The Daytona 500 ended a few days ago (Sunday). The new way of how the races go now and have been for a while since COVID is that the races now are broken up into 3 stages the top 10 drivers get stage points, 1st place gets 10 points, 2nd gets 9 points, 3rd gets 8 points, 4th gets 7 points, 5th get 6 points, 6th gets 5 points, 7th gets 4 points, 8th gets 3 points, 9th gets 2 points, and finally 10th gets 1 point. And the overall winner (1st place) of the race gets 55 points, while the 2nd place finisher gets 35 points.
Stage 1 is so a number of laps then when stage one ends there is a winner for that stage and they get 10 points each stage win right after the caution flag they’ll reset do pit stops if needed then they form back up side-by-side 2 wide then stage 2 begins then once that ends they do it all again for the final stage 3 which is the remaining laps of the race and that determines the overall winner.
So for the first stage the Stage 1 winner was Zane Smith #38 (Ford Mustang) then, the remaining of the order of the top 10. 1st place was Zane Smith #38 (Ford Mustang) 2nd place was Austin Cindric #2 (Ford Mustang) 3rd place was Ryan Blaney #12 (Ford Mustang) 4th place was Carson Hocevar #77 (Cheverlot Camaro) 5th place was Daniel Suarez #7 (Cheverlot Camaro) 6th place was Chris Buescher #17 (Ford Mustang) 7th place was Michael McDowell #71 (Cheverlot Camaro) 8th place was Ryan Preece #60 (Ford Mustang) 9th place was Alex Bowman #48 (Cheverlot Camaro) 10th place was Noah Gragson #4 (Ford Mustang) that was the finishing order for the top 10 who got stage points at the end of Stage 1.
The 2nd stage the Stage 2 winner was Bubba Wallace #23 (Toyota Camary) then, the remaining of the order of the top 10. 1st place was Bubba Wallace #23 (Toyota Camary) 2nd place was Ryan Blaney #12 (Ford Mustang) 3rd place was John Hunter Nemechek #42 (Toyota Camary) 4th place was Kyle Busch #8 (Cheverlot Camaro) 5th place was Riley Herbst #35 (Toyota Camary) 6th place was Corey Heim #67 (Toyota Camary) 7th place was Chris Buescher #17 (Ford Mustang) 8th place was the overall race winner Tyler Reddick #45 (Toyota Camary) 9th place was Joey Logano #22 (Ford Mustang) 10th place was Daniel Suarez #7 (Cheverlot Camaro) that was the finishing order for the Top 10 who got stage points at the end of Stage 2.
The 3rd and final stages of the race. That concludes who will be the overall winner of the Daytona 500 (the races). The finishing order of the Top 10 at the end of the race (Final Stage). The Top 10 order was 1st place, and the race winner was Tyler Reddick #45 (Toyota Camry). 2nd place was Ricky Stenhouse JR. #47 (Cheverlot Camaro) 3rd place was Joey Logano #22 (Ford Mustang) 4th place was Chase Elliot #9 (Cheverlot Camaro), who was the race leader on the Final Lap unitl Tyler Reddick made a last-lap pass for the lead. The win 5th place was Brad Keselowski #6 (Ford Mustang) 6th place was Zane Smith #38 (Ford Mustang) who was the stage winner of Stage 1, 7th place was Chris Buescher #17 (Ford Mustang) 8th place was Riley Herbst #35 (Toyota Camary) 9th place was Josh Berry #21 (Ford Mustang) 10th place was Bubba Wallace #23 (Toyota Camary) who won Stage 2. That was the finishing order of the Top 10 in the final stage and in the overall race.
The next race on the schedule is (Atlanta Speedway) renamed as the Echopark Speedway (Autotrader 400) at Hampton, Georgia which is also so happens to be another race track like the Daytona 500 (Super Speedway), but just not as big as the SuperSpeedway tracks just a little smaller, but it is another track where drafting and bumpdrafting come into play. The date and time for this race will be on February 22nd, 2026, at 3:00 PM ET.