Truex Jr. comes up inches short of Daytona 500 win

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Martin Truex Jr. wasn’t sure who had won the Daytona 500 when he and Denny Hamlin came across the start-finish line, their cars inches apart after a nanosecond shy of 500 miles of racing at Daytona International Speedway.

David Wilson, Toyota Racing Development president, didn’t know, either. Cole Pearn, Truex’s crew chief at Furniture Row Racing, had his own hunch. Truex checked the SprintVision big screen to his left after flying under the checkered flag to see the replay for the first time. He suspects it won’t be the last time.

“Just going to have to watch that on the highlight reel for the rest of my career, I suppose, the rest of my life,” said Truex, who came home second on the short end of the closest finish — 0.010 seconds — in the 58-year history of the Great American Race.

“I remember when it happened to Mark Martin, poor guy, been so close here so many times. They still show the highlight. The picture of that race is in the tunnel when you come in in Turn 1. I have a feeling I’m going to have to see that same thing for a long time. It hurts a little bit, but a lot to be proud of, for sure.”

RELATED: Closest finishes in ‘Great American Race’ history

The consolation for Truex came in the form of his first-ever top-five finish at the 2.5-mile track and a successful start of his No. 78 team’s union with Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing. The 35-year-old driver admitted that the result stung, but that he was at peace with the last-lap shuffle that left him within a fraction of Hamlin and his first taste of Daytona victory.

Truex sat second behind race leader Matt Kenseth as the field took the white flag. When Kenseth moved to block Hamlin’s heady charge in the outside lane on the backstretch, it cleared the way for Truex to storm to the front on the low side.

RELATED: Kenseth reacts to Hamlin’s late-move for win

But Hamlin’s momentum wasn’t stalled for long, and his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 steamed alongside Truex’s No. 78. The two cars scraped with the checkered flag in sight, with a nearly 190-mph broadside battle decided by less than a ruler.

“I feel like we were in really good position just doing what we did,” Truex said. “Circumstances didn’t work out quite as well as they should have. I could have done a little bit different coming to the line. I felt like I should have run Denny up the track a little bit, but I didn’t. It is what it is.”

His radio crackled with blitz of sound that didn’t indicate whether he’d won or not.

“I knew it was close. I knew it was really close,” Truex said. “I didn’t think either way. I just said, ‘Damn, that was close.’ I mean, that was the only thing I could think of.”

Pearn, from atop the Colorado-based team’s pit box, had a different vantage point.

“Nah, I saw when they passed. They had us,” Pearn said. “But man, not for very long. I thought we had it, but it always seems to work out that way — that outside line, that last little chute. I remember the year Harvick won it over Mark Martin, it was almost the same deal. It just seems like the way it plays out there going to the line.”

That 2007 Daytona 500 finish — etched in Pearn’s mind and commemorated on Daytona’s Turn 1 tunnel wall — has resonated as one of the race’s most memorable. The margin that day — .020 seconds, double the amount of Hamlin’s gap and a record that stood until Sunday.

Truex’s Speedweeks remain memorable all the same. The team rallied from a crash during last weekend’s Sprint Unlimited that forced them to a reserve car, then overcame a technical issue with a roof flap in Daytona 500 qualifying that kept them from posting a time.

But Truex has overcome much more. One week ago, his bylined article in The Players Tribune documented the 17-month-long fight that his girlfriend, Sherry Pollex, has waged with ovarian cancer and their triumph through life’s hardships.

Truex wasn’t sure if he’d won in the split second that he crossed the start-finish line alongside Hamlin. But Pollex tweeted at the end of a warm Sunday afternoon that “no matter what, Martin Truex Jr. and I are leaving here winning.”

Another staggering dose of perspective in a stunning day of history at Daytona.

“Two years ago I would have been sitting here with a sourpuss on my face,” Truex said. “Today was a great day.”

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. possessed a world-beater car in all of Daytona’s Speedweeks, but once the flag flew for the main event, it was a night-to-day difference.

