Posted on by Staff Report

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RELATED: Download NASCAR Manager

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MORE: Download NASCAR Mobile App
 

Posted on by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — After stopping to congratulate his crew, there was Jeff Gordon making the long walk through the tri-oval grass to join his team in celebrating another Daytona 500 win. The four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion won the “Great American Race” three times as a stock-car phenom in his 20s, but this feeling hit a little differently.

The No. 24 Chevrolet was again heading to Victory Lane, but this time with another 20-something hotshot leading the charge.

William Byron held on for victory in Monday’s Daytona 500, scoring his first win in NASCAR’s most prestigious race. The triumph provided a meaningful kickoff to the 40th-anniversary season for Hendrick Motorsports. Thanks to Sunday’s rainout, the victory arrived Monday — 40 years to the day that Charlotte car-dealer mogul Rick Hendrick made his first venture into team ownership, with Geoff Bodine finishing a respectable eighth in the 1984 running of the 500.

RELATED: Daytona 500 results | At-track photos

Gordon was pivotal to the organization’s success through many of those four decades, amassing 93 Cup Series wins — all with the No. 24 that he made famous. Now as vice chairman in Hendrick Motorsports’ executive wing, Gordon has oversight of a four-car operation with an impartial desire for all to succeed. Impartial, it should be noted, is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.

“I try not to be biased, but William is making it hard on me,” Gordon said with a laugh. But the 52-year-old former wunderkind says he’s also ready for Byron to write his own story with his former car number, creating his own identity as the current keeper of the No. 24.

A Daytona 500 win represents a major step toward galvanizing that path.

“It is 2024, and the 24 is always going to be very, very special to me,” Gordon said, “but what I loved the most is seeing him make it his number and building that fan base not only — 24 fans have been around for a long time, but his own fans. A win like this, my gosh, this is going to elevate that up to the next level and bring a whole lot more new fans to the sport and for William. That’s what I get excited and look forward to.”

If last year marked a breakout season for Byron, this season’s start with a signature victory signals an extension of that. It took two-plus years in the Cup Series for Byron to break through as a race winner, then another two-plus years to reach the six-win bar he established in 2023.

MORE: Blog: All the Daytona 500 updates | Race Rewind

His career win total now goes to 11. His unread texts count — by the time he reached his post-race press conference — stood at 122. As for what his win column could look like after the 2024 campaign, the ceiling is a high one, especially with Byron entering the year aiming to curry the respect and stature he feels the team deserves — even as part of a team roster with two recent former champions in Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson who might overshadow him.

“Yeah, I use it all as fuel, so just keep it coming,” Byron said. “All the preseason predictions and everything. I think it just for me, I just try to stay quietly focused. I feel like for me, I do well having my own space and being able to work through the things with my race team. I have to kind of balance that kind of calm demeanor with working with my team and being vocal enough to do the things we need to do to get the car better and things like that.”

“I don’t know. I don’t read too much into it. I’m never going to be the most vocal guy. I just enjoy getting in the race car and putting the helmet on and going to work. That’s what I’ve always lived for.”

The experience provided a new perspective for Gordon from his front-office role. The last time Hendrick Motorsports won the Daytona 500, Gordon was in his next-to-last season of Cup Series competition as teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove to victory in 2014.

Ten years later, this triumph gave him a special insight to the teamwork involved in making a powerhouse racing operation go.

“I might not have been driving the car tonight, but I felt like I made every lap with our guys,” Gordon said, “especially with the 24 and with William in those closing laps when he was out front. To me, when I found out that they had won, I honestly was about as excited as I was when I was driving.”

SHOP: Daytona 500 winner gear

The level of excitement was sky-high for the No. 24 team during the celebration in front of the main grandstand. Gordon noted the level of youthful enthusiasm, which rivaled the vibe of some of his earliest triumphs.

As Byron continues to forge his path with Gordon’s former number, he’s also inherited a legion of fans with loyalties connected to the No. 24. Those allegiances span both past and present.

