DAYTONA BEACH — Tonight we learn which two drivers will lead the field to the green flag to start the 66th Daytona 500 Sunday afternoon. And you likely don’t even have to miss your Valentine’s Day dinner, since qualifying doesn’t start until 8:15.
In the earliest days of Daytona International Speedway, winning the Daytona 500 pole position didn’t necessarily lead to race-day success.
Bob Welborn was fastest at the first Daytona qualifier, with a lap averaging just over 140 mph in a Chevrolet — a Chevy sponsored by Tuxedo Plumbing and Heating, by the way. His engine lasted just 75 of Sunday’s 200 laps and Bob finished 41st in a busy field of 59 cars.
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Alex Bowman won last year’s pole at 181+ mph, and while his engine held up, he led just one of the final 175 laps and finished fifth.
The supporting manufacturer and sponsors of the pole-winning team appreciate the additional hype and attention that go along with posting the fastest time on a night when every team’s driver has the throttle buried on the mat.
Fox Sports 1 will provide qualifying TV coverage.
Prior to NASCAR’s first official competition of the 2024 season, all Cup Series drivers will perform Media Day chores, which include interviews with a wide variety of radio and TV stations and networks, as well as print and online media.
Sometimes during these gatherings, news is made. Often not.
Stay tuned here throughout the day for updates.
Chevrolet’s run of 12 straight Daytona 500 poles came to an end as Fords took three of the top four spots Wednesday, led by your front-row starters for Sunday’s Great American Race: Pole sitter Joey Logano and Michael McDowell.
Logano, in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, turned a lap in 49.465 seconds for an average speed of 181.947 mph. He was less than a tenth of a second faster than McDowell, who averaged 181.686 in his No. 34 Ford fielded by Front Row Motorsports.
It’s Ford’s first Daytona 500 pole since 2012, and it’s Logano’s career-first pole at the 500. He’ll start first in Thursday’s first 150-mile qualifying race, while McDowell will lead the way at the start of the second.
Regardless of where they finish Thursday, assuming they don’t crash and have to go to backup cars, they have front-row reservations for Sunday’s green flag.
Joey Logano turned in the fastest lap of the opening round of qualifying with a time of 49.641 with 10 drivers advancing to the second round.
Joining Logano will be Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell, Austin Cindric, Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain and Harrison Burton.
Among the top 10 are six Chevrolets and four Ford Mustangs. The fastest Toyota was Erik Jones, who came home with the 22nd-fastest lap.
Two of the six non-chartered cars have clinched starting spots in the Daytona 500: The No. 62 Chevy of Anthony Alfredo and the No. 60 Ford driven by David Ragan.
Seven-time Cup champ Jimmie Johnson was third fastest of the six outsiders, just over a tenth of a second slower than Ragan.
Qualifying continues with half of the competitors left to turn laps.
“This is insane. To make it in such a competitive field, I’m just really thankful,” Alfredo said.
Said Ragan: “It’s always big to be in the Daytona 500.”
Austin Dillon, the 2018 Daytona 500 champion, laid down the fastest lap of the first dozen drivers by over two-tenths of a second with a time of 49.745 seconds. Riley Herbst was second with a 49.946.
Anthony Alfredo was the fastest of the transfer drivers thus far and his time of 50.098 seconds was good enough for fourth overall.
The top 10 from the first round of qualifying will advance to the second round.
The 42 cars vying for 40 starting spots in Sunday’s Daytona 500 have started the qualifying process at Daytona International Speedway.
Single-car qualifying will continue for the next hour or so. First five drivers on the track: Carson Hocevar, Anthony Alfredo, Zane Smith, Ryan Preece, and Justin Haley.
With pole qualifying for the 66th Daytona 500 looming just an hour and a half away, remember that the session will air on FS1 beginning at 8:15 p.m.
Richard and Kyle Petty were on hand Wednesday as the Speedway and NASCAR help the family celebrate their upcoming 75th season at Daytona and in the sport.
Lee Petty, Richard’s dad, ran his first NASCAR races in 1949, the first stock-car season, and made his first trip to Daytona in 1950. In 1959, Lee won the inaugural Daytona 500, and Richard would famously win seven in his unmatched career.
