New kid Christopher Bell expects Toyotas to have a game plan for Daytona 500

Posted on February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 by Reid Spencer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Toyotas may be outnumbered, but they’ll be working together as usual in Sunday’s Daytona 500, says Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Camry.

“I’m sure we’ll talk about that later on in the week,” who posted the ninth-fastest lap in last Sunday’s time trials for the Great American Race (2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “But it’s tough because we’re outnumbered so bad, it’s hard to think all the Toyotas are going to be able to compete against all that Ford and Chevrolet have.”

MORE: Daytona 500 Media Day best quotes

On the other hand, even with just five factory-backed teams, Toyota drivers have excelled in NASCAR’s most prestigious race. In both of Denny Hamlin’s Daytona 500 victories, Toyota Camrys have swept the top three positions.

“Whenever you get down to the end of it, it’s totally different,” Bell said. “Typically, a lot of crashes have taken a lot of cars out. You have to look around and see what’s left. Yeah, I would imagine we’re going to do everything we can to help each other.”

Bell has focused on the upcoming Daytona 500 at the expense of dirt racing plans in the week preceding the race. He forewent a World of Outlaws appearance at Volusia Speedway on Sunday and sprint car races at East Bay in Tampa the following two days to concentrate on preparation for his NASCAR Cup Series debut.

Also contributing to his decision was a violent wreck during midget competition at Western Springs in Auckland, New Zealand, in December.

“I was originally planning on running Volusia, East Bay, East Bay,” Bell said. “When I started looking at the details of it, I’m like, ‘Man, this is my first Cup race weekend. I really need to focus on that.’ I just decided to skip Florida. Unfortunately, the dirt racing doesn’t really start again until later on in the year. You’ll be able to hopefully catch me in a car Easter weekend (the first Cup ‘off’ week).”

Bell said he didn’t feel pressure from his team in making the schedule change. Rather, the impetus came from within.

“The last that I talked to the team about it, they were giving me approval to go do it,” Bell said. “But I felt like I owed it to them to show them that this is my job, and I am solely focused on the Daytona 500, starting my Cup season out right.

Posted on February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 by Terrin Waack

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, a start in Sunday’s Daytona 500 is not guaranteed for Daniel Suarez.

The driver of the No. 96 Gaunt Brothers Racing Toyota needs to battle his way into “The Great American Race” through one of two Thursday’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel races at Daytona International Speedway (7 p.m. ET on FS1/FOX Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). There are two spots left in the 40-driver Daytona 500 field. Five drivers, though, are looking to fill those vacancies.

“I feel like if I can do my job, I don’t have to kill myself to make it happen,” Suarez said Wednesday at the Daytona 500 Media Day. “I feel like I just have to not beat myself up.”

Suarez really only has to finish better than two non-qualified drivers in Duel 1, which features 22 entries overall. His competitors are Reed Sorenson and Chad Finchum. The others – J.J. Yeley and Timmy Hill – are in Duel 2.

The reason these drivers have to earn their spot in the Daytona 500 is because their teams do not have a Charter; they’re considered Open. Charter teams are locked into the season opener regardless of qualifying results or finish position in Duel races, and there are 36 Charter teams this year.

Suarez and Gaunt Brothers apparently tried to purchase a Charter prior to the start of the 2020 season.

“We walked around Walmart several times, and we didn’t find anything,” Suarez said jokingly. “No, but there’s nothing for sale. … That’s how it works. Hopefully we can find the right one.”

The other way to secure a Daytona 500 bid was through qualifying last Sunday. That’s how Justin Haley and Brendan Gaughan advanced. They were the fastest Open cars.

Haley qualified 31st at 190.018 mph, while Gaughan was 33rd at 188.945 mph. Suarez was then 36th at 185.479 mph.

For perspective: Polesitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was 194.582 mph.

“I feel like actually my car was pretty sporty in the draft” Suarez said. “We have an engine that’s just as good as any other Toyota out there. The problem is we don’t have the car, the body. The chassis is slow. It’s not the newest and greatest car. But when we’re in the draft, we’re as good as anyone.”

This is Suarez’s first season with Gaunt Brothers. He spent 2019 with Stewart-Haas Racing, his only season there, in the No. 41 Ford. Rookie Cole Custer now has that ride.

This is not, however, Suarez’s first time in a Toyota. He drove one with Joe Gibbs Racing at the start of his career – the 2017-18 seasons.

There will be three non-Open drivers in Toyotas also on track with Suarez for Duel 1: Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., along with Leavine Family Racing’s Christopher Bell. Ideally, for Suarez, they can help with drafting.

