Story and photos from motoamerica.com

History was made at the 84th running of the DAYTONA 200 as Josh Herrin took the checkered flag to become the only rider with four consecutive DAYTONA 200 wins. He also tied DAYTONA 200 legends Scott Russell and Miguel Duhamel for the most DAYTONA 200 victories of all time with each of the three riders winning the “Great American Motorcycle Race” five times.

The 57-lap race drew a red flag on lap two when a rider crashed in the international horseshoe. After the restart, the field of riders raced for 56 laps flag-to-flag. The 2026 DAYTONA 200 required three pit stops from the top finishers, which proved critical in many racers’ results.

D3O M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott finished second after starting from the pole for the third straight year, and more history was made as 18-year-old Kayla Yaakov became the first woman to achieve a podium result in the DAYTONA 200.

Late in the race, Yaakov overtook Celtic/Economy Lube + Tire/Warhorse HSBK Ducati’s Darryn Binder to put herself on the podium. Binder went on to finish fourth in his first DAYTONA 200.

Daytona 200 rookie Alessandro Di Mario had his Rahal Ducati Moto with Roller Die + Forming Panigale V2 in fifth for most of the race and finished in that position, besting his grid position by one from the start of the race.

The highest-finishing Yamaha YZF-R9 and last rider to finish on the lead lap was Liberty St. Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle, who was 1:40.449 behind in sixth position. Doyle was followed by two more R9s: the Strack Racing Yamaha of Blake Davis in seventh and BPR Racing Yamaha’s Josh Hayes in eighth.

Rounding out the top 10 were Ducati Pittsburgh/Mosites Motorsports’ Ryder Davis in ninth and Rodio Racing’s Gus Rodio in tenth.

The DAYTONA 200 did not go as planned for Mission M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante or Rahal Ducati Moto with XPEL rider PJ Jacobsen.

Escalante lowsided his GSX-R750 in the infield and was unable to continue.

Jacobsen lost the front of his Ducati Panigale V2 while leading the race with eight laps to go. After Jacobsen crashed, it was smooth sailing for Herrin as he notched his fourth-straight, and fifth career DAYTONA 200 win.

Third Place – Kayla Yaakov

“We worked really hard this off-season,” commented Yaakov. “I said it on the podium. I just really invested in myself this off-season, and I feel like it’s really paid off. I’m just in the best mindset, the best condition I’ve ever been in. I’ve been riding really well in testing. This weekend, we didn’t really have any expectations. I just tried to put myself in a good position. Stayed really calm. Knew where I was. Knew where my bike was good. Knew that if I was behind (Darryn) Binder, I would come across the line in front of him. It was a great race.”

Second Place – Tyler Scott

“We came into Daytona just kind of not knowing what to think,” said Scott. “Go out for the first session. The bike was amazing. The whole first day, we didn’t touch a single thing on the bike. I felt super comfortable all weekend. Just the consistency gives me confidence going into the season here. As far as the race goes, we were there and the first thing, kind of got held up by a few lapped riders and dropped a couple seconds back. When we hit the first pit stop, that kind of hurt us a little bit. Every time we came out, just five seconds behind. Just trying to make that ground up. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make the push to the front at the end.”

First Place – Josh Herrin

Herrin said, “If you had asked me even on the grid, last week, two weeks ago, how I felt coming into the race, I just would have said I had zero chance. I woke up this morning thinking there’s no way because the lap that I did in qualifying yesterday took everything I had. I had to get a perfect draft. I was a second and a half off of Kayla, Di Mario, and PJ all five days that I rode this bike in pre-season testing. Just wanted to put my head into a wall. I was pretty frustrated. But Scott Jensen… That’s what cool about having a crew chief that used to be a racer because he has that never-give-up attitude. He knows how it is to be a frustrated rider. I don’t know him very well, but we work very well together. No matter how frustrated I got, he just kept making me feel more positive at the end of each day. Even though I was negative towards him, he just made me feel better every time I would go to the hotel. We showed up with a good bike today and it shows.

“The first pit stop, I feel like I was five to seven seconds behind those guys coming out of the pits because my bike wouldn’t start. They pushed me probably fifty yards down the pit lane. Then I’m sure everybody saw what happened on pit lane in the last pit stop. The camera guy was filming PJ leaving the pit and I ran him over. I was so angry. I can’t be angry now. Now it’s just funny, but it was one of the worst moments in my career. It felt like something was just helping me out there. Every time something bad happened, I just got carried back to the front. It was just an amazing race. I can’t thank the entire Rahal Ducati Moto team enough. Thank you to Desnuda. Thank you to Brew Watch, Nimbus Healthcare. Thank you to everybody that came in and helped out just for this weekend. It’s an amazing feeling. I can’t describe what it feels like, especially to be wearing this helmet that Troy Lee painted himself to honor Scott Russell, and to have Scott share the helmet on his social media and stuff. It’s a special day. It just doesn’t feel real.”

For complete DAYTONA 200 results, CLICK HERE

For DAYTONA 200 photos, CLICK HERE