NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway
Daytona 500
Team Chevy Post-Race Report
February 15, 2026
Stenhouse Jr., Elliott Lead Chevrolet with Top-Five Finishes in the “Great American Race”
Stage One: For the first time in his championship-earning career, Kyle Busch led NASCAR’s top division to the green flag from the pole position for the 68th running of the DAYTONA 500. The speed of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet prevailed on the start with Busch taking over the top position to lead the official opening lap of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. Busch maintained a top-five running position throughout the first-half of the opening stage, but a loose-handling Chevrolet saw the Richard Childress Racing driver fall out of the top-10 as the team approached its first trip to pit road of the day. Busch was among the first group of cars to make the dive to pit road with 15 laps to go in the stage for a fuel-only stop. Among those electing to stretch their fuel mileage included the trio of Spire Motorsports Chevrolet’s with Carson Hocevar leading the Bowtie brigade to the first green-white checkered flag with a fourth-place stage finish.
Stage Two: The No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet team followed up a strong opening stage with a win in the race off pit road – gaining three spots to earn a fourth-place starting spot for Stage Two. In true Daytona fashion, a new pack of cars took quick command of the field that featured a strong contingency of Chevrolet-powered machines, with Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain finding the lead to bring the race to the halfway mark. Re-entering the battle for the lead was the polesitter, Kyle Busch, who progressively navigated his No. 8 Chevrolet back into the top-five. Despite an accident at the lead, Busch narrowly made his way through the carnage with minimal damage to salvage a fourth-place finish in the stage.
Final Stage: While what looked to be the final green flag pit cycle of the race, a caution flew with less than 10 laps remaining – leaving Team Chevy’s Michael McDowell in the catbird seat as one of the lone cars that had yet to hit pit road. Radio transmission from atop the No. 71 pit stop indicates that the Spire Motorsports Chevrolet was three laps to the good on fuel as the former DAYTONA 500 Champion led the field to the green flap for the restart with four laps to go. But it was the superspeedway ace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., that survived a last-lap crash to lead Chevrolet with a runner-up finish.
Team Chevy Unofficial Top-10 Results
Pos. Driver
2nd – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
4th – Chase Elliott
Chevrolet’s season statistics with one NASCAR Cup Series races complete:
Wins: 0
Poles: 1
Top-Fives: 2
Top 10s: 2
Stage Wins: 0
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at EchoPark Speedway with the Autotrader 400 on Sunday, February 22, at 3:00 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Post-Race Driver Quotes:
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 37th
“Not how we wanted to start the season. The Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Chevrolet was really fast this week and that’s a testament to all of the work that everyone does at RCR, ECR, and CT Spring Company. We were in a good position when the wreck happened in front of me. I bailed to pit road and unfortunately the No. 19 was there in the smoke. Proud of the guys for hustling to fix the car so we could go gain a few positions. That is going to pay dividends in this points format.”
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 4th
“It seemed really fortunate to get through the first crash, and that opened the door to somehow get to the lead. But then I got pushed clear and I think the No. 38 was behind me and pushed me clear by everybody down the back, and then it was just he and I. We got a good ways out there and we were just in a lot of trouble because momentum had shifted. At that point, I was just on extreme defense, and then from there, I was just trying to defend as best I could without crashing myself, but everybody else ended up crashing anyway. Maybe I should have just wrecked myself trying to block. But, yeah, I hate that. Obviously very close but close doesn’t cut it.”
Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 14th
“I feel really good about the day for our No. 10 Grizzly Nicotine Pounches Chevrolet team. A top-15 finish to start the year is nothing to frown about. Our Grizzly Camaro was strong. We were able to lead laps in the DAYTONA 500 again and run up front most of the day. We just have to clean some things up so we can keep ourselves up front at the right times. I’m proud of this team’s effort. Everyone worked hard all week to continue to chip away at this race car. By the time we got to the last stage, it was the best it was all weekend. That’s all you can ask for and we’ll go onto Atlanta with some momentum.”
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 18th
“Just one of those races where you are just trying to be smart and be patient. Just trying to be smart the first two-thirds of the race and not getting in anything. Did a good job of that. We had to wait a little longer and I was basically at the tail end of the pack and we made a call there to try to do tires and it’s just hard to go anywhere on those restarts. I felt like every lane I would get in, I would get checked up and go to the back again. Technically, we missed the wreck, didn’t save it and did a 360 and that cost us some spots. But, yeah, just happy to come out unscathed and all in one piece and go do this again in Atlanta.”
