{"id":94811,"date":"2024-02-14T14:23:54","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T22:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=94811"},"modified":"2024-02-14T14:23:54","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T22:23:54","slug":"nascar-starts-its-76th-season-at-daytona-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nascar-starts-its-76th-season-at-daytona-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Starts its 76th Season at Daytona this Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

NASCAR is beginning its 76th year at Daytona International Speedway, its center of racing. The Daytona 500 is NASCAR\u2019s premier contest and starts the 36-race points-paying battle that culminates in November at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n

All three of the sanctioning body\u2019s touring series take part in this massive celebration of stock car racing, from the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, Xfinity Series to the premier Cup Series. They\u2019re all gaming to win on the banked 2.5-mile oval, where pack racing is always part of the mix and the \u201cbig one\u201d is never, seemingly, far away.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s Cup Series race was won by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., continuing to drive the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. For this 66th running of the \u201cGreat American Race\u201d the field is wide open. But then, at Daytona it always is wide open, just like the throttles on each Chevrolet, Ford or Toyota entered in this race.<\/p>\n

While 23 drivers raced in the non-points-paying Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum less than two weeks ago, a full field of 40, culled from a 42-car group that includes 36 chartered teams locked into the race, includes six \u201copen\u201d teams fighting to make it in. Qualifying only determines the front row of the Daytona 500, while the balance of the field earns their spots after Thursday\u2019s qualifying races.<\/p>\n

While Chevrolet\u2019s Camaro ZL1 is the sole carryover model from last season\u2019s 75th anniversary season, both Ford and Toyota have new models to introduce to the public this week. The Ford Mustang Dark Horse and Toyota Camry XSE made their debuts at the Clash in California, but now get to do battle against Chevrolet, which has earned pole position for this race 11 consecutive times since 2013 (when Danica Patrick was the pole sitter).<\/p>\n

Chevy will be looking for a 12th consecutive pole and Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Alex Bowman can tie three Hall of Fame inductees (Cale Yarborough, Bill Elliott and Buddy Baker) by earning his fourth Daytona 500 pole position.<\/p>\n

Single car qualifying takes place on February 14th, and will be a Valentine\u2019s Day gift to the pole winner and the driver who earns the second front row start. The balance of the field races Thursday evening in two 60-lap contests that will set the starting lineup. There are seven former winners in the field but not every one of them gets in with a charter. LEGACY MOTOR CLUB\u2019s Jimmie Johnson, racing a Toyota for the first time in his vaunted career, is not a chartered driver, but he does have a pair of Daytona 500 wins; Johnson has to race into Sunday\u2019s starting lineup.<\/p>\n

\"\"
2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric is wearing a Gil de Ferran tribute helmet – courtesy Team Penske<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Denny Hamlin, who won the Busch Light Clash this year, has three Daytona 500 victories, Johnson owns two, while Stenhouse Jr., Austin Cindric (wearing a Gil de Ferran tribute helmet), Michael McDowell Austin Dillon and Joey Logano are the sole active former winners in this year\u2019s field, and everyone is looking to win in order to catch up to Hall of Famer Richard Petty, who\u2019s won this race seen times!<\/p>\n

Daytona International Speedway is kind to first-time winners; a total of 23 different drivers have won their first race in NASCAR\u2019s Cup Series at this track while 17 different drivers have achieved their first Cup Series pole position at Daytona. Cindric was the most recent racer to earn his first Cup Series here; he performed the feat two years ago, in 2022.<\/p>\n

The race to become NASCAR Rookie of the Year starts at Daytona, where former \u201csuper sub\u201d racer Josh Berry takes over the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford recently vacated by Kevin Harvick. He\u2019s joined by Kaz Grala in the No. 36 Front Row Motorsports Ford, Zane Smith\u2019s No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevy, and Carson Hocevar, driving the No. 77 Chevy for Spire Motorsports, replacing Ty Dillon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Of course there\u2019s more to watch here than the Cup Series, with Xfinity Series and CRAFTSMAN trucks joining ARCA Menards Series competitors on the oval. Of extreme interest is the Xfinity Series debut for Shan Van Gisbergen, the Australian who shocked the regulars last year when he drove the project 91 Trackhouse Racing Camaro to victory in the series inaugural street-course contest. He\u2019s one of five drivers competing for the new Sunoco Rookie of the Year in Xfinity, together with Jesse Love, Dawson Cream, Hailie Deegan and Leland Honeyman Jr.<\/p>\n

This year marks the 30th season for NASCAR\u2019s CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and the 25th time the truck series has opened its season next to the track’s infield\u2019s Lake Lloyd. Friday night\u2019s race will have three stages of 20 laps each for the first two, while 60 laps comprise the final stage. There are three drivers vying for Rookie of the Year: Layne Riggs, Thad Moffitt and Connor Jones – all under 25 years of age, which means they can\u2019t use a rental car under their own names but they can win a NASCAR race!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Zane Smith won this race last year for his first class victory, but he wasn\u2019t the series champion. Ben Rhodes, who returns to the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series is the reigning champ.<\/p>\n

While NASCAR hopes – and intends – to complete these races by Sunday night, there are rain squalls expected to hit the area starting Friday night and continuing through the weekend. In fact, heavy rain is expected on Saturday night, with cool conditions on Sunday amid showers. President\u2019s Day on Monday is the first time clear weather is predicted for the general area, so we\u2019ll have to see just how all the predictions pan out.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wild weather looms as NASCAR gets ready for its 76th season in Florida while battening down the hatches.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":94815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424,3470,5029],"tags":[4028,127,9391,4437,10181,3176],"class_list":["post-94811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","category-racing","tag-daytona-international-raceway","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-craftsman-truck-series","tag-nascar-cup-series","tag-nascar-on-fox","tag-nascar-xfinity-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2024-Daytona-500-logo-min-e1708129978418.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-oFd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94811"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94819,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94811\/revisions\/94819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}