Daytona 500 highlights: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wins wild NASCAR showdown

NASCAR Cup Series

5 hours ago

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is a Daytona 500 champion!

Stenhouse won the NASCAR Cup Series‘ biggest and most prestigious race Sunday on FOX, after a hard-fought battle that came down to the wire in overtime and resulted in the longest Daytona 500 in history with 212 laps raced.

Stenhouse claimed his third career Cup Series win by beating out 39 other drivers who made up this year’s field, including former winners Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Michael McDowell, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Jimmie Johnson.

The highly anticipated race took center stage at Daytona International Speedway — and we had you covered with all the action from start to finish.

Here are the top moments!

Engines fired

Giving the command to start engines were eight drivers who had won both a Daytona 500 and Cup Series Championship: Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Kurt Busch, Johnson, Logano and Harvick.

Daytona 500: NASCAR legends tell drivers to start their engines

Johnson, Logano and Harvick had to get strapped into their cars after the command while the rest of the field already had done so.

Fans were treated to a flyover show by the Thunderbirds while those three drivers got situated.

Green!

Tiffany Haddish waved the green flag to get things going, and just like that, the 65th Daytona 500 was underway.

It was a back-and-forth battle right out of the gate, with Kyle Larson leading Lap 1. It wasn’t long before pole-winner Alex Bowman took over the lead, however, claiming the No. 1 spot on just the second lap. The rest of the field formed up double-file, while Logano and Larson continued to race nearly side-by-side on the first few opening laps.

Heating up

Larson led at Lap 10, but Christopher Bell was hot on his tail and challenged Larson for the top spot as things continued. Then, Aric Almirola got in on the action, and Almirola was racing Bell for the lead before pit stops started on Lap 37.

Fords were the first to pit road, followed by Chevrolets and then Toyotas.

Spin!

Riley Herbst, who was making his first Daytona 500 start and his Cup debut, went for a spin into the infield, but managed to make it to his pit stall. He had to serve a pass-through pit road penalty as a result.

More contact

Meanwhile, Chase Briscoe was pushed to the lead right before Bubba Wallace, who has two runner-up Daytona 500 finishes (2018, 2022) under his belt, hit the wall after taking a run to the outside of Briscoe.

After the collision, Martin Truex Jr., who once lost the Daytona 500 by 0.01 seconds, took the lead.

Stage 1 in the books

Truex and Brad Keselowski were side-by-side for the lead with one lap to go in Stage 1, but it was Keselowski who won the opening stage with a 0.05 second lead over Ryan Preece.

Rounding out the top five in Stage 1 were Chris Buescher, Harvick and McDowell.

Traffic jam

The green flag was back out at Lap 71, the first restart of the day.

For this year’s Daytona 500, the new “choose rule” was in full effect, meaning that drivers were able to choose which lane they wanted to use on restarts instead of everyone alternating sides behind the race leader. Almirola took the early lead.

Follow the leader

Keselowski quickly took back to the lead with a push from Preece, while 2021 Daytona 500 champion McDowell was the fourth Ford in the inside line. Keselowski, Preece, Harvick and McDowell were single-file at the front of the lead pack.

No quit

The leaders took to pit road as the halfway mark approached, when Ryan Blaney and Buescher threw huge blocks on Tyler Reddick, which put Logano in the lead ahead of Blaney, Truex, Ty Gibbs and Larson.

Crash!

Logano and Buescher were racing side-by-side for the lead late in the second stage when misfortune struck. Buescher cleared Logano to take the lead before causing an eight-car crash that involved Reddick, Truex, Blaney, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Larson, Daniel Suárez and Erik Jones.

Daytona 500: Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, more crash during Stage 2

The aftermath

Reddick’s car was destroyed, while Elliott sustained major suspension damage. The crash ended Reddick, Elliott and Jones’ race early.

Bumper cars

A restart came with six laps to go in Stage 2. Logano was leading, but Ross Chastain had other ideas. He got a push in the outside line from Bowman with five laps remaining, while Truex shoved Logano forward.

