DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ross Chastain of Alma, Florida gave the home-state fans reason to cheer as the Trackhouse Racing driver won Stage 2 of Sunday’s 65th Daytona 500.
Chastain was the leader with one lap to go in Stage 2 in front of Joey Logano and alongside Alex Bowman.
The two drivers were side-by-side for most of the 130 laps before Chastain was able to win the stage by less than one foot.
Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Logano was third followed by Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Austin Cindric, Martin Truex Jr., William Byron, A.J. Allmendinger, Christopher Bell, and Chris Buescher.
Those drivers all received stage points.
Keselowski, the leader at the end of Stage 1, led much of the first portion of the second stage. The RFK Racing driver was also in front of the field on lap 100 – the halfway point of the race.
It was 118 laps of green flag racing except for the yellow flag to end Stage 1, before the first caution period for a crash.
And it was a big one in turn four.
It started when Kevin Harvick’s Ford got into the back of Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota. Then, Ryan Blaney lost control of his No. 12 Ford and chaos ensued.
Other drivers involved in that crash included Daniel Suarez, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson, and Kyle Busch.
Ross Chastain was able to drive his No. 1 Trackhouse Chevrolet through the crash without damage.
During pit stops on lap 122, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson was nailed by NASCAR Race Control for speeding on pit road. He was assessed a drive through penalty when the race returned to green. He was running 13th.
B.J. McLeod was also caught speeding on pit road.
Bubba Wallace was able to get back on the lead Lap as the “Lucky Dog” – the first driver one lap down.
There were 32 lead changes in the first 123 laps, more lead changes than four of the last Daytona 500s in those entire races.
The green flag waved on Lap 125 with Logano leading the field ahead of Truex, Chastain, Bowman, Stenhouse and Allmendinger.
Keselowski was the leader at the end of Stage One on Lap 65.