Daytona International Speedway Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Parker Retzlaff may have scored his first career top-10 finish in NASCAR’s premier division, but it’s his road to a seventh-place result that folks will be looking back fondly for years to come. During Saturday’s chaotic Coke Zero Sugar 400, the 21-year-old driver from Rhinelander, Wisconsin escaped all the big wrecks and blow overs to put himself in excellent position of bringing Beard Motorsports’ No. 62 team home with a strong result. “It was just really aggressive. Everyone was pushing as hardRead More
By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It all comes down to Darlington. With Harrison Burton claiming a season and career defining win to punch his ticket into the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field, just three spots remain up for grabs to finalize the list of drivers that will be eligible to contend for the championship. As it stands after Daytona, Martin Truex, Jr. is in the best position of those still not locked in, carrying a 58-point advantage into the regular season finale even after getting collectedRead More
By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – This one has been a long time coming. Harrison Burton, driving the famous No. 21 Ford for the Wood Brothers, took matters into his own hands in overtime Saturday night at Daytona, powering his way into the lead on the final lap and holding off the charge of Kyle Busch to claim his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory and punch his ticket into the Playoffs. The win also marks the 100th career win for the legendary Wood Brothers team, which hasRead More
By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Shane Van Gisbergen has gotten the call. He’s moving to the NASCAR Cup Series full-time with Trackhouse Racing in 2025. The move completes the journey for the 35-year-old New Zealander, who burst onto the NASCAR scene with his win at Chicago in his first-ever start in 2023 before moving into the Xfinity Series on a full-time basis in 2024 and now going full-time at NASCAR’s top division next season. With Trackhouse obtaining a third charter for its efforts to field a carRead More
By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Ryan Truex brought home the victory Friday night at Daytona International Speedway, surviving overtime to capture his second NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the season in the Wawa 250. Midway through the second stage, the younger Truex brother, driving the No. 20 Toyota on a part-time basis for Joe Gibbs Racing asserted himself into the lead for the first time all night and would remain a fixture among the leaders for the duration of the race. Truex and Kaulig Racing’s A.J. AllmendingerRead More
By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – What next? Denny Hamlin was flabbergasted with a penalty handed down by NASCAR on Thursday for an engine inspection violation that will have affects on he and his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team now and into the Playoffs. Hamlin’s race-winning engine from Bristol this spring was inadvertently torn down and rebuilt by Toyota Racing Development prior to NASCAR being able to inspect it and as such, the sanctioning body was left with no choice but to penalize them. Driver and teamRead More

Posted On August 23, 2024By David MorganIn Breaking News, Cup, Headline News

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 hisRead More
By David Morgan, Associate Editor DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In any other year, a return to Daytona International Speedway in the late summer would mark the end of the regular season and cement the field for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Not so much in 2024, as a quirk that comes with the Olympic break that was undertaken a few weeks back making Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 the penultimate race of the regular season, setting things up for a final showdown at Darlington over Labor Day weekend. But thatRead More
By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — While other NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers were competing, and crashing, in Monday night’s United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway, Austin Hill was playing a different game — Monopoly. At the 2.5-mile superspeedway roughly two miles away from Atlantic Avenue, Hill beat former teammate Sheldon Creed to the finish line by 0.591 seconds to earn his third straight victory in the Xfinity season opener at the World Center of Racing. The third win came on Monday because of weekend-long rainRead More
By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The Daytona 500 can be a game of inches. Sometimes it’ll lead to racing glory like William Byron or an absolute gut-punch like his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman, who finished second in Monday’s race. All as a result of coming up just short of besting Byron when the caution came out. Due to the runner-up finish, Bowman’s winless streak extends to 67 races dating back to Martinsville in fall 2021. Despite the clear disappointment of losing out on bringing HMS its first 500 win sinceRead More