The No. 88 Chevrolet has had better weekends — both in Daytona and much farther away, across the Atlantic.
A former Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevy SS driven by Ed Berrier crashed Sunday during the Goodwood Festival of Speed, impacting the hay bales just off the first corner. The annual hill climb on Lord March’s estate in England features historic vehicles from all walks of motorsports.
Berrier, a former driver who holds the distinction of winning the final XFINITY Series race at Hickory Motor Speedway, has driven at Goodwood before. This year, however, he was at the tail end of the 43 entrants in the timed rally.
The NASCAR world was well represented at the four-day event, which is part car show, part exhibition and part competition — all with plenty of rare machinery participating.
Longtime NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Mike Skinner wowed the Goodwood crowd with plenty of smoky burnouts in his No. 5 Toyota Tundra in preliminary events. In the Sunday Shootout, he led the NASCAR delegation with an impressive sixth-place run overall, pouring it on with an on-the-edge charge up the hill. He also briefly turned the steering wheel over to WWE wrestler Goldberg.
Billy Johnson wrapped up a busy two-week stretch. After making his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut at Sonoma on June 25, he was in Goodwood the following weekend, securing 13th overall in a Ford Mustang GT4.
Johnson was just ahead of a pair of representatives from the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. Thomas Ferrando was 14th overall, just .02 seconds ahead of series CEO Jerome Galpin.
Other former NASCAR drivers turned out for the exhibition portions. Bobby Labonte, the 2000 premier-series champ, drove a former Richard Petty No. 43 STP Pontiac. Kerry Earnhardt powered a Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Goodwrench Chevrolet once driven by his father up the hill, nailing some burnouts along the way.
LEVEL CROSS, N.C. – It’s been 25 years since the King of stock car racing climbed out of his race car for the last time and Richard Petty turns 80 years old this weekend.
Sunday, to be exact.
“It doesn’t really seem that long,” Petty told NASCAR.com recently during an interview and tour of the Petty Museum and compound. “What makes it … that I know it’s been a long time is when I look at the cars today and see what kind of cars we drove. You see the safety features that we didn’t have or how the cars were built.
“It’s a new era, a completely different race car. Still got a number on it, still got Goodyear tires on it or whatever, but the cars are so much different.”
His driving career began in 1958, shortly after his 21st birthday. It ended 35 years later, in 1992.
“The safety features are the things that I see that’s been the improvement the last 15-20 years,” he said. “It’s just unreal that some of us have survived with the equipment we had. … I think that’s where I see my 25-year separation.
In between all those years were wins and records and wins and plaques and wins and proclamations and injuries and still more wins. Two hundred wins in all, a record likely never to be matched. Only two other drivers have equaled his seven championships — Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson.
But Richard Petty is more than records, wins and championships and consecutive starts and career starts and just about any other record you can find in the record book.
Richard Petty is a living, breathing, walking, talking piece of Americana. He is stock car racing history in the flesh.
He is at the race track nearly every single weekend. If the No. 43 is competing, the King is likely somewhere nearby. Perched atop the hauler. Headed to a sponsor appearance. Waving at the Goodyear tire busters and nodding to the workers by the Sunoco gas pumps.
His continued at-track involvement dulled any desire to return to competition long ago.
“Driving the race car was my hobby,” Petty said. “I worked on the car, did promotions, hauled the cars to the track in a truck. You did what everybody else was doing at that time.
“The big thing was every Sunday or Saturday night I could get in that race car and I could be Richard Petty. Any other time I was just with the crowd. But (in the car) you’re an individual, doing your own thing; you try to run fast but if you don’t then you try to do the best you can.
“But you’re in that car and you just become part of the car. The hobby deal was that got me away from the telephone, all the bills I need to be paying, whatever it is. I can completely concentrate on nothing except what I want to do. That was the good part.”
It was a family affair from the very beginning, with father Lee competing in the very first NASCAR-sanctioned “Strictly Stock” event in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1949. Strictly Stock was the forerunner to what’s known today as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. And a Petty has been involved every year since.
Lee Petty went on to become NASCAR’s first three-time champion. When he was injured in a crash at Daytona in 1961, an incident that eventually led to his retirement from driving, Richard was already beginning to carve out his own racing career.
Richard’s brother Maurice became the organization’s engine builder and cousin Dale Inman eventually became crew chief. The three Pettys, along with Inman, are members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
“We’re probably the only team in the world that’s got the whole team in the Hall of Fame; that’s a big deal,” Richard Petty said proudly.
• • •
In 1992, Petty was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H.W. Bush.
After his opening remarks, Bush noted that “I’m going to keep this relatively short today because afterwards Richard Petty and I are going to take a few laps … in the No. 43.”
President Ronald Reagan gave the command to start the engines for the Firecracker 400 at Daytona in 1984 from aboard Air Force One while en route to Daytona.
Reagan attended the race and had dinner on the grounds with drivers and officials afterward. The date was July 4 and the race winner was Petty, who had just scored his 200th and final NASCAR victory.
Someone once asked Petty what it was like to meet the various Presidents.
“Just another day in the life of Richard Petty,” he quipped.
• • •
To this day, Petty and Inman enjoy a close relationship, often poking fun at one another.
Inman likes to remind Petty that while Petty has seven championship rings, Inman has eight (he scored an eighth title as a crew chief with Terry Labonte in 1984). Petty likes to tell others that had it not be for Inman, the King might have won 400 races instead of “only” 200.
“I was spotting for him one year at Talladega,” Inman said, “and I clicked the radio and said ‘mic check.’ Nothing.
“Clicked it again. “Mic check. Richard, you got me?’
“Finally, I clicked it a third time and said, ‘Richard, you’re going to have to put a little more effort into it and click the button. I can’t see you nod your damn head when you’re over there on the backstretch.'”
He’s spent much of his life traveling from one place to another but Richard Petty maintains close ties to his hometown. The fire station just up the road from the Petty compound is Station No. 43, a nod to the legendary racer.
He and his family’s contributions to the community have been consistent throughout the years, unfailing but often out of the spotlight.
“The fire department, well we’ve got houses and businesses,” Petty says. “The schools – my wife was on the school board for 16 years and we had kids that went to the Randleman High School. …
“You get requests from people all over the world and all over the United States … and I guess my deal is charity begins at home. These people are the ones that I live with, they work with us, we go to church together, whatever it may be. If you’re going to help out in society I feel like you should do it as close to home as you can.”
That includes Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman, a summer camp for kids with various medical conditions. The camp was the idea of Adam Petty, Richard’s grandson, and was carried on by the family following Adam’s death on the race track in 2000.
“We do a lot of stuff with Victory Junction; that’s been a big, big portion of what we do,” Petty said. “(It) has become part of the Level Cross/Randleman community. Everybody I think is pretty proud they’ve got something like that in our area.”
How would a 21-year-old Petty fare on the race track today?
“You know, if Richard Petty came along in this generation, he would be OK,” Petty said. “But you couldn’t take Richard Petty from 40 years ago, stick him in one of these cars and expect him to perform the way he did with the cars he had at that particular time.
“And it’d be the same way as taking the guys today and putting them back in a 25-, 30-year-old car. It’s completely different and they’d have to learn all over again.”
• • •
The tall, lanky figure in the cowboy hat and sunglasses and oversized belt buckle still stands out when walking through the garage. He continues to draw a crowd, fans rushing forward, seeking the unmistakable autograph or a photo, whether it’s at the race track or somewhere else. Anywhere else.
“We went off to England, up to Scotland,” he said, “and I didn’t wear my cowboy hat. I bought one of the Scottish wool hats. We were standing there at some castle … and three or four people came up and got my autograph.”
It isn’t a complaint. It’s simply the way it’s been for most of his life.
“It wasn’t a deal where … nobody knew me and all of a sudden you were thrown in the limelight,” he said. “All my stuff has come a little at a time and as it did you accept it as the way things are going to be so you just go along with it.”
He stopped racing years ago. He just didn’t stop being Richard Petty.
He’s turning 80 and he hasn’t raced a car in 25 years but Richard Petty is still very much the King.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Larson’s car shot sparks and climbed skyward.
Kurt Busch’s No. 41 Ford was clipped and smashed the outside wall, his hood rising unnaturally to meet the windshield.
Matt Kenseth went from race leader to mowing the lawn.
The “Big One” yielded all of the above Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, with a wild wreck on Lap 152 (of 163) bringing a little bit of everything and punctuating what was a wilder-than-usual night at the 2.5-mile oval.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. survived it all, powering through the field late for his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of the season. Most everyone else wasn’t so fortunate.
“It seemed like we were three-wide all night tonight,” third-place finisher Paul Menard said. “Why that is, I have no idea. Before the race I was trying to figure out if it was going to be a wild race or not, and I knew it was going to be a wild race for some reason. Night race, sparks flying, had a crazy XFINITY race a couple hours before.
