NASCAR XFINITY Series teams will race 300 miles over 120 laps in the PowerShares QQQ 300 at Daytona International Speedway Saturday, February 25, 2017. FOX Sports 1 coverage begins at 3 pm ET with the green flag around 3:30 pm ET. Radio coverage is on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Joe Gibbs Racing Goes for Six – After capturing its fifth NASCAR XFINITY Series owner title last season (2008, ’09, ’10, ’12 and ’16) the JGR organization immediately turned its attention to number six. This season Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Matt Tifft and Daniel Suarez will contribute to the owner title winning cause. Jones, Tifft and Suarez will be competing this weekend at Daytona. Gibbs has four NASCAR XFINITY Series Daytona wins, but only once in the season opener (Tony Stewart, 2008). Continue reading →
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Toyota, and Alex Bowman, driver of the #88 Nationwide Chevrolet, race during the weather delayed Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway on February 19, 2017 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Photo – Chris Graythen/Getty Images
After beating Alex Bowman to the finish line for second-place in the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona, Kyle Busch took a minute to school his younger adversary.
Busch felt that he and Bowman could have worked together to track down race winner Joey Logano on the final lap, if they had hooked up nose-to-tail rather than racing each other side-by-side to the finish.
“Just that when the 22 (Logano) got so far out in front, he was a lone duck, and I feel like, if we both could have worked together, then we could have tracked them back down and then the three of us could have gone for the win instead of just automatically giving it to the 22. Just trying to see what his (Bowman’s) mind-set was with it all and figure out what got him to that decision.
“Overall, good day and I need to eliminate some mistakes here for myself on this M&M’s team – the guys did a great job. The guys executed really well. I have a really fast car, so I can’t say enough about my guys at Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota – everybody’s done a really good job and we have some good stuff. It’s cool to be able to have the opportunity to race for a win like that, but it kind of snuck away from us there at the end.”
Bowman used his only scheduled race so far this season as a learning experience.
“Hindsight is 20/20, right?” Bowman said. “It’s hard to see. I was on the top with all that stuff happened getting into turn one (contact between Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin in a last-lap battle for the lead), and I didn’t know the No. 22 was out there by himself.
“So he’s probably right. We probably could have caught the No. 22 and had a shot to win it, but at the same time, he didn’t work with me much all day, either. A lot of guys hung us out every chance they got. So, to come home third shows what a great race car Hendrick Motorsports brings to the track.”
When Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin collided in turn two on the final lap of Sunday’s rain-delayed Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway, Joey Logano was there to seize the moment.
Charging to the outside and grabbing the lead near the entry to the Superstretch at the 2.5-mile speedway, Logano took the checkered flag 1.121 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Busch, who beat third-place finisher Alex Bowman to the stripe by 0.018 seconds.
Danica Patrick dodged the turn two mêlée to surge from tenth to fourth on the final lap to post her first top-five finish in any Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, though the result is not official because the Clash is an exhibition event with a limited field. Continue reading →
Racing his rookie season in the full NASCAR K&N Pro Series West schedule last year, Cole Rouse posted four top-five and 12 top-ten finishes with an average finish of 7.6 over 14 events. His racing career started at the age of 14, competing in mini-cup cars before advancing to Late Model competition in 2013. Rouse led a race high 145 laps of the American 400 at Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville in 2015, before finishing fifth after a shock broke late in the race.
