| NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DAYTONA 500 TEAM CHEVY POST-DUELS REPORT FEBRUARY 12, 2026 |
| MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
| Team Chevy Unofficial Duel #1 ResultsPos. Driver3rd – Austin Dillon6th – Shane van Gisbergen7th – Daniel Suarez10th – Alex Bowman11th – Cole Custer17th – Cody Ware18th – Kyle Busch20th – AJ Allmendinger21st – Ross Chastain22nd – William Byron |
| Duel #1: Post-Race Driver QuotesAustin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Finished: 3rd“Everyone at RCR and ECR Engines did a great job in the offseason. Our Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Chevrolet was fast tonight. The new Chevy Camaro has shown some speed for sure, and it’s nice to be able to shove a line. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to fight those Penske guys up there, and that was kind of fun tonight. We can work on some stuff to help me when getting pushed, but past that, really happy with the speed. The biggest thing for Sunday is to execute. I have to sharpen up some moves but it’s nice to have the feeling that you can go out there and play offense.” Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 6th“We obviously didn’t qualify as well as we would have liked. We missed it a little bit. But once the race started, our No. 97 SuperFile Chevy was really nice. We were just patient at the start; saving fuel and riding in the back being safe. Once we were ready to go, I could creep up the pack quite nicely. It was really fun to be competitive and put ourselves in a good spot. We got close to a couple of wrecks, but missed them. We had a good pit stop and it worked out really well. It’s a good starting spot for Sunday.” Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing ChevroletFinished: 17th “Just really proud of this team. We had a really fast No. 51 Jacob Construction Chevrolet for the DAYTONA 500 on Sunday. I got to really have my first race on a full-size track in a Chevrolet, so to be out there, know the horsepower and the speed, it was great. The car feels like it’s drafting really well, so I feel like we have all the pieces of the puzzle to go have a phenomenal Sunday afternoon.” Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Finished: 18th “Thanks to the hard work of everyone at RCR and ECR we brought an extremely fast No. 8 zone Jalapeno Lime Chevrolet to Daytona and I’ll start the 500 on the pole for the first time in my career. While we didn’t get the finish in the Duels we wanted, we finished with a clean car and are ready to go chase a win that’s eluded me in 20 prior starts.” Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 21stChastain on how the new Chevy body felt: “I got pushed really well. Chandler (Smith) pushed me early in the race, and yeah, it was better than in the past. I don’t know if that’s our rear tail or if he was just taking care of me, but I felt good. We were all saving fuel during the first stint, and then when we went hard, I felt competitive around people. I got pushed better than I probably remember, but that’s also the first time I’ve been pushed in five-six months, so it’s been awhile.” What happened there at the end? “I don’t know. I just saw a car spinning and somebody ran into the back of me a couple of times. I was just slowing down and I got turned.” Did you learn anything that you feel like will help you on Sunday? “Not really, nothing crazy. The No. 1 Busch Light Chevy drove good. It seemed like it burnt through the tires evenly through that first fuel run.” AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing ChevroletFinished: 20th“It just looked like Corey (LaJoie) just got touched, nothing malicious. It looked like whoever was behind him, maybe the No. 7 (Daniel Suarez), was trying to push him and it just turned Corey straight up into me. I just happened to be the lucky guy that was right next to him when it happened. I thought I almost had it saved up on the banking, but when the banking caught it, it spun me back down. I don’t know how much damage is on the car. I didn’t really get hit a lot. Maybe the splitter is going to have to be redone, but we’ll see. Unfortunately, I got hit right at the end in the back of the car that did some damage. Just tried to play it smart and be there at the end, like usual, but it’s just kind of the way it’s going here.” William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 22ndByron on the incident that ended the No. 24 team’s night early in Duel #1: “I felt like I was in a good spot and moving forward in the middle. The No. 23 (Bubba Wallace) got squirrely on the bottom. It looked like he kind of saved it, I’m not exactly sure. And then, whoever was next to me, hit me in the left rear. I kind of straightened it out against the wall, and then they hit me again and I spun. It’s just a bummer. We’ve won this race with a backup car, so I’m not super worried on that aspect. But it does suck that you put a lot of work into the primary and you don’t get to race it. Maybe we will, who knows. In front of the left rear tire, it was pretty hurt, so I don’t know if that’s fixable. But we’ll see. It just stinks to start in the back and not get the points tonight, but we’ll just move on and get ready for Sunday.” Did you learn anything on the new Chevy body? “I didn’t really push or get pushed as much as I would have liked to. Honestly, it looked like a lot of the cars were just super unstable getting pushed. I noticed that from the beginning. It just seemed like guys were moving around a lot. My car felt fine, but yeah, I never got a chance to get up there and control it.” |
