Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Trackhouse Racing announced Saturday that Shane van Gisbergen will compete in the NASCAR Cup Series next season as the organization expands to three full-time cars for 2025.

Van Gisbergen is set to drive the storied No. 88 Chevrolet in NASCAR’s top division next season. SVG, a New Zealand native who won three titles in the Australian Repco Supercars Championship, becomes a full-time teammate to fellow Trackhouse full-timers Ross Chastain in the No. 1 Chevy and Daniel Suárez, who re-signed with the No. 99 Chevrolet team earlier this month.

RELATED: See the latest Silly Season moves

“This is obviously a huge moment,” team owner Justin Marks said Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. “Really, really thrilled and excited that Shane put the trust in us and made a huge commitment in leaving a very successful career in Australia and New Zealand and moved to a new country and sort of (started) over and put his faith and his trust in us. That means a lot to us. And he’s put in a tremendous amount of work. Great human being, very, very talented race car driver, and somebody with an incredibly, incredibly bright future. So we’re very excited to have them here.”

Van Gisbergen has excelled in NASCAR national-tour competition since making a splash by winning the inaugural Chicago Street Race event in his 2023 Cup Series debut. The 35-year-old transplant from the Supercars Championship ranks moved to a full-time ride in the Xfinity Series this year, and he has won three times in a joint effort between Trackhouse and Kaulig Racing.

“It’s been a pretty awesome 18 months,” van Gisbergen said. “Yeah, it’s been a huge life change, as Justin said, and everything he said was going to happen has happened. I never thought it would happen this quick and I’m very glad we’ve done the learning year this year in Xfinity. Kaulig Racing has been great to work with, and then also a lot more races to finish the year now. Been a huge learning experience but just excited to get full-time in the Cup Series next year.”

As part of Saturday’s introduction, Trackhouse announced it acquired a charter, which will guarantee SVG’s entry in all 36 Cup Series events next season. It’s the most recent expansion move by Trackhouse, which began as a single-car team with Suárez in the 2021 season before it grew to two teams with the addition of Chastain the next year.

The No. 88 also carries significance with a legacy of its own, most recently made famous by NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., who piloted the same numeral in 10 Cup campaigns for Hendrick Motorsports. Marks reached out to Earnhardt Jr., Kelly Earnhardt Miller and Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon for permission to use the number moving forward.

“It’s important for us to have the endorsement,” Marks said. “(Had) a great, great exchange with Dale Jr. saying, like, ‘Look, it’s not my number. I mean, I added to the legacy of it. It was important to me personally.’ But he was proud to see it in good hands, and that’s just something that’s super, super important to me and to this company.”

Trackhouse has run an additional third car as part of its Project 91 initiative, which team founder Marks envisioned as a part-time entry to showcase global motorsports stars. Former Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen drove the No. 91 Chevy in two races (2022-23) before van Gisbergen took the car to Victory Lane in Chicago in one of last season’s biggest stories.

Expansion to a third full-time Cup entry may put further plans for Project 91 on pause, but Marks doesn’t expect it to fade into the ether any time soon.

“We’re having those discussions right now,” Marks said. “I think that Project 91 is something that, 100% in my mind, I would love to continue. I mean, it was just difficult to do it this year because we have so much on our plate with supporting other divers and other programs and just a lot of business development stuff that we’re working on. But I would expect Project 91 to be back sooner rather than later.

“We’re expanding. Our focus is on running three competitive Cup cars next year, but there’s a lot of interest in Project 91 both from drivers and from commercial partners. So yeah, I would 100% anticipate that to continue in some capacity.”

Van Gisbergen has competed in six Cup Series races in his NASCAR career. He’s scheduled for six more Cup starts this season in the Kaulig No. 16 Chevrolet – Daytona (Aug. 24), Darlington Raceway (Sept. 1), Atlanta Motor Speedway (Sept. 8), Watkins Glen International (Sept. 15), Talladega Superspeedway (Oct. 6) and Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Oct. 20).

MORE: 2024 Cup Series schedule | How to get notified for 2025 schedule

Van Gisbergen’s entry Saturday at Daytona will mark just his third Cup Series start on an oval track. The road-racing standout finished 28th in each of his Cup oval starts this spring (Talladega, Charlotte), and he has two top-five results on ovals (Atlanta, Indianapolis) so far this year in the Xfinity Series.

Zane Smith signed with Trackhouse Racing on a multiyear deal announced in the fall of 2023, driving the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet through an agreement between Trackhouse and Spire for the 2024 Cup Series season. However, Trackhouse announced Friday that it will part ways with Smith at the end of the 2024 campaign, allowing Smith to look for another ride at season’s end.

“I think when we decide the drivers, it’s a big picture, and we cast a wide net of sort of qualifications,” Marks said. “And it’s commercial support; it’s fitting the company; it’s personality, all that. And you know, we don’t have four cars; we have three, so that we had to make a decision. We’re excited about the decision that we made with SVG.”

Stephen Doran, who currently serves as Smith’s crew chief on the No. 71 Chevrolet, will crew chief SVG’s No. 88 Chevrolet in 2025.

Van Gisbergen’s addition to Trackhouse’s full-time fold provides the team with three drivers hailing from three separate countries, with SVG representing New Zealand, Suárez from Mexico and Chastain from the United States.

“I think (it) is a pretty amazing thing for the sport, amazing thing for where motorsports is today,” Marks said. “We’re thrilled and honored to be stewards of international diversity at the top level of motorsports. I mean, I’ve said this a couple times now, with our MotoGP lineup next year and our Cup Series lineup next year, Trackhouse has a roster of athletes that represent Mexico, New Zealand, the USA, Spain and Japan, which is a pretty incredible thing for a motorsports company. And we take a lot of pride in that.

“We just continue to tell a great story, try to get really great people in the house with diverse backgrounds, great stories to tell, compelling personalities, and the end of the day, just really, really dedicated, hard workers.”

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Is the risk worth the reward?

That will be the question 40 teams and drivers ask every lap during Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports App, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

With two races left in the Cup Series regular season, little has been determined from a points perspective and half the field will be looking to score their first victory of the season to clinch a berth in the 16-driver playoff field.

Between the battle for the Regular Season Championship, drivers already locked in attempting to get more playoff points, and winless drivers trying to use Daytona as their Hail Mary into the postseason, agendas will vary within the close-quartered pack racing.

Carson Hocevar enters Daytona coming off back-to-back top 10s at Richmond and Michigan. A victory is the only path Hocevar has to make the postseason and the momentum for the Spire Motorsports rookie will certainly aid in the challenge to come Saturday.

RELATED: Daytona schedule | Odds for Saturday night’s race

“Everybody has their own agendas. That’s what makes it so difficult,” Hocever said during Saturday’s media availabilities. “But a lot of times what makes this race pretty good is there’s a handful of Chevys that need to try and win the regular-season champ. There’s some that are trying to get in the playoffs, and there’s some that have zero care for stage points and just have to win, and that’s it. So it makes it difficult to kind of work and choose and know what’s the right deal to do. But actually, it probably is what makes this race pretty exciting. It always shakes it up. It’s always different than Talladega, or the (Daytona) 500.”

Coming from the short-track scene, mainly before the jump to the national series, rookie Josh Berry is still learning the ropes around drafting tracks. However, a productive Friday afternoon in qualifying put seven Fords into the top 10 starting spots for the race, including Berry, who will start fifth in the No. 4 for Stewart-Haas Racing.

“It’s a really good improvement over what we had here in February and as well as Talladega,” Berry said. “So having the track position, having a better pit stall, all those things are definitely really helpful and exciting. So it’s always a balance. You run hard to stay up front, you use more fuel. So it’s hard to say how all that will work out.”

Saving fuel will once again be a factor Saturday evening. A 35-lap opening stage will allow for drivers to go all out for points if they need with the fuel window around 40 laps, but the final two stages are 60 and 65 laps, respectively, requiring at least one stop for fuel.

The goal for saving fuel? To have the shortest pit stop possible to gain track position and set up for the finish.

One of the drivers needing a win to make the playoffs and in one of the best positions to do so entering Saturday night’s race is Todd Gilliland. He and Front Row Motorsports teammate Michael McDowell locked out the front row with blistering qualifying laps in both rounds. Gilliland’s track position early on will be a good building block for the 160-lap thriller, but the No. 38 team will have some adversity to overcome as it lost pit-stall selection for failing pre-race inspection twice.

Even with the absence of one of the coveted pit stalls, Gilliland is still looking forward to staying out front during the race.

“It’s definitely really nice to at least have a good starting spot, right?” Gilliland said. “You can pass and I’m sure we’ll be at the front and the back throughout the whole race at some point, but at least being able to start up front right? The field is the deepest it’s going to be right when the green flag drops, and recently I guess we’ve kind of seen, I mean, at least in the 500, an early wreck. It’s just nice to be ahead of those first few incidents.”

Entering Saturday as the most recent race winner, superspeedway winner and on a hot streak of 10 top 10s in the last 11 races, Tyler Reddick should be among the favorites for another strong run. However, he’ll have to manage a clean race to hold his slim 10-point lead over Chase Elliott for the Regular Season Championship, a position the four-year veteran is in for the first time in at the Cup level.

There’s no crystal ball to see how the flow of Saturday night will shape, but while the No. 45 23XI Racing team doesn’t have a specific strategy locked in, they have provisional ideas for any scenario.

MORE: Cup standings

“It’s hard to look in the future and know how it’s going to play out,” Reddick said. “We just try to have a plan, and then a backup plan and then a plan when seemingly no other plans make sense. I’ll just do my part in the car, and I’ll let those guys figure it out. They can see a lot more of what’s going then me. Just focus on what’s going to be important for what I can control inside the car and that should give us some options.”

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

Coke Zero Sugar 400

(⏰ Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET | NBC | Peacock | NBC Sports App | MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Weekend schedule | TV schedule | Weather tracker | NASCAR 101

Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
Track length: 2.5 miles
Race purse: $9,193,568
Race distance: 160 laps | 400 miles
Stages: 35 | 95 | 160
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Starting lineup: Michael McDowell on pole
Pit stall assignments: See where drivers will pit
Defending winner: Chris Buescher, August 2023

Key things to watch

Friday session

Front Row Motorsports swept the front row for Saturday night’s 400-miler as Michael McDowell claimed the pole with a blistering 183.165 mph lap in the final round of qualifying. Todd Gilliland wasn’t too far behind with a 182.801 mph hot lap.

Ford claimed seven of the top 10 starting positions for Saturday, including the top-five starting spots. Joey Logano (182.341 mph), Ryan Preece (182.312 mph) and Josh Berry grabbed coveted spots in the front five. | Friday recap

Big story line

It’s the hope that fuels you

Forty drivers have the opportunity to stake their claim as a Daytona winner Saturday night, and with that comes the need to balance keeping track position and saving fuel to have the shortest pit stops throughout the evening. Track position has taken on an important role in recent superspeedway races, but drivers know how to get to the front in these races. However, is it worth burning the extra fuel before the final push to the checkered flag?

Bubba Wallace, who sits one below the playoff elimination line to Ross Chastain, says the recent strategy addition comes with the growing on-track awareness of drivers.

“It’s not even, like this car. It’s just we’ve all gotten smart,” Wallace said. “Like 10 years ago, it’s like, why don’t we just save fuel? You’re like ‘yeah, we could have done that.’ I don’t know how you change that. I’m not smart enough to get into the details of it. It is what it is. It’s not fun riding around half speed here, you know, but you adapt quick. If that’s gonna put you in a spot to win, then you adapt, and you do it.”

In the Talladega spring race, a group of Toyotas shook up the strategy by pitting early in the final stage for fuel. While a chunk of them wrecked, Tyler Reddick made it through and eventually went on to take the checkered flag in that event. While it’s the shortest superspeedway race of the year, at least one stop for fuel will be required in the second and final stages. Pit stops aren’t historically known for determining a driver’s chances to win on a superspeedway, but a bad stop may determine whether or not he’ll compete for a championship.

History tells us…

First-time winners occur half the time in the summer race. Whether it occurred on Independence Day weekend or served as the regular-season finale, Daytona’s annual sequel has shook up the playoffs 40% of the time in the 10-year history of the NASCAR Playoffs. The fifth first-time winner was Justin Haley, who won a rain-shortened 2019 event but was ineligible for the Cup Series Playoffs. Austin Dillon is the most recent driver to win his way into the playoffs, doing so in a chaotic 2022 event that saw the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet bob and weave his way through a big wreck to come out as the leader.

Aric Almirola (2014), Erik Jones (2018) and William Byron (2020) have also won their way into the playoffs at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, with Byron’s and Almirola’s being the first of each of their careers at the Cup level.

An interesting note regarding those who had already clinched a playoff spot is they are all well-known superspeedway connoisseurs with Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2015), Brad Keselowski (2016), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2017), Ryan Blaney (2021) and Chris Buescher (2023) snagging the checkered flag in those events.

He may not be the betting favorite to win, but watch out for…

ZANE SMITH. Spire Motorsports knows how to get around superspeedways, and with an all-time underdog win with Justin Haley a half-decade ago, it wouldn’t be a surprise if another Spire driver can stun the Cup Series landscape and make the 2024 playoffs. Smith has made two Cup starts at Daytona and put on solid runs with a pair of 13th-place results in back-to-back Daytona 500s.

Seventy-to-one odds are quite the long shot at a superspeedway, but Spire as a whole enters Saturday night event with momentum with Smith and Carson Hocever both scoring top 10s at Michigan last week. | Daytona odds

Speed reads

Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.

• Dillon penalty upheld: Appeals panel upholds No. 3 penalty; spotter suspension reduced | Read article
• No. 11 team penalized: Hamlin, No. 11 team receive L2-level penalty for violating engine inspection requirements | Read article
• Quite a reputation: How chaos has defined Daytona | Read article
• Stay aware: How to get notified for 2025 schedule release | Sign up!
• New part added to Cup car: NASCAR mandates air deflector to right side of car following Michigan flip | Read article
• Dye to Kaulig: Daniel Dye to pilot No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevy full-time in Xfinity Series for 2025 | Read article
• No. 48 Xfinity team penalized: Big Machine Racing team levied L1-level penalty after Michigan | Read article
• ‘We’re at the adult table’: Spire Motorsports’ co-owner Jeff Dickerson gives insight on the organization’s rise | Watch video
• Power Rankings: Will Buescher’s big breakthrough arrive at Daytona? | Photo gallery
• Turning Point: Will unpredictability reveal itself again at Daytona? | Read article
• Racing Insights: Full finishing order projections for Saturday-night showdown | Read article
• Field of 16: How the playoff picture shakes out with two races left in regular season | Read article
• 36 for 36: Check out this week’s survivor pool picks | Read article
• Fantasy Fastlane: Spin the wheel of fortune at Daytona | Photo gallery
• NASCAR Classics: Head into the video vault with vintage summer Daytona replays | Read article
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh designs dazzling for Daytona | Pick your favorite

Fast facts ⏩

Race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.

• Toyota is winless in the last eight Daytona races.
• The last four Daytona winners all started outside the top 10.
• The final green-flag stretch was two laps or less in 13 of the last 14 Daytona races.

Posted on by Staff Report

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Parker Kligerman was two spots and two turns short of locking his way into the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs on Friday night.

The driver of the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet took the yellow and checkered flags third at Daytona International Speedway, with the final of seven caution flags coming in overtime after contact between Kligerman and push-partner AJ Allmendinger sent Allmendinger spinning in Turn 1 to end the race under yellow on the final lap.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Daytona

In one respect, it was an excellent night for Kligerman, who entered the night in 11th out of 12 provisional spots in the Xfinity playoff grid, 16 points above the elimination line. After netting 11 stage points and a third-place finish, Kligerman now bumps down to the final provisional spot — 44 points to the good — with four races left in the regular season. In another respect, Kligerman was just shy of not needing to worry about points at all.

The latter appeared to drive the overriding emotion upon Kligerman’s exit from the vehicle, slamming his fist on the car’s roof and offering a parting expletive trying to process how his plan to score the victory unraveled.

“I knew the whole time without having that (overtime) restart, I wanted to be on the bottom in the last lap,” Kligerman said. “And if I could materialize being the lead car on the bottom, I was gonna take it. I pushed (Allmendinger) out to the 20, cleared the 98 in the bottom, and I thought, OK, I’m going, I don’t care. I moved. He tried to come with me. I was already there. It’s a late block. That happens.

“You know, I would love to see a finish under green, because even with that whole thing, we came through (Turns) 1 and 2 and I had the 98 right on my bumper. And I was like, holy — this is gonna work out. Like, this is exactly how I planned it. And then the caution came out. So I just, I don’t know. I feel like we did everything correct, and still something stupid happened.”

AJ Allmendinger and Parker Kligerman race at Daytona.
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Digital Media

Allmendinger’s disappointment was evident upon being evaluated and released from the infield care center.

“That was a fast Campers Inn RV Chevy and had a shot to win and didn’t,” Allmendinger told reporters. “I’m just proud of the team, man. That’s all I can say.”

Despite the contact, which sent Allmendinger sliding across the asphalt on entry to Turn 1, up the banking and into traffic, Kligerman didn’t believe much could be done differently to avoid the incident.

“I moved off his bump bumper, which maybe could have got him loose at the same time,” Kligerman said. “But the run was materializing. I was getting pushed, so I was gonna take it to bottom, and I could see that I cleared the 98. So I’m not gonna say like, hey, — maybe it’s a late block, but it takes two to tango and all this stuff, and so maybe … it’s probably something I did wrong.”

The better news for Kligerman, of course, is his newfound cushion — if slight — with four races remaining in the regular season. Up next is Darlington Raceway on Aug. 31 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) ahead of Atlanta Motor Speedway, Watkins Glen International and Bristol Motor Speedway to conclude the regular-season slate.

MORE: Xfinity standings | Xfinity schedule

It’s a different position for Kligerman than last year’s summer race at Daytona, where points were constantly on his mind in his first full-time campaign with Big Machine Racing.

“That was the highest stress race in my life last year,” Kligerman said. “But the one thing I learned is … I had this whole theory of locking in for 100 laps, and today I can tell you that when I got to (driver) intros, I just shut everything out and then got in the car. And for 100 (laps), I can’t tell you half the stuff that I did in that race because I wasn’t doing it; I was just letting it happen subconsciously, and it was working great. So there’s something to be said about that. Something about Daytona in the summer for 100 laps.

“But it’s a big night for us, obviously, points-wise, and puts us in a good position to go after the next few races.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ryan Truex claimed his second NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the season — the third of his career — leading the field to the yellow and checkered flags on the final lap of overtime in Saturday night’s Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway.

With very limited green-flag runs and the pace interrupted all night with incidents, ultimately it was an accident among the front-running cars that ended the overtime period with Truex out front as he was so frequently through the night.

Running among that front group of cars, Parker Kligerman’s No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet hit the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet driven by AJ Allmendinger from behind, sending Allmendinger’s Chevy hard into the wall, which brought out the final caution to end the night.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Daytona

Truex, 32, the younger brother of Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr., crossed the line just ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chandler Smith in the No. 81 JGR Toyota. Kligerman finished in third place. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst and RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg rounded out the top five.

“Oh my gosh, thanks to these fans, it’s so amazing to race here,’’ said Truex, who is racing part-time this season but now has two wins in eight starts this season.

“Just thanks to these guys,’’ Truex, driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota, said of his team. “I don’t get to race that often and I don’t know what I’m going to do next year. It’s all a work in progress. Just a great car [tonight].”

The veteran Allmendinger, who was running second at the time of his last lap accident, finished 24th.  A frustrated Kligerman insisted he did not mean to wreck Allmendinger, especially because the pair had worked well together throughout the race.

“I just had a run and I had to go, I felt it was the run I had to take to put myself on the bottom if I was going to win this race,’’ Kligerman added. “I love him like a brother, he and I have been in this a long time together.

In many ways, the ending was indicative of the whole evening — hard racing followed by the kind of contact so common at the famous 2.5-mile Daytona high banks.

Owner-driver Jordan Anderson, who competes part-time in the series and was making only his fourth start of the year — finished sixth, answering a fourth-place effort in the Daytona season opener.

Justin Allgaier, who led a race-best 35 laps, was seventh, followed by Sheldon Creed, Leland Honeyman and Kyle Weatherman.

The points standings were majorly affected with the season-long leader, the defending Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer losing the points lead to JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, who won both stages.

Custer had a rough night, colliding with his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Herbst on pit road on the first pit stop — his No. 00 SHR Ford suffering damage that required attention the rest of the race and relegated him to a 32nd-place finish. Custer, who held a 50-point advantage over Allgaier in the championship just two races ago, now trails Allgaier by 33 points with five races remaining to decide the regular-season title winner.

MORE: Get notified for 2025 schedule release

The other end of the current 12-driver playoff field also featured a lot of important action. JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith dropped out of the last playoff position after being collected in a seven-car accident on Lap 26. Meanwhile, Sieg’s fifth-place finish vaulted him inside the playoff standings and he sits in that all-important 12th-place position now — 15 points up on Smith.

Another championship favorite, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill also took a big hit in the standings — his night was tough even before the green flag flew to start the race. His No. 21 RCR Chevrolet had to pit for attention as cars were making pace laps and instead of starting on the outside of the front row where he qualified, he started from the rear of the field.

The precarious position ended up costing Hill immediately as he was collected in a multi-car accident on the very first lap of racing. After pitting throughout the night for repairs — and more repairs — he ultimately parked the car, finishing 34th. Hill, who won the opening two races of the season, is ranked fourth — more than 100 points behind Allgaier — heading into the final summer stretch before the playoffs start.

The Xfinity Series will be heading to Darlington Raceway for the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 on Aug. 31 (USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Denny Hamlin is the defending winner of the race. Justin Allgaier is the most recent winner at the track.

Posted on by Staff Report

See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

RELATED: Starting lineup | Weekend schedule | At-track photos | Get notified for 2025 schedule release

Posted on by Holly Cain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — 2021 Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell captured the pole position for Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) — his fourth career pole, but first at the sport’s iconic track.

It will be an all-Front Row Motorsports front row, thanks to McDowell’s qualifying lap of 183.165 mph around the 2.5-mile high banks in the No. 34 FRM Ford during Friday evening’s qualifying session. His teammate Todd Gilliland will start beside him in the No. 38 FRM Ford — the two actually posting the exact same time in the first round of qualifying

RELATED: Sunday’s starting lineup | At-track photos: Daytona

Fords swept the top-six positions in time trials and had seven cars in the top 10 on the Daytona speed chart.

“Qualifying has never been a strength at superspeedways for us [as a team] but racing has,’’ McDowell said with a smile. “We just decided, okay, we are going to take as much time as we possibly have available to execute everything we can to the best of our ability.’’

“We just proved to ourselves with a lot of extra time put in, it has paid off,’’ he said of the team’s emphasis on improving qualifying at the big tracks such as Daytona.

Joey Logano, the 2015 Daytona 500 winner, will start third in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, followed by Ryan Preece in the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and teammates Josh Berry in the No. 4 SHR Ford and Chase Briscoe in the No. 14 SHR Ford.

This year’s Daytona 500 winner William Byron was seventh fastest in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, with Team Penske’s Austin Cindric — the 2022 Daytona 500 winner — starting from the eighth position. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott rounded out the top 10.

MORE: How to get notified for 2025 schedule release

The starting positions are key for Front Row Motorsports, which is still trying to qualify for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. FRM will need a race win to jump into the 16-driver playoff field, with only two races remaining to settle the championship eligibility.

“When it comes to tomorrow night, we’ll do what we always do. We’re going to race and help ourselves get to the front and stay in the front and be in good position,’’ McDowell said, adding. “The best thing we can do for our team and ourselves is work together because we have fast cars.”

Defending Daytona summer race winner, RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, holds a 16-point advantage in 15th place and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain takes a mere one-point lead into Saturday night’s race. They will start 13th and 24th, respectively. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who sits just behind Chastain a single point back, will start 18th.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — On Thursday, Denny Hamlin, crew chief Chris Gabehart and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team were handed an L2-level penalty for an engine inspection infraction.

The penalty cost Hamlin and Gibbs 75 points in the drivers’ and owners’ points standings, respectively, all but wiping Hamlin from contention to win the Regular Season Championship. He was also docked 10 playoff points and Gabehart was fined $100,000, all after Toyota Racing Development mistakenly returned the No. 11 team’s race-winning engine from Bristol Motor Speedway to headquarters in Costa Mesa, California, where it was disassembled without first being inspected by NASCAR officials per the rule book.

On Friday, the team’s focus was set squarely on doing what it’s done all season: priming the No. 11 Toyota for a chance to win another NASCAR Cup Series race.

MORE: Cup standings | Details on penalty

“I mean, sure we’re all disappointed, every one of us — TRD, JGR, 11 car, all of our sponsors are really disappointed in the news,” Gabehart told NASCAR.com Friday at Daytona International Speedway. “But context is, at Bristol, we won with this engine. But as some may not realize, for process-savings measures, you run the engines more than once, and the engine was scheduled to run at a later date, and it did. And one thing led to another, and instead of ultimately ending up at NASCAR, it went back home to its home.”

Hamlin explained later Friday evening that particular engine was run at Darlington Raceway following the Bristol victory.

Now sitting sixth in the points standings as opposed to third, Hamlin was no less disappointed Friday at Daytona than when he had the news broken to him Thursday in a meeting by TRD and JGR leadership.

“It’s just really hard,” Hamlin said. “It’s really hard in this kind of format when you work so hard in the regular season to get all those bonus points. It’s really tough to see it just wiped away. But it’s part of it and we’ve got to just overcome now.”

David Wilson, president of TRD USA, said in a Thursday statement, in part: “We have reviewed our processes and have implemented several additional steps to ensure that this never happens again. TRD takes full responsibility for this grievous mistake, and we apologize to Denny, Chris, Coach Gibbs, the entire JGR organization, NASCAR and our fans.”

As Wilson, Tyler Gibbs and others explained how everything unfolded to Hamlin, the driver of the No. 11 Toyota was left trying to wrap his head around the situation.

“Just had questions, you know?” Hamlin said. “Tried to get some clarification on exactly how, what, when, and all that stuff. But they obviously were very regrettable to have to give me that information when they did. I feel bad for them because I knew that they did not want to have to bring me in a room and tell me that we were going to have something that is going to affect our season.”

While a costly mistake, Gabehart sympathized with what led to the mistake in the first place.

“How it happens is simple. All of this is done by humans,” Gabehart said. “Like in any pro sport, when you turn on the TV or you go to the game and you watch such an amazing thing unfold so seemingly effortlessly, it doesn’t look human. It looks robotic, as does racing at the top level. Anybody who knows about details about what this garage area is capable of producing week in and week out, it’s superhuman. It’s every bit as superhuman as watching the NFL’s Super Bowl. It just is.

“But it’s done by humans, and humans aren’t perfect, and they make mistakes, and that’s what happened. I’ve made plenty of them that have cost the 11 car a win. Denny’s made plenty of them that have cost the 11 car a win. JGR, Toyota. I mean, we’re teammates. We all do it together, and it’s a really hard way to incur such a stiff penalty for sure, and none of us are going to take it lightly. I’m confident our partners at Toyota will not be taking it lightly, but at the end of the day, we’re humans and we’re not perfect.”

Hamlin echoed that sentiment, noting missteps of his own that have set the team back. But he also noted there is no time to sulk despite his negativity with just two events remaining in the regular season.

“I mean, you just gotta (look at it like) so what, now what?” Hamlin said. “I mean, you have to just figure out what’s the best path forward? And the best path is just to win, right? Win and just make sure you can finish races the best you can. And obviously our room for error is gone now. We’ll just hope to get through the rounds.”

Hamlin sits 103 points back of 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick for the Regular Season Championship. There are 14 more playoff points available across the next two races (five per race win, one per stage win). Hamlin has finished inside the top 10 in three of the last four races and has led 21 or more laps in five of the last seven events.

“We’re gonna do the same thing we’ve been trying to do the first 24 races, and that’s win — and we’ve been more than capable to win a lot of them,” Gabehart said. “We’ll be more than capable of winning the next 12. So really, there is no refocus. … Quantifiably, the fact is, you win and you’re in. You win and then you advance in rounds. And there’s no one in this garage more capable of winning week in and week out than us — absolutely zero people — and this will be nothing but a little extra motivation to prove that.”

Hamlin is also a three-time winner at Daytona and a four-time victor at Darlington, making all 14 of those playoff points that much more attainable.

“If we can get hot and win some races, it won’t hurt as bad, right?” Hamlin said. “We could get back to a decent number for playoff points for the first round, second round, third round. But yeah, there’s always an opportunity, and certainly the tracks line up nicely for us.”

Posted on by Steve Luvender

NASCAR.com’s 36 for 36 continues at Daytona International Speedway. 

With 36 races and 36 full-time Charter cars, our players select one car per race, but there’s a simple twist: once they’ve made the pick, they can’t choose that car again for the rest of the 36-race season. Yes, that means every car will be selected exactly once … a survivor pool, by another name. 

Follow along weekly as our panel of pickers — Dustin Albino from Jayski, along with Steve Luvender and Cameron Richardson from NASCAR.com — embarks on a season-long journey to think like strategists and prove their picking prowess. 

We’ll also feature a fourth “community” 36 for 36 pick each week, as decided by fan vote on the r/NASCAR subreddit. Can the collective vote topple our trio of full-timers?

Current Standings:

  1. Steve Luvender: 615
  2. r/NASCAR Community: -64
  3. Dustin Albino: -70
  4. Cameron Richardson: -108

Race 25 of 36: Daytona

Our picking panel had a decent outing last week in Michigan. While three pickers selected defending race winner Chris Buescher, who drove a crash-damaged car to a sixth-place finish, Dustin Albino’s pick of Zane Smith cruised to a far-better-than-average P7.

Now, Daytona awaits our four pickers, and with the playoffs just two races away, it may be one of the most unpredictable races for our 36 for 36 players. Let’s see what they’re thinking.

Jayski’s Dustin Albino: No. 42, John Hunter Nemechek

 

Dustin’s pick last week: No. 71, Zane Smith (30 points)

Total season points: 545 (third place, -1 position)

Dustin: Despite Smith putting together one of the best performances of his rookie season at Michigan, I still lost points to the lead. That should be expected when my three competitors all chose the defending winner. Granted, Buescher had a frantic comeback. It’s been a bumpy transition to Toyota for Legacy Motor Club, but Daytona is an opportunity for the team to have a rebound weekend. Nemechek desperately needs one. Over the last 12 races, the No. 42 team has 11 finishes outside the top 25. The lone exception was New Hampshire. Nemechek is an aggressive driver, which could bode well for this weekend. He placed seventh in the Daytona 500.

NASCAR.com’s Steve Luvender: No. 43, Erik Jones

Steve’s pick last week: No. 17, Chris Buescher (37 points)

Total season points: 615 (first place)

Steve: Erik Jones has a single top-10 finish this season, and that took place in this year’s Daytona 500. I considered saving Jones for next week’s race at Darlington, the site of two of his three career wins, but the No. 43 team’s struggles this season have left me not feeling less than optimistic. Jones won the 2018 running of the summer Daytona race as well as the 2020 Clash in a heavily damaged car, so he knows how to get to the front at the “World Center of Racing.”

NASCAR.com’s Cameron Richardson: No. 71, Zane Smith

Cameron’s pick last week: No. 17, Chris Buescher (37 points)

Total season points: 507 (fourth place)

Cameron: Anything can happen at Daytona, and I’m going with a rookie who’s shown tremendous strides this summer. With a seventh-place result last week at Michigan, Smith showed that his runner-up result at Nashville was no fluke. Since Gateway, the No. 71 Spire Motorsports stable has managed six top-20 results in the last 10 races. It may not look like much but it will go a long way in both Spire and Zane’s growth in the Cup Series. Give me a Saturday night shocker.

r/NASCAR Community: No. 21, Harrison Burton

r/NASCAR’s pick last week: No. 17, Chris Buescher (37 points)

Total season points: 551 (second place, +1 position)

The NASCAR subreddit has spoken, and Harrison Burton is this week’s pick based on community activity in the voting thread. What Redditors had to say: 

u/Dont_hate_the_8: “Gotta use him somewhere. No sense is using a top car when it’s 50/50 that they’ll wreck. He’s had some decent superspeedway runs, let’s give it a shot.”

u/Extreme-Bite-9123: “This is the clear best choice for Daytona. We have to use Burton at some point, so we had better use him at a track where he’s either gonna flip or get a top ten”

u/FridgusDomin8or: “Yep. Ford typically shows up in a big way on the plate tracks and Harrison doesn’t have any standout tracks at all so it makes sense to use him here. I say go for it; if he wrecks then oh well”

Check back next week to see how our pickers fared as the season-long 36 for 36 journey continues.

And, if you’ve got a competitive itch beyond meticulously managing your Fantasy Live lineup each week, feel free to save or print your own 36 for 36 sheet and see if you can beat our pickers and the Reddit community!

Posted on by Staff Report

DAYTONA BEACH, FL. — Daniel Dye will join Kaulig Racing to compete full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025, the team announced Friday at Daytona International Speedway.

Dye, currently a contender in the Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs, will drive the No. 10 Chevrolet in 2025. The 20-year-old has made nine starts for Kaulig in Xfinity competition, dating back to his series debut at Texas in 2023. Dye has made seven starts in the No. 10 car this year, recording top-10 finishes at both Iowa Speedway (10th) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he posted a career-best seventh-place result.

MORE: See the latest Silly Season moves

A native of DeLand, Florida, roughly 20 miles southwest of the 2.5-mile superspeedway in Daytona, Dye is in the midst of his second full season in the Truck Series. After posting just one top-10 finish in 2023 with GMS Racing, Dye and the No. 43 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing team have combined for one top five and six top 10s through 16 races, enough for Dye to charge into the postseason through the regular-season finale at Richmond Raceway on Aug. 10. Dye enters as the 10th and final seed in the playoffs.

Kaulig Racing announced in January that Dye would compete in 10 Xfinity races for the team in 2024. Upcoming Xfinity appearances on Dye’s calendar include Sept. 28 at Kansas Speedway, Oct. 19 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Nov. 9 at Phoenix Raceway.