Daytona International Speedway

In one of the most dramatic races of the season, 23-year-old second-generation driver Harrison Burton made a last lap pass on two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch in overtime at Daytona International Speedway to earn his first career NASCAR Cup Series win and deliver his legendary Wood Brothers Racing team its historic 100^thvictory.

Big wrecks, amazing passes, and ultimately one of the most memorable and popular victories of the year characterized a busy, busy Coke Zero Sugar 400 on the Daytona high banks that had tremendous effect on the NASCAR Playoff outlook now with only a single race left to decide which 16 drivers will advance to championship contention.

Burton got a huge push on the backstretch from a first-time NASCAR Cup Series starter, Parker Retzlaff, allowing Burton’s No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford to pull alongside and ultimatelybyrace leader Busch who stayed on Burton’s bumper to the finish line, but was unable to pass him back.

The win is an automatic ticket for Burton into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs after not even being among the top-20 in points coming into the race. It was a hugely popular victory for the young driver with many of his competitors coming by to congratulate him on pit road and in victory lane.

“That is what the sport is about,’’ Burton’s father, NBC Sports broadcaster and former NASCAR Cup Series standout Jeff Burton said after high-fiving his colleagues in the television booth, overcome with emotion watching his son claim his first major race victory.

Harrison Burton was equally as emotional – claiming his win by a fraction of a second – .047-second – over the two-time series champion Busch.

“I cried the whole victory lap,” Burton said. “I obviously got fired from this job and wanted to do everything for the Wood Brothers I could, they’ve given me an amazing opportunity in life and to give the 100^th[win] on my way out is amazing. We’re in the Playoffs now. Let’s go to Darlington and see what happens.’’

On Saturday night, the question, was “what didn’t happen?” The race featured 16 leaders and 40 lead changes. The winner only led a single lap. There were two versions of the Daytona “Big One” – multi-car accidents that on this night, eliminated one race leader after another. Only five cars took the checkered flag without being involved in some sort of incident.

Burton and Busch got the chance to settle the trophy after an accident at the front of the field with only two laps of regulation remaining forced the overtime period.

Late race leader, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric was pushed from behind causing his No. 2 Ford to move into Josh Berry’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford alongside him. The side impact launched Berry’s Mustang airward sending it on a wild ride on the backstretch.

Berry, who led eight laps, earned his first stage win of the season and contended for the victory all night, climbed out of the upside down car on the backstraight with the help of the safety team, then waved to the crowd and received a huge round of applause.

“I’m all good, actually it probably wasn’t as bad as it looked,’’ Berry said after being checked in the infield medical center. “But man, I’m bummed. We had a helluva night going. We were in position and really proud of the job I did tonight and the team did tonight. We were in contention.’’

Only seven laps earlier there was a 14-car crash at the front of the field that eliminated another race leader – pole winner Michael McDowell, whose No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford launched airborne, turned sideways and came back down on all four tires, the melee collecting frontrunners Joey Logano – who led a race best 34 of the 164 laps on the night, Justin Haley, Kyle Larson and championship points leader Tyler Reddick among others.

Bubba Wallace, who is in a tight three-car battle for the final Playoff points position was involved too, but his 23XI Racing team was able to make quick repairs and return to the track. He finished sixth but is still on the outside looking in for a Playoff position.

With Burton’s win, Wallace now finds himself ranked 17^thin the standings – 21 points off the pace of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher, who is holding down that 16^thand final Playoff position after earning a 10^thplace finish Saturday.

Ross Chastain, the third driver in tight contention for the final Playoff position based on points, rallied to finish 12^th. He is ranked 18^th, 27 points behind Buescher.

Busch, who now has top-five finishes in the last three races, is essentially in need of a victory next weekend in the regular season finale at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. He is 106 points below the cutoff line despite his recent string of strong finishes.

“Just frustrating you know,’’ the Richard Childress Racing driver Busch said of just missing out on the win, which would not only have punched his Playoff ticket but also extended his streak of 19 seasons with at least one victory.

“We win races here in Daytona going into the last restart but haven’t been able to pull off the victory, not sure what I’m doing wrong or missing,’’ Busch said, explaining, “I wanted to get up in front of the 21 [Burton] because I knew the momentum was coming there but I knew the 20 [former teammate Christopher Bell] was a better friend [behind], just didn’t work out. As usual.’’

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver Bell finished third, followed by Rick Ware Racing’s Cody Ware, and JGR’s Ty Gibbs. Wallace was sixth. Brad Keselowski was seventh, followed by Retzlaff in his series debut, Daniel Hemric and Buescher.

The first round of drama – the opening “Big One” as the large wrecks at Daytona International Speedway are called – happened on Lap 61 when 17 cars were involved in an accident exiting Turn 4.

Corey LaJoie’s No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet triggered the accident in tight-quarter racing. It collected Chastain and forcing numerous pit stops for the Floridian who is trying to earn one of the last points positions in the Playoffs.

It also involved championship frontrunners Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson in varying degrees.

Elliott and Hamlin had to retire their cars with the damage and were scored 36^thand 38^threspectively. Reddick still managed to finish 28^th. Larson, who was involved in multiple incidents on the night, finished 21^st.

Heading to the regular season finale next weekend, Reddick maintains a 17-point edge atop the standings over Larson. Elliott is now 18 points back. The regular season champion earns a valuable 15-point bonus to carry with him through the 10-race Playoffs.

William Byron gave team owner Rick Hendrick something extra to celebrate in the 40th anniversary year of Hendrick Motorsports.

In a frantic scramble after a restart on Lap 197 of 200 in the DAYTONA 500, Byron reached the finish line and took the white flag moments before NASCAR called the fifth caution of the evening as Ross Chastain slid wildly through the infield grass off the bumper of Austin Cindric’s Ford.

Alex Bowman was a close second to his teammate at the moment of caution, giving Hendrick a 1-2 finish and the organization’s first victory in the Great American Race since Jimmie Johnson beat teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the stripe in 2014.

The victory was Hendrick’s ninth in the DAYTONA 500, tying the company with Petty Enterprises for most in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series most prestigious event. The race was postponed from Sunday to Monday because of heavy rains during the weekend.

“I’m just a kid from racing on computers and winning the Daytona 500,” said the 26-year-old Byron, who picked up the 11th victory of his career and his second at Daytona, the first coming in the 2020 summer race at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

“I can’t believe it. I wish my dad was here. He’s sick, but this is for him, man. We’ve been through so much, and we sat up in the grandstands together and watched the race (when Byron was younger). This is so freaking cool.”

Hendrick could barely contain his elation in Victory Lane.

“I’m telling you, you couldn’t write the script any better,” he said. “When we thought about coming down here the first time, we didn’t think we should be here, felt so out of place.

“We win this on our 40th to the day, it’s just… and tied a record now, so that’s awesome.”

Before the final restart, Chastain was racing at the front of the field on Lap 192 when a bump from Alex Bowman got Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron out of shape and knocked Byron into the right rear of Brad Keselowski’s Ford.

