Five to Watch: 2021 Daytona Speedweeks story lines

A highly anticipated NASCAR Cup Series season is set to begin that features the debut of new teams, drivers in new places, a revamped schedule and much more. It all starts at Daytona International Speedway with six consecutive days of on-track action that culminates with the 63rd running of the Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) on Feb. 14. Here's a look at five story lines to follow through Thursday's portion of Speedweeks, presented by AdventHealth.

Clash Kicks Off Season: The Busch Clash (7 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will unofficially start the NASCAR Cup Series season on Feb. 9. The annual non-points event moves to the Daytona International Speedway Road Course for the first time after being held on the superspeedway since the inaugural race in 1979. This year's race was originally slated to mark the Cup Series debut on the 14-turn, 3.61-mile road course, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the series held a points race last August at the track and will return again on Feb. 21. Twenty-one drivers are entered in the Clash, that includes reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, who has won the last four road-course races. Austin Dillon is the only driver in the field who did not compete last year in the Daytona Cup race on the road course due to a positive COVID-19 test. Both Elliott and Dillon were among the NASCAR contingent who raced last month in the Rolex 24.
 
"From the short time I've jumped in the simulator and gotten in and out of other cars, I've been able to pick up speed a bit quicker," Dillon said. "I want to do more and more road racing. I've got millions of laps in a dirt car and millions of laps in an oval car, but not in road-course races. That comfort of being around other cars is being better. My confidence is higher. I can't wait to race Tuesday night in the Clash. That'll be a fun one and a kind of test session to get us ready for the first race outside the 500."

23XI's Tuesday Debut: The anticipated on-track debut of the new 23XI Racing team -- co-owned by NBA Legend Michael Jordan and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin -- will come in the Busch Clash, but with a different driver. Ty Dillon, who is eligible for the Clash after winning a stage at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in 2020, will pilot the No. 23 Toyota in the race and then will attempt to make the Daytona 500 in the No. 96 Toyota for Gaunt Brothers Racing. Bubba Wallace, 23XI's full-time driver, will take to the track for the first time in his new ride Wednesday in practice (12:05 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN) before qualifying (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN) later in the evening.
 
"I'm excited to get under way and just see where we stack up," Wallace said. "We start to build a resume at Daytona and build off that and continue to get better for our team. It's going to take a couple of races, just like any new team will to get everything underneath us and make sure like, 'Oh, we missed that last week.' Let's make sure we don't do that and prepare for the next and build on that. Then once we get going and get a couple of races under our belts, then we can really start to pinpoint our weaknesses or our strong points and build off those and grow from those and learn from everything."

Chevrolet Looks to Extend Streak: Chevrolet has won the most poles for the Daytona 500, including the last eight. Last year, JTG Daugherty Racing's Ricky Stenhouse Jr. snapped Hendrick Motorsports' pole run at five when he became the 43rd driver to win a pole for The Great American Race. HMS leads all teams with 13 Daytona 500 poles, as three of their current drivers have combined to win four of the last five led by Chase Elliott, who is the only active Cup driver with two consecutive (2016, 2017). Alex Bowman, who will make his debut in the No. 48 Chevrolet, has started on the front row for all three of his 500s with HMS, dating back to his pole in 2018. William Byron took the top spot in 2019. Kyle Larson is looking to add his name to this list as he joins the team to pilot the No. 5 entry.
 
"I think you can look at the consistency of the Hendrick Motorsports' teams, specifically the No. 48 and the No. 9 -- they're consistently in that top-five or -six spots every year," Stenhouse said. "So, I feel like that's pretty consistent and will probably be consistent again. I think last year, not a lot of people expected us to jump up the board as much as we did. But I think we can be a player again when it comes down to qualifying. I think, for me, it's going to be interesting to kind of see what qualifying is going to be like at night."

Battle for Four Spots: With 36 chartered teams, the battle for the four remaining spots in the Daytona 500 will start in qualifying and ultimately be decided with the running of Thursday night's Bluegreen Vacations Duel (7 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Two open teams will make the field with the highest finishing driver in each qualifying race. The remaining two spots will be filled based on the top qualifying times among the open teams from Wednesday's session. JTG Daugherty Racing's Ryan Preece, who finished eighth in the 2019 Daytona 500, is among the group of drivers who will need to post a good lap or have a good showing in the Duel.
 
"I'm not stressed at all," Preece said. "We're going to go down, and if everything works out the way I think it's laid out, we should qualify on speed. So, I feel pretty confident with it."

Points Up for Grabs: The first opportunity for drivers to earn points for the season will be in the Bluegreen Vacations Duel. Points will once again be up for grabs to the top-10 finishers in each of the 150-mile qualifying races. The winner of each race will be awarded 10 points down to the 10th-place finisher earning one point. A victory will not count as a stage win on the year, so no playoff points will be awarded. Along with going for points, drivers will have to be mindful of what's going on in the race and try to protect their primary Daytona 500 car.
 
"I think the biggest thing about that race is that you've got to go for points, be smart, get some points out of that race if you can," said Kyle Busch, who is a three-time Duel winner. "Obviously, it's a big deal to have stage points. We kind of saw that the last couple of years with everything going on. But to have the points collection just kind of starting with that race is going to be important."