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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. was two laps away from potentially winning for the first time since November of 2015, leading the second of two Can-Am Duel qualifying races here Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway.


Then Austin Dillon cleared the No. 41 of Kurt Busch, slid up in line behind second-place Denny Hamlin and Earnhardt’s goose was cooked.


With no drafting help from behind, Earnhardt could do little but watch as car after car zoomed by on the high side. By the time the freight train had passed, Earnhardt was battling just to get back inside the top five with one more trip around the 2.5-mile layout remaining.


"I was hoping he would go with me but I would have probably done the same thing he did," Earnhardt said of Dillon’s move. "He finished fifth. He pushed that 11 in the lead, he was in second; it didn’t really work out that awesome for him."


Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing finished just one spot ahead of Earnhardt’s No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, which led 53 of 60 laps. It was Earnhardt’s first competitive appearance since mid-season of last year. He sat out the final 18 races of the season after suffering concussion-like symptoms.


WATCH: Hamlin, Dillon slide by Junior


If there was any rust, it wasn’t evident. Earnhardt, who will still start on the front row of Sunday’s Daytona 500 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR) battled briefly with Hamlin in the early portion of the qualifying race before settling down to lead 23 laps. Ryan Blaney (Wood Brothers Racing) won the race off pit road and led three laps before Earnhardt moved back on point at Lap 31.


And for most of the remaining laps, it was vintage Earnhardt, one of the series’ best at restrictor-plate racing and a two-time winner of the Daytona 500 as he was able to move high and low to keep the lines of traffic in his rear-view mirror.


Until the very end.


"I felt great," he said. "I felt like I’m a really good plate racer, there are some guys out there that are sure picking it up. Denny is one of them, (Joey) Logano … there are a few other guys that sure make it harder to win these things each time we come here. But I felt great out there."


Hamlin is the defending Daytona 500 winner. Dillon is a four-year veteran but still searching for that first trip to Victory Lane in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Both had capable rides Thursday evening.


"I think that we just worked together the entire race," Hamlin said of Dillon’s move that got him to the front. "It’s no different than if it was the other way around … I’d have a hard time not pushing him to a win."


As long as the drivers ran side-by-side behind Earnhardt and Hamlin, the two lines of cars kept each other in check and unable to make a run on the front two. That changed when Dillon was able to slide in behind Hamlin and leave a big gap with no help behind the race leader.


"Maybe if he would have gone with me we might have run first and second," Earnhardt said. "You never know. He did what he had to do and I might have done the same thing.


"Denny had such an awesome run. The 3 (of Dillon) is feeding off that energy and had that same momentum. He’s got to take his opportunities to try to get to the front. Hell, he might have won the race, you never know, if a couple of things had worked out for him."

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Photo credit: Nigel Kinrade/NK Photography

 

For 2017, Ford Performance will field seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series organizations featuring 13 teams.
 
Driving Ford Fusions for the first time this year are Stewart-Haas Racing drivers Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer and Danica Patrick. Harvick won the series title in 2014 while Busch was the last Ford driver to win the series’ championship, in 2004 with what is now Roush Fenway Racing.
 
"I think you’ve seen over the past year with the formulation of Ford Performance that we have a different approach to our racing program," Global Director of Ford Performance Dave Pericak said when the agreement with SHR was announced early last season. "A lot of people have heard me say that we don’t race to race, we race to win and we also race to learn. So we’re truly using racing as an innovation test bed in development of new technologies, tools and our people.
 
"I think Stewart-Haas brings with it just an enormous amount of expertise and the way that they approach racing is a very technical way, so all of that is going to blend very well with what we’ve been doing within Ford Performance and how we are approaching now our racing program."
 
In the past four years, Ford teams have visited Victory Lane 35 times and six of its drivers have earned a spot in the 10-race, championship-determining playoff. Team Penske‘s Joey Logano has advanced to the Championship Round in two of the past three seasons.
 
"There does seem to be an increase in engineering support again," noted one long-time team owner. "It’s nice when Raj (Nair) and Dave, guys dedicated to winning, show up at the track. You know they are there for one reason – to see a Ford win."
 
It’s something that doesn’t go unnoticed to Ford drivers.
 
"With the transition to Ford, right off the bat the thing I’ve enjoyed most is it’s the head honchos you’re talking to," Bowyer said. "Raj Nair has made this Ford Performance the reality it is today, and he’s the guy you’re talking to."

‘RACE – WIN – INNOVATE’

 
Under the leadership of Raj Nair, executive vice president of product development and chief technical officer for Ford, and Dave Pericak, global director of Ford Performance, the Ford Performance team was unveiled two years ago to bring together Ford’s racing arm, its performance parts division, and its high performance divisions (SVT and RS) on a global scale.
 
In making the announcement at that time, Nair said the new Ford Performance team “ties together racing, performance vehicles and parts. It will allow us to more quickly introduce parts and accessories that meet the needs of customers around the world on-road and on the track.”
 
But what has Ford Performance meant for teams competing in NASCAR?
 

GROUND SUPPORT

 
The Ford Performance Technical Support Center was up and running prior to the formation of the Ford Performance program – it opened in the summer of ’14 – and it has been an integral part of developing not only Ford’s racing efforts, but the company’s production vehicles as well.
 
Housed in Concord, N.C., the 33,000-square-foot building features a full-motion simulator that allows teams to ferret through various track-specific setups, obtain a better understanding of changes made to their race cars and be in position to fine tune those setups once they arrive at the track. It’s the next-best thing to being on track, and there’s never an issue with weather.
 
For drivers, use of the simulator has also helped shorten the learning curve for those going to a track for the first time, while helping others reacquaint themselves with different venues.
 
"We would not have made that switch if we didn’t see that dedication from Ford Motor Company," Stewart said. "When you look at their history, Ford’s won every major race around the world. Not most of them. They’ve won all of them at some point."
 
With limited testing and a new rules package in ‘17, the opportunity to simulate how those changes affect performance is more crucial than ever.
 
The Center also houses additional equipment, such as a kinematics machine, chassis rig and center of gravity machine to fine-tune, test and measure specific areas of the race car.
 
Technological advancements gleaned by engineers at the Center aren’t limited to the race track. Engineers on the production side also utilize the facility for development and to improve the existing performance characteristics of Ford’s street vehicles.
 

THE END GAME: MORE WINS ON THE TRACK, MORE AWARDS FOR PRODUCTS

 
 In its first two years, the Ford Performance platform has already proven an invaluable asset to bettering its breed.
 
"Certainly, getting the production vehicles out — the GT350, the Raptor, the Focus RS and, obviously, the Ford GT — and on the racing side a big challenge I asked the team was we want to go win 24 Le Mans in 2016 and celebrate that 50th anniversary of the Ford GT the right way and they’ve done that," he said.
 
But manufacturer and driver titles in NASCAR’s top series remain elusive.
 
"I would say both are important," Nair said. "For us as a manufacturer, obviously, the fight with Chevy and Toyota is really important, but the driver’s championship is equally as important. So we want to win both and we are doing everything we know how to do that. Whether it’s bringing in a lot more engineering resources to bear …  whether it’s our wind tunnel programs, our dyno programs, our computer simulators, our actual simulator (at the Tech Center), but also bringing the right personnel on board and the team that Dave has built, and obviously bringing the right partners on board.
 
"We have a great partner in Roush Fenway, a great partnership with Roush Yates Engines. We brought (Team) Penske on board (in ’13) and that’s been very successful for us, and now getting Stewart-Haas — the caliber of the organization and the caliber of those drivers — I think we’ve got a lot better chance to achieve that end goal."

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Three cars failed post-race inspection following Thursday’s Can-Am Duels at Daytona International Speedway, disallowing their finishing positions and forcing them to the rear of Sunday’s Daytona 500 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).


