Everybody is talking about the frantic finish to the 2026 Daytona 500, as two wrecks occurred on the final lap and Tyler Reddick passed Chase Elliott coming to the checkered flag. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Zane Smith, Riley Herbst, Joey Logano, and Brad Keselowski all had legitimate chances to win in the final mile.
All of this was set up by a caution with eight laps to go when Corey Heim turned Christopher Bell, collecting Denny Hamlin. Had that caution not come out, the result might have looked significantly different.
Michael McDowell was leading at the time, having been the only driver yet to make his final green flag pit stop. He didn't pit under the caution, either, making the final 66 laps on one tank of fuel. This was thought to be completely unheard of, and his crew chief Travis Peterson deserves a shoutout.
Travis Peterson's outside-the-box strategy calls should have bigger teams lining up to sign him
This past weekend was far from the first time Peterson has tried something truly miraculous to put McDowell in a position to steal a win. You may remember last season at Texas Motor Speedway, when the No. 71 Spire Motorsports team took the lead by electing not to change tires on the final pit stop, and it nearly worked until his driver crashed with a few laps to go, just after Joey Logano had passed him.
No duo in the Cup Series garage loves to roll the dice more than Peterson and McDowell. It's been a theme for the two of them since they were first paired together at Front Row Motorsports in 2023, always looking for opportunities to enhance track position by means other than passing cars on the race track.
The crew chief has also overseen significant improvement in the speed department at Front Row Motorsports and Spire Motorsports during his time with both organizations.
It begs the question as to what Peterson could do with a better team and driver. McDowell is 41 years old and won't be around for much longer. Even if he has a few more years left in him, his crew chief is one of the most innovative thinkers in the garage and deserves a situation where he can compete with the best.
Every top-tier organization that could use a change atop the pit box (that's you, Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 team) should be paying close attention to what Peterson does. He puts a car that has no business contending for wins in position to contend for wins, and he does it in ways nobody else would even think of attempting. He's a championship-level crew chief waiting for the right opportunity to show it.