Skip to main content
Join Now
NASCAR Logo

Daytona 500 field shakeup: William Byron, Chris Buescher go to backup cars, changes starting order

johnby: John Jamison02/13/26johndjamison

The first Duel at Daytona ended in absolute chaos. The race was largely clean until the green flag pit stops. With 5 laps remaining, Bubba Wallace got shoved, spun out, and started a chain reaction that destroyed Chris Buescher and William Byron. As a result, the two drivers are resorting to backup cars for the Daytona 500.

Of course, resorting to a backup car means an automatic trip to the back of the Daytona 500 field Sunday for Buescher and Byron. NASCAR insider Bob Pockrass also reports that Ross Chastain, Daniel Suárez, AJ Allmendinger, Bubba Wallace, and Casey Mears are undergoing repairs.

Chris Buescher and William Byron got the worst of the Bubba Wallace spin, by far. Bubba himself looked to escape the fray mostly unscathed.

An unlikely path to the Daytona 500

The real car to watch is going to be Casey Mears’. After a largely clean 40+ laps in Duel 1, Casey Mears got the wrecks started when he locked up his tires heading into pit road. He spun, catching Noah Gragson in the process, stranding them both on the infield grass. Mears’ Daytona 500 chances appeared all but gone, especially with Corey LaJoie having a strong run, keeping himself toward the front of the field all night.

The only thing that could have helped Mears was an absolute disaster for LaJoie and Chandler Smith, his two open entry competitors. That’s exactly what he got. Smith found himself in the unfortunate position of shoving Chris Buescher down the track in the process of that Bubba Wallace wreck, suffering damage to the front splitter in the process.

LaJoie’s disaster came on the final lap of overtime. A shove from Daniel Suárez sent LaJoie careening into the outside wall. Mears narrowly avoided contact with LaJoie, keeping his foot in the gas, which led to him making hard contact with Suárez himself. That contact did a number on the front of Mears’ car, but it was a fantastic piece of driving to avoid wrecking himself. It will be interesting to see what the Garage 66 team can do with the banged-up No. 66 Ford Mustang Dark Horse heading into Daytona. Going to a backup would be costly, not just financially for a part-time driver, but because he secured a 17th-place start in The Great American Race.