The No. 37 and 47 Chevrolets of Chris Buescher and AJ Allmendinger, both of JTG Daugherty Racing, and the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. all failed at the height station.


Truex Jr. finished seventh in Duel 1 initially, with Buescher coming in 16th in that event; Allmendinger finished fourth in Duel 2.


Truex Jr. and Allmendinger also forfeited their respective stage points for finishing their races in the top 10. Initially, Allmendinger earned seven points and Truex Jr. earned four.


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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 22, 2017) — NASCAR TrackPass™, the sport’s first digital subscription product developed specifically for the international market, will now offer live racing action to more NASCAR® fans than ever before. Fans around the world can watch all 38 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series™ and 33 NASCAR XFINITY Series™ events either through NASCAR’s local television partner or by subscribing to NASCAR TrackPass. The product will be available in 120 countries and territories at launch, with plans to continue expanding the NASCAR TrackPass footprint throughout 2017.

NASCAR TrackPass will offer full race replays and features like a live leaderboard and highlights to give fans the complete race experience. International NASCAR fans in most territories outside the U.S. and Canada can go to TrackPass.NASCAR.com to subscribe to the product or download the application for Android and iOS through the iTunes and Google Play stores. Subscription costs start at $125 per year and $15 per month and vary by individual country and territory.

“Exploring new distribution channels for race content across both broadcast and digital platforms allows NASCAR to continue strengthening its global presence and diversify the sport’s fan base,” said Steve Herbst, senior vice president, broadcasting and production at NASCAR. “Given their experience in the sport and expertise around live streaming, NBC was a natural choice to lead our development of NASCAR TrackPass, providing our international fans more choice than ever before.”

NASCAR Track Pass is powered by Playmaker Media, NBC Sports Digital’s technology service providing end-to-end support for companies in need of best-in-class live streaming and VOD solutions.

International viewers can subscribe now to kick off the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season by watching the DAYTONA 500® at Daytona International Speedway this Sunday, Feb. 26.

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RELATED: Waltrip’s Daytona moments | Daytona schedule


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — He’s still just "Margaret and Leroy’s little boy," but Michael Waltrip is pushing 54 and Sunday he’ll be making his final start in the Daytona 500.

"I just thought it was a cool place to run my last race," Waltrip said during Wednesday’s annual media day at Daytona International Speedway.

It will be his 30th start in a race and at a place that still generates a wide range of emotions for the Owensboro, Kentucky, native.

His record of futility was a solid 462 races heading into the 2001 Daytona 500 when he finally made it to Victory Lane in his first start for Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Jubilation was short-lived. In a race that crowned a new Daytona 500 champion, the sport lost one of its biggest figures — team owner and seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt.

Waltrip, the younger brother of NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Darrell Waltrip, won the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series biggest race again in 2003. He won the summer race at Daytona in ’02 and the fall stop at Talladega the following year.

"I try not to get reflective or nostalgic because it’s too emotional," he said of his Daytona memories. "Mostly I just think about getting to race the car. Obviously I have faced the range of emotions that humans probably aren’t designed to face and it all probably happened within 10 seconds, so that’s hard to think about.

"But I love coming to Daytona, I’ve been coming here since I was a kid, so every time you talk about coming to Daytona I get a big smile on my face which is crazy but that’s racing I guess."

Outside the car, he works as a NASCAR analyst for FOX "and I’ve got great teammates there," he said.

For 32 years he’s made at least one start in the series — the last time he ran a full schedule was ’09. He will suit up for a final time with help from long-time sponsor Aaron’s — they’ve been with him in some form or fashion for nearly two decades — and Premium Motorsports owner Jay Robinson in the team’s No. 15 Toyota

.
"When we ran last year’s Daytona 500 (with BK Racing) it didn’t go well," he said. "We didn’t run good and I guess we got in a little bit of a fender-bender and messed up the car. I didn’t want to quit like that. So I went to Talladega (with Premium) and we got a 12th-place finish, ran up front a little bit.