| Team Chevy Unofficial Duel #2 ResultsPos. Driver1st – Chase Elliott2nd – Carson Hocevar3rd – Kyle Larson4th – Michael McDowell7th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 15th – Connor Zilisch16th – Ty Dillon18th – Anthony Alfredo19th – BJ McLeod21st – Justin Allgaier22nd – JJ Yeley |
| Duel #2: Post-Race Driver QuotesChase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 1stChase, you said you wanted to get after it in this Duel. New body, feel it out. What is your opinion of it?“A great way to get the blood pumping for sure on a Thursday night. There was a lot going on those last handful, really ever since we came off of pit road after the cycle, we were getting after it. It was a lot of fun. Had some great support there. Carson did a great job helping me control those lanes, helping get Team Chevy for Victory Lane tonight. Certainly, owe him an appreciation for just kind of sticking with it, also pushing me well. It’s real easy to get people out of control. So, appreciate that and its nice to get the NAPA Chevy a win. Not a 500. I’ve been here before and not the other one, so you have to kind of learn to take it a day at a time. Look, a great way to start the speed week for our team. Really proud of our effort, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, the boss, from top to bottom. Their commitment and will to win, is pretty darn high. Proud to be a part of their team. Good night. Looking forward to Sunday.” How does getting this win, knowing how your team executed, set you guys up for Sunday, trying to win your first Daytona 500?“Yeah, it’s been a little bit of a rocky road. We’ve had a couple close opportunities. Fortunately, we’ve won this race here tonight before, like I said. I’m excited, but I’m also kind of cautiously realizing what Sunday brings. Obviously, that’s the big prize we all want. Certainly, will enjoy tonight and we’ll think about what we can do to do better. Definitely some things we can improve on before Sunday. The track is going to deteriorate. It’s going to be a bit warmer, sunshine being out. A lot to think about between now and then, but appreciate effort. We’ll be ready to come to work come Sunday.” Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 2nd“First of all, it’s great to see the Hendrick Engine Shop go one-two-three, and then I had a Spire Motorsports teammate (Michael McDowell) try to push me to the win. It was just a great execution by us. We got nine points and that’s very important for us. We wanted eight and we got nine, so we overachieved on this No. 77 team. Our Spectrum Chevy was really good. I would have loved to have won, but it’s only a one-point difference and the DAYTONA 500 pays a lot more.” Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com ChevroletFinished: 3rd“We were just kind of saving fuel the majority of that first run there. I think we were just kind of pacing off each other, and then the two in front of me were probably pacing off of me. We had the pace really slow. I kind of fell back further than I wanted to be during the green-flag cycle, but our pit crew did a great job. Our gas man did a great job to get us efficiently through our pit stop to still leap frog a lot of the guys we pitted with. And then, yeah, it got crazy there for a while. I’m not really sure how we ended up shaking out into third in line there, but was happy when it finally got single file. I knew it would be difficult to get to the lead. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I just wanted to be ready to be able make a move.” Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 4th“I learned that our No. 71 Modo Casino Chevrolet was fast. Those Spire Chevy’s were very fast. I was hoping that I could push Carson (Hocevar) there to the win. I know it’s just the Duel, but it’s fun to get a trophy. There are a few things I think we can make better, but overall, the car drove really well and it pushed well. Everybody at the Hendrick Engine Shop did a great job. There were four Chevy’s up front there. It was a little tricky because obviously the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) was trying to get a run and I knew his run could possibly jeopardize Carson not getting there, but we had four Chevy’s up front and we were able to control it and not let the Toyota’s get around us. I felt like we did a good job with the execution.” Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 15th “I don’t think I made the most of what I had. I was running probably fifth or sixth in line on the top, and when I got down, I just didn’t get the pushes I needed to make the lane go. But overall, we ran up front and I felt everything I wanted to. I did what I came here to accomplish. We get to race this car on Sunday, so I’m excited for it with his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet team and everybody that makes this happen. I’m glad I got to run upfront. I think I led a lap or two. I ran at the back and ran at the front. I saved fuel, so I checked a lot of boxes tonight, which is what I wanted to do. Although the result isn’t quite what we wanted, Sunday is a long race.” Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing ChevroletFinished: 16th “I felt like our No. 10 Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevy was strong. It handled pretty well and it pushed well. We did everything we could. Just with our pit cycle, we kind of came out in the back end of our group and almost the draft there. We were kind of fighting from behind at that point. I had a big run and tried to make something happen and get some spots, but it just didn’t fall through. The first superspeedway with everybody is good to shake-off the rust. I felt like we did things well, and we have a car in one piece to make better for the DAYTONA 500.” Anthony Alfredo, No. 62 Beard Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 18th “I definitely don’t love being in that position. Making it in on time is a lot easier, but this is the third time and it’s really cool. My first race ever and I was sitting right there. My career has had its ups and downs, and you never know when you are going to get another shot to race on any Sunday, especially the Daytona 500 the Great American Race. So, I have all my family here, my baby girl Everleigh. I think I have only been chocked up this much in my life, when she was born and qualify for the Daytona 500. It wouldn’t be possible without Beard Motorsports, it’s just a tremendous family and the only women-owned NASCAR team carrying on with a dream of Mark Beard Sr.’s legacy. And Dude Wipes, I wouldn’t be where I am at in my career without them. They have been my flagship partner in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and we have done some Cup races together and excelled, but to come here and to make the Daytona 500 together, it’s a dream come true. Missing it last year has haunted me until this very moment. This is the only thing that could blow that black cloud over.” |
| NASCAR CUP SERIESDAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAYDAYTONA 500TEAM CHEVY POST-DUELS REPORTFEBRUARY 12, 2026 |
| MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
| Team Chevy Unofficial Duel #1 ResultsPos. Driver3rd – Austin Dillon6th – Shane van Gisbergen7th – Daniel Suarez10th – Alex Bowman11th – Cole Custer17th – Cody Ware18th – Kyle Busch20th – AJ Allmendinger21st – Ross Chastain22nd – William Byron |
| Duel #1: Post-Race Driver QuotesAustin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Finished: 3rd“Everyone at RCR and ECR Engines did a great job in the offseason. Our Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Chevrolet was fast tonight. The new Chevy Camaro has shown some speed for sure, and it’s nice to be able to shove a line. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to fight those Penske guys up there, and that was kind of fun tonight. We can work on some stuff to help me when getting pushed, but past that, really happy with the speed. The biggest thing for Sunday is to execute. I have to sharpen up some moves but it’s nice to have the feeling that you can go out there and play offense.” Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 6th“We obviously didn’t qualify as well as we would have liked. We missed it a little bit. But once the race started, our No. 97 SuperFile Chevy was really nice. We were just patient at the start; saving fuel and riding in the back being safe. Once we were ready to go, I could creep up the pack quite nicely. It was really fun to be competitive and put ourselves in a good spot. We got close to a couple of wrecks, but missed them. We had a good pit stop and it worked out really well. It’s a good starting spot for Sunday.” Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing ChevroletFinished: 17th “Just really proud of this team. We had a really fast No. 51 Jacob Construction Chevrolet for the DAYTONA 500 on Sunday. I got to really have my first race on a full-size track in a Chevrolet, so to be out there, know the horsepower and the speed, it was great. The car feels like it’s drafting really well, so I feel like we have all the pieces of the puzzle to go have a phenomenal Sunday afternoon.” Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Finished: 18th “Thanks to the hard work of everyone at RCR and ECR we brought an extremely fast No. 8 zone Jalapeno Lime Chevrolet to Daytona and I’ll start the 500 on the pole for the first time in my career. While we didn’t get the finish in the Duels we wanted, we finished with a clean car and are ready to go chase a win that’s eluded me in 20 prior starts.” Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 21stChastain on how the new Chevy body felt: “I got pushed really well. Chandler (Smith) pushed me early in the race, and yeah, it was better than in the past. I don’t know if that’s our rear tail or if he was just taking care of me, but I felt good. We were all saving fuel during the first stint, and then when we went hard, I felt competitive around people. I got pushed better than I probably remember, but that’s also the first time I’ve been pushed in five-six months, so it’s been awhile.” What happened there at the end? “I don’t know. I just saw a car spinning and somebody ran into the back of me a couple of times. I was just slowing down and I got turned.” Did you learn anything that you feel like will help you on Sunday? “Not really, nothing crazy. The No. 1 Busch Light Chevy drove good. It seemed like it burnt through the tires evenly through that first fuel run.” AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing ChevroletFinished: 20th“It just looked like Corey (LaJoie) just got touched, nothing malicious. It looked like whoever was behind him, maybe the No. 7 (Daniel Suarez), was trying to push him and it just turned Corey straight up into me. I just happened to be the lucky guy that was right next to him when it happened. I thought I almost had it saved up on the banking, but when the banking caught it, it spun me back down. I don’t know how much damage is on the car. I didn’t really get hit a lot. Maybe the splitter is going to have to be redone, but we’ll see. Unfortunately, I got hit right at the end in the back of the car that did some damage. Just tried to play it smart and be there at the end, like usual, but it’s just kind of the way it’s going here.” William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 22ndByron on the incident that ended the No. 24 team’s night early in Duel #1: “I felt like I was in a good spot and moving forward in the middle. The No. 23 (Bubba Wallace) got squirrely on the bottom. It looked like he kind of saved it, I’m not exactly sure. And then, whoever was next to me, hit me in the left rear. I kind of straightened it out against the wall, and then they hit me again and I spun. It’s just a bummer. We’ve won this race with a backup car, so I’m not super worried on that aspect. But it does suck that you put a lot of work into the primary and you don’t get to race it. Maybe we will, who knows. In front of the left rear tire, it was pretty hurt, so I don’t know if that’s fixable. But we’ll see. It just stinks to start in the back and not get the points tonight, but we’ll just move on and get ready for Sunday.” Did you learn anything on the new Chevy body? “I didn’t really push or get pushed as much as I would have liked to. Honestly, it looked like a lot of the cars were just super unstable getting pushed. I noticed that from the beginning. It just seemed like guys were moving around a lot. My car felt fine, but yeah, I never got a chance to get up there and control it.” |
| Team Chevy Unofficial Duel #2 ResultsPos. Driver1st – Chase Elliott2nd – Carson Hocevar3rd – Kyle Larson4th – Michael McDowell7th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 15th – Connor Zilisch16th – Ty Dillon18th – Anthony Alfredo19th – BJ McLeod21st – Justin Allgaier22nd – JJ Yeley |
| Duel #2: Post-Race Driver QuotesChase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 1stChase, you said you wanted to get after it in this Duel. New body, feel it out. What is your opinion of it?“A great way to get the blood pumping for sure on a Thursday night. There was a lot going on those last handful, really ever since we came off of pit road after the cycle, we were getting after it. It was a lot of fun. Had some great support there. Carson did a great job helping me control those lanes, helping get Team Chevy for Victory Lane tonight. Certainly, owe him an appreciation for just kind of sticking with it, also pushing me well. It’s real easy to get people out of control. So, appreciate that and its nice to get the NAPA Chevy a win. Not a 500. I’ve been here before and not the other one, so you have to kind of learn to take it a day at a time. Look, a great way to start the speed week for our team. Really proud of our effort, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, the boss, from top to bottom. Their commitment and will to win, is pretty darn high. Proud to be a part of their team. Good night. Looking forward to Sunday.” How does getting this win, knowing how your team executed, set you guys up for Sunday, trying to win your first Daytona 500?“Yeah, it’s been a little bit of a rocky road. We’ve had a couple close opportunities. Fortunately, we’ve won this race here tonight before, like I said. I’m excited, but I’m also kind of cautiously realizing what Sunday brings. Obviously, that’s the big prize we all want. Certainly, will enjoy tonight and we’ll think about what we can do to do better. Definitely some things we can improve on before Sunday. The track is going to deteriorate. It’s going to be a bit warmer, sunshine being out. A lot to think about between now and then, but appreciate effort. We’ll be ready to come to work come Sunday.” Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 2nd“First of all, it’s great to see the Hendrick Engine Shop go one-two-three, and then I had a Spire Motorsports teammate (Michael McDowell) try to push me to the win. It was just a great execution by us. We got nine points and that’s very important for us. We wanted eight and we got nine, so we overachieved on this No. 77 team. Our Spectrum Chevy was really good. I would have loved to have won, but it’s only a one-point difference and the DAYTONA 500 pays a lot more.” Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com ChevroletFinished: 3rd“We were just kind of saving fuel the majority of that first run there. I think we were just kind of pacing off each other, and then the two in front of me were probably pacing off of me. We had the pace really slow. I kind of fell back further than I wanted to be during the green-flag cycle, but our pit crew did a great job. Our gas man did a great job to get us efficiently through our pit stop to still leap frog a lot of the guys we pitted with. And then, yeah, it got crazy there for a while. I’m not really sure how we ended up shaking out into third in line there, but was happy when it finally got single file. I knew it would be difficult to get to the lead. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I just wanted to be ready to be able make a move.” Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 4th“I learned that our No. 71 Modo Casino Chevrolet was fast. Those Spire Chevy’s were very fast. I was hoping that I could push Carson (Hocevar) there to the win. I know it’s just the Duel, but it’s fun to get a trophy. There are a few things I think we can make better, but overall, the car drove really well and it pushed well. Everybody at the Hendrick Engine Shop did a great job. There were four Chevy’s up front there. It was a little tricky because obviously the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) was trying to get a run and I knew his run could possibly jeopardize Carson not getting there, but we had four Chevy’s up front and we were able to control it and not let the Toyota’s get around us. I felt like we did a good job with the execution.” Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 15th “I don’t think I made the most of what I had. I was running probably fifth or sixth in line on the top, and when I got down, I just didn’t get the pushes I needed to make the lane go. But overall, we ran up front and I felt everything I wanted to. I did what I came here to accomplish. We get to race this car on Sunday, so I’m excited for it with his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet team and everybody that makes this happen. I’m glad I got to run upfront. I think I led a lap or two. I ran at the back and ran at the front. I saved fuel, so I checked a lot of boxes tonight, which is what I wanted to do. Although the result isn’t quite what we wanted, Sunday is a long race.” Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing ChevroletFinished: 16th “I felt like our No. 10 Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevy was strong. It handled pretty well and it pushed well. We did everything we could. Just with our pit cycle, we kind of came out in the back end of our group and almost the draft there. We were kind of fighting from behind at that point. I had a big run and tried to make something happen and get some spots, but it just didn’t fall through. The first superspeedway with everybody is good to shake-off the rust. I felt like we did things well, and we have a car in one piece to make better for the DAYTONA 500.” Anthony Alfredo, No. 62 Beard Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 18th “I definitely don’t love being in that position. Making it in on time is a lot easier, but this is the third time and it’s really cool. My first race ever and I was sitting right there. My career has had its ups and downs, and you never know when you are going to get another shot to race on any Sunday, especially the Daytona 500 the Great American Race. So, I have all my family here, my baby girl Everleigh. I think I have only been chocked up this much in my life, when she was born and qualify for the Daytona 500. It wouldn’t be possible without Beard Motorsports, it’s just a tremendous family and the only women-owned NASCAR team carrying on with a dream of Mark Beard Sr.’s legacy. And Dude Wipes, I wouldn’t be where I am at in my career without them. They have been my flagship partner in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and we have done some Cup races together and excelled, but to come here and to make the Daytona 500 together, it’s a dream come true. Missing it last year has haunted me until this very moment. This is the only thing that could blow that black cloud over.” |