PREVIEW: Exciting new pairings and returning superspeedway aces set the stage for competitive weekend in Daytona
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
IMAGE: Josh Williams, @Josh6williams
Friday, August 22, 2025 (Green Flag 7:40 P.M. ET, CW)
XFINITY Race 24 of 33
Wawa 250 at Daytona
2024 Last-Place Finisher: Akinori Ogata
ENTRY LIST
Following the withdrawal of Mike Harmon Racing’s #74 entry at midweek (see below), there are exactly 38 entrants for as many starting spots, so all will qualify.
NEW TEAM: #5-Alpha Prime Racing
Following the final start for Our Motorsports at Dover, four races ago, the team’s Owner Points have since been picked up by Alpha Prime Racing. The team will keep the #5 and use it to field a new fourth entry, the #5 (listed in the entry list as 105 to differentiate it from the Our team). Sponsored by 7-11 and Prime Bites, this car will be driven by team co-owner Caesar Bacarella. This marks Bacarella’s third series start of the year, his first since a 30th-place showing in Talladega, and the 35th of his XFINITY career.
MISSING: #9-JR Motorsports
Not among this week’s entrants is JRM’s part-time #9 entry with which Shane van Gisbergen enjoyed another strong run on the road course in Watkins Glen before a Turn 11 tangle with eventual winner Connor Zilisch put him out in 31st.
DRIVER CHANGE: #11-Kaulig Racing
Two of Justin Haley’s four career XFINITY Series wins came in this race and in this car, scoring back-to-back victories in 2020 and 2021. He should have won a third but for a controversial yellow-line penalty in 2018, but a year later got his revenge with a first Cup win following a lightning hold. Haley last started a XFINITY race in this event two years ago, finishing 10th, but hasn’t piloted the team’s #11 since the 2021 championship race in Phoenix. After his Cup teammate Michael McDowell’s sterling run at Watkins Glen was ruined by contact from Austin Hill, leaving him 25th, expect another strong run from this team tonight.
DRIVER CHANGE: #19-Joe Gibbs Racing
The field includes another past summer Daytona winner in both Cup (2014) and XFINITY (2016) in Aric Almirola, marking his own first XFINITY start since Austin Hill wrecked him in the closing laps at Indianapolis, an incident for which Hill was suspended at Iowa. Almirola takes the place of Cup rookie Riley Herbst, whose engine woes at The Glen left him a distant 36th.
MISSING: #24-Sam Hunt Racing
The Sam Hunt team has not entered its second car, the #24, with which Kaz Grala finished 11th at Watkins Glen, three spots ahead of SHR’s full-timer Dean Thompson.
DRIVER CHANGE: #32-Jordan Anderson Racing
Last Saturday saw Austin Green continue to flex his muscle on the road courses with a 7th-place finish in the Peterson Racing supported effort at the Jordan Anderson team. This time, with the Truck Series off for the week, Rajah Caruth returns to both XFINITY and the Anderson team for the first time since his 22nd-place performance in the rain-shortened race in Dover. This marks Caruth’s first series start in Daytona.
DRIVER CHANGE: #35-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
DRIVER CHANGE: #53-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
Florida native Mason Maggio returns to the series for the first time since the summer race in Atlanta, where he finished 27th in Joey Gase’s #53 entry. This time, he drives Gase’s #35 in place of 21st-place Watkins Glen finisher Glen Reen for what will also be his first XFINITY start at Daytona. Gase himself will join him as teammate, piloting the #53 in place of Austin J. Hill, who finished 20th in his series debut last Saturday.
DRIVER CHANGE: #45-Alpha Prime Racing
Welcome back Josh Williams, who returns to the XFINITY Series for the first time since he lost his ride with Kaulig Racing following Indianapolis, three races ago. Alloy Employer Services, Williams’ longtime backer, joins as an associate, partnering with primary sponsor Optum Health in Williams’ continuing charitable efforts with children’s hospitals. According to Williams’ press release, Optum will also be the primary sponsor on the Charlotte Roval, Las Vegas, and the championship round in Phoenix. This week, he takes the place of Stefan Parsons, who took 19th in Watkins Glen.
DRIVER CHANGE: #70-Cope Family Racing
Leland Honeyman, Jr. returns to the driver’s seat for the Copes, looking to recapture his strong season-opening run at Daytona in February, where he finished 6th in Stage 1 before a last-ap crash left him 21st. This week, he drives a blue-and-white scheme for sponsor DPR Construction. He takes the place of teammate Thomas Annunziata, whose Turn 11 crash at Watkins Glen left him 37th at the checkered flag.
WITHDREW: #74-Mike Harmon Racing
The Harmon team was set to attempt this week’s race with driver Logan Bearden, marking the fourth different car number he’d run in XFINITY this season and his first start since electrical issues at the green flag plagued his last-place finish at Indianapolis. However, the team withdrew at midweek, locking in the remaining 38 starters.
