DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A 18 car pileup and tons of rain from Mother Nature played havoc with Sunday afternoon’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, but at the end of the day, five drivers inside the top-10 earned their career-best Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series finish.
Justin Haley with a gutsy call survived two lightning warnings to win his first career Cup Series race in only his third career start driving the No. 77 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Spire Motorsports. The startup team who purchased their charter from the defunct Furniture Row Racing wins the race in a major upset.
“It’s absolutely a blessing. It’s pretty incredible that I have so many great people around me that have given me this opportunity to come here to this level and stage that we are performing on,” said Haley.
“Obviously Todd and my family have done a great job, but the Fraternal Order of Eagles has given me this opportunity with Spire Motorsports and its truly a blessing. I never even saw myself running a Cup race until I got a call a few months ago to do Talladega. It’s just unreal and I don’t know how to put it. I don’t know how to feel.”
Continuing to showcase his potential in his sophomore season of Cup competition, William Byron earned his first career top-five finish in his fourth Cup start at Daytona Sunday afternoon.
After starting his July 4th weekend with fireworks in a collision with Brad Keselowski during practice on Thursday, Byron drafted a backup No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro through the field and escaped the madness of an 18-car crash on Lap 118 to finish second.
While Byron likely would have contended for the victory had the race been restarted, the confidence continues to build for the Charlotte, N.C.-native, including the wave of back-to-back top-10 finishes after finishing eighth at Chicagoland (Ill.) Speedway last weekend.
“It took us a little while to get to the front from the back and finish second. So that was good,” offered Byron.”
“it would have been cool to win, for sure. But, it would have been a really weird way to win. So, I’m glad that we got the day out of it that we did. I would have liked to go back racing and win it the way I wanted to, but our team did a great job this week managing all the chaos and finishing second with a back-up car is pretty good. Overall it was a good race for us.”
Ty Dillon in his 108th career Cup Series start earns his third top-10 finish at Daytona but delivers a career-best fourth place finish in the No. 13 Geico Chevrolet for Germain Racing. Dillon showcased a fast car on Sunday but threaded the needle during the “Big One” on Lap 118 to bookend top-10 finishes at Daytona in 2019.
Impressive enough for Dillon, Sunday’s finish was his third straight top-10 finishes with two prior finishes of sixth at the “World Center of Racing” dating back to July 2018.
“We didn’t have a chance to race for the win, but this was a first top-five and best finish ever and I’m pretty pleased with that,” added Dillon. “I’m thrilled for our Germain Racing Team. It’s a nice little shot in the arm for our team to get the second half of the season going. There has been a little bit of disappointment the last couple of weeks.
“So, to be able to have a good finish is going to catapult us in the second half of the season. And hopefully, we continue to build off that momentum. I’m proud of our effort today. Sometimes it just seems to work out.”
Fighting for position as the driver of the No. 32 GoFas Racing Ford Mustang, Corey Lajoie survived on Sunday to earn his first career top-10 finish in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition.
While nestled mid-pack throughout much of the race, Lajoie gingerly emerged from the race’s “big one” to claim a sixth-place finish and his best effort since finishing 12th in May’s Coca-Cola 600.
Before Sunday’s result, Lajoie earned a season-best 11th with the team at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in April.
For car owner Archie St. Hilaire, it was just his fourth top-10 in Cup Series competition in 188 races.
“Sixth for us, no matter what the circumstance, is a good day,” If you told me I could take a sixth-place finish before we even started I would have taken it to the bank and ran with it. That’s cool for Justin. That’s obviously not how he wanted to win his first race, but at the end of the day there’s no asterisk in the record book and there’s no asterisk in the record book for finishing sixth, either.
“We had a good Shine Armor car. Our tactic was just to ride and try to miss those big ones and that’s what we did. In hindsight, we shouldn’t have pitted and we probably could have ended up second, but coulda, woulda, shoulda.”
In his 18th career Cup Series start, Matt Tifft earned his first career top-10 finish with Front Row Motorsports.
In another game of survival, Tifft saw his No. 38 Ron Jon Surf Shop Ford Mustang damaged earlier in the race but not enough to deny the 23-year-old a ninth-place result.
“Honestly, for us it doesn’t matter how we get it a top 10 is huge for our team and for Front Row Motorsports any top 10 is awesome,” offered Tifft. “It’s definitely one we’ll celebrate here and a ninth-place finish for our team is awesome. We put ourselves in spots through the race to make sure we were not getting caught up in the big ones and it worked out for us to get a good finish out of it.
“I probably would have liked to have gotten back going because I felt like we were one of the cars that didn’t have damage, but our Ron Jon Surf Shops Ford Mustang was there at the end inside the top 10, so that’s awesome.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
