Kyle Busch will lead a field of 41 drivers to the green flag on Sunday in the Daytona 500. Busch has never won NASCAR's biggest crown jewel in 20 previous attempts, and his pole position is the first in his career at the Daytona 500.
William Byron has a chance to make history as the first driver to win three consecutive Daytona 500s, but he'll be starting at the back of the pack after being involved in an crash in Thursday's Duel races.
Chevrolet will have a numerical advantage on the other manufacturers, with 19 Chevys in the field compared to 11 Fords and 11 Toyotas - which could give Chevy an advantage during green-flag pit stops if the teams can work together. Sunday's race will begin at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Here's the full starting order and paint scheme guide for the 2026 Daytona 500:
Faith is a fundamental component to who Chandler Smith is as a man, father, husband and racer, so it comes to no surprise that he leaned on his convictions in articulating the range of emotions from missing the Daytona 500 to winning in the Truck Series 24 hours later.
“Truthfully, I pray a certain prayer before every race, and most of my prayers are very consistent in the certain sense of I'm always going to submit myself to the Lord's plan and whatever His will is for me,” Smith said. “And I am a firm believer that I wasn't meant to be in the Daytona 500 -- 110 percent.
“Once again, like I said, it's a consistent thing that I pray about is I just want to submit myself to God and His divine will for me. When I reflect back from my career from start to finish, all the trials and tribulations, all the highs I've been through, when I reflect back and look, I see God's hand, His provident hand in every single thing that that I've done, all the lessons that I've learned, even in life.”
That isn’t to say that Smith doesn’t get disappointed or frustrated in that process but he expressed conviction that it’s not his path to dictate. To his point, these were the same answers he gave after his premature elimination from the Truck Series playoffs last year – that it’s not his place to question a higher direction.
“Once again, tonight is even more of a testimony,” Smith said. “I could sit back and reflect back, you could even say this is maybe -- we didn't make it to the second round of playoffs last year, we had such a crappy first round and came down to New Hampshire in a must-win, and we finished second. And everyone was like, man, how are you not hanging your head by that?
“Once again, I believe that God has a certain plan and I'm going to submit myself to that plan. And when I reflect on tonight, I could definitely see His hand in it. A lot of people call this racing luck. I don't believe in luck.”
Whatever Smith or any observer wants to call it, the final lap was genuinely chaotic in that he needed a push from Ty Majeski to be in position to win. He needed to survived some daring moves by Gio Ruggiero. Smith needed Kaden Honeycutt to get trapped without a pusher after leading in the closing lap. H e needed Christian Eckes and John Hunter Nemechek’s moves to not pan out.
All of that happened.
Ty Majeski: “Oh, just chaos, typical Daytona. I thought, for a field full of guys with nothing to lose, this race could have been a lot crazier than what it was. Just proud of the entire field and proud of Ford Racing. We stuck together all race and stuck with (Smith) at the end at got a Ford to Victory Lane. Happy to be here. Happy to be in this position with the 88 Menards F-150 and it’s a great way to start off a new partnership and a new era.”
Gio Ruggiero: “Everybody was just trying to do whatever it takes to win and that’s what I did for myself and my team. I probably would’ve pushed John Hunter to the win there, but he just wrecked me twice. I think overall as a group we need to do better as Toyotas. I thought me, Tanner and Taylor (Gray) worked really well together but everybody else just seemed like they were out there on their own. I definitely think we learned some things for the next superspeedway.”
JH Nemechek: “I haven’t seen the whole replay yet, but pretty frustrated with myself. Just hard to cover all of the lanes there – should have got to the middle and blocked (Ruggiero) faster than I did. Didn’t anticipate it quite as I probably should have off of turn four, but man, it was one heck of a race. I had a lot of fun all night.”
Kaden Honeycutt: “I got to the lead on the back stretch and I was locked on with (Ruggiero) and I guess he bailed and we disconnected and then he tried to block (Nemechek) and he almost got wrecked. And then I got lost in No Man’s Land. … You can't be the leader coming to white. You're just a sitting duck and it's so easy to get locked out. It’s very hard to recover from it. Just didn’t didn't make the right moves at the end of it, I guess.”
This was also the first race of the Chase for the Championship era in the Truck Series with everyone in the top-10 avoiding a major bullet that could deny them a chance to race for the title come the fall.
