5 drivers to watch at 67th Daytona 500

Edgar Thompson, Orlando Sentinel on Feb 15, 2025

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Here are five drivers to watch during the 67th Daytona 500. The 200-lap affair at the storied 2.5-mile oval is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Sunday on Fox.

Ryan Blaney

The 2023 Cup Series champion sandwiched a 2021 summer race win at Daytona International Speedway with a photo-finish runner-up to Denny Hamlin in 2020 and a fourth-place showing in 2022 where he was right there on the final lap. The 31-year-old is likely to be in the mix again.

William Byron

The defending champion rises to the occasion at DIS, having won the pole in 2019 as a 21-year-old, Coke Zero Sugar 400 in 2020 and finally the Great American Race at age 26 to become owner Rick Hendrick’s first winner since Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2014.

Austin Cindric

Cindric has not built on his surprising 2022 victory, prevailing only in the 2024 Illinois 300 to snap an 85-race winless streak. Just 26, Cindric won the second Daytona duel Thursday night in a photo finish and will sit on the front row to start Sunday’s race.

Brad Keselowski

Keselowski’s six wins and three runner-up finishes at Talladega signal super-speedway mastery but have translated to just one win at Daytona — in the 2017 summer race. A close call in 2021 ended with a final-lap crash, one of four crashes in the later stages of the past 500s for the 40-year-old.

Joey Logano

The 34-year-old is coming off his third NASCAR Cup Series season title but also more disappointment at the Daytona 500. Logano was caught up in a 23-car crash on Lap 191 a year after he finished runner-up to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. during the longest race (212 laps) in event history. It was one of five finishes in the top six since his 2015 victory in the Great American Race.