Practice #2 : Daytona International Speedway

  • 18
  • 6
  • 18

  • Daytona International Speedway
  • 64th Annual DAYTONA 500
  • Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Kyle Larson
  • Age: 29
  • Team : No. 5 - HendrickCars.com Chevrolet
  • Owner: Hendrick Motorsports
  • Crew Chief: Cliff Daniels
  • Kyle Larson won the Busch Pole Award for the 64th Annual DAYTONA 500 with a lap of 49.68 seconds, 181.159 mph.
  • This is his 11th pole in 260 NASCAR Cup Series races.
  • This is his first pole and first top-10 start in 2022.
  • This is his first pole in 16 races at Daytona International Speedway.
  • Alex Bowman (second) posted his first top-10 start of 2022 and his eighth in 12 races at Daytona International Speedway. This is also his fifth straight DAYTONA 500 front row appearance (2018-2022)
  • William Byron Jr. (third) posted his sixth top-10 start at Daytona International Speedway. It is his first in one race this season.
  • Harrison Burton (10th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.

  • Sunday, February 20th, 2022
  • NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer
Rookie Austin Cindric gets first NASCAR Cup victory in thrilling Daytona 500

On the 85th birthday of his car owner, Roger Penske, 23-year-old NASCAR Cup Series rookie Austin Cindric beat Bubba Wallace to the finish line by .036 seconds in overtime to win Sunday's 64th running of the Daytona 500.

In a thrilling run to the finish in NASCAR's new Next Gen race car at Daytona International Speedway, Cindric held off Wallace and Chase Briscoe (.091 seconds behind) to notch his first Cup victory in his eighth start in the series.

Cindric got the win in chamber-of-commerce weather with a sold-out crowd jamming the grandstands.

"Oh, my God-do you know what makes this even better? A packed house," Cindric exulted after climbing from his car. "A packed house at the Daytona 500. "Oh, my God, I've got so many people to thank. First and foremost, Roger Penske. Happy Birthday!

"Everyone has worked so hard on this Next Gen car and through the whole process. I am so excited. This makes up for losing a championship in the last race I was in (2021 Xfinity Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway).

"I'm surrounded by great people, that's all there is to it. I know there's going to be highs and lows, being a rookie. I'm just grateful for the opportunity and excited to climb the mountain ahead of us on the No. 2 team. We're in the Playoffs-that's one box checked. My gosh, what an awesome group of fans; what an awesome race car. I'm just really thankful."

A three-car wreck in Turn 4 on Lap 195 of a scheduled 200 wiped out the No. 47 Chevrolet of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was leading for a restart on that same lap but was turned by a push from Brad Keselowski. The incident forced the race to overtime, requiring one extra lap for Cindric to claim victory.

An earlier six-car accident on Lap 190 had eliminated reigning series champion Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Todd Gilliland, Erik Jones and Noah Gragson, who was making his first start in NASCAR's top division.

Cindric was the leader when the race restarted on Lap 200, and at the end of a wild two-lap scramble-after blocking a strong run from Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney-he arrived at the finish line roughly three feet ahead of Wallace, who was runner-up in the Great American Race for the second time.

"I thought our Toyota teammates did good work until they got picked off 1, 2, 3 throughout the race, so we just had to survive," said Wallace, who finished .260 seconds behind race winner Austin Dillon in the 2018 Daytona 500.

"Great Speedweeks, though. We'll come home second. I'm going to be pissed off about this one for a while. I was happy on the first second place we got a couple years ago. This one sucks when you're that close, but all-in-all, happy for our team, happy for our partners, and on to California."

Blaney came home fourth, followed by Aric Almirola, who will leave full-time racing at the end of the season. Kyle Busch, Michael McDowell, David Ragan, Keselowski and Chase Elliott completed the top 10.

Less than three laps from the end of the first stage, a push from Keselowski turned the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford of Harrison Burton sideways at the head of the outside lane. Burton's Mustang nosed down the track into the No. 24 Chevrolet of William Byron, whose car slammed nose-first into the inside wall on the backstretch.

Kyle Busch spun sideways during the ensuing eight-car wreck. Denny Hamlin's Toyota sustained terminal suspension damage, eliminating the field's only multiple winner of the Daytona 500. The No. 1 Chevrolet of Ross Chastain was also knocked out of the race.

