The field has been set in the Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship, and it happened in dramatic fashion during Saturday night's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Ryan Preece took the victory after a frantic overtime sprint that saw multiple accidents on the last lap, and in doing so knocked Shane van Gisbergen out of the field. Oh, the irony of a last-minute win-and-in scenario determining the Chase's final spot a year after NASCAR eliminated that element from its postseason format.
And it gets funnier. A lot funnier.
Ryan Preece won his way into the Chase, which is hilariously ironic for multiple reasons
Not only did someone win their way in 2004 Jeremy Mayfield-style, but it came from a driver who hadn't previously recorded a single top five finish in 2026. In 25 prior races, Preece's best result this season was eighth, three different times.
Preece's performance this season has largely been the type of low-variance mediocrity that exposes the flaws with this format and its grossly oversized field. The fact that he had a chance to make the Chase at all, even with a 25-point penalty for intentionally wrecking Ty Gibbs at Texas Motor Speedway, speaks to how flawed NASCAR's points system is for its bias toward minimizing loss as opposed to maximizing gain.
Suffice to say, Preece was one of the last drivers you'd have expected to come through in a do-or-die situation. Not that it requires much in the way of world-class skill to win at Daytona these days, but to his credit, he was one of the most impressive drivers all night. The Connecticut native recorded the race's best driver rating and second-best average running position, all after battling back from being involved an incident on the final lap of the opening stage.
The victory was also the first of Preece's career that counted for points, though he did win the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium this year. He had previously run 248 Cup Series races with a career-best finish of third.
And, of course, another kicker here is that this happened at Daytona, a track at which Preece has had multiple horrifying accidents. He went upside-down in both the 2023 summer event and the 2025 Daytona 500, the former resulting in a vicious series of pirouettes through the air.
All in all, the script writers couldn't have possibly come up with a more fitting outcome for this one. At least when Preece ultimately finishes 15th or 16th in points in a few months, we'll have something worth remembering his season for.
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