Saturday's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway is set to bring an end to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, and while the main focus will be on which drivers can secure the last three open spots in the 16-driver postseason, first things first: which drivers will actually qualify for the race?
For just the third time in a non-Daytona 500 race since November 2018, there are more than 40 cars on a Cup Series entry list, 41 to be exact, meaning that not all drivers who attempt to qualify for Saturday's 160-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval will be successful in doing so.
With the 36 chartered entries locked into each event, there are five non-chartered (open) cars set to battle for the final four spots in Friday's qualifying session.
Who gets left out if Daytona qualifying is canceled?
But it's August and it's Florida, meaning that there is no guarantee that Friday's qualifying session will actually happen. Five oval qualifying sessions have already been rained out in 2026, and if ever there were a candidate to become the sixth, it would be this one.
In the event that qualifying is rained out, the full 40-car starting lineup would be determined by the reverse order of the qualifying metric, which is based on each car's finish in the most recent race (70%) and its position in the owner standings (30%).
None of the five open cars entered this weekend competed in the most recent race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, meaning that the top four in the owner standings would line up from 37th to 40th in Saturday night's starting lineup, while the lowest of the five would not compete.
And if that happens, Casey Mears and Beard Motorsports would effectively be prevented from competing for the same exact reason that kept them out of the race at Talladega Superspeedway in late April.
The No. 62 team entered Talladega as one of five open cars on the entry list, and it was the only one of the five with no owner points through the season's first nine races.
That was the case because of the fact that, after Anthony Alfredo thought he had qualified the No. 62 Chevrolet for the season-opening Daytona 500 with his performance in his Duel qualifying race, a post-race technical violation resulted in the team being thrown out of the race altogether, and they did not return until Talladega.
Beard Motorsports have made two actual starts since then, but they've only mustered three points. Mears DNFed at both Pocono Raceway (36th, one point) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (35th, two points).
As a result, the No. 62 team sits 44th in the owner standings. The other open teams on this weekend's entry list include the No. 44 NY Racing team, the No. 66 Garage 66 team, the No. 67 23XI Racing team, and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports team. All of them have scored at least 31 points this season, and all have made at least four starts.
Their drivers for this weekend are, in order, Joey Gase, Gray Gaulding, Corey Heim, and Daniel Dye.
Coke Zero Sugar 400 qualiyfing is set to be shown live on TruTV from Daytona International Speedway starting at 5:00 p.m. ET on Friday, and the race itself is set to be shown live on NBC beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 28. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss it!
Add us as a preferred source on Google