JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr took victory in the longest Daytona 500 in the 65-year history of America’s Greatest Race. The race lasted 212 laps and Stenhouse took victory after being declared the winner by NASCAR race officials and speaking following the event he commented saying:
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!”
Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano in the No.22 Pennzoil Team Penske Ford came home in second place just ahead of Christopher Bell and speaking following the race he commented saying:
Second is the worst, man. “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.”
1. (31) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 212.
2. (3) Joey Logano, Ford, 212.
3. (5) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 212.
4. (9) Chris Buescher, Ford, 212.
5. (1) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 212.
6. (29) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 212.
7. (24) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 212.
8. (7) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 212.
9. (23) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 212.
10. (38) Riley Herbst(i), Ford, 212.
11. (40) Travis Pastrana, Toyota, 212.
12. (13) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 212.
13. (17) Zane Smith(i), Ford, 212.
14. (35) Cody Ware, Ford, 212.
15. (16) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 212.
16. (12) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 212.
17. (18) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 212.
18. (2) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, Accident, 211.
19. (36) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 211.
20. (15) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, Accident, 211.
21. (4) Aric Almirola, Ford, Accident, 211.
22. (10) Brad Keselowski, Ford, Accident, 211.
23. (6) Austin Cindric, Ford, Accident, 210.
24. (22) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, 210.
25. (33) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 210.
26. (19) Harrison Burton, Ford, 210.
27. (14) Todd Gilliland, Ford, Accident, 208.
28. (11) Michael McDowell, Ford, 208.
29. (34) Conor Daly(i), Chevrolet, 206.
30. (32) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, 204.
31. (39) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Accident, 203.
32. (28) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, Accident, 203.
33. (27) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 202.
34. (21) William Byron, Chevrolet, Accident, 202.
35. (30) Chase Briscoe, Ford, Accident, 182.
36. (20) Ryan Preece, Ford, Accident, 181.
37. (25) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, Accident, 118.
38. (8) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, Accident, 118.
39. (26) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, Accident, 117.
40. (37) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, Engine, 26.
NTT IndyCar Series star Conor Daly came home in 29th place in his first Daytona 500.