Bubba Wallace bringing ‘aggressive, confident’ approach to 2024 season

Posted on February 18, 2024February 19, 2024 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.

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 February 18, 2024February 19, 2024 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.”

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 February 18, 2024February 18, 2024 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.

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.

WATCH: ‘Walk with the Greats’ Daytona 500 heroes | Classic Daytona races

Posted on February 18, 2024February 19, 2024 by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Even two race weekends into the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, it’s still been a bit jarring to see Ross Chastain wearing the Busch Light colors most closely associated with Kevin Harvick the last eight seasons. But there he’s been, both at the Clash in Los Angeles and in preparation for the Daytona 500, with a light-blue and white fire suit bearing the logo of his Trackhouse Racing team’s new sponsor.

More striking, from Chastain’s perspective, has been seeing life-sized mirror images of himself in his new duds, in cardboard-cutout form alongside supermarket and convenience store displays of his sponsor’s product.

“It’s wild,” Chastain says. “Honestly, the thoughts get more wild when people send me pictures and I see them online, I get tagged and stuff and we’re looking through that. It’s just, it’s wild to think that from my uncle in South Florida, to a farmer in Delaware, and now out west that they’re seeing the stuff go in the stores. It’s just, it’s indescribable. Really, it’s hard to put into words.”

Chastain will carry those new colors into his sixth appearance in the Daytona 500 (Monday, 4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), aiming for his first victory in the “Great American Race.” The 31-year-old driver has three top 10s in the season-opening event, including a ninth-place result in last year’s running.

Lately, there’s been a lot of Chastain to go around, from his featured role in the “NASCAR: Full Speed” docu-series on Netflix to his newfound appearance in promotional beer displays. Turns out, it’s not the first time that his image has been reproduced in cardboard form. Chastain said that 12 years ago, he paid for 10 of them to give to existing and prospective sponsors as he aimed to break into NASCAR’s national series. In some, he held a helmet under his right arm. A watermelon — in a nod to his farming roots — was photoshopped in the helmet’s place.

“Back when I was just hustling, trying to kind of raise money, that was the name of the game,” Chastain said. “That’s what was going to get me on track.”

Now established as he starts his sixth Cup Series season, Chastain no longer has to grind and scrape for a ride — as the cardboard cutouts he no longer has to pay for will attest. He’s made it and can now allow his mind to think about what it might mean to win the Daytona 500 in his home state as the only Florida native in the field. There, he struggles to find words again.

“Why not us? I have to think that. Why can’t we win? There are no reasons why we can’t,” Chastain says. “From there, indescribable. … I don’t know what it would mean. If it happens, you’ll get to watch us experience it for the first time together.”

Posted on February 17, 2024February 17, 2024 by Staff Report

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR officials have postponed Saturday’s season-opening Xfinity Series race to a Monday start at Daytona International Speedway because of rain.

A combination of Saturday rainfall and Sunday’s threatening weather forecast prompted officials to reschedule the Xfinity Series’ United Rentals 300 – originally planned for a Saturday start at 5 p.m. ET — to Monday at 11 a.m. ET. The race will be telecast on FS1, with radio broadcast coverage on MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Parts of Saturday’s on-track schedule were washed away, with final Cup Series practice canceled by lingering 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 significant rain arrived mid-afternoon. Officials had moved Saturday’s start time up to 4 p.m. ET and completed driver intros in an effort to beat the approaching showers before the skies opened.

Rookie Jesse Love won the pole position for the Xfinity Series’ 300-miler, placing his No. 2 Chevrolet in the first starting spot for his series debut. He’ll start alongside Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Hill on the front row when the race takes the green flag.

The race will be held a day after the Cup Series season gets underway with the 66th Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Former winner Joey Logano is the polesitter after topping Wednesday night’s qualifying session in the Team Penske No. 22 Ford.

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.

Posted on February 17, 2024February 19, 2024 by Zack Albert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Martin Truex Jr. still remembers his first visits to Daytona International Speedway, back when his budding career as a young driver in what’s now called the NASCAR Xfinity Series was starting to take shape. Some two decades later, he’s regarded highly among the sport’s elder statesmen.

Truex’s long-running quest for a victory in stock-car racing’s most prestigious race writes another chapter in Monday’s 66th Daytona 500 (4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). With Kevin Harvick’s retirement after last year’s campaign, he enters the new NASCAR Cup Series season as the circuit’s oldest driver – just four-plus months older than fellow 43-year-old Denny Hamlin, a teammate of his at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Truex says he marvels at the pace of that progression, from an earlier era in the sport’s history to today.

“It’s very strange. And it’s crazy how fast it happened,” Truex said. “I cannot believe this is my 20th time racing in this race. It just feels like yesterday, I was just coming here for the first time. It’s really … it’s nuts how fast time goes by. And it’s also crazy to see just how much has changed since I first started — the names, the cars, the teams — everything is so different now than it was. Time flies, no doubt about it.”

Truex’s visits to the World Center of Racing these days include a reminder of how close he’s come in NASCAR’s season opener. Images of the speedway’s most iconic moments are displayed on the arcing walls of the Turn 1 infield tunnel, including the checkered-flag image of his narrow loss to Hamlin in the 2016 race – still the closest finish in Daytona 500 history with a .010-second margin of victory. “Not a great memory, but to be part of the closest finish in history here is cool,” said Truex, a magnanimous runner-up that day. “Just wish we were on the other side of it.”

Truex’s Daytona trips these days are a long reach from his DIY beginnings, when he gravitated more to the hands-on side as a driver for his family-owned team in the former Busch North Series. His arrival in NASCAR’s higher ranks was an eye-opener, with a move up to Dale Earnhardt Inc. and the Chance 2 Motorsports team making things more hands-off.

“When I first got to come down here, I still couldn’t believe I was getting the opportunity,” Truex says now. “Basically, up until ’03, I had never once expected or was really 100% working toward being a driver for a living. I was working, I was racing for fun, I was racing as something that’s just, that’s what I did. And I honestly was shocked when I got a call to come test a car for DEI, for Chance 2. Then when I got here, I was like, ‘Damn, I can’t believe I’m here.’ Like I go into the hauler to test for the first time, and my fire suit’s hanging up, and I’m like, ‘I didn’t have to take that to the dry cleaners.’ That’s the kind of things I thought when I first came here.

“And I just remember, I didn’t have to work on the car, I didn’t have to do anything but show up and drive it. It didn’t make any sense. So that’s how much has changed. It’s crazy. And now obviously, I come here now and it’s like, the only thing I want to come here and do is win. It’s the only thing that matters. I don’t have to do anything else, but come here and try to win. So it’s changed quite a lot.”

Years later, Truex has established a racing portfolio that has him firmly among NASCAR’s elite, with 34 Cup Series victories, two Xfinity championships and crown-jewel wins in the Southern 500 and Coca-Cola 600. His 18 full-time years of experience at NASCAR’s top level, and a fire suit patch that identifies him as a Cup Series champion, have afforded him a degree of stature in the garage.

How many more years he’ll keep at it has become a near-annual cycle of rinse-and-repeat questions – When will you decide? Has car owner Joe Gibbs set a timetable? Does the team’s performance affect your thought process? All those reps have made Truex an expert in the art of demurring and hedging. “I got more time last year than I did the year before,” said Truex, who made his return official early last August, “so that’s good.”

When he does make that call, he’ll be faced with another question he’s been asked before, about his legacy in the sport and how others will remember his impact. Truex says it’s a complicated answer since he’s still adding to his accomplishments, but it’s not one that he fixates on.

“I mean, the only thing I ever kind of worry about is just letting people know I tried to do things the right way,” Truex says. “I mean, I don’t know if that’s a big deal or if it’s not a big deal, but I always try to treat people with respect, the way I would want to get treated and do things the right way on the race track, and just be a good teammate, be a good part of a team and be someone that’s fun to be around. But aside from that, I don’t really know. I don’t know that it’s a big deal to me to worry about any of that stuff. I don’t know if it’s because I’m still here doing it, and I don’t really look back much.”

MORE: Daytona 500 starting lineup | Fantasy Update

Time for reflection will come later, potentially coinciding with when Truex becomes eligible for NASCAR Hall of Fame consideration. Every eligible driver ahead of him on NASCAR’s all-time win list – and several below — has been enshrined, and every Cup Series champion except the lesser-known 1950 title winner Bill Rexford has been voted in, making Truex a strong candidate at his current face value.

That’s another legacy question that Truex has entertained only when it’s come up in conversation.

“I’ve only thought about it when guys had mentioned it to me,” he says. “(Hall of Fame executive director) Winston Kelley, he’s always the first one every time I see him, he always brings it up, and it’s really special to me because I listened to him (on the radio with MRN) since I was a kid, so it’s really special to hear that. But I try not to get too caught up in it, and I’m still writing my history. So I’d like to add some more things to it to hopefully get in there the first try.”

First-ballot election, he joked, might make that retirement decision even more timing-dependent.

“I figure I dodged a big bullet with Harvick going already, so he’ll get in his first try, right? So I would imagine that I just have to make sure me and Denny don’t retire at the same time,” Truex said with a laugh. “It’s crazy to think about. It’s wild.”

Posted on February 17, 2024February 18, 2024 by Dustin Albino

This year’s Daytona 500 grid seems to be more wide open than ever. There is a case to be made for upward of 30 teams ending up as the 2024 Daytona 500 champion. Of course, the race is never as straightforward as it seems, and there will be plenty of hurdles to overcome throughout the day. Toyota swept the Duel races Thursday night; early returns after moving to a new body better suited for drafting tracks. It’s worked out thus far, but plenty of horses within the other two manufacturers can get the job done.

Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:

Starter 1: Joey Logano

Starter 2: Brad Keselowski

Starter 3: Bubba Wallace

Starter 4: Michael McDowell

Starter 5: Erik Jones

Garage pick: Corey LaJoie

MORE: Monday’s starting grid | Set your Daytona 500 lineup

NEXT IN LINE: Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher

RISING: Bell isn’t shy to voice his displeasure regarding superspeedway racing, but he continuously improves on the craft each year. So much so, in fact, that one of his biggest goals for 2024 is to win a points-paying race on a drafting track. Courtesy of his win in the second Bluegreen Vacations Duel race Thursday evening, Bell is tied for the points lead heading into the “Great American Race.” The Toyotas showed improved speed during the Duels, with six of its nine drivers leading laps.

Spire Motorsports has been in the running to win multiple superspeedway races over the last couple of years, thanks to Corey LaJoie and the No. 7 team. With added bullets in Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith, the team has upped its chances of showing out on race day. All three cars did just that in Thursday’s Duels, with Hocevar finishing fourth in the first Duel and Smith sixth in the second.

FALLING: Blaney has fallen off my lineup entirely; the first time I can remember him not being in my lineup for a superspeedway. In Blaney’s last three trips to Daytona, his luck ranks somewhere between slim and none. His chances to win the Daytona 500 are certainly higher than that, as he’s among the best superspeedway drivers in the garage. But he will come from the tail of the field in a backup car after being hooked in the right rear and sent into the wall for the third consecutive Daytona race.

This is Kyle Busch’s 19th attempt at winning the Daytona 500, but his shot at winning the “Great American Race” might be halted for another season. The No. 8 team was strong on superspeedways last year, scoring a win at Talladega Superspeedway and leading at the end of regulation of last year’s Daytona 500. However, Busch will need to come from the rear for a second straight year in this race, as he was involved in the Blaney wreck on Thursday.

FEATURED MATCHUPS:

Ty Gibbs vs. Joey Logano

Gibbs looked comfortable in the draft on Thursday, riding a chunk of the race in line behind Jimmie Johnson, who was leading the points in his rookie season … the year Gibbs was born. Weird anecdotes aside, Logano is the choice. The No. 22 team is aggressive in these races, which can be both beneficial and detrimental. Team Penske already earned its first pole in the 500 with Logano this week, but if he wins the race, it will be the first time since 2000 that the polesitter won the 500 (Dale Jarrett).

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. vs. Michael McDowell

McDowell has had a special aura around him this week, making him a real sleeper to become a two-time Daytona 500 champion. He earned the best qualifying start of his career on Wednesday and bowed out of the lead draft late in the second Duel to miss any potential chaos. Stenhouse, the reigning 500 winner, was strong in the opening Duel, leading three laps before getting involved in a late wreck. The pick is McDowell, who is often in contention for a strong finish late in the race, scoring three finishes of seventh or better in the last five 500s.

Ross Chastain vs. Tyler Reddick

Reddick is reaping the benefits of the new Toyota body on superspeedways. He made a nice, slicing move on Kyle Larson with a half-lap remaining in the first Duel to win and score 10 points. Chastain has won a points-paying race on a superspeedway in the past, but Toyotas looked strong on Thursday and Reddick’s the pick.

Zane Smith vs. Josh Berry

Smith fits the bill for drivers with long shots of winning the Daytona 500, but you could certainly choose worse than him. He is an accomplished superspeedway driver, winning at Daytona in his final two Truck starts there. Berry still has to prove himself at the national level on superspeedways, so Smith gets the call.

SHOP: Gear up for Daytona 500

Posted on February 17, 2024 by Brandon White

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Layne Riggs took a moment to bask in the scenery and reflect on his journey when the Front Row Motorsports hauler pulled into Daytona International Speedway for the opening weekend of the 2024 season.

There were many days when Riggs was unsure whether he would ever make a trip to Daytona as a driver. His time in short tracks around the southeast was always a fight for survival with a finite number of resources, but Riggs never wasted an opportunity to showcase his talent.

A long, meticulous grind finally translated into Riggs earning a ride with Front Row Motorsports’ NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series program for the entire 2024 season. The feeling of a secured future is new for Riggs, but one he cherished in the hours leading up to his first Daytona start.

“I just can’t believe I’m here,” Riggs said. “It’s amazing. I’m in awe to just be at Daytona. That’s where I’ve wanted to be the past 10 years of my racing career, and I’m so thankful and fortunate everything worked out for me to get my first full-time ride.”

With a resume that includes a NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series title in 2022 and six zMAX CARS Tour victories, Riggs has long possessed the capability to be an efficient competitor at the national level.

The one factor that always held him back from progressing through the developmental ladder was finances.

Riggs worked tirelessly alongside his father in former NASCAR Cup Series driver Scott Riggs to maintain a competitive edge against Late Model Stock programs with more funding. Despite their success together, Riggs knew he would need to branch out if he wanted to keep his NASCAR dreams alive.

Layne Riggs’ path to NASCAR started in Late Model Stocks, where he worked on his own cars alongside his father Scott Riggs. (Photo: Joe Chandler/South Boston Speedway)

A handful of starts with Halmar Friesen Racing in the Truck Series near the end of 2022 season gave Riggs his first major national exposure. He earned a top 10 in his debut at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and led laps in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway, but the opportunity did not materialize into a ride for the following year.

Riggs resigned himself to running Late Model Stocks again after a grueling campaign for the national championship, determined to keep working hard with the goal of earning at least a part-time ride in top-tier equipment.

That opportunity manifested in the form of 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, who took notice of Riggs’ driving ability when he bested him in a CARS Tour race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

“Kevin Harvick called me the morning after North Wilkesboro and told me that I ran pretty good,” Riggs said. “He said he wouldn’t be able to run the late model a lot to get it better for when he was going to build a full-time team. He wanted me to take it to Caraway [Speedway] the following weekend and see what I could do.”

Just like he did so many times before, Riggs took full advantage of the chance provided to him by parking Harvick’s No. 62 in Victory Lane at Caraway. A technical infraction led to Riggs getting disqualified, but his performance from that evening served as validation as to why Harvick selected him for that car.

The overturned victory still served as a major turning point for Riggs’ 2023 season. Along with getting three more Late Model Stock races lined up with Harvick, Riggs returned to IRP in the Truck Series with Spire Motorsports while also procuring a three-race deal in Kaulig Racing’s NASCAR Xfinity Series program.

The mindset was clear for Riggs during that stretch, nothing was guaranteed, but everything could be earned.

“It was all about fighting for the next opportunity, even if it’s a part-time ride,” Riggs said. “You could get another one-off deal just because you did well in the last one. That’s how I’ve always had to do things at the national level. Every race could be your last.”

Although his CARS Tour win at Caraway Speedway was erased in post-race inspection, it still provided Layne Riggs a jolt of momentum over the second half of 2023. (Photo: Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)

Riggs bested his top 10 at IRP from 2022 by recording a third-place finish with Spire. The Xfinity Series starts were far less procedural, as Riggs was involved in multiple incidents at Texas Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway but still did not tally a finish outside of the top 20.

The determination displayed by Riggs to persevere through adversity at Texas and Martinsville was paramount toward his future. Each of those races highlighted Riggs’ best attributes as a driver while simultaneously showing just how valuable he could be to a team owner looking for a well-rounded competitor.

Closing out on the deal to race full-time with Front Row Motorsports in the Truck Series after years of tribulations was one of the most cathartic moments of Riggs’ life.

“There was excitement, but more relief than anything else,” Riggs said. “There was all this stress, tension, and unknowns we’ve had for so many years over whether or not we were going to make it. When I finally realized I had signed my first deal, it was a dream come true.”

Now that he has achieved his lifelong goal of making it to NASCAR’s top ranks, Riggs has no intention of growing complacent.

The first laps for Riggs in the draft at Daytona were a completely new experience. Despite having some drafting laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Riggs said being in a pack at Daytona taught him to be light on the gas and how to turn into the corner.

Riggs knows he’s more than capable of picking up where Zane Smith left off in the No. 38 for Front Row Motorsports. He does not expect anything to come easy with the competitive depth in the Truck Series, but Riggs said he can obtain a second title for Front Row Motorsports if he builds momentum with every race.

A full year of racing is ahead Riggs after Daytona, and he intends to do everything possible to showcase his gratitude to Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins and general manager Jerry Freeze for allowing him to drive their truck.

Riggs extended his gratitude to everyone in his life that supported him through all the positives and negatives from the moment his career began. The journey to NASCAR might have been slightly longer than he expected, but getting rewarded for his relentless effort made the entire process worthwhile.

“Hard work does pay off,” Riggs said. “Everything they say about ‘don’t give up’ is true. I was getting close to graduating college, and things weren’t culminating the way I wanted them to, so I was debating on stepping away from driving for a while. When you’re at the lowest of lows, something like this can just pop up out of nowhere.

“Keep your nose down, and things will pay off if you show the work.”

Daytona might not have ended in a trip to Victory Lane for Riggs, but he departed the facility with plenty of pride knowing his once uncertain outlook in motorsports had been replaced with a promising future.

Posted on February 17, 2024February 18, 2024 by Marcus DiNitto

The Daytona 500 is the most prestigious race on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit, but a victory in the event is also the most elusive for top-tier drivers. While Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott have all won a Cup championship, a “Great American Race” win remains absent from their resumes.

Those five drivers reside at or near the top of the odds board for the 2024 edition, set for Monday at Daytona International Speedway (4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin, both of whom have won Cup titles and the Daytona 500 (Hamlin three times in the latter, in fact), are also in the mix.

Betting odds for superspeedway races, though, are unlike others we see in the Cup Series as “favorites” are priced in double-digit territory. On shorter tracks and road courses, favorites are given much shorter odds than Logano’s 9-to-1 price at DraftKings.

Here are the Daytona 500 odds as of Friday morning at DraftKings and SuperBook USA. We always advise to shop at multiple sportsbooks to find the best prices for the bets you wish to make.

DRIVER	DRAFTKINGS	SUPERBOOK
Joey Logano	+900	+1000
Brad Keselowski	+1000	+1200
Denny Hamlin	+1000	+1200
Ryan Blaney	+1100	+1200
Kyle Busch	+1200	+1600
Kyle Larson	+1400	+2000
Chase Elliott	+1400	+1400
Chris Buescher	+1800	+1600
Bubba Wallace	+1800	+1800
William Byron	+1800	+1800
Michael McDowell	+1800	+2500
Ty Gibbs	+2000	+2000
Martin Truex Jr.	+2000	+2500
Christopher Bell	+2500	+1400
Ross Chastain	+2500	+3000
Tyler Reddick	+2800	+2500
Alex Bowman	+2800	+3000
Erik Jones	+3000	+2500
Chase Briscoe	+3500	+5000
Austin Cindric	+3500	+3000
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	+3500	+3000
Austin Dillon	+4000	+4000

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Cindric and Michael McDowell, meanwhile, are the three most recent Daytona 500 winners, and took the checkers at odds of +3300, +3300 and +10000, respectively.

So, while the opportunity to bet on a top driver at relatively long odds may be tempting, the betting prices imply how random superspeedway racing can be.

“This, along with the other superspeedways, needs to be handled with kid gloves, given the unpredictable nature of pack racing,” Todd Fuhrman, a NASCAR bettor, former Las Vegas oddsmaker and CBS Sports analyst, said in an email to NASCAR.com, “… even with prices that appear attractive on the surface.”

“So much of these races is just being at the right place at the time and having the right guy behind you to push you,” said Westgate SuperBook VP of Risk Management Ed Salmons, one of the most influential NASCAR oddsmakers in the sports betting industry. “There’s just so much luck involved.”

To Salmons’ point, five out of the last seven Daytona 500 winners led only one lap — the final one.

We can’t blame you if you want some action on this race, but because of the unpredictability of Daytona, it’s wise to bet lightly.

“Despite the level of excitement for the first points-paying race of the season, this is one of the races (along with Daytona-2 and Talladega Superspeedway) where I’ll wager a fraction of what I would on the intermediate or short tracks,” Fuhrman said. “There’s some upside to be gleaned but the amount of good bets that go up in smoke after 199 laps make me tread carefully with 35+ races left to maximize an edge.”

Worthy long shots

We’ve established that this race is ripe for a fat potential payout, so which long shots deserve a look from bettors?

Fuhrman has Corey LaJoie circled. LaJoie has posted back-to-back top 10s on superspeedways and seven top 20s over the last 12 of these races.

“I’m a sucker for Corey LaJoie on plate tracks, and at a number of 50-1 or higher, he makes sense as a worthwhile dart throw,” Fuhrman said.

Austin Cindric may also jump off the page at underdog bettors. While his Penske Racing teammates are priced among the favorites, he’s available at +3500 at DraftKings. He piloted the No. 2 Ford to a Daytona 500 win two years ago, and he finished second in the Bluegreen Vacations Duel 2 on Thursday night.

“He’s (priced) two-and-a-half times higher than (Logano and Blaney), and he fits the profile of everything that could go right in a certain race when he won the 500 (in 2022),” Salmons said when we spoke on Tuesday. “(He hasn’t) won since, but sure, if you’re looking for a longer shot, he definitely offers value.

“Part of the reason he’s that high is just because no one wants to bet him. I don’t have a penny on him, so I went from 25-to- 1 to 30.”

What drivers are being bet early?

While betting on the Daytona 500 opened shortly after Blaney claimed the 2023 Cup title in Phoenix in November, Salmons anticipates 90% of the action coming Friday through race day.

Based on some of the early money, Salmons adjusted Kyle Busch from +2000 to +1600, and he also said Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Erik Jones drew pre-Speedweeks interest from his customers.

At BetMGM, Busch accounts for 8.3% of the bets placed and 12.5% of money wagered, leading in both categories, according to figures released by the sportsbook on Thursday.

Hamlin has also been popular at BetMGM, attracting 5.3% of bets (second most) and 6.7% of handle (third most). Kyle Larson is third in ticket count at 5.0%, and Keselowski is second in money wagered at 7.3%.

Marcus DiNitto is Content Manager at Catena Media, where he manages the company’s sports betting partnership with The Sporting News. NASCAR is one of the many sports Marcus enjoys wagering on. Follow him on Twitter; do not follow his picks.

Posted on February 17, 2024February 18, 2024 by Zack Albert

66th Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway

(⏰ Monday, 4 p.m. ET | FOX | MRN, SiriusXM)

Everything you need to know for Monday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway, the first points-paying event of the 2024 Cup Series season.

Weekend schedule | TV schedule | Weather tracker | NASCAR 101

Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
Track length: 2.5 miles
Cup Series race purse: $28,035,991
Race distance: 200 laps | 500 miles
Stages: 60 | 130 | 200
—
Starting lineup: Logano on pole for Daytona 500
Pit stall assignments: Where drivers will pit on Monday
Defending winner: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 2023

Key things to watch

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday sessions

Daytona 500 build-up is its own animal, with an expanded qualifying process and extra practice. Ford drivers had the upper hand early on in pole qualifying, with Joey Logano (Team Penske) and Michael McDowell (Front Row Motorsports) sweeping the front row. Toyota flexed its muscle late in the Bluegreen Vacations Duel qualifying races, with Tyler Reddick (23XI Racing) and Christopher Bell (Joe Gibbs Racing) converting last-lap passes to divide the victories. Drivers learned plenty about how their cars push and handle in the aerodynamic draft in the Duels and in Friday’s practice, which was led by Denny Hamlin at the head of a top-eight sweep by Toyota drivers. | Read qualifying recap | Friday’s practice recap | Saturday session canceled

Big story line

Who gets a career-altering moment? Weighing favorites and the long waits

There are a couple of camps of drivers who fall into the category of “Great American Race” favorites — former winners with a special superspeedway savvy and those still missing a Harley J. Earl Trophy in their collection — some with an agonizingly lengthy wait time. Denny Hamlin is first and foremost in the former category, aiming for his fourth victory in the 500, and Joey Logano sets up from the first starting spot in search of a second Daytona crown to match his 2015 triumph.

Among the long-suffering drivers without a Daytona 500 win are big-name standouts and future Hall of Famer material. “I mean, it’s missing, right? There’s no checkmark there,” said Kyle Busch, who said that a 500 win doesn’t necessarily validate a career — citing HOF members Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace and Tony Stewart among that group. Busch is 0-for-18 in the “Great American Race” and joins Brad Keselowski (0-for-14), Cup Series champ Ryan Blaney (a stealthy but always contending 0-for-9), and Martin Truex Jr. (0-for-37 at Daytona overall) among those pining for a victory in NASCAR’s most prestigious event.

History tells us…

Going the extra mile(s)?

Five of the last six runnings of the Daytona 500 have gone into overtime, including last year’s record 530-miler that went 12 extra laps. “Statistically, I think you have to plan on it,” said Chris Buescher, with Daytona International Speedway’s most recent winner noting the tendency toward multicar crashes in the closing laps.

Those overtime attempts have been the frequent result of late-race crashes, sparked by a combination of aggression, poorly executed aerodynamic pushes or both. Blaney, after yet another heavy hit at the World Center of Racing in Thursday night’s qualifying races, has had his fill of it. | Blaney: ‘It’s just guys not being smart’

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

Jimmie Johnson. It feels funny to think of a seven-time Cup Series champion as anything less than a sure-fire contender, but there Jimmie Johnson sits at 70-1 on the odds board. The driver and minority owner for Legacy Motor Club eked out a qualifying berth in Thursday night’s Duels, but as a two-time Daytona 500 winner, he rises into the conversation of potential underdogs. His team’s switch to Toyota this year also gives the automaker reinforcements in its superspeedway numbers in the aerodynamic draft. | Daytona 500 odds

Speed reads

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

• Daytona 500 postponed until Monday: Get ready for a historic Xfinity-Cup doubleheader | Read article
• Dale Jr. retrospective: Next-level stardom after second Daytona 500 win | Read article
• Blaney’s next act: 2023 champ braces for title defense, responsibility | Read article
• Berry’s new journey: “Our team will surprise a lot of people” | Read article
• Ride of passage: Turn 4’s tunnel a special Daytona original | Read article
• Manufacturer mix: New-look Fords, Toyotas to challenge Chevy’s reign | Read article
• Daytona debate: Racing Insights projects the final race results | Read article
• At-track photos: Sights and scenes from Daytona Speedweeks | Photo gallery
• Fantasy Fastlane: Setting your Daytona 500 lineup | See fantasy tips
• Paint Scheme Preview: New designs to kick off the season | Pick a favorite
• Power Rankings: Hamlin rises in preseason pecking order | Latest driver rankings

Fast facts ⏩

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

• Ford notched its 30th Daytona pole, sweeping the front row in the Daytona 500 for the first time since 2012.
• Kyle Busch leads all drivers in laps led among drivers that are winless in the Daytona 500 with 330.
• Only once has a stage winner in the Daytona 500 gone on to win the race (Denny Hamlin in 2020 after winning Stage 2).