Winners from 2026 Daytona Duels: Casey Mears, BJ McLeod sneak 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 win.

“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 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.

— BJ McLeod is in the Daytona 500. He didn’t race his way in initially; he finished second to the Open cars in the second Duel race, behind Anthony Alfredo. But Alfredo’s time being disallowed launched McLeod into the Great American Race.

NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran explained to reporters that a transmission cooling hose on Alfredo’s No. 62 Chevy was not fastened properly, affecting both the cooling and the air flow.

Moran understood the gravity of such a call — particularly considering how joyful and emotional Alfredo was in his postrace remarks. The rules are the rules, though, Moran said.

“Any small Open team we don’t like to have these problems, but we do have to do our job, make sure there’s parity amongst the field and also parity amongst people trying to make the 500,” Moran said. “During inspection, we noticed this hose, which is a transmission cooling transaxle cooling hose. It comes off of the right side quarter window, and it’s supposed to go into the transaxle cooler. It needs to be airtight, needs to be fastened. We have many rules, as you all know, that no parts can fall off the car for obvious reasons.

“We don’t say what the intent is, but these parts have to be fastened properly. Unfortunately this one piece wasn’t on the right side. There was also another hose disconnected for driving cooling, which affects airflow. At a superspeedway, we all know the importance of that.”

Moran added of Alfredo’s situation: “It’s unfortunate. It was during the qualifying race, which we consider qualifying per our rule book. It was similar to the 4’s time (Noah Gragson on Wednesday) being disallowed. In this case here, with it being a qualifying race, he was put to the back of the field, which would take him out of the 500.”

McLeod’s car passed inspection after Alfredo’s de-facto disqualification, NASCAR announced.

— 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 difficult 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, Alfredo and JJ Yeley, Justin Allgaier and Corey Heim qualified into the Daytona 500 on speed Wednesday; Mears and McLeod did so 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.

This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 10:26 PM with the headline "Winners from 2026 Daytona Duels: Casey Mears, BJ McLeod sneak into Daytona 500."

Alex Zietlow

The Charlotte Observer

Alex Zietlow writes about the Carolina Panthers and the ways in which sports intersect with life for The Charlotte Observer, where he has been a reporter since August 2022. Zietlow’s work has been honored by the Pro Football Writers Association, the N.C. and S.C. Press Associations, as well as the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) group. He’s earned six APSE Top 10 distinctions for his coverage on a variety of topics, from billion-dollar stadium renovations to the small moments of triumph that helped a Panthers kicker defy the steepest odds in sports. Zietlow previously wrote for The Herald in Rock Hill (S.C.) from 2019-22. Support my work with a digital subscription