Earnhardt crashed out of Sunday’s Daytona 500 after completing just 169 of the 200 laps, abbreviating his day and shortening the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet that was the class of the field in the fortnight’s preliminaries. The early dominance made Earnhardt a heavy favorite to take his third victory in the Great American Race, but the car lovingly dubbed “Amelia” was unable to replicate the strength.

Earnhardt led twice for 15 laps early, but was shuffled back as Joe Gibbs Racing‘s fleet of Toyotas — including race winner Denny Hamlin — asserted their power. Any chance for a comeback was stunted in the waning laps, when the No. 88 pitched sideways as he raced alongside Brian Vickers and Austin Dillon off Turn 4. Out of control, Earnhardt’s car thumped nose-first into the inside retaining wall before pit entry.

“It caught me by surprise,” said Earnhardt, who wound up 36th in the 40-car field. “I was trying to side-draft a guy beside me and boy, it pinned the right front. All the downforce there. We have been working on the balance all day. That was our problem. We really underestimated how important handling was going to be today. We’ve had a rocket all week, but it was in single-car runs and at the night races, the car has handled great.

“We gotta do a little more drafting I think there the next time we come back and be ready for the balance and the things they threw at us today. We were starting to move forward and get aggressive and I just lost it.”

The reasons for the disparity in handling characteristics? The warmest of all eight days of on-track activity since teams arrived in Daytona two weeks ago and the unfamiliar territory for Earnhardt’s car behind the front-runners in a 40-car draft.

“The car was fine,” crew chief Greg Ives said. “Just got mired back in traffic and you’ve got to work your way back up, whether it’s race car or pit strategy and it looked like we were on our way back forward and just got a little loose off of (Turn) 4.”

Momentum or not, Earnhardt said the team could never quite adjust to the curveball that the car’s imbalance threw at them.

“Yeah, well it’s fast when it don’t have to handle good,” Earnhardt said. “But today, it needed to handle and we weren’t handling.”

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Chase Elliott‘s first Daytona 500 started in first place, with the first three laps led in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. But he established another first he wished he hadn’t — the first yellow flag.

Elliott completed 18 laps Sunday before his Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet was taken to the garage with heavy front end damage, the result of a Turn 4 spin and nose-dive into the infield grass on the Daytona International Speedway frontstraight.

The 20-year-old Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate had just radioed his crew a few laps before to report his car’s tight handling characteristics. The understeer condition was a common lament among his competitors in the early going on the warmest day of 2016’s Speedweeks.

“Too early to tell,” Elliott said after an evaluation at the 2.5-mile track’s infield care center. “I think a lot of guys were fighting tight off there, but that was just normal. I think it’s just hot and tires were giving up a little bit as time went on, but I don’t think that was the cause of what happened.”

Elliott led the first three laps as the race’s youngest pole position winner before giving way to teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. But he dropped back further from there, finding himself in a mid-pack thicket of cars.

Just a handful of laps after Kevin Harvick made a big bobble and save off the Turn 4 banking, Elliott followed suit but with more consequence. His No. 24 looped onto the apron asphalt, but dug into the infield grass, crumpling the front-end sheet metal and damaging the radiator.

“We’ve had a real fast car all week. I just hate it ended so soon,” Elliott said. “Just try to get back out there, make some laps and more importantly, get ready for Atlanta.”

After hasty repairs, Elliott returned to the race with 59 of the 200 scheduled laps on the scoreboard. Sitting 40 laps off the pace, out of contention in the Great American Race, the rookie’s sights were already turned toward the second Sprint Cup race of the season, next weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“That is the most important thing now,” Elliott said. “Can’t get caught up in what happened today. It is irrelevant now.”

Elliott was scored in 37th place in the final leaderboard.

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Zack Albert

NASCAR kicks off stock-car racing’s Super Bowl on Sunday with the 58th running of the Daytona 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Forty drivers, one champion. Here are things to consider ahead of Sunday’s Great American Race.

