Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Toyota reaches top gear at Daytona
Camry a ‘beast’; weather could dampen race
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Denny Hamlin leaned into the window of Christopher Bell’s winning Toyota to congratulate his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate on beating him in a Daytona 500 qualifying race.
Hamlin then gave Bell detailed directions to Victory Lane.
“Been to Victory Lane at Daytona a time or three,” Hamlin wrote on social media. “Had to show (Bell) the way.”
After a dismal showing in time trials for Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500, the Toyota camp roared back and swept the two 150mile qualifying races Thursday that set the field for “The Great American Race.” The wins by Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing — the team co-owned by Hamlin and Michael Jordan — and Bell marked the first sweep of the Daytona qualifying races for Toyota since 2014.
Adding in Hamlin’s victory in the exhibition Clash at the Coliseum earlier this month, Toyota heads into the Daytona 500 3-for-3 on the season in its new Camry XSE. With all nine Toyota drivers qualified for Sunday’s field, the automaker is hoping to remain undefeated in 2024.
The nine entries are the most Toyota has had in the Daytona 500 since 2011.
Said Reddick: “This new Toyota Camry is truly a beast. It was a lot of fun to drive.”
Hamlin, who is Toyota’s only Daytona 500 winner with three previous victories, will be going for a fourth and initially was listed as the race favorite. The odds Friday had tilted slightly toward both Joey Logano, who will start from the pole for Team Penske in a new Ford Dark Horse Mustang, and Kyle Busch, who crashed in the qualifying race and will start 34th in a Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.
Logano will try to continue a hot streak for team owner Roger Penske. The run started in May when Penske won a record-extending 19th Indianapolis 500 with driver Josef Newgarden. He won the Cup championship in November with Ryan Blaney, won the Rolex 24 at Daytona sports car race last month for the first time since 1969 and now has his first driver on the pole for the Daytona 500.
“There’s not a cooler race team that you can work for when it comes to motorsports in general. There’s not another motor sports team in America that’s decorated as much as Team Penske and what Roger Penske has done, whether it’s in NASCAR, sports cars, Indycar, you name it, the guy’s been involved in all of it,” Logano said. “One thing that’s in common with all of it is he wins. The guy wins, he does it right, he’s professional.
“Roger Penske has never gotten a Daytona 500 pole. Not very often that you can actually do something for the first time for ‘The Captain.’”
The last driver to win the Daytona 500 from the pole was Dale Jarrett in 2000.
The final practice session ahead of the Daytona 500 was canceled Saturday because of rain at the track. NASCAR also moved Saturday’s scheduled Xfinity Series race to Monday.
There’s less chance of the Daytona 500 being prematurely altered from its scheduled start time, even though NASCAR moved up the Clash by a day earlier this month because of heavy rain in Los Angeles. Unless the weather conditions are dangerous, NASCAR is most likely expected to wait it out as long as possible Sunday before deciding if the race needs to be postponed until Monday.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the defending race winner for Jtg-daugherty Racing, and his victory extended a streak of three consecutive upset winners. Austin Cindric won for Penske as a rookie in 2022, and Michael Mcdowell of tiny Front Row Motorsports won in 2021.
Mcdowell was second-fastest in time trials and will start alongside fellow Ford driver Logano on the front row when the green flag drops.
It’s been 10 years since Hendrick Motorsports won its most recent Daytona 500 — in 2014 with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hendrick driver Kyle Larson is 0-for-10 in the race — he joins Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski as former Cup champions stuck in double-digit Daytona 500 skids — but showed both speed and an ability to push others to the front in his qualifying race.