Duel shows why anything is possible in the Daytona 500

Just like everyone predicted, BJ McLeod Motorsports and Garage 66 made it into the Daytona 500 over cars fielded by RFK Racing, Front Row Motorsports and a Richard Childress Racing affiliate.

In the words of Casey Mears, driving the Garage66 for Carl Long, anything can happen at Daytona.

It’s the reason McLeod and Mears signed up to drive figurative knives to a figurative gunfight. When everyone is in the draft, with the potential of missing a 20-car melee, there’s a non-zero chance for even underdogs to The Great American Race.

“I think when it comes to the superspeedways and places like Daytona, absolutely,” Mears said. “I can't tell you throughout my career, I've been with some of the best teams and I've been with some of the smallest programs, and nothing surprises me here.

“You come here sometimes with a big team and think you've done everything right in the off-season, you qualify 25th. I came here with a really small team in 2019 and we locked our way in the show on speed.

“This is just one of those places where there's enough random things that happen and stuff that happens that's out of your control. Sometimes you're on the right side of it and sometimes you're not. Fortunately today we were on the right side.”

It certainly didn’t look that way when he spun in the grass during his pit stop and lost a lap. He caught one lucky break during the next caution and then another one when Corey Lajoie and Chandler Smith both crashed ahead of him.

He sank his right foot as deep as it would go into the pedal and was scored as the transfer when the race-ending caution came out.

BJ McLeod’s situation was even more dire. The checkered flag waived and he was eliminated from the Great American Race. Anthony Alfredo had raced his way in and that was that until NASCAR took a look at the car during post-race inspection.

There, it was found that he had two cooling hoses (transaxle and driver) not fully secured and was disqualified. Thus, McLeod is in the race, because anything can happen at Daytona.

“I hate that for them,” McLeod told FOX Sports. “Anthony and Linda, they’re awesome people. I congratulated them the moment we stopped on pit road. I was so happy for them getting in the race.

“That’s a hard deal but in 2024, we had the car we needed to beat a lap down and easily could have rode around but ended up racing and got in a wreck. You never know, because these duels are crazy, and I absolutely love them and that’s why I keep coming back and trying.”

It’s the reason why Alfredo was on the verge of tears making a race for the third time, but for the first time through the duels one year after he failed to advance through them, only to lose it in inspection.

Theoretically, the same thing could happen on Sunday. Maybe Mears and McLeod make it through the big multi-car crashes and end up racing for second. Maybe that hypothetical leader fails inspection.

Maybe they get the right push and end up in the lead after the white flag and a caution ends the race. It’s the Daytona 500 where anything can happen.

“I think we've seen that in the past,” Mears said. “I think if you're in the show, you have a shot.”