NASCAR News: Austin Cindric wins Daytona 500 Qualifier 2
Austin Cindric driving the No. 2 Penske Ford won the 2nd 150-mile Qualifying Race for the 2025 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in a photo finish.
–by Mark Cipolloni–
Jones driving the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club was 2nd. He was first across the finish line by 0.004s, but the caution came out just before the finish and Cindric was a nose ahead at that point.
A big wreck coming to the checkered flag wiped out most of the field. Over half the field slid across the finish line, wrecking.
What a finish at @DAYTONA!@AustinCindric was the leader at the time of caution, and he wins Duel 2. pic.twitter.com/0ALbdkaqXd
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 14, 2025
Chris Buescher, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano rounded out the top five.
Corey LaJoie, Todd Gilliland, Ryan Blaney, John Hunter Nemechek and Christopher Bell rounded out the top 10.
With 12 laps to go Daniel Suárez spun off the front bumper of Alex Bowman which also collected Brad Keselowski. All three drivers took their cars to the garage.
Austin Cindric Quotes
We just made the run through the infield to get to Austin. Austin, said, well, what just happened? Erik thought he was the winner, but you are officially the winner. You get your first Duel race win.
AUSTIN CINDRIC: I feel bad for Erik having to go all the way over there. They made a great move on the last lap there. Joey and I were sitting ducks with the middle lane fading there.
No, obviously, we had really fast Discount Tire Ford Mustang. Super proud of my team and everyone to go out here and execute. Thank you to Brian for letting me race. It was very difficult to maybe persuade that, but it was his birthday. This is a good birthday present for him.
Overall, proud of everybody at Team Penske getting lined up there, the execution of the cycle there. It’s cool, but there’s still a lot to go for the race. I feel so bad he had to drive all the way over there. That’s terrible.
Are you and Joey good? I saw you guys discussing just what transpired there.
AUSTIN CINDRIC: Oh, yeah. We were just talking about how we could do it better. The next thing, these stage-like scenarios are going to keep coming up. You want to execute as best as possible. Joey and I worked super well together that whole run pretty much, the start of the race all the way to the pit cycle to coming off on the green flag stop. Joey is a pro, and happy to have a guy like that behind me.
Watch this. Look at how close this is.
AUSTIN CINDRIC: I honestly thought I got him, but I wasn’t going to sit there and argue about anything. But, yeah, it’s awesome. Glad to put on a great show for the fans here, and looking forward to — oh, caution. These are the things I don’t know. You have to educate me. But, no, awesome. Awesome result for everyone on the 2 car, and looking forward to starting in the front row.
2025 Daytona 500 Duel Race 2 Results
| Fin | Str | No. | Driver | Team | Led | Laps | Status |
| 1 | 1 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Discount Tire Ford | 5 | 60 | Running |
| 2 | 18 | 43 | Erik Jones | AdventHealth Toyota | 16 | 60 | Running |
| 3 | 9 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Fastenal Ford | 9 | 60 | Running |
| 4 | 3 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | National Debt Relief Toyota | 14 | 60 | Running |
| 5 | 2 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 6 | 17 | 1 | * Corey LaJoie | Take 5 Oil Change/DuraMax Ford | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 7 | 7 | 34 | Todd Gilliland | Love’s Travel Stops Ford | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 8 | 10 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Menards/Peak Ford | 5 | 60 | Running |
