Each year, the NASCAR Cup Series kicks off the season with its pinnacle event — the Daytona 500. The 66th annual running is set for Monday, Feb. 19 (4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). And, like any big event, some unique quirks are part of the build-up.
The most notable difference in the “Great American Race” compared to any other on the Cup schedule is how the starting lineup is set. Forty cars will make the Daytona 500 starting grid. Thirty-six teams are guaranteed starting spots thanks to their Charters, leaving only four spots available for Open teams.
The process begins with single-car qualifying on Wednesday, where the two fastest drivers — Joey Logano and Michael McDowell — secured the front-row starting positions for Monday’s race. Additionally, the two fastest Open cars — Anthony Alfredo and David Ragan — clinched a spot in Monday’s main event
The remaining results from single-car qualifying set the field for the two Bluegreen Vacations Duel races on Thursday. The duel races are 60-lap affairs, the results of which set the lineup for the Daytona 500 itself.
Drivers who are in odd-numbered positions on the speed chart from single-car qualifying make up the starting grid of Duel No. 1, while those who qualify in even-numbered positions make up Duel No. 2 (although NASCAR ensures an even number of Open cars in each race, so there may be slight adjustments). The highest-finishing Open car in each duel advances into the Daytona 500.
The results of Duel No. 1 set the inside row for the 2024 Daytona 500, while the results of Duel No. 2 set the outside row for Monday’s race.
Below are the results of the Duel races and the Daytona 500 starting lineup.
Official Bluegreen Vacations Duel No. 1 Results
* denotes Open, non-Charter team
Finishing Position
Car No.
Driver
1
45
Tyler Reddick
2
9
Chase Elliott
3
48
Alex Bowman
4
77
Carson Hocevar
5
43
Erik Jones
6
99
Daniel Suárez
7
22
Joey Logano
8
54
Ty Gibbs
9
5
Kyle Larson
10
17
Chris Buescher
11
1
Ross Chastain
12
84
Jimmie Johnson*
13
41
Ryan Preece
14
19
Martin Truex Jr.
15
7
Corey LaJoie
16
44
J.J. Yeley*
17
38
Todd Gilliland
18
3
Austin Dillon
19
62
Anthony Alfredo*
20
47
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
21
31
Daniel Hemric
Official Bluegreen Vacations Duel No. 2 Results
* denotes Open, non-Charter team
Finishing Position
Car No.
Driver
1
20
Christopher Bell
2
2
Austin Cindric
3
11
Denny Hamlin
4
42
John H. Nemechek
5
21
Harrison Burton
6
71
Zane Smith
7
6
Brad Keselowski
8
24
William Byron
9
14
Chase Briscoe
10
51
Justin Haley
11
23
Bubba Wallace
12
36
Kaz Grala*
13
16
AJ Allmendinger
14
78
BJ McLeod*
15
60
David Ragan*
16
34
Michael McDowell
17
4
Josh Berry
18
12
Ryan Blaney
19
8
Kyle Busch
20
15
Riley Herbst
21
10
Noah Gragson
Projected Daytona 500 starting lineup
* denotes Open, non-Charter team.
** BJ McLeod and JJ Yeley did not qualifying for the Daytona 500
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — If Michael McDowell should win a second Daytona 500 this year, he won’t know how much he’ll get from the record purse of $28,035,991 until the check arrives.
Suffice it to say that the winner’s share of the largest purse in motorsports history is enough to make a huge difference to McDowell and his Front Row Motorsports team.
McDowell, however, doesn’t plan to crunch the numbers before the race – he just knows it’s a lot.
“Obviously, it’s significant,” said McDowell, who scored his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in the 2021 edition of the “Great American Race.” “It’s the biggest race of the year for us and for the team from a payout standpoint. It does matter, especially for a team like us at Front Row. Winning the race and making the playoffs, financially what that does for you, it sets up the next few years — not just that year.
“If you’re going to win a race, this is the one you want to win, as far as the financial part of it goes.”
With the advent of the charter system in the Cup Series, individual payouts are no longer published. In the last Daytona 500 where prize money was revealed, Joey Logano won $1,586,503 for his victory in 2015.
It would make sense to extrapolate a higher first-place figure from a record purse in excess of $28 million. That sort of sum can be transformational for a driver or team.
“On the money side, it takes a lot of money to make this sport go around, and this race team,” said 2023 Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who drives the No. 47 Chevrolet for JTG-Daugherty Racing. “My wife and I are redoing our bathroom and bedroom and now a nursery, and that would go a long way. So, it’s kind of already spent—I hope we win.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Daniel Suárez enters a new NASCAR Cup Series season — his fourth with Trackhouse Racing’s No. 99 team — with aspirations for a rebound, a new crew chief, and (he insists) no extra pressure beyond the expectations he’s already set. His last contract update — a multiyear extension — was announced before last year’s Daytona 500 Media Day. In this year’s preseason availabilities, those contract questions touched on what his next steps might be beyond 2024.
Suárez’s quest for a return to the Cup Series Playoffs starts this week at Daytona International Speedway, with the season opening in earnest with Monday’s “Great American Race” (4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He’ll have new crew chief Matt Swiderski in place atop the pit box, in the hopes of providing a spark to a No. 99 group that notched just three top-five finishes and a 19th-place result in Cup Series points last year.
The crew chief swap is among a handful of recent changes to the Trackhouse stable, which has added plenty of promising talent to its driver-roster pipeline — with New Zealander standout Shane van Gisbergen, former Truck Series champ Zane Smith, and 17-year-old Connor Zilisch among those joining the fold. With prospects waiting for their big-league opportunity — either by expansion or promotion — Suárez said he hasn’t worried about his contract status, placing his preseason emphasis instead on improving performance.
“I think it’s too early for that, and honestly, for me, I don’t really like to talk about that stuff,” Suárez said. “I let my people talk about it, and they deal with that. My focus is on winning races and making my team competitive. That’s all I care about. I’m a big believer that if I take care of my thing and you take care of yours, things are gonna work out. But I have to focus on that. I cannot have my mind on an extension or what is going to happen in two years or whatever. My next contract, my mind has to be on performance, my mind has to be with the sponsors, my mind has to be on how we’re going to be able to make this team a winning team, and that’s what I’m thinking right now.”
Suárez missed the 16-driver postseason field, going winless one season after scoring his first Cup Series victory in a breakout 2022. He said the break with former crew chief Travis Mack was difficult, since he had cultivated a strong relationship with him in their three seasons together, but he noted that the new pairing was just part of the puzzle — with small changes in multiple facets of the team’s makeup.
“I’m seeing something different from this team, and I can already see what we’re gonna be able to do this year, and nobody else can see this yet but myself,” Suárez says. “Just in the same way that in 2021, I said Trackhouse is on their way because they are seeing this in a different way, and right now everyone sees what I saw three years ago. I’m seeing something different in the 99 team, and I believe that everything, all the work, all the adjustments that we did on the 99 team in the offseason, they’re going to be able to pay off, and I think that we’re gonna see the strongest season on the 99 team that we’ve ever had in the last few years.”
The season began with divided emotions for Suárez, who won in his return to the NASCAR Mexico Series at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but failed to qualify for the Busch Light Clash main event on the Cup Series side. During time with reporters, Dustin Long of NBC Sports pointed out a connection to Suárez, noting that the last two Daytona 500 champions — Austin Cindric and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — had failed to make the Clash field before winning the “Great American Race” two weeks later.
“Let’s make it happen,” Suárez said, recalling that he paid extra attention to the Harley J. Earl Trophy on display during his media rotations this year. “I can tell you that to me, it (would mean) as much as winning the championship. Winning this race as the first-ever Mexican driver to put your name on that list of legends. I mean, I was actually earlier, I was reading every single one of the years, all the drivers that have won this amazing race. It’s crazy, man. I can’t even think what it will mean. I don’t think I can describe it. I know we all have an opportunity. I know I’m going to have a fast car. I know I have a good pit crew. I know I have a very smart crew chief and I know how to prepare myself, so we’re ready.”
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The last time he raced at Daytona International Speedway, Ryan Preece took a significant tumble down the back straightaway, his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford flipping wildly through the August air.
Preece is back at the 2.5-mile behemoth of a race track nearly six months later, this time eyeing a chance to win the 66th annual Daytona 500 on Monday (4 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Deportes, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The harrowing crash was visually dramatic and left Preece with two black eyes, but the hard-nosed competitor returned to the Central Florida coast with no trepidation ahead of a 500-mile test in the NASCAR Cup Series that could result in the same outcome.
“Honestly, I look at this race or this track no different than I did a year ago,” Preece said during Daytona 500 Media Day. “I think it … gave people more mixed feelings about this race track for my wife and my father than it did me. But as a racer, I’ll speak for myself: I’m numb to these things. Getting in the race car and having that happen? Crappy deal. I was pissed off more that we had such a fast race car and wasn’t able to finish the race.”
That mindset encompasses much of the tough exterior Preece exudes as a Connecticut native rooted in the fight-for-every-spot-you-want-natured NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour culture. It wasn’t until watching replays of his Daytona crash some 30 or 40 times, Preece estimated, that the severity of the crash truly set in.
“Things happen really fast,” Preece said. “So for your brain to really interpret everything that happened throughout that wreck, it certainly is something that comes — you just remember more and more.”
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Following Preece’s tumble, NASCAR officials examined what was left of the No. 41 Ford and researched the causes of the accident that led Preece airborne. As a result, more grass was removed from the backstretch in favor of more asphalt, with more pavement to come and extending to Turn 3 following the conclusion of the Daytona 500 weekend. That decision was met upon determination that the car became airborne after contacting the infield grass, creating even a brief separation between the tires, underbody, and surface.
“Right now, with our rules packages, with the limiters and the diffuser and everything that we have, that was the best alternative that we needed to do,” Preece said. “And certainly, I don’t want to see any other driver have to fly in the air like that. Because at the end of the day, I was certainly lucky. I understand that. You’re inches away from possibly not walking out of here or seeing your family again. So, for me, I’m happy they did it, and it was a step in what needed to be done to keep these cars on the ground.”
Daytona Speedweeks, meanwhile, is off to a solid start for the 33-year-old Preece, who won the tour-type modified feature race at the nearby New Smyrna Speedway on Tuesday night during the half-mile short track’s World Series of Asphalt.
Despite a 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season that saw the four-car SHR group struggle, Preece is optimistic he and teammates Chase Briscoe, sophomore Noah Gragson and rookie Josh Berry are ready to turn the ship.
“I feel like there’s certain traits that I have that push them as well as certain traits that they have that push me,” Preece said. “So I feel like it complements each other as well. Us at Stewart-Haas, we hear everybody. We hear you guys. We’re not just ignoring it. And as you heard Tony (Stewart, team co-owner), mediocracy isn’t acceptable. I’m a race car driver. I’m somebody that’s very passionate about what I do. And I do it outside the Cup Series and I don’t accept mediocracy.
“I know within our 41 team, we didn’t have the year we wanted, but we set some of the foundation that we needed going into this year and now we’re gonna go do what we need to do. As a race car driver, to have a long-lasting career, you need to win races and I’m sick of talking about not winning.”
What a way it would be for Ryan Blaney to start off his NASCAR Cup Series title defense if he could bag the biggest single-race prize of them all and win the Daytona 500. But that’s exactly what Racing Insights is predicting will happen when drivers line up to take part in the 66th running of the “Great American Race” on Monday at Daytona International Speedway (4 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Deportes, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
In fact, looking at the Racing Insights’ prediction model, the numbers aren’t even close, with Blaney a clear favorite ahead of Team Penske teammate Joey Logano and Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott. Both of them are tightly bunched together in second and third place, respectively, but well behind the champ.
If Blaney pulls off the win, he’d become the first defending champion to win the Daytona 500 since Dale Jarrett accomplished the feat in 2000. That was Jarrett’s third win in the “Great American Race,” so he knew a thing or two about how to get the job done.
Blaney has been close, finishing eighth or better in five of the last seven Daytona 500s, including two runner-up finishes. His top-10 streak of two in a row leads all active drivers and exemplifies how unpredictable this race can be.
But Blaney has seemed to master drafting tracks in the Next Gen car with an average finish of 9.75 in the 12 races, the best of all active drivers. Plus, he won the most recent race at a drafting track last fall at Talladega Superspeedway.
Look for the champion’s celebration to continue in the new year as the Harley J. Earl Trophy goes to the driver of the No. 12 Ford.
OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH
DENNY HAMLIN: The three-time winner of the Daytona 500 is always a threat. Hamlin has finished in the top five in eight of the last 12 Daytona 500s, with no other driver having more than four of those types of performances. Plus, Hamlin’s 480 laps led in the Daytona 500 rank him fifth all-time. BRAD KESELOWSKI: Keselowski has led the most laps in the last two Daytona 500s, and though he hasn’t been able to take home the Harley J. Earl Trophy, his seven wins on drafting tracks lead all active drivers. Keselowski comes in hot on the drafting tracks, too, with four top 10s in the last five races. WILLIAM BYRON: Byron has finished in the top 10 in the last four races on drafting tracks for the longest active streak. Meanwhile, Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson has the longest active streak of top-10 starts on drafting tracks with 10. Look for Byron to be a factor and Larson possibly as well.
CHRIS BUESCHER: Want a sleeper pick? How about Buescher, who won the most recent race at Daytona in August 2023. In fact, Buescher finished in the top five in both Daytona races last year, so he’s clicking there in the Next Gen car.
KYLE BUSCH: Dale Earnhardt holds the record for most starts before getting a Daytona 500 victory, winning in his 20th start. Busch is making his 19th start and leads all drivers in laps led among those who are winless in the Daytona 500 with 330.
Projections as of Wednesday, Feb. 14.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE 66TH DAYTONA 500
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results.
With a podium finish already under his belt after the Busch Light Clash, Ryan Blaney is set to begin the defense of his 2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
The No. 12 Team Penske Ford hasn’t finished worse than third in the past four Cup events, and while the on-track success is what carried Blaney to title glory, it’s off the track where the meaning of being a NASCAR champion is hitting home.
After the dust settled in November at Phoenix Raceway — and after the banquet in December in Nashville — the thrills and frills largely quieted around the Blaney household. But January followed in a hustle, and with it arrived Blaney’s new fire suits for the 2024 season.
On the new fire suit is fashioned one notable difference: an embroidered badge that reads “CHAMPION” beneath the NASCAR Cup Series logo.
“It meant a lot,” Blaney said of seeing that label for the first time. “… It’s a nice little refresher for the new year when you pull out the fire suit from the bag and you see the champion logo beneath the NASCAR logo.”
It’s already been three months since Blaney took home the Bill France Cup, with the 30-year-old now on the precipice of chasing a Daytona 500 victory that will signal the true start of his title defense.
This year will mark his seventh as a full-time racer for Team Penske, though he’s essentially been in the pipeline since 2012 when Brad Keselowski hired the then-18-year-old to race part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Blaney witnessed Keselowski bring team owner Roger Penske his first NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2012. Then, it was Joey Logano’s turn in 2018 and 2022.
Now, it’s Blaney’s turn to enjoy the glory and carry the responsibilities for those who are fortunate enough to taste victory at the top of the sport’s mountain. But he’s not only soaking it in for himself, it’s for the team, too.
“It’s nice to walk around and you’re like, ‘Man, I feel like I’ve done something really nice for the whole company and organization, right, for RP and everyone working there,” Blaney said. “And, I don’t want to say you feel validated in being there because everyone always believes in you, but (it’s) just like a personal confidence booster.”
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images
A staple at Team Penske since 2013, Logano is one of just two full-time multi-time champions racing today. He has seen Blaney’s ascension firsthand. There is a bitter sting the driver of the No. 22 Ford still feels after an early elimination from the playoffs in 2023. But watching Blaney — and the team around him — celebrate in Phoenix eased some of that nagging pain.
“It’s been cool to see it,” Logano said. “Obviously, you want to win the championship, right? Don’t get me wrong. But if we can’t win, you want to see one of your teammates win, and to see that team win again — that’s the team that I won with in 2018. Right? I mean, the crew chief’s different, but like a lot of those guys are the same guys from 2018.”
A third-generation racer behind his grandfather Lou, uncle Dale and father Dave, Ryan charged up the racing ladders with success but with the right mindset, too. Keselowski saw it early and quickly realized Blaney was capable of success. As Blaney rocketed to the Cup Series, he became teammates with Logano and Keselowski, sharing the stable for four seasons before Keselowski departed to become a co-owner/driver at RFK Racing.
Though Keselowski has moved on to guide RFK to newfound success of its own, he still appreciates Blaney’s accomplishments.
“I mean, he was made for this moment in so many different ways from his upbringing to the people he surrounded himself with,” Keselowski said. “You know, if I’m NASCAR, it’s a dream for Ryan Blaney to win the championship because he’s willing to put in the work and effort and is just a good person.”
Streeter Lecka | Getty Images
Winning the title in 2022, Logano knows better than anyone recently what Blaney can expect as a champion, with added media asks and potential to shine under brighter spotlights around every corner. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Blaney is already taking those opportunities with open arms, heading to New York City ahead of The Clash with an appearance on “The Today Show,” a recording of “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and a sideline seat at a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden … even if he was cropped out of the picture with friend and competitor Bubba Wallace.
“He seems like he’s getting after it from what I see,” Logano said. “… You win the championship, then you’re that guy for a year, so make the most of it. You don’t know when it’s going to happen again.”
Penske was victorious with Blaney in last May’s Coca-Cola 600 and with Josef Newgarden in the Indianapolis 500, followed by the Cup title from Blaney in November. In January, Penske’s team claimed overall victory in the IMSA Rolex 24 at Daytona. While Blaney embraces the glory that comes with winning a championship, his mind is already focused on the next big goal — winning Monday’s Daytona 500 (4 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Deportes, MRN Radio, SiriusXM Radio).
“Gotta win the 500. Gonna go try to win the 500,” Blaney said. “That’s what’s next, try to just keep getting milestones for RP and try to win historic races and bring more championships. That’s just the main goal. So yeah, them winning the 24 was great. And now it’s like, alright, well, we have to do it again in Daytona here in a couple of weeks.”
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — Before attempting to win his first Daytona 500 this week at Daytona International Speedway, Chase Elliott took a detour to New Smyrna Speedway on Tuesday evening to compete in the Clyde Hart Memorial.
The evening was a calm, yet uneventful one for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion. After qualifying 10th, Elliott struggled to move his No. 9 Super Late Model through the field, but took advantage of some late attrition to earn a sixth-place finish.
Although Elliott wished he could have challenged race-winner Bubba Pollard in the opening race of the ASA STARS National Tour season, he took some solace over having made progress at New Smyrna in a Super Late Model.
“It was OK,” Elliott said. “I felt like I learned a little bit driving [this car], which is nice. We were better than we’ve ever been [at New Smyrna] since this has always been a really poor track for us.”
Tuesday’s 200-lap Super Late Model feature at New Smyrna Speedway was the first time Chase Elliott had raced at the track in over a decade. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Elliott’s last appearance at New Smyrna prior to Tuesday occurred during the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing in 2013. He competed in two Super Late Model events during that week, scoring finishes of fourth and sixth, respectively.
The efficiency Elliott displayed in Super Late Models during his youth helped propel him to his current position in the NASCAR Cup Series. Among the accomplishments on Elliott’s Super Late Model resume include two Snowball Derby victories at Florida’s Five Flags Speedway as well as triumphs in the Winchester 400 at Indiana’s Winchester Speedway and All American 400 at Tennessee’s Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
Despite his past success, all the changes to Super Late Model racing during the past decade meant Elliott had minimal notes to rely on for his New Smyrna return. He had to find a perfect balance between re-learning the abrasive New Smyrna surface while also making a serious effort to win the race.
With each practice session, Elliott got more comfortable behind the wheel of his Super Late Model. Like it was during his development years, track time was pivotal and proved beneficial against a stout field of 32 cars.
“This is a craft,” Elliott said. “You’re always wanting to try and better that by breaking bad habits and building good ones. That’s what I’m after.”
The habits that made Elliott a champion in both the Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series were on display at New Smyrna. With the race being divided into three stages like the NASCAR Cup Series, Elliott knew there would be chances to adjust and did not make any rushed decisions while dealing with the drivers around him.
Being methodical could only help Elliott to a certain point Tuesday night. Passing proved to be a difficult task for Elliott throughout the 200-lap event and it took misfortune hindering Super Late Model veterans like Stephen Nasse and Ty Majeski for Elliott to start climbing his way closer to the top five.
Despite finishing outside the Top 5, Chase Elliott believes he made strides with his Super Late Model program at New Smyrna Speedway. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Elliott’s final pass of the evening came in the closing laps against Austin Nason. Dealing with aggressive defense as Nason pinched him down on the bottom groove, Elliott ran out of patience and lightly nudged Nason out of his way to take control of the sixth position.
The final showing was not what Elliott had envisioned in front of a packed house at New Smyrna, but he understands how difficult it is to be consistent in Super Late Models against the those who race them on a regular basis. Elliott intends to one day win another Super Late Model race and is optimistic Tuesday was a positive step towards achieving that goal.
“You always look back and feel like you could do something different,” Elliott said. “The cars are super different from the Cup side, but we’re going to keep working at it.
“Sixth is what it was [on Tuesday] and we’ll try again next time.”
Elliott hopes to run another Super Late Model event soon, but those plans remain fluid. His focus now turns towards rebounding from a challenging 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season by attempting to win his first Daytona 500 in his ninth try on Monday.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — When he was 10 years old, Jerry Symons sat in the grandstands at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway with his father to watch the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing.
He soaked in the action as drivers like Richie Evans, Pete Hamilton, Freddy Fryar, Maynard Troyer, Jody Ridley and Donnie Allison battled for supremacy at the fast half-mile asphalt oval.
It was then when he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to race.
“I just fell in love with it and always wanted to do it,” Symons said. “When I was a kid just sitting up there watching them go around, I wanted to get in there and go.”
Symons’ love for racing was fostered by his father, himself an old-school racer who once drove midgets in the Northeast before he moved his family to Florida. He took his kids to tracks all over Florida to watch racing, but it was New Smyrna where Symons truly fell in love with the sport.
“My dad, he raced midgets back in New Jersey way back when they probably had leather helmets,” Symons said. “He raced a little bit up there, then he moved down here, and the whole family has been down here forever. Then my older brother, he started racing here, and he raced at the DeLand track a long time ago. Then Volusia and here.
“I’ve just always been around it. Even when no one was racing, my dad would take me to races, to the dirt track at Volusia or here.”
Jerry Symons is a six-time World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing champion in the Florida Modified division. His first championship came in 1999. (Photo: Adam Fenwick/NASCAR)
It wasn’t until 1983 when Symons got his first chance to jump behind the wheel of a race car. He’d just graduated high school, and his older brother crashed while racing at New Smyrna.
Symons’ brother said if Jerry could fix the race car, then he could drive it. Symoms leapt at the chance.
“I’ve been here ever since,” he said.
Symons’ career at New Smyrna has been a successful one. He started in the mini stock class before making the transition to the Florida Modified division, where he has become a mainstay and track champion.
At the World Series alone, Symons has registered nearly 50 victories in the Florida Modified class in addition to six championships, with his most recent coming in 2018. Much of that success has come driving for car owner Gene Kelly, the owner of Gene Kelly Roofing, Symons’ main sponsor.
Those wins and championships are a big reason Symons, who is now 58, continues to come back to New Smyrna Speedway to race.
It’s hard to quit when you’re still winning.
“We’ll win a race here and there, and it just keeps you coming back,” Symons said. “If you’re competitive, you know? I’ll keep doing it until I’m not competitive. Once I’m not competitive, I’ll bail out and let my kids do it.
“Like Richie Evans’ quote, ‘If you can win at the New Smyrna Speedway, you can win anywhere.’ And we’ve done that.”
His three sons, Chase, Dalton and Andrew, are the next in a long line of Symons family members who race. Chase will race in the Bomber B class later this week at New Smyrna, while Dalton is currently building a car for the E-Mod class.
Jerry Symons sits behind the wheel of his No. 66 Florida Modified at New Smyrna Speedway. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
Andrew recently graduated from airplane mechanic school and is planning to build his own Bomber B car, though Symons wishes his children would pick different divisions.
“I don’t want them all in the same class,” Symons said as he flashed a quick smile. “I’ve seen it out here in the go kart track in the same class. It’s brutal. They don’t give and take.”
Much like his father, Symons hopes to continue to foster the love of racing for his three children so one day they, too, can stand in Victory Lane at New Smyrna.
It’s also not a bad way to keep them out of trouble.
“When I was coming up, my dad, he kept me going,” Symons said. “Right out of high school I’d tell him, ‘Hey dad, I’m not going to race this weekend. The boys have got a party, we’re gonna go to that.’ He was like, ‘No, we’re not going to no party. We’re going racing.’ So he kept us out of trouble in other words. Kept me out of trouble, and I’ve done the same with my kids.
“They’ve grown up racing go karts here at the little go kart track (at New Smyrna). They’ve grown up since they were five years old racing go karts on the weekends. We’ve kind of kept them out of trouble.
“Racing will keep you out of trouble because it’ll keep you broke. You can’t afford any of that bad stuff.”
NEW YORK – Feb. 13, 2024 – SiriusXM today announced extensive audio coverage of the 66th running of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, as well as all the events and racing news happening during NASCAR’s annual Speedweeks. Subscribers nationwide will have access to the live race broadcast, in-car audio from some of the sport’s top drivers and daily coverage from Daytona International Speedway.
On Daytona 500 race day, SiriusXM will broadcast live from the track starting at 7 a.m. ET. When the green flag drops (approximately 2:30 p.m. ET) listeners will hear every lap of the race live, followed by post-race coverage that will include interviews with the 2024 Daytona 500 Champion and other drivers. The programming airs on the exclusive 24/7 SiriusXM NASCAR Radio channel, which is available to subscribers nationwide in their cars (channel 90) and on the new SiriusXM app.
SiriusXM will also air 10 live Driver2Crew ChatterTM radio feeds on separate SiriusXM channels throughout the Daytona 500. Listeners will be able to hear the driver-to-crew communications of drivers, including Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Kyle Larson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will also provide live coverage of the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona on Thursday, Feb. 15 (6 p.m. ET), the Fresh From Florida 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday, Feb. 16 (7 p.m. ET), and the United Rentals 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, Feb. 17 (4:30 p.m. ET).
Throughout the day on Wednesday, Feb. 14, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will broadcast live from Daytona 500 Media Day, where hosts from the channel will interview each of the drivers in attendance. Following that, listeners will hear live coverage of Daytona 500 Qualifying at 8 p.m. ET.
On Thursday, Feb. 15, leading into the Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona, SiriusXM’s Dave Moody will host a special broadcast open to the public from the Daytona Fanzone (3 p.m. ET). Moody will interview several active and former drivers and preview the evening’s twin races.
On Monday, Feb. 19, on The Morning Drive, hosts Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone will have a live interview with the 2024 Daytona 500 champion driver, crew chief and owner.
SiriusXM NASCAR Radio is the only national 24/7 channel covering NASCAR and delivers live coverage of every NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series race live, with live pre- and post-race programming airing before and after every event.
Between races, the channel features a lineup of hosts that includes active and former drivers, crew chiefs and insiders. Listeners will hear insight and analysis from Larry McReynolds, Danny “Chocolate” Myers, Mike Skinner, Todd Gordon, Mike Bagley, Pete Pistone, Danielle Trotta, Dave Moody, Brad Gillie, Pat Patterson and others.
The channel will feature new programs in the lineup in 2024.
Backstretch Banter with RFK Racing will debut on February 21 and air on Wednesdays at 2 p.m. ET. Host Chris Childers will be joined each week by RFK Racing drivers and executives.
NASCAR.com’s Stacking Pennies podcast, hosted by Corey LaJoie, will debut on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio every Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET.
Gone Racin’, the weekly podcast hosted by veteran driver Brendan Gaughan, will make its debut on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio each week.
Every weekday, listeners will hear The Morning Drive with Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone (7 a.m. ET), On Track with Danielle Trotta and Larry McReynolds (11 a.m. ET) and SiriusXM Speedway with Dave Moody (3 p.m. ET). Late Shift with Brad Gillie and Todd Gordon will air on Mondays and Tuesdays (6 p.m. ET). Front Stretch with Pat Patterson will air on Saturday and Sunday mornings (7 a.m. ET). Danny “Chocolate” Myers will regularly join SiriusXM Speedway and Front Stretch as a co-host.
Two-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion and driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, Joey Logano, will also return to host his exclusive SiriusXM show, Behind the Wheel with Joey Logano, on select Tuesdays throughout the season on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
The dawn of another NASCAR season embodies the first-day-of-school feel, especially for the teams. Daytona International Speedway has its enduring splendor, same as it ever was, but for the teams, it’s an expectant feeling of newness – from the new-look personnel alignments to fresh paint-scheme designs that fit like a new pair of sneakers.
Two of the sport’s three automakers have added to the new-day originality upon this week’s Daytona arrival, with Ford and Toyota unveiling restyled bodies for their Cup Series racers this year. The new Ford Mustang Dark Horse and the 2025 Toyota Camry XSE will mount fresh challenges to the reign of the venerable Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which carries over into this season as the current benchmark and winner of the last three Cup Series manufacturers’ championships.
The competition among car makes should stay a prime focus in the ramp-up to Monday’s season-opening Daytona 500 (4 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Each manufacturer was represented by two teams in testing last December at Phoenix Raceway, but the majority of the Ford and Toyota organizations will experience their first taste of speedway-style racing conditions with the new bodies in Thursday night’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel qualifying races (7 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Cup Series haulers are scheduled to enter the Daytona garage later Tuesday, with equipment and cars unloading for yet another Speedweek at the 2.5-mile track. How those cars unload in a figurative, performance-based sense is another top question that hangs over the 2024 season.
All the wind-tunnel testing and aerodynamic computer modeling leading up to this week’s festivities should help to inform what that answer might be, especially within the tight confines of the NASCAR Rule Book and the Next Gen car platform.
“Yes, we all look at what each of us are doing,” said David Wilson, Toyota Racing Development (TRD) USA president, noting that the wind-tunnel process has been marked by transparency and equal time among all three manufacturers. “We pay more attention to where we stack up when it comes to that aero box that we have to finish in, in order to get our body submitted. I know on paper, (Ford’s) car looked good in the wind tunnel, so did ours. You know, Chevrolet was the dominant manufacturer by far last season, and I think they’re the bogey ultimately for both of us to chase as we look at 2024.”
Looking at the automaker pursuit in reverse order of last year’s manufacturers’ standings, Ford wound up third in the point total but was first to debut their 2024 model. The Mustang Dark Horse bowed in the days leading up to last year’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway, where Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney finished off his strong playoff run with the second consecutive Cup Series title for a Ford driver.
Zack Albert | NASCAR.com
“I mean, we feel like we’re better and obviously winning two championships is great, and if we didn’t have a target on our back last year, we certainly have one on our back this year,” said Richard Johns, NASCAR Performance Leader for Ford Performance Motorsports. “So we knew that we had to go into this year and be better. The best way that we could be better is coming with a new car and coming with new ideas to try and be better across the board and improve speedways, improve intermediates, improve short tracks and give our teams more ability to make their cars better on a given weekend. We didn’t know that we were going to wind up there, and certainly through the summer months, it didn’t look like we were going to wind up there, but we found performance at the right time and our teams peaked at the right time, and now we just hope that we can do it again.”
Ford teams were able to steady their path after a rocky start to 2023, marked by just one win in the first 13 races. The upswing of RFK Racing just before the playoffs, combined with Blaney’s closing kick and a Front Row Motorsports bright spot with Michael McDowell’s dominant Indy win helped feed some of this season’s optimism.
“We worked as hard as we could on ’23 cars to try and find that performance, and because the box is so small and the tune-ability on the cars are so small, we were able to take a lot of those learnings and roll it right into our (2024) submission,” Johns said. “But we knew where we needed to go, based on our performance at the race track and the simulation and everything. We knew what we needed to do to a new car to get to a higher level of performance, and we just rolled all that stuff forward.”
Johns pointed out the styling cues and character lines of the second edition of the Next Gen Mustang during a tour of the Ford Performance Technical Center last month, and the sharp, aggressive contours of the front fenders stood out. Blaney and RFK’s Chris Buescher gave the Mustang Dark Horse its on-track christening during testing on Phoenix’s 1-mile layout, but the reigning Cup champ said more experience on different track types will tell the whole tale.
“The mindset when you have a new body and stuff like that right, you don’t want to trade off anything, right? You’re just trying to get everything better,” Blaney said during the Busch Light Clash weekend in Los Angeles. “And it was no secret the old Mustang was super-good on the speedways, and I hope we haven’t lost anything on that side of it. At least what you’re working toward, it doesn’t show we’ve lost anything, but we’ve just gained on the mile-and-a-half side. Downforce numbers seem to be better. So I hope we just elevated everything, but we’ll find out next week. I could only tell so much in Phoenix. I think it’s gonna be bigger when we get to mile-and-a-half’s and stuff like that.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
For Toyota, the Camry – the only model the automaker has raced since its Cup Series debut in 2007 – gets a face-lift with its XSE Next Gen racer. The road-going version that gives the NASCAR stocker its new look is scheduled to hit showrooms as a 2025 model this spring.
Denny Hamlin’s victory in the Clash exhibition on the Los Angeles Coliseum’s tiny quarter-mile oval has given Toyota, last year’s manufacturers’ points runner-up, an unofficial 1-0 record to start the season. But it’s the bigger tracks with a heightened aero emphasis where Camry drivers hope that the new sculpted bumpers and quarter panels can make a difference; Toyota has been shut out the last two seasons on superspeedway-style tracks (Atlanta, Daytona, Talladega), a 12-race drought.
“I expect the shape of the bumper, front and back, should be much better for us,” said Tyler Reddick, entering his second season with 23XI Racing’s Toyota operation. “You know, the thing that bit me in the (Daytona) 500 last year is just getting pushed in the corner, and the shape of last year’s bumper was not great for drafting. The shape of it really lifts the back of the car up when you do get pushed, and just that little tap I got from (Kevin) Harvick was enough to spin us around. So hopefully, the work that everyone did there, on the part of Toyota and TRD, helps that.
“We haven’t drafted the car yet, so I guess we’ll know when we get down there. But between Daytona and Atlanta to start the year, we’re gonna get a good grasp on where we’re at, and then have some time to work on it and make it better for later in the year as well.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
No major changes are planned in 2024 for the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which returns as the circuit’s standard-bearer after winning half of the 36 points-paying Cup Series events last year and sealing the manufacturers’ title with two races to go. Five organizations won races for Chevrolet last year, led by Hendrick Motorsports’ 10 victories.
One school of thought intimates that the fresh car bodies could give Ford and Toyota an aero edge at certain tracks if the data-fueled optimism translates to results. The other prevailing wisdom is that Chevrolet teams would continue to power forward, building on their inventory of performance notes and success while their rivals try to gain a handle on their new cars.
Dr. Eric Warren — Executive Director of Global Motorsports Competition for General Motors – said that the tight, competitive balance of working within the NASCAR Rule Book’s constraints should regulate the impact of either of those scenarios, as all three manufacturers strive to push the edges of the Next Gen platform’s aero limits.
“It’s so close. I mean really, honestly, they’re on top of each other,” Warren told NASCAR.com. “So we kind of know what the performance of those cars are, and so it’s not as much of an unknown as before. I would say when the aero balance maybe is a little bit different or if it moves, say, forward a little bit, that’s where understanding your car and the notebook comes in, because you have a lot more comfort in it. And you see that every year when we’ve come out with new cars, it takes a while to really get your hand on them, because there’s a lot of things that are unknown, that the wind tunnel doesn’t show or CFD [computational fluid dynamics] doesn’t show when you get around other cars, they behave a little different. So there’s a little bit of that, but the cars are all pretty close. And so I think it’s not going to be as big a difference as everyone thinks.”
While the NASCAR-ready Chevrolet’s body isn’t changing, speculation remains about what’s next. General Motors ended production of the Camaro last month, and the 2024 model year will be its last – for now, at least. Chevy has raced the Camaro ZL1 each year since the model’s Cup Series debut in 2018, freshening the body for the transition from the sixth-generation stock car to the Next Gen platform ahead of the 2022 season.
Chevrolet is allowed to compete with the Camaro into 2025 and beyond if the company wishes, as NASCAR eligibility rules state that the car needs only to be in production at time it is designed. Where the manufacturer goes next in stock-car racing is still up for conjecture, but Warren offered that the Camaro nameplate – most recently revived in 2010 for showrooms – has life left in GM’s plans.
“I think, as we go forward, our official thing we say is that the Camaro’s story has not ended,” Warren says. “It’s come in and out in the past, and the auto industry and the models, it’s very dynamic and there’s a lot of things going on in it, and we have a lot of great products coming out in the future. So, you know, we’ve done a lot of research, and our goal really is to connect to Chevrolet fans. I think the Camaro has been a great platform for us, but really our connection and performance on the race track is really to connect to those Chevrolet and then across all of our GM products, use the platform to create those customers who end up buying our cars — all of our cars.”
