Posted on by Staff Report

Joey Logano led final practice in the NASCAR Cup Series on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. Logano, the 2015 Daytona 500 winner, wheeled his No. 22 Team Penske Ford around the 2.5-mile superspeedway at a top speed of 200.517 mph.

Logano was the fastest of eight Fords at the top of the speed chart with Kevin Harvick, in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, coming in second at 200.512 mph. Brad Keselowski was third in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford at 200.499 mph.

Clint Bowyer, in the No. 14 SHR Ford, and Cole Custer, in the No. 41 SHR Ford, rounded out to the top five. Other Fords among that top group included Aric Almirola, David Ragan and Michael McDowell.

RELATED: Full Daytona Speedweeks schedule | Full final practice results

William Byron was the top Chevrolet in ninth place at 198.754 mph. Brendan Gaughan rounded out the top 10 in the No. 62 Chevrolet at 198.548 mph.

The Toyota group opted to bypass final practice as all of those manufacturer’s cars stayed in the garage.

This was the final time for cars on track before the 62nd running of the Daytona 500 (set to resume Monday at 4 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Steve Luvender

If there’s one thing true about the users of social media, it’s that they’re always right, no matter the subject. Post an opinion about anything at all, and somebody will tell you what’s actually correct.

With this foundational characteristic of Internet users in mind, I once again set out to put this rule to the test: Can people on Twitter guess the Championship 4 — the four drivers who will compete for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series title and Bill France Cup — before the 2020 season even begins?

This is the third year I posed the question to the larger Twitter populace. In 2018, nobody guessed correctly. Last year, things went a little better; we had two correct predictions.

For the most part, there have been plenty of predictions that are reasonable-sounding — at least right now. The Kyle Busches, the Denny Hamlins, the Joey Loganos (or is it Joeys Logano?) — the usual suspects. Basically, the drivers who NASCAR.com’s fantasy experts would pick.

Plus, we’ve got some bold predictions, like Daytona 500 polesitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the Championship 4.

Or Ryan Newman soaring into the championship round.

Or picks that could be interpreted in different ways.

Or picks that I suppose could end up technically accurate, though no driver names were provided.

It’s even possible to fan so hard for your driver you think they alone will occupy the entirety of the Championship 4.

And, of course, the examples of the Internet doing Internet things and making a mockery of this VERY SERIOUS contest, for which there is no prize.

Excellent use of Make My Driver!

Certainly don’t disagree with this one.

If you want in — because if somebody else doesn’t know it all, you do — reply to the original tweet with your Championship 4 picks. Be forewarned, though: if you miss all four picks, I’ll most definitely shame you on NASCAR.com later.

We’ll unearth this time capsule in November when the Championship 4 is decided the week between Martinsville and Phoenix, and see which — if any — pixel prognosticators proved prescient and picked perfectly.

Posted on by Staff Report

The No. 66 NASCAR Xfinity Series team of MBM Motorsports was assessed an L2-level penalty before Saturday morning’s qualifying session for manipulating bodywork on the nose of the car.

The L2 penalty means crew chief Sebastian Laforge has been suspended for six races, and the team has been fined $50,000. The suspension is effective immediately; Laforge was ejected from the garage.

RELATED: Daytona Speedweeks schedule

The team will be docked 75 points in the Xfinity team owner standings as well. A penalty for Timmy Hill in the driver standings was not assessed as Hill is eligible for championship points in the Gander Trucks Series.

Hill will be allowed to qualify the No. 66 for Saturday’s NASCAR Racing Experience 300 (2:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hill placed 16th in first practice on Friday and did not run a lap in final practice.

Posted on by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Jordan Anderson gambled big for the opportunity to open the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series season strong, investing in a new superspeedway truck for Friday night’s tilt at Daytona International Speedway. It’s nothing new for the scrappy South Carolinian who has driven his own hauler to races, maxed his bank accounts to compete and has cultivated support from sponsors and fans drawn to his winsome personality.

Anderson not only survived but flourished, just missing his first win by a matter of inches but salvaging a career-best second place in a fender-scraping clash with race winner Grant Enfinger. Not surprisingly, the jovial 28-year-old with the underdog ethos was beaming after the NextEra Energy 250, but with a twinge of bittersweet feeling after having a brush with Victory Lane slip away.