TEAM UPDATE: #88-JR Motorsports
The preliminary entry list showed Connor Zilisch still listed as the driver for the #88, even after surgery on his broken collarbone suffered in the victory lane fall at Watkins Glen. Zilisch has since confirmed he will start, but has Parker Kligerman on standby to likely take over after driving duties after Zilisch starts the race. This would mark Kligerman’s first Daytona race since this year’s win in the Truck Series opener was stripped from him in post-race inspection.
RETURNING: #92-DGM Racing x JIM
Tonight also marks Natalie Decker’s first XFINITY Series start since the birth of her and husband Derek Lemke’s first child, Levi, on February 5th. Carrying the same Wawa sponsorship as the race’s namesake, Decker will make her 13th series start, her first since a 29th-place finish at Charlotte in the spring of 2024. Then as now she drives Mario Gosselin’s part-time #92 entry, which this season has only started one race – C.J. McLaughlin’s 25th-place showing in at Atlanta back in February.
DRIVER CHANGE: #07-SS-Green Light Racing
Patrick Emerling will make his eighth start of this year’s XFINITY Series campaign, his first since a 30th-place showing in Iowa. He takes the place of road course specialist Preston Pardus, whose mechanical issues at Watkins Glen left him 34th at the checkered flag.
CUP INVADERS: None
Saturday, August 23, 2025 (Green Flag 7:55 P.M. ET, NBC)
CUP Race 26 of 36
Regular Season Finale
Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona
2024 Last-Place Finisher: Daniel Suarez
ENTRY LIST
There are 40 drivers entered for as many spots, so all will qualify for only the fifth race out of the 26 regular season events with at least 40 cars on the starting grid.
DRIVER CHANGE: #33-Richard Childress Racing
Following the 16-car pileup he triggered last week in Watkins Glen – a wreck which occurred in his first race back since his dumping of Aric Almirola led to a one-race suspension, Austin Hill arrives at Daytona as one of the favorites to win Saturday’s race, but also the center of controversy. This week, he runs both XFINITY and Cup, taking over the part-time ride that teammate Jesse Love drove to a 33rd-place finish in Richmond. This will be Hill’s 13th career Cup start, his first since a career-best 9th on the Chicago Street Course.
RETURNING / DRIVER CHANGE: #44-NY Racing Team
After the NY Racing Team withdrew from Richmond without a driver listed, the team returns this week for another XFINITY Series driver to pull double-duty. For the second straight year in this race, it’s Joey Gase with his sponsorship from the NFPA, a union that brought home a 20th-place run in 2024. This marks just the second Cup start of the season for Gase, his first since a last-place finish in Carl Long’s “King of the Hill” car at Iowa.
RETURNING: #66-Garage 66
Speaking of Long, his Garage 66 team is back for the first time since that Iowa race. Driving for the first time since his 35th-place showing in this year’s spring race at Martinsville, series veteran Casey Mears. Mears carries sponsorship from S.I. Yachts, a company owned by Mears’ longtime team owner Bob Germain, with associate backing from both Viking Yachts and Acrisure. This will be an interesting team to watch. This past February, the #66 showed impressive speed in the Duels before a mistake by driver Chandler Smith led to a crash and a DNQ. This time, reports indicate Long has leased a Yates engine for the 47-year-old Mears and has a trained pit crew on hand.
MISSING: #67-23XI Racing
Despite an off-weekend for the Truck Series, Corey Heim is not entered along with 23XI’s part-time third team following a 29th-place showing in Richmond.
RETURNING: #78-Live Fast Motorsports
The other underdog to watch on Saturday will again by B.J. McLeod, whose Live Fast team has continued to impress on its part-time schedule, both with McLeod and recent hire Katherine Legge. Carrying returning sponsorship from the Pigeon Forge Racing Coaster, McLeod embarks on his fourth start of the 2025 season and first since a season-best 16th in the summer race at Atlanta. Returning to the site of the two best finishes of his Cup career as one of 40 entries for as many spots, McLeod is already assured of bouncing back from his DNQ in this year’s Daytona 500.
Saturday, August 30, 2025
TRUCKS Race 19 of 25
Round of 10: Race 1 of 3
Buckle Up South Carolina 200 at Darlington
2024 Last-Place Finisher (May): Kyle Busch
The Truck Series returns next week to kick off their Playoffs in Darlington.
TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (August 22, 1993): Dick McCabe picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Busch Series career in the NE Chevy 250 at New Hampshire when his #0 Fisher Snow Plows Pontiac lost the engine after 18 of 250 laps. Starting 44th and last that day was Martin Truex (father of Martin Truex, Jr.), who rebounded to finish 13th.
