Josh Herrin came into the weekend struggling. He broke three ribs at a testing crash three weeks before the event, caught a cough from a sick kid and didn’t feel at all comfortable on his new Rahal Ducati Moto with Desnuda Organic Tequila Ducati Panigale V2. A collision with a camera operator while leaving from his last pit stop left him several seconds behind PJ Jacobsen and fuming. But Herrin settled into his pace and picked up the win when Jacobsen crashed out, averting a potential dustup with the camera operator after the checkered flag. “If I hadn’t won that race, I might have been in jail tonight. That was insane,” Herrin said. “I was so angry. I can’t be angry now. Now it’s just funny.”
Tyler Scott earned for 3DO M4 ECSTAR Suzuki and himself a cool $30,000 for second place, his third podium finish in the last three Daytona 200 races. Scott said his grip levels started to diminish just a bit early on, then catching lappers at exactly the wrong time kept him from fighting back to the front.
Kayla Yaakov said she knew that the race for the final podium position was going to come down to a last-lap drafting move. But she said that Darryn Binder seemed content to push, and she was content to let him lead until the dash to the finish line, when she made the final pass and just kept her head down. Even during the post-race interviews in the media center, she still didn’t know her margin over Binder. “When PJ crashed out, I knew we were racing for the podium. I was just afraid that he (Binder) might have a chance to draft back by after I passed him, but – how close was it?” she asked.
Sam Drane finished second in Friday’s Twins Cup race and went one better in Saturday’s race, winning an insane drafting battle by 0.010 seconds on his Yamaha BLU CRU Estenson Racing YZF-R7. Matthew Chapin, Hank Vossberg – Friday’s runaway winner – and Bodie Paige crossed the line separated by 0.376 seconds. Drane’s win left him in the Twins Cup points lead.
Jake Lewis was leading the Mission Super Hooligan points comfortably last season when an injury sidelined him for two races, leaving him second at the end of the season by just four points. Lewis started his 2026 campaign with a third on Friday and a win on Saturday, leaving him tied on points with last year’s title rival James Rispoli.
Troy Herfoss’ win in Saturday’s Mission King of The Baggers race was his second podium of the weekend and it marked the second 1-2 finish of the event for the Indian factory team. Herfoss says the new Challenger racebike, developed by the Vance & Hines team in conjunction with the factory, is an entirely different motorcycle than the Challenger he raced last year. “It’s not just that there’s plenty of horsepower, but the horsepower is being pushed into the ground. The old bike felt like a lounge chair. This feels like a Superbike,” Herfoss said.
