The 65th running of the Daytona 500 was won by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who started the race near the back.

The race only had eight caution periods including the two for the end of the first two stages. Brad Keselowski won stage one and Ross Chastain won stage two. However, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t any excitement.

The lead of the race was exchanged 52 times among 21 drivers. Among the six cautions for cause on the track, there were four that were multicar incidents. The #99 car spun on the second to last lap of the race sending the event into NASCAR Overtime for a Green-White-Checkered finish.

The “big one” happened during the first attempt at the Green-White-Checkered finish. There were 13 cars involved in a crash in turn three before the leader could take the white flag. That meant there would be a second attempt at the overtime ending.

The final caution came on the white flag lap of that second Green-White-Checkered finish. By NASCAR rule that flag ended the race and the car in the lead at the moment of caution would be the winner.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had battled his way to the front of the field after starting in 31st position. He was challenging for the win in both overtime attempts. The video showed that he was in the lead when the yellow was issued on that final lap making him the winner of the race.

This is Ricky’s third career win inn the Cup Series. He has won two races at Daytona International Speedway, the 2017 Coke Zero 400 and now the Daytona 500. His other win was also on a superspeedway. He won the 2017 GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. The 2023 Daytona 500 win all but guarantees him a spot in the 2023 NASCAR Playoffs.

You can see the complete race results for the 2023 Daytona 500 here. You can check out the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series standings here.

Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway in California Sunday, February 26th.

By: Buck Stevens