Cindric claims Daytona 500 by inches

Austin Cindric became the second-youngest driver in history to win the Daytona 500 at 23 years old when he won NASCAR’s biggest race on Sunday in his No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang.

Cindric was able to accomplish this milestone in his rookie season in the NASCAR Cup Series.

This is the second straight win in the Daytona 500 for Ford and it’s also their fourth win in the last five restrictor-plate races (Daytona and Talladega).

With the win, Cindric leads the points standings with 54 points and automatically locks himself into the playoffs. This win also awards five playoff points to him which for those that might not be too familiar, playoff points are used to seed the drivers in the playoffs.

The next race is scheduled to take place at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California on Sunday, Feb. 27 at 12:30 p.m. PST and can be seen on Fox nationwide.

“It means the world to me,” Cindric said. “To be able to sit here and say that I’m a Daytona 500 winner.”

Cindric just barely beat out Bubba Wallace who picked up his second runner up finish in the Daytona 500.

Wallace was one of the few Toyota drivers in the running at the end of the race.

Kyle Busch finished sixth, Martin Truex Jr. finished 12th, Wallace’s teammate Kurt Busch finished 19th, Christopher Bell finished 34th after being involved in an earlier accident and Wallace’s team owner Denny Hamlin was scored 37th and did not finish the race after being involved in a wreck near the end of Stage 1 to round out the finishing positions of the Toyota drivers.

“I was happy with the first second place we got a couple years ago,” Wallace said. “This one sucks when you’re that close but all in all, I’m happy for my team and our partners. Onto California.”

This race felt more like redemption than anything. Not so much for Cindric but more for his team owner, Roger Penske.

If fans recall back to last year, there was a last lap battle between Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski in the 2021 Daytona 500.

Both drivers were racing for Penske at the time and both crashed on the last lap which gave the win to Michael McDowell of Front Row Motorsports.

The highest finishing Chevrolet driver was Chase Elliott who brought his No. 9 Napa Auto Parts Camaro home in 10th.

Truex Jr. was able to win the first two stages of the race which awarded him two playoff points and 49 total points for his Bass Pro Shops No. 19 Toyota Camry team.