Superspeedway racing in NASCAR is a rollercoaster of leaders, cars swapping positions running wide open three abreast and surviving the imminent carnage of multi-car crashes.
This year’s Daytona 500 didn’t disappoint on all counts as Tyler Reddick led one lap, the important last one, to win his first Great American Race. Following behind him with top-five runs were past Daytona 500 winner of Ricky Stenhouse, Jr, past NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott and past race and series champ Joey Logano.
Past NASCAR Daytona 500 Champion Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Close to Repeating
Stenhouse, Jr won The Great American Race in 2023 much like Tyler Reddick did this year, by leading just the final lap. After leading four laps in his No. 47 Chevrolet on Sunday, Stenhouse was hoping his past experience with superspeedway late-race restarts would play to his favor.
Instead, he came up position short to finish second.
“It’s never bad to finish in the top five in the Daytona 500,” Stenhouse, Jr. said. “It’s a big race and we have left here finishing in the 30s and have been pretty down about that. So, on one hand, it’s good because our strategy worked out perfectly today.
“We stuck to it. It was brutal riding around there for a while. Not sure what the Toyota’s were doing, but I think that made the race pretty boring there for a while for the fans.
“It was chaos after they pitted, so yeah, our No. 47 Chef Boyardee Chevrolet was as strong as I needed it to be. It did the things I wanted, but we just came up one spot short.”
Good news for Stenhouse, Jr. is next week’s race in Atlanta also consists of drafting, which is one of his strong points as a driver
Chase Elliott Led Last Daytona 500 Lap too Soon
Elliott, a NASCAR Cup Series Champion, looked like he was enroute to his first Daytona on the last lap. That was until his No. 9 Chevrolet was sent spinning as the field exited Turn 4 as the checkered flag was about to wave.
Inheriting the lead on the backstretch when Carson Hocevar was sent spinning, Elliott thought a gift had been placed in his lap.
“It seemed really fortunate to get through the first crash, and that opened the door to somehow get to the lead,” Elliott said. “But then I got pushed clear and the No. 35 (Riley Herbst) was behind me and pushed me clear by everybody down the back, and then it was just he and I.
“We got a good ways out there and we were just in a lot of trouble because momentum had shifted. At that point, I was just on extreme defense and then from there, I was just trying to defend as best I could without crashing myself, but everybody else ended up crashing anyway.
“Maybe I should have just wrecked myself trying to block. But, yeah, I hate that. Obviously very close but close doesn’t cut it.”
After Elliott went from a winner to spinner, he took the checkered flag in fourth place.
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