RELATED: Daytona Gander Truck Series results

“I’m excited. I’m excited, man,” Anderson said on pit road post-race. “I think I’m going to be disappointed when I’m laying in my bed at 2 a.m. tonight, watching the replay on Twitter and I’ll be like, Oh, it was so close! But I can’t be too disappointed. It’s Daytona and second place. Every kid dreams of coming here and competing at this level. The Truck Series has kind of been home for me the last couple of years and to get this finish is a huge blessing.”

Anderson threaded through a race of carnage, lining up for an overtime finish in sixth place with Enfinger out front. He was still fifth by the time the front-runners flashed under the white flag, then advanced to second when Ross Chastain bobbled after contact in Turn 1.

Anderson kept Enfinger in sight until he veered to the outside exiting Turn 4. As he raced alongside, Enfinger blocked his progress with a door-to-door slam to edge him out at the line. “I was able to chase him up, slow him down just enough and then get off of him after I had stalled his momentum,” Enfinger said. “I don’t know if I could do it again if we tried.”

For Anderson to come up just .010 seconds short, it was the next step in a life’s journey that’s he’s savored through the highs and lows.

“It means a lot, I’ll say that,” Anderson said. “This finish tonight hopefully is for every underdog in America, every kid that stays up late and works on his dirt Late Model or his Legends Car and dreams of coming here to Daytona. Hopefully this finish tonight encourages them to never give up on their dreams that you can come here and compete in NASCAR without having million-dollar sponsors, you can come here and fight and claw and dig and tell everybody that says you can’t do it, to prove them wrong and be here. This is for all those kids that are out there fighting for it. …

“I always talk about embracing the journey and I think embracing the journey is just believing that everything in life happens for a reason — good, bad, indifferent. Everything happens and we just try to learn from it, be better people and … this is cool. I’m usually a pretty happy guy, but this is huge.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Niece Motorsport’s Natalie Decker was grinning widely before she even arrived at the many microphones and reporters ready to interview the Wisconsin driver following her historic run in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series season-opener Friday night at Daytona International Speedway.

Decker, 22, of Eagle River, Wis., finished fifth in Friday’s NextEra Energy 250 — the highest ever finish for a female driver in series history; a fact that even she wasn’t aware of when she first approached the large crowd waiting to get her reaction.

It was Decker’s first top five, first top 10 and the best showing for her since a 13th-place finish at Las Vegas in March 2019 — her rookie season. And it was the polar opposite Daytona experience for Decker, who crashed on the opening lap of last year’s race.

RELATED: Daytona Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series results

“It was so amazing to be able to come here after last year when we were on fire on the first lap and come here and get a top five. I just think it’s incredible and I’m just so proud of my team and myself,” Decker said on pit road.

She was unaware of the historical significance.

“I didn’t even know that,” Decker said when informed that this was the best finish in series history for a female driver. “Wow. That is so cool. That makes me feel very proud. Thank you for telling me that.”

The finish was certainly encouraging but it was not easy, nor a forgone conclusion.

Decker started her No. 44 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado 30th in the 32-truck field and there were certainly moments of great pause. Literally. A dramatic accident on the front-stretch during the opening stage of racing brought out a brief red flag period to clean up the track. Two multi-truck accidents in the closing laps eliminated or damaged many of the pre-race favorites and forced a green-white-checkered flag situation.

Last year’s regular-season champion, Grant Enfinger, scored his first victory since 2018 in a photo finish alongside Jordan Anderson. Decker said she was eager to get into that mix and pushed through in the overtime period, holding her historic place under the checkered flag.

“From the beginning all the way up to the last two laps, my team just kept telling me to ride in the back, ride in the back and I was just so bored back there,” Decker said. “I was like, ‘Come on, I want to get up there and race and get a good finish.’

“And they were so right. Just missing all the wrecks in the last two laps and getting up there and finishing it out and getting ourselves a top five.

“It definitely was a rough year (last year) so to be able to come here to Daytona and get this finish makes me proud and makes me excited to go to the next one in Las Vegas.

“I know I was capable of doing this,” Decker added with a smile. “But it’s all about you needing to prove to other people and gain their respect and I hope I did that tonight.”