Keselowski turned up the track into the Ford of Joey Logano, who had led a race-high 45 laps to that point. Reigning series champion Ryan Blaney’s Ford was among the 23 cars involved in the accident that left string of mangled vehicles strewn along the backstretch.

The wreck knocked Blaney, Keselowski and Logano out of the race, along with Tyler Reddick, defending race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suarez and Todd Gilliland. NASCAR red-flagged the race for 15 minutes 27 seconds for track clean-up.

“Speedway racing again,” Logano said ruefully. “It’s a lot of fun until this happens. It was pretty interesting with a lot of pushing and shoving there at the end. Our car was able to take it. Our Mustang was so fast. It could lead a line really well. I kind of thought I had the cars I wanted around me. I had at least one I wanted around me, but just couldn’t make it work.”

“Obviously, hate what happened on that backstretch,” Byron said of the accident. “I just got pushed and got sideways. But so proud of this team, whole AXALTA team, 40th anniversary to the day, on Monday.

“Just extremely blessed and thankful for all the opportunities, and we just want to keep it going. We have a lot to prove this year, and this is a good start, obviously.”

How much Byron has yet to prove is debatable. He won a series-best six races last year, qualified for the Championship 4 and finished third in the final standings.

The race was not quite five laps old when an eight-car accident off Turn 4 started the inevitable attrition. Contact from Keselowski’s Ford in a tightly bunched line of the outside knocked the Toyota of John Hunter Nemechek into the center lane and into the side of Harrison Burton’s Ford.

Burton slid toward the infield, collecting the Chevrolet of Sunoco rookie Carson Hocevar. Burton’s No. 21 Mustang shot up the track and slammed into the Ford of Kaz Grala and the Chevrolet of Austin Dillon. Behind Dillon, Hocevar careened into the path of seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, who couldn’t avoid the collision.

The wreck eliminated the cars of Burton, Hocevar and Grala. Dillon took his No. 3 Chevy to the garage for extensive repairs, and Johnson lost two laps on pit road as his Legacy Motor Club crew worked frantically to repair his Camry.

“I don’t remember exactly who it was on my outside,” Burton said after a trip to the infield care center. “It just looked like they either got a bad push or got loose and just hit me in the right side and sent me across.

“The grass was so wet that once I got in the grass, I thought I’d be OK, but the car just kept going and going… so really sad that our day is over as quick as it was. We had a really fast Ford. It’s just a bummer. There’s nothing we can do but just move on and try to win next week.”

It took 187 more laps of racing before the colossal wreck that dwarfed the earlier incident thinned the field and set up the fight to the finish among the cars that survived.

In a race that featured 41 lead changes among 20 drivers, Christopher Bell ran third, followed by Corey LaJoie, Bubba Wallace and AJ Allmendinger. Chastain, who didn’t have quite enough room when he dived to the inside of Cindric on the penultimate lap, finished 21st, one spot ahead of Cindric.

With a deft move to the inside in the final corner of the first of two Bluegreen Vacations Duel 150-mile qualifying races on Thursday night, 19th-place starter Tyler Reddick took the checkered flag and earned the inside second-row starting position for Sunday’s DAYTONA 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

And by the skin of his teeth, in that same Duel, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and recent NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Jimmie Johnson edged J.J. Yeley for one of the final two starting spots in the Great American Race.

In the two races that set the field for the DAYTONA 500—and in which the Toyotas managed a sweep after a lackluster qualifying effort on Wednesday—Christopher Bell led only the final lap of the second Duel, holding off 2022 DAYTONA 500 winner Austin Cindric for the victory.

As Bell was securing the outside starting spot on the second row for Sunday’s race, Kaz Grala edged B.J. McLeod for the final spot in the field by. 0.067 seconds. Grala ran 12th to McLeod’s 14th in a battle that wasn’t settled until the last few yards of the final lap.

As Reddick was outfoxing three Hendrick Chevrolets at the front of the field on Lap 60 of the first Duel—clearing Chase Elliott and diving to the inside of Kyle Larson’s Camaro—Johnson was in dire peril of missing the 500 in his first competitive race in a Legacy Motor Club Toyota.

Johnson trailed Yeley by a car-length through Turn 4, but Yeley moved to the top lane, and Johnson shoved the Chevrolet of Ross Chastain through a gap in the middle lane and used the momentum to overtake Yeley as the cars approached the checkered flag.

As a result, Johnson will race on Sunday, and Yeley will not. In the scramble to the finish line, Johnson finished 12th and Yeley 16th.

“I’ve never been in a position like this before, and I have such a greater appreciation for everyone before me that’s tried to race their way in,” said Johnson, who overcame a spin with 10 laps left to edge Yeley for the available spot.

“It’s very stressful. I’m very thankful we got this Carvana Toyota into this race. I knew the first half of the race was going too easy. I knew there’d be a challenge thrown at us, and we got it just in time. Hats off to J.J. Yeley. He put up a heck of a fight in a very competitive car.”

A rueful Yeley second-guessed the closing move that didn’t work.

“Side-by-side coming to two (laps) to go, I thought we were in really good shape,” Yeley said. “Coming into Turn 3 (on the final lap), I wasn’t counting my chickens, but I was getting close. Saw there was some contact. Someone in the middle lost a lot of momentum.

“I made a split-second decision to go to the outside, carry the momentum, clear him, make the racetrack two-wide where he couldn’t pass. He stayed in the middle. The 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) pushed him. The momentum carried him all the way to the checkered flag.

“It sucks. Two years ago we were close. Just couldn’t get it.”

As if knowing his victory was a sidebar to the drama surrounding Johnson, Reddick kept his postrace interview to a minimum.

“Great way to start off the weekend,” said Reddick, who led only the final lap in his No. 45 23XI Toyota and beat runner-up Elliott to the finish line by 0.056 seconds. “This thing is a beast. It’s a great way to kick off the brand-new (sponsor’s) product. Go out and get some Hard Tea, have a good time tonight. I know we are.”

Bell’s victory followed a massive wreck in Turn 1 on Lap 48. Defending series champion Ryan Blaney took a jarring hit after contact from Kyle Busch’s Chevrolet—with a shot to Busch’s Camaro from Brad Keselowski behind him–turned the Chevrolet of Willian Byron into Blaney’s Ford and ignited an 11-car melee.

Byron’s car had gotten loose and lost pace, stacking the field up behind him. The wreck eliminated Blaney, Busch, Riley Herbst and Noah Gragson.

“I was just getting a push from the No. 6 (Keselowski) there, and the No. 24 (Byron) I saw kind of got messed up, out of line and slowed down,” Busch explained. “I tried to lift and roll out of the gas smoothly. I was still gaining too fast, and then I got all the way out of the gas. Got bumped again from behind and just accordioned into the No. 24 and sent him spinning.

