The 2026 NASCAR Season is officially underway after yet another thrilling finish to the Daytona 500. As unexpected as always, the superspeedway claimed multiple cars to make an exciting race for some, a frustrating one for others.
Kyle Busch claimed the pole with Chase Briscoe filling out row one. Penske teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney sandwiched Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott to round out the top-five.
Prior to the start of the race, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, Chris Buescher, and William Byron were sent to the rear for using their backup cars. With the green flag waved by none other than Bart Simpson, Busch and Briscoe kicked off the season.
One of the day’s big stories was BJ McLeod who made it into the feature after Anthony Alfredo’s finish was disallowed. However, his day ended early after a crash on lap five. Most cars pitted for fuel at this caution except the leader.
Things got hairy for the 6 of Brad Keselowski who was forced off track on lap 37, but he made a great save to keep the caution from flying. Cars began pitting around lap 50 with the 84 of Jimmie Johnson taking a spin on pit road. He was able to keep going. Zane Smith earned his first career stage win by staying out. Cody Ware was the free pass and earned a lap back.
At the restart, it was Ryan Blaney and teammate Austin Cindric in the lead. The caution came back out on lap 85 for rookie Connor Zilisch who got tied up with Justin Allgaier. Josh Berry was the free pass, and all lead lap cars came to the pits.
This restart saw Ross Chastain and Kyle Larson at the front. This stage saw lots of good battles for position across the field. That was until “The Big One” on lap 124. Denny Hamlin and Justin Allgaier made contact at the front which caused a chain reaction that collected 20 cars. Jimmie Johnson earned the free pass after multiple cars were towed off of the track and the race was restarted.
Bubba Wallace was the leader at the restart and was able to hang on to the lead for the next five laps to win the second stage. All lead lap cars pitted at the break, but AJ Allmendinger and Cody Ware were served penalties. Wallace and rookie Corey Heim restarted from the front.
Green flag pit stops began on lap 181 when Wallace came down from the lead. Cole Custer waited just a lap too long to pit and ran out of gas on the backstretch. All cars had pitted by lap 192 except for Michael McDowell who became the leader when Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin made contact to bring out another caution. McDowell led at the restart alongside Tyler Reddick.
Then things got hairy… Carson Hocevar passed McDowell for the lead when the white flag was flown, but he was bumped by Erik Jones and spun out. He collected 12 others including McDowell which allowed Reddick to move up to second. He was able to pull ahead when Brad Keselowski and Riley Herbst made contact, taking out the three others that were challenging for the lead. This was Reddick’s first Daytona 500 win and first win overall since 2024 at Homestead-Miami. He now has nine Cup Series victories and is the points leader heading into Atlanta.
The season will continue at EchoPark Speedway on February 22nd at 3:00 pm. The race will be aired on Fox.
Featured photo from Pat Vallely
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