Can Anyone Beat Dale Jr.?

It was a familiar looking Earnhardt win at Daytona.

With a dominating win in the first Can-Am Duel on Thursday night, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a statement that he has the car to beat in this Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Junior won his 5^th career Duel qualifying race and will start third behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott. He will be looking for his third 500 win.

But this is Daytona and that means anything can and will happen over the course of 200 laps. Junior is not unbeatable and here are a few of the contenders that have what it takes to challenge him on Sunday in the Great American Race.

Photo courtesy of motorsport.com

Denny Hamlin: The only other car as good as the #88 is the #11 FedEx Toyota. Junior seemed to toy with Hamlin in the final laps of the first Duel before putting a trademark Earnhardt drafting move on him to take the lead with six laps to go. Hamlin won the Sprint Unlimited and likes his new crew chief Mike Wheeler quite a bit. His team is searching for more speed in the final practices and has the ability to get him off pit road fast like they did on Thursday.

Kevin Harvick: Despite failing inspection after pole qualifying, Harvick claims this is one of the best restrictor plate cars he’s had in years. He started at the back on Thursday night, but rocketed through the field in a hurry to finish fourth. He is the closer so look for him to be there at the end.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Penske Racing: Brad Keselowski is still looking for his first 500 win, and Joey Logano is the defending champion. Both cars have been very fast in the draft all week. Logano joked that Junior is just so good on the superspeedways, but he was able to hold him off in last year’s Daytona 500 and at Talladega in the fall. Keselowski only won once in 2015, and has made it known he wants to add Daytona to his list of wins and racing fans know his penchant for doing whatever it takes to get to victory lane.

Matt Kenseth: He’s a two-time Daytona 500 winner and always seems to find himself in the right place when the trophy is on the line. Darrell Waltrip likes to call him crafty. It didn’t take long with Kenseth to link up with Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards in the second duel race so look for them to try and do it again to counter Earnhardt’s horsepower. But after the big crash at the end of the race, Kenseth will be forced to a backup car and start from the back, ruining what would have been his first front row start at Daytona. It shouldn’t take long for him to get to the front though.

Carl Edwards: Another driver who has never won the 500, but had his chances. In his second year with Joe Gibb Racing, Carl seems confident and has a fast Arris Toyota.

Jimmie Johnson: It’s not unusual to watch Johnson drive around by himself in Daytona practice, but he stood out during Thursday’s early practice when he was faster than a group of drafting cars. Then while battling for the win in the second Duel, Jamie McMurray decided not to give Johnson any room, leading to a huge pile up. He will also start a backup car at the back on Sunday. Chad Knaus will get the #48 a good raceday setup, Jimmie just has to stay out of the big one, which has been a problem in recent plate races.

Photo courtesy of nascar.nbcsports.com

Kyle Busch: If you didn’t learn last season not to count Busch out, then you didn’t watch close enough. He brought Gibbs a long-awaited Sprint Cup title in 2015, and now he wants to bring him his first Daytona 500 win in 23 years. He won the second Duel after getting a good pit stop that put him in front of Kenseth and Johnson and out of harms way when they crashed.

Martin Truex Jr.: He has put the roof flap controversy in qualifying behind him and is looking forward to his first race driving a Toyota for Furniture Row Racing. That means he will be looking to team up with the Gibbs cars and has already run well with them in practice. Truex was also caught up in the late wreck in the Duel, just like he was in the Unlimited, so he will be going to a backup car. Truex has had no luck at all since unloading the trailer, which means Sunday might be the time.

Paul Menard: An upset special, but he does have Childress power and a solid track record on plate tracks. Menard is a solid longshot pick.

Photo courtesy of tbo.com

Chase Elliott & Ryan Blaney: Two of the strongest rookies we’ve seen in the sport in quite some time. Elliott qualified on the pole and protected his car during the qualifying race so that he would preserve that starting spot. As I wrote almost two years ago now, Elliott is very talented and he is going to win races in 2016.

Blaney has worked well with Logano and Keselowski who are pretty much his Ford teammates despite driving for the Wood brothers. He had a great third place finish in the Duels and will roll off seventh on Sunday. Both could be there at the end in the 500, or both could have some huge learning experiences.

Hamlin Survives Demo Derby in Sprint Unlimited

No driver seems to enjoy the 75-lap sprint race that NASCAR calls the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona. Unless they somehow manage to get their car to the checkered flag in one piece.

Denny Hamlin was the one to beat on Saturday night, despite an early spin, as he picked up his third win in the unofficial first NASCAR race of the year. Hamlin held off Joey Logano on the final lap of the race when a big six-car crash ended the overtime laps.

The attrition-filled exhibition race featured a half a dozen wrecks and another half a dozen near wrecks, and no one was surprised. This is what we see every year, especially given that these are not the primary cars that the teams will race in the Daytona 500 next Sunday. The race is purely for cash and bragging rights. Only four of the 25 cars managed to stay out of an accident.

Even Hamlin had damage to the right side of his FedEx Express Toyota as he did the celebratory burnouts. He was caught up in a spin by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on lap 13 when Stenhouse blew a tire. But Denny came back to win and give the rest of the field something to think about as the preparation for the 500 got underway.

“Obviously our cars are very, very fast, and if you put them in the right situations, obviously you saw tonight what they can do,” Hamlin said in the press conference after the win.

Carl Edwards was trying to track down his JGR teammate when he ran out of room coming off turn two. Edwards made contact with Brad Keselowski and a big crash ensued. Keselowski did not give at all and the accident collected defending Sprint Cup champ Kyle Busch.

