Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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itself to destruction and out of the race. Third place wasn't just any third place at Daytona in 2026, as Kayla Yaakov (Rahal Ducati Moto with Droplight) became the first woman ever to stand on the Daytona 200 podium. The number 19 was fast all week - end, latching onto the leading five of Herrin, Jacobsen, Scott, Escalante and new MotoAmer- ica boy Darryn Binder (Celtic/ Economy Lube + Tire/Warhorse Ducati) in the early stages be- fore gradually settling into what looked like a safe fifth place. But when Escalante dropped it, the possibility of a podium was on the cards. After the final round of pit stops, Yaakov was 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. Unfortu - nately, we weren't able to make the push to the front at the end." Scott fared better than his perennially luckless teammate, Richie Escalante. The man who would be the Daytona king for the last few years was right with Herrin and Jacobsen after the second round of pit stops, but as has happened too many times at Daytona, the Mexican lost the front and crashed out at the high-speed turn four, his beautiful Mission Foods-backed Suzuki GSX-R750 cartwheeling got carried back to the front. It was just an amazing race." After contending for the lead for much of the first half of the race, Scott and the D30 team gambled by consistently running longer stints than the rest of the field, but they didn't have the sheer pace of Jacobsen and Her - rin. Still, Scott kept his powder dry and brought home second place and 20 MotoAmerica Su- persport Championship points. "I felt super comfortable all weekend," said pole-position holder Scott. "Just the consis- tency 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 ROUND 1 / MARCH 5-7, 2026 DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY / DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA ROAD RACE I MOTOAMERICA AMA/FIM NORTH AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP P88 (Above) Dominic Doyle (26) had a superb first Daytona 200 in sixth, as did Alessandro Di Mario (27), who made it four Ducatis in the top five. (Right) It was all looking so good for Jacobsen, but the number 15 would hit the deck almost within sight of the checkered flag.