Bubba Wallace will begin third within the Daytona 500 on Sunday
Wallace received the primary Duel qualifying race forward of William Byron and Ty Dillon. He had a quick automobile for a lot of the race and was in a position to management the lead on the entrance for the ultimate laps.
“I’ve needed one in every of these Duel wins for therefore lengthy, all my buddies have gotten them,” Wallace stated after the race.
Justin Allgaier completed ninth to qualify for the race for automobile proprietor Dale Earnhardt Jr. It’s the primary time a automobile owned by Junior’s JR Motorsports crew will compete in a NASCAR Cup Sequence race. The crew is a stalwart in NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Sequence.
Wallace is the No. 11 favourite at BetMGM (+2500) to win the Daytona 500. He has 5 top-five finishes in 15 begins at Daytona and has completed within the high 5 of the Daytona 500 in two of the previous three seasons. Wallace was second in 2022 and completed fifth in 2024.
Chase Briscoe received the pole for Sunday’s race throughout Wednesday’s entrance row qualifying session. He lingered behind the pack earlier than retiring the automobile out of precaution as a consequence of a possible particles strike. If Briscoe’s crew needed to go to a backup automobile, he’d need to relinquish his No. 1 beginning spot.
Helio Castroneves would be the forty first automobile within the Daytona 500 due to a brand new NASCAR provisional rule that granted him an automated berth into the race. The four-time Indianapolis 500 champion was concerned in a wreck when Chandler Smith — additionally racing for a spot within the Daytona 500 — tried to chop in entrance of Justin Haley within the high 5. Smith had no room and took out Haley, Castroneves and others.
Castroneves stored taking place the backstretch after the wreck and his automobile crashed once more when he clipped the apron.
Due to NASCAR’s constitution guidelines 36 full-time groups are mechanically within the race. That left 9 vehicles for the 4 remaining spots within the area exterior of Castroneves’ provisional. Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson took two of these 4 spots on Wednesday night time by advantage of their qualifying speeds, leaving one spot obtainable in every Duel race.
Austin Cindric received the second Duel race as he was simply forward of Erik Jones on the ultimate lap when a warning flew for a crash in the midst of the pack.
Cindric and Jones have been side-by-side for the win and Jones crossed the end line first. However the warning got here out earlier than the vehicles acquired to the end line.
Jones parked his automobile on the frontstretch after the race within the hope that he was the winner. However Cindric’s automobile was clearly forward when the warning got here out.
Cindric was already set to start out second within the 500 due to his qualifying pace on Wednesday. Jones will begin fourth.
Corey LaJoie was the highest-finishing open driver and took the ultimate spot within the 500. He beat Anthony Alfredo and BJ McLeod to make the race.
