Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola led a parade of seven Fords that topped the charts in Thursday’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session in preparation for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 (Sat., 7 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Thursday’s final practice was canceled because of rain after a downpour began shortly after the start of the 4:05 p.m. ET session.
Thus, in the only practice session before Saturday’s race, Bowyer guided his No. 14 SHR Ford around Daytona International Speedway at 200.799 mph for the fastest time of the day.
Almirola, meanwhile, logged a lap at 200.691 mph in his No. 10 Ford.
All three Team Penske Fords rounded out the top five — Brad Keselowski in the No. 2 at 200.553 mph, Joey Logano in the No. 22 at 200.539 mph and Ryan Blaney in the No. 12 at 200.530 mph.
The other two Stewart-Haas Racing drivers — Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick — finished sixth and seventh in the day’s early practice session.
Defending Coke Zero Sugar 400 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was 26th out of 39 drivers, recording a lap at 198.360 mph.
NASCAR announced this offseason it will standardize at-track team rosters across all three national series in 2018, providing a structure for the number of personnel working on each vehicle during the course of a race weekend.
Official team rosters for Saturday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) have been released. Click the print icon above, or the link below.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Chase Elliott said that he is OK and that X-rays were negative after spraining his ankle Wednesday.
Elliott indicated through his personal Twitter account Thursday that he is clear to participate in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He said that he suffered the injury “horsing around” at the pool on Independence Day.
Horsing around at the pool yesterday and sprained my ankle but I’m good to go @DISupdates. Xrays clean. 👊 #di9
Elliott walked under his own power, but limped noticeably to his Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet before opening practice for Saturday night’s 400-miler.
Elliott is set for double-duty this weekend at Daytona International Speedway, participating in Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race and also making his fifth Xfinity Series start of the year in Friday’s Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Elliott sits 13th in Monster Energy Series points after 17 events this season.
It was an opportunistic pass, one that ultimately also proved to be the winning pass.
Last July, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was trailing leader David Ragan with two laps remaining in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, but couldn’t find a way to pass Ragan despite multiple attempts to do so. His chance came when Ragan swung his car high to block the charging Ty Dillon, creating a hole on the bottom that allowed Stenhouse to capitalize. Stenhouse cleared Ragan and narrowly won by 0.213 seconds over second-place Clint Bowyer. (Ragan slid to finish sixth.)
“I zigged when I should have zagged,” Ragan said. “It’s tough to block two or three lanes coming to the white flag. I missed it on that run.”
Second-guessing oneself is easy to do at Daytona, where close finishes are the norm. Stenhouse’s margin of victory represented the sixth consecutive Daytona race where the difference between first and second was under half a second, and the Roush Fenway Racing driver was the eighth different Coke Zero Sugar 400 winner in as many years.
If Stenhouse can repeat Saturday night (7 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), he would be the first driver since Tony Stewart in 2005 and 2006 to accomplish the feat. But while Stenhouse is expected to be among the contenders, recent history suggests just about anyone in the 40-car field could reach Victory Lane. It was in this race in 2011 that Ragan won his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, with Aric Almirola doing the same three years later.
NASCAR’s return to Daytona for its annual summer stop also offers Almirola a chance at vindication after a disappointing end to the Daytona 500 in February. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver was leading on the white flag lap when contact with Austin Dillon sent him crashing into the outside wall. Dillon would go on to win the Daytona 500, Almirola finished 11th.
Almirola experienced more frustration last Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway where he led a career-high 70 laps only to be stymied by two separate loose wheels necessitating a pair of unscheduled green-flag pit stops. Instead of possibly scoring his second career win with a car he described as the best he’s ever driven, Almirola placed 25th in the race. The winner was Kyle Busch, who triumphed in a classic finish where he and runner-up Kyle Larson slammed and banged several times over the final lap.
“I am really frustrated, but the good news is that our cars are fast,” Almirola said. “We can build on that. We are going to win a race. I guarantee you we are going to win a race. We have to be perfect to do it, though.”
And for Almirola, if that perfect race is Saturday, it might just erase that recent frustration.
Upon being presented with the Medal of Honor for his actions in combat in Afghanistan, Master Sergeant Leroy Petry shared the credit with his fellow servicemembers.
“To be singled out is very humbling,” Petry said after receiving the Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama on July 12, 2011. “I consider every one of our men and women in uniform serving here and abroad to be our heroes.”
Daytona is honoring Petry and two more United States Army veterans who were awarded the Medal of Honor at the Coke Zero Sugar 400. They will take part in a luncheon, drivers meetings and pre-race ceremonies. | Coke Zero 400 tickets
“Recognizing Medal of Honor recipients is one of the most important traditions we have at Daytona International Speedway,” said speedway President Chip Wile. “This recognition is rooted in our facility’s history, while also being embedded in the values all Americans hold dear. It is a true privilege to have these American heroes join us for our race weekend.”
Petry is a 38-year-old Army Ranger from Santa Fe, New Mexico, who lost his hand picking up a grenade thrown at his fellow Rangers while conducting a rare daylight raid on a Taliban compound in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktya Province on May 26, 2008. Petry already had been shot through both legs and injured by another grenade.
“I actually didn’t think it was going to go off,” Petry told The Army News Service about the grenade. “I didn’t really feel much pain. I didn’t know it had gone off and taken my hand until I sat back up and saw it was completely amputated at the wrist.”
Petry re-enlisted after the injury, intending to serve 20 years with the Rangers. He and his wife Ashley have four children: Brittany, Austin, Reagan and Landon.
Read Master Sergeant Petry’s full official Medal of Honor citation:
Staff Sergeant Leroy A. Petry distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action with an armed enemy in the vicinity of Paktya Province, Afghanistan, on May 26, 2008. As a Weapons Squad Leader with D Company, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Staff Sergeant Petry moved to clear the courtyard of a house that potentially contained high-value combatants. While crossing the courtyard, Staff Sergeant Petry and another Ranger were engaged and wounded by automatic weapons fire from enemy fighters. Still under enemy fire, and wounded in both legs, Staff Sergeant Petry led the other Ranger to cover. He then reported the situation and engaged the enemy with a hand grenade, providing suppression as another Ranger moved to his position. The enemy quickly responded by maneuvering closer and throwing grenades. The first grenade explosion knocked his two fellow Rangers to the ground and wounded both with shrapnel. A second grenade then landed only a few feet away from them. Instantly realizing the danger, Staff Sergeant Petry, unhesitatingly and with complete disregard for his safety, deliberately and selflessly moved forward, picked up the grenade, and in an effort to clear the immediate threat, threw the grenade away from his fellow Rangers. As he was releasing the grenade it detonated, amputating his right hand at the wrist and further injuring him with multiple shrapnel wounds. Although picking up and throwing the live grenade grievously wounded Staff Sergeant Petry, his gallant act undeniably saved his fellow Rangers from being severely wounded or killed. Despite the severity of his wounds, Staff Sergeant Petry continued to maintain the presence of mind to place a tourniquet on his right wrist before communicating the situation by radio in order to coordinate support for himself and his fellow wounded Rangers. Staff Sergeant Petry’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service, and reflect great credit upon himself, 75th Ranger Regiment, and the United States Army.
Editor’s note: Fantasy Fastlane will look at each race from a fantasy perspective, examining the top plays as well as several under-the-radar options and a play to avoid for NASCAR Fantasy Live. See the full analysis here.
Daytona International Speedway is a crown-jewel facility in modern-day sports, and part of its mystique is its ability to elicit upsets. For all of the moments like Richard Petty’s showdown with Cale Yarbrough in 1984 and Dale Earnhardt’s long-awaited victory in 1998, there are instances in which drivers faced with long odds avoid attrition and take advantage of the misfortune of others, earning surprising wins.
Might we see another upset victory in this weekend’s race? If so, the race must break in the driver’s favor similar to how it did in previous races that yielded outlier results.
Positioning for success while wishing for the bizarre
Greg Biffle’s lone restrictor-plate win came at Daytona in 2003. (Rusty Jarrett | Getty Images)
Greg Biffle’s only restrictor plate race win came in 2003 when he outlasted the Coke Zero Sugar 400 field in a contest of fuel mileage, a rare turn for a Daytona race. Dave Blaney was nearly awarded the Daytona 500 win in 2012 when a jet dryer exploded on the backstretch. Though Daytona has provided a worthy theater to the absurd, a driver and team can’t prepare for the seemingly impossible. They can, however, game plan around what could be a high-attrition event.
