Friday Daytona NASCAR Cup Series Notebook

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Michael McDowell has qualifying on superspeedways figured out this year.

For the fourth time in 2024, the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford will start at the front of the grid for Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 after a lap of 49.136 seconds, 183.165 mph, setting a new Next Gen track record at Daytona.

McDowell is one of several drivers not yet locked into the Playoffs and counts Daytona as an opportunity race for both he and his team to try and race their way in with a victory.

“I come here optimistic and when I drive through the tunnel I think we have a better shot than most to win this race, and I know everybody has a shot, but at the same time if you just look, forget about the win here, just top 10s, I don’t even know what the number is, but double digit top 10s here and that doesn’t just happen by happenstance,” McDowell said.

“I feel like for whatever reason this place has been good to me in that sense of feeling the pack, feeling when things are gonna happen, putting yourself in a good position. Dale Jr. always talks about, ‘Hey, you’re not gonna win every single one of these, but you need to be in that picture.’ You know, that picture they snap over the start-finish line as everybody is coming across the line three-wide and half sideways, and I’ve been in a lot of those pictures. 

“If we continue to do that, no different than 2021, we’ll have a shot at winning the race. As you guys saw at Talladega, obviously we had a shot at winning the race and just wasn’t able to make the right move there at the end and put myself in a bad spot, so if we keep putting ourselves in that position to win, we’ll get one.”

He will be joined on the front row by his teammate Todd Gilliland, with Joey Logano, Ryan Preece, Josh Berry, and Chase Briscoe making up an all-Ford top-six starters.

The remainder of the top-10 will be Daytona 500 champion William Byron, Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott.

‘Just Go Race’

With Daytona serving as the penultimate race of the regular season, it’s not win or go home as it has been here in recent years, but still will be a big opportunity race for those not yet locked into the Playoffs.

Drivers and teams can strategize all they want, but at a track like Daytona, where chance comes into play just as much, a number of those drivers that need to race their way in have resigned themselves to just strapping in running the laps and just seeing how things shake out at the end of the night.

Among those is Chris Buescher, who won this race one year ago, but finds himself needing to either win Saturday night or at Darlington to punch his ticket in to the postseason. He also remains within the realm of being able to point his way in, currently sitting 16 points above the cut-off line.

“Within our organization’s walls it’s very important to try and get a win for the 17 group and go ahead and lock this thing in to where we can go to Darlington and not have any of these thoughts in the back of our minds,” said Buescher. 

“When we come to Daytona it’s tricky because we’ve gone about this different ways in the past and ultimately I think we just have to go out here and race and try to be smart within our group – make decisions and try to better both of us and go race and let it fall where it will. It’s Daytona. We know things can happen, but we’ll go race hard, be smart at times, but we’ll go see what happens and see how we can find ourselves in victory lane again.”

On the other side of the coin is Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., who is well outside the top-16 in points, so a win is his only path forward to the Playoffs. The driver of the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet has been victorious twice prior at Daytona, including the 2023 Daytona 500.

“I’m definitely excited; optimistic at our chances here,” said Stenhouse. “I think there’s a lot of people in the same boat, but we sat down this week in the shop and said that the only thing that we’re focused on is winning the race.

“We know that there’s a high possibility of getting no stage points and getting in a wreck, but we feel like that’s the best option that we have right now going forward, knowing that there will be a handful of people that are looking for stage points to move themselves up in the standings or whatnot. We know that we can leave out of here with one or two points, but we’re going to give ourselves an option in going to win the race.”

LaJoie Details Michigan Flip

Corey LaJoie had himself a wild ride on Monday in Michigan, going for a spin on the backstretch in the rain-delayed FireKeepers Casino 400 that saw his No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet go airborne and flip through the backstretch before eventually coming to rest right-side-up.

LaJoie was able to climb from the car under his own power and was later evaluated and released from the Infield Care Center.

On Friday ahead of on track action in Daytona, LaJoie detailed his tour of the Michigan skyline.

“I got upside down so fast, like it didn’t really gimme a warning,” LaJoie said. “The Talladega one you just kind of like know is coming. But like in the time that I got into the left rear of the 10 and started sliding, I was thinking about like how to keep the thing rolling. Because I knew it was gonna have flat tires and figured we can put tires on it and go salvage the day.

“And in the eight tenths of a second I was thinking that, I was already upside down. So, I wouldn’t say it’s a comfortable position. The emotion of everything was just more frustration of just how the year’s gone and how poorly we’ve executed. So more frustrated about that…

“The car performed how I expected it to. It’s a really solid car, safe around the drivers. Kind of knew the seat and the belts and restraints and everything that were gonna be around us. We worked really hard to try to get our cars comfy and safe. So, everything did exactly what it’s supposed to.”

He was still in a joking mood about checking to make sure he was OK after his car came to a stop and not wanting to go through the same this weekend in Daytona.

“You wiggle your fingers and your toes to make sure they’re working,” LaJoie said. “But the biggest hit is when it comes down back on all fours. Luckily it went back on all fours in the grass, so you got a lot of dissipation of that energy when it came down to all fours. At Talladega, it was like 65 Gs straight through your spine, so that doesn’t feel good.

“I’ll do my best to try to keep the rubber side down this weekend in Daytona, but I think your chances of flipping and winning are about the same. And it’s about 50/50 for everybody.”

In a reaction to LaJoie’s flip, NASCAR has made changes to the cars for this weekend in Daytona, adding a shark fin to the right side of the car to match the one already on the left side, which should help to increase the takeoff speed going forward.

“I guess I can own a piece of an addition to the Next Gen car. Kinda like the Petty bar, the Newman Bar. They got the LaJoie fin now on the right side glass. I’m just an innovator. You know, just trying to innovate and make these cars safe.”