DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Joey Logano of Team Penske had the best line of the Daytona 500 after he started on the pole and led a race-high 45 laps before his dreams of a victory ended in a massive, multi-car crash on lap 192.
“It’s speedway racing,” Logano said. “It’s a lot of fun until it sucks.”
It was fun for Logano starting on the pole and feeling the speed out of his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang. It was a blast for the Team Penske driver when he could pretty much lead whenever he wanted and was just biding his time until the end of the race to place himself in position to fight it out for a potential second Daytona 500 win.
But then, Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron determined the outcome of the Daytona on lap 192 when he triggered a major wreck that took out two of Team Penske’s three drivers including Logano and defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney.
Byron was able to continue unscathed and apologized for his role in the crash after he won the 66th Daytona 500 eight laps later – a race that ended with another big crash, but it came after the winner had already crossed the finish line and was scored on his final lap.
“Speedway racing again,” Logano said. “It’s a lot of fun until this happens.
“It was pretty interesting with a lot of pushing and shoving there at the end. Our car was able to take it. Our Mustang was so fast. It could lead a line really well. I kind of thought I had the cars I wanted around me. I had at least one I wanted around me, but just couldn’t make it work.”
There's trouble at the front of the field! #DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/6wVECKKWY1
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 20, 2024
It seemed like fun for Logano, until it wasn’t.
“That’s very much how speedway racing is – boom and bang and crash and all that,” he said. “It’s part of it. You’re pushing and shoving there at the end.
“We had the cars that could take it and were doing really well.
“I had Blaney behind me. I thought, ‘Man if I could pick one, that’s the one I want. I’m in a great position here’ and just had to find the right opportunity to slip the 1 again because the 6 (Brad Keselowski) wasn’t working with us, so I felt if I could keep the 12 with me, I’m going to be in a decent spot.
“But it just didn’t work out.
“The car was so fast. The car was the fastest car on the track. I could lead a line. Whenever we weren’t saving fuel, she was a rocket ship. It’s just how this game works.
“The wreck always starts in the front, and you hope you’re in front of it. Second place isn’t far enough ahead.”
“I don’t know. I got hit in the back, so I couldn’t really tell you. It’s a shame. I was kind of making a move for the lead with eight laps to go in the Daytona 500 and I’m here talking to you. It’s just one of those deals. We were mixed up in the middle of the soup most of the race. We executed really well in the final stage and put ourselves in position, but that’s just the way Daytona goes.”
Keselowski was the driver that got hit in the rear from Byron’s Chevrolet, and once that happened entering turn three, there was little to stop the carnage.
“I don’t exactly know what happened, but it’s unfortunate,” Keselowski said. “We were making the pass for the lead with just eight laps to go and now I’m here talking to you guys. It’s not exactly where I want to be, no offense, but that’s just part of how this deal goes sometimes.
“I saw the 1 car (Ross Chastain) and I was making a move on him, and I couldn’t tell what happened from there.
“Joey, Ryan and I, I thought we were in a good position, but things happen.”
It always does in the Daytona 500. That is why there is only one driver that leaves Daytona Int’l Speedway celebrating and the rest of the field in an angry mood.
Because high-speed, superspeedway racing depends so much on positioning in the draft, all it takes is one mistake for mayhem.
“The pushes are stupid the whole time,” Logano said. “The whole thing – everybody just gets more and more intense. You know it’s going to happen. Anyone can see it happening. You just know it. It happens every year.
“With 10 to go there’s going to be a caution. You just hope you’re not in it and you can’t ride around. You can’t just sit there and not race because you’ll be too far back and won’t win that way.
“You just have to be one of the lucky guys right now like the 24 (Byron), the 48 (Alex Bowman, who finished second), the 2 (Austin Cindric), the 9 (Chase Elliott) that are still alive to do it. It’s usually the people that start the wreck that stay alive.
“That’s the frustrating part.”
Not so fast, my friend.
Austin Cindric was in position to race for the win heading to the white flag before he was tagged by Bowman heading to the white flag. Cindric’s Ford Mustang slid across the grass and into Ross Chastain’s Chevrolet. It was another big crash, but by then, the front two cars were already scored on the final lap.
The next time around, Byron got the checked flag as the race ended under caution.
“We had a shot to win the Daytona 500,” said Cindric, another Team Penske driver. “We were really in great position with the outside lane breaking up and kind of one-on-one with the 24 with the whole pack behind, so you can’t really ask for anything else other than that out of myself and the team.
“It just sucks a little bit.
“I was in probably the best spot possible coming to the white, but I’m in the care center and I don’t even know where I finished, so it really sucks but that’s racing.”
Cindric tried to work with other Ford drivers, but most of them had already been cleaned out by the previous crash on Lap 192.
“Once you get that few laps left in the race it’s gridlock, so you’re pretty much doing your best to push,” Cindric said. “I mean, my job the whole rest of that race was to push the 24 (Byron) as best as I could until I could get clear, and we got to that point once the outside lane broke apart and had a great opportunity. I don’t know. Yeah, if I had maybe a teammate.
“Honestly, there are probably 39 other cars that probably would have taken care of that situation maybe a little better, but obviously not.”
Blaney created a trio of Team Penske drivers that crashed and didn’t make it to the finish of the Daytona 500. He was in the same multi-car crash on lap 192 as Logano.
“There’s 10 to go in the 500,” Blaney said. “I didn’t think the 24’s push (Bryon), from the replay I saw, it didn’t look bad. It looked like he just kind of got squirrely and then when he tried to get back to him, he was kind of on the quarter, like a weird side of his bumper, but I can’t believe we didn’t wreck before that.
“I thought we were all going to because we were all shoving hard and stuff like that.
“It stinks, but I’m not as bad compared to the other night (when he was hooked and crashed hard in the Bluegreen Vacation Duels qualifying race), so that’s good.”
For these drivers, the Daytona 500 was fun, it was a blast.
Until it wasn’t.