You’ll hear chatter about “The Big One” this weekend, and while large multi-car crashes have impacted races that indeed provided upset winners — two crashes consisting of more than 15 cars occurred in David Ragan’s 2011 victory and 2014’s rain-shortened Aric Almirola win — attrition doesn’t have to occur in clusters. Ward Burton won the 2002 Daytona 500 after favorites were systematically eliminated — Tony Stewart with a blown engine, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in a single-car accident and Sterling Marlin via penalty for exiting his car in order to remove debris during a red flag — leaving him to fend off Elliott Sadler and Geoffrey Bodine for the shocking win. Trevor Bayne was the victor in the 2011 Daytona 500, a race that saw 16 caution flags with the final two involving Earnhardt, Ryan Newman (who led a race-high 37 laps) and Clint Bowyer (led 31 laps).
How does a driver best take advantage of high attrition? The answer is easy to identify, but difficult to execute.
According to a study by Motorsports Analytics, the safest running whereabouts at Daytona dating back to the 2017 Daytona 500 and based on 11 accidents involving at least four cars, is 21st to 30th. In that range, 21st, 25th and 26th each held crash inclusion rates of 18.18 percent, while all other positions were included in just 9 percent of those crashes. Second through ninth in the running order topped out at 45 percent inclusion in big crashes, a recent trend; from 2013 to 2016, the lead group served as a safe space, as no position inside the top 6 held a higher inclusion rate than 15.79 percent. That’s no longer the case, as the front of the field has devolved into a feisty, uninhabitable place for its occupants.
In the instance a team is able to avoid mistakes and hold down one of the ideal running positions, it’ll also need some fortune during the moment when track position is its most vulnerable.
Location is everything on late-race restarts
Nine of the last 10 Daytona races included a restart in the final one-tenth of the event and upsets by Bayne, Ragan, Almirola and Austin Dillon all saw restarts inside of five laps from the race’s conclusion, but that common denominator isn’t enough. Location may matter more than execution on late-race restarts.
Last February’s Daytona 500 gave us relatively even restarting grooves, with cars restarting from the inside retaining their positions 62 percent of the time and those in the outside doing so at a 57 percent clip. This weekend’s race in Daytona will feature higher temperatures and a slicker surface, meaning those retention numbers likely won’t hold.
A look at a late-race restart in the 2017 Coke Zero 400. (Sarah Crabill | Getty Images)
A 50-percent retention in disparity, with the inside acting as the preferred among the first three rows and outside serving as the preferred for the rest of the field beginning with the fourth row, highlighted the 2017 Coke Zero Sugar 400. Four of the top five finishers, including winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., restarted from a preferred spot for the two-lap race-deciding shootout.
It’s near impossible to game track position prior to a restart, so lane assignment mostly falls on luck. That’s a tough reality to swallow on most other tracks, but at Daytona, the close proximity offered by the draft can allow drivers in the non-preferred groove to take actions into their own hands when restarting near the front; Dillon didn’t land a preferred restarting spot on the overtime restart in February, but he was slotted directly behind leader Almirola, in perfect position to deploy his race-winning bump-and-run maneuver.
Being in the right place in the right time is a staple of upsets and a linchpin for some of the most memorable moments in recent Daytona history.
GMS Racing driver Spencer Gallagher’s indefinite NASCAR suspension has been lifted, the sanctioning body announced Wednesday afternoon, after Gallagher successfully completed NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program.
On May 1, Gallagher was found to have violated Section 19 (NASCAR’s substance abuse policy) of the 2018 NASCAR rule book.
Gallagher, 28, agreed to participate in the Road to Recovery Program, a requirement before he was eligible to be cleared to race.
“The whole GMS organization is very proud of Spencer for getting reinstated after completing NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program after the results we received post-Talladega,” team president Mike Beam said in a statement. “Spencer will return to the No. 23 at Kentucky Speedway and then again after our agreed contracts are fulfilled.”
Gallagher, who drives the No. 23 Chevrolet, won his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series race April 28 at Talladega Superspeedway, making a pass on the final lap.
Gallagher has made 49 starts in the Xfinity Series and an additional 59 starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He has five top-five finishes and 22 top-10 finishes combined across both series.
“I want to assure everyone in the NASCAR community this one-time error in judgment will never happen again,” Gallagher said in a team release after his suspension was announced. ” … I promise you all here and now, I will do whatever it takes to make this right.”
Numbers mean plenty when it comes to building out your Fantasy Live teams each week. NASCAR.com will examine the stats outlook for each track in advance to help give you an edge as you set your lineups and bonus picks ahead of the race weekend.
