The Warhorse HSBK Ducati Racing team came into Daytona with something to prove. In 2022’s event, the Ducati rider Josh Herrin ran out of fuel just before the first pit stop and was forced to push his V2 Panigale down pit lane, where the bike struggled to re-fire.
Every second counts in the Daytona 200, and these mistakes cost the team a shot at victory. The top-tier team wasn’t going to make the same mistakes twice.
This year’s entry list contained at least a dozen riders capable of winning the grueling 200 mile race, as three of them were former winners themselves.
An unfortunate crash during practice caused victory contender Sheridan Morais to sit out the event from injury.
The time attack qualifying session gave the fastest riders a shot for the best grid positions, but it was the 2022 Supersport champion of Herrin who went fastest, earning himself the coveted pole position for two years in a row.
The 81st running of the Daytona 200 began with near perfect ambient temperature and low wind. With the drop of the green flag, Herrin put himself into the early lead with the pair of TOBC Racing Triumphs of Brandon Paasch and Danny Eslick closely on his tail.
As the first few laps ticked away, Paasch found himself pushed back towards the end of the lead group and Eslick was swapping positions with Herrin for the lead. The newcomer to MotoAmerica and teammate to Herrin, Xavi Fores found himself out of the race, leaving Herrin as the sole HSBK Ducati in the field.
Attack Performance Yamaha’s Cam Petersen had the speed all weekend to push for a win, but after a few laps in he began to experience clutch issues and fell down the timing sheets.
SquidHunter Racing’s Josh Hayes was in the mix looking for his first official 200 victory, and quickly found himself fighting for the lead after just nine laps, but was quickly overtaken by M4 Suzuki’s Richie Escalante as they approached the first pit stop window.
Most of the lead group began to enter pit lane for refueling and a fresh rear tire around lap 18, while last year’s winner Brandon Paasch pushed forward in the lead until eventually pitting on lap 21.
It’s this first pit stop that typically begins to trim down the front group of riders, and this year was no different. Around lap 23, the lead group was down to Escalante, Eslick, Herrin, and Hayes. Brandon Paasch was slightly further back in fifth position, but a speeding violation in pit lane caused a 15 second penalty to his overall time and meant he likely had zero chance for victory this year.
As the halfway mark of the 57 lap race was reached, Danny Eslick began fading behind the leaders and would not catch up. Josh Hayes found himself held up with lapped riders, allowing Escalante and Herrin to pull away into a two-rider battle.
Herrin attempted to break-away from Escalante, but he couldn’t get far enough ahead of the extremely fast Vision Wheel M4 Suzuki. There seemed to be obvious signs of struggle from Herrin as he pushed every ounce of speed out of his Ducati to keep pace with Richie.
The second pit stop window arrived and both riders decided to make their stop together. This was the team’s time to shine, and it was the Warhorse HSBK Ducati crew who got their rider out first.
Herrin’s two second lead was short-lived as Escalante quickly reeled him in and the duo continued to swap positions lap after lap.
At this point, it was clear one of these two riders would be victorious, but with how hard they were pushing…fuel consumption had to become a concern for the teams. Would they need to conserve, or could the bikes make it to the finish? As fate would have it, this wouldn’t matter.
With 8 laps remaining, Escalante ran a slightly wider line heading into turn 1 and Herring saw an opportunity to overtake. The two riders collided, leaving Escalante down and sliding off the track.
It seemed the race was essentially over at this point, as the pair had separated themselves significantly from the rest of the field, but another two-rider collision occurred with 5 laps to go and the red flags came out to pause the action.
Officials scrambled to determine the restart situation, and riders came into put lane for fuel, but not allowed to mount new tires. A ruling was soon sent out that due to the aggressive behavior of Herrin’s pass on Richie Escalante, he would be docked six positions on the grid for the restart.
After a slight delay, it was determined 5 laps would be added to the remaining 5, making it a 10 lap sprint. This was a blessing in disguise for several riders as they were now back in a group and ahead of Herrin on the starting grid.
Josh Hayes took the launch from first position, but it was Teagg Hobbs who led the field around on the first lap. Herrin pushed through from his penalty situation and once again got out front.
Cam Petersen was also on the positive end of the red flag situation, and now found himself going from one lap down to fighting for the win.
*For the sake of clarity, at this moment it is still being questioned as to why the riders who had been lapped were now considered to be back on the lead lap. So the end results could potentially change.*
As the laps counted down, there was a lead group of 8 riders continuously swapping for the lead and going four-bikes-wide down the 170mph straightaways.
We need to throw a special shout out to the young and talented Blake Davis, who now found himself in this mix of riders and even pushed his way into second place with two laps to go!
As critical as the pit stops and bike management are, at the Daytona 200 it’s really only the final lap that matters. The rider with the best opportunity to draft along the fast banking can easily go from eighth to first in a matter of seconds. This year was no different.
On the final lap, it was Josh Herrin leading the field ahead of Cam Petersen and Josh Hayes, but Hayes launched himself out front coming onto the first banking (he later admitted he didn’t realize it was the final lap and wasn’t in the position he likely would’ve preferred).
Hayes pushed hard through the final chicane, hoping to have enough gap that would keep the eager-drafters away, but Herrin slipped in perfectly and shot past to take the victory, his second Daytona 200 win in 13 years.
Brandon Paasch crossed the line nearly identical to Hayes, but due to his pit-lane violation penalty, he was relegated back to 12th position. This allowed Cam Petersen to secure the third and final spot on the podium.
The racing in Daytona was intense and dramatic, we can’t wait to get back next year and do it all again!
Ryan Yearwood is the motorsports correspondent for SoBros Network as well as the pioneer and visionary behind SoBros Outdoors. Follow on Twitter: @OutdoorSoBro.
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