Coke Zero Sugar 400: NASCAR Commentator Sizes Up 2023 Competition
For the fourth season in a row, the Coke Zero Sugar 400 race at Daytona International Speedway will determine which 16 drivers will make the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, and NBC NASCAR commentator Steve Letarte couldn’t be happier.
“Everyone who takes the green flag could win that race,” he says, emphasizing the unpredictable nature of the high-banked oval. Some drivers who may still be on the bubble — Bubba Wallace, Michael McDowell, and Chase Elliott — are particularly skilled at Daytona, but “what has happened the last few years that people aren’t noticing is the depth of the field,” Letarte says. “That makes things very dangerous.”
(Credit: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
Beyond the bubble, Letarte is looking ahead to the slate of drivers who seem more poised to hoist the trophy in Phoenix on November 5.
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson, both of whom have playoff experience, will be threats; Kevin Harvick could rise in his final season; and, warns Letarte, “Don’t sleep on Kyle Busch.”
But he’s certain of the two frontrunners. “The regular season champion has never been eliminated in the first or second round of the play-offs,” he points out, giving leader (at press time) and 2017 champ Martin Truex Jr. an edge. His main competition? Letarte is backing William Byron, who, at 25, has come into his own. “I don’t see a run without Truex Jr. and Byron going head-to-head deep into the playoffs.”
Coke Zero Sugar 400, Saturday, August 26, 7/6c, NBC
