The pied piper of Daytona scored the win in duel race No. 1 and Michael McDowell will have his chance to race for immortality on Sunday.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. led all but 17 of the 60 laps to take home his fifth career Cam-Am Duel victory at Daytona International Speedway in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. His performance was a clinic that showed he’ll be the car to beat this Sunday in the Daytona 500. He’ll start the Daytona 500 in third. Joey Logano finished second in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford and will start fifth in Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. led all but 17 of the 60 laps to take home his fifth career Cam-Am Duel victory at Daytona International Speedway in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. His performance was a clinic that showed he’ll be the car to beat this Sunday in the Daytona 500. Earnhardt will start the Daytona 500 in third place.
He gave credit for the win to his car, affectionately named Amelia.
“The car is awesome. I don’t really get too confident, I don’t want to get overly confident in what I’m doing. But the car really does everything I ask it to do. When you have a car that you know can do the things that this car can do, you’re willing to take those gambles and risks to pull out and pass and not worry about getting shuffled to the back because you feel like the car is really capable of doing what you’re going to ask it to do every time you make a move.
“It’s just a fun car to drive, really special car. Rick leaned into the window, I told him, whatever happens to this thing from here on out, he needs to keep track of it. Might be one he wants to put in a museum one day because it’s done a lot of good things.”
Joey Logano finished second in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford and will start fifth in Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Ryan Blaney didn’t need to fall back on his qualifying speed to make the Daytona 500 as his third-place finish was enough to transfer him into the race. He’ll start the Daytona 500 in seventh.
Michael McDowell and his No. 59 Circle Sport Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet will transfer into the Daytona 500 based on his qualifying speed. He’ll start the Daytona 500 in 37th.
Immortality wasn’t meant to be for Cole Whitt and Josh Wise. Whitt suffered damage in a spin with less than 20 laps remaining and retired his car from the race. Wise lost the draft with two laps to go and finished in 17th behind McDowell.
The two Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet’s of the No. 4 driven by Kevin Harvick and No. 14 driven by Brian Vickers failed post-qualifying tech inspection after the track bars were found to be out of compliance with the Sprint Cup Series rule book.
Their times were disallowed and both teams will start from the rear in their respective Can-Am Duel race on Thursday night.
According to Rodney Childers, crew chief of the No. 4 car, the track bar “ended up with 1/4″ too much rake.”
He also took to Twitter “to apologize to @NASCAR@jimmyjohns and our fans. It was a simple mistake on our part and look fwd to racing Thursday night. Thx.”
Martin Truex Jr.’s car was also taken off the qualifying line after officials took issue with the roof flap. He was unable to post a lap in qualifying, had his car impounded and will start from the rear of the field in his Duel race.
“Thought we had a really good car with good speed in it,” Cole Pearn said. “Either way, we’ll move on and hopefully have a good rest of Speedweeks.”
It didn’t take long for Chase Elliott to find success in the top level of NASCAR. The 2014 XFINITY Series champion and son of 1988 Sprint Cup Series champion Bill Elliott scored his first career pole today with a time of 45.845 and a speed of 196.314 mph. He will lead the field to the green flag for next Sunday’s 58th running of the Great American Race, the Daytona 500. At 20 years, two months and 17 days, Elliott is the youngest Daytona 500 pole-sitter in NASCAR history.
“This is a very very cool day…it’s nothing special I did,” Elliott said. “The Daytona 500 is about the team and the work they did in the off-season to make this happen.”
He’ll be joined on the front row by Matt Kenseth who posted a time of 45.910 and a speed of 196.036 mph. The age difference between the two drivers on the front row is 23 years.
Both drivers will lead the field to the green flag in their respective Duel races on Thursday night. Every driver outside the first two starters will have to race for their starting spot on Thursday.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top-five.
Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Carl Edwards and Sprint Unlimited winner Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-10.
Because Blaney and Matt DiBenedetto were the highest open teams, they can fall back on their speed should they not finish among the top-15 in their respective Duel races. That means, barring they fail tech inspection, they are locked into the Daytona 500. The other six open teams will have to race their way in via the Duel races.
“It is nice to be locked into the race,” said Blaney. “The biggest relief for us is to know you are locked in and are good to be able to race in the 500. That kind of lets us go race on Thursday a little bit more than we would have instead of playing it conservative if we weren’t locked in. It is nice to have such a fast car and be locked into the race. It is a load off our shoulders for sure.”
Martin Truex Jr. didn’t post a time in qualifying because series officials pulled his car off the grid for an issue with his roof flap. As a result, his car was impounded and he’ll start from the rear of the field in the second Duel race.
Speedweeks didn’t get off to a great start for one Jimmie Kenneth Johnson.
After drawing the pole position for the Sprint Unlimited, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet hoped to start his quest for a third Daytona 500 victory with a strong performance in the 75-lap exhibition race. Those hopes were quickly dashed on lap 44.