"Then I decided we would try to have one more competitive run down here. You’ve got to quit sometime."

For Waltrip, sometime comes Sunday.

"When we close the books on this it will say 11 XFINITY Series wins and one Camping World Truck win and it will definitely say four Monster Energy NASCAR Cup wins, maybe it will say five," he said. "But I qualified 35th so unless our strategy is we’ve got ’em right where we want ’em … we might be in a little bit of trouble on this one.

"But I’m looking forward to trying."

 

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. sat on stage for his Daytona 500 Media Day interview session Wednesday morning and at the end of his 20-plus minutes taking questions, he conceded that if he were to win the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title, he would at least consider stepping away from full-time competition after this season.


Earnhardt, who will start on the front row for the Daytona 500, is returning to Monster Energy NASCAR Cup competition for the first time since last July — sitting out the second half of the 2016 season while recovering from concussion-like symptoms.


WATCH: The full interview with Junior


The two-time Daytona 500 winner and restrictor-plate racing expert refused to call himself a shoo-in for Sunday’s trophy even though he likes his chances. But he did allow that hoisting NASCAR’s season-ending trophy may just present the ultimate racing exit for the newly married 42-year-old.


"Hell yeah. I would definitely not want to come back and race anymore if I won the championship, I’d be outta of here," he said smiling. "I’ve always wanted to win a championship so badly. And coming back from this injury, we’ve worked so hard. So to come back this year and win the championship, it would be hard not to hang it up.


"This is the last year of my deal. I would like to race more, but if I won the championship I’d have to consider going out on top."


MORE: Junior on marriage | And Ken Squire, broadcasting


Earnhardt smiled as he spoke but did pause often to reflect and think. The sport’s 14-time — and reigning — Most Popular Driver has four top-five finishes in the championship standings, the last a fifth place in 2013.


His father, the late Dale Earnhardt, won seven championship trophies, and his Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson just won his seventh in November.


"It just really depends on a lot of different things," Earnhardt said, reflecting on the idea of the 2017 championship. "I said that a little tongue in cheek yesterday (that he would retire), but I’d definitely consider it because that’s the last box I don’t have checked really.


"There’s a few races I’d like to win. But the championship would definitely be the icing on the cake for my career."


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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. says that being in a relationship with fitness guru and fellow driver Danica Patrick has helped him become more health-conscious, both in working out and eating well.


The nutrition part, he acknowledged, becomes more difficult when on the road … especially when the "hot doughnuts now" neon sign is lit at the local Krispy Kreme.


Stenhouse said he’s spent plenty of time this week at Volusia Speedway Park. Come to find out, a local dirt track doesn’t typically offer up kale salads or smoothies at the concession stand. And then there was the weak moment from Tuesday night, driving back from a sushi dinner in a group that included fellow drivers Ryan Newman and Kyle Larson.


"Well, we were on the way back and then the hot sign was on at Krispy Kreme, so we pulled in and before we got from Krispy Kreme to here, Newman and I had four apiece," Stenhouse said Wednesday at Daytona 500 Media Day, noting the roughly two-mile distance from the doughnut shop to Daytona International Speedway.


"Danica was not happy. She’s like, ‘I can’t believe you just ate three of those.’ Well, she didn’t see me eat the fourth."

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RELATED: See every winner of the Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Denny Hamlin was all smiles and backslaps as he navigated the crowded Daytona 500 Club for NASCAR’s annual Media Day. He joked with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth in the midst of Kenseth’s live internet interview and later kidded with Kevin Harvick about his golf handicap.


RELATED: Hamlin teases Harvick about his golf game

Times are good for the reigning Daytona 500 champion.


In another four days, however, Hamlin will have to defend his title. And consecutive wins in this event are rare. Sterling Marlin is the last driver to earn back-to-back trophies (1994-95) in the Great American Race. Only three men in the race’s great history: Marlin, Richard Petty (1973-74) and Cale Yarborough (1983-84) have won back-to-back Daytona 500s.


