William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports won the race after Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric, who were running second and third, crashed in the tri-oval coming to the white flag when the former tried to pass Byron for the lead. It was the first Daytona 500 win for Hendrick since 2014. After an early crash, the race was clean until the Big One with nine laps to go. 23 cars were involved in that pileup which brought out the red flag.
Report
Background
View of cars racing on the front stretch at the 2024 Daytona 500, held at Daytona International Speedway.
The Bluegreen Vacations Duels are a pair of NASCAR Cup Series races held in conjunction with the Daytona 500 annually in February at Daytona International Speedway. They consist of two races 60 laps and 150 miles (240km) in length, which serve as heat races that set the lineup for the Daytona 500. Both races sets the lineup for positions 3-38. The first race sets the lineup for cars that qualified in odd–numbered positions on pole qualifying day. The second race sets the lineup for cars that qualified in even–numbered positions. The finishing results for the charter teams, and the highest finishing open team (team without a charter) in each Duel, will be used to set their grid position. Positions 39-40 belong to the two fastest cars that did not qualify among open teams.
Final practice was canceled due to weather conditions.[16]
Race
Stage 1
Cars lined-up on Pit Road, prepared for the 2024 Daytona 500. From left, the Toyota Pace Car, Joey Logano's #22 Ford, Michael McDowell's #34 Ford, and Tyler Reddick's #45 Toyota with the Grandstand in the background.
Pole sitter Joey Logano led the first lap of the race as he and Michael McDowell were side by side. McDowell led lap 2, Logano led lap 3, and McDowell led lap 4 before Logano got in front of McDowell on lap 5. At the same time, the first caution flew for a multi car crash through the tri-oval. It started when John Hunter Nemechek was getting pushed by Brad Keselowski when Keselowski hit Nemechek at the wrong angle and turned Nemechek down into Harrison Burton. Burton spun down right in front of Carson Hocevar and both Burton and Hocevar spun in the wet infield grass. They both then spun back up where Burton came up right in front of Ryan Preece, Kaz Grala, and Austin Dillon while Hocevar spun up in front of Jimmie Johnson. Grala, Burton, and Hocevar's races all came to an end.[17] Many cars including Joey Logano decided to pit for fuel but Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, and Daniel Hemric did not pit and Bell led the field to the restart on lap 12. Bell and Blaney were side by side for the lead for multiple laps with Bell leading all of them until lap 31 when Blaney would get in front of Bell and took the lead. On lap 40, Joey Logano took the lead. On the same lap, Logano and some others pitted giving the lead to Michael McDowell. On lap 42, Chase Elliott attempted to take the lead but failed to get in front of McDowell. Elliott tried again on lap 43 and was able to get in front of McDowell on lap 44. But on that same lap, Josh Berry took the lead. Elliott would take it back a lap later. Elliott and others would pit on lap 55 giving the lead to Bubba Wallace. Wallace would pit on lap 56 giving the lead to Noah Gragson. Gragson would pit on lap 60 giving the lead to David Ragan. Both Ragan and Ryan Preece stayed out and ended up losing the lead to the faster oncoming pack led by Kyle Busch and Busch took the lead on lap 63. On the last lap of stage 1 on lap 65, Chase Elliott took the lead. Elliott would hold on and win stage 1.
Stage 2
Kyle Larson won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart on lap 71. On lap 72, Larson was racing with Josh Berry for the lead when a third line led by Joey Logano went by them and Logano took the lead. On lap 85, Todd Gilliland raced side by side with Logano for the lead until lap 87 and couldn't take the lead. Gilliland would take the lead from Logano on lap 93. Martin Truex Jr. attempted to take the lead on lap 95 but failed to get in front of Gilliland. On lap 109, Bubba Wallace took the lead but got passed by Kyle Busch on the same lap and Busch took the lead. Ryan Preece took the lead on lap 111 but immeadietly went to pit and gave the lead back to Busch. During that pair of pitstops, Josh Berry got turned into his pit box by John Hunter Nemechek. Busch and others would pit on lap 114 giving the lead to Kyle Larson. Larson and others would pit on lap 115 and would hold on to the lead with the big gap the pack he was in had. On lap 118, Austin Cindric took the lead. Larson took the lead on lap 120 but was immeadietly passed by Cindric. Kyle Busch got side by side with Cindric on lap 121 and Busch led lap 123 but Cindric took it back. Busch would lead lap 129. On the last lap of stage 2 on lap 130, Cindric took the lead but his teammate Ryan Blaney took the lead from Cindric in turns 3 and 4 and Blaney would win stage 2.