Kyle Petty, who never won a NASCAR race at Daytona, did win here in his first career stock-car start — the ARCA 200 in 1979. when he was 18.
“We’re from a rural county in North Carolina,” Kyle Petty said Wednesday evening. “The town was full of second- and third-generation farmers. We just happened to raise race cars on our farm.”
As part of the year-long celebration, a giant, concrete cowboy hat — a likeness of Richard Petty’s iconic Charlie 1 Horse hat — will be on display at every track NASCAR visits. The hats will be decorated in a fashion to mark the family’s history at each of the tracks.
For all the things two-time Cup Series champ Kyle Busch has done, there’s a glaring hole on the resume. And don’t worry, he knows.
Last year, Busch was leading on Lap 200 of the Daytona 500. The problem? The race went into overtime and he was collected in a crash, settling for 19th.
That pushed his drought to 0 for 18 in the Great American Race. That’s just two short of the 0 for 20 Dale Earnhardt Sr. started with before finally breaking through in 1998.
“Trust me, I’m well aware, thank you very much,” Busch said with a grin. “I hope we can talk about some of the same storylines on Sunday, that would be nice.”
Chris Buescher won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 last summer, thanks in large part to teammate and RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski, who gave him a big push and never left his bumper all the way to the start-finish line.
So, does Buescher owe Keselowski a push come Sunday?
“I’m going to push him, I promise. I’m going to push him all the way until I feel like we’re safe to where I can try to go around. I certainly owe a lot of that win to him and those pushes and staying committed. I think it’s important to us as drivers for our own teams but for RFK as a group to make sure if we find yourself with that opp to not make it worse. If we have the chance to go 1-2 or 1-3, let’s make sure we don’t go out there and wreck each other trying to do something dumb and finish 20th and 21st. Let’s make sure we don’t go out there and do something and give up a chance to win the 500 and finish 2nd and 5th. Situational awareness will be important.
“I’m not going to wreck him for a win but I am going to shove him and I am going to hit him and we are going to push and shove and we’re going to make it a race. And he said the same thing which I was glad to hear, probably a little easier for him as my boss to say that, but we’re going to make a show out of it. Just make sure we’re smart about it.”
With the addition of two Legacy Motor Club cars, and possibly three assuming Jimmie Johnson makes Sunday’s Daytona 500 field, the Toyota contingent should be increasing in numbers and theoretically, becoming stronger in the draft.
But Denny Hamlin, a three-time winner of the Daytona 500, didn’t have much use for teammate talk on Wednesday.
“I think it’s probably in my best interest to get back to the basics and that’s doing what I feel is best to win the race for myself,” Hamlin said. “While having teammates and all is great, I think those are cert assets you can use to win races in cert situations, I think sometimes it’s those that are the most selfish, that make moves for themselves are the ones that win the race.
“I feel as though I need to personally go back to the style in which I had a few years ago and we’ll see what those results net.”
The N.Y. Racing Team has handed the keys to its No. 44 Chevolet to veteran racer JJ Yeley.
The No. 44 is one of six teams at Daytona gunning for four available openings in the Daytona 500.
Originally, Greg Biffle was listed as the team’s driver, but Biffle declined and put out a statement saying he wouldn’t entertain an offer from that team “due to unfulfilled contract obligations from 2022,” the last year the team fielded a Cup car.
Yeley, 47, was a highly decorated USAC short-track champion before moving to NASCAR 20 years ago. He’s run six previous Daytona 500s, with a best finish of 10th in 2014.
You won’t likely find it on officially licensed merchandise, or above the driver’s-side door of his No. 12 Ford.
But thanks to the recent Netflix docuseries, with a special assist from fiance´ Gianna Tulio, Ryan Blaney has a new nickname.
“Remember, be Ryan (bleeping Blaney,” Gianna told Blaney before the start of a playoff race last fall.
“She was mortified when that was caught on the microphone,” Blaney said Wednesday morning.
Netflix didn’t just catch the comment and leave it in the episode from its “NASCAR: Full Speed” series, but as Blaney said Wednesday morning, “They even had it in the trailer!”