Don’t forget to check back on NASCAR.com for additional insight from fantasy expert RJ Kraft, and watch Fantasy Fastlane with Jessica Ruffin and NBC Sports’ Steve Letarte for even more advice.
Top five average running position (per loop data from 2005 to present):
Driver
Average Running Position
Ryan Blaney
12.290
Bubba Wallace
13.666
Kyle Busch
14.250
Denny Hamlin
14.600
Jimmie Johnson
15.121
Top five in stage points earned at Daytona in 2017-18:
Driver
Stage points
Stage wins
Ryan Blaney
36
1
Kevin Harvick
28
1
Kurt Busch
28
1
Brad Keselowski
24
1
Joey Logano
23
0
Top five in points earned at Daytona in 2017-18:
Driver
Race points
Race win
Ryan Blaney
112
0
Paul Menard
108
0
Michael McDowell
99
0
AJ Allmendinger
95
0
Joey Logano
89
0
Most laps led in last three races at Daytona:
Driver
Laps led
Ryan Blaney
129
Kevin Harvick
57
Chase Elliott
47
Denny Hamlin
38
Brad Keselowski
37
Average starting position for last 10 winners: 8.2; no winning driver has started worse than 15th in that span
Active drivers to win pole: Jimmie Johnson (2), Chase Elliott (2), Kevin Harvick (1), Alex Bowman (1), Kyle Busch (1), Austin Dillon (1), Paul Menard (1), Martin Truex Jr. (1)
(Note: Matt Kenseth has a Daytona pole but is not on the entry list for Saturday night’s race)
Active drivers to win at Daytona: Jimmie Johnson (3), Jamie McMurray (2), Kevin Harvick (2), Ryan Newman (1), Denny Hamlin (1), Austin Dillon (1), Joey Logano (1), Kyle Busch (1), Aric Almirola (1), Trevor Bayne (1), Brad Keselowski (1), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (1), Kurt Busch (1), David Ragan (1)
(Note: Matt Kenseth has two Daytona wins and Derrike Cope has one, but neither are on the entry list for Saturday night’s race)
Most recent pole winner: Alex Bowman, 2018 Daytona 500
Last time pole-sitter won here: Dale Earnhardt Jr., July 2015
Where stage winners started from: Third (twice), fifth, 11th, 13th, 21st
Winning manufacturers of last 10 races: Ford-5, Chevrolet-4, Toyota-1
If Bubba Wallace wants to replicate or better his runner-up finish from the Daytona 500, much of it lies out of his control.
Like every one of the four restrictor-plate races on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule, anything can happen — and likely will — in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The rookie Richard Petty Motorsports driver is well aware that disaster can strike in an instant during the 160-lap patroitic summer classic at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, while he’s also experienced the reward for avoiding all the mayhem in the 500-miler back in February.
“The biggest thing is surviving,” Wallace told NASCAR.com. “We had two or three wrecks that I should have been a part of, but somehow we came out on the other side — on the clean side of it. …It’s all about if you can survive the madness or not.”
As far as expectations this time around, Wallace is cautiously optimistic that he can make another run to the front at Daytona happen, keeping in mind a 16th-place finish at Talladega in May doesn’t exactly make him a restrictor-plate track guru.
In Bubba’s eyes, second place was happenstance mixed with putting the No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro in the right place at the right time.
“A top five would be awesome,” said Wallace. “I don’t want people to start thinking I’m a speedway racer now. We just happened to miss all the wrecks and set ourselves up for a good finish.”
Wallace, sounding calm and cool, says superspeedway racing makes the No. 43 crew anything but relaxed because at Daytona, anything can occur.
“This is one of the most stressful weekends for everyone at the shop because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Wallace said. “The speedway races are insane. They’re wild. We’re going 200 miles-per-hour the entire time, so you’ve got to be mindful of what’s going on.”
As for Wallace’s stress level going into the race weekend, he says it’s not as high, taking a veteran-like approach.
“The only thing that I can control is everything that has to do with my race car and that’s it,” Wallace added. “Then anything outside of that is not up to me. I don’t stress about what I can’t control.”
Keeping realistic goals in mind, Wallace hopes Round Two at Daytona will play out similar — or even better — than the first.
“If we can manage to get through the last five laps of the race and go have some fun, like we did at Daytona, I think that would be a great weekend for us.”
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