Final stage
During pit stops, Kyle Busch's left front wheel was not secured when he left his pit box. Fortunately, the wheel did not fall off and Busch was able to make it back to pit road to get it secured. Austin Cindric won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart on lap 137. Both Cindric and Bubba Wallace ran side by side with Wallace leading lap 137, Cindric leading lap 138, and Wallace leading lap 139. The racing began to intensify during this span. On lap 140, A. J. Allmendinger took the lead from Cindric and Wallace. Both Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher attempted to take the lead from Allmendinger on the same lap but failed to get in front of him. On lap 148, Corey LaJoie took the lead but Allmendinger led that lap. LaJoie got in front again on lap 149 but was passed by Kyle Busch to the line and Busch took the lead. LaJoie would take the lead with 50 laps to go. With 49 to go, Denny Hamlin took the lead. Busch would lead with 48 to go before Hamlin took the lead the following lap. With 39 to go, Busch went to get in line behind Corey LaJoie off of turn 2 but smacked the wall in the process but did not lose a lot of momentum. With 38 laps to go, Joey Logano took the lead from Hamlin. With 30 to go, Hamlin got in front of Logano but was passed immeadietly by Logano.
On Lap 178, the final scheduled pit stops (all under the green flag) took place. With the way pit stops take place on superspeedways, the teams typically pitted by manufacturer. Toyota teams primarily pitted on Lap 178, but Denny Hamlin was unable to make the commitment. On Lap 179, Hamlin, Justin Haley, and Kyle Busch pitted (three different manufacturers) as a trio. Ford teams pitted on Lap 181, including Logano's, which gave the lead to Ross Chastain's Chevrolet. Chastain led a group of Chevrolet teams in the final pit stop on Lap 182, and with a stronger pack, maintained the lead. After the three packs merged, the intensity of the racing picked up, and the bump drafting tactics became "slam drafting," creating serious pushes to create momentum. On Lap 186, defending champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took the lead but was passed by Daniel Suárez, who took the lead. With 13 to go, William Byron attempted to take the lead but Ross Chastain made a 3 wide pass and Chastain took the lead with 13 to go. With 11 to go, Joey Logano attempted to take the lead but failed to get in front of Chastain.
On Lap 192, the aggressive racing picked up on the backstretch. Keselowski and Logano were on the outside attempting to slingshot past Chastain for the lead. As Chastain made an aggressive block, Keselowski stayed behind him while Logano stayed outside. It created a third lane in the middle where William Byron and Alex Bowman were located, with Bowman pushing Byron. The overaggressive push sent Byron into Keselowski on the inside, turning Keselowski in front of the entire pack, the fourth caution of the night and the first for incident since Lap 5. The wreck collected 23 cars and involved Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Noah Gragson, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, William Byron, Daniel Hemric, Todd Gilliland, Ryan Preece, Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, Anthony Alfredo, and Daniel Suárez.[18] The red flag flew for the mess which lasted for 15 minutes and 27 seconds before it was lifted. The race would restart with 4 laps to go with Chastain leading. Both William Byron and Ross Chastain fought hard side by side for the lead with Byron leading the laps until with 2 to go when Chastain fell back. With 2 to go off of turn 4, Chastain had a big run on Byron and went to the inside of Byron to take the lead coming to the tri-oval. Byron makes a block moving to the outside. Chastain turns down in front of Austin Cindric, with both spinning through the tri-oval while the track was still under green, with NASCAR hoping both cars will straighten up and let the race finish. Byron then crosses the start-finish line to start Lap 200, signaling the race will conclude at the end of the lap. Cindric slides up and NASCAR presses the button to signal the fifth caution period, which ends the race. William Byron and Alex Bowman were side by side when the caution was signaled, meaning NASCAR would use instant replay review to determine the leader at the time of the caution period was started. Two minutes later, NASCAR declared William Byron the winner and Bowman finished in second. This was the first time the No. 24 has been in victory lane in the Daytona 500 since Jeff Gordon in 2005. The win was also a special moment for Hendrick Motorsports as it was 40 years ago to the date Hendrick Motorsports ran its first ever race in NASCAR at the 1984 Daytona 500. Christopher Bell, Corey LaJoie, and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top 5 while A. J. Allmendinger, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, Noah Gragson, and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top 10.[19]
The race was broadcast on radio by the Motor Racing Network who have covered the Daytona 500 since 1970—and simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. The booth crew consisted of Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle, and 1989 Cup Series champion Rusty Wallace. A special guest, Doug Rice, was also briefly part of the broadcast booth to commemorate his final year working for the Performance Racing Network, and call play-by-play for a few laps. Longtime turn announcer Dave Moody was the lead turn announcer, calling the race from atop the Sunoco tower outside the exit of turn 2 when the field races through turns 1 and 2. Mike Bagley worked the backstretch for the race from a spotter's stand on the inside of the track & Dillon Welch called the race when the field races through turns 3 and 4 from the Sunoco tower outside the exit of turn 4. On pit road, MRN was operated by Steve Post, Kim Coon, Brienne Pedigo and Jason Toy.
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