Sunday, February 19th, 2023
Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, FL
In the longest DAYTONA 500 in NASCAR history, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got help from an unexpected source and won the sport's most prestigious race when a wild wreck froze the field in the second overtime.
Stenhouse and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano were battling for the lead on Lap 212 when contact from Aric Almirola's Ford started Travis Pastrana's Toyota spinning in Turn 2. Pastrana's Camry clipped the Chevrolet of Kyle Larson and set it rocketing into the outside wall.
Tires screamed, sparks flew and smoke billowed as the cars of defending race winner Austin Cindric, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney all were collected in the chaotic wreck.
But when NASCAR hit the button to illuminate the caution lights, Stenhouse's No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Chevrolet had edged ahead of Logano's Ford, thanks to a timely shove from the third-place finishing Toyota of Christopher Bell, who, like Stenhouse, arrived at the pinnacle of pavement racing from a dirt-track background.
NASCAR declared Stenhouse the winner of the 65th running of the event, a perfect christening of the renewed relationship between the driver and crew chief Mike Kelley, with whom Stenhouse won his two NASCAR Xfinity Series championships more than a decade earlier.
"Yeah, I think this whole off-season Mike just preached how much we all believed in each other," Stenhouse said after climbing from his car. "They left me a note in the car that said they believe in me and to go get the job done tonight. I made a few mistakes. We were able to battle back.
"This Kroger Continental team worked really, really hard in off-season, great pit stops, Hendrick engines. Glad a Chevy won.
"Man, this is unbelievable. This was the site of my last win back in 2017. We've worked really hard. We had a couple shots last year to get a win and fell short. It was a tough season, but, man, we got it done. DAYTONA 500!"
It was a remarkable victory and a perfect highlight for the 75th anniversary of NASCAR racing. Stenhouse is the first driver from a single-car team to win the Great American Race since Trevor Bayne shocked the racing world with the Wood Brothers Racing in 2011.
The win was Stenhouse's third in the Cup Series and first since he took the checkered flag in the Daytona summer race in 2017, snapping a streak of 199 races without a victory. JTG-Daugherty hadn't found Victory Lane since Allmendinger triumphed at Watkins Glen in 2014, a drought of 266 races.
With a push from Kyle Larson after the second overtime restart, Logano held the lead with one lap left.
"Second is the worst, man," Logano lamented. "You're so close. Leading the white flag lap there, I was up front. Kyle gave me a good push and, yeah, you're watching in the mirror and you're three-wide across there. I felt like the three-wide was going a hurt a lane; looked like Kyle was getting pushed ahead, and then Ricky started getting pushed ahead.
"I knew if I went to the bottom my car didn't handle good enough. I already got pushed off the bottom once and I thought, if I go down there, I'm probably going to get wrecked, and I don't know if I can get down there in time to throw the block (on Stenhouse) and so I didn't want to wreck my car either."
At 212 laps (530 miles), this DAYTONA 500 was three laps and 7.5 miles longer than the 2020 race, which held the previous record.
Chris Buescher finished fourth after leading 32 laps, second most to Keselowski's 42. Pole winner Alex Bowman was fifth, followed by Allmendinger, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain and race rookie Riley Herbst.
Blaney made a remarkable recovery after sustaining serious damage in the first wreck of the afternoon.
Until then, the calm of the first 295 miles of racing gave no indication of the chaos to come.
The race ran without incident until Lap 118, when contact from Kevin Harvick's Ford turned Tyler Reddick's Toyota sideways in Turn 4. After bouncing off the outside wall, Reddick's crippled No. 45 Camry came to rest at the entrance to pit road and was towed to the garage.
The No. 43 Chevrolet of Erik Jones and the No. 9 Camaro of 2020 series champion Chase Elliott also sustained terminal damage in what became a nine-car incident.
Blaney lost a lap on pit road under repair, while others involved—Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez and Martin Truex Jr.—remained on the lead lap.
"It looked like some guys got tangled up, up front," Elliott said. "Those of us in the back were just scattering to kind of miss it. It looked like the No. 5 (Larson) and the No. 43 (Jones) kind of went to the apron.
"By the time we got slowed up, they were coming back across the track, and I was the lucky winner to get there first. It's a bummer—long ways to go. Hate to end the day, but it is what it is."