After the impact with Byron's car and a jolt from the Toyota of Christopher Bell, Burton's Ford turned upside down and landed on top of the Chevrolet of Alex Bowman, who had started the race on the outside of the front row. The impact righted Burton's car, which a wrecker towed to the garage. Bowman lost four laps as his crew tried to return the No. 48 Camaro to raceable condition.

"I'm fine-I've hit a lot harder before, that's for sure," Burton said after a trip to the infield care center. "It's just unfortunate. I hate it for the Wood Brothers group. They brought a really fast Ford Mustang down here and ended up on our lid, so that's never good…

"I don't know, I just got pushed and didn't take it the right way-the car didn't take it the right way or got pushed in the wrong spot. I'm not sure. I couldn't really tell. I was looking out front to see what I had to do next to side draft the next guy that was on me, so just a bummer. I don't really know what we could have done different, but we'll move on and get better from it."

From Hamlin's standpoint, it was clear what happened.

"The 6 (Keselowski) was pushing the 21 (Burton) and you could see the 21 was kind of getting out of control there," said Hamlin, who failed to finish a Daytona 500 for the first time in 17 starts and lost his chance for a fourth visit to Victory Lane. "So you know the mind-set was that you've got to back off, but I think the 6 was just insistent on pushing him at all costs and eventually turned the 21 around.

"Tough, you know, considering it was just for the stage. We were kind of boxed in there where I noticed that something was going to happen, but I was boxed in, I was behind a teammate (Kyle Busch), and I wanted to try to help. Again, just too aggressive pushing right there when they weren't lined up and in control."

Truex won the first stage under caution and then claimed victory in the second stage, which ran under green-flag conditions from the restart on Lap 72 to the conclusion on Lap 130. Truex came from third to first on the final lap to grab the stage win.

Keselowski, however, was first off pit road under caution for the stage break and led the field to green for a restart on Lap 138. Keselowski held the top spot until Tyler Reddick's Chevrolet broke loose in Turn 4 on Lap 151 and started a wreck that damaged the contending cars of Truex, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch.

  • Drivers Entered: 42 (2 drivers will not make the race)
  • Laps Scheduled: 200
  • Laps Actual: 201 - NASCAR OVERTIME!
  • Margin of Victory: 0.036 Seconds
  • Time of Race: 3 Hours 31 Minutes 53 Seconds
  • Average Speed: 142.295
  • Cautions: 7 for 37 laps
  • Lead Changes: 35
  • Green Flag Passes: 6,462 (39.4 passes per green flag lap)

  • Daytona International Speedway
  • 64th Annual DAYTONA 500
  • Race Winner: Austin Cindric
  • Age: 23
  • Team : No. 2 - Discount Tire Ford
  • Owner: Team Penske
  • Crew Chief: Jeremy Bullins
  • Austin Cindric won the 64th Annual Daytona 500, his first victory in eight NASCAR Cup Series races. He is the 41st different driver to win the Daytona 500
  • This is his first victory and first top-10 finish in 2022.
  • This is his first victory and first top-10 finish in two races at Daytona International Speedway.
  • Bubba Wallace (second) posted his second runner-up finish and fourth top-10 finish in 10 races at Daytona International Speedway. It is his first top-10 finish in 2022.
  • Chase Briscoe (third) posted his first top-10 finish in three races at Daytona International Speedway.
  • Austin Cindric (first) was the highest finishing rookie. Becomes the first rookie to win the Daytona 500.
  • Nine drivers have posted their first career NASCAR Cup Series victory with a win in the Daytona 500 ? Tiny Lund (1963), Mario Andretti (1967), Pete Hamilton (1970), Derrike Cope (1990), Sterling Marlin (1994), Michael Waltrip (2001), Trevor Bayne (2011), Michael McDowell (2021), Ausitn Cindric (2022).
  • This is Team Penske's third Daytona 500 victory - 2008 Ryan Newman, 2015 Joey Logano, 2022 Austin Cindric
  • This is Ford Motor Co.'s 17th victory in the Daytona 500.
Austin Cindric sits in his car in the garage area during practice
Daytona Beach, Florida - February 15, 2022 : Austin Cindric, driver of the #2 Discount Tire Ford, sits in his car in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series 64th Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.
Chris GraythenGetty Images
DRIVER
DRIVER
#
MAKE
SINGLE BEST LAP
RANK
SPEED
TIME
BHND
LAP
LAPS
TOTAL
MULTI-LAP AVERAGES
5-LAP
10-LAP
15-LAP
20-LAP
25-LAP
30-LAP
10-LAP AVG
SPEED
FROM
TO