“You know, why some races are wilder than others, I don’t know. It’s pretty damned hot out there, not a lot of grip, and cars are sliding around.”
The summarizing visual was Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet snapping into the outside wall and lifting off the ground and into the fence, with Ryan Blaney — with no place to go — T-boning into him as the car landed.
Larson emerged unscathed, but the same could not be said for his Chevrolet — it was trashed beyond repair.
“I was just up front there and doing what I could to stay up front,” Larson said. ” … I just moved up too high and ran across Ricky’s (Stenhouse Jr.) nose and I hate that I caused that wreck. I feel pretty bad about it.”
Busch, this year’s Daytona 500 winner, missed out on the Daytona sweep. His smack of the wall, while less cinematic than Larson catching air, was the hardest impact of the night.
“I saw some crazy stuff happening on the high side,” Busch said after his release from the infield care center, and most drivers echoed that.
This Daytona under the lights felt … different. It was a wild race from the start (“The fans got their money’s worth,” Danica Patrick quipped), with drivers spreading out to three-wide early in Stage 1 and staying there for most of the night.
Way different race tonight than usual. Combo of the short stages & softer Goodyear tire has made the track super easy to drive= wreckfest
It yielded an ending that saw many of the sport’s top plate racers — Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano among them — either parked for good in the garage, or on the plane back to North Carolina.
The final restart saw Ty Dillon and David Ragan leading the field to green with two laps to go.
At the end of Saturday night, and into Sunday morning, the explanation became simple, really.
“At the end of the day, you’re three-wide because you can,” said runner-up Clint Bowyer. “Then all of a sudden somebody starts slipping up off the corner, or checks up, late block, something. And the rest is history.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The major story of Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola – Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s final run at his beloved Daytona International Speedway in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – turned out to be a footnote to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s masterful victory in a war of attrition that produced a race-record 14 cautions.
The driver of the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, who got his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory in his 158th career start two months ago at Talladega, established himself as a restrictor-plate wizard with his second straight superspeedway win, this one after three laps of overtime.
Stenhouse lined up behind race leader David Ragan for a restart on Lap 162, after a caution for a backstretch collision involving Jamie McMurray, Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones slowed the action for the 14th time and sent the race to overtime.
Ragan pulled out to a two-car-length lead after the restart, but Stenhouse surged past him near the end of the backstretch and protected the top spot the rest of the way. Clint Bowyer charged into the runner-up position at the finish, beating third-place finisher Paul Menard to the stripe.
After the Talladega victory, Stenhouse talked team owner Jack Roush into letting him keep the winning car. So the No. 17 team built another superspeedway car that was just as fast.
“I kept my Talladega car and told them to build a new one,” said Stenhouse, who locked himself into the postseason playoff with his second victory of the season. “They built a Fifth Third Ford that was really fast …
“This is awesome! I’ve been coming here since 2008. I actually came in 2006 one time with Bobby Hamilton Jr., and it’s cool to put it in Victory Lane and get our second win this year. I love it! Thank you to the fans for coming out here. Everyone at NASCAR. What a great weekend. America! 1776! We are the champs! … This validates what we did at Talladega.”
A succession of multicar wrecks crippled or eliminated more than a handful of contenders, the most notable of which was Earnhardt, the polesitter.
On Lap 52, Earnhardt felt his right front tire losing air but was trapped in the outside lane. Inadvertent contact from Menard nudged the No. 88 into the outside wall near the entrance to Turn 1, obliterating the top third of the car number on the right side.
Earnhardt lost two laps on pit road but returned to the lead lap as the highest-scored lapped car after eventual seventh-place finisher Brendan Gaughan scraped the wall on Lap 90 to cause the seventh caution. Earnhardt restarted 31st but drove up to sixth before Kevin Harvick blew a tire and spun in front of Earnhardt in Turn 2 on Lap 106.
In a wreck that involved five cars and also eliminated the Ford of Stage 1 winner Brad Keselowski, Earnhardt hit Harvick’s Ford broadside, effectively ending the evening for both drivers.
But that was just a prelude to the intense action that would follow, as an unlikely cast of characters claimed positions in the top 10. Michael McDowell came home fourth, scoring his first top-five in 230 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts.
Ryan Newman was fifth, followed by Ragan, Gaughan, AJ Allmendinger, Jones (whose No. 77 Toyota survived a succession of incidents) and Chris Buescher.
A second-place finisher at Sonoma last Sunday, Bowyer was already growing weary of the runner-up role.