Where: Daytona International Speedway, 2.5-mile oval in Daytona Beach, Florida
Green flag time: 1:31 p.m. ET
TV/Radio: FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 73 degrees, 0 percent chance of rain, according to the National Weather Service
National anthem: 82nd Airborne Division All American Chorus from Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Grand marshal: Actor Gerard Butler
Distance: 500 miles, 200 laps
Pit road speed: 55 mph
Caution car speed: 70 mph

Show of speed

Rookie Chase Elliott will start his first Daytona 500 from the pole position. Matt Kenseth earned the second starting position in Coors Light Pole Qualifying, but will start in the rear of the 40-car field after crashing his primary car in Thursday’s qualifying races. In the eight practices ahead of the main event, only two drivers — Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson — led multiple sessions.

Earnhardt Rising

Dale Earnhardt Jr. enters Sunday’s season opener as the prohibitive favorite for his third Daytona 500 crown. Helping the cause is an especially stout Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevy nicknamed ‘Amelia.’ “I don’t want to get overly confident in what I’m doing,” Earnhardt said, “but the car really does everything I ask it to do.”

Daytona drought

Joe Gibbs Racing is celebrating its 25th anniversary as a NASCAR competitor, but it’s been almost that long since the organization tasted Daytona 500 glory. JGR, which last won the “Great American Race” with Dale Jarrett in 1993, also has extra motivation to bring Toyota its first Daytona 500 victory.

He said it

“It changes people’s impressions of who you are. It’s like having the ultimate hard card walking around Daytona.” — 2008 Daytona 500 champ Ryan Newman, on his race-winning credentials

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Official NASCAR Release

NASCAR executives and board members join the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series charter owners for a historic portrait in Victory Lane in advance of the 58th annual DAYTONA 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX). The high-resolution photo can be downloaded at: http://www.nascarmedia.com/photos/.

(Photo Credit: Jared Tilton, NASCAR via Getty Images)

NASCAR Charter Photo Participants

Top Row (From L-R)

Brad Daugherty (JTG Daugherty Racing); Steve Lauletta (Chip Ganassi Racing); Shirley Falk (Circle Sport Racing); Joe Falk (Circle Sport Racing); Bob Germain Jr. (Germain Racing); Larry Rogers (Germain Racing); Archie St. Hilaire (Go FAS Racing); Mason St. Hilaire (Go FAS Racing); Jay Robinson (Premium Motorsports); Dave Alpern (Joe Gibbs Racing).

4th Row (L-R)

Joe Custer (Stewart-Haas Racing); Bob Jenkins (Front Row Motorsports); Torrey Galida (Richard Childress Racing); Gordon Smith (Circle Sport Racing); Tad Geschickter (JTG Daugherty Racing); Eric Nyquist (NASCAR); Ron Devine (BK Racing); Harry Scott Jr. (HScott Motorsports); Andrew Murstein (Richard Petty Motorsports); Ryan Dubois (BK Racing); Wayne Press (BK Racing).

3rd Row (L-R)

Brett Frood (Stewart-Haas Racing); Karen Leetzow (NASCAR); Walt Czarnecki (Team Penske); Steve Phelps (NASCAR); Marshall Carlson (Hendrick Motorsports); Steve O’Donnell (NASCAR); Barney Visser (Furniture Row Racing); Joe Garone (Furniture Row Racing); Susan Schandel (NASCAR)

2nd Row (L-R)

Jack Roush (Roush Fenway Racing); Steve Newmark (Roush Fenway Racing); Gary Crotty (NASCAR); Rob Kauffman (Chip Ganassi Racing); Brent Dewar (NASCAR); Mike Helton (NASCAR); Chip Ganassi (Chip Ganassi Racing); Gene Haas (Stewart-Haas Racing); Tommy Baldwin (Tommy Baldwin Racing).

1st Row (L-R)

Richard Childress (Richard Childress Racing); Roger Penske (Team Penske); Rick Hendrick (Hendrick Motorsports); Brian France (NASCAR); Jim France (NASCAR); Lesa France Kennedy (NASCAR); Richard Petty (Richard Petty Motorsports); Joe Gibbs (Joe Gibbs Racing); J.D. Gibbs (Joe Gibbs Racing)

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Pat DeCola

A year ago this time, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was about to set sail on his 16th full-time season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as the defending Daytona 500 winner, coming off his most successful season in a decade. With a totally new, rookie crew chief in Greg Ives.

What followed in 2015 could be described as “knocking it out of the park” (three wins, career-high 22 top-10 finishes), but the Hendrick Motorsports driver is actually a little more anxious about his No. 88 Chevrolet team heading into 2016 after the transitions it underwent over this past offseason. Of the team’s six full-time pit crew members, only three (tire carriers Rowdy Harrell and Dustin Lineback, and jackman Nick Covey) were on the No. 88 team for all of last season.

“One of the things that is a concern for us was we had some people moving around,” Earnhardt told NASCAR.com Monday during a tour of ESPN. “I lost my lead engineer (Kevin Meendering), who went to crew chief at JR Motorsports. That guy was key to our team, key to our performance and speed.”

Insert Tim O’Brien.

“So we’ve got a new guy,” Earnhardt said. “Don’t know nothing about Tim. I know he’s an engineer. I don’t know if he’s great. So excited to see that and to get going, hoping Tim’s going to be great. Hoping I’m going to be going, ‘Man, Tim! I’m so glad you’re here!’

“We got a couple other guys that are new on the team and some young guys in new positions, so there’s a little bit more turnover than usual and that makes me nervous, I guess, because this team has to jel. One guy can screw it up. One guy can ruin it, even if he’s great at his job, but if his attitude is not good and everybody doesn’t like being around him. I think we’ll be OK. I trust Greg. He makes all of those decisions and we’re going to be in great shape.”

Ives’ decision-making was among the most talked about facets of Junior’s 2015 campaign, often helping the No. 88 make up spots with crucial pit stop decisions and putting his driver in position to compete for wins — even when the driver, himself, figured they’d have no shot.

Clearly, the two are on the same page when Earnhardt’s hands are on the steering wheel, and Ives has a headset on.

But it’s the moments when the duo is face-to-face, in a non-racing setting that the 26-time premier series winner thinks they need to improve on to make it over the hump and take home a first Cup title.

“Me and Greg, still even today are learning how to communicate on a personal level. We can go to the track and be like ‘Greg, it’s loose. Let’s work on it.’ We can be mechanical and robotic in our work throughout the weekend, but it’s the ‘Hey man, how are the kids? Your little girl was in a talent show, what was that like?’,” said Earnhardt, who will start second in Sunday’s 58th running of the Daytona 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.)

“To share those moments where we start to build this really real friendship is … we’re going to get better at that. We will get better at that, but it’s starting to get better. That’s important to the relationship that we have and that we want to do good for each other.”

If you’ve ever come across Ives in passing or seen him on TV, the differences between he and Earnhardt’s last crew chief, the jovial Steve Letarte (now an NBCSN analyst), are stark.

It’s all business, all the time for Ives.

“He’s a racer and he puts racing first, I think,” Earnhardt said. “It’s good for me, but it’s probably not good for the wife and kids. He does really good at what it appears to be and what it really is in reality is a little bit different. He works really hard. He doesn’t sleep. Let’s say that. He works really hard to be there for his wife and kids, but he’s hard on himself.”

It’s paying off, and if Earnhardt’s Speedweeks feats thus far are any indication, the best may be yet to come for the No. 88 team.

Posted on February 20, 2016 by

NASCAR.com’s Zack Albert, Kenny Bruce and Holly Cain make their predictions for the 2016 NASCAR season:

Zack Albert

Camping World Truck Series champion: Cole Custer. With bounds of talent, expect the 18-year-old with the flat-brimmed cap to emerge from a four-way scrap with Matt Crafton, John Hunter Nemechek and Tyler Reddick.

XFINITY Series champion: Erik Jones. Changing series, but same result. The prodigy collects another big trophy as Toyota grooms him for a Sprint Cup seat.

Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year: Ryan Blaney. Expect the Wood Brothers’ young star in the making to edge Chase Elliott in the series’ most compelling rookie crop in recent memory.

