(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden

Main Takeaway

The Harley J. Earl trophy might need to be awarded alongside a glass slipper.

For the past three years, NASCAR’s signature event has been a race for the underdogs. Cinderella’s been the belle of the sport’s grandest ball. Three different drivers – Michael McDowell, Austin Cindric and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., have won in upsets to the status quo. In doing so they’ve narrowly denied title-winning stars like Chase Elliott and Joey Logano from adding to their likely Hall of Fame resumes. Outside of the Daytona 500, the trio have combined for two wins – both from Stenhouse, also coming in superspeedway races at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway back in 2017.

Stenhouse was the latest to join the list of Daytona 500 champions, inching ahead of Logano as the caution flag flew for a calamitous crash in the pack behind them. Known for explosive celebrations in the past, an Stenhouse calmly explained the significance of the win afterward.

“Man, this is unbelievable,” he told FOX Sports. “This was the site of my last win back in 2017. We’ve worked really hard. We had a couple shots last year to get a win and fell short. It was a tough season, but, man, we got it done. Daytona 500!”

He did eventually show some of the vintage Stenhouse excitement, climbing the fence and doing pull-ups for the crowd. But the composed interview showed a different side of Stenhouse, one given validation after a few years of struggles.

Stenhouse had managed just two top-fives in the prior two seasons, ending the years as an afterthought outside of the top-20 in points. Over time the reputation he’d earned with his two 2017 wins was replaced by jokes about his crashes and perceived over-aggression. The dirt racing community largely embraced Stenhouse. But in NASCAR circles he was often addressed as ‘Wrecky Spinhouse’ and rarely recognized among the sport’s stars.

Winning Daytona won’t entirely alter the minds of his detractors. But now they’ll always have to acknowledge him as a Daytona 500 champion. If he never accomplishes another thing, Stenhouse will forever have a triumph in NASCAR’s biggest race to his credit.

The victory also gives legitimacy to JTG Daugherty Racing, an organization that’s been perceived as underperforming based on its size. Prior to Sunday the team had won just once, with AJ Allmendinger at Watkins Glen International back in 2014. There’d been close calls with Stenhouse, Allmendinger and Chris Buescher, but the squad had failed to replicate that breakthrough win.

That’s no longer the case. JTG are Daytona 500 winners, something they can pitch to their major partners and use as motivation to build moving forward.

The company has larger ambitions than one-off wins – its leadership envisions Stenhouse winning multiple races this year. Whether that will happen remains to be seen. Stenhouse has primarily been a superspeedway specialist in the Cup Series, similar to McDowell, though both have strengths elsewhere as well. Stenhouse tends to have potential for strong result on short tracks, while McDowell’s shown prowess on road courses.

But in truth it doesn’t matter – at least not entirely. If Stenhouse doesn’t win another race, this season will still be a resounding triumph. He’ll always be a Daytona 500 winner – a feat that could help him prolong his Cup career. JTG will henceforth be champions of the Great American Race.

Any success from here is a bonus.

 

Good, Bad and Ugly

Good: Travis Pastrana shines

Travis Pastrana doesn’t plan on returning to the NASCAR Cup Series in the future. But his one-off run in Daytona went better than he ever could have dreamed.

Entering with high hopes but low expectations, Pastrana qualified for the Daytona 500 on pace and went on to be a genuine factor at race’s end. The action sports star dodged most of the race’s typical attrition to find himself among the frontrunners in the final laps, lining up 12th for the final restart.

Pastrana even had a say in the winner of the race, albeit unintentionally – he was crashed off Aric Almirola’s bumper on the final lap, factoring into the caution that froze the field and gave Stenhouse the win.

Limping his car to the garage with damage may not have been a surprise, but Pastrana’s overall run was. He led a lap, survived to the end and finished a solid 11th, second among all Toyota drivers.

He was just happy to be in the field for NASCAR’s biggest race. But Pastrana also gave himself plenty of reasons to smile with his performance.

 

Bad: Thing go awry for Rowdy and Kez

The prevailing storyline seemed set heading into the final laps of regulation in this year’s 500. Longtime rivals Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch were poised to compete for the one marquee race that’s eluded them both over the years.

They had help. Both drivers were lined up with their teammates – Keselowski with Chris Buescher, Busch leading Austin Dillon. The pair were driving fast cars capable of leading the field. They’d survived the majority of the day’s attrition.

Everything was perfectly positioned for two of this era’s best to duke it out on NASCAR’s biggest stage. But their days went wrong in a hurry during the closing stretch.

Keselowski led the most laps (42) for the second-straight year and was at the point heading into a restart with 13 laps to go, but his lane faded and left the 2012 Cup champion back in the pack as the chaotic crashing began. He wound up getting caught in the calamity, finishing 22nd at night’s end.

Busch surged to the front as Keselowski faltered, leading his teammate Dillon as the laps wound down. Had the race ended at 200 laps, Busch would have been a Daytona 500 champion. He even referenced as much, telling his team they’d be the champs if this was “1998,” referencing Dale Earnhardt’s win under caution in his 20th attempt.

But Sunday’s race went overtime after a late Daniel Suarez spin, and it didn’t work out for Busch. He and Dillon faded back on the subsequent restart and wound up caught in crashes. While Stenhouse celebrated his win on the front stretch, Busch walked out of the infield care center and tried to process another Daytona heartbreak.

Keselowski is now 0-for-14 in NASCAR’s biggest race. Busch, a two-time champion, is 0-for-18. Martin Truex Jr. crashed out early and ended up losing for the 19th time.

This title-winning trio find themselves at risk of joining NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees Tony Stewart, Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace on the list of stars that never won the big one.

If there’s any solace to that fact, it’s that they also have reason not to give up just yet. It took Earnhardt 20 years of trying to make his Daytona 500 dreams come true. For at least a few more years, there’s still be a chance for Busch, Keselowski and Truex to claim the Great American Race for themselves.

And if they go to the Hall of Fame without ever winning it, at least they won’t be alone.

Ugly: No iconic visual

It’s the moment every driver dreams of. Their car streaks down the front stretch in front of the rabid fan base at Daytona and leads the pack to the checkered flag. Videos capture the moment. Photos enshrine it into eternity. The driver and their team explode into a cacophony of cheers and tears as other competitors acknowledge their victory on the cooldown lap.

Only it didn’t happen this year. Not in any of NASCAR’s three national series.

Stenhouse, Austin Hill and Zane Smith were all awarded their victories over the weekend after leading at the time of caution flags that ended their respective races. Each had to wait for NASCAR officials to confirm them as the winners, Hill even sitting next to two other potential victors by the entrance to pit road. Smith’s triumph came in a race shortened by rain.

This isn’t the fault of any driver and shouldn’t impact the legacy of their wins. Nor is it really the fault of NASCAR themselves. Rain can’t be helped and the design of the current rules for the last lap was crafted with justifiable intentions to reduce safety risk.

But “leading at point of caution” finishes are among the least aesthetically pleasing of all NASCAR race endings. Having all three major races end with them hurt the overall impression of the race weekend.

It wasn’t anyone’s fault. But it was a bummer for those that invested in the races.

Good: Show of Emotion

One race did end under green over the weekend. It wound up having the most memorable celebration of them all.

In perhaps the week’s biggest upset, Indiana native Greg Van Alst and his small self-run operation shocked the ARCA Menards Series field to claim the season opener in Daytona. Van Alst jumped to the outside of leader Jason White heading into the final turns. The trailing Connor Mosack went with him and pushed the veteran to the checkered flag, giving an emotional Van Alst a victory that justified the immense effort the went into building his ARCA program.

“Guys like me aren’t supposed to do this,” the veteran short tracker said. “This is the only speedway car we got and there was no way I wasn’t going to bring it home without the steering wheel or the trophy.

“This is for all the short track racers out there that don’t think you can get to this level. I worked my ass off to get here and we did it!”

It was a great moment. The sort of result that showcases the magic of Daytona.

…Okay?: The quality of the race

Was this year’s Daytona 500 a memorable race? Not really. It was far from a classic.

But was it acceptable? Sure.

Perhaps we’ve all been spoiled by the superspeedway racing from the end of the Gen 6 era, but the second Daytona 500 of the Next Gen era was far from the most thrilling race. Drivers were primarily stuck in one of two lines, trading runs while struggling to find opportunities to advance their position. There were multiple lead changes as the lines alternated runs, but the race emphasized track position over bold, racy moves.

Yet with all that said, it was still a solid event. The pack never went to a single-file train to log laps. There were still comers and goers throughout the day. It never felt like any one competitor or team had outright control of the race.

NASCAR may still have some work to do if it wants the Next Gen car to create an all-time great Daytona 500. But the car once again provided a serviceable start to the 2023 season.

Ugly (At Times): Broadcast struggles

Don’t shoot the messenger. The talent crafting the broadcast of the Daytona 500 performed admirably. But there were moments where the race’s production left much to be desired.

I’m not here to complain about commercials. While I may find myself saying “I need to try it first” in my nightmares for the rest of the year, the fact is that under the current deals the quantity of advertisement isn’t going away. It’s a reality that American sport fans are going to have to live with to enjoy their games/races of choice.

But FOX Sports definitely caught some bad breaks that cheapened the broadcasts throughout the week.

First on Sunday was the cutout to a side-by-side break that was impacted immediately by a caution. Fans were instantly eager to sort out what had happened, but unlike in the early years of the company’s broadcasting tenure, when it would cut back immediately for accidents, the entire commercial break played out before fans were told what had occurred.

Minutes later a sponsored segment from Wendy’s led to an onboard shot of Noah Gragson’s No. 42 Chevrolet. Right as it began, talk of a wreck began over Gragson’s in-car radio and the caution was displayed. But while Twitter gave insight into a half-spinning Alex Bowman, no wreck was ever shown – only a piece of debris. Fans later had to sit through a retry of the sponsor segment as Gragson ran in the pack.

There was also the issue of the pixelated digital dashboards – a move done at the behest of teams looking to protect proprietary information. In Thursday’s Duels the pixilation was so intensive that if impacted the view of the track and leading cars, sullying the value of the shot. Thankfully some teams allowed their dashes to be shown on Sunday, while FOX Sports improved the area of pixilation and made the shot usable.

I don’t fully blame any one person at FOX for the issues that plagued the race week. It’s an immense challenge to cover 40-car fields and do so in a way that pleases teams, sponsors, fans and network executives. But it can be unfortunate when a combination of circumstances cheapens the quality and feel of the broadcast – particularly in the sport’s biggest race.

Analysis from the 2023 Daytona 500 and the start of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Good: Pleasant surprises

Superspeedway races tend to provide a few surprises near the front of the field, and Sunday’s result was no different. 

Stenhouse was an upset winner and Pastrana stole the show with his 11th-place effort, but Riley Herbst slotted between the pair with a 10th-place outing in his Daytona 500 debut. Herbst suffered a mid-race spin getting onto pit road, but was otherwise impressive as he stayed out of trouble and gave Rick Ware Racing an impressive result. 

Friday’s winner Zane Smith ended the day 13th for Front Row Motorsports. Cody Ware avoided the chaos to finish a respectable 14th. Corey LaJoie didn’t get to chase a victory, but still slotted in 16th at race’s end. These are the kind of runs that these smaller teams can hang their hats on and build from moving forward.

While he didn’t get the end result he wanted, the returning Jimmie Johnson was competitive and even within eyeshot of the lead late with his No. 84 Legacy Motor Club team. 

Don’t worry about the 31st-place result. Johnson was just happy to be in the mix in his NASCAR return. 

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Daytona 500