Bubba Wallace will begin third within the Daytona 500 on Sunday
Wallace gained 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 certainly one of these Duel wins for thus lengthy, all my buddies have gotten them,” Wallace mentioned 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 staff will compete in a NASCAR Cup Collection race. The staff is a stalwart in NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Collection.
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 gained the pole for Sunday’s race throughout Wednesday’s entrance row qualifying session. He lingered in the back of the pack earlier than retiring the automobile out of precaution on account of a possible particles strike. If Briscoe’s staff needed to go to a backup automobile, he’d must 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 saved 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 robotically within the race. That left 9 vehicles for the 4 remaining spots within the area outdoors 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.
The total beginning lineup for the race can be set following the conclusion of the second qualifying race Thursday night time.