All eyes on Stage 2

Then, Chastain took the lead for the first time Sunday when it mattered most, claiming the Stage 2 win in style — by just inches over Bowman! Logano, Stenhouse and Cindric rounded out the top-five finishers in the second stage.

Tire on the track

Wallace was the new leader after staying out under caution. The green flag returned with 63 laps remaining, but the caution quickly came back out in Turn 3 when a huge chunk of Blaney’s tire came off the rim and ended up on the track.

Down to the wire

Meanwhile, Larson and William Byron led a group of cars onto pit road, where Bowman nearly collided with Noah Gragson, who was exiting his stall just as Bowman was entering his.

The green flag was out again with 57 laps to go, as Almirola surged to the front after the restart. Fellow Ford drivers Buescher and Harvick were right behind him, while Corey LaJoie emerged as a force to be reckoned with late in the race.

Fear the Fords

After 155 laps, there were 44 lead changes — the most lead changes in a Daytona 500 since 2011.

Ford drivers were controlling the race late with 40 laps to go. Buescher continued to lead, while the outside line began to form a train of cars over a dozen cars strong.

Late trouble

However, the entire field still had to pit one last time. Buescher led a group of Fords to pit road with 24 laps to go, followed by a parade of Toyotas — led by Hamlin and Truex. Then, Suárez led a number of Chevys to pit with 21 laps left.

Just as things were coming to an end, there was a huge crash involving McDowell, Preece, Truex and others.

The yellow caution flag came out during Lap 182, where Harrison Burton — who started in 19th place and was as far back as 33rd at one point — took the top spot after 45 lead changes and with less than 20 laps to go.

His uncle, Ward Burton, won the Daytona 500 in 2002.

Kevin Harvick, Chase Briscoe, more crash with 19 laps to go

Chaos!

Byron and AJ Allmendinger made aggressive moves in the final few laps of Sunday’s race. Allmendinger got to the lead with help from Larson, while Logano dropped way back and Busch got a piece of the wall.

Keselowski overtook Buescher shortly after. They were followed by Busch, Dillon and Byron at the front with 10 laps to go.

Not over yet!

It was a single-file line roughly 15 cars strong with five laps remaining. Things headed to overtime after a big spin in Turn 4 sent Suárez around and into the infield grass, bringing out the caution with less than three laps to go.

Overtime

With one lap to go at the line, Busch chose to restart on the outside, while Dillon was on the inside. Busch led on Lap 201 — after 49 lead changes — but Stenhouse was quick to overtake him.

However, things were halted once again when the caution came back out after Dillon went for a spin that resulted in a big crash off Turn 3 that decimated nearly half of the remaining field. The 13 drivers involved were Chastain, Cindric, Dillon, Keselowski, Hamlin, Herbst, Burton, Byron, Justin Haley, Zane Smith, Todd Gilliland, Gragson and Johnson.

Winner!

After the dust settled, Stenhouse led Larson, Bell, Logano and Busch.

Stenhouse and Larson were side-by-side before crashing in the very final moments of the race. NASCAR scoring said that Stenhouse was ahead at the moment of caution, meaning that he was able to secure a career-defining Daytona 500 win.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wins the 2023 Daytona 500 after a WILD overtime finish

Daytona 500: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on winning the 2023 Daytona 500

PRE-RACE

Setting the stage

Up first, pre-race ceremonies got underway just ahead of the action on FOX.

Daytona 500: Breland sings the national anthem before Sunday’s race

Singer Breland sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the Daytona 500.

Driver spotlight

FOX’s “NASCAR RaceDay” had in-depth pre-race coverage ahead of the 65th running of the iconic Daytona 500.

Joey Logano is “feeling really good” ahead of Daytona 500

Joey Logano won the Dual races on Thursday and spoke to FOX’s NASCAR RaceDay crew on how he is feeling ahead of Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Daytona 500 is the one race Kevin Harvick wants to win in his final season

Kevin Harvick told Jamie McMurray that if he could win one race in his final season it would be the Daytona 500.

Jimmie Johnson discusses his chances on taking home the Daytona 500

In his sit down with Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson says coming back to race in his 20th Daytona 500 just felt right, and he wants to continue his legacy.