Summer Daytona Race Heartbreaking For NASCAR Chevy Teams: Video

There were 40 lead changes at Daytona on August 24^th, 2024, putting the NASCAR Chevy teams in a good position to win as the race drew to a close. Unfortunately, The Bow Tie left the superspeedway disappointed after a last-lap pass put a Ford in Victory Lane and a Chevy in the runner-up position.

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 8 Chevy Camaro ZL1, took the bottom lane on the Overtime restart alongside the No. 20 Toyota TRD Camry of Christopher Bell. Bell dropped behind Busch on the green flag, but got loose, stalling his run and allowing the No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse of Harrison Burton to get a huge run on Busch. Busch swerved across the track, searching for any advantage over Burton, but fell just short as Burton went on to win by less than half a second.

“I mean, you’re wide open. You’re just doing everything you can,” Busch after the race. “You’re relying on everything happening behind you and unfortunately, the 20 [Bell], something happened off of [Turn 2] where he got squirreled up and wasn’t to my rear bumper, and then he was below the yellow line, and I don’t know what was going on. Completely killed the bottom lane and the outside just rolled and once we got to Turn 4, there just wasn’t enough energy with enough cars from behind me. I was relying on my own draft to try to pass the 21 and that happens so slow.”

Busch admitted that he had the opportunity to dump Burton out of the lead, but he couldn’t bring himself to race dirty.

“Besides wrecking him [Burton], nothing to do in that situation,” he said. “I could have jumped up in front of the 21 and probably taken that, but I don’t know that he would have kept straight on me. I had more trust in the 20 there being a better ally, but didn’t work out.”

Parker Retzlaff, in his second Cup Series start, brought the No. 62 Camaro across the line in seventh. Daniel Hemric’s No. 31 Camaro finished ninth.

Other NASCAR Chevy teams suffered incidents. Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott were swept into wrecks that relegated them to finishes outside the top 20, while Shane van Gisbergen’s first start in the Cup Series at Daytona ended when the engine in his No. 16 Camaro went nuclear, forcing his early retirement from the race after just 80 laps.

# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver

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