Ryan Blaney secures NASCAR Cup win at Daytona with final-lap move
Ryan Blaney made a last-lap pass on Cole Custer to secure his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of 2025 in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Daniel Suarez, Justin Haley, Cole Custer, and Erik Jones — all needing victories to advance to the playoffs — secured second-fifth places respectively.
Blaney said he chose to work with Custer on the restart with eight laps to go.
“The opportunity came, and (Cole) made a good movie into the top, and we were able to really do good shoves and a couple of good guys behind us, and they had just kind of cleared the way for me when the 7 and 41 got racing, and I was able to clear on the top and just barely hold out for the win,” Blaney said. “So cool night, man.”
The Daytona win was Ryan Blaney’s 15th of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
NASCAR Cup Series’ Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona Results
Final Stage
Lap 153: Restart with eight laps to go. Jones the leader.
Lap 148: Caution for a Joey Logano spin from the lead out of Turn 4 aftear appearing to get loose and making contact with the nose of Chris Buescher’s No. 17 car.
Lap 147: Jones leads the outside lane, Logano leads the low line.
Lap 144: Logano and Jones battle for the lead.
Lap 140: 20 laps to go. B.J. McLeod slow on the track but continues. Logano leads
Lap 131: Joey Logano has led 14 laps and counting during this stretch.
Lap 121: Logano continues to lead. Erik Jones leads the bottom lane, side-by-side with Logano.
Lap 115: Back to green, 45 laps to go. Joey Logano is the leader, Austin Dillon on the front row.
Lap 109: Caution for a slow Denny Hamlin. Appears to have blown a tire.
Lap 104: Casey Mears has another flat tire and takes his No. 66 back to pit road. He was on the lead lap. Race is still green.
Lap 102: Christopher Bell and John Hunter Nemechek lead the field back to the green flag.
Stage 2 winner: Ross Chastain
Lap 95: Ross Chastain wins the stage. Top-10: Chastain, Bell, Logano, Byron, Nemechek, Blaney, Briscoe, Preece, Gibbs, Larson
Lap 94: Logano leads to the white flag lap of Stage 2.
Lap 91: Logano and Byron battle for the lead, Logano prevails.
Lap 88: Green flag with 8 to go in Stage 2. Byron and Elliott start on the front row.
Lap 82: Carson Hocevar with engine issues. He was running 24th. Caution displayed, Denny Hamlin is the free pass and he will get back on the lead lap.
Lap 80: Halfway through the race. Cole Custer leads.
Lap 79: Logano gets a push from his former Penske teammate Keselowski to the lead.
Lap 74: Two and three-wide across the field as the lead continues to swap with Chastain, McDowell and Ware.
Lap 67: SVG becomes the ninth different leader.
Lap 65: Halfway through Stage 2, Ross Chastain pushes to the lead with help from Preece and SVG.
Lap 61: Ty Dillon cycles to the lead.
Lap 50: Cody Ware continues to lead at Daytona with a Ford parade behind single file: Keselowski, Berry and Buescher.
Lap 44: Ware and Nemechek are leading the field in two lines; Ware on the inside, Nemechek on the outside.
Lap 42: Back to green, Cody Ware and Brad Keselowski lead the field back to the green.
Stage 1 winner: Kyle Larson
Lap 35: Kyle Larson wins Stage 1. Top-10: Larson, Chastain, Blaney, McDowell, Haley, Logano, Gilliland, Preece, Briscoe, Bell
Lap 33: 2 to go in Stage 1. Green flag with Michael McDowell and Ryan Blaney on the front row.
Lap 30: Back to yellow. Red flag time, per NASCAR: 8 minutes, 30 seconds.
There's more trouble!
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 24, 2025
This time, it's at the front of the pack! pic.twitter.com/1pU8aUCfqv
Lap 27: Red flag. Drivers involved include Bowman, Busch, Cindric, Hamlin, Herbst, Hill, Logano, Smith, Stenhouse Jr., and Wallace. Wallace spun from contact off of Logano’s No. 22 front bumper while in the tri-oval while running third, causing the chain of events.
Lap 27: The Big One strikes at Daytona in the tri-oval.
Lap 23: Back to green. Bubba Wallace leads with help from Ryan Blaney.
Not an ideal moment for Tyler Reddick as he and Todd Gilliland collide!
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 24, 2025
🎥: @NASCAR | 📺 NBC & Peacockpic.twitter.com/597DSbQuoX
Lap 19: Caution. Tyler Reddick crashes with Todd Gilliland exiting Turn 4. Reddick made contact with the inside retaining wall prior to pit road.
Lap 16: Green flag after the caution. Blaney leads with a push from Logano.
Lap 10: Caution for a Casey Mears spin. William Byron get the free pass to get back on the lead lap.
Lap 10: Ryan Blaney has led the opening 10 laps. Daniel Suarez challenges for the lead.
Lap 6: Byron goes a lap down.
Lap 5: Blaney, Logano, Hamlin, Keselowski, and Suarez lead the Top-5.
Lap 3: Blaney and Logano lead the field.
Lap 1: Blaney leads lap 1, Byron serves penalty.
Lap 0: Ryan Blaney leads the field to the green flag alongside Alex Bowman.
7:44 p.m.: W
Pre-race updates (all times Eastern)
7:50 p.m.: Drivers are pacing around Daytona International Speedway for warm-up laps.
7:44 p.m.: WWE star Kevin Owens gives the command for engines to fire.
7:32 p.m.: Kelly Kwiatek performs the National Anthem.
7:30 p.m.: Pre-race ceremonies are underway. Humpy Wheeler is honored with a moment of silence ahead of the pre-race prayer from Eddie Goncalves.
7 p.m.: Driver intros are underway
The No. 44 of Joey Gase will drop to the rear and No. 24 William Byron will have to perform a stop-and-go penalty after the green flag because of unapproved adjustments after Friday inspection.
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.