Here's the First Race Report Card from NASCAR's Next Gen at Daytona 500

The car was all new. The racing was much the same.

On Sunday, all the Daytona 500 staples were there: Big wrecks. Double-file racing. Long lines of single-file racing at mid-race. Teammates drafting together. Manufacturer partners drafting together. A red flag. A surprise winner.

The Next Gen car’s debut was old school, as was the finish of the Daytona 500.

By race’s end, as twilight fell on the racetrack, many of the favorites were parked or limping. Out of the running for the big trophy were Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon. It’s almost standard practice for some of the sport’s top guns to be watching from the sidelines as the checkered flag falls in stock car racing’s biggest race.

Virtually everything about the Next Gen car is new, but the drafting lines were almost indistinguishable from those seen in other recent races at DIS. Some of the cars deep in the lines appeared to be a bit more squirrelly on long runs, but otherwise it was Daytona drafting as usual.

The finish came down to another classic Daytona tactic—blocking. Winner Austin Cindric—a rookie making only his eighth Cup start—did a masterful job of blocking Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney in the final seconds. Despite slight contact between the two, Cindric retained control and edged Bubba Wallace by .03 of a second for the win.

The new car—especially Cindric’s new car—passed its first big test. There were issues with wheels on several cars, and the front and rear ends of the cars seemed to come apart more easily in significant crashes. However, several drivers took vicious hits, including a flying flip by rookie Harrison Burton, and there were no significant injuries.

Burton said he hadn’t been upside-down in a car prior to Sunday’s crash on lap 63. “It got real light and blew over right,” he said. “I don’t know if it was the (rear) diffuser that did it or what, but once I got backwards I just blew right over. As far as the cockpit and everything’s safe.”

To progress in the drafting lines, drivers relied on bump drafting, allowing two drivers virtually locked together to move forward faster. But that tactic has a down side when the bumps are too hard or when they’re attempted in turns, and it appeared that Brad Keselowski, running behind Burton, was too aggressive as they ran along the backstretch.

“Obviously, I’m not questioning Brad’s ability, but I think he just got a little wide on my right side and kind of shot me on the inside there,” Burton said. “We were working good together up to that point. There were a couple moments where I was having to save it kind of sideways, and obviously just one too many and we ended up upside-down.”

Team owner Roger Penske, after celebrating in victory lane with Cindric, said the new car has required that his teams work more as a unit to solve problems but praised how the Next Gen has performed through its first two outings.

“The cost to put this car together is significantly less than the regular car we ran last year,” he said. “We could see that at the Clash. I think the cars we have today and the new rules are terrific.

“I think NASCAR has gone a long way. Lots of discussion, lots of angst, but I'd take my hat off to the engineering team at NASCAR and then the teams working with them.

I think everyone in the garage area, the whole industry, worked with NASCAR to try to bring this car to where it is.”