“They won’t slow down and look for me to push,” Suarez said. “Nobody would do that. I wouldn’t do that. But if they can push me or push a Toyota, they’re going to push me rather than another manufacturer.”

Suarez has six Daytona starts under his belt, five of which ended in DNFs due to crashes. His 31.8 average finish is highlighted by a 17th-place run in the 2017 summer race.

A trip to Victory Lane is the ultimate goal, but Suarez needs to first be in contention for even a chance at the win.

“If I go down as a driver, the whole team goes down with me,” Suarez said. “If I’m able to keep everyone up, and we’re able to get the right people and build in the right direction, we’re going to have something very special.”

Posted on February 12, 2020 by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Erik Jones was back to business Wednesday, making the media rounds three days removed from winning Sunday’s Busch Clash at Daytona International Speedway. Part of that business was fielding questions about his contract status at Joe Gibbs Racing, where he’s bullish about a potential return.

Jones, 23, enters his fourth full season in the NASCAR Cup Series. His first came in 2017 as a rookie with Furniture Row Racing, then a JGR affiliate; his last two have been at the wheel of Gibbs’ No. 20 Toyota, a seat he hopes to keep beyond this season.

“I have no intention of leaving my role there,” Jones said Wednesday at Daytona 500 Media Day. “I’d love to continue that. But it is definitely a crazy year. There’s a lot of things happening. There’s a lot of things in motion, I guess, already probably for people, not really for me. I’m excited to see. The pressure is on myself from within, right? There’s no pressure from the outside, in my opinion. It’s pressure from me trying to perform.

“I want to run well. I want to win races. I think if you can do that, the rest of the things are going to come with it, what you want to do. You’ll have as many choices as you want. Hopefully that’s the case.”

Contract negotiations went late into last season for Jones. He re-signed with JGR on Sept. 6, five days after claiming his second career Cup Series win with a triumph in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

MORE: Erik Jones Driver Page

The timing this year is similarly uncertain, but Jones says he has his hunches.

“At this point in the year, you don’t know. It’s too early,” Jones said. “Last year, I would say by May, June, I felt pretty confident in coming back, what we had going on. You just can’t really get it out there yet. I think for me, you always kind of know what you got going.

” … For me, yeah, I mean, you do what’s right for you. I think for me, that’s staying with JGR.”

Posted on February 12, 2020 by Official NASCAR Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 12, 2020) – NASCAR^® and the U.S. Census Bureau announced today, during DAYTONA 500 Media Day, an Official Partnership designed to spread awareness and encourage participation in the once-a-decade national census. The 2020 Census counts every person living in the U.S., across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories. Beginning in mid-March, most homes will receive an invitation to respond to a short questionnaire – online, by phone, or by mail.

As part of the strategic partnership, the Census Bureau will become the race entitlement partner of the NASCAR Xfinity Series™ race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The race is scheduled to run on Saturday, March 21 and will be broadcast nationally on FS1.

“The 2020 Census is here, and we are excited to partner with NASCAR to help spread the word about the importance of the census to shaping the future of communities across the country,” said Dr. Steven Dillingham, Director of the Census Bureau. “To ensure a complete and accurate count, we need everyone. NASCAR provides us with an excellent platform to educate the public and encourage them to respond this spring.”

The 2020 Census, which is mandated by the U.S. Constitution, is conducted by the Census Bureau, the federal government’s largest statistical agency. The statistics can be used to inform more than hundreds of billions of dollars to states and communities for services like fire stations, schools, and clinics every year for the next 10 years. It also determines how many seats in Congress each state receives.

“We are honored to partner with the Census Bureau to educate our fans about the importance and benefits of participating in the U.S. Census,” said Jill Gregory, NASCAR executive vice president and chief marketing and content officer. “NASCAR is a highly effective marketing platform that reaches millions of fans residing in communities across the country. We look forward to informing our fans how they will be invited to respond to the 2020 Census online, in addition to by phone or by mail, for the first time in history.”

In addition to its race entitlement sponsorship at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the Census Bureau will have at-track activation at Phoenix Raceway, Auto Club Speedway and Richmond Raceway. Additionally, an educational campaign will run across NASCAR’s Digital platforms and air across NASCAR programming on MRN.

“Partnering with the U.S. Census Bureau for our NASCAR Xfinity Series race gives Homestead-Miami Speedway another tremendous opportunity for our 25^th anniversary,” said Homestead-Miami Speedway President Al Garcia. “We’re honored to serve as a host track for such an important initiative that affects our entire country. We also look forward to our fans experiencing all the amenities our facility has to offer, as well the exciting racing, which will feature Dale Earnhardt Jr.”