“You don’t want to hit a guy in the tri-oval. I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I’ve also rolled out of here in an ambulance before doing that, so I know it’s not the right thing to do, but sometimes you don’t have a choice, and I turned the No. 24 sideways and caused a wreck.”

Bell restarted fourth with eight laps left and surged into the lead on the final circuit.

“Yeah, it feels good,” Bell said. “These (superspeedway) races, man, I don’t know what to think of ’em. Me and Adam Stevens, my crew chief, we have a running joke: I say these races are 100-percent luck. I know that’s not true, but it seems like we’ve been struggling to get to the end of it. I know I’ve been a common denominator in a lot of the wrecks. Feels good to do everything well today.”

Grala, who failed to qualify for last year’s DAYTONA 500 in his only attempt at a Cup race in 2023, found redemption this year in the No. 36 Front Row Motorsports Ford.

“Just really proud of everybody at Front Row Motorsports,” Grala said. “They worked so hard the last 24 hours to get the car ready to race today. Some trouble yesterday. Really cool to be able to get it in the show for them. Real big opportunity for me. Excited to be here on Sunday again.”

By virtue of his second-place finish in the first Duel, Elliott will line up on the inside of the third row on Sunday, with the rest of the Duel 1 cars behind him in finishing order. Alex Bowman was third on Thursday, followed by Sunoco rookie Carson Hocevar and Erik Jones, who led the Toyota contingent with a 22nd-place run in Wednesday’s time trials.

The second Duel set the outside row for the 500, with three-time DAYTONA 500 winner Denny Hamlin securing the outside fourth-row starting spot with a third-place finish. John Hunter Nemechek and Harrison Burton were fourth and fifth in Duel 2.

When owner/driver Brad Keselowski pushed Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teammate Chris Buescher to victory in overtime on Sunday night, it was ecstasy for Bubba Wallace and the epitome of frustration for Chase Elliott.

Buescher picked up his third victory of the season in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, the regular-season finale for the NASCAR Cup Series, but not until Ryan Preece’s horrific barrel-roll wreck on the backstretch forced three extra laps.

With Buescher’s repeat win, Wallace clinched the 16th and final spot in the series Playoffs on points. Hemmed in by an armada of Fords after the overtime restart on Lap 162, Elliott—whose only path to the Playoffs was victory on Sunday—couldn’t move forward.

Kevin Harvick blocked Elliott in the bottom lane, and Aric Almirola and Joey Logano on the outside prevented Elliott from making a move to the top. Elliott came home fourth behind Buescher, Keselowski and Almirola, but NASCAR’s most popular driver and 2020 series champion will miss the Playoffs for the first time in his Cup career.

Buescher restarted second and Keselowski third on Lap 162. Keselowski quickly locked onto Buescher’s bumper and pushed him to the lead. A lap later Buescher secured his fifth career victory and first at Daytona by .098 seconds over his teammate.

“That's as much Brad's win as ours right there,” Buescher said. “That was the right help, aggressive, sticking with us. I was waiting for him to do something there coming to the finish. I figured we'd be side by side. Looked like it stalled out a little behind there.

“Just so thankful for Brad for all those pushes at the right time. Found each other here and there throughout the race, lost each other, and got back on it when it counted.”

The 1-2 finish was the first for RFK Racing since Carl Edwards and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. claimed the top two spots for owner Jack Roush at Bristol in 2014.

Wallace claimed his Playoff spot with a 12th-place finish, because—thankfully from his point of view—no winless driver below him in the standings was able to knock him out of the top 16 by winning.

“That was the most stressed, but also the most locked in I've ever been,” said Wallace, who entered the race with a 32-point edge over Ty Gibbs for the final Playoff berth. “Knowing that this place is mostly out of your control, I just tried to focus on doing the things that I could do. Missing that wreck (a pileup in Turn 4 on Lap 95) was massive.

“Proud to be locked into the Playoffs. 23XI Racing, third year in, getting both cars in the Playoffs. We've gone through a lot of trials and tribulations. So proud of the effort we put in.”

Elliott, who missed seven races during the regular season—six with injury and one on suspension—took his failure to make the postseason with grace.

“Yeah, I really liked where we were before the caution (for Preece’s accident),” he said. “Honestly, after the restart there, we had the bottom lane that we wanted. I knew the 6 (Keselowski) was going to go with the 17 (Buescher). I thought the 4 (Harvick) was going to take the bottom, and they did. We really had all the help we could ask for behind.

“I couldn't stay locked onto Kevin like I needed to to surge the bottom lane forward. Brad and Chris were there. Just had a good enough hold on that top lane, and they could kind of control each of them. Yeah, it's a bummer, for sure. Hate the season has worked out like it has. The good news is the car got in in the owners’ points. That's a big deal.”

The wreck that forced the overtime was breathtaking in its magnitude. As the pack of cars cleared Turn 2 on Lap 156, Preece’s Ford turned sideways on the backstretch and slammed into Stewart-Haas Racing teammate and pole winner Chase Briscoe’s Mustang in the bottom lane.

The contact launched Preece’s car high into the air, and it barrel-rolled more than a half-dozen times before it landed on its roof and bounced upright. Preece got out of his car and stood talking to medical personnel before being placed on a stretcher and taken to a local medical facility for further evaluation.

If Preece’s accident was a lasting image from the race, so was the action that preceded it.

Despite rapid-fire exchanges of the lead throughout the second stage, the race ran caution-free except for the Stage 1 break—until the final corner of the final lap of Stage 2.

That’s when the No. 54 Toyota of Ty Gibbs, fighting for the stage win, broke loose after a bump from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell as the cars raced through Turn 4, turned down into the No. 12 Ford of Ryan Blaney and ignited a wreck that involved 16 of the 39 cars that started the race.

Blaney and Gibbs shot side-by-side into the outside wall, and the cars behind them were helpless to avoid the melee. Gibbs’ Camry was eliminated, ruining any outside chance he had of overtaking Bubba Wallace for a Playoff spot.

Gibbs took the disappointment philosophically.

“I felt like I was getting a great push,” Gibbs said. “I feel like all of our teammates were working really well together tonight. I may have got a push in a bad spot, but we were going for the stage win. I want to thank Christopher for all of the pushes he gave me—I really do.”

Other casualties of the wreck included AJ Allmendinger, defending race winner Austin Dillon, Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton, all of whom were trying to force their way into the Playoffs with a victory.

Elliott, on the other hand, was masterful in weaving his way through the chaos unscathed, finishing the stage seventh behind winner Keselowski. Elliott, however, couldn’t parlay that adroit driving into the victory he needed.

Joey Logano finished fifth, followed by Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Harvick and Corey LaJoie.

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."

With a huge assist from Richard Childress Racing teammate Tyler Reddick after a rain delay of more than three hours, Austin Dillon forced his way into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff and broke Martin Truex Jr.'s heart.

Dillon's victory in Sunday's rain-delayed Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway—his first of the season and his second at the track—needed the convergence of several different circumstances to fall into place.

