What Happened?
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. barely edged out Joey Logano when the final caution flag waved on Sunday (Feb. 19) at Daytona International Speedway to win his first Daytona 500. The duo was followed by Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher and Alex Bowman.
This is the first NASCAR Cup Series win for JTG Daugherty Racing since 2014 and the first Daytona 500 victory for a black team owner in history (Brad Daugherty).
But What Really Happened?
When it comes to the Next Gen car on superspeedways, more of the same.
And you know what? That’s OK.
We don’t see the three-lane battles that we have become accustomed to at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway in the past, which of course means less exciting images of cars sandwiching each other while driving at over 190 mph.
On the other hand, the Next Gen car does not like single-file racing either. Almost every time the Cup Series field tried to run single file, out came some motivated driver in the back of the field to begin another line again.
That’s the cool part.
In case you haven’t noticed, the Next Gen cars really seem to work well when the field is side-by-side in these drafting races. If you don’t believe that, rewatch the first 10 laps of this race and say how many passes you saw.
With the exception of some scattered multi-car crashes here and there, Sunday’s race was mostly a stagnant neck and neck drag race on a 2.5-mile racetrack.
And it’s the same thing we’ve been seeing on these racetracks in the new car since last year’s Daytona 500. With more two-lane racing, the more there’s battles for the lead.
At Talladega in 2021, there were 69 combined lead changes after both of the season’s races there with the old car.
With the Next Gen in 2022, there were 99.
Of course, this isn’t Talladega we’re talking about. It’s the Daytona 500 and that comes with its quirks. One of them is how every driver loses their minds in the last 10 laps.
In typical Daytona fashion, the whole field saw red in the closing laps of this race to ensue plenty of carnage. That gave it enough overtime attempts to make this 500 the longest one in history with an extra 12 laps. That’s an extra 30 miles.
It’s the same pattern that we’ve seen in almost every Great American Race since the Car of Tomorrow and that’s likely not going to change anytime soon.
Is that a good thing? Not unless you like that kind of stuff, but hey, at least they’re side-by-side for those other 190 laps.
Who stood out?
What is it going to take for Brad Keselowski to win the Daytona 500?
For 42 laps of Sunday’s 212-lap event, the co-owner of RFK Racing ran conductor of the stock car train.
That’s more laps led than anyone else on Sunday, including his teammate and employee Chris Buescher, who either ran second to his boss or drove right ahead of him, which was an action that had him lead 32 laps – the second most out of anyone.
However, within the remaining 10 laps of the originally scheduled 200-lap race, it was indeed the No. 6 of Keselowski at the point. Buescher followed.
Keselowski, who also led the most laps in last year’s Great American Race seemed to be once again on the verge of finally winning that elusive Daytona 500 victory.
Until five laps to go.
Behind the RFK duo were the two drivers of Richard Childress Racing Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon. The two Chevrolets broke their line behind Buescher and went to the high side. Buecher immediately lost momentum and Keselowski, while he had the opportunity to block the RCR cars, opted to stay low with his Texan compatriot.
It was a move he likely regrets now.
Afterward, the Michigan native was involved in not one but two different crashes that effectively ended any chance he had at earning his win. He was involved in the last race-ending crash that had him scored all the way back to 22nd. Buescher survived long enough to finish fourth and at least earn a top five for the organization.
While ending with an unfortunate result, both Keselowski and Buescher showed that RFK still has the strength on the superspeedways.
As for the rest of the schedule, that remains to be seen.
It would also be unfair to not mention the efforts of both Riley Herbst and Rick Ware Racing.
While it isn’t the first Cup top-10 result for RWR, it is the first for the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Herbst. The No. 15 Sunny D Ford stayed in the show long enough to benefit from the attrition needed to be scored among the top-10 drivers as the yellow and checkered flags waved at the end.
For RWR, it’s their seventh ever top-10 finish. Six of those results also came at Daytona.
Who fell flat?
While Keselowski has attempted to win the Daytona 500 14 times, Busch has been in 18 attempts of the Great American Race.
Both drivers will have to wait at least another year to try to earn that elusive victory.
For all intents and purposes, Busch really was leading at the end of the 500-mile race.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t leading at the end of the 530-mile race.
Shortly after Busch took the lead from Keselowski, RCR teammate Dillon locked up behind the No. 8 Chevrolet and acted as tail-gunner for the two-time Cup champion.
Then, with only three laps to go, Daniel Suarez spun on the frontstretch.
With an overtime restart, RCR opted to have Dillon restart next to Busch and allow the No. 8 to slide into the line in front of him. From then on, they could stack up and defend long enough to the line. Dillon was planning to gift his new teammate a Daytona 500 victory.
However, the RCR cars have the same problem the RFK cars did.
There’s only two of them.
Busch and Dillon both were quickly freight-trained by eventual winner Stenhouse. Shortly after, the No. 3 found himself turned around in a crash that brought out the penultimate yellow flag.
Only Busch was left in the RCR camp and try he did.
With one last push from Bubba Wallace, Busch tried valiantly to pass Logano on the final lap. Alas, it ended with him spinning in the race-ending crash.
Better than last time?
With the Next Gen car, superspeedway racing has become what appears to be a battle of the two lanes. For about 190 laps in the 65th annual Daytona 500, that’s more or less what we saw.
Funny, we probably said something similar one year ago.
But hey, at least it’s not a single-file train.
While last year’s Great American Race featured its first inevitable multi-car crash on lap 42, we didn’t see one this year until 119. For you history buffs out there, that’s the longest a Daytona 500 has gone without a crash since 1998.
Which is great, because the racing for the lead was a heck of a sight.
In fact, with a whopping 52 lead changes, it was one of the most competitive Daytona 500s ever and certainly far and away from the 35 we saw one year ago.
Paint scheme of the race
NASCAR drivers have always had to work with sponsors in activation, but none have really gotten into it as much as Noah Gragson has over the last couple of years.
In his first full-time Cup Series season, not much has changed. Wendy’s partnered with the Las Vegas native for his second career Daytona 500 to be on board his No. 42 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Chevrolet.
As usual, Gragson got really into it.
But that wasn’t all. On top of Wendy’s opening up their own small store within the Daytona infield, Wendy’s CMO Carl Loredo started throwing some shade to competitor Wallace’s No. 23 McDonald’s scheme.
23XI Racing President Steve Lauletta responded in kind.
Starting some beef – pun completely intended – on Twitter is a great way to do some sponsor exposure for an event, which is why Gragson’s was an excellent way to do just that.
In that case, Wallace’s No. 23 livery did feature just as much sponsor activation since the team responded.
But in honesty, Loredo did have a point. That No. 23 scheme is boring.
What’s next?
NASCAR goes out west. Again.
The NASCAR Cup Series will head to southern California for the second time in 2023, but this time it will visit the larger 2-mile Auto Club Speedway for the Pala Casino 400. It will be the last NASCAR race there before the circuit’s reconfiguration into a short track.
Qualifying will take place on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 2:50 p.m. ET. with the 200-lap feature being featured live on FOX on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT