For simply the third time this yr, a NASCAR Cup Collection race will function a full area of automobiles. 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 displaying up as effectively. The slowest amongst them shall be despatched house after Friday qualifying.
This is a have a look at the 5 drivers and groups:
No. 44 NY Racing Group Chevrolet
Photograph by: Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photographs
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 displaying 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 did not 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 through Getty Photographs
Driver: Mears is by far probably 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 workforce 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 did not 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 through Getty Photographs
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 displaying 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 workforce is the one open entry representing Ford, and they’re trying to make their twelfth begin of the yr. Gaulding would be the workforce’s fifth totally different driver this season as effectively. They raced their manner 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 through Getty Photographs
Driver: Heim, 24, has had fairly the yr as a part-time driver, breaking information and beautiful the storage as he claimed his first-career win on the San Diego Avenue Course. However he wasn’t completed, additionally successful the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway just a few weeks later. If he makes the race, this shall be Heim’s ninth begin of the 2026 season.
Group: 23XI is the strongest of all of the open groups on this record, and in contrast to the opposite 4 single-car operations, this automobile is a part of a mega group that options three full-time and chartered entries. The No. 67 entry hasn’t did not qualify for the reason that 2025 Chicago Avenue Course race.
Daniel Dye, Dwell Quick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photograph by: David Allio/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photographs
Driver: Dye, 22, signed a four-race take care of the Dwell Quick Motorsports workforce 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 shall be simply his fourth profession begin — all this yr.
Group: The BJ McLeod-owned workforce has made eight begins this season, with McLeod himself driving the automobile together with Dye and Katherine Legge. As soon as a full-time entry earlier than promoting its constitution for round $40 million, the workforce 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 record
Open entries italicized
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