Posted on February 12, 2020 by @nascarcasm

It’s official! NASCARCASM Fantasy Dumpster Fire returns for its third season and the stakes have never been more the exact same as they were the first year!

That’s right, my annual foray into NASCAR.com’s fantasy racing league is kicking off this weekend with the Daytona 500, and I promise you I’m still just as bad at fantasy racing as I was when I first started. There has been no learning or attempt to improve. If you want to argue semantics, you could say that I’m very consistent.

The league currently stands at an astonishing 6,700+ participants, but we could always use more. The more people you can claim you defeated in fantasy, the better.

Fantasy sports are about bragging rights. They’re about being sage-like in setting your lineups, picking the right drivers for the right tracks, and, if successful, rubbing it in your opponents’ faces. There is no sportsmanship here. If you seek sportsmanship, go find one of those “Foundation For A Better Life” commercials on YouTube.

It’s bound to be a bit more of a toss-up this year, with four of the Xfinity Series’ brightest young stars moving up to the Cup Series. And will Joe Gibbs Racing continue its domination into this season? I don’t know. I don’t consider these things when setting my lineup. I usually set my lineup by letting my dog walk across my keyboard. I’ve stopped trying because I’m that bad at it.

This all said, JOIN US AND HAVE FUN. The link below will take you to the league page. Just sign in to your NASCAR.com account and enter the proverbial octagon!

https://fantasygames.nascar.com/live/league/nascarcasm-s-fantasy-dumpster-fire

NOTE: If you’re already a member of my esteemed fantasy league, there is no need to sign up again, you’re already in.

As usual, the overall winner of the league after the regular season ends (26 races) will receive two hot passes to a race of their choice during the 2021 season.

So click the link and let’s get fantasy-ing! That’s not really a verb, but it should be.

Your perpetual fantasy loser,

@NASCARCASM

Posted on February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 by Steve Luvender

We ask ourselves a lot of questions at NASCAR.com; we’re a curious bunch, really. Who are the championship contenders? Who’s going to surprise us this season? What would Christopher Bell look like with Corey LaJoie’s beard?

OK, nobody’s ever really asked that (well, most likely), but now you can finally find out the answer, thanks to the magic of computers.

Enter Make My Driver, our NASCAR driver face-swap generator. Pick a driver’s head, a second driver’s face, press the “Make My Driver” button, and have nightmares forever. It’s easy! And, with over 3,000 combinations, you’re bound to be entertained from now until race day.

Posted on February 12, 2020February 16, 2020 by Sean Montgomery

The NASCAR Cup Series kicks off the much-anticipated 2020 slate with the annual season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway (set to resume Monday at 4 p.m. ET on FOX/FOX Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Check out all the information you need to know leading up to Sunday’s 500-mile showdown.

MORE: How to follow the race

TRACK DETAILS

Daytona International Speedway is a 2.5-mile tri-oval with a 3,800-foot frontstretch and a 3,000-foot backstretch. The start/finish line has 18 degrees of banking, while each turn has 31 degrees.

Bob Welborn won the inaugural Cup Series race at Daytona in 1959, besting a 38-driver field including Joe Weatherly, Lee Petty, Rex White and Junior Johnson, among others.

STAGE LENGTHS

Stage 1 ends at Lap 65, Stage 2 ends at Lap 130 and the Final Stage is slated to end at Lap 200.

RULES PACKAGE

Teams will use the rules package that was in place last season for the summer Daytona race as well as both Talladega races. The package includes a 0.922-inch tapered spacer (replacing the restrictor plate), 9-inch rear spoiler, 1-inch bolt-on track bar mount, a tapered radiator pan, two-inch splitter overhang and aero ducts. Teams will also use a 1-inch wicker extension placed on top of the 9-inch spoiler.

For the weekend at Daytona, each Cup team will be allowed eight sets of Goodyear Eagle Superspeedway Radials for practice, qualifying and the Duels. They will also have an additional eight sets for the 500 (seven race sets, plus one transferred from qualifying or practice).

Higher top speeds accompanied by door-to-door racing shifts the main focus to grip and stability, particularly in the turns.

“Building the right amount of mechanical grip into the tires adds the needed stability with the tight racing we have here at Daytona,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “We fine-tuned the tread compounds for here back in 2017 and then had a good test right after last year’s Daytona 500, which led us to updating the constructions as well. Those constructions introduced a little more stagger into this tire set-up, and that will also enhance the handling through the corners.”

KEY STATS

— Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers are now the longest active driver-crew chief pairing entering Daytona with a total of 212 races together. Kyle Busch and Adam Stevens are the next highest at 164.

— Chevrolet has won the last eight poles for the Daytona 500 with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. being the latest for the 2020 race. The last Daytona 500 pole winner to win the race was Dale Jarrett in 2000.

— The last 10 Daytona 500s were won by nine different drivers with Denny Hamlin the lone multiple winner in that stretch.

— 12 of the 61 Daytona 500s ended with a last lap pass (20%)

Source: Racing Insights

LIVE COVERAGE

Catch all the live action from Daytona on FOX and the FOX Sports App beginning at 4 p.m. ET on Monday or listen in to complete radio coverage from MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

For a more interactive experience, head over to NASCAR.com or the NASCAR app to check out an enhanced Race Center, live Lap-by-Lap coverage, the customizable live leaderboard with Scanner, and the return of Drive (featuring in-car cameras).

Be sure to set your lineup in Fantasy Live and make your picks in the NASCAR Finish Line App!

2019 RACE WINNER

Denny Hamlin raced his way to the checkered flag at last year’s Daytona 500, in an emotional tribute to Joe Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs. Hamlin held off a strong run from teammate Kyle Busch after a late restart to capture his second career victory in the Great American Race.

ACTIVE DAYTONA WINNERS

Jimmie Johnson (three); Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin (two each); David Ragan, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Aric Almirola, Erik Jones, Ryan Newman, Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Justin Haley (one each).

Posted on February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Joey Logano said Wednesday he talked through an incident in Sunday’s Busch Clash with teammate Brad Keselowski and that he expects the disagreement to blow over without a major rift.

Keselowski was caught up in a crash late in Sunday’s exhibition after Logano made an aggressive series of blocks on Kyle Busch in their contest for the lead. Contact triggered a Turn 4 pileup, and an animated Keselowski pounded his hands against the ambulance in frustration, telling his crew, “we got destroyed by our teammate” over his in-car communications.

Wednesday, Logano tried to clear the air with the benefit of a few days’ time for any tensions to cool.

“We’ve talked and I think so. We’ll see. We’re going to have different opinions on a lot of things all the time,” Logano said, fighting through the final stages of a cold during Daytona 500 Media Day. “It’s part of racing and things like that, but I think we’ll be fine.”

Keselowski has been a prominent critic about the practice of blocking on superspeedways. Sunday, he blasted the events that led to his Clash retirement as “just dumb, dumb racing.”

Wednesday, he was slightly less vivid as he battled through his own ailment, sipping hot water with honey from his director’s chair in the media scrum. But asked about a potential wedge between teammates, he demurred.

“I think I’ve been consistent and verbal about blocking on the race track, so I don’t really have anything that I feel differently about with respect to that,” Keselowski said. “But as far as the comments specific to Joey, I’ll keep those between him and I.”

Logano said the two Team Penske teammates took in Walt Disney World earlier this week, but didn’t see each other there. In discussing the incident with Keselowski, he said it was important to share his side of the story and drill down to the cause of his ire.

“That stuff happens, but hey, we’ve been friends for a long time. We’ve been able to figure things out before,” Logano said. “He said afterwards, ‘I’m not really that worried about it. It’s going to be OK. We’re going to figure it out.’ Everything always blows by. Everything gets better all the time.”

Posted on February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 by Chase Wilhelm

NASCAR Finish Line, a free-to-play gaming app from Penn National Gaming, has launched for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season beginning with the Daytona 500 (Feb. 16, 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Each week, there will be six groups of six drivers for the race ahead. Users will predict which driver will finish first among each group, and then also the overall race winner for a chance to win $50,000 each week if all seven scenarios are correctly selected.

RELATED: Download NASCAR Finish Line

The first of six groups for the Daytona 500 features Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano together. For a stats look, NASCAR.com has complied a list of finishes for each driver in the past 10 races at Daytona International Speedway. The results of the highest-finishing driver in the respective races are highlighted in green.

A two-time Daytona 500 champion, Hamlin leads the group with four highest-ranking finishes in that span. See below to see how the results shake out among all six drivers.

Posted on February 11, 2020February 12, 2020 by Reid Spencer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Jimmie Johnson enters the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season — his last as a full-time driver — with significant mileposts ahead.

The first is at once the most obvious and the most challenging: a record eighth championship in NASCAR’s foremost division. But there are others.

Johnson’s next win, his 84th, would tie the 44-year-old from El Cajon, California, with NASCAR Hall of Famers Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for fourth on the career victory list. An 85th checkered flag would break that tie.

Johnson himself is a shoo-in to the NASCAR Hall of Fame as soon as he’s eligible. His 83 victories are top among active drivers by a wide margin — 27 over second-place Kyle Busch.

