By Aidan Sinclair
On Feb. 16, the 67th running of the Great American Race saw 41 cars take to the field, looking to capture one of the greatest trophies in stock car racing. After a rain delay and numerous wrecks, William Byron, driver of the number 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports pulled away with the victory, winning his second straight Daytona 500.
The field featured the most diverse driver base in recent years, as four countries were represented: the United States, New Zealand, Brazil and Mexico. Returning greats in the form of seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson and 2017 champion Martin Truex Jr as well as rookies Riley Herbst and Shane Van Gisbergen got their first looks at NASCAR’s premium superspeedway.
New Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe—who took over for Truex Jr this past offseason—secured the pole in qualifying on Wednesday, starting the 500 in first place Sunday. He took the checkered flag and the race got underway with three-car-wide racing commencing early on lap seven. Everything was smooth through the first 11 laps, until rain interfered, eventually leading to a near four hour delay.
Once the cars got rolling again, 2024 champion Joey Logano got out front and never looked back, leading for 43 laps. He got some help too—Denny Hamlin spun out with three laps to go in the stage, causing an accident that collected Zane Smith and Josh Berry, with Berry taking the brunt of the damage. Logano ultimately won the stage while picking up a playoff point in the process.
As stage two commenced, Logano found himself in the lead once again. However, before one lap was completed, the second crash of the race ensued. Logano was leading the outside lane when a piece of debris got caught in his front fender, slowing down his car enough to create a chain reaction, forcing every car in the lane to slow down. This ultimately caused a wreck that collected 10 drivers - two of whom were unable to continue the race due to damage (Helio Castroneves and Ross Chastain).
Debris played a role again on lap 83 as more slow-downs ensued, but Austin Cindric remained unwavered for 37 laps. That was until the final lap of the stage, where teammate Ryan Blaney worked his way past Cindric within a few hundred feet of the checkered flag to win stage two. With the first two stages going to Penske drivers and Cindric being the overall fastest car of the race, they looked like the favorites going into the last stage.
When stage three commenced, Bubba Wallace pulled ahead of the field, leading until yet another caution for debris was thrown at lap 160. Unsurprisingly, after this caution, the tandem of Cindric and Blaney led the inside lane as a ten car line was able to break away from the rest of the pack. This was the first instance of single file racing, as up to this point, drivers provided fans action-packed two or three wide-racing that allowed for multiple lead changes.
By this point, the night sky had created a scenic landscape for racing with the bright lights shining down on the colourful field of stock cars. With 15 laps to go, Logano had climbed his way back towards the front of the pack after defeating the debris and made a move to thread the needle between teammates Blaney and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. After trading paint, Stenhouse refused to create a lane for Logano and they both spun, collecting nine cars in the process. The block prompted Logano to slow down, then Stenhouse hesitated on whether to stay in the high lane or drop down and Logano stepped on the gas, bringing the two together to start one of the biggest crashes of the night.
With five laps to go, Cindric found himself back in the lead, but only for so long. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin and Christopher Bell were able to work together to get around Cindric, working side by side to control the field. This didn’t last long either, as Bell’s car was unable to handle the pushes he received from Cole Custer behind him and he got turned into the wall, hitting new RFK driver Ryan Preece. This impact caused Preece’s front two tires to lift off the ground like a motorcycle performing a wheelie, until his car flipped upside-down and took a tumble. When it came to a rest completely destroyed, he was unable to continue the race.
This was his second airborne accident at Daytona in the last three years and there has been cause for concern with regards to airborne collisions, something NASCAR needs to take into consideration. After the race, Preece suggested that “something has to be done because cars lifting off the ground like that, that honestly felt worse than Daytona in 2023.” Since the new Next-Gen cars were implemented back in 2022, airborne collisions have increased, which could be due to the flat underbody of the cars that allows air to flow with such force that can lift 3,600lb vehicles off the ground at 200 mph. It has also been six years in a row with this race ending in a last lap crash, something that raises huge concerns for driver safety.
This caution forced the race to go into overtime with yet again Cindric and Hamlin leading the charge up to the last lap of the race. For the second time in under ten laps, Custer was caught causing a wreck as he went for a pass outside Hamlin, ultimately turning into him and spinning out eight cars. This allowed William Byron, who was in eighth place before this wreck, to emerge through the carnage and win the race, beating Tyler Reddick to the line to win his second consecutive Daytona 500.
This ending sparked controversy throughout the NASCAR world as consistency with race finishes has been a weak spot that the company has admitted they need to improve. In Byron’s 2024 Daytona win, the caution was thrown due to a crash, about 100 feet after the drivers had made it to the last lap of the race.
By NASCAR rules, if a caution is thrown after the leader takes the white flag for the last lap, the race is terminated and the winner is decided based on when the caution came out. This is done for safety concerns as continuing to race through a major crash can lead to serious injuries. While most fans would prefer to watch green flag racing until the end, NASCAR has made it clear that driver safety is of utmost importance.
However, on Sunday, the last lap incident between Custer and Hamlin occurred with still a half a lap to go and yet NASCAR allowed Byron and Reddick to race their way at full speed back to the line to determine the winner. This begs the question: how closely does NASCAR follow its own rules/ and how much credibility is NASCAR losing?
Daytona brought the energy all fans were looking for and through crashes and controversy, the first race of the year lived up to its hype. It’s sure to be a great season but one that will have lots of eyes on NASCAR decision makers.
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