Anthony Alfredo will no longer race in the Daytona 500 after his No. 62 for Beard Motorsports failed postrace inspection, putting BJ McLeod into Feb. 15’s Great American Race.
Alfredo had his finish disallowed after NASCAR discovered a loose transaxle cooling hose, as well as a loose driver cooling hose, per NASCAR Cup Series race director Brad Moran.
He had finished the best of the three open cars in the second Daytona Duel on Feb. 12, which had initially punched his ticket into the main event.
“I’m pretty disappointed, as anyone could imagine, after the emotion I felt making the race,” Alfredo told Frontstretch. ” … We didn’t do anything that affected us tonight or would’ve put us in the race yesterday. We just came down here and did literally everything we could to make it here on time … and ran a phenomenal race, did an awesome job. Certainly proud of the effort regardless.”
Instead, McLeod’s No. 78 for his own Live Fast Motorsports will compete in the Daytona 500, marking the team’s first appearance in the race since 2023, when it was still a chartered car in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“The opportunity to race in the Daytona 500 is something that doesn’t happen many times in life, and I will never, ever not feel incredibly grateful to take the green in one of those races,” McLeod told Frontstretch as his No. 78 was being inspected before being approved to join the starting grid.
McLeod joins Casey Mears, who raced his way into the 500 via his finish in the first Duel, as well as Corey Heim, Justin Allgaier and Jimmie Johnson as open cars running the 2026 edition of the season-opening race.
Kevin Rutherford is the executive editor of Frontstretch, a position he gained in 2025 after being the managing editor since 2015, and serving on the editing staff since 2013.
At his day job, he's a journalist covering music and rock charts at Billboard. He lives in New York City, but his heart is in Ohio -- you know, like that Hawthorne Heights song.
NA$CAR found a way to get McLeod into the product!
Why does NASCAR care about McLeod or Alfredo? What did I miss?
He is a caution machine!
Conflicting feelings
You can’t help but feel happy for McLeod, seeing he has absolutely no sponsorship on that car, so this will be a nice payday. And maybe he can pick up a sponsor over the weekend, now that he has made the field.
But, you can’t tell me that he deserves to be in it over Lajoie or to a lessor extent Chandler Smith. He just happened to be in the Duel that was the least competitive from the bubble car standpoint. If Lajoe was in the 2nd Duel he would have easily made the field. So that leaves a sour taste in my mouth.