Johnson’s five straight titles from 2006 through 2010 constitute a record that should remain unassailable. After all, Busch is the only active driver besides Johnson who has won more than one Cup championship, and Busch’s total stands at two.

With seven Cup titles, Johnson is the equal of legends Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, both members of the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame class in 2010. With an eighth title in his final full-time season, Johnson would be without peer.

What the seven-time champ never has achieved, however, is the intense emotional connection with the broad NASCAR fan base that Petty and Earnhardt enjoyed throughout their careers.

Perhaps that’s because Johnson is all-business at his office for the weekend — the race track — where the task at hand for him is all-consuming: dialing in his race car for optimal performance. Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief for 17 seasons and all his championships, insisted on a rigid race-day schedule and kept his driver cloistered, away from irrelevant distractions.

That singleness of purpose gave the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team an air of invincibility and a sense of resilience from adversity that defied traditional norms. It made a seven-time champion of Johnson. But it also deprived the NASCAR fan base of a glimpse into the true character of one of the most fun-loving, affable and charitable human beings in the garage.

When, after his first championship, Johnson went for a beer-fueled joy ride and fell off the roof of a moving golf cart, only his friends were there to see it. And when the following season began, Johnson was back in the garage, buttoned-up and ready for work.

MORE: Hashtag has deeper meaning for JJ

“In my eyes, I think there’s a lack of connection with me,” Johnson acknowledged with customary frankness. “I think the way I was raised, and the way opportunities happened for me — being so structured, so corporate — that’s the road I had to take.

“It created this opportunity for me, but I think it hurt a connection point with the fans … I was rewarded for sticking to the corporate message. I was rewarded, and doors kept opening when I played that corporate game just right.”

It wasn’t that Johnson was a silver-spoon driver — far from it. Born into a family of modest means, he paid his dues in motorsports, first in off-road racing, then in the lower ranks of stock car competition. After an undistinguished NASCAR Xfinity Series career that produced a single victory, he got his major break.

At the urging of NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon, team owner Rick Hendrick took a chance on Johnson. So did sponsor Lowe’s, which backed the driver financially for 17 years. Much more comfortable in the higher-horsepower Cup cars, Johnson won three races and four poles during his 2002 rookie season and finished fifth in the final standings.

For the next 15 years, Johnson would win at least two races per season, with a high-water mark of 10 in 2007. After winning the 13th race of 2017, however, Johnson and the No. 48 team have fallen on hard times. Johnson and Knaus split in 2018, the result of a precipitous decline in chemistry between the two.

PHOTOS: Every Jimmie victory

Kevin Meendering started the 2018 season as crew chief of the No. 48 team but was gone before the end of the summer, replaced by engineer Cliff Daniels, with whom Johnson is far more simpatico. Through all the changes, Johnson’s winless streak has reached 95 races.

Clearly, the seven-time champion would prefer to go out with a bang, not a whimper. That said, he’s approaching this season with different attitude, knowing it will be his last shot at a championship.

“My ultimate goal this year, and what happened through the self-awareness of the offseason, is just about being present,” Johnson said. “I’m going to get in that car, I’m going to give it a hundred percent, as I always do, and who knows what the outcome’s going to be.

“I’m going to lay it on the line and go. I’m not chasing it. I’m just going to be present and try to be me. But, absolutely, I’m out there to win an eighth championship. This is about winning races, making the playoffs and trying to get in that final four.”

NASCAR fans likely will see Johnson in a car from time to time after this season, just not on a weekly basis.

“In my own head, I’m not done yet, and I don’t want to get to a point to where I’m pissed off going to the track and I don’t want to be there,” Johnson said. “I want to give a hundred percent. I know I can do that in 2020.

“So kind of the culmination of Cliff’s leadership, some internal reflection, knowing what I can give and the level I want to give it, it just felt right. It just felt good and felt right to make 2020 my last full-time year.”

And perhaps that special connection with the fans will come at the culmination of his career.

“I feel that I’m now growing into a point to where I’m more comfortable to talk and openly express whatever the hell I’m feeling and not worry about it, where I was always maybe a bit reserved,” Johnson said. “And that just didn’t translate well.

“Watching Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) come out of his shell … thankfully, for the sport, he was always very interesting and articulate and interviewed in a way that captivated the audience. I think he’s almost had a reverse. Now, I think, to his social circles, he’s finally more open and is evolved a lot in that space.

“I’m coming at it the other way. I’ve been very evolved in my little circle of friends where I’m comfortable, but forward-facing to the cameras, to the public, I’m just becoming more comfortable in that space.”

All that’s left is for the public to understand and embrace one of the nicest guys in the garage — and one of the most talented in the history of the sport.