DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Anthony Alfredo said he’d only cried tears of joy like this twice in his life: when his daughter, Everleigh, was born in November and when he made the Daytona 500 on Thursday night.
Except less than an hour after one of his most triumphant moments, Alfredo received crushing news: His finish in Thursday’s qualifying race was disallowed because of a technical violation on his No. 62 car, and Alfredo was sent home for Sunday’s Great American Race instead.
“I was on top of the world, and now it feels like I’m at the bottom of it,” a gutted Alfredo told The Athletic after learning of the news. “It feels like I’m drowning.”
NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran said a transaxle cooling hose on Alfredo’s car was discovered to have been improperly left loose, and another hose, used for driver cooling, was disconnected in a way that would have altered the car’s aerodynamics.
Alfredo drives for Beard Motorsports, a tiny, part-time team that only runs a few races per season. So it’s entirely possible — and perhaps even likely — the team simply made a mistake and overlooked the unsecured hoses.
Alfredo argued the hose came loose when he was hit from behind during the race, and said it “wasn’t to my knowledge anything that would have been a performance enhancement.”
But NASCAR does not rule on the intent of violations. Cars either pass inspection or they don’t, and Alfredo’s did not.
So despite finishing in 21st place Thursday night, B.J. McLeod made the Daytona 500 instead of Alfredo.
“We don’t like to have these problems, but we have to do our job and make sure there’s parity amongst the field and also parity amongst the people trying to make the 500,” Moran said.
Crew chief Darren Shaw told The Athletic the violation wasn’t significant enough for NASCAR to disqualify the team and said something “pulled a hose off” during a race “when we’re going 200 miles an hour.”
“I don’t think they really needed to throw us out for it,” Shaw said. “But I guess if they say it’s a rule, it’s a rule.”
WE’RE IN THE DAYTONA 500 🙌 All Glory to God 🙏 We ran a perfect race. So thankful for this opportunity. #nascar #daytona500 #racing #motorsports #sports pic.twitter.com/PeC0wwjW56
— Anthony Alfredo (@anthonyalfredo) February 13, 2026
It was a dizzying turn of events for Alfredo, who had just posted a video on X to express his joy as the news was breaking that he was actually out of the race. Social media posts from NASCAR reporters overlapped with the video, in which Alfredo excitedly said he was ready to race Sunday “because something feels special.”
“This is an opportunity I — and a lot of other people in the world — dream of,” he added in the video.
But that ended up becoming someone else’s dream, as it was the veteran driver McLeod who got the Daytona 500 spot Alfredo thought was his.
When McLeod received the official word his car had passed inspection after an hour of thinking he had missed the race, he hugged his wife, Jessica, and said, “We get to race again.”
“I would have much rather raced Anthony for it and gotten in on the track,” McLeod said. “But we’re going to know perseverance and never quitting and always working to be here … is what ultimately put us in the race on Sunday.”
Earlier Thursday night, another driver gained an unlikely Daytona 500 berth. Former full-time NASCAR driver Casey Mears, age 47, was running last among the potential qualifiers in his Duel race and even went a lap down at one point after spinning into the infield grass and getting stuck.
But when Corey LaJoie suddenly wrecked on the final lap, Mears never hit the brakes and had a “Days of Thunder” moment in which he passed LaJoie’s destroyed car and earned the transfer spot.
“I figured I’d stay on the gas no matter what happened,” Mears said.