After avoiding serious damage in a wreck off Turn 4 on lap 125, Dillon survived a subsequent 13-car melee in Turn 1 and took the lead before rain halted the race. After a red-flag period of 3 hours, 19 minutes, 57 seconds, Dillon fell behind 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric and trailed him from the restart on Lap 145 of 160 until he made the race-winning move on Lap 158.

As the cars reached Turn 1, Dillon tapped Cindric's No. 2 Team Penske Ford, and the Chevrolets of Dillon, Reddick and Landon Cassill moved past as Cindric made a magnificent save on the apron. Reddick, the race runner-up, closed up to the bumper of Dillon's No. 3 Chevrolet and drafted with his teammate to the finish line, holding off a last-ditch run from Cindric, who finished third, just .140 seconds behind the winner.

"There was a lot going on there. I knew that if we got to the white (final lap), I was afraid somebody would—if I waited too long, I was afraid somebody would wreck behind us, so I wanted to go ahead and get the lead. We were able to get it.

"I had a big run to him, and then I had my teammate, the 8 (Reddick), back there. I knew we were in good shape there to the end. He did a good job checking up any kind of run. Just a little too much push there and got him (Cindric) loose."

Cindric said the bump was fair game, give what was on the line for Dillon.

"I think that's fair game any race of the season, but that meant a lot for him to win that race," Cindric told Fox Sports' Bob Pockrass on pit road. "He had three cars that were certainly going to be able to work with him…

"I feel like he got the run too late, and then he hit me straight on the entry to the corner. Just glad I saved it, glad I got a shot to still come back up through the field - but I hate losing."

Dillon's victory knocked Truex out of the Playoff and handed the final berth to Ryan Blaney, who finished three points ahead of Truex in the final regular-season standings.

When heavy rain stopped the action 21 laps from the finish, it looked as if Dillon might be awarded the victory.

As the cars sped toward Turn 1 on Lap 138, a sudden rain began to fall. The cars of Justin Haley, Daniel Hemric and Denny Hamlin broke loose at the front of the field, and the cars behind them were unable to stop on the slick asphalt and plowed into the wreck.

Dillon's No. 3 Chevrolet, which had been damaged in a wreck off Turn 4 on Lap 125—and ended its slide facing backward on pit road—was the first to emerge from the Lap 138 chaos at cautious pace and shortly thereafter was confirmed as the race leader by NASCAR.

"We ran into rain in the middle of Turn 1 and just lost it," Hamlin said of the 13-car pileup. "We had rain down the front. So about 10 seconds before we got into Turn 1, it was raining. I'm sure the fans felt it, and then they watched us all pile in there."

NASCAR opted to wait out the rain, dried the track and lifted the red flag at 3:54 p.m. The resumption didn't change the winner, but it enabled Blaney to move up the leaderboard past wrecked cars to a 15th-place finish, enough to eliminate eight-place finisher Truex from the Playoff.

Cassill came home fourth, followed by Noah Gragson, as only 10 drivers finished on the lead lap, and only 17 were running at the end.

Early in the race, Blaney got a serious scare, as far as his Playoff hopes were concerned. On Lap 31, Blaney's No. 12 Team Penske Ford was third in line in the bottom lane behind Erik Jones and Denny Hamlin when Jones' No. 43 Petty GMS Chevrolet got loose and lost momentum off Turn 2.

Blaney slammed into the back of Hamlin's Toyota, turning the No. 11 Camry toward the infield. As the bottom lane compressed, Christopher Bell's No. 20 Toyota spun behind Blaney, shot across the track and knocked Blaney's Mustang into the outside wall, severely damaging the right-front quarter of Blaney's car.

The eight-car accident knocked Bell and Brad Keselowski out of the race, denying Keselowski a Playoff spot for the first time since 2013.

"Somebody wrecked in front of me," Keselowski said. "I'm not really sure exactly what happened, but there were just a bunch of cars wrecking in front of me. I didn't have anywhere to go and couldn't slow down in time, so I hate it for our team."

"We had a really fast race car. We were working our way to the front."

Truex earned six points with a fifth-place finish in Stage 1 and raced to a runner-up result in Stage 2, good for nine points, as Blaney continued to lose laps to the lead pack. The first two stages reduced Blaney's lead over Truex in the standings to 10 points, but a wreck on the backstretch early in the final stage halted Truex's charge.

On Lap 102, Michael McDowell, running second, pulled out of line with a run on leader Joey Logano, but Reddick's off-center hit to McDowell's back bumper sent the No. 34 Ford rocketing into the outside wall. The contact ignited an eight-car melee that eliminated the machines of McDowell, Ross Chastain and William Byron.

The wreck ended the Playoff hopes for McDowell, who had restarted in the lead on Lap 101. Truex's car was damaged, too, but not terminally. Ultimately, though, it was the damage in that wreck that kept the 2017 series champion from maintaining a gap over Blaney sufficient to earn the final Playoff spot.

"That's definitely a lot more stressful than I wanted coming into here, but I just got to give a lot of props to the 12 group, you know, for fixing it and sticking with it all day," Blaney said. "That's why you do it.

"Your day can start off like that, and you just stay with it and stay in the game. And it was definitely beneficial for us."

On the 85th birthday of his car owner, Roger Penske, 23-year-old NASCAR Cup Series rookie Austin Cindric beat Bubba Wallace to the finish line by .036 seconds in overtime to win Sunday's 64th running of the Daytona 500.

In a thrilling run to the finish in NASCAR's new Next Gen race car at Daytona International Speedway, Cindric held off Wallace and Chase Briscoe (.091 seconds behind) to notch his first Cup victory in his eighth start in the series.

Cindric got the win in chamber-of-commerce weather with a sold-out crowd jamming the grandstands.

"Oh, my God-do you know what makes this even better? A packed house," Cindric exulted after climbing from his car. "A packed house at the Daytona 500. "Oh, my God, I've got so many people to thank. First and foremost, Roger Penske. Happy Birthday!

"Everyone has worked so hard on this Next Gen car and through the whole process. I am so excited. This makes up for losing a championship in the last race I was in (2021 Xfinity Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway).

"I'm surrounded by great people, that's all there is to it. I know there's going to be highs and lows, being a rookie. I'm just grateful for the opportunity and excited to climb the mountain ahead of us on the No. 2 team. We're in the Playoffs-that's one box checked. My gosh, what an awesome group of fans; what an awesome race car. I'm just really thankful."

A three-car wreck in Turn 4 on Lap 195 of a scheduled 200 wiped out the No. 47 Chevrolet of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was leading for a restart on that same lap but was turned by a push from Brad Keselowski. The incident forced the race to overtime, requiring one extra lap for Cindric to claim victory.

An earlier six-car accident on Lap 190 had eliminated reigning series champion Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Todd Gilliland, Erik Jones and Noah Gragson, who was making his first start in NASCAR's top division.

