Joey Logano wins Duel #1 as Mears full-throttles into…

The first Duel at Daytona ended in dramatic fashion. Joey Logano captured the checkered flag in a 1-2 finish for Team Penske, but all eyes were on the battle to make the Daytona 500.

The open battle: Casey Mears had spun in an earlier incident, and Chander Smith suffered damage in another wreck. That cleared the way for Corey LaJoie to make the race, but he got turned on the final lap in a multi-car melee.

In a scene straight out of Days of Thunder, Mears did not lift, driving straight through the wreck and suffering nose damage, but never slowing down. He crossed the line in seventh place, and that was enough for the 47-year-old to lock himself and the Garage 66 team into the 68th running of the Daytona 500.

While the results are unofficial as NASCAR reviews film, the finishing order was: Logano, Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, John-Hunter Nemechek, Brad Keselowski, Shane van Gisbergen, Mears, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Preece, and Alex Bowman.

Casey Mears! What an effort! pic.twitter.com/MqwdrH3cjs
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 13, 2026

"Mears as shocked as he was excited, and wasn't sure how he managed to pull it off. "Probably a little bit about the power of prayer, there was a lot of that going on inside the car," laughed Mears. "Just couldn't thank everybody enough for getting us here to begin with. Had an issue on pit road, but I got a run around the outside. Decided to stay in the gas, no matter what happened. When I saw them spinning and I missed the first guy (Lajoie), I thought, okay, good, and then I hit the #7 (Suarez).

"Anyway, I hit somebody square. And I knew when I hit him flat it didn't tear up the car too much and I was going to be able to get back. But I didn't know who was in front of me still, whether or not we made it. All the guys started going nuts on the radio."

At the other end of the spectrum was a dejected LaJoie, who had this to say after exiting the infield care center: "It looked good for 145.5 miles. I thought we controlled the race as good as you can control it. The bottom lane got soft there, and the push came right as I picked the #6 [Keselowski] up, and it just turned me to the right. That sucks, man. These guys worked incredibly hard on this car. I'm honestly happy for Casey Mears and (team owner) Carl Long -- it's cool those guys got in, but I'm devastated. This is what you work for and I don't have another one after this."

Corey LaJoie, No. 99 RFK Racing Ford (Photo by: Patrick McDermott via Getty Images)

Race recap

There were several early lead changes, but RFK Racing got all four of their cars lined up, quickly marching forward. They powered by A. Dillon for the top spot and dominated the rest of the stint.

The pack remained fairly calm without many aggressive pushes, with the exception of Logano, who got his own teammate sideways as he and Blaney tried to cut a path forward.

With 15 laps to go, the leaders finally dove to pit road to kick off green-flag pit stops. However, it did not go as planned as Mears spun, collecting Gragson. They got stranded in the infield, forcing NASCAR to throw the caution.

The caution is out. Casey Mears and Noah Gragson go for a spin. pic.twitter.com/swI00oxjzD
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 13, 2026

Preece, who entered the pits with the lead, lost a few spots as he needed to say in his box longer (burned more fuel while out front), but the timing of the caution meant all the Fords could cycle right back to the front for the final sprint to the finish.

The restart came with eleven laps to go, and Smith made a mad charge forward to challenge LaJoie. He pushed Preece out of line and moved into the transfer spot.

The Team Penske duo of Blaney and Logano took command of the race, as Daytona 500 pole-sitter Busch dropped out of line, sensing that things were about to get messy.

Keselowski made a wild move to the inside of Smith, dooring each other as Smith was shuffled back into the pack.

Bubba Wallace was challenging the Penske cars for the race lead, but a bad bump sent him spinning across the track. Thankfully, the flaps did their job and kept his No. 23 on the ground. The wreck didn't end with him, though, as Byron, Buescher and Smith all sustained damage.

Trouble in Duel No. 1! Bubba Wallace takes the lead ... then chaos. pic.twitter.com/ETpQxwiJsA
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 13, 2026

That cleared the way for LaJoie, who just had to finish the race in one piece to ensure his place in the Daytona 500 field. However, that proved to be an impossible ask...

That wrecked pushed the race into overtime, setting up a two-lap shootout. On the final lap, another wreck broke out, and shockingly, LaJoie was in it. Mears kept his foot on the gas even as he collided with Suarez and the wall, keeping the car pointed straight and snagging a spot in the field for the Daytona 500. In addition to Suarez, Mears, and LaJoie, Chastain and Allmendinger also suffered damage in that last-lap crash.

This will be Mears' 14th appearance in the 500, and his first since the 2019 season. It will also be his 495th career start in the NASCAR Cup Series.