NASCAR announced this week that races this season will feature an unlimited amount of overtime in order to avoid a race finishing under caution. The new rule was in effect on Saturday night after the caution brought out by Edwards, but the race officially ended when the six-car accident occurred on the white flag lap between turns 1 and 2.

 

Charter System Good Move For NASCAR

Two big NASCAR stories are making headlines as Speedweeks are set to begin Friday in Daytona.

The first centers around Tony Stewart’s broken back and what the season holds as Smoke prepares to hang up his helmet.

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – FEBRUARY 21: Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Bass Pro Shops / Mobil 1 Chevrolet, sits in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 21, 2014 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Stewart suffered a burst fracture of the L1 vertebra in a non-racing incident on January 31^st. He was driving an ATV at the time and it was announced that he would miss the early part of the season. A timetable for his return has not been determined.

The second big announcement is all about NASCAR’s new team owner charter system instituted for the 2016 Sprint Cup season. The agreement will guarantee the sanctioning body’s 19 car owners 36 licenses to compete in each race this season and in the future of a nine-year deal. The new rule will decrease the number of cars in each race from 43 to 40.

The deal is also huge for the teams because it allows a team to plan for a certain amount of revenue from NASCAR’s television deal with Fox Sports and NBC, which runs through 2024.

NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France made the announcement about the new charter agreement on Tuesday.

“Today represents a landmark change to the business model of team ownership in NASCAR,” France said. “The Charter agreements provide nine years of stability for NASCAR and the teams to focus on growth initiatives together with our track partners, auto manufacturers, drivers and sponsors. The Charters also are transferable, which will aid in the development of long-term enterprise value for Charter members.”

 

NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France speaks during a news conference in Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday.

It is NASCAR’s hope that the stability will allow owners a better platform to sell sponsorship, which has been a central issue in the past few years for even the most notable teams.

“The new team owner agreements will offer a more appealing environment for both current and prospective team owners at the NASCAR premier series level,” France said. “I’ve always stressed that if we can do things to improve the business of our stakeholders, we will pursue it. I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished today with this agreement.”

We will get more details on how this affects qualifying for the Daytona 500 and thoughts from the owners and drivers in the coming days.

Stewart is clearly crushed that he will not get to race in what would have been his final Daytona 500. Brian Vickers will replace him in the #14 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet. Vickers has not been in a Sprint Cup car for over a year after undergoing heart surgery in December 2014. According to Dave Moody of MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, doctors and NASCAR have cleared Vickers to compete once again.

It’s been hard for NASCAR fans and media to watch what has happened to Smoke and his great racing career in the past few years and we’ve talked about it at great length on Speed For Thought. He’s been a shell of his former competitive self and some thought a great finish in the 500 would have been a big confidence boost going into his final year.

I don’t want Smoke to just retire now like some have said in the past week. I want him to have his moment just like Jeff Gordon had last season. It’s unlikely that Stewart will be involved in the title Chase at Homestead like Gordon, but a final win could still be in the cards. I know I am rooting for Smoke to rise once again as a driver in 2016. He just deserves a better ending than this.

Thursday marks the first day of on-track activity at Daytona International Speedway with ARCA practice at 4:00 pm. The Sprint Cup cars take the track for the first time on Friday at 5pm with practice for the Sprint Unlimited.

Corvette Battle Steals the Show in Daytona

Endurance racing is an acquired taste. You either love it or you have a hard time trying to love it.

I love it.

Most likely because I take the challenge of watching 24 hours of sports car racing almost as seriously as the drivers do. Give me some espresso and a six pack of Red Bull and I’m ready for the 2016 racing season, and this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona left even a jittery sleep-deprived version of me, extremely entertained.

Photo courtesy of IMSA.com

This year featured a furious finish between two team Corvettes in the GTLM class. Oliver Gavin beat his teammate Antonio Garcia in identical yellow Corvettes to the checkered flag after an amazing final fifteen minutes of dueling back and fourth. To the casual fan you may not think the racing was that phenomenal. But just think about the margin of victory, 0.0034 seconds, after TWENTY-FOUR straight hours of racing. The odds of the finish being that close are tremendously long.

The other great part about the battle was that Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan gave the drivers his permission to go at it for the win. He could have watched them take each other out, but instead he watched a beautiful showcase of two great racers driving the wheels off one of the most famous American muscle cars in history.

Photo courtesy of IMSA.com

While this battle raged, the GTD class also featured a late pass when the Lamborghini Huracan of Fabio Babini was overtaken by the Audi R8 of Rene Rast when Babini ran out of fuel with three minutes left in the race. This after Babini had just taken the lead with ten minutes while Rast tried to save his remaining fuel. Rast preserved what was left to take the win.

The Patron Extreme Speed Motorsports Honda team won the overall race by over 20 seconds with Pipo Derani piloting the car across the finish line in the Daytona Prototype class. Derani wins a Rolex in his first career sports car race. The team also featured former IndyCar driver Scott Sharp, Ed Brown, and Joannes van Overbeek. It was Sharp’s second win at Daytona.

This race was also the unofficial debut of Daytona Rising, the $400 million track rennovation at the World Center of Speed.

The battle between Ford and Chevy never materialized in GTLM as the brand new Ford GT Ganassi cars struggled from the very beginning with mechanical issues. The Fords looked sharp and for a steep price you can actually own the street version, but the Corvettes simply outclassed the field once again. Thousands of miles of testing sometimes cannot simulate the racing conditions and that was very much the case for the Ganassi #66 and #67, but they will be back, perhaps as soon as LeMans.

Bobby Rahal’s BMW team also had a strong showing in the race until a crash overnight with Lucas Luhr behind the wheel, forced the team to retire in 47th place.