Daytona 500 results: Michael McDowell wins NASCAR season-opening race

On Sunday, Michael McDowell had never won a Cup race in his 13 years in the series. In the early hours of Monday morning, after rain and fog stalled green flag racing for nearly six hours, that changed. McDowell shoved the car in front of him then passed the finish line first. He acknowledged the slim odds.

“I know it’s gonna sound crazy,” McDowell said, “but I always think I’m gonna win this race.”

The Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford Mustang driver won NASCAR’s Daytona 500 as the previous Team Penske race leaders, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, crashed in a fiery heap around him. He slipped right between the two spinning cars before the flag.

NASCAR reviewed the finish but determined that McDowell was in first when the caution was thrown in the final lap. Keselowski and Logano both exited their cars after the accident, as well as Kyle Busch, who was caught up in the crash.

Chase Elliott finished in second and Austin Dillon was third.

“It’s hard when the manufacturers now are so tight and they’re working together very well and they had numbers on us there at the end,” Dillon said. “We had a couple more cars back there, but the speed that they were able to carry running wide open around the top, it was tough.”

Three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin led 98 laps of the 200-lap race, and swept both stages. But it wasn’t a former Daytona 500 winner who conquered this year’s race. It was a driver who had never won in Cup before winning on NASCAR’s biggest stage.

“It’s just believing that it’s possible,” McDowell said. “That it could happen. And it did.”

Daytona 500 results

Early aggression has big consequences

“The Big One” came early during the superspeedway event that never fails to deliver massive crashes. After 15 laps, Kyle Busch gave Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell a push riding in the top-four in the inside lane. Bell shot forward attempting to give Stewart-Haas Racing driver Aric Almirola a bump to move the row along, but it was too much.

Almirola, who was running in second, turned to the outside lane and into pole-sitter and Hendrick driver Alex Bowman. Both went nearly nose-first into the outside wall, collecting 14 cars in their wake.

“That was really disappointing and not ideal at all,” Bell said on FOX. “I had zero intention of causing any wreck. I was very content riding where I was. I was just trying to make sure that our line was staying forward.”

Kevin Harvick, in first, avoided the wreck, as did Bell and Busch. Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano and Ryan Preece also narrowly missed the cars crashing around them.

The day ended early for other possible top finishers, including Ryan Blaney and Ryan Newman. Newman led the final lap of last year’s Daytona 500 before his horrifying last-lap accident that put him in the hospital. Blaney finished second last year behind Hamlin.

Hamlin avoided the crash running in the back of the pack. He started 25th and was racing in the bottom-20 when the chaos ensued.

Others weren’t as fortunate. Drivers making their debuts with new teams, Daniel Suárez and Erik Jones, exited the race with damage, as well as David Ragan. A handful of teams whose cars were damaged attempted repairs once racing resumed after the rain, but none could make up enough laps to put them in contention for the lead.

Hamlin still dominates superspeedways

Hamlin missed “The Big One” by racing at the back of the pack, but he didn’t stay there for long. After the rain delay, Hamlin led 40 laps after the restart before strategic pitting with his Toyota teammates took him from the lead. He sailed to a first stage win to open the season.

In the second stage, Hamlin also controlled the race, battling with his 23XI team’s driver Bubba Wallace, as well as his 2020 rival Harvick, coming down to the final laps in the stage. He lost the top spot (hardly) then regained it for the first two stage wins of the year.

Although Hamlin led laps in the last stage and it looked like he could race to a confident third consecutive Daytona 500 win, a late pit stop caused his downfall. Hamlin led a pack of Toyotas to pit with under 30 laps to go, but the teammates got broken up coming off pit road, losing momentum and speed. Hamlin was shuffled back, without enough time to catch up without a caution. The caution came too late for Hamlin, but it was just early enough for McDowell to officially clinch the win. Hamlin credited McDowell’s driving after the race, saying his win was “no fluke.”

“Wasn’t a ‘anyone can win’ type of race,” Hamlin wrote on Twitter. “He’s up front time and time again at these SS (superspeedway) races. Well earned and well deserved. Congrats!”

New teams split between heartbreak, promise

While single-car teams with new drivers like Richard Petty Motorsports and Trackhouse were knocked out of the running early due to wrecks, it was a strong debut for the Hamlin and Michael Jordan owned team, 23XI. Wallace was racing in the top-five throughout the race and led a single lap, making him the first Black driver to lead a lap at the Daytona 500.

That was after Wallace started at the rear of the race for his car failing pre-race technical inspection multiple times. Despite his early top-five runs, the driver began reporting vibration in his No. 23 Toyota late in the race and had to make a green flag pit stop. Wallace said before the season that his goal in 2021 was two wins, a seemingly ambitious feat for a team that was fully formed only a few months ago. But after a Speedweeks that saw him post fast practice and qualifying times, and a Daytona 500 in which he raced out front, that seems possible, maybe even probable. Time will tell.

It was also a strong debut for the Spire Motorsports cars of Jamie McMurray, a former full-time driver who returned to the race for a one-off showing in the 500, and Corey LaJoie, who made a transition to the team this year. McMurray and LaJoie finished in eighth and ninth, respectively.

The Cup Series races next Sunday, Feb. 21 at the Daytona Road Course. The race is scheduled for 3 p.m. on FOX.

This story was originally published February 15, 2021 at 12:39 AM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription