The Rundown: Daytona

Posted on February 22, 2016 by

Complete news and notes on all 40 drivers from the Daytona 500.

1. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. The dominant car for much of Speedweeks, Hamlin was out front for 95 laps and used a huge last lap surge to clear his teammate Matt Kenseth, edge Martin Truex Jr. to the line and earn his first Daytona 500 victory in 11 tries. Grade: A+

2. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Toyota, Furniture Row Racing. Just inches away from his first Daytona 500 victory, Truex may be heartbroken, but he took his second-place finish in style and with class. Grade: A

3. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. One year after watching the Daytona 500 from the hospital, the defending Sprint Cup Series champion was a total team player and helped push the Joe Gibbs Racing charge to the front. Grade: A

4. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. The 2007 Daytona 500 champion made an incredible save early in the race and provided the push that shoved Denny Hamlin to the front of the field on the last lap. Grade: A

5. Carl Edwards, No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. The No. 19 Toyota looked like it went through 500 miles at Martinsville after getting caught in Brian Vickers‘ early race spin, but the team never gave up and Edwards was a factor late in the race. Grade: A-

RELATED: Edwards takes on damage

6. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske. The 2015 Daytona 500 champion had a fast Ford, fought the handling for much of the race and helped form the high line late that won the race for Denny Hamlin. Grade: B

7. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. The quiet seventh-place finish for Larson was a huge improvement over his four previous Daytona starts, where he failed to finish better than 34th. Grade: B+

8. Regan Smith, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing. In his first start for Tommy Baldwin Racing, Smith overcame an early spin and an overheating engine in the closing laps to earn his first top 10 since Talladega Superspeedway in May 2013. Grade: B+

9. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing.The driver of the No. 3 Chevrolet had a slow start to the day but was able to hang around and move through the pack when it mattered most to finish inside the top 10. Grade: B-

10. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. After missing last year’s Daytona 500, Busch was a factor toward the front of the field for much of the day and finished 10th. Grade: B

11. Ryan Newman, No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. A dismal start of Speedweeks turned into an 11th-place finish for Ryan Newman, much better than they had performed all week. Grade: B

12. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. The driver of the famed No. 43 ran mid-pack for much of Sunday’s Daytona 500, but was able to work his way to 12th in the final laps. Grade: B-

13. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Kahne’s No. 5 Chevrolet showed speed throughout the day, but fell back when the field broke up off Turn 4 on the final lap of the race. Grade: B

14. Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. The driver of the No. 20 Toyota was leading the race in the final corner, tried to block Hamlin’s strong run and made an incredible save to avoid wrecking the field. The two-time “Great American Race” winner led for a total of 40 laps. Grade: A

15. Michael McDowell, No. 59 Chevrolet, Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing. McDowell stopped in the wrong pit stall, stalled the car, was pushed out by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., but was able to recover to finish inside the top 15. Grade: B-

16. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Starting in the rear with a backup car, the two-time Daytona 500 champion showed speed, led 18 laps, but fell back late after making an incredible save. Grade: B-

17. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. The 2010 Daytona 500 winner was running mid-pack on the final lap and had to check up when Kenseth slowed off Turn 4. Grade: B-

18. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. The Richard Childress Racing driver ran outside the top 20 for much of the race, ran inside the top 10 midway through the event, but then dropped back late in the going. Grade: C

19. Ryan Blaney, No. 21 Ford, Wood Brothers Racing. The highest-finishing rookie showed strength throughout the day, but faded late in the 200-lap event after a loose wheel mired him in the pack. Grade: B-

20. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, Team Penske. The Team Penske driver fought the handling of his No. 2 Ford throughout the race, tried to make the high line work on the final lap, but fell back. Grade: C+

21. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG Daugherty Racing. Not the start to the season Allmendinger was hoping for, as he ran outside the top 25 for much of the race. Grade: C-

22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Stenhouse was stuck behind McDowell on pit road midway through the race, was in the wrong lane at the end, but was still the highest-finishing Roush Fenway Racing driver. Grade: C

23. Landon Cassill, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Starting 24th, Cassill ran midpack for much of the event and finished one spot ahead of where he started. Grade: C

24. Brian Scott, No. 44 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. The rookie driver took a conservative approach at the end of Sunday’s race, trying to avoid a wreck and finished outside the top 20 as a result. Grade: C

25. Ty Dillon, No. 95 Chevrolet, Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing. Making his second Daytona 500 start, the younger Dillon worked his way to the top 10 just before halfway, but faded deep in the pack late in the race. Grade: C

26. Brian Vickers, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Filling in for Tony Stewart, Vickers spun on Lap 56, avoided any damage and fought back to the top 10, but was caught in the high line late and fell through the pack. Grade: B+

RELATED: Vickers spins out, but rallies

27. Michael Annett, No. 46 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Annett ran outside the top 30 for much of the day, but was able to make some moves and work his way to 27th by the end of the race. Grade: C-

28. Trevor Bayne, No. 6 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. The 2011 Daytona 500 winner was involved in an early incident with Carl Edwards and was never able to make a charge to the front. Grade: C-

29. David Ragan, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing. Ragan raced his way inside the top 20 throughout the race, but was never a factor and fell to the back of the pack on the final run to the checkered flag. Grade: C-

30. Michael Waltrip, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing. The two-time Daytona 500 winner struggled throughout the day on pit road, receiving multiple penalties. Grade: D

31. Bobby Labonte, No. 32 Ford, Go Fas Racing. Starting 33rd, the 2000 series champion rarely broke out of the top 30, finishing the day 31st. Grade: D

32. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing. Mears was hit with a pit-road speeding penalty under green and hit a large piece of debris with the hood and windshield. Grade: C-

33. Clint Bowyer, No. 15, HScott Motorsports. In his debut with HScott Motorsports, Bowyer struggled for speed throughout Speedweeks and received a pit-road penalty late in the going. Grade: D-

34. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Biffle had high hopes for the Daytona 500, but when the team put left side tires on the right side of the car, it led to a blown right rear and late contact with Danica Patrick ended any hope of a recovery. Grade: D-

35. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Problems on pit road, heated conversations with the team over the radio and a wild ride through the grass after contact with Biffle made her Daytona less than memorable. Grade: D

36. Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. One of the strongest cars all of Speedweeks, Earnhardt was charging to the front when his car — penned “Amelia” — broke loose and slid into the inside wall with 31 laps to go. Grade: B-

37. Chase Elliott, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. After a strong start for the rookie pole-sitter, Elliott lost control of his No. 24 (off Turn 4) on Lap 18. The infield grass destroyed the front end of Elliott’s car and ended his hopes of a solid finish. Grade: C-

38. Robert Richardson Jr., No. 26 Toyota, BK Racing. The underdog story of Daytona ended up finishing two spots ahead of where he started, and Richardson stayed out of trouble throughout the day. Grade: D+

39. Chris Buescher, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Buescher’s rookie campaign did not get off to a great start as he was caught up in a Lap 91 incident with Matt DiBenedetto, taking a huge hit in the process. Grade: C-

40. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 93 Toyota, BK Racing. Making his first Daytona 500 start, the BK Racing driver had a hard hit into the Turn 1 SAFER barrier and took blame for the incident. Grade: D

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Nascar

RELATED: Full results from Daytona | Read Denny’s childhood Daytona note

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Denny Hamlin knew he wanted Mike Wheeler to be his crew chief, and Wheeler knew he wanted to be Hamlin’s crew chief. But until the 2016 season, neither got their wish.

Now, after winning NASCAR’s season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday, folks might be asking, ‘What took so long?’

Wheeler is Hamlin’s fourth crew chief in the Sprint Cup Series, taking over the helm of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 team in late December of 2015. The move came only after Wheeler, previously the lead engineer for Hamlin, served a year toiling in the XFINITY Series, heading up the No. 20 entry for JGR. The two were close, even if it wasn’t Wheeler on the box calling the shots on race day at the Sprint Cup level.

Close enough that Hamlin practically promised Wheeler the job. A bit prematurely, it seems.

“I said, ‘Down the line we’re going to work together,'” Hamlin recounted after Sunday’s win. “I knew he had aspirations to be a crew chief in the Cup Series. You can only be a great engineer for so long before other teams are going to come knocking.

“(Team owner) Joe (Gibbs) gave him that opportunity in the XFINITY Series. Even though I probably premature promised him the job a little soon, you know, I was happy that Gibbs said, ‘Let’s just take you through the same process that all of our other crew chiefs had.’

“I’m glad he was only gone for a year.”

Hamlin scored his 27th victory here on Sunday. He’s won with each of the crew chiefs with whom he has worked – Mike Ford, Darian Grubb, Dave Rogers and now Wheeler.

