By John Schutt
NASCAR Xfinity Series, Racing Experience 300, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 15.
The Xfinity Series race was run with Harrison Burton and Noah Gragson trading place through the 300-mile race. After the last restart Gragson took the lead and won the race for JR Motorsports in the No. 9 Camero with Harrison Burton in second place.
The Daytona 500 was postponed Sunday because of rain to Monday afternoon and Denny Hamlin took first place. Ryan Newman, leading on the last lap, suffered a crash and was sent to the hospital. He was released the next day.
NASCAR Cup Series, Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla., Thursday, Feb. 13.
The duel races which set the positions for the Daytona 500 started with the first duel race, won by Joey Logano over Aric Almirola.
Ricky Stenhouse led in the beginning and Logano took over at the middle of the race. Daniel Suarez got into an altercation and had a did not finish so he did not make the start of the 500.
In the second duel Alex Bowman had the lead over last year’s season champion, Kyle Busch. But the winner was William Byron over Jimmy Johnson.
Seven-time champion Jimmy Johnson has announced this will be his last year racing full time in Nascar.
NASCAR Cup Series, Busch Clash at DAYTONA, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 9.
After many years absent, the Busch Clash race has returned in name.
Erik Jones won followed by Austin Dillon in second place, Clint Bowyer in third, Kyle Larson in fourth, and Ryan Newman in fifth.
The front row was lead by Ryan Newman and Martin Truex, Jr. in the 75-lap crash-fest. But the accident-filled race went 84 laps because of all the overtime starts.
At lap 66 Kyle Busch was trying to block Brad Keselowski and he hit Joey Logano. There were may spinouts, including Hamlin and Johnson.
A major accident occurred with five laps to go, so much carnage they had to red flag the race for clean up.
On the final lap, Eric Jones was in fourth and Hamlin, one lap down, got behind him, locked bumpers, and pushed his teammate to the front for the victory.
Of 33 cars which started this race only six were running at the final Green White Checker.