The 2016 Daytona 500, the 58th running of the event, was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on February 21, 2016, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Contested over 200 laps on the asphalt superspeedway, it was the first race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Denny Hamlin won the race in a photo finish over Martin Truex Jr. The top-five was rounded out by Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards.
Chase Elliott won the pole for the race and led three laps before crashing out early in the race and finished 37th. Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kyle Busch won the Duel races. Unlike Busch, Earnhardt Jr. crashed out with 29 laps to go and finished 36th.
Hamlin led a race-high of 95 laps on his way to winning the race. There were six caution flag periods for 31 laps and 20 lead changes among 15 different drivers. It was a largely clean race that did not result in the Big One happening, nor did it result in a last-lap accident, a relatively rare occurrence for superspeedway races to not feature such in that era.
This was the 27th career victory for Hamlin, first of the season, first at Daytona International Speedway and fifth win at the track for Joe Gibbs Racing. He left Daytona Beach with a five-point lead over Truex Jr. Toyota left with an eight-point lead over Chevrolet in the manufacturer standings.
The Daytona 500 was carried by Fox Sports on the broadcast Fox network for the American television audience. The radio broadcast for the race was carried by the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
This event featured guest star WWE wrestler John Cena as a pace car driver.
This was the first Daytona 500 since 1992 and 1998 not featuring 3-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart on the starting grid. Gordon retired at the end of 2015 and called the 2016 race from the commentators to stand, and Stewart injured his back while riding a dune buggy outside San Diego. Also, this was the last Daytona 500 starts for Bobby Labonte, Robert Richardson Jr., Michael Annett, Brian Vickers, HScott Motorsports, and Carl Edwards.
Report
Background
Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, that is one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the others being Auto Club Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway. The standard track at Daytona is a four-turn superspeedway that is long. The track also features two other layouts that utilize portions of the primary high speed tri-oval, such as a sports car course and a motorcycle course. The track's infield includes the Lake Lloyd, which has hosted powerboat racing. The speedway is owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation.
The track was built to host racing that was being held by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. at the former Daytona Beach Road Course and opened with the first Daytona 500 in 1959. The speedway has been renovated three times, with the infield renovated in 2004, and the track repaved in 1978 and 2010.
The Daytona 500 is regarded as the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar. It is also the series' first race of the year; this phenomenon is virtually unique in sports, which tend to have championships or other major events at the end of the season rather than the start. Since 1995, U.S. television ratings for the Daytona 500 have been the highest for any auto race of the year, surpassing the traditional leader, the Indianapolis 500 which in turn greatly surpasses the Daytona 500 in in-track attendance and international viewing. The 2006 Daytona 500 attracted the sixth largest average live global TV audience of any sporting event that year with 20 million viewers.
Changes
Restrictor plate For the events of Speedweeks, the size of the holes in the restrictor plates was reduced from 29/32nd of an inch to 57/64th of an inch.
Race procedure Changes were made to the green-white-checker procedure for this race and all races in 2016 with an "overtime line". The location of this line will vary from track to track, but it'll be located near the middle of the backstretch at most tracks. If the leader passes the line before a caution comes out, the race will end under caution. If a caution comes out before the leader passes the line, the field will be reset to their original spots and another restart will be attempted until a "clean restart" is achieved. These changes are in response to the botched final restart attempt in last October's 2015 CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega at Talladega Superspeedway.
Entry list The entry list for the Daytona 500 was released on Friday, February 12, at 12:05 p.m. Eastern time. Forty-four cars were entered for the race.
Following the 2015 Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, a number of drivers attempted to run for a different team than they did in 2015. Chase Elliott, 2014 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion and son of 1988 Cup Series champion Bill Elliott, took over the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from the retired Jeff Gordon. Clint Bowyer took over the No. 15 (renumbered from No. 51) from Justin Allgaier. Brian Scott took over the No. 44 (renumbered from No. 9) from Sam Hornish Jr. Chris Buescher, reigning Xfinity Series champion, took over the No. 34 from Brett Moffitt and various of drivers. Landon Cassill took over the No. 38 from David Gilliland. David Ragan took over the No. 23 from Jeb Burton, and J. J. Yeley. Regan Smith took over the No. 7 from Alex Bowman. Brian Vickers drove the No. 14 in place of the injured Tony Stewart.
