DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The first meaningful racing - and first battle for points in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season - occurred on the famed 2.5-mile tri-oval at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday night.
And it's all just a precursor to much bigger things to come this week.
The Duel at Daytona races are now in the books, setting the field for Sunday's 67th running of the DAYTONA 500. A pair of Hendrick Motorsports drivers - Chase Elliott and defending DAYTONA 500 winner William Byron - took part in the first race. Byron came home second and Elliott eighth, putting them fifth and 17th respectively in Sunday's Great American Race.
Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman, meanwhile, competed in the second Duel race, finishing 11th and 22nd respectively. They will start 22nd and 40th on Sunday.
The first two spots in Sunday's starting grid were locked via single-lap qualifying times on Wednesday night. The first Duel race determined the odd-numbered starting spots for Sunday while the second filled out the evens.
It didn’t take long for Elliott to ascend from his eighth-place starting spot in the first race, seizing the lead on lap 9 while avoiding a couple of crashes, the second of which was of the multi-car variety on lap 13. After another caution for debris near the halfway mark of the 60-lap race, Byron snatched to the lead for the first time.
From there the two hovered around the front of the pack with Byron nearly winning his second straight race at Daytona International Speedway.
After a fairly chaotic first race, the second was calm - at least for a while. Larson and Bowman both ran in the top five as two-by-two racing ruled the day early. The race went green from the jump all the way through a pit cycle. Then with 12 to go, a near crash at the front of the field caused an accordion effect, eventually sweeping up Bowman among others. The crash was a break for Larson, who was able to rejoin the pack when the caution flag waved but he too was caught in a wreck that was not his doing as the field came to the line to take the checkered flag. Still, it was good enough for an 11th-place finish.
A late afternoon rainstorm washed out scheduled practices in the ARCA Series and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series but track drying efforts were successful and the first Duel started on time.
The 67th running of the DAYTONA 500 is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday and will air on Fox.
Daytona Duel 1 results
- Bubba Wallace, No. 23
- William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet
- Ty Dillon, No. 10
- Ross Chastain, No. 1
- Tyler Reddick, No. 45
- AJ Allmendinger, No. 16
- Austin Dillon, No. 3
- Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet
- Justin Allgaier, No. 40
- Kyle Busch, No. 8
- Ty Gibbs, No. 54
- Michael McDowell, No. 71
- Ryan Preece, No. 60
- Josh Berry, No. 21
- Martin Truex Jr., No. 56
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47
- JJ Yeley, No. 44
- Carson Hocevar, No. 77
- Chase Briscoe, No. 19
- Chandler Smith, No. 66
- Justin Haley, No. 7
- Helio Castroneves, No. 91
- Zane Smith, No. 38
Daytona Duel 2 results
- Austin Cindric, No. 2
- Erik Jones, No. 43
- Chris Buescher, No. 17
- Denny Hamlin, No. 11
- Joey Logano, No. 22
- Corey LaJoie, No. 01
- Todd Gilliland, No. 34
- Ryan Blaney, No. 12
- John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42
- Christopher Bell, No. 20
- Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com
- Riley Herbst, No. 35
- Anthony Alfredo, No. 62
- Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88
- Cody Ware, No. 51
- Cole Custer, No. 41
- BJ McLeod, No. 78
- Noah Gragson, No. 4
- Jimmie Johnson, No. 84
- Brad Keselowski, No. 6
- Daniel Suarez, No. 99
- Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet
Who won the 2024 DAYTONA 500?
Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron is the reigning winner of the DAYTONA 500. The victory gave the organization nine wins in the Great American Race, tied for most all time.