“This bridesmaid deal sucks,” Bowyer said. “I want to win. We’re in this business to win. That’s what (owners) Tony (Stewart) and Gene (Haas) pay me to do.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It was definitely a dramatic final run at Daytona International Speedway for Dale Earnhardt Jr., just not the drama the two-time Daytona 500 winner – or his massive fandom – had in mind.
An inspiring early race rally from two laps down was negated when his Chevy was tagged in the waning laps, collected by Kevin Harvick’s crashing Ford. It ended Earnhardt’s night and possibly capped his incredible Daytona Monster Energy NASCAR Cup career with a 32nd-place finish in Saturday’s Coke Zero 400.
It wasn’t the finish Earnhardt or his fans had hoped for, although he provided plenty of energy and excitement to the night.
“Kinda got shuffled back early, not in the right line for a while but got back up there and finished second in the first stage trying to win that thing,” Earnhardt said. “We had a little flat tire, got four-wide a couple times. Man, it was a lot of fun. Everyone was real aggressive banging doors and sliding against the fence. It was pretty wild; like a short track race out there tonight.”
Earnhardt went down two laps after hitting the wall only a quarter of the way into the 200-lap race. The right side of his No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet suffered some damage in the impact and his crew struggled to change his right-front tire on ensuing pit stops.
But Earnhardt and team were not about to give up. This is Daytona, after all, where he is hailed as a hero and boasts 17 career wins in both points and exhibition races.
His Hendrick Motorsports crew made quick work with the repairs, losing only the two laps – one of which he got back less than 20 laps later when a multi-car crash brought the field to yellow.
He got back on the lead lap on a Lap 90 caution when Brendan Gaughan slapped the outside wall. He worked his way into the top five only to have his run ultimately cut short while running behind a spinning Harvick.
“The 4 car (Harvick) cut a tire down and there really wasn’t much I could do,” Earnhardt said. “Wasn’t a hard hit. We’ll get it going for next week.”
Despite the rough ending on the night, Earnhardt smiled during his interview and acknowledged the tributes and well-wishes he had received all weekend.
“There was a ton of buildup with this being our last Daytona,” Earnhardt said. “I was going crazy today with all the media talking about this being our last Daytona.
“We’ve got a lot of racing left. … We’ll be back next weekend. I know a lot of people thought this was our best shot to win but we’ll have a little more fuel to work hard and try to win at these other race tracks we go to. We’ll work hard to make it happen.”
After graciously thanking the media for their interest, Earnhardt wished everyone a good night and hopped onto a golf cart to be whisked away to his motor coach.
He didn’t get much more than 20 feet before the cart stopped abruptly for the sport’s Most Popular Driver to sign a few final autographs for a handful of enthusiastic fans.
Just as the cart was about to pull away, he took off his own cap and signed it. He asked the first hand that reached out to him to give the hat to a youngster standing nearby.
As he looked up to hand the hat off, however, he saw the person standing in front of him was Army National Guard specialist Stacy Entwistle Jr. — a nearby Deltona, Florida, resident dressed in full camouflage uniform.
So instead, Earnhardt smiled, and told Entwistle, “You keep the hat and thank you for your service.”
Entwistle walked away feeling like he’d been given a national treasure. For him, it certainly was.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, this is incredible,” Entwistle said.
Thursday, July 6
5 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Buckle Up In Your Truck 225, Qualifying, FS1
6 p.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series: Alsco 300, Final Practice, NBCSN (Canada: TSN GO)
6 p.m., Refuse to Lose: Jeff Gordon and the 1997 Daytona 500, FS1 (re-air)
7 p.m., NCWTS Setup Kentucky, FS1
7:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Buckle Up In Your Truck 225, FS1
9:30 p.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Post-Race Show, FS1
Friday, July 7
6:30 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Buckle Up In Your Truck 225, Qualifying, FS1 (re-air)
7:30 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Buckle Up In Your Truck 225, FS1 (re-air)
12 p.m., NASCAR K&N Pro East Series: Stars & Stripes 150, NBCSN (re-air)
1 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series: Quaker State 400, Final Practice, NBCSN (Canada: TSN 2)
4:30 p.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series: Alsco 300, Qualifying, NBCSN (Canada: TSN GO)
5:30 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN
6 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series: Quaker State 400, Qualifying, NBCSN (Canada: TSN 2)
7:30 p.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series Countdown to Green, Kentucky, NBCSN
11 p.m., NASCAR The Decades “The 1980s”, NBCSN
Saturday, July 8
9 a.m., NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Buckle Up In Your Truck 225, FS2 (re-air)
12 p.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series: Alsco 300, NBCSN (Canada; TSN 2)
2 p.m., NASCAR The Decades “The 1980s”, NBCSN (re-air)
4:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series: Quaker State 400, Qualifying, NBCSN (re-air)
6 p.m., NASCAR America Saturday, NBCSN
7 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Countdown to Green, Kentucky NBCSN
7:30 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series: Quaker State 400, NBCSN (Canada: TSN 2)
11 p.m., Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Post-Race Show, Kentucky, NBCSN
11:30 p.m.: NASCAR Victory Lap, NBCSN
NASCAR heads to Kentucky for a tripleheader of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series action starting Wednesday, July 5. Check out the full weekend schedule below.
