Can’t wait to hear all things Daytona 500 after the Harley J. Earl is awarded?
Visit our NASCAR YouTube page (or watch on the embedded video below) to catch NASCAR Inside the Race following Sunday’s “Great American Race” as hosts Kyle Petty and Alex Weaver break down what happened in the 2026 Cup Series season opener.
The pair will be joined by the Daytona 500 winning driver and crew chief to discuss what winning the biggest race on the NASCAR circuit means, along with breaking down the moments that decided the outcome of the race.
Racing Insights’ projection model has churned through what we’ve seen at Daytona International Speedway on track this week, superspeedway history, 2026 team strengths and anticipated performance to forecast how the 2026 Daytona 500 could shake out. The ‘Great American Race’ rarely follows the script, but if the data is any indiation, here’s how the field stacks up entering Sunday’s 68th running of the Daytona 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
KYLE LARSON: The model’s projected winner, and it would be a big one. Larson tops the board entering Sunday, and while superspeedways are notoriously unpredictable — particularly for him — the 2025 champ’s form during Speedweeks, team strength and overall speed make him the benchmark. The driver of the No. 5 could take home his first Harley J. Earl, and complete his crown-jewel grand slam.
JOEY LOGANO: Daytona is often his playground. Logano’s drafting IQ and late-race aggression consistently put him in the mix, and the projection has him inside the top five. In a race that often comes down to timing the final move, few are better.
CHRIS BUESCHER: Don’t overlook him. The model puts Buescher in that mid-field pack, slotting him comfortably inside the top 15, but he could rise should late-race chaos strike. RFK Racing has shown superspeedway muscle, and Buescher’s patience in the pack could pay off in the closing laps.
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula incorporates current track, track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to predict a projected winner and provide full race results. Posted on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Jordan Anderson may not have hoisted the trophy Saturday evening after another oh-so-close brush with victory at Daytona International Speedway. Instead the full-time team owner and part-time driver held something much more dear aloft in a heartfelt family moment on pit road.
Anderson matched a career-best by driving home fourth in Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series opener at the 2.5-mile track, embracing his 4 1/2-month-old son, Banks, and his wife, Kendall on pit road.
Anderson’s flirtation with his first NASCAR national-series win has been a familiar one in past wintertime trips to Daytona. The 34-year-old South Carolinian was also fourth in this race two years ago, and he ended up as an emotional runner-up in a pair of Craftsman Truck Series openers (2020, 2021) here. This time, he carried the name of his son above the right-side window of his No. 32 Chevrolet into Saturday’s United Rentals 300, complete with a “baby on board” decal.
Few could keep pace with eventual winner Austin Hill’s No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevy, but when Anderson emerged within sight of the lead and intense jostling ensued on the final lap, he thought an opening might provide him with a winning avenue for the team he’s built from nearly scratch.
“I’m like, this is the shot. This is it,” Anderson recalled thinking. “And I thought the seas were getting ready to part, and just kind of got bumped around and just wasn’t meant to be, but a top five to start the year off. Not bad for a part-time guy, but it’s so cool. Our team worked so hard all offseason between the 32, the 31, the 27 with Blaine (Perkins) back, Jeb (Burton) back. We’re committed. We want to be in this sport for a long time, and we want to get better every year. This is just an example of what we’re capable of. So what a great way to start the year off, and it’s just so cool.
“I will never, ever, ever take it for granted to be able to get behind the wheel. I’ve worked so hard my whole life to grow this and grow the team, and to come out here and have a little fun just keeps me connected to my roots. So I’m just all smiles.”
The family jubilation on pit road was almost less-attended. Clif Anderson, Jordan’s father, caught a daytime flight Saturday to be in Daytona, waiting until the last minute to find out if his son had qualified for the 38-car field before getting on the plane. Jordan’s mother, Sherry, had stayed back to tend to another big family moment, with Jennifer Self, Jordan’s sister, in Charlotte, nine months pregnant.
“He made the show, I stepped on the airplane,” Clif Anderson said. “As soon as I get on the airplane, my daughter sent me a text and said, ‘Dad, I’m going into labor.’ ”
Clif Anderson had three reasons to be proud Saturday, wearing a white ballcap that identified him as Banks’ grandfather, awaiting the pending arrival of his third grandchild and sharing in his son’s race-day celebration.
“At the end of the day, this is his passion,” the elder Anderson said. “This is what drives him is driving race cars. So all the late nights and working in the shop, building the program, at the end of the day, this is his passion, so I’m glad to see him getting to have a good run.”
Jordan Anderson has reason for optimism for the organization he’s built. After years of clawing to field a lesser-funded single-truck effort, Jordan Anderson Racing has expanded to three full-time O’Reilly Auto Parts Series entries, recently forming a technical alliance alongside Richard Childress Racing to aid the team’s efforts.
All the newer developments on the family side, however, took priority Saturday evening after the racing was done.
“Just on cloud nine,” Jordan Anderson said. “Just being a dad has put a whole new perspective on my life. I can have a tough, long day at the shop, but come home and I see him smile and all is well in the world. So he won’t remember this one, but one day, it’ll be something him and I can talk about and have some good memories from.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The winner of the Daytona 500 is never decided until the last lap.
The goal of the crew chiefs is to put their NASCAR Cup Series drivers in the best position possible to add their names to the history books together as champions of the “Great American Race” on Sunday (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and driver Chase Elliott, helped lead Elliott to the win in Thursday night’s Duel at Daytona qualifying race. Competitors used the word “sketchy” to describe some of the action in the multicar draft that evening. Elliott concurred by noting his car was “unstable” at times throughout his 60-lap qualifying race.
But conditions have continued to change throughout the weekend, particularly on aging asphalt that has given the pavement more character in recent visits since the track was last fully repaved in 2010. Gustafson has paid keen attention to those nuances this week, leading to extra thought in setting up Elliott’s Chevrolet.
“I think the track is going to be much more difficult to get a hold of, and handling will be a much bigger consideration,” Gustafson said in a Friday morning media session. “We want our car obviously (to) drive really good so that doesn’t impact us – as little as possible. And ultimately, I think track position is going to be key, and where you have your car, the better off it’s going to drive, no matter how good your car is.”
The most prevalent piece of the puzzle, though, remains fuel strategy.
Managing fuel savings throughout early green-flag runs has become a staple of superspeedway racing in the Cup Series, an unavoidable part of the equation in the 200-lap marathon. That balance between making speed and conserving energy weighs heavy on the minds of those atop the pit box.
“What do you do? How do you call it right to be in a perfect position at all the perfect times?” Gustafson said. “So I think you’ve got to race hard and be in as good a position as you can, and in front of as (many) people as possible so that you’re in control of your own destiny. So that’s what we’ll try to do, and get our car driving really well. I mean, I’d love for cars to drive super bad to where it was more of a handling race, but they’re so close, I think everybody’s gonna probably suffer from the same issues.”
James Gilbert | Getty Images
That math problem permeates the Cup garage, trying to solve for the best path toward track position while trying not to sacrifice fuel as teams reach for a particular lap target.
Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 RFK Racing Ford has been in the mix all week, finishing fourth in his Duel qualifying race to earn a ninth-place starting spot and posting the third-fastest lap in Saturday’s final practice session of 19 participants. Crew chief Jeremy Bullins knows the game well, leading Austin Cindric to the 2022 Daytona 500 victory four years ago. And as fuel savings have become inevitable, the need to have a “feel” for how the race is developing has as well.
“A lot of it’s just situational as to where you wind up, right?” Bullins told NASCAR.com Saturday afternoon. “Like we’re starting the race with decent track position, so that makes your decisions a little bit different because you want to try to keep your track position. So if you’re in the back already, naturally you’re going to save more fuel and try to save more fuel. So a little bit of it depends on where you’re running. Obviously, so far, the last few years here especially in the stages […] the last group to pit (under green) winds up at the front. So you’re trying to save enough fuel to be one of the last groups to pit and just see where it all shakes out.”
Having the right partners to move through the field when go-time rears its head is also imperative. That should be good news for the Keselowski crew. Their RFK Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece each suffered damage in Thursday’s Duels. Buescher’s No. 17 team opted for its backup car, while Preece’s No. 60 team repaired and replaced parts of its primary car. But the RFK Racing trio led the fastest speeds in final practice, with Preece pacing Buescher and Keselowski.
“Obviously, when you get a backup car out or have to make a lot of repairs like the 60 did, you’ve got to do some work to get back to where you were,” Bullins said. “But I feel like those guys have done a really good job of getting those cars ready to go. Should be fine.”
Kevin C. Cox | Getty Images
Competition has never been closer throughout the Cup Series. That includes the variances in vehicle designs. With history and prestige on the line again, the crew chiefs hold the keys to finding whatever edge can best help their drivers.
“You have to find some advantage some way, right?” Gustafson said. “And then I think we all learned, through the rules and the cars becoming extremely similar, that you had to get advantage another way besides what at the time was conventional, and that was saving fuel and jumping people on pit stop cycles, right? Well, that came out of necessity of the rules package, and I just don’t see where you unlearn that.
“My job is to exploit whatever potential opportunity we have. And this is it right now.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Austin Hill continued his mastery of NASCAR’s big tracks, dominating Saturday’s United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway — the Georgia native’s fourth win in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season opener here in the last five years.
And as so typically happens on Daytona’s 2.5-mile superspeedway, the outcome came down to the dramatic last few laps and the race was decided by a split second.
Although he started from pole position and led a race high 78 of the 120 laps, Hill was tested all night — ultimately having to prevail on three restarts in the final 12 laps. His No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet beat JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier’s Chevrolet to the finish line by 0.081 seconds.
It marked Richard Childress Racing’s fifth consecutive win in this race, tying a mark set by Dale Earnhardt Inc. from 1990-94. It was Hill’s 15th career victory and 11th on a drafting style track.
Even after holding the lead for most of the event, Hill said he had some concerns following a mid-race green flag pit stop and that at one point he was fairly certain he would end up on a wrecker unable to handle the tight draft and aggressive pushes the conclusion of this race so typically includes. He dropped back to 12th, but the new tires he took and some choice maneuvering landed him right back into the mix up front.
“Just shows how good this team is,” Hill said of being able to pit late and out of sequence but still move forward when it mattered most. “It was a really tough decision to go from being 14th or wherever it was we restarted. But it just goes to show how good this team was. We had that restart and no one was going middle, so I was like, ‘Sure I’ll take it.’ Drove right up through there.”
On the final restart with two laps remaining, Hill said he thought he may have misjudged one move but, “luckily I was able to make the block on the (number) seven (Allgaier), almost missed the block, and had to save the car. After that it was just hammer down and hope they didn’t get back to me.
“Daytona has just been so good to me,” said Hill, who swept both stage wins in addition to leading the most laps. “I love this place and it’s always fun to win.”
RSS Racing owner-driver Ryan Sieg finished third despite being caught up in a mid-race incident. Another owner-driver Jordan Anderson Racing’s namesake Jordan Anderson was fourth, followed by Allgaier’s JR Motorsports teammate Sammy Smith.
Ryan Ellis, Carson Kvapil, Blaine Perkins, Hill’s teammate Jesse Love and Rajah Caruth rounded out the top 10.
Love led 27 laps, second only to Hill, but got caught up in the frantic final laps — his ninth-place showing not truly indicative of his evening.
“At the end I feel for my guys,” Love said. “They want to be where that 21 group is. I’m still a step behind Austin. He’s so great at this craft. I feel like he’s a little more patient than I am right now, and I think that’s what my learning lesson is after tonight.
“I think I just wasn’t patient enough when I really needed to be, you know, taking Sammy three wide probably wasn’t the right move there. Made some other moves along the way in the waning laps that I could have done about. I’ll look back at it and learn from it, and next week is a similar style of flow of things. I’ll try to take this learning lesson and bring that to Georgia.”
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series moves to Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway for Saturday’s Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The 31-year-old Georgia native, Austin Hill, is the defending race winner and has won five of the last seven races at his home track.
Note: Post-race inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage with no issues, confirming Hill as the winner.
RFK Racing driver Ryan Preece was quickest in the final NASCAR Cup Series practice session for Sunday afternoon’s 68th running of the Daytona 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Preece’s No. 60 Ford topped the charts at 192.819 mph, followed by RFK teammates Chris Buescher (192.786 mph) and Brad Keselowski (192.583 mph).
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney (192.480 mph) and Joey Logano (192.472 mph) rounded out a top-five sweep of Ford drivers.
“It’s nice to take these Ford Mustangs and put them in a line and be able to put some speed up on the board,” Buescher said. “We know we were able to in the Duels, and I think we’ve got a good handle on it. We’ve got plenty of laps, so I’m ready for the 500 now.”
Ross Chastain (192.345 mph), Chase Elliott (192.184 mph), AJ Allmendinger (190.917 mph), BJ McLeod (190.880 mph) and Cody Ware (190.739 mph) completed the top 10.
Only 18 drivers set a lap time, including Legacy Motor Club’s Jimmie Johnson, who was the only Toyota driver to hit the track in Saturday’s 50-minute session for the “Great American Race.”
The 2026 season is finally here, with all three NASCAR national series hitting up the iconic Daytona International Speedway to kickstart the new campaign.
The NASCAR Cup Series begins its season in crown-jewel fashion as every driver looks to claim the Harley J. Earl Trophy with a victory in the 68th Daytona 500. NASCAR’s secondary circuit, meanwhile, begins its inaugural campaign as the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, while the Craftsman Truck Series will see a stacked field do battle in what will be a thrilling race from start to finish.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The start time for Sunday’s Daytona 500 has been moved one hour earlier because of the threat of inclement weather.
NASCAR officials made the schedule adjustment Saturday, coordinating with Daytona International Speedway and TV partners for an official program start at 1:30 p.m. ET (FOX, MRN Radio, HBO Max, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The green flag is set for 2:13 p.m. ET.
The National Weather Service has forecast a 50 percent chance of rain Sunday afternoon, but with a more substantial chance for precipitation moving in that evening. Officials adjusted the schedule to provide a better window for completing all 500 miles on race day.
Pole winner Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe will share the front row when the “Great American Race” gets underway. The event is the first of 36 points-paying races for the NASCAR Cup Series’ 2026 season.
The last two editions of the Daytona 500 have been affected by rain. Last year’s running was slowed by 3 1/2 hours of red-flag time, and the 2024 race was pushed to Monday by washout conditions.
Sunday’s race is a sellout. The 41 drivers in the field will compete for a record purse of $31,045,575.
See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series drivers will pit this weekend at Daytona International Speedway.
NASCAR Cup Series
NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 on Sunday at Daytona International Speedway (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, HBO Max, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series United Rentals 300 on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Jimmie Johnson has officially put an end date on his NASCAR Cup Series driving career.
Johnson, the 83-time Cup Series winner and seven-time series champion, announced Saturday at Daytona International Speedway that he will make his final Cup start in the 2027 Daytona 500, putting a bow on an illustrious career that has already led to enshrinement in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Johnson, who first announced his news Saturday on ESPN’s “Marty & McGee,” stepped away from full-time competition after the 2020 campaign, spending 2002-2020 driving for Hendrick Motorsports. After a two-year hiatus, Johnson returned to part-time competition as co-owner of Legacy Motor Club. But ahead of his appearance in Sunday’s Daytona 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Johnson felt now was the time to set his final scheduled Cup race in stone.
“I didn’t use the word retirement way back when in 2020,” Johnson said in a Saturday press conference. “You guys all know I still love to compete and want to be on the track and racing. The journey as an owner, and certainly where I am in life right now, to compete at the Cup level week in and week out is just a door that’s shutting for me now.”
The 50-year-old NASCAR Hall of Famer has made 700 starts in Cup, earning enough accolades to fill a shrine within the sport’s eternal hall. Three more races remain on his docket so far: this year’s Daytona 500, this summer’s inaugural race on Naval Base Coronado and next season’s “Great American Race.”
Johnson is a two-time champion of the Daytona 500, taking home the prestigious Harley J. Earl Trophy in 2006 and 2013. After finishing third in the 2025 edition of the “Great American Race,” Johnson believes he can add a third to his already stacked resume. That’s why he’s calling it quits after next year’s running.
“It just made a lot of sense,” Johnson said. “I think, as a driver that moonlights, the restrictor-plate (drafting) track, that’s where you can be the most competitive. This car is so different than any generation of car I’ve driven before. To show up at Kansas and think that you’re going to have a shot to win – even when I ran a nine-race schedule – it’s just not a truth that can really be seen or realized. Daytona, you can. Talladega, you can. Atlanta, for sure.
“I want to show up and be competitive, and to have my last race in an event where I could truly win, it’d be that cool walk-off home run.”
Tyler Gibbs, president of Toyota Racing Development USA, extended his appreciation for Johnson on behalf of the manufacturer.
“Jimmie Johnson is a champion in every aspect of his life – with his family, as the leader of Legacy Motor Club and with his incredible success behind the wheel,” Gibbs said in a release. “As he prepares to close the chapter of his iconic on-track NASCAR career, we celebrate his legacy in the sport and look forward to what we’ll continue to achieve together in the years to come.”
The June 21 race at Naval Base Coronado is a homecoming for Johnson, who grew up in nearby El Cajon, California, some 15 miles northeast of the San Diego street race. Legacy Motor Club also indicated “additional plans to celebrate Johnson’s Legacy to include appearances, fan engagement and merchandise drops will be shared in the upcoming weeks.”
Announcing the finality of his career allows Johnson a tour that was more muted in his first outgoing season in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic left fans unable to attend most NASCAR races that season. No formal plans exist yet for what a second round of goodbyes looks like, but Johnson will be intentional in soaking in his last go-around as a NASCAR Cup Series driver.
“I was very disappointed with the pandemic and the scenario of not being with the fans at the race track for that final year,” Johnson said. “And it’s not that I’m looking for that now, but maybe there is a moment or two in there that we can have some fun with and kind of get back into that mindset a little bit and enjoy it.
“But I’m not going anywhere. Clearly, I have a big stake in Legacy Motor Club, and I’m excited about the future for the company, excited for all the time I will be spending in our sport and around it and help grow it. So we’ll see what the year brings. But I know it’ll be fun, and I know that next year here will be quite emotional to shut the door on that.”
Johnson will roll off 31st in Sunday’s Daytona 500 on FOX in the No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota.