“I just try to continue to come out of my shell and be myself around race fans,” Byron says. “It’s tough. I never grew up envisioning that I was going to drive the 24 car. It definitely takes a while to get comfortable with that, but it’s just special to have so many fans that followed Jeff all of the years of his career, and you meet a lot of cool people that have followed him for years. And ultimately us now.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — While other NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers were competing, and crashing, in Monday night’s United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway, Austin Hill was playing a different game — Monopoly.

At the 2.5-mile superspeedway roughly two miles away from Atlantic Avenue, Hill beat former teammate Sheldon Creed to the finish line by 0.591 seconds to earn his third straight victory in the Xfinity season opener at the World Center of Racing.

The third win came on Monday because of weekend-long rain that forced NASCAR to reschedule the race from Saturday afternoon. The event served as the second leg of a doubleheader with the Daytona 500, which was postponed from Sunday and won by William Byron.

Hill has now owned Victory Lane at Daytona long enough to build a house there.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“It tops it off—three-peat,” Hill exclaimed. “You know how hard it is to win at Daytona? God almighty!”

Not that the driver of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet didn’t have his share of adversity. Hill overcame an early wreck on Lap 37 of 120, a flat tire and a self-destructive bent on pit road.

He crossed the finish line in a car that was heavily taped on the right front, but none of the obstacles could stop him from displaying his superiority on superspeedways once again.

“I don’t know what was going on with me on pit road today,” Hill said. “But my guys just kept telling me, ‘Look, man, dig deep; you’re really good at these superspeedways.’ I tried to screw it up on pit road—sped on pit road, slid through the box…

“I don’t even know what time it is. I know it’s past my bedtime, but we’re about to party tonight, I can tell you that.”

After pitting with a flat tire on Lap 97, Hill restarted 22nd but quickly worked his way forward. Two more cautions helped, and after lining up third for the final restart on Lap 118, he made quick work of Jordan Anderson and Chandler Smith ahead of him.

Hill was out front by more than a car-length when Ryan Sieg spun behind him off Turn 2 on the final lap. From that point, Hill simply had to steer his car to the finish line and won by a comfortable margin.

Parker Retzlaff ran third, one spot in front of his owner/driver Anderson.

“The little team that could is getting bigger,” Anderson said proudly.

Chandler Smith came home fifth, followed by Riley Herbst, John Hunter Nemechek, Justin Allgaier, Brandon Jones and AJ Allmendinger.

The race featured nine cautions for 44 of the 120 laps. There were 19 lead changes among 14 different drivers., with Sunoco rookie Jesse Love, the pole winner, leading a race-high 32 laps from the opening green flag.

Love, however, suffered more damage in the Lap 37 wreck than did his RCR teammate Hill. He finished 20th in an aerodynamically-challenged Chevrolet.

New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, winner of last year’s NASCAR Cup Series Chicago Street Race, drove his battered Kaulig Racing Chevrolet to a 12th-place finish in his Xfinity debut.

The Xfinity Series shifts to Atlanta Motor Speedway next Saturday for the RAPTOR King of Tough 250 (5 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the Xfinity Series garage without issue, confirming Austin Hill as the winner.

Posted on by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ross Chastain was almost loaded in for the start of Monday’s Daytona 500 when he heard some last-minute words of encouragement over the pre-race ruckus. Chastain had wriggled most of the way into the cockpit of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet when Trackhouse Racing founder Justin Marks got his attention.

“What am I going to be drinking in about three hours?” Marks yelled over the hood.

“You know,” Chastain said with a grin and a nod to his new Busch Light sponsorship.

Nearly three hours and 199 of 200 laps later in Monday’s rain-delayed crown jewel, that same hood was pointed into the infield grass at Daytona International Speedway after Chastain’s bold move for a potential race-winning pass. Any celebratory cans of his sponsor’s sudsy product stayed on ice. Chastain was credited with a midpack 21st-place finish — where he started — but his challenge to eventual Daytona 500 champ William Byron was among the strongest on a topsy-turvy day.

RELATED: Daytona 500 results | At-track photos

“I took the gap, and I don’t apologize for that,” Chastain said. “I can go to sleep tonight knowing that I took the white flag, making the move to win the Daytona 500. Four years ago, it was with eight laps to go or something. I’ve got it down to one lap to go. Yeah, too aggressive, though, when you don’t finish.”

Chastain stayed clean and clear of the race’s twists and turns, and he was out front when a massive crash erupted close behind him with 10 laps to go. He was still atop the scoring pylon when the field lined up for the final restart with four laps remaining.

Chastain’s No. 1 stayed door-to-door with the No. 24 Chevy of Byron for the first two laps of the final green-flag stretch, until Byron inched ahead with a massive push from Austin Cindric and others in the low groove. Chastain’s lane regrouped as it barreled to the white flag, and that’s when he saw an opening.

Chastain dipped low on Byron, who held his ground. As he did, he made contact with Cindric’s No. 2 Ford, sending both cars sliding.

Chastain initially took his share of the blame, saying he made too hard a left turn, collecting Cindric. But as the two drivers chatted outside the infield care center to discuss their collision, Cindric seemed to absolve Chastain, pointing the finger at Corey LaJoie’s pressure and push just before the start-finish line. “Corey finished fourth, so congrats,” Cindric said. “I mean, he tried to fit a car where there wasn’t a car, and just continued to push through my left-rear until I wrecked.”

Coming that close to winning the Daytona 500 had the potential to carry a certain sting for Chastain, but the 31-year-old Florida native was mostly encouraged just to have a shot at victory in the “Great American Race.” For himself and Marks, there was instead peace about the outcome.

SHOP: Daytona 500 winner gear

“I mean, I love Ross Chastain and he’s got a lot of fight,” Marks told NASCAR.com. “We had a really fast race car here, and the Busch Light people are super-excited to watch their car lead the race. We have a big history in front of us in this sport, a lot to accomplish. I’m not getting too low right now, I’m just really proud of the effort that he put in, the effort that the team put in. You know, 10 times out of 10, I want a guy that goes for it.”

Said Chastain: “We still had a shot, though, so yeah, I really do feel content. It’s weird to say it, but we did everything right.”

For Chastain and Marks, the post-race toast in Daytona’s Victory Lane will have to wait. Chastain entered his sixth Daytona 500 appearance with a “why not us?” mentality, and the team nearly cashed in on that approach.

“I just gave him a hug and told him I’m proud of him and said that you know, we’re gonna be doing a lot of these Daytona 500s together,” Marks said after the two met in the No. 1 team’s hauler. “We’re going to have a lot of opportunities to win this race. I think everybody at Trackhouse, we do a pretty good job of managing our expectations and knowing that these races always come down to a game of millimeters at the end, and you have to shoot your shot. You have to go for it. I’m glad that he did. He’s in really good spirits. Probably already thinking about Atlanta.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — William Byron gave team owner Rick Hendrick something extra to celebrate in the 40th anniversary year of Hendrick Motorsports.

In a frantic scramble after a restart on Lap 197 of 200 in the Daytona 500, Byron reached the start/finish line and took the white flag moments before NASCAR called the fifth caution of the evening as Ross Chastain slid wildly through the infield grass off the bumper of Austin Cindric’s Ford.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

The victory was Hendrick’s ninth in the Daytona 500, tying the company with Petty Enterprises for most in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series most prestigious event. The race was postponed from Sunday to Monday because of heavy rains during the weekend.

“I’m just a kid from racing on computers and winning the Daytona 500,” said the 26-year-old Byron, who picked up the 11th Cup Series victory of his career and his second at Daytona, the first coming in the 2020 summer race at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

“I can’t believe it. I wish my dad was here. He’s sick, but this is for him, man. We’ve been through so much, and we sat up in the grandstands together and watched the race (when Byron was younger). This is so freaking cool.”

WATCH: Byron shares emotions following Daytona 500 win | Bowman on runner-up finish  

Alex Bowman was a close second to his teammate at the moment of caution, giving Hendrick a 1-2 finish and the organization’s first victory in the “Great American Race” since Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s triumph in 2014. It marked the first Hendrick 1-2 in the “Great American Race” since Jimmie Johnson bested Earnhardt to the stripe in 2013.

“At the end of the race we use all available resources,” explained NASCAR Sr. VP of Competition, Elton Sawyer. “Caution comes out, we’ll use video, timestamp. At the time of caution, it was 24 (of Byron) over the 48 (of Bowman). Obviously, we would have loved to have left it green and let it finish naturally but once the 2 car (of Cindric) had spun and started back up the race track and was going to be in the traffic and oncoming traffic there, there was no choice but to throw the caution at that time.”

NASCAR released the image below to illustrate the timing of the caution.

A screenshot of the Daytona 500 finishing order

Hendrick could barely contain his elation in Victory Lane.

“I’m telling you, you couldn’t write the script any better,” he said. “When we thought about coming down here the first time, we didn’t think we should be here, felt so out of place.

“We win this on our 40th to the day, it’s just… and tied a record now, so that’s awesome.”

Before the final restart, Chastain was racing at the front of the field on Lap 192 when a bump from Alex Bowman got Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron out of shape and knocked Byron into the right rear of Brad Keselowski’s Ford.

Keselowski turned up the track into the Ford of Joey Logano, who had led a race-high 45 laps to that point. Reigning series champion Ryan Blaney’s Ford was among the 23 cars involved in the accident that left a string of mangled vehicles strewn along the backstretch.

The wreck knocked Blaney, Keselowski and Logano out of the race, along with Tyler Reddick, defending race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suárez and Todd Gilliland. NASCAR red-flagged the race for 15 minutes 27 seconds for track cleanup.

“Speedway racing again,” Logano said ruefully. “It’s a lot of fun until this happens. It was pretty interesting, with a lot of pushing and shoving there at the end. Our car was able to take it. Our Mustang was so fast. It could lead a line really well. I kind of thought I had the cars I wanted around me. I had at least one I wanted around me but just couldn’t make it work.”

“Obviously, hate what happened on that backstretch,” Byron said of the accident. “I just got pushed and got sideways. But so proud of this team, whole Axalta team, 40th anniversary to the day, on Monday.

“Just extremely blessed and thankful for all the opportunities, and we just want to keep it going. We have a lot to prove this year, and this is a good start, obviously.”

How much Byron has yet to prove is debatable. He won a series-best six races last year, qualified for the Championship 4 and finished third in the final standings.

RACE REWIND: Wild finish brings new Daytona 500 victor

The race was not quite five laps old when an eight-car accident off Turn 4 started the inevitable attrition. Contact from Keselowski’s Ford in a tightly bunched line of the outside knocked John Hunter Nemechek’s Toyota into the center lane and into the side of Harrison Burton’s Ford.

Burton slid toward the infield, collecting the Chevrolet of Sunoco rookie Carson Hocevar. Burton’s No. 21 Mustang shot up the track and slammed into the Ford of Kaz Grala and the Chevrolet of Austin Dillon. Behind Dillon, Hocevar careened into the path of seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, who couldn’t avoid the collision.

The wreck eliminated the cars of Burton, Hocevar and Grala. Dillon took his No. 3 Chevy to the garage for extensive repairs, and Johnson lost two laps on pit road as his Legacy Motor Club crew worked frantically to repair his Camry.

“I don’t remember exactly who it was on my outside,” Burton said after a trip to the infield care center. “It just looked like they either got a bad push or got loose and just hit me in the right side and sent me across.

“The grass was so wet that once I got in the grass, I thought I’d be OK, but the car just kept going and going… so really sad that our day is over as quick as it was. We had a really fast Ford. It’s just a bummer. There’s nothing we can do but just move on and try to win next week.”

It took 187 more laps of racing before the colossal wreck that dwarfed the earlier incident thinned the field and set up the fight to the finish among the cars that survived.

In a race that featured 41 lead changes among 20 drivers, Christopher Bell ran third, followed by Corey LaJoie, Bubba Wallace and AJ Allmendinger. Chastain, who didn’t have quite enough room when he dived to the inside of Cindric on the penultimate lap, finished 21st, one spot ahead of Cindric.

Seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who was initially caught in the first yellow of the day on Lap 6, finished 28th. Reddick, the 2024 Bluegreen Vacations Duel 1 winner, finished 29th.

SHOP: Daytona 500 winner gear

Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Blaney finished 30th after being involved in the 23-car pileup.

The Cup Series will head to Atlanta Motor Speedway next for the Ambetter Health 400 on Feb. 25 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage at Daytona concluded without issue, confirming Byron as the race winner. Corey LaJoie’s No. 7 Chevrolet and Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota will be sent back to the R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further inspection.

Contributing: Staff Reports

Posted on by Staff Report

With nine laps to go in the 66th running of the Daytona 500, a massive wreck occurred at the front of the pack that involved a majority of the 30 lead-lap cars vying for the Harley J. Earl Trophy.

The incident began when Alex Bowman gave a stiff shove to his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron. The push caused the No. 24 Chevrolet of Byron to get loose and spin into the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford of Brad Keselowski.

Keselowski’s car spun to the top of the track, crashing into fellow Ford teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

Despite being a perennial contender to win the Daytona 500, Monday marked the fourth time in five years Keselowski DNF’d in the season-opening contest.

“Somebody just got me in the back. It’s just kind of part of racing at this deal,” Keselowski said. “It’s a bummer because we had a really good car, we were in position to make the pass for the lead with just a few laps to go and now I’m talking to you.”

Twenty-three cars were involved in the wreck, including 2021 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, two-time Cup Series champ Joey Logano, 2017 champ Martin Truex Jr. and three-time Daytona 500 victor Denny Hamlin.

Tyler Reddick was also among those caught up in the wreck. He had positive momentum entering the race after winning the first of the Bluegreen Vacations Duels last Thursday, but Monday’s result marked the sixth time in 10 Daytona Cup starts the 28-year-old failed to finish.

“I mean, every year I’ve made it this far, I’ve been in that wreck. So yeah, it’s just a part of it. I’ve experienced it many times now, so it’s unfortunate,” Reddick said. “I don’t even know where I finished, but I’d say we had probably the best all-around Daytona 500 we’ve had yet. Still just trying to finish one of these things.”

SHOP: Daytona 500 winner gear

As the laps wound down, Daniel Suárez worked his way to the front of the field and led a pair of laps. It looked like he would get through unscathed in the incident, but he wound up getting clipped in the rear by Todd Gilliland and spun around.

“I mean, it was a very strong day, I thought. Strong car, strong strategy, strong calls — everything was playing the way it was supposed to,” Suárez said. “It just wasn’t meant to be at the very end. I hear that we got hooked in the left-rear by a foot or two.”

Blaney, the defending series champion, led 12 laps, which included making a pass on his Penske teammate Austin Cindric for the Stage 2 victory. Over the years, Blaney has been up front late in the Daytona 500, but he has yet to have luck land on his side in avoiding melees.

“I mean, I don’t put my mind like expecting it to happen. I try to figure out how to move our lane,” Blaney said. “That’s all you’re thinking about in the moment is moving your lane forward and helping out as much as you can, when you can. It looks like Brad kind of made a move as the 48 and 24 (Bowman and Byron) were kind of trying to figure their deal out, and Brad got tagged in the right-rear. Like I said, I don’t expect it. You’re trying to push as hard, but it’s normally something that happens and you just hope you get away scot-free, and unfortunately tonight, we didn’t.”

Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe were also among those involved in the Lap 191 incident but continued and finished the race. Bell (third) and Briscoe (10th) collected top-10 results while Elliott finished 14th.

Posted on by Staff Report

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR officials have moved Monday’s rescheduled Xfinity Series race until after the season-opening Daytona 500 because of rain.

The Xfinity Series’ United Rentals 300, which was pushed to 11 a.m. ET Monday after its Saturday afternoon slot was also washed away, is now scheduled to start roughly one hour after the Cup Series event, approximately a 9 p.m. ET start time at Daytona International Speedway.

The 300-mile Xfinity event will be televised on FS1 with radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Rookie Jesse Love will lead the field to the green flag from the pole position.

MORE: At-track photos: Daytona

The Daytona 500 remains on schedule for a 4 p.m. ET start (FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) after torrential rain pushed it back one day.

Posted on by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Bubba Wallace was upbeat with a certain preseason optimism during his media rotations earlier this Speedweeks at Daytona, saying his outlook for the season was “really good, the best I’ve felt mentally.”

Asked if the positive mental space would influence his performance — and vice versa — Wallace smiled and said, “fingers crossed, dog.” He then crossed his fingers, his arms and legs in his director’s chair for good measure.

Wallace enters the 2024 NASCAR season fresh off his best finish in the Cup Series standings and ready for his seventh start in the Daytona 500 (Mon., 4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He’s twice been the runner-up (2018, 2022) and led a race-high 21 laps in Thursday’s second Duel qualifying race.

RELATED: Daytona weekend schedule | Starting lineup

For Wallace, getting into a more rosy mindset has meant cherishing some recent milestones. It’s also meant flashing back to some of his earliest successes at the national-series level during his start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

“Turning 30, celebrating my one-year wedding anniversary, celebrating life, just having fun with life, letting the little stuff go, focus on the big stuff,” Wallace said. “I go back and find myself watching 2014 truck races, back when you really couldn’t tell that kid nothing. He’d just jump in a truck and go rip. Didn’t have any self-doubt in the world. So, trying to bring that back, so I feel good.”

Wallace admits that revisiting that youthful enthusiasm while competing at NASCAR’s highest level isn’t done easily.

“Hell, no,” Wallace said. “You jump into a Cup car, and you’re quickly reminded how hard this is.”

Wallace was buoyed last season by a strong conclusion to the 2022 campaign when he switched teams within the 23XI Racing organization, jumping from the No. 23 to close out the year in the No. 45 Toyota, formerly driven by Kurt Busch. That 10-race stint produced his second Cup Series win, providing a springboard into 2023.

Wallace reached the Cup Series Playoffs for the first time, advancing to the Round of 12 and placing a career-high 10th in points. The sticking point, however, was ending the year without a victory, something he says he pressed for during the course of the season.

SHOP: Gear up for the Daytona 500

“I think going into last year, I was like, man, we finished that playoff run with the 45 really, really strong, like ‘it’s going to happen again,’ and I was forcing it too much,” Wallace said. “It’s a fine line. You can’t just sit back and let it come to you because that’s not how the sport works. You have to go out and earn it, but I think just having a different mindset, like I talked about earlier – just being aggressive, being confident. Self-confidence is what’s going to yield the results for us.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Hendrick Motorsports hasn’t won the Daytona 500 since 2014.

“Don’t remind me,” said Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of HMS and a three-time winner of the “Great American Race.”

Half of the team’s 2024 NASCAR Cup Series roster has won championships, thanks to Chase Elliott in 2020 and Kyle Larson in 2021. But none of the four, including teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman, have visited Daytona 500 Victory Lane.

“There’s no other win like it. There just isn’t,” Gordon said Wednesday as the organization celebrated its 40th-anniversary kickoff. “And I want one of these four guys to experience that. I want all four of them to experience it over the future because it is so special and you realize it once you win it. But right now, they’re realizing how hard it is to win.”

RELATED: Daytona 500 starting lineup | See special Martinsville schemes

Larson has won some of NASCAR’s biggest races — the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, the Bristol Night Race and the Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway, to name a few. But the Daytona 500 remains a box unchecked after 10 attempts.

What makes it so difficult to win, in his estimation, starts with putting your car in the right place as the laps dwindle away in the 500-mile affair.

“It starts from literally like early in the race, I feel like,” Larson told NASCAR.com. “So I think just knowing how to position yourself (and) having a team around you to position yourself for that final stint. And then yeah, I think you see often that, I feel like with a lot of the guys who consistently run up front, everybody else in the field realizes that they’ve had success and they trust them to follow them. So you really need help from behind as well.”

William Byron scored his first career Cup victory on the high banks of Daytona in the summer of 2020 but has struggled historically more in the Daytona 500. In six “Great American Race” starts, Byron has never finished better than 21st and has crashed out three times.

“I mean, they’re hard to move forward, so you kind of get stuck,” Byron said of racing at superspeedways. “We saw three-wide (racing last year), and a lot of that has to do with saving fuel and how that all plays out. So it’s just tough to balance. Now I feel like everyone’s gotten so smart with this strategy that it’s just more of a track position thing than ever. Like you can’t really make a lot of mistakes and get back, so just trying to manage that.”

MORE: At-track photos from Daytona

Larson and Byron both advanced to the Championship 4 in 2023 as Larson eyed his second Cup title, and Byron made his first true bid. Neither were able to leave Phoenix Raceway with the trophy, but that didn’t diminish the successful seasons of either the No. 5 or No. 24 teams.

“We want to be better, and there’s definitely room to get better,” Larson said. “But the offseason was good for me anyway. It was relaxing, and you know, raced a little bit. But yeah, just got to spend time with the family and you get to get some more one-on-one time with them because once I start racing, I’m pretty much gone a lot of time.

“The last month and a half or so, I’ve been working with Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) and the guys closely, just studying and talking about things and how to be better and where we can get better.”

Larson’s No. 5 team did alter a bit through the offseason. Lead engineer Adam Wall is now a crew chief in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for Sammy Smith in the JR Motorsports No. 8 car.

“So we shuffled some things around with the engineering area and brought one new person, Brian Ross, in,” Larson said. “So other than that, our team is pretty much the same, and Brian has been a great addition so far. I really enjoy having him, and yeah, look forward to getting racing.”

Byron netted a career-high six wins last season in a true breakout year for the 26-year-old. The goal is to capitalize on that momentous campaign after falling short to Ryan Blaney in Phoenix last fall.

“I think we have our own goals as a team,” Byron said, “and things that we’ve kind of identified as weaknesses — or even the strengths that we did have and just trying to keep those, or maintain or get better. And so I feel like there’s still areas that … I felt like we could be a lot better and overall just be faster, you know, especially at the right times of year, but try to just have more speed.”

In recent years, Valvoline has increased its presence on both the Nos. 5 and 24 cars and recently added a new Restore and Protect line as well.

“It’s cool,” Larson said. “They’re always innovating and trying to come up with new product and they’re the first and only to remove up to 100% of deposits. So I think that’s something to be proud of.”

Posted on by Staff Report

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR officials have postponed the Daytona 500 to Monday because of rain, meaning it will join the season-opening Xfinity Series race in a first-ever doubleheader at Daytona International Speedway to start the work week.

A combination of Saturday rainfall and Sunday’s threatening weather forecast prompted officials to push the 66th running of the Daytona 500 to Monday at 4 p.m. ET, to be telecast on FOX with radio coverage through MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The “Great American Race” had been scheduled for a Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET start.

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The Xfinity Series’ United Rentals 300 — originally planned for a Saturday start at 5 p.m. ET — was rescheduled to Monday at 11 a.m. ET (FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Fans with Saturday grandstand tickets and admission to the Hard Rock Bet Fanzone may attend both the NASCAR Xfinity Series race and the Daytona 500.

FOX’s NASCAR RaceDay will remain scheduled for Sunday. Fans can tune in at 11 a.m. ET on FS1 and FOX at 1 p.m. ET.

Saturday’s on-track schedule was washed away, with final Daytona 500 practice canceled by steady precipitation at the 2.5-mile track. Weather also delayed Xfinity Series qualifying by two hours, and a single round of time trials was completed before more rain arrived. The season-opening race for the ARCA Menards Series headed off the weather with a move from Saturday afternoon to Friday night after the Craftsman Truck Series event.

Former Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano will start from the pole position after topping the chart in Wednesday night’s Cup Series qualifying session. He will share the front row with fellow Ford driver Michael McDowell, who won the “Great American Race” in 2021.

One row behind them will be a pair of Toyotas, with Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell securing those starting spots based on their victories in Thursday night’s 150-mile qualifying races, the Bluegreen Vacations Duels.

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