Cup Series rookie Austin Cindric won Sunday’s Daytona 500, beating Bubba Wallace by a nose.
The field re-racked for overtime with Cindric lining up on the outside out front with the former driver of his No. 2 Ford, Brad Keselowski, behind him. Cindric quickly dropped low after the restart in front of teammate Ryan Blaney, who tried to move by Cindric on the outside coming down the front stretch.
Cindric blocked Blaney as Wallace ran to his inside, and they drag-raced through the finish. Cindric had the edge, finishing 0.036 seconds ahead of Wallace.
Blaney finished fourth with another Ford driver, Chase Briscoe, securing third.
Cindric, in his first full-time season with Team Penske this year, wished team owner Roger Penske a “Happy Birthday” immediately after the race. Penske turned 85 years old on Sunday.
“What an unbelievable day. What an unbelievable car,” Cindric said.
Cindric remained in contention through multiple multi-car wrecks that took out top drivers. The race was red-flagged with nine laps to go after a big run by Kyle Larson behind Kevin Harvick sent Harvick spinning. A lap after the restart, the caution was back out for another wreck involving prior leaders Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Chris Buescher, forcing overtime.
Earlier in the day, other major wrecks took out veterans, including three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, considered a perennial contender. Hamlin was out of the running by the end of the first stage after series rookie Harrison Burton wrecked from the front of the field and collected multiple cars. Burton lost control of his car after aggressive shoving from Keselowski on his bumper, which collected William Byron and Ross Chastain. Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch were also caught up in that accident and their cars suffered some damage.
The first stage ended under caution, and was won by Martin Truex Jr., who swept the first two stages. Truex was involved in a later accident, set off when Tyler Reddick went spinning into the outside wall mid-pack with just fewer than 50 laps remaining. Reddick exited the race. Other top names, such as Joey Logano and Kurt Busch, were caught up in that crash and sent multiple laps down.
It was instead NASCAR’s young stars leading the field in the final lap. Cindric, Wallace, Briscoe and Blaney are all under 30 years old, with Cindric being the youngest of them at 23. Wallace, in his second season with his 23XI team, said that he was “dejected” by the race result, but called the team’s overall performance and second place finish “empowering, encouraging.”
“Thanks, everybody, back at the shop, McDonald’s, almost got them another one, back-to-back superspeedway wins,” Wallace said. “That would have been awesome, especially with it being the 500, but just short.”
Wallace won his first Cup race last year at Talladega, but the victory was Cindric’s first Cup win of his career. He becomes the ninth driver to secure a first Cup win at the Daytona 500, joining a list that includes Michael McDowell (2021), Trevor Bayne (2011), Michael Waltrip (2001) and Mario Andretti (1967).
This is Penske’s third Daytona 500 victory, after Ryan Newman won in 2008, and Joey Logano won in 2015. Cindric also became the first rookie to win the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s biggest race, in front of a sell-out crowd.
“You know what makes it all better?” Cindric said. “A packed house.”
This story is breaking and will be updated.
Daytona 500 results
# - Rookie
I - Ineligible for points
* - Qualified on time
