Anthony Alfredo disqualified, removed from Daytona 500…

Anthony Alfredo's Daytona 500 dream has come to a bitter end. After racing his way into the 2026 season-opener, his No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet failed post-race inspection.

Alfredo finished 18th in Duel #2, besting both BJ McLeod and JJ Yeley to race his way into the 500. He failed to qualify for the race in 2025, and was extremely emotional over the prospect of competing in NASCAR's biggest race for just the third time in his career.

Instead, he will be going home alongside Corey LaJoie (RFK Racing), Chandler Smith (Front Row Motorsports), and Yeley (NY Racing Team).

McLeod's No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet was then inspected and passed, so he will take Alfredo place on the grid. As long as all goes well in his own post-race inspection, this will be McLeod's sixth start in the Daytona 500 and his first since 2023. He failed to qualify for the race in both 2024 and 2025.

NASCAR explains the issue

NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran visited the Media Center to explain what went wrong with the No. 62 car.

"First of all, unfortunate to be here," began Moran. "Any small open team, we don't like to have these problems but we do have to do our jobs and make sure there is parity amongst the field and also parity amongst people making the 500.

"During inspection, we noticed this hose, which is a transmission cooling, transaxle cooling hose. It comes off at the right side quarter window and it's supposed to go into the transaxle cooler. It needs to be air tight and fastened. We make rules as you all know that no parts can fall off the car, for obvious reasons. We don't say what the intent is but these parts have to be fastened properly and unfortunately this one piece wasn't on the right side. There was also another hose disconnected for driver cooling which affects air flow for superspeedway. We all know the importance of that."

In regards to how this issue was not caught before the Duel qualifying races, Moran added: "First of all, every car is inspected. We do safety inspections. We check the insides of the cars, the outside, we checked the windows, the tightness, the flaps. So this certainly wasn't sitting on the passenger floor when the car went through inspection. As far as, 'do we know how it came off.' No, we do know that after the 500 mile race and like every other 500 mile race -- or for that matter, any race -- any car that goes through our inspection, all hoses are checked, brake hoses are checked, transaxle hoses are checked, driver cooling hoses are checked. And if anything is found like this during the season, it would be a DQ in the race. So, we've been consistent with that and we always will because there are some reasons why something like this could come loose or fall off."

Alfredo and team will not be allowed to appeal the penalty, as the Duels are considered part of qualifying and not a traditional race. Moran explained that because the event is treated as part of qualifying, the rules around it are like an in-race penalty -- so no appeals allowed.

"It would be kind of similar to unfortunately, (Noah Gragson) the other day during qualifying. So it would take away the time and all of our qualifying races are considered qualifying per our rule book."

Alfredo and team react to the news

Heartbroken is an understatement 💔 pic.twitter.com/oIupjOPsKX
— Anthony Alfredo (@anthonyalfredo) February 13, 2026

In addition to the video statement provided by Alfredo, Beard Motorsports had this to say regarding their exclusion from the final results:

"We are proud of our team and the work they put into this NASCAR program," said the Beard family. "Our intent is to make races, content for wins and race with integrity. We will review what happened and work to make sure we do not have these issues in the future. We are heartbroken for our entire team, our wonderful partners and Anthony and his sweet family."