Surprise Chase qualifier: Clint Bowyer. Seeing Bowyer’s name among the postseason field is no surprise, but pushing the underdog HScott Motorsports team to its first Chase berth would be.

Surprise Chase miss: Kasey Kahne. The No. 5 team needs to shake a severe case of the doldrums that handcuffed Kahne’s 2015 season.

Daytona 500 pick: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Championship 4: Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano. As in the previous two years of the new-look Chase, don’t count on one organization having multiple cars vying for the title in Homestead.

2016 Sprint Cup champion: Kevin Harvick. The only two-time Championship 4 driver gets there again. This time, he cashes in for championship No. 2.

Kenny Bruce

Camping World Truck Series champion: Cole Custer. Talented kid in solid equipment; lack of experience the only concern.

XFINITY Series champion: Erik Jones. Last year’s Truck Series champion already has two career XFINTY Series wins.

Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year: Ryan Blaney. That he and the Wood Brothers team made 16 starts together should give them a bit of an advantage in the early going.

Surprise Chase qualifier: Kyle Larson. Much has been expected of the youngster; this year he delivers.

Surprise Chase miss: Jamie McMurray. While his teammate makes his first Chase appearance, McMurray fails to repeat his effort of 2015.

Daytona 500 pick: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Championship 4: Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick. They had the speed and the wins last year. Nothing has changed.

2016 Sprint Cup champion: Joey Logano. Willing to take chances, and has the talent and equipment to back it up.

Holly Cain

Camping World Truck Series champion: John Hunter Nemechek. This would be a big step for the 18-year-old, but he has the talent and the drive.

XFINITY Series champion: Erik Jones. He has both the natural talent and the equipment to be another rookie champion in the series.

Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year: Chase Elliott won the award as an XFINITY driver and with his talent plus the Hendrick Motorsports backing, he should fare best among the first-year drivers.

Surprise Chase Qualifier: Greg Biffle, Normally “The Biff” wouldn’t be considered a surprise, but it’s been a rough winless two seasons for him. He seems in good competitive form with a new look — and a highly motivated team.

Surprise Chase Miss: Paul Menard. That he qualified last year marked a career-best achievement, but too many other high-achievers will be back in the mix in 2016.

Daytona 500 pick: Denny Hamlin.

Championship 4: Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin. After two early Chase exits, Johnson is poised to make his first Championship 4 appearance — perhaps the hardest to predict of all the categories.

2016 Sprint Cup Champion: Jimmie Johnson earns his record-tying seventh title in a timely reminder of what makes him among the greatest champions of the sport.

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Nascar

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Matt Kenseth said he has seen NASCAR’s rule book updates, those referencing behavioral penalties and potential reactions from the sanctioning body that were announced Friday.

His take?

“Obviously, it would have been good to know that last season,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said Saturday prior to final practice for Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Daytona International Speedway.

Kenseth, the 2003 Sprint Cup Series champion, was suspended for two races during last year’s Chase following an on-track incident involving himself and Team Penske driver Joey Logano at Martinsville Speedway. The contact effectively knocked Logano out of the championship hunt.

The incident came two weeks after Logano spun Kenseth at Kansas Speedway, a move that put the JGR driver’s title hopes in jeopardy.

NASCAR officials unveiled specific penalties concerning member conduct, both on and off the track, that ranged from possible warnings for heat-of-the-moment outbursts to hefty fines, points penalties and possible suspensions for intentionally crashing a fellow driver.

Jim Cassidy, NASCAR senior vice president of racing operations, said no specific on-track or off-track incident led to the changes.

Not surprisingly, the Kenseth/Logano incident did come up when drivers were asked about violations and reactions on Saturday.

“They have to be able to take action and everyone needs to be aware of what the repercussions could be of their actions,” Aric Almirola (Richard Petty Motorsports) said. “At least if it’s in black and white and you go do it, you know what’s coming. You’re not sitting like Matt Kenseth, wondering ‘Will they treat me like Jeff Gordon in Phoenix with Clint Bowyer (in 2012) or are they really fed up this time and they’re going to drop the hammer on me?’