ENTRY | # | DRIVER | HOMETOWN | DOB | AGE | MAKE | SPONSOR | TEAM | CREW CHIEF |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Los Gatos, CA | Dec 16, 1981 | 42 | Chevrolet | Nutrien Ag Solutions | Kaulig Racing | Matt Swiderski |
2 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Tampa, FL | Mar 14, 1984 | 40 | Ford | Smithfield | Stewart-Haas Racing | Drew Blickensderfer |
3 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Auburn Hills, MI | Feb 12, 1984 | 40 | Ford | Nexlizet | RFK Racing | Matt McCall |
4 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Chesterfield, VA | Nov 18, 1980 | 43 | Toyota | FedEx 50 | Joe Gibbs Racing | Chris Gabehart |
5 | 84 | Jimmie Johnson | El Cajon, CA | Sep 17, 1975 | 49 | Chevrolet | Carvana | LEGACY MOTOR CLUB | Todd Gordon |
6 | 22 | Joey Logano | Middleton, CT | May 24, 1990 | 34 | Ford | Shell Pennzoil | Team Penske | Paul Wolfe |
7 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Bakersfield, CA | Dec 8, 1975 | 48 | Ford | Busch Light | Stewart-Haas Racing | Rodney Childers |
8 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Las Vegas, NV | May 2, 1985 | 39 | Chevrolet | 3CHI | Richard Childress Racing | Randall Burnett |
9 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr | Mayetta, NJ | Jun 29, 1980 | 44 | Toyota | Bass Pro Shops | Joe Gibbs Racing | James Small |
10 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Phoenix, AZ | Dec 21, 1984 | 39 | Ford | Love's Travel Stops | Front Row Motorsports | Travis Peterson |
11 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Lewisville, NC | Apr 27, 1990 | 34 | Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops Club | Richard Childress Racing | Keith Rodden |
12 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr | Olive Branch, MS | Oct 2, 1987 | 37 | Chevrolet | Kroger/Cottonelle | JTG Daugherty Racing | Mike Kelley |
13 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Sacremento, CA | Jul 31, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | HendrickCars.com | Hendrick Motorsports | Cliff Daniels |
14 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Tuscon, AZ | Apr 25, 1993 | 31 | Chevrolet | Ally | Hendrick Motorsports | Blake Harris |
15 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | High Point, NC | Dec 31, 1993 | 30 | Ford | Menards\Blue DEF\PEAK | Team Penske | Jonathan Hassler |
16 | 7 | Corey Lajoie | Kannapolis, NC | Sep 25, 1991 | 33 | Chevrolet | Celsius | Spire Motorsports | Ryan Sparks |
17 | 77 | Ty Dillon | Lewisville, NC | Feb 27, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | Ferris | Spire Motorsports | Kevin Bellicourt |
18 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Dawsonville, GA | Nov 28, 1995 | 28 | Chevrolet | NAPA Auto Parts | Hendrick Motorsports | Alan Gustafson |
19 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Prosper, TX | Oct 29, 1992 | 31 | Ford | Fastenal | RFK Racing | Scott Graves |
20 | 43 | Erik Jones | Byron, MI | May 30, 1996 | 28 | Chevrolet | GUNS N' ROSES | LEGACY MOTOR CLUB | Dave Elenz |
21 | 78 | BJ McLeod | Wauchula, FL | Nov 17, 1983 | 40 | Chevrolet | Power Slap Rumble | Live Fast Motorsports | David Ingram |
22 | 41 | Ryan Preece | Berlin, CT | Oct 25, 1990 | 33 | Ford | HaasTooling.com | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chad Johnston |
23 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Monterrey, Mexico | Jan 7, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | Tootsies Orchid Lounge | TrackHouse Racing | Travis Mack |
24 | 51 | Cody Ware | Greensboro, NC | Nov 7, 1995 | 28 | Ford | Biohaven/Jacob Co. | Rick Ware Racing | Jerry Kelley |
25 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Alva, FL | Dec 4, 1992 | 31 | Chevrolet | AdventHealth | TrackHouse Racing | Phil Surgen |
26 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | Mobile, AL | Oct 8, 1993 | 31 | Toyota | McDonald's | 23XI Racing | Bootie Barker |
27 | 24 | William Byron | Charlotte, NC | Nov 29, 1997 | 26 | Chevrolet | RaptorTough.com | Hendrick Motorsports | Rudy Fugle |
28 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | Corning, CA | Jan 11, 1996 | 28 | Toyota | Monster Energy | 23XI Racing | Billy Scott |
29 | 31 | Justin Haley | Winamac, IN | Apr 28, 1999 | 25 | Chevrolet | Cirkul | Kaulig Racing | Trent Owens |
30 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Norman, OK | Dec 16, 1994 | 29 | Toyota | DeWalt - Rheem | Joe Gibbs Racing | Adam Stevens |
31 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Columbus, OH | Sep 2, 1998 | 26 | Ford | Discount Tire | Team Penske | Jeremy Bullins |
32 | 62 | Austin Hill | Winston, GA | Apr 21, 1994 | 30 | Chevrolet | Bennett Transportation/Beard | Beard Motorsports | Darren Shaw |
33 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Mitchell, IN | Dec 15, 1994 | 29 | Ford | Mahindra Tractors | Stewart-Haas Racing | Johnny Klausmeier |
34 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Huntersville, NC | Oct 9, 2000 | 24 | Ford | Motorcraft \ DEX Imaging | Wood Brothers Racing | Brian Wilson |
35 | 42 | Noah Gragson | Las Vegas, NV | Jul 15, 1998 | 26 | Chevrolet | Wendy's | LEGACY MOTOR CLUB | Luke Lambert |
36 | 15 | Riley Herbst | Las Vegas, NV | Feb 24, 1999 | 25 | Ford | Sunny D | Rick Ware Racing | Billy Plourde |
37 | 36 | Zane Smith | Huntington Beach, CA | Jun 9, 1999 | 25 | Ford | Wellcare | Front Row Motorsports | Chris Lawson |
38 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Charlotte, NC | Oct 4, 2002 | 22 | Toyota | Monster Energy – Interstate Batteries | Joe Gibbs Racing | Chris Gayle |
39 | 67 | Travis Pastrana | Annapolis, MD | Oct 8, 1983 | 41 | Toyota | Black Rifle Coffee | 23XI Racing | Eric Phillips |
40 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Sherrills Ford, NC | May 15, 2000 | 24 | Ford | gener8tor Skills | Front Row Motorsports | Ryan Bergenty |
41 | 13 | Chandler Smith | Talking Rock, GA | Jun 26, 2002 | 22 | Chevrolet | Quick Tie Inc. | Kaulig Racing | Eddie Pardue |
42 | 50 | Conor Daly | Noblesville, IN | Dec 15, 1991 | 32 | Chevrolet | BitNile.com | TMT Racing | Tony Eury Jr |