Brad Keselowski displayed early promise, charging from the tail of the field to finish second in the race’s first stage before suffering damage late in the race.
he race panned out even better with all three cars in the top-12, where Jimmie Johnson finished third, Nemechek scored a career-best finish of fifth place, and Jones finished 12th.
Austin Cindric’s bid for a second DAYTONA 500 victory ended with an eighth-place finish after a dramatic final-lap shakeup took him out of contention for the win.
Haas Factory team enjoyed a successful team debut this weekend at Daytona, as Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed finished second and third in the Xfinity Series.
This was LaJoie’s ninth career start in the Daytona 500, but his 17th career NASCAR Cup Series start at Daytona. His best Daytona finish remains fourth, earned in last year’s Daytona 500.
William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, is a back-to-back DAYTONA 500 Champion – marking the first time a driver completed the feat since Denny Hamlin in 2019-2020.
Tyler Reddick (second), Jimmie Johnson (third), Chase Briscoe (fourth) and John Hunter Nemechek (fifth) gave Toyota four of the top-five finishers in the rain delayed season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday evening.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Peak Ford Mustang Dark Horse – (Finished 7th) - “Honestly, we did a good job fixing it after we got turned on the backstretch off of Turn 2"
The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, clocked in a pole-winning lap at 178.241 mph in 30.296 seconds for his 52nd Cup career pole and fourth of 2026 in Joliet, Illinois.
Enzo Fittipaldi completed a dominant Saturday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, leading all 35 laps from the pole to earn his third career INDY NXT by Firestone victory and cap a historic day for HMD Motorsports.
