Saturday night’s annual non-points race kicks off the season, and it will see 25 teams and drivers get track time under race conditions before the Daytona 500 on Feb 21. The starting order for the race was determined by a blind draw by crew chiefs in the Fan Zone at Daytona International Speedway.
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As far as the point scoring system goes, the race victor of the Sprint Cup will now be awarded 40 points instead of 43.
Former Daytona 500 pole winners: Greg Biffle, Austin Dillon, Danica Patrick, Martin Truex Jr. “I promise you we are going to be okay”. “It’s going to be good to get back at it. It’s been a long off-season”. “We are still working through that”.
It’s the third time in recent years Stewart has been hurt.
Sports is also the theme of the night on TNT, which will televise the NBA All-Star Saturday Night beginning at 8 p.m. This is followed by a special presentation about this year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue at 10:30 p.m.
“When the 24 rolled out, it sent a little chill up my spine”, Gordon said. And Tony Stewart, racing his final NASCAR season before also retiring, will be sidelined with a broken vertebrae sustained last week in a ATV accident.
Joe Gibbs Racing has won three of the last four Unlimiteds and swept both non-points races in 2015, with Matt Kenseth winning at Daytona and Hamlin in the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Vickers only drove in two races last season because of recurring blood clots.
“It’s nice to be able to take something negative on my side and be able to do something positive for somebody else with it”, Stewart said Friday on the Periscope social media app. “I think he’ll do a good job”. But this feels like the right thing for Stewart – he has a 77-race winless drought and simply hasn’t been the same driver since August 2014, when he was involved in a dirt track incident that killed driver Kevin Ward Jr.
“A lot of prep work went into that auto and there were a lot of implications for the 14 not being in that race, so in this instance we made the decision to allow the 14 to participate”. Twenty six of the top drivers in the garage area will battle under the lights at the Daytona International Speedway in the prefect appetizer to a busy week.
Owner Rick Hendrick has a well-chronicled history of success in the Daytona 500, with Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. combining for six wins while driving under Hendrick’s banner. (23rd) and Logano (25th), the defending Daytona 500 victor, comprising the rear of the field.
Joey Logano: He continues to trend upward, and must not let others decide his fate, like they did last season.
That means rookie driver Ryan Blaney will have to qualify in for one of the four remaining non-Chartered team spots at every race of the season.
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-NASCAR and Chip Ganassi Racing on Friday announced sponsorship agreements with Credit One Bank, one of the largest and fastest-growing credit card issuers in the United States.
