Buckle Up, It Could Be a Wild One at Daytona
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By Dennis Krause
“Say a prayer. It’s going to be crazy.”
Those are the words of Joey Logano after the Team Penske driver put his No. 22 Pennzoil Shell Ford Mustang Dark Horse in Daytona International Speedway’s Victory Lane Thursday night in the first America 250 Florida Duel at DAYTONA race.
The 3-time NASCAR Cup Series and 2015 Daytona 500 champion was talking about what could turn out to be a wreck-fest in Sunday’s 68th running of the Great American Race.
“We learned some things,” Logano said. “I think the whole field has learned that pushing each other is pretty sketchy. I was thinking about it driving over here. Daytona 500 could be a total wreck-fest ’cause if you think about Duels, it’s a heat race, and everyone is like, Don’t tear up your car, get what you can out of it, but don’t crash. We wrecked a lot of stuff. That’s everyone not racing for the Daytona 500, so…”
While Chase Elliott, winner of Duel race 2, didn’t say it in as many words, he tended to agree with Logano’s assessment of what Sunday’s 500 could be like.
“I could see it, for sure. I mean, the cars were pretty unstable at different points in time. Even in those closing laps when Carson (Hocevar) was giving me some of those big shoves, I thought he was doing it really well. He was pushing me in the right places at the right times.
“Honestly, he was getting me out of shape really in places that I wasn’t really expecting to be kind of on edge, especially at night like this. I could see that. I could see the cars being out of control.
“I think it’s fine,” the driver of the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro continued, “but what happens is you get to pulling a group around there really fast in a single line, and then you get late race, guys start making moves, it seems like the more this place ages, the more room you need to run a fast pace. You can’t just lock to the bottom and stay there. You know what I’m saying? When the pace gets fast like that. I’d say that’s probably what he’s alluding to a little bit, is just needing some room to spread out.
“Unfortunately when it gets late in the race, nobody’s willing to give that. That’s where the problems typically come in.”
James Gilbert/Getty Images
What in particular leads Logano to believe that Sunday’s race could be a messy affair?
“Everyone’s push-ability seems awful,” Logano replied. “Everybody was. I didn’t see any car that was taking a push that was, like, comfortable on the straightaways. A lot of cars were just squirrelly, right? I haven’t watched replays yet, but all the wrecks happened on the straightaway. I’m assuming that’s from pushes more times than not. I’m assuming everyone’s push-ability is weak.”
The 2026 Cup Series Chevrolet Camaro has a new nose and rear bumper. According to Elliott, it was a bit of an improvement over the previous version.
“Yeah, I thought it was an improvement for us just from the pushing. I didn’t spend a lot of time pushing in the second row. That’s kind of the area I feel like you really — I pushed Erik (Jones) a little bit as we were kind of getting up to speed. But it wasn’t like we’re two-by-two, your lane has to make something happen.
“I did think it was a small improvement there.
“Then I thought in the closing laps, whether it was Carson’s ability to push me, I thought we were just making a lot of speed. I don’t know if we had the right formation of cars in a line or just our cars in general having good pace. I thought both areas seemed to be a little better from my seat.
“It’s a little bit of a guess.”
James Gilbert/Getty Images
With rain in the forecast for Sunday evening, NASCAR has moved up the start of the 500 by an hour with the green flag scheduled for 2:13pm (ET). The forecast also calls for windy conditions coming out of the south. While that’s something Elliott pays attention to, there’s not much the team can do to the car’s set-up for those conditions.
“There’s not a lot we can do about that obviously,” Elliott said.
“Generally speaking, when you have the wind blowing at your door, kind of at the left front area off of turn four, which it sounds like — I haven’t looked at the wind direction, but if that ends up being the case, then that definitely makes things more challenging for us. That’s a really tricky spot on the track.
“For whatever reason,” Elliott continued, “the way turn four is shaped, everything runs together right there, it kind of gets sharp and tight for whatever reason, kind of coming back to what I was saying about needing space. That tends to be one of the places that you need it. Anything that forces you up the road right there tends to make that worse.
“Could potentially play a factor.”
Buckle up. It could be a wild one at Daytona.
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.