Daytona International Speedway Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Close, but no cigar….again. After a stellar rookie season in 2016, Ryan Blaney and the Wood Brothers entered the 2017 season looking to improve on last season’s results as well as getting Blaney his first career win. In Sunday’s Daytona 500, the team nearly accomplished that feat, but fell just short as they had to settle for a runner-up finish instead. Although it wasn’t a win, the second-place finish for Blaney marks the best career finish for the 23-year old, besting his three fourth placeRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Throughout the season-opening race weekend at Daytona, the winners of the earlier stages have failed to finish their respective events. It happened to Johnny Sauter in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race and it happened to Elliott Sadler in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, and in Sunday’s Daytona 500, it happened yet again. Kyle Busch, who was still seeking his first Daytona 500 win, was able to drive his No. 18 Toyota to the front of the field at lap 42, taking overRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer After finishing the 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season strong with seven wins and the Rookie of the Year title, William Byron was looking to continue that success in 2017. Byron moved up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in the No. 9 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports. Byron qualified a disappointing 17th, but behind teammate Justin Allgaier. The start of the PowerShares QQQ 300 at Daytona International Speedway seemed tame in comparison to the Truck race the night before. After a coupleRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor For the second day in a row, the winner of the first two stages of a race has failed to finish the event after getting caught up in a wreck in the closing laps. After Johnny Sauter won the first two stages in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Friday night only to get wrecked on the final lap, the winner of the first two stages in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, Elliott Sadler, would suffer the same fate. Sadler started the eventRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Prior to the start of the 2017 season, NASCAR instituted many changes throughout its’ top three series. Most notable of these changes were the race formats now including stages. In both the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series, 36th through 40th now only pay one Championship point. Another change that NASCAR instituted was the five-minute repair clock. Should a car or truck be involved in an accident, if the driver was able to return to pit road, the team is put onRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer A new entitlement sponsor for the Cup Series, competition enhancements and the return of Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the track are just a few of the major story lines heading into the Daytona 500. Motorsports Tribune spoke with Chicagoland Speedway President Scott Paddock to discuss his thoughts heading into Sunday’s Great American Race. New Entitlement Sponsor In January, Monster Energy became just the third company to serve as the entitlement sponsor in NASCAR premier series history, replacing Sprint. “I think it’s exciting for the industryRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor For many in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series field on Friday night, the season-opening race was met with optimism and hopes of kicking the year off on the right foot as they all had their eyes on the championship prize at the end of the road. But after the NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona turned into a wreckfest from beginning to end, drivers throughout the garage leave the World Center of Racing with mangled sheet metal and a hole to dig themselves outRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer After ending the 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series NextEra Energy Resources 250 flipping end over end, Christopher Bell was hoping to keep all four tires of his No. 4 JBL Toyota Tundra on the ground. Bell started his Kyle Busch Motorsports entry fourth on the grid. The race barely got underway when a 17-truck melee broke out on the second lap. The wreck left nine trucks out of the race, and six other wounded. Luckily for Bell, he was ahead of carnage. Bell restartedRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief After a year to forget in 2016, Clint Bowyer couldn’t stop smiling after the end of second race of the Can-Am Duels at Daytona. The 37-year-old Kansas native took the wheel of the No. 14 Ford in his first race with Stewart-Haas Racing and drove to a runner-up finish, his best result since finishing third at Sonoma Raceway in 2015. “Damn, this is fun again,” said Bowyer. “Man, what a rocket ship. Hats off to all these guys that put all this hard work into theseRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor For much of the second Can-Am Duel at Daytona, it looked like it would be Dale Earnhardt, Jr following the lead of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott to score the win after qualifying on the front row for the Daytona 500, but Denny Hamlin had other plans as he was able to execute a late race pass to take the lead and the win. “It was great. Great car. Got a great push there for Austin (Dillon). We worked really well together that entireRead More