NASCAR delivered their first race of the 2025 season Sunday night with the Daytona 500. The #24 of William Byron returned to victory lane, marking him the first back-to-back race winner since Denny Hamlin in 2019 and 2020. It was a chaotic finish that saw Byron part the seas in a last-lap wreck going from P7 to P1 and running away from the field to collect the checker. It was an entertaining spectacle that would now allow the several-hour rain delay to take away from the excitement.
Like last year, I want to give you my six drivers of note. Three of which impressed and deserve recognition. The other three… Who failed to shine in the sport’s biggest race in the brightest moments. It’s time for the first “Three Up, Three Down” of the 2025 NASCAR season! Let’s get it underway!
Three Up
#24 William Byron
I try not to go with the winner for these pieces… But the Daytona 500 is special. What’s even more special is winning the race two years in a row. Byron cemented his legacy among NASCAR’s greatest with this achievement. As we mentioned earlier, he’s the first since Hamlin and the youngest since his boss and former driver of the #24 Jeff Gordon. He’s four months younger than when the Wonder Boy went back to back at the Great American Race.
Sure, we can all complain about how random the race is. How Byron hadn’t been a factor up front all race was able to just avoid a wreck and win the race. All those criticisms and loathing of the finish are fair and I’m even with you. But this is an achievement that needs to be recognized and flowers need to be given. The #24 car starts hot yet again, and we’ll see if he can maintain it for the rest of the season.
#40 Justin Allgaier (But mostly Dale Earnhardt Jr/JR Motorsports)
This was maybe my favorite story from the weekend. Dale Earnhardt Jr took another step in his father’s footsteps putting together a NASCAR Cup Series debut for his team, JR Motorsports, at the Daytona 500. With the help of driver and 2024 Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier, the #40 Traveller Whisky Chevrolet raced their way into qualifying for the Daytona 500 in Thursday night’s duel race. Beating J.J. Yeley and Chandler Smith for the right to compete in Sunday’s race. That in itself was a cause for celebration.
But it wasn’t done there, Allgaier kept the #40 clean and competitive through the duration of the race and landed it a P10 in its Cup Series debut at the Great American Race. Avoiding the big one, and beating some of NASCAR’s finest in the final laps. This was a better outcome than anybody could have reasonably predicted for that team. After an outing like that, maybe Dale Jr could be swayed to take a harder look at coming to the Cup Series… Maybe he already is.
#84 Jimmie Johnson
Maybe even more shocking than the success of Allgaier, Dale Jr, and the #40 team was the only 7x NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson notching a top-three finish at the Daytona 500. This is the first time the Hall of Fame driver has finished in the top three since his last full season in 2020. Johnson has had a rough go of it in his part-time spots with his team Legacy Motor Club. Usually barely scratching the top 15 on a good day, and most times, just outright wrecking. But as a driver, he came pretty damn close to winning the thing and as an owner, the #42 of John-Hunter Nemechek finished in the top five with him. It’s a great start for Legacy MC and it was a great piece of nostalgia seeing Johnson running up front at the Daytona 500 once again.
Three Down
#22 Joey Logano & #47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr
Frankly, just an image doesn’t do this justice. So go ahead and watch the video below and we can break it all down.
Looks like Joey Logano took himself and some other drivers with his superb driving skills …… pic.twitter.com/Oo9Fkf7tSG
— Mooses Felix(@MoosesFelix) February 17, 2025
There’s just no need for this. Let’s start with Logano. He’s obviously forcing it in a spot he doesn’t need to nor should. There were still 20 laps to go when this incident happened. The hole closed up, and he decided to force his nose in there anyway. Taking out his teammate #12 Ryan Blaney, and many other cars behind them. It was a waste of what was truly a race-winning car that the #22 brought to the track that day. Team Penske was going to run away with it whether it was Logano, Blaney, or Austin Cindric. Right up until that moment.
As far as the gripe with Stenhouse Jr, it’s lesser than Logano, but that was an extremely late block. That and he crowded the #22 instead of giving the cars the space to breathe and regroup. It was probably a bit too aggressive and contributed to the major accident. So both cars go on the down for me.
#41 Cole Custer
Once again, take a look at the video below and we’ll discuss…
Christopher bell got a chance to win the Daytona 500 but Custer had other things and yeeted him to wall pic.twitter.com/drbMetQqn0
— spcny88AnimeNYC25
(@sebasti10002704) February 17, 2025
Super Speedway racing 101 folks, don’t push on somebody’s left rear. If/when you’re going to push, you have to hit him square in the middle. Or wrecks like that happen. Custer, a true Xfinity driver, showed why he hasn’t succeeded at the Cup Series level pretty quickly by making this major error, and inadvertently sent Ryan Preece for a second flight at Daytona International Speedway. This brought out the NASCAR Overtime finish where yet again, he makes a mistake:
Cole Custer sides draft Denny Hamlin to try and win the daytona 500! pic.twitter.com/Bbi2iF0Xt2
— The Daily Downfords (@dailydownfords) February 17, 2025
This isn’t as bad as wrecking the #20 of Christopher Bell and causing the big one, but this opened the door for the #24 and others to blow right by the leaders, costing Cindric and the #11 of Denny Hamlin, as well as himself, the opportunity of winning the Daytona 500. Just a bad re-entry to the Cup Series for Custer.
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