Blaney admits it’ll take some clever marketing language to capitalize on the new name through merchandise, but also says his team may still find a way. With that in mind, GIanna’s discomfort has subsided.
“She’s gotten over her embarrassment,” Blaney said.
Ryan Blaney broke through for his first Cup Series championship in 2023, checking off a major box in his racing career.
But though he has four wins on superspeedways, Blaney has yet to win the Great American Race despite five top-10 finishes in nine starts.
“That’s the dream, you win the championship and turn right around and win the 500,” Blaney said. “You just try to learn from experiences from previous races here.
“We’ll see. Just try to be rolling at the end of it and hopefully you’re there. But I’m excited for it.”
A reminder that Florida residents can now bet on the Daytona 500 from their phones!
Hard Rock Bet offers several betting options on its app including winner, top 5, top 10 and winning manufacturer among others.
One of the most infamous moments from the 2023 season was undoubtedly a short, physical altercation between Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson at Kansas.
Chastain landed a short right cross before a security guard separated the two.
Gragson appeared in the media room on Wednesday morning and rehashed the moment. He said the two quickly put the incident behind them, adding that they tested together the next day. But a post-race phone call wasn’t quite so friendly.
“I called him after the race and said, ‘Nice shot but if that security guard wasn’t there I was coming and I wasn’t stopping, I want you to know that,” Gragson said.
AJ Allmendinger will get the start in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet in Sunday’s Daytona 500, but his role in the Cup Series this year will be a part-time one.
After a full season in NASCAR’s premier circuit last year, Allmendinger is back full time at the Xfinity level and while that could seem like a demotion, it’s something he’s happy to do as he stays committed to improving the organization.
“It’s just super hard in the cup series to go win races,” Allmendinger said. “The Xfinity program is where they make their living off of in the sense of what makes Kaulig Racing. So, for me, they wanted me to come back and try to get the program in the right direction. There’s gains that they made last year but there’s a lot more we have to do to run with Joe Gibbs and Stewart-Haas and even JR Motorsports and teams like that.”
Daniel Hemric will be Kaulig’s lone full-time Cup Series entrant in the No. 31 car this year.
Michael McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 champion, was asked about the role luck plays in the Daytona 500 during media day on Wednesday morning and replied with this gem:
“When it comes to racing gods, I must be an atheist because I don’t believe in them.”
He didn’t stop there, going on to handicap a few of his competitors when it comes to superspeedway tendencies.
“Accidents happen, but I can usually tell you who those accidents are going to happen around … that’s not luck either,” McDowell said. “For instance, there was a lot of opportunity for me in 2021 to pass Brad Keselowski and be sitting second coming to the white flag. I rode in third for a reason. I wouldn’t want to be in between those two (Joey Logano was leading).
“Jamie McMurray and Jimmie Johnson. Obviously, they’ve won a lot of races. If those two are together, I don’t want to be anywhere near where they’re at. There’s going to be a crash there.
“If Joey Logano is leading the end of the Daytona 500, there will be a crash. Why? Because he’s going to block … If Brad Keselowski is running second and Joey Logano is running first, there will be a crash. Brad isn’t going to lift. Joey is going to block. I can go through the entire field and tell you who’s going to do what and how they’re going to do it.”
Wednesday’s qualifying order for the Daytona 500
- Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
- Anthony Alfredo, No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet*
- Zane Smith, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
- Ryan Preece, No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
- Justin Haley, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford
- David Ragan, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford*
- AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
- B.J. McLeod, No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet*
- John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
- Riley Herbst, No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford
- Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
- JJ Yeley, No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet*
- Daniel Hemric, No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
- Noah Gragson, No. 10 Stewart-Haas Ford
- Corey LaJoie, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
- Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
- Kaz Grala, No. 36 Front Row Motorsports Ford*
- Harrison Burton, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford
- Todd Gilliland, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford
- Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford
- Jimmie Johnson, No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota*
- Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
- Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
- Josh Berry, No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford
- Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet
- Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
- Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
- Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
- William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
- Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
- Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
- Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
- Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
- Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
- Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
- Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
- Chis Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford
- Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
- Michael McDowell, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford
- Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
- Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota