2019 Daytona 500

Race details[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
Race 1 of 36 in the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Date	February 17, 2019 (2019-02-17)
Location	Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4 km)
Distance	207 laps, 517.5 mi (828 km)
Scheduled Distance	200 laps, 500 mi (800 km)
Average speed	137.440 miles per hour (221.188 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	46.319
Qualifying race winners
Duel 1 Winner	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing
Duel 2 Winner	Joey Logano	Team Penske
Most laps led
Driver	Matt DiBenedetto	Leavine Family Racing
Laps	49
Winner
No. 11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing
Television in the United States
Network	Fox
Announcers	Mike Joy, Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip
Nielsen Ratings	9.170 million[14]
Radio in the United States
Radio	MRN
Booth Announcers	Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle and Rusty Wallace
Turn Announcers	Dave Moody (1 & 2), Mike Bagley (Backstretch) and Kyle Rickey (3 & 4)

The 2019 Daytona 500, the 61st running of the event, was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race held on February 17, 2019, Contested over 207 laps—extended from 200 laps due to an overtime finish, on the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) asphalt superspeedway. After three multiple cars crash in the last 20 laps (including the Big One on lap 191 which involved 21 cars), only 19 of the 40 cars were running at the end of the race and only 14 completed every lap. It was the first race of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, and also marked the debut of the Ford Mustang, which Ford brought in as a replacement for the Fusion. This race was the final career start for Casey Mears. 2016 winner Denny Hamlin held off teammate Kyle Busch over the final laps to win his second Daytona 500 in four years.

The program cover for the 2019 Daytona 500.

This Daytona 500 was the first not to feature the Earnhardt name in the starting lineup since 1978.

Report

Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, that is one of two superspeedways, the other being Talladega Superspeedway.

Background

Daytona International Speedway, the track where the race was held

Daytona International Speedway is one of two superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the other being Talladega Superspeedway.^[15] The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long.^[16] The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.^[16]

Practice

Qualifying

William Byron scored the pole for the race with a time of 46.319 and a speed of 194.305 mph (312.704 km/h).^[19]

Gander RV Duel

The Gander RV Duels are a pair of NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series races held in conjunction with the Daytona 500 annually in February at Daytona International Speedway. They consist of two races 60 laps and 150 miles (240 km) in length, which serve as heat races that set the lineup for the Daytona 500. The first race sets the lineup for cars that qualified in odd-numbered positions on pole qualifying day, while the second race sets the lineup for cars that qualified in even-numbered positions. The Duels set the lineup for positions 3–38, while positions 39 and 40 are filled by the two "Open" (teams without a charter) cars that set the fastest times in qualifying, but did not lock in a spot in the Duels.

For championship purposes, each Duel is a full Championship Stage, except there is no playoff point awarded. The top ten drivers receive championship points.

Starting lineup

William Byron started from pole position.

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Notes
1	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	Fastest in pole qualifying
2	88	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	Second in pole qualifying
3	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart Haas Racing	Ford	Duel 1 Winner
4	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	Duel 2 Winner
5	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	Second in Duel 1
6	14	Clint Bowyer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	Second in Duel 2
7	21	Paul Menard	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	Third in Duel 1
8	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	Third in Duel 2
9	95	Matt DiBenedetto	Leavine Family Racing	Toyota	Fourth in Duel 1
10	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	Fourth in Duel 2
11	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	Fifth in Duel 1
12	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	Fifth in Duel 2
13	43	Bubba Wallace	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	Sixth in Duel 1
14	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	Sixth in Duel 2
15	37	Chris Buescher	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	Seventh in Duel 1
16	40	Jamie McMurray	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	Seventh in Duel 2
17	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	Eighth in Duel 1
18	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	Eighth in Duel 2
19	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	Ninth in Duel 1
20	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	Ninth in Duel 2
21	47	Ryan Preece (R)	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	10th in Duel 1
22	13	Ty Dillon	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	10th in Duel 2
23	41	Daniel Suárez	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	11th in Duel 1
24	38	David Ragan	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	11th in Duel 2
25	96	Parker Kligerman (i)	Gaunt Brothers Racing	Toyota	12th in Duel 1
26	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	12th in Duel 2
27	00	Landon Cassill	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	15th in Duel 1
28	20	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	14th in Duel 2
29	8	Daniel Hemric (R)	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	17th in Duel 1
30	62	Brendan Gaughan (i)	Beard Motorsports	Chevrolet	15th in Duel 2
31	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	18th in Duel 1
32	32	Corey LaJoie	Go Fas Racing	Ford	16th in Duel 2
33	36	Matt Tifft (R)	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	19th in Duel 1
34	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	18th in Duel 2
35	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	20th in Duel 1
36	15	Ross Chastain (i)	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	19th in Duel 2
37	52	Cody Ware (R)	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	21st in Duel 1
38	51	B. J. McLeod (i)	Petty Ware Racing	Chevrolet	21st in Duel 2
39	31	Tyler Reddick (i)	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	Qualifying speed
40	27	Casey Mears	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	Qualifying speed
Did not qualify
41	66	Joey Gase (i)	MBM Motorsports	Toyota
42	71	Ryan Truex (i)	Tommy Baldwin Racing	Chevrolet
Official starting lineup

Practice (post–Duels)

Race

New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman and Houston Texans linebacker J. J. Watt each had duties before the race. Watt, the race’s grand marshal, became the first NFL player to give “drivers, start your engines” in race history. Edelman was the race’s honorary starter – something several current and former NFL players have done in year’s past – as Edelman waved the green flag to signal the start of the 500. “I think these guys are absolutely insane,” Edelman, the MVP at Super Bowl LIII earlier that month, said before the race. “First and foremost, they’re going 200 miles an hour around for three hours straight and (are) able to focus in extreme conditions.”

Matt DiBenedetto was the biggest surprise during the race. DiBenedetto started 9th in the race and led the most laps with 49 laps led. Unfortunately for DiBenedetto, his race would come to an end. With Kyle Busch now leading during a race restart with 10 laps to go, DiBenedetto was getting a push by Paul Menard into turn 3 when Menard bumped DiBenedetto a little bit too hard and turned DiBenedetto around triggering a 21 car crash in turn 3. DiBenedetto and Menard collected Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Matt Tifft, Daniel Suarez, Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman, Aric Almirola, David Ragan, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, Daniel Hemric, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott, Jimmie Johnson, William Byron, Ty Dillon, Joey Logano, and Kyle Larson. NASCAR threw the red flag to clean up the mess.^[23] The race restarted with 6 laps to go but another caution would be thrown for a 7 car wreck. It started when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got turned by Kevin Harvick and into Kyle Larson with Harvick spinning collecting Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Ty Dillon, and Brad Keselowski. During the wreck, Ryan Preece went to the bottom and went through in between 2 spinning cars in Stenhouse and Elliott and Preece made it through the wreck. The race restarted with 2 laps to go and it was a battle for the lead between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. But on the backstretch, the final caution flew for an 8 car crash. Clint Bowyer got a run to the inside of Michael McDowell and made it 3 wide and tried to go up in front of McDowell but instead he went across McDowell's nose and collected William Byron, Chase Elliott, Landon Cassill, Jamie McMurray, Brad Keselowski, and Brendan Gaughan. The wreck would set up an overtime finish. On the restart, Hamlin got in front of Busch and Hamlin held off the pack to win his 2nd Daytona 500 trophy. Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Joey Logano, and Michael McDowell rounded out the top 5 while Ty Dillon, Kyle Larson, Ryan Preece, Jimmie Johnson, and Ross Chastain rounded out the top 10.^[24]

Race results

Stage Results

Stage One Laps: 60

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	10
2	88	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	9
3	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	8
4	41	Daniel Suárez	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	7
5	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	6
6	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	5
7	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	4
8	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	3
9	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	2
10	20	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	1
Official stage one results

Stage Two

Ryan Blaney won the second stage.

