For many years the second race at Daytona International Speedway was held on the Fourth of July weekend and called the Firecracker 400.  Races were held earlier in the day before the summer Florida sun beat its relenting heat upon the drivers and crowds.

When the race became the Coke Zero 400, it was moved to Saturday nights and run under the lights.

But in the past couple of years the race was moved to late August to begin and end the regular season in the Cup Series at Daytona.

With Ryan Blaney’s win last Saturday night, there have been 68 summer races run on the 2.5 mile high banks of Daytona International Speedway; but perhaps the most memorable for race fans was in 2001, less than five months after the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr at the end of the Daytona 500 when his son Dale Jr won the race!

Daytona summer race all time winners list:
Fireball Roberts won the very first Firecracker 400 in 1959 and went on to win two more of the races before his death in a firey crash at the age of 35 in the World 600 in 1964.

Jack Smith
Dave Pearson, and went on to win three in a row from 1972-74 and again in 1978
AJ Foyt won the next two races
Sam McQuagg
Cale Yarborough won the next two races and again in 1976, 1981
LeeRoy Yarborough winning the race in 1969
Donnie Allison got the seventies started off with a win
Bobby Isaac
“The King” Richard Petty earned his first Firecracker 400 in 1975 and went on to win in 1977, 1984
Neil Bonnett closed out the seventies with a win in 1979
Bobby Allison took the win in 1980 and again in 1982 and 87
Buddy Baker won the 1983 race
Greg Sacks win in 1985
Tim Richmond won the 1986 race
Awesome Bill from Dawsonville – Bill Elliott won his first Firecracker 400 in 1988 and again in 1991
Davey Allison closed out the eighties with a Firecracker 400 win to join father Bobby as the first father/son Firecracker 400 winners
Over the course of his career Dale Earnhardt Sr racked up some two dozen wins at Daytona (including IROC, Duels, and other races); he earned his first Firecracker 400 win in 1990 and again in 1993
Ernie Irvan won the race in 1992
Jimmy Spencer took home the trophy in 1994
The Rainbow Warriors won the race in 1995 and went on to win again in 1998, 2004
Sterling Marlin took home the 1996 win
John Andretti won the 1997 Firecracker 400
Dale Jarrett partied like it was 1999 with his win
Jeff Burton started off the new century with a win in 2000
Dale Earnhardt Jr won the race in 2001 in an emotional explosion just over four months after the death of his father at the same track.  Dale Jr won again in 2015
DEI teammate Michael Waltrip won the Firecracker 400 race in 2002
Greg Bifflle took the win in 2003
“Smoke” Tony Stewart won the next two races in 2005 and 06; and went on to win again in 2009 and 2012
Racer turned broadcaster Jaimie McMurray won the race in 2007
Rowdy Busch won the inaugural Coke Zero 400 in 2008
Kevin Harvick won the race in 2010
David Ragan won the 2011 race
Seven time champion Jimmie Johnson won the Coke Zero 400 in 2013
The 2014 race was won by Aric Almirola
Brad Keselowski won the race in 2016 and started a string of different race winners
Ricky Stenhouse Jr
Erik Jones
Justin Haley
William Byron won the race to an empty track during the Covid pandemic in 2020
Ryan Blaney won the race in 2021 and finally broke the string of different winners with his win last weekend
Austin Dillon
Chris Buescher
Joining his father as a  winner of the summer race in Daytona Harrison Burton won the race in 2024 that resulted in a very emotional moment for Dad Jeff who was in the broadcast booth.