JF: NASCAR Can Truly Say 'Hell Yeah!' About How Daytona Went

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For a sanctioning body marred by controversy, tragedy and misfortune over the last couple of seasons, NASCAR finally had something to say "Hell Yeah!" about in its official opening week at Daytona.

NASCAR ended the 2025 season with a champion feeling "sad" for one of his competitors. Meanwhile, in another series, a young gun sat in near-hopeless despair over a format dealing him a second-place points finish after an all-time great season.

When the offseason hit, the teams' lawsuit against NASCAR ramped up to a trial that exposed the ugly underbody of the sport and deeply betrayed trust.

Even when things seemed to be better, such as when the lawsuit ended with a settlement, it wasn't long until tragedy struck. Even Christmas couldn't provide a long reprieve before yet another tragedy struck.

Then, just as NASCAR was turning a corner in the new year with a well-received Chase format and Charlotte going back to the oval for the fall race, bizarre winter weather caused a four-day delay for the first weekend of racing.

Still, even a long delay to unofficially start the season couldn't hold NASCAR back from ramping up on its "Hell Yeah!" campaign that reached a fever pitch with a Super Bowl spot featuring Kyle Larson doing burnouts around his wife, Carson Hocevar's Dale Earnhardt truck, fast cars, "Free Bird" and everything you'd need to build hype for a new season.

At Daytona, that hype could be felt – and it became real quickly.

Following in the footsteps of Dale Earnhardt a couple of generations before him, Kyle Busch seemed to be headed toward his own breakthrough moment when he claimed the pole for the Daytona 500 in his No. 8 Chevrolet.

Then, Casey Mears seemingly recreated a scene out of "Days of Thunder" that allowed him to experience the thrill of making the Daytona 500.

Meanwhile, Anthony Alfredo felt the agony of surprise defeat from a post-race disqualification that took him out of the Daytona 500 and put BJ McLeod in.

Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series field was stacked with a NASCAR Cup Series champion and a world-renowned action sports star both returning to Daytona to face Truck regulars, current Cup drivers – and a social media phenom taking another step in his NASCAR journey with a legion of fans the sport has welcomed warmly. It can even be argued his fanbase may be the inspiration for the "Hell Yeah!" campaign.

Despite the biggest headliners falling apart before the finish, the race raged on with few big crashes or reckless moves that have often plagued previous editions. Ultimately, it came down to NASCAR letting one of the best Daytona Truck races playing out naturally with an exciting finish and a new lead change record.

By this point, everything went off without a hitch and Saturday was no different but inclement weather threatened Daytona 500 Sunday.

However, fate dealt NASCAR a good hand.

A decision to move the race an hour earlier gave the field a chance to run a torrid pace that Tyler Reddick led to the checkered flag. For the first time in three years and just the third time in the 2020s, bad weather stayed away from the Daytona 500 and came an hour after the checkered flag.

Ratings have yet to be released but NASCAR said Sunday there were 150,000 people "on the property" for the race. On the surface, that is comparable to numbers seen 15 years ago and highlights how NASCAR's in-person success in the face of certain uncertainties surrounding the sport.

In the crowd, you could see a new type of fan who raised hell, praised Dale and quoted "Talladega Nights" with a shirt that lost its sleeves quicker than Chase Elliott lost the lead in the final few hundreds hard of the 500. The Cleetus McFarland-watching type who sees Greg Biffle as a deity and Carson Hocevar as the exciting, disrupter-type driver they can relate to and cheer for as he inches closer to victory lane in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Coincidentally, it was Hocevar who had a chance at breaking through until a bad bump sent him spinning from the lead in turn one on the last lap.

Heartbreak for Hocevar set up a symbolic end to the weekend, where the winners' cars belonged to:

Michael Jordan himself even showed millions of people his handshake with NASCAR CEO Jim France was not a one-time thing on the courtroom steps.

All weekend, no one had to think about the complexities of overtime, races ending under caution or the yellow line rule. It was all about the racing.

In fact, if you thought there was more green flag racing to go around at Daytona, you were right. Speedweek's three official NASCAR races had a total of 18 cautions, the fewest total number of cautions since 17 in 2016.

Excluding stage cautions, there were a total of 15 cautions in those three races -- the fewest ever in the last 20 years.

Plus, each race ended under green for the first time since 2019 and rain didn't affect on-track activity for the first time since 2018.

NASCAR still has work to do. In the eyes of drivers and fans alike, the superspeedway package could still use some changes to let the drivers focus more on making moves in the pack to win and less on saving fuel. We also have to wait to see how the format will play out and how people will take to it.

The important thing is, the potential is there – in stark contrast to what people felt leaving Phoenix, going through the process of the lawsuit and nervously anticipating the 2026 championship format.

A strong start to build momentum for the season is everything in NASCAR and has led to great seasons before, like in 2011.

For now, NASCAR can take some solace in washing away a year of tough off-track stories with a grand opening weekend of on-and-off-track action that mostly everyone could really, truly say, "Hell Yeah!" about.