Ricky Stenhouse Jr. snaps winless streak in Daytona 500

It was poised to be one of many faster Daytona 500s in current reminiscence, however as a substitute changed into the longest. A collection of late wrecks together with one on the ultimate lap (finishing a doubtful weekend sweep of all three NASCAR nationwide collection races at Daytona ending with a last-lap crash) together with a late Chevrolet rally propelled Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to his first Cup Collection win in over 5 years.

Daniel Suárez‘s spin via the grass with three laps remaining arrange extra time and broke up what would have been a battle between RFK Racing and Richard Childress Racing for the win. RCR, a Chevrolet outfit, held the early benefit as extra time started earlier than Duel #1 winner Joey Logano, with a push from Stenhouse, moved forward till a thirteen-car crash resulted in one other restart. Stenhouse and Logano duelled over the following lap and a half earlier than one other multi-car pile-up occurred behind them, sparking a warning.

Upon assessment (for the second straight night), Stenhouse was discovered to be forward of Logano for the lead when the yellow flag got here out, declaring him the winner. It’s his third profession win, all of which have come on superspeedways, with the final being 2,060 days in the past on 1 July 2017 on the second Daytona race. His JTG Daugherty Racing group additionally loved their second win and first since A.J. Allmendinger at Watkins Glen in 2014.

Stenhouse needed to rebound from a late rushing penalty, and obtained assist from his fellow Chevrolet drivers William Byron and RCR’s Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon; Busch had been the chief previous to extra time. The quartet bought by RFK’s Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher earlier than Stenhouse squared off with Logano.

“As soon as we sped on pit highway, type of thought our race was over, however felt like the nice Lord was watching out for us. I used to be serving the penalty, after which hastily, had an enormous wreck proper there type of the place we have been operating, getting in flip one,” stated Stenhouse. “That gave us a second likelihood. Tuesday’s assembly was not going to be superb as a result of we preached all low season about not beating ourselves, and there I went rushing on pit highway, actually wasn’t making an attempt to get all the pieces out of it, however bought slightly an excessive amount of.

“I felt like as soon as the warning got here out, I actually needed to type of put my elbows up and get again to the entrance to present us one other shot to win so I at the least might inform my guys that we had a shot to win.”

Logano settled for second whereas Christopher Bell was third.

“Second is the worst, man. You’re so shut,” commented Logano. “Main the white flag lap there, I used to be up entrance. Kyle gave me push and also you’re watching within the mirror and also you’re three large throughout there. I felt just like the three-wide was going to harm the lane, seemed like Kyle was getting pushed forward, after which Ricky began getting pushed forward. I knew if I went to the underside, my automobile didn’t deal with ok. I already bought pushed off the underside as soon as and I believed, ‘If I’m going down there, I’m in all probability going to get wrecked,’ and I don’t know if I can get down there in time to throw the block and so I didn’t need to wreck my automobile both.

“Then you definately don’t count on them to wreck both. You suppose you’re racing to the checkered flag and you set your self in the very best place to attempt to win on the start-finish line, and warning got here out, you would like you would race to the top. Clearly you may’t after they wreck that a lot.”

Bell, however, was greater than happy together with his end result and remarked, “In case you would have advised me pre-race that I used to be going to run third, I’d have jumped up and down and been smiling ear-to-ear. I’m very joyful. I’m very, very grateful that I might get this Rheem and DeWalt Toyota Camry strong end, however simply so near a crown jewel. I really feel like if it might have stayed inexperienced, I’d have been on offense, however who is aware of.”

The late crashes resulted within the race operating 212 laps complete, a stark distinction to the primary half when it ran fully inexperienced for 118 laps save for the scheduled Stage #1 break. Most incidents throughout this stretch have been comparatively minor, starting from Conor Daly falling off the tempo from the beginning resulting from his rear-view mirror being damaged to Bubba Wallace being clipped by Martin Truex Jr. whereas racing for the lead. Daly recovered to complete twenty-ninth, whereas Wallace clawed his manner again into the highest ten earlier than being collected within the closing wreck.

As anticipated out of Daytona, group and producer technique performed a key function all through the day together with the aforementioned extra time scrambles. This resulted in Fords occupying the highest 5 on the finish of the primary stage led by Keselowski, whereas Chevrolets returned the favour in Stage #2 with Ross Chastain main pole winner Alex Bowman and Stenhouse.

Additionally on par for superspeedway racing, a lot of these with success would finally discover themselves knocked out. This was particularly the case for Stewart-Haas Racing, who had all 4 drivers be concerned in crashes with three—Chase Briscoe, Kevin Harvick, and Ryan Preece—among the many victims of a seven-car accident on lap 183.

23XI Racing, usually a drive on superspeedways, was additionally not secure. In addition to the aforementioned curler coaster that Wallace underwent, Tyler Reddick‘s stint with the group started on a bitter observe when he was caught up within the first wreck of the day on lap 119. Travis Pastrana, a fan favorite making his Cup début, had an particularly tumultuous 500 as he led two laps through the green-flag pit cycle earlier than struggling a rushing penalty, forcing him to slowly climb again via the order by way of attrition till the last-lap crash. Not like his friends, Pastrana was capable of convey the automobile dwelling simply shy of the highest ten in eleventh.

Riley Herbst, who like Pastrana got here from an off-road background, completed forward of him by one spot for Rick Ware Racing‘s seventh high ten in his maiden Cup start. Fellow Ford driver Ryan Blaney had a severely wounded Mustang following the lap 118 crash however escaped with an eighth-place run.

“It was lengthy and a whole lot of using, probably not racing,” Herbst remarked. “I used to be type of biding my time and making an attempt to get expertise. To complete high ten was actually cool. I’m grateful for the chance to be right here within the Cup Collection and actually pleased with the end in our first 500.”

Race outcomes