“Nobody really knew. Everybody was kind of waiting to see what NASCAR was going to do after Martinsville. I think it was time for them to really draw out the guidelines and let us know that a) that’s not going to be tolerated and b) if we do something like that, here are the consequences.”

Brad Keselowski, Logano’s teammate at Team Penske, said he didn’t believe it was necessary for NASCAR to spell out the consequences for specific actions.

“But I’m not a lawyer or someone that would go through those processes that would need it spelled out to feel good about it,” the 2012 Sprint Cup champion said.

“It seems pretty simple to me, very common sense. Don’t (commit) a felony crime or do something dumb and keep your spot in the sport.”

The bigger concern, he said, was perception.

“And this is a concern for all of society — even though the law doesn’t state it this way we’ve turned into a guilty until proven innocent society and there’s a lot of concern about that,” he said.

While specific language detailing potential penalties concerning behavioral violations now exists in the rule book, officials will continue to treat all violations on a case-by-case basis.

It was the not knowing, driver Ryan Newman said, that often caused previous decisions to be called into question.

Having potential responses for violations in black and white “is not bad, but actually describing it and having some examples (is) probably a good thing for everybody,” the Richard Childress Racing driver said.

“If you just throw down a rule book and say ‘This is how we expect you to act,’ that’s not my mom and dad. That’s not how I think business should be run.”

As long as the distinctions are clear, team owner Richard Childress said, there shouldn’t be any issues.

“Which is a warning and which one will be the penalty?” he said. “To me, that’s what needs to be clear.”

“We’re all really competitive,” Almirola added. “Any time we feel like we get something taken away from us or we’re taken advantage of, most of our natural reaction is ‘I’m going to get that guy back.’ Right?

“But it’s a really corporate environment; I have great sponsors on my race car and on our race team. At the end of the day, I want to do a good job for them. Those guys pay the bills, they pay a lot of money and I want to be a good spokesman for those companies.

“That’s always in the back of my mind before I do something stupid.”

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Holly Cain

MORE: Full NXS race results

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Darrell Wallace Jr. climbed out of his bright purple Selfeo Ford and took a moment to collect himself on pit road after a sixth place finish in the XFINITY Series opener at Daytona International Speedway.

It was the best restrictor plate XFINITY finish ever for Wallace. And his No. 6 Selfeo Ford ran as high as third place, one lap from the checkered flag.

“I’m getting emotional just to finish one of these deals,” Wallace said, smiling widely.

Short of victory, it was a welcome ending for the second-year XFINITY driver who has struggled a bit on the big tracks. It was certainly a happy ending for a weekend that began with his primary car hitting the wall only 11 laps into Friday’s first practice session of the year.

His Roush Fenway Racing team immediately pulled out a backup Ford Mustang on Friday and as he promised then, Wallace never looked back.

“We continued to work hard on this car,” Wallace said. “The speed came to us on the long runs. It was a good day. And I can’t thank Selfeo enough for making this deal happen.”

The effort puts the 22-year old Wallace second in the championship standings, three points behind Saturday’s fourth-place finisher Elliott Sadler.

Wallace’s team owner Jack Roush sought him out on pit road and there were a lot of smiles, “atta boys” and pats on the back during their brief conversation after the race.

“He hasn’t had a lot of luck finishing these, so today he finished and it feels like he won something,” Roush said. “He did a real nice job with what he had today.”

A consensus championship contender, Wallace was still smiling as pit road began to clear.

“I’m just a kid lucky enough to drive a race car and trying to make the most of it,” Wallace said with a big smile. “This is a win for us today.”

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The couple waited outside Chase Elliott‘s garage stall inside Daytona International Speedway Friday afternoon. For two hours they had held position; a pen and souvenir car in hand, ready to go.

As Elliott finally appeared, and made his way through the garage toward his car, Debbie Tenges moved forward in the crowd to get the autograph. Her husband Timm looked over proudly. Without stopping or slowing Elliott signed his name and went into his garage for Daytona 500 practice.

Tenges walked back to her waiting husband a few feet away, smiling widely. There was even a little skip in her step.

For longtime avid Jeff Gordon fans like the Tenges, this was an important and emotional first step. And the initial autograph interaction would verify or deny their adoration instincts.

“I wasn’t sold on Chase even before we left for this trip, but I watched his demeanor,” Timm Tenges acknowledged. “I didn’t cheer for him when he started, I thought he was too young, but I respected his abilities.

“But the dynamics are different and he has set the stage for us. It’s difficult to let go of the 24 and imagine it without Jeff in it, but I think Chase will give it a good ride.”

A few moments later, 35-year-old Gainesville, Florida, native Tobin Hedglin took position outside Elliott’s hauler across from the No. 24’s garage stall. He was dressed in a bright multi-colored Jeff Gordon T-shirt with a new Chase Elliott embroidered NAPA hat on his head.

Hedglin conceded he gave the decision a lot of thought, but insisted he is all in with Elliott despite sporting the Gordon shirt. He lifted his shirt up a bit and smiled. Underneath was a fresh Chase Elliott-version.

“It’s tough finding a new driver, but you don’t just switch teams,” Hedglin said, explaining his support includes an entire room in his house decorated with Gordon memorabilia.

“Chase starting first in his first big race doesn’t hurt though,” he said, smiling about Elliott’s pole-winning effort for Sunday’s Daytona 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“It’s gotta be added pressure for Chase, but he’s with Hendrick, he’ll have the power. I watched Bill Elliott race when I was younger and I hope Chase follows in his footsteps.”

Jeff Gordon isn’t the only one making a major transition this season.

So are his fans.

RELATED: Gordon embraces new career with ‘contagious’ energy

Gordon’s retirement at the end of the 2015 season has been a huge deal to his vast and vocal legion of supporters. Without the four-time champ lining up on the starting grid, who would they be able to cheer for, who would their heart pine for?

It’s a big decision for NASCAR fans — who cheer for, dress for, argue for their favorite driver.

It was a much easier decision for Gordon who to support.

“It was nothing but just gleaming pride coming out of me,” Gordon said of Elliott winning the pole for his Daytona 500 debut. “I was just so proud of them. Being a part of this process, of bringing Chase to that group.”

“(Crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) can tell you, we would have meetings in March (of 2015) after a race and we would be in a debrief talking about a race and I would say ‘Hey, just a note. This is for Chase. Tell Chase about this part of the track or this moment he needs to think about this.’

“We’ve been preparing for this for a long time; I’ve been 100 percent supportive. I think he’s a great kid; I think he’s going to be a superstar in the sport. I also know that there are ’24’ fans out there that were really on the fence about whether they should keep the 24 or not keep the 24. As soon as that car was on the pole, every one of those ’24’ fans were like ‘Yes!’ and they were on board.”

Longtime Gordon fan Jason Marks shares the sentiment. He walked around the speedway infield Saturday proudly dressed in a Jeff Gordon T-shirt, and the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, resident said he saw no reason to abandon any of his Gordon-themed wardrobe.

“Just because he retired doesn’t mean you’re not a fan,” Marks said. “Ten years from now I could still wear a Jeff Gordon T-shirt.”

Marks explained, “I could care less about the (car) number, it’s just a number. For me, even before I knew Jeff Gordon was retiring, I liked Chase Elliott so it felt like it all fell into place.

“I watch all the XFINITY and Truck races so I had liked him before. It has nothing to do with the number. I really do think he should get the credibility for his personality and for winning the XFINITY championship.

“Chase Elliott is very likable. It seems like he has a lot of talent and I think it’s going to work out pretty well.”

Patrick Kozak, 46, also sported a No. 24 T-shirt at Daytona this week. He explained he had a difficult time making the decision to root whole-heartedly for someone other than the four-time champ. He loved Gordon’s friendliness as much as his ability behind the wheel and the standards are set high.

Elliott winning the pole position for the biggest race of the year, however, finally helped sway Kozak’s decision toward the young driver.

“I’m going to give him a shot and see where it goes,” Kozak said.

Then he smiled and added, “He’s going to be around for a while.”