NASCAR

These 4 NASCAR Cup Series Drivers Stand Out As Contenders To Win Today’s Daytona 500

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Jared Turner
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Jared Turner Sports Editor

Jared Turner is a motorsports writer who has covered NASCAR for 20 years. He has interviewed over 20 NASCAR Hall of Famers and around 100 drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners, both past and present. He has also covered the sport for FOX Sports (where he was a two-time recipient of the FOX “X” Award for “Xtraordinary” job performance), NASCAR.com, Sporting News, NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, the SPEED network, and plenty of other online and print-only publications throughout his career. Notably, Jared has penned dozens of articles for NASCAR souvenir programs, including several featured prominently in Daytona 500 keepsakes. A Virginia Press Association award winner and former member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Jared has racked up accolades both for his writing and his academic work. He studied both Communication and Psychology at Virginia Tech, where he was permanently enshrined in Phi Beta Kappa — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Jared excels at feature writing and opinion writing, much of which stems from his dedication to all levels of racing.

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Published16 Feb 2025

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Bubba Wallace leads NASCAR Cup Series pack in Daytona 500 Duel qualifier.

The day is finally here. It’s time for the Daytona 500 and the official start of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

After four consecutive days of on-track activities at Daytona International Speedway, a quartet of drivers stands tall above the rest as the group with the best opportunity to prevail in Sunday’s 67th installment of The Great American Race.

Let’s quickly break down the big four, one by one, before the green flag waves on NASCAR’s biggest event.

1. Chase Briscoe

Making his debut with Joe Gibbs Racing, Briscoe will start from the pole after leading all qualifiers with a lap of 182.745 mph in his No. 19 Toyota. Before being tabbed by team owner Joe Gibbs to fill Martin Truex Jr.’s old seat at JGR, Briscoe spent his first four seasons of NASCAR Cup Series competition with Stewart-Haas Racing.

While competing for the Tony Stewart co-owned organization, which ceased operations at the end of 2024, Briscoe won two races and made the same number of playoff appearances. Although starting position doesn’t mean as much at Daytona as it does at most tracks, winning the pole for the sport’s most prestigious race certainly bodes well for Briscoe and his attempts to come out of the gate swinging with his new team.

Briscoe’s pole-winning run was also one for the history books, as he became the first Toyota driver to grab the top starting spot for the Daytona 500.

“A great way to start our season,” Briscoe said. “Unbelievable way to start off the year. Unbelievable way to start off with Toyota. To be able to be the guy to deliver them the first anything, when they’ve already accomplished so much, is pretty cool.”

2. Austin Cindric

No one has flexed more muscle this week at Daytona than Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Ford for Team Penske. The 2022 Daytona 500 winner qualified on the outside of Row 1 alongside Briscoe, then promptly went out and claimed his Duel qualifying race in a photo finish with Erik Jones.

Considering that Cindric had already locked up the second starting spot for the main event, he had no good reason to take any risks in his qualifying race. In spite of that, Cindric secured the win and with it proved he has a real shot to make it two Daytona 500 triumphs in four years.

Even so, Cindric is in no way ready to declare himself a favorite to win this Daytona 500.

“I have some really strong competitors. Certainly, I have to respect that,” he said. “The execution, the ups and downs of a 500-mile race you’re going to have to go through, the changes in the race track, all those factors play at large. Certainly looking forward to the race, but past success does not equal future success in this scenario.”

3. Bubba Wallace

A two-time Daytona 500 runner-up, Wallace has been a man on a mission this week at the fabled, high-banked 2.5-mile speedway built by the late NASCAR founder William H.G. “Big Bill’’ France.

After clocking in second quickest in Wednesday’s opening Daytona 500 practice, Wallace won his Duel qualifier on Thursday night in decisive fashion by leading 21 of the 60 laps in his No. 23 Toyota.

The outcome left Wallace feeling optimistic that, after finishing second in the 2018 and 2022 Daytona 500, this weekend might finally be his time to break through.

“I think you have to crawl before you walk,’’ said Wallace, whose Toyota is co-owned by three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan. “Second-place finishes, I guess, wasn’t crawling enough, so maybe the Duel win is. Now we can put ourselves in a little bit better spot. I feel like we’ve done just about everything right, but ‘just about everything’ I don’t think is good enough to win the 500.

“It’s got to be perfect. So, we just have to really focus on how to do that and, when that time comes, be in the same spot here on Sunday.’’

4. William Byron

The defending race winner has enjoyed an all-around solid few days at The World Center of Racing, where he hopes to become just the fifth driver in 67 years to earn back-to-back triumphs in the Daytona 500. The most recent driver to score consecutive wins in the 500 was Hamlin, who did so in 2019 and 2020. Before that, no one had captured two Daytona 500s in a row since Sterling Marlin in 1994 and 1995.

Byron finished second to Wallace in his Duel qualifier, which he led twice for a total of four laps out front. Byron, who will start the Daytona 500 from Row 3, posted the fastest lap in a rain-shortened NASCAR Cup Series practice at Daytona on Friday.

Understandably, the Hendrick Motorsports driver likes his chances of becoming a repeat Daytona 500 winner — even if history suggests the deck is stacked against that happening.

“My car feels faster and more comfortable than I’ve probably ever had here,” said Byron, one of four Hendrick Motorsports drivers in the race. “That’s just teamwork — working on the things we need to have a good handling car and fast car. That’s just been years in the making, really. So far, so good.

“We’re kind of checking all the boxes that we’ve tried to check coming here. It feels great. You never know how the race is going to play out, but I have really good vibes for Sunday.”