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February 12, 2026
By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service
Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – High drama and long-shot endings once again proved the narrative of the night in Thursday’s America 250 Florida Duels at DAYTONA with Casey Mears and B.J. McLeod claiming the final two “open” positions for the 41-car field for Sunday’s DAYTONA 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
They will join 23XI Racing’s Corey Heim and JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, who secured their Open car starting spots in Wednesday night’s Busch Light Pole Qualifying session. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Jimmie Johnson, owner-driver of Legacy Motor Club, is using an Open Exemption Provisional and raced his way up to a 31st starting spot for Sunday.
Team Penske’s Joey Logano (Duel 1) and Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott (Duel 2) were Thursday’s race winners.
Mears, a former longtime fulltime NASCAR Cup Series driver and race winner for the legendary Hendrick Motorsports Team – and nephew of Indianapolis 500 great Rick Mears – turned in a video game move on the final half lap of the opening Duel finishing eighth and earning an unlikely ticket into Sunday’s race – his first DAYTONA 500 start since 2019.
“This is just one of those places where there are enough random things happen and stuff that happens that’s out of your control and sometimes you’re on the right side of it and sometimes you’re not and fortunately today, we were on the right side,” said an emotional 47-year-old Mears.
“It was a big range of emotions, but the one thing that’s interesting this time around is this is all a bonus round for me. My career pretty much ended back in 2017-2018 and to come back and just have the opportunity to do this again is a big deal so I’m kind of soaking it all in and enjoying every moment.”
His Carl Long-owned Garage 66 Ford team only has 10 members and even brought a back-up car – not necessarily for Daytona – but to try again at Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway next week in case he didn’t end up qualifying for Sunday’s race.
At one point a miscue coming to pit road left his No. 66 Ford Dark Horse Mustang stuck in the grass by pit road, but he got out and crucially lost only one lap, which ultimately made all the difference. He made it up on a later caution.
For all but that final overtime lap, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s “fourth car” driven by Corey LaJoie ran among the front-runners – consistently best among the three open cars in that first Duel. And he seemed easily poised to take the position transferring him into the race. Until the final lap.
Unfortunately for LaJoie, that’s when he spun and collected multiple cars in the melee while Mears was able to zig and zag forward from the back of the field and move into a position on the DAYTONA 500 grid.
“It’s been incredible to work with these guys, and didn’t see this opportunity coming about,” LaJoie said from the track’s Infield Care Center. “Didn’t see it, you know, ending like this, but, I mean, at the end of the day, God’s so good, even in the valley. It sucks. It sucks.”
McLeod, 42, finished 19th in the second – caution-free – Duel race but was awarded the DAYTONA 500 transfer spot after post-race inspection found a rules violation on the 18th-place Beard Motorsports car driven by Anthony Alfredo.
This will be the sixth DAYTONA 500 start – and first since 2023 – for the Floridian, McLeod, who owns and drives the No. 78 Life Fast Motorsports Chevrolet. His best career finish in the 500 is 19th and came in his 2019 debut in the race. He does have a pair of top-10 finishes in the Daytona summer 400-miler.
During post-race inspection, inspectors noticed a transmission transaxle cooling hose in Alfredo’s car that was supposed to be attached but instead was disconnected. NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Moran noted that all hoses are checked post-race and “if anything is found like this during the season it would be a DQ during the race” and noted it is not an “appeal-able” violation because it came in a qualifying race not a race.
“First of all, unfortunate to be here,” Moran said. “Any small open team we don’t like to have these problems, but we do have to do our job, make sure there’s parity amongst the field and also parity amongst people trying to make the 500.
“During inspection, we noticed this hose, which is a transmission cooling transaxle cooling hose. Comes off of the right side quarter window, and it’s supposed to go into the transaxle cooler. It needs to be airtight, needs to be fastened.
“We have many 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. Unfortunately, this one piece wasn’t on the right side. There was also another hose disconnected for driving cooling, which affects airflow.”
As for Mears, Sunday will mark his 495th start in the NASCAR Cup Series with the goal of getting to 500 starts this season. He said he’s targeting superspeedways and road courses on the 2026 schedule for the best chance of qualifying into the field as an open team.
“I just can’t believe we’re sitting here right now, everything was just completely stacked against us from top to bottom,” Mears said, adding with a smile. “Thank God we were just in the right place at the right time and we were able to get it home. …Feels good to be here. Haven’t been here in a while.”