Hurdling down the backstretch, he made contact with Casey Mears and was sent spinning through the grass. As he got his car pointed in the right direction, the front nose dug into the ground and tore away from the car. All that was left was the radiator.
He would finish the race in 22nd, 36 laps down.
‘I could see the hole closing up,” Johnson said. “I was trying to get out of it and I avoided from crashing the two guys that closed the door on me, but I got hit from behind and that’s what sent me down through the infield. I was just trying hard on one of those nights. I was certainly trying to see what I could get with and what I couldn’t by being aggressive, and we’re down. I was trying to back out of it. I don’t think the two guys I was trying to be in the middle of, knew that I was there and I could see the door closing. I was trying to back out of it. I did a decent job getting out of there and not spinning the No. 1 (McMurray) and the No. 13 (Mears) and I got hit from behind and that sent me down to the infield. It’s unfortunate because the hole was there and I had a good run coming up through the center but they just started closing the door on me.”
“Gotta give you props right there Jimmie,” Chad Knaus said. “You’re a hell of a driver. Good dress rehearsal tonight, we learned a lot.”
Johnson was not the only member of the Hendrick brigade to have trouble. Pre-race favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. was caught up in the lap 23 wreck in Turn 1. After cutting a tire, Brian Vicker’s No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet t-boned the right side of Earnhardt’s car and ripped it off. He was held on pit road for a number of laps until his crew used tape to create a makeshift car number on the right side. Going into Turn 3, Jamie McMurray was shoving Kasey Kahne down the backstretch. Kahne got loose and turned into the side of AJ Allmendinger. His night finally came to an end with 10 laps to go after his engine expired in Turn 2.
Despite wrecking out, Johnson took to Twitter to say he was “good with tonight” and glad that he could “get the bad luck outta the way. Sorry about your cars @RickHendrick.”
He qualified sixth for the Daytona 500 and will start third in the second Duel race on Thursday.
The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 39 laps on his way to scoring the victory in the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway. He overcame an early race incident with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to win the race.
“This win couldn’t be possible without my teammates,” Hamlin said. “Matt (Kenseth) sacrificed so much, pushing me at the right time. Total team effort. Just like Kyle’s championship, we win as one. This is a Joe Gibbs Racing win.”
This is his third career win in the 75-lap exhibition event that kicks off Speedweeks. It’s the fourth win in this event for JGR in the last five years. Hamlin looks to become the first driver since Dale Jarrett in 2000 to win both the Unlimited and the Daytona 500 in the same season.
Joey Logano put on a strong run at Hamlin toward the end of the race but had to settle for runner-up in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
“I don’t know if it’s a non-points race that plays into it or if it’s just superspeedway racing,” Logano said. “Typically in the Unlimited, there are a lot of crashes.”
Paul Menard rounded out the podium in his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Kyle Larson came home fourth in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Those four cars avoided the final lap melee in Turn 1. Casey Mears rounded out the top-five in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet as part of the multi-car wreck.
Stenhouse finished sixth in his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and Kurt Busch finished seventh in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Austin Dillon placed eighth in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet followed by Brad Keselowski in ninth racing his No. 2 Ford with Greg Biffle rounding out the top-10 in his No. 16 RFR Ford.
The race lasted 79 laps, four over the scheduled conclusion. There were six cautions for 24 laps, 12 lead changes among three different drivers and 12 cars finished on the lead lap.
The return to racing wasn’t too pleasant for Brian Vickers.
The substitute driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet suffered a cut right-rear tire, t-boned the right side of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car, ripped its side off, slid back up the track, slammed the wall hard on the driver’s side, collected Kevin Harvick, slid back down the track and clipped the No. 15 HScott Motorsports Chevrolet of Clint Bowyer. Kurt Busch also got a piece of the wreck as he just got clipped by the 14 car.
Vickers was treated and released from the infield care center.
“I don’t know how I cut it yet,” he said. “I felt it going down the straightaway, and at that point, I started to roll out. But at that point, you’re going 200 mph and there’s nothing you can do.”
Asked if this wreck could have an effect on his health, he said, “Not really. Every wreck sucks, especially the hard ones. I don’t think it was so much scary. If you’re thinking about whether or not it’s scary, you’re fine. For me, as soon as you hit the wall, it’s really more of a process of, like, why did I hit the wall.”
He’ll continue on driving the No. 14 car for the rest of Speedweeks.
Teammate Harvick said that if one was “going to wreck, tonight is the night to wreck. Just the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Vickers will use what he learned from the Sprint Unlimited next week for the Daytona 500.
“We learned a lot,” he said. “It’s the first time back and we worked on the spotter-driver relationship, talked about what we want and what we need.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get to pit road, that was the part I was most disappointed in, I needed to make sure I hit the marks. But we’ve got plenty of time, the Duels, practice and then the Daytona 500.”
