WHO REALLY WON THE DAYTONA 500??

We’re hot off the heels of the Daytona 500 and as always, it didn’t disappoint! Having been delayed a day by rain, the race fell square on the 40th anniversary of Hendrick Motorsports, which made their victory that much sweeter. Fans of the race’s front runners will likely be disappointed with the outcome, but this is what makes the Daytona 500 so great. As many have said before me, the best thing about Daytona is that anything can happen, and the worst thing about Daytona is that anything can happen. 

Let’s recap the event with my race notes. Joey Logano won his first Daytona 500 Pole only slightly edging out Michael McDowell. This gave us an all Ford front starting row and gave me confidence in my prediction of Ford leading the sport this year. Row 2 was all Toyota as Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell won the Duels. Speaking of Toyota, this year‘s pace car was the production version of the 2025 Toyota Camry XSE. While I wasn’t a fan of the all white grill, the car itself looks pretty good in my opinion. I took note that lap 4 of Stage 1 was led by four Fords then two Toyotas, and because of unique pitting strategies lap 57 of Stage 1 was led by eight Fords, followed by six Toyotas and then six Chevys. My Ford driver pick, Ryan Preece, unfortunately got caught up in a wreck on the fifth lap of Stage 1.

My Toyota pick, Reddick, showed his skill after a pit mishap at the end of Stage 1. He started Stage 2 in 35th, and was back up to 6th by lap 21 of that stage. Though you might expect me to make the argument that most of the race was led by Fords and Toyotas because they’re better, I don’t think that would be a fair analysis. I think the Chevy teams clearly had a strategy of hanging back and saving gas so they could gain valuable positions by staying out longer during pit stops. This certainly seemed to be the case as William Byron and Alex Bowman shot to the front of the pack during pits late in the 3rd Stage. This put them in the position to win first and second place respectively. William Byron was my Chevy driver pick for this year so I was thrilled to see him win the race.

The method of him winning the race though, may rub some fans the wrong way. With 9 laps to go, he was involved in triggering ‘The Big One’ – a crash that took out 18 of the top 25 drivers in the race, and brought out the red flag. This wreck eliminated many of the favored front runners including Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and more. Furthermore, on the final lap, a crash took out Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric leading to Byron’s victory under caution. He was only slightly ahead of Bowman, and just a few seconds after the finish line, Bowman had passed Byron. I expect a number of fans are upset, but as we said before, anything can happen at Daytona. It is my opinion that although both the big wreck and the final lap wreck were very unfortunate, Byron is the winner fair and square. For those who still may question who was in first place when the caution flag was put out, NASCAR released this picture the morning after the race.

As for my Driver Picks by manufacturer: Chevy’s Byron finished 1st, Ford’s Preece finished 23rd, and Toyota’s Reddick finished 29th. Here’s the tally on my season picks for race teams by manufacturer:

Toyota: Legacy MC did the best as neither of their primary drivers got caught in any of the wrecks. Jimmy Johnson was caught in the lap five accident, but did not sustain major damage.
John Hunter Nemechek: 7th
Erik Jones: 8th
Jimmie Johnson: 28th

Ford: RFK’s three drivers got caught in wrecks giving them poor finishing positions.
Chris Buescher: 18th
David Ragan: 20th
Brad Keselowski: 33rd

Chevy: Both Trackhouse drivers also got taken out in ‘The Big One’.
Ross Chastain: 21st
Daniel Suarez: 34th

As I mentioned in my last article, we’re going to spend some time today discussing what each manufacturer is bringing to the table this season. First up, let’s look at Toyota and their Camry XSE NextGen. New for the 2024 season, it replaces the Toyota Camry TRD that competed in the first two seasons of the seventh-generation stock-car platform. It’s the fifth model that Toyota has introduced for the Cup Series since they joined the sport in 2007. The manufacturers in NASCAR – Chevrolet and Ford, in addition to Toyota – have a tight window in which they can manipulate their respective vehicles, but still enough room to make a difference. Although the production version of this car – the Toyota Camry XSE – only comes as a hybrid-electric vehicle, the NASCAR version has a full bodied 5.8L V8, which NASCAR mandates across all manufacturers. Aside from the redesign of the Camry in general, you’ll notice significant aerodynamic differences on the nose and tail. 

Tyler Reddick, my Toyota driver pick for this season, was questioned about the new car at the Daytona 500 Media Day. “I expect the shape of the bumper, front and back, should be much better for us. You know, the thing that bit me in the 500 last year is just getting pushed in the corner, and the shape of last year’s bumper was not great for drafting. The shape of it really lifted the back of the car up when you do got pushed, and just that little tap I got from (Kevin) Harvick was enough to spin us around. So hopefully, the work that everyone did there, on the part of Toyota and TRD, helps that.”

‘How long do you think it’ll take you to fully adapt to a new Toyota race car?’ “The chassis itself, I feel like I’ve got a good understanding of it. Certainly, I think teams will just keep finding more and more ways to make them closer to perfect than what they are. I think the biggest thing with the new body this year, is maybe just seeing what its tendencies will be in traffic. Racing around other cars, it might be a little different. I expect the short track package to be different in traffic as well. I wouldn’t say it’s better, but dirty air is different, so that’s going to be a learning curve as well. Not necessarily tied to the Camry. Those will be the big things. Just seeing if there’s anything really that stands out when you’re racing other cars in traffic with the new body.”
It would seem Tyler’s intuitions were correct concerning dirty air and paying attention to the tendencies of the Camry in traffic. During Qualifying, 0 Toyotas finished in the top 20. However, Tyler Reddick won Duel 1 in his 23XI Toyota, and Christopher Bell won Duel 2 in his Joe Gibbs Toyota. This shows that although the Toyotas aren’t great at running by themselves (in dirty air), they’re strong when drafting and the aerodynamics surrounding other vehicles is a factor. With Legacy MC joining the Toyota family this year, the number of Camrys in the Cup Series will increase from 6 to 8 – although 9 ran at Daytona with Jimmie Johnson in Legacy MC’s No. 84 car.

Next, let’s look at Chevy and their NextGen Camaro ZL1 1LE. Introduced in May of 2021, Chevy is the only manufacturer still using their original 7th generation stock car entry. Even so, this car boasts significant changes over their 6th generation car. Although Chevy initially boasted that their improvements more closely tied their Cup car to their production Camaro, it was quickly revealed that Chevy’s NextGen car shares the majority of its improvements with Ford’s and Toyota’s NextGen entries. The wheels are much larger than before as they’ve jumped in diameter from 15 inches to 18, and are now made from aluminum instead of steel. As is also the case on the Fords and Toyotas, one of the biggest changes according to the fans is the implementation of center-lock wheels over the traditional five-lug setup that has been used on stock cars for decades.

The vehicle has a tubular chassis with carbon fiber body panels and the rear suspension is an independent design. The steering is handled by a rack and pinion setup, and the 6th generation manual transmission has been replaced by a 5-speed sequential transaxle. Underneath, the Camaro is equipped with a smooth underbody and a diffuser, while even deeper within the bodywork hides bolt-on front and rear clips that are said to improve repairability after crashes.

Dr. Eric Warren, Executive Director of Global Motorsports Competition for General Motors said the tight, competitive balance of working within the NASCAR Rule Book’s constraints should regulate the impact as all three manufacturers strive to push the edges of the Next Gen platform’s aero limits. Warren told NASCAR.com, “It’s so close. I mean really, honestly, they’re on top of each other. I would say when the aero balance maybe is a little bit different or if it moves, say, forward a little bit, that’s where understanding your car and the notebook comes in, because you have a lot more comfort in it. And you see that every year when we’ve come out with new cars, it takes a while to really get your hand on them, because there’s a lot of things that are unknown, that the wind tunnel doesn’t show or CFD [computational fluid dynamics] doesn’t show when you get around other cars, they behave a little different. So there’s a little bit of that, but the cars are all pretty close. And so I think it’s not going to be as big a difference as everyone thinks.”
Though fans were concerned that Chevy might not be able to run the Camaro in the 2024 season due to production of the road vehicle ceasing in January of this year, NASCAR has decided to allow it because the Camaro was a production vehicle at the time of its original submission. NASCAR has stated that this is within the boundaries of the rules, and therefore the Camaro will remain qualified to race in the Cup and Xfinity Series in 2024, “and possibly beyond if Chevrolet chooses to do so.” Scott Bell, Global Chevrolet’s vice president said, “As we prepare to say goodbye to the current generation Camaro, it is difficult to overstate our gratitude to every Camaro customer, assembly line employee and race fan. While we are not announcing an immediate successor today, rest assured, this is not the end of Camaro’s story.”

Last but not least, let’s look at Ford and their 2024 Mustang Dark Horse NextGen. If you read the articles I wrote after attending the Ford Performance 2024 Season Kickoff, you’ll be familiar with what they’re offering this season. For those of you who missed those articles, here’s a recap. 

While the basic technical components of the vehicle are largely the same as Toyota and Chevy due to NASCAR’s stringent across-the-board regulations, the design of this updated car is refreshing. There are subtle yet aggressive sharp humps over the front wheels, and more aerodynamic pieces on the roof and rear. Unlike the smooth hood on the Xfinity Series car, the Cup Series car has two hood vents. Rather than the sharp and straight design that I’m used to with most hood vents, these vents have a wave pattern. Additionally, the designers chose to go with a checkerboard pattern of carbon fiber on the upper dashboard. This is a neat touch, especially for a checkered-flag destined race car.

I’m not sorry that my obvious Ford bias is showing. Keep in mind, Ford drivers won the last two NASCAR championships. I had the amazing opportunity earlier this year to talk to both of those champions back to back. First I asked Ryan Blaney, 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Champion, for his opinion on the Dark Horse. “I’m pumped!” he said. “Ford did an amazing job with it.” Then I asked Joey Lagano, 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Champion, what his thoughts were about the new platform. “Just look at it – it’ll be the meanest looking car on the track! I can’t wait to open her up at Bristol.” Another driver I got to talk with was Michael McDowell who said, “It should be pretty good for us this year. It looks great and it shows pretty good numbers. The power and handling are fantastic and we’re excited to get at it.” 

In an interview with NASCAR.com, Richard Johns, NASCAR Performance Leader for Ford Performance Motorsports, had these comments on the redesign, “In our ’23 car, maybe some of our trade-offs weren’t in the optimal place that you could see. We were really strong on superspeedways, and that hurt the performance a little bit on the intermediate tracks. So being able to reposition where we are in the box is an important step for us, as well as optimizing some of the detailed racing conditions to make sure we’re the most competitive in all those situations. So we knew that we had to go into this year and be better. The best way that we could be better is coming with a new car and coming with new ideas to try and be better across the board and improve speedways, improve intermediates, improve short tracks and give our teams more ability to make their cars better on a given weekend.”

All in all, the manufacturers are on their game this season and I’m excited to see how the rest of the year shapes out. My congratulations to William Byron on his win, and to Hendrick Motorsports on 40 years of racing. I’ll be following NASCAR with weekly articles all season long, so stay tuned! I’ll also be releasing weekly articles on other vehicles and topics. Make sure to visit my profile to catch what you’ve missed! To see my latest photography work, go to StingerAuto.com or look up @Stinger_Auto on Instagram and Stinger Photography on Facebook!