The Daytona 500 As It Happened

Daytona 500 Race Summary 

Kyle Busch led the field to the green flag hoping to join the great Dale Earnhardt by winning the Daytona 500 in his 21st attempt. It did not take long for things to get exciting as B.J McLeod lost a tire and caused a multi-car crash on lap 5 of the race.

Two-time reigning Daytona 500 champion William Byron received front-end damage in the crash, which put him toward the rear of the field for much of the day. As Stage 1 got back under green, the whole field entered fuel-saving mode as drivers tried to make it to the end of the 65-lap stage without having to pit again.

While most of the field was unable to go the distance, a group of 10 cars, mostly fords, managed to save enough fuel with Zane Smith leading the group to the Stage 1 finish. Smith was followed by former Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric and Penske teammate Ryan Blaney to the green and white checkered flag to end Stage 1.

Stage 2 Of NASCAR’s Best

Stage 2 began with some aggressive 3 wide racing which resulted in a crash involving rookie phenom Connor Zilisch after a side draft gone wrong caused another multi-car crash that ended Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon, and Zilisch’s chances of winning the 500. The rest of the field took this opportunity to pit for gas, enabling them to make it to the end of Stage 2 without any concern for fuel.

As the race restarted the drivers immediately resumed the same hard racing from before the crash as everyone was looking to gain some much desired stage points. Once again, this hard racing produced another crash with a handful of laps left in the stage as leader Justin Allgaier tried to block a fast-approaching Denny Hamlin who was already alongside and caused by far the largest wreck of the day that involved a whopping 20 cars. Since the wreck occurred so close to the end of the stage it finished under caution with Bubba Wallace taking the Stage win followed by Ryan Blaney and John Hunter Nemechek behind him. 

The Third Stage  

The racing at the beginning of stage 3 was arguably the tamest of the entire day as the entire field raced 3 by 3 going 2-4 seconds slower than the fastest laps of the day in order to make the last pit stop of the day as short as possible.

The field remained until pit stops began with about 20 laps to go in the race with several Toyota drivers being the first to come down pit road. Pitting early would prove costly for the Toyotas as most of the field would stay on track another several laps cycling the Toyotas to the rear of the field after the green flag pit cycled was all said and done.

Brad Keselowski found himself in the lead but with less than 10 laps to go, Corey Heim gave Denny Hamlin a bad push exiting turn 4 causing Hamlin to slam into Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell leading to yet another yellow flag. After this latest wreck was cleaned up the race would be decided by a 4 lap shootout with Spire Motorsport teammates Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell alongside Tyler Reddick and William Byron making up the first two rows. 

The Spire Motorsports cars controlled the race for the first three laps, with Carson Hocevar leading as the field took the white flag. Hocevar’s chances of winning the 500 quickly disappeared when Erik Jones gave him a hard bump exiting the tri-oval, sending Hocevar into the outside wall and back across the track.

The contact triggered another multi-car crash entering Turn One, involving several of the frontrunners. In previous years, NASCAR would have thrown the yellow flag, effectively ending the race under caution. However, amid growing fan frustration over races finishing under yellow in recent seasons, NASCAR officials have made ending races under green-flag conditions a top priority.

After the wreck jumbled up the running order at the front of the field Chase Elliott emerged as the leader following a push from Zane Smith on the back straightaway. Entering turn 3 there was a 4 car single file breakaway with Elliott and Smith followed by 2311 teammates Tyler Reddick and Riley Herbst. Reddick had the momentum from a push by Herbst and moved to the outside of Smith in the middle of turn 3 setting him up in second exiting turn 4. Reddick kept the momentum going as he faked high then turned to the inside of Elliott and completed the pass on the inside as they approached the finish line. Herbst had a run on Elliott but made contact with a fast approaching Brad Keselowski that led to a crash involving everyone except for Reddick who had dashed away, securing the victory. 

End Of My Daytona 500 Rant

Tyler Reddick’s last lap pass secured him his first Daytona 500 victory, but it was also the first Daytona 500 win for team owner Michael Jordan. Jordan co-owns the 2311 team that Reddick races for with current driver Denny Hamlin.

While the team has enjoyed some success in the last few seasons since Jordan joined the sport, nothing comes close to the triumph of winning the Daytona 500. Along with the Harley J. Earl trophy, drivers and owners receive a custom Daytona 500 ring for winning the event, adding yet another ring to an already impressive ring collection for Jordan.