Hamlin knows the challenge and the historical record. But he’s fast. And he’s a favorite.


His No. 11 FedEx Toyota led 48 of the 75 laps in Sunday’s The Clash exhibition and was out front when he collided with Brad Keselowski on the last lap.  A couple hours later, he was sixth in Daytona 500 pole qualifying.


"The odds are stacked against you," Hamlin acknowledged Wednesday of winning back-to-back Daytona 500 trophies. "If this were Martinsville I’d say the odds are really good, or Richmond. But at Daytona we know the entire field could win the race. We’ve seen surprise winners. There’s just more drivers that can win this week than say, next week in Atlanta. And it makes it very, very hard to repeat."


Hamlin’s competitors acknowledge the route is tough.


The late Dale Earnhardt made a great effort — winning in 1998 and finishing second in 1999. His son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was runner-up in 2012 and 2013 and won in 2014 before finishing third in 2015.


RELATED: See Dale Jr.’s full ‘Great American Race’ history

Ryan Newman won the 50th Anniversary edition of the Daytona 500 in 2008. He finished 36th the next year. And that’s an equally as common turn of events.


"It is that hard to win a Daytona 500 in general," Newman said, allowing a smile. "So doubling up isn’t easy. It is challenging. You can have the best car and get shuffled out. You can have a not-so-good car and be stuck in the middle all day. It’s not easy. A lot of it is luck that you create. You have to put yourself in the right position. In 2008 we were fortunate to do that.


"And," he added, "I think it was easier to have a package that would dominate say 10, 15, 20 years ago. Just the way the rules are and everything else, we all kind of know some things like the No. 4 car (Kevin Harvick) guys did. You can’t do that kind of stuff anymore. So it becomes harder because of that. I think those rules have kind of communized the garage performance-wise."


Kevin Harvick hoisted the Harley J. Earl trophy in Daytona’s Victory Lane in 2007 and finished 14th both the year before and the year after. He acknowledged that the last to win two straight here, Marlin, competed in a vastly different time in restrictor plate racing.


"Those guys were dominant back in the 90s during that particular time period with the Kodak entry," Harvick recalled of Marlin’s wins.


"When you get to superspeedways like this there are so many things that can go wrong. There are more things that can go wrong than right. If you have a fast car or a slow car you can get caught up in a wreck, a miscue on pit road, hit a bird. You just never know what can go wrong or what could go wrong. Usually if it’s going to happen there’s usually some crazy event that happens during the Daytona 500, you just never know.


"And," he paused, "It’s just really competitive."

RELATED: Drivers with multiple Daytona 500 wins


Michael Waltrip is a two-time Daytona 500 winner and very nearly captured three straight Daytona wins — with victories in 2001 and 2003 and a fifth place in 2002.


While acknowledging the odds are against a driver having both a super fast hot rod and everything fall right in competition, he immediately offered confidence in Hamlin becoming the first back-to-back Daytona champion in more than two decades.


"We might see it this year," Waltrip said. "Denny obviously was in a position to win Sunday (in The Clash), so we could very well see it this year. I know, like I had the best chance ever in ’02, and I finished fifth but that’s just what the results say.


"Part of my suspension fell off my car and went through Junior.’s radiator, took him out, and my car just drove terrible all day long, and we were the best car in ’02, and then we finished fifth. So it’s always something. This race is so difficult, and anything in the world can happen, and it’s hard to predict.

"But Denny could be the guy that does it."


And that’s something Hamlin absolutely agreed with.


"I do feel like over the past four years or so, I’ve always had a great shot," Hamlin said. "I’ve been smart enough to make the moves necessary to win it, but last year was the first time I did it.


"I always feel like we have a chance, that our cars were good enough to do it. I know that. But it just seems like we didn’t win it for some reason or another. But last year things came together for us and we executed a plan great.


"And this year I just feel like, if the chips fall right, we could do the same thing."