Ryan Blaney
12
Ford
1
192.588
46.732
0.000
19
24
47.287
47.581
189.172
15
24
Joey Logano
22
Ford
2
192.135
46.842
0.110
20
25
47.304
47.571
189.205
13
22
Cole Custer
41
Ford
3
191.103
47.095
0.363
11
17
47.794
47.985
187.584
2
11
Cody Ware
51
Ford
4
191.099
47.096
0.364
8
12
47.697
48.645
185.123
1
10
Chris Buescher
17
Ford
5
191.087
47.099
0.367
11
16
47.719
48.018
187.485
2
11
Harrison Burton
21
Ford
6
191.026
47.114
0.382
12
17
47.443
47.572
189.194
8
17
Chase Briscoe
14
Ford
7
190.945
47.134
0.402
11
20
47.821
48.057
48.079
187.306
3
12
Austin Cindric
2
Ford
8
190.941
47.135
0.403
13
18
47.360
47.530
189.359
9
18
Brad Keselowski
6
Ford
9
190.896
47.146
0.414
9
13
47.752
47.989
187.559
2
11
Aric Almirola
10
Ford
10
190.412
47.266
0.534
12
21
47.925
48.078
187.220
3
12
Daniel Suarez
99
Chevrolet
11
187.402
48.025
1.293
16
18
48.758
0
0
Kevin Harvick
4
Ford
12
187.336
48.042
1.310
4
24
48.891
49.013
49.039
183.637
10
19
Landon Cassill
77
Chevrolet
13
186.413
48.280
1.548
6
13
49.012
0
0
Ricky Stenhouse Jr
47
Chevrolet
14
186.112
48.358
1.626
5
10
48.886
0
0
Tyler Reddick
8
Chevrolet
15
185.947
48.401
1.669
20
22
48.811
0
0
Justin Haley
31
Chevrolet
16
185.105
48.621
1.889
8
14
48.821
49.049
183.515
3
12
Corey Lajoie
7
Chevrolet
17
185.086
48.626
1.894
5
5
48.995
0
0
Chase Elliott
9
Chevrolet
18
184.661
48.738
2.006
2
10
0
0
Kyle Larson
5
Chevrolet
19
183.763
48.976
2.244
3
5
0
0
Alex Bowman
48
Chevrolet
20
183.599
49.020
2.288
5
6
0
0
Daniel Hemric
16
Chevrolet
21
182.964
49.190
2.458
6
6
0
0
Kaz Grala
50
Chevrolet
22
182.667
49.270
2.538
8
11
49.995
0
0
Christopher Bell
20
Toyota
23
182.548
49.302
2.570
2
8
0
0
Martin Truex Jr
19
Toyota
24
182.526
49.308
2.576
3
9
0
0
Ross Chastain
1
Chevrolet
25
181.991
49.453
2.721
2
2
0
0
William Byron
24
Chevrolet
26
181.936
49.468
2.736
2
8
0
0
Denny Hamlin
11
Toyota
27
181.884
49.482
2.750
9
9
0
0
Michael McDowell
34
Ford
28
181.800
49.505
2.773
1
5
0
0
Kurt Busch
45
Toyota
29
181.752
49.518
2.786
6
7
0
0
Kyle Busch
18
Toyota
30
181.613
49.556
2.824
5
8
0
0
Bubba Wallace
23
Toyota
31
181.609
49.557
2.825
1
5
0
0
Noah Gragson
62
Chevrolet
32
181.583
49.564
2.832
13
13
49.854
50.229
179.223
1
10
Austin Dillon
3
Chevrolet
33
181.349
49.628
2.896
6
12
0
0
Erik Jones
43
Chevrolet
34
181.039
49.713
2.981
2
2
0
0
Ty Dillon
42
Chevrolet
35
180.513
49.858
3.126
2
3
0
0
Greg Biffle
44
Chevrolet
36
179.939
50.017
3.285
5
5
0
0
Todd Gilliland
38
Ford
37
179.605
50.110
3.378
4
4
0
0
David Ragan
15
Ford
38
179.401
50.167
3.435
1
4
0
0
BJ McLeod
78
Ford
39
178.777
50.342
3.610
3
4
0
0
Timmy Hill
66
Ford
40
178.175
50.512
3.780
1
7
0
0
Jacques Villeneuve
27
Ford
41
178.042
50.550
3.818
3
9
0
0
JJ Yeley
55
Ford
42
175.733
51.214
4.482
8
8
51.968
0
0