Daytona 500: Live highlights, updates, stage results

Check out all of the action from the 60th annual Daytona 500 with highlights, stage results and more.

All of the anticipation is past, and it’s time to go racing again. The 2018 Daytona 500, the 60th edition of the Great American Race, is finally upon us.

As always, it seems like anything can happen once the green flag drops, and there are at least two dozen drivers out of the field of 40 who figure to have a chance to win. The unpredictability of restrictor place racing figures to rear its head at some point, but teams also have to deal with new ride height and pit road rules as well.

Whoever can deal with those question marks the best should have an excellent shot at finding Victory Lane. It could be a veteran like Denny Hamlin who starts on the outside of Row 1, or a young gun like Alex Bowman, who won the pole in qualifying.

We’ll know in just a few hours who will join the hallowed ranks of Daytona 500 champions.

2018 Daytona 500 highlights

Bowman led the field into Turn 1, but it didn’t take long for Hamlin to assume the lead, bouncing back and forth between the two lanes of traffic to keep drivers like Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. behind him.

Less than 10 laps in, Corey LaJoie brought out the first yellow flag of the race, bringing most of the field to pit road to at least get fuel. Hamlin entered with the lead but slid through his pit box, a mistake that cost him 14 spots.

To add injury to insult, NASCAR penalized him for pitting outside the box as he was still over the line while getting fuel, and he was held for a lap.

Kyle Busch was the next driver to have trouble, blowing a left rear tire about halfway through Stage 1. He managed to get his Toyota to the apron and make it to pit road without incident.

That turned out to be the least of Busch’s issues. With just 10 laps to go in Stage 1, Rowdy cut down another left rear, sending him spinning. D.J. Kennington smacked into him, tearing off most of his bumper, and Jamie McMurray got caught up in some of the debris.

If there were any doubts about whether we’d see hard racing for stage wins and the chaos that could ensue as a result, the final lap of Stage 1 erased them. With Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trying to block a passing attempt by Ryan Blaney, it caused an accordion effect that caught seven cars in its midst, including Erik Jones and Jimmie Johnson.

Stage 1 results

1. Kurt Busch, 10 pts., 1 bonus playoff point
2. Alex Bowman, 9 pts.
3. Ryan Blaney, 8 pts.
4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 7 pts.
5. Martin Truex Jr., 6 pts.
6. Michael McDowell, 5 pts.
7. Kevin Harvick, 4 pts.
8. Chase Elliott, 3 pts.
9. Paul Menard, 2 pts.
10. Trevor Bayne, 1 point

Things settled down for the first half of Stage 2, with Blaney looking comfortable out front. In the meantime, a driver who had early trouble was quietly making his way back toward the front.

On lap 93, the caution flag flew again for debris off the car of William Byron, one of the drivers involved in the wreck that ended Stage 1.

Would things be calm until the end of Stage 2? No, no they would not. Chase Elliott found out what happens when you attempt to bump draft the leader while also getting bumped at the same time. It doesn’t work out well, and Elliott took the hardest hit in a collision that also involved Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick.

Perhaps wary of the way Stage 1 degenerated into chaos, there wasn’t a whole lot of jockeying for position during the final lap of Stage 2. Blaney took the green and white checkered flag, which he deserved after staying in front of the pack almost the entire way.

Stage 2 results

1. Ryan Blaney, 10 pts., 1 bonus playoff point
2. Paul Menard, 9 pts.
3. Joey Logano, 8 pts.
4. Aric Almirola, 7 pts.
5. Michael McDowell, 6 pts.
6. Martin Truex Jr., 5 pts.
7. Bubba Wallace, 4 pts.
8. Austin Dillon, 3 pts.
9. Denny Hamlin, 2 pts.
10. Ryan Newman, 1 point

Much of the first part of the final stage was spent with the cars running in one big single-file line. Pit stop strategies started to come into play with some cars further down in the running order coming in early, but Blaney continued to lead.

That doesn’t mean that misfortune still couldn’t strike. For instance, Joey Logano had a pit road misadventure that led to him losing a lap.

No one ever hopes for wrecks, but a caution to bunch up the field and force the cars into two lines wasn’t the worst thing ever. We got it when Byron, who already had a day he’d like to put behind him, blew a tire and shredded rubber over the track. Several cars stayed out, including Blaney.

Blaney led the way when the restart came with seven laps to go, but he was eventually caught in the middle of a three-wide situation and had to fight his way back up toward the front. With two laps to go, the inevitable happened, with Blaney backing off to try to avoid Kurt Busch and tapping last year’s winner on the rear quarter panel.

As it turned out, there would be one more big dramatic twist in overtime. Aric Almirola was in the lead when the white flag flew, but Austin Dillon got to his back bumper and ended up sending him into the wall.

Just blocking and bumping, or a dirty move? That’s a debate that’s sure to be discussed for weeks, though something tells us that seeing the No. 3 back in Victory Lane at Daytona 20 years after Dale Earnhardt won is going to be popular for many NASCAR fans no matter what it took to get it there.