All Monster Energy Series and XFINITY Series events are also live streamed online on the NBC Sports App, which can be accessed here. Events that are only available on NBC Sports App are noted below.
Note: All times are ET.
SATURDAY, JULY 8: XFINITY SERIES RACE (rescheduled)
– noon: NASCAR XFINITY Series Alsco 300 (200 laps, 300 miles), NBCSN (Results) (Canada: TSN 2)
MONSTER ENERGY SERIES RUN OF SHOW
7:30:00 Presentation of Colors by Boone County Sheriff’s Department
7:30:20 Invocation by Larry Campbell, Track Chaplain, Kentucky Raceway Ministries
7:31:00 National Anthem by Linkin’ Bridge, From America’s Got Talent and Louisville’s Own
7:32:45 Fly-by performed by C-130, 123rd Airlift Wing, Kentucky National Guard
7:37:30 Command for “Driver’s, Start Your Engines” delivered by Tom Greco, President and CEO, Advance Auto Parts
ON TRACK
– 7:30 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 Presented by Advance Auto Parts (267 laps, 400.5 miles), NBCSN (Results) (Canada: TSN 2)
PRESS PASS (Watch live)
– 11:30 p.m.: Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race
WEDNESDAY, JULY 5: ON TRACK
– 3-4:25 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice (Results)
– 5-6:25 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series final practice (Results)
THURSDAY, JULY 6: ON TRACK
– 2- 2:55 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series practice, NBC Sports App (Canada: TSN GO) CANCELED DUE TO RAIN
– 4- 4:50 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series practice, NBC Sports App (Canada; TSN GO) CANCELED DUE TO RAIN
– 5 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Keystone Light Pole Qualifying, FS1 (Lineup) CANCELED DUE TO RAIN
– 6- 6:50 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series final practice, NBCSN (Canada: TSN GO) — POSTPONED
– 7:30 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Buckle Up in Your Truck 225 (150 laps, 225 miles), FS1 (Results)
PRESS PASS (Watch live)
– 1 p.m.: Erik Jones
– 1:15 p.m.: William Byron, Cole Custer and Brendan Gaughan
– 1:30 p.m.: Ben Rhodes
– 10 p.m.: Post-NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race
FRIDAY, JULY 7: ON TRACK
– 8:30-9:55 a.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series practice (Results) (Canada: TSN GO)
– 10-11:55 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, NBC Sports App (Results) (Canada: TSN GO)
– 1-2:25 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice, NBCSN (Results) (Canada: TSN 2)
– 4:30 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, NBCSN (Results) (Canada: TSN GO)
– 6:15 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying, NBCSN (Results) (Canada: TSN 2)
– 8 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series Alsco 300 (200 laps, 300 miles), NBCSN (Follow live) (Canada: TSN 2) POSTPONED
PRESS PASS (Watch live)
– 9:15 a.m.: Matt Kenseth
– 2:30 p.m.: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
– 3 p.m.: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
– 3:30 p.m.: Quaker State
– 7:30 p.m.: Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying
– 11 p.m.: Post-NASCAR XFINITY Series race
GARAGECAM (Watch live)
– 9:30 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Tire trouble is problematic at any race track. That’s certainly true at Daytona International Speedway, and especially true when speeds top 190 mph.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch felt he had a tire going down, and it developed into a 10-car pile-up on Lap 72 at Daytona, wrecking not only the No. 18 but several other big names as well.
With brother Kurt Busch behind him as a drafting partner (and claiming he could smell something wrong with Kyle’s car), Kyle Busch spun high up on the track and came back down to trigger the melee. It also claimed Martin Truex Jr. (second in points), Joey Logano (playoff bubble), Austin Dillon and series points leader Kyle Larson, among others.
“I don’t even know where to start,” Kyle Busch said when asked to describe the damage to his car.
Truex Jr., Logano and Dillon were immediately ruled out of the race. Dillon blamed himself for getting caught up in the incident, which happened toward the end of Stage 2.
“I just saw the 18 spinning, and I had nowhere to go,” Dillon said. “You have to shove yourself into a bad position, but I was trying to get some bonus points there at the end of the stage.”
Implications may have been the highest for Logano, known as one of the better restrictor-plate racers in the garage and one who has slipped down the standings since his win at Richmond in April was ruled encumbered.
That victory cannot be used as an automatic entry into the playoff, and if Logano does qualify for the postseason, he will not be awarded five playoff points for the encumbered win.
Logano was scored 34th after being released from the infield care center. He entered the race seeded 15th in the 16-driver playoff field, with Clint Bowyer and Matt Kenseth close behind him in the standings.
The driver of the Team Penske No. 22 experienced a similar situation earlier in the day in the NASCAR XFINITY Series race when he fell from the lead — and drove through the infield grass — in the waning laps.
“Wrong place at the wrong time again for us,” Logano said. “It’s superspeedway racing. Sometimes you’re on the good side of it, sometimes you’re on the wrong side of it. That was the bad one.”
Matt Kenseth led 10 laps in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around Daytona International Speedway’s high banks to win Stage 2 in Saturday’s Coke Zero 400. This marks Kenseth’s second stage win of the season.
Kenseth’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin came up second in his No. 11 Toyota, while Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson maneuvered his way to third in his No. 48 Chevrolet. Kurt Busch finished Stage 2 fourth in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, and Front Row Motorsports’ David Ragan rounded out the top five in his No. 38 Ford.
Stage 2 was marked by a multi-car incident at Lap 70 triggered by Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Toyota that took out several race contenders, including Joey Logano and Austin Dillon.
Stage 2 results
Finish
Driver
Team
Race points
1.
Matt Kenseth
Joe Gibbs Racing
10
2.
Denny Hamlin
Joe Gibbs Racing
9
3.
Jimmie Johnson
Hendrick Motorsports
8
4.
Kurt Busch
Stewart-Haas Racing
7
5.
David Ragan
Front Row Motorsports
6
6.
Kevin Harvick
Stewart-Haas Racing
5
7.
Kasey Kahne
Hendrick Motorsports
4
8.
Ty Dillon
Germain Racing
3
9.
Darrell Wallace Jr.
Richard Petty Motorsports
2
10.
Ryan Blaney
Wood Brothers Racing
1
STAGE 1
A fierce battle for the lead and Stage 1 win emerged between Brad Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt Jr. with five laps to go in the opening stage of Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Keselowski’s No. 2 ultimately prevailed, winning Stage 1 after leading 33 laps in his Team Penske Ford.
This marks Keselowski’s third stage win of 2017, and he’ll earn one playoff point in addition to his 10 race points.
Pole-sitter Earnhardt Jr. finished Stage 1 second in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, while Ryan Blaney came up third in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano rounded out the top five in Stage 1.
Stage 1 saw three cautions and eight lead changes, with four leaders (Keselowski, Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott).
See below for stage points earned in Stage 1 at Daytona.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Make it two. One week after his first NASCAR XFINITY Series win, William Byron collected another on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway in a race delayed one day by rain.
In NASCAR Overtime, Byron crossed the overtime line as the field piled up behind him, which completed a race that ran 104 laps (scheduled for 100).
The remaining finishing positions are pending.
Late-race action at the front of the pack produced some thrills in the waning laps, with leader Joey Logano, attempting to hold off both lanes, getting pressured and taking a trip through the infield grass … but emerging with his car intact and on the lead lap.
It got bigger, though, with the “Big One” occurring on Lap 98 when Justin Allgaier shoved Brandon Jones, inadvertently spinning him and setting off a reaction that would claim 11 cars.
The red flag initially fell after 11 completed laps Friday evening due to rain, then again Saturday for lightning after 37 total laps had been completed.
Blake Koch steered his No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet to a Stage 1 win, his first of the season. His day ended early, though, in a six-car wreck on Lap 49. Sadler picked up the Stage 2 win in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
Upcoming for the NASCAR XFINITY Series is a quick turnaround to Kentucky Speedway, site of next week’s tripleheader. The Alsco 300 is scheduled for Friday, July 7 at 8 p.m. ET. Coverage is on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
