Justin Allgaier, Corey LaJoie secure Daytona 500 spots

Earning the the final two transfer spots in the 60-lap Duels at Daytona Thursday night, Justin Allgaier and Corey LaJoie locked up the final two open spots for the 67th Daytona 500 Sunday.

Allgaier finished ninth in the first duel race — ahead of fellow open drivers Martin Truex Jr., J.J. Yeley, Chandler Smith, and Helio Castroneves — to lock up his first Daytona 500 start since 2015, and the debut of JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) told me before the race – if it’s meant to be, it will happen, and it did,” Allgaier said.

“Just really proud. This might seem like not that big of a deal to a lot of people, but when I think about our small team at JR Motorsports – as big as it is, it really is a small family team. To see this happen tonight, it takes a lot of weight off my shoulders.”

Allgaier will start the Daytona 500 17th.

J.J. Yeley, who finished 17th, has now missed the Daytona 500 in his last four attempts (2020, 2022, 2024, and 2025).

Smith and Castroneves were collected in a lap 15 crash, ending their bid to qualify for The Great American Race via the top open car. 

However, Castroneves is guaranteed a starting spot thanks to NASCAR’s new open provisional for “world-class drivers” introduced this year. Smith is now 0-for-2 in his attempts to qualify for the Daytona 500.

In the second duel race, Corey LaJoie’s sixth-place finish was good enough to outdo Anthony Alfredo, B.J. McLeod, and Jimmie Johnson to race in his ninth consecutive and overall Daytona 500.

“You almost take this race for granted when it’s just one of the 36, right, when every single one of your goals for the course of the year is a yearlong goal,” LaJoie said. “…But I wasn’t really wearing that much stress, but I can tell you I’m wearing a lot of relief right now just because I know how hard those guys work over at RWR.”

Alfredo and McLeod missed out on making the season opener with their 13th and 17th-place respective finishes. Alfredo had qualified for the Daytona 500 last year with the Beard Motorsports camp while McLeod has missed making the race for two consecutive seasons.

The Daytona 500 is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 16 at 2:30 p.m. ET (FOX, Motor Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Ch. 90).