Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Motorsport

Sport

Inside Daytona 500's big crash, from the drivers' point of view

Denny Hamlin Austin Cindric Cole Custer Chase Briscoe Daytona (Facility) Daytona 500 Riley Herbst William Byron Alex Bowman Corey LaJoie

Denny Hamlin was on the cusp of a historic fourth victory in the Daytona 500. Austin Cindric had a chance to secure his second Harley J. Earl trophy in the last four years. Chase Briscoe and Cole Custer were fighting for what would have been the biggest win of their careers. And Corey LaJoie was within reach of an upset that would have stunned the NASCAR world.

Except, suddenly, all five drivers crashed with just half a lap remaining, allowing William Byron to steal the victory out from under them. Race-defining wrecks are a motif of the modern Daytona 500, with the last six all ending in calamity. Both 2020 and 2022 saw a wreck across the line, while 2021, 2023, and 2024 all ended under caution following wrecks near the front of the field.

But 2025 was unique in that all eight drivers in the first four rows of a white flag restart (thanks to a two-lap overtime) ended up involved in an incident during the final 2.5 miles of the race.

So what actually happened in the crash that decide the Daytona 500? Here's what it looked like from the inside, according to the drivers involved.

The crash: a refresher

Whether the Daytona 500 is more of a chess match or a blackjack hand is hard to say, but the crash that took out the race's main contenders made it seem more like a boxing match. Whatever the plan, you're going to get hit.

What we do know: At the white flag, Cindric led, with the Toyotas of Hamlin and Riley Herbst directly behind him, and Custer to his outside. Behind Custer in the outside line, in order, were Alex Bowman, Briscoe, and Byron.

A whole lot of shuffling started when Herbst slid off the grass and LaJoie jumped into his spot. Bowman also fell back as he tried to form a third line. Cindric failed to hold back a charging Hamlin, who pulled to his outside -- but the real mess started when Custer came down the track after being hung out three-wide, colliding with Briscoe and slamming into the side of Hamlin's machine. Custer and Hamlin wrecked up the track as LaJoie spun to the inside. The mess collected plenty of other cars and involved most of the race leaders.

Briscoe and Cindric were fortunate enough to straighten their cars back out, finishing fourth and eighth, respectively. But Hamlin, Custer, and LaJoie all placed outside the top-20.

Byron and Tyler Reddick made the wise — or maybe just lucky — decision to move up along the outside wall. They stayed safe, and claimed a 1-2 finish.

Hamlin: Custer "steered left and was trying to crowd"

After the race, Hamlin discussed the situation with Custer on pit road before speaking to the media.

"I measured up the 2 [Cindric], and got a run on him," explained Hamlin as he offered his perspective. "I stayed with him long enough where I could kind of control which side I wanted to pass him on, and then we had pulled away from the pack slightly, so I knew a run was going to come. The 41 [Custer] had a run, and I chose not to block him, because these races, you have to live to make it off of Turn 4, and we just didn’t.

"I thought the [Custer] came down. I’m pushing [Cindric] down as low as I can to give him all of the space, and not stopping his run, and I thought he, not hung a left, but steered left and was trying to crowd it. I understand what he was trying to go for -- he’s going for it, all of us are — but you know, in those situations, you’ve gotta do it off of (Turn) 4. Then we can we do this. But we never made it -- and someone else won. I don’t even know where he was running.”

Custer: "Everybody is just going for it"

Custer, returning to the Cup Series in 2025 after two years in the Xfinity Series, said it was a case of "everybody just pushing hard and side drafting hard."

"Everybody is going for it. This is the biggest race of our lives here in Daytona. It’s the pinnacle of our sport. I had a huge run on the 11 [Hamlin]. I wish I waited one more corner, but it was such a big run that I just felt like I had to take it. The 19 [Briscoe] went with [Hamlin], and then we were kind of hung out, and it just didn’t work out there at the end."

Cindric: "Whoever was pushing Denny...wrecked him"

For the second consecutive year, Austin Cindric found himself with a legitimate shot at the win only to get wrecked on the final lap. The word "frustration" was at on the tip of his tongue.

"You’re taking the white as the leader. I felt like I executed all the restarts the right way — and really that whole third stage. I didn’t get wrecked out of the lead this time, so that was cool. But it still doesn’t make it feel any better."

On that final lap, Cindric said: "Denny wanted to take his run right away and I still got a good shot from the 01 [Lajoie]. Whoever was pushing Denny clearly wrecked him. There was just a ton of momentum, with the field getting broken up [after Herbst's spin]. I didn’t really know at what point of the lap I needed to actually be the leader. It’s just frustrating to be that close.”

Briscoe: "I'm going to push Denny to the win"

Briscoe, caught in the middle of a last-lap squeeze, had a front-row seat to the race-changing pileup.

"They all split off kind of three-wide, and the 11 [Hamlin] car was just sitting there for me," he said.

At that point, the Daytona 500 pole-sitter had just one thought in his first race as a Joe Gibbs Racing driver:

"I was like, ‘I’m going to push Denny to the win. JGR is going to win with my first race here.' When I hit him, we all came together -- I haven’t seen it yet -- and somehow I was able to keep it straight, and obviously move forward."