For just the fifth time in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season and the first since the Chicago Street Course produced the first non-Daytona 500 DNQ since 2018 in early July, the Cup Series is set to see a full field of 40 cars for this Saturday night's Coke Zero Sugar 400 regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway, which actually saw 41 cars to open the season with the Daytona 500 back in February.
This past weekend's race at Richmond Raceway featured 38 cars, including two part-time non-chartered (open) entries. One of those two open cars won't be back at Daytona, while another one is set to have a new driver.
23XI Racing have not entered the No. 67 Toyota, which was driven by Corey Heim at Richmond, in Saturday's 160-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval.
Richard Childress Racing have entered the No. 33 Chevrolet, but after Jesse Love drove it at Richmond, Austin Hill is set to make his first Cup start since delivering the No. 33 car its best result since 2011 on the streets of Chicago.
3 more teams adding cars for Daytona
The other three teams set to enter part-time entries this weekend include NY Racing Team, Garage 66 (formerly MBM Motorsports), and Live Fast Motorsports, three part-time teams that have competed fairly regularly throughout the 2025 Cup Series season.
Set to drive the No. 44 Chevrolet for NY Racing Team for the first time this season is Joey Gase, who recently competed for Garage 66 at Iowa Speedway. As for Garage 66, they are set to field the No. 66 Ford for Casey Mears, who made his first start since 2019 back in March at Martinsville Speedway.
Then there is Live Fast Motorsports, which have ironically had their best season ever in what is only their second season of part-time action. Following a strong stretch of races by Katherine Legge, team owner B.J. McLeod is set to pilot the No. 78 Chevrolet this weekend. He most recently finished in 16th place at Atlanta Motor Speedway in late June, which was the team's third-best finish of all-time.
With the entry list featuring 40 cars, rather than 41, all open entries, including the six full-time 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports cars, are locked into the regular season finale.
The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is set to be shown live on NBC from Daytona International Speedway beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET this Saturday, August 23. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the "World Center of Racing"!