Posted on by Staff Report

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Grant Enfinger held off charging Jordan Anderson on the final lap of overtime Friday night at Daytona International Speedway to win the NextEra Energy 250 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race by .010 seconds.

Enfinger got his shot at the win after a massive wreck on Lap 98 of a scheduled 100 took out his ThorSport Racing teammate, Ben Rhodes, and a baker’s dozen of other contenders. Enfinger had the lead for a restart on Lap 105, but on the final circuit, Anderson made a move to the outside and briefly took the top spot as the drivers sped into the tri-oval.

But Enfinger turned the wheel of his No. 98 Ford to the right, door-slamming Anderson’s No. 3 Chevrolet and breaking his momentum just enough to get to the finish line with two feet to spare. Codie Rohrbaugh charged into third place, .070 seconds back, followed by rookie Derek Kraus and Natalie Decker, whose fifth-place finish was the highest ever by a female driver in the Truck Series.

MORE: Daytona Truck Series results

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Enfinger, who broke a 28-race winless streak in the series. “It’s the 100th win for Ford in the series–unbelievable for them. God’s blessed us with a great opportunity to come out here and pull it off tonight.

“The biggest thing is we had a really good F-150 to do it with. I made a mistake there with about 20 to go and got hung up there in the sucker hole. I pulled up in front of Ben (Rhodes) too late, and it was either going to wreck me or put me in the middle, and that’s what happened.

“It got to be about four or five laps to go, and it was time to go. We were able to get up in the third groove and make some stuff happen and get the lead during that last big wreck.”

Enfinger, who led a race-high 41 laps, won both the second stage and the race, but it was Anderson who was perhaps most elated by his runner-up finish—the first top five of his 102-race Gander Trucks career. Anderson could barely contain his excitement as he watched the replay on pit road.

“Grant, Grant, what are you doing door-slamming me man?” Anderson said with a laugh as the video rolled. “I came here in 2015 and emptied my bank account to try to come down here and run. To be in a position to even go for a win at Daytona, man, I’m a kid that just wanted to go racing from South Carolina …

“I thought we set him up good. We tried to follow Ross (Chastain) there and push him. I know he got loose, and I got up on Grant’s bumper there in (Turn) 4 and got a good run. It was like NASCAR Thunder 2003 all over again. I’m like, ‘God, I can do this!’ And I pushed him out of the way, and I thought we had it.”

With five laps left in the first stage, contact from Todd Gilliland’s Ford sent the Chevrolet of Tate Fogleman sliding out of control as the field entered Turn 1. Fogleman’s Silverado slammed into the Chevrolet of Austin Wayne Self, collecting the No. 45 of Ty Majeski in the process.

Majeski’s Chevrolet tipped over, with help from Fogleman, and the truck slid on its roof through Turn 1, the contact between the sheet metal and asphalt sending a shower of sparks along its path. NASCAR red-flagged the race while the emergency crew righted the truck, enabling Majeski to climb out.

“It’s just unfortunate,” Majeski said after exiting the infield care center. “It’s just a product of this (superspeedway) racing… It wasn’t a good feeling (hanging upside-down). I’m not hurt, thankfully—just my pride. It’s all good. We’ll live to race another day and go get ‘em next weekend.”

The fiery action-filled race featured three wrecks of nine trucks or more, the last of which set up the overtime finish. Austin Hill, Johnny Sauter, Chastain, Sheldon Creed and Jason White completed the top 10.

Posted on by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ty Majeski had never flipped in a stock car — or truck — before Friday night. He got his money’s worth on the first one.

Majeski’s Niece Motorsports No. 45 Chevrolet made the earliest and most dramatic exit from Friday’s season-opening NextEra Energy 250, sending a deluge of sparks for several hundred feet into Turn 1 in a multi-vehicle tangle at Daytona International Speedway. The wild ride red-flagged the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Trucks opener with just 15 of a scheduled 100 laps complete.

Majeski was near the front of the inside lane when Todd Gilliland’s push of Tate Fogleman in the center lane went askew. Fogleman’s sliding No. 02 Chevrolet knocked Austin Wayne Self’s No. 22 Chevy out of line, catching Majeski’s truck in the crossfire and triggering his rollover.

“I was just trying to protect myself and brace myself in case another truck came in and hit me,” Majeski said after an evaluation at Daytona’s infield care center. “Just trying to stay calm, keep yourself braced and hang on for the ride.”

