MENU
17 races are completed in the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Series Cup. The next stop of the season is the 2019 Coke Zero Sugar 400 which will be held on July 6, 2019, at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Coke Zero 400
The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is contested over a distance of 400 miles or 160 laps around the 2.5-mile superspeedway. It is the second NASCAR race at the Daytona International Speedway after the Daytona 500. The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is known for its close finishes. The average margin of victory in the last 21 races is .154 seconds.
David Pearson has the most wins in this race with five, including three in a row from 1972 to 1974. Cale Yarborough and Tony Stewart each have four wins in this race. None of the current drivers in the NASCAR season have won this race more than once. Current NASCAR drivers who have won this race are Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Rick Stenhouse Jr., David Ragan, Aric Almirola, and the defending race winner Erik Jones.
Last year, Chase Elliott took the pole position while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led the most laps at 51. After a total of 16 lead changes among different drivers, it was Erik Jones who won the race, finishing ahead of Martin Truex Jr. and A.J. Allmendinger. This year, eight drivers led by Jones are looking to join the list of multiple-time winners of this race.
TheHouse.com 400 Results and Updates
Last June 30, 2019, Alex Bowman won the first NASCAR race of his career by winning TheHouse.com 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway in Illinois. Kyle Larson finished in second place while Joey Logano came in third place. Austin Dillon took pole position while it was Kevin Harvick who led the most laps during the race at 132.
Here are the latest 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Series Cup standings. Totals were updated after the last completed race of the season, THEHOUSE.COM 400 on June 30, 2019:
| Rank | Name | Points | Wins | Top 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joey Logano | 643 | 2 | 9 |
| 2 | Kyle Busch | 642 | 4 | 10 |
| 3 | Kevin Harvick | 573 | 0 | 5 |
| 4 | Brad Keselowski | 569 | 3 | 7 |
| 5 | Martin Truex Jr. | 543 | 4 | 7 |
| 6 | Denny Hamlin | 542 | 2 | 7 |
| 7 | Chase Elliott | 535 | 1 | 6 |
| 8 | Kurt Busch | 509 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 | Ryan Blaney | 468 | 0 | 5 |
| 10 | Alex Bowman | 460 | 1 | 4 |
The odds to win the 2019 Coke Zero Sugar 400 aren’t out yet. However, we have picked a list of the probable NASCAR betting favorites who should have a good chance of winning the race:
Joey Logano is the current leader in the 2019 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup series standings. He currently has 12 Top 10 finishes, including 9 in the Top 5. Logano has two wins on the season and is coming off a third-place finish at TheHouse.com 400. He now has three Top 3 finishes in this last five starts. However, Logano has finished 35th and 39th in his last two Coke Zero Sugar 400 starts.
Kyle Busch is the #2 ranked driver in the standings and is just one point behind Joey Logano. Busch leads the current pack with four wins on the season. He is the only driver to have double-digit Top 5 finishes so far this year with 10. Busch however, came in at 22nd place in the most recent race of the season at TheHouse.com 400. That result broke a string of four Top 5 finishes by Busch and it is his second worst finish of the season after his 30th place finish in Kansas. Busch was 2nd in this race in 2016 but was 20th in 2017 and 33 in 2018.
Kevin Harvick is currently 3rd in the standings with 573 points behind Logano and Kyle Busch. Harvick is tied with William Byron and Austin Dillon for most pole positions claimed this year with three. Harvick has a total of 11 Top 10 finishes including five in the Top 5. In his last three starts at the Coke Zero Sugar 400m Harvick has finished 39, 33 and 19. Harvick finished 14th in Chicago last weekend.
Brad Keselowski is 4th in the current standings and is coming off a 5th place finish in Chicago. Keselowski has seven Top 5 finishes this season including three wins. He has four Top 6 finishes in his last four starts and won this race in 2016. However, Keselowski finished 31st in this race in 2017 and 36 last year.
Martin Truex Jr. is 5th in the standings and is tied with Kyle Busch for most wins this season at four races. Truex has 11 Top 10 finishes this season including 5 in the Top 5. Truex is coming off a 9th place finish at TheHouse.com race last weekend. His four wins have come in the last nine races and he has five Top 10 finishes in his last seven races. Truex finished second in this race last year.
Defending race champion Erik Jones is an interesting bet in this race. Jones only has three Top 5 finishes this season and is without a race win. He is also just 18th in the standings with 386 points but when you look at his recent history at Daytona, he’s been consistent there. He won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 last year and then placed third in the Daytona 500 in the first race of the current season. Jones was also 9th in his first appearance in this race.
Who Wins?
Unlike in the previous races where there are consistent finishers, this particular one doesn’t. As we mentioned earlier, none of the current crop of drivers have won this race more than once. Not only that, the Top drivers in the standings haven’t fared well in this race in the last two years.
Denny Hamlin won the 2019 Daytona 500 but he’s finished in the Top 10 in two out of his last eight races. I think Erik Jones could be a dark horse pick, given how good he’s fared in his last three races in Daytona. But I’m still a believer in recent form and when it comes to that, it’s Martin Truex Jr, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch who have been racing consistently this year. When it comes to former winners, it’s Busch and Brad Keselowski who have been racing well this year. Kyle Busch is the name that always comes up when I make my picks.
Kyle Busch has 4 wins this season and his 22nd place finish in Chicago was his 2nd worst finish of the year. After he finished 30 in Kansas, Bush came in 3rd and then 1st in his next two races. I expect Busch to come back strong again and possibly win the 2019 Coke Zero Sugar 400. Prediction: Kyle Busch
