The 2026 NASCAR season is finally underway, and fans have seen excitement in the two races that have happened.
To kick off the season, the Clash at Bowman Gray was a great start to the season. The exhibition race was plagued by sleet throughout the night, with a record number of cautions in a race at the short track. Many of the cars in the race were involved in at least one incident, leaving teams with destroyed cars afterwards.
It was Ryan Preece who took home the victory, adding his name to the list of drivers to win the Clash before their first points race victory. In the past few years, the Clash winner has gone on to make the playoffs, so Preece could finally break through and win his first-ever Cup race en route to his first playoff appearance in NASCAR’s highest national series.
Next up on the schedule was the crown jewel of the season: the Daytona 500.
Going into the Daytona 500 weekend, most of the attention was on two drivers: William Byron and Denny Hamlin. Byron won back-to-back 500’s in 2024 and 2025 and was hunting for a three-peat. Hamlin was looking to avenge his amazing 2025 season, where he fell just short of the championship.
In qualifying, veteran driver Kyle Busch won his first-ever pole in the Daytona 500. Lining up beside him was Chase Briscoe, who received a front-row starting position in back-to-back years after winning the pole for last year’s race.
NASCAR also incorporates short, 150-mile duel races to determine final Daytona 500 starting spots, with the winners of the races starting directly behind the leaders on Sunday. In the two duel races, it was Joey Logano and Chase Elliott winning their respective duel races to make up the second row.
There was action early in the race, with a deflated tire on BJ McLeod’s car causing a wreck on Lap 5. This wreck caused damage to Byron’s car, effectively ending his chances of a Daytona 500 three-peat.
The largest wreck of the day happened on Lap 124, after leader Justin Allgaier cut off Hamlin after trying to block the No. 11 car. Allgaier spun down the track, and half of the 40-car field was involved. This crash ended many drivers’ hopes of a crown jewel win, and it changed many teams’ strategies, as the wreck was towards the end of the second stage.
On the final lap of the race, Carson Hocevar was leading, but was spun in Turn 1, taking several cars with him. The race stayed green, and Elliott took over the lead, helped by a Zane Smith push. However, Tyler Reddick got a big draft off of the 9 car and moved to the inside lane, and with a wreck behind him, Reddick crossed the finish line first to win the Daytona 500.
Currently, Reddick is leading the points standings, with Joey Logano and Elliott right behind him. With the return of the full-season points format, Reddick is not locked into the Chase, but he has a 12-point advantage over Logano in second place.
With the amount of excitement that took place in these two races, fans should be hopeful that the remainder of the season will live up to this standard of racing.
