Winners and losers of the 2023 Daytona 500
Daytona 500. (James Gilbert/Getty Pictures)
The 2023 Daytona 500 featured every little thing followers of the sport may ask for. Let’s try who some of the winners and losers at the moment are that the race is over.
Man, what a solution to begin off the 2023 NASCAR Cup Sequence season.
This yr’s Daytona 500 was action-packed and featured some of the greatest precise racing at the occasion that followers have seen in years.
Jimmie Johnson returned from retirement, Kevin Harvick gave his all one final time, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. seemed to lastly break into the win column and Austin Cindric seemed to make it two in a row.
At the finish of the day, none of the above got here to fruition and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wound up stealing the victory, profitable his third profession race, all of which have come at superspeedway tracks.
Let’s check out some of the winners and losers of this yr’s Daytona 500.
Table of Contents
NASCAR’s winners and three losers in the 2023 Daytona 500
Winner: Travis Pastrana
What a storyline this wound up being! Pastrana, 39, has competed in each wheeled sport round, profitable in principally each collection he’s ever run in.
Pastrana shocked the world by not solely making an attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500, however outrunning extra geared up drivers and making his manner into the present. He ran an almost good race and even led a lap alongside the manner.
Whereas he wound up wrecking on the final lap and in the end inflicting the race to finish earlier than the leaders may get to the start-finish line, Pastrana got here residence eleventh, a consequence he was very happy with. Not unhealthy for somebody who hasn’t ever competed in the Cup Sequence earlier than.
Loser: Chase Elliott
Elliott, the 2020 Cup Sequence champion, was one of the favorites heading into the day. Him and his greatest buddy Ryan Blaney had been the No. 1 and No. 2 most closely favored drivers to take residence the trophy.
Sadly, Elliott acquired caught up in the first wreck of the day together with fellow contenders Erik Jones and Tyler Reddick. He needed to accept a thirty eighth place end in his eighth profession Daytona 500.
