The Coke Zero 400 race at Daytona was the final regular-season race before the start of the 10-race Chase. Ryan Preece clinched his first Cup Series win and sealed his spot in the post-season title run. While the final few laps of the race had all the drama, there was another major talking point after the race: the new superspeedway package. And the response within the garage was mixed. 

Christopher Bell’s comments in particular stood out as he was left disappointed. “It wasn’t very different at all, which I was really disappointed in because I bought into it… I really thought we were going to see a drastically different race. Arguably, it was worse because of the lower pace,” Bell said in a post-race interview. 

The new package rolled out by NASCAR featured a spoiler that was reduced from 7 to 4 inches, similar to the intermediate tracks, to decrease the drag. But this was mitigated by lower the horsepower of the engines from 510 to 465. This, in theory, would’ve scattered the cars across the track and stop them from being gridlocked in 2 packs at the bottom and top lanes.

The first stage in particular saw a visible difference as drivers were going all out. SVG getting into the back of Kyle Larson sparked a crash to end the stage. But later in the final stage, the fuel-saving mode returned, and a lot of drivers tried to make it to the end with the help of cautions. The race winner, Ryan Preece also stretched the fuel window and made it to the start-finish line. 

Ross Chastain, Connor Zilisch, and Austin Dillon pitted early for fuel and tried to chase the lead pack. They were chasing the Hendrick Motorsports trio of Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Kyle Larson. The HMS drivers intentionally ran full throttle in hopes of increasing the lap times, but this tactic flipped on them as they had pit under green with 17 laps to go. 

With reduced power, the handling didn’t play a huge role and this in turn allowed the teams to settle back into fuel-saving mode. But not everyone had a similar view of the new package as Christopher Bell. 

“Yeah it wasn’t as different as I thought it would be. I mean to try it was fun, handling came into it little bit but not as much as everybody was hoping for. Maybe go more,” Joey Logano said after the race. According to him, there was a visible change to how the cars behaved on track, but he is hoping for more aggressive changes. 

The final laps chaos remains unchanged. Zane Smith was leading the field and was trying his best to hold onto the lead in the overtime finish. All of a sudden the blocks became too aggressive, the bumps were harder, and it felt like the big one could happen any moment. And it did. 

Preece made a move while exiting Turns 1 and 2 onto the No. 38 car. Smith was caught playing defence trying to cover the top lane, and the bottom lane. Tyler Reddick, who surged on the top lane made contact with Smith, and this led to a big one. Multiple cars got collected and NASCAR threw in the caution. 

This ending felt like a typical Daytona race. Drivers holding and preserving right until the final laps, where a crash ultimately decides the race. Perhaps NASCAR should go back to 510 horsepower and go more aggressive in the hopes to reduce the fuel saving tactics. But again, this was their first attempt in trying to find the superspeedway package, and hopefully this experimentation continues.