andrewgallinger.com

By: Andrew Gallinger

The 2026 Daytona 500 saw calamity & bump drafting as is the norm at Daytona International Speedway, as was a little bit of luck. After 500 miles, Tyler Reddick claimed victory in the 68th annual “Great American Race”.

NASCAR’s season-opener began with 41 drivers taking the green flag, quickly branching out to 2-3 wide racing throughout the field. The 200-lap affair was first slowed on Lap 5 from a multi-car wreck as the field exited turn 4. BJ McLeod had a right-rear tire go flat, spinning from top lane while still up on the banking at the exit of the corner. Reddick, Noah Gragson, William Byron, Justin Allgaier & Casey Mears were all collected as the field stacked up.

The green flag waved again on lap 12 with the two-and-three wide racing throughout the field running just inches apart, close to 200 m.p.h. On lap 36 exiting turn 4, Kyle Bush got loose in the middle lane. The only thing that kept the Bush from spinning was Brad Keselowski occupying the bottom lane. The contact pushed Keselowski onto the apron. Keselowski was able to keep his car going straight, merging back in the field on the front stretch without further incident.

On lap 57, Bryon, who was trying for a three-peat as Daytona 500 champion got a bump draft from Shane Van Gisbergen, putting Byron into the wall at the end of the backstretch. Byron was able to continue at speed as the race stayed green.

Zanye Smith earned the Stage 1 win as the green & white checkered flag flew on Lap 65. After a majority of the field pitted for four tires & fuel during that stage break, Penske Racing teammates, Austin Cindric & Ryan Blaney, led the field back to green flag racing on lap 72.

On lap 85, entering turn 3, Cup Series rookie, Connor Zillisch powered up to the lead trio with Allgaier & Ty Dillon. As those three leaders came off turn 4 down the short-chute on the front stretch, Dillon pulled out to the lead by a couple car lengths. A few rows back started to stack up as Zillisch & Allgaier made contact. Other cars made contact in that stack-up, leading to a caution also involving Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, Todd Gilliland, Cody Ware, Ty Gibbs & Corey Heim.

After that chaos right in front of hundreds of thousands of screaming fans, track & NASCAR safety workers cleared the wreck and debris. Racing resumed at lap 92. Kyle Larson led the field back to green, for what would be a 33-lap green flag run before the crash specific to superspeedways, “the big one”, collected 20 cars on the frontstretch just past the start/finish line on lap 124. Allgaier tried to come up the track and block the run of momentum for the lead that Denny Hamlin had on the outside. Allgaier’s right-rear & Hamlin’s left front made contact, stuffing Hamlin’s right side into the wall, with Allgaier ping-ponging off the wall coming back down across the track as 18 other drivers were collected in the melee trying to avoid Allgaier’s spinning car. The other drivers caught up in the crash included Chastain, Cindric, Larson, Bush, Blaney, Byron, Gilliland, Smith, Heim, Van Gisbergen, Joey Logano, Cole Custer, John Hunter Nemecheck, Erik Jones, Alex Bowman & Michael McDowell.

After 11 laps under caution, including Bubba Wallace winning Stage 2 behind the pace car, 31 cars resumed racing with a chance to still win the Daytona 500. The race stayed green for the next 57 laps, which would be the longest green flag run of the entire race. Then, on lap 193 of 200, teammates Hamin & Christopher Bell made contact on the exit of turn 4. Hamlin got a bump draft that went askew from Heim. As Hamlin’s car darted to the left, Bell’s right-rear got hooked putting him in the outside wall.

The field went back to green with just four laps remaining and Reddick, McDowell, Byron, Carson Hocevar & Keselowski the top five. By the time the field completed half-a-lap, Reddick was in from blocking two lanes of hard chargers, Byron down low, McDowell up top. The jockeying for position made the two lanes three as the field entered turn 3, with Reddick now leading the middle lane. As the field darted for position the next three laps, Hocevar claimed the lead as the swarming pack took the white flag for the final lap of the race. As the field blocked & pushed going into turn 1 for the final time, Hocevar got turned by Jones in front of the field. Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr,, and Chase Elliott were three wide. Ellott got pushed to the front down the backstretch on the top lane by Smith, who came through the turn 1 spin. NASCAR held off on throwing an immediate caution as it was the last lap. As the aforementioned driver charged the rest of the way down the backstretch, Reddick got a run on Smith outside of turn 3. Off of turn 4, Reddick cut to the inside of Elliott. Just above Reddick, Herbst got an outside run on Elliott. Those two crossed the finish line in a shower of sparks as Reddick earned his first career win in the Daytona 500.

After a wild race to begin the 2026 NASCAR campaign, next the series heads to another drafting imperative track, EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia.