By David Morgan, Associate Editor
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The starting grid for the 67th running of the Daytona 500 is now complete.
With the final starting positions up for grabs in Thursday’s Duels at Daytona, Justin Allgaier and Corey LaJoie were the two open cars that would come away with those coveted spots on the grid for Sunday.
Allgaier secured his spot in the Daytona 500 with a charge to a ninth-place finish in the first Duel race to post the best finish among the open cars and pave his way into the Great American Race.
After falling to the tail end of the field in his Duel race, Allgaier had to make some magic happen over the final laps to punch his ticket to Sunday and did just that. He powered his No. 40 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to the top lane and with a little help was able to climb up the running order to finish ahead of J.J. Yeley to give JRM its first Cup start and first appearance in the Daytona 500.
“The emotions right now are really just because of how much everybody here has wanted it, Dale and Kelley and L.W. and everybody at JR Motorsports,” Allgaier said as he embraced team owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr. after the race.
“This guy right here, his hands — his hands — we get to race on Sunday. His lip was quivering and his hands were shaking before the race. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that out of Dale Jr. He told me before the race, he said, I’m nervous. I don’t want to make you nervous, but I’m really nervous.
“It’s the truth. This means a lot to our team, this little team of JR Motorsports. Dale Jr. is an amazing race car driver. He’s an amazing dad, car owner. You can tell how much he wanted this and our whole shop wanted this.
“To see this happen, everybody at Traveler Whiskey, Chris Stapleton will be here on Sunday. I’m excited to see him here and debut this car in the Daytona 500 and JR Motorsports in the Daytona 500. There were so many faces on this car that it worked to make this car happen that this is the first-ever real experience in the Cup Series. We had a lot of veterans as well. Greg Ives was pretty hard on himself last night after qualifying was over.
“Just really proud of everybody on this Team Chevy and Hendrick engine shop, everybody that’s a part of this. We get to go race the Daytona 500. It’s pretty special. I’ve been here before, Xfinity Series champion, all this stuff. This one means more than I could ever imagine. It’s going to be really fun.”
Earnhardt could not wipe the smile off his face, exchanging hugs and high-fives with Allgaier and the entire JRM crew as they celebrated a monumental moment for the organization, turning the dream of making a start in the Daytona 500 with the team that bears his name into a reality.
What the Daytona 500 means to us. pic.twitter.com/3ADgMbAhW7
— JR Motorsports (@JRMotorsports) February 14, 2025
“Man, we have kind of tried to downplay how badly we want to race in the Cup Series. At least I have,” Earnhardt said.
“It’s like one of them things where you are like, man, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I’m not going to make it drag down all the other great things happening in my world, but man, we got here, and we got a taste of it. Holy moly, yesterday was so disappointing. I didn’t know exactly how badly I wanted to do this or wanted to be a part of something like this until we started going through it.
“Yesterday was just so tough to understand something as simple as just being 8,000ths too slow. It was really hard to understand and hard to accept.
“I’ve just been sitting here all day thinking about how badly I wanted this for all of us, and we asked Justin to go on this journey with us. And he as the driver has to shoulder a lot of the pressure and more pressure than anyone. Greg Ives agreed to do this with us, and he has had to handle so much pressure to try to put this thing in the field. I wanted it for everybody that was feeling all of that.
“Kelley said we race, we love to race, and racing is hard, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This was rough emotionally, but damn it, it’s fun when it works out.”
As Allgaier clawed his way forward over the course of those final laps, Earnhardt noted that he was trying to will his driver to the front, imagining himself in the driver’s seat and the moves he thought would get Allgaier in position to transfer on.
“Justin is driving the car. He makes the choices. I told him before the race, you’re going to do things on instinct and not think. You’re just going to do, and that’s how you race here,” Earnhardt explained.
“But there were some moments where I’m, like, Man, if he could just push, the Truex is at the top, 44 at the bottom. They’re kind of neck and neck there for a while. We’re right behind them. Just commit to the 56. Just push the 56 by the 44, and we’re good.
“Justin is, like, No, I’m going to fucking win this thing. I’m going to the top. I was, like, all right.”
LaJoie Stacks Pennies to 500 Ride
In the second Duel race, which was not as dramatic (aside from an awkward caution call at the finish) as the first saw Corey LaJoie leave no doubts with a fifth-place finish to secure his place in the 500 on Sunday.
LaJoie, who is driving a part-time Cup schedule this season with Rick Ware Racing, noted after locking into Sunday’s race that he had put up his own money to secure his ride with RWR before a sponsor came along to adorn his Ford for Speedweeks.
He punched his ticket to the Great American Race. #DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/rjW1SEvXlx
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 14, 2025
“I can’t say enough about the RWR guys and Take 5 and DuraMax for coming on last minute,”LaJoie explained.
“I fronted the money to Rick Ware in January to make sure nobody else got this car because I believe that much in him and this group. Luckily for me, DuraMax and Take 5 came in and took me off the financial hook.
“When you have to race your way in, you appreciate the event. You appreciate how hard it is. You appreciate the attention it gets. To earn one of those four open spots is really special. You take it for granted when you show up and you know you are racing.
“It is a different feeling for me driving my motorhome down here with eight hours of windshield time wondering when I am going to be driving the motorhome back, Friday morning or Monday morning? I was never planning for it to be Friday.”
Castroneves to Take Open Exemption Provisional
Helio Castroneves was among the open cars that could have secured a place in the Daytona 500 field based on his finish in the Duels, but just 15 laps into Duel No. 1, his chances to race into the 500 came to a crashing halt.
After Chandler Smith and Justin Haley tangled in Turn 2, Castroneves caught a piece of that incident, but the real damage to his No. 91 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet came as he was trying to limp his damaged car back to pit road as he caught the edge of the apron, which in turn shot his car back up the hill and into the outside wall.
The heavy impact was more than enough to bring his night to an early end as he climbed from his battered machine unscathed.
While he would not race into the Daytona 500, Castroneves had an ace in his pocket courtesy of the Open Exemption Provisional, who granted him a place in Sunday’s field regardless of whether he qualified in or not. As such, the field will expand to 41 cars for the first time since 2015 and he will start shotgun on the field.
Though his team won’t be able to accumulate points or any winnings, Castroneves is in the 500 for his first NASCAR Cup Series start.
“In one of the wrecks, I got hit and ended up hitting the wall in turn two pretty hard and broke a toe link,” Castroneves said.
“I should have actually just brought it in slower. We went really fast trying to fix the car, and then obviously when I hit the banking, the car just snapped to the right. It’s disappointing because the No. 91 Wendy’s Chevy was really good. The boys on the PROJECT91 team did an amazing job. They have a little bit of work to do, unfortunately. It wasn’t the night that we wanted, but we’ll take the provisional. So many people have been talking about it, but we will take it and we will learn more for the race.”
Prior to the incident that ended his night, Castroneves commented on how much fun he was having mixing it up in the pack, learning what he could for Sunday.
“There are so many little things that people don’t realize behind the TV and even the grandstands. There’s so much going on,” he added.
“It’s actually incredible. The way the package is, it’s impressive. There was a lot to learn… no question about it. There was a lot of movement in the car; a lot of air flow and a lot of brake-checking that you need to be aware of. But as long as you hold steady, it’s pretty good. I wish we could have kept it going.”
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