Winners and losers from 2026 Daytona Duels: Casey Mears sneaks into Daytona 500

Daytona International Speedway saw two Duel races replete with wrecks, passes and drama on Thursday night.

Check out the winners and losers of the night — and see the starting lineup below, too.

Winners from Daytona Duels: Casey Mears goes from down a lap to the Daytona 500

— Casey Mears … what? Can you believe it? Such are appropriate questions after the baffling conclusion to the first Duel race on Thursday night.

Mears came in as one of the six Open cars vying for one of the two Open slots in the Daytona 500. In order to make that happen, he needed to finish above all other Open cars in Duel No. 1 — and he did just that.

But how? Through the 60-lap race, Mears’ Ford was up and down, good and bad. He was even a lap down at one point before a caution put him back on the lead lap. But then, with one lap to go and the white flag already out, his Open-car competitor Corey LaJoie spun out, and instead of braking and avoiding the carnage, Mears smashed his foot on the pedal and zoomed ahead of LaJoie before the caution came out. Such a move took guts. And it yielded him a Daytona 500 spot.

What Mears said postrace: “I got a runner around the outside. I figured I’d stay on the gas no matter what happened. When I saw him spinning, and I missed the first guy, I thought ‘OK, good.’ Then I hit — was it the 9 I hit square? Anyway, I hit somebody square. And I knew when I hit him flat, it didn’t tear up the car too much, and I was going to be able to get back. But I didn’t know who was in front of me still — or whether or not we made it.”

But he did.

— Joey Logano won the first Duel race, marking a mostly good day for Fords. The superspeedway ace and Team Penske as a whole — his teammate, Ryan Blaney, finished second — saw a turbulent-free race.

“Just a lot of teamwork all the way through,” Logano said. “I think about the 22 team in particular. Nick Hensley, our gas man, did a fantastic job getting us in position out of pit road. Coleman Pressley up on the roof giving us great information. My teammate Ryan Blaney being committed and working together. It’s nice when everything works out the way it’s supposed to.”

— Chase Elliott. The second Duel race Thursday night was much less eventful than the first. At least, there was a lot less wrecking. Elliott — by virtue of an early and quick pit stop, as well as good blocking down the stretch — won the second Duel race. Elliott also took advantage of some help from Carson Hocevar holding his lane; he also got some help from Kyle Larson, who didn’t break off from single-file racing on the last lap, effectively ensuring his teammate got the Duel win. Elliott is still looking for his first Daytona 500.

“A great way to get the blood pumping for sure on a Thursday night,” Elliott told the FOX broadcast postrace. “There was a lot going on those last handful, really ever since we came off of pit road after the cycle, we were getting after it. It was a lot of fun.

“Had some great support there. Carson did a great job helping me control those lanes, helping get Team Chevy for Victory Lane tonight. Certainly owe him an appreciation for just kind of sticking with it, also pushing me well. It’s real easy to get people out of control. Appreciate that.”

— Kyle Busch did all his work the night before the Duels — on Wednesday, when he qualified for the Daytona 500 pole on during single-car qualifying. With approximately six laps to go, the two-time Cup Series champion ducked out of the chaos after Duel race No. 1 — and considering the wreckage, that was probably a prudent decision.

— Anthony Alfredo was the final Open car who notched his spot in the Daytona 500. He did so by running in the Top 2 all day and staying out of trouble. Through tears, Alfredo said: “I’ve only been choked up twice in my life; once when (my daughter) was born and this time for qualifying for the Daytona 500.”

— In the new postseason format — the 10-race “Chase” playoff— a Duel race pays points. That means that the winner pays 10 points, second place pays 9, etc. The Top 10 in Duel No. 1: Logano, Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski, John Hunter Nemechek, Shane van Gisbergen, Daniel Suarez, Casey Mears, Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman. The Top 10 in Duel No. 2: Chase Elliott, Carson Hocevar, Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, Josh Berry, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Todd Gilliland, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin.

Losers from Daytona Duels: RFK Racing’s day started so promising

— All of RFK Racing had a rough day after the first Duel race. And that’s a rough reality considering how well they were situated with five laps to go in Duel race No. 1.

With just under 10 laps to go, Corey LaJoie (RFK’s Open car entry) was running right behind Brad Keselowski, who was passing cars and controlling the lines like the superspeedway ace could. But then, after the final restart, that Mears chaos erupted and yielded damage to Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece; it resulted in LaJoie’s elimination; and it left Keselowski (who’s also a co-owner in RFK) as the lone RFK driver in the Top 5.

Just let Keselowski explain it for himself: “We did everything we said we were going to do. Got all four cars to the front. Ran a pretty good pit cycle. All hell broke loose. Things kind of got separated. Ryan Preece got shuffled. Couldn’t keep the bottom lane super tight the way I wanted to. There was a wreck down the backstretch. That got the 17 car.

“At the end I’m not really sure what happened. Somebody got in the back of Corey. Just really disappointing. We were in a spot to get him in the race. To go from having four cars in control of the race to three of them torn up and only one of them in the Top 5 is quintessential Daytona.”

— The four Open cars that did not qualify for the Daytona 500: Corey LaJoie, Chandler Smith, BJ McLeod and JJ Yeley, Justin Allgaier and Corey Heim qualified into the Daytona 500 on speed Wednesday; Mears and Alfredo did so during the Duels on Thursday.

— Bubba Wallace in Duel race No. 1 had his bumper pushed and thereafter spun out from the front, foiling his day.

Daytona 500 starting lineup

*Open car that qualified into the Daytona 500.

**Open Exemption Provisional.