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 12th
“We had a lot of damage on our car from the Stage One incident. Our right-front suspension was bent, so the car was driving really weird and it was just super, super loose, as well as tight as the same time. I couldn’t believe we had a shot there at the end. I thought that was amazing. It was a great strategy with the fuel sequence, and I thought, man, we have a shot with lining up on the front two rows. That’s all you can ask for. I thought Tyler (Reddick) was out to a pretty decent lead on the restart, and I thought the bottom was the place to be. There was one time I got clear and I probably could have taken the middle, but I didn’t know if the balance of my car could handle being there. I just had to keep my car straight, so I thought if I tried to make a block, I would wreck. It was just incredible that we had a shot at it there at the end.”
Justin Allgaier, No. 40 JR Motorsports Chevrolet
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident at the end of Stage Two.
Finished: 38th
“Unfortunately, I’m going to have to take 100 percent of the responsibility for that one. I hate it for everyone that got caught up in it. I felt like our No. 40 Traveller Whiskey Chevrolet was incredible all day. Greg Ives (crew chief) and this whole team have done a phenomenal job building a race car that we felt like we could come here and not only run up front, but be able to lead laps.
I got to the top lane there and I watched the run coming on the top with Denny (Hamlin). I thought he was going to push. I thought the lane was closed up just enough that he wouldn’t try to go up there, but when I realized he was going up there, it was just too late. Once the air kind of got on the spoiler, it just turned me to the right. I hate it for everyone that got caught up in it because it wasn’t what we wanted.
But hats-off to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller, everyone at JR Motorsports, for this opportunity. To have Traveller Whiskey and Chris Stapleton back on board, it was great to be out front and be able to lead the DAYTONA 500. Thank you to all of our partners and the Hendrick Engine Shop. We had big power today and that was really what it came down to. We’ll go back and regroup. I’m going to watch this video back a lot and really try to figure out what I could have done better.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 2nd
“It’s never bad to finish in the top-five in the Daytona 500. It’s a big race and we have left here finishing in the 30s and have been pretty down about that. So, on one hand, it’s good because our strategy worked out perfectly today. We stuck to it. It was brutal riding around there for a while. Not sure what the Toyota’s were doing, but I think that made the race pretty boring there for a while for the fans. It was chaos after they pitted, so yeah, our No. 47 Chef Boyardee Chevrolet was as strong as I needed it to be. It did the things I wanted, but we just came up one spot short.”
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident at the end of Stage Two.
Finished: 40th
“It’s just unfortunate – wrong place, wrong time. We made some good moves to gain some positions back that we lost when we got stuck on pit road. I had a little thought to bail earlier, but right as I thought, I gained a lot of track position through the middle, and I was going to stick with it and see if we could get some stage points. Just wrong decision on that one. It is what it is. We will keep digging; go to Atlanta next week and try to win.”
How were the Chevrolet’s handling with the new nose?
“I think everybody’s cars are driving pretty bad from where I sat, especially off of Turn Four. I felt like I could push really well, so everything on the Chevy end was great there. It was just a lot of getting off of the throttle off Turn Four and that made the bottom really difficult to run, and it kind of brought the two grooves up the racetrack. Even the middle could get pretty sketchy. I was far enough back that I couldn’t really see what started it. I could see the No. 40 (Justin Allgaier) try and get up in front of the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin), and that is probably what caused it. But for us, just wrong place at the wrong time.”
Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 17th
“I think the No. 51 Jacob Construction Chevrolet was a super-fast car and we were able to get to the front; lead some laps and just continue to build on the awesome improvements we have had with Chevrolet. I think our result didn’t show the speed, but still an awesome day. Stayed on the lead lap and mitigated some mistakes we had on pit road, and I think it gives us a lot of confidence going into Atlanta next weekend.”
Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 22nd
“I’m not really sure what happened. We had two Spire Motorsports Chevrolet’s out front there, and I thought we would have a great shot to have everyone covered there. It just didn’t work out. It’s unfortunate. I feel like we put ourselves in position to win and we just didn’t get there.”
Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 33rd
“It was a long day after the wreck, but our No. 88 Red Bull Chevrolet was getting better as the race went on and as the sun went down. We struggled a little bit when it was really hot out, but as the shade came in, we definitely started to excel a little more. We were able to get up to the front and lead a lane. But right when we got up there, that’s when we wrecked. Overall, it was a good day for me. I learned a lot and I got to experience my first DAYTONA 500. I know there will be more to come.”
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