars.
Joey Gase is set to drive the No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet, Casey Mears is set to drive the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet, Gray Gaulding is set to drive the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford, Corey Heim is set to drive the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota, and Daniel Dye is set to drive the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet.
The No. 44 car was most recently entered at Chicagoland Speedway in early July, but Gase hasn't driven it since the race at Talladega Superspeedway in late April. The No. 66 car was most recently entered two weekends at Richmond Raceway, but Gaulding has never run a Cup race for the team and hasn't competed in the series at all since June 2023.
Mears, Heim, and Dye all most recently competed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in late July, and none of their cars have been entered since, up until this weekend. Heim won that race at Indy, giving him two wins in his three most recent starts.
Notably, one of these five drivers will fail to qualify for this weekend's race, since Cup Series races are limited to 40 cars when the Open Exemption Provisional is not used, which it will not be this weekend.
The other change this weekend is a car number change. John Hunter Nemechek is the full-time driver of the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota, but the car was renumbered to No. 40 for the New Hampshire race as a nod to longtime primary sponsor and race title sponsor Dollar Tree. But this weekend, the No. 42 is back.
NBC's live coverage of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 28. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from Daytona International Speedway!
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