Cindric was the leader when the race restarted on Lap 200, and at the end of a wild two-lap scramble-after blocking a strong run from Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney-he arrived at the finish line roughly three feet ahead of Wallace, who was runner-up in the Great American Race for the second time.

"I thought our Toyota teammates did good work until they got picked off 1, 2, 3 throughout the race, so we just had to survive," said Wallace, who finished .260 seconds behind race winner Austin Dillon in the 2018 Daytona 500.

"Great Speedweeks, though. We'll come home second. I'm going to be pissed off about this one for a while. I was happy on the first second place we got a couple years ago. This one sucks when you're that close, but all-in-all, happy for our team, happy for our partners, and on to California."

Blaney came home fourth, followed by Aric Almirola, who will leave full-time racing at the end of the season. Kyle Busch, Michael McDowell, David Ragan, Keselowski and Chase Elliott completed the top 10.

Less than three laps from the end of the first stage, a push from Keselowski turned the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford of Harrison Burton sideways at the head of the outside lane. Burton's Mustang nosed down the track into the No. 24 Chevrolet of William Byron, whose car slammed nose-first into the inside wall on the backstretch.

Kyle Busch spun sideways during the ensuing eight-car wreck. Denny Hamlin's Toyota sustained terminal suspension damage, eliminating the field's only multiple winner of the Daytona 500. The No. 1 Chevrolet of Ross Chastain was also knocked out of the race.

After the impact with Byron's car and a jolt from the Toyota of Christopher Bell, Burton's Ford turned upside down and landed on top of the Chevrolet of Alex Bowman, who had started the race on the outside of the front row. The impact righted Burton's car, which a wrecker towed to the garage. Bowman lost four laps as his crew tried to return the No. 48 Camaro to raceable condition.

"I'm fine-I've hit a lot harder before, that's for sure," Burton said after a trip to the infield care center. "It's just unfortunate. I hate it for the Wood Brothers group. They brought a really fast Ford Mustang down here and ended up on our lid, so that's never good…

"I don't know, I just got pushed and didn't take it the right way-the car didn't take it the right way or got pushed in the wrong spot. I'm not sure. I couldn't really tell. I was looking out front to see what I had to do next to side draft the next guy that was on me, so just a bummer. I don't really know what we could have done different, but we'll move on and get better from it."

From Hamlin's standpoint, it was clear what happened.

"The 6 (Keselowski) was pushing the 21 (Burton) and you could see the 21 was kind of getting out of control there," said Hamlin, who failed to finish a Daytona 500 for the first time in 17 starts and lost his chance for a fourth visit to Victory Lane. "So you know the mind-set was that you've got to back off, but I think the 6 was just insistent on pushing him at all costs and eventually turned the 21 around.

"Tough, you know, considering it was just for the stage. We were kind of boxed in there where I noticed that something was going to happen, but I was boxed in, I was behind a teammate (Kyle Busch), and I wanted to try to help. Again, just too aggressive pushing right there when they weren't lined up and in control."

Truex won the first stage under caution and then claimed victory in the second stage, which ran under green-flag conditions from the restart on Lap 72 to the conclusion on Lap 130. Truex came from third to first on the final lap to grab the stage win.

Keselowski, however, was first off pit road under caution for the stage break and led the field to green for a restart on Lap 138. Keselowski held the top spot until Tyler Reddick's Chevrolet broke loose in Turn 4 on Lap 151 and started a wreck that damaged the contending cars of Truex, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch.

Roush Fenway Keselowski teammates Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher swept Thursday nights Bluegreen Vacation Duels, but a last-lap collision in the second race wiped out then-frontrunner Joey Logano and spoiled a perfect night for the Ford Performance entries.

Running second to Logano, Buescher made a move to the inside on the backstretch on Lap 60. Logano moved down to block, and contact between the cars sent Logano's No. 22 Team Penske Ford into the outside wall, crippling the car.

sed the only caution of the night, with Buescher in the lead when the fields was frozen at the moment of the yellow flag. Defending Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell was second and Harrison Burton was credited with third after nosing into Logano's Ford.

In contrast, the first Duel—the first points-paying event with the NASCAR Cup Series' new Next Gen race car—ran without incident, and Keselowski led a 1-2-3-4 Ford sweep with a pass of Ryan Blaney with four laps left. Austin Cindric was second, followed by Blaney and Chase Briscoe.

In that race, Kaz Grala rallied from a pit road speeding penalty and advanced to the Daytona 500 with a pass of JJ Yeley on the final lap. In the second Duel, Greg Biffle claimed the final spot in Sunday's race with a 13th-place finish, eliminating Timmy Hill, who ran 20th.

Biffle, 52, was competing in his first Cup event since 2016.

But the excitement was reserved for the final lap of the final race, with Logano acknowledging the mistake that broke up another 1-2-3-4 Ford finish.

The beneficiary was Buescher, who finished off the first sweep of the Duels by one organization since Hendrick Motorsports accomplished the feat in 2015 with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson.

"Yeah, what a way to start Speedweeks out here, to put both RFK Ford Mustangs in Victory Lane, give Fastenal their first win on a Cup car," Buescher said. "It's not the big show, but we've got a really good hotrod here.

"Just hats off to everybody back at the shop. I know it's been a hectic off season for everybody in our sport, but we've had a lot of changes going on, and it's cool to see it play out."

A rueful Logano gave a succinct post-mortem of the wreck that will force him to a backup car for the Daytona 500.

"Driver screwed up," Logano said. "That's really all there is to it. "I thought I was still clear, and the run (from Buescher) came a lot quicker than I thought it would.

"I tried to block it a little bit and just got a tag in the left rear, and off it went. It's my fault. It stinks, because it tore up our car and kind of puts us in a spot as a race team. It's just a dumb mistake.

In the first Duel, new team co-owner Brad Keselowski passed his former teammate Ryan Blaney to notch his first victory as a principle at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. NASCAR Hall of Fame owner Jack Roush joined Keselowski in Victory Lane after the race with smiles all around at the newly-reorganized Ford team's first points-paying outing.

Cindric, Blaney and Stewart-Haas Racing's Briscoe crossed the line three-wide .264-seconds behind Keselowski, giving Ford the four-car sweep.

"It sure is (a great start)," said Keselowski, who will now start third in the Daytona 500. "I felt pretty good about our car in practice on Tuesday.

"I've got to give credit to the other Fords. We worked really well together, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe. We had great strategy… Austin Cindric… and we stuck together and drove away and got ourselves in position where we could control the finish of this race, and I'm happy to see all those Fords up front.

"Good job to all those guys" said Keselowski, whose No. 6 Ford carried a sticker honoring his father Bob, a former NASCAR competitor who passed away Dec. 2, 2021.

"This is special," Keselowski said.

Daytona 500 polesitter and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson led a race best 34 of the 60 laps in Duel #1 but lost the lead when he and his Chevrolet teammates took four tires on the race's only pit stop. The Ford teams took only two tires.