Laps: 60

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	10
2	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	9
3	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	8
4	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	7
5	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	6
6	95	Matt DiBenedetto	Leavine Family Racing	Toyota	5
7	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	4
8	41	Daniel Suárez	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	3
9	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	2
10	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	1
Official stage two results

Final Stage Results

Denny Hamlin won the race.

Laps: 80

Pos	Grid	No	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	10	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	207	45
2	31	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	207	45
3	28	20	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	207	35
4	4	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	207	42
5	34	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	207	32
6	22	13	Ty Dillon	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	207	31
7	26	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	207	33
8	21	47	Ryan Preece (R)	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	207	29
9	17	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	207	30
10	36	15	Ross Chastain (i)	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	207	0
11	2	88	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	207	35
12	35	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	207	32
13	5	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	207	30
14	19	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	207	23
15	25	96	Parker Kligerman (i)	Gaunt Brothers Racing	Toyota	205	0
16	20	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	205	21
17	18	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	24
18	32	32	Corey LaJoie	Go Fas Racing	Ford	200	19
19	38	51	B. J. McLeod (i)	Petty Ware Racing	Chevrolet	200	0
20	6	14	Clint Bowyer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	199	17
21	1	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	25
22	16	40	Jamie McMurray	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	198	15
23	30	62	Brendan Gaughan (i)	Beard Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	0
24	27	00	Landon Cassill	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	196	13
25	12	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	196	12
26	3	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	194	17
27	39	31	Tyler Reddick (i)	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	191	0
28	9	95	Matt DiBenedetto	Leavine Family Racing	Toyota	190	14
29	7	21	Paul Menard	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	190	8
30	24	38	David Ragan	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	190	7
31	14	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	190	22
32	8	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	190	13
33	23	41	Daniel Suárez	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	190	14
34	29	8	Daniel Hemric (R)	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	190	3
35	11	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	190	2
36	33	36	Matt Tifft (R)	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	190	1
37	15	37	Chris Buescher	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	190	1
38	13	43	Bubba Wallace	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	169	1
39	37	52	Cody Ware (R)	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	155	1
40	40	27	Casey Mears	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	104	1
Official race results

Media

Television

See also: NASCAR on television and radio § Beyond the United States

Jamie Little interviewing Brendan Gaughan in this race

Since 2001—with the exception of 2002, 2004 and 2006—the Daytona 500 has been carried by Fox in the United States. The booth crew consisted of longtime NASCAR lap-by-lap announcer Mike Joy, three–time Daytona 500 champion Jeff Gordon, and for the final time 1989 race winner Darrell Waltrip. Pit road was manned by Jamie Little, Regan Smith, Vince Welch and Matt Yocum.

Fox Television
Booth announcers	Pit reporters
Lap-by-lap: Mike Joy Color-commentator: Jeff Gordon Color commentator: Darrell Waltrip	Jamie Little Regan Smith Vince Welch Matt Yocum

Spanish-language network Fox Sports LA aired the race live, with lap-by-lap announcer Jessi Losada and color analyst Rodolfo Landeros.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Denny Hamlin 52 2 Joey Logano 52 (–0) 3 Kyle Busch 45 (–7) 4 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 39 (–13) 5 Erik Jones 35 (–17) 6 Alex Bowman 35 (–17) 7 Kyle Larson 33 (–19) 8 Jimmie Johnson 33 (–19) 9 Michael McDowell 32 (–20) 10 Ty Dillon 32 (–20) 11 Brad Keselowski 32 (–20) 12 Ryan Preece 30 (–22) 13 Chase Elliott 27 (–25) 14 Kevin Harvick 27 (–25) 15 Ryan Blaney 27 (–25) 16 Clint Bowyer 26 (–26) Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Toyota 40 2 Ford 33 (–7) 3 Chevrolet 31 (–9) Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

References