Majeski, a decorated Super Late Model driver in his first Gander Trucks season, exited unharmed, but his Al Niece-owned entry was less fortunate. The 250-miler was stopped for 7 minutes, 59 seconds to right the No. 45 truck on four wheels after its prolonged skid.

“We have a lot of great safety equipment. These vehicles have come such a long way,” Majeski said. “NASCAR’s done such a great job keeping us safe. Just a lot of sparks, a lot of debris flying around. My shield popped open, so I had to shut it just to try to keep all the debris out of there. Obviously there’s sparks flying and sparks hitting my face. Obviously not an ideal situation.”

Self was trying to lead the charge in the outside lane when the three-wide contest unraveled. The opening race of the season typically holds such promise, but the 23-year-old Texan was left lamenting the hectic nature of the night’s racing with the bulk of the event remaining.

“It’s just unfortunate,” Self said. “You come to Daytona and you think of the big trophy, you think of Victory Lane, but at the end of the day, there’s always a good chance. I think it’s got to be higher than 80 percent chance that this is how your night’s going to end. I’m just totally disappointed it happened this early, right?”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Stewart-Hass Racing driver Chase Briscoe posted one NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in each of the last two seasons.

Should he duplicate that performance in the 2020 season, however, the 25-year old Mitchell, Indiana, native would consider it a failure.

“Yeah, I feel like it’s kind of my make-or-break season,” said Briscoe, who will drive SHR’s only Xfinity Series entry, now that Cole Custer has advanced to the NASCAR Cup Series. “This is the first year I feel like I haven’t had that excuse of I don’t have the experience anymore, because I finally have that.

RELATED: Xfinity Series Daytona Practice 2 results

“Ford has obviously spent a lot of money on me in the past and really trying to develop me and I feel like this is finally my time to show that I’m here to win races.”

With Custer, Christopher Bell, two-time Xfinity Series champion Tyler Reddick and John Hunter Namecheck all stepping up to NASCAR’s premier series, Briscoe sees nothing but opportunity ahead.

“Cole won seven (races) last year, and obviously with the Big Three guys going, it opens up a lot more opportunities to win races. I felt like at the end of last season we were battling with them for wins quite a bit, so I feel like if we do our jobs, then there’s no reason why we can’t go win eight to 10 races.

“Obviously, I’m not going to say it’s a failure if we win six or whatever, but I feel like we certainly, if we do our job right, we can win eight to 10 races, and I’m confident with that statement.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Inclement weather in the Daytona Beach area has delayed the start of Friday night’s NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona International Speedway (live coverage on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Daytona Truck Series starting lineup

Light rain hit the 2.5-mile superspeedway in the early evening, forcing teams to keep trucks covered as the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series official green-flag time of 7:43 p.m. ET neared.

A fleet of 18 Air Titans, 12 jet dryers, two vacuums and one sweeper are at the speedway for track-drying efforts.

Riley Herbst is set to lead the field to green in the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota once things get rolling.

NASCAR.com will continue to monitor the weather situation and provide further updates once they become available.

Posted on by Staff Report

William Byron topped the leaderboard in Friday’s third overall NASCAR Cup Series practice at Daytona International Speedway at 204.587 mph in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Byron won the second of Thursday night’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel races that finalized the field for Sunday’s Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Joey Logano, William Byron win Duel races

Right behind him was Ryan Preece, in the JTG Daugherty Racing No. 37 Chevrolet at 204.096 mph, and teammate Chase Elliott in the No. 24 Chevy at 203.869 mph

Rounding out the top five were Ty Dillon in the No. 13 Germain Racing Chevy (203.422 mph) and Tyler Reddick in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet (202.922 mph). And next came Byron’s other Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Chevy (202.698 mph) and Alex Bowman in the No. 88 Chevy (202.657 mph).

MORE: Full practice results | Daytona 500 lineup

Defending Daytona 500 champ Denny Hamlin was eighth in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 201.821 mph.

NASCAR on FOX’s Larry McReynolds announced during the session that he was informed by NASCAR’s Jay Fabian that Dillon would need to drop to the rear for Sunday’s race as a result of a gear change in his No. 13.

 

Final Daytona 500 practice is Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET on FS1.