Daytona II Event Info:
Date: Saturday, Aug. 24
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
Format: 160 Laps, 400 Miles, Stages: 35-60-65
TV: NBC
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90)
Weekend Schedule:
Friday: 5 p.m. ET, Qualifying (USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Saturday: 7:30 p.m. ET, Race (NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Pace Laps:
- RFK heads to Daytona for the annual summer event as the defending race winner, as Chris Buescher drove to victory last August, and Keselowski finished P2.
- Just two races remain in the regular season now as Darlington hosts the final race next weekend, before the NASCAR Playoffs begin Sept. 8 at Atlanta.
- Jack Roush has now 12 wins overall at Daytona, including eight in the Cup Series.
6 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
Partner: King’s Hawaiian
17 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Partner: Fifth Third Bank
- As part of the Fueled by Fifth Third Pass Through Program, Thorne will be on the decklid of Buescher’s No. 17 this weekend.
- Thorne has been a partner of RFK’s for a year-plus as a supplier of its personal performance products to team members.
- Thorne is a science-driven wellness and personal performance company, driven by data and rooted in scientific rigor to deliver personalized health and wellness solutions. Thorne’s personalized supplement and testing portfolio leverages clinical science, biometric testing, and multi-omics data to create highly efficacious nutritional supplements for health-care practitioners, athletic trainers, professional athletes, and consumers.
- Thorne’s manufacturing facility is based in Summerville, South Carolina, and is the only supplement manufacturer that collaborates with Mayo Clinic on health and wellness research and content. Thorne is trusted by 47,000+ health-care professionals, thousands of professional athletes, more than 100 professional sports teams, multiple U.S. National Teams, and more than five million consumers. For more information, visit Thorne.com.
Keselowski at Daytona
Starts: 30
Wins: 1 (2016)
Top-10s: 7
Poles: —
- Keselowski makes his 31st Cup start at ‘The World Center of Racing’ this weekend. He is the 2016 winner of the summer race just seven years ago, and overall has seven top-10s and a 22.7 average finish.
- A season ago in the summer race, he pushed teammate Buescher to the win as RFK earned a 1-2 finish.
- Keselowski has 11 starts inside the top-10 at Daytona with a career-best P3 starting position (four times).
- In Xfinity Series action, Keselowski made 15 starts at DIS with seven top-10s and a best finish of second (twice – 2012, 2014). He also made three Truck Series starts with a seventh-place run in 2005.
Buescher at Daytona
Starts: 17
Wins: 1 (2023)
Top-10s: 7
Poles: —
- Buescher makes his 18th Cup start at Daytona this weekend and is the defending winner of the annual summer race. He has seven top-10s overall at DIS with a 19.8 average finish.
- Last season he led just two laps – but the final one that mattered – earning his first-ever victory at Daytona. He finished 18th in this season’s Daytona 500.
- Buescher has three starts inside the top-10 at Daytona, all of which came in the last five races.
- He also made three NXS starts at DIS with a best finish of second (2015).
RFK Historically at Daytona
Cup Wins: 8 (Jeff Burton, 2000; Greg Biffle, 2003; Jamie McMurray, 2007; Matt Kenseth, 2009, 2012; David Ragan, 2011; Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., 2017; Chris Buescher, 2023)
- Shining Bright in the Sunshine State: In 229 NCS starts at Daytona, RFK has recorded eight wins, 45 top-fives, 83 top-10s and has led 997 laps. RFK also has five poles in the Cup series at Daytona, with the most recent coming in 2016 with Greg Biffle.
- Two Trips to Victory Lane in 2017: Just two years after earning his first ever NASCAR win, Ryan Reed survived a wild kickoff to the 2017 season. He survived multiple on-track incidents after starting on the outside of the front row and led only nine laps, but the final two, en route to the win over a host of Cup regulars.
- Then, in July of 2017, Stenhouse found himself in victory lane for the second time after leading 17 laps in his Fifth Third Ford. Stenhouse first led at lap 86, and from there survived a total of 14 cautions for 51 laps in what was his second win of the season.
- Born in the USA: RFK has recorded six victories in the July event at Daytona, including the organization’s first at the high-banked oval with former driver Jeff Burton in 2000. Former RFK drivers Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray and David Ragan earned victories in 2003, 2007 and 2011, respectively. Stenhouse, Jr. earned the fifth in 2017, and Buescher most recently in 2023.
RFK Daytona Wins
2000-2 Burton Cup
2003-2 Biffle Cup
2004 Edwards Truck
2006 Martin Truck
2007-2 McMurray Cup
2009-1 Kenseth Cup
2011-2 Ragan Cup
2012-1 Kenseth Cup
2015-1 Reed NXS
2023-2 Buescher Cup
Last Time Out & Where They Stand
Michigan: RFK finished fifth and sixth in a Monday race at Michigan as Keselowski had a strong points day with top-10 finishes in each of the first two stages, while Buescher overcame a mid-race incident to rally for sixth.
Points Standings (6: 8th, 17: 16th): In the playoff picture, Buescher remains near the cut line but 16 points to the good heading into Daytona.