The first Duel set the inside line of the 40-car Daytona 500—with cars lining up on the inside of the grid behind pole winner Larson according to their finish in the qualifying race. Hendrick Motorsports' driver Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Larson, Tyler Reddick, Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain rounded out the top 10 from the opening Duel.

The second Duel determined the order of the outside row, with drivers lining up according to finishing order behind Alex Bowman, who secured the second starting spot in Wednesday night's qualifying session. Kyle Busch finished fourth behind the three Fords, with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr. behind him.

Bubba Wallace ran seventh and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. eighth. Logano was credited with a lead-lap finish in ninth but will start from the rear on Sunday in his backup car.

Grala earned the transfer position from Duel 1 with a stunning last-lap pass of J.J. Yeley to put the No. 50 TMT Racing Chevrolet in the big show—much to the delight of Grala and his new The Money Team Racing team owner, boxer Floyd Mayweather.

"It's a relief I can tell you that," Grala said. "I thought we weren't going to make it for a bit.

"But got the hiccups out the way, and hopefully will have a smooth Sunday," he added, thanking Kurt Busch for allowing him to re-join the field's established racing line after receiving a pit road speeding penalty with 24 laps to go.

After the penalty, Grala ran behind Yeley but said he never gave up hope and never got off the gas. He was able to make the pass coming out of Turn 2 on the final lap.

"Right down to that last lap, there was no relief," Grala said. "The key was our line staying formed up and being able to roll by him and him not having a chance to hop down in front of anybody.

"Definitely took years off my life."

Biffle had a much easier time than Grala, given that Hill fell off the lead lap early.

"It feels really good," said Biffle, who returned to the Cup Series to drive for the NY Racing Team headed by John Cohen. "I'll tell you, I have not slept much in the last couple days just trying to keep a cool composure.

"I've been nervous about this race because there's so many things that can happen and so many ways it can go."

Notes: Already locked into the Daytona 500 on speed, the Open car of Jacques Villeneuve had an issue with its throttle cable and was late to the pace laps for the second Duel. Villeneuve quickly lost the draft and fell behind, then retired from the race in 21st place on Lap 39.

Roush Fenway Keselowski teammates Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher swept Thursday nights Bluegreen Vacation Duels, but a last-lap collision in the second race wiped out then-frontrunner Joey Logano and spoiled a perfect night for the Ford Performance entries.

Running second to Logano, Buescher made a move to the inside on the backstretch on Lap 60. Logano moved down to block, and contact between the cars sent Logano's No. 22 Team Penske Ford into the outside wall, crippling the car.

sed the only caution of the night, with Buescher in the lead when the fields was frozen at the moment of the yellow flag. Defending Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell was second and Harrison Burton was credited with third after nosing into Logano's Ford.

In contrast, the first Duel—the first points-paying event with the NASCAR Cup Series' new Next Gen race car—ran without incident, and Keselowski led a 1-2-3-4 Ford sweep with a pass of Ryan Blaney with four laps left. Austin Cindric was second, followed by Blaney and Chase Briscoe.

In that race, Kaz Grala rallied from a pit road speeding penalty and advanced to the Daytona 500 with a pass of JJ Yeley on the final lap. In the second Duel, Greg Biffle claimed the final spot in Sunday's race with a 13th-place finish, eliminating Timmy Hill, who ran 20th.

Biffle, 52, was competing in his first Cup event since 2016.

But the excitement was reserved for the final lap of the final race, with Logano acknowledging the mistake that broke up another 1-2-3-4 Ford finish.

The beneficiary was Buescher, who finished off the first sweep of the Duels by one organization since Hendrick Motorsports accomplished the feat in 2015 with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson.

"Yeah, what a way to start Speedweeks out here, to put both RFK Ford Mustangs in Victory Lane, give Fastenal their first win on a Cup car," Buescher said. "It's not the big show, but we've got a really good hotrod here.

"Just hats off to everybody back at the shop. I know it's been a hectic off season for everybody in our sport, but we've had a lot of changes going on, and it's cool to see it play out."

A rueful Logano gave a succinct post-mortem of the wreck that will force him to a backup car for the Daytona 500.

"Driver screwed up," Logano said. "That's really all there is to it. "I thought I was still clear, and the run (from Buescher) came a lot quicker than I thought it would.

"I tried to block it a little bit and just got a tag in the left rear, and off it went. It's my fault. It stinks, because it tore up our car and kind of puts us in a spot as a race team. It's just a dumb mistake.

In the first Duel, new team co-owner Brad Keselowski passed his former teammate Ryan Blaney to notch his first victory as a principle at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. NASCAR Hall of Fame owner Jack Roush joined Keselowski in Victory Lane after the race with smiles all around at the newly-reorganized Ford team's first points-paying outing.

Cindric, Blaney and Stewart-Haas Racing's Briscoe crossed the line three-wide .264-seconds behind Keselowski, giving Ford the four-car sweep.

"It sure is (a great start)," said Keselowski, who will now start third in the Daytona 500. "I felt pretty good about our car in practice on Tuesday.

"I've got to give credit to the other Fords. We worked really well together, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe. We had great strategy… Austin Cindric… and we stuck together and drove away and got ourselves in position where we could control the finish of this race, and I'm happy to see all those Fords up front.

"Good job to all those guys" said Keselowski, whose No. 6 Ford carried a sticker honoring his father Bob, a former NASCAR competitor who passed away Dec. 2, 2021.

"This is special," Keselowski said.

Daytona 500 polesitter and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson led a race best 34 of the 60 laps in Duel #1 but lost the lead when he and his Chevrolet teammates took four tires on the race's only pit stop. The Ford teams took only two tires.

The first Duel set the inside line of the 40-car Daytona 500—with cars lining up on the inside of the grid behind pole winner Larson according to their finish in the qualifying race. Hendrick Motorsports' driver Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Larson, Tyler Reddick, Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain rounded out the top 10 from the opening Duel.

The second Duel determined the order of the outside row, with drivers lining up according to finishing order behind Alex Bowman, who secured the second starting spot in Wednesday night's qualifying session. Kyle Busch finished fourth behind the three Fords, with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr. behind him.

Bubba Wallace ran seventh and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. eighth. Logano was credited with a lead-lap finish in ninth but will start from the rear on Sunday in his backup car.

Grala earned the transfer position from Duel 1 with a stunning last-lap pass of J.J. Yeley to put the No. 50 TMT Racing Chevrolet in the big show—much to the delight of Grala and his new The Money Team Racing team owner, boxer Floyd Mayweather.

"It's a relief I can tell you that," Grala said. "I thought we weren't going to make it for a bit.

"But got the hiccups out the way, and hopefully will have a smooth Sunday," he added, thanking Kurt Busch for allowing him to re-join the field's established racing line after receiving a pit road speeding penalty with 24 laps to go.

After the penalty, Grala ran behind Yeley but said he never gave up hope and never got off the gas. He was able to make the pass coming out of Turn 2 on the final lap.