Driver Team Manufacturer 1 Jamie McMurray (W) Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 4 Kevin Harvick (W) Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 6 Trevor Bayne (W) Roush Fenway Racing Ford 7 Regan Smith Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 10 Danica Patrick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 13 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 14 Brian Vickers Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 15 Clint Bowyer HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 20 Matt Kenseth (W) Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 21 Ryan Blaney (R) Wood Brothers Racing Ford 22 Joey Logano (W) Team Penske Ford 23 David Ragan BK Racing Toyota 24 Chase Elliott (R) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 26 Robert Richardson Jr. BK Racing Toyota 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 30 Josh Wise The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 31 Ryan Newman (W) Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 32 Bobby Labonte Go FAS Racing Ford 34 Chris Buescher (R) Front Row Motorsports Ford 35 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 38 Landon Cassill Front Row Motorsports Ford 40 Reed Sorenson Hillman Racing Chevrolet 41 Kurt Busch Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 44 Brian Scott (R) Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 48 Jimmie Johnson (W) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 59 Michael McDowell Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 83 Michael Waltrip (W) BK Racing Toyota 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (W) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 93 Matt DiBenedetto BK Racing Toyota 95 Ty Dillon (i) Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet 98 Cole Whitt Premium Motorsports ToyotaOfficial initial entry listOfficial final entry list
Practice
First practice (February 13) Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 46.364 seconds and a speed of .
Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 46.364 194.116 2 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 46.427 193.853 3 20 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 46.444 193.782Official first practice results
Second practice (February 13) Joey Logano was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 45.934 seconds and a speed of .
Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 45.934 195.933 2 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 45.954 195.848 3 21 Ryan Blaney (R) Wood Brothers Racing Ford 45.966 195.797Official second practice results
Qualifying
Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is different from any other race weekend because the starting lineup for the race – except for the two drivers that post the two fastest timed laps in the final round of qualifying – isn't set on qualifying day. It sets the lineup for the two duel races the following Thursday.
Unlike qualifying at non-restrictor plate races, qualifying at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway consists of two rounds of cars being sent out one at a time to make a single timed lap. The fastest 12 advance to the final round to run for the pole position.
Chase Elliott scored the pole for the race with a time of 45.845 and a speed of . Elliott became the 6th rookie to win the pole for the Daytona 500 joining Loy Allen Jr. (1994), Jimmie Johnson (2002), David Gilliland (2007), Danica Patrick (2013), and Austin Dillon (2014). He said that today was "a very, very cool day. I don’t know that this opportunity has sunk in yet, much less sitting on the pole for the Daytona 500. I think the big thing is just the team and the Daytona 500 qualifying is about the team guys and the effort they put into these cars and it’s nothing special I did, it’s really what kind of work they did this off-season to make it happen."
After qualifying seventh and being all but guaranteed into the Daytona 500 based on speed, Ryan Blaney said that he "wasn't really too nervous going into today. I knew we had a really fast race car. We just had to do our job and we did it and we just had to lock ourselves in. I really wasn't feeling any different than I do any other day."
Likewise, Matt DiBenedetto – who was also all but guaranteed in on his speed after qualifying 24th – said that he could "sleep well, finally. I was really nervous all night. This is just a testament to the hard work from the guys on my team. Two-hundredths of a second. I'm really thankful, thankful to be racing in my first Daytona 500, most importantly. I'm really thankful and blessed to be here."
Martin Truex Jr. was unable to post a time over a roof flap issue. The Stewart Haas Racing cars of Kevin Harvick and Brian Vickers had their times disqualified after their track bars failed inspection.
Qualifying results