Logano on Daytona 500: ‘Say a prayer. It’s going to be crazy’

On the Thursday night of the week of the Daytona 500, a pair of qualifying races is meant to serve two purposes: to finalize the Daytona 500 field and to give drivers a chance to learn the characteristics of their race cars.

The lesson this time around seems to be to get ready to hang on.

“I think the whole field has probably learned that pushing each other is pretty sketchy,” said Joey Logano, who won the first qualifying race. “I was thinking about it driving over here. The Daytona 500 could be a total wreck-fest because if you think about duels, it’s a heat race and everyone is like, ‘Don’t tear up your car. Get what you can out of it, but don’t crash.’

“We wrecked a lot of stuff. That’s everyone not racing for the Daytona 500. So, say a prayer. It’s going to be crazy.”

There were two multi-car crashes due to drafting in the first duel. The first occurred going down the backstretch on lap 56 when the run of Chris Buescher and Austin Dillon ended with Bubba Wallace getting spun. In addition to Wallace and Buescher crashing, the incident also caught William Byron and Chandler Smith.

The second incident was on the final lap of overtime. Again, on the backstretch, it was a surge in the bottom lane that saw Shane van Gisbergen push Daniel Suarez into the back of Corey LaJoie, which spun him across the field. AJ Allmendinger was also collected, as were Ross Chastain and Casey Mears.

The second duel went-caution free.

“Everyone’s push-ability seems awful,” said Logano of his Daytona 500 prediction. “Everybody was. I didn’t see any car that was taking a push that comfortable on the straightaways. A lot of cars were just squirrely. I haven’t watched the replays yet, but all the wrecks happened on the straightaway, so I’m assuming that’s from pushes. More often than not that’s where it’s from. So, I’m assuming just everyone’s push-ability is weak.”

Logano spent his qualifying race trying to put his Team Penske Ford Mustang in every possible position. He ran the top, the bottom, stayed tight on other cars, was a pusher, and received pushes as the leader. The three-time Cup Series champion feels it’s the best time to work through the checklist, since it’s not guaranteed there will be as many cars on the track during practice for it to be beneficial.

He came away from the experience surprised by what he saw with the draft.

“I don’t know what’s different to make the whole field that way,” Logano said. “It could be everyone being more aggressive setup-wise, coming from qualifying. It could be a little tire change that maybe no one really recognizes or sees. I don’t know. It’s interesting to see the whole field like that, though.”

Elliott was impressed by how Carson Hocevar raced him in their duel, but doesn't expect those manners to hold for the 500. James Gilbert/Getty Images

Chase Elliott won the second qualifying race. When informed of what Logano had said, Elliott acknowledged, “I could see it, for sure.” The Hendrick Motorsports driver agreed that the cars seemed unstable.

“Even in those closing laps when Carson [Hocevar] was giving me some of those big shoves, I thought he was doing it really well,” Elliott said. “He was pushing me in the right places and the right times and honestly, he was getting me out of shape in places I wasn’t really expecting to be on edge, especially at night. I could see that. I could see the cars being out of control.

“I think it’s fine, but what happens is you get to pulling a group around there really fast in a single line and then you get late race and guys start making moves, and it seems like the more this place ages, the more room you need to run a fast pace. You can’t be locked to the bottom and stay there. I’d say that’s probably what he’s alluding to a little bit, needing some room to spread out, and unfortunately, when it gets late in the race, nobody is willing to give that. That’s where the problems typically come in.”

There were four multi-car wrecks in last year’s Daytona 500, which involved 25 different drivers. In 2024, there were two multi-car wrecks that involved more than 20 drivers.