“Top five them to death,” Majeski said. “I feel like this format really suits me and what we do. Top five them to death and keep these Menards F-150s in one piece. We can’t afford DNFs early in the year like you could the last format. So that’s our motto – top-5 them to death.”
Chandler Smith was running sixth entering Turn 3, but he ended the night holding the checkered flag. He didn’t benefit from a wreck, but instead made a dramatic four-wide pass for the lead as the field drag-raced to the finish line. He beat runner-up Gio Ruggiero to the line by 0.044s, and just 0.069s separated the entire top five in the end.
John-Hunter Nemechek had the lead exiting the final corner, but ended up finishing fifth. Ruggiero made an aggressive move to the outside, slamming doors with Christian Eckes. Nemechek tried to defend, chasing them up to the track, and he had no idea that Smith was rapidly approaching with Ty Majeski attached to his rear bumper.
He completed the four-wide pass for the win, and was going so fast that he nearly cleared all three trucks by the time he reached the finish line.
At the line, it was Smith, Ruggiero, Eckes, Majeski, and Nemechek inside the top five. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished sixth, Brenden Queen led the way for Ram's new Truck effort in seventh, Kaden Honeycutt was eighth, Tyler Ankrum ninth, and Stewart Friesen tenth.
"First off, I want to shout out all glory to God," said Smith after climbing from the truck. "Without Him, none of this would be possible. And I am super, super grateful that I serve such a loving God that blessed me with such a good group of men and women around me at Front Row Motorsports.
"Ty Majeski, one of my best four teammates I've ever worked with. He is all credit to how we just won that race truthfully. He stayed committed to a Ford and pushed a blue oval to a win.
"Have some people back at home that's struggling a little bit. Rory Smith, buddy, I know we talked about maybe making it to the Daytona 500, but hopefully this does a little better justice for you. Really happy we got a trophy here. This is our first ever NASCAR race, and was debating on if they were going to do more. Hopefully those guys, I know they're raising Cain up in the stands right now, having a great time.
"Just super, super grateful for everybody on this No. 38 Ford F-150 group. We made some changes in the off-season. I felt like last year everybody for the most part knows how this 38 group came together last year, but we built on it and made this group so much better for this year, and I'm so excited for 2026."
As for some other fan favorites, Travis Pastrana placed 15th, Frankie Muniz 16th, while both Tony Stewart and Cleetus McFarland wrecked out in the first half of the race.
Some other trucks who chose to pit during the first caution cycled to the front during the stage break, but Hocevar quickly found his way to the lead. However, his No. 77 truck then shut off for a moment, but he was able to get out of the way.
Elsewhere in the field, Daniel Hemric fell multiple laps down as he had to pit under green for a broken spoiler brace.
In the final stage, trouble found Hocevar again as he led the race, cutting a tire. The pack narrowly avoided him, and he spun out once everyone was clear, triggering a caution.
This was right on the edge of the fuel window, and the field got fairly single-file after as many focused on saving what they had in the tank.
There were a flurry of flat tires including Enfinger, Kitzmiller, and Riggs, but the race stayed green.
However, Hocevar lost a tire again, and that was a enough to trigger a yellow flag, ending the fuel-saving for most of the field.
It was a wild battle up front with McDowell taking control. Hocevar, who was no longer on the lead lap, spun himself out off the nose of another truck in his third incident of the night -- but the race stayed green.
With just a few laps to go, a three-truck wreck broke out between Spencer Boyd, Dawson Sutton, and Taylor Gray. It began with a bad bump from Majeski, who earned pole position for this race. Mini Tyrrell also slapped the wall trying to avoid the melee, forcing the race into overtime.
It was Honeycutt vs. McDowell on the front row, but McDowell spun out as the field raced to the white flag. Honeycutt was leading with one lap to go, but got shuffled out as the field started going every which way down the backstretch. Ruggiero nearly got turned at the same time and was below the yellow line before forcing his way back onto the race track.
And what followed was the incredible five-truck battle for the win we just highlighted, with the entire group crossing the line within a tenth of each other -- and still in one piece.
This is Smith's eighth career win as a NASCAR Truck Series driver, and puts him atop the standings to start the year as NASCAR shifts back to the Chase championship format.
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