2020 Daytona 500

The 2020 Daytona 500 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on February 16-17, 2020. The race lasted 209 laps on the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) asphalt superspeedway. However, the race was originally going to be 200 laps. It was the first race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.

The race was started by President of the United States Donald Trump, who served as Grand Marshal, and the opening lap was paced by the official Presidential state car. Popular wrestler Sheamus drove the pace car for the opening laps. Two-time winner of the race Dale Earnhardt Jr. waved the green flag to officially start the race.

The race was to start February 16, but never-ending rain showers stopped the race on lap 20. The race was moved 4 p.m. on February 17, 2020. This being the second, he first time was in 2012.

Lots of the race was good until lap 185, a crash involved at least 20 cars on the backstretch. The race was stopped because of the crash. Denny Hamlin won the race by 0.014 seconds over Ryan Blaney on the second restart in overtime. Chris Buescher, David Ragan, and Kevin Harvick rdid not make it in the top five. On the final lap, Ryan Newman was involved in a serious crash and was immediately rushed to a local hospital. He was seriously injured in the crash, but the injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Race

Stage Results

Stage One Laps: 65

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	10
2	88	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	9
3	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	8
4	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	7
5	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	6
6	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	5
7	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	4
8	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	3
9	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	2
10	13	Ty Dillon	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	1
Official stage one results

Stage Two Laps: 65

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	10
2	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	9
3	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daughtery Racing	Chevrolet	8
4	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	7
5	77	Ross Chastain (i)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	0
6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	5
7	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	4
8	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	3
9	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	2
10	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	1
Official stage two results

Final Stage Results

Stage Three Laps: 70

Pos	Grid	No	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	21	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	209	50
2	27	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	209	43
3	19	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	209	37
4	30	36	David Ragan	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	209	33
5	10	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	209	32
6	29	14	Clint Bowyer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	209	31
7	39	62	Brendan Gaughan (i)	Beard Motorsports	Chevrolet	209	0
8	38	32	Corey LaJoie	Go Fas Racing	Ford	209	29
9	7	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	209	28
10	8	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	209	27
11	23	38	John Hunter Nemechek (R)	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	209	26
12	13	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	209	25
13	33	16	Justin Haley (i)	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	209	0
14	26	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	209	23
15	11	43	Bubba Wallace	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	209	22
16	34	15	Brennan Poole (R)	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	209	21
17	25	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	209	34
18	14	20	Erik Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	208	19
19	16	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	207	21
20	1	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	206	29
21	17	95	Christopher Bell (R)	Leavine Family Racing	Toyota	205	16
22	5	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	205	23
23	37	51	Joey Gase (i)	Petty Ware Racing	Chevrolet	203	0
24	2	88	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	203	22
25	20	77	Ross Chastain (i)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	201	0
26	3	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	200	20
27	32	66	Timmy Hill (i)	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	200	0
28	22	8	Tyler Reddick (R)	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	199	9
29	31	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	198	8
30	24	13	Ty Dillon	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	198	8
31	40	27	Reed Sorenson	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	192	6
32	15	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	186	12
33	18	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Toyota	184	4
34	28	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	184	12
35	6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	184	13
36	9	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	183	1
37	12	41	Cole Custer (R)	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	174	1
38	38	52	B. J. McLeod (i)	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	105	0
39	35	00	Quin Houff (R)	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	89	1
40	4	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	58	1
Official race results

Race statistics

• Lead changes: 23 among 13 different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 9 for 39
• Red flags: 3 (1 for weather, 2 for accidents)
• Time of race: 3 hours, 42 minutes and 10 seconds
• Margin of Victory: 0.014 seconds
• Average speed: 141.11 miles per hour (227.09 km/h)

Post-race

Right after the race was done, Hamlin and his crew did not know how serious Newman's crash. Instead, they started to celebrate the win, When he exited his car, the crowd booed him both on the infield grass and again in victory lane. Joe Gibbs gave an apology for the team's celebration, with Hamlin saying he was first notified when NASCAR canceled the tradition of interviewing the winner on the front-stretch before driving his car to victory lane

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Denny Hamlin	50
	2	Ryan Blaney	43 (–7)
	3	Kevin Harvick	39 (–11)
	4	Chris Buescher	38 (–12)
	5	Ryan Newman	36 (–14)
	6	Kyle Larson	35 (–15)
	7	Chase Elliott	34 (–16)
	8	David Ragan	33 (–17)
	9	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	32 (–18)
	10	Aric Almirola	32 (–18)
	11	Clint Bowyer	31 (–19)
	12	Austin Dillon	30 (–20)
	13	Joey Logano	30 (–20)
	14	Corey LaJoie	29 (–21)
	15	Bubba Wallace	28 (–22)
	16	John Hunter Nemechek	26 (–24)
Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings

	Pos	Manufacturer	Points
	1	Toyota	40
	2	Ford	35 (–5)
	3	Chevrolet	30 (–10)

• Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.