| 9 | 19 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | Dollar Tree Toyota | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 10 | 4 | 20 | Christopher Bell | DEWALT/Interstate Batteries Toyota | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 11 | 5 | 5 | Kyle Larson | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 12 | 13 | 35 | Riley Herbst # | Monster Energy/Zero Sugar Toyota | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 13 | 20 | 62 | * Anthony Alfredo(i) | Fortify Building Solutions Chevrolet | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 14 | 15 | 88 | Shane Van Gisbergen # | WeatherTech Chevrolet | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 15 | 22 | 51 | Cody Ware | Parts Plus/Jacob Construction Ford | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 16 | 16 | 41 | Cole Custer | HaasTooling.com Ford | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 17 | 21 | 78 | * BJ McLeod | HitchGo Chevrolet | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 18 | 11 | 4 | Noah Gragson | Rush Truck Centers Ford | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 19 | 14 | 84 | * Jimmie Johnson | Carvana Toyota | 0 | 60 | Running |
| 20 | 8 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Kroger/Cottonelle Ford | 2 | 48 | Accident |
| 21 | 12 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Freeway Insurance Chevrolet | 9 | 47 | Accident |
| 22 | 6 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Ally Chevrolet | 0 | 47 | Accident |
DAYTONA 500 STARTING LINEUP
| POS | CAR | DRIVER | HOW SPOT WAS DETERMINED |
| 1 | No. 19 Toyota | Chase Briscoe | Busch Light Pole winner |
| 2 | No. 2 Ford | Austin Cindric | Second fastest in qualifying |
| 3 | No. 23 Toyota | Bubba Wallace | Duel No. 1 results |
| 4 | No. 43 Toyota | Erik Jones | Duel No. 2 results |
| 5 | No. 24 Chevrolet | William Byron | Duel No. 1 results |
| 6 | No. 17 Ford | Chris Buescher | Duel No. 2 results |
| 7 | No. 10 Chevrolet | Ty Dillon | Duel No. 1 results |
| 8 | No. 11 Toyota | Denny Hamlin | Duel No. 2 results |
| 9 | No. 1 Chevrolet | Ross Chastain | Duel No. 1 results |
| 10 | No. 22 Ford | Joey Logano | Duel No. 2 results |
| 11 | No. 45 Toyota | Tyler Reddick | Duel No. 1 results |
| 12 | No. 01 Ford | Corey LaJoie* | Duel No. 2 results |
| 13 | No. 16 Chevrolet | AJ Allmendinger | Duel No. 1 results |
| 14 | No. 34 Ford | Todd Gilliland | Duel No. 2 results |
| 15 | No. 3 Chevrolet | Austin Dillon | Duel No. 1 results |
| 16 | No. 12 Ford | Ryan Blaney | Duel No. 2 results |
| 17 | No. 9 Chevrolet | Chase Elliott | Duel No. 1 results |
| 18 | No. 42 Toyota | John Hunter Nemechek | Duel No. 2 results |
| 19 | No. 40 Chevrolet | Justin Allgaier* | Duel No. 1 results |
| 20 | No. 20 Toyota | Christopher Bell | Duel No. 2 results |
| 21 | No. 8 Chevrolet | Kyle Busch | Duel No. 1 results |
| 22 | No. 5 Chevrolet | Kyle Larson | Duel No. 2 results |
| 23 | No. 54 Toyota | Ty Gibbs | Duel No. 1 results |
| 24 | No. 35 Toyota | Riley Herbst | Duel No. 2 results |
| 25 | No. 71 Chevrolet | Michael McDowell | Duel No. 1 results |
| 26 | No. 88 Chevrolet | Shane Van Gisbergen | Duel No. 2 results |
| 27 | No. 60 Ford | Ryan Preece | Duel No. 1 results |
| 28 | No. 51 Ford | Cody Ware | Duel No. 2 results |
| 29 | No. 21 Ford | Josh Berry | Duel No. 1 results |
| 30 | No. 41 Ford | Cole Custer | Duel No. 2 results |
| 31 | No. 47 Chevrolet | Ricky Stenhouse Jr | Duel No. 1 results |
| 32 | No. 4 Ford | Noah Gragson | Duel No. 2 results |
| 33 | No. 77 Chevrolet | Carson Hocevar | Duel No. 1 results |
| 34 | No. 6 Ford | Brad Keselowski | Duel No. 2 results |
| 35 | No. 7 Chevrolet | Justin Haley | Duel No. 1 results |
| 36 | No. 99 Chevrolet | Daniel Suárez | Duel No. 2 results |
| 37 | No. 38 Ford | Zane Smith | Duel No. 1 results |
| 38 | No. 48 Chevrolet | Alex Bowman | Duel No. 2 results |
| 39 | No. 56 Toyota | Martin Truex Jr.* | Qualifying speed |
| 40 | No. 84 Toyota | Jimmie Johnson* | Qualifying speed |
| 41 | No. 91 Chevrolet | Helio Castroneves* | Open Exemption Provisional |
* denotes Open, non-Charter team