“When Mike Ford left (after 2011) and Darian came on board, it was a big timeframe there that Darian didn’t know the JGR stuff,” Wheeler said Monday during the annual champions’ breakfast at Daytona International Speedway. “So they put me in more of that kind of a deal. I got to do more and I was happy with that because I felt like I could show what I could do. I think Denny saw that. And that was the same timeframe that he was like ‘OK, Wheels knows what he’s talking about and can run this team, but Darian is the leader.’

“Year after year, I wanted to become a crew chief, but I was happy being with Denny Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing and with Darian running the team, we were winning races and competing for championships. You couldnt ask for much more than that.”

“It’s a pretty good story,” team owner Joe Gibbs said. “Really and truly, that’s been in play for probably four years. He obviously was the lead engineer with Denny. Really what would happen is many times at the race track, my understanding was, Denny would talk to the crew chief but he also would turn and talk to Wheels. They developed this relationship.”

But Gibbs wanted Wheeler to season a bit before handing him the reins of a Sprint Cup team.

“I was thinking maybe two years or something because what you worry about with an engineer, now they take over all the people stuff when you become a crew chief,” Gibbs said. “Now you’ve got to work with a lot of people; the job requirements take on a different (look).

“We’d had such good fortune with Jason (Ratcliff) and Dave, having those guys go through XFINITY, so it took some talking. But really, he thought about it I think for his career, he wanted to be a crew chief, he said OK.”

Going to the XFINITY Series was a risk, Wheeler said, admitting, “I wasn’t excited about doing it.”

While it was a way to further prove himself, he said it was also possible to get “lost in the program.

“If you get subpar results with average drivers, that’s what happens sometimes, I know you can get lost in the mix. So I was kind of scared doing that. But I knew Denny would have my back.”

The experience and the feedback from other drivers convinced Gibbs that Wheeler was ready to move up.

“When you go down there … he gets to work with almost all the Cup drivers,” Gibbs explained. “When Matt (Kenseth) went down there for one of the very first races with him, Matt got out of the car and came and told me ‘That guy’s good.’

“He’s worked with Kyle (Busch), he’s worked with Denny. And when you go through that process trying to please those guys that know what’s going on, and you start getting feedback from them that ‘hey, this guy’s really good,’ it gave us real confidence. I think it was a good year for him.”

David Wilson, President and General Manager for Toyota Racing Development, USA, said Wheeler is “the perfect example” of how JGR uses the ladder system to bring talent to the Sprint Cup level.

“A lot of people look at things like the XFINITY Series as just the XFINITY Series, but it’s also a means to an end,” he said. “And the end is to build the strongest Cup team possible. So they invest in their people. They invest in these young engineers who demonstrate their commitment, their work ethic. You go down the list – Mike Wheeler, Dave Rogers, Jason Ratcliff. All of these young, talented engineers, they came up through the ranks, first as race engineers and if they prove their capability then they’ll give them a shot at the XFINITY level.

“It’s their first chance to really not just engineer the race cars but engineer the team, build the team. What’s neat about Wheels is he has graduated now; he’s been a great leader and I’m so happy for him because he’s put in the work, paid the dues, the blood, sweat and tears to achieve this level of success.”

That he and Hamlin have similar backgrounds, are close in age and came into the series at roughly the same time helped build the foundation of their current relationship, Wheeler said.

“We grew up together,” he said. “(Denny) just came in in the same timeframe, we were both mid-20s and in a sport that had a lot of older people at the time so it was very easy to become buds.

“I don’t know if it’s who I am versus who he is or just a good solid match. But we have that mutual respect. He’s trusted my judgment for a long time now.”

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Nascar

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — There was the victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last season, the no longer lame Kyle Busch winning the Brickyard 400.

And the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship that followed at season’s end, once again courtesy of Busch and the Joe Gibbs Racing organization.

Another milestone was reached here Sunday as Denny Hamlin, also of JGR, made a last-lap pass of teammate Matt Kenseth to capture the season-opening Daytona 500.

Toyota. Toyota. And Toyota.

A first Brickyard title; a first Sprint Cup title; and now a first Daytona 500 title.

An automaker that admittedly struggled to find its footing when debuting in the Sprint Cup Series a decade ago suddenly is running out of accomplishments to cross off the list.

Not so fast, cautions David Wilson, President & General Manager, Toyota Racing Development, USA.

“I don’t think you ever stop checking the boxes,” Wilson said. “But today, the Daytona 500, the ‘Great American Race’ was the only race that Toyota had not won.

“We’re going to take a few hours to try and soak this in and live in the moment. But then it’s back to work tomorrow because we’ve got another season to start. This is the plate race, and now we go to Atlanta where we’ve got to run our new open stuff and see how we stack up.”

It was a significant victory for Toyota, which backs the four-team JGR effort (Busch, Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards) and the single-car unit of Furniture Row Racing. Bigger than the Indianapolis 500 victory scored by Gil de Ferran in 2003 in a Team Penske entry powered by the automaker, according to Wilson.

RELATED: Truex Jr. inches away from win | Drivers react to thrilling finish

“This is very difficult for me to put in words,” he said. “I cannot articulate adequately what this means to Toyota. I’ll start by saying it’s our single biggest race in our company’s history. I’ll put it in front of the Indy 500, which was a pretty special one back in 2003.”

Toyota not only won the race, the first of 36 points races for the Sprint Cup Series this season, but its teams took four of the top five spots. For much of the race, those teams ran either 1-2-3 or 1-2-3-4. It was that kind of day.

Hamlin, Kenseth, Busch and Truex combined to lead 156 of the race’s 200 laps.

Until someone comes along to top it, history will show that the closest finish in Daytona 500 history featured a pair of Toyota Camrys crossing the finish line side-by-side.

MORE: Closest finishes in 500 history | See the finish | View from Harvick’s car

It was a far cry from 2007, when Toyota teams rolled out for the first time in a Sprint Cup event here. Of the eight teams carrying the nameplate in that year’s race, only four managed to qualify and none finished higher than 22nd.

Wilson called that debut “incredibly humbling.”

“But we didn’t expect to succeed either,” he said. “Obviously … when we started Cup racing, the fans were apprehensive. I think it was a polarizing issue, Toyota being here in the sport. I think our struggles — it so much humanized us and showed everybody that we’re going to have to work as hard as anybody.

“Nothing comes easy. The level of competition that this sport has amongst the teams and engineers is unlike anything we’ve ever seen, including CART and IndyCar.”

Sunday, the hard work and the long hours and the team alignments and everything else that you see and much of that which you don’t finally came together.

It came together for Hamlin, for Joe Gibbs Racing and for Toyota.

Another milestone achieved, another box checked.

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Staff Report

RELATED: Watch the live stream here

From 8-11 a.m. ET on Tuesday, NASCAR.com will live stream the post-race inspection process.

The three-hour look takes you behind the scenes as NASCAR officials inspect NASCAR Sprint Cup Series vehicles following Sunday’s Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

The cars being inspected this week are: the No. 78 Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. (finished second in Sunday’s race), the No. 4 Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick (finished fourth in Sunday’s race) and the No. 22 Ford of Joey Logano (finished sixth in Sunday’s race).

For more information on what the inspection process entails, click here.

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Staff Report

EARNHARDT NATION is the story of one of NASCAR’s most famous families, from dirt-track racer Ralph to American legend Dale to NASCAR icon Dale Junior. The book is the first to trace the entire history of the Earnhardt family, from Ralph’s first days working under a hood to Dale Junior’s 2015 Sprint Cup campaign, and everything in between. EARNHARDT NATION is available at bookstores everywhere, or online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all other booksellers. Author Jay Busbee is on Twitter at @jaybusbee and on Facebook at facebook.com/jaybusbee.

In this excerpt, we get a look at the lighter side of Dale Earnhardt, the prankster side:

Woe to the reporter who entered Dale Earnhardt’s domain on anything less than high alert. He was an inveterate prankster, and the garage was his theater.

“You never knew what to expect from him, and that was deliberate,” Fox Sports’ Matt Yocum said. “He wanted you off balance around him. I would be interviewing him and he’d be stomping on my foot or poking me in the ribs, out of the camera’s view. I couldn’t let on, of course, and he was having a great time.”

Any cameraman who tried for the NFL Films-style “hero shot” — shot from below as the cameraman walked backward — was in for a treat. Earnhardt regularly walked those cameramen into people’s legs or the backs of cars. He’d throw balls of tape at the camera, he’d grab a headset from a pit reporter and begin berating whoever was back in the studio.

“Every time you’d start laughing,” Fox’s Steve Byrnes said, “he’d say, ‘Why aren’t you taking this seriously?’ “

ESPN reporter Ryan McGee found out the hard way that earnestness made you an easy target. As a young reporter in 1997, he was headed for a date when his bosses asked him to swing by Charlotte Motor Speedway for some interviews. Earnhardt asked McGee why he was dressed so sportily, and McGee made the crucial mistake of mentioning that he was on his way to a date. As McGee was leaving, Earnhardt gave him a hearty slap on the back and wished him good luck. During the date, McGee discovered Earnhardt had dipped his hand in oil and left smears down the back of McGee’s crisply laundered shirt.

In the early 1980s, Eddie Gossage, now the president of Texas Motor Speedway, was leaving Bristol, the track where he then worked as a promoter. He was driving 60 miles per hour down 11E, the Tennessee highway that runs past the track, when he someone slammed his back bumper. “I looked in the rear-view mirror, and I saw those beady eyes,” Gossage said later, laughing. “Earnhardt was right on me, an inch off my bumper. What was I going to do? I wasn’t going to brake-check him, and no way I could outrun him.” Earnhardt, grinning all the way, didn’t leave Gossage alone until he reached his driveway.

Once, Earnhardt, Richard Childress, Bill France Jr., and NASCAR president Mike Helton were on a trip to Monaco when Earnhardt decided he wanted to drive the famed Formula 1 course there. Problem is, the course runs on public roads, and those roads that day were very public. Even so, Earnhardt whipped their rental car through the streets of Monaco like some Southern-fried James Bond. “No matter how he would drive,” Helton recalled, “you always felt like he was in control. There was something serene about him behind the wheel.”

Earnhardt tossed a rubber snake at Helton on a camping trip. He threw country music star Kix Brooks into the ocean off the Bahamas. At one champions’ weekend in New York at the Waldorf, he and Kenny Schrader raided the maids’ closet and bricked up the doorway of then-NASCAR VP Jim Hunter with towels. He handcuffed Geoff Bodine to a hotel railing in Louisville. He left Budweiser on the bed of Rusty Wallace, who was devoted to his sponsor Miller Lite, every time Wallace stayed on Earnhardt’s boat. He dumped a can of sardines under Wallace’s seat just before the Southern 500 on a day temperatures reached the ’90s. He’d hang out in the Talladega credentials office and tell unsuspecting reporters who called in that Talladega didn’t need their coverage and they didn’t need to bother coming to the track.

He also loved tweaking the fans. Many hung around outside the walls of the Garage Mahal, waiting for a glimpse of Earnhardt. He’d ride back and forth on his tractor, working the land and waiting to see how long it would take the fans to pick up on his presence. He once did a promotion for Darlington right in front of Daytona International Speedway, holding up a sign that read NEED TWO TICKETS TO DARLINGTON as astonished motorists drove by. While on hunting trips, he’d walk into a remote gas station somewhere in the middle of Alabama, and people would say, “You know who you look like?”

“When you would hang out with Dale,” former crew chief Larry McReynolds recalled, “you didn’t need your brain. You could take it out and let it rest. I’d go have dinner with him, and it’d be, ‘Don’t sit there, sit over there. Eat more of that. Why do you eat that first? Teresa, get him some more of that. You need to drink water. Drink some more water.’ I’d come back from dinners with him exhausted.”

But probably his rankest prank came at Bristol, when Earnhardt spotted Childress entering a portable toilet in the infield. He climbed in his truck, quietly rolled up to the plastic-walled toilet, and began gently tapping the front bumper of the truck against the door. Then he started striking harder and harder, until the entire toilet itself nearly fell over.

“DAMMIT, DALE,” Childress shouted as he stormed out of the john, but soon he was laughing along with Earnhardt because, well, what else could he do?

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Nascar

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Matt Kenseth said he knew his teammate would be the one to make a move, and with nearly all of Joe Gibbs Racing lined up behind him in the closing laps of Sunday’s Daytona 500, that was a pretty safe bet.

Specifically, Kenseth meant Denny Hamlin and he was correct.

It was Hamlin who bolted from the pack on the final lap of the season-opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event, forcing Kenseth to slide high to block, only to see the No. 11 Toyota dive underneath.

Hamlin then won a drag race to the photo-finish line with fellow Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. The margin of victory, 0.010 second, was the closest in the history of the event.

PHOTOS: Closest finishes in ‘Great American Race’ history

Kenseth, in the meantime, briefly danced along the outside wall before gathering his car back in. By then it was too late and all momentum had been lost.

He was scored in 14th as he made his way across the line.

Truex Jr. and Furniture Row Racing are new to the JGR camp after a move to Toyota during the offseason. JGR teammate and defending series champion Kyle Busch was third. Carl Edwards rounded out the JGR attack in fifth.

“I thought my only shot for the win was to get up there and get his nose centered up and hopefully get in front of him,” Kenseth said afterward on pit road. “I made the block and then let him get outside of me, but he turned back under me and it got me real loose and get my left-rear and just went by.

“Masterful job of doing that. It doesn’t get much more disappointing for us.”

There was no second-guessing the move and no complaints about Hamlin’s last-lap charge. It was hard racing.

“You’re trying to win the Daytona 500,” Kenseth said.

Kenseth led 40 laps (160-199), second only to Hamlin’s 95 laps led on the day.

“It’s really frustrating. It’s really disappointing,” the 2003 series champion said. “I feel like I let my team down pretty much for two weeks straight here and today was no exception to that. It’s always disappointing when they put you in position to win and you can’t get it done as a driver.

“My teammates were awesome all day, and our adopted teammate, Martin. When we put even three of ’em in a line, they were fast. When we put five in a line, nobody was going to touch ’em. It was going to be one of our cars that won unless we messed up. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the mix coming across the line.”

Crew chief Jason Ratcliff understands Kenseth’s frustration, but was quick to put it in perspective.

“What else can you ask for?” he said. “It was hard to make moves out there today. There was really none. We lost some track position with a couple of (pit) stops to go. The guys did a good job of putting a stop down when it counted and getting us off pit road on that green-flag (pit) cycle. Matt did a good job saving (fuel). At that point we couldn’t make it but the caution got us there.”

He has won his share of races since being teamed with Kenseth, a two-time Daytona 500 champion. But winning the 500 remains on the to-do list for the crew chief.

“It’s disappointing. You don’t get that many opportunities like that. But it is what it is,” Ratcliff said. “At least we weren’t out there running around in 20^th all day. To have to start in the back already with a backup car, to be able to go up there and lead some laps, have a shot at it, I’m glad one of our teammates was able to bring it home.”

It’s the Daytona 500, the series’ biggest event, and teams find it difficult to just shrug it off and move on. But eventually they know that has to happen. It’s the same for the winner as well as those who depart disappointed.

Sunday’s result will be put to rest before the new week begins, according to Ratcliff.

“As soon as the plane lands in Concord (Sunday night) and we step off and get on the ground, get our luggage, this one is over,” he said. “We’re pushing toward Atlanta when the sun comes up in the morning and we’ll try to win that one.”

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Nascar

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The fastest man on four wheels at Daytona International Speedway isn’t Chase Elliott, the 20-year-old rookie who will start today’s Daytona 500 from the pole position.

It’s likely Robert Hight, Funny Car driver for John Force Racing. His last run down the dragstrip was at a leisurely 313 mph. It was a bit too leisurely. He lost in the semifinals of last week’s season-opening NHRA WinterNationals at Pomona, California.

“I love NASCAR racing,” Hight said Saturday at DIS. “I actually love a lot of motorsports but NASCAR is probably one of my favorites.”

A 36-time winner in NHRA, Hight was on hand for the weekend as a guest of Chevrolet. While the two series might seem worlds apart to some, Hight was clearly in his element.

“I love going in the garage area,” he said. “I get to see a lot of people I know. … I’m fortunate that I know some of the drivers through sponsors and those relationships. I’m very interested, being a mechanic, in how these things work and what they’re looking for, what they’re doing, what kind of changes they’re making, the new technology. I love that stuff.

“And it’s cool getting to talk to the fans. The fans come up and they recognize you … not like John Force, but they recognize you and you get to talk about your sport.”

Hight did clutch work during several of driver John Force’s championship seasons. In 2004, he made the move to the driver’s seat. It was an eye-opening transition.

“The first time I went down the race track, it was in a nitro Funny Car,” he said. “Nervous. Scared to death because you don’t know what to expect.

“I could build a car, a complete car from start to finish. But I know how hard the crew works. If I go out there and stuff this thing in the wall or do something stupid, it will create all this work for these guys.

“And of course, I’m never going to live this down. I’ll hear about it forever.”

A year later, he was a full-time driver. He won in his fourth race out and led the points as a rookie.

Today, he’s a wizened veteran. But the thrill that came with those first shakedown runs hasn’t been forgotten.

“It’s the horsepower,” he said of the sport’s draw. “Just the sheer horsepower. Once I saw those cars run, I thought ‘I’ve got to be around this.’ “

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Nascar

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — He’s recovering from shoulder surgery, hoping to be back in the ring sooner rather than later, but that didn’t keep WWE champion John Cena from making an appearance here at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.

Cena, a 15-time champion, was at the season-opening event for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to serve as honorary pace car driver. It wasn’t exactly his first appearance at a NASCAR event.

In 2007, he took part in the reality series “Fast Cars and Superstars,” a celebrity race pairing celebrities with members of the Gillette Young Guns NASCAR program. Since then, he’s kept up with the sport and those who participate.

“It was awesome,” Cena said. “I had kind of been in the distance with NASCAR but when you … first of all, you get to know some of the drivers, you want to root for your driver. Carl (Edwards) taught me how to drive so that was a cool connection. We shared a lot of similarities. What NASCAR does is very similar to what WWE does; I just began to watch a lot more.

“The NASCAR season is long; the WWE is endless and we’re often going at the same time. But obviously you catch up on the headlines and can keep up on the stories. I try to keep in touch as much as I can.”

Cena branched out into other areas of the entertainment industry while remaining a top draw in the ring. In addition to movie roles, his most recent effort will see him start in the reality series “American Grit” which debuts April 14 on FOX.

“I hate using a buzzword like revolutionary but I’ve seen some of the cuts and it really is amazing,” he said. “Because this is an instance where we have some really gifted folks from the United States military and they are lending their services to motivate civilians to compete for not only a prize but truly mold civilians into better human beings. It was a pleasure to be a part of it; it’s really, really cool.”

His NASCAR interest has allowed him to get to know a number of competitors in the garage. Sunday, he took time to catch up with as many as time allowed.

“I know Joey (Logano), Kyle (Busch), Carl has done Raw,” he said. “We’ve had a good amount of NASCAR drivers do Raw so it will be good to see all those guys again. I always like to catch up on life with the guys; I still trade stories with some of the guys. … You talk about their life and how things are going, they ask about yours. It’s cool to catch up.”

While NASCAR’s biggest event was preparing to unfold Sunday, wrestling’s big event, Wrestlemania, gets underway April 3 in Dallas. While he’ll be in attendance, the shoulder injury makes it unlikely he’ll be competing.

“I would really, really love to somehow be a part of our annual gala over there,” he said. “The odds are against me, but I’ll be there in person. I’ll be there for our Hall of Fame. Hopefully I’ll be floating around the event trying to cause trouble if I can’t be a part of it.”

Cena knows his career in the ring is out there. But just how far? He says he isn’t sure.

“I’ll be 39 in April and I made a pact with myself in my 20s. I’ve seen all sorts of things in our industry and as long as I can keep up from an athletic aspect with the youngest, best we’ve got, I’m in,” he said. “And I don’t think I’ve lost that step yet.”

It isn’t any harder today, going against younger competition, he said. “It’s just a different chess game. That’s all. It’s just moving the pieces a different way.”

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Holly Cain

RELATED: Full race results | Standings | SHOP: Hamlin gear

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Denny Hamlin earned his first Daytona 500 victory in the closest finish in the race’s storied 58-year history, pushing his No. 11 FedEx Toyota ahead of Martin Truex Jr.’s Toyota at the finish line by one-hundredth of a second (0.010) — a half-foot winning difference in NASCAR’s most celebrated event.

Hamlin, 34, called it the “biggest race of my life,” and was still shaking his head taking it all in as he spoke to reporters amid the falling confetti and loud celebration in Daytona International Speedway‘s Victory Lane.

The two cars crossed the finish line simultaneously, and it wasn’t until NASCAR made the official call and television replayed the finish before most people — in the pits and the grandstands — were certain who had won.

“I had no anticipations of winning this race on the white flag lap,” Hamlin said. “I didn’t know we had won. I knew it was close. I saw the pylon change and blink at the last second with the 11. I heard people on the radio crazy and excited and assumed we won at that point.

“If not, I was going to be PISSED,” he added smiling.

MORE: Hamlin: ‘I don’t know where that came from’

Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards finished third and fifth, respectively. Former Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick was fourth. Last year’s 500 winner Joey Logano was sixth, followed by Kyle Larson in seventh, his best showing in the race to date.

It was Toyota’s first ever win in NASCAR’s premier event and the first Daytona 500 win for Joe Gibbs Racing in 23 years.

“This was a team victory,” Hamlin said. “My teammates did an amazing job all day; this is a proud moment for everyone at Toyota. I don’t know what happened, I can’t even figure out what I did.”

Truex was understandably of mixed emotions following the race, but mostly proud of his day and of establishing his team’s good working relationship with Gibbs’ stable of Toyotas.

He was running second behind fellow Camry driver Matt Kenseth for the final 20 laps but when Hamlin pulled out to make a run for the win on the final lap, Kenseth went up to block the progress. Hamlin got by, and Truex and Busch jumped in line behind as Kenseth got shuffled back and ultimately finished 14th.

“It hurts a little bit, but it’s something to be proud of for sure,” Truex said managing a smile and insisting he didn’t know if he had won or not at the checkered flag. He said he was actually looking at the large video screen as he went around the track for a replay.

“I knew it was really close,” he said. “I didn’t think either way, just said, ‘Man that was really close.’ I have a feeling I’ll be seeing a picture of that (finish) for a long time.

“I’m fine though, I’m proud of what we did.”

“This is just one race, but seeing and feeling that teamwork with JGR,” Truex said of his career-best finish at Daytona. “We had a plan before the race and really controlled the entire race. It was great to show them they can trust me to be a part of their team. It was important to kick that relationship off right.”

It was a tough day for some of the pre-race favorites such as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson — and certainly for the feel-good pole-winner Chase Elliott, too.

Earnhardt, a two-time Daytona 500 champion and a winner in Thursday’s qualifying race, led twice for 15 laps, but crashed alone on Lap 170 racing mid-pack.

“I got loose and just busted my tail,” Earnhardt said. “It was time to go. We were making some moves on the outside and moving forward and passing some guys. Just got loose trying to do too much at once.”

Earnhardt acknowledged he felt like the car was not where it needed to be, but was also hopeful of getting back to the front to race for the win.

“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.”

Elliott’s first Daytona 500 took a downturn only a few laps into the afternoon. The youngest pole winner (age 20) in history led the opening three circuits but crashed into the infield on Lap 20.

“Just got in the middle there a couple of laps before and got loose off of (turn) four and just lost it,” said Elliott, Earnhardt’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate and driver of the famed No. 24 previously driven by newly-retired champion Jeff Gordon.

“I hate it, it had been such a fun week and you hate to end the race before it even got started. Just disappointed for everybody. We will just have to look past it and get on for Atlanta.

“That is the most important thing now. Can’t get caught up in what happened today, it is irrelevant now. We’ll try and get it fixed and make some laps. Then it’s on to Atlanta and if we can make some laps we will and move forward from here.”

Other former winners were occasionally, if not steadily, in the winning mix Sunday only to have various foibles.

Six-time champion Jimmie Johnson led 18 laps and ran among the front pack midway through the day, but got shuffled back and finished 16th, his worst finish in four seasons.

Brian Vickers, who steered Tony Stewart‘s No. 14 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet while the three-time NASCAR champion stayed home in Charlotte, North Carolina, healing from a back injury, ran up front among the top-10 for a portion of the day and was as high as second place in the final 40 laps.

This day certainly seemed to belong to Toyotas and Hamlin, who is still recovering from ACL surgery two months ago. Hamlin is only the sixth driver to win both the Sprint Unlimited and the Daytona 500 in the same season, joining greats such as Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett, the last to do it in 2000.

“Here they were three-time champions and they took a chance on us. I hate it that it’s taken this long (for a championship and Daytona 500 win) but the bond we have with Joe Gibbs and his family is stronger than ever,” said President and General Manager of Toyota Racing Development USA David Wilson.

WATCH: Harvick’s in-car view of Hamlin’s winning move

For Hamlin, it was particularly special with new crew chief Michael Wheeler calling his first race for Hamlin, the first time they’ve worked together since Wheeler spent six races atop the box in 2014.

“For them to be together just this short period of time and accomplish what they have is such an amazing story,” said team owner Joe Gibbs, who also conceded he didn’t know who had won the race at first, either.

A good hour after the checkered flag, Hamlin came to his winner’s news conference still pumped up and smiling, raising his arms in triumph.

“This is the best,” Hamlin said. “I mean, it’s just the best. It’s the biggest race of my life. The Daytona 500 is the pinnacle of our sport and I’m just proud to be here.”

MORE: Hamlin on elite list of 500-Unlimited winners

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Staff Report

The 2016 Daytona 500 was a historical race for many reasons. For one, it was Denny Hamlin‘s first “Great American Race” win. The trip to Victory Lane also secured Toyota its first Daytona 500 win, as well as Joe Gibbs’ first victory at the event since 1993.

The kicker for Hamlin is that the Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman became the sixth driver to win the Sprint Unlimited and Daytona 500 in the same year. Check out the elite company Hamlin now keeps.

Drivers who have won the Sprint Unlimited and Daytona 500 in same year

Name	Year
Bobby Allison	1982
Bill Elliott	1987
Dale Jarrett	1996
Jeff Gordon	1997
Dale Jarrett	2000
Denny Hamlin	2016