What’s Happening?

NASCAR drivers have completed the qualifying races and the Duels, and the field is now set for the upcoming Daytona 500 main event scheduled on Sunday at 2:30 PM ET. Here is where the drivers will start their engines from:

• Kyle Busch has shown early signs of doing well this season by delivering the best qualifying effort, driving at 183.651 mph, edging Chase Briscoe by 0.064 mph. That run put him on pole for the “Great American Race,” locking him into the front row in the top spot. Briscoe will line up right beside him in P2 on Sunday after wrapping last season with Joe Gibbs Racing and ending the finale at Phoenix Raceway in P18, which still sealed P3 in the standings.
• Joey Logano and Chase Elliott bagged the Duel wins and will start from the second row in P3 and P4. Logano already owns a Daytona 500 ring from 2015 and now will try to take another swing after winning his fourth Duel race. Elliott, still chasing his first 500, added a third Duel win to his Daytona 500 attempt.
• But Elliott has been down this road before, winning Duels in 2017 and 2018 and even leading the field to green in ’17, only to see the main event slip through his fingers both times. And that memory has kept him from celebrating early. So his focus is solely on Sunday.
• Row three will have Ryan Blaney and Carson Hocevar in P5 and P6. The #12 Team Penske driver previously came within the reach of winning in 2017 and 2020, but ended up finishing runner-up both times.
• Austin Dillon bagged the second practice and is keeping Richard Childress Racing in the hunt on the high banks, slotting into P7, while his teammate Busch starts from the front. Dillon already owns a Daytona 500 trophy from 2018.
• Chris Buescher, a past Daytona winner in the 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400, will drop to the tail end in P41 after switching to a backup car. A pileup in Thursday’s Duel forced the change. With five laps left, Bubba Wallace got turned, setting off a chain reaction that wiped out Buescher’s No. 17 Ford and collected William Byron, Dillon, and Smith in the massacre.

Who’s Out?

A few names that will watch from the sidelines after missing the cut for the 41-car field are: LaJoie (RFK Racing), Chandler Smith (Front Row Motorsports), Anthony Alfredo (Beard Motorsports), and J. J. Yeley (NY Racing Team). Running open entries left them needing either speed or a Duel miracle, and neither came through.

Meanwhile, Corey LaJoie, known for holding his own in the draft since entering the Cup scene in 2014, fell short this time, despite a shot with RFK Racing’s No. 99 Ford. However, given that he is the only driver to have stayed on the lead lap in every Daytona 500 of the Next Gen era, this time, his streak has hit a wall.

For more updates and information on the Daytona 500, make sure to keep up with us on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.