"Right down to that last lap, there was no relief," Grala said. "The key was our line staying formed up and being able to roll by him and him not having a chance to hop down in front of anybody.

"Definitely took years off my life."

Biffle had a much easier time than Grala, given that Hill fell off the lead lap early.

"It feels really good," said Biffle, who returned to the Cup Series to drive for the NY Racing Team headed by John Cohen. "I'll tell you, I have not slept much in the last couple days just trying to keep a cool composure.

"I've been nervous about this race because there's so many things that can happen and so many ways it can go."

Notes: Already locked into the Daytona 500 on speed, the Open car of Jacques Villeneuve had an issue with its throttle cable and was late to the pace laps for the second Duel. Villeneuve quickly lost the draft and fell behind, then retired from the race in 21st place on Lap 39.

The Coke Zero Sugar 400 NASCAR Cup Series' regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway unfolded as billed with dramatic action all Saturday night that included 45 lead changes, a 14-minute Red Flag period and a wild final lap of overtime to decide the championship Playoff picture.

Ultimately, Team Penske's Ryan Blaney managed it all and took his second NASCAR Cup Series victory in as many weeks as a huge multi-car accident happened behind him in the last corners of the track on the final lap.

Blaney's No. 12 Team Penske Ford led only seven of the 165 laps, but the 27-year-old North Carolinian took the lead from fellow Ford driver Roush Fenway Racing's Chris Buescher for the two laps of overtime to claim his third win of the season and seventh of his career.

Richard Childress Racing's Tyler Reddick earned the 16th and final Playoff position with a fifth-place finish in a close and suspenseful battle with his own teammate Austin Dillon.

"How about that," Blaney said. "That was a lot of fun. Gosh, we just barely missed that wreck. Got to line up on the front row and got a good push by the 7 (Corey LaJoie). You never know how the end of these things is going to play out. Down the back you don't know what lane is getting a bigger run. I guess someone got tangled up over there, hopefully everyone is okay."

LaJoie was one of the drivers who was collected in that nine-car crash in Turn 3 on the final lap. He was one of four drivers – including Austin Dillon, Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez – running among the top-10 on the final restart and needing a victory to qualify for the Playoffs. Instead, all four of them were unfortunately involved in the final incident that eliminated much of the front-running pack.

Kyle Larson, who has a series-best five wins on the season, clinched his first NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship with a 21st-place finish. Both he and Denny Hamlin were in the last lap wreck. Hamlin, who has led the points standings for all but three of the previous 25 race weekends, finished 14th.

Blaney's Daytona wins caps an impressive summer run that is good enough to move him into second place in the Playoff standings – 28 behind Larson – heading into next week's Playoff opener at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch are ranked third and fourth in the Playoff re-set, followed by 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Hamlin and William Byron. Joey Logano, who led a race best 37 laps Saturday but finished 24th, is seeded ninth, followed by his Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Christopher Bell, this year's Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell, Aric Almirola, Reddick and Kevin Harvick.

"Got good momentum," Blaney said smiling. "Nice to make it three in a row. We'll see."

Bubba Wallace, who led eight laps late in the race, finished second – his best result of the 2021 season. Ryan Newman, Ryan Preece and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five; a season best for Newman and Preece as well.

Haley was sixth, followed by Alex Bowman, who won the Xfinity Series race earlier in the afternoon. Chase Elliott, B.J. McLeod and Josh Bilicki rounded out the top 10. It was McLeod's first top-10 finish in 76 NASCAR Cup Series starts.

The 10-race elimination style NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin with next Sunday's Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway (6 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Kevin Harvick is the defending race winner. Martin Truex Jr. won at Darlington this spring.

UPDATED: No. 17 Disqualified

In a stunning upset at the end of an action-filled, rain-interrupted Daytona 500, Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell claimed his first NASCAR Cup Series victory after charging into the lead during a brutal multicar wreck in Turn 3 on the final lap.

"I can't believe it," McDowell said. "I've got to thank God. So many years of just grinding it out, hoping for an opportunity like this. I've got to thank (team owner) Bob Jenkins for giving me this opportunity. I'm so thankful.

"What a great way to get a first victory—in the Daytona 500!"

In fact, McDowell, who led only the final lap at 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, is the eighth driver to get is first Cup win in the Great American Race. His victory is the third for Front Row Motorsports—all coming in the No. 34 Ford with three different drivers: David Ragan at Talladega, Chris Buescher at Pocono and McDowell at Daytona.

Reigning series champion Chase Elliott finished second after contact between the Team Penske Fords of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano ignited the final wreck, sending the Toyota of Kyle Busch rocketing into the outside wall. When NASCAR illuminated the caution lights, McDowell was in the lead over Elliott by a car-length.

"I saw the lights come on (for the caution), and I knew it was over right then," Elliott said. "We had a fast car. We weren't as good as I thought we were on Thursday (in the Duel 150-mile qualifying race). I thought we did a really good job of executing today, staying out of trouble.

"That's not something I've done a very good job of here in this race, so I'm glad we could at least finish this race and have something to build on for when we come back and try to do better."

Austin Dillon ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin, who fell short in his attempt to win a record third straight Daytona 500. Hamlin won the first two stages but lost the lead during the final cycle of green-flag pit stops when the small contingent of Toyotas got separated while exiting pit road.

Hamlin took the lead in the second stage after a cycle of green-flag pit stops and held it through the fifth caution of the race, which waved when Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell cut a left rear tire and spun into the Chevrolet of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

At that point, Hamlin had led 58 laps, bringing his total of laps led in the Daytona 500 to 434, fifth-all-time and one ahead of Bobby Allison. Hamlin had led 34 consecutive laps to win Stage 1 after racing resumed on Sunday night. He finished with a race-high 98 laps led.

On Lap 14, before a long rain delay, off-center contact from Bell's Toyota to the rear bumper of Aric Almirola's Ford sent Almirola spinning near the front of the field, triggering a massive 16-car pile-up that inexorably altered the complexion of the race.

We were just getting pushed too hard too early," Almirola said. "It's a long, long race. Man, we were in a fine position, just sitting there riding around in the top two, three, and the 20 (Bell) just came with a big run and hit me really hard in a bad spot and it turned me to the right and tore up our race car and ended our Daytona 500 way too early."

Collected in the wreck were: Ryan Newman, making his first Daytona 500 start since the devastating last-lap wreck that put him in the hospital a year ago; Erik Jones, in his first start in a points race for his new team, Richard Petty Motorsports; Daniel Suarez, in his first run with newly formed Trackhouse Racing, a joint venture between Justin Marks and rapper Pitbull; and pole winner Alex Bowman, whose No. 48 Chevrolet was wiped out when Almirola shot up the track into the side of his car and rammed it into the wall.

"It looks like the No. 10 (Almirola) kind of got turned sideways there, and I was the guy that got ran into," Bowman said after an obligatory trip to the infield care center. "Bummer – I hate it for (sponsor) Ally. Obviously, we had a really fast Camaro. The Chevrolets were working good together; hopefully, a Chevy still ends up in Victory Lane.

"Hats off to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports; they built some really fast race cars. Hate that superspeedway racing works out that way sometimes, but that's just part of the game."

Also heavily damaged in the melee were the cars of William Byron, Kurt Busch, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, David Ragan, Jamie McMurray and Matt DiBenedetto. To add insult to injury, nearby lightning strikes delayed the restart of the race, and heavy rains followed shortly thereafter.

Five hours and 40 minutes later, after the rain abated and the track dried, engines were re-fired at 9:07 p.m., and the race resumed with 24 cars on the lead lap.

Notes: In his first points race for the new 23XI Racing team co-owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan, Bubba Wallace ran near the front of the pack throughout the race but lost a lap with an unscheduled pit stop for a vibration on Lap 178 of 200. Wallace was caught up in the last-lap wreck and finished 17th... Kyle Larson ran 10th in his first trip in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet...Austin Cindric's strong Cup debut ended in the last-lap wreck that claimed three Team Penske cars...Ryan Preece, Ross Chastain, Jamie McMurray and Corey LaJoie claimed the sixth through ninth finishing positions, respectively.

Florida native Aric Almirola drove to a convincing victory in the opening Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona qualifying race Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway.

Almirola's No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford led a dominating 52 of the 60 laps and held off Christopher Bell's No 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota by a mere .041-seconds for the Tampa native's first victory in the Daytona 500 field-setting race.

Ryan Newman, who was involved in a frightening last lap crash in last year's Daytona 500, finished third, followed by Joey Logano and Ryan Preece, whose fifth place effort was important regarding the transfer positions into the 40-car Daytona 500 lineup.

Preece edged Ty Dillon by a scant .04-second at the finish line to race his way into the Daytona 500. That gave reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Austin Cindric a starting bid based on qualifying speed - despite his 16th-place finish in the Duel - and sent Ty Dillon home.

Three of the four transfer position were evident after the first Duel - with Preece, Cindric, and David Ragan (who qualified on speed). Another will be determined in the second Duel.

"First of all, I get the bonehead of the race award for speeding on the last section of pit road when I nailed everything else the whole night that I didn't know how to do," the Team Penske driver Cindric said of receiving a speeding penalty after a mid-race pit stop.

"I'm obviously really happy to get the Verizon 5G Ford Mustang into the big show. Obviously, a lot for me left to learn, but racing on the biggest stage against the best drivers, it's an amazing opportunity."

The Fords - specifically Almirola - dominated Duel 1, spending most of the race bumper-to-bumper in varying order out front. Almirola and Logano, the 2015 Daytona 500 winner ran 1-2 for most of the race. There were nine lead changes among five drivers.

After the race, the Tampa, Fla. native Almirola smiled and mentioned the good run for Tampa sports - a nod to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl win last week.

"Great way to start Speedweeks," Almirola said. "This thing is really fast and I can't wait until Sunday. Just proud of everybody back at the shop, Doug Yates and Ford Motor Company all of our partners.

"It's been a long time since I've gotten to sit here and do an interview at the start/finish line.

And he added a message for FOX Sports race announcer, Kansas City football fan Clint Bowyer, "Things are going right for Tampa Bay, right Clint Bowyer."

Daytona 500 pole-winner Alex Bowman played it safe early in the race, hanging toward the rear initially. He ultimately had to pit several times for his crew to look under the hood of his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. He finished 20th out of 24 cars in his race, four laps down.

Two-time defending Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, who is trying to become the first driver in history to win three consecutive versions of NASCAR's Great American Race, finished 13th. He had to push his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota back into the pits after the race because he ran out of fuel on the final lap - after taking the white flag in fourth position.

Kyle Larson, who is making his first start in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5, finished seventh. Daniel Suarez finished eighth in the No. 99 Chevrolet marking his Trackhouse Racing team's debut. and Erik Jones finished 17th in his first Daytona points race with Richard Petty Motorsports.

As racing resumed at Daytona International Speedway following a two-hour plus rain delay Thursday night, there was a definitive sense of urgency in the field for the Bluegreen Vacations Duel 2 at Daytona as the clock passed midnight.

While the Toyota contingent of Martin Truex Jr., Bubba Wallace and Kyle Busch pushed to the front on the restart with two laps remaining in overtime, it was Austin Dillon - with a well-timed shove from former teammate Kevin Harvick - who rallied to the front, dropped low on Wallace and then won the drag race to the checkered flag for his first career Duel victory - a mere .057-seconds over Wallace.

It is the first Daytona qualifying race Dillon has won and he did it leading the only two laps on the night, lap 33 and then the last lap (63). It was similar to what he did in winning the 2018 Daytona 500 in the famed Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet when he led only the last lap - finishing a quarter-second ahead of Wallace then too.

"I was talking to spotter before the restart and he was like, ‘we've got the 4 (Harvick) behind us and he's been pushing well all night'. He had the 12 [Ryan Blaney in a Ford, like Harvick] so I knew the manufacturer thing was going to be tough," Dillon said.

"I made a decent block on the backstretch and just a heckuva push through three and four. I knew Bubba was going to try and block, but I just whipped the wheel and it worked out well."

The race marked the debut of Wallace's 23XI Racing team, the No. 23 Toyota co-owned by three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan. Wallace was fourth fastest in pole qualifying and finished runner-up in the 2018 Daytona 500 - so this is a venue where he is particularly optimistic about delivering for the new operation.

"A lot of mistakes," Wallace said after climbing out of his Toyota. "Good debut but nothing to be really happy about for myself. It's okay for drivers to be hard on themselves, that's how we motivate ourselves to go out there and be better.

"Hats off to my guys at 23XI for a great DoorDash Toyota Camry. I tried to do all I could to help [Martin] Truex there get Toyota a win. I appreciate Kyle [Busch] for cutting me a lot of breaks.

"I know I have a lot to learn here, but all in all it was a good night. I've got some learning to do."

A five-car accident with four laps of regulation remaining forced the overtime period. Garrett Smithley - who needed to race his way into the Daytona 500 field - made contact with former NASCAR Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski triggering a chain-reaction accident.

Outside pole-sitter William Byron, who led a race best 35 of the 63 laps, was also caught in the melee and his Hendrick Motorsports team will have to use a back-up version of his No. 24 Chevrolet in Sunday's Daytona 500.

Harvick, a former series champion who won a series-high nine races last year, helped push his former RCR teammate Dillon to the front. He finished third, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott.

Veteran David Ragan finished eighth - best among the Open cars, needing to earn a position in the Daytona 500 field. Kaz Grala finished 14 and took the last open position in the 40-car field.

The NASCAR Cup Series will have two more practices prior to the Daytona 500 - a pair of sessions on Saturday. The Daytona 500 is set for Sunday (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Nine times previously a winner from the Duel qualifying race has gone on to win the Daytona 500. Denny Hamlin is trying to win a record third consecutive Daytona 500.