Vickers went on to say, “I think the most frustrating part of it for me was not to finish this first race back. But these guys have done so much and worked hard and gave me a great car. Not gonna get ’em tonight. We’ll have to get ’em in the Daytona 500.”
Joey Logano found his way to the top of the charts. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 45.934 and a speed of 195.933 mph. Brad Keselowski was second in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 45.954 and a speed of 195.848 mph.
Brad Keselowski was second in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 45.954 and a speed of 195.848 mph followed by Ryan Blaney who was third in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford with a time of 45.966 and a speed of 195.797 mph. Kurt Busch was fourth in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with a time of 46.183 and a speed of 194.877 mph and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 46.226 and a speed of 194.696 mph.
Matt Kenseth finished sixth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota and Kevin Harvick finished seventh in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet. Chase Elliott finished eighth in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Carl Edwards finished ninth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota while Greg Biffle rounded out the top-10 in his No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.
Blaney, Keselowski and Logano took to the track to form a three-car draft with less than 10 minutes remaining in the session.
Forty-two of the 44 cars took to the track to post a lap in this session.
The cars will be back on track tonight for the Sprint Unlimited.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. opens the NASCAR season at the top of the charts in the first Daytona 500 practice. The driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 46.364 and a speed of 194.116 mph.
Reigning Daytona 500 champion Joey Logano was second in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford with a time of 46.427 and a speed of 193.853 mph followed by Matt Kenseth who was third fastest in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 46.444 and a speed of 193.782 mph.
Reigning Daytona 500 champion Joey Logano was second in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford with a time of 46.427 and a speed of 193.853 mph followed by Matt Kenseth who was third fastest in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 46.444 and a speed of 193.782 mph.
Chase Elliott was fourth in his No. 24 HMS Chevrolet with a time of 46.491 and a speed of 193.586 mph and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top-five in his No. 5 HMS Chevrolet with a time of 46.492 and a speed of 193.582 mph.
Brad Keselowski finished sixth in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Greg Biffle finished seventh in his No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Kurt Busch finished eighth in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Carl Edwards finished ninth in his No. 19 JGR Toyota followed by Martin Truex Jr. to round out the top-10 in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet.
Ryan Blaney was the highest non-charter driver in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford in 13th.
As of the publishing of this piece, the Sprint Cup Series is on track for second practice.
A new season is about to dawn, but first we must wake up the race fans from their offseason hibernation.
This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads down to Daytona International Speedway to kick off the annual ritual of Speedweeks. This consists of 10 days of activity that culminates on Feb. 21 with the 58th running of the Great American Race, the Daytona 500. But before we officially start the season, we need to get back into the racing mindset. To do that, we run the Sprint Unlimited.
The race
The Sprint Unlimited is an invitation-only exhibition race held the week before the Daytona 500. It’s a 75-lap event divided into two segments with a competition caution at lap 25 separating the two segments. It consists of 25 drivers that either won a pole last season, are a past winner of the race, have won a pole for the Daytona 500 in the past or were a Chase driver the previous season. If that should fail to fill the 25 minimum, then the remaining spots will go to drivers highest in points not already locked into the event.
The eligible drivers are as follows.
Pole winners
Twelve drivers are eligible for winning a pole in 2015. They are A. J. Allmendinger (Sonoma and Watkins Glen), Kurt Busch (Auto Club, Texas and Pocono), Kyle Busch (Pocono), Carl Edwards (both Loudon races and Indianapolis), Jeff Gordon (Daytona, Las Vegas and both Talladega races), Denny Hamlin (Dover, Bristol and Homestead), Kevin Harvick (Phoenix), Jimmie Johnson (Phoenix), Kasey Kahne (Michigan), Matt Kenseth (Bristol, both Charlotte races and Michigan), Brad Keselowski (Darlington, Kansas and Texas) and Joey Logano (Atlanta, both Martinsville races, Kansas and both Richmond races).
Given that Gordon retired at the end of 2015, he won’t be competing in this race.
Past winners
Two drivers are eligible for being past winners of the Sprint Unlimited. They are Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2003 and 2008) and Tony Stewart (2001, 2002 and 2007).
After sustaining a burst fracture of his L1 vertebra, Stewart will miss the event.
Past Daytona 500 pole winners
Five drivers are eligible for being past Daytona 500 pole winners. They are Greg Biffle (2004), Austin Dillon (2014), David Gilliland (2007), Danica Patrick (2013) and Martin Truex Jr. (2009).
Gilliland is without a ride for the 2016 season and more than likely won’t take part in the race. Bobby Labonte would fit the criteria in this category having won the pole for the Daytona 500 in 1998 and 2002, but he wasn’t listed as an eligible driver.
2015 Chase drivers
Four drivers who weren’t locked in via the above criteria are locked in via being in the 2015 Chase. They are Clint Bowyer, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard and Ryan Newman.
The rest
The final two eligible drivers in the race based on points are Aric Almirola and Kyle Larson.
With Gordon’s retirement, Stewart’s injury and Gilliland’s lack of a ride, the final three spots will be filled based on championship driver points. The first five provisional drivers are Casey Mears, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Sam Hornish Jr., David Ragan and Trevor Bayne.
The venue
Photo Credit: Tucker White
Daytona International Speedway is a 2.5 mile (4 km) asphalt superspeedway located in Daytona Beach, Fla. Opened in 1959, Daytona is the centerpiece of the NASCAR empire, and not just because the corporate headquarters is located just across the street from the speedway. It’s home to the Daytona 500, the biggest and most important race in NASCAR and one of the biggest in all of motorsports.
It was built to be a track that would be both a place that favors sight lines and a cathedral of speed. Fifty-eight years later, the dream project of a madman by the name of Bill France Sr. continues to stand tall over the NASCAR landscape. It’s only going to stand out more thanks to the $400 million Daytona Rising project.
I’m not going to go into deep detail about the history and importance of Daytona in this piece because I’m saving it for my Daytona 500 preview, but I will say that this track was built to be the shining example of the NASCAR world and the motorsports world.
So who’ll win?
To win at Daytona and Talladega, you must master the art of the draft. You must use the draft to both keep up with the competition and beat them. No driver has hands down been better at the draft as of late than Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 6/1 (Vegas Insider). Next is Jimmie Johnson at 8/1. Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano are 10/1. Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. are 15/1. Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray are 25/1. Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard and Ryan Newman and 30/1. Aric Almirola and Danica Patrick are 50/1. A. J. Allmendinger, Casey Mears and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are 60/1.
Race time and info
The Sprint Unlimited gets under green Saturday night at 8 p.m. on FOX. Longtime NASCAR broadcaster Mike Joy and Darrell Waltrip will be joined in the booth by the now retired Jeffrey Michael Gordon.
The radio broadcast will be heard on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM (subscription required for the latter). Joe Moore, Jeff Striegle and Rusty Wallace will be in the new tower working the race from the booth. Dave Moody will be working Turns 1 and 2 from the Sunoco spotters stand outside Turn 2. Mike Bagley will be working the backstretch from a stand on the inside of the backstretch down towards Turn 3. Kyle Rickey will be working Turns 3 and 4 from the other Sunoco spotters stand outside Turn 4. Alex Hayden, Winston Kelley and Steve Post will be working pit road.
“The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I need to unload my thoughts on the idea of a relegation-esque system for the charters.
While I was sitting in the media workroom yesterday at the Charlotte Convention Center in the Queen City, I came across a tweet that peaked my interest from @RaceTalkRadio. They tweeted “New #NASCAR Charter system SHOULD have performance clause with some meat in it, lowest ranked team loses spot + highest non-charter gets it.”
I tweeted him back saying I could get behind that idea. I liked it so much that I asked NASCAR Executive Vice-President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell about it during the news conference. I asked if there was “a chance in the future where we could see a system where the lowest charter team in the points could lose that charter to the highest non-charter team in the points, i.e., a type of relegation system you would see in European soccer leagues.” He said that NASCAR “did study a lot of different sports, including the [Barclay’s Premier League].
“He said that NASCAR “did study a lot of different sports, including the Barclay’s Premier League. For us the best model is where we landed.” O’Donnell also added that the sanctioning body’s goal “is to have sustainable charters. We’re comfortable with the number that we have and believe that the number 36 in terms of charters, we don’t want to be in the business of taking any away, we want to see them go out and compete; one through 36 have the opportunity to go win a championship.”
For those of you not familiar with the concept of relegation, here’s a crash course. In England, there are 23 levels of professional soccer. The Premier League is the top of the chain. At the end of every season, the lowest ranked team in the league gets relegated to the Football League Championship and the champion FLC team gets promoted to the Premier League. The only real difference between the two leagues is the distribution of television revenue.
Basically, what I’d like to see NASCAR do down the road is use a system where the lowest ranked charter team loses said charter and it goes to the highest ranked non-charter team. This would provide extra incentive for the non-charter teams to put their all into the season and give perspective new owners just starting up a chance to “live the good life” should they be the highest non-charter team in points.
I know this would cause some ire with the charter holders because there’s no guarantee that they’d get any of their money that they paid for said charter back, but I believe that if NASCAR would compensate the team that finds themselves on the short end of the stick with relegation, this is a system that could work and make for interesting storylines with us in the media.
My plane is about to take off so I must wrap this up. Until next time, I’ll leave you with this fact. More people speak English in China than the United States.
The opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author and may or may not represent the views of Speedway Media.
