Daytona 500 recap

The NASCAR season kicked off on Sunday with the 68th running of the Daytona 500. The green flag drop was moved up to 1:30 p.m. as opposed to 2:30 p.m. because of the possibility of rain later in the day.

The winner of the pole for this 500 was veteran driver Kyle Busch. Busch won the pole award last Wednesday, which was his first pole for the Great American Race, and only his second pole at Daytona in his career.

Chase Briscoe, last year’s polesitter, would be beaten by Busch in the second round of qualifying, relegating him to the outside pole to start Sunday’s race.

As with every year, there were four spots up for grabs to get into the race. Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson was locked in on a provisional.

JR Motorsport’s Justin Allgaier and 23XI’s Corey Heim locked themselves in during qualifying, while BJ McLeod and Casey Mears raced their way in via the Duels.

So the stage was set for Sunday. With Busch leading the field to green, could he finally capture that Daytona 500 crown that had been eluding him for over 20 years?

The early part of the race mostly went by with some minor accidents and a lot of fuel-saving.

Zane Smith, driver of the 38 owned by Front Row Motorsports, won stage one of the race. Remember, FRM was also the owner for Michael McDowell when he went to victory lane at the 500 in 2021.

Late in stage two, Allgaier found himself out front of the pack; however, he got out too far, which allowed Denny Hamlin to make a massive run to his outside.

Allgaier made a late move up top, which squeezed Hamlin and caused a massive 20-car pileup at the end of the stage.

In a post-wreck interview, Allgaier took the blame for causing the accident, although fans also argue that Hamlin should not have made that move at that point.

Bubba Wallace, another driver at 23XI, which Hamlin jointly owns with legendary NBA player Michael Jordan, would take stage two.

For the final stage of the race, some late-race pit strategy turned into a fantastic finish. Carson Hocevar was out front at the white flag and was headed into turn one when he got turned by Erik Jones.

The wreck took out most of the lead pack, leaving just eight cars with a chance at NASCAR immortality.

Former champion and most popular driver Chase Elliott had the lead coming out of turn four, but Tyler Reddick, using a huge run off of four, passed Elliott right before the tri-oval. Elliott got turned by Reddick’s teammate, Riley Herbst, and Reddick won the Daytona 500.

Reddick is also a driver for 23XI Racing. So him winning the race also means that Jordan, a six-time NBA champion, is now a Daytona 500 champion.

This edition of the Great American race surely did not disappoint. We got a crazy finish, some huge wrecks, pit strategy and all the drama you could want.

The series heads up north to Atlanta and EchoPark Speedway for this weekend’s race. Another superspeedway type, although the track is a mile shorter than Daytona.

Can Reddick make it two-in-a-row? Just going to have to stay tuned in on Sunday.

Evan